Wanderingbear

A letter to Obama

2011-09-04T20:05:00.001-07:00

Mr. President.

You are letting down your constituents down by being too bi-partisan We need you to start standing up for Social security and health care.Not give in to the Republicans outrageous demands in the hope of gaining their favor.They The Conservatives hate you,and laugh every time you give in.You not going to gain anything from them.

We also need you to put an end to these costly and unnecessary wars. America is in financial crisis. We can not afford spending billions of dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan when Americans are loosing their homes and falling into poverty.

Flowery words go only so far.Its time for you to stop trying to make nice with the conservatives and start fighting for the people who voted you in.

Oregon Cannabis Tax Act: A Movement to Legalize

2011-08-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

OCTA is currently in the petition stage and does not have enough signatures at the time to make the ballot. As of July 27, 2011 the measure has obtained 30,139 signatures. However, hope is not lost, as the measure just needs to reach the required amount of authenticated signatures (125,000) by July 2nd of 2012.

This means that if you're a marijuana user and a resident of Oregon it's pretty much your civic duty to sign that petition. You may reach the organization funding the measure at www.cannabistaxact.org.

If passed, OCTA will enable adults to legally purchase marijuana from state-licensed stores, such as liquor stores. It will also create many more jobs, by enabling farmers to grow cannabis for these state stores. Adult residents will be able to grow a reasonable personal amount of weed. Additionally, the act will allow farmers to grow hemp for material, food and fuel, and will also raise an estimate $120 million annually in taxes from selling marijuana. Furthermore, the state will save an estimated $61.5 million by not having to prosecute harmless cannabis "offenders."

If you want to find out more about ways you can help legalize marijuana in both your own state as well as Oregon, please visit the following webistes:

www.cannabistaxact.org

www.norml.org

Why the Pot Industry Needs to Get a Lot Greener

2011-08-26T14:21:00.000-07:00

There's a budding movement urging cannabis growers to ask themselves: How green is your grass?

A recent energy-use report authored by one California scientist and a Humboldt County-based group are taking a sharp look at the carbon footprint of industrial-scale indoor cannabis growing. An ordinance in Boulder requires medical-cannabis dispensaries to pay carbon offset fees. All of them are concerned about the environmental impacts as the medical cannabis industry grows ever larger.

But first, a quick history lesson in indoor growing: A few decades ago, a bunch of hippies trekked off to the rural lands of Humboldt County, Calif., to create idyllic, off-the-grid communities. When their kids got old enough to drive, growing cannabis and selling marijuana became the way to pay for gas. But as the CAMP raids started up in the 1980s, growers had to move their operations indoors. Elaborate lighting systems were created to maximize growth cycles. Fuel had to be trucked over miles of dirt roads to run the generators that kept the operations going.

Today, as sixteen U.S. states have approved medical cannabis, it's becoming easier for entrepreneurs to set up elaborate energy-sucking cannabis nurseries. And all that indoor cannabis comes with high energy costs.

In April, energy and environmental systems analyst Evan Mills released his report "Energy Up in Smoke," which examined the energy usage and carbon footprint of indoor cannabis growing operations. (While Mills is a staff scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, his website emphasizes that the report was conducted independently and on his own time.)

Consulting with an indoor growing expert, Mills crunched the numbers for running all those high-intensity lights, pumps, dehumidifiers, heating and irrigation systems, plus the electric gadgets that control them.

The report finds that nationwide, "indoor Cannabis production results in energy expenditures of $5 billion each year, with electricity use equivalent to that of 2 million average U.S. Homes." All related CO2 production, including transportation, equals that of 3 million cars.

In California, where the growing medical cannabis industry still has a sort of Wild West feel, indoor growing is responsible for about 3 percent of the entire state's electricity use, or a staggering 8 percent of household use.

Mills finds that producing just one joint creates two pounds of CO2 emissions. One indoor off-grid plant -- like that in rural areas that use power from diesel generators -- requires 70 gallons of diesel fuel to grow.

Mills writes that cost-effective efficiency improvements of 75% are conceivable, and that "shifting cultivation outdoors eliminates most energy uses (aside from transport)."

In other words: to grow the greenest weed, outdoor is the way to go.

But as Sacramento-area dispensary owner Kris Burnett points out, there are hurdles keeping many growers from moving outside, especially in urban areas, such as crop security, exposure to law enforcement, and ever-changing local pot regulation ordinances.

"Nobody knows what [Sacramento] County is planning to do," says Burnett, who opened her collective in June. "It's a grey area with the law."

She also points to patients who live in assisted living homes or apartments with no place to grow outdoors.

Charley Custer, a member of the green-growing advocacy group Grow it in the Sun, says that his organization doesn't speak out against patients who cultivate their own medication in their closets at home."What we're trying to do is raise awareness of the destructive and even insane practices of industrial and commercial growers," says Custer. "We have nothing to say against whatever practices individuals use to get their own medicine."

The Corporate Supreme Court; Time For Impeachment

2011-07-18T21:54:00.000-07:00

By Ralph Nader

Five Supreme Court Justices--Scalia, Thomas, Roberts, Alito and Kennedy are entrenching, in a whirlwind of judicial dictates, judicial legislating and sheer ideological judgments, a mega-corporate supremacy over the rights and remedies of individuals.

The artificial entity called "the corporation" has no mention in our Constitution whose preamble starts with "We the People," not "We the Corporation."

Taken together the decisions are brazenly over-riding sensible precedents, tearing apart the state common law of torts and blocking class actions, shoving aside jury verdicts, limiting people's "standing to sue", pre-empting state jurisdictions--anything that serves to centralize power and hand it over to the corporate conquistadors.

Here are some examples. (For more see thecorporatecourt.com). Remember the disastrous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska's Prince William Sound twenty two years ago? It destroyed marine life and the livelihoods of many landowners, fishermen and native Alaskans. Its toxic effects continue to this day.

Well, after years of litigation by Alaskan fishermen, the Supreme Court took the case to review a $5 billion award the trial court had assessed in punitive damages. A 5 to 3 decision lowered the sum to $507.5 million which is less than what Exxon made in interest by delaying the case for twenty years. Moreover, the drunken Exxon captain's oil tanker calamity raised the price of gasoline at the pump for awhile. Exxon actually made a profit despite its discharge of 50 million gallons.

The unelected, life-tenured corporate court was just getting started and every year they tighten the noose of corporatism around the American people.

In Bush v. Gore (5-4 decision), the Court picked the more corporate president of the United States in 2000, leaving constitutional scholars thunderstruck at this breathtaking seizure of the electoral process, stopping the Florida Supreme Court's ongoing state-wide recount. The five Republican Justices behaved as political hacks conducting a judicial coup d'état.

But then what do you expect from justices like Thomas and Scalia who participate in a Koch brothers' political retreat or engage in extrajudicial activities that shake the public confidence in the highest court of the land.

Last year came the Citizens United v. FEC case where the Republican majority went out of its way to decide a question that the parties to the appeal never asked. In a predatory "frolic and detour," the 5 justices declared that corporations (including foreign companies) no longer have to obey the prohibitory federal law and their own court's precedents.

Corporations like Pfizer, Aetna, Chevron, GM, Citigroup, Monsanto can spend unlimited funds (without asking their shareholders) in independent expenditures to oppose or support candidates for public office from a local city council election to federal Congressional and Presidential elections.

Once again our judicial dictatorship has spoken for corporate privilege and power overriding the rights of individual voters.

Eighty percent of the American people, reported a Washington Post poll, reject the Court's view that a business corporation is entitled to the same free speech rights as citizens.

Chances are very high that in cases between workers and companies, consumers and companies, communities and corporations, tax payers and military contractors--big business wins.

Inanimate corporations created by state government charters have risen as Frankensteins to control the people through one judicial activist decision after another. It was the Supreme Court in 1886 that started treating a corporation as a "person" for purposes of the equal protection right in the fourteenth amendment. Actually the scribe manufactured that conclusion in the headnotes even though the Court's opinion did not go that far. But then it was off to the races. These inanimate giants, astride the globe, have privileges and immunities that "We the People" can only dream about, yet they have equal constitutional rights with us (except for the right against self-incrimination (Fifth Amendment) and more limited privacy rights.)

What is behind these five corporate Justices' decisions is a commercial philosophy that big business knows best for you and your children. These Justices intend to drive this political jurisprudence to further extremes, so long as they are in command, to twist our founders clear writings that the Constitution was for the supremacy of human beings.

To see how extreme the five corporate justices are, consider the strong contrary view of one of their conservative heroes, the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist in a case where a plurality of justices threw out a California regulation requiring an insert in utility bills inviting residential ratepayers to band together to advance their interests against Pacific Gas and Electric. The prevailing justices said--get this--that it violated the electric company monopoly's first amendment right to remain silent and not respond to the insert's message.

Conservative Justice Rehnquist's dissent contained these words--so totally rejected by the present-day usurpers: "Extension of the individual freedom of conscience decisions to business corporations strains the rationale of those cases beyond the breaking point. To ascribe to such artificial entities an "intellect" or "mind" for freedom of conscience purposes is to confuse metaphor with reality."

It was left to another conservative jurist, the late Justice Byron White, dissenting in the corporatist decision First Nat'l Bank v. Bellotti (1978) to recognize the essential principle.

Corporations, Justice White wrote, are "in a position to control vast amounts of economic power which may, if not regulated, dominate not only the economy but also the very heart of our democracy, the electoral process." The state, he continued, has a compelling interest in "preventing institutions which have been permitted to amass wealth as a result of special advantages extended by the State for certain economic purposes from using that wealth to acquire an unfair advantage in the political process". The state need not permit its own creation to consume it." (emphasis added)

Never have I urged impeachment of Supreme Court justices. I do so now, for the sake of ending the Supreme Court's corporate-judicial dictatorship that is not accountable under our system of checks and balance in any other way.

top federal prosecutor in Oregon Vows to end medical Marijuana program.

2011-06-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

The top federal prosecutor in Oregon and 33 of the state's district attorneys announced last week that they are going to put an end to prescription pot sales. The authorities say that although Oregon currently has nearly 40,000 people enrolled in its voter-approved medical-marijuana program, law enforcement must take action because the system violates federal law and is "putting marijuana in the hands of more and more healthy kids." But is that really true?
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More About

Oregon Department of Public Health
Spokane
Portland (Oregon)
Medical Marijuana
Marijuana

The first part, of course, is accurate: Oregon's medical-marijuana system violates federal law. This is the same rationale used by eastern Washington prosecutors for raiding Spokane dispensaries in recent weeks. Pot is still a Schedule I controlled substance—along with heroin, cocaine, and LSD—and therefore has no legitimate medical use in the eyes of the federal government. There's no wiggle room here; a law is a law is a law, and it is a prosecutor's duty to uphold that law no matter how misguided or ineffective it may be.

And in Oregon, where voters approved medical marijuana in 1998, selling weed in any way, shape, or form is still technically forbidden by state law. Eligible patients must get their medical grass from "registered grow sites" regulated by the Department of Health. Dispensaries are not permitted, but disabled tokers are allowed to get their daily doses from "designated primary caregivers."

Nevertheless, dozens of cannabis clubs have sprouted across Oregon (mostly in Portland) over the past decade. These are places with couches, vaporizers, and snacks where card-holding pot smokers can use—and, in rare cases, replenish—their supply. These are the type of businesses that have the state's top lawmen in a tizzy.

U.S. Attorney Dwight C. Holton, 33 district attorneys, the state Sheriff's Association, and the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police declared last Friday, June 3, that "individuals and businesses that conduct sales of marijuana face the risk of prosecution, civil enforcement action, and seizure of assets."

