By Curtis Cartier
With all the hate typically directed at airport TSA agents, it’s nice to feature some good news about our local breed over at Sea-Tac Airport.

Seattle Weekly Toke Signals columnist Steve Elliott reports on Toke of the Town that Tacoma medical-marijuana patient and North End Club 420 dispensary owner Mike Schaef recently went through security, pot-in-hand, and had the following experience:

When going through security at Sea-Tac airport just south of Seattle Friday morning at about 10:15, Mike put about two grams of cannabis in the scanner bowl in the TSA line.”They grabbed it,” Mike’s friend Todd Dearinger told Toke of the Town. “After a few minutes with the feds and locals they gave him back his meds and let him go on his way.”

 
Schaef posted this photo of the agent documenting his pot on Facebook.
 

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Elliott checked with Sea-Tac spokesperson Charla Scaggs on the airport’s official policy for prescribed pot coming through security. He said “I don’t see a problem, as long as they have a doctor’s authorization.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/2011/11/seatac_tsa_agents_you_are_free.php

By Zach Christman

Getty Images

 Cook County County Commissioner John Fritchey says an across-the-board hike on alcohol taxes can easily be avoided, if the city of Chicago decriminalizes small amounts of marijuana.

Fritchey is one of several local officials pushing a decriminalization ordinance. He wants the city to write tickets for people caught with small amounts of pot, rather than arresting them and sending them to court, only to see the vast majority of those cases dropped.

Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Commish–Dont-Tax-Booze-Alcohol-Decriminalize-Pot-marijuana-Cook-County-Illinois-Chicago-133773038.html#ixzz1dpQobbm8

Joe Grumbine of The Human Solution reaches out for help during his Medical Marijuana trial, starting this November 28th.
Judge Charles Sheldon serving in a California State Court has denied Joe Grumbine and Joe Byron an affirmative defense. Meaning that they will not be presented to a jury of their peers that are hearing the full story. The jury will not be allowed to hear one word of medical marijuana.
Please call or E-Mail Joe if you or someone you know would be willing and able to help in some way. If not able to be present for court support but would like to contribute in some other way, it’s greatly appreciated and helps supporters continue to be able to be physically present.
Call Joe Grumbine
@ 951-436-6312
or E-Mail him
@ willowcreeksprings.net
Befriend him on facebook
@ facebook.com/joegrumbine
Find his organization online
@ www.the-human-solution.org
and on facebook
@ facebook.com/thehumansolution
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jNlEGBfJOBU

Posted by Jonathan Martin
 
The former U.S. Attorney for Seattle, Kate Pflaumer, endorsed marijuana legalization in a Seattle Times guest editorial today, adding credibility to an already high-profile initiative campaign.
Pflaumer joins former U.S. Attorney John McKay in endorsing the New Approach Washington campaign, an initiative likely headed to the 2012 state Legislature that would legalize and regulate marijuana similarly to alcohol. The Seattle Times column also was signed by former King County Judge Robert Alsdorf and Anne Levinson, a former Seattle Municipal Court judge.
McKay had been the highest level law enforcement official to endorse legalization, according to advocates, and has made an interesting journey from a Republican, George W. Bush-appointed prosecutor. The initiative also has been endorsed by the state Democratic party, Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, former Spokane County public health officer Kim Thorburn and travel guru Rick Steves.
 
Read complete article here:
http://today.seattletimes.com/2011/11/another-former-top-federal-prosecutor-endorses-pot-legalization/

http://www.koinlocal6.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=3013366

Researchers determined that subjects’ pain “was significantly decreased after the addition of vaporized cannabis” and surmised that cannabis-specific interventions “may allow for opioid treatment at lower doses with fewer [patient] side effects.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/health-and-fitness/28754-study-vaporized-cannabis-augments-the-analgesic-effects-of-opiates-in-human-subjects.html

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan (top right) wearing the hemp suit in the Dáil this morning

LUKE ‘MING’ FLANAGAN wore a Louis Copeland suit made out of hemp in the Dáil chamber this morning to highlight the 10 year anniversary of his campaign to have cannabis legalised.
A spokesperson for Louis Copeland confirmed that it was the first time the high-end tailor had created a suit made out of hemp.
Speaking to theJournal.ie, the TD for Roscommon-Leitrim South said that he had bought the material outside of Ireland but that the suit had been made in Dublin. “If I could have purchased it here, I would have,” he said.
The hemp suit is “very comfortable, excellent material, and it’ll be my attire for many an occasion from now on,” said the TD.
Flanagan said that it is ten years since he posted joints to journalists and members of the Oireachtas as part of a National Legalise Cannabis Day – but that little has changed.
“In the 10 years that have passed, it is estimated that €7.5 billion has ended up in the pockets of the kind of people who had Veronica Guerin killed. 60,000 people have ended up with a criminal record and for what? What was the goal?”
“The idea was to reduce usage – that hasn’t happened. It was supposed to make life safer for people – that hasn’t happened”.
Flanagan emphasised the specific issue of cannabis being sold with adulterated substances which are seriously harmful to the health of the user,  noting that silicon, crushed up car tyres and “God knows what” is being added to cannabis. “Someone found dealing the substance with these adulterants in it should receive a stricter sentence”, he said.
Flanagan, who gave up smoking cannabis several years ago, said that the best way to guarantee that people know what kind of cannabis they have is to legalise it.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.thejournal.ie/luke-ming-flanagan-wears-hemp-suit-in-the-dail-275244-Nov2011/

Tacoma voters were easily passing citywide ballot Initiative No. 1 — the measure seeking to make “marijuana or cannabis offenses … the lowest enforcement priority of the City of Tacoma.”
By The News Tribune 

Kalamazoo voters have overwhelmingly approved a proposal to write a relaxed attitude toward marijuana use into the City Charter of the western Michigan community.
The proposal on Tuesday’s ballot directs police to make enforcement of laws against possession of small amounts of marijuana a low priority. Supporters gathered about 2,600 signatures in order to win a spot for the charter amendment on the ballot.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.freep.com/article/20111108/NEWS06/111108081/Kalamazoo-votes-relaxed-marijuana-enforcement-?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE