cannabisnews.com: Legal Smoke Sniffed Out at West Hollywood Fest





Legal Smoke Sniffed Out at West Hollywood Fest
Posted by CN Staff on September 30, 2006 at 15:41:52 PT
By Noaki Schwartz,  Associated Press 
Source: Associated Press
West Hollywood, Calif. - The only smoke at the first annual medical marijuana festival on Saturday appeared to come from cigarettes.Organizers of the event said they strongly discouraged people from lighting up at the West Hollywood Park Auditorium. Attendees still managed to show support by wearing T-shirts with marijuana leaves on them or by buying one of the many glass pipes for sale.
The gathering celebrated the 10th anniversary of the passage of Proposition 215, which declared the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes legal in California.Assemblyman Paul Koretz, adorned in a synthetic lei of the spidery leaf, was on hand to recognize key figures in the medical marijuana movement. The West Hollywood Democrat championed legal access to the drug, which is used by people with AIDS and cancer to ease pain and nausea."It is fitting that we celebrate this anniversary in the pioneering city of West Hollywood, a community that has always believed in medical cannabis and cared for medical cannabis patients," he said.West Hollywood was the first city south of San Francisco to have a medical cannabis dispensary, after voters approved legalizing the drug for therapeutic use in 1996. In 2003, state legislation was approved allowing counties to issue identification cards to medical users to protect them from prosecution by local law enforcement.Federal law, however, continues to prohibit marijuana use. In June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal authorities could still seize and destroy marijuana stashes and arrest growers and consumers in the 11 states that allow medical marijuana use.One of the few speakers at the festival who seemed to rouse the otherwise mellow crowd of both young and old was Dennis Peron, who wrote Proposition 215. He proposed another assignment for federal drug agents."Let's send the DEA agents out to Afghanistan where they can do good!" he shouted.The crowd cheered even louder when he added that even more marijuana should be grown.Bill Britt listened, sitting in a scooter chair decorated with plastic marijuana leaves. Britt, who contracted polio as an infant, has epilepsy, a fused ankle and has difficulty walking. Because of the threat of seizures, there are few medications he can take, and he said medical marijuana has helped ease the constant pain he feels."They say marijuana is a crutch and I would agree," he said, looking at his own wrist crutches. "Crutches let me get through life and ease my pain. They assist me."Complete Title: Only Legal Smoke Sniffed Out at West Hollywood Pot FestSource: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Noaki Schwartz,  Associated Press Published:  September 30, 2006Copyright: 2006 Associated Press CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #24 posted by afterburner on October 01, 2006 at 12:24:48 PT
The West Hollywood Medicating Area sounds...
like the West Coast equivalent of the East Coast "Free Speech Zones." The Constitution did not prescribe such limits to legal human activity. What is the point of celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Compassionate Use Act if the patients are hidden from sight in an unsafe area? I agree, E_J, the historical parallels are extremely disturbing. Especially, given that some officials have admitted publicly that they would be happy if we would just die off.
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on October 01, 2006 at 09:10:06 PT
EJ, Let's Hope
Security should be safety and not trying to hide people away from the media.
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Comment #22 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2006 at 09:07:43 PT
Unfortunately
This thought did not occur to the security guy. That's not the type of insecurity his security services were meant to address.I hope they plan it better next year. No more squeezing medicating patients between 100 gallons of flammable liquid and a concrete wall.
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on October 01, 2006 at 08:58:18 PT
EJ, Justified Fear
 I know that I have never seen anyone in a fuel island anywhere in the USA that smoked near the tanks. It's too dangerous and the fumes are hazardous to breath.
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Comment #20 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2006 at 08:48:11 PT
Let me tell you my fear
There was no ventilation back there. The trucks were parked end to end. If either of those trucks had been leaking fuel, then gasoline vapor would have collected right in that airless corridor between the two trucks and the wall.It was the least safe place in the whole area to have people lighting up. And that's where they put us, because the public couldn't see us there.
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Comment #19 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2006 at 08:42:39 PT
I don't know
He was just the guy who did that. He wore an event T shirt.If they have this event next year, they need to make a safe, comfortable place for the sick people to light up.What they provided this year was neither safe nor comfortable. It was scary and demeaning instead.Being a herded BEHIND a truck makes you feel almost like you're being herded INTO a truck, which has scary echoes in human history.
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on October 01, 2006 at 08:35:53 PT
EJ a Question
Was the person that told you where to medicate working for the city or security for the police or what? What I am asking is who gave this person authority to tell you where to medicate.
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Comment #17 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2006 at 08:13:32 PT
It was a demeaning experience and I'm angry 
This security guy herded us behind the trucks and he kept pushing us in tighter so that nobody could see us from the street.It was quite an ugly frightening experience and it spoiled the whole event for me.No way am I smoking anything standing between two huge trucks and a concrete wall.They are so lucky that didn't turn into a tragedy of gigantic proportions.
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Comment #16 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2006 at 08:06:37 PT
It was really scary
There was only about four feet between the trucks and the wall. If anything happened, if the truck was leaking gas and caught fire, we all would have been instantly incinerated with no chance whatsoever to escape.Patient medication area, my behind.How can people celebrate ten years of success and still act like what they're doing is shameful and needs to be hidden from the public?
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Comment #15 posted by E_Johnson on October 01, 2006 at 08:03:33 PT
Let me tell you where they had patients medicate
I was the person who was sniffed out. I thought since this was an event for liberators, we could act like normal human beings. So I saw people smoking cigarettes on the front lawn and I lit up my medication.Then some guy came over and told me patients have to medicate in the back. Where the media can't see us doing this shocking shameful thing we're supposed to be celebrating.Guess what -- the patient medication area was a tiny area on the concrete between the building and two huge trucks.So we're supposed to light up, standing there next to two giant truck gas tanks!Right, like I'm going to feel comfortable smoking next to some huge truck's gas tank.The organizers didn't really think that one out.Since I had no SAFE place to medication, I had no choice but to leave the event and drive home.
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Comment #14 posted by mayan on October 01, 2006 at 05:54:34 PT
Oh, My!
G.O.P. Aides Knew in Late ’05 of E-Mail:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/washington/01foley.html?_r=1&hp&ex=1159675200&en=a7760582db028fd5&ei=5094&partner=homepage&oref=sloginIndependent Investigation Needed: Did Congressional Republicans Cover Up Page Abuse Scandal?http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/441This could be much bigger than I thought. This could totally destroy the republicans. They must go one way or the other. A very dangerous moment in time.
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Comment #13 posted by The GCW on October 01, 2006 at 05:42:36 PT
Schwarzenegger; He’s not an American.
This letter was printed in this newspaper but they don't put the letters on the Website so it doesn't appear on MAP's archive...Dear Editor of The encore,Think about it, communist Chinese farmers may grow hemp but free American farmers may not, (Industrial Hemp And Katrina? Sept. 13). I have been buying hemp food products for 5 years and would rather buy them produced from U. S. Farmers. It is time to re-introduce hemp as a component of American agriculture.If California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger does not sign the bill, legalizing industrial hemp crops, He’s not an American.Stan WhiteReferenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1223/a04.html?266417
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Comment #12 posted by mayan on October 01, 2006 at 05:41:04 PT
Oh, The Timing!
British newspaper says it has previously unseen video by 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-10-01-sept11-video_x.htm?csp=34But this could explode real easy...Major Cover-Up Suspected In GOP's 'Pagegate':
http://rense.com/general73/page.htmWashington Post Changes Boehner Quote on Foley: 
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/9/30/91514/7606
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Comment #11 posted by The GCW on October 01, 2006 at 05:35:19 PT
Nazi's in control.
Nazi Veto as simple as a call from a Nazi Bush.
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Comment #10 posted by mayan on October 01, 2006 at 05:15:01 PT
Not Surprised 
Arnold is now exposed as an official puppet of the neo-con bush regime. It's just as well. The hidden powers would have tried to make hemp another "Frankencrop". There are some very shady,sinister forces controlling the food we eat...Monsanto Buys ‘Terminator’ Seeds Company:
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=15163
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Comment #9 posted by whig on October 01, 2006 at 03:05:15 PT
schwarzenegger letter
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2006/09/30/ab_1147_veto.pdf
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Comment #8 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on October 01, 2006 at 02:51:57 PT
Asshole!
...Schwarzenegger said in his veto message that the measure conflicted with federal law and would have made it harder for law enforcement to keep track of illegal drug crops.(snipped, way towards the bottom of the link)I'm glad to say that I have never paid to see any of this coward's movies, nor have I bothered to watch them on TV.It's easy to act brave in the movies. Doing the right thing is written in the script.The writers of this real life screenplay, like those who wrote his movies, suck.
The Terminator Whimps Out!
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Comment #7 posted by whig on October 01, 2006 at 02:48:34 PT
just saw this
Maker of Marijuana Candy Products Pleads Guilty and Agrees to 70-Month Prison Term: http://lawfuel.com/show-release.asp?ID=8736
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Comment #6 posted by whig on October 01, 2006 at 01:02:07 PT
OT: Cannablog backup
Feel free to preserve a copy for posterity. I am making sure that this resource is not lost by publishing the xml source for everything now on the site.http://www.bestsharing.com/files/ms001135738/wordpress.2006-10-01.xml.htmlIt's less than a megabyte, text only. The graphics are all external.
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Comment #5 posted by whig on October 01, 2006 at 00:51:11 PT
OT: They are all being blackmailed
http://cannablog.wordpress.com/2006/10/01/nixon-the-second/
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Comment #4 posted by Wayne on September 30, 2006 at 22:35:20 PT
hemp
This is for anyone out in California. I had asked it on the other thread. Is there enough momentum out there that maybe the legislature will try to pass it again? I would really like to see this pass somewhere, I truly believe deep in my heart that hemp is the cure for all of our energy and nutritional ills.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on September 30, 2006 at 21:14:45 PT
Hemp Veto
 Excerpt: AB 1147 by Assemblyman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would have allowed farmers to grow industrial hemp, a move critics said would complicate law enforcement efforts to combat marijuana cultivation.URL: http://tinyurl.com/zkpwg
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Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on September 30, 2006 at 21:12:29 PT
Well now we can call HIM the girlie-man
Now this makes California look incompetent. I mean, the Chinese execute marijuana growers and that government is okay with hemp.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on September 30, 2006 at 20:31:17 PT
Hemp Bill Vetoed
Arnold said no it seems.
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