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Eric Roberts In Celebrity Rehab… For Marijuana!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 28, 2010 Culture, News

Eric Roberts, now playing the part of a marijuana addict. Hey Eric, any chance of you just shutting the hell up and going home?

Sometimes fading Hollywood stars, attention junkies that they are, do the dumbest things to keep their names in the headlines. Eric Roberts checked into “Celebrity Rehab” last week, and his wife, Eliza, told the press that he was there to be treated for his addiction to medical marijuana, reports The Huffington Post.

“Eric quit drugs and alcohol in 1995,” Eliza told E!. “He has no interest in anything, other than marijuana.”

According to Eliza, Eric had previously tried prescription pills to treat anxiety, but they didn’t agree with him, so he turned to cannabis for a cure.

To the rest of us, that may sound damn close to “no problem,” but that’s not the way Eric sees it.

“He uses marijuana as a medication,” Eliza said. “He has a prescription. However, a dependency is a dependency and he doesn’t want to be dependent on it anymore.”

First Time: A Plurality Of Americans Supports Legal Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 27, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: Showtime

“Weeds” star Mary Louise Parker: Cultural bellwether?

There’s more good news for supporters of marijuana legalization. For the first time ever, Rasmussen Reports’ poll of American adults has a plurality supporting legalization: 43 percent think marijuana should be legalized, while 42 percent think is should remain against the law.

Almost two-thirds of Americans — even those who are against it — now believe that marijuana will be legalized within the next 10 years.

A “plurality” in polling terms simply means that more people are in favor of pot legalization than are opposed to it.

That’s quite an improvement from a year ago, when a similar Rasmussen poll found 41 percent supporting legalization and 49 percent opposed, reports policy analyst Jon Walker at FireDogLake.

“It is possible that Prop 19, by bringing the debate to the forefront, is starting to noticeably move national opinions by forcing people to take some time to actually think about the issue,” Walker said.

We’re Winning! Poll Shows CA Pot Legalization Ahead 52%-36%

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

Graphic: SF Appeal

Prop 19 is ahead by 16 points! Is it November yet?

Pothead Power, people. California’s Proposition 19, which would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana for adults 21 and older, is currently leading by a wide margin among state voters, according to a new poll. The measure is supported by 52 percent of voters, and opposed by only 36 percent.

The new PPP poll (PDF) shows the largest margin of support yet seen from recent polling on Prop 19, reports policy analyst Jon Walker at FireDogLake.

Interestingly, the poll found Prop 19 support among African Americans to be very high, possibly influenced by the California NAACP’s recent endorsement of the legalization measure.

African Americans are the strongest supporters of Prop 19, with 68 percent in favor and 32 percent against, followed by whites who support it 53 percent to 37 percent.

This Is Art Appreciation: 4 Pounds Of Pot Found In Painting

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 27, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: WSB TV

Gordon Clement, 80, had this painting for five years before he discovered four pounds of marijuana inside the frame. See photo of the cannabis after the fold.

A Georgia man who bought a painting at auction years ago last weekend discovered there was more to the artwork than met the eye when he found thousands of dollars worth of marijuana hidden inside it.

Gordon Clement, 80, of Cherokee County, Ga., said he found four pounds of cannabis stashed inside the frame of the painting he now owns, reports WSB TV.

Rather than being cool about it, just smoking the damn stuff and enjoying the painting like he should, Clement opted to take the whiney approach.

Marijuana Found On Bret Michaels’ Two Tour Buses

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 26, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: SuperiorPics.com

Bret Michaels may need to up his meditation time after his marijuana stash got seized from two tour buses last week.

Rocker Bret Michaels had a little run-in with the police last Wednesday night in DeKalb County, Indiana, when officers found marijuana and “other drugs” on the singer’s two tour buses.

