Search Results: northern california (191)

Jack’s Blog
The Feds came in heavy at the end of last year, flexing their muscles, showing who’s boss, and reminding the growers, that no matter what they think, the Feds are in charge.

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
When I was a kid, you could look in the back pages of High Times magazine to see how much a pound, ounce, eighth was going in your town. Most of us were still too scared to be seen with that evil weed magazine. The sight of a glossy mag proclaiming the virtues of marijuana might lead to more questions than 16-year-old wants to answer.
Quickly opening the last few pages at the newsstand I found my state, and could get a pretty accurate idea of what I should be paying for my weed. Plus, you could see how the rest of the country was faring when it came to the Tao Jones of pot. 

A meeting between California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (left) and U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag ended only in frustration

California Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) on Tuesday finally got his meeting with federal prosecutor Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for Northern California. But Ammiano left the meeting frustrated and disappointed that Haag doesn’t seem to understand the chaos she’s creating.

“The meeting didn’t result in any changes,” a clearly disappointed Ammiano told Tim Redmond of the San Francisco Bay Guardian. “But it was good that it happened. We cleared the air about the harm that’s being done.”
Haag wasn’t at all clear during the meeting about exactly what she wanted — what, in other words, would end the crackdown, according to Ammiano aide Quintin Mecke.

Graphic: Patients Care Collective
Berkeley’s Patients Care Collective will mark 10 years in business on Monday, April 4.

The Patients Care Collective (PCC) first opened its doors in Berkeley, California on April 4, 2001. There were only a handful of dispensaries in Northern California back in the dark days of the second Bush Administration, and none in the rest of the United States. At the time, public perception and the political climate weren’t nearly as compassionate as they are today, and each month brought new reports of DEA harassment. Still, the PCC persevered, and helped to found Americans for Safe Access (ASA) in 2002.

“I want to congratulate the PCC on their 10-year anniversary,” said Steph Sherer, executive director of ASA in Washington, D.C. “Not only have they spent a decade providing safe and affordable access to medical cannabis, but they are true pioneers.”

Photo: Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office
Sheriff Tom Allman: “The difference between what Eric Holder did and Bush’s assistant U.S. attorney is nothing.”

​Northern California’s Mendocino County is world renowned for the quality and quantity of cannabis grown there. As part of the Emerald Triangle, along with Humboldt County, local buds including “Mendo Purps” have helped marijuana users everywhere have a happier day.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has been supportive of medical cannabis growers who go by the rules. He stands as an example of a law enforcement official who engages in a respectful dialogue with the cannabis community, rather than talking down to it or dictating to it.

What would it be like to be sheriff of a county where marijuana rules the economy — a county known for growing some of the finest cannabis in the world?

Toke of the Town‘s correspondent, blogger Jack Rikess of the Haight in San Francisco, got a chance to sit down with Sheriff Allman and find out.
Their wide-ranging discussion covered the unique marijuana culture of Mendocino, the possible impact of Prop 19 cannabis legalization on the county’s pot-centered economy, and the Sheriff’s innovative zip-tie program for legal growers.
Let’s listen in as Toke‘s Rikess and Sheriff Allman have a relaxed talk.

Photo: Andreas Fuhrmann/Redding Record Searchlight
Dunsmuir, California Mayor Peter Arth, himself a medical marijuana patient, stands on his land in the center of town where he is proposing to grow a medical marijuana garden in greenhouses

​Peter Arth, mayor of Dunsmuir, California, doesn’t mind being called “Mayor Juana” for his highly visible advocacy of medical marijuana in the tiny Northern California town.
The mayor is aware he has become a lightning rod for a pot culture war in Siskiyou County that is being waged not in the forests or streets, but in the minds of local residents, reports Damian Mann of the Southern Oregon Mail Tribune.
Dunsmuir and Mount Shasta are the only two cities in the mostly rural county where medical marijuana dispensaries are allowed to operate. Elsewhere in the county, government leaders have banned pot shops in their communities.

Photo: Michael Montgomery
Garberville’s KMUD is a bastion of free speech

​Marijuana growers in Northern California’s Emerald Triangle have for decades received reports of pending police raids from a local radio station. Now the police, citing a boom in pot production and “armed illegal drug traffickers,” want the broadcasts to stop.

As pot growers in Humboldt and Mendocino counties launch another growing season, local, state and federal law enforcement agents are preparing for their part of the annual ritual — deploying helicopters, trucks and armed agents to seize marijuana plants, reports Michael Montgomery at NPR.
​”According to a citizen’s observation, at 8:45 a.m., three helicopters were seen heading from Laytonville to Bell Spring Road,” Garberville radio station KMUD recently broadcast.

Graphic: Humboldt Clothing Company

​Marijuana cultivation — of the illegal variety — has been the economic lifeblood of three counties — Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity — in Northern California, known as the Emerald Triangle. The War On Drugs and frequent raids by federal agents have helpfully kept street prices of pot sky-high and profits large for renegade farmers.

​But greater supply, more competition, and especially the prospect of legalized marijuana — with the issue enjoying majority support and slated to appear on November’s ballot in California — is exerting downward pressure on pot prices, reports Michael Montgomery at NPR.
The Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP), a massive air and ground assault launched by the Reagan Administration in 1983, with the goal of “eradicating” pot and arresting growers in the Emerald Triangle area, was a big factor in causing wholesale pot prices to shoot to as high as $5,000 a pound. The sudden windfall for growers willing to risk prison time changed the mellow pot-growing culture forever.

