| TPD. |
| Mark and Holly Harrington. |
We figured most people knew by now that Facebook is not the best place to advertise illegal and quasi-legal activities. But apparently we’re wrong.
Case and point? Mark and Holly Harrington of Tewksbury, Mass. The pair were busted this week after allegedly openly selling weed via the social media giant. And no, they weren’t being discreet. The pair’s site was dubbed HTM Gardening LLC and they had forms for new patients to fill out.
The Pennsylvania Senate yesterday approved a measure that would legalize the medical use of some forms of cannabis, though chances of the bill being approved by the state House in the final days of the session aren’t very high.
Even then, the bill would have to overcome the stone wall that is the governor’s office.
| Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. |
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel this week said he doesn’t want people caught with small amounts of pot facing felony charges anymore and is pushing for decriminalization across the state.
Just don’t ask him to back legalizing anything, yet.
As far as Angel Martinez was concerned, the police officer at the front desk that night wasn’t much more than an inconvenience. Sure, he’d refused to take Martinez’s complaint. He was even a little rude about it. But for Martinez, after a night in Queens central booking, with his face battered and welts blooming all over his body, that officer was an afterthought.
Martinez was more concerned about the other two cops. The ones he says kicked his ass for no good reason. The ones who’d approached him and started patting him down without a word of explanation. The ones who slammed his face into a parked car, then onto the sidewalk, when he objected. The ones who ruined the new plaid button-down he’d bought for a job interview earlier that day — torn it to shreds.
Florida’s own Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who has been the chair of the Democratic National Committee since 2011, has been a rising star in Washington. She had high ambitions and was a trusted mouthpiece by the Obama administration.
But lately, Wasserman Schultz has been making headlines for the wrong reasons — including opposing Florida’s proposed medical marijuana ballot initiative — and more and more insiders from within her party are fed up with her, according to a detailed report/ hit piece by Politico. More at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.
Anti-pot activists have embraced a survey showing that the majority of Coloradans are unhappy with marijuana legalization even though other analyses find exactly the opposite. The latest poll to address this issue comes from Suffolk University. The results are synopsized like so: Colorado voters may be having second thoughts about the legalization of marijuana. A slight majority of voters (50.2 percent) say they do not agree with the decision to legalize recreational marijuana in that state — a decision made by voters in 2012 — while 46 percent continue to support the decision. Nearly 49 percent do not approve of how the state is managing legalized pot, compared to 42 percent who approve.
Approximately four seconds after these results were made public, the folks from Project SAM, a group that opposes cannabis legalization, weighed in.
| Pincetomseaview/Commons. |
The problem with surveys in research is that, inevitably, you’ll have a percentage of people will be dishonest in them. But poo and pee? They always tells the truth.
That’s the premise behind American Civil Liberties lawyer Alison Holcomb’s proposal at a Spokane City Council subcommittee meeting this past week.
“Nobody can lie about what’s showing up in the sewage,” Holcomb said to council.
The same group that pushed for the legalization of limited amounts of cannabis for adults 21 and up in Colorado said they are officially starting their campaign for similar legislation in 2016 in California. The group officially filed paperwork yesterday with the California Secretary of State.
The announcement comes on top of the group pushing measures in Arizona, Massachusetts and Nevada in 2016, as well as Alaska this fall.
Medical marijuana patients in Connecticut now have the ability to purchase medical cannabis from a licensed dispensary after the Healing Corner and Arrow Alternative Care opened their doors Monday afternoon after nearly two years of waiting.
The centers, two of six in the state, opened their doors to long lines yesterday after finally receiving product from Theraplant, one of four state-licensed pot farms legally allowed to supply the dispensaries.
| The Albanian flag (with additions). |
So far this year, the country of Albania has destroyed about $8.2 billion worth of seized marijuana, according to Interior Ministry officials. The figure represents about 60 percent of Albania’s total annual GDP. Also a part of those figures: 102 tons of pot were destroyed, 530,000 cannabis plants were uprooted and about 1,900 people have been arrested. In short: Albania doesn’t mess around when it comes to weed enforcement.
Officials say they are working to change the perception of Albania as a drug-producing country. According to ABC News, the country has long been a stopping point for drugs imported from South America and Asia.
By comparison, Albania’s haul isn’t actually that huge. American drug warriors destroyed 4,395,240 marijuana plants, arrested more than 6,500 people and seized more than $29 million in 2013 according to the U.S. Justice Department.