Law Weird Cannabis News

[Baron23]

Yes, we once thought big tech was going to be a major tool for individual liberties has just turned into another part of the corporate nanny state. Sad really...nobody seems to hold the high ground anymore.


Tech companies Google and PayPal not playing nice with cannabis industry

With marijuana now legal in over 60 percent of the United States, and with the latest estimates showing the cannabis industry could be worth a whopping $57 billion by 2027, it seems unlikely that major tech companies, like search engine giant Google and online payment platform PayPal, would still have a problem doing business with cannabis-related operations.

But businesses that market ancillary pot products, such as vaporizers and e-cigs, say they have been completely shutout of the world of e-commerce.

At one time, Tyler Browne, owner of the To The Cloud Vapor Store says his website, which sells a variety of herbal vaporizers commonly used for the consumption of marijuana, was able to advertise and sell products through popular services such as Google Adwords and Bing Shopping. But now these online sales tools have severed ties with businesses connected to the cannabis scene.

Browne told Forbes that any company that makes its way selling cannabis vaporizers is being eliminated from the public eye and their accounts are being suspended, without question. This is a drastically different situation than it was before, he added.

“In the past, it was like a game of cat and mouse,” Browne explained. “We spent so much on Google AdWords they actually gave us an account representative. The account reps would joke that they knew the products’ intended use, but would give us ways to get around it, like calling it an aromatherapy diffuser or omitting the word vaporizer.

“Having an account representative to help us remain compliant felt reassuring,” he continued, “like we would be able to keep the business growing with Google AdWords. One day, the account was suspended without warning. The once easy-to-count-on account representative was no longer able to respond, and appeals fell on deaf ears or instructing us to the terms of service agreement.”

Google considers marijuana and anything associated with it, including “pipes and bongs," to be dangerous products or services. According to the company’s advertising policy, it does not allow the “promotion of substances that alter mental state for the purpose of recreation or otherwise induce "highs” or “products or services marketed as facilitating recreational drug use.”

Unfortunately, vaporizers fall into the company's Dangerous Products or Services category because they are also associated with tobacco.

“Herbal cigarettes, electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes,” are not permitted.

But it is not just those tech firms providing companies with advertising opportunities that are bringing down the hammer. Browne says PayPal has made online sales next to impossible.

In fact, the online payment company recently asked for proof that To The Cloud Vapor Store was not selling certain items. This is because PayPal does not wish to facilitate transactions from websites dedicated to selling vaporizers. The company claims it puts them at risk for "fraud, charge backs, and bad actors,” according to press release issued by To The Cloud Vapor Store.

PayPal’s sales policy strictly prohibits transactions dealing with “certain controlled substances or other products that present a risk to consumer safety, drug paraphernalia, cigarettes, items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity.”

However, sales involving e-cigarettes require pre-approval, according to the website.

Browne says tech firms are targeting companies that sell vaporizers. But the policy is not the same for every vaporizer business. He is concerned that smaller firms, like his, will eventually be shunned from this vital market space – leaving it open only to those with influence.

And he's not the only one who feels this way.

“Very early on, it became apparent to me that this industry wasn’t equally embraced by all,” explained Vape Critic, a recognized source for information on cannabis vaporizers. “But it went even deeper than that; I noticed also that many were willing to look the other way, even though content of this nature was essentially against their terms. This is when you need to realize that you’re building your business on the side of a volcano, which could erupt at any time and vaporize you overnight -- pun intended.”

 

[Baron23]

This mother must be a saint cause if it were me.....I'm afraid the Home Secretary would be either dead or in an ICU. Sajid Javid is a complete and utter fucking wanker and I actually hope he gets epilepsy, MS, or any other seizure/movement disorder that is wonderfully treated by CBD. Then deny him any at all.

Best this lady can do is pack up, tell them all to fuck off, and move the fuck out of that country. She may like CO, WA, NV....many other places.

UK authorities release confiscated cannabis after boy hospitalized

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s interior minister used an exceptional power on Saturday to release medicinal cannabis oil that had been confiscated from an epileptic boy who was later hospitalized suffering from seizures.

FILE PHOTO: Charlotte Caldwell, and her son Billy, stand outside the Home Office during a break in a meeting with officials to discuss how Billy can have his severe epilepsy treated with cannabis oil, which is a banned substance in Britain, in London, June 11, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls/File Photo
Billy Caldwell, 12, had traveled to Canada with his mother, Charlotte, to get the cannabis oil after Billy’s doctor was ordered to stop prescribing it, but when they flew back into London on Monday customs officials confiscated their supplies.

The boy was hospitalized on Friday after suffering several seizures.

His case has stirred debate on the therapeutic use of cannabis, with politicians from different parties backing the family and campaigners calling for changes to the law.

“This morning, I’ve used an exceptional power as Home Secretary to urgently issue a license to allow Billy Caldwell to be treated with cannabis oil,” the minister, Sajid Javid, said in a statement. “My decision is based on the advice of senior clinicians who have made clear this is a medical emergency.”

Charlotte Caldwell, who says Billy was free of seizures when he was using the cannabis oil, made a statement to reporters outside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, where her son was being treated. She called for the law to be changed.

“No other family should have to go through this sort of ordeal, traveling halfway around the world to get medication which should be freely available to our desperately ill children,” she said.

“This is a wake-up call for our country. In the 21st century we need to have a more humane policy, not panic measures. I hope the government reflects upon what happened and what they’ve put our family through these last few days.”

The Home Office had previously said that while it was sympathetic to the child’s plight, it had a duty to stop banned substances from entering Britain.

Under British law, cannabis is listed as a schedule 1 drug, meaning that it is not recognized as having a therapeutic value. Schedule 1 drugs can be used for research purposes and clinical trials, but only under a Home Office license.

The Caldwell family, who normally live in Northern Ireland, have received support from several members of parliament from different political parties, including Dan Poulter of the ruling Conservative Party.

Billy Caldwell had been receiving medicinal cannabis oil on prescription by his family doctor for over a year, but supplies ran out after the Home Office ordered the doctor to stop prescribing it.

 

[BD9]

¡ay dios mio!

This news story definitely qualifies as weird cannabis news.

Former president of Mexico Vincente Fox joins the board of High Times.

https://www.wftv.com/news/former-mexico-president-vicente-fox-joins-high-times-board/772274497

Former Mexico President Vicente Fox, who calls himself a soldier in the global campaign to legalize marijuana, is joining the board of directors of venerable cannabis publication High Times to advance his agenda.

Speaking with The Associated Press about his views on cannabis and his new appointment, Fox said he foresees a day when a robust legal marketplace will produce new jobs and medicines while sharply reducing cartel violence in his home country.

He also sees pot being part of the North American Free Trade Agreement among Mexico, Canada and the U.S., where some 30 states are embracing legalized marijuana in some form.

Fox's appointment to the magazine's board points to the growing acceptance of the once-scorned industry. Earlier this year, former U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, reversed his long-held position against legalization and became an adviser to a cannabis company.

"I don't think that governments will ever have the capacity to impose behaviors, to impose conduct, to human beings. At the very end, prohibitions don't work. What works is your own free decision."

 

[Baron23]

I hate seeing MJ continue to be associated with idiot stoner stereotypes like this dude below.

Why the pot-infused ‘Cooking on High’ is the worst food show on Netflix

It is easy to get lost in the absolute mishmash of content that is the Netflix Originals library. The streaming platform now churns out food-centric television, too, much of which garners praise — “Nailed It!” cheers us up with silly creations and host Nicole Byer’s boisterous personality, while “Ugly Delicious” indulges our curiosity with David Chang’s unpretentious exploration of different cuisines. Just the pilot of “Chef’s Table” makes us want to hop on a plane to Modena, Italy.

Netflix’s latest offering in this realm, however, falls incredibly short. The platform touts “Cooking on High” as the first-ever competitive cannabis cooking show, which seems odd considering how little this show cares about actual cannabis. Instead of learning much about the plant’s properties or the culture surrounding its culinary use, viewers are force-fed roughly 15 minutes of mundane cooking and mindless commentary each episode.

But even the worst dishes are just the sum of their parts. Because this mid-June release is still getting so much buzz, here is a closer look at some of its questionable ingredients:

1 ripped-off premise

We can all agree that the Food Network struck gold with “Chopped,” one of the strongest cooking competitions on television. Weird ingredients paired with a ticking clock make for riveting television, as do the many doomed trips to the ice cream machine. Will Chef Bobby plate his pork sliders in time? How will Chef Lisa work turkey into her parfait? And so on.

“Cooking on High” is a poor man’s “Chopped,” with two fewer rounds and chefs. Instead of using this to give each contestant more attention, the show shoves them into a tiny space and spends more time with its dud of a judging panel. (We miss you, Alex Guarnaschelli!) The required ingredient in each episode is a certain strain of weed, and contestants must abide by a theme like “afternoon delight” (so, lunch).

[New coffee pods promise a two-way buzz: From marijuana and caffeine]

2 “celebrity” judges with little culinary knowledge

This is where we discuss Mod Sun, a rapper this pop-culture junkie recognizes only as B-list actress Bella Thorne’s boyfriend. “My mom smoked when she was pregnant,” he says during his introduction in the pilot, “so I’ve been high since before I was born.” Later on, he admits that he has “like, never ate fish before” while chowing down on competitor Andrea Drummer’s cod cake. Of course, he rates it a 10.

Mod Sun’s fellow judge, comedian Ramon Rivas II, is not much better: “I’m not sure I’m feeling the effects of the meal, ’cause I came into the shoot kind of high,” he says. To judge an edible, you might want to have the ability to evaluate its effects.

Later episodes (with different judges) include such insightful commentary as “I thought it was cooked very well. It was beautiful.”

[Cannabis Quiz: How much do you know about the science of marijuana?]

2 overlooked chefs

The poor, poor chefs! Despite the fact that the show revolves around their battle to win what YouTube star turned host Josh Leyva refers to as the “coveted Golden Pot” — is there money in it? — we don’t actually get to hear much from them. They are sometimes cut off when describing their dishes, and the tiny space inhibits our ability to see their cooking techniques while listening to the judges tell meandering stories.

When Luke Reyes, a chef who once won “Chopped,” begins to describe his sandwich in the first episode, Mod Sun interrupts to say, “Bro, I’m a mess right now.” Cool, but please let Reyes finish.

½ teaspoon cannabis information

The one redeeming quality of “Cooking on High” is Ngaio Bealum, a comedian and the show’s resident cannabis expert. Bealum introduces the strain of weed in each episode, divulging a tiny bit of information about it — Amnesia Haze is “super, super buzzy,” for example, and Cookies and Cream is an “indica-dominant hybrid” — and then sits beside the judges without saying much more.

In the fourth episode, Bealum responds to a ridiculous judge (who says he considers all strains of weed to be the same) by breaking down two commonly used kinds of marijuana: indica, known for “its body effects,” and sativa, known for producing a “a more cerebral, buzzy, mind-racing high.”

We love educational television! Please teach us more.

 

[GreenHopper]

I hate seeing MJ continue to be associated with idiot stoner stereotypes like this dude below.

Why the pot-infused ‘Cooking on High’ is the worst food show on Netflix

It is easy to get lost in the absolute mishmash of content that is the Netflix Originals library. The streaming platform now churns out food-centric television, too, much of which garners praise — “Nailed It!” cheers us up with silly creations and host Nicole Byer’s boisterous personality, while “Ugly Delicious” indulges our curiosity with David Chang’s unpretentious exploration of different cuisines. Just the pilot of “Chef’s Table” makes us want to hop on a plane to Modena, Italy.

Netflix’s latest offering in this realm, however, falls incredibly short. The platform touts “Cooking on High” as the first-ever competitive cannabis cooking show, which seems odd considering how little this show cares about actual cannabis. Instead of learning much about the plant’s properties or the culture surrounding its culinary use, viewers are force-fed roughly 15 minutes of mundane cooking and mindless commentary each episode.

But even the worst dishes are just the sum of their parts. Because this mid-June release is still getting so much buzz, here is a closer look at some of its questionable ingredients:

1 ripped-off premise

We can all agree that the Food Network struck gold with “Chopped,” one of the strongest cooking competitions on television. Weird ingredients paired with a ticking clock make for riveting television, as do the many doomed trips to the ice cream machine. Will Chef Bobby plate his pork sliders in time? How will Chef Lisa work turkey into her parfait? And so on.

“Cooking on High” is a poor man’s “Chopped,” with two fewer rounds and chefs. Instead of using this to give each contestant more attention, the show shoves them into a tiny space and spends more time with its dud of a judging panel. (We miss you, Alex Guarnaschelli!) The required ingredient in each episode is a certain strain of weed, and contestants must abide by a theme like “afternoon delight” (so, lunch).

[New coffee pods promise a two-way buzz: From marijuana and caffeine]

2 “celebrity” judges with little culinary knowledge

This is where we discuss Mod Sun, a rapper this pop-culture junkie recognizes only as B-list actress Bella Thorne’s boyfriend. “My mom smoked when she was pregnant,” he says during his introduction in the pilot, “so I’ve been high since before I was born.” Later on, he admits that he has “like, never ate fish before” while chowing down on competitor Andrea Drummer’s cod cake. Of course, he rates it a 10.

Mod Sun’s fellow judge, comedian Ramon Rivas II, is not much better: “I’m not sure I’m feeling the effects of the meal, ’cause I came into the shoot kind of high,” he says. To judge an edible, you might want to have the ability to evaluate its effects.

Later episodes (with different judges) include such insightful commentary as “I thought it was cooked very well. It was beautiful.”

[Cannabis Quiz: How much do you know about the science of marijuana?]

2 overlooked chefs

The poor, poor chefs! Despite the fact that the show revolves around their battle to win what YouTube star turned host Josh Leyva refers to as the “coveted Golden Pot” — is there money in it? — we don’t actually get to hear much from them. They are sometimes cut off when describing their dishes, and the tiny space inhibits our ability to see their cooking techniques while listening to the judges tell meandering stories.

When Luke Reyes, a chef who once won “Chopped,” begins to describe his sandwich in the first episode, Mod Sun interrupts to say, “Bro, I’m a mess right now.” Cool, but please let Reyes finish.

½ teaspoon cannabis information

The one redeeming quality of “Cooking on High” is Ngaio Bealum, a comedian and the show’s resident cannabis expert. Bealum introduces the strain of weed in each episode, divulging a tiny bit of information about it — Amnesia Haze is “super, super buzzy,” for example, and Cookies and Cream is an “indica-dominant hybrid” — and then sits beside the judges without saying much more.

In the fourth episode, Bealum responds to a ridiculous judge (who says he considers all strains of weed to be the same) by breaking down two commonly used kinds of marijuana: indica, known for “its body effects,” and sativa, known for producing a “a more cerebral, buzzy, mind-racing high.”

We love educational television! Please teach us more.

Yeh i saw a couple of episodes and it's worse than you could possibly imagine.

I felt so sorry for the chefs and I hated everyone else.

 

[ataxian]

Yeh i saw a couple of episodes and it's worse than you could possibly imagine.

I felt so sorry for the chefs and I hated everyone else.

Very subjective?
The show suck's!

 

[GreenHopper]

Very subjective?
The show suck's!

Not subjective at all in my view, very UN-CIVILIZED show

Bad PR for the community

 

[ataxian]

Not subjective at all in my view, very UN-CIVILIZED show

Bad PR for the community

I found da show to be STUPID!

 

[Killick]

The Netflix show with Cathy Bates had such potential, but turned into a collection of badly stoner stereotype jokes. C'mon Netflix - do something good with what you have. The documentary 'A LIfe Of It's Own' is on Netflix, and it's pretty darn great. Make a show that shows the capabilities of cannabis as medicine, as opposed to cannabis as butt of jokes, and you'll have TV worth watching...

A Life of Its Own: The Truth About Medical Marijuana
2017 TV-PG1h 21m

Award-winning journalist Helen Kapalos explores the subject of medical marijuana, uncovering life-changing treatments and cutting-edge research.

Genres: Documentaries, Australian Movies
Director: Helen Kapalos

https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/80223995

 

[Baron23]

I can see a remake of Disney's Frozen here, yeah? LOL Maybe instead it will be called Baked? haha


Can You Smoke Weed In Antarctica?
The 7th continent may be the most pot-friendly place on the planet.

What a time to be alive! Not only is the number of U.S. states with legal recreational weed on the rise—not to mention entire countries like Canada and Uruguay—it’s never been easier to travel to those places to partake in the consumption of cannabis. Checking off places and dream activities is almost a form of social currency nowadays with flights as fast and cheap as they are, and getting stoned in different places is high up there.

At the nexus of these bucket lists and country counts is The Big One: smoking weed in Antarctica.

Making it to Antarctica is the traveler’s version of a runner completing their first marathon. It’s one of the few places on the planet that’s still prohibitively expensive and challenging to reach, with trips to South America preceding costly ice-breaker voyages that only run for a few months out of the year. Having the time, funds, and durability to get to the South Pole isn’t something every wanderer can claim.

But if you are going to go through the effort to check off Antarctica on the ol’ bucket list, the obvious question is, “How do I get high while I’m there?” The best way to figure this out is by looking at the scientists who spend upwards of 6 months a year working on the ice.


Antarctica is a strong, independent continent that has no government, and even though it’s functionally a lawless land, there isn’t a straightforward yes or no answer to the question of legality. The Antarctic Treaty forbids anyone of any citizenship from doing things like setting off nuclear bombs, but it has nothing to say about the consumption of cannabis (or any other drug, for that matter). So growing, consuming, or selling pot is technically legal. There’s no law saying you can’t.

There’s no known information of what would happen if a tourist was caught smoking a bowl, but it’s extremely unlikely that a tour company would abandon their guest in Antarctica.

However, scientists in Antarctica are subject to the laws of their home country, and tourists are beholden to whichever travel company brought them there. Crimes committed by tourists in Antarctica would refer back to their home country. There isn’t a category of people arriving in Antarctica independently—at least not yet—but in theory they would be able to do whatever they want.


Whether you’re a scientist or a tourist, “You tend to be there as part of a group that expects certain standards, and you might have signed a code of conduct contract,” explains soil scientist and Oregon-based grower Otis Gardens’ Greg Selby in an email interview with High Times. Scientists may find themselves facing greater scrutiny, due to being sponsored to be there, Selby tells us: “Since you’re paid by a government and living in university camps, [cannabis] use is normally frowned upon. The only real risk is getting kicked out of camp for breaking government or campus policy.”

There’s no known information of what would happen if a tourist was caught smoking a bowl, but it’s extremely unlikely that a tour company would abandon their guest in Antarctica, or have them arrested over a little self-medication. And unless a penguin figures out how to snitch, you probably won’t get caught sucking on a vape pen.

The answer to the legality question may be a little murky, but the main thing is to be discreet. The answer to how to obtain marijuana in Antarctica is surprisingly a little more straightforward if you plan for it.


“Most of the cannabis used in these areas is for pain relief and sleeping,” Selby explains.

In 1981 the New York Times reported on a story wherein New Zealand got pissy about packages containing drugs being sent through their territory from the United States to McMurdo Station, the largest research community on the continent. The U.S. was surprisingly chill about the whole thing, cooperating unenthusiastically with customs searches.

Although Selby has not been to Antarctica, his research was focused on cannabis growth in the polar climate, and he has worked with scientists who got high in Antarctica. “In the days before vape pens it depended on the amount of flower people found safe to smuggle over,” Selby says. “Then it was normally pipes made out of apples, and hitting tobacco smokers up for papers. Nowadays you get an assortment of vape pens and live resin carts that are easy to zip into your luggage. They have made life much easier.”

Even though carving out an apple brings back the nostalgia of teenage years, long-term Antarctic residents aren’t just getting high for the fun of it: it can be essential to survival. “Most of the cannabis used in these areas is for pain relief and sleeping,” Selby explains. “Working 12-16 hour days can hurt! The sun never goes down during the working season. You can get blackout curtains and hide in tents, but your body never really adjusts to 24 hours of light, so you might need some help.” And how bad is it really for the people determining how quickly our planet is dying of climate change to get help from a little bud?

Selby has an idea for an alternative to packing enough resin to last the winter and risking an extra-thorough customs search: “Any cannabis grown successfully in polar regions would be in a greenhouse or indoor setup where lighting can be controlled. I would hope one day, as ideas change, that a small garden with a few medical use plants would be available to people in these areas. Most of these camps have a small area for ornamental and fruit-bearing plants. At -40 degrees in the winter, a live plant can really boost your mood.”

Perhaps eventually the Antarctic’s first dispensary will come into existence so that scientists and tourists alike can partake in the herb, avoiding the problems associated with border crossing by using greenhouse technology. You have to check off that bucket list somehow!

 

[momofthegoons]

Police officers lose their jobs after claiming mice ate half a ton of seized marijuana

Eight Police officers from Argentina lose their jobs after half a ton of seized marijuana goes missing after it was stored in a police warehouse located 60km out of Buenos Aires the capital of Argentina.

