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Benefit Event Set For Fired Walmart Medical Marijuana Patient

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 27, 2011 Medical, News

Cancer patient Joseph Casias, former Employee of the Year at Walmart: “I just don’t understand why it is so bad to use something that helps me and many others who suffer with illnesses and pain”

Once in awhile, corporate America commits such a glaring injustice that people are sickened by the inhumanity of it. Such was the case last year when a Michigan Walmart fired its former Employee of the Year, Joseph Casias, after he showed up positive for marijuana on a routine drug test — despite the fact that he is a seriously ill cancer patient legally using medical cannabis on the recommendation of his physician.

Casias, 30, who has an inoperable brain tumor, was sacked by the Battle Creek Walmart after he failed a routine urine screen following a workplace injury. And despite a chorus of nationwide protest, the corporate behemoth stuck by its heartless decision and eventually prevailed in court after a judge upheld the dismissal.

Casias said that he only used marijuana after his work shift, and never used on the job. He tried cannabis after his oncologist suggested it.

40 Years After Nixon: No More Drug War!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 17, 2011 Culture, News

Graphic: Connecticut Citizens for Marijuana Reform

Friday, June 17, 2011, marks 40 years since President Richard Nixon, citing drug abuse as “public enemy number one,” officially declared a “War On Drugs.” A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, the War On Drugs remains a complete failure.

Drug policy reform advocates across the U.S. will mark this date with a coordinated day of action to raise awareness about the failure of drug prohibition and call for an exit strategy to the failed War On Drugs. Events will be held in 15 states, and in major cities like Washington, D.C., New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans.

Day of Action events include:

• Chicago: Hundreds of Chicagoans will gather at the State of Illinois James R. Thompson Center to rally against drug policies that have led to injustices such as extreme racial disparity in Illinois’s prisons and jails.

• Los Angeles: Grassroots organizations and students, including Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Pico Youth and Family Center, Mothers United to End the War on Drugs, All Of Us Or None, Homies Unidos and other criminal justice organizations, will stage a Day of Action to call for community solutions to end the 40-year War On Drugs and mass incarceration. Also, the William C. Velasquez Institute will host a forum in Los Angeles with top Latino leaders to discuss the impact of the Drug War on communities of color.

June 17 Marks 40th Anniversary Of Nixon’s War On Drugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: Cannabis Culture

President Nixon sniffs a wrapped brick of marijuana at the outset of his War On Drugs in 1970

June 17 will mark 40 years since President Richard Nixon, citing drug abuse as “Public Enemy No. 1,” officially declared a “War On Drugs.” A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, a political consensus is emerging that the War On Drugs is a counterproductive failure.

The Drug Policy Alliance is leading advocates all across the country in marking this auspicious date with a day of action to raise awareness about the catastrophic failure of drug prohibition and to call for an exit strategy from the failed War On Drugs.

“Some anniversaries provide an occasion for celebration, others a time for reflection, still others a time for action,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Forty years after President Nixon declared his war on drugs, we’re seizing upon this anniversary to prompt both reflection and action. And we’re asking everyone who harbors reservations about the war on drugs to joint us in this enterprise.

You’re Invited To Help Legalize Marijuana In Washington

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 5, 2011 Legislation, News

Graphic: Sensible Washington

Last week, Governor Christine Gregoire dealt a huge blow to tens of thousands of Washington’s most vulnerable citizens. By vetoing the most useful parts of a medical marijuana bill, the governor shut down an emerging industry that was providing safe access to medicine for cancer and AIDS patients, multiple sclerosis sufferers, and those with severe pain.

As a result, criminal gangs are now poised to reclaim the marijuana market, bringing more violence to our streets and greater dangers to our children, and making it unnecessarily difficult for the sick and terminally ill to get the medicine that their doctors authorize. The governor’s stated reason for leaving us in this mess was that she feared the federal government’s response.

Drug Czar Meeting With Paper After It Calls For Pot Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 25, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: Injustice In Seattle

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske requested — and got — a meeting with the editorial board of the Seattle Times after the newspaper endorsed marijuana legalization

Immediately after the Seattle Times ran an editorial last week supporting marijuana legalization, the newspaper got a telephone call from Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske in Washington, D.C., Seattle alternative weekly The Stranger reports.

Kerlikowske, who heads up the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), wanted to fly to Seattle to “talk personally” to the paper’s full editorial board, reports Dominic Holden at The Stranger.

Holden called the meeting “an apparent attempt by the federal government to pressure the state’s largest newspaper to oppose marijuana legalization.”

Stoner Photos of the Day: Sunny Sunshine

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 27, 2010 Culture

Photo: Sunshine

Sunshine: “I try to live up to my name by bringing sunshine and happiness to my life and others.” Mission accomplished!

Man oh man, they really know how to grow ’em in the heartland.

Sunny Sunshine, 23, a 5-foot, 2-1/2-inch firecracker from Oklahoma City, Okla., is beautiful proof of that.

“I try to live up to my name by bringing sunshine and happiness to my life and others,” said Sunny, a student and accountant.

“I’m a junior in college, getting a degree in accounting,” Sunny said. “I’m good with numbers; what can I say? And for anyone who’s seen the movie Grandma’s Boy, it is hard to be an accountant stoned, but that’s what after work is for.”

Turns out Grandma’s Boy is one of Sunny’s favorite movies. It’s also the source of one of her favorite movie quotes: “Does someone have a light? I found this weed. I wanna smoke it.”

“I wouldn’t want to miss out on something amazing because I was too small minded to try,” Sunny said. “I do my best to not judge and hope for the same in return.”

“I can get very passionate about my beliefs,” she says, “but I always try to make sure I know where they are coming from too and try to reach a mutual understanding of ideas.”

California Blacks May Be Swing Vote On Prop 19 Pot Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 20, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: CBS13

Bishop Ron Allen: “I don’t think they understand how many lives are going to be lost. In our community, legalizing drugs — I don’t think they clearly understand the carnage.”

A group of black pastors, priests and other religious leaders has come together in recent weeks to peddle Reefer Madness and fight against Proposition 19, the California ballot measure that would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana.

Bishop Ron Allen of the International Faith Based Coalition and his followers have opened a new, potentially crucial front in the battle over Prop 19, reports Jesse McKinley of The New York Times, pitting those afraid of more widespread use of pot against those who see legalization as a sane exit strategy in the war on cannabis.

At a recent rally on the steps of the state capitol in Sacramento, several pastors allied with Allen used over-the-top language trying to inflame a tiny crowd, describing marijuana as “the most sinister drug,” and asking that “the demonic spirits be cast back into hell.”

Oregon Pot Legalization Initiative Needs 95,000 More Signatures

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 13, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: Oregon Medical Marijuana Program

The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) campaign to tax and regulate marijuana, which is circulating petitions to get the measure on the ballot for November’s election, has collected fewer than 5,000 signatures, with 100,000 signatures needed by July.

OCTA would effectively legalize the cultivation, possession and personal use or marijuana in Oregon, and would be the first law of its kind in the nation, reports Ian Geronimo at the Oregon Daily Emerald, the independent student newspaper at the University of Oregon.

Federal Judge Suggests Reclassifying Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 30, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical

Chamot’s “Round Up Of Usual Suspects”

Federal Judge George H. Wu: “Much of the problems could be ameliorated… by the reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I.”

A federal judge issued a sentencing order Thursday stating that medical marijuana provider Charles C. Lynch was “caught in the middle of the shifting positions” on the issue. “Much of the problems could be ameliorated… by the reclassification of marijuana from Schedule I,” the judge wrote.

Lynch gained notoriety as a federal medical marijuana defendant who was prosecuted and convicted in 2008 under the Bush Administration, then sentenced after President Obama signaled a change in federal enforcement policy.

“Yet another federal judge has called on the government to reconsider the current status of marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical value,” said Joe Elford, chief counsel with Americans for Safe Access, of Judge George H. Wu’s 41-page sentencing order.

“Judge Wu’s sentencing order also begs the question of why the federal government is still prosecuting medical marijuana cases,” Elford said.

Urine Trouble: Feds Target Florida Urinalysis Test-Beating Firm

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 28, 2010 News, Products

Graphic: OC Weekly

A Florida man has agreed to plead guilty to selling, over the Internet, a powdered drink mix designed to help truck drivers, pilots, train engineers and others pass federally mandated urine tests to detect drugs.

Stephen Sharp claimed the mix is 100 percent effective in blocking the urine tests from showing metabolites of common recreational drugs, including marijuana.

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