| It always feels like somebody’s watching me. |
Well, crazy tokers of the internet: you were right. I’ve argued for years that no one gives a shit what you do online as long as it doesn’t involve kids or weapons, even though a tiny hit of Durban Poison will have me drawing the shades and painting mental pictures of what prison is like.
But apparently the NSA cares what EVERYONE is doing. All the time. Our prized privacy is under attack, but here are some positives:
The St. Louis Riverfront Times cover story this week tells the horrible and frightening tale of Schwagstock founder and Grateful Dead cover band musician Jimmy Tebeau, who was sentenced to federal prison not for any drugs he bought, used or sold – but for the drug usage of the people who attended his festival.
For simply being the venue owner, federal agents have ruined the 45-year-old’s life and put him in prison for the next 30 months.
In less than five years, Barack Obama has spent nearly $290 million to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana caregivers, patients and dispensary owners. It’s a huge number, but interestingly only makes up about four percent of the overall Drug Enforcement Administration Budget.
According to Americans for Safe Access, which compiled the report using DEA and other federal statistics, says federal intervention flies in the face of state-legal cannabis patients, which number more than 1 million people nationally.
Oklahoma toughened their marijuana driving laws this week, creating a limit of zero THC in a driver’s blood and setting it as a per se limit. That means that if you have any marijuana or marijuana metabolites in your system whatsoever, you’re guilty of driving under the influence.
So, if it wasn’t already on your list of life rules, you should add DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH OKLAHOMA on there. Sorry Oklahoman’s but your state is about as far from being okay with marijuana as it gets.
Despite the fact that Arizona has a medical-marijuana law, that law does not turn a neighborhood weed dealer into a bona fide medical-marijuana salesman.
This apparently comes as news to several Phoenix residents, as a New Times review of superior court filings shows that police have busted several dealers over the last few weeks, and were discovered by police because they offered “medical marijuana” for sale on Craigslist. Phoenix New Times has the rest.
Dennis Bohlke is determined to get a lot of autographs. The 59-year-old computer programmer is heading up the campaign for a bill that would legalize the possession, cultivation and sales of limited amounts of cannabis in a plan nearly identical to one passed in Colorado.
But all that can” come without signatures. More than a quarter million of them.
A United States District Court judge officially upheld Colorado’s ban on pot-related magazines unconstitutional Tuesday, putting the matter to the grave once and for all with a permanent injunction.
The ruling came after several parties suing the state reached an agreement with the court that kept the whole issue from going through a lengthy hearing.
Nevada medical marijuana patients in need of cannabis will soon have legal storefronts to go to for safe access to their meds, though the tradeoff means the elimination of home growing.
Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Senate Bill 374 into law last night, creating a state-regulated system of growers, processers and dispensaries. The move also allows home growing only until 2016, when the dispensary program is expected to be fully functional.
| Sgt. Gary Wiegert. |
Though the city of St. Louis officially adopted a marijuana reform law this month, one local police sergeant has not been able to publicly lobby for the cause.
Sgt. Gary Wiegert supports policy changes just like the new city ordinance, which moves cops to treat minor offenses like low-level traffic tickets in an effort to save law enforcement resources. But, as we’ve covered here, he has been stuck in a legal fight with his bosses at the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department for months after he alleged in a suit that SLMPD violated his free-speech rights by refusing to let him work on the side as a paid pot lobbyist. Riverfront Times has the local angle.
| Scott “Trikky” Saed. |
To help all of us non-glass artists better understand the industry, evolution and art and science behind how our pipes, bubblers and bongs are made we’ve asked one of Colorado’s most prominent and best-known artists — Scott “Trikky” Saed — to take on a quasi-regular column we like to call: Glass Class.
This week, Trikky spins us right round with his tale of coming to work on a lathe.