Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 1:02 pm | By: Radical Russ
(KETV) SAUNDERS COUNTY, Neb. — Police officers in Ashland, Neb., seized 150 pounds of marijuana during a traffic stop Wednesday night on Highway 6.
The seizure was the largest in Saunders County history, said Ashland police.
He said the incident started when police stopped [a] conversion van driving erratically. When the officer approached the van and saw several bags of marijuana in plain view, he called for assistance, police said.
[Ashland Police Chief Mark] Powell said multiple agencies responded to that call. The drugs were in duffel bags found throughout the vehicle, police said.
Three men in the van were Christopher Ryan, Irvin Dana Beal and James Statzer.
All three are being held in Saunders County Jail and are suspected of drug possession with intent to deliver, officers said. They all face charges of possession with intent to deliver.
Beal is a political activist who has advocated for marijuana legalization in the U.S.
Authorities said Ryan and Statzer are being held on $100,000 bond each. Beal is being held on $500,000 bond.
Yes, it is the word of a police officer, but if indeed there were bags of marijuana “in plain view”, then add this story to our pile of Stupid Stoner Stories.
Few stories I’ve written have generated as much firestorm as this one. Check out the coverage on CelebStoner, where I’m being called “an asshole” (three times), “Smellville”, “a fool”, and being threatened with an assault-by-pie.
I even received a phone call from a New York activist who I met at the NORML CON last week. He was at least civil and explained to me that Beal has been providing very low-cost marijuana (”$3-$7 per gram”… that’s still $85 to $200 per ounce) for medical patients on the East Coast. So I apologize for any insinuation that Beal was making a luxury living as a weed dealer charging prohibition profits to average pot consumers.
What I’m upset about isn’t necessarily Beal in particular, but the general issue of a “record bust” of a prominent activist returning from NORML CON. Every day I beat back prohibitionists who say that medical marijuana, especially in California, is being abused by criminals that are hiding behind the lax statutes to cover their interstate trafficking. The average reader doesn’t know Beal has a history of altruism and support of desperately sick people; they just see “150lbs of marijuana” being trafficked by one of our own coming back from an activist conference in California. They see a “legalizer” and assume he’s getting rich by drug dealing and it taints the message we’re all trying to deliver.
Friday, October 2nd, 2009 at 7:34 pm | By: Radical Russ
Dana Beal (immediately to right of Madeline Martinez in red) at Russ Belville's "Tools for Activists" breakout panel at NORML CON 2009
(CelebStoner) New York marijuana activist Dana Beal has been arrested again in the Midwest, this time with 150 pounds of pot. Nebraska police apprehended Beal and two others in a van on Wednesday in Ashland near Interstate 80 (just West of Omaha) after the vehicle was stopped for driving erratically. Bail was set at $500,000.
Beal was last seen in San Francisco at the NORML Conference. Presumably, he was driving back from California when the bust took place.
The Cures Not Wars founder has had numerous run-ins with the law, the most recent of which came last June when Illinois authorities confiscated a small amount of marijuana and $150,000 from him. This past May, Beal pled guilty to the pot charge and paid a fine, but the cash was not returned.
Beal organizes the annual Global Marijuana March each May.
Dana Beal was in the front row of my break-out session Saturday at NORML CON. Before we started he asked for a moment to address the attendees regarding the Worldwide Marijuana March.
It was my first opportunity to meet him and thank him personally for the march. It was at the Portland March in 2005 where I first met Madeline Martinez and this whole crazy career of mine started into motion.
One hundred fifty pounds of cannabis, huh? Unless that’s personal use for a lifetime, it looks like Dana was trying to make a living off of prohibition. When you’re a high-profile activist, a trafficking bust like this doesn’t really help the cause much. It kinda erodes the moral high ground to be rallying to end prohibition because it gives young people a criminal record on the one hand, but then profiting from the black market excise tax those young people will pay to buy marijuana on the other hand.
I hope everything goes well for Dana; he is a very nice gentleman and I’d like a chance to see him again someday.
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Adam Scorgie, filmmaker behind “The Union: The Business Behind Getting High”, with revelations of growers who hope for stronger sentences against marijuana smokers, as it boosts the revenue.
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Tonight I will be a guest on Cannabis Common Sense, which you can watch live on the intertubes at UStream.tv. One hour live call-in show starts at 8pm Pacific / 11pm Eastern – phone number is 503-288-4448. If you call in, tell the phone screener (Andrew) that “Radical” Russ loves the Cheese (it’s a double inside joke – I’m a Packers fan and I love a strain he grows called “Cheese” and I didn’t even know it was called that). Or don’t, but call in anyway. It will be fun to hear from Stashers nationwide. — “R”R
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The Missouri NORML/SSDP Annual Conference is this weekend and Allen St. Pierre is on his way to the Show Me State. I’m going to spend the weekend doing my corporate taxes. One of us is going to have much more fun.
