Search Results: shortage (36)

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.

Photo: Reuters
A patient sits in a wheelchair as a Tikkun Olam worker in Tel Aviv helps him smoke cannabis from a bong.

​Dozens of disabled and terminally ill Israelis protested outside a Tel Aviv medical marijuana clinic on Sunday, responding to a recent police raid of the clinic.

The protest came four days after police raided a storefront dispensary run by the group Tikkun Olam, the nonprofit where patients came to get medicinal cannabis. During the raid, police arrested two managers and held them for questioning for several hours, supposedly on suspicion of “drug trafficking,” reports Ben Hartman at The Jerusalem Post.
Police actions against the storefront and its patients mainly harm gravely ill persons seeking medical treatment, said Shai Meir, spokesman for Tikkun Olam, Israel’s largest supplier of medical marijuana.

Graphic: Cannabis Culture

​Delegates to the Washington State Democratic Convention endorsed I-1068, the marijuana legalization initiative, with an overwhelming 62 percent “Yes” vote, 314 to 185, on Saturday.

The executive board had given no recommendation on the initiative, because “the committee was even more split than the delegates,” said State Vice Chair Sharon Smith, reports Bryce McKay at PubliCola.
“We expected this to come to a floor discussion,” Smith said. “There are some things that are clearly Democratic Party values, and then there are things like this that aren’t so clear.”
These welcome signs of the Democratic Party growing a backbone when it comes to cannabis issues are encouraging; there’s definitely a whiff of change in the air.

Graphic: Jewlicious

​Israel is suffering through the worst marijuana drought in memory. Not even the most seasoned pot smokers can recall a dry spell like this one, reports Saar Gamzo at Haaretz.com.

Reasons for the current weed shortage include recent drug busts by the police and border guard; cooperation between Egyptian cartels trying to boost profits by limiting the supply; and unusually low rainfall this year.
Conspiracy theorists are even claiming a secret Israeli government program to “combat apathy” and “stir up the nation’s fighting spirit.”
But whatever the cause, cannabis costs more than ever before in Israel.

Photo: Fotolog
Damn, that looks yummy. This is Blond Lebanese, and right now it’s hard to find, even in the Middle East.

​Once again, Egyptians and Israelis are sharing the pain. A hashish shortage in Egypt, where a government crackdown resulted in a dry spell that has driven prices up, has spread to Israel.

The Hebrew daily Maariv has reported the hash prices there have doubled in recent months and good hashish is nowhere to be found, reports Batsheva Sobelman in the Los Angeles Times.

In Israel, too, the shortage is largely attributable to a government crackdown. The establishment of three special police units at Israel’s northern and southern boundaries, as well as at its international airport, have brought a 30 percent increase in major drug busts.