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FOX Affiliate Airs Nation’s ‘First’ TV Ad For Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 30, 2010 Culture, Medical, News

Ads Promoting Cannabis Dispensary Air Monday

Photo: KTXL

This is claimed to be the first time an ad for medical marijuana has ever aired on mainstream television.

Sacramento FOX affiliate KTXL, “FOX40,” on Monday morning ran a paid TV advertisement for a medical marijuana dispensary, thought to be the first time an ad for medical marijuana has ever aired on mainstream television.

The 30-second ad, paid for by Sacramento-based CannaCare and produced by KTXL, features patients delivering testimonials on the benefits of medical marijuana, reports Matthew Keys at FOX40 News. Text at the bottom of the screen indicates that marijuana can be used to relieve symptoms of many illnesses, including diabetes, HIV, hepatitis C and hypertension, among others.

Note that in the TV news report from FOX40 above, reporter Elissa Harrington manages to miss the point when she compares marijuana ads to alcohol and tobacco ads. Neither alcohol nor tobacco is used for medicinal purposes as is marijuana — and, of course, neither alcohol nor tobacco use comes with a doctor’s legal authorization, as does cannabis — so there’s no reason that broadcast rules applying to recreational substances should be applied to medicine.

‘Square Grouper’ Film Looks At 1970s Pot Smuggler Culture

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2010 Culture, Products

Square Grouper was the nickname given to bales of marijuana thrown overboard or out of airplanes during the halcyon smuggling days of the 1970s and 80s in South Florida.
It’s also the name of a new documentary from filmmaker Billy Corben and rakontur, the creators of Cocaine Cowboys and The U.
“This movie is based in part on my book,” Robert Platshorn, America’s longest-serving pot prisoner and author of Black Tuna Diaries, told Toke of the Town Sunday.

Reddit’s Owner Refuses Pot Legalization Ads; Staff Revolts

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 27, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: Reality Catcher

First, there was Facebook’s censorship of marijuana leaves in legalization ads on its social network. Then came Google’s decision to accept and run nearly identical ads. Now, an announcement from social news site Reddit’s corporate owner, Conde Nast, to Just Say Now that it will not run any display advertising relating to marijuana legalization has resulted in an near-insurrection among the site’s users — and administrators, who said they were “blindsided” by the move.

That decision, unlike Facebook’s, pertains not just to images of marijuana leaves, but to any ads supporting legalization of marijuana, according to the “corporate offices” of Reddit’s parent company, Conde Nast.

Man Locks Himself In Krystal Bathroom, Flushes Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: Enlightened Redneck

I nominate young Kevin Von Clifton of Rome, Georgia for the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame. Do I hear a second?

A Georgia man remained in jail Thursday morning after allegedly trying to avoid arrest by locking himself into a Krystal fast food bathroom and flushing marijuana down the toilet, according to police reports.

Kevin Von Clifton, 19, of Rome, Ga., is charged with felony first-degree criminal damage to property and misdemeanor possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, and obstruction of law enforcement officers, according to Floyd County Jail records, reports Ellison Langford of the Rome News-Tribune.

Clifton reportedly locked himself in the burger joint’s bathroom at 1 a.m. Thursday morning at the Turner McCall Boulevard Krystal location in Rome, and tried to quickly get rid of his stash.

Google’s Cooler Than Facebook: Will Run Pot Legalization Ads

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 25, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: Just Say Now

Here is one of the pro-legalization ads (including a marijuana leaf!) that Google has agreed to run.

Facebook may think it’s “inappropriate” to run ads depicting marijuana leaves — despite the fact that the ads were so popular, they got 38 million views — but apparently Google has no problem with them.

Google agreed on Wednesday to run the ads, very similar to the ones nixed by Facebook, and which also contain images of marijuana leaves.

The advertisements are for Just Say Now, the pro-legalization group launched this month by Firedoglake blogger Jane Hamsher along with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

Marijuana activists were outraged at Facebook this week when the social networking site, which had already been running ads from the group, told the organization that it would no longer run them because they contained images of cannabis leaves, reports Chris Good at The Atlantic.

Charges Dropped Against ‘KopBuster’ Barry Cooper

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 25, 2010 Culture, News, Products

Photo: Loopy Lettuce

Former narcotics officer Barry Cooper got tired of the Drug War and switched teams. Now he advises marijuana users on how to avoid getting arrested.

