| Graphic: NORML.org |
A new television advertisement criticizing a Nevada district attorney’s anti-marijuana position will air for the first time on Wednesday, according to Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws.The ad, which asks Washoe County District Attorney Richard Gammick why he opposes ending Nevada’s prohibition of marijuana, will air Wednesday, January 27, on KRNV-TV in Reno, Nevada.
“The ad we are unveiling Tuesday addresses a serious subject — public safety,” said Dave Schwartz, campaign manager for Nevadans for Sensible Marijuana Laws.
“It does so by contrasting the fact that 25 to 30 percent of all violent crimes in the U.S. are alcohol related with District Attorney Gammick’s desire to focus law enforcement resources on adults who use marijuana, which is less harmful than alcohol and less likely to lead to acts of violence,” Schwartz said.
| Photo: Westword |
| The Western Slope Cannabis Crown competition could include 400 strains. Oh, to be a judge! |
A marijuana festival in Aspen, Colorado, this spring will be the first in the state where medical growers can put their strains in a contest.
The Western Slope Cannabis Crown expects about 50 growers to enter their strains of cannabis, reports Carolyn Sackariason at The Aspen Times.
The contest will be held April 17-18 at the Gant.
The Cannabis Crown is open to the public and will include speakers, live music, information booths, and, of course, the strain competition where growers will vie for the “Crown.”
“We want to get the best of the best in there,” said festival organizer Bobby Scurlock.
Whereas such contests (beginning with what may be the granddaddy of ’em all, the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam) have traditionally been decided by human judges, the Western Slope Cannabis Crown will add a new wrinkle: The marijuana strains will be diagnostically tested for their THC levels by Denver-based Full Spectrum Laboratories (I hope they’re planning on testing CBD levels as well, since that affects the high).
| Photo: Madison NORML |
| Gary Storck has been using marijuana medically since 1972 — but 38 years later, it’s still illegal in Wisconsin. This newspaper clipping is from 2005. |
Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, who supports the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, will deliver his final State of the State address before a joint meeting of the Legislature on Tuesday night, January 26, at 7 p.m. local time.
Medical marijuana supporters will hold a patient vigil at Gov. Doyle’s last official speech. Supporters will gather outside the Assembly Chambers after 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 26, for the address, according to Gary Storck of Madison NORML.
Gov. Doyle has been on record throughout his two terms as willing to sign medical cannabis legislation if it reached his desk. Since the introduction of JMMA, he has gone further in his support, calling it “senseless” to block safe access for patients.
| Graphic: UNK NORML |
A group of University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) students has joined the movement to legalize marijuana.
The UNK chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is working to educate students about cannabis and lobby for its legalization, reports Sara Giboney of the Kearney Hub.
“From a national standpoint, we want to educate the public in order to get a body of voters to push legislators to overturn marijuana prohibition,” said UNK NORML President Matt Cass.
“I want it to be legalized so people can see it’s not as harmful as they think,” Cass, a political science major, said. “It’s less harmful than alcohol and tobacco.”
| Photo: achinharrison |
| Starbucks says they didn’t fund an anti-marijuana group. Are they full of it? |
In the wake of a threatened nationwide boycott by cannabis consumers, coffee giant Starbucks has denied funding an anti-marijuana group.
I hope the Seattle-based company is telling the truth. It would break my heart to know that Starbucks was working against the interests of one of its biggest consumer bases.
One would certainly hope that a progressive-leaning, forward-thinking company, based in THC-attle, of all places, would know better than to insult its own loyal customers this way.
On Thursday, a pro-pot group held a news conference in front of a Denver Starbucks to draw attention to what it called ties between the company and the Colorado Drug Investigators Association, reports Chris Grygiel of SeattlePI.com.
“It’s no surprise that law enforcement organizations and their leaders — whose jobs are dependent on maintaining the war on marijuana — are lobbying to kill state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries,” said Mason Tvert, head of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER).
| Photo: WAMM |
| Valerie Corral, WAMM’s co-founder: “We are heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws” |
Seven years after Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a California medical marijuana farm, forcing patients out of bed at gunpoint, founders of the collective running the farm agreed to settle a lawsuit against the federal government.
The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) will continue helping terminally and critically ill patients under the settlement.
Valerie and Mike Corral, founders of WAMM, called the settlement a “draw.” “They didn’t win; we didn’t win,” Mike Corral told the San Jose Mercury News.
“We hope that over time the federal government will recognize its senseless position on medical marijuana and will formally codify protections for the sick, dying and marginalized patients who have the right to use whatever substances their physicians recommend to ease suffering,” said Valerie Corral in a statement read before U.S. District Court Judge Jeremy Fogel.
“We are nonetheless heartened by the federal government’s newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws and we are extraordinarily proud of our collective’s role in effecting this change in policy,” Corral said. “However, should our government break their word and again pursue this senseless assault on the sick and dying, we stand at the ready and we promise to hold them accountable in a court of law.”
| Photo: Flash City |
Legendary actor Dennis Hopper, the Easy Rider himself, was photographed Thursday at The Farmacy Cannabis Club in Venice, California, a medical marijuana dispensary.
Hopper wore a checkered paperboy cap and dark-rimmed glasses into the establishment, which resembles a farmer’s market, according to “Doug” at RadarOnline.
Hopper’s filmography contains many high points in addition to the 1969 counterculture classic Easy Rider, which featured an iconic pot-smoking scene with Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson.
| Photo: www.greenroofs.com |
| Believe it or not, you can grow stuff besides pot using hydroponic systems. But don’t try to tell that to the Finnish police. |
There was no marijuana discovered at the place. But a Finnish garden supply store has been raided by local police who claimed the operation is “deliberately promoting” the purchase and use of home cultivation supplies for growing cannabis.
According to Finnish legal experts, the cops are breaking new ground in trying to link hydroponic gardening equipment with illegal cultivation of marijuana. The question of whether merely selling hydroponic equipment is equal to “drug promotion” has no precedent in Finnish law, reports A. Rienstra at IceNews.
“The police are testing the boundaries,” said Matti Tolvanen, professor of criminal and procedural law at the University of Eastern Finland. “After all, selling knives is not illegal, even though they are used to commit homicides.”
| Photo: www.blacktie-colorado.com |
| In better days: Reuben Droughns and a friend at a party in 2004 |
In 2004, he rushed for more than a thousand yards as running back with the Denver Broncos. Now he could be going to jail for growing marijuana.
Reuben Droughns is “under investigation” by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for growing pot in his Centennial, Colorado home, reports Julie Hayden of KDVR Denver.
According to KDVR, Droughns is raising the medical marijuana defense, but the DEA, which under federal law doesn’t recognize the medical use of pot, is having none of it.
Agents reportedly found an indoor marijuana grow operation in the spare bedrooms of the former NFL star’s home.
Droughns reportedly didn’t show investigators a medical marijuana card, but his mother and brother did.
| Photo: Jamie Scott Lytle/North County Times |
| Mother Earth’s Alternative Healing Cooperative founders Brenda Perez and Bob Riedel at the dispensary, which may be featured on an upcoming reality series |
Mother Earth’s Alternative Healing Cooperative, a medical marijuana dispensary in the San Diego suburb of Fallbrook, may be featured in an upcoming reality TV series about California’s cannabis culture.
Two Los Angeles television producers were in town Wednesday to film interviews at the dispensary for a pilot episode they plan to pitch to Showtime, Bravo, Lifetime and other networks, reports Morgan Cook of the North County Times.
The show, which may be titled “Grass Roots,” will explore California’s burgeoning pot culture, from growers in Northern California to the dispensaries which sell marijuana to patients statewide.