As the winter holidays approach, retail companies routinely find themselves needing extra seasonal help for the extra business. But rather than working inside an Amazon warehouse, you could trim weed instead.

“They call it Crop-tober, and it primarily affects outdoor grows in southern Colorado and northern California, around mid-September through October,” explains Karson Humiston, founder of cannabis employment recruiter Vangst.

They opposed REC sales in Arizona.

Here’s your daily dose of pot news from the newsletter WeedWeek.

Several former executives of Insys Therapeutics, which sells the powerful opiate fentanyl, were arrested accused of “ bribing doctors, defrauding insurance companies, and fueling America’s opioid addiction crisis.” Insys contributed to successfully defeat Arizona’s November REC vote.

GW Pharmaceuticals reported some “pretty grim” quarterly numbers, but it could benefit from its anti-epilepsy experimental drug Epidolex which is in late stage clinical trials.

Bloomberg suggests there’s a Canadian pot-stock bubble.

Legalization in more states could depress California’s export market. And in another interesting piece by Madison Margolin, California’s “extract artisans” now have some legal protections from meth-lab laws.

Vice dives into regulatory tech which it calls the “ cannabis surveillance state.

Home grow system Leaf raised $2M.

Celebrity-branded weed costs about 24% more than unbranded. Forbes asks if the trend has gone too far.

Commercial landlords in northern California prepare for legalization.

Quartz profiles marketing company Octavia Wellness which throws pot parties for seniors.  The art world is joining efforts to re-brand cannabis.

The Denver Post’s Cannabist won most influential media source at the cannabis business awards.

A new study in Pharmacological Research, by Czech and Italian researchers, found that pot is an aphrodisiac. Read the study here.

Another study found that marijuana use may damage eyesight.

New York state wants patients to be able to access MED in hospitals. A study found that cannabis users have lower in-hospital mortality rates.

In an effort to reduce opioid use, Oregon wants opioid patients monitored for marijuana use. The health agency view on marijuana vis a vis opioid use is unclear.

The world’s first clinical trial to test MED for chemotherapy patients is beginning in Australia.

A device developed by Israeli start-up distributes “ nano-droplets” of CBD as a nutraceutical to relieve inflammation and pain is on sale in the U.S. KKTV looked at the cannabis research happening at Colorado State-Pueblo.

The U.S. is lagging Israel and other countries in cannabis research.

The Washington [state]CannaBusiness Association is starting a fund to support MED access for the needy.

 

That’s a lot of lotion.
Here’s your daily round-up of pot news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek.
A report found that cannabis “ medicinals and personal care products” could be a $2 billion industry by 2020. Sales of high-CBD products are growing among non-traditional cannabis users.

The new REC states have big plans for pot taxes. The Cannabist alerts them to “ five immediate concerns” about the industry.

Kris Krane, president of consulting firm 4Front Ventures, pooh-poohs the notion of Big Pot.

“There isn’t some megalithic industry that exists today…The notion that there are these gigantic, big-money players running in to take this whole thing over is just a fiction. There’s no Philip Morris, no Anheuser-Busch, no cannabis division at Bank of America. Even the most successful company is still barely in the growth stage.”

September was the third-straight best-month-ever for Colorado dispensaries.

A company called CanPay has what it calls the first “legitimate” debit payment system for dispensaries. The customer pays with a QR code accessed on their phone.

The Post Office has few safeguards for stopping employees who intercept weed sent through the mail.

Employers in California will still be able to fire workers who test positive. The San Jose Mercury News piece mentions that near one drug testing lab in Colorado, workers who arrive with containers of someone else’s clean urine tend to heat it up in a nearby convenience store’s microwave.

Canadian firms appear to be gouging the government healthcare system by signing up veteran MED patients for expensive strains according to a Vice report. Canadian companies could also benefit if there’s a crackdown in the U.S.

The Toronto Stock Exchange halted trading of six surging cannastocks. Some market watchers think it’sstill too early to invest.

Heavy rains in southern Oregon will force growers to torch moldy crops. Some rural Colorado communities derive much needed revenue from pot.

Florida entrepreneurs are excited about MED.

Jamaica’s licensing authority received 89 applications.

Could Delaware become a tax-free cannabis haven?” Small-scale Northern California growers areadjusting to legalization.

The U.S. Surgeon General says most illegal drug users don’t receive treatment. Many of them don’t want or need treatment, Reason says.

A study suggests that cannabis use can weaken heart muscles, particularly in young men. Read it here.

The journal Science says that the lower potency of plants from the one federally-sanctioned grow ( the one in Mississippi) undermines studies conducted with those plants.

Scientists are working on a new drug that functions like MED without the psychoactive effect.

Recent studies suggest that cannabis use may have mental health benefits and could have a role in curtailing opiate use.

Viceland uncovers a U.K. network of underground MED providers who give it away to patients.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark, a Liberal, said police had discovered pot and other drugs laced with the powerful opiate fentanyl. Vancounver police denied it.

Some researchers are starting to take psychedelics seriously, as therapy. Also see this.

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