latest from weedbay.net

Posted by Peace&Pot on 30 Jul 2007 - 23:17 0 comments

Ironic hypocrisy bedevils Kearn County Sheriff Assisting in raids that sent medical cannabis providers to federal court Kearn County sheriff calls his son’s marijuana arrest a ‘Bakersfield Police Department case’. Weedbay.net staff July 30, 3007 Bakersfield, CA – During the last year Kearn County sheriff deputies assisted the DEA in raiding medical cannabis providers in Bakersfield on three raids of medical cannabis dispensaries. Twice in May and in the latest raid on July 17 Kearn county sheriff officers working with the DEA served 3 search warrants and 5 arrest warrants on the owners of Nature’s Medicinal Coop in Bakersfield. This case is being prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of California in Fresno, CA. With the passage of 215 some 11 years ago medical cannabis coops operate openly under the protection prop 215 affords them. California police officers take oaths and are sworn to uphold the laws of the state of California and to uphold the constitution of the state of California. The constitution of the state of California steadfastly states that in a conflict between state and federal law California peace officers must follow state law. Of course federal law still prohibits the sale of all marijuana. Often there are cases where California peace officers are cross deputized to assist with the DEA in raids on dispensaries within California where voters mandated it’s legal to operate. Apparently taking an oath to uphold the constitution of California is not enough and our state legislature should mandate all peace officers to uphold state law and not assist the DEA in the war on drugs that makes medical cannabis provider takedowns like shooting fish in a barrel. After all, they operate openly. Within a week of assisting the DEA in medical cannabis raids Kearn County sheriff Donny Youngblood suffered an ironic twist of fate. His son Aaron Youngblood was arrested and faces 3 felony charges: possession of marijuana for sale, transportation of a controlled substance and conspiracy to commit a crime. Of course he’s disappointed in his son’s arrest and his comments were "He's an adult male and this is a Bakersfield Police Department case," he said. "I wouldn't want to be seen as interfering." So while the sheriff’s son Aaron Youngblood faces state courts for his felony marijuana charges the medical cannabis providers sheriff Youngblood arrested the week before face federal charges for providing cannabis to Cancer, epilepsy, aids and MS patients. Aaron Youngblood is no stranger to the state court system however. Court records show Aaron Youngblood pleaded no contest to misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol in 2003 and Jan. 8 of this year was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct -- drunk. Sheriff Youngblood's other son Ruston Youngblood pleaded no contest to misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol this Jan. 12, according to court records, and in a separate incident was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol Jan. 17. It’s time our state legislature answered the call and pass laws prohibiting the peace officers of California from assisting in the arrest of medical cannabis providers. Don’t assist them in raids, traffic control, perimeter defense and the like. And while their at it they should pass laws that make it illegal for medical cannabis providers to be tried in federal courts.

ASA LAWSUIT

Suit Over Pot's 'Benefit' Stumbles Matthew Hirsch The Recorder July 30, 2007 An Oakland, Calif.-based nonprofit can't put the federal government on trial for saying that marijuana has no medical use -- but it might get to challenge the government for blowing deadlines, a federal judge in California ruled last week. Americans for Safe Access sued in February after two federal agencies refused to alter government-published statements saying marijuana has "no currently accepted medical use in the United States." In an eight-page ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup agreed with Justice Department lawyers that the federal Information Quality Act provides for only administrative, not judicial, review for people to challenge the "quality, objectivity, utility and integrity" of information disseminated by federal agencies. Alsup's ruling didn't address the government's claim that ASA lacked standing because it failed to identify members who suffered harm from the disputed statements or to show how the issue was germane to ASA's organizational purpose. Though Alsup rejected ASA's bid to revise those statements, he hinted the plaintiff might be able to at least force the government to address its assertion within a 60-day period provided by law. "Conceivably," Alsup wrote, "a district court may order an agency to act on the merits of an information-correction petition within a specific time frame." The Northern District judge dismissed the complaint in ASA v. Department of Health and Human Services, 07-01049, with leave to amend. http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?...13&rss=newswire

More from WEEDBAY.net S.F. Rally

SF Rally to Protect Patient Rights Against the DEA

Rallies were planned today at federal court houses around the state to protest the DEA raids on LA Patient Collectives

I got to the San Francisco protest just a little late. There were about 15 people already holding signs and the normal milling around. I was a little disappointed from the turn out that at it's peak drew 25 to 30 protesters. But we did get people off the couch and we got some support from people walking and driving by. We didn't get the 2 million protesters I was hoping for, nor the 200 I thought we'd get in SF. But we got some.



We were getting a lot of people honking at us as they drove by. One fellow in a delivery truck that circled the block a couple times said he just got his rec, when he was at the light with his window down. SF police dropped by and admitted they were short handed and inquired how many people were going to show. Without the show of force we were hoping for he happily went on his way.



At least 3 of us were there from the Oaksterdam.com grow class so that's a decent showing for short notice. Alex Franco from the ASA organized the protesters and marched us around a bit. Thanks to her for being the guiding voice and providing extra signs. This is her little group across the way on the other corner.



Thanks to everyone that showed up and to surfer Steve for the donuts. We got some honkers from every group of cars that went by so we do get the word out this way. Speaking of getting the word out, we have to do better people. A pal that runs an LA dispensary said from the 60 patients he verbally questioned yesterday NONE knew of the raids Wednesday or the protest rallies scheduled for today. I don't care if you send your friends to canorml.org, weedbay.net, medicalmarijuanaofamerica.com or safeaccessnow.org start getting more active and the bad publicity we create for the DEA will slowly start making a difference.

Don Duncans message to the patients...

from Don Duncan - ASA

Hello, LA-ASA members and allies. It has been a wonderful and terrible day for medical cannabis in Los Angles. Before this brief update, I want to say a special thank you to the hundreds of patients and advocates who turned out for meetings and protests today. I have attended countless political meetings about medical cannabis and protested outside dozens of DEA raids at medical cannabis facilities all over California. It meant the world to my colleagues and I at California Patients Group (CPG) to see the tremendous outpouring of support in our time of crisis today. More than a dozen protesters joined Dege Coutee in blockading the DEA at CPG today. Thanks to the protesters, including numerous CPG staff members, we were able to secure the release of all of the detained staff members, patients, and one arrested protester. Bravo! As of 11:30 PM, all but one of the five arrested protesters have been released. I am waiting patiently for the bail bondsman to secure the freedom of the last brave advocate.

There were between eight and ten DEA raids at medical cannabis facilities in Hollywood today. We have not yet determined how many arrests were made citywide. This is bad news for patients and providers, but let’s don’t forget how the day started. Today’s DEA sweep was timed to coincide with two landmark votes in Los Angeles and one in Washington, DC.

This morning, City Councilmember Dennis Zine, a former Los Angeles Police Officer, held an unprecedented press conference with Americans for Safe Access (ASA) to present a letter calling on the DEA to abandon its latest attack on landlords who rent to medical cannabis dispensaries and allow the City Council to move forward with regulations without further federal interference. City Council President Eric Garcetti joined patients and dispensary operators to support Zine’s courageous stance. Then, the City Council unanimously approved the first reading of a moratorium on new collectives that marks the first step towards sensible guidelines and greater legitimacy for collectives in the city. Those two things alone would have been a big step forward, but the City Council was not finished! One Councilmember after another stood up to join Councilmember Zine in signing the letter to the DEA and announcing their support for medical cannabis in Los Angeles. Finally, the Council unanimously approved a motion endorsing the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment in the US House, adding their considerable clout to the call to legalize medical cannabis at the federal level.

The LA City Council’s endorsement was not enough to secure a victory for patients in Congress, but it was a shot across the bow of the DEA and the Bush Administration. The outcome of today’s Los Angeles City Council meeting was abundantly clear for everyone to see – Los Angeles has turned a corner on medical cannabis and the endgame is now in sight! The DEA and their cohorts in the Los Angeles Police Department know the days of persecuting medical cannabis patients are almost gone. We are headed inexorably towards sensible guidelines and fully-sanctioned safe access in the state’s largest metropolis. Never doubt the significance of what has happened. As goes Los Angeles, so goes the county. We are making history and changing everything for patients all over the United States.

The DEA and the LAPD do not want us to succeed, so they have staged another sweep of local collectives in Los Angeles. At least eight locations were raided by the DEA and LAPD today. In an obscene and cynical twist, these raids were timed to coincide with the City Council vote to support legal medical cannabis in Congress! I spent all day protesting the raid at CPG and cleaning up the aftermath. I want to ensure you that CPG will continue to defend safe access and stop these unconscionable attacks on patients’ access. A handful of protesters at CPG decided to blockade the DEA and LAPD perpetrators and secure the freedom of staff, patients, and protesters. I can not express how impressed I was with the brave protestors who put their bodies ion the line. The demonstration was intense, and patients faced intimidation and violence at the hands of the LAPD. They behaved with bravery grace under pressure. I want to thank every one of them from the bottom of my heart.

On Friday, July 27, ASA is calling on medical cannabis supporters to protest the DEA raids at federal buildings nationwide. In Los Angeles, we will meet at the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building at 255 E. Temple St. in downtown Los Angeles to tell the DEA to back off. Then, we will march to the City Council meeting to demand they add action to their pro-medical cannabis words. Please bring signs, banners, and friends to the federal building and make you voice heard. This is a crisis moment in our community, and we need to stand up in record numbers.

I will send more information about today’s events and how they came to pass tomorrow. For now, I must focus on getting my last colleagues out of jail and safely home. Thank you again for your support today. Do not be discouraged... We are winning and today’s trouble is the DEA and LAPD’s last desperate attempt to stop us. Let’s finish this work together and make safe access a reality in Los Angeles!

Thank you,

Don Duncan

__________________
Oaksterdam.com

Detailed Information on 1000 types of marijuana

From Weedbay, FAUX NUTWORK.

O'Reilly & the grand FOX Nutwork tradition

O'Reilly & the grand FOX Nutwork tradition

by Kagro X

Tue Jul 24, 2007 at 06:07:51 PM PDT

FOX "News" Nutwork. Is it fair and balanced? Is it even a "news" outlet at all?
Well, what are the odds of all this happening by accident?




Republican incumbent losing to Democratic challenger? Switch the parties!




Republican pedophile gets busted? Call him a Democrat!




Republican operative gets busted? Say he didn't!




Republican Senator says your "administration" sucks eggs? Say he's a Democrat!

And that's not to mention that FOX Nutwork viewers still believe Saddam planned 9/11 and that we found the WMD in numbers far greater than the national average.
So, could it really be just dumb luck? Well, it ain't luck, that's for sure. And that leaves just plain dumb.
And of course now, JetBlue buys the nonsense that the Clown Prince of FOX "News," Bill "O'Really?" O'Reilly isn't "just following orders" in the FOX Nutwork smear game.
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
The real "hate site" here? FOX Nutwork. Hating facts since 1996.