Former Texas narcotics officer Barry Cooper, who turned against the Drug War and pulled a reverse sting operation against the Odessa Police Department, will walk on all charges related to the incident, an attorney for Ector County announced Tuesday.

Cooper, well known for his Never Get Busted DVDs, set up a fake marijuana grow house in Odessa, wired it for sound and video, and then used an anonymous letter to lure police into a December 2008 raid, reports Stephen C. Webster at The Raw Story.

Obama, Bush Drug Czars Team Up Against Prop 19

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 25, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: The Straits Times

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske has joined with the past five Drug Czars under Bush and Clinton administrations to fight against marijuana legalization under Prop 19 in California.

What do you get when you put six Drug Czars together? Same old bullshit, except more of it.

It was probably inevitable, but that doesn’t make it any less deplorable. Obama Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske has joined forces with five past directors of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, including czars who served under Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George H.W. Bush, against California’s marijuana legalization voter initiative, Proposition 19.

You would think that six so-called “drug experts” working together could come up with better-reasoned arguments against Prop 19 than these tired old talking points by tired old bureaucrats.

Not that anybody’s surprised that Kerlikowske, and by extension, the Obama Administration, opposes pot legalization. Gil’s already helpfully let us know that legalization isn’t in his vocabulary.

“No country in the world has legalized marijuana to the extent envisioned by Proposition 19, so it is impossible to predict precisely the consequences of wholesale legalization,” write Kerlikowske, John Walters, Barry McCaffrey, Lee Brown, Bob Martinez and William Bennett in an August 25 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece.

Of course, “no country in the world” had tried representative democracy “to the extent envisioned” by our Founding Fathers, either, but we didn’t let that stop us, did we?

Facebook Says No To Pro-Legalization Just Say Now Campaign

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 24, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: Firedoglake

Facebook has banned the ads of anti-prohibition group Just Say Now, a campaign for marijuana legalization. Just Say Now ran ads that showed their logo, which uses a marijuana leaf. Despite the ad running more than 38 million times, Facebook has flip-flopped and starting censoring the ads, claiming they promote “tobacco products.”

“In a nutshell, they allowed us to serve our ads for 10 days (38 million impressions), then suddenly reversed their approval and told us we could no longer show the image of a marijuana leaf,” said Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and the Just Say Now advisory board.

“They said they decided to reclassify it as similar to tobacco, but we said we weren’t trying to encourage people to smoke marijuana, we were supporting a change in U.S. drug policy,” Hamsher said, reports Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing.

Top 5 Exciting Quotes From Seattle Hempfest

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 23, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: Steve Elliott/Reality Catcher

Seattle Hempfest 2010 Hemposium participants, from left: Rob Kampia, MPP; Doug McVay, Berkeley Patients Group; Alison Holcomb, ACLU of Washington; and David Nott, Reason Foundation

Another Seattle Hempfest has entered the history books, and this 19th gathering of the tribes was another great one.

Among the highlights of the event — you know, other than the obvious ones, like 4:20 at the Seeley Stage — were the Hemposium discussion panels including marijuana policy experts from across the country.

For policy wonks and committed marijuana activists, some very exciting quotes came out of those sessions.

Here are five of the best.

Judge Orders Marijuana Offender To Write Report On Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 23, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office

Matthew Palazzolo, 25, of Sacramento, Calif., has some homework. He is being forced to write a report for a yokel Nevada judge telling “how stupid” California’s medical marijuana law.

A judge in Nevada has given an unusual sentence in the form of a homework assignment to a 25-year-old Sacramento man who sold marijuana to a police informant in a casino parking lot at Lake Tahoe.

Matthew Palazzolo was ordered to write a report parroting the right-wing views of District Judge Dave Gamble on what the judge called the “nonsensical character” of California’s medical marijuana law, reports Sheila Gardner of the Gardnerville Record-Courier.

The judge gave Palazzolo 90 days to complete the paper discussing his “self-admitted realization” that marijuana was a “gateway drug” that “led him to use more powerful narcotics” — never mind the scientific studies disproving the gateway theory.

“Here’s a young man with a bachelor’s degree and a rosy future and now is a potential felon,” Judge Gamble said during last Tuesday’s sentencing in Gardnerville, Nev., south of Carson City.

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