San Onofre Surf Beach

Viva La Pata

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 16:18:00 +0000

VIVAL LA PATA! Connect San Clemente to the rest of the OC.

Hi Mayor. What is the latest with getting La Pata to go through please? We believe it would ease traffic tensions and give the San Clemente residents alternative means to exiting/entering the area. It's a safety issue also. It wouldn't be prudent to have the entire city have to vacate from the 5 freeway. Also, I believe that the new Target center would like to push for it too. -Kathryn

Hi Kathryn. The La Pata extension has been in the spotlight this month. It could be because of its promise of more direct access to San Juan Hills high school. In an earlier blog this month, I mentioned that funding is unclear. It looks like about $32mm is identified, and $75mm+ needed to build the link. Permission has been granted to proceed with an Environmental Impact Report (EIR, required by the California Environmental Quality Act. La Pata's apparently will take 15 months). A December "scoping" meeting is on the books, and would be a place for residents and others to have a voice. The exact date will be publicized by the County. Harry Persaud in the Orange County Public Works department is the go-to guy for this important project (714) 834-2694. I regret to report that 2013 is still the official estimated completion date. -Lori

Marijuana's not the gateway drug via Nick Hernandez

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:20:00 +0000

California NORML estimates that a legal market for marijuana could yield the state $1.5 - $2.5 billion. A basic $1 per joint excise tax would yield about $1 billion to the state, while the state would save over $150 million in enforcement costs for arrests, prosecutions and prison. Additional benefits would accrue from sales taxes and spinoff industries. Total retail sales of marijuana would be on the order of $3-$5 billion, with total economic impact of $8-$13 billion including spinoff industries such as coffeehouses, tourism, and industrial hemp.

CA Supremes Say No To A Nude San Onofre

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 13:46:00 +0000

The California Supreme Court decided not to hear a naturalist group's appeal to keep a beach in San Diego County clothing-optional, a lawyer said.

Attorney Allen Baylis, who is fighting for a clothing-option section at San Onofre State Beach, said the court's decision was a disappointment in the wake of the parks department's ban on nudity at the public beach, the Orange County (Calif.) Register said Thursday.

"The thing about it is that the parks department has the legal authority to either designate clothing-optional areas or prosecute people who want to enjoy clothing-optional recreation � and they feel the public is best served by prosecuting naturists rather than accommodating them," Baylis said.

Officials with The Naturist Action Committee and Friends of San Onofre Beach said despite the court's ruling, they would continue to push for a clothing-optional area, the Register reported.

"This is a tremendous setback," the unidentified officials said in a written statement. "But the battle has not ended."

Surfrider Foundation 25th Anniversary Gala

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Are You Ready To BUMP! Let's Do The SEA Bump! Come join us at the Surfrider 25th Anniversary Gala!

The Union

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Ever wonder what British Columbia's most profitable industries are? Logging? Fishing? Tourism? Ever think to include marijuana? If you haven't, think again.

Big Media's Complicity In Maintaining Marijuana Prohibition

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Here are five recent stories the mainstream media doesn't want you to know about marijuana:

1. Marijuana Use Is Not Associated With a Rise in Incidences of Schizophrenia
Over the past few years, the worldwide media, as well as federal officials in the United Kingdom, Canada and the U.S. have earnestly promoted the notion that smoking pot induces mental illness.

Perhaps most notably, in 2007 the MSM reported that cannabis "could boost the risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life by about 40 percent" -- a talking point that was also actively promoted by U.S. anti-drug officials. So, is there any truth to the claim that pot smoking is sparking a dramatic rise in mental illness? Not at all, according to the findings of a study published in July in the journal Schizophrenia Research.

Investigators at the Keele University Medical School in Britain compared trends in marijuana use and incidences of schizophrenia in the United Kingdom from 1996 to 2005. Researchers reported that the "incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining" during this period, even the use of cannabis among the general population was rising.

"[T]he expected rise in diagnoses of schizophrenia and psychoses did not occur over a 10-year period," the authors concluded. "This study does not therefore support the specific causal link between cannabis use and incidence of psychotic disorders. ... This concurs with other reports indicating that increases in population cannabis use have not been followed by increases in psychotic incidence."

As of this writing, a handful of news wire reports in Australia, Canada, and the U.K. have reported on the Keele University study. Notably, no American media outlets covered the story.

2. Marijuana Smoke Doesn't Damage the Lungs Like Tobacco
Everyone knows that smoking pot is as damaging, if not more damaging, to the lungs than puffing cigarettes, right? Wrong, according to a team of New Zealand investigators writing in the European Respiratory Journal in August. Researchers at the University of Otago in New Zealand compared the effects of cannabis and tobacco smoke on lung function in over 1,000 adults.

They reported: "Cumulative cannabis use was associated with higher forced vital capacity [the volume of air that can forcibly be blown out after full inspiration], total lung capacity, functional residual capacity [the volume of air present in the lungs at the end of passive expiration] and residual volume.

"Cannabis was also associated with higher airways resistance but not with forced expiratory volume in one second [the maximum volume of air that can be forcibly blown out in the first second during the FVC test], forced expiratory ratio, or transfer factor. These findings were similar amongst those who did not smoke tobacco... By contrast, tobacco use was associated with lower forced expiratory volume in one second, lower forced expiratory ratio, lower transfer factor and higher static lung volumes, but not with airways resistance."

They concluded, "Cannabis appears to have different effects on lung function to those of tobacco." Predictably, the scientists' "inconvenient truth" was not reported in a single media outlet.

3. Cannabis Use Potentially Protects, Rather Than Harms, the Brain
Does smoking pot kill brain cells? Drinking alcohol most certainly does, and many opponents of marijuana-law reform claim that marijuana's adverse effects on the brain are even worse. Are they correct? Not according to recent findings published this summer in the journal Neurotoxicology and Teratology.

Investigators at the University of California at San Diego examined white matter integrity in adolescents with histories of binge drinking and marijuana use. They reported that binge drinkers ( defined as boys who consumed five or more drinks in one sitting, or girls who consumed four or more drinks at one time ) showed signs of white matter damage in eight regions of the brain.

By contrast, the binge drinkers who also used marijuana experienced less damage in 7 out of the 8 brain regions. "Binge drinkers who also use marijuana did not show as consistent a divergence from non-users as did the binge drink-only group," authors concluded. "[It is] possible that marijuana may have some neuroprotective properties in mitigating alcohol-related oxidative stress or excitotoxic cell death."

To date, only a handful of U.S. media outlets -- almost exclusively college newspapers -- have reported the story.

4. Marijuana Is a Terminus, Not a 'Gateway,' to Hard Drug Use
Alarmist claims that experimenting with cannabis will inevitably lead to the use of other illicit drugs persist in the media despite statistical data indicating that the overwhelming majority of those who try pot never go on to use cocaine or heroin.

Moreover, recent research is emerging that indicates that pot may also suppress one's desire to use so-called hard drugs. In June, Paris researchers writing in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology concluded that the administration of oral THC in animals suppressed sensitivity to opiate dependence.

Also this summer, investigators at the New York State Psychiatric Institute reported in the American Journal on Addictions that drug-treatment subjects who use cannabis intermittently were more likely to adhere to treatment for opioid dependence.

Although a press release for the former study appeared on the Web site physorg.com on July 7, neither study ever gained any traction in the mainstream media.

5. Government's Anti-Pot Ads Encourage, Rather Than Discourage, Marijuana Use
Sure, many of us already knew that the federal government's $2 billion ad campaign targeting pot was failing to dissuade viewers from toking up, but who knew it was this bad?

According to a new study posted online in the journal Health Communication, survey data published by investigators at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania found that many of the government's public-service announcements actually encouraged pot use.

Researchers assessed the attitudes of over 600 adolescents, age 12 to 18, after viewing 60 government-funded anti-marijuana television spots. Specifically, researchers evaluated whether the presence of marijuana-related imagery in the ads ( e.g., the handling of marijuana cigarettes or the depiction of marijuana-smoking behavior ) were more likely or less likely to discourage viewers' use of cannabis.

