Marijuana advocates vow to reopen “Princeton of Pot” after raid
Medical marijuana advocates on Tuesday vowed to reopen a San Francisco-area college devoted to cannabis cultivation and known as the “Princeton of Pot” a day after federal agents shut down the school in a raid.
Hundreds of protesters rallied in front of San Francisco’s City Hall, some on crutches and in wheelchairs and smoking hand-rolled joints. The demonstrators carried signs that said, “Cannabis is medicine; let states regulate” and chanting “Feds off my meds.”
Monday’s raid on Oaksterdam University, which offers courses on growing and dispensing of marijuana, turned the Oakland-based school into the latest flashpoint between federal law enforcement and medical cannabis advocates in states where pot has been decriminalized for medicinal purposes.
Federal authorities also searched the home of veteran medical marijuana activist and Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee, as well as a nearby medical marijuana dispensary he runs.
Lee, confined to a wheelchair by a spinal injury, was a leading proponent behind a failed California ballot initiative in 2010 that would have legalized possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana in the state for recreational use.
“In a wheelchair, he’s a threat,” Wayne Justmann, an adviser for medical pot supply shops, said facetiously as he spoke to Reuters at the rally. “He’s a guy who’s helped so many people.”
SCHOOL FACED DECLINING ENROLLMENT
The raid at Oaksterdam, which opened in 2007 and bills itself as the first cannabis college in the United States, followed a report in the Sacramento Bee newspaper last month that enrollment at the school had declined sharply since the federal government began a broad crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities.
In California and other states that have legalized marijuana for medical reasons, the U.S. government has sought in recent months to shut down storefront medical cannabis shops and greenhouses deemed by federal investigators to be serving as drug-trafficking fronts, as well as those that are located close to schools and parks.
Federal authorities have recently intensified their crackdown in Colorado and Washington state, where voters will be deciding in ballot initiatives in November whether to make those states the first to legalize weed for recreational use.
Rather than targeting Lee, Justmann added, “Go after that guy who killed seven and injured three.” He was referring to the former student of a private, Christian college who killed seven people and wounded three others in a shooting rampage on Monday.
Lee himself said he worried that he might be prosecuted.
The marijuana plant
The history of marijuana use reaches back farther than many would guess. Cultivation of the Cannabis sativa plant dates back thousands of years. The first written account of cannabis cultivation [ostensibly used as medical marijuana] is found in Chinese records dating from 28 B.C. That means Chinese cultures were growing marijuana more than 2.000 years ago. However, the marijuana plant may have been cultivated long before then - there have been reports of a nearly 3.000-year-old Egyptian mummy containing traces of THC, the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana. The Cannabis sativa is perhaps the most recognizable plant in the world. Pictures of the ubiquitous green cannabis leaf show up in the news media, textbooks and drug-prevention literature, and the leaf’s shape is made into jewelry, put on bumper stickers and clothing and spray-painted on walls. The cannabis leaves are arranged palmately, radiating from a common center like the fingers of a hand spreading apart. Although most people know what the cannabis plant looks like, they may know very little about its horticulture.
Cannabis sativa is believed to be a native plant of India, where it possibly originated in a region just north of the Himalayan mountains. It’s a herbaceous annual that can grow to a height of between 13 and 18 feet | 4 and 5.4 m. The marijuana plant has flowers that bloom from late summer [september] to mid-fall [end october]. Marijuana plants usually have one of two types of flowers, male or female, and some cannabis plants have both they are called hermaphrodites. Male marijuana flowers [pollen] grow in elongated clusters along the leaves and turn yellow and die after blossoming. Female marijuana flowers grow in spikelike clusters and remain dark green for a month after blossoming, until the marijuana seed ripens. Hashish, which is more powerful than marijuana, is made from the resin of the marijuana flowers. Marijuana plants contain more than 400 chemicals, 60 of which fit into a category called cannabinoids. THC is just one of these cannabinoids, but it’s the chemical most often associated with the effects that marijuana has on the brain. Marijuana plants also contain choline, eugenol, guaicacol and piperidine. The concentration of THC and other cannabinoids varies depending on growing conditions, marijuana plant genetics and processing after harvest. Below you will learn more about the potency of THC and the toxicity of marijuana.
“They can indict me any day,” he said, recounting how he was awakened by federal agents armed with assault rifles appearing at his Oakland apartment with a search warrant. “They can arrest me any day.” Agents briefly detained but did not arrest Lee.
The school was closed after agents searched it, but it will reopen Wednesday, Lee’s lawyer, Laurence Jeffrey Lichter said.
Although marijuana remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law, 16 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some sort of legalized medical-cannabis statutes, according to the Drug Policy Alliance.
Beginners guide to growing marijuana
Growing marijuana indoors is fast becoming an global pastime. The reasons are varied. With the increased interest and experimentation in house plant cultivation, it was inevitable that people would apply their knowledge of plant care to growing marijuana. Many of those who occasionally like to light up a marijuana joint may find it difficult to locate a source or are hesitant to deal with a perhaps unsavory element of society in procuring their marijuana. There is of course, the criminal aspect of buying or selling marijuana. Growing marijuana is just as illegal as buying, selling, or smoking it, but growing marijuana is something you can do in the privacy of your own home without having to deal with someone you don’t know or trust. The best reason for growing your own marijuana plants is the enjoyment you will get out of watching those tiny little marijuana seeds you bought, sprout and become some of the most lovely and lush of all house plants.
In those states, including California, the U.S. government has sought in recent months to shut down storefront dispensaries and greenhouses deemed by federal investigators to be drug-trafficking fronts, as well as those that are located close to schools and parks.
The Obama administration has said it would not single out individual patients who possess or grow their own marijuana in states with medical pot statutes. But federal prosecutors have warned they will continue to go after operations that support for-profit, illegal drug dealing under the guise of medical pot.
Federal action has led to dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries being shut down in California, but so far no one has been charged with criminal activity in connection with the crackdown, Lichter said.
Oaksterdam, widely referred to as the “Harvard of Hemp” and the “Princeton of Pot,” opened in 2007 and bills itself as the first cannabis college in the United States.
“Two universities were struck yesterday,” said Dale Sky Jones, executive director of Oaksterdam, referring to Monday’s raid on her school at the same time a gunman opened fire at the nearby Oikos University. “Federal resources are wasted on failed policy while our cities beg for help with gun violence.”
(The story was corrected in paragraphs 6 and 8 to clarify that Justmann and Lee comments were made to Reuters, not other protesters)
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(Reuters)