News

Browsing: News

Marijuana DUIs Went Up 76% In Nevada With Per Se Limit

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 21, 2012 Legislation, News

Law Office of Joel M. Mann

Numbers Put The Lie To Claims Washington’s I-502 Won’t Harm Patients

Driving under the influence of marijuana. It’s the new scare tactic used by prohibitionists and drug warriors as an argument against the legalization of cannabis. Unfortunately, it’s also used by some people who are supposed to be on our side as a political wedge issue to gain support for Initiative 502, a Washington legalization measure that includes blood THC limits as per se proof that you’re guilty of DUI.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, despite its opposition as an organization to per se marijuana DUI testing, has endorsed I-502, warts and all. This seeming contradiction — wherein NORML supports per se testing in Washington, after having opposed it in medical marijuana states like Colorado and California — occurs because, NORML says, it’s important to pass an initiative, any initiative, to “send the Feds a message.”

Well, if the message you’re sending them is “open season on medical marijuana patients,” then congratulations; mission accomplished! Otherwise, not so much.

Connecticut Voters Heavily Back Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 21, 2012 Medical, News

ConnecticutMarijuanaDoctors.com

An overwhelming 68 percent of Connecticut voters support a proposal to allow adults to use marijuana for medical purposes with a doctor’s recommendation, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday. Only 27 percent oppose the plan.

There is no gender, partisan group, income, age or education group in Connecticut of which a majority opposed medical marijuana, according to the poll.

“Medical marijuana is supported by Connecticut voters across the board,” said Quinnipiac University Poll Director Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D.

The group which most heavily supported medical marijuana was self-identified liberals, with 82 percent favoring. The lowest levels of support were found among self-identified Republicans and conservatives, with 51 percent of each of those groups supporting medicinal cannabis. Seventy-five percent of Democrats supported medical marijuana.

Call Butte County DA To Protest Legal Abuse Of Patient/Parents

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 20, 2012 Medical, News

Moms For Marijuana

Call To Action

Wednesday, March 21

11 a.m. Pacific

Butte County, California Assistant District Attorney Jeff Greeson thinks he can take children away from their parents — just because the parents are legal medical marijuana patients. Assistant D.A. Greeson this week refiled felony child abuse and misdemeanor child endangerment charges against a mother of two nursing children who were three weeks old and 15 months old at the time they were taken.

Daisy’s three-week-old baby was literally ripped from her arms by county officials representing Child Protective Services (CPS) and the District Attorney’s office for no better reason than that Daisy and her husband, Jayme Walsh, are medical cannabis patients (www.freemybabies.org).

Manufacturing A Crisis: Stoned Driving ‘Epidemic’? Please.

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 20, 2012 Legislation, News

West Coast Leaf

Crisis? What crisis?

It was bound to happen once marijuana legalization started looking like a real possibility. The prohibitionists and the drug warriors never go down without a fight; they always find an angle. This time, as at least two states — Colorado and Washington — are looking at legalization measures on November’s ballot, the new bugaboo is driving while high.

Nobody’s sure how to solve the question of when someone is just too stoned to drive, but that doesn’t keep plenty of people from offering “solutions” to the “problem” — which is now graduating from “just” a problem, thanks to sensationalist mainstream press coverage, and becoming an “epidemic” or even a “crisis.”

S.F. Health Dept. Recommends Dispensaries Ditch Concentrates

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 20, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Elemental Wellness

Concentrates like this Headband Wax aren’t exactly “banned” under a new Department of Public Health memo. But DPH “recommends” that the dispensaries “not produce or dispense” them. WTF?

There’s no enforcement mechanism and it’s not a “ban,” says the San Francisco Department of Health. But nonetheless, a memo released to several dispensaries recommends that medical marijuana dispensaries in the city stop selling cannabis concentrates.

Under the heading “Medical Cannabis Edibles Advisory,” DPH, the department which regulates San Francisco’s 21 dispensaries, recommends the collectives “do not produce or dispense syrups, capsules, or other extracts that either required concentrating cannabis ingredients or that requires a chemical production process,” reports Chris Roberts at SF Weekly.

