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Coming Into Los Angeles: Toke Tags Along To The Cannabis Cup With NORML Women’s Alliance

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 10, 2012 Culture, Dispensaries, Growing

Kyndra Miller

NORML Women’s Alliance West Coast Coordinator Kyndra Miller: “We need help everywhere”

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The NORML Women’s Alliance is looking for many good women.

According to most every poll, cannabis use by mainstream America is on the rise, except for women — their numbers are stagnant. Men are 10 to 16 percent “higher” in their support of legalization and medical marijuana.

The Women’s Alliance is a on a quest to change that.

This coming weekend I have the pleasure of tagging along with NORML Women’s Alliance as they bring their message to the High Times 2012 Medical Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles. Since its inception a few years ago, from New Jersey to the West Coast, the Women’s Alliance has been reaching out to women via networking groups, parties, movie screenings, conferences and where I first met them, in the streets of San Francisco, marching and protesting.

When Obama last visited San Francisco, there was a huge demonstration organized by the medical marijuana community to protest the federal crackdown, a complete about-face by the administration, forcing the closure of California dispensaries and blocking safe access to medicine.

Former Pot Smuggler Educates Seniors On Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 7, 2012 Culture, Medical

The Silver Tour

Robert Platshorn, America’s longest-serving marijuana offender (almost 30 years), educates seniors on the benefits of medical marijuana on The Silver Tour

“They heard about it at their bridge games, or from the corkboard at the senior center, or through their grandkids who use the Internet,” writes Gus Garcia-Roberts at Miami New Times. “Then they carpooled to Temple Shaarei Shalom in Boynton Beach this recent Sunday afternoon — trios of little old ladies with short white hair and thin sweaters, and wizened men reading the Sun-Sentinel while wearing clunky black shades indoors.

“Now the 200-plus attendees — most of them seniors — are snacking on a mushroom quiche and iced tea while discussing the myriad health benefits of getting high.”

Robert Platshorn, 69 — who in the 1970s smuggled tons of Colombian weed into the United States, making Santa Marta Gold a legend in the process — was one of the most famous pitchmen in the U.S. before becoming an herbal entrepreneur and eventually getting busted by the Drug Enforcement Adminnistration. He became the longest-serving marijuana offender in U.S. history, serving more than 29 years in federal prison.

Why Obama Refuses To Answer Marijuana Questions

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 6, 2012 Culture, Legislation

Free Republic

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

These are strange and actually wonderful times. For many the pipe is still half full and for others, the pipe is losing its fire. While everyone may be talking about medical marijuana, the few that count refuse to acknowledge the subject and do something about it.

In California, this past week, two bills that would have lessened the heat and made the competition for Medical Marijuana Bowl favor our side a little, came up short. Even with that defeat, activists still have hope and are searching for dollars and signatures.

What I find most hopeful, leading me to believe that the pipe is going to smoke no matter what, is that the straights are coming out for medical marijuana.

Prank By Inmates Adds Pigs On Police Car Decals

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 3, 2012 Culture

Mike Donoghue/Burlington Free Press

The Vermont State Police seal, created by a print shop run by inmates at the state prison in St. Albans, altered the state seal to include the likeness of a pig, seen in yellow, on the cow’s shoulder. Decals of the seal are on most state police cruisers

In the feel-good story of the day, an image of a pig — the infamous 1960s-era epithet used by protesters and hippies for police officers — has wound up on a decal used on as many as 30 Vermont State Police cruisers.

Embarrassed state officials on Thursday blamed a failure of the quality assurance office within the Vermont Correctional Industries Print Shop in St. Albans, Vt., to detect a prisoner-artist’s addition made four years ago to the traditional state police logo, reports Mike Donoghue of the Burlington Free Press. In an ingenious bit of subtle social protest, a spot on the shoulder of the cow in the state emblem was modified into a pig.

A witch hunt, I mean an investigation has been launched into how the computer program was “improperly modified” to insert the image of the pig, according to Vermont Corrections Commissioner Andy Pallito.

Joan Rivers Smokes Marijuana On Reality Show [Video]

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 2, 2012 Culture, News

Gawker

Toke it out, Joan.

