Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

2 Shootings In 2 Weeks Rock The Mendo Marijuana Community

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 30, 2011 Culture, Growing

Fort Bragg City Councilman Jere Melo was shot to death after finding not a marijuana grow site, but an opium poppy grow site.

“I just wish I could tell the marijuana haters, we’re on your side. This isn’t us. Both of these guys were killed by murderers. People who would kill whether it was because of weed or maybe a fight over a girl.”

~ Mendocino Grower

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

It was Saturday afternoon when I read online that Ft. Bragg councilman and the once mayor, Jere Melo, was shot while exploring a marijuana grow. First reports were Melo and another man had taken multiple shots when a crazed gunman surprised the pair as they were investigating claims for a timber company that they both worked for, that a remote marijuana grow was operating in the area.

Later that night it was confirmed that city councilman Jere Melo was dead at 73. You could tell by the outpouring of the shocked and grieving comments that Melo was a beloved father and husband, respected deeply as local civic leader and a lover of the woods that initially brought him to the area as a forester in the Sixties.

Man Uses Fake Gun To Rob Store Of Fake Pot; Gets Shot In Ass

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2011 News

Photo: Jack Dillon/NIJ

A Texas man tried to rob a gas station of fake marijuana, using a hammer as his weapon, but the attempt was foiled when he got shot in the ass by another customer.

Dustin Darsp, 35, tried to steal synthetic marijuana known as K2 from a Shell convenience store at about 9:30 Sunday night in San Antonio, reports KSAT. Carrying a small hammer draped in a block cloth or sock — which he attempted to pass off as a gun — he grabbed a box of K2 and hurriedly left the store.

“He carried it as if it was a gun and pointed it at the clerk and the customer,” said San Antonio Police Detective Robert Bernal, reports Jessica Kwong of the San Antonio Express-News. “He wanted them to believe that what he had was a gun.”

Woman Pulls Out Bag Of Weed When Cops Ask For ID

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2011 News

Photo: Daily Mail

Danielle Ray Shockey, 27, accidentally pulled out a bag of weed when asked by a cop for her ID.

Please keep your weed and your driver’s license in separate locations. A 27-year-old Florida woman was thrown in jail after pulling out a bag of marijuana when police asked for her identification.

Clearwater Police said Danielle Rae Shockey was sitting in a car in the La Quinta Inn parking lot at 3 a.m. Saturday when an officer approached and asked what she was doing, reports Will Hobson at the St. Petersburg Times. She told them she was talking to her boyfriend, and thinking of renting a room.

The officer asked for her ID and police said she reached in her purse and pulled out the card, along with a bag of pot, which she immediately tried to conceal.

It was too late, though. The cop saw it and searched her purse.

Police said the purse also contained painkillers and sedatives: 57 oxycodone pills, seven methadone pills, three Valium and one clonazepam (a muscle relaxer).

Ohio Man Faces 10 Years For Pot-Laced Rice Krispie Treats

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2011 News

Photo: ABC 6 On Your Side

Om nom nom nom.

An Ohio man faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $20,000 fine after law enforcement officers found 4.5 pounds of marijuana-laced Rice Krispie treats during a traffic crash investigation.

Patrick Altier, 22, of Boardman, Ohio, was charged with possession and trafficking of marijuana, both third-degree felonies, after Ohio State Highway Patrol troops detected a “strong odor of marijuana” on him during the crash investigation in Boardman Township, Mahoning County, on August 25.

During a “probable cause” search of Altier’s vehicle, based on the pot smell, troopers found individually wrapped Rice Krispie-like treats (the photo actually looks like it could be some Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, and trust me, I’m an expert in such matters).

Jailed Marijuana Dispensary Owner Goes On Hunger Strike

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: MHP of Spokane

Jerry Laberdee in happier days at his dispensary, Medical Herb Providers, in Spokane.

There are two ways to look at the federal government’s war on medical marijuana patients and providers. One is the theoretical, statistical way of looking at things — where it’s all numbers — and another is looking at the pot war’s impact on actual human beings.

The second way is a lot more difficult.

A medical marijuana patient and dispensary owner in Washington state has been on a hunger strike ever since he was jailed six days ago on federal charges.

