Growing

Oakland Could Charge $211K A Year For Pot Cultivation Permit

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 15, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

Oakland, California’s plan to license and regulate large-scale medical marijuana farms have taken another tentative step forward after several setbacks. Unfortunately, the news isn’t particularly good for smaller growers.

The city’s rules and laws about medicinal cannabis dispensaries have sometimes been controversial, but mostly successful, with four dispensaries in town servicing thousands of patients and enjoying about $28 million in annual sales, reports Sean Maher at the Oakland Tribune.

But City Council members including Desley Brooks have long argued that there is little local control over where those four dispensaries get their marijuana. They have proposed, instead, city-licensed, industrial-scale marijuana grow operations to supply the dispensaries.

Man Grew Marijuana For Wife With Cancer; Could Get 8 Years

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 13, 2011 Growing, Medical, News

Photo: Real Missions, Real Life

A legal, card-carrying medical marijuana caregiver who was growing cannabis in his backyard to treat his wife’s Stage 3 breast cancer will be sentenced on Thursday for “manufacturing marijuana.”

Gary Alan Katz, 59, pleaded guilty last month to the charge after officers with the Livingston and Washtenaw Narcotics Enforcement Team (LAWNET) raided his home on August 10, 2010, reports Lisa Roose-Church at the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus.

Both the defendant and his wife, Jeanne Katz — who wasn’t charged in the case — declined to comment.

“The fact you’re doing a good thing on the side doesn’t justify” illegal behavior, Prosecutor David Morse said when asked why Gary Katz was charged.

“We cut the guy some slack,” Morse claimed. “There were guns recovered. He could have been charged as a felon in possession of a firearm … I recognize he may have been doing some good things here, but there are other ways to help.” Yeah, like throwing the caregiver in prison?

Video of the Day: Buy American Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 8, 2011 Culture, Growing, Products

We all know that a lot of people are harmed by prohibition, but who benefits? Strangely enough, some of the biggest beneficiaries are the bootleggers.
Sure, they take a big risk, but black marketeers don’t have to pay taxes, they’re protected from foreign competition, and they benefit from artificially inflated prices. Talk about protectionism.
What kind of message would an honest American Marijuana Growers Association have for us? “Thank you for your support of marijuana prohibition and buy American pot!” ~ Reason TV

Oh No! California Drug Task Forces May Get The Ax. LOL

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 7, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: Stop The Drug War

The Humboldt County Drug Task Force, straight from the pot-cultivation center of California’s famed Emerald Triangle, may fall prey to the state budget ax, resulting from cuts enacted by the Legislature late last month to balance the state’s 2011-2012 budget.

Oh, whatever shall we do without them? It’d be a shame for all those cops to have to get real jobs which don’t involve stealing people’s pot crops.

One of those cuts slashed $36 million from the budget of the California Department of Justice’s Division of Law Enforcement, and will likely lead to the elimination of 55 state-led task forces, reports Thadeus Greenson at the Eureka Times-Standard. The list includes the Humboldt County Drug Task Force.

Under the budget deal, the cut almost doubles to $71 million in the next fiscal year, which could trigger the loss of $40 million in matching federal funds — at least we can hope.

Pot Dogs: It’s Time To Treat Them Like Man’s Best Friends

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 6, 2011 Culture, Growing

Photo: The Tizona Group

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Anyone’s who has spent any time behind the Redwood Curtain knows that dogs are a grower’s best friend. Most farmers I know have at least one dog, if not more.

Whe
n you live in an isolated community cultivating the number one cash crop in the world, it pays to have a security system that you can rely on and for the most part, that can scare away any unwanted guest without firing off…a mean word. Dogs are an invaluable source of protection in lieu of setting up a .50-caliber foxhole.

Stoner Photo of the Day: Grow A Garden!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 4, 2011 Culture, Growing

Graphic: Worth1000.com

Happy birthday, U.S.A.!

Restrictive Pot Ordinance Blocked; DA Files Charges In Year-Old Case

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

Photo: Ty Barbour/ChicoER

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey: vindictive prosecution?

Butte County, California’s restrictive dispensary ordinance was just blocked by petition — and now, in what reeks of vindictive prosecution, the district attorney is filing the first charges on dispensaries raided a year ago.

Butte County D.A. Mike Ramsey announced on Wednesday that three Forest Ranch residents have been arrested on three felony counts of marijuana sales and one count of possession of marijuana for sale, reports ChicoER.

Jason Allen Anderson, 35; Michael Franklin Anderson, 46; and Kaitlin Christine Sanchez, 23, operated the Mountainside Patient Collective at 3330 Highway 32 west of Chico.

The Anderson brothers are also charged with marijuana cultivation and possession for sale, relating to a grow operation found on their property in Forest Ranch.

Marijuana Minister Gets 6.5 To 13 Years In Prison

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: WHTM

Robert Henry: “My growing and smoking, it harms no one.”

A Pennsylvania man who says he smokes marijuana daily for religious reasons was sentenced to a lengthy prison term on Wednesday after telling the judge that he is being persecuted for his spiritual beliefs.

Robert Henry, 51, formerly of Fannettsburg, was given a sentence of 6.5 to 13 years in prison for growing and selling cannabis, reports Myles Snyder at WHTM.

A jury last month found him guilty of “manufacturing marijuana” with intent to deliver, conspiracy, and possession of “drug paraphernalia.” Henry reportedly wore a T-shirt featuring a marijuana leaf and the words, “I Am Not A Criminal” and “Legalize Marijuana” to his trial on April 14. At Wednesday’s hearing, he had on an orange jail jumpsuit and shackles.

Franklin County Senior Judge John Walker also ordered Henry to pay $50,500 in fines, undergo a drug treatment program and avoid contact with his codefendants in the case, reports Jim Tuttle at Public Opinion.

“I liken what the government is doing to me to the way the Nazis treated the Jews during World War II,” Henry said.

Montana Cops Want Caregivers To Turn In Marijuana By July 1

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 21, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

Photo: Wikiality

Montana caregivers are supposed to turn over their plants to the cops by July 1.

Montana’s medical marijuana caregivers officially have less than two weeks to turn in their cannabis plants to the police to be destroyed, but one advocate says that’s not likely to happen.

On July 1, medical marijuana providers are out of business in the state, thanks to the new law, SB 423, passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, reports Matt Leach at NBC Montana. The law supposed “takes the profit out of the industry” (actually, it only drives it underground — and removes the tax benefits to local governments) and forces caregivers to turn over any marijuana they might have on hand.

It’s not gonna go down like that, according to Tayln Lang of the Montana Medical Growers Association.

Nova Scotia Ordered To Fund Woman’s Marijuana Grow

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 21, 2011 Global, Growing, News

Photo: Ian Lindsey/Postmedia News

Grow lights and supplies courtesy of the Canadian government.

The Canadian province of Nova Scotia has been ordered to pay for the medical marijuana growing equipment of a woman who said she can’t afford it herself.

The Income Assistance Appeals Board ordered the Department of Community Services to pay a one-time setup cost of $2,500 and a fee of $100 every three months for additional supplies to an Amherst woman identified only as Tanya and her husband, Sam. The couple’s last name wasn’t used due to fears that thieves would target their marijuana grow operation, reported the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

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