Activist

Advocates Keep Jackson Out of Jail

By Eugene Davidovich | San Diego ASA Chapter President On Thursday San Diego District…

Cannabis and the Constitution: The Right to Plant a Seed

The option to establish or at least work toward such security forms the crucial foundation for “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” One could, with justification, say that the right to plant a seed, harvest it, and benefit from the fruit of one’s labor is our most essential right, and informs our judicial oversight, our nation’s laws and even the capitalistic form of exchange.

Lies My Reefer Told Me - DEA Reveal Position on Marijuana

There are 119 researchers registered with DEA to perform studies with marijuana, marijuana extracts, and non-tetrahydrocannabinol marijuana derivatives that exist in the plant, such as cannabidiol and cannabinol. Eighteen of the researchers are approved to conduct research with smoked marijuana on human subjects and “while some people [think] the federal government has relaxed its policy on ‘medical’ marijuana, this in fact is not the case. Investigations and prosecutions of violations of state and federal law will continue.”

5 Tips When Calling Your Local Officials

Watch MPP’s Aaron Houston (now with Students for Sensible Drug Policy) walks through the…

Florida Stockbroker Returns to Montana to Helps Make Sure No Patient is Left Behind

“Medical cannabis patients are productive members of society,” Rosenfeld said. “I am living proof. I have been a stockbroker for over 23 years handling millions of dollars on a daily basis. My goal is to help educate the politicians in Montana.”

Montel Williams Marijuana Pipe Bust: Talk Show Host, Advocate Cited At Milwaukee Airport

Williams has said he uses marijuana to relieve chronic pain caused by multiple sclerosis that was diagnosed in 1999. The 54-year-old has said he became an activist pushing for medical marijuana laws after being stopped at a Detroit airport years ago for carrying drug paraphernalia.

Dr. Martin Luther King's Birthday: Is the Drug War the Next Big Civil Rights Issue?

Civil rights advocates are honoring Dr. King’s legacy by standing up against the “new Jim Crow” — mass incarceration and the racially disproportionate war on drugs. It is impossible to talk frankly and honestly about racism without talking about the drug war. Few U.S. policies have had such a devastating effect on blacks, Latinos and other racial minorities than the drug war. Every aspect of the war on drugs — from arrests to prosecutions to sentencing — is disproportionately carried out against minorities.

Roger Christie, Hawaii's Medical Marijuana Political Prisoner

Seven months have now gone by, and still Roger sits in the Federal Detention Center.  No contact with anyone except his public defender.  He has access to the Corrlinks email system, but no internet.  His girlfriend is NOT his wife so she cannot visit him.  And even if they were married, she could ill afford the $200 plus roundtrip airfare to Oahu.  He relies on the Cannabis Charity Foundation to send him $600 month so he can make 5 minute phone calls, use Corrlinks, buy postage for snail mail and a few nickels for the prison commissary.

Cannabis System Raises Concern of Fairness

The owner of New Mexicann Natural Medicine, Len Goodman, admits that his new ordering system isn’t fair but says it’s absolutely necessary. He says his business opens for orders every other week at noon and sells out within just a couple minutes. Goodman says such high demand means some of their longest standing patients were getting squeezed out, and now those patients are allowed to place their orders ahead of time.

From Sicko to Medical Marijuana, Big Pharma On the Offensive

The medical cannabis community has a target on their backs, and the first shots fired in Colorado are aimed at one Denver-based doctor who supposedly gave recommendations to police offices (who I image get sick also and require medicine), as well as for a pregnant woman who was looking out for the best interest of her child and herself by avoiding opiate-based drugs other doctors would prescribe.

The People Vs. Joe - An Oxymoronic Tragedy

The people of California voted for medical marijuana almost twenty years ago.  Now that there is finally a system in place for all of those participating, from the grower of the medicine to the patient and every part of the process in between, the police have discovered it’s far easier to go after legitimate medical marijuana collectives than it is to go after the street drugs, back-logged rape kits, unsolved violent crimes, etc.

Instead, however, they find that the tax dollars spent on the charade of ‘criminal justice’ means just that: justice is criminal, and they get to enforce the machine that protects that fact.

Look at it from the point of view of Joe Grumbine.  He’s being harassed by the city of Long Beach for operating a legitimate medical cannabis collective.

People Vs. Joe (Public)

The people of California voted for medical marijuana almost twenty years ago. Now that…

Federal Government to "Allow" Whole Truth In Trial in US vs. Smith

U.S.A. v. Smith et al is a landmark cannabis case that could change federal medical marijuana law for all 50 states.

This is the first case in which a defendant in the United States has been allowed to raise an affirmative medical marijuana defense in federal court.

Cormac J. Carney is the presiding federal judge in U.S. v Smith. In a courageous and historic ruling he decided that the medical marijuana issues will be heard as testimony. This is the first time this has happened in U.S. history.

Budding Prospects: Youth Activists Push Marijuana Reform

Most Americans would be surprised to learn that the government came close to significantly revising federal marijuana statutes in 1978. At the time the Carter administration expressed support for decriminalizing the possession and transfer of small amounts of marijuana, as did Senator Ted Kennedy, then chair of the Judiciary Committee. Kennedy even successfully pushed for the inclusion of a marijuana decriminalization provision in the 1978 crime bill.

