News

Browsing: News

Teen Marijuana Use Continues To Rise Despite High Arrest Rates

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 14, 2011 Legislation, News

Government Study, Comparing Rates of Marijuana and Alcohol Use, Suggests That Regulation Is More Effective Means of Reducing Teen Use

Cannabis use continues to rise among youth despite the continued policy of arresting nearly a million people a every year for marijuana violations.

Marijuana use by 8th, 10th and 12th grade students increased again in 2011, with more American teenagers now using marijuana for the fourth year in a row, according to numbers released today by tyne National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the University of Michigan as part of the annual Monitoring the Future survey.

Govt.: Nearly Half Of Drug Courts Do Not Reduce Recidivism

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 13, 2011 Legislation, News

The Daily Record

Only 18 Of 32 Drug Courts Showed Statistically Significant Reduction In Re-Arrest Rates Of Participants

Drug courts, hailed just a few years ago as the salvation of our criminal justice system — they were supposed to rescue the courts from being swamped with low-level possession cases — have problems of their own.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) last week released a report in which it finds that only 18 of 32 drug courts — or just more than 50 percent — showed statistically significant reductions in recidivism among participants.

Spanish Basque Country Legalizing Marijuana In 2012

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 13, 2011 Global, Legislation, News

Flashpoints

The Basque Country in Spain (yellow area on the map) is legalizing marijuana in 2012.

As the U.S. federal government torques up its war on marijuana, parts of Europe are going in the other direction. The Socialist government of the Basque Country in Spain will approve a law in early 2012 which legalizes the cultivation, sale and consumption of cannabis, according to health authorities in the province.

The Basque government, led by Patxi Lopez, has decided it is better to regulate clubs where consumers will be able to use marijuana which will be produced and distributed by members of the club themselves, reports Typically Spanish.

Spanish drug laws currently distinguish between possession for personal use, and production or sale. Possession carries administrative fines, but production and sale currently can result in jail time.

Government officials said the new law would better explain the consequences of consumption to the public, and would create “a certain space for personal autonomy,” adding that prohibition only leads to “clandestine action, delinquency and the black market.”

Dispensary Break-In Foiled: Would-Be Robbers Leave Weedless

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 12, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Yahoo! Local

Nature’s Way, a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado Springs, had an attempted robbery by two men Saturday night. The would-be robbers left empty handed.

Two would-be robbers were foiled Saturday night at a Colorado Springs medical marijuana dispensary when the cops arrived faster than expected.

The employees at Nature’s Way said two men broke into their store by going into the coin laundry next door, then using their bathroom to gain access to the dispensary’s ceiling, reports Catherine Bilkey at KKTV. From there the would-be robbers were able to climb over the tiles and break into Nature’s Way.

But that’s about all that went according to plan for the two bumbling crooks.

“It was almost like a movie scene,” said Nature’s Way employee Mark Cebula. “The alarms are going off; because that alarm is pretty loud … they must have started panicking.”

Most of the cannabis at the dispensary is locked up in a safe at night, so Cebula believes the frustrated pot-rustlers tried to leave through the front door, but probably saw the cops pulling up. With locked doors all around, they were stuck in the lobby.

Grumbine Medical Marijuana Trial: ‘We Got Pounded This Week’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 10, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Joe Grumbine

Joe Grumbine addresses supporters outside the courtroom

The out-of-control antics of an octogenarian, rabidly anti-marijuana judge continued to appall activists in Long Beach, California this week. Superior Court Judge Charles Sheldon, the 79-year-old judge in the trial of Joe Grumbine and Joe Byron, former operators of a pair of Long Beach cannabis collectives, didn’t even bother to conceal his obvious bias against the defendants, according to observers.

“We got pounded this week and especially the last half of today,” Grumbine posted on Facebook Friday night. “In spite of three motions for a mistrial due to bias, we move forward in this landmark case.”

Right at the outset of the trial, Judge Sheldon denied the two Joes their right to mention medical marijuana in their defense — upon which, of course, the whole case hinges. This prevented their attorneys from calling it witnesses who could testify that they were following California state law. But after a ruling last week by the California Court of Appeal, Sheldon was left with no choice but to allow such witnesses to testify.

