Browsing: Culture

Photo: Pete Santos/Seattle Hempfest
Hempfest was bigger and better than ever in 2009, and promises to do it again this year. But without plenty of community support and green energy, this could be the last time.

​According to the director of Seattle Hempfest, the largest annual marijuana rally in the world, this year’s event could be the last, with the iconic stoner gathering in a fight for its very existence.

“If things do not go right this year, this could be the last year Hempfest happens at all,” executive director Vivian McPeak said.
According to McPeak, a confluence of factors — including the slow economy, the theft of $5,000 worth of radios last year, a lack of financial support from the community (the average attendee contributes about 30 cents), excessive requirements from the City and the Port of Seattle, and the rising cost of event production — resulted in Hempfest being more than $50,000 in debt after the 2009 event.

Graphic: KULR 8

​An effort to repeal Montana’s medical marijuana law, which would once again make criminals of the state’s 16,000+ cannabis patients, is stirring emotions from activists on both sides of the doobie divide.

The “Safe Community, Safe Kids” petition is being handed out across the Big Sky State. The group needs 25,000 signatures by Friday, June 18, to qualify for the November ballot, reports Nicole Grigg of KULR 8.
On Wednesday, medical marijuana advocates protested at Billings’ Centennial Park where anti-pot petitioners were collecting signatures.

Graphic: Emerald Triangle News
Police in New Zealand are soooo helpful! Now they want to tell Kiwis what they can and can’t read.

​Police in New Zealand, in a secret meeting with Internal Affairs departmental heads, told them to try to get marijuana magazines banned nationwide, official documents have revealed.

According to the documents, police hope to have NORML News completely banned, as well as High Times and Cannabis Culture magazines.
No decision has been made yet on censoring the magazines, reports Scoop.
Police had previously lied their asses off, denying that they were involved with sending cannabis magazines to the censors.

Photo: First Door on the Left

​​What’s Sarah Palin been smoking? The former Alaska Governor said Wednesday night that while she opposes marijuana legalization, law enforcement should not focus its energy on such a “minimal problem.”

 Make up your mind, Sarah — should pot be legal, or not?

Palin made the comment during an appearance on the Fox Business Network with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), reports Andy Barr at Politico.

Congressman Paul, a libertarian, said that enforcing marijuana laws specifically and the War On Drugs in general is a “useless battle,” a point with which Palin partially agreed, although she made clear that she does not support legalization.


Graphic: Cover Browser

​A Spokane, Washington man busted in a federal marijuana sting and looking at a prison sentence figured what the hell, it couldn’t hurt to make a request. He asked to go to Disneyland.

Scott Nicholas Cassell, 29, got his wish, reports Meghann Cuniff at The Spokesman-Review.
Two weeks before a judge will likely approve a plea bargain that will land him behind bars for five years, Cassell left for Southern California over the weekend.
U.S. Magistrate Cynthia Imbrogno granted a motion late last month for Cassell to travel to the Happiest Place On Earth for a week with his mother, wife and six-year-old daughter.
“What he’s doing is good for him and good for the family,” said Cassell’s lawyer, David Miller.
“His young daughter can’t be around her dad for awhile; how sad is that?” Miller said. “This will put a good memory in the memory bank.”
Cassell said the trip will “provide one great final memory for our daughter prior to my leaving,” according to court documents.

Photo: Gilbert Police Department
Walker helpfully included a photo of both the iPod and the marijuana in his Craiglist ad, according to police.

​A 20-year-old Arizona man has been arrested after allegedly placing an online ad to trade marijuana and an iPod for an iPad.

Jacob Walker of Gilbert, Ariz., posted an advertisement on Craigslist.com saying that he wanted to trade cannabis and an Apple iPod Touch for an Apple iPad, according to the Gilbert Police Department.
He helpfully included pictures of both the iPod and the pot in his online ad, reports Jennifer Thomas of azfamily.com.

Photo: Michael Montgomery
Garberville’s KMUD is a bastion of free speech

​Marijuana growers in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle have for decades received reports of pending police raids from a local radio station. Now the police, citing a boom in pot production and “armed illegal drug traffickers,” want the broadcasts to stop.

As pot growers in Humboldt and Mendocino counties launch another growing season, local, state and federal law enforcement agents are preparing for their part of the annual ritual — deploying helicopters, trucks and armed agents to seize marijuana plants, reports Michael Montgomery at NPR.
​”According to a citizen’s observation, at 8:45 a.m., three helicopters were seen heading from Laytonville to Bell Spring Road,” Garberville radio station KMUD recently broadcast.


Photo: ABC News
An Australian police officer shows cannabis and cash seized in Perth, March 2010.

​Cannabis remains the most popular illegal drug in Australia, according to the Australian Crime Commission’s report on illicit drug use.

Two out of every three drug arrests in Australia in 2008 and 2009 were marijuana-related, but the number of people using cannabis has fallen by 50 percent over the past decade, according to the report.
Amphetamine-type stimulants were the second most popular illicit drug, according to Yahoo!7 News. Twenty percent of drug arrests were for amphetamines.
According to Home Affairs Director Brendan O’Connor, Australian police are discovering more secret “drug laboratories.”

Photo: News Center
Montel Williams lights a joint at the urging of Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion

​As media personality Montel Williams spoke at Saturday’s medical marijuana conference in Maine, his eyes filled with tears as he shared his pain with the audience. Encouraged by one attending sheriff to do so, Williams lit up a joint and took a few puffs in front of the crowd.

Once Williams’s pain level became so intense he was in tears, Cumberland County Sheriff Mark Dion shouted from the audience, “Why don’t you just take your medicine?” The audience applauded and gave a standing ovation as Montel sat down, got out a joint and fired it up.
According to Williams, his pain level drops tremendously when he uses marijuana, and if not for medical cannabis he would not have been able to bear the nerve pain he endured prior to and while on stage.
About 250 people came to the convention in Portland to learn how they can get involved in growing or selling medical marijuana, reports WCSH6.com.

Plano Police Department
Police released this booking photo of Christopher Chace Crawford after his bust early Friday morning

​Chace Crawford, star of television’s Gossip Girl, has been arrested outside a Texas bar for possession of marijuana.

The 24-year-old actor was in a friend’s car in the parking lot of Ringo’s Pub in Plano, Texas, when police officers arrested them just after midnight on Friday morning, June 4, reports Carina MacKenzie at Zap2it.
Crawford was jailed and charged with possession of marijuana, under two ounces, before being released, reports News.com.au.
The actor, who plays Manhattan rich boy Nate Archibald in the hit TV show, had been sitting inside his friend’s 2003 Nissan, according to the arrest record provided by the Plano Police Department.
Police found one unlit joint in the vehicle, according to TMZ.com.
The actor had just returned from a family trip to Mexico.
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