Jack Rikess

Follow the money. That could be the truest statement ever printed in terms of wanting to find the origins of any motive. Any. Motive.

Hardly anything is done in America for free, and more so, there is always a predatory Greedhead out there who will take the most unscrupulous path in order to line their pockets. We all know, when it gets down to it, what we’re always talking about is the bottom line. Whether it’s prayer, or loving or eating, there’s always a price tag included.

The War on Drugs isn’t any different. For me, it’s incredibly funny who is in the sights of the Generals and Czars spearheading the new attack. Some of trying to pick off the lonely Hispanic pawns in Arizona, while others go for headlines bringing the big catch, today’s number one flaunter of our drug laws, the nearly inescapable, Sergeant Paris Hilton.

While capitalizing on America’s latest fear of what ‘Brown could do to us today,’ Arizona Governor, Jan Brewer, made it law that anyone lighter skinned than herself would have to show papers proving that they were Americans and had the right to coexist with the regular people of the state. In a mad stampede to lock-up the new undesirables, very few are asking what is behind this hastily added law in Arizona? Do we have all the realistic intel in?

So, who is behind the law in Arizona?

Why, the privatized prison industry, that’s who. Correction Corporation of America (CCA). The owners of half of the working, privatized prisons in AZ. Chuck Coughlin, one of Jan’s inside advisers also represents CCA. Conflict of Interest? Not in Arizona.

Also, one small fact that has Not been reported in the Lamestream Media, but has been cropping up in many border state official, government reports concerning the influx of immigrants from Mexico, it is down. Immigration coming in from south of the border, has dropped some sixty percent. Two thirds of what had constituted in the past of Mexican immigration is drastically reduced. There just aren’t as many Mexicans coming over as before.

But it’s funny (weird) that Whitey is now up in arms about all those people coming in to pick our fruit, or clean our houses and restaurants, work our meat-towns in Iowa, and do the jobs we’re just not sure if we want. But why such an anti-immigrant backlash now?

Butts in the beds. When you run a prison for profit, you don’t make any money with vacant beds. Hola Rueben e familia.

And no one cares. There’s too much money involved to bring up the utterly unconstitutional fuck-up that Govvy Janny has created. We are now busting people for the sake of making others money.

Now jump ahead to voting time this November in California. As we get closer and the more incendiary stories about dope-crazed murderers and Marijuana related crimes are being released, just like in the Twenties and Thirties, when propaganda against WEED worked, it’s all to bring attention to the Prison lobby’s needs.  The prison industry is throwing big pesos into the fear-machine, trying to scare voters. Why? Because they need the Heads in the Beds.

SF Weekly reported today that the staggering numbers of Marijuana busts in Cali are way up. The shit isn’t legal here, no matter what anyone says.

I do understand some of the fears that good people have if Marijuana became somewhat legal next year, but what I can’t understand is how the Prison Lobbyists can be so out front about their agenda of continuing busting little dope smokers in order to show a profit for their share holders.

Look who is against Proposition 19. It is very clear what the Prisons for Profit systems needs and wants; bodies to exploit. I mean, if there weren’t thousands and thousands of people incarcerated, some forty to fifty guards could lose their jobs. Is that really worth not destroying the lives of hundreds of thousands of victims because of these stupid, archaic drug laws?

Speaking of the Stupid…

Some weeks back, I suggested that America plays a game in the vein of ‘Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?’ And call it, ‘What in the World? Where’s Paris going to be busted next?’

I did call it that she would be busted with Coke, but I said it would be in the Greek Isles. I was wrong on location. That happens a lot for me.

What I find really funny is that Steve Wynn, the guy that has changed Vegas in its last inception from the temporary ‘Let’s try to make Vegas family friendly,’ to the more realistic, ‘Let’s be adults again and get into trouble,’ has banned Paris from his casinos. I don’t know Paris, but I know the Palms would love to have her anytime. It won’t be a hardship for Ms. Hilton. Besides, I think there is a place called the Las Vegas Hilton, she might know someone there.

But here’s the bullshit part. I have some close friends in Vegas. Steve Wynn has a reputation as long as a Tony Montana line of Coke. I can’t say this is true, otherwise I could be sued, but I heard from some inside sources, that Mr. Wynn has been receiving government WEED, the same strain that was used in the movie, ‘American Beauty,’ G-14 for his glaucoma for decades. Yes, decades.

