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Hemp Headlines

1. Tim Lincecum: Cy Young Winner, 2-time All Star, #1 strikeouts, #2 batting average, #2 ERA, cannabis user
2. Jury takes 14 minutes to convict self-proclaimed pot pastor
3. Convicted pot dealer sentenced to slightly less time than home invaders who killed his daughter
4. Puking drunk driver calls 911 to report stolen marijuana

Daily Toker Tunes

• Woodstone – “Grass”

Grassroots Activism

• David Clark, Executive Director of Georgia NORML, on 101 Ways to Beat a Marijuana Charge in Georgia

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Hemp Headlines

1. Oregon NORML set to open first patient’s Cannabis Café
2. Michigan medical marijuana workplace rights considered
3. Passed out publicly pantsless in a puddle of piss in the Peach State preferable to a pocketful of pot

Daily Toker Tunes

• Mia Muze – “Dr Chronic”

NORML Newsmakers

• Part one of Chris Goldstein in medical marijuana debate against Terrence Farley, a former county prosecutor and the now head of the NJ Narcotics Task Force Commanders Association.

(Athens Banner-Herald) An extremely drunk man passed out early Sunday morning in the lobby of the Comfort Suites on North Avenue, said Athens-Clarke police.

The 32-year-old man was found at 2:35 a.m. on the floor with his pants around his ankles, asleep in a pool of his own urine, according to a police report.

When police woke him up, he became abusive and was arrested for public intoxication, the report said.

My first thought: You never read any news headlines about passed-out potheads with their pants down in public.  We’ll accept as legal a drug that has this effect on people, but we must lock up the people who sit at home and fire up a bong while watching TV at 2:30am instead of passing out in hotel lobbies.

My second thought: Isn’t it interesting how the 32-year-old man’s name isn’t mentioned in this news piece.  Want to bet that if it were a marijuana possession offense, we’d know his name, middle initial, and home address by now?

My third thought:  The crime he’s charged with is a misdemeanor that will at most net him 60 days in jail and a $500 fine, but it’s very likely he won’t do any jail time at all.  If he’d been caught with a joint in a hotel lobby, he’d lose his driver’s license for six months and be forced to complete a drug rehab program.  If it wasn’t his first time caught with a joint, it’s all that plus a year in prison and $1000 fine.  Which of these two people do you think should get some counseling and shouldn’t be driving – the guy with the joint, or the guy passed out piss-drunk in the hotel lobby?

My final thought: If the guy had cancer, AIDS, MS, glaucoma, or epilepsy and had been caught with over an ounce, he’d be a felon and subject to up to 10 years in prison (20 if he’s with 1000 feet of a school, plus four more if he used a cell phone.)

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Hemp Headlines

1. Georgia drug agents shoot and kill pastor, leaves behind wife and unborn child, no drugs found
2. 17 people lined up and shot “execution style” inside drug rehab in Juarez, Mexico
3. Wall Street Journal: Pot ‘plantations’ on the rise

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• Rockin Thursday! – ‘Sativa Sanctuary’ by Happy Bones

Cannabis Conversations

• ARCHIVE: California NORML’s Dale Gieringer on pain patients in California

(WYFF TV) STEPHENS COUNTY, Ga. — A pastor was shot and killed following a drug sting in Stephens County, Ga., on Tuesday, and the officers involved and friends of the pastor are giving different versions of what led up to the shooting.

The Stephens County coroner confirmed that 28-year-old Jonathan Ayers was pronounced dead at Stephens County Hospital on Tuesday.

Shoot first, apologize to pregnant widow later... (photo from Jonathan Ayers's blog, click to read)

Ayers, a father-to-be, was the pastor of the Shoal Creek Baptist Church. He maintained a personal blog linked off the church’s Web page, jonathanayers.blogspot.com.

Sheriff Randy Shirley said that officers had been involved in an undercover drug sting at an unnamed establishment in Toccoa. He said the target of the sting was a passenger in Ayers’ car. Shirley said Ayers dropped the woman off and went to the Shell station. He said the officers followed Ayers there.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shirley said, outside the Shell station, the plain-clothes officers identified themselves with a badge. The officers said that Ayers put his car in reverse and struck an agent. They said they opened fire on Ayers when he drove toward the second officer. Two shots were fired in the car, one hit Ayers. The officers said Ayers sped away and crashed about a half mile from the Shell station. They said they found him conscious and alert, but he died a short time later.

The woman who was the subject of the drug sting was arrested, but police are not identifying her yet. She is charged with selling cocaine. Other charges against her are pending.

Investigators said they did not find drugs in Ayers’ car.

Just how dangerous must this woman have been to have three undercover plainclothes officers firing bullets around a public gas station?  Apparently dangerous enough to risk hitting a gas pump and causing a huge explosion that could’ve killed everyone at this busy gas station in broad daylight.

So why did the pastor flee when police “identified themselves with a badge”?  Well, when you have three aggressive men not dressed like cops running toward you in a public place waving guns, you might just not notice the badge (if, indeed, the cops aren’t lying about producing their badges).  Or maybe the pastor was having an affair with the woman and didn’t want his pregnant wife to find out.  Maybe he saw the badges, but the woman was a prostitute and he didn’t want the negative press for his church.  Or maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong person…

One of many e-mails received by WYFF News 4 said:

“Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2009, Jonathon Ayers was shot and killed by a Toccoa police officer. Ayers was at a walk-up ATM machine to get money to have tires put on his wife’s car. After getting his money, he saw men running at him. Thinking he was to be robbed, he ran for his car. He was shot through the door and the bullet went through his lung and liver. He eventually wrecked his car and was taken to Stephens County Hospital. The bleeding of his liver could not be stopped and Ayers died in surgery.

“Later, it was found that the police officer who shot him thought Ayers was involved in a drug deal. When Ayers ran, the officers open fired.”

News 4’s Kisha Foster spoke to a woman outside Shoal Creek Baptist who identified herself as Jonathan Ayers’ sister-in-law. She described him as a “godly man.” She said there are “a lot of lies going around about what happened, and the police department is trying to cover up what they did.”

The two agents are on administrative leave with pay until the investigation is complete.

The War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical Non Alcoholic Tobacco-Free) Drugs™ demonizes and dehumanizes to such an extent that on the mere suspicion that a man might be buying them from a woman, police feel justified in shooting at the suspect in a crowded public place, risking a devastating gasoline explosion by doing so.  Shoot first… get a paid vacation from work… and apologize to the pregnant widow later.

In the continuing saga over Georgia State Rep. Tommy “Caning for Potheads” Benton we’ve had one commenter ask:

you werent too clear on what the emails that you sent him said… can you guys put it up? if it was a ‘kind, polite email’ i dont beleive he would have said that. this article seems a little biased. i completely disagree with what he was saying, though…

Here you go.  This is what generated the response of “Thanks for the email. We will have to agree to disagree on this and whether or not money is wasted. I am opposed to the legalization of marijuana. I think we should go to caning for people caught using and maybe execute dealers. That would solve the problem as well. That is what they do in Singapore and they don’t have a drug problem, but then they have less liberty than we do here.”  You tell me if it is kind and polite enough.

July 28, 2009

The Honorable Tommy Benton
Georgia House of Representatives
Coverdell Legislative Office Building
Atlanta, GA 30334

Dear Representative Benton:

As a voter and proud citizen of these United States, I am very disappointed to read that you and your constituents are continuing to waste more and more taxpayer dollars as you continue the impossible effort to eradicate marijuana from this country through your failed “War on Drugs” effort.

You are spending untold amounts of OUR money virtually using a bucket to empty an ocean. America sees through the lies of the War on Drugs and America wants marijuana without persecution. We already know that it is safer than alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceutical drugs and with the fact that it is the largest cash crop in the USA it baffles many who realize that legalization, taxation and regulation is the best solution to the problem. The War on Drugs is a paramount failure and will never work and is, in fact, the direct cause for most, if not all, marijuana-related problems in this country.

Are you aware that our children can get illicit drugs more easily than they can get alcohol or tobacco? That’s because people like you fight to keep the control in the hands of the cartels, the gangs, and the unregistered, untaxed, street dealers, none of whom ask a buyer for ID.

Please stop throwing away our tax dollars and please help put a damper in the Mexican Drug Cartels’ business by legalizing and controlling cannabis. It is time to think wisely.

We must end this insane “war on drugs” and we must use logic and common sense to deal with America’s drug problem. A fast-growing majority of American voters agree.

One on behalf of many

Sincerely,
D____ J. T_____

Since we began covering the story of Georgia Rep. Tommy “Caning for Potheads” Benton on July 29, the story has spread like wildfire.  We issued an official press release today and featured the story on the NORML Blog and front page just yesterday and already the story has been covered from the libertarian/right Reason blog to the liberal/left TalkLeft blog.

However, I am deeply disturbed at some of the nearly 250 comments the story has gotten at the NORML Blog.  There are threats of assassinating, shooting, caning, and kicking the ass of Rep. Benton, as well as comparisons to Adolf Hitler.  Some have even threatened his wife, children, and family dog and published Rep. Benton’s home telephone number (which I’ve scrubbed).

Stop it! Rise above the level of people like Rep. Benton.  Violence and threats of violence not only solve nothing and hurt our movement, but they may be actionable criminal acts.

I understand the feelings of anger and desire for vengeance.  For far too long our people have been intimidated, harassed, threatened, beaten, and killed for our interaction with a plant.  Far too many homes have been burst into by armor-clad assault-weapon-armed police.  Our people have had our careers shattered, education thwarted, children taken, healthcare denied, dogs murdered, property stolen and destroyed, and voting rights taken in this “Land of the Free” because we liked to use the hemp plant in the same way this country’s Founders did.  Believe me, I report stories and read heartbreaking personal emails like this every day.

I considered deleting these comments but have not (though my superiors may overrule me) because I do think they tap into the strong current of “we’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take this anymore” that runs through the cannabis community.  Plus I am a strong advocate of free speech on our forums.

But realize that this kind of reaction only empowers Rep. Benton within his community of hateful anti-pot zealots.  “See,” he’ll crow to fellow prohibitionists, “smoking pot turns you into a raving violent psycho!”  We’re better than that.  Cannabis is supposed to be the peaceful plant.  Do not sink to this man’s level.  Fighting fire with fire only burns down everyone’s house and an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.  Fight this man with peace, education, and voting for his opponents in the primary or general election.

Another Stasher C.C. from Lowndes County emailed Georgia Rep. Tommy Benton to protest his stance that marijuana users should be tortured by the brutal act of caning, as is the standard in Singapore.

GA Rep. Benton: "I am opposed to the legalization of marijuana. I think we should go to caning for people caught using and maybe execute dealers."

Before we get to Rep. Benton’s response (sadly, this one is not a Hall & Oates cover), I’d like to explain a bit what “caning” is, courtesy of research by Georgia NORML’s David Clark and the website of World Corporal Punishment (placed below the “Read more” link in case you’re sensitive to pictures and descriptions of brutality).  This isn’t some schoolhouse rap on the knuckles from the teacher; this is a form of torture.

Rep. Benton's proposed punishment for marijuana users

(World Corporal Punishment) The Singapore Prisons Regulations require that caning be inflicted on the buttocks (Regulation 132(2)).

In practice the prisoner is required to strip completely naked for the administration of the punishment.

Once he has removed his clothes, the inmate is made to stand facing the trestle so that he can be tied to it.

Rep. Benton doesn't think this is "cruel and unusual punishment"

In Singapore, he is made to bend over a pad between the front legs. His feet are secured to the front base with his hands secured to the back legs, so that he is bent over at about right angles at the hip.

Once the prisoner is secured, the caning officer will take up position, standing about five feet away, and adjusting his position with the aid of the cane.  Correct positioning is critical. If he is too near the prisoner, the tip of the cane will fall beyond the buttocks and thus reduce the effect of the stroke. If he is too far, the stroke will only cover part of the buttocks.

Rep. Benton doesn't think people who oppose caning hold true "conservative values".

A senior officer stands by, with the doctor.

The cane is soaked overnight in water, so it is supple. The Prisons Department says this is to prevent it from splitting and shearing the skin. They denied earlier claims that the cane is soaked in brine. However, it is treated with antiseptic before use.

