Legalize it yeah, yeah, and I will advertise it"
~Peter Tosh~
Some good news came out of Jamaica today.
Jamrock might be the land of the collie weed, but smoking our national plant is actually illegal.
At least it was until now.
"KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Marijuana has been pervasive but illegal in Jamaica for decades, consumed as a medicinal herb, puffed as a sacrament by Rastafarians and sung about in the island's famed reggae music.
After many years of dialogue about the culturally entrenched drug, and emboldened by changes to drug laws in U.S. states, Jamaica's Parliament on Tuesday night gave final approval to an act decriminalizing small amounts of pot and establishing a licensing agency to regulate a lawful medical marijuana industry.
The historic amendments pave the way for a "cannabis licensing authority" to be established to deal with regulating the cultivation and distribution of marijuana for medical and scientific purposes. Both houses of Jamaica's legislature have approved the legislation.
And in a victory for religious freedom, adherents of the homegrown Rastafari spiritual movement can now freely use marijuana for sacramental purposes for the first time on the tropical island.
The law makes possession of up to 2 ounces of marijuana a petty offense that could result in a ticket but not in a criminal record. Cultivation of five or fewer plants on any premises would be permitted.
Tourists who are prescribed medical marijuana abroad will soon be able to apply for permits authorizing them to legally buy small amounts of Jamaican weed, or "ganja" as it is known locally." [Source]
There are a lot of local politicians and law enforcement officials in Jamaica who will not be pleased with this new development. This will mean less money in their pockets.
The rest of us, on the other hand, want to just propose a toke.....
Mr. Tosh, you are a prophet.
Speaking of ganja, Bill O' Reilly might wish he had a smoke now after yet another story of him embellishing stories from his days as a reporter.
"Questions over his reporting from the 1982 riot in Buenos Aires may be just the tip of the iceberg for Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. The embattled "O'Reilly Factor" host is facing new allegations of embellishing his connection to a key moment in the investigation of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
A new report from liberal watchdog Media Matters has gathered evidence against O'Reilly's oft-repeated claim that he was present during the suicide of Russian émigré George de Mohrenschildt, a friend of Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
According to O'Reilly's account of the events of March 29, 1977 in his best-selling non-fiction book "Killing Kennedy," he was at de Mohrenschildt's daughter's home in Florida when the man shot himself with a 20-gauge shotgun.
He writes that a "reporter knocked on the door of de Mohrenschildt's daughter's home, he heard the shotgun blast that marked the suicide of the Russian ... that reporter's name is Bill O'Reilly."
O'Reilly has repeated this story several times over the years while promoting his book and the Fox News movie special based on it.
At the time, O'Reilly was a reporter for WFAA-TV in Dallas, and two of his former colleagues claim that he inserted himself into the story after the fact, and could not have been there at the time.
"He was not up on the porch when he heard the gunshots, he was in Dallas. He wasn't traveling at that time," Tracy Rowlett, a reporter colleague of O'Reilly's at WFAA, told Media Matters. "I don't remember O'Reilly claiming that he was there. That came later, that must have been a brain surge when he was writing the book."
Byron Harris, a reporter at WFAA for the past 40 years, also said O'Reilly was in Dallas at the time, and that if he had been there, WFAA would have reported the story as an exclusive item.
"He stole that article out of the newspaper," Harris said. "I guarantee Channel 8 didn't send him to Florida to do that story because it was a newspaper story, it was broken by the Dallas Morning News."
Aside from the word of two former colleagues, Media Matters report cites a Palm Beach County Sherrif's Office investigation into de Mohrenschildt's suicide which makes no mention of O'Reilly, and an Associated Press report from the time that states the only people at the home beside de Mohrenschildt were two maids, who did not report hearing a gunshot.
"About 6:30 that evening I received a call from Bill O'Reilly, a friend who was then a television reporter in Dallas. 'Funny thing happened,' he said. 'We just aired a story that came over the wire about a Dutch journalist saying the Assassinations Committee has finally located de Mohrenschildt in South Florida. Now de Mohrenschildt's attorney, a guy named Pat Russel, he calls and says de Mohrenschildt committed suicide this afternoon. Is that true?'"Further evidence against O'Reilly was collected by Jefferson Morley, a former editor for The Washington Post, in a post on his website jfkfacts.org." [Source]
Maybe he should change the "no spin zone" to the no lie zone.
Finally, it seems like they found another brother with Harry Houdidni like skills. This time it's in the state of Georgia.
"SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A police officer who fatally shot a handcuffed man won't face criminal charges after a grand jury concluded Wednesday that the suspect was armed with a handgun police missed while patting him down.
Savannah-Chatham County police officer David Jannot fatally shot Smith last Sept. 18 shortly after he had been handcuffed and placed in the back of the officer's patrol car. Police said that Smith's hands were cuffed behind his back but that he managed to move them to the front of his body. Smith then kicked out a car window and tried to escape. He was able to get out of the car.
The grand jury's four-page report said the officer shot Smith five times after the suspect fled the car with a gun in his hand. Jannot testified Smith "pointed the weapon as if to fire it," the report said, and Smith fell dead with the gun several inches from his hands. Lab tests confirmed Smith's DNA in skin cells were found on the gun's grip and at the base of its ammunition clip.
"Many Grand Jurors were appalled that the police did not find Smith's gun despite the fact at least three officers are seen on video frisking him," the report said. "... When the police are taking someone into custody who is known to carry a weapon, we would expect them to conduct a thorough search to include the crotch and groin."
Grand jurors recommended Savannah-Chatham police consider revising department procedures on searching suspects for weapons and transporting potentially violent suspects. Smith had struggled with several officers during his arrest before he was placed alone into a patrol car with Jannot.
Smith, who was black, was shot by the white officer barely a month after the police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, ignited a national outcry and raised questions about how race factors into police officers' split-second decisions to use lethal force. If there's a key distinction between the two cases, it's that investigators in Missouri confirmed Brown was unarmed. "[Source]
Carry on folks, nothing to see here. Just another young Negro with incredible escapability skills.
*Rastaman pic from Atlantablackstar.
