Long story short.

Dumbass in New Hampshire and two accomplices come up with the brilliant idea of selling store bought shiitake mushrooms, mixed with blue food coloring, as a hallucinogenic drug for $900. Unfortunately for them, the person buying the mushroom was a CI (cooperating individual or confidential informant,) who gladly told the police about the deal. The Police used serial trackable money and staked out the “drug” buy.

The result lead the seller directly to jail and trial, where he was sentenced 1-3 years in a state prison for selling a controlled substance and conspiracy to sell a controlled substance. His other two buddies are facing charges as well. Only in America.

New Hampshire is trying to become the 14th medical marijuana state as their state legislature passed a bill on Wednesday that would allow chronically ill patients to seek treatment using medical marijuana. The bill is now on it’s way to the Governor.

Governor John Lynch isn’t like those other drones that blindly follow the drumbeat of the neo-cons and drug warriors. He actually wants to study the bill before he signs it into a law.

One of the smart things that the legislature had done was ensure that patients nor caregivers could grow the marijuana, instead “compassion centers” or non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries will be organized.

Will New Hampshire learn from California’s mistakes? They already seemingly have, by limiting those that can “game the system.”

New Hampshire is the newest state to pass a bill to legalize small amounts of medical marijuana for qualified patients suffering from severe illnesses.

Similar to states with a medical marijuana law already in place, the bill if passed, will allow patients to grow up to six plants and possess up to two ounces of cannabis with a legitimate doctor’s recommendation.

The Senate’s vote of 14-10 has sent this bill for House approval. A review of the bill is also underway to add an amendment, following the typical arguments; Marijuana advocates insisting that it shows compassion to the sick, and opponents coming back with the archaic argument that the bill would encourage abuse and be difficult to regulate.

Edit: The confusion regarding this article has been resolved, we’ll put our crystal ball away. Thanks to Jordan for the heads up!

It’s tragic, but it happens on a daily bassis anywhere around the world — someone dies of a heroin overdose. With the family from Massapequa, New York the mother had a chance to get her daughter the help she needed after her first overdose, but she dropped the ball by allowing her daughter tell her that she didn’t need rehab. Another overdose later and she died.

Her mother was oblivious to her drug activity yet all the typical tell-tale signs were seemingly there; she lost weight, began seeing less of her friends, stayed in her room writing lyrics and poetry, met a new boyfriend, began breaking curfews and began arguing with her parents. I say typical because these could easily be signs of a changing teenager meeting a boyfriend who began influencing her staying out and being rebelous towards her parents.

If her mother had been properly educated on the drug heroin then she would have seen the tell tale physical signs that not even the best heroin user could hide. Things like drowsiness, constricted pupils, lethargy amongst others. Depending on how it was used may have left physical marks as well. The fact that they couldn’t recognize their daughter’s drug abuse is lost on me, there are plenty of families and friends out there that recognize drug abuse, try to put an end to it, then just pray they can curtail it and get the abuser to rebab — and yet they still die.

According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, it’s because the heroin of today is much stronger than the heroin of the past. The statistics of it being 10 percent pure back then and 70 percent pure now is what they want you to believe. In reality, it is the exact opposite. The truth as to why people are dying of overdoses is because when the drug comes off the street, it’s cut once or twice over thus losing it’s purity, depending on how many channels the drug goes through depends on the cut. Too many channels, too much cut and a greater chance for an overdose because they are doing larger quantities chasing that dragon.

The National Drug Intelligence Center knows that experiments like in Switzerland and the recent Portugal have been a success with curbing overdoses by distributing heroin in a pure form. What statistics do you believe? Their words and disinformation on a mainstream media outlet that puts a heroin story under an ironically named AM Fix, or statistics tracked from studies done in two separate countries?

Obviously there are many factors to consider on how drugs of this nature actually can be legalized, aside from just doing it. Politics have a tendency to wrap the issue in red tape, much as it has been done over the decades. When heroin can be cheaper than a six pack of beer, people can obtain it without IDs and organized crime profits immensely off of it; then it’s time to cut the tape and figure out another avenue of approach.

The Justice Department’s National Drug Threat Assessment reports that more than half the heroin arrests in the nation are in mid-Atlantic and Northeast states; Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. In 2006 the Department of Health reported that more heroin users sought treatment in the Northeastern states than anywhere else. With many of these states now pushing bills for decriminilization of marijuana and bills seeking laws for medical marijuana, one wonders if heroin use will decrease in those states in the coming years.

With plans to expand their agenda after a successful 2008 campaign which brought legal marijuana to three more states, the Marijuana Policy Project is asking for a little help financially.

Recently given a donation-matching offer for up to $2.35 million, the group is asking all of its members to give what it can to get as close to possible to its goal. Last year, the MPP raised $2.49 million, short of its $3 million goal.

Some of the MPP’s goals for 2009:

• Passing medical marijuana bills in Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York
• Expanding Rhode Island’s medical marijuana law by allowing for dispensaries
• Building support for medical marijuana legislation in Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, and Massachusetts
• Collecting signatures for a statewide medical marijuana ballot initiative in Arizona
• Building support for medical marijuana in the medical community (MPP has organized more than 8,000 physicians to help persuade more medical organizations to join the dozens that already support medical access to marijuana)
• Passing marijuana decriminalization legislation in Vermont
• Influencing the Obama administration to roll back the federal war on medical marijuana

The group was a big part of campaigns in Michigan and Massachusetts, which had pro-marijuana initiatives pass successfully on each of its ballots.

Click here to donate now and help the MPP’s worthy cause!

This is an interesting one. Andrew Carroll, a libertarian activist associated with the Free State Project, announced and executed plans to possess marijuana in the state of New Hampshire.

Generally, this isn’t anything noteworthy, but Andrew made sure to send a press release to the cops, make a publicized statement on the erosion of civil liberties, and then stand with the weed in an outstretched hand.

So what is the purpose of all this? According to Andrew:

[I want to] demonstrate the absurdity of putting a human being in jail for a crime with no victim. The point is further demonstrated by the fact that I do not, personally, smoke marijuana, and only intended to possess it.

There is an unusual amount of video on this event: here, here and here. I’ve also embedded another video after the jump.

What do you guys think? Is this a waste of time in the name of activism or is civil disobedience a viable way to gain attention to the victimless crime of marijuana possession?

• West Hollywood Caregivers Group Raided – Video [via FOX]
• L.A.’s Marijuana Stores Take Root [via USA Today]
• New Hampshire Voters Support Medical Marijuana, New Poll Says [via MPP]
• Pot Penalties Harsher for Minorities [via High Times]
• Kearny Man Convicted of Huge Marijuana Transport [via ZWire]
• Bill Could Reduce Punishment for Marijuana Possession [via TSU]
• Lakeport City Pot Ordinance Moves Forward [via Record Bee]
• Illegal Drugs Can Be Harmless, Report Says [via Guardian]
• Oregon Considers Banning Salvia [via DoseNation]
• U.S. Informants Take Part in Murder & Drug Running in Mexico [via Houston Press]

Another installment in the “How To Get Busted Growing Weed” series is being brought to us courtesy of the fine folks in New Hampshire.

A rural, ranch-style house worth $340,000 was the scene of the largest pot bust in the state’s history. In the basement were 1,400 cannabis plants worth an estimated $7 million. Also, around $200,000 of growing and lighting equipment were confiscated.

So, did the police work informants and set up a daring night raid on the property? Nope. Turns out this grow-op was sucking up so much energy that it knocked power out for a next door neighbor, Jessica Towne. She called the energy company and the energy company called the police. They investigated shortly after and the basement operation was busted. Sounds simple enough.

When it comes to the New Hampshire police, I guess it’s better to be lucky than good.

[via Concord Monitor]