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.
It appears to us that nearly half the online dating profiles out there express affinity for long walks on the beach. The other half seem to say, “420 friendly,” at least in L.A. Los Angeles marijuana entrepreneur Miguel Lozano noticed that too, and this year he launched cannabis dating site my420mate.com with partner Jay Lindberg.
Lozano, a clothier who helped to organize the Bong Olympics way back when and who plans a 20-year anniversary of that event soon, says his was the world’s first pot dating platform. He says it’s also the most prominent. A Google search seems to prove that: It comes out on top.
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.
Earlier this week, a reader passed along the following note and video to us. It’s a frustrating tale that unfortunately is all too common, even in states that allow for medical cannabis use and cultivation.
“Deborah and Dennis are elderly patients living in San Diego that decided to grow a small amount of cannabis for personal use and soon after were raided by the San Diego Narcotics Task Force. Deborah Little has been HIV positive for over 20 years and her husband suffers from nerve damage – there is no reason they should have been raided and dragged through the judicial system. Thankfully, they were both found NOT GUILTY in the end, but not before the public officials made their life a living hell for nearly 2 years. It is a true injustice that patients are still having to deal with this in 2014.”
| 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.
A week ago we told you about controversial cop Frank Lyga with the Los Angeles Police Department, who has been accused of being a racist asshole. It seems Lyga’s bosses think so, too. Lyga was terminated by Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck, the detective’s attorney, Ira Salzman, told L.A. Weekly yesterday.
Lyga was sent home with pay in June after a recording of comments he made to an ongoing-training course for law enforcement was brought to the media’s attention by political consultant Jasmyne Cannick. The white detective, who justifiably* shot a black officer in 1997 while both were out of uniform, said, “I could have killed a whole truckload of them.”
The NFL adjusted their marijuana policy earlier this year, raising the threshold of testing positive from 15 nanograms to 35 nanograms of spent THC carboxy for every milliliter of pee. While the increase no-doubt helps some athletes who prefer to use cannabis instead of pharmaceutical drugs to treat pain, the league falls far behind other sports when it comes to cannabis tolerance.
The threshold does make it easier to toke up during the off-season, but the increase of 20 nanograms doesn’t equate to a free ticket to get high all the time.
| 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.