Reschedule Cannabis

Well it looks like the famous KFC Pot Shop “Kind for Cures” has been shut down by the LAPD. No idea when they will reopen but police served a warrant for violating the ordinance that went into effect June 7 and was supposed to shut down 439 out of about 580 shops. This is the shop you’ve probably seen in that South Park Episode where Randy gives himself testicular cancer so he can get his medical marijuana card. Classic. It was originally an abandoned Kentucky Fried Chicken in Palms, slumping sadly a few months on the corner of Exposition Blvd. and Hughes Ave until the new owners converted it. I hear their goods weren’t the greatest anyhow. LOL

As more and more states allow medical use of the drug, and California considers outright legalization, marijuana’s supporters are pushing hard to burnish the image of pot by franchising dispensaries and building brands; establishing consulting, lobbying and law firms; setting up trade shows and a seminar circuit; and constructing a range of other marijuana-related businesses.

Not all cannabis smokers are hippies.

Boosters say it is all part of a concerted effort to trade the drug’s trippy, hippie counterculture past for what they believe will inevitably be a more buttoned-up future.

“I don’t possess a Nehru jacket, I’ve never grown a goatee, I’ve never grown my hair past the nape of my neck,” Allen St. Pierre, the executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws said. “And I don’t like patchouli.”

Go California, Legalize in November!

Steve DeAngelo, the president of CannBe — a marketing, lobbying and consulting firm here — will not even use the word “marijuana.” Calling it pejorative, he prefers the scientific term “cannabis.”

“We want to make it safe, seemly and responsible,” Mr. DeAngelo said of marijuana.

That extends to his main dispensary and headquarters, the Harborside Health Center in Oakland, with its bright fluorescent lights, a clean, spare design, and a raft of other services including chiropractic care and yoga classes. On a recent Friday, the center was packed, with a line of about 50 people waiting as the workers behind the counter walked other customers through the various buds, brownies and baked goods that were for sale.

“If we can’t demonstrate professionalism and legitimacy, we’re never going to gain the trust of our citizens,” Mr. DeAngelo said. “And without that trust, we’re never going to get where we need to go.”

The ultimate destination, for many supporters, is legalization. Californians will decide in November if that is where they want to go, when they vote on a ballot measure that would legalize, tax and regulate marijuana.

I don’t think Northern California marijuana growers have much to worry about.

Pot pays the bills in this Northern California enclave, home to hippies and good old boys alike who espouse the weed’s curative and economic benefits. The expensive trucks, bustling restaurants, escalating rents and plentiful wads of cash all point to profitable pot cultivation in Humboldt.

Now, a state voter initiative on the November ballot that would make California the first U.S. state to legalize and tax this cash crop has locals jittery about losing their dominant market position.

“We’ve always had a cannabis tinge to our culture,” said Kevin Hoover, editor of weekly newspaper The Arcata Eye. “What we have now is a very entrenched industry that’s making a lot of money off the fact that it’s illegal.”

Starting in the 1960’s, free-thinkers wanting to get away from it all moved to the area long dominated by the lumber and fishing industries. Marijuana cultivation supported these new residents and newly unemployed blue-collar workers who watched the demise of Humboldt’s traditional manufacturing base.

Although the underground pot economy makes for poor statistics, Beth Wilson, an associate professor of economics at Humboldt State University, estimates the area’s annual income from marijuana at about $500 million.

The “multiplier effect” of that money circulated to support local businesses — garden centers do a brisk business and the town of Arcata’s sushi restaurant is always packed — could push that figure to $1 billion annually, she said.

When I mentioned this to a friend the other day he looked very puzzled. I asked him, “Did you know now you can fly on some airplanes with ounces of pot legally?” He replied, “No, are you serious?” I said “yep, isn’t life great in California?”

I don’t think he believed me, but I DO have the news articles to back me up.

Bay Area news reports that Considering the haziness surrounding medical marijuana laws, it may be surprising that some of the most uptight places in the Bay Area — local airports — are also some of the most laid back when it comes to medical pot patients.

San Francisco police, who patrol San Francisco International Airport, say they allow card-holding medical marijuana patients to carry up to 8 ounces of dried cannabis when traveling. The SFO policy follows the guidelines police use within the city of San Francisco, said Sgt. Wilfred Williams.

Isn’t that nice? You can actually board and travel on airplanes in California with your medicinal pot now without fear of arrest.

Then-San Francisco police Chief Heather Fong enacted the policy in November 2008 through a three-page bulletin to officers. It instructs officers to leave medical marijuana patients and their drugs alone if they are using the marijuana for medical purposes and not for criminal activity.

And when it comes to air travel, local police — not airport officials or federal authorities — determine which passengers can fly with medical pot.

The reason it is allowed is because local police, not federal police determine who is allowed onto planes.

Transportation Security Administration spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said airport security officers are trained to check for dangerous items such as explosives when screening departing passengers, their carry-on bags and checked luggage.

If the local police force allows the passenger to keep their medical marijuana, the TSA would not stop them from traveling with the drug, she said. Likewise, SFO spokesman Mike McCarron said officials at the transportation hub have nothing to do with enforcement of medical marijuana laws at the airport.

Isn’t informing yourself great? I bet most Americans would fail this question for a $1 million dollar prize. ”

“Are Americans allowed to board planes carrying marijuana?” The answer is now, YES! And it is NOT just in the Bay Area…

At Mineta San Jose International Airport, enforcement of medical marijuana laws is left to San Jose police, said airport spokesman David Vossbrink.

San Jose police Sgt. Ronnie Lopez said they also do not arrest or cite passengers with medical marijuana at the airport or seize their drugs. They do, however, write a report and send it to federal authorities, who determine whether to file charges, he said.

Although filing any kind of report for a person carrying their medicine legally is a bit fascist, at least this policy is continuing at other airports in the state.

However, although we can fly in California with pot, this does not extend to other states where the drug remains illegal.

In the East Bay, the Alameda County Sherriff’s Office enacted a specific policy last year that allows medical marijuana users to travel from Oakland International Airport with the drug. As at SFO, a qualified patient or primary caregiver as defined by California law can carry up to 8 ounces during travel out of Oakland.

Of course, just because passengers are allowed to take their marijuana out of the Bay Area does not give them full immunity from prosecution, as more than 30 states ban medical marijuana. If a Bay Area traveler lands in a place where the drug is illegal, they could be prosecuted by state authorities.

The fight continues. Keep toking your medicine and never give up fighting for our right to use natural and effective medical marijuana, as well as, our right to fly anywhere in the U.S. with our cannabis. Our day is coming, the time is now!

You’d think the world’s most active force against marijuana might actually know a little bit about it, but no, the cops are as clueless as always and continue to publish distorted facts as truth and try to link medical marijuana to the “mexican Drug Cartel.”

Denver Post says Demand for medical marijuana in Colorado has grown so fast in the past few months that it has outstripped the production of legal “grow” operations and is now probably being supplied by international drug cartels, say some local sheriffs and agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Bold faced lie. Here’s why and anyone who smokes medicinal cannabis can vouch for this.

Fact: Medicinal grade marijuana is not grown in large outdoor plots of land like crappy dirt weed the Mexican cartels send to America. It is grown mostly by highly sophisticated indoor hydroponic set ups by legal American growers/caregivers. Having lived in California where people smoke hydro/indoor marijuana as medicine, I can tell you first hand, a medical marijuana patient would take a puff of mexican dirt weed or “swag” and cough endlessly until they got a headache and prefer not to use the stuff as it does not contain the amount of THC in medicinal grade plants.

I have used cannabis for decades and can tell you, when you inhale mexican Cartel Swag weed it immediately makes me choke and gives me a headache, but using a vaporizer with some good Cali Indoor Chronic will set my migraines at ease and the nausea recede. The opposite happens when you smoke illegal Mexican weed. Any medical marijuana patient can vouch for this, no matter what the cops say… they are not patients or cannabis users and honestly have no idea what the hell they are talking about.

These cops are simply trying to lie to the media to make medicinal cannabis look bad. Fact is, they need to allow people to grow MORE THAN 6 PLANTS and they rather link medicine to drug cartels in another country?

“Dispensaries are popping up like mushrooms,” said DEA special agent-in-charge Jeffrey Sweetin. “Now we have thousands of 20- to 25-year-olds carrying cards. And the cartels are getting rich off this law.”

So lemme get this straight, you have thousands of law abiding citizens with medical marijuana cards, following the law, and the problem is????? This is proof the DEA simply doesn’t like the popularity and social acceptance they are witnessing. People have grown used to medical marijuana and welcome it with open arms now. STAND ASIDE and bow to the people’s will.

Last summer, the Colorado Board of Health declined to limit the number of patients that medical marijuana dispensaries could service.

The result, health department spokesman Mark Salley said, was a boom in the number of people who received cards allowing them to purchase medical pot. There are now 13,000 people in possession of such cards.

Colorado, which approved medical marijuana in 2000, is one of 14 states that permit it.

Police simply do not want American citizens to use pot as medicine, but the truth is, WE DON’T CARE WHAT COPS WANT. The people are abiding by state law and purchasing medical marijuana cards and police need to STEP ASIDE and let the people do, as the people wish. The program is obviously popular for a reason and people participating in the state program are not breaking laws, so get out of the way.

Legal grow operations linked to dispensaries are limited to six cannabis plants each.

The bottom line and answer to this is to allow more than six plants, I have been saying this for years as a medical marijuana patient. The demand for medical grade marijuana is so great that we need to allow patients to grow more than six plants and stop with the silly propaganda about Mexican Drug Cartels selling Marijuana Dispensaries crappy outdoor pot.

NO DISPENSARY would buy Mexican Swag Weed grown outdoors without fertilizers and never cured properly or even grown correctly. I know plenty of people who work in and are part of legal medical marijuana dispensaries in California and can state with 100% certainty they will not and do not buy swag weed grown illegally. It is not potent enough, is usually covered in disgusting chemicals/pesticides and is never cured properly or taken care of. In fact, any dispensary known to sell that type of weed would be SHUNNED BY THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA PATIENTS it would try to sell it to. They go to dispensaries for medical grade pot, not your dads swag from 1960’s. The pot sold in dispensaries is way better and you can tell by simply looking at it, as well as inhaling it. but cops wouldn’t know this, they only kick in doors, they haven’t spent the time we have with patients and with growers and with dispensaries.

Curing is a major part of marijuana potency and guess what, Mexican Drug Cartels sell weed that gives you a headache more than a “high” because its never cured properly. These cops should do some research before going to the media with lies.

Cops and politicians will be the main opposition, but the fat is, it is not up to them. Cops enforce laws, they do not make them. When the people vote and stand up and want medical marijuana, cops should stand aside and never try and act as a tyrant to control what the people can do, within state law.

Police simply want federal money to fight pot, and to do so, they need to keep it a “bad drug.” It is time for the people to stand up against the cops and tell them to get out of the way and stop telling lies about medical marijuana.

Any cop who disobeys state law and tries to arrest medical marijuana patients should have badge taken away.

By contrast, most of the street pot comes from big, outdoor grows, such as the three operations — within a 5-mile radius of Chatfield Reservoir — busted by DEA officials last summer. Sweetin said one grow had 14,000 plants that averaged 5 to 6 feet tall.

He said the average illegal indoor grow is 100 to 200 plants averaging 3 feet tall.

Sheriff Bill Masters of San Miguel County, which includes Telluride, said the number of medical-marijuana users in his county has grown so fast that he, too, is concerned about where the dope is coming from.

“The numbers don’t seem to add up to me,” he said. “It seems difficult to supply people with the number of plants allowed. My suspicions are that marijuana might be coming from other growers.”

Competition among dispensaries has become intense, and security concerns are rising.

Last month, several men wearing jackets identifying themselves as federal agents attempted to rob a marijuana dispensary in the 1900 block of South Cherry Street in Denver.

According to police, the dispensary operators drew weapons and a gunfight erupted in the street. No one was reported injured and no arrests were made, police said.

Last weekend, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a directive advising prosecutors not to pursue cases against medical-marijuana users and suppliers who follow state laws.

“Supply (of marijuana) is not directly addressed in (state law), and we think it’s one of the areas that could lead to criminal elements being involved,” said Longmont city attorney Eugene Mei, noting that the city is seeking a 90-day moratorium on new dispensaries.

Notice how instead of addressing the number of plants patients/care givers can grow they simply try and tie medical marijuana to illegal operations? To fix the problem of supply and demand of medical marijuana, legal growers should be allowed to grow at least 10+ plants per patient, but no, the cops don’t think for themselves, they just want bigger guns and vests to fight the War on Drugs. Get a new job copper, the war on marijuana is ending, and you need to find something else to do.

In the wake of the Justice Department advisory, the DEA’s Sweetin said “it’s business as usual” in terms of enforcement. “We’re leaving cancer patients alone,” he said. “But we’re not being told to leave the dispensaries alone.

And as I said in yesterdays entry, Justice Department says one thing - “no more raids on dispensaries”, but the DEA says another. They will continue to raid and kick in doors on legal dispensaries instead of going after meth dealers, and cocaine etc… dispensaries are within state law and the people need access to them, again I say to the cops, GET OUT OF THE WAY LIARS.

Become an activist today and stop letting cops tell lies to stop you from taken your medicine. get involved, never back down, especially in the face of cops.

Although there has been raids under his watch, we can only hope he actually means what he says.

Advocates of medical marijuana praised a Justice Department decision yesterday not to target cannabis-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in the 14 states that allow marijuana use

But haven’t we heard this before?

Federal prosecutors were told about the new policy in a legal memo issued by the department yesterday. Cannabis-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers should not be targeted for federal prosecution in the 14 states that allow medicinal marijuana, prosecutors were told.

The guidelines make it clear, however, that federal agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is permitted under state law or use medicinal marijuana as a cover for other crimes.

The memo advises prosecutors they “should not focus federal resources in your states on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana.’’

Exactly, let them focus on other problems in this country instead of kicking in the doors and taking medicine from sick people who are following state law.

The policy is a shift from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws regardless of state codes.

“It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana, but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal,’’ Attorney General Eric Holder said.

While this way sound like good news, Holder already said this same stuff back in January and there have been raids conducted since then and we will have to follow up on this to see if the raids actually cease or not. Something tells me they will not, considering the word on the ground in California seems to be there are activist Sheriffs and Politicians continuously trying to stop medical marijuana although it is within state law to grow and consume medical marijuana.

By the government’s count, 14 states allow some use of marijuana for medical purposes: Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington. Some medicinal marijuana advocates say Maryland shouldn’t be included in that group, because the law there allows only reduced penalties for medicinal marijuana usage.

California stands out among those for the widespread presence of dispensaries - businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services.

Colorado also has several dispensaries, and Rhode Island and New Mexico are in the process of licensing providers, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.

Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said last week that he wants to close dispensaries that sell marijuana for profit. Cooley’s plan is the latest salvo in a prolonged conflict in California over whether medicinal marijuana is truly having its intended effect or is being abused by the larger population.

Until recently, raids on clinics typically led to federal prosecutions, but Cooley’s remarks and similar ones from Attorney General Jerry Brown signal a new approach to clear the confusion left by Proposition 215, the 1996 state ballot measure that allowed sick people with referrals from doctors and an identification card to smoke marijuana.

Advocates say marijuana is effective in treating chronic pain and nausea, among other ailments.

Holder said in March that he wanted federal law enforcement officials to pursue those who violate both federal and state law, but it has not been clear how that goal would be put into practice.

Bottom line is the fight continues and we shall not relent. Stand up for your rights and take your medicine daily!

As usual looks like the fight continues in California.

A Superior Court judge concluded today that Los Angeles’ moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries is invalid and granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ban sought by a dispensary that had sued the city.

Judge James C. Chalfant determined that the city failed to follow state law when it extended its initial moratorium. “The city cannot rely on an expired ordinance,” he said.

Green Oasis and a number of other medical marijuana collectives sued the city last month, challenging its efforts to control the dispensaries. The lawsuit argued that the City Council violated state law when it extended the ban until mid-March and that it is unconstitutionally vague.

Although the injunction applies only to Green Oasis, the judge’s ruling calls into question the city’s power to enforce the moratorium against hundreds of dispensaries that have opened in the last two years. The ruling could inspire other dispensaries to join the lawsuit or file similar actions.

Despite the moratorium, the city has seen explosive growth in the number of dispensaries. Under the ban, the city allowed 186 outlets to remain open. Many more – the exact number is unknown – are operating in neighborhoods across the city, and more continue to open.

In its answer to the lawsuit, the city argued that the moratorium is not subject to the conditions and limitations of state law because it is not an ordinance dealing with zoning, but with public safety. Zoning ordinances cannot be extended beyond 24 months. The city adopted the first of two moratoriums on Aug. 1, 2007.

The judge rejected that argument.

The city also argued that a decision to issue an injunction would cause “grave irreparable harm.” “This lawsuit is not just about one ‘bad apple.’ It is about illegally dealing marijuana,” the city’s answer said. “Hundreds of unlawful marijuana stores have cropped up throughout the City and will likely attempt to bootstrap their illegal operation on the outcome of this action.”

Jeri Burge, an assistant city attorney, told the judge this morning that granting the injunction would “reward illegal conduct.”

“You’re going to open the floodgates,” she said.

Robert A. Kahn, an attorney for Green Oasis, argued that the dispensary did nothing wrong, noting that, under state law, the moratorium expired 45 days after it was first enacted. “The did not believe they were violating the law,” he said.

The L.A. City Council has struggled for more than two years to write a permanent ordinance to replace the temporary ban.

Dan Lutz, a co-owner of Green Oasis and president of the collective association, filed the lawsuit after the council voted to shut down his dispensary, which opened in May.

Lutz, like hundreds of other dispensary owners in Los Angeles, had filed a request with the council for an exemption from the moratorium so he could operate, but opened without permission. The council failed to act on these requests until June, an oversight that prevented city officials from taking legal steps to close the dispensaries.

Keep up the good work Cali!

What the people want is marijuana, and that is what we shall have!

How come in one state a man is locked in prison, has his car taken away, his house taken away and loses his job because he is placed in prison for marijuana, while in another state men and women openly smoke marijuana in the street without fear of prosecution? How is this America? How is this fair to patients trying to relieve their symptoms using a safe and natural and most effective medicine for their ailment?? Answer that!

OAKLAND, California (CNN) — Richard Lee greets students, shopkeepers and tourists as he rolls his wheelchair down Broadway at the speed of a brisk jog, hailing them with, “Hi. How ya doin’?”

In this nine-block district of Oakland, California, called Oaksterdam, Lee is a celebrity.

Oaksterdam is Lee’s brainchild, a small pocket of urban renewal built on a thriving trade in medical marijuana. The district’s name comes from a marriage of Oakland and Amsterdam, a city in the Netherlands renowned for its easy attitude toward sex and drugs.

Lee is the founder of Oaksterdam University, which he describes as a trade school that specializes in all things marijuana: how to grow it, how to market it, how to consume it. The school, which has a curriculum, classes and teachers, claims 3,500 graduates.

Lee also owns a medical marijuana dispensary, a coffee house, a large indoor marijuana plantation, and a museum/store devoted to the cause of legalizing marijuana.

Marijuana is safer than alcohol, and they sell alcohol across the street from schools and churches and on all commercial streets that have liquor stores. Think of how many stores in your area sell alcohol, which is not even a drug, its a toxin!

“I really see this as following the history of alcohol. The way prohibition was repealed there,” Lee says, adding that he believes he is close to achieving his mission.

Lee is organizing a petition drive to place a marijuana legalization measure on the ballot in 2010, and he thinks the measure stands a good chance of being approved by voters.

It is far past time for Americans to stand up to the government regarding this incendieary topic. It is TIME TO LEGALIZE marijuana in the United States.

A recent California Field Poll showed that more than half the people in the state, where marijuana for medical use was approved more than a decade ago, would approve of decriminalizing pot.

The state’s faltering economy is one reason why. If legalized, marijuana could become California’s No. 1 cash crop. It could bring in an estimated $1 billion a year in state taxes.

Democratic State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is spearheading a cannabis legalization bill in the California Assembly. He believes the state’s need to increase tax revenues will work in his bill’s favor.

“I think it’s a seductive part of the equation,” he says.

Ammiano says there are a number of ways legalized pot could be marketed, “It could be a Walgreens, it could be a hospital, a medical marijuana facility, whatever could be convenient. Adequate enforcement of the rules. Nobody under 21. No driving under the influence.”

Even California’s Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, says legalizing marijuana deserves serious consideration.

“I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana,” Schwarzenegger says.

But Ammiano says selling a legalized marijuana bill to his fellow legislators remains a delicate matter.

Delicate matter yes, but should it be allowed to those who do not feel pain everyday to decide? Should people who think “pot is bad” be able to dictate whether it has medicinal qualities or not? Fact is, marijuana has been a medicine for thousands of years, and for anyone to state otherwise is insane.

Nonviolent medical marijuana users are being arrested and thrown in jail, costing states and cities millions and millions of dollars, while drunks walk the streets free and able to get their alcohol on every street in America. Not only is this unjust, it says something about the compassion of American’s towards the ill in this land.

There are 24-hour bars, and 24 hour liquor stores in this country, but somehow police and politicians feel threatened about a medical facility that forces patients to produce a doctor’s recommendation for a medicine that helps them? Absurd! Patients must pay to see a doctor, pay to have the state issued medical marijuana card before getting access to their medicine… however, underage teens need look no further than next to the milk in the fridge to get ahold of dad’s beer.

Children drink alcohol taken from liquor cabinets and fridges every single day in America. Marijuana is much more regulated and in states like California, teen marijuana use has DECLINED since medical marijuana has become so popular and less of it is being sold illegally on the street considering so many patients have now become legal, law abiding pot smokers. Unlike liquor stores that sell alcohol to underage kids every day in America, medical marijuana dispensaries are ran like pharmacies and have security guards and one does not get their medicine until ID and doctor recommendation, or state issued card is shown!

See through their smoke screen, yes, it is time to legalize. Not tomorrow, TODAY!

It comes as no suprise that those people who use marijuana in America are also very welcoming to legalizing it, taxing it, and regulating it similar to the way we do all other drugs they sell on every street in America… alcohol.

OAKLAND, Calif. — Perhaps only in the sometimes hazy world of medical marijuana could higher taxes be considered good news.

But sure enough, supporters of medical marijuana were pleasantly pleased Wednesday after Oakland voters overwhelmingly approved a huge tax increase — 15 times the former rate — on sales at the city’s handful of permitted medical marijuana dispensaries.

Believed to be the first of its kind, Measure F received nearly 80 percent of the vote, a landslide that pot professionals hailed as a significant step in the legitimization of the cannabis industry.

“It’s one more victory in a big war,” said Richard Lee, president of Oaksterdam University, a downtown storefront where the aroma of marijuana pervades the sidewalk. “It’s a lot better than being arrested and thrown in jail.”

read the bold again… yes, paying taxes on something that any responsible adult should be able to do in the privacy of his/her own home instead of being thrown in jail for a marijuana joint is of course a better situation. By taxing marijuana and allowing citizens to use it, the city can raise funds instead of spending funds arresting people…. doh. Imagine that, silly politicians had it wrong all the time.

Medical marijuana has been legal in California since 1996, but its dispensaries and their proprietors have periodically faced crackdowns from federal authorities who do not recognize the state law, which was passed as Proposition 215. Supporters of the drug’s medical use have been cheered, however, by recent remarks from Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that those abiding by state law will not be made a target by federal agents.

California, whose $26 billion budget crisis has dispirited many residents, has toyed with the idea of legalizing marijuana, with a bill that would legalize and tax the drug scheduled to be taken up by the Assembly later this year. The dispensaries already pay some $18 million a year in state sales tax, according to the Board of Equalization.

Laura Thomas, deputy state director for the Drug Policy Alliance in San Francisco, which lobbies for changes in drug policy, said the recession was forcing many states to consider “untouchable topics” as potential revenue streams. “In hard budget times people are willing to be more creative,” Ms. Thomas said.

Who would’ve though, the crooks on Wall Street who’ve messed up this country for decades by bankrupting the entire real estate system and forcing thousands and thousands of families out on the street, would have actually been what will help Americans get legal pot.

It is time for citiezns of America to stand up and demand access to legal marijuana in EVERY STATE, not just the ones lucky enough to have open minded politicians in charge. Too many states are not left with dying patients suffering, while people in California, Oregon and other states have access to medicine that we simply do not and if we use it, are throwin in jail and forced into criminal system when all we are trying to do is relieve our daily pain.

In Oakland, Measure F raises the tax on “gross receipts” at a handful of dispensaries to $18 per $1,000 worth of goods sold, and is expected to raise about $300,000 in new taxes. That is not much money — the city just closed an $83 million budget gap — but even so, a spokesman for Mayor Ron Dellums said the mayor was grateful for “all measures that will help with our budget situation.”

For Mr. Lee, who plans to introduce a ballot measure this week — with an eye toward getting it on the ballot in 2010 — seeking to legalize personal, nonmedical use of the drug, the election victory means he would pay about $42,000 more in taxes. Not that he minds.

“This tax,” he said, “is a lot cheaper than lawyers.”

By allowing citizens to pay their taxes on their medicine you remove them from being labeled a criminal, and until you are a patient trying to relieve pain and are labeled a criminal for doing so, you have no right to judge those of us with a condition that is aided by the use of safe, and natural cannabis medicine.

Bring it on, the time is now, continue to push and never relent.

As more and more states struggle with the cost of housing people in jail for smoking a joint or simple possession, hopefully, Americans and lawmakers alike look to California as shining example of how marijuana should be dealt with. First off, it was decriminalized in 1976, and in many states there are mandatory jail time for marijuana! How can America be so polar when it comes to state to state punishment for cannabis? It is far past time America change its laws regarding cannabis and use this wonderful plant to not only aid our medicinal needs, but to help raise fund to fight the problems we do have in this country!

Look at how Cali is handling things:

SAN FRANCISCO — A drug deal plays out, California-style:

A conservatively dressed courier drives a company-leased Smart Car to an apartment on a weekday afternoon. Erick Alvaro hands over a white paper bag to his 58-year-old customer, who inspects the bag to ensure that everything he ordered over the phone is there.

An eighth-ounce of organic marijuana buds for treating his seasonal allergies? Check. An eighth of a different strain for insomnia? Check. THC-infused lozenges and tea bags? Check and check, with a free herb-laced cookie thrown in as a thank-you gift.

It’s a $102 credit-card transaction carried out with the practiced efficiency of a home-delivered pizza — and with just about as much legal scrutiny.

More and more, having premium pot delivered to your door in California is not a crime. It is a legitimate business.

Since the state became the first to legalize the drug for medicinal use, the weed the federal government puts in the same category as heroin and cocaine has become a major economic force.

It is far past time America change its laws regarding cannabis and use this wonderful plant to not only aid our medicinal needs, but to help raise fund to fight the problems we do have in this country!

Based on the quantity of marijuana that authorities seized last year, the crop alone was worth an estimated $17 billion or more, dwarfing any other sector of the state’s agricultural economy.

And pot also props up local economies, mints millionaires and feeds a thriving industry of startups — stores that sell high-tech marijuana-growing equipment, pot clubs that pay rent and hire workers, chains of for-profit clinics that specialize in medical-marijuana recommendations.

Police officers need to be relieved of marijuana duty and be sent to patrol the rapes and murders that go on right under their nose while they chase a guy for a marijuana join, its pathetic excuse for justice if you ask me.

Patients and nonviolent people are thrown to the ground and treated like rapists for partaking in their own natural medicine or growing a safe and effective plant. However, real crimes continue while these police use up millions and millions of dollars to go after marijuana possession and overlook real crimes! meth use, teen pregnancy all rising rapidly, cops should stop worrying about arresting marijuana users and go do something more beneficial to society.

Still, some lawmakers are pushing for broader legalization as a way to shore up the finances of a state that has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. The state’s top tax collector estimates that taxing marijuana like liquor could bring in more than $1.3 billion annually.

On Tuesday, Oakland will consider a measure to tax the city’s four marijuana dispensaries, which the city auditor projects will ring up $17.5 million in sales in 2010. The city faces an $83 million budget shortfall, and it expects the marijuana tax to raise $315,000.

The facts are in the numbers…

With a recent poll showing more than half of Californians supporting legalization, pot advocates believe they will prevail.

And they say other states will follow.

Tim Blake is the proprietor of a 145-acre spiritual-retreat center that holds an annual marijuana bud-growing contest in the heart of Northern California’s pot-growing country.

Politicians, he says, are “going to see the economic benefits, they’re going to see the health benefits and they’re going to jump on the bandwagon.”

We should NOT wait on states to follow, we need to RESCHEDULE CANNABIS at a federal level so states will no longer be able to still prosecute patients if they chose too. Folks in the Southern states will be forced to continue to suffer unjust persecution while citizens on the westcoast are treated with dignity and respect for being a medical marijuana patient. It is really a shame that America has become this divided, so its time we reschedule cannabis at the federal level.