marijuana – Page 2 – The Burning Platform

Marijuana Toxicity

Hat tip Gayle. Somebody wake SSS up from his nap.

Guest Post by Dr Sircus

I am a great proponent of medical marijuana as well as using it simply for relaxation, recreation, and de-stressing. However, that does not mean it is a perfect substance without any prejudicing effects. As a medicine, marijuana is without equal carrying less danger than aspirin or any other pharmaceutical on the market. The upside is far greater than the downside when it comes to its use as a medicine.

Many doctors who come out against the use of marijuana as a medicine have conflicts of interest motivating them meaning—they have financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry. We can understand why pharmaceutical companies get jealous and possessive about their turf. News sources report that a new study published in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal finds that states that have legalized medicinal marijuana have significantly fewer deaths from painkiller overdoses. States that had legalized medical pot experienced around 1,700 fewer painkiller overdose deaths in 2010 than what would have happened if those states didn’t make medical marijuana legal and available. “We found there was about a 25% lower rate of prescription painkiller overdose deaths on average after implementation of a medical marijuana law,” said lead study author Dr. Marcus Bachhuber.[1]

“As Americans continue to embrace pot—as medicine and for recreational use—opponents are turning to a set of academic researchers to claim that policymakers should avoid relaxing restrictions around marijuana. It’s too dangerous, risky, and untested, they say. Just as drug company-funded research has become incredibly controversial in recent years, forcing major medical schools and journals to institute strict disclosure requirements, could there be a conflict of interest issue in the pot debate? VICE has found that many of the researchers who have advocated against legalizing pot have also been on the payroll of leading pharmaceutical firms with products that could be easily replaced by using marijuana. When these individuals have been quoted in the media, their drug-industry ties have not been revealed,” writes Lee Fang in a well-researched presentation for Vice News.

One can use marijuana safely for a long time and not suffer anything near the damage of using alcohol or most pharmaceuticals. Life is difficult enough on our planet and it is about to get even more difficult. Marijuana can help us endure but sometimes it does its job too well covering up stress that in reality needs to be dealt with. That is one good reason long-term users should take occasional breaks from using it. Such abstinence is a break against dependency and needing higher doses or consuming more than is healthy for an individual.

Ideally, we should seek a life of purity and health. Medicine can mimic this by using natural healing medicines, including marijuana, not dangerous synthetic chemicals. Marijuana does hold short-term danger for some people and long-term risks of addiction. However, when one sees that one can treat cancer with marijuana, using it as a form of natural chemotherapy, and compare the safety of using it instead of radiation and mainstream chemotherapy, then one can appreciate that there is no contest.

Regular chemotherapy helps very few and almost guarantees a nasty death and a life of suffering while it is being administered. In contrast, one should have no fear in using marijuana in concentrated forms to treat a broad range of diseases including cancer. Even when using a gram a day of a high grade hemp oil (50 percent THC, 45 percent CBD) the body gets used to it, if one takes the dosage up slowly. When people talk about addiction to marijuana it is more psychologically oriented in relationship to frequent daily trips to a slightly changed reality that for most is comforting and often creative. When one uses marijuana as a medicine, not as a tool to run away from reality there is little danger of physical addiction.

“Marijuana has remarkably low toxicity and lethal doses in humans have not been described. This is in stark contrast to a number of commonly prescribed medications used for similar purposes, including opiates, anti-emetics, anti-depressants and muscle relaxants, not to mention legal substances used recreationally including tobacco and alcohol,” writes Dr. Gregory T. Carter, Clinical Associate Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine. Notice Dr. Carter said low toxicity not no toxicity.

Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional pharmaceuticals but that does not mean we do not have to be careful with its long-term use. At Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, where a great deal of National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA) funded research takes place, researchers have found that abrupt marijuana withdrawal leads to symptoms similar to depression and nicotine withdrawal. Meaning that no matter how helpful marijuana is as a medicine it is not without its own toxicity and addictive properties. Marijuana is a complex substance affecting each person differently.

I am 55 and I have been smoking pot off and on for the last 30 years… I had no idea of the withdrawal I would experience. Two days in, I thought for sure I had some dreaded disease. One minute I would be freezing, the next sweating. The loss of appetite doesn’t bother me because pot always helped me keep on an extra 5-10 lbs. from the munchies and sweet tooth. Not sure how long it will take, but I do look forward to the day when this has all passed.

Long-term use or overuse of marijuana has been linked to adrenal fatigue, sexual dysfunctions and it has effects on the brain cells that cause short-term memory loss. Marijuana itself usually does not cause liver damage but most marijuana contains various impurities and other plant material that can be damaging to the liver. One way to tell if it is bothering your liver is if you start feeling dizzy and having trouble walking when high. Another way is if the liver itself and the area above it on the rib cage becomes sensitive to the touch.

Rising Potency

The amount of THC in marijuana samples confiscated by police has been increasing steadily over the past few decades. In 2012, THC concentrations in marijuana averaged close to 15 percent, compared to around 4 percent in the 1980s. For a new user, this may mean exposure to higher concentrations of THC, with a greater chance of an adverse or unpredictable reaction.

Increases in potency may account for the rise in emergency department visits involving marijuana use. For frequent users, it may mean a greater risk for addiction if they are exposing themselves to high doses on a regular basis. However, the full range of consequences associated with marijuana’s higher potency is not well understood.

Cadmium concentrates in tobacco and marijuana leaves and accumulates in the body when smoked over a long term leading to hypertension, kidney degeneration or disease, heart disease, depressed immune systems, cancers of the lungs and prostate; it also affects bones. In healthy people excess cadmium can be excreted in the urine if adequate levels of zinc are maintained in the body—15-30 mg daily in a supplement, will offer some protection against cadmium problems.

Marijuana has a large benefit curve that varies greatly depending not only on a person’s presenting condition but also on their character and inner strength. Marijuana usually gives more than it takes from the body, mind, and emotions when used as a medicine. Over time though, sometimes a great deal of time, this curve reverses, and it may begin to take more than it gives meaning side effects can creep up to disturb the body, mind and spirit. What can we expect from a substance that greatly affects our brain wave patterns? If a person keeps taking marijuana over years, he may become dependent, addicted and eventually may lose the ability to cope with its toxicity. This dependency varies widely from one person to another and for some never becomes a threat to their health or quality of life.

THC has many hidden medical uses. It can keep a person’s heart safe during a major coronary blockage. According to a study published in Biochemical Pharmacology, administering a tiny dose of tetrahydrocannabinol (a.k.a., THC) can help reduce damage done to your heart if you’re suffering from myocardial ischemia, which is what happens when your heart’s arteries are partially or completely blocked. [2]

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Some people notice an increasing sense of restlessness when they get high. This is direct feedback from their bodies telling them that something’s wrong. Most people just go ahead ignoring the body’s feedback signals. This in and of itself creates a biological stress inside a person-creating trauma. The body has to cope; we give it no choice when we ignore negative symptoms. A price is taken out of the central nervous system creating what John Mini M.S.C.M./L.Ac. calls Marijuana Induced Stress Trauma.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens writes, “While marijuana may have many palliative qualities, the psychoactive species have some serious downsides. These are well outlined in the 800-page book titled Marijuana Syndromes by John Mini. His research validates what I have observed since the ‘60′s. As he points out, “Marijuana’s side effects increase over time” and are cumulative. He has clinically observed that “marijuana’s effects can have a drying and toxic quality. They tend to take a general progression from the lungs to the digestion and immune systems, then to the blood, heart and circulatory system, then on to the liver and nervous systems and finally to the sexual, endocrine systems and brain over time.”

Marijuana does not have to do physical damage to a person’s nervous system to affect the way it functions. The more a person denies their feelings and what their body is telling them to do, the deeper the traumatic split goes into the nervous system.

A large part of marijuana’s direct influence affects the stomach and pancreas. This is what gives people the munchies. Various digestive issues may enter into the picture along the way that can be equally difficult to treat if one continues abusing marijuana. The higher the THC content in smoked marijuana is, the greater is the effect of hunger (munchies)—this will exacerbate the problem of obesity and insulin resistance.

