Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Michael C. Ruppert on the CoLLapse movie and sudden cancellation of his publishing contract with an Arkansas publisher who cites “moral reasons” because of his support of hemp legalization (one point in a 25 point pook.)
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 7:41 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Minneapolis Star-Tribune) Bong water can count as a controlled substance, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Thursday in a decision that raises the threat of longer sentences for drug smokers who fail to dump the water out of their pipes.
In a 4-3 decision Thursday, the state’s highest court said a person can be prosecuted for a first-degree drug crime for 25 grams or more of bong water that tests positive for a controlled substance.
The statute defines a drug “mixture” as “a preparation, compound, mixture, or substance containing a controlled substance, regardless of purity.” When the language of a statute is unambiguous, the high court said, precedents prohibit courts from disregarding the letter of the law under the pretext of pursuing the letter of the law.
“Regardless of purity” means that even a fleck of an ash that registers a molecule of THC floating in your bong water makes all that water weight a controlled substance. 25 grams of water equals 25 milliliters, which equals a little over five teaspoons of water. Five teaspoons of water in your bong makes you a first degree criminal. An ounce and a half of bong water makes you a felon.
Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 6:03 pm | By: Radical Russ
I’m happy to announce the formation of three new college chapters of NORML at the University of Virginia, Arizona State University, and Minnesota State University. Contact information for the three new chapters will be online at http://norml.org/chapters tomorrow morning if you wish to contact them.
If you would like to form a new college chapter or community chapter of NORML, just send me an email at stash@norml.org. You just need five members to form your board and we’ll send you the instructions from there.
And if you are unable to contact one of the existing chapters on the NORML website, please let me know. I am working to cull the inactive chapters from the listings and your help will make that task easier.
Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 at 3:28 pm | By: Radical Russ
The New York Times has a nifty interactive map based on data from the 2006-2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (more data here). It provides a drop-down menu to choose which dataset you’d like, which I naturally used to choose “Percent of people 12+ who have used marijuana in the past year”. Based on that information, your Top Five Stoner States are:
Rhode Island (16.12%)
Vermont (15.75%)
Alaska (13.79%)
Oregon (13.12%)
Colorado (12.99%)
Surprised that California isn’t in that list? Me, too. I’m not at all surprised by Vermont, Alaska, Oregon, and Colorado, but stunned that Rhode Island came in at #1. I’d caution that this represents everyone from the once-a-year-at-a-concert toker all the way through the daily Stasher. If frequency and amount used were considered, I’d be willing to wager we here in Oregon are, uh, higher than #4. Curious about your Bottom Five?
Utah (7.17%)
Iowa (7.32%)
Mississippi (7.79%)
Texas (7.92%)
Alabama (7.96%)
That #1 result for Utah shouldn’t surprise anyone with its majority Mormon population that even rejects coffee drinking. Another category where Utah is number one is consumption of Jell-O, which was named the official state snack. Oddly enough, the one time Utah lost its Jell-O crown was when Iowa briefly overtook them. So I wonder, is there some sort of yin/yang thing going on between cannabis and gelatin snacks? If you’re too high does it make it tough to follow the Jell-O recipe, or is it that you get such munchies you don’t have time to wait for Jell-O to set? By the way, does anybody have a recipe for ganja Jell-O; maybe that’s the solution?
I also thought it would be interesting to look at the Top Five States for Binge Alcohol Drinking:
North Dakota (32.02%)
Wisconsin (28.84%)
Minnesota (28.75%)
South Dakota (28.34%)
Rhode Island (27.92%)
Apparently Rhode Island is the place to get your drink on and your smoke on. But for the other Top Five Stoner States, binge drinking rates fall somewhere in the middle of the country from Oregon (21.71%) and Alaska (22.74%) toward the lower range and Vermont (25.57%) and Colorado (26.15%) toward the upper range. Unsurprisingly, Utah (15.64%) is at the bottom of this list as well. I suppose if Jell-O vodka shots aren’t bumping that number up, ganja Jell-O won’t likely work, either.
Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 2:13 pm | By: Radical Russ
From the blog at TwinCities.com, we find a police report from Minneapolis:
(St. Paul, Minnesota) A Minnesota man is in jail on charges of possession with intent to deliver marijuana following an arrest in St. Paul.
According to the police report, Apiemi Kebaso, Jr. was approached by Officer Jon Sherwood, who was investigating a burglary report in which a handgun was taken. As Sherwood began questioning, Kebaso ignored lawful orders and began walking away. Kebaso then took a baggie of marijuana in his possession and threw it under the squad car to try and hide it. Sherwood took Kebaso into custody and discovered many more baggies and cash on Kebaso.
Minnesota is a decrim state; possession of less than 42.5 grams (1.5 ounces) is only a misdemeanor offense with a $200 fine. But any amount in two or more baggies is going to get you an “intent to deliver” (sell) charge, which then starts putting you on the Minnesota felony charts for five years and a $10,000 fine.
Your underwear is always a better place to hide weed than underneath the cop car! With weed in your crotch, police need a pretty specific reason to search you. They are allowed to pat you down for weapons, but not your crotch. You can and should refuse all searches, which means not responding or acting when they say, “take everything out of your pockets!” or “what do you have there stashed in your crotch?*”, and just repeating “I don’t consent to any searches and I’d like to speak with an attorney before answering questions. Am I free to go, officer?”
That doesn’t mean they won’t find or manufacture a pretext to take you in, search you, and find your crotch weed. But it will mean your lawyer has more ammunition to work with to suppress the evidence of your search and get you out of court with no criminal record.
However, if you do give the cop your weed, because he’s such a nice guy and wants to help you out and it will all go easier on you if you do, you will be arrested, guaranteed, and your lawyer will have no recourse because you willingly surrendered your rights and your weed.
Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 3:00 pm | By: Lynnette
Thank you for letting me know of your support for H.R. 2835, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act.
You may also be interested to know that the Minnesota Senate recently passed a bill legalizing the use of medicinal marijuana.
H.R. 2835 has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which I am not a member. I look forward to reviewing the committee’s recommendation and you can be sure I will keep your views in mind as this legislation moves forward.
Thank you again for sharing your views, as I appreciate hearing from you. Please let me know whenever I can be of assistance.
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
I’ve always said that medical marijuana is a beautiful thing. If I believe that all people have a right to use cannabis, then of course sick people have the same right and should be given the first place in line.
I’ve also said that I hate the line “I’m a patient, not a criminal” because that defines me, the healthy person, as a criminal. I cannot accept that a medical marijuana user sharing a joint with me equals a “patient” and a “criminal”. It’s the same joint, so how is my relative healthiness a crime?
Medical marijuana is a double-edged sword to me. It has been invaluable in opening up people’s minds about cannabis and its uses. It has afforded the kind of political victories for legalization that no other strategy has (and sorry, medical folks who dislike “legalizers”, medical marijuana is legalization.) It has, without a doubt, saved tens of thousands of lives and made hundreds of thousands of lives more bearable.
However, I fear that the medical marijuana strategy may have outlived its usefulness. The medical marijuana bills this year in Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, New Hampshire, and now an Arizona initiative are becoming more restrictive. After a dozen years of medical marijuana success, defined as “the sky didn’t fall when we legalized marijuana for sick people”, bills and initiatives should be getting more relaxed, not stricter; more inclusive, not less; and more conditions covered, not fewer. With polls consistently showing mainstream support increasing in states with medical marijuana and holding steady in the states without, medical marijuana bills and initiatives should be getting better, not worse.
What I fear is that the public’s mindset is moving from “marijuana is a deadly addictive gateway drug whose users should be punished” to “marijuana is a powerful medicine that should be used only under strict controls and supervision”. The most recent bills take away the right of a patient to grow their own medicine, substituting instead requirements that medicine come only from dispensaries over which the state maintains a monopoly. They’ve pared down the list of “qualifying conditions” to the point where only the gravest ill, the terminal cases with less than six month to live, who’ve tried and had no success with all the other pharmaceutical drugs, only they have any access. This upcoming Arizona initiative will even electronically track how much medical cannabis a patient purchases and require criminal background checks and fingerprinting that will be forwarded to the FBI!
