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Hemp Headlines

1. Colorado Board of Health votes 6-3 to kill 5-patient limit for caregivers
2. Alabama mother arrested when newborn tests positive for marijuana metabolites
3. New York Times: Marijuana Is Gateway Drug for Two Debates
4. Mexican cartels moving marijuana by sea as border security tightens

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Part 2 of interview with Ed Rosenthal

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• Variety Tuesday – ‘Getting Hold of That Weed’ by JBB

Government at Work

• Warren Edson from NORML Legal Committee and Colorado NORML reporting on Colorado Board of Health hearing and the rapid growth of dispensaries and registered patients in the state.

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-07-06.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Middle School Girls Made to Jump in Underwear to Test for Marijuana
2. THC eliminates heroin dependence in lab rat tests
3. Prohibition putting Atlanta families in danger
4. Chef, 17, ‘killed by cannabis’

Reforming Marijuana Laws with the NORML Legal Committee

• NORML Founder Keith Stroup on the Importance of Personal Cultivation in any Legalization Proposal

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards . com

• 2009 AMMA Best Acoustic Song – ‘A Friend With Weed’ by Chief Greenbud

Grassroots Activism

• Scott Greene, Executive Director of the newly-formed Mile High NORML in Denver.

Mount Vernon, Ohio – A grand jury released an indictment against 45 year old medical marijuana patient Addie J Cyrus. On February 13th, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, without a warrant, seized marijuana plants weighing 813 grams from Cyrus’ residence in Gambier, Ohio. Cyrus is charged with illegal cultivation of marijuana and possession of marijuana. Her husband, James B. Cyrus, 46, is also charged with possession of marijuana.

Knox county prosecutor, Thatcher, indicated he intends to prosecute Cyrus to the fullest extent of the law. Addie Cyrus is a military veteran and has never even had a traffic ticket. She now suffers some health issues and uses marijuana with her doctors knowledge to help maintain her quality of life.

Her husband, James Cyrus, owns a trucking company and is in danger of losing the family business they have operated for 20 years due to Ohio’s law that takes away your drivers license if convicted of any drug possession.

Last year, the Ohio Patient Network introduced a medical compassion bill that would have protected patients like Addie Cyrus from a prosecutor like Mr. Thatcher, who wants to put non-violent citizens like Cyrus in jail. Addie Cyrus faces at least a year in jail, where the state will have to provide medical care.

Ohio Patient Network is once again working for a Medical Marijuana bill. In the last year’s State Senate hearing on SB343, even Senator Seitz voiced support for the legislation. Senator Seitz from Hamilton County is one of the most conservative and respected State Senators in the Ohio Senate.

Addie Cyrus has retained the legal services of defense attorney Dennis Day. Day is a notable marijuana defense attorney and serves on the NORML Legal Committee.

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Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-03-19.mp3)

Hemp Headlines

1. Attorney general signals shift in marijuana policy
2. First medical marijuana producer in NM approved
3. ‘Few tablespoons’ of pot found in Derek Copp’s off-campus apartment, lawyer says
4. Hydroponics invoice from High Times advertiser led to arrest of sports columnist David Mayo
5. Truck At Hydroponics Store Traced; Pot Raided

Southern California Cannabis with Tere Joyce

• Jeffrey Petersen from Cannabis Chronicles XXX discusses the intersection of the cannabis community and the adult entertainment industry.

Daily Toker Tunes by Marijuana Music Awards

• Rockin Thursday! – ‘Mary Jane’ by Mitch and the Polecats

Cannabis Conversations

• Warren Edson from NORML Legal Committee discusses the recent tenfold increase in the Colorado medical marijuana program and the rise of storefront dispensaries in Denver.

Monday in Salem, activists from four Oregon medical marijuana groups (Oregon NORML, Voter Power, Oregon Green Free, and MAMAs) joined forces in opposing Senate Bill 388.  The act was written in cooperation with law enforcement by a fifth medical marijuana group, The Stormy Ray Cardholders Foundation, which is headed by Stormy Ray, a patient who was one of the co-chief petitioners of Oregon’s medical marijuana act.  (Oregon NORML’s complaints with the bill can be found here.)

Activists were limited by the chair to only ten minutes for testimony.  Many patients drove from long distances and took time off work to explain how the language in SB 388 would affect them.  Law enforcement was to present a PowerPoint presentation at the beginning of the hearing, but as the gavel knocked at 8am, they were nowhere to be found.

Following Stormy Ray’s testimony endorsing the bill and explaining the need for its provisions, Jerry Wade of the Stormy Ray Foundation was to testify next.  Mr. Wade asked the Chair if his testimony could follow all the testimony from other activists gathered, presumably to act as rebuttal to the opposition gathered in the hearing room and overflowing into the adjacent room.  Sen. Morrissette, the chair, granted the request.

Testimony was then heard from Oregon NORML’s Madeline Martinez, Voter Power’s John Sajo, MAMA’s Sandee Burbank, and NORML Legal Committee attorney Leland Berger, as well as many other medical marijuana patients affiliated with all these organizations plus Oregon Green Free.  Opposition to the bill was uniform throughout the remaining testimony regarding one provision or another in the bill.  Some complained that a 2oz limit on hashish will make storage and acquisition of this medicine difficult.  Others took issue with limiting caregivers and growers to 24 ounces possession total, even if they care for multiple patients.

