For Want Of A Seed

For want of a seed, there was no plant.                           

For want of a plant, there was no crime.

For want of a crime, there was no warrant.
For want of a warrant, there was no lawful search.
For want of a lawful search, there was no evidence.
For want of evidence, there was no proof.
For want of proof, there was no effective prosecution.
For want of effective prosecution, there was no order.
For want of order, there was no community.
For want of community, there was no harvest.
For want of a harvest, there was no plant.
For want of a plant, there was no seed.

Laura Johnson McNish; you never fail to amaze me with your stupidity. Instead of lying your ass off in court about something that did not happen, why not prosecute the young man who drove through someone's cornfield, for fun, in the summer of 2013? Or prosecute hate crimes? Or maybe domestic violence? Or at least, things that happen and are real........

Someone who has a newspaper open to a story about decriminalization of marijuana in Wichita sitting on his table has not committed a crime, and the story he was reading is not evidence that he has. Neither is any other information he may have on the subject. Because of the United States Constitution, it is lawful for a man to lobby his representatives for change, if he so desires; and it is also lawful to read about those ideas and discuss them. Have you completely lost your mind, McNish?

Disclaimer: Yours truly does not use any recreational drugs. She does, on occasion, read about election issues and results, however; and decriminalization of marijuana has been in the news lately.

Republican Uses For The War On Drugs

"You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities," Ehrlichman said. "We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did." John Erlichman, former aide to Richard Nixon

One has to wonder if the same tactics can work on government agencies.......

College Offers Classes In Cannabis Cultivation

Entrepreneurial Opportunities In Emerging Markets: Marijuana Legalization. That is the title of a new course offering at Ann Arundel Community College, in Maryland. No joke. Maryland has decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, and citing the trend nationwide, has taken the step of opening the eyes of college students to possible opportunities in agriculture and marketing of the same. Maybe one day, all the folks who engage in the business unlawfully will be obliged to find gainful employment and pay taxes.

Disclaimer: yours truly does not recommend the use of any recreational drug.

Marijuana Will Be Up For Vote In Wichita

The new petition for decriminalization of marijuana, particularly first offenses, was written up, passed around, and signed by enough people to force the city of Wichita, Kansas, to put it on the ballot in April. This will make possession within the city a municipal offence with a small fine, rather than a felony, or whatever is convenient for prosecutors to call it. It seems like a step in the right direction; perhaps our jails and prisons can reserve space for those who commit violent crimes, instead of locking up those who get caught taking bong hits. It's also nice to see Wichita listening to it's constituency.

One aspect of this matter that is troubling, however; is one of the considerations listed by the city of Wichita, as a possible reason ignore the voters. Wichita is worried about lost revenue via fines and other fees, collected from offenders. Suppose everyone in Wichita sobered up and quit smoking pot? Or perhaps got better at hiding from cops? Then how would Wichita deal with "lost revenue"? Is it possible that our judicial system is actually, in it's own way, discouraging addicts and alcoholics from recovery because of financial considerations? Say it ain't so! Financial loss in the form of  penalty fines and fees should never be a consideration in this type of referendum. Here's an excerpt from Wichita's proposal:

Washington Politicians Can Now Inhale

Marion Barry must be very happy right now, despite the abundance of republicans in Washington, D.C. Bill Clinton is now free to inhale. Voters have decided to legalize small amounts of marijuana for "personal use"......whatever is implied by that......! One will not be free to sell, or "bootleg" weed as if it were moonshine. but one will be allowed to grow up to six plants. Why would neighboring Maryland have such a problem with a decision made by the District of Columbia, for the District of Columbia?

Disclaimer: your blogger does not advocate or support any type of recreational drug use. She simply would rather see your tax dollars and hers but to uses more productive than senseless prosecution of violators of prohibition laws.

Georgia Police Hate Okra

Georgia police apparently had nothing to do one day last week, so they descended on the home of Dwayne Perry in Cartersville Georgia to arrest him for the crime of growing okra in his garden. Who knows what they were thinking....."if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck...maybe it's marijuana!" No; that can't be it. It's a lot more likely that the police in Georgia were not thinking at all.

To the left is a big bud, such as one would find on an okra stalk. Maybe the drug suppression task force will try smoking it.



