Search Results: gregory (22)

Artwork: Jim Wheeler
Safe access to marijuana remains a distant dream to many patients — even in states which have legalized medical use

​One by one, the lights are winking out. In city after city, town after town, in states where medical marijuana is now legal, patients who had dared hope they would at last have safe access to the medicine recommended by their doctors are having those hopes dashed.
The problem? Political cowardice and the panicked reaction of the status quo.
Every week brings more news of freaked out city councils and county boards of supervisors who desperately want to appear to be “doing something” — anything — about the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries.
This phenomenon is so far mostly confined to California and to a lesser extent Colorado, but it’s unfortunately also starting to happen in Michigan, Montana and even Maine — where voters specifically approved dispensaries in November.
Rather than showing true leadership by showing genuine concern for patients and communities, too many local government officials are going for the easy, knee-jerk reaction. The level of disregard for the intentions of the voters — who clearly expressed their will by legalizing medical marijuana — is breathtaking.

Graphic: Clint JCL

​Self-proclaimed “marijuana minister” Steven Swallick of Brevard County, Fla., was sentenced today to two years in prison.

Swallick, who was arrested in May 2008 after police said they found more than 100 marijuana plants growing in his Palm Bay, Fla., home, says he is the minister of a church called The Hawai’i Cannabis Ministry (THC Ministry).
“Cultivation and enjoyment of Cannabis sacrament is a fundamental human right provided by God and protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution,” THC Ministry says on its website.
Police had testified they found dried marijuana inside Swallick’s oven and in baskets on top of kitchen cabinets.
Rev. Swallick, 53, showed no visible reaction upon his sentencing, according to WFTV. During his testimony in the trial last month, he had worn a white priest collar and a black suit jacket and shirt, with a black cross hanging from a black-beaded necklace.