An inspection had been conducted at the police warehouse, and officers found that almost 560KG of marijuana had gone missing.

The seized drugs had been stored in the warehouse for over two years ago and amounted to almost 6000KG, upon inspection it was discovered that 560kg of the 6000kg had disappeared.

An inquiry was immediately called in order to find the missing cannabis, police commissioner Javier Specia was called before a judge to present his argument in which he claimed that the cannabis had been “eaten by mice”.

His seven subordinates also claimed the same and all eight (including Specia) were dismissed from their jobs with immediate effect.

Forensic experts have discarded the claim as untrue, they have said that if this was the case there would have been dead rats in the warehouse as rats cannot tolerate such a heavy dose of drugs.

“The drugs were in a state of absolute dryness, since they were in storage for about two years, which forced us to investigate if a rodent invasion could have eaten so much marijuana, but the experts consulted concluded that that was very unlikely because if it had happened, the mice would have died, and no animal carcasses were detected in the room,” investigators said in a statement.

The suspicion was pointed towards Specia when it was noticed that he left the inventory that stored the marijuana unsigned after he had left office in April 2017.

The shortfall in the amount of marijuana was identified by the new police commissioner, Specia’s replacement, who immediately notified the shortfall to the relevant authorities.

Emilio Portero the replacing officer noticed that upon weighing the cannabis that the amount was less than what had been reported to him so he notified the authorities and relevant bodies for inspection and upon looking in to the matter it was confirmed that the cannabis had been missing.

The weed is considered to be worth $ 324,000.

The judge will decide in court, whether the missing marijuana is a case of negligence or theft and an inquiry will be called for accordingly, Police commissioner Specia is faced with another inquiry as well, as he has not declared his assets and income for September 2017 to courts as of yet.

 

[Baron23]

Police officers lose their jobs after claiming mice ate half a ton of seized marijuana

Eight Police officers from Argentina lose their jobs after half a ton of seized marijuana goes missing after it was stored in a police warehouse located 60km out of Buenos Aires the capital of Argentina.

An inspection had been conducted at the police warehouse, and officers found that almost 560KG of marijuana had gone missing.

The seized drugs had been stored in the warehouse for over two years ago and amounted to almost 6000KG, upon inspection it was discovered that 560kg of the 6000kg had disappeared.

An inquiry was immediately called in order to find the missing cannabis, police commissioner Javier Specia was called before a judge to present his argument in which he claimed that the cannabis had been “eaten by mice”.

His seven subordinates also claimed the same and all eight (including Specia) were dismissed from their jobs with immediate effect.

Forensic experts have discarded the claim as untrue, they have said that if this was the case there would have been dead rats in the warehouse as rats cannot tolerate such a heavy dose of drugs.

“The drugs were in a state of absolute dryness, since they were in storage for about two years, which forced us to investigate if a rodent invasion could have eaten so much marijuana, but the experts consulted concluded that that was very unlikely because if it had happened, the mice would have died, and no animal carcasses were detected in the room,” investigators said in a statement.

The suspicion was pointed towards Specia when it was noticed that he left the inventory that stored the marijuana unsigned after he had left office in April 2017.

The shortfall in the amount of marijuana was identified by the new police commissioner, Specia’s replacement, who immediately notified the shortfall to the relevant authorities.

Emilio Portero the replacing officer noticed that upon weighing the cannabis that the amount was less than what had been reported to him so he notified the authorities and relevant bodies for inspection and upon looking in to the matter it was confirmed that the cannabis had been missing.

The weed is considered to be worth $ 324,000.

The judge will decide in court, whether the missing marijuana is a case of negligence or theft and an inquiry will be called for accordingly, Police commissioner Specia is faced with another inquiry as well, as he has not declared his assets and income for September 2017 to courts as of yet.

Yeah, I saw this article....its definitely a new twist on "the dog ate my homework". Wow...."the rats ate my the half ton of MJ" LOL

 

[ataxian]

Yeah, I saw this article....its definitely a new twist on "the dog ate my homework". Wow...."the rats ate my the half ton of MJ" LOL

What an excuse?

 

[momofthegoons]

Behold the DEA’s Massive List of Marijuana Nicknames


Say man, you got any lime pillows? Some dinkie dow? A little tiggity?

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions hasn’t exactly taken a progressive stance on marijuana since taking office. Not only did the former senator from Alabama rescind an Obama-era policy aimed at curbing sentences for non-violent drug offenses, his understanding of marijuana is trapped squarely in the 1950s. In 2016, Sessions said “good people” don’t smoke marijuana, which he has called “dangerous,” “damaging” and only “slightly less awful” than heroin. The federal government feels similarly, as marijuana is still categorized as a Schedule I narcotic alongside heroin, LSD and peyote. So extreme is Sessions’ attitude toward weed that he famously once said he felt members of the Ku Klux Klan “were OK until I found out they smoked pot,” which also explains some of his other views.

To effectively crackdown on marijuana use, law enforcement needs to be street-wise to the contemporary jive, which is why, as Reason points out, in May 2017 the Drug Enforcement Agency, which falls under Sessions’ Department of Justice, released an intelligence report titled “Drug Slang Code Words.” The list featured an exhaustive collection of street terms for everything from cocaine (which you may know as “oyster stew”), to heroin (also known as “chocolate balls”), to amphetamines (you know, “Blue Bell ice cream”), to steroids (never accept “gym candy” from a stranger). The most robust compendium of street code, however, belongs to marijuana. The list features old classics like “weed,” “pot,” “grass” and “Mary Jane,” as well as plenty of not-as-common monikers like “burritos verdes,” “joy smoke,” “big pillows” and the mellifluous “bambalachacha.”

Here are some other highlights:

Alice B Toklas
Arizona Ashes
Black Bart
Blue Cheese
Crazy Weed
Crying Weed
Crippy
Dinkie Dow
Dizz
Giggle Smoke
Giggle Weed
Good Giggles
Gorilla Glue
Green Mercedes Benz
Juanita
Lime Pillows
Pocket Rocket
Rainy Day Woman
Rasta Weed
Righteous Bush
Sasafras
Smoochy Poochy
Tex-Mex
Tweeds
Wake and Bake
Young Girls

Due to the “dynamics of the ever-changing drugs scene,” the DEA updated the list with a few fresh terms this month. Some are non-English or refer to specific marijuana strains rather than general code. Others like “devil’s lettuce” and “nug” have been around for years. Here’s the full list of new additions:

A-Bomb (marijuana mixed with heroin)
Alfalfa
Almohada
Bazooka (marijuana mixed with cocaine paste)
Bionic (maijuana mixed with PCP)
Blue Dream
Branches
Café
Cajita
Camara
Devil’s Lettuce
Diosa Verde
Elefante Pata
Escoba
Fattie
Gallina
Garifa
Green Crack
Greenhouse
Hoja
Leña
Llesca
Loud
Lucas
Manteca
Mersh
Mexciali Haze
MMJ
My Brother
Nug
Pasto
Pasture
Peliroja
Pink Panther
Pintura
Plant
Porro
Purple OG
Red Hair
Shoes
Sour OG
Sticky
Tangy OG
Terp
Terpenes
Tiggity
Top Shelf
Train Wreck
Trinity OG
Valle
Zip

 

[Baron23]

Behold the DEA’s Massive List of Marijuana Nicknames


Say man, you got any lime pillows? Some dinkie dow? A little tiggity?

