cannabisnews.com: People's Will Is Clear, if Not Laws People's Will Is Clear, if Not Laws Posted by CN Staff on September 25, 2002 at 09:28:40 PT By Dana Parsons Source: Los Angeles Times Hagen Place, a nondescript two-story apartment building on a corner of 3rd Street in Laguna Beach, would seem just what California voters had in mind when they passed the medical-marijuana initiative in 1996. Laguna Beach police may beg to differ.Named after a local doctor and gay activist who died of the complications of AIDS in 1991, Hagen Place has 24 apartments for people who are HIV-positive. Many people with HIV have said that marijuana helps relieve nausea they sometimes get from their medications. And, by a 56% to 44% vote, Californians six years ago endorsed the use of doctor-prescribed marijuana to relieve pain.That, Ross Embry says, is why he grows and smokes marijuana.It's also why Embry, 53, now faces a court date next month.About 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 17, police entered through a patio screen door in his apartment and arrested him for cultivating marijuana and possessing it for sale.In a surprise, Embry says he wasn't surprised. Nor, even, all that angry."I'm not furious over the arrest, because it's not unexpected," Embry says. "Everyone who's media-savvy knows the medical-marijuana law is capriciously enforced and there's great vacillation on the part of so many communities all over California on how to prosecute and handle these cases."Embry says he has been using marijuana for 18 months or so to counter nausea that resulted after he altered his medication. He says he gives pot to several other HIV-positive residents in the building but doesn't sell it.Laguna Beach police might have other ideas. Sgt. Jason Kravetz says police confiscated a large-enough number of plants to arouse suspicion. "It's a quantity we don't come across all too often," Kravetz says. He confirmed Embry's assessment of about 2 pounds in ready-to-use marijuana but says there was an additional 20 pounds in plant form.Embry is right about one thing: The medical-marijuana issue is far from settled in California.Snipped: Complete Article: http://www.latimes.com/editions/orange/la-me-parsonssub25sep25.story Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)Author: Dana ParsonsPublished: September 25, 2002Copyright: 2002 Los Angeles TimesContact: letters latimes.comWebsite: http://www.latimes.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #11 posted by John Tyler on September 25, 2002 at 14:00:06 PT Re: Comment #8 That's the Drug War for you... Damned if you do, and damned if you don't. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by malleus on September 25, 2002 at 13:45:55 PT The feds are playing with fire You know what's funny? Being an election year, it's not a good idea for Republicans to use their DEA troublemakers in bashing sick people in a state that could go Democrat real easy if they keep going after sick people like this.Without belaboring the obvious, California is a hugely important state come election time. If Californians don't like feds coming in and terrorizing the sick, then they have a wonderful opportunity to show their displeasure. If I were a California Democrat, I think I'd be making some kind of supportive noise right now, if I wanted to be elected. Because their *silence* WILL be remembered. [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by DdC on September 25, 2002 at 10:47:30 PT Numbers? 99.28% of the nations cannabis eradications are non-psychoactive ditchweed hemp. It would take smoking a joint the size of a telephone pole to even think about enough thc to get a buzz. The d.e.a.th ratio for booze is 10 to 1. 10 times the amount it takes for intoxication will overdose and kill. Cannabis is 40,000 to 1. hemp factoidOver 50% of the farm chemicals applied to crops in the usa are used on cotton cropshemp is a hardy plant whose fiber is not affected by pests and the considerable leaf drop acts as self fertilization to naturally renew the soilby using biomass reduction and VHT, the entire energy needs of the USA could be met by farming only 4% of usa land with hemp which would create oxygen and significantly reduce pollution levelsswitching cotton fields to hemp fields would improve: the quality of our soil, the durability of our clothes, the safety of our ground source water, the quality of our air, and the preservation of forests cut for paper (not to mention saving hundreds of thousands of lives prematurely ended by disease caused by pollution)In 1993, two hundred and fifty thousand tons of pesticides were used to grow cotton world-wide.These pesticides wash into streams and rivers, destroying eco-systems and poisoning human water supplies. Today the water supplies of many large cities are contaminated. Many of the vegetables we eat and clothes we wear contain pesticide residues. We must develop and utilize sustainable technologies if we want to survive and prosper in the next millenium. Hemp is a perfect sustainable raw material for thousands of products. Textiles, cosmetics, building materials, fuel and food can all be made from hemp.WHY BUY HEMP?BECAUSE HEMP IS: KINDER THAN COTTONHemp is kinder on the Earth than cotton. 39 million pounds of pesticides were used to grow cotton in the U.S. last year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency--but hemp production requires no pesticides. Cotton's shallow taproots suck enormous amounts of nutrients from the topsoil and cause erosion. By contrast, hemp taproots are very deep and raise up subsurface nutrients while protecting the topsoil from erosion.STRONGER AND LONGER LASTING THAN COTTONScientific testing shows hemp is considerably more durable than cotton. Our hemp jeans have been tested by Greenwood Mills (one of the largest US producers of cotton denim) against comparable cotton jeans. Our 100% hemp jeans were 67.5% stronger on tensile strength tests and 102% stronger on tear strength tests.KINDER THAN DEFORESTATIONMany environmentalists consider deforestation the most urgent threat the planet faces today. With hemp available as an alternative, not one more tree needs to be cut down. Anything that is presently made from trees--paper, building supplies, even rayon--can now be made from hemp. An acre of hemp produces four times as much paper as an acre of trees. Unlike wood-pulp paper, the production of hemp paper does not require acids or bleaches, and does not create dioxins--one of the very most toxic substances. Some day soon, we may even be able to build homes made from hemp--recent tests at Washington State University show fiberboard made from hemp is stronger and lighter than wood.IF HEMP IS SO GOOD FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, WHY DON'T WE USE IT MORE?Because powerful people make lots of money selling millions of pounds of pesticides, logging millions of trees from our dwindling national forests, and in general supplying the market with toxic and non-sustainable goods which can easily be replaced with hemp. The sad fact is that these powerful interests have used their stranglehold on the media and the politicians to systematically spread untruth and ignorance about the real choices facing us. The almost unbelievable fact is that in the world today, each year fewer acres of hemp are being planted than the year before.WHAT CAN WE DO?The basic weapon is supply and demand. The more hemp we buy, the more will be grown. When more hemp is grown, fewer trees will be cut from the earth--and less chemicals will be dumped on it. At ECOLUTION, we are committed to bringing you hemp products which will replace the goods of the toxic, non-sustainable industries. If none of the goods in our catalog appeal to you, write us with your suggestions--and please--check out the goods offered by one of the other fine hemp companies out there.SHOW YOUR SUPPORT FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE--BUY HEMP!!!Ohio Hempery http://www.hempery.comEcolution http://www.ecolution.comMendo Hemp http://www.mendohemp.comHemp Space Hats from Hemp http://www.headspacehemp.comHemptech http://www.hemptech.com/IHA http://mojo.calyx.net/~olsen/HEMP/IHA/Pacific Hemp http://www.pacifichemp.com/The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber http://www.fornits.com/curiosity/hemp/fibre.htmElkhorn Manifesto Shadow of the Swastika http://www.wealth4freedom.com/Elkhorn.htmlCannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed http://www.sumeria.net/politics/invpro.htmlHemp for Victory http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/37/37369.gifSacramental cannabis food, fuel, fiber, FARMaceuticals, Hardrug&Booze alternative eliminated from the Free Market by Legislated education depravation and D.E.A.th!Peace, Love and Liberty...DdC http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/index.html Products Eliminated by Prohibition [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 25, 2002 at 10:35:51 PT From today's Chicago Sun Times p.54 One week after a Nevada seventh-grader who turned in some marijuana that he found on his desk was suspended because, in the act of turning in the marijuana, he was guilty of possession of marijuana, a sophomore honor student in Florida who didn't turn in a bag of pills she found on school grounds because she was afraid she would be expelled for possession of a bag of pills, was told she faces expulsion for not turning in the bag of pills. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on September 25, 2002 at 10:35:33 PT John Tyler You know I feel the same way. I would have been content with just medical cannabis being legal in all the states not all that long ago. Now after all we've seen that isn't enough. Here are a few pages I made when we had serious issues occurring in the news. How can we stop until Cannabis is relegalzed?Tom & Rollie: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/rb.htmPeter McWilliams: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/Peterm.htmDEA Raids: http://freedomtoexhale.com/raid.htmMore DEA Raids: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/mj.htmWAMM Raid: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htm [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by John Tyler on September 25, 2002 at 10:11:51 PT Raised Stakes This whole gov. cannabis harassment issue has disgusted me and I suppose many others. At one time I would have been contented with decrim. now nothing less than full re-legalization will do. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Windminstrel on September 25, 2002 at 10:06:53 PT I like numbers I just did some figuring. Can you folks add to this list? if you took the annual WoD budget in $100 bills and stacked them up, the stack would be 31.5 miles high. Lay those bills end to end and they'd reach 1,893,939 miles. With the money spent on Federal marijuana prohibition you could: see the film "Training Day" 2,500,000,000 times in the theater, rent it 5,714,285,714 times, or buy 1,333,333,333 copies of it on DVD. Drive a gas-guzzling Ford Explorer 223,529,411,764 miles (with the airconditioner on) buy 400,000,000 school books. buy a computer for every child in the United States. take the entire nation of China out for a nice dinner put 1,333,333 people through drug treatment get 666,666,666 good haircuts go coast-to-coast 202,020,202 times on Greyhound By dialing 10-10-220 you could talk for 336,700,337 hours on the phone build a new house for every family in Vermont Feed the world population for 12 days [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on September 25, 2002 at 09:44:12 PT 2 for the price of one! Thank You [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by druid on September 25, 2002 at 09:43:20 PT: oops beat me to it!!! [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by druid on September 25, 2002 at 09:42:44 PT: the rest of the article ... The state Supreme Court ruled in July that Californians can't be prosecuted in state court if they have a doctor's recommendation to smoke pot for pain. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has said that nothing in federal law permits its use.The most extreme example of a city's support of the initiative came last week when Santa Cruz City Council members drew ailing residents' names from a hat and symbolically dispensed pot prescriptions to them.Embry concedes he has only a doctor's letter that acknowledges his marijuana use but that doesn't specifically prescribe it. That is but another flaw in the law, Embry says--the unwillingness of some doctors to put their name on a pot prescription.And he's not blind to people trying to circumvent Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative."Obviously, there are people who are using the medical-marijuana issue as a ploy to market it," Embry says. "That's not out of the realm of possibility at all."As for his supply, Embry says, "Yes, I did cultivate it. I didn't have it for sale. I never sold any of it. Sure, I've got friends in the building who are in the same boat [with pain]. They have to buy on the street from people with shady connections. Of course, they'd rather get it from someone in the building."Embry says the cops couldn't have been nicer and told him his case may or may not reach court."We don't take any sides with the medical-marijuana issue," Kravetz says. "The courts have asked us not to be judge and jury when we're out in the field."Embry says he's prepared to fight. "I don't look at myself as being victimized," he says. "All institutions are flawed. We have the ability in this country to change flawed institutions."*Dana Parsons' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He may be reached by calling (714) 966-7821; writing to The Times' Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626; or by e-mail at dana.parsons latimes.com. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Dankhank on September 25, 2002 at 09:42:25 PT: rest of the story The state Supreme Court ruled in July that Californians can't be prosecuted in state court if they have a doctor's recommendation to smoke pot for pain. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has said that nothing in federal law permits its use.The most extreme example of a city's support of the initiative came last week when Santa Cruz City Council members drew ailing residents' names from a hat and symbolically dispensed pot prescriptions to them.Embry concedes he has only a doctor's letter that acknowledges his marijuana use but that doesn't specifically prescribe it. That is but another flaw in the law, Embry says--the unwillingness of some doctors to put their name on a pot prescription.And he's not blind to people trying to circumvent Proposition 215, the 1996 initiative."Obviously, there are people who are using the medical-marijuana issue as a ploy to market it," Embry says. "That's not out of the realm of possibility at all."As for his supply, Embry says, "Yes, I did cultivate it. I didn't have it for sale. I never sold any of it. Sure, I've got friends in the building who are in the same boat [with pain]. They have to buy on the street from people with shady connections. Of course, they'd rather get it from someone in the building."Embry says the cops couldn't have been nicer and told him his case may or may not reach court."We don't take any sides with the medical-marijuana issue," Kravetz says. "The courts have asked us not to be judge and jury when we're out in the field."Embry says he's prepared to fight. "I don't look at myself as being victimized," he says. "All institutions are flawed. We have the ability in this country to change flawed institutions."*Dana Parsons' column appears Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. He may be reached by calling (714) 966-7821; writing to The Times' Orange County edition, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626; or by e-mail at dana.parsons latimes.com. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment