While it is perfectly fine for you to get hammered on booze in the back of a limo or party bus in Washington while smoking a disgusting cigar, don’t you dare light up some herb and catch a little buzz.
Author William Breathes
Update: As expected, cops in Ross Township outside of Pittsburgh have charged Steelers running backs Le’Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount with marijuana possession for a three-quarter ounce bag of herb found in their car earlier this week after the pair were caught smoking up in traffic. Bell has also been charged with driving under the influence of marijuana. In Pennsylvania, it’s illegal to have any THC metabolites in your system when driving a car.
A third person in the car, 21-year-old Mercedes Dollson, was also charged with pot possession. Cops noted that all three were cooperative and polite, which you kind of have to be when a motorcycle cop pulls up next to you when you’ve got a lit joint going around the car.
| Flickr/Anupam Kamal edited by Toke of the Town. |
An Orange County federal judge showed no patience with a dope-loving, convicted felon who sold three firearms to undercover government agents in 2012 and handed him a high-end punishment based on sentencing guidelines.
Brandon Fitzpatrick entered U.S. District Court Judge Josephine L. Staton’s courtroom on Aug. 15 with three prior felony convictions and watched federal prosecutor’s recommendation of a 33-month sentence turn into a 41-month prison punishment. The OC Weekly has the rest.
| Jess Swanson via BPBNT. |
Kratom, an herb found in Southeast Asia and banned in Thailand, Australia, Myanmar, Malaysia, and recently Indiana and Tennessee, is often used in a drink called kava here in Florida — where it is not banned. Not yet, anyway.
But now, Palm Beach County is considering banning kratom. This is because kratom is considered highly addictive by many and has supposedly been tied to several deaths and multiple emerency-room visits across the country since it was introduced to the U.S. as a sort of pick-me-up coffee substitute. Get more at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.
According to data released by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, there were 115,210 registered medical marijuana patients in Colorado at the end of May — close to a record high. That has lawmakers concerned, not because it means there are a lot of sick people in Colorado, but due to the loss of tax revenue from retail cannabis.
On a few weeks back, $330,000 worth of methamphetamine was just found at the San Clemente border checkpoint. Perhaps it was part of a great big drug convoy because two busts at the same border stop last week uncovered more than a half-million dollars worth of meth, marijuana and cocaine, according to federal authorities.
After the driver of a 2007 Dodge Ram truck was sent to a secondary inspection area around 4:30 p.m. Thursday, a canine alerted agents to the tailgate area, where 16 plastic bundles were seized, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
The first state-legal medical cannabis dispensary in Connecticut opened yesterday evening, though they didn’t actually have any herb to dispense.
Prime Wellness of Connecticut in South Windsor opened last night, though it was more of an open house. Patients and the public were invited in to check out the facilities and meet with the growers.
As we reported earlier this week, Asian movie star Jaycee Chan, son of legendary Kung Fu film icon Jackie Chan, was arrested in his home in Beijing last week with about 3.5 ounces of herb.
While you might expect the star of the legendary Drunken Master to offer his sympathies in public for his son Jaycee, Jackie Chan – who is now the official Chinese Police Narcotics Control Ambassador – says he is saddened and ashamed.
| Arlin Trout. |
When Arlin Troutt was sentenced in February 1996 for a marijuana-selling conspiracy, a crowd of supporters came to the Minneapolis federal courtroom to cheer him on.
The Arizona resident and former frontman for a line of hempwear affiliated with country singer Willie Nelson had been convicted of conspiring to transport and sell about 250 pounds of marijuana. Then 46, Troutt railed against the government’s anti-marijuana policies to the judge, extolling the plant’s value as “food, fuel, fiber, and medicine.”
His lawyer told the press the speech probably added 19 months to Troutt’s sentence of eight years, one month. Troutt, now 64 and living in Gold Canyon, is still fighting the Man in the name of cannabis. He vows to appeal an administrative law judge’s August 12 ruling that upholds a state rule prohibiting medical-marijuana patients from growing marijuana within 25 miles of a dispensary.
| What people outside of Colorado think Denver looks like all the time. |
Earlier this year, a University of Colorado Denver study showed that medical marijuana stores had little impact on areas — no more so than coffee shops, the researchers found. But there’s apparently a lingering perception among the more affluent Not In My Backyard crowd that dispensaries don’t make good neighbors, whether it’s true or not.
That’s among the takeaways of a new CU Denver study, which determined that land-use regulations tend to push dispensaries into low-income neighborhoods. Denver Westword has more.