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Hemp Headlines

1. Philadelphia could save $3 million annually by ending marijuana mug shots
2. Michigan law enforcement’s job more difficult because they can’t just arrest everyone found with marijuana anymore
3. Smell of pot dooms indoor marijuana grow near LAPD station

Daily Toker Tunes

• Groovin’ Thursday: B-Real – “Fire”

Southern California Scene with Tere Joyce

• Degé Coutee from Patients Advocacy Network on the battle of LA County dispensaries

(USA Today) Tim Lincecum of the San Francisco Giants won his second consecutive National League Cy Young Award Thursday, becoming the first repeat winner in the major leagues since Randy Johnson won four times from 1999 to 2002.

Lincecum got 11 of 32 first-place votes and 100 points overall in the voting by the Baseball Writers Association of America and beat the St. Louis Cardinals’ Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright in one of the closest races in the award’s history. Carpenter had nine first-place votes and 94 points, and Wainwright had 12 first-place votes and 90 points.

Yes, the same guy who was popped in Washington State for a personal amount of weed is the best pitcher in the National League for two years in a row.  We begin the year with eight-time gold medalist Michael Phelps smoking a bong and we end the year with two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum smoking a bowl.  Can we finally dispense with the notion that marijuana smoking turns you into an unaccomplished slacker loser?

(Los Angeles Times) In the end, despite a sophisticated filtration system, it was the smell that smoked out the marijuana-growing operation located just 25 feet from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Topanga station in Canoga Park.

LAPD officials said officers began noticing the smell of pot Tuesday morning, investigated, got warrants and closed down the indoor farm within eight hours.

Three men were taken into custody earlier Wednesday after officers served a search warrant on the warehouse in the 8400 block of Canoga Avenue.

Growers had built three rooms in the building — one for seedlings, another for medium-sized plants and one where harvesting was apparently conducted, police said. The lights were controlled so they wouldn’t overheat, watering systems were automated and oxygen levels were supplemented by carbon dioxide tanks, according to police.

Oh, for the life of me, I cannot even begin to imagine the cognitive processes and critical thinking that went into this particular choice of real estate for this particular commercial venture.  Wait a minute, yes I can…

BRAD: Dude, check it out, I found an awesome place to grow pot!

JEFF: Oh, gnarly!

BRAD: It’s not in the best location, though.

JEFF: I see the globe right there.

BRAD: Well, yeah, it’s in California.  No, dude, I mean, like, it’s right next to the cop shop.  You know, the po-po!  The five-oh!

JEFF: I know that dude.

BRAD: Yeah, so I’m kinda worried that they’ll figure it out and bust us.

JEFF: Those guys are f…

BRAD: You’re right, man.  Besides, check it out, they’ll never figure it out.  I got these awesome air filters and we’ll seal up the whole inside with caulk!

JEFF: Hey, bud, what’s your problem?

BRAD: No, caulk, you know, like you use to seal up window cracks and stuff!

JEFF: Totally.

BRAD: So whaddaya say, are you in, brah?  Look at all this amazing weed, huh?  We’re gonna make a lotta money, dude, and we’re doing it all just 25 feet away from the LAPD!  Are you in?

JEFF: I am today.

(we hear sirens, police bursting in…)

OFFICER HAND: Am I hallucinating here? Just what in the hell do you think you are doing?  What are you people, on dope?

JEFF: You dick!

BRAD:  Aw, this really sucks.  How did you find us?  Hey, you don’t have to hit us!  Ow! Ow!

JEFF: That was my skull! I’m so wasted!

(Thanks to the site MovieWavs.com for what shall be a very entertaining podcast segment!)

SAN DIEGO (10 News) — A judge ruled the identity of a deputy district attorney who has admitted to being a member of a marijuana collective must be released, 10News reported.

On Tuesday, Deputy District Attorney James Pitts confirmed his membership in the now defunct Amsterdam Alternative Care. The collective was one of several shut down after being raided last September.

San Diego resident and Navy veteran Jovan Jackson is being charged with several counts involving possession of medical marijuana and the sale of medical marijuana. If found guilty, Jackson could spend several years in prison.

San Diego defense attorney Gretchen von Helms said it’s easy to see why Jackson’s defense wants to call Pitts as a defense witness.

“If the defense attorney can say, ‘Look, my client’s just doing what your deputy DA’s are doing,’ how in the heck do you prosecute someone like this? That’s a great strategy for the defense attorney,” said von Helms. “What you want to show is that all sorts of normal people utilize medical marijuana. They do so as lawfully as they can.”

Ms. District Attorney Dumanis, even your own deputy DA agrees with Prop 215 and uses medical marijuana in accordance with the law!  Will you do the sensible thing and call off your crusade against medical marijuana, or will you do the petty thing and fire your deputy district attorney?  Either way it works out well for us.  Obviously we’d be thrilled with ending the crusade, but even if she fires Pitts, she opens San Diego up to a lawsuit from a bitter former deputy DA.

(The Snitch) Ignoring the advice of anti-pot City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, two Los Angeles City Council committees yesterday rejected a proposed ban on sales of medical marijuana.

Anti-pot zealots within L.A. city government had coordinated an 18-month assault on the dispensaries, with headline-grabbing pronouncements from media hogs Trutanich and Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley dominating coverage of the issue in recent weeks.

Both Trutanich and Cooley have been widely quoted in the press as claiming that most of the dispensaries are operating in violation of state law. Cooley’s recent declaration that “approximately zero” of the dispensaries were operating legally sent chills and outrage through the medical marijuana community, seeming to echo San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ statement that there are “no such things” as legal dispensaries.

Council members on both committees wrestled with the idea of ignoring the opinion of the city’s top prosecutor. But after four hours of a contentious and heated hearing, council members had heard more than enough.

A crowd of about 400 people filled the main council chamber for the hearing, with the proceedings often becoming raucous. Most of the speakers were medical marijuana supporters, along with a sprinkling of community activists and conservatives who supported the ban.

Marijuana supporters argued that dispensaries should be regulated, not banned, with a reduction in the number of shops and a crackdown on operations that become a public nuisance.

You cannot stuff this genie back into the bottle, Mr. City Attorney and Mr. District Attorney.  The people of Los Angeles like their clean, reliable, diverse selections of cannabis and aren’t going to go back to hiding in shadows and purchasing on a black market.  The economy has grown accustomed to the sales taxes and foot traffic the dispensaries generate.  Technically legal or not, the dispensaries exist, the people are using them, and they are in many cases improving the neighborhoods where they reside.  Instead of tilting at windmills because they don’t personally like cannabis and its users, the city and county should work with medical marijuana activists to come up with sensible regulations that everyone can live with.

(LA Times) Two medical marijuana groups are threatening to sue the city of Los Angeles if the City Council passes an ordinance that bans the sale of medical marijuana. Two council committees are meeting today to try to finish drafting an ordinance that contains the controversial provision.

Dispensary operators have consistently said they are uncertain they could stay open with such a restriction. Most collectives, which are required to be not-for-profit, sell marijuana to their members, but they consider it a donation to reimburse their costs.

The prohibition on sales was written by the city attorney’s office. In a lengthy analysis of state law and court decisions, City Atty. Carmen Trutanich concluded that over-the-counter sales of medical marijuana are not allowed. Instead, he said, collectives are shielded from prosecution only when they are growing it.

Both medical marijuana organizations, the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients and Americans for Safe Access, take issue with Trutanich’s view, saying he has misinterpreted the law and the court decisions.

In other news, City Attorney Trutanich and the City Council have announced plans to close the barn door after the horse has bolted.  Creating some regulations that clearly spelled out the rights and responsibilities of collectives in Los Angeles County is a great plan for 2006 or 2007.  But it is almost 2010 and there are almost 1000 retail outlets selling marijuana in the city.  What do you expect the backlash will be when tens of thousands of Los Angelenos can no longer browse and pick up their marijuana is a safe, indoor, controlled retail outlet, and instead must return to the back alleys and city parks of the black market marijuana dealer?  What will happen when customers accustomed to convenience and quality have to return to waiting for a call-back from “their guy” for a bag of questionable quality and light weight?

For one thing, most of the successful dispensaries will go semi-underground and become delivery services.  The rest will go back to the way things used to run, dealing in the street and through clandestine networks.  The prices will increase, access will decrease, and truly sick and disabled patients will suffer needlessly.

The proliferation of dispensaries in Los Angeles and the unseemly nature of a few of them is not the fault of the entrepreneurs who want to run a legitimate and lawful business and help satisfy a community need.  It is the fault of cowardly and moralistic politicians who refused to take action to implement the will of the people as expressed in Prop 215.

I’m excited to announce the official certification of our newest NORML chapter, Beverly Hills NORML 90210. You can check out the beginnings of their website still in development at http://norml90210.org.

NORML 90210 is headed by Cheryl Shuman, a fascinating woman I first met at the Aspen Legal Seminar.  She has been working in the entertainment field in LA for over two decades and has amassed a list of celebrity contacts and friends who we hope can be motivated to speak out for the cause.  She’s a strong successful woman who perfectly embodies that “stiletto stoner” image that has captured the public imagination this summer.  She’s dealt with media public relations on a professional and personal level in the most stressful of circumstances and will be a natural for presenting NORML’s message.

Cheryl is assisted by Jacek Lentz, an attorney in Los Angeles whom I’ve also met at NORML conferences.  Jacek is an emigrant from Poland who is fiercely dedicated to protecting and expanding freedom here in America.

With the natural brand image of Beverly Hills that suggests wealth, celebrity, and the finest things in life, I look forward to Cheryl and Beverly Hills NORML 90210 showing California and the nation that cannabis is not only becoming mainstream, but it is a symbol of fame, fortune, and success as well.

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-11-09.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Bonnie King reports latest updates on Jack Herer
2. Combining cocaine, alcohol, creates toxic cocaethylene stored in liver, blamed for heart attacks
3. Los Angeles County posts record seizures of marijuana

Daily Toker Tunes

• Roots Monday: Mike Zito – “Little Red Corvette”

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Interview with propositon 215 co-author Richard Eastman.
• Interview with Ian Lloyd, winner of the 2009 GLOBAL MARIJUANA MUSIC AWARD BEST ROCK SINGLE “o’De Poe”

I can’t do any better than MPP’s Bruce Mirken on this one:

(LA Times) Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project, ridiculed the effort. “Let me guess, they set a record number of plant seizures and marijuana has now been eradicated from California?” he quipped.

Mirken said the campaign has caused growers to move from private lands into wilderness areas. “This is an annual exercise in futility. Not only does it not do anything meaningful, it actually makes the problem worse,” he said.

It’s all part of California’s CAMP – Campaign Against Marijuana Planting – which over 27 years has been funding law enforcement to take helicopters into the hills so police can get paid triple time to pull weeds and then fly them all over the wilderness blowing their seeds across the land so the cops can go weeding again next year.  According to the report:

Los Angeles County, which has seen a whirlwind expansion in medical marijuana dispensaries this year, has notched another marijuana milestone. The county has moved to No. 5 for the amount seized in the state’s annual eradication campaign, with 340,187 pot plants uprooted — more than a fourfold increase.

Statewide, the 27-year-old effort, known as the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, found and destroyed almost 4.5 million plants in 41 counties, up from 2.9 million seized in each of the two prior years’ growing season. The amount has climbed steadily since 1996, when California voters approved the nation’s first medical marijuana law.

State officials put the wholesale value of this year’s eradicated marijuana at $17.8 billion.

Let’s see, the standard California sales tax, minus any county or local taxes, is 8.25%, so that eradication represents about $1.46 billion dollars in tax revenues.  Obviously marijuana has not been completely eradicated by CAMP and I think even the cops will tell you they’re only scratching the surface.  Let’s be generous and suppose they’re pulling up 10% of California’s outdoor crop.  That would be $14.6 billion in taxes going uncollected.  It’s even more money if we include indoor grows and figure they’re catching much less than 10% of the crops.

Lou Dog, from Suburban Noize recording group the Kottonmouth Kings, has been named the new assistant director for the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

“I am proud of the appointment and I am prepared to continue lending my energy and resources towards the advancement of the cause,” commented Lou Dog.

The Kottonmouth Kings have been on the frontlines fighting for the legalization of marijuana for over a decade. The group has been acknowledged for their never-ending commitment to spreading awareness and understanding about the plant, marijuana.

The group had previously helped organize a demonstration at the U.S. Federal Building, alongside other pro-cannabis organizations, to protest the federal prosecution of pot users under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The event attracted national media attention and challenged the Bush Administration’s “War on Drugs”.

You can hear Lou on the Oct 26 edition of the Stash as he was on the panel with Tommy Chong and B Real at the Cypress Hill Smokeout.