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San Diego Jury Deliberating In Medical Marijuana Case

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 28, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical, News

The jury is deliberating in the second trial of San Diego medical marijuana provider Jovan Jackson.

A Superior Court jury has heard the evidence in the trial of Jovan Jackson, accused of illegally selling marijuana at a now-defunct medical cannabis dispensary in Kearny Mesa, California, and is expected to begin its first full day of deliberations Tuesday.

Jackson, 32, faces charges of possession and sale of marijuana at Answerdam Collective Care on Convoy Court. If convicted, he could be sentenced to more than six years in prison, reports Dana Littlefield at Sign On San Diego.

Jackson owned Answerdam, described as a “marijuana store,” according to Deputy Attorney Chris Lindberg. The prosecutor claimed that Jackson misused California’s medical marijuana law, which he said was intended to help the sick and suffering, to “line his own pockets.”

S.D. Tea Party Leader: Medical Pot Leads To Widespread Laziness

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 28, 2010 Medical, News

Tea Party of South Dakota

Allen Unruh: “They would not want to work”

”One of the side effects is, they would not want to work.” ~ Allen Unruh, organizer for a local South Dakota Tea Party group

Supporters of a measure to legalize small amounts of marijuana for medicinal use in South Dakota on Monday sought to assure the public that it would not create pot dispensaries or open the door to full legalization.

“This is about ill people,” said Tony Ryan, a retired police officer whose wife suffers from multiple sclerosis. “It’s only about ill people. It’s not a free-for all.”

The rally also came on the same day that conservative firebrand Allen Unruh, an organizer for a local Tea Party group, denounced the medical marijuana measure as a back-door effort to legalize cannabis, which Unruh complained would lead to “widespread laziness” among users.

“One of the side effects is, they would not want to work,” Unruh said. “Unemployment is already through the roof.”

(Damn, I don’t really feel like doing the rest of this story, man. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Just kidding!)

Thousands Eligible For ‘Crack Tax’ Refunds In Tennessee

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 28, 2010 News

Photo: CBS News

Tennessee collected $10.3 million from drug suspects before the “crack tax” was declared illegal.

When Williamson County Sheriff Ricky Headley was busted for illegal possession of prescription pills, the state of Tennessee taxed him $13,000 on the value of those drugs.

Sheriff Headley paid the tax, resigned from office, pleaded guilty to four drug charges and one count of official misconduct, and got just under five years’ probation, reports Brian Haas of The Tennessean.

Then, the disgraced sheriff got all his money back. Plus interest.

“I got every penny back,” said Headley’s Nashville lawyer, David Raybin.

Tennesseans in a slow but growing trickle have requested and gotten refunds from the state since the Tennessee Supreme Court struck down the so-called “crack tax” law in 2009.

The state Department of Revenue has refunded $3.7 million to 161 people, but 2,772 people who paid the tax have not gotten any money back.

The decision doesn’t apply beyond Tennessee, but 22 other states have passed similar drug tax collection laws, which may be vulnerable to similar legal challenges.

Officer Shoots Pregnant Unarmed Woman During Drug Raid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 27, 2010 News

Photo: PicsDigger

A pregnant, unarmed woman was shot during a drug raid in Spokane, Washington on Friday morning, and she remained hospitalized as investigators pieced together exactly what happened in the county’s third officer-involved shooting within a month.

A Washington State Patrol detective sergeant shot the woman, who is 39 weeks pregnant, while “serving a search warrant” at the Victoria Apartments on Lincoln Street, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, reports Meghann M. Cuniff of the Spokane Spokesman-Review.

The shooting is being investigated by the Sheriff’s office, along with members of the Spokane Police Department and the Washington State Patrol.

Officers found no weapons in the home, confirmed Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan. He claimed they did, however, find drugs — crack cocaine, marijuana, and controlled prescription medications — during execution of the search warrant.

But a woman who identified herself as the victim’s mother, but who wouldn’t give her name, said there were no drugs or weapons in the home.

