According to a Denver Police Department podcast, calls have already started coming in from parents concerned that their kids will be slipped pot edibles while trick-or-treating on Halloween.
We highly doubt that. In fact, if anyone does hand out pot-laced candy to kids, we wouldn’t be surprised if it was someone from the anti-cannabis side trying to make legal cannabis look bad.
| photo by William Breathes. |
The debate for legalizing medical marijuana has been traveling throughout Florida the past few weeks, and now it’s making its stop in our neck of the woods. United For Care and Drug Free Florida will be going head-to-head before the public in Broward, in a town hall debate this morning. The debate, scheduled to start at 11 a.m. today at Broward College, at the Judson A. Samuels South Campus Performing and Cultural Arts Center, is being held a month prior to the gubernatorial debate happening at the college.
Things could get interesting as United For Care campaign manager Ben Pollara is set to debate the folks from Drug Free Florida, which has recently begun attack ads on medical cannabis. More at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.
| New York City Diesel. |
The 2015 legislative session doesn’t start for another four moths, but New York state Sen. Liz Krueger says she’s readying a bill that would legalize the recreational use of limited amounts of pot for adults 21 and up.
The bill will be based on originally introduced last December that never made it out of committee, but Kreuger’s office says it will be further amended to be more palatable to other lawmakers.
| Edibles selection at a Colorado dispensary. |
Should recreational cannabis edibles manufacturers be required to ensure that their products are distinguishable from similar non-medicated products even outside the original packaging materials? That’s the tricky question that was discussed on Thursday, September 11, when a working group met to discuss implementation of the Smart Colorado-sponsored House Bill 14-1366.
With the vote a mere two months away, the No On 2/Drug Free Florida people are decidedly taking it strong to the hoop with their TV airtime buys, trying to get their message across to as many people as possible. The Miami Herald‘s Marc Caputo reports that Drug Free Florida is putting in $1.6 million in TV ads for the first week of October, and are promising more to come after that.
United For Care campaign manager Ben Pollara released a statement on Drug Free Florida’s planned TV ads:
“It’s no surprise Drug Free Florida Committee is making such a large buy so far out from Election Day. When your basic position runs completely counter to public opinion, millions in misleading advertising is the only strategy available. But no amount of advertising can overwhelm the basic facts. Floridians know the benefits of medical marijuana are real, and the people of this state are deeply compassionate. We believe the overwhelming majority will vote to make sure patients no longer have to risk incarceration for listening to their doctors and seeking relief from debilitating diseases and medical conditions.”
| Stephon Averyhart. |
Seven months have passed since police officers from the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department shot and killed 27-year-old Stephon Averyhart during a wild chase, but the investigation is still ongoing and few details have been released. Now, the mother of the deceased wants to know why it’s taking so long — and why she has never been contacted by police since they called her to identify her son’s body. On February 12, Averyhart was fleeing police before he crashed his car into a telephone poll near the corner of Harney Avenue and Union Boulevard. He then jumped out of the car and ran as officers followed him on foot. Averyhart turned into an alley and then was shot dead by the officers. The officers say Averyhart pointed a gun at them first and a gun was found on the scene. But friends and relatives say he although he kept a gun for self-protection, he wasn’t the type to shoot at police; he was just running to evade getting arrested for warrants from unpaid tickets.
The only blemishes on Averyhart’s criminal record are traffic tickets and a misdemeanor marijuana charge.
Positive tests for pot have increased by about 20 percent in Colorado from 2012 to 2013, according to Quest Diagnostics, a company responsible for a huge number of work-related drug testing across the country.
But the director of the drug testing branch of Quest says it’s too early to draw any conclusions from the data, though it’s easy to draw a parallel between the increase in positive pot tests and the legalization limited amounts of pot to adults 21 and up. Sales of cannabis to adults didn’t start until January of 2014, so that would not factor into the data.
| Payayita/Flickr. |
A Michigan medical marijuana patient says that cops had no right to search his home and discover his alleged 200-plant grow after his 6-year-old kindergartner showed up at school in January with a skunky smell on their clothes.
In the middle of the scenic San Fernando Valley stood a 14,000-square-foot warehouse. And in this warehouse, cops say, was much weed.
So much weed, in fact, that the operation allegedly churned out $3.7 million dollars with of street-value marijuana every two months, the Los Angeles Police Department announced in a statement this week.
That would be an alleged $22 million worth of pot a year. LA Weekly has the full story.
Any Highlands Ranch High School student thinking about pre-gaming before heading to Saturday night’s Homecoming dance should think twice. The school will be doing breathalyzer tests on all students before they can gain entry, and those who score a positive for alcohol use will be tested again — this time by a member of law enforcement.
Read on to see how Highlands Ranch High Principal Jerry Goings says reasons behind the new policy are sound and why he doesn’t believe it will lead down a slippery slope.