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Richard James Rawlings
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Richard James Rawlings
Where do the Illinois governor candidates stand on medical marijuana?
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Candidates for Illinois governor cover a wide spectrum of opinions on allowing marijuana use for medical purposes.
A+ Green Party candidate Rich Whitney backs general legalization of marijuana. He says he’d sign a bill to legalize medical marijuana as “a positive first step.”
F- On the opposite end of the spectrum is Republican Sen. Bill Brady, who opposes any easing of rules on marijuana.
“Yep the rules we have now are working so well…arresting nearly a million people a year and making criminals out of them for using a drug safer than alcohol. And making a lot of money for doing so!
We the people need to stop the townships, cities, counties, states, and the Fed. Government from making money off non-violent people that just like to use marijuana!” Richard Rawlings
F- To Republican Sen. Kirk Dillard, enforcement is the key. He opposes medical marijuana, saying authorities are concerned about how they will police the law.
“Yep enforcement has worked well for us…In this almost 80 year old war (The longest running war in America’s history) we now have more marijuana, marijuana users, marijuana dealers, and more prisons than ever before in Illinois State history. If you want to make criminals out of people that are not, enforcing marijuana laws work great!” Richard Rawlings
F- Andy McKenna, former Illinois Republican Party chairman, said he would have opposed legislation that legalizes medical marijuana.
“Why Andy?” Richard Rawlings
F- DuPage County Board Chairman Bob Schillerstrom opposes the idea because of what he cites as a lack of research.
“Bob search the internet the research is in…marijuana for the most part is a harmless drug that helps our sick and dying! There are FDA approved drugs that thousands of people OD on every year! Not one person has died from a marijuana OD! Again Bob, Zero deaths from a THC overdose!” Richard Rawlings
http://www.bnd.com/326/story/1072988.html
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Get Up, Stand Up: Ammiano Introduces Marijuana Legalization Bill to the Press
Richard James Rawlings
By Joe Eskenazi
Monday, Feb. 23 2009 @ 11:21AM
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano’s press conference this morning announcing his marijuana-legalization bill started punctually and stayed relentlessly on-point — thereby denying a barb to every journalist present.
Ammiano and the assembled speakers at San Francisco’s State Building also spoke calmly and methodically, at one point being drowned out by a floor-waxer. The famously funny lawmaker reined himself in, presenting "The Marijuana Control, regulation and education act (AB 390)" as a simple matter of fiscal common sense. If you believe Ammiano and his straitlaced panel, it is. In a nutshell, here’s what the bill would do: "Remove all penalties under California law for the cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, and use of marijuana, natural THC and paraphernalia by persons over the age of 21," "prohibit local and state law enforcement officials from enforcing federal marijuana laws (more on that later)" and establish a fee of $50 an ounce on marijuana on top of whatever pot will cost in a legal future — which legalization advocates say is about half what it costs now. This tax rate figures at about a buck a joint.
Betty Yee, the chairwoman of the Board of Equalization, called Ammiano’s proposal "a responsible measure on how to work out the regulatory framework of the legalization of marijuana." Her board’s research indicated $1.3 billion in tax dollars could immediately head into the state’s coffers from the fee on marijuana and the sales tax on medical pot. She figured the halving of marijuana’s street price would cause a consumption increase of 40 percent, but the $50 per ounce levy would cut use by 11 percent. Steve Gutwillig, the state director of Drug Policy Alliance, noted that regulatory measures like Ammiano’s bill can work: Teen smoking is way down, and he claims juveniles report it is easier to obtain marijuana than purchase smokes. "Marijuana arrests actually increased 18 percent in California in 2007 while all other arrests for controlled substances fell," he said. "This costs the state a billion dollars a year and taxpayers are footing the bill. Meanwhile, black marketers are laughing all the way to the bank."
But the morning’s most forceful speaker was Judge James P. Gray, who retired from his 25-year post on the Orange County Superior Court six weeks ago. With his gray suit, tasseled loafers, and conservative salt-and-pepper haircut, he looked like central casting’s offering for "Republican candidate for higher office." Not surprisingly, Gray did run as a Republican for Congress against Bob Dornan and Loretta Sanchez and Senate vs. Bill Jones and Barbara Boxer. He now says he’s "not a politician — and I have the votes to prove it." "I served 25 years on the bench and I’ve seen the results of this attempted prohibition. It doesn’t make marijuana less available, but it does clog the court system," he said. "The stronger we get on marijuana, the softer we get with regard to all other prosecutions because we have only so many resources. And we at this moment, have thousands of people in state prison right this minute who did nothing but smoke marijuana."
Gray noted that anyone who tokes up while out on parole can immediately be sent right back to prison, at great cost to the taxpayers. "You and I as adults can go home tonight and drink 10 martinis. It’s not a healthy thing to do but it’s not illegal. Someone who smokes marijuana and goes to bed risks jail," continued the judge. "I don’t smoke marijuana and if you legalized it today and gave it away at every street corner I’m still not going to. But the most harmful thing about marijuana today is prison – and also the most expensive. I take President Obama at his word – he said let’s look at what’s working and what is not, and jettison those programs that are not working."
Obama also wrote in his autobiography that he did "a little blow" and Ammiano is hopeful the new president will look upon this issue differently than his predecessor (it warrants mentioning that those fighting against torture and rendition also hoped that – and were disappointed).
Ammiano told SF Weekly that he doesn’t expect his bill to pass "overnight," but doesn’t see it as merely a "placeholder." As far as superseding federal law, he pointed to a similar bill recently introduced in Congress by Rep. Barney Frank; hopefully the law of the land will change. If not, Ammiano hoped to exploit "fuzziness" regarding state and federal laws and the low priority this state has given to busting marijuana users entitled by Proposition 215.
He predicted that, in these dire economic times, "support will fall all over" for his bill. Perhaps, perhaps not. But this much is certain: If Ammiano pulls this off, there’s a place for him reserved on the Mount Rushmore of Pot Gods, right between Cheech, Chong, and Bob Marley.
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2009/02/get_up_stand_up_ammiano_introd.php
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Mom-and-pop pot growers cut cartels’ profits
Richard James Rawlings
Mexican traffickers face economic battle as U.S. marijuana production rises
By Steve Fainaru and William Booth
updated 4:03 a.m. CT, Wed., Oct . 7, 2009
ARCATA, Calif. – Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico. L. A. Sheriff’s Dept. via AP
This image provided by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department shows a marijuana eradication operation on Sept. 12 in the Angeles National Forest near Los Angeles. Cultivation of marijuana, often by Mexican drug cartels, is rife in California’s national forests.
Video
State law boosts pot as a cash crop
Jan. 21 – Mendocino marijuana expert and Grow magazine publisher Eric Sligh tours Northern California’s ‘Emerald Triangle,’ which has become a fertile site for entrepreneurs who are permitted to harvest a limited amount of marijuana.Learn more about how Mexican drug cartels are extending their reach farther into the U.S.
Slideshow
Mexico under siege
The death toll is spiraling throughout Mexico as a war between the country’s government and the drug cartels intensifies. -
Richard James Rawlings
David vs. Goliath
Pot activist David Malmo-Levine, founder of the Vancouver Herb School, has been slugging it out with Canadian authorities and fighting for plant freedoms in a B.C. courtroom.
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/david-vs-goliath
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Legalize It!
Richard James Rawlings
A look at issues surrounding the law and marijuana
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Dana Beal Busted in Nebraska
Richard James Rawlings
Friday, 02 October 2009 11:59
New York marijuana activist Dana Beal has been arrested again in the Midwest, this time with 150 pounds of pot. Nebraska police apprehended Beal and two others in a van on Wednesday in Ashland near Interstate 80 (just West of Omaha) after the vehicle was stopped for driving erratically. Bail was set at $500,000.
Beal was last scene in San Francisco at the NORML Conference. Presumably, he was driving back from California when the bust took place.
The Cures Not Wars founder has had numerous run-ins with the law, the most recent of which came last June when Illinois authorities confiscated a small amount of marijuana and $150,000 from him. This past May, Beal pled guilty to the pot charge and paid a fine, but the cash was not returned.
