FaceBook, Twitter, Myspace and Yahoo..

Our new features online allow all members to chat freely....:) however I feel that G+ is growing more rapidly and will be used by more users than myspace, facebook or twitter..

Ed Forchion: The Hollywood connection - Philly.com

Ed Forchion: The Hollywood connection - Philly.comd Forchion: The Hollywood connection
August 22, 2011|BY JASON NARK, narkj@phillynews.com 215-854-5916



WHEN COLLEEN Begley was arrested with a box of weed in the trunk of her Jeep in South Jersey, authorities checked her social-networking sites and found a familiar friend: Ed "NJ Weedman" Forchion.

The South Jersey native and frequent political candidate now dispenses marijuana at his Liberty Bell Temple, in Hollywood. He first met Begley when she was in high school and he was smoking a joint at the actual Liberty Bell.

"I'm proud of her," Forchion said recently from California. "She wanted to be a freedom fighter and battle, and she has the means to do it."

The cops didn't have to do as much digging to figure out that Russell Forchion, also arrested in the bust for allegedly being a lookout, knew the NJ Weedman, too. Russell, a Clementon, Camden County native, is charged with conspiracy in the Feb. 11 incident in Burlington Township and, according to police documents, authorities definitely had hunches about where the marijuana came from.

"We then started to speculate that [Ed Forchion], or one of his representatives, may have shipped the marijuana to his brother Russell Forchion," a detective wrote in his report. The two brothers had been arrested together in 1997 in Bellmawr, Camden County, for shipping 40 pounds through Federal Express.

In the recent case, authorities tracked down UPS shipping documents and found that the shipment to Burlington was sent from a UPS center just two blocks from Ed Forchion's Rastafarian temple in Hollywood. They obtained video from the UPS store, found evidence of phone calls and texts, and even contacted the Los Angeles Police Department's Narcotics unit, but, six months later, Ed Forchion has not been charged in the incident.

Begley declined to say where the recent pot shipment came from, and Ed Forchion said that he didn't know, although he would like to know who the confidential informant was who tipped police.

Russell Forchion has filed a motion to sever his case from Begley's and co-defendant John Claudy's. His attorney, Reza Mazaheri, said that there is no evidence against his client, no reason to even pull him over, particularly at gunpoint.

"I couldn't find a single thing, except that he's a black man driving a car in an area he doesn't live and that he shares a last name with a well-known marijuana activist," Mazaheri said.

Officers claimed that they noticed Russell Forchion traveling up and down the street in Burlington on Feb. 11 and became suspicious when he parked in a nearby park.

Ed Forchion felt that his brother was simply being profiled.

"My brother was guilty of being a black man driving through a neighborhood," Ed Forchion said.

Last year, Ed Forchion was arrested in Mount Holly with one pound of marijuana while back home to see his kids, and is fighting his case, flying back to New Jersey on a regular basis for court appearances. He has filed a constitutional challenge challenging New Jersey's criminal code as it pertains to marijuana.

"I have no doubt I'm going to win," he said. "The law is wrong."

Stoner SNACK : Chocolate-Covered OREO Cookie Cake recipe

Chocolate-Covered OREO Cookie Cake recipe

Chocolate-Covered OREO Cookie Cake

) total time 1 hr 20 min
prep 20 min
servings 16 servings

recipe

what you need
1 pkg. (2-layer size) devil's food chocolate cake mix
4 squares BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping
12 OREO Cookies, coarsely crushed
make it
HEAT oven to 350ºF.

PREPARE cake batter and bake in 2 (9-inch) round pans as directed on package. Cool cakes in pans 10 min. Invert cakes onto wire racks; gently remove pans. Cool cakes completely.

MICROWAVE chocolate and butter in small microwaveable bowl on HIGH 2 min. or until butter is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Cool 5 min.

MEANWHILE, beat cream cheese and sugar in large bowl with mixer until blended. Gently stir in COOL WHIP and crushed cookies. Stack cake layers on plate, spreading cream cheese mixture between layers. Spread top with chocolate glaze; let stand until firm. Keep refrigerated.

kraft kitchens tipsFAMILY FUNThis great-tasting cake looks like a giant OREO Cookie.COOKING KNOW-HOWIf chocolate glaze becomes too thick, microwave on HIGH 20 to 30 sec. or until of desired consistency.SIZE-WISEEnjoy a serving of this indulgent cake on occasion, but keep portion size in mind. One cake makes enough for 16 servings.

Neighbors Fend off pot dispensary

RIVERSIDE: Neighbors fend off pot dispensary


Download story podcast

10:00 PM PDT on Saturday, August 13, 2011

By ALICIA ROBINSON
Staff Writer arobinson@pe.com
Some residents in the Magnolia Center area of Riverside appear to have blocked the opening of a medical marijuana dispensary, ending a drama that unfolded over several months.

It began with a dead lawn.

Riverside resident Craig Celse owns a gabled Victorian home at the corner of Brockton and Merrill avenues that he rents for residential use.

After city code enforcement officers cited him for dead grass, Celse put in shrubs, rosebushes and irrigation, he said in an interview. During a follow-up inspection, a code enforcement official noticed a car partly outside the paved parking area and told Celse he needed to make the driveway bigger.

So Celse poured more concrete, only to learn that he should first have gotten a special permit because the house is in a designated historic district. He applied for the permit and the city set a hearing for Aug. 17.

Meanwhile, something was going on with the home's new tenants, whom Celse had found through a broker.

Neighbors were surprised to hear the house was being turned into a medical marijuana dispensary, said Janice Bielman, assistant chairwoman of the Magnolia Area Neighborhood Alliance, a residents' group.

Neighbors saw bullet-proof glass and a heavy-duty security system being installed, Bielman said.

Many of the houses along that leg of Brockton have been rezoned for business -- a dentist is across the street -- but Celse's house hasn't been, and city officials say the zoning code bans dispensaries anyway.

"We were just floored that they would attempt to put one in a house that is not an existing business in any way," Bielman said.

The neighbors' main concern, Bielman said, is that the cross-streets stretching behind the house are a purely residential area.

Luke Luce, who planned to open the dispensary and already operates one in Mentone, said Friday that he chose Riverside because he has patients there who otherwise have to drive a long way for their medicine.

He said he complies with state law and does "everything by the book."

After residents contacted the city, the city attorney's office began an investigation. City Attorney Greg Priamos said the investigation showed unpermitted alterations inside the house that "are not residential," and the dispensary was advertising online an opening date of Aug. 6. He sent a cease and desist letter.

Luce said he understood from the real estate broker that the zoning would allow a commercial use, and he's not sure if any permits were required for the improvements.

Celse, the property owner, said in the three months the tenants have been in the house, he's never met them and they've paid their rent on time. The dispensary issue was news to him when Priamos' office contacted him, he said.

He's cooperating with the city, and in anticipation of a crowd of angry neighbors at Wednesday's hearing, he withdrew his request for the driveway permit and will tear out the new concrete, he said later Thursday.

He also planned to tell the tenants they can stay if they use the house as a residence, but they'll be evicted if they open a business.

"It wouldn't matter if it's a beauty parlor; it's not zoned for that," Celse said.

He understands the neighbors' concerns, he said, and he doesn't want to be in the middle of the city's legal battle with dispensaries.

"If I lived next door, I wouldn't want it there either," he said.

Luce said whether cities can ban dispensaries hasn't been finally decided by the courts,.

"Whatever way this goes...obviously I will decide to comply," he said.

Bielman said residents are concerned about other dispensaries already operating in the area, but they are in more commercial zones and would have to be dealt with differently. She's happy with the way things have turned out and attributes it in part to email blasts.

"We're a united neighborhood and we're going to band together to stop things like this from happening," Bielman said.

Give patients the power - The 420 - Arts&Culture - August 4, 2011 - Sacramento News & Review

Give patients the power - The 420 - Arts&Culture - August 4, 2011 - Sacramento News & ReviewGive patients the power
Inside Mary Jane’s Wellness, where meds are 10 bucks

By Buddy Peeler
More stories by this author...

This article was published on 08.04.11.


Nicole Cochran tends to the meds at Mary Jane’s Wellness.
PHOTO BY WILLIAM LEUNG
Mary Jane’s Wellness is located at 2271 Sunrise Boulevard, Suite B, in Gold River; (916) 635-2837; www.maryjaneswellness.com.
Buddy Peeler is a medical-cannabis patient writing under a pseudonym
Related stories this week:
Cannabis for the cure?
Cannabinoid scientists say marijuana actually fights cancer—but the feds continue to stymie research efforts.

A lot of cannabis collectives are dingy and claustrophobic, waiting rooms furnished with old couches and the ever-present cheap waterfall fountain with not enough water in it.

And then there’s Mary Jane’s Wellness. Hidden away on Sunrise Boulevard in Gold River—next to Clutch Mart, El Pollo Loco and a store called “Furniture”—Mary Jane’s is a nonprofit collective with a unique business plan. The store has a fixed-price model, like a dollar store, but instead of everything costing a dollar, all of the cannabis at is the same donation price: $10 a gram—well, make that $10.88 with tax.

“We pay sales tax to the state of California in fairly large numbers,” explained the clean-cut, middle-aged owner, who declined to give his name because of other Gold River businesses that he is involved in.

Launched last March, Mary Jane’s donation room is big enough to play handball in. Glass cases, which were salvaged from Sacramento’s old Montgomery Ward’s jewelry department, encase the product at individual sales stations. There is no hard-to-read menu board, and you don’t have to do the crab walk back and forth along a glass counter covered in jars. Instead, you get individual help from a station that has everything that you’d like to buy, for 10 bucks a gram.

Mary Jane’s is insured by Lloyd’s of London, has an array of high-tech security, and is 100 percent compliant with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

“We are in the business of compassionate care,” the owner told SN&R with enthusiasm. “We are not just here to make money. I’m not in a position where I need the money, so I have a different agenda than everyone else. I believe in the cause and support the cause and I’d like to see that extended throughout the community.”

But Mary Jane’s, like all collectives, constantly struggles with local authorities and others who like to paint all medical-marijuana dispensaries with one wide brush because, many argue, they want to see all the pot clubs closed.

“We are trying to be 100 percent compliant with all the rules,” the owner said, “and hopefully the county and the other municipalities throughout the state [will] take a look at what we are doing and embrace it, because I think that we are part of the solution, not the problem.”

As a not-for-profit business, Mary Jane’s books are wide open to the authorities. All the vendors are paid by check. The employees are well-paid and are covered by workers’ compensation.

“We haven’t made a single dollar on this business at all, and from my perspective that’s a good thing,” the owner said. “We want that. We are trying to give the patients the power instead of us. I’m just here to be able to orchestrate the whole thing and provide the opportunity that everybody is entitled to by state law.”

Cannabis for the cure? - The 420 - Arts&Culture - August 4, 2011 - Sacramento News & Review

Cannabis for the cure? - The 420 - Arts&Culture - August 4, 2011 - Sacramento News & ReviewCannabis for the cure?
Cannabinoid scientists say marijuana actually fights cancer—but the feds continue to stymie research efforts

By David Downs
More stories by this author...

This article was published on 08.04.11.


Related stories this week:
Give patients the power
Inside Mary Jane’s Wellness, where all meds are 10 bucks and the collective truly operates not for profit.

Public-health researchers say the federal government is slowing the search for cures to breast, colon, prostate and brain cancers, as well as Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and HIV, because the research involves cannabis.

That’s the takeaway from the 21st annual symposium of the International Cannabinoid Research Society, which was held earlier this month in Illinois. Researchers stacked the program with talks not only about cannabis’s palliative properties but also its curative efficacy. The event, sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was held the same week the Drug Enforcement Administration reiterated its stance that marijuana has no accepted medical use.

“It was really interesting,” said Amanda Reiman, who holds a doctorate from the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare and presented at the symposium. “At the same time [that] the DEA was publicly declaring that cannabis has no medical value, I was surrounded by the most brilliant minds in the world talking about nothing but the medical value of cannabinoids.”

She said the frustration “was something you could feel in the air.”

Reiman researches medical-cannabis dispensaries as community-health providers and considers the use of cannabis a substitute for alcohol and other drugs. It’s a topic of key interest to both the International Cannabinoid Research Society and the National Institute on Drug Abuse because—unlike almost every other drug—the NIDA can completely restrict researchers’ access to cannabis, citing the plant’s danger to society.

That means safe, effective treatments that stem from pot are being held up. Take the case of Sativex, the marijuana-based mouth spray made by GW Pharmaceuticals in Europe that helps patients with multiple sclerosis and is very safe. Sufferers won’t see it in the United States any time soon, because it contains cannabinoids.

According to the abstracts of the ICRS symposium, researchers have found that the molecules in pot can reverse cancer growth. “Mechanisms of the Anti-cancer Effects of Cannabidiol and Other Non-psychotropic Cannabinoids on Human Prostate Carcinoma” reads one abstract title. There are at least a seven such papers this year.

The molecule in pot called cannabidiol, or CBD, has been shown to reduce anxiety and halt the progression of HIV in monkeys, as well as treat Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, according to ICRS research. Cannabinoid researchers are investigating using pot molecules to treat head and neck squamous cell carcinomas.

But these researchers aren’t allowed to progress past animal studies and cannot get their hands on the plant, Reiman said. And it’s driving them crazy.

Since the conference was sponsored by the drug warriors at NIDA, “There was a lot of push-back from researchers in terms of restricting access to these cannabinoids, especially CBD, which is not psychoactive,” said Reiman. “There’s opportunities to cure diseases like cancer, but also neurodegenerative diseases and HIV.”

However, “A lot of NIDA’s mission is to discover the harms associated with drugs of abuse [though not alcohol] and to prevent people from using drugs and to help people who are using them to stop them.

“Nowhere in that mission is it to discover potentially therapeutic benefits for illicit drugs, and that’s why cannabis research falls into the crack,” she said.

It’s unfortunate, because pot may birth the all-star “smart drugs” of the 21st century. The molecules in marijuana stimulate a sort of intracellular Internet called the “endocannabinoid system.” Discovered in the ’90s, the endocannabinoid system runs throughout the bodies of mammals, with a large amount of receptors in the nervous system in the head and gut.

Scientists think pot molecules such as CBD can help facilitate cellular communication, assisting cells in sending signals like “Turn off the inflammation” and “My neighbor is a tumor, kill him!”

“Cannabis seeks out disregulation, like the growth of a tumor, and addresses that problem without interrupting the rest of the body,” Reiman said.

While the federal government still schedules cannabis as a Schedule I narcotic, some 1 million U.S. medical-marijuana patients have embraced the so-called vigilante medicine, as it were. And they’re not turning back, no matter what the federal government does.

“They can’t put the whole plant medical-cannabis genie back in the bottle,” Reiman said. “They just have to recognize that it’s there.”

Marijuana Economics 101

Marijuana Economics 101
Marijuana remains America's most popular illicit drug, and the U.S. market has been valued anywhere between $10 billion and $120 billion annually. Here's more on how experts determine the numbers.
Why do estimates of the U.S. marijuana market vary so widely?

It's hard to get any degree of accuracy when the data is limited and the commodity illegal, but it hasn't stopped analysts from scouring the available data to draw a multitude of conclusions.

Pricing the market is important -- even if it's imprecise -- because it helps state legislatures forecast prohibition costs, as well as potential tax revenues if they were to legalize the drug.

What's the primary data for supply-side estimates?

Most of it comes from the amount of marijuana seized by federal agencies each year. The crude rule of thumb is that seizure numbers roughly translate to 10 percent of overall domestic cultivation.

But even though the feds' seizure numbers have more than doubled over the last few years -- giving the impression that marijuana production has skyrocketed -- the size of these hauls still depend on the amount of resources and effort put in by law enforcement each year, as well as how hard growers and traffickers work to conceal their product.

Academic and marijuana reform activist Dr. John Gettman explains one example of supply-side pricing methodology in his widely cited 2006 market study. At the time he did the analysis, numerous government reports put the overall size of the domestic marijuana crop at 22 million pounds (that's 10,000 metric tons or 65 million plants).

Gettman begins by assuming a yield value for each plant in cultivation. (The yield is the consumable part of the product.) He assumes outdoor plants yield 7 ounces and indoor plants yield 3.5 ounces.

Then using price and consumption data from the government's annual marijuana use survey, he sets the production cost of marijuana at $1,606 per pound. (The cost to distribute and the eventual retail price per pound are much higher.) Multiplying the price to produce by overall cultivation give him an annual cash crop value of $35.8 billion.

Note, this dollar value is only for marijuana cultivated in the U.S. Gettman puts the total marijuana market, including that shipped in from Mexico and Canada, at closer to $100 billion. Others analysts have used similar methodologies but assigned different variables, which account for the general spread of supply-side assumptions out there.

Are consumption-based estimates more reliable?

Experts generally prefer consumption-based valuations, but this approach also comes with a set of variables that make it difficult to determine an accurate picture.

The most reliable data comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, which engages the American public in a yearly household survey of drug use, including marijuana.

Specifically, the survey collects data on how many Americans aged 12 and older have used marijuana during the last year, in what frequency, and what price they pay per gram. An average joint is thought to contain between 0.5g and 1g of weed.

Currently 17 million Americans are classified as regular users, though many experts suggest increasing this by an estimated 20 percent because government surveys generally underreport. The survey results are also not the ideal measure of consumer habits because the participants self-report. Most people can remember how much they pay for weed, but far fewer can accurately recall the amount or the frequency. There are also multiple ways to consume cannabis besides smoking it, and it's often a shared activity, which also makes reliable data tough to pin down.

With these caveats, estimates based on consumer use and price have put the market in the range of $10 billion to $40 billion annually.

How much does marijuana cost on the street?

As of July 2011, the street price of high-quality pot per ounce ranges between $250 and nearly $500 depending on where it's bought, according to PriceofWeed.com, a crowd-sourced website that bills itself as the "global price index for marijuana." It's cheapest in Oregon, where it's $258/ounce, and most expensive in Washington, D.C. at $486/ounce. (Note: Click here for more on the methodology.)

CLOSE
Washington
Average price: $279


Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-pot-republic/marijuana-economics/?utm_campaign=videoplayer&utm_medium=fullplayer&utm_source=relatedlink#ixzz1TwJ8esVg


Note: Click here for more on the methodology.)
CLOSE
New Mexico
Average price: $361
How does potency affect price?
Potency depends on the amount of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC content, which ranges from low potency in commercial-grade cannabis to the high-grade, high-potency sinsemilla strain most often associated with medical marijuana use. The price per gram is roughly proportional to the THC content.
According to National Drug Intelligence Center research, the prevalence of higher potency products such as sinsemilla has increased the average overall potency, but these highly potent strains account for a maximum of 20 percent of the U.S. market. Jonathan Caulkins, the co-author of several studies for the Drug Policy Research Center at the RAND Corporation describes the marijuana market as a "Wal-Mart, not a Whole Foods market," where more than 80 precent of users are buying the cheaper, less potent commercial grades.
Where's all this pot being grown?
Based on federal seizure numbers, California is the top marijuana-producing state, and in a league of its own by one estimate. Within the state, the top cultivation counties are Lake, Tulare, Shasta, Mendocino and Humboldt counties, all located in Northern California.
The other top marijuana-producing states are Hawaii, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia, according to the most recent DEA numbers. Most of the trafficked marijuana from outside the U.S. comes from Mexico, Canada, Colombia and Jamaica.


Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/the-pot-republic/marijuana-economics/#disqus_thread#ixzz1TwJfkUxJ