Growing

Botched Raid: Mayor To Meet With Cops About Pot Enforcement

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 8, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: The Washington Apple

Way cooler than your average mayor: Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is reviewing marijuana enforcement policies after the botched raid of a legal patient

Battering Ram Raid Of Legal Seattle Patient By Machine Gun-Toting Officers Results In Review

Activist Group Invoices City For Cost Of Patient’s Door

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will sit down Monday with top law enforcement officials to talk about how city police and King County deputies are enforcing marijuana laws.

McGinn, who supports legalizing marijuana, said a recent Seattle police raid in which only two legal medical marijuana plants were found shows the difficulties law enforcement officers face, report Emily Heffter and Sara Jean Green of The Seattle Times.

Seattle Anti-Crime Team officers brandishing machine guns burst through the door of Will Laudanski, a renter who was following state law and city policy on marijuana, according to a Seattle Police Department spokesman. The officers had a search warrant they had obtained after sniffing around Laudanski’s apartment and claiming to smell marijuana.

Stoner Photo of the Day: Here’s How They Grow Weed In Oz

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 4, 2010 Global, Growing

Photo: Facebook

“Not much… Chillin’. Growin’ trees.”

These soaring 18-foot sativas are the bountiful crop of a proud grower in Australia, who reports that plants this size yield up to around 10 pounds each.

Judge Tells Pot Growers They Must Harvest By November 30

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 4, 2010 Growing, Medical

Photo: Mark Crosse/The Fresno Bee

Fresno Police discovered this field of marijuana — easily visible from the street — growing over the top of a fence in a residential area in September.

A Fresno County, California ordinance that bans outdoor medical marijuana gardens is valid, a judged ruled Wednesday, but backyard growers have until midnight on November 30 to harvest their crops.

County officials couldn’t immediately enforce the ordinance, Superior Court Judge Jeff Hamilton ruled, because they had failed to prove that outdoor gardens were an imminent threat to public safety, reports Pablo Lopez at The Fresno Bee.

Because of recent violence associated with marijuana gardens, the Board of Supervisors on September 14 approved the ordinance banning outdoor medical marijuana gardens in unincorporated areas.

The Day After: Anti-Prop 19 Marijuana Growers Interviewed

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 3, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Peter Hecht/The Sacramento Bee

Tim Blake, a longtime marijuana grower in Mendocino County, tends to his outdoor greenhouse in April near Laytonville, California.

It’s no secret that Toke of the Town supported California’s Proposition 19 all the way down the line.

But it’s also important to try to understand the mindset of those who voted against it, especially within the cannabis community.

Toke‘s Northern California correspondent, Jack Rikess, got a chance to talk with a couple of growers explained why many in their community voted against the measure.

Here’s what he learned.

~ Steve Elliott, Editor

Complaint: OR Police Campaigned Against Dispensary Measure

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 1, 2010 Dispensaries, Growing, Legislation

Photo: flickriver

Under Oregon state law, law enforcement officers aren’t supposed to advocate or oppose ballot measures — but that didn’t stop them from badmouthing Measure 74, which would allow state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Oregon.

Oregon officials are investigating allegations that law enforcement officers statewide violated election laws when they actively campaigned against Measure 74, the medical marijuana dispensary initiative.

In all, nine Oregon police officers have been accused of illegally campaigning against the measure.

Sgt. Erik Fisher of the Oregon State Police Drug Enforcement Section on Friday became part of the Secretary of State’s investigation, based on a complaint filed by Williams, Ore., resident Laird Funk, reports Damian Mann of the Southern Oregon Mail Tribune.

Funk specifically cited comments made by Fisher in articles in the Mail Tribune and the Eugene Register-Guard.

Complaints had already been filed against Medford Police Chief Randy Schoen, Medford Assistant Police Chief Tim George and Medford Lt. Tim Doney.

Machine-Gun Toting Cops Raid Legal Pot Patient For Two Plants

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 27, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Voice It Out

Seattle Police officers knocked a legal patient’s door down, charged in brandishing machine guns, and forced him face down to the floor. He had two legal plants.

