Cannabis Freedom

Ron White asserts that he is a medical marijuana user, this comes after his arrest for simple possession of 3 grams of cannabis and a glass pipe. An anonymous tipster narced out The Tater and police sprang into action. This is freaking ridiculous and completely conflicts with Drug Czar John Walters assertion that people don't go to jail for simple possession. Ron White had 3 grams of marijuana, that's about 1/10th of an ounce or less than $100 worth of high quality, medical marijuana. He was arrested, booked and release with a $1000 bond. I guess the streets are safe now. Great police work. How many personnel hours do you think that law enforcement is wasting on the investigation, processing, prosecution, and incarceration of a non-violent medical marijuana user? Ron was flying to Florida for a sold-out show. Over 1000 people were inconvenienced when the show started an hour late.

The Memphis Flyer is giving away free tickets to see Widespread Panic in Memphis. There are 5 drawings over the next five weeks. You have to turn off any ad blocking software you have running in order to see the link. Good luck.

In a true WTF moment, Kid Rock is now making propaganda films for the government. Mrs. Blue, who's had a decade-long crush on the Early Morning Stoned Pimp [Video], will be highly disappointed.

View the music video for "Warrior", by Kid Rock featuring Dale Earnhart, Jr who drives the National Guard number 88 car.


Hat tip: JJ of FreeKeene.com

One of the most popular web searches related to marijuana is, "How to fool a drug test." While the answer remains elusive there are few tricks that can help you when your future or current employer hands you the little white cup.

Chemical & Engineering News: Business - To Catch A Cheat: "The hundreds of products marketed to help drug users circumvent urine drug tests fall into three main categories: products that are consumed prior to the test, products that are added to the test sample, and devices for smuggling synthetic or borrowed 'clean' urine into the testing facility. Toxicologists focus on the first two because, as Sample pointed out, 'if it's someone else's urine, there is not a lab test in the world that would tell you that.'"

So the answer from this unlikely source is simply, "swap urine." Of course using a warmer like "Hot Hands" available in the outdoors section of Walmart, is necessary to keep urine within a normal range of body temperature. Detox systems simply dilute urine to undetectable levels. This trick is easily recognized by competent laboratories.

There are several problems I have with employer drug screening. Marijuana users are unfairly discriminated against because THC is stored in body fat and is detectable long after hard, dangerous drugs have left the system. Prescription drugs are oft abused, even when acquired under legitimate pretense. However many "scripts" aren't tested and if the individual can produce documentation positive results are excused. Finally, drug tests can't actually determine if an employee is or will be impaired at work. THC remains in the body long after, sometimes weeks after the high has subsided.

Here's a table from the article above you might find useful.

PRESS RELEASE:

Fayetteville, AR: Fayetteville voters will have the choice on Election Day to vote on making adult marijuana possession the lowest police priority. Sensible Fayetteville initiative sponsors turned in just over 1000 additional signatures on August 29 to meet a shortfall of 301 valid signatures. City Clerk Sondra Smith contacted campaign coordinator Ryan Denham today to say that the petition has qualified with over the required total of 3686 signatures that were required to qualify the petition.

Denham praised the city clerk and staff for their professional conduct and courtesy during the laborious verification process. "They worked hard. We were impressed by city operations."

"Now we turn our attention to providing more in-depth information to the voters leading up to Election Day. This initiative offers residents an important opportunity to help guide Fayetteville’s future through better allocation of our resources. It also shows that Fayetteville is willing to take a leadership role among other cities across the nation in addressing failed public policy. And we believe this will benefit Fayetteville’s largest industry, the University of Arkansas, by reducing the number of students penalized with loss of financial aid for marijuana prosecutions. We respect the dedication of our police and prosecutor and believe this measure spells out the public’s full support for their use of enforcement discretion."

Sensible Fayetteville formed in 2007 as a coalition of OMNI Center for Peace, Justice, & Ecology, the Green Party of Washington County, the University of Arkansas student group NORML-SSDP, and the Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas, Inc.

The measure, entitled "Lowest Law Enforcement and Prosecutorial Priority Policy Ordinance," would require Fayetteville police and prosecutor to treat adult marijuana possession offenses as their lowest priority. Further, the measure requires the city clerk to send an annual letter to state and federal legislators, governor, and president stating: "The citizens of Fayetteville have passed an initiative to de-prioritize adult marijuana offenses, where the marijuana is intended for personal use, and request that the federal and Arkansas state governments take immediate steps to enact similar laws." This duty shall be carried out until state and federal laws are changed accordingly.

The full text of the proposed ordinance can be viewed at www.sensiblefayetteville.com Similar laws have been passed by communities in Missouri, Montana, Washington, California, and Colorado. In Arkansas, a similar measure in Eureka Springs passed with 62% of the vote in 2006. Sponsors state that more than one survey by Zogby International have show that over two-thirds of Arkansas voters support reforms that would reduce penalties for adult marijuana use.

I was checking out Memphis photographer, Amie Vanderford's, online slideshow when my wife noticed the Ganja leaf belt buckle in this pic. On further examination we noticed that the photog Amie's reflection is in the ganja leaf. Pretty freaking cool.

Checkout more of Amie's photography on Flickr and her own site.

Allen St. Pierre, Executive Directory of NORML has a scathing rebuttal of the ONDCP's outrageous claims on their blog. The post is on The Hill's blog which is widely read by congressional staffers and lobbyists. Hopefully staffers at the ONDCP will stop getting invited to D.C. cocktail parties and change their tune.

Congress and the Media Should be Dubious of Office of Nat’l Drug Control Policy’s Claims: ...Cannabis cases however, notably minor possession cases, still clog the criminal justice system and are at the heart of dozens of state and federal appellate cases that have largely established less—not more—liberty and economic freedom for citizens. The gravitas of the state and federal conflict on the issue of cannabis prohibition so contentious the US Supreme Court has had to twice intervene since 2001 on the specific issue of medical access to cannabis for dying, sick and sense-threatened patients (in both cases, the court strongly deferred to Congress’ prerogative to pass anti-cannabis legislation, regardless of how illogical or devoid of compassion, reason and science).

Perhaps, having more credibility with law and order crowd, Seattle's former police chief, Norm Stamper can affect the debate with his brilliant arguments in the video below, courtesy of Reason.tv.

Possession of a plant can not only cost you your right to vote, it can also disqualify you from public service.

Commercial Appeal - Felony arrest ends Pearson's bid for Bartlett post - The Shelby County Election Commission ruled that Steve Pearson III, who filed to face Young in the Nov. 4 election, did not qualify for the race. While there were questions about Pearson's residency, a guilty plea to a felony charge of possession of 46 pounds of marijuana in 1989 was enough for the commission to disqualify Pearson, 57, from the election.

This is how they silence their political dissenters. I watched AKA Tommy Chong last night that anecdotes how they railroad non-violent pot offenders through the system, cage them, and strip them of their rights. Pot-prohibition violators are political prisoners. It's time to end this war on the American people and restore the rights of its casualties.

Due to a void I've found on the blogging scene, I'm looking for 6-10 pro-cannabis, pro-medical marijuana, pro-hemp, or anti-prohibition, however you define it, to write on this blog about once a week. If you'd like to contribute and individual piece, that's great too. If you normally write on issues other than marijuana and re-legalization on your own blog and would like to keep your pro-cannabis views separate and anonymous I can give you a forum here. If you're from Memphis, the Mid-South, or the Southeastern US, I especially want you, because there are regional issues that affect the debate here. You can email me at the address in the right-hand column or message me on my Twitter account.

I swear that any personal information you choose to divulge to me, none necessary I assure you, will never become public. The privacy of my partners will be protected by the First Amendment Freedom of the Press.

I read this news story: Morocco destroyed a 2,736 hectare cannabis farm. That's an area almost 20 times the size of Overton Park*. That's an unreal bust, and yet supply for the United States in the coming year won't be diminished. We're the country with the greatest marijuana consumption in the world.

I saw this story later: Police make large marijuana bust, police in Louisville take in 5 suspects for possessing between 200 and 500 pounds of marijuana. Why does the news media not take note of the outrageous claims of law enforcement? Repeatedly we are told about large busts of multiple hundreds of pound of cannabis, but that's not even a comet in the universe of buds smoked in this country. According to the White House's Marijuana SourceBook [PDF] I've conservatively approximated that 60,000 Memphians use cannabis. That crowd would fill the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

No one could fathom the acreage of bud you would have to produce to feed the demand of the residents of our city. We are constantly bombarded with claims that the drug warriors are winning, Blue Crush?, that they're "keeping drugs of the streets", when clearly they aren't. Instead we're crowding 201 Poplar full of the fathers of our dying babies. Watch the 20/20 preview if you haven't already. If marijuana were taxed and regulated, or simply free to grow and consume the money wouldn't be going to the thugs fueling the violence.

We're giving outrageous profits to the gangsters that rule our streets and cause one of the highest homicide rates in the country. Marijuana prohibition is causing and perpetuating our problems. You just can't keep drugs out the hands of a free people. Unless you want a totalitarian state, end the marijuana prohibition.

*2,736 hectares / 342 acres = 19.77

Hot 107.1 which in the past I have regarded to be the best hip-hop station in the Dirty South, has censored the political message of Young Jeezy's new single, Crazy World. The lyric in question is toward the end of the first verse and repeated again in the second.

They want that young shit, That dumb shit,
That where ya from shit,
That ride around ya' hood all day, wit ya gun shit,
All I got to my name, is 2 bricks and one felony,
You going back to jail,
That's what my conscience keep on telling me,
I really ain't buying all that bullshit they selling me,
When the government throwing more curves than the letter C,
I said the letter C, I guess that's for correctional,
They tryin' to box me in, sit me still like a vegetable,
Goddamn another trap, I think Bush is tryin punish us,
Send a little message out to each and everyone of us,
Real G shit, well that's really unheard of,
When you get more time for sellin' dope than murder.
In this crazy world.

Along with the FCC-banned language, censors have removed the word "dope" from the emphasized line, thereby removing the political message from the song. For some young black men, for taking only economic opportunity they will ever have, the government will lock them in a cage. It is senseless that a man would be locked away for possessing and selling a plant, marijuana, that has never harmed or killed anyone.

I understand that due to the family audience broadcasters want to remove lyrics that glamorize drug use, but this time they've gone overboard. The song in no way reflects the glamorous life of a drug dealer. In cries out about the injustice faced by young black men in America. Empirical evidence from multiple studies shows that the drug war unfairly targets blacks and Hispanics. Cannabis is used by a higher percentage of whites than any ethnic minority group.

Flynn Broadcasting is owned by perpetual Republican candidate, inventor, and doctor, Memphian George Flynn. His son Shea Flinn sits on the City Council. I call on the Flinn family to ensure that the political messages of rappers heard on Hot 107.1 not be silenced. Don't reduce their message to a minstrel show for your own profit.

Below is the full, unedited version while it's still up on Youtube. Probably not safe for work if you're watching this from the air-conditioned comfort of your cubicle. People that really work for a living are probably OK.

In this Bush economy the government continues to oppress us by limiting the types of economic stimulus we could provide ourselves. There are people starving in the world and we're converting corn to fuel. At the same time a true industrial crop isn't allowed to be grown, even in climates where it would be the most ideal crop. Hemp is forbidden, not for any rational reason. It doesn't contain the medicine found in its sister plant. The innovations stifled by these arbitrary and capricious regulations are immeasurable.


Lotus announces hemp-based Eco Elise: a new type of ‘green’ car:

Here's Memphis own Frayser Boy, from the Academy Award winning group Three 6 Mafia, from his latest album Da Key with Hood Thang.


Al Kapone, featuring Three 6 Mafia and Young AJ with We on Deck from True Underdog album to be released later this year.


I was going to feature a pretty hot rapper out of Texas, I even had a cool post title already picked out, but Universal Music Group seems to have disallowed embedding their YouTube videos. Sucks to be them because it prevents me from promoting their goods. Hey, UMG, you're hurting artists punishing your customers and their fans!

I've discontinued the use of "Funky Friday" for the cannabis related alliteration "Four 20 Friday". Like always, I'll usually post it in time for 4:20 on Friday afternoon and tag it "music" so you can search later. Formerly I tried to post my music recommendations at 4:20, but that really doesn't give you any time to queue up the track and roll one. As a courtesy to the artist and my readers, I'm featuring I've now added a Amazon store link to buy the album containing my featured track, when available.

As promised, here's a fresh track out of the M-Town: Whatever I Want to Do, from MJG's independent "mixtape" Pimp Tight. Here MJG, takes liberty with one of the more eclectic hits of the 80's and/or 90's, Susanne Vega's Tom's Diner.

After checking out the history of Tom's Diner, a.k.a. Monk's from Seinfeld, I realized MJG's version is just another iteration of the life of this song. I think artists that stifle derivatives of their work with the intention of protecting their intellectual property are probably doing themselves a disservice and decreasing their mainstream longevity.

I think Andy Warhol was extremely optimistic when he predicted that in the future people would only be famous for 15 minutes. This is evident by the 10 minute limit placed on Youtube videos. But of course the longevity of moments of fame can be exponentially increased in duration and significance through derivative works.

And now for something completely different... but relevant to the conversation, I give you Weezer's Pork and Beans:

This insightful and comprehensive post, A guide to debunking Drug Warrior Talking Points from The Maple ThreeCanada thoroughly disarms the drug war propagandists' major arguments for cannabis prohibition. On the "gateway drug" theory:

"...it is not marijuana’s pharmacological properties that serve as a gateway, but rather marijuana’s illegal status. Specifically in the process of illegally procuring marijuana, users are introduced to the criminal elements with access to other illicit drugs and hence it is the forged blackmarket relationship between dealer and buyer that serves as gateway. Ironically the gateway drug theory has been turned on its head and used as reason for legalizing the drug."

Particularly fascinating is the debunking of the cannabis/schizophrenia "link."

