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Hemp Headlines

1. 40% of Kentucky state inmates are non-violent drug offenders according to new survey
2. Now 100 dispensaries will be allowed to operate in Los Angeles, to be selected by random lottery
3. Colorado report shows that dispensaries are not the “crime magnets” opponents claim

Daily Toker Tunes

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• Roots Monday: Karissa – “Shades of Green”

Government at Work

• Dan Linn from Illinois NORML on new decrim and medical marijuana bills in Springfield

Radical Rant

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• Cigar Association of America lobbying for state bans on blunt wraps is about selling more cigars, not “protecting image”

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Hemp Headlines

1. Federal government seeking marijuana growers
2. Can marijuana help alcoholics stay off the bottle?
3. New device claims roadside testing for marijuana within 90 seconds
4. Former Detroit WR: “I [smoked marijuana] every day”

Southern California Scene with Tere Joyce

• Degé Coutee from Patients Advocacy Network live at the LA City Council’s PLUM meeting where activist Craig X Rubin promised to give a free eighth to the first 500 patients to testify.

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• Rockin Thursday! – ‘Potfest’ by The Breezeway

Cannabis Conversations

• Dan Linn from Illinois NORML discusses the Symposium of the International Cannabinoid Research Society

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Hemp Headlines

1. Sheriff Arrested for Selling Marijuana!
2. Iowa city councilman with Crohn’s disease busted for medical marijuana use
3. Minnesota House passes medical marijuana 70-64; on to Gov. Pawlenty’s veto
4. Medical marijuana is ‘nightmare’… for some Michigan law enforcement

Government at Work

• Dan Linn from Illinois NORML shares the latest updates on Illinois Senate’s upcoming vote on medical marijuana bill.

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• Best Rock Song – ‘O-De-Po’ by Ian Lloyd

Cannabis Conversations

• Kevin Booth, writer / producer / director of “American Drug War: The Last White Hope”

In Illinois, not only is the state preparing to legalize Medical Marijuana, it appears as though Law Enforcement is busy subverting the law for their own personal gain.

From the Courier Press:

SHAWNEETOWN, Ill. — Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond M. Martin of Shawneetown, Ill., faces three counts of distribution of marijuana and two counts of carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

Martin was named in a five-count federal complaint alleging he conspired with a confidential Drug Enforcement Administration source to distribute large quantities of marijuana.

In an affidavit filed by a DEA agent, the agent stated that “Martin stated the marijuana cost Martin $1,000 a pound and explained to the confidential source that after the initial $1,000 per pound investment was paid to Martin by the confidential source, Martin and the confidential source would split the profits on a 50-50 basis.”

The affidavit further states that “On two different occasions, Martin delivered about 10 pounds of marijuana and on another occasion, delivered approximately 20 pounds of marijuana to the confidential source.”

The alleged marijuana deliveries usually occurred at a rural and remote location in southern Gallatin County, prosecutors stated. Martin is accused of using his county-owned Ford Explorer to complete the transactions.

What would cause a Sheriff, a career law enforcement officer to turn his back on Law Enforcement?

My father, a Vietnam war protester and adamant cannabis activist from long ago, once told me that one had to “Not have a conscience” to be a law enforcement officer and all are just as corruptible as anyone else. His words are true. If we had a legal cannabis market, this sheriff wouldn’t have the motivation to sell illegal cannabis to supplement his greed.

Provided that Illinois has a vote pending in the legislature on Medical Marijuana, I have to pause for a moment in regards to the timing of this arrest and subsequent press release by the federal authorities.

Attention Illinois Residents!!

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois state Senate is expected to take up state Sen. William Haine’s proposal to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes sometime [today].

As always, things could change. But the latest we’ve heard from Haine, an Alton Democrat, is that he plans to call the bill [today].

Many remain uncertain whether the bill will actually pass, but lawmakers tend to call their bills for a vote when they have enough “aye” votes in the bag.

Thirteen other states have authorized marijuana for some level of medicinal use. If the Senate votes on Haine’s bill tomorrow, it will be the farthest a marijuana proposal has gotten in Illinois.

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Hemp Headlines

1. Massachusetts introduces marijuana legalization bills
2. Marijuana Cuts Lung Cancer Tumor Growth In Half, Study Shows
3. Jury Acquits Bruce Olson in Washington Medical Marijuana Case
4. Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative has 55,000 signatures

Government at Work

• Dan Linn from Illinois NORML on SB 1381 (medmj) bill hearing tomorrow.

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• Variety Tuesday – ‘Ganja’ by Echo Movement

Cannabis Conversations

• Clifford Schafer from DrugLibrary.org on prohibition economics and hard choices.

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Today on the Stash:

• Hemp Headlines:
  NORML’s Weekly Legislative Round Up
  Study Links Alcohol, Cancer Risk in Women
  House Bill Expected on FDA Control of Tobacco
• Stupid Stoner Story: Man accused of stuffing cat into bong
• Government at Work: Dan Linn from Illinois NORML and Jesse Stout from Rhode  Island Patients Advocacy Coalition 
• Music: Variety Tuesday – ‘And I Smoke’ by Oai Star
• Lt. Mike Dingaman testifying on Senate Bill 388 at the Oregon Statehouse

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-02-24.mp3)

Today’s Stash: Dan Linn from Illinois NORML joins us for Government at Work to discuss Illinois HB 2514 and SB 1381, the twin measures to make Illinois the 14th medical marijuana state (call the Illinois reps at 217-782-2000).  It’s like New Jersey, Illinois, and Minnesota are in a race or something.

