Making the Case for Medical Marijuana

[rebound]

Or at the very least they will seize that brick of $100 bills under your seat.

Well I'm flying back, so I think it's the airport dogs I'll have to avoid...

[Townsend]

Well I'm flying back, so I think it's the airport dogs I'll have to avoid...

Be sure to tip your gloved TSA agent.

[heironymouspasparagus]

Be sure to tip your gloved TSA agent.

Depends on the lubricating liquid they use....

[rebound]

Be sure to tip your gloved TSA agent.

For any Archer fans out there...

[patric]

COLUMBUS - Gov. John Kasich signed a plan to legalize medical marijuana into law Wednesday, making Ohio the 25th state to approve its use.
http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2016/06/08/john-kasich-just-legalized-medical-marijuana-ohio-now-what/85499176/

[Vashta Nerada]

This may come as a shock... but drug dogs aren't always that effective. Many are just "trick ponies" to be able to search more. Some have many more false positives than accurate finds. A study in Illinois found that drug dogs alerts only actually found drugs 27% of the time.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has ruled that as long as a dog has a piece of paper saying it is a certified drug dog, it is infallible. Even if the defense can prove that the department knew the dog had more false positives than actual finds (in training records), it doesn't matter. As long as the dog gives a signal known to its handler as a positive signal, there is probably cause for a search. There are plenty of videos of police working real hard to get their dog to give a cue and immediately rewarding a cue (before confirming a positive, teaching the dog false cues are as good as real ones).

So why in the hell would a department want a well trained dog? Just get one that hits on everything and you can search whatever you want. Some departments have a great method for tracking the success of their dogs in the field: if a dog has a positive find you record it, if a dog hits a false positive there is no procedure for logging it. PERFECTION!

A group calling themselves the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area suggests the legalization of marijuana has made the drug more attractive for out-of-state smuggling. But one federal report says HIDTA are questionable.
The United States Sentencing Commission said in a recent report that national marijuana trafficking offenses have fallen since Colorado and Washington residents voted to legalize the drug in 2012.

The data conflicts with HIDTA's notion that marijuana trafficking from Colorado is an increasing problem. Its latest report says law enforcement agencies from surrounding states made 360 seizures of the drug in 2014 - compared to an average of 242 from 2009 to 2012. The 2014 seizures occurred in 36 states - with Kansas (37), Missouri (37), Illinois (31), Oklahoma (19) and Florida (19) the most common destinations.

"There are anti-marijuana officials in surrounding states who say they're spending more time trying to find marijuana, so it'd be no surprise if they are finding more," said Mason Tvert, a spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, the country's largest organization that focuses on marijuana policy reform. "But there's no actual evidence there are any changes. The evidence suggest there's been some decrease in illegal trafficking."

http://gazette.com/colorado-marijuana-increasingly-finding-its-way-to-florida/article/1578049

[patric]

In addition to epilepsy, cannabinoids (or marijuana itself) have demonstrated positive effects on type 2 diabetes, ulcerative colitis, cancer, and more than a dozen other ailments.
These promising studies have given hope that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) may reclassify marijuana sometime soon.

That time could be coming sooner than you think.

Sometime within the next couple of weeks, the U.S DEA is expected to rule on whether or not it will reschedule marijuana away from its current schedule 1 classification. If the regulatory agency were to reclassify marijuana as anything other than a schedule 1 substance, then medical marijuana would immediately become legal throughout the U.S., thus opening the door for medical marijuana businesses to prosper.

http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/06/25/arguably-the-most-important-marijuana-decision-eve.aspx

[heironymouspasparagus]

It has been way too long a wait.

[patric]

It has been way too long a wait.

But never too late to stir up some last-minute hysteria.



Apparently some officials thought a home marijuana testing kit would be good for testing a municipal water supply.  They must have been high.

"That would be like if Cypress Hill's tour bus drove off a cliff, rolled through a Willie Nelson concert, and capsized Rick Steves' kayak before nose diving into the town well."
http://www.wired.com/2016/07/take-lot-thc-contaminate-water-supply





But field testing kits are notorious for leaning towards false positives:



A man's love of doughnuts got him arrested, strip-searched and tossed in jail for 10 hours after officers mistook several crumbs of icing for crystal methamphetamine.
Dan Rushing, 64, said he's now considering legal action after the fateful traffic stop.

When he pulled out his identification, Officer Riggs-Hopkins noticed his concealed firearm permit and asked for permission to search his car, according to the report.
"I didn't have anything to hide," he said in an interview with WFTV. Now "I'll never let anyone search my car again."

The officers found "in plain view a rock like substance on the floor board where his feet were. I recognized, through my 11 years of training and experience as a law enforcement officer, the substance to be some sort of narcotic."

Riggs-Hopkins wrote in the report that police performed two field tests on the "rock like substance" and that it tested positive for narcotics both times.
http://kfor.com/2016/07/28/no-its-meth-cops-mistook-krispy-kreme-doughnut-crumbs-for-drugs-man-says/

[heironymouspasparagus]

All that great training....wasted on that idiot.


But now I gotta a new supplier!!  Haven't been to Krispy Kreme in many years - now that they have drugs, I may have to go back!  I have been going to Dunkin' Donuts most recently and while extremely pleasant, I have gotten nothing more than a nice sugar buzz out of any of them!!

