Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Ganja Grannies, 65 and 72, Busted With 800 Plants

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 4, 2011 Culture, Growing, News

Virginia Pon, 65 (left) and Aleen Lam, 72, were arrested after police found more than 800 plants growing in their San Bruno, California home.

Two elderly women are in a California jail after neighbors called the police to report a burglary at their San Bruno residence. When police arrived, they saw, through the broken front door, nearly 800 marijuana plants inside the home.

Aleen Lam, 72, and Virginia Chan Pon, 65, were arrested Friday afternoon, reports Erin Sherbert at the S.F. Weekly. Police, searching the unoccupied home, found $3,000 in cash as well as an electrical bypass that allowed the grannies to steal electricity from Pacific Gas & Electric.

Washington Marijuana Dispensaries: Does Veto Mean Raids?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 4, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Steve Elliott

Bud room at The Healing Center Organization in Seattle

Here in Washington state, in the Puget Sound area, I have seen a beautiful flowering of the cannabis subculture in the past 18 months.

It has been my privilege to be part of a moment that will almost inevitably be seen as something of a golden age in the medical marijuana scene in Seattle, when for a brief moment a vibrant, caring community felt its power and potential.

Since I became an authorized patient in 2007, I’ve seen the scene change from a handful of insular, exclusive (and often paranoid) collectives — none of which would take me as member, even with my legal authorization — to a plethora of dispensaries competing for my business.

Seattle Marijuana Dispensary Offers 25% Off For Canned Food

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 3, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Graphic: Fweedom Collective

New member patients at Fweedom Collective get 25 percent off their order for donating canned food.

Fweedom Collective, a Seattle medical marijuana dispensary, is offering patients who join the collective a chance to donate food and receive 25 percent off their order.

The food drive, named “Cans For Grams,” has a goal of 10,000 cans of food to be donated to the charity Northwest Harvest, whose mission is to provide nutritious food to hungry people statewide in Washington state.

“Not only does this event raise food for the local community, but it also helps low-income patients obtain quality medicine,” said Sky Nielsen of Fweedom Collective.

Located in Seattle, Fweedom Collective says it is “looking to make a positive difference in the local community.”

The dispensary offers a wide variety of top shelf cannabis for Washington medical marijuana patients (WA ID and medical marijuana authorization required).

Fweedom offers strains including Afghani, Afgoo Kush, AK-47, Blue Dream, and Seattle favorite PermaFrost at donations of $11.84 per gram, $40.08 per eighth, $72.86 per quarter, $141.17 per half or $273.23 per ounce. (Don’t forget, you get 25 percent off those prices if you donate canned food.)

Remembering Ben Masel: Activist Changed The Cannabis Debate

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 3, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: StoptheDrugWar.org

By Michael Bachara

Hemp News Correspondent

Lifelong activist Ben Masel died on Saturday after a battle with lung cancer. As the hemp and cannabis community and many others mourn this great loss, we must also remember what Masel spent most of his life fighting for, and continue on the path he helped to blaze.

Over the course of his life, Masel traveled countless miles and spent innumerable hours voicing his ideas and fighting for the rights of his fellows. Even in the face of opposition, he continued to speak out in favor of hemp and cannabis legalization, freedom of speech and the ability of people who take a stand to make a difference.

Masel’s lifelong passion, the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival in Madison, Wisconsin, began as a marijuana smoke-in in 1971. The Harvest Festival, now marking its 41st year, has a long history of promoting cannabis/hemp legalization and free speech while providing an annual celebration for like-minded people.

New Zealand Group Says Yes To Trials Of Medical Cannabis

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 3, 2011 Global, Medical

Graphic: Greencross Auckland

Pro-cannabis group Auckland Greencross has endorsed the New Zealand Law Commission’s recommendations that clinical trials of cannabis are undertaken and that bona fide users of medicinal marijuana become exempt from prosecution.

Stephen McIntyre, spokesman for the medical cannabis patients’ support group, on Tuesday said both proposals would find favor with the general public, as two out of three New Zealanders support allowing cannabis for medical use.

“Sixty five percent of submissions to this report — a figure consistent with online polling — favored the establishment of a scheme allowing people suffering from chronic, debilitating or terminal conditions to legally access and use herbal cannabis,” McIntyre said.

“Most medical users of cannabis, alongside the serious condition they’re forced to cope with on a daily basis, have the added stress of finding reliable access to quality medicine from a trustworthy source, compounded by fear of being caught by the police,” McIntyre said.

Federal Agents Arrest Two Cannabis Advocates In Seattle

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 3, 2011 Medical, News

Photo: Cannabis Defense Coalition

Activist Phil Mocek of the Cannabis Defense Coalition was assaulted and detained by private security guards and turned over to federal Homeland Security agents, who charged him with obstructing justice.

