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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Roseanne Barr announces candidacy for Green Party presidential nomination
2. Texas Councilman says he gets his marijuana and meth from prostitutes
3. Peter Lewis bankrolls Massachusetts medical marijuana bill

Daily Toker Tunes

Irie Wednesday: Brought to you by NorCalPurps in the California Bay Area

• Katchafire – “Meant to Be”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

• New study underscores that passing medical marijuana laws does not affect teen use of marijuana

Government at Work

• Rep. Patricia Todd working to pass medical marijuana in Alabama legislature

Butane hash oil cannot kill you... but making it can! (photo: Concept420.com)

A fire in a Northern California Apartment building left an 18-year-old in critical condition with severe burns and 10 residents homeless on Tuesday night. The apartment building was left completely charred and firefighters are blaming a BHO extraction kit that they found as the reason the fire got out of control, but say it is too early to tell if it was the cause of the fire that devastated the building, which did about $500,000 dollars in damage and will take about four to six months before residents can move back in.

Firefighters were called to the scene on Tuesday night around 7pm. At that point, the fire was coming from a second story apartment building. They immediately took an 18-year-old with serious burns covering about 60 percent of his body away by helicopter to a burn unit along with a female who suffered from inhalation burns. The unidentified 18-year-old is currently in critical condition.

But it is what they found on their initial entry to battle the blaze that caused firefighters to pull out and call for a warrant and the Humboldt County Bomb Squad. The firefighters had mis-identified a plastic pipe in the apartment with a cap on each end and holes drilled in it as a possible pipe bomb. Firefighters found the device inside a bedroom closet in the apartment where the fire originated.

The bomb squad showed up with a robot to retrieve the item.  Bomb technicians took three hours to remove the suspicious device before they deemed it posed no threat and the firefighters could go back inside the building to extinguish the last of the blaze. They had been using long hoses, and had punched some holes in the building to try and fight the fire while the bomb technicians did their job.

Over 70 percent of the fire was due to the delay of the firefighters not being able to enter the building as the fire from the apartment caught the attic on fire, then spread to other parts of the building.

Fire Chief Investigator Todd Wilcox said that the steps to get a warrant before the bomb squad had entered the apartment were necessary so that anything they found could be used as evidence in a potential prosecution.  He added that they had to tread carefully, if they had found a body in the building it would have been a homicide investigation.

Fire investigators don’t think the hashish extractor is the source of the actual fire, since the device was still intact when the bomb technician removed it. Firefighters did find butane canisters in the apartment, a possible source for ignition of the original fire, and residents reported hearing an explosion before seeing flames and smoke. One resident thinks it could have been a faulty water heater. The investigation is underway into the cause of that fire. Investigators have also forwarded that they found a possible hash making operation to the Humboldt County District Attorney for possible criminal charges.

External Links:
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_19875639

With several legalization ballot measures in California, all of them are competing for the attention of rich billionaires in hopes of having a shot at getting their question onto the California 2012 November ballot. The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine campaign just released their finance records that showed they only have $80,000 in cash. They are just one of several cannabis law reform measures that are looking to secure financing.

The numbers for getting any measure on the ballot in California and others states are staggering. They need to have 504,760 valid signatures, meaning in reality they will need at least 750,000 signatures to have that many deemed valid. The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine initiative currently has only 30,000 signatures gathered. Getting that many signatures costs about $1.5 million, but if they wait a few more weeks before the April 20th deadline to get all those signatures, that month is so busy for the signature gathering firms that their prices often quadruple during those weeks, pushing the bill to gather those signatures up to as much as $5 million to get.

With this much at stake, there are a few billionaires that everyone is trying to contact. George Soros, Peter Lewis, Napster co-founder Sean Parker and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz have all given big in the past to reform efforts. Chris Roberts of the San Francisco Weekly wrote that Peter Lewis was asked by activist Mickey Martin for $1.5 million to fund a legalization measure, his emailed reply was that his research has led him to conclude that the time has not yet come for legalization. A quote from that email, “I believe that if the issue you want to pass isn’t polling well above 60% in favor before the election, there is no chance to pass it. California is not there yet.”

A recent poll showed that California might actually be there. A statewide poll done this week surveyed 800 likely voters and found that 62 percent would vote yes on the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol measure if voting today, with only 3% saying they were unsure. Only 35% said they would vote no. A full 80% of those polled agreed to this statement, “State and federal drug laws are outdated and have failed, therefore, we need to take a new approach that makes sense for today”. The surprising results of the poll have been a boost in the confidence of the groups to court more financial backers now. Those numbers are similar to the polling numbers for prop 215 from sixteen years ago, and much higher than Prop 19 was polling at this time.