Prop 19 To Legalize Marijuana Gains Support In California

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 27, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: ACS Blog

A new poll finds growing support for a November ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in California.

Sunday’s survey by the nonpartisan Field Poll on Prop 19, which will be on the state’s November ballot and would legalize marijuana and tax its production, distribution and sale, shows more voters warming to the measure, which is now leading 49 to 42 percent, with 9 percent undecided.

A Field Poll in July showed the measure trailing, 44 percent Yes to 48 percent No, reports Jim Miller of the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

ASA Tells California Cities: Federal Law Can’t Stop Pot Shops

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 23, 2010 Dispensaries, News

Photo: LAKush.com

An advocacy group for medical marijuana patients is warning California cities and counties that they cannot ban cannabis dispensaries on grounds that state and federal marijuana laws are in conflict.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the Oakland-based organization representing marijuana patients, has sent letters to 134 California cities and nine counties, urging them to lift local bans on marijuana dispensaries as a result of an August state appeals court ruling. The letter hints at potential legal actions to come, reports Peter Hecht of The Sacramento Bee.

Ala. Patient Faces 10 Years For 1 Gram Of Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 23, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Ron Crumpton

Alabama marijuana activist Loretta Nall, left, and patient Michael Lapihuska, who faces 10 years in prison for one gram of medical cannabis.

A former Alabama resident who was back home for the holidays last December — and who is a legal medical marijuana patient in California — is facing 10 years in prison for one gram of cannabis.

Michael Lapihuska, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression, grew up in Alabama, but left the state after serving 13 months for possessing five grams of marijuana in 2003, reports Phillip Smith at Stop The Drug War. He was arrested on marijuana possession charges again on December 15, 2009 in Anniston, Alabama, as he visited his family for Christmas.

Trooper Takes Man’s Medical Marijuana Despite Paperwork

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 23, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: KIRO 7

Neil Leno: “I was surprised and then I was also frustrated”

A Washington man said his medical marijuana paperwork wasn’t enough to keep an officer from taking his personal supply of cannabis Tuesday morning.

Neil Leno said at first he wasn’t worried when a State Trooper stopped his friend’s car for a cracked windshield, even though he had a bag of marijuana on the back seat, reports Lee Stoll at KIRO 7.

“The officer is asking if there’s anything in the car that he should know about and we state, ‘Yes, we have medical marijuana,’ ” Leno said.

Cali Pays $351 Per Ounce, New York $447 For Top Shelf Weed

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 22, 2010 News, Products

Photo: Compassion Family Ministries

Be prepared to pay almost $100 more an ounce in New York.

Now there’s a site where you can envy — or pity — cannabis consumers in other cities by comparing the price of weed everywhere in the U.S. and Canada.

Price Of Weed, “A Global Index of Marijuana,” collects data on pot prices all over so that potheads and producers alike can gauge the going rate for ganja. As remarked by J. Patrick Coolican at our sister Village Voice Media blog LA Weekly, isn’t the Internet wonderful?

Much like a tech-friendly version of High Times‘ time-honored Trans-High Market Quotations, long a favorite part of the magazine, priceofweed.com visitors can anonymously input information about their most recent bud buys: amount purchased; price; and quality (your choices are low, medium, and, yes, high).

32 Marijuana Dispensaries Still Eligible In Long Beach, CA

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 22, 2010 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Jonathan Van Dyke

Long Beach senior city auditor Scott Gardiner uses a pen to push a lottery ping pong ball through a special lottery machine during a test run on Monday. City officials ending up ditching the lottery machine — through which the balls wouldn’t fit — and pulled the numbers by hand from a “We Recycle” bin.

Another 11 Long Beach, California marijuana dispensaries will have to close their doors after being eliminated from the permit application process during a lottery on Monday, leaving 32 still eligible for final permits.

The lottery was set up because Long Beach Municipal Code 5.87 does not allow for any collective to operate within 1,000 feet of another, reports Jonathan Van Dyke of Gazettes.com.

Dispensaries whose lottery number was pulled first were accepted over other sites that conflicted with them.

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