After a DeKalb County Sheriff’s deputy pulled over the two buses just after 11:30 pm for what Chief Deputy Jay Oberholtzer claimed was a “lighting violation” of some sort on one of the vehicles, police K9 units turned up stashes of marijuana and other unspecified drugs onboard, reports Aaron Organ of The Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.

Man Tries To Trade Marijuana For Burgers At McDonald’s

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 26, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: ThePirata.com

Police in Florida said a McDonald’s customer who ran short of cash tried to pay for his cheeseburgers with marijuana and prescription drugs.

Oh, and dude was in a car he’d just stolen, too.

Alexander Lemke, 20, of Palm Harbor, Fla., must have had a king-hell case of the munchies.

The Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office claims Lemke broke into a neighbor’s home at about 1:25 a.m. on Friday and left in their 2005 Toyota Solara, according to the St. Petersburg Times.

Sex Toys Retailer Pumps $100K Into Marijuana Legalization Push

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 26, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: Creative Loafing

Hey, if there were only some rock and roll to go with the sex and drugs, this would be a perfect story.

A new campaign committee to support Prop 19, California’s initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use, has a wealthy donor: the president of Adam & Eve, a mail order firm selling sex toys and porn.

Philip D. Harvey, who heads up the North Carolina company which has been billed as America’s largest provider of sexual products and fuck films, has donated $100,000 to the Drug Policy Action Committee to Tax and Regulate Marijuana, reports Peter Hecht at the Fresno Bee.

Team President Fined For Remarks On NBA Star’s Pot Habit

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 26, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: Sports News

The Minnesota Timbewolves’ team president was fined $50,000 for talking about how much marijuana Michael Beasley smokes.

The National Basketball Association on Friday fined Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn $50,000 for his recent remarks about the marijuana habit of forward Michael Beasley, for whom the team recently traded, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The big-mouthed Kahn spoke in a radio interview Thursday about Beasley’s marijuana use in Miami, claiming that it hampered his play with the Heat, reports Hardcourt Mayhem at the Bleacher Report.

He added that he spoke to Beasley about discontinuing his marijuana use with the Timberwolves, which would supposedly help him become a better player.

Kahn called Beasley “a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana” during his disappointing tenure with the Miami Heat NBA team.

V.A. Says Veterans Can Now Use Medical Marijuana

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

Graphic: Veterans Today

In a historic decision, the V.A. has announced veterans will no longer be endangering their pain prescriptions by using medical marijuana in states where it is legal.

In a historic decision, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will now formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal.

It’s a day to remember, according to Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. “We now have a branch of the federal government accepting marijuana as a legal medicine,” Fox said.

The policy clarification has been sought by veterans and advocates for years, reports Dan Frosch at The New York Times.

A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in V.A. hospitals between federal law, which outlaws marijuana for any purpose, and medical marijuana laws in the 14 states that allow medicinal use of cannabis.

Like the decision by Obama’s Justice Department to back off on marijuana dispensary raids in states that have legalized medical pot, the new V.A. policy essentially means the federal government is deferring to state medical marijuana laws.

Marijuana Church Founder Called ‘Too Dangerous’ For Bail

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 23, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry

Roger Christie of THC Ministry is “a danger to the community.” That is, if you believe federal prosecutors.

A Hawaii-based marijuana minister who has for years been preaching the good news about ganja is now under federal indictment, and agents on Friday managed to persuade a federal judge that he is somehow “too dangerous” to be allowed out on bail.

Roger Christie, the founder of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry (THC Ministry), has been ordered held without bail after the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested him, along with 13 current or former employees and growers, on July 8.

Christie and the others are charged with marijuana trafficking offenses related to their alleged distribution of marijuana as a sacrament at the ministry, reports Stop The Drug War.

Christie had already been raided by the DEA in March, with agents “seizing” cash and marijuana, but not arresting him at that time.

Federal agents claim that after that raid, Christie continued his marijuana distribution at the ministry. He and the others were secretly indicted last month.

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