New York City emergency rooms are seeing an outbreak of synthetic smokable drug-related illnesses, according to the city’s health department.
The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene issued a warning on Sunday urging people not to buy or use “synthetic cannabinoids,” which are often sold at head shops under names like K2, Spice, and Green Giant. The agency says it’s gotten reports of 15 fake weed-related emergency room visits over the past two days, concentrated in East Harlem, Central Harlem and Chelsea.
As we reported yesterday, 88 percent of Florida voters polled say they support medical marijuana. That number is among the highest medical pot has ever polled in any state, and our friends at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times point out that it’s freakishly high for a poll in the Sunshine state:
“Floridians have been supporting the idea of legalized medical marijuana since the idea of it getting onto the ballot was brought up. With each successive poll, Florida has shown a growing support for medical weed. Now the latest Quinnipiac poll released Monday gives us the clearest picture to changing attitudes. According to the survey, nearly 90 percent of Floridians polled say they back the legalization of medical marijuana.”
Read the rest of the local angle at the Miami New Times and the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.
While Coloradans did legalize limited amounts of pot for adults 21 and up in 2012, we didn’t make all cannabis possession legal and, in fact, you can still be fined and even arrested for having more than one ounce on you at any given time.
One Colorado activist is trying to change that with a ballot initiative that would remove pot penalties from the books. Proposed ballot initiative #3 would eradicate all fines and sentences for the possession of cannabis, and guaranteeing that in the Colorado Constitution.
But its proponents have just one more week to collect the required signatures, and efforts are lagging.
The narks of the social media have reared their ugly heads and set their crossed-eyed sights on purging Americans’ newsfeeds of vital information regarding the medicinal properties of marijuana. To be more specific, there is some meathead Ivy Leaguer who considers himself an “Internet Deputy,” fighting from behind his computer to shutdown an established Facebook group dedicated to spreading the good word of patients medicating with cannabis oil.
| TaberAndrewBain/FlickrCommons |
Just when a corporate giant like the New York Times begins to restore your faith in the main stream media, along comes another Sunday episode of Meet The Press to leave you stopping in mid-toke to scream at your TV.
The channel cannot change fast enough when someone like John McCain is being asked, for some damn reason, for his opinion on foreign policy, yet not being asked how the hell he thought that bringing us Sarah Palin was a good idea. This week, however, the topic turned to pot, and guest panelist and Washington Post columnist Ruth Marcus gave us all a renewed hatred for out of touch journalists.
| Kevin Warn/OC Weekly. |
At approximately 8:30 p.m., Anaheim Fire Department responded to reports of an electrical fire at 1676 West Lincoln Ave. Five minutes later, according to Anaheim’s online crime map, marijuana cultivation was reported at the same site.
Read more about the fire over at the OC Weekly.
| Eric Hood/OC Weekly. |
According to a Santa Ana Police Department investigator, 17 medical marijuana dispensaries were visited by police in the past week. 42 tickets were issued to dispensaries operating in violation of the city’s 2007 ban on pot clubs, three of which–Wax City, Emerald, and Wax-R-Us–have now closed. The operation came in the wake of a July 15 city council meeting in which councilmembers voted to appropriate $500,000 for ongoing anti-pot enforcement actions.
Wondering who has the best meds in Michigan? Who cultivates the chronic? The folks at High Times magazine held their Michigan Medical Marijuana Cannabis Cup this past weekend, crowning the top growers and hash makers in the state for their beautiful buds.
Who took home the top prizes? Read on below for the list.
| Toke of the Town 2014. |
The Iowa legislature this past session approved a bill legalizing high-CBD oil for children with chronic siezure conditions. The law was approved but the roll-out hasn’t happened yet, and families are still waiting on the green light to buy the oil out-of-state and bring it home.
It’s a program that some are saying is already a failure due to being so limited, and several groups say they want the program expanded to include the use of all medical cannabis – including the bill’s sponsor.
| CBD-rich hash oil. |
A bill that would legalize high-CBD strains of cannabis at the national level was submitted today, giving hope to thousands of sick patients around the country. If approved, the bill would remove CBD-oil and “therapeutic hemp” from the controlled substances act that currently bans all forms of marijuana — from hemp to buds.
Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania, says he was inspired to submit his bill, the “Charlotte’s Web Medical Hemp Act of 2014,” after meeting with the parents of a gravely sick child in his district.