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Trailer Park Boys: Pothead Canadians Rake In The Cash

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2010 Culture, Global

The Trailer Park Boys, from left, Ricky, Bubbles and Julian, have big plans, but little brains. Oh, and now they have big bank accounts.

They’re unlikely heroes, perhaps, but the foul-mouthed, pot-smoking Trailer Park Boys raked in the most money of any English-Canadian film last year with their second full-length feature film, The Trailer Park Boys: Countdown To Liquor Day.

The comedy grossed $2.9 million in 2009, according to Telefilm, and also earned the film’s director and writers Telefilm’s first Golden Box Office Award, reports The Globe and Mail.

A $40,000 cash prize will be split between director and co-writer Mike Clattenburg and co-writers Timm Hannebohm, John Paul Tremblay (who plays Julian), Robb Wells (Ricky), and Mike Smith (Bubbles).

L.A. Times Poll: California Voters Back Pot Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 1, 2010 Culture, Legislation

Graphic: Cooljuno411

California voters think they should be allowed to grow and consume marijuana, according to a new Los Angeles Times/University of Southern California poll. The poll also found more than one in three voters had tried pot, and more than one in 10 had used cannabis in the past year.

The poll found that voters back the marijuana legalization measure on November’s ballot, Tax Cannabis 2010, by a 49 percent to 41 percent margin, with 10 percent undecided, reports John Hoeffel at The Los Angeles Times. But support for the initiative is shaky, the Times reports, with one-third of legalization supporters saying they favor it only “somewhat.”

“The good news for proponents is that they are starting off with a decent lead,” said Dan Schnur, director of USC’s Jesse M. Unruh School of Politics. “The good news for the opposition is that initiatives that start off at less than 50 percent in the polls usually have a hard time.”

State Rules Could Force ‘Green’ Dispensaries In Boulder

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 10, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Marty Caivano

Todd Young stands among his growing medical marijuana plants at the Therapeutic Compassion Center in Boulder last year. A combination of state and city laws being considered would force all dispensaries to offset 100 percent of their electricity use with wind or solar power.

A Colorado bill that sets regulations for the growing medical marijuana industry would probably have the unintended side effect of forcing all dispensaries in Boulder to use 100 percent wind or solar energy.

House Bill 1284, which appears to be on its way to the governor’s desk this week, contains a provision requiring all dispensaries to grow at least 70 percent of the marijuana they sell, reports Heath Urie at the Boulder Daily Camera.

At the same time, city regulations being considered in Boulder, which will probably be approved May 18, would require dispensaries that grow any amount of their own cannabis to offset 100 percent of the electricity they use by subscribing to wind power, connecting to a community solar garden or using on-site solar panels.

Prohibition Doesn’t Work: Denmark’s Massive Hash Crackdown Fails

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 18, 2010 Global, News

Photo: Galaxy/.09

Six years into a Danish cannabis crackdown, the only difference is dealers now use tables instead of booths

Six years later, an expensive and brutal crackdown has only produced one real change in the hash district: Now the dealers use tables instead of booths.

It was six years ago this week that Danish police held their first full-scale raid on Pusher Street, the world famous road in Copenhagen’s hippie district, Christiania, where people openly buy hashish.

The hash raids were the result of the government’s decision to crack down hard to the area’s hash trade. But today, both police and politicians admit the trade still thrives on the street, if in a slightly more discreet way.

L.A. Cops Try To Sell Reefer Madness To Skeptical Hawaiians

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 18, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Graphic: 300zxFreak

Two zealously anti-pot Los Angeles police officers on Wednesday warned Hawaii it could “see an increase in crime” if it legalizes medical marijuana dispensaries and softens its marijuana laws.

“It’s so bad in L.A.,” claimed Sgt. Eric Bixler of the Narcotics Division of Los Angeles Police Department. Bixler said law enforcement officers there “deal daily with the effects” of California’s Proposition 215, which allows patients and caregivers to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal medical use, reports Melissa Tanji at The Maui News.

People driving while smoking, and teens buying marijuana at dispensaries to resell on the street are just some of the problems caused by California’s medical marijuana law, the officers claimed.

Of course, since they’re good honest cops, we have to give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they really believe nobody in California history ever drove a car while high until the medical marijuana law passed in 1996. Maybe they’re just a little slow in getting around to actually reading the language of the law, which prohibits sales to anyone without a doctor’s recommendation to use pot.

Bill Calls For Five Marijuana Dispensaries In Vermont

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 12, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: Darwinek

A state Senate panel voted 3-2 Thursday to support a bill that would allow the establishment of five medical marijuana dispensaries to serve the needs of 169 Vermonters who have registered with the state as cannabis patients, reports Nancy Remsen of the Burlington Free Press.

Supporters on the Senate Government Operations Committee argued that patients with permission to use marijuana shouldn’t be forced to deal with criminals as they try to obtain cannabis to help cope with debilitating medical conditions.

Opponents claimed Vermont couldn’t afford the new oversight and enforcement expenses that would come with the establishment of dispensaries, which would be called “compassion centers.”

The bill must be reviewed by at least one more Senate committee before it comes before the full Senate for a vote, Remsen reports.

Despite the split committee vote, the bill might receive a push from Senate President Pro Tempore Peter Shumlin (D-Windham).

“I’d like to see it pass,” Shumlin said. “We get calls in my office from elderly Vermonters, sick people, who have followed the law and ask us what a drug dealer looks like so they can get the medicine they need.”

Iowa Pharmacy Board Opens Door To Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 17, 2010 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: Patients for Medical Cannabis

One of Iowa’s biggest crops may be headed towards becoming one of its best medicines

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy voted unanimously Wednesday afternoon to recommend that the Legislature reclassify marijuana in a way that would open the door to medical uses.

The board recommended that Iowa lawmakers move cannabis from Schedule I, for which there are no permitted uses, to Schedule II, which allows medical uses, reports Tony Leys at the Des Moines Register.

Also recommended by the board was the creation of a state task force, including patients, medical professionals and law enforcement officers, to devise a way to safely implement a medical marijuana program in Iowa.

Corrections Head Covers Up For Misbehaving Anti-Pot Officers

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 9, 2010 Medical, News

Graphic: thefreshscent.com

OK, quick: You’re head of the Department of Corrections. Officers under you misbehave and improperly arrest a medical marijuana patient. What do you do? Lie and cover up for them, if you’re Eldon Vail of the Washington DOC.

The head of the Washington Department of Corrections (DOC), Eldon Vail, seems to put a lot more effort into covering up the lousy job his subordinates are doing, than in actually doing his own job.

The Washington DOC, following the example of the not-cool Attorney General Rob McKenna, is already notorious for its extremely hard line against the use of medical marijuana for individuals on probation.

Now, newly revealed documents show that Vail and the DOC have been involved in misconduct, cover-ups, and possibly outright law-breaking, reports Lee Rosenberg at the highly recommended Seattle political blog, Horses Ass.

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