Justifying the crackdown, the prosecutors have repeatedly stated that the state's medical-marijuana system is making it easier for kids to get high. In addition to Holton's claims about weed finding its way into "the hands of more and more healthy kids," Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau made this proclamation: "Drug traffickers are hiding behind the medical-marijuana law to protect their sham operations. We have to rein in this outlaw atmosphere before any kid can walk into a storefront on Main Street in any town in Oregon and buy marijuana illegally."

Holy crap, if kids are buying bags of reefer as if they were gummy bears, then statistics about teenage marijuana use must be off the charts! Yet when the Partnership for Drug-Free America surveyed 3,287 ninth through 12th graders in 2009, it found that pot use by high schoolers nationwide has actually decreased since 1998, the year Oregon adopted its medical-marijuana system.

According to the polling, in 2009 25 percent of teens reported smoking marijuana in the past month. The previous year it was 19 percent, and before that the figures had been steadily declining for the entire decade. In 1998, 27 percent of teens surveyed said they had smoked pot recently.

What's more, according to a 2008 study by the Marijuana Policy Project, the declines in teenage marijuana use are even more pronounced in states that allow medical pot. "No state with a medical-marijuana law has experienced an increase in youth marijuana use since their law's enactment," the research found. "In fact, all states have reported overall decreases—exceeding 50 percent in some age groups—strongly suggesting that enactment of state medical-marijuana laws does not increase teen marijuana use."

In Oregon specifically, the pot-smoking trends "are slightly less favorable than nationwide trends, although teen use is still down overall." The study, which relied on data provided by the Oregon Department of Health, found that among more than 20,000 eighth and 11th graders, pot use declined across the board—up to 33 percent in some demographics—from 1998 to 2007.

A spokeswoman for the Oregon U.S. Attorney's office did not immediately respond to a phone call and e-mail from Seattle Weekly asking about the discrepancy between the rhetoric in their press release and the actual statistics. Until they get back to us, it's probably safe to assume they've just been blowing smoke.

Psychedelic icon Owsley Stanley dies in Australia

2011-03-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

Owsley "Bear" Stanley, a 1960s counterculture figure who flooded the flower power scene with LSD and was an early benefactor of the Grateful Dead, died in a car crash in his adopted home country of Australia on Sunday, his family said. He was 76.

The renegade grandson of a former governor of Kentucky, Stanley helped lay the foundation for the psychedelic era by producing more than a million doses of LSD at his labs in San Francisco's Bay Area.

"He made acid so pure and wonderful that people like Jimi Hendrix wrote hit songs about it and others named their band in its honor," former rock 'n' roll tour manager Sam Cutler wrote in his 2008 memoirs "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

Hendrix's song "Purple Haze" was reputedly inspired by a batch of Stanley's product, though the guitarist denied any drug link. The ear-splitting psychedelic-blues combo Blue Cheer took its named from another batch.

Stanley briefly managed the Grateful Dead, and oversaw every aspect of their live sound at a time when little thought was given to amplification in public venues. His tape recordings of Dead concerts were turned into live albums, providing him with a healthy income in later life.

"When it came to technology, the Bear was one of the most far-out and interesting guys on the planet," Cutler wrote. "The first FM live simulcast could be, in part, attributed to his vision, as could the first quadraphonic simulcast on radio."

The Dead, a fabled rock band formed in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1965 known for its improvisational live concerts, wrote about him in their song "Alice D. Millionaire" after a 1967 arrest prompted a newspaper to describe Stanley as an "LSD millionaire."

Steely Dan's 1976 single "Kid Charlemagne" was loosely inspired by Stanley's exploits.

'COMMUNITY SERVICE'

According to a 2007 profile in the San Francisco Chronicle, Stanley started cooking LSD after discovering the recipe in a chemistry journal at the University of California, Berkeley.

The police raided his first lab in 1966, but Stanley successfully sued for the return of his equipment. After a marijuana bust in 1970, he went to prison for two years.

"I wound up doing time for something I should have been rewarded for," he told the Chronicle's Joel Selvin.

"What I did was a community service, the way I look at it. I was punished for political reasons. Absolutely meaningless. Was I a criminal? No. I was a good member of society. Only my society and the one making the laws are different."

He emigrated to the tropical Australian state of Queensland in the early 1980s, apparently fearful of a new ice age, and sold enamel sculptures on the Internet. He lost one of his vocal cords to cancer.

Stanley was born Augustus Owsley Stanley III in Kentucky, a state governed by his namesake grandfather from 1915 to 1919. He served in the U.S. Air Force for 18 months, studied ballet in Los Angeles and then enrolled at UC Berkeley. In addition to producing and advocating LSD, he adhered to an all-meat diet.

Cutler, speaking on behalf of the family, said in an interview that Stanley and his wife, Sheila, were driving to their home near the city of Cairns along a dangerous stretch of highway when he evidently lost control during a storm. He died instantly; his wife broke her collar bone.

Stanley is also survived by four children, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Which Dangerous Toxins Are in Your Pot?

2011-01-31T21:33:00.000-08:00

Your weed might be gnarlier than you think. So what's an eco-conscious stoner to do?

In 2004, California organic farm inspector Chris Van Hook submitted an unusual request to the US Department of Agriculture: He wanted permission to certify a medical marijuana farm as organic. He’d already inspected three pot farms, he says, before word came back that weed couldn't be organic because it wasn’t a federally recognized crop.

So Van Hook founded Clean Green, a certification program for medical marijuana farmers that's nearly identical to the USDA's organics program—except that it can't legally use the term "organic." Since launching in 2004, Clean Green has certified 80 medical marijuana growers who last year produced 8,000 pounds of cannabis valued at as much as $33 million. It's the only inspection service aimed at pot smokers who want their ganja to be farmed as safely and ethically as their organic salad greens.

In practice, medical marijuana is typically greener than pot from your curbside drug dealer, which is often sourced through Mexican cartels or illegal grows in national forests. But the distinction pretty much stops there. Grown under the radar of state and federal agricultural authorities, even "medical" cannabis can be covered in toxic mold, raised in rooms filled with shedding pit bulls, or coated in commercial-grade synthetic fertilizers and insecticides such as phosphate and Diazinon, which can be especially toxic if improperly applied. "Under our program a huge advantage is the patient can be assured that their cannabis is being grown in a legally compliant manner," says Van Hook. Well, at least "legally compliant" enough for any eco-conscious stoner.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, I accompanied Van Hook, a balding, soft-spoken, 54-year-old, on an inspection of an indoor cannabis growing operation in a house deep in a Northern California redwood forest. He'd asked that I not reveal the name and location of the grower, a fit, clean-cut young father whose day job involves corporate leadership training. It had been about a year since Van Hook had certified his grow-op; just as USDA organic standards require, it was now up for its annual re-inspection.

"I just want to do something I believe in," explained the grower, who I'll call Jack, as we stood outside his modest bungalow, "and do it as ethically and environmentally consciously as possible."

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Though medical marijuana is legal in 15 states, most of them don't inspect pot farms for compliance with agricultural laws. Which where Van Hook's status as an accredited "apples-to-zucchini" USDA-certified organic farm inspector comes in: He's denied some pot growers Clean Green certification for infractions such a using composted human feces to fertilize plants, growing plants near livestock pens that coat buds in manure dust, or setting off a bug bomb in a grow room shortly before harvesting.

In the front of a detached garage, Jack deactivated a security alarm system and welcomed us inside. Van Hook was already scribbling notes; he doesn't certify grow-ops in houses with children, who can ingest buds or be killed in electrical fires, unless the plants are in "detached, locked facilities." Jack unlocked another door leading to a sealed-off grow room that filled the garage nearly wall-to-wall. The pungent smell of 40 thriving marijuana plants (most of them a variety known as Sour Diesel) mixed with the earthy aroma of a bubbling brew of compost tea, a mix of nutrients and beneficial bacteria that is used as a fertilizer and disease suppressant.
Next Page: "Forget about the Buddhas and the space ships; I look at the ingredients."

Along a wall full of organic gardening products—a molasses-and-yucca-based soil supplement, an oil from Indian neem trees to control pests—Van Hook spotted an unfamiliar-looking bottle of "natural" fertilizer from a company called Humboldt Nutrients. Like many products marketed to pot growers, its psychedelic label looked like the cover of a Grateful Dead album. "Forget about the Buddhas and the spaceships; I look at the ingredients," Van Hook said as he picked up the bottle. A USDA-certified input reviewer on Van' Hook's seven-person staff would later vet its contents.

A lack of approved products isn't the only obstacle to growing organic ganja. Compost teas and guano-based fertilizers contain too much sediment to pass through the tubes used in soil-free hydroponics systems, so indoor growers like Jack rely instead on standard potting soil and watering by hand. Powerful grow lamps suck down large amounts of electricity—a criticism often raised by certified outdoor farmers, whose weed fetches about 50 percent less on the dispensary market because it isn't as powerful or visually striking as indoor buds. Though Van Hook doesn't penalize people who use lamps, he refuses to certify indoor grow-ops powered by dirty diesel generators, which are common in California's remote northern counties.

As Van Hook continued his inspection, Jack flipped a switch and triggered a white nova of grow lamps. Van Hook crouched beneath them with a microscope in search of signs of pesticide residue and spider mites on marijuana leaves; a few insects are actually desirable as signs of pesticide-free growing. He went on to check that Jack complied with local pot-cultivation laws, electrical codes, and agricultural sanitation standards. He's applied a similar checklist to the nine medical marijuana dispensaries that are certified as "processor/handlers," giving them the right to package Clean Green pot—just as the USDA authorizes Whole Foods to package organic granola.

According to Van Hook, Clean Green marijuana doesn't necessarily sell for more than uncertified medical pot; the trick is knowing where to find it. About 10 California dispensaries offer Clean Green-approved product, including Harborside Health Center in Oakland and Herbal Cure Collective in Los Angeles. Van Hook, who charges an average of $1,800 per certification, pitches his services to farmers and dispensary owners primarily as a tool for product differentiation and marketing.

Despite those benefits, many pot growers and sellers are nervous about letting a third-party inspector take notes that could be used against them by federal law enforcement. Which is why the inside of Van Hook's van displays a framed copy of his law degree from Concord Law Law School; being a lawyer enables him to keep his notes confidential under attorney-client privilege.

The final stop on Van Hook's inspection was in a shed where Jack unlocked a metal chest beneath a futon to reveal several plastic "turkey bags" brimming with buds. Some dispensaries commission independent testing on their purchases to check for harmful chemical residues. Van Hook's field tests are more basic. He pulled out a microscope and searched for signs of hair or mold. "They are beautiful buds; they are immaculate," he proclaimed, marveling at their gemlike THC crystals. Jack smiled. "You are a medical cannabis patient, aren't you, Chris? Why don't you try a little bit?"

Corporations Ain't People, So Why Do They Have the Power of Citizens?

2011-01-29T21:02:00.000-08:00

Two anti-corporate activists discuss the abuses of corporate personhood and how we can shake their grip of power off of our democratic process.
January 29, 2011 |

This conversation is a compilation of talks and emails between two writer-activists. We welcome other voices in the conversation - we decided to share this because we want answers and dialogue in our communities about this issue. There are more questions than answers here, but they feel like crucial questions.

Dani McClain: You've been thinking a lot about corporate personhood and your belief, as you put it, that "the threat is the control of the new world by corporations, who are 'people' and have rights." I want to understand the full implications of what happened a year ago (1/21/10) when the Supreme Court issued its Citizens United ruling -- a decision that unlimited corporate dollars are allowed to influence political campaigns and that money = speech and so is protected by the First Amendment.

Adrienne Marie Brown: Me too! Though I can’t shake the suspicion that the ruling was just formalizing the way things already are. Dick “Halliburton” Cheney is a great example of what a myth it is that corporations and our government are necessarily two separate bodies. Maybe it wouldn’t bother me so much if the language was more honest - “corporate democracy,” or “corporate governance.” But, corporate personhood seems incredibly dangerous and unjustifiable.

McClain: I also want to get better acquainted with the 14th amendment. I'm just learning that corporations have always turned to the 14th amendment (which I've always thought of broadly as the amendmentthat gave formerly enslaved people rights as citizens) to make claims that they have rights on which the government can't trample.

Brown (jaw drops): See, this is why I avoid the news. I adamantly feel like it’s useless to engage in the news cycle unless there’s something I can do. I don’t want to live a reactionary life - our movements spend so much time trying to become overnight experts on the latest scandal or tension, whatever corporate media has decided to focus our attention on. But this is the kind of news that makes me feel like things are happening that deeply impact my future, and even though I am a informed, political person, I am out the loop.

In terms of the ruling, when it happened it wasn’t a surprise. Capitalism is all about individuals competing to amass more than they need (profit) at the expense of humankind and the earth, and corporations are the institutions for that shady behavior*. This feels like a major advance on our rights, one of those foundational rulings that will ultimately reframe politics, from food justice to environmental struggles to joblessness. But how can I approach it in a creative, impactful way?

McClain:I’m glad you bring up your desire to be on the offense rather than reactive. You and I have talked a lot about the importance of giving people a vision that ultimately moves them beyond whatever paradigm the status quo (e.g., the greedy, the exclusionary) set up. Do you think the answer to fighting corporate personhood is passing aconstitutional amendmentto reverse Citizens United? Or is it some psychospiritual or human development response that's outside the realm of policy, legal battles and lobbying in a traditional sense? Instead of looking at the Supreme Court ruling as some "evil" thing that we should mobilize against, do you see it as just another challenge pushing us to evolve and see the issues through a new lens?

Brown: I absolutely see this as a place to practice both/and strategies, with more energy in the realm of developing viable alternatives. Actions speak louder than words, no matter how constitutional the words are, so the majority of our actions should be visionary - building the world we want to see. But there are a lot of people who feel it is irresponsible to not hold the line against the advances of corporate power, and I hear that. I just don't think a constitutional amendment matters that much if most of the people in the country don't understand what's going on. There's such an imbalance of corporate vs. community influence in our government at this point, so it feels like we need a cultural campaign that really highlights for people the potential benefits of elevating human/earth rights in their own lives, and ways to challenge this corporatization of government, of society. People forget that they matter, that their voices should be what’s represented in decisions around their lives.

McClain: But is it possible that democracy has run its course? Between this ruling, the influence corporations have long had on our news media, and the fairly recent practice of threatening filibuster in the Senate to force legislation into a dead end, I'm starting to wonder. What next steps do we need to take to make people feel like they have a role in governance?

Brown:Provocative…I believe that corporate democracy is going to destroy the human race and planet, and if it won't die through global financial crisis then we have to evolve past it. But this is the crux of the issue - democracy is supposed to be government by the people. There's a reasonable argument to be made that we have never actually practiced democracy in the US - we've always had a representative version here, where the decisions are truly made by

an “informed”/elite body, not by the people. Grace Boggs always talks about how this is a society where the masses have primarily been seen as a labor force for the elite bodies of this nation, through both agricultural and industrial eras. The people have not been engaged and educated to truly be interested, active participants in the governance of the nation. Now corporations are a new electoral college - they have unlimited capacity to influence elections. "The people" have every reason to feel less and less engaged.

McClain:I wonder whether that’s the case. It’s easy to think that one reason more people aren’t up in arms over the growing influence of corporate power is that they don’t yet see it as a problem. They’re not educated to be engaged, as you suggest. But a few weeks after the Supreme Court issued its ruling, an ABC-Washington Post poll showed that 80% of those surveyed opposed (and 65% strongly opposed) the Citizens United decision. So people are aware and concerned. What can we do with that awareness? How can we harness and direct it?

Brown: Something I learned at Ruckus is that awareness isn't enough. We have to connect people's awareness to their behaviors, to their own lives and choices and the struggles they experience. We have to move people past the inertia of their fear or sense of powerlessness by uplifting the viable alternative. There are so many people who are interested in the process of actual government by the people, but their relationship to it is that of a consumer, watching and reading about what is happening without feeling empowered to engage. The root of that potential power is education. Democracy relies upon education appropriate to the cultural make-up of the country, education that yields a population who can participate in governance, education that grows the capacity of people to thrive.

McClain: I know you find a lot of inspiration in science fiction and that you look to that genre to help generate new thinking around solutions. What would Octavia Butler say about the way corporate power is growing? What solutions would she write into a novel in which people who had for generations gained citizenship by virtue of their humanity and place of birth are slowly edged out of citizenship because they lack access to money?

Brown:Oh, she foresaw this. In the Parables she knew this was coming and warned us, in her way. Her solution was to rethink our purpose as human beings, and change how we live - even if that means leaving what we perceive as safety. Part of why we held the Octavia Butler Symposium at the Allied Media Conference** last year was to explore how we connect ideas like hers to how we are living and organizing in the world. I feel like she did a powerful job, for instance, of challenging the idea that our future lies in the struggle to act as a nation, when our destiny might actually be something much more global, or universal. In her stories, our way to evolve is to leave behind the right-wing politics and struggles of earth and go to space. And that truly makes me pause - is corporate personhood even something to address through national organizing? Are we thinking too small? Look at how much energy we spend now demanding humane policies and programs in a country that still defaults towards borders, prisons, segregation and poverty.

McClain: It’s interesting that a year after the Supreme Court confirmed an interpretation of citizenship that’s broad enough to include corporations, right-wing forces are attempting to narrow its interpretation to exclude natural born citizens who are the children of undocumented immigrants. This is a real fight that’s heating up now, with the new Republican chair of the judiciary committee launching hearings to figure out how Congress can strip the children of some immigrants of their citizenship. So in that context, you raise a really provocative question: Does fighting to retain certain rights as US citizens open us up to the same criticisms that segments of the LGBT movement have faced because of their focus on gaining access to institutions like the military and marriage? Are we fighting our way into retrograde, static spaces? Are there more meaningful battles we should be waging? Or are these questions naive and offensive in the face of people’s immediate needs?

Brown:I tend to believe that struggles for human rights - or living rights which would include people, animals and the planet - are more important and foundational than struggles for national rights, aka citizen privileges. To me there is behavior that we need to root more deeply than national pride, more than something that can be given to you (or taken from you) based on where you are born. Human is what we ARE, our rights are what we grant to each other on the basis of being born, anywhere, period. These national struggles to have equal access to the institutions of the ruling class don't seem to demand that we evolve our own behavior and beliefs.

But I am also aware that I’m always resistant to getting deeply involved in nearly impossible struggles. Corporations can never truly experience the violations of human rights that they inflict on the world…there’s very little accountability. When shamed, they just rebrand. How do we fight that?

McClain: The widespread public concern regarding the Citizens United ruling -- like the groundswell of opposition to the bank bailout -- seems like a clear opportunity to join forces with members of the Tea Party and stand against corporate interests. Should that be a priority? And why are the Republicans so good at convincing (mostly white) people without wealth that their interests are aligned with the wealthiest Americans?

Brown:Ah the Tea Party…these questions posed together are great, getting to the root flaw in us/them thinking. The Tea Party does seem to consist mostly of folks not so different from those on our side - poor to lower middle class, community oriented, even interested in decentralized organizing models (I heard they call The Starfish and the Spider their bible). This is why we must battle ideas and not people. If we start our organizing from the mindset that irresponsible corporations claiming the rights of individuals is bad for all people, we are allowed to see that those are our people - all people are our people. What separates us is ideas, not race, not class (which both grew from ideas into a tangible experience we must call reality), but ideas. Finding the ideas we can align around opens up the space to really evolve beyond a partisan population, only half of whom are voting anyway, where we’re all getting taken advantage of by the same people.

McClain: You’ve mentioned the connection between the corporate personhood debate and the fight for net neutrality. Could you say more about that?

Brown: Yeah that connection occurred to me as I’m learning about the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition. They believe “communication is a fundamental human right”, which got me thinking about where that right is being challenged. The internet is what the town hall or town square used to be - a place to discuss policy and politics and to develop and shape a shared governance and a common culture. It’s multidirectional and open, unlike previous forms of news. The net neutrality debate is ultimately about whether individuals have the right to communicate with each other or not, and whether we have equal access to practice that right. It’s appalling that our government would allow corporations - as corporate persons - to control (or have majority influence over) not only our policies through their unchecked lobbying and political contributions, but also control over who has access to communicate. These plans of fees to access certain sites, monopolies between the largest of those sites/businesses, and profit driving the development of the internet, its just the new colonization.

Fortunately there are warriors in that battle - folks building open source tools, meshed wireless networks that liberate internet access - folks showing us that the internet is another ground of the commons, an unlimited space we can approach with an outlook of abundance that actually isn’t possible when we look at land and the earth’s resources. If we can maintain access long enough, it’s possible that we can carve out a space beyond the reach of corporations. And there are folks fighting corporate personhood, I support their work even as I dig in deeper here in Detroit trying to see what I can build.

McClain:Our conversations remind me to imagine what I’d like our world to look like, rather than focusing solely on which established victories we can’t afford to see chipped away. That’s where my day-to-day focus is -- not losing ground. So thanks for drawing me back to the big picture. It helps give meaning and context to the small steps.

I’ve been reading a book called "The Warmth of Other Suns," a narrative history of the Great Migration, and in some ways it’s reinforcing this idea that you promote: That people’s experiences are much bigger than what policy dictates, and that true self-determination lies in this awareness.

I’ve often thought of the Civil Rights Act (CRA) and the Voting Rights Act (VRA) as mid-20th century legislation that confirmed and gave teeth to the 14th and 15th amendments. And I’ve thought of the CRA and VRA as providing the necessary path for black Americans to live with dignity and full citizenship. But reading the book has made me realize that even before that landmark legislation passed, black people were determined to find a way to live safely and with as much freedom as possible in their country of origin. And if that meant they needed to leave places where Jim Crow was the law of the land and brave some unknown frontier, they often did so. As early as the period following WWI, they did it. They didn’t wait on civil rights legislation or the movement organizers who made the CRA and VRA possible, they voted with their feet and went north or west.

The connection, for me, is the importance of a do-it-yourself, or DIY, culture. The thread through so much of what I hear you say is that a focus on policy and lobbying -- convincing people who control the levers of power to do the right thing -- is not enough. And that even when those tactics achieve a desired goal, they don’t fundamentally change people’s sense of what’s possible or their ability to think beyond the established terms of debate.

Brown:I feel like this exchange is helping me understand why the work I am doing with food justice, digital justice and birth justice needs to be as creative and communal as possible, strengthening non-corporate networks to be resilient in any possible future. We who don't have resources or run institutions are continuously pit against each other, played against each other, Cains and Ables forgetting we are brothers and equals and our very existence is divine. This circles me back around to the power of relationship. We have to build relationships to build communities strong enough to evolve past these omnipotent institutions.

Remembering Ronald Reagan

2010-12-07T20:56:00.001-08:00

How Many vigilante victums??

2010-12-04T09:35:00.000-08:00

From one part of the country to another it seems that these cases are not limited to one area. In the cities and in rural areas victims are beaten and a good number are murdered. This is occurring and law enforcement, legislators and the public are turning a blind eye.

Can we define the causes of these crimes? If we simply look at newspaper reports we can clearly see the cause; the cause is none other than the public sex offender registry.

The latest vigilante action to come across the internet is a case from Florida. A register Offender was walking his dog in his own front yard when he was attacked, beaten and his dog was killed. Those responsible had found his name and picture on the public hit list known as the Sex Offender Registry.

Was this an isolated case? Hardly. Here are a few interesting cases.

