Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 6:03 pm | By: Radical Russ
I’m happy to announce the formation of three new college chapters of NORML at the University of Virginia, Arizona State University, and Minnesota State University. Contact information for the three new chapters will be online at http://norml.org/chapters tomorrow morning if you wish to contact them.
If you would like to form a new college chapter or community chapter of NORML, just send me an email at stash@norml.org. You just need five members to form your board and we’ll send you the instructions from there.
And if you are unable to contact one of the existing chapters on the NORML website, please let me know. I am working to cull the inactive chapters from the listings and your help will make that task easier.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009 at 4:16 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Arizona Daily Star) PHOENIX — The state’s interest in banning marijuana outweighs the religious beliefs of an individual that he is entitled to use the drug anywhere, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled today.
In a unanimous opinion, the justices said state law permits the government to “burden the exercise of religion” only if it shows a compelling interest and that the restrictions are the “least restrictive means of furthering that interest.” And Daniel Hardesty conceded to the court that there is some governmental interest in the regulation of marijuana.
But Chief Justice Rebecca White Berch said that, given the claim by Hardesty that his membership in the Church of Cognizance allows him to use marijuana anywhere and anytime — including driving — it is clear that the “least restrictive means” of the government to further its interests in protecting the public is an outright ban.
Today’s ruling, however, does not foreclose the possibility that the state’s high court might not conclude that some other religious use of marijuana is acceptable.
Berch pointed out that courts have allowed users of peyote to use federal laws to shield them from prosecution against state drug laws. She said, though, there is “an obvious difference” between the situations.
“Members of the Native American Church assert only the religious right to use peyote in limited sacramental rights,” the chief justice wrote. “Hardesty asserts the right to use marijuana whenever he pleases, including while driving.”
Today’s ruling is the second defeat in two years for members of the Church of Cognizance.
Last year a Graham County couple that claims to have founded the religion in the early 1990s were found guilty of possession and conspiracy with intent to distribute marijuana after being stopped with 172 pounds of marijuana in their vehicle near Las Cruces, N.M. A federal judge in New Mexico rejected their religious freedom arguments.
Dan Quaintance was sentenced to five years in prison; his wife, Mary, was sentenced to two to three years.
A friend of mine is an amazing trial lawyer here in town and he and I discussed these religious use arguments. He thinks that a federal religious use case for marijuana can be made and won under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, but to date, the people attempting to use a religious defense haven’t had a leg to stand on in court. “It can’t just be somebody from The Church of I Like To Smoke Pot All The Time, or The Church of I Like to Sell Pot, or The Church of I Just Got Caught With A Hundred Pounds of Pot in My Trunk,” he tells me. “I need a seriously devout, older, black Rastafarian (sorry, white kid with dreads won’t cut it, don’t mean to be racist, but appearances matter in court), with a verifiable record of practicing his faith over the long haul, busted on federal land (like, say, a national forest), caught by a forest ranger for holding less than an ounce of ganja , who’ll be enough of a dick to arrest and prosecute this older black Rastafarian for an amount that’s decriminalized under state law on federal charges and not just make him dump it. Oh, and who has enough money to finance the appeals all the way to the Supreme Court.”
“No problem,” I answered, “I’ll put the call out to all the devout and rich black Rastafarian hikers I know.”
You know how I feel; I think all adults should be allowed to use pot whenever and whyever they feel like it, so long as they do not infringe on the rights of others. But the problem with framing the religious use argument is that you’re forced to engage on a rhetorical battlefield where historical precedent does not bode well for the marijuana smoker.
For example, many religious users refer to ganja as a “sacrament”. That term, then, puts ganja on the same playing field as the Catholic use of communion wine. When people think of communion, they think of a ceremony and a ritual and the ingestion of a tiny amount of wine as a symbolic gesture*. They don’t think of all wine everywhere drank anytime as something sacred. So when people hear of the guy who wants to smoke pot all the time and call it “religious use” or the guy caught with 172 pounds of pot for “religious use”, the “sacrament” frame turns that kind of pot use into an abuse akin to an alcoholic with a barrel of MD 20/20 in the trunk of his car.
“Sacrament” derives from “sacred” and refers to something that confers a higher connection with the spiritual realm. So it is difficult for folks that think of sacraments as a once-a-week ritualistic practice to think of multiple daily smoking of ganja right out of the blue with no ceremonies or rituals as “sacred”. It’s like that line from Lake Woebegone, where all the children are above average.
