OLD NEWS
California -- Medical marijuana activist Steve Kubby, a fugitive from Placer County, was back in custody Friday at Placer County jail after being arrested at San Francisco International Airport.
Kubby, 58, was arrested on a no-bail warrant by San Francisco police officers and booked into San Mateo County Jail as he disembarked from a flight from Canada.
Bill McPike, Kubby's attorney, flew with his client from Vancouver to California, and said that at least seven officers were waiting for the plane when it arrived.
"They called out his name on the intercom," McPike said. "Kubby walked to the front of the plane and they took him into custody on behalf of the Placer County Sheriff's Department."
Read more...Sacramento, CA -- A bill approved by the state Assembly Thursday would add California to the growing number of states seeking to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp - a biological relative of marijuana.
Supporters claim that despite its family links, hemp is a completely safe product that could become a cash crop for California farmers because of its use in a long list of products from soap and cosmetics to rope, jewelry and even luggage.
But even if the measure eventually becomes law, farmers would still face hurdles to actually cultivate the plant because hemp contains trace amounts of a banned substance and may still fall under federal anti-drug rules.
Read more...Congressman Barr and I have disagreed many times over the years, but we have joined together today with thousands of our fellow citizens-Democrats and Republicans alike-to express our shared concern that America's Constitution is in grave danger.
In spite of our differences over ideology and politics, we are in strong agreement that the American values we hold most dear have been placed at serious risk by the unprecedented claims of the Administration to a truly breathtaking expansion of executive power.
As we begin this new year, the Executive Branch of our government has been caught eavesdropping on huge numbers of American citizens and has brazenly declared that it has the unilateral right to continue without regard to the established law enacted by Congress to prevent such abuses.
Read more... | Discuss...So now those latter-day hippies in Denver who engineered the passage of a Denver ordinance in violation of state laws prohibiting the possession of marijuana are taking that next step.
They're working on a "citizen initiative" to effect back-door legalization of pot in the state. They claim, through their adopted acronym, that imbibing in an addictive, mind-altering drug is "safer."
Safer than what?
They imply that it's a safer recreational drug than alcohol. But that's a problematical comparison in itself. The very definition of "safer" is subjective. Stoned is stoned, man. Doesn't matter how you get there, a brain running on mind-altering chemicals isn't safe by any standard.
Read more... | Our Rebuttal...The House of Representatives is expected to meet early Tuesday, the first day of the 2006 legislative session, to override the governor's veto of medical marijuana legislation.
Last year, both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved the legislation, but Gov. Donald L. Carcieri vetoed the bill. The Senate easily overrode the veto before the legislature recessed for the year. House leaders said at the time that they expected the General Assembly to return sometime in September to consider several of the governor's vetoes, but it never did.
Read more...Salem, Ore. -- Holders of medical marijuana cards in Oregon now will be allowed to have up to 1 1/2 pounds of dried marijuana and six mature plants under a new state law that takes effect Jan. 1.
The increased possession limit, part of an effort to clear up ambiguities in the state's 1998 medical marijuana program, was among the hundreds of new laws approved by the 2005 Oregon Legislature.
Read more...Devon Brown, the dapper fellow who runs New Jersey's bloated prison system, has advanced degrees in law, psychology and public management. When it comes to crime and punishment, he knows what he's talking about.
But he has no degree in politics, and no instinct for it. As he maneuvers to keep his job in a Corzine administration, that might prove fatal.
And that should concern us all. Because if Brown does not make the cut, New Jersey will lose something rare -- a senior state official with a habit of speaking the truth, even when he's not supposed to.
In May, Brown caused a stir by saying that he hired 14 unqualified employees at the Department of Corrections after senior officials in the McGreevey administration and legislators pressed him to do so.
Read more...Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in San Francisco this evening, just hours after protesters celebrated scaring the DEA agents away.
The daylong protest involved nearly 100 demonstrators who gathered outside HopeNet, a medical marijuana co-op at 223 Ninth St., after DEA agents raided the home of the co-op's directors this morning.
Read more... | Discuss...AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A broad coalition of political parties unveiled a pilot program Friday to regulate marijuana farming on the model of tobacco, which opponents say would be tantamount to legalizing growing the drug.
Under the test program, to be conducted in the southern city of Maastricht, existing health and safety standards will apply to growers, but they would no longer be the target of police raids or prosecution.
Read more... | Discuss...An Oakland medical marijuana user returned to a federal appeals court in San Francisco today with new arguments on why she should be allowed to use cannabis.
Angel Raich contends in a brief filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that she has a fundamental liberty right to take "the only medication that enables her to avoid intolerable pain and death."
Read more... | Discuss...Denver voters make adult possession of one ounce or less of marijuana legal.
Denver became the first city in the nation to make the private use of marijuana legal for adults 21 and older as an alternative to alcohol, a far more harmful drug. By 10.45 p.m. Tuesday night, with 100% of the votes tallied, the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative had passed 53.49% YES to 46.51% NO.
The Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative is the first local measure in the nation to draw a comparison between the harms of alcohol and marijuana...
Read more... | Discuss...Source: Philadelphia Daily News
Pennsylvania -- NORML - the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws - isn't just blowing smoke as it launches a campaign to legalize pot for medical use...
