Browsing: Say what?

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Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Arguably the most well-known doctor in the United States this week has announced that he is now in favor of legalizing medical cannabis and that he was wrong to speak out against medical marijuana in the past.
CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanja Gupta says that five years ago, the research he was seeing just wasn’t there to prove that cannabis was a beneficial substance in America. At the time, Gupta rallied against cannabis, even penning an article in 2009 titled “While I Would Vote No on Pot”. But he now says his position was flawed, and it was mostly at due to his own willful ignorance on the matter.

“Medical marijuana may be right for you.” That is all the sign out in front of doctor Brian Murray’s office said Wednesday afternoon, and there was a line out the door according to the Chicago Tribune.
Murray is the first physician to open up his doors in the city specifically for diagnosing patients who think they might benefit from medical cannabis. The only issue is: medical marijuana won’t be available legally for some time in the state.

An exclusive report released today by Reuters outlines a long-running campaign of the federal government knowingly withholding evidence in numerous cases involving the DEA, and a highly classified multi-agency wing of the DEA known as the Special Operations Division (SOD). By withholding the true sources of their investigations, critics contend that defendants’ rights to a fair trial are being compromised daily.

We’re of the belief that the marijuana-ignorant just need the facts to help them understand this plant. Like the costs: nearly $7.7 billion in annual enforcement costs and $1 billion simply to prosecute all just for cannabis.
The folks over at Top-criminal-justice-schools.net put together this interesting infographic on cannabis decriminalization across the U.S. to help us keep it all together.

Last week, Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey told city council members that there were “twelve homicides related directly to medical marijuana.” He subsequently said the figures were “loose” and didn’t all occur in MMJ facilities. But when contacted by Westword, Morrissey’s office did indeed come up with a roster of twelve deaths in ten separate incidents that prosecutors believe were related to pot.
Denver Westword has the full story.

Good Meds bud bar.

According to Denver police, a pair of kids who look no more than 12-years-old broke into the Good Meds medical marijuana dispensary last month and made off with $16,000 in cannabis. The tiny burglars were apparently pretty good at their job, as nobody has any leads whatsoever.
Of course, it doesn’t help that police aren’t giving out pictures of the wee crooks. That’s because police are afraid of “violent drug dealers” getting the photos and tracking down the kids.

When President Obama took office in 2009, his Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy proclaimed that the new administration would no longer use the term “War on Drugs”, as they found it to be “counter-productive”. In June of 2011, the Global Commission on Drug Policy released a scathing report which clearly stated that “the global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.”

Daniel Chong via SizzleRossilini / YouTube.

Remember the case of Daniel Chong, the UCSD student celebrating 4/20 last year when the DEA locked him up for nearly five days without food, water or any contact with his captors? Yes his name is Chong. Yes he was busted by the feds. Yes he was celebrating marijuana’s international holiday. (No, he doesn’t have a friend named Cheech).
Well, Chong is getting nearly a million a day in settlement money for his ordeal, his attorneys said today: Julia Yoo, a partner in the San Diego firm that represents the student, confirmed for the Weekly Chong’s $4.1 million settlement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. LA Weekly has the full story.

A $125,000 marijuana grow south of Houston has been uprooted thanks to a tip from an anonymous narc citizen who used an app created by the sheriff’s department that allows people to send in photos as well as coordinates to crimes – or things that citizens perceive to be crimes.
All of the plants have been destroyed, but thankfully nobody has been arrested. We think the senseless destruction of such a healthy, natural and domestic garden should be punishment enough and the cops should hopefully just let the case die (they won’t, but a marijuana writer can dream can’t he?).

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