Mind you, I’m just telling you how it looks to the average citizen on a jury or a judge. Personally, I totally understand the sacredness of the herb and even as an irreligious person I believe the bond between humans and cannabis is as special as that between humans and dogs or horses.
*I’m told that to Catholics, transubstantiation is far from merely “symbolic”. Forgive me.
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 4:36 pm | By: Radical Russ
At Hempfest Main Stage this year a band called “The Wiley One” played 4:20 on Saturday. I was approached by Jason, the bass player from the band, who wanted to compliment me on my bass playing earlier in the day Sunday. We chatted a bit and he agreed to let us play one of their tunes for the podcast.
The Wiley One are a funky band out of Phoenix, Arizona. Their music has been featured on the X Games and The Wiley One works to be a carbon-neutral band as best they can. “We also have a plan in place to offset our C02 emissions,” says Sam Wiley, “by using clean-burning domestically made biodiesel fuel to power any tour buses or trucks while on tour.” Well, we can suggest a perfect source for that biodiesel fuel, can’t we?
Enjoy this environmentally conscious song from The Wiley One, it’s called “Go Green’.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 4:11 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Phoenix New Times) Drank, a new beverage sold in Valley stores, is a concoction of herbal supplements that is said to cause a sensation similar to the high we get from marijuana. It’s been described by users as “weed in a can.”
Says Brandon Rycombel, a Phoenix store owner who sells the beverage, “I think a lot of people use that for stress relief. That’s what we use it for.”
The grape-flavored beverage is chock full of melatonin, valerian root, and rose hips, so don’t get too excited. There isn’t actually weed in it, and Rycombel says it’s an alternative to marijuana, not a substitute.
You know how I know without even tasting it that this is nothing like “weed in a can”?
“This isn’t going to get you into any trouble,” says Rycombel. “You can buy it in the store. It’s legal.”
I am always pleased to hear from constituents, such as you, who take the time to communicate with me. I want to thank you for sharing your thoughts-staying on top of the issues that matter to you, by opening a dialogue with your elected officials, is one of the most important aspects of our Democracy.
You will be pleased to know that I am already a cosponsor of the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, H.R. 2835. Rest assured that as it moves forward in Congress, my staff and I will be monitoring it closely.
Again, thank you for your active participation as a concerned citizen. I hope you will continue to keep in touch on the issues that matter to you.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Medical Marijuana Gardener Bernie Ellis of Fly, Tennessee, tells of his being labeled a “terrorist” and investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations to intimidate him to drop his campaign for free and fair elections.
Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 11:20 am | By: Radical Russ
WASHINGTON (CNN) — A former middle-school student who was strip-searched by school officials looking for ibuprofen pain medication won a partial victory of her Supreme Court appeal Thursday in a case testing the discretion of officials to ensure classroom safety.
Redding was an eighth-grade honor student in 2003, with no history of disciplinary problems at Safford Middle School, about 127 miles from Tucson, Arizona.
During an investigation into pills found at the school, a student told the vice principal that Redding had given her prescription-strength 400-milligram ibuprofen pills.
The school had a near-zero-tolerance policy for all prescription and over-the-counter medication, including the ibuprofen, without prior written permission.
Redding was pulled from class by Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, escorted to an office and confronted with the evidence. The girl denied the accusations.
A search of Redding’s backpack found nothing. A strip search was conducted by Wilson’s assistant and a school nurse, both females.
Redding was ordered to strip to her underwear and to pull on the elastic of the underwear, so any hidden pills might fall out, according to court records. No drugs were found.
“The strip search was the most humiliating experience I have ever had,” Redding said in an affidavit. “I held my head down so that they could not see that I was about to cry.”
The decision was 8-1.  Justice Clarence Thomas thought the Constitution doesn’t really cover the “preservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools”, so if you want to strip-search 13-year-old girls at school, the Founding Fathers would have been cool with that.  Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John Paul Stevens thought the girl should be able to sue the school administrators who humiliated her, but the rest of the court decided that up til now it hasn’t been very clear how much protection the Constitution gives 13-year-old schoolgirls from strip searches, so the administrators couldn’t be reasonably expected to know they couldn’t just do that (if I’m reading SCOTUSblog’s analysis correctly).
