As a kid, other than the occasional mention of it in church I had never thought of suicide. That was the case until Freddie Prinze Sr, star of the 1970s sitcom Chico and the Man, did it on January 29, 1977, when I was in the seventh grade. At the time I thought it was fascinating and dwelled on it for months, but I knew better than to tell anyone. Just acknowledging you think about Suicide invites being locked up by the do-gooders. I thought of it a lot. At that time I thought of it as a far-off plan - to be accomplished when I was 50 and old. (Yeah at 14 50 seemed old). I thought it was dumb that Freddie would do it when he was just 22 and hadn't lived enough of life. I thought he was rich too, since he was on TV. [continues 717 words]
THE fresh air of the White House's rose garden may soon be fragrant with the smell of cannabis. On Tuesday, while other Americans are voting for their senators and congressman - residents of Washington DC are expected to vote overwhelmingly to legalise marijuana. The referendum would go beyond decriminalisation and give the drug full legal status, meaning it may one day be possible to set up a dope shop across the street from the halls of Congress. A yes vote in the US capital would be a hugely symbolic ripple in the wave of marijuana liberalisation sweeping America. Recreational cannabis is already on sale in Colorado and Washington state where the laws are more relaxed than Amsterdam - and may soon be legal in Alaska and Oregon. [continues 536 words]
A little-known battle in this country's marijuana war is underway in a small town of 1,500 in western Colorado, known (if at all) for its underground coal mines, 12 wineries, a microbrewery, organic vegetables and fruit - and its perfect climate for growing pot. The town is Paonia and, this November, its registered voters will decide whether to allow the sale of pot for recreational use. Looking back at the history of this town, nestled at the base of 11,400-foot Mount Lamborn on the North Fork of the Gunnison River, it is clear that the battle lines in today's culture war were drawn long ago. [continues 679 words]
The prospect of so many Oregonians shopping in stores for once-illicit weed produces civic munchies of another kind: money hunger. A curious phenomenon has swept across Oregon: More than a dozen towns and cities have decided to tax the sale of recreational marijuana if the drug is legalized by voters on Nov. 4. That's despite the fact that no local government would be allowed to do that under the terms of Measure 91 to place a tax on the sale of marijuana. [continues 814 words]
Federal prosecutors on Tuesday indicated they were disappointed criminal charges were not brought against any of the officers involved in the botched drug raid that left a toddler disfigured. But remedying that decision won't be easy for U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates, who faces a much higher threshold than that required on the state and local level. "You have to show the person knowingly or willfully did what they did," said former assistant U.S. Attorney Buddy Parker. "You'd essentially have to develop evidence that these were rogue cops at work." [continues 274 words]
Several Appear on Ballots, Including Whether Lakewood Will Allow Retail Shops. Several marijuana measures, mostly tax questions, are on ballots across the state this election season, including whether Lakewood will allow recreational shops in the city of 145,000 residents. The Lakewood City Council voted to put the recreational marijuana question on the ballot in July after a public hearing on the subject. At the July 14 meeting, the council banned potential marijuana businesses in the city, including recreational marijuana social clubs, hash oil production, and the cultivation, manufacturing and testing of recreational marijuana. [continues 448 words]
DENVER - He still thinks Colorado voters made a mistake when they legalized marijuana two years ago, but Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper is not above taking the pot industry's campaign money as he faces a tough re-election battle next month. And when Mr. Hickenlooper denounced the vote to legalize recreational pot smoking as "reckless" during a debate this week, there were more than a few double takes from those in the legalization movement here. Not because Mr. Hickenlooper's views on legalizing marijuana aren't well known - the Democratic governor has long opposed it - but because the governor has been privately soliciting campaign funds from the marijuana industry even as he publicly condemns the November 2012 vote that ushered in the state's recreational pot market. [continues 1093 words]
Sacramento - Proposition 47, which would reduce penalties for drug and theft crimes, is yet another initiative that should never have been on the state ballot. The Legislature and governor get paid to deal with such things. And when they do, we're usually better served. Our elected representatives can hold public hearings, engage in thoughtful debate, iron out kinks and compromise. Proposed laws can be filtered through a system of checks and balances. That is, when the politicians can muster the courage to tackle tough issues - and in the case of Prop. 47, risk an opponent's attack for being "soft on crime." [continues 838 words]
New Store Just a Few Feet Away in Central District Open Amid Sunday Services When a new retail shop started constructing its location at 23rd Avenue and East Union Street in Seattle's Central District, the Mount Calvary Christian Center had no problem allowing the business to excavate under part of the church's property. The primarily black church has been happy to see once rampant crime at the intersection dwindle over the last decade while new businesses pop up and thrive, said Wayne Perryman, a former associate pastor at the church. [continues 556 words]
The task force responsible for supplying information used in the May drug raid that left a toddler disfigured is being disbanded. The news comes just as a Habersham County grand jury is hearing evidence about the Mountain Judicial Circuit Narcotics Criminal Investigation and Suppression Team's role in the planning of the raid that left 19-month-old Bounkham "Bou Bou" Phonesavanh seriously injured after a stun grenade exploded in his playpen. "It's interesting that would happen now," said Mawuli Davis, the attorney representing the Phonesavanh family. [continues 108 words]
