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Dr. Carl Hart, Dr. Wendy Chapkis, Philippe Lucas, and Paul Armentano (among others) discussing medical marijuana’s future at the DPA Reform Conference in Albuquerque.
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 6:49 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Jessica Corry – Huffington Post) Denver is a city in love with its newspapers. Even in 2009, many residents still cling to the scent and grime of fresh newspaper print. But as the recent loss of the city’s beloved Rocky Mountain News still lingers, the focus now turns to saving the publications remaining. In an ironic twist of fate worthy of its own front page feature, essential revenue could come from the most unlikely of sources. Marijuana.
Denver’s top alternative weekly, Westword, gets it. On both sides of its most recent edition’s back cover, 32 medical marijuana dispensaries advertised their services. In addition, in the publication’s “alternative healing” section, nearly nine additional pages were packed with similar plugs.
While the Denver Post has run a series of front page stories over the last month chronicling the brewing debate over how or whether to increase regulations on dispensaries, it has been slower getting into the advertising game, running quarter page ads from a handful of dispensaries, with plans to expand advertising access through a special section devoted to dispensaries and other alternative health outlets.
While most of American business is mired in a rut, for medical marijuana providers in California and Colorado, business is booming. But it’s not just the sales of marijuana that provide jobs and tax revenue to the state. There are also all the construction, advertising, rent, utilities, and other expenses these businesses pay that creates jobs for others. At Oregon’s Cannabis Café, which doesn’t sell any cannabis at all, they are doing the same amount of business in a day that used to take all week to generate, and that’s just the sales of café food and beverages. The café also charges a monthly membership fee and a cover charge minimum at the door.
This is why I always scoff at estimates of money to be made from legalization of cannabis. I believe those estimates are extraordinarily conservatove and don’t even begin to factor in all the ancillary industries that will be formed to support the legal cannabis market. The increase in sales of Ziploc baggies alone could bring enough tax revenue to hire more teachers and cops or fix some roads.
Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 12:15 pm | By: Radical Russ
(NY Times via CNBC) Among the 14 states with medical marijuana laws, Colorado has experienced particularly brisk growth in the stores. From fewer than two dozen dispensaries in the state in January, there are now more than 60 just in Denver and nearby Boulder, and more than 10,000 registered medical marijuana patients statewide, according to reports in Westword, a Denver alternative weekly.
Now a business that has nothing to do with cannabis is aiming its ads at medical marijuana patients. A new print ad — by TDA Advertising and Design of Boulder — for Hapa Sushi, a restaurant chain based in Boulder, features a map of Denver and Boulder with 63 dots. Four dots are red, representing the four Hapa locations, and the remaining 59 are blue, representing medical marijuana dispensaries, some of which, it turns out, are just a stone’s throw from the restaurants. The ad was to appear Thursday in the Denver/Boulder edition of The Onion and in Westword later in the month.
“We’re just kind of saying, ‘Look, these dispensaries exist and they’re becoming part of our community, so let’s welcome them in and have some fun,’ ” said Mark Van Grack, owner of Hapa Sushi, a privately held, 10-year-old chain. “If you’re going to smoke pot, you’re going to get the munchies, so come to Hapa to eat.”
And when it comes to tasty munchies, you can’t get much healthier than sushi. (Denver’s one of the few landlocked states where I’ll eat sushi, since they have a major airport just a couple of hours from the coast by air.)
Once again, the business world can’t get enough of the power of pot. There is so much economic opportunity locked up in the underground marijuana market and the money sharks can smell it.
It’s not just the revenues that could be made by taxing cannabis and the savings from not prosecuting its users. It’s also the ancillary businesses that would thrive in a legal marijuana market – glassblowers, paper mills, timber mills (for hemp pressboard), farmers, retailers, restaurants, and so on – and the jobs they would create. It’s also the extra cash freed up for other purchases; if a guy used to paying $400 an ounce is soon paying $100, even with taxes, he can afford to buy some more clothes or go out to a dinner and a movie. Or maybe some sushi.
Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 10:52 am | By: Radical Russ
(Denver Post) Leo Cisneros was sentenced to 15 years in prison today for selling marijuana out of his family’s Denver apartment, nearly two months after a jury found him not guilty of child abuse resulting in the death of his daughter, Auralia.
Cisneros, 31, was convicted of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and having a gun while dealing drugs.
Three men tried to force themselves into the Cisneros family home the night Auralia was killed and they exchanged gunfire with Leo Cisneros. Auralia was shot in the face in the crossfire.
The intruders — Trivi Trujillo, Joshua Rojas and Juvencio Hernandez — all pleaded guilty in the case and are serving between 16 and 24 years in prison.
I’m not saying it’s a good idea to deal a pound of weed per week out of your apartment when your little girl is living there. What I’m saying is that it is unjust to sentence a man who was selling a non-toxic substance to willing customers to one year less than a man who violates the sanctity of your home, guns blazing, and kills your child.
Of course, I’ve always had a problem with how we sentence pre-meditated violence in our country compared to other crimes. To me, there is no greater crime than assaulting or killing another human being. There should certainly be some temperance when we’re talking about spontaneous or emotional violence, but when someone coldly plans to physically harm another person, I’ve got a “one strike and you’re out” policy.
For example, take Bernie Madoff. A really rich guy suckers some other really rich people into throwing away more money than I’ll ever see on a too-good-to-be-true Ponzi scheme. The really rich people who were snookered lost a lot, but it’s not like you’re going to see Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon standing with a “Will Act for Food” sign at a freeway onramp anytime soon. And it’s not as if once this was all revealed, Bernie Madoff was going to be able to pull it off again. But for the sake of preserving society and punishing Madoff, he’s sentenced to 150 years and will never see the light of day again.
But if Bernie Madoff were just Bernie the Child Molester or Bernie the Rapist or Bernie the Murderer, depending on the circumstances he would likely be out of prison in three-to-six years. We have mandatory minimum sentences for people who sell drugs to other people who willingly buy them, but no such mandates for people who rape, assault, and kill innocent others. We have jails and prisons that are at 200% capacity, being ordered by federal courts to release tens of thousands of prisoners, but they can’t release the non-violent drug offenders because of the mandatory minimums, so thieves and violent offenders must be set free.
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 4:23 pm | By: Radical Russ
DENVER (CBS4) ? A marijuana investigation turned out to be just a big waste of time for a Colorado sheriff’s department but the sheriff says he’s working with the best information he’s allowed to use.
Summit County Sheriff John Minor says the problem is a lack of clear state rules on medical marijuana. The bust that went wrong used up several days of police work, but he says it was the best they could do with the information they had available. It turned out the growing operation was legal.
“We follow the law, but when the law is so ambiguous, it’s difficult,” Minor said. “Six or seven out of the last 10 in the last 6 months have all been legitimate operations.”
It’s been a perfect storm for law enforcement. Growers don’t have to register with the state, so officers don’t know what they are investigating until after they obtain a search warrant.
I think this story could’ve just begun and ended with “A marijuana investigation turned out to be just a big waste of time.” When at least 60% of your criminal investigations aren’t criminals, you know you’ve got a big problem. It used to be so easy for police: see marijuana, bust people, end of story. Now they have to go through the trouble of determining whether that grower is lawfully providing medicine for sick people, or breaking the law by providing it to healthy people.
It’s funny to me how Colorado police are freaking out about the explosion of dispensaries in Colorado, the inability to bust the plethora of Colorado grows because so many are legal, and the massive increase in registered medical marijuana cardholders. So, in essence, your problems are businessmen who used to sell pot now want to do so legally, people that grow pot now want to do so legally, and people who use pot now want to do so legally. In what other public policy arena aside from marijuana are law enforcement frustrated by more people who want to obey the law?
Maybe the people of Colorado can convince their law enforcement that the problem isn’t that the limited legalization of marijuana for medical purposes creates gray areas in the law that non-medical users can exploit with impunity. The problem is that medical marijuana is too limited to protect the majority of marijuana consumers who simply want to enjoy marijuana legally and not go to jail. The problem isn’t that medical marijuana wastes police resources, it’s that busting people for marijuana wastes police resources.
