# The 25 Biggest *** Marijuana Moments of 2015



## burnin1 (Dec 24, 2015)

From hightimes.com






*The 25 Biggest *** Marijuana Moments of 2015*

By Sativa Von Teese · Thu Dec 24, 2015

Between DEA scandals, fearmongering anti-pot propaganda and presidential candidates, 2015 was a year full of *** moments for marijuana. Beginning in January and working forward to December, we're taking a look back at some of the biggest pot-related stories that made us scratch our heads, shake with anger and seriously wonder "***?". 

*JANUARY 2015*





*1. US Government Buys PDAs to Prevent an Insurgence of Young Stoners*

Uncle Sam kicked off 2015 with an absurd ideawasting tax payer money on a ridiculous mission to prevent the youth of America from succumbing to the dastardly perils of marijuana addiction one PDA at a time. Over $200,000 was allotted by the U.S. government for the purchase of mobile devices to be used in a study to determine what inflicts young minds with the urge to get stoned. Our guess? Kids get stoned to calm down after reading about the dumb **** our government does. *** Uncle Sam?!?
Read the full story HERE.

*2. **Politician Wants to Ban Medical Marijuana in Montana*
 
Montana Senator David Howard, infamous for his anti-gay Facebook posts, made it his mission to outlaw the state's entire medical marijuana program. Howard's proposal was not only an attempt to sabotage the thousands of patients enrolled in the program as well as the dispensaries, such an action would also destroy the economic growth Montana has experienced since medical marijuana was legalized in 2004. *** David Howard?!?

Read the full story HERE.

*FEBRUARY 2015*

 







*3. Florida Deputy Admits to Planting Drugs on Suspects*

A deputy with Florida's Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office was discovered using an anonymous message board to spill details on how to plant drug evidence on innocent citizens to other cops. The _DC Post_ unearthed the ghastly behavior and showed how these types of evil schemes are part of the propeller that keeps the drug war profitable in the U.S. *** Dirty Cops?!?

Read the full story HERE.

*MARCH 2015*






*4. NYPD Blames Pot for Spike in Murder*

New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton attributed the city's 15 to 20 percent surge in drug-related murders to cannabis, stating that "people are killing each other over marijuana more so than anything that we had to deal with in the '80s and '90s with heroin and cocaine." It seems as though the NYPD came to this conclusion because police keep finding pot at crime scenesnot because of any real evidence. As the most widely used illicit substance, it seems like quite a stretch for police to link our favorite herb to cold-blooded murder. *** Bill Bratton?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*5. Critics Warn Pot Causes Crack Babies, Slavery to Vegetables*

Marijuana critics are obviously running low on negative things to say about pot, which must be why prohibitionists resorted to some rather bizarre arguments during two televised attacks on pot. While on _Fox & Friends_, Dr. David Samadi denounced a study that found marijuana to be "low risk" and then claimed that "we have crack babies coming in because pregnant women are smoking this whole marijuana business." The second attack came from televangelist Pat Robertson who called pot users "slaves to a vegetable." *** Pot Prohibitionists?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*6. DEA Agents Had 'Sex Parties' Paid for by Drug Cartels*

Just one of the DEA scandals that led to Michele Leonhart's resignation, a DOJ report found that DEA agents assigned to overseas operations utilized government-funded quarters to throw sex parties with hookers that were paid for by local drug cartels. According to the report, not only were these agents engaged in sexual encounters with prostitutes, at least one physically assaulted a hooker during an argument over money. Oh, and the agents involved only received suspensions somewhere between two to 10 days. *** DEA?!?

Read the full story HERE.







*7. NJ Governor Chris Christie Calls Marijuana Taxes Blood Money*

Ignoring actual objective data, Christie told state officials that "every bit of objective data tells us that [marijuana] is a gateway drug to other drugs" and that it "should not be permitted in our society. He went on to say that collecting proceeds from the cannabis industry was no different than accepting blood money, which is probably why New Jersey can't have nice things. *** Chris Christie?!?

Read the full story HERE.
 
