Marijuana Possession Case Against NBA Player Dismissed
A long-running marijuana possession case against NBA player Damon Stoudamire has been dismissed.

Stoudamire’s Tucson lawyer said Friday that all charges have been dismissed with prejudice and cannot be refiled.

The misdemeanor possession case took more than 4½ years to conclude, including two appeals to the Arizona Supreme Court - which ruled there no longer will be jury trials in such cases.

Under a settlement agreement with the Pima County Attorney’s office, Stoudamire successfully completed a drug rehabilitation program and urine tests proving he was drug-free.

Stoudamire - now with the San Antonio Spurs - was arrested in July 2003 going through security at Tucson’s airport when a half-ounce of foil-wrapped marijuana fell from his pants.

Stoudamire was with my hometown Portland Trail Blazers when the airport marijuana incident went down.  I remember not being upset that Damon was caught with weed, but that a college educated stoner couldn’t figure out that aluminum-foil-wrapped marijuana plus airport metal detector isn’t a great idea.

Or remember when Michael Vick was caught with marijuana in the airport while heading home to Atlanta.  He had stashed it in a water bottle, not recalling that in the ridiculous post-9/11 airport security line, you can’t take water with you on the plane.

It also makes you wonder, just how hard is it for superstar millionaire sports figures to get a hold of some chronic?  Is it worth all the hassle and threatening your career for less than an ounce of pot?  I somewhat sympathize with Stoudamire, since he was leaving for a road trip at the time, but Vick was returning home!  Do multimillionaire sports stars not keep a personal stash at home?

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-04-08

Tuesday is Government at Work day on the podcast, and coming up after the news, we’re going to speak with Jon Gettel from Arizona NORML. Jon’s got some interesting information on medical marijuana in Arizona and the recent use of immigration checkpoints to catch marijuana users on the southern highways.

After that I’ve got an acoustic musical break for you. Cannabis Karri found a nice tokin’ tune called “One Toke” by a songwriter named Dallas Leonard who records out of the great state of Virginia. I think we all know what he means by “one toke” and it sure is nice when you can get it.

And to end the show, we have a special treat. Comedian Doug Benson of The Marijuanalogues has a new movie out called “Super High Me” (add it to your Netflix!). It’s a take on the Morgan Spurlock Academy-Awardâ„¢ nominated documentary, “Super Size Me”, where Spurlock ate nothing but McDonald’s for 30 days and chronicled the effects on his life and health. In “Super High Me”, Benson smokes marijuana for 30 days straight and documents the effects. We spoke with Benson by phone and he tells us all about it.

So sit back and relax with your favorite strain – this is the Daily Audio Stash.

Tuesday, April 8, 2008, Tucson, AZ. Toward a Science of Consciousness 2008, at the Tucson Convention Center, Tucson AZ. The eighth biennial Tucson conference continues an interdisciplinary tradition of intense, far-ranging and rigorous discussions on all approaches to the fundamental issue of how the brain produces conscious experience. An estimated 800 attendees from 6 continents will participate in 400 presentations included in 21 Pre-Conference Workshops, 12 Plenary sessions, 21 Concurrent Talk sessions, 2 Poster Sessions and, for the first time, an interactive Art and Technology of Consciousness Exhibit. For more info, see http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/tucson2008.htm

Friday, April 11, Portland, OR. - A double showing of the documentary film, Dispensing Cannabis: The California Story will be held at the Studio 6 Theater beginning promptly at 7pm and again at 10pm. In this hour-long documentary, voices from inside discuss practices and issues involved in distributing medical cannabis. Of the twelve states in 2006 that permit medical cannabis use, California is the only state that allows for the distribution of the medicine. How and where do people get their medicine? How does one insure that their medicine is clean, safe and is sufficient quality? Tours of five cannabis dispensary models provide an unprecedented look into this quasi-legal business. Doctors, lawyers, law enforcement, patients and caregivers share their perspectives and concerns.

