Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Maryland Removes Penalties For Medical Use Of Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 10, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Maryland on Tuesday removed criminal penalties for the medical use of marijuana when Gov. Martin O’Malley signed SB 308 as promised. The bill allows seriously ill patients to avoid prosecution when charged with marijuana possession, and also creates a commission to study medical marijuana laws and make recommendations on how Maryland can institute such a program.

This is the first time since 2003 that additional protections were considered, and it’s an important step toward protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest and ensuring they have safe access to their medicine, according to the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).

Marijuana DUI Bill Dead In Colorado Legislature

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 9, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: Denver Westword

Westword pot critic William Breathes tested nearly three times over the proposed legal limit — while completely sober

The Colorado Senate voted on Monday night to kill HB 1261, the marijuana DUI bill, in its entirety, scoring a huge victory for the medical cannabis community.

In a crucial vote, lawmakers rejected a limit on the amount of THC — the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana — that drivers are allowed to have in their systems above which they would be considered too high to drive, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post.

The Senate sided with medical marijuana advocates, who urged more study of the proposal, since THC lingers in the system and many patients would, in effect, be banned from legally driving.

The bill, proposed by Rep. Claire Levy, would have established a driving-under-the-influence level of five nanograms per milliliter of blood, reports Michael Roberts at Denver Westword. During House debate, Levy tried to change that number to eight nanograms, but her amendment failed.

Emblematic of the problem with a 5-ng (or an 8-ng) limit is the blood test of Westword cannabis critic William Breathes, who was tested while completely sober. Breathes’s reading while sober was approximately 13.5 nanograms.

Guns, Sex And Gambling, But No Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 9, 2011 Culture

Photo: Pattaya Talk

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Americans love guns, sex and gambling.

Can you imagine anything getting in our way when it comes to the pursuit of the Big Three?

If it is our desire to have, hold or own any of the Holy Trio, God help the man or woman who tries to stop us. Because if you do…if you do…Try to stop us…We’re just going to have to look the other way. That’s just the way it is.

That is the way it is with everything in Life in America. Everything.

Except marijuana.

Starting with guns: Full disclosure, I like guns. I shot my first handgun a couple of months ago and really enjoyed myself. I was in the country and where I was staying, there were bear sightings.

While the .38 wouldn’t have done much to the bear except piss it off, my host felt that because how deep we were in the woods everyone in attendance needed to be familiar with guns, in case anything happened. It seemed perfectly acceptable to be prepared at that moment.

Notorious Drug Cop Federally Indicted For Illegal Gun Sales

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

Photo: Josh Farley/Kitsap Sun

Drug cop Roy Alloway terrorized Washington medical marijuana patients for years. Now he’s been federally indicted for illegal gun sales.

Narc Is So Despised, A Local Strain Of Marijuana Was Named In His ‘Honor’

A former Washington drug cop so notorious for his misdeeds and aggressive tactics that a strain of medical marijuana was named after him in retaliation has been federally indicted for unlawfully selling guns.

Roy Alloway spent 32 years in law enforcement, the last 10 of which he was involved in the WestNET regional drug task force. Alloway took something of an unhealthy personal interest in giving additional pain to medical marijuana patients, according to many activists in the area, who “see him as a cop determined to lock up even legal users of pot,” wrote Nina Shapiro at the Seattle Weekly.

Alloway made a career of trashing houses and intimidating their occupants, apparently not giving a damn if the people he harassed were legitimately sick or not.

And that’s exactly why a potent marijuana strain was named “Alloway” in his “honor.” Created by a well-known Everett breeder associated with advocate Steve Sarich of CannaCare, the Alloway strain includes the genetics of popular Seattle strain PermaFrost, with a little White Widow reputedly in the mix as well.

“Where do you begin?” said Sarich, who was raided by Alloway and WestNET in 2007.

“This guy is a real piece of shit, and has been for years,” Sarich told Toke of the Town Monday afternoon. “I can’t wait to see how many of the cases Alloway was involved with are overturned, if he gets locked away on these charges.”