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions hasn’t exactly taken a progressive stance on marijuana since taking office. Not only did the former senator from Alabama rescind an Obama-era policy aimed at curbing sentences for non-violent drug offenses, his understanding of marijuana is trapped squarely in the 1950s. In 2016, Sessions said “good people” don’t smoke marijuana, which he has called “dangerous,” “damaging” and only “slightly less awful” than heroin. The federal government feels similarly, as marijuana is still categorized as a Schedule I narcotic alongside heroin, LSD and peyote. So extreme is Sessions’ attitude toward weed that he famously once said he felt members of the Ku Klux Klan “were OK until I found out they smoked pot,” which also explains some of his other views.

To effectively crackdown on marijuana use, law enforcement needs to be street-wise to the contemporary jive, which is why, as Reason points out, in May 2017 the Drug Enforcement Agency, which falls under Sessions’ Department of Justice, released an intelligence report titled “Drug Slang Code Words.” The list featured an exhaustive collection of street terms for everything from cocaine (which you may know as “oyster stew”), to heroin (also known as “chocolate balls”), to amphetamines (you know, “Blue Bell ice cream”), to steroids (never accept “gym candy” from a stranger). The most robust compendium of street code, however, belongs to marijuana. The list features old classics like “weed,” “pot,” “grass” and “Mary Jane,” as well as plenty of not-as-common monikers like “burritos verdes,” “joy smoke,” “big pillows” and the mellifluous “bambalachacha.”

Here are some other highlights:

Alice B Toklas
Arizona Ashes
Black Bart
Blue Cheese
Crazy Weed
Crying Weed
Crippy
Dinkie Dow
Dizz
Giggle Smoke
Giggle Weed
Good Giggles
Gorilla Glue
Green Mercedes Benz
Juanita
Lime Pillows
Pocket Rocket
Rainy Day Woman
Rasta Weed
Righteous Bush
Sasafras
Smoochy Poochy
Tex-Mex
Tweeds
Wake and Bake
Young Girls

Due to the “dynamics of the ever-changing drugs scene,” the DEA updated the list with a few fresh terms this month. Some are non-English or refer to specific marijuana strains rather than general code. Others like “devil’s lettuce” and “nug” have been around for years. Here’s the full list of new additions:

A-Bomb (marijuana mixed with heroin)
Alfalfa
Almohada
Bazooka (marijuana mixed with cocaine paste)
Bionic (maijuana mixed with PCP)
Blue Dream
Branches
Café
Cajita
Camara
Devil’s Lettuce
Diosa Verde
Elefante Pata
Escoba
Fattie
Gallina
Garifa
Green Crack
Greenhouse
Hoja
Leña
Llesca
Loud
Lucas
Manteca
Mersh
Mexciali Haze
MMJ
My Brother
Nug
Pasto
Pasture
Peliroja
Pink Panther
Pintura
Plant
Porro
Purple OG
Red Hair
Shoes
Sour OG
Sticky
Tangy OG
Terp
Terpenes
Tiggity
Top Shelf
Train Wreck
Trinity OG
Valle
Zip

Yeah, I saw this...I particularly like this one: Smoochy Poochy

I will have to try to get that in the dispensary sometime. haha

 

[momofthegoons]

Pranksters plant city's flower pots with real pot

POWELL, Wyo. (AP) - A Wyoming city has discovered its potted plants have literally gone to pot.

Officials in Powell believe pranksters planted marijuana seeds in city-owned flower pots this spring, leading unsuspecting city workers to water and care for them.

The Powell Tribune reports city Parks and Recreation staff noticed the unauthorized greenery late last month while watering the pots, including one not far from the police station.


Parks Superintendent Del Barton says workers pulled two plants on June 29 and took them to police. Another was found a couple days later. Barton says workers suspect there may be others.

Police Chief Roy Eckerdt believes the clandestine cultivating is "somebody's sense of humor." After learning about the "weeds" in the city pots, he quickly checked the planters in front of the police station.

 

[ClearBlueLou]

Stealth was not a factor here....

I have been stoned in my time, sometimes I have forgotten things...like how to walk. Or open a car door (my solution, since I was crawling already, was to crawl up onto the hood of my car, and then into the front seat then the driver side window...and then drove home...and still couldn’t remember how to walk...)

But I have NEVER been so stoned that I forgot to hide my shit!

 

[momofthegoons]

Lawmaker Warns Legalizing Cannabis Will Make Dealers Sell “Sex Toys” to Upper-Class White People

New Jersey — Just when we start to garner a little hope for humanity, almost like clockwork some insane politician comes out and tries to ruin it. For those who thought reefer madness was a thing of the past, a lawmaker in New Jersey will quickly reverse that thought.

State Sen. Ronald Rice (D) —a lawmaker who calls himself a “progressive” — recently told reporters that he believes marijuana is a gateway drug that if legalized will lead to the selling of “sex toys and oils” all over the state. Rice, completely contradicting the massive evidence to the contrary, claims that if New Jersey legalized cannabis, “the number of people who’ve never used any type of drugs goes up substantially in terms of drug use.”

However, as TFTP has reported, Rice is dead wrong. Even the government’s own studies show that legalizing weed actually reduces teen drug use, opioid addiction, as well as prescription drug use.

As TFTP reported last year, the Washington State Institute for Public Policy commissioned the study. It found that pot use among teens fell from 20 percent in 2010, to just 17 percent in 2016. The survey asked nearly 11,000 high school sophomores if they’d consumed cannabis within the last month. The results indicate not only are fewer teens using cannabis on a monthly basis, but the fears that teens would become pot addicted were unfounded.

What’s more, Rice’s comment about marijuana being a gateway drug is also an outlandish conspiracy theory, proven wrong time and again by science.

Legal weed is actually the opposite of a gateway drug as it helps people to stop using other drugs.

In the latest of dozens of studies proving the healthful benefits of cannabis, researchers in Canada found not only can marijuana be effective in managing pain, but it can reduce a user’s dependency on tobacco, alcohol, and can replace a number of prescription medications — including antidepressants.

The study specifically found that marijuana isn’t the “gateway drug” politicians and detractors have claimed it is for decades.

Published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, the study — comprised of 271 participants enrolled in Canada’s Marihuana for Medical Purposes program — is considered one of the first to evince how cannabis can help alleviate substance addiction.

But these facts are apparently irrelevant to the New Jersey lawmaker who thinks that legal weed will turn people into drug raged sex addicted zombies.

“If in fact we legalize recreational marijuana, right across the street from my office they’re going to put up stores,” Rice told NJTV last week. “They want to call them dispensaries, but they’re going to be stores that do retail selling cupcakes with marijuana, candies with marijuana, sex toys and oils with marijuana, lipsticks with marijuana, all those kinds of products that kids can get and people can get.”

Rice had no problem expressing his reasoning behind his fear of legal weed either — it will mess up the “white” people.


