William Breathes

Denver hotel searches up 73 percent for 4/20 weekend despite city efforts to ignore pot tourism

By William Breathes on April 15, 2014 News, Say what?

Both the State of Colorado and City of Denver tourist agencies have resisted the temptation to use marijuana as a way to lure visitors to the area, despite mainstream media pot coverage that’s essentially free advertising. It seems their non-approach isn’t working.
Against that backdrop comes word that hotel searches for Denver on 4/20 weekend are up 73 percent from this time last year — and a national cannabis activist thinks the digits might be even higher if officials weren’t so shy about embracing weed.

Another butane explosion during hash oil extraction, this time in Malibu

By William Breathes on April 15, 2014 News

Some say the Death Star was destroyed by an errant hash maker.

Proving that trying to extract high concentrations of THC from marijuana plants can be just as destructive as tweakers running meth labs, a man in Malibu blew up a rental home this week.
The house at 1170 Encinal Canyon Road was no shack – it sat on 34 acres and was worth about $600,000. LA Weekly has more.

Top jobs in the cannabis industry to someone from a non-cannabis state

By William Breathes on April 15, 2014 Culture, Opinion

We really feel for our fellow writers at our sister paper in Houston, The Houston Press. Not only can they not legally go home and smoke marijuana, they don’t get the pleasure of covering the medical marijuana industry and culture from a first-hand perspective (except for the occasional strain review of lab-make smokable drugs often called “synthetic cannabis).
But they can dream, can’t they? Case and point: Angelica Leicht’s Best Pot-Related Jobs in the Cannabis Industry. Read on for more.

Vice reporter smokes weed while interviewing Uruguayan president

By William Breathes on April 15, 2014 Culture, Global, Media

A still from Vice’s interview with José Mujica.

Marijuana use, cultivation and sales of limited amounts is now legal in Uruguay, though the country is still working out the kinks on just how it will be grown. Uruguayan President José Mujica, 78, has made it clear that he’s never tried marijuana and that he doesn’t intend to do so, but he thinks is insane to continue arresting people for the plant.
It’s a big story: a country legalizing a plant that is illegal pretty much everywhere else around the world. So Vice Magazine sent reporter Krishna Andavolu down there to investigate and interview Mujica — where he promptly lit up a doobie in the nation’s leader’s garden.

Phoenix pet docs exaggerate marijuana danger for pets in not-so-new news story

By William Breathes on April 15, 2014 News, Say what?

More people have been bringing their pets to Phoenix-area animal hospitals to treat marijuana ingestion, according to a local chain of animal clinics. According to the Emergency Animal Clinic — which owns five hospitals across Phoenix, the East Valley, and West Valley — there’s been a pretty sharp increase in such cases over the past few years.
According to the Emergency Animal Clinic, they averaged about six cases a month in 2012, nearly a dozen a month in 2013, and nearly two dozen a month so far this year.That increase happens to coincide with the opening of medical-marijuana dispensaries in Arizona. And you’d better believe the vets are making that connection.

Colorado medical marijuana activists appeal to state Supreme Court to make medical marijuana use a right

By William Breathes on April 15, 2014 Medical, News

Colorado Supreme Court courtroom.

A group of Colorado activists have filed a request with the Colorado Supreme Court to consider the rights of patients when they review — once-and-for-all — whether or not medical marijuana patients have a right to use cannabis and whether or not the federal controlled substances act supersedes state medical marijuana laws.
It’s a complicated matter that has arisen several times, though most recently it stems from the 2012 drug-test-failure firing of a paraplegic DISH Network employee who was licensed by the state of Colorado to use medical cannabis.

Maryland Governor signs law decriminalizing limited amounts of marijuana, law begins Oct. 1

By William Breathes on April 14, 2014 News

Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley has given his final approval to a legislative bill that decriminalizes the possession of up to ten grams of pot in his state, putting the offense on the same level as a traffic infraction.
“The marijuana decriminalization bill will make it easier for law enforcement to focus on higher priority crimes & drive down violence in MD,” the governor tweeted after signing the bill.

Liquor sales and consumption okay at Denver’s 4/20 “rally”, pot consumption outlawed

By William Breathes on April 14, 2014 News, Say what?

Denver city officials expect organizers of this weekend’s 4/20 event at Denver’s Civic Center Park to actively discourage public pot smoking — an activity that’s illegal under Colorado law. However, liquor will be sold and can be consumed at the McNichols Building on the Civic Center complex during the festival. Among those who sees this situation as contradictory is Miguel Lopez, the 4/20 weekend’s organizer who applied for the right to sell beer in the first place.
According to Lopez, the beer-sale request was submitted to Denver Arts & Venues, the city department that oversees the McNichols Building — and it has been approved.

Push to free Missouri man serving life for pot gains steam

By William Breathes on April 14, 2014 News, Say what?

Free Jeff Mizanskey.

Efforts to release Jeff Mizanskey, the only man in Missouri serving a life without parole sentence for a nonviolent marijuana charge, are continuing this month with help from Show-Me Cannabis and Change.org.
Show-Me Cannabis has bought billboard space on I-70 near Kansas City (and near Sedalia, where Mizanskey was arrested). The billboard features a photo of Mizanskey and says: “Life without parole for a non-violent pot crime? It’s time we fix our unjust cannabis laws.”
The Riverfront Times has the full story on this heinous injustice.

Another survey says Minnesotans want medical marijuana

By William Breathes on April 14, 2014 Medical, News

A bill that would legalize marijuana for medical use has been debated and tweaked since it was first introduced late last spring. But the one thing that’s held steady is popular support.
Further proof came last week when KSTP-TV released the results of polling conducted through SurveyUSA. The research firm asked 543 registered voters whether medical marijuana should be legal and found overwhelming support: 68 percent of Minnesotans said yes and 24 percent said no.

Author William Breathes