Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 11:53 am | By: Radical Russ
(Spokesman-Review) More than a thousand medical marijuana patients have purchased the drug at a small dispensary on Northwest Boulevard in Spokane in the nearly five months it’s been open.
Business is booming, and Scott Q. Shupe, co-owner of the dispensary, intended to keep it that way when he set out for Oregon with thousands of dollars and a lead on several pounds of marijuana.
Shupe, 54, was driving back from Bend, Ore., on Friday afternoon when an Oregon State Police trooper pulled him over for crossing the centerline.
That trooper found 4 pounds of marijuana and more than $18,000 in Shupe’s 1993 Chevrolet Cavalier station wagon – supplies destined for his dispensary, he said.
Shupe’s status as a medical marijuana patient in Washington didn’t matter. Oregon doesn’t recognize medical marijuana permits from other states.
Even if it did, patients and caregivers are limited to 1.5 pounds at time.
And even if the limits weren’t breached, Oregon’s law does not allow the selling of marijuana, even between registered patients and their registered growers within the state, much less to an out-of-state dispensary owner.
I want patients to get access to their medicine, which is why I support full legalization of marijuana for all adults. Scott Shupe should be able to buy cannabis from a Washington farmer or an Oregon farmer or any American farmer. Scott Shupe should be able to sell it to any adult American (and foreign tourists, too!)
But the way we’ve been corralled in the medical marijuana box canyon, stories like this are bound to hit the news. Our opponents claim the medical marijuana programs are widely abused, a front for greedy drug dealers. So some states craft language that forbid cannabis commerce and deny interstate recognition of medical marijuana permits. Then you’ve got thousands of patients with demand and few with supply and inevitably some guy gets pulled over with cash and pounds of weed crossing state lines trying to fulfill that demand. Then our opponents say, “See, we told you so!”
I am so worried about a pendulum swing back away from medical marijuana. I can see the next few states writing even more restrictive language. I can see activists losing the battles to keep business and law enforcement from hacking away at existing state medical marijuana laws. I can see pharmaceutical science creating dose-regulated, non-psychoactive cannabinoid drugs and our opponents demand that “crude plant material” be made illegal once again in medical marijuana states because of the “abuse” and because now the sick and dying have a “safer” alternative.
While the pendulum still swings toward freedom, we must follow through and see that it reaches full legalization for all adults.
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Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 9:09 am | By: Radical Russ
Demonstrators and Protestors Needed Today @ 10:00am.
Medical Marijuana patient with AIDS is being kicked out of Spokane Veterans Home because he needs Medical Marijuana
Spokane, WA – Media Release: 07-20-09
http://www.dva.wa.gov/washington_state_veterans_homes.html
“The Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs manages three facilities throughout the state, where veterans are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve, in distinctive settings that all provide a sense of belonging unique to veterans.”
Don Varney an HIV AIDS patient is being kicked out of Spokane Veterans Home 2 weeks ahead of schedule of his physical therapy from a total hip replacement due to the fact that he has a legal Medical Marijuana recommendation in the state of Washington.
Doctors on the coast that did the surgery were insisting that Don go to the Spokane Veterans Home in Spokane because of the 2 large security dogs he had in his home, in fear that the dogs might jump on him and damage the surgery that was done for a total left hip replacement.
Had the Spokane Veterans Home known ahead of time that he had a legal Medical Marijuana Recommendation they would never have allowed him to be admitted to the Spokane Veterans Home… This statement was made by the director of Spokane Veterans Home to Don Varney and John Gervais Sr., a good friend of Don’s and fellow patient, while in a meeting to figure out how Don Varney could administer his medications while he being admitted to the Spokane Veterans Home.
On top of all this the director forced Don Varney to go off the property into the general public to medicate against state law to keep his Medical Marijuana private, even though he had previously allowed Don to have Medical Marijuana on his person while in the Spokane Veterans Home. Don was forced into the general public to administer his state recognized Medical Marijuana off of VA property. “Go out to the sidewalk. Do your medication there and then return with your medication and pipe in your pocket.” These were the director’s words.
Don Varney’s weight loss is proof of the effects of not taking or being able to take his Medical Marijuana. Don has lost 4 pounds in the week since he has been denied his legal right to use his Medical Marijuana which helps him be able to have an appetite to eat. Medical Marijuana has shown to promote weight gain and prolong the life of HIV and AIDS patients.
The outcome we want is very simple. We want the VA and all private and public hospitals to recognize the patient’s right to exercise their right to use their legal Medical Marijuana within the guidelines of the Washington State RCW69.51a.
Protesters are congregating in front of the Spokane Veterans Home on Tuesday, July 21, 2009 at 10am. A portion of the state VFW and many Veterans have been contacted for support of this issue. Verification can be run through John Gervais Sr. at 509-981-2388. For additional information please contact Melissa Leggee, Owner of CBR Medical, Inc at 509-570-2886.
Sincerely,
Melissa Leggee
President
Kevin Oliver, Executive Director
Inland Northwest NORML www.innorml.org
kevin@innorml.org
1-866-706-2013
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead
Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 9:20 am | By: Radical Russ
Now that marijuana can be legally used to ease patients’ pain, dispensaries are opening in Spokane to provide it.