External Links:

http://regulatemarijuanalikewine.com/poll-reveals-62-of-california-voters-want-marijuana-regulated-like-wine/

Click for the full lineup of The NORML Network

Next weekend we will be bringing you live coverage of the HIGH TIMES Medical Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles.  Tune in to http://live.norml.org on Saturday, Feb 11 and Sunday, Feb 12 from Noon to 7pm Pacific Time for free live coverage of the panels, the expo floor, and interviews with cannabis culture celebrities.

If you plan on attending the event, get your tickets online NOW – they sell out fast!  Use the promo code CANORML to get a special 40% discount for supporters of The NORML Network!

We will be holding our Special “4:20 Somewhere” Raffle both days at the Cannabis Cup.  Tickets are $5 at the event or five for $20 and the proceeds benefit The NORML Network.  We’ll have six raffles each day for over $2,000 worth of prizes and your ticket is good for every raffle until you win or the last raffle ends.  You need not be present to win, but you must pick up your prizes at the event; we will not ship them or hold them after 7pm Sunday.

We will announce the winning ticket numbers at :20 after on our live coverage (which you can view on our Ustream app for your iPhone or Android), through our @NORMLNet Twitter account (so follow us!), by text message to your cell (if you write your number on your tickets), and on a whiteboard at our merch desk.

These packages may change by event time… most likely, they’ll get better as we get donations from other vendors to add!

Online viewers can also get in on a piece of the action.  At every raffle, we will randomly select one of our @NORMLNet Twitter followers to win a “Schwag” prize pack.  In the last three raffles of the day, we’ll add an autographed NORML banner signed by the whole NORML SHOW LIVE crew, HIGH TIMES crew, and other cannabis celebrities.

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Attorney General Holder grilled by House Republicans over testimony in Operation Fast & Furious investigation
2. Oregon case reiterates that freshly harvested marijuana is neither plant nor usable marijuana under Oregon’s medical marijuana law
3. Update on Veterans for Weed story – they’ve changed their name to Veterans for Weed United

Daily Toker Tunes

Groovin’ Thursday: Brought to you by The Ganja Jon Show

• Wiz Khalifa – “You Take Me (feat. Wale)”

Southern California Scene with Hollywood Hemptress Tere Joyce

• Dan Hanken from the Cannabis Clubs United with Community activist group

Grassroots Activism

• Cultivation legend Jorge Cervantes promoting new DVD via Skype in Barcelona, Spain

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access
Standard Podcast Feed (27.5MB 64Kbps) | High-Def Podcast Feed (82.5MB 192Kbps)
Download audio file (NORML_SHOW_LIVE_2012-XXXX.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. NYPD has 7th straight year of marijuana arrest increase, over 50,000 busted for pot
2. Veterans for Weed groups sparks outrage from POW likeness in logo, similarity to Veterans of Foreign Wars acronym
3. Fort Collins lawsuit challenges ban on dispensaries
4. FBI chainsaws through wrong apartment in raid, terrifying mother and toddler
5. Joan Rivers smokes pot on camera in her new reality show

Daily Toker Tunes

Irie Wednesday: Brought to you by NorCalPurps in the California Bay Area

• Winstrong & DJ Jacques – “Free Weed”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

• Israeli study shows promise of cannabinoids in treatment of cancer

Radical Rant

• Big Pharma’s lobbying power shows incentive to oppose medical marijuana in Washington

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department has made the decision to cancel the county’s medical marijuana collective permit program. Last week, the Mendocino Board of Supervisors voted to end the permitting program that had been in place for registering cannabis collectives. The Supervisors have been discussing ending the permit process in recent meetings, citing pressure from the US Attorney’s office that warned them that their cannabis collective permitting laws were at odd with federal law.

The popular program in Mendocino County, California, allowed growers of cannabis collectives to grow up to 99 plants at a time after registering the grow site and allowing sheriffs to do a monthly inspection on the plants which had to be individually identified with a zip tie. The program has been in place for two years, and last year, thanks to the inspection fees the Mendocino Sheriff’s Department collected $633,230 last year alone certifying that marijuana grown under the permits was for medical purposes only.  County Law limits patients or caregivers to 12 plants, so the law will now revert to that, so legal medical gardens in Mendocino county will now be limited to 12 plants.

