Delanco resident's podcasts a huge success

Chris Goldstein didn't start the movement to legalize marijuana use in the United States, but during the last year he has become arguably the movement's best-known voice.

That in itself is quite a trip for the 31-year-old Delanco resident.

Now consider that Goldstein's daily podcast, the NORML Daily Audio Stash, is regularly downloaded by more computer and iPod users than podcasts produced by and for New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and President George W. Bush.

If you'd told Goldstein that was going to happen a year ago when the show first debuted on the Web site of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Law, he likely would have thought you were, well, smoking something.

“It does feel good,” Goldstein said about the popularity of the Daily Audio Stash.

Goldstein is the host and producer of the podcast. For the uninitiated, a podcast is the digital equivalent of a radio show. The crucial difference is that instead of being broadcast over public airwaves or via satellite radio, podcasts are uploaded onto Web pages and then made available for listening on personal computers or portable media devices such as Apple's iPod and Microsoft's Zune.

It's a rapidly growing format for both music, news and political commentary that Goldstein said has proven uniquely suitable for NORML's goal of promoting marijuana reform.

“It's really the only way for an organization like (NORML) to present this issue,” Goldstein said last week while putting the finishing touches on a special 58-minute “best of” episode marking the show's one-year anniversary.

Goldstein had a lot to choose from for the special. During the past year, he has interviewed more than 300 people for the daily podcasts. The interviews include frank discussions with Texas Congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul, noted poet and political activist John Sinclair, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page and comedian Tommy Chong.

The interviews are edited together with news and commentary about marijuana reform and science.

Goldstein and NORML activists point to the popularity of the show as another example of the growing strength of the movement to legalize and regulate the marijuana. According to NORML, the podcasts were downloaded more than 2.2 million times during the last year and consistently ranked among the top 15 “most subscribed” podcasts in the government and organizations category of the Apple iTunes Music Store on the Internet. The rankings are based on the number of times the free podcasts are downloaded.

“I think it shows that people are as interested in marijuana policy and serious information about reform,” Goldstein said. “That's what we present. We're not some stoner show that makes fun of the issue. We talk to doctors, scientists and medical patients (who use the drug).”

Goldstein, a New Jersey native and 1994 graduate of Moorestown Friends School, described the work as surprisingly time-consuming. He said his typical day is spent surfing the Internet in search of marijuana-related news and scientific reports to discuss on the show. He also speaks to NORML senior policy officials daily, conducts phone interviews and looks for suitable music for inclusion on the podcast. He then edits everything he has accumulated into what is typically a 30- to 35-minute package.

Most days, the entire operation is done out of a tiny second-floor studio in Goldstein's Delanco home, although he occasionally pieces together shows elsewhere.

“All I really need is a microphone, a computer and an Internet connection,” Goldstein said.

In addition to his work with NORML, Goldstein hosts and produces a weekly radio show called Active Voice Radio based in Santa Fe, N.M.

Before working in radio and podcasts, Goldstein studied acting at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. He also worked as an actor in the city.

The Daily Audio Stash podcasts are available for download at www.norml.org.

Cop Steals Pot & Makes Brownies

DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - A police officer in this Detroit suburb was allowed to resign after admitting he took marijuana from criminal suspects and, with his wife, baked it into brownies.

Click Here to Hear the 911 Call

The department's decision not to prosecute former Cpl. Edward Sanchez left a bad taste in the mouth of at least one city official, who vowed to investigate.

"If you're a cop and you're arresting people and you're confiscating the marijuana and keeping it yourself, that's bad. That's real bad," City Councilman Doug Thomas told the Detroit Free Press for a story Thursday.

"That's like apprehending a bank robber and keeping some of the money for yourself."

The newspaper said Sanchez, who resigned last year, declined to comment Wednesday.

Police Cmdr. Jeff Geisinger left a phone message with a Detroit television station saying Sanchez resigned during an internal investigation. Geisinger did not return subsequent calls asking why Sanchez was not prosecuted.

The department's investigation began with a 911 call from Sanchez's home on April 21, 2006. On a 5-inute tape of the call, obtained by the Free Press under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act, Sanchez told an emergency dispatcher he thought he and his wife were overdosing on marijuana.

"I think we're dying," he said. "We made brownies and I think we're dead, I really do."

Sanchez later told police investigators that his wife took the marijuana out of his police vehicle while he was sleeping. In a subsequent interview, he admitted he got the marijuana out of the car himself, put it in the brownie mix and ate the brownies.

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Information from: Detroit Free Press, http://www.freep.com

Medical Marijuana and the Democratic Party in New York.

Crossposted from GreenState Project and Daily Kos

There is a real possibility that New York will be greatly relieving the fear of law enforcement retaliation against medical marijuana users soon and the Democratic Party will be taking responsibility for it - whether people want to like it or even know about it, or not.

More.

From the New York Sun

Following in the footsteps of Connecticut's Legislature, New York State lawmakers are expected to approve legislation allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The Democrat-led Assembly could pass a medical marijuana bill as early as this week, according to the bill's main sponsor. The Republican-led Senate is expected to follow suit, lawmakers said.

