| Aspen, CO – Home of the 1st Annual Cannabis Grand Cru – November 14th-16th, 2014 |
When it comes to the changing of the seasons, and outstanding venues for cannabis themed events, nobody does it quite like Colorado. Aspen in the fall, much like the trees it is named after, radiates a golden glimmer leading into the first snowfall of the year.
From Friday November 14th – Sunday November 16th those attending the Cannabis Grand Cru will take over the entire Sky Hotel in Aspen for a 3-day event full of seminars, Q&A sessions, hands-on learning, and loads of entertainment. Tickets for this 21+ members-only experience will be made available only by invitation. The good news is, we’ve got the scoop on how to get yours.
| Jurvetson/FlickrCommons |
With a constant flow of cannabis-related headlines pouring out of Canada, the United States, and Mexico on a daily basis, it is easy to overlook the fact that public support for legal cannabis use is on the rise on continents all around the globe.
In Australia, marijuana is by far the most popular and widely used drug, with over 1/3rd of all Aussie’s over the age of 22 admitting to having taken a toke or two in their time. But as it becomes increasingly more popular in their home country, those same Aussies have begun to take their stash with them when traveling abroad, and simple pot possession has several of them facing possible death penalties as they sit in Chinese prisons awaiting their fates.
| Flickr/Hammerin Man. |
| The Seattle Medical Marijuana Ambulance, still easily the coolest of all medical marijuana ambulances. |
L.A city voters last year decided to shut down a vast majority of the medical marijuana businesses in town, and the City Attorney’s office says many of them have indeed closed their doors. But a new anti-marijuana, federally-funded study by UCLA social welfare professor Bridget Freisthler suggests, at least, that shutting down pot shops might just put the whole business on the road.
You read that right: the government paid someone to “discover” that, if you close down legal storefronts where people access their medicine, they are going to have someone deliver it or drive to get it from someone’s house.
| Kent Wycliffe Easter. |
The second time was a charm for prosecutors as a jury this afternoon found Kent Wycliffe Easter guilty in his retrial for planting drugs in the PT Cruiser of a school volunteer the Irvine attorney’s wife thought had insulted their then-5-year-old son. Easter was convicted of false imprisonment by fraud and deceit. Jurors in his first trial had deadlocked 11-1 in favor of guilt on that same felony count.
It’s one of the strangest court battles we’ve followed here at Toke of the Town, easily rivaling the worst daytime soap opera script ever produced. And our friends at the OC Weekly have all the juicy details.
| U.S. Attorney’s Office. |
Federal raids on downtown Los Angeles Fashion District businesses and related bank accounts turned up a whopping $65 million, much of it in cash, that authorities say was drug money headed to the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in L.A. announced today.
The whopping seizure of bank funds and currency, the latter of which was put on display for the press, was part of three cases against various fashion businesses, including lingerie and maternity concerns, that investigators say took drug money and exchanged it for imported goods so that the money would seem legit as it traveled south to the narco lords of Sinaloa. More over at the LA Weekly.
| MMJforDoctors.com |
Health care professionals from all over the country are gathering in Denver through Thursday for the Marijuana for Medical Professionals Conference at the 1770 Sherman Street Event Complex. Yesterday’s speakers covered a range of topics, including a care provider’s duty to the patient, the difficulties in dosing and detailed discussions about how marijuana behaves in the brain and the body.
Don’t light up your herb in a Chicago park or harbor, or you could be facing a $500 smoking ticket.
Well, you could also be facing a lot of other charges. Including a $500 civic charge for possession of up to 15 grams (or 30 days in jail for a little more than that), or a $750 fine and up to a year in jail for paraphernalia possession if the officer is a real dick. And they’ll bust you, oh they’ll bust you.
But now the Chicago Parks District wants you to know they mean business as well.
This year, 10/20 is the new 4/20. At least, in Philly where Mayor Michael Nutter says he will have the bill signed by that soon-to-be stoney Monday.
We reported earlier this week that the Philadelphia City Council reconvenes this week to a proposal making 30 grams of pot or less a civil infraction that has been sitting on lawmakers desks all summer break. Council comes back today and will get the measure on the fast track to becoming law.
| Phoenix New Times 2014. |
Dr. Sue Sisley was about to conduct some of the most important cannabis research in the United States when she was abruptly fired from her job at the University of Arizona this past June for what she says (and what clearly appears to be) purely political reasons.
Our cohorts at the Phoenix New Times have done an amazing job looking into what happened and, more importantly, what is in store for Sisley’s study that looks at how military veterans can use cannabis to help treat symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
| Pink House Pearl Facebook page |
| More photos below. |
Eleven dispensaries opened their to recreational marijuana users age 21 and older in Colorado in recent weeks — ten in August, plus one that we missed in our July roundup. The total includes four in Denver, three in Boulder and one each in four different municipalities around the state. Here’s our the latest batch: