Cannabis News from Oaksterdam (Oakland, CA) http://www.oaksterdamnews.net Tue, 09 Mar 2010 21:52:21 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/348/10021/ NOTICE: This Oaksterdam News Network website is not affiliated with oaksterdamnews.com, it is an archive of Issues edited by Chris Conrad and published by Richard Lee beginning in 2005 with Volume 1, Issue 1 and ending with Volume 3, Issue 2 in 2007. Oaksterdam News executive editor and publisher step down May 7, 2007 To Whom It May Concern; Oaksterdam News executive editor Chris Conrad and publisher Richard Lee have stepped down from the newspaper effective as of the last issue, Spring 2007, volume 3 number 2. Due to irreconcilable differences with the managing editor, the decision to sever the relationship had been made before the publication of that issue. The final details of the reorganization were to be decided and announced in the next issue, however circumstances have arisen in the interim that make this impossible. Therefore, Chris Conrad and Richard Lee have taken this opportunity to publicly announce that they, individually and collectively, take no personal nor financial responsibility for Oaksterdam News managing editor Jaime Galindo, whether undertaken in the name of the Oaksterdam News or not. -- Chris Conrad, El Cerrito CA http://www.chrisconrad.com (http://www.chrisconrad.com) -- Richard Lee, Oakland CA http://oaksterdamgiftshop.com (http://oaksterdamgiftshop.com) Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Fri, 11 May 2007 11:44:45 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/304/10021/ NM law sets stage for new federal drive in Congress Presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed the nation’s 12th state medical marijuana law April 2 in a move advocates said will likely jump-start efforts to reform federal policy. NM law sets stage for new federal drive in Congress Presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson signed the nation’s 12th state medical marijuana law April 2 in a move advocates said will likely jump-start efforts to reform federal policy. The signing came in the wake of new research documenting marijuana’s medical value and public outrage at the Appeals Court’s rejection of Angel Raich’s medical marijuana due process claim. New Mexico joins Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington in protecting medical marijuana patients from arrest. Democrat Richardson, the first presidential candidate to have supported medical marijuana by signing it into law, has consistently voiced his strong support for the bill and was a major proponent in ensuring its passage. “Gov. Richardson is showing his compassion for seriously ill people, and he is also reflecting the will of the majority of New Mexicans and the American people,” said Drug Policy Alliance NM director Reena Szczepanski. “I hope other elected officials take note: Americans will stand behind those that believe in compassion and mercy for our most vulnerable, our sick and dying patients struggling for relief.” Added Rob Kampia, director of the Marijuana Policy Project, “The American public, too, is solidly behind medical marijuana. An October 2005 Gallup poll found that 78 percent of voters supported allowing physicians to prescribe marijuana to reduce pain and suffering. Politicians are learning that supporting medical marijuana doesn’t cost support — it gains votes.” Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:31:40 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/305/10021/ The California Board of Equalization announced in February that cannabis products are subject to sales tax, including medical marijuana. With as many as 500 outlets in the state generating two billion in sales, the state could collect $175 million in 2007 on cannabis drinks, baked goods, confections, ice cream, plants, herb, concentrates, topical ointments, and oral spray formulations. The Board determined that SB 420 does allow sales under state law but since medical marijuana only requires a doctor’s recommendation it is not a prescription medicine and therefore not exempt from sales tax. Since cannabis is still illegal federally, “retailers may decline to provide information on products sold due to concerns about self-incrimination,” according to a Board of Equalization Special Notice. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:05:02 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/307/10021/ San Francisco’s federal US Attorney George Bevan survived a recent administration purge of prosecutors who were not “Bushy” enough in pursuing the president’s partisan political agenda. Part of his assignment has been to undermine California state laws by aggressively pursuing those who work within the state’s developing legal medical cannabis infrastructure. A juror cannot be punished for voting to acquit a defendant, regardless of the ‘facts’ presented. Guru of Ganja” Ed Rosenthal was prosecuted by Bevan and convicted of drug charges in 2003. In 2006 he saw his conviction overturned because one of the jurors had been intimidated from exercising her right to vote “not guilty” when she realized the case involved medical use. A juror cannot be punished for voting to acquit a defendant, regardless of the facts that are allowed into evidence; this power to vote “not guilty” is known as jury nullification when applied to unjust laws. Rosenthal had been deputized by the City of Oakland in an effort to give him the same immunity for providing cannabis to patients for medical use that an undercover narcotics agent has when selling drugs to school children or others in order to entrap them into violating a law. The US Supreme Court held in 2001 that deputies are immune only if they attempt to trick people into breaking a law, and not when they try to help sick and dying people under state law. Rosenthal continued to be a thorn in federal prosecutors’ sides, and Bevan announced last year he would retry Rosenthal on the charges, only to be told by Judge Charles Breyer that it was a waste of time because, if Rosenthal was convicted, the judge had already passed a sentence and would not add to his one day for time served on the night of his arrest. Bevan responded with a flurry of subpoenas for Rosenthal’s acquaintances and filed new charges of tax evasion regarding less than $2000 worth of money orders Rosenthal had once purchased. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:06:55 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/308/10021/ In response to a lawsuit brought by medical cannabis research advocates, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled Feb. 12 that the agency should stop blocking approval of a private cannabis research production facility at the University of Massachusetts. In an 87-page ruling, Judge Bittner found that the public interest would be served by ending the government’s monopoly on marijuana supplies. The lawsuit was sponsored by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which is sponsoring the U Mass project, with legal assistance from the ACLU. This is a major step to getting us to do the scientific research that the government has been blocking for the past 30 years,” said MAPS Director and NORML board member Rick Doblin. For decades, politicians have said that marijuana has no proven medical value while scientists have been denied the ability to prove otherwise,” At present, the only legal source of marijuana in the US is the government’s research farm at the University of Mississippi, controlled by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). However, NIDA tightened restrictions on access to its marijuana following passage of Prop. 215, refusing to make it available even by sale for certain FDA-approved medical marijuana studies. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:19:36 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/309/10021/ Noted cannabis author Ed Rosenthal had the majority of the federal charges against him dismissed on March 14, thanks in large measure to the legal work of Americans for Safe Access’ Chief Counsel, Joe Elford. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:09:21 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/310/10021/ The federal government’s continuing denials of the medical efficacy of cannabis may soon come to an end, thanks to ASA... Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:23:52 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/311/10021/ Cities implement cannabis- friendly ‘LLEP’ measures Last fall, voters in three California cities approved measures designed to reduce cannabis arrests and save money. Santa Barbara Mayor Marty Blum has selected the city’s first oversight committee mandated by Measure P, the Lowest Law Enforcement Priority for Marijuana Offenses (LLEP) initiative following interviews with applicants that were held at the end of February. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 19:21:57 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/312/10021/ Only 17 percent of Democratic voters and 22 percent of Republican voters would refuse to vote for a Presidential candidate who admits to past drug use, a Gallup poll has found. Overall, only 19 percent of voters would reject a candidate because he smoked a bowl or snorted a line in the distant past, the survey found. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:08:10 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/314/10021/ The corporate media would have us believe that it’s only the living conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center that are deplorable, not the medical care. But California cannabis specialists question the quality of care itself. “Wounded soldiers at Walter Reed are treated with toxic medications,” says Tod Mikuriya, MD, “while the safest painkiller known to man is systematically withheld.” Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:27:53 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/313/10021/ The National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) massive collection of journals and books related to drug use and addiction has been shut down because of budget cuts, according to the organ of the Substance Abuse Librarians and Information Specialists, SALIS News. The fate of journal volumes and books unclear... Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:13:04 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/315/10021/ A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine — and US drug policy — that we still need “proof” of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:52:22 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/316/10021/ Angel Raich got another dose of federal medicine March 14, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed her lawsuit seeking protection from federal arrest and prosecution for using cannabis consistent with California law. After hearing the decision, she broke down in tears and said she is a “dead woman walking.” Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 20:57:41 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/317/10021/ The spider mite is the most common pest found on indoor plants and causes the most problems. Mites have eight legs and are classified as spiders. To the untrained naked eye, they are hard to spot. Spider mites appear as tiny specks on leaf undersides; however, signs of feeding– yellowish-white spots, stippling–on the tops of leaves are easy to see. Careful inspection reveals tiny spider webs–easily seen when misted with water–on stems and under leaves as infestations progress. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:47:56 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/318/10021/ Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 22:41:23 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/319/10021/ Topping and pruning are two methods outdoor growers use to alter the growth pattern of cannabis. Pruning Cannabis — is the removal of unwanted, often dying foliage... Topping Weed — Amongst growers, topping a plant is controversial and refers to cutting off the top shoot(s) of cannabis plants. You can take-off the tallest branches or the freshest shoots. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Mon, 16 Apr 2007 23:28:28 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/320/10021/ On March 8, a high-powered British commission recommended tossing that country’s law on illegal drugs onto the scrap heap and starting over again. Given that the US Controlled Substances Act parallels the British Misuse of Drugs Act in important ways, the suggestion deserves attention in America as well. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:27:30 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/321/10021/ SAFER worked with students at more than 40 universities, including a number of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and campus NORML chapters, to spread the word on this celebratory day that marijuana is safer than alcohol and should be treated that way. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:43:12 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/322/10021/ One of the most prominent scientific journals in the UK, The Lancet, is entering the drug policy debate and potentially trying to revise the way that nation’s current laws are formulated. The proposal is to index drugs according to their actual danger. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 00:53:13 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/323/10021/ Cannabis patients who run into legal problems have a new online support network at MedicalMarijuana ofAmerica.com (https://medicalmarijuanaofamerica.com/), which tracks some high profile cases. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 01:24:04 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/324/10021/ In response to complaints from local patients, Cal NORML is challenging an ordinance by the city of Lakeport banning cultivation of medical marijuana within the city limits. The ordinance, which becomes effective on April 6, is the first attempt by a California city to deny the right to cultivation guaranteed under Prop. 215. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 02:00:05 +0100 http://www.oaksterdamnews.net/content/view/325/10021/ Feb 28th, Sacramento. After an outburst of protest from medical marijuana advocates, the California Department of Health Services significantly cut back an announced fee hike for state medical marijuana ID cards effective April 1st. Volume Three - V3 Issue 2 Tue, 17 Apr 2007 23:49:58 +0100