Odds and Ends

bullet image As cops raided pot shop, they allegedly ate edibles, threatened disabled staff

It’s an edited video, so it may have been set to focus on elements that made the cops look bad, but still, this needs to be fully investigated. Once again, we see the the ubiquity of cameras in today’s society is making it harder for bad cops to get away with their activity.


bullet image I heard from a very interesting group: Strong Returns – an organization that “is on a mission to make prison reform the Millennial generation’s issue in the 2016 election.” Sounds like a very good mission. They have put out a video: Prison Reform 101: How Drug War Racism Works.

Curious to see how this group moves forward. Definitely worth keeping an eye on them.


bullet image Last week, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved an amendment to prevent the Department of Justice from spending money to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. The vote was 20 – 10.

Now that the medical marijuana language is in both the House and Senate versions of the Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations legislation, it’s almost certain it will end up in the final conference committee bill that gets worked out by leadership of both chambers.

According to Tom Angell: “With so many votes going our way these days, each new one gets less and less exciting. But that’s a good problem to have. We’re entering an era where marijuana reform is accepted as mainstream and not seen as controversial, and that’s exactly where we want to be. With this vote, it’s now clear that a growing bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers are ready to get the federal government out of the way of the effective implementation of state marijuana laws. These temporary funding restrictions certainly help us to demonstrate political momentum, but the next step should be passing legislation to permanently change federal law.”

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31 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. Tony Aroma says:

    I hope the wording on this new amendment is clearer than in the previous one. This same amendment was added to the previous budget, but DEA, DOJ and others have interpreted it to not apply to arrests or dispensary raids, which continue. That’s in spite of the amendments’ authors saying that’s exactly what it applies to.

  2. claygooding says:

    As long as the DEA/ONDCP are operating under the 1988 Re-Authorization they are still required to bust dispensaries and can lie about why they are doing it and get away with it.
    This bill might as well be another memo until they remove cannabis from Schedule 1 or take out the R-A and delete para 12 of the act.

    • Windy says:

      http://abc7.com/news/marijuana-dispensary-patients-sue-santa-ana-over-police-raid/786882/
      FTA:

      A lawsuit was filed Monday by attorney Matthew Pappas on behalf of Sky High Holistic accusing the Santa Ana Police Department, the city of Santa Ana and Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido of taking bribes from marijuana dispensaries in exchange for favorable treatment.

      This following a controversial police raid at the marijuana dispensary on May 26 that was caught on surveillance video, and shows police playing darts, an officer making demeaning remarks about an amputee and another officer eating what appears to be a pot-laced edible.

      “It’s deplorable that city officials and people seeking financial gain would use the police to accomplish their self-serving goals,” Pappas said.

  3. Servetus says:

    The fear mongers never stop fabricating drug scare stories. Now it’s THC dabs in vapes. Someone completely unfamiliar with marijuana and pharmaceutical science believes purer concentrations of THC are dangerous, probably the result of a false analogy based on the differences between wine and Everclear®:

    In the only previously published study of dabbing — a survey of about 350 frequent marijuana users — researchers found that the users viewed dabbing as more dangerous than other forms of cannabis use because they reported it led to a higher tolerance for the drug and worse withdrawal symptoms, suggesting a possibility of addiction or dependence, the researchers noted.

    “It’s dangerous to assume the risks of dabbing are akin to [those of] smoking marijuana,” Stogner said.

    Although dabbing has become popular only recently, and research on the practice is limited, it would be a mistake for parents and kids to assume dabbing is not more worrisome or worse than smoking flower cannabis, Stogner said.

    For future reference, a chemical that doesn’t start out harmful isn’t necessarily made harmful or dangerous by concentrating it into a purer form. In fact, pharmacists prefer purity in drug products, U.S.P. Grade to be exact. So do consumers. When it comes to dabbing, just say know.

  4. The War on Drugs is a War on Children
    http://t.co/e4vrWwkQ7t

  5. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    The Colorado Supreme Court has found that cannabis use is not lawful in Colorado.

    Employers Can Fire Medical Marijuana Patients For Private, Off-Duty Use, Colo. Supreme Court Rules

    The ruling was unanimous.

