By ERIKA LOVLEY
A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports.
Marcus Stanley, who served as a senior economic adviser and at one time worked on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — chaired by Boxer — was stopped by a police officer Tuesday morning when he allegedly tried to “remove and conceal” a leafy green substance from his pocket during a security screening at the Constitution Avenue door of the Hart building around noon, according to a Capitol Police report.
Police confiscated the substance, which later tested positive for marijuana, and Stanley quickly resigned.
“Marcus Stanley is no longer with this office,” Boxer spokesman Zachary Coile told POLITICO. “He submitted his resignation, and Sen. Boxer accepted it because his actions yesterday were wrong and unacceptable.”
Stanley has worked on Capitol Hill since 2007, according to financial disclosure records from Legistorm, and draws a six-figure salary. He has also worked for the Joint Economic Committee.
Marijuana possession has been an ongoing issue on the Capitol grounds, especially since the Capitol Visitor Center opened with additional screening facilities. In the past year and a half, more than a dozen people have been stopped for bringing marijuana into the Capitol complex, along with other drugs, including at least one instance involving cocaine, according to police records.
The legalization of marijuana is a hot issue in Boxer’s senatorial race as well as other California elections. California Democrats have been largely divided over Proposition 19, a ballot question that would legalize marijuana and allow the government to impose taxes on pot. Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have been opposed to the measure.
This is not the first time a member of Boxer’s senior staff has been arrested. Senior policy adviser Jeffrey Rosato, who also worked on the EPW committee, was fired in 2008 after he was arrested and charged with the receipt and distribution of child pornography.
Stanley is the fourth Hill aide to be arrested by Capitol Police this year, according to an analysis by POLITICO.

Following on the barefoot heels of hot yoga, circus yoga and hip hop yoga, cannabis-enhanced classes offer a way to cut through inhibitions
David Silverberg
They chat away breezily between vaporizer tokes, sometimes veering off into conspiracy theories about the government or discussions of the healthiest way to smoke marijuana. Then the 12 yoga lovers extend their arms and breathe deeply. Yoga mats cover the floor. A guitarist strums chords as incense weaves its tendrils across the room.
As the light haze of pot smoke dissipates in the downtown Toronto living room, the ganja yoga session begins.
“When you’re high, you can focus better on your breath,” says Dee Dussault, who runs a monthly session of “cannabis-enhanced yoga” at her home dubbed Follow Your Bliss.
“ Yoga and marijuana, together… It’s like putting salt on your food. It’s just a little enhancement.”— Tanya Pillay
She says smoking marijuana in small doses before a yoga class also makes students more receptive to the poses and philosophies behind the activities. “For some people, it makes them uninhibited and open to the idea of the heart chakra, for example.”
Heart chakras aside, ganja yoga has the THC whiff of being the latest yoga fad, following on the heels of hot yoga, circus yoga, pre- and postnatal yoga, acro yoga (acrobatics), even hip-hop yoga. While cannabis has been deeply entwined with spiritualism over the centuries, some yoga practitioners say that a pure body is ideal for the exercise and that smoking pot could cause an unwieldy imbalance. As one online-forum commenter opined: “Why should we try to purify our body and soul through yoga if we later intoxicate it again with marijuana or other substances?”
Yoga instructor Dee Duss teaches to participants of her “ganja yoga” class, where people smoke marijuana before starting their yoga session at her studio on Grange Ave., Toronto Ontario September 01, 2010.
But Dan Skye, senior editor at New York-based High Times magazine, which tracks marijuana trends, disagrees with yoga purists who believe getting high before a class is detrimental. “Pot is changing medicine; it’s changing recreational habits,” he says. The latest research seems to back up his claim: A recent McGill University study found that cannabis helped alleviate chronic neuropathic pain.
Ms. Dussault remains unfazed. For the past year, she has run ganja yoga out of her home studio as well as at the Hot Box Café in Toronto’s Kensington Market. The class takes place on the last Friday of the month, after work, and she charges $15 for each session. Often, she invites a musician to play some relaxing tunes during the 90 minutes, and she gives out munchies – fruits, nuts, tea – after the class.
Because Ms. Dussault publicizes ganja yoga openly, there is the question of legal repercussions. But she’s quick to say, “No, I’ve never been worried about cops. I think they have bigger fish to fry.”
Among the ground rules at the studio, participants must bring their own pot – and there’s no dealing or mooching. And she makes a point of meeting students before the session “to determine if they want to come just to get stoned.”
Ms. Dussault also encourages participants to fine-tune their yoga skills before embracing ganja yoga. She wants to ensure that people “first experience the true teachings of yoga” and then try ganja yoga to enjoy a different yoga flavour.
Her studio isn’t the only site for cannabis-enhanced yoga. The B.C. Compassion Club Society, a full-service compassion club in Vancouver, offers yoga sessions for those who use medicinal marijuana. Nicole Marcia, the club’s yoga therapist, says she notices that many yoga patrons are “medicated” once they start the session, but for one important reason.
“They need marijuana in order to fight the chronic pain and anxiety they feel,” Ms. Marcia says. She notices that some patients with multiple sclerosis, for instance, are able to “be present” and practise yoga once they’ve gotten high.
“ Marijuana quells those voices in your mind. ”— Melinda Reidl, yoga practitioner
Many pot dispensaries and compassion clubs in California and Colorado – where pot is decriminalized – offer yoga classes, including The Herb Shoppe in Colorado Springs. Qat Carter, who teaches there, says that some of her students prefer to eat marijuana edibles, such as pot brownies, because ingesting cooked pot lengthens the high. “My husband says it helps him increase his body awareness and makes him more relaxed when he does the poses.”
Torontonian Melinda Reidl, 36, enjoys how the marijuana buzz complements the yoga experience. “Marijuana quells those voices in your mind,” she says, adding that ganja yoga encourages more deliberate movements. It’s not a competition to push you to sweat hard, like in some hot yoga studios, Ms. Reidl notes. She calls Ms. Dussault’s sessions “a slow-dub version of yoga.”
Blending a stoned perspective and the precision of yoga could be dangerous, warns Monica Voss, an instructor of 30 years who practises out of Esther Myers Yoga Studio in Toronto. “Some people might not be aware of their body when they’re high and maybe they would injure themselves,” she points out.
She would like to see academic studies done to determine cannabis’s relation with pain release and concentration. That way, yoga practitioners may feel more comfortable recommending this type of yoga combination. “It’s healthy to see all these yoga variations, but buyer beware,” she adds.
But Mr. Skye, who used to work in the fitness industry, says he saw many people smoking before stretching. “I knew a few muscle heads who used to toke up on the gym’s fire escape just before class,” he says.
“I like the idea of smoking pot as a spiritual experience, not just for recreational use,” says Tanya Pillay, 35, who attended her first ganja yoga class in August. “When you take an activity like yoga and take the altered state smoking pot creates, it combines to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.”
“Yoga and marijuana, together,” Ms. Pillay says, “it’s like putting salt on your food. It’s just a little enhancement.”
Special to The Globe and Mail

