Toke of the Town

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Highly Hilarious: Top 10 Cannabis Comedians

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By on Culture

Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town columnist and former stand-up comic Jack Rikess with a friend

​​​By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent

This Sunday, September 18, the amazing Debi Durst and the City of San Francisco present Comedy Day. It was founded in 1981 as a way for Bay Area comics to say thank you to comedy fans for their support and to The City that has nurtured so many comedians. Starting at noon and always ending with a “surprise guest”, this is a feast for the comedy fans of all ages. And it’s Free!
In honor of this glorious day, I hereby present my list of comics that have advance the cause of marijuana to audiences everywhere and, in the process, made us laugh.
I’m sorry to my friends and colleagues I’ve omitted. There’s only so much stage time. Maybe next year… 
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‘Marijuana Is Sexy’: Talking Pot with Mendo Sheriff Tom Allman

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By on Culture, Growing

Photo: Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman: “We are, of course, supportive of legitimate medical marijuana here.”
By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

​

The Coming of the New Prophet
Rikess: Last time we spoke in August of last year… (See Toke of the Town’s 2010 interview with Sheriff Allman here.)
Sheriff: Seems like yesterday…
Rikess: (laughs) I know and still…you don’t write and you don’t call…
Sheriff: (laughs) Okay…
Rikess: So last time I was here, you said something that was incredibly right on. You said that there was going to be very little difference between George Bush’s administration and Obama’s, when it came to medical marijuana. You said that someone big in the attorney general’s office sat in the chair I’m sitting in and said, and I’m paraphrasing, “He guaranteed me that it was going to be the same under Obama as it was with George Bush. In the end, Eric Holder will handle medical marijuana the same way [the]George Bush [Administration] did.” 
Sheriff: It wasn’t Eric Holder. It was a U.S. attorney. The chronological order was, the U.S. attorney came up here and said, (this is definitely under George W.), saying, “ummm, the U.S. government will not get involved with any marijuana cultivation, distribution, what-ever-you-want-to-call-it, that falls within the boundaries of California’s medical marijuana.” 
Okay, thank you very much. And, you know, he took his dog and pony show and went somewhere else. 
Then the presidential election happened, okay. Then in the primary or maybe it was before the general election, Obama just mentioned something about medical marijuana. 
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Michigan Attorney General Goes After Medical Marijuana Law

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: Voice of Detroit
Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette hates medical marijuana, and he thinks you’re faking to get it.

​Michigan’s attorney general has been busily trying to dismantle the state’s medical marijuana law ever since it was passed by voters. Attorney General Bill Schuette announced legislative proposals on Wednesday targeting patients he claims are “exploiting” the law.

Schuette is not a fan of the law, passed by an overwhelming 63 percent of Michigan voters in 2008. In the sort of political gymnastics also favored by Republican attorneys  general in other states (examples: Rob McKenna of Washington state and Tom Horne of Arizona), Schuette claims to be a “states’ rights conservative” — unless the “state’s right” we’re talking about is a medical marijuana law.
In that case, the rules are different, and in Schuette’s mind, it’s open season on medical marijuana patients, because, in a brief he filed back in June in support of the City of Livonia — which is trying to ban medical marijuana use and sales — the attorney general claims the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act is preempted by federal law.
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N.J. MS Patient Loses Appeal; Prison For Medical Marijuana

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By on Growing, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
Multiple sclerosis patient John Ray Wilson is handcuffed after being sentenced to five years in prison for “manufacturing and drug possession”

​A New Jersey multiple sclerosis patient appears to be headed to prison for growing 17 marijuana plants behind his home.

John Ray Wilson said the plants were for medicinal use, and New Jersey — since Wilson’s arrest — has legalized medical marijuana. But patients in the Garden State still aren’t allowed to grow their own medicine.
Wilson was acquitted of maintaining or operating a “drug-production facility,” which could have gotten him 20 years behind bars, but was found guilty of manufacturing and possessing marijuana and sentenced to five years in prison.
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Canada: Marijuana Arrests On The Rise

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By on Global, News

Graphic: Ed Rosenthal
Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government arrested 58,000 Canadians for marijuana possession last year.

​Canada’s crime rate has dropped to its lowest level in almost four decades, according to Statistics Canada, but marijuana-related arrests are dramatically increasing.

