cannabisnews.com: Nevada's Wild West Spirit Snubs Medical Marijuana
function share_this(num) {
 tit=encodeURIComponent('Nevada's Wild West Spirit Snubs Medical Marijuana');
 url=encodeURIComponent('http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/26/thread26235.shtml');
 site = new Array(5);
 site[0]='http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[1]='http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit.php?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[2]='http://digg.com/submit?topic=political_opinion&media=video&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[3]='http://reddit.com/submit?url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 site[4]='http://del.icio.us/post?v=4&noui&jump=close&url='+url+'&title='+tit;
 window.open(site[num],'sharer','toolbar=0,status=0,width=620,height=500');
 return false;
}






Nevada's Wild West Spirit Snubs Medical Marijuana
Posted by CN Staff on January 03, 2011 at 10:36:01 PT
By Cristina Silva, Associated Press 
Source: Associated Press 
Las Vegas -- Nevada is known for letting just about anything slide, whether it's booze, bets or brothels. But even here, there are limits. It has been OK to smoke pot to treat illness for 10 years. But don't think about selling it. Lately, federal agents and local police have taken notice, raiding several pot shops in and around Sin City.
All of it has pot activists scratching their heads: How is a state that has long lured visitors with promises of unconstrained debauchery stricter with pot than its more wholesome neighbors of Colorado, Arizona and California?"I really thought they would leave us alone," said Pierre Werner, whose family's pot shop was raided and who now faces federal charges. "No one should go to prison for a plant."Political leaders and historians said these activists don't know Nevada.Sure, they said, the state has libertarian leanings and is generally willing to prosper from activities that most states have declared repugnant.For many, however, pot is for hippies.And Nevada, born in the rugged days of the Wild West, is no place for hippies."The attitude was real men drank, whored and gambled -- these are the vices of frontier men and women," said Guy Rocha, Nevada's former archivist."When it comes to drugs, Nevada has looked at it as, 'That's what those wild people in California do, or New York or Oregon,'" he said.Nevada passed its medical marijuana law in 2000, four years after California passed its first-in-the-nation program. In all, 15 states and the District of Columbia allow it.Advocates said the strict Nevada law makes it nearly impossible to legally smoke pot. Patients cannot buy or sell marijuana and can only grow seven plants for personal use.Nevada's health department, which regulates medical marijuana, tells patients it cannot provide information about how to grow cannabis.During the past year, at least 27 marijuana shops have opened in Las Vegas, according to weedmaps.com, an online dispensary and physician locator service.The discreet outposts feature lengthy menus with whimsical names, such as the Incredible Hulk, Purple Monster, Green Cheese and Pineapple Crack.Transactions are called donations, not purchases. Customers are patients. Marijuana is medicine. Police, however, still means trouble.The stores, many saying they are referral services for doctors willing to recommend marijuana, were largely left alone at first.Then came reports that undercover police officers were making buys at the dispensaries.In September, it was official. Local and federal investigators served search warrants at several marijuana shops in and around Las Vegas.Law enforcement officials refuse to discuss the raids, saying the investigations remained open. They would not say what prompted the crackdown.Federal law continues to classify marijuana as a controlled substance, prohibited from being prescribed by doctors.Attorney General Eric Holder has said federal prosecutors will not pursue people who sell marijuana in compliance with a state law, but has warned that people who violate both federal and state laws will be targeted.Until 2000, Nevada had one of the nation's strictest marijuana laws, when possession of a single joint was a felony punishable by a year or more in prison.The earliest campaigns to loosen such punishments were easy sells.The medical marijuana law then removed criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation of marijuana by patients with written documentation from their physician.Since 2000, activists have spent $12 million trying to make Nevada the first state to legalize pot.The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project led five failed efforts to pass pro-marijuana laws in Nevada.In Nevada, law enforcement agencies, ant-drug activists and politicians in rural Northern Nevada have led the opposition against the ballot measures.The state's mighty casino industry, long eager to portray a balance of propriety and rebellion, has remained silent.Activists are expected to try again to legalize pot in Nevada in 2012, but politicians and marijuana lobbyists alike predict another loss.Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman, a martini-drinking advocate of sex tourism, said he is open to legalizing marijuana, but doesn't think voters are going to anytime soon."The people are not ready, he said, "no matter how we are characterized."Source: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Cristina Silva, Associated Press Published: January 3, 2011Copyright: 2011 The Associated PressCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help 
     
     
     
     




Comment #6 posted by FoM on January 03, 2011 at 19:21:59 PT
Dankhank
I was watching it and my rottie charged at the TV when he saw a scene with rats in William Hurts face and I had to change the channel quick. I recorded it and will need to find that scene to finish this very weird movie. I hope the good guy wins in the end. I will probably have a nightmare after watching it. LOL!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by Dankhank on January 03, 2011 at 18:43:06 PT
1984 is a good movie ...
the book is good, too ... enjoy ...
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by FoM on January 03, 2011 at 16:40:13 PT
Heads Up: 1984 on Channel 238 on DirecTV
I have never seen this movie. I am recording it and watching it now. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Garry Minor on January 03, 2011 at 16:23:47 PT
The Drug War, The Nazi Comparison
This is written by a man that grew up in Nazi Germany. It's not that long and worth reading. Here is one quote;"The Nazis were not a bunch of crooks, operating outside the confines of the law. Everything they did had legal backing, and if on some occasion a law was needed they composed one."
 The people of Germany had no idea of what was really going on, they were just as brainwashed and ignorant as the average American is today, thanks to the likes of the Bush family.
http://www.a1b2c3.com/drugs/law02.htm 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on January 03, 2011 at 11:45:16 PT
propaganda
to me it's interesting the way the media always focuses on law enforcers and politicians and what they say.If they want to cover this issue (medica cannabis) why don't they go to hospitals and hospices? Why don't they interview some of the patients using the dispensaries? they don't want to put a human face on it, that's why. It might activate people's sense of compassion and empathy.The truth is that 80% plus of the population is outraged that medical cannabis is not legal. But of course the truth is the last thing the editors wanted to see in their newspaper.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 03, 2011 at 10:41:41 PT
Nevada
I have never thought that Nevada has what it takes to get the laws really changed. They seem to be a right leaning state and don't care about what is socially or morally correct.If they don't like hippies (liberal) it's their loss in my opinion. 
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment