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Task Force Prepares To Distribute Marijuana In Maine

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 1, 2009 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical, News

Wikimedia Commons

Maine is one of only three states — along with Rhode Island and New Mexico — authorizing state-run marijuana dispensaries.

A new task force is studying how, when and where medical marijuana will be distributed in Maine, WABI TV 5 reports.

The 14-member committee, assigned by Gov. John E. Baldacci after voters approved marijuana dispensaries in last month’s election, will advise the governor on how to implement the law with safeguards to protect public health and safety.

The rules are supposed to be in effect in 120 days. According to task force member Attorney General Janet Mills said “this time period is unrealistic.”

Newly Surfaced Movie Shows Marilyn Monroe ‘Smoking Pot’: Reuters

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 1, 2009 Culture, News

A newly surfaced home movie shows movie icon Marilyn Monroe apparently smoking marijuana, according to Reuters.

The movie was retrieved from an attic some 50 years after it was filmed.

The color film, taken at a private home in New Jersey, has no sound. It was recently bought by collector Keya Morgan from the anonymous person who took the film.

Reuters said new owner Morgan and the original person who shot the film gave the news organization permission to use it in digital form. The copyright will be auctioned on eBay later this week, Morgan said.

Hamas Approves Law To Execute Pot Dealers In Gaza

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2009 Global, Legislation, News

“Jephthath’s Sacrifice” by Maciejowski (c. 1250)

If you sell pot on the Gaza Strip, be careful or you could lose your head.

Selling pot can now officially get you killed in Gaza City — by the government, that is.

Despite the area’s proud tradition of fine hashish (Blond Lebanese, anyone?) the Hamas-run government of Gaza has approved a law that will allow for the execution of “convicted drug dealers,” its attorney general said today, according to the Associated Press.

The Islamist government ruling Gaza is taking a page from the tired old playbook of drug prohibitionists in America and worldwide — that imposing draconian sentences will reduce drug smuggling and discourage drug use. The policy, in place for close to a century in many parts of the world, has proved to be a colossal failure.

Hamas has cracked down on drugs, saying it has arrested more than 100 drug dealers and users. Dozens of pounds of contraband, mostly marijuana, have been seized.

Blithely undeterred by the facts, Gaza’s attorney general blamed the Israeli government for not punishing potheads severely enough (or killing them quickly enough). If the intent is to prove governments in the Middle East can have drug policies even dumber than those of the United States, then mission accomplished!

Wisconsin Eyes Legalizing Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 30, 2009 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: Coaster420, Wikimedia Commons

Wisconsin medical marijuana users are closer than they’ve ever been to that first legal bowl.

Lawmakers and marijuana advocacy groups are pushing for Wisconsin to join the 13 other states where medical marijuana is legal. Bills to do so were introduced last week in the Senate and Assembly.

“The time for Wisconsin to become the 15th state to allow patients to use pot to make their lives a bit more comfortable is long past due,” Dave Zweifel, editor emeritus of The Capital Times, editorializes.

Gary Storck of Madison, a prominent leader in the movement to legalize medical marijuana and co-founder (along with Jacki Rickert) of Is My Medicine Legal Yet?, told the Wisconsin Rapids Tribune he vaporizes pot to treat glaucoma and a heart condition. Storck said there is a groundswell of public support and Democrats, who control the Legislature, have been friendlier to past efforts to legalize the herb.

Storck has been pushing for decades to get the Wisconsin Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, according to the Capital Times. “We’re not criminals; we’re just trying to get on with our lives,” Storck said.

Sativa Takes Top Spot: Super Lemon Haze Repeats As Cannabis Cup Champion

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 29, 2009 Culture, Global, News

Greenhouseseeds.nl

Mighty Super Lemon Haze extended for another year its reign over the Dutch pot scene at this year’s Cannabis Cup Awards.

A heady sativa, Super Lemon Haze, repeated as the favorite Dutch coffeeshop strain at the 22nd Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. It won last year as well, as reported at CelebStoner.com, and is the first strain to repeat since the Green House’s Super Silver Haze in 1999.

Vanilla Kush from Barney’s placed second in the competition for the top prize. Headband Kush from Green Place finished third.

Both the Green House and Barney’s continued to dominate the Cup as the two powerhouses have for a decade. The last shop to win the Cup other than the Green House or Barney’s was The Noon with the legendary Blueberry, all the way back in 2000.

Fallbrook, CA: Medical Marijuana Dispensary Joins Chamber Of Commerce

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 28, 2009 Culture, Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: Coaster420, Wikimedia Commons

Dispensary grade Purple Goo.

Despite District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ recent dispensary crackdown, there are towns in the San Diego area that aren’t so pot-unfriendly. In Fallbrook, California, the newest member of the Chamber of Commerce is a medical marijuana dispensary.

Dispensary co-founder Bob Riedel said he joined the chamber for the regular reasopns: getting involved in the community and networking, according to the North County Times. The dispensary will even be one of the sponsors for Fallbrook’s Dec. 5 Christmas parade, having kicked $500 into the chamber’s parade fund.

Michigan Prosecutor: ‘Part Of Me Thinks We Should Have Totally Legalized Marijuana’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 27, 2009 Medical, News

Photo: Chmee2, Wikimedia Commons

According to an assistant prosecutor in Michigan, the new medical marijuana laws there, passed by voters last year, are starting to create some unforeseen problems.

I know what you’re thinking. “Just another cop speaking fluent whinese.” There’s undeniably a little of that going on, but the talk that the prosecutor gave before the Northwest Zero Tolerance Coalition (that’s a forbidding name for an anti-drug group, if there ever was one!) took an unexpected turn towards the end.

Assistant Prosecutor Bill Dailey, chief of Macomb County’s drug unit, said that the medical marijuana laws are causing a “strain on my personnel because they are out there now, they are recovering marijuana on their traffic stops … It is very, very difficult for them or for us to find out if these folks have a medical marijuana card.”

Judge Orders Cops To Give Man Back 11 Pounds Of Pot, A Little At The Time

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 27, 2009 Medical, News

Photo: Pablo-flores, Wikimedia Commons

Washington judge gives the green light to medical pot patient

An interesting thing is happening in states which have legalized medical marijuana. There’s an ongoing culture war between cops who hate all marijuana, period, and patients who take the law at its word when it says they can use pot legally. From time to time, the patients win big.

Such is the case in Kent, Washington, where King County Judge Mary Roberts ordered the police department to give 11 pounds of seized marijuana back to Matthew Zugsberger, who holds a valid California medical marijuana card.

After police (with the aid of a trusty drug dog) found the stash in the trunk of Zugsberger’s car last February in the parking lot of a pharmacy in Kent, they arrested the Californian and his girlfriend and seized the weed.

Zugsberger says the cops accused him of importing marijuana from Canada (which does happen a lot in this area, being not far from the B.C. border). “Why the hell would I buy pot from Canada if I have a field of it in my back yard?”, Zugsberger reasonably asked, according to the Seattle P.I.

The California man said he began using marijuana medicinally in 2007 to manage nausea caused by a severe injury sustained while working as a underwater welder in the Gulf of Mexico. After the accident, he was prescribed opiate painkillers; Zugsberger said the drugs gave him liver problems, and he was concerned about becoming addicted to them.

Zugsberger pleaded guilty to misdemeanor possession and was sentenced to three months’ probation. But defense attorney Aaron Pelley wasn’t done with the case. Pelley, who is active with Seattle-based medical marijuana advocacy organization Cannabis Defense Coalition, filed a petition in August seeking the return of the marijuana to his client, since Zugsberger is a legal medical pot patient.

California Radio Station Airs Medical Marijuana Dispensary Ad

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 26, 2009 Culture, Dispensaries, News

Canna Care

Canna Care employees were featured on the cover of Health & Fitness magazine last year.

A Sacramento radio station is currently airing an ad, one of the first of its kind, for local marijuana dispensary Canna Care.

Station K-HITS 921.1 FM is running the ads, which according to News 10 KXTV are the first marijuana ads to run in the Sacramento market.

The ad soft-pedals the message, never mentioning the words “marijuana” or “cannabis,” relying instead on the ability of listeners to decode the following message:

“There’s no need to suffer in silence. Canna Care is here to help. If you’re coping with chronic pain, arthritis, nausea, glaucoma or side effects from chemo, there are reliable alternatives.”

It was the radio station’s decision to keep any specific mentions of pot out of the radio ad, according to Canna Care co-owner Bryan Davies.

Marijuana For Autism: Mother, Doctors Say It’s Effective

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 25, 2009 Medical, News

Photo: Antoinel, Wikimedia Commons

Could marijuana brownies be the key to treating autism?

Should parents be allowed to use medical marijuana to treat autistic children if they believe it is more effective than the chemicals offered by pharmaceutical corporations? More and more doctors, and members of the general public, are saying “Yes.”

After Mieko Hester-Perez appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America this week, telling how she believes doctor-recommended medical marijuana brownies saved her son’s life, she received an outpouring of support from TV viewers and commenters on ABC News’ website.

Mieko’s 10-year-old son, Joey, weighed only 46 pounds due to his unwillingness to eat. “You could see the bones in his chest,” she said. “He was going to die.”

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