Elderly Man Who Grew Pot For Cancer-Stricken Wife Is Jailed

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 9, 2011 Growing, Medical

Photo: WOIO

Gary Burton, 69, was sentenced to 60 days in jail because he grew marijuana for his cancer-stricken wife.

A 69-year-old Ohio man who grew marijuana to help his cancer-stricken wife was sentenced to jail on Friday morning.

Gary Burton was given 60 days behind bars for growing two cannabis plants in Chippewa Lake, Ohio, reports WOIO.

He will also serve 30 days’ house arrest and will be forced to undergo drug testing for two years.

Burton said he was growing the plants for medicinal purposes, to help ease his wife’s pain due to her breast cancer treatments.

WA Group To Legislature: Hands Off Medical Marijuana Patients!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 9, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Cannabis Defense Coalition

Washington state’s medical marijuana bill — that is, the small portions that were signed into law April 29 under Governor Christine Gregoire’s partial veto — represents a “tragic setback for Washington State medical cannabis patients and providers,” according to Seattle-based advocacy group the Cannabis Defense Coalition.

“With the partial veto, Governor Gregoire carved out a patchwork of legal language to deny the protections of our law to many qualifying patients and providers, as well as to outlaw grey-market dispensaries that have operated for nearly 15 years in Washington State,” the CDC wrote on its website. Washington’s voters approved medical marijuana back in 1998, but a licensed system of legal distribution has never been set up, nor have patients ever been given arrest protection.

Fourth Marijuana Conviction Gets Louisiana Man Life In Prison

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

Graphic: Hermes Press

A 35-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison last week for his fourth marijuana conviction under Louisiana’s repeat-offender law.

Cornell Hood II had gotten probation after his first three marijuana offenses in New Orleans, but when he moved near Slidell, in the St. Tammany Parish, his fourth such conviction sent him away for the rest of his life, reports Ramon Antonio Vargas of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

State Judge Raymond S. Childress sentenced Hood in his courtroom on Covington, Louisiana, on Thursday. A jury on February 15 had found the defendant guilty of attempting to possess and distribute marijuana at his Slidell home, according to court records.

Hood had moved from eastern New Orleans to the Slidell area after his third marijuana conviction, for distribution and possession with intent to distribute, on December 18, 2009, in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. He received a suspended five-year prison sentence and five years’ of probation for each count, which was exactly the same penalty he’d gotten in that court after pleading guilty to possessing and intending to distribute marijuana about five years earlier, on February 22, 2005.

Delaware Very Close To Legalizing Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 6, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: THC Finder

We’re close, brothers and sisters. Very close.

The Delaware House on Thursday approved a bill legalizing medical marijuana in the state, and the Senate approved the original measure back in March. But the House added two changes that must now be approved by the Senate before the measure can become law.

The bill would allow people 18 and older with qualifying medical conditions to have up to six ounces of cannabis after getting a doctor’s written recommendation, reports the Associated Press.

WA Governor Says She Likes New Medical Marijuana Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 6, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Overoll

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire: “I’ve indicated to the senator I’m a go, but you’ve got to get the other ‘four corners’ to say they’re a go as well”

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire on Thursday gave a thumbs-up to the new medical marijuana proposal being developed in the state Senate. The new measure is the offspring of the legislation the governor gutted last week.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Washington since voters approved it in 1998, but patients still don’t have arrest protection or safe access, which SB 5073 would have fixed.

According to Gregoire, Sen. Jeanne Kohlp-Welles’s latest bill is “absolutely mindful” of the reason for the governor’s “partial veto” of 5073 (which removed almost all useful portions of the original bill): her supposed concern that state employees might be prosecuted for administering a medical marijuana program, reports Jordan Schrader at the Tacoma News Tribune. (Cannabis advocates have pointed out that state employees have never been prosecuted by the federal government for carrying out a state medical marijuana program in the 15 states which have legalized medicinal cannabis.)

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