Brain Power, Cutting-Edge Science And Political Conflict At The 10th Annual Cannabinoid Research Convention. I walked into a cavernous meeting room at a hotel in Baltimore and encountered the biggest collection of brainy brain researchers that I had ever witnessed. Cerebral cortexes were literally throbbing with talk of endocannabinoid systems, custom-built experimental mice, receptor sequestration, hippocampuses, amygdalas, and whether there would be enough potent coffee to keep everybody awake during three days of formal and informal presentations, symposiums and panel discussions. [continues 2075 words]
Steve Kubby files $250 million lawsuit for violation of his rights during 1999 med-pot raid. Libertarian politician, medical marijuana user, and author Steve Kubby has filed a landmark lawsuit accusing government officials of violating civil rights and maliciously inflicting harm on him, his wife Michele, and his children during a 1999 drug raid. The suit was filed by a team of attorneys from the respected California law firm of Halpern and Halpern, on June 18, 2001, in Placer County Superior Court. Kubby's complaint seeks $250 million in damages and compensation. [continues 174 words]
by Pete Brady (04 Sept, 2001) Tom Crosslin and Rolland Rohm shot to death during Rainbow Farm seige. Two prominent Michigan marijuana activists were shot dead Labor Day weekend, during a police siege of the activists' "Rainbow Farm" compound in Vandalia, Michigan. Tom Crosslin, a 47-year-old events promoter who hosted pro-marijuana concerts and rallies on his rural Southern Michigan land, was shot dead by federal and state police on Monday. Rolland Rohm, 28, was shot Tuesday morning. Agencies involved in the fatal siege include the Cass County Sheriff's Department, Michigan State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. [continues 4649 words]
Street Activists And Political Lobbyists Mingle At The Drug Policy Foundation's 13th Annual Conference. Washington, DC has been described as a "power vortex." It has also been called "the capitol of Babylon." DC is a place of presidential motorcades, television stars, soldiers, and diplomats, of people who make decisions that affect the world. I traveled to DC in May, driving past marble monuments, the White House, tourist hordes, Secret Service agents and war memorials, to attend the Drug Policy Foundation's 13th annual international conference. [continues 2421 words]
Libertarian politician and medpot patient Steve Kubby and his wife Michele are in court in Placer County, California, on trial for charges arising from a politically motivated pot bust. Steve Kubby, a cancer survivor and author of an award-winning book called "The Politics of Consciousness," had just finished a 1998 campaign for governor when 21 police officers burst into his California mountain home in January, 1999. After being mistreated in jail, Kubby and his wife found their home ransacked, their reputation trashed, their money and magazine business ruined by police. [continues 762 words]
Iowa University Hosts Potent Med-Pot Conference The state of Iowa, in America's Midwest, seems an unlikely place for progressive marijuana politics. But in early April, I was on a plane bound for Iowa City to attend the "First National Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics," looking down at patchworks of industrial agriculture where there used to be tallgrass prairie, ditchhemp, and Indians. It snowed the day I arrived; somebody drew a cannabis leaf in the white powder. Medical marijuana is fast becoming an accepted industrial fact. This three-day event, televised to universities in American and Canada, and held with the blessing of the University of Iowa at the institution's conference center, emphatically emphasized that scientists and government officials around the world, even in prohibitionist America, recognize the plant's amazingly diverse healing potentials. [continues 1569 words]
It would have taken a miracle to persuade NTTF officers not to arrest the Kubbys on January 19. Officers say the home's large basement was subdivided into rooms containing sophisticated lighting, carbon dioxide and horticultural equipment. They initially overestimated the number of plants found, finally settling on an approximate figure of 256 plants, more than half of which Kubby says were seedlings. Police dismantled or seized thousands of dollars worth of grow apparatus and plants; they claimed Kubby's crop was worth almost half a million dollars. They also took almost everything else of value out of his house: computer, money, family photos, letters, cameras, even some of his clothes. [continues 3148 words]
Libertarian Politics, Medicinal Pot, Overzealous Narks And A CC Journalist Mix It Up In California. In 1996, Steve Kubby helped ensure passage of California's landmark medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, and became the proud father of a baby girl. In 1998, the 52-year-old entrepreneur was the Libertarian Party's candidate in the California governor's race. Kubby, who says he has "cheated death" by using medicinal marijuana, exercise and hemp oil to conquer a rare form of cancer, made his 32-year-old wife Michele an integral part of his campaign team. They crisscrossed California saying things you're not supposed to say when you have cannabis growing in the basement back home. [continues 3201 words]
