Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Lawmen Join Rally Protesting Prison For Marijuana Patients

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

Graphic: LPP

An organization made up of retired and disabled members of the law enforcement community — which provides support to medical marijuana patients and caregivers — is joining with other medical marijuana advocacy organizations in front of the federal courthouse in Sacramento, California at noon on Monday to protest the imprisonment of Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer.

“Doc Fry and Dale Schafer are dedicated patient advocates that don’t belong in prison,” said Nate Bradley, executive director of Lawmen Protecting Patients.

“The federal government needs to stop wasting what little resources they have on prosecuting and imprisoning the medical marijuana community,” Bradley said. “The federal government should focus on putting actual criminals in in prison, like rapists and child molesters.”

Obama Administration Threatens R.I. Over Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 29, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: NBC 10 News

Governor Lincoln Chafee received a threatening letter today from Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha.

Add Rhode Island to the list of states that have received threatening letters from the federal government on the issue of medical marijuana in recent weeks.

Significantly, the Rhode Island letter — delivered to Governor Lincoln Chafee’s office on Friday — unlike all of the other recent U.S. Attorney letters to medical marijuana states, does NOT begin with a line like “In response to your inquiry…”

“That likely means that this legal advice was not solicited by the Rhode Island government, marking an escalation in the feds’ aggressiveness on this issue,” media relations director Tom Angell at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) told Toke of the Town Friday evening.

To date, U.S. Attorneys have only weighed in with threat letters after being contacted by state and local officials.

Governor Fails To Lead On Medical Marijuana; Vetoes Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 29, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: Online Athens

Hen-hearted Washington Governor Christine Gregoire: “I cannot take the chance that state employees will be prosecuted”

Citing supposed concerns about arrest of state employees (which has never happened in any medical marijuana state), Washington Governor Christine Gregoire on Friday vetoed almost all the significant portions of a bill which would have expanded safe access to cannabis and arrest protection for patients in the state.

“We cannot provide protection to one group of people — patients and providers — by subjecting another group of people — state employees — to arrest and prosecution,” Governor Gregoire told reporters at a 2:30 p.m. news conference on Friday.

“As governor whose number one priority is the well being of this state, I cannot take the chance that state employees would be prosecuted,” she said, even as she made sure that seriously ill patients would continue to be prosecuted. “What would you tell them if they are?”

More Mystery Marijuana Mailed To Pennsylvania

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 29, 2011 News

Graphic: Delaware County Daily Times

It’s raining weed, man. Another unexpected five-pound delivery of marijuana has been left at the front door of an Upper Darby, Pennsylvania resident, according to police.

The package, shipped by the U.S. Postal Service, was left at a home on the first block of South Keystone Street, which — get this — is located directly behind the Upper Darby police station, reports the Delaware County News Network.

The resident, 27, reportedly told police she did not recognize the Arizona return address on the box, but she opened it anyway because she was expecting a delivery from Babies-R-Us. The woman immediately called police upon seeing the contents, according to reports.

“I was on my way home and I seen my mailman,” the woman said, reports Linda Reilly at the Delaware County Times. “The package was on the top step and my husband picked it up. I didn’t know the name on the box and was suspicious, but I was waiting for baby clothes I ordered from Babies-R-Us and opened it.”

Illinois Moves Closer To Legalizing Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 29, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: THC Finder

Once again, Illinois is moving tantalizingly close to legalizing medical marijuana.

The state House is moving closer to making medicinal cannabis available for patients to ease the side effects of debilitating medical conditions, reports Todd Wilson at the Chicago Tribune.

A stricter set of rules and a surprise political alliance are helping to build the momentum for the medical marijuana effort in Illinois, long thwarted despite coming within a four votes of passing the Legislature in January.

DEA Raids Marijuana Dispensaries As Bill Hits Governor’s Desk

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 29, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: Jesse Tinsley/The Spokane Spokesman-Review

Outside the THC Pharmacy medical marijuana dispensary, activists chant “DEA, go away!” in protest on Perry St. in Spokane, Wash., Thursday, April 28, 2011. The DEA raided the dispensary while most dispensary owners and pot activists were at a meeting about how to handle DEA raids.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) conducted aggressive, SWAT-style raids on Thursday on at least three dispensaries in Spokane, Washington, that provided medical marijuana to qualified patients.

