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Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 5:57 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Union Leader) EPPING – A local police officer who claims he has been targeted because of his involvement with a group that wants to legalize drugs has been suspended from the force.
Officer Bradley Jardis said he was told Monday that he was being suspended with pay pending an investigation.
Police Chief Gregory Dodge would not comment on the suspension, but Jardis said he believes it resulted from his decision to go public with disciplinary action taken against him in July and claims that he has been ridiculed by certain Epping police personnel because he’s a member of an international organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
According to a letter from the town’s attorney, Philip Petis, the police chief adamantly disagrees that Jardis’ involvement with LEAP has anything to do with the disciplinary action.
Still, Jardis claims trouble began brewing in February when he was featured in a story in the New Hampshire Sunday News about his involvement with LEAP.
Three days after the story ran, Jardis wrote a letter to Lt. Michael Wallace asking that he be “protected from unlawful harassment” by Gallagher, who was then his supervisor. He claimed that on the day after the article came out, Gallagher referred to him as a “dark rain cloud over this place.”
I grew up in a dysfunctional family. My dad was an alcoholic and a drug addict. As I went through various “Al-Anon” type treatments as a teenager, I was taught that dysfunctional families revolve around the addict and they all try to cover for him and protect the family secret. If one family member exposes the secret, it is that family member, not the addict, who is vilified and shunned by the family.
Such is the nature of your average police force, a dysfunctional family addicted to the War on (Certain American Citizens Using Non-Pharmaceutical, Non-Alcoholic, Tobacco-Free) Drugs™. So long as they all march in lockstep and protect the secret – in this case the addiction to the easy arrests that pad police résumés and the asset forfeiture that lines their pockets – the family continues on, maintaining the façade of normalcy. But if one cop steps out of line and declares the drug war to be ineffective, cruel, inhumane, and unAmerican, he is a black sheep to be castigated, mocked, and shunned.
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Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 1:24 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Nashua Telegraph) CONCORD – The State Senate bowed to the will of Gov. John Lynch and blocked New Hampshire from becoming the 14th state to legalize possession of medical marijuana for chronically ill patients and their caregivers.
After three months of private lobbying, no minds were changed in the Senate as today’s 14-10 vote to override Lynch’s veto of the bill (HB 648) came up two votes shy of the mandatory, two-thirds majority.
Hollis Democratic Sen. Peggy Gilmour co-founded the state’s first hospice for the terminally ill and pleaded for the bill’s survival.
“It’s up to 16 of us in this chamber to look at those who are suffering to say, `I understand and I will help,’’ Gilmour said.
The leader of NH Coalition for Common Sense, Matt Simon, said he knew a few senators had told constituents they were capable of making the switch to backing the bill.
“You never give up hope so I’m disappointed. Now I’m not looking forward to making those difficult calls to people depending on the Legislature to relieve their unrelenting pain,’’ Simon said.
Earlier today, the New Hampshire House of Representatives had as expected voted to overrode Lynch’s July 9 veto.
The 240-115 vote in the House had cleared the two-thirds majority bar needed to advocate a bill become law over a governor’s veto. It marked the first time a legislative body took such a confrontational action since Lynch, a popular, three-term Democrat, first became governor in January 2005.
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 1:41 pm | By: Radical Russ
I’m happy to announce the newest NORML College Chapter to be formed at the University of Hew Hampshire. UNH NORML’s contact is Nick Murray and you can reach him at npmurray@gmail.com if you’re interested in getting involved with the chapter.
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 1:38 pm | By: Radical Russ
First the good news:
CONCORD (AP) — Lawmakers will vote Wednesday whether to override Gov. John Lynch’s veto of a bill that would make New Hampshire the 14th state to legalize marijuana use by severely ill people.
Supporters are optimistic they have the two-thirds vote needed for an override in the House, but are less confident the votes are there in the Senate.
Then the bad news:
If the veto is overridden, the bill would establish three nonprofit “compassion centers” to dispense 2 ounces of marijuana every 10 days to severely ill patients whose doctors approve the drug’s use. The state would license the centers and issue identification cards to their staff, approved patients and their caregivers.
