Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 2:18 pm | By: Radical Russ
ECHO PARK, Calif. (KABC) — For the third time in a week, the Los Angeles Police Department has raided a medical marijuana facility.
Police arrested three people during the raid Thursday night at the Royal Temple of Zion in Echo Park.
Authorities say the facility has not applied for a hardship permit like all the other medical marijuana dispensaries, so selling the marijuana is illegal. About two pounds of marijuana were seized.
Oh my gosh! A whole two pounds of marijuana! Here in Oregon, that’s 2/3rds the amount of medical marijuana two registered patients may possess. Even at ridiculously-inflated black-market-dictated California dispensary prices that’s less than $10,000 worth of marijuana. I wonder how much it costs the city of Los Angeles to execute and prosecute such a raid? Wanna bet it’s more than $10,000?
Those associated with the temple say it is a Rastafarian ministry, and it has the legal right to sell marijuana to the sick.
“This is a church run medical marijuana club providing medical marijuana for sick people, but we do it as a church,” said Pastor Craig Rubin.
Pastor Rubin believes police are targeting those that have been vocal about legalizing the drug.
Pastor Rubin, as you may remember, is the man who was offering patients a free eighth ounce of marijuana if they would come testify at the LA PLUM hearings two weeks ago.
“They seem to be particularly picking out people who have applied for these hardships who speak out,” said Pastor Rubin.
Members say because this is a place of worship they have not done anything illegal.
“It’s because we believe a cannabis from Revelations 22 is a plant for the healing of all nations and that people should have access to this plant. It’s not only benign, it’s benevolent,” said Pastor Rubin.
Yes, and I believe the Flying Spaghetti Monster brought forth cannabis from his noodly appendages to give to humanity so they may savor His Succulent Meatballs, so I shouldn’t be arrested for my pot smoking, either.
Sorry, I know many reading this have sincere religious beliefs and some have sincere beliefs that treat ganja as sacrament, but as an atheist I continue to be offended by the notion that because I treat all books as written works of men, not gods, I deserve to be arrested and jailed for my use of cannabis. I completely support the right of religious folks to use ganja because I completely support the inalienable right of ALL folks to use cannabis, but when religious folks think they have a special and unique right to not be arrested for cannabis because they picked the right god, they are discriminating against me for my lack of a god.
Friday, May 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
(CNN) — A policeman was killed Friday during a day-long siege with a gunman at a house in the town of Napier, in New Zealand’s north island.
The body of Senior Constable Len Snee was recovered from the driveway of the house, where a 51-year-old gunman had been embroiled in a standoff with police since Thursday morning, New Zealand police said in a statement.
Two other police officers and a civilian were wounded in the confrontation, and are in critical condition in a hospital, police said. Authorities did not say what had prompted the incident.
CNN affiliate TVNZ identified the man as Jan Molenaar and said police had arrived at his house Thursday morning in Napier, about 200 miles southeast of Auckland, for a “standard cannabis raid.”
Fortunately, Constable Snee did not die in vain, because after the arrest of Molenaar, all marijuana farming has now ceased to exist in New Zealand.
Does anybody think any good has come from this “standard cannabis raid”? What terrible harm had befallen the town of Napier that justified the death of a policeman and the wounding of two more and a civilian? Is stopping a 51-year-old man from gardening in his home and getting high worth it? Police should never be forced into this situation and citizens should never be forced to defend their home against police.
Friday, April 24th, 2009 at 5:20 pm | By: Dudemaster
Derek Copp’s roommate, Conor Michael Bardallis, appeared in Hudsonville District Court this morning and waived his right to a probable cause hearing on a charge of delivery of marijuana.
Bardallis, 21, is accused of selling 3 grams of pot to an undercover officer in February for $50. He and Copp, both Grand Valley State University students, shared an off-campus apartment where Copp was shot and injured by Ottawa County Deputy Ryan Huizenga during a raid by a police drug team.
Copp, 20, was arraigned Wednesday on a charge of delivery of marijuana. He also waived his probable-cause hearing, sending his case to Ottawa County Circuit Court. He is accused of selling 3.3 grams of marijuana to an undercover officer for $60 just hours before the raid at his Campus View apartment. [If there's a crime here, it's selling weed at $60/eighth! --"R"R]
Copp acknowledged at his arraignment that he had recently smoked marijuana. The admission came when the judge asked if Copp would be “clean or dirty” if given a drug test. Copp said dirty, because he smoked marijuana April 14.
