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CA County Taking Away Children Of Medical Cannabis Patients

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2012 Medical, News

NORML Women’s Alliance Calls For Grand Jury Investigation

Several legal, qualified medical marijuana patients recently have had their children taken away by the Butte County, California Children’s Services Division. In response, the NORML Women’s Alliance last Friday put forward a complaint to the Grand Jury of Butte County requesting an investigation into the County Children’s Services Division for the agency’s perceived and widespread misconduct.

“The questionable actions and perceived misconduct by the Butte County CSD has compelled us to file an official request for an investigation by the Grand Jury in Butte County,” Sabrina Fendrick of the NORML Women’s Alliance told Toke of the Town from Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon.

Details Revealed: CIA Dosed S.F. Citizens With LSD

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

Speak Truth 2 Power

There have been numerous reports since a 1974 New York Times article of the Central Intelligence Agency using American citizens as guinea pigs, dosing them with the potent psychedelic drug LSD as part of the ultra-secret MK-ULTRA program. But most of the details of what actually occurred were about activities in New York City. Now, newly declassified CIA records, recent interviews, and the personal diary of an operative have shed more light on the San Francisco acid operation.

There were at least three CIA safe houses in the Bay Area where LSD experiments were performed on unwitting subjects from 1955 to 1965, reports Troy Hooper in a major article in SF Weekly. The apartment, boasting sweeping waterfront views, was just a short trip up the hill from North Beach’s rowdy saloons.

Deputies’ Medical Marijuana ‘Compliance Checks’ Anger Patients

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 14, 2012 Medical, News

Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Department

Siskiyou County Sheriff Jon Lopey claimed the medical marijuana “compliance checks” were voluntary — but none of the patients were told that. The sheriff claims he plans to meet with the detectives to make sure they’re “relaying correct information.”

Law enforcement officers made unannounced visits to the homes of medical marijuana patients in a California town last month, knocking on their doors and saying they were there at the direction of the sheriff. Dunsmuir residents said sheriff’s deputies, sometimes accompanied by a detective, showed up without warrants, but wearing full camouflage.

The deputies and a detective reportedly asked to see medical marijuana recommendation cards, asked to photograph the cards, requested and photographed identification, asked to view the number of plants in possession, and — according to several patients who experienced the visits — advised people on what medical conditions for which marijuana may or may not be used, reports Paul Boerger of Mount Shasta Area Newspapers.

Senator Mitch McConnell Claims Marijuana Will Kill You

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 14, 2012 Culture, News

NY Daily News

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: “Because of the harm that substances like marijuana and other narcotics pose to our society, I have concerns about this legislation”

From time to time we are reminded just how much work remains when it comes to educating politicians and the public about cannabis. One of those times is now: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) has warned a constituent via a letter that he doesn’t support medical marijuana legalization because, among other reasons, smoking pot can lead to death.

In a February 4 reply to his constituent, McConnell ticked off some “serious concerns” he has about legalizing weed for medicinal purposes, the topic about which the constituent had written him, reports Jennifer Bendery at the Huffington Post.

Firm Dedicates $100 Million Funding Facility To Medical Cannabis

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 14, 2012 Medical, News, Products

Cheryl Shuman

Green Asset International CEO Cheryl Shuman, right, with Aerosmith legend Steven Tyler. Shuman has 25 years of experience working with media, celebrities, marketing and healthcare in Beverly Hills.

Green Asset International Inc., which targets for acquisition cutting-edge medical marijuana and social media companies, is dedicating an unprecedented $100 million funding facility to develop the corporatization and rebranding of the cannabis industry’s ancillary businesses, CEO Cheryl Shuman announced on Wednesday.

Shuman, who estimates at least a billion dollars in current ancillary business opportunities, will review and acquire legal businesses within the medicinal cannabis industry.

“As one of the world’s most respected voices of the movement, it’s Shuman’s challenge and responsibility to remove the negative stigma and stereotypes of the cannabis user,” Green Asset said in a press release. “Real men and women in the corporate world are taking a stand to make a change by boldly ‘coming out of the closet’ to show their support and the validity of this great, growth-potential business by investing in the cannabis sector.”

Fed Court Sets Hearing In Medical Marijuana Voting Rights Case

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 14, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

The Weed Blog

In a case that could change everything, a hearing has been ordered in the voting rights case brought by medical marijuana patients against the federal government.