__________________
Oaksterdam.com
The home of Oaksterdam

w All Bulletins This User Has Posted

User has been banned From: Americans For Safe Access Date: Jul 25, 2007 10:35 AM Subject: LA Councilmember Dennis Zine tells DEA to Go AWAY! Body: Hello, ASA Members and allies. I am happy to report that LA City Councilmember will be standing up for patients and providers in our community when he publishes a letter to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy Wednesday morning before the City Council’s vote on the moratorium. Councilmember Zine’s support is the first major opposition we have seen since the DEA escalated their attacks on patients’ access this month by threatening landlords and raiding two Southern California collectives. Zine’s letter to the DEA will be read into the Congressional record during the debate about the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment in the House of Representatives. A vote of that effort to prevent DEA raids is expected the same day. Congratulations and thank you to everyone who has worked so hard to start the regulatory process in LA and urge our elected representatives to stand up for patients’ access. We still have a lot of work to do in LA. We have to write sensible guidelines, defend the victims of the latest DEA tactics, and stay prepared for future attacks. Most importantly, we have to make our voices heard in Congress so we can change these laws once and for all! This is ASA press release for Wednesday's press conference and Council Meeting: Americans for Safe Access For Immediate Release: July 24, 2007 Contact: Don Duncan (323) 326-6347 or Kris Hermes (510) 681-6361 Los Angeles Moves Wednesday to Regulate Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Councilmember Zine Calls for an End to Federal DEA Interference Los Angeles -- City Councilmember Dennis Zine will hold a press conference prior to Wednesday’s Los Angeles City Council meeting to call on Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)Administrator Karen Tandy to abandon her agency’s tactic of threatening property owners who rent to medical cannabis (marijuana) dispensaries and to allow the City to proceed with regulations without federal interference. Councilmember Zine, a former police officer, voiced his concerns in a letter to be issued Wednesday to DEA Administrator Tandy, the same day a vote in Congress is expected to occur, which would strip the DEA of funds it relies on to carry out these types of tactics. Although federal law prohibits the use of medical cannabis, Zine requests in his letter that the DEA “abandon this tactic and allow this City Council to continue the important work of regulating these facilities without Federal interference.” Despite the apparent conflict between state and federal law, Zine affirms the need to “uphold the will of our voters and adopt sensible guidelines to regulate the provision of medical cannabis in our communities.” Zine’s letter is in response to a notice sent by the DEA to as many as 150 property owners in Los Angeles threatening criminal prosecution and asset forfeiture if owners knowingly rent to medical cannabis providers. The City Council is expected to approve Zine’s motion for a moratorium on new facilities at Wednesday’s meeting. The move to regulate medical cannabis dispensaries and the countervailing efforts by the DEA coincide with an anticipated vote Wednesday in the US House of Representatives. The Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment to the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill would bar the DEA from enforcing federal law against medical cannabis patients and providers in states where it is legal. The amendment’s co-author, Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) stated last week that the DEA actions were “an example of the insane use of scarce law enforcement resources. It is especially insulting the way in which these resources are being used to supersede the votes of local people to permit the legal use of medical marijuana.” “We need a federal solution to this problem,” said Don Duncan, a spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access, the nation’s largest medical cannabis advocacy organization. “Added pressure by Councilmember Zine will hopefully make that happen.” Councilmember Zine’s press conference will be held at 9:45am Wednesday in the Media Room behind City Council Chambers, Room 350, at Los Angeles City Hall, 200 N. Spring St., in downtown Los Angeles. The Zine letter will be made available at that time. For further information, refer to: The DEA letter to more than 100 landlords in the Los Angeles area: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/DEA_Landlord_Letter.pdf ASA's one-pager on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/Hinchey_One_Pager.pdf # # # With over 30,000 active members in more than 40 states, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. ASA works to overcome political and legal barriers by creating policies that improve access to medical cannabis for patients and researchers through legislation, education, litigation, grassroots actions, advocacy and services for patients and the caregivers. __________________ Don Duncan Southern California Coordinator Americans for Safe Access www.AmericansForSafeAccess.org Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. Join us today….www.AmericansforSafeAccessNow.org Los Angeles Office 7211 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 800 West Hollywood, CA 90046 P: 323-464-7719 F: 323-464-7355

L.A. latest.

Los Angeles City Council Votes to End Federal DEA Medical Marijuana Raids

Los Angeles, CA -- As the Los Angeles City Council voted today to move forward with the regulation of medical cannabis (marijuana) dispensaries, federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents were conducting raids on at least 6 dispensaries in the greater Los Angeles area. The Council approved the first reading today of a moratorium on new dispensaries in the city, with final approval expected within a week. The moratorium will give the city time to draft regulations that would establish a permit process and guidelines for providers of medical marijuana. The Council also passed a resolution in support of a vote in Congress scheduled to occur today that would deny funding to the U.S. Department of Justice, and the DEA, for enforcement against medical marijuana patients and providers.

Los Angeles City Councilmember, and former police officer, Dennis Zine, held a press conference this morning, prior to the vote, where he revealed a letter sent by three Councilmembers to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy. The letter from Los Angeles Councilmembers Dennis Zine, Janice Hahn and Bill Rosendahl was sent in response to increased federal activity, including numerous raids on medical cannabis dispensaries as well as letters sent by the DEA to at least 140 landlords of dispensing facilities. The letter requests that the DEA "abandon this tactic and allow this City Council to continue the important work of regulating these facilities without Federal interference." Despite the apparent conflict between state and federal law, Zine affirms the need to "uphold the will of our voters and adopt sensible guidelines to regulate the provision of medical cannabis in our communities."

A vote will also take place in Congress today that would prevent federal funds to be used to interfere in the twelve states that have adopted medical marijuana laws. The Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment to the House Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill, named after its authors Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), would end the federal crackdown currently occurring in Los Angeles and other parts of California. The resolution adopted today by the Los Angeles City Council supports the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment and the prohibition of further raids on "[medical] marijuana dispensaries in states that have laws supporting their operation."

"These continued actions by the DEA, in spite of the strong endorsement of medical marijuana by the Los Angeles City Council, is reprehensible," said Chris Fusco, the Southern California Field Coordinator for Americans for Safe Access, the nation's largest medical marijuana advocacy organization. "It shows that the federal government will stop at nothing to undermine California's medical marijuana law, and that today's DEA actions are in retaliation for the successful work being done by advocates and city officials." Two hundred protesters gathered today at California Patients Group, one of the dispensaries raided by the DEA, and confronted federal agents. Instead of arresting a group of people being held inside the facility, federal agents were forced to release them or face continued civil disobedience, in the form of blockades, by protesters at the scene.

In another apparent rebuke locally to federal efforts against medical marijuana access, Los Angeles' neighbor to the east, the City of Claremont, voted Tuesday night to allow and regulate a dispensary within its city limits.

In order to bring attention to the increased federal activity by the DEA, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is calling for statewide protests Friday. In Los Angeles, protests will occur at 9am at the federal building (255 East Temple) to be followed by a march to City Hall (200 N Spring St.) to request that the city do everything it can to ensure protection for its patients and providers from further federal interference.

For further information, refer to:
Letter from LA Councilmembers to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/Zine_DEA_Letter.pdf
Resolution adopted by the Los Angeles City Council in support of Hinchey-Rohrabacher: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/LA_Resolution.pdf
The DEA letter to more than 140 landlords in the Los Angeles area: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/DEA_Landlord_Letter.pdf
ASA's one-pager on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment: http://www.safeaccessnow.org/downloads/Hinchey_One_Pager.pdf

LIVE NO MORE IN lIVERMORE, cA

Livermore: Objective Data on MCD Regulation City of Livermore hired this research group to get them some actual defensibly objective data on MCD regulation. The result is not bad-- not quite ASA, but way better than the Rocklin memo or the Riverside white paper or any of that. Could be useful in a lobbying context--it is relatively accurate and it is certainly unbiased or slightly prohibition biased, but it still comes out with the clear message that regulated dispensaries can be relatively nuisance free. Livermore, I suspect, will nonetheless proceed to ban shortly. That is the nature of the "rational basis." The Godbe paper is more than enough for any locality to hang its hat on to go either way, ban or regulate. 29 pages long, it starts on p. 7 of the attached pdf which is the complete packet for the item on the Livermore city council agenda tonight. pdf link: http://www.weedbay.net/pdf/livermore07-07-23.pdf

Livermore bans clubs...

Livermore makes nuclear bombs but no pot clubs allowed. We have priorities, you know....


http://www.trivalleycares.org/

Already a Superfund site, the Lab would have us believe that since the amounts of tritium involved with NIF are relatively small, it poses no risk. This is deceptive and untrue. The Livermore area is already saturated with elevated levels of tritium. Lab analyses have found that Livermore Valley wines purchased off the shelf have four times the tritium content of other California wines. And, rain water samples taken by the Lab have consistently shown high levels of tritium around the Lab's one and a half square mile site and in the surrounding community.

Posted on Apr 24, 2006 01:15:00 AM by Kevin Chan
[ filed under: history environment ]

On April 26, 1986, the crew at unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (located in Pripyat, Ukarine, part of the former Soviet Union) conducted an experiment on the turbine generator with the safety system switched off. A steam explosion caused a catastrophic accident that blew off the 1000-ton roof of the building and set off a series of additional explosions, leading to an eventual meltdown of the nuclear cores. The accident spewed massive quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, contaminating large areas of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Radioactive clouds drifted as far as Europe and the eastern United States. The Chernobyl nuclear fallout was ten times more powerful than the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and is the worst disaster in the history of nuclear power.

The 45,000 inhabitants of Pripyat, 4km away from the Chernobyl power plant, were not evacuated until 36 hours after the accident. For 9 days, fires at the Chernobyl plant continued to burn and emit radioactivity. 130,000 people from settlements within 30km of the reactor were eventually evacuated, but only after being exposed to highly dangerous levels of radiation.

Photographer Robert Knoth and reporter Antoinette de Jong traveled through the 4 regions of the Urals, Kazhakstan, Ukraine and Siberia to document the davastating medical, economic and social consequences of the nuclear industry in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Their work, published online in a photoessay in PixelPress, shows the horrific health issues faced by the regions’ inhabitants as a result of exposure to radiation in the environment.

Photos by Robert Knoth.

Photoessay: Nuclear Nightmares: Twenty Years Since Chernobyl »

Find out more about how survivors of Chernobyl have coped with the effects of the disaster:
Interviews on Chernobyl from Chernobyl.info
“Chernobyl Journey”—For the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, Belarusian journalist Vasily Semashko travels through the Chernobyl region and reports on his impressions about everyday life of the people living in the contaminated area
NPR: ‘Voices of Chernobyl’: Survivors’ Stories

More info about Chernobyl:
Chernobyl.info
wikipedia entry on “Chernobyl Disaster”
In Focus : Chernobyl (International Atomic Energy Agency)
Chernobyl Children’s Project

WEEDBAY.NET GROW CLASS REVIEW

Dopey Taylor Plain ol' Farmer Packing on Buds

WEEDBAY.NET GROW CLASS REVIEW!

the recap

Grow class is divine:
We had a really good class today in Oaksterdam at Rico's Diner. About 30 patients showed up and that’s a mini-movement. The shows up for grow class and say goodbye to dispensary prices movement. Dispensaries are taking a beating for our brethren in LA from the DEA. There’s not much we as patients can do, but stick together and get back to caring for one another, and make the coop types prop 215 meant to make, where patients with excess take care of patients with none. Patients forced to pay dispensary prices for any length of time cop an attitude with dispensaries over the money they are spending there. There’s only one way to break the chains and be free, and that’s by growing your own medical marijuana. After you learn to grow your own dispensaries become fun again. You can enjoy the kid in a candy shop feeling again, knowing you’re there more by choice than necessity.

