Toke of the Town

Rhode Island Marijuana School Goes Up In Smoke

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By on Culture, Products

Graphic: NESAHS
Class dismissed.

​An outfit previously billed as New England’s first medical marijuana school has decided to cancel its inaugural class and indefinitely postpone operations, citing concerns that the Rhode Island Department of Health has not offered its explicit approval.

The New England School of Alternative Horticultural Science’s founder, Luis Hernandez, pointed to a September 2 article in The Brown Daily Herald in which a spokeswoman for the Health Department expressed reservations and concerns about the school.
“From the Health Department’s point of view, our one concern is that accurate information is presented, not only about what the law permits in terms of growing (marijuana) but about the rules and regulations for caregivers and patients.”
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BOYCOTT: Arizona Cardinals Give $10K To Stop Medical Pot

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By on Culture

Graphic: Phoenix NewTimes
If you support the Arizona Cardinals, you are supporting marijuana prohibition and opposing safe access for medical cannabis patients.

​The National Football League’s Arizona Cardinals have joined the fight against legalizing medical marijuana in their state, donating $10,000 to “Keep AZ Drug Free” on Thursday.

No self-respecting marijuana advocate — or anyone who cares about safe access for patients, to the medicine that works best for them — will attend a Cardinals game from this point forward.
The Cardinals’ donation to the war chest against Proposition 203, which would make medical marijuana legal in the state and let chronically ill or severe pain patients buy small amounts of pot from state licensed dispensaries with a doctor’s approval, makes absolutely no sense, especially given the fact that many NFL players could benefit from the herb’s palliative and pain-relieving properties.
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Nebraska Pharmacy Board Won’t Reclassify Medical Marijuana

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By on Medical, News

Photo: NORML Blog

​The Nebraska Board of Pharmacy rejected a request to reclassify marijuana so that it could be used for medicinal purposes. The board decided Monday that it lacks the authority to reclassify marijuana as a drug that could be legally prescribed by physicians.

Any decision to reclassify marijuana so it can be prescribed for certain medical conditions is up to the federal Food and Drug Administration, State Pharmacy Board Chairman Richard Zarek said Wednesday. So the board declined to act on the matter, reports Paul Hammel of the Omaha World-Herald.
“There’s nothing the Board of Pharmacy can do as long as it’s listed as a Schedule I drug and ineligible for dispensing,” Zarek said.
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Plant Medicine Expo Brings Cannabis Experts To Colorado

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By on Medical, Products

Photo: Plant Medicine Expo

​The Cannabis Therapy Institute has announced it will participate in the Plant Medicine Expo and Healthcare Provider Conference on September 25 and 26 at the Sheraton Denver Downtown Hotel, Denver, Colorado. The Plant Medicine Expo will bring together some of the leading national experts on medical marijuana for a two-day conference and expo focused on the scientific and health aspects of medical cannabis.
Conferences are designed both for health care professionals and medical cannabis patients.
Two instructors for the Cannabis Therapy Institute will be presenting talks at the PME. Deanna Gabriel will discuss “Cannabis Medicine Making” and “Cannabis Therapy Fundamentals.” Timothy Tipton will discuss “Bringing Medical Marijuana Into Your Practice” for health care providers.

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Government: Marijuana To Blame For Increased Drug Use In 2009

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Associated Press
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske: Marijuana is “an entry drug”

​A new U.S. government report blames increased marijuana use for a rise in the overall use of illicit drugs among Americans. That’s good news, for anyone who’s familiar with just how non-toxic is marijuana, compared with other illegal drugs.

The annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows the rate of “illicit drug use” (including marijuana) rose from eight percent in 2008 to 8.7 percent in 2009, reports Peter Maer at CBS News. The survey also found more use of ecstasy and methamphetamine.
Officials claim they are especially concerned about use of illegal drugs by young people. The survey, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), found 21.2 percent of young adults experimented with illegal drugs in 2009.
The trend “was also driven in large part by the use of marijuana,” according to the report.
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Libertarian Party Decries Nevada Medical Marijuana Raids

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By on Dispensaries, Medical

Graphic: Las Vegas City Life

​The Libertarian Party of Clark County, Nevada has issued a statement which says it is “outraged” at the recent medical marijuana raids in the county. “Voters spoke some time ago about this issue and agree that medical marijuana should be legal in our state,” the statement said.

