A Sonoma County-related lawsuit that attempted to establish the use of marijuana as a protected sacrament for use in religious ceremonies was tossed out in federal court this week. The claim that Sonoma County sheriff's officers destroyed sacramental marijuana plants belonging to a Kenwood church was dismissed after the attorney for the church failed to show up in federal court. Two members of the Oklevueha Native American Church, which has a branch off Lawndale Road, claimed that sheriff's deputies violated their civil rights by confiscating approximately 600 marijuana plants used in their religious ceremonies. [continues 504 words]
'True champion of Hamilton': mayor Hamilton's own prince of pot and effervescent candidate for political office is being remembered as a kind and colourful soul dedicated to making his city a better place. Michael Baldasaro, a longtime advocate for marijuana legalization, died Thursday morning in hospice after a short battle with cancer. He was 67. Baldasaro, a minister in the Hamilton-based Church of the Universe, made it his mission to help the downtrodden and disadvantaged, said congregant Rev. Juliet Boyd. [continues 1035 words]
Each spring when the jacarandas bloom and the breezes flutter their purple petals through the air, I always hum, "Purple rain, purple rain .." So it was all the more tragic - and coincidental that just as the jacaranda petals started to fall this year, Prince, the artist behind that song and dozens of other hits that form the soundtrack of my teens, was found unresponsive, alone in his suburban Minneapolis home. That he was only 57 was shocking enough. That he was known as a clean-living, serious artist was all the more. Here was a superstar who had a reputation for being a teetotaling vegan. Always attracted to the spiritual, he became a Jehovah's Witness, forsaking - even swearing not to mention - the overt sexuality of his early music and stage persona. [continues 1153 words]
SANTA CRUZ - The other day, in a seaside cafe here, veteran cannabis journalist David Bienenstock gamely fielded my attempts to catch up on a subject I have failed to appreciate for far too long: the coming end of marijuana prohibition. Earlier this month, the backers of a California initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana (including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and tech kabillionaire Sean Parker) said they had gathered enough signatures to make the November ballot. In the same week, the federal government dropped its long-standing case against Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the largest medical pot dispensary in the country. [continues 910 words]
The other day, in a seaside cafe here, veteran cannabis journalist David Bienenstock gamely fielded my attempts to catch up on a subject I have failed to appreciate for far too long: the coming end of marijuana prohibition. Earlier this month, the backers of a California initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and tech kabillionaire Sean Parker, said they had gathered enough signatures to make the November ballot. In the same week, the federal government dropped its long-standing case against Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the largest medical pot dispensary in the country. [continues 843 words]
California Looks Poised to Emerge As the Center of the Cannabis Economy in November SANTA CRUZ - The other day, in a seaside cafe here, veteran cannabis journalist David Bienenstock gamely fielded my attempts to catch up on a subject I have failed to appreciate for far too long: the coming end of marijuana prohibition. Earlier this month, the backers of a California initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana (including Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and tech kabillionaire Sean Parker) said they had gathered enough signatures to make the November ballot. In the same week, the federal government dropped its long-standing case against Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the largest medical pot dispensary in the country. [continues 843 words]
Psychedelic drugs have made a resurgence as medications to treat illnesses from post-traumatic stress disorder to end-of-life anxiety, but researchers at the University of B.C. say the substances might also rein in domestic violence. The UBC Okanagan study, published last week in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, found that 42 per cent of imprisoned men in the U.S. who did not take psychedelic drugs after their release were arrested within six years for domestic battery, compared to 27 per cent for those who had taken drugs such as LSD, psilocybin - also known as magic mushrooms - and MDMA, which is known by the street name ecstasy. [continues 594 words]
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Jamaica defended its decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana. Iran said it seized 620 tons of different types of drugs last year and is helping protect the world from "the evils of addiction." Cuba opposed the legalization of drugs or declaring them harmless. The first U.N. General Assembly special session to address global drug policy in nearly 20 years heard major differences on the approach to drug use on its second day Wednesday. On the liberalization side, Canada's Health Minister Jane Philpott announced that the government would introduce legislation to legalize marijuana next spring. [continues 509 words]
Before Laguna Beach became known for multimillion-dollar houses and high-end art galleries, the city was home to a group of hippies who called themselves the Brotherhood of Eternal Love. They used LSD as a path to enlightenment and claimed to be the world's biggest suppliers of psychedelics in the 1960s and '70s. Documentary filmmaker William A. Kirkley grew up in Newport Beach and heard stories of the Brotherhood from his father-in-law, who had spent time in Laguna in the '60s. Kirkley's interest led him on a 10-year path to make "Orange Sunshine," a documentary that screens at the Newport Beach Film Festival this weekend and next week. [continues 1119 words]
As millions of marijuana aficionados light up Wednesday at 4:20 p.m. in celebration of "Weed Day," many are blissfully unaware of the increasing interest that investors with deep pockets are showing in their favorite psychoactive herb. A green rush is on in the marijuana industry, with legal sales of cannabis rising by a billion dollars or more each year nationwide, according to one report, and venture capitalists pouring millions into marijuana enterprises ranging from computer software and social networks to storage bags, vaporizers and insurance. [continues 1016 words]
