FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 23 , 2016 MARIJUANA AND ATHLETICS CONVERGE AT THE SANTA MONICA PIER RUN WITH HEISMAN TROPHY WINNER RICKY WILLIAMS & NFL PRO-BOWLER KYLE TURLEY REGGAE SUPERSTAR PATO BANTON TO HEADLINE AT 420 GAMES AFTER PARTY (SANTA MONICA, CA) – A new demographic and category in sports has emerged. Created to de-stigmatize cannabis and the people who use it, The 420 Games brings a message of fitness, wellness and health. On Saturday March 26th, this new paradigm of athletics and medical cannabis use will be celebrated by over 1,000 participants at The Santa Monica Pier. Having kept their cannabis use a secret for fear of judgement or persecution, athletes are now stepping out, inspired by this newly found 'CannaAthletics' movement. Activists will walk, run, bicycle or skateboard to “Go the Extra Mile for Cannabis” in this 4.20 mile race; wheelchairs are welcome! Out in the water stand-up paddle boarders will follow course along the beach. (Watch the short video on the 420 Games from Elite Daily News) "In 2014, I stepped out and created this new genre of athletics and cannabis use in order to inspire the rest of the world to step out with me. The 420 Games is humbled and honored to be credited with the creation of 'CannaAthletics'. The 420 Games' purpose is to emphasize that highly functional people, even professional athletes, use cannabis and are hardly the lazy stoners the world has portrayed. Fostering a new, positive mindset about those who use cannabis is going to be absolutely critical for the national legalization of marijuana.” - Jim McAlpine, Founder of The 420 Games JUST ANNOUNCED: Former NFL player and Heisman trophy winner Ricky Williams will attend, hear what he has to say about cannabis. Special guest speakers will include LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) member and retired Redondo Beach Police Officer Diane Goldstein, national cannabis thought leader and author of ‘The Cannabis Manifesto’, Steve DeAngelo, as well as Tracy Ryan, CEO of CannaKids.org and SavingSophie.org. Look for special appearances by UFC Fighter Kyle Kingsbury, NFL Pro-Bowler Kyle Turley and former NFL players from the Gridiron Coalition who will have their own team of former NFL players in attendance, including Eddie Lee "Boo” Williams who played for the New Orleans Saints. No smoking at The 420 Games? EazeMD will be on site offering attendees the opportunity to obtain a medical cannabis evaluation and recommendation. Paradoxically, there will be NO SMOKING allowed at the pier portion of the day's festivities. 420 Games advocates responsible adult use, McAlpine adds, “We are forging new outlooks and a new respect for both cannabis and the people who use it… a cloud of smoke over our heads at the pier - both literally and figuratively - is not the message we want to send out to the world.” In contrast to the events in the sun at the pier, the concert and after party at V Lounge following the race will offer space to sample medical cannabis for those who have their medical recommendation. Shuttles will be provided from the race to the lounge. Join ‘The 420 Games Village’ after party for yoga, magic, comedy, education, networking and LIVE music from reggae legend Pato Banton. Over the past two years, hundreds have participated in successful 420 Games athletic events at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. The 420 Games’ Los Angeles debut is the first leg of a four-state, six-city tour. Upcoming event series will feature marathons, mountain bike races, stand-up paddleboard competitions and more. Future locales include San Francisco, Boulder, Denver, Portland and Seattle. McAlpine states, "Our attendance has doubled from the first event to the second, we expect thousands of people to come run or walk for cannabis respect on March 26th in LA. There is a passion and vibe of camaraderie at these events that is very inspiring to see." The 420 Games are presented by WeedMaps and sponsored by O.penVAPE, SnowBomb.com, Lagunitas Brewing Company, Dixie Elixirs, and Eaze. Look for exhibitors from dozens of the top cannabis brands in California! 420 GAMES PHOTOS BY RICHARD HAICK, PIER SHOT BY JOSH WHALEN What: The 420 Games When: Saturday March 26, 2016, 9AM – 2PM Where: Santa Monica Pier, Santa Monica, CA 90401 Highlights of the games & celebrities in attendance: • Former NFL player and Heisman Trophy winner Ricky Williams will attend and run the race. • Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) celebrity Kyle “Kingsbu” Kingsbury will be in attendance and running the race. Event promoters are challenging runners to “beat Kyle outside the ring". Anyone who that crosses the finish line before Kyle will gain free entry into 420 Games events for one year. • Steve DeAngelo, a nationally recognized pioneer in the cannabis reform movement and Executive Director of the nation’s model cannabis dispensary, Harborside Health Center, will give the keynote address. • Coral Jeanne Smith from MTV's Real World. Also expected to attend are Marvin Gaye lll and Lou Rawls Jr. • United for Bernie - The grassroots organization campaigning for Bernie Sanders will have a booth at the event. • Weedmaps presents a skateboard demonstration, complete with a mini half-pipe, quarter-pipes, butter bench and more. Ramps provided by OC Skates. • Post-race, all competitors will be treated to two hours of beer tasting from event sponsor Lagunitas Brewing Company of Petaluma, CA. • A two-hour concert of positive vibes from international Reggae superstar Pato Banton! • Former NFL Pro Bowler Kyle Turley and The Kyle Turley Band will open for Pato Banton. UPCOMING 2016 EVENTS: California Tour: March 26th, 2016 Los Angeles | Santa Monica Pier Event Details August 27th, 2016 San Francisco | Golden Gate Park Event Details Colorado Tour: October 1st, 2016 Boulder | Boulder Reservoir Event Details September 17, 2016 Denver | Location TBD Washington Tour: July 31st, 2016 Seattle | Magnuson Park Event Details Oregon Tour: October 29, 2016 Portland | Sellwood Riverfront Park Event Details About The 420 Games Philosophy: The 420 Games does not advocate that everyone should use cannabis. We are focused on teaching those who choose to do so how to be healthy and responsible. We are also focused on education and prevention for those who should not use cannabis - most importantly, minors. We do not endorse the illegal or irresponsible use of cannabis. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit 420Games.org. PRESS CONTACTS: Gaynell Rogers gaynell@bloomcannabisgroup.com 415.298.1114 Jim McAlpine jim@420Games.org 530-906-1263
0 Comments
By Dennis Romero Friday, March 18, 2016 at 6:02 a.m. SpeedWeed, a service that promises "medical marijuana delivered to your door," could be in more trouble today. The City Attorney's office has already asked a judge to ban SpeedWeed in Los Angeles, arguing that local law does not allow commercial cannabis delivery. Courts seem to agree with that stance. Now, authorities say, a three-warehouse bust of pot growing operations that included liquids, chocolates and hard candy labeled as "infused with THC" could allegedly be connected to the service. The Los Angeles Police Department said in a statement this week that Canoga Park neighbors made contact "to voice their suspicion of marijuana cultivation in the area" That led to an investigation by the LAPD's Topanga Area Narcotics Enforcement Detail and Gang and by Narcotics Division detectives, who obtained a warrant to search the warehouses in the 8500 block of Canoga Avenue last week. What did they find? More than 10,000 pot plants, 300 pounds of "liquids, chocolates and hard candy labeled as 'inflused with THC,' and more than $7,000 cash, the LAPD alleged in a statement. The cannabis, 2,400 pounds worth, has a wholesale value of $4.8 million, cops said. One of the three locations "was connected to a large scale marijuana delivery service in the city of Los Angeles and surrounding areas," according to the statement. While cops remained mum on the suspected service, the L.A. City Attorney's office confirmed to us that it is SpeedWeed. In last month's request for an injunction against the service, the office alleges that the SpeedWeed, which promises delivery to qualified patients who use a toll-free number or its website, "both sells and delivers marijuana." People always seem to forget professional athletes are regular people too. Sure, they possess superhuman athletic ability that earns them millions of dollars, but that doesn’t mean they don’t do regular sh*t, like shop for their own groceries, pay their taxes or smoke a fat*ss blunt at the end of the day. Former Chicago Bulls guard Jay Williams has always been upfront with what the culture is really like in the NBA. In a 2013 interview, he admitted some of his teammates would even show up to games high, saying, Guys were on the bench, trying to kick it to girls in the stands, having ball boys run over. I mean, some guys were high. There were guys smoking weed before games. Guys asking in the middle of the game, ‘Do you smell popcorn?’ But in a recent interview with Fox Business, he went in detail to say that anywhere from “75 to 80 percent” of current players are smoking weed. While he’s not saying these are the same guys showing up to games high, Jay explains there is still a stigma about marijuana in the NBA, especially compared to the super addictive pain killers that are prescribed for players, On the afternoon of Feb. 3, Long Beach's leafy Bluff Park neighborhood resembled a major crime scene. Police cruisers with flashing lights idled near the intersection of Temple Avenue and Broadway Boulevard, while undercover backup units parked on side streets. Asked about all the activity by a reporter who happened by his vehicle, an officer on the scene remarked that the police were busy carrying out a "narco operation."
But despite the ominous verbiage, the perps weren't exactly dangerous criminals. Instead, they were proprietors of the One Love Beach Club, a family-run cannabis collective that had been operating openly, if quietly, in the city for years. Police raided One Love after a detective provided the club with a doctor's note as well as a driver's license and proof of city residency. The sting operation—if you can call it that—flies in the face of state law, which allows cannabis clubs to provide marijuana to patients with a physician's note. After the club sent one of its drivers to deliver the cannabis, police pulled over the vehicle, impounded it and arrested the driver before bashing down the dispensary's door with a battering ram. "They could have knocked on the door, but they had just started using the battering ram and wanted to see how it worked," said One Love's owner, Jeff Abrams, who was out on a delivery when the raid took place but whose two adult sons were detained inside the shop. "They were right there with the key, but they smashed it in, and they were giddy about how well the battering ram worked." Although the police claim to have confiscated 600 marijuana plants, Abrams says that, in reality, only one-tenth of the plants were flowering. "They took 59 mature plants and 60 mother plants that never flower," Abrams explained. "The rest were 512 clones that we sell to people so they can grow their own cannabis and stay out of harm's way of the Long Beach narcotics division." BY DENNY WALSH
dwalsh@sacbee.com They were out-of-towners, and that was one key to their undoing. Three men from Florida – Clorenzo Griffin, then a deputy U.S. marshal, Andre Jamison and Rodney Rackley – robbed 24 pounds of marijuana from three drug dealers at gunpoint in a Yuba City motel parking lot Oct. 11, 2014. Following the brazen daylight stickup, and with Griffin at the wheel, the three blew through a red light at a high rate of speed just around the corner from the California Highway Patrol’s Yuba City office. With a CHP officer in pursuit, the robbers abandoned their rented Jeep Patriot, and Griffin unwittingly ran straight to a building housing the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office. A sheriff’s deputy fired a warning shot at Griffin, who dropped his gun and was taken into custody by the CHP officer. The other two were quickly cornered behind a dumpster and arrested. On Wednesday in Sacramento federal court, Griffin, who pleaded guilty in December to plotting an interstate robbery, was the last of the three to be sentenced to prison by U.S. District Judge Kimberly J. Mueller. She handed out a 10-year term behind bars for Griffin, who was off duty at the time of the robbery and has been in jail since his arrest. He was fired by the U.S. Marshals Service after he was arrested. He primarily worked escorting prisoners to and from court in Miami and Fort Lauderdale and guarding them in the courtroom. Marijuana's clearest path to approval
For supporters of marijuana, the path to approval appears cloudy at best. However, a new study released just weeks ago suggests that marijuana's best chance at federal approval could be solely for medicinal use. In other words, forget the idea of recreational legalization (for now) and focus solely on legalizing marijuana for specific medical ailments. The study in question comes from researchers at the Hebrew University of Israel who evaluated the responses of patients to THC-dominant cannabis taken daily over the course of six months. The 176-patient study involved patients with chronic pain conditions who had been previously unresponsive to traditional pain medications. The findings? Two-thirds of patients in the study experienced an improvement in their pain symptom scores after using cannabis -- improving from an average of 83.3 to an average of 75 -- and a majority of those treated saw robust improvements in their quality of life. More interestingly, opioid consumption dropped 44% during the study, and quite a few patients completely ditched opioid use altogether. Here's the official conclusion from the seven study authors: The treatment of chronic pain with medicinal cannabis in this open-label, prospective cohort resulted in improved pain and functional outcomes, and significant reduction in opioid use. The results suggest long-term benefit of cannabis treatment in this group of patients, but the study's non-controlled nature should be considered when extrapolating the results. As we see with most initial or small-pool studies, the findings won't be considered concrete until a larger or more controlled study is undertaken. However, the correlation between pain reduction and marijuana here is fairly consistent with other studies that have emerged over the last couple of years. (CNN)The Australian Parliament passed a measure Wednesday legalizing medical marijuana.
The amendments to the Narcotic Drugs Act will allow cannabis to be legally grown for medical and scientific purposes for the first time in Australia. "This is an historic day for Australia and the many advocates who have fought long and hard to challenge the stigma around medicinal cannabis products so genuine patients are no longer treated as criminals,"Minister for Health Sussan Ley said in a statement. "This is the missing piece in a patient's treatment journey and will now see seamless access to locally-produced medicinal cannabis products from farm to pharmacy." |
AuthorSusan Soares has written for Cannabis Now Magazine, Alternet, and Sensi Magazine. Archives
June 2018
|