Why is that “bad news”? No right to grow your own medicine, a three-center monopoly on medical marijuana, a ridiculous limit of two ounces every ten days, and if you have chronic pain, you must have tried other drugs for three months and found no relief from them before you can smoke the herb. But, to be fair, that’s not bad news if you desperately need medical marijuana, it’s only bad news from the perspective of medical marijuana bills getting more and more restrictive as time goes on.
There is a lot to like about the bill, however, like protections for organ transplant candidates and reciprocity for other states’ medical marijuana patients. So I hope they do manage to override the veto, and then work to improve the law once patients begin to point out these flaws.
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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.
Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 9:20 am | By: Radical Russ
Just as in Minnesota earlier this year – the People support and the Senate passes a decent medical marijuana bill, then the Assembly/House hacks away at the bill, citing concerns that the governor who opposes medical marijuana will veto it. (UPDATE: Paul Armentano reminds me that in Minnesota and New Hampshire, both the House and Senate passed the good bill, then under governor’s threat combined to hack away at it in conference committee. I apologize for the implication – but the point still holds. — “R”R)
They set limits so low few patients would have satisfactory access (2 ounces).
They force patients to buy cannabis at black-market drug-dealer prices in a state-limited monopoly of non-profit “compassion centers” (because we can’t say the scary “d” word – “dispensaries”).
They set onerous restrictions on purchases, tracking them in a database so patients can’t buy too often (every 10 days).
They require criminal background checks and FBI fingerprinting of caregivers, who cannot be patients themselves nor ever convicted of a drug crime (like growing and possessing marijuana for their patient before there was a medical marijuana law).
So the Assembly legislature, backed by certain marijuana policy advocates, hacks away at the bill to soothe the governor’s fears, gives him all he could ask for and then some… and he vetoes the bill anyway.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Citing cultivation and distribution concerns, Gov. John Lynch has vetoed legislation that would have made New Hampshire the 14th state to legalize marijuana use by severely ill people.
Lynch had been critical of the bill from the start, but lawmakers made extensive changes in hopes of answering his concerns.
The bill would have established nonprofit compassion centers to dispense 2 ounces of marijuana every 10 days to severely ill patients. The state would have licensed the centers and issue identification cards to their staff, approved patients and their caregivers.
The bill passed the House 232-108 and the Senate, 14-10. Depending on attendance, the House may have the two-thirds support to override, but supporters need two more votes in the Senate.
If the governor is going to veto a bill anyway, why compromise? Medical marijuana is enormously popular with the people. After if gets by the Senate 14-10, if you leave the bill alone and test it in the House, maybe it doesn’t pass, but maybe it gets through with a lower vote, like 171-169. Then the governor vetoes it anyway… but at least you wouldn’t be setting a precedent for statehouses across the country to take away essential patients’ rights! What’s the plan for next year, present a bill that only lets one terminal cancer patient named Chet smoke <5% THC medical marijuana only between 2am-4am if he’s chained to a radiator in a locked basement closet?
After a dozen years and thirteen states, medical marijuana bills should be getting better, not worse. If we’re going to make a project out of setting medical marijuana policy, we shouldn’t be blackmailed by compassion to support bills that create 2nd-class patients more tightly regulated than Oxycontin patients. These bills lately treat patients as just barely above criminals, bound to commit marijuana crimes unless they’re watched like parolees.
Now the third state in this round, New Jersey, is set to replay the same chorus, only this time with a governor who will sign the bill. Again, I can never oppose a medical marijuana bill – how can I suggest a cancer patient should have to hit the streets for a dealer rather than a dispensary? – but I can strongly and loudly oppose the strategy of the project that puts forth these restrictive bills. Once New Jersey passes the bill, that will set the bar for these other timid states to pass the same type of legislation, locking large portions of America into dispensary monopolies and handing absolute control over quality, diversity, and price from the patient to the middleman.
