Sly Joe is back with a terrific song to take us over hump day, a cover of the classic Bob Marley tune, “Mellow Mood”. Along with his band, SLY JOE AND THE SMOOTH OPERATORS, he puts a decidedly fresh and contemporary spin on this reggae love song. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Joe was a gifted musician from an early age performing classical piano at 11 years old, and playing guitar in Wisconsin’s Honors Jazz Ensemble at 17. His playing is always fresh and imaginative with influences like the Beatles, Zepplin and Jack Johnson. If you are in or near Wisconsin, you can visit Sly Joe’s myspace page for up-coming show dates. He has even played at Lambeau field. (Stash Host, Radical Russ’ spiritual mecca!) Get in a Mellow Mood and enjoy today’s musical hit.
SPRINGFIELD, IL. – In a press conference today, Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago), lead sponsor of a bill to protect from arrest seriously ill Illinoisans who use medical marijuana with a doctor’s recommendation, announced significant changes to the legislation based on input from law enforcement.
Although members of the law enforcement community have been among the most vocal opponents of the bill, Cullerton said the recent amendments reflected specific objections law enforcement officers raised in good faith in a meeting with bill proponents last month.
Also at the press conference, medical marijuana activist and Chicago multiple sclerosis patient Julie Falco announced a new campaign to reach out to representatives by sending personal video appeals by seriously ill patients asking for support on the medical marijuana bill.
Despite opposition from some elements of the law enforcement community, medical marijuana enjoys great support among the medical community and among Illinois voters. In February, the American College of Physicians – the second largest physician organization in the country with 124,000 members – became the latest major medical association to endorse laws protecting patients and doctors from arrest for using medical marijuana.
Also in February, a Mason-Dixon telephone poll of 625 randomly selected Illinois voters – commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. – found that 68 percent of respondents agreed that “seriously and terminally ill patients should be allowed to use and grow medical marijuana for personal use if their doctors recommended it.”
SB 2865 – the medical marijuana bill – is expected to reach the Senate floor within weeks.
It always seems odd when I hear about how law enforcement is involved in creating medical marijuana law. I can’t remember the last time anyone asked a panel of doctors how we should build our next prison.
It’s Wednesday, April 30th and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville.
Don’t forget to call your Congress and tell them to support HR5842 & HR5843 to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states and to legalize personal possession of marijuana. The number is 202-224-3121.
If you have a product that you would like to market to the cannabis community, you can advertise on the Daily Audio Stash. Your ad will be focused on exactly the customer base you’re seeking out; the thousands of responsible cannabis consumers who download and listen to this show. Our listeners are educated consumers who want to support the businesses that support the growing truth about cannabis, and we deliver the advertising freedom you won’t find on radio, TV, or print ads. To advertise on the Daily Audio Stash, send us an email at stash @ norml.org.
Wednesday is Cannabis Science day on the Stash, and coming up after the news, we’re separating the stems of propaganda from the buds of truth with Dr. Mitch Earleywine. Today Dr. Mitch and I discuss your responses to the story of German weed contaminated with lead and we take another look at Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s reefer madness in the UK.
Cannabis Karri brings us our musical break this hempday humpday with a return appearance by Sly Joe and the Smooth Operators. Today we’ll hear their cover of the classic Bob Marley tune, “Mellow Mood”.
And of course, we’re all getting ready this weekend for the opening event of the summer cannabis festival season with this Saturday’s Global Marijuana March, taking place in over 200 cities worldwide. Yesterday we spoke with Madeline Martinez who is organizing Portland, Oregon’s version of the March, and today I’m giving you a replay two-fer with Cameron Rose in Boise, Idaho, and Brad Ernst in Austin, Texas. I also want to encourage all listeners who attend the March to send me your photos, videos, and audio for next week and I’ll post them to the blog and play them on the Stash. Just send them to stash @ norml.org.
So welcome to the show, grab your best glass and sit back with your favorite strain… This is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, upholding a 2006 decision by a U.S. District Court, has refused to reinstate a lawsuit that sought to strike down the law.