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 9:05 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Denver Post) Demand for medical marijuana in Colorado has grown so fast in the past few months that it has outstripped the production of legal “grow” operations and is now probably being supplied by international drug cartels, say some local sheriffs and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Dispensaries are popping up like mushrooms,” said DEA special agent-in-charge Jeffrey Sweetin. “Now we have thousands of 20- to 25-year-olds carrying cards. And the cartels are getting rich off this law.”
Once again, our medically-trained law enforcement officers are able on casual visual inspection alone to determine that young adults do not suffer from cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, cachexia; severe pain; severe nausea; seizures, or persistent muscle spasms. You know, we could just end this health care crisis and cut costs drastically by just having our police handle all medical screening from now on. Why bother with expensive scanners and tests when a DEA agent can just look at a 23-year-old woman and know she doesn’t have endometriosis, epilepsy, or an eating disorder?
Legal grow operations linked to dispensaries are limited to six cannabis plants each.
By contrast, most of the street pot comes from big, outdoor grows, such as the three operations — within a 5-mile radius of Chatfield Reservoir — busted by DEA officials last summer. Sweetin said one grow had 14,000 plants that averaged 5 to 6 feet tall.
He said the average illegal indoor grow is 100 to 200 plants averaging 3 feet tall.
“The numbers don’t seem to add up to me,” [said Sheriff Bill Masters of San Miguel County.] “It seems difficult to supply people with the number of plants allowed. My suspicions are that marijuana might be coming from other growers.”
“Supply (of marijuana) is not directly addressed in (state law), and we think it’s one of the areas that could lead to criminal elements being involved,” said Longmont city attorney Eugene Mei, noting that the city is seeking a 90-day moratorium on new dispensaries.
Let’s see, your demand from legal users is outpacing your supply from legal growers, a situation you deduce is sending profits to illegal growers. Well, the way I see it, there are two ways to address this problem:
Reduce the demand from legal users, or
Increase the supply from legal growers.
#1 is a fool’s errand we call the War on Drugs. Restricting the number of people able to get a medical marijuana card isn’t going to stop a medical user (or a recreational one, for that matter,) from going to the black market to score some cannabis. The people who have cards now were most likely using marijuana prior to having a card anyway, so the legal growers, even if they aren’t supplying the whole market, are taking a cut from the whole market that didn’t exist before.
#2, however, takes a direct bite out of the drug gangs’ pocketbook. You don’t want Mexican marijuana in Colorado dispensaries? Then let more Coloradans grow more Rocky Mountain marijuana!
Finally, if they think we’re buying schwaggy Mexican brick weed – the main product of the Mexican drug gangs – at Colorado dispensaries, they have never experienced the Colorado I know.
(NY Times) Westword, an alternative weekly newspaper in Denver, has the standard lineup of film, food and music critics. But in what may be a first for American journalism, the paper is shopping around for a medical marijuana critic.
The idea is not to assess the green stuff itself, but to review the dispensaries that have sprouted like, um, weeds in Denver this year.
“We want to see what kind of place it is, how well they care for you and also how sketchy the place is,” said Patricia Calhoun, editor of Westword. “Do they actually look at your medical marijuana card? Do they let you slip some cash under the counter and bypass the rules?”
“It is the wild west of medical marijuana out here,” Ms. Calhoun said. “There were a couple of dozen dispensaries this spring, and now it’s over 100. We just heard there’s going to be a drive-through dispensary.”
Dispensaries promote different strains with distinctive flavors — there are, after all, marijuana snobs just as there are wine snobs — and some mix their wares into foods like hummus, pesto and chocolate. So why not critique the cannabis, too?
“It could well be that we will be reviewing the product itself, eventually,” she said.
