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The Political Pot Thread

Started by Undermind, October 01, 2012, 10:45:45 AM

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Buffalo Budd

Everything is connected, because it's all being created by this one consciousness. And we are tiny reflections of the mind that is creating the universe.

emay

this might be the most sensible thing I have seen congrass and the house do in my lifetime

"On Wednesday, House members voted in support of pulling $23 million from the DEA's marijuana crackdown budget and put the money towards common sense programs, like solving rape cases, financing body cameras for local police officers and assisting troubled youth"

http://www.hightimes.com/read/congress-votes-end-war-weed-lawmakers-predict-its-demise-within-5-years

Hicks

Still can't believe it's legal here now.

We puffed mad js outside of JPs birthday shindig last night at midnight and nobody bothered us.

The future is here!     :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :banana: :banana: :banana:
Quote from: Trey Anastasio
But, I don't think our fans do happily lap it up, I think they go online and talk about how it was a bad show.

susep

Quote from: Hicks on July 01, 2015, 04:09:07 PM
Still can't believe it's legal here now.

We puffed mad js outside of JPs birthday shindig last night at midnight and nobody bothered us.

The future is here!     :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :banana: :banana: :banana:

hellz yeah, do it up!   :smoke:

emay

Quote from: susep on July 01, 2015, 04:13:26 PM
Quote from: Hicks on July 01, 2015, 04:09:07 PM
Still can't believe it's legal here now.

We puffed mad js outside of JPs birthday shindig last night at midnight and nobody bothered us.

The future is here!     :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :banana: :banana: :banana:

hellz yeah, do it up!   :smoke:

gonna put some in the air for you OR folks tonight! congrats! welcome to the club!  :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke:

pcr3

Wow, this is actually happening.  :smoke:
"I'm singlehandedly responsible for poisoning the entire local ecosystem with all my fluids spilling onto the ground." -birdman, while plowing

"Mushrooms were a good idea!" -wtu

http://phish.net/myshows/prizzi3

runawayjimbo

What a fucking dick

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-07-28/smoke-that-pot-now-christie-tells-users-in-states-that-allow-it

Quote
Smoke That Pot Now, Chris Christie Tells Users in States That Allow It
The New Jersey governor says he would enforce federal laws that criminalize marijuana if elected president.

Residents in U.S. states that have legalized marijuana should toke up while they still can, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said.

"If you're getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it," Christie, a Republican campaigning for the 2016 presidential nomination, said Tuesday during a town-hall meeting at the Salt Hill Pub in Newport, New Hampshire. "As of January 2017, I will enforce the federal laws."

At a time when a majority of Americans say recreational pot use should be legal, and four states have already made it so, Christie remains opposed. The former federal prosecutor said Democratic President Barack Obama has selectively chosen which laws to enforce.

Christie is trying to pump up his candidacy ahead of the first Republican debate on Aug. 6 by talking to voters in New Hampshire, the state with the first primary. Fox News, the debate sponsor, plans to winnow the party's field of 16 candidates down to 10 using an average of five national polls. The RealClearPolitics polling average currently has Christie in ninth place.

The governor said he believes marijuana alters the brain and serves as a so-called gateway to the use of harder drugs. Pointing to his own administration of New Jersey's medical marijuana program that he opposes, he said elected officials can't unilaterally choose which statutes to enforce.

"That's lawlessness," he said. "If you want to change the marijuana laws, go ahead and change the national marijuana laws."
Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.

emay

I feel like its a bad campaign move to attack legalized marijuana when polls show a strong favor from american citizens to legalize weed.
Isnt that what campaign advisors get paid for?

ytowndan

#443
Quote from: emayPhishyMD on July 28, 2015, 06:59:35 PM
I feel like its a bad campaign move to attack legalized marijuana when polls show a strong favor from american citizens to legalize weed.
Isnt that what campaign advisors get paid for?

I'm not so sure about a GOP primary, but it's definitely bad politics for a general election. 

It's also pretty damn hypocritical when you're a member of the supposed "small government" party, yet you're making one of the biggest issues of your campaign about how you'll use the power of the federal government to undermine the wishes of the states and their voters. 
Quote from: nab on July 27, 2007, 12:20:24 AM
You never drink alone when you have something good to listen to.

runawayjimbo

Quote from: ytowndan on July 28, 2015, 07:11:34 PM
Quote from: emayPhishyMD on July 28, 2015, 06:59:35 PM
I feel like its a bad campaign move to attack legalized marijuana when polls show a strong favor from american citizens to legalize weed.
Isnt that what campaign advisors get paid for?

