Think marijuana use, cultivation and possession of limited amounts of pot should be legal for adults 21 and up? Think you should be able to purchase some pot at a local, neighborhood store possibly right in the shadow of the nation’s capitol? You’re not alone.
The D.C. marijuana initiative has received the support of the local chapters of the NAACP and the National Organization for Women.
Did marijuana contribute to — and perhaps even cause — the death of Michael Brown, whose shooting by a police officer caused weeks of rioting in Ferguson, Missouri? That’s the implication of a blog post by Dr. Christian Thurstone, an addiction specialist who’s also a major player in Project SAM, a national organization fighting to prevent greater access to cannabis.
Project SAM has already distanced itself from Thurstone’s post after initially hyping it, following a Twitter spat with marijuana reformers. Meanwhile, Thurstone’s position echoes previous suggestions by Christine Tatum, his wife and co-blogger, that pot may have played a role in the Boston Marathon bombing and the Columbine and Aurora theater shootings. Denver Westword has more.
Happy Monday. Here’s your reminder that the war on medical cannabis is alive and well — even in the state that basically started it all: California.
Last week U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officers aided a pair of well-known L.A. area dispensaries, the Farmacy shops in West Hollywood and Westwood. LA Weekly has the local angle.
| Vapeday. |
Santa Monica, once a bastion of liberal freedoms, has formally banned e-cigarette use in outdoor dining areas, in parks, at beaches, around libraries, and at the city’s famed pier — which means stealthily getting your buzz on via vape pens loaded with THC juice just got a lot harder.
Santa Monica even banned vaping near ATMs, at bus stops, and “within 20 feet of the entrance, exit or open window of any building open to the public,” according to a city statement released yesterday. More at the LA Weekly.
| Danny Wicentowski. |
The investigation into the death of Michael Brown has sprung a leak. Three leaks, in fact. First, the New York Times published details from the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot Brown, Darren Wilson. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch then got its hands on the official autopsy. And finally the Washington Post announced that several black witnesses have given testimony that matches Wilson’s version of events.
After months of keeping a tight lid on the grand jury and civil rights investigations into Brown’s death, the leaks feel like a little more than coincidence, especially as the city braces for the potential violence if Wilson is not indicted with a charge in Brown’s death.
| The local news blurred out the “Fuck the Growers…Marijuana is still illegal” part of this narc’s lame shirt |
There is no shortage of headlines in the news these days about police officers abusing their power and denying citizens of even their most basic rights.
From Ferguson, Missouri, to your town or one nearby, cops are getting caught – many times on camera – showing little or no respect for due process, and all too often are using their own personal ideologies as a sliding scale of sorts to decide when and how to enforce the law.
They typically do not wear that ideology printed on their uniforms, however, but one law enforcement officer involved in a raid earlier this week in San Diego has some explaining to do regarding his blunt sense of style.
| An image from the Children’s Hospital of Colorado marijuana facts page. Additional pics and more below. |
Against the backdrop of a Colorado health department official formally recommending that almost all marijuana edibles be banned, the Children’s Hospital of Colorado staged a weed-related Twitter chat this morning, with one of its focuses being how to talk pot with children under the age of ten. Among the pieces of advice the facility shared: If a child asks, “What is marijuana?,” answer with something along the lines of “”It is a plant that people use to change how they feel. It can make people feel confused or fuzzy.”
The Denver Police Department has done a good job of scaring people into thinking there will be a rash of regular pot users willing to spend ten bucks on a candy bar so that they can secretly dose a little kid while trick-or-treating on Halloween; see a DPD video below.
In fact, Denver cops have made such a big deal of such possibilities that cops around Omaha, Nebraska, have started warning residents there to beware of people handing out Colorado-made pot candy.
| Andre Maestas, from Facebook. |
The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (yes, that Maricopa County) is prosecuting a college student with a medical-marijuana card for felony possession of less than a gram of weed.
Andre Lee Juwaun Maestas, a 19-year-old Arizona State University student, could end up with a felony on his record, probation and stiff fines because of the March discovery of about .6 grams of marijuana and some smoking paraphernalia in his dorm room.