Browsing: News

Photo: Westword
The Western Slope Cannabis Crown competition could include 400 strains. Oh, to be a judge!

​A marijuana festival in Aspen, Colorado, this spring will be the first in the state where medical growers can put their strains in a contest.

The Western Slope Cannabis Crown expects about 50 growers to enter their strains of cannabis, reports Carolyn Sackariason at The Aspen Times.
The contest will be held April 17-18 at the Gant.
The Cannabis Crown is open to the public and will include speakers, live music, information booths, and, of course, the strain competition where growers will vie for the “Crown.”
“We want to get the best of the best in there,” said festival organizer Bobby Scurlock.
Whereas such contests (beginning with what may be the granddaddy of ’em all, the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam) have traditionally been decided by human judges, the Western Slope Cannabis Crown will add a new wrinkle: The marijuana strains will be diagnostically tested for their THC levels by Denver-based Full Spectrum Laboratories (I hope they’re planning on testing CBD levels as well, since that affects the high).

Photo: Madison NORML
Gary Storck has been using marijuana medically since 1972 — but 38 years later, it’s still illegal in Wisconsin. This newspaper clipping is from 2005.

​Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, who supports the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, will deliver his final State of the State address before a joint meeting of the Legislature on Tuesday night, January 26, at 7 p.m. local time.

Medical marijuana supporters will hold a patient vigil at Gov. Doyle’s last official speech. Supporters will gather outside the Assembly Chambers after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 26, for the address, according to Gary Storck of Madison NORML.

Gov. Doyle has been on record throughout his two terms as willing to sign medical cannabis legislation if it reached his desk. Since the introduction of JMMA, he has gone further in his support, calling it “senseless” to block safe access for patients.

Photo: achinharrison
Starbucks says they didn’t fund an anti-marijuana group. Are they full of it?

​​In the wake of a threatened nationwide boycott by cannabis consumers, coffee giant Starbucks has denied funding an anti-marijuana group.

I hope the Seattle-based company is telling the truth. It would break my heart to know that Starbucks was working against the interests of one of its biggest consumer bases.
One would certainly hope that a progressive-leaning, forward-thinking company, based in THC-attle, of all places, would know better than to insult its own loyal customers this way.
On Thursday, a pro-pot group held a news conference in front of a Denver Starbucks to draw attention to what it called ties between the company and the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, reports Chris Grygiel of SeattlePI.com.
“It’s no surprise that law enforcement organizations and their leaders — whose jobs are dependent on maintaining the war on marijuana — are lobbying to kill state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries,” said Mason Tvert, head of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER).

Photo: Flash City

​Legendary actor Dennis Hopper, the Easy Rider himself, was photographed Thursday at The Farmacy Cannabis Club in Venice, California, a medical marijuana dispensary.

Hopper wore a checkered paperboy cap and dark-rimmed glasses into the establishment, which resembles a farmer’s market, according to “Doug” at RadarOnline.
Hopper’s filmography contains many high points in addition to the 1969 counterculture classic Easy Rider, which featured an iconic pot-smoking scene with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.

Photo: www.blacktie-colorado.com
In better days: Reuben Droughns and a friend at a party in 2004

​In 2004, he rushed for more than a thousand yards as running back with the Denver Broncos. Now he could be going to jail for growing marijuana.

Reuben Droughns is “under investigation” by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for growing pot in his Centennial, Colorado home, reports Julie Hayden of KDVR Denver.
According to KDVR, Droughns is raising the medical marijuana defense, but the DEA, which under federal law doesn’t recognize the medical use of pot, is having none of it.
Agents reportedly found an indoor marijuana grow operation in the spare bedrooms of the former NFL star’s home.
Droughns reportedly didn’t show investigators a medical marijuana card, but his mother and brother did.

Graphic: www.seekcodes.com

​Dude… This story’s probably gonna make you feel better about yourself, because you are so much more together than the idiot in Flagstaff, Arizona, who busted into a head shop and stole $300 worth of fake weed Monday night.

In the police blotter of Wednesday’s Arizona Daily Sun is a report of a burglary at the Kind Connection Tattoo and Smoke Shop (I’ve never been there and I already love the place), where the burglar only stole two items: a $200 incense vaporizer and $300 worth of fake pot.
The burglar bashed in the front window with a baseball bat — setting off, of course, the store’s alarm system — went in, selected the two items, and left, reports James King at Phoenix New Times.


Graphic: thefreshscent.com

​If you’re a legal medical marijuana patient in Washington and you thought your doctor’s recommendation protected you from search or arrest, you’re wrong. According to a new court ruling, you can be arrested and hauled into court every time an officer smells pot at your home — even if you are complying with the law.

In a sharply divided decision, the Washington Supreme Court Thursday ruled against a patient arrested for possessing marijuana — despite the fact that the patient had a doctor’s recommendation for medicinal pot.

Incredibly, the court found that police had probable cause to search the patient’s home, even after he presented what both he and the police believed to be a valid medical marijuana authorization form under Washington’s medical marijuana law.

Photo: puffpuffere, forum.grasscity.com
Imagine the concept: You and your doctor, rather than the Legislature, deciding how much medicine you need.

​The California Supreme Court has struck down limits on how much medical marijuana patients can possess and cultivate.

Patients and caregivers with a doctor’s recommendation to use marijuana can now possess as much as is “reasonably related to the patient’s current medical needs,” a standard that the court established in a 1997 decision.
The court concluded that the restrictions imposed by the Legislature are an unconstitutional amendment of a 1996 voter-approved initiative.

Graphic: The Seattle Times

​The Legislature in Washington state displayed a trait Wednesday for which they are becoming well known: spinelessness, especially when it comes to marijuana law reform.

Despite the fact that a majority of state voters favor legalizing pot, cowardly politicians in the State House voted down a pair of bills aimed at changing Washington’s failed marijuana laws.
House Bill 2401 would have legalized and regulated the adult production, use and distribution of marijuana, in a manner similar to the regulation of alcohol.
The roll call vote on HB 2401, to legalize marijuana, went like this:

Photo: alapoet
Seattleites protest marijuana laws in the annual Marijuana March, May 2008.

​As promised, Seattle’s new city attorney is dismissing marijuana possession cases.

By the end of January, more than 25 people charged with possession could be off the hook, reports Linda Brill at KING 5 News.
Even if you are arrested for marijuana in Seattle, it’s more than likely you won’t be prosecuted.
During his campaign for city attorney, Pete Holmes promised he would dismiss marijuana possession cases brought by his predecessor, former City Attorney Pete Carr. Despite an initiative passed by Seattle voters a few years ago, Carr’s office had continued to vigorously prosecute many cannabis cases.
1 476 477 478 479 480 490