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Manufacturing A Crisis: Stoned Driving ‘Epidemic’? Please.

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 20, 2012 Legislation, News

Crisis? What crisis?

It was bound to happen once marijuana legalization started looking like a real possibility. The prohibitionists and the drug warriors never go down without a fight; they always find an angle. This time, as at least two states — Colorado and Washington — are looking at legalization measures on November’s ballot, the new bugaboo is driving while high.

Nobody’s sure how to solve the question of when someone is just too stoned to drive, but that doesn’t keep plenty of people from offering “solutions” to the “problem” — which is now graduating from “just” a problem, thanks to sensationalist mainstream press coverage, and becoming an “epidemic” or even a “crisis.”

NORML Releases Official Reply To Patients Against I-502

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 24, 2012 Legislation, News

NORML Foundation/Russ Belville

Alan St. Pierre, NORML: “We fully recognize that the per se DUI provisions in I-502 are arbitrary, unnecessary, and unscientific, and we argued strongly with the sponsors for provisions that would require proof of actual impairment”

Executive Director Allen St. Pierre of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has released NORML’s official reply to the group Patients Against I-502, which opposes a Washington state cannabis legalization initiative because of arbitrary DUI limits and other concerns.

“NORML supports (and publicly endorses when requested by the principal organizers) marijuana legalization, regulation, and medical use initiatives that qualify for the state ballot, so long as they move us closer to full legalization, even if they contain provisions we do not believe should be included in a perfect proposal,” St. Pierre said.

“We fully recognize the per se DUI marijuana provisions in I-502 are arbitrary, unnecessary, and unscientific, and we argued strongly with the sponsors for provisions that would require proof of actual impairment to be shown before one could be charged with a traffic safety offense,” St. Pierre said, echoing the concerns of Patients Against I-502.

NORML Owes The Medical Marijuana Community An Apology

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 6, 2012 Culture, News

Nilo Radio

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre: “Defending the ‘medical’ cannabis industry is so yesterday”

NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre has called the medical marijuana industry a “legal farce” and “largely a sham” in an article which hit the web yesterday, creating a backlash among NORML’s many supporters (quite a few of whom likely just became former supporters) in the medicinal cannabis industry.

How many times must we repeat this? Attacking medical marijuana is not a good legalization strategy.

The sadly predictable outcome is that for the next umpteen years, every single time a medical cannabis initiative is raised in any state, the opposition are going to drag out St. Pierre’s ill-considered words as ammunition. “Why are you sitting there trying to tell us this state needs a medical marijuana law when NORML itself has admitted medical marijuana is a fraud and a sham?”

The piece, published by Steve Bloom on CelebStoner (according to NORML’s “Radical” Russ Belville, from private listserv emails sent last October, and without St. Pierre’s permission), is really unfortunate, and is a huge, huge blunder on NORML’s part. The pity of it is, it’s not just NORML that’s going to have to pay for St. Pierre’s mistake — it’s the medical cannabis community which he apparently so disdains.

Supreme Court Could Decide If Drug-Dog Based Warrants Valid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 3, 2012 News

hamptonroads.com

Do the police have a right to get a search warrant for your home if a police dog outside indicates the presence of drugs? The United States Supreme Court could decide this month whether to take a case from Florida involving exactly that scenario.

According to Florida’s highest court, Franky the drug dog’s ability to smell marijuana growing inside a Miami-area home from outside the closed front door crossed the constitutional line, reports Curt Anderson of the Associated Press. But Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a conservative Republican, wants the cops to be able to come on in.

Many experts expect the Supreme Court will take up the Florida case, Florida v. Jardines.

Police Harass Federal Medical Marijuana Patient Elvy Musikka

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 16, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Paul Wellman

Federal medical marijuana patient Elvy Musikka holds a tin of joints send to her each month by the U.S. federal government

Elvy Musikka, one of four surviving patients in the federal medical marijuana program, was detained by Oregon State Police early Thursday morning following a town hall meeting on medical marijuana.

Musikka was detained along with other registered Oregon medical marijuana patients after a state trooper staked out the co-op 45th Parallel and harassed cardholders as they left the building, reports Russ Belville in the Examiner.

Several members of the patient cooperative were detained by the trooper, who issued citations including a $1,000 ticket to a grower for “residue” left behind on an empty pipe by a patient.

Musikka was in town for the 45th Parallel’s Town Hall Meeting, which had occurred earlier Wednesday at the Clarion Hotel. At the hotel, an Oregon State Trooper parked just down the street from the public entrance to the parking lot.

