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Laura Kriho from Colorado420.com discusses Jason Lauve case, a severely injured Colorado medical marijuana patient acquitted in trial that asks “how much medical marijuana is medically necessary and who gets to decide that?”
Dr. Harry Levine from Queens College in New York on how New York City remains the Marijuana Arrest Capital of the World, despite marijuana possession being decriminalized in the state.
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 11:23 am | By: Radical Russ
This week brings more harassment to collectives and patients in San Diego by our local law enforcement. There are now reports from patients that police officers are parking their squad cars outside of collectives to intimidate the members as they go inside to get their medication. This, just weeks after Pierre Tiberius Uggla (a.k.a. San Diego Green Rx Detective Mike Mendez) was caught trying to join two collectives in town and months after Jamie Conlan (a.k.a. San Diego Green Rx Detective Scott Henderson) went to a local doctor and lied to obtain a valid recommendation for medical cannabis then joined all the collectives he could reach listed on the CA NORML.
All this for Operation Green Rx; the intent to target and eliminate all medical cannabis related activity in San Diego as well as help overturn Proposition 215 voted in by the people of California. Operation Green Rx was organized by detectives from the San Diego Police Department’s Narcotics Task force in collaboration with the District Attorney’s office and has been ongoing under one name or another for years in order to thwart the will of the people.
In this operation, detectives go to local doctors, lie about their symptoms, conditions and identities to obtain recommendations for medical cannabis. With these recommendations in-hand, detectives join as many of the collectives and cooperatives they can. The operation usually includes the detectives phoning collectives, providing all pertinent information to prove their status as legitimate patients, and then requesting to join each individual collective. Keep in mind, these collective and their existence is legal under California law.
The undercover officers proceed to request deliveries, make contributions, or pick up medicine form the collectives themselves. Last November the Operation Green Rx team rented and occupied a house in Pacific Beach for this purpose, (I wonder how much that cost the taxpayers?), then three months later, raided over 15 houses, sticking true to their motto of “Let the courts sort it out” at more cost, I might add.
Please visit Eugene’s blog at http://www.operationgreenrx.blogspot.com to follow this case. These rogue cops and DA’s must be forced to obey the will of the California voters who approved Prop 215 and who overwhelmingly support access to medical marijuana.
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Paul Armentano dicusses recent findings in marijuana drug test science that show how marijuana users can quit using and pass, then fail, random drug tests without using again, which proves many people on probation who were sent back to jail for failing a pee test were telling the truth when they said they’d stopped using.
Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 10:02 pm | By: Radical Russ
This is from our guest Friday, Eugene Davidovich, regarding his hearing today:
The preliminary hearing in my case lasted today from 8:15 in the morning until almost 4:30 in the afternoon. After trying to navigate the “Serpentine Roadmap” that makes up our medical marijuana laws with my attorney in court, it appears to be more confusing then ever.
The day started with the prosecutor fighting tooth and nail to not allow the recommendation from my physician to be admitted into the court records proving that I am a qualified patient even though we had subpoenaed the documentation from the doctor’s office, and had a sworn affidavit to support that from the doctor’s custodian of record. My recommendation was admitted although it took a lot of effort from my attorney.
The expert witness Chris Conrad, did get to testify and testified that the collective and the way that it was operating was in fact legal and sanctioned under state law Even though the expert witness who was originally involved in an advisory and consulting capacity in drafting Prop 215 testified to what a collective is and that what I was doing did in fact fall under that definition as intended by the law, the judge did not agree he saw ‘no evidence of a collective” even though the detectives themselves said that I cultivated marijuana based on the equipment they found in my storage unit.
We also found out from Detective Conrado Decastro that this Operation Green Rx was in fact targeting Medical Marijuana Patients and the whole point with Operation Green Rx was to bring down everyone listing their collectives on NORML only later was the name changed to Operation Endless Summer. We also found out that Conrado Decastro is in charge and is the ‘mastermind’ behind “Operation Green Rx”.
On a side note: In February when I was arrested, Conrado Decastro interrogated me at the police station. During the interrogation he pulled out two large 3 inch black binders that had a large red cross and marijuana leaf on them. The two binders contained a large number of tabs with last names of people. As he pulled out the two binders, he told me that I was not alone, and that “we are gonna bring all you medical pot people down”.
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Eugene Davidovich, facing four felony counts in a San Diego courtroom on Monday, after a San Diego county cop lied to a doctor, presented a fake ID, and purchased from Davidovich’s legally-operated collective. Visit EugeneDavidovich.com to support and be at San Diego Superior Court Dept 11, 220 W. Broadway in San Diego on Monday at 8am if you can.
Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 at 12:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
My name is Eugene Davidovich and I have been a resident of San Diego for over 20 years, honorably discharged from the US Navy, and having completed an MBA, I built a successful career in Software Development Project Management. I also am a medical cannabis patient and operated a non profit collective here in San Diego until last February when my house was raided and I arrested in ‘Operation Green Rx’ later announced by the District Attorney in a press conference as ‘Operation Endless Summer’.
In this operation a local San Diego Police Detective lied to his doctor about his identity and condition, obtained a valid recommendation for medical marijuana and joined the majority of the medical collectives and coops listed on the San Diego section of the CA NORML list.
The detective called me and joined the collective over the phone. Then after verifying his eligibility with his doctor I allowed him to join the collective. While pretending to be a sick patient, he requested that I deliver medical cannabis to him. Having seen him once and provided him with a ¼ ounce of medical cannabis, I am now facing 4 felony charges, $65,000 bail, and permanent profoundly traumatic damage to my professional and personal life.
Here in California it has been over a decade since the Compassionate Use Act. Several years since SB420, and almost a year since the California Attorney General’s guidelines. We even have had Congress urge the department of justice to clarify medical marijuana policy and stop the DEA raids.
However, here in San Diego we have the DA’s Office saying there is no such thing as a legal collective or cooperative, and that anyone who engages in an attempt to cultivate and distribute collectively is obviously in it for profit, “why else would they get in to this activity”.
There are many patients and collectives in San Diego who have gone above and beyond what is required in order to comply and stay within the law. Yet every attempt made to date by collectives and coops to follow the law in San Diego has resulted in long investigations, prosecutions, and collectives having to operate so deeply underground and under such intense daily fear and pressure, that the potential public benefit they could be bringing to the community and to patients is stifled by this environment of fear.
The DA has made it clear, San Diego is not a safe place for collectives, here patients are rounded up in drug sting operations, prosecuted, and forced into taking plea bargains.
Please visit my website which contains the actual footage of the undercover “delivery” of medicine to the detective, as well as many other details of my case. The Preliminary Hearing in my case is scheduled for 13 July, 2009 in Department 11 at 8:15am (220 W. Broadway, San Diego, CA 92101) http://www.eugenedavidovich.com or http://sites.google.com/site/peoplevdavidovich/
Today’s Stash features a live report from the San Diego courthouse where activist “Henry Hemp” and others were protesting this action. Degé Coutee from Patients Advocacy Network also weighs in on Operation Endless Summer.
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
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"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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