Toke of the Town

Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Obama Called ‘From First To Worst’ On Medical Marijuana

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

MPP

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After presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged to stop interfering with state medical marijuana laws in states where the medicinal use of cannabis has been legalized, advocates were hopeful that they could at last concentrate on getting medicine safely to patients, rather than worry about federal raids.

That hope was nice while it lasted, but is quickly evaporating now that the Administration is pursuing a multi-front war on medicinal cannabis providers and, by extension, the patients who count on dispensaries for safe access.
Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Rob Kampia in a Sunday editorial in the Huffington Post noted the turnaround, saying “over the past eight months [Obama] has become arguably the worst president in U.S. history regarding medical marijuana.”
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Marijuana Crackdown By Obama: Yes, It’s Big Pharma

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Federal prosecutors in the Obama Administration are going after medical marijuana dispensaries. How are pharmaceutical companies involved? Some leaders in this movement will actually tell you they aren’t; be very careful in whom you believe.

As pointed out on The Young Turks, this crackdown is nothing more than a process of eliminating the competition for Big Pharma. GW Pharmaceutical and other manufacturers want to take over the marijuana market with products like Sativex, a liquid extract of cannabis that contains both THC and CBD.
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The Sky Is Falling! Or, Marijuana Leaf-Shaped Candy Exists.

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By on Culture, News, Products

Kalan LP
Hey man, pass the bag.

​You’d think it was some sort of sugar-coated apocalypse to hear some drama-addicted folks making a brouhaha about the marijuana-shaped candies that are now available.

Never mind the fact that you can’t get high on ’em. Just the very fact that they’re shaped (sort of) like the leaves of that evil cannabis plant is enough to get some (bored? angry? neurotic?) parents all in a lather.
The candy part of the ring is shaped like a marijuana leaf. The packaging shows a joint-smoking, peace sign-shooting hippie type and has the word “Legalize” on it.
The “Ring Pots Pot Shaped Ring Candy” and “Pothead Lollipops” are distributed to retail stores by novelty supply company Kalan LP, based in a Philadelphia suburb named Lansdowne, reports Amanda St. Amand of the St. Louis Post-Disptach.

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RAND Removes Its Own Pro-Marijuana Dispensary Study

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By on Dispensaries, News

RAND Corporation
If your science upsets the powers that be — like, for instance, rabidly anti-marijuana Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich — then obviously there’s something wrong with science, not with the powers that be.

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Report Comes Down After Heavy Pressure From L.A. City Attorney’s Office — But It’s Still Available For You To Read: See Link At End Of Article

A September report from the RAND Corporation showing that crime rates went up in neighborhoods where medical marijuana dispensaries were forced to close created lots of media interest and comment — and it apparently made someone very uncomfortable.

In a highly unusual move for RAND, as of Tuesday morning, the report is no longer available on its site.

Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s office was “vocal” in its criticism of last month’s RAND report showing that crime went up in neighborhoods when dispensaries were shut down — so RAND took their own report off their website.

​Toke of the Town asked RAND why the report “has been withdrawn pending further review.”
“We took a fresh look at the study based in part upon questions raised by some folks following publication,” responded Warren Robak of RAND Corporation’s media relations department.
“We are continuing our review of the study and have now decided that while the review is pending, we should remove the report from circulation,” Robak wrote.
“The L.A. City Attorney’s Office has been the organization most vocal in its criticism of the study, questioning its methods and conclusions,” Robak told me after I asked who, exactly, was “raising questions.”
Why, exactly, a city attorney should have input on the results of a scientific study is a question we should all be asking at this point.
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Bali Forces Rehab For Aussie, 14, For Marijuana Possession

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By on Global, News

AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka
Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty, has been working to secure the release of the 14-year-old boy who was arrested for marijuana, among huge media interest

​The arrest of a 14-year-old Australian boy in Bali for marijuana possession has created a media firestorm. The boy will likely be held in “drug rehabilitation” for up to another month while he waits to learn how and when he will go to trial.