Fred Gardener
That nice man in charge of O’shaughnessy’s – The Journal of Cannabis in Clinical practice dropped in. His job is to make the journal 4 times a year with clinical medical marijuana information that’s equally fit reading for patients and doctors. I think that’s the hard part and the part that shines most brightly, it’s good info for both patients and doctors. William Brooke O’Shaughnessy is the Irish born and Scottish educated doctor whose paper introduced cannabis to Western medicine in 1839. He basically studied Indian Hemp and Gunjah, as they called it back then. This is the paper Dr. Tod Mikuriya saved from oblivion, and in that same spirit the O’Shaughnessy Journal was created, to keep that paper current. When finished reading your copy drop it off at your doctors office, more doctors need to see this, and need to know how their patients feel.

This brings us to one of the major points Fred brought up. When you see a doctor that specializes in cannabis you should feel free to discuss your cannabis usage and let your doctor know how it’s working for you. Talk freely with your cannabis practitioner and you’ll find an ally in the use of cannabis for medicine. Fred writes about half the real information about cannabis and you’ll see his name on stories all over the web, and it’s always nice to hear from someone like that.

Another major point is that the recreational smokers have bred marijuana for high THC content for the last 40 years. While this is great for euphoric effect it may not make the most effective medicine. Of course, with the DEA’s stranglehold on cannabis, the USA’s research is far behind the rest of the world on this issue. He mentioned a company in the UK is starting to explore the benefits of high CBD strains for use as medical marijuana. I’ve read a bit about them about a year ago, and I want to do another story on them, they are going to be using gene manipulation instead of selective breeding on all female crops, if I remember right.

Virginia Resner
A long time activist passed away last week. A real champion to the cause for people convicted for drug crimes and issues regarding their sentencing. Her driving cause was that a small amount of crack cocaine draws a bigger mandatory sentence than a comparable weight of powder cocaine. She worked with families against mandatory minimums and then when on to work on the book Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War, for which she won awards. We plan on reviewing this book here at weedbay, it’s such an important piece. Towards the end Virginia worked with Green Aide helping Ed Rosenthal with his trials. She was a fiery passionate activist, we’ll miss her deeply.

Growing tech
I swear the topic of this grow class was how to make your moms look like the moms you get at SR-71.

file photo: AK-47 mom

Well I’m not the only student at class impressed with them. They feed on Sensi A& B from Advance Nutrients and are in Coco. They sell the moms at 3 months, and they sell well. You’re lucky to get one.

Most of the discussion was about how to trim the tops to induce side branching. Then how to trim the bottom branches so you leave productive branches that produce and get light. It takes a good vegging light to get that best plants, most of us with flouros will not get those results in veg. But we keep trying don’t we?

We also got into the attack of the borg, aka mites, and powdery mildew. Ed Rosenthal’s Zero Tolerance is a sufficant that can help with both. With mites, the infestation can quickly come to the point where you must terminate the grow and start over, You might be able to finish the run, maybe not. Before the next run you must bleach everything, with a 10% bleach solution with hot water. Quarantine all new arrivals, and don’t let pets and other growers in the area. Clean, Clean, Clean.

Mites love it hot and dry, if the relative humidity is below 35% and the temps in the 80’s or higher your garden is a mite magnet. So cooling and more humidity will help. On the other hand, powdery mildew loves it cool and moist. If your night time temps are 20 degrees cooler than your day temps, and your humidity is 50% or higher, you can get powdery mildew. If there is condensation on leaves at first light, it’s a sure sign it’s getting too moist. Sometimes running the light at night can help a lot of these issues.

A sulfur burner for powdery mildew and starting over for mites. That’s the cure.

Digging for info
Sr-71’s clone guide catalog is due out Monday. This is a welcome addition for medical growers - finally some documentation for all these damn strains. SR-71 carries 5 strains, so it’s pretty easy for them to document their stuff. I’ve noticed everyone likes to play with all these different strains but then if they don’t get good results it’s always the club’s fault. The SR has the old faithful, from breeder’s packs or SR created.
The Oaksterdam gift shop got a fresh paint job shortly before class, it looked great. Weedbay.net and Oaksterdam.com are adding a new assistant admin. The general concensus on the LA landlords faced with property seizure situation is it’s an effective DEA strategy and dispensaries are being evicted. We hope we’re safe up north with bad publicity if the DEA tries this here and patients show up in force. We forgot to talk about Hillary, the Hinchey bill and the ONDCP John Walters. We should have covered some of these isssues, our bad.

Grow class does roll on, every third Saturday of the month, 2:30-4:30pm at Rico’s Diner in Oaksterdam. Cya next month heh?

__________________
Oaksterdam.com

ugly.