So, from now on, there will be more protection for 13-year-old girls in school to not be expected to strip to their panties for school officials – not police, a freakin’ vice principal’s assistant and a school nurse! -Â when a teenage snitch lies about them holding drugs. Â But all you 13-year-old girls who were strip-searched, you have no recourse.
I don’t suppose anybody ever considered just calling the girls’ parents. Â ”Hello, Mrs. Redding? We have a tip your daughter may be holding prescription ibuprofen in violation of our zero-tolerance policy. Â Can you come down to the school, please?” Â No, wait, excuse me, I forgot, we’re talking about drugs; there’s no room for common sense here! Â What am I thinking? Â I just expected someone who takes seriously the phrase “zero tolerance” to show common sense.
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 5:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Washington Post) NOGALES, Ariz. — They call themselves the Tunnel Rats. Trained in close-quarter combat, psychologically certified to work in confined spaces and armed to the teeth, these four-member teams of Border Patrol agents monitor an elaborate underground warren of dark and dangerous storm drains that crisscross these twin downtowns along the border.
In the past nine months, they have discovered 16 new tunnels dug by smugglers in Nogales to move drugs, migrants, cash and weapons between Mexico and the United States. The number of tunnels sets a new record. A Border Patrol official calls the burst of subterranean activity “startling.”
“It’s Swiss cheese under there,” said Brooke Howells, a supervisory Border Patrol agent and a tunnel teams leader. “They’re constantly burrowing. If you are a smuggler, a working tunnel can be a very lucrative enterprise.”
The digging has become so extensive beneath Nogales that the southbound traffic lane through the international port of entry collapsed.
“Before that, the parking lot at the customs office caved in,” Howells said. “They collapse all the time.”
The tunnelers pop up all over town. Border Patrol agents report that it is not uncommon to see a manhole cover suddenly lift during rush hour and men run out of the hole.
"License to kill gophers by the government of the United Nations. Man, free to kill gophers at will. To kill, you must know your enemy, and in this case my enemy is a varmint. And a varmint will never quit - ever. They're like the Viet Cong - Varmint Cong. So you have to fall back on superior firepower and superior intelligence. And that's all she wrote."
Why do I have the image of Bill Murray’s “Carl Spackler” character from Caddyshack running through my mind?
Look, this is going to happen even if marijuana were legalized here, because there will still be migrants, cash, guns, and hard drugs to smuggle. Â But I have to think that digging tunnels isn’t just a dude with a shovel; it’s got to take some money to make a significant tunnel. Â Legalize marijuana and you remove 60% of the profits from the cartels and maybe they have to cut back on their tunneling budget.
Then we here in America can grow our own and buy our own domestic marijuana and not contribute one cent (or centavo) to Mexican smuggler’s tunneling budget. Â We might even develop some more interesting hybrids…
“This is a hybrid. This is a cross, ah, Bluegrass, Kentucky Bluegrass, Featherbed Bent, and Northern California Sensemilia. The amazing stuff about this is, that you can play 36 holes on it in the afternoon, take it home and just get stoned to the bejeezus-belt that night on this stuff.” – Carl Spackler
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
I’ve always said that medical marijuana is a beautiful thing. Â If I believe that all people have a right to use cannabis, then of course sick people have the same right and should be given the first place in line.
I’ve also said that I hate the line “I’m a patient, not a criminal” because that defines me, the healthy person, as a criminal. Â I cannot accept that a medical marijuana user sharing a joint with me equals a “patient” and a “criminal”. Â It’s the same joint, so how is my relative healthiness a crime?
Medical marijuana is a double-edged sword to me. Â It has been invaluable in opening up people’s minds about cannabis and its uses. Â It has afforded the kind of political victories for legalization that no other strategy has (and sorry, medical folks who dislike “legalizers”, medical marijuana is legalization.) Â It has, without a doubt, saved tens of thousands of lives and made hundreds of thousands of lives more bearable.
However, I fear that the medical marijuana strategy may have outlived its usefulness.  The medical marijuana bills this year in Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, and now an Arizona initiative are becoming more restrictive.  After a dozen years of medical marijuana success, defined as “the sky didn’t fall when we legalized marijuana for sick people”, bills and initiatives should be getting more relaxed, not stricter; more inclusive, not less; and more conditions covered, not fewer.  With polls consistently showing mainstream support increasing in states with medical marijuana and holding steady in the states without, medical marijuana bills and initiatives should be getting better, not worse.
