Search Results three years

Rural California Sheriff Ignores Voters, Favors County Pot Ban

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 27, 2010 Legislation, News

Sheriff Steve Warren wishes he was a DEA agent: “No matter what, marijuana is still against federal law”

Maybe Lassen County Sheriff Steve Warren wasn’t paying attention 14 years ago when medical marijuana was legalized in California.

Sheriff Warren told the Board of Supervisors at their April 20 meeting that his position on marijuana is “very clear.” The sheriff said he’d already asked the administrative office if the county could “simply prohibit marijuana cultivation and dispensaries in the county.”

“Pardon my ignorance,” Warren, who must have been unaware of just how much he was asking, said to the supervisors, “but I thought we already had a moratorium. I thought we already had a prohibition such as Citrus Heights, Lincoln, Roseville, and some of those other cities have done.”

“I thought the only one [dispensary]we had in the world around here was in the city,” the sheriff said, reports the Lassen County Times.

But Warren said his department has “encountered” two other marijuana dispensaries in the county.

CU Regent Calls For Crackdown On Boulder’s 4/20 Smokeout

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 16, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: Black & Right (who’s stupid enough to think it’s “dumb”)

Look at all that smoke! The crowd was once again more than 10,000 at last year’s CU 4/20 smokeout, April 20, 2009. Are the cops really going to hand out tickets this year?

An uptight University of Colorado regent has said the Boulder campus should do a better job “cracking down” on pot smokers who gather for the “unsanctioned” 4/20 smoke-out.

Last year, about 10,000 people gathered to smoke marijuana — or just watch — during the public protest, reports Brittany Anas at the Boulder Daily Camera. Police have largely turned a blind eye to pot smoking at the event, usually issuing just a few tickets spurred by “other illegal activities.”

Kampia Returns To MPP After Sex Scandal; Two Directors Resign

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 15, 2010 News

Photo: The Sexist

In happier times: Rob Kampia with MPP Chief of Staff Alison Green

Rob Kampia has been reinstated as executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, just three months into an unpaid leave of absence due to a sex scandal which shook the cannabis advocacy organization.

“Rob is back effective today,” said Mike Meno, director of communications at MPP, on Wednesday. “The board voted yesterday and we’re hoping to continue with the work of ending marijuana prohibition in this country.”

High Times reports that Kampia was reinstated by the nine-person MPP board of directors during a “contentious” conference call meeting. The close vote on Kampia’s return was followed by the resignation of at least two board members, one on the spot and one within 24 hours.

Illinois One Vote Away From Getting Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 12, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Chicago Reader

Medical marijuana is one vote away from becoming law in Illinois.

The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), said Saturday that he is working behind the scenes to line up the needed votes, and is just waiting for the right moment to call it for a vote in the Illinois House, reports Bob Roberts at Chicago’s WBBM.

If the measure passes and is signed into law by Gov. Pat Quinn, Illinois will become the 15th state to allow medicinal use of cannabis, which has been illegal in Illinois since the 1930s.

Medical Pot Grower Says Cops ‘Smeared Poop’ In His House

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 7, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: The Inquisitr

“What poop?”

A medical marijuana activist and grower has accused King County Sheriff’s detectives of smearing feces in his Kirkland, Washington home during a search last month.

Steve Sarich said this week that deputies searching his house March 15 “smeared human excrement (poop) on the wall behind his bed and nightstand,” according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Department, reports Joyce Chen of The Tacoma News Tribune.

The allegations were made in emails sent by Sarich to the Sheriff’s Office on April 2 and April 5, the department claimed in a press release.

New York City Pot Arrests Soar To Near-Record In 2009

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 2, 2010 News

Photo: City Rag

New York City leads the world in pot arrests — and wastes up to $90 million a year keeping it that way

New York Police Department officers made more than 46,000 arrests in 2009 for marijuana possession in public, second highest in the Big Apple’s history, according to statistics from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.

The annual arrest total is up more than 4,600 percent from 1990, when the NYPD reported fewer than a thousand pot arrests, reports the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Canada: All 3 National Parties Support Prince Of Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 12, 2010 Culture, Global, Legislation

Photo: Jodie Emery

Jodie and Marc Emery in a legal industrial hemp field outside Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

MPs from all three of Canada’s major national political parties — Conservative, Liberal, and New Democrat — are about to submit petitions calling for marijuana activist Marc Emery to not be extradited to the United States.

Scott Reid of the Conservative Party, Ujjal Dosanjh of the Liberal Party, and Libby Davies of the New Democratic Party will submit the petitions, reports Carlito Pablo at Vancouver’s Georgia Straight.

According to press reports, the petitions will likely be submitted by the three MPs on Monday, March 15.

Last Summer, Emery agreed to a plea bargain with American authorities that will probably see him thrown into a United States prison for at least five years for distributing marijuana seeds through the mail.

Prohibition Fails Again: Teen Pot Use Increases

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 2, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: topnews.net.nz

One in four American teenagers has tried marijuana. Two out of the other three want to know if you can “hook them up.”

An annual survey released Tuesday by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America indicates that the number of American teenagers who use marijuana has increased for the first time in 10 years. One in four teens, 25 percent of those in grades 9 through 12, say they’ve used cannabis in the past month, up from 19 percent last year.

“These latest numbers show that our current marijuana policies — which keep marijuana unregulated and in the hands of drug dealers — are clearly not working to help reduce teen use,” said Kurt A. Gardinier, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Medical Marijuana Advocates Accuse L.A. City Attorney Of Entrapment

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 23, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Shay Sowden/LAist

Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) responded Tuesday to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s latest effort to shut down registered dispensaries by threatening to intervene in the lawsuits the city filed recently against raided collectives Organica and Holistic Caregivers.

According to ASA, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has taken preemptive enforcement action before dispensaries have a chance to comply with the recently adopted regulatory ordinance, which took more than two years to write and pass.

“It’s clear that the City Attorney is attempting to intimidate and close dispensaries before the Los Angeles ordinance even goes into effect,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford.

Bill To Legalize, Tax And Regulate Pot Reintroduced In California

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 18, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: Cannabis Culture

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has reintroduced a bill to legalize marijuana in California

A bill to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol was reintroduced today in the California Assembly.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) reintroduced the legislation, A.B. 2254, which would create a regulatory structure similar to that used for alcoholic beverages. The bill would permit taxed sales to adults, while prohibiting sales to or possession by those under 21.

Marijuana is California’s largest cash crop, with an estimated value of $14 billion in 2006, nearly twice the combined value of the state’s number two and three crops, vegetables and grapes.

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