Decriminalization laws seemed the wisest route back then, but the current debate should focus on legalization. Although decriminalization laws keep possessors of marijuana from being arrested, thus freeing police time and resources, they do nothing to control or diminish the power of criminal organizations that move and sell marijuana. Legalization could be a fatal blow to drug cartels, since by some estimates 70 percent of their profits come from marijuana sales alone.

For the first time in history, the legalization movement is poised to make state-based marijuana regulation a mainstream position. Because libertarian-leaning GOP voters, including Tea Partyers, generally support allowing states to decide their own marijuana policies, the 2012 presidential primary will be unlike any in recent memory.

A Letter From Shannon Klie-Moreno

Why are people like Joe Grumbine and Joe Byron being locked up when the State of California has no money?  All you hear on the news is no money for education, cutbacks on this and that, teachers going on strike, and California State Universities raising tuitions again. But the State of California has enough money to hover helicopters over our homes and bring swat officers to point guns at our children.  I only wish I could let all the parents know, that are fighting for their children’s education; this is where the school money is being spent.

Cooley Turns Up Heat on Joe Grumbine

Another hearing is set for this Friday. Dec.10 at 8:30 in Dept. 3 on the 2nd floor in room 206 with Judge Meyer and supporters are encouraged to show up and bring a friend

Grumbine believes prosecutors sought excessive bail in order to pressure him to take a felony plea bargain. As he has done nothing wrong under California law, he steadfastly maintains the plea bargain is not an option.

“I have worked too long and too hard for too many people who have gone through the legal hell that I am now going through to sell out my principles and admit to a felony I did not commit,” he says. “During the raid, one of the agents actually told my wife that all marijuana users should be put down like animals. This kind of outrageous abuse has to stop and my taking a plea bargain for something I didn’t do will not help that cause,” maintains Grumbine.

Letter to the Medical Marijuana Community

In response to the Dec 17, 2009 raid, where 120 agents (these are the agents that told Joe’s wife that they should be, “put down like animals”)  stormed locations in 4 counties and arrested 17 people in the state of California, Joe Grumbine (The Human Solution) is being charged.

Steve Cooley has declared war on collectives and has stated this many times on the record.

Tax dollars are being spent destroying peoples lives; the very lives that have created an opportunity to help restore medical patient’s lives are now being threatened as the state throws their last hurls at a flawed and failed drug policy.

Meanwhile our bulging prison system is shipping excess prisoners out of state and releasing violent criminals early to hurt again.

Medical Marijuana Bill Dies Despite Surprise Support From Republican Leader

Republican Majority Leader Morgan Griffith announced to the subcommittee that though he opposed the bill to decriminalize marijuana possession he had, in fact, drafted the bill to allow for medical marijuana and he supported its passage.

He then gave a fairly impassioned defense of the idea that doctors should be allowed to prescribe cannabis, arguing it is no more dangerous than many drugs already allowed for medical use. “I truly believe that if we allow the use of morphine, opiates and oxycotin, we ought to allow for this,” Griffith said.

Greenway University, America's Only State-Approved Medical Marijuana School, Opens its New 25,000 Square Foot Campus Facility in Denver, Colorado

Greenway University, the industry’s leading medical marijuana educational provider, will be opening its NEW 25,000 square foot state of the art campus facility on December 4th, 2010. The facility will also house a multitude of products and services for the medical marijuana industry. Greenway University, as the nation’s first and only state approved and regulated medical marijuana educational provider, is marking another industry milestone.

Medical Marijuana Patient and Advocate Jason Lauve

Don't Tax Our Medicine... No on Measure M

The Los Angeles City Council wants voters to approve Measure M on the March 2011 ballot, a 5% tax on medical cannabis. Including the existing state sales tax, this
means legal patients would pay an extra 14.75% for medicine in LA. But the initiative provides no real protection for patients, growers, or providers in the city.

The Human Solution Helped to Keep One Family Together: The Naulls Support Story

Ronnie Naulls was a friendly local businessman, he had a wife and four kids. He only wanted to make it in the world and help as many people as he could along the way. He and his family were fortunate to have The Human Solution when they needed something like it the most. Only eighteen months after opening their doors for business, Ronnie’s compassionate and professionally run dispensary, Healing Nations Collective, and Ronnie’s home, were both violently raided.

About a year later The Human Solution went into action. Members from The Human Solution and others, came together and not only supported Ronnie with their physical presence in court, but as each member filled in the courtroom in support of the Naulls family, so did the Solidarity Ribbons. The judge could hardly miss us and our proudly displayed Ribbons, our badges of courage and honor. Nor could Judge Virginia Phillips ignore the huge support that these badges, and all the peaceful people, provided.

New Facebook Group Made of Health Professionals and Scientists to Challenge Current Marijuana Scheduling on Scientific, Humanitarian Grounds

Post-Prop 19: How Did We Do, and What Can We Do Better?

Prop 19 was defeated, 54% to 46%. Medical marijuana initiatives in Oregon and South Dakota lost badly, and votes are still being counted in Arizona for a too-close-to-call race there. It’s fine to say “we’ll do better next time,” but if “next time” is just more of the same, we’re destined to repeat the same mistakes and suffer the same outcome. And when people are putting their hearts and their money and their time toward ending prohibition, that’s just not good enough.