Messages that depict teens associating with cannabis are "significantly less effective than others," the researchers found. "This negative impact of marijuana scenes is not reversed in the presence of strong anti-marijuana arguments in the ads and is mainly present for the group of adolescents who are often targets of such anti-marijuana ads ( i.e., high-risk adolescents )," the authors determined. "For this segment of adolescents, including marijuana scenes in anti-marijuana ( public-service announcements ) may not be a good strategy."

Needless to say, no outlets in the mainstream media -- many of which donated air time to several of the beleaguered ads in question -- have yet to report on the story.

Surfers As Evolved Human Beings

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Timothy Leary who in an interview by Steve Pezman, now the publisher & editor of Surfers Journal, spoke at length about surfers as being at the leading edge of human evolution. Leary thought that humankind was evolving toward a state of purely aesthetic being, and that surfers were closest to that purely aesthetic way of being than any other group of people. The thinking went thus: man had evolved around city-states dedicated to storing more food and symbols of wealth than he needed for daily reproduction. Riddled with fear and loathing of what lay immediately in the future, he began to assume that the more stuff he could store, the more successful he was as a person.

For Leary, that was an entirely faulty consciousness. He saw that really, the transcendent Dance, the beautifully meaningless yet profoundly life-affirming celebration of the present, should be placed higher than all else. He regarded the group of people in this modern age who had dedicated themselves to the Dance most radically were the tribe known as surfers. What�s more, the truly dedicated surfer designed his entire life around the moment of the ridden wave and thereby had transcended the base, ancient necessities of feeding, clothing and housing himself. Therefore, the surfer was the very definition of the evolved human being. Without status, without outward displays of achievement, the surfer lived with the past exploding behind him, and the future walling up and twisting, begging to be created before him. No better metaphor for surfing as modern primitive, and no better validation for surfing as a noble way to live.

DMT: The Spirit Molecule Documentary

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:20:00 +0000

In 1990, I began the first new human research with psychedelic, or hallucinogenic, drugs in the United States in over 20 years. These studies investigated the effects of N, N-dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, an extremely short-acting and powerful psychedelic. During the project's five years, I administered approximately 400 doses of DMT to 60 human volunteers. This research took place at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine in Albuquerque, where I was tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry. I was drawn to DMT because of its presence in all of our bodies. Perhaps excessive DMT production, coming from the mysterious pineal gland, was involved in naturally occurring "psychedelic" states. These might include birth, death and near-death, psychosis, and mystical experiences. Only later, while the study was well under way, did I also begin considering DMT's role in the "alien abduction" experience. The DMT project was founded on cutting edge brain science, especially the psychopharmacology of serotonin. However, my own background powerfully affected how we prepared people for, and supervised, their drug sessions. One of these was a decades-long relationship with a Zen Buddhist training monastery.

The Spirit Molecule examines what we know about psychedelic drugs in general, and DMT in particular. It then traces the DMT research project from its earliest intimations through the maze of committees and review boards to its actual performance.

Our research subjects were healthy volunteers. The studies were not intended to be therapeutic, although all of us believed in the potentially beneficial properties of psychedelic drugs. The project generated a wealth of biological and psychological data, much of which I have already published in the scientific literature. On the other hand, I have written nearly nothing about volunteers' stories. I hope these many excerpts from over 1000 pages of my bedside notes provide a sense of the remarkable emotional, psychological, and spiritual effects of this chemical.

Problems inside and outside of the research environment led to the end of these studies in 1995. Despite the difficulties we encountered, I am optimistic about the possible benefits of the controlled use of these drugs. Based upon what we learned in the New Mexico research, I offer a wide-ranging vision for DMT's role in our lives, and conclude by proposing a research agenda and optimal setting for future work with DMT and related drugs.

The late Willis Harman possessed one of the most discerning minds to apply himself to the field of psychedelic research. Willis, earlier in his career, had published the first and only scientific study using psychedelics to enhance the creative process. When I met him 30 years later in 1994, he was president of Institute of Noetic Sciences, an organization founded by the sixth man to walk on the moon, Edgar Mitchell. Mitchell's mystical experience, stimulated by viewing the Earth on his return home, inspired him to study phenomenon outside the range of traditional science, which nevertheless might yield to a broader application of the scientific method.

