| Graphic: Break The Matrix |
Name one government program that for 40 years has failed to achieve any of its goals, yet receives bigger and bigger budgets every year. If you said “the War on Drugs,” you’ve been paying attention.
The Obama Administration is unable to show that the billions of dollar spent in the War On Drugs have significantly affected the flow of illicit substances into the United States, according to two government reports and outside experts.
The reports specifically criticize the government’s growing use of U.S. contractors, which were paid more than $3 billion to train local prosecutors and police, help eradicate coca fields, and operate surveillance equipment in the battle against the expanding drug trade in Latin America over the past five years, reports Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times.
“We are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we are getting in return,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who chairs the Senate subcommittee that wrote one of the reports, which was released on Wednesday.
| Graphic: Sensible Washington |
Washington state again has an opportunity to lead the way on ending marijuana prohibition, with organization Sensible Washington gathering signatures to put I-1149, a ballot initiative which would legalize cannabis, on the November ballot.
Sensible Washington is teaming up with the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Lawsd (NORML), Cannabis Culture, and a few other organizations on a money bomb with the goal of having some paid signature gatherers to augment the organization’s volunteers.
“The pressure to legalize cannabis and change the political landscape across the nation has fallen squarely on us here in Washington state in 2011,” Sensible Washington said in a June 8 statement. “With that pressure, we refuse to accept failure and are inclined to do what is necessary in order to ensure that the devastating effects of prohibition are put to an end.
| Photo: Excel K-9 Services, Inc. |
| Cops can’t tell by smell alone whether you have an ounce or multiple pounds of weed. Neither can police dogs. |
(A recent Massachusetts case has brought attention to the growing haze of confusion around the state’s marijuana laws, as one high-profile case was thrown out when a judge said police cannot tell by smell alone whether an ounce or multiple pounds of pot are present. One ounce and under, of course, has been decriminalized in the state.
Repercussions from the case may mean that police are wasting their time using drug-sniffing dogs as the basis for pot arrests, according to an opinion piece from GateHouse News Service.
| Photo: Chief Greenbud |
Musical artist Chief Greenbud has no problem openly advocating for cannabis, and his latest song and video on YouTube are no exception.
“You Can Smoke As Much As You Like” was written as a parody of Taco & Da Mofo’s cover of rapper T.I.’s song “Whatever You Like,” Greenbud told Toke of the Town.
“I was visiting Taco & Da Mofo’s website — they’re friends of mine from Memphis/Jackson, Tennessee — and they had a video on there for this song,” Greenbud told us. “I listened to it and was like, “Wow, this is a great song! These guys have a hit! I was sure of it.
“I know great songs and this was just great! I listened to it over and over again, like 20 times in a row,” Chief Greenbud told us. “And then I started hearing ‘Chief Greenbud’ words.
“It wasn’t until later that evening that I found out it was a song by the rapper T.I., and WAS a hit song! By that time, the parody was already on its way to being complete,” the Chief told us. “Then, of course, I had to call Taco and play it for him.
| Photo: Business Insider |
| Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee said dispensaries will be on “difficult ground” until federal pot laws change |
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee said medical marijuana dispensaries like those planned for his state will face challenges as long as the federal government takes a hard line on cannabis.
Chafee, an independent, put on hold a plan to license three dispensaries to sell marijuana to patients after the state’s U.S. Attorney warned in April that doing so could violate federal law, reports the Associated Press.
Now Gov. Chafee said state and federal officials should find “common ground” on the question of dispensaries. Last week Attorney General Eric Holder visited Rhode Island and promised to clarify the federal government’s position on medicinal cannabis.
| Photo: Oakland County Daily Tribune |
| Barb Agro, 70, was barred from mentioning during the trial that she is a registered, legal medical marijuana patient. |
A 70-year-old woman was convicted on a marijuana charge by a Michigan jury after they were instructed by the assistant prosecutor to “follow the law and not use sympathy” when weighing her fate.
“You must hold the defendant accountable for her actions,” said Assistant Prosecutor Beth Hand during her closing argument.
In the end, the jury heeded the prosecutor’s advice and decided to convict Barbara Agro, a registered medical marijuana patient and caregiver, as charged, reports Ann Zaniewski at the Oakland County Daily Tribune. Agro faces sentencing on July 13 for one count of delivery/manufacture of marijuana, a felony which can get four years in prison.
| Photo: More Cool Pictures |
Connecticut’s lawmakers voted on Tuesday to make Connecticut the 14th state to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana, and Governor Dannel P. Malloy has promised to sign the bill.
After about three hours of debate, it passed the House 90 to 57. Over the weekend, the 18-18 tie in the state Senate had been broken by Lt. Gov. Nancy Wyman, her first and only vote during the session, reports Mary E. O’Leary at the New Haven Register.
Supporters argued that treating the possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana as in infraction with a $150 fine, rather than as a criminal misdemeanor, will free up prosecutors, public defenders, probation officers and other court officials to deal with serious crime.
Connecticut is only the second state to enact decrim legislatively in the past decade, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). (Massachusetts enacted a similar law via ballot initiave in 2009.)
| Graphic: Haight Ashbury Street Fair |
| Be there! June 12, 11 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Upper Haight, Stanyan-Masonic. |
The 34th Annual Haight Ashbury Street Fair happens June 12th from 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., man.
One of the most original street fairs in a city known for street fairs, the Haight Street Fair brings out the inner hippie in all of us with food, dancing, live bands, and the greatest freak show this side of Woodstock in all its tie-dyed glory.
The Haight Ashbury Street Fair is a day of smiles, hippie chicks twirling, suspicious looking (get) baked goods, and another chance to bring back the Summer of Love, even just for one afternoon until the fog strolls in.
While you’re there, check out California Grow Mugs. Made by Toke of the Town‘s own Jack Rikess, this is the coffee mug for your buds!
Just add hot liquid to this magic mug and wait for the change of your life. Get ready to be amazed as green buds come to life before your eyes.
Stop by and check out Jack’s booth on the North side of Haight between Shrader and Cole streets.
Mention “Toke” and get $2 off of any single mug purchase.
| Photo: Anna Hiatt/Castro Valley Patch |
| Mason jars are used to keep the marijuana fresh at Alameda County’s We Are Hemp |
Tens of thousands of dollars in previously unclaimed taxes are headed back to the unincorporated Eden area of Alameda County, California, after two medical marijuana dispensaries were restored to local tax rolls.
We Are Hemp and Garden of Eden are the two dispensaries that, according to reporter Sonja Sharp at the Castro Valley Patch, “put Cherryland head and shoulders above Ashland and San Lorenzo in this spring’s cash-in-the-couch cushions bonanza.”
The cash in the couch cushions of which the Patch speaks is that found by local volunteers pounding the pavement for the Alameda County Redevelopment Agency, which had already uncovered some $72,000 in annual tax money “that had been falling into deeper pockets in San Leandro and Hayward.”
| Photo: Q13 Fox |
| Laura Stevens, Green Hope: “Our governor failed us.” |
The Shoreline City Council heard from medical marijuana patients and providers Monday night. The cannabis supporters want the Washington city to stop its plans to shut down local dispensaries.
“We’ve got cancer patients who have chemo next week; they want their next medicine, they’re coming to me crying not knowing what to do,” said Laura Stevens, who runs Green Hope, a medical marijuana dispensary in Shoreline, reports Kirsten Joyce at Q13 Fox. “I don’t know what to tell them.”
“Our governor failed us,” Stevens told the council. She said many of her patients suffer from cancer, AIDS and Crohn’s disease.