By: skip

Complaints of not enough Marijuana at Festival due to police busts!

Police Search festival goers for drugs during Nimbin’s Mardi Grass Festival.

A POLICE clampdown on cannabis smokers at Nimbin’s annual Mardi Grass festival was allowing it to be taken over by amphetamine and alcohol use, an organiser said.

"The crowd are complaining there’s not enough pot," Mardi Grass parade marshall Graeme Dunstan said of this weekend’s festival.

"There’s too much alcohol and too much speed, which people bring in from outside. The police go for cannabis because it’s easy to spot."

Police have vowed to stamp out drugs in Nimbin. They sent officers from the riot, drug and mounted squads, plus regular officers, as an estimated 20,000 people gathered for a weekend of music, pot smoking and protest to demand the legalisation of cannabis.

"We are seeking to eliminate the supply of prohibited drugs," Richmond Local Area Command acting Superintendent Steve Clarke said on Friday. "We will not tolerate any breaches of any laws."

Michael Balderstone, president of the Nimbin Hemp Embassy, said the Nimbin community was furious about the police’s approach. "You may as well get a stick and poke it in a hornet’s nest. It’s pointless. You can put us in jail for 20 years and you won’t change our opinions."

Police obtained a court order on Friday to close the Nimbin Hemp Bar and Hemp Museum for 72 hours. Police alleged the bar and museum were known drug-dealing premises.

A raid on the museum on April 1 allegedly recovered four kilograms of cannabis. Eight people were charged with drug offences.

Mr Balderstone said the fact that only cannabis was found showed that Nimbin had got rid of its hard drugs problem. "We had ice [crystal methamphetamine] four or five years ago but the community’s worked very hard to get ice out of town," he said.

Police were also enforcing alcohol-free zones at the festival, acting Superintendent Clarke said.

Debbie Guest, owner of the Nimbin Hotel, said the police clampdown had been "huge", with strict enforcement of responsible service of alcohol rules.

"We’ve never had trouble at Mardi Grass," she said. "People come for a good time."

Graham Way, 71, a Nimbin resident for 50 years, said the clampdown was a good thing. "You get harassed going up the street by people peddling drugs," he said.

Mardi Grass events include the Hemp Olympix, including a plantathlon, bong throwing and joint rolling.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

This follows upon the invasion on April Fools Day of Nimbin by an army of police including Sydney Riot Police in a raid on a few peaceful businesses.  It’s becoming apparent that the people of Nimbin are now some pawn in a political game as they hardly found anything worth busting with only two cannabis related arrests coming out of it.  Read about the April Fool’s bust here.

Views: 24110

By: skip

A state appeals court upheld California’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law Thursday, rejecting two counties’ arguments that allowing patients to use the drug with their doctor’s approval condones violations of federal narcotics laws.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego dismissed challenges by San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which objected both to the 1996 marijuana initiative and to recent legislation requiring counties to issue identification cards to users of medical pot.

The cards protect their holders from arrest by state or local police for possessing small amounts of marijuana.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government can enforce its drug laws, which ban marijuana use and cultivation, against patients and their suppliers in California and the 11 other states that have legalized medical marijuana under their own laws.

But in Thursday’s ruling, the appeals court said states remain free to decide whether to punish drug users under their own laws.

"The (federal) law does not compel the states to impose criminal penalties for marijuana possession," said Justice Alex McDonald in the 3-0 ruling, which upheld a Superior Court judge’s decision.

"The purpose of the (federal law) is to combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state’s medical practices."

Besides, McDonald said, the counties’ only obligation under the California law is to process and hand out the ID cards, a requirement that poses no conflict with federal law.

State and local officers can’t arrest marijuana users for violating the federal law, he said, and applications for the medical marijuana cards contain a warning that they provide no shield against federal authorities.

Although the state’s decision to allow medical marijuana use "arguably undermines the goals" of the federal law, McDonald said, county governments are unaffected by any such conflicts and therefore have no right to sue to overturn the entire state law.

San Diego County’s lawyer, Senior Deputy County Counsel Thomas Bunton, said county supervisors may decide by next week whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court. He said a future appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is also possible.

"We think the court should have found that California’s medical marijuana laws are pre-empted by the federal law," Bunton said. "We think (the ID card law) requires us to issue cards in support of conduct that violates federal law."

Advocacy groups that joined the state in defense of its law said the ruling shows that states are free to chart their own course on medical marijuana.

The decision "provides yet further confirmation that states need not march in lockstep with federal policy," said Adam Wolf, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the National Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He said the court issued "a stinging rebuke to the misguided attempt of a few rogue counties to undermine the will of California’s voters and the well-being of thousands of sick and dying patients."

In a separate case Thursday, the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento became the second to declare unconstitutional a 2003 state law that limited the amount of marijuana a patient could possess for medical use and remain exempt from prosecution.

The ruling would leave those decisions up to local governments, or to local prosecutors and juries in counties that lacked an official standard. The law, part of the same legislation that established the state-approved identification cards, allowed patients to possess up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana, or up to six mature marijuana plants or 12 immature plants, unless a doctor had recommended greater amounts to meet the patient’s needs.

The Third District Court ruled that the law conflicted with the 1996 medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215, which set no numerical limits on the amount of marijuana a patient could possess.

