| Photo: Steve Elliott/Reality Catcher |
| Seattle Hempfest 2010 Hemposium participants, from left: Rob Kampia, MPP; Doug McVay, Berkeley Patients Group; Alison Holcomb, ACLU of Washington; and David Nott, Reason Foundation |
Another Seattle Hempfest has entered the history books, and this 19th gathering of the tribes was another great one.
Among the highlights of the event — you know, other than the obvious ones, like 4:20 at the Seeley Stage — were the Hemposium discussion panels including marijuana policy experts from across the country.
For policy wonks and committed marijuana activists, some very exciting quotes came out of those sessions.
Here are five of the best.
| Graphic: Dragon Chewer |
| GrindTainers are medical cannabis containers especially made for patients, by patients. |
Makers of the Dragon Chewer GrindTainer bill it as “the first and only herbal packaging designed specifically for the medicinal herb industry.”
The GrindTainer offers multifunctional use, including a built-in grinder for ease of breaking down herbs, as well as a patented Separ-Eighth Divider which allows the large size GrindTainer to accommodate two different strains in the one container.
If you’re accustomed to a luxury metal grinder as I am (I use The Notch™), you’ll probably feel some skepticism when you look at the GrindTainer, made of 100 percent recyclable propylene plastic. I had a few moments of doubt, too.
| Photo: The Cannabis Post |
| Trevon Cole and his fiancé, Sequoia Pearce, in happier days. The unarmed Cole was shot and killed in his bathroom by a narcotics officer during a marijuana raid. |
The Las Vegas police officer who shot and killed an unarmed Trevon Cole during a June drug raid over small-time marijuana sales was “justified,” a coroner’s inquest found Saturday night, despite contradictory findings from the medical examiner.
Cole, 21, and his eight-months-pregnant fiancé, Sequoia Pearce, 20, were at their apartment when police serving a search warrant burst through the door, reports Phillip Smith at StoptheDrugWar.org. Cole was shot in the bathroom by Detective Bryan Yant who, in testimony Saturday, said he kicked in the bathroom door and claimed he saw Cole squatting by the toilet, apparently flushing marijuana.
Yant claimed he saw Cole rise to his feet “while moving his hands in a shooting motion” and that he saw something silvery or metallic in Cole’s hand. He then fired once, killing Cole.
“Unfortunately, he made an aggressive act toward me,” claimed Yant under questioning from Assistant District Attorney Chris Owens. “He made me do my job.”
It’s unfortunate that Detective Yant believes “his job” is shooting and killing unarmed marijuana suspects.
| Photo: Douglas County Sheriff’s Office |
| Matthew Palazzolo, 25, of Sacramento, Calif., has some homework. He is being forced to write a report for a yokel Nevada judge telling “how stupid” California’s medical marijuana law. |
A judge in Nevada has given an unusual sentence in the form of a homework assignment to a 25-year-old Sacramento man who sold marijuana to a police informant in a casino parking lot at Lake Tahoe.
Matthew Palazzolo was ordered to write a report parroting the right-wing views of District Judge Dave Gamble on what the judge called the “nonsensical character” of California’s medical marijuana law, reports Sheila Gardner of the Gardnerville Record-Courier.
The judge gave Palazzolo 90 days to complete the paper discussing his “self-admitted realization” that marijuana was a “gateway drug” that “led him to use more powerful narcotics” — never mind the scientific studies disproving the gateway theory.
“Here’s a young man with a bachelor’s degree and a rosy future and now is a potential felon,” Judge Gamble said during last Tuesday’s sentencing in Gardnerville, Nev., south of Carson City.
| Photo: hopeful420 |
| The magic moment, 4:20 p.m., at Hempfest, August 21, 2010 |
| Photo: al.com |
| Jacob Jordan, 32, died in the Baldwin County jail due to inadequate medical treatment after being arrested for marijuana. |
Family members of a 32-year-old Alabama man who died in his jail cell last month a week after being arrested for possession of marijuana said they tried to warn officers about his fragile health, but were ignored.
Jacob Ashley Jordan was found dead in his cell at the Baldwin County Corrections Center at about 1 a.m. July 9, according to the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, reports Connie Baggett at the Mobile Press-Register.
Jordan had a “pre-existing medical condition,” according to Sheriff’s spokesman Maj. Anthony Lowery, and had been moved into the jail’s medical wing. Lowery claimed that the inmate had received medical treatment from nurses.
Jordan, who lived in Eight Mile, Ala., was found dead in his cell, according to Lowery.
The officer refused to give details, citing privacy laws that protect medical information, but did say there was “no evidence of any physical injury.”
| Photo: Robyn Twomey |
Pot connoisseur William Breathes over at Denver Westword has written a funny, but on-the-money piece called “Top 5 reasons why your budtender hates you,” and it’s hard to beat for some Friday afternoon reading from the Village Voice Media empire.
“Let’s face it, being the person who sits behind a counter weighing out ganja all day long might not seem like the hardest job in the world, and there are plenty of people who would take that gig just for the leftover shake at the end of the day,” Breathes writes.
“But that doesn’t mean it isn’t work.”
| Photo: Owl Jester/Seattle Hempfest |
| “There’s no place more perfect to announce our plans for 2011’s campaign than at the world’s premier marijuana reform festival.” ~ Douglas Hiatt, Sensible Washington |
If at first you don’t succeed, try again!
Sensible Washington, sponsor of this year’s Washington legalization initiative I-1068, has announced that it will launch its 2011 marijuana legalization campaign at this year’s Seattle Hempfest.
“There’s no place more perfect to announce our plans for 2011’s campaign than at the world’s premier marijuana reform festival,” said Douglas Hiatt, chair of Sensible Washington and main author of I-1068, which failed to gain enough signatures to qualify for this year’s general election.
| Photo: CNBC |
| Seattle welcomes Hempfest every year… but pot busts have gone UP after voters told police to make marijuana their lowest enforcement priority — even though the city attorney won’t prosecute pot cases! |
Please welcome well-known pot blogger and YouTube personality Primo to Toke of the Town. He’s got a few things he wants to say about Hempfest and Seattle! ~ Steve Elliott, Editor
By Primo
The Emerald City is all abuzz about Hempfest this weekend, August 21 and 22.
The forecast is classic Seattle weather, overcast and 65 degrees, ideal for outdoors.
In the meantime, many of us Seattleites are wondering why so many tokers are being busted on our streets. The current arrest rate of almost 29 per month is almost triple the arrest rate of last year and almost four times the rate in 2004.
| Photo: Philly NORML |
| Neill Franklin, LEAP: “Californians finally have an opportunity to do something about it” |
A national group of African-American law enforcement officers has endorsed Proposition 19, the measure on this November’s ballot that would tax and regulate marijuana in California.
The National Black Police Association (NBPA), with more than two dozen chapters across the United States, announced the endorsement in Sacramento, where the organization is holding a national conference, reports Jesse McKinley at The New York Times.
“Prohibition takes a toll on people of color across the country,” said Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which supports Prop 19.
“When I was a cop in Baltimore, and even before then when I was growing up there, I saw with my own eyes the devastating impact these misguided marijuana laws have on our communities and neighborhoods,” Franklin said.