LAUGHING BUDDHA NURSERY in METARIE, Louisiana is a DEA FRONT

The Laughing Buddha Nursery is a hydroponic supply and gardening store on the outskirts of New Orleans, in Metarie. The owner is Grant Estrada (in photograph). Grant Estrada is on the payroll of Drug Enforcement Administration as an informer. This Judas, for his $6,000, put first time pot gardener Juan Lopez in jail for many, many years. And he's setting up gardeners in Louisiana right now to be turned over to the DEA.

The Laughing Buddha Nursery owner Grant Estrada wasn't laughing when I called him up and said " Grant Estrada, I'm doing an article on how you are co-operating with DEA and informing on your clients and assisting in the prosecution of your clients. Are you co-operating with DEA, setting up your clients and accepting blood money to do this? "

Grant Estrada replied, " I can't talk about that now " and very nervously hung up the phone.

This is a photograph of Grant Estrada.


Grant Estrada is most definitely a narc of the worst sort and has set up one, and probably is in the process of setting up many more, growers of the herb.

Google The Laughing Buddha Nursery in Metarie, Louisiana, and you don't get any clue Estrada and his DEA-front store are in the day to day business of narking out customers to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Laughing Buddha Nursery
4516 Clearview Pkwy
Metarie, LA
Phone: (504) 887-4336 (ask for Grant)

You see he sells orchids, helped out after Hurricane Katrina, but mysteriously, there is no Google reference to the fact, established in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana court earlier this year, that GRANT ESTRADA accepted $6,000 from DEA in order to inform on his hydroponic store clients, specifically one JUAN LOPEZ, who bought thousands of dollars of equipment at Estrada's store, with Estrada's urging. In fact, Estrada told his customer Lopez at Laughing Buddha (whew, those DEA guys and their sense of humor) , that he would even sell the marijuana if Lopez would grow it.

After spending $15,000 on building a marijuana grow room with Estrada's enthusiastic encouragement and assistance, DEA raided Lopez in February of 2005. At his trial, DEA did not disclose that it was paying Estrada to do exactly what he did, encourage and entrap growers or would be growers.

Now, a new judge may order a new trial for Juan Lopez, who was sentenced to five to twenty years in jail and has been incarcerated since July 2005. The DEA-FRONT Laughing Buddha hydroponics store owner Grant Estrada actually convinced Lopez to get into the business, and provided the actual marijuana plant cuttings to Lopez, and promised to find a buyer for those plants.

While Lopez languishes in jail for being gullible, Estrada is doing fine selling out growers as of the time I called him for his comments on April 24, 2007.

Prosecutors fought to hide the blood money informant payments to Estrada. During the trial, Judge James Brady refused to let Lopez' attorney put Grant Estrada - informant - on the stand, claiming it would be "irrelevent."

To confirm this story, research articles by Penny Brown Roberts for the Metarie Advocate.

My advice is for Louisiana activists to put this store out of business immediately by picketing the LAUGHING BUDDHA NURSERY at 4516 Clearview Parkway in Metarie, just outside of New Orleans. Signs with " LAUGHING BUDDHA IS A DEA FRONT"
"GRANT ESTRADA - DEA SNITCH" .

Put this bastard out of business. Remember Juan Lopez could spend most of his life in jail. Make sure GRANT ESTRADA can never harm another gardener ever again.

If you want to help Juan Lopez win a retrial for entrapment, you can contact his lawyer, John Di Giulio, at 225-383-0078 or by email at john@johndiGiulio.com

SAME BULLSHIT DIFFERENT DAY

DEA involved in small Santa Rosa med bust

---

this bust is totally ridiculous. automatic weapons? is that really necessary?? and why the hell are local cops calling in DEA for a tiny garden like this??

Quote:

Man denies his pot growing is illegal Railroad Square resident says confiscated plants were permitted for medical use By MARTIN ESPINOZA THE PRESS DEMOCRAT http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/artic...0421/-1/xmlnews Evan Neumann swears he does not have a green thumb and that the marijuana he's been growing since March inside his home near Railroad Square is no big deal. He says it tastes so bad that for flavoring he puts lemon peel slices in the plastic bags used to store the marijuana buds he smokes to treat his bipolar condition. Whatever the quality, Santa Rosa narcotics detectives and agents with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration targeted his home Friday. They busted open his front door, ordered him and his roommate to the ground and then broke up Neumann's marijuana-growing operation. Neumann, 35, was arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana for sale and cultivation of marijuana. Neumann, who received his license to use medical marijuana in February, said he was learning how to grow marijuana with an eye on perhaps selling to local cannabis clubs. It is the latest venture for Neumann, the son of Claus Neumann, former longtime owner of Los Robles Lodge. The younger Neumann used to manage Hotel La Rose and is a former president of the Historic Railroad Square Association. Depression set in after he broke up with his fiancee a few years ago, he said, and he has been taking prescription medicine ever since. Some of the medications cause severe headaches and migraines and marijuana helps him deal with the pain, he said. "I never thought I would be targeted by law enforcement," he said. "To be honest, my biggest fear was a home invasion." According to a police statement, officers served a search warrant on Neumann's home Friday and found 179 marijuana plants and 1 pound of processed marijuana packaged for sale. The statement said they also found 6 pounds of processed marijuana being dried, as well as cultivation equipment, digital scales and packaging material. Police said the 7 pounds of marijuana had a potential street value of $28,000, and the plants had the potential to produce marijuana with a street value of $358,000. Police were not available Saturday for further comment on the raid. Neumann scoffs at the projections. He admitted that he probably was growing more plants than he was allowed by his medical marijuana license. But he swears he is not a criminal. "That's a joke. It's just absolutely a joke," he said. "The marijuana that I had that was processed was about 10 to 14 ounces." He said that about 90 of the plants were tiny "clones" he was nurturing in plastic Dixie Cups on his roof and that he was likely to kill half of them. "I've killed every single plant that I've grown," he said. "I'm just not very good. There's a lot of steps you have to go through before you can sell to a club. The first step obviously is growing something the clubs will buy." Neumann's roommate, Jenn Kernan, a friend who recently moved back to Santa Rosa from New Orleans, said she couldn't believe what happened Friday morning. "I was about to open the door when they broke it down," she said. "The entire hallway was filled by men with big guns, scary, big guns, automatic weapons. I sank down to my knees. I was holding my dog in my hands." Neumann swears that he's never sold marijuana to anybody, and that he was only looking at the possibility of becoming a cannabis club grower. The whole ordeal has shaken him up. "I wouldn't want true criminals to go through that," he said. You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.

