Archive for July 2013

Public Disclosure Request Reveals BOTEC Studies for the WSLCB

The Cannabis Action Coalition sleuths continue to file public records requests with the Washington State Liquor Control Board (WSLCB) to uncover what they’re doing behind closed doors.

While some of the BOTEC studies are up on the LBC website, our most recent records search has uncovered the unpublished BOTEC studies that the WSLCB doesn’t want you to see…and they’re very interesting!

Read ALL these studies and find out what’s going on behind the WSLCB’s veil of secrecy.

 

 

13 07 006 SEPA _Redacted Uncovered by Arthur West

Lake Forest Park Declares Permanent Prohibition on Medical Gardens

Lake Forest Park Declares Permanent Prohibition on Medical Gardens
By John Novak
changingplanet@hotmail.com
Last night, the city of Lake Forest Park took a giant step backwards in protecting the rights of people with disabilities, the sick and the dying.
The War on Drugs, especially cannabis, has ruined the lives of countless individuals, all in the name of public safety.
In an unprecedented move in this state, Lake Forest Park has passed a permanent prohibition on patients who form a collective garden, a right that was written into our state laws back in 2011.
The lack of compassion was especially disturbing when the council feigned concern over patients having access to their medications by claiming their Google search revealed at least 8 dispensaries outside of the city.
I can’t afford storefront prices!  It is vastly less expensive to grow your own, especially with the help of a few other patients.  I told the city council this back in January, but they didn’t want to listen.
Instead of trying to understand the patient’s perspective, this council instead took the word of Police Chief Sutton.  His reasoning was not based on any real harm to the community.  It was based on statistics that are claimed to show that guns and violence are an everyday side effect from operating a patient run collective.
In 2012, there were “nearly 100 Seattle area incidents or calls for service to marijuana “grow” locations, including robberies, assaults, other violent and non-violent crimes.”
This stat is meaningless for our purposes as it clearly does not distinguish medical cannabis vs. the illicit black market.  Of those 100, how many actually did involve violence as compared to just getting a phone call by a nosy neighbor who thinks there may be a crime being committed?  We don’t know and the stats don’t tell us.
They also make the claim that “statewide, there were an estimated 65 illegally possessed weapons seized from these grow operations.”
What they failed to mention was the fact that ANY gun possessed in association with marijuana is an illegally possesed gun, even if the gun was legally purchased by the owner.  The simple fact that marijuana is nearby puts it into this category.  So again, another meaningless statistic that has nothing to do with medical cannabis.
Nevermind the fact that a collective garden is by law an association of people, not a garden site.  Restricting any association of people is a violation of our Freedom of Association and Assembly as guaranteed by the First Amendment and Bill of Rights.
So now, even a small collective of no more than 2 people taking care of their own needs at home risk arrest and prosecution, even though they are in full compliance with state laws.
The biggest slap in the face comes from the fact that patients in Lake Forest Park are seen as nothing more than a problem, even a threat to the community to the point where MEDICAL ACCESS is denied to favor recreational I-502 stores.
The Police Chief’s testimony included a lengthy report entitled, “Marijuana Situation Report for 2012”  In it, there is NO difference made between the illicit black market trade and medical cannabis collectives.  All are considered criminal and all statistics are blended to make it appear that medical cannabis is somehow a threat to our city, even though the medical cannabis laws have been in place since 1998.
There was no comparison made for theft and violence at businesses that sell booze or any other at risk business.  There was no statistics about crimes.  Only at Medical Collectives.
The people of Lake Forest Park should be aware of the fact that the Lake Forest Park police force is under contract to enforce Federal law over State laws.  How?  Through the HIDTA (high intensity drug trafficing area) grant program.  They are clearly a vested party in that if there are no cannabis laws, there are no grants for police to fight cannabis crimes.
Stop letting the police dictate the rules for medical patients!  They are not doctors!  They are only trying to further their own agenda though emergency police powers.
I urge every citizen in this city to join me at the next public hearing and every one after to let this city government know that it is time to end prohibition on the sick and dying who choose cannabis.
I was very vocal about this issue before the vote on I-502.  And I was right in warning people that this would severely impact medical patients and access. Now here we are.
I will be approaching every group and association within our city to help end this reefer madness. Criminalizing patients is NOT GOOD POLICY!
City officials should be ashamed of their actions.  Please help me end this heartless prohibition on our medical rights.

Cover Sheet

Lf Pb an Cover Sheet

Ordinance 1060 / Prohibiting Cannabis Collective Gardens In All Zones

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The Corrupting Influence of Police Informants

By John Novak, 420leaks editor

 Medical Cannabis patients have had to face a very corrupt practice used by law enforcement:  Police Informants.
One of the most infamous cases concerns the following in Okanogan County here in Washington State.  North Central Washington Drug Task Force knowingly used an HIV-positive prostitute as an undercover informant to lure men into selling her drugs.  She was also a medical cannabis patient.  Thanks to the November Coalition for making us aware of this case.  Please click the link to read that article here: http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/25/page15.html

 

I was also set up by a police informant in Okanogan County who tried to extract a $5000 reward for turning me in to the Washington State Patrol.  Fortunately, he never got his money because the criminal charges were dismissed after 2 years of court hearings.  Links to my story here:
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2011/jan/22/medical-marijuana-dispute-pits-1960s-pop-singers/
http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2012/jul/03/medical-marijuana-case-dismissed/

Radio interview:

To learn more about how police informants are used, there’s no better teacher than Alexandra Natapoff.  She’s been investigating this issue for years.
Her blog is at http://www.snitching.org/

 

 

 

Book TV: Alexandra Natapoff, “Snitching: Criminal Informants and the Erosion of American Justice”  http://youtu.be/Zok5D9B12GQ

 

 

Snitching: The Institutional and Communal Consequences
By Alexandra Natapoff on 420leaks

United States Patent #6,630,507 – Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants

United States Patent #6,630,507
October 7, 2003
Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services (Washington, DC)

Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants

Abstract:

Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and HIV dementia. Nonpsychoactive cannabinoids, such as cannabidoil, are particularly advantageous to use because they avoid toxicity that is encountered with psychoactive cannabinoids at high doses useful in the method of the present invention. A particular disclosed class of cannabinoids useful as neuroprotective antioxidants is formula (I) wherein the R group is independently selected from the group consisting of H, CH.sub.3, and COCH.sub.3. ##STR1##

CLICK HERE TO SEE THIS AT THE US PATENT OFFICE

 

Green Buddha Co-op Owner Wants to Kill Off Medical to Favor I-502

Green Buddha Patient Co-op owner Muraco Kyashna-tocha wants to kill off Medical Cannabis in Washington State.

Here it is in her own words uncovered by a public records request:

“I believe the successful implementation of I-502 will require shutting down the illicit market that is medical cannabis.”

 

Muraco Throws Mmj Under the Bus for I-502

Other sources:

“Muraco Kyashna-tocha, the owner, says she will embrace 502 even if it means she’ll go out of business. ”It’s what we’ve been fighting for all these years, isn’t it? if it happens, five other states will follow in five years, you watch.”

“Since ”naturopathic” doctors were allowed to authorise the use of marijuana, ”any dude with a bad foot” can now get a note from his doctor, she admits.”

http://electriccigaretteblog.com/page/310/

Testifies for small business to the crowds, but claims “multiple problems” with small producers in her letter above.

 

“Cannabis Patient Protection”, a Washington state non-profit has announced a protest of Green Buddha on July 20, 2013.  Here is their press release:

Saturday, July 20, 2013

Green Buddha 2253 NE 65th Street Seattle, WA 98115

Muraco Kyashna-Tocha clearly illustrates her true intentions in an email to the Liquor Control Board (http://changingplanet.org/420leaks/?p=110#sthash.Xtko3K65.dpbs). She wrote, “I believe the successful implementation of I-502 will require shutting down the illicit market that is medical cannabis.” This is contrary to her testimony at the Liquor Control Board hearings on I-502.

Once again another who has not been in the business of servicing the real qualifying patients of Washington. Green Buddha (within blocks of Roosevelt High School) had assistance from our medical community to get going in 2009, and Muraco has now shown her true intentions.

She has exhibited atrocious behavior towards patients, growers, medical staff and other members of the medical cannabis community. For example, getting no contact/restraining orders, terrorizing lawyers and other collective owners while cyber bullying/hacking their websites.

She has used questionable PhD credentials on a public medical cannabis dosing review paper. Over the years she has gone by several different names, one being Holly B. McClintock. So does anybody really know her in this community?

People and Organizations like this make our medical market appear illicit. It is time for them to get out. They need to pay back taxes from the day I-502 passed, since they were in it for profit from the beginning.

View the event page on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/events/458866607543769/

Other sources:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/home/935932-129/technology
http://cdc.coop/greenbuddha/
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/05/web_weed_war_breaks_out_on_seattle_dispensary_scen.php