Thanksgiving week in Amsterdam for the last 26 years or so has been a haven for cannabis users and those wanting to celebrate marijuana culture thanks to the High Times Cannabis Cup.
But it seems that after more than a quarter-century of generally being hassle-free, the Dutch are cracking down on events and have shut down the main expo for the event and are strictly enforcing five-gram possession laws and a total ban on solvent-based concentrates.
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Despite laws against growing cannabis, a group of about 100 parents in Chile have banded together to begin growing cannabis to help their children, many of whom suffer from severe epileptic conditions.
The group, Mama Cultiva, or “Mama Grows”, has formed to help parents learn more about how to grow cannabis, extract the beneficial cannabinoids and how to dose their children appropriately.
An attorney’s opinionated rant against marijuana in a Michigan courtroom last week cost her a case, even though most seemed to agree she had won.
In her closing arguments in a case against a Michigan medical cannabis patient accused of growing more than he was allowed, Alger County prosecutor Karen Bahrman went off on a tear on the state’s medical marijuana laws, the Alger Hemp Coalition, a local cannabis advocacy group, and patients in general. She said their vision was to live in a “country where everybody can walk around stoned.”
The Chicago Zoning Board gave initial approval to a handful of dispensaries and one large grow operation late last week, bringing patients one step closer to accessing medical cannabis in the Windy City.
Perry Mandera, a strip club owner, was granted approval for his grow operation and dispensary after the board questioned him on security measures, including how he would prevent workers from walking off with pot.
By the end of the year it looks like there will be no more vaping allowed in any public buildings in Minneapolis. Sorry to all of you who have been using the vaping laws to stealthily get stoned…
Last week a City Council committee unanimously passed a measure that would extend the state’s 2007 Freedom to Breathe Act to e-cigarettes. The new ordinance would treat e-cigarette smoke exactly like cigarette smoke. Minneapolis City Pages has more.
| Photo by EvaK via Wikimedia Commons. |
The two middle-aged men were ambitious. They wanted to repair their sailboat and navigate across the ocean, from Colombia to Italy. All so they could smuggle two tons of cocaine.
According to a federal arrest affidavit filed last week, keysnet.com reports, two South Florida men — Juan Soberon and Marin Spariosu — the latter a registered agent of a downtown Miami jewelry store, conspired to front thousands of dollars’ worth of emeralds in exchange for cocaine. Flush with money from the initial sale, the two sailors would then embark on the much grander plan of smuggling up to two tons of coke across the ocean. Except, of course, they got caught. The coke suppliers they were meeting with were actually informants for the Drug Enforcement Agency. Miami New Times has more.
It’s been two days since New York City began a more lenient, pot-friendly approach to public display of cannabis. And while we won’t have any concrete data for weeks or months, we imagine it’s already changed life in the Big Apple. People aren’t going to be arrested for public display of small amounts of pot after cops stop them, frisk them and demand they turn out their pockets – eliminating a major tool that the cops used to criminalize black and brown people in the city.
But it doesn’t exactly legalize pot use, either. Woody Harrelson and the cast of Saturday Night Live summed up the changes beautifully last week. Video below.
Despite the passage of new laws making the possession of small amounts of pot legal in Alaska, prosecutors in the state say they’ll still be pursuing cannabis cases until the new laws are signed and on the books.
In other states like Washington and Colorado, prosecutors began dropping minor possession cases even before the governor signed the bill into law – arguing that they wouldn’t be able to take the case to trial, nor would they want to waste the resources. It’s what they community they serve clearly demanded they do with the vote. But apparently, the cops and prosecutors don’t care about respecting the people they serve in Alaska.
We should be well beyond questioning whether or not marijuana helps our returning veterans cope with post-traumatic stress disorder and other conditions. But instead, vets are still denied access by Veterans Affairs doctors who are bound by federal laws prohibiting weed.
A bill introduced yesterday by Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Dana Rohrabacher of California and co-signed by 10 other bipartisan lawmakers, would change that.
Massachusetts U.S, Attorney Carmen Ortiz says her office is debating whether or not to weigh in on how close Massachusetts dispensaries can be to schools and considering shutting down shops within 1,000 feet of schools, playgrounds our housing.
According to the Boston Globe, six of the 15 dispensary proposals given initial go-ahead from state officials would fall within the 1,000 feet radius.