An appeals court in Los Angeles reached the same conclusion in May, a ruling that Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office has appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Source: SF Chronicle

Views: 28667

By: FZ

RIGHT TO MARIJUANA FOR TREATMENT OF CERTAIN MEDICAL DISEASES AND CONDITIONS.
09-01

Reference:
ARTICLE I, SECTION 28

Summary:
View Full Text (pdf)
THIS PROPOSED AMENDMENT IS DESIGNED TO CREATE A NEW ARTICLE I, SECTION 28 ("Right to Marijuana for Treatment Purposes") OF THE FLORIDA CONSTITUTION SO AS TO PERMIT THE CULTIVATION, PURCHASE, POSSESSION AND USE OF MARIJUANA TO TREAT ALZHEIMER’S, CACHEXIA, CANCER, CHRONIC PAIN, CHRONIC NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS, CROHN’S DISEASE, EPILEPSY AND OTHER SEIZURE DISORDERS, GLAUCOMA, HIV/AIDS, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, PARKINSON’S, DISEASES CAUSING MUSCLE SPASTICITY, OR OTHER DISEASES AND CONDITIONS WHEN RECOMMENDED BY A PHYSICIAN.

Sponsor:
People United for Medical Marijuana
Post Office Box 560296
Orlando, FL 32856-
(407) 405-0110
Contact: Kim Russell, Chairperson

Signatures: **Verified Totals are UNOFFICIAL until the Initiative receives certification and a ballot number.
Required for review by Attorney General: 67,683
Required to have initiative on the ballot: 676,811
** Number currently valid: 0

Status: Active
Approval Date: 03/26/2009
Undue Burden:
Made Review:
Attorney General:
Sent to Supreme Court:
Supreme Court Ruling:
SC Ruling Date:
Made Ballot:
Ballot Number: 0
Election Year: 2010

There it is in black and white!!!! The time to act is now!!! We only have till Feb 1, 2010 to get 676,811 petitions filled out and we need all of Florida’s help and support to get this on the ballot in 2010!!!!!!!!

Here is the above’s address: http://election.dos.state.fl.us/initiatives/initdetail.asp?account=50438&seqnum=1

Here’s the petition: http://www.pufmm.org/docs/Medical%20Marijuana%20Petition%20Form.pdf PRINT THIS ON 1 SINGLE PIECE OF PAPER!!!!!!

Here is where to send it : PUFMM P.O. Box 560296 Orlando, FL 32856

And please if you can with the petition send the PUFMM a donation of what ever you can afford, it’s not mandatory but it is appreciated.

Also spread the word!!!!! Let anyone that might even slightly interested know about this!!!!

The top, as you can see is from the Florida state elections website, this is 100% real and verified so.

COME ON FLORIDA LET’S GET THIS ON THE BALLOT AND GET IT APPROVED!!!!!!

Views: 13716

By: skip

A recent ban on alcohol in remote Australian Aboriginal villages has resulted in a big increase in the use of marijuana by adults. The Australian government hoping to crack down on the social ills of alcoholism in those remote villages has instead encouraged the local production and consumption of marijuana.

This article claims there are some vague social costs to the switch over, and doesn’t even mention what they might be. Perhaps there’s some kind of improvement in the social lives of Aborigines now that they’ve been weened off their addictions to alcohol? Of course the Australian press would be loathe to report that marijuana consumption improved anyone’s life, but in this situation, that is likely to be the case!

Read the Story

Views: 7920

By: skip

UK Police busted more than 1,600 drug-growing sites last year – but insiders say this is only the tip of the iceberg of the illegal multi-million-pound industry.

Nearly 500 were discovered in London alone, as Labour examines plans to review the drug’s downgraded status.

The Sun discovered around 30 police forces nailed 1,632 cannabis factories last year – compared to 1,334 in 2006. In counties such as Notts, production has more than doubled.

In the past most cannabis was smuggled in from Africa, South America or Asia. But more than 60 per cent is now believed to come from large-scale factories in the UK.

The dealers – often from Vietnam – rent homes in quiet neighbourhoods and use illegal immigrants as “gardeners” for their crops, which are worth up to £100,000.

Cannabis was graded Class C in 2004, but Gordon Brown last year ordered a rethink due to evidence linking it to depression and destruction of short-term memory.

A report is expected to be published within days.

Views: 2841

By: skamikaze

The official body which advises the government on drugs policy has decided that cannabis should remain a Class C drug, the BBC understands.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs’ decision would appear to go against the view of Gordon Brown, who favours returning the drug to Class B.

The government asked the council to review cannabis’s legal status, amid concerns over stronger forms of it.

The council refused to confirm or deny a decision.

Chairman Professor Sir Michael Rawlins said a report would be sent to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith this month.

University study

BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said the decision was taken at a private meeting of the council, which discussed some significant new research from Keele University about links between cannabis and mental illness.

The study found nothing to support a theory that rising cannabis use in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s led to increases in the incidence of schizophrenia later on.

The Advisory Council’s decision leaves the government in an awkward position, our correspondent adds.

Gordon Brown has indicated he favours transferring cannabis back to Class B to send a message about the dangers of the drug.

If the government does reclassify, it would be rejecting the findings of the Advisory Council’s panel of 23 drug experts, which has never happened before on a decision about drug classification.

Source: BBC online

Views: 2914