A court date has finally been set for actor of Harry Potter fame, 19-year old Jamie Waylett, who was busted back in April for having ten marijuana plants at his home in Kilburn, north London. On July 16th, Waylett and 20-year old John Innis are scheduled to appear in the Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

Waylett plays the character, Vincent Crabbe, the right hand man of Draco Malfoy, Potter’s schoolyard nemesis. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is set for it’s world premiere on Tuesday, July 14th at Leicester Square in London.

Five. Five dollar. Five dollar foot lonnng.

Michael Phelps is finally back on the endorsement trail, after being shunned by some of his sponsors and dropped by Kellogs, because of a picture that circulated the internet five months back that showed him toking on a bong. The company that picked up the slack? Subway.

With their sandwich shops soon to be visited by hungry stoners worldwide, the ad execs that came up with this commercial brilliantly targeted the demographic, while at the same time, having it appear as a regular commercial for those that lack the radar for pot innuendo.

Some of the subtle clues:

• So… any coincidence that the video feed freezes on a frame where MP looks like a stereotypical stoner?
• Maybe… the looping soundtrack playing in the background — Thank you for letting me be myself again.
• Or… what about the the vibrant, eye catching colors with encrusted shiny jewels?
• Kicking it… Jared watches goofy shit on TV… you know you do it too.
• Easily the most obvious clue was the URL of the Subway website advertised… nice.
• Perhaps the words phresh, phave, and phlavor are meant for the sub-culture circle?
• Or… the use of the phrase ‘The man behind the marinara.’ What did you see the first time reading it?
• The new logo says it all… way fresh indeed.

As Kellog’s stock went down after they canned Phelps’ contract, Subway only stands to profit from their new push into an old demographic that more than likely has been eating at their franchise since its grand opening. Now, the pot smokers will simply go out of their way to eat $5 foot long subs, letting Subway and Phelps rake in the green.

The Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, is saying goodbye to Canada by way of a “fairwell tour”, scheduled to make its mark in 32 cities, before he is extradited to the U.S. for selling cannabis seeds to U.S. customers.

On Sunday, Emery began the tour in Calgary saying:

I’m being taken to a U.S. prison for something I did in Canada as innocuous as selling seeds, which don’t even have any drug quality, and yet I have to face a five year term for that. [...] It’s difficult to say what will happen in a U.S. federal penitentiary. It’s never very pleasant. American jails aren’t run nearly as well as Canadian jails. [...] I’m going away for a long time so I expect everybody to do their best and pick up the slack for me.

Emery is referring to the fight coming up in form of bill C-15, a federal bill that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana in Canada. The bill has already passed the House of Commons and it is now in the hands of the Senate. Emery advises activists to back the NDP, the Bloc, and the Green Party — all pro-cannabis political parties.

Emery’s fairwell tour continues in Saskatoon on Wednesday and Edmonton on Thursday.

The Marijuana Policy Project Foundation is stepping up their game and launching a commercial in California that aims to help the state budget crisis by advocating the legalization of marijuana through taxation and regulation. The commercial will air Wednesday July 8th, on cable news networks:

• CNN
• CNN Headline News
• MSNBC
• CNBC

A couple of TV stations in Los Angeles (KABC) and San Francisco (KGO) refused to air the ad stating in an e-mail that “standards rejected the spot” and they were “not comfortable.”

Aaron Smith, MPP California policy director said:

We are astonished that three major California TV stations chose to censor a discussion that Governor Schwarzenegger has said our state should have on an issue supported by 56 percent of voters, according to the Field poll. [...] The 2 million Californians who use marijuana in a given month deserve to have their voices heard — and their tax dollars should help solve the fiscal emergency that threatens our schools, police and parks.

It is odd why two TV stations in two major cities in California that are pro medical marijuana would censor a commercial like this, but then again that could very well be the reason.

Pineapple Express

• Favorite Character: Saul Silver
• Favorite Strain: Pineapple Express (if available) or anything citrusy. Cali Orange, Lemon Diesel, etc.
• Preferred Method: Joint

Click through for the full list.

Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle

• Favorite Character: Kumar Patel
• Favorite Strain: Ultra Snowcap
• Preferred Method: Glass pipe

Grandma’s Boy

• Favorite Character: Jeff
• Favorite Strain: Maui Wowie
• Preferred Method: Glass bong

Super High Me

• Favorite Character: Doug Benson
• Favorite Strain: Sour Diesel
• Preferred Method: Vaporizer

Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny

• Favorite Character: Lil’ JB
• Favorite Strain: Skywalker OG
• Preferred Method: Steamroller

Half Baked

• Favorite Character: Thurgood Jenkins
• Favorite Strain: Master Kush
• Preferred Method: Blunt

Dazed and Confused

• Favorite Character: David Wooderson
• Favorite Strain: Trainwreck, White Widow, or anything classic.
• Preferred Method: Apple pipe

Reefer Madness (Formerly Tell the Children)

• Favorite Character: Mae
• Favorite Strain: True OG, Blue Dream, AK-47, Jack Herer
• Preferred Method: Hand-rolled joint

So again, if you find yourself at home or a friend’s house over the weekend without a clue of what to do, take a moment, and give these titles some consideration. You’ll be glad you did. Happy 4th everyone!

The drug warriors must be salivating at the mouths from the following story run by the UK site The Daily Mail. Cheshire deputy coroner Geoff Roberts is apparently attempting to become the first person in history to successfully link smoking marijuana to a death.

Adie Gardner, a 17-year old former pot smoker, had a seizure last year in October which led to a heart attack. Despite past drug use with amphetamines and cocaine and having a heart attack a year before the one that killed him, the coroner believes that his cannabis use caused his death.

Dr. Roberts said:

Very sadly this young man died as a result of the direct toxic effects on the heart that the use of cannabis had, as such it was an avoidable death. [...] The post mortem showed no findings of recent drug use. But his body was left with a legacy of using cannabis in the past which directly led to his death.

Really? It’s curious to note that he had a history of drug use, including meth and coke, yet the doctor attributes smoking herb as the cause of his death. It would be more credible that he was nervous on his second day of his new job and he had a heart attack, the direct result being stress combined with a weakened heart from past drug abuse and already having suffered a heart attack once before.

The really crazy part of this story is the fact that there are other doctors that agree with the coroner.

Dr. Mark Nicol, the doctor that treated him before said:

Drug problems were acknowledged at that time. This case highlights that Cannabis is potentially life threatening.

At least he said potentially. Many things in life can be potentially life threatening. Mere case of wordplay.

Dr. Sally Hales, the doctor that conducted the post-mortem, said:

A history of using cannabis, amphetamines and cocaine would appear to be the most likely cause’ of the teenager’s death.

At least she included the other drugs… maybe the fact that he had a heart attack before and this time around he had myocarditis (inflammation of the heart) factored into his death. Once someone has a heart attack they are susceptible to future heart attacks.

There are simply too many factors that could have led to the teenage Gardner’s death to come out and say that marijuana was ultimately the cause of his persistent condition. Unfortunately, this is how the drug warriors operate… keeping the truth from the news and obscuring it with anything and everything that will justify their prohibition against marijuana and inane scientific claims.

Either the Dayton police have been up late staring at too many drug files, or they’re about to pitch a pilot of Unsolved Mysteries: Dayton Edition to their local network executives. It seems that the brass there would like to blame several recent area shootings on the assailant’s or victim’s possession of small amounts of weed.

According to baffled Lieutenant, Patrick Welsh:

The trend in several of the homicides and even non-fatal shootings is that they’re related to marijuana use and sales.

And the evidence for this? Apparently Dayton police found a man shot at a residence in which they had made a weed-related arrest three-months earlier. Let’s forget, for a moment, that the same residence was cited as an after hours alcohol distributor. This, combined with a few scattered cases of Dayton weed dealers being hit for either money or baggies prompted the Dayton Daily News columnist (of the story in question) to conclude:

Now, marijuana seems to be the dangerous drug.

Sherlock Holmes, this guy isn’t. Any Drug War newbie could tell you that the presence of the drugs in these cases are completely irrelevant, save for the fact that they’re worth money. And they’re worth so much money because of their illegality. Do you really think people would be shooting each other over this easily cultivated plant if anyone could grow it without fear of arrest or reprisal? Do people shoot each other over basil or tarragon? How many rosemary-related murders have we tallied this year?

Criminalization of plants is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you increase the value of an object and prohibit legal businesses from selling it, then you are literally handing a valuable monopoly over to the black market. That’s the market where business is settled with the business-end of a sawed-off shotgun. So, logically speaking, it was the police who were the cause of the very crimes that they were investigating. Elementary, my dear Watson.

20-year old, Michael Kruse of Jacksonville, FL had already called the 911 emergency line once and been given a stern warning by the police but apparently this guy is a couple sandwiches short of a picnic.

The first time he called 911 he claimed he felt sick, but the dispatcher couldn’t quite understand him through his slurred words.

An excerpt from the first call:

Dispatch: Are you sure you haven’t taken something sir? Because you’re not making a whole lot of sense.

Caller: I’ve been smoking marijuana.

Dispatch: You’ve been smoking marijuana?

Caller: Yes.

Dispatch: Do you want a deputy to come and take you to jail?

Caller: Why?

Dispatch: You just told me on a taped line you just got done smoking marijuana.

Caller: Awww. Are you serious?

Deputies then located Kruse, took him to a family member and gave him a lecture on the proper usage of the 911 number. Apparently, nothing that was said to him sunk into his thick head, which led him to call 911 yet again, this time while on I-95, on his way to a Lil Wayne rap concert in Miami. The emergency? Kruse wanted a police escort to the concert.

An excerpt from the second 911 call:

Dispatch: You want a police escort to take you to Miami?

Caller: Or, you have a helicopter?

Dispatch: We don’t just send helicopters up for rappers.

Caller: Well, I’m driving there right now. I just wanted the fastest way to get there. I didn’t want to get pulled over on the highway.

He was asked to pull of the Interstate where police met up with him and promptly arrested him for misusing the 911 emergency number. Although this dumbass admitted smoking marijuana in the first 911 call, the cops figured he was under the influence of something the second time around.

Someone with the user name of Oynot had this to say in the comments section of the story.

Anybody want to argue that marijuana doesn’t burn brain cells?

Yeah. He may be a pot smoker but he clearly is also an idiot that may not have had too many brain cells to begin with. You just can’t fix stupid.

The Special Moments Daycare Center in East Flatbush was the scene of an attempted robbery on Friday, around twenty minutes after noon. Three suspects busted into the building where napping kids had been dreaming in quiet slumber. After responding via a 911 call, cops arrived at the scene and shot one suspect, 32-year-old Brooklyn native, Gavin Nugent, when he raised his loaded 9mm pistol at them.

After being admitted into the Kings County Hospital Center for gunshot wounds to the torso and wrist, Nugent was charged with burglary, robbery and weapons possession along with his two other accomplices, 35-year-old Dwayne Jackson and 39-year-old Carl Grierson. The reason for the attempted break-in wasn’t apparent until one of them told the police just why exactly they were trying to rob a daycare center.

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly commented:

It now appears the day care center was a drug haven, or where drugs in significant quantities were kept, primarily marijuana. [...] Marijuana was located at the scene, along with at least $100,000 in cash. It appears to be what the robbers were looking for.

Police then arrested 37-year old Donna Rogers, the operator of the daycare center, and her husband, 36-year-old Sherwin Rogers and charged them with possession of marijuana. Not sure what to say about this one, other than kids & drugs generally don’t mix. Now go do some coloring.

The feds are ramping up their efforts to bust illegal grow sites within California by way of a state sanctioned marijuana eradication team, comprised of federal, state and local officers — known as the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP).

A state Department of Justice spokeswoman, Special Agent Michelle Gregory, said:

They’re planting earlier, we might as well get out there and start picking them. [...] Hopefully, we can get some more grow sites.

CAMP is looking to break their record from last year of 2.9 million plants (reportedly worth $11.6B) seized from across California. Meanwhile, at a federal level, 5.2 million plants had been confiscated within the state. According to local authorities, 44,000 outdoor marijuana plants have already been uprooted, a figure way up (three times) from last year — Lake County being the number one area for the grow sites, for the third year in a row.

The grow sites that are raided (especially the large public ones) are believed to be operated by Mexican nationals that think growing pot and then distributing it within the United States is safer than growing it in Mexico and trying to smuggle it across the border. Apparently greed is behind the sheer increase of crops.

Anyone that is a fan of the show Weeds, would appreciate a story coming out of Colorado about a drug ring network that was busted that eventually led to the arrest of Dan Tang, owner of the Heaven Dragon restaurant that catered to many politicians for many years.

Despite a possible leak at the time, the operation named Fortune Cookie, busted 25 houses that had more than 24,000 marijuana plants spread out between them. Around $3m in cash was also recovered, along with $1m worth of grow equipment.

Jeff Sweetin, special agent in charge of the Denver field division of the DEA, said:

It’s the largest, most organized indoor grow operation I have ever seen.

Tang himself has only been charged with money laundering in the case, but the U.S. Attorney’s Office plans on making him the last person to be put on trial for connection to the drug ring. Twenty people have already been charged with state and federal crimes ranging from growing pot to distributing it and even money laundering and fraud.

Organizer Rob Waddell says this year’s annual Hempfest (aptly named Hempfest: The End of an Era) in Ontario, Canada from August 27-30, is scheduled to be the last. A celebration centered around enjoying marijuana medicinally and recreation-ally, the four day event has had a lot of buzzkills to contend with over the years in the form of:

• Unwarranted police presence.
• Police vehicle checks that focus on “interrogation”.
• Police hindering access.
• Police not weeding out actual impaired drivers.

Waddell frustratingly notes:

It’s the harassment of people traveling to and from the festival. The constitution and Charter of Rights guarantee us the right to gather peacefully and demonstrate against unjust laws, which we’re doing. [...] The police keep interfering with our people and the right to gather.

Waddell even claims that the Ontario Provincial Police have U.S. law enforcement with them when Hempfest is happening:

They’re targeting the sick.  We’re not a bunch of crazies out in the bush, getting stoned and running around, it’s (mostly) people that are 35-60 years old that are out there and (having) just a great weekend of educating each other and talking about friends and talking about the benefits and the situations that are arising about the medical use of cannabis in Canada. [...] While others may decide in future to pick up the Hempfest torch, this year’s event will be the last to be held in Poplar Dale, a community of less than 100 people who will be able to ‘get back to their peaceful way of life out there in the country.’

Oddly enough Waddell plans to turns Hempfest into a music festival where he hopes it will become “a real good rocking time for four days.”

After receiving information about a marijuana grow operation, Missouri River Drug Task Force served a search warrant Monday on Helena Funeral Chapel in Helena, MT and discovered 70 marijuana plants in the attic. Jason Blaine Thornock was arrested and jailed with charges of “criminal production” or “manufacture of dangerous drugs.”

Thornock, who posted $50,000 bail on Tuesday, is a licensed medical marijuana card holder. Under the Montana medical marijuana law he is allowed six marijuana plants and one light, which was exactly what the police left after their raid. Sixty-four plants were entered as evidence as the investigation continues.

Hookers, killers and drug dealers aplenty. Oh my!

A 30-year old dumbass from Quincy, Massachusetts, by the name of Christopher Gray placed an ad on Craigslist that read:

420 help is here. Give me a ring if you need some help.

Needless to say the police caught wind of his mastermind ploy and sent two undercover cops to purchase a quarter ounce of herb. After earning $45 from his soaring business methods, he also earned a pair of sweet, shiny handcuffs! Bling city son. He was quickly arrested.

If you’ve seen the 2006 movie, Alpha Dog, then you’re already familiar with the case against Jessie James Hollywood.

This Monday, he testified in his own defense saying:

My business was always first.

Obsessed with dieting and working out, Hollywood’s business was dealing marijuana. Prosecutors say Hollywood was the mastermind behind the killing of 15-year old Nicholas Markowitz, who was a kidnapped half-brother of a client that owed Hollywood on a drug debt.

Ironically enough his lawyer, James Blatt, didn’t have him talk about what happened that led up to Markowitz’s murder. His testimony continues tomorrow at the Santa Barbara County Superior Court. Four of his friends had already gone to prison for involvement in the death of Nicholas Markowitz.