Why do I feel like I just keep writing the same stories of law enforcement venality over and over again? More crooked jail guards, more sticky-fingered cops, more cops on the take, and another pervert power-tripper cop. Let’s get to it:
too much cash can corrupt cops
In Graceville, Florida, a prison guard was arrested last Friday for trying to smuggle pot into the prison. Graceville Correctional Facility guard Brandon Sikora, 21, is charged with attempting to introduce contraband into a secure facility and possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana with intent to distribute. He went down in a sting after agreeing to meet a police informant, who gave him half a pound of marijuana to carry into the prison and $2,000 for his efforts. He’s now suspended from his job, too.
In Riviera Beach, Florida, a Riviera Beach police officer was fired August 26 over allegations he had a relationship with violent drug dealers. Officer Nathan Gordon had been on administrative leave since July while the department’s Internal Affairs Division investigates. He is now accused of providing the home addresses of fellow officers to drug gang enforcers. No word yet on any possible criminal charges.
In San Antonio, Texas, a San Antonio police officer was arrested August 31 for allegedly sexually abusing a young woman he pulled over and found had a small amount of marijuana and a pipe. Officer James McClure is charged with official oppression and is out on a $3,500 bond. McLure allegedly made the victim follow him to business center, where he strip searched her, groped her, and gave her pot back. The victim also claims McClure asked her for her phone number and called her for a date after a previous stop. He is on indefinite suspension.
In Milwaukee, a former Milwaukee police officer and state drug agent was sentenced September 2 to six months of house arrest after being caught stealing money in an FBI sting. Johnny Santiago was arrested in March after being filmed pocketing $1,100 of $17,000 found by him and other police officers during a drug investigation. He was working as a drug agent for the state Department of Justice at the time.
In Atlanta, a former Atlanta police officer pleaded guilty September 2 to federal charges after getting caught in a sting where the drug dealers he thought he was protecting were actually undercover FBI agents. Lucius Solomon III, 31, was charged in March with attempting to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and possessing a firearm while participating in multiple cocaine sales. In the plea bargain, the gun charge was dropped. The nine-year veteran is now out on bail awaiting sentencing.

A recent teleconference officially announced an industrial hemp partnership between the District of 100 Mile House and The Alternate Village at the University of Manitoba (U of M).
The announcement follows an earlier meeting held in Winnipeg where district and The Alternate Village representatives explored potential opportunities for working together to develop and demonstrate hemp-based products for green-building applications.
At the 100 Mile meeting, district attendees included administrator Roy Scott, planner Joanne Doddridge and Coun. Mel Torgerson. 100 Mile House Industrial Hemp Pilot Project student co-ordinator Robin Diether and steering committee members Garry Babcock, Jim Dunsmuir and Ken Meville joined them.
Said Douglas Buchanan, acting dean of engineering: “On behalf of the university and the faculty of engineering, we are very pleased and are fully supportive of these types of ventures between business, public funding and R&D [research and development].”
100 Mile House has been looking toward much-needed economic diversification for some time now, explained Torgerson, and the hemp project will allow two avenues of opportunity, namely the green-building industry and industrial-hemp processing.
“With the partnering of the university, we’ll be much further ahead and, hopefully, we can advance this project. I think we are [currently] in the seventh year and now would be the prime time to move forward.”
Attending the meeting remotely were Industrial Hemp Pilot Project manager Erik Eising, industrial hemp producer group chair David Zirnhelt as well as university representatives, Buchanan and Kris Dick, associate professor of biosystems engineering and director of The Alternate Village.
The two groups will share research information and demonstration methods regarding sustainable building technology, Dick says, which will include results from a test building that will be constructed at The Alternate Village.
They also discussed how the non-structural walls of the test building would be constructed of hempcrete, a product made by combining the hemp hurd – the part of the plant left once the fibre is removed – with a binder.
Eising explained that after its extensive efforts to research a variety of related information, and with no hemp-fibre processors located in the United States and only a few minor operations in Canada, the District of 100 Mile House has now branded itself as the Canadian knowledge centre for industrial hemp fibre processing.
“With all the activities that we have undertaken, we have an extensive network, not only in B.C. and [elsewhere] in Western Canada but also including Eastern Canada and stretching out into Asia and Europe,” said Eising.
The green building opportunities of industrial hemp have already been put into practical use in several houses in Canada, including one on Saltspring Island, Eising said, adding there is a huge market in the U.S. to tap into.
The 100 Mile House Industrial Hemp Pilot Project has a Green Building symposium slated for this fall, during which various practical and sustainable aspects and potential uses will be explored and demonstrated.

With much of the nation in the throes of a bloody drug war against violent cartels, more than 200 people gathered Sunday in a Mexico City park to smoke marijuana and demand its legalization.