It is a sad state of society when law enforcement finds it necessary to raid the home of a 20 year old kid in paramilitary style fashion simply over selling some plant material. What makes this case so unique is that law enforcement shot him for it.
This is the fear that millions of Americans face each and every day. We are afraid that soldiers will bust into our homes, shoot our husbands, wives, children, pets, steal our property, confiscate our bank accounts, and leave us penniless, homeless or in a cage simply for choosing a safer alternative to dangerous pharmaceuticals, tobacco, or alcohol.
Sunday, February 1st, 2009 at 12:00 pm | By: Radical Russ
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Olympic great Michael Phelps has acknowledged ”regrettable” behavior and ”bad judgment” after a photo in a British newspaper showed him smoking marijuana.
In a statement released to The Associated Press, the swimmer who won a record eight gold medals at the Beijing Games conceded the authenticity of the exclusive picture published Sunday by the tabloid News of the World.
Phelps said: ”I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment. I’m 23 years old and despite the successes I’ve had in the pool, I acted in a youthful and inappropriate way, not in a manner people have come to expect from me. For this, I am sorry. I promise my fans and the public it will not happen again.”
Youthful and inappropriate. Childish things, as our president might say. ”It will not happen again.” Not to get all Clintonian on you, Mike, but does “it” refer to “smoking marijuana” or does “it” refer to “photos surfacing in newspapers showing you smoking marijuana”?
I’ll never understand the mindset that accepts as rational the idea that these world class athletes – Michael Phelps, Ricky Williams, Ross Rebagliati, those Russian sumo, etc. - can dedicate their entire lives to eating right, working out, honing their bodies and minds to the pinnacle of their sport, but should they wish to relax and unwind, they’re forced to ingest a hard liquid drug that has noticably deleterious effects on health and athletic ability (Max McGee notwithstanding) rather than a mild herb that doesn’t seem to have affected their abilities whatsoever.
Even more perplexing is the notion that, in the name of “sports medicine”, these athletes are accustomed to taking all manner of narcotic pain killers and other pharmaceutical cocktails that aid performance or mitigate injury, but are addicting (Brett Favre, *cough*,) and wreak havoc on the liver and kidneys, yet if we catch them smoking weed we have to mete out severe punishment (Santonio Holmes, notwithstanding).
As I look at the coverage on Huffington Post (admittedly, a liberal website) almost all comments are “it’s well past time to legalize it” and “so what” and “didn’t hurt Phelps’ performance any”. Oh, an Obama brother pot bust and an eight-time gold medalist bong photo following ten days of growing drumbeat over President Obama’s non-response to the Tahoe Raid… somebody really did get me a swell birthday present!
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I’m getting some great suggestions from the Stashers out there – keep ‘em comin’! And if you want to contribute your own two-minute MP3 reports on cannabis news in your area, you could be played on the Stash as our Regional Correspondent (I’m sure I’ll think of a Stashy-sounding title by then.)
Today’s Stash features a conversation with Michael Crawford, from the board of directors for MassCann/NORML and the musical director of the Boston Freedom Rally. Even though Massachusetts passed Question 2, making possession of marijuana a $100 civil fine, city leaders are proposing local ordinances to create additional fines of up to $700. Why can’t elected officials understand that 65% approval for $100 fines is a landslide!
Then Tere Joyce brings us the latest from Southern California. She has an intriguing idea for helping stimulate the American economy, and it’s not weed! Tere brings along medical cannabis dispensary employee Jim Wilson, to tell about the experience the recent Tahoe Raid victims probably felt, because he went through a raid along with Tere a couple of years ago.
It’s my penultimate day of fortyhood! Any excuse to use the word “penultimate”.
Agents seized between five and 10 pounds of processed marijuana and a “small amount” of U.S. currency from the collective, said DEA Special Agent Gordon Taylor.
Police made no arrests on Thursday.
Taylor declined to comment on additional details of the raid, saying Patient to Patient Collective is part of an ongoing investigation.
