Global

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

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

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.

Will Mexico Use Armed Drones Against Marijuana Farmers?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 25, 2010 Global, Growing

Photo: Project for the New American Century

Israeli Hermes 450 drones can be heavily armed, and they’ve been bought by the Mexican military for their Drug War. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what could happen next.

Mexico has bought Israeli-made unmanned drone aircraft, the government said, which may be used to spot hidden marijuana fields as officials continue their bloody Drug War against powerful cartels.

But is that all the drones — which can be heavily armed — will be used for? After all, this is the Mexican military that has bought the drones, for use in their Drug War which has already claimed 28,000 lives in the past four years.

And these are the exact same drones that were responsible for at least 48 deaths during Israel’s most recent assault on Gaza.

With neither side in the Drug War — the Mexican military and the cartels — having shown any compunctions about bloodshed, it doesn’t take much imagination to see what could happen next.

Save The B.C. Marijuana Bears! Jason Priestley Joins The Fight

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 24, 2010 Global, Growing, News

Photo: RCMP

An RCMP officer poses with two of the bears found at a marijuana grow-op in British Columbia. The bears were quite friendly and wanted to lay on top of investigating officers’ patrol cars.

Actor Jason Priestley has joined a growing global campaign to save more than a dozen docile, mellow black bears that were found protecting a marijuana crop in British Columbia, Canada.

Police discovered 14 bears — which they believed to have been lured there with dog food by the owners to protect the illegal crop from cannabis thieves — wandering happily around the property during a pot raid on July 30.

Officials originally said they planned to destroy the bears if they couldn’t fend for themselves and continued to depend upon human food.

Germany Ready To Legalize Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 18, 2010 Global, Medical

Photo: The Local

Medical marijuana will soon be available in Germany, with the center-right coalition preparing to make major changes to the country’s drug laws, a government health spokeswoman said this week.

Doctors could write prescriptions for cannabis and pharmacies would be authorized to sell the plant once the law had been changed, a member of the junior coalition party, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) said Monday, reports The Local.

Canadian Marijuana Growing Operation Guarded By Bears

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 18, 2010 Global, Growing

Graphic: Freaking News

Looks like Smokey has a kushy new gig. Police in southeastern British Columbia, Canada have raided a marijuana grow operation that was reportedly guarded by black bears.

Officers raiding the operation two weeks ago at Christina Lake, B.C., about 160 miles east of Vancouver, found two residential buildings and a fenced-off growing operation. Police said Tuesday they found about 1,000 cannabis plants, reports CBC News.

They also found about 10 bears that the homeowner appeared to be using to discourage people from stealing any pot plants, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Fred Mansveld.

”[Officers] soon noticed the bears were docile and tame,” Mansveld said. “One of them jumped on our unmarked car for awhile. But it soon became apparent they were habituated to the grow operation.” I’ll bet they were!

U.K.: 20 Cannabis Farms Found A Day — 6,800 Last Year

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 17, 2010 Global, Growing

Photo: Lewis Whyld/PA

PC Chloe Snell examines what the Brits like calling a “cannabis factory” in a house in East London, 2008

More than 6,800 cannabis farms — or “factories,” as the sensationalist British press puts it — were discovered by police in the United Kingdom last year.

Almost 20 commercial cannabis growing operations were found by police every day in the past year by authorities, according to the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), making the total for 2009/2010 6,886 — more than double the 3,032 discovered two years ago, and more than eight times the annual average of 800 between 2004 and 2007, reports the U.K. Press Association.

Islands Lawmakers Killing Legalization Bill; Will Be Put To Vote

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 16, 2010 Global, Legislation

Photo: Saipan Realty

Can you say marijuana tourism? As soon as Saipan’s voters get around to legalizing marijuana — which they’ll soon have a chance to do — the stoner dollars will start pouring in, mine included.

Imagine this: a tropical Pacific island paradise where weed is legal — and no passport is required to visit from the United States. While that dream may have just suffered a setback, it lives on and may soon be put up for a popular vote.

A House committee on Monday recommended killing a bill which would have legalized marijuana for all uses in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), which includes Saipan, Tinian, Ascuncion and Rota islands in the Pacific. But the bill will be reintroduced as a legislative initiative to allow the people to vote on it, according to its sponsor.

Rep. Stanley Torres (I-Saipan), author of CNMI House Bill 17-47, said Monday he is “disappointed” that the committee decided to recommend killing his bill, reports Haidee V. Eugenio of the Saipan Tribune.

Four Get Prison For Mailing Marijuana In Texas

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 11, 2010 Global, News

Photo: U.S. Postal Inspection Service

A federal judge in McAllen, Texas has sentenced four illegal immigrants to prison for using the U.S. Postal Service to mail marijuana.

All pleaded guilty last summer to conspiracy to distribute marijuana through the mail. The four were convicted of mailing cannabis from various locations in the Rio Grande Valley since May 2008. They were each arrested in May 2009.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office on Tuesday announced the sentences for Leopoldo Perales-Rodriguez, 42; Juan Carlos Hernandez, 22; Victor Hugo Mares, 27; and Margarito Gallardo, 46. All four illegally lived in Mission, Texas, reports Lindsay Machak at The Monitor.

Mexico’s Former President: Legalize Drugs Now

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 9, 2010 Global, News

Photo: Brian Kersey/UPI

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox: “We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs”

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox is joining the chorus of those urging his successor, President Felipe Calderon, to legalize drugs in Mexico, saying that could could help break the economic power of the country’s illegal drug cartels.

The comments, posted Sunday on Fox’s blog, came less than a week after Calderon agreed to open the door to discussions about the legalization of drugs. Calderon, however, stressed that he remained opposed to the idea, reports E. Eduardo Castillo of The Associated Press.

“We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs,” said Fox, who served as president from 2000 to 2006 and is a member of President Calderon’s conservative National Action Party. “Radical prohibition strategies have never worked.”

“Legalizing in this sense does not mean drugs are good and don’t harm those who consume then,” he wrote. “Rather we should look at it as a strategy to strike at and break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power.”

Mexican President Calls For Debate On Legalizing Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 4, 2010 Global, News

Photo: Alejandro Bringas/Reuters

Mexican soldiers stand guard, pretending they don’t have a buzz as bales of marijuana go up in smoke

It seems that top Mexican officials, weary of their bloody and protracted drug war, have been been subtly pushing the U.S. for some time to seriously consider marijuana legalization. Now, with the sitting president calling for a debate, it’s not so subtle anymore.

Responding to out-of-control violence related to the illegal drug trade, Mexican President Calderon on Tuesday said he is open to a debate on the legalization of marijuana and other drugs.

Calderon called the increasingly widespread public discussion of legalization “a fundamental debate.”

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