Toke of the Town

Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

MS Patient Appeals Marijuana Conviction To N.J. Supreme Court

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By on Medical, News

Photo: CMMNJ
Wilson was supported throughout his trial by local cannabis advocates, who demonstrated in front of the Somerset County Courthouse.

​An attorney representing multiple sclerosis patient John Ray Wilson, the man recently sentenced to five years in prison for growing marijuana to alleviate his medical condition, has filed an appeal to the New Jersey Supreme Court.

Wilson, 38, was convicted on the second-degree felony of “manufacturing” marijuana for growing 17 cannabis plants, reports Freedom Is Green. Last month an appellate court upheld Wilson’s barbaric five-year prison sentence, ruling that he could not claim the plants were for personal, medical use.
Wilson has no healthcare insurance to aid him in his battle against MS. His conviction came just as New Jersey’s compassionate use medical marijuana law was passed. Unfortunately, the Garden State’s law was the first medicinal cannabis legislation in the United States that prohibited home cultivation by patients.
Local cannabis advocates supported Wilson, demonstrating in front of the Somerset County Courthouse throughout his 2009 trial.
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Cultivator’s Handbook Still Around After Almost 40 Years

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By on Growing, Products

Graphic: Homegrown Goodness

​Back when I first started noticing such things in 1977, Bill Drake’s International Cultivator’s Handbook was already a classic. Published in 1974, the book was one of the very first to market that went into detail on how to grow not only marijuana, but also coca and opium.

The volume, which became quite hard to find after it went out of print in the early 1980s for a few years, is now available again in a new large paperbound edition from the author.
Author William Daniel Drake Jr. is a writer, teacher and social inventor living and working on a biodynamic vegetable and flower farm located on Johnson Creek in the Texas hill country. Bill is a former professor of international management at the University of Texas at Dallas.
His counterculture books have sold more than three million copies in six languages worldwide since his first book, the Cultivator’s Handbook of Marijuana, in 1969. 

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Breathe Deeply: 4:20 Yoga Class Offered In California

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By on Culture, Products

Graphic: Cafe Press

​​Classes are being offered in California and elsewhere which combine two kinds of relaxation and centering: yoga and marijuana.

The 4:20 Remedy Yoga Class at Brazilian Yoga and Pilates in Atwater puts together “two of hippy-dippy California’s favorite feel-good, vaguely medicinal pastimes,” reports Amanda Lewis at LA Weekly.
Yoga teacher Liz McDonald noticed that many of her private clients showed up high to practice yoga, so she decided to offer a class specifically catering to a cannabinated clientele.
She conceived of the class as “a gathering of creative minds, a very non-judgmental place where all are welcome,” McDonald said. “Do I really want a couple of uptight conservatives in here? Ideally, no, but … my business welcomes all types of people, especially those tight-asses that may need it most!”
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New D.C. Medical Marijuana Rules Highlight Federal Prosecution

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Cafe Vale Tudo

​Applicants for the District of Columbia’s medical marijuana program are now required to state in writing that they assume the risk of federal prosecution for growing or distributing cannabis, and that they cannot hold the city liable for arrests, according to newly revised rules.

The rules for the long-awaited program, published on Friday, for the first time pointedly mention federal prosecution because a Department of Justice memo from June says the federal government still considers marijuana a controlled substance, reports Tom Howell Jr. at The Washington Times.
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Judge Rules Medical Marijuana Not An Agricultural Crop

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By on Growing, Legislation, News

Photo: Cigarettes Flavours
Sure looks “agricultural” to me.

​Yes, marijuana is a plant you grow from the ground. No, it’s not an agricultural crop. Confused yet?

In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in the state, a judge in California has ruled that a marijuana collective can’t operate on land zoned for agriculture, reports Lewis Griswold of the Fresno Bee.
In his ruling last week, Tulare County Superior Court Judge Paul Vortmann dismissed a property owner’s argument that a medical marijuana collective’s cultivation of marijuana is legal because it is in an agricultural zone.
“In this state, marijuana has never been classified as a crop or horticultural product,” Judge Vortmann wrote in his ruling. Marijuana is a controlled substance, the judge said.
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5 Tips For Choosing A Medical Marijuana Dispensary

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By on Dispensaries, Products

Photo: Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
The “medicine wheel” at Ben Reagan’s dispensary, The C.P.C., is used to demonstrate for patients the continuum between sativa and indica varieties of medicinal cannabis.

