Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Marijuana Injustice: Peter Knew It Wasn’t About Peter McWilliams

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2012 Culture

R.I.P. Peter McWilliams (1950-2000)

By Robert Platshorn

The Silver Tour

Long before he was incarcerated, Peter McWilliams wrote about the injustice of our cannabis laws. Peter’s death is significant only as statistic in our insane drug war. There have been thousands of Peters who lost their lives as a result of a cruel and impersonal system that incarcerates hundreds of thousands of our citizens — ordinary, hardworking Americans who have committed no crime against person, property or society.

If you believe that Peter was singled out for his activism, you have nothing left to fight for. He’s gone! The truth is he was treated like every other prisoner in the federal justice system. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of marijuana offenders, both in and out of prison, who are in exactly the same situation as Peter at the time of his death.

In my 30 years in federal prison for marijuana, I saw dozens of pointless unnecessary deaths, and hundreds who lost limbs or contracted debilitating diseases simply for lack of treatment.

Spottedcrow Paroled Early In 12-Year Marijuana Sentence

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2012 News

News9.com

Patricia Spottedcrow is free

Harsh Sentence Was For $31 Worth Of Weed

Patricia Spottedcrow held her four children — ages 11, 6, 5 and 3 — in her arms Thursday afternoon, as a free woman. The youngest was just one year old when Spottedcrow began a 12-year prison sentence two years ago after being convicted of selling $31 worth of marijuana.

The children could have been teenagers by the time their mother got out of prison, if Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin hadn’t approved Spottedcrow’s parole, and if the Pardon and Parole Board hadn’t agreed to early consideration for her case, reports Cary Aspinall at Tulsa World.

Spottedcrow was released on Thursday morning from Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City after completing a community-level sentence required by the governor as a condition of her parole.

Poll: Most Americans & Canadians Ready To Legalize Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2012 Culture, Global, News

T-Shirt Wonderland

Two Thirds of Respondents Expect Marijuana To Be Legal In Next 10 Years

A majority of people in the United States and Canada believe cannabis should be readily available for those who want to use it, a new two-country Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found.

In the online survey of representative national samples, a majority of Canadians (57 percent) and Americans (54 percent) support the legalization of marijuana.

Most respondents in each Canadian region back the legalization of cannabis, including 64 percent of Atlantic Canadians and 60 percent of British Columbians.

End The Drug War!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 29, 2012 Legislation

The Utopianist

By Anthony Martinelli

Communications Director

Sensible Washington

In a recent article published on our website, we explain the key reasons for ending our failed prohibition on cannabis. Doing so would bring untold benefits, and deal a huge blow to our failed war on drugs. However, even if cannabis were legalized, our nation would still be waging the widespread and devastating humans rights violation that our drug war has become.

Even if you don’t condone the use of any drugs, it is difficult to argue that throwing someone into prison alongside murderers and other violent criminals — for simple drug possession, spending taxpayer money along the way — is anything other than bad policy.

Deepak Chopra Joins Movement To End War On Drugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 29, 2012 Global, News

Wikipedia

Deepak Chopra: Newest member of the Drug Policy Alliance’s Honorary Board

Becomes Newest Member of Drug Policy Alliance Honorary Board

Joins Powerful Group that Includes Former Heads of State, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Sting, Russell Simmons, and Former U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Secretary of Defense, U.S. Surgeon General, U.S. Attorney General and Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve

Physician, bestselling author and global thought leader Deepak Chopra has joined the Honorary Board of the Drug Policy Alliance, the U.S.-based organization that is leading the fight for drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.

N.M. Committee To Consider Decreasing Marijuana Penalties

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 28, 2012 Legislation, News

MMJ-guide.com

Legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee To Hear Testimony On Decreasing Penalties for Adults Who Possess Small Amounts of Marijuana

DPA: Reducing Marijuana Penalties will Improve Lives, Save Taxpayer’s Dollars and Significantly Reduce the Burden on Law Enforcement Resources

The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) on Thursday will be testifying to the New Mexico Interim Legislative Courts, Corrections and Justice Committee about the importance of decreasing penalties for adults who possess small amounts of marijuana. DPA is scheduled to present at 10 a.m. in Room 307 at the State Capitol in Santa Fe.

