Kind Friends Stashblog

Updates from September, 2009

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  Mayoral candidate’s husband pleads guilty to dealing marijuana

  Richard James Rawlings 10:02 pm on 09/03/2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  Wife’s case set for jury trial Nov. 16

  Published: September 03, 2009 09:56 pm

  By MATT THACKER
  Matt.Thacker@newsandtribune.com

  The husband of a former New Albany mayoral candidate pleaded guilty Thursday to dealing marijuana, a class C felony.

  The remaining charges against Frank J. Lucchese, 60, will be dismissed. It was a blind plea, meaning Floyd County Circuit Court Judge J. Terrence Cody will have discretion at sentencing, which is set for Oct. 8.

  The minimum sentence for a class C felony is two years in prison with a maximum sentence of eight years.

  Yvonne Kersey, 54, and her husband were arrested in February of 2008 after New Albany Police Department officers allegedly found more than 42 pounds of marijuana in their basement, according to court records.

  Lucchese was also charged Feb. 23 of this year with class A misdemeanors of possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia.

  Kersey had reportedly invited two NAPD officers into her home because she believed she was the victim of a computer crime. The police officers smelled burnt marijuana and asked to search the house.

  Kersey still faces charges of class C felony dealing in marijuana, class A misdemeanor possession of marijuana and class D felonies of possession of marijuana and maintaining a common nuisance. Those were the same charges filed against Lucchese.

  A jury trial is scheduled for Kersey on Nov. 16.

  URL: http://www.news-tribune.net/floydcounty/local_story_246215717.html

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• 

  Oopsie! Police slash research hemp instead of pot

  Richard James Rawlings 3:32 pm on 09/03/2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  The Associated Press

  THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Dutch police who mowed down what they thought were illicit marijuana plants were red-faced Thursday when it emerged they’d ruined a research group’s giant, officially sanctioned field of harmless hemp.

  Police proudly announced Wednesday that they’d found more than 47,000 cannabis plants, with an estimated street value of nearly euro4.5 million ($6.45 million) concealed in a corn field in the Flevoland province east of Amsterdam.

  They mowed down half the plants only to be informed they were the property of Wageningen University and Research Center, a respected agricultural school.

  The field contained a new strain of hemp that researchers hope can be a sustainable source of fiber, Simon Vink, a spokesman for the executive board of Wageningen University and Research Center, said Thursday.

  Hemp plants are related to marijuana but have only trace elements of THC, the mind-altering chemical that cannabis contains.

  "The street value from a drug point of view is less than zero," Vink said.

  URL: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iXRUhswS0pdP14rQ2VU0fS3bX2twD9AFVJ200

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  New York Woman, 62, Charged With Growing Pot on Porch

  Richard James Rawlings 10:12 am on 09/03/2009 | 1 Permalink | Reply
  

  Thursday, September 03, 2009
  

  EVANS, N.Y. —  A 62-year-old western New York woman faces misdemeanor charges of growing and possessing marijuana after police found a 7-foot-tall pot plant growing on her front porch.

  Captain Charles Danzi of the town of Evans police says Barbara Ober was charged after the porch plant and six others growing around the house were seized by officers on Wednesday.

  The woman told police she needs it to treat her arthritis and glaucoma.

  Her husband, John Ober, told WKBW in Buffalo that she doesn’t smoke a lot, but it does help ease her pain.

  Thirteen states allow marijuana to be used for medicinal purposes, but not New York. There’s currently a bill under consideration in Albany that would allow it.

  John Ober says it’s time New York legalized medical marijuana and reaped the benefits of taxing it

   

  URL: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,546048,00.html

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  Feds the major hurdle for Oregon's hemp stimulus

  Richard James Rawlings 7:09 am on 09/03/2009 | 0 Permalink | Reply
  

  September 2, 6:12 AMWestern Oregon Libertarian ExaminerJ Nick Puglia

  
  Title screen of the film Hemp for Victory from 1942.

  When Governor Ted Kulongoski signed SB 676 into law last month, Oregon became the first state on the West Coast to permit production, trade and possession of industrial hemp commodities and products.

  In an age when so many Oregonians are desperate for employment an entire new cash crop, and the transportation and processing that will obviously come with it, seems poised to offer some relief to the state.  Arid land east of the Cascades Oregon’s is well suited to growing hemp, with its wide array of industrial uses.  The United States is the world’s largest importer of hemp and with the economy battered by trade deficits, domestic hemp cultivation is timely indeed.

  With such an obvious economic stimulus staring Oregonians right in the face, is anyone shocked that the only thing standing in the industry’s way is the Federal government?

  The DEA has hindered and even halted the production of hemp in states that have passed similar measures.  That being the case, potential investors could be reluctant to enter the industry leaving Oregonians to wonder what could have been.

  URL: http://www.examiner.com/x-22310-Western-Oregon-Libertarian-Examiner~y2009m9d2-Feds-the-major-hurdle-for-Oregons-hemp-stimulus

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