Read more... | Discuss...There it is, on the e-commerce websites of people selling bongs, cannabis seeds, weighing scales, hydroponics equipment, and cannabis cultivation books. It's on the websites of marijuana advocates, left-wing activist groups, environmental organizations, gun dealers, and Bible wholesalers...
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March 17, 2006 — Federal drug enforcement agents in Northern California shut down an elaborate "marijuana candy" factory that produced drug-laced snacks called Rasta Reece's, Pot Tarts, and other parodies of popular products.
Authorities raided five locations Thursday, arresting 12 people for allegedly running the criminal enterprise.
Police say the group produced candy and soda that looked like popular treats but were laced with pot. Agents seized boxes of "treats" with names like Buddahfingers, Munchy Way, Rasta Reece's, Pot Tarts and Puff-a-Mint Pattie.
Read more...A synthetic chemical similar to the active ingredient in marijuana makes new cells grow in rat brains. What is more, in rats this cell growth appears to be linked with reducing anxiety and depression. The results suggest that marijuana, or its derivatives, could actually be good for the brain.
Read more...Kathmandu, Feb. 27 (AP): Hundreds of Hindu holy men, devotees and tourists smoked marijuana near a temple in Nepal's capital on Sunday as part of festival celebrating the Hindu god Shiva.
Though possession and use of marijuana is illegal in Nepal, smoking cannabis is tolerated during the annual festival.
Ash-smeared holy men wearing loin cloths shared marijuana cigarettes with locals, and even some tourists, in a forested area near Pashupatinath temple, on the eastern edge of Kathmandu.
Read more...PEMBERTON, N.J. -- A marijuana activist who tried to change his name to NJWeedman.com is giving up on the Philadelphia region and moving to California.
Ed Forchion, an activist and perpetually losing political candidate, said in The Philadelphia Inquirer Monday that he is moving to Los Angeles.
Forchion said that since December, he has lost the right to visit his daughter, hit a deer with his truck, blew out his transmission and declared himself indigent.
He said he'll run a cannabis club and provide spiritual guidance in the Los Angeles area.
Read more...The city of Santa Cruz and a local medical marijuana collective on Tuesday asked a federal court in San Jose to approve the city's plan to provide marijuana directly to sick and dying patients.
The amended complaint represents a renewed legal fight to force the U.S. government to honor medical marijuana laws passed by California and 11 other states.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Drug Policy Alliance, the national law firm of Bingham McCutchen and a handful of private attorneys filed legal documents outlining new constitutional arguments based on an ordinance recently enacted by the Santa Cruz City Council creating the first medical marijuana department in the country. The department is known as the Office of Compassionate Use, but the city has made clear it has no intention of actually distributing marijuana unless it wins the legal battle.
Californians in 1996 voted to allow the use of medicinal marijuana. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in June that the federal government had the right to enforce its own drug laws. Lawyers for medicinal marijuana patients, however, remain hopeful they can still press ahead in the courts because the Supreme Court chose not to address some constitutional issues in last year's ruling.
Read more...The Riverside County Board of Supervisors will not vote until next week on whether to join a federal lawsuit opposing California's medical marijuana law.
Third District Supervisor Jeff Stone brought the proposal to the board today that would have added Riverside County to the suit against the state law filed by San Diego County on Jan. 20. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted to file a similar suit Jan. 24.
In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215 - the law allows individuals with a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana. The law requires counties to issue IDs to qualified medical marijuana users.
Read more...Rhode Island -- On Jan. 3, Rhode Island became the eleventh state to legalize medical marijuana, overriding a June 2005 veto by Governor Donald Carcieri '65.
The new legislation "provides an alternative option for those men and women who have clinical pain and who are dealing with a terminal illness (like cancer)," said District 3 State Sen. Rhoda Perry P'91, the Senate's main sponsor of the bill, who has supported similar measures for the past seven years. Under the bill, doctors will be able to recommend that patients be issued medical marijuana registration cards by the state.
These registration cards will protect patients from arrest under state law for possession of up to 12 marijuana plants, or 2.5 ounces of the drug.
"Our law has made possession of marijuana in small doses by properly enrolled patients and caregivers legal in the state of Rhode Island," Perry said. "On a federal level it is still illegal."
Read more...The Bush administration got involved in New Mexico's medical marijuana issue Friday, sending a top drug-policy administrator to testify against SB258.
But David W. Murray, a special assistant to national drug czar John Walters, had little or no effect on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which gave the measure a do-pass with bipartisan support.
And some senators said Murray's presentation was heavy-handed.
Read more...PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - The man with the dancing eyebrows and the blurry tattoo stands in the chilled night and opens the barred gate to his apartment. A dog sleeps on the bed; a snapping turtle floats inside a glass coffee table. A hot light glows in the bathroom, where 11 marijuana plants ripple like a tiny field against the porcelain.
J.X. Dolezal, a Czech version of the late Hunter S. Thompson who has written books such as How to Take Drugs and Stoned County, opens a box. There's a scrape and grind, a sprinkle across paper, a nimble roll of fingers, a lick, a match strike, a curl of smoke and a smile.
"Do you mind?" asks Dolezal, his face slightly obscured as he exhales. "Excuse me if I don't offer you any. This marijuana's often too strong for my visitors. I had to resuscitate one guy for almost an hour once. You know, a higher percentage of people here grow their own marijuana than probably anywhere. It's typically Czech: a do-it-yourself nation."
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