Toke of the Town — Marijuana and Cannibis News

Northern California Pot Wars: 632,058 Marijuana Plants Seized

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 9, 2011 Culture, Growing, News

Local, state and federal personnel were involved in the three-week Operation Full Court Press, which wasted taxpayer money across six Northern California counties.

Operation Full Court Press, an incredibly expensive, mind-numbingly futile, and ultimately quixotic multi-agency anti-marijuana operation in Northern California, has wound up its three weeks of fun this year, claiming the seizure of 632,058 marijuana plants.

The operation, which covered Colusa, Glenn, Lake, Mendocino, Tehama and Trinity counties, targeted large-scale illegal marijuana grows in and around the Mendocino National Forest. It involved more than 300 personnel from 25 local, state and federal agencies, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

The conclusion of this phase of Full Court Press, in addition to the plants, resulted in the seizure of 1,986 pounds of processed marijuana; $28,031 in U.S. currency; 38 weapons and 20 vehicles.

Arrested were 132 individuals, 118 of whom were booked on various federal and state charges including marijuana, firearm, and immigration violations. Fourteen of those arrested were foreign nationals and were detained on administrative immigration violations. They will be processed for removal from the United States.

Arizona Attorney General Files Lawsuit Against Cannabis Clubs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: James King/Phoenix New Times

Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne says he’s “taking a softer approach” and “trying to be a good guy” by not just having the clubs raided and their employees arrested

Attorney General Tom Horne of Arizona on Monday filed a civil action agains four medical cannabis clubs, trying to stop them from providing patients with marijuana under the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. The cannabis clubs have sprung up to provide safe access to patients since dispensaries aren’t yet allowed to open in Arizona, pending a judge’s ruling.

The motion, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names four clubs and one individual reports Ray Stern at Phoenix New Times: The 2811 Club, Arizona Compassion Association, Yoki A Ma’ Club, Arizona Compassion Club and Michael R. Miller.

Horne wants a judge’s ruling that the clubs aren’t legal. He also seeks an injunction to stop them from selling marijuana. He claims he’s “taking a softer approach” and “trying to be a good guy” by not just having the clubs raided and their employes arrested.

Carl Sagan’s Widow Was President of NORML Board of Directors

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 9, 2011 Culture

Photo: Another Godless Goddess

Ann Druyan, president, NORML Board of Directors

Here’s your interesting cannabis fact of the day: Ann Druyan, author, writer, television producer — and widow of astronomy legend Dr. Carl Sagan — was listed as president of the NORML Foundation Board of Directors.

Druyan was co-writer, along with her husband Sagan, of the Emmy and Peabody Award winning television series Cosmos, and served as creative director of the NASA project to design a complex message of music, images and ideas for potential alien civilizations that was placed aboard the Voyager 1 and 2 interstellar spacecraft.

She also wrote and produced the PBS Nova episode “Confession of a Weaponeer,” which covered the life of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s science advisor, George Kistiakowsky.

Attorney On New Approach Washington: ‘This Is Not Marijuana Legalization’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 8, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: Douglas Hiatt

Douglas Hiatt: “It is not legalization, and it is going to criminalize patients in this state”

The New Approach Washington initiative, which has gained financial support and big backers for relaxing Washington state’s marijuana laws, is not real cannabis legalization, according to Seattle-based activist/attorney Douglas Hiatt of Sensible Washington.

“It is not legalization, and it is going to criminalize patients in this state,” Hiatt told Toke of the Town Monday afternoon of New Approach Washington. “They’re using polling to justify their positions, saying we have a ‘nervous public,’ and that we have to win at all costs.”

The New Approach Washington initiative would authorize the Washington State Liquor Control Board to regulate the production and distribution of marijuana for sale to adults 21 and older through state-licensed stores. A new marijuana excise tax would be earmarked for prevention, research, education and health care. State and local retail sales taxes would be directed to the general fund and location budgets.

Wild Hemp Grows Everywhere In Nebraska [Photos]

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 8, 2011 Growing

All photographs courtesy of Diana Sunshine Wulf

These hardy fiber strains of cannabis sativa have a proud and storied history reaching back to the Midwestern hemp farmers of yesteryear

Back in the days before America got Reefer Madness, the good old U.S.A. was a worldwide center of hemp production. Verdant fields of the incredibly useful fiber crop were cultivated all over the country. Once cannabis was outlawed in 1937 due to Harry J. Anslinger’s scare campaign against marijuana, the economic incentive to cultivate hemp was gone.

After a brief return in the “Hemp For Victory” days of World War II — when the Japanese takeover of our fiber source, the Philippines, made it necessary to once again provide our own rope — hemp faded into American history as a crop of bygone days.

