Toke of the Town — Marijuana and Cannibis News

Indonesian Gets Death Sentence For Marijuana In Malaysia

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2009 Global, News

Alam Setiawan, 39, being led out of court Friday after being sentenced to death.

Marijuana can’t kill you, but marijuana laws can. A 39-year-old Indonesian laborer on Friday was sentenced to death for the trafficking of cannabis.

Alam Setiawan from Tanjung Asahan Balai was arrested on April 25 after he was caught with 1,732 grams (just under four pounds) of marijuana at a fertilizer warehouse in Port Klang, reports Darshini Kandasamy in The Malay Mail.

Shah Alam High Court Judge Mohd Yazid said the defense failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt Alam’s claim that the culprit was another Indonesian man named Udin.

Alam said it was Udin, not him, who had thrown a plastic bag containing two bricks of cannabis into the ocean during the raid.

The judge said Alam’s claim was not believable, and that Udin was a fictitious character.

Barack Obama ‘Ecstasy’ Hits The Streets — But It’s Fake

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Culture, News

AP Photo

They wanted to make a Palin version, but it stopped working halfway through the trip.

Police in Palmview, Texas last week seized a batch of reputed Ecstasy pills made in the image of President Barack Obama, Ryan Smith reports on CBS’ Crimesider blog.

A stash of the orange tablets was found last Monday during a south Texas traffic stop.

The 22-year-old driver had a drug collection of Hunter S. Thompson-esque proportions. Found in the car were black tar heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, along with the supposed Obama Ecstasy. He’s expected to face multiple felony drug possession charges.

Mass. Cops Claim Home Marijuana Grow Worth Half A Million

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Growing, News

“More than half a million dollars worth of marijuana plants”?

Well, who knows how much credit to give cop dope estimates, but any way you count it, more than 500 plants were taken from a suburban Massachusetts home.

FOX25 in Boston reports on the “major pot bust,” with hundreds of plants seized from a Center Street home in Brockton, Mass.

Marijuana Policy Project Of Nevada To Make Major Ballot Announcement Wednesday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Legislation, News

Graphic: Reality Catcher

It may be time to enter Nevada in the “Which state will legalize pot first?” betting.

Following ballot initiatives to tax and regulate marijuana in Nevada in 2002 and 2006, the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) of Nevada is preparing for the next step in its fight to make marijuana legal in the Silver State.

On Wednesday, Dec. 9, MPP-NV will make an announcement at a press conference in front of the Clark County Government Center at 11 a.m. While specific details of the plan will not be revealed until then, Dave Schwartz, manager of the group, hinted that a ballot measure to tax and regulate may be in the works.

Marijuana Advocates To Hold Press Conference Before L.A. City Council Hearing Tuesday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Damon D’Amato, WAMC

Medical marijuana supporters march on L.A. City Hall in 2007

Medical marijuana advocacy organization Americans for Safe Access (ASA) will hold a press conference in front of Los Angeles City Hall at 9:45 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 8, in advance of the expected vote on regulating dispensaries in L.A.

The City Council has indicated they might meet in closed session to make final deliberations on an ordinance that would regulate how and where medical marijuana dispensaries can operate in the city.

According to the agenda for Tuesday’s council meeting, the possible closed session is due to “threats of litigation publicly made regarding the adoption of the proposed ordinance. Last month, ASA had threatened to sue the city if it banned the “sale” of medical marijuana.

Tuesday’s meeting will likely be the culmination of a two-year struggle between pro- and anti-medical marijuana forces for dominance in the City of Angels, where City Attorney Carmen Trutanich and like-minded Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley have grabbed headlines by making inflammatory statements like “approximately zero” of the dispensaries in the county are operating legally.

Michigan Town To Treat Medical Marijuana Growers As Businesses

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Dispensaries, Growing, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Hendrike

The color of money.

