cannabisnews.com: Discussion About Pot Initiative Becomes Heated





Discussion About Pot Initiative Becomes Heated
Posted by CN Staff on September 26, 2002 at 14:36:14 PT
By Erin Neff 
Source: Las Vegas Sun 
A televised discussion between the man backing the marijuana initiative and a representative of the district attorney's office Wednesday ended just shy of a screaming match.Amid attorney Gary Booker's insinuation that Question 9 proponent Billy Rogers smokes marijuana was a disparaging remark about a Las Vegas attorney and another about a retired police officer who called during the live broadcast of DayONE Las Vegas.
Question 9 would legalize possession of three ounces of marijuana for private use by those 21 and older. Nevada voters approved medical marijuana twice, amending the constitution and allowing 214 residents to sign up for the program.Rogers says medical marijuana patients, including Holly Brady who suffers from multiple sclerosis, have to "buy their medicine from drug dealers."But Booker wrongly asserted several times on the show that patients can grow their own plants with seeds they buy from the state Agriculture Department.After the program aired on Las Vegas ONE, a partnership of KLAS-TV, Cox Cable and the Greenspun family, publishers of the Las Vegas Sun, Cecile Crofoot's phone in the state Agriculture Department's Carson City offices began ringing."They told me they wanted to get their packet of seeds," said Crofoot, manager of the state's medical marijuana program. "We don't have them."Rogers initially asked Booker, who works in the DA's vehicular crimes unit, where people can get the seeds."The same place you get your seeds," Booker said.Rogers responded: "I don't smoke marijuana," as Booker interrupted, accusing Rogers of moving to Nevada from Texas just to make this state a "test monkey for legalization."The exchange between the men was testy from the onset as Booker frequently interrupted Rogers and drowned out both he and host Nancy Byrne several times.Rogers and Booker argued at length about whether the initiative would weaken DUI laws, and whether Booker's past assertions that the initiative would have meant that Jessica Williams did nothing wrong when she crashed a van on I-15 killing six teens picking up trash in the median -- a case Booker prosecuted.Byrne pointed out that Williams was never convicted of driving under the influence. Rather it was a state law that calls a driver impaired if he has two nanograms of marijuana in his blood that Williams was ultimately convicted of violating.Rogers said he asked attorney JoNell Thomas to review whether the state's DUI statutes would be invalidated by Question 9. She says they won't.Booker said Thomas doesn't practice criminal law, and thus, can't be asked to comment on DUI statutes. Thomas' practice does include defense of several Death Row inmates.When Rogers tried to show Booker what Thomas had written, Booker interrupted saying: "You're not a lawyer and JoNell Thomas isn't much of one."When Byrne went to the phones, a caller identifying himself as a retired police officer asked a question that appeared sympathetic to medical marijuana patients' difficulty obtaining marijuana.Booker testily said that police officers aren't lawyers and added accusingly: "I don't know where he's a retired police officer from."Proponents of Question 9 will unveil a steering committee today and announce endorsements from 3,000 Nevadans. On Friday, Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement plan a press conference with medical marijuana patients who buy their marijuana from drug dealers.Also Friday, Stop DUI, which has formed an opposition group to Question 9, will hold a press conference to announce its steering committee and endorsements.Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)Author: Erin Neff Published: September 26, 2002Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Sun, Inc.Contact: letters lasvegassun.comWebsite: http://www.lasvegassun.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Smoking Up The Debate on Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14237.shtmlNew Breed of Voters May Stir Pot of Politicshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14214.shtml Legalizing Marijuana: Five Major Sticking Points http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14204.shtml
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Comment #16 posted by idbsne1 on September 27, 2002 at 18:17:29 PT
I wanna find that PG&E worker....
and make his/her life miserable.idbsne1
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Comment #15 posted by eco-man on September 27, 2002 at 08:26:43 PT
Thanks for the video and HempEvolution links, FoM
I have a lot of video links to check out at HempEvolution, FoM. Thanks. The site there seems to have improved since the last time I was there. I will add it to my news sites page: 
http://corporatism.tripod.com/fairuse.htm 
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on September 26, 2002 at 23:26:09 PT
Update: LAPD Raids Sister Somayah 
Inglewood, CA Sept 26- Sister Somayah was arrested by LAPD undercover cops not the feds who were called by a PG&E worker on a service call. Sister Somayah's small garden was destroyed and she remains in LAPD custody pending a court hearing tomorrow. She has already been acquitted in a previous jury trial and won a civil lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles this year. It remains to be seen whether the case will be turned over to the feds.Sorry for the first info, but it was given hurriedly over the phone from jail.As always, click: http://thehempevolution.org/ for the most complete multimedia coverage of the cannabis world.http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread14259.shtml#10
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on September 26, 2002 at 22:28:37 PT
Dan
Thank you. You are doing a great job. What I hope as a possibility would be the LTE's put on the front page of Cannabis News with a link to them from here. I think Matt could figure that out but he has been doing all kinds of things in my web form to make it easier for me and I want to give the poor man a breather. I am very lucky to have two of the best drug policy related programmers work on CNews. Ron Bennett and Matt Elrod. They're the best in my book. We are a good bunch of people here amd I love you all. I'm tired but as I said the other night I'm not weary. We must keep on keepin' on! And that we will!
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Comment #12 posted by Dan B on September 26, 2002 at 22:17:27 PT
Prime Haiku
Thanks Prime and everyone. FoM, I wouldn't worry too much about posting LTEs since MAP Inc. does it for us. The larger articles are, I feel, more important news. Most of the LTEs contain some of the same information that we see here on Cannabis News, anyway.It might be cool, though, if we could set up a site with just LTEs. Does MAP Inc. have such a function? I know they archive everything, and I know they have a search engine built into their site. I guess one could type "cannabis + marijuana + LTE" in that search engine and see what comes up.I just like to post the LTEs that do get published on comments here because I know we all have support here, and that support is one of the things about Cannabis News that keeps me going. I think you're doing a great job with the news as it is, FoM (and, especially as of late, a great job monitoring the comments here). No need to worry about hurting anyone's feelings by not posting LTEs as news articles. All of us here love you.Dan B
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Comment #11 posted by Prime on September 26, 2002 at 20:28:02 PT
Golf clap for DanB...
well saidyou set a great examplei will try harderthat might be a hai koo(sp?)
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on September 26, 2002 at 20:15:09 PT
E - Mail News - Sister Somayah Raided - Snatched
Sister Somayah Raided - Snatched
     Dear Friends,I just received a call from Sister Somayah Kambui's neighbor. At sundown, a number of unmarked vehicles descended on Somayayh's home, cut down her plants, and arrested her and her brother. She only had time to shout my phone number to her neighbor. The neighbor did not recognize the officers as LAPD. She did say that several looked like local bicycle cops, but Somaya was taken away in an unamrked car by unmarked persons. We are trying to find out now, who has her and where she has been taken.Given her recent Proposition 215 acquittal, it is likely that the feds have her.Scott Imlerhttp://www.geocities.com/sistersomayah/links.htm
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on September 26, 2002 at 19:29:38 PT
xxdr_zombiexx 
You did good! Keep writing! That's how we will win!
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Comment #8 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on September 26, 2002 at 19:19:26 PT:
off topic
Big High to everybody ...I wanted to say thanx to Sam Adams and the GCW for the kind commentaries recently - I think that's really cool.And special thanx to (or blame on) Mayan for all that off-topic stuff he posts here. If it wasn't for him I wouldnt have seen a number of things, not the least being the FTW site. It puts a number of things together. peace
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Comment #7 posted by VitaminT on September 26, 2002 at 18:26:41 PT
Go ahead Billy!
Let the fanatics take the low road and show the world what they're made of. Thinking people know the difference between rational minds and raving lunatics.Comment preview, now this I like! "hey hey we're movin' on up!" 
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Comment #6 posted by mayan on September 26, 2002 at 17:57:48 PT
 Poll Landslide...
Do you support ballot Question Nine (legalizing small amounts of marijuana)? Here are the results so far: Yes 70% 
 
