Don't Mess With Texas!

Rapper Snoop Dogg was arrested over the weekend after border control agents found what they said was a small amount of marijuana on his tour bus.

The singer and record producer, 40, was stopped at the same Sierra Blanca, Texas, checkpoint Saturday where country singer Willie Nelson was arrested for marijuana possession in 2010, customs officials said.

Bill Brooks, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said agents conducted a routine inspection of the rapper’s tour bus on at the U.S.- Mexico border checkpoint east of El Paso and thought they smelled marijuana.

“When our officers did a further inspection, they discovered a small amount of marijuana and turned him over to the Hudspeth County sheriff,” Brooks said.

Brooks declined to say how much marijuana was involved or where it was found. The rapper was booked and released and given a January 20 court date.

Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, has been arrested and convicted numerous times in the last 10 years for possession of drugs ranging from marijuana to cocaine, and weapons offenses.

In 2008, Snoop Dogg and Willie Nelson collaborated on the song and music video “My Medicine,” a thinly veiled homage to marijuana. Both artists have made their appreciation of pot an important part of their public personas.

The rapper’s spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment on his latest arrest.

Photo by Darcie

Original Article By: Cynthia Gaffney Wed, 19 Jan at 7:23am

The consumption and cultivation of cannabis, better known as marijuana, is a federal drug offense. For detail on the penalties, see NORML’s list.

However, the growing national awareness of marijuana’s beneficial value as a medicine, agricultural commodity and safer recreational intoxicant, has moved 23 states and the District of Columbia to adopt more humane decriminalization and/or medical marijuana laws that attempt to override federal jurisdiction.

In addition to its precedent setting California Compassionate Use Act (SB 215), the new state law SB1449 essentially reduces possession of an ounce or less of non-medical marijuana to the same status as a minor traffic violation. Yet even California state government has not moved as swiftly and directly as the city of Oakland in amending and removing penalties for peaceful recreational adult marijuana use and transaction.  Even before deciding to temporarily suspend implementation of a new city ordinance licensing four large-scale marijuana cultivation operations, Oakland had already adopted and demonstrated Measure Z, perhaps the most progressive marijuana-related city ordinance in the entire country.

Passed in the November 2004 election by an overwhelming 62.5 percent majority, Measure Z required that the city of Oakland do the following:

1. Make law enforcement related to private adult cannabis use the lowest law enforcement priority;
2. Lobby to legalize, tax and regulate cannabis for adult private use, distribution, sale, cultivation and possession;
3. License, tax and regulate cannabis sales if California law is amended to allow and authorize such actions; and
4. Create a Community Committee to oversee the ordinance’s implementation and effect.

In the six years since passage, Measure Z has slowly, but surely, influenced the policies it is intended to impact.  In a June 2009 committee report, the latest available online, it states, “the Committee met with Assistant Chief of Police Howard Jordan and Lieutenant Darren  Allison to discuss an OPD report on marijuana arrests in Oakland between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007 … When asked if the City’s lowest priority policy helped OPD focus on violent crimes, AC Jordan answered affirmatively.”

The city of Oakland is at the forefront of envisioning and implementing successful alternatives to the abomination that is our current national drug policy.  For that reason alone, it may be facing the brunt of renewed repression by the DEA as a national wave of drug law reform builds toward 2012.

One thing, however, is certain: If there is any David in this country that has the will to confront a Goliath, it is the city of Oakland.

Actor Chuck Norris

A Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Dispensary has reportedly named a new cannabis strain “Chuck Norris’ Black And Blue Dream” which is inspired by the legendary martial arts actor according to a source to TMZ.

News of the name is not being recieved high spirits or open arms by Chuck Norris or his reps. One rep for Chuck Norris says that “the product is definitely not an authorized use of his name.”

At this time there is no indication that the 70-year old stars lawyer will take any action. However that has not been completely ruled out.

With a bit of a chuckle the source of TMZ says that the strain has “a real kick to it”.

On the website Urban Dictionary there is a 2007 listing for “Chuck Norris Weed” which defines it as: “It’s the strongest, most sinister weed on the planet. Smoking it will knock you out like a round house kick to the face. It’s got 10 times the level of THC found in even the best weed. This weed is so hairy…not only does it have a beard…it has a mustache…just like Chuck! It is the only thing that could get Chuck Norris high, so it was named after him in his honor!” However this definition from 2007 has no relation to the current strains name or creator.

Other strains named after famous people  include: Michael Phelps and Tom Cruise

Grand Rapids Press File Photo

GRAND RAPIDS – A hearing is set next week in the federal government’s request for access to certain state medical-marijuana records.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents is seeking the records related to a Lansing-area investigation of seven people.

In June, the DEA served a subpoena on the state’s Department of Community Health, but the state would not provide the records citing confidentiality laws.

The Department of Community Health told investigators that they faced potential civil and criminal sanctions if they released the information.

A hearing is Jan. 12 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Hugh Brenneman, court records said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Bruha filed a motion to enforce the petition. He said in court filings that state officials were “reluctant” to release the records without a judge’s order.

The DEA is seeking “copies of any and all documents, records, applications, payment method of any application for Medical Marijuana Patient Cards and Medical Marijuana Caregiver cards and copies of front and back of any cards located for the seven named individuals.”

The names of those under investigation are redacted from records.

Under the law, Community Health maintains a confidential list of those who have obtained registry identification cards. Disclosure of the information is a misdemeanor. Origonal Article: Here

Montel Williams - Medical Marijuana Activist

Medical marijuana activist and former talk show host Montel Williams was cited for possession of a marijuana pipe at the International Airport in Milwaukee yesterday. TSA employees found the pipe as he passed through a security checkpoint. He paid a $484 citation and was released. Of course, he easily could have been arrested. The police made almost 760,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2009 alone (the latest year comprehensive data is available).

It’s bad enough that TSA is wasting time and taxpayer money looking for marijuana and other drugs when they should be singularly focused on finding bombs and other threats. It’s even worse given the enormous public support for changing our country’s failed marijuana laws. Polls show Americans support medical marijuana by large margins (consistently more than 70%), and a near majority support legalizing, taxing, and regulating marijuana like alcohol. No other set of laws is both enforced so widely and harshly and yet deemed unnecessary by such a substantial portion of the populace.

Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999 and went public with about his medical marijuana use in late 2003. Since then, he has tirelessly campaigned for changes in state and federal laws to expand access to marijuana as a medicine. In addition to writing Climbing Higher, his 2004 autobiography that detailed his struggle with MS and the therapeutic benefits of marijuana, Williams has hosted TV shows on the topic of medical marijuana, authored op-ed pieces in major newspapers, and used his platform as a public figure to press legislators across the country to enact new drug policies based on compassion, reason and science. In particular, Williams traveled to state capitals in Albany, NY and Trenton, NJ, as well as Washington, D.C., to urge elected officials to pass medical marijuana legislation.

Fifteen states, plus the District of Columbia, have legalized marijuana for medical use. Yet even though politicians from Sarah Palin to President Obama have admitted to using marijuana, possession of marijuana for any reason remains a federal crime. Federal law enforcement officials even go so far as to arrest medical marijuana patients and their caregivers in states that have legalized medical marijuana. This defies both the will of the voters and common sense. It is long past time for Congress to take action. Changing federal law to protect medical marijuana patients like Montel Williams would be a good first step. Origonal Article: Here

Dispensary Rakes In Donations

A medical marijuana dispensary in California offered a complimentary marijuana cigarette for every four cans of food a patient brought in this holiday season, and guess what?

The food came flooding in.

The Granny Purps dispensary in Soquel, about 60 miles southeast of San Francisco, took in 11,000 pounds of food and handed out 2,000 joints between November and Christmas Eve. The food was donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank, which said Granny Purps (what’s with that name, anyway?)  contributed the amount of food that would normally come from a business five times its size. And who knows how big it could have been — each patient was limited to a maximum of three cigarettes a day.

Original Story: Here