T
| Graphic: KVAL |
he Oakland City Council endorsed California’s marijuana legalization measure on the November ballot Tuesday, becoming the first city in the state to back it.
Last year, 80 percent of Oakland voters approved becoming the first city in the United States to tax medical marijuana dispensaries, gaining $500,000 for city coffers, reports Joe Garofoli at SF Gate. And in 2004, city voters approved Measure Z, making marijuana possession arrests the lowest law enforcement priority for the Oakland Police Department.
“Our experience shows that controlling and taxing cannabis dispensaries can benefit everyone in the community,” said Oakland City Council member at-large Rebecca Kaplan.
| Photo: Legal Juice |
| All those plants, and not a pants pocket anywhere. |
Let’s get one thing out of the way to begin with. If you get a job at the proposed biggest medical marijuana farm in the United States, you will be required to wear coveralls without pockets, so don’t plan on pilfering.
The huge, 25,000-plant marijuana growing operation could be coming to Michigan soon. A Florida man has approached officials to convert an empty paper plant in Frenchtown Charter Township into a gargantuan cannabis growing factory.
The planned operation would have 340 compartments, reports Dick Berry of WTOL. Each can supply five qualified patients and grow a dozen plans per patient, “which means the building could house up to 25,000 plants worth millions,” Berry reports.
| Photo: Double Dribble |
| Wilson Chandler of the New York Knicks wishes the NYPD didn’t waste so much time busting people for pot. |
New York Knicks forward Wilson Chandler was busted on a marijuana possession charge after police pulled his vehicle over Tuesday night in Queens, police said.
Chandler, who turned 23 last week, was carrying what was described as a “small amount” of marijuana when cops pulled over the 2010 Mercedes-Benz in which was was riding at 11:30 p.m., according to police, reports Larry Celona at the New York Post.
The fuzz said decided to search Chandler after they claimed to smell pot coming from the vehicle.
Chandler was issued a desk appearance ticket for the misdemeanor offense, meaning he must appear in county court for arraignment at a later date.
Chandler, who missed the final month of the season because of a strained groin, was drafted by the Knicks in 2007. He is scheduled to undergo a sports hernia surgery and will need six to eight weeks to recover.
| Photo: Berlin.de |
| The Hanf Hemp Museum in Berlin is a tourist destination for marijuana lovers. Now the city may become even more attractive to potheads. |
A new marijuana policy could make it legal for individuals to possess up to 15 grams (a little more than half an ounce) of pot in Berlin, the capital city of Germany. The rule would make Berlin among the most cannabis friendly cities in Europe.
Berliners have long enjoyed their city’s soft stance on marijuana, reports Spiegel Online. It’s not rare to see people hitting a joint in a city parka, or rolling one up in the back of a café.
But the German capital may take another step toward becoming one of the most pot-tolerant cities in the European Union. The city’s top health official, Katrin Lompscher, said she plans to raise the amount of marijuana and hashish one can legally possess to 15 grams.
| Photo: PR Newswire |
| Medical marijuana patient Malinda Traudt is suing the City of Dana Point as it threatens to shut down all dispensaries in the city. |
Malinda Traudt, a blind and wheelchair-bound medical marijuana patient in Dana Point, California, has filed suit after the city threatened to shut down the collective where she gets the medical marijuana needed to stay alive and manage her pain.
Malinda was born with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, total blindness, and severe cognitive delays. Now 29 years old, she has been in a wheelchair her entire life.
Recently, she was diagnosed with severe osteoporosis, a degenerative bone disease. Malinda’s doctor gave her pain medication but, within hours, her kidneys began shutting down, her lungs filled with fluid causing pneumonia, she developed a high fever, and vomited for three straight days. Malinda’s physician recommended that her mother contact a hospice to arrange for Malinda’s final hours.
In a last-ditch effort to keep Malinda alive while managing her pain, Malinda’s mother and her pain specialist replaced the pain medication with medical marijuana. Almost immediately, Malinda’s fever subsided, she stopped vomiting, and her suffering lessened. Within days, she began to recover.