__________________________
long live WWW.OAKSTERDAM.COM
Have a legal question or want to report a violation of the Compassionate Use Act? Call ASA's toll-free hotline at 1-888-929-4367

STONER VIKINGS

look at the pipe to the right of the bowl. I wonder what else they kept in that bowl... Museum shows off treasure buried for 1,000 years Maev Kennedy and Martin Wainwright Thursday July 19, 2007 Guardian Unlimited Some of the found treasure on display at the British Museum. Photograph: AP/British Museum A Viking treasure hoard of silver traded and looted from far across Europe and into Asia and north Africa, and lost for over 1,000 years, was revealed again today at the British Museum. The find is unrivalled in Britain in over 150 years, and one of the most spectacular recent discoveries from anywhere in the Viking empire. The 600 coins, some unique, come from as far as Samarkand in central Asia, Afghanistan and Russia. Article continues "This is the world in a vessel," said Jonathan Williams, a British Museum expert on the period. The hoard was found in January by David and Andrew Whelan, father and son hobby metal detectorists, in a bare winter field near Harrogate soon due to be ploughed again for spring sowing. They first found fragments of the lead sheeting that once protected it, then the pot itself. They could see coins and scraps of silver poking out of the mud, but restrained themselves and brought the whole thing intact to their local archaeological finds officer. The site seems then as now to have been an empty field: archaeologists scoured it for evidence but found no trace of any settlement or structure. The Whelans' patience, which preserved priceless clues as to how and when the pot was hidden, was rewarded when the British Museum invited them to watch while the conservator Hayley Bullock delicately tweezed the treasure out of the hard-packed mud. The Whelans and the museum staff were astounded as her bench gradually filled with the contents of the bowl: a gold arm ring possibly made in Ireland, silver rings and brooches, dress ornaments, ingots, the chopped up scraps of silver which the Vikings used by weight as cash, and coins by the score, many in superb condition. "If somebody asked me to fit it all back in now, I'm not sure I could," she said yesterday. The treasure was crammed into an exquisite silver pot decorated with incised lions and deer and plated inside with pure gold, which may once have held the communion bread for some wealthy church in northern France. The clue to why the Harrogate treasure had remained hidden lay in the bowl itself, archaeologists found. The latest coin was minted in 927 AD by the Anglo-Saxon king Athelstan, who was the first to proclaim himself "king of all Britain". The most serious challenge to the Viking power was marching north, and the archaeologists are not surprised that the owner was never able to go back to retrieve his hoard. The find was formally declared treasure yesterday by the North Yorkshire coroner, Geoff Fell, who said it was one of the most exciting cases he had had to decide. Its value has still to be determined by the treasure valuation committee, but the British Museum and the York Museum Trust, which already has a superb Viking collection, are ready to try to raise over £1m to acquire the hoard. Once a value has been established, the finders will split the amount with the landowner. The field had yielded nothing much before to the Whelans apart from 20th-century junk including a dump of 90 metal buttons. David, a 51-year-old semi-retired businessman from Leeds, initially thought he had scanned a rusting bicycle or a bit of broken cattle trough when his detector started bleeping. "We were sweeping and I got a signal, so I took a couple of shovels full of soil and there was a stronger one," he said outside the coroner's court in Harrogate after the hearing. "I just kept going and going. A ball of earth rolled out of the side of the hole and I could see a coin stuck in it. We dug the hole out. We crouched down on our hands and knees." Andrew, a 35-year-old surveyor who took up the hobby with his father three years ago, said: "We were sat there shaking - it was unbelievable. We made sure we got everything out and then packed up for the day and went home to find out what to do with it. "We told the antiquity authority and handed it over all intact. We were astonished when we finally discovered what it contained." Neither of the men has great plans for the money they will receive. David Whelan said: "We don't need 'owt. We've got all we want. It's a thing of dreams to find something like this. If we had found one coin we would have been over the moon."

REST IN PEACE SISTER

Virginia Resner: 1946-2007

It is with deep sorrow that I inform you that our dear friend and colleague, Virginia Resner, passed away this morning. We are calling it her "liberation" day as she is now released from her body and the suffering from her 5 1/2 year battle with breast cancer.


A great activist who worked to put a human face on the atrocities of the Drug War, Virginia worked tirelessly until it became too much for this strong woman. Virginia was a great advocate for the prisoners of the Drug War, first as the California FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) representative, and then as partners with Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad in their Human Rights and the Drug War exhibit project. Together, they co-authored the acclaimed book, Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War, for which she received a Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen Action from the Lindesmith Center/Drug Policy Foundation in 2001. Most recently, Virginia was intricately involved with the Ed Rosenthal case as president of Green Aid: Medical Marijuana Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc.


