Browsing: politics

Medical

CANNABIS CULTURE - Mainstream media companies have a habit of framing issues in a way that helps their corporate or political masters, and Canada's public broadcaster is no exception. Take, for example, the video clip below. In their report, CBC journalists never ask if we actually need medical marijuana growing inspectors, they just parrot the police and government line claiming we do, and assume it is true.

People caught with small amounts of marijuana in Chicago will be ticketed instead of arrested under a new ordinance passed by the city council on Wednesday, as the third largest U.S. city became the latest to support more lenient penalties for using the drug.

The Legal Aid Society in New York City announced Friday that it had filed a lawsuit against the NYPD over its continuing practice of making misdemeanor marijuana possession arrests when they order suspects to empty their pockets during the department's controversial stop and frisk searches. Police Commissioner Raymond issued a memorandum last fall directing police not to make the arrests, but only to ticket pot possession offenders, but police continue to charge people with misdemeanors, according to the lawsuit.
Activism

In Oregon, two separate marijuana regulation and legalization initiatives that appeared poised to make the ballot a month ago are now on pins and needles after having unprecedented numbers of voter signatures invalidated by state election officials. With just two weeks to go before the July 6 deadline to hand in signatures, both campaigns need to come up with tens of thousands of signatures in a hurry.

The Democrats who control the State Assembly, many of them black or Latino residents of New York City, saw a proposal to decriminalize the open possession of small amounts of marijuana as a simple matter of justice: too many black and Latino men were being arrested because, after being stopped by the police, they were forced to empty their pockets.

CANNABIS CULTURE - US President Barack Obama has asserted "executive privilege" to protect Attorney General Eric Holder and deny Congress access to DOJ documents dealing with the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation, which put thousands of dangerous weapons in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. The moved provoked Republican lawmakers to question whether White House officials may have been involved in talks about "Fast and Furious".
Hemp

June 4-10, 2012 marked the biggest and most celebrated Hemp History Week to date. The 3rd Annual Hemp History Week featured over 800 events in cities and towns throughout all fifty states, including 100 grassroots volunteer-led events; more than 700 retail promotions; a restaurant program; and a letter writing campaign that generated over 15,000 letters and calls to U.S. Senators encouraging them to support changes to federal policy that would allow American farmers to once again grow industrial hemp.

CANNABIS CULTURE - My last blog left off with two high hopes: I wanted to get on the Rhode Island Republican Presidential Primary Ballot as a Ron Paul Delegate to the Republican National Convention this August in Tampa, and I also wanted to see the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana for adults in RI. I'm thrilled to report that both my hopes materialized – with a bit of a Rhode Island twist of course!
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