| Jamaican sensi. |
Jamaica has long been recognized as the globe’s marijuana mecca — a place where a large percentage of the population not only enjoys the plant’s benefits but regards it as a sacrament.
So it’s more than a little surprising to discover an editorial in Jamaica’s largest newspaper calling for the nation’s leaders to emulate officials somewhere else when it comes to pot. The place? Colorado. Denver Westword has the full story.
| TokeoftheTown.com |
Sick medical marijuana patients in New Mexico are finding it harder and harder to get access to medical cannabis, according to a newly released information from a survey conducted by the New Mexico Department of Health. Medical marijuana producers have also begun rationing to the patients they do serve.
The Albuquerque Journal, which first received the report after filing a records request with the state, says that some patients have been turning back to non-medical and less-legal cannabis providers.
Want to open a recreational marijuana business in Washington state? Get in line.
In the first six hours the new Department of Revenue site was open yesterday, 299 applications were filed, with 16 people filing for both growing and processing cannabis and 70 retail applications.
| Toke of the Town/Sean MacEntee. |
There’s a new all-time record for the largest unsuccessful pot-smuggling attempt in Arizona. The previous record was set in January, when a Mexican man attempted to drive 14,121 pounds of pot — with an estimated value of $7.1 million — through the port of entry in Nogales.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman says details on this bust will be released at a press conference tomorrow afternoon, but says this haul was worth more than $10.1 million. Phoenix New Times has the full story.
| HeatherMizeur.com |
| Heather Mizeur. |
Maryland Democratic Gov. Hopeful Heather Mizeur’s first outlined a $280 million plan to fund pre-k for 4-year-olds and half-day daycare for 3-year-olds back in October. At the time, she didn’t say how she would pay for it. Now we know, and some of you are probably really going to like this:
Mizeur announced late yesterday that she plans to propose legalizing and taxing recreational cannabis to help fund the state’s pre-kindergarten initiative.
| Weldon Angelos. |
Weldon Angelos has been in prison for nearly ten years on federal charges of selling about $350 worth of pot and he’s got another 45 to go. The heavy sentence comes from the fact that Angelos had guns in the house where he delt the pot, never mind that he never used them, showed them or even mentioned them in the deal.
Think that sounds absurd? So do several prominent politicians, scholars and even an ex-FBI director who are all asking President Barack Obama to set Angelos free.
| L.A., where dispensaries once ruled the earth. |
More than month after it moved to shut down 38 pot shops alleged to be operating illegally, the L.A. City Attorney’s office set its sights on a medical marijuana dispensary that hasn’t even opened yet.
Prosecutors said this week that they’ve filed suit to halt the launch of a proposed cannabis retailer at 3472 South Centinela Ave. in Mar Vista. L.A. Weekly has the 411 on these ballsy dispensary operators.
| Twitter/@Gabo_Rojas_N |
British F-1 racing team McLaren caused a small political rift over the weekend in Austin after Mexican flags altered to include cannabis leaves were flown over the team’s merch stalls at a race in Austin, Texas.
It probably wouldn’t have been so bad had members of the Mexican consulate’s office not seen it and tweeted it out to the interwebz. The consulate said they were highly offended called the mistake “unacceptable”.
A proposal for marijuana decriminalization of up to 14 grams of cannabis in Puerto Rico lost any chance of moving forward in 2013 after the lower house adjourned for the session.
While certainly a setback, the bill’s sponsor Senator Miguel Periera says he will reintroduce the legislation next year.The bill, which would have also lowered the penalties for possession of between 14 grams and an ounce to a fine of up to $500 and a maximum of six months in jail, heads to a yet-to-be-determined legislative committee in January.
New York City’s controversial stop-and-frisk policy is an ineffective, wasteful, sinister program, and now there’s data to prove it. New York’s Attorney General released a report on Thursday describing in painful detail just how profound a policy failing NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly’s pet program is.
Get this: Only one in 50 stop-and-frisk arrests results in convictions for violent crimes. It’s the same figure for weapons possession convictions — that’s 0.1 percent of all stops made.
The Village Voice has the full story.