Luckily, no one was injured or killed. When police act on misinformation or ego driven agendas, innocent people often are injured or killed. Too often. For that reason, the ensuing apology seemed a bit hollow to Perry. "It did have quite a number of characteristics that were similar to a cannabis plant," opined Georgia State cop, Kermit Stokes. Perhaps it did; both plants photosynthesize.

"If we disturbed them in any manner, that's not our intent. Our intent is to go out and do our job to the best of our ability." Such and apology would be a lot more believable if police in Georgia had actually investigated the case of a Valdosta high school student by the name of Kendrick Johnson, who was found deceased in a rolled up gym mat at his school. He had "disappeared", and his parents were never informed by the school that he was missing. Sound familiar, Frankfort, Kansas?

Dangerous okra plants, and other infractions of prohibition laws, should never take precedence over missing persons investigations and murder investigations.

Frisbee Golf, Anyone?

While on the subject of abuses of law enforcement, and unlawful search and seizure, here's some cell phone footage from Ankeny, Iowa. A cop was simply not satisfied with a routine traffic stop and expressed an unrequited desire to unlawfully search the car he had pulled over. The driver declined the offer, and eventually left, but not without recording the incident. Now the police in Iowa want everyone to know that they are terribly sorry about the whole thing, and that it is just a small, isolated incident. Once again, the advice is worth reiteration: always record interactions with police.

Wichita's New Petition To Decriminalize Marijuana

A new petition to decriminalize marijuana in Wichita Kansas is in the works. The old one was rejected by the city council when they went over each and every signature, looking for flaws and reasons to reject the petition. It had garnered over twice as many signatures as necessary to put decriminalization on the ballot, but the city council was determined to find a reason to deny the voters what they wanted, so they questioned a few of the signatures and told Kansans For Change that they were thirty-six signatures short. Would Kansans have this much trouble with a petition to put prayer in school on the ballot, despite the fact that federal law trumps it already? Probably not. A new petition should be in circulation on October 1. This blog will post a link.

Disclaimer: your blogger does not engage or approve of the use or abuse of any recreational drugs. She simply thinks that your tax dollars, along with hers, could be better spent on pursuits other than malicious prosecution of anyone who violates a prohibition law.

Wichita Gets Unpopular With Voters

The city of Wichita, Kansas obviously does not want to decriminalize marijuana, but the people do. After a petition to put changes in the law about marijuana on the ballot this November had garnered more than enough signatures and was presented to the city council, the city council somehow determined that there were not enough signatures. Because citizens called city hall to let Wichita know what they really thought of that, the city has decided to allow Kansans For Change to draft a new petition. Okay, Wichita. Whatever. It appears you know what your voters want. Just don't make them ask for it 420 times.

Kansas For Change And Wichita

          City Hall 316-268-4331 just say Put it on the Ballot.

                                                                              

          Election Office 316-660-7100 see if you registered

Real quick, everyone, the citizens of Wichita Kansas and Kansas For Change would really like to decriminalize marijuana marijuana in Wichita, Kansas. They collected about twice as many signatures as they needed on a petition to get the decriminalization of marijuana on the ballot, so everyone who votes can vote on it. Instead of simply including this item for voters, Wichita is falsely invalidating over half of the signatures, and no matter how many signatures Kansas For Change collects, there always seems to be a reason to disregard the wishes of the people.  If you are part of this district, and you also wish to be part of a constructive change, please call the number printed under the picture for City Hall in Wichita, and tell them you want decriminalization of marijuana on the ballot. 

*Yours truly does not approve or engage in the use of any recreational drug. She simply hates to see the judicial system waste her tax dollars and everyone else's on selective and insane prosecution.

Wichita Kansas May Have To Put Marijuana On The Ballot

A petition to decriminalize marijuana has gotten 5,800 signatures so far, in order to force Wichita, Kansas to decriminalize marijuana and change the nature of the offense from a criminal misdemeanor to a minor civil offense. This is over twice the number of signature needed, so Wichita really has no excuse to refuse to put the question of decriminalizing marijuana on the ballot. The petition calls for a twenty-five dollar fine in municipal court instead of the current criminal sanctions and requests that violations be treated the same way building code violations or uncontrolled pets are treated. I do not use recreational drugs and do not approve of recreational drug use, but I also do not approve of prosecuting victimless crimes with millions of dollars that can more productively spent on education. It's also a nice gesture to avoid the needless ruin of lives with what amounts to malicious prosecution and selectively applied sanctions. Power To The People!