Malinda’s kidneys regained function, she was able to eat, and she began smiling again. Her pain became manageable and her quality of life improved significantly.
| Photo: Ruben R. Ramirez/El Paso Times |
| El Paso City Rep. Susie Byrd spoke concerning the drug violence taking place in Juarez during a press conference at Lion’s Placita at the foot of the Paso Del Norte Bridge Monday. |
Two city representatives from El Paso, Texas, called a news conference Monday to say they believe reforming drug laws and legalizing marijuana would help reduce drug cartel related violence in Mexico, reports Diana Washington Valdez at the El Paso Times.
City Reps. Beto O’Rourke and Susie Byrd, joined at the border’s Paso del Norte Bridge by fellow city Reps. Steve Ortega and Ann Morgan Lilly, displayed a declaration in support of Juárez, the Mexican city just across the border from El Paso which has been wracked with horrifying violence as drug smuggling cartels vie for supremacy and market share.
”Those who think they have the moral high ground by supporting prohibition are not giving proper attention to the disastrous consequences of that tragically misguided policy,” said Oscar J. Martinez, a history professor and border expert at the University of Arizona who is also a native of Juárez.
| Graphic: Movement In Action |
A North San Diego County medical marijuana provider, James Stacy, will be the first such case to go to trial after the Justice Department issued its new enforcement policy in October 2009, a month after the raid.
The trial date will be scheduled on Wednesday for Stacy, whose Vista dispensary was raided on September 9, 2009. Stacy will argue at the hearing that he’s entitled to admit evidence of state law compliance, something which has been routinely denied to defendants in federal marijuana cases. Unlike the state laws in California and 13 other states, federal law classifies marijuana as a Schedule I “narcotic,” with no medical value.
Stacy’s dispensary, Movement In Action, was raided along with more than a dozen other San Diego County dispensaries as part of local-federal joint enforcement actions known as “Operation Endless Summer” which resulted in more than 30 arrests.
| Don’t Look At Me Like That. You Were Thinking It Too |
| Kitsap County, Washington is presumably safe from 9-year-old girls with Mickey Mouse wallets, thanks to those brave drug cops at WestNET |
A Washington State mother says that drug cops mistreated her son, took $80 from her daughter’s Mickey Mouse wallet, and trashed her house.
Christine Casey, affiliated with North End Club 420, a patient collective considered legal under Washington state law, told the Seattle Weekly that detectives from the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team (WestNET) handcuffed her 14-year-old son for two hours and put a gun to his head, reports Nina Shapiro.
They also told the frightened kid to say goodbye to his dad, Guy Casey, because they said the pot dispensary operator was going to prison.
As the Rambo-esque detectives trashed the home looking for cash, trying to prove the dispensary was illegally profiting from medical marijuana, Casey said they confiscated $80 that her nine-year-old daughter had received for a straight-A report card.
The gung-ho drug warriors found the money in the little girl’s Mickey Mouse wallet.
| Photo: Chris Jackson/Getty Images |
| A man smokes a joint in Russell Square at the start of the annual cannabis march in London. If he’s been caught with cannabis two times before, he could get up to five years in prison under U.K. law. |
More than 4,200 people in London have been given £80 fines on the spot for possessing cannabis in the first year of the British government’s “crackdown on drugs.”
Figures released by the Met show that nearly half those fined handed over the cash quickly, reports Martin Bentham at the London Evening Standard.
But the majority of offenders — 55 percent — failed to pay the fine with the 21-day deadline required by law, and police had to pass the unpaid fines to magistrates’ courts for collection.
| Photo: Dave Nelson/The Riverfront Times |
| Dude, I am sooooo thirsty. |
The latest beer from O’Fallon Brewery in St. Louis, Missouri, sounds really tempting: Hemp Hop Rye. The bottled beer is “an amber ale brewed with both toasted hemp seeds and rye,” according to Tony Caradonna, president of O’Fallon, reports Dave Nelson of Riverfront Times.
“Hemp is a botanical cousin to hops and we use one that’s grown organically,” Head Brewer Brian Owens said. “It’s extremely nutritious and adds a wonderful nutty flavor in the finish. It’s a perfect complement to the rye and to the Cascade, Hallertauer and Summit hops in the beer.”
The recipe, concocted by Owens, includes three kinds of malted barley, two types of rye, the aforementioned three varieties of hops and of course my personal favorite ingredient, toasted hemp seeds. Rye isn’t a traditional brewing ingredient — it has been used more often in distilling whiskey — but it is gaining popularity with specialty brewers for its unique spiciness, Nelson reports.