In its ruling the appeals court rejected arguments by the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Foundation, which filed the appeal, that the federal law is unconstitutional.
The group argued, in part, that denial of financial aid by the Education Department to students who have already served a court-imposed sentence violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on double jeopardy, criminally punishing someone twice for the same offense. But the appeals court said that the federal law’s sanctions cannot be considered criminally punitive, especially in the double-jeopardy context.
So refusing to grant federal aid for students caught smoking pot isn’t a criminal punishment, therefore, it is not double jeopardy. OK, I guess technically speaking, that is true. The student isn’t being fined, imprisoned, or put under probation.
But being told you lose your financial aid for school certainly is a punishment, after all, it is called the Higher Education Act Aid Elimination Penalty. A penalty that is not meted out to any other type of criminal - murderers, rapists, arsonists, thieves, con artists, brawlers, embezzlers, traitors, and spies can all receive financial aid, but a pot smoker cannot.
Hollywood gets political with its stoner movies
Pot, stalk and smoking pipe barrels. Devil weed. Mary Jane. Playing twister. Reefer. No matter what you call it, cannabis continues to spark debate in popular culture. More than 70 years into the drug’s prohibition at the hands of U.S. lawmakers, it seems Hollywood is ready to blow smoke in the face of current policy.
The proof can be seen in a new crop of films that don’t just depict glassy-eyed potheads giggling at moronic gags in the tradition of Cheech and Chong, but go much further, suggesting pot as the symbolic cure for personal and cultural oppression.
Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke (1978) was the first film to show rampant pot use without exacting a moral price for all that fun, offering an emotional and cultural antidote to overt anti-drug films such as Reefer Madness.
Around the same time Cheech and Chong started their big screen puffing, the American government banned the word “hemp” from all school text books, insisting any mention of the once powerful hemp industry (predicted to be the No. 1 crop in the U.S. by Popular Mechanics in 1938) would only confuse youngsters who didn’t understand the difference between useful hemp fibre and the combustible of choice among teens.
Minnesota continues to debate the medical marijuana legislation in the statehouse. Naturally, law enforcement is against the bill; it makes their jobs too difficult when they aren’t allowed to just arrest every toker and rip up every cannabis plant they find. So they have been trotting out the same tired old drug war lies:
Marijuana has no medical value
Medical marijuana lacks support from the medical community
Marinol is marijuana
Twelve marijuana plants produce far more marijuana than patients would be allowed to have under the law
The safeguards in the medical marijuana law will be unenforceable due to a “tremendous trade in phony scripts”
A medical marijuana law will increase youth access and use of marijuana
Medical marijuana laws cause “nothing but problems”
Every single prosecutor in every single medical marijuana state is opposed to medical marijuana
Illegal marijuana use has increased 50% in California since 1996
The 1999 Institute of Medicine (IOM) study discounted smoked marijuana for medicine
The potency of marijuana has increased 10 to 30 times since the 1960’s and 1970’s
The federal government is vigorously investigating medical marijuana
Medical marijuana use will lead to patients using more dangerous and addictive drugs
Medical marijuana harms, rather than helps, patients
You can overdose on marijuana
So the good folks at Minnesota Cares have put together an excellent white paper debunking all of these myths point by point. Even if you’re not in Minnesota, this paper makes an excellent guide for rebutting our oppenents.
Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD, Dies at 102 - New York Times
PARIS — Albert Hofmann, the mystical Swiss chemist who gave the world LSD, the most powerful psychotropic substance known, died Tuesday at his hilltop home near Basel, Switzerland. He was 102.
The cause was a heart attack, said Rick Doblin, founder and president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, a California-based group that in 2005 republished Dr. Hofmann’s 1979 book “LSD: My Problem Child.”
Dr. Hofmann first synthesized the compound lysergic acid diethylamide in 1938 but did not discover its psychopharmacological effects until five years later, when he accidentally ingested the substance that became known to the 1960s counterculture as acid.
