Uncle Ike's Pot Shop will stay open - for now, at least. Mount Calvary Christian Center, which is next door to the recreational pot store in the Central District, has sued over the store's location, and asked a judge to close the store until the lawsuit is decided. King County Superior Court Judge Jean Rietschel on Friday said no. "An injunction is an extraordinary remedy ... and the burden is on the plaintiff," Rietschel said. "I will not grant it." Mount Calvary Christian Center is suing Uncle Ike's, the city of Seattle and the state Liquor Control Board, alleging that the store is about 250 feet from a teen center operated by the church. [continues 446 words]
What happens when government moves too slowly for its people? In some places, you might get a protest or a riot, or even a ballot initiative. In San Francisco, you get a box filled with used needles nailed to a tree. Civic Center is the Beaux Arts meeting place for some of the city's roughly 16,000 intravenous drug users, many who sleep in the nearby Tenderloin and shower in the restrooms at the Main Library. To better service their needs, an anonymous activist nailed a red plastic box with a biohazard warning sticker on one of the trees outside the Bill Graham Auditorium. It's a drop-box for used hypodermic needles, complete with literature on HIV/AIDS protection. [continues 832 words]
50 MILLION REASONS PROHIBITION STAYS Hunter S. Thompson knew best. To take the nation's temperature, and to find the real center of it all, you have to go to Las Vegas. Earlier this month, American Dream-seekers donned clean jeans and crisp button-downs to decamp to the desert to talk business ideas involving grow lights, smell-proof plastic bags, and other ways to tap the "billions" in market potential right around the corner, thanks to the cannabis plant and the end of cannabis Prohibition. [continues 857 words]
Crunching the Numbers in Marijuana's March to Legalization Let's play a little numbers game today. This is not the kind of numbers they played in an illegal lottery that flourished for decades before states started taking over the gambling business. Back in the 1940s, my uncle was a numbers runner who walked down alleys collecting nickel and dime bets in an illegal lottery that flourished for decades in poor neighborhoods. He couldn't write down the numbers that people wagered on because that was evidence if the police caught him. He had to memorize each number, who bet it, and the amount wagered. It was a tricky and intricate situation where a good memory came in handy. [continues 1225 words]
NOW THAT THE voters have spoken, I hope New Mexico small government Republicans rethink their lockstep support for the 80-plus-year failed big government federal prohibition on the cannabis plant. In 2010, Gov. Susana Martinez campaigned vowing to repeal New Mexico's medical marijuana law, which helps New Mexicans who have chronic conditions, or who might be terminally ill with cancer. After her inauguration, Martinez relented, saying "We have bigger issues that we have to deal with." In 2014, Martinez claimed that merely reducing marijuana penalties is a "horrible, horrible idea"? [continues 186 words]
In the latest taxpayer-funded mailout to all households in his Hastings-Prince Edward riding, our illustrious member of Parliament asks us if we are feeling safer these days. Daryl Kramp wants our feedback, postage-free (read: We are all paying for this with our taxes), sent back to him in Ottawa. Within that same mailout we are told exactly how the Harper Government has made us safer. So, naturally, our answers should be, "Yes. I feel safer. Thank God for Mr. Harper." [continues 880 words]
Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Fear the No-Retail Vote Could Kill Their Business. Owners of medical marijuana dispensaries in Lakewood say the vote to ban retail sales could be the death knell for their businesses. And some marijuana opponents flush with excitement over the ballot victory say the fight isn't over. "I was elated, just thrilled," said Dan Cohrs, chief financial officer for Colorado Christian University, one of two groups that opposed retail sales."We had a targeted push, a grassroots campaign focused on educating the public, and to win by a landslide is exhilarating." [continues 408 words]
Forget that post-graduation barista job. Given that four U.S. states have legalized marijuana, "budtender" is now one of the hottest retail jobs in America. The legalization movement, which began when California voters approved medical marijuana in 1996, has long argued that one big reason to legalize marijuana is to stop sending adults to jail for using a drug that basically doesn't have fatal implications, unlike legal ones like alcohol and nicotine. Yet the experiments in Colorado and Washington state, both of which legalized recreational marijuana in 2012 and where pot is now sold in shops, have begun to highlight an economic side to the issue. Residents in Oregon and Alaska will also soon see the impact of regulated marijuana sales. [continues 570 words]
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]