| NCSD |
| Heide Fleiss in her most recent mugshot. |
For the second time this year, former Hollywood madam Hedi Fliess has been busted for marijuana near her home in Pahrum, Nevada.
Nye County Sheriff’s deputies say they stopped Fleiss’ Toyata Land Cruiser about 3:30 Tuesday morning and found her to allegedly be under the influence “of a controlled substance”. That gave them probable cause to search her car, where they found a quarter pound of herb and about $10,000 in cash.
| Derek Cumings/Pink House Labs. |
Venerable pot magazine High Times has been focusing on Colorado quite a bit over the last few years, including naming Colorado strains as the most potent staffers have seen and bringing their annual Cannabis Cup events to the Mile High City.
This month’s High Times feature keeps up that trend, with editor Bobby taking a tour of two of Denver’s largest hash-making labs, Pink House Labs and Top Shelf Extracts, and sharing how they crank out consistent concentrates. Denver Westword has the rest.
| William Breathes. |
| Jamaican outdoor herb. |
Marijuana reform is growing around the world, but particularly in the tiny Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, which has long been known as a cannabis capital of the world despite the fact that the plant remains illegal there.
Increasingly, there has been talk of legalization of small amounts of cannabis from some members of the progressive government. But more immediately, Jamaican officials say they will push for legislation that expunges any criminal records for marijuana possession or use.
| NPS |
| Sheep Lakes at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colo. |
Marijuana possession (of limited amounts) might be legal in Washington and Colorado, but considering the federal government owns massive chunks of land in both states you aren’t always legally carrying ganja depending on where you are – namely national land.
According to a study conducted by the Associated Press, more than 27,700 people have been cited for marijuana possession on federal lands in the last four years. While the number is sizable in terms of drug arrests, officials say it is a paltry figure compared to the hundreds of millions of visitors to national parks, forests and monuments.
Created by the Los Angeles Police Department in 1983 as a spin-off of Nancy Reagan’s tragically flawed “Just Say No” campaign, the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program’s intent was to send neighborhood police officers into local schools to teach kids about the dangers of drugs and the effects of peer pressure. Though it celebrates its 30th year in existence in 2013, the program has long been under scrutiny from a wide range of critics, none more vocal than the cannabis community.
You need further proof that marijuana attitudes are rapidly changing in this country? Here’s your sign: former presidential candidate Sen, John McCain, a republican from Arizona, now says he’s open to marijuana legalization.
Yeah, you read that right. The guy who called marijuana a “gateway drug” as recently as 2007 is saying he’s changed his mind.
According to the National Survey on Drug Use, annual marijuana use by Americans age 12 and up in2012 rose to 7.3 percent, about .3 percentage points higher than in 2011 and 1.5 percentage points higher than in 2007.
The test was compiled by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration from surveys given to about 70,000 people aged 12 and up.
| Jenny Kush. |
The Denver Police Department has not officially released the name of the woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Interstate 25 over the weekend — but she’s been identified by her friends and loved ones as Jenny Kush, a colorful, outspoken and much adored member of the local cannabis community. As those close to Kush make plans to remember her at an event tomorrow night in Denver, the woman charged with causing her death — Rebecca Maez, 27 — remains in custody on suspicion of vehicular homicide and driving under the influence.
Jenny was a much-loved person and someone we were proud to call a friend here at Toke of the Town. Our heart goes out to her family and those close to her. For more, check out Denver Westword‘s photo tribute.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
In an unprecedented move that began late last week, and continued over the holiday Labor Day weekend, the Obama Administration, and more specifically, the U.S. Department of Justice ended their silence on the issue of medical marijuana on the state level, announcing that they would not use the courts to challenge state laws recently passed in Colorado and Washington, as long as those states continue to adhere to a strict set of guidelines.
Though many critics, professional or genuine, are carelessly comparing this latest announcement to the 2009 Ogden Memo, those on the front lines of the effort to legalize cannabis know that last Thursday’s announcement, and some follow-up and clarifying releases over the weekend, mark a positive and necessary step towards that goal.
| Golden Goat up close and personal. Larger photo below. |
Want to know more about the herb you’re smoking? So do we, so we’ve asked Ry Prichard – a fellow Colorado cannabis nerd, grower, photographer and founder of the Cannabis Encyclopedia project which aims to create a central database on cannabis strain information – to help school us all, strain-wise. Each week in our new Cannabis Encyclopedia blog, Prichard will break down a strain from seed to buds. This week? Golden Goat.