| HCSO. |
| Not a bunch of Froot Loops. |
You should probably think twice before ingesting those blue and yellow or purple (illicit) pills you scored on the Houston streets recently. While the dude slangin’ on the corner may have told you those colorful tabs were ecstasy, it may actually be meth in disguise.
Deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office shut down a couple of major drug labs in northwest Harris County Monday, where investigators say pill manufacturers were whipping up methamphetamine pills but disguising them to look like ecstasy. Not awesome at all.
More at the Houston Press.
| Flickr/JohnnyCashsAshes. |
Need another reason to avoid heroin (other than the fact that it’s fucking heroin?) Orange County, California Health Care Agency officials say three people have been hospitalized over the past month for botulism associated with injecting heroin–and that two of those folks wound up in intensive care.
OC Weekly has more.
| Rick Scott can’t stop thinking about pee. |
A federal judge told him to drop the plan. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals told him it was illegal. Then the U.S. Supreme Court refused to listen to his arguments. Even the facts are against him (the program wastes more money than it would ever “save”).
But despite losing over and over in every court around, Gov. Rick Scott is still fighting for the right to force state employees to pee in a cup. And the legal bills for his quixotic quest are now inching toward a cool million bucks — funded, of course, by taxpayers.
| William Breathes. |
| Girl Scout Cookies grown in Colorado. |
Nebraska and Oklahoma have filed a federal lawsuit against Colorado, urging the feds to shut down Colorado’s marijuana industry that they say is bleeding over into their state and costing their taxpayers millions.
Which would be valid if cops in those states weren’t bringing it on themselves by profiling Colorado drivers, pulling people over for made-up infractions and busting people for minor amounts that they probably wouldn’t have searched for in the past. Oh, and don’t think for a second that these cops – all of which are milking their department overtime pay for court appearances – mind the busts at all. Basically: they’ve brought the “problem” on themselves, are personally reaping financial benefit for it, and now want Colorado taxpayers to chip in to pay for their scam.
Our sister paper in Colorado, The Denver Westword, has been paying your’s truly to shop for and toke cannabis for five years running as the nation’s first newspaper marijuana dispensary critic (it’s a rough life).
And out of the 100+ strains I brought home, there were ten standouts that made the cut for Westword‘s Best Strains of 2014.
With the tide of public opinion rapidly turning against the dangers of reefer madness, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who considers marijuana to be the deadly gateway drug portrayed in D.A.R.E. class and alarmist after-school specials. And yet there are many people who, while they still support the legalization of recreational cannabis, have struggled with an addiction to weed.
Last week, Toke caught up with one such person, a 30-year-old creative type we’ll call Jonathan, who began attending Marijuana Anonymous meetings in Los Angeles six months ago and hasn’t gotten high since. Head over to West Coast Sound for more.
| Indiana State Sen. Karen Tallian. |
Emboldened by recent federal developments that seemingly gives states more authority to regulate medical cannabis, an Indiana state Senator says she’s ready to (once again) push a medical marijuana bill through the state legislature.
State Sen. Karen Tallian has unsuccessfully ran marijuana-related bills for years (including decriminalization measures) that didn’t even get the respect of a hearing in a committee. But Tallian says that the time is right to have a real discussion about legalizing marijuana for medical uses in her state and urged Republicans on the other side of the aisle to get their heads out of the sand.
| Flickr/Wolfgang Staudt. |
Last Thursday, the Department of Justice released a three-page memo announcing that the federal government will not prosecute Native Americans growing and selling marijuana on tribal lands, even in states where the drug is illegal. So will dispensaries become the new casinos?
Probably not. Many tribal leaders, including Executive Director of the Los Angeles City/County Native American Indian Commission Ron Andrade, found the announcement surprising and suspicious.
So, there’s more good news on the marijuana legalization front, and this time, it’s coming to us straight from the Lone Star state.
This week, Texas State Representative Joe Moody introduced a bill that could potentially reduce the current state penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Which, frankly, is needed. Marijuana laws in Texas are pretty darn ridiculous in their current state.
Medical marijuana patient numbers continued to climb in Colorado recent months, increasing from 115,710 people at the start of September to 117,239 by Halloween night. And those patients spent quite a bit of money on pot, with medical sales outpacing recreational sales in September and October as well.