NORML’s St. Pierre Calls Marijuana Dispensaries ‘Moonshiners’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 28, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Cheeba!

Allen St. Pierre, NORML: “They’re moonshiners. It’s a tiny group of people who don’t comport”

Medical marijuana patients in Washington state are offended after Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), called medicinal cannabis dispensaries “moonshiners” in a Huffington Post interview.

“They’re moonshiners,” St. Pierre said of the dispensaries which opposed Initiative 502, passed by 54 percent of Washington voters. “It’s a tiny group of people who don’t comport.”

Of course, painting all Washington patient collectives with this broad brush — especially when St. Pierre is 2,600 miles away and doesn’t know what the FUCK he’s talking about — is the height of irresponsibility. I’ve been in close to 90 medical marijuana access points in Washington state, and I can personally tell you that the vast majority are not profiteers, and definitely not “moonshiners.”

“Now patients that grow in collective gardens are ‘moonshiners’ according to the head of NORML!” responded patient advocate Steve Sarich of Cannacare on Facebook Wednesday morning. “Only state-run marijuana is acceptable to NORML?”

The Cannabis Conspiracy and the Abdication of Medicine

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 28, 2012 Medical

THC Finder

By Al Byrne

Patients Out of Time

It’s true enough what the federal wordsmiths of spin roll out about there being a conspiracy to make cannabis available to the sick in the United States. There is such a cabal of cannabis crusaders working to undermine the U.S. government’s role in determining what medicine(s) patients can use, and when, and how.

I know most of these people and let me assure you that they are serious about their goal (1). I’m one of the conspirators.

Some, like Libertarians and the Tea Party stalwarts, are half crazy about the wide reach of all governments into their lives — negative, as they see it. Many are politically active, seeing the election of selected politicians the key to a change in the rules of cannabis prohibition regardless of whether they sport a red or blue tie. The politically oriented see a goal of 21 states with legal cannabis as

a jump off for a Constitutional Amendment process — a move that places

decisions best made by health care professionals in the hands of non-medical citizens.

Minister Still Behind Bars On Marijuana Charge

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 28, 2012 Culture, News

Roger Christie/Facebook

Rev. Roger Christie in happier days, as a free man in 2010

As Cannabis Becomes Legal in Colorado and Washington, Hawaiian Minister Roger Christie Remains Locked Up

As more Americans demand legalization of cannabis, thousands of prisoners, including Reverend Roger Christie, are still locked up on nonviolent marijuana charges. Since July 8, 2010 Rev. Christie has been behind bars without bail awaiting trial on federal charges of marijuana possession and trafficking, despite being a Christian minister with a state sanctioned license as a “Cannabis Sacrament Minister.”

Humboldt Stories: Leaving The Life Of A Grow House

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 27, 2012 Culture

All photos by Sharon Letts

Humboldt Stories

“It’s not Weeds, it’s real.”

Moving

By Sharon Letts

Caitlin stopped and turned to look one more time at the bed she had shared with Jake for more than five years. Part of her felt a pang of sadness — of not wanting to leave — and that was an odd feeling, considering the neglect and abuse she had suffered in his care.

She picked up her pillow and put it under her arm. The bed looked empty and small. The room unfamiliar with her lovely things removed.

She would not miss the lifestyle of living in a grow house. Especially one in a tract house community where no one says hello — it was like living in a strange Twilight Zone episode where your house was quarantined off from the rest of the world. A neighborhood where you couldn’t chat over the picket fence and say, “Would you like to come in for a cuppa?” That is, unless it was understood the “cuppa” was a “bowl of,” with a wink.

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