| The Raw Story |
| Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is the wrong place to go for the truth about marijuana |
The Obama Administration has just released a new response to three WhiteHouse.gov petitions on marijuana legalization. Perhaps significantly, for the first time Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is now saying “it is clear that we’re in the midst of a serious national conversation about marijuana.”
“I guess it makes a difference when marijuana legalization gets more votes than your boss does in an important swing state, as happened in Colorado this last election,” Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, told Toke of the Town Tuesday night. “From ‘legalization is not in my vocabulary and it’s not in the president’s,’ as Gil Kerlikowske often used to say, to ‘it is clear that we’re in the midst of a serious national conversation about marijuana’ is a pretty stark shift.
“Of course, what really matters is to what extent the administration actually shifts enforcement priorities and budgets, but I sure do like hearing the U.S. drug czar acknowledge the fact that marijuana legalization is a mainstream discussion that is happening whether he likes it or not,” Angell told us.
| NASA |
Video from NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory on Monday showed a “fast moving jet of particles produced by a rapidly rotating neutron star,” scientifically speaking. But a more poetic view of the footage, according to The Raw Story, is that it resembles the mask from Phantom of the Opera or “God smoking a joint.”
The Vela pulsar was formed after the collapse of another massive star, according to NASA’s description provided with the video, and “it may provide new insight into the nature of some of the densest matter in the universe,” reports David Edwards at The Raw Story.
The video “has the unnerving appearance of the Phantom of the Opera — wearing not only a mask, but also a steam-blowing hat like the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz,” wrote Universe Today‘s Nancy Atkinson.
| The Daily Chronic |
Nine medical marijuana collectives are claiming in court that the Long Beach Police Department is using illegal, unconstitutional tactics to put them out of business.
The nine collectives and two men are seeking an injunction and damages for Fourth Amendment violations and “judicial deception,” reports Matt Reynolds at Courthouse News Service.
Lead plaintiff Green Earth Center sued the city of Long Beach and five of its police officers — David Strohman, Oscar Valanzuela, Aldo Decarvalho, Chris Valdez and Douglas Luther — in federal court.
| Hempology.org |
By John Dvorak
I love hemp! I’ve been studying hemp for more than 20 years and I’m still learning something new all the time! And there is so much more that we can ALL learn about how great hemp is and that’s where the Cannabis Curriculum comes in.
If you’re in school, why not study something interesting and cool like cannabis hemp? It doesn’t matter what class you’re taking, with a little creative thinking, you can apply it to the beneficial aspects of cannabis hemp or the devastating effects that its prohibition has on society. You can do a book report, a term paper or a group project.
When you do this, YOU learn something new about hemp, your classmates learn something new and your teachers learn how great hemp is. That’s what the cannabis curriculum is all about: education and communication. And if you send me the results of your hemp research, I’ll add it to the Cannabis Curriculum Clearinghouse, a database that others can access to assist with their hemp research efforts.
| Harborside Health Center |
Chief Federal Magistrate Maria-Elena James on Monday ruled in favor of Harborside Health Center, which describes itself as the biggest nonprofit medical marijuana dispensary in the United States, and denied motions by Harborside’s landlords asking the court to order an immediate halt to the sales of medicinal cannabis at their properties.
Judge James also declined to grant a motion from the City of Oakland to immediately halt the federal government’s legal efforts to close Harborside, but scheduled a hearing later this month to hear more arguments in the City of Oakland’s lawsuit against the Feds in a 17-page opinion [PDF] described by Harborside as “highly significant.”
“We are grateful that Judge James carefully considered the facts and arguments in the Harborside case, and decided to grant us our day in court,” said Harborside Health Center Executive Director Steve DeAngelo. “We have always believed that a Bay Area jury will recognize the value that Harborside brings to the community, and refuse to allow the federal government to seize the properties where we are located.
| Examiner.com |
| Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy has established a group to lobby against legalized marijuana |
Group calls on Patrick Kennedy – whose family made a fortune selling alcohol – to explain why he wants to keep an objectively less harmful alternative to alcohol illegal
The nation’s largest marijuana policy organization, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), slammed former Congressman Patrick Kennedy‘s plan to force marijuana consumers into treatment and marijuana “education” classes, which his new organization, Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), is scheduled to unveil in Denver on Wednesday.
Kennedy’s group, Project SAM — for Smart Approaches to Marijuana — will lobby for increased treatment for marijuana and drug abuse, he said, reports The Associated Press.
“The proposal is on par with forcing every alcohol user into treatment at their own cost or at a cost to the state,” said MPP communications director Mason Tvert. “In fact, it would be less logical because the science is clear that marijuana is far less toxic, less addictive, and less likely to be associated with acts of violence.”
| Cannabis Culture |
| Aaron Sandusky: “This is a terrible injustice. Nobody wins.” |
Aaron Sandusky Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison
By Cheri Sicard
Aaron Sandusky, the president of G3 Holistics, which operated three legal (under state law) California medical marijuana dispensaries, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Monday in Los Angeles. Once his sentence is served, Sandusky will then face five years of supervised probation, including random drug testing.
He is also being compelled to complete a drug rehab program, despite any evidence he actually has a drug addiction problem.
Defense attorney Roger Diamond made an impassioned plea on behalf of his client, highlighting the conflicting opinions not only between state and federal law, both also laws within the state of California. He pointed out that Sandusky provided much needed medicine to seriously ill patients in full and open compliance with California state laws.
| KATU.com |
| Michael Safiotti — in jail for marijuana — died after jail workers served him oatmeal containing dairy products, then refused to help him when he had an allergic reaction. The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department recommends that nobody be charged. How convenient for them! |
Michael Saffioti, 22, died in a Snohomish County Jail cell after being locked up on a marijuana charge. Now, thanks to the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Department, nobody is being held accountable.
Witnesses testified that jail guards mocked the young man as he lay dying, but the Sheriff’s Office announced last week that it would not recommend any charges against guards or staff for the tragedy, reports Jon Humbert at KOMO 4.
Saffioti died of what his mother, Rose Saffioti, believes was a severe allergic reaction; he is allergic to dairy products. He’d had run-ins with the law over marijuana and needed to turn himself in last July after missing a court date.
| KCRA |
| Alarm company ADT refuses to service medical marijuana patients who legally grow their own cannabis |
A Sacramento, California AIDS patient who grows medical marijuana said his home alarm company of three years dropped him after a repairman saw cannabis plants inside his house.
“I still want to call the governor,” said the homeowner, Jay, who wanted to remain anonymous. “If this company doesn’t want to recognize our state laws, they maybe we shouldn’t license them [in California],” reports Richard Sharp at KCRA.
| Wikipedia |
Although the voters in the state of Washington — home to several of the United States’ biggest naval bases — recently legalized marijuana, the Pentagon has reminded sailors that federal drug policies remain unaffected for members of the military.
The zero tolerance drug policy for all members of the U.S. Armed Forces was instituted by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1981 after the fatal crash of a Prowler on board the USS Nimitz killed 14 crew members and injured 45 others. (The crash, of course, had nothing to do with marijuana, but autopsies showed several members of the flight deck crew tested positive for pot, so that gave them a convenient scapegoat upon which to blame the tragedy.)