News

Browsing: News

Newt To N.H.: Founding Fathers Would Have Busted You For Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 4, 2012 News

Newt Gingrich: “I think Jefferson or George Washington would have rather strongly discouraged you from growing marijuana and their techniques for dealing with it would have been rather more violent than our current government”

GOP Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich continued on Wednesday to show off his profound lack of comprehension of both drug policy and the mood of the American electorate, telling a New Hampshire audience that Washington and Jefferson would have violently suppressed marijuana.

Gingrich was pressed on three separate occasions Wednesday during a town-hall style meeting in Concord, N.H., where he said he had “no interest” in even considering cannabis decriminalization, reports Sam Stein at the Huffington Post.

Signatures Turned In For Colorado Marijuana Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 4, 2012 Legislation, News

The Weed Blog

Proponents Submit 159,000 Signatures to Put Cannabis Legalization on November Ballot in Colorado

Voter Initiative Would Generate New Revenue and Increase Public Safety

Denver-based activists submitted more than 159,000 signatures to the Secretary of State’s office on Wednesday, well in excess of the 86,500 required to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the state’s Presidential ballot in November.

“This is a job well done and a crucial first step to ensure Coloradans have a chance to make history,” said Art Way, Colorado manager of the Drug Policy Alliance, which supports the measure. “There’s simply no denying the intense groundswell for change.”

Marijuana Activist Legend Gatewood Galbraith Dies

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 4, 2012 News

Lex18.com

Gatewood Galbraith (1947-2012)

The legendary Gatewood Galbraith, colorful Kentucky political figure known as “The Last Free Man In America,” died quietly in his sleep at home Tuesday night. Gatewood, a perennial candidate for public office and a lifelong marijuana advocate, changed the cannabis movement forever with his homespun wisdom and plain-spoken honesty.

Gatewood, who defended individual rights in the streets, in the courtrooms and on political stages around the country, was perhaps best known for his advocacy of hemp farming and the legalization of marijuana, along with his sense of humor.

Galbraith had run for governor last November, finishing third in a three-candidate race won by incumbent Gov. Steve Beshear.

“Dear Friends I have just been notified that Gatewood passed away last night,” his running mate, Dea Riley, posted on Facebook this morning. “I am heading to Lexington to be with his family. Please say a prayer for his family and friends and all those who loved him. I am heartbroken.”

Activists Await Results One Year After CA Cannabis Decrim

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 3, 2012 Legislation, News

HempNews

On January 1, 2011, a law passed by the California State Legislature and signed by then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger went into effect that removed criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana, making the violation a civil citation similar to a parking ticket. Supporters of the law argued that it would remove some of the financial burden associated with arresting people for marijuana possession, while lessening the damage done by having a criminal record.

Advocates now eagerly await the release of arrest data, as well as state expenditures on marijuana enforcement and prosecution, to determine if the state is adequately following the law.

“Serious unintended consequences have surfaced as a result of this mischaracterization [marijuana possession being a misdemeanor as opposed to a civil infraction],” said Sen. Mark Leno, the bill’s sponsor, during debate on the bill in 2010.

Supreme Court Could Decide If Drug-Dog Based Warrants Valid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 3, 2012 News

hamptonroads.com

Do the police have a right to get a search warrant for your home if a police dog outside indicates the presence of drugs? The United States Supreme Court could decide this month whether to take a case from Florida involving exactly that scenario.

According to Florida’s highest court, Franky the drug dog’s ability to smell marijuana growing inside a Miami-area home from outside the closed front door crossed the constitutional line, reports Curt Anderson of the Associated Press. But Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a conservative Republican, wants the cops to be able to come on in.

Many experts expect the Supreme Court will take up the Florida case, Florida v. Jardines.

‘Dope King’? THCF’s Stanford Responds To AP Hit Piece

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 2, 2012 Medical, News, Products

Torsten Kjellstrand/The Oregonian

Paul Stanford has dedicated his life to advocating for medical marijuana. A medical marijuana cardholder, he and others involved with THCF grow marijuana for themselves and others. There is usually a surplus from this Portland garden, and most of it goes to patients who can’t grow their own or afford to buy it from others.

Medical marijuana advocate and businessman Paul Stanford, in an exclusive interview with Toke of the Town, has responded to a negative article by The Associated Press which on Sunday described his life as one “of error, missteps and regrets, one laden with betrayals and failure.”