During a long walk together along the central California coastal range one day, he said firmly, "At the very least, we must enlarge the discussion about psychedelics." It is in response to his request that I include highly speculative ideas and my own personal motivations for performing this research. This approach will satisfy no one in every respect. There is intense friction between what we know intellectually or even intuitively, and what we experience with the aid of DMT. As one of our volunteers exclaimed after his first high dose session, "Wow! I never expected that!" Or, as Dogen, a thirteenth century Japanese Buddhist teacher said, "We must always be disturbed by the truth." Enthusiasts of the psychedelic drug culture may dislike the conclusion that DMT has no beneficial effects in and of itself; rather, the context in which people take them is at least as important. Proponents of drug control may condemn what they read as encouragement to take psychedelic drugs and a glorification of the DMT experience. Practitioners and spokespersons of traditional religions may reject the suggestion that spiritual states can be accessed, and mystical information gained, through drugs. Those who have undergone "alien abduction," and their advocates, may interpret as a challenge to the "reality" of their experiences my suggestion that DMT is intimately involved in these events. Opponents and supporters of abortion rights may find fault with my proposal that pineal DMT release at 49 days after conception marks the entrance of the spirit into the fetus.

Brain researchers may object to the suggestion that DMT affects the brain's ability to receive information, rather than generating those perceptions themselves. They also may dismiss the proposal that DMT can allow our brains to perceive dark matter or parallel universes, realms of existence inhabited by conscious entities.

However, if I did not describe all the ideas behind the DMT studies, and the entire range of our volunteers' experiences, I would not be telling the entire tale. At best, The Spirit Molecule would have little effect on the scope of discussion about psychedelics; at worst, the book would reduce the field. Nor would I be honest if I did not share my own speculations and theories based upon decades of study, and listening to hundreds of DMT sessions. This is why I did it. This is what happened. This is what I think about it. It is so important for us to understand consciousness. It is just as important to place psychedelic drugs in general, and DMT in particular, into a personal and cultural matrix where we do the most good, and the least harm. In such a wide-open area of inquiry, it is best that we reject no ideas until we actually disprove them. It is in the interest of enlarging the discussion about psychedelic drugs that I've written The Spirit Molecule...

RICK STRASSMAN�S OVERVIEW FROM HIS BOOK DMT: THE SPIRIT MOLECULE

Supreme Court Lets Medical Marijuana Grow

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:57:00 +0000

LET FREEDOM GROW! CA Supreme Court Lets Landmark Medical Marijuana Cultivation Ruling Stand!

Appellate court ruling protects collective cultivation and affirms civil actions by patients

The California Supreme Court yesterday refused to review County of Butte v. Superior Court, a landmark appellate court ruling that protects the right of medical marijuana patients and their primary caregivers to collectively cultivate. The landmark ruling by California's Third Appellate District Court also affirmed a patient's ability to take civil action when their right to collectively cultivate is violated by law enforcement. The Butte County case involved a private 7-patient medical marijuana collective in Paradise, California.

The nationwide medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed a lawsuit in May 2006 on behalf of 56-year-old David Williams and six other collective members after Butte County Sheriffs conducted a warrantless search of his home in 2005. Williams was forced by law enforcement to uproot more than two-dozen plants or face arrest and prosecution. Contrary to state law, Williams was told by the Sheriff that his collectively cultivated medical marijuana was illegal.

"By refusing to review this case, the California Supreme Court sends a strong message that local law enforcement must uphold the medical marijuana laws of the state and not competing federal laws," said Joe Elford, ASA Chief Counsel and the attorney that litigated the case on behalf of Williams. The appellate court ruling from July 2009 concluded that, "[T]he deputy was acting under color of California law, not federal law. Accordingly, the propriety of his conduct is measured by California law."

In its landmark decision, the appellate court asserted that the Compassionate Use Act of 1996 is not simply an affirmative defense to criminal sanctions: "[W]e see an opportunity for an individual to request the same constitutional guarantee of due process available to all individuals, no matter what their status, under the state Constitution. The fact that this case involves medical marijuana and a qualified medical marijuana patient does not change these fundamental constitutional rights or an individual's right to assert them."

