Despite Obama admin’s promise, DEA continues raids on medical marijuana growers
On Thursday, a Denver news station interviewed Chris Bartkowicz about his medical-marijuana operation in the basement of his home. Bartkowicz, confident of his compliance with state laws, boasted of its size and profitability.
"I'm definitely living the dream now," he told 9News.
The following day, the dream was over.
Drug-enforcement agents raided his home, placed him under arrest, and carried off dozens of black bags of marijuana plants and growing lights.
The Obama administration promised in October that the federal government would respect state laws allowing the growing and selling of marijuana for medicinal use, but the Drug Enforcement Agency sent a loud message with the arrest of Bartkowicz.
Marijuana advocates differ on how best to cultivate policy
Three months ago, Laura Kriho stood before a roomful of fellow medical-marijuana advocates and urged them to get involved with the political process to create regulations for the state's legal-marijuana industry.
"I know our standards are way higher than the government's standards," she said then.
Now, as the medical-marijuana community prepares for a rally today that it hopes will grab the attention of state lawmakers, Kriho is among a number of cannabis advocates who have soured on what the community can accomplish by working with politicians.
Frustrated by what she says are overly harsh regulatory proposals from state and local governments and believing the marijuana community's input has largely been ignored, Kriho said she is increasingly inclined to bypass policymakers altogether and instead use ballot initiatives and the courts to bring legal clarity to the state's medical-marijuana policy.
"There's only a few ways you can control your government," Kriho, of the Cannabis Therapy Institute, said Wednesday. "One of them is through the ballot box. One of them is through the jury box."
ASPEN: License to buy pot easy to get in Colorado
I recently became a legal pot smoker in the state of Colorado, and all it took was an hour of my time, $240 and a good excuse.
I visited a dispensary in the Roaring Fork Valley and told the proprietors I suffered from back and knee pain. That's all it took to get on the state registry, and then turn around and buy an eighth of an ounce of weed and a marijuana-laced cookie for $50, plus tax.
I went through this exercise, in part, to better understand the process of getting on the Colorado Medical Marijuana Registry, which now includes close to 30,000 people, according to the Colorado Attorney General. In addition to those, an estimated 35,000 people have received authorization from a physician and are waiting to be processed by the state.
I was not asked for medical records but I did fill out some paperwork that inquired about my past medical history, my family's past medical history and the problem for which I sought medical marijuana. I have legitimate back and knee pain, and marijuana often helps relax my muscles, but I presented no evidence of my ailment.
OREGON: Medical pot a growing problem, but really is it?
Law enforcement officials in Albany and Linn County say there’s been a decline in seizures of large marijuana operations during 2009, but they are growing increasingly concerned about abuse of the medical marijuana card system.
The Democrat-Herald talked with Det. Capt. Paul Timm of the Linn County Sheriff’s Office and Capt. Eric Carter of the Albany police about trends in drug enforcement.
Timm said his agency’s “top four” drug concerns are marijuana, meth, heroin and prescription drugs.
Here is a rundown of the year 2009 in drugs from the sheriff’s office:
Seized: Some 1,294 grams of meth, 9,905 grams of dried marijuana, 1 gram of heroin, 27 prescription pills and six MDMA (Ecstasy) pills.
In 2008, 336 grams of meth were seized as were 1,831 grams of marijuana, 1 gram of heroin, 3 grams of cocaine and 95 prescription pills.
During the summer, Linn County runs special marijuana eradication efforts. Of the 526 marijuana plants seized in 2009, only seven were in outdoor grows. In those cases, 21 arrests were made.
Some high times in southern Oregon – Section leads Oregon in medical marijuana cards
In this August 2009 photo provided by the Rogue Area Drug Enforcement Team via The Grants Pass Daily Courier a marijuana grow site in on Allen Creek Road is seen in Grants Pass. Josephine County has hundreds of grow sites for medical marijuana.
‘‘Not Frank’’ doesn’t want his real name getting around. It could cost him his crop, even if it’s behind a 6-foot electric fence. And ‘‘Not Frank’’ isn’t completely legal himself.
Elsewhere, James Bowman says he’s just another farmer, with Tasers, surveillance cameras and pepper spray, after a plot to steal his crop at gunpoint failed.
‘‘Not Frank’’ and Bowman legally raise cannabis under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.
Demand among patients for OMMA cards to get relief from AIDS, glaucoma and other chronic conditions has mushroomed since a 55 percent majority of Oregonians approved the act in 1998.
As of Oct. 1, 23,873 people statewide had cards, a nearly fourfold increase since 2000, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
PHOTOS: Cannabis Cafe opens in Oregon
At the newly opened Cannabis Cafe, people sit around taking tokes from a "vaporizer" — a contraption with a big plastic bag that captures the potent vapours of heated marijuana. Glass jars hold donations of dried, milky-green weed, and the cafe serves up meals and snacks for the hungry.
It’s all perfectly legal and, for cancer patient Albert Santistevan, it's about time.
"It’s a very positive atmosphere. We could use more places like that," the 56-year-old former jewelry shop owner said.
A few weeks ago, Santistevan would have had no place to go. But with the Obama administration’s decision last month to soften the federal stance on medical marijuana, the Cannabis Cafe and a lounge across town popped up, bringing a little bit of pot-friendly Amsterdam to this working class corner of Portland.