He then took LSD hundreds of times, but regarded it as a powerful and potentially dangerous psychotropic drug that demanded respect. More important to him than the pleasures of the psychedelic experience was the drug’s value as a revelatory aid for contemplating and understanding what he saw as humanity’s oneness with nature. That perception, of union, which came to Dr. Hofmann as almost a religious epiphany while still a child, directed much of his personal and professional life.
102 years old. When you think about all of the technological and social changes Dr. Hofmann lived through, it is almost like an acid trip itself. Imagine, when he was 21 years old, marijuana was still legal and would be for the next ten years of his life. He saw the first crude airplanes all the way to the space shuttle. He’s seen flappers to Pussycat Dolls, World War I to Gulf War II, and women and blacks go from non-voting second-class citizens to front-runners for the Democratic nomination for president.
But most of all, I’m always thrilled when outspoken users of illicit substances live long, fruitful lives. From Willie Nelson turning 75 to Dr. Hofmann living more than a century, it always reminds me that the prohibitions against drugs often have little to do with protecting our health. It also reminds me that, aside from George Burns, I rarely hear of a tobacco smoker and alcohol drinker making it to 100.
wcbstv.com - NYCLU: City Now World’s ‘Marijuana Arrest Capital’
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ? Police busted nearly 400,000 people for carrying small amounts of pot in the last decade, making New York City the world leader in marijuana arrests, civil rights advocates said Tuesday while unveiling a study criticizing the war on drugs.
The study by Queens College sociologist Harry G. Levin, titled “Marijuana Arrest Crusade,” accused police of purposely singling out minorities during the 10-year crackdown. It said that data provided by stat Division of Criminal Justice Services showed that between 1997 and 2007, 52 percent of the suspects were black, 31 percent Hispanic and only 15 percent white.
Laws were revised in the late 1970s to largely decriminalize carrying small, concealed stashes of marijuana, Levin said. But he claimed police routinely “manufacture” arrests for possession in public view — still a misdemeanor — by stopping young black men on the street and goading them into emptying their pockets.
According to the study, arrests for marijuana possession began skyrocketing in the late 1990s during the Giuliani administration — a trend that continued under Mayor Michael Bloomberg at an estimated cost of between $50 and $90 million a year. There were 39,700 arrests last year alone, according to the study.
The 2007 total makes the city “the marijuana arrest capital of the world,” Lieberman said. The study says New York deserves that title because it devotes far more resources to arresting and jailing marijuana offenders than other large cities in Europe and elsewhere. It also cites a previous analysis of FBI data showing that five of the top 10 counties with highest per-capita arrest rate were the five boroughs.
Police spokesmen slammed the report, of course, saying Dr. Levine is a “legalizer” and was grossly distorting his research. Law enforcement believes that marijuana arrests are part of “quality of life” policing under the “broken windows” theory, which states that if you ignore graffiti, broken windows, garbage, etc., then people will believe that they live in a lawless zone and more serious crimes will increase.
The theory isn’t necessarily wrong, it’s the lumping of marijuana smoking in with those other misdemeanors that is the problem. It has created an adversarial relationship between young minority males and police and drives drug users toward crime and drugs that do create societal problems, like alcohol. It’s OK for young adults to sit on the stoop and drink a 40-ounce of malt liquor, a drug that’s proven to increase aggression and violence, but not to consume cannabis, a drug that leads to mellow happiness and social belonging.
I am bringing you a little Sunshine today, and I mean the SUNSHINE VARIETY CLUB variety. Today’s song “Green-Bong Mix” is a trippy little morsel, bursting with complex flavors and sprinkled with a little emo. This UK based band is fronted by lead singer Neil Fowler who sounds a bit like Morrissey or even Michael Stipe. Rob Jenkins plays a nice melodic guitar line, Lynton Bloomfield fills in chunky bass lines and Neil Anderson plays drums on this song. I’m not sure who is playing the bong in this song, but they do a pretty good job too. You can visit their myspace page for more information and downloads of their music.
We’re upgrading the studios here at NORML’s West Coast Media Headquarters, so I want to thank everyone for their patience and apologize for not delivering your Daily Stash for Monday and your Weekend Stash from Saturday. Bluntman even wrote in to say, “I can’t sleep without my Stash!” I hope that’s a compliment and not an indication that my voice puts people to sleep!