Yet a study published in the American Journal of Medicine in 2013 shows that “current marijuana use was associated with 16 percent lower fasting insulin levels . . . and 17 percent lower HOMA-IR (insulin resistance). We found significant associations between marijuana use and smaller waist circumferences.”[3]

Murray Mittleman, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author, told Time magazine last year that “the most important finding is that current users of marijuana appeared to have better carbohydrate metabolism than nonusers. “Their fasting insulin levels were lower, and they appeared to be less resistant to the insulin produced by their body to maintain a normal blood-sugar level.”

Side Effects, Warnings & Contraindications

Unstable people can become unglued after smoking marijuana though the effects are normally temporary. Cannabinoids can exacerbate schizophrenic psychosis in persons predisposed to such. Cannabinoids impede cognitive and psychomotor performance, resulting in temporary impairment. Chronic use can lead to the development of tolerance.

Tachycardia and hypotension are frequently documented as adverse events in the cardiovascular system. A few cases of myocardial ischemia have been reported in young and previously healthy patients. Inhaling the smoke of cannabis cigarettes induces side effects on the respiratory system. Cannabinoids are contraindicated for patients with a history of cardiac ischemias.

That said a low risk profile is evident from the literature available. Serious complications are very rare and are not usually reported during the use of cannabinoids for medical indications.

Marijuana, depending on the growing, storage, and handling conditions, can contain fungal contaminants that can be problematic in already immune-compromised people. Most people who are healthy have immune systems that can deal with these fungi, but if your health is compromised, the ingestion of the fungi often found in marijuana leaves and buds can become a problem and even develop into an infection that can be dangerous.

Damp marijuana is the perfect breeding ground for aspergilla and many thousands of other molds (and bacteria). Aspergillosis is the most common fungal infection in marijuana smokers caused by aspergilla fumigates.

Appetite stimulation can be dangerous for diabetics, especially for those needing to lose weight. Currently research is attempting to find an effective CB1 (cannabinoid receptor antagonist) that will counter the effects of THC of increasing hunger in type-2 diabetics. Decreases in blood sugars (hypoglycemia) can go unrecognized due to the psychoactive effects of the THC. Untreated low blood sugar leads to the loss of consciousness and seizures.

If You Decide to Stop Using Marijuana

Things can appear to be fabulous when they’re not.
Things can appear to be scary and negative when they’re not.
John Mini M.S.C.M., L.Ac.

You may decide that the effects on your body are becoming more detrimental than continuing to use marijuana. There are many treatment options available and programs spring up all over the place with pharmaceutical drugs and numerous supplements to help people get off marijuana. Many people will find it easier to enter these programs but you can also safely withdraw at home.

John Mini tells us that “you can tell if a person is physically addicted to marijuana if s/he hasn’t had marijuana for a while and s/he feels withdrawal symptoms. These symptoms can come in the forms of depression, irritability, anxiety, trouble sleeping, emotional neediness or nausea.”

Margaret Hanley, PhD from Columbia University makes these recommendations if you decide you want to stop using marijuana:

“If one wants to detox on one’s own, it is good to go into it prepared to experience withdrawal symptoms, such as disrupted sleep, decreased food intake, irritable mood, decreased sociability, and marijuana craving. Most symptoms peak around 3-4 days without smoking, but symptoms can last for over a week.”

THC is stored in the fat tissues and can even remain there for over a month. To help to detoxify an adequate exercise program that burns fat and increase in water intake will help to flush out the THC by – products from your body. Drink as much good quality water as possible. This kind of natural remedy can dispense these by-products from your system in less than a week, but may take longer in long term heavy marijuana users.

Avoid any pharmaceutical medicines. Take a source of good natural whole food vitamins and minerals. Acupuncture will help as well as daily or even multiple magnesium massages each day during the worst periods of withdrawal.

Today many sources of hemp oil and other marijuana products are becoming available. CBD is legally available almost everywhere though needs to be ordered from a state where it can legally be produced. Many clinics are quietly recommending high-grade hemp oil to cancer patients. A full cancer treatment, three month sixty gram supply is recommended. Quietly is the watchword of the day because local health and medical boards are still jealously guarding their turf looking for any and all reasons to crucify places where natural medicine is practiced.

[1] Marcus Bachhuber, M.D., researcher, Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion, Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center; John Thomas, J.D., M.P.H., professor, Quinnipiac University School of Law, Hamden, Conn.; Bradley Flansbaum, D.O., M.P.H., hospitalist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Aug. 25, 2014, JAMA Internal Medicine

[2] An ultra-low dose of tetrahydrocannabinol provides cardioprotection.

