Search Results: riggs (12)

Did you know that pot brownies became popular by mistake? Or that one of the world’s earliest edible recipes was used by a band of assassins? The history of cooking with cannabis starts over a thousand years ago, comes to a screeching halt in the twentieth century, then moves at light speed after 2012.

Already riding high off the success of her first foray into cannabis literature, The Cannabis Kitchen Cookbook, author and journalist Robyn Griggs Lawrence — a self-described “digital nomad” who lived in Boulder for many years — now dives into humanity’s long relationship with eating cannabis in Pot in Pans: A History of Eating Cannabis. In this new book, Lawrence describes the ancient eating habits of Chinese and Persian cultures while teaching us about our own country’s past with the plant. We caught up with Lawrence to learn more about the history of eating cannabis and some of her favorite infused snacks.

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Does Paula Riggs, Christian Thurstone and Bob Doyle of Project SAM want to keep marijuana illegal so they can profit off of treatment?


A recent poll suggested that a majority of Coloradans were unhappy with marijuana legalization — findings embraced by anti-pot activists who’d ignored previous surveys showing the opposite.
Now, cannabis critics like these are working to prevent legalization from spreading to other states — and a document called the Utah Marijuana Compact offers insight into their methods.

Opposing Views

What do our servants in the federal government do when the voters have spoken? They promptly announce their intention to ignore the voters. At least, that’s what happens when it comes to the marijuana laws.

The citizens of Colorado and Washington may have thought the decision was theirs on whether to legalize cannabis — that they’d have the final say in the matter. But a spokesperson for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has other ideas.
“The Drug Enforcement Administration’s enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged,” an agency spokesperson blithely told Reason this morning, Mike Riggs reports.

Curt Merlo/The Village Voice

​Violent crime has declined dramatically in New York City since 1990, the year when the Big Apple set a record for the most homicides in its history. A new study shows that the price of hard drugs has also plummeted in the past 20 years, and suggests the two phenomena may be linked.

The price of cocaine fell from $400-$460 per pure gram in the early 1980s to less then $200 by the early 2000s, reports Alexander Hotz at The New York World. Similarly, heroin prices dropped from $3,000 to $3,600 per pure gram in the 1980s to about $2,000 by the 2000s.
A team of anthropologists and economists at Manhattan’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York (CUNY) has suggested that the collapse of heroin and cocaine prices might be at least partially responsible for the reversal of crime rates.

Chris Collins
Official media estimates of the crowd ran as high as 1,500, but according to activist Missy Griggs of Clinton Township, who attended the rally, it may have been closer to 3,000 or even 4,000 people there.

Greg Deruiter/Lansing State Journal
Protesters converged on the Michigan state Capitol on Wednesday because of a recent court decision banning the sale of medical marijuana in dispensaries

​​​About 1,500 supporters filled the Capitol lawn Wednesday afternoon at the state capitol in Lansing, carrying signs reading “Patients Are Not Criminals” and “Weed Deserve Better” in what is being called the largest pro-medical marijuana rally in Michigan.

What Marisa Schultz of The Detroit News called a “spirited gathering” came after an Appeals Court ruling last month that resulted in the closing of many of the state’s estimated 400 to 500 medical marijuana dispensaries.
The ruling banned patient-to-patient marijuana sales for the nearly 100,000 carriers of Michigan medical marijuana cards, effectively limiting the ways in which patients can get medical marijuana and leaving them with few safe options to get their doctor-recommended cannabis, according to supporters.

Photo: LIFE
Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said this week that there are “over 100”  ongoing FDA studies on marijuana. There are two.

​U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske sat down for an interview with The Daily Caller’s Mike Riggs earlier this week — and managed to tell one hell of a whopper while he was at it.

When Riggs asked the Drug Czar, “You’ve said before that you don’t see medical benefits to smoked marijuana and also that the jury is still out on medical marijuana. What sort of scientific consensus does the ONDCP [Office of National Drug Control Policy] require? How many studies have to come out arguing for medical benefits? What do you need to see?”
“You know there are over 100 groups doing marijuana research,” the Czar replied, “and they’re getting their marijuana from the University of Mississippi. There are several things in clinical trials right now. So we’ll just have to wait for those.”

Photo: KMPH
First, patients could grow outdoor medical marijuana gardens like this one in Fresno County. Then they couldn’t. Now they can again.

​A judge on Wednesday lifted a Fresno County, California ban on outdoor marijuana gardens.

The 45-day ban had been imposed by supervisors last month after several violent confrontations between thieves and backyard medical cannabis growers, reports Eddie Jimenez of The Fresno Bee. The ban was instituted while a permanent ordinance for unincorporated areas of Fresno County is being drafted.
Superior Court Judge Jeff Hamilton on Wednesday issued a temporary restraining order that blocks enforcement of the ban. Attorney Brenda Linder, who on behalf of four medical marijuana collectives and one patient, filed a lawsuit Friday, sought the injunction.
Judge Hamilton will hear arguments November 3 on whether to grant a preliminary injunction against the ordinance, Linder said.

Photo: Disinformation

​Despite campaign promises to the contrary, the Department of Justice under President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder has continued raiding marijuana dispensaries in states where cannabis is legal for medical purposes. But the DOJ has changed one policy now that it’s under Democratic control: It has stopped publicizing medical marijuana raids, refusing to distribute press releases and requesting that more cases be sealed under court order.

After recent Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in Las Vegas, Nevada (last week), Mendocino County and San Diego, California, and in Michigan (all in July), the DEA and U.S. Attorney’s offices issued no press releases and held no press conferences, reports Mike Riggs at The Daily Caller.

Photo: daylife
Michele Leonhart, deputy administrator of the DEA, is a Bush-era drug warrior who has overseen raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries — yet Obama wants to keep her on.

​It often seems as if cannabis activists can’t agree on a lot of things. But one thing they all seem to agree upon is that President Obama should rescind the nomination of Bush holdover Michele Leonhart to head the Drug Enforcement Administration.

A number of progressive groups released a letter last month accusing Leonhart, a deputy administrator appointed by President George W. Bush and the acting administrator since Karen P. Tandy’s resignation in 2007, of ignoring a Justice Department directive that raiding dispensaries and growers operating legally in medical marijuana states is a “poor use of resources.”
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