by Simon Jay Catling

Jordan Strauss, Getty Images
Muse frontman Matt Bellamy has rather more down to earth plans than his band’s space-rock bombast when the three-piece eventually decide to call quits; he told The Sun newspaper that he wishes to retire and farm in his native Devon (reports Contactmusic).
Bellamy revealed that he owned a farm in the south west, saying of it: “It’s just land with a couple of jaded barns that need to be renovated. It’s a nice place to camp but my long-term plan is to grow industrial hemp for making paper and material.”
What the singer’s current girlfriend, Hollywood actress Kate Hudson, would make of a move there is unknown, but Bellamy continued: “When I stop touring I’m going to hang around there and start shearing sheep. As we speak, I’m letting the rams loose on the ewes. I got them mainly because I’ve got a farm which has a lot of steep hills, so the grass gets out of control unless you get grazing animals in there.”
He isn’t the only band member to admit Muse might need a break, last summer bassist Chris Wolstenholme admitted “it’s something we’ve never done. I think the most time we’ve had off is about six weeks in the last 12 years, so we’re due a break.” Bellamy himself said: “It definitely feels like we’ve got to a certain level as a live band. So it could be time to take a break, back off for a bit and see if anybody misses us.”
http://music.aol.co.uk/2010/12/03/muse-matt-bellamy-farm-retirement/

By Thomas
I met yesterday in Honolulu with Micheal Rex “Raging Bear” Mooney the Medicine Man for the Oklevucha Native American Church of Hawaii, and his attorney Michael Glenn.
Raging Bear and the Oklevucha Native American Church of Hawaii decided to take an offensive posture instead of the usual defensive strategies we have seen here in Hawaii in the past when the federal government seized the church’s sacramental cannabis.
Raging Bear and the Oklevucha Native American Church of Hawaii filed a civil suit in federal district court in the District of Hawaii in July of 2009. The suit seeks injunctive and declaratory relief as well as the return of about one pound of cannabis that had been seized from the church by federal agents.
The defendants include DEA administrator Michele Leonhhart and US Attorney General Eric Holder who fought to keep the case from going to trial. Defendants DEA/U.S. AG Holder filed three motions to dismiss the case. The DEA also well after the lawsuit had been filed destroyed the cannabis.
Federal District Judge Susan Mollway heard and dismissed the case, ruling the government’s prohibition and seizure of the churches cannabis did not present an actual controversy that was ripe for review. The judge also ruled she could not order the government to replace the cannabis they destroyed with a similar quantity of cannabis, because ” the differences in potency and desirability of various cannabis (sounds like she has smoked some herself) would make awarding substitute cannabis unfeasible”.
What? In other words she said the government should give the cannabis back or replace it but they can’t figure out how to do it. Raging Bear and the Oklevucha Native American Church of Hawaii appealed the decision last week to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in their effort to require the DEA and U.S. Attorney General to protect and preserve their right to use cannabis in traditional religious ritual for spiritual purposes.
Cannabis historically known among North American tribes as Rosa Maria (or Santa Maria) is used by members of the Oklevucha Native American Church in addition to their religious use of peyote. The plaintiffs argue the churches non drug use of this otherwise prohibited herb must be respected, as codified by the American Indian Religious freedom act (42 USC – 1996), which requires the policy of the United States to protect and preserve for American Indians their inherent right of freedom to believe, express, and exercise their traditional religions, including but not limited to use and possession of sacred substances, and the freedom to worship through ceremonials and traditional rites.
It gets even more interesting in that Micheal Rex “Raging Bear” Mooney is the son of James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney’ who is also suing the federal government in another religious freedom case on the mainland for the right of non Native American members of the church to use peyote also. Raging Bear’s grandfather, Flaming Eagle’s father was also a Native American “medicine man” this is a calling and tradition that has run in the family for generations.
The Mooney’s have chosen to be proactive.
AP article on James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney’s lawsuit.
American Indian church sues feds over peyote use
JENNIFER DOBNER Associated Press
September 16, 2010
http://www.fox13now.com/news/local/kstu-ap-american-indian-church-sues-feds-over-peyote-use,0,2016987.story
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — An American Indian church is suing state and federal police and prosecutors over the right of its members to use peyote in religious ceremonies, even if they are not of Indian ancestry.
The lawsuit seeks to block state and federal law enforcement from arresting or bringing criminal charges against church members who “fear reprisal from both state and federal governments for openly practicing their religion,” court papers state.
Those cases include the 2000 prosecution of medicine man James “Flaming Eagle” Mooney on multiple felony charges, including drug possession and distribution for giving peyote to church members and others during religious ceremonies.
Mooney’s conviction was thrown out by the Utah Supreme Court on appeal. The ruling from justices said an exemption in federal law that allows for peyote use should include all church members regardless of the arbitrary “blood quantum” standard — the primary basis for determining who is a protected American Indian religious practitioner, the lawsuit states.
“It is time that such a basis be abolished in favor of extending full religious freedom and protection to the NAC as a broader based, American religious choice,” attorneys for the Oklevueha wrote in court papers.
This is from the Oklevucha Native American Church web site.
http://www.nativeamericanchurch.net/Native_American_Church/NATIVE_AMERICAN_CHURCH.html
The Native American Church represents North and South American indigenous earth based healing spiritual beliefs and practices.
America’s indigenous spirituality was first congressionally recognized and signed into law, Dawes Act 1876, by United States President Grant. In 1918, a committee of Oklahoma federally recognized American Native Spiritual leaders, with the assistance of James Mooney writing the By-Laws, Incorporated the Native American Church.
The American Indian Religious Freedom Act (AIRFA), 42 U.S.C. 1978, August 11, 1978, was signed into law by
President Carter and finally with the Amendment to AIRFA,
the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of
2000, signed by President Clinton gives the clear and concise understanding that the Native American Church had been mandated to receive all the protections and rights of the First Amendment since 1918.
We welcome you to experience the spiritual healing powers of our American Native ceremonial heritage.
A Brief History of the Native American Church
by Jay Fikes
http://csp.org/communities/docs/fikes-nac_history.html
American Indian Religious Freedom Act
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_Religious_Freedom_Act
http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2010/12/03/oklevucha-native-american-church-appeals-to-the-9th-circuit-court-of-appeals-for-ceremonial-use-of-cannabis/

