| TokeoftheTown-Flickr.com/Zuggup |
Generally speaking, we here at Toke think cats are evil animals that attempt to steal your soul while you sleep. One New Zealand kitty, though, is even more diabolical: it steals marijuana.
An unnamed woman from the Dunedin, New Zealand neighborhood of Halfway Bush called cops this week to report that her cat had dragged a baggie with about five grams of pot in it onto her back doorstep. While the cat was undoubtedly proud of his haul, his owner wasn’t very pleased and called the cops to deal with the ganja.
A bill that would legalize medical cannabis for certain qualifying conditions in New York faces its first obstacle today in the state Senate Health Committee. The seventeen-member panel will decide whether state Sen. Diane Savino’s bill will move forward to the full Senate for consideration.
But that might be tough going.
| Timothy Norris/LAW. |
The Inland Empire city of Riverside has successfully shut out marijuana dispensaries, taking its fight for its right to do so all the way to the California Supreme Court. City Hall won the battle, but a war still rages.
A group called Riverside Safe Access over the weekend announced that its measure to overturn the city’s weed shop ban has qualified for the local ballot. Read more over at the LA Weekly.
A Fort Lauderdale woman with an outstanding warrant was arrested in Palm Beach over the weekend after cops found weed in her vagina. The woman had gotten into a heated dispute with a Palm Beach homeowner for “services.”
And, according to one report, the home where the woman was arrested belongs to the owner of Gunster Law Firm, a Palm Beach County firm that handles business needs.
| The edibles selection at a Colorado dispensary. |
The Colorado Marijuana Enforcement Division has convened a working group to look into placing THC limits on pot edibles. At the group’s last meeting, the MED proposed packaging that would require individual serving sizes featuring 10 milligrams of activated THC to be wrapped separately when sold as part of a 100 mg package — the limit under state law. But many edibles manufacturers aren’t wild about the idea.
| Minnesota state Rep. Diane Loeffler. |
About the only thing people can agree on when it comes to the medical marijuana debate is that the federal government isn’t helping. Many of the disputes at the state level wouldn’t be necessary if the Drug Enforcement Administration would reconsider its classification of the plant as a Schedule One narcotic and expedite, rather than hold up, serious research on its medicinal value.
Troubled by this, Minnesota state Rep. Diane Loeffler (DFL-Minneapolis) introduced a resolution Thursday that calls upon President Obama and Congress to force those federal agencies into action.
| “Rabble rabble rabble THE CHILDREN! Rabble rabble.” |
An anti-drug group looking to squash the legalization of medical marijuana in the state has released a website and an eight-minute ad that says that if Amendment 2 passes, marijuana will be legalized in Florida.
In the video titled “The Devil is in the Details,” the group claims that Amendment 2 is fraught with legal loopholes and language that would allow pot to be smoked and sold on the streets willy-nilly. Amendment 2 is not about legalizing medical marijuana, the video says, it’s about legalizing weed.
| Toke of the Town/Wikimedia Commons (Downtowngal). |
Water is as precious as gold in the West, so the saying goes. The wet stuff could become even more valuable soon for marijuana producers as federal officials mull whether or not to cut off irrigation for otherwise state-legal pot and hemp growers.
Basically, the feds don’t want to be assisting in the watering pot gardens while at the same time maintaining marijuana’s illegal status.
| LOC.gov |
Starting in August 2012, police in Chicago have had the ability to cite those caught with 15 grams of pot or less with a $250-$500 ticket, take the herb and let that person on their way. The police haven’t been doing that, though.
According to a study by Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, 93 percent of the misdemeanor pot possession charges in the city involved an arrest.
| Wikimedia Commons. |
Cops in Round Rock, Texas have used a legal loophole to charge Jacob Lavoro, 19, with possession and distribution of 660 grams of hash over a tin of pot brownies. The felony charges carry a penalty of five years to life in prison – and all because Lavoro used hash oil instead of raw cannabis in his recipe.