Kadesha Roberts was camped out at a friend’s condo in a cookie-cutter, tile-roofed development off McNab Road when the knock came. The short Jamaican woman with spiked hair opened the door to find a UPS man clutching a large package. After identifying herself, she grabbed it. Then all hell broke loose.
Broward deputies bolted toward her. Roberts dropped the package and tried to squeeze inside, but not fast enough. Cops snatched up the box, discovering bales of marijuana wrapped in green cellophane. Roberts was put in cuffs and the evidence shipped off to the county’s crime lab. That was July 2010, and normally the story would have ended there. Roberts would have been popped for trafficking and the UPS box would have been the prime evidence against her.
But the case wasn’t a slam dunk. Several pounds of the marijuana apparently vanished. More on this scandal at the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.
The Minnesota Department of Health on Friday released rules governing future medical cannabis manufacturers, stressing that the 40-page document is only a first draft. State officials acknowledge that the rules are pretty vague, but also ask for public feedback.
The security requirements are no joke. Manufacturers will be prohibited from employing anyone with a felony criminal record and must visually record the entrances of their facilities 24-hours a day — even in the event of a power outage. The vehicles transporting cannabis are not allowed to make stops away from facilities and fueling stations. Their routes must be random.
They didn’t take money or marijuana–they took people.
On the afternoon of July 31, and well into the evening, Santa Ana (California) Police Department raided (“attacked,” according to some) dispensaries, detaining and processing approximately 80 dispensary owners, employees, and medical marijuana patients.
They were taken via paddy wagon to the county jail.
| Commons/IDuke |
For some people, owning a home is one of their lifelong aspirations, only second to living out the rest of their days stoned to the bone in a legal marijuana state. Indeed, this level of paradise seems relatively easy to achieve these days, especially since an increasing number of states have voted to legalize the leaf for medical and recreational use.
Unfortunately, the problem some folks are running into, shortly after the last piece of furniture has been pulled off the U-Haul, is that some neighbors are not very pot-friendly and more than willing to file a complaint with the homeowners association the moment the first puff of pot smoke crosses the fence.
Those in favor of marijuana legalization frequently stress that cannabis users don’t conform to hippie-centric stereotypes. Rather, they’re folks in all walks of life, including suit-wearing business executives, as suggested by the image above.
Not that this pic is supposed to inspire people to support pot-law reform. Far from it: The image is part of an ad in the August 2 New York Times by a group affiliated with Project SAM, an anti-marijuana-legalization organization that launched in Colorado last year. Denver Westword has the complete details.
| William Breathes. |
| Golden Goat kief. |
The war of attrition between advocates for and opponents against medical marijuana in Florida entered another chapter this week, after the Florida Police Chiefs Association put out a media release on the dangers of medical weed legalization. In the statement, the FPCA cited studies and stats showing how the number of automobile accidents and ER visits in Colorado have gone up, and drawing a direct correlation to the legalization of medical marijuana in that state.
This, United For Care says, is all false and they’ve issued a media release of their own.
The last time we heard legislators arguing about medical cannabis, it was in May, with politicians, law enforcement officials, and activists taking swings at each other over how broad the legislation should be. The bill the state ultimately passed was underwhelming, and left several legislators fuming over just how narrow it was.
On Thursday, those same legislators, activists, and law enforcement officials gathered together again, for the first meeting of the state’s 23-member medical marijuana task force. This time, the mood was far more cordial, reports the Minneapolis City Pages.
Medical cannabis is quickly becoming a lucrative business in Minnesota, with potential manufacturers and consulting companies wanting to get in on the action. But one group — lawyers — is being locked out of the market so far by their own code of ethics, and they’re trying to get it fixed as soon as possible.
The law firm Thompson Hall sent a petition to the Minnesota Supreme Court last week looking to change the state’s rules for lawyers. Right now, the rules say that lawyer’s can’t give advice to those applying to be one of the state’s two cannabis manufacturers. The conflict boils down to a few lines in the Minnesota Rules of Professional Conduct, basically an ethics guide for lawyers in the state.
| Bud Green. |
A man who once told Wally George in his Anaheim TV studio that Nancy Reagan smoked pot is now telling a whopper on the East Coast: that he was the one who replaced American flags with bleached white versions of Old Glory.
The Reverend Bud Green of the People Opposing Tyranny Party (POT Party … get it?) makes the claim on his blog:
| Ramsey Orta in a Time interview. |
According to several news sites out of New York, Ramsey Orta, the guy who filmed New York City police officers killing Eric Garner in a chokehold, was arrested Saturday. Cops say he was profiled after going into a Long Island hotel that cops say is a known drug hangout and arrested afterward for gun charges. A 17-year-old female he was with was also charged with marijuana possession.