CONCORD – The state Supreme Court effectively reversed Lull Farm owner David Orde’s marijuana conviction Tuesday, finding that a Hollis police officer violated his privacy while trying to serve notice of a lapsed dog license. 
The court found that Orde had a reasonable expectation that the deck alongside his house was a private space.  
Chief Justice nominee Linda Dalianis was the lone justice to disagree with the ruling by Judge Gary Hicks. The court’s other justices agreed that the marijuana plants police found at Orde’s home and Orde’s subsequent statements to police could not be used as evidence against him.  
Orde was tried, convicted and sentenced last year to serve 60 days in jail on charges of manufacturing marijuana. Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge James Barry allowed Orde to remain free on bail pending appeal, so he didn’t spend any time behind bars. 
Orde’s son, Andrew Orde, then 19, was also arrested, and he later pleaded guilty to a reduced, misdemeanor possession charge and was sentenced to 30 days in jail. 
The Ordes were arrested on the felony marijuana-growing charges July 29, 2008, after Hollis police officer Angel Corrado went to their home at 2 Blood Road to serve Orde with a complaint for failing to license his dog. No one answered at the door, so Corrado walked around to the side of the house, where he spotted 16 marijuana plants growing in pots on a deck.  
Police then reached Orde at the farm and asked him to come to the house. Orde admitted to growing the marijuana plants, saying he was “stupid” for doing so, but that police were “ridiculous” to arrest him for it, according to court records.  
Orde and his lawyers argued that Corrado had no business walking across his lawn, through a gap in a lilac hedge and up onto his deck, and four out of five Supreme Court justices agreed. While Corrado had a legitimate reason for going to see Orde, the court ruled, Orde also had a reasonable expectation that his deck was private. 
Because police violated Orde’s constitutional right to privacy and protection against unreasonable searches of property, the court found, the evidence police found could not be used against him. 
“We have previously recognized that certain property surrounding a home, often described as curtilage, deserves the same protection against unreasonable searches and seizures as the home itself,” Judge Gary Hicks wrote. 
Because there was no obvious entry to the deck from the driveway or the main door, and the hedgerow screened it from view, Hicks wrote, the deck should be considered a private space. Some federal court judges have “apparently assumed the police could lawfully walk around a person’s property provided they are on the property for a legitimate police activity, such as interviewing a person or serving civil process. We disagree. Permitting police such wide latitude to enter a person’s private property is ‘incompatible with and detrimental to our citizens’ strong right of privacy,’” Hicks wrote, quoting an earlier New Hampshire case.
 “Thus, when the police come on to private property to conduct an investigation or for some other legitimate purpose and restrict their movements to places visitors could be expected to go (e.g., walkways, driveways, porches), observations made from such vantage points are not covered by the Fourth Amendment. But other portions of the lands adjoining the residence are protected, and thus if the police go upon these other portions and make observations there, this amounts to a Fourth Amendment search,” Hicks wrote. 
Dalianis disagreed, noting the deck was plainly visible from the driveway, and that although there was no clear path to it, there was also no sign warning against trespassing. 
Because the discovery of the marijuana amounted to an illegal search, the court ruled, police also had no right to question Orde about it or to use that evidence to get a warrant to search his house. 
Orde could not be reached for comment at his farm or his home. 
One of his lawyers, Jeffrey Denner of Boston, said he was “very pleased” that the high court agreed with Orde’s take on the case. 
“David Orde is a very decent man, a very decent human being. He works very hard,” and tries to contribute to the community, Denner said. “The extent that he smokes marijuana now and then, I don’t think, makes him any less decent.” 
“He is very happy that this ordeal is over. He’s very happy that his constitutional rights were vindicated,” Denner said. 
The prosecutor, Assistant County Attorney David Tencza, said he agreed with Dalianis’ take on the law. 
The Lull Farm website has a section titled, “cannabis corner,” with news on efforts to legalize marijuana and hemp cultivation, and the farm stand sells hemp products.  
Andrew Wolfe can be reached at 594-6410 or awolfe@nashuatelegraph.com.
 http://www.cabinet.com/hollisbrooklinejournalhollisnews/901316-308/supreme-court-nixes-pot-conviction.html