The appellate court ruling upheld Butte County Superior Court Judge Barbara Roberts' ruling from September 2007, in which she states that seriously ill patients cultivating collectively "should not be required to risk criminal penalties and the stress and expense of a criminal trial in order to assert their rights." Judge Roberts' ruling also rejected Butte County's policy of requiring all members to physically participate in the cultivation, thereby allowing collective members to "contribute financially."

ASA filed the Williams lawsuit after receiving repeated reports of unlawful behavior by Butte County law enforcement, as well as by other police agencies throughout the state. After uncovering Butte County's de facto ban on medical marijuana patient collectives, ASA decided to pursue the case to show that collectives and cooperatives are protected under state law.

Further information:
CA Supreme Court disposition (Case # S175219): http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/courts/supreme/actions/SL092309.PDF
Ruling by California's Third Appellate District Court: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/downloads/Butte_Appellate_Decision.pdf
Information on Butte Case: http://AmericansForSafeAccess.org/Butte

Americans for Safe Access is the nation's largest organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.

Dear District Attorney Dumanis

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion about medical marijuana. However they are not entitled to their own facts. As someone who played a key role in the Prop. 215 campaign, I must correct several false and misleading statements issued by you recently.

Ms. Dumanis, we want to look up to our District Attorneys and believe what they tell us. When opinions are being passed off as facts on an official DA website, such actions are viewed as a direct threat to public health and safety by the patients, physicians, nurses, lawyers, and scientists who support The American Medical Marijuana Association (AMMA).

For example, you insist on misquoting Prop. 215, with respect to Caregivers. What the Compassionate Use Act actually says is health �OR� safety, not �AND� safety yet you continue to create a strawman argument, based upon this misrepresentation. Furthermore, you use this phony standard to raid and arrest collective members which is completely unreleated.

Another example you have repeatedly asserted, �The pro-medicinal argument is reserved for SERIOUSLY ILL patients.� Then, you criticized those who use it for anything less serious than Cancer or AIDS, telling the public, �This isn�t what the voters voted for.�

Actually, that is exactly what the voters were told would happen if they voted �YES� for Prop. 215. If you refer to the official Analysis of Proposition 215 by the Legislative Analyst, the voters were told, �No prescriptions or other record-keeping is required by the measure.�

In addition, the voters were reminded by the Legislative Analyst that this initiative also covered, �any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.�

(Source: http://vote96.sos.ca.gov/BP/215analysis.htm)

In the ballot Argument Against Prop. 215, James P. Fox, President, California District Attorneys Association solemnly warned voters that if Prop. 215 passed, it would �legalize marijuana�:

�This initiative allows unlimited quantities of marijuana to be grown anywhere � in backyards or near schoolyards without any regulation or restrictions. This is not responsible medicine. It is marijuana legalization.�

(Source: http://vote96.sos.ca.gov/BP/215noarg.htm)

The fact is that when the People of California wrote and passed Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act, it was intended to fully exempt patients from criminal prosecution.

Attorney General Dan Lungren even said so when he wrote his official Title and Summary to Prop. 215 and told the voters in their 1996 Voter�s Handbook:

�Exempts patients and defined caregivers who possess or cultivate marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a physician from criminal laws which otherwise prohibit possession or cultivation of marijuana.�

(Source: http://vote96.sos.ca.gov/BP/215.htm)

Nowhere in the official Title and Summary or in the text of the Compassionate Use Act does it say anything about an affirmative defense or any limits or restrictions.

It was Lungren who fraudulently changed his official Attorney General�s interpretation after the election from, �Exempts patients and defined caregivers� to his personal, �narrow interpretation� which told law enforcement they could go ahead and arrest anyone who had �too much for personal use.�

Lungren also immediately called a statewide �All-Zones Meeting� to discuss and coordinate how police could gut Proposition 215 and ignore the new law. The gist of his �narrow interpretation� was relayed to law enforcement officers throughout California by their professional associations and through official channels.

Lungren also met with and coordinated his attack on the CUA with federal officials. Finally, in the action plan he released on December 30, 1996, ONDCP �Drug Czar� Barry McCaffrey made Lungren�s policy explicit:

�State and local law enforcement officials will be encouraged to continue to execute state law to the fullest extent by having officers continue to make arrests and seizures under state law, leaving defendants to raise the medical-use provisions of the proposition only as a defense to state prosecution.�

The affirmative defense strategy allowed opponents of medical marijuana to achieve what they couldn�t on election day � a fraudulent interpretation that allowed LEOs to continue arresting and charging people as if Proposition 215 had never passed.

Regretably you have repeatedly and falsely stated you opinion that:�Federal law supersedes state law.� However, the fact is that the court has ruled against arguments that police are generally charged with enforcing �the law of the land,� including federal laws. Here is what the 4th District Court of Appeals had to say about this matter:

We appreciate these considerations and understand police officers at all levels of government have an interest in the interdiction of illegal drugs,� Bedsworth wrote. �But it must be remembered it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws as such.�

By complying with the court order to return Kha�s pot, Bedsworth added, Garden Grove officers �will actually be facilitating a primary principle of federalism, which is to allow the states to innovate in areas bearing on the health and well-being of their citizens.�

�The upshot of Raich is that the federal government and its agencies have the authority to enforce the federal drug laws, even in a state like California that has sanctioned the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes. However, we do not read Raich as extending beyond this particular point, into the realm of preemption. The Raich court merely examined the validity of the CSA under the Commerce Clause; it did not go further and examine the relationship between the CSA and the CUA�Raich �neither declared (the CUA) invalid on preemption or any other grounds nor gave any indication that California officials must assist in the enforcement of the CSA.�].) Consequently, the high court�s decision did not sound the death knell of the CUA in state court proceedings. (Cf. People v. Wright, supra, 40 Cal.4th at p. 89, fn. 5 [noting the parties in that case both agreed Raich is not implicated in deciding �the applicability of the CUA to state criminal charges�].)9

The fact is, �the structure and limitations of federalism . . . allow the States ��great latitude under their police powers to legislate as to the protection of the lives, limbs, health, comfort, and quiet of all persons.�� [Citation.]� (Gonzales v. Oregon

This decision was challenged by varous law enforcement organizations who brought the matter before the California Supreme Court which refused to hear the case. LEO�s then appealed to the US Supreme Court, which also refused to hear the case, upholding this California decision as the law of the land.

Statements that federal law supercedes state law, also places you, and every other state official who uses this bogus argument to attempt to nullify the will of the People of California in direct conflict with our California Constitution, the highest law in our state.

According to the California Constitution such actions are clearly prohibited. Under Article 3, Section 3.5 (c):

�An administrative agency, including an administrative agency created by the Constitution or an initiative statute, has no power: �To declare a statute unenforceable, or to refuse to enforce a statute on the basis that federal law or federal regulations prohibit the enforcement of such statute unless an appellate court has made a determination that the enforcement of such statute is prohibited by federal law or federal regulations.�

(Source: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/.const/.article_3)

The US Supreme Court has had three opportunities to declare the Compassionate Use Act unconstitutional yet they have not only refused to do so their legal decisions have clearly upheld that the People of California had every right to pass and enforce the CUA as a state law.

One more fact that everyone must understand about the Compassionate Use Act: The California Constitution also requires that any changes to a voter initiative must be submitted to the voters of the state and approved by them. Thus, no Board of Supervisors, nor Sheriff, nor District Attorney, nor San Diego District Attorney, nor Legislature, nor Attorney General, nor Governor has the legal right to change the state�s medical marijuana law. Only the voters can change or modify this law.

Sick, disabled and dying patients throughout San Diego county are still being raided by SWAT teams, arrested, jailed, humiliated, treated like criminals, bankrupted, children abducted by CPS and made even sicker, because of those who are still deliberately opposing this law thirteen years after the People of California voted to exempt patients and caregivers from criminal penalties and sanctions.

It is time to separate opinion from fact and uphold the Compassionate Use Act as it was written and passed by the People of California.

District Attorney Dumanis, the lives of sick, disabled and dying patients are in the hands of dedicated and otherwise well-intentioned public officials like yourself. Those who read your words on an official DA website need to hear directly from you that the information you gave them was wrong and is actually part of an carefully crafted plan hatched by Attorney General Dan Lungren, under color of law, to subvert a law that prosecutors don�t like.

We hope you will do the right thing and publish a retraction to your unfortunate and harmful statements.

Let freedom grow,

Steve Kubby
AMMA Executive Director

Support The Surfrider Foundation

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:50:00 +0000

My Name Is...

and I support the Surfrider Foundation, AND YOU SHOULD TOO! Mucho Mahalo's to Eric Avery, Chris Shiflett, David Chokachi, Eric Balfour, Martyn LeNoble, Peter DiStefano, Sal Masakela, Leonor Varela, and Jason Mraz for your support!

Atlas Shrugged

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's great novel about the mysterious disappearance of the world's greatest innovators and industrialists.

Freedom of Medicine

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Deep down in our non-violent creed is the conviction there are some things so dear, some things so precious, some things so eternally true, that they're worth dying for. And if a man happens to be 36-years-old, as I happen to be, some great truth stands before the door of his life -- some great opportunity to stand up for that which is right. A man might be afraid his home will get bombed, or he's afraid that he will lose his job, or he's afraid that he will get shot, or beat down by state troopers, and he may go on and live until he's 80. He's just as dead at 36 as he would be at 80. The cessation of breathing in his life is merely the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit. He died... A man dies when he refuses to stand up for that which is right. A man dies when he refuses to stand up for justice. A man dies when he refuses to take a stand for that which is true. So we're going to stand up amid horses. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama, amid the billy-clubs. We're going to stand up right here in Alabama amid police dogs, if they have them. We're going to stand up amid tear gas. We're going to stand up amid anything they can muster up, letting the world know that we are determined to be free! - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma, Alabama, 8 March 1965

Trail 6 San Onofre Walk Naked In America

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

WALK NAKED IN AMERICA DAY AT TRAIL 6 SAN ONOFRE

Don't forget to mark your calendars. As you may already know, it is a sin for a Muslim male to see any woman other than his wife naked. He must commit suicide if he does. So next Saturday at 4 PM Eastern Time, all American women are asked to walk out of their house completely naked to help weed out any neighborhood terrorists. Circling your block for one hour is recommended for this anti-terrorist effort. All patriotic men are to position themselves in lawn chairs in front of their house to prove they are not Muslims and to demonstrate they think its okay to see nude women other than their wife and to show support for all American women. Since Islam also does not approve of alcohol, a cold 6-pack at your side is further proof of your anti-Muslim sentiment. The American government appreciates your efforts to root out terrorists and applauds your participation in this anti-terrorist activity.

God bless America!

It is your patriotic duty to pass this on. If you don't send this to at least 5 people, you're a terrorist-sympathizing, lily-livered coward and are in the position of posing as a national threat.

Destination Earth

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Destination Earth is a 1956 promotional cartoon created by John Sutherland. The 13 minute short explains the fundamentals of the petroleum industry and how petroleum products enrich everyday life in the United States of America, as well as the benefits of a free market economy.

San Onofre Shark Sighting

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

SAN ONOFRE SHARK SIGHTING YESTERDAY!!
KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!

Marijuana First, Then Oil

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

A number of writers and commentators, myself among them, have joked throughout 2009 that budget-crushed California would eventually be forced to tap unconventional sources of revenue. Frankly, I thought offshore oil would be first. Somewhere beyond the analytical error of drill drill drill, which can never produce enough oil to influence the price but would indeed produce the capital many States so desperately need, I�d anticipated that Sacramento would soon find its way to the sunken treasure that lays off its coast. I was wrong. Because it looks like California is going to tap marijuana first.

This is good news because it suggests some in California are ready to deal with their new negotiating partner: reality (Kunstler). It is absolutely rational and level-headed for California to consider legalizing and taxing marijuana. The state is already a leader in the production of medical marijuana, and the climate in many parts of the State is perfect for the crop. An ancillary benefit could be to dampen, if not deaden, some of the drug trafficking incentives which have been in place for over 40 years along California�s border with Mexico. We have reached the point where California needs to develop both marijuana and oil economies.

Although California oil production peaked in 1986, the state is still producing nearly half a million barrels a day. That is 10% of US production. But 80% of that production still comes from onshore. As laid out several times on this blog, I remain a strong advocate of oil drilling off the coast of California�but� for the state to use 100% of those proceeds to build light rail, commuter rail, and high speed rail�in that order. See my October 2008 post: Mission Statement Needed - California Must Lead the Way.

By some estimates marijuana crop production in California accounts for roughly 14 billion in gross sales. That would make marijuana the State's largest single cash crop. One has to believe that current growers would happily trade the costs and risks of concealment for the visibility of taxation. Which would also afford property protection. The current estimate is that taxation could start to yield over 1 billion for the state annually. That�s not going to close either the budget gap of 26 billion, or, make a dent in a 100 billion annual budget. But legalization could bring some efficiencies and perhaps became the basis for an expansion of the marijuana economy.

Who's the Nigga?

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Music video of DJ RX's "Who's the Nigga" from his album 'The Party Party.' President George W. Bush shares his grand vision for the future for the USA--creating a united America with justice and democratic representation for all.

So Cal Glamour Girls Are Awsome

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

RT @SCglamourgirls Michael Jackson died using prescription drugs that are classified as replacements for medical marijuana, according to the FDA.

Meet The Snitch Daniel Victor Lee

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Lee is someone whom Sgt. Rick Neufeld of the SLO County Sheriff's Department's Narcotics Task Force would call a mercenary: an informant who works numerous cases, setting up drug deals and getting paid for his work. Court documents include a picture of Lee smiling wide, red hair and light eyes, about 30 years old. He worked on at least two prominent cases locally�both of those involving drug deals arranged by the sheriff's department as part of their investigation of Charles Lynch, the owner of Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers. He appeared in police reports and the Lynch indictment as a "confidential source." Those documents provide detailed accounts of his missions, including dates, names of several individuals who would be charged with crimes, and the amounts of contraband involved, but not his name. When his name was released with a list showing the cases he worked for the sheriff, several details and dates matched up. Lee was that ubiquitous confidential informant. SNITCH!

Eddy Lepp Goes To Jail

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

@Whitehouse Eddy Lepp is now in jail. Show us the change...

From @CharlesCLynch Today Eddy Lepp called me at about 10:30am and said they were getting ready to pass through Pismo Beach. I hopped into my car and caught up with them on the freeway and followed them to Lompoc. There was a traffic jam on the way down and I figured that in Eddy's mind there was probably no big rush as he was on his way to serve a 10 year mandatory sentence in Federal Prison for growing Marijuana. Eddy had a farm where he was growing over 25,000 plants or more when he was raided by the DEA in 2004. The feds prosecuted Eddy in Federal Court and he was convicted of growing more that 1000 marijuana plants which has a 10 year mandatory minimum sentence. Eddy tried claiming medical and religious protections but the arguments were not allowed in Federal Court. In the picture above, once we got to Lompoc we pulled over for a photo opp under the signs pointing to the Prison. It was a sad moment as Eddy his wife and followers realized he was only minutes from a long sentence in Federal Prison.

Read more...

Gov Schwarzenegger Light It Up!

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Gov @Schwarzenegger some of your constituents would love to pay more taxes...

This ad discusses the need to tax and regulate marijuana in the state of California as a means to help ease the budget crisis and bring responsible marijuana consumers into the legal tax base.

Just Say Know

Michael Phelps Fresh Buzz

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

I'm sure, given the choice, Michael Phelps would prefer not to be a milestone on the road to marijuana's mainstreaming. Still, what we're witnessing is the death of a certain kind of shame... digg it.

FREE EDDY LEPP!

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

Does @BarackObama know who Eddy Lepp is?

Because Medical Marijuana freedom fighter Eddy Lepp will be reporting to Federal Prison in Lompoc, CA by noon today.

In this excerpt from Jan Irvin's Gnostic Media interview with Eddy Lepp, Eddy discusses his federal court case for growing medical marijuana in California in 2004 under Prop. 215, and how his trial was fixed. Eddy is required to turn himself in to prison on July 6, 2009, for a ten-year sentence. Meanwhile President Obama continues to break his campaign promises by continuing to prosecute medical marijuana patients and care givers. Please call the white house and your local representatives.

The Cost Of Freedom Is Always High

noreply@blogger.com (NeoN) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:20:00 +0000

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.