The simple truth about marijuana is shining through more and more cracks in the mainstream’s tottering wall of denial.
During an impassioned argument for the legalization of cannabis, MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell, host of “The Last Word,” highlighted the relative safety of marijuana compared to alcohol.
| Pinal County Sheriff’s Office |
| This photo provided by the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office shows Jason Alistair Lowery. Lowery, a deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is accused of leading police on a high-speed chase in the Arizona desert while dumping bales of marijuana out the window of his government vehicle. |
It was one of those Kodak moments when you just wish you could’ve been there.
A deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement led Arizona state police and federal agents on a high-speed desert chase in his government vehicle, all the while chunking bundles of marijuana out the window as he fled, reports Amanda Lee Myers of the Associated Press.
They’d been watching the officer, Jason Alistair Lowery, 34, for more than a month after a known smuggler who had been busted gave authorities a tip about Lowery in an effort to get lenient treatment, Department of Public Safety Officer Carrick Cook told the AP.
DPS and federal agents tried to pull Lowery over on Tuesday after he picked up a load of marijuana in the desert in his unmarked ICE pickup truck, according to Cook. The officer made a run for it instead, leading agents on a 45-minute chase at speeds up to 110 miles per hour as he threw 10 of the 14 bundles of cannabis he had in the truck out the window.
“He got pretty desperate,” said Captain Obvious, I mean Officer Cook.
| Cafe Sozo |
A witness was arrested Tuesday in California after he testified in the preliminary hearing of another man facing felony charges of cultivating marijuana and possessing it for sale.
Deputies grabbed Jeffrey Lee Sanford in Butte County Superior Court after his testimony at Timothy Ole Skytte’s preliminary hearing, reports Ryan Olson of Chico ER. Skytte was arrested on August 18 after deputies found 54 marijuana plants growing on his property in Concow. Officers also found 369 more plants on a property Skytte rented to another man identified as Lawrence Evans.
“It is obvious that Butte County is using this oppressive tactic to suppress people from testifying in defense of medical providers and it is this type of behavior that challenges the fabric of our democracy,” said Mickey Martin of the website Cannabis Warrior.
| Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ |
Of Seattle’s 105 medical marijuana dispensaries, almost two-thirds — 68 — have business licenses, according to a report in alternative weekly The Stranger.
“We only have 68 dispensaries currently licensed in our system,” said Denise Movius, a spokeswoman for Seattle’s business licensing division, reports Q13 Fox News Online. “We’ve gotten the names of the rest by reading The Stranger and other advertisements.”
The business licensing division has been contacting the out-of-compliance shops to remind them they need the $90 business licenses.
| San Francisco Sentinel |
| California state Senator Mark Leno: “I urge the federal government to stand down in its massive attack on medical marijuana dispensaries” |
Two California lawmakers on Wednesday joined medical marijuana patients, dispensary operators and advocates to call for an immediate end to the federal government’s broad crackdown on dispensaries.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors announced plans for sweeping criminal prosecutions against medical marijuana dispensaries across California, threatening landlords with eviction, property seizures and even imprisonment.
“I urge the federal government to stand down in its massive attack on medical marijuana dispensaries, which will have devastating impacts for the state of California,” said Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco). “At a time when resources are precious and few, federal officials have chosen to waste time and money in an ambush that will harm countless patients who will no longer be able to safely access doctor-recommended treatments.”
| THC Finder |
| Voters in the Sunshine State could get a chance to decide for themselves about medical marijuana — if the Republican-controlled Legislature will let them |
A state lawmaker in Florida filed a joint resolution this week that would allow Floridians to decide for themselves in the 2012 election whether they want to legalize medical marijuana with a constitutional amendment. At this point, the Republican-controlled Legislature is all that stands in the way.
The resolution, HJR 353, “Medical Use of Cannabis,” filed by state Rep. Jeff Clemens (D-Lake Worth), would create an article in the state constitution that would “allow medical use of cannabis by citizens and allow Legislature to implement these provisions by general law,” reports Ashley Lopez at The Florida Independent.
“That’s a compassion issue,” Clemens said, reports Whitney Ray at Capitol News Service. “It’s an issue of people in this state that are going through tough times and a lot of physical pain and if they want to use this particular drug as opposed to a more heavy prescription narcotic I don’t think there’s any reason why we shouldn’t let them.”
“With 81 percent of Americans supporting allowing medical marijuana, it’s time Florida stops jailing its most vulnerable citizens for possessing and using a relatively harmless substance recommended to them by their physicians,” the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) said in an August statement about the proposed constitutional amendment.
| Reform Conference |
Will California, Washington State or Colorado vote to legalize marijuana in 2012?
Why do blacks go to jail for drugs at 13 times the rate of whites even though they use and sell drugs at similar rates?
What are the results of Portugal decriminalizing all drugs 10 years ago?
What can be done about the 50,000 prohibition-related deaths in Mexico since President Calderon ramped up the Mexican Drug War five years ago?
People will gather to answer these questions and many more at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Los Angeles, November 2-5.
| The Hemp Report |
| This hemp farm is located in Suffolk, U.K. |
A team of Canadian researchers has sequenced the genome of cannabis sativa, the plant that produces both industrial hemp and marijuana, and in the process they’ve revealed the genetic changes that led to the plant’s drug-producing properties.
A simple genetic switch is likely responsible for the production of THCA, or tetrahyedrocannabinolic acid, the precursor of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, according to Jon Page, a plant biochemist and adjunct professor of biology at the University of Saskatchewan.
“The transcriptome analysis showed that the THCA synthase gene, an essential enzyme in THCA production, is turned on in marijuana, but switched off in hemp,” Page said.
The team compared the potent Purple Kush marijuana variety with “Finola” hemp, which is grown for seed production, according to Tim Hughes, co-leader of the project and a professor at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto.