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Somebody in Miami has been watching too much Cheech and Chong. Miami-Dade cops say they have uncovered a huge pot growing operation in the city that was hidden in a camouflaged underground swimming pool.
Which, honestly, is one of the most bad-ass grow spots we’ve ever heard of. It seriously is straight out of Nice Dreams and probably wouldn’t have been discovered if it hadn’t have been for the blunders of the current caretakers of the property.
| Florida voters won’t get a chance to approve a medical marijuana ballot measure until November, but already ganjapreneurs are moving in. Take Jeremy Bufford. |
Jeremy Bufford, proprietor of Medical Marijuana Tampa. He is preparing to open a chain of 15 dispensaries with a quality control-lab, and next week will launch his school for medical marijuana workers and entrepreneurs in Tampa.
He has already hired five people and expects to hire 350 more, plus trigger a mini-real estate boom assuming the initiatve passes and he signs leases on the properties he’s already scoped out. His website is already advertising for 15 positions from “lead botanist” to “delivery driver” to “executive chef” to “professor of cannabis.”
The Broward-Palm Beach New Times spoke to Bufford at length about his preparations and predictions for the medical marijuana industry in Florida.
The halls of the Minnesota Department of Revenue in St. Paul bustle with form-weary taxpayers. It’s late morning as I approach the counter looking to declare possession of a gram of weed.
A blonde receptionist in a black sweater looks at me curiously. She reaches for the phone to alert staff upstairs of my presence. I stay calm and grab an empty seat. Jesse Marx at the Minneapolis City Pages has the full story.
Arizona voters “narrowly oppose” marijuana legalization, according to the latest poll on the issue.
Scutari and Cieslak Public Relations’ poll is the fourth poll conducted on the issue in the last year, all by different polling companies. Two of the polls have showed voters supporting legalizing marijuana, and the other two show a majority of voters against it. The Phoenix New Times has the full story.
Despite the completely false claims by British newspapers today, a British woman was not poisoned by the marijuana she smoked.
News out of the U.K. today of 31-year-old Gemma Moss is straight out of the pages of the early 1900s American Reefer Madness. According to the (shady) reports, Moss collapsed after having a joint and nobody is sure why – so the coroner decided to chalk it up to “cannabis toxicity” and “cannabis abuse.” Apparently the coroner has never actually been to medical school, because cannabis isn’t toxic.
And this belief in cannabis poisoning seems to be widespread across the pond.
Airlines booked 16 percent more flights from St. Louis to Denver since December 1, and number crunchers think marijuana tourism may be behind the boost.
Demand for flights to Denver jumped to 10 percent above the national average this month, peaking at 14 percent during the first week of January, says Patrick Surry, the chief data scientist at the Boston-based travel planning site Hopper.com. The Riverfront Times has the full story.
A pair of Pennsylvania senators has introduced legislation that would legalize the cultivation of state-regulated CBD-rich cannabis plants and the production of high-CBD oils and tinctures, but the rest of the cannabis plant would remain illegal.
Senate Bill 1182, sponsored by Sens. Daylin Leach and Mike Folmer, would legalize a specific strain of cannabis bred in Colorado by one specific medical cannabis shop that has been made famous through several high-profile media specials. Both lawmakers say the bill is aimed to help children suffering from severe seizure disorders.
| Charlie Crist. |
Former Florida Governor and Currently Running To Be Florida Governor Again, Charlie Crist, says that he will vote for the legalization of medical marijuana in Florida. On Monday, the Florida Supreme Court approved to have a constitutional amendment to legalize medical weed be put on the ballot this November.
In December, Crist appeared on WJCT radio and said that the legalization of pot is “a matter of compassion.” The one-time GOPer didn’t always feel this way, as the Broward-Palm Beach New Times reports.
Currently Colorado, Washington, California, West Virginia, Vermont, Kentucky, North Dakota, Oregon, Montana and Maine all have hemp farming laws in place, but farmers for years have been barred by federal law from cultivating the non-psychoactive cousin cannabis.
But a Republican-backed, 959-page farm bill that is quickly working its way to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives would allow for hemp cultivation in ten states under federal pilot programs.
| Big photos below. |
Hypocrites who take millions in revenue from alcohol sponsors but still prohibit the use of cannabis among their players, which is much safer substance, run the National Football League.
That’s the message pushed by five billboards sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project that have been erected in New Jersey near the site of the Super Bowl set for this Sunday.