News

Michigan City Approves Marijuana Growth In Industrial Areas

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

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.

S.F. Cops Return Seven Pounds Of Marijuana To Grower

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 21, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Salem News

Last week, in what may be the largest single cop-to-grower marijuana transaction ever (the largest amount of pot returned by cops we’re aware of was 11 pounds, but that was given back a little at the time), the San Francisco Police Department gave seven pounds of cannabis back to grower Cody Phillips, whose cultivation for sale charges were dismissed in August.

The seven pounds of pot — in good condition, according to his attorney! — wasn’t all that Phillips got back, reports Chris Roberts at SF Weekly. The cops also gave him back everything else they seized in the June raid, including grow lights and cash.

The grow equipment had been returned earlier, according to attorney Derek St. Pierre, but figuring out how to return the marijuana was problematic. There is apparently no standing protocol for cop-to-civilian marijuana returns, especially for such large amounts. (Toke of the Town suggests that someone at the SFPD should get right on that.)

Mom Busted; Kept Son Home From School To Harvest Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 21, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Michael Johnson/Mom Logic

A Ukiah, California woman who was allegedly paying her teenage son to harvest marijuana instead of attending school was busted Tuesday, according to police.

Dena Price, 46, was arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana and possessing it for sale, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, providing marijuana to a minor and child endangerment, reports Glenda Anderson at the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Price was also cited for violating Ukiah’s city ordinance against outdoor marijuana growing, according to the Ukiah Police Department.

Bartkowicz To Plead Guilty In Colorado Marijuana Growing Case

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 21, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Anna Hewson/KUSA

Chris Bartkowicz: “They have won. I will be entering a guilty plea tomorrow.”

A Highlands Ranch, Colorado man charged with growing marijuana in his home has said he will plead guilty, and has scheduled a change of plea hearing in federal court for Friday.

Chris Bartkowicz, a medical marijuana patient and provider, had maintained that all his cannabis was for medical purposes and was legal under Colorado law. Marijuana is illegal for any purpose under federal law.

“They have won,” Bartkowicz posted on his Facebook page Wednesday night. “I will be entering a guilty plea tomorrow.”

“If the judge accepts it after a pre-sentence report is done then I will be sentenced to 5 years in FEDERAL prison,” Bartkowicz posted. “I am sorry for tapping out. I give up and can no longer fight the fight. They have broken me.”

‘Bad Batch,’ Good Chuckles: Interview With The Director

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 21, 2010 Culture, News

Graphic: potbrownies.net

New Film Follows Three College Students Who Can’t Handle Intense Pot Brownie High; Premieres Thursday Night In L.A.

Bad Batch, indie producer-writer-director Abe Schwartz’s feature debut, features three college students who meet on Facebook, then can’t handle an intense pot brownie high one night.

The film’s hipster style has critics comparing Bad Batch to the work of directors Kevin Smith, Richard Linklater and even Ingmar Bergman.

The students, two African-American cousins and one Jewish hipster chick, discover sexual, psychological, and social tensions as they soar higher and higher in close to real-time, ultimately landing in a dramatic, sobering place.

But there are plenty of laughs, and the film doesn’t pound viewers over the head with a tiresome moral message, Schwartz told Toke of the Town in an exclusive interview.

Marijuana Stomps Wine Grapes As California Cash Crop

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 20, 2010 Growing, News

California’s marijuana crop is worth $14 billion, according to a state report. That totally crushes the state’s wine grape crop, which comes in at only $2 billion.
“Legalization would be a huge shot in the arm for plenty of ancillary industries, such as banking and construction,” reports NBC Bay Area‘s Matt Baume.

S.D. Highway Patrol Electioneering Against Medical Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 20, 2010 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: KELOLAND.com

The South Dakota Highway Patrol isn’t officially allowed to interfere with elections. But they found a way around the rule.

South Dakota’s medical marijuana initiative, Measure 13, is fending off a new foe: the state’s Highway Patrol.

The South Dakota Highway Patrol saved “news” about marijuana busts from the summer — supposedly related to “out of state medical marijuana” — to release two weeks before the election, Michael Whitney of JustSayNow.com told Toke of the Town on Wednesday.

“It certainly looks like the South Dakota Highway Patrol is interfering with the state’s medical marijuana ballot initiative,” Whitney told us Wednesday afternoon.

“Just Say Now is working with Measure 13’s campaign to fight back,” Whitney said.

Measure 13, which would legalize the medicinal use of cannabis in South Dakota for patients with a doctor’s authorization, is in a tight race going down to the wire on November 2.

Michigan Cops Use Faked Patient IDs To Buy Medical Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 20, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Tim Thompson/The Oakland Press

Candi and Bill Teichman, owners of Everybody’s Café in Wateford Township, Mich., have lost their children, their bank accounts, and their dispensary — all because police officers made fake patient ID cards and bought medical marijuana from them.

How’s this for a waste of taxpayers’ money and law enforcement’s time? Oakland County Sheriff’s deputies used phony Michigan patient cards they created on a county computer to trick state-approved medical marijuana providers into selling cannabis to the cops.

Days after cops bought cannabis with the fake IDs, county narcotics agents raided two medical marijuana dispensaries on August 25, in Ferndale and Waterford, Mich., reports Bill Laitner at The Detroit Free Press.

“These officers were denied entrance on several occasions because of improper paperwork, but when they appeared with these cards, I had no way to check,” said Brian Vaughan, former doorman at the now-closed Everybody’s Café dispensary in Waterford. Vaughan is charged with multiple marijuana violations.

“You’ve got law enforcement spending time and money to entrap users of medical marijuana,” Southfield attorney Michael Komorn said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the cops are claiming that the phony patient ID cards weren’t entrapment, but were a legitimate way to get “evidence.”

“Regardless of whether the cards were real or not, the pure and simple fact is, dispensaries are not legal in Michigan,” claimed Oakland County Undersheriff Mike McCabe.

Tacoma Backs Away From Marijuana Dispensary Ban

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 20, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Graphic: Tacoma Cross

With hundreds of cannabis supporters in attendance, the Tacoma City Council on Tuesday night agreed to a compromise plan that would allow established medical marijuana dispensaries to continue selling to patients until the Washington Legislature spells out more clearly how patients can legally access the herb.

“The Tacoma City Council is not opposed to safe and legal access to medical marijuana for patients with legitimate need,” Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland said, reports Lewis Kamb of the Tacoma News Tribune.

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