Never fear, Bluntman and the rest of you Stashers, the new computer and sound system are now working. You will not get a crisper-sounding Stash and I will be able to process it much faster and easier. (And yes, you Mac devotees, it’s a PC and it’s Vista. When our ad revenue allows us to buy computers that are twice as expensive, we’ll switch to a Mac.)
Tuesday is our Government at Work day here on the Stash. Joining us after the news is Kris Krane, the Executive Director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Kris is here to promote a new video that asks why kids who are caught with a joint can’t get government money to go to school, but can get plenty of government money to go to war.
Cannabis Karri has surfed through the waves of podsafe music to bring us the Sunshine Variety Club, with a song they call “Green-Bong Mix”
And we conclude our podcast with Madeline Martinez, the Executive Director of Oregon NORML, who is here to promote this Saturday’s Global Marijuana March, taking place in over 200 cities nationwide, including Portland, Oregon, where marijuana activists are taking over the downtown square for an entire day of cannabis crusading.
So sit back and relax with a good friend and a tasty strain, this is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
The activists at the Illinois Compassion Action Network have put together a website full of Patient Videos to help lawmakers there understand the need for a medical marijuana law in Illinois. When you hear the stories from these patients about how marijuana has made their lives bearable, it really shows this is an issue about compassion, not drugs.
You can also view some of my interviews with medical marijuana patients in Oregon at the Oregon NORML YouTube Channel.
New Scientist Short Sharp Science Blog: Dope without the high
It’s a stoner’s worst nightmare: pot without the high. But a drug that offers the pain-killing and appetite boost associated with marijuana without the forgetfulness, giggles and general dopiness might appeal to cancer patients and others who would otherwise turn to medical marijuana.
Now, researchers in California (one of the first US states to legalise medical marijuana) have identified a family of chemicals that comes close to mimicking weed, but without the high.
Their approach hinges on tinkering with our body’s own natural stash of marijuana-like chemicals, endocannabinoids. Marijuana’s active ingredient delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) tickles the same brain cell receptors as two endocannabinoids: one that makes you high (2-AG), while another that kills the pain (andamide).
A team led by John Casida, a toxicologist at the University of California in Berkeley, discovered that a pesticide related to the nerve gas sarin causes some of the same effects as marijuana in mice, including the painkilling and the behavioural changes.
But the drug works nothing like pot. Instead of turning on the brain’s THC receptors, the insecticide gets mice high by blocking their brains from breaking down both 2-AG and andamide.
The next step will be to find a drug that stymies the breakdown of andamide, not 2-AG. But scientist will need to be careful before they mellow this high. “If your start with something derived form a pesticide you have to be particularly careful,” says Casida.
Now that the medical effects or marijuana are indisputable to anyone who looks at the issue honestly, the next tactic in the drug warriors’ strategy is to pharmaceuticalize marijuana. The idea being that OK, relief from nausea, pain, and spasticity is all good, but we must eliminate the pesky “high”.
What is so wrong with getting high? If you’re facing a depressing bout of chemotherapy, what’s wrong with a little giggling and euphoria? I believe the reduction in stress and the happy warm feelings triggered by marijuana’s high are just another medical benefit. We are so easily dismissive of the mental health aspect of health care in this country.
To this end, researchers are now looking to replace a non-toxic, well-tolerated, effective naturopathic remedy with a synthesis of a nerve-gas-like pesticide, all just to eliminate the high. Meanwhile, thousands of medical marijuana patients in 12 states have already figured out how they can smoke, vaporize, or eat marijuana in just the right amounts to ease their symptoms without getting too high.
Seconds later, the relevant parties were notified and the story was the top headline on ESPN.com. Mavs owner Mark Cuban said the team would deal with the issue internally. Head coach Avery Johnson expressed that Howard’s comments demonstrated “poor judgement and poor timing.” Sources close to ESPN pointed out that while Howard would most likely not be suspended for his remarks, that he would probably be required to enter into the NBA’s marijuana program—which includes more frequent drug testing and counseling during the off-season.
