cannabis blog news of the weed moves home

This blog has moved to improved (we hope) premises at www.newsoftheweed.com

5 million facebook petition for Obama to legalize weed

A Facebook group organised by the US campaigning organisation NORMAL is aiming to get 5 million members to pressure Obama to legalise marijuana. They say:

"OBAMA was originally for the decriminalization of marijuana but, soon after talking to his advisers he changed his position. We hope Obama will stand for what he first said and probably believes in himself".

They suggest that President Obama should instead take the advice of ex President Jimmy Carter; "Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

• Obama on marijuana: "I inhaled ... frequently."

death penalty for pot

This video features the intrepid duo, Dana Beal (recently busted with 150lbs of medical marijuana) and arch 'Pieman' Aron Kay, up against the forces of evil. Music by Benedict Arnold & The Traitors.

• Dana Beal's address is currently Irvin Beal #6669, Saunders County Jail, 387 North Chestnut Wahoo, Nebraska 68066, USA. A court hearing will be held on 12 November.

leading marijuana campaigner dana beal arrested

Is it just coincidence that within the space of just two days, two of the leading organisers of the annual Global Marijuana March, first Marc Emery (28th Oct) and then (30th Oct) Dana Beal (above, photo New York Times) have been arrested and are now both behind bars, at the mercy of the cruel American 'justice' system?

The extradition of Marc Emery to the American Gulag had been expected despite a majority of Canadians being against it and a long campaign, but Dana Deal's arrest in Nebraska, allegedly in possession of 150 lbs of marijuana, is a double wammie for the global movement against marijuana prohibition.

Dana Beal is founder and main coordinator of the annual 'Global Marijuana March' which this year held simultaneous marches in nearly 200 cities worldwide, campaigning for medical marijuana and an end to marijuana prohibition. He has also devoted his considerable energies towards developing anti addiction treatments, particularly using the natural drug Ibogaine.

Now Marc Emery and Dana Beal are two more victims of the drug war they have campaigned so hard to end. They are not criminals, they are political prisoners.

• Dana and two others have been charged with "possession with the intent to deliver and having no drug tax stamp." Possession of marijuana for personal use has been decriminalised under Nebraska State laws, but they still allow draconian penalties for the sale and distribution of the popular herb.

• A Free Dana Beal Facebook site and a Free Dana Beal Blog have been started to support Dana and raise funds for his defence.

LATEST: (via kind friends stashblog): Dana Beal is in the Saunders County Jail, write him at Irvin Beal #6669, Saunders County Jail, 387 North Chestnut, Wahoo, Nebraska 68066. He needs 50k for bailman. First court date is Nov 10th. Dana is in a dorm with 18 other “drug offenders".

marc emery farewell press conference

get ready to be itemised

Above: the Itemiser by GE Security Products (click image to enlarge).

All over Britain people are being 'itemised' by a new machine called the Itemiser which is being used by the police to test for drugs and explosives.

More than 400 people were 'Itemised' in one night by police in Reading recently.

The Itemiser is a desktop testing lab which can detect traces of all kinds of drugs and explosives in 7 seconds - and make life hell for the innocent recreational or medical cannabis user.

Designed to be highly portable it can run for 60 mins on rechargable batteries and can easly be set up at stations, airports, or outside cool clubs, major city financial institutions, weddings, funerals and at events like Ascot and the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.

Unless you play it safe and never go out ever again it is fairly likely that you will encounter this desk top civil liberties zapper sooner rather than later.

• GE Security Products should re format the Itemiser so it ignores cannabis and just looks for explosives, guns, knives and the stench of corruption.

cannabis prohibition - it's so stupid and boring

"Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth."

Will Rogers

US ends DEA medical marijuana raids

Medical marijuana advocates and users confront Los Angeles police [above] during a Drug Enforcement Administration raid of a medical marijuana dispensary on July 25, 2007.

Years of campaigning, thousands of busts, lives ruined, and untold needless pain may be coming to a close in the US as it seems that the strange medical and legal taboo against medical cannabis may finally be over.

The new attorney general Eric Holder, has announced that the DEA is being ordered to stop raiding state approved medical marijuana dispensaries.

President Obama, who has admitted he was a regular teenage marijuana toker, said during the presidential campaign that he supported the controlled use of marijuana for medical purposes, saying he saw no difference between medical marijuana and other pain-control drugs.

“My attitude is if the science and the doctors suggest that the best palliative care and the way to relieve pain and suffering is medical marijuana, then that’s something I’m open to,” Obama said in November 2007 at a campaign stop in Audubon, Iowa. “There’s no difference between that and morphine when it comes to just giving people relief from pain.”

• This is a dramatic, although not unexpected turn about for Federal government policy. So dramatic that the official White House web site for drug policy has not yet been up dated. The Bush era Drug War propaganda which denied the medical value of cannabis is still there. Thankfully it is now just historical evidence of past ignorance and bigotry.

kelloggs shares crash as cannabis users 'k flakes' boycott continues

Kelloggs share price has crashed ever since they sacked Michael Phelps for toking on a bong, and were immediately hit with a boycott by cannabis users worldwide.

The 'cannaphobic' decision by Kelloggs to sack Michael Phelps has proved to be a well deserved disaster bong.

According to The Vanno Reputation Index, which monitors the public image of leading corporations, out of the 5,600 company reputations Vanno monitors, Kellogg ranked ninth before it rudely snubbed Phelps. Now it's ranked 83.

Of course Kellogg's share price drop may not just be due to the cannabis boycott, but the main stream bad publicity for Kelloggs it has generated has certainly added to Kellogg's general credibility crunch crisis.

Kelloggs need to realise that indulging in Reefer Madness is bad for business, and it is just not healthy for the individual or society, but they can join a treatment program.

• More at stopthedrugwar.org