Stats Canada shows that 58,000 Canadians were arrested for cannabis possession in 2010, a number that is 14 percent higher than the year before, reports Renee Bernard at News 1130.
Pot smokers are being unfairly targeted by the Harper government, according to Jacob Hunter with the Beyond Prohibition Foundation.
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Reformed Nazi Twin Singers Renounce Racism; Credit Marijuana

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By on Culture

Photo: Polaris
Lamb and Lynx Gaede, formerly of the white supremacist rock group Prussian Blue.

​It’s only mid-afternoon, but I’m confident this is the strangest story that’s going to cross my desk all day. A pair of twins who caused a media frenzy a few years ago by presenting themselves as the cute faces of white supremacist racism have renounced their former hatred, saying that medical marijuana has helped them see the error of their ways.

Lamb and Lynx Gaede, whose band Prussian Blue was popular back in 2005 among those inclined to like such things, ascribed their unsavory past to having been “home schooled country bumpkins” heavily influenced by their domineering white supremacist mother, reports Neurobonkers.
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Goodman Runs For Congress On Cannabis Legalization Platform

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: KOMO News
Congressional candidate Roger Goodman, left, advocates the legalization of marijuana and protecting the planet.

​What if we could elect a real, live drug policy reformer to Congress? A candidate who has that background — and unabashedly advocates the legalization of cannabis nationwide — is running for the U.S. House of Representatives from Washington state, and he has an excellent chance to win.

Washington state Rep. Roger Goodman had in February initially announced he would run in the 8th District against Rep. Dave Reichert, a right-wing Republican, but now that Rep. Jay Inslee is vacating his seat in the House to run for Governor, Goodman will be running for that open seat in the reliably liberal 1st District where he lives, the candidate told Toke of the Town in an exclusive interview Friday afternoon.
“My number one priority is planetary health,” Goodman told me. “We need to pay attention to that, and we need to foster justice in our society.
“Cannabis policy reform is actually a part of both of those major issues, and my training as a lawyer, an environmentalist, a former Congressional chief of staff, a state agency director, and now as a legislator and reformer for years, qualifies me not just on cannabis reform but on qualify of life issues and on true progressive leadership,” he said.
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California Rejects Plan To Reduce Cannabis Cultivation Penalties

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By on Growing, Legislation, News

Graphic: disinfo.com

​The California Assembly on Friday rejected Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s bill, AB 1017, to reduce marijuana cultivation from a mandatory felony to a “wobbler,” which would have allowed discretion on charging a misdemeanor. The vote was 24 yes to 36 no.

The bill had been supported by the district attorney of Mendocino County, but was opposed by the state D.A.’s association.
“The state Legislature has once again demonstrated its incompetence when it comes to dealing with prison crowding,” said disappointed California NORML Director Dale Gieringer.
“With California under court order to reduce its prison population, it is irresponsible to maintain present penalties for nonviolent drug offenses,” Gieringer said. “It makes no sense to keep marijuana growing a felony, when assault, battery, and petty theft are all misdemeanors.
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Are You As ‘Fed’ Up As Me With Federal Marijuana Policies?

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By on Culture

Photo: Eric Kayne

​​By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent


​I am totally Fed up.

If you haven’t heard already, ex-presidents, prime ministers, eminent economists and the Big Dudes of the business community will be meeting to discuss how the world’s drug policies “just ain’t working.” The quote is mine.
The Global Commission on Drug Policy will host a press conference at the prestigious Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York on Thursday, to pull the trigger on their findings that describe the Drug War as a failure and call for a “paradigm shift” in approaching the issue.
The commission will demand that the focus change from criminal justice towards a public health approach. The global advocacy organization Avaaz, which has nine million members, will present a petition in support of the commission’s recommendations to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The commission cites such factors as the cartel-related violence in Mexico, President Barack Obama’s comment that it was “perfectly legitimate” to question whether the War On Drugs was working, and the wider global economic crisis. These factors have the world leaders questioning whether it is time to change our course when it comes to the War On Drugs.
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Worth Repeating: You Can’t Censor Cannabis Cancer Treatment

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By on Medical, News

Graphic: NORML Stash Blog
“NCI apparently got a talking to from someone” ~ Radical Russ Belville, NORML

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Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.

Worth Repeating

​By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)

You are witnessing cannabis history in the making.
You can clearly see what happened, in the illustration above. The government has changed the verbiage regarding cannabis on the National Cancer Institute’s cancer.gov website, only 11 days after it was added.

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We demand that the original statement be re-posted as it was, and for the National Cancer Institute to stand by its original research statement.

This was a naked political move. Please call the NCI public inquiry phone line at 301-435-3848 or email them at http://www.cancer.gov/global/contact/email-us.
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