*APRIL 2015*






*8. Cops Shakedown Kids Over Weed, Assault One and Try to Destroy Video Evidence*

An internal affairs investigation was opened after a video showing Virginia Beach police officers abusing kids over suspicion of marijuana emerged online. The video shows one cop dousing an obviously scared kid with pepper spray and throttling him with a high-powered Taser, then the officers reportedly tried to delete the footage. *** Virginia Beach Cops?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*9. Medical Marijuana Activist in Kansas Could Face Charges *

A medical marijuana advocate in Kansas lost custody of her 11-year-old son and faces chargers following comments the boy made during a drug education program at school. Shona Banda, who uses concentrated cannabis oil to treat her Crohn's disease, had been honest with her son about her medical treatment, which prompted the boy to discuss how medical marijuana had saved his mom's life during a D.A.R.E. presentation. He was subjected to an interrogation without his mother present before police raided her home and found medical cannabis. *** Kansas?!?

Read the full story HERE.

*MAY 2015*






*10. D.A.R.E. Falls for Outrageous Anti-Pot Satire*

We all know that D.A.R.E., the drug education program infecting schools since the '80s, is a joke. In fact, a 2004 study found the program to be completely ineffective, but that hasn't stopped the organization from spouting frightening and erroneous information to legions of school children. And now their "joke status" has shot through the roof after posting a hilarious piece of anti-pot satire on their website as fact. They removed the story, but you can still read thanks to the wonder of screenshots. *** D.A.R.E.?!?

Read the full story HERE.


*JUNE 2015*






*11. Ben Stein Writes That 'Marijuana Is a Cancer'*

Has-been actor published a ridiculous column in the American Spectator that begins with the premise that "Marijuana Is a Cancer," and then from there gets even more dumb. He compares pot to ISIS weaponry, soul-eating aliens and poison. He then goes on to tell a story about a young friend who smokes pot all day and has no ambitionthis, Stein argues, is a sure sign on America's downfall. *** Ben Stein?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*12. Cops Eat Pot Brownies, Make Fun of Disabled Patient During Santa Ana Raid*
A month after police o
fficers raided a Santa Ana dispensary, a security camera video of the incident was discovered, and it did not show a pretty scene. The footage appeared to show police officers consuming marijuana edibles and making jokes about kicking medical marijuana activist and patient Marla James, an amputee confined to a wheelchair, in her "******* nub." *** Santa Ana Cops?!?

Read the full story HERE.








*13. State Police Partner with National Guard to Fight Drug War *

State Police and the National Guard in Indiana have been conducting elaborate training exercises to strengthen their arsenal against the nonexistent evils of the mighty cannabis plant. Officials said the alliance between local cops and military forces took place in an effort to ensure officers have the "tactical proficiency" required when busting marijuana growers. Wasting tax dollars to protect against the perils of weed? *** Indiana?!?

Read the full story HERE.
 
*JULY 2015*






*14. Veteran with PTSD Faces Life Sentence for Growing 6 Pot Plants*

In June 2014, a disabled three-term Iraqi War veteran with severe PTSD was arrested in Oklahoma for growing and using pot to treat his symptoms. With permission from authorities, the family moved to California, and since he did not qualify for a public defender, he assumed his case was on hold while he searched for a new lawyer. Fast forward to 2015instead of putting his case on hold, the court in Oklahoma held a jury trial, which he missed because he was never informed about it. The vet was arrested as a fugitive and faces a life sentence. *** Oklahoma?!?

Read the full story HERE.

*AUGUST 2015*






*15. NYPD Caught Using 12-Year-Old COPS Clip to Warn about 'Weaponized Marijuana'*

We were less than thrilled when synthetic marijuana use began to spike in 2015, with a sharp rise in hospitalizations and media coverage. Despite the moniker, this designer drug is NOT marijuana and only serves to give our natural herb a bad name. When the NYPD decided to hold a press conference about the dangers of synthetic pot, we weren't upsetuntil they called it "weaponized marijuana" and showed a 12-year-old _COPS_ clip of a naked man tearing through a fence with his bare hands to illustrate the effects of K2 and Spice. The biggest problem? The man in the clip had reportedly taken PCP, not synthetic pot, and the police never explained that synthetic weed is not the same as real cannabis. *** NYPD?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*16. Hundreds of Local Cops Are Requesting Armored Trucks to Fight War on Weed*

For over 20 years the Pentagon has been giving away surplus military gear to local police departments, a Department of Defense program that had largely evaded scrutiny until the 2014 events in Ferguson sparked a heated debate about police militarization. An investigation by _Mother Jones_ found that the most common reason cops are asking for armored trucks is to combat drugswith some police departments specifically citing marijuana in their requests. Even worse than the reasoning behind the requests, almost all of them were placed on the Pentagon's national priority list. *** Department of Defense?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*17. Russia Orders Wikipedia Page to Be Blocked Over Pot Reference*

Russia's government agency that oversees media ordered a ban on a Wikipedia page for "charas," a type of hashish, because it violated Russian laws banning websites that contain drug-related material. Wikipedia complied with the government's demands in order to avoid having the entire online encyclopedia blocked. *** Russia?!?