No 28% 
 
Not sure 2% http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=950550&nav=168XBT99 
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Comment #5 posted by mayan on September 26, 2002 at 17:34:38 PT
Who Needs Friends?
Thank you, Gary Booker! You just made yourself look like a major ass & probably influenced thousands to vote for Question 9! Keep on screaming & lying Mr. Booker. With enemies like Booker, who needs friends? Excellent letter Dan B! Thanks for the video/article/poll-link FoM! I am honored to post here with you folks!unrelated -Iraq trained al-Qaeda, US says(Boy,are they desperate!)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/americas/2282986.stmStop the War Coalition(UK)
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/The Politicization Of War With Iraq: 
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/09.27A.daschle.iraq.htmBush Gets Tangled in his 9-11 Lies Part 1: A Strange White House Press Conference...
http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/calif1.htmWILDCARD: Down the rabbit hole with the man who says he tried to warn the world about 9/11 -
http://www.guerrillanews.com/wildcard/vreeland_one Afghanistan's Opium Production Rises Sharply:  
http://rense.com/general29/rpo.htmU.S. Military Spending Clock by CDI:
http://www.cdi.org/msc/clock.html
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on September 26, 2002 at 16:49:53 PT
Dan
That is really great! Keep writing! I asked Matt yesterday to see if he can figure out how to put the published LTE's on CNews after they get processed on Mapinc. I feel bad because I can't do more news but it would be too much for the layout of CNews and me. I mostly post news articles, editorials and breaking news. I thought if the LTEs were formatted to look like CNews that would be great and you that are faithful letter writers would get your LTE on CNews too. What do you think?
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Comment #3 posted by Dan B on September 26, 2002 at 16:31:12 PT:
Another LTE, and more
I thought I'd tell those who are interested know that I managed to get an LTE published in the Detroit News. Plus, a couple more from our side voiced their opinions. Here's the link. Scroll down to "False link to Abuse" for mine; the others surround it.http://www.detnews.com/2002/editorial/0209/25/a10-595970.htmDan B
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on September 26, 2002 at 14:55:11 PT
Question 9 Action Alert 
Please share this action alert with friends and family in Nevada.TO:   Nevadans* who support Question 9FROM:  Paul Gessing, MPP legislative analystDATE:  Thursday, September 26, 2002SUBJECT: Question 9 Action Alert #6     Please register to vote before October 5THIS WEEK:Every vote will be important this year as Nevadans go to the polls to decide whether to remove the criminal penalties for adult possession of up to three ounces of marijuana. You will not be able to vote on Election Day, November 5, if you do not register BY OCTOBER 5.Please take a few minutes to download voter registration documents: http://www.NRLE.org/vote.htmlIf you have moved recently or have not voted in a long time, please be sure to contact your County Clerk/Registrar of Voters to make sure they have your correct information. The site mentioned above has a link for contacting these offices.One recent news story in the "Las Vegas Sun" talks specifically about the voting habits of those between the ages of 18 and 25: http://www.NRLE.org/news/lvs092302.htmlIn non-presidential elections, 18- to 25-year-olds vote less than 20% of the time. Please encourage voters of all ages to get registered, but especially take the opportunity to speak with young people about making their voices heard by voting.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on September 26, 2002 at 14:38:15 PT
Video, Article and Poll from KLAS-TV
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=950550&nav=168XBT99
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