Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, decriminalisation, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, marijuana, referendum, skunk, swiss, switzerland
P.L.R. (liberal-radical party), swiss-socialist party ,Green partyand many politicians of popoular-democratic party are for “yes” in the referendum of 30 November about decriminalisation of use of cannabis.
Christa Markwalder (P.L.R) said that there are 500000 (chronical and also occasional) cannabis users in Switzerland and the persecution is only an useless problem for police.
The message of decriminalisation is clear: the use of cannabis culd be dangerous and it is forbidden under 18 years old,but after is personal decision and it is under your personal responsability.
for more info http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/index.html
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy | Tags: arrested, cannabis, drug, Fabrizio Pellegrini, ganja, hashish, italy, jointmarijuana, marijuana, medical cannabis, P.I.C., skunk
Fabrizio Pellegrini is 40 years old.
He is a 40 years old artist, a painter and musician, and suffer for reumathoid arthritis.
He use medical cannabis and he has been arrested seven time in last seven years. Every year police enter in his home,find some cannabis plant and small quantities of marijuana.
He use cannabis as pharma,he is not a drug-dealer and police never accused him of this.
This year,on 30 june (the day of his 40th birthday) ,police entered in his home and found (just like every time) some plants and some marijuana and sent him in Chieti’s prison.
His doctor had prescribed him “Bedrocan” ,the therapeutic cannabis produced and sold in Holland.The iter for “Bedrocan” in Italy is very long, it is quite impossible to obtain and many users say that “Bedrocan” has a lower effect.
Chieti A.S.L. (the agency of italian healty minister) didn’t pay the “Bedrocan” which cost 900 euros every month in Italy and only with the help of P.I.C. (association of medical cannabis users) he obtained “Bedrocan”.
The second time that Fabrizio asked “Bedrocan” ,Chieti’s A.S.L. asked him 2000 euros!It is an unjustice!
Why Fabrizio should pay every month an incredible price for medical cannabis?And why italian healty minister doesn’t want to pay the treatment of Fabrizio?
Link (in italian) to P.I.C. website and the story of Fabrizio:
http://www.pazienticannabis.org/index_file/Libertfab.html
Link to another story of unjustice in Italy:
http://hempyreumenglish.wordpress.com/2008/06/24/elenas-marijuana/
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: Advocates, cannabis, ganja, hashish, legalization, marijuana, Marijuana Advocates, pot, weed, Willie Nelson
Members of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws Say They Plan to Picket After They Were Denied a Booth at the Competition.
HUNTINGTON BEACH Marijuana advocates plan to protest the U.S. Open of Surfing after they said they were denied a booth at the world-renowned competition.
Officials with the Orange County chapter of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws ( NORML ) said they were refused a booth after being told by an organizer that the city and event sponsors did not support the group’s message. The group advocates the repeal of marijuana prohibition and the use of medical marijuana.
U.S. Open officials deny the accusation, stating that the refusal was purely a business decision. City officials said they have nothing to do with the granting of booths and denied having any kind of say.
“We’re still going to be there anyway,” said Kandice Hawes, president of the organization’s Orange County chapter.
About a hundred people from NORML and supporters plan to picket the event on July 26 and 27.
James Leitz, executive producer of the U.S. Open of Surfing, said the group was denied a booth this year because he said they had misrepresented themselves last year, applying under the guise of another organization.
Leitz said last year an Anaheim man handed in an application under the vendor name of “Steve’s List.” The application didn’t mention marijuana, according to Leitz and a copy of the document given to the Register.
“Then all of a sudden all of this marijuana stuff goes up in the booth,” Leitz said. “That alone right there is not how we play. I don’t care who you are… That’s a check mark against you.”
Steve Lawrence who put in the application for Steve’s List said that he spoke to an organizer last year and let her know that his Web site www.steveslist.info was dedicated to the cannibas patient community. The Web site is now defunct.
Lawrence, a member of NORML, said he filled out the application truthfully and didn’t think he had to include cannibas or marijuana on the document.
“I filled it out as well as they expected,” Lawrence said. “What I see is that they just don’t want NORML there…”
Lawrence said he allowed the NORML group members share the booth with him for a few days last year as long as they paid half of the cost. He and Hawes said none of the U.S. Open officials asked them to leave or even approached them about the issue.
“They’re just trying to make up an excuse,” Hawes said.
Instead, Hawes said a female organizer told her on several occasions that “they called Huntington Beach and that they didn’t want us there and didn’t support our kind of organization and said that the sponsors didn’t want us there anyway.”
Leitz denies the accusations, stating that he stands by the decision to exclude the group.
“I myself personally have to worry about the 8-year-old kid… I have to worry about the message we’re sending,” Leitz said. “I have to worry about the family-friendly atmosphere. I think OC NORML’s message … or what have you is vague. We just don’t’ think it’s appropriate for the family-friendly nature of the event.”
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Willie Nelson Advocates For The Legalization Of Marijuana
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy, hemp in general | Tags: Arizona, cannabis, ganja, hashish, marijuana, medical cannabis, medical marijuana, Phoenix, pot, weed
Phoenix, Oregon — Stephen Vinzant says he has been growing marijuana at his residence legally for three years and has a state-issued medical marijuana card to prove it. His next-door neighbors — who run a counseling center for recovering drug addicts — are not impressed.
Their differences will get a public airing Monday when Phoenix Counseling Center owner Keziah Hinchen will attempt to convince City Council members that they should put an end to Vinzant’s outdoor pot crop.
Hinchen plans a presentation to the council outlining the difficulty of assisting people with substance abuse issues while a “fresh crop is growing right next door.”
Vinzant said he moved to the property three years ago, at which time he began growing the state allowed crop of 12 mature plants and 36 immature plants.
Half of the plants are for Vinzant’s mother, who suffers from chronic restless leg syndrome and the other half are for Vinzant, a Vietnam-era vet who said he suffers from post-traumatic stress, a bad back and arthritis.
During the past two growing seasons, Vinzant said, “no one squawked about anything.”
Then the treatment center changed ownership, a client discovered the plants during last year’s harvest and, Vinzant said, “totally freaked out.”
Hinchen said the counseling center serves as an extended campus for local schools by providing services to adolescents with substance abuse issues “and something like 85 to 95 percent of them have issues with marijuana.”
“So here’s this guy and he’s got this great big marijuana garden in his backyard,” Hinchen said. “The plants are 20 feet away from the fence — 20 feet away from people who have addiction issues. When it starts getting ripe, you can smell it. So here we’re saying, ‘Stay away from marijuana’ and here it is. They smell it, they see it . . . it’s right there!”
Vinzant said he’s “done everything humanly possible” to accommodate the center’s concerns, including building an enclosure around the plants.
Hinchen will argue before the council that the marijuana plants represent an intrusion into what should be a drug-free zone for school areas. She said she wouldn’t object if he grew the plants indoors and out of sight.
“All we’re asking is for them to approve a 100-foot drug-free zone,” she said. “I’m completely happy with 100 feet, which means he can’t do it in his backyard. He could just do it indoors.”
“Our position is, if you possess marijuana within a thousand miles of a school there are heavy penalties. We serve adolescents and are, essentially, a school.”
She added, “Anybody who knows anything about working with addictive substances will know that half the trick is to stay away from it.”
Jackson County sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Rick Valentine said state laws regarding medical marijuana use are tricky to navigate.
“I don’t know of anything in the statutes that prohibits having a medical marijuana grower next to a rehabilitation center,” he said.
“We’ve had calls where people complained about their neighbor growing medical marijuana but they’re within state law. From our standpoint, it’s been a difficult law to enforce on both sides — for the folks that have legal prescriptions and the people that don’t.”
City Manager Jane Turner said council members would request legal advice from city attorney Kurt Knudsen on how to deal with the issue and likely would appoint a committee to research the issue.
“At least we can get it on the table and everybody can voice their opinions,” Turner said.
The City Council meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the city’s public works annex, 1000 South B St.
Note: Owner of the Phoenix Counseling Center says a neighbor’s medical marijuana patch is too strong a temptation for her clients.
Buffy Pollock is a freelance writer living in Medford.
Source: Mail Tribune, The (Medford, OR)
Author: Buffy Pollock for the Mail Tribune
Website: http://www.mailtribune.com/
Marijuana Arrest Defense Lawyer in Phoenix, Arizona
