Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Worth Repeating: Marijuana Laws Stuck On Stupid For 75 Years

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 21, 2012 Culture, Legislation, Medical

Worth Repeating

By Ron Marczyk, RN

Toke of the Town Columnist

In 1964 THC, the molecule, was first discovered. What do the last 48 years of science have to say about medical marijuana stripped of DEA bias and its groupthink ideologically driven research?

The time is NOW to listen, and let the science supporting medical marijuana speak for itself!

In a loud, clear voice the science concludes overwhelmingly: YES! Marijuana is medicine! And Schedule I is an outdated scientifically false claim!

After 10 years of stonewalling by the DEA, medical marijuana patients will finally get their day in federal court to prove that the Drug Enforcement Administration’s marijuana claims are false!

Both LA County DA Candidates Set Sights On Pot Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 21, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

Mae Ryan/KPCC; votealanjackson.com

Chief Deputy DA Jackie Lacey, left, and Deputy DA Alan Jackson

Tweedle-dumb and Tweedle-dumber? So much for actual choices at the ballot box.

Los Angeles County district attorney candidates, Deputy District Attorney Alan Jackson and Chief Deputy District Attorney Jackie Lacey, on Thursday night held what may be their last debate before the November general election — and while they disagreed on many issues, both candidates vowed to continue to prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries, even if voters overturn the city of Los Angeles’ dispensary ban, reports The Los Angeles Times.

Bill O’Reilly Is Clueless About Marijuana (With Video)

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 21, 2012 Culture

Fox News Insider

Bill O’Reilly: “This Marijuana Policy Project devotes its life to try and convince you to get stoned and inebriated. That’s a nice cause.”

Right-wing political commentator Bill O’Reilly on Thursday’s show highlighted the Marijuana Policy Project’s “Top 50 Most Influential Marijuana Users” list. But — being, after all, Bill O’Reilly — he didn’t leave it at that. He then started on a rant, joined by his vacuous co-hosts, about the supposed evils and deadly health risks associated with using cannabis.

“Apparently, these folks didn’t quite get the message,” wrote Morgan Fox of MPP. “O’Reilly seems to think that MPP just wants everyone to use marijuana, and that the organization ‘devotes its life to trying to convince you to get stoned and inebriated.’

“What he fails to understand, and what many supporters of prohibition refuse to believe, is that marijuana reform is not about getting high,” Fox wrote. “It is about changing our obviously failed policies that put non-violent adults in jail while making it easier for young people to obtain.”

Singer Fiona Apple Arrested For Hashish In Texas

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 20, 2012 News

E Online

Apple kept her eyes closed and a serious expression on her face for her mug shot

Pop singer Fiona Apple was arrested at a Texas border stop on Wednesday for hashish possession, according to multiple media sources. Agents arrested Apple in Sierra Blanca, Texas, after they claimed they found hash and marijuana during a search of her tour bus.

Apple, a marijuana advocate, was aboard her tour bus when the Border Patrol inspected the vehicle with a drug-sniffing dog, reports TMZ. The mutt found the hash and pot, and Apple was thrown in Hudspeth County Jail, report Rebecca Macatee and Sharareh Drury at E Online.

The 35-year-old pop star kept her eyes closed and a serious expression on her face for her mug shot. She is seen wearing a black-and-white jail jumpsuit, according to Rusy Fleming, a spokesman for the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s office.

Why Does Ace Hardware Hate Medical Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 20, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Rory Murray

Rory Murray on Facebook: “We begin the BOYCOTT of Long Beach ACE Hardware. Why? Because the owner hates California cannabis patients. They’re willing to discriminate? We’re willing to shut ’em down.”

Long Beach Store Manager Sponsors Friday Anti-Medical Marijuana Protest; Cannabis Advocates Plan Counter-Protest

Why does an Ace Hardware in Long Beach, California hate medical marijuana? Why on earth would a hardware store, of all places, take such a bizarre position — opposing safe access to the medicine that works best for a lot of very sick folks?

For whatever odd rationale, at least one Ace Hardware store feels it needs to protest against medicinal cannabis. The ownership of the Ace franchise at 4th Street and Olive Avenue in Long Beach’s East Village Arts District is organizing a Friday afternoon, September 21 protest rally in front of a medical marijuana dispensary across the street — and now patients and advocates are planning a counter-protest, reports Greggory Moore at the Long Beach Post.

Cops, Judges Support CO’s Marijuana Regulation Ballot Measure

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 20, 2012 Legislation, News

LEAP

National Black and Latino Police Groups Announce Endorsements for Amendment 64

A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who support Amendment 64, the Colorado ballot measure to regulate marijuana like alcohol, held a press conference on Thursday to release a letter of endorsement signed by law enforcers from across the state and to announce the endorsement of the national police organizations Blacks in Law Enforcement of America and the National Latino Officers Association.

The campaign has also secured the personal endorsement of Colorado’s public defender, Doug Wilson.

“Law enforcement officers are on the front lines of the war on marijuana and have seen first-hand that prohibition does more harm than good,” says Art Way, Colorado Senior Drug Policy Manager for the Drug Policy Alliance.

Montana Orders Med Marijuana Providers To Drop 5,400 Patients

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 19, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Following the Montana Supreme Court’s September 11 ruling overturning an injunction on parts of the current medical marijuana law, the Montana Department of Public Health & Human Services (DPHHS) is now ordering a majority of the state’s providers to decide which patients they will cancel from their rolls.

The directive is intended to bring the providers into conformity with the current requirements of the state’s medical marijuana law without the injunction in effect. Today, DPHHS is mailing letters to 267 providers, leaving more than 5,400 patients without safe access to a medical marijuana provider.

“I spoke with my provider last week,” said Doug Shaw, a 61-year-old patient in Libby, Montana. “He says I’m on my own now, and he doesn’t know anyone sticking with the program.”

“Where I am I supposed to go for medical marijuana?” Shaw asked. “Maybe the Legislature will provide it to me.”

Marijuana Patients Rally Nationwide Thursday Against Obama’s Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 19, 2012 Medical, News

Cannabis Culture

Advocates argue DOJ attacks unnecessarily harm over 1 million patients and may endanger Obama’s re-election effort

Hundreds of patients will hold rallies Thursday at 5 p.m. at local “Obama for America” campaign offices and other key locations in at least 15 cities in eight states across the country in an effort to draw attention to the Obama Administration’s aggressive efforts to shut down legal medical marijuana dispensaries and obstruct the passage of laws that would regulate such activity.

In addition to a lively rally in the nation’s capitol, demonstrations organized by Americans for Safe Access (ASA) are planned in the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington.

In Seattle, medical marijuana advocates are holding a press conference at City Hall on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. local time, featuring City Council member Nick Licata, State Rep. Roger Goodman, and State Senator Jeanna Kohl-Welles.

Toke Switching Comment Systems On Thursday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 19, 2012 News

Spin Sucks

The time has arrived. The Livefyre commenting system is coming to Toke of the Town. The developers plan to push the button tomorrow.

Here are a few things you Toke-sters should know about Livefyre to avoid freaking yourselves out:

SocialSync:

When conversation is happening about an article on Facebook or Twitter, you can now see that conversation within the commenting thread. You can also tag and import your friends from Twitter and Facebook within the comment stream yourself. (Find yourself losing ground in one of Toke’s infamous comment flame-wars? Recruit your Twitter and Facebook friends to pitch in on your side!)

Oregon Defense Lawyers Endorse Marijuana Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 19, 2012 Legislation, News

Vote80.org

Joining civil-rights organizations like the NAACP and labor organizations like United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555, the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (OCDLA) has officially endorsed Measure 80.

“Oregon is now engaged in a great debate across the public safety spectrum to seek and adopt rational evidence-based policies that will make our state and people safer,” said Lane Borg, OCDLA president. “The evidence in this case supports that a common-sense, sane drug policy would end the futile prohibition on cannabis and instead adopt a rational regulation policy that hopefully would end the dangerous conditions brought on by both illegal trafficking and aggressive enforcement in the war on drugs.”

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