Global

Cops Discover Pot Plantation In Convent; Nuns Questioned

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 10, 2010 Global, Growing

Sisters Nanteza and Rita being led to the Masaka Police Station by District Police Commander Titus Byaruhanga and another office. The nuns were reportedly unhappy that police had entered convent grounds.

Holy smoke! Police are investigating after a marijuana plantation was discovered in the garden of a convent in Uganda.

Two nuns and two porters have been questioned, according to police.

Plants covering one acre were found and uprooted in the Masaka district, a regional police chief told BBC.

One of the nuns told local news media that the marijuana was being used to treat farm animals, particularly pigs.

Police Commanbder Muhuirwe dismissed reports in Uganda’s New Vision newspaper that the nuns were angry that police entered the convent without permission. The police commander pointed out that the garden was “separate from the convent building.”

Medical Pot Raids Backfire; Patients Turn To Black Market

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 9, 2010 Dispensaries, Global, Medical

Photo: The Maple Three

A Canadian crackdown on compassion clubs in Quebec has backfired, according to some doctors and medical marijuana patients. Many have been forced to turn to the black market to get their cannabis after police last week in Montreal and Quebec City raided and shut down five compassion clubs and arrested 35 people.

Canada’s federal government offers only one strain of medical marijuana, and the only legal way to purchase government pot is through Health Canada, reports CBC News.

Not only is government cannabis of questionable quality; the process is complicated and the wait is often lengthy, according to some patients.

As a result, more and more Canadian medical marijuana patients are now buying their cannabis illegally.

Australia: Two-Thirds Of Drug Arrests Are For Cannabis

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 8, 2010 Culture, Global

Photo: ABC News

An Australian police officer shows cannabis and cash seized in Perth, March 2010.

Cannabis remains the most popular illegal drug in Australia, according to the Australian Crime Commission’s report on illicit drug use.

Two out of every three drug arrests in Australia in 2008 and 2009 were marijuana-related, but the number of people using cannabis has fallen by 50 percent over the past decade, according to the report.

Amphetamine-type stimulants were the second most popular illicit drug, according to Yahoo!7 News. Twenty percent of drug arrests were for amphetamines.

According to Home Affairs Director Brendan O’Connor, Australian police are discovering more secret “drug laboratories.”

Canadian Police Raid Marijuana Compassion Clubs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 4, 2010 Dispensaries, Global

Photo: CTV

Police officers oversee the spoils of Thursday’s raids. Canada’s Conservative government appears to be cracking down on medical marijuana

Canadian police raided marijuana compassion clubs around the city on Thursday. A major anti-pot dragnet in Quebec resulted in raids at five cannabis clubs in Montreal and Quebec City, and police said they arrested 35 people for distributing marijuana.

Officers forced their way into the clubs, which offer marijuana to those who need it for medical reasons, and seized 35 kilograms (77 pounds) of cannabis, $10,000 in cash and computer equipment, reports CTV.

Police claim the clubs — four in Montreal and one in Quebec City — were selling cannabis without a permit from Health Canada. Those arrested are expected to be charged with trafficking, possession and conspiracy, according to police.

Canada Will Confiscate Medical Marijuana At Border

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 31, 2010 Global, Medical

Photo: CP24.com

Don’t take your medical marijuana across the border with you on that Canadian vacation.

While having a medical marijuana card won’t affect the ability of residents of Washington and Montana to visit neighboring Canada, all cannabis found at the border crossing will be confiscated, according to Canadian authorities.

Lisa White, speaking for the Canada Border Control Services Agency, said that despite rumors to the contrary, Americans who are enrolled in their states’ medical marijuana programs are not refused entry into our northern neighbor for that reason, reports Tim Trainor at the Montana Standard.

90-Year-Old Granny Arrested For Dealing Pot; Had 170 Pounds

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 29, 2010 Global, News

Photo: Motivated Photos (www.motivatedphotos.com/?id=59543)

A 90-year-old grandmother suspected of selling cannabis was arrested Friday after police raided her home and found more than 170 pounds of marijuana.

A squad of armed South African police officers with drug dogs stormed the elderly woman’s home and discovered the pot stashed in multiple bags, according to the Daily Mail.

“This lady was quiet, old and looked like an angel sent from God,” said the rather poetically inclined Police Inspector Kobeli Mokheseng.

“But we received a tip-off two weeks ago that a lot of people were going into her house and coming out looking happy,” Mokheseng said.

Wow, happy people? That will not do! Obviously, law enforcement was called for, don’t you think?

New Zealand: Gardening Customers Don’t Have To Show I.D.

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

Photo: Bay of Plenty Times

Last month, police raided Switched On Gardener branches throughout New Zealand. Those must be some really dangerous gardens!

Last month, police raided Switched On Gardener branches throughout New Zealand, along with other gardening supply stores, after what they claimed was a two-year undercover investigation code named Operation Lime, reports Jared Savage at NZ Herald.

Under the new bail conditions, customers at the gardening supply stores will no longer have to hand over identification.

Directors at staff at the 16 stores were charged. The shops were allowed to continue operating as long as they followed strict bail conditions requested by police.

The Orwellian court order initially required every customer in the gardening shops to hand over their identification and give their phone number, address and date of birth. You know… Gotta watch those dangerous gardeners!

Prince Of Pot Pleads Guilty; Five Year Sentence Looms

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 25, 2010 Global, News

Photo: The Tyee

Vancouver’s flamboyant Prince of Pot, Marc Emery, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Monday to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana.

The plea bargain which Emery accepted means the 52-year-old Canadian must serve five years in a U.S. prison for selling marijuana seeds to American customers through his Vancouver-based businesses, Marc Emery Direct and Cannabis Culture.

Emery will remain in custody at the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, Washington until his formal sentencing on August 27, reports Andrea Woo at The Vancouver Sun.

The deal is an attempt to make the best of a bad situation, according to Emery’s wife, Jodie.

“It’s unfortunate that a five-year sentence is what we want for Marc, but the alternative was at least 30 years and up to life if it went to trial,” she told The Vancouver Sun on Monday.

“But while he’s gone, he’ll be there to demonstrate the insanity of this War On Drugs,” Jodie said.

Mick Jagger Calls For Marijuana Legalization On Isle Of Man

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 24, 2010 Culture, Global

Photo: Bob Collacello

Rolling Stones legend Mick Jagger has called for U.K. government officials to legalize marijuana and other drugs on a British island, to see if it prevents violence associated with the illegal drug trade.

The rock singer, who was convicted of marijuana possession in the 1960s, said that young people will always experiment with psychoactive substances, despite the risks, reports StarPulse. He is urging the government to legalize drugs on the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency in the Irish Sea, to test the consequences of an end to prohibition.

Prince Of Pot Extradited To U.S. For 5-Year Term

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 21, 2010 Global, News

Photo: CTV

Marc Emery, the Prince of Pot, is now in custody in the United States.

After a years-long battle to avoid extradition, marijuana activist and entrepreneur Marc Emery of Vancouver, B.C., the self-proclaimed “Prince of Pot,” is going to the United States. It’s not a trip that Emery wanted to take.

Emery, 52, was driven from a Vancouver jail to the Washington State border and was handed over to U.S. authorities, according to his wife, Jodie, reports The Canadian Press.

Jodie said her husband will be held in a detention center south of Seattle until appearing before a judge to plead guilty of selling millions of marijuana seeds to American customers, and begin his plea-bargained sentence of five years in a U.S. federal prison.

Browsing: Global