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Pitchman, businessman, and world traveler, Robert Platshorn, aka Bobby Tuna, has also served more federal time than any other non-violent marijuana inmate, having spent 28 years in federal prison. Platshorn has compiled his memoirs into his book, The Black Tuna Diaries, in which he tells his life story intermingled with his story of smuggling marijuana.

"This election will prove to be the most historic election in Kentucky history. Kentucky can step forward by electing a leadership team that will serve our Nation as an example of how government can work for the people, by the people." - Gatewood Galbraith

In 1986, the initiative officially became Oregon's Ballot Measure 5. The measure, which sought to legalize cannabis, united activists’ from across the state.

Life long free speech activist Ben Masel has lost his battle with lung cancer. As the hemp and cannabis community mourns this great loss, we must also remember what Masel spent most of his life fighting for and continue on the path he helped to blaze.

The United States vs. Dale Schafer & Marion P. Fry

Hemp seeds produce more oil and protein than any other plant per land area cultivated. Hemp protein and oil are rich in the essential fatty acids (EFAs) that our brain and cardiovascular system need, Omega 3 & 6, in the perfect ratio for optimal human health.

Last month, because of years of festering propagandist lies, the Illinois House of Representatives voted against mid-west farmers and their right to grow a viable rotation crop.

Hemp buildings are not a new concept - but the technology necessary is very new and constantly evolving.

If we are truly serious about maximizing the growth of the green economy and creating a sustainable future, industrial hemp must become, once again, one of the United States' primary crops.

​Deputies returned two pounds of seized cannabis to a California dispensary on Friday after a court ruled that the marijuana had been improperly confiscated.The Sacramento County Sheriff's Department confiscated two pounds of marijuana from Common Roots Collective during a shakedown, I mean "inspection, on December 1. But the dispensary's lawyer argued that the deputies violated federal law, since authorities, including code enforcement officers, had entered the property on an inspection order and not a search warrant, reports CBS 13.The court ruled in favor of the dispensary three weeks later."The police are being kind enough to return it to us before Christmas," said attorney John Fuery. Continue reading "Deputies Give Marijuana Back To Dispensary Under Court Order" >

Record Searchlight, 24 Dec 2011 - While I agree with your observation ("Nasty outbursts do nothing for marijuana cause," Dec. 14) that marijuana proponents are not always fond of the rules of decorum, it seems inappropriate to castigate them like unruly children. Please consider what is actually happening here: People dealing with serious medical issues are being systematically denied access to the medicine that best eases their suffering. Faced with the looming likelihood of being unable to obtain relief from that suffering and dealing with stress caused by such knowledge, it is understandable that they find it difficult to be polite to those hellbent on worsening their situations. It is time to consider the overlooked components of this issue - scientific facts. The results of several recent studies clearly show why federal reclassification of marijuana and an end to onerous local restrictions both make good sense.

Cannabis Common Sense 615
The show that tells truth about marijuana & the politics behind its prohibition. Live call in show http://www.ustream.tv/channel/cannabis-common-sense , Friday's, 8-9PM Pacific Time, 503-288-4448 From: willappel Views: 12 5 ratings Time: 58:10 More in Education

 

[Fact: Drugs are pervasive in our society and, one way or another, adolescents will be exposed to mind-altering substances.]

It is an unmistakable reality that a significant number of high school students will try marijuana.  According to the recent 2011 Monitoring the Future Survey, nearly 40 percent of all high school seniors admit to having smoked marijuana in the past year – a percentage that has held relatively stable since the study’s inception over 35 years ago.

Some want to use this fact as a justification to deny any opportunity to rationally discuss marijuana, its use, and its risks with children in an open and honest manner.  They think that saying anything about marijuana other than encouraging its total abstinence is condoning its use.  This couldn’t be further from the truth.

When society teaches sex education, are we suggesting that all the teenagers go out and engage in sexual intercourse? No.  Rather, it is an acknowledgement that the best way to reduce the negative effects associated with sex (unwanted pregnancy, STD’s, etc) is through honest, objective information that allow people to understand their options and provides them with the tools they need to make informed decisions.

When we talk to teenagers about the dangers of drinking and driving, are we condoning alcohol use among minors?  No, of course not.  It is, however, a reality that many adolescents will a) likely consume alcohol as seniors in high school and b) have access to a car. Yes, we encourage students not to drink. But, we urge them specifically not to drink and drive.

We can all agree that teens should not smoke pot, or be using any mind-altering substances. Those are important, developmental years. Still, teens should be educated regarding how smoking marijuana can affect their body’s development specifically, how to reduce any harms associated with its use, and to distinguish between use and abuse. There should be honest, truthful drug education.

As Kristen Gwynne states in her AlterNet article, “Give young people accurate information, and they will use it to make better decisions that result in less harm to themselves, because teens, like everybody else, do not actually want to get hurt or become addicts.”

She goes on to say, “Giving students honest information about drugs [will]…increase the odds that they will use drugs safely, and reduce the likelihood of experiencing the [relative] harms associated with [it].”

By contrast, the Drug Czar and federal law advocates for complete prohibition, limited information explaining the real effects of marijuana and condemning any opportunity, as Gwynne states, to provide “education that helps teens understand their health options, and ways of reducing the harm of drugs.” When it comes to our children, like everything else we teach in school for development and behavioral growth, drug education should be based in reality, not a denial of it.

In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “If a state expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

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On Dec. 12th I posted PTSD: Medical Marijuana Clinical Studies Confirm Benefits. The Clinical Studies were done in Israel and possibly are the first clinically controlled reports. Their studies were directed at the action of Cannabis on adverse memory problems which is the essence of PTSD.

The Press Democrat, 23 Dec 2011 - Just in time for Christmas, "Reefer Madness" is back. Federal prosecutors are threatening to shut down California's medical pot dispensaries, which are legal under state law. California Attorney General Kamala Harris is asking the state Legislature to clarify and close loopholes in the state's medical marijuana laws, saying those laws are so confusing that users, growers, sellers, cops and even the people who work in her office have a hard time telling what's legal from what's not. Meanwhile, one group is preparing a ballot initiative for next year that would tax and regulate medical marijuana, while another group is pushing for a vote to legalize pot for any and all uses.

The Voice, 23 Dec 2011 - A Macomb County judge Wednesday said he would revise his recent opinion and allow operators of a former Chesterfield Township medical marijuana dispensary to maintain, use and transfer the drug in limited fashion. Big Daddy's Management Group, which operates the facility, asked the judge to clarify his ruling last month that declared the facility a nuisance and banned marijuana on the premises. Big Daddy's says it complied with the ruling, which followed a Nov. 3-4 evidentiary hearing.

​​​​​​ ​By Jack RikessToke of the TownNorthern California CorrespondentIt's really easy these days to be negative about cannabis. The Feds are waving their guns around like old-time Western town bullies. Playing with the tin-horns and the dandy Easterners alike, making them dance to a tune that we thought was long gone.They sit outside protecting the saloon, leaning  back in their chairs, keeping the weak and poor in the sight of their weapons, not necessarily to shoot them, just scare 'em a little. In the Golden State, where it must seem that progress burns bright, I mean, how can you complain when you can have your medicine, including edibles and anything else that's on the menu delivered right to your door? What in the world could those spoiled Californians have to gripe about?How about the closing of Lynnette Shaw's Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana dispensary in Fairfax?  As most know by now, Lynnette's dispensary was the first to be licensed in California back in '97. The closure of this landmark is incredibly distressing.  Continue reading "A Cannabis Christmas Wish... A Marijuana Chanukah Hint" >

​California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Wednesday urged state lawmakers to get serious about clarifying the state's 15-year-old medical marijuana law. According to Harris, gray areas have left law enforcement and patients in a state of perpetual uncertainty.The attorney general, who was elected with widespread backing from the state's medical marijuana industry (OK, it wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement, it was more a case of "Anybody But Cooley"), has been under pressure to defend the state's medicinal cannabis law since October, when the state's four U.S. Attorneys announced a statewide crackdown on dispensaries.Dozens of the shops -- which the federal prosecutors claimed were fronts for public drug dealing -- have since closed, reports Lisa Leff at the Associated Press. Continue reading "Cali AG Wants Legislature To Clarify Medical Marijuana Law" >

David Malmo-Levine forwarded an article he’s written as reaction to an online conversation in which many leaders in the marijuana movement are participating.  Let’s call it the “Crossroads Debate”.  Some folks, like Malmo-Levine, whom I’ll call “Medicalizers”, believe the proper strategy to fulfill our aim of ending adult marijuana prohibition is to continue expanding the the medical marijuana model under an “all use is medical” or “wellness supplements”, to keep broadening the conditions for which patients can get medical marijuana recommendations and to reduce the requirements for a patient to legally use cannabis until cannabis is treated as aspirin – a safe over-the-counter substance requiring no doctor and no registrations.