[patric]

It seems the petition gathering went a lot smoother in Tulsa than OKC.


NORMAN, Okla. – Oklahoma City medical marijuana activist Anthony Kimble was arrested outside the Oklahoma City VA shortly after lunch Tuesday during a  signature-gathering event by activists petitioning to get a medical marijuana state question on the ballot in November. Witnesses described an Oklahoma City officer pulling up to the VA and immediately arresting Kimble while he stood on the sidewalk, a not particularly criminal activity.

Medical marijuana petitioner and Oklahomans for Health co-founder/co-chairman Frank Grove believes this to be nothing more than an escalation of the harassment and intimidation many medical marijuana petitioners have encountered during the past several months gathering signatures.

Frank, co-founder/co-chairman of Oklahomans for Health, an organization dedicated to putting a medical marijuana state question on the ballot, is the first to say how supportive many police officers have been of their First Amendment right to gather signatures, but notes that a continuous stream of harassment by a few officers is hindering their operations significantly. Frank spoke to Red Dirt Report about three instances of harassment in particular that stand out.

The first incident Frank mentioned was what happened at a permanent signature-gathering site that volunteers established in late June. This was a 24/7 site, set up NW Expressway and Meridian public easement, with petitioners gathering signatures from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. every single day.

Tents were set up, along with solar panels for electronics, and the volunteers depended on the surrounding community for material support, which was provided. 

During the first 20 days of operations at the site, relations with the Oklahoma City police were agreeable, and the officers sided with the petitioners and the First Amendment if an issue ever arose.

This all changed after 20 days, when a deputy called William Jones, one of the organizers working at the site, and informed him that the petitioners would face massive fines if they didn't leave. The deputy also made it clear that other signature-gathering sites would experience an increase in harassment if the petitioners didn't pack up and leave.

That same day, employees of the state placed signs at the site that indicated a curfew was now in place, and an officer was sent to take pictures of signers, volunteers, as well as their license plates and the inside of cars owned by the petitioners. This clearly had the intimidation effect that the police were looking for, with petition-signers being almost too fearful to get out of their vehicle and approach the petitioners.

The same officer returned the next day to inform the petitioners that he was just doing his job, which implied that he was carrying out orders from higher-up to intimidate petitioners for engaging in a peaceful, First Amendment-protected activity.

The second incident occurred at the OKC courthouse. A volunteer, sitting on a bench with a sign and clipboard, was approached by an Oklahoma County sheriff who was quoted as saying that he "was tired of stoners thinking you can do whatever you want," and immediately threatened the volunteer with arrest for trespassing.

The sheriff then brought three more officers to surround the volunteer when the volunteer didn't back down. Chad Moody, known as "The Drug Lawyer," a vocal proponent of marijuana legalization and an Oklahoma City-based attorney, witnessed the entire incident.

Moody called for a meeting with the District Attorney and determined that the sheriff's actions were unconstitutional. Despite that outcome, Frank notes that they lost almost an entire day of signature-gathering, precious time considering the short, 90-day window they have to gather signatures.

The third incident occurred on a public easement in Moore, where city code enforcers harassed petitioners during the last week of July. The enforcers demanded that the volunteers first get a permit before setting up operations.

The volunteers did obtain a permit to satisfy the enforcers, but Moore city councilman Adam Webb discovered what had happened and was angered that the volunteers were shut down illegally. Webb signed the petition and made the enforcers apologize to the volunteers in person for violating their First Amendment rights.

Frank, a Tulsa native who holds a master's degree in computer science from the University of Tulsa, is undaunted by the intimidation. He believes that the OKC metro supports medical marijuana legalization by a wide margin, as well as most police officers.

He also understands that the short, 90-day window to gather signatures means that he doesn't have time to fret about police intimidation. The goal is to reach the necessary number of signatures by Aug. 11.  Sheriffs and city officials might be an annoyance to someone like Frank, but they'll never become an insurmountable obstacle for someone as passionate as he is about getting medical marijuana in the hands of Oklahomans whose lives may depend on it.

http://www.reddirtreport.com/prairie-opinions/pharmaceutical-companies-police-unions-private-prisons-wage-well-funded-campaign

[heironymouspasparagus]

Just sooooo much ignorance in this state!   Just the way Mary Failin' and her Crony Clown Show want it.  And are pushing it....

[Vashta Nerada]

Just sooooo much ignorance in this state!   Just the way Mary Failin' and her Crony Clown Show want it.  And are pushing it....

Our union lackey DA wants to keep simple marijuana posession a felony.  Why so far behind the times?  Because a full jail is a proffitable one?


Tulsa County DA opposes state questions on justice reform
http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/tulsa-county-da-opposes-state-questions-on-justice-reform/article_53c9ee69-03ab-56d4-b1e7-cbdec74f2fe3.html

[patric]

https://sfbay.ca/2016/08/16/court-protects-medical-pot-users-from-prosecution/

[patric]

An initiative petition to let Oklahomans vote on whether to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes has enough signatures to potentially get on the ballot, Oklahoma Secretary of State Chris Benge announced Tuesday.

http://newsok.com/oklahoma-medical-marijuana-petition-gets-enough-signatures-to-be-examined-for-ballot/article/5515108