New Episodes airing Monday at 7pm Pacific on http://live.norml.org

I’m happy to announce the debut of two new shows on The NORML Network – CannaTruth’s Podcast and Reefer Rhetoric Podcast.

Denton Ramsey, an activist with our excellent chapter in Waco, Texas, hosts the CannaTruth show.  He is joined by Professor Bluntston for the Reefer Rhetoric show.  The shows, each a half-hour or less, will play back-to-back in the 7pm Pacific hour on Mondays, with replays at 1am and 7am Tuesdays and a weekend replay Sundays at 5am Pacific.

Cannabis Times Radio, normally airing in that slot, will return at another time on the network when they return from hiatus.  (You can get the entire network schedule here.)

If you know of any marijuana podcasts you’d like to hear on The NORML Network – especially if they are from foreign countries or non-medical-marijuana states* – let me know.

Also, don’t forget about our new afternoon video shows.  We begin at 10am Pacific with Jorge Cervantes TV, followed by Cannabis Cure TV at 11am, NORML’s Video Lunch at Noon, yesterday’s NORML SHOW LIVE at 1pm, and the Marijuana Activism Show (featuring LEAP, SSDP, Jodie Emery, & NORML Chapters) at 2pm Pacific Time.

*Nothing against medical marijuana states – we just have nine shows already from medical marijuana states.  We’ll still accept submissions from those states.

These are making a whole lot more sense to me now...

A story about a large cannabis bust caught my eye today. This one comes from Brownsville, Texas, and was executed by the Customs and Border Protection agency. In what must have taken untold hours to conceal, agents found more than 3,500 pounds of marijuana concealed in cabbage. No, the marijuana wasn’t hidden in a truck full of cabbage…the marijuana was actually wrapped into ball shapes, and then wrapped up on the outside with actual cabbage leafs to make it look like they were innocent cabbage heads coming from Mexico and headed to a salad bar near you. The cabbage-looking marijuana globes were being transported in a refrigerated truck to help keep up that charade. All in all, there were 1,378 cannabis balls, weighing in at 3,663 pounds of marijuana.

And, in another enterprising bust today, down in Texas, a state trooper pulled over an AT&T service truck for speeding 72 mph in a 60 mph zone. The troopers were suspicious when the driver suddenly bailed and started running on foot. He was caught after a short chase. Authorities found 190 bundles of marijuana inside the AT&T truck weighing in at 2168 pounds. Although the truck looked like an authentic AT&T service vehicle, it was a clone, just a paint job to conceal its contents. Authorities say this isn’t the first time they have come across a cloned work truck. They have also made busts on a fake Halliburton vehicle and a fake FedEx van.

External Links:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/article/Officers-intercept-marijuana-loads-shaped-like-2612482.php#photo-2098781

In Oregon, this is a 1/4 pound of medicine. In Texas, this is a 2nd degree felony worthy of 2-20 years in prison.

We reported about a California Man Set to Be Extradited to Texas to Face Marijuana Charge this week.  In the story, the man is using cannabis for medical purposes with his doctor’s recommendation, all legal in California.  But he visited Texas and took with him 1/4 oz of marijuana and 1/2 oz of hashish.  We reported the man is now facing 5-99 years in a Texas prison.

This led an concerned reader to look up our State Laws page for Texas, which reads:

“So,” our reader asks, “Texas is saying that you can sell a ton, literally, and get just as much jail time as someone with 1/4oz of weed and 1/2oz hash. I’m confused.”

Well, actually, you could sell just fifty pounds and get that 5-99, but we get your point.  The problem (and I’m going to have us address this on future editions of the pages) is that in Texas, hash ain’t marijuana.

Our own John Lucy reviewed state hash laws, though I can’t tell you how old this page is and we certainly need to follow up on this (so please, don’t take it as legal advice on hash – seek your own counsel!)  It appears there are just 22 states and DC* that treat hash the same as marijuana.

Texas is not one of them.  Hashish is a felony under Tex. Health & Safety Code 481.103 & Sec. 481.116, as it is in most of the states that have separate definitions for hashish.

481.103, describing “Penalty Group 2? substances, in part:

Tetrahydrocannabinols, other than marihuana, and synthetic equivalents of the substances contained in the plant, or in the resinous extractives of Cannabis, or synthetic substances, derivatives, and their isomers with similar chemical structure and pharmacological activity such as:
delta-1 cis or trans tetrahydrocannabinol, and their optical isomers;
delta-6 cis or trans tetrahydrocannabinol, and their optical isomers;
delta-3, 4 cis or trans tetrahydrocannabinol, and its optical isomers;
compounds of these structures, regardless of numerical designation of atomic positions, since nomenclature of these substances is not internationally standardized;

481.116, describing punishments for “Penalty Group 2? substances:

(a) Except as authorized by this chapter, a person commits an offense if the person knowingly or intentionally possesses a controlled substance listed in Penalty Group 2, unless the person obtained the substance directly from or under a valid prescription or order of a practitioner acting in the course of professional practice.
(b) An offense under Subsection (a) is a state jail felony if the amount of the controlled substance possessed is, by aggregate weight, including adulterants or dilutants, less than one gram.
(c) An offense under Subsection (a) is a felony of the third degree if the amount of the controlled substance possessed is, by aggregate weight, including adulterants or dilutants, one gram or more but less than four grams.
(d) An offense under Subsection (a) is a felony of the second degree if the amount of the controlled substance possessed is, by aggregate weight, including adulterants or dilutants, four grams or more but less than 400 grams.
(e) An offense under Subsection (a) is punishable by imprisonment in the institutional division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for life or for a term of not more than 99 years or less than five years, and a fine not to exceed $50,000, if the amount of the controlled substance possessed is, by aggregate weight, including adulterants or dilutants, 400 grams or more.

So, it seems since he had an assumed 14 grams (1/2 ounce), he’d be covered under Subsection (d), not (e). But perhaps there are other circumstances moving the penalty to the (e) range. What I can find on Texas sentencing guidelines for 2nd degree felonies is two to twenty years in prison and possible fine not exceed $10,000. For a half ounce of hash, the baseline penalty is the same for:

• Aggravated assault
• Arson
• Bigamy
• Bribery
• Evading arrest (and death of another occurs)
• Improper relationship between educator and student
• Indecent contact with a child
• Intoxication manslaughter
• Manslaughter
• Online solicitation of a minor under fourteen
• Possession of fifty to 2000 pounds of marijuana
• Robbery
• Sexual assault
• Stalking—second offense
• Trafficking of persons

Got that?  Four grams of hash equals fifty pounds of pot in Texas.  You will be punished as severely for holding a little over an eighth-ounce of hash as if you had killed a person while drunk.  You will do the same time as a teacher who seduces a student or a perv who solicits little kids online or touches them inappropriately.  You are as reprehensible as the coyotes trafficking immigrants across the border, a repeat stalker and date-rapist, a thief, a polygamist, or an arsonist.

Another thing to consider: re-read that part about “if the amount of the controlled substance possessed is, by aggregate weight, including adulterants or dilutants“.  By aggregate weight means we’re weighing the whole thing, not just the weight on the cannabinoids.  So if you’ve made marijuana brownies, for instance, you’re not facing charges for the 1/4 ounce of pot you put in them.  You’re facing charges for 12 ounces of a Penalty Group 2 substance in Texas.

*Alaska, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.  However, I know the Lucy page is out-of-date because it lists Oklahoma, which recently enacted draconian life in prison penalties for hashish.

A 22-year-old medical marijuana patient is set to be extradited to Texas in the coming days to face pot possession charges that could land him in prison for up to 99 years.

22-year-old Mendocino resident Christopher Diaz sits in a Ukiah jail awaiting extradition to Browns County, Texas. His case has caught the attention of medical marijuana advocates throughout the state, who are holding the case up as an example of the failings of national marijuana law.

Diaz was arrested on October 30th as he drove through Austin, Texas on his way to visit his great-grandmother who was very ill. He had less than a half-an-ounce of hash, and less than a quarter ounce of marijuana in the car when authorities pulled him over. He was arrested on possession with intent to distribute it.

After his arrest, Diaz left Texas and hightailed it to his home in California. He has now been indicted for bail jumping. He is currently being held on a $160,000 bail, but the judge in the case wants you to know that as a California official, she is required to comply with Texas authorities under the Uniform Extradition Act. Judge Ann Moorman said that she has no authority in the matter, and even the bail amount was set in Texas and outside of her jurisdiction. Advocates of Diaz and medical marijuana in general say that the waiting for extradition could have been done out of custody.

Diaz suffers from severe asthma and said his family moved to California five years ago so they could specifically pursue alternative treatments for his breathing ailment. The marijuana was found with his recommendation wrapped around it, along with religious documents from the THC Ministry that Diaz says his entire family belongs to and adheres to their belief about the religious rights of marijuana as a sacrament as well as a health treatment.

The Brown County District Attorney Michael Murray  told media last week that while less than an ounce of pot isn’t a huge deal in California, it is in Texas. Murray said the case is a serious one and that he doesn’t believe Diaz needs marijuana for medical purposes.