Michael Dodele had been free just 35 days when sheriff's deputies found him dead from stab wounds last month in his mobile home. A neighbor was arrested for the murder. The neighbor had "told every house" that he had found Dodele's name listed on the Sex Offender Registry. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/12/10/the_skinny/main3597422.shtml

Two released sex offenders who were on the Sex Offender Registry were murdered. A man is believed to have posed as an FBI officer, went to their apartment and shot them. Police said that the man spoke with three roommates and said he was as a member of the FBI and said he wanted to talk to them about their Level III sex offender status. http://www.talkleft.com/story/2005/08/29/340/52675

Dennis McCarthy was stabbed to death at his Holly Township home Sunday morning, just one week after release from prison. Police said, "We have strong suspicions that he was targeted" http://www.mlive.com/news/detroit/index.ssf/2009/08/murdered_sex_offender_released.html

Stephen A. Marshall shot and killed Joseph Gray. The victim had been dozing on a couch at his home in Milo, Maine. Five hours later, Marshall knocked on the door of William Elliot's vinyl-sided mobile home in Corinth, 24 miles away. When Elliot appeared, the 20-year-old assassin fired at point-blank range. The murders were vigilante strikes against registered sex offenders who were strangers to Marshall and to each other. http://archive.guidemag.com/magcontent/invokemagcontent.cfm?ID=BF0FA813-7607-4666-B1F081D6A6C701CC

Registered Sex Offender Targeted - Investigators say two Scott County men took the law into their own hands. They admitted to setting a fire that killed an innocent woman. "It was vigilante justice," said Scott County Sheriff Anthony Lay. "This is a prime example of how an innocent person has been fatally injured," added Sheriff Lay. http://deaths-of-others.blogspot.com/2009/02/tn-reaction-to-vigilante-justice.html

These are but a minute sample of the vigilantly murders that are being carried out with the full knowledge of police departments across the country. I say full knowledge because any time you make it easy for vigilantes to target a group that they hate, the outcome is obvious. In this case murder. However beyond the murders of RFSO's, there have been other vigilantly attacks such as these:

Vigilantes Use Online Sex Offender Map to Burn Down Wrong House. Critics of these tools often say that they can make those sex offenders targets of retribution crimes by would-be vigilantes, and that seems to be just what was attempted in a case of arson in Evansville, Indiana. There, a trailer full of equipment sitting in the driveway of a house was ignited by arsonists who also scribbled "GET OUT PERV" on the garage door. The vigilantes, however, seemed to have the wrong address. http://www.switched.com/2008/02/05/vigilantes-attempt-to-burn-sex-offenders-house-and-miss/

Vigilantes: Coming soon to a community near you "in a scene reminiscent of the Salem witch trial days, a crowd of angry neighbors descended on a New Hampshire home, taunting the woman resident as a "molester" and "skinner" (prison lingo for a child molester) before tossing a burning scarecrow on her front porch."

"A drunken father and son broke into the house of a paroled sex offender in New Jersey and began beating another man whom they mistakenly took as the sex offender. Yet again, the vigilantes had found their victim through a "Megan's Law" community notification law."

"In Bakersfield, California, a knife-wielding vigilante tried to break down the door of a sex offender whose name, photograph and address had been distributed in the neighborhood by police. Police shot the vigilante dead." http://forensicpsychologist.blogspot.com/2007/10/vigilanteism-coming-soon-to-community.html

Vigilantism against a wrongfully convicted sex offender "In June 1995 the state of California opened up a 900-number hotline in which callers can get information about registered sex offenders. Someone in the neighborhood found out that Ted was on the list. He and Jean have since been hounded and harassed. The neighbors have placed posters all over the neighborhood containing information about Ted. They have received three death threats." http://www.privacyrights.org/node/2878

Once again these are but a few of the enormous number of vigilantly attacks that are taking place here in the land of the free. One would expect this in some place like Siberia, but here?

So why are the police and legislators still backing the registry? Well maybe it is working to protect children, that would explain it right?

Report finds Megan's Law fails to reduce sex crimes, deter repeat offenders in N.J. "Despite wide community support for these laws, there is little evidence to date, including this study, to support a claim that Megan's Law is effective in reducing either new first-time sex offenses or sexual re-offenses," [ihttp://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/study_finds_megans_law_fails_t_1.html

Megan's Law: does it protect children? "Most states have very little evidence on the actual impact of community notification on their jurisdiction. Most of the understood benefits of the laws are based on assumptions about the nature of sexual offending and the behavior of parents and community members. Such assumptions are rarely supported through research, but continue to legitimize the law for law enforcement workers and members of the public" http://www.nspcc.org.uk/Inform/research/Findings/meganslaw_wda48233.html

Seems that the registry is not protecting children and the government knows it.

Considering the real danger to life and limb that the public registry poses, it is time for humane people to stand up and call for an end to the violence, murders and vigilantism. It is time to take the registry out of the public view and place it back in the hands of law enforcement. It is time to make America safe for ALL of its citizens.

Bend Gets First Medical Cannabis Club

2010-12-02T18:10:00.000-08:00

BEND, Ore. -- A new club opening in northeast Bend on Wednesday, Dec. 8 aims to provide a secure location and safe access to medical cannabis for Oregon Medical Marijuana Program cardholders in Central Oregon.

There are six other similar clubs in Oregon.

“The Central Oregon Alternative Therapy Club, LLC (COAT) is a collective of patients and their primary caregivers who cultivate, exchange and use marijuana as medicine,” says Christopher Smith, manager of the club.

Smith said he has been a successful entrepreneur for more than 10 years and served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps.

Registered cardholders simply follow Oregon State Law, which allows for the transfer of medical cannabis from cardholder to cardholder.

“Budtenders” are registered cardholders who transfer the medicine in exchange for a donation. There is also a monthly membership fee.

Delivery service in Bend, and to La Pine and Redmond, will also be available to pre-qualified members.

COAT is a smoke-free environment and club members will abide by a strict set of rules.

Some of the regulations include: no entry without a valid OMMP card; no loitering; no persons under the age of 18; members agree not to sell or attempt to sell any medical cannabis acquired by donation from COAT and they must agree to uphold the restrictions on amounts of medical cannabis in their possession according to Oregon medical marijuana laws.

Medical marijuana was legalized in Oregon in 1998. Medical marijuana is legal in fourteen other states and the District of Columbia. Arizona legalized medical marijuana in November this year.

COAT is located at 2600 NE Division Street, Suite, 101 at Cottage Square in Bend.

For more information, visit the Website at: http://www.centraloregonalternativetherapy.com. or call 541-647-2308. Hours are Monday – Saturday noon to 6 pm and Sundays noon to 4 pm.

Sentencing in E. Oregon pot plantation case

2010-11-29T09:44:00.000-08:00

PORTLAND— A Roosevelt, Wash., man who was charged with helping operate a marijuana plantation in Oregon’s Grant County is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday in federal court in Portland.

The Oregonian reports Sergio Hernandez-Escalera will probably be deported to Mexico after his prison term.
He pleaded guilty to manufacturing more than 1,000 marijuana plants.
Two other men pleaded guilty in June and are awaiting sentencing.
A drug team raided the plantation in northeast Oregon in August 2009 and seized about 23,000 plants.

Read more: http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20101129/UPDATE/101129015/Sentencing-in-E-Oregon-pot-plantation-case#ixzz16h7uoVDO

How far will the T.S.A. go in violating our freedoms.

2010-11-29T04:07:00.000-08:00

Science V. Religon

2010-11-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

Science is not based on faith,like religion is.It is based on the FACTS at hand.No science isn’t always correct. Many times theories have to be changed because of new evidence.No science is not based on faith. It is built on knowledge.It is based on what is real. Not the primitive mythologies and superstitions of religion. Ya I believe in freedom of religion. If people want to remain ignorant of reality that’s their right.

The skinny on the Fatty.

2010-11-08T02:58:00.000-08:00

The
govt says that marijuana (cannabis) has no medicinal value yet they
hold a patent! US Patent 6630507 titled "Cannabinoids as antioxidants
and neuroprotectants" which is assigned to The United States of
America, as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services.

WHY DOES THE MEDIA IGNORE THIS?

BECAUSE THEY ARE TOLD TO.

REMEMBER THIS THE NEXT TIME AN OFFICIAL TELLS YOU THAT WEED HASN'T BEEN STUDIED ENOUGH!

The
patent claims that "Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant
properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found
property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of
wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic,
age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are
found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example
in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as
stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases,
such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia."
The patent was obtained in October of 2003.

Cannabinoids,
for those who were wondering, are a group of chemical compounds found
in marijuana that are also referred to as terpenophenolic compounds.
One specific cannabinoid compound found in cannabis is
tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly known as THC. This substance gives
marijuana its psychoactive effects.

Cannabis stops cancer - Harvard
Cannabis stops breast cancer - UCSF
Cannabis grows brain cells - Princeton
US Govt Patented Medicinal Marijuana, US patent #6630507

Are we together on legalizing pot ,or what?

2010-11-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

Cant we get along together enough to get the law passed?
What is this stuff about "stoners against prop 19 ?
What stoners are listening to the wrong side? Get your head out of your ass and vote right.

Supreme Court Ruling: Indefinite Detention For Sex Offenders

2010-10-29T21:28:00.000-07:00

In a 7-2 decision, the justices declared that a federal law allowing federal prisoners deemed "sexually dangerous" to be held even after they have served out their original sentences is constitutional.

The Court said Congress does have the power to keep such dangerous offenders out of society indefinitely.

Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, arguing that Congress went too far, and nothing in the Constitution permits this kind of extended confinement.

Did the Supreme Court get it right? Or is this just another expansion of federal power?

Since September 2001, I can't believe the actions of our government. This is not the land of the FREE anymore, it's the land of the locked up. What are we doing people? Look who we are becoming! If we allow the government to lock up American Citizens and throw away the key even after they have completed their sentence we are in trouble. More and more laws on written every day. Not affected yet? You will be. Big Brother is growing stronger. Before 1980, the prison population in the United States basically stayed at around only 250,000 people a year. Since that time, the number of incarcerated Americans has risen to over 2.5 MILLION people. That is 1 out of every 33 Citizens!! Revolution is coming. I hear Paul Revere!!

I know Ill get a lot of flack for this post,but this is a civil rights issue.
Im not saying that sex offenders shouldn't have to pay for crimes committed.Im saying that sex offenders should have the right not to be mistreated and abused
at the hands of the state.
--=====--
They start with the Sex offenders and soon were all on a list..That how the holocaust started. With the List.

Pot Could Tilt Races In Oregon

2010-10-26T15:14:00.000-07:00

While Democrats are watching turnout levels in California to gauge the ability of marijuana ballot initiatives to turn out young voters, organizers to the north point to a second case study, which concludes that such a referendum would dramatically bolster interest in voting.

Backers of an Oregon measure to regulate the buying and selling of medical marijuana commissioned a poll to determine the effect of the question on young, progressive voters inclined to sit out the election. Pollsters quizzed 400 Oregonians who described themselves as Democrats or independents and rated their interest in the midterm election between one and five on a scale to ten. Half of the voters were given information about Measure 74 and the other half were told about the race for governor, currently a dead heat between Democrat John Kitzhaber and Republican Chris Dudley.

Voters told about the pot initiative were more than twice as likely to increase their interest voting -- which, in Oregon, is done by mail.

President Obama will visit Oregon on Wednesday to try to rally young voters. At least two Oregon House races remain competitive, with freshman Democrat Kurt Schrader and long-serving progressive Peter DeFazio fending off challengers.

Unlikely voters who were told about the pot initiative increased their interest in vote by an average of 3.5 points on the ten-point scale. By a margin of 62 to 21, they overwhelmingly support the measure and at a rate of 50 to 23, they prefer the Democratic candidate for governor. Both candidates, however, have spoken against the pot measure.

