Jim Denny has 7,500 square feet of hemp plants and a problem: His homeowners association has found that his plants are a violation of the HOA rules and has ordered him to “replace” them by the end of next week. The reason? The HOA board says that Denny failed to get approval for “landscaping modifications” to his lot and that his 75-foot-by-100-foot hemp plot is a home business in violation of the Todd Creek Farms HOA rules.
To comply with the board’s findings, Denny is giving away his hemp plants (and in some instances, selling them for a small fee) to anyone who is registered with the Colorado Department of Agriculture to grow industrial hemp.
Melanie Asmar at the Denver Westword has the full story.
Colorado just marked six months since the launch of legal recreational marijuana sales. Washington, for its part, is set to follow suit on July 8. But the state may experience some growing pains. Of the 335 retail dispensaries awaiting approval in Washington, only about twenty are expected to obtain licenses by the state on July 7– leaving the new shops just one day to stock and prepare for the weed-hungry stampede anticipated the next day.
This small glimmer of sunlight for stoners comes after a long course of delays in the enactment of State Initiative 502 — the bill legalizing retail marijuana in Washington. However, many industry and regulation authorities expect high bud prices and shortages during the beginning of retail sales, similar to what Colorado went through earlier this year.
The University of Arizona isn’t saying much about the firing of medical-marijuana researcher Sue Sisley, but officials deny any political motivations. In an email sent to our sister blog, the Phoenix New Times, in response to our questions this morning, a U of A representative also notes that the university has “championed” medical-marijuana.
Sisley, an outspoken MD who’s been pushing to study how marijuana affects post-traumatic stress disorder patients, was told last month her contract with the U of A’s Telemedicine Program wouldn’t be renewed. She claims that Joe “Skip” Garcia, the University of Arizona’s senior vice president for health sciences, told her that Senate President Andy Biggs had questioned Sisley’s activism, and soon after she received the letter announcing her contract would not be renewed.
The Phoenix New Times has more on this story, including the U of A response.
In January of this year, The Washington Post conducted a poll of Washington D.C. residents which found that 8 in 10 polled said they were in favor of either decriminalization, or straight up legalization, of weed in the nation’s capital.
In March, the City Council voted to decriminalize cannabis possession, knocking the punishment down from a year in jail, to a $25 fine. The District’s medical marijuana program is expanding, and much like in Colorado, none of these things are leading to the reefer madness we’ve been warned about for decades.
But with legalization talk being passed around the tightest circles in the nation’s capital, leave it to local Congressional Republicans to try to halt the inevitable progress of reform.
| Additional photos and more below. |
Today marks six months since recreational marijuana sales began in Colorado, still the only state where such purchases can be made. (The first licensed retail shops in Washington are expected to open on July 7.) By the January 1 launch, eighteen stores had been licensed in Denver, and since then, the total has grown steadily. Some outlets have come and some have gone, but the latest total, as vetted by Westword‘s Amber Taufen, stands at a whopping 88 — fifteen more than our previous update in April.
All the licensed shops are included here, along with photos, videos, links and excerpts from reviews of the ones visited by Westword marijuana critic (your’s truly) William Breathes. See the countdown thanks to Michael Roberts below.
| A screen capture from the CBS report about Operation Grow4Vets, on view below. |
Back in May, we told you about Operation Grow4Vets, an organization dedicated to providing free cannabis to veterans who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Now, founder Roger Martin’s brainchild has gotten its biggest boost yet: a CBS profile on view below. And he hopes the exposure will help bring the project to the next level.
Press releases don’t typically stir passions. But cannabis activist Wanda James was incensed after receiving a missive from Mayor Michael Hancock (see it below) in which he thanked the Denver City Council for passing his $3.35 million marijuana budget proposal but offered no kudos to the pot industry that generated all that extra cash.
James says that’s nothing new. In her view, the way Hancock and Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper have treated the cannabis industry to date is “beyond insulting.” Denver Westword has more.
| ISU NORML Facebook. |
| An ISU student picks up trash around campus in one of the banned shirts (in red) during a volunteer day. |
Iowa State University is under fire in federal court after the Iowa State National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws says they were unfairly told to remove the school mascot, Cy the Cardinal, from their t-shirts.
Two students, juniors Paul Gerlich and Erin Fuleigh, have filed a suit in Iowa arguing that their First Amendment rights were trampled by the college, who demanded NORML remove Cy from their shirts after a state lawmaker complained that it sent the wrong message. Their lawsuit is part one of four filed this week, the others coming from students at Ohio University, Chicago State University and Citrus College in California.
As the cannabis movement goes more main stream, the hucksters, frauds, snake oil salesmen, and get-rich-quick types are coming out of the woodwork. Nowhere does such a low-level life form thrive better than on the world wide web.
But while information becomes more readily available online, reliable information becomes more of a rare and valued commodity – particularly when it comes to pot. The charlatans trying to profit on the cannabis boom know this, and they are quite literally in a race to cash in as large as possible before the capitalistic opportunity of a lifetime dries up.
This haste – and its consequences – has been demonstrated time and again in the grey-collar world of trading weed-related stocks. As despicable as this practice of pumping and dumping pot stocks is, at least they are targeting adults.
| Keith Bacongo-Flickr edited by Toke of the Town. |
Ohioans looking to legally use medical cannabis will have to wait at least another year (or move) as activists collecting signatures for the November ballot failed to reach their goal.
While Ohio Rights Group managed to collect around 100,000 signatures – a commendable figure – they failed to get the necessary 385,000 signatures.
The biggest obstacle: money. The reality of today’s political landscape is that you need paid signature gatherers or it is hard to get anything on the ballot today. John Pardee, ORG President said their campaign never had the funding to accomplish that.