A Miami man was caught trying to bring a green Christmas up to the folks of Pennsylvania.
Randy Jesus Valdivia, a 38-year-old resident of Surfside, wasn’t driving a sleigh, but instead a 2014 Dodge Caravan. On Thursday afternoon, police pulled over the vehicle for displaying “criminal activity indicators” in a small town near the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. Miami New Times has the full, strange story.
| Flickr.com/Kevin Glaser. |
Remember when that Missouri drug cop said that people who think marijuana should be legalized are a bunch of illiterate potheads who collect welfare checks?
Well, that has resulted in a debate on marijuana legalization to be held this Wednesday at the Ethical Society of St. Louis. Read more over at the Riverfront Times.
Tom Daubert was sentenced to 5 years of probation in September 2012 for a 2011 federal raid on his medical cannabis collective, Montana Cannabis. Daubert maintained his innocence through his trial despite the feds not allowing him to raise Montana’s medical marijuana for his defense, and was able to strike a deal keeping him from 20 years in prison.
But now he says that after five years on probation and watching his former business partners, Richard Flor, die in prison, he says enough is enough.
| D. Ramey Logan. |
Since September, Long Beach city officials have been working on officially allowing medical marijuana dispensaries in the southern California city. They’re just not clear on exactly how to do it.
According to the Press-Telegram, Long Beach City Attorney Charles Parkin says he has concerns with the legality of a current proposal that limits dispensaries to industrial zones, with no more than two dispensaries allowed in each city district.
We really want to think this story is fake, because nobody can be so stupid as to force their 23-month-old baby a hit off of their weed pipe, right?
Because police in Mayville, N.Y. say two teen parents did exactly that while baby’s grandfather sat by and watched. Chautauqua County sheriff’s arrested 17-year-old Jessica Kelsey and 18-year-old George Kelsey earlier this month on charges of reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. Both were arraigned Friday, held on a $20,000 bond.
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With the January 1 kickoff for recreational marijuana sales in Colorado drawing ever nearer, we’re hearing more and more people within the cannabis community complaining about the city’s approach. A common perception is that Denver mayor Michael Hancock’s personal opposition to pot legalization is filtering down to city agencies and negatively coloring messaging, as epitomized by the unenthusiastic tone of the city’s official marijuana website. But a Hancock rep says nothing could be further from the truth and stresses the city’s efforts to make the launch go smoothly.
Denver Westword has the full story.
As long as the federal government continues to make it impossible for California’s biggest cash crop to find legal customers, the harvest will inevitably end up on the black market. Because it remains illegal for Golden State growers to export their plants to other states where it is legal to smoke cannabis for medical or recreational purposes under state law, a lot of folks unload their plants the old fashioned way–illegally.
The latest example: a coast-to-coast marijuana smuggling operation based out of San Diego that allegedly used the U.S. Postal Service to do the heavy lifting. Nick Schou at the OC Weekly has more.
| Flickr.com/Simon Strandgaard.td> |
It was a Tuesday morning in San Diego, just over a month ago on November 7th, when SDPD received reports of broken glass at a local business, with a possible burglary having had occurred overnight. Police investigators arriving on the scene quickly determined that the business in question was a medical marijuana dispensary, and the focus of their investigation quickly shifted from aiding possible burglary victims, to persecuting law abiding citizens and shuttering a legitimate business.
You see, San Diego was home to nearly 300 storefront medical marijuana dispensaries as recently as two years ago, but an intense crackdown by joint task forces, combining the might of local and federal authorities, led to nearly every single brick and mortar storefront being closed by the end of 2011.
According to campaign-finance reports for the month of November, lawyer and pro-medical marijuana advocate, John Morgan, has put in over $500 grand into the People United for Medical Marijuana campaign. All told, he’s put in about $972,125, almost bringing this thing to a cool million.
Meanwhile, United For Care is launching its “day of action” this weekend, looking to collect more signatures from Floridians, all while the Florida Supreme Court ponders the language in the ballot and whether or not to allow the state to choose if medical marijuana should be legalized. Broward-Palm Beach New Times has the full, local angle.
Michigan medical marijuana patients are closer to having legal pot dispensaries again after the state House approved a measure expressly allowing the retail centers to operate. Dispensaries were flourishing in Michigan up until February of this year when a state Supreme Court decided that they were public nuisances.
The House also approve measures legalizing edible forms of cannabis in response to another ruling that said medical marijuana was only legal if it was smoked.