Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Patient Gets Two Years In Prison For Sharing Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 18, 2011 Medical, News

A Montana man will spend two years in prison for the offense of sharing three grams of his medical marijuana with friends last November.

District Judge Dusty Deschamps called it a “Mickey Mouse” offense, but in sentencing Matthew Otto, 27, on Tuesday, the judge said he took into account Otto’s “extensive criminal history” as supposed justification for the harsh sentence, reports Jenna Cederberg of The Missoulian.

Deschamps sentenced Otto to 20 years in prison after a jury convicted him in March on one count of “criminal distribution of dangerous drugs” (they’ve got to be kidding). Two years will be served at the Montana State Prison and will run concurrently with a previous sentence. The judge suspended the other 18 years of the sentence, which will be served on parole under Department of Corrections supervision.

Arizona Medical Marijuana Patients Start Cultivating At Home

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 18, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

Photo: Growing Marijuana

Arizona’s medical marijuana laws are going into effect, but dispensaries are still don’t know exactly when they’ll be opening their doors. Meanwhile, some patients aren’t waiting for them.

Patients who have already received their medical marijuana cards have already started cultivating their own medicine at home, reports Sonu Wasu at KOLD News 13. Under Arizona’s law, patients who don’t have an operating dispensary within 25 miles are eligible to cultivate — and right now, since no dispensaries are yet open, that includes every patient in the state.

Corey Miller, who applied for a medical marijuana card and checked the box asking whether he intended to cultivate plants for personal use, has already received his card and started the process.

President of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation Pleads Guilty

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 18, 2011 News

Photo: Steve Elliott

Paul Stanford of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF) elected to accept a plea deal rather than continue fighting his state tax evasion case. “It is clear to most that this prosecution was unnecessary, petty and politically motivated,” Stanford said Wednesday afternoon.

Paul Stanford of Portland, Oregon, the man who describes himself as the nation’s largest broker of authorizations for medical marijuana, has pleaded guilty to reduced state tax-evasion charges.

But Stanford said it was a petty and politically motivated prosecution.

“It’s the first time in Oregon history that the attorney general has held a press conference about a misdemeanor case,” Stanford told Toke of the Town Wednesday afternoon.

Stanford, 50, founder of The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF), was charged in March with failing to file personal state income taxes in 2008 and 2009, reports Fox 12 Oregon.

“Paying taxes is not optional,” crowed Oregon Attorney General John Kroger, unable to stop himself from throwing a self-congratulatory press conference immediately after the plea was announced.

Stanford had earlier said he would be cleared of guilt, but told Toke of the Town that he instead took a “sweetheart deal” from prosecutors and accepted a misdemeanor charge of personal income tax evasion.

Stoner Photo of the Day: Sativa Sampler Pack

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Dispensaries, Products

I haven’t had this much fun since Mom brought home a Variety Pack of cereal when I was a kid. Both times, I was packin’ bowls like there’s no tomorrow. (Photo by Steve Elliott)

While visiting friendly Dockside Cooperative in the Seattle suburb of Fremont (“the Center of the Universe”), I noticed one welcome innovation that budtender Aaron told me is very helpful in allowing patients to find the strains that work best for them: sampler packs.

Dockside has sampler packs of both sativa strains and indicas, as well as 50/50 packs with four strains of each. Seen in the photo above is a Sativa Sampler Pack I got at Dockside today.

Medical Marijuana Under Attack: Here’s How You Can Fight Back

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Drug Reporter

Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance: “These lawyers are playing politics with the lives of patients who need medical marijuana to cope with debilitating pain and nausea”

Medical marijuana patients across the country are under attack, according to Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

“Despite the Obama Administration’s promise to respect state laws, lawyers in the federal government are now threatening to arrest and prosecute people who are legally licensed to grow medical marijuana under state law,” Nadelmann said.

“These ideologues are trying to block sensible regulation — and they’ve already succeeded in Washington State,” Nadelmann said. “We must stop them from erasing all the progress we’ve made and from leaving patients out in the cold.”

