| Evan Amos. |
A former city councilman in Harford, Maryland was arrested with more than two pounds of pot in September and will be facing multiple felony and misdemeanor charges that could land him jail for years.
According to court records unsealed last week, Lance Miller was busted with multiple bags of pot totaling 2.25 pounds in September in a house that cops imply was used as a grow facility.
Visiting Colorado soon? You’ll want to know what is going on in the cannabis community.
Remember those never-ending working group meetings surrounding the never-say-die edibles bill? The working group has been unable to reach a consensus, but you still have a chance to offer a public comment…if you do it quickly. Denver Westword has more.
Another night of violence, looting and property damage plagued Ferguson last night with the grand jury’s announcement that Darren Wilson would not be charged with the killing of Michael Brown. Although the initial reaction on South Florissant Road in front of the Ferguson Police Department seemed peaceful at first, the violence many were expecting ultimately prevailed.
Here is the arrest data provided this morning by the St. Louis County Police Department: 61 total arrests last night in Ferguson. There were seven for unlawful assembly, one for assault, one for arson, 29 for burglary second, six for misdemeanor possession of stolen property, ten for misdemeanor receiving stolen property, one for felony receiving stolen property, seven for trespassing, one for unlawful possession of a firearm, one for marijuana possession. Yes, the cops actually arrested someone for marijuana possession in the middle of all of this. Riverfront Times has more.
We told you last week about a Michigan prison cop who died prior to being sentenced for his role in a medical marijuana brownie sting. It turns out that 49-year-old Tim Bernhardt committed suicide, rather than face the felony charges of maintaining a drug house – charges he saw for simply being a medical marijuana patient and making some brownies. Bernhardt was facing up to two years in jail and $25,000 in fines.
According to Michigan law, concentrated forms of marijuana are illegal even for medical cannabis users – that includes infused butter, arguably the most common way to make pot edibles. The court has upheld that ruling as recently as July of 2013 – despite overwhelming evidence that it’s an absurd qualification. The judge based the ruling on the language of the state medical marijuana law, which defines marijuana as the “the dried leaves and flowers of the marihuana plant, and any mixture or preparation thereof.”
| Part of a new marijuana-edibles-education billboard introduced earlier today. Additional images below. |
Earlier today, a new billboard encouraging responsible storage of marijuana edibles was introduced by the Marijuana Policy Project; see more images below. MPP spokesman Mason Tvert stresses that the display is part of an ongoing educational campaign and shouldn’t be interpreted as message to legislators, who’ll be making decisions about edibles packaging after a working group essentially punted following many weeks of work on the issue.
Thanksgiving week in Amsterdam for the last 26 years or so has been a haven for cannabis users and those wanting to celebrate marijuana culture thanks to the High Times Cannabis Cup.
But it seems that after more than a quarter-century of generally being hassle-free, the Dutch are cracking down on events and have shut down the main expo for the event and are strictly enforcing five-gram possession laws and a total ban on solvent-based concentrates.
An attorney’s opinionated rant against marijuana in a Michigan courtroom last week cost her a case, even though most seemed to agree she had won.
In her closing arguments in a case against a Michigan medical cannabis patient accused of growing more than he was allowed, Alger County prosecutor Karen Bahrman went off on a tear on the state’s medical marijuana laws, the Alger Hemp Coalition, a local cannabis advocacy group, and patients in general. She said their vision was to live in a “country where everybody can walk around stoned.”
The Chicago Zoning Board gave initial approval to a handful of dispensaries and one large grow operation late last week, bringing patients one step closer to accessing medical cannabis in the Windy City.
Perry Mandera, a strip club owner, was granted approval for his grow operation and dispensary after the board questioned him on security measures, including how he would prevent workers from walking off with pot.
By the end of the year it looks like there will be no more vaping allowed in any public buildings in Minneapolis. Sorry to all of you who have been using the vaping laws to stealthily get stoned…
Last week a City Council committee unanimously passed a measure that would extend the state’s 2007 Freedom to Breathe Act to e-cigarettes. The new ordinance would treat e-cigarette smoke exactly like cigarette smoke. Minneapolis City Pages has more.
| Photo by EvaK via Wikimedia Commons. |
The two middle-aged men were ambitious. They wanted to repair their sailboat and navigate across the ocean, from Colombia to Italy. All so they could smuggle two tons of cocaine.
According to a federal arrest affidavit filed last week, keysnet.com reports, two South Florida men — Juan Soberon and Marin Spariosu — the latter a registered agent of a downtown Miami jewelry store, conspired to front thousands of dollars’ worth of emeralds in exchange for cocaine. Flush with money from the initial sale, the two sailors would then embark on the much grander plan of smuggling up to two tons of coke across the ocean. Except, of course, they got caught. The coke suppliers they were meeting with were actually informants for the Drug Enforcement Agency. Miami New Times has more.