Co-Founder, The C.P.C.

Choosing alternative medicine such as medical cannabis is a big decision, and one you probably took a long time to make.  Now that you’re here, and whether or not you were previously a cannabis user, there are a few things you should know about dispensaries (also known as collectives) to ensure that you get the quality of life improvement and medical benefits you’re looking for.
Here are five tips to help get you started on your new journey.

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‘Marijuana Is Sexy’: Talking Pot with Mendo Sheriff Tom Allman

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By on Culture, Growing

Photo: Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman: “We are, of course, supportive of legitimate medical marijuana here.”
By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

​

The Coming of the New Prophet
Rikess: Last time we spoke in August of last year… (See Toke of the Town’s 2010 interview with Sheriff Allman here.)
Sheriff: Seems like yesterday…
Rikess: (laughs) I know and still…you don’t write and you don’t call…
Sheriff: (laughs) Okay…
Rikess: So last time I was here, you said something that was incredibly right on. You said that there was going to be very little difference between George Bush’s administration and Obama’s, when it came to medical marijuana. You said that someone big in the attorney general’s office sat in the chair I’m sitting in and said, and I’m paraphrasing, “He guaranteed me that it was going to be the same under Obama as it was with George Bush. In the end, Eric Holder will handle medical marijuana the same way [the]George Bush [Administration] did.” 
Sheriff: It wasn’t Eric Holder. It was a U.S. attorney. The chronological order was, the U.S. attorney came up here and said, (this is definitely under George W.), saying, “ummm, the U.S. government will not get involved with any marijuana cultivation, distribution, what-ever-you-want-to-call-it, that falls within the boundaries of California’s medical marijuana.” 
Okay, thank you very much. And, you know, he took his dog and pony show and went somewhere else. 
Then the presidential election happened, okay. Then in the primary or maybe it was before the general election, Obama just mentioned something about medical marijuana. 
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Poll: 51% of Coloradans Favor Marijuana Legalization

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By on Legislation, News

Graphic: Cannabis Fantastic

​A narrow majority of Colorado’s registered voters believe marijuana should be legalized, according to a new PPP poll. Voters of the state may have a chance to make that a reality next year.

The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is gathering signatures to put a cannabis legalization measure on the ballot in 2012.
When asked, “Do you think marijuana usage should be legal or illegal?” 51 percent of voters said “legal,” 38 percent said “illegal,” and 11 percent were not sure, reports Jon Walker at Just Say Now.
The breakdown of support in Colorado is almost identical to national patterns of support.
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Troopers Seize 188 Pounds Of Marijuana In Moving Boxes

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By on News

Photo: Wyoming Highway Patrol
State troopers said this is one of the boxes of marijuana found in a moving truck after it was stopped in Wyoming on Sunday.

​Wyoming state troopers arrested a suspected marijuana smuggler after they said he ran into another car in an Interstate 80 construction zone on Sunday.

Troopers were alerted that a rental truck had hit another vehicle without stopping on the interstate west of Cheyenne, reports Wayne Harrison of The Denver Channel.
A rental truck matching the description was pulled over about 15 miles west of Cheyenne and a Wyoming Highway Patrol drug detection dog was called in after the driver “appeared very nervous.”
Driver James Richburg, 56, was so nervous, in fact, that he forgot to put his truck in park and started rolling as he was being questioned, reports Rylee DeGood at CBS 5.
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Busted: Florida Woman Calls Deputy, Tries To Sell Him Weed

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By on News

Photo: Monroe County Sheriff’s Office
Jennifer Knopp tried to expand her customer base on Thursday.

​A Florida Keys woman was arrested on Thursday for trying to sell marijuana to a sheriff’s deputy after she called him on the phone.

On Thursday evening at 9:15, Jennifer Knopp, 39, called the SWAT-issued cellphone of Deputy Chris Galls; she told the deputy she “had the stuff he was looking for,” reports Matthew Handley at the Broward Palm Beach New Times.
The woman then offered to sell Deputy Galls “crippie” marijuana, according to a Monroe County Sheriff’s Department press release, and the two agreed to meet behind a local movie theater.
She asked much he wanted, and Deputy Galls said a quarter-ounce.
Galls brought along narcotics officer Deputy Paul Bean for the meeting at Marathon Movie Theater, about a mile from the sheriff’s office, reports KeysNet.com.
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