I have a confession to make. I hope it won't make you think ill of me.

I have never smoked marijuana, not even a puff. Not ever.

Not that I didn't have my chances. Back in 1970, I was covering the Wadena Rock Festival in Iowa (sort of Woodstock lite) when a young woman came up to me and said: "Want me to turn you on?" I'm pretty sure she was talking about pot. I respectfully declined.

Yes, I know, it was weak of me. The best and the brightest of my generation were courageously yielding to temptation while I, coward that I was, retreated from it.

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Could Other Music Festivals Face Trouble, Too?

Is this SWAT team coming to a music festival near you?

Carrie Goebel went to sleep this Halloween in her own version of paradise. She woke up to a nightmare.

The 46-year-old artist from Warrenton, Missouri, spent the last weekend in October camping out at Camp Zoe's Spookstock music festival. "It was a good time, the weather was great, there were lots of good costumes," she recalls. "Little kids were trick-or-treating from campsite to campsite. It was a good time. It was a great weekend."

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Regarding Bill McClellan's "It would be great if state went to pot" (Nov. 12): If Missouri is going to be the first state to offer tourists a joint it must get it in gear. California's Proposition 19 organizers already are planning another proposition for 2012. Colorado also is preparing initiatives for 2012 to legalize the relatively safe, God-given cannabis plant. Massachusetts, Washington, Oregon, Nevada and others may join it.

Becoming the first state could appeal to America's competitive spirit and may help get cannabis legalized sooner. As a Colorado cannabis activist and citizen, I challenge Missouri, California and the rest of the states to a race to legalize cannabis.

If I were a gamblin' man, I'd bet on Colorado by an hour.

Stan White . Dillon, Colo.

[end]

Grateful Dead music lovers will no longer be truckin' down to Shannon County for outdoor music festivals if three law enforcement agencies get their way in federal court.

On Monday, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Missouri Highway Patrol and the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a joint complaint in the Eastern District of Missouri asking to seize the 350-acre Zoe Farm, alleging rampant drug dealing and drug use at events.

According to its website, the farm, called Camp Zoe, is located 150 miles southwest of St. Louis near Salem and hosts a popular Grateful Dead festival call Schwagstock every year, as well as biker and pagan rallies and individual concerts. Once a popular summer camp for kids, the property was purchased in 2004 by Jimmy Tebeau, a member of the Schwag, a Grateful Dead tribute band. He opened the grounds to recreational camping and float trips and began hosting the festivals soon after the purchase.

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Would you like to see Missouri become a tourist destination?

It's possible. The door is open. The zany voters of California -- once again, they elected Gov. Moonbeam -- voted not to legalize pot. What were they thinking? What were they smoking?

Actually, that's it. They were smoking marijuana. You know who was against the proposition to legalize pot? The medical marijuana industry.

And why not? At the moment, they have the market cornered. Approximately 250,000 people have prescriptions. Some suffer from anxiety or insomnia. If each shares his or her legal pot with just one friend, that's half a million pot smokers.

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A sane argument to continue cannabis (marijuana) prohibition and extermination doesn't exist (NORML Conference Brings State and National Speakers to MU, Nov. 9, 2010).

Another reason to legalize cannabis that doesn't get mentioned is because it is Biblically correct since God, The Ecologician, indicates He created all the seed bearing plants saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is to accept it with thankfulness (1 Timothy 4:1-5).

What kind of government cages responsible adults for using what God says is good?

Stan White

[end]

The Missouri chapter of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) held its 2010 Fall State Conference on Saturday and Sunday on campus.

The purpose of the conference was to give activists from around the state a chance to come together and learn from regional and national speakers about what's going on regarding the "war on marijuana," said Sean Randall, a law student at UM -- Kansas City and a member of the Missouri Affiliate of NORML.

Randall said, in general, NORML works on three different issues of marijuana law reform: medical marijuana, responsible recreational use by adults and industrial hemp.

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I am beginning to seriously question what sun my federal government is orbiting.

The U.S. government can't control illegal immigration, yet is fighting Arizona's efforts to do so.

Now Attorney General Eric Holder is warning the U.S. will "vigorously enforce" federal marijuana laws if California's Proposition 19 passes?

Seriously, Mr. Holder. Get your priorities straight. What presents the greatest threat, wide open borders or reefers? Transfer some of your Drug Enforcement Agency agents to Immigration and Customs Enforcement and let California be California.

Don Pickard

Kansas City

[end]

JOPLIN, Mo. -- For former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, educating the masses is a key component in changing marijuana laws.

Johnson, who was in office from 1995 to 2002, spoke in Joplin over the weekend as part of the 2010 Cannabis Revival. He talked about why he believes marijuana prohibition is failing, what the war on drugs is costing -- both in dollars and in lives -- and what needs to be done about it. The event was held in Landreth Park.

Kelly Maddy, director of the Joplin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Legislation and organizer of the Cannabis Revival, said the weekend event was held as a way to encourage public involvement in marijuana law reform.

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The decisions of the Citizens Police Review Board and Columbia's police chief concerning a February SWAT raid have been confirmed by City Manager Bill Watkins.

The decisions of the Citizens Police Review Board and Columbia's police chief concerning a February SWAT raid have been confirmed by City Manager Bill Watkins.

Watkins' letter is dated Friday and addressed to California marijuana activist Ed Rosenthal, who appealed the board's decision. The letter says that based upon his review of Rosenthal's complaint, a Columbia Police Department internal investigation, Chief Ken Burton's decision and the recommendations of the review board, Watkins supports Burton's decision in the matter.

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Child, Wife Subjects Of Several Claims

COLUMBIA -- A Columbia Police Department SWAT raid that happened in February has prompted a lawsuit against the city of Columbia by the family targeted in the raid.

The lawsuit was filed before noon on Monday in the U.S. Western District Court by attorneys Milt Harper and Jeff Hilbrenner, who represent the family. Three plaintiffs, Jonathan Whitworth, Brittany Whitworth and Brittany Whitworth's 7-year-old son, all of whom were present at the house during the raid, have been listed.

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Kansas City police officers went into a wooded area near Independence Avenue and the Paseo on Wednesday to talk to people at a homeless camp about thefts from a nearby construction site.

But after wading into the woods, the officers found a different problem: a fully stocked methamphetamine lab in a tent not far from the homeless camp.

Police recovered bottles, tubes, pills, chemicals and at least 90 grams of methamphetamine from the unoccupied tent, which was about 30 yards from the camp, said Sgt. Tim Witcig.

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Two hundred years ago, Mexico's quest for independence from Spain was marked with a grisly spectacle. After death by firing squad, the head of rebellion leader Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was hacked from his corpse and displayed for years on the corner of a public building. Spanish colonialists wanted to send a message to any Mexicans who had different ideas about who ought to rule their land.

It didn't work. Ten years later, after much blood spilt, Mexico gained its independence from Spain.

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Independence, MO - A recalculation of how much money Independence received from a Jackson County anti-drug sales tax to fund the D.A.R.E. program prompted the Independence Police Department to make changes in staffing the program.

The police department each year gets money from COMBAT (countywide anti-drug sales tax) to fund D.A.R.E. or Drug Abuse Resistance Education.

County officials and officials representing law enforcement jurisdictions met to discuss how COMBAT money would be used for D.A.R.E. The result was a reconfiguration on how the tax money was distributed.

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Ron Allen probably thinks Alice Huffman has been smoking something.

Huffman, president of the California Conference of the NAACP, recently declared support for an initiative that, if passed by voters in November, will decriminalize the use and possession of marijuana. Huffman sees it as a civil rights issue.

In response, Bishop Allen, founder of a religious social activism group called the International Faith-Based Coalition, has come out swinging. "Why would the state NAACP advocate for blacks to stay high?" he demanded last week at a news conference in Sacramento. "It's going to cause crime to go up. There will be more drug babies." Allen wants Huffman to resign.

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COLUMBIA - The Citizens Police Review Board spent most of its meeting Wednesday night debating whether it should discuss its first appeal, which it did briefly before tabling the discussion.

Ed Rosenthal, a California-based marijuana activist, filed the review board's first appeal June 10 after viewing a YouTube video of the Feb. 11 SWAT raid in which officers killed a dog at 1501 Kinloch Court. The SWAT team also injured another family dog and a child was present during the raid. Police found a small amount of marijuana in the house.

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It's known as fake pot or synthetic marijuana. Soon, it will be just as illegal in Missouri as the real thing.

Gov. Jay Nixon appeared Tuesday at the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department to sign a bill criminalizing the product known as K2. The law, effective Aug. 28, makes K2 a controlled substance, with possession punishable by jail or fine.

Specifically, the law bans synthetic compounds that are sprayed on dried herbs and flowers and often sold as incense. The product produces a marijuana-like high when smoked or inhaled. It is sold in smoke shops, convenience stores and elsewhere.

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I remember hearing 62 years ago that Robert Mitchum had been caught with a joint of marijuana in his suitcase, was arrested and his acting career ended. I remember thinking, "He's done for, now -- that devil weed has entered his brain, and it is all over for him." Such was the power of public disinformation. In people of my generation, those concepts still hold true for many.

Every morning, we review the cases that come before the medical examiner's office. During the past few years, more and more deaths are related to prescription drugs, often taken with legal prescriptions for opiates. In 2009, drug overdoses reportedly exceeded automobile deaths in 15 states. Some studies indicated deaths from ingesting multiple prescription drugs is up by 60 percent. This is partially fueled by the ever-increasing volume of advertisements for prescription drugs on television. Serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) are epidemic. You know them as drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil. The costs to health care are enormous.

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A California marijuana activist has filed a formal appeal to the Citizens Police Review Board regarding Police Chief Ken Burton's ruling that SWAT officers' actions during a controversial February raid were appropriate.

The appeal is the first for the board, which has been authorized to accept appeals since Jan. 1.

The letter, dated June 10 and received by Columbia police last Tuesday, calls for an appeal of the investigation into the actions of an eight-member SWAT squad that raided 1501 Kinloch Court in southwest Columbia and fired shots. Burton in May released the findings of his monthslong internal investigation into the raid, which resulted in the shooting of two dogs, one fatally, and the discovery of a misdemeanor amount of marijuana. A video of the raid has been viewed more than 1 million times online.

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Last week there was a very brief article on the extradition and arrest of Canadian citizen Marc Emery for the charge that he sold millions of cannabis seeds to U.S. customers.

I must admit that I was more than disappointed that the Saint Louis Post gave this so little coverage.

It is outrageous to threaten a non US citizen with prison time merely for the crime of selling of marijuana seeds when there are so many other offenses that our limited resources could be used to pursue, especially when so many States have decriminalized and legalized the medical use of cannabis.

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