Search Results 2010/

Washington: Hearing Set On Bill To Legalize Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 8, 2010 Legislation, News

seethru.co.uk

Available at your local liquor store? Yes, in Washington, if HB 2401 passes.

If you want to be able to grow, sell, or smoke marijuana legally in the state of Washington, next Wednesday you may want to be in OIympia, the state capitol, reports Jerry Cornfield at the Everett HeraldNet.

At 1:30 p.m. on January 13, the House Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee will consider House Bill 2401, which would have Washington treat marijuana much like it does alcohol.

The bill is sponsored by Democratic Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson.

If the bill is passed, those 21 or older won’t face criminal penalties for possessing, transporting, or using cannabis, the HeraldNet reports.

However, growing and selling marijuana would still be unlawful, as only state-licensed growers would be allowed to cultivate pot, and only state-licensed stores would be allowed to sell it.

Like with booze, smoking and driving are a no-no, as is providing pot to minors.

Under HB 2401, marijuana could be bought at state liquor stores. A hefty tax would be added to the herb, with proceeds going to drug education and rehabilitation programs.

Time To Get New Insulation: Brit Police Use Melted Snow To Find ‘Cannabis Factories’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 7, 2010 Global, Growing

Photo: Dmcroof

These folks must not be growing pot. Or maybe they just have good insulation.

If the snow on your roof melts a little faster than that on your neighbors’, you may be getting a visit from the police — at least if you live in Leicestershire, U.K.

Prematurely melting snow can be a clue that the house is being used as a “cannabis factory,” police say, according to the BBC, which in a stoop to yellow journalism called the grow houses “drug dens.”

Officers in Leicestershire are asking residents to turn in their neighbors if their roof-top snow melts too fast. They said marijuana grows were equipped with high-intensity lighting, which generates lots of heat.

Judge Who Orders Random Court Spectator Drug Tests Is Sued

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 7, 2010 Culture, Legislation, News

Photo: www.medicalmarijuanablog.com

“Guards! Seize that one! He looks too happy!”

A rural Tennesee judge who “routinely” orders random spectators in his courtroom to be grabbed up and piss-tested for drugs, if he doesn’t like their looks, is finally being sued by an unhappy citizen.

The distinctly yokel-like judge, who ordered a court spectator to submit to a drug test based “on a hunch” is being sued for violating the spectator’s constitutional rights, reports Daniel Tercer at Raw Story.

Benjamin Marchant’s lawsuit against Dickson County Judge Durwood Moore says Marchant was a spectator in the court in January 2009, waiting to give a friend a ride home. Marchant was undoubtedly surprised when the judge ordered sheriff’s deputies to seize him and administer a urinalysis.

Officers grabbed Marchant, allegedly without any evidence of illegal behavior, and took him to a different place in the courthouse where he was forced to submit to a drug screen urinalysis. The man was released from custody when the drug test came back negative.

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Launches NORML Women’s Alliance

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 7, 2010 Culture, Legislation, News

NORML.org

Professional women across America and the world are coming out of the cannabis closet.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the nation’s oldest cannabis advocacy organization, today announced the launch of the NORML Women’s Alliance.

The NORML Women’s Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of educated, successful, high-profile professional women who believe that cannabis prohibition is a self-destructive and hypocritical policy that undermines the American family, sends mixed and false messages to young people, and destroys the principles of personal liberty and local self-government, according to the organization.

San Diego Dispensary Manager Gets Probation

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 6, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical, News

10News.com

Dispensary manager Jovan Jackson got probation today for possession of ecstasy and Xanax.

The manager of a medical marijuana dispensary, convicted of illegal possession of Xanax and ecstasy but acquitted of marijuana charges, was sentenced Wednesday to probation.

Jovan Jackson, 31, was also fined $839 and ordered not to possess any controlled substances without a valid prescription or doctor’s recommendation, reports 10news.com.

Before sentencing, Jackson’s felony conviction for possession of ecstasy was reduced to a misdemeanor by Judge Cynthia Bashant, who said it would have been charged as such if not for the underlying medical marijuana case.

The judge also said Jackson’s lack of prior criminal record was a factor in his sentencing. Judge Bashant said there was no evidence that Jackson had the pills so he could sell them to others.

Down To The Wire: N.J. Legislature To Decide On Medical Marijuana Monday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 6, 2010 Legislation, Medical, News

CMMNJ.org

On the last day possible, New Jersey’s legislature will debate whether to legalize the medical use of marijuana in the Garden State.

Monday, Jan. 11 is the final day for the current lame duck session of the Legislature before it reorganizes itself the next day, reports Brian Thompson of NBC New York. And it is on that day that Speaker Joe Roberts will post the medical marijuana bill that has been slowly making its way through the labyrinthine halls of the Legislature for months.

The New Jersey State Senate has already passed one version of the bill, but when it reached the Assembly committee, several changes were made. That’s the version the full Assembly will vote on next Monday, and then that same afternoon or evening, the Senate could approve the changes.

Cops Leave Ransom Note For Seized Pot Plants; Suspect Tries To Get Them Back

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 5, 2010 Culture, Growing, News

Monroe Co., FL Sheriff’s Dept

The cops didn’t know who grew the pot, so they left this note. The suspect called them back.

If someone ever steals your plants and leaves a ransom note for them, you might want to think about who left the note before responding.

A Marathon, Florida couple were a little too willing to pay $200 to get their six marijuana plants back, calling only 10 minutes after reading a ransom note for the missing crop. Trouble is, it was the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office that got the plants and left the note, reports KeysNet.com.

The ransom note read “Thanks for the grow! You want them back? Call for the price. Let’s talk.” The note then contained a police phone number.

Deputies say they found the plants in a wooded lot after receiving a tip. Since they didn’t know who grew the stuff, the ransom note was bait for the grower, if he was dumb enough.

Oakland Rally Protests DEA’s Medical Marijuana Prosecutions

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 5, 2010 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: westcoastleaf.com

Medical marijuana activist/provider Mickey Martin: “I was not a criminal then, nor am I one now”

More than 50 people rallied outside the federal building in downtown Oakland, Calif., Monday to protest a one-year halfway house sentence for a medical marijuana activist, and to demand the federal government respect states’ rights regarding medicinal cannabis.

Leading the rally was Michael “Mickey” Martin, who has been sentenced to two years of non-prison confinement after his March 26, 2008 guilty plea for “conspiring to manufacture and distribute” a mixture containing “a detectable amount of marijuana,” reports KTVU-TV.

Martin, 35, ran Tainted Inc., later known as Compassion Medical Edibles, an Oakland-based business producing candies, cookies, ice cream, brownies, energy drinks and other consumables containing cannabis.

Czech Republic Decriminalizes Cultivation Of Marijuana Starting Jan. 1

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2009 Global, Growing, Legislation

Photo: Psychonaught

Five of these? Yes, please. (Super Silver Haze sativa/indica hybrid)

The government of the Czech Republic in eastern Europe will allow ordinary citizens to grow up to five marijuana plants starting Jan. 1, 2010.

The cabinet of Prime Minister Jan Fischer defined “personal use” amounts of cannabis and other drugs, clarifying the nation’s new penal code that will decriminalize cultivation and possession of pot.

While marijuana will remain technically illegal, possession will be punished only with fines comparable to those imposed for parking tickets, Sean Carney at the Wall Street Journal reports.

What constituted “small amounts” for personal use was previously undefined. Police and the courts loosely interpreted the laws on a case by case basis, often resulting in home marijuana growers being jailed.

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