TO ADMINISTER A CRIMINAL WHIPPING, the officer first twists his body to the left. The aim is to get as much force as possible behind the stroke. The offender is whipped on the buttocks. After each stroke, the rotan is immediately pulled back.

Irrespective of the age of the offender or the type of crime committed, every stroke is inflicted with the full strength of the warder: “Canings are administered with maximum force” (South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 2 April 1994).

Twelve months after caning, the scars are still visible.

“… when caning, the warder uses the whole of his body weight, and not just the strength of his arms, to strike. He holds the cane rigidly at arm’s length and pivots on his feet to deliver the stroke”. (Singapore Director of Prisons, September 1974)

A 25-year-old caning officer in Malaysian prisons, Iskandar Radz, said that he underwent a two-week training course during which he was taught how to swing the 1.09-metre cane at a minimum speed of 160kph and produce a force upon impact of at least 90kg.

Which brings us to Rep. Tommy Benton’s latest response to one of our sincere and polite emails asking him to reconsider recanting his unconstitutional and inhumane statement “I am opposed to the legalization of marijuana. I think we should go to caning for people caught using and maybe execute dealers. That would solve the problem as well. That is what they do in Singapore and they don’t have a drug problem, but then they have less liberty than we do here.”

You don’t want to legalize weed because of your conservative values. Pardon my French but that is a big old pile of bull crap. You and your cronies want it legalized so you can get a hit anytime without having to worry about getting arrested. I have forwarded your email to the Lowndes County sheriffs office so that they can be on the lookout for you. Consider this my last correspondence on the the subject to you or anyone else who shares your similar “conservative views’.
Tommy Benton
HD31

So now Rep. Benton has taken another unconstitutional step of threatening his constituency with harassment by law enforcement for politely and reasonably petitioning their government for a redress of grievances. It’s no surprise that someone who doesn’t understand the Eighth Amendment would have trouble understanding the First.

Here is the letter one Stasher sent to Rep. Tommy Benton of Georgia regarding his remarks that we should resort to Singapore-style caning of marijuana users and execution of marijuana dealers:

Representative Benton,

I am concerned with a comment you recently made to a constituent about your opposition to legalizing marijuana. If correct, while you state that you oppose the legalization of marijuana, you were quoted as adding that you “think we should go to caning for people caught using and maybe execute dealers.”

As a resident of Georgia for 24 years, I find your statement extremely troubling. I would hope that as a representative of this great state, you would understand that the Constitution of the United States explicitly forbids “Cruel and Unusual Punishment”, which surely caning and execution for marijuana dealing would be considered as such. Furthermore, in Singapore, a country whose drug laws you referenced, anybody found in the locale of drug activity is guilty until proven innocent, which is in stark contrast to the Constitutional protection afforded to American citizens which makes this country so great. It is my hope that you will reconsider and recant such an un-American statement.

I support marijuana legalization, mainly because my conservative values refuse the idea that the government of the United States or the government of Georgia should claim sovereignty over any citizen’s mind or body. I support individual freedom and minimal government intervention into people’s personal lives, even though such freedom allows my fellow Georgians to reach conclusions I do not agree with and make choices that I would not make myself.

As a proud Republican of this state, I would hope that you too could analyze your conservative values and renew your support for individual freedom and small government by supporting marijuana legalization.

Respectfully,

J___ C___

DeKalb County

Representative Benton’s thoughtful and considered response?

no can do!!!!!

Tommy Benton

HD31

I’m not certain if Rep. Benton “no can do!!!!!” applies to recanting the caning statement, analyzing his conservative values, or supporting marijuana legalization.  I do know that in addition to not understanding the Constitution, Rep. Benton doesn’t understand basic English composition.

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Hemp Headlines

1. ABC News: Is Pot Addictive? Treat it with Marinol!
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4. Anti-pot principal’s wife caught giving marijuana to and having sex with 16-year-old student

Cannabis Conversations

• David Clark from Georgia NORML on Georgia Rep. Tommy Benton (R-Jefferson) favors “caning” and “executions” for marijuana crimes

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards

• Rockin Thursday! – ‘Potfest’ by The Breezeway

Cannabis Conversations

• Linda Adler from US Virgin Islands NORML on creating a no-passport-required vacation paradise for medical marijuana patients and cannabis aficionados