The businesses in Union Township and Newport specialize in detox products to help customers pass pre-employment drug tests.
Spectrum Labs is in the middle of the business district in Newport. On Wednesday morning, neighboring businesses couldn’t help but notice police and federal agents arriving at the 818 Monmouth Street.
“First we saw three Newport cops come up and the DEA and the FBI and they all ran in with their guns held up and then they came out and took off their vests,” said Natasha Luster, a witness.
A rental truck arrived a short time later and agents began removing dozens of boxes of files.
The FBI and DEA are not commenting on the specifics of their investigation. They would only say they were executing search warrants that are currently sealed.
No one has been arrested or charged.
The part of the story they aren’t telling you is that Spectrum Labs is the company that also is funding and distributing the documentary (”a/k/a/ Tommy Chong”) about Tommy Chong’s ordeal in the prosecution culminating in his imprisonment for nine months for selling bongs on the internet.
The force behind that prosecution was the United States Attorney appointed by George W. Bush to the Western District of Pennsylvania, Mary Beth Buchanan.
So, care to guess which US Attorney is behind this raid of Spectrum Labs and the seizure of the movie that paints Mary Beth Buchanan in an unflattering light?
TODAY May 7, 2008: District Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan continues targeting Tommy Chong (”Cheech & Chong”), raiding his Spectrum Labs warehouse and confiscating DVDs.
Moments ago, Buchanan’s task force raided a warehouse where Chong was storing DVD copies of his documentary A/K/A TOMMY CHONG, a film chronicling Chong’s 2005 arrest by Buchanan for selling bongs over state lines. D.A. Buchanan has a reputation for chasing national headlines instead of criminals and has received much media attention for her prosecution of Tommy Chong.
In a hastily-written description of the raid, the director of the documentary, Josh Gilbert, told NORML in an email:
newsflash: 30 fully armed swat team commandos raided cincinnati office and held 5 overweight, middle aged women hostage while they emptied out their warehouse of piss testing agents; fake penises (the whizzinator); fake pee and a dvd about the feds busting tommy chong of cheech and chong…for selling bongs over the internet. all starring the same justice serving federal prosecutor, mary beth buchanan!
Be sure to download the Friday Stash for our interview with Tommy Chong about this breaking news story.
It’s Thursday, May 8th and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville and this is your NORML Daily Audio Stash.
Don’t forget to get on the phone and call your Congress at 202-224-3121. Tell your representative to support Ron Paul’s HR5842, the bill to end DEA raids in medical marijuana states, and Barney Frank’s HR5843, the bill to end federal penalties for personal possession of marijuana. It’s real simple, just call 202-224-3121 and tell them your zip code. That’s it! You’re an activist! They’ll connect you to your representative’s office as simple as that. While you’re at it, why not call your senators at 202-224-3121 and tell them to introduce similar cannabis reform legislation. There are 25 million annual pot smokers in America – that’s one hell of a voting bloc!
Today on the Daily Audio Stash we’ve got a very special interview with Douglas Hiatt. Douglas is a criminal defense attorney in Seattle who defended Tim Garon, the man who was sentenced to death when removed from a hospital’s liver transplant list because of his legal use of medical marijuana.
Cannabis Karri is back with some jam band music from the Pacific Northwest. This time we’ve got Random Orbits and their song, “Blow Back”.
Then we’ll speak with Adam Wolf, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Drug Law Reform Project. We’re discussing student drug testing in the wake of the release of the new ACLU paper, “Making Sense of Student Drug Testing: Why Educators Are Saying No”.
We’ve got a lot to cover, so sit back and relax with Bong Sung Blue and your favorite strain and enjoy your NORML Daily Audio Stash…
Welcome to Thursday, Stashers! Today on the Stash your delicious afternoon snack comes from RANDOM ORBITS, a jam band from Ellensburg, Washington. Not your crazy uncle’s jam band, these guys thrash like punkers, play smooth grooves like jazzmeisters and lay down vocals like rock and roll superstars. With Steven Cole on guitar, Ryab Daley on bass and Blake West on drums this lean trio relies on talent to fill out thier sound. Today’s hit, “Blow Back” has all the highs and lows of a junior high school goth girl. Dubbed “Punk Floyd” by RO’s loyal fans, these young lads are breaking out with the emerging sound of a post-Phish jam band universe. If you happen to be in Seattle this weekend, Random Orbits is playing an all-ages show on the 11th at Studio Seven. Let them know you heard them on the stash! You can visit their myspace page for more details.
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a measure into law Wednesday that bans the sale of “marijuana flavored products” to minors — anyone under 18 — and calls for a fine of up to $500 for each offense.
The measure takes effect July 1st.
It targets businesses that sell the candies with drug-inspired names such as “Kronic Kandy” and “Pot Suckers.”
The law says the candies promote drug use.
Vote Hemp, a national organization that promotes the use of hemp products and tracks legislation, says the measure would make Georgia the first state to ban the sale of the candy to minors.
The reefer madness has gone so far that now lawmakers feel they have to criminalize a taste? How exactly do you enforce a law like that? Taste is a subjective experience - a child and I may taste the same piece of black licorice, but she might like it and I think it’s the candy of Satan. There’s a flavor that should be illegal!
Will Georgia have a state-certified tastologist to verify the sticky-ickiness of the lollipops on a case-by-case basis? Have scientists in Atlanta come up with a Dynometric Tastometer? What if we call the lollipop “Ganja Grape”, “Bonghittin’ Banana”, or “Cinnamon Sativa”, but they actually taste like grape, banana, or cinnamon?
How ganja-like must a confection taste before it is criminal? Certainly the flavor of killer freshly-harvested BC Bud lollipops would be a crime, but can we lower the fine if it tastes like Mexican brick ditchweed overcooked in a poorly-made chocolate brownie? And is there some epidemic of kids craving the mere taste of weed? Last I checked, sour was really popular, as is chocolate.
I suppose Root Beer will still be legal, though. That doesn’t promote any drug use by kids, does it?
Seriously, this is a little like the thought police, isn’t it?
Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, announced the reversal yesterday of the Government’s earlier decision to downgrade the drug. But under18s caught with it will not be treated any more harshly, to avoid criminalising them.
Punishment for the over18s will increase from the existing “confiscate and warning” for a first offence to a possible penalty notice for disorder on a second offence followed by arrest and prosecution for a third offence.
Although the new jail term for possession rises from two to five years, it is unlikely that anyone will be imprisoned for simple possession of cannabis for personal use.
Reclassification will not take effect until early next year because Parliament has to approve the decision.
A report from the advisory council concluded that the health dangers from cannabis did not justify its inclusion in the higher category and that it should remain a Class C drug. Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of the council, said: “Changing the classification of cannabis is neither warranted nor will it achieve the desired effect.”
Ms Smith said that the Government was overruling the council because she was unwilling to “risk the future health of young people”. She told MPs: “Where there is a clear and serious problem, but doubt about the harm that will be caused, we must err on the side of caution and protect the public. I make no apology for that – I am not prepared to wait and see.”
The Home Secretary said she was concerned about the mental health effects of smoking super-strength skunk cannabis, which now accounts for 81 per cent of cannabis seized on the streets. There were also suggestions that young people were “binge smoking” to get the maximum high.
The reefer madness of Gordon Brown continues. The public health and law enforcement experts on the prime minister’s advisory body voted 20-3 that cannabis should remain in the lowest classification of drugs - Class C - and that Britons should not be arrested for its possession.
But politicians love to look “tough on crime” and by treating cannabis use as a crime, they can score easy points in the political arena, despite the overwhelming evidence that cannabis use is not a serious social problem and what few problems it does present are best treated in a public health model, not a criminal justice one.
Jacqui Smith says we can’t afford to “wait and see”, yet since cannabis has been downgraded from Class B to Class C, we’ve found that cannabis use has gone down in the UK. Furthermore, cannabis has been in widespread use since the 1960s - how much longer does Ms Smith need to wait and see?
This is driven in the UK by the tabloid headlines of the dreaded “skunk” cannabis, otherwise known by realists as “quality marijuana”. They trumpet false stats like “skunk is 30 times more potent than regular cannabis”. Since “skunk” tests out at about 12%-14% THC, then they must consider hemp rope to be “regular cannabis”. Actually, “regular cannabis” tests out to 7%-10% THC, so maybe it is at most twice as potent.
However, as we all know, more potent cannabis does not equal more public danger. Cannabis is non-toxic, so smoking more of the more potent varieties isn’t going to cause any more physical harm. Cannabis is self-titrating, which means users smoke to get high, and if the cannabis is more potent, they just smoke less of it to get high. Considering that inhaling the smoke of burning vegetable matter of any kind isn’t the nicest thing for your lungs, smoking less of it is probably a good thing.
We here at NORML call on all our friends in the United Kingdom to call your member of Parliament and tell them to vote no on the upgrade of cannabis from Class C to Class B.
reason.tv - Videos > Mississippi Drug War Blues
At 11p.m on December 26, 2001 police in Prentiss, Mississippi raided the residence of Cory Maye, a 21-year-old father who was at home with his 18-month-old daughter Ta’Corriana.
The cops were looking for drugs and smashed through the back door. In the ensuing chaos, Maye hunkered down with his daughter in a bedroom and when the police broke down that door, he fired three bullets, one of which killed Officer Ron Jones. Maye testified in court that the police did not identify themselves until after they had entered his residence; indeed, he testified that they did not identify themselves until after he had fired his shots. Once they did, he said he put his weapon on the floor, slid it toward police, and surrendered.
The police, who refused to talk with reason.tv, tell a different story. They claim that they identified themselves multiple times before entering Maye’s house and bedroom, and that there was no way Maye couldn’t have known who they were. A jury rejected Maye’s case that he was acting in self-defense and he was sentenced to death for the murder of Office Ron Jones.
“Mississippi Drug War Blues” is a story about the intersection of race (Maye is black and Jones was white); the war on drugs; the disturbing increase in the militarization of police tactics; and systemic flaws in the criminal justice and expert-testimony systems.
It is a tragedy in which one man is dead and another may spend his life in prison.
US Leads The World In Illicit Drug Use; US Drug Enforcement Administration ‘Celebrates’ 35 Years Of Failure; Marijuana, Cocaine Have Contrasting Effects On Driving Performance, Study Says; Loretta Nall on AL judge's son's special treatment for felony drug charges.
Oral Pot Preparation Effective For Depression, Journal Reports; New Zealand: Most Pot Consumers Not Frequent Users; Cannabis Agonist Reduces Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Tumor Growth, Study Says; California: County Officials Finalize Mendocino Vote Count; Interview with Mason Tvert on proposal of cannabis smoking lounges in Denver airport to combat air rage incidents with alcohol.
Drug Czar Responds To NORML's Refutation Of 'Potent Pot' Claim; Teen Pot Use Falling In States With Medical Marijuana Laws; Medical Pot Use Not Associated With Serious Side Effects, Study Says; Interview with Teen MJ Use study co-author Dr. Mitch Earleywine.
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.