U.S. Says St. Vincent Is Caribbean’s Top Marijuana Source

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 19, 2012 Global, Growing, News

Travelvice

Big marijuana farms, like the one visible at the center of this photo, are common in St. Vincent.

The United States claims that the archipelagic nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines is “the source for the majority of cannabis” in the Caribbean.

“According to officials, marijuana producers have recently started labeling their product for export,” says the U.S. Department of State’s 2012 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, according to the Antigua Observer.

“Police have also observed a trend of younger nationals entering the trade,” the State Department added, apparently unfamiliar with the past 50 years of history.”Regional trade has also increased with Trinidad and Tobago, sending drugs and guns in exchange for cannabis. Officials described a ‘marked increase’ in remittance flows.”

DOJ, DEA & ATF: Confused Bureaucracies Or Street Thieves?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 19, 2012 Culture, Dispensaries, News

Opposing Views

Did the Feds think of the impact that their letters and raids have had on the patients who depend on places like the Berkeley Patients Group?

By Bob Starrett

He looked a bit suspicious, standing in front of the Blockbuster kiosk at the 7-11 talking on his cell phone. He wasn’t renting a movie so I asked him to move to the side. As I was perusing the latest releases, he walked into the store.

Just seconds later he was out and gone. As he streaked past me, I could hear the jingling of coins in a jar but by the time I realized what was happening he was too far gone for me to do anything about it.

An approaching woman told me that there was a car idling in the alley, apparently the getaway car. It was over so quickly. It was only then that I realized that all I would have had to do was lift up my right leg as he was accelerating by me and he would have done a faceplant onto the concrete.

A common thief. A street thief. Steal anything from anyone, without regret, without thought of consequence. He probably did not pick a particular charity jar to take. He likely took whatever was closest to the door. And then he was gone, just like that. No thought to the charity, no thought at all.

Willie Nelson Supports Oregon Cannabis Tax Act

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 16, 2012 Culture, Legislation, News

Houston Press

Country music legend Willie Nelson has endorsed the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 (OCTA 2012), which is gathering signatures to qualify for the November general election ballot. If passed by the people of Oregon, OCTA 2012 would regulate the legal sale of marijuana through state-licensed stores, allow adults to grow their own, license Oregon farmers to grow marijuana for state-licensed stores and allow unlicensed Oregon farmers to grow hemp for fuel, fiber and food.

OCTA 2012 will raise an estimated $140 million a year by taxing commercial cannabis sales to adults 21 and older, and save an additional estimated $61.5 million as law enforcement, corrections and judicial attention can focus on violent crimes and theft.

“We estimate this will amount to $200 million a year more funding for state government,” the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp (CRRH) said. Ninety percent of those proceeds will go into the state general fund, seven percent for drug treatment programs, with one percent each going to drug education in public schools and to two new state commissions to promote hemp biofuel, hemp fiber and food.

Branson: I Asked For Weed At The White House [With Video]

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 16, 2012 Culture, News

Marijuana.com

Richard Branson: “I asked him if I could have a spliff. But they didn’t have any.”

If you were at a White House state dinner and you got some face time with President Obama, what would you ask him?

“I asked him if I could have a spliff,” Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson told a crowd at The Atlantic‘s offices on Thursday, one day after attending the dinner in honor of British Prime Minister David Cameron, reports Patrick Gavin at Politico.

“But they didn’t have any,” Branson said, recounting his effort to score weed at the White House.

Canada Passes Harsh Mandatory Sentences For Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2012 Global, Legislation, News

The Non Conformer

Despite widespread criticism from experts and a massive price tag, Canada’s Harper Conservatives on Tuesday passed by a 154 to 129 vote the controversial Bill C-10, the so called omnibus crime bill or “Safe Streets and Communities Act.” The new law includes harsh mandatory jail sentences for minor marijuana offenses. The Beyond Prohibition Foundation, which has long advocated against these sweeping changes to Canada’s criminal justice system, said it was “deeply troubled by the implications of the bill.”

The bill increases sentences for drug and sex offenses, reduces the use of conditional sentences such as house arrest, provides harsher penalties on young offenders, and makes it more difficult to get a pardon, reports Bruce Cheadle of the Canadian Press.

Previous 1 … 304 305 306 307 308 … 490 Next