| Photo: hopeful420 |
| The magic moment, 4:20 p.m., at Hempfest, August 21, 2010 |
Browsing: Culture
| Photo: Owl Jester/Seattle Hempfest |
| “There’s no place more perfect to announce our plans for 2011’s campaign than at the world’s premier marijuana reform festival.” ~ Douglas Hiatt, Sensible Washington |
If at first you don’t succeed, try again!
Sensible Washington, sponsor of this year’s Washington legalization initiative I-1068, has announced that it will launch its 2011 marijuana legalization campaign at this year’s Seattle Hempfest.
“There’s no place more perfect to announce our plans for 2011’s campaign than at the world’s premier marijuana reform festival,” said Douglas Hiatt, chair of Sensible Washington and main author of I-1068, which failed to gain enough signatures to qualify for this year’s general election.
| Photo: CNBC |
| Seattle welcomes Hempfest every year… but pot busts have gone UP after voters told police to make marijuana their lowest enforcement priority — even though the city attorney won’t prosecute pot cases! |
Please welcome well-known pot blogger and YouTube personality Primo to Toke of the Town. He’s got a few things he wants to say about Hempfest and Seattle! ~ Steve Elliott, Editor
By Primo
The Emerald City is all abuzz about Hempfest this weekend, August 21 and 22.
The forecast is classic Seattle weather, overcast and 65 degrees, ideal for outdoors.
In the meantime, many of us Seattleites are wondering why so many tokers are being busted on our streets. The current arrest rate of almost 29 per month is almost triple the arrest rate of last year and almost four times the rate in 2004.
| Photo: The Scores Report |
| Percy Harvin of the Minnesota Vikings has to go to the hospital now when he has a migraine headache — because he’s not allowed to use medical marijuana. |
Minnesota Vikings wide receive Percy Harvin is resting comfortably in a hospital after collapsing during practice yesterday due to a crippling migraine headache.
Sadly, as pointed out by Kevin Hoffman at our Village Voice Media sister blog CityPages, “the incident could have been prevented with the use of a freely available plant that he had previously relied on to control his long-standing health problem.”
Problem is, that useful plant is marijuana, and the NFL doesn’t allow its use by players.
| Photo: Brunch At Barneys |
”Of course your dealer knows the risks he or she faces from the police and federal authorities, but that isn’t your dealer’s main fear,” Lauren Rothman tells us at our sister Village Voice Media blog LA Weekly.
“Your dealer’s main fear is wondering what kind of shit you’re going to pull on a daily basis…“Having been a bud-slinger myself, I’m going to tell you about issues that arise when it comes to procuring drugs that make us contemplate — gulp — attaining a socially acceptable job with a real water cooler and all the fixings.“I haven’t been in the saddle for a while, but I’ll never forget some of you, no matter how much I wish I could. Your dealer will thank for me for this.”
For the complete list, which I’ll just say sounds quite familiar, visit that glittering jewel of the VVM empire, the LA Weekly:
| Photo: Penthouse |
| Kristin Davis, a.k.a. The Manhattan Madam, is running for Governor of New York on a pro-marijuana legalization platform. |
Kristin Davis, the infamous “Manhattan Madam” who supplied top-of-the-line call girls to Eliot Spitzer during his tenures as Attorney General and Governor of New York, filed a voter petition to run on the ballot as the Anti-Prohibition Party candidate for Governor.
“I am running on a platform of personal and economic freedom,” said Davis, 35, a former hedge fund vice president. “I want to end the prohibition on marijuana, gay marriage and casino gambling to generate new revenues instead of raising taxes on already over-taxed New Yorkers.”
”Californians have figured out what New Yorkers need to figure out,” Davis said in April. “Marijuana is a $10 billion a year industry in New York state. Its legalization and taxation would help New York’s current financial crises.”
| Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP |
| In which Dino Rossi learns that making fun of medical marijuana patients is bad politics |
The political atmosphere around marijuana has changed. It used to be a slam dunk to make fun of marijuana users — even medical marijuana patients — but a recent drama which played out in Washington state showed how much that has changed. A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate has been forced to “clarify” a series of tasteless jokes he made at the expense of medical marijuana research and patients.
“Last week, Republican Dino Rossi issued an extremely immature and thoughtless press release criticizing federally funded research being conducted at Washington State University into marijuana’s effect on pain medication,” said Mike Meno of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
The two-year study, by psychology professor Michael Morgan, involves injecting rats with synthetic cannabinoids and opiates in order to research their combined actions in order to find ways to improve treatment for people suffering from chronic pain.
“Rather than emphasize the great need for this type of research, as well as the proven efficacy of marijuana in helping to manage pain, Rossi decided to revert to hackneyed and unoriginal middle-school level humor,” Meno said.
| Photo: Hip-Hop Postal |
| Udonis Haslem of the Miami Heat is not only facing felony marijuana charges — he could also lose his Mercedes. |
NBA star Udonis Haslem is looking at felony marijuana possession charges after a traffic stop in Florida Sunday afternoon during which the Miami Heat forward and a friend were arrested.
The Florida Highway Patrol said Haslem, 30, was busted for felony possession of marijuana in excess of 20 grams, reports Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
A passenger in the vehicle, Antwain Fleming, was also charged with misdemeanor possession of less than 20 grams of cannabis. Fleming acknowledged in the police report that luggage found in the car and containing the marijuana was his.
| Graphic: safehouseweb.com |
The California Chamber of Commerce on Thursday released a legal analysis claiming that Proposition 19, which would legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana by adults, would lead to more workplace accidents by forcing employers to let workers smoke pot on the job and operate dangerous equipment while stoned.
“Imagine a workplace where employees show up to work high on marijuana and there is nothing you can do about it,” the Chamber’s “analysis” begins.
This is, of course, patent nonsense, since booze is already legal, and no employer has ever been forced to let an employee get drunk on the job. But since when have facts gotten in the way of a good pot scare story?
Prop 19 proponents dismissed the Chamber’s claims, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.
“It’s a lie that’s designed to raise money from California employers and other hot-button organizations,” said Dan Rush, a union official working for the Prop 19 campaign.