I'm not so sure about a GOP primary, but it's definitely bad politics for a general election. 

It's also pretty damn hypocritical when you're a member of the supposed "small government" party, yet you're making one of the biggest issues of your campaign about how you'll use the power of the federal government to undermine the wishes of the states and their voters.

Federalism is for pussies, Dan. Everybody knows that. :wink:

Agree with you both, as far as going against the grain on issues that are overwhelmingly becoming mainstream, this one's as dumb as they come. I wonder if he's eyeing all the nonsense over Trump and thinking "Huh, maybe I should say some asinine shit too?"
Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.

VDB

This does seem like an odd thing to get so whipped up over. If he's really so deeply upset about activities in the states not reflecting the legal situation at the federal level, then what he should be saying is "We need to clean up this mess by repealing marijuana prohibition nationwide and letting states decide. P.S. I personally think all states should ban it, but that's not my call." But he clearly eschews the personal-liberty aspect of (ostensible) big-R Republicanism and has no problem telling people what they can and can't do.
Is this still Wombat?

VDB

Is this still Wombat?

runawayjimbo

Fucking despicable

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/08/the-chutzpah-of-a-police-union-in-orange-county-california/400502/

Quote
The Chutzpah of a Police Union in Santa Ana, California
This is the video that three police officers wish you hadn't seen—and are suing to stop internal affairs from investigating.

Unions that represent American police officers are often complicit in keeping bad cops on the street. This is a story about one of those unions flagrantly allying itself with misbehaving cops who are trying to suppress hard evidence of indefensible behavior.

Even the backstory is jaw-dropping.

Earlier this year, Santa Ana, California, decided that it had too many pot dispensaries operating in the city without a permit. Officials decided to crack down. Police could have quietly served a search warrant or padlocked a front door.

Instead, they opted for a raid during business hours with guns drawn.

As a result, customers at Sky High Holistic marijuana dispensary had a terrifying experience: While browsing the pot shop's products, they suddenly heard someone busting in the door. Seconds later, men were rushing into the room with guns drawn. Some wore masks. Frightened patrons quickly lay face down on the ground.

All by itself, this potentially dangerous, totally unnecessary show of force was troubling. The pot business was accused of a mere misdemeanor. There was no need to surprise patrons—some of whom were ill—with guns in their faces. But needlessly endangering the public was just the beginning of the dubious conduct. A surveillance camera recorded officers disconnecting the shop's surveillance cameras. Under the impression that they'd got them all and were only accountable to fellow police officers, the cops discredited themselves in footage destined for YouTube:

On-duty police officers appear to be eating edible pot products—OC Weekly transcribes words they spoke while egging one another on. ("Those candy bars are pretty good," one said. "I kinda feel light-headed though.") Other dialogue offers a number of insights into the subculture of this narcotics unit. Take the woman with an amputated leg that police encountered on entering the dispensary. "Did you punch that one-legged old benita?" one police officer asks another. The other cop laughingly replied, "I was about to kick her in her fucking nub." These are people Santa Ana taxpayers empower to use lethal force at their discretion.

Later, OC Weekly got access to a fuller version of the footage. They marvel at what it contains:

Quote
Hon. Jonathan Fish has been an Orange County Superior Court Judge since 2008, but before that he was a prosecutor with the district attorney's office who specialized in narcotics cases.

In the footage, an unidentified Santa Ana Police officer is talking to another cop as they wrap up their raid on the marijuana dispensary.

"You ever work with John Fish, the DA?" the officer asks.

"He was just in when I got there," his partner responds.

"He's the judge that signed our warrant," the first officer continues, adding that he had just spoken with Judge Fish and had enjoyed a good laugh with him about their old times together. "He's the fucker that pulled into a gas station on our way to the Staples Center and goes, 'Let's buy some beers and drink 'em out of a red cup.' I go, 'That's not going to be obvious.' There we are at an am/pm getting styrofoam cups and pouring our beers into them. That fucking blew me away."

That is all part of the backstory.

What's new is the way that the cops caught misbehaving on camera and the police union that represents them have responded to an internal police investigation—not with embarrassment, contrition, and public apologies, as would befit trustworthy people of good character, but with shameless, discrediting chutzpah: They've sued to keep now public video of their indefensible behavior from their overseers!

"A lawsuit, filed last week in Orange County Superior Court by three unidentified police officers and the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, seeks to prevent Santa Ana Police Department internal-affairs investigators from using the video as they sort out what happened during the May 26 raid of Sky High Collective," the Orange County Register reports. The article goes on to characterize the lawsuit's claims:

Quote
The lawsuit argues that the video doesn't paint a fair version of events. The suit also claims the video shouldn't be used as evidence because, among other things, the police didn't know they were on camera. "All police personnel present had a reasonable expectation that their conversations were no longer being recorded and the undercover officers, feeling that they were safe to do so, removed their masks," says the suit.

The dispensary also did not obtain consent of any officer to record them, the suit says. "Without the illegal recordings, there would have been no internal investigation of any officer," the suit says.
To sum up: These police officers are complaining that after rushing into this business with guns drawn, forcing employees outside, and using a crowbar to pry visible surveillance cameras off the walls, they were not warned—by the same employees they forced out—that their efforts to disable all surveillance cameras failed, rendering their decision to eat the business's products visible to its owners. As well, they're arguing that, though on-duty cops, they had a reasonable expectation of privacy, having failed to account for their own incompetence at disabling surveillance.

But even more galling is that last bit about how "without the illegal recordings, there would have been no internal investigation of any officer," as that's only true if one assumes that all cops present would cover for one another's egregious misbehavior and sign off on a police report that misrepresented the raid. That isn't a bad assumption, given that police subculture is rife with cops who fail to report on the misconduct of fellow police officers, but it's really something to see police officers invoke that reality, even implicitly, in an attempt to wriggle out of accountability.

And most galling of all is the fact that this tactic is going to work temporarily. "A Superior Court judge indicated Tuesday that he plans to issue a temporary restraining order that would prevent the Santa Ana Police Department from using video of officers misbehaving during a pot-shop raid as the department investigates the officers' actions," the Voice of OC reports. "According to court documents, Judge Ronald Bauer so far agrees with officers' claims that they would suffer 'irreparable harm' if the department is allowed to use video that the Santa Ana Police Association argues was obtained in an illegal eavesdropping operation."

The reprieve is likely temporary.

As Larry Rosenthal, a law professor of law at Chapman University, told the Orange County Register, "When you are on duty as a public official you have no expectation that what you do will not be subject to public scrutiny. I don't think it matters whether cameras were destroyed or not. They were doing the public's business."

The website of the police union declares that over five decades, it "has grown from a good idea amongst a couple friends to one of the most respected organizations of its kind." Its police-officer members are now funding a legal defense strategy that aims to prevent Santa Ana internal-affairs cops from reviewing the best available evidence in a police investigation of what appears to be illegal behavior. Any loss in respect that this organization now suffers is well deserved.

Will any Santa Ana cops criticize its actions?

Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.

emay

I had to do a double take at this Judge's name haha make sure it wasn't our boy Jon

QuoteHon. Jonathan Fish has been an Orange County Superior Court Judge since 2008,


I saw this pop up in my newsfeed though, that is some despicable shit for sure. And they even started eating some edibles!? Who hires these ppl?

runawayjimbo

This is so awesome but please let's not make the word "budtender" a thing.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2015/08/25/oregon-newlyweds-offer-weed-bar-their-wedding/32339027

Quote
Oregon newlyweds offer weed bar at their wedding

WEST LINN, Ore. -- The legalization of pot in Oregon has couples considering weed bars at their weddings.

"We were shocked by how much people loved it," groom John Elledge said of his recent wedding reception. "I'm still getting a couple of texts a day from guests who enjoyed the weed tent."

Elledge married Whitney Alexander this summer on a Christmas tree farm.

"On private property where no liquor license is involved, it is legal," Mark Pettinger with the Oregon Liquor Control Commission said.

However, he added, a caterer with a liquor license cannot legally serve alcohol at an event where marijuana is also being served to guests. "Caterers should be aware there cannot be bartenders and budtenders."
"We made sure we were legal," said Elledge, "We know the limit is 8 ounces so we had small amounts of 13 varieties with a budtender controlling consumption."

The couple had a wedding planner from Lake Oswego's Bridal Bliss.

"This was our first request for a weed bar," said owner Nora Sheils, "We made sure everyone was safe and provided transportation. The couple provided the product and hired the budtender for the tent."

Elledge, who describes himself as a professional marijuana grower, seems pleased to be a pioneer.

"Even an 81-year-old woman who hadn't smoked weed since the '60s came into the tent at our wedding," he said. "Though skeptical at first she ended up loving it."
Quote from: DoW on October 26, 2013, 09:06:17 PM
I'm drunk but that was epuc

Quote from: mehead on June 22, 2016, 11:52:42 PM
The Line still sucks. Hard.

Quote from: Gumbo72203 on July 25, 2017, 08:21:56 PM
well boys, we fucked up by not being there.