Toke of the Town

Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Emerald Triangle: The Feds Are In Charge, People Are Hurting

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By on Culture, Growing

Jack’s Blog
The Feds came in heavy at the end of last year, flexing their muscles, showing who’s boss, and reminding the growers, that no matter what they think, the Feds are in charge.

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
When I was a kid, you could look in the back pages of High Times magazine to see how much a pound, ounce, eighth was going in your town. Most of us were still too scared to be seen with that evil weed magazine. The sight of a glossy mag proclaiming the virtues of marijuana might lead to more questions than 16-year-old wants to answer.
Quickly opening the last few pages at the newsstand I found my state, and could get a pretty accurate idea of what I should be paying for my weed. Plus, you could see how the rest of the country was faring when it came to the Tao Jones of pot. 
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Humboldt Stories: Housesitting A Marijuana Grow

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By on Culture, Growing

Sharon Letts

“It’s Not Weeds, It’s Real.”


By Sharon Letts
Nick took the leash down from the hook on the wall. “Here, boy!” he said to the carefree mutt, galloping toward him. “Let’s go for a walk!”
Walking Buster was the hardest part of watching his friend’s house. It meant he had to walk around the neighborhood with the dog, without making eye-contact with the neighbors.
“Just don’t offer any information,” Jake lectured. “I don’t even know their names,” he added. “And they don’t know mine, and that’s the way we all like it.”
Jake said there were a lot of grow houses here in Cutten. The town was an old, established neighborhood in Humboldt’s County seat, and still considered a family neighborhood with parks, a school and a town center. 
This was just one of Jake’s houses and no one lived here. A four-bedroom California ranch-style, with four grow rooms for the ladies and a false room in the garage for growing babies. Nick was just one of several house-sitters keeping watch at any given time.
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Medical Marijuana Patients To Rally Against Federal Raid

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By on Dispensaries, Medical, News

FOX40
Demonstrators protest the DEA raid of El Camino Wellness Center in Sacramento, June 11, 2012

Federal Actions Contradict Obama Administration’s Declarations That It’s Not Targeting State Law-Compliant Businesses
Medical marijuana patients and their supporters will rally in front of the federal building on Wednesday, June 20 at 1:30 pm to protest a raid last week on Sacramento’s first permitted dispensary in the city.
Last Monday, El Camino Wellness Center was raided by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and shut down, after having served thousands of Sacramento patients since 2008. Though no charges have been filed against the dispensary operators, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has seized the facility’s bank accounts. The raid stems from a federal crackdown by U.S. Attorneys in California that began last fall.
“The Obama administration is betraying patients and lying to the public,” said Kris Hermes, spokesperson with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), one of the groups organizing Wednesday’s protest. “The President and the Attorney General have said publicly that the Justice Department is not targeting state-compliant medical marijuana dispensaries, but that’s exactly what it’s doing.”
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No Evidence Medical Marijuana Increases Teen Drug Use: Study

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By on Dispensaries, Medical, News

While teen marijuana use has been rising since 2005, an analysis of data from 1993 through 2009 has found no evidence to link the legalization of medical marijuana to increased use of pot among high school students — and in fact, the data often showed teen marijuana use decreased after medicinal cannabis was legalized.

“There is anecdotal evidence that medical marijuana is finding its way into the hands of teenagers, but there’s no statistical evidence that legalization increases the probability of use,” said Daniel I. Rees, a professor of economics at the University of Colorado Denver, reports Science Codex.
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Oregon’s Largest Union Endorses Oregon Cannabis Tax Act

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By on Legislation, News

Michael M.
The United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555, with 18,000-plus members, has endorsed the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, which would legalize marijuana in the Beaver State

There’s good news and bad news from the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, OCTA 2012. The good: OCTA has received the endorsement and support of Oregon’s largest private sector union, the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local 555, and their 18,000-plus members. On Thursday, June 14, UFCW Local 555’s board of directors voted unanimously to endorse the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative.
“We are working with their leadership to mobilize their membership to sign and circulate the petitions,” said OCTA 2012 sponsor Paul Stanford “Thank you UFCW Local 555!”
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Medical Marijuana 101 Is What The Doctor Ordered