Mr. Wynn who is so against the shipping heiress reckless use of drugs, Paris is banned from his properties. This is a guy who is no stranger to calling down to one of his people, “Send up a couple of dancers and an eight-ball.”

And from what I’ve heard, don’t get me started about Steve Wynn’s brother. That’s where it gets a little Joe Pesci-ish. A little creepy and too gross for these pages…

But I am here to talk about hypocrisy.

It is a felon to smoke Marijuana in Vegas. You can walk down Vegas Boulevard, The Strip, with a whore, exposed gun and a fifth of Jack, but if you have a roach in your pocket, you’re going to jail.

The powers that be in Vegas are scared of Marijuana. No lie. They think if gamblers are going to get high and not gamble. Stay in their rooms. Be distracted by all the neon and lights.

And that’s all they care about. While whores abound in Vegas on the streets and in the casinos, prostitution is illegal in Clark and Reno Counties, where the bulk of casinos are located.  They found out when men didn’t bring their wives, they didn’t gamble as much. When prostitution was banned in the two cities; guys brought their wives and would spend more time gambling. No morality involved, just the bottom line.

One day when WEED is legal, the directors of Food and Beverage are going to wake-up to bar and restaurant tabs like they’ve never seen before. Vegas still hasn’t grasp the concept of Munchies.

But I digress…

I am for Legalization so that good people, who are being victimized by an exploitive government officials who only see the Governor’s office as a way to increase profits for their cronies and political contributors, don’t go to prison.

It is that easy.

What I don’t understand is how the rest of the World can’t see what is so obvious to me.

Why is it that the Prison system and all it stands for; correctional guards, the prison staff, the defending of ancient laws that were set up bogusly anyway, is getting away being the major contributor against the Legalization of Marijuana. What could be in it for them?

A profit, that’s all. Is that worth a son or daughter?

Murderers are set free because of over-crowding. The prison commerce is the third largest growing industry in California.

It is very easy to see on the personal level. If you had to go to work and either guard a father-rapin’ killer or a kid who got busted at a concert for passing a joint to a stranger that happened to be a Fed. Who would you rather go against?

It’s all about money and the path of least resistance. It would be weird if that path led to more lock-ups and not to Legalization.

Also, there’s very little money to be made from Freedom.

ilton

Tags: Prisons | Jan Brewer | Paris Hilton

Jack Rikess

Its official…it is now getting darker before it will get light again. The drooping Summer Sun is spending less time with us, knocking some sense into that Sensimillan eco-alarm clock, in turn, causing the green sinewy thighs of Pot plants everywhere, to produce sweet, sweaty, moisture-dripping buds. In another month or so, the Indicas, those donkey-dongs of cannon-like flower tops will be ready for harvest. Then some weeks after that get your hand saws out because it’s now time to bring in your later blooming Sativas.

Starting around Mid-Rocktober, NorCal is gonna stink…like an Oakland Mega-Weed-warehouse during a power outage.

But as everyone is gearing up for the harvest, both sides of the Smuggling coin are hard at work. The police have stepped up their busts. Plants are being eradicated, left, right and center. But at the same time, like the Granny Grower who was…never really busted by the DEA (the local cops were there but let the DEA run things) when they came onto her property on the southern edge of the Triangle, they just took her 99 plants that she was growing for…some relatives who own dispensaries in San Diego, plus she had her personal 25 taken. But I’ve learned that two to three weeks after her crop was confiscated, she was back in business growing another 99 plants with the local police’s consent.

But boy oh boy, it does seem like law enforcement is trying to do their best to bust as many people before this shit becomes Legal in November. Then again, it is almost harvest time, the stuff still is illegal, so I’m sure some are just doing their jobs.

But what is the job of cops these days? The whole industry to me is confusing. Some people get busted while others are allowed to grow.

Then there’s Los Ganjales…

I’ve said it over and over, if there is any county in Cali that is going to tip the bong over and smell it up the state for the rest of us, it is going to be Los Angeles. Because L.A. is so greedy and has very little understanding or compassion for the rest of the state, (Check out the new water canal that is going to divide the state physically and politically with the billion tons of concrete that is going to be pour creating a new water and revenue stream to Los Angeles.) they are fucking it up with the dispensaries that were supposed to close, but haven’t.

To be fair, I don’t blame some of the dispensaries for not closing. There are some very legitimate dispensaries that put in their paperwork, followed the guidelines, and they’re still being put out of business by the less ethical Pot shop that opened during the Green Rush. It is being left to the corrupt city officials as to what and who stays open.

