| Bruce Cohen/Facebook |
| Toke of the Town correspondent Sharon Letts, author of this article, at last week’s court support day for medical marijuana defendant Joe Grumbine in Long Beach, California |
By Sharon Letts
For several years I’ve watched from Northern California as fellow Cannabis activists painted signs, rallied and gave support for those incarcerated and held for good medicine throughout the medically legal State of California.
Recently, I had the good fortune to join those in the cause at the Long Beach County Courthouse in support of an above board dispensary and co-founder, The Human Solution’s Joe Grumbine — held pending bail on Cannabis charges in the cannabis-conservative County.
It was exciting to meet friends I have only known on Facebook, but it was even more curious to see what the curbside faction was like up close and personal. It’s long been known that those in the forefront of the failed war on drugs are outspoken, to say the least.
Rally in a Box
“WHAT DO WE WANT? JUSTICE! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!
It takes purposefulness to keep a box of signs in the trunk of your car for that last minute rally.
Purposefulness, passion and a whole lot of caring come to curbside with each activist showing up for court support for those incarcerated and/or on trial for a plant.
| Weed Quotes |
The District of Columbia’s long-awaited medical marijuana program took a big step forward this week when officials issued occupancy permits for DC’s first marijuana cultivation center and dispensary. Both locations are less than three miles from the J. Edgar Hoover Building, headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The step was widely viewed as one of the last hurdles to a working medical marijuana program that almost 70 percent of DC voters approved in a referendum 14 years ago, reports In The Capital. Congress spent years blocking funding for the program before finally getting out of the way after President Obama was elected. Then a tortuous three-year regulatory process began, which has only recently been completed.
| M.V. Jantzen/DCist |
D.C. Council Legislation Criminalizes Possession of “K2,” “Ivory Wave” and Other Synthetic Drugs
Councilmembers Ignore Plea from D.C. Advocates to Reject Criminalization, Regulate Retailers Instead
The Council of the District of Columbia on Tuesday approved legislation that would subject people to juvenile detention or jail for up to six months for simple possession of certain synthetic drugs. People in their teens and twenties are more likely to possess synthetic drugs than older adults, according to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).
| Alternative Care Clinic |
One of the nation’s foremost surveys on teen drug use has found that teen marijuana use is down slightly nationwide. It also shows teen cigarette use has reached an all-time low, highlighting the potential benefit of regulating marijuana and controlling sales to teens.
The annual Monitoring the Future Survey released today by the National Institutes of Health found that from 2011 to 2012:
• Daily marijuana use decreased among 8th- and 12th-graders, while remaining the same for 10th-graders.
• Past-30-day marijuana use decreased among 8th- and 10th-graders, while increasing only slightly among 12th-graders.
• Annual marijuana use decreased among 8th- and 10th-graders, while remaining the same for 12th-graders.
| Drug Policy Alliance |
Full Page New York Times Ad in Thursday Paper: “80 Years After the End of Prohibition, Prohibition is Finally Coming to an End”
Comes on Heels of Obama Response to Marijuana Legalization in Colorado and Washington: “We’ve Got Bigger Fish to Fry”
In Thursday’s New York Times, a drug policy reform organization is running a full-page ad that thanks voters in Colorado and Washington and emphasizes the growing support for drug policy reform among people from across the political spectrum who are renowned for their leadership in law, health, business, media and politics. Last month, Colorado and Washington became the first two states in the country – and the first political jurisdictions anywhere in the world – to approve legally regulating marijuana like alcohol, with both states’ initiatives winning by decisive margins.
| Reason.com |
| Chris Williams: “With the rest of my life literally hanging in the balance, I simply could not withstand the pressure any longer” |
Six Felony Charges and Criminal Forfeiture Dismissed, Appeal Waived
Medical cannabis provider Chris Williams has reached a settlement with prosecutors in his criminal proceedings. Under the terms of the highly-unusual, post-conviction compromise — the second of its kind offered to Williams — six of the charges will be dismissed, in exchange for withdrawing his pending motions for acquittal and a new trial.
Until Tuesday, Williams faced a mandatory minimum sentence of 92 years in prison. By agreeing not to appeal his conviction on Count III and Count VI, the mandatory minimum penalties against Williams have been reduced to five years.
| THC Finder |
Hearing at 10 a.m. Thursday may decide whether Oakland’s challenge to federal authority can proceed
The Obama Administration will be going toe-to-toe in federal court Thursday at 10 a.m. with the City of Oakland and California’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, Harborside Health Center.
U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag filed forfeiture proceedings in July against Harborside’s landlords to force the dispensary to close its two locations in Oakland and San Jose. Then, in October, the City of Oakland filed its own legal action against Haag and her boss, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.
| Complex |
| Sure smells good up in this squad car, officer. |
The Seattle Police Department on Tuesday announced that due to the recent legalization of marijuana in Washington state, job applicants will no longer be disqualified for using cannabis in the last three years — now it’s just a one-year period in which you are required not to have gotten high.
This is a big change; it makes the SPD the first police department in Washington to modify its hiring process due to marijuana legalization, reports Matt Driscoll at the Seattle Weekly.
| Coalition for Medical Marijuana – New Jersey |
| Susan Sturner: “As a patient who is still waiting for my appointment to get my medicine, I am outraged” |
New Jersey’s struggling medical marijuana program — slow-tracked by Republican Governor Chris Christie after being signed by his predecessor Democratic Governor Jon Corzine on his last day in office in 2010 — may have violated the confidentiality of patients with an email sent on Tuesday.
Patients have to be quite ill to qualify for the New Jersey’s Medical Marijuana Program (MMP); it is one of the strictest in the nation. Many of these patients have been desperately waiting for almost three years to get their legal marijuana, as their conditions deteriorate.
According to Susan Sturner, a registered N.J. MMP patient, “Today the state’s MMP sent out a nasty email to the sickest people in the state, those of us with the most debilitating diseases according to them.
“Not only is the email nasty and inappropriate,” Sturner told Toke of the Town, “it has all the email address of all the people signed up for the NJ MMP in the ‘to’ field, so everyone who received the email can see all of the other patients’ addresses.”