I and folks like Mickey Martin at CannabisWarrior.com, whom I’ll call “Legalizers”, disagree, believing that all use of cannabis is, indeed, not medical; it can be spiritual, recreational, and industrial, too, and we don’t need to have medical excuses to get high.

So in this “Crossroads Debate”, David Malmo-Levine concludes his article with:

The biggest mistake we could possibly make is to associate medicine only with the sick:

Mickey Martin – the “Cannabis Warrior” – makes that mistake in his latest blog. He argues that anyone who says “all use is medical” is also saying – in the same breath – that “every stoner is a patient”.http://cannabiswarrior.com/2011/12/17/know-when-to-hold-em-know-when-to-fold-em/

What some of us are ACTUALLY saying – and all of us including Mickey should be saying – is that “all use is medical and – when the war on cannabis finally ends and cannabis is first regulated like wine and then eventually like coffee beans – nobody needs to be a patient any longer.”

Doctors are a temporary buffer against the police – they are not the end goal of those who recognize cannabis as a medicine (and who recognize each user as someone taking a medicine and feeling the medicinal effects and thus being a “medicinal user” regardless of whether they are abusing it or having fun or blowing smoke-rings or whatever).

Until marijuana is regulated like wine, people will need to use doctors to protect them from the police.

You’re asking the reader to accept that medical = wine = coffee.  Nobody I know calls their after-dinner wine or before-work coffee “medicine”.  I get that you want to “inclusivize” cannabis like herbology, acupuncture, whatever non-traditional healing wellness thing, but none of those are also something young people do to get high.

If the end point is “it should be treated like coffee”, then face the public and say, “it should be treated like coffee”.  If it is a substance we should be able to use because we want to _____ (stay well, treat illness, commune with Jah, get laid, enjoy Jerry Garcia solos) then just say so!  Personally, I like “treat it like wine” better; I support age limits and location restrictions for cannabis use (of course, my “age limit” would be 16 and my restriction would be “anywhere there’s not a ‘no smoking’ sign”.)

All this dancing around holistic medical wellness makes the public feel like there’s something at the core we can’t be honest about and we have to dress it up with euphemisms.  No matter how holistically medically wellnessy cannabis is, mom and dad still worry about their teenager becoming a wastoid.  Folks worry about you wrecking your car into them on your holistically medically wellnessy cannabis.  The core we’re dancing around here is that marijuana can get you high – whether it’s “relaxation”, “recreation”, “wellness”, “stress relief”, “enhancement”, “medicated”, “lifted”, “stoned”, the name we give it does not change what it is.

Now, WE KNOW there’s more to fear from drunk teenagers and drivers on Oxycontin or cell phones, but those facts don’t make folks feel any less scared of the marijuana.  It’s like saying, “Don’t worry about your kid surfing in June – shark bite attacks are much more prevalent in August.”  Read some Drew Westen, some George Lakoff, even Frank Luntz or Karl Rove… people don’t vote and think reasonably and rationally, they vote and think from fear and self-interest.

We played the self-interest card with medical marijuana.  The voter was forced to decide whether he/she would allow cops to imprison sick people and let them suffer without pot.  This was a self-interest factor greater than the “I gotta protect society / my kids from dope” self-interest factor.

But now our opponents are trumping it with their fear cards.  Mexican gangs are growing in the forests to supply medical marijuana!  Drivers are stopped with hundreds of pounds of California or Colorado medical marijuana on its way to your state!  Your kids are smoking more pot than in thirty years because medical marijuana makes them think it’s safe!  Your neighbor is converting his house to a grow factory to profit from medical marijuana!  There’s also a self-interest factor of the voter who feels he was bamboozled when he/she voted for medical marijuana every time he/she sees a “Get Your Card $45″ placard or hears an ad for another medical marijuana expo featuring Kottonmouth Kings or Cheech & Chong.

