Another indication of Colorado’s importance in the cannabis-reform movement: Today, the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, better known as NORML, opened a satellite office in Denver.
We spoke to NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre about the reasons NORML wanted to have a permanent base of operations in Colorado.
The Denver Westword has more.
Newly-installed NYPD Inspector General Philip Eure has been on the job for less than a week, but there are no shortage of demands on his attention. Last week, we reported on the first complaint filed with Eure’s office, nestled in the Department of Investigation, by Robert Jereski on behalf of activists including himself whose organizations had been infiltrated and surveilled by undercover NYPD officers.
Not every dispensary in Colorado is a smash hit. Some fail for typical business reasons, while others go under with a little help from the feds — like VIP Cannabis, which was among the operations raided by the DEA, the IRS and Denver cops in November 2013. Now, the owners of that store and five others reportedly owe more than $60,000 in back taxes — money the City of Denver is attempting to recoup by auctioning off everything it can.
Look below to see photos of twenty items from Herbology Dispensary and VIP Cannabis’ 43rd Avenue facility up for bid via Schur Success Auction & Appraisal. Bids are being accepted until 3 p.m. Thursday, June 4. If you’re interested in buying, click the included links. For the rest of us, though, the pics offer a behind-the-scenes look at what makes dispensaries work — and occasionally, not work. Latest Word has more.
| Toke of the Town – Flickr/Keith Bacongco. |
Live in San Jose, California? Want free weed? Then get off your butt and go vote. Like, now.
Several San Jose medical marijuana clubs have joined in to create the “Weed for Votes” program, which Silicon Valley Cannabis Coalition director John Lee isn’t geared at getting support any particular measure or official.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is moving forward with his limited, clinically-based medical marijuana program, announcing Sunday that the state has paired with a British firm to study the efficacy of CBD-related treatments for children.
The governor of South Carolina has approved a restrictive CBD-only bill into law in her state. But despite the moral victory for cannabis activists, the fact that it doesn’t allow cannabis to be cultivated in the state, nor does it even allow for psychoactive chemicals to be extracted or given to patients may be a real hinderance.
Armed and dangerous cronies of the War on Drugs are now blowing up the youth of America. Earlier last week, a 19-month-old toddler in Atlanta, Georgia suffered life-threatening injuries after a stun grenade thrown by a SWAT team officer landed in his crib and exploded in his face.
Despite the OC Weekly‘s many differences with Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) over the past several years–global warming/a.ka. “dinosaur farts,” the Taliban, sloppy housekeeping to name a few–they’ve always admired his opposition to the federal government’s heavy-handed prohibition on marijuana. With more than 20 states and the District of Columbia allowing medical marijuana usage, and Colorado and Washington states having passed recreational pot laws, a majority of Americans want weed to be legal.
And with a vote on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives last Thursday, Americans are now closer than ever to actually seeing that happen. Both Democrats and Republicans came together to pass a bipartisan appropriations bill spearheaded by Rohrabacher that would prohibit the government from using federal funds to “prevent [states]from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.”
Nick Schou at the OC Weekly has more.
| Gisele Pollack. |
Broward County circuit judge, and misdemeanor drug court judge, Gisele Pollack, who was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in early May, is asking to be paid during her suspension.
Pollack, 56, has admitted last year she’d shown up to work drunk before. According to Red Broward, when her staff tried to stop her from approaching the bench slammed, her response was “Fuck you, you’re fired.” She took a leave of absence a couple months ago when she arrived to work inebriated. The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has the full story.
California officials this week are pulling out the scare tactics and blaming legal marijuana grows for sucking already drought-ridden streams dry and polluting the mountains with illegal fertilizers.