News

Joint-Smoking Obama Featured In Ad For Pot Party

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 2, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: TMZ

An upcoming “pot party” in Los Angeles to celebrate President Barack Obama’s first year in office is using Photoshopped image of the Commander In Chief smoking a joint.

The ad features the President puffing a fat doobie in a doctored photo. The event’s organizers say the party will “celebrate Obama ending DEA raids” on medical marijuana patients and providers in states where medical cannabis is legal, report David Edwards and John Byrne at The Raw Story.

According to TMZ, a White House spokesman said the President’s image was used without permission. The spokesman added the Administration has a policy of “disapproving of the use of the President’s name and likeness for commercial purposes.

Prohibition Fails Again: Teen Pot Use Increases

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 2, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: topnews.net.nz

One in four American teenagers has tried marijuana. Two out of the other three want to know if you can “hook them up.”

An annual survey released Tuesday by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America indicates that the number of American teenagers who use marijuana has increased for the first time in 10 years. One in four teens, 25 percent of those in grades 9 through 12, say they’ve used cannabis in the past month, up from 19 percent last year.

“These latest numbers show that our current marijuana policies — which keep marijuana unregulated and in the hands of drug dealers — are clearly not working to help reduce teen use,” said Kurt A. Gardinier, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Lawsuit Goes Forward Over Deaths Of Two Dogs In Pot Raid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 2, 2010 News

Photo: Reason

Mayor Cheye Calvo and his wife walk their two black Labs, Payton and Chase, in 2008. Both dogs were killed in a botched pot raid.

A judge has ruled the suit Mayor Cheye Calvo filed regarding the deaths of his dogs in a horribly botched 2008 pot raid can go forward. The judge denied motions by Prince George County and the State of Maryland to put a stop to the mayor’s lawsuit, reports Nancy Norman of NBC Washington.

Last July, drug smugglers sent a package containing 32 pounds of marijuana to the Calvo household. A SWAT team, alerted to the package, raided the mayor’s house, bound Calvo and held him at gunpoint. The officers heartlessly shot and killed Calvo’s pet dogs — one of them while, the mayor says, the dog was trying to run away and hide.

Mayor Calvo was later exonerated of any drug charges. It turned out he was just randomly sent the marijuana in a bizarre drug smuggling scheme. The cannabis was left outside the house; in the scenario imagined by the drug smugglers, someone would come and pick up the package before the unsuspecting residents got home.

Covering Your Cannabis: Marijuana Crop Loss Insurance Offered

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 1, 2010 Growing, Medical, News

Graphic: Statewide Insurance Services

A California-based insurance company says it is now offering cannabis crop loss insurance from coast to coast, targeting the rapidly growing medicinal marijuana business.

Statewide Insurance Services Medical Marijuana Specialty Division provides what the company says is “the only, nationally available insurance coverage designed specifically for the medical marijuana industry.”

The company is “revolutionizing the cannabis industry with its nationwide program covering growers and their products,” according to a press release.

Rhode Island Panel Expected To Recommend Decriminalizing Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 1, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: Reality Catcher

A Rhode Island Senate panel is expected to recommend decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana when it wraps up its 3 1/2-month investigation later this week.

The commission, chaired by state Sen. Joshua Miller (D-Cranston), has been studying the costs of current marijuana policy since November. Rhode Island, facing a budget crisis, tasked the panel to build a dossier on how much it costs to arrest, prosecute, and sometimes jail people for pot, reports Katherine Gregg at The Providence Journal.

Latest Victim Of Pot Prohibition: Public Lands

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 1, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Seattle P.I.

A federal agent carries plants away during the bust of a 16,742-plant grow operation at Ross Lake National Recreation Area, Washington state.

Due to the enormous profits made possible by marijuana prohibition, Mexican drug gangs are taking over U.S. public land to grow cannabis, using smuggled immigrants to cultivate the plants.

Pot has been grown on public lands for decades, report Alicia A. Caldwell and Manuel Valdes of the Associated Press, but Mexican cartels have taken clandestine cannabis cultivation to a whole new level, using armed guards and trip wires to secure grow operations containing tens of thousands of plants.

Michigan Pot Smoking Club Sparks Controversy

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 1, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Church For Compassionate Care

Wayne Dagit: “I’m not serving pot, I’m serving the Lord”

Wayne Dagit wants to run a place where patrons can belly up to a table, fire up a joint and swap stories and herbal remedies with other patrons.

The Green Leaf Smokers Club, a private club for medical marijuana patients, officially opens today in Williamstown Township, Michigan, reports Scott Davis of Gannett News Service.

Dagit said the club is the first one for marijuana smokers officially launched in Michigan, although there are many reports of underground clubs operating statewide.

“I’m not serving pot, I’m serving the Lord,” said Dagit, 60, who is a founder of the Church for Compassionate Care.

Williamstown Township officials claim they only recently learned of the club’s existence, and they are now investigating whether it’s legal for the club to operate.

At the same time, police claim they are concerned that the club will lead to an increase in “impaired” driving by patrons.

Flying High Again: Ozzy Fan Arrested For Smoking Pot At Book Signing

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

Photo: Softpedia

A teenage fan was arrested at legendary rocker Ozzy Osbourne’s book signing after police officers saw him smoking marijuana in the book store.

Nathan Robert Mosier, 19, was arrested at the book signing at a Barnes & Noble book store in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., where Osbourne was promoting his autobiography, reports Julius Whigham II at The Palm Beach Post.

Officers found “marijuana and fireworks” on the teenager, according to Palm Beach Gardens Police spokeswoman Ellen Lovejoy.

When officers saw Moser smoking pot in the store around 8 p.m. Friday, they approached and the suspect took off running, Lovejoy said.

The officers ran down Moser and found what appeared to be homemade fireworks during a search of his backpack. A bomb squad was called to the book store, and the fireworks were taken away to be disposed of, according to Lovejoy.

Rapper Juvenile Arrested In Louisiana On Pot Charge

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

Photo: St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office

Rapper Juvenile is led out of an Arabi, Louisiana house after his arrest Thursday. At right is Cpl. Leander Morgan of the St. Bernard Parish Street Crimes Unit.

The rapper Juvenile was arrested Thursday in Louisiana and charged with misdemeanor marijuana possession, according to police.

The New Orleans-based artist was arrested in a house in Arabi, Louisiana. The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office said Juvenile, 34, doesn’t live in the house, but that it is owned by a friend who allows him to record music there, reports Bob Warren at The Times-Picayune.

Police investigators claimed there was no recording equipment in the house.

A spokesman for the sheriff’s department said someone called the office’s drug line to report “smelling marijuana smoke” at the house. A deputy with the Special Investigations Division went to the house, and also smelled marijuana when the door was opened, police claimed.

The man who answered the door, Leroy Edwards, 42, of New Orleans, was arrested after the deputy found marijuana on him, according to the sheriff’s department. Edwards identified himself as Juvenile’s producer.

DEA To Burn Boastful Grower’s Bud

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 26, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: 9News

Chris Bartkowicz’s garden is going up in smoke… but not the fun way

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what’s happening to the 224 beautiful marijuana plants seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration from that guy who was really good at pot farming but not so much when it came to discretion…

Well, there’s no easy way to say this. They’re gonna burn ’em.

Highlands Ranch, Colorado medical pot farmer Chris Bartkowicz didn’t mind bragging as he told TV reporters he spent $500,000 constructing his basement grow operation, and expected to rake in $400,000 this year for his crop.

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