| This should not equal life in prison. |
Back in May, we told you about Jacob Lavoro, a 19-year-old who was arrested in Round Rock, Texas after cops busted in his door and found a tray of pot brownies. Lavoro isn’t simply facing pot charges, he’s looking at anywhere from ten years to life in prison thanks to ass-backwards laws in Texas regarding hash and hash oil and how products are weighed
| theurbanshepherd.over-blog.com |
Operating under the Department of Transportation since its inception in 1966, the Federal Railroad Administration’s stated mission is to “enable the safe, reliable, and efficient movement of people and goods for a strong America, now and in the future”.
Since 1986, the FRA has been federally mandated to perform drug and alcohol tests on railroad employees. These tests include pre-employment screening, random and/or “reasonable suspicion” testing, and post-accident tests. Traditionally, the testing excluded what the railroads refer to as “maintenance-of-way employees”, those whose job it is to service the tracks and infrastructure.
But facing increasing pressure from Congress in the nation’s capital, the FRA has proposed an expansion of its drug testing to include all employees, and even independent contractors and volunteers.
| Jason Lauve. |
Five years ago today, Jason Lauve was acquitted in a high-profile medical marijuana case decided on the cusp of the MMJ boom. Since the conclusion of the landmark trial, Lauve is astonished by everything that’s happened on the Colorado pot scene. But while he’s optimistic about the future for both cannabis and hemp, for which he’s become a well-known activist, he acknowledges that not all the changes have been positive.
Lauve broke his back in 2004 after being hit by a snowboarder. He subsequently became a medical marijuana patient under the provisions of Amendment 20, the measure that legalized the concept after being approved by voters in 2000. But in June 2008, he was arrested in Boulder County for allegedly having too much weed — two pounds, two ounces.
The Florida Medical Association has come out and opposed Amendment 2, the initiative to legalize medical marijuana in Florida. The FMA, which represents 20,000 doctors in matters such as regulatory affairs, public health, advocacy, and licensers, released a statement Monday over its concern that legalized medical marijuana would bring “unintended consequences” that would create a health risk.
The biggest threat, according to the FMA, would be that legalized medical pot would allow health-care providers with no training to order medical marijuana.
On Monday, we told you about Ramsey Orta, the man who filmed New York City police officers killing an unarmed, nonviolent alleged illegal cigarette dealer named Eric Garner last month and Orta’s arrest over the weekend for firearms charges after cops stop-and-frisked him along with a teenage girl he was with. In case you had any doubt that was purely for revenge, the police union rep has since come out to further drag Orta’s name through the mud. On Sunday, he issued a release, calling Orta a “criminal” who “stands to benefit” by smearing the good name of police officers.
“The arrest of Ramsey Orta for criminal possession of a firearm only underscores the dangers that brought police officers to respond to a chronic crime condition in that community,” he wrote. “It is criminals like Mr. Orta who carry illegal firearms who stand to benefit the most by demonizing the good work of police officers. Sadly, in the effort to keep neighborhoods like Tompkinsville safe, a tragedy occurred. But that doesn’t change the fact that police officers routinely risk their lives for the benefit of the community and that they have earned their support and understanding.”
| ErgoSum88/Commons. |
There have been fewer deaths this year on Colorado roadways than years past. Colorado also began legal sales of recreational cannabis this past January. Coincidence? Not likely. In fact, we’re not saying that pot had anything to do with lowering the fatalities, mind you.
We’re just pointing out that the blood-bathed roads and warzone-level death totals the prohibitionists warned people about (and continue to try and scare people with) just aren’t coming true.
| FlickrCommons/stockmonkeys.com |
Behavioral Health Services of Pickens County, South Carolina is the location of the latest in a growing list of regional centers receiving federal funding to study cannabis. They are actively seeking local marijuana users who are interested in being compensated for their time in exchange for participating in their research.
Perhaps it should be clarified, these studies only have one purpose in mind, and that is to discover and patent a pill-poppable form of relief from cannabis addiction. Let’s keep it real, many people still love the herb, but for any number of reasons may have a need to cut back for a while, or to put it away altogether.
| Keith Bacongo-Flickr edited by Toke of the Town. |
Washington D.C. voters will have the chance to legalize limited amounts of cannabis for recreational use for adults 21 and up this November. The D.C. board of elections today announced that a measure legalizing up to two ounces of pot as well as limited home cultivation will be up to voters.
Washington D.C. effectively decriminalized possession of up to one ounce of marijuana July 17, but that hardly means the end to marijuana-related arrests.
According to DCist, there were 26 arrests involving cannabis during the first two weeks of decriminalization– July 17 to July 31– just one less than the amount of citations (27) issued for possession. Data from D.C. Police says the 26 arrests were for public consumption, distribution, possession with the intent to distribute and possession of more than one ounce.
Uncle Luke, the man whose booty-shaking madness made the U.S. Supreme Court stand up for free speech, gets as nasty as he wants to be for Miami New Times. This week, Luke wants to know why African Americans are not invited to the pot party.
There’s big money being made in the marijuana legalization movement. But African Americans are still getting screwed when it comes to pot. In fact, black people are being squeezed out of the marijuana game. Even the New York Times, in an op-ed column calling for an end to America’s pot ban, admitted that marijuana laws target African-Americans: “Even worse,” they wrote, “the result is racist, falling disproportionately on young black men, ruining their lives and creating new generations of career criminals.”