Browsing: Culture
| Graphic: Salem News |
The Anatomy of a Memo
By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
In a incredibly chicken-shit way, the Department of Justice did a news dump last Friday night after all the big news services had gone to bed, releasing a memo meant to “clarify” its position whether marijuana should remained classified as a Schedule I drug, which means that it has no medicinal benefit.
Big surprise! The DOJ said the scheduling remains the same. “Not so fast, partner, nothing changing as far as we’re concerned.” Marijuana is to remain classified as a Schedule I drug because of its “lack of medicinal benefits.”
My first question is could there be a conflict of interest with a agency like the Department of Justice that is home to the DEA, Bureau of Prisons, National Drug Intelligence Center, Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, Office for Immigration Review, U.S. Marshals Service, Interpol, FBI, and the ATF?
Are these really the guys we want deciding whether marijuana’s good for you or not?
Is it really a surprise then when they said, “No?”
| Photo: The Washington Examiner |
| These buzzkill “No Toking” signs have been banned in Amsterdam. |
Only in the Netherlands! The city of Amsterdam said it will likely have to ban the “No Toking” signs it introduced in an attempt to discourage youths from using marijuana.
The Dutch government’s top legal adviser ruled that the city had no right to establish official zones where smoking cannabis isn’t allowed, since marijuana is already technically illegal in the Netherlands, reports The Associated Press.
In practice, possession of small amounts of weed is allowed, and both cannabis and its concentrated form, hashish, are sold openly in designated “coffee shops.”
When the “No Toking” signs first went up in 2007, they were stolen so often that the city started selling them as souvenirs.
City spokeswoman Iris Reshef admitted that Wednesday’s ruling likely means the buzzkill signs have to go, but the city can still fine young pot smokers who “cause problems.”
| Photo: I Love Weed |
| Willie has never been shy about his continuing love for and frequent use of marijuana. |
Willie Nelson’s prosecutor in a Texas marijuana possession case may not be going along with the judge who rejected a plea deal struck with the country legend and sought harsher punishment.
Becky Dean-Walker, the judge in Willie’s pot case said the plea deal struck between Nelson and District Attorney C.R. Bramblett — in which the singer would have paid a $500 fine and the case would have gone away — smacked of leniency because of Nelson’s star status.
Judge Dean-Walker, sporting a garish vintage 1980s trailer-park hairdo, told the prosecutor to come up with a harsher punishment, with a maximum of one year in jail.
“There’s a strong possibility that the prosecutor will not recommend a stronger punishment, but instead just sit on the case until it’s dismissed for lack of prosecution,” reports TMZ.
“Call it defiant, but the prosecutor is riding a wave in Texas to treat marijuana possession for what it is… and not fill the overcrowded jails with recreational potheads,” TMZ wrote.
The writer and social critic, Malcolm Gladwell, defines the ‘Tipping Point’ as the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point; the point at which the buildup of minor changes or incidents reaches a level that triggers a more significant change or makes someone do something they had formerly resisted.
Another way of saying it would be that point in time and space when everything changes and there’s no turning back.
Every day there are more encouraging headlines appearing in newspapers and on the Web from California to Maine supporting medical marijuana legislation suggesting the tide is turning.
Even when the cynics call medical marijuana a joke and claim the real goal of this smokescreen movement is legalization of pot, there are medi-jane supporters with valid and logical arguments to counter-balance any archaic rhetoric with which the anti-pot forces continue to misinform.
| Photo: Notes from the Psychedelic Salon |
| Ethan Nadelmann, DPA: “The War On Drugs is a cancer in our society” |
Ethan Nadelmann, the articulate and engaging executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, will be a guest on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, July 8 at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.
Nadelmann will be interviewed one-on-one by Maher at the top of the show, and will discuss the War On Drugs and the movement to end marijuana prohibition, according to the DPA.
The topic is quite timely, as there was an avalanche of media coverage in June about the failed War On Drugs:
• The Global Commission on Drug Policy (Kofi Annan, the former presidents of Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil, Richard Branson of Virgin, etc.) made worldwide news by calling for an end to the War on Drugs.
Anyone’s who has spent any time behind the Redwood Curtain knows that dogs are a grower’s best friend. Most farmers I know have at least one dog, if not more.
Whe
n you live in an isolated community cultivating the number one cash crop in the world, it pays to have a security system that you can rely on and for the most part, that can scare away any unwanted guest without firing off…a mean word. Dogs are an invaluable source of protection in lieu of setting up a .50-caliber foxhole.
n you live in an isolated community cultivating the number one cash crop in the world, it pays to have a security system that you can rely on and for the most part, that can scare away any unwanted guest without firing off…a mean word. Dogs are an invaluable source of protection in lieu of setting up a .50-caliber foxhole.
| Photo: Reason |
| According to a new Elway Poll, 54 percent of Washingtonians support legalizing cannabis. |
A majority of voters in Washington state support the legalization of marijuana, but many say they “need to know more,” according to a newly released Elway Poll.
“There were equivalent numbers of ‘definite supporters’ and ‘definite opponents’ among the 408 voters interviewed by The Elway Poll last week,” the poll reported, according to Joel Connelly at the Seattle P.I. “However, there were twice as many who were ‘inclined to support’ legalization as ‘inclined to oppose,’ ” the poll reported.
Of those surveyed, 54 percent overall definitely support marijuana legalization or are “inclined to support it but I need to know more,” while 43 percent are definitely opposed or inclined to oppose. Only 3 percent of Evergreen State voters are undecided on the issue.