Toke of the Town — Marijuana and Cannibis News

New York City Spends $75 Million A Year On Marijuana Arrests

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 16, 2011 News

In 2010, New York City spent $75 million arresting 50,383 people for possession of small amounts of marijuana.

That’s just one of the startling facts in a new report released Tuesday which documents the crushing costs of misguided marijuana enforcement in the city. Every day, about 140 people are arrested for marijuana offenses in New York City, making it the leading cause of arrest.

A full 87 percent of those arrested are black or Latino, a particularly outrageous number since people of color do not use marijuana at higher rates than the rest of the population.

“Incredibly, the NYPD has quietly made marijuana infractions their top law enforcement priority without even a pretense of public input or debate,” said Neill Franklin, a retired narcotics officer who heads Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

Four Tons Of Marijuana Seized From Texas Warehouse

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 16, 2011 News

Photo: ICE

These artfully arranged bales of marijuana, totaling four tons, were found inside hidden compartments of a tractor trailer parked inside a warehouse in Texas

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security agents have seized more than 8,000 pounds of marijuana from a warehouse in south Texas.

Agents executed a search warrant Friday at the warehouse on Highway 281 in Edinburg, Texas, north of McAllen, reports WOAI. They found a tractor trailer parked inside the warehouse. The tractor trailer had false compartments filled with bundles of cannabis totaling more than four tons, which agents claimed had a street value of $6.6 million.

“This significant seizure sends a strong message to drug smugglers that we will not tolerate brazen disregard for U.S. laws,” said Jerry Robinette, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in San Antonio, who, bless karma’s humorous heart, of course has to deal on a daily basis with people who have a brazen disregard for U.S. laws.

New Hampshire House Passes Medical Marijuana Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 16, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: ReLegalize Indiana

The New Hampshire House of Representatives, which has a nearly 3:1 Republican supermajority, overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that would allow residents to use marijuana for medical purposes.

H.B. 442, which would create a narrow exception in New Hampshire law for people with certain qualifying conditions to use marijuana to treat their ailments with doctors’ recommendations, will now move on to the Senate.

The bill passed 221-96, or by 69.7 percent, doing better than similar medical marijuana bills have done in previous Democrat-controlled sessions, proving that this an issue that both parties can support. The bill was introduced by Rep. Evalyn Merrick (D-Coos), a cancer survivor, and is sponsored in the Senate by Sen. Jim Forsythe (R-Strafford).

Marijuana Reform Hearings At R.I. State House Wednesday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: Zazzle

Hearings will take place at the Rhode Island State House, Wednesday, March 16, on two bills that would reform marijuana laws in the state. One bill would make marijuana possession similar to a traffic violation, and the other would legalize, tax and regulate cannabis.

H 5031 would remove criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and replace them with a civil penalty carrying a fine of $150. The bill, sponsored by Rep. John G. Edwards (D-Tiverton) and others, would allow people who are convicted of simple, nonviolent cannabis possession charges to avoid the lifelong stigma of a criminal record.

The measure would also save the state millions of dollars on police and court time.

Marijuana Dispensary Wins International Design Award

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Curbed

The clean lines inside SPARC delighted the judges of an international interior design competition.

A San Francisco medical marijuana dispensary has won a prestigious interior design award for its clean, smartly used space.

The International Interior Design Association awarded the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center (SPARC) in the 19th Annual Will Ching Design Competition, reports RJ Middleton at NBC Bay Area.

The pot shop’s retail space features minimalist oak tables and benches, showcasing “vaguely bong-shaped lights,” steel shelves holding the cannabis, and a sales counter “made of local oak, with inset glass-topped drawers exhibiting buds, salves and edibles like snickerdoodle cookies and ‘cosmic caramels,’ ” according to Sarah Firshein at Curbed.

But what may have really made SPARC a big hit is the “cascading grid of steel and glass patterned loosely on marijuana’s DNA and peppered with clear aquamarine panes.”

Stoner Photo of the Day: Good Neighborhood!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2011 Culture

Photo: marijuanaeyes

Now you know where I live.

Talk about “high” property values!

Washington Marijuana Dispensaries Fight For Licensing

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Hemp Beach TV

The city of Federal Way, Washington, just south of Seattle, is trying to shut down three medical marijuana dispensaries, claiming they are illegal under state law. Two of the businesses are fighting back, appealing the city’s denial of their business licenses.

Federal Way city officials claim they are trying to enforce the state’s medical marijuana law, but they may run out of time if the Legislature changes that law in the coming weeks, reports Steve Maynard at The Tacoma News Tribune.

CO: Proposed Doctor Rules Would Hurt Marijuana Patients

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical

Colorado Medical Marijuana Doctors

Legislators in Colorado, worried by conservative hype that “marijuana mills” are helping patients get high rather than healthy, are trying to figure out how to reduce access to cannabis. Most of a stack of competing proposals would hurt patients by making it harder to get an authorization.

One proposed regulation would require a “bona fide” relationship between doctor and patient, whatever that’s supposed to mean.

Another would ban doctors with “conditions” on their medical licenses from authorizing medical marijuana patients, reports Neil Katz at CBS News.

As usual, the biggest casualties of the confusion are patients. About 1,300 people who applied for medical marijuana cards were rejected late last year by health officials because their recommendations came with doctors with license conditions.

Oklahoma Woman Arrested In Online Marijuana Bakery Bust

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 15, 2011 News

Photo: CNN

Sarah Probasco, 29, was arrested for baking goods containing marijuana and selling them online

A Stillwater, Oklahoma woman has been arrested after allegedly selling baked goods that included marijuana as an ingredient, and marketing them on the Internet. She now faces several felony charges.

“It’s not something we see every day,” said Captain Randy Dickerson of the Stillwater Police Department, reports Jesse Wells at KFOR.

Dickerson said investigators arrested the suspect, Sarah Probasco, 29, this week for running the illegal bakery from her home.

(See video after the fold.)

DEA Raids Marijuana Dispensaries Across Montana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 14, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: KXLH

Both federal and local law enforcement took part in the raid on Montana Cannabis in Helena.

You have to wonder about the timing. On the very same morning that a Montana Senate committee failed to endorse a bill that would have repealed the state’s medical marijuana law, federal agents, with guns drawn, hit at least 10 dispensaries across the state Monday.

“The timing is impeccable,” said Chris Lindsey, a Missoula attorney who specializes in medical marijuana cases, reports Gwen Florio of The Missoulian.

“They’re seizing everything — plants, marijuana, grow equipment, files and computers,” Lindsey said. “It’s very, very broad in its scope.” The attorney said he retains a business interest in Montana Cannabis, one of the dispensaries where federal search warrants were executed.