| Photo: Monroe County Sheriff’s Office |
| Jennifer Knopp tried to expand her customer base on Thursday. |
A Florida Keys woman was arrested on Thursday for trying to sell marijuana to a sheriff’s deputy after she called him on the phone.
On Thursday evening at 9:15, Jennifer Knopp, 39, called the SWAT-issued cellphone of Deputy Chris Galls; she told the deputy she “had the stuff he was looking for,” reports Matthew Handley at the Broward Palm Beach New Times.
The woman then offered to sell Deputy Galls “crippie” marijuana, according to a Monroe County Sheriff’s Department press release, and the two agreed to meet behind a local movie theater.
She asked much he wanted, and Deputy Galls said a quarter-ounce.
Galls brought along narcotics officer Deputy Paul Bean for the meeting at Marathon Movie Theater, about a mile from the sheriff’s office, reports KeysNet.com.
| Photo: Real News Reporter |
| An angry mother confronts scumbag Judge Mark Ciavarella. The corrupt former judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison this week for taking almost $1 million in bribes to fill up a private, for-profit juvenile detention center with children. |
Former Judge Took $1 Million In Bribes From Builder Of Private, For-Profit Juvenile Detention Centers
Should anyone really be surprised when a private, for-profit correctional system results in abuses like this?
A long-serving judge in Pennsylvania has been ordered to spend 28 years in prison for his role in a bribery scandal that resulted in thousands of juvenile convictions — many of them for marijuana — being overturned by the state supreme court.
Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella Jr., 61, was sentenced on Thursday for taking $1 million in bribes from the builder of two juvenile detention centers in a case that became known as “kids for cash,” reports the Associated Press.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned about 4,000 convictions issued by Judge Ciavarella between 2003 and 2008, ruling that he violated the rights of the juveniles, including the right to legal counsel and the right to intelligently enter a plea.
| Photo: Asheville Citizen-Times |
| Chris Maney, 46, was charged with possession and felony “manufacturing” of marijuana after officers claimed they found eight plants during a raid |
A tax administrator in Madison County, North Carolina was arrested after police raided his property and accused him of growing marijuana.
Chris Maney, 46, was charged with felony possession and manufacturing of marijuana after the raid by State Bureau of Investigation agents and the Madison County Sheriff’s Office, reports Melissa Dean at the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Law enforcement had gotten a tip that Maney was growing pot next to his home, according to Sheriff Buddy Harwood. Detectives claimed they seized about 5.5 pounds of marijuana.
Eight marijuana plants in separate buckets were found in a field near the home, according to State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) spokeswoman Noelle Talley, reports North Carolina News Network. Cannabis seeds and “drug paraphernalia, including a scale,” were found inside the home, according to the cops.
| Photo: KTLA-TV |
| Image from the surveillance video |
A courier delivering medical marijuana to what he thought was a dispensary was mugged for $20,000 worth of cannabis by three men, according to police in Fullerton, California.
Police said the trio set up a fake medical marijuana dispensary in a commercial building in Fullerton, even painting a green cross on the outside wall of the building, reports Dennis Romero at LA Weekly.
“These suspects had spent some time putting this ruse together, putting the order in and finding a building that worked for what they were trying to do,” said Sgt. Andrew Goodrich of the Fullerton Police Department, reports Eileen Frere at ABC 7.
| Photo: Courtesy Don Skakie |
| Don Skakie, Yes End Penalties WA: “Removing marijuana penalties will not conflict with federal law” |
When it comes to cannabis law reform, what’ll it be, Washington? Your choices are YEP and NAW. (The respective acronyms stand for Yes End Penalties and New Approach Washington.)
The new kid on the block, Washington state cannabis reform group Yes End Penalties Washington (YEP WA), will announce a new marijuana legalization drive at 11 a.m. Thursday on the North Steps of the Legislative Building at the State Capitol in Olympia.
Initiative sponsor and Lacey City Councilman Ron Lawson will announce “Initiative to the Legislature 505,” which would remove cannabis-related civil and criminal penalties for adults in Washington state. Supporters of I-505 will speak at the event.
