| Photo: nowtruth.wordpress.com |
| Oakland City Attorney John Russo doesn’t want to play Pot Farm with the City Council anymore. |
Oakland City Attorney John Russo doesn’t want to play Pot Farm with the City Council anymore.
Russo has delivered another blow to the city’s plans to license and tax large-scale marijuana farms — he’s withdrawn his legal advice and told the City Council to hire their own attorney.
In the letter Russo advises the council to retain outside counsel for the duration of the deliberations on the medical cannabis cultivation issue, reports Cecily Burt of The Oakland Tribune. He said that once an attorney has been secured, his office will turn over the files it has amassed so far.
| Photo: ASA San Bernardino County |
The debate over medical marijuana dispensaries grew heated Thursday morning at the San Bernardino County Planning Commission meeting, which was set to vote in the afternoon on a staff proposal to ban the facilities in unincorporated areas.
Outside the county government center shortly before the hearing, 30 to 60 advocates rallied in support of safe access to medical marijuana, reports Natasha Lindstrom of the Victorville Daily Press. Activists carried signs reading “Pills Kill,” “Collectives, Not Street Drugs” and “Marijuana = Medicine.”
Some of the patients smoked cannabis outside the government building as they protested, according to the Daily Press.
Meanwhile, those favoring a dispensary ban criticized the medical marijuana facilities, claiming they “increase crime and blight” in surrounding neighborhoods and are “widely abused by young adults.”
The Planning Commission, likely a bit taken aback by the vociferous debate on both sides, delayed a vote until February 17, so the issue remains unresolved for now.
| Photo: Danbury News-Times |
| Robert Michelson, 21, thought it would be a good idea to call 911 to get legal advice on growing marijuana |
Well, at least he got an answer to his question. A Connecticut man who called 911 looking for legal advice on growing marijuana is now facing multiple drug charges.
Robert Michelson, 21, allegedly called Farmington Police Thursday night to ask “how much trouble he could get in” for growing one marijuana plant, police said, reports the Danbury News-Times.
The dispatcher advised Michelson that he could be arrested. Michelson then thanked the dispatcher and hung up.
Police then traced the call to an address on Waterville Road. Narcotics officers from Farmington went to the house and reportedly discovered that Michelson was — surprise, surprise! — growing marijuana.
| Photo: Adrian Rushton/Colchester Gazette |
There was some more ominous saber-rattling from federal drug warriors Wednesday as a U.S. Attorney strongly warned Oakland that big industrial marijuana farms are illegal, and that the Department of Justice is considering “civil and criminal legal remedies” if the city goes ahead with its plans to permit them.
In a letter [PDF] obtained by The Bay Citizen, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag warned that the DOJ is “concerned” about Oakland’s “licensing scheme that permits large-scale industrial marijuana cultivation and manufacturing as it authorizes conduct contrary to federal law and threatens the federal government’s efforts to regulate the possession, manufacturing, and trafficking of controlled substances.”
The central point of Haag’s letter was clear: Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
| Photo: Fugitive.com |
| This stash of cash totaling $205 million was stolen, I mean seized, from Mexican drug cartel members by Mexican Federal Police and the American DEA during a joint raid on a suspected cartel boss’s home |
Gotta watch those darn south of the border “drug cartels.” Not only have they fought back against Mexico’s War On Drugs, resulting in thousands of deaths, but now they’ve gotten into Bill Gates’s pockets, too.
Drug cartels are making fake copies of Office 2007 and selling ’em on the streets of Mexico, at least if you believe David Finn, Microsoft’s associate general counsel for anti-piracy, reports Curtis Cartier at Seattle Weekly.
Finn showed off a copy of counterfeit Office software “brazenly” stamped with the rectangular “FMM” logo of La Familia drug cartel, reports Heather Smith at Bloomberg.
| Photo: WebMD |
| Smoking marijuana from 10 to 20 years reduces your risk of head and neck cancer, according to a 2009 study. |
By Ron Marczyk, R.N.Health Education Teacher (Retired)
Welcome to all you “Tokies.” Class is now in session! And yes, this info will be on the test!
I am humbled by the large numbers of viewers who have shared “Worth Repeating,” my positive marijuana medical reports.
These are the studies that have been unreported or under-reported in the media. We will now control the real story on marijuana, Love will be our weapon, and Truth will be our Shield!
The U.S. government has had a monopoly for 75 years on the information that is reported on and broadcasted to the all of us regarding marijuana. They lied, and hid the truth to place profits over people. I believe we are at a tipping point to fix this and undo the damage done to millions of people by the criminalization of our peaceful herb.
With Republicans in the House claiming they want to cut down on spending for the next fiscal year, marijuana advocates are suggesting they should start with the Drug Enforcement Administration’s budget.
Trimming the federal largesse that keeps the DEA fat and happy makes sense. Billions of dollars are thrown away annually on a quixotic and foolish War On Marijuana that is not supported by the public, that never achieves its goals, and that sees as its victims not only families but civil liberties and respect for law enforcement, as well.
Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project told TPM that the idea makes a lot of sense, reports Ryan J. Reilly.
| Photo: Eliza Wiley/Independent Record |
| Kathy Moore of Three Forks, Montana waits at the Capitol in Helena to voice her opposition to House Bill 161, which would repeal the Medical Marijuana Act. |
Opponents of a bill that would repeal a 2004 voter-passed medical marijuana law outnumbered supporters by 3-to-1 among those signed up to speak to the Montana House on Wednesday.
House Bill 161, sponsored by House Speaker Mike Milburn (R-Cascade) was at issue before the House Human Services Committee, reports Charles S. Johnson at The Billings Gazette. The preliminary count of people signed up to speak showed 86 opponents and 28 supporters of repealing the state’s medical marijuana law.
The committee took no immediate action on the bill.
Milburn complained about the huge increase in numbers of people obtaining medical marijuana cards, with more than 28,000 patients now in Montana. He bemoaned “what it has done to Montana” and its schools, cities and towns with “the increased use of marijuana by teens.”
“So it’s no longer an issue of medical marijuana,” Milburn claimed. “It’s an issue of marijuana. We’ve opened the floodgate. It’s like Hurricane Katrina. We’re not talking about the dikes holding back the water anymore. We’re talking about how do you rebuild the city.”
| Photo: Addiction Inbox |
Two Michigan men face federal marijuana charges in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids, but the lawyer for one of the defendants said the men were in compliance with the state’s Medical Marihuana Act.
The number of plants seized was within state law because of the number of caregivers who were growing at the location, according to the lawyer, Bob Baldori, reports Andy Balaskovitz at Lansing City Pulse.
Randall Darling, 24, and Joseph Johnson, also in his 20s, each face counts of growing more than 100 marijuana plants, according to court documents.
The federal cultivation charges come with a five-year minimum prison sentence. Warrants were issued for Darling and Johnson on January 20. Both await pretrial hearings.
Both defendants were within the state’s medical marijuana law, according to Baldori, who represents Johnson. While the DEA confiscated more than 200 plants from a grow operation in Mason, Baldori said Johnson and Darling are both patients and caregivers with the maximum allowed five patients.
| Graphic: Cheba Hut |
| C’mon, dude, I know you want one of those (nudge, nudge) ‘Toasted’ Subs at Cheba Hut, “where the only thing fried is the occasional customer” (wink, wink). |
This week, a counterculture-themed restaurant franchise will celebrate the passage of Proposition 203, the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act.
All day Thursday, February 3, Cheba Hut will sell four-inch subs for $2.03. There also will be live music, giveaways and raffles from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., reports the AZ Daily Sun.
“Hosting this event is another way of bringing our customers together and having an open forum on how Prop 203 can benefit Arizona,” said Cheba Hut CEO Scott Jennings.
Founded in 1998, Cheba Hut, home of (nudge, nudge) “toasted” subs, “where the only thing fried is the occasional customer” (wink, wink), has five restaurants in Arizona.
“Got the Munchies?” Cheba Hut’s website knowingly asks. “We have the goods you’re craving!”
As a delivery driver back in the 1990s, founder Jennings “noticed that on most of his late night deliveries, his customers were… um… inhaling!” the company website informs us. “Scott put two and two together and developed the Cheba Hut ‘Toasted’ Subs concept.”