Josh Howard, meanwhile, went out to play some Friday night hoops in front of a raucous Dallas crowd. With a little help from the refs, the Mavs managed to win their first (and likely only) victory in their series against Chris Paul and the deadly Hornets.
When asked before gametime on Friday why he wanted to discuss marijuana on a sports-radio talk show, Josh Howard said:
“I was raised on being truthful and honest with myself and my family, so I can say it with no problems and go out there and perform to the best of my abilities tonight and not even think about it.”
Josh Howard will now have to undergo the NBA’s drug testing program for his responsible use of marijuana. I assume Mr. Howard will continue to be allowed to party in strip clubs and drink alcohol to excess, if he so chooses, and this will not affect the numerous pain-killers and anti-inflammatory drugs the team doctors will prescribe to him for the wear and tear an NBA season can inflict on his body.
The putative reason for the anti-marijuana policy is to set a good example for the children, because, of course, marijuana is illegal. Unless you play for the Sonics, Trail Blazers, Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Kings, Nuggets, or Raptors, where medical marijuana is legal. In those states (and Canada), what is the message we’re sending to children? Medical marijuana is OK, unless you’re an athlete, in which case you need to take pharmaceutical narcotic painkillers instead?
Here’s the real problem with marijuana in the NBA: it sends the message that you can use marijuana and still be a productive sports star. Not too many sports figures use cocaine or other drugs for very long, because eventually those drugs do have a noticeable effect of performance. But you can be a spliff-tokin’ NBA baller like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and still make the Hall of Fame.
The cannabis law reform movement has never had a better, more honest or longer-serving goodwill ambassador for cannabis consumers as well as a dedicated proponent of hemp as an industrial crop that should be within the ambit of choices for the American farmer. Even on the rare occasion that Willie has been arrested on cannabis prohibition-related charges, the arresting law enforcement officers involved have oddly been embarrassed, giddy and ultimately honored to have the opportunity to meet Willie in person.
On one occasion in Texas in 1995, Willie was arrested for possessing a couple of hand-rolled cigarettes that just happen to consist of cannabis rather than tobacco, and in a totally unlikely scenario the local sheriff was the individual who bailed him out!
To the man who once smoked a joint on the roof of the White House and has donated the proceeds from events like the 2007 Austin Freedom Festival to support cannabis law reform advocacy, on behalf of NORML’s nationwide membership and chapters, as well as the board of directors, thanks for all your help and support for too many years.
In 1977, New York State decriminalized possession of personal use amounts of marijuana. Nonetheless, researchers report that New York City is now the national leader in detaining individuals for possession of personal use amounts of marijuana.
Beginning with the advent of quality of life policing, the New York City Police Department dramatically increased the number of arrests for marijuana possession: from 1997 to 2006 the Department arrested over 353,000 people for misdemeanor possession of marijuana; in 2006 alone it arrested 33,000 people for possessing marijuana. The Department also commonly holds marijuana possession arrestees in detention for up to 24 hours pending arraignment.
Published research indicates that the marijuana possession arrests are not in central business districts, and that the police primarily make the arrests in Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
Join the Committee on Drugs and the Law for a discussion of the costs and benefits of New York City’s marijuana possession arrest policy. This event is free and open to the public.
The event takes place tomorrow at the New York City Bar Association, 42 West 44th Street (between 5th & 6th Ave.) at 6:30 p.m.
His liver, ravaged by hepatitis C, is failing. Without a new one, his doctors tell him, he will be dead in days.
But Garon’s been refused a spot on the transplant list, largely because he has used marijuana, even though it was legally approved for medical reasons.
With the scarcity of donated organs, transplant committees like the one at the University of Washington Medical Center use tough standards, including whether the candidate has other serious health problems or is likely to drink or do drugs.
And with cases like Garon’s, they also have to consider — as a dozen states now have medical marijuana laws — if using cannabis with a doctor’s blessing should be held against a dying patient in need of a transplant.
The Virginia-based United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the nation’s transplant system, leaves it to individual hospitals to develop criteria for transplant candidates.
