Oklahoma woman serving 12 years for pot case released from prison

By CARY ASPINWALL World Staff Writer

 
OKLAHOMA CITY — Patricia Spottedcrow once faced 12 years in prison, but on the morning she was released on parole, it took less than 20 minutes to walk free.
Spottedcrow had to call a friend to pick her up from Hillside Community Corrections Center in Oklahoma City, her mother hadn’t even arrived from Kingfisher yet when corrections guards asked Spottedcrow to leave the prison’s grounds.
Her friend drove her to a nearby pharmacy parking lot, so she could reunite with her mother, Delita Starr, and her attorney, Laura Deskin.
“Oh, man, this is wonderful!,” Spottedcrow said. “I’m so excited I can’t take it!”
She was released Thursday morning after completing the community corrections-level portion of her sentence required by Gov. Mary Fallin as a condition of her parole. She entered prison Dec. 22, 2010.
Spottedcrow’s 12-year prison sentence for selling $31 worth of marijuana garnered widespread attention after her story was featured in a 2011 Tulsa World series on women in prison.
 
Full Article:
http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=12&articleid=20121129_12_0_OKLAHO612232
 

Medical Marijuana Grower Prepares for a Lifetime Behind Bars

 
While millions of Americans spent Thanksgiving weekend around the dinner table with family and friends, Chris Williams spent it behind bars, coming to terms with the fact that he may be there for the rest of his life. A single father who has never been convicted of a violent crime, Chris probably never imagined himself becoming one of the 2.5 million people incarcerated in America. He wrote this from prison:

Sitting here in Crossroads Correctional Center in Shelby, Montana, it might be hard to believe how thankful I am. I enjoy my mornings every day, sitting in a peaceful awareness. I focus on this world inside prison with an open mindfulness. After some time of thought of nothing in particular, I am overwhelmed by gratefulness, gratitude and thanks. Although life in prison is no walk in the park — we have fights, stabbings, suicide attempts and guards being attacked and that is just in my first month — I still find many reasons to be thankful. Your letters and support are the things I appreciate the most. As I strive to face the struggle ahead, to know I have support and people out there who keep me in their meditation and prayers, strengthens my resolve to do what is right.

By now Chris’ story is well known. Chris was a co-owner of Montana Cannabis, a medical marijuana growhouse serving hundreds of state-legal patients across Montana. After a statewide federal crackdown last year, Chris and his business partners were indicted on federal charges despite their concerted efforts to follow Montana’s state medical marijuana law. He is now facing a mandatory minimum sentence of more than 80 years in federal prison. I told his story in a New York TimesOp-Doc video published on November 7, which made it to #2 on reddit.com and helped inspire tens of thousands of supporters to sign petitions asking for Williams’ pardon or release.
 
Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rebecca-richman-cohen/marijuana-drug-war_b_2200625.html

If NBC Can See the Need for Medical Marijuana, Why Can’t Obama?

 – Executive Director, Americans for Safe Access

 
Thank you to the show Parenthood for your portrayal of someone becoming a medical marijuana patient.
During the Thanksgiving holiday, my procrastination on home projects led me to getting caught up on the fall season of a few shows, including NBC’s Parenthood. I was moved to watch the main characters Kristina and Adam Braverman and their family struggling with her cancer and all that the disease brings. At my patients’ advocacy organization, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), we see thousands of our members and families embark on a similar struggle. The story of Kristina Braverman’s cancer spills into several story lines as the family experiences the news in their own ways.
2012-11-28-parenthoodcliphuffpo.jpg
 
In the episode “One More Weekend with You,” aired November 20, Kristina Braverman’s character, played by Monica Potter, tries to stay strong for her family, but becomes violently ill after receiving chemotherapy. Her husband Adam, played by Peter Krause, finds her on the bathroom floor and panics. He cleans her up and then packs all the kids into the car to visit his musician-producer brother, the first person he could think of who might have marijuana. His brother produces some from his sock drawer and warns that it was not the same pot from when they were kids, it was “genetically engineered” (a common misunderstanding of the decades of modern breeding of the plant for human consumption).
In the next scene Kristina Braverman’s character is laying in bed smoking a joint. She is visibly better. She says it is strong and puts it out, saying “Save that for later.” Her husband asked if it helped, and he is visibly relieved to see her smile. She acknowledges the relief she’s found from marijuana, and says her husband will need to get “a lot more.” She settles back into her pillow and finally sleeps.
This episode reflects a situation that thousands of cancer patients and their caregivers are experiencing, but not always with the same ending. As a medical cannabis advocate I see this story play out in many ways. Many caregivers don’t have a pot-smoking brother and instead find themselves asking for marijuana from friends, family members or even their children. Over the past decades I have heard heartbreaking stories of people having no idea where to look and who to ask for this medicine.
But even for those patients who can find a supply of marijuana for their needs, many questions still arise. What if their source runs out? What if their source gets into a legal entanglement? What if there is mold or mildew on the medicine? What should they do if they live in public housing?
 
Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steph-sherer/parenthood-medical-marijuana_b_2205693.html

Deepak Chopra Joins Movement To End War On Drugs

 
by Steve Elliott
Deepak_Chopra_MSPAC-460x307.jpeg
Wikipedia
Deepak Chopra: Newest member of the Drug Policy Alliance’s Honorary Board
 
Becomes Newest Member of Drug Policy Alliance Honorary Board

Joins Powerful Group that Includes Former Heads of State, Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, Sting, Russell Simmons, and Former U.S. Secretary of State, U.S. Secretary of Defense, U.S. Surgeon General, U.S. Attorney General and Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve
Physician, bestselling author and global thought leader Deepak Chopra has joined the Honorary Board of the Drug Policy Alliance, the U.S.-based organization that is leading the fight for drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights.
The DPA Honorary Board (see below) includes prominent figures from both the left and the right who are renowned for their leadership in the fields of law, health, business, media and politics – from Harry Belafonte, Russell Simmons and Sting to the former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, and Chairman of the Federal Reserve Paul Volcker.

 
Full Article:
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2012/11/deepak_chopra_joins_movement_to_end_war_on_drugs.php

Juvenile Crime at All-Time Low, Leaving Empty Beds at Juvenile Hall

By Sawsan Morrar

 
Recent data from the Criminal Justice Statistics Center reported that California is seeing its lowest number of juvenile arrests in nearly 50 years.
Juvenile arrests fell roughly 20 percent overall from 2010 to 2011. About 150,000 youth were arrested last year, making it the lowest annual rate since state records were kept in 1957.
Sacramento County Juvenile Hall is witnessing this same decline in arrests.
The area detention center currently houses approximately 180 youth. Their current capacity is 225, which dropped due to budget cuts.
“We haven’t seen this low of a number since 1970,” Sacramento County Chief Probation Officer Don Meyer said. “We now get an average of seven [juveniles] a day, and that’s come down from 20 a day.”
 
Full Article:
http://fairoaks-carmichael.patch.com/articles/juvenile-crime-at-all-time-low-leaving-empty-beds-at-juvenile-hall-65dc665f
 

Marijuana arrests plummet 90% countywide

Written by Kristina Davis

SAN DIEGO — Arrests in San Diego County reached a 10-year low last year, with the most notable drop seen in marijuana-related arrests, according to data released Wednesday.

Pot-related arrests plummeted by 90 percent from 2010 to 2011 due to a change in state law that reduced the charge for possession, according to the report compiled by the San Diego Association of Governments. The law, which took effect Jan. 1, 2011, reduced possession of up to one ounce of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction, on par with jaywalking or littering.

 
Full Article:
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/nov/28/marijuana-arrests-plummet-90-countywide/
 

Feds demand marijuana records from NorCal county

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) — Federal investigators are demanding records related to a Northern California county’s medical marijuana permitting program.
Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman told local news outlets this week that county officials received a subpoena in October from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Francisco.
The records request is connected to the county’s now-canceled program to authorize certain marijuana growers to grow as many as 99 plants, exceeding the local limit of 25 plants. The permitting process garnered more than $800,000 in county fees in its two-year existence.
 
Full Article:
http://www.cbs47.tv/news/state/story/Feds-demand-marijuana-records-from-NorCal-county/AYsm-RTb_EyNo3mP5T_eig.cspx

Why I gave my dad marijuana

Vivian McPeak

Growing up with my father was an unusual experience. He was a hard-working, zany wanderlust who loved women, cigarettes and booze. My dad served in the U.S. Army, and it was while serving overseas in Korea that he was given army ration cigarettes with his gear. It did not take long before my dad was addicted to tobacco, and he became a human chimney, smoking two packs a day for over 40 years. There are only a handful of photos of my father where he does not have a cigarette in his hand. I remember him having one in two ashtrays at different ends of the apartment.
My grandparents raised me about half my childhood, with my father living in the same apartment building. They were both chain smokers too, and I recall being in the back seat of their car on holiday trips with all the windows rolled up and the three of them chain smoking the whole way.  When they ate dinner on TV trays, I ate mine on the living room floor so I could be below “cloud level”. I hated it so much that I vowed never to smoke a single cigarette in my entire life.
In 1996 I received a phone call from my dad. He called to tell me that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer, and it had spread to his brain. He was walking out in the middle of radiation therapy, and he needed somewhere to go to die. Naturally, I told him to come to me, to my home. Fortunately, I had an empty room.
My father was 6 feet tall, and although he had always been thin, I was wholly unprepared for the sight of my father when he arrived at my home. His hair gone from radiation burns on his head, my father weighed only 100 pounds. He looked like Skeletor on bath salts. I brought him in and got him settled. Later, at dinner time, I asked my dad what he wanted to eat. “Fry me an egg”, he replied. “Just one egg?” I asked. “Yes, one fried egg.”
I prepared my dad an egg, he ate it, and within minutes he threw it up. After three days of this ritual, my father had lost another 8 pounds. I called his doctor. “Just hydrate him, he has only weeks,” was the answer. So I got right to work.
I cooked up a batch of strong marijuana brownies, putting well over a 1/4 ounce into a small baking pan, making four mondo magic brownies that would tip any old saddle tramp into the trail dust. I told my father I was going on some errands, and that the brownies were medicine, not candy, and that he should take it very slow.
Upon my return a few hours later, I checked in on my pops. “Son,” he said, “I believe I am a little woozy, a bit tipsy, do you think it could be those brownies?” I lifted up the tin foil and saw that my dad had eaten the entire batch in one sitting. “Take me to QFC” he said.
I took my frail, wobbly, stoned dad to the store, expecting some kind of a let-down when we returned. My father selected some pasta, some spaghetti sauce made by a deceased movie actor, a berry pie, and some vanilla ice cream.
When we got home, my father ate an entire meal and held it down. I was stunned. I had been an advocate of medical marijuana, but I had absolutely no idea just how powerful and effective it could be at staving off, or reducing the symptoms of, cancer. I swiftly prepared another rather expensive batch of baked goods. My father continued to hold food down, sometimes three small meals a day.
 
Full Article:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/vivianmcpeak/2012/07/30/why-i-gave-my-dad-marijuana/
 

Indiana State Police chief: ‘I would legalize marijuana’

By TOM LoBIANCO The Associated Press
State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell. Aug. 28 2006. AP
State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell. Aug. 28, 2006. AP
 
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana’s state police chief told lawmakers Tuesday that marijuana should be legalized and taxed, prompting his own agency to quickly walk back his statement as lawmakers consider decriminalization.
State police Superintendent Paul Whitesell told members of the State Budget Committee on Tuesday that he’s followed the issue during his 40-year law enforcement career and believes “it is here, it’s going to stay.” He cited voter-passed measures in Colorado and Washington that allow adults to have small amounts of marijuana as evidence of a national shift on the issue.

“My thought is, toward the zenith of my career, it is here, it’s going to stay,” Whitesell told the panel. “That’s an awful lot of victimization that goes with it.
“If it were up to me I do believe I would legalize it and tax it, particularly in sight of the fact that several other states have now come to that part of their legal system as well.”
 
Full Article:
http://posttrib.suntimes.com/16659236-537/indiana-state-police-chief-i-would-legalize-marijuana.html

Christian Minister Still Behind Bars on Marijuana Charge

As Cannabis Becomes Legal in Colorado and Washington, Hawaiian Minister Remains Locked Up
HONOLULU, Nov. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following release was issued today by Mintwood Media Collective:
As more Americans demand legalization of cannabis, thousands of prisoners are still locked up on non-violent marijuana charges, including Reverend Roger Christie.  Since July 8, 2010 Rev. Christie has been behind bars without bail awaiting trial on charges of marijuana possession and trafficking, despite being a Christian minister with a state sanctioned license as a “Cannabis Sacrament Minister.”
Rev. Christie’s case is unique because his use of ‘marijuana’ was for religious purposes and from his perspective should be protected under the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  Because cannabis has an ancient history of ritual usage in many religions and cultures including Christianity, Christie has decided not to plea his way out of jail. His perspective is couched in a religious context of medicinal cannabis as a tool in healing the sick which to deny anyone is counter to morality. Rev. Christie also connects cannabis sacrament to the ancient anointings and burnt offerings referenced in the bible.
This Christmas is Rev. Christie’s third behind bars at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center.  Despite seven attempts at bail, U.S. District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi has denied Christie’s request to be released to his home in Hilo or to a halfway house in Kalihi.
Tommy Otake, Rev. Christie’s attorney, said his client was at first disappointed by the ruling, but then decided to remain positive and take the most recent bail denial as a “blessing.” Rev. Christie is committed to the Christian faith and to religious freedom for all. He is continuing to minister while in prison and is using his time as an opportunity to help other inmates.
 
Full Article:
http://www.ibtimes.com/press-release/20121127/christian-minister-still-behind-bars-marijuana-charge-903984