| Mikel Weisser. |
The first member of the U.S. House of Representatives who publicly admits to “dabbing” could be Arizona Democrat Mikel Weisser.
The odds may be slim of this occurring since Weisser’s facing off against incumbent Republican Paul Gosar in expansive and conservative Congressional District 4, which includes Kingman, Prescott and part of Maricopa County. He’s a former plumber and middle-school teacher, an ultra-leftie, and the current leader of Safer Arizona, a group that tried unsuccessfully to get a cannabis-legalization measure on the ballot this year.
Weisser brings a plethora of personal experience to the national debate over loosened marijuana laws — in fact, when we last met him, he brought it in an Altoid tin. More at the Phoenix New Times.
With the vote on Amendment 2 a mere six weeks away, polls seem to be indicating that medical marijuana will be made legal in Florida. Some people fear that will lead to weed dispensaries popping up everywhere throughout Florida. But, Boca Raton wants to keep dispensaries out of town, at least for a while, even if Amendment 2 does pass. On Tuesday, the city introduced an ordinance that would put a moratorium on dispensaries for at least a year.
This, just a few weeks after Boca hosted business seminars for those interested in getting into the weed dispensary business.
It’s a debate that has raged for years: is the word “marijuana” racist? No, but plenty of people will tell you that it is because it’s rooted in the dark ages of cannabis history when white America began to purposefully associate cannabis with brown-skinned Mexicans as a way of creating more of a racial divide between the two cultures. It’s something we’ve examined in detail for more than two years in our Cannabis Time Capsule blog over at Westword.com. So does “marijuana” have a dubious history as a word? Yeah. But is it racist? No. We’ve moved past all of that and the term — which wasn’t racist then — stuck.
But you’ll still get the cannabis activist holdouts with no sense of humor or history who swear up and down that it’s racist to call cannabis “marijuana” or get offended when you refer to ganja as anything but “cannabis”. Case and point? Whoever runs the @MNCannabis twitter handle. Read more at the Minneapolis City Pages.
| FlickrCommons |
Many people in the cannabis community heard the news via social media apps like Facebook and Instagram way before the San Diego Division of the DEA put out a press release and the local news media caught on.
On Wednesday of last week, the DEA announced that on September 16th, 2014, they arrested nine San Diego area residents after successful raids on multiple locations in the takedown stage of a yearlong investigation they oh-so-cleverly dubbed Operation: Shattered Dreams.
They are first amendment heroes of the highest order, and free speech warriors whose contributions to global culture will never be forgotten. They also believe in legalizing marijuana, the medical benefits of cannabis, and the right of all Americans to spark the herb if they so choose. Here’s what Fresh Kid Ice, and Brother Marquis had to say about Indica, smuggling dirty music, and the true meaning of smoked sausage ahead of their September 27th and 28th Colorado concerts at Platinum 84 strip club in Denver.
Medical marijuana patient numbers dipped to their second lowest total since recreational cannabis sales began in January. As of the end of July, there were 111,804 medical marijuana patients on the Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry according to Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment statistics — just 825 patients more than were on the list January 1 — even though more than 20,000 new-patient applications were submitted over that span.
| Rick Kimpell/Commons. |
| Jefferson County, Colorado. |
Jefferson County, Colorado has resisted marijuana businesses for years — and that seems unlikely to change anytime soon. Several months before Jeffco’s current moratorium is set to expire, the county’s Marijuana Task Force has issued a 134-page report arguing that cannabis sales should be permanently banned.
Good news for ganja supporters across the country: Texas, land of big businesses and economic prosperity, could stand to gain a ton of money from legalizing marijuana — over $166 million per year, by some estimates. That’s a Texas Miracle if we’ve ever heard one.
Of course, it would also take a miracle…
| TPD. |
| Mark and Holly Harrington. |
We figured most people knew by now that Facebook is not the best place to advertise illegal and quasi-legal activities. But apparently we’re wrong.
Case and point? Mark and Holly Harrington of Tewksbury, Mass. The pair were busted this week after allegedly openly selling weed via the social media giant. And no, they weren’t being discreet. The pair’s site was dubbed HTM Gardening LLC and they had forms for new patients to fill out.
The Pennsylvania Senate yesterday approved a measure that would legalize the medical use of some forms of cannabis, though chances of the bill being approved by the state House in the final days of the session aren’t very high.
Even then, the bill would have to overcome the stone wall that is the governor’s office.