Posts Tagged ‘montel williams’
I’m disappointed in Steve DeAngelo, who stated at the end of the fourth and final episode of Weed Wars: “I don’t believe in legalizing cannabis for recreational use.”
DeAngelo is the star of Weed Wars, which Discovery has been accused of stealing. Even worse in my mind is his (and his brother Andrew’s) blatant hypocrisy.
Years before they started Harborside Health Center in Oakland, DeAngelo was a marijuana activist/pot dealer in Washington, DC. In fact, he was arrested for possession shortly before he left DC for the West Coast.
I wouldn’t dredge this up if DeAngelo (or Stevie D as he’s know in cannabis circles) wasn’t such a turncoat.
He’s made millions selling pot to medical patients in California. His mantra is “cannabis should be used for purposes of wellness.” Nice spin. Now let’s get back to reality.
Just last year DeAngelo proposed a legalization initiative for California. When Richard Lee beat him to it with Prop 19, DeAngelo pulled back and said he’d wait for 2012. Now it appears that he’s not in favor of taxing and regulating marijuana for all uses any longer.
To his credit, DeAngelo and his then partner Eric Steenstra founded the hemp clothing line Ecolution in the mid-’90s. Unfortunately, business didn’t go well and they soon closed up shop.
After his arrest and the subsequent dismissal of the case, DeAngelo made his move, opening the uber-slick “WalMart of pot” in Oakland. He aimed to blow away the competition and to some extent has, raking in $20 million dollars in 2010.
I was excited about Weed Wars. Why not a reality TV show that focuses on the inner workings of a major medical-marijuana dispensary?
Allegedly, a producer named Kylie Krabbe pitched the idea to Discovery in 2010. She lined up The Farmacy, based in Los Angeles, as the featured dispensary. According to her complaint, Discovery thought the concept was “too edgy” for them and rejected her proposal. Then, lo and behold, Discovery inked a deal with Harborside instead. If that’s true, it’s really sleazy.
During their rounds to promote Weed Wars, Andrew DeAngelo, who has glaucoma, told Bill O’Reilly, “We do not support the legalization of cannabis for recreational purposes.”
I winced when I heard that, but figured it was just his opinion. Then, as the show’s brief season came to a close, Steve parroted his brother.
That’s the same stance taken by Montel Williams, who was booed at the NORML Conference DeAngelo speaks at during Episode 4. It’s sad to see someone who hails himself as “an agent of change to bring the truth about the cannabis plant to the rest of the world” take such a giant step backwards.
Weed Wars certainly serves an important purpose – to reach beyond the converted, to the heart of mainstream America, with a message of medicinal use. But the series proved to be a DeAngelo family vanity project. Now we know Steve DeAngelo has a closet filled with colorful suits, hats and ties. We also know that he’s officially turned his back on the cause he’s championed for “almost 40 years.”
If Steve DeAngelo’s old compatriot Jack Herer were still alive he’d call him a lot worse names. I’m just going to call him a hypocrite and leave it at that.
Courtesy of Celebstoner
Sixty-three celebrities were arrested for drugs (mostly marijuana) in 2011. That’s an increase of 20 (or 47%) over last year. Here’s the breakdown:
• The biggest celebrities arrested were Montel Williams, Sebastian Bach, Big Boi, Marcus Camby, Rick Ross, Soulja Boy, Theodora Richards, Julie Pacino, Brooke Mueller and Sly Stone.
• Athletes (24) and musicians (21) accounted for 69% of all celebrity drug busts.
• Musicians accounted for 32% of all celebrity drug busts.
Rappers (16) arrested were: Baby Bash, Big Boi, Blaze, Dice Raw, Hynief, Juelz Santana, Juvenile, Paul Methric, Rick Ross, Soulja Boy, Jamie Spaniolo, Tow Down, Truck North, Wacka Flocka (three times), Paul Wall and Webbie.
Other musicians (5) arrested were: Sebastian Bach, Denroy Morgan, June Pointer, Mike Starr and Sly Stone.
• Athletes accounted for 37% of all celebrity drug busts.
NFL players (9) arrested were: Kenny Britt, Donald Caldwell, Terry Glenn, Sam Hurd, Javarris James, James Jolly (twice), Alex Magee, Laurence Maroney and Lawrence Wilson. Former NFL player Terry Glenn was also arrested. College football player Janoris Jenkins was arrested twice.
NBA players (3) arrested were: Michael Beasley, Marcus Camby and Dante Cunningham. Former NBA players (3) Jose Ortiz, Samaki Walker and Rodney White were also arrested. College basketball players (3) DeAngelo Castro, Jamal Combs-McDaniel and first-round draft pick Klay Thompson were arrested.
One baseball player was arrested: Jordan Schafer. Former major leaguer Lenny Dykstra was also arrested.
NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield and boxer Tommy Morrison were arrested.
• Actors and TV stars accounted for 12% of all celebrity drug busts.
Actors and TV stars (8) arrested were: Antoine Dodson, Jermaine Hopkins, Jody Lathan, Ezra Miller, Brooke Mueller, Felicia Pearson, April Purvis and Montel Williams.
• Children of famous celebs (3) arrested were: Redmond O’Neal, Julie Pacino and Theodora Richards.
• Other celebs (6) arrested were: Dana Beal, Marion Christopher Barry, Brandi Favre, Steve Gold, James Rosemond and Korey Rowe.
• Out of the 65 arrests, 51 were for marijuana (79%). The other drugs were cocaine and crack (6), meth (2), steroids (2), heroin, PCP, Ecstasy, codeine, Vicodin, Xanax and Viagra.
• Only seven of the celebrities arrested were women.
• Florida led all states with eight arrests (six in Tampa), followed by New York, New Jersey and Texas (6); California and Georgia (4); North Carolina (3); Arizona, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin (2).
Also see:
2011 Celeb Drug Busts A-Z
2010 Celeb Drug Busts A-Z
2009 Celeb Drug Busts A-Z
CelebStoner Mug Shots
More CelebStonerr News
By ARON HELLER, Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) — Emmy Award-winning television personality and patient activist Montel Williams said Sunday he was impressed with Israel’s liberal attitude toward medical marijuana, and he believes the U.S. could learn a thing or two from the Jewish state.
Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999 and he has since been an outspoken advocate of medical marijuana to relieve pain caused by the disease.
The former host of the popular long-running talk show “The Montel Williams Show” is in Israel on a fact-finding mission to learn about its medicinal cannabis practices. He is meeting with legislators, scientists and physicians.
At the height of his TV career, Williams was one of the most recognizable faces in America alongside fellow daytime TV hosts Oprah Winfrey, Phil Donahue and Geraldo Rivera.
“We need to get out of the dark ages and into the new ages,” he told The Associated Press. “Not every patient can use cannabis, but for those who can — why deny it?”
In Israel, certain doctors can approve cannabis prescriptions and disperse them to patients, said Itay Goor-Aryeh, the head of the pain management unit at the Sheba Medical Center in central Israel.
He said that while marijuana use is strictly regulated, many doctors prefer prescribing it to patients who qualify because it is “the lesser of evils.”
“Those patients, if they do not get cannabis, they will get morphine-like drugs and other harmful drugs,” said Goor-Aryeh. “I think that in many ways, cannabis is tolerated and is less addictive that morphine-based drugs.”
Sixteen U.S. states have decriminalized the use of medical marijuana to some extent. Critics claim dispensaries are often no more than drug trafficking fronts.
Williams said that those merely seeking to smoke pot won’t go through the lengthy bureaucratic process when they could just “go down the street.”
Williams, 55, said he takes cannabis on a daily basis.
“For me, there is nothing else that can do what it does,” he said. “It helps me suppress my pain … When I am not using cannabis I am thinking about my pain every 45 seconds.”
He said the drug has been “vilified to substantiate the false reason why it was banned in the first place,” and that he hoped it would one day become a regular prescription drug.
“There are chemicals within that plant,” he said, “and some of the leading science on where and how those chemicals work is being done right here in this country,” referring to Israel.
To read the complete article, visit www.google.com.
CARSON CITY, Nev., Oct. 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — Rapid Fire Marketing (OTC Pink: RFMK) announced today that Medical Cannabis Management (MCM) is stepping up marketing efforts to identify every medical cannabis related dispensary, doctor and other facilities within the business including all non-profit collectives. This database will be used for marketing efforts for MCM to expand its consulting business throughout the state of California. As a result of the expansion of the consulting business, the availability of management of non-profits will increase substantially.
Medical Cannabis is a multi-billion dollar industry that is only going to grow over the coming years. MCM is determined to become the leader in consulting and management for this industry in the state of California.
“Without marketing our services in a direct way, we would be missing out on a substantial amount of deal flow. Now that we have begun operations in this sector, we are going to do just that by expanding the consulting part of our business,” said Mike Amezquita, CEO of MCM. “Over the last few weeks we have been able to greatly expand the management part of the business and we expect to continue that expansion to as many non-profits as possible by the end of next year. Expansion of our client base with regard to consulting is a way to get our foot inside more doors on the management side,” said Amezquita.
Safe Harbor:
From time to time, the Company may issue news releases that contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and is subject to the safe harbor created by those sections. This material may contain statements about expected future events and/or financial results that are forward-looking in nature and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statement provisions contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and any amendments thereto. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, goals, assumptions, or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be “forward-looking statements.” “Forward-looking statements” are based upon expectations, estimates and projections at the time the statements are made that involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated.
To read the complete article, visit www.prnewswire.com.
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