Her energy, her compassion, her efforts, and her selfless and loving friendship will be greatly missed by all who knew her. Please light a candle, burn some sage, and pray for peace (which is what she wanted above all) in her honor.


More details to come regarding Virgnia's life and plans for memorial services.


We are truly blessed to have known her and to have had her in our lives.


-- Mikki Norris

It's official, Hell freezes over!

Hillary Clinton Pledges to End Medical Marijuana Raids Hillary Clinton Pledges to End Medical Marijuana Raids *U.S.'s Second Largest Cancer Charity Calls for Legal Medical Marijuana Access as Candidates Weigh Support* BBSNews 2007-07-17 -- MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE (GSMM) - Two prominent presidential contenders have moved in opposite directions on the issue of federal attacks on medical marijuana patients, as America's second largest cancer charity, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, came out strongly for protection of medical marijuana patients. Democratic frontrunner Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) called for an end to federal raids in states where medical use of marijuana is legal, while Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) backtracked on an earlier promise to end the raids. During a Manchester campaign on July 13, Len Epstein, a volunteer for Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana (GSMM), told Sen. Clinton, "Twelve states allow medical marijuana, but the Bush administration continues to raid patients," to which she responded, "Yes, I know. It's terrible." Epstein then asked, "Would you stop the federal raids?" Sen. Clinton responded firmly, "Yes, I will." http://drugsense.org/temp/13tmN616gWN0LE.html
__________________________ long live oaksterdam.com Have a legal question or want to report a violation of the Compassionate Use Act? Call ASA's toll-free hotline at 1-888-929-4367

more weedbay stuff.

From weedbay.net (of course)

U.S.'s Second Largest Cancer Charity Calls for Legal Access as Vote Looms in Congress WASHINGTON, D.C. — With a vote on medical marijuana looming in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has adopted a formal policy position calling for removal of criminal and civil penalties for seriously ill patients using marijuana with their doctor's recommendation. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is the second largest cancer charity in the U.S., and the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. As the House prepares to vote this month on an amendment to bar Justice Department interference with state medical marijuana laws, the society's resolution cites federal interference with medical marijuana research, the harm that can be done to seriously ill patients by poor quality prison health care, and the wide support for legal access to medical marijuana within the medical community. It states, "The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society supports legislation to remove criminal and civil sanctions for the doctor-advised, medical use of marijuana by patients with serious physical medical conditions." The statement also calls for an end to federal prosecutions of patients in states that permit medical use of marijuana. "This should put to rest forever the lie that the medical and scientific communities don't support medical marijuana," said Aaron Houston, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "As the House of Representatives prepares to consider medical marijuana, members need to ask themselves a simple question: What is better for seriously ill patients, medical marijuana or jail? There is no medical organization anywhere that believes jailing the sick is good for them, and yet that is precisely what federal policy does." Journalists can contact MPP director of communications Bruce Mirken at the numbers above for a complete copy of the LLS resolution. With more than 23,000 members and 100,000 e-mail subscribers nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project is the largest marijuana policy reform organization in the United States. MPP believes that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. For more information, please visit www.MarijuanaPolicy.org.

BAKERSFIELD BUST

From weedbay.net (of course)


Monday, July 16, 10:30am:
First hand accounts?: Add info to our forums

DEA and Kern County Sheriff's Department are raiding Nature's Medicinal right now!

***Location: 323 Roberts Lane, Bakersfield, CA

ASA has just received an eyewitness report that Bakersfield Collective, Nature's Medicinal is being raided by federal agents right now! Please, if you're in the area, go down and show your support!

According to an eyewitness at the scene, both the Kern County Sheriff's Department and DEA Agents are at the raid. The same eyewitness reported that both of the Nature's Medicinal owners have been arrested. We are still awaiting further information from the collective. If you have any details please contact ASA's Field Coordinator, Sonnet Seeborg Gabbard: sonnet@safeaccessnow.org
--

Sonnet Seeborg Gabbard
Field Coordinator
Americans for Safe Access
AmericansForSafeAccess.org

The ASA office has received a report the Nature's Medicinal in Bakersfield
is being raided. It is our understanding that local PD and DEA are on the
scene now. Is there anyone near Bakersfield who can act as a Legal Observer?

Please stand by for more information or post details if you have them.

Medicinal Marijuana Dispensary Raided By DEA

POSTED: 10:56 am PDT July 16, 2007
UPDATED: 12:12 pm PDT July 16, 2007
News source: KERO - Bakersfield

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The Drug Enforcement Agency raided a Bakersfield marijuana dispensary Monday morning.

Members of the DEA along with the Kern County Sheriff’s Department raided Nature’s Medicinal Cooperative in north Bakersfield around 9 a.m.

The agencies have a search warrant for the pot dispensary along with arrest warrants for several people involved with the distribution.


Officials questioned several employees at the business and eventually let them go, but one person was arrested.

An undisclosed second location was also raided at the same time where several people had been arrested according to officials.

This is the second raid on this shop; the first was May 1 of this year.

A shop clerk said they don’t know if they will be able to recover from this latest raid since they took a hard hit the first time.

Related Weedbay Stories: First Bust - May 2, 2007

OAKSTERDAM.COM IS UP

Thanks to Dopey from Weedbay.net for helping us launch Oaksterdam.com

The url was first obtained by Jim Mclelland one of the founders of the Oakland scene and the person who coined the term Oaksterdam. We remember Jim by trying to continue what was the original Oaksterdam vision. Like Amsterdam, it would be a haven for tolerance not just for medical Cannabis users but people of all kinds regardless of who they are.