Toke of the Town

R.I.: Hearing Tuesday To Legalize, Tax And Regulate Marijuana

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By on Legislation, News

Graphic: thefreshscent.com

​The Rhode Island House Judiciary Committee will receive testimony Tuesday on H 7838, a bill that would tax and regulate marijuana similar to alcohol, allowing adults 21 and older to purchase up to an ounce of marijuana from registered retailers.

Sponsored by Rep. Edith Ajello (D-Providence) and Rep. Rod Driver (D-Charlestown/Exeter/ Richmond) would prohibit advertising marijuana or using it in public places.
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Maryland Senate Passes Medical Marijuana Bill

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Medical Marijuana Blog

​The Maryland Senate on Saturday voted 35-12 to pass SB 627, a bill that would allow qualified patients to use medical marijuana with their doctor’s recommendation, and receive safe access to their medicine through state-licensed dispensaries.

The bill now moves to the state House. The General Assembly’s session ends Monday night.
“I’m very proud of my Senate colleagues today for voting to provide some of our most vulnerable residents with the compassion and care that they deserve,” said Sen. David Brinkley (R-Frederick), the bill’s sponsor and a two-time cancer survivor.
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Nova Scotia To Fund Marijuana For Welfare Clients

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By on Global, Medical

Photo: CHRONIC nº 3

​​Medical marijuana advocates are praising a landmark Nova Scotia court ruling, hoping it will lead to taxpayer-funded cannabis for low-income patients across Canada.

Last week the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ordered the provincial government to pay for the medical marijuana used by Sally Campbell, a chronically ill woman on welfare, reports Richard Foot of The Montreal Gazette.
Some provinces already pay for the marijuana prescribed to patients under workers’ compensation claims. Since 2008, Canada’s federal government has also paid for the marijuana used by a few military veterans receiving disability benefits.
This, however, is the first time a province has covered the cost of doctor-prescribed marijuana for people on governmental assistance, according to a Canada-wide survey by Nova Scotia government officials.
“This is a new and developing area of law,” said Kirk Tousaw, a Vancouver Island lawyer representing people seeking federal medical marijuana licenses. “I’m not aware of any precedent in this area.”
According to Tousaw, the Nova Scotia ruling may not immediately affect the law in other provinces. But “it does represent a court saying that this particular drug deserves to be financially covered in certain circumstances,” Tousaw said. “I think it’s a very positive development.”
“It would be fantastic if this case opened the door in other provinces, if it helped needy patients get affordable access to marijuana,” said Chad Clelland, director of community relations for medicalmarijuana.ca, a national coalition of doctors, patients, and growers that has spent years finding affordable pot for low-income Canadians.
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L.A. Dispensary Crackdown: ‘Moral Crusade Must Be Stopped’

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By on Dispensaries, News

Photo: Opposing Views
Protestors gather at a California Narcotics Officers’ Association seminar on “Eradicating Medical Cannabis Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County”

​Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed an amicus “friend of the court” brief Friday in an attempt to intervene in the Los Angeles City Attorney’s effort to shut down registered cannabis dispensaries.

In particular, ASA filed a brief refuting the city attorney’s argument that sales are illegal, raised in lawsuits against two Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensaries, Organica and Holistic Caregivers.
ASA also argued in the brief that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich took preemptive enforcement action before the local ordinance has even taken effect.
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Acquitted Patient Seeks Return Of Marijuana From D.A.

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By on Medical, News

Photo: Eugene Davidovich
Eugene Davidovich: “I don’t know why I can’t get my property back”

​The former defendant in a San Diego medical marijuana trial says the office of District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis is wrongfully holding his belongings, despite his acquittal by a jury.

Eugene Davidovich, who became a spokesman for local medical marijuana patients when his home was raided and four charges brought against him, said the D.A.’s refusal to return his property is likely political, reports Hoa Quach at San Diego News Network.
“I dont’ know why I can’t get my property back,” Davidovich said. “I don’t understand but it seems to be politically-driven.”
Davidovich was one of 37 people charged with criminal offenses during Operation Endless Summer in 2008. He was unanimously found not guilty by a jury on March 25.
Despite his acquittal and repeated attempts to reclaim his property, Davidovich said his belongings haven’t been returned.
Attorney Michael McCabe contacted deputy district attorney Theresa Pham at least five times to obtain Davidovich’s belongings, to no avail. Finally, on Wednesday, McCabe sent a letter to Pham with the formal request.
“Since Mr. Davidovich was acquitted of all charges by the jury’s verdict on March 25, 2010, your office has no legitimate reason to continue to maintain possession of these items,” McCabe wrote in the letter. “Thus, under the express power conferred upon the Court by Penal Code 1536, these items must be returned to Mr. Davidovich.”
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Let’s Get Free! How Hip-Hop Culture Can Make Us All Safer

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By on Culture, Products

Graphic: The New Press
“A fresh and thought-provoking perspective on the War on Drugs, snitches, and whether locking so many people up really makes Americans safer.” ~ Anthony Romero, executive director, ACLU

​Paul Butler was an up-and-coming federal prosecutor and Harvard Law grad who gave up his corporate salary to fight the good fight — until one day he was arrested on the street and charged with a crime he didn’t commit. 