Well, once again Stephen Harper has shown another way to measure his lack of judgment and another opportunity to make Canada, thus Canadians, look foolish in the eyes of the world. In this case it is a lack of understanding of language. While the whole country is saying there should be an inquiry into the deaths and disappearance of many aboriginal women, Stephen Harper says it is a matter of crime, not sociology. Although some of us have our thinking coloured by other languages, it should be clear that this is an issue of sociology. Because crime is, itself, a reflection of the sociology of a country. [continues 159 words]
ATLANTA - The question hovers over Kelli Hopkins every day. It rises with her each morning as she feeds her two remaining sick children their seizure medicine five pills for Mary Elizabeth, seven for Michala. It follows as she packs them and their wheelchairs into the van for another hospital visit, another brain scan, another trip to the emergency room. It wakes her at 2 a.m. each night when she rolls over on the couch she's slept on for years only to see carpet where there used to be a cot. [continues 1171 words]
Should Jefferson County Allow Retail Marijuana Stores in Unincorporated Parts of the County? The Jefferson County Marijuana Task Force spent three months listening to testimony, reviewing studies and examining evidence related to prohibiting or permitting licensed marijuana establishment in unincorporated Jefferson County. The task force found compelling evidence that it would not be in the best interest of Jefferson County or its citizens to allow marijuana establishments. Although the circumstantial evidence was significant, it is important to note that Colorado's experience with legalizing recreational marijuana is relatively new and some data is lacking. [continues 504 words]
Our Writer Goes to Washington to Explore Marijuana Legalization SN&R's resident cannabis expert goes to Washington-the state-and dishes on the marijuana-legalization experiment up north Carl Sagan once said, "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." I have a similar observation about marijuana activists: If you ask them how to make a pie, they will tell you how to grow a tree. Most of their stories are full of tangents, sidebars and digressions. It's not that they ramble and are unfocused, but that they feel you need to have the whole story so you can form your own ideas. I will try not to ramble too much, but I have been a pot activist for more than 20 years, so rambling is kinda my thing. [continues 3042 words]
Lawmakers Are Legalizing Certain Strains of Marijuana, but That Won't Be Good Enough Republicans love marijuana. Pushed by a cadre of Christian brothers from Colorado and promoted by CNN's doctor-on-television Sanjay Gupta, a strain of marijuana acceptable for suburban squares and the churchgoing set is winning friends on the right. Marijuana low in THC but high in CBD - cannabidiol, one of the many compounds in cannabis - - has real palliative value for people who medicine has failed. Specifically, it appears to treat kids with (previously) untreatable epilepsy. And best of all: It's impossible to get high off of. [continues 746 words]
WRAY, Colo. - Behind a tall curtain of corn that hides their real cash crop from prying eyes, the Stanley family is undertaking an audacious effort to expand their medical marijuana business to a national market. For years, the five Stanley brothers, who sell a nonintoxicating strain of cannabis that has gained national attention as a treatment for epilepsy, have grown medical marijuana in greenhouses, under tight state and federal regulations. But this year, they are not only growing marijuana outdoors by the acre, they also plan to ship an oil extracted from their plants to other states. [continues 1575 words]
Deaths linked to legal highs could surpass those related to heroin use within just two years, a new report by a think-tank will say. A think-tank says there could soon be more deaths from legal highs than from heroin use The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) is to release a report this week calling for more to be done to combat the drugs, known as New Psychoactive Substances (NPS), while also calling for a "treatment tax" on alcohol. Legal highs w ere linked to 97 deaths in 2012 and h ospital admissions rose by 56% between 2009-12, according to new CSJ data. The think-tank estimates that on current trends deaths related to legal highs could be higher than heroin by 2016 - at around 400 deaths a year. [continues 375 words]
The medical marijuana sector is exploding as speculators, penny stock promoters and get-rich-quick investors buy in. But regulators are warning buyers to tread carefully The question flickered through Paul Rosen's mind: "Is this the day I die?" The 50-year-old merchant banker was on his way to tour a medical marijuana facility two years ago, when the men driving him to the site made an unusual request. They handed him a blindfold and told him to put it on. [continues 3425 words]
Getting young people engaged in politics is never easy, but voter-registration volunteers say the medical-marijuana amendment on November's ballot is attracting new voters who otherwise might not bother with a midterm election. Both political parties for more than a year have been knocking on doors to energize supporters who might be lured to the polls by a heated governor's race. Democrats are especially eager to avoid the usual big drop-off of turnout in non-presidential elections, which tends to hurt their party's candidates. [continues 746 words]
When Garett Fortune's brother was found to have cancer in early 2013, it was so advanced that all he could do was to try to live out the remainder of his life in as little pain and discomfort as possible. That meant taking about 30 pills a day, Mr. Fortune said - until his brother tried marijuana. "I saw him go from 30 pills a day to almost zero," he said. "It helped his appetite and the nausea. He had a way better quality of life at the end than he would have without the cannabis. It made me a proponent of the industry." [continues 1217 words]