Sunday, April 13, 2008, Los Angeles, CA. Medical Marijuana Comedy Show ExtravaGANJA at the Comedy Store (Main Room), 8433 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. This show will feature the comedic talents FreddyLockhart, Ngaio, Darwin Hines, Tere Joyce, Tasty Jeff (Jeff Richards of SNL fame) and more! There is also rumor of an appearance by Russell Peters himself. Meet Jack Herer, author of ‘The Emperor Wears No Clothes’ and help him with the California Hemp & Health Initiative 2008. Meet Richard Eastman and support the L.A. County Medical Marijuana Exposition & Patients’ Festival. Show time is 8:30 pm. Doors open at 8:00 pm. Tickets are only $20 w/ a $5 discount for members of compassion clubs. Additional details at HowardDover.com. This is a 21+ event with a 2 drink minimum.

The Arizona Republic newspaper ran a story about medical marijuana and the push to decriminalize its use in Arizona by sick and debilitated people.  While overwhelming majorities support medical marijuana, there are still some people who buy in to the reefer madness.  Witness this one letter to the editor:

Marijuana dangerous; don’t legalize it
Marijuana should not be legalized and it is not medicine. It is a dangerous, addictive substance, which can cause physical and mental-health problems, traffic accidents, and can lead to worse addictions, such as heroin.

If people want to cure cancer, they should look elsewhere and not try to legalize marijuana, even for such purposes. - Susan Bengston, Phoenix

Got it?  Even if marijuana turns out to be the cure for cancer, it shouldn’t be legalized, because people might get addicted to heroin.  Sorry, cancer patients, you’re just going to have to die, because we don’t want there to be any traffic accidents.  Here, have a beer instead!

This is the mindset we are up against.  Good luck, reformers!

Phoenix - News - Border Patrol checkpoints near Yuma nab hordes of pot users headed back from the beach
The Border Patrol has used dogs at its checkpoints for at least two decades, mainly for the purpose of detecting human cargo. But … [s]ince late 2005, though, the number of Yuma Sector agents has risen 55 percent — to about 850 agents, up from 550, as of January. Augmenting those agents are hundreds of National Guard soldiers who are part of a 6,000-troop border-protection plan called Operation Jump Start, ordered by President Bush in mid-2006.

The number of K9 dogs also has increased, to more than 30, up from four in 1999. The animals are trained to sniff out hidden human beings, marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and meth-related drugs such as Ecstasy.

These days, the checkpoints on eastbound Interstate 8 and northbound Arizona 95 near Yuma (a passageway to the I-10 and I-40 corridors linking Arizona and California) are open 24 hours a day. And with the addition of seven times more K9 dogs, they have become the biggest weed traps in the country.

Strictly in terms of quantity, other checkpoints catch more dope. The Border Patrol is allowed to set up roadblocks as far as 100 miles from any national border, and it operates 33 permanent and numerous other “tactical” or movable checkpoints on the Mexican and Canadian frontiers. In the Southwest, checkpoints are typically found on California’s north-south I-5, numerous small highways near Mexico, such as Arizona’s Highway 86, and along I-10 between Tucson and El Paso, Texas. The Border Patrol sometimes puts up movable checkpoints on I-10 between Phoenix and Los Angeles, but it’s rare to encounter one.

Drug-sniffing dogs at some of the checkpoints, especially the ones south of Tucson and through Texas, find literally tons of marijuana being smuggled from Mexico.

But the Border Patrol and other law enforcement officials in the Southwest report that no checkpoints in the United States bust as many small-time marijuana users as the ones near Yuma, on I-8 and Arizona 95.

The Supreme Court ruled that roadside drug checkpoint are unconstitutional, so the prohibitionists are getting around that by using these so-called immigration checkpoints.  So now in the United States, if you’re within one hundred miles of the Canadian or Mexican border, you’d better be careful driving around with any weed in your car.  Isn’t it good to know that your taxpayer dollars are diverted to placing National Guard and Border Patrol cops on the freeways to stop vacationing tokers with a small baggie of pot?

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-03-13

Today is Cannabis and the Law Day here at the Stash and coming up after the news we speak with Allen St. Pierre, the Executive Director of NORML, about a frightening new drug war tactic being employed in Arizona.

Cannabis Karri brings us got some great music from a Stash favorite, Highah Seekah, who returns to the show with a reggae joint called “Light Dat Ting”.

And to conclude our show, we replay our interview with John Lucy IV, a criminal defense attorney in Portland, Oregon., who answers your questions about cannabis and the law.

We’ve got a lot to cover, so sit back and relax with your favorite strain and enjoy your Daily Audio Stash…