MA: Next week's Town Meetings and City Council Meeting on local marijuana laws

Pertinent NORML meetings in Massachusetts on local marijuana laws.  The meetings are to stop the state from raising penalties form $100 to $300 for using marijuana. 

If you live and Massachusetts and can attend any of these meetings please do and stand up for smokers rights!

Dear NORML Supporters in MA,

Town meeting season is heating up.

Next week there are eight town meetings and one city council meeting involving local bylaws/ordinances that increase the penalties for using up to $300.

-Do you live in one of these communities?

-Do you live near these communities?

-Do you know people in these communities?

Please spread the word, it is our turn to JUST SAY NO!

Canton (Open) ATM, Monday, April 27 (Fin. Comm. informed that Article was being withdrawn p. 86 .) Concord (Open) ATM , Monday, April 27 (no motion expect )

Hingham (Open) ATM, Monday, April 27 (passage is recommended by Finance & Advisory)

Reading (Representative), ATM , Monday, April 27 (Fin. Com. no report, By-Law Com. recommends passage!)

Wareham (Open) ATM , Monday, April 27

Truro (Open) ATM , Tuesday, April 28 (Selectmen by a vote of 2 - 3 refused to recommend its passage)

Braintree City Council, April 28, Pot Patriots please attend .

Wenham (Open), Saturday, May 2 (Selectmen saved it a place )

Wilmington (Open), ATM, Saturday, May 2

There will be eighteen town meetings the week of May 3 - 10 and eight more that we know about before the end of May. City council agenda's are set with less advance notice.

Being vocal is having an effect. In the cities of Everett, Quincy and Revere it has been placed on the back burner, if not forgotten. We have identified 65 towns, who have held or are holding Town Meetings without the issue being on the warrant and as you will note above in both Canton and Concord no motion is expected.

Worcester and West Newbury REJECTED such proposals.

Auburn, Topsfield and Walpole decided NOT to put it on the ATM Warrant.

Although Plymouth's police chief mentioned it in January Plymouth selectmen the selectmen didn't discuss it at all nor did they put it on the warrants for April 4 Special and Annual Town Meetings.

Wellesley Town Meeting 4/7 NO MOTION!

Provincetown Town Meeting 4/6 Motion failed to carry!

Manchester Town Meeting 4/6 amended to place it before voters at town election and to refer it to Board of Health .

For more details visit: http://www.masscann.org/legal-reform/60-politics/176-cities-and-towns-considering-their-own-laws-updated-42209-at-626-am

Attorney Steven S. Epstein Treasurer and Database Manager 978-352-3300

Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition\NORML A State Affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws

Proud Sponsor of Freedom Rally XX, Sept. 19, 2009 on the Boston Common P.O. Box 0266, Georgetown, MA 01833-0366 781-944-2266 -http://www.masscann.org/

Technorati Tags: marijuana,Massachusetts,marijuana laws,activism,actions,town meetings,marijuana decriminalization,decriminalization,NORML,Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition,Freedom Rally XX,cannabis

5 Tips for Calling Congress on Marijuana Policy Reform

Watch as MPP's Aaron Houston walks through the things you should know before calling Congress to express your opinions and support for marijuana policy reform. Help end the war on drugs and get active by following these easy steps.



read more digg story

For Marijuana Advocates, Not-So-Secret Holiday Hints @Change

By JESSE McKINLEY

SAN FRANCISCO — On Monday, somewhere in New York City, 420 people will gather for High Times magazine’s annual beauty pageant, a secretly located and sold-out event that its sponsor says will “turn the Big Apple into the Baked Apple and help us usher in a new era of marijuana freedom in America.”

They will not be the only ones partaking: April 20 has long been an unofficial day of celebration for marijuana fans, an occasion for campus smoke-outs, concerts and cannabis festivals. But some advocates of legal marijuana say this year’s “high holiday” carries extra significance as they sense increasing momentum toward acceptance of the drug, either as medicine or entertainment.

“It is the biggest moment yet,” said Ethan Nadelmann, the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in Washington, who cited several national polls showing growing support for legalization. “There’s a sense that the notion of legalizing marijuana is starting to cross the fringes into mainstream debate.”

For Mr. Nadelmann and others like him, the signs of change are everywhere, from the nation’s statehouses — where more than a dozen legislatures have taken up measures to allow some medical use of marijuana or some easing of penalties for recreational use — to its swimming pools, where an admission of marijuana use by the Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps was largely forgiven with a shrug.

Long stigmatized as political poison, the marijuana movement has found new allies in prominent politicians, including Representatives Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Ron Paul, Republican of Texas, who co-wrote a bill last year to decrease federal penalties for possession and to give medical users new protections.

The bill failed, but with the recession prompting bulging budget deficits, some legislators in California and Massachusetts have gone further, suggesting that the drug could be legalized and taxed, a concept that has intrigued even such ideologically opposed pundits as Glenn Beck of Fox News and Jack Cafferty of CNN.
read more digg story

Pictures of the Day

A statue is saved after Italy’s earthquake, Tibetans protest a Chinese court ruling, the annual White House Easter Egg Roll and more...
read more digg story

My personal favorite...

A British boy posed with a water gun in front of Thai soldiers in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday. Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said the military campaign to end antigovernment protests at the Government House is “nearly complete.” (Vincent Yu/Associated Press)

Why Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated

Today is the birthday of Martin Luther King.
Had he not been murdered, he and his family
would have celebrated his 80th birthday today.

Who killed him?

A lone nut with a vague grudge?

Yeah, right.

The FBI vs. Social Justice

Every year, Martin Luther King's contribution to the moral character of the United States becomes clearer and clearer.
What also becomes clearer is the power and ruthlessness of the forces he was opposing.
The probability that King was killed by forces within the US government becomes clearer every day too.
The elite's worst fear is that people will overlook minor racial and social differences and not only understand how they're being screwed but also join together to do something about it.
No one had a clearer voice on this subject than King which is why his life was snuffed out.

Why King was assassinated

Technorati Tags: video,BrasscheckTV,Martin Luther King Jr,Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,assassination,birthday,conspiracy theory,racism

Bail Out the People Movement

Demand the Release of ALL arrestees from the Friday Apr 3 March on Wall Street!

To: Mayor Michael Bloomberg, NYC City Council, NYPD
CC: NY Congressional Delegation, Congressional Leaders, the NY Legislature, President Obama, Attorney General Holder, members of the media

I am writing to demand the release of all individuals who were arrested at the Friday April 3 protest in the financial district.

It is not a crime to demand that our money be spent on meeting people's needs, not for massive corporate bailouts.

The real criminals are in the boardrooms and executive offices on Wall Street, not the people marching for jobs, healthcare, and a moratorium on foreclosures.

Release ALL arrestees!

Drop the Charges!

Arrest Bankers Not Workers!

Send a message by clicking here!

Bail Out the People Movement
Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St. #5C
New York, NY 10011
212.633.6646
www.BailOutPeople.org

Bail Out the People Movement

Technorati Tags: petitions,protests,wall street,Bail Out the People Movement,activism,actions

The Million Man Marijuana March

March on the White House 4/20/09

Hey all. As some of you may know, this idea originated at GrassCity, one of the biggest and best marijuana forums on the web. GC members, we are asking for your support in this rally. If you are not a part of the GrassCity community, stop by, check it out, tell 'em where you came from.

If you are part of the City, please keep spreading the word.

Also, check out the group on Facebook.

read more digg story

A New Campaign: Indict Bush Now!

Hold Bush and His Joint Co-Conspirators Criminally Accountable!

You can join the movement to indict Bush Administration officials who committed war crimes, "legalized" torture, and engaged in massive illegal spying and wiretapping against the American people. Click this link if you support the indictment of George W. Bush and other high officials.

The rule of law, justice, and basic integrity require the indictment for criminal wrongdoing of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and other high officials of the former Bush Administration.  

The media establishment is surprised by the ground swell of support from the grassroots for the pursuit of individuals who committed grievous crimes during the Bush era.
We are not surprised that the people are demanding accountability for those who committed wars of aggression, torture, and subverted the Constitution and thus violated not only their oaths of office but domestic and international law.

These crimes are not abstract nor can they be ignored as belonging to a distant past. Millions of people have suffered and continue to suffer because of the criminal invasion of Iraq.

The vital resources of the country have been drained in a criminal enterprise benefiting war profiteers. The people know of and are outraged by the billions of dollars in profit made by Dick Cheney's Halliburton and that is only the tip of the iceberg.

The pressure is building. President Obama said at his press conference this week, "My view is also that nobody's above the law, and if there are clear instances of wrongdoing, that people should be prosecuted just like any ordinary citizen," when asked about the pursuit of  Bush Administration officials for criminal wrongdoing.

In a new poll, an astounding 2/3 of the American public favors investigating whether the Bush Administration broke the law. "A majority of respondents said a probe should be launched into allegations that the Bush team used torture...[and] investigators also should look into the former President's program of wiretapping U.S. citizens without first securing court-issued warrants." (AFP 2/12/09)

The Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, and the Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, are both proposing to launch investigations into the possibilities of criminal conduct by high officials in the Bush Administration.

Six years ago, Ramsey Clark launched the movement to Impeach Bush. You and more than a million other people came forward to demand the impeachment of Bush and other high ranking officials at VoteToImpeach and ImpeachBush. It was this movement with its principled and primary demand for accountability that changed the political climate in the United States. It broke open the media blockade with newspapers ads calling for impeachment. Community organizing, person to person outreach, and demonstrations shifted the debate and helped turn the tide against the impunity of Bush's crimes. He has been forced to leave office in disgrace.

A Criminal Indictment is Necessary

Now we are taking the next step in the pursuit of protecting and saving the Constitution. Justice will have no meaning without the prosecution of Bush, Cheney and others for their criminal acts. It would also have a resounding effect on all those who would dare to subvert the Constitution of the U.S., take the country into a war of aggression and trash the economy and the fundamental human rights of people in the U.S. and around the globe.

Sign the new petition demanding that Bush and Co. be indicted now. Get everyone you know to sign. We had to fight an uphill battle to bring articles of impeachment to the floor of Congress - but we did it! If you signed for impeachment and you believe indictment is a necessity - please take one moment to sign now! We need everyone's voices, coming together to be heard. Now is the time to act.

We have launched a major new initiative that will include grassroots pressure on Congress, press conferences, petitions, newspaper ads, rallies and mass demonstrations in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere

We can force the prosecution of Bush, Cheney and the other criminals.  Please take action to make it happen.

IndictBushNow.org:

Technorati Tags: activsm,actions,IndictBushNow.org,Bush Administration,Cheney,Bush,petitions

Marijuana Re-crim Protest With Senator Scott Brown Video

Senator Scott Brown and the press. MA GOP Ferrari.




Subscribe to MikeCann.net

Marijuana Re-crim Protest With Senator Scott Brown Video Part 2

If you want to catch up on what led to this video, protest, a review if you will, of Senator Scott Brown vs. The People and MikeCann.net, check this link.

Two newspaper stories on last night's protests.

Sun Chronicle

Milford Daily News


read more digg story

About World Autism Awareness Day - World Autism Awareness Day

From “Controversies in autism: vaccines and chelation”

April is Autism Awareness Month, with April 2 being World Autism Awareness Day. It is a global effort to raise awareness about autism, a neurological disorder that affects 1 in 150 children. It is the fastest growing developmental disability. Autism has also had its share of controversy that has led to  bitterness and anger among some in the autism community. So what exactly is so controversial? Let's take a peek, but please remember this isn't a debate over what is right or wrong. It's merely an overview of the issues.

