Search Results: bennett (17)

Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson on stage together in 2015.

Mama, we’re not in Muskogee anymore. Country legend Merle Haggard is throwing his hat into the marijuana market from beyond the grave.

Haggard died on April 6, 2016, on what would have been his 79th birthday. Before his death, however, he had joined forces with the Colorado Weed Co. in 2015 to develop connoisseur-grade marijuana strains. Now, after his death, his daughter Jenessa Haggard-Bennett and her husband, Brian Bennett, are working with the Colorado Weed Co. to follow through on one of her father’s last business endeavors.

Ryan Lackey/Flickr


After a “month-long” investigation that included stake-outs, digging through garbage, and comparing neighbors’ electricity bills, DEA agents and Shorewood (Illinois) Police kicked down the door of a suspected pot grower at 5am on October 11th, 2013.
The suspect was 46-year-old Angela Kirking, who says she awoke to 4 DEA agents and 5 cops screaming at her with guns drawn. Kirking does admit to being a proud grower … of Hibiscus flowers, which she actually eats. It was her search for all-organic solutions for that part of her diet that brought the wrath of the federal government and local law enforcement down on her door on that October morning.

TokeoftheTown.com

A Federal Bureau of Investigations study released in 2012 showed that police in America arrest someone for cannabis every 42 seconds. That’s around 750,000 arrests annually for marijuana alone. The enforcement, prosecution, and imprisonment of this never ending flow of low-level non-violent offenders are a drain on scarce resources for local and state governments.
Imagine if we could save all of that money and reassign law enforcement agencies to go after the real criminals. Now imagine if we could do all of that for the low, low cost of just 3.75 billion words.

All Photos by Charlie Bott

By Charlie Bott
Oregon Correspondent
Toke of the Town
For the second consecutive year, Mad Scientist from Ray Bowser and Homegrown Natural Wonders took First Place Overall at the 11th annual Oregon Medical Cannabis Awards (OMCA).
Second Place went to Grand Daddy Purple grown by Greg Bennett and Grape Ape grown by Jason Breazeale of Farmageddon came in Third. The ceremony was held on Saturday, December 15, and held at the World Famous Cannabis Cafe in Portland, which also sponsors the annual event.
“It’s good to see that now there are medical cannabis contests in many medical marijuana states, but we were there first,” said Madeline Martinez, owner of the Cafe and chief organizer of the event. “Eleven years ago we got the idea that we didn’t want to have to go to Amsterdam to judge cannabis, especially when so much of the medicine we grow here in Oregon is world class, as this year’s judges know very well!”

Darryl James/Willamette Week
The Human Collective director Sarah Bennett (right) helps a client at the dispensary in Tigard. The Human Collective was raided Thursday morning.

Campaign Makes Statement on Oregon Medical Marijuana Raids: ‘Regulation is the solution.’
Washington County, Oregon sheriffs’ officers on Thursday morning raided The Human Collective, a medical marijuana facility in Tigard. Sheriff’s Sgt. Bob Ray claimed The Human Collective dispensary, which opened in April 2010, was selling marijuana.
Two people were detained during the search, reports Noelle Crombie of The Oregonian. No arrests were made, and nobody has been charged with a crime.

Celebrity Picnic
Whitney Houston, R.I.P.

​Over the weekend, as news of the tragic passing of Whitney Houston spread, speculation about the cause of death and the award-winning singer’s history of drug use caused many people to reconsider our nation’s failed war on drugs. Among them was fellow singer Tony Bennett, who called on attendees of a pre-Grammy gala to join him in the fight to end drug prohibition.
 
“First it was Michael Jackson, then Amy Winehouse, now the magnificent Whitney Houston,” he told the audience. “I’d like every person in this room to campaign to legalize drugs.”
“Let’s legalize drugs like they did in Amsterdam,” Bennett said. “No one’s hiding or sneaking around corners to get it. They go to a doctor to get it.”
 
While Holland hasn’t actually legalized drugs, its policies are focused on reducing the harms associated with drugs, rather than arresting nonviolent drug users.
Most significantly, the possession and sale of small amounts of marijuana are tolerated by the government, which has separated marijuana from the market for harder drugs. As a result of this policy and more readily available treatment options, drug use and addiction rates in the Netherlands are far lower than in the United States.
 

9News.com

​Twenty-five homes were raided across the Denver metropolitan area as part of a big marijuana sweep.

The North Metro Drug Task Force is leading the investigation into what Jace Larson of 9News described as “the large-scale grow operation.” The cops are claiming all the raided homes were somehow connected.
SWAT teams began knocking down doors Wednesday morning at about 6 a.m.
At least 12 and possibly 16 people were arrested in what law enforcement officials are calling “Operation Sweet Leaf.” (Since when did the narcs start naming raids after 1971 Black Sabbath songs?)

Photo: somormujo.net
The Winehouse family awaits the outcome of an inquest into Amy’s death, due to begin October 26.

​Amy Winehouse didn’t have any illegal substances in her system when she died, and it is still unclear what killed her, her family said on Tuesday.

Toxicology tests showed that “alcohol was present” in the singer’s body but it hasn’t yet been shown whether or not that contributed to her death, the family said in a statement, reports Jill Lawless of The Associated Press.
Winehouse, 27, had exhibited erratic behavior for years, as rumors swirled about her drug and alcohol use. She was found dead in her London home on July 23, and an initial post-mortem failed to determine the cause of her death.
“Toxicology results returned to the Winehouse family by authorities have confirmed that there were no illegal substances in Amy’s system at the time of her death,” read a statement released by family spokesman Chris Goodman.
The family awaits the outcome of an inquest due to begin October 26, according to the statement.
Winehouse had “beaten” her drug addiction three years before her death, claimed her father, Mitch, but he admitted she was still “struggling to control” her drinking after several weeks of abstinence.

Graphic: Break The Matrix

​Name one government program that for 40 years has failed to achieve any of its goals, yet receives bigger and bigger budgets every year. If you said “the War on Drugs,” you’ve been paying attention.

The Obama Administration is unable to show that the billions of dollar spent in the War On Drugs have significantly affected the flow of illicit substances into the United States, according to two government reports and outside experts.

The reports specifically criticize the government’s growing use of U.S. contractors, which were paid more than $3 billion to train local prosecutors and police, help eradicate coca fields, and operate surveillance equipment in the battle against the expanding drug trade in Latin America over the past five years, reports Brian Bennett of the Los Angeles Times.
“We are wasting tax dollars and throwing money at a problem without even knowing what we are getting in return,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who chairs the Senate subcommittee that wrote one of the reports, which was released on Wednesday.

Photo: Don Davis Jr./High Point Enterprise
In happier times: Thomasville City Manager Kelly Craver rocks out with his Street Party Band 

​A rock and roll-playing city manager was arrested for marijuana possession in North Carolina on Saturday.

Thomasville City Manager William Kelly Craver, 54, of Greensboro, was arrested in Davidson County late Saturday night, reports MyFox8. Craver was charged with one count of misdemeanor possession of up to a half-ounce of marijuana and one count of possession of “drug paraphernalia,” according to court records.
Craver was taken before a magistrate and given a $2,500 secured bond, although he was not in jail, the spokesperson said Sunday morning.
The city manager was charged after he was found with marijuana, a plastic bag containing traces of marijuana, and a pipe with marijuana residue, according to court documents from the Magistrate’s Office in Lexington.
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