Nadelmann is urging all supporters of medical marijuana to write U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to demand that the federal government keep its promise to respect state medical marijuana laws.

Is Rural Arizona Freaking Out Over Medical Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: SWOP-USA

Apparently somehow unaware that marijuana is already easily available to practically any young person in America who wants it, one volunteer police officer in Kingman, Arizona, is pulling all kinds of drama-king moves over the coming of legal, medicinal cannabis to his town.

Harley Pettit of Kingman, Arizona says he’s seen young people get in trouble for everything from drugs and alcohol to vandalism. And Harley says that in a small community “with not a lot to do,” the last thing young people need is another way to get into trouble, reports Alyson Zepeda of Cronkite News Service.

And, of course, Harley is worried that’s what this newfangled medical marijuana stuff is going to give them. Well, news flash, Harley — for those of us who aren’t stuck in some king-hell 1950s time warp, young people are already smoking marijuana, they have been for 40 years, and they don’t have to buy it from medical marijuana dispensaries.

Man Throws Marijuana To Prisoner In Court

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Global, News

Photo: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A man in the public gallery of the Brisbane Magistrates Court threw marijuana to a prisoner — whom he apparently didn’t know — who was sitting in the criminal dock, an Australian court heard on Tuesday.

The Court of Appeal was delivering its judgment in an application by former journalism student and Department of Foreign Affairs cadet Matthew Scott Bell for a string of convictions, reports Mark Oberhardt at the Queensland Courier Mail.

Flagstaff Nixes Pot Dispensary Next To Pot-Themed Restaurant

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Jesse Kasten/The Lumberjack

Flagstaff, Arizona’s Cheba Hut is a friendly haven for the high and hungry. But plans to located a medical marijuana dispensary next door have been derailed by city officials.

Aw, man. It would have been so perfect.

Locating a medical marijuana dispensary next to a sandwich shop known for its stoner-friendly atmosphere and its subs named after strains of cannabis? Genius idea, and good for both businesses.

Several ganjapreneurs evidently had the same idea, even going to far as to secure a letter of intent from the landlord to rent them the commercial space next to the Cheba Hut in Flagstaff, Arizona. Cheba Hut markets to stoners, winkingly putting in quotes “Toasted” Subs and featuring “palm trees” in its logo that look quite a bit like cannabis leaves. Oh, and check out alllll that smoke pouring out the chimney.

HDNet ‘World Report’ Looks At Driving While High

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: HDNet

Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on HDNET “World Report”: DWHigh: Medical Marijuana and Driving

With the number of medical marijuana patients rising, and with 16 states now allowing medicinal cannabis, advocates are fighting against attempts to regulate the amount of THC that can be in your blood while driving.

HDNet “World Report,” in an episode which will debut Tuesday night, May 17, will examine driving while under the influence of medical marijuana.

In Colorado, which has a growing medical marijuana community, the question is, should there be a limit? The Legislature recently defeated a measure which would have limited blood THC levels at five nanograms per millilter (ng/ml). Advocates said the measure was far too strict, and would, in effect, have banned medical marijuana patients from legally driving.

“World Report” puts legal medical marijuana users behind the wheel of a driving simulator and watched them navigate a course, first while sober, then after consuming pot. (Of course, under Colorado’s recently proposed — and unrealistically low — five-nanogram limit, all of the patients would likely be considered “high” even while completely sober, thus making moot the question of impairment.)

Pastor Indicted For Growing Medical Marijuana In Church

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: Ocean State Cannabis

Pastor Erik Johansson: “They killed all our plants in violation of state law”

The pastor of a Rhode Island parish was indicted May 11 on federal charges of conspiracy and cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants — in his church.

Erik Johansson, 48, an ordained minister for Prospect Ministries Inc., was arrested last September after police in Warwick, R.I., executed a search warrant at the church, reports W. Zachary Malinowski at The Providence Journal.

The cops confiscated 183 marijuana plants in several different grow rooms, $565 in cash and other supplies and items used to grow marijuana. Officers said they also discovered an extensive ventilation system to disperse heat and carbon dioxide.

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