And regardless of whether such stores are what Washington voters and legislators envisioned when they allowed medical marijuana, it may only be a matter of time before the businesses are commonplace: Medical marijuana has been approved in more than a dozen states.
She buys her supply from a shop called Change. It opened two months ago and is run by Christopher Stevens, Noah Zarate and Scott Shupe.
[A question to the Washington Department of Health]: “How do I get medical marijuana? Can I buy it?”
The DOH answer: “The law allows a qualifying patient or designated provider to grow medical marijuana. It is not legal to buy or sell it.”
The owners of Change interpret the state law differently. They contend they have the right to buy marijuana and resell it to people who have written authorization from their doctors. Stevens said he obtains a wholesale supply of marijuana from local farmers with surplus crops and sells it – sales tax included – at retail prices.
A sale to Judy on Tuesday resembled a typical retail transaction. Stevens described the product, answered questions and made a recommendation based on Judy’s questions.
When she settled on what she wanted, Judy pulled $80 from her billfold and handed it to Stevens. He unscrewed a jar lid, fetched 5 grams of a variety called “Snow Cap,” weighed it, put it in a baggie and affixed a label urging users to keep the drug out of the reach of children. and cautions that it may cause drowsiness.
Stevens said the next move for medical marijuana will be a push to force insurers – including the government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs – to pay much like they do for prescription drug coverage.
In case you’re wondering, $80 for 5 grams of marijuana works out to $16/gram, or about $450/ounce. In this political climate surrounding health care reform, we can’t even get our politicians to support a public health care option like the entire civilized world enjoys, even when 70% of us are for it, because those politicians are strong-armed by health care lobbyists defending outrageous insurance company profits and denial of coverage. I’m interested in how we’re going to get them to force insurance companies to cover paying $450/ounce for a weed that could be produced for $2/ounce if it were legal.
By the way, according to the latest High Times Trans-High Market Quotations, the average price for OG Kush on the street in Washington State is $400/ounce. These dispensaries can’t beat black market prices! How does it feel to be giving a worse deal to a sick person than a street corner pot dealer? Until marijuana is legal for all of us, dispensaries have to pay black market prices for the bulk marijuana they purchase, lest the grower just sell it on the black market, and they have to sell it at black market retail markup, lest the patients purchase it at low dispensary prices and make a profit selling it back to the black market.
For comparison’s sake, saffron, the world’s most expensive legal plant material, a spice that is primarily grown in Spain and Iran, requires far more tending and processing than any marijuana plant:
A labor intensive endeavor, when the saffron blooms (usually for 3 weeks) all the family’s attention goes to harvesting and processing, working up to 19 hours a day.Open flowers are picked and then carefully dissected to extract the stigmas.They are dried over heat and then sealed in packages for sale to international brokers.How much saffron can be obtained from the flowers?The numbers are staggering.With 3 stigmas per flower it takes 75,000 flowers (225,000 stigmas) to make one pound of saffron.It is easy to see why it is so expensive.
Saffron is currently available in the US at $119/ounce, even after 19 hours a day of hand picking three stamens apiece from 4,687 flowers and then shipping it overseas.
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I’m packin’ up and headin’ out – on my way to the Aspen Legal Seminar. I’ll be posting some YouTube video, some Stash audio, and performing my syndicated The Russ Belville Show live from the Rocky Mountains.
Enjoy our regular Wednesday interview with Dr. Mitch Earleywine – he’s got some new data that show that using marijuana and tobacco together, like blunts, could be more contributing more to what some are calling a “marijuana addiction epidemic”.
Then Cannabis Karri got us some traditional-style music from the Emerald Isle with a Dublin band called “Stoat” and a song called “I Wish I Were Stoned”. The singer sort of reminds me of Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. I don’t know. After I listened to this song, I just wanted to have some stash and a stout with Stoat.
To wrap things up, Ryan Ballou joins us from Spokane, Washington, to give us a preview of the Spokane Hempfest, August 2nd and 3rd.
Here we go to Aspen – the real Rocky Mountain High! ~@\|||||||||||\>
Monday, June 2nd, 2008 at 1:52 pm | By: Radical Russ
Now that June has arrived it is time to start looking at the Summer Festival Schedule. I’m going to open this up with a look at the summer festivals I’ll be attending in my neck of the woods in the Pacific Northwest. I’m going to depend on you marvelous Stashers to keep me informed on what’s happening in your area. Just send me an email at stash@norml.org and I’ll be glad to promote your area’s summer festival. The Northwest schedule is listed in the Full Story below:
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
SneakerPimp: and good afternoon
mr reuben: I could do without seeing Rob K. on tv. But Bruce and Eithan get a big thumbs up from me.
SneakerPimp: waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
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. […]
Washington dispensary owner busted buying marijuana in Oregon
Business is booming, and Scott Q. Shupe, co-owner of the dispensary, intended to keep it that way when he set out for Oregon with thousands of dollars and a lead on several pounds of marijuana.
waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
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