Hemp Rally Coming To Boise Sept. 25: Idaho HOPE Fest

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 14, 2011 Culture, Products

Idaho HOPE Fest

The Idaho H.O.P.E. Fest, Boise’s first-ever hemp rally, is coming up on Sunday, September 25. The gathering, to educate the public on the many uses of hemp, is designed to promote awareness on the reform of marijuana laws in a positive and polite atmosphere, according to organizers.

Brought to you by Idaho NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and Idaho Moms For Marijuana, the festival will feature speakers including “Radical” Russ Belville and Cannabis Karri of the NORML Show Live podcast.

“We are THRILLED to have Radical Russ Belville of the NORML Show Live and the NORML Stash blog, a native Boisean himself, speaking at a very significant time,” Theresa Knox of Idaho Moms For Marijuana told Toke of the Town.

More than half-a-dozen bands including Voice of Reason, Actual Depiction and Malachi, will provide musical entertainment.

“This is a groundbreaking, one-of-a-kind event for the Treasure Valley,” Isaias Valdez of Idaho NORML told Toke of the Town. “We are featuring many prominent, powerful speakers from the legalization movement, as well as from the industrial hemp aspect. After 40 years of fighting a war on cannabis consumers, it has failed to stop the supply and demand.

“It’s been counterproductive, and is turning a lot of otherwise good, law-abiding citizens into criminals,” Valdez told us. “Our farmers are struggling during these hard economic times. As an agricultural state, we can reap the economic profits from domestic hemp production that our farmers and the environment can prosper from.

Hempstalk 2011 Kicks Off In Portland

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 10, 2011 Culture, Products

Hempstalk 2011

A compelling mix of upbeat music, a cannabis law reform message and a focus on industrial hemp as the answer to many of our practical needs, the seventh annual Portland Hempstalk festival is set for 10 a.m to 9 p.m. Saturday, September 10, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Kelley Point Park, located at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.

Co-sponsored by The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF), Green Leaf Lab and John Lucy, attorney at law, the event is free to attendees of all ages. With more than 40,000 people expected to attend, it will wrap up the summer festival season with a bang, according to organizers.

This year’s Hempstalk will also feature more than 100 vendor booths offering delicious food and irresistible merchandise, and a Hemposium which will feature informational panels on a variety of cannabis and hemp-related topics.

This Weekend: Hempfest Marks 20 Years With Biggest One Yet

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 18, 2011 Culture, News

Graphic: Seattle Hempfest

There has to be a Number One in every category. When it comes to pot rallies, Seattle Hempfest is the biggest and arguably the best on the planet.

The monster marijuana rally — or “protestival,” as organizer Vivian McPeak puts it — is marking 20 years of existence with this year’s event, held at Myrtle Edwards Park on the beautiful Seattle waterfront — and for the first time ever, Hempfest is slated for three days.

The party begins at high noon on Friday, August 19 and continues until 8 p.m., then things start up again at 10 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, lasting until 8 each night.

Government Forced NCI To Censor Medical Cannabis Facts

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 27, 2011 Medical, News

Graphic: NORML Stash Blog

Fuck censorship.

In March, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a component agency of the National Institutes of Health, acknowledged the medicinal benefits of marijuana in its online treatment database. But the information only stayed up a few days, before it was scrubbed from the site.

Now, newly obtained documents reveal not only how NCI database contributors arrived at their March 17 summary of marijuana’s medical uses, but also the furious politicking that went into quickly scrubbing that summary of information regarding the potential tumor-fighting effects of cannabis, reports Kyle Daly at the Washington Independent.

Phil Mocek, a civil liberties activist with the Seattle-based Cannabis Defense Coalition, obtained the documents as a result of a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request he filed in March after reading coverage of the NCI’s action. Mocek has made some of the hundreds of pages of at-times heated email exchanges and summary alterations available on MuckRock, a website devoted to FOIA requests and government documents.

Remembering Ben Masel: Activist Changed The Cannabis Debate

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 3, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: StoptheDrugWar.org

By Michael Bachara

Hemp News Correspondent

Lifelong activist Ben Masel died on Saturday after a battle with lung cancer. As the hemp and cannabis community and many others mourn this great loss, we must also remember what Masel spent most of his life fighting for, and continue on the path he helped to blaze.

Over the course of his life, Masel traveled countless miles and spent innumerable hours voicing his ideas and fighting for the rights of his fellows. Even in the face of opposition, he continued to speak out in favor of hemp and cannabis legalization, freedom of speech and the ability of people who take a stand to make a difference.

Masel’s lifelong passion, the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival in Madison, Wisconsin, began as a marijuana smoke-in in 1971. The Harvest Festival, now marking its 41st year, has a long history of promoting cannabis/hemp legalization and free speech while providing an annual celebration for like-minded people.

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