A Kansas Customer Makes Retail Headlines

I forgot all about this! An Abilene, Kansas man happened to be in Washington on July 8, when Top Shelf, a store in Bellingham, opened and sold the first bag of recreational marijuana retailed there since 1937. It was heralded as the very first weed to be retailed in the state of Washington, but that seems unlikely, since the federal prohibition laws against it have only been in effect since 1937. The man's name is Cale Holdsworth, and since he only bought two grams, his purchase probably did not survive the trip back to Kansas! It's nice to see Kansas in the news for something other than Kris Kobach's latest legislative lunacies or Westboro Baptist Church's shenanigans.

* No, I do not support recreational drug use, so don't be running to your mama or your local pharmacist crying that I do. I simply prefer to see your tax dollars and mine spent on something besides the prosecution of victimless crimes.

Listen To Your Elders, Brownback

Ya learn something new every day! The Kansas Silver Haired Legislature, an advisory group to governor, led by senior citizens, has recommended legalization of medical marijuana in Kansas to Governor Sam Brownback! Senate Bill 9, written by Senator David Haley, of Kansas City, Kansas, calling for legalization of marijuana with a doctor's recommendation, has gotten no traction as of yet, but Kansas seniors would like something less addictive than oxycodone and easier on the kidneys than ibuprofen and acetaminophen for pain. Who knew?

That said, I will reiterate what I have stated on this site several times in the past: I do not use any recreational drugs, and condone no unlawful activity, but would like to see violations of prohibition laws relegated to a lesser place on court dockets, and charges for the same as misdemeanors rather than felonies. Prohibition of alcohol in this country, from 1920 to 1933, was unproductive, barely enforceable, and created opportunities for organized crime. Can anyone say "Mafia"?

The Kansas Silver Haired Legislature also consulted with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) prior to making their recommendation. This gives Governor Browncrack a perspective about the legal aspects of medical marijuana as well as the health aspects. Hopefully, Brownback will listen to his elders.

 

 

Social Services Grabbed A Newborn For What?

In April of 2013, Elizabeth Mort, of Pennsylvania, ate a bagel that was made with poppy seeds. Then she went to the hospital and gave birth to a baby girl. The staff at Jameson Hospital in Lawrence County is lucky, because when I go into labor, I always stop at Taco Bell en route, and eat as many seven layer burritos as I can before arriving at the hospital; yet when they did their wonderful drug tests on Mort, with their wonderfully inflated prices for the insurance company to cover, they used a standard of 300 nanograms per milliliter as a guideline of THC, and of otherwise being a doper, rather than the federally accepted 2000 nanograms per milliliter. This allowed the residue from the poppyseed bagel to appear in the test results.

Three days later, while Mort was at home with her new daughter, social services stormed her house and took her baby away. The hospital had telephoned social services with news of a positive drug test, with no mention of the comparison of the results of said drug test to federal standards, and had thus made a false report. While it only took five days for Mort to get her daughter back, it took three years to settle the lawsuit, which was finally settled this past week. The ACLU got involved on Mort's behalf.

Why would a child be taken from a parent over a lab result that was not even current information? Why would a child be taken from a parent over a violation of a prohibition law? After all, we do not routinely remove children from the homes of people who get cited for DWI. Why is marijuana so much more important? If there was no indication of fetal distress because of drugs, why did the hospital order a test for drugs? Why did the hospital order the test without the patient's knowledge? When the test came back flagged as a false positive, why didn't the hospital discuss it with the patient immediately? Was the hospital more interested in snagging a newborn and helping the state to sell it, rather then finding out if the patient had a substance abuse problem? These are all questions that anyone of either gender planning on becoming a parent should want answered before choosing an hospital for the birth.

The ACLU insisted that Jameson Hospital and Pennsylvania come into compliance and stop harassing families, but what about your state? It's clearly time to rethink the importance of family, legalize marijuana, (no, I am NOT a cannabis indulger) or do both.

 

 

Slow News Day In Kansas

It must be a slow news day in Kansas. The Sedgewick County Easter Bunny......that is, sheriff.....Jeff Easter, decided that it was time to ration toilet paper for the inmates in his jail, and the inmates wrote to Chris Fisher, of the Wichita Eagle, to complain that this amounts to cruel and unusual punishment! So Fisher apparently took the picture to the left, outside of the detention center, (an Easter egg hunt, a la Jeff Easter?) and wrote the story!

In addition to saving Sedgewick County lots and lots of money, Easter Bunny Jeff Easter said that inmates somehow use toilet paper to mask the smell of tobacco and marijuana in their cells. Not the smell of anything else....just tobacco and marijuana! The question that is not answered here is this: how are people in jail getting marijuana without the help of the Easter Bunny?

 

In Case You Slept Through Church This Sunday

 

No; I am not a doper. But I do hate watching our judicial system waste time and money prosecuting people for smoking pot when there is more serious business at hand.

 

Give The Man Back His Weed!

This is almost too funny! Some city cops in Tacoma, Washington, may be found in contempt of court next week for refusing to return some marijuana that they confiscated from a man named Joseph Robertson during a traffic stop! Despite proof of medical marijuana authorization, the dumbass cops took Robertson's marijuana and charged him with a misdemeanor drug charge. Even after the charge was dismissed, the police still did not want to give it back to him. Would they do this with insulin or foot fungus cream? Why should they do it with marijuana purchased by prescription?

The judge told the city attorney to "appeal or comply". He also told them that if they didn't, they should hire an attorney. It must be a very sad day for badass cops in Washington. Not only is marijuana legal there, now; but a judge has actually upheld the law and supported the population he is sworn to serve.
 

What's The Difference Between Buckeye And Marijuana?

Where'e the eye-rolley when I need it? The police in Tennessee, on I-40, about five miles outside of Memphis, pulled over an elderly couple because of an Ohio State sticker on their car bearing the Buckeye logo and because a helmet inside the car was visible with similar stickers on it. They thought that the logo was indictative of drug cartel connections, and that the elderly couple, en route home to Texas from a funeral, might be transporting large amounts of marijuana in their car, while announcing it for all the world to see. The occasion merited black SUV's, body armor, and drawn guns. Your tax dollars at work, folks. Luckily, none of the guns were fired, and the officers were able to calm down long enough to see their mistake and stop their violations of the couple's first amendment rights, which allow visible depictions of, not only buckeye, but marijuana.

 

Bring Me Another Shrubbery

An elderly couple in England were caught recently with a shrubbery in their garden, which, unbeknownst to them, was marijuana! They bought it as a seedling at a "car boot sale", which is kinda like a rummage sale in the United States. They claimed that they had no idea it was cannabis, and the police did not press charges. But they do need another shrubbery.

 

Pat Robertson Wants Pot Legalized?

Either the earth has completed it's feared polar shift, and we are all on a different dimension, in a parallel reality, or hell has officially frozen over. Pat Robertson, of the 700 Club, that very Christian, fundamentalist bunch of right wing people who never cease to amaze yours truly with their unrealistic "rightwingness", has declared that he thinks marijuana should be legalized and treated the same way our population treats alcohol!


I never thought the day would come when yours truly would actually agree with something said by Pat Robertson, who thinks there are demons in Halloween candy and that the earthquake in Haiti in 2010 was caused by a pact with "Satan" made three hundred years ago. Usually, when I hear about him, I just think of every born again nut who has tried to tell me that the master puppet hates me and that I won't be in heaven and laugh. But this time, I have to wonder why all the other fundies aren't listening to him. He's making sense! (I still don't understand how that's possible) Here's more.

And here's a quote from CBS:
"I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of a controlled substance," Robertson said on his show March 1. "The whole thing is crazy. We've said, `Well, we're conservatives, we're tough on crime.' That's baloney."

And another:
 "If people can go into a liquor store and buy a bottle of alcohol and drink it at home legally, then why do we say that the use of this other substance is somehow criminal?"

And one more:
"Defenders of marijuana prohibition... must be wondering if it's only a matter of time before theirs proves to be a lost cause."

Whoa! Either Pat Robertson got hold of the wrong page of the calendar, and thought it was April Fools Day, or the whole Christian population in America has been on the bandwagon with something that is very political and not at all spiritual or moral since 1937.