Search Results: telegraph (31)

Graphic: PCC
Collect ’em all!

​​​Following the success of the first 10 Medical Cannabis Collector Cards, the Patients Care Collective (PCC), a Berkeley, California medical marijuana dispensary, has introduced “Series Two.”

“Our patients loved the first set so much, we felt compelled to bring them Series Two sooner than we originally planned,” said David Bowers, PCC manager and creator of the cards.
“We are excited by the response we’ve received so far, and love hearing that patients are being inspired to learn more about their medicine,” Bowers said.
The new cards are numbered 11 through 20 and feature beautiful bud photos taken at PCC, along with genetic, flavor, effect, and medicinal use information for each of the strains showcased.
For Series Two, the featured strains are MK Ultra, Purple Kush, Morning Star, Durban Poison, Peak 19, Ogre, Purple God, Sage & Sour, Blue Moonshine, and Blackberry Kush.

Photo: The World In Photos
What do you do if you have a thriving cannabis tourism industry pumping lots of money into the economy? Shut it down, if you’re the Dutch.

​The Netherlands is poised to shut down its thriving cannabis tourism industry which has been an economic boon to the country for 34 years. European Union judges have ruled that Dutch authorities are not violating European single market laws by barring foreigners from buying the cannabis and hashish that are sold in the country’s famous marijuana “coffee shops.”

The restrictions, aimed at discouraging “drug tourism” from Belgium, Germany, and other places, have so far been implemented only in border towns but will soon be extended across the Netherlands, including Amsterdam, popular with British pot tourists, reports Bruno Waterfield at The Telegraph.
The EU ruling was requested by the Dutch supreme court, the Council oif State, after Marc Josemans, who owns Easy Going Coffee Shop in Maastricht, sued after being forced to close for breaking the “no foreigners” rule.

Photo: Streaming Oldies
Phil Rudd, 56, drummer for AC/DC, was convicted and fined for possessing 27 grams of cannabis.

​AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was convicted of marijuana charges in his hometown of Tauranga, New Zealand, earlier this week after being caught with just under an ounce of cannabis.

Rudd, 56, was fined only $250 plus $132.89 court costs, but the “drug conviction” could make it problematic to travel on AC/DC’s world tours, reports RTT News.
Police said had discovered the marijuana in the drummer’s boat, the Barchetta, at the North Island’s Tauranga Bridge Marina on October 7, according to the website SunLive.
Law enforcement officials claimed they found 25 grams of cannabis on the dock and another two grams on the boat.
Rudd’s attorney Craig Tuck requested a minimum sentence to limit the effect on the heavy metal drummer’s career, according to the U.K. Daily Mail.

Photo: East Bay Express

​​A Berkeley medical marijuana dispensary has released a spiffy set of cards that allows cannabis enthusiasts to compare high-scoring strains such as Afghani Goo and Grand Daddy Purple.

“It was really just like an evolution of the labeling system,” said David Bowers, manager at the Berkeley Patient’s Care Collective, a 10-year-old pot shop on Telegraph Avenue. Introduced in March, the cards feature glossy photos of beautiful buds along with details about their defining traits and medical usefulness, reports Josh Harkinson at Mother Jones.
“Consumers want to get rid of physical pain, restore appetite, or find mental relaxation, and different strains help,” Bowers told David Downs at East Bay Express.

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: Bob Collacello

​Rolling Stones legend Mick Jagger has called for U.K. government officials to legalize marijuana and other drugs on a British island, to see if it prevents violence associated with the illegal drug trade.

The rock singer, who was convicted of marijuana possession in the 1960s, said that young people will always experiment with psychoactive substances, despite the risks, reports StarPulse. He is urging the government to legalize drugs on the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea, to test the consequences of an end to prohibition.

Photo: Diana Sunshine Wulf
Diana Wulf, spokeswoman, Nebraska HEMP: “It is one of the safest plants on Earth to use”

​The discussion has begun about legalizing marijuana for medical purposes in Nebraska.

Three members of the State Board of Pharmacy will quiz their colleagues on the topic at the annual meeting May 22-25 of the National Boards of Pharmacy in Anaheim, Calif., reports Paul Hammel of World-Herald News Service.
The Nebraskans hope to learn more about the pros and cons of legalization and any problems that have arisen in the 14 states that now allow cannabis to be used medicinally.
“It’s probably an issue we’re going to have to address in the future” said Board Chairman Rick Zarek, a Gothernburg, Neb., pharmacist, who said he had no personal opinion on the subject.
Nebraska legislators declared the issue dead in March, even after the state pharmacy board in neighboring Iowa voted unanimously to recommend that medical marijuana be permitted there.

Photo: TheTelegraph.com
Illinois cousins Jewelelle Washington, left, and Stefanie Ward hold a Popeyes french fries bag in which they claim to have found two marijuana roaches. Washington is holding a photo of the bag, fries and alleged roaches.

​Two Illinois women claim they found marijuana roaches in the bottom of their Popeyes french fries bag, spurring a company investigation but leaving police with little means to figure out where they originated, reports Linda N. Weller at TheTelegraph.com.

“I grabbed a couple, she grabbed a couple, and lo and behold, we see something at the bottom of the bag,” said Stefanie Ward, 27, of Alton, Illinois. “I didn’t know what it was. I’ve never been around it, never smoked it, and I’ve never seen it. I said, ‘This is a burnt cigarette.'”
“This is not a cigarette; this is weed,” her cousin, Jewelelle Washington replied. “This is very serious.”

Photo: AP
Mexican Army soldiers stand at attention, desperately trying to keep a “military bearing” as the intoxicating smoke from a buttload of marijuana being burned billows over them in Ciudad Juarez

​High-ranking officials from the United States and Mexico Thursday concluded a conference to reduce the illicit drug trade associated violence that plagues the border between the two nations.

Unfortunately, the talks concluded with no reference to the most sensible strategy for reducing that violence: removing marijuana from the criminal market, thus depriving drug cartels of their main source of income and strife.

“The only solution to the current crisis is to tax and regulate marijuana,” said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project. “Once again, Mexican and U.S. officials are ignoring the fact that the cartels get 70 percent of their profits from marijuana.”

Graphic: Jim Wheeler

​A California man who is a medical marijuana patient is demanding punitive damages against Berkeley police officers, saying they ran him over with a bicycle, knocked him down, and stomped him because he was smoking a joint during a Mardi Gras parade.

J. Hadley Louden said he was marching down Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley during the 2009 Mardi Gras parade, with a large set of drums and cymbals harnessed to him, smoking a joint, reports Robert Kahn of Courthouse News Service.
According to Louden, he was the leader of the band.
Louden said a Berkeley cop, “Kelley,” approached him and demanded the joint. Louden explained his possession was legal and turned away, according to the complaint in Alameda County Court.