| Robert Pittman/William Breathes. |
Back in July of this year, TokeOfTheTown.com editor, William Breathes, reported on headlines coming out of the Middle Eastern nation of Turkey, where government officials had just confiscated roughly three tons of hash during a drug sting on an illegal weed growing operation. Being a visual learner myself, the imagery he provided of “6 right whale testicles” painted just the comparative masterpiece that I needed in order to comprehend the magnitude of the 3-ton hash bust in Turkey.
Reports from Turkey this week are that they have broken their all-time record for drugs seized in a single operation, when anti-smuggling and organized crime agents from the Diyarbakir Police Department uncovered over 23 tons of weed – a stash roughly the size of a full grown killer whale, testicles and all.
| High-quality LA Kush, brought to you by the War on Drugs. |
The American war on drugs has cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. For decades, it has put away mothers and fathers, husbands and daughters, giving the United States one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
Then-President Richard Nixon first identified drugs as a top target in 1969 and more formally declared war in 1971. What has this four-decade battle really gotten us? Stronger and cheaper drugs. LA Weekly has the full story.
| Toke of the Town/William Breathes. |
Legalized cannabis would create more than $450 million in annual revenue for the Israeli government, a study this week by an Israeli financial research group shows. The figures are based on estimated black market sales of cannabis more than $707 million.
The only problem is that legalization doesn’t seem to have much support. Yet.
Arkansans now have two medical marijuana law proposals to consider putting on the 2014 ballot. Arkansans for Compassionate Care officially began their journey to get their medical marijuana bill before voters after state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel approved the wording late yesterday.
The group now has to get the John Hancock of at least 62,507 registered Arkansas voters to get the measure on the 2014 ballot.
| Creative commons/Matt Wright. |
Monday marked the deadline for Colorado’s 271 cities and towns and 64 counties to decide whether they want to ban recreational cannabis businesses and sales — and it is starting to look like Denver will be ganja ground zero.
Already, four of the ten largest cities in Colorado (Colorado Springs, Thornton, Westminster and Centennial) have banned recreational cannabis sales outright, and five others have placed moratoriums on shops until next year.
A Fort Myers man decided he’d teach his dope dealer a lesson when her mom yelled at him by turning her in to police. He had an ironclad plot against her too: Clear and irrefutable evidence that would surely put her behind bars in no time.The man’s evidence that she was a dope dealer and should be arrested immediately?
The bag of weed he bought from her. Broward-Palm Beach New Times has the full story.
| William Breathes. |
It’s not an uncommon tactic for police to get electrical usage records to target and bust growers. Apparently it takes a lot more than that to get someone’s attention in Patterson, California.
Stanislaus County Sheriff’s deputies say that a pair of grow houses in a quiet residential neighborhood were using so much combined electricity that they overloaded the grid and burned through cables supplying the entire neighborhood.
Govs. John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Jay Inslee of Washington state cosigned a letter yesterday to federal bank officials urging them to allow for banks to take marijuana-related accounts in states where cannabis sales have been legalized.
Without banks to take their money, medical marijuana dispensaries have been forced into a cash-only situation that leaves them with stacks of cash and makes them targets for robberies. That was the case in July when robbers at a Bakersfield, Calif. medical marijuana center killed two employees.
| Wikipedia commons/Simon. |
A twenty-foot boat filled with 80 pounds of dirt weed from Mexico capsized in plain view of some butt-nekkid beachgoers and surfers near Santa Cruz, California yesterday.
The capsized boat washed ashore around 11 a.m. Monday, according to police. At least, that’s when distress calls came in from concerned beachgoers about a crew of a small boat drowning.
If you’re illegally dealing herb, it’s best to know who you’re texting when setting up a deal.
New Jersey’s Nicholas Delear found that out the hard way last week after unknowingly sending a message to a cop to set up a deal for a quarter pound of ganja.