There are still places in Colorado without dispensaries, believe it or not — but fewer of them every month. In October, a medical marijuana dispensary license was granted to a store in Tabernash, and several other licenses were allotted in municipalities that have established dispensaries — including recreational cannabis shops for those of you planning to visit the Mile High City and Colorado.
An Anaheim Hills-based doctor who practices out of a medical marijuana clinic and goes by “Dr. J” (get it?) has been court-ordered to stop practicing medicine while he is out on bail for the alleged sexual assault of a female patient. But here’s the deal with Dr. Sri Jayantha Wijegunaratne: He’s already out on a bail in a separate case that accuses him of having defrauded Medicare by prescribing powered wheelchairs to patients who did not need them.
Let’s back this puppy way up: Federal prosecutors claim Wijegunaratne prescribed powered wheelchairs, at a cost of about $2,800 each, to six patients who did not need them. His chosen medical equipment supplier billed Medicare, got reimbursed and paid the physician kickbacks, according to the feds. Bong Blotter has more.
A passenger on a flight out of Phoenix’s Sky Harbor airport tried to check luggage containing 92 pounds of marijuana, according to the TSA. A TSA spokesman says the Phoenix Police Department was contacted once agents made the discovery.
According to court documents obtained by New Times, 39-year-old Lauretta Blanton had actually spread the load among three checked bags, and two of the bags actually made it onto the plane.
If the U.S. Congress allows Washington D.C.’s (overwhelmingly) voter-approved marijuana referendum become law, they could be setting up the nation for international sanctions from the United Nations.
That’s the gist of a report from the Congressional Research Services, which notes that unlike states that have passed marijuana laws, Washington D.C. laws have to ultimately be approved by the federal government.
Though it might seem like pot is already legal in parts of California (We’re looking at you, Bay Area), it’s still an illegal substance for anyone in the state to use as a recreational substance. But not for long, and even the state’s top law enforcement official admits she can’t stand in the way of progression.
Attorney General Kamala Harris says marijuana legalization isn’t a matter of “if”, it’s a matter of “when” and “how”.
| Photos and more below. |
USA Today set out to discover if the racially lopsided arrest statistics in Ferguson, Missouri, where unarmed black teenager Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer, were an anomaly. Sadly, no: A fascinating new report reveals a racial gap in arrest stats in many locations across the country, including at least twenty in Colorado.
Westword broke out USA Today‘s Colorado numbers and ranked the twenty agencies according to how many blacks were arrested per 1,000 residents — and the results are startling. Check them out here, and to see the complete USA Today piece, click here.
When combined with radiation therapy, low doses of THC and CBD helped to kill high-grade glioma masses, among the most aggressive brain cancers there is, according to a report from St. George’s University in London.
Researchers say the THC and CBD made the cells more receptive to the radiation and that the tumors shrank up to 90 percent of their original size.
| A chunk of PB and Jilly Bean. |
Is Missouri ready to join Colorado, Washington, Alaska, Oregon and Washington, D.C., in legalizing marijuana? The St. Louis Post-Dispatch thinks so.
The editorial board for St. Louis’ metro daily newspaper has often supported legalizing pot, especially with this region’s history of hemp agricultural production. But a week after Show-Me Cannabis filed the first round of paperwork to get the issue on the 2016 ballot, the Post-Dispatch published a piece headlined, “Editorial: Could pot legalization make Missouri’s 2016 ballot? Let’s hope so.”
Last week, we told you about a recount in a recreational-marijuana vote for Palisade, on Colorado’s Western Slope. The measure was behind by four votes, but eighteen ballots were in dispute and might possibly reverse the outcome.
Now, the count is official, and the margin of defeat actually increased slightly, to six votes. However, the co-owner of the community’s only medical marijuana dispensary, which had planned to add recreational sales, sees positives in the results.
A former City of Ferguson corrections officer has been charged with the rape of a jail inmate. The incident occurred back on October 9, 2013, but the charges against Jaris Hayden — for felony sexual contact with an inmate and permitting an escape — were just filed on November 5 of this year.
The indictment came just a week and a half before the victim, identified only as J.W., filed a suit in federal court against the City of Ferguson as well as Hayden. She was in custody for driving with expired plates and giving a police officer a fake name. Riverfront Times has more.