Earlier this month, numerous facilities shut down after U.S. District Attorney Michael Ormsby threatened numerous landlords in Spokane with seizure of their property if they keep letting their tenants provide medical marijuana to state-compliant patients. These actions come at the same time the state is trying to pass Senate Bill 5073, which modifies Washington’s 1998 medical marijuana law to specifically allow dispensaries.

Marijuana Raid Training Interrupted To Protest Raids In Progress

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 28, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Graphic: Phawker

It didn’t take long for the feds to follow through on their threat of federal raids in Washington after the governor refused to sign a bill which would have legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

A medical marijuana raid preparedness class in Spokane was interrupted Thursday so that the participants could go protest ongoing dispensary raids by federal agents, according to patient advocacy group the Cannabis Defense Coalition.

CDC, based in Seattle, had already scheduled raid preparedness classes around the state this week. It turns out that the training is even more timely and needed than the group may have imagined.

At about 2 p.m. on Thursday, federal agents, apparently assisted by local police, began executing a raid against a medical cannabis provider, THC Pharmacy, at 1108 South Perry Street in Spokane, according to Phil Mocek of the CDC.

Grateful Dead Movie Hits Theaters Again

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 28, 2011 Culture, Products

Graphic: Fathom

It’s back by popular demand, according to promoters. The Grateful Dead Movie, originally filmed in 1974 and released in 1977, is coming back to theaters.

The encore presentation of the movie on the big screen is brought to you by Fathom and Rhino Entertainment in select theaters nationwide for one final night on Thursday, May 5 at 7:30 p.m. (local time).

The special event will include exclusive, never-before-seen interviews with Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir conducted during the filming of this legendary Winterland concert more than 35 years ago.

April 29 Marks 100th Anniversary Of First Marijuana Prohibition

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 28, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: The Weed Street Journal

Interestingly, the 1911 Massachusetts law specifically permitted medicinal use of cannabis with a prescription

Friday marks an unhappy anniversary in hemp history. On April 29, 1911, Massachusetts enacted the first state law making it illegal to sell or possess cannabis without a prescription, becoming the first U.S. state to institute marijuana prohibition.

Violators of the new law were subject to a $100 fine and up to six months in jail, and just being present in the same room with marijuana could get you three months, according to cannabis historian Dale Gieringer of California NORML.

Ironically, marijuana was merely collateral damage of the Massachusetts law, which was aimed primarily at other “hypnotic” drugs such as opium, morphine and heroin. Abuse of opiate painkillers had become a concern among reformers and temperance advocates in the early 20th century, and cannabis was added to the list “for the sake of completeness,” since it was also a hypnotic palliative commonly found in pharmacies.

“This incidental decision would turn out to have far-reaching consequences, aptly illustrating the dangers of governmental misjudgment in matters of drug regulation,” Gieringer said.

Interestingly, the Massachusetts law specifically permitted medicinal use of cannabis with a prescription; the medical value of “Indian hemp” was widely acknowledged at the time.

“Only in 1937 was medical cannabis suppressed at the insistence of federal narcotics boss Harry Anslinger, whose last-century ‘Reefer Madness’ policy sadly remains with us today,” Gieringer said.

Medical Marijuana Advocates Threaten To Sue San Diego

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 28, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Pacific San Diego

Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) on Thursday threatened to file suit against the City of San Diego if it doesn’t amend a recent ordinance that patient advocates are calling a de facto ban on local cannabis distribution facilities.

ASA argued in a letter sent to City Attorney Jan Goldsmith that the ordinance violates due process rights of medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives by forcing them to shut down in 30 days, leaving virtually no options for relocation.

Unless the city can “ease the restrictions on medical marijuana collectives, so that qualified patients can obtain the medicine they need,” the letter, authored by ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford, said that the organization and its patient base would be “compelled” to seek such remedies in court.

The letter suggested that the San Diego City Council amend its ordinance to allow “medical marijuana collectives to operate in most commercial and all industrial zones” and increase “the period to obtain a conditional use permit to one year.”

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