Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
| Rialto Cinemas |
By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
The Weed Wars are on, and at stake are television ratings. In the next couple of weeks we’ll start to see the bounty of this year’s harvest of cannabis-centric TV hitting the airwaves.
The ever-present Steve DeAngelo has his reality series starting on the Discovery Channel a la Kiss’s Gene Simmons: depicting a world class guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders yet he has time to take his kid to Little League. Just a regular guy and family man who happens to like to bang the gong at the end of the day. America won’t believe their eyes.
This Friday the National Geographic Channel is joining the Cannafest with the premiere of Marijuana Gold Rush. Depicting the many highs and a few lows of this past year’s emerging dream of bringing cannabis into the mainstream, going from the boardrooms of New York to our own Mendocino County’s Emerald Cup, with the participants not knowing what really is to come.
| All photos by Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ |
There are a number of pipe-cleaning kits on the market which are aimed at marijuana smokers. To varying degrees, most are useful when it comes to getting the grunge off your bongs, bubblers, and pipes, but one of the kits distinguishes itself by being probably the most eco-friendly of the bunch: Ms. Jane’s Brown Box Special.
We at Toke of the Town recently had the opportunity to try out the efficacy of the Brown Box Special.
What’s so special about the Brown Box Special? Well, it’s the outlook of the Ms. Jane organization, to vein with. The company says it strives to make all of its products as eco-friendly as possible. “We strive to make our products Low Impact Recyclable, Biodegradable, Reusable, All Natural and Made in the USA,” Ms. Jane tells us.
The other thing that’s special is that right now is an especially good time to buy a Brown Box Special, because Ms. Jane is offering whopping 42.0 percent savings on all their products through the New Year. To get the 42 percent discount, enter the coupon code MsJTeam420 when you order.
| NBC Washington |
| Montel Williams pleads his case Wednesday night at a neighborhood meeting in the basement of Israel Baptist Church in Northeast D.C. |
Former TV talk show host Montel Williams wants to open two medical marijuana facilities — a cultivation center and a dispensary — in the District of Columbia. On Wednesday, he pleaded his case before a crowd of 150 residents in the basement of Israel Baptist Church in Northeast D.C.
Williams has applied for two cultivation center licenses on nearby Queen’s Chapel Road in D.C., reports NBC Washington.
| Releaf |
Six of every 10 New Jerseyans support the penalties for marijuana should be relaxed — with more than half thinking there should be no penalties at all — and one-third would completely legalize its sale and use, according to a poll released on Wednesday. The poll also showed overwhelming levels of support for the medicinal use of cannabis.
The Rutgers-Eagleton Poll has, for almost 40 years, asked New Jersey residents about penalties for marijuana use, and they’ve become more relaxed about the issue, reports New Jersey Newsroom. Back in May 1972, four in 10 New Jerseyans said penalties for cannabis use should be lowered.
| The Walrus Speaks |
| Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin supports Wednesday’s call by Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee to reschedule marijuana, allowing it to be prescribed by doctors and sold by pharmacies |
A spokeswoman for Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin said he supports and will sign on to an effort to allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana, and pharmacists to fill the prescriptions.
Shumlin is joining a petition by Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to change marijuana’s current classification as a Schedule I drug, reports the Associated Press. Schedule I classification makes cannabis illegal to prescribe or dispense for medicinal use.
Vermont’s current medicinal cannabis law allows a small number of very sick people in the state to register with the state Department of Public Safety and sets up procedures for them to obtain marijuana.
| emerald triangle news |
A cannabis-loving prankster has thumbed his metaphorical nose at Australia’s drug laws by planting a bunch of marijuana outside a court on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.
People started calling in reports of the cannabis seedlings growing in a front garden of Bellingen Court House on Wednesday afternoon, reports AAP.
When the police showed up, they discovered around 60 seedlings, which they said they “believe” is cannabis.
| Village Voice Media |
A federal judge has rejected the request of medical marijuana providers to stop U.S. Attorneys from filing charges against them or seizing their property.
U.S. District Judge Sandra Brown Armstrong ruled in her Oakland courtroom that the medical marijuana collectives hadn’t shown they would suffer “immediate, irreparable harm” without the court order, reports Henry K. Lee of the San Francisco Chronicle.
“The court is sensitive to the desires of individuals to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, as permitted by California law,” Armstrong wrote in her 27-page ruling, filed this week. “Nevertheless, marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and in Congress’ view, it has no medicinal value.”
The judge also said she doubted that the collectives would win lawsuits trying to stop the Obama Administration’s crackdown on dispensaries.
Marijuana distributors, patients and dispensary landlords filed lawsuits in all four of California’s federal districts in October, accusing the Department of Justice of violating an agreement to not go after them if they complied with state law.
| THC Finder |
There’s an initiative afoot in Arkansas to put medical marijuana legalization on the ballot in November 2012.
Arkansans for Compassionate Care is circulating a petition to allow the sick and dying to legally use cannabis medicinally with a doctor’s authorization for 16 different serious or chronic diseases and disorders such as cancer, chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, and HIV/AIDS.
The program would allow for 30 nonprofit dispensaries across the state. Those who live more than five miles from the nearest dispensary would be allowed to get a marijuana-growing permit.
“If we collect 62,500 signatures, the initiative will appear on the 2012 Presidential ballot in Arkansas,” Shannon Steece of Arkansans for Compassionate Care told Toke of the Town. “Currently we have less than 20,000 unvalidated signatures.”
| Seattle Weekly |
| Washington Governor Christine Gregoire: “Has anybody died from marijuana?” |
Washington Governor Christine Gregoire and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee have asked the federal government to reclassify marijuana as a drug that can be prescribed by doctors and filled by pharmacists, in a move that would require the federal Food and Drug Administration to conduct new studies.
The move by the governors gives new political muscle to the debate on the legal and medicinal status of marijuana, which has been raging across an American cultural divide for decades, reports Michael Cooper at The New York Times.
“The divergence in state and federal law creates a situation where there is no regulated and safe system to supply legitimate patients who may need medical cannabis,” the governors wrote on Wednesay to Michele M. Leonhart, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
“In the year 2011, why can’t medical cannabis be prescribed by a physician and filled at the drug store just like any other medication?” Gregoire said on Wednesday, reports Vanessa Ho at SeattlePI.com.