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 4:13 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Westword) Rob and Jessica Corry aren’t normal Republicans, but the Corrys did spend time last weekend as NORML Republicans at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws’s 38th annual conference in San Francisco. Rob, a Denver attorney who specializes in marijuana cases, and Jessica, a public-policy analyst with the right-wing Independence Institute, were there to encourage other Republicans to end the laws that make marijuana illegal and to discuss pot, parenting and morals in general. The couple (who have also been blogging on the subject for the Denver incarnation of the liberal Huffington Post website) say there’s nothing more immoral than bankrupting their children’s future by spending billions of dollars on the war on drugs, and Jessica, who’s never shied away from a controversial topic, notes that she’s received more response to her pro-marijuana mom stance than any other.
NORML advocates believe the current recession and changing attitudes toward marijuana — medical or otherwise — have created a political climate that may allow politicians on either side of the aisle to get behind pot reform laws. After all, retired Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo, Texas congressman Ron Paul and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson all are on record as endorsing the legalization of pot. And Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett has also been edging in that direction. As the Democrat told Westword last week, “Legalizing marijuana entirely would be the simplest way to resolve the tension between the Constitution and the criminal statutes and I expect that, eventually, most states will decide to do so.”
Rob & Jessica’s participation in the Pot & Parenting panel at NORML CON was outstanding, as Jessica even mentioned my call to inform her of her selection as a High Times Freedom Fighter of the Month (coming next issue) as one of her proudest achievements, and a source of jealousy from her husband Rob!
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Friday, September 11th, 2009 at 5:24 pm | By: Radical Russ
A defense attorney for Leo Cisneros accused the Denver police this morning of planting drugs in a child’s pocket and of conducting sloppy investigative work, and criticized them for focusing on the victim of a crime rather than the perpetrators.
Cisneros is charged with reckless child abuse resulting in death of his 10-year-old daughter, Auralia Cisneros, and possession of marijuana with intent to sell. He faces more than 50 years in prison if he is convicted.
Auralia was shot in the face about 10:30 p.m. on Nov. 26, 2007, during a shootout between her father and three men who tried to break into the front door of their west Denver apartment.
The robbers — Trivi Trujillo, Joshua Rojas and Juvencio Hernandez — have all pleaded guilty in the case and are serving or are expected to serve between 16 and 24 years in prison.
Wait a minute. Three guys come breaking into your home, you defend yourself with your 2nd Amendment-protected firearm in a manner considered lawful under Colorado’s “Make My Day” law, your innocent daughter is killed in the crossfire, and you face twice as much time in prison as the three sociopaths because you deal small amounts of weed?
What’s the lesson here? Yeah, I know, the prohibitionists would say “don’t deal pot.” But if you do, are they telling us that a dead child is what you deserve? If you’re dealing pot, let the gun-wielding trio of robbers come right on it, take whatever they like, and do to you and your ten-year-old daughter whatever they want?
She also told the jurors the robbers admitted they didn’t know whether Cisneros had drugs to steal before they broke in.
Police have testified that Auralia had a baggie of marijuana that she was clutching in her hands, inside her pants pocket at the time of her death.
Menninger told the jury that Auralia’s mother, a Denver police officer who was one of the first on the scene, and a neighbor who helped give Auralia CPR, all testified that Auralia’s hands were across her chest when she died and were not in her pocket.
By the time the coroner got on the scene, he testified that he pulled Auralia’s hand out of her pocket and found the baggie.
The defense asserts that the Denver PD planted the marijuana on Auralia, which the prosecution denies, of course. The prosecution also contends that Cisneros’s gun was the one that fired the bullet that killed Auralia, but since Denver PD didn’t bother to trace the trajectories of the bullets from all the weapons (don’t they watch C.S.I. in Denver?), nobody can prove that one way or the other.
The robbers weren’t going after Cisneros because they knew he dealt weed; they were just robbers looking to steal whatever they could find. So Cisneros’s pot dealing is irrelevant. He could have been drinking cans of Coors Light when the bad guys broke in. But because Coors Light is legal and cannabis is not, Cisneros is looking at spending the rest of his life behind bars grieving for his lost daughter.
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. […]
Stash for Fri, Nov 20, 2009
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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