Mixed Martial Arts referee Josh Rosenthal was given 37 months in jail, three years of probation and a $100 fine for allegedly growing cannabis in Oakland in 2012.
The sentencing comes after Rosenthal’s attorneys reached a deal with the state. He was initially facing ten years to life in prison, five years probation and $10 million in fines. All for growing some pot.
City governments in Oakland and Berkeley are putting their lawyers to work defending medical marijuana dispensaries in those towns.
Earlier this week, the city of Oakland won a court order preventing the federal government from seizing a building occupied by Harborside Health Center, one of the nations largest dispensaries. Meanwhile, their neighbor to the north, Berkeley, has filed a claim against the feds saying seizing and shutting down marijuana businesses in that town will adversely affect the town’s tax coffers.
Sounds like someone is plagued by a serious number of body thetans. Denise Gentile, the twin sister of David Miscavige, the top religious leader of the Church of Scientology, was arrested in Saint Petersburg on marijuana charges over the weekend.
Gentile is active in the church as well, and Scientology strictly forbids the use of any mind-altering substances. However, reports are starting to surface that Gentile has a long history with drugs. The Miami New Times has the rest of this story.
| They call me the sloth… |
A questionable U.K. study claiming that marijuana is linked to laziness is being passed around like it’s the gospel this week – even though the researchers in the study question whether “a syndrome exists” and admit that they only studied cannabis users who admitted to previously having “psychotic-like experiences”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/02/marijuana-motivation-longtime-use-pot_n_3534031.html?ir=Healthy+Living
Not only that, but the study comes out of marijuana-paranoid U.K. These are the same people who think “skunk” is a new type of marijuana and that it can cause you to go insane and hurt people or yourself. Seriously, it’s like they read Nancy Reagan’s notes from the 1980s on WikiLeaks or something.
Marijuana possession and cultivation penalties in Oregon have been cut in half thanks to Gov. John Kitzhaber’s signature on two bills earlier this week.
Kitzhaber Monday signed SB 40 and SB 82, which eases marijuana penalties in the state for those caught with over an ounce and eliminates a provision that suspends driver’s licenses for possession of less than one ounce.
| A video still of Vivian Wilson from NBC New York. |
Though children in his state languish in pain while a medicine remains just beyond their reach, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is holding back on signing the one bill that could help them out.
As we told you last week, current New Jersey medical marijuana laws require children under 18 to gain approval from three different doctors – including a psychiatrist – before they could access the medicine. Adults only have to have approval from on physician. The problem? Finding a child psychiatrists to sign off on it.
Rehman Bhalesha was raised around marijuana. That’s not to say that he dealt, or that he pushed, or that he used. He didn’t have to. Weed, growing up, turned wherever he went.
“Living in South Texas, you really see the substance flood high school and college campuses and neighborhoods, without any regulation, in a completely illicit market,” Bhalesha, set to be a third-year student at the South Texas College of Law, told the Houston Press. “I’ve spent my entire life seeing a strong need [for regulation].”
Houston Press has the entire story.
Yesterday, the Colorado Department of Revenue and the Marijuana Enforcement Division jointly released emergency rules for the marijuana industry promulgated without any public input or testimony so that the industry can begin being licensed and selling to adults over 21 by January 1, 2014.
The agencies stress that these mandates are temporary, meant only as placeholders until permanent rules are adopted later this year after the public has had a chance to give their input at future rule-making meetings. Denver Westword went over the edicts and pointed out a few of the more interesting tidbits. Click over to Westword to check them out followed by the complete document and a press release from the DOR and the MED.
The New York mother accused of growing millions of dollars of marijuana in a Weeds-like tale has been released on bail. Andrea Sanderlin still faces trial on federal drug charges, but the judge released the mother of two this week on a $500,000 bond.
Ex-crackhead Rep. Darryl Rouson, who sponsored the bill that eventually became the “bong ban” law on Monday, is unhappy about how watered down it turned out to be, when all was said and done.
Rouson believes that The Pot is a gateway drug to things like The Crack. Therefore, he worked diligently for years on a bill he hoped would ban all bongs, glass bowls, roach clips, and other things that can be used as a marijuana smoking device. But the final bill basically says that head shops can sell the devices, as long as they’re for tobacco only, thus creating the raddest loophole ever, man. The Broward-Palm Beach New Times has the full story.