Raina Rue

“It sure is good to come to a great university and speak to a bunch of good Baptists-I see you all up there sitting in the back row,” joked state Senator Joey Pendleton (D-Hopkinsville) at the opening of his speech on the night of Nov. 17 in Wallace.
Right off the bat, Senator Pendleton made his audience feel at home with a bit of a jest and a smile. Though his demeanor was lighthearted, the subject he came to speak about was an issue that has been seriously debated in recent months.
Pendleton, who was invited to speak on campus by Eastern’s student NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) chapter, spoke on the agricultural, environmental and economic benefits that the legalization of industrial hemp could bring to Kentucky.
“It [industrial hemp] is much more environmentally friendly, easier and cheaper to grow than a lot of other crops, and can be mixed with coal to create a cleaner burning product for fuel,” Pendleton said.
The senator said hemp could be economically beneficial as well. He said that according to projections by state officials, legalizing the hemp industry could generate a $4-5 million profit for Kentucky, while simultaneously creating thousands of jobs for Kentucky citizens.
Taking advantage of hemp’s fuel opportunities could also make the United States much less dependent on foreign oils, Pendleton said
Sophomore American Sign Language major Devan Owens echoed the Senator’s idea. “Hemp is probably one of the most multi-purposeful materials available; and with little to no THC, I just don’t understand [why it’s illegal],” he said.
Many students came to Wallace 147 to hear the Kentucky senator speak, some NORML members and some not.
“It’s time to educate people,” said NORML president Ashley Sharpe. “It’s time for change, and I am ready to be a part of it.”
Senator Pendleton’s advice to anyone seeking to have their opinion represented in Kentucky legislation should contact their local representatives and senators-preferably by personal e-mail-because it has a more “personal touch.”
“Educate people as to what we’re doing here,” Pendleton said. “People need to know and understand that what we’re dealing with isn’t smoking marijuana, but a completely different animal altogether.”
He also said writing letters, collecting signatures, voting when election time rolls around and organizing campaigns are also great ways for advocates to have their voices heard in Kentucky’s legislative world.
“The wheel that squeaks the loudest will be the one that gets greased,” Pendleton said near the close of his speech, metaphorically summing up the advice he had been giving to students wishing to get involved in the cause to legalize industrial hemp.
http://media.www.easternprogress.com/media/storage/paper419/news/2010/12/02/News/Senator.Speaks.Of.ProHemp.Politics-3963385.shtml

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan sued the cities of Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills and Livonia today, claiming their ordinances banning medical marijuana are in direct violation of the 2008 Michigan Medical Marihuana Act (MMMA).
According to the ACLU, the lawsuit asks that the city ordinances be declared invalid.
According to the lawsuit, the ACLU is suing on behalf of Birmingham residents Robert and Linda Lott. Linda has suffered from multiple sclerosis for 28 years, is blind and confined to a wheelchair, while Robert was recently diagnosed with glaucoma. Both qualify as patients under the MMMA and are registered as such with the Michigan Department of Community Health. In addition, Robert is registered as Linda’s primary caregiver, allowing him to grow marijuana plants for Linda and himself.
The MMMA allows and provides protection for the medical use of marijuana for patients and their caregivers when used to treat “dehilitating medical conditions,” including multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. The MMMA states that registered patients and their caregivers “shall not be subject to arrest, prosecution, or penalty in any manner” for growing, possessing and using marijuana.
Last year, however, Birmingham adopted an ordinance prohibiting any activity that violates federal law. Since using medical marijuana is still illegal under the federal Controlled Substance Act, the Lotts could be arrested and prosecuted for possessing the drug in her home.
The ACLU press release stated that the federal government typically does not prosecute medical marijuana patients and caregivers if they comply with their state’s medical marijuana law.  In 2008, the MMMA passed by 71 percent in Birmingham.
According to the press release, Lott is also suing the cities of Bloomfield Hills and Livonia for similar ordinances. A member of a private club in Bloomfield Hills, Lott is banned from using marijuana throughout the city. And under its ordinance, Lott’s husband, Robert, is prevented from growing marijuana in a building he owns in Livonia.
According to Birmingham City Commission Mayor Gordon Rinschler, Birmingham adopted its ordinance a little over a year ago not necessarily in response to the MMMA, but as part of the commission’s discussion of the act and its ramifications. Rinschler said he couldn’t comment on pending litigation, but said the MMMA is ripe for a challenge.
“The Michigan Marihuana Act has so many problems associated with it, (this) is going just going to have to play out over time,” Rinschler said.
http://birmingham.patch.com/articles/in-brief-birmingham-among-cities-sued-by-aclu-for-banning-medical-marijuana

Lichfield-based building contractor Linford Group has won a national award for its “ground-breaking” Renewable House. The contractor lifted the top Innovation award at the Constructing Excellence National Awards for the property, which is located at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Innovation Park in Watford.
Developed in conjunction with the National Non-Food Crops Centre, The Renewable House is constructed of Hemcrete, a sustainable building material derived from hemp, rather than bricks and mortar. The substance has been developed by Lime Technologies, a partner in the build.
The Renewable House was constructed entirely from renewable materials, and is “showing the way that Britain’s housing stock may go in the future”.
Neil Walters, group commercial director, said: “Innovation doesn’t need to cost the earth. The Renewable House is a highly sustainable building, but it will cost pretty much the same to build as a normal brick house.
“We also believe that to gain widespread acceptance in a culture sceptical of green buildings that the house benefits from looking ‘normal’ and doesn’t need a host of ‘renewables’ normally associated with green buildings.”
http://www.insidermedia.com/insider/midlands/43333-hemp-house-wins-construction-prize/

By Phillip Smith

Jack Herer, author of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” and arguably “the greatest cannabis crusader of all time,” died in April after suffering a heart attack at the Portland Hempstalk Festival eight months earlier. The passing of the movement icon prompted the release of this memorial tribute edition of “Jack Herer is the Emperor of Hemp,” which updates the decade-old release with new interview footage with the prophet of hemp and includes the entire 1943 Department of Agriculture film “Hemp for Victory.”

