Toke of the Town

Search Results: drugs/ (40)

Drug War Now Killing More People Than Afghanistan War

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By on News

Photo: Alejandro Bringas
People mourn the death of victims of a Drug War shootout in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico

​More people were killed in Drug War-related violence in Mexico last year than died in the war in Afghanistan, according to year-end reports from both countries.

In Afghanistan, about 10,000 people — 2,043 of them civilians — died in the fighting last year.
Although that conflict involves air power, heavy weapons, and numerous roadside bombs, it was less deadly last year than the Mexican Drug War, with a death toll estimated at around 13,000 by CNN.
In mid-December, the Mexican attorney general’s office reported that 12,456 people had been killed through the end of November, reports Phillip Smith at AlterNet. With a death toll of more than 1,000 per month in 2010, a year-end figure of more than 13,000 looks to be accurate.
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Toking In 2010: Biggest Cannabis Stories of the Year

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By on Culture, News

Graphic: Naming And Treating

​​By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent

Here are the stories, tidbits and bong-thoughts of 2010 that caught my attention. 

In July, the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs changed its stance from “attention” to “at ease” by allowing the use of medical marijuana for GI’s in the states where medicinal cannabis is legal.
Maybe one of the biggest underreported stories of the year was the acceptance by the U.S. federal government to allow marijuana as a possible medical treatment.
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Misdemeanor Pot Defendants Go To Jail In NYC — If They’re Poor

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By on News

Photo: cityrag
New York City is the world “leader” in marijuana arrests. And if you don’t have bail money, you could be spending a couple of weeks in jail for a misdemeanor offense.

​Thousands of people charged with low-level marijuana “crimes” in New York City spend days in jail for these misdemeanors, not because they have been found guilty, but because they are too poor to post bail, according to a report released on Friday.

And faced with the choice of pleading guilty and getting out of jail, or fighting the charges and staying behind bars while awaiting trial, many of the defendants choose to plead guilty, the report said.

The report, which examines the bail conditions for people charged with non-felonies like smoking marijuana in public or jumping a subway turnstile, found the overwhelming majority of defendants in cases in which the bail was set at $1,000 or less were unable to pay and were sent to jail — where they remained, on average, for more than two weeks, reports Mosi Secret at The New York Times.
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Drug Czar Blames Medical Marijuana For Increased Drug Abuse

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By on Medical, News

Photo: The Fresh Scent
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske: “Calling marijuana medicine has sent the absolute wrong message to our young people”

​Advocates Say Federal Health Study Exaggerates Claims, Fails To Connect The Dots

The results of a national survey on drug use and health were issued Wednesday by the federal government, noting a surge in the use of marijuana and other drugs such as ecstasy and methamphetamine. Gil Kerlikowske, head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), took the opportunity to rail against medical marijuana use.
Drug Czar Kerlikowske used the study to argue in mainstream media outlets that marijuana “is not medicine,” claiming that the issue of medical marijuana sends “mixed messages” to youth.
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Bermuda Sucks: Passenger Hauled Off Cruise Ship For Pot

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By on Global, News

Photo: Cruise Law News
Bermuda is not a good place to vacation, if you like marijuana.

​Yet another passenger has been hauled off a cruise ship in Bermuda for allegedly arriving on the backwards-ass island with marijuana.

Hey, Bermuda? Get a fucking clue. If you really want to be a vacation paradise, you need to let people smoke weed. Arresting tourists is bad for business, morons.

George Koumoulis, 37, of Abingdon, Maryland, was removed from the Norwegian Dawn on July 22 after police found just over seven grams of cannabis in his cabin, reports Nadia Arandjelovic at Bermuda newspaper The Royal Gazette.
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Legal Trick Could Block Prince Of Pot’s Extradition

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By on Global, News

Photo: Cannabis Culture
Marc Emery, the Prince of Pot, might not be seeing much more cannabis for awhile if a novel legal maneuver doesn’t work.

Supporters of B.C. marijuana activist Marc Emery, the Prince of Pot, are trying an unconventional legal maneuver to stop his planned extradition to the United States — keeping him in Canada to face charges there first.

In a little-known quirk of Canadian law, individuals can swear criminal charges against another person or group. In recent years, such private prosecutions have been used by activist groups to take corporations to court.
Patrick Roberts, a resident of West Kootenay, B.C., used the tactic five years ago when he filed conspiracy charges against Emery, in relation to his mail order marijuana seed business.
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Canadians Support Legalizing Pot; B.C. Leads The Way

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By on Global, Legislation

Photo: AdamCorley.com
Jodie Emery exposes the truth in public places.

​A new poll shows the majority of Canadians support legalizing marijuana, but not other drugs. As was the case two years ago, a majority of Canadians (53 percent) support the legalization of cannabis.

Support for legalization is highest in British Columbia, where more than six in 10 people say it’s time to stop jailing people for cannabis. Support is nearly as high in Alberta (59 percent) and Ontario (57 percent).

The Angus Reid poll, released Thursday, also shows many Canadians believe the country has a serious nationwide drug abuse problem, and 70 percent want mandatory minimum prison sentences and fines for drug dealers and, in a curious twist, marijuana grow operators, reports Jeff Lee of The Vancouver Sun.
The poll supports other Reid polls in the past that show most Canadians believe decriminalization of marijuana possession is a good idea, but that other illegal drugs should continue to be prohibited.
The online survey of 1,110 Canadians, conducted April 8-9, showed negligible support for legalizing hard drugs. The figure supporting hard drug legalization has actually dropped since the Reid survey in 2008. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.1 percent.
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Bermuda: Calls Grow For Debate On Cannabis Decriminalization

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By on Global, Legislation

Photo: Cruise Law News
Bermuda is discussing loosening its marijuana laws.

​Politicians in Bermuda are calling for a major debate on decriminalizing cannabis, with support said to be strong in some corners of the Progressive Labor Party (PLP), reports Tim Smith at The Royal Gazette.

Government Senator Walker Brown on Wednesday backed a debate on Bermuda’s marijuana laws, saying people in possession of small amounts of pot should no longer be prosecuted.
Party members David Burt and Makai Dickerson also spoke up for decrim, adding that the entire community should have a say on the issue.
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Yeah, Let’s Throw Away More Tax Money! Obama Boosts War On Drugs

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: phishcoventry.blogspot.com
Nice speeches… But same old Drug War.

​Contrary to campaign promises and past policy statements, the Obama Administration is expanding the War on (Some) Drugs and focusing funds toward law enforcement over treatment.

Opinion? No, fact. According to 2011 funding “highlights” released this week by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the administration budgets $15.5 billion for Drug War spending in 2011, an increase of 3.5 percent over 2010.
Even more ominously, the 2011 budget represents an increase of 5.2 percent in overall enforcement funding ($9.9 billion in 2011 vs. $9.7 billion in 2010).
For the non-policy-wonks among you who aren’t into numbers, this is roughly the equivalent of throwing 15 and a half billion dollars up a wild hog’s ass and hollering “soooEEEEEE!”
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Feds Won’t Study Pot’s Benefits, Only ‘Negative Consequences’

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By on Medical, News


Photo: NIDA Marijuana Project at The University of Mississippi
The entire supply of marijuana for research in the United States is grown by the NIDA in Mississippi.

​One federal agency controls all the marijuana research done in the United States. And that agency has just admitted that it won’t fund research into the benefits of marijuana — only the supposed “negative consequences.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) told the New York Times last week that the agency “does not fund research focused on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.”

“As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use,” NIDA spokeswoman Shirley Simson told the Times.
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