Steve DeFino is remarkably mellow for a guy with shrapnel still lodged in his body and memories of war on his mind. At the Dab Lounge on Circle Drive near Palmer Park Boulevard, a light haze drifts above the booths, about half of which are occupied on this weekday afternoon. A few dogs roam around, as do some pool balls on the newish table. "A year ago I couldn't do this," DeFino says, sitting on a stool in the back of the place where the arcade machines' bleeps and bloops weave into a soundtrack of '90s R&B. [continues 1931 words]
Santa Barbara, Calif. - I'M 74 years old, and I have smoked marijuana almost every day since dinosaurs roamed the earth in the early '70s. When my awareness is heightened, I'm on my game - the best I can be at thinking creatively, making decisions, focusing on my work, seeing the big picture ... and caregiving. For 20 years my wife, Anne, has struggled gallantly against the physical, cognitive, emotional and spiritual depredations of Parkinson's disease. For the first 15, I took care of her myself. Now I have lots of help. Either way, enjoying a hit or two on the pipe every couple of hours has granted me tens of thousands of sweet clemencies that keep me from burning out as a caregiver. [continues 804 words]
Dear Gov. Christie my old pal - we will be puffing outside your office on 4/20 at 4:20 p.m. Take this as a personal invitation from me: NJWeedman. April 20 - The Stoner Holiday is next week and once again here in New Jersey there is a planned civil disobedience demonstration on the steps of the state capitol as a direct challenge to you Gov. Christie and your prohibitionist policies. http://tinyurl.com/CapitolSmokeout - - I personally plan on firing one up in your honor celebrating your demise at the Presidential level, don't stand to my left unless you want to see what you've erroneously and naively railed about. Try it i think youll like it. [continues 1062 words]
In August 1988, a middle-aged drug counselor named David Purchase started handing out needles to junkies in Tacoma. He thus began the first needle exchange program in the U.S.-and became a criminal, since distributing drug paraphernalia was a misdemeanor under state law. As needle exchanges caught on, critics, including the first President Bush, objected that the program tacitly condoned illicit drug use. Purchase didn't care. AIDS deaths in the U.S. alone numbered in the tens of thousands. "We're going to keep doing what we do," he told The New York Times. "Our goal is to save lives," he said, even if that meant jail time. [continues 750 words]
Tim Ryan, a Former Heroin Addict Who Lost His Son to the Drug, Aims to Bring Users into Rehab and Recovery, but Some Question His Methods Two years after emerging from prison on drug-related charges, Tim Ryan has become a beacon for families scarred by Chicago's heroin crisis. The brash and salty former corporate headhunter has launched a public crusade to take addicts "from dope to hope" by running recovery groups, performing interventions and handing out advice via Facebook. He claims he ushers hundreds of people a month into rehab, and that he does it with remarkable speed. [continues 2910 words]
Well I really wanted to write about the GOP politics and the national election campaigns going on this week but instead - thanks to the Trenton Police Department (TPD). I'll be opinionating my point of view on "FREEDOM of RELIGION" because it obviously differs from TPD's view. In third or fourth grade social studies I was taught at Winslow Twp. School number two that all Americans have the right to choose their own religions. This right was so revered by the founders (sorry natives) of this country that they made it the first right. As most people as a child I followed the faith of my parents. I was brought up in a traditional Baptist church, the First Baptist of Berlin, New Jersey. Most of our services were at traditional hours 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the latest, but occasionally we had Midnight Mass on special occasions like New Years, and Easter. Black eye peas & pork, hymnals and amens. The Winslow Twp. Police would never had banned this. [continues 905 words]
Addicts' Families Form Web of Support Families of heroin and other opiate addicts started meeting last year in Amherst and the Town of Tonawanda to offer each other support. Some 500 people last week packed Buffalo's North Park Theatre for a town hall-style meeting on the deadly epidemic. And as many as 200 people are expected to attend a meeting in a Depew church Wednesday in search of answers. All of this represents a grassroots response to the epidemic killing hundreds of local residents and a belief that government alone cannot solve the problem. [continues 443 words]
THE aroma of dagga smoke hung over Parliament yesterday when about 200 Rastafarians protested outside the House's gates. The colourful march, by Rastafarians from across the Western Cape, started on Keizergracht and wound its way through Cape Town. The protesters then handed a memorandum of grievances to Parliament. Rastafari United Front chairman, Thau-Thau Haramanuba, said they were a recognised faith-based nation, yet were prosecuted and persecuted by the law. He said their children were chased out of schools and they were victimised by police because of their religion. [continues 173 words]
Though Mendocino County is noted for its primacy as one of the original counties comprising the Emerald Triangle, stories about how and why this occurred are more intriguing than one might imagine. Economic and societal conditions converged to create the emergence and eminence of not one but two parallel industries-the solar industry and commercial cannabis farming. John Schaeffer, founder and owner of Real Goods and the Solar Living Center has an interesting story to tell. In 2014, when John and his wife Nantzy bought back Real Goods and the Solar Living Center from its parent corporation, the couple attempted to foresee the next wave of emerging culture. "We'd pioneered solar, sold the first photovoltaics in America, and continued to forge new ground with natural building, alternative fuels, electric vehicle consciousness, hemp clothing and permaculture. We determined the logical next step was CBD medical cannabis," says Schaeffer. [continues 1616 words]
Medical Group's Endorsement of Legalized Pot Guided by Patient Safety Regulation of Marijuana Will Allow Better Understanding of Clinical Uses The California Medical Association has long been at the forefront of controversial issues facing our state. We have proposed and helped implement forward-looking public policies around HIV/AIDS treatment and patient rights, blood donor laws, universal access to health care, physician aid-in-dying and vaccination rates. At the heart of our advocacy lies our fundamental concern for patient safety and the overall health care delivery system. [continues 355 words]
