Group argues weed is safer than booze

An advocacy group unveiled this billboard near Denver's Mile High stadium months before a ballot to legalize marijuana.

 Denver (CNN) -- A Colorado advocacy group is spending thousands of dollars to convince people that smoking pot is safer than drinking alcohol.

It's an attempt by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol to rally support for a vote in November that would legalize the drug for recreational use. Colorado legalized marijuana for medical use in 2000.

 

420 is Here Again!!! It's a Celebration B*T*H*S

 That's right....Tomorrow is 420 again. It's a day that marijuana smokers around the world celebrate. Here at Cheeba Cheeba Yall, we celebrate the powers of the herb. April 20 (4/20 in U.S. date notation) has evolved into a counterculture holiday, where people gather to celebrate and consume cannabis. Some events have a political nature to them, advocating for the decriminalization of non-medical cannabis in the United States

In preparation and celebration of this smokers holiday. Here are a few things, HERBAL !

HEMPY MARIJUANA CHRISTMAS!

The War on Drugs... What does Marijuana have to do with it ?!

Driven by the Drug War, the U.S. prison population is six to ten times as high as most Western European nations. The United States is a close second only to Russia in its rate of incarceration per 100,000 people. In 2000, more than 734,000 people were arrested in this country for marijuana-related offenses alone.

The US war on drugs places great emphasis on arresting people for smoking marijuana. Since 1990, nearly 5.9 million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined. In 2000, state and local law enforcement arrested 734,498 people for marijuana violations. This is an increase of 800 percent since 1980, and is the highest ever recorded by the FBI.

As has been the case throughout the 1990s, the overwhelming majority of those charged with marijuana violations in 2000-- 646,042 Americans (88 %) -- were for simple possession. The remaining 12% (88,456 Americans) were for "sale/manufacture", an FBI category which includes marijuana grown for personal use or purely medical purposes. These new FBI statistics indicate that one marijuana smoker is arrested every 45 seconds in America. Taken together, the total number of marijuana arrests for 2000 far exceeded the combined number of arrests for violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault.

Like most Americans, people who smoke marijuana also pay taxes, love and support their families, and work hard to make a better life for their children. Suddenly they are arrested, jailed and treated like criminals solely because of their recreational drug of choice. State agencies frequently step in and declare children of marijuana smokers to be "in danger", and many children are placed into foster homes as a result. This causes enormous pain, suffering and financial hardship for millions of American families. It also engenders distrust and disrespect for the law and for the criminal justice system overall. Responsible marijuana smokers present no threat or danger to America or its children, and there is no reason to treat them as criminals, or to take their children away. As a society we need to find ways to discourage personal conduct of all kinds that is abusive or harmful to others. Responsible marijuana smokers are not the problem and it is time to stop arresting them. 

Once all the facts are known, it becomes clear that America's marijuana laws need reform. This issue must be openly debated using only the facts. Groundless claims, meaningless statistics, and exaggerated scare stories that have been peddled by politicians and prohibitionists for the last 60 years must be rejected.


ANNUAL AMERICAN DEATHS CAUSED BY DRUGS

TOBACCO ........................ 400,000
ALCOHOL ........................ 100,000
ALL LEGAL DRUGS .............20,000
ALL ILLEGAL DRUGS ..........15,000
CAFFEINE .........................2,000
ASPIRIN ...........................500
MARIJUANA ...................... 0
----------------------------------------
Source: United States government...
National Institute on Drug Abuse,
Bureau of Mortality Statistics
 

Like any substance, marijuana can be abused. The most common problem attributed to marijuana is frequent overuse, which can induce lethargic behaviour, but does not cause serious health problems. Marijuana can cause short-term memory loss, but only while under the influence. Marijuana does not impair long-term memory. Marijuana does not lead to harder drugs. Marijuana does not cause brain damage, genetic damage, or damage the immune system. Unlike alcohol, marijuana does not kill brain cells or induce violent behaviour. Continuous long-term smoking of marijuana can cause bronchitis, but the chance of contracting bronchitis from casual marijuana smoking is minuscule. Respiratory health hazards can be totally eliminated by consuming marijuana via non-smoking methods, i.e., ingesting marijuana via baked foods, tincture, or vaporizer.
A 1997 UCLA School of Medicine study (Volume 155 of the American Journal of Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine) conducted on 243 marijuana smokers over an 8-year period reported the following: "Findings from the long-term study of heavy, habitual marijuana smokers argue against the concept that continuing heavy use of marijuana is a significant risk factor for the development of chronic lung disease." "Neither the continuing nor the intermittent marijuana smokers exhibited any significantly different rates of decline in lung function as compared with those individuals who never smoked marijuana." The study concluded: "No differences were noted between even quite heavy marijuana smoking and non-smoking of marijuana."

Marijuana does not cause serious health problems like those caused by tobacco or alcohol (e.g., strong addiction, cancer, heart problems, birth defects, emphysema, liver damage, etc.). Death from a marijuana overdose is impossible. In all of world history, there has never been a single human death attributed to a health problem caused by marijuana. Legalize marijuana and life would be better for most people.

Marijuana News: gotta stay informed!!

When the federal Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a request for proposals, seeking competitive applications for the production, analysis and distribution of "marijuana cigarettes," the request might have seemed a bit unusual to those unfamiliar with Washington's dance around cannabis research.

The federal government, after all, is not widely known to support marijuana cultivation.

But those in the know just shrugged. The department has issued similar requests every few years to select a contractor to conduct government-approved marijuana research, and with depressing regularity it has then awarded an exclusive contract to the University of Mississippi. For 40 years now, Washington has sought such "competitive applications" and Mississippi "wins" every time.

This rigged contest has successfully thwarted meaningful academic inquiry into marijuana's medicinal value, without which the debate over its efficacy is bound to endure.

Other studies -- not conducted by the University of Mississippi -- have suggested that marijuana has therapeutic value. But because the United States has discouraged such research and made it legally difficult to undertake, these studies have been limited in scope. What's missing is the broad research analyzing the cultivation and properties of different strains and their effects on a variety of illnesses. For example, a strain of cannabis that is most effective with glaucoma may not be the same strain best suited to cancer patients.

Even if the university were running a perfect program, one institution cannot fulfill the country's research needs. In February 2007, when Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner recommended that the Drug Enforcement Administration grant a license to cultivate marijuana for research purposes to a botanist at the University of Massachusetts, she said she had concluded that the supply of marijuana from the University of Mississippi program was of insufficient quality and quantity for research purposes.

The deadline for this latest round of applications is Oct. 9. The government should take the opportunity to break the University of Mississippi's monopoly and choose a different institution. That step alone would be a sign that the Obama administration will prioritize science over politics. Merely shifting the contract from one institution to another, however, won't change the status quo. That will only happen when the federal government changes policy and awards multiple contracts for this important research.

Note: For 40 years, federal marijuana studies have been conducted in one place -- the University of Mississippi. Contracts should be awarded to several different institutions.

Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Published: September 4, 2009
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times

How to grow.... getting started

Cheeba Cheeba Yall does not condone illegal activity........................................ most of the time!!!!

So you think you want to grow a small garden of the best smoke you ever had, or have dreams of a small fortune to be made or are sick and need relief.... Here is a good starting point. Stayed tuned for more insights.

When growing, the first step (of actually growing, not including set up of equipment) is aquire some seeds. After, you got seeds you have to prepare them.
This step is to germinate your seeds. This process gets the seeds ready to be planted and it helps to insure successful planting and subsequent growing. One method of germinating your seeds is by wrapping them in moist paper towel.....
This method is called .... you guessed it.... the
Paper Towel Germination Method

SUPPLIES NEEDED:

-Seeds. Of course.

-All white paper towel,three to four sheets. No toilet paper or any kind of paper towels with inks/dyes. Just plain white.

-One ziplock sandwich bag.I use the double seal ones, any airtight ziplock will do fine.

-Purified/filtered, or bottled water.I use Fiji bottle water, It has a ph of 7.0. Any good purified or filtered water works.

-Heat source. You can use the top of a CRT monitor or a heating pad or even near a heater… I use a heating pad with a bathroom towel on top of the heating pad. That way they stay nice and warm and dont get cooked. You can buy a seed germinating heating pad at almost any hardware store that has a garden center.

THE 6 STEP METHOD:

Step 1: Fold paper towel just enough to fit into the ziplock sandwich baggie.