In his book Let’s Get Free: A Hip-Hop Theory of Justice, the former prosecutor takes a radical argument for reform. Butler looks at places where ordinary citizens meet the justice system — as jurors, witnesses, and in encounters with police officers — and explores what “doing the right thing” actually means in a corrupt, broken system.
Let’s Get Free is now available in a paperback edition, bringing Butler’s groundbreaking and controversial arguments to a whole new audience.
In the book, readers can learn ways individual citizens can work to change the “justice” system, including:
• Jury nullification: Voting “not guilty” in drug cases as a form of protest
• Always saying “No” when the police request your permission to search
• Refusing to work inside the system as a snitch or a prosecutor
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‘New’ No-High Pot Strain? Dude, They Should Try Midwestern Ditch Weed

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By on Dispensaries, Medical

Photo: Jodi Hernandez/NBC Bay Area
It’s cool, it’s useful, it’s CBD-rich… but folks, it ain’t “new,” and it grows for free all over the Midwestern U.S.

​The supposed “news” from California is that a “new strain of marijuana” has been discovered, one which “strips away the buzz” from pot. Anybody who thinks there’s anything “new” about this development has never tried getting high on Midwestern ditch weed (feral hemp), or any strain of cannabis bred for fiber content.

The good news is, the medicinal properties of cannabidiol (CBD) are finally getting recognition. CBD helps to provide many of the medicinal effects of marijuana, and is a separate cannabinoid from THC, which also provides medical benefits but is chiefly known for being a major component of the pot “high.”
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Man Calls School To Retrieve Marijuana In Son’s Elmo Backpack

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By on News

Photo: Toys123.com.au
That would certainly explain the Rasta colors…

​A Pennsylvania man was arrested Thursday morning after employees at an elementary school found marijuana in the backpack of the man’s kindergarten-age son.

Ronald J. Washington, 33, of Uniontown, Pa., called Menallen Elementary School to ask whether his son, who is enrolled in kindergarten there, had arrived, reports Jim McKinnon of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Washington told school officials he needed to “retrieve something” from his son’s blue Elmo backpack.
School employees were suspicious and searched the book bag, finding two clear plastic bags of marijuana, at which point they alerted state police.
Law enforcement officers determined the bags contained 105 grams of cannabis.
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Two Redneck CA Counties Still Refuse To Give Medical Pot Cards

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Reality Catcher
See those two little red counties? Those are the heart of redneck California, ladies and gentlemen. Sutter and Colusa counties are the only two in the state still violating state law by refusing to issue medical marijuana ID cards.

​​Fourteen years after Californians voted to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana, two counties — in violation of state law — are still refusing to issue official identification cards to cannabis patients.

The Sutter County Board of Supervisors’ rejection of a plan Tuesday night left the county as one of only two in the state, along with Colusa County, without such a program, reports Howard Yune at the Yuba Appeal-Democrat.
Senate Bill 420, passed in 2003, directs California counties to issue ID cards to patients using medical marijuana with a doctor’s approval. Unfortunately, SB 420 doesn’t list specific sanctions against counties that refuse to do so.
The plan voted down by the myopically marijuana-phobic Sutter County supervisors was so reasonable, so middle of the road, that even the county sheriff endorsed it.
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Church Members Argue Pot Laws Violate Religious Rights

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By on Global, News

Assembly of the Church of the Universe

​In a constitutional challenge to Canada’s marijuana prohibition, two men are arguing in court that the cannabis plant is sacred to their religion. The men are members of the Assembly of the Church of the Universe (COU), which claims about 35 active ministers and 4,000 members across Canada.

 
Rev. Brother Peter Styrsky, 52, and Rev. Brother Shahrooz Kharaghani, 31, are charged with trafficking in marijuana and hashish after police raided their church, Beaches Mission of God, back in October 2006, reports Peter Small of the Toronto Star.
Styrsky, in court Wednesday, explained his transformation from an angry, frustrated delivery driver to a more spiritually content person as a minister within the Church of the Universe, reports Shannon Kari at the National Post.
“[Cannabis is] the most spiritual thing that has ever happened to me,” Styrsky testified Wednesday.
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