“It seems up until this point, we’ve been working against the wind in a way, pushing our goals to hard opposition,” Brown said. “But there’s now a rapid growth of support. The winds have changed, and we’re riding with them now.”
It’s an exciting time for marijuana advocates, and Brown, a 19-year-old sophomore and Eagle Scout, feels even more motivated to push his cause.
I wonder if there are Boy Scout merit badges for joint rolling? Seriously, though, what a great opening to this article in Baltimore’s alt-weekly, the B. Good work, Zach, and all you NORML Terps, and thanks for showing that even Eagle Scouts think marijuana prohibition is wrong.
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Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 9:45 am | By: Radical Russ
(MyFoxDC) FREDERICK, Md. – Authorities in Frederick County, Maryland say a 52-year-old man was arrested after he allegedly tried to pay for gas with marijuana instead of cash.
Frederick County Sheriff’s deputies say it happened at the Classic Fuels Store on Old National Pike in New Market, Maryland on Sunday afternoon around 3 p.m. They say 52-year-old James T. Hart of Frederick offered the store clerk marijuana in lieu of cash to pay for his gas.
The store employee refused, and immediately called deputies to investigate. When they arrived, authorities found what they believed to be cocaine, marijuana, and Oxycodone in his possession.
You don’t trade marijuana for gasoline for your own car! You trade it for a ride when you’re hitchhiking. “Ass, Cash, Gas, or Grass – Nobody Rides for Free.”
Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo said he filed a lawsuit Monday in Prince George’s County Circuit Court against the state of Maryland and officials at the county sheriff’s office and police department. Mr. Calvo is seeking unspecified damages and a court order forcing the county to revise how authorities execute warrants, treat animals and detain individuals.
“We had hoped that the sheriff’s office and county police department could exercise internal leadership to acknowledge wrongdoing and make these changes on their own,” Mr. Calvo said in a statement. “But their comments and actions over the last year made clear that they lack the will and credibility to do so.”
The lawsuit claims that authorities’ failure to knock or announce their entry, the “cold-blooded” killing of the dogs and the “degrading detention” of Mr. Calvo and his mother-in-law, were the “direct and proximate result of a rogue, paramilitary culture” within the sheriff’s department.
The defendants acted “intentionally, with an evil and rancorous and improper motive, with ill will and actual malice,” the lawsuit states.
Of course the sheriff’s office didn’t make any changes to their dog-murdering and citizen-degrading policies… what, you want them to take all the fun out of police work?
Mayor Calvo is right about the “paramilitary culture”; it’s the psychology all soldiers must employ in war. The enemy (we pot smokers) is dehumanized and attacks on the enemy must be engaged with enough “shock and awe” that the enemy is overwhelmed physicially and psychologically. A bullet or two in your beloved canine best friend shows you who’s in charge and how serious they are and if you dare oppose them, you’ll get a bullet as well. Sitting you handcuffed on the floor in your dead dog’s pool of blood further dehumanizes you and asserts allied forces’ dominance over the battlefield.
Sadly, this is a story so very common (see my collection of dog shooting stories) that it usually doesn’t even make the news unless, like Mayor Calvo, the victims are white and well-connected, the dogs aren’t Rottweilers or pit bulls, and no marijuana is found in the raid.
These police canicides are nothing short of domestic terrorism. I live in Oregon. My wife is a medical marijuana patient and I am her caregiver. I would really like to grow our own marijuana plants. When I mentioned this to my wife, she said, “No, no, no! What if there is some big mistake and the cops raid our house and shoot Roscoe?” We’re a continent away from Berwyn Heights, we’re protected by a medical marijuana law, and we live in the most pot-friendly county in Oregon, and yet this incident and others like it still has terrorized my wife into thinking a pot plant will lead to our dog’s murder.
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Exclusive interview with Corina Amato of Baltimore, Maryland, victim of a police terror raid where her dog was murdered in her bedroom and her entire home was demolished. No marijuana was found, but police were told there would be some by a snitch, and a judge signed off on the warrant.
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 3:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
“They shot through the door in front of screaming children that were begging them to let the dog out and she was cowering in there,” said homeowner Corina Amato, “They shot through the door and she ran upstairs in the bedroom, and they went up there and pumped AK47 shots into her in my bedroom.”
“This is the bullet hole where they shot my dog,” said Amato’s boyfriend, Rick Johnson, as he pointed to a splintered hole in the bedroom’s wood floor, “There was a pile of guts and blood right up underneath the bed.”
Police destroyed the front door, and now the couple must nail up pieces of plywood to secure their home… or what’s left of it.
The living room is unlivable, the bedroom furniture—splintered and the office has been turned upside down, not to mention tearing holes in the walls, shattering the porcelain bathroom and ripping apart the music room.
The search turned up plenty of herbs Amato had growing in her sunroom, but not the one a confidential informant suggested they would find—marijuana.