Rent-A-Cops Tackle Two Activists And Turn Them Over To The Feds

The United States federal government on Monday arrested two Seattle activists who were attempting to serve a cease and desist order on the Department of Justice in the wake of federal raids on medical cannabis dispensaries last week.

Medical cannabis activists had staged a protest at the federal building in downtown Seattle Monday afternoon. Private security guards indicated that it was a crime to take photographs near the federal building. Phil Mocek, a board member with the Cannabis Defense Coalition, asked for clarification of the policy, and was arrested by federal building security guards, who contacted Homeland Security agents for backup.

South African Police Raid Dagga Party Headquarters

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 2, 2011 Global, News

Photo: Tracey Adams/Weekend Argus

Puff Puff Pass: Dagga Party executive committee members Israel Jeneke, Barend Wentzel, Hendrik Fortuin and leader Jeremy Acton last week announced their participation in the political process. Their efforts to participate were rewarded with a police raid on Friday.

Dagga Party Came From ‘Listening To The Herb’

Photo: IOL News

South African police raid Dagga Party headquarters on Friday, shortly after the organization announced it would be participating in upcoming elections

Police on Friday raided the home of the leader of the Dagga Party of South Africa shortly after the party announced it was participating in local elections. All the cops found were a few seeds.

Jeremy Acton, whose party is registered in the Langeberg Municipality to contest the May 18 local government elections, said he was not at his Montagu farmhouse when police arrived Friday morning, but they questioned one of his workers and took him to the police station, reports IOL News.

“The took all the pipes and took photographs of my marijuana graphics and a poem I have for meditation,” Acton said.

Acton said he wasn’t sure if a warrant had been issued for his arrest, but he wasn’t planning on returning to Montagu until tomorrow. He said he had already taken his Dagga Party pamphlets to the police in Montagu and explained he was fighting to get cannabis legalized. He said he’d heard the police wanted to stop his efforts.

The Dagga Party wants to legalize the herb and keep South Africa’s “dagga culture” alive, and is participating in the May local elections, a historical first which has generated great media interest and lots of public support.

The idea of forming the Dagga Party came from “listening to the herb,” according to leader Acton.

“By registering our party we made history for the legalization of cannabis in South Africa and by participating in this election we make history every step of the way,” Acton said. “If we win even one council seat in the Municipality, we achieve a beachhead for further efforts to legalize dagga,” Acton said, using the South African slang word for cannabis.

U.S. Attorney: AZ Medical Pot Law No Shield From Prosecution

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 2, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: AZ Capitol Times

U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke: “Even clear and unambiguous compliance with (Arizona Medical Marijuana Act) does not render possession or distribution lawful”

Arizona’s top federal prosecutor joined the growing chorus of U.S. Attorneys across the country on Monday, saying that the state’s medical marijuana law doesn’t protect patients, growers or sellers from federal prosecution.

U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, in a threatening letter to Arizona’s health director, claimed his law office “will abide” by a 2009 Department of Justice memo that discourages federal prosecution of medical marijuana patients and providers who are following state law. But he said anyone who possesses or distributes marijuana is still violating federal law, reports Mary K. Reinhart at The Arizona Republic.

Burke’s letter follows the recent pattern of federal prosecutors sending threatening letters to state officials, including governors, attorneys general and others in medical marijuana states. The threats have been underlined by recent federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington, Montana and California.

DEA Will Now Go After Medical Marijuana, Says R.I. Governor

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 2, 2011 Medical, News

Photo: pbn.com

Gov. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island: “Friday’s letter makes it clear DOJ will now pursue certain commercial cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, even if such cultivation and distribution is permitted by state law”

After Federal Threats, Gov. Lincoln Chafee Puts Hold On State’s Dispensary Licensing Program

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee has responded to a threatening letter that U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha delivered last week, and according to the governor, it’s not good news for medical marijuana patients.

“The Department of Justice previously indicated that it would not focus its limited resources on doctors and their sick patients who prescribe and use marijuana if such use was permitted by state law,” Gov. Chafee correctly pointed out. “This position was interpreted by some states as giving them latitude to authorize medical marijuana cultivation and distribution programs.

“Friday’s letter makes it clear DOJ will now pursue certain commercial cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, even if such cultivation and distribution is permitted by state law,” Chafee said (emphasis added).

Washington Medical Marijuana Patients Protest Federal Raids

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 2, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Zazzle

A coalition of medical marijuana patients from around Washington state will gather in Seattle and Spokane on Monday to demonstrate against the Obama Administration’s use of federal agents to raid medical marijuana dispensaries in the state. According to the activists, the raids are in violation of the Administration’s own written policy stating they they would not use federal resources to conduct raids in states with medical marijuana laws.

Protesters will gather in Seattle and Spokane at 1 p.m. on Monday. The protest in Seattle will be in front of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Avenue, downtown. Protesters will also gather in Spokane at the Thomas Foley Federal Courthouse, 920 Riverside, Spokane, also at 1 p.m.

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