Medical marijuana is currently legal in Oregon, but voters rejected a 2004 measure that would have expanded the program to legalize dispensaries. The Yes on 74 campaign's war chest is filled with little more than seeds and stems, but the organization hopes that Democrats and organized labor will recognize the political wisdom of touting Measure 74 and offer the campaign some in-kind assistance.

Motivating young people to engage in politics, especially in an off-year, midterm election, is no simple matter. But the Oregon survey reflects what political operatives have found in California, Colorado and Washington state.

While Democrats are watching turnout levels in California to gauge the ability of marijuana ballot initiatives to turn out young voters, organizers to the north point to a second case study, which concludes that such a referendum would dramatically bolster interest in voting.

Backers of an Oregon measure to regulate the buying and selling of medical marijuana commissioned a poll to determine the effect of the question on young, progressive voters inclined to sit out the election. Pollsters quizzed 400 Oregonians who described themselves as Democrats or independents and rated their interest in the midterm election between one and five on a scale to ten. Half of the voters were given information about Measure 74 and the other half were told about the race for governor, currently a dead heat between Democrat John Kitzhaber and Republican Chris Dudley.

Voters told about the pot initiative were more than twice as likely to increase their interest voting -- which, in Oregon, is done by mail.

President Obama will visit Oregon on Wednesday to try to rally young voters. At least two Oregon House races remain competitive, with freshman Democrat Kurt Schrader and long-serving progressive Peter DeFazio fending off challengers.

Unlikely voters who were told about the pot initiative increased their interest in vote by an average of 3.5 points on the ten-point scale. By a margin of 62 to 21, they overwhelmingly support the measure and at a rate of 50 to 23, they prefer the Democratic candidate for governor. Both candidates, however, have spoken against the pot measure.

Medical marijuana is currently legal in Oregon, but voters rejected a 2004 measure that would have expanded the program to legalize dispensaries. The Yes on 74 campaign's war chest is filled with little more than seeds and stems, but the organization hopes that Democrats and organized labor will recognize the political wisdom of touting Measure 74 and offer the campaign some in-kind assistance.

Motivating young people to engage in politics, especially in an off-year, midterm election, is no simple matter. But the Oregon survey reflects what political operatives have found in California, Colorado and Washington state.
Story continues below
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Young, inspired voters were a key constituency that elected Obama in 2008, and their turnout in 2012 -- when a number of swing states are considering marijuana initiatives -- could determine control of the White House and Congress.

Voters fired up by pot are already working to drive California turnout for November.

Activists from Just Say Now have made nearly 6,000 calls in the last week, organizers say, using an online tool to turn out voters supportive of Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana. Just Say Now is coordinating with the Women's Marijuana Movement, which is also phone-banking on behalf of Prop 19, targeting women, who tend to vote Democratic.

Hundreds of mothers have signed a letter endorsing Prop 19, arguing controlling and taxing marijuana usage will make their communities safer for children. A small group of moms released the letter Tuesday and discussed their support for the measure.

"What we're doing with the policies that are in place now is hampering the kind of conversations we need to be able to have with our children," said Hanna Dershowitz, a lawyer and mother of two. "A reasonable conversation," she said, can only take place "in the context of controlled regulated marijuana."

Gretchen Burns-Bergman, a mother of two and Executive Director of Parents for Addiction Treatment and Healing, said she's all too familiar with the problems of pot prohibition and wonders how many other lives have been devastated by the policy.

"I know the damage of marijuana prohibition firsthand," Burns-Bergman said in a conference call with reporters Tuesday. "My son was arrested in 1990 for marijuana possession, which began a decade-long saga, a tremendous emotional saga for our family, a wasting of potential, and a tremendous tax burden to the state to incarcerate him."

Burns-Bergman said after his first arrest at age 20, her son was in an out of prison for 11 years, learning to inject heroin while behind bars. "Taking somebody who is a nonviolent pot smoker and introducing him to this kind of a system is terribly damaging," she said.

2010-10-25T17:59:00.000-07:00

Buffalo Springfield Reunite At Bridge School Benefit

Buffalo Springfield reunited at Young’s annual Bridge School Benefit this weekend. The weekend featured a lot of big names, including Elvis Costello, Elton John, Jackson Brown, Pearl Jam and Billy Idol (along with Grizzly Bear, Modest Mouse, Leon Russell, Neko Case, Emmylou Harris, etc.), but the Buffalo Springfield reunion was the first time the band were back together (or, as back together as they could be) since their 1968 breakup. Neil Young, Stephen Stills, and Richie Furay played with Young’s bassist, Rick Rosas (subbing for the late Bruce Palmer) and drummer Joe Vitale (in for Dewey Martin, who passed away last year). Watch them do “Mr. Soul,” “Rock & Roll Woman,” and other below:

2010-10-24T21:43:00.000-07:00

Big names line up in support and against pot dispensaries.

Troy Torgerson says medical marijuana helps him manage his pain.

PORTLAND, Ore. – One thing voters may notice in Oregon’s Voters’ Guide this election is that some big names are supporting Measure 74, a measure that would green-light state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries.

Turn on your radio Monday and you might hear a new ad with the voice of former Portland mayor and police chief, Tom Potter, supporting the measure.

“But I do support Measure 74,” he says in the ad. “It regulates medical marijuana. That change is overdue. Since medical marijuana is legal, we need to regulate it.”

The measure would allow patients like Troy Torgerson to buy pot and no longer depend on a personal grower or other patients with extra medical marijuana.

“I’m in a lot of pain, so the medicine does help a lot,” he says.

“Too many patients do not have access to medical cannabis,” says Anthony Johnson, co-author of Measure 74. “Patients that are homebound, seriously ill - a patient who gets diagnosed with cancer and must undergo chemotherapy shouldn’t have to wait three months for harvest or have to turn to the black market.”

Opponents to the measure say the measure is an attempt to legalize pot and will open more people up to drug addiction.

The Oregon Medical Association, which represents doctors, urges people to vote no, writing, it “exceeds the needs of unhealthy Oregonians and is beyond the practice of good medicine.” It will “result in the legalization of marijuana beyond any possible medical market under the medically unsubstantiated guise of medical need.”

The three major law enforcement associations - the Oregon District Attorneys Association, the Oregon Sheriff’s Association and the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police – all oppose Measure 74.

“We’re at a crossroads of taking this drug to basically legality,” says the sheriff of Clatsop County, Tom Bergin, who’s one of the most outspoken opponents of Measure 74.

“And when you legalize something like this (availability) it means more abuse,” he says.

“If Measure 74 works effectively like we believe it does, it may very well help lead to legalization in the future,” says Johnson, “but that’s a debate for another time and Measure 74 should be debated on its own merits.”

There are more than 36,000 people enrolled in Oregon’s medical marijuana program which is about one percent of all Oregonians. California, New Mexico and Maine already have dispensaries.

2010-10-19T00:19:00.000-07:00

Vote Yes for Measure 74

In DC, No Such Thing as Too Poor For Medical Pot

2010-10-12T01:55:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - There should be no such thing as too poor to buy pot if you live in D.C., at least if the marijuana is for a medical condition.

That's part of the conclusion of a new law enacted in the nation's capital earlier this year. The medical marijuana law allows people to legally obtain the drug for medical reasons. But the law also includes a provision different from the 14 other states with medical marijuana laws, requiring the drug to be provided at a discount to poor residents. Who will get the reduced-price marijuana and how much it will cost, however, is still being worked out.

City officials say they plan to publish their first draft of regulations implementing the law on Friday. Patients aren't expected to be able to purchase medical marijuana in the city until 2011.

2010-10-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

How Did an Entire Political Party Decide to Reject Climate Change Science?

Ron Brownstein notes in a terrific new National Journal column just how striking it is to see a major American political party decide, all at once, to reject climate science in its entirety. (via Jay Rosen)

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, a prominent conservative leader in the U.K., was in the U.S. last week, and described climate change as perhaps the 21st century’s biggest foreign-policy challenge,” He added, “An effective response to climate change underpins our security and prosperity.”

His strong words make it easier to recognize that Republicans in this country are coalescing around a uniquely dismissive position on climate change. The GOP is stampeding toward an absolutist rejection of climate science that appears unmatched among major political parties around the globe, even conservative ones. [...]

Just for the record, when the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences last reviewed the data this spring, it concluded: “A strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems.” Not only William Hague but such other prominent European conservatives as French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have embraced that widespread scientific conviction and supported vigorous action.

Indeed, it is difficult to identify another major political party in any democracy as thoroughly dismissive of climate science as is the GOP here. Eileen Claussen, president of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, says that although other parties may contain pockets of climate skepticism, there is “no party-wide view like this anywhere in the world that I am aware of.”

And in case this isn’t clear, unanimous Republican opposition to any meaningful efforts to combat global warming makes any kind of coordinated international effort impossible.

What’s more, as the climate crisis intensifies, and the need for swift action becomes even more painfully obvious, the GOP line is getting worse, not better. How many Republican U.S. Senate candidates on the ballot this year support efforts to address global warming? None.

I realize that part of the problem here is that Republicans reject the science because they oppose the solutions. If they acknowledged reality, GOP officials would no doubt have a harder time explaining why they don’t want to deal with a climate crisis that has the potential to wreak havoc on the planet in dramatically dangerous ways.

But the result is the same. The combination of deliberate Republican ignorance and the Republican scheme to break the United States Senate makes the crisis even more serious, with little hope on the horizon. It also speaks to a larger truth — because there’s no commonly shared reality among Democratic and Republican policymakers, the prospects for compromise are effectively non-existent.

Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine this morning noted, “I don’t know who first described politics as the ‘art of compromise,’ but that maxim, to which I have always subscribed, seems woefully unfashionable today.”

Yeah, I wonder why that is.

2010-10-10T01:54:00.000-07:00

Health care should be a civil right.

With a nation as rich as the United States hell ya! health care should be a civil right.The U.S. is the only one of all democratic countries not to have health care for everyone.Its time that this be recognized in the U.S. to.

2010-10-09T01:09:00.000-07:00

John Lennon's 70th birthday celebrated in Central Park

NEW YORK — It's hard to imagine which event sounds more implausible: John Lennon's 70th birthday, or the 30th anniversary of his murder.

On the day when the Liverpool Lad would have become a septuagenarian, fans will visit Central Park's tranquil Strawberry Fields and attend a nearby benefit concert in Manhattan.

The memorial to the slain ex-Beatle and peace activist includes a mosaic donated by the city of Naples, Italy. A plaque lists 121 countries that endorse Strawberry Fields as a Garden of Peace.

The song observes that "living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see."

The birthday celebration got started on Friday in England, where Google UK released a video "doodle" to a Lennon soundtrack.

2010-07-07T18:06:00.000-07:00

Happy 70th birthday Ringo Star

Thank you for all the great music.

2010-05-30T13:25:00.000-07:00

Dennis Hopper dies; actor, director's 'Easy Rider' became a generational marker

Dennis Hopper, 74, an actor and director whose low-budget biker movie "Easy Rider" made an unexpected fortune by exploring the late 1960s counterculture and who changed Hollywood by helping open doors to younger directors including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, died May 29 at his home in Venice, Calif.

2010-05-04T02:57:00.000-07:00

1970 Kent State Shootings Recalled 40 Years Later

KENT, Ohio -- The words Kent State helped define a generation.

The date May 4, 1970, is forever etched in the minds of 50 and 60 somethings who were college students at the time.

That was when Ohio National Guardsmen fired into a crowd of students demonstrating against the escalation of the Vietnam War with the April 30 invasion of Cambodia.

Four students were killed. Many others were injured.

