Hey JM, if you look a bit closer, you will find a few of the Phx based 'clubs', do in fact have a Tucson 'branch', where the options offered in Phx are available to Tucsonans as well. I am a member of a few of them, one being the AZ Cannibis Society http://www.arizonacannabissociety.com/.
Once you 'join' and prove you are 'legal' all resources are available. I have never used them myself, due to the expensive 'donations', however the legal options for obtaining MMJ in AZ, are few. My recent purchase of seeds (1/10 the price of AZ) from amsterdammarijuanaseeds.com, was seized and destroyed by USDA, at the Chicago customs station. Seems it is 'illegal' to transport "unknown seed material" via USPS. So we are stuck buying, er, I mean 'donating' here. There are other orgs too, some with actual Tucson web presence, one just has to look around. You are right however, that the 'liberal bastion' that Tucson is supposed to be, we are indeed sadly behind the curve, when we should be leading the charge! OBTW, Phoenix still SUX! :-/
OBTW-1 RE: Misinformation/close-mindedness. I don't know how many of you/us, watch the very popular TV show, 'Criminal Minds', but the show, which the public largely believe are true FBI stories, had an episode last night, where some kid shot, bombed and killed 13 others (no he was not smoking MJ) and the one that got away alive, was deemed by the FBI 'expert', SSA Dr. Reid, to have been "saved by his marijuana addiction", because he was off smoking a doob, while the others were killed.
As most 'educated' people are well aware by now, marijuana is not 'addictive', but all this show did was perpetuate the myth, by having a supposedly knowledgeable character, spout this dumb rhetoric. I am surprised at CBS for allowing this mis-information to be aired out of context (context being that this character is in fact biased and misinformed... as are most FBI personnel.). This show is now off my favorites list!
I am not surprised by JM's report, as I am sure most of us are not, who are reading this column. MJ opponents' only weapon against MJ is misinformation, perpetuated by close-mindedness (I wonder how many of these folks were 'over 65' C.C.? Not many I'll bet!). This has been proven time and again by the ever 'misplaced' empirical data. Just an FYI, my own 'empirical data' has shown me that the opposite of the mis-stated facts regarding teen acquisition of MJ is the fact. Many of the MJ using parents get their own supply by raiding their teens rooms! I have an MMJ card, and I have no idea where to get MMJ, other than by paying a 'donation' of double and triple street value, to a 'compassion club' (who have very little compassion for my wallet.) So I can legally use it, but it is illegal to buy/sell in AZ, and illegal federally, to ship from elsewhere. Catch-22. So 'Pup', you are partially right, it is a 'friggin' joke', but it is on us!! BTW, rather than 'thinking' you know the law, try looking it up, rather than like most mis-information spreaders, just spouting what you 'thought it was SUPPOSED to be for'! ARS 36-2801.3: "Debilitating medical condition" means one or more of the following: (a) Cancer, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, hepatitis C, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, crohn's disease, agitation of alzheimer's disease or the treatment of these conditions.
(b) A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe and chronic pain; severe nausea; seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
(c) Any other medical condition or its treatment added by the department pursuant to section 36-2801.01.
The only 'friggin' joke', is the fact that there are laws against it at all! Medical or otherwise. All one has to do is 'pony up the cash' at any supermarket, to obtain alcohol, for which 75,000 deaths per year, are attributed in the US alone, (Zero for MJ!) or pony up the copay cash to your family MD & pharmacy, for an Rx for 'legal' drugs that killed 783,936 people in 2003 (up another 68% since then- 0 for MJ). But that's OK. It's 'LEGAL'!
I am happy to see that all of the posted comments are in support of MJ use, or MMJ use. When all of these and other supportive voices come out of the closet, and start VOTING for/against, supporters/opponents, they may start waking up! And while I appreciate most of the comment by 'Creeping Critter', I take strong exception to his obviously unenlightened position that: "A lot of closed minded people out there of course and no offense to anyone but it's mainly the older people(mainly over 65) who are like this." This is pure nonsense! I am over 65, and a 40+ year veteran of MJ use, and now a 'legal' card-carrying patient of MMJ. Most of my friends are between 55-70, and 90% use MJ. If you are old enough to remember, it was WE that introduced the basically public use of MJ, and preached of its medical uses, 40 years ago! The stats form the AZ Dept of Health report that over 85% of MMJ permitees are between 55-70! We are the ones who started NORML, and basically every other movement to make the public aware of the harmlessness and helpfulness of MJ. While I am happy that MMJ has been realized, I am still very upset that my rights, to use a common herb, a weed, any way I like, have been repressed by the GOVT (actually only one or two people with far too much power, 75 years ago!) by creating bogus laws to prevent me from enjoying what 'GOD', or whatever you wish to call 'IT', has placed on the planet for use by all who inhabit it. What audacity to put ones self above the Creator!! Put these people out of office! Anyone and everyone that opposes the free use of free-growing herbs, while supporting the use of 'processed' alcohol, tobacco and classified narcotics, should NOT be in public office! (IMHO) And now... they are taking away out 2nd amendment rights, if we choose to use legal MMJ? What new fascism is this? Wow, when will we wake up? Have we forgotten, 'Metropolis', 1984, Farenheit 451? We have been warned, and now we reap the reward of our complacency! How sad for our children and theirs!! ad infinitum!
Like it's predecessor, 1936's "Reefer Madness", formerly 'Tell Your Children' a religion-funded attack, then taken over by the big money, 1937's "Assassin of Youth", was the brainchild of self-appointed 'drug-czar' Harry J. Anslinger, with monies secretly provided by Randolph Hearst and the DuPont Family. 'Assassin' is filled with quotes and references by Anslinger and his 'Gore File'.
Hearst, heavily invested in the forestry industry to aid his nationwide newspaper industry, afraid that Hemp paper would destroy that empire, and the DuPonts, who owned the prescription drug and chemical industry of the era, understood the ramifications of allowing this 'medicine' to be legalized, formed a trio of Civil Rights Assassins, that succeeded with their fear films and lying propaganda.
With the aid and support of right-wing actor-director-writer, Elmer Clifton, who wrote and produced AoY, considered a 'clone' of the previous year's snowjob, Reefer Madness, both surrounded by and supporting, Anslinger's "1937 Marijuana Tax Act", the phony govt 'law' used to make MJ federally illegal, superseding state's rights! The rest as they say, is history! (Don't believe ME, Google it!!)
And although today we (and our kids and grand-kids) gather at B-Movie theaters like The Loft, to get high together and laugh at these now 'cult classics', the truth is that they worked! And the federal ban on MJ was implemented with no resistance by the fear-stricken populace! That was 75 years ago!! Gawd, what sheep we are!!
As Bob Dylan once wrote, "Money don't talk, it swears, obscenities; who really cares, ALL is phony..." ~ad infinitum
As a 'contestant' for this columnist job, I have been waiting anxiously to read the first column by the selectee. Despite the negative, sarcasm and vitriolic commentary, I like your style. Although I probably would not have chosen your vernacular, your points are well made and well taken!
Although I do not consider myself a 'stoner', I have been using MJ (now PC as 'MMJ') for over 40 years, and have finally lived to see my self as a 'card-carrying', legal, user and grower! A step in the right direction. I am one of those unfortunates who after a serious injury accident (back in the days when jobs were the daily business) has been taking that 'Vicodin' you speak of, along with 9 other drugs of lesser damaging reputation. 270mg a day!! For 12 years! MMJ has allowed me to cut that Rx in half! 'We', the 'Woodstock Nation', have always been aware of the medicinal qualities of MJ, and now that it is MMJ, the rest of the world is coming to realize it.
However, and still more of my concern than the effects and uses of MMJ, is the fact that it is still 'illegal' and by federal proclamation, an illegal act in itself, put into effect by a single individual with powerful lobbyists who had only personal gain in mind when they started the lies and smear and fear campaigns back in the thirties. Of course I mean Anslinger, Hearst and Dupont. The former with only political ambition and the latter seeking only to protect their bank accounts, because Hemp could put them out of business (or they could have done like President Jefferson asked, and grown it and made their millions by expanding, rather than crushing.
So although I am very curious and supportive of the MMJ revolution, I am still more interested in how we let the federal government, override the States' authority by illegally creating what was then a 'tax' law, but has evolved into a trillion-dollar spending spree by said government for its 'war on drugs', and the way it has gone about finally 'legalizing' or rather decriminalizing the use of MMJ for medical purposes, has created a new monster, the legal MMJ distributor.
These folks have jumped onto the cash cow, and produce, manufacture and sell 'MMJ' for prices that would embarrass a Colombian cartel kingpin! Recently, one of the 'compassion clubs' that have latched onto this bandwagon, offered me 1/8 oz of MMJ for $80. That is $640/oz! The new 'Medibles' markets, selling edible MMJ products, get $100 a GRAM for their wares, That's $2800/oz!! SEEDS, yes, SEEDS, remember we would go through the buds and using a shoebox lid, would spend hours culling them out of our stashes, and then either eat them like candy, or throw them in the trash. Some of the more enterprising 'stoners' would plant a few, for good luck. SEEDS are selling, in THIS country for $10-$20 EACH! (Same seeds sell in Amsterdam for $1-2 Ea!)
Hell, I am aware that there has been massive inflation over the past 30 years or more, but what was once a 'dime bag' is now as big as your pinky-nail, and costs $50-100!
So even the 'legal' pushers are treating this WEED, that grows WILD (or did before the feds got into the landscaping business) like gold! Why? Because it is still hiding behind the dark curtain of 'forbidden fruit'.
All but the staunchest of the blind, right-wing fanatics are well aware that a Category One 'drug' is not a 'gateway' to Category two drugs, or in lay terms, totally banned substances do not lead to the use of prescription drugs! But this is where it is kept. So as long as the feds maintain their illegal 'act' of suppressing states rights, in violation of the Constitution, the ongoing 'drug wars' will persist and the cartels will now start touting their wares as 'MMJ', and the 'dispensaries' that grow their own (when it becomes legal here in AZ) will jump in both feet, and we, the user, will pay 100 times the cost of a bottle of 270- 10mg Hydrocodone, for which I pay $5.00/mo. And because it is 'legal', the insurance company pays the rest, for this class 4 narcotic, but will never pay for MMJ, not while it is still 'illegal' by (illegal) federal law!
So JM, Although I am very interested in how Brewer and her henchman will manipulate the laws to their own ends, I will be much more interested to see where your column goes with respect to THIS issue, the main issue surrounding MJ. My right to grow, smoke, eat, vape, ingest, or make sandals with this weed, whether to kill the pain of the injuries I sustained in a 2-story fall, or to just 'get high' with friends and family, it is my RIGHT as a sovereign American .
Good luck with the column. You have another loyal reader, and I could care less about your language, your sentence structure, even your grammar (that one hurts ;-) as long as you address the ISSUES. Constitutional Rights!
"Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth" God to Adam ~Genesis 1:29
Great article Dave. There is precious little info on this historic site! Are there any archived photos of the construction or any other activities there?
Recent Comments
Once you 'join' and prove you are 'legal' all resources are available. I have never used them myself, due to the expensive 'donations', however the legal options for obtaining MMJ in AZ, are few. My recent purchase of seeds (1/10 the price of AZ) from amsterdammarijuanaseeds.com, was seized and destroyed by USDA, at the Chicago customs station. Seems it is 'illegal' to transport "unknown seed material" via USPS. So we are stuck buying, er, I mean 'donating' here. There are other orgs too, some with actual Tucson web presence, one just has to look around. You are right however, that the 'liberal bastion' that Tucson is supposed to be, we are indeed sadly behind the curve, when we should be leading the charge! OBTW, Phoenix still SUX! :-/
As most 'educated' people are well aware by now, marijuana is not 'addictive', but all this show did was perpetuate the myth, by having a supposedly knowledgeable character, spout this dumb rhetoric. I am surprised at CBS for allowing this mis-information to be aired out of context (context being that this character is in fact biased and misinformed... as are most FBI personnel.). This show is now off my favorites list!
(b) A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: cachexia or wasting syndrome; severe and chronic pain; severe nausea; seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy; or severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
(c) Any other medical condition or its treatment added by the department pursuant to section 36-2801.01.
The only 'friggin' joke', is the fact that there are laws against it at all! Medical or otherwise. All one has to do is 'pony up the cash' at any supermarket, to obtain alcohol, for which 75,000 deaths per year, are attributed in the US alone, (Zero for MJ!) or pony up the copay cash to your family MD & pharmacy, for an Rx for 'legal' drugs that killed 783,936 people in 2003 (up another 68% since then- 0 for MJ). But that's OK. It's 'LEGAL'!
Oh what a tangled web we weave...
Like it's predecessor, 1936's "Reefer Madness", formerly 'Tell Your Children' a religion-funded attack, then taken over by the big money, 1937's "Assassin of Youth", was the brainchild of self-appointed 'drug-czar' Harry J. Anslinger, with monies secretly provided by Randolph Hearst and the DuPont Family. 'Assassin' is filled with quotes and references by Anslinger and his 'Gore File'.
Hearst, heavily invested in the forestry industry to aid his nationwide newspaper industry, afraid that Hemp paper would destroy that empire, and the DuPonts, who owned the prescription drug and chemical industry of the era, understood the ramifications of allowing this 'medicine' to be legalized, formed a trio of Civil Rights Assassins, that succeeded with their fear films and lying propaganda.
With the aid and support of right-wing actor-director-writer, Elmer Clifton, who wrote and produced AoY, considered a 'clone' of the previous year's snowjob, Reefer Madness, both surrounded by and supporting, Anslinger's "1937 Marijuana Tax Act", the phony govt 'law' used to make MJ federally illegal, superseding state's rights! The rest as they say, is history! (Don't believe ME, Google it!!)
And although today we (and our kids and grand-kids) gather at B-Movie theaters like The Loft, to get high together and laugh at these now 'cult classics', the truth is that they worked! And the federal ban on MJ was implemented with no resistance by the fear-stricken populace! That was 75 years ago!! Gawd, what sheep we are!!
As Bob Dylan once wrote, "Money don't talk, it swears, obscenities; who really cares, ALL is phony..." ~ad infinitum
Although I do not consider myself a 'stoner', I have been using MJ (now PC as 'MMJ') for over 40 years, and have finally lived to see my self as a 'card-carrying', legal, user and grower! A step in the right direction. I am one of those unfortunates who after a serious injury accident (back in the days when jobs were the daily business) has been taking that 'Vicodin' you speak of, along with 9 other drugs of lesser damaging reputation. 270mg a day!! For 12 years! MMJ has allowed me to cut that Rx in half! 'We', the 'Woodstock Nation', have always been aware of the medicinal qualities of MJ, and now that it is MMJ, the rest of the world is coming to realize it.
However, and still more of my concern than the effects and uses of MMJ, is the fact that it is still 'illegal' and by federal proclamation, an illegal act in itself, put into effect by a single individual with powerful lobbyists who had only personal gain in mind when they started the lies and smear and fear campaigns back in the thirties. Of course I mean Anslinger, Hearst and Dupont. The former with only political ambition and the latter seeking only to protect their bank accounts, because Hemp could put them out of business (or they could have done like President Jefferson asked, and grown it and made their millions by expanding, rather than crushing.
So although I am very curious and supportive of the MMJ revolution, I am still more interested in how we let the federal government, override the States' authority by illegally creating what was then a 'tax' law, but has evolved into a trillion-dollar spending spree by said government for its 'war on drugs', and the way it has gone about finally 'legalizing' or rather decriminalizing the use of MMJ for medical purposes, has created a new monster, the legal MMJ distributor.
These folks have jumped onto the cash cow, and produce, manufacture and sell 'MMJ' for prices that would embarrass a Colombian cartel kingpin! Recently, one of the 'compassion clubs' that have latched onto this bandwagon, offered me 1/8 oz of MMJ for $80. That is $640/oz! The new 'Medibles' markets, selling edible MMJ products, get $100 a GRAM for their wares, That's $2800/oz!! SEEDS, yes, SEEDS, remember we would go through the buds and using a shoebox lid, would spend hours culling them out of our stashes, and then either eat them like candy, or throw them in the trash. Some of the more enterprising 'stoners' would plant a few, for good luck. SEEDS are selling, in THIS country for $10-$20 EACH! (Same seeds sell in Amsterdam for $1-2 Ea!)
Hell, I am aware that there has been massive inflation over the past 30 years or more, but what was once a 'dime bag' is now as big as your pinky-nail, and costs $50-100!
So even the 'legal' pushers are treating this WEED, that grows WILD (or did before the feds got into the landscaping business) like gold! Why? Because it is still hiding behind the dark curtain of 'forbidden fruit'.
All but the staunchest of the blind, right-wing fanatics are well aware that a Category One 'drug' is not a 'gateway' to Category two drugs, or in lay terms, totally banned substances do not lead to the use of prescription drugs! But this is where it is kept. So as long as the feds maintain their illegal 'act' of suppressing states rights, in violation of the Constitution, the ongoing 'drug wars' will persist and the cartels will now start touting their wares as 'MMJ', and the 'dispensaries' that grow their own (when it becomes legal here in AZ) will jump in both feet, and we, the user, will pay 100 times the cost of a bottle of 270- 10mg Hydrocodone, for which I pay $5.00/mo. And because it is 'legal', the insurance company pays the rest, for this class 4 narcotic, but will never pay for MMJ, not while it is still 'illegal' by (illegal) federal law!
So JM, Although I am very interested in how Brewer and her henchman will manipulate the laws to their own ends, I will be much more interested to see where your column goes with respect to THIS issue, the main issue surrounding MJ. My right to grow, smoke, eat, vape, ingest, or make sandals with this weed, whether to kill the pain of the injuries I sustained in a 2-story fall, or to just 'get high' with friends and family, it is my RIGHT as a sovereign American .
Good luck with the column. You have another loyal reader, and I could care less about your language, your sentence structure, even your grammar (that one hurts ;-) as long as you address the ISSUES. Constitutional Rights!
"Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth" God to Adam ~Genesis 1:29
Thanks for all the info!
Doug Noyce