Beal organizes the annual Global Marijuana March each May.Photo by CelebStoner
Also see:
Andrew Tosh Busted in Jamaicahttp://www.celebstoner.com/200910023029/news/drug-bust-news/dana-beal-busted-in-nebraska.html
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Dr. Phil Leveque Comments on Jack Herer's Recent Heart Attack
Richard James Rawlings
Sep-23-2009 10:52
Bonnie King Salem-News.com
In this video, Doc Leveque talks about his close friend who fights for his life at the time of this writing.
Dr. Phil Leveque
Video and photo by Tim King Salem-News.com(SALEM, Ore.) – Our Dr. Phil Leveque and Hemp Icon Jack Herer, go back a long way. Over the years, along with other noted activists and doctors and attorneys, these individuals have led the movement to legalize cannabis, or marijuana, and of course, Hemp.
Jack Herer is the author of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes”, the bestselling book that educated the world about why marijuana was criminalized in the first place.
Jack Herer spoke at Portland’s HempStalk on September 12th, and suffered a heart attack soon after. Since that day, he has shown some hopeful signs, but has not awakened.
As of this morning, Jeannie Herer told Salem-News, “Right now we’re just waiting for the results of the latest EEG test. He still hasn’t woken up.”
Jack is a fighter though, which he’s proven again and again through many challenges that would have stopped nearly all others.
“The Emperor” is currently on the 11th edition, 16th printing. Long story short, Herer explains in fantastic, factual detail that the hemp plant provides the strongest natural fiber known to man, and how Dow and Dupont had to get it off the U.S. market back in the 1930’s, to make way for synthetic drugs and in order to market the newly invented plastic and nylon rope; two industries that have led to a major pollution in the United States.
Herer also exposed the connections between the Hearst Newspaper chain, which was an instrumental tool in turning Americans against “Marihuana” and convincing the population that it turned people into ax murderers, through distribution of the movie “Reefer Madness”. A mass of fabrication and propaganda, put on film and fed to impressionable young people, Reefer Madness has become an adjective for the belief system it successfully installed and has been maintained through the generations, regardless of the facts. If you’ve seen it, you understand the level of falsehood I’m referring to. If you haven’t, please do.
In this interview with Dr. Phil Leveque, he talks about his friend, Jack Herer, who fights for his life at the time of this writing. Hang in there Jack.
WATCH THE VIDEO
Bonnie King is one of the few media professionals who has extensive time in four relevant areas; radio, television, newspaper and Internet. She has been with Salem-News.com since August ‘04, when she became Publisher. Bonnie has served in a number of positions in the broadcast industry; TV Production Manager at KVWB (Las Vegas WB) and Producer/Director for the TV series “Hot Wheels in Las Vegas”, posts as TV Promotion Director for KYMA (NBC), and KFBT (Ind.), Asst. Marketing Director (SUPERSHOPPER MAGAZINE), Director/Co-Host (Coast Entertainment Show), Radio Promotion Director (KBCH/KCRF), and Newspapers In Education/Circulation Sales Manager (STATESMAN JOURNAL NEWSPAPER). Bonnie has a depth of understanding that reaches further than just behind the scenes, and that thoroughness is demonstrated in the perseverance to correctly present each story with the wit and wisdom necessary to compel and captivate viewers.
View articles written by Bonnie King
URL: http://salem-news.com/articles/september232009/jack_doc_bk_9-23-09.php
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Hempstalk 2009: Jack Herer - Hemp Can Save The Planet
Richard James Rawlings
Jack Herer (The Emperor of Hemp) talks passionately about the need for hemp and cannabis in our society. Please take a few minutes to listen to this speech, it will inspire you. We love you Jack!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/user/RestoreHemp
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Rally for the Prince Of Pot, Marc Scott Emery Peoria, IL.
Richard James Rawlings
I will be on the Church Of Rock and Roll Radio Show tonight promoting the rally for the Prince of Pot, Marc Scott Emery, some time after 7:30 CST. 99.9 The Buzz Peoria, IL.
Live Stream:
WWCT_FM – Powered by StreamAudio
