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National Black Police Association Endorses California’s Prop 19

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Philly NORML
Neill Franklin, LEAP: “Californians finally have an opportunity to do something about it”

​​​A national group of African-American law enforcement officers has endorsed Proposition 19, the measure on this November’s ballot that would tax and regulate marijuana in California.

The National Black Police Association (NBPA), with more than two dozen chapters across the United States, announced the endorsement in Sacramento, where the organization is holding a national conference, reports Jesse McKinley at The New York Times.
“Prohibition takes a toll on people of color across the country,” said Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which supports Prop 19.
“When I was a cop in Baltimore, and even before then when I was growing up there, I saw with my own eyes the devastating impact these misguided marijuana laws have on our communities and neighborhoods,” Franklin said.
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Why A Vikings Receiver’s Collapse Means NFL Should Allow Pot

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By on Culture, Medical, News

Photo: The Scores Report
Percy Harvin of the Minnesota Vikings has to go to the hospital now when he has a migraine headache — because he’s not allowed to use medical marijuana.

​Minnesota Vikings wide receive Percy Harvin is resting comfortably in a hospital after collapsing during practice yesterday due to a crippling migraine headache.

Sadly, as pointed out by Kevin Hoffman at our Village Voice Media sister blog CityPages, “the incident could have been prevented with the use of a freely available plant that he had previously relied on to control his long-standing health problem.”
Problem is, that useful plant is marijuana, and the NFL doesn’t allow its use by players.

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Wedding Photographer Busted With 700 Pounds Of Marijuana

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By on News

Photo: WSBT
Seven hundred pounds is quite a bit of weed.

​A Massachusetts photographer has been arrested after allegedly trying to retrieve more than $1 million worth of marijuana from a shipping facility.

Tommy Colbert, 52, of Brockton, Mass., one of the area’s top wedding photographers, is a suspect in connection with the big pot bust in Abington, where about 700 pounds of cannabis was seized on Monday.
A relative of the photographer stunned court officials on Tuesday when she walked into the clerk’s office at Brockton District Court and paid Colbert’s bail with $40,000 cash, reports Allan Stein of The Brockton Enterprise.
“I’ve been here 21 years. I’ve never seen that before,” said Assistant Clerk Kevin Leach. “Most times it would be done with a bank draft, or something like that.”
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Court Won’t Rule On Medical Marijuana Dispensary Bans

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By on Dispensaries, News

Graphic: HighDef Forum

​A California appeals court declined Wednesday to decide whether the state’s medical marijuana laws prevent cities and counties from outlawing dispensaries, sending a highly anticipated, closely watched dispute over Anaheim’s three-year-old ban back to a lower court for more hearings.

The ruling by the 4th District Court of Appeal did not provide much-needed clarity regarding the argument on pot dispensaries in the state. According to California’s medical marijuana law, passed by the voters in 1996, marijuana can be used if a person has a recommendation from a physician.
Cities and dispensaries had been anticipating a major decision because the court had asked both sides for more information and took an unusually long time to reach a decision — a full year, rather than the typical three months, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.
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Why Does Your Pot Dealer Hate You? Let Her Count The Ways

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By on Culture, Dispensaries, News

Photo: Brunch At Barneys

​​”Of course your dealer knows the risks he or she faces from the police and federal authorities, but that isn’t your dealer’s main fear,” Lauren Rothman tells us at our sister Village Voice Media blog LA Weekly.

“Your dealer’s main fear is wondering what kind of shit you’re going to pull on a daily basis…
“Having been a bud-slinger myself, I’m going to tell you about issues that arise when it comes to procuring drugs that make us contemplate — gulp — attaining a socially acceptable job with a real water cooler and all the fixings.
“I haven’t been in the saddle for a while, but I’ll never forget some of you, no matter how much I wish I could. Your dealer will thank for me for this.”
For the complete list, which I’ll just say sounds quite familiar, visit that glittering jewel of the VVM empire, the LA Weekly:

Obama Sticks With DEA Nominee Despite Criticism Of Raids

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By on Medical, News

Photo: daylife
Michele Leonhart, deputy administrator of the DEA, is a Bush-era drug warrior who has overseen raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries — yet Obama wants to keep her on.