U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Guilford set March 26 to hear arguments regarding whether federal authorities should be enjoined from sending letters ordering the closure of medical marijuana collectives in Costa Mesa, California.

The patients in the case allege they have been denied the right to vote on medical marijuana legalization despite Congress’s December 2009 decision to grant that right to Washington, D.C., voters. A team of likeminded attorneys has now started working cooperatively to defend disabled patients’ rights on this case and additional suits.

“It is anomalous for the U.S. Attorney to claim that marijuana has no medical value based on the more than 40-year-old Controlled Substances Act considering Congress allowed the District of Columbia to vote on and implement its ‘Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Purposes Act’ in 2009,” Matthew Pappas, an attorney on the case, told Toke of the Town Wednesday morning.

FL Motorists Were Greeted By These Marijuana Billboards Today

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 13, 2012 Medical, News

Robert Platshorn

This is one of two different billboards that went up today in Florida as part of a push for the passage of medical marijuana in the state.

This billboard greeted motorists on a busy Florida highway after being unveiled Tuesday morning.

It’s one of two giant 48-foot billboards urging passage of medical marijuana for Floridians which Charles Stroud donated. Both are placed on Pompano, Florida’s busiest thoroughfare, Sample Road.

The billboards, donated by disabled Pennsylvania truck driver Stroud to The Silver Tour, are part of a push for the passage of medical marijuana in the Sunshine State, according to founder Robert Platshorn, who also directs Florida NORML.

Branson, Nadelmann To Speak In DC About Failed War On Drugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 13, 2012 Legislation, News

Drug Policy Alliance

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson (left) will join Drug Policy Alliance Executive Directeor Ethan Nadelmann (right) to speak about the need for greater momentum and political debate to end the failed War On Drugs

To Be Discussed Thursday, March 15: Legalization Debate in Latin America, Portugal’s Decriminalization Experience, Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiatives in Colorado and Washington, and the State of National Drug Policy Reform Efforts

Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson will join Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann to speak about the need for greater momentum and political debate to end the failed Drug War this Thursday, March 15, at a forum organized by The Atlantic (600 New Hampshire Ave. NW, 8th Floor) from 9:15 to 10:30 a.m.

Steve Clemons, editor at large of The Atlantic, will host the session and interview Branson and Nadelmann before opening to questions from the audience and media.

In the past year, Branson has stepped out as a prominent supporter of drug policy reform. His involvement with the Global Commission on Drug Policy electrified the international media and brought a new level of attention to the growing movement to end the 40-year-old War On Drugs.

Judge Orders California City To Let Marijuana Dispensary Open

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 13, 2012 Dispensaries, Medical, News

WeedMaps

This Wonka Umpa Lumpa ($20 gram, $450 an ounce) is among the strains available at Desert Heart Collective. A judge on Tuesday morning ordered the city of Rancho Mirage to issue a certificate of occupancy to the collective

A Riverside County, California judge ruled in favor of a medical marijuana dispensary on Tuesday, ordering the city of Rancho Mirage to have the building inspected for code violations and to issue a certificate of occupancy.

Desert Heart Collective, co-owned by four people, opened in 2010 and was later shut down by the city, reports Erik Sandoval at KESQ. The owners filed a $2 million lawsuit against

Rancho Mirage on February 3, 2011.

Rancho Mirage has a city ordinance prohibiting storefront medical marijuana dispensaries “due to the significant negative secondary effects that such dispensaries have been found to create — such as increase crime,” City Attorney Steve Quintanilla claimed in a written statement. (He’s mistaken or lying; the shops have been shown to create no such thing.)

Dying Woman Kicked Out Of SF Hospital For Vaporizing Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 13, 2012 Medical, News

ABC 7 News

Terminal patient Angel Raich was thrown out of UCSF Hospital last night for vaporizing medical marijuana

A well-known medical marijuana patient and advocate suffering from a terminal brain condition was escorted out of a San Francisco hospital Monday night for using a cannabis vaporizer inside the facility, according to media sources.

Angel McClary Raich, who said she believes she has about a year to live, was at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) Hospital to receive a brain scan, reports the Oakland Tribune. A resident of Oakland, Raich suffers constant severe pain, according to her website.

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