Monday, July 6th, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
I only recently came forward because I strongly believe that HB 648, which recently passed the House and Senate, should become law in New Hampshire.
The bill would create the most tightly crafted medical marijuana law in the country, and it would probably be used as a model for other states that want to allow access but are concerned about ensuring accountability and security.
All legitimate concerns about how the cultivation and dispensation of marijuana can be controlled are addressed in the final version of the bill, which will soon make its way to Gov. John Lynch’s desk.
If this bill does become law, New Hampshire will have a medical marijuana program that is responsible and well managed. The senators and representatives who sponsored and wrote this bill have worked tirelessly to ensure that the program will work and should be commended for their efforts.
It is wrong to think that the compassion centers called for in this bill will be like the clubs in California, where abuse of their medical marijuana law has hurt efforts to provide access in the rest of the country.
This is the frame being constructed all around the medical marijuana issue. California = abuse. Grow your own medicine = uncontrolled. Abuse = hurting efforts to provide medicine to sick people. Home cultivation = insecure and unaccountable.
For years now I’ve been warning people that medical marijuana will turn out to be a political box canyon from which legalization cannot escape. For years we’ve opened minds by appealing to hearts, saying that legalization of marijuana for sick people is the least a compassionate person could do. Now they will turn it back against us, saying state control of cultivation of marijuana for sick people is the least a compassionate person could do.
If you’re curious about the precedent the New Hampshire law will set, becoming a “model for other states”, here are some details from SB648:
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 at 4:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
(USA Today) The New Hampshire Legislature has passed legislation allowing chronically ill patients to use medical marijuana with a doctor’s prescription.
Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat, said he would study the bill before deciding whether to sign or veto it. He has raised concerns about preventing marijuana cultivation and distribution. The bill prohibits users or caregivers from growing the plant, which would be dispensed in licensed “compassion centers.”
If the law is enacted, the Granite State would become the 14th state allowing medical marijuana and the fourth state to license dispensaries.
Gov. Lynch, if you sign this bill, it will still be the most restrictive medical marijuana law of the fourteen states that allow it – the first to not allow patients to grow their own, locking them into a state monopoly where they must pay black market prices in a dispensary. Somehow neighboring Vermont, Maine, and nearby Rhode Island have allowed patients to cultivate at home and the world didn’t come to an end. Rhode Island even enacted dispensary legislation this year without eliminating the right to grow.
When/if this is signed into law, you can bet every new medical marijuana bill and initiative introduced will duplicate the “no home growing / state-monopolized non-profit dispensary” system. The prohibitionists have realized they cannot defeat medical marijuana, so their tactic now is to force the “medical” part into the strictly-controlled pharmaceutical system we use for dangerous drugs like Oxycontin.
While I’m glad to see seriously ill and disabled Granite Staters gain access to cannabis for medical use, I fear the precedent being set that marijuana is such a dangerous medicine that it must be controlled like an opiate and that those of us who use cannabis socially are akin to illicit prescription drug abusers.
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 [...]
Radical Russ: Testing, testing, 347-994-1810, chat with "Radical" Russ at the Cannabis Café, private invite for Stashers only!
RevRayGreen: I was like 14/15 back then..old fuckng school sht
RevRayGreen: @MH.....white x's, yellow jackts,BB's.then it became just caffeine pills
SneakerPimp: im diggen yesterdays stash daily toker tunes segment awesome
WakeUpDead: Just got done with yesterdays stash and now the new one is up, very cool.
SneakerPimp: ah fresh stashieness
SneakerPimp: nice pic there mr ruben
Missippi Hippy: black beauties - got 'em by the pharm sealed 1000 in the 80s
Adam: Kieth Stroup told me that he has new book coming out, it will cover the time periods after High in America was published.
Adam: I recommend that you all read High in America: The True Story Behind NORML and the Politics of Marijuana.
Read it FREE online HERE
http://tinyurl.com/cxzc3h
slash5city: ah the mid 80's spof ..the summers of 3d weed.... head down to the smoking area at school buy a 2$ pin joint or two from the one dealer then [...]
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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 30, 2009
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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