| Serious Lawyers |
“The dog ate it.” Really? Really?? A police department in Washington state is under fire after an officer took home seized marijuana, only to report his dog ate the weed.
The Soap Lake Police Department, in eastern Washington, has been accused of numerous other instances of mishandling evidence as well, reports Aaron Luna at KXLY4. An outside investigation by the neighboring Moses Lake Police Department and two other agencies found that the Soap Lake cops didn’t get required training on handling evidence.
Evidence was improperly tagged and placed in insecure areas, according to the investigation. In one case, a rape kit was found in a refrigerator next to the police chief’s lunch.
Police evidence in Soap Lake is supposed to go into a locker in the day room and then into a safe, but the investigation found that this doesn’t always happen.
| Anastacia Cosner |
| The One Hitters were already kicking the Drug War’s ass — now they kicked the White House softball team’s butts, too. |
The White House softball team was unceremoniously smoked by the One Hitters, a team of pro-marijuana activists, in softball last week by a humiliating score of 25 to 3.
The Softball Team of the U.S., its official name, didn’t do so well against the cannabis reformers, but at least the White House team showed up for the game. Last year, the Czardinals, from the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP, the Drug Czar’s office), cancelled on the One Hitters, claiming they had a scheduling conflict.
On Tuesday, the District of Columbia Department of Health announced the four prospective medical marijuana dispensary operators whose scores were high enough to be granted licenses from the city. Herbal Alternatives, Center City Care, Metropolitan Wellness Corporation, and Takoma Wellness Center — which will be owned and operated by a rabbi — will be the four entities licensed to dispense marijuana to qualifying patients later this year.
“Today’s announcement comes as welcome news for patients in D.C. who have waited a long time for the District’s medical marijuana program to get up and running,” said Dan Riffle, a legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project. “Congratulations to the operators of these four dispensaries, who will be at the forefront of one of the nation’s safest medical marijuana programs right here in Congress’ back yard.”
| Free Dana Beal |
| Dana Beal: “I’m not a run-of-the-mill drug runner. I’m a medical advocate. I had to do it.” |
Dana Beal was one of the original Yippies back in the late 1960s, helping organize the radical counterculture group which disrupted the 1968 and 1972 Democratic conventions, advocating a society powered by people rather than profit. Years later, Beal organized marches in New York City calling for the legalization of marijuana, and helped open a clinic which dispenses cannabis to AIDS patients in the Big Apple.
But Beal, 65, says he’s now fighting for his life from a Nebraska jail, reports Paul Hammel at the Omaha World-Herald. Just nine months after a serious heart attack, he faces up to five years in prison after a 2009 arrest near Ashland, Neb., riding in a van holding 150 pounds of marijuana.
| CannaZine |
| Landrace cannabis grows wild in Nepal |
Police in Nepal reported on Monday that they have made the largest marijuana bust in the nation’s history, seizing about 2.5 tons from a dealer near the capital city, Kathmandu.
Officers found 5,820 pounds (2,640 kilos) of cannabis packed into 88 plastic sacks “and bound for India,” police superintendent Sher Bahadur Basnet told Agence France Presse.
The haul had a street value in Nepal of about $155,000, according to Basnet, but it would be worth far more on the international market.
Laurel Dewey’s Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden Raises Awareness Of Medical Marijuana
Laurel Dewey, the Colorado author best known for her Jane Perry mystery series, has written what her publisher is calling “the first mainstream novel to take a serious look at medical marijuana.”
Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden introduces a dynamic heroine — 58-year-old Betty Craven, elegant former beauty queen and recent widow– who finds herself getting involved with medical marijuana as well as with an intriguing and independent man.
Betty Craven is the epitome of elegance, class, and perfection. Her prize-winning garden is the envy of her neighbors; he impeccable manners and epicurean skills have made here the “hostess with the most-est.” But all is not what it seems.
The truth is that Betty’s idyllic world is quickly disintegrating. Widowed and left with a modest income, Betty’s gourmet chocolate shop in Colorado has gone belly up, leaving her floundering for purpose and meaning. Tied to a house in disrepair that she can’t sell, and mired in paralyzing grief for her dead son (lost to a drug overdose five years before), this patriotic former Texas beauty pageant queen comes to the shocking and debilitating conclusion that her entire life has been wasted.
| Weed Not Greed |
Weed Not Greed, a nationwide tour sponsored by the Cannabis Information Network, will be promoting awareness of marijuana/hemp uses and advocating for the repeal of marijuana prohibition from coast to coast this summer.
| Sharon Letts |
Review & Photos
By Sharon Letts
The ancillary business of tobacco has been relatively small, and aside from the occasional “Joe’s Smoke Shop,” relatively quiet. For, without a black market, the “grow-your-own, indoor tobacco” movement never really took hold.
While the hardcore roll-your-own peeps of tobacco have been content using the same tried and true rolling papers, not knowing or caring where they come from or what they are made of, within the world of cannabis, consumers have become savvy.
For cannabis is medicine, and patients are now testing strains for strength and safety. They are also pioneering myriad ancillary businesses in the process.
| ColorLines |
| Mexico’s Drug War has claimed more than 50,000 lives in five years |
After More Than 50,000 Prohibition-Related Deaths in 5 Years, Candidates Say Reducing Violence More Important Than Simply Seizing Drugs, Making Arrests
DPA Executive Director Ethan Nadelmann: Next President Should Show Bold Leadership and Follow Other Latin American Presidents’ Call for “All Options On The Table”
The top three presidents candidates in Mexico have all promised a significant shift in their country’s drug war strategy, according to a front page story in Monday’s New York Times. The candidates are pledging to prioritize a reduction in prohibition-related violence, which has led to more than 50,000 deaths since President Calderon launched a war on the drug traffickers in 2006, over conventional measures such as arrests and seizures.
| THC Finder |
Patient Advocates Urge World-Renowned Hospital to Change Its Discriminatory, Politically-Motivated Policy
Patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) recently discovered that a second patient at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has been denied a transplant in the past year because of their medical marijuana use.
In response, ASA sent a letter Monday to the Cedars-Sinai Transplant Center on behalf of Toni Trujillo, a qualified medical marijuana patient who was removed from the kidney transplant list earlier this year. Trujillo has had kidney problems for most of her life and has been on dialysis for the past five years, ever since an existing kidney transplant began failing. The letter urges the world-renowned hospital to promptly re-list Trujillo and change its policy with regard to medical marijuana.