Tourist Fined $2,000 For 3 Grams Of Marijuana In Bermuda

Photo: Cruise Law News

Don’t carry your weed to Bermuda.

An American tourist who said she smoked marijuana for medical reasons was fined $2,000 on Thursday in Bermuda.

Teresa Sheridan, 53, or Oregon, pleaded guilty in Magistrates’ Court to one count of importing cannabis, reports Mikaela Ian Pearman of the Bermuda Sun.

Sheridan arrived on a flight from New York to Bermuda on May 23 at 2:10 p.m. She was selected for a search by Customs officers because a drug-detecting dog had alerted to her seat on the plane.

In the ensuing search, a Customs dog alerted on Sheridan’s groin area. When asked if she had any drugs, she said, “Yes, in between my legs.”

Officers searched her luggage and discovered a black container, a clear herb grinder with traces of plant material, rolling papers and a ceramic pipe made to look like a cigarette.

In a private search room, Sheridan removed a white sock from her groin area. The sock contained two plastic bags, one with coffee grounds and another with three grams of cannabis.

She was arrested on the spot for importing drugs into Bermuda.

Counsel Marc Daniels told the court that Sheridan used cannabis as a treatment for depression. “She uses weed to calm her nerves and should be dealt with by way of a fine,” Daniels said.

“The fact that she had it hidden between her legs would indicate she knew it was contraband,” remarked Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner. “She knew it was illegal.”

Warner fined Sheridan $2,000, to be paid immediately.

Just one day before, Edith Lord Wolffe, a tourist from California, was given 30 days in jail and a $3,000 fine for importing 35 grams of cannabis. The court heard that Wolffe’s physician had recommended cannabis for her chronic illness, Ménière’s disease.

Wolffe’s lawyer, Mark Pettingill, has launched an appeal and a bail application.

Bermuda is notoriously unfriendly to marijuana and tourists who possess it, although politicians there last year called for a debate on decriminalization.

Musical Cheek-Swabbing Festival Saturday Seeks Marrow Donors

Lyndsey Harhay, 23, of Laguna Niguel is fighting leukemia and needs a bone-marrow transplant. A fundraising festival Saturday in San Clemente aims to recruit people for the National Bone Marrow Registry.

COURTESY PHOTO

Lyndsey Harhay is battling leukemia, needs a bone-marrow transplant and hopes to be the guest of honor Saturday at a public “Save Lyndsey!” cheek-swabbing festival in the parking lot outside the Rib Trader restaurant and Ralphs at 911 S. El Camino Real, San Clemente.

Whether she can be there will depend on the ups and downs of her health, her family says, but she has had a good week so far and plans to attend.

There will be live music, face painting, a dunk tank, prize drawings and more. Food and beverages will be available, along with a chance to register as a potential marrow donor.

“We are asking the community to come and get a simple cheek swab to see if they are that special, special person who will become a hero in our family and save our beloved Lyndsey,” said Harhay’s cousin Julia Boone. “We really hope this event brings attention to the importance of being registered in the National Bone Marrow Registry and the impact you (or) anyone can have on someone and their loved ones.”

Harhay, 23, of Laguna Niguel, is the daughter of Tom Harhay, a San Clemente businessman and former fire captain in San Clemente.

The event is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, with free snow cones and popcorn. A $2 donation is requested for hot dogs and hamburgers, $1 for soft drinks and bottled water and $5 for beer at a designated beer garden.

Proceeds will benefit the Be the Match Foundation.

BAND LINEUP

10 a.m.: Adams Attic

10:45 a.m.: All Night Pressure

11:30 a.m.: Shining Citizen

12:15 p.m.: Sailors of Neptunet

1 p.m.: Einstein and the Atoms

2:30 p.m.: Sixstep

Contact the writer: fswegles@ocregister.com or 949-492-5127

Weedtracker’s Ganjapalooza

WEEDTRACKER GANJAPALOOZA

Date: Saturday, May 21st, 2011
Time: 9:30pm to 2:00am
Place: Burgundy House, Hollywood CAMMJ Friendly Tickets are FREE
Full Bar Available-(Not Free)
Hash Bar Available-(Free)
Potluck: None
Age: 21 & Over (Club Rules)
Valet Parking Also Available
Tickets will be available soon. You must have a ticket to enter party.
This is a Private Weedtracker Party.
Only 300 Tickets will be available through Collectives.

So, who’s going to be there? We’ll be making a little appearance! Make sure to sign up at your local collectives that have tickets!

15 Stories About Dating Potheads

Stoners are weird. They’re like a new species. Their thoughts aren’t the same as everyone else’s, and neither are their feelings. When it comes to the area of relationships, that weirdness is just magnified. A non-stoner dating a stoner, is on the front lines of observing a new half-human half-plant hybrid of a person. Okay maybe it’s not that dramatic, but it definitely makes for some interesting stories. Here’s an article from Nerve.com in which some of their readers talk about what it’s like to date a stoner…

“Sometimes, the only kind of love is stoned blind love.”

By Nerve.com Readers

I once dated this girl who was a complete stoner — pretty much never sober. One day she came to my house to pick me up and started recounting this amazing experience she’d had on the drive over. Apparently, an angel had formed in the clouds and had spoken to her. She then told me, at length, about the “new” ideas she was having concerning marijuana and spirituality. She said she’d realized that the way to communicate with the Holy Trinity was through getting stoned, and then outlined a complicated method of accessing God through prayerful toking. The funny thing was, she was acting like she was privy to these amazing ideas no one had ever had before, and was getting all excited about sharing her religious message with a spiritually deprived world. I was like, “Yeah, that already exists. It’s called Rastafarianism. — Kelly

The last girl I was in love with was a pothead. We both got really high and went to the opera for my birthday, which seemed like a great idea — until it wasn’t. Suddenly you’re totally lost, at the Met. It’s snowing onstage and you don’t know why everyone is singing in tongues, and all these fancily dressed people are glaring at you. It was the second worst birthday of my life. The sex was still great, though. — Dan

I once dated someone who would smoke a couple nights a week. When she smoked, she’d either be next to normal or high out of her head. I got in the habit of texting “Are you a solid or a liquid?” before I headed over, just to know what I was expecting. When she texted back a weird joke (“I’m a quark! I’m strawberry soymilk”), I’d know she was really baked. — Kevin

A blind date once asked me to meet him near his office. When I arrived, he said he had to go home to walk his dog — an odd start to the date, but why not? We went on a long walk with the dog, and afterwards, somehow he convinced me to enter his apartment. As soon as the door shut, he asked if I minded if he got high. Not my favorite first-date activity, but I said I didn’t mind. And I wouldn’t have, except he hugely overdid it, and curled up on his bed whimpering “I’m so high, I’m so high,” while I watched Mean Girls in his living room with his dog. He still calls me sometimes. — Lina

…Read More Stories, and the Whole Article Here at Nerve.com

OC Weekly: Medical Marijuana Clubs Getting Schooled?

To understand the insanity at the heart of California’s love-hate relationship with medical marijuana, one need look no further than a low-end strip mall on Raymond Way just off El Toro Boulevard near Interstate 5 in Lake Forest. It’s a somewhat decrepit-looking series of stores that stretches around the parking lot, one corner of which is occupied by a Montessori school. It’s easy to miss that five of the storefronts belong to marijuana clubs.

Although marijuana is illegal under federal law, it’s legal for medical purposes in California, and Lake Forest, which is one of only two Orange County cities (the other is Dana Point) that don’t require business licenses, has no ban against cannabis clubs on the books. Such apparent laxity may explain the huge influx of them over the past few years, which has left city officials scrambling to sue them out of existence, alleging they violate Lake Forest’s municipal code, leading to a legal standoff that is likely to last years.

In May 2010, Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee ruled in favor of Lake Forest and ordered the clubs to shut down. Several of them voluntarily closed, but others appealed the decision and were allowed to reopen. Then, on Jan. 1, a new state law took effect banning pot clubs from operating within 600 feet of a school. On April 26, citing the fact that the five dispensaries that continued to operate at the Raymond Way location were next door to the Montessori school, Chaffee issued a temporary restraining order against them; the clubs shut down once again.

But on May 9, Chaffee lifted the temporary order against those clubs until he could sort out all the competing legal claims being made by lawyers for both the city and the clubs. The dispensaries immediately opened for business. The hearing is scheduled to resume on Friday.

The most basic question is whether the marijuana clubs pose a public “nuisance,” as claimed by lawyers for Lake Forest, or if they are providing a vital service for residents in South County, where medicinal cannabis is becoming harder to obtain. “These businesses are a nuisance,” Jeffrey Dunn, an attorney for Lake Forest, told Chaffee at the May 9 hearing. “There have been thefts and burglaries at these dispensaries, [plus] public urination and an assault on a police officer.”

Lawyers for the five clubs make the opposite claim. “Because Lake Forest doesn’t have a ban on medical marijuana, there is no way for them to effectively argue you can’t do business in their city,” said Christopher Glew, who represents two of the clubs, Cafe Vale Tudo and Florentina Organic, as well as collectives elsewhere in the city. “For the city to do that, it has to take the affirmative step of initiating a ban or some type of restriction on that activity, which they haven’t done yet.”

Indeed, in the May 9 hearing, Chaffee wondered aloud why Lake Forest had neither a ban on medical marijuana nor a requirement that dispensaries obtain a business license. Dunn responded by claiming that the fact the city had no such ban or licensing procedure was irrelevant because the clubs were “not a permitted use, so we don’t have a license requirement for businesses that aren’t allowed.” He added that this, combined with the new state law creating the 600-feet-from-a-school buffer zone, meant the clubs were illegal.

Then there’s the question of whether the Montessori school, which opened in 1994, is really a school as defined in the new state law, which includes both public and private schools that teach kindergarten through high school, but not pre-kindergarten or daycare centers.

“There doesn’t seem to be any dispute that there is a kindergarten in this school,” Dunn argued at the May 9 hearing, citing a sworn declaration submitted by the facility. “It has teachers accredited to teach kindergarten, and 10 out of 20 students are taking kindergarten classes there five days a week.”

That school’s declaration failed to impress Glew. “The school holds itself out as a daycare facility,” he told Chaffee. “If all that is required is a declaration saying you are a kindergarten school, then all the collectives all over Lake Forest could be shut down because anybody could just say ‘I’m a kindergarten,’ and that’s all anybody would know.”

Montessori Children’s School House didn’t return a telephone call seeking comment for this story.

Dino Retuchi, manager of the Cafe Vale Tudo, located adjacent to the school, said it was unfair for the city to go after the cannabis clubs in court. “I don’t understand why they target us all the time,” Retuchi says. “We’re willing to work with the city and the police to follow their guidelines.” Retuchi acknowledged that his club was raided in March 2010, along with the since-shuttered 215 Agenda, whose owner, Mark Moen, was the subject of a subsequent Weekly cover story (see “Marijuana Martyr,” April 29, 2010). But he claimed the raid only targeted one employee of the club who also worked at 215 Agenda, which was the true target of the raid.

“The raid was just because of one volunteer,” Retuchi says. “The original owner isn’t with us now. We made a lot of changes since I’ve been here. I fired everyone who worked here, hired new employees. We have our own farmers and no vendors. We don’t allow people to medicate onsite, and if people are loitering outside, we push them out. We want to coexist in the community.”

Meanwhile, several disabled Orange County residents who were members of the shuttered clubs also sued Lake Forest, charging that the city was violating their rights under the Americans With Disabilities Act. (The lawsuit also named the city of Costa Mesa as a defendant.) U.S. District Judge Andrew Guilford threw out the suit in April 2010, citing the fact that the plaintiffs used marijuana, which “has no medical purpose.” The lawsuit is currently being considered by the 9th District Court of Appeals.

One of the plaintiffs in that case is Marla James, a paraplegic who is president of the Orange County chapter of Americans for Safe Access. “I should have the right to go to any of these collectives,” James says. “That’s why I’m hoping that Lake Forest won’t be able to shut them down.”

A resident of Huntington Beach, which has banned medical marijuana, James adds that she has no choice but to travel to dispensaries in cities such as Lake Forest to obtain her state-sanctioned medicine. “I’m in a wheelchair,” she says. “I have one leg and am going blind. If I could get up on two feet, which I don’t have, and grow my own plants, I would.”

This article appeared in print as “Pot Clubs Getting Schooled? The Montessori center next door is part of Lake Forest’s latest effort to boot medical marijuana dispensaries.

OC Weekly file photo/John Gilhooley

The strip mall that’s gone to pot

Feds Throw Weight Around On Washington’s Medical Marijuana Bill

The feds are throwing their weight around again when it comes to Washington state’s medical marijuana law. A proposal to rewrite the state’s medicinal cannabis rules attracted federal attention after Governor Christine Gregoire asked for “clear guidance” about the U.S. Department of Justice’s position on state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries, which would be legalized under the new rules.

Gov. Gregoire, who sent the letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Wednesday, claims she “became concerned” about a “potential federal crackdown” after speaking with the U.S. attorneys for Eastern and Western Washington, Michael Ormsby and Jenny Durkan, reports Jonathan Martin at the Seattle Times.

The prosecutors claim they are concerned that the proposed legislation “would legalize commercial sales of marijuana,” according to state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, the bill’s prime sponsor.

Photo: Seattle Weekly

U.S. Attorney Michael C. Ormsby likes to run his mouth and throw his weight around.

U.S. attorneys Ormsby, who already started threatening Spokane dispensaries last week, and Durkan noted that the U.S. attorney for Northern California was threatening to prosecute operators of a proposed commercial grow farm in Oakland, even though the farm was licensed by that city and legal under state law, Gov. Gregoire said in her letter to the Attorney General.

The bill in question, SB 5073, would create new state licenses for dispensaries, grow farms and cannabis food processors. State licensing of dispensaries is already in place or is currently being implemented in states like Colorado, Maine, New Jersey and New Mexico, as well as in the District of Columbia.

Gregoire’s letter seeks federal input before considering whether to sign the bill. Some political observers of a cynical bent believe the governor may simply be seeking political cover for a spineless veto of all or portions of the bill.

“The governor wants to make sure that if a law goes forward, it’s done in a way that won’t set up Washington state for an endless battle of court cases,” claimed her spokesman, Scott Whiteaker.

Photo: News Junkie Post

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles: “Why should our state be treated any differently than other states?”

​ But Sen. Kohl-Welles said she was mystified why the Department of Justice would treat legalized dispensaries in Washington any differently from six other states and D.C., which all currently license and regulate dispensaries.

“Why should our state be treated any differently than other states?” Kohl-Welles rightly asked.

Ormsby, the headline-seeking hot dog of a U.S. attorney in Spokane, last week threatened in a news release to seize property where dispensaries were operating. An estimated 40 dispensaries do business in Spokane.

Ormsby warned that “marijuana stores” are illegal, and threatened property owners who rent to them with forfeiture of their buildings if they refused to evict the dispensaries.

“We are preparing for quick and direct action against the operators of the stores,” Rambo, I mean Ormsby, wrote.

At least 120 dispensaries are operating statewide in Washington, with marked differences in enforcement from county to county. The shops are using a gray area of the voter-approved 1998 medical marijuana law, which neither expressly allows nor prohibits the dispensaries.

Marijuana remains illegal under federal law as a Schedule I substance, but the U.S. Department of Justice has taken a mostly hands-off approach to patients and providers in states where medicinal cannabis is legal since an October 2009 memo issued shortly after Attorney General Holder took over.

That memo famously said that patients and providers in “clear and unambiguous compliance” with state laws were not a priority of federal law enforcement, but a trickle of federal raids has continued to take place, including multiple raids in the past month in Montana and California.

However, the DEA has to our knowledge, so far at least, never raided any state-licensed medical marijuana growers or dispensaries in states like New Mexico and Maine, which explicitly allow and license the facilities through their state health departments.

http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/04/feds_throw_weight_around_on_washingtons_med_mariju.php

Feds raid medical marijuana facility, 2 other Oakland County properties

Federal agents raided at least three properties in Oakland County this morning.

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were at Caregivers of America, a medicinal marijuana facility in Walled Lake, a home in Commerce Township and an office building in Novi.

DEA Group supervisor Andrew Eiseman said sealed federal search warrants were executed at all three locations, but few other details were released.

He would not say why the warrants were issued or provide more details about the investigation. He did not say if any arrests have been made and would not comment on whether the raids were connected.

The home raided is located in the 3300 block of Benstein Road and is owned by Romel and Ban Casab, according to the Oakland County Assessor’s Office. Romel Casab has said in a lawsuit that he is one of the owners of the former Packard plant in Detroit.

A neighbor who lives across the street from the home said she first saw agents at the home shortly after 7 a.m. today. A black convertible was taken out of the garage and driven out before it was towed away, neighbor Annette Winberg, 66, said. Another car was also taken, she said.

About 10 agents were at the home this morning with four or five cars when a Free Press reporter arrived.

The medicinal marijuana facility in Walled Lake is located at 1020 Decker Road. Walled Lake assessor records say it is owned by 1020 Decker LLC. The assessor’s office said it sends the company’s tax bills to a suite on West 12 Mile Road in Novi. The DEA confirmed that agents were also at the location on 12 Mile this morning executing a search warrant.

Calls to Caregivers of America and to the Commerce Township home were not returned. A woman at the home in Commerce Township declined to talk to a Free Press reporter.

The DEA is working with the Oakland County Sheriff’s office on the raid.

http://www.freep.com/article/20110412/NEWS03/110412028/Feds-raid-medical-marijuana-facility-2-other-Oakland-County-properties

100 Celebrities That Smoke Marijuana!

1. Harrison Ford
2. Drew Barrymore
3. Doug Benson
4. Jack Black
5. Jeff Bridges
6. B-Real

7. Montell Williams
8. Bill Clinton
9. George Bush Jr.
10. Al Gore
11. Obama
12. Dave Chapelle
13. Tommy Chong
14. Adrianne Curry

15. Cameron Diaz
16. Megan Fox
17. Justin Timberlake
18. Michael Phelps

 

19. Pharrell Williams
20. Snoop Dogg
21. Marc Emery
22. Woody Harrelson
23. Jack Nicholson
24. Kid Cudi
25. Jonah Hill
26. Seth Rogen
27. James Franco
28. Shia LaBeouf
29. Bill Mahr
30. Cheech Marin

31. Method Man
32. Matthew McConaughey
33. Paul McCartney
34. Kristin Stewart

35. Bill Murray
36. Willie Nelson
37. Brad Pitt
38. Amy Poehler
39. Sean Penn
40. Mary Louise-Parker

41. Redman
42. Joe Rogan
43. Steve-O
44. Sarah Silverman
45. Zach Galifianakis
46. Katt Williams
47. Owen Wilson
48. Neil Young
49. George Carlin
50. Frances McDormand

51. Kimora Lee Simmons
52. Mariah Carey
53. Chris Farley
54. Michelle Phillips
55. Jack Herer
56. Nicole Richie

57. Paul Dinello
58. Dione Warwick
59. Whitney Houston
60. Bobby Brown
61. Oliver Stone
62. Dawn Wells
63. Charlize Theron

64. Barbara Streisand
65. Whoopi Goldberg
66. Jerry Garcia
67. Lil Wayne

68. Charles Manson
69. Lauryn Hill
70. Peter Tosh
71. Dennis Hopper
72. Hunter S. Thompson
73. Bradley Nowell
74. Bob Marley

75. John Lennon
76. George Harrison
77. Bob Dylan
78. Jimi Hendrix
79. Notorious B.I.G.
80. Tupac
81. Marilyn Monroe
82. Miley Cyrus

83. Wiz Khalifa
84. Kid Rock
85. Jennifer Aniston
86. Prince Harry
87. Steve Jobs
88. Bill Gates
89. Paris Hilton

90. Conan O’Brien
91. William Shakespeare
92. Tommy Lee
93. Macaulay Culkin

94. Mick Jagger
95. Noel Gallagher
96. Robert Plant
97. Luke Perry
98. Kurt Cobain

99. Jim Morrison
100. George Washington

If you can add to our list, go for it! We added this up by ourselves!
Stop in to get some of that green*

Cafe Vale Tudo
24601 Raymond Way, Suite 9B
Lake Forest, CA
92630

Opened 10 am to 10 pm every day!
(949) 454-9227
All first time patients receive a fist time gift!

*For valid medical marijuana patients & California residents only!