    • Will says:

      How about this new definition of “using”, dependent upon where you are and which thresholds you cross. According to Dish Network attorney Meghan Martinez;

      “He tested positive, had THC in his system,” Martinez said. “We are alleging that he was using THC at the workplace. The definition of use is in the medical marijuana act [Colorado’s Amendment 20]. It’s the employment of something, the longstanding possession of something. He smoked marijuana while at home, but he crossed the threshold [to his office] with THC in his system. The use is the effects, it’s the THC, it’s the whole point of marijuana. So when he came to work, he was using.” [emphasis added]

      —————

      That’s some finely crafted bovine excrement right there. Good grief.

      • kaptinemo says:

        And here is where the power of the purse comes into play. Imagine if Dish Network subscribers of reformist sensibilities were to call in to company HQ’s and ask them if it’s wise to tick off well over half the electorate – many of whom are subscribers who might question the need for further service given this latest affront to their intelligence on this issue.

        Indeed, that affronted public might take a harder than usual look at any future dealings the industry may wish to engage in with Congress.

        As to the source of such bald-faced sophistry, look no further than ALEC. Dish is too dumb to come up with this high-church flim-flammery by itself.

  6. Tony Aroma says:

    I believe this is a first:

    Flandreau Tribe Votes To Legalize Marijuana

    How long before the first lawsuit? It is South Dakota after all.

    • claygooding says:

      The best comment seen by me so far on a Native American news article: Should we pull the white man;s ass out of the fire one more time???””

      And so true it hurts,,they have the ability to open outlets even in the strongest bastions of prohibition and the state legislators will not be able to tax or regulate the market.

      Loss of that much control will cause epileptic seizures among power hungry politicians,,,at least maybe then they will consider MMJ for their states.

      And IIRC there are tribal lands in NEB,South Dakota and North Dakota while OK has nearly a hundred possible production and outlet sites,,,and not one state’s legislators will have anything to say about it.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
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      Actually there’s a tribe in Mendocino County California that decided that they were going to start cultivation with 2000 plants. The tribe decided that it would be better that their operation is transparent to local authorities.

      Pinoleville marijuana project illegal, Mendocino County Sheriff Allman says
      2/6/2015

      /snip/
      Allman has said new assumptions that the federal government has decided that tribes have a right to grow marijuana are misguided.

      “I certainly have not seen any federal or state law that would allow them to do this,” Allman said.

      He points out that California is one of a few so-called PL-280 states which mandate that local sheriffs enforce criminal laws on Indian lands.

      Allman said the idea that Indian tribes are allowed to grow marijuana outside the law is likely a misinterpretation of a February 2014 U.S. Department of Justice memo on marijuana (known as the “Cole Memo”) that prioritized instances in which federal prosecutions of marijuana laws would be undertaken.

      The fact that Indian tribal lands were not specifically addressed in the memo, Allman said, has led many to believe they are therefore specifically exempted from prosecution.

      A follow-up DOJ memo in October 2014, which specifically discusses marijuana growing on tribal lands, refers to the Cole Memo but also goes on to say that “Nothing in the Cole Memorandum alters the authority or jurisdiction of the United States to enforce federal law in Indian Country.”

      Allman says he has spoken with U.S. Attorney for Northern California Melissa Haig, who agrees that the laws have not changed.

      More recently:

      Pinoleville Pomo Nation starts planting marijuana on reservation

      But even though marijuana is now on the ground, the tribe and the county remain at odds on one major issue. Sheriff Tom Allman plans to enforce a local law — known as 9.31 — that bars more than 25 plants from being grown on a particular parcel.

      So the tribe has cautiously potted 25 plants on one parcel and 26 on another. A dispute over that last one could lead to litigation that would determine whether the county has jurisdiction on the reservation.

      “When we plant that 26th plant, we have been told by the Sheriff that he will eradicate,” Mike Canales, the president of the tribe’s business board, told The Ukiah Daily Journal. “At that point, we will file an injunction. I encouraged the Sheriff to come on the land. There won’t be any impediments to access.”

  7. 80s Drug Czar William Bennett – yep, still an asshole
    http://tinyurl.com/pb55nwp

    That’s the headline title BTW.

    • Servetus says:

      “…What is the ultimate right being argued for?…At the end of the day the right is, simply put, a right to get and be stoned. This, it seems to us, is a rather ridiculous right upon which to charge a hill.” – Bill Bennett

      Sullum doesn’t focus on Bill Bennett’s moral investment in prohibiting drug use. I think it’s 99% of why Bennett fears or detests marijuana so much.