It's not clear if Governor Spitzer would support the bill. As a candidate last year, Mr. Spitzer said he was opposed to the legalization of medical marijuana, but a spokeswoman for the governor indicated yesterday that he has not ruled out signing such a bill.

I am very pleased to not have to bash the New York Repubs on this issue. Here they are doing what I and many other people have been demanding. Although it's only taken 40 years of screaming and the law isn't the picture of compassion.

Apparently Spitzer, a Democrat, was initially on record as toeing the general reefer mad GOP line: not seeing any possible value in medical marijuana and was promising a veto of any such legislation.

Nothing like an open mind, eh?

Well it's true: there isn't: check it out.

Spitzer is open to New York legalizing medicinal marijuana

Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer, in a reversal of a campaign position, said Tuesday he could support legislation legalizing the use of marijuana for certain medicinal purposes.

The governor’s position comes as lawmakers stepped up a push in the final two weeks of the 2007 session for New York to join 12 other states and allow marijuana for those suffering from cancer, multiple sclerosis and other painful conditions.

In a debate last summer he went on record opposing such a thing.

He's a Democrat and this is wrong. And I am happy to report he's changed his mind.

I cannot say what has prompted -this flip flop- his change of heart but it's an important change to note.

From the NY Sun piece linked above:

New York would be the 13th state to approve a medical marijuana program and the fifth state to approve the use of the substance through legislative action. Eight states have permitted medical marijuana by voter referendum.

What was that Dean strategy? State by state?

Oh yeah... the 50-state Strategy..

Medical Marijuana has it's own 50-State program going and it's time for Democrats and the Democratic Party to do the right thing and jump on the bandwagon.

I know...politics isn't about doing the right thing.

I mean look at the law that's going to happen in New York: You can't legally get any marijuana, but if you have a certain illness you will only be fined $100 for self treatment.

“Essentially, personal marijuana use for all intents and purposes has been decriminalized anyway in New York,” said Erie County District Attorney Frank J. Clark, pointing to state law that makes a first marijuana possession subject to only a violation with a $100 fine.

That's awful good and compassionate, right?

ONLY $100 fine and a ticket for treating yourself AFTER you have been OFFICIALLY-APPROVED as "sick enough to qualify". Aren't you just weeping at this moving display of compassion??

Ok...so they haven't done "the right thing" by a long shot but it IS a goose-step in the -right- correct direction. And that's desirable.

Dems don't have to worry about "doing the right thing" here. They can play dirty politics: Any democratic candidate talking positively about reform should know in their hearts this just puts so much pressure on their GOP counterparts.

See, the GOP has no choice whatsoever: they HAVE to continue lying and saying the amazing stupid and heartless things they do about medical marijuana and the pot-smoking demographic in general. The moment the lying stops, the lockstep stops and we all know the GOP eats its own when this occurs.

They have painted themselves into a corner and right now the GOP is strung out across America reeling from an array of serious scandals, a recent ass-kicking in the 2006 elections and are losing serious ground...everywhere it seems.

The Dems, in contrast and despite their aiding and abetting the problem these past 40 years, have no similar investment in reefer madness. Dems are free to just talk positively and rationally about it and then move on.

The GOP is largely unable to do this. I'd make 'em talk about it. Make them say the stupid things they will say. Make 'em squirm.

One of the last things the GOP needs right now is a concerted effort to make themselves look any more out of touch with people; to look any more aloof to "the people's issues"; to essentially be castigating potential voters who smoke pot or support relegalization is just not what the GOP needs to be doing right now.

The bottom line is that people have wanted cannabis reform(s) for 40 years and the Federal Government and the GOP (yes, Dems help but it's the GOP's baby in the end) have fought this tooth and nail the entire time.

Yet here we are with medical marijuana reforms creeping across the nation, testimony to the grassroots and now netroots activism of people getting these things on ballots.

Someday we'll get our straight upperdown vote.

The Democratic Party can help make that happen and make life difficult for the GOP...if they will only do so.

Encourage YOUR representatives to talk like sane adults about medical marijuana and/or cannabis/war on drug reform.

Forget that it's doing the "right thing": it'll be a blast to torment the GOP!

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RAY J FILMS CONTROVERSIAL MEDICAL MARIJUANA VIDEO WITH SNOOP

WHITNEY HOUSTON's toyboy lover RAY J has shot a controversial new video singing the praises of marijuana. The R+B singer, who made headlines earlier this year (07) when a leaked sex tape featuring him and ex-girlfriend Kim Kardashian was leaked, directs and stars in the music video for Smoking Weed, alongside rapper pals Snoop Dogg and Slim Thug. But Ray J, singer Brandy's brother, insists the song and video were made purely to highlight the medicinal qualities of the drug, which he was prescribed three years ago - to help him sleep. And he claims the rappers who join him in the promo also use marijuana to help them battle insomnia. He says, "In Los Angeles and in nine other states you can smoke weed legally because that's my medication. Like it's hard for me to go to sleep at night... I have insomnia. "So they (doctors) prescribe marijuana for me so I can relax at night and just be cool... I've been a patient for two, three years. "Snoop's a patient... Slim Thug's a patient, so what you're doing is you're watching a video of people just using their medication to help them relax. "It's hard to go to sleep at night, being an entrepreneur and being on the grind every day."