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TX police spend hours harvesting mint plants they mistook for marijuana, legal weed and prohibition, and it looks like fatties are the new smokers so let's tax and vilanize them.

http://www.freemindsmedia.org

Yet another corrupt sheriff has been busted selling drugs out of his police issued SUV, a UK man finds himself in hot water because a red white and blue sign is construed as racist, hair braiding and useless licensure, and Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoes anti-smoking bill that would have banned smoking from almost all public places in CA.

Man arrested for crossing the road to buy a pizza, AZ police purchases $4 million jet but doesn't have the money to pay someone to fly it, health care discussion, TN repeals law prohibiting live fish from barber shops, and a TV star who visited Saudi Arabia has been sentenced to death for sorcery.
http://www.freemindsmedia.org

The Australian government is after a man who lives in the US because he posts satire on the internet and the kangaroos are offended, a 200-year-old cheese rolling race has been canceled due to health and safety concerns, the Downsizer Dispatch, the NH legislature debates whether to make milk or cider the official drink of the state, and the Venezuelan government wants to crack down on the internet.

Toby and Nick report live from the 2009 Keene Pumpkin Festival. Tune in for pumpkins and news commentary. http://www.freemindstv.com

Toby and Nick report live from the 2009 Keene Pumpkin Festival. Tune in for pumpkins and news commentary.
http://www.freemindstv.com

In the name of “the children”, Keene’s daily 4:20pm cannabis celebration will move from Central Square across the street to where young, innocent eyes should never be – city hall.

Event promoter Rich Paul, the one man arrested for possession of marijuana since the beginning of the incredibly successful daily celebrations over a month ago, has announced that out of respect for the very small amount of public space available in the park, that the celebration will move to the front of city hall at 3 Washington St. in Keene. The event will return to Central Square as of Sunday.

The Union Leader is reporting that in the name of the children, Keene police and prosecutors plan to make arrests in Keene’s Central Square, a piece of “public” property. Will tomorrow’s Pumpkin Fest event be a tragedy of the commons? “Public” property is allegedly owned by everyone, which also means it’s owned by no one.

Thanks to Brian Anderson at the Keene Equinox (Keene State College’s campus newspaper) for this story:

SWAT team raid a grandmother and grandfathers’ home in search of Orchids, IL city counsel shuts down Courtesy Rides which gave people free rides home from the bar to prevent drunk driving, park bans children over 5 from public playground, the Downsizer Dispatch, Jack Thompson is suing facebook group for $120 million because they made fun of him, NY City bans school bake sales, and a couple loses land because under current law apparently squatters can take ownership if they are aloud to squat for a long enough time.

After a week of toking in Manchester, the Union Leader finally takes notice. Thanks to Mark Hayward for the story:

With glass pipes and odd-smelling cigarettes, protesters have taken to Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Manchester, lighting up at 4:20 p.m. daily, the same time as do protesters in downtown Keene.

Participants yesterday said they started the effort Sept. 28, a week after the daily smoke-ins began in Keene. They say they light up to protest marijuana laws.

The daily 4:20 cannabis celebrations have stepped up again and now some nice smoking implements are being brought out! I’ve seen all kinds of things being toked – someone even brought out a hookah recently here in Keene! The celebrations have continued with no police hassles for over a week now – hopefully KPD will keep doing the right thing and spend their time investigating real crimes that have victims. Here’s some more footage from Manchester’s 4:20 cannabis celebrations:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here for the .pdf with pictures

This story by the Keene Sentinel’s David P. Greisman is about the small group of mostly high schoolers that showed up to protest the cannabis celebrations on Saturday. I had a lengthy discussion with protestors Ann and Diana to try to understand where they were coming from. They did think that cannabis consumers should be left alone at home, but otherwise support putting them in cages as well as making cigarettes illegal. They think that putting addictive substances in your body is “immoral”, with the exception of caffeine, because… well, they drink it. They actually had cups of coffee out at their protest. Diana even admitted to being addicted to caffeine.

Thanks to Phil Bantz for this article about the Keene police’s position on the cannabis celebrations at 4:20 everyday in Central Square. While KPD is doing the right thing and ignoring the peaceful people gathering daily and toking up, it’s amusing to listen to them attempt to explain that they are serious about cannabis use and would be arresting people if they could only just determine that laws were being broken. Maybe someday they’ll actually admit that what they have been doing in the name of some arbitrary words on paper has been WRONG, and they are sorry.