| Photo: WLTX |
| Hey, at least Gerard Brower has some friends inside the jail… that is, if he’s been giving them righteous deals. |
One South Carolina jail just got even less fun, as a guard was arrested and charged with trying to smuggle marijuana into the detention center.
Agents with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department arrested Gerard Vincent Brower, 24, in the parking lot of the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center at 6 a.m. Sunday before he went to work, charging him with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Deputies claimed they received information from a tipster that Brower had been taking marijuana inside the jail and dealing it to inmates, reports WLTX. (Sounds to me as if the guy should be getting a humanitarian award.)
| Photo: Your Brain On Bliss |
| Jerry Brown: “I have been on the side of law enforcement for a long time, and you can be sure that we will be together on this November ballot” |
Bonehead move, Moonbeam. Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown on Tuesday said he does not support legalizing marijuana in California.
Brown’s ill-advised announcement comes as the Golden State prepares to vote on the marijuana issue on November’s ballot, the same ballot voters will use to decide if he will be the next Governor of California, reports The State Column.
Moonbeam didn’t even have a coherent argument against cannabis legalization. In an appalling lapse of logic, the Democratic ex-governor said legalizing pot would open the floodgates for Mexican drug cartels — sort of like arguing that alcohol Prohibition should have been continued to quell the gang violence associated with the illegal booze trade.
“Every year we get more and more marijuana, and every year we find more guys with AK-47s coming out of Mexico going into forests and growing more and more dangerous and losing control,” a confused Brown said.
Marijuana policy reformer Steve Fox quickly pointed out “the idiocy of decrying the involvement of drug cartels in the marijuana trade while opposing a regulated system of distribution.”
| Photo: Matt Gouras/AP |
| Jason Christ smokes marijuana in front of the Great Falls Civic Center. Christ holds mobile clinics to help people get their state-issued medical marijuana cards in Montana. |
Traveling cannabis caravans, responsible for signing up thousands of people for medical marijuana cards in the past year, may become a thing of the past in Montana if a group of lawmakers gets its way.
A bipartisan panel spent most of Tuesday morning discussing changes to Montana’s existing medical marijuana laws, taking aim at traveling clinics, which some accuse of “exploiting” the law, reports Jennifer McKee of the Missoulian.
Among the committee’s ideas: Physicians who recommend marijuana for their patients must have an “established practice” in Montana, and they must have a face-to-face evaluation of a patient before authorizing them to use medical cannabis.
“No more telemedicine, no more traveling,” said Rep. Diane Sands (D-Missoula), chair of the committee.
The panel also recommended that doctors follow “professional standards of care” when dealing with potential medical marijuana patients, including looking at a patient’s medical records before recommending cannabis.
| Photo: LEX18.com |
| Julio Garcia, 20, was charged with child endangerment and marijuana possession. |
Two Texas parents are out on bond Wednesday morning after being arrested for giving marijuana to their one-year-old son.
A witness said Julio Garcia, 20, of Grapevine, Texas, was in his apartment smoking pot from a bong, then putting the bong up to the mouth of his 13-month-old son, who was sitting in his lap, according to police.
The mother, 19-year-old Brenda Duran, was also in the room but did not try to intervene, police said, reports Dawn Tongish of The 33 News.
Police took the baby to a local hospital and released him to the custody of his grandparents, according to LEX18.com. The child will reportedly “undergo testing.” He is, of course, expected to be fine.
| Photo: Stark County Jail |
| Donald Duck just wanted some pizza, dude. But he managed to ruffle a few feathers trying to get it. |
I know drunk driving’s no laughing matter, but this still quacks me up. Police in Massillon, Ohio, have arrested 51-year-old Donald Norman Duck after he pulled into a drive through pizzeria and repeatedly bumped the car ahead of him, reports Mike Waterhouse at NewsNet5.
Duck was taken into custody at about 5:25 p.m. Saturday, facing a felony charge of drunk driving and misdemeanor charges of marijuana possession and possession of drug paraphernalia, according to Ben Muessig at AOL News.
According to the driver whose vehicle was repeatedly struck, Donald Duck stuck his head out the car window and shouted, “Sorry dude, something must be wrong with my brakes.”
| Photo: TattooFinder.com |
| Montel Williams: “Every day that we delay is another day of needless suffering for patients like me all across the state” |
Former talk show host and U.S. Navy officer and current New York City resident Montel Williams on Tuesday urged Governor David Paterson and members of the Legislature to act quickly in order to pass New York’s medical marijuana bill.
Williams spoke at a press conference in Albany. He uses medical marijuana to help ease the effects of his multiple sclerosis.
According to supporters, the New York bill would create one of the best-regulated systems in the country for providing seriously ill patients with safe and effective access to medical marijuana.
“New York needs to act now to make marijuana legally available for medical use. Every day that we delay is another day of needless suffering for patients like me all across the state,” Williams said.
| Graphic: The Hinterland Gazette |
Leaders of the NAACP’s California chapter announced Monday that they are supporting a marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot.
“The War On Drugs is a failure and disproportionately targets young men and women of color, particularly African-American males,” said Alice Huffman, president of the NAACP’s state conference, reports Catherine Saillant at the Los Angeles Times.
The group pointed to statistics showing that last year, 62 percent of California’s marijuana arrests were of nonwhite suspects, and 42 percent were under 20 years old. The statistics were from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice.
Cannabis arrests of African Americans occur at double, triple and even quadruple the rate of whites, despite the fact that studies show blacks use marijuana at lower rates than whites, according to NAACP officials.
| Graphic: Reality Catcher |
Joseph Casias said on Tuesday that it was unfair of WalMart to fire him for legally using marijuana to treat his cancer pain.
With the backing of state and national branches of the American Civil Liberties Union and his attorney, Daniel Grow, Casias said he filed a lawsuit Tuesday morning in Calhoun County Circuit Court against WalMart Stores Inc for wrongful termination last November, reports the Battle Creek Enquirer.
The 30-year-old Battle Creek, Mich, cancer patient had undergone a routine drug screening after hurting his knee on the job last year. The test showed that Casias had marijuana in his system and he was fired, even though he is registered as a legal medical marijuana patient in Michigan.
| Graphic: Control & Tax Cannabis 2010 |
| Photo: Stuff Stoners Like |
| Richard Lee: “This is the next step to sane cannabis policies and the end to the hypocrisy and unjust prohibition of cannabis” |
The Control & Tax Cannabis initiative has been designated Proposition 19 by the California Secretary of State.
“This is a huge moment for our campaign,” said Richard Lee, the Oakland medical marijuana entrepreneur who is the biggest financial backer of the cannabis legalization initiative.
“When we officially got our proposition number, it really hit home for me: This campaign is now real,” Lee said.
“In four months, we’ll be on the ballot, and millions of Californians will have the chance to vote to tax and legalize cannabis,” Lee said.
| Graphic: Cannabis Culture |
Delegates to the Washington State Democratic Convention endorsed I-1068, the marijuana legalization initiative, with an overwhelming 62 percent “Yes” vote, 314 to 185, on Saturday.
The executive board had given no recommendation on the initiative, because “the committee was even more split than the delegates,” said State Vice Chair Sharon Smith, reports Bryce McKay at PubliCola.
“We expected this to come to a floor discussion,” Smith said. “There are some things that are clearly Democratic Party values, and then there are things like this that aren’t so clear.”
These welcome signs of the Democratic Party growing a backbone when it comes to cannabis issues are encouraging; there’s definitely a whiff of change in the air.