| Photo: KELOLAND.com |
| The South Dakota Highway Patrol isn’t officially allowed to interfere with elections. But they found a way around the rule. |
South Dakota’s medical marijuana initiative, Measure 13, is fending off a new foe: the state’s Highway Patrol.
The South Dakota Highway Patrol saved “news” about marijuana busts from the summer — supposedly related to “out of state medical marijuana” — to release two weeks before the election, Michael Whitney of JustSayNow.com told Toke of the Town on Wednesday.
“It certainly looks like the South Dakota Highway Patrol is interfering with the state’s medical marijuana ballot initiative,” Whitney told us Wednesday afternoon.
“Just Say Now is working with Measure 13’s campaign to fight back,” Whitney said.
Measure 13, which would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis in South Dakota for patients with a doctor’s authorization, is in a tight race going down to the wire on November 2.
| Photo: Tim Thompson/The Oakland Press |
| Candi and Bill Teichman, owners of Everybody’s Café in Wateford Township, Mich., have lost their children, their bank accounts, and their dispensary — all because police officers made fake patient ID cards and bought medical marijuana from them. |
How’s this for a waste of taxpayers’ money and law enforcement’s time? Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies used phony Michigan patient cards they created on a county computer to trick state-approved medical marijuana providers into selling cannabis to the cops.
Days after cops bought cannabis with the fake IDs, county narcotics agents raided two medical marijuana dispensaries on August 25, in Ferndale and Waterford, Mich., reports Bill Laitner at The Detroit Free Press.
“These officers were denied entrance on several occasions because of improper paperwork, but when they appeared with these cards, I had no way to check,” said Brian Vaughan, former doorman at the now-closed Everybody’s Café dispensary in Waterford. Vaughan is charged with multiple marijuana violations.
“You’ve got law enforcement spending time and money to entrap users of medical marijuana,” Southfield attorney Michael Komorn said on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the cops are claiming that the phony patient ID cards weren’t entrapment, but were a legitimate way to get “evidence.”
“Regardless of whether the cards were real or not, the pure and simple fact is, dispensaries are not legal in Michigan,” claimed Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe.
| Graphic: Tacoma Cross |
With hundreds of cannabis supporters in attendance, the Tacoma City Council on Tuesday night agreed to a compromise plan that would allow established medical marijuana dispensaries to continue selling to patients until the Washington Legislature spells out more clearly how patients can legally access the herb.
“The Tacoma City Council is not opposed to safe and legal access to medical marijuana for patients with legitimate need,” Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland said, reports Lewis Kamb of the Tacoma News Tribune.
| Graphic: DFW NORML |
A 52-year-old Texas man will use medical necessity as a defense after police found one marijuana plant and 1.5 ounces of cannabis at his home on September 30, according to his attorney. The man smokes marijuana to alleviate his suffering from diabetic neuropathy with severe symptoms including chronic pain and insomnia.
The detectives told the man they had received a tip that he was growing marijuana on the premises. After finding the growing plant and the dried marijuana, officers arrested the man for marijuana possession. Whether the case will be prosecuted as a misdemeanor or a felony will be decided depending on the dried weight of the cannabis seized.
The man, who lives in Weatherford, Texas, uses marijuana with the full knowledge and support of his physicians, who claimed they could not provide him with the synthetic substitute, Marinol, because it was heavily regulated and reserved for cancer and HIV patients.
| Photo: Borderland Beat |
| Trust me, you don’t wanna be police chief of Guadalupe. |
A 20-year-old female student majoring in criminology has been named police chief of a violence-torn northern Mexican border town — because nobody else wanted the job.
Marisol Valles became director of municipal public security of Guadalupe on October 18 “since she was the only person to accept the position,” according to the mayor’s office, reports AFP. Guadalupe is home to about 10,000 people.
Valles is studying criminology in Mexico’s most violent city, Ciudad Juarez, about 37 miles west of Guadalupe. Three years of ongoing turf battles between rival drug gangs have claimed 6,500 lives in Juarez alone.
Much of Chihuahua, the Mexican state within which Guadalupe is located, has suffered from the drug cartel-related violence. The mayor of Guadalupe was murdered in June and police officers and security agents have been killed, with some of them being beheaded.
| Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog |
Republican state Senator David Brinkley wants to renew efforts to legalize medical marijuana in Maryland. Brinkley said if he is reelected, he will introduce a bill that would not only protect medical marijuana patients from arrest, but would also address the issue of providing authorized patients with safe access to cannabis, rather than forcing them to obtain it on the black market.
A similar bill passed the Maryland Senate last session, but failed in the House of Delegates, reports Arlene Borenstein at NBC Washington.
Defendants charged with use or possession of marijuana can argue medical need as a mitigating factor in their sentencing under Maryland’s current “affirmative defense” law. But judges can still fine patients $100, even if medical necessity is proven.
| Graphic: The Portland Mercury |
I know, I know. “It’s all about the money.” But are there no depths to which the anti-Prop 19 people — i.e., a few greedy growers and dispensary owners and their friends in law enforcement — won’t sink?
Just today, I saw that some obnoxious moron calling himself “Rtg Cel” on Facebook had even trumpeted the supposed “dangers” of stoned workers on the job as a reason to vote against Prop 19 legalization.
Surely he knows better. Marijuana users are typically among the safest, most bust-ass, least complaining employees in the workplace.
But what does truth matter, when profits are at stake?
Way to show your true colors, “Rtg Cel.” Way to fall into line with your prohibitionist allies.
| Photo: Jeffrey L. Weinstein, Attorney at Law |
| N.J. State Sen. Nicholas Scutari: Gov. Christie’s proposed rules “unreasonably limit the supply of, and reduce qualifying patients’ access to medical marijuana” |
A sponsor of New Jersey’s medical marijuana law on Monday introduced a resolution that would repeal what he called “restrictive” proposed rules for the program if Gov. Chris Christie does not make them at least resemble the original legislation.
“Many of the rules are not only burdensome and unnecessary, but they propose amendments to the new law, not merely regulations to enact it,” wrote Ken Wolski, a registered nurse who is also executive director of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana-New Jersey (CMMNJ), on Tuesday.
Angry words were exchanged between the offices of Gov. Christie and of Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), the medical marijuana law’s sponsor, reports Susan K. Livio at NJ.com.
Behind the controversy is the Christie administration’s decision to license just two growers statewide, to supply just four dispensaries from which cannabis could be sold. Dispensary owners could apply and pay an additional fee to open one satellite location each, according to the proposed rules.
| Graphic: Cannabis Defense Coalition |
The city of Tacoma, Washington, has ordered eight local medical marijuana dispensaries to stop doing business by Saturday, sparking outrage among patients and providers. Cannabis advocates are planning an impromptu rally at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting to support the dispensaries.
In a three-paragraph letter dated October 14 from Tax and License Manager Jodie Trueblood, dispensary operators were told that selling medical marijuana “to more than one patient” is illegal in Washington state, and outlines possible penalties if the shops don’t comply, reports Stacia Glenn at the Tacoma News-Tribune.
Business licenses will be revoked, fines and penalties could be assessed, and criminal prosecution isn’t out of the question, according to Trueblood’s letter.
Dispensary workers said on Monday that they were surprised when they received the cease and desist letters. Some have already appealed the decision, with others saying they plan to do so.
Advocates say that hundreds of supporters have been mobilized for a rally before Tuesday night’s City Council meeting. If they are unsuccessful on getting the dispensary question onto the Council’s agenda, they said they plan to speak during the public comment portion of the meeting.