This could be you. A “confidential informant” — a snitch — often will tell police what they want to hear in exchange for leniency for their own crimes. The police, following the standard operating procedure, will approach your home as if you are Tony Montana from Scarface, lying in wait for the police with a few of your “little friends”. They’re armed to the teeth and armored against the attack they have been trained to believe you will engage once they burst through your door late at night without knocking. They will destroy your property, smash your TV, slash your furniture, break your electronics, and ruin your home, so they can impress upon you that you are a no good drug dealer and they’ve made your drug dealer life miserable. And God help you if you have a dog, even if it’s a black lab or a dachsund or a chihuahua, because they are trained to believe all dogs are pit bulls or rottweilers ready to attack police and must be shot immediately, if not to protect themselves, then to impress upon you no good drug dealer types that they have the power to kill and next time it might be your wife instead of your dog.
This is how, in the Land of the Free, we deal with our fellow free citizens suspected of planting the wrong herb indoors. We don’t even need proof; the word of a criminal is reason enough to spend your tax dollars on a violent and destructive urban military assault on your castle.
The final line of the story is most amusing:
No one has been charged, and the department has neither apologized nor offered any restitution for killing their dog or trashing their home.
Apology? Restitution? For what? In the police’s eyes, they did nothing wrong. They followed standard procedure in enforcing prohibition laws. The snitch may have made a mistake, but not the cops. How could they have known there would be no contraband unless they broke all the furniture, tore holes in the walls, and destroyed the bathroom to be sure it wasn’t hidden? So what if two innocent people had their home destroyed and their beloved pet murdered in front of their terrified children? That’s the unavoidable cost of fighting the Drug War; there’s always collateral damage in a war.
My fantasy hope is that when these cops who kill dogs go to hell, Cerberus is waiting for them with the ghosts of all the slain canines and all cops’ scrotums smell and taste like peanut butter for eternity.
Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 11:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
Thank you for contacting me regarding your support for House Bill 1339, which would establish a legislative task force to study issues around medical marijuana. I appreciate you taking the time to let me know your feelings on this issue. I support legalizing medical marijuana and will certainly support this bill if it comes to the floor of the House of Delegates.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me.
All the best,
Guy Guzzone
Delegate
Should HB 1339 – Task Force to Study Issues Relating to Medical Marijuana in Maryland receive a favorable report by the House
Judiciary Committee and reach the House floor for a vote, I would be pleased to support the Task Force.
Delegate Frank S. Turner
House Ways and Means Committee
Chairman, Finance Resources Subcommittee
Thank you for your e-mail opposing the criminalization of marijuana. You have articulated your position well. For four years (2000-2003) I was a co-sponsor of the Medical Marijuana bill until it was passed in 2003 (HB 702 entitled Darrell Putman Compassionate Use Act ). Despite the passage of this bill by the Maryland State Legislature, the use of marijuana is still a FEDERAL crime with severe penalties and would continue to be illegal even if all state marijuana laws were repealed.
Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me on an issue that is important to you. Knowing what my constituents think helps me do a
better job in Annapolis.
Shane Pendergrass
Delegate, District 13
Vice-Chair Health and Government Operations Committee
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Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 2:19 pm | By: MrSpof
When a police officer asked her what she was doing behind a van in the park, Pamela Hughes told him the honest truth.
“I said I was smoking a cannabis cigarette,” she said.
She presented the stunned policeman with a written recommendation from her doctor and a copy of Maryland’s “Compassionate Use Act,” which reduces the penalties for possession of medical marijuana.
Hughes ended up spending several hours in jail. She fought the charges and won, but only after a lot of time, stress and money — three things that her fibromyalgia, a chronic condition characterized by widespread pain and fatigue, and a reoccurrence of stage IV cancer were already monopolizing.
Hughes and several other patients told the House Judiciary Committee last week that while Maryland’s Compassionate Use Act was a step forward for its time, the law merely provides them with a false sense of security.
The patients testified on behalf of a bill that would establish a task force to evaluate the effectiveness and fairness of the current law and consider whether medical marijuana should become legal in the state. They said medical marijuana provides relief for certain ailments in ways no other medication can replicate.
No one testified against the bill, and a vote on the legislation has not been scheduled.
Free State Stashers know what time it is: contact your Maryland officials! I would especially like to see folks write to Judiciary Committee Chairman Joseph Vallario Jr., D-Prince Georges, who opined:
“How can you pass something that’s against federal law?” he said. “That really is the bottom line.”
Because, Chairman Vallario, Jr., the federal law is wrong and should be abolished. The law makes criminals out of sick people and that is wrong. Sometimes the best answers are the simplest ones.
Delegate Heller’s bill does not propose legalizing marijuana; it would not give drug dealers a license to peddle their wares. Rather, it would create a task force of health professionals to study the legal and practical implications of allowing marijuana to be used solely for medical purposes. At the very least, it would encourage officials to confront the glaring inconsistencies in state law so that patients, physicians and operators of medical marijuana dispensaries would know exactly where they stood.
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. […]
“Reform Madness” at University of Maryland NORML
Seriously, though, what a great opening to this article in Baltimore’s alt-weekly, the B. Good work, Zach, and all you NORML Terps, and thanks for showing that even Eagle Scouts think marijuana prohibition is wrong.
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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