“I’m five blocks away from Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey which is a predominant rich, upper-middle class, white community, college community. What we know is that when you legalize marijuana recreationally, the number of people who’ve never used any type of drugs goes up substantially in terms of drug use,” Rice said.

Again, Rice is entirely wrong and has zero evidence to back up his claims. But facts be damned, no one will sell weed to his white upper-class friends.

Luckily — for the sake of sanity and humanity — Rice is opposed by many in the state who are pushing to legalize weed in order to stop the senseless incarceration of otherwise innocent people and even expunge the records of those who’ve been arrested for weed in the past.

“Expungements have to happen. I will not support it unless there’s language in there to support expungement. There’s individuals who look like me, and those individuals who do not look like me, that are incarcerated for little, small portions of marijuana,” Assemblyman Jamel Holley said.

Holley is also supported by the governor, Phil Murphy who noted that “You can’t incarcerate somebody who did something on Friday, and allow someone who did the same thing on Monday to do it legally.”

As the marijuana debate continues, those who continue to push the reefer madness on their citizens, are quickly being exposed for the lunatic drug warriors they are.

 

[Baron23]

Fuck WY and I'm not going to start a thread for that state for this travesty of a law enforcement action. Weird new...well, probably not. But OUTRAGEOUS news...yeah, I think outrage should apply here


CBD Outrage: 36 Hours in Jail for CBD Oil Sold at Grocery Store

JACKSON HOLE, WY – A New Mexico woman driving through Jackson, Wyoming, on her way to Montana to care for her ailing mother left the state recently with a life-changing souvenir.

In early July, Anita Maddux, 50, was charged with a felony for possessing a 10-milliliter sample bottle of cannabidiol (CBD) oil from Cid’s, a Taos, New Mexico, health food store. Now Maddux could face up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine pending an August 16 hearing.

Jailed as a 'flight risk' for CBD: A 50-year-old woman driving home to nurse her mother fighting stage 4 cancer.
On Sunday, July 8, Maddux was driving from New Mexico to Montana to care for her mother, who has stage 4 colon cancer. Maddux uses CBD oil for her own chronic back pain—she has a missing disc between her L1 and L2 vertebrae. CBD oil, she said, had brought her some relief, though she took it only sporadically.

At Cid’s, Maddux worked as an herbalist in the health and wellness department where she received a sample shipment of CBD oil from Functional Remedies. The Colorado company’s CBD oil can be found on the shelves of many health food stores and groceries, including Lucky’s Market in Jackson at the time of her arrest. Weeks ago, Maddux placed the sample bottle in her bag and didn’t give it another thought.

On Sunday, July 8, as Maddux drove north toward Montana, Teton County Sheriff’s Deputy Jesse Willcox noticed Maddux’s expired California license plate. He pulled Maddux over and discovered she was driving with an expired license and without insurance. Maddux said she has led a simple life and didn’t have the money to address those issues before hitting the road. “My plan was to just get to Montana, to be with my family and take care of everything there,” she said.

Can You Pay?
According to the probable cause affidavit, Willcox asked Maddux if she could pay an $850 fine for the tickets or appear in court on July 31. The affidavit stated Maddux said she could do neither.

She didn’t think that would land her in jail, Maddux said. “I have never been pulled over before. So I thought the best thing to do was just to be honest about my situation.” A July 30 background check on Maddux showed she has no criminal history.

After he deemed her “a flight risk” because she could not pay the fines and was likely to not appear in court, Willcox arrested Maddux.
https://www.leafly.com/finder
Sold the Car to Pay the Lawyer
At Teton County jail, personnel found her CBD oil and used a NIK test to determine the presence of THC. NIK tests are “rudimentary,” as Smith put it, however. They only confirm the mere presence of THC, not the actual amount. The oil, then, was sent to Wyoming’s crime lab for “analysis” and Maddux sat in jail for roughly 36 hours. She was released on a $1,000-dollar bond.

Life has already changed for Maddux. To help pay for an attorney, she sold her Toyota Tercel for $550 and is now relying on the generosity of friends to make ends meet. Maddux worries the volunteer and service work that has become a large part of her identity will no longer be an option if she is convicted of a felony. She worked as a disaster relief volunteer in Haiti after its 2010 earthquake and in the Philippines after its 2013 typhoon.

Two Weeks Later: Grocery Crackdown
Two weeks after Maddux’s arrest, local and state law enforcement showed up to two local Jackson Hole stores, Lucky’s Market and Jackson Whole Grocer, to inform those store officials that CBD products were illegal to sell if they contained any amount of THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis. Both stores have since removed those products from their shelves.

Most CBD oil sold in stores like Lucky’s and JWG purport to contain .3 percent (or less) THC, an amount that does not have mind-altering effects as outlined in the 2014 federal Farm Bill. Third party lab analysis obtained by Planet Jackson Hole shows that Maddux’s CBD oil was under that threshold at .06 total THC.

Off the shelf: After a warning from state and local police, grocery store managers in Jackson Hole, WY, removed all CBD products from display. (Photo: Robyn Vincent/Planet Jackson Hole)
Don’t Try It In Wyoming
Indeed, as other states loosen cannabis laws and federal lawmakers sponsor legislation to do the same, Wyoming remains a dubious place to possess a hemp-derived product with even trace amounts of THC. It is a felony offense in Wyoming to sell, buy or possess more than .03 grams of CBD oil that contains any amount of THC.

The FDA just approved CBD in Epidiolex, but the DEA still says it's an illegal Schedule I substance.
However, manufacturers maintain that if their product contains traces of up to .3 percent it is perfectly legal, sowing confusion for state residents and retailers.

Lucky’s did not return several requests for comment, nor did the attorney representing Functional Remedies, Garrett Graff of Hoban Law Group.


RELATED STORY
Is CBD Oil Legal Now? With Epidiolex Approved, It’s Still Not Clear
What Is CBD?
CBD is a non-intoxicating compound found in cannabis plants with a slew of reported health benefits. The Food and Drug Administration just approved it to treat epilepsy in the form of the new drug Epidiolex. (Wyoming does allow people with intractable epilepsy to use CBD oil under the care of a licensed neurologist.)

Cannabidiol may also treat everything from Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s to depression, anxiety, inflammation and pain, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence recently determined that CBD “exhibits no effects indicative of any abuse or dependence potential.”

It seems more of CBD’s potential health benefits are emerging by the day. According to a study published July 30 in Nature, mice with pancreatic cancer that were treated with CBD and chemotherapy lived three times longer than mice treated with chemotherapy alone.

Classification and Confusion
Despite the WHO’s recent findings, in the United States, CBD is a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act, meaning the federal government does not recognize its medicinal uses and considers it to have a high likelihood for abuse.

That classification hasn’t stopped its proliferation.

CBD oil has fueled a multimillion dollar industry online and at health food stores across the country. In September 2017, the retail giant Target was the first mega-chain to dip its toes into the cannabidiol waters. It wasn’t a pioneer for long, though. It pulled the products from its online shelves after just a few weeks. One month later, Lucky’s made the leap, becoming the first chain natural grocer to carry CBD products.

DEA: ‘Illegal but not High Priority’
So why are mom and pop health stores and some chain retailers carrying the products if they are illegal?

'With our limited resources, marijuana has not been our highest priority. It is not a priority like opioids or synthetics which are killing people.'
Barbara Carreno, DEA spokesperson
For one thing, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration hasn’t been shy about its indifference.

“While CBD currently is still Schedule 1, with our limited resources marijuana has not been our highest priority,” Barbara Carreno, a spokesperson for the DEA, told Planet Jackson Hole. “It is not a priority like opioids or synthetics which are killing people.”

What’s more, Carreno said everything could change when the DEA schedules Epidiolex for medical use on September 24. A plant or botanical could have both uses that are legal and safe and uses that are not, Carreno said. As an example, she pointed to the opium poppy: “you get heroin and oxycodone from that.”

Marijuana, meanwhile, “is a plant with many extracts, THC is one and CBD is another,” she said. “CBD has a small amount of THC but it is very, very low.”


RELATED STORY
Can You Overdose or Die From Consuming Cannabis?
Allowed Under 2014 Farm Bill
But the overarching reason manufacturers are producing and selling these products en masse is because of the 2014 Farm Bill. That bill legalized the production of hemp under state pilot programs as long as those hemp products contain less than .3 percent THC.

Wyoming actually has a legal hemp program, slated to begin next year.
Under the Farm Bill, 40 states have legalized hemp programs including Wyoming. Its program is slated to begin in 2019. That confuses matters because as Wyoming works to implement a hemp cultivation program, it is still illegal to sell or possess hemp products in the state if they contain THC.

The federal program has some legal experts arguing Maddux wasn’t in the wrong. “As long as hemp was grown as part of a state pilot program (like Maddux’s Functional Remedies CBD oil) then it is federally legal,” said Jonathan Miller, general counsel to the U.S. Hemp Roundtable. That means Maddux “is allowed to take it across state lines,” he said.

Miller called Maddux’s case “unprecedented.” To his knowledge, it is the first time someone faces charges for carrying a vial of CBD oil. He pointed to cases where people have been arrested for possession of both marijuana and CBD. The “CBD was thrown out,” he said.

Wyoming cannabis law, Miller continued, is confusing. “It is quite unfortunate law enforcement would take that confusing law and charge someone for having a product that has virtually no THC and which the World Health Organization has classified as harmless,” he said. “I would hope law enforcement was focusing instead on drugs that kill people.”

CBD Legality: It’s All About the Origin of the Oil

Click on image to enlarge. Note: “R-B” refers to the Rohrabacher-Blumenauer budget amendment, which prevents the Justice Department from using any of its budget to interfere with state-legal medical cannabis use. (Illustration by Elysse Feigenblatt/Leafly)
Congress Moving to Confirm Legality
On the national stage, Congress is moving in a direction that would remove hemp (cannabis containing less than .3 percent THC) from its classification as a Schedule I controlled substance. Sen. Mitch McConnell–R, Kentucky, is leading that charge with the 2018 Hemp Farming Act. It handily passed in the Senate 86-11 on June 28.

In Congress, the Republican-led farm bill would remove hemp's Schedule I status. It's already passed the Senate.
Wyoming, though, is fond of bucking national trends, especially when it comes to cannabis. The state has a tight grip on cannabis laws even as public opinion swings drastically in the other direction.

For example, more than 80 percent of Wyomingites say they want to see the legalization of medicinal marijuana and 60 percent oppose jailing people for marijuana offenses, according to a 2016 survey by the University of Wyoming Survey and Analysis Center.

Jackson Whole Grocer herbalist Heather Olson agrees with those sentiments. She also believes in CBD’s long list of supposed health benefits and was unhappy to remove products from the shelves. But Olson said there is a problem with certain companies. She said officials from Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation told her some of the products they tested carried higher levels of THC than what was indicated on the label.

But Wyoming’s crime lab—where DCI tests substances—cannot actually test for specific amounts of THC.

Your Tax Money, Well Spent
Local law enforcement has been in contact with Wyoming’s Division of Criminal Investigation since fall 2017 when Lucky’s and Jackson Whole Grocer began carrying CBD oil. Jackson Chief of Police Todd Smith “reached out to us and asked us for some help because these products were being sold,” said Ronnie Jones of DCI. “Then we discovered this was going on across the state.”

'I am duty-bound to uphold those laws. Clearly, if we were to talk philosophy, I might talk differently.'
Jim Whalen, Teton County Sheriff
Since then, Jones said DCI has been visiting retail stores and conducting investigations to confirm whether those CBD products contain THC.

Local law enforcement says as long as state law dictates it, they will enforce CBD’s prohibition. “I am duty-bound to uphold those laws,” Teton County Sheriff Jim Whalen said. “Clearly, if we were to talk philosophy, I might talk differently,” he added.

Whalen did not seem convinced Maddux’s felony charge would stick. He suspected it would be pleaded down and pointed to his department’s lenient proclivities. “In terms of misdemeanors, we would prefer to write a citation and send people on their way, which is different than many municipalities.”

Law enforcement is indeed “duty-bound” by laws set forth by the Wyoming Legislature. But cannabis advocates, like Laramie attorney and Wyoming House Minority Whip Charles Pelkey–D, Laramie, point to the state’s law enforcement as a barrier to softening cannabis laws.

Wyoming Rep. Stan Blake–D, Green River, “has introduced bills to make CBD oil readily available but we have gotten opposition from the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police that any THC is a violation of the law,” Pelkey said.



Sheriffs Want to Keep It Illegal
It is true that sheriff and police associations throughout the country have pushed back against cannabis laws. Some point to Colorado’s rising crime rates since that state legalized recreational marijuana in 2014, though it is unclear if the two are related. Police Chief Smith said the notion that sheriffs and chiefs could hold that type of sway in the Legislature is absurd. “Law enforcement inherits the law from the Legislature,” he said. “We may get to testify our professional opinion but for any legislator to blame it on us is a cop out.”

The state sheriffs association has actively lobbied against all forms of cannabis reform, including medical marijuana.
The Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police’s stance on this issue, though, is hard to overlook. It actively lobbies the Wyoming Legislature against cannabis reform, including medical marijuana. The statewide interest group heads a campaign called “There is no Debate,” that holds community events and works with lawmakers and community leaders to propagate its anti-cannabis messaging throughout Wyoming.

Its website warns that “many adults are also unaware of how marijuana harms lives, and are confused by misinformation on perceived benefits of medical use of marijuana.”

Medical professionals, on the other hand, often have different feelings about medical marijuana and its potential uses. On Harvard Medical School’s health blog, Dr. Peter Grinspoon acknowledged that medical marijuana is a subject of debate among doctors, researchers, policymakers, police and the public. But, he said CBD falls into its own category.

“Least controversial is … CBD because this component of marijuana has little, if any, intoxicating properties,” Grinspoon wrote. “CBD-dominant strains have little or no THC, so patients report very little if any alteration in consciousness. Patients do, however, report many benefits of CBD, from relieving insomnia, anxiety, spasticity, and pain to treating potentially life-threatening conditions such as epilepsy.”