The Australian ambassador to Indonesia said the case is his “top priority,” reports The Conversation, and even Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard telephoned the teen in prison on Sunday, assuring him “everything is being done” to secure his release.
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The Green Cross Responds To Marijuana Dispensary Crackdown

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By on Dispensaries, News

Luke Thomas/Fog City Journal
Founder/president Kevin Reed of The Green Cross: “The Green Cross will act no differently today or tomorrow, than we did a month ago”

​The founder and president of The Green Cross, a medical marijuana delivery service in San Francisco, responded on Monday to the recently announced federal crackdown on cannabis dispensaries, saying the collective “will act no differently today or tomorrow, than we did a month ago.”

“Following the release of the Cole Memo earlier this summer, the United States Department of Justice announced their intention to ‘crack down’ on medical cannabis dispensaries across the state of California,” Reed told members of The Green Cross collective in a Monday email. “At a press conference last Friday in Sacramento, US Attorneys reminded us that federal law prohibits the use and distribution of cannabis for any purpose regardless of state law, and, outlined heightened enforcement techniques tailored for each of California’s US Attorney districts.
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A&E’s Bordertown: Laredo On The Drug War’s Front Lines

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By on Culture, Products

A&E
A small unit, the Laredo Police Department Narcotics Unit takes on dangerous drug cases usually reserved for federal agencies. They seem not to realize that their entire occupation is a moronic waste of everyone’s time and especially of our precious tax dollars, and that at the end of this stupid Drug War they’ll all be flippin’ burgers at McDonald’s.

​Bordertown: Laredo, a new reality show coming up on A&E, is supposed to be a “real-time report” from one of the most violent fronts in America’s so-called “War On Drugs” (which, like all wars, is actually a war on people).

The 10-part series premieres on A&E this Thursday at 10 p.m., and was produced by Al Roker (yep, that weather guy from the Today show).
The show follows a mostly Latino narcotics unit on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Laredo residents have reportedly already voiced their displeasure with the show, which apparently doesn’t portray their city in a very flattering fashion.
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Advocates Outraged By Governor’s Veto Of Hemp Farming Act

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By on Growing, Legislation, News

Bhudeva
Hemp has been grown everywhere for thousands of years. It is only in the last 75 years that is cultivation has been irrationally outlawed in the United States.

​Veto of SB 676 is a Huge Setback for California Farmers, Businesses and the Economy

Vote Hemp, the nation’s leading grassroots hemp advocacy organization, along with industry trade group the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) — both working to revitalize industrial hemp production in the U.S. — expressed “extreme disappointment” on Monday that California Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed SB 676, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act.
After moving smoothly through the California Legislature with bipartisan support, the legislation was vetoed by Gov. Brown. The first hemp bill to land on Brown’s desk, SB 676 is the fourth bill since 2002 in support of hemp farming to pass the California Legislature, but all four met gubernatorial vetoes.
The bill would have established guidelines for farming the oilseed and fiber varieties of hemp, which are used in a myriad of everyday consumer products including food, body care, clothing, paper, auto parts, composites and building materials.
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The Silver Tour: Teaching Seniors About Medical Marijuana

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Freedom Is Green
The legendary Robert Platshorn served more prison time for a nonviolent marijuana offense than anyone else in U.S. history. Now he’s teaching other seniors about medical marijuana on The Silver Tour.

​Almost every time a poll is taken on public levels of support for medical marijuana, one of the groups most resistant to the idea is one that stands to gain the most from it: senior citizens. If we, as a community, can find a way to educate seniors on the health benefits and palliative qualities of medicinal cannabis, it will be a huge step towards achieving the numbers it will take to legalize medical marijuana on the federal level. Seniors are known as the most powerful voting bloc in the nation, and they always show up at the polls.

That’s where the legendary Robert Platshorn, the Black Tuna himself, comes in. Platshorn — who started as a pitchman, became one of the biggest marijuana smugglers of the 1970s, and then spent almost 30 years in federal prison — has taken on the job of informing his fellow senior citizens about the health benefits of cannabis.
The Silver Tour is the only organization reaching out to seniors about medical marijuana, according to Platshorn, and its work consists of informing them on ways to organize, petition and contact their local politicians to demand legal, safe access to medicinal cannabis.
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