Photo: NDTV

As the issue of cannabis legalization heats up so too does the discussion of women and cannabis use. At this week’s national NORML conference in Portland (Oregon) there is a panel ‘Women, Cannabis and Respect’ hosted by the NORML Women’s Alliance.
Via Jerri Merritt’s very popular TalkLeft: A leading Canadian magazine for marijuana reform, Skunk, has devoted its current issue to “lady legalizers.” Among the features: “The Top 100 Women of Weed.”
Thanks to Skunk for including me in the list. The list is pretty impressive with some names that surprised me: Arianna Huffington, Barbra Streisand, actress Kate Hudson and clothing designer Stella McCartney.
The list is heavier on activists, actresses and singers than attorneys, which makes me even more appreciative to be included. Examples: [See More Below….]
Mary Louise Parker, Alanis Morrisette, Bette Midler, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Melissa Etheridge, and Francis McDormand.
Also making the cut: My good pals Anita Thompson (Owl Farm, where I am headed for Labor Day Weekend, rock star editor Shelby Sadler and conservative activist and Denver attorney, Jessica Correy, who is on the same floor as me and the TL kid in our new office digs.
For women who want to get more involved in legalization efforts, I recommend the NORML Women’s Alliance.
The NORML Women’s Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of prominent, educated, successful, geographical diverse and high-profile professional women who believe that marijuana prohibition is a self-destructive and hypocritical policy that undermines the American family, sends a mixed and false message to our young people, and destroys the cherished principles of personal liberty and local self-government.
Marijuana prohibition makes the difficult job of parenting even more difficult by the state and federal governments not actually controlling marijuana use, cultivation or distribution–notably by American youth.
These diverse women will bring a contemporary approach to the public policy debate, and will proudly represent the interests of modern, mainstream women who believe that the negative consequences of marijuana prohibition far outweigh any repercussions from marijuana consumption itself.
The NORML Women present a core group of national spokeswomen ready to interact with the public and the media on the important issue of marijuana legalization.
Allen St.Pierre, NORML’s outstanding Executive Director, has this to say about the Women’s Alliance:
“The prominent role of women in the effort to end marijuana prohibition is pivotal, necessary, and long overdue. According to recent national opinion polls by Gallup and others, the dramatic rise in the public’s support of marijuana law reform is being driven primarily by an increase in support among America’s women. The NORML Women’s Alliance will bring a contemporary approach to the public policy debate, and will proudly represent the interests of modern, mainstream women who believe that the negative consequences of marijuana prohibition far outweigh any repercussions from marijuana consumption itself.”
NORML’s Women’s Alliance was founded in January, 2010. I am one of its charter members. It’s goals:
— The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that the fiscal priorities of marijuana prohibition are wasting billions of dollars on a failed policy.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that marijuana prohibition violates states’ rights, and improperly expands the reach of government into the families and personal lives of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance advocates for an open, honest conversation about marijuana with America’s youth that is void of all propaganda and misleading information.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance endorses the science-based evidence regarding the therapeutic applications of medical marijuana as well as the continuation of research into the subject.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance strongly opposes the sexual exploitation and objectification of women in pot-culture and business marketing.
You can get additional information about the Women’s Alliance here. If this is your issue, come and join us as we contribute our time and ideals to making a long-held dream for many, particularly those suffering from chronic pain, come true.
As Grace Slick would say, “It’s a new dawn.
From Celebstoner’s write up of the 100 Women of Weed:

by Phillip Smith,

In a Seattle Times op-ed Saturday, former US Attorney for the Western District of Washington John McKay defected to the other side. As the federal prosecutor in Seattle, McKay oversaw the indictment and prosecution of Canadian marijuana seed seller and pot advocate Marc Emery, who now sits in an American federal detention facility awaiting the formal handing down of a five-year prison sentence later this month.

better late than never: John McKay

But while he thinks Emery and most pot-smokers are “idiots,” McKay has come to see the futility of continuing to enforce marijuana prohibition. “As Emery’s prosecutor and a former federal law-enforcement official, however, I’m not afraid to say out loud what most of my former colleagues know is true: Our marijuana policy is dangerous and wrong and should be changed through the legislative process to better protect the public safety,” he wrote.
Marijuana prohibition “has utterly failed,” McKay concluded. “The demand for marijuana in this country has for decades outpaced the ability of law enforcement to eliminate it,” he declared, ready to throw in the towel.
“Brave agents and cops continue to risk their lives in a futile attempt to enforce misguided laws that do not match the realities of our society,” he wrote. “These same agents and cops, along with prosecutors, judges and jailers, know we can’t win by arresting all those involved in the massive importation, growth or distribution of marijuana, nor by locking up all the pot smokers.”
Pot prohibition fills the pockets of “Mexican and other international drug cartels and gangs,” even though marijuana is nowhere nearly as harmful to users as other illegal drugs, McKay wrote.
“So the policy is wrong, the law has failed, the public is endangered, no one in law enforcement is talking about it and precious few policymakers will honestly face the soft-on-crime sound bite in their next elections. What should be done?” McKay asks.

Marc Emery

It is a rhetorical question, of course, and McKay has answers: Recognize that the real public safety danger to Americans is not from marijuana but from prohibition, build policy on “sound science, not myth,” and… drum roll please… “We should give serious consideration to heavy regulation and taxation of the marijuana industry (an industry that is very real and dangerously underground). We should limit pot’s content of the active ingredient THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), regulate its sale to adults who are dumb enough to want it and maintain criminal penalties for sales, possession or use by minors, drivers and boaters.”
Not to worry, though, McKay assures his erstwhile partners in the prohibition racket. There will be years to come of extirpating criminality from the former black market, and that means job security: “DEA and its law-enforcement partners must therefore remain well equipped and staffed to accomplish this task: to protect our families from truly dangerous drugs and to drive drug cartels, gangs and dope dealers from our society.”
Still, a remarkably candid confession from a man who made a living prosecuting marijuana offenders. Too bad he didn’t find himself on the road to Damascus when he still had the prosecutors’ powers.