Today’s Stash features a special interview with Vanessa Nelson, author of Cool Madness: The Trial of Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer. We covered Dr. Fry’s ordeal here on the Stash and Vanessa goes deep into the looking glass absurdities that plague a trial that begins with the premise that you can’t mention anything about medical marijuana in a state where it is legal.
Also, Steve Bloom drops by to discuss the close of Phelps Week and the insinuations and depictions of marijuana smoking in the new Friday the 13th remake… was Jason supposed to be a homicidal pot farmer?
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Today’s Stash features an interview with our Daily Toker Tunes artist, Potluck!
We’ve also got Steve Bloom from Celebstoner with the latest on the hockey team that’s having “Don’t Be Like Mike” night and another NFL stoner.
Dominic Holden from The Stranger is here to discuss the Kerlikowske appointment as Drug Czar.
And my parents are driving in from Boise! They’ve come to see my brother, former Stash music director “Less Than Radical” Josh, starring in a play here in Stumptown. It will be good to see the whole famn damily. Tonight’s Paul Stanford’s TV show, tomorrow is a cardholder meeting, a play, and Valentine’s Day, Sunday is the Oregon NORML TV show, and then Monday I’m back here. Whee!
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It’s been a full day of graphic design, conference calls, web design, and flurries of email, all to take full advantage of the weekend press on the Kellogg’s / Phelps story. I even registered http://boycottkelloggs.net and http://boycottkelloggs.org (someone already got .com), but I don’t expect the redirects to the Stash to be active until Monday.
Today we wrap up Phelps Week with Steve Bloom from CelebStoner and me discussing the endorsement deals and comparisons to other CelebStoner athlete. I also have another fantastic essay from Chris Goldstein, this one on George Obama and the racial injustice in America’s war on marijuana users.
Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm | By: Radical Russ
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Olympic great Michael Phelps has acknowledged ”regrettable” behavior and ”bad judgment” after a photo in a British newspaper showed him smoking marijuana.
In a statement released to The Associated Press, the swimmer who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Games conceded the authenticity of the exclusive picture published Sunday by the tabloid News of the World.
Phelps said: ”I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I’m 23 years old and despite the successes I’ve had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again.”
Youthful and inappropriate. Childish things, as our president might say. ”It will not happen again.” Not to get all Clintonian on you, Mike, but does “it” refer to “smoking marijuana” or does “it” refer to “photos surfacing in newspapers showing you smoking marijuana”?
I’ll never understand the mindset that accepts as rational the idea that these world class athletes – Michael Phelps, Ricky Williams, Ross Rebagliati, those Russian sumo, etc. - can dedicate their entire lives to eating right, working out, honing their bodies and minds to the pinnacle of their sport, but should they wish to relax and unwind, they’re forced to ingest a hard liquid drug that has noticably deleterious effects on health and athletic ability (Max McGee notwithstanding) rather than a mild herb that doesn’t seem to have affected their abilities whatsoever.
Even more perplexing is the notion that, in the name of “sports medicine”, these athletes are accustomed to taking all manner of narcotic pain killers and other pharmaceutical cocktails that aid performance or mitigate injury, but are addicting (Brett Favre, *cough*,) and wreak havoc on the liver and kidneys, yet if we catch them smoking weed we have to mete out severe punishment (Santonio Holmes, notwithstanding).
As I look at the coverage on Huffington Post (admittedly, a liberal website) almost all comments are “it’s well past time to legalize it” and “so what” and “didn’t hurt Phelps’ performance any”. Oh, an Obama brother pot bust and an eight-time gold medalist bong photo following ten days of growing drumbeat over President Obama’s non-response to the Tahoe Raid… somebody really did get me a swell birthday present!
RevRayGreen: MASS TWEET THIS -@ChuckGrassley Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer sadness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
RevRayGreen: @ChuckGrassley http://bit.ly/55Ejsi Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer madness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
SneakerPimp: one last thing Puff puff pass to any one who wants it
SneakerPimp: i wanna here about the imminent MiniSpof sounds like time for some
SneakerPimp: im estatic and excited for NSL today.
SneakerPimp: mountain time wake n bake
SneakerPimp: oh yea also wake n bake
SneakerPimp: its central im high as a kite everybody
SneakerPimp: ill grab that WUD
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 [...]
Marijuana-Related Health Costs Minimal Compared To Those Of Alcohol, Tobacco; California Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is A "Failed Public Health Policy"; Oregon: State NORML Affiliate Opens First 'Cannabis Café'. […]
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 nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — 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. […]
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sounds like time for some 
mountain time wake n bake 
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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