Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Lawsuit Says Montana Med Pot Business Faked Patient Forms

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 27, 2010 Medical, News

Jason Christ, owner of Montana Caregivers Network, is accused of unethical business practices in a lawsuit filed by three former employees on Thursday.

Three former employees of a Missoula, Montana medical marijuana business that has helped thousands of patients get cannabis authorizations sued its owner Thursday, claiming that he ordered hundreds of card applications to be falsified.

The wrongful-discharge lawsuit filed in state District Court in Missoula also accused Montana Caregivers Network owner Jason Christ of verbally abusing employees, using company funds for personal expenses, driving a company van while smoking marijuana and creating a “hostile work environment” that essentially forced the three workers to quit on June 18, reports Mike Dennison at the Billings Gazette.

Patients Held At Gunpoint In Michigan Medical Marijuana Raids

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 27, 2010 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Oakland County Daily Tribune

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard: “This is Michigan, not some Cheech and Chong movie”

“This is Michigan, not some Cheech and Chong movie,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard bragged Thursday at a press conference where he proudly showed off seized items including bagged and candied marijuana he claimed was “worth $750,000,” hash oil, and growing equipment.

Two medical marijuana businesses were raided and 15 people were arrested in Michigan for allegedly making “illegal sales,” according to the sheriff’s department.

Bouchard, a publicity-loving Republican gubernatorial candidate, compared medical marijuana dispensary operators to “organized crime,” and is widely viewed as wanting a test case to curtail the pot shops’ activities.

The raids, during which cancer patients and elderly cardholders were forced to the ground at gunpoint, left many medical marijuana patients confused and angry, report Mike Martindale and Jennifer Chambers of The Detroit News.

“This is a very disturbing story,” said Michael Komorn of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, which has 16,000 members.

“Patients were held at gunpoint and dragged out,” Komorn said. “This law was designed to protect patients and caregivers — not expend our resources arresting patients and caregivers.”

Court Allows Warrantless GPS Tracking In Marijuana Case

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 27, 2010 Legislation, News

Graphic: Animal

In a bizarre and unsettling decision, a federal court has ruled that government agents may sneak onto your property, put GPS devices on your vehicles, and follow you around 24/7 — without bothering to obtain a search warrant.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers California and eight other western states, issued the ruling — which basically means the government can monitor you anytime that it wants — in a case involving a suspected marijuana grower, reports Linda Young at All Headline News.

Among the biggest casualties of the court’s ruling is the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, part of the original Bill of Rights, which just took some major damage. The Fourth Amendment states:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Hot Dog Stand Was Front For $5 Million Pot Smuggling Ring

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2010 News

Photo: SodaHead

Eight family members were arrested Tuesday on federal charges that they used a hot dog stand and other businesses as fronts to hide their marijuana-smuggling ring, which allegedly shipped thousands of pounds of pot from Arizona to Ohio.

Federal authorities said they believed Jonathan Ortiz Troncoza, 39, of Tucson, Arizona, headed the organization, and was assisted by various family members, reports Ryn Gargulinksi at Tucson Citizen.

The organization supposedly smuggled at least 6,000 pounds of marijuana while collecting, and laundering through the front businesses, up to $5 million in marijuana sales.

The cash was reportedly used to run their business as well as buy or rent properties, jewelry, vehicles, and “other items in furtherance of the drug trafficking conspiracy,” which sounds like federal-ese for “We’re going to basically take everything they own.”

Federal agents seized marijuana, more than $700,000 cash, numerous vehicles including a semi-tractor trailer, guns, jewelry, and a house in the course of their investigation, according to a news release from the District of Arizona’s Office of the U.S. Attorney.

Business names allegedly used by the busted Tucscon clan include Wedoito’s Hotdogs, Sea of Cortez Seafood & Produce Distribution, and AB Trucking.

“Conspirators also purchased semi-tractor trailers which were used to transport thousands of pounds of marijuana (and multiple pounds of cocaine) from stash houses in Tucson and Phoenix areas to properties in Ohio,” the U.S. Attorney’s release claims.

NYC Firefighter Convicted Of Running Huge Marijuana Farm

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Roca/NY Daily News

NYC firefighter Patrick Murray leaves court earlier this year.

A jury convicted a New York City firefighter on Wednesday of running a huge marijuana farm in the basement of a house in Queens owned by a fellow fireman.