(continued…)

 

On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 62/139, tabled by the State of Qatar, which declares April 2 as World Autism Awareness Day (WAAD) in perpetuity. Her Highness Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, Consort of His Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar, supported the campaign for a World Autism Awareness Day through the current 62nd UN General Assembly Session, garnering consensus support from all United Nations Member States.

About World Autism Awareness Day - World Autism Awareness Day

Technorati Tags: actions,activism,autism,asperger's syndrome,asperger's,austism spectrum,health,world austism awareness day

G20 Protests: Anarchists smash windows and enter bank

G20 London Protest Royal Bank of Scotland






read more | digg story

Drug War Videos

DrugWarRant.com by Pete Guither - Here are some recommended and some fun videos on the drug war and related issues.

read more digg story

I happened to like this one alot...

Mommy's Funny Medicine - the first children's book about medical marijuana

American Civil Liberties Union: Sign the ACLU's Petition to stop the abuse of "State Secrets"

It’s Time to Learn the Truth

It’s been six years since the first reports of detainee abuse and nearly five years since Abu Ghraib. A recent confidential report from the International Committee of the Red Cross provided undeniable documentation of torture at Guantánamo. Yet the Justice Department has failed to prosecute any civilians for crimes related to interrogation, except a single contractor in June 2004.

These stunning revelations only underscore the need for an independent prosecutor. With mounting evidence of deliberate and widespread use of torture and abuse, we deserve to have the assurance that torture will stop and never happen again.

Stand with the ACLU. Ask Attorney General Eric Holder to appoint  an independent prosecutor to investigate the interrogation of detainees in the war on terror.

American Civil Liberties Union: Sign the ACLU's Petition to stop the abuse of "State Secrets"

Technorati Tags: ACLU,torture,Eric Holder,activism,actions

Earth Hour - 2009

Earth Hour 2009! - Kat and I played gin rummy by tealight candles that form a peace sign!

Tell The Senate to Treat Drugs As Health, Not Crime, Issue

By Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - Soon the U.S. Senate will hold a hearing to confirm President Obama's nominee for White House "drug czar." Since everyone - the president included - knows that addiction is a health, and not a crime problem, let's ask the Senate to move the hearing from the Judiciary Committee to the committee that handles health issues. Let's send a message!

When asked last July by Rolling Stone magazine if he would continue the "war on
drugs" or make significant changes in course, then-candidate Barack Obama said,
“I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public-health approach.”

Right now we have an opportunity to make this well-founded position a reality by sending a strong message to the U.S. Senate, which will soon be holding a confirmation hearing for the new White House "drug czar."

Please take one minute to send the message below, asking that the hearing be held by the committee that oversees operation of our country’s health care, instead of by the Judiciary Committee, which handles crime and which has historically handled the confirmations.

Treating drug use as a criminal justice issue hasn’t deterred drug use, but it has filled our prisons and clogged our courts. We know the Obama administration agrees, at least rhetorically. Let’s ask our senators to make this needed shift a reality.

Please click on 'read more' to send a message to your senator!
read more digg story

Rage Is Good

Demonstrations April 4 calling Wall Street to account could help progressive populism come alive in America. Obama and Congress need the pressure.

By Tom Hayden - Hopefully, the demonstrations planned on Wall Street April 4 by United for Peace and Justice and other groups will contribute to the global uprising. Our president and Congress need the pressure.

The world has turned against American hegemony before: against the Vietnam war, against the World Trade Organization and against the invasion of Iraq. On all three occasions, the world was right and Washington was wrong.

On this occasion, the global economy is being devastated by the Wall Street crash. Hundreds of millions are are hurtling into extreme poverty, export industries are collapsing, currencies being destabilized.

As the conservative French president Nicolas Sarkozy says, "Laissez-faire, c'est fini." (Laissez-faire is finished.)

As nations blame Wall Street and move to protect their people, the protests need not be anti-American nor anti-Obama. Sarkozy cannot be accused of being anti-US. Neither are Iceland nor Ukraine. The global opposition might just may be what we need, an organized populist counterforce to the business and banking lobbies entrenched in Washington.

Obama's stimulus package and proposed budget are not the problem. They represent the most progressive government initiatives in a half-century. But as Franch Rich noted in the New York Times March 1, Obama "was fuzzy when it came to what he wanted to do about" more bailouts.

The Obama administration is in trouble on the question of what to do about the financial system and the credit crisis. But Rich is wrong, for once, in suggesting that it's "bad news" for Obama that "the genuine populist rage in the country...cannot be ignored or finessed."

The "bad news" is really an opportunity for progressives, unions and Democrats to build a bottom-up populist alternative to the "greed is good" politics of Wall Street, which has infested both parties. Obama should privately welcome "populist rage" as a stimulus to reform. If he does not, he may see right-wing populism making a comeback as soon as 2010.

Some progressives, including even Warren Beatty, think it's time to introduce a discussion of socialism, if only to point out that our present course is one of socialism for the banks and corporations. Obama himself says good things about Sweden's nationalization of banks, but quickly demurs that Americans are not "culturally" ready for such an option. At the Washington Post, Harold Meyerson, a democratic socialist in the tradition of Michael Harrington, prefers re-regulation to either nationalization or socialism at this point: "To avoid socialism (to whatever extent throwing public money at banks is socialism) you need liberalism (that is, the willingness to restrain capitalism from its periodic self-destruction.)

My sense is that we are moving too rapidly towards economic hell for a socialist ideology to catch up. While efforts to dust off and legitimize the term will go on, Meyerson is right that the battlefield just ahead is over reregulation, which may evolve into a contentious, awkward, bureaucratic nationalization out of necessity. That is why the sturdier and heavily regulated Canadian and Swedish banking systems already are being closely examined.
read more digg story

CT Moves to legalize Medical Marijuana

Connecticut Legislature Considers Medical Marijuana Reform Ask your representative to support HB 5175 and HB 6156

NORML is pleased to announce that House Bill 5175, an act to exempt qualified medical cannabis patients from state arrest and prosecution, has been referred to the Joint Committee on Judiciary. A second bill, House Bill 6156, has also been referred to the Joint Committee on Judiciary. The medical marijuana debate is a familiar one Connecticut. The Connecticut State Nurses Association has gone on record supporting patients' "safe access to therapeutic marijuana," and in 2007 the Connecticut legislature also backed the medical use of marijuana under appropriate supervision -- only to have this measure vetoed by the Governor. With your assistance, we hope to make 2009 the year Connecticut becomes the fourteenth state to legalize the medical use of cannabis.

Please take a moment today to contact your elected officials and urge them to support HB 5175 and HB 6156. You can also contact the Judiciary Committee here. For your convenience, a pre-written letter will be e-mailed to your state representative when you enter your contact information below.

Thank you for supporting NORML's marijuana law reform efforts in Connecticut.

read more digg story

Marijuana Legalization Bills Introduced In Massachusetts

By Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director - A pair of bills — House Bill 2929 and Senate Bill 1801 — seeking to “tax and regulate the cannabis industry” have just been introduced in the Massachusetts legislature.

California’s highly publicized effort to legalize the commercial cultivation and sale of cannabis is getting some well-deserved company!

A pair of bills — House Bill 2929 and Senate Bill 1801 — seeking to “tax and regulate the cannabis industry” have just been introduced in the Massachusetts legislature.

These proposals seek to legally regulate the commercial production and distribution of marijuana for adults over 21 years of age. Like California’s proposal, they would impose licensing requirements and excise taxes on the retail sale of cannabis. By some estimates, these taxes could raise nearly $100 million in annual state revenue.

Adults who possess or grow marijuana for personal use, or who engage in the non-profit transfer of cannabis, would not be subject to taxation under the law.

You can read more about these bills at the new website: http://www.cantaxreg.com. If you live in Massachusetts, we urge you to write your elected officials in support of H. 2929 and S. 1801 by going here.

read more digg story

AP:Protests in Washington & California Call for War's End

Iraq war protesters rally in DC and Los Angeles to mark the 6th year anniversary of the Iraq war....

WASHINGTON March 22, 2009, 06:07 am ET · Before war protesters ended their demonstration Saturday afternoon, several placed cardboard coffins in front of the offices of northern Virginia defense contractors such as KBR Inc. and Lockheed Martin Corp. as riot police stood by.

"Lockheed Martin you can't hide, we charge you with genocide!" they chanted as part of a demonstration that began in Washington to mark the sixth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

Arlington County, Va., police estimated there were 2,500 to 3,000 protesters and said no arrests were made.

Organizers from the ANSWER Coalition said more than 1,000 groups sponsored the protest to call for an end to the Iraq war, and estimated that about 10,000 people participated. Carrying signs saying "We need jobs and schools, not war" and "Indict Bush," demonstrators beat drums and played trumpets as they marched from near the Lincoln Memorial past the Pentagon into Virginia.

Meanwhile, at a similar protest in San Francisco, tension grew after four or five dozen activists surrounded a group of riot-equipped police, throwing sticks and water bottles. Police responded by regrouping in riot formation and physically detaining several protesters who pushed and shoved with officers.

Protest leaders shouted from the stage, urging police to leave. Barriers were quickly erected between police and protesters as an organizer urged calm and the activists started to disperse.

In Washington, protesters demanded that President Barack Obama immediately withdraw all U.S. troops from Iraq, saying thousands of Iraqis have died and thousands of American troops have been wounded or killed.

"We think it's especially important for this new administration to feel the pressure from people that we don't want more war," said Obama supporter Pat Halle, 59, of Baltimore.

Anti-war activists said even though former President George W. Bush is out of power, they are disappointed with what they see as stalled action from Obama.

"Obama seems to be led somewhat by the bureaucracies. I want him to follow up on his promise to end the war," said 66-year-old Perry Parks of Rockingham, N.C., who said he served in the Army for nearly 30 years, including in Vietnam.

Obama has said he plans to withdraw roughly 100,000 troops by summer 2010. He promises to pull the last of the U.S. troops by the end of 2011, in accordance with a deal Iraqis signed with Bush.

There were about 138,000 troops in Iraq as of March 13.

read more | digg story

Medical Marijuana Trial Draws Activists To Kitsap

The trial of an Washington man accused of exceeding the allowable limit for medical marijuana is finishing its second week, and is drawing attention from throughout the state.

Bruce Olson, 54, is an approved medical marijuana patient who has four ailments that qualify him for such treatment, according to an expert witness for the defense.

Still, Olson was charged with illegal possession of marijuana with the intent to sell when Kitsap County detectives found 48 plants in a growing operation in May 2007.

Both Olson and his wife are medical marijuana patients, but have faced the same distribution charge. The law about acceptable quantities of medical marijuana has been more strictly defined since Pamela Olson’s trial.

Pamela Olson is now serving probation, having pleaded out to avoid jail time. As part of her sentence, she is not using the medical marijuana that she claims is necessary to ease her pain.

The case has become a flashpoint for medical marijuana advocates, or what Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge characterizes as “a well-organized lobby whose purpose is to see the laws changed.”

Approximately two dozen people, mostly advocates or medical marijuana patients, are observing the trial and showing their support.

About 15 of them have taken residency in a local bed-and-breakfast, doubling up on rooms while they attend every minute of the trial.

One attendee, Ellen Van Bockern of Maple Valley, was attending for personal reasons, since she hoped to begin a grow operation for a sick friend.

“I want to grow marijuana legally,” she said. “If they get off, then I can start my own operation and help my friend.”

Attendees maintained the law was wrong, and that Olson was being singled out for special treatment. A common argument is that governments who prosecute these crimes are wasting taxpayer money.

“Kitsap County doesn’t have a lot of money,” said patient Steve Elliott, a Kingston resident.

“This prosecution is wasting money left and right. And if they are prosecuting Bruce, then they can come after me.”

read more digg story