News

Ultimate Fighter Matt ‘The Law’ Lindland Sued For Stealing Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 10, 2011 Growing, News

Would you take your marijuana back away from Matt “The Law” Lindland if he stole it?

“Ultimate Fighter” and former Republican political candidate Matt “The Law” Lindland is being sued for allegedly stealing six mature marijuana plants from a patient.

In a suit filed March 3 in Multnomah County Circuit Court in Oregon, plaintiff Gonzalo Aldana Gamboa says Lindland offered last year to let Gamboa grow cannabis under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program on Lindland’s property in Eagle Creek, reports James Pitkin at Willamette Week.

Gamboa registered the grow site with the state of Oregon and harvested six mature plants last October, according to the lawsuit. Lindland helped Gamboa load the plants into a U-Haul truck and told him he was moving them to his shed to dry, the suit says.

Caution: B.C. Medical Marijuana Grow-Ops Targeted By Thieves

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 10, 2011 Global, Growing, News

Photo: PNG/Regina Leader-Post

Home basement grow-ops like these are being targeted by thieves around Langley, British Columbia, Canada.

Some British Columbia residents who are legally licensed to grow medical marijuana are being ripped off by thieves.

Three Langley, B.C., medical marijuana grow-ops have been robbed in the past six months, reports Cassidy Olivier at The Province. But Royal Canadian Mounted Police said there is “no way to tell” if the grows are being specifically targeted because they are a medicinal cannabis operation, or simply because they have pot.

“We’re very concerned,” said Supt. Derek Cooke of the Langley RCMP, reports CBC News. “This is a significant problem for the community.” There are more than 800 legal medical marijuana grow-ops in B.C., according to Cooke.

IRS Tells Medical Marijuana Dispensary It Owes Millions In Taxes

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 10, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Jeff Vendsel/Marin Independent Journal

Lynette Shaw, founder and director of the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, which is being audited by the IRS.

The Internal Revenue Service has notified the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax, California that it owes millions of dollars in unpaid back taxes, according to the dispensary’s founder and director, Lynette Shaw.

Shaw said the IRS audited the Alliance’s tax returns for 2008 and 2009 — and disallowed all of the dispensary’s business deductions, reports Richard Halstead at the Marin Independent Journal.

Although dispensaries throughout California are reportedly being audited by the IRS, the Alliance is the first to be directly told it can’t deduct business expenses, according to Shaw.

“Every dispensary in the nation, past present and future is dead if this is upheld,” Shaw said.

140 L.A. Marijuana Dispensaries Ordered To Close Immediately

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 9, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Los Angeles Times

The office of Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen “Nuch” Tratanich has stepped up its efforts to close unlicensed medical marijuana dispensaries, notifying landlords and operators of 140 pot shops that they must close immediately.

In a letter sent Monday, the office contacted dispensaries which did not file applications to participate in a lottery to choose 100 that will be allowed to operate in the city, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

The city clerk received 228 applications from dispensaries and is currently reviewing them all to make sure they qualify for the drawing. To qualify, pot shops must have been in business since September 14, 2007.

Cops Say Gator Guarded $1.5 Million California Marijuana Farm

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 9, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: Terry Pierson/The Press Enterprise

Agents found “Wally,” a four-foot, 55-pound alligator, in a home where marijuana was being grown. They claim he was guarding the plants.

California narcotics investigators raiding what they called a $1.5 million marijuana growing operation found a four-foot alligator they claimed was guarding the crop.

Now, I know the press just loves exotic pets guarding marijuana crops, just how effective a guard would a four-foot alligator be? Not very, if one can judge by the photo of someone holding the fuckin’ thing. Turns out the gator was just as (in)effective at guarding pot as the B.C. marijuana bears were last year.

In any event, the Riverside County drug task force members, along with Department of Justice agents, moved in on the East Hemet house Monday night, seizing nearly 2,300 marijuana plants, reports KTLA News.