Jerry Laberdee, 56, has been in Spokane County Jail since last Tuesday, after he refused to take his court-ordered drug test, reports Curtis Cartier at Seattle Weekly. Laberdee says he won’t eat until he’s released and allowed to use medicinal cannabis, as he is legally authorized to do under Washington law.

His daughter, Jessica Vogel, 28, told the Weekly that she hasn’t been able to talk much with her dad since he was jailed, but she hopes his hunger strike will “wake people up.”

Man, 82, Shoots Guy For Snooping Around His Marijuana Patch

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 28, 2011 Growing, News

Dude, in Kentucky you don’t mess with anyone’s moonshine or marijuana. A 82-year-old Kentucky man has been arrested for shooting a guy for snooping around in his pot patch Thursday night.

Raymond Anthony Faehr Sr., 82, of Pulaski County, shot an unidentified man he allegedly found in his cannabis garden. He told law enforcement he didn’t want the guy to steal his plants, reports Tricia Neal at the Somerset Commonwealth Journal.

The intruder, who was blasted with a shotgun, being struck in the arm, abdomen and thigh, was airlifted to the University of Kentucky Medical Center for treatment of his gunshot wounds. His condition is not known.

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department did not reveal the identify of the gunshot victim in a statement on the incident, and Sheriff Todd Wood did not return a call seeking further comment.

Elliott At Hempfest: Believe Science, Not Marijuana Prohibition

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2011 Culture

After years of dreaming about it, last Friday — a week ago today — I spoke for the first time at Seattle Hempfest.

Yeah, it was as much fun as I had imagined. I packed all I possibly could into my allotted five minutes.

“Toke of the Town editor Steve Elliott speaks to the Seattle Hempfest crowd about ‘Big Pharma’, prohibitionists telling a lot of lies and cannabis as a neuroprotectant,” YouTube uploader RestoreHemp said. “He urges people to seek out the scientific truth about marijuana for themselves and join the fight to end prohibition.

“Elliott finishes by showing how cannabis connects us to the past and to each other and also unites us with our human cultural history.”

10,000-Plant Marijuana Farm Found In Oregon Forest

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: KVAL News

Sections of the Oregon forest were cleared to make way for the illegal marijuana plantation.

Police seized what they claimed were more than 10,300 marijuana plants from an illegal plantation on privately owned forest land in northeastern Oregon on Wednesday. They claimed the crop was worth about $25 million.

Two men, ages 50 and 25, were arrested and jailed after police raided the grow site, reports KVAL.com.

The investigation began last week when a helicopter spotted the plants from the air. Law enforcement searched the rural property in Wallowa County, not far from the Washington and Idaho borders.

They said they found more than 10,300 plants ranging from three to five feet tall. All the plants have been destroyed, authorities claimed.

Facebook Makes Teens Smoke Weed, Addiction Center Claims

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2011 Culture, News, Products

Photo: Kush Weed

Did Facebook make them do it?

In the ever-popular game of “blame the messenger,” a new study claims that teens who regularly use Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other online social networks are much more likely to drink, smoke and use marijuana.

Supposedly, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace encourage them to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana. Meanwhile, the reality show “Jersey Shore” can inspire them to try prescription drugs. All this, that is, if you believe a questionable new study about the use and influence of online social networks.

The National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XVI has been conducted by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), reports the Secaucus New Jersey News.

Many Michigan Marijuana Dispensaries Close After Ruling

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

Photo: Melanie Maxwell/Detroit Free Press

Ann Arbor residents Jaymz Edmonds, left, and T.J. Rice protest outside the OM of Medicine marijuana dispensary Thursday in Ann Arbor after a police raid of the nearby A2 Go Green dispensary.

Raids, Closings Leave Medical Marijuana Patients Hurting

Many medical marijuana dispensaries in Michigan closed their doors on Thursday following a Court of Appeals ruling.

“It would be dangerous to operate with the specter of a criminal case hanging over our head,” said John Lewis, lawyer for Compassionate Apothecary in Mt. Pleasant, the center of the controversy, reports the Detroit Free Press.

Some Ann Arbor area activists sought to regroup at a rally Thursday night, reports Kyle Feldscher at AnnArbor.com.

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