      Like Antonin Scalia, Bill’s a true believer, a science adversary. Bennett really thinks he’s saving souls by discouraging drug use. He doesn’t give a damn if marijuana is safer than practically anything on earth, or that it can lead to new cures for various cancers. All that can easily be dismissed using lies. With William Bennett, we gain a rare opportunity to peer into the bleak and dissociated recesses of the inquisitorial mind. A sadomoralist of the first tier, the former Drug Czar is the type of person who would strap someone down to a torture rack to save their soul.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
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        Isn’t enough to have the pleasure of watching Mr. Bennett and his fellow parasites getting marginalized to irrelevance? With the delicious cherry on top being that they still haven’t figured it out?

        • kaptinemo says:

          An editorial cartoon that sums things up well.

          He just keeps playing that machine, not realizing he bankrupted himself, long ago…

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
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          I recall an episode of Star Trek TNG where Mr. Data was trying to get himself a sense of humor. He programmed a Las Vegas style lounge with himself playing the stand up comic. It didn’t matter what he said, the crowd reacted as if it were the funniest thing that they’d ever heard. But since Mr. Data is much smarter than the average prohibitionist he realized that it was just part of a computer program.

          I often think of that scene nowadays when I see a confused prohibitionist trying to use the arguments which in the past had received nothing but adoration from their audience. Somehow the programming changed, and what had them walking on water a yea, two years, or even a decade or two in the past are flopping. The poor prohibitionist parasites are beside themselves with confusion because they didn’t realize that the program has ended and their audience is now real people giving honest reactions to their pile of road apples. Oh well, I’m lovin’ every minute of it. Poor, poor, pitiful prohibitionists.

    • jean valjean says:

      From the Bennet article:
      “Over the years, others who have opposed legalization include Republicans Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush…”

      They left out one of the worst drug warrior presidents of all, Bill (I didn’t inhale) Clinton. Many are still languishing in prison because of his Three Strikes law and his unholy alliance with Newt (kill them all) Gingrich. The record of both Clintons as drug warriors should not be forgotten despite their belated attempts to walk back their own record on prohibition.

  8. DdC says:

    Colorado Supreme Court: Employers can fire for off-duty pot use

    It’s Time to Enact Appropriate Job Protections for Those Who Legally Use Pot
    Many observers were shocked and saddened when Brandon Coats, a quadriplegic who is authorized to use medical marijuana under Colorado state law, was fired from his job with Dish Network in 2010 after a positive drug test. Dish failed to make an exception for Coats, who used marijuana while off duty to control his seizures, and the company insisted on his being fired, leaving Coats no choice but to challenge this issue in court.

    Drug mishandling may have tainted 40,000 cases

    If I instituted drug testing at Cypress,
    I would get a brick through my windshield,
    and I would deserve it.
    — T.J. Rogers, President,
    Cypress Semiconductor

    • divadab says:

      This is the only approach that will work -making cannabis medicine users a protected class. I used to work for a company that didn;t hire tobacco smokers – and drug tested for nicotine – this is totally legal because smokers are not a protected class.

      Anyway, why would you want to work for an asshole company that fires pot smokers? Fuck them and their stupid authoritarian mediocracy.

  9. DdC says:

    Stance On Medical Marijuana As Perplexing As Battle
    http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n323/a02.html
    Canada’s Health Minister Rona Ambrose said on Thursday that she is “outraged” by the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling on how users of medical marijuana can use it – they will not be restricted to just smoking it.

    Whenever “A” attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon “B,” “A” is most likely a scoundrel. — H.L. Mencken

    • DdC says:

      BEWARE Smart Approaches to Marijuana Canada
      BEWARE of these people and groups, that have U.S. ties to Big Pharma by Martin Dunphy at The Straight.

      Pamela McColl is a rabid anti-cannabis activist villain who has branched out into forced treatment and mandatory re-education for pot smokers promoting the so-called Smart Approaches to Marijuana Canada

      David Malmo Levine heated debate with Pamela McColl

      • DdC says:

        Smart Ass App Roaches Canada

        “The [marihuana] addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Addicts to this drug, while under the influence, are immune to pain, and could be severely injured without having any realization to their condition. While in this condition they becoming [sic] raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty without, as said before, any sense of moral responsibility.” ~ Emily Murphy

        Enemy of Marijuana
        Emily Murphy was extremely racist and the driving force behind Canada’s first marijuana law. Her book, the Black Candle is considered the most consequential because it played a role in creating a widespread “war on drugs mentality” A series of articles in McLean’s Magazine under her pen name, “Janey Canuck,” forms the basis of the Black Candle.