A town planning committee in Michigan on Tuesday will present a plan to officials that would amend the city’s zoning ordinance to treat medical marijuana growers as businesses, forcing dispensaries to operate from general business districts rather than homes, reports Jonathan Oosting of MLive.com.

The scheme, from the Royal Oak Plan Commission, would allow dispensaries in general business districts as a special land use, according to Catherine Kavanaugh at The Macomb Daily.

In Royal Oak, these districts are on Woodward Avenue, Main Street north of downtown, and some parts of Coolidge Highway and 14 Mile Road.

Dispensaries would be banned within 1,000 feet of schools, libraries, parks, playgrounds, day cares, places of worship, or other dispensaries. Hours of operation would be limited to 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Denver Public Radio Commentator: The War On Drugs Has Failed

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Culture, News

KUNC

A commentator on Denver public radio has called the War on Drugs a failure, and has endorsed the legalization of marijuana.

“As a nation we have been waging a war of attrition against ourselves in which the winner is none other than narco-traffickers south of the border,” said KUNC commentator Dr. Pius Kamau. “We have fought a valiant but losing war on drugs.”

“We must be cognizant of the fact that the cost of incarcerating 2 million Americans for drug offenses is bankrupting this nation,” Dr. Kamau said. “And experience has shown that the best way to deal with those addicted to drugs is not prison. It is therapy.”

San Diego Dispensary Manager Faces Sentencing Today

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2009 Dispensaries, Medical, News

10News.com

Dispensary manager Jovan Jackson faces sentencing today for ecstasy and Xanax.

The manager of a San Diego medical marijuana dispensary will be sentenced today for illegal possession of prescription drug Xanax and the street drug Ecstasy.

Although 31-year-old Jovan Jackson was acquitted of marijuana possession and sale, he still possibly faces more than three years in prison because of the Xanax and ecstasy. However, he’ll probably only get probation, said Deputy District Attorney Chris Lindberg, according to San Diego’s 10News.com.

Jackson’s case was the first to go to trial after law enforcement raids in September resulted in 31 arrests and 14 medical marijuana collectives being shut down in San Diego. His arrest had an earlier genesis, though, resulting from raids last year at Answerdam Alternative Care Collective in Kearny Mesa.

Washington State Bar Association Board Solidly Backs Marijuana Decrim

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 5, 2009 Legislation, News

Photo: Joe Mabel

A massive representation of a joint in a “rolling paper” evoking the American flag, 2008 Summer Solstice Parade, Fremont Fair, Seattle, WA.

Marijuana decriminalization in Washington state just won some important allies.

This morning, the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors (BOG) voted to support the decrim bill, SB 5615, in the upcoming session of the Legislature.

The BOG voted 9 in favor, 0 opposed, and 2 abstaining to support the bill, Alison Holcomb, drug policy director at the ACLU of Washington, has told Toke of the Town.

Brit Prison Guards Let Con Grow Pot In Cell: He Told Them It Was Tomatoes

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 5, 2009 Culture, Global, Growing

Photo: Bennelliott

Verne Prison on the Isle of Portland, henceforth forever known as “that prison that lets prisoners grow weed.”

British prison guards unwittingly allowed a convicted drug dealer to grow marijuana in his cell — and even decorate one four-foot plant as a Christmas tree.

Mohamed Jalloh, 28, must be very persuasive. He convinced jail staff for at least five months that his fast-growing cannabis crop was only tomato plants, according to reporter Brian Flynn in The Sun newspaper.

(Please God, give me guards that trusting if I’m ever locked up again.)

Jalloh, who’s serving eight years on a drug charge, got so cocky, he put festive seasonal decorations on one of the plants “to brighten his cell” at Verne Prison on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, U.K.

Eventually he was ratted out by an envious inmate. Guards then identified the plants using Google image search, according to The Sun. (There you have it: There are actually still people in existence who don’t know what marijuana looks like. Prison guards, at that!)

“You could see the plants from the grounds as his cell looks on to the education department and communal outside area,” a source told The Sun. “They were on show for the world to see.”