Browsing: News
| Hector Diaz. |
Last November, the DEA and Colorado law enforcement conducted marijuana raids at multiple cannabis businesses, including VIP Wellness.
This morning, Hector Diaz, a 49-year-old from Colombia, is due in court to be formally advised of the charges against him related to the sweep — including dropping more than $500,000 on the Colorado pot industry and weapons beefs he considers to be unconstitutional. VIP Wellness, which reopened briefly after the November raids, was re-raided this morning.
In October 2012, the Judicial Qualifications Commission’s investigative panel filed formal charges against Palm Beach County Judge Barry M. Cohen for using his bench as, in their words, a “bully pulpit” and “a neutral and detached magistrate.”
The findings came after the outspoken judge made some comments about racial profiling and mandatory sentences.
Specifically, Cohen criticized the Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office for the way it handles criminal cases. He also criticized the law making marijuana illegal and has been outspoken on the county’s police department’s alleged racial profiling and racial bias. Some would say Cohen is just speaking the truth (including us here at Toke of the Town). The panel, however, found it inappropriate behavior for a judge and recommended a reprimand by the Florida Supreme Court. On Tuesday morning, Cohen received that reprimand.
| U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Virginia. |
Rep. Morgan Griffith, a Republican from Virginia, has introduced a bill this week in Congress that would reclassify the plant from a Schedule I controlled substance with no medical value according to the feds to a less restrictive Schedule II status. The move, he says, will allow doctors to legally prescribe cannabis as well as give protection to states around the country with medical laws in place.
Florida is still a long way from legalized medical marijuana. The Sheriff’s Association is waging a fierce campaign against it. The governor has hinted he might not sign any new laws on it. The conservative House has yet to take up the issue.
Yet history was made in the Florida Senate Monday, when legislators for the first time passed a bill to legalize medical pot. The bill, which would make it legal to obtain low-THC marijuana from a doctor to treat epilepsy in children, flew through the Senate with a 36-3 vote.
Yesterday, as we reported, a bill calling for post-traumatic stress disorder to be added to the conditions approved for treatment by medical marijuana came before the Colorado House committee on State, Military and Veterans Affairs. But it was rejected by a 6-5 vote.Sensible Colorado’s Brian Vicente, attorney and co-author of Amendment 64, has been fighting for this cause since at least 2010. He’s clearly frustrated by this turn of events, as well as some of the misinformation heard during testimony. But he’s not ready to give up.
“This is something Sensible Colorado has worked on for four years-plus,” Vicente notes, “and it seems that time and again, the government has acted to prevent PTSD sufferers from ready access to medical marijuana. We think the vote last night was just shameful.”
| http://www.thc-ministry.org/ |
| Roger Christie, Hawaii’s “Preacher of Pot” |
64-year-old Hawaii resident Roger Christie has long been a well-known advocate for medical and recreational marijuana use on the Big Island. As a minister at his own church on Hilo – a quaint little joint by the name of THC Ministries – Christie enjoyed a rapidly growing congregation of over 60,000 followers, to many of whom he provided “sacrament” in the form of cannabis.
On July 8th 2010 though, it all came crashing down as a result of an extensive undercover investigation, leading to the arrest and indictment of 14 people associated with THC Ministries, along with Christie and his wife Share.
Governor Jay Nixon came to St. Louis on Friday for a ceremony celebrating the building of a dental school. And after the event, he finally addressed the topic of granting clemency to Jeff Mizanskey, the man who has been in prison for more than twenty years, serving a life without parole sentence for marijuana charges.
Well, maybe “addressed” is being a bit generous.
The Arizona Legislature adjourned last week, and despite more than 200 bills being signed into law, very few will have any effect on most people.
There were some very good proposals that didn’t pass, which probably would have made Arizona a better place to live and do business. Check out the Phoenix New times picks for 10 bills that should have passed, but didn’t.
| Truthout.Org/Flickr |
For at least four years, local marijuana activists have fought to have post-traumatic stress disorder added to the list of conditions that can be legally treated with medical marijuana in Colorado — and each time, they’ve failed.
Now, however, advocates are hoping legislation scheduled to be heard by a House committee this week will provide a breakthrough.
Michael Roberts has all of the details about the bill and those it may affect the most, over at Denver Westword