        Thousands were deported, many were jailed unfairly, and Chinese exclusion laws were endorsed and publicly supported by Emily Murphy. Laws made it illegal for white women to be employed by Chinese men until the 1930s in British Columbia, and 1946 in Saskatchewan and Alberta. Although she helped white Canadian women win the right to vote in 1919, Asian persons were not allowed to vote until 1949.

        She was, he says, “instrumental” in securing the adoption of the “Alberta Sexual Sterilization Act … in 1928.” She “approved all the legislation that passed through her bench at the time, which included all of the Chinese exclusion acts, the Indian Act of 1923 and the Residential School Act of 1925.” “From 1923 to 1980,” Akpata continues, “the Canadian government took native children off their designated reservation, to be raised by Christian-run schools and dormitories.”

        Emily Murphy wannabe Pam McColl
        Credentials: rabid anti-cannabis activist villain

      • kaptinemo says:

        And the Canucks can ask Parliament to investigate if there are any connections between the US government and SAMC.

        Anybody care to bet that lots of nice, crisp US currency is being pumped Due North into SAMC’s hands? And that the US taxpayer foots the bill?

        They really are desperate now, trying their gambit in Canada. In BC, of all places. Can a dumber move be made than attacking Canada’s cannabis center of gravity, where it is strongest? What were they thinking? Were they thinking? Talk about over-reach…

      • kaptinemo says:

        Well, I did call it, didn’t I?

        No crystal balls required; crazy is as crazy does. They’ve emptied the attics of the (mainly harmless and pathetically entertaining) Crazy Aunts and Uncles. They’ve been in there a long time; Nutty Nora has only just now discovered something she calls ‘harm reduction’. I think she’s angling for a patent right now.

        As if it has not been a phrase in the English language these past 30 years.

        As if that wasn’t noticed. In their sophistries, kid + hand + cookie jar (does not equal sign) caught red-handed nicking the Oreos.

        Yeah, that kind of out-of-touch. Find them a home somewhere, but get them away from where their personal Neo-Puritanical manias are considered wisdom and enacted into law.

  10. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    Well would you take a look at this one? Protective head gear is almost assuredly needed. This may be on the same level as when Dr. Tashkin defected from the Borg. Perhaps I’m overreacting…has The Lancet ever had a kind work for the friends of 420?

    Medical Use of Marijuana Doesn’t Increase Youths’ Use, Study Finds

    /snip/
    The study found that states that had legalized medical use had higher prevailing rates of teenage marijuana use before enacting the laws, compared with states where the drug remains illegal. Those higher levels were unaffected by the changes in the law, the study found.

    The report, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, covered a 24-year period and was based on surveys of more than one million adolescents in 48 states. The research says nothing about the effect of legalizing recreational use, however.

  11. Mr_Alex says:

    I think the best thing is legislation needs to be in place where Religions, Corporates and Concerned Parents Anti Cannabis groups who peddle disinformation on Cannabis on a daily rate should have their info liable for public scrutiny, if their opinion or info is found to be fraudulent or have caused deaths of people, they will be liable for prosecution

  12. DdC says:

    Cat Parasite Linked To Mental Illness
    A parasite found in felines is being linked to debilitating mental illness and millions could be infected.

    Drugwar Lies Linked to Schizophrenia
    http://tinyurl.com/DrugWorrierLies-Schizophrenia

  13. jean valjean says:

    U.S. deporting non-violent drug “offenders” at alarming rate while allowing immigration waivers for most violent crimes:

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/16/deportation-drug-crimes_n_7590078.html

  14. DdC says:

    New Survey Reveals Rise in ‘Dark Web’ Drug Buys
    Dread Pirate Roberts Life Sentence Deterrent.
    http://www.hightimes.com/read/new-survey-reveals-rise-dark-web-drug-buys
    The latest findings of an annually conducted international poll suggest that illegal drug sales on the Internet’s “dark web” are booming, even in the wake of the arrest and subsequent life sentence handed down to Dread Pirate Roberts (aka Ross Ulbrict), the founder of infamous drug trafficking website Silk Road.

    Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht served the public
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2020

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