“I’m in shock,” Patrick Murray told his lawyer after the guilty verdict came in Wednesday night, three hours into jury deliberations, reports John Marzulli of the N.Y. Daily News.

“We’re incredibly disappointed, and we will file an appeal,” vowed defense lawyer Lee Ginsberg.

Murray was a member of a drug gang called “The Master Race,” if rumors are to be believed. The former hero faces a minimum of five years in prison on the marijuana charges.

Bear-Guarded B.C. Pot Stolen From Police; Wired To Dynamite

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2010 Global, Growing

Photo: LoveToKnow

In another bizarre twist in the story of a British Columbia marijuana grow-op that was guarded by happy, mellow bears, thieves have stolen 10 kilograms of the seized pot from police and wired it up to dynamite in a booby trap.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers tracked the stolen cannabis, which had been pilfered from a Mountie evidence locker in Grand Forks, to a home in Greenwood, B.C., reports Bill Kaufmann at the Toronto Sun.

The Grand Forks RCMP responded last week to what turned out to be a phony emergency call, and while they were gone (did all of these Dudley Do-Rights respond to the call?) someone broke into their evidence room and made off with the marijuana, according to Sgt. Jim Harrison.

L.A.: Only 41 Marijuana Dispensaries Eligible To Stay Open

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times

Budtender Kim prepares an order for a client at Green Oasis, in October 2009. Green Oasis is one of the shops that was shut down under Los Angeles’ restrictive new medical marijuana ordinance.

Los Angeles city officials announced Wednesday that only 41 medical marijuana dispensaries are eligible to stay in business under the city’s restrictive ordinance. The number is so low that the city said it will suspend the process of narrowing the number of shops, and ask a judge to rule that it is legal, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

The announcement means that at least 129 of the dispensaries that had been allowed to remain open under the previous moratorium will now be forced to close.

“It was a surprise,” said Jane Usher, special assistant city attorney who worked with the City Council to draft the complex law, and is defending it in court.

Man Locks Himself In Krystal Bathroom, Flushes Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: Enlightened Redneck

I nominate young Kevin Von Clifton of Rome, Georgia for the Krystal Lovers Hall of Fame. Do I hear a second?

A Georgia man remained in jail Thursday morning after allegedly trying to avoid arrest by locking himself into a Krystal fast food bathroom and flushing marijuana down the toilet, according to police reports.

Kevin Von Clifton, 19, of Rome, Ga., is charged with felony first-degree criminal damage to property and misdemeanor possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, and obstruction of law enforcement officers, according to Floyd County Jail records, reports Ellison Langford of the Rome News-Tribune.

Clifton reportedly locked himself in the burger joint’s bathroom at 1 a.m. Thursday morning at the Turner McCall Boulevard Krystal location in Rome, and tried to quickly get rid of his stash.

Man Charged After Probation Officer Finds Pot In Court Paperwork

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 26, 2010 News

Graphic: City-Data.com

A Pennsylvania man allegedly wrapped a bag of marijuana in his court paperwork and stuck it in his pocket before going to visit his probation officer last week.

Carlisle police said pot was discovered when the probation officer patted down Thomas E. Borders, 22, of Carlisle, Pa., reports Chris A. Courogen of The Patriot-News.

One would think that court paperwork wouldn’t rank highly on a list of where to keep your stash, but oh well.

The paperwork within which the marijuana was wrapped was a letter outlining the terms and conditions of Borders’s probation, police said.

Google’s Cooler Than Facebook: Will Run Pot Legalization Ads

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 25, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: Just Say Now

Here is one of the pro-legalization ads (including a marijuana leaf!) that Google has agreed to run.

Facebook may think it’s “inappropriate” to run ads depicting marijuana leaves — despite the fact that the ads were so popular, they got 38 million views — but apparently Google has no problem with them.

Google agreed on Wednesday to run the ads, very similar to the ones nixed by Facebook, and which also contain images of marijuana leaves.

The advertisements are for Just Say Now, the pro-legalization group launched this month by Firedoglake blogger Jane Hamsher along with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

Marijuana activists were outraged at Facebook this week when the social networking site, which had already been running ads from the group, told the organization that it would no longer run them because they contained images of cannabis leaves, reports Chris Good at The Atlantic.

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