Jet Baker joins us as a regional Cannabis Correspondent with his report on the Texas NORML reformer’s bootcamp in Austin, or “the ATX, y’all”.

Taku from THC Japan calls in from Tokyo to discuss sumo testing positive for weed, emerging Japanese cannabis culture, and the similarity of Reefer Madness in all languages.  I take it back – I called Taku… what’s the per-minute charge to Japan?

And Rich Hardesty not only provides today’s Daily Toker Tune, he talks to us about his music and getting his song on the Totally Baked DVD.

But what about me?  Glad you asked…

Today I began the day at 6am, following four hours of sleep, following five hours of video editing, following producing yesterday’s Stash.  This was so I could return to the dreaded 7am commute to go all the way across town and through the Tunnel of Prosecutorial Despair* to get to the TV studio for Portland’s CW affiliate.  I was on a point-counterpoint show on marijuana law reform and the episode will air Sunday at 6:30am.  Great time slot, I know.

But that’s not the best part.  The host (good guy) tells me of how he had a local columnist on defending the right of gay people to equal marriage and they could not get a single opponent of marriage rights for gays to come on the show.  So he had collected the talking points of all the local opponents (this was following the marriage rights measure passed by Oregon in 2006) and delivered them against the columnist using Socko, the Family Values Sock Puppet.

You see where I’m going with this?

The funniest part for me was that this studio was not two exits away from where I had my last corporate job as an IT trainer.  When I worked there I had a co-worker named Bill who used to bring, swear to Mary Jane, a sock puppet to work that was called Mr. Socko.  He would use this sock puppet as a threat to students who weren’t paying attention in a software class, as in, “Don’t make me get Mr. Socko.  I’ll have him teach this whole class.”  Occasionally someone would call his bluff and he’d whip out the briefcase, pull out Mr. Socko, use a high-pitched voice, and the fun was on.  Bill was a great trainer, because let me tell you, when you’ve tried to explain the SUM() function in Excel for the thirteenth time in a month to job retraining candidates who, bless their hearts, have as much chance of grasping spreadsheet formulas as I have grasping the repair and maintenance of a combine.

So the host informs me there would be no opponent, as no one from law enforcement, the business community, nor anyone who represents the consistent opponents of medical marijuana in Oregon would dare to appear on camera against a well-informed articulate opponent.  Would I agree to appear with a sock puppet?

I thought about the trouble we have getting our issue taken seriously, but I also thought that, handled correctly, it would be a great opportunity to inform a large audience.  Besides, I’m a big Mr. Socko fan and I had to do it, if only to make a fun story to tell Bill.

The first two segments were me and the host alone.  Good stuff, talking about NORML’s mission, why call it “reform marijuana laws” and not just “legalize”?  (Because “reform” runs the spectrum from lopri intitiatives to decrim to medical to legalize and lots of things in between.)  Yada yada yada.

Then in the second two segments Socko, the Prohibitionist Puppet is introduced.  The host seriously intones that they reached out to numerous opponents and could not get one to come on camera, but that he wished to make sure both sides of the debate were represented.  Then with his hand in a white sock with a gold toe and two buggy red eyes drawn on hastily twenty minutes before, the host asked in a falsetto voice:

SOCKO: “If we legalize marijuana, a so-called ‘soft drug’, that’s going to lead to more abuse of the hard drugs like meth and heroin!”

To which I replied (paraphrasing, I was strangely nervous):

ME: First of all, I want to thank Socko for agreeing to be on this show today.  It is getting difficult to find human beings who will even try to make these anti-marijuana arguments anymore.  Like this ‘gateway theory’ you’re mentioning.  In 1999, the United States government’s own Institute of Medicine reviewed the studies and found that there is no ‘gateway effect’ from marijuana to hard drugs, and that’s been backed up by numerous studies since.  There is nothing about smoking marijuana that either physiologically or psychologically leads one to try other drugs.  

The ‘gateway theory’ is a myth that holds on because people look at meth, cocaine, and heroin addicts and say, “Aha!  They all used marijuana!”  But they never look the other direction, at the millions – one hundred million Americans have tried marijuana in their lives, and so very very few of them ever use, much less become addicted to, any other drugs.  For most, cannabis is a ‘terminus drug’ rather than a ‘gateway drug’.

SOCKO:  I don’t know what that means.

ME:  A ‘terminus drug’, meaning that for most of the people who use marijuana, that’s where their use of drugs stops.  Most don’t go on to other drugs.

This will be on YouTube so when it is available, I will post it here.  I’d much rather debate a human, but so far no human will debate me on camera.  (Yes, because they’re quaking in their boots at the thought of matching wits with a college dropout stoner blogging in his basement wearing sweats and eating Cheetos between bong hits.  You know, like Bill Hicks mentioned, what does it say when they declare a war on drugs and they are losing to the people on drugs?)

SPRINGFIELD- Illinois could become the next state to protect the sick and terminally ill from arrest for using cannabis under the recommendation of their physician. State Senator William Haine introduced Senate Bill 1381 today, the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Pilot Program Act, which would allow those with a physician’s recommendation to possess up to two ounces of usable cannabis and up to seven plants.

Under the proposed legislation the Dept. of Public Health would issue registry cards for patients and their caregivers. The legislation states that cannabis plants must be grown in an enclosed locked facility and does not allow for cannabis to be smoked in public or on public transportation. It would also not be permitted on school or correctional facility property.

Illinois Stashers can contact your state senator here.