Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Tell City Council: Don’t Ban Medical Marijuana In Los Angeles

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 26, 2011 Dispensaries, News

This numbskull, Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, wants to ban medical marijuana dispensaries in the nation’s second-largest city

Some members of the Los Angeles City Council want to ban medical marijuana patients’ cooperatives and collectives outright.

Patients and other community members have been working with the council to promote, develop, and implement sensible regulations for the city since 2005, according to Americans for Safe Access (ASA). Banning patients’ associations now — as suggested by Councilman Jose Huizar — means the City Council would turn its back on the large majority of local patients who rely on cooperatives and collectives for safe access to medicine.

“If they do a complete ban, where are the patients going to get their medicine?” said Yamileth Bolanos, president of the Greater Los Angeles Collective Alliance, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times. “Medical marijuana is going to stay in the city no matter what. [Huizar is] choosing to have the gangs and cartels running it rather than having the very best operators that they can.”

New Database Can Identify Marijuana Strains Through DNA

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 25, 2011 Growing, News

University of New Haven

The simplify the process for cops (who, as we know, need for things to be as simple as possible), Coyle and her team developed a “collection card” Officers can rub a bud onto a card, then mail it to UNH’s lab.

A new marijuana DNA database can tell if a particular batch of cannabis is one of more than 25 types that have been genetically mapped by a forensic botanist in Connecticut.

DNA analysis has almost unlimited potential in helping patients and breeders — once it’s used for that purpose, instead of to bust us.

But before you get too pumped about this exciting new service, I should point out that word “forensic” in botanist Heather Coyle’s job description. That’s right, this DNA analysis is meant to benefit cops and federal agents, not cannabis patients or breeders.

Petition Circulating To Legalize Marijuana In Missouri

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 25, 2011 Legislation, News

peter.a photography

A petition now circulating in Missouri would place a constitutional amendment on the November 2012 ballot to legalize marijuana for people 21 and older.

The “Show-Me Cannabis Initiative” calls for a repeal of marijuana prohibition in the state, reports Kevin Murphy at the South County Times.

The measure would regulate cannabis similarly to the way Missouri currently regulates alcohol. Marijuana would be legal and sold by licensed stores, or could be grown at home for personal use. Medical marijuana would be available to those with a physician’s recommendation, including those under 21 with parental consent and a doctor’s supervision.

Dutch To Find Illegal Cannabis Plots From Space Via Satellite

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 25, 2011 Global, Growing, News

RCMP

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police used satellites to gather intelligence about this marijuana grow operation hidden deep in the heart of Mount Seymour, on Vancouver’s North Shore. Dutch police say they’ll begin using satellite images to find cannabis crops early next year.

With the coming to power of a right-wing government, the Netherlands is less and less cool about cannabis. Dutch police and local governments in the southern Netherlands plan to work with the European Space Agency to find illegal marijuana plots hidden in fields of corn and asparagus by using satellite data.

The experiment will begin early in 2012, using images taken from orbit to identity cannabis plants, according to Max Timp, a spokesman for the municipality of Venlo, which is leading the misguided project, reports Rudy Ruitenberg at Bloomberg.

While growing marijuana is illegal in the Netherlands, authorities “tolerate” up to five cannabis plants for personal use. The country’s southernmost province, Limburg, has set up a program called “Green Gold” to stamp out the illegal rural growing of marijuana, this year removing 4,140 plants with a claimed street value of three million euros ($4 million).

Two Years Tokin’: Toke of the Town Born On This Day In 2009

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 23, 2011 Culture

Toke of the Town editor Steve Elliott: You’ve come to the right place if you wanna talk about marijuana.

Two years ago today — actually two years ago tonight, at 7:08 p.m. — fingers trembling with excitement, I hit the “Post” button for the first-ever story on Toke of the Town.

“The good thing about a free marketplace of ideas is,” I wrote, in the first sentence ever to appear on this site, “despite the best efforts of prohibitionists and their fear-mongering propaganda, the truth eventually prevails.”

Thousands of stories, joints, medibles, and bongloads later, I’m still loving this gig, and judging by pageviews, so are more than half a million of you every month.

Toke didn’t just happen. If it hadn’t been for Village Voice Media’s then-social media talent scout, John Boitnott, spotting my personal blog Reality Catcher making the front page of social news-sharing site Digg, I wouldn’t have had the chance, starting early in 2009, to write “Chronic City.” That was a twice-weekly cannabis column for S.F. Weekly‘s online blog, “The Snitch.”