Yes End Penalties WA is inviting news media and interested members of the public to attend and compare YEP to NAW.
“Removing marijuana penalties will not conflict with federal law, avoiding preemption and empowering the people of Washington state to step away from the fear of speaking for cannabis reform and directing their legislators to create fair and evenhanded regulation that benefits the public, rather than special interest groups and based on fact and science, not misinformation or ‘reefer madness’ propaganda,” said YEP’s Don Skakie.
| Photo: Billings Gazette |
| Flowering cannabis plants at Montannabis, Inc., Billings, Montana, March 16, 2011. |
Montana on Tuesday appealed to the Montana Supreme Court a judge’s ruling which blocked tight new restrictions on medical marijuana on the state, and will argue there’s no constitutional right to sell cannabis for a profit. The new restrictions have been described by some patient advocates as a de facto repeal of Montana’s medical marijuana law, passed by 62 percent of the state’s voters in 2000.
The Montana Justice Department will ask the state’s high court to overturn portions of Helena District Judge James Reynolds’ decision from June 30, which suspended enforcement of several provisions of the tough new law passed the the Republican-dominated 2011 Legislature to crack down on the state’s growing medical marijuana industry, reports Mike Dennison at the Billings Gazette.
| Photo: DAVC |
| Don’t try to rob these guys at DAVC, or they will chase your dumb ass down and “detain” you until the cops arrive. |
A California man accused of breaking into and burglarizing three medical marijuana dispensaries is now behind bars after being nabbed by a collective owner.
Jose Ramon Vidrio, 20, of Redlands, was arrested on suspicion of trying to smash the front window of Disabled American Veterans Collective cannabis dispensary in French Valley, reports Maggie Avants at the Temecula Patch.
The dispensary owner told deputies that around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Vidrio tried to smash the window with a concrete block. After he screwed that up — he was unable to break the glass — he allegedly tried to flee the area in his car.
| Graphic: Releaf |
Nova Scotians on social assistance will no longer be able to get medical marijuana as a “special need.”
The Canadian province’s Department of Community Services is tightening the rules for its special needs funding, reports CBC News. Community Services spends more than $45 million in special needs funding each year.
Until the new decision, some people on welfare had been able to get the department to pay for medical marijuana, because the rules were vague about what, exactly, qualified as a special need.
Between 20 and 25 people who already received such support — including, in addition to marijuana, things like gym memberships and massage therapy — will continue to get it, according to CBC.
| Photo: Voice of Detroit |
| Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette hates medical marijuana, and he thinks you’re faking to get it. |
Michigan’s attorney general has been busily trying to dismantle the state’s medical marijuana law ever since it was passed by voters. Attorney General Bill Schuette announced legislative proposals on Wednesday targeting patients he claims are “exploiting” the law.
Schuette is not a fan of the law, passed by an overwhelming 63 percent of Michigan voters in 2008. In the sort of political gymnastics also favored by Republican attorneys general in other states (examples: Rob McKenna of Washington state and Tom Horne of Arizona), Schuette claims to be a “states’ rights conservative” — unless the “state’s right” we’re talking about is a medical marijuana law.
In that case, the rules are different, and in Schuette’s mind, it’s open season on medical marijuana patients, because, in a brief he filed back in June in support of the City of Livonia — which is trying to ban medical marijuana use and sales — the attorney general claims the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act is preempted by federal law.
| Graphic: Misplaced In The Midwest |
Just give me the ganja. A new Angus Reid Public Opinion poll has found that a majority of Americans continue to believe that marijuana should be legalized, but don’t support the legalization of other drugs.
In the online survey of a representative sample of 1,003 American adults, 55 percent of respondents support the legalization of cannabis, while 40 percent oppose it.
Democrats are the group most supportive of legalizing cannabis in the United States, with 63 percent in favor of ending the war on marijuana. Almost as many Independents, at 61 percent, also support the move.
Republicans were out of step with the majority on the legalization issue, with just 41 percent supporting marijuana legalization and 56 percent opposed.
Marijuana legalization enjoyed big majorities among men (57 percent) and respondents aged 35 to 54 (also 57 percent).