Federal Attorneys in California have been cracking down on medical marijuana operators, sending dozens of threatening letters warning operators and landlords that they will face lawsuits or even jail if they don’t shut down. Prosecutors have said that their goal is to eliminate cannabis operations that have no ties to medical uses, and to get dispensaries away from schools and parks. Officials said that the move to eliminate the collectives would not financially affect any other county departments.

The Mendocino Sheriff’s Department that will lose all that revenue has said they will not be laying off any deputies due to the short-fall. In speaking to the SanFrancisco Chronicle, Sheriff Tom Allman from the Mendocino Sheriff’s Department said that the move didn’t take every tool from his toolbox. He said they still offer voluntary zip-tie permits for about $25 dollars a piece, down from $50 they charged under the program. He said that last year they raised about $60,000 just with that. He said, “”There is still time for more to happen between now and April, around the growing season, when we usually collect our fees, but I certainly see this as a step backward.”

External Links:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/28/MNQN1MUQUV.DTL#ixzz1l4r7Q8r0

New applications had stopped being processed in December when a ruling in a state appeals court said that California cities violated federal laws by regulating and permitting medical marijuana. (Pack vs City of Long Beach).  But that ruling was vacated when the California Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal, and San Francisco’s city attorney gave the health department their blessing  to resume its program on Jan. 20.  However, the department announced last week that all applications were still on hold indefinitely.

The agency did use the time off of the program to clarify some rules. Existing dispensaries must sign a statement swearing that all medical marijuana sold on-site is cultivated in California and comes from a grower who is a member of the dispensary’s nonprofit collective. Medical marijuana-laced food produced by companies outside San Francisco that is now being sold at many dispensaries throughout the Bay Area are banned at the city dispensaries. Also in the memo from Larry Kessler, a senior inspector at the health department who runs the dispensary program, says dispensaries may not sell or distribute medical cannabis or medical cannabis products produced by commercial enterprises or by another collective/cooperative.

San Francicso was the first city in California to license dispensaries in 2005 by the Board of Supervisors. The city has 21 medical marijuana businesses.

External Links:
http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2012/01/san-francisco-medical-marijuana-licensing-program-resumes#ixzz1l5AUXwYY

Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Montana rep mentioned in DEA conspiracy investigation
2. Mendocino County Sheriffs end medmj garden zip-tie program
3. San Francisco resumes collective permitting; man busted for crumbs of marijuana in car
4. 62% Californians support legalization initiative

Daily Toker Tunes

Electric Tuesday: Brought to you by Cannabis Cure UK – the reform podcast for the United Kingdom

• Da Blaknix – “Raise it Up, Blaze it Up”

Todd’s Toker Topics

• Labels

Grassroots Activism

• Subcool from TGA Genetics with show and tell of new clothing line and great marijuana buds

LOS ANGELES – A recent poll reveals that California voters, by a 62% to 35% margin, with 3% unsure, support a ballot initiative to regulate marijuana like wine.

The statewide poll, by Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin, Metz & Associates, Inc. surveyed 800 likely voters and found that 80% of the respondents agreed to the statement, “State and federal drug laws are outdated and have failed, therefore, we need to take a new approach that makes sense for today.”

Voters in California will have an opportunity to take that new approach this November with the Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012 (RMLW), which will allow the state to regulate and tax marijuana and hemp.

The California Attorney General has projected “savings of potentially several tens of millions of dollars annually to state and local governments of the costs of incarcerating and supervising certain marijuana offenders,” as well as potentially generating “hundreds of millions of dollars in net additional tax revenues related to the production and sale of marijuana products.“

Likely voters also agree (by a margin of 71% to 24%) that state and local law enforcement agencies spend too much time, money and resources enforcing marijuana laws.

RMLW Treasurer and Congressional Candidate (CA-33^rd) Steve Collett hailed the poll results as evidence of widespread support for ending marijuana prohibition in California and nationwide. “There is no policy that is more discriminatory or wastes more tax dollars. This initiative helps farmers, reduces prison overcrowding, relieves burdens on the courts, generates revenues for the state, and frees up police to work on real crimes.”

Jack Cole, co-founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a 50,000 member organization of police, prosecutors, judges, and supporters, said, “LEAP believes the citizens of California are far ahead of the federal government in assessing a policy that will reduce death, disease, crime, and corruption, when they register 62% support for the initiative Regulate Marijuana Like Wine.”