Search Results: marks (120)

Photo: Stella Pictures/Posh24
Rhys Ifans: “Everyone has a little smoke once in awhile, you know. It’s one of life’s little pleasures.”

​Actor Rhys Ifans, star of Notting Hill and the upcoming Mr Nice, has backed the legalization of cannabis in the U.K., calling it “one of life’s little pleasures.”

Ifans, who portrays his friend, drug smuggler Howard Marks, in Mr Nice, said he had smoked pot with Marks before, reports the London Evening Standard.
“In the past we have had a little smoke, the odd toke,” Ifans said in an interview with the Standard. “I didn’t inhale, though. Howard still has a smoke. Everyone has a little smoke once in awhile, you know. It’s one of life’s little pleasures.”
Ifans publicly defended his belief that marijuana should be decriminalized.
“You look at any culture and prohibition has invariably been an unmitigated failure,” Ifans said. “It is just idiotic to criminalize any substance, I think. It needs to be controlled, managed.”
“It is not going to go away,” Ifans said. “The War On Drugs is being lost on a daily basis.”

Photo: Salem News
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: “In this time of drastic budget cuts, prosecutors, defense attorneys, law enforcement and the courts cannot afford to expend limited resources” prosecuting petty pot offenses

​A bill downgrading the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction has been signed into law by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The law, SB 1449 by Senator Mark Leno, means small-time pot offenders will no longer have to appear in court, and will no longer have a criminal arrest record. It will also save California millions of dollars in court and prosecution expenses, according to Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML.
The bill treats petty cannabis possession like a traffic ticket, punishable by a simple $100 fine and no arrest record.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger deserves credit for sparing the state’s taxpayers the cost of prosecuting minor pot offenders,” Gieringer said. “Californians increasingly recognize that the war on marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources.”

Tea Party of South Dakota

Allen Unruh: “They would not want to work”

​”One of the side effects is, they would not want to work.” ~ Allen Unruh, organizer for a local South Dakota Tea Party group

Supporters of a measure to legalize small amounts of marijuana for medicinal use in South Dakota on Monday sought to assure the public that it would not create pot dispensaries or open the door to full legalization.

“This is about ill people,” said Tony Ryan, a retired police officer whose wife suffers from multiple sclerosis. “It’s only about ill people. It’s not a free-for all.”
​The rally also came on the same day that conservative firebrand Allen Unruh, an organizer for a local Tea Party group, denounced the medical marijuana measure as a back-door effort to legalize cannabis, which Unruh complained would lead to “widespread laziness” among users.
“One of the side effects is, they would not want to work,” Unruh said. “Unemployment is already through the roof.”
(Damn, I don’t really feel like doing the rest of this story, man. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Just kidding!)

Graphic: Firedoglake

​Facebook has banned the ads of anti-prohibition group Just Say Now, a campaign for marijuana legalization. Just Say Now ran ads that showed their logo, which uses a marijuana leaf. Despite the ad running more than 38 million times, Facebook has flip-flopped and starting censoring the ads, claiming they promote “tobacco products.”

“In a nutshell, they allowed us to serve our ads for 10 days (38 million impressions), then suddenly reversed their approval and told us we could no longer show the image of a marijuana leaf,” said Jane Hamsher of Firedoglake and the Just Say Now advisory board.
“They said they decided to reclassify it as similar to tobacco, but we said we weren’t trying to encourage people to smoke marijuana, we were supporting a change in U.S. drug policy,” Hamsher said, reports Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing.

Photo: CanIdoit.org
Don’t ask me why they do it, but Brits traditionally mix their cannabis with tobacco. But they’re just like Americans in another way: Most of their politicians are reactionary cowards.

​​The chairman of the Bar Council for England and Wales, Nicholas Green QC, has said it is “rational” to consider “decriminalizing personal drug use.”

Other politicians, terrified at even the faint appearance of taking a stand or displaying any leadership qualities at all, quickly and predictably attacked Green’s remarks, claiming they “sent out the wrong message on drug use.”
Taking this step would save billions of pounds (drug-related crime costs the British economy £13 billion a year), free up police time, cut crime and improve public health, reports Christopher Hope at the Telegraph
Presumably, actually being rational about drugs is considered quite a radical position.


Photo: Dave’s blog of random shit
Federal medical marijuana patient Irv Rosenfeld smokes a joint in front of the Capitol Building

​The D.C. Council on Tuesday approved amendments to a medical marijuana law first passed in 1998 by 69 percent of District voters. Congress had blocked implementation of Initiative 59 for more than a decade, until it lifted its ban last year.

With Tuesday’s vote, the District of Columbia joins the 14 states across the country which already allow qualified patients to use medical marijuana without fear of arrest.
“Today marks a long overdue victory for D.C. voters and potentially thousands of chronically ill residents who will benefit from legal access to medical marijuana,” said Karen O’Keefe, director of state policies for the Marijuana Policy Project.

Photo: Rod Sanford/Lansing State Journal
Marijuana dispensary owner Danny Trevino calls Lansing, Mich. police Tuesday after they left a note at the storefront that he uses

​Lansing’s first official medical marijuana dispensary has opened, testing the limits of Michigan’s medical marijuana law. The business, still unnamed, opened last week as city officials work toward drafting a city ordinance to regulate cannabis related businesses, reports Scott Davis at Lansing State Journal.

“It gives peace of mind that there is a place where I can go to buy it,” said Darryl Brija, 52, a state-certified medical marijuana patient who has a degenerative back disease. “It’s a good thing for people who can’t grow it themselves.”


Photo: PopCrunch
Dr. Drew thinks framing people for drugs and getting them arrested is a good treatment for addiction.

​Television personality and “addiction specliaist” Dr. Drew Pinsky recently prescribed framing people for drugs and getting them arrested as an acceptable treatment for addiction.

Dr. Drew said, “If [Lindsay Lohan] were my daughter, I would just pack her car full with illegal substances, send her on her way, call the police, and make sure she was arrested. I would make sure she was not allowed to get out of jail.” This incredibly irresponsible advice is not only unethical, it’s also illegal and downright dumb.

The Association for Addiction Professionals’ code of ethics says: “I shall refrain from using any methods that could be considered coercive such as threats, negative labeling, and attempts to provoke shame or humiliation.”

Graphic: Oregon NORML

​It’s full speed ahead for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA), a ballot initiative which would legalize and tax marijuana in the Beaver State, as the Oregon Supreme Court has dismissed the only challenge to OCTA’s ballot title.

The challenge — filed by Bradley Benoit from the Beaverton, Ore., area — came from an earlier comment regarding OCTA’s summary explanation. The comment requested the summary of the measure describe in detail the fact that the Oregon Attorney General would be responsible for defending Oregonians, and the law itself, should a federal case arise.

Photo: Big Island Video News
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle: “Compassion centers” are an “insult,” because they are really “pot stores”

​During a recent speech before the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce, Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle took a hardline stance against the recent legislative effort to legalize and establish medical marijuana dispensaries for the state’s patients.

Governor Lingle pointed to the situation in California, where she claimed marijuana dispensaries now “outnumber both McDonalds and Starbucks,” reports Baron Sekiya at Big Island Video News.
The hard-hearted governor said the term “compassion centers” given to these dispensaries is an “insult,” because in reality, she says, they are simply “pot stores.”
Lingle also claims that today’s marijuana, which she says is 26 percent THC, is far more potent than the herb which was around “when we were in college,” which she claimed ran 2 to 3 percent THC.
1 9 10 11 12