"May 4 is one of those days like Nov. 22 and Sept. 11," said Cincinnati attorney Tim Burke, who was Xavier University's Student Body President in 1970.

Though the gunfire occurred in Northeastern Ohio, the shock waves quickly reached the Queen City.

"It was just unimaginable that these students would be gunned down that way," recalled Gus Perdikakis, a University of Cincinnati senior at the time. He's now President of Gus Perdikakis Associates in Symmes Township. "It was a very tense time -- a lot of concern among the students."

That led to an escalation of anti-war activities on both the UC and Xavier campuses.

At Xavier, Burke recalled a Midnight Mass being held in the middle of the Evanston campus.

"A number of the Jesuit faculty members came down and concelebrated that Mass," Burke said.

Xavier students also participated in a march from their campus to Clifton, where they joined UC students and the women of Edgecliff College for a silent walk Downtown and back Uptown.

"I recall the crowd being estimated at 10,000 people," Burke added.

Retired UC history professor Herb Shapiro said opposition to the Vietnam War grew geometrically.

"It was really a decisive turn in the road as far as the war was concerned and also, I think, in the seriousness of students," said Shapiro.

Within days the UC Administration Building was occupied by protesters. Many carried signs indicating they were part of the SDS -- Students for a Democratic Society.

Throngs gathered on "The Bridge" outside Tangeman University Center to listen to speakers.

Several hundred people ventured Downtown and gathered in the intersection of 5th Street and Walnut Street.

Shapiro, who had just gotten back into town, joined them and was arrested.

"We went down to the holding pen, which was in City Hall at the time," he recalled. "Then, all of those students and two faculty members, we went through the city court. It was all rather short."

Members of UC's Student Senate held lengthy open meetings about whether to continue to hold classes or cancel the remainder of the Spring term.

Student Senator John Schneider recalled very large crowds and a very tense atmosphere.

"You could cut the tension with a knife," said Schneider, now President of First Valley Corporation.

UC's Board of Trustees eventually decided to shut down the school.

"It was wise, I think, to close the university," Schneider stated. "It would have been very difficult to restart classes at that point."

However, the closing meant that many young men faced the possibility of being drafted into military service.

Perdikakis was one of them.

"I was married at the time -- just had our first child," he said. "So, the thought of having to pick up and go and be drafted was looking over my head."

Burke recalled that Xavier remained open with student leaders pushing for a strike against violence.

"We encouraged people to choose if they wanted to go to class," he said. "That was fine if they did, but many of us were going to do other things."

Forty years later, the memories of those turbulent times seem as fresh as ever.

"I think it should really be remembered as a symbol of the breakdown of responsive institutions which were supposed to take into account the feelings that people had," Shapiro stated. "That was this war had lost what degree of public standing or acceptance it may have had at one time."

Schneider took it one step further.

"I think that whole period was when people lost a lot of trust in government, had started to have a lot of doubts about its competence and I think that continues to this day," he theorized. "It probably explains a lot about the attitudes that are out there today."

However, both Schneider and Burke said the Kent State shootings changed them as people.

"I think it did tend to focus me more on being a good citizen," said Schneider. "That period of activism has focused me more on trying to be a good citizen in the city and being more involved in neighborhoods."

Burke said it was a life lesson learned early.

"I was already an activist, but probably as much as another other single social event that encouraged me to remain active in helping to do things that changes in our society," he said.

What was the message to the college students of 1970?

"It said to be careful, but not stop speaking out," Burke stated. "Four kids died in a very tragic and unnecessary way and all they were trying to do was stop a needless war."

When UC closed in 1970, many seniors weren't able to attend commencement. So, the UC Alumni Association decided to hold both a 40th Reunion and a special graduation ceremony for them on June 11, 2010.

The Class of 1970 had 4,979 members that the UC Foundation has tracked the past four decades. Most of them, 2,404 or 48 percent, live in the greater Cincinnati area. Seventy-five have been UC faculty or staff members, 63 work in medicine, 49 are employed in the legal field, 21 are architects and three are college Presidents or Chancellors. In addition, 46 are Presidents or founders of their own firms and 160 hold the title of Senior Vice-President or higher in corporations.

2010-04-16T00:22:00.000-07:00

Jack Herer, father of marijuana legalization movement, dies at age 70 in Eugene

Jack Herer (left) with Dennis Peron (right), founder of the Cannabis Buyers Club, in San Francisco in 1996.

Writer and activist Jack Herer, whose 1985 book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" ignited the modern marijuana legalization movement, died Thursday from complications from a September heart attack that felled him moments after speaking at a Portland rally. He was 70.

Herer had been recuperating since March in Eugene. His wife, Jeannie, was at his side at the house the couple had rented when he died.

"I never accepted that he was really going to go," Jeannie Herer said. "I'm sad that it happened, but I'm glad that it happened in Eugene. Everyone has been wonderful to us here."

Fellow activists expressed sorrow at losing the man who racked up hundreds of thousands of miles crossing the country for nearly 40 years campaigning to restore the hemp plant to American agriculture.

"He was one of my personal heroes," said Madeline Martinez of Portland, executive director of the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Herer died just as the movement is gaining momentum. Oregon and 13 other states plus the District of Columbia now permit medical marijuana. Last fall, the Obama administration said it will not prosecute for possession in medical marijuana states. In November, California residents will vote on a legalization initiative; activists in Oregon and Washington are gathering signatures now for similar initiatives.

That political advance grew from Jack Herer's crusade.

He was living in Portland in the early 1980s when he wrote "Emperor," now in its 11th printing.

The book says the government banned hemp in 1939 as part of a campaign to eliminate the scourge that went by the Mexican slang marijuana. But few people, Herer wrote, realized that marijuana was the dried flower of the female hemp plant, which humans had used as medicine for thousands of years.

The rest of the hemp plant, Herer argued, could do nothing less than save the world. For millennia, he said, people made fiber, clothing, rope, fuel, high-protein food from the fast-growing, easily cultivated plant, and they could again.

And Herer loudly proclaimed the right to get high, arguing that in fact, people ought to get high, morning, noon and night. He found medical research showing that marijuana can protect the body against cancer.

Born in New York City, Herer grew up in Buffalo, N.Y, the youngest of three children. He dropped out of high school and joined the Army, serving in Korea. After his hitch, he picked up work as a sign painter.

In the early 1960s, he moved his wife and family to Los Angeles. A short time later, he divorced but stayed close with his children. He married and divorced twice more before marrying Jeannie Hawkins in 2000.

Herer came to marijuana relatively late in life, smoking his first joint at 30. He chucked the sign business and opened a head shop on Venice Beach, then made a lifelong friend in "Capt." Ed Adair, another head shop owner and a longtime marijuana advocate in Los Angeles.

In 1973, the men pledged to campaign until marijuana was legal, everyone imprisoned for possession was freed or they turned 84. Adair died in 1991 and Herer fought on.

Herer was arrested in 1981 for trespassing on federal property while collecting signatures for a California ballot initiative. He served 14 days in prison and started writing, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes."

After his release, Herer moved to Portland to open a head shop called The Third Eye, now a fixture on Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. He completed the book in Portland, got it printed on hemp paper and began his years-long travels across the country.

In 2000, at a hemp festival near Eugene, Herer suffered a stroke and endured a long, agonizing recovery. He had improved in recent years and resumed his speaking schedule. He attributed his better health to daily use of a highly concentrated marijuana oil.

He resumed his heavy travel schedule, which included a Sept. 12 speech at Portland's Hempstalk at Kelley Point Park. He delivered a tub-thumbing speech, walked offstage and fell over from a heart attack.

He survived and eventually his wife rented a house in Eugene, where she cared for him until his death.

Herer is survived by his wife, six children, a brother and a sister. Funeral arrangements are not completed.

'Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World' by Nicholas Schou - latimes.com

2010-03-24T00:28:00.001-07:00

'Orange Sunshine: The Brotherhood of Eternal Love and Its Quest to Spread Peace, Love, and Acid to the World' by Nicholas Schou - latimes.com

Posted using ShareThis

2010-03-08T13:45:00.000-08:00

Hawaii Senate Votes To Tax Pot $30/Ounce, Allow Dispensaries

Medical marijuana would be taxed $30 an ounce and sold at county-licensed "compassion centers" that would grow and sell marijuana to qualified patients and caregivers under a bill passed Tuesday by the Hawaii State Senate.
The bill to allow the sale and taxation of medical marijuana, Senate Bill 2213, was passed by lawmakers as they try to add up enough money to stop the state's projected $1.2 billion budget shortfall, reports Richard Borreca at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
The marijuana bill, after provoking debate on the Senate floor, eventually passed 20-4.
"I don't think this is helping to alleviate the drug problem," said Sen. Norman Sakamoto (D-Salt Lake/Foster Village), who had evidently wandered into the wrong debate.
Windward Oahu Republican Sen. Fed Hemmings said the FDA should test medical marijuana before people sell it.
Gary Hooser (D-Kauai/Nilhau) defended the bill, calling the arguments against it "offensive to many in our community whose only relief from cancer or HIV is through the use of marijuana."
"These votes show that Hawaii's Senate supports sensible marijuana policies that will serve the best interests of state citizens," said Eric M. McDaniel, a legislative analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project.
"Hawaii's most vulnerable citizens deserve safe and reliable access to their medicine, and no Hawaiian deserves to go to jail simply for using a substance that is safer than alcohol," McDaniel said. "If House members agree, I would strongly encourage them to pass these measures as well."
The Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, headed by Pamela Lichty and Jeanne Ohta, and the Peaceful Sky Alliance, headed by Matt Rifkin, played crucial roles in getting these measures through the Senate, according to MPP.
The bill, with its special $30-an-ounce tax, now goes to the House for further consideration

2010-02-22T08:02:00.000-08:00

Hippie busses forever

Hippie buses began in the 1960's and the tradition never went away. There are still people out there decorating buses in the '60's hippie style. The most famous bus was Furthur, the bus that Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters drove across the country. This journey was made famous in Tom Wolfe's book, "Electric Kool-aid Acid Test." The original bus is rotting away in a swamp on Ken Kesey's ranch in Oregon. In the late '80's they got their hands on another bus and Further II went on the road.

I knew a couple of people, in the '70's when I lived in Fullerton, California, who were bus nomads. One guy, Silverbear, would come by most years on his annual migration from somewhere in Oregon or Washington down to the desert of Arizona. His bus, "Patchs", got its picture in a 1979 book called Rolling Homes by Jane Lidz. The book has been out of print for awhile and it has become a collector's item. I understand Patchs might be still on the road. Another friend, Arthur, converted a step van into his home, and I visited another guy who owned a school bus with a couple of VW buses welded on top.

People are still converting buses to motor homes and some of them paint them wildly. I have seen several of them at the Burning Man Festival over the last ten years and they still regularly appear at Rainbow Gatherings. I found a few websites that have collected photos of these. One of them has about 40 photos of colorfully painted Volkswagen buses. Another one has pictures of various hippie buses.

My Gypsy Caravan project is an extension of the love affair I have had with buses and do-it-yourself mobile living for over 30 years.

2010-01-31T02:26:00.000-08:00

L.A. Medical Marijuana Edibles: More Than Just Your Big Brother’s Pot Brownie

January 30, 2010 – Never mistake the homemade pot brownie found at a frat party for the marijuana dispensary’s pot brownie. So much more goes into the making of the medical-use treat — higher grade trimmings and quality butter, for starters. Plus a brownie like Big Sexy’s Sinful Sweets Peanut Butter Confession, available in most L.A. dispensaries, has just the right dosage and the correct strain of cannabis to give a patient suffering from depression an uplifting, energizing feeling. A patient looking for a muscle-relaxing edible, say, would probably want to go with the cannabis-laced ice cream instead.
Picture 11

Because such things have to be carefully considered, patients with doctor’s recommendations need the guidance of caregivers at marijuana dispensaries. It wouldn’t be wise to walk into a store and randomly choose from the variety of edibles available: from oral sprays, pills and tinctures, to ice cream, pastries and granola bars, to peanut butter, tea and honey. Each is made with a different strain of cannabis — sativa, indica and hybrid — which produce different effects and are beneficial to specific illnesses.