Seattle Police officers brandishing submachine guns broke down the door of a 50-year-old medical marijuana patient Monday night and pushed him face down to the floor. His offense? He was legally growing two tiny cannabis plants.

Will Laudanski, a military veteran who was an Airborne Ranger in Desert Shield, wasn’t even breaking the law. As an authorized medical marijuana patient in the state of Washington, he’s allowed to grow up to 15 plants and possess 24 ounces of cannabis.

But Seattle Police have shown they are willing to treat the smallest of pot cases — even in cases where the marijuana is legal — as if they were raiding the biggest crack house or meth lab in town.

Just before 9 p.m. Monday officers at SPD’s East Precinct held a briefing about a complaint of marijuana at a four-unit apartment building in the Leschi neighborhood, reports Dominic Holden at The Stranger.

Denver City Council Eliminates Private Cannabis Caregivers

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 26, 2010 Growing, Medical

Graphic: OFCB

The Denver City Council has dealt a crushing blow to private medical marijuana caregivers, passing regulation to make such operations all but obsolete within the Mile High City.

In a 12-1 vote Monday night, the council approved a measure to limit city households to just 12 plants total, and only two patients per home, who must also live in the household, reports Tim Martin at John Doe Radio.

Only Councilman Doug Linkhart dissented, reports Christopher N. Osher at The Denver Post.

Toke of the Town Interview: Mendocino Sheriff Tom Allman

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 25, 2010 Culture, Growing

Photo: Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office

Sheriff Tom Allman: “The difference between what Eric Holder did and Bush’s assistant U.S. attorney is nothing.”

Northern California’s Mendocino County is world renowned for the quality and quantity of cannabis grown there. As part of the Emerald Triangle, along with Humboldt County, local buds including “Mendo Purps” have helped marijuana users everywhere have a happier day.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has been supportive of medical cannabis growers who go by the rules. He stands as an example of a law enforcement official who engages in a respectful dialogue with the cannabis community, rather than talking down to it or dictating to it.

What would it be like to be sheriff of a county where marijuana rules the economy — a county known for growing some of the finest cannabis in the world?

Toke of the Town‘s correspondent, blogger Jack Rikess of the Haight in San Francisco, got a chance to sit down with Sheriff Allman and find out.

Their wide-ranging discussion covered the unique marijuana culture of Mendocino, the possible impact of Prop 19 cannabis legalization on the county’s pot-centered economy, and the Sheriff’s innovative zip-tie program for legal growers.

Let’s listen in as Toke‘s Rikess and Sheriff Allman have a relaxed talk.

Michigan City Approves Marijuana Growth In Industrial Areas

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 22, 2010 Growing, News

Graphic: ePodunk

Lincoln Park, MI will allow the cultivation of medical marijuana, but not in residential neighborhoods.

Licensed persons can now grow marijuana in certain sections of Lincoln Park, Michigan, according to an ordinance adopted Monday by the City Council.

Council members voted 6-1 for the ordinance, reports Nate Stemen at The Southgate News-Herald. Councilman Thomas Murphy was all alone in opposing the measure.

The ordinance restricts the growing of marijuana for medical use to an “industrial part of the city” that runs along John A. Papalas Drive from Southfield Road to Outer Drive.

An additional ordinance relating to growing marijuana, requiring growers to be registered with the state and licensed with the city, was also adopted.

Sheriff Pays Grower $25K For Wrongly Seized Marijuana Plants

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 22, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: The Liberty Voice

Plants? We Don’t Need No Steenken Plants!

In yet another embarrassing fiasco for the hapless San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department, it is about to buy 43 dead marijuana plants for $25,000.

Rather than go to trial in federal court and fight a civil rights lawsuit brought by Los Osos, California resident Richard Steenken, the county and Sheriff’s Department agreed to settle the case by paying up, reports Colin Rigley at the San Luis Obispo New Times.

The monetary amount is said to be roughly the cash value of the cannabis plants, which were seized in a botched pot raid on Steenken, a medical marijuana patient.

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