But that didn’t mean it was any less useful, it just meant it was no longer politically acceptable. And it also didn’t mean that hemp would no longer grow in Nebraska (and throughout much of the Midwest), it just meant it was no longer actively cultivated.

Day Laborers Tricked Into Harvesting Pot; Get Prison Time

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 8, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: 10tv.com

Federal prosecutors are wrapping up a weak case against 11 men charged with cultivating thousands of marijuana plants in Ohio. The state’s former top cop claimed it’s an example of cartel-sponsored drug production, but defense attorneys point out that many of the defendants were day laborers who were tricked into harvesting the illegal crop.

All 11 have pleaded guilty, and seven have received prison sentences ranging from a year to 18 months, reports Fox News Latino. U.S. District Judge Thomas Rose was scheduled to sentence three more of the defendants on Friday, with a final sentencing date set for August 17.

When the grow bust was ballyhooed in a self-promotional news release, Attorney General Richard Cordray claimed the seizures and arrests were more evidence of what he claimed was “cartel-sponsored mega-marijuana farms taking root in Ohio.”

Worth Repeating: 7 Cannabis Studies That Will Change Everything

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 7, 2011 Medical

Graphic: Our Daily Bleed…

Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.

Worth Repeating

By Ron Marczyk, R.N.

Since the 1960s, the major milestones our country has achieved are incredible.

We elected an African-American president, women’s issues have made tremendous progress, and gays and lesbians can marry.

But cannabis is still illegal…? Not for long!

As the tsunami of hard empirical positive medical cannabis research builds, it meets the inevitable changing younger demographics of our country, and with the need for new cannabis- based jobs and new tax revenue.

The cannabis legalization tipping point is close at hand!

“Cannabis is the people’s medicine” and has overwhelming public support.

Let’s knock this last domino over!

And to that end…

I would like to highlight several 2011 research papers that discuss the most current findings regarding medical cannabis treatment and disease prevention.

Britain’s Lib Dems Poised To Call For Decriminalizing Drugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 5, 2011 Global, Legislation

Photo: THC Farmer

If Britain’s Liberal Democrats have their way, personal possession of marijuana and other drugs will no longer be a criminal offense. Above, some of Britain’s finest UK Cheese.

The United Kingdom’s Liberal Democrats are reportedly ready to call for the decriminalization of all drugs, characterizing current laws as harmful and ineffective.

According to the UK edition of the Huffington Post, Lib Dem party members are “almost certain” to back a motion next month urging the British government to set up an expert panel to consider the decriminalization of personal drug use.

If it wins support at a conference in Birmingham, the motion will become party policy. According to scene-watchers, this will likely provoke tensions with the party’s Conservative coalition partners.

DOJ: State Workers Can Legally Run Med Marijuana Programs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 5, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Graphic: CDS

Hey, eagle dude, is that a bud you’re holding?

The U.S. Department of Justice on Monday filed a legal brief indicating the federal government would not prosecute state employees for implementing state medical marijuana programs, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

The DOJ brief asks that a lawsuit filed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, a Republican, be thrown out, reports Eric W. Dolan at The Raw Story.

Brewer’s claims had no merit, according to the Department of Justice, which noted that her lawsuit failed to provide credible evidence that state employees were under threat of imminent federal prosecution.

The governors of Arizona, Rhode Island and Washington have all refused to implement medical marijuana laws because they said they feared criminal prosecution of state employees by federal U.S. attorneys.

The DOJ announcement is particularly ironic and poignant, since it completely removes the one objection Washington Governor Christine Gregoire cited when she vetoed almost all of SB 5073, which would have explicitly legalized medical marijuana dispensaries in that state.

China Censors Little Black Book Of Marijuana; Release Delayed

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 5, 2011 Culture, Global, News

Graphic: Peter Pauper Press

It’s “too controversial” for the uptight Chinese, but ready for you on September 15

Communist Bosses Won’t Even Allow Book Inside The Country

The worldwide release of an American book on cannabis has been delayed, due to the refusal of the communist government of China to allow its binding on Chinese soil, according to the publisher.

The Little Black Book of Marijuana, by yours truly, Toke of the Town editor Steve Elliott, was scheduled for availability on August 1, but that printing schedule was thrown off after the totalitarian Chinese government decided the book was “too controversial” to even allow the printed pages inside the tightly-run dictatorship.

“Our printer is located in Hong Kong, with binderies in mainland China,” production manager Ginny Reynolds of Peter Pauper Press explained to me Friday morning. “Usually it’s no problem to move printed books from Hong Kong to China for binding.

“However, Chinese censorship is extremely tight,” Reynolds told Toke of the Town. “Any content deemed ‘sensitive’ or ‘controversial’ by their standards is banned.”

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