Los Angeles Voters Approve Taxing Marijuana Dispensaries

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: The 420 Times

Los Angeles voters on Tuesday approved a measure to tax medical marijuana dispensaries as a new source of revenue for the budget-challenged city.

Early returns from Tuesday’s polls showed most voters favored Measure M, which would allow the city to collect $50 out of each $1,000 in “gross reimbursements” that dispensaries receive from patients, reports Yang Lina at Xinhua.

With 40 percent of precincts counted, Measure M was ahead by a margin of 62 percent to 38 percent, reports Gene Maddaus at LA Weekly.

Guard Arrested For Smuggling Marijuana Into Prison

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 8, 2011 News

Photo: My Fox 8

Tavaries Moore won’t be working as a prison guard again anytime soon. However, he has a promising future as a trustee.

A North Carolina prison employee has been arrested and accused of smuggling marijuana inside the facility.

Tavaries Cordero Moore, 22, of Greensboro, N.C., is getting the book thrown at him. Moore is charged with possession with intent to sell and deliver marijuana, felony possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance in a prison facility and aiding and abetting providing drugs to an inmate, reports My Fox 8.

Moore is an employee of the Caswell Correctional Facility in Caswell County. Deputies said they began their investigation on March 1, reports WXII 12.

CA Dispensaries Can’t Keep Charlie Sheen Pot Strain On Shelves

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: TMZ

“Charlie Sheen” weed will run you $70 an eighth, $400 an ounce at many Los Angeles dispensaries.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in California are selling cannabis with the strain name “Charlie Sheen” in a tribute to the headline-grabbing star.

The Charlie Sheen marijuana, reportedly with a THC content of 23 percent, was flying off the shelves at several shops last week, reports TMZ.

Demand for the new strain was so high that growers were being asked to put in more crops to keep up with the demand, the celebrity website reported.

In a move that couldn’t have hurt sales of Charlie Sheen the marijuana strain, Charlie Sheen the actor defended his increasingly erratic behavior by saying last week, “I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen.”

U.S. Government Helps Arm Mexican Drug Cartels

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Global, News

Photo: CBS News

ATF Agent John Dodson says he was ordered to let guns get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels

CBS News has uncovered that the U.S. government has actually been allowing thousands of military-style firearms to be smuggled into Mexico “to see where they would end up.” Investigators call the tactic “letting the guns walk.”
The entire operation, which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) called “Fast and Furious,” was kept secret from Mexico.
“Documents show the inevitable result,” Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News reports. “The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets … the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.”

Professor Gives Up Bid To Grow Marijuana For Medical Research

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 4, 2011 Growing, Medical, News

Jonathan Beller/Boston Magazine

Dr. Lyle Craker, UMass-Amherst: “I’m disappointed mostly because of all the patients who could potentially benefit”

Respected horticulturalist Lyle Craker of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst has been trying for almost a decade to persuade the federal government to let him grow marijuana for medical research. He wanted to learn more about the plant’s medical benefits. But Craker, 70, was over and over again rebuffed, and now he’s finally giving up.

Craker said he saw no end in sight to the legal wrangling, with an appeals process that could run for years or even decades, reports Andrew Miga of The Associated Press. Craker was also frustrated that he never got a hoped-for boost from the Obama Administration.

“I’m disappointed in our system,” he said. “But I’m not disappointed at what we did. I think our efforts have brought the problem to the public eye more. … This is just the first battle in a war.”

Craker, who said he has never smoked marijuana, started his challenge to the government’s monopoly on growing and distributing research cannabis in 2001. One garden at The University of Mississippi is the federal government’s only marijuana-growing facility.

But government-grown pot lacks the potency medical researchers need for breakthroughs, according to Craker. Besides, there isn’t enough of the Ole Miss-grown cannabis available for scientists across the U.S., or even if there is, the government isn’t letting them have it.

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