New Dist. Attorney ready to ‘weed out the weed cases’

By TIFFANY REVELLE The Daily Journal
Incoming District Attorney C. David Eyster plans to weed out the weed cases clogging the court system, among other changes he has in mind for his four-year term.
Eyster won the race against incumbent Meredith Lintott with 53 percent of the county’s vote in November, and will be sworn in as Mendocino County District Attorney at 11:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 3, in Room E of the Mendocino County Superior Courthouse.
Eyster calls the District Attorney’s job “the gatekeeper for the criminal justice system,” and as a first order of business, he plans to review all open cases and dismiss any he thinks should not be in the court system.
“I believe there are cases in the (district attorney’s) office that shouldn’t be there,” he said. “It makes no sense to allow cases to go through the system that should never have passed the gate to begin with.”
Currently, the District Attorney’s Office pushes too many cases into the court system that are later dismissed, he says, especially marijuana cases.
He said there are marijuana farmers who are trying to comply with the law, some who don’t know how to comply.
In cases where growers appear to be trying to comply, according to Eyster, a better practice than the one currently used is to give the growers a deadline by which to “get legal” and refer them to the Sheriff’s Office, which sells zip ties and issues permits for gardens that meet the state’s and the county’s guidelines.
“I’m compassionate and tolerant of people who are trying to comply with the law,” said Eyster, who is currently a Ukiah defense attorney.
Read complete article here:
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/ci_16958419

Florida Drug Czar Office Falls to Budget Ax

by Phillip Smith

Bruce Grant–Newly unemployed drug war bureaucrat seeks position. (Image courtesy Florida governor’s office)

The Florida Office of Drug Control is going out of business. The four-man fiefdom in the Sunshine State’s drug war bureaucracy has fallen afoul of incoming Republican Governor-elect Rick Scott’s war on state spending and was notified last Friday that it would be out of business come January.
The office was established by Gov. Jeb Bush (R) and its FY 2010-2011 budget is $551,300. Its charge was reducing substance abuse in Florida and helping set state drug policy. The office put out an annual report, as well as other reports, compiled statistics, lobbied for tighter restrictions on the state’s burgeoning pain medicine clinics, and sought funds for prescription monitoring when the state legislature failed to allocate them.

Read complete article here:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/dec/27/florida_drug_czar_office_falls_b

Oregon judges don’t look kindly at those who rob medical marijuana growers

By Karen McCowan

Graphic by Steve Perez

Potential criminals, take note: Marijuana growers may seem like soft targets, but hard time awaits those who rob them in Lane County.
This month alone, Lane County Circuit Court judges have sentenced six men to a collective 58 years in prison for armed robberies of area medical marijuana growers.
Read complete article here:
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/updates/25663983-55/marijuana-growers-medical-county-criminals.csp

Marijuana Penalties Reduced Beginning January 1st


SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Beginning January 1, some changes are coming to the penalty for possessing marijuana in California.  
Marijuana possession will be treated by law enforcement the same as a speeding ticket. Carrying up to an ounce of marijuana will be reduced from a misdemeanor to an infraction.  
Anyone charged with possession will not be arrested, will not face jail time, and will not have a criminal record. As part of the new law, those caught with up to an ounce of marijuana will not even have to appear in court.
http://www.krcrtv.com/news/26295908/detail.html

TFGA has high hopes for hemp

BY CHRIS PIPPOS

GREEN MACHINE: Burnie commercial industrial hemp farmer for the past decade, Ian Chamley, said changes must be made so that Australia did not remain one of the few western countries to prohibit the food consumption of industrial hemp products. Picture: Grant Wells.

