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In Idaho, your medical marijuana card gets you five days in jail and costs your car and $1,300
Medical marijuana cardholders, listen up. Your card is only valid in your state and in Michigan, Montana, and Rhode Island. That’s it. It’s a concept called “reciprocity” and we urge all reformers to include it in their medical marijuana proposals. New Jersey’s bill began with reciprocity, but it was removed in the legislative process before becoming law. The other eleven medical marijuana states do not have reciprocity and they should. (Pennsylvania’s proposal currently contains reciprocity.)
Oregon police violating federal HIPAA and state medical marijuana privacy laws
So now the entire world knows Mrs. Name Redacted is sitting at home alone with her three kids at Address in Monmouth, Oregon, with no firearms to protect herself while her husband is in custody. Since OMMA specifies that police can only seize that which is outside of compliance (assuming they even follow that part of OMMA), we all know she’s sitting there with no husband, no guns, and up to 6 mature marijuana plants, 18 seedlings, and a pound and a half of dried processed cannabis.
K2 “fake pot” linked to 30 cases of severe reactions in St. Louis
In the last month, Anthony Scalzo, M.D., professor of toxicology at Saint Louis University, has seen nearly 30 cases involving teenagers who were experiencing hallucinations, severe agitation, elevated heart rate and blood pressure, vomiting and, in some cases, tremors and seizures. All of these teens had smoked a dangerous, yet legal substance known as K2 or “fake weed.”
New College NORML Chapters at Univ. of Arkansas, West Georgia
I’m thrilled to announce two new college NORML Chapters in the Deep South! NORML at University of Arkansas Georgia NORML at University of West Georgia If you’re interested in starting a NORML Chapter at your college or university, learn how.
CSU Fresno NORML spreading the legalization message on campus
“Our primary goal is to spread correct information about marijuana and hemp to the students of Fresno State,” said 20-year-old [CSU Fresno NORML] president Idell Tarver. “We also promote the organizations goals of [medicinal marijuana] use, industrial use and recreational use.”
“Kid’s got autism? Get’em high!” demonstrates more physician ignorance on medical marijuana
Any doctor who would recommend the use of cannabis on an autistic child would find little sympathy from me if he were hauled up in front of a medical board or better yet, a judge. The only reason this is any better than the case of the religious wackos who prayed while they watched their daughter die of diabetes is that its unlikely that pot will kill the child. But imagine being autistic, being unable to separate out various stimuli and communicate effectively, and then suddenly finding yourself feeling strange, not knowing why, perhaps even suffering from a severe anxiety reaction, not uncommon with acute cannabis intoxication. That’s not death, but it is torture.
Philly: White women rarely arrested for pot
A look at the data for Philadelphia in August 2008 reveals that just 9 white women were arrested for marijuana possession of less than 30 grams. In sharp contrast, 362 black men were arrested that month alone for the very same offense. Several studies indicate that black and white women choose cannabis at near equal rates. Still, black women were three times more likely to be arrested for pot in Philadelphia. The city saw just 90 white women arrested in all of 2008 for minor marijuana possession while 345 black women were arrested for the same offense.
HempCon 2010 in Los Angeles this weekend
HempCon 2010 Los Angeles, at the Los Angeles Convention Center, allows exhibitors from across the country to showcase products and services while promoting medical marijuana and the movement to legalize pot. Smoking it at the event, however, is verboten. “There’s not going to be any cannabis — but we’re trying to spread the word,” said Cheryl Shuman, executive director of Beverly Hills NORML 90210, a new branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. More than 150,000 people are expected to attend the event, the medical marijuana activist said.
Teachers caught unprepared for medical marijuana in the classroom
Around the country today, hundreds – perhaps thousands – of high schoolers are bringing pot to school, and they’re doing it legally. Not to get stoned, but as part of prescribed medical treatment. And they don’t have to tell school authorities about it. This is putting teachers and principals in a new and challenging position.