“Minister Of Marijuana” Says It’s His Religion To Use Pot - News Story - WFTV Orlando
PALM BAY, Fla. — A self-proclaimed “minister of marijuana” says pot is his religion and he has every right to use it. Cops disagree and busted him while pulling 100 plants out of his house.

Steven Swalick doesn’t use terms like “pot” or even “marijuana.” Those terms appeared to upset him during a jailhouse interview. He admitted to using cannabis and even growing it but says it was for his religion. And he wanted only to be addressed as the “Reverend.”

The 56-year-old Swalick claims he has practiced a religious belief that requires the use of cannabis since he was 15-years-old. He claims to be an ordained minister. He calls his home a sanctuary of sorts for a religion called the “Hawaiian Cannabis Ministries.”

The Palm Bay police department’s SWAT team raided Swallick’s home, Wednesday afternoon, seizing 107 plants, along with all sorts of equipment used to grow and harvest them. Police say it would be worth $100,000 on the streets.

Swalick said it wasn’t being sold, but rather grown for religious ceremonies.

Download audio file (steven-swalick-fl-minister-of-pot.mp3)

Steven Swalick - Florida cannabis minister

When the word “marijuana” was used, he became upset.

“We do not use that word,” he said. “Please forgive me and I’ll apologize for you. The word is cannabis. It’s the holy sacrament recognized by the Bible.”

Swalick now faces felony drug charges, which he believes will eventually be cleared under constitutional religious protections.

“I can not be convicted by man. I answer to the Lord,” he said.

Bond was set at $20,000.

Gee, doesn’t the very first page of the Christian Bible say, “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”  There are many references to cannabis — or “kaneh bosm” in the original Hebrew — as the main ingredient in the anointing oil used by Jesus Christ.

I’m not a religious person myself (I think you don’t need God’s permission to smoke herb, I believe it is a secular Constitutional privacy issue), but I’m a huge supporter of First Amendment rights to practice the religion of your choosing.

Swalick notes the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, signed into law by President Clinton in 1993.  It has been used to protect the rights of sincere religious practitioners to use ayahusca tea and peyote, both strong hallucinogens that are considered illegal drugs.

That same Act that should protect religious use of cannabis, yet the courts will not let such a case go to trial and set that precedent.  Eddy Lepp was set free after feds raided his gardens and confiscated over 32,000 plants.  They were very intent on locking him up and throwing away the key.  But once he raised a defense using the RFRA, they suddenly backed down and dropped the charges based on technicalities with the search warrant.

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(MPP) A little-known federal government program that supplies medical marijuana to a handful of patients [marks] its 30th anniversary [tomorrow].

The federal medical marijuana program — referred to as a Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program — resulted from a lawsuit filed by glaucoma patient Robert Randall, who successfully showed that his use of marijuana was a medical necessity.

The program slowly grew for over a dozen years. In the wake of a flood of new applications from patients battling AIDS — who found that marijuana boosted their appetites and relieved the nausea often caused by anti-HIV drugs — the George H.W. Bush administration closed it to new applicants in March 1992, but continued supplying federal marijuana to those already receiving it. Four of those patients survive today.

“Most Americans would be shocked to know that the federal government supplies medical marijuana to patients while claiming that marijuana is a harmful drug with no medical value,” said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. “If federal officials believe their own statements, they’re knowingly poisoning four innocent people, but in fact they know better. The four remaining patients in the federal program have benefited from their medical marijuana use, groups like the American College of Physicians and the American Public Health Association have said that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine and, as a result, we must change the federal laws that prohibit medical marijuana.”

Officially, the Compassionate IND is a research program. Participants were required to sign a consent document calling the program a “study.” Yet the federal government has never studied the patients in the “study.” In fact, the only study ever published of these patients was privately financed and conducted.

“May 10 marks the 30th anniversary of federal hypocrisy and dishonesty about medical marijuana,” Kampia said. “When future historians see how much effort our government made to avoid learning that marijuana is a safe and effective medicine, they’ll shake their heads in disbelief.”

I’ve had the privilege of meeting two of the remaining patients: Irv Rosenfeld of Florida and Elvy Musikka of Oregon. The marijuana grown for them is harvested at the one legal federal garden at the University of Mississippi. It is some very poor marijuana; the government harvests the whole plant, stems, seeds and all, grinding it up and using it in 300 marijuana joints sent in a big tin once per month. It is not in the government’s interest, after all, to provide well-groomed, well-bred, more potent forms of marijuana; those strains might show even more therapeutic value and thereby undercut the government’s arguments about marijuana’s danger.

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Marijuana-Flavored Candy Sold In Tri-State Stores - :: Cincinnati news story :: LOCAL 12 WKRC-TV in Cincinnati
Marijuana-flavored candy is making its way into some [Cincinnati Area] stores and raising some eyebrows.

Chronic Candy has hemp oil in it, and you can find the novelty lollipops in some smoke shops.

Weed-flavored candy is popping up in some smoke shops in the Tri-State. But, good luck trying to find someone who has ever heard of lollipops that taste like marijuana.

“I was intrigued (when first hearing about marijuana flavored candy),” said Kathleen Szabo, never heard of Chronic Candy. “But it was the first I’d ever heard of it.”

“It kind of smelled like dirt,” said Michelle Taylor, never heard of Chronic Candy.

The lollipops are called Chronic Candy and have names such as OG and Train Wreck.

But, how high can you get off Chronic Candy? Turns out, you can’t.

They’re flavored with hemp oil from marijuana plants, but they don’t have any traces of THC, which causes the high people get from pot.

So, if you’re looking to get a buzz, you’ll have to get it somewhere else.

“If people want to eat candy that tastes like marijuana that’s cool, but if it doesn’t get you high, what’s the point?” asked Gene Fine, [who] never hear[d] of Chronic Candy.

The point for the makers of Chronic Candy is making cash.

On their website, they point out the candy is perfectly legal.

While some worry the candy sends the wrong message to kids, others say as long as it’s legal, they don’t see a problem.

“I guess it shouldn’t be marketed to children,” said Szabo. “But it should exist because people have the right to choose things like that if they want to.”

The company’s website says the lollipops are made for adults and sold only in age 18 and over stores.

What I don’t understand in all of this is why lollipops are a bad message specifically for kids, as if adults don’t eat candy.  The candy makers aren’t putting these on the low shelves in a 7-Eleven along with the Snickers and gummi bears - they’re selling it in over-18 smoke shops!

And again, we’re back to the idea of whether a taste should be permitted.  I don’t understand how the non-drug hemp-oil is an acceptable product when it is in a hand lotion or a vitamin capsule.  I’ve seen hemp products like those for sale at the local Target store and nobody was carding minors if they tried to purchase them.  Plus, it’s not as if there are a whole lot of kids eating marijuana; it is usually smoked and that taste is completely different than the taste of the eaten plant.

Finally, as a commenter on our earlier story about the ban on pot-flavored candy in Georgia said, “I remember buying tequila-flavored lollipops that even had the worm in them” as a kid.  How is it that didn’t turn him into a raging alcoholic?

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Teen Marijuana Use Linked to Later Illness - washingtonpost.com
Teenagers who smoke marijuana put themselves at risk for future mental illness and higher rates of depression, according to a report to be released today by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Although fewer teens overall are smoking marijuana, the report said, there is growing concern that those who do, particularly those who view the drug as a way to cope with depression, do not understand its consequences. It also is not clear whether their parents, who might have indulged when they were younger, understand the risks, experts say.

The report, whose release coincides with the start of Mental Health Awareness Month, said studies show links between marijuana use and risk of mental illness later in life, and that use could increase the risk by as much as 40 percent.

Teenage girls who smoke marijuana are particularly at risk, the report said. It found that teen girls who smoke marijuana daily are more likely to develop depression than those who do not.

The report also found that teenagers who smoke marijuana at least once a month are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts than non-users. It said that even though the percentage of teens who are depressed is equal to the percentage of adults who say they are depressed, teenagers are more likely to seek solace in marijuana or other illicit drugs.

“Significant numbers of teenagers are self-medicating,” said John P. Walters, director of the White House office. “They’re turning to marijuana to reduce [symptoms of depression], and [the depression] is getting worse.”

Walters said advances in technology allow researchers to better understand the effect drugs such as marijuana have on brain function. The research being done today “is breaking new ground in showing the role marijuana use is playing in depression,” he said.

[T]he report’s conclusions mirror many of the findings of a 2005 survey of Fairfax County youth. According to that study, Hispanic, Asian and African American teens reported higher percentages of depression than their white counterparts.

Contributing to the risk is the higher potency of marijuana being distributed today compared with what was available in the 1970s, when federal officials began analyzing the drug. A study done last year by researchers at the University of Mississippi found that, since the 1980s, the potency has doubled.

Walters said that despite a drop in usage among teenagers, those who are using are becoming more dependent on it. About 60 percent of first-time users are under the age of 18.