​It often seems as if cannabis activists can’t agree on a lot of things. But one thing they all seem to agree upon is that President Obama should rescind the nomination of Bush holdover Michele Leonhart to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

A number of progressive groups released a letter last month accusing Leonhart, a deputy administrator appointed by President George W. Bush and the acting administrator since Karen P. Tandy’s resignation in 2007, of ignoring a Justice Department directive that raiding dispensaries and growers operating legally in medical marijuana states is a “poor use of resources.”
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Man Busted In Alabama For Bringing Medical Pot From California

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By on Medical, News

Photo: Michael Lapihuska
In happier days: Michael Lapihuska was arrested for taking his doctor-recommended medical marijuana on a trip back home to Alabama

​A former Alabama resident is facing a jail sentence for bringing his doctor-recommended medical marijuana with him from California to Alabama when he came home for the holidays last December.

Michael Lapihuska, a former resident of Anniston, Ala., was arrested December 15, 2009, when a police officer stopped him for hitchhiking, reports Laura Camper at The Anniston Star. The cop searched him, found a prescription bottle of marijuana in his pocket, and asked Lapihuska to take it out.
When the man complied, he was arrested for marijuana possession despite the doctor’s recommendation he presented to the officer.
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Pro-Legalization ‘Manhattan Madam’ Runs For N.Y. Governor

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Penthouse
Kristin Davis, a.k.a. The Manhattan Madam, is running for Governor of New York on a pro-marijuana legalization platform.

​Kristin Davis, the infamous “Manhattan Madam” who supplied top-of-the-line call girls to Eliot Spitzer during his tenures as Attorney General and Governor of New York, filed a voter petition to run on the ballot as the Anti-Prohibition Party candidate for Governor.

“I am running on a platform of personal and economic freedom,” said Davis, 35, a former hedge fund vice president. “I want to end the prohibition on marijuana, gay marriage and casino gambling to generate new revenues instead of raising taxes on already over-taxed New Yorkers.”
​”Californians have figured out what New Yorkers need to figure out,” Davis said in April. “Marijuana is a $10 billion a year industry in New York state. Its legalization and taxation would help New York’s current financial crises.”
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Family Of Lady Killed In Botched Drug Raid Getting $4.9 Million

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By on News

Photo: WXIA
Kathryn Johnston, 92, was shot five times by six officers after they busted down her door in a botched drug raid.

​The city of Atlanta will pay $4.9 million to the family of a 92-year-old woman killed in a botched November 2006 drug raid, Mayor Kasim Reed’s office announced on Monday.

Kathryn Johnston, 92, was shot to death by narcotics officers serving a so-called “no-knock” warrant. Investigators later determined the raid was based on falsified paperwork saying that illegal drugs were present in the home. Three former police officers were sentenced to prison terms for the cover-up that resulted, reports CNN.
The Atlanta Police Department’s drug unit underwent a major, though probably largely cosmetic, housecleaning as a result of the incident.
Johnston’s family will receive $2.9 million sometime in fiscal 2011, according to the mayor’s office, with the other $2 million to be paid in fiscal 2012, on or before August 15, 2011.
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Senate Candidate Forced To Backtrack After Tasteless Pot Jokes

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Ted S. Warren/AP
In which Dino Rossi learns that making fun of medical marijuana patients is bad politics

​The political atmosphere around marijuana has changed. It used to be a slam dunk to make fun of marijuana users — even medical marijuana patients — but a recent drama which played out in Washington state showed how much that has changed. A Republican candidate for U.S. Senate has been forced to “clarify” a series of tasteless jokes he made at the expense of medical marijuana research and patients.

“Last week, Republican Dino Rossi issued an extremely immature and thoughtless press release criticizing federally funded research being conducted at Washington State University into marijuana’s effect on pain medication,” said Mike Meno of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP).
The two-year study, by psychology professor Michael Morgan, involves injecting rats with synthetic cannabinoids and opiates in order to research their combined actions in order to find ways to improve treatment for people suffering from chronic pain.
“Rather than emphasize the great need for this type of research, as well as the proven efficacy of marijuana in helping to manage pain, Rossi decided to revert to hackneyed and unoriginal middle-school level humor,” Meno said.
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