What are Seattle’s marijuana laws?
Sep 3, 2010 Online Issue
Q: What’s Seattle’s marijuana policy?
A: This question has been asked several times in different forms. On Wednesday, Mayor Mike McGinn released this Q and A about Seattle and marijuana laws:
1. Is enforcing simple possession of marijuana really SPD’s lowest priority?
Yes. In the first four months of this year about 6,500 incident reports were filed with the City Attorney’s Office. In only six of those incidents was marijuana the reason for the contact. Only .09% of incident reports during this time period cite marijuana as the primary reason for a contact.
2. Do police officers ever stop someone solely because of marijuana?
Yes, but very rarely. Although it may appear that marijuana was the “sole charge” in a lot of incident reports, it often looks that way because the reason for the stop was either a traffic citation (which isn’t a criminal charge), or to execute a warrant. If someone is arrested because of an outstanding warrant, the offense for which the warrant was issued isn’t a new violation, so review of the City Attorney’s records would cause one to conclude (incorrectly) that marijuana was the only criminal violation at issue.
Tags: cannabis, marijuana, marijuana laws, marijuana legalization
Marijuana may not be the gateway drug some think it is, study finds
Sep 3, 2010 Online Issue
Marijuana is thought by some to be a gateway drug among young people who eventually go on to try stronger substances. But that may be the exception rather than the rule, a new study finds.
Researchers from the University of New Hampshire looked at data from a random group of 1,286 children, teens and young adults who were in Miami-Dade public schools in the 1990s. Among the study participants, 26% were African American, 44% were Hispanic, and 30% were non-Hispanic white.
They were asked about their substance use and about exposure to major events and traumas that occurred before age 13. Some questions included, “Did you ever fail a grade at school?”, “Did your parents ever divorce/separate?” and “Were you regularly emotionally abused by one of your caretakers?”
Education played a role in use of other substances–those more likely to have used marijuana as teens and other drugs as young adults didn’t graduate from high school or go to college. Employment factored in as well, since those who smoked pot as teens and were out of work after high school were more apt to use other drugs.
If you detect a forest marijuana site, leave quickly, call the police
Aug 9, 2010 Online Issue
If you smell an odor sometimes described as skunk weed during a hike deep in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, Barb Severson urges an about-face.
Immediately.
“Back out of the area and act naturally while you are doing it,” she advises. “Once you are out of there, then report it to law enforcement.”
Severson is the assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Forest Service’s Region 6, which includes Oregon and Washington.
Sniffing out and eradicating marijuana patches on federal land has grown into a major challenge for Severson and other law enforcement officers. Pot growers often are armed, they say.
High Times In Pro Wrestling: Why Wrestlers Are Turning To Marijuana
Aug 9, 2010 Online Issue
Every pro-wrestling fan knows that although it is not as real as it gets, it can still cause a lot of damage, aches, and pains to the body.
Wrestlers have to figure out ways and options to heal the pain to continue on with their careers. Some have chosen ways that ultimately 
lead to their own demise.
In the past, some pro wrestlers have turned to pain killers, which is not that bad until the dosage starts to get to heavy!
Kurt Angle talks about his drug addiction with pills via zimbio.com:
Kurt said they were “extra strength stuff” and mentioned percoset, five broken necks, up to 65 pills a day and hasn’t taken any in four years. He also said “I don’t like to talk about it (his drug problems). The drugs made him feel straight and normal and would take 20 in the morning just to wake up. Vince wanted Kurt to do rehab on his own as opposed to going to rehab. It took five months for Kurt to clean himself up. He put over Vince allowing people being about to go to rehab now.
Medical marijuana shops sprouting across the region
Aug 9, 2010 Online Issue
BY MARIA ST.LOUIS-SANCHEZ
From Interstate 25 to Old Colorado City, you’ll pass a medical marijuana dispensary on almost every block. Businesses like Springs 
Natural Medicine, The Healthy Connection and Altitude Organic Medicine — “home of the $39 special” — can make you feel like you’re in pot head heaven.
But for residents and business owners in the midst of the business boom, their presence has raised eyebrows and often ire.
“It’s no longer West Colorado Avenue, it’s West Cannabis Avenue,” said Jim Lamphear, who lives a block north on Pikes Peak Avenue. Lamphear chuckled to himself when he saw the first dispensary pop up because he figured every neighborhood would have one. But he’s not chuckling any more.
Tags: cannabis, legalize marijuana, marijuana, marijuana dispensaries, Marijuana Growers
Cannabis caravans fuel medical pot boom in Montana
Jun 7, 2010 Online Issue
By MATT VOLZ (AP)
HELENA, Mont. — As Bob Marley music wailed in the next room, the makeshift clinic hummed along like an assembly line: Patients went
in to see a doctor, paid $150 and walked out with a recommendation that they be allowed to buy and smoke medical marijuana.
So it went, all day, at a hotel just blocks from the state Capitol that was the latest stop of the so-called cannabis caravan, a band of doctors and medical marijuana advocates roaming Montana that has helped thousands of patients apply for medical marijuana cards from the state.
“You’re helping end suffering on this planet for human beings,” clinic organizer Jason Christ said as he sat outside the hotel in an RV filled with pot smoke.
To the dismay of state medical authorities and lawmakers, the caravans have helped the number of pot cardholders in Montana swell over the past year from about 3,000 to 15,000.
Tags: cannabis, marijuana, marijuana for medical use, medicinal marijuana
Cannabis Convention Seeks Place in History
Apr 5, 2010 Online Issue
By John Ingold, The Denver Post
Source: Denver Post 
Denver, CO — Inside the Colorado Convention Center, a woman in a faded ball cap picks up a glass pipe — with its swirling shades of blue and elegant design curves — as if she were an archaeologist beholding a great treasure. Think Indiana Jones, but with marijuana paraphernalia.”This is freaking sick!” she exclaims. “I think I’m in love. Like, seriously.”
“It’s something,” said Holland, the owner of a shop called Head Space in Kansas City, that “you’re going to look at every day, right?”
Tags: cannabis, marijuana, marijuana dispensaries, Marijuana Growers