Now is the time to get to the fear and self-interest that works in our favor.  Until the voter fears the status quo of prohibition more than the mystery of a new legal substance, fear of medmj adding to the “drug problem” is going to keep us in a defensive posture of approving stricter and stricter medical marijuana regulations  You can’t get the medmj for anxiety wellness approved outside California so long as voters think “druggies” can fake anxiety.

So we should make them fear the unregulated dealer who panders to kids far more than a regulated clerk would.  Fear the violence in Mexico that will spill over our border (more), lead our troops into a drug war on our continent (more), and nobody’s shooting anybody over Corona or Dos Equis.  Fear the over-militarization of our domestic police and inevitable corruption and racial profiling that results from trying to stop adults from smoking a joint.  Fear that someone who could use medical marijuana won’t be able to get it, because no matter how you craft a medical use law, someone won’t be “sick enough”, be able to afford the doctor visit and state registry, or afford prohibition-priced marijuana.  Fear that the truly sick legit patients now have to suffer shortages or live in fear of both the illegal gangs of rippers and robbers and the legal gangs of SWAT and feds due to prohibition.

Then ply them with the self-interest of increased tax revenues, reduced crime, new industries, yada yada yada.

Now, here’s where someone usually says, “but we tried all that and it didn’t work; only when we did medical did laws really change!” I disagree; I think we tried all that and it did work; that’s what got us medical.”

Beginning Nixon’s drug war, marijuana legalization support was 12%.  By 1977, after nothing but a “I smoke pot and I like it a lot” strategy, 11 states decriminalized and support was at 30%.  Then it hit the Eighties and many factors, including cultural ties to cocaine, rejection of 1970s malaise / 1960s culture war, and bipartisan escalation of the overall drug war, led to legalization support dropping to 16%.

But those polls began inching upwards in the late Eighties and early Nineties, before anyone outside of San Francisco was putting “medical” with “marijuana”.  We went from 1987 and a Supreme Court nominee being sacked for admitting smoking pot at Harvard to 1992 and a presidential candidate winning after admitting (kinda) smoking pot at Oxford.  I’d venture that rise owes to Baby Boomers whose kids had left the nest then rediscovering pot and remembering it’s pretty cool, actually.  I’d note also the rise of hip-hop during that period spreading love of “the chronic” from the coasts to the rest of youth of America.  And the only message being spread back then in the bleak Eighties was Jack Herer’s (and others’) preaching about free and unregulated hemp, with medical use as just one aspect of this marvelous plant.

Then it was possible to pitch medical marijuana to a public softened to the notion that personal marijuana use wasn’t a big deal.  I doubt Prop 215 does so well in 1986 or 1988.  (I also don’t think it would do so well in a 2012 vote, if this were sunsetting and California had to vote to keep it exactly as is.  Interesting to think about until somebody polls it.)

Times change – there is enough evidence for most people, from medical use they see and read about to more people’s own personal use, that the strategy of the 1970s – legalize it! – doesn’t face the same perils today.  Support now is 50%, not 16%.  People under 50 who’ve tried it amount to 52% of the population, not 30%.  More than half (51%) know now that it is a safer substance than alcohol.  Three presidents have tried it and the greatest Olympic swimmer ever famously inhaled during his greatness.  Google abounds with factual references on cannabis and its users.

But people don’t change without the pain of staying the same being greater than the fear of change.  The public is at the precipice, ready to leap to legalization, knowing it is the right path, but scared of how to get there and whether it is worse than just staying here at the ledge.  ”Medical” doesn’t make them leap; “medical” is some other guy/gal on the precipice with their own issues.  I don’t even think “regulation” and “taxation” work as well, as many Americans think those two things are inherently bad (thank Frank Luntz).  I like to say “control” – it rankles the choir, to be sure (“No corporate / government control of cannabis!”), but to the public it evokes the counter, “out-of-control”, that many of them feel about marijuana (medical or recreational).  I think a wise initiative drafter would pen the “Marijuana Control & Revenue Act” and get votes from the ballot title alone.

The Daily Inter Lake, 22 Dec 2011 - One of two men suing for clarification of Montana law on caregiver-to-caregiver medical marijuana transfers was sentenced Thursday in Flathead District Court. Lief Erickson, 48, Kalispell, was given a four-year suspended sentence as part of a plea agreement on a charge of criminal possession of drugs with intent to distribute.