Photo: ACLU-WA
Famed travel writer and TV host Rick Steves will be among the panelists at “Where Is Marijuana Reform Heading?”, a public forum in Seattle on September 12 sponsored by the WA ACLU.
Sure, it seems that the wind is at our backs. The tantalizing possibility of marijuana legalization looks more possible than it ever has before. But what comes next?
The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington on September 12 will present a discussion on the history, current status, and future of marijuana-law reform in Washington and the United States.
The event will be Sunday, September 12, 2010, 7 pm – pm (doors open at 6:30 pm), at the Great Hall at Town Hall Seattle, 1119 8th Avenue at Seneca Street. Enter on 8th Avenue. (Directions and Parking)
Local and national panelists include travel writer Rick Steves; Keith Stroup, founder of and legal counsel to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML); Washington state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles; Rob Kampia, co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP); and Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).
| Photo: Sports News |
| The Minnesota Timbewolves’ team president was fined $50,000 for talking about how much marijuana Michael Beasley smokes. |
The National Basketball Association on Friday fined Minnesota Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn $50,000 for his recent remarks about the marijuana habit of forward Michael Beasley, for whom the team recently traded, reports the Los Angeles Times.
The big-mouthed Kahn spoke in a radio interview Thursday about Beasley’s marijuana use in Miami, claiming that it hampered his play with the Heat, reports Hardcourt Mayhem at the Bleacher Report.
He added that he spoke to Beasley about discontinuing his marijuana use with the Timberwolves, which would supposedly help him become a better player.
Kahn called Beasley “a very young and immature kid who smoked too much marijuana” during his disappointing tenure with the Miami Heat NBA team.
| Graphic: Veterans Today |
| In a historic decision, the V.A. has announced veterans will no longer be endangering their pain prescriptions by using medical marijuana in states where it is legal. |
In a historic decision, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs will now formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal.
It’s a day to remember, according to Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. “We now have a branch of the federal government accepting marijuana as a legal medicine,” Fox said.
The policy clarification has been sought by veterans and advocates for years, reports Dan Frosch at The New York Times.
A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in V.A. hospitals between federal law, which outlaws marijuana for any purpose, and medical marijuana laws in the 14 states that allow medicinal use of cannabis.
Like the decision by Obama’s Justice Department to back off on marijuana dispensary raids in states that have legalized medical pot, the new V.A. policy essentially means the federal government is deferring to state medical marijuana laws.
| Photo: Bubbleman’s Hideout |
| Very strong privacy laws prevent Spanish police from entering your house — even if they can see weed. How cool is that? |
British citizen Andy was looking for weed freedom — and he believes he’s found it in Europe. But he’s not in Holland. Andy’s chosen abode is not yet known as a stoner mecca, but judging by his account, it may soon be.
For a fascinating look at the Spanish cannabis scene, let’s travel to Andalusia now with our host, who writes on the excellent website “Dope Smoker.”
~ Steve Elliott
…….
Freedom To Act Without Fear
By Andy
Dope Smoker
I am smoking a joint whilst sitting by my front window.
Actually, that’s right where I rolled it too, and people were walking by the house. Sometimes, I pass the joint out the window to a neighbor on the street.
| Photo: The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry |
| Roger Christie of THC Ministry is “a danger to the community.” That is, if you believe federal prosecutors. |
A Hawaii-based marijuana minister who has for years been preaching the good news about ganja is now under federal indictment, and agents on Friday managed to persuade a federal judge that he is somehow “too dangerous” to be allowed out on bail.
Roger Christie, the founder of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry (THC Ministry), has been ordered held without bail after the Drug Enforcement Administration arrested him, along with 13 current or former employees and growers, on July 8.
Christie and the others are charged with marijuana trafficking offenses related to their alleged distribution of marijuana as a sacrament at the ministry, reports Stop The Drug War.
Christie had already been raided by the DEA in March, with agents “seizing” cash and marijuana, but not arresting him at that time.
Federal agents claim that after that raid, Christie continued his marijuana distribution at the ministry. He and the others were secretly indicted last month.
| Photo: ToiBocks |
| While the locking system to access to hidden storage space is simple to operate, it is almost impossible to figure out unless you have the instructions. |
Looking right at home on a night stand or coffee table, the ToiBocks has quickly won an appreciative audience with its secret compartment for valuables such as adult novelties and DVDs, passports, credit cards, cash — and smoking materials.
“ToiBocks solved a real problem for me in my life, which was keeping my personal items easily accessible to me and inaccessible to everyone else,” Dawn Tulman, president of ToiBocks, Inc., told Toke of the Town.
Dawn came up with a unique solution, which involved hiding the items in plain sight in a stylish, attractive ToiBocks, which includes a simple locking system to keep private things private in an ample storage space.
| Graphic: Fathom Events |
| You really don’t wanna miss this, man. |
It’s going to be the best Thursday in the history of the world.
The stars of many a stoner’s favorite hit TV show, Mystery Science Theater 3000, will take on the legendary 1936 cult classic Reefer Madness on August 19 for an evening of live, hilarious riffing and ridicule!
RiffTrax’s own Michael J. Nelson, Kevin “Tom Servo” Murphy and Bill “Crow T. Robot” Corbett — will be reunited on the big screen for the live broadcast, sharing an evening of poking fun at the cult classic feature that warned against the horrors of smoking marijuana.
| Photo: MacYapper |
Finally, someplace gets it right when it comes to smoking.
Medical marijuana will not be subject to the smoking ban adopted by the Sebastopol City Council on Tuesday — at least for the time being.
The council unanimously(!) voted to remove medical marijuana from the proposed ordinance and focus only on the use of tobacco after a series of speakers, several of whom said they used cannabis for medical purposes, expressed fears that the ordinance would interfere with their legal use of pot.
| Photo: MusicbizFormation |
| “$14,000? What $14,000? Oh yeah, THAT $14,000. OK, just say he was money laundering, threaten him with the DEA, and we’ll keep the cash.” |
Here’s a scenario which, unfortunately, could become all too familiar in the near future. A pot-phobic local police department, still angry and in denial over the legalization of medical marijuana, steals — I mean, “seizes” — cash from a dispensary owner, accuses him of “money laundering,” and threatens to call in federal agents if the owner squawks.
Sound unlikely? Guess again. And welcome to Colorado Springs, Colorado.
A medical marijuana dispensary owner said he intends to sue the Colorado Springs Police Department over what he said was the illegal seizure of $14,000.
| Photo: NBC 25 |
| Michigan protesters say Saginaw County Sheriff William Federspiel is targeting medical marijuana patients who speak out |
Coordinated and lively protests were carried out Wednesday by medical marijuana patient advocates in both Saginaw, Michigan, and San Diego, California, against the Drug Enforcement Administration for raids it conducted earlier this month.
The raids were made despite an official Justice Department policy issued in October 2009 discouraging such enforcement.
The Michigan Medical Marijuana Association organized the Saginaw protest march, and Americans for Safe Access (ASA) organized a rally at the federal courthouse in San Diego.