“We support the rights of citizens of Nevada to decide and in conjunction with the Constitution of the United States; we hold emphatically this supersedes any federal law on this matter,” the statement said, according to the Independent Political Report.
“As a reminder, President Obama promised that states’ laws concerning this matter would be respected and that the federal attacks would end,” the statement said. “However, it seems that resources are still being wasted targeting patients and law-abiding Americans.”
“What occurred was nothing less than government-sponsored theft,” the statement said. “The fact that no arrests were made adds to the reasoning that no crimes have been committed. These businesses have been given no answers or reasons for the seizures and the Libertarian Party is stating that these raids are illegal and that the targets are innocent of any wrongdoing.”
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Raid: Pot Grow Turns Out To Be Legal; ‘Meth’ Is Deodorizer

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By on Growing, News

Photo: Jennifer M. Howell/Lodi News-Sentinel
Lodi Police Detective Carlos Fuentes gets to try out his cool HazMat mask and brandish his weapon as he investigates an alleged “meth lab.” It turned out to the the deodorizer used to mask the scene of a legal medical marijuana grow.

​Police in Lodi, California thought they had a major drug bust on their hands after what looked like a couple of pounds of methamphetamine and dozens of marijuana plants were found at a commercial building.

Police even evacuated all of the businesses in the building between Pixley Parkway and Guild Avenue. 
But the big bust shrunk away to nothing when the “meth” turned out to be crystallized deodorizer and the pot plants turned out to be legal, reports Jordan Guinn at the Lodi News-Sentinel.
The operation turned out to be the medical marijuana growing site for a Stockton family, police said.
“After the search, we found they are in compliance with their legal marijuana cards, said Detective Hettie Schaeffer of the Lodi Police Department.
About 2 p.m. Tuesday, excited police arrived at the scene, ready with their fancy HazMat team to search the premises.
At first, the cops thought they’d stumbled upon two pounds of meth. But after closer inspection, the Lodi Police Department determined it to be a crystallized deodorizer used to mask the smell of the cannabis plants.
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Pot Shop Raided Hours After Broadcast Criticizing City Attorney

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By on Dispensaries, News

Photo: KTLA
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich: Is this hothead serving up quick revenge to dispensaries that dare criticize him?

​A Los Angeles police raid of a Venice medical marijuana dispensary last week — which occurred at a time when L.A. has said it will hold off on pot shop enforcement — happened just hours after an activist criticized the City Attorney on a radio broadcast from the store.

Host Zuma Dogg played audio of his Thursday web radio show for the LA Weekly, reports Dennis Romero. He said, in part, “I’d like to send this one out to Carmen Trutanich” and called the City Attorney “incompetent” and a “moron” for his handling of the city’s medical marijuana ordinance.
Zuma Dogg described his “broadcasting live” location as a Venice collective with “Green” in its title.
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Police Say Marijuana Shops Not Magnets For Crime

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By on Dispensaries, News

Photo: Kevin Kreck/Colorado Springs Gazette
The Green House, a medical marijuana dispensary in Colorado Springs. Marijuana dispensaries don’t attract crime, according to the Colorado Springs Police Department.

​Colorado Springs police have yet to find a correlation between the city’s growing medical marijuana industry and increased crime, according to department spokesman Sgt. Darrin Abbinki. There’s no evidence that the industry, which has about 175 businesses in Colorado Springs, attracts robberies and break-ins, according to the cops.

In the 18-month period ending August 31, Colorado Springs police recorded 41 criminal incidents at medical marijuana dispensaries and grow operations, according to Abbink, reports Jakob Rodgers of the Colorado Springs Gazette.
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Oakland City Attorney Backs Prop 19 To Allow Marijuana

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: Living In The O
Oakland City Attorney John Russo: “What we’ve being trying to do is fight a raging fire with a watering can. The better way is to cut off the oxygen”

​Breaking from the staunch opposition of most law enforcement groups, Oakland City Attorney John Russo on Monday joined about two dozen officials from across California to publicly support Proposition 19, the measure allowing recreational marijuana that will appear on November’s ballot. Another group gathered in West Hollywood with the same message.

Their support of Prop 19 goes against the majority of law enforcement agencies in California, which oppose the measure, reports Angela Woodall of The Oakland Tribune. “It’s very difficult for them to change, Russo said Monday in front of Oakland City Hall.
Meanwhile, a coalition headed by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca — “No On Prop 19” — blasted the measure in a statement signed by scores of police chiefs, sheriffs, law enforcement associations and district attorneys, of all whom want to keep those fat federal anti-pot funds flowing.
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