Say, Californians! How do you feel about voting to allow sick people to use marijuana free from police harassment, only to have your state, county, and city law enforcement helping to serve a federal warrant? Don’t you just love the idea that your California tax dollars paid for this raid? You helped to take a whole 5-to-10 pounds of dangerous marijuana off the streets of Tahoe, so the Californians who buy hard liquor at the grocery store and gamble in the Nevada casinos won’t have to fear those out-of-control medical marijuana patients. Sure, you could allow the dispensaries to operate and collect their sales tax revenue, or you could just legalize marijuana for all adults and collect the revenues from taxation, law enforcement savings, and a brand new hemp industry, but then you wouldn’t get enjoy your swell State Tax Refund IOUs this spring, would you?
Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 11:59 am | By: Radical Russ
“You express a great deal of anxiety over our willingness to break laws. This is certainly a legitimate concern. Since we so diligently urge people to obey the Supreme Court’s decision of 1954 outlawing segregation in the public schools, at first glance it may seem rather paradoxical for us consciously to break laws. One may well ask: “How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?” The answer lies in the fact that there are two types of laws: just and unjust. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that “an unjust law is no law at all.”
Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.”
Today our nation honors what would’ve been this week the eightieth birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr., on the eve of the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama as the 44th president of these United States. I was sixty-four days old when an assassin’s bullet cut down Dr. King in the prime of his life. Today I am six-hundred forty days older than Dr. King when he was killed. Tomorrow I will see something few people my age and older thought we’d ever see, yet something Dr. King had dreamed from the start.
There remains a grave injustice to be battled, the most unjust of laws to be disobeyed, a law that by its definition is not rooted in eternal law and natural law: the man made code that declares nature itself to be illegal, the prohibition on cannabis. Yet when I mention marijuana law reform in the context of the great civil rights struggles in America, so many are quick to dismiss me with snickers of derision. ”You just want pot legal so you can get high!” is a common refrain.
Federal authorities said the businesses were not selling the drug within the limits of state Proposition 215, a 1996 initiative legalizing the sale of marijuana by prescription to seriously ill patients.
[A DEA spokeswoman] said marijuana and pot-laced brownies, ice cream, chocolate and fruit bars were seized at the businesses, along with a loaded handgun and thousands of dollars. She said the investigation took several months, and continues, to trace where the pot came from.
Meanwhile, the county Board of Supervisors is continuing its court battle against the state’s medical marijuana laws.
The board voted 4-1 yesterday, with Ron Roberts opposing, to ask the state Supreme Court to review its lawsuit challenging the state requirement that counties issue government identification to qualified medical marijuana patients.
The county contends the requirement conflicts with federal drug statutes that categorize marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical benefits.
A Superior Court judge rejected the county’s case in 2006, and an appellate court backed that decision Thursday. The state Supreme Court will be asked to review last week’s ruling, said Tom Bunton, senior deputy county counsel.
I thought it was interesting for the DEA to note that the businesses weren’t operating within the limits of Prop 215, as if obeying Prop 215 would keep the feds from making the bust! And between four operating dispensaries, you could only seize 20 pounds of pot – that’s five pounds per dispensary. Using the inflated DEA estimate of $3,000 / lb., that’s a whole $60,000 worth of pot y’all rounded up. I’m betting the salaries and equipment costs involved in the raid cost more than that.
Notice also the detail in describing the medibles – “pot-laced brownies, ice cream, chocolate and fruit bars”. Why wouldn’t the spokesperson say “marijuana and marijuana-laced foods”? Because the DEA is constantly hyping the threat of marijuana being marketed to children, and kids love ice cream! They must think adult patients wouldn’t also like brownies, ice cream, chocolate, and fruit bars; adults should take their drugs in pill form.
Also they’ve got to mention the loaded handgun and the thousands of dollars, which you could likely find in any small business dealing with lots of cash. That’s to hype the “medical marijuana dispensaries are like dangerous drug dealers” meme.
Finally, looks like San Diego is going to take the ID card case all the way to the California Supreme Court. Some people just can’t take “No” for an answer.
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. […]
Third LA-area raid: Royal Temple of Zion in Echo Park
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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