And if it hadn’t been for Boitnoitt and Bill Jensen, then in charge of VVM’s web presence worldwide, that well-received column would not have opened the door for Toke of the Town about six months later.

High Times Cannabis Cup Shut Down By Cops In Amsterdam

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 23, 2011 Culture, Global, News

Big Buds

Police shut down the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam today. It will be relocated and is still a “go.”

The 24th annual High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, for the first time in its history, has been raided by Dutch police. According to reports, attendees were searched as they left the event.

The unprecedented raid comes as a wave of more conservative cannabis policies and attitudes engulfs the Netherlands.

In a video posted to YouTube, police can be heard announcing the event was being shut down and that attendees are subject to search, reports High Times. Vendors were asked to remain at their booths while attendees left.

High Times has announced that the event will continue Wednesday night with a scheduled concert at the Melkweg a concert hall in Amsterdam, followed by a full day of the expo — including Cannabis Cup voting — at the Borchland (Borchlandweg) on Thursday, the final day of the competition.

I Am Thankful For… Turkey, Pot and Magic Pies

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 23, 2011 Culture

Moms For Marijuana

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

I am Thankful for the activists and the good people I’ve met this year at rallies and protests who’ve come out and made a difference.

I am Thankful for the lawyers and the leaders who take on unchecked, abusive power-dogs who threaten the movement and counteract with lawsuits and intelligence, never giving up the fight on our behalf.

I am Thankful for Lynnette Shaw and Marin Alliance for being the first legal dispensary to open in the country, and Thankful that when she was told to close, she’s said “No!”

I am Thankful for all the patients that the Divinity Tree in San Francisco reached and ministered to. I am Thankful that Charlie and the gang had at least five years to present an ideal dispensary model to the City and they did. I’m Thankful for the education and medicine that I received there.

Marijuana Grower Beaten, Robbed By Trimmers

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 23, 2011 Growing, News

Hoobner’s World

Growers, I know the demand for weed trimmers is high this time of year, but here are three you definitely don’t want to hire. A California man was tied up, beaten and robbed by three people he had hired to help him trim his marijuana crop, according to authorities.

The 62-year-old man, whose name wasn’t released, got medical treatment for his injuries on November 12, according to Nevada County Sheriff Keith Royal, reports Liz Kellar at the Western Nevada County Union.

“He apparently had been beaten, but he initially was uncooperative,” Royal said.

Marijuana Advocates Appeal Conviction of Dispensary Operator

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 22, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Nug Magazine

Jovan Jackson operated his storefront collective for years without incident until he was raided by law enforcement in 2008

Medical marijuana patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) on Tuesday appealed the September 2010 conviction of San Diego dispensary operator Jovan Jackson in a case that has received widespread attention.

The case against Jackson has become a symbol of the effort by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis and other prosecutors across the state to criminalize storefront collectives. Due to state jurisprudence, California Attorney General Kamala Harris will now defend Jackson’s appeal rather than Dumanis, who originally tried him.

The Americans for Safe Access appeal not only contests Jackson’s conviction and the denial of his medical defense, but it also challenges the prosecution’s assertion that “sales” of medical marijuana are illegal under state law.

“Jackson and other medical providers deserve a defense under the state’s medical marijuana laws and these are issues for a jury to decide,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, who authored the appeal brief filed on Tuesday. “The denial of Jackson’s defense was unfairly used to convict a medical marijuana provider who was in full compliance with state law.”

Marijuana Activist Dr Reefer Given 41 Months In Prison

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 21, 2011 Dispensaries, News

DrReefer.com

Activist Pierre Werner, center, at the federal courthouse on November 17 for his mother’s sentencing. Werner himself was sentenced on Monday to 41 months in federal prison.

Former marijuana activist Pierre Werner — known as “Dr Reefer” after one of the dispensaries operated by his family — on Monday was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison.

U.S. District Judge Philip Pro also ordered Werner to pay $27,438 in restitution and placed him on three years of supervised release once he gets out of prison, reports Jeff German at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Werner, 39, has until January 9 to surrender to federal prison officials.

Judge Pro last week sentenced Werner’s mother, Reynalda Barnett, to four months in prison and four months of home detention for her role in running the marijuana dispensary once known as Dr. Reefer. Pro had earlier placed Werner’s younger brother, Clyde Barnett, on three years of supervised release.

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