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By on Medical, Products

Amazon

If you want to learn the basics about the medical marijuana — as a medicine and as an industry —  Medical Marijuana 101 is a great place to do it.
If, in fact, one were to pick just one book to learn about medicinal cannabis, this would be a great selection. Especially for the new patient or caregiver, it can provide a very useful introduction to the subject and point the reader towards where to learn more.
Author Mickey Martin of Oakland is a fixture on the California medical marijuana scene, and has been an outspoken and stalwart defender of both the rights of medicinal cannabis patients and providers, and of the need for full legalization.
Martin is known for his no-prisoners, no-b.s. style of blogging, and while the tone of this book is a tad calmer than that of his Cannabis Warrior blog, it manages to be a great read while still filling the reader in on the basics of medicinal cannabis.
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Cannabis: Self-Medicating and Wellness

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By on Medical

Sharon Letts

By Sharon Letts
A good friend is convinced cannabis leads to heroin use. It happened to a friend of his, so he knows. This was a few years ago. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I’d been using the herb off and on since I was 16 years old, and felt nary a pang to upgrade to any other substance. 
I grew up in the 1960s, and went through high school in the 70s, so drugs were no stranger. Having an alcoholic father, my childhood was one big cocktail party. Thankfully, alcohol wasn’t a draw for me, nor was tobacco at 13, or cocaine at 19. 
I had an undiagnosed processing problem. I appeared to be a good student, but could barely pull a C in most classes. After trying cannabis at 16, I did better in school – my concentration improved. I read like an alphabet-hungry animal; I wrote Haiku and poetry and was published at 19. And, as a bonus, I no longer needed to take liver damaging Midol for menstrual cramps.
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Feds Move To Silence Platshorn, Derail The Silver Tour

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By on News

Sun Post Weekly
Robert Platshorn spreads the truth about cannabis through The Silver Tour. Now the federal government has moved to silence him

Federal Officer Threatens To Return The Black Tuna To Prison

Robert Platshorn became the longest serving marijuana prisoner in United States history, doing almost 30 years in federal prison for importing Colombian pot in the 1970s. When he got out four years ago, Platshorn — a weed warrior through and through — didn’t take the easy way out and opt for a quiet retirement. Instead, he took up the cause of medical marijuana, launching The Silver Tour to bring the good news about cannabis to senior citizens.

Platshorn did his time, and when he got out, he started trying to make the world a better place and to help sick people. Now, even though he’s been officially released from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Parole Commission, the federal government is trying to silence him, ordering travel restrictions — which would effectively end The Silver Tour — and forbidding him to associate with fellow Silver Tour director, federal medical marijuana patient Irvin Rosenfeld.
The Showtime movie Square Grouper featured Platshorn’s story; federal agents dubbed him the Black Tuna. But today, millions of senior citizens call him the Pied Piper of medical marijuana, and often refer to him as “the secret weapon for legalization.” Last year, after being released from parole, he joined with Rosenfeld to found The Silver Tour to teach seniors the benefits of medicinal cannabis.
After getting home from a book signing tour (he wrote an autobiography, Black Tuna Diaries) and an international medical cannabis conference hosted by Patients Out of Time and the University of Arizona, Platshorn got a surprise visit from a new parole officer. The stranger demanded a urine sample and made it clear to Robert and his wife that Platshorn could be returned to prison if he refused.
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U.S./Mexico Peace Caravan To Protest Failed Drug War

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By on Global, News

Portland Independent Media Center


Growing Bi-National Coalition of U.S. and Mexican Organizations to Trek Across U.S. to Give Visibility to Victims of Failed Drug War on Both Sides of the Border
 
Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity, Mexican Poet Javier Sicilia, To Lead 6,000-Mile Peace Caravan Against Drug War in U.S. This Fall
 
Live Press Conference and International Teleconference to Announce “#CaravanaUSA” on Monday, June 18 in Mexico City
As the number of innocent people who continue to die in Mexico because of the failed War On Drugs rises to 71,000 , the Movement for Peace with Justice and Dignity (MPJD) has announced that it will lead a month-long “Caravan for Peace” across the United States to draw attention to the misguided Drug War policies that have caused a crisis of violence and impunity.
The MPJD and dozens of organizations from both countries are joining together to coordinate the Caravan, a more than 6,000-mile journey, leaving San Diego on August 12 and arriving in Washington, D.C., on September 10. 
 
Led by victims of the Drug War on both sides of the border, the Caravan aims to inspire U.S. civil society to stem the flow of weapons into Mexico, to support humane and health-oriented alternatives to drug prohibition, and to demand more effective, non-violent security strategies. Bi-national respect for justice and human dignity lies at the heart of this initiative, making humane immigration policy another central concern of the Caravan.
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