If convicted, Diaz faces a sentence of between five and 99 years in a Texas prison. Murray told the Press Democrat. ”He needs to come back and face the music. There’s not much tolerance (here) for anybody distributing drugs for any reason.” Diaz could be extradited any day.

External Links:

http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_19679295

Click here to view the embedded video.

Damn, Willie, we gots to find us a new way across Texas!

Like his friend, Willie Nelson, Rapper Royalty Snoop Dogg was busted on Saturday in the same town that Willie was last year. It is tough to find an alternate route from Western Texas into New Mexico. But if you are on a tour bus, and you are packing marijuana, you might want to try to anyway.

Snoop Dogg was arrested by US Border Patrol agents and detained in Sierra Blanca, Texas, after a Texas officer says he detected the odor of marijuana coming from inside of the his tour bus. That was enough for them to run a drug dog through the bus, where he sniffed out a prescription bottle that contained some joints, along with another small container with some marijuana in it as well that was in a waste basket in the back of the bus.

All in all, Snoop Dogg had about two ounces total, or just about the same that Willie Nelson was maybe found with last year (there was some dispute between the scene reports and the actual crime he was charged with). Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus freely admitted the marijuana was his according to the arrest report.

Broadus does reside in California, and has a current medical marijuana card from that state. But, as you know, that doesn’t protect you outside of the state of California, so Snoop was issued a citation for misdemeanor drug possession and released. He was given a court appearance for on/or before January 20th. He is allowed to plead guilty and apy a $537 fine, otherwise, he can challenge the citation and make his case in court, although finding a jury of super cool people as Snoop Dogg’s peers in Sierra Blanca, Texas, might be a tough job.

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When one of your cities has more Drug War murders than California, it refocuses your attention on ending the Drug War

In case you weren’t aware of it, since it’s not Kim Kardashian getting divorced, Dr. Conrad Murray getting convicted, or Gov. Rick Perry getting confused, in Mexico bloggers are being tortured and beheaded.  It’s the latest shock in what is a bona-fide 40,000+ casualties shooting war with terrorists literally across a bridge from Laredo, Texas.

(TIME) Another blogger was found murdered in the Mexican town of Nuevo Laredo on Wednesday, according to the Houston Chronicle. This is the fourth blogger since September that has been reportedly killed by the Zetas, a powerful drug cartel that has been instrumental in keeping the country’s devastating drug war alive.

The man helped moderate a site called En Vivo, which posted information about the Zetas’ activities. The blogger, who posted under the name “Rascatripas,” was found beheaded at an intersection next to a note which read “This happened to me for not understanding that I shouldn’t report on the social networks.”

Last week, hacker collective Anonymous apparently abandoned their plans (if such plans ever really existed) to take on the Zetas cartel, perhaps after a report from Stratfor claimed “Los Zetas are deploying their own teams of computer experts to track those individuals involved in the online anti-cartel campaign, which indicates that the criminal group is taking the campaign very seriously.”

Read more: http://techland.time.com/2011/11/10/fourth-blogger-reportedly-killed-by-los-zetas-mexican-drug-cartel/#ixzz1dMZi4aI6

The citizens of Mexico have taken to Facebook, Twitter, and forums just to communicate basic information they need to survive day-to-day, since visible and known television, radio, and newspaper reporters can’t or won’t cover these stories for fear of their own lives.  Information like where the cartels have struck, what has it done to traffic, is it safe today, can I take my kid down the street without him seeing yet another disemboweled woman’s dead tortured body hanging off the overpass?  (NSFW link warning: The UK media actually covers shooting wars on our southern border.  With pictures.)

The problem is Los Zetas, the particular drug gang in this story, doesn’t like even the local news media “snitching” on their activities, much less the entire world reading through the internet.  And unlike everyone else on the internet (except Jay & Silent Bob), they have the resources to go door-to-door and literally kill every local blogger they consider a troll.

(Boston.com) Despite heightened security awareness among the site’s users Thursday, with warnings not to share personal information with anyone, they remain tremendously vulnerable, said Matt Harrigan, chief executive of the San Diego, California-based security firm Critical Assets.

A trail of information like cookies, server addresses, login and account information was easy visible for some users.

“I know enough about (one user) that I’m uncomfortable with how much I know about (him) just from visiting the site,” said Harrigan. “Just from having looked up information about him, the number of things I know about the guy is pretty staggering.”

Harrigan said it would be relatively easy, with the money the Zetas have from running drugs, to track down posters.

“If you’re a Mexican cartel with hundreds of millions of dollars, there certainly are security experts in Mexico or former hackers, or whoever they are, that I’m certain they’re for hire,” he said.

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