On Monday, when confronted with this ruling, Sheldon refused a follow-up motion by the defense to delay the trial for a week so defense attorneys Alison Margolin and Christopher Glew could get ahold of the previously off-limits witnesses. But Judge Sheldon insisted the trial start right away.

Mendo Board Supports Use Of Spy Agencies In Marijuana War

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 9, 2011 Growing, News

U.S. Forest Service

A federal drug agent prepares to destroy a marijuana crop in Northern California

You too, Mendo? Say it ain’t so! The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has voted 3-2 to support the use of federal intelligence agencies in the war against marijuana.

The most liberal member of the board of supervisors, Green Party member Dan Hamburg, joined the most libertarian member, Supervisor John Pinches of the American Independent Party to cast the two votes against the “consent calendar” item at Tuesday’s board meeting, reports Jennifer Poole at The Willits News.

Both opposed the item asking the board to support California Congressman Mike Thompson’s attempts to involve federal spy agencies in the fight against illegal marijuana cultivation by so-called “international drug trafficking organizations” on public lands.

NBA Stops Testing For Marijuana In The Off-Season

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 9, 2011 Culture, News

Ronald Martinez

LeBron James can’t be bummed out about the news: No testing for pot in the NBA’s off-season

Just because you’re seven feet tall doesn’t have to mean you can’t get higher. The National Basketball Association’s new labor agreement will not test players for marijuana during the off-season. Players will only be tested for performance-enhancing drugs.

The walk-out is all behind us now. And it seems the players were able to get an even better deal under the new NBA labor contract, reports Rena Karefa-Johnson of Buzz:60.

“You’d think after all the walk-out, the last thing the players would want in the off-season is something that would make it go even slower,” Karefa-Johnson said.

Holder: Federal Interference In Medical Marijuana A Low Priority

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

YouTube

Attorney General Eric Holder: “If in fact people are not using he policy decision that we have made to use marijuana in a way that’s not consistent with the state statute, we will not use our limited resources in that way.” Or something.

It’s easy to get whiplash trying to keep up with federal medical marijuana policy, and my neck’s hurting again after hearing the latest from Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder on Thursday repeated the support of the Department of Justice for the Ogden Memo, the 2009 policy statement which deprioritized the prosecution of medical marijuana providers who are following state law.

“What we said in the memo we still intend, which is that given the limited resources that we have, and if there are states that have medical marijuana provisions … if in fact people are not using the policy decision that we have made to use marijuana in a way that’s not consistent with the state statute, we will not use our limited resources in that way,” Holder said in his usual convoluted (dare I say tortured?) fashion, reports Lucia Graves at Huffington Post.

City Government Eyes Toronto’s Cannabis Vapor Lounges

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2011 Culture, Global, News

memoirsofapothead

Hot Box Cafe in Toronto

By Matt Mernagh

Mernagh.ca

Toronto’s bring-your-own marijuana scene has developed with little political resistance — until recently.

A city council item to conduct a comprehensive review of vapour lounges was sneakily passed during budget debate. Now cannabis-friendly establishments that allow people to come in and consume their own pot on-premise are wondering what’s going to happen next. Toronto Police Service have all the tools necessary to shut these places down right now, but haven’t.

Will city council meddling prompt cops to take a closer examination of their hands off policy?

NYC Marijuana Arrests Drop Only 13% Since Cops Told To Chill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2011 News

New York Magazine

The Big Apple is STILL the King of the World for marijuana arrests — even after a 13 percent drop.

Since 1977, possession cases for small amounts of marijuana have been violations in New York — non-arrestable offenses — unless the pot is burning or in plain public view. But despite the existing law, in 2010 one out of every seven arrests in New York City was for marijuana possession “in public view” — even though the vast majority of those arrested did not possess marijuana in public view, as widely reported in The New York Times, WNYC, the Daily News and many other outlets.

These arrests are largely the result of the NYPD stopping and frisking more than half a million mostly young black and Latino men and falsely charging them for marijuana possession “in public view.”

Previous 1 … 325 326 327 328 329 … 490 Next