Life Upheaval Over…What?
Back in Montana (where medical marijuana and CBD products happen to be legal), Maddux is biding her time caring for her ailing mother and going to job interviews. She does not dispute the reason why she was initially pulled over, which had nothing to do with CBD oil. But she reflecting more deeply about her experience with the law.

Part of her past volunteer work involved offering yoga instruction to inmates in Oregon prisons. Maddux’s experience in Jackson has her wondering about some of those inmates and their predicaments. In other words, had she lacked the resources and life experience to question what happened and obtain a lawyer, Maddux said she could have slipped through the cracks of the legal system.

While local law enforcement seems confident a felony will not stick on her record, Maddux said in the meantime she agonizes about her August 16 hearing. Her life, she said, “has been thrown into upheaval.”

 

[Baron23]

Well, here is yet another opportunity for restraint and not calling these......people??.....by the adjectives they so absolutely and richly deserve.


Football recruit pleads with college coaches to see past his medical cannabis medication

The call came during ballet class. Auburn football coaches had told CJ Harris that the lessons would improve his footwork and develop new muscles so, by the time he arrived on campus this fall, he would be ahead of your typical “preferred walk-on.”

But between pliés and pirouettes, Doug Goodwin, the team’s director of high school relations, called CJ’s father, Curtis, and everything fell apart.

Auburn had been CJ’s dream school for as long as he could remember. He loved the campus, loved the Tigers’ blue and orange, loved the rivalry with Alabama. But after a dominant senior season as a safety at Warner Robins High School in Georgia, he barely was being recruited.

His father sent his film to Auburn coaches on a whim. The Tigers thought he was such a steal, they offered him a roster spot in January and said he could play his way into a scholarship. Word spread, and Warner Robins started to celebrate its prized defensive back.

And then the questions started: How would Auburn handle CJ’s medical condition, epilepsy, and the medication he takes to control it, a hemp-based cannabis oil?

In April, Goodwin asked for Harris’s complete medical records. He called back weeks later, in the middle of ballet. CJ couldn’t come to Auburn if he kept taking the cannabis oil, he told Curtis.

“He said, ‘It hurts us because we really like CJ as a player and he was going to do good things for us,’ ” Curtis Harris told The Washington Post.

Auburn Coach Gus Malzahn said in June that Harris’s medication was not what caused the football team to withdraw the roster invitation.

“He wasn’t cleared by our medical staff. That was really the bottom line,” Malzahn said. “It didn’t have anything to do with anything else, like some people reported.”

CJ had his first seizure as a seventh grader in 2013 and didn’t have another until three years later, when he was a sophomore in high school. But when the episodes returned, he’d sometimes have multiple seizures each month.

During one episode, he fell while strolling down the sidewalk and cut his head. Curtis rushed his son to the hospital, where CJ had another.

“If you see your child have a seizure, it’s hard to watch,” Curtis said. “You don’t know what’s going on. You just want it to stop.”

Doctors prescribed Keppra, an anticonvulsive medication, but the substance made Harris irritable. Curtis dropped his son off at school each day and stared at his phone until Warner Robins’s lunch period, hoping he wouldn’t get a call from the school nurse. Mornings were CJ’s most vulnerable time.

Doctors kept upping his doses — at one point, he took four pills in the morning and two at night, and a missed dose could result in more episodes — but the seizures continued.

Desperate for a better solution, CJ switched to cannabis oil, which he squirts beneath his tongue with a syringe and waits for it to dissolve, in January 2017. He takes a dose every six hours. He hasn’t had an episode since. Doctors were so pleased with the results, they told him to keep playing football and there was no reason he couldn’t play in college.

“Any time you have a situation like that, you got to be concerned about it, but I never, not one time, saw anything close to him having any sort of episode or health problem,” Warner Robins Coach Mike Chastain told The Post. “When you get that paperwork in, you’re a little concerned, but I never had any problems with him at all.”

Still, CJ wasn’t getting much recruiting attention, unusual for a defensive back who is 6-foot-1, weighs 201 pounds, runs the 40-yard dash in 4.58 seconds and excelled both defensively and as a running back for one of Georgia’s top teams.

“I couldn’t believe none of the college coaches would recruit him,” Curtis said. “He’s a good kid. He’s a great student, teachers love him, he’s a great player, got the size. I had no idea why no one was coming to talk to him.”

Neither did Auburn — which knew about his epilepsy diagnosis when it offered him a roster spot, Curtis said — until it reviewed his medical records.

That night after ballet practice, Curtis stood in the doorway of CJ’s bedroom for 20 minutes trying to find the words to tell his son his college football dream was over.

“Once he told me that, all my dreams were crushed,” CJ said. “I knew, if Auburn was my dream school and they won’t let me play, none of the other schools would take me, either.”

The NCAA bans consumption of THC, the active chemical in marijuana and hemp that causes a high. It classifies the substance in its drug-testing handbook as an “illicit drug” and does not have a medical exemption, even though medical marijuana is legal when prescribed by a doctor in Georgia and Alabama, where Auburn in located.

The father and son spent the summer traveling to recruiting camps around the South hoping another coach would think enough of CJ’s talent to fight the NCAA. They went to camps at Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Miami. At each university, coaches told CJ pretty much the same thing: “I hope they clear you, and we’ll talk.”

“It’s kind of heartbreaking when I hear it,” CJ said. “They like me during the drills, but they hear my story and they say, ‘That’s too bad.’”

By mid-July, Curtis was tired of hearing it. He took CJ to a family doctor to get tested for THC, hoping just maybe he’d test below the 15 nanograms per milliliter threshold proscribed by the NCAA.

Cannabinoids “were present,” the doctor wrote in the test results, a copy of which was provided to The Post, “but no THC metabolite is detected even down to the cut off of 15ng/ml and below.”

“I was thinking, ‘All my prayers, God answered them,’ ” CJ said of when he read the results. “I thought I was [in the] clear. I didn’t think the NCAA would have a problem.”

But even if the NCAA no longer has a problem, but college coaches still do. Multiple recruiters have told Curtis they would risk too much by offering CJ a roster spot when the test was conducted by a family doctor and not by a lab that works with the NCAA.

That leaves the Harris family hamstrung; the NCAA contracts with anti-doping agency Drug Free Sport to administer its banned substances policy, and Drug Free Sport does not test individual athletes.

“We are essentially client-driven,” said Mark Bockelman, the agency’s vice president of collegiate and amateur sport. “We do not take walk-in individuals to do testing.”

Additionally, the NCAA only accepts test results from World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratories. There are only two such labs in the United States: one in Salt Lake City and one in Los Angeles.

“If the NCAA will test him and clear him, then coaches will come recruit him,” Curtis said. “It’s easy for the coaches to blame the NCAA right now and for the NCAA to blame the coaches.”

In the meantime, CJ enrolled at East Coast Prep in Monterey, Mass., for this school year, where he can take college-level courses, play a full football season and retain all four years of NCAA eligibility while waiting for some sort of official green light or for a coach to offer a roster spot while allowing him to take his medication.

“Every day I wake up,” he said, “and the first thing that comes to my mind is that I have to be ready for that call from a college coach and I pray that someone takes a chance on me.”