“We forget because we think of marijuana as something that’s the least dangerous of illicit drugs, but far more teens are in treatment for dependency on marijuana than alcohol,” Walters said.

If you smoke the reefers, it’ll make you insane!  Who would have thought we’d get a whole new round of marijuana scaremongering just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month?

I’ll let Dr. Earleywine tear into this new report next Wednesday, but initially, I would have to ask these few questions about the study:

This “report” ignores so many of the factors that lead to teen depression.  Suppose a kid is depressed and he smokes some pot.  Then he’s subject to the stigma of being a “pothead”.  Maybe he gets busted and loses college money, or a job, or gets grounded, or gets sent to jail or rehab - doesn’t that all sound pretty depressing to you?  In other words, did anyone think to control for the effects of the prohibition of pot on someone’s depression?

As for the “40% more likely to develop mental illness” point - could it be that people at higher risk for mental illness tend to use marijuana?  And could you show me, please, where rates of mental illness have risen and fallen along with the rates of marijuana use?  Clearly there should’ve been some massive spike in mental illness after the Summer of Love, right?  No, the rates of mental illness do not seem to fluctuate with the rates of marijuana use.

Minority kids are more depressed than white kids?  While I believe it, what does that have to do with marijuana?

At least they said that marijuana is only twice as potent, and not thirty times more potent like they say in the UK.  But again, they misunderstand the effect of potency on the experience.  More potent marijuana doesn’t cause a more harmful high, it just gets you to the same high by smoking less of it.

Finally, more kids are in treatment for marijuana than ever before because when we catch them with marijuana, we force them into treatment.  When you factor out the people forced by the criminal justice system to attend rehab for marijuana, the numbers of self-referred treatment-seeking marijuana abusers is quite small.

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FBI Raids Mail Order Companies In Tri-state - Cincinnati breaking news, weather radar, traffic from 9News | Channel 9 WCPO.com
Federal agents raided two businesses in Northern Kentucky and Clermont County on Wednesday.

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.

Download audio file (aka-tommy-chong.mp3)

a/k/a Tommy Chong

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.

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2008-05-08.mp3)

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…

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FOXNews.com - Georgia Governor Bans Sale of Pot-Flavored Candy to Kids - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News
ATLANTA — Georgia retailers soon will be banned from selling candy flavored to taste like marijuana to children.

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?

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Cannabis goes back to Class B despite drug experts’ verdict - Times Online
Cannabis will be upgraded to a Class B drug next year even though the head of the Government’s advisory body says that the change is neither warranted nor likely to achieve the desired effect.

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.

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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.

It is the subject of an October 2006 story in reason by Senior Editor Radley Balko, whose coverage of the case led to Cory Maye receiving new legal representation and his death sentence being changed to life in prison. To read the original story, please go here .

In September 2006, Cory Maye’s new legal team of Robert Evans and lawyers from the Washington, D.C.-based firm of Covington and Burling was given two days to argue their post-trial motion that his guilty verdict should either be overturned or that he should be granted a new trial.

After the hearing, the judge ordered a new sentencing trial, determining that Maye’s trial attorney was competent during the guilt phase of his trial, but incompetent during the death penalty phase. He ruled against all of the remaining defense arguments, including concerns about confidential informant Randy Gentry, discrepancies in police testimony, the venue for the trial, and problems with controlling precedent in the state with respect to self-defense.

Prosecutors eventually agreed to drop their pursuit of the death penalty. Earlier this year, Maye was again sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Because of the delays associated with acquiring new representation, Cory Maye’s case in May 2008 is still in the early stages of his appeal. His legal team anticipate the case will be heard in the fall.

If the Mississippi State Court of Appeals denies Maye relief, he’ll then appeal to the Mississippi State Supreme Court. If he’s again denied relief, he’ll begin his federal appeal process in the United States District Court in the Southern District of Mississippi, and then to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

In early 2008, a state district court judge in Mississippi denied attempts by Maye’s attorneys to bring in Dr. Steven Hayne for questioning (Hayne, who performed the autopsy of Ron Jones, was a key witness for the prosecution). Maye’s lawyers had hoped to question Hayne under oath about recent revelations about Hayne’s questionable autopsy procedures and questionable credentials, first reported in reason, then touted by the Innocence Project and its Mississippi chapter. Maye’s lawyers do plan raise their concerns about Hayne in the appeal.

Cory Maye is currently housed in Unit 32, the high-security wing at Mississippi’s Parchman Penitentiary. His daughter Ta’Corrianna lives in Covington, Louisiana with her mother Chanteal Longino. His son Cory, Jr. lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

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