At some, people who use “illicit substances” — including medical marijuana, even in states that allow it — are automatically rejected. At others, such as the UCLA Medical Center, patients are given a chance to reapply if they stay clean for six months. Marijuana is illegal under federal law.
This continued discrimination against medical users of marijuana has got to stop. It’s beyond irony that someone in need of a liver transplant is punished for using the medicine that doesn’t harm the liver; it’s cruel.
Some hospitals told Garon he could be eligible if he would only complete a 60-day rehab or six months of abstinence. Two-to-six months without treatment with marijuana means 60 to 180 days of using other drugs that are fatally toxic to the man’s liver. So it’s really a crapshoot: use marijuana to feel better and face certain death from liver failure or don’t use marijuana and feel awful and take drugs that accelerate certain death from liver failure.
Wow, I’m having a real time trying to get this new studio wired up with the new computer. All sorts of buggy little problems. There will be a new Daily Stash posted just as soon as can iron it all out.
Sorry, gang, but I’ve just added a new PC to the studio and I’m in the midst of transferring files, installing software, and troubleshooting hardware here at NORML West Coast Media HQ. We’ll be up and running to bring you your regular Daily Audio Stash come Monday. –”R”R
Friday on the stash and it’s time for some rock! Today we get just that with SUPERSUCKERS and their song, “Can Pipe”. If you’re gonna rock, then rock ferociously! Growing up in Tuscon, Arizona the Supersucker boys went to grade school together and graduated from the same high school. They formed the band in 1988 and after firmly proving themselves to be the best band in town, they decided it was time to get out of Tucson. They tossed a coin with heads being New Orleans and tails being Seattle. Tails it was, so now they “rock on” with the Northwest as their base camp and the world as their playground! Supersucker is made up of frontman and bass player Eddie Spaghetti, Dan “Thunder” Bolton and Rontrose Heathman on guitars, and their most recent addition, Scott Churilla on Drums. (You may know Scott as the drummer for Reverend Horton Heat for over a decade) This tune not only rocks like a thunder storm, it makes me nostalgic about the days before there were any head shops in my town. Fall in love with the Supersuckers on their website, supersuckers.com.
Pot Compound Enhances Efficacy Of Anti-Cancer Agents, Study Says; California: Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act Qualifies For November Ballot; New Orleans: District Attorney Charging Minor Pot Offenders With Felonies; Kelly Maddy on Joplin MO Decrim Effort.
Marijuana Extracts Provide Superior Pain Relief Compared To Plant's Isolated Compounds; Case Study: Inhaled Cannabis Improves Symptoms Of ADHD; ONDCP Insider: Drug Czar's Office Is "Flying Blind"; Austrian Parliament Approves Medical Marijuana Use.
Massachusetts: Pot Decrim Initiative Qualifies For November Ballot Measure Would Replace Criminal Penalties With A $100 Fine; Congress Moves Forward On Cannabis 'Candy' Crackdown; Rhode Island: Governor Vetoes Bill To Study Feasibility Of State-Licensed 'Compassion Centers'; Hawaii: Governor Vetoes Medical Marijuana Task Force Measure.
John Wesley Hall, president-elect of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, describes the case precendent in roadside traffic stops and search and seizure.
Seattle, Washington attorney Doug Hiatt explains the latest medical use issues in Washington State, including denial of transplant organs for medmj patients.
Sly Joe is back with a terrific song to take us over hump day, a cover of the classic Bob Marley tune, “Mellow Mood”. Along with his band, SLY JOE AND THE SMOOTH OPERATORS, he puts a decidedly fresh and contemporary spin on this reggae love song. Born and raised in Wisconsin, Joe was a gifted musician from an early age performing classical piano at 11 years old, and playing guitar in Wisconsin’s Honors Jazz Ensemble at 17. His playing is always fresh and imaginative with influences like the Beatles, Zepplin and Jack Johnson. If you are in or near Wisconsin, you can visit Sly Joe’s myspace page for up-coming show dates. He has even played at Lambeau field. (Stash Host, Radical Russ’ spiritual mecca!) Get in a Mellow Mood and enjoy today’s musical hit.