Portland-based AP reporter Nigel Duara called Stanford and The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF) “the nation’s leading gateway to the drug,” even going so far as to label him a “Dope King” in the headline and to refer to his supporters as “dope enthusiasts” who regard Stanford as “something of a savior.”

So, how did we get back to 1970s or even 1960s style “evil weed” journalism in the blink of an eye? Wasn’t yesterday supposed to be the start of a new year? Aren’t we in the second decade of the 21st Century?

Apparently, only some of us are.

Tucson Will Be Toke Town In April: Medical Cannabis Conference

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 2, 2012 Culture, News, Products

Veterans Today

By Al Byrne

Patients Out of Time

While the U.S. federal government’s regulators and lawyers, drug czar and others are paid to say whatever is dated and wrong about therapeutic cannabis, medical and nursing professionals are in wonder that so many can so willingly display their ignorance of therapeutic cannabis in public.

On November 23, 2011, the associate director for public affairs of the Office of National Drug Policy (ONDCP), Rafael Lemaitre said, “The Food and Drug Administration has not found smoked marijuana to be either safe or effective medicine for any condition.”

This statement made by a person of responsibility for citizen health in the U.S. is apparently in denial of a decades-long study of cannabis “smokers” by Donald P. Tashkin, M.D., medical director of the Pulmonary Function Laboratory, Professor of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles.

At the Patients Out of Time clinical cannabis conference in Pacific Grove in April 2008, Dr. Tashkin announced his study showed that no patient, of more than 2,200, who smoked only cannabis had lung cancer, COPD or other pulmonary problem other than mild bronchitis.

Smoking cannabis results in no lung cancer.

Activist Legend Dana Beal Headed To Prison

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 2, 2012 News

Freedom of Medicine and Diet

Dana Beal: Fighting for your rights since the 1960s, now he’s going to prison

Political activist Dana Beal turns 65 next week. For more than 40 years, Dana has been on the forefront of the battle for drug law reform and civil liberties. And in a few weeks, he’ll turn himself in to serve an 11-month prison sentence.

Beal, as has been the case for his entire life, has a lot of irons in the fire. Besides his work to ensure safe access for medical marijuana patients nationwide, the firebrand radical works to bring ibogaine, an herb that promises to cure heroin/opiate addiction, to the people who need it most.

Of course, his impending prison sentence will interrupt the many projects about which Beal is passionate, including the Yippie Museum in New York, which will chronicle the 1960s’ culture of rebellion which spawned the Youth International Party (YIP), which Beal co-founded with his legendary friends Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman back in 1968.

Weed Wipe-Out? Pro Surfers To Be Tested For Drugs

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

Marijuana.com

The inevitable crackdown came, not as a result of harmless cannabis nor even of is frisky big brother, LSD — but due to the same, tired old death drugs that have been killing people and destroying lives for generations

Drug Screen of Surfers Could Wipe Out Sport’s Rebellious Image

The mystique of surfing, since its music-fueled rise on the American West Coast during the 1960s, has always had a lot to do with rebellion, with alternatives, with a countercultural image. With the “bushy bushy blonde hair” and the rest of the accoutrements, of course, came marijuana and LSD, drugs of choice for the surfing culture which, unlike traditional narcotics and stimulants, didn’t noticeably reduce the physical abilities of those participating in the sport.

The mystic search to catch the perfect wave became the obsession of many a stoner — but the perfection of the art of surfing was a double-edged sword. It brought with it the inevitable commercialization of the sport, and big-purse surf competitions, along with their attendant product endorsements, became the tail that started wagging the dog.

Attacking Marijuana Patients Is Not A Good Legalization Strategy

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 1, 2012 Legislation, News

Patients Against I-502

The Unraveling of Dominic Holden

By Lee Rosenberg

Horses Ass

The New Approach Washington campaign turned in its signatures this week for Initiative 502. This initiative would legalize personal possession of up to one ounce of marijuana and regulate the distribution and sale of the drug to anyone over 21 [in Washington state]. It also introduces a per se DUI limit for “active” THC – in layman’s terms, the amount of “unprocessed” THC in your body.

Over at Slog, Dominic Holden continues to lash out at the folks in the medical marijuana community who oppose it – primarily due to the DUI provisions. I’ve been trying to stay out of this fight for my own sanity, but Holden’s anger is so misdirected (and misinformed), I have to speak up.

Previous 1 … 321 322 323 324 325 … 490 Next