Step 2: Moisten the whole paper towel with bottled water or purified/filtered water. Do not over saturate paper towel, it should be fully wet but not dripping.

Step 3: Open the paper towel one fold, put seeds into middle and then close paper towel over seeds. Try not to put the seeds to close to each other.

Step 4: Stick paper towel and seeds carefully into baggie.

Step 5: Seal the baggie most of the way, blow some air into the baggie and then seal it up the rest of the way.

Step 6: Stick baggie on-top of anywhere nice and warm, 70- 80F, just don’t cook the lil buggers… 48 hrs max.

Never fails.

Massachusetts:They decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana

Another state showing that the laws against marijuana are arcane and out dated. Hopefully more people across the nation will realize that are "drugs" are not created equal. ALL NATURAL ...ALL GOOD... IS HOW WE SEE IT AT CHEEBA CHEEBA YALL!!!

On Election Day, voters in Massachusetts took what they think will be a step forward for their state: They decriminalized possession of small amounts of marijuana.

Before you brush that off with, "Well, that's Massachusetts for you," consider that this is a state with not only a liberal bent but a strong Puritan streak. This is a place where you can't buy wine in a grocery store or pick up beer in a 7-Eleven.

By two to one, voters decided that possessing less than an ounce of marijuana will net a civil fine of $100 and no criminal record (and, for young offenders, a required drug-education program and community service). The laws on growing and trafficking in marijuana are unchanged. But unless the state legislature overturns the ballot initiative, the penalty for possession will be, for adults, bigger than a parking ticket, smaller than a misdemeanor.


by CN Staff on January 11, 2009

Miss High Times 2009

BIGGUP!!!....SHE'S A SMOKER AND CUTE

Congressman Conyers Attacks DEA Raids

The government is trying to empose itself on every part of your life. They have been pressuring the medical marijuana advocates and trying to force actions to make it difficult for those that use marijuana to secure housing!!!!

First, the senior Chairmen like Conyers are commonly refered to as “powerful” because they can cause an agency like the DEA a lot of grief, especially at budget time and at hearings.

Second, it is unlikely that he could get enough of the gutless wonders in even his own party to support a change in the law, but he will have a lot of influence on the Democratic candidates and can push them to keep their pledges to “stop the raids.” That will greatly hasten the acceptance of medical marijuana.

Third, Conyers is African American, and his stance may bring more of the African American “leadership” around to opposing the drug war, which has done so much damage to the Black community.

I know the lawyer who brought this suit and he is a very shrewd fellow. He is also counsel for a group called the Union of Medical Marijuana Providers. Here is their press release: Day After Lawsuit Filed Against DEA, U.S. Congress Decides To Question Agency )

Washington, DC: Efforts by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) urging landlords in California to evict tenants who legally dispense medical cannabis to state-authorized patients has drawn public criticism from US Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

In a statement issued Friday by the 21-term Congressman, Conyers said: "I am deeply concerned about recent reports that the Drug Enforcement Administration is threatening private landlords with asset forfeiture and possible imprisonment if they refuse to evict organizations legally dispensing medical marijuana to suffering patients. The Committee has already questioned the DEA about its efforts to undermine California state law on this subject, and we intend to sharply question this specific tactic as part of our oversight efforts."

In July, DEA administrators mailed letters to dozens of landlords in Los Angeles warning owners that they risk arrest, up to 20 years in prison, and the loss of their property if they continue renting to cannabis dispensaries. Since that time, similar letters have been sent to the landlords of other medicinal cannabis providers throughout the state, including several in San Francisco, leading to the closure of various high-profile dispensaries.

Last week the Arts District Healing Center, a Los Angeles-based medical cannabis provider, filed a federal lawsuit in US District Court claiming that the DEA extorted its landlord by sending a letter threatening imprisonment and property seizure.

House oversight hearings regarding the DEA’s actions are anticipated to take place early next year.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Dale Gieringer, California NORML Coordinator, at (415) 563-5858. A transcript of Representative Conyer’s remarks appear online at: http://judiciary.house.gov/newscenter.aspx?A=889.

Obliterator Pipe

The Obliterator Pipe is a state of the art smoking device which features an inner-coil which the smoke passes through, cooling it down to provide a much smoother hit.

All the parts are removable for easy cleaning and the screw on bowl guard allows you to light it without fear of the wind or any other bowl-spilling calamity.

Each Obliterator comes with its own removable string and presentation/storage box.

Available in Black, Blue, Chrome, Gold, Green, Purple, and Red.



Details:


color: Blue (BL), Chrome (CH), Gold (GD), Green (GR), Purple (PU), RED (RD)

List Price: $38.85
Our Price: $35.30
You Save: $3.55


grasscity.com

HIGH TIMES INTERVIEW: BONE THUGS-N-HARMONY

Few rappers have made marijuana as central a theme in their work as Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, and as you can see from this interview, they put their ganja where their mouth is. Formed in the early ’90s, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony exploded after they auditioned for NWA’s Eazy-E and put out Creepin On ah Come Up in 1994 for Ruthless Records. Thirty-five million record sales later, Layzie Bone, Krayzie Bone and Wish Bone dropped by HIGH TIMES while doing publicity for their new album, Strength & Loyalty [Interscope]. Also look out for their movie, I Tried, on cable and DVD.

When did you discover weed?

KRAYZIE BONE: This dude right here, man. [points at Layzie Bone] He brought some home from school one day.

LAYZIE BONE: My Ken Dog little brother was in the bathroom smoking weed, and I walked in. He had a bag with about 30 joints. This is before we started smoking blunts. He gave me a joint. I took it home. Smoked that motherfucker on the back steps.

KRAYZIE BONE: We was stuck on those steps for hours just laughing. I was like, “Dude, I’m seeing purple stuff!” Like actually, you know what I’m sayin’? We was gone. And from that time on, I was like, “Man, this is my new thing.”

What year was that?

LAYZIE BONE: ’91. I was in the 11th grade. I had tried to smoke weed before that, but that was the first time I got high.

KRAYZIE BONE: I did, too. First time I tried to smoke it, I actually thought it was dumb. We all did. Why you gonna spend all that money when you can buy a 40-ounce for $2 and be roasted? Then, when we learned how to smoke it, we were like, “Wait a minute, this is a whole new thing— this is enhancing the music and everything.”

Eazy-E was a big smoker too, wasn’t he?

KRAYZIE BONE: He had a whole house that was just his weed stash. All kinds of weed you could think of, he had in this house. It was a literal weed house.

LAYZIE BONE: Eazy-E used to roll his weed up in licorice papers and stuff them around the brim of his hat. And he kept his money right here in his left sock. When he left, it was the hat and the sock.

Marijuana Gains Wonder Drug Status

A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine -- and US drug policy -- that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.

The study, from the University of California at San Francisco, found smoked marijuana to be effective at relieving the extreme pain of a debilitating condition known as peripheral neuropathy. It was a study of HIV patients, but a similar type of pain caused by damage to nerves afflicts people with many other illnesses including diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Neuropathic pain is notoriously resistant to treatment with conventional pain drugs. Even powerful and addictive narcotics like morphine and OxyContin often provide little relief. This study leaves no doubt that marijuana can safely ease this type of pain.

As all marijuana research in the United States must be, the new study was conducted with government-supplied marijuana of notoriously poor quality. So it probably underestimated the potential benefit.

This is all good news, but it should not be news at all. In the 40-odd years I have been studying the medicinal uses of marijuana, I have learned that the recorded history of this medicine goes back to ancient times and that in the 19th century it became a well-established Western medicine whose versatility and safety were unquestioned. From 1840 to 1900, American and European medical journals published over 100 papers on the therapeutic uses of marijuana, also known as cannabis.

Of course, our knowledge has advanced greatly over the years. Scientists have identified over 60 unique constituents in marijuana, called cannabinoids, and we have learned much about how they work. We have also learned that our own bodies produce similar chemicals, called endocannabinoids.

The mountain of accumulated anecdotal evidence that pointed the way to the present and other clinical studies also strongly suggests there are a number of other devastating disorders and symptoms for which marijuana has been used for centuries; they deserve the same kind of careful, methodologically sound research. While few such studies have so far been completed, all have lent weight to what medicine already knew but had largely forgotten or ignored: Marijuana is effective at relieving nausea and vomiting, spasticity, appetite loss, certain types of pain, and
other debilitating symptoms. And it is extraordinarily safe -- safer than most medicines prescribed every day. If marijuana were a new discovery rather than a well-known substance carrying cultural and political baggage, it would be hailed as a wonder drug.

The pharmaceutical industry is scrambling to isolate cannabinoids and synthesize analogs, and to package them in non-smokable forms. In time, companies will almost certainly come up with products and delivery systems that are more useful and less expensive than herbal marijuana. However, the analogs they have produced so far are more expensive than herbal marijuana, and none has shown any improvement over the plant nature gave us to take orally or to smoke.

We live in an antismoking environment. But as a method of delivering certain medicinal compounds, smoking marijuana has some real advantages: The effect is almost instantaneous, allowing the patient, who after all is the best judge, to fine-tune his or her dose to get the needed relief without intoxication. Smoked marijuana has never been demonstrated to have serious pulmonary consequences, but in any case the technology to inhale these cannabinoids without smoking marijuana already exists as vaporizers that allow for smoke-free inhalation.

Hopefully the UCSF study will add to the pressure on the US government to rethink its irrational ban on the medicinal use of marijuana -- and its destructive attacks on patients and caregivers in states that have chosen to allow such use. Rather than admit they have been mistaken all these years, federal officials can cite "important new data" and start revamping outdated and destructive policies. The new Congress could go far in establishing its bona fides as both reasonable and compassionate by immediately moving on this issue.

Such legislation would bring much-needed relief to millions of Americans suffering from cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and other debilitating illnesses.

Lester Grinspoon, an emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is the coauthor of "Marijuana, the Forbidden Medicine." © 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved

California Legislators Consider Hemp Legalization, Again

State legislators are expected to consider a measure this week that would allow hemp to be grown in California, rekindling the debate over whether such a move would increase cultivation of illegal marijuana and conflict with federal laws regulating the drug.

A committee of the state Senate is scheduled today to review legislation to permit California farmers to grow industrial hemp. The bill - AB684 - would establish a five-year pilot program in several California counties and define "industrial hemp" as separate from "marijuana" under the state's Health and Safety Code.

Read More

The beautiful bud!!!!

The DEA... and their boys are on it....

Marijuana Dispensary Operators Indicted on Drug Trafficking Charges

JUL 17 --(LOS ANGELES) – The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) along with the United States Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department, the Corona Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department announced today the indictments of owners and operators of four marijuana dispensaries  in Morro Bay, Corona, and two in West Hollywood. These individuals have been indicted on federal criminal charges alleging that they conspired to distribute and distributed large quantities of marijuana, including to minors, for significant profits. Also indicted is a medical doctor who wrote marijuana recommendations for payment including recommendations for minors with no medical examinations.

“The marijuana traffickers arrested today claimed to sell the drug for medicinal value, but it’s clear that marijuana’s financial value was their true motivation,” said Timothy J. Landrum, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA in Los Angeles. “These dispensary operators are no different than any other drug trafficker: they prey on people in our communities to make a profit. DEA and our law enforcement counterparts will not turn a blind eye to flagrant disregard of our nation’s essential drug laws—laws designed to protect our citizens, communities, and children.”
In 1996, voters in California adopted Proposition 215, which authorizes the distribution of marijuana for medical reasons under certain circumstances. Under federal law, however, distribution of marijuana for any purpose is illegal.
In Morro Bay, Charles C. Lynch was the owner and operator of the “Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers” marijuana store. The indictment against Lynch alleges that he and his employees sold more than $2.1 million in marijuana at the store in a one-year time period. The indictment further charges, during the same one-year time period, that Lynch and his employees sold marijuana to 281 minors. Also charged in the indictment is Dr. Armand T. Tollette, Jr. for writing marijuana recommendations for patrons of the Morro Bay marijuana store. The indictment alleges that Tollette wrote recommendations for minors, failed to conduct physical examinations before writing recommendations, and paid “finder’s fees” in marijuana for client referrals.


"This operation was nothing more than a super-sized retail drug-dealing center working under the cloak and smoke of prop 215," said Steve Bolts, Undersheriff, San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department. "There was no care, treatment or compassion shown to our operatives during any of our undercover buys, and marijuana was sold to our agents for 2 to 3 times the cost on the streets".
In a separate indictment, Larry R. Kristich and James Carberry have been indicted for operating a chain of marijuana stores in seven different cities in California. The stores, located in Oakland, San Francisco, San Leandro, Ukiah, Bakersfield, San Diego and West Hollywood, did business under the name “Compassionate Caregivers.” The indictment alleges that sales of marijuana and THC laced products at the stores totaled more than $95 million, and that Kristich used profits from marijuana sales to purchase expensive automobiles and real estate in Costa Rica. The indictment charges that, with a business associate, James L. Ealy, Kristich set-up non-drug related businesses to launder the profits of the marijuana stores.
James Carberry was an employee of Kristich and the manager of a marijuana store in West Hollywood known as “Yellow House.” The indictment alleges that Yellow House had an ATM machine and credit card readers in the store to facilitate purchases. In a single month at Yellow House, it is alleged that more than $1.7 million in marijuana and THC laced products were sold.
Debra D. King, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation's Los Angeles Field Office, stated: “IRS – Criminal Investigation plays a unique role in federal law enforcement’s war on drugs. Our agents target the profit and financial gains of narcotics traffickers, essentially following the money, to disrupt and dismantle these organizations and enhance criminal prosecutions and asset forfeitures. The results of today’s enforcement operations, including the execution of arrest and search warrants, sends a clear message that selling drugs, and laundering the profits earned from those drug sales, will lead to prison.”
In a separate indictment, John C. Moreaux, a former “Compassionate Caregivers” employee, was indicted for operating a second marijuana store in West Hollywood. In the indictment, Moreaux is alleged to have possessed a shotgun inside the West Hollywood marijuana store. The indictment further alleges that Moreaux has a prior felony conviction, and therefore cannot lawfully possess any firearms.
A fourth indictment charges Ronald B. Naulls, who operated the “Healing Nations Collective” marijuana store in a shopping center in Corona. The marijuana store opened in June 2006. In a nine-month time period, the store conducted sales of more than $1.2 million.

Corona Dispensary

Morro Bay Dispensary

Under federal law, conspiracy to distribute marijuana carries a sentence of up to 40 years in prison, while a violation of the money-laundering statute carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until proven guilty in court.
The following individuals were arrested earlier today: Ronald B. Naulls, of Corona; Charles C. Lynch of Arroyo Grande; Armond Tennyson Tollette, Jr. of Culver City; John C. Moreaux of Valencia ; James L. Ealy of Tujunga.
The cases were investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service – Criminal Investigation, the Los Angeles Police Department, the City of Corona Police Department and the San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department.

Police bust Canada-U.S. pot smuggling ring

David Aguilar
Associated Press

DETROIT – U.S. and Canadian authorities said Tuesday they have shut down a drug-smuggling operation responsible for transporting large volumes of highly potent, Canadian-grown marijuana.
Detroit-based U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy said four Michigan men have been charged in a criminal complaint and six other men from the state have been arrested. All are suspected of smuggling 168 kilograms of marijuana known as "BC Bud" into the United States.
Ahmad Abboud, 29, Tony Davis, 27, and Jonathan Yaldo, 26, all of Sterling Heights, were arrested June 28 and are named in separate complaints, along with Yahab Abboud, 27, of Rochester Hills.
Ahmad Abboud is charged in the complaint with conspiracy to import marijuana. The other three suspects are charged with marijuana possession with the intent to distribute.
All four men are free on bond, pending a July 17 preliminary hearing.
Murphy said the hydroponically grown marijuana is chemically supercharged and comparable to cocaine in its effects.
He said the four men charged played a large role in smuggling marijuana that came from British Columbia and was transported from Toronto – at some point via rowboat – to Michigan's Upper Peninsula and then to the Detroit area further south.
Murphy said drugs imported by the group often remained in the Detroit area, but said some shipments also were sent to other cities, including New York and Philadelphia.
"I think we've made a big dent in this operation," Murphy said. ``But we're seeing new and oftentimes very creative ways to get drugs and contraband into the United States."
Sterling Heights police Chief David Vinson said his department has been investigating the four men charged since 2001, and following leads indicating they were establishing drug-smuggling cells capable of importation and distribution.
He said the pure form of "BC Bud" is highly potent and can drive up the drug's market price when used to enhance weaker grade marijuana.
"This is not your dad's marijuana," Vinson said. "It has 10 times the THC content of normal marijuana."
Since 2005, U.S. federal officials said $4 million worth of marijuana, 41 kilograms of cocaine and $350,000 have been seized.
Richard Gauthier, commander of Toronto Police Detective Services said 27 arrests have been made throughout Canada.
He said 63 criminal charges have been filed, and authorities have seized an estimated $3 million worth of marijuana and nearly $500,000 in cash

It's time to end costly, unfair marijuana prohibition

Well Well...this is an interesting spin on "CHEEBA"... check it out... and yes of course I agree...LOL

Kathleen Parker
Originally published July 9, 2007

WASHINGTON // News that Al Gore's 24-year-old son, Al Gore III, was busted for pot and assorted prescription pills last week unleashed a torrent of mirth in certain quarters.
Gore-phobes on the Internet apparently view the son's arrest and incarceration as comeuppance for the father's shortcomings. Especially rich was the fact that young Al was driving a Toyota Prius when he was pulled over for going 100 mph - just as Papa Gore was set to preside over concerts during a seven-continent Live Earth celebration to raise awareness about global warming.

Whatever one may feel about the former vice president's environmental obsessions, his son's problems are no one's cause for celebration. The younger Mr. Gore's high-profile arrest does, however, offer Americans an opportunity to get real about drug prohibition, and especially about marijuana laws.
For the record, I have no interest in marijuana except as a public policy matter. My personal drug of choice is a heavenly elixir made from crushed grapes. Tasty, attractive and highly ritualized in our culture, wine and other alcoholic beverages are approved for responsible use despite the fact that alcoholism and attendant problems are a plague, while responsible use of a weed that, at worst, makes people boring and hungry is criminal. Pot smokers might revolt if they weren't so mellow.
Efforts over the past few decades to relax marijuana laws have been moderately successful. Twelve states have decriminalized marijuana, which usually means no prison or criminal record for first-time possession of small amounts for personal use.
Yet even now, federal law enforcement agents raid the homes of terminally ill patients who use marijuana for relief from suffering in states where medical marijuana use is permitted.
Beyond the medical issue is the practical question of criminalizing otherwise good citizens for consuming a nontoxic substance - described by the British medical journal Lancet as less harmful to health than alcohol or tobacco - at great economic and social cost. Each year, more than 700,000 people are arrested for marijuana-related offenses at a cost of more than $7 billion, according to the Marijuana Policy Project.
If marijuana were legalized, regulated and taxed at the rates applied to alcohol and tobacco, revenues would reach about $6.2 billion annually, according to an open letter signed by 500 economists who urged President Bush and other public officials to debate marijuana prohibition. Among those economists were three Nobel Prize winners, including the late Milton Friedman of Stanford's Hoover Institution.
Mr. Friedman and others were acting in response to a 2005 report on the budgetary implications of marijuana prohibition by Jeffrey Miron, visiting professor of economics at Harvard. By Mr. Miron's estimate, regulating marijuana would save about $7.7 billion annually in government prohibition enforcement - $2.4 billion at the federal level and $5.3 billion at the state and local levels.
Add to that amount income taxes that would have to be paid by marijuana producers. Drug dealers don't pay taxes, after all. Nor do they concern themselves much with rules of the workplace and worker welfare.
Mr. Miron argues that legalizing marijuana would not increase use because decriminalization hasn't increased use. But, he says, legalization would reduce crime by neutralizing dealers and eliminating the violent black market.
Legalizing marijuana isn't an endorsement of underage or irresponsible use. Best would be that everyone deal with life unmedicated, but adults arguably have a right to amuse themselves in ways that don't harm others.
While some may balk at the idea of legalized pot, it seems clear that some remedy is in order. At the very least, a fresh debate free of politics and bureaucratic self-interest is overdue. Maybe Al Gore could moderate.

Kathleen Parker's syndicated column appears Mondays and Fridays in The Sun. Her e-mail is kparker@kparker.com.

$80M Worth Of Marijuana Seized On Mount Hamilton

MOUNT HAMILTON, Calif. -- Drug enforcement agents on Monday raided an illegal marijuana farm on the east side of Mount Hamilton in Santa Clara County.
Agents said the raid kept millions of dollars' worth of marijuana from reaching Bay Area streets, NBC11's Damian Trujillo reported.Agents had to be airlifted to the farm, believed to be ran by a drug cartel out of Fresno.
Santa Clara County sheriff's deputies said they seized about 20,000 plants, with a street value of $4,000 a plant, totaling $80 million.
Marijuana Seized On Mount Hamilton
Agents said growers hastily escaped the morning raid.
Off camera, the land owner said this is the fifth year the growers targeted his property. He said he hopes the raid encourages growers to stay away next year.
Those hired to operate the gardens are usually armed, making the busts increasingly dangerous, Trujillo reported.
Two years ago during a similar bust, growers shot and wounded an agent.
"We've had encounters where we've had gunfights. So, it takes a while to get up there because this terrain is steep and rugged," said Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Ed Wise.
Agents usually make raids in June, but Brent Wood of the California Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement said they try to mix it up.
"The crooks, they figure out a pattern," Wood said. "They grow their marijuana earlier, so we have to change with them."

Followup...Marijuana garden gives up 18,000 plants
Bay City News Service
Article Last Updated: 07/10/2007 01:18:30 PM PDT

After clearing more than 18,000 pot plants near Mt. Hamilton Monday, the Santa Clara County sheriff's marijuana eradication team is at it again today, tackling another garden.
Deputies, with the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, used a helicopter to lower about 20 personnel into a private hillside garden near the Lick Observatory Monday. Deputies found numerous bags full of harvested marijuana buds, 18,000 plants and chemicals and hoses used to irrigate and nourish the plants.
Santa Clara County sheriff's Sgt. Ed Wise valued the plants at $4,000 each and said the bagged plants were signs of very recent activity. The bags were valued between $3,500 and $6,000 each.
Wise described the area as "very rugged and mountainous terrain.'' The owner of the 12,000-acre property was aware of the garden and activity but was not involved with the operation, Wise said.
Today sheriff's deputies are on Mt. Umunhum in the Santa Cruz Mountains where they expect to seize about 5,000 plants. Once pulled, the plants are incinerated, Wise said.

Farmers Can Grow Their Own Marijuana, Says New Mexico's New Law

By Samantha Beck

According to the Associated Press, a law that went into effect on July 2 allows New Mexican farmers to grow marijuana for medicinal uses and requires the state to oversee its production and distribution.

New Mexico isn't the first state to allow medicinial marijuana to be legally grown on state soil-eleven other states, including Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington-have legalized the plant.
Although Maryland doesn't have a law that protects patients using medicinal marijuana from jail, if a judge can be convince that the defendant needed it out of medical necessity, that person will be kept out of jail. A bill regarding medical marijuana was recently vetoed by Connecticut's governor.

In all 50 states, distributing and using marijuana for recreational purposes are illegal.
New Mexico's marijuana law was passed in March and signed by Gov. Richardson, who is currently running under the Democrat ticket for the presidential nomination.
Though marijuana has been legalized for medical purposes in other states, New Mexico is the only state to officially license workers and facilities to grow marijuana.
The state will have to contact its Dept. of Health by Oct. 1 to receive official licensing to give to both marijuana farmers and in-state growing facilities and issues guidelines for a distribution system.

With that in mind, New Mexico's Attorney General Gary King was contacted by the state health department to determine whether state workers could be prosecuted under federal law for running a medicinal marijuana registry and licensing marijuana farmers and facilities.
Proceeding with care, the health department will be taking the whole process step by step as no other state that has legalized medicinal marijuana is involved in the production of it.
The main reason for legalizing the other otherwise illegal drug is to provide a safe way for ill patient to get their supply, one that doesn't involve drug dealers or growing their own.
Until New Mexico has finalized their plans for producing marijuana, patients in need of the drug must get themselves. Also, the state will start collecting applications from patients whose doctors sign off on the marijuana program.

Once approved, the patients or their caretakers will receive a card certifying that they are allowed to carry up to six ounces on their persons and have four mature plants and three immature seedlings. The health department says that's enough for a three-month supply.
The new law allows the use of marijuana to quell symptoms associated with cancer, epilepsy, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, and HIV-AIDS

Never Get Busted Again - DVD - preview 3