As fewer and fewer patients qualify for medical cannabis under new, tighter laws, pharmaceutical companies continue to derive and patent cannabinoid compounds and prepare them for dose-regulated delivery by spray, inhaler, cream, and pill. They’ve used their lobbying power for decades to oppose nature’s finest medicine, the biggest threat to their market for benzodiazepenes, NSAIDs, and opioids, because they couldn’t slap a bar code and a 250,000% markup on pot. Soon they will be able to provide all these patients with all the benefits of medical cannabis, but without the pesky “high” and the ability to thwart their profits by growing it themselves.
(Huffington Post) According to USA Today in 2005, there were 1,274 registered pharmaceutical lobbyists in Washington, D.C. — more than two for every member of Congress. In 2003, $143 million was spent on lobbying activities by the Pharmaceutical industry. There are more lobbyists from pharmaceutical than any other industry trying to bend legislators’ ears.
This is big business, and that means that your health care is not in the hands of people who really want to help you, but in the hands of people who view you as a market.
Caveat emptor. You expect to beware in a used car lot. But buying a lemon auto is not nearly as likely to kill you as prescription medicine. Approximately 43,000 people died in car crashes in the U.S. in 2004, and the rate has been declining every year since. 100,000 people die in the U.S. every year from properly prescribed and properly administered prescription drugs, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association. The Florida Medical Examiners concluded that three times more people die from prescription medicine as die from illegal drugs.
What I fear is dispensaries becoming pharmacies and cannabis becoming another pharmaceutical and those lobbyists turning that $143 million toward enacting horribly restrictive medical marijuana laws that preserve their profits by banning home growing. Medical marijuana is beginning to steer marijuana law reform toward treating cannabis like codeine and away from treating cannabis like Coors Light. Whether you and I are busted because we’re “dopers smoking an illegal drug” or because we’re “recreational prescription cannabis abusers”, we’re still busted.
The beauty of medical marijuana is that people can cheaply and easily care for themselves. That’s also threatening to the health care model as it is run today, because cannabis violates that need for the middlemen and bureaucracy to receive treatment. I don’t need to see the doctor every so often to have him re-approve my prescription and I don’t need to see the pharmacist to fill it up. I can grow it and use it when I need it. It can’t kill me so I can’t take too much. It can’t addict me so I don’t need supervision. It doesn’t alter my perceptions and actions to the point that I need strict regulation. (In a sense I liken it to Martin Luther nailing up his protest of the Catholic Church to the church door on Halloween of 1517 – we don’t need intermediaries, we can find our salvation ourselves!)
But now we’re seeing these new bills and initiatives requiring more visits with the doctor, requiring the cannabis to come from dispensaries, and strictly documenting how much is to be used. Cannabis is being forced to fit into the paradigm of health care for profit with all the intermediaries, bureaucracy, markups, and restrictions. Once it is locked into the health insurance – pharmaceutical – medical complex, legalization for you and me will be farther away than ever.
This is why I think the next eighteen months are crucial in marijuana law reform. We’ve never had higher support for legalization, in part due to the economy. A state needs to break through with legalization for you and me, before the economy begins to recover, before cannabis pharmaceuticals gain widespread approval, before a half-dozen more states enact increasingly restrictive medical marijuana laws, and before cannabis becomes so ingrained in the public’s mind as a medicine that we can’t get them to accept it as a social intoxicant.
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Minnesota Independent) Former Rep. Chris Delaforest, R-Andover, will be joining his Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s staff this summer as Director of Legislative and Cabinet Affairs. Delaforest retired from the legislature in 2008 and became a key lobbyist for Minnesotans for Compassionate Care, the main group advocating for medical marijuana in Minnesota.
Delaforest, a conservative Republican, lent his ideological bent to the raging debate over the medical use of marijuana. “To me, this is the ultimate conservative issue,” he told the Star Tribune in 2008. “It’s about keeping the government out of the doctor-patient relationship.”
How dedicated to a cause are you when you’ll go to work for the man who single-handedly thwarts your cause? I guess for some people, paychecks outrank principles.
