| Cannabis Culture. |
| Marc Emery. |
Marc Emery, who was convicted and jailed for the non-violent “crime” of selling pot seeds to people in the U.S. from Canada, has been placed in solitary confinement in the prison where he is serving his 5-year sentence.
His offense now? Playing in a rock and roll band and being proud of his accomplishments in learning the bass guitar over the last two years.
Over the past decade, the number of marijuana arrests in St. Louis county has steadily climbed to levels four times greater than in 2001.
“They seem to be prioritizing marijuana arrests in St. Louis county,” John Chasnoff, program director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, tells Daily RFT. “The war on drugs is increasingly becoming a war on marijuana.”
Sam Levin with the Riverfront Times has the rest.
| Rolling Stone. |
For the first time in the magazine’s history, Rolling Stone has devoted pretty much all of their print edition to cannabis this week, with a range of news and cultural pieces.
Highlighted in the magazine this week is an article by comedian Bill Maher titled “How We Won the War on Pot”, a piece on marijuana myth-busting, and a feature on Drug Policy Alliance founder Ethan Nadelmann who the magazine dubs “The Real Drug Czar”.
| St. Louis. |
This past week we’ve been linking you stories from our sister papers all revolving around a recent ACLU report showing racial disparity in marijuana arrests across the country. Nationally, blacks are four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis than whites, but in St. Louis, that likelihood jumps significantly.
In the city of St. Louis, black people are arrested for marijuana possession eighteen times more often than white people. Riverfront Times reporter Sam Levin has the rest.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
A Louisiana bill to reduce crimes for repeat marijuana offenders and rid the state of abhorrent “three strikes” laws for possession of any amount failed to pass the state Senate yesterday.
House Bill 103 had already cleared the state House late last month, but Senate members refused to call the bill up for a vote on three separate occasions.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Vermont joins 16 other states today that have decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Gov. Peter Shumlin signed H.200 yesterday afternoon, making possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and five grams of hash a civil penalty on part with a traffic ticket for those 21 and up. The maximum fine would be set at $200 for a first offense, $300 for a second offense and $500 for third and subsequent offenses.
Despite the attempts of Colorado lawmakers to put marijuana-centered magazines behind the counter at booksellers and convenience stores like pornography, pot publications won’t have to be hidden from view.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers ruled that the provision of Colorado’s new recreational marijuana laws regulating how marijuana magazines are sold is unconstitutional and said he won’t go to court to defend it.
| Jim Berns. |
Jim Berns, a Libertarian candidate for mayor in Cincinnati is all for ending the war on marijuana. So much so that its part of his political platform.But apparently Berns is also a fan of gimmicky advertising.
Earlier this week he sent out a press release of himself and two other men with a tray of plants. Berns is holding a sign that reads “FREE MARIJUANA PLANTS” and promised to give them away at a press conference Wednesday. Despite marijuana not being legal in Ohio for any reason, about 30 people showed up allegedly expecting ganja plants.
The Sierra Blanca border patrol checkpoint is, at this point, the stuff of legend: If you’re a musician and you pass through there, you’re going to get popped for pot possession. You just are. Snoop Dogg, Fiona Apple, Willie Nelson — all of them drove on Interstate 10, found themselves in that tiny West Texas border town and paid what we can safely dub the Dankness Tax: search, seizure, arrest, brief imprisonment, unflattering stripe-clad portrait.
But as the ACLU recently discovered, the war on pot doesn’t limit itself to Sierra Blanca. It’s more like the entire state of Texas. According to a new national report they’ve just released, Texas is near the top of the list on the numbers of people arrested for pot possession and the amount of money taxpayers spend to keep them locked up. Dallas Observer has the rest.
| A coffee shop menu. |
After the Netherlands banned public cannabis shops in border towns, southern Netherlands coffee shop owners say their business – both local and foreign – went in the gutter. Despite their anti-cannabis stance, the courts agreed and say the owners are entitled to compensation.
But the move also clarified the laws, upholding the bans and other measures used to prevent tourists from buying drugs in the country.