| Photo: KVOA.com |
| Mexican marijuana smugglers ingeniously devised a cannabis catapult to launch their payload over the border. |
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| Photo: Sergio Vidal |
| “I have a feeling that at any moment I will be summoned by the police.” Author Sergio Vidal holds “Cannabis Medicinal,” the first marijuana grow book ever published in Brazil |
Exclusive Interview: Author/Activist Sergio Vidal
In a sure sign that attitudes toward cannabis are changing worldwide, the first-ever cannabis grow book has been published in Brazil — and it may well be the first grow book printed in the Portuguese language.
Cannabis Medicinal author Sergio Vidal, a marijuana activist, told Toke of the Town that just the discussion of weed — let alone its use and possession — is surrounded by taboos, legal prohibitions, and repression.
“We are a young democracy,” Vidal told us. “We lived in a military dictatorship for many years in the 1960s and 70s. Our Constitution is only 22 years old. And the drug laws are a reflection of this dictatorial period.”
According to Vidal, Brazil’s drug laws include one article that criminalizes conduct “encouraging the use of drugs,” which means you can be arrested for simply advocating the legalization of cannabis. That makes me realize how well we have it here in the States, where more than a year of Toke of the Town has resulted in zero police interference.
“Events such as the Marijuana March have been considered criminal in many cities,” Vidal told us. “The law has been used on several occasions to criminalize social movements for legalization.”
| Photo: Limor Edrey |
| Bags and joints of Israeli medical cannabis |
Patients who use marijuana for medical purposes must wait six hours after smoking it to drive a car, the Israeli Health Ministry is set to announce soon.
Until now, the issue of driving and medical marijuana had not been clarified formally in Israel, causing several police-related incidents, reports Dan Even at Haaretz.com.
In one incident in November 2010, scriptwriter Ran Sarig, a medical marijuana patient, was investigated after he was seen on a TV program driving with a joint in his mouth.
Drivers of public or commercial vehicles will be completely barred from using medical marijuana under the new regulations.
A Japanese medical marijuana patient battling Crohn’s disease, in what he describes as a fight for his life, is desperately trying to gain political/medical asylum in the United States, because his homeland’s government says cannabis is not a medicine.
Kenichi Nalita, the very first medical marijuana user to fight for his rights in Japanese courts, told Toke of the Town that he hopes the U.S. will accept him as a political prisoner seeking asylum, since he can obtain medicinal cannabis in California but not in Japan.
“I’m a patient of Crohn’s disease,” Nalita told us. “And I guess you might know that my disease is able to be taken care of by a couple grams of cannabis per day. It controls my immune system and inflammation, and also helps rebuilding mucous membranes in my bowel.
| Photo: Les Bazso/PNG |
| Len Gratto on his property in Mission on Saturday, January 8, 2011. Gratto is ready to join an imminent class-action lawsuit against Mission, for hitting him with a $5,200 grow op inspection fee. The 67-year-old says he and his wife were growing cucumbers in the basement, he never grew pot, and he and many other Mission residents are being unfairly searched and fined. |
A Canadian homeowner says there is no way he will pay a $5,200 fine to Mission, B.C., for growing cucumbers in his basement.
Len Gratto, who has lived in the home for 30 years, said he’s ready to join an imminent class-action lawsuit against the municipality’s grow-op bylaw inspections, reports Sam Cooper at Postmedia News.
A number of citizens, led by Stacy Gowanlock, said their homes were illegally searched for marijuana grow-ops, resulting in them being slapped with fees and repair orders sometimes exceeding $10,000 — all on flimsy evidence.
Gratto, 67, said he has never grown pot. He said the “laughable” evidence against him consists of pictures of some “dirt” on the basement wall, and “a furnace pipe going up into the chimney, where it should be.”
| Photo: The Skunk Stripe |
| Pawcuff that skunk! He smells like weed! |
A Canadian man is demanding an apology after his home was raided at gunpoint Thursday by police who thought the scent of a skunk living under his home meant he was growing marijuana.
Oliver MacQuat of Gatineau, Quebec, said a team of armed police officers barged into his rural home with guns drawn, on the assumption they were busting a marijuana grow, reports CBC News.
“I opened the door and they all had their guns drawn,” MacQuat said. “I was terrified, my heart was probably going 150 miles an hour.”
Around 10 police officers swept through his house, MacQuat said, during which time his teenaged son returned home to flashing police lights.
| Photo: AFP |
| Erika Gandara, the last police officer in Guadalupe, Mexico, has been kidnapped and her house set afire. |
Gunmen have kidnapped a 28-year-old woman who was the last police officer in the town of Guadalupe, Mexico, close to the violent northern border city Ciudad Juarez, according to Mexican officials.
About 10 unidentified gunmen last Thursday set fire to the home of Erika Gandara and torched both cars parked outside for good measure before abducting her, witnesses told the state of Chihuahua prosecutor’s office, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.
All of Gandara’s colleagues on the Guadalupe police force had already either resigned and fled, or were killed by drug cartels.
Guadalupe, population 9,000, is located about 60 kilometers southeast of Ciudad Juarez, in an area frequently used by smugglers to transport drugs into the United States.
| Photo: The Vancouver Sun |
| Dana Larsen holds marijuana at The Medical Cannabis Dispensary, which he operates in Vancouver, in this 2008 photo. |
Longtime Canadian marijuana activist Dana Larsen has become the first candidate to enter the British Columbia NDP leadership race, announcing that he plans to make cannabis legalization an election issue.
Larsen, 39, officially kicked off his campaign Wednesday morning, reports CBC News.
“I support B.C. NDP policies which call for cannabis to be legally taxed and regulated,” Larsen said. “Cannabis is British Columbia’s biggest industry and it should be brought above ground.”
| Graphic: PORMAL |
Pointing to its medicinal value, a group in the Philippines is pushing for the legalization of marijuana use in that country.
In an article posted on its website, the Philippine Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (PORMAL) said marijuana, also known as hemp and cannabis, has shown “established” effects in the treatment of nausea, vomiting, premenstrual syndrome, unintentional weight loss, and lack of appetite, reports Kimberly Jane Tan at GMANews.tv.
Other “relatively well-confirmed” medicinal effects include the treatment of spasticity, painful conditions (especially neurogenic pain), movement disorders, asthma, glaucoma, inflammatory bowel disease, migraines, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, and hepatitis C, according to PORMAL.
| Graphic: Magickal Graphics |
| David Hodgkinson got the equivalent of a lump of coal in his Christmas stocking from the RCMP. |
B.C. Man May Be Spending Christmas In The Dark
Medical marijuana grower David Hodgkinson may be having a dark Christmas after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police swooped in on his home Friday, busted up his grow operation and cut off his power, reports Robert Barron at the Nanaimo Daily News.
Hodgkinson has been growing medicinal cannabis for about a year under a government license from Health Canada, and was licensed to grow up to 49 plants. But his license expired in August, despite the fact that he applied for its renewal eight full weeks before its expiration date, as stipulated by the government.
But since Health Canada over the past year has experienced a “sharp rise” of applications to grow medical marijuana that have “slowed the process down,” according to a spokeswoman, Hodgkinson’s license wasn’t renewed in a timely manner.
Did that delay result in an apology for laggardliness from the government or its health ministry, especially since their slowness could impact the health of patients?
No, it got Hodgkinson, of Cedar, British Columbia, an armed police raid and his electrical power cut off.