Hey, that weed smells like… a publicity stunt! Veteran comedian Joan Rivers freaked out some American TV viewers on Tuesday by smoking marijuana on her reality show.

Rivers was shown getting medicinal cannabis from a California dispensary before puffing it from a pipe while sitting in her car with a pal, reports WENN.com.

As the marijuana takes effect, Rivers dissolves into giggles and is driven home by a friend, stopping on the way to pick up burgers and fries.

Living Outside The Marijuana Laws: The Duality Of Honesty

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 31, 2012 Culture

Kenny’s Sideshow

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

To live outside the law, you must be honest.

~ Bob Dylan

Welcome to the duality of honesty.

Clancy is a master-grower. He lives deep up on one of those canyon drives that seems so off the beaten path that it’s hard to believe someone actually lives there. Barely in his 30s, Clancy’s a kid in terms of the hills and cultivation, but unlike many of his youthful contemporaries, he studies the old ways.

Dare To Keep Kids Off D.A.R.E. [Infographic]

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 26, 2012 Culture

Via: Intervention Support
You might not be aware of the program, Drug Abuse Resistance Education, but you would likely recognize its acronym, D.A.R.E. It’s a program that was established in 1983 aimed at educating children k-12 about the dangers of drug use and abuse.
It’s still around today and so is data about its ineffectiveness as a deterrent. If you thought D.A.R.E. was a great program, think again.

I Am Not A Criminal… Unless Big Pharma Sez So

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 21, 2012 Culture

The Government Rag

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The Federal raids have begun again in California. Starting in sunny San Diego, with the intent of plowing north, not stopping ’til Eureka.

They’re not cherry-picking anymore. The first assault arrived last year when the Feds went for the low hanging fruit, closing dispensaries that were situated within a thousand feet of a school. It didn’t matter if the school was operational or not. One of the schools was a ballet studio that was exactly 999 feet away. No leeway. No discussion. You’re closed.

The restrictions are the same for dispensaries near parks, playgrounds, and other locals where the kinder may be occupying. Because it’s always about the kids… Except when it comes to liquor stores and strip clubs, they’re copacetic.

Then there’s Market Street Coop in San Francisco, which was closed because of a nearby school that moved in after the dispensary opened. That didn’t matter, nor did it matter that there were 13 drinking establishments within the same radius. Obviously these saloons and booze emporiums are zoned for preschools, middle schools, bartender schools, just as long as it isn’t a place people that distributes non-federally taxed medicine to sick people.

This Just In! Marijuana Works Great For Marijuana Withdrawal!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 16, 2012 Culture, Global, Medical

Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

For best results, apply more marijuana.

It’s already been a wacky year for marijuana coverage in the mainstream media, and we’re barely more than two weeks deep into 2012.

Already we have three major contenders for Dumbest Pot Story of the Year, which certainly points to an interesting year ahead in the cannabis information wars.

Do we really need a study on the best cure for “cannabis withdrawal”? Do people really choose to use marijuana because they were born with abnormally small brains? And speaking of brains, did you know that THC coats your brain cells and makes it hard for you to think, at least according to a self-appointed “drug expert”/counselor in Colorado?

There’s a lot of rank ignorance out there to wade through, and it ain’t pretty. Let’s put on our hippest hip boots, shall we?

The clear winner, so far, is the impending study from Australia on the efficacy of using… wait for it… cannabis to treat cannabis “withdrawal”!

MPP Ranks Top 10 Marijuana Highlights From 2011

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 13, 2012 Culture, Legislation, News

The Fix

So now that other organizations’ and TV networks’ various Top 10 lists are out of the way, the Marijuana Policy Project says it can safely release its annual Top 10 list without getting caught in all the clutter.

According to MPP Executive Director Rob Kampia, the following list comprises the 10 most significant, positive developments relating to marijuana policy reform in the U.S. in 2011.

To see explanations for each of the 10 items, you can read Kampia’s column in the Huffington Post today, Friday, January 13.

1. Congress de-funds the White House Drug Czar’s ad campaign.

2. MPP’s ideal bill is finally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Ron Paul and Barney Frank — a bill that would let states determine their own marijuana policies without federal interference.

3. Public support for “making marijuana legal” reaches an all-time high of 50 percent.

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