As Leland Berger was testifying, about 90 minutes into the hearing, law enforcement showed up.  Mr. Berger generously ceded the remainder of his time for the three testifiers from law enforcement to begin their PowerPoint presentation, which is shown in its entirety below.  Law enforcement testimony took the remainder of the allotted hearing time, allowing no time for medical marijuana advocates to respond.  Chair Morrissette gaveled the hearing to a close and declared a follow-up session of testimony would be heard on Wednesday to accommodate rebuttal and patients who hadn’t had a chance to testify.

Attorney, Herb Shafer, 88, often outraged, outrageous | ajc.com
[Georgia Defense Attorney Herb Shafer, age 88,] recently was in Rockdale County working himself into a lather as he described a traffic stop that led to a drug bust, one of minuscule proportions. Police spent an hour searching (“ransacking!” he called it) a car, including a baby’s diaper. They found less than 0.01 of a gram of marijuana.

“What did they find? Close your eyes — that’s what they found. Nothing!” he shouted, rolling his thumb and forefinger into a zero for effect. “This seemingly trivial case implicates illegal police misconduct.”

Shafer’s client, Julian Smith, had $12,000 in cash, which was seized and later returned because federal authorities “gagged when they got this [forfeiture] case,” Shafer said. Smith is a music promoter and needs cash for shows, the attorney explained.

“Why is he here?” Shafer said, turning and asking his client to stand up. “That’s why he’s here,” indicating the man’s dreadlocks. Shafer claimed the stop was racial profiling, a charge the county denies.

“If my outrage is startling, I apologize,” he added. “But after 58 years of lawyering, I am outraged.”

 

“There’s no one who knows the Fourth Amendment better …,” said Atlanta lawyer Don Samuel, who in recent years worked cases with Shafer until they had a falling out. “He’s winning the hand-to-hand drug cases [small-time transactions] like no one else.”

“Herb is one of the most articulate defenders of the Constitution,” echoed defense lawyer Bruce Harvey. “He never lets anyone cross the line. He’s not afraid to call anyone out.”

He mostly works drug cases because those clients more often than not have money. “I do pro bono work, but I like to get paid,” he said.

 

Herb is just one of thousands of lawyers out there who are defending your Constitutional rights.  NORML Legal Committee features hundreds of these lawyers who specialize in handling marijuana cases.  Many people feel hesitant to defend their rights, especially when they are carrying their stash.  They feel guilty, knowing they are breaking the law, embarrassed that they got caught, and feeling like a criminal.  Police are well-trained to exploit those feelings and to leverage their institutional power to help you waive your rights and make their prosecutor’s job of putting you in jail easier.

Know your rights.  Say no to searches.  Keep your mouth shut.  Hire an attorney.  And remember, even cannabis consumers are considered innocent until proven guilty in this country

Neighbor Newspapers – State Rep. says ‘concerned’ about opponent’s NORML affiliation
TULSA — State Rep. Lucky Lamons, a retired Tulsa police officer, has drawn his first opponent in a race in four years — a Tulsa lawyer who is a member of a national group working to legalize marijuana.

Jay Ramey, 43, who filed Tuesday, is a member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, commonly known as NORML.

On his law office web site, Ramey writes “I do not believe that anyone should go to jail or be punished in any way for marijuana. Therefore, I completely support the goals of NORML.”

Lamons said he was “concerned about (Ramey’s) affiliation with illegal narcotics.”

Ramey said he was running because he wanted to give voters a Republican choice this election. He did not want the NORML issue to gain greater attention than the other issues in District 66, he said. “I’m concerned about a lot more than that,” he added. He stressed that the law office site was for his private practice, and not his campaign platform.

Ramey said his involvement with NORML would not be “the number one issue” of the campaign.

“I am concerned about his involvement with NORML and his web site advocating to decriminalize narcotics,” Lamons said. “There’s a reason we have them under the criminal code. I hope that is not his platform.

“From 22 years in law enforcement, I can try to make a consensus with a lot of people,” Lamons [continued]. “But I do not see eye to eye with him on that issue. I’ve seen what the devastation of drugs can do, have done, and continue to support legislation to increase penalties.”

Isn’t remarkable how fast a prohibitionist can go from marijuana to narcotics to devastation of drugs?  Never let them get that far.  Remind them politely that marijuana is not a narcotic.  Narcotics are addictive.

You have to sort of feel a little sorry for Lamons, though.  It would be tough to see the issue clearly when you spend 22 years in law enforcement dealing with the tiny minority of problematic drug users.  He’s obviously projected the worst case hardcore addicts onto the vast majority of adults who use cannabis responsibly.  He just can’t conceive of someone who gets up, goes to work, works hard, comes home, cleans house, reads to his kids, puts them to bed, and then maybe enjoys smoking a joint with his wife on the porch before heading to bed.

Good luck to NORML Legal Committee member Jay Ramey in his race for Oklahoma State Representative.  This is how we begin to tear down the wall of ignorance – by openly proclaiming that there is nothing wrong with responsible adult use of marijuana and daring people to move on to more important issues.