For those who don’t have a doctor’s recommendation and have never been in a pot shop before, here’s a peek at some of the edibles available in medical marijuana dispensaries. The following were purchased at Zen Healing in West Hollywood by a medical marijuana patient with a doctor’s recommendation. Also included are his “tasting notes.”

Our volunteer patient had a sweet tooth but for those more interested in savory edibles there are frozen personal-size pizzas (for around $25 at the Venice Beach Care Center) and bagel bites available as well as olive oil (usually one tablespoon a dose).

It’s not recommended to cook with the olive oil, however, since THC starts to break down at 315-320 degrees Fahrenheit. But if you ever do get a hankering for a vegetable LaGanja (lasagna) or Ganja Ganoush, you can always fly to Denver and visit the first pot restaurant in America, Ganja Gourmet.

2010-01-18T12:36:00.001-08:00

US waves white flag in disastrous 'war on drugs'

After 40 years, Washington is quietly giving up on a futile battle that has spread corruption and destroyed thousands of lives

By Hugh O'Shaughnessy

Sunday, 17 January 2010

After 40 years of defeat and failure, America's "war on drugs" is being buried in the same fashion as it was born – amid bloodshed, confusion, corruption and scandal. US agents are being pulled from South America; Washington is putting its narcotics policy under review, and a newly confident region is no longer prepared to swallow its fatal Prohibition error. Indeed, after the expenditure of billions of dollars and the violent deaths of tens of thousands of people, a suitable epitaph for America's longest "war" may well be the plan, in Bolivia, for every family to be given the right to grow coca in its own backyard.

The "war", declared unilaterally throughout the world by Richard Nixon in 1969, is expiring as its strategists start discarding plans that have proved futile over four decades: they are preparing to withdraw their agents from narcotics battlefields from Colombia to Afghanistan and beginning to coach them in the art of trumpeting victory and melting away into anonymous defeat. Not surprisingly, the new strategy is being gingerly aired in the media of the US establishment, from The Wall Street Journal to the Miami Herald.

Prospects in the new decade are thus opening up for vast amounts of useless government expenditure being reassigned to the treatment of addicts instead of their capture and imprisonment. And, no less important, the ever-expanding balloon of corruption that the "war" has brought to heads of government, armies and police forces wherever it has been waged may slowly start to deflate.

2010-01-15T22:38:00.001-08:00

Seattle's new city attorney to dismiss cases of pot possession

Seattle's new city attorney is dismissing all marijuana-possession cases, starting with those that were already under way under the old city attorney.

By Emily Heffter

Seattle Times staff reporter

Seattle's new city attorney is dismissing all marijuana-possession cases, starting with those that were already under way under the old city attorney.

City Attorney Pete Holmes, who beat incumbent Tom Carr in November, said he dismissed two marijuana-related cases in his first day on the job, and several others are about to be dismissed.

In addition, his new criminal division chief, Craig Sims, said he is reviewing about 50 more cases. Unless there are "out of the ordinary circumstances," Sims said, the office doesn't intend to file charges for marijuana possession.

"We're not going to prosecute marijuana-possession cases anymore," Holmes said Thursday during a public interview as part of Town Hall's Nightcap series. "I meant it when I said it" during the campaign.

Seattle voters approved Referendum 75 in 2003, making marijuana the lowest priority for local law enforcement. City records show that Carr still prosecuted many cases.

In the first six months of 2009, Carr declined eight of the 62 marijuana-related cases filed with his office, a city report shows. Of the cases he took up, marijuana was the only charge in 21 cases. In the second half of 2008, Carr dismissed 21 marijuana-related cases and filed 60 others. Of those, marijuana possession was the only charge in 20 cases.

Holmes' policy change comes amid several state-level efforts to decriminalize or legalize marijuana.

A ballot initiative filed Monday would legalize adult marijuana possession, manufacturing and sales in the state. The Legislature is also considering two bills to decriminalize and regulate marijuana, or to make it legal in the state.

The drug would remain illegal under federal law.

2010-01-15T19:25:00.000-08:00

Push for Looser Pot Laws Gains Momentum.

Seattle — A push to legalize marijuana on the West Coast is picking up steam as Washington lawmakers and pot proponents in California and Oregon propose separate measures.

The Washington state legislature will hold a preliminary vote Wednesday on whether to sell pot in state liquor stores, though even its authors say the bill is unlikely to pass. The same day in California, backers of a well-funded ballot measure to legalize marijuana are expected to file more than enough signatures to put the initiative before state voters in November.

Activists have also been busy in Washington state, with one group filing a marijuana-legalization initiative last Monday to put the issue on the November ballot. Activists in Oregon, meanwhile, say they have collected more than half of the signatures they need by July to allow a vote on whether the state should set up a system of medical-marijuana dispensaries.

The efforts are part of a national marijuana-legalization movement that has lately been emboldened by several factors, including laws allowing marijuana for medical purposes. The recession may be another reason. With many states suffering big budget deficits, for instance, legalization advocates say the states could benefit from new taxes on the sale of marijuana. In addition, the Obama administration appears to have taken a more-mellow attitude on medical marijuana as societal views about the drug evolve. In a poll last week of 500 adults in Washington state by SurveyUSA, 56% of respondents said legalizing marijuana is a good idea.

“We’re beyond a tipping point culturally,” said Roger Goodman, a Democrat representing Kirkland, Wash., and other Seattle suburbs in the Washington legislature who co-authored the legalization bill, known as HB 2401. “Now we’re at a point where we’re figuring out the safest way to end prohibition.”

West Coast states—especially California—are particularly in the vanguard of the marijuana-legalization push given the region’s more-liberal attitudes toward a variety of issues. Legalization measures in other states, such as Massachusetts and New Hampshire, haven’t gotten as far, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Washington lawmakers will vote on a second bill next week that seeks to reduce the penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana to a $100 fine from a crime with jail time.

Still, there is deep opposition to legalizing marijuana in Washington state from law-enforcement groups and chemical-dependency organizations, many of which argue it would make the drug even more accessible to teenagers than it is currently. Also many argue that marijuana is a “gateway drug,” meaning it will lead those using it to moveon to other drugs.

“What message does legalizing marijuana send to the youth of Washington?” asked Riley Harrison, a ninth-grade student, before a packed committee hearing this week in Olympia. “That you’re willing to gamble our future for a little tax revenue?”

Washington, California and Oregon are three of 13 states that have medical-marijuana laws, which permit patients with doctors’ notes to use the drug. The New Jersey legislature last Monday approved a medical-marijuana bill that will make it the 14th state and outgoing Gov. Jon Corzine is expected to sign it before leaving office next week.

The legality of selling medical marijuana remains tenuous. Federal law considers pot illegal, and enforcement of state laws varies widely among California cities and counties. Last October, though, the Obama administration said it wouldn’t aggressively pursue users of medical marijuana where it is legal.

The legalization ballot measure in California was organized by a pot seller in Oakland, Calif., Richard Lee, whose group says the petition now has more than 700,000 signatures, far more than the 434,000 or so it needs to qualify for the November ballot. The measure would let local governments determine how to regulate and tax pot sales.

So far, Mr. Lee says that his business—which includes a medical-pot club and marijuana-business school dubbed Oaksterdam University, named after the city of Amsterdam where marijuana is decriminalized—has spent “a little more than $1 million” supporting the pot-legalization initiative. Mr. Lee says he is optimistic the measure will pass.

An April survey by the Field Poll found that 56% of California voters support legalizing pot and taxing its proceeds as a way of mitigating the state’s financial crisis.

The California measure’s opponents include various law-enforcement groups represented by lobbyist John Lovell. He says the California Peace Officers’ Association, California Narcotic Officers Association and California Police Chiefs’ Association are concerned that legalizing pot will lead more impaired drivers and embolden illegal-drug cartels to gain control over a legal industry. “The bottom line for all three groups…is we already have significant criminal and societal problems with alcohol abuse,” said Mr. Lovell.

Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Author: Nick Wingfield and Justin Scheck
Published: January 15, 2010
Copyright: 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Website: http://www.wsj.com/

2009-12-09T18:21:00.000-08:00

Legalize Marijuana to pay for the "Public Option"

The democrats are looking for funding the Public option.It only make sence to legalize marijuana tax it and use those Taxes to pay for public health care.
We who are below the federal poverty level needs the Public Option.For many its a matter of life and death.

2009-12-01T07:55:00.000-08:00

X-Mas

Well here we go again. Another season of Greed and gluttony.Or another mean to push Christianity on those who dont want it. Eather way this so call season of peace has got many in a panic running for the stores trying to get the best deals on the most "Stuff". Why not try not giving gifts and use the time to be family.Not teaching our children that gifts are to be expected.

2009-11-21T18:39:00.000-08:00

Pot Prohibition Is 'Failed Public Health Policy

State Medical Association Says Pot Prohibition Is 'Failed Public Health Policy' In a laudable nod to the obvious, members of the California Medical Association's (CMA) House of Delegates have endorsed a resolution stating that the criminal prohibition of marijuana is a "failed public health policy."
As enacted, Resolution 704a-09, the "Criminalization of Marijuana" states: "[The] CMA considers the criminalization of marijuana to be a failed public health policy, ... and encourage[s] ... debate and education regarding the health aspects of changing current policy regarding cannabis use." The CMA has more than 35,000 members statewide.
A report just published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal highlights another good reason to question marijuana prohibition: Health-related "social costs" per user are eight times higher for alcohol users than for those who use marijuana, and more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers.
The report gauges related costs per user at more than $800 yearly for tobacco; $165 for alcohol; and only $20 for cannabis.
The newly adopted CMA resolution coincides with the scheduling of legislative hearings regarding Assembly Bill 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act, which seeks to tax and regulate the commercial production and retail sale of cannabis to those age 21 or older. The California Assembly Committee on Public Safety is anticipated to vote on AB 390 by late January.
The CMA's resolution comes on the heels of last week's resolution from the American Medical Association (AMA) that "marijuana's status as a federal Schedule I controlled substance be reviewed with the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines."
This was a significant reversal, since the AMA had previously called for cannabis to be "retained in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act," a legal classification that defines the substance and its natural compounds as possessing "no currently accepted use in treatment in the United States

2009-11-18T03:02:00.000-08:00

Portland, Oregon Opens First Cannabis Café

The first marijuana cafe in the U.S. opened its doors this week in Portland, Oregon, offering consumers a wide variety of marijuana-related health options and a place where they can freely use or consume their marijuana.

The cafe's menu includes the usual staples found in most coffee shops, but all with a special ingredient.

The cafe also offers courses about marijuana’s medicinal properties and how best to grow marijuana.

The owners say that more than a public restaurant, their aim is to create an exclusive establishment, like a club, where people must become members and enter with an official medical card licensing them for the consumption of marijuana.

Many states and cities in the U.S. have legalized marijuana for medicinal use, but with a doctor’s prescription. But federal laws outlawing marijuana use - for any reason - have always trumped state and local laws, until the arrival of the Obama administration.

In Chile, marijuana is considered a “hard drug” by state authorities and its use or possession can lead to a stiff jail sentence.

Rightist presidential contender Sebastian Piñera in Monday’s debate said he would not soften Chile’s marijuana laws if elected, while independent candidate Marco Enriquez-Ominami says he favors legalization, but only if a national review of the issue determines it would be in Chile’s best interest. The position taken on the issue by presidential contenders Eduardo Frei and Jorge Arrate is not clear.

2009-11-18T00:31:00.000-08:00

Where have all the trees gone,long time passing.

Oregon is running out of trees,and the logging community wants to blame the Hippies and enviromentalist.But its not the hippies fault.
The fact is the the logging companies have over logged Oregon,s forests.
Trees take up to 50 years to maturity to be logged. Most of the trees being logged now are less then 25 years. Over logging is causing the forest soil to be depleated because they havent put any kind of fertilizer back into the ground for 150 years of logging. Trees are not an infinitely renewable resource.Its time people recognize that.We did warn them what would happen if they kept up there unsustainabe logging practices. Now its too late.

2009-11-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

Todays Kids

Todays Kids are nothing more then a bunch of lazy fat pansies, that get everything handed to them,and have nothing better to do then cause trouble.Maby its time to rethink child labor laws. I started working in the fields at age 7. And I enjoyed it.I didnt feel the lest bid taken advantage of.Get these kids today out of the Gangs and doing something better for themselves.On the other hand kids are being overprotected to the point that they have no freedoms left or evan the right to express there own veiws or self expression. So who's really the problem here. The kids or the system.

2009-10-19T01:56:00.000-07:00

Obama eases Federal restrictions for Medical Marijuana

The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to prosecutors.

US Justice Department officials said prosecutors would be told it was not a good use of their time to arrest people who used or provided marijuana for medical purposes such as pain relief.

The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce government anti-pot laws. Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes.

2009-10-14T20:55:00.001-07:00

whats wrong with being stoned?

Thats the real question! Why do we have to put up with right wing conservatives blather about how bad it is to be stoned?

2009-10-14T20:09:00.000-07:00

Chia Obama???

This is the crazyist thing.If you havent seen the ads. There is now a Chia Obama I wonder what the president thinks about this? https://www.chiaobama.com/

2009-10-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

Hey President Obama!!!

We voted for you to get end the Wars. Close the concentration camp at Guantanamo. And undo the damage that the Bush administation did. So whats up? Did we make a mistake in voting for you?

2009-10-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

Hugo Chavez peace activist?

The Venezuela government to outlaw violent video games, toys

Click here to read more>

2009-09-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

Public Health Care

WE need the Public option in National health care. The state of Oregon has had a public option for many years.It has done very well.Private Insurance and drug companies are to greedy to be trusted with something so important. They hold people hostage to their illess in order to fleece the general public of their livelyhoods. And completely ignore the needs of the poor.Theres nothing wrong with socialized medicine.It is what all the other industralized nations use to good effect.Its time the U.S. Government gets off it ass and do something a bouit it.

2009-09-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

We Remember Mary

Mary. of the famous 60ies folk trio Peter,Paul,and Mary passed away today..
WE will all miss you mary.

2009-09-14T23:21:00.000-07:00

Oh ya! Its my birthday today. 45 years.. Ya and I feel old to.

2009-09-14T22:44:00.000-07:00

The Boomers arise

The people of the 60ies generation(Boomers) is now the largest voteing block in the nation.
Rich heading for retirement and looking to make a change. What shall we change next?
Even better is the modern Hippie youth movement looking to make some changes too.

2009-09-11T08:20:00.000-07:00

This new Blogger editing system stinks. It keeps Crashing the browser.

2009-09-11T07:59:00.000-07:00

Man Am I stoned or what?? E-mail Me what ever. webmaster@hippieland.zzn.com

2009-08-26T18:16:00.000-07:00

Get ready for legal pot in Oregon.

The Cannabix Tax act is going to the 2010 ballot. Please regster your self to vote. Then go to http://www.cannabistaxact.org/ and learn more about the Oregon cannabis tax act.

2009-05-26T18:28:00.000-07:00

Well its been a while sence Ive posted anything. Hopefully I can get my home internet going so I can do more.

2008-11-29T22:53:00.000-08:00

The world I live in

I live in a world of Millions but Im alone. I live in a world where one must fear those around them. I live in a world where guns hate and violence are the way things are. I live in a world where the poor are not only ignored but feared and hated. I live in a world where trust in your fellow man could be your last mistake. I live in a world where freedom is held hostage by security. But I dream of a world where peace love and understanding is the way.

2008-11-04T23:31:00.000-08:00

Finally!!

The dark night is over and the dawn has come.

2008-10-10T19:31:00.000-07:00

Bill Ayers is not a terrorist!!

He is an American patriot who fought against Fasist white supremist forceses entrench with in the top levels of the government at the time.Id be proud to be associated with him.

2008-10-06T17:35:00.000-07:00

Global economic meltdown

Well now we know that the bailout didnt work. Now America's finacial problems are going world wide. All I can say is make sure to keep your real proprty safe.

2008-10-03T17:37:00.000-07:00

So they finally passed the Bail out

Do they think it will work? Where is the billions of dollars for this Bail Out Coming from?This is just putting U.S. taxpayers in more debit, and will probably not stop the eventual failing of the economy.

2008-09-30T15:56:00.000-07:00

The DOW falls 777 points

Now do people see the flaw in Capitolism?

You cant run a good economy on credit and greed

2008-09-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

9/11 again

A day of infamy and foolisness. We really should'nt celibrate this day. America's reaction to the tragidy only compounded America's shame. And now they
have the gall to call it patriot day.

2008-09-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

What if we legalize all Dugs?

I found this article on msn news.

Link

How does a $50 billion boost to the US economy sound?

2008-09-04T19:07:00.000-07:00

Nice choice McCain

Sarah Palin is just right for the Gun toting,Bible thumping ,backwoods rednecks, that have infested the G.O.P.

2008-06-13T14:52:00.000-07:00

Medical Marijuana

When are the cops going to get the fact that Medical Marijuana is LEAGL in the state of Oregon.I have a friend here in Salem that Marion county is trying to prosicute for Manufacture and delivery. He owns a Medical marijuana card but their trying to say that one of his plants were to big and that that constitutes a crime.
What a bunch of bullshit. Marion county get your head out of your ass.

2008-06-06T15:32:00.000-07:00

Its Obama for the win!

Finally a presidential canidate worth getting behind.

Obama will be a presednt that will finally end the Conservitive Reign of terror.

Its to bad that he had to distance himself form Rev.Wright. I think that we on the Far Left agreed that his words sadly rang true.

2008-05-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

Im Back

Ive been away fo a cupple years, but now Im back and will continue with the tirade from the far left edege

2005-05-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

Is the sexual Revolution really over ?

Many claim that the Sexual Revolution was over after the 70ies. But if that is so why do we see so much of it in public media? The Sexual Revolution is not over. it has taken over.
Everywhere you look in modern America you see just how much it has taken over.
Being Gay is accepted in all but the most religous of households . And other forms of sexuality have begun to take hold in the modern pop culture.
Sure there is still a big howl if someone violates the rules, but now days its just the outrage of the gosip media. Take the Michael Jackson trial. No one really cares if He did it or not. And no one really imagines that those kids are as innocent as thay claim to be. But the Hype of it makes such a great story. Todays kids dont have the chance to be "innocent" it there really is such a thing. They are to inundated with sexuallity in the mass media to even claim to be innocent. By the time the child is 6 years old they have seen on the average 15 acts of intamate sexuallity on the TV. How can they be innocent of it with that much exposure to it ? No the days of suxual innocents is long over and as a society we are just going to have to deal with that fact. The Sexual Revolution won the battle and won the war. All thats left now is the moaning of the loosers.

2005-02-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

War on Terrorism. NOT!!

Terrorism is a teqnique of War. Not an issue to go to war over. The real issues behind this War are Capitolist imperialism, Cultural and Religous Moral superiority, OIL, And Power Power whos got the Power. And the true terrorist behind this is sitting in the Whitehouse.

2004-07-14T14:06:00.000-07:00

EVIL DIES

While everyone else morned the death of a Great President I rejoyced at the passing of the father of conservitism.

History as told by those in charge is a lie.
Ronald Reagan did not have the mind to be a great man.
But he was the perfect puppet.

2004-05-01T16:37:00.000-07:00

A Day of History

Well is was an interesting day in History. The E.U. gains 10 more states for the New Europa. (E.U.) and the U.S. retreats from Fallujah in defeat and places Saddam's Army back in control of the city. Another Historical falure for Americas Favored Son. But its not me. Im not the Fourunate one. Thank the Creator.

2004-04-20T14:02:00.000-07:00

The Diferance Between Conservitives and Liberals

The Conservitive expects the wost of humanity and acts to control them.

The Liberal Expects the Best of Humanity and acts to encorage them.

Wandering Bear

2004-04-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

Happy 4:20

Light em up. Smoke em if you got em.

One of the most rediculus wars being fought by the Conservitives is the War On Drugs.
A war that has raped the American people of the right to privacy. 30 years ago it would have been considered as unthinkable for a cop to be able to pull you over and make you piss in a cup in public just because that cop thinks he smells weed.
10 years ago random search and sezure of your person and property was considered unconstitutional.
The biggest problem with this War on drugs is the cost. To keep one pothead in jail for just one day costs and average of $250 dollars a day.
Now this money dosnt just magiclly appear. No it come out of the tax payers pocket.. Your pocket.. Yes there have been programs to try and have the offender pay for it. The problem with that is most people who are comeing out of jail have nothing.
Nor any way of getting anything. Just being in jail makes your ability to get a job far less likely.
So in order to continue liveing the casual drug user must turn to crime. And this is no help at all. It only makes matters worse.
So the end result of the War On Drugs is America's youth imprisioned for smokeing a little pot.
This despite what oppion you might have about drug users is a Major Human Rights violation..
Why?? Because in order to win the War On Drugs.. They must remove Civil Liberties Freedom and the Rights of Privacy of every American citizen.
Its time to end this Farce and find a new way to deal with addition.. THis way is not working.

2004-04-18T13:44:00.000-07:00

Of Love and Spirit..

Love .. The world crys for love and has none for itself. In this world of science and technology and science we have all but proven that the Spirit is no more then the fantasies of Primitives, Or have we?
Most of the world despite the scientific evedence offered by those who disbeleve in the metaphysical still beleave in these myths.
But what does science realy say our uninverse consists of. E=MC2.
ENERGY. Projections of light. So if infact we are no more solid then projctions of light ourselves what does it all really matter? In the end we will continue because Light can not be distroyed. And tomarrow is another day of light.

2004-04-18T12:16:00.000-07:00

Bush's war on the world

Now Im not the least bit fooled by that Fool Bush.
I know that he and his couldnt give a damm about the Iraqi people..
But all that cude oil must be saveed in the name of National Security, and just for safe keeping it needs to be placed in the Bush family Trust.

Come on.. People cant be this stupid can they?? To belave that this war is for their benifit.
Ya Sure Saddam was a bad man and hurt his people. But thats not the reason given for this war.
Saddam was far from being another Hittler. He had no POPULAR movement behind him..(Untill the U.S. attacked him) He had no WMDs, and He had no plan to attack the U.S. And the bigest bush lie about Saddam was that he was in league with the terrorist organization Al Quada when its obviouse that they had no ties.
And now Bush has got us into another Veit Nam. Attacking the civilian population of Iraq and killing its religous leaders.. There is no good reason for this.. It makes me ashamed to be an American.

2004-04-17T15:11:00.000-07:00

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Wandering Bear

Now this is one of the more intresting things.. It seems that HBO has herd of me and decided to use me as a Character in one of their TV shows. Go figgure.
Well they could have at least told me about it. Oh well. What come around go's around.

2004-04-17T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well. Welcome to the continued ramblings of Wandring Bear.
Im not sure how many fans Ive got. Probably not many but I might as well contine
with my diatribe against the injustiices of a world gone horably wrong some how.
For those of you just tuneing in you can find the original at
Wandring Bear Issue #1

So lets on with it.