What I fear is that the public’s mindset is moving from “marijuana is a deadly addictive gateway drug whose users should be punished” to “marijuana is a powerful medicine that should be used only under strict controls and supervision”. Â The most recent bills take away the right of a patient to grow their own medicine, substituting instead requirements that medicine come only from dispensaries over which the state maintains a monopoly. Â They’ve pared down the list of “qualifying conditions” to the point where only the gravest ill, the terminal cases with less than six month to live, who’ve tried and had no success with all the other pharmaceutical drugs, only they have any access. Â This upcoming Arizona initiative will even electronically track how much medical cannabis a patient purchases and require criminal background checks and fingerprinting that will be forwarded to the FBI!
As fewer and fewer patients qualify for medical cannabis under new, tighter laws, pharmaceutical companies continue to derive and patent cannabinoid compounds and prepare them for dose-regulated delivery by spray, inhaler, cream, and pill. Â They’ve used their lobbying power for decades to oppose nature’s finest medicine, the biggest threat to their market for benzodiazepenes, NSAIDs, and opioids, because they couldn’t slap a bar code and a 250,000% markup on pot. Â Soon they will be able to provide all these patients with all the benefits of medical cannabis, but without the pesky “high” and the ability to thwart their profits by growing it themselves.
(Huffington Post) According to USA Today in 2005, there were 1,274 registered pharmaceutical lobbyists in Washington, D.C. — more than two for every member of Congress. In 2003, $143 million was spent on lobbying activities by the Pharmaceutical industry. There are more lobbyists from pharmaceutical than any other industry trying to bend legislators’ ears.
This is big business, and that means that your health care is not in the hands of people who really want to help you, but in the hands of people who view you as a market.
Caveat emptor. You expect to beware in a used car lot. But buying a lemon auto is not nearly as likely to kill you as prescription medicine. Approximately 43,000 people died in car crashes in the U.S. in 2004, and the rate has been declining every year since. 100,000 people die in the U.S. every year from properly prescribed and properly administered prescription drugs, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Florida Medical Examiners concluded that three times more people die from prescription medicine as die from illegal drugs.
What I fear is dispensaries becoming pharmacies and cannabis becoming another pharmaceutical and those lobbyists turning that $143 million toward enacting horribly restrictive medical marijuana laws that preserve their profits by banning home growing. Â Medical marijuana is beginning to steer marijuana law reform toward treating cannabis like codeine and away from treating cannabis like Coors Light. Â Whether you and I are busted because we’re “dopers smoking an illegal drug” or because we’re “recreational prescription cannabis abusers”, we’re still busted.
The beauty of medical marijuana is that people can cheaply and easily care for themselves. Â That’s also threatening to the health care model as it is run today, because cannabis violates that need for the middlemen and bureaucracy to receive treatment. Â I don’t need to see the doctor every so often to have him re-approve my prescription and I don’t need to see the pharmacist to fill it up. Â I can grow it and use it when I need it. Â It can’t kill me so I can’t take too much. Â It can’t addict me so I don’t need supervision. Â It doesn’t alter my perceptions and actions to the point that I need strict regulation. Â (In a sense I liken it to Martin Luther nailing up his protest of the Catholic Church to the church door on Halloween of 1517 – we don’t need intermediaries, we can find our salvation ourselves!)
But now we’re seeing these new bills and initiatives requiring more visits with the doctor, requiring the cannabis to come from dispensaries, and strictly documenting how much is to be used. Â Cannabis is being forced to fit into the paradigm of health care for profit with all the intermediaries, bureaucracy, markups, and restrictions. Â Once it is locked into the health insurance – pharmaceutical – medical complex, legalization for you and me will be farther away than ever.
This is why I think the next eighteen months are crucial in marijuana law reform. Â We’ve never had higher support for legalization, in part due to the economy. Â A state needs to break through with legalization for you and me, before the economy begins to recover, before cannabis pharmaceuticals gain widespread approval, before a half-dozen more states enact increasingly restrictive medical marijuana laws, and before cannabis becomes so ingrained in the public’s mind as a medicine that we can’t get them to accept it as a social intoxicant.
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nationâs top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis â and away from alcohol and painkillers â off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
New NORML Chapters at U. Virginia, Arizona State, and Minnesota State
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
Fresh Stash V RSS Feed
Loading ...
; is she incognito like me 
, or can...
