Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

R.I. State Police Want Medical Marijuana Grower Information

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2011 Medical, News

The new colonel of the Rhode Island state police wants state health officials to provide law enforcement with information about medical marijuana caregivers if they are targets of criminal investigations.

Col. Steven G. O’Donnell told The Associated Press that being able to verify whether an individual is authorized to grow cannabis at home would prevent unnecessary police search warrants and raids.

O’Donnell claimed it would save money on investigations and protect participants in the state’s medical marijuana program.

WA Supreme Court: You Can Be Fired For Medical Cannabis

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: LawyersandSettlements.com

If you live in Washington state, it doesn’t even matter if medical marijuana is legal. You can be fired for using it — even legally — even if only if your off hours.

Employers in Washington state are allowed to fire employees who fail a drug test, even if they have a valid medical marijuana authorization, the state Supreme Court ruled on Thursday.

The court ruled that TeleTech Customer Care, a Colorado-based company that handles customer service for Sprint from its facility in Bremerton, Washington, was allowed to fire a woman for failing its required drug test, even though she is a legal medical marijuana patient, reports J.B. Wogan at the Seattle Times.

The plaintiff was pulled out of her training class after just a week and fired on the spot on October 18, 2006, because she failed a pre-employment drug screen. She had a valid medical marijuana authorization from her doctor, and sued under the name Jane Roe.

U.S. Atty.: Feds Won’t Allow Sale Of Pot Anywhere In Oregon

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Graphic: Cannabis Fantastic

The U.S. Attorney for Oregon has served notice on all medical marijuana growers and dispensary operators, saying the federal government “will not allow” the sale of cannabis anywhere in Oregon.

U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton issued the warning not only to growers, but to landlords, reports Thom Jensen at KATU News. Holton’s warning is part of what seems to be a federal campaign to intimidate medical marijuana providers and patients nationwide in states that heve legalized medicinal cannabis.

“Knowingly financing a marijuana dispensary or allowing one to operate on your property also violates federal law and could subject financier and landlords to civil and criminal penalties,” Holton’s warning reads [PDF].

Coloradans Fight Back Against Marijuana Patient Surveillance

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Graphic: Patient and Caregiver Rights Litigation Project

New statutes and rules governing medical marijuana go into effect in Colorado on July 1. But the Cannabis Therapy Institute is calling the HB 1284, passed in 2010 by the Legislature, “expensive and unnecessary government over-regulation,” and CTI is calling on patients to join “the legal fight to defeat these laws.”

Dude… Sweet! Cosmic Caramels Charm Californians

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2011 Dispensaries, Products

Photo: SF Weekly

Our friends at Toke’s sister Village Voice Media site SF Weekly have been quite impressed by smooth and creamy Cosmic Caramels, which they say both taste good and deliver medicine effectively.

The caramels are a product of Cannabis Kitchen in San Francisco.

According to the Weekly’s SFoodie blog, the candies are “buttery and chewy, but don’t make you feel like you’re sucking on a bong.” (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course!)

Big Pharma Trying To Get In The Medical Marijuana Business

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2011 Medical, News

Photo: Real News Reporter

Big Pharma’s done such a good job being “consumer-friendly” and altruistic with all those other medications — why not let them in on Colorado’s medical marijuana market as well? (Yes, that is sarcasm.)

A new Colorado law signed last week is causing lots of concern in the medical marijuana community — and given the track record of Big Pharma for throwing their weight around and buying politicians, there is plenty of cause for concern.

One clause of HB 1043, the “medical marijuana cleanup bill” signed by Governor John Hickenlooper last week, contains a potential loophole allowing out-of-state firms to get involved in the industry outside of dispensaries and grow operations, reports Michael Roberts at Denver Westword.

Arizona AG Worked With Anti-Marijuana Leader On Lawsuit

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: James King/Phoenix New Times

Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne started working on a nefarious plan to stop medical marijuana almost as soon as voters had approved it last November.

Elected state officials busily working to defeat the will of their state’s own voters — it’s an unseemly spectacle, and it’s unfolding as we speak in Arizona. Making the entire scene even more ugly is the fact that seriously ill patients are needless suffering as a result.

Within weeks of Arizona voters approving medical marijuana in their state, the top law enforcement official in the state was devising ways to stymie the will of the people. Whack-job Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne discussed a plan to launch legal action agains the state’s medical marijuana law during a January meeting with the law’s biggest opponent, it has been revealed.

Carolyn Short, who led last year’s unsuccessful campaign to stop Proposition 203, which legalized medical marijuana in Arizona, refers to the meeting in a February 16 letter [PDF] to state Department of Health Services Director Will Humble, reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times:

“It’s Really A Bummer”: Mayor Orders Pot Dispensaries To Close

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: BG Organics

The negative effects continue to mutiply after Washington Governor Christine Gregoire’s gutting of a bill that would have legalized dispensaries in the state.

Kent, Washington Mayor Suzette Cook said she is in favor of medical marijuana. In a statement issued on Tuesday, she said she supported the state’s medical marijuana law when it was approved by voters in 1998, and that she “sympathizes” with cancer patients and others who rely on cannabis for medicinal purposes. But following Gov. Gregoire’s gutting of SB 5073, which would have allowed dispensaries, Cooke and her administration felt they had no choice but to tell the four dispensaries in town to close their doors.

June 17 Marks 40th Anniversary Of Nixon’s War On Drugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: Cannabis Culture

President Nixon sniffs a wrapped brick of marijuana at the outset of his War On Drugs in 1970

June 17 will mark 40 years since President Richard Nixon, citing drug abuse as “Public Enemy No. 1,” officially declared a “War On Drugs.” A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, a political consensus is emerging that the War On Drugs is a counterproductive failure.

The Drug Policy Alliance is leading advocates all across the country in marking this auspicious date with a day of action to raise awareness about the catastrophic failure of drug prohibition and to call for an exit strategy from the failed War On Drugs.

“Some anniversaries provide an occasion for celebration, others a time for reflection, still others a time for action,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Forty years after President Nixon declared his war on drugs, we’re seizing upon this anniversary to prompt both reflection and action. And we’re asking everyone who harbors reservations about the war on drugs to joint us in this enterprise.

U.S. Can’t Justify Its Drug War Spending: New Reports

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 News

Graphic: Break The Matrix

Name one government program that for 40 years has failed to achieve any of its goals, yet receives bigger and bigger budgets every year. If you said “the War on Drugs,” you’ve been paying attention.

The Obama Administration is unable to show that the billions of dollar spent in the War On Drugs have significantly affected the flow of illicit substances into the United States, according to two government reports and outside experts.

The reports specifically criticize the government’s growing use of U.S. contractors, which were paid more than $3 billion to train local prosecutors and police, help eradicate coca fields, and operate surveillance equipment in the battle against the expanding drug trade in Latin America over the past five years, reports Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times.

“We are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we are getting in return,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who chairs the Senate subcommittee that wrote one of the reports, which was released on Wednesday.

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