I understand that Delaforest and Pawlenty are, outside of medical marijuana, near ideological equals, but if you’re going to be lobbying on behalf of sick, dying, and sense-threatened individuals, shouldn’t your concern for them run a bit deeper than this? Yeah, everybody needs a job, but you’re going to work for a man who has decided that people should suffer needlessly, in direct opposition to the position you claimed to champion. Yeah, I know your new job has nothing to do with medical marijuana, but you are dedicating your talents to the man who stopped medical marijuana. It would be like me quitting NORML and dedicating my IT talents to a private prison company. It would be like Ellen quitting her talk show, divorcing Portia, and joining the Mormon church. It would be like former deputy drug czar Andrea Barthwell claiming marijuana isn’t medicine one day and going to work for a company that’s making medicines out of marijuana the next day (oh, wait, that did happen!)
Note to Mssrs. Soros and Lewis: next time one of you want to pony up a high-six-figure salary to a medical marijuana lobbyist, pick one who really believes in it. Then maybe, just maybe, when they run out of your money they won’t take jobs from the opposition.
I am very disappointed to read in the Minnesota Independent that you are now going to work for Gov. Tim Pawlenty. How do you reconcile trading your talents and effort for a paycheck from the man single-handedly responsible for blocking the relief for sick and dying people you claimed to have been fighting for?
You may feel it’s just an issue, one of many, something to do to get a fat MPP/Lewis check until the next gig arrives, but for thousands of sick and dying Minnesotans, your new appointment must feel like the ultimate betrayal to them. The fight is not yet over, there remains a constitutional amendment battle in the next session, but now the opposition has silenced the most vocal proponent of medical marijuana for the most visible pro-medical marijuana group in the state. You may have thought of your lobbying as just a job and your new appointment as just a job, but for thousands in Minnesota and hundreds of thousands listening on my show, your voice was their voice of hope at the capitol.
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 8:20 am | By: Radical Russ
(Minnesota Independent) Gov. Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill to legalize marijuana for terminally ill patients late Friday evening, saying he sides with law enforcement opposition to the bill. Bill proponents say they will introduce a constitutional amendment to bypass the governor, noting overwhelming popular support in the state on the issue.
“While I am sympathetic to those dealing with end-of-life illnesses and accompanying pain, I stand with law enforcement in opposition to this legislation,” Pawlenty said in his veto letter.
Shorter Pawlenty: “I know your doctor says you’re dying and marijuana can help, but these cops here say it will make their job harder.”
“I’m disappointed in the governor’s action, but I’m not giving up,” Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, said in a press release. “This would have been the narrowest, strictest medical marijuana law in the country, but the bottom line remains that there are patients suffering terribly who need protection, and I won’t stop till they are protected.”
Joni Whiting, whose testimony of finding marijuana for her dying daughter brought tears to many legislators’ eyes, had harsh words for Pawlenty.
“The governor thinks I’m a criminal for allowing my daughter some comfort during the last months of her life,” she said. “I don’t know how he sleeps at night, but I do know I’m not giving up until others in my daughter’s situation are protected.”
This bill would have forbidden patients to grow their own plants and would have denied medical marijuana patient status to conditions like cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cachexia, gastro-intestinal disorders, chronic nausea, and chronics pain. Only terminal patients would have been able to use it. It’s a strange situation when there is a silver lining in a medical marijuana veto, but this may be it: at least when the legislature gets around to putting a constitutional amendment to the voters to bypass Pawlenty, the amendment can provide broader medical marijuana protections.
The down side, of course, is that the terminal patients who could’ve gained relief from this bill will probably die before the next legislature can help them.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I have a question, about the ScOG (Screen Of Green) Method. I have heard that it can give a large harvest, in a small space. Can you fill me in on the details? the advantages and disadvantages
Cultivating in the great outdoors in northern Minnesota, we have a problem with deer and rabbits nibbling on my favorite herb. Do you have any non-lethal, non pesticide deer and/or rabbit repellent?
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. […]
Stash for Fri, Oct 23, 2009
sounds like time for some 
mountain time wake n bake 
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
Fresh Stash V RSS Feed
Loading ...
, or can...