The good thing about the Greed of Southern Cali, they see dollar signs the same way the tourists see the Hollywood sign. The same pipe dream that has caused kids from the Middle-West to hop on buses that say ‘Hollywood Boulevard or Bust,’ SoCal has the same hopeful look concerning the future of WEED. Instead of stars in their eyes, they have Pot Leafs.

That stick-up-your-ass older brother of a County, namely Orange, is going to be supremely behind Prop. 19 because they think they can become the next Oakland. Notice how the new Agro-money behind WEED sees Oakland as the business model, not Humboldt or Mendo. Because of their GREED, it just might work for us come voting time.

Beware of the Pot Leafs…

Now that those kids at Facebook have said Pot Leafs Bad- Sarah Palin’s chatterbox of Buffet-speak and ‘I miss George Bush’ groups, Good.  There’s a battle of images being argued here in the Bay Area. The heroic Kevin Reed of Green Cross is lobbying to get ads on the sides of our municipal buses, advertising WEED just like the other guys get to do. You know, ‘Cannabis Cup coming up in November’ or maybe a local dispensary offering a special on Q-T’s. Just your normal going down the road side of bus advertising that announces Heart Walks or upcoming events. It is already on our subway system ads. But nooo, even though it is impossible to walk the streets of Frissy without smelling some WEED, we still can’t have pictures of it driving by. I guess it sends the wrong message.

Hypocrisy lines this industry like the floor boards of a new building. Montana, a state I fear to drive through because of my hippie past. Livingston is kewl, but elsewhere in the early seventies, I felt like a couple of times, I might get a broken beer bottle haircut just by being around. But it always struck me that Montana was about personal freedom. Even the guy that could possibly attack my long locks of the day, I believe that guy would be against the government interfering with…anything. It was always my belief concerning any state that Dick Cheney might hunt in, that the prevailing idea was the less the government there is, the better it is. But apparently that’s not true when it comes to Medical Marijuana for those people who pretend to be preservationist of personal freedoms. Montana is being a total dick when it comes to patient’s rights. About 23,000 people are registered Medical Marijuana card holders. Now the state is worried it is getting out of hand. The question that one official is asking, is how much Marijuana does a person need? What happens when the patient takes their WEED and goes home? Now they’re asking these questions after Medical Marijuana was voted passed in 2006.

It would be great if we could just LEGALIZE the shit and be done with all the different rules.

I ran into my buddy, Smokin’ Joe at T.J.’s the other day. He finally got his MM card. He told me, he and three other people were ushered into the doctor’s office where he got his recommendation. The doctor didn’t even check records or question the patients about their possible afflictions. Literally five minutes later, Smokin’ Joe had his piece of paper stating he could walk into any dispensary in Cali and score WEED legally.

A serious question you may want to ask the doctor who wrote you your recommendation is, “Would you be available to come to court if needed if there was a problem surrounding my recommendation?” If the answer is ‘No.’ Get a new doctor. A legitimate doctor has to represent you, or be witness if call upon. So good luck with that.

To me, that’s pushing it but it is a sign of the times. It’s like the land grabs in the western part of the states in the late Nineteenth century. People did what they had to in order to get a piece of the land, and in this case, like coming out of Prohibition of the Thirties, everyone’s trying to get a piece of the action.

Growers, doctors and cops alike.

Two stories to end with…

I’ve seen some funny stuff to grow out of this incredibly interesting time we are experiencing. There are local insurance agencies that will insure your crop against bugs, vandals or theft. I heard of the restaurant in Colorado that serves Cannabis-laden food for your epicurean and Spicollian desires. Here in the Bay Area where everything is about trying to find the best restaurants that deliver, there’s a new guy out there.

Cannabis Catering. Had to happen. Only makes sense if you have some killer WEED, a table and an apartment. If you and all members of your party have a MM card, the 420 Chef will come to your abode and whip up a THC-infused meal, they say is on par with the best five-star restaurants in Napa. I guess if you really have a hankering for quail eggs drenched in a nice, sweet, danky sauce, more power to you.

Call me old fashion. I like to get high, get the munchies, and then eat. See, there should be an order to the World, even when it comes to ordering out.

And finally, those fucking bears.

I write about the politics and the culture of Dope. Most of the time when my work appears in magazine or in blogs, I am competing for readers or clicks against a video of a hottie taking bong hits wearing nothing but a goofy smile. I take it in stride that sex or whatever you call it, draws the public in like a peep show at the carnival. But these fucking bears…

So I’m sure you’ve heard the tales of a lady in B.C. that had bears guarding her crop in the Canadian wilderness. By all accounts these bears were gentle and from what I read, domesticated through the feeding of dog food, producing a coalition of guard bears. If you saw the movie, ‘The Congo,’ I imagine it is a little like that without all the need to rip off a human’s arm when they got bored or were spooked by a battery of locating finding cameras.

But this story, that is now a week old, a lifetime on the Internet, won’t go away. Everyday there seems to be an update on the status of the fuckin’ bears.

Here’s my point…

Marc Emery is in jail for being a pioneer of the movement. Police are busting WEED merchants like they’re going out of business. The State of California is going to vote on whether Marijuana should be LEGALIZED. Pot Leafs are being banned on city buses because of the fear that a bus moving at ten miles per hour might capture the attention of an easily manipulated public, causing said public to either want to try Marijuana at that moment as an impulse buy or possible skipping Marijuana all together, and jumping on the ganja-wagon, using our municipal buses as a surrogate gateway to other drugs?

I mean what is the fear there? The children will see it? If it wasn’t for the high high-school dealer, Glad sandwich bags would be out of business and most of your recent graduates would be budless.

We are in crazy times when POT is still illegal and there are over a thousand businesses in California where one can purchase MARIJUANA. Some people get busted while others open warehouses and delivery services. Some go to jail while others get zip ties from the local police, preventing that grower from getting busted.

A returning three-toured Iraqi Vet in Montana is denied Medical Marijuana until the State can figure out what he’s going to do with his WEED once he gets home. The argument is how much is enough, not, let’s get the guy his fucking medicine like he wants. Even if you give up an arm and leg for this country, does that mean you still can’t get a hand-out from the Government?

But the first big movie that will come out of this whole mess, it will be about those Marijuana guarding fuckin’ bears. It would be an adorable feel-good movie in the vein of ‘Marley and Me’. Maybe they could call it, ‘Bob Marley, Bears and Me.’ PETA will hate it. Dopers may love it. Non-Dope smokers might think it is cute. But it will say nothing about what we are going through to get this stuff Legalize and keep innocent people out of jail.

Mark my words. L.A. and Hollywood doesn’t have a clue. Barely owns the game. The first movie to come out to digest what has transpired after all the smoke has settled will be the ‘Bad News for You Bears’ or something like that. The real stories are too hard to tell in the beginning. It wasn’t until about twenty years later after John Wayne’s Green Berets movie came out that the real Viet Nam movie were produced.

Hey Young Hollywood, show me wrong. We need digitized short films depicting the positive aspects of WEED. In the next few years, if Legalization passes, get ready for Stoner’s Lit and Stoner movies. There will be a new market for all things giggly-based, visual material. Please don’t let it be about ten cute bears in the wilds being Panda-cute around a forest of WEED. It can’t be good for our side.

That is the last that you’re going to hear about those fuckin’ bears from me.

Have a Smokin’ Weekend!

More Later.

Tags: I hate Dope Guarding Bears

Jack Rikess

As I’ve mentioned before, I almost change my opinion daily whether Proposition 19 is going to pass in November. Today I read that Facebook is blocking Pro-Legalization ads. I guess Facebook does fear user generated content. Apparently the theory, ‘by the People, for the People,’ only goes so far.

One of the other negatives that has me slightly worried is the traditional Big Buck Pothead supporters like the legendary Giver of All Causes Liberal, George Soros, is conspicuously absent, as is his money. Also other backroom backers that have always seem to be behind Pro-Pot activities are missing, but I can’t guarantee that, if you know what I mean…Maybe the usual suspects will pony-up around Rocktober when we’re nearing the finish line.

But I have one question today, ‘How does Change happen?

Let’s just say Prop. 19 passes. Okay for the next week, it’s a Pot-O-Thon in the Malden Streets of San Francisco. Then when one of the Stoners will be reminded that the law really doesn’t take effect until the end of January, ought Eleven.

But then what? Are we then like little Munchkins in our bright, new Emperor’s clothing unafraid to come out of hiding and blaze up? How will that work?

For some of us oldsters, we’re still going to be nervous smoking in public, forgetting that we can’t get busted now. It will take some getting used to that WEED is now really legal. See, change is hard if you’re used to looking over your shoulder or in rear-views all the time for the ubiquitous Man. But if Legalization passes in November, that all changes. We will be free to be ourselves.

But how does change happen?

Here in San Francisco, the Proposition 8 is kind of a big deal. I don’t want to make a huge deal out of this but…I kinda live in a gay town, shhh.

I’ve lived among people who have been trying to come out as themselves for as long as I can remember. After the recent change in the legislative battle for the Right for Gays to marry, it’s getting close. But I assume, as with the Legalization of Marijuana, the Same-Sex amendment will eventually be brought to the Supreme Court.

I see many similarities between the wishes of these two groups of people on their pursuits of Happiness. Everyone just wants to do their own thing without fear of being bother or held up to ridicule for their beliefs. Or worse, being thrown in jail for what society is afraid of looking at.

So when do we come out?

I’m not talking about smoking a joint at a concert or sitting in the park blowing a bowl, having strangers walk through your blue haze. I’m talking about letting your boss, parents, school teacher, Aunt, baby-sitter, neighborhood cop, and anyone else you would fear that they know that you get high. To bring it all home, what my Girlfriend’s Dad thinks of me, does really matter to me. He knows I’m a competent, producing kind of guy. I hate to think that could all change when he sees me getting high.

We don’t have that problem with alcohol. In fact, sometimes you can get into many car accidents or have a few incidents at Thanksgiving while drinking, and you’re still given a few more chances. It’s ‘cause we’re cool with booze. Not so with WEED.

I came out to my family over ten years ago. I was visiting my parents and I lit up in the backyard. Why hide who you are? If you can’t be yourself around your family, when can you be yourself?

Besides, let’s face facts. When you’re high, you’re not fooling anyone. The World knows you’re high, but no one is talking about it.

“I don’t mind if some gays come out, just don’t jam that Gay Agenda down my throat.”  That is always one of my favorite sayings of the Non-Gay Front.

The Girlfriend and I was at her parent’s for a barbeque a couple of weeks ago in their big backyard. Perfect San Francisco day, wind around thirty knots. Spray pelting us from the Bay. Devil’s Towers are forming and spinning on the streets, molding swirling debris and medical samples from the homeless into small moving columns that dance down Chestnut Street. I say to the Girlfriend, “Do you mind if I light up?” Knowing full well what the answer would be.

“No way, we’re at my parents.”

I have to say, the Girlfriend’s parents are as cool as people can be who don’t smoke Pot. Both of her parents grew up here in the City and are not strangers to the issues that happen here. Her parents know I write a Dope column and that I’m a Marijuana activist. But for me to pull out a spliff and give it power to burn, that would be pushing things.

And I understand what she is talking about. It would make her parents, and her, uncomfortable to see me hit on a hooner. The Girlfriend sees it as me trying to rock the boat. These feelings are all very understandable.

But when will that happen? When it is finally legal, is that when the all clear sign happens.

Red Rover, Red Rover, send some major Bud over. I am stoking this joint and I don’t care who sees me.

Right?

No way, even if it’s legal, there’s no way the Girlfriend is going to let me smoke in front of her parents and make everyone uncomfortable.

What is the difference between now and when WEED becomes Legal? Isn’t it just a state of mind? If you know what I’m mean…

Is it just going to be a big party in the streets because now someone said it is okay for us to be who we want to be?

Or is it up to us?

When it comes to WEED, I always defer to the side of responsibility. I’m not talking about blazing up in front of kids, but as adults, what are we waiting for?

Is it are fear of not wanting to rock the boat? Or is it deeper and more insidious?

Is it our fear that we don’t want to be seen as your average Cheech and Chong stoned out of your minds Potheads? That when someone sees us smoking Dope, we somehow also have to explain that we can still do our jobs or drive on the stuff, if we have to. Or to be more honest, sometimes I drive and work better when I’m stoned. There, I said it. I actually can do some of Life’s tasks better, if I’m stoned.

I’ll tell you two things that are better when I am stoned, parties and boring times. If I’m bored, getting stoned can motivate me and make me do something I might not normally do. But to be honest also, it can make me sit on the couch watching ‘L.A. Confidential,’ for like the billionth time.

At parties, once I’m stoned, the people I didn’t like or were judgmental about, those immature thoughts melt away like waking up from a bad dream.

Living in San Francisco, I’ve marched with my Gay and Lesbian friends. I was there the night the cop cars burned after the Dan White verdict. I brought coffee and warm clothes to my old roommate who was stopping traffic on one of the bridges for Act-Up while that group of activists were doing their best to bring attention to HIV and Aids to a World that didn’t want to hear it or see it.

I learned long ago, we’re all in this together. How one segment of the population is treated, has a direct effect on the rest.

We’re familiar with the saying, ‘A high tide raises all boats.’ I’ve learned that the opposite can be true too. With what is going on in the news with Anti-Muslim and Arab sentiment and the Tea Party almost reaching their boiling points every day; I can see how a low tide brings us all down too.

I tell you what real change is. It’s when you look over and see normal, regular folks with jobs and families, smoking joints like its nothing. As soon as more of us start to light up at ballgames, on the street and in the Avenues, the sooner the rest of the population is going to think that this is common behavior.

I need to light up at my girlfriend’s parent’s house, to show that I’m not Charley Manson or that somehow I morph into Jeff Spicoli at the first hit of some Blue Cheese. That I’m just me, only slightly goofy and I might laugh at the odd moment that others might not find as funny as I do. That could be the worst that could happen.

Really, what is wrong with that?

I’m all for your Hempfests and smoke-outs. I do my walk on 4/20 to Hippie Hill to see the kids at twenty after four in the afternoon enjoying a freedom that only happens when you and your closest fifteen thousand other dudes and dudettes decide it’s safe to light up.

But what about standing alone like some thirteen-year-old in Milwaukee who realizes that they don’t like the opposite sex, they like their own. How brave is that?

If we want Legalization to happen, we shouldn’t wait until someone hands it to us. We should take it. We should own it.

All us Potheads, we need to come out and let the World know that they don’t have to fear us. Let’s give them the images of the Carl Sagans, the Michael Phelps, the John Lennons of our World, our winners. Let the public see you can be productive and a valued member of society and still bang the gong. Let’s bring them in on our pursuit of Happiness. Let’s be real. Show them how we get lost and laugh and return to the same spot we were just in, but now, we’re a little happier and realize, Life’s not that bad when you’re high.

What’s wrong with that?

Tags: Carl Sagan | Legalization | The Girlfriend

Jack Rikess

I once heard this urban myth that the first two cars driving around in some big Mid-western state like Kansas or Iowa in the late eighteen-nineties, with no other motorized traffic to speak of, ran into each other. That’s what these days before Legalization makes me think of…

Worlds are colliding. One door closes while another one opens.

Speaking of cars…What’s up Motown? A very pimp sounding state representative named Rick Jones is trying to shut down the Pot Clubs of Michigan because he believes, “Marijuana users shouldn’t be encouraged to drive.” Number one, maybe Detroit is too car-conscious but with GM bouncing back, I would think Michigan would be all about getting people back into cars. There’s nothing like a Bogue Cruise along Grosse Point with a big fatty to pass the time. Also, because of the cheap rents for buildings and this thing called, ‘Winter.’ Michigan grows some of the best indoor I’ve ever seen outside of Washington State and B.C. Good luck shutting down progress…

Speaking of shutting down…

The Netherlands are tightening up their drug policies. Who’s to blame? Not your everyday Hans Brinker, that’s for sure. It seems that some of the border towns attracts up to two million visitors annually to towns the size of Hooterville. Most of these small burgs have typically about ten to twelve Pot Clubs for the foreigners to choose from. Remember, for the most part, the Dutch aren’t big tokers. There is a plan to make the Pot Clubs for locals only. You would need a residence card. This would be totally bullshit creating a huge black market of ganja-drooling tourist waiting outside of the Gulden Horn while Hans is inside scoring for the opened-pocket mark. I don’t believe all those whorehouses in the Red-light districts are only being frequented by locals. Are they going to make the sex clubs ‘Locals-only’ or will tourist dollars still be good there?

Remember that Marijuana and Hash are not legal in the Netherlands. They have a policy very similar to one here in San Francisco. It’s called, ‘We don’t have a clue but we’re selling the shit anyway.’ Right now the Dutch are trying to figure out how to handle their drug problem. It’s time some other countries step in and Legalize and let our Dutch friends get back to sticking some fingers into some dykes. Or whatever they do when not drinking, smoking, or riding their girly bikes. C’mon other countries, jump in, and lighten up. Or light up, whatever works…

Speaking of jumping in…

Mexico is considering Legalizing Pot because…well, pick a reason. Shootings, kidnapping, crazy-ass violence, and that’s just in Tijuana. I love the Country of Mexico. I love the Mexican people. I just can’t stand the law down there. Too many dollars and pesos involved for any real change to happen down. But I am ever hopeful.

How old am I? Let me count the rings around my eyes…

Curt Cobain’s kid is eighteen. You would think by now we would have a coherent drug policy, just so the Cobain kid has some direction…

Some really good news…

The National Black Police Association has endorsed Proposition 19. There are some twenty-four chapters around the states. There’s nothing cooler than a cool cop. So sez I.

As always, just a plea to stay focused for these upcoming months. The anti-Legalization side is going to attack Prop. 19 regarding driving stoned and of course, “What about the children?”

Today I’ll answer the driving question.

The guy in Michigan is worried about the impairment of the Marijuana driver. Fair question. Tell the anti-Legalization people that they are confusing alcohol with Pot. With alcohol, you get loaded and you crash your car. With Pot, you get loaded and you crash in your car, getting a solid five to six hours of sleep before waking up and going, “Where the fuck am I? Oh, yeah, my car.”

Peace Out.

More Later.

Tags: Netherlands | Legalization | Kurt Cobain

Jack Rikess

At the start of the symposium I attended last Friday in San Francisco held by the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers (VLC), the moderator wondered what the demographics of the room were. After some hand-raising, it was determined that the audience could be broken down to about 65% lawyers, 25 % politicos, and I say the rest of the 21% (I say 21% because some of the attendees weren’t exactly all there) were either activists, writers or interested Potheads.

The VLC mission statement: Lawyers and judges working for an open, honest evaluation of our drug control laws.

The topic for the afternoon; Marijuana and Federalism: California, a test case. The legal implications of Proposition 19.

The moderator made it clear that they weren’t there that afternoon to discuss whether Marijuana was good or bad. The two-hour discussion wasn’t going to be about the merits or drawbacks of WEED, but what could we expect if Prop. 19 does pass.

The very esteem panels consisted of knowledgeable and well-informed lawyers and judges with a deep background in issues surrounding drugs and in particular, Marijuana. The two hours were split between two separate panels. The first panel dealt mainly with discussing the legal issues in greater details with an emphasis on precedent and what parallels could be drawn from prohibition. The second panel besides for the three lawyers on board, also had Assemblyman-about-town Tom Ammiano and maybe the most dynamic person to come out of this crazy time we call-the move for Legalization, the sheriff of Mendocino County, Tom Allman.

The second panel, even though the whole perspective was on the legal ramifications if Prop. 19 passes, dealt more with social or morality of the law concerning Legalization. I’ll go in more detail about that in a few…

There was about a hundred and twenty of us sitting in the audience, including Richard Lee (with whom the panel checked many times with Richard to see if their facts were correct concerning the law and its nuances.)

I have nothing against lawyers. I don’t think they’re all sharks or despicable people who only see a profit or what is in it for them concerning client’s lives. I do not make lawyer jokes. With that being said, while I found the afternoon informative and even illuminating, there was something very mental gymnastic about the whole proceedings. It felt like Oxford University circa, 1918. What if India gets their independence? Could they handle it? I’m being a little harsh, but the ‘what if’ axiom becomes somewhat academic with distance. I want to see it happen in November, in a real way.

Each panel member was allowed about twelve minutes to speak. The first panel discussed what the main issues that might be confronted. It wasn’t a surprise for anyone in the room, layperson or lawperson, the argument that is below the surface of this whole debate is-State’s rights versus Federal rights. (I just noticed there isn’t a possessive apostrophe in Federal, that how strong they are.)

Again, the first panel consisted of a former head of the BAR, a gentleman who argue before the Supreme Court, defending Marijuana (I’m simplifying) and a couple legal-heads who you could tell, twenty years ago they all wore pony-tails, who all were donating their time and were very interesting.

But the second panel rocked.

Tom Ammiano, the main power in the house getting Marijuana Legalize, opened. Guvanator Ahnold had just released a statement minutes before Mr. Ammiano came to the podium, endorsing the rights for Gays to marry. Mr. Ammiano after reading the press release aloud to the group said, “Where the fuck were you for the first two votes.” The audience went nuts. He rattled off a bunch of stuff we needed to know about Prop.19 and even though the discussion that day wasn’t about Marijuana as medicine or not, Mr. Ammiano ended his time with the succinct quote, “Just leave our shit alone, that’s all we want.”

Then another three people spoke. These speakers introduced some of the relevant issues that are going to be up for grabs (I say it like that because I swear that nobody knows what is going to happen) like child endangerment. Right now if Mommy and Daddy get busted for growing WEED, they can lose their kids for being reckless and exposing kids to evils of blah, blah, blah. Here’s a good one: Rental law. You will need your landlord’s permission to grow Dope on their property. Leases will need to be gone over and include new agreements. Don’t forget to have your renter’s insurance protect your WEED too. I’m not kidding.

Again the issue of Feds vs. the States is brought up again and again in different ways and situations.

If Prop.19 passes, it will be up to the fifty-eight counties of California how the whole WEED is legal thang is going to roll out. For example, some counties may allow growing and cultivation, but not selling. Some counties may not allow transporting the product via their roads. It could happen.

The speakers said that they are going to make an audio version of the afternoon available. I wish I could go over in detail everything I heard. I can’t, but I recommend you trying to find the audio of this event. I will post something as soon as I find a link.

The speaker of the afternoon, after the frank, honest, refreshing spiel of Tom Ammiano was Sheriff Tom Allman. IMHO, this guy is going to be the head of anything he wants in ten years time. Not only is he dynamic and oozing political cache, he’s hard not to like. He had the tough gig of being the only person on the panel to represent law enforcement and in some quiet way, the Feds. If not the Feds outright, he brought their voice into the room on a very logical basis.

He made it clear; the Feds could come in and say this whole state is illegal. Even if we vote for Legalization, it doesn’t mean it’s legal in the United States. And to show how unafraid he was not to take a stand, before this evidently clear Pro-Legalization group, he made it obvious that he was against Legalization.

Side-bar; The Sheriff after saying his was against the Legalization of WEED said, “I bet this doesn’t make me very popular in the room. I don’t think many of you here today would vote for me.” That’s when Tom Ammiano chimed in, “I don’t know, are you gay?” There were big laughs from everyone in the room including the Sheriff Tom who was caught slightly off guard with the comment.

The Sheriff made his case against Legalization very clear.

1)  The stench. Most of the calls he receives in his office is neighbors complaining about the smell. If two properties butt up against each other, and one’s growing Ganja and the other garden is raising roses or gardenias, the garden growing WEED has more rights behind it that your average backyard-horticulturist has.

2)   The problems concerning transportation as stated above. Some counties will allow transportation, others won’t. It will be left to the local level and the local cops to enforce. This puts police in the awkward position of defending laws that have very little cohesiveness.

3)   And 4) Violence!

The Sheriff made it clear in his experience (and it is vast) that Drugs leads to Money, and Money leads to Violence. Boom goes the cannon. End of Story. He could stop there. Not only all the violence that comes with drugs and the like, but he has to deal with Home Evasions. I am going to do a special column on this later, because of the insidious nature of these animals that are armed to the teeth, ready to ripped-off the first easy grower they see. They’ll hit twenty patches or homes in an evening. It’s big.

Sheriff Tom ended his time with a slightly more optimistic finale than negative tact he took in the beginning. He took the analogy of speeders on Highway 101. The police know that a majority of the drivers on the freeway are speeding as he is giving this talk now. This doesn’t mean he and his troops are going to shut down the freeway system. They’re just going to tag the speeders as they can. That is their job. Not to make laws. They’re going to do the same with whatever happens in November.

I came away with a couple of things from the meeting. The first thing is; NOBODY KNOWS WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. The courts are going to be busy. Also if it does pass- just like Prop. 8 being struck down, the other side will start the appeal process. Legalization will go before the Supreme Court in time.

The debate of State’s Rights and the Feds will rage and rage. Right now we look the other way when it is convenient (Banking laws is just one issue caught in the headlights that blinds us.) And the secret word in the room that can never be uttered, Interstate. As soon as those words are spoken, all hell breaks loose. That takes the issue and magnifies it from counties to states.

Vegas is eight hours from Salt Lake City. The variance between their alcohol laws is as staggering as the differences between the Obama administration and George W. Bush’s.

It was brought up by a member of the first panel that we wouldn’t even be having this conversation if a Republican was in office now.

In closing, I had dinner with another lawyer Saturday night. He asked who represented the Feds at the symposium. I said that there wasn’t anyone on the Federal level that spoke.

He then asked, “How can you have a conversation about Legalization without the Feds being represented?

Exactly.

Tags: Legalization | Richard Lee | Sheriff Tom Allman