 
TRIALS of growing industrial hemp varieties have been hailed a success and the North-West is ideally suited to growing the crop, according to the state’s peak farming body which is lobbying the State Government over the matter.
Some of the hemp, part of six Tasmanian farm trials including properties in Burnie and Deloraine and involving a range of varieties, has been harvested and might be exported to process products such as oils and clothing.
Tasmanian Farmers and Graziers Association chief executive Jan Davis said state MPs seemed receptive to calls to relax legislation to encourage an industrial hemp industry in Tasmania, adding it had the potential to become “a major export product”.
http://www.theadvocate.com.au/news/local/news/general/tfga-has-high-hopes-for-hemp/2036016.aspx

80-Year-Old Republican Leads Fight To Decrim Pot In Virginia

 
  By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

morgan52.jpeg
Photo: Hampden-Sydney College
Delegate Harvey Morgan: “Making simple possession a civil rather than a criminal offense makes sense”

Virginia lawmakers will have a chance to end criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession when the Assembly convenes in January — and the fight to decriminalize pot is being led by an 80-year-old Republican.
GOP Delegate Harvey Morgan, an assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University, is sponsoring House Bill 1443, which would replace the criminal fine for pot possession with a civil penalty and eliminate the 30-day jail sentence and criminal record following conviction.

Read complete article here:
 
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/12/80-year-old_republican_leads_fight_to_decrim_pot_i.php

A push for prescription pot (Arkansas)

Posted by Max Brantley

A group that advocates legalizing medical marijuana will bring exhibits and advocates to the state Capitol Jan. 12-13 to educate legislators and others on the cause. Details follow:

NEWS RELEASE
Advocates Push for Arkansas to Join Fifteen Other States and Washington DC With Medical Marijuana Laws: Doctors, law enforcement officials and patients will gather in January at the Arkansas State Capitol Rotunda in an effort to educate legislators about the need for Arkansas to enact a medical marijuana law.
The “Medicinal Cannabis Educational Roundhouse: Putting it in Perspective,” culmination of a year-long civic activism project organized by Arkansans For Medical Cannabis (A4MC), happens 9am to 2pm, Wednesday and Thursday, January 12-13, 2011 in the Rotunda of the Arkansas State Capitol building, Little Rock, Arkansas.
According to A4MC organizers, the purpose of the event is to instigate ‘dynamic networking’ among Arkansas legislators, health care professionals, law enforcement officials, media, all members of the general public and leading experts on the use of cannabis as medicine.

Read complete article here:
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2010/12/28/a-push-for-prescription-pot

Medical marijuana to treat PTSD? Army personnel form MMJ advisory board.

By Joel Warner

In September, Colorado’s health department rejected the use of medical marijuana to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, a common affliction for veterans. But that doesn’t mean the military and MMJ have been divorced once and for all. Cannabis Science, a Colorado Springs marijuana pharmaceutical company, has formed a military advisory board featuring military officials to advocate for easing restrictions on injured veterans who want to use marijuana for relief.

Read complete article here:
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2010/12/medical_marijuana_ptsd_military_advisory.php

Merle Haggard Sticks Up For Willie Nelson, Pot Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

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Photo: World News
Merle Haggard: “I think it’s silly to put someone in jail for marijuana possession”

 
​”We don’t smoke marijuana in Muscogee,” Merle Haggard sang back in 1969. But Merle’s changed his tune these days. The plain-spoken 73-year-old is still making music, winning awards and taking a stand for what he believes — including the legalization of cannabis.

“There are some people in this world that have no idea what the real deal is,” Haggard told Jennifer Self of the Bakersfield Californian when asked about his friend Willie Nelson’s recent pot bust. “I think it’s silly to put someone in jail for [marijuana possession]. I think it’s a threat to the pharmaceutical industry that you can go to the garden to grow something that might keep you from having to use Lipitor.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/12/merle_haggard_sticks_up_for_willie_nelson_pot_lega.php#more

Woman Fired Over Medical Marijuana To Get Day In High Court

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

medical_marijuana1024x1020.jpeg
Graphic: Working World

​Should companies be able to fire employees for using medical marijuana — at home, with no effects on job performance — even in states where the medicinal use of cannabis is legal?

Washington judges and lawmakers will be wrestling with that question next month as the state Supreme Court hears the case of a woman fired for legally using pot medicinally, and the Legislature looks at a bill to expand patient protections in the state’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law, reports Vanessa Ho of the Seattle P.I.