(LionizeMusic.com) Bands who combine Clutch-style boogie rock with reggae dub aren’t exactly a thriving subgenre in the alternative music world. In fact, we’re not even sure there’s been a genre pegged for the kind of multifaceted rock that Lionize crank out on Superczar And The Vulture, but we’re about to peg it with one. Boogie-dub. Bow-worthy, bass-drenched boogie-dub with off-kilter lyrics that would make Neil Fallon double-check his notes for potential copyright infringement while the members and ex-members of bands like Bad Brains and the Clash—and even classic rockers like Canned Heat and Savoy Brown—shake their heads and wish they’d thought of that.

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

• Colorado Legalization Effort Comes up 2400 Valid Signatures Short
• Washington State Bill Asking Government To Reclassify Marijuana Moves Forward
• Ballot Measures Competing for Funds from Big Backers
• Firefighters Mistake Butane Hash Oil Extraction Equipment for Pipe Bomb
• “Fast and Furious” Program Sparks Lawsuit and House Hearing for the Attorney General

Daily Toker Tunes

Rockin’ Friday: Brought to you by Urb Thrasher from Urb Age Designs

• Lionize – “Superczar”

Legislative Update with NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano

• ALABAMA: The Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act (HB 25) which seeks to enact legal protections for authorized medical marijuana patients, has been marked for reintroduction in the Alabama Legislature for the session starting on February 7th. It is currently assigned to the House Committee on Health. A separate medical cannabis bill, House Bill 66, has also been prefiled in the House and is also before to the House Committee on Health, while a third measure that seeks to reduce penalties on adult cannabis possession is anticipated to be introduced shortly. You can learn more about these efforts via NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.
• INDIANA: Senate lawmakers heard testimony on Tuesday, January 24, in favor of legislation, SB 347, to decriminalize marijuana possession penalties in Indiana. Lawmakers on Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal, and Civil Matters did not vote on the measure. Therefore, there is still time for constituents to contact their Senate members and encourage them to support marijuana law reform. You can do so via NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here. A separate House measure, HB 1370, that seeks to legalize the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, is pending before the House Committee on Public Policy.
• KANSAS: House Bill 2330, which seeks to enact legal protections for authorized medical marijuana patients, was heard by the House Committee on Health and Human Services on Tuesday, January 24th. You can read media coverage of the hearing here and here. You can track the progress of this measure and contact your state elected officials regarding HB 2330here.
• NEW HAMPSHIRE: Members of the House Criminal Justice Committee heard testimony on Thursday, January 25, in favor of House Bill 1705, which seeks to allow adults age 21 or over to use marijuana legally in their home. The measure also seeks to establish a regulated cannabis market governing the wholesale production and sale of marijuana. Non-commercial transactions involving less than one ounce of cannabis would not be subject to state taxation or regulation under the measure. You can watch clips from the hearing here and you can contact your elected officials in support of the measure here.
• The House Criminal Justice Committee is also scheduled to hear testimony this Thursday in favor of separate legislation, HB 1526, which seeks reduce the penalties on minor marijuana possession offenses (up to one ounce) from a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail and a $2,000 fine to a nominal monetary penalty of no more than $100.00. To contact your House representative regarding HB 1526, please visit NORML’s ‘Take Action Center’ here.
• VIRGINIA: Legislation seeking to establish a joint study committee to investigate the fiscal impact of regulating the production and sale of marijuana to adults 21 and over is anticipated to be heard by the Virginia House Committee on Rules as soon as this Thursday. You can read NORML’s published op/eds in support of this measure here and here. To learn more aboutHouse Joint Resolution 140, please visit Virginia NORML or contact your state officials here.

NORML Newsmakers

• Mark Pedersen from Sensible Missouri and Show-Me Cannabis Regulation

You can trust me, I knew nothing about Fast & Furious. When have I ever betrayed your trust before?

The family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has threatened to file a $25 million wrongful death suit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives, citing the government’s role in Terry’s death. Brian Terry was killed with an AK47 that was knowingly sold to drug cartels under the “Fast and Furious” gun-running probe that has been in place for several years now.

The 65 page suit was served on the government agency on Wednesday according to attorneys for the family. The complaint contends that not only was the ATF negligent in Terry’s death, but at the time, the program is in direct violation of the ATF’s own policies and procedures.

The case is a headache for Attorney General Eric Holder, who is already in hot water over the program. Lawmakers called a hearing about the program and whether Holder has been telling the truth about the program in responding to requests from the House Oversight and Government Relations Committee. Attorney General Eric Holder testified before the House today about his role in the program.  The Republicans on the committee pointed out that the Department of Justice was still withholding 93,000 documents that they now intend to subpoena if the DOJ doesn’t hand them over voluntarily for review.

“Fast and Furious” is the name that was given to the gun tracing operation where agents knowingly allowed gun purchases to Mexican drug operatives so they might be traced to the higher echelons of the Mexican Drug Cartels. They then could pin the guns to the drug cartels to build stronger cases against them if and when they got caught.

Even the ATF that ran the program admits that they lost track of hundreds of weapons and many have been linked to dozens of crimes, including the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Many of the guns have been found in crime scenes.

During the hearing on Capitol Hill this morning, political lines were drawn very quickly, with the House Republicans doing most of the grilling on Attorney General Holder, and the House Democrats using their time on the mic to point out that the Department of Justice did not begin gun tracing programs under the Obama Administration, but under George W. Bush’s term. President Bush had a similar program called “Operation Wide Receiver”, but the big difference is that the previous program was coordinated with the Mexican authorities, “Fast and Furious” is purely American.

Holder did say that Mexican authorities were aware of the program, and they he had warned them there was no effort to track the weapons once them moved across the border into Mexico. In 2006-2007, “Operation Wide Receiver”, operating out of the same Phoenix office of the ATF, allowed approximately 200 guns to “walk” into Mexico in an effort to identify higher-ups in the Mexican drug cartels. From 2009-2011, under the DOJ “Fast and Furious” program, nearly 2,000 guns were allowed to get into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels, some 1,400 of which yet remain unaccounted for.

External Links:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/02/02/holder-says-no-one-punished-yet-during-testimony-on-controversial-fast-and/#ixzz1lGAFetj5

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/family-border-patrol-agent-slain-fast-and-furious-scandal-sues-atf-25-million_620871.html

Butane hash oil cannot kill you... but making it can! (photo: Concept420.com)

A fire in a Northern California Apartment building left an 18-year-old in critical condition with severe burns and 10 residents homeless on Tuesday night. The apartment building was left completely charred and firefighters are blaming a BHO extraction kit that they found as the reason the fire got out of control, but say it is too early to tell if it was the cause of the fire that devastated the building, which did about $500,000 dollars in damage and will take about four to six months before residents can move back in.

Firefighters were called to the scene on Tuesday night around 7pm. At that point, the fire was coming from a second story apartment building. They immediately took an 18-year-old with serious burns covering about 60 percent of his body away by helicopter to a burn unit along with a female who suffered from inhalation burns. The unidentified 18-year-old is currently in critical condition.

But it is what they found on their initial entry to battle the blaze that caused firefighters to pull out and call for a warrant and the Humboldt County Bomb Squad. The firefighters had mis-identified a plastic pipe in the apartment with a cap on each end and holes drilled in it as a possible pipe bomb. Firefighters found the device inside a bedroom closet in the apartment where the fire originated.

The bomb squad showed up with a robot to retrieve the item.  Bomb technicians took three hours to remove the suspicious device before they deemed it posed no threat and the firefighters could go back inside the building to extinguish the last of the blaze. They had been using long hoses, and had punched some holes in the building to try and fight the fire while the bomb technicians did their job.

Over 70 percent of the fire was due to the delay of the firefighters not being able to enter the building as the fire from the apartment caught the attic on fire, then spread to other parts of the building.

Fire Chief Investigator Todd Wilcox said that the steps to get a warrant before the bomb squad had entered the apartment were necessary so that anything they found could be used as evidence in a potential prosecution.  He added that they had to tread carefully, if they had found a body in the building it would have been a homicide investigation.

Fire investigators don’t think the hashish extractor is the source of the actual fire, since the device was still intact when the bomb technician removed it. Firefighters did find butane canisters in the apartment, a possible source for ignition of the original fire, and residents reported hearing an explosion before seeing flames and smoke. One resident thinks it could have been a faulty water heater. The investigation is underway into the cause of that fire. Investigators have also forwarded that they found a possible hash making operation to the Humboldt County District Attorney for possible criminal charges.

External Links:
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_19875639

With several legalization ballot measures in California, all of them are competing for the attention of rich billionaires in hopes of having a shot at getting their question onto the California 2012 November ballot. The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine campaign just released their finance records that showed they only have $80,000 in cash. They are just one of several cannabis law reform measures that are looking to secure financing.

The numbers for getting any measure on the ballot in California and others states are staggering. They need to have 504,760 valid signatures, meaning in reality they will need at least 750,000 signatures to have that many deemed valid. The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine initiative currently has only 30,000 signatures gathered. Getting that many signatures costs about $1.5 million, but if they wait a few more weeks before the April 20th deadline to get all those signatures, that month is so busy for the signature gathering firms that their prices often quadruple during those weeks, pushing the bill to gather those signatures up to as much as $5 million to get.

With this much at stake, there are a few billionaires that everyone is trying to contact. George Soros, Peter Lewis, Napster co-founder Sean Parker and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz have all given big in the past to reform efforts. Chris Roberts of the San Francisco Weekly wrote that Peter Lewis was asked by activist Mickey Martin for $1.5 million to fund a legalization measure, his emailed reply was that his research has led him to conclude that the time has not yet come for legalization. A quote from that email, “I believe that if the issue you want to pass isn’t polling well above 60% in favor before the election, there is no chance to pass it. California is not there yet.”

A recent poll showed that California might actually be there. A statewide poll done this week surveyed 800 likely voters and found that 62 percent would vote yes on the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol measure if voting today, with only 3% saying they were unsure. Only 35% said they would vote no. A full 80% of those polled agreed to this statement, “State and federal drug laws are outdated and have failed, therefore, we need to take a new approach that makes sense for today”. The surprising results of the poll have been a boost in the confidence of the groups to court more financial backers now. Those numbers are similar to the polling numbers for prop 215 from sixteen years ago, and much higher than Prop 19 was polling at this time.

External Links:

http://regulatemarijuanalikewine.com/poll-reveals-62-of-california-voters-want-marijuana-regulated-like-wine/

A bill in Washington state asking for the DEA to re-classify marijuana has gone an important step forward. Senate Joint Memorial 8017 is just the very latest pressure that the states are using to try and get the door open to more sensible medical marijuana laws.

Earlier this week, Washington State Governor Chris Gregoire joined the chorus of governors in asking the Federal Government, namely the Drug Enforcement Administration, to change marijuana from a Schedule I substance that would define it as having no medicinal value to a Schedule II substance.  The Schedule I classification at the federal level conflicts with state medical marijuana laws, and in Washington State has caused a rift in public policies around the state.

The measure passed with unanimous approval from the Senate Committee on Health and Long Term Care and will now move on to the Rules Committee, where if passed there would be scheduled for a floor vote. In testimony before the vote, several members of the public testified to the committee on the benefits of medical cannabis in their lives and Sen. Jeane Kohl-Welles testified before the committee saying that she believes that other much more harmful drugs are able to be prescribed and regulated. She also joined 41 other legislators in signing Gregoire’s letter earlier this week, seven Republicans and thirty-five Democrats.

While many of these measures might not effectively convince the government to reclassify marijuana to lift the pressure off of the medical marijuana programs in the states that have them, together, governors, state sponsored bills and individuals have been continuing to put pressure on them to change –  may be the best tactic we have.

External Links:
http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2012/01/washington_legislators_ask_rec.html

http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2012/02/marijuana_reclassification_bil.html

Today the Colorado Secretary of State’s office announced that the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol campaign missed its mark by about 2,500 verifiable signatures. We have been tracking the progress of the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol ballot measure that would legalize marijuana for adults over the age of 21.

Just like the initiative’s name suggests, marijuana would be taxed and regulated in a similar fashion to alcohol. The bill would also open allow cultivation, processing and sales of industrial  hemp. Last month, a random sample of those signatures that the group turned in to qualify for the ballot –  signified only about 50% of them would be valid, so they were required to do a line by line, signature by signature count according to the rules of the state.  The Campaign needed 86,105 valid signatures to make the ballot, so they turned in almost 160,000, almost assuring them a spot on the ballot, or so we thought.

Supporters of the Initiative will now have 15 days to collect the remaining 2,409 valid signatures for one last shot at qualifying for the November ballot. Mason Tvert from Sensible Colorado said that he remains confident that collecting the remaining signatures is just a very small bump in the road.

On Friday’s NORML SHOW LIVE, Tvert came on air to say that this was all part of the ballot measure process, and his group can collect that many signatures in a few days. If put on the ballot, voters in Colorado would vote to pass a regulated legalized marijuana market that would allow limited home-growing and restrict its usage to those over 21. We will let you know as this story continues to develop.

External Links:
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_19885405

Click for the full lineup of The NORML Network

Next weekend we will be bringing you live coverage of the HIGH TIMES Medical Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles.  Tune in to http://live.norml.org on Saturday, Feb 11 and Sunday, Feb 12 from Noon to 7pm Pacific Time for free live coverage of the panels, the expo floor, and interviews with cannabis culture celebrities.

If you plan on attending the event, get your tickets online NOW – they sell out fast!  Use the promo code CANORML to get a special 40% discount for supporters of The NORML Network!

We will be holding our Special “4:20 Somewhere” Raffle both days at the Cannabis Cup.  Tickets are $5 at the event or five for $20 and the proceeds benefit The NORML Network.  We’ll have six raffles each day for over $2,000 worth of prizes and your ticket is good for every raffle until you win or the last raffle ends.  You need not be present to win, but you must pick up your prizes at the event; we will not ship them or hold them after 7pm Sunday.

We will announce the winning ticket numbers at :20 after on our live coverage (which you can view on our Ustream app for your iPhone or Android), through our @NORMLNet Twitter account (so follow us!), by text message to your cell (if you write your number on your tickets), and on a whiteboard at our merch desk.

Raffle Time
(Sat & Sun) Prize Package Description 4:20 Eastern
(1:20 local) “Schwag” The NORML Gold Leaf lapel pin ($5), NORML Sticker ($1), 6 NORML Buttons ($6) 4:20 Central
(2:20 local) “Grass” The “Schwag” ($12) + Rick Steves Hemp Backpack ($35), NSL T-Shirt ($20) 4:20 Mountain
(3:20 local) “Bud” The “Schwag” ($12) + Stealth Backpack ($80), NORML T-Shirt ($20) 4:20 Pacific “Kind” The “Bud” ($112) + Marijuana is Safer book ($15) 4:20 Alaska
(5:20 local) “Dank” The “Bud” ($112) + Medical Marijuana in California book ($15), NORML Nug Jar ($15) 4:20 Hawaii
(6:20 local) “Chronic” The “Dank” ($142) + A NORML Life DVD ($20) + Autographed NORML Banner

These packages may change by event time… most likely, they’ll get better as we get donations from other vendors to add!

Online viewers can also get in on a piece of the action.  At every raffle, we will randomly select one of our @NORMLNet Twitter followers to win a “Schwag” prize pack.  In the last three raffles of the day, we’ll add an autographed NORML banner signed by the whole NORML SHOW LIVE crew, HIGH TIMES crew, and other cannabis celebrities.

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. Attorney General Holder grilled by House Republicans over testimony in Operation Fast & Furious investigation
2. Oregon case reiterates that freshly harvested marijuana is neither plant nor usable marijuana under Oregon’s medical marijuana law
3. Update on Veterans for Weed story – they’ve changed their name to Veterans for Weed United

Daily Toker Tunes

Groovin’ Thursday: Brought to you by The Ganja Jon Show

• Wiz Khalifa – “You Take Me (feat. Wale)”

Southern California Scene with Hollywood Hemptress Tere Joyce

• Dan Hanken from the Cannabis Clubs United with Community activist group

Grassroots Activism

• Cultivation legend Jorge Cervantes promoting new DVD via Skype in Barcelona, Spain

(AP / Newser) When police knocked on Josh Brewer’s door to check for marijuana, even one of the nation’s most liberal medical marijuana laws was put to the test.

Officers were fine with the two pounds 10 ounces he and a cousin had grown, harvested, and processed. That was under the pound and a half each allowed by law. And they didn’t care about the 12 plants _ six each _ growing in the backyard. Also legal.

But after they discovered the additional two pounds 11 ounces drying on coat hangers suspended from the ceiling in the living room, officers arrested Brewer, sparking a legal battle over what was enough _ in the maximum sense _ for medical use, and what crossed the line into the potential for illegal sales.

Under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, each cardholder…

ORS 475.320(2)(b) May possess up to six mature plants and up to 24 ounces of usable marijuana for each cardholder or caregiver for whom marijuana is being produced.

And under the law…

ORS 475.302(11) “Usable marijuana” means the dried leaves and flowers of the plant Cannabis family Moraceae, and any mixture or preparation thereof, that are appropriate for medical use as allowed in ORS 475.300 to 475.346. “Usable marijuana” does not include the seeds, stalks and roots of the plant.

So our attorney general has informed the judge in this case that an Appeals Court ruling from 2007 had already determined that marijuana that has been freshly harvested is not “usable” in the legal definition of the term.  If it is “drying” it is not yet “dried”.  So the 42 ounces of dried marijuana the pair had was within legal limits and the 43 ounces of drying marijuana can’t count against that.  Furthermore, a branch pulled off a plant to hang and dry is itself not a plant, either, so they don’t count against the 6 mature plant limit.

Theoretically speaking, with my caregiver card, I could be sitting here with 24 ounces of dried buds and six mature plants with ten pounds of bud on them apiece.  I could chop off a branch each week and dry it and so long as I’ve gone through my dried pound-and-a-half before the pound-and-a-half on the branch dries, I’ve never broken the law.  In fact, theoretically there is no limit to how much weight in wet bud I could be drying here, so long as no more than 24 ounces of it is dry at one time.

Now, I can see how law enforcement is freaking out about this.  There is no doubt that some patients need 24 ounces of medicine in order to make edibles, tinctures, and oils, and to hedge against uncertain supply, since we have no reasonable retail access to marijuana.  However, it can also be argued that this is also a huge loophole through which commercial growers can use the medical marijuana law to shield their illegal production.

This goes to show how unworkable it is to carve out an exception to prosecution for 10% of marijuana users.  No matter what firewalls, limits, inspections, or requirements are created for the medical use of cannabis, the overwhelming market forces driving the personal use of marijuana will always find a way to exploit exceptions and thwart limits.  Then those we persuaded for exceptions say, “See, we told you legalizing a little would lead to this!” and they push for tighter restrictions and limits that do nothing to stop the personal use market, but cause huge problems for the medical user who has always been the least able to function in an illegal market.

The original "POW" logo

UPDATE:  The group formerly known as Veterans For Weed has altered their name after the nation’s largest organization for combat veterans raised objections to the use of the VFW acronym. The Veterans group will now be called Veterans For Weed United. A message on their website now reads, “We have chosen to remove all current artwork using the VFW sign. We respect the Veterans of Foreign Wars and apologize for any inconvenience this caused them with the similar abbreviation.”

A pro-marijuana group has offended the nation’s largest group of combat veterans by using the group’s modified logo on their web site, Facebook page, and on t-shirts, hats and other marijuana-related items.

The group, based in Milwaukee, is called Veterans for Weed. They borrowed the logo from the National League of POW/MIA Families that show a silhouette of a soldier and a prison tower. The group has altered the logo to show the soldier smoking a joint.  Their website and Facebook page was filling up with complaints asking them to stop using the POW/MIA logo and the VFW acronym, which also represents the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

The Veterans for Weed logo

The Veterans for Weed, so far, have not backed down. A representative for the group, identified as Hemp Solo and a Marine veteran, said they did now intend to offend anyone and apologize to those they did offend. But the image is not copyrighted, so they say there is no legal reason why they should stop using it.

The website had a message posted today that said, “We did not alter the POW flag lightly, or because we were high. We take it very seriously.” But they did get a cease and desist letter from legal counsel of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that said if they wanted to avoid further legal action by the VFW, that Veterans for Weed must immediately cease using VFW on communications, products, or other representations. [Update from Russ: Veterans for Weed has changed to "Veterans for Weed United", or VFWU, to avoid a lawsuit.]  The letter clearly stated that the VFW is not affiliated with and does not support Veterans for Weed or any of their initiatives.  The statement does agree that the logo, however, is not copyrighted and is in the public domain, but called terms used on the website highly offensive, such as “stoner soldier” and “semper high”.

A chairman of the National League of POW/MIA families said that offenders will usually stop using their logo when asked, or when pressured by members of POW/MIA family members. She said that all they can legally do is to keep asking them to do what is right and responsible. Hemp Solo said in a statement for the Veterans for Weed group that the usage of the logo is important to get attention to the issue of vets who are jailed and their lives are ruined because of a little pot. He says that they have also received quite a bit of positive feedback as well, so they like that he logo is stirring up the conversations. Solo said that when you are in prison because of pot, they you are a POW, a prisoner of weed.

External Links:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-02-01/marijuana-group-pow/52912452/1?csp=34news

New York City was the first major city to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana possession. What could have been a proud history of progressive and rational cannabis laws has become a history of racism, leading to New York City becoming the world capital of marijuana arrests, with the most people going to jail over small amounts of cannabis.

The stop-and-frisk practices that often leads to marijuana arrests and are done disproportionally and routinely on blacks and Hispanics in the city. Police ask citizens during these encounters to empty their pockets, then arrest them, not for having the marijuana, but having it in plain view. Citizens became outraged about the practice, and started protesting the mayor’s house and the police department this summer.

In September, a memorandum from the police commissioner reminded NYC police officers to follow the letter of the law in marijuana cases and only make arrests if they have it in plain view. The highlight on the policy, coupled with the memo has led to arrest rates for small amounts of cannabis to drop significantly. But now that the data is in for 2011, we see that New York City actually increased their arrests for low-level marijuana possession last year.

The number of low-level marijuana criminals has now risen for the seventh straight year. The year-end arrest total for cannabis possession in the city was 50,684, up just a half a percentage point from 2010, but still more arrests than the arrest total from the entire 19 year period from 1978 to 1996. Even with the decline after Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly’s memo, there was an increase of 6 percent in marijuana arrests during the first eight months of the year, offsetting that decline.

Once again, marijuana arrests were the largest arrest category in New York City, costing the city about $75 million to pursue those arrested in the already-overburdened New York court system. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has faced criticism because the arrests of marijuana criminals under his watch have been a staggering 87 percent black or Hispanic, and only 10 percent of those arrested for marijuana crimes have been white, even though US government studies consistently find that white people’s marijuana use rates are higher than those of minorities. There is a bill in the Senate currently that would lower decriminalize a small step more, by lowering the charge for a small amount of marijuana that is in public view to a violation, punishable only by a fine.

External Links:

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/low-level-marijuana-arrests-rise-for-seventh-straight-year/

While President Obama is ignoring our calls to end adult marijuana prohibition and Google/YouTube is deeming our pleas “inappropriate” and unworthy of serious discussion like tennis, parties, and the president’s dancing ability, police in Mexico are forced to put themselves in protective custody because of the threat of assassination at the hands of the drug cartels.  For reasons that escape me, our president and congress seem to prefer that the lucrative marijuana trade is controlled by and benefits these murderous criminals.

(Los Angeles Daily News) CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Every one of the 2,500 police officers in this Mexican border city has been ordered to leave home and stay in a hotel after the killing of five officers by a local drug cartel.

The gang threatened a week ago to kill one policeman a day unless Police Chief Julian Leyzaola resigns.

Police spokesman Adrian Sanchez said officers were ordered to stay away from their houses after Monday’s shootout between assailants and policemen. That assault and previous attacks happened as officers were going to or from home.

The city’s government said it has secured 26 million pesos ($2 million) to house officers in hotels but did not specify how long that would last.

At least 10 banners bearing threats to Juarez’s police chief appeared around the city last week. The messages were signed by the New Juarez Cartel, an offshoot of the La Linea or Juarez Cartel, a major target of law enforcement actions in recent months.

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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. NYPD has 7th straight year of marijuana arrest increase, over 50,000 busted for pot
2. Veterans for Weed groups sparks outrage from POW likeness in logo, similarity to Veterans of Foreign Wars acronym
3. Fort Collins lawsuit challenges ban on dispensaries
4. FBI chainsaws through wrong apartment in raid, terrifying mother and toddler
5. Joan Rivers smokes pot on camera in her new reality show

Daily Toker Tunes

Irie Wednesday: Brought to you by NorCalPurps in the California Bay Area

• Winstrong & DJ Jacques – “Free Weed”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

• Israeli study shows promise of cannabinoids in treatment of cancer

Radical Rant

• Big Pharma’s lobbying power shows incentive to oppose medical marijuana in Washington