Read the full story HERE.

*SEPTEMBER 2015*






*18. Indiana Enlists Military Forces to Uproot Cannabis Plants*

Touted as "Operation Smoke Out," Indiana decided to spend millions of dollars in annual tax revenue to train state police and military forces to conduct raids against illegal marijuana grows. These soldiers of the drug war embarked on a mission to uproot "dangerous" cannabis plants across the southern portion of the state, resulting in a haul of approximately 5,000 pot plants from 146 grow sites, four pounds of processed marijuana and the arrest of 16 people. All at the expense of tax paying citizens. *** Indiana?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*19. Kansas Supreme Court Justice Compares Drug Charges to Sex Crimes*

While hearing arguments between state and local officials as to whether or not the city of Wichita should be allowed to implement an ordinance passed in 2014 that decriminalized pot possession, Kansas Supreme Court Justice Eric Rosen compared decriminalization to lessening the penalties for sex crimes. The ridiculous rationalization was shot down by Wichita city attorney Sharon Dickgrafe, but we can't help but wonder... *** Eric Rosen?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*20. Donald political name Trolls Jeb Bush for Smoking Weed 40 Years Ago*

Pretty much everything Donald political name does or says elicits a "***?" response from us, but when he took to the web to troll Jeb Bush for admitting he had smoked pot as a teen, we definitely did a double take. Support for marijuana legalization is at an all-time high in the U.S., making his comments not only ignorant but also a bad political move. *** Donald political name?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*21. DEA Still Paying Oregon Cops Top Dollar to Destroy Marijuana Farms*

Although there has been a total repeal of marijuana prohibition in the state of Oregon, the federal government is still send the state's law enforcement well over a half million dollars to be used in the uprooting of cannabis plants. Reports stated that Oregon law enforcement will use the $750,000 of tax payer money that the DEA handed them to fly helicopters over the state in serach of cannabis grow sites. *** DEA?!?

Read the full story HERE.






*22. Indiana Schools Use 'Marijuana Goggles' to Misinform Kids About Stoned Driving*

An Indiana school system is using scare tactics and other modern day renditions of Reefer Madness in an effort to prevent youngsters from experimenting with marijuana. Educators are fitting teens "marijuana goggles" to demonstrate what it's like to drive stoned. The problem? The goggles only cause color blindnessnothing like the experience of being stoned. *** Indiana Schools?!?

Read the full story HERE.

*OCTOBER 2015*






*23. Michigan State Police Lab Falsely Reports to Help Prosecutors Get Felony Convictions*

Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors in Michigan have devised a nasty, underhanded scam to ensure more people will go to prison for weed. Prosecutors have reportedly used the state's medical marijuana law to tweak their policy on the way THC is recorded in an effort to bump misdemeanor charges for pot possession up to felonies. This update in policy allows the Michigan State Police Forensic Science Division to treat marijuana edibles and oils, which are banned under the state's medi-pot program, as a synthetic form of THCa felony. *** Michigan?!?

Read the full story HERE.

*NOVEMBER 2015*






*24. Ben Carson Blames Political Correctness for Drug Abuse*

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson is known for saying weird/ignorant **** that makes us scratch our heads, but his rambling comment about drug abuse was one of the most baffling. When asked about the "human side" of addiction, he explained that addiction occurs in people who are vulnerable, and then somehow linked that to political correctness. You should just read the whole quote for yourself because it doesn't make a lick of sense. *** Ben Carson?!?

Read the full story HERE.
 





*25. Fearmongering Police Release Absurd Warning About Pot*

The Illinois State Police reportedly found the "tequila of marijuana," spouting ridiculous warnings about this new "extremely poisonous and destructive" substance. Apparently, they had never seen shatter before, and are completely uneducated on what concentrates are. They made some outrageous claims that was picked up by local Illinois media. *** Illinois State Police?!?

Read the full story HERE.

http://www.hightimes.com/read/25-biggest-***-marijuana-moments-2015


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