News

Former Major Leaguer Says Marijuana For Aches, Pains

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 8, 2010 Culture, News

Former Major League Baseball player Dmitri Young’s McLean County Jail booking photo

Former Major League Baseball star Dmitri Young said he wanted to give fans an explanation of why he was carrying a small amount of cannabis in an Illinois airport Monday morning that led to misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

“Since retirement, I’ve been in a lot of serious pain,” the former Detroit Tigers star told Shawn Windsor of the Detroit Free Press.

“From my quads to my back to anxiety from my mother’s death, it takes a toll,” Young said. “I didn’t want to use pills. I had already been to rehab before and knew I didn’t want to be on opiates. So, in talking with physicians, we decided this was the best way to go.”

“I used poor judgment,” Young said. “And I have to pay the consequences.”

Man Smuggles Marijuana Into Jail Using Chinese Takeout Box

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 8, 2010 News

Photo: The WEBstaurant store

Tastes great, but you’re hungry again in 15 minutes.

A Georgia man has been arrested after sheriff’s deputies claim they caught him trying to smuggle marijuana in to an Alabama jail inmate in a container of Chinese food.

Pike County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Edward Ridley, 41, of Cordele, Ga., and charged him Saturday with felony “promoting prison contraband,” reports Matt Elofson at the Dothan Eagle.

He was still being held at the Pike County Jail Thursday on $7,500 bond.

Ridley entered the jail with a styrofoam container of Chinese take-out food, including rice and shrimp, for inmate Vincent Thomas, acccording to sheriff’s department records.

Boy Charged In BB Gun Robbery Of Marijuana From Dealer

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 7, 2010 News

Graphic: Bleat

Bond has been set at $40,000 for a 17-year-old Arlington Heights, Illinois teen who prosecutors claim took two ounces of marijuana — at BB-gunpoint — from a pot dealer.

Nicholas Saegebrecht was charged with aggravated robbery in the incident, which happened Monday night in Arlington Heights, reports Tania Karas of the Chicago Daily Herald.

Saegebrecht called the victim to set up the pot deal, according to police. Then, on his way to the agreed-upon meeting point in the parking lot of a downtown Arlington Heights business, he picked up the BB gun, the police report said.

When Saegebrecht brandished the BB gun at the dealer, the marijuana was handed over, the complaint said.

Officers later pulled over the vehicle Saegebrecht was in, and found the BB gun used in the crime. Saegebrecht, who probably isn’t in any danger of being nominated for a high-IQ award, also had a pending case for possession of a controlled substance, according to the prosecutor.

DEA Raids Medical Marijuana Protest Organizer

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 7, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Gus Burns/The Saginaw News

John Roberts, 48, said he and his fiancee, Stephanie Whisman, 38, were raided after he organized a medical marijuana protest last week. Roberts is holding a syringe of Rick Simpson hemp oil, a liquid cannabis extract ingested orally for pain and to induce sleep.

Perhaps as a warning to those who dare to speak out, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents on Tuesday raided the home of a Michigan medical marijuana patient, activist and caregiver after he organized a protest outside the Saginaw County Courthouse last week.

John F. Roberts, 49, of Thomas Township, said he believes the raid was in retaliation because he organized last week’s protest accusing the Saginaw County Sheriff of raiding patients and caregivers, reports Kim Russell at NBC 25. Protesters had come from around the state, some holding signs reading, “Learn The Law.”

California Pot Prices Could Plummet To $38/Oz. With Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 7, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: Guanabee

The price of marijuana could plummet as much as 80 percent, and consumption would rise, if Californians approve Proposition 19, the cannabis legalization measure on November’s ballot, according to a detailed analysis by researchers at Rand’s Drug Policy Research Center.

Currently between $300 and $450 an ounce in California, the cost of pot could drop as low as $38 by eliminating the expenses and challenges of operating in the black market, according to the study, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

The researchers admitted they weren’t certain how much pot use might be spurred by cheaper prices, but they noted one typical estimate is that a 10 percent drop in price typically increases use by about three percent. Other factors, such as getting rid of the legal risks associated with marijuana use, could also increase usage between five percent and 50 percent.

End Mexico’s Bloody Drug War: Legalize Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 7, 2010 Global, News

Photo: FrontPageMag.com

The Drug War has resulted in about 16,000 deaths in Mexico over the past three years.

When substance abuse treatment professionals start calling for the legalization of marijuana, we can be sure that we are mainstreaming our message of cannabis liberation.

That’s why Toke of the Town is running this guest editorial by Steven Lo, who is affiliated with AllTreatment.com, an online resource which offers help in finding drug rehab centers.

Let me quickly add that Toke of the Town does not endorse or support any form of “marijuana rehab,” whatever that’s supposed to entail, and that we believe the entire concept of “marijuana addiction” is so deeply flawed as to be useless.

Pot-Dealing Peruvian Women Hide Weed In Their Vuvuzelas

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 6, 2010 Global, News

Photo: Brian Currin

No, these aren’t the pot dealers. These women are Coda, and their song is called “Blow Your Vuvuzela.” Head on over to Brian Currin’s blog to download it.

Peruvian pot dealers have found a cool new use for the vuvuzela, the long, thin plastic horns whose sound has become the backdrop of the soccer World Cup — hiding their marijuana.

Two Peruvian women were arrested in front of a school in capitol city Lima on Tuesday. Police claim the women were trying to sell 100 small bags of cannabis that they had packed into their vuvuzelas, reports Terry Wade for Reuters.

The fame of vuvuzelas has spread virally during this year’s World Cup soccer matches — while, in some quarters, their popularity has dipped. Many find the buzzing blare of the plastic horns to be rather, well, annoying.

Naked Worker Found In Texas Warehouse; Busted For Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 5, 2010 News

Photo: MyFoxDFW.com

“Very hot” in Texas: Kenneth Clyde Jackson decided it would be a good idea to work in the nude.

Jeeze, whatever happened to just whistling while you work?

Texas police looking into a possible break-in instead found a seemingly intoxicated employee catching up on tasks over the weekend — while drunk, stoned, and stark naked.

Fort Worth police officers checked an open door at the Regal Plastics warehouse found an unclothed, 55-year-old Kenneth Clyde Jackson, reports Alice Wolke at MyFoxDFW.com.

Jackson, who works for the company, was completely nude and had the odor of alcohol on his breath, according to the police report.

Old Kilo Of Marijuana Washes Up On Florida Beach

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 5, 2010 News

Photo: George Ginsburg

Independence Day revelers at New Smyrna Beach, Florida made an interesting find among the seashells — an old kilo of marijuana.

The pot came ashore around noon on the beach, according to Volusia County Beach Patrol Capt. Scott Petersohn, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

“It was really old and barnacle-crusted,” Petersohn said. “It’s not anything that anyone would want to roll up and smoke.” (The captain must not know some of my friends.)

Massachusetts Has No Way To Collect New $100 Pot Fines

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 5, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: The Katy Capsule

Massachusetts’ 2008 decrim law, approved by voters, specifies a $100 fine for marijuana. But it doesn’t specify what to do if folks don’t pay their tickets.

Massachusetts’ new law decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana has left some local law enforcement officers dazed and confused, reports Aaron Gouveia of the Cape Cod Times.

Police officers for the past 18 months have been issuing the new $100 non-criminal citations to people caught with less than an ounce of pot. But when people don’t pay their fine, officials aren’t sure exactly what to do.

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