The paranoid stoner who seems overly concerned that the government is keeping tabs on his or her movements and behavior is a classic marijuana-user stereotype. But when government organizations like the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment discuss pilot population health surveillance programs that are currently in operation, it’s not hard to see why pot-smokers might be a little paranoid — perhaps justifiably.
Jeb Bush, former Florida governor and current GOP favorite for 2016, has come out and publicly stated his opposition to Amendment 2, which, if passed, would legalize medical marijuana in Florida.Even with a majority of Floridians polled favoring the measure and with current candidate for governor Charlie Crist coming out in favor of it, Bush released a statement urging people to vote against it.
In his statement, Jeb focuses on how medical marijuana could potentially ruin Florida’s “family friendly” image and echoed the anti-marijuana group No on 2’s take that legalizing marijuana for medical purposes would lead to weed being made legal everywhere due to these mysterious loopholes they keep referring to.
It’s about 2 o’clock on July 31, a hot and humid Thursday afternoon, and Mike and Scott (who asked to be identified only by their first names) are kicking back in Aloha Community Collective Association. The low-key Santa Ana medical-marijuana dispensary is nestled comfortably in a somewhat-decrepit two-story building just off 17th Street, a couple of blocks from the 5 freeway. Rachel Garcia, a receptionist and budtender, is standing outside the shop. She notices two middle-aged men who look like typical patients approaching the entrance.
Suddenly, several police vehicles and a paddy wagon pull up. Garcia knows in an instant the two men are plainclothes cops. Sure enough, they signal to the arriving convoy by pointing at the dispensary. They command Garcia to go back inside, which she does, immediately informing Mike and Scott that police officers are outside. By the time she starts talking, one of the vehicles is already parked on the dispensary’s doorstep, almost blocking the front door.
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Live free or die. It’s the New Hampshire motto, and one that is oddly appropriate in the wake of dozens of “synthetic marijuana” overdoses this week: if real, safe cannabis that has never, ever caused an overdose was legalized, these lab-made junk chemicals being passed off as a pot alternative wouldn’t be in demand.
Yesterday, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan officially declared a state of emergency after more than 44 people were hospitalized after smoking chemicals commonly called “synthetic marijuana” purchased at convenience stores under the name “Smacked”.
A measure to legalize cannabis for medical reasons in Colombia got a big endorsement yesterday when President Juan Manuel Santos told a drug policy committee that he would like to see the law passed.
Of the law, he says it is “a practical, compassionate measure to reduce the pain, anxiety of patients with terminal illnesses, but also a way of beginning to strip from the hands of criminals the role of intermediary between the patient and the substance that allows them to relieve their suffering.”
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Cash strapped police precincts are getting especially aggressive on traffic stops, since the revenue the patrol cops draw from writing tickets helps to keep the lights on back at the station. But when not enough people are caught texting while driving, or failing to come to a complete stop, or speeding away from bank robberies, a cop’s gotta do what a cop’s gotta do.
With no time for pesky little things like warrants, cops these days can search your vehicle – regardless of your past criminal record, or lack of – with nothing more than what they like to call probable cause. All too often, all an officer has to say to gain their all-important probable cause is that they can smell weed in the car.
Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin said yesterday that she wants state lawmakers to look into allowing clinical trials for marijuana-derived CBD oil for seizure-stricken children in her state. Fallin joins a growing number of conservative politicians to embrace CBD-only treatments in the last year and, if the plan pans out Oklahoma would become the 11th state to allow for high-CBD treatments of some kind.
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A new report from the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area suggests that stoned driving remains a big problem that’s getting bigger, with fatalities increasing 100 percent from 2007 to 2012. Stats about teen pot use in the report are also considerably more negative than those in at least one other recent state-sponsored survey.
But the stats are based on testing drivers not for active THC — which would at least imply impairment — but instead are testing for THC metabolites that don’t cause any impairment and can stay in the body for up to a month. In short: the test don’t show impairment, only that the person had used cannabis at some time in the last three to four weeks. But never mind the facts, Colorado cops want you to believe it’s a stoned bloodbath out there.
The Miami-Dade Democrats have a new chairman and on one hot-button issue, he’s got one of the strongest positions in the state: Sen. Dwight Bullard thinks marijuana should be legal not just for medical purposes but for recreational use.
“Marijuana, whether medical or recreational, could be another way of generating revenue in Florida,” Bullard tells our compadres at Riptide. “It has a potential for real positive economic impact with real small business growth.”
What better way to celebrate the coming of summer in Colorado than with weed?
That seems to have been the case in Colorado this past June, when tourists and locals purchased more than $24.7 million in recreational marijuana, concentrates and pot-infused food.
Recreational marijuana sales have been slowly climbing month to month in this state, according to recent figures released by the Colorado Department of Revenue; June saw the highest sales yet. Meanwhile, medical marijuana figures are starting to show a slow decline, though they still outpaced recreational marijuana sales by approximately 18 percent. In June, about $28.65 million worth of medical cannabis was sold.