But it’s not just the new, never before seen interview material that makes this DVD reissue worthwhile, because Jack Herer’s story is fascinating in itself and “Jack Herer” does an admirable job of explicating the man, his evolution, and his passions. (Not to mention you’ll get to see NORML founder Keith Stroup before his hair turned white!)

Herer’s story is a true American journey (and by the way, it’s pronounced HAIR-er, not Huh-RARE). Born in 1939, Herer entered the 1960s as a conservative — an Army veteran and Goldwater supporter, married and living in California’s Central Valley, who was offended by the upheavals of the time, disgusted by anti-war protestors, and blamed much of the upheaval on the demon weed. Who knew?
By the following decade, things had changed dramatically. Divorced, Herer’s new girlfriend persuaded him to try marijuana. Here, the DVD shows a dancing girl as Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky” booms out on the soundtrack, an apt evocation of Herer’s transformation from military policeman to hippie, from Goldwater Republican to radical.
With Emmy Award winner Peter Coyote narrating, and with archival footage and interviews from the likes of NORML’s Keith Stroup, historian Michael Aldrich, Kevin Zeese, and Dr. John Morgan, “Jack Herer” tracks Herer’s odyssey from author of a 1973 marijuana cartoon book to his subsequent experience as recipient of knowledge from innumerable people about not just pot, but hemp, and all its uses, his opening of the first hemp store on Venice Beach in 1979, and ultimately the publication of the book that made him famous and re-energized the marijuana legalization movement, “The Emperor Wears No Clothes.”
The DVD acknowledges the early conflicts between Herer and the drug reform movement, which at first considered him at best an over-enthusiastic partisan and at worst a crank. Herer thought hemp could be central to ending marijuana prohibition, not to mention that it could “save the world,” and the be-suited boys back East weren’t buying what that wild-eyed, tie-dyed, missionary Californian was selling.
A number of years later, the movement types were suitable contrite. “He overstated the case a bit,” said Stroup. “We were embarrassed; we thought it could undermine our credibility.”
Instead Herer almost singlehandedly revitalized the pot movement with the 1985 publication of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” the magnum opus of hemp, and an intoxicating combination of unknown history, polemics, and passion that turned a new generation on not just to hemp, but to pot, the history of its criminalization, and the need to undo prohibition.
“Jack Herer” describes the tenets of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” fairly without wholeheartedly endorsing his theory of an evil troika of Harry Anslinger, the Dupont family, and Andrew Mellon conspiring to bring on prohibition. And I think that’s fair. Herer’s conspirators most certainly played a role in pot prohibition, but the anti-marijuana movement was alive and well in this country well before Anslinger and the others were active in the 1930s.
Maybe hemp won’t “save the world,” but there is no arguing that it is a tremendously valuable plant with a multitude of uses that can help improve the environment, create jobs, and provide us with everything from biodiesel to body panels to an ever-increasing variety of hemp-based foods.
And Herer’s perhaps overenthusiastic message was received enthusiastically by that new generation, especially when tied to his never-forgotten broader campaign to legalize marijuana, beginning with initiative campaigns back in the 1970s. Between bringing hemp to the forefront and energizing a movement suffering through the depths of the Reagan Era, Herer cemented his place in movement history.
But he didn’t stop there. In fact, he didn’t stop until he fell over unconscious at a movement event just after giving one last speech. Herer was a movement presence throughout the 1990s, and by then, had won the acceptance of the movement, which recognized the enormous contribution he had made. Despite a 2001 stroke that laid him low, he bounced back, still out proselytizing and organizing, even as he moved slowly and struggled to control his voice.
In California, at least, every marijuana movement figure of a certain age knew Jack Herer. Whether from his days as the hemp hawker of Venice Beach or the decades of activism that followed, Herer has made a lasting impact on California’s — and indeed, the country’s — marijuana legalization movement. “Jack Herer is the Emperor of Hemp” pays fond homage to a true movement hero. It is definitely worth checking out, especially as you ponder the man, his life’s work, and his impact on the marijuana reform movement.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/nov/30/dvd_review_jack_herer_emperor_he