Specifically, should there be a causal link between marijuana and schizophrenia, there should be a positive correlation between marijuana consumption and schizophrenia, but such a correlation is conspicuous by its absence. Despite a massive increase in the number of Australians consuming the drug since the 1960s, Wayne Hall of the University of Queensland found no increase in the number of cases of schizophrenia in Australia.

In related news Paul Armento of NORML has an opportunistic but enlightening article on Ted Kennedy's Glioma cancer and cannabanoid therapy. Armento reminds us that cannabis doesn't cause cancer, it fights cancer. Youtube video here.

...cannabinoids can halt the spread of numerous cancer cells -- including prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and in one human clinical trial, brain cancer.

I keep finding more and more stories about responsible adults that find it beneficial to incorporate cannabis use into their dangerous routine. Middle-class suburban moms are no different. I could think of no better way to relax after chasing rugrats around all day than with a cup of tea and a smoke.

SheKnows Daily Dish - A survey by ChiKii.com ... found that a lot of women, mostly moms, between the ages of 30-49 smoked pot at least on occasion. I had a chance to interview several of these women. Take a look. You might be surprised. I was surprised that several of my very good friends smoke on a regular basis and all of them are accomplished and outstanding moms. You know the kind of moms that often make you feel like an inadequate mother. :) Watch Marijuana Mommies below. [A commercial will appear before the interview segment]

In related news, the season 4 premiere of Showtime's Weeds, a drama about a cannabis dealing mom, debuts on June 16. I plan on covering the premiere in depth closer to that date.

Our first track is Young Jeezy's first single from his upcoming album "I Am Trap." Frankly the first few minutes of this song left me unimpressed. When the bridge hit at the 3:18 mark I was stunned. Rarely is today's popular hip hop so introspective and intellectually honest. Young Jeezy pours out his heart and examines the meaninglessness of fame and fortune.

Ecclesiastes 2

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
I refused my heart no pleasure.
My heart took delight in all my work,
and this was the reward for all my labor.

11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
and what I had toiled to achieve,
everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
nothing was gained under the sun.

Young Jeezy - Put On


Rapper T.I. gives us another perspective of life as a rapper in his new track, "No Matter What." He was recently convicted and sentenced to a year in jail for weapons charges. Of course, he wasn't using the guns in a commission of a crime, rather he faced the disenfranchisement of self-defense rights because of a prior control substance conviction.

Even though his infractions have been non-violent and consensual T.I. has been singled out and harassed for the last decade by local and federal authorities. Regardless of the persecution he's faced T.I. reminds us that he's strong and he's a survivor.

T.I. - No Matter What

Next week, I'll try and return to Memphis for some hometown hip-hop. You can send your suggestions to ganjablue@gmail.com. I'd love to hear from some up-and-coming artists.

As long as prisons are profitable we won't ever see a decline in their population. Even though violent crime is down drastically from the 1970's or prison population continues to skyrocket. Every year more and more draconian steps are taken to harshly punish non-violent consensual crime, like drug possession, gambling, alcohol (the most dangerous drug) and of course dirty-dirty consensual sex. The only humor in it seems to be in this satire by Steven Colbert.



I saw this show live last night. The Texas Prison Bidness blog beat me to the post.

Patrick Stegal of the Memphis Defense Attorney Blog, which I highly recommend, has posted some tips for avoiding a narcotics detector dog search. He reminds us that once a police officer has finished with a routine traffic stop you are under no obligation to stick around and answer any questions:

"... if a motorist has been stopped for speeding, a dog sniff could legally be performed by one officer while another is writing the ticket. Or the officer who made the stop could run a sniff while waiting for a check for warrants. This could take fifteen minutes or more. Plenty of time to get the dog out and about, or to even wait for another one to be brought in. However, if the stop is finished the officer, without additional suspicion, cannot prolong the stop to have a dog brought in. They cannot buy time, and they cannot ask additional questions not related to the stop."

Former police officer, Barry Cooper, has said in his video Never Get Busted Vol. 1 Traffic Stops, once the officer hands you ticket the Supreme Court has ruled that you are then free to leave. If the police officer continues to talk to you or ask you questions, politely ask if you are free to leave. If he/she persists, then ask if you are being detained, "Officer, am I being detained?" If he says "yes", then shut your mouth until you can call Patrick or another criminal defense attorney.

Its important that you don't try to chit-chat, what you say will be used against you. People lie to police officers all day long and they are used to it, so even if you're telling the truth there's a good chance they won't believe you. Remember to always stay calm, courteous, and respectful. Remember, you won't ever win an argument with a police officer and loosing your cool can land you in serious trouble.

For more on how to handle traffic stops watch Never Get Busted Vol. 1 Traffic Stops, and visit FlexYourRights.org.

Here's my take on the use of narcotic detector dogs.