Waldman M1 et al; Biochem Pharmacol.; 2013 Jun 1;85(11):1626-33. doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2013.03.014. Epub 2013 Mar 26.; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23537701

[3] The Impact of Marijuana Use on Glucose, Insulin, and Insulin Resistance among US Adults; Elizabeth A. Penner, MD, MPH et al; The American Journal of Medicine; Volume 126, Issue 7, Pages 583–589, July 2013; http://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(13)00200-3/abstract

INVOKING THE SPICOLI RULE

Marie Antoinette declared about the peasants: Let them eat cake.

Berkley City Council declares: Let them get high.

Hat tip Boston Bob

California city mandates free medical marijuana for low-income residents

Weed welfare?

That’s what the Berkeley City Council in California has unanimously approved, ordering medical marijuana dispensaries to donate 2 percent of their stash to patients making less than $32,000 a year.

The new welfare program in the liberal-leaning city is set to launch in August 2015.

The ordinance, which passed in August and is the first of its kind in the country, comes at a time when several states are debating how to handle a growing movement to legalize marijuana for both medical and recreational use.

But Berkeley’s decision to effectively order weed redistribution is prompting a vocal backlash.

Bishop Ron Allen, a former addict and head of the International Faith Based Coalition, told Fox News he doesn’t understand why the California city would want to dump pot on the impoverished.

“It’s ludicrous, over-the-top madness,” Allen said. “Why would Berkeley City Council want to keep their poverty-stricken under-served high, in poverty and lethargic?”

John Lovell, a lobbyist for the California Narcotic Officers’ Association, agrees.

“Instead of taking steps to help the most economically vulnerable residents get out of that state, the city has said, ‘Let’s just get everybody high,’” Lovell told The New York Times.

But others, like Mason Tvert, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project, say it’s a community program.

Tvert told Fox News that the decision to provide the drug to some of its low-income residents is up to the community.

“So it’s a matter of the democratic process, people following the state’s laws, and this law appears to accommodate both of those,” he said.

California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana nearly 20 years ago.

California dispensaries are prohibited by law from turning a profit. But some places have been giving pot away to patients who couldn’t pay for years.

One of Berkeley’s largest dispensaries, Berkeley Patients Group, has been doing it for a decade, The New York Times reports. One recipient, Arnie Passman, a poet and activist, said he’s couldn’t remember exactly how long he had been given medical marijuana or why.

“It could be for my allergies, or my arthritis — you know what happens to us folks: We forget,” Passman, 78, told the newspaper.

How Marijuana Legalization in America is Destroying Mexican Drug Cartel Business

Looks like SSS was wrong again. What a shocker.

Guest Post by Mike Krieger

Nothing is more amusing (and sad) than when I see some ignorant out of stater commenting about how nightmarish the legalization of marijuana has been for Colorado. The most high-profile and hilarious example of this came from disgraced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who I have criticized sharply on several occasions, here, here and here.He foolishly spouted some hysterical nonsense last month when he said:

“See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado, where there’s head shops popping up on every corner and people flying into your airport just to come and get high. To me, it’s just not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New Jersey and there’s no tax revenue that’s worth that.”

Honestly, what planet does this clown live on? As someone who actually lives in Colorado, I can tell you that the only thing that has changed since legalization is that there is a greater sense of freedom and people are no longer getting arrested in droves for non-violent drug possession charges. Let’s not forget that the police arrest someone every two seconds in America, many of which are for mere drug possession charges. Apparently, Christie thinks this is a good thing and ultimately results in this mythical wonderful “quality of life” that apparently exists in some corner of New Jersey where rainbow farting unicorns roam the countryside.

As someone who spent nearly three decades in the New York metro area, and who has lived in Colorado now for over three years, I can tell you there’s no comparison. I’ve met many, many people who have intentionally left New Jersey for Colorado, yet I’ve never met a single person who has intentionally left Colorado for New Jersey. Perhaps that person exists and is currently flying back east on his unicorn and is therefore unavailable for comment.

Anyway, while we are on the topic, the Huffington Post posted a great article comparing the two states. They note:

Business climate: It turns out Colorado is a great place for business, ranking seventh out of the 50 states in a 2013 study from CNBC that took into consideration metrics like economy, infrastructure and the cost of doing business. New Jersey came in 42nd.

Forbes agrees, listing Colorado as the fifth best state for “business and careers.” New Jersey comes in 32nd on the Forbes list.

Economic growth and job creation: FreeEnterprise.com gathered data on just how well the 50 states do at creating jobs and fostering economic growth. They ranked Colorado second in the nation for innovation and entrepreneurship (New Jersey was 14th), 14th in economic performance (New Jersey came in at 33rd), and eighth for business climate (New Jersey was 49th).

The state of the states: Politico recently gathered various data points from the Census Bureau, the FBI and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and incorporated them with a slew of other factors, including income, high school graduation rates, life expectancy and more. In their subsequent ranking of the 50 states, Colorado came in seventh overall, while New Jersey came in 12th.

General well-being: The health care company Healthways partnered up with Gallup in 2013 to evaluate well-being across the United States. Looking at residents’ habits and behavior, emotional and physical health, work environments and more, they determined that Colorado ranks seventh in overall well-being. New Jersey comes in 23rd.

Furthermore, the city I currently live in was recently ranked the most fit city in all of America, and 3 of the top 10 cities were in Colorado. New Jersey had no cities in the top ten. Although to be fair, Christie probably skews the data quite a bit. See the rankings here.

Technology and science: The Milken Institute, a California think tank, recently took a close look at how states foster growth in technology and science, two areas that will likely prove key to the United States’ economic recovery. Colorado was ranked fourth in the nation. New Jersey was ranked 15th.

Chris Christie is clearly an ill informed blowhard and let’s not forget this guy wants to become President. How scary is that?

Moving along to the meat of this piece, Vice recently published a great article explaining how the legalization of pot is causing Mexican drug cartels to reduce plantings of marijuana and it also describes the frighteningly irrational response from the DEA. It reports that:

Marijuana has accounted for nearly half of all total drug arrests in the US for the past 20 years, according to the FBI’s crime statistics. And according to the Department of Justice (DOJ), a large portion of the US illegal drug market is controlled directly by Mexican cartels. The DOJ’s National Drug Intelligence Center, which has since been shut down, found in 2011 that the top cartels controlled the majority of drug trade in marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine in over 1,000 US cities.

Now, those cartels and their farmers complain that marijuana legalization is hurting their business. And some reports could suggest that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) is more interested in helping to protect the Mexican cartels’ hold on the pot trade than in letting it dissipate. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that pot farmers in the Sinaloa region have stopped planting due to a massive drop in wholesale prices, from $100 per kilo down to only $25. One farmer is quoted as saying: “It’s not worth it anymore. I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.”

“Is it hurting the cartels? Yes. The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana,” Nelson said, “They aren’t able to move as much cannabis inside the US now.”

In 2012, a study by the Mexican Competitiveness Institute found that US state legalization would cut into cartel business and take over about 30 percent of their market.

Given the DEA’s historic relationship with the Sinaloa cartel, and the agency’s fury over legalized marijuana, it almost seems like the DEA wants to crush the legal weed market in order to protect the interests of their cartel friends. Almost.

Not almost, that is exactly what they want to do.

“The DEA doesn’t want the drug war to end,” said Nelson, when asked about a possible connection between the agency’s hatred of legal pot and its buddies in Sinaloa. “If it ends, they don’t get their toys and their budgets. Once it ends, they aren’t going to have the kind of influence in foreign government. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but where there’s smoke there’s probably fire.”

The Sinaloa cartel came to prominence in January when the “Fast and Furious” scandal surfaced, in which it was revealed that DEA agents ignored Sinaloa drug shipments and essentially granted immunity to cartel criminals in exchange for information.

Another way the DEA tries to shut down legal marijuana dispensaries, and medical marijuana clinics, is through the banks. While large banks like HSBC and Wachovia have gotten away with laundering billions in cartel drug money, famously referred to as “too big to jail” by Attorney General Eric Holder, banks have been meticulously instructed by the DEA not to work with any kind of marijuana facility.

That’s pennies compared to what the US spends on the drug war. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, we spend $51 billion per year fighting illegal drugs. A 2010 study by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron found that not only would the US save tremendous amounts of money were it to end drug prohibition, legalizing could bring in an additional $46.7 billion in yearly tax revenue.

“We’ve spent 1.3 trillion since 1972 on the drug war. What have we gotten for that? Drugs are cheaper and easier to get than ever before,” Nelson told VICE News.

For more evidence of the insane mindset permeating the DEA, check out this article that shows how the agency seized hemp seed from Kentucky as state universities attempted to participate in legal studies.

The DEA has no idea what to do with itself now that the population of innocent citizens it can harass for exercising a personal choice and the amount of bribe money it can extract from drug cartels dissipates. Bottom line is that people want drugs, and as long as that’s the case, no petty authoritarian wearing a badge and a costume on some misguided moral crusade will change that.

In Liberty,
Michael Krieger

DO NOT THROW AWAY YOUR TEA LEAVES!! — yet another Copfuk story

Copfuks need to die.

April 2, 2014

LEAWOOD, KS — An innocent family was terrorized by a paramilitary SWAT raid on their home that lasted 2.5 hours; yielding nothing. It took the family 2 years and $25,000 to discover the real reason their house was targeted: discarded tea leaves in their garbage and the purchase of indoor gardening equipment.

‘You’re in the wrong house!’

Robert and Adlynn Harte discovered how easily an innocent family can become the targets of state-sanctioned violence when a SWAT team showed up at their home looking for contraband. The terrifying experience took place at 7:30 a.m. on April 20, 2012.

“It was just like on the cops TV shows. It was like ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ ready to storm the compound.”

The Harte home was surrounded by paramilitary police. There was a sudden pounding at the door, which Robert quickly answered. If he had delayed opening the door, a man carrying a battering ram was prepared to breach the front door.

Robert was pushed to the floor and made to clasp his hands behind his head as strange men poured into his home. Rifle-toting, armored troopers stood over him with rifles screaming, “Where are the children in the home?”

Bob Harte demonstrates how he was forced to the floor as masked SWAT agents raided his home. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

The Hartes’ 7-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son had both been sleeping in their bedrooms, and were “shocked and frightened” as they were shuffled into the living room and made to watch as the invaders snooped through their belongings.

“We just kept saying ‘You’re in the wrong house!’”

Johnson County Sheriff’s deputies and police canines tore through the family’s living space for 2.5 hours. They took interest with the Hartes’ indoor garden, which was a family project to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, squashes, and melons in the basement.

The Hartes said that the deputies “made rude comments” and implied their son was using marijuana. Yet the deputies left empty handed. A receipt was left, saying “no items taken.”

‘Operation Constant Gardener’

The Hartes had no idea why they had been targeted. They were not involved in any illegal activities and had impeccable records — good enough to pass the rigorous background checks to get clearance with the Department of Defense.

The department would not give them any answers about the raid, only that they were looking for narcotics. No records were provided willingly.

“We were chosen more or less at random for this drug raid and we were like ‘what do you mean we can’t get the records? They raided our house,” Addie explained.

The family was forced to sue the department to get any answers about the incident — a year later. Documents later showed that their hydroponics equipment that had played a role in attracting the attention of SWAT. The police believed they were growing the forbidden cannabis plant inside their home using grow lights and hydroponics.

The couple discovered that the raid even had a name. It had been a part of “Operation Constant Gardener” — a drug sweep conducted by multiple police agencies in the region.

“With little or no other evidence of any illegal activity, law enforcement officers make the assumption that shoppers at the store are potential marijuana growers, even though the stores are most commonly frequented by backyard gardeners who grow organically or start seedlings indoors,” the couple stated in a lawsuit.

Bob Harte displays the indoor garden his family cultivates. (AP Photo/Orlin Wagner)

‘This isn’t a communist country’

It took an additional year and $25,000 to get the rest of the story.

It turned out that the police had first seen Bob Harte at a local hydroponics shop called The Green Circle in August 2011. Harte exited the store with a small bag, prompting police a surveillance effort. For months, cops began snooping through the family’s trash.

The shopkeeper of the hydroponics store, Bennie Palmentere, said he was disturbed that government spies were sorting through his customers’ trash. “This isn’t a communist country,” he said to KSHB.

The 5:00 a.m. garbage searches yielded some plant-like materials which they assumed to be marijuana. Using an unreliable field-testing kit, the plant material created a false-positive for marijuana, and a search warrant was acquired.

“We cannot understand how the low level of police work, which included using an unreliable field test, could have permitted a SWAT-style raid on our home,” the Hartes said in a public statement.

The plant material was never taken to a lab to pursue more definitive results. The warrant was handed out with little effort or evidence on the part of the police.

Bob knew instantly what the “plant-like materials” were: his wife’s discarded tea leaves from her daily hot beverages.

“You shouldn’t have to have that kind of money to find out why people came raiding your house like some sort of police state.”

“If this can happen to us and we are educated and have reasonable resources, how does somebody who maybe hasn’t led a perfect life supposed to be free in this country?” said Addie Harte to the AP.

The fact that it took 2 years and $25,000 to get the complete details about how their home was targeted a the source of contention for the family.

“This not what justice in the United States is supposed to be,” Addie Harte said. “You shouldn’t have to have $25,000, even $5,000. You shouldn’t have to have that kind of money to find out why people came raiding your house like some sort of police state.”

The Hartes’ experience sheds some valuable light on a dilemma that is faced all over the country. Their family is fortunate to have the resources and patience necessary to fight through expensive lawsuits required to provide answers about the investigation in which they were involved. Exposure is the best way to push back on the police state. However, most people would not have the resources to to do the same. The majority of the time, clandestine police raids are allowed to remain shrouded in secrecy.

The plant material was never taken to a lab to pursue more definitive results. The warrant was handed out with little effort or evidence on the part of the police.

Bob knew instantly what the “plant-like materials” were: his wife’s discarded tea leaves from her daily hot beverages.

“You shouldn’t have to have that kind of money to find out why people came raiding your house like some sort of police state.”

The fact that it took 2 years and $25,000 to get the complete details about how their home was targeted a the source of contention for the family.

http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/harte-family-raid/

I FORGOT ABOUT THE BANKS

Back in the middle of January, I wrote an article entitled, “Colorado and Marijuana – The Bubble Will Burst.” The article explained why Colorado’s experiment with legalizing marijuana will fail. Overtaxed. Black market competition. Huge overhead costs. That sort of stuff. But I forgot about the banks.

As many of you may have read, the Obama administration, in its infinite “wisdom” and through the Departments of Justice and Treasury, just gave banks a road map for conducting transactions with legal marijuana dealers so these businesses can deposit their earnings, make payroll, and pay taxes like any other business. It’s now pretty clear that Obama wants these businesses to succeed.

But there’s a glitch, and it’s a big one. This so-called road map was nothing more than trying to enlist banks in keeping an eye on legal marijuana dealers by issuing red flags to the banks. 20 red flags which amounted to “Please keep an eye out on these type of transactions, and if you miss one, well, good luck.”

In response to this so-called green light from our reformed pot-smoking Emperor Obama, the American Bankers Association has stated “guidance or regulation doesn’t alter the underlying challenge for banks. As it stands, possession or distribution of marijuana VIOLATES FEDERAL LAW (emphasis mine), and banks that provide support for those activities face the risk of prosecution and assorted sanctions.” The group says that banks will only be comfortable serving marijuana businesses if federal prohibitions on the drug are changed in law.

Heh. I wonder if His Majesty will request his injustice department to come up with an executive order waiving parts of the federal marijuana laws on the books. An illegal order that will not only violate federal law, but an international treaty the U.S. has signed. But that’s the big picture. Now let’s get down to where the rubber meets the road, the retail marijuana dealer.

“It’s not just the banks that are wary about handling our money, it’s everyone – security businesses, lawyers, you name it, no one wants to take the risk of taking our money,” said Caitlin McGuire, owner of the Breckenridge Cannabis Club in Breckenridge, Colorado. McGuire had an account with a credit union for years, which dropped him as a customer last year. He pays his bills with cash and money orders.

Memo to Caitlin: Where do you store your cash? At your home? Wife and kids? Have you gotten your body armor vest and concealed carry permit yet? Sleep well at night? And how’s your personal and business insurance premiums working out for you, pal?

I love being right.