| Jeff Mizanskey. |
When Eric Sykes, a mass communications senior at SIUE, read the October Daily RFT story about Jeff Mizanskey, the Missouri man doing a life without parole sentence for marijuana, he thought he might have a good subject for his video documentary class. But as he delved into the project, it became more important than just a grade.
“When I first contacted Chris Mizanskey, Jeff Mizanskey’s son, I realized just how real this situation was,” Sykes tells Daily RFT.
Amendment 64 legalized the possession and use of limited amounts of pot for adults 21 and over, but it didn’t legalize public consumption of cannabis on streets, sidewalks, parks or any other public place, for that matter. But apparently that message didn’t quite reach Denver and Boulder residents, as public pot consumption tickets have skyrocketed in both cities since Amendment 64 passed.
In Denver, there were a total of eight tickets written for marijuana consumption in 2012, according to records from the Denver Police Department. So far in 2013, 155 tickets have been written, more than nineteen times the number the previous year. Westword has the full story.
| Alain Cassagnol. |
Ho Ho holy shit does Long Island’s Alain Cassagnol, 19, have bad timing. Not only did he happen to be speeding through a 45 mph in his Benz at more than twice the speed just as police were in the area, but he tried to cover up the smell of the pot he allegedly had with him with frankincense and myrrh “Blunt Block” incense.
You read that right: Frankincense and myrrh. The day before Christmas Eve.
| We forget what strain this is. |
Does marijuana make you forgetful? At least one group scientists seem to think so after a very limited study on a small group of teenagers required to self-report their information came to that conclusion.
A new study that claims to be the first to use MRI scans to target “deep subcortical gray matter” says that folks who were daily tokers as teens ended up with memory problems, brain abnormalities and mental performance issues when they reached their twenties. Researchers focused on 97 sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds who smoked regularly and didn’t use any other drugs for three years solid. LA Weekly has the rest.
| Flickr.com/walknboston |
Legal blogs are abuzz with chatter saying that Gisele Pollack, a Broward County judge, came to work drunk Tuesday, causing such a scene that Chief Judge Peter Weinstein had to be called out of a meeting to deal with the matter.
Pollack is said to have come into work Tuesday obviously inebriated and calling for her staff to be fired. As one source reproted: “The staff tried to keep the Judge off the bench. The Judge’s response was basically “f*** you, you’re fired.”… Judge Weinstein has to personally remove the Judge from the courtroom. Read the rest over at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.
With marijuana now legal in Colorado (if you’re 21 and above and the amount is an ounce or less), odds are good that you’ve got a stoner on your holiday gift list.
Or maybe two stoners. Or possibly ten.
Wondering what to get them this year? We’re here to help, with our “Dear Santa” suggestions for the cannabis consumer in your life.
Below are some of the top pot-related must-haves for the 2013 holiday season.
A New Jersey bill that would allow reciprocation with other state medical marijuana programs has been approved by the state General Assembly already, despite an all-but-certain veto from Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
Assembly bill 4537 now moves on to the state Senate, passed with a 50 to 23 vote. Read more on the bill below.
Assembly bill 4537 would allow New Jersey medical marijuana patients to use possess and use medical marijuana bought legally “from another jurisdiction” as well as allow other state medical marijuana patients to have pot on them when visiting New Jersey. The bill would also allow parents to serve as the primary caregivers for their children, though that only means they are legally allowed to possess it for their kids.
It’s actually a really common-sense piece of legislation that has garnered a lot of undue attention. It’s been framed as a pot passport brought about because of the need for two-year-old New Jersey medical marijuana patient Vivian Wilson and her parents purchase high-CBD cannabis in Colorado and bring it back to New Jersey. A noble cause and one we fully support, but something nobody in the New Jersey local media has pointed out is that the bill wouldn’t make purchases of cannabis in Colorado legal at all — Colorado doesn’t allow for reciprocation of medical cannabis licenses and no New Jersey law is going to change that.
In that same light, New Jersey medical marijuana patients can already visit other medical marijuana states that do have reciprocity and acquire, use and possess cannabis. More so, they can also fly between those states with it due to a quasi-legal loophole that Federal Transportation Security Administration agents defer to local law enforcement if something like cannabis were to turn up in a routine security screening. Basically, if it’s legal for a patient to have medical pot on them in that state when the TSA finds it, then the police have nothing to enforce.
The missing link is that because there are no private caregivers, the only legal cannabis is medical cannabis sold through the New Jersey medical marijuana program. A4537 would change that, but it wouldn’t change federal laws about flying between states – an image that is no doubt adding fuel to Christie’s anti-pot fire.
In a town where weed is medically legal and quite easy to find, bad guys still find incentive to rob and plunder marijuana dispensaries. Case in point: A Valley Village pot shop was robbed by two big guys Wednesday afternoon. The suspects reportedly got away with a whopping 40 pounds of bud. That could be $100,000 worth of green gold using a $2,500-a-pound wholesale price.
LA Weekly has the rest of the details.
Every parking spot and nearly every seat was taken at the St. Louis Ethical Society Wednesday night as Show-Me Cannabis executive director John Payne took on Jason Grellner, the vice president of the Missouri Narcotics Officers Association to debate the pros and cons of marijuana legalization.The buzz started with a Riverfront Times post in October about retired Missouri drug cop Kevin Glaser’s Facebook comments about what he saw as “stupid, lazy potheads” filling up a town hall meeting in Cape Girardeau on marijuana legalization. Payne, none too happy with the comments, challenged Glaser to a debate, but the ex-drug cop declined. However, when RFT reached out to the MNOA’s Grellner for comment (Glaser is a board member of the MNOA) and told him about Payne’s challenge, he accepted.
Read the entire account of the debate as well as audience reaction over at the Riverfront Times.
A proposed New York medical marijuana bill saw huge support in a Assembly Committee on Health meeting on Wednesday, with dozens of supporters turning out to speak in favor of legalizing the plant for sick New Yorkers according to Long Island Newsday.
The Compassionate Care Act would legalize the possession of up to 2.5 ounces of pot for people with debilitating conditions including cancer, aids and multiple sclerosis. The state Health Department would monitor the program.