Photo: Les Bazso/PNG
Len Gratto on his property in Mission on Saturday, January 8, 2011. Gratto is ready to join an imminent class-action lawsuit against Mission, for hitting him with a $5,200 grow op inspection fee. The 67-year-old says he and his wife were growing cucumbers in the basement, he never grew pot, and he and many other Mission residents are being unfairly searched and fined.

​A Canadian homeowner says there is no way he will pay a $5,200 fine to Mission, B.C., for growing cucumbers in his basement.

Len Gratto, who has lived in the home for 30 years, said he’s ready to join an imminent class-action lawsuit against the municipality’s grow-op bylaw inspections, reports Sam Cooper at Postmedia News.
A number of citizens, led by Stacy Gowanlock, said their homes were illegally searched for marijuana grow-ops, resulting in them being slapped with fees and repair orders sometimes exceeding $10,000 — all on flimsy evidence.
Gratto, 67, said he has never grown pot. He said the “laughable” evidence against him consists of pictures of some “dirt” on the basement wall, and “a furnace pipe going up into the chimney, where it should be.”

Photo: The Huffington Post
The next public comment period for implementation of Arizona’s medical marijuana law begins January 31 and is open until February 18.

​How, exactly, will Arizona’s new medical marijuana law — narrowly approved by state voters in last November’s election — play out? Nobody seems quite sure, as some law enforcement aspects have yet to be spelled out, and lawmakers are not quite ready to spell out just how police will deal with violators.

Determining standards for driving under the influence of marijuana is one issue currently at the forefront of the new law, according to Lake Havasu City Police Chief Dan Doyle, reports Jayne Hanson of the Havasu News-Herald.
“There is no threshold for drugs,” Doyle said. “We have a test for alcohol. But there is no threshold for marijuana.”
Another iffy scenario is possession of cannabis.

Chad Harder/Missoula Independent
Michael Geci, M.D.: “If you are going to call cannabis a medicine, you have to treat it like a medicine”

​For the first time in Montana, a lab has agreed to test all cannabis and cannabis-based medicine that a local caregiver sells to qualified patients under the state’s medical marijuana law.

MCM Caregivers late last week signed a contract with Montana Botanical Analysis (MBA) of Bozeman, the first such arrangement in the state’s burgeoning medical cannabis market where a caregiver or dispensary has contracted to have all its medicine tested.
“Despite all the bad press that’s been generated, mostly by just or or two highly visible personalities, the medical cannabis industry is rapidly moving towards standards of quality control that have been completely absent,” said Michael Geci, M.D., who serves as CEO of Montana Botanical Analysis.
“Having all of our cannabis medicine tested by MBA is a real milestone in the maturity of the medical cannabis industry in Montana,” said owner Randy Leibenguth of MCM Caregivers. “Having our product tested by MBA provides a level of product safety and consumer protection for our patients they need and deserve.”
Standards are essential in the medical marijuana industry, according to Leibenguth. “This kind of positive news helps to calm the fears of the public that this industry is out of control,” he said. “People should remember that this testing program is completely voluntary. I’m paying for it out of my own pocket.”

Photo: The Movie Mind
When Chuck Norris does push-ups, he doesn’t lift himself up. He pushes the Earth down.

​Chuck Norris can put you in a world of pain. But never fear; the new “Chuck Norris” pot strain can probably relieve it.

Los Angeles dispensaries are featuring a new strain of medical marijuana — and Walker Texas Ranger star Chuck Norris reportedly isn’t thrilled.

The new strain, “Chuck Norris’ Black and Blue Dream” is rumored to have (you guessed it!) a real “kick” to it, reports TMZ.com.
It’s definitely an unauthorized use of the martial arts star’s name, according to Chuck’s representative, but the Norris team reportedly hasn’t decided yet if legal action will be taken.
“Maybe Chuckie should just lighten up,” opines the Boston Herald. “Or at least trademark his name so he can make a few bucks off it!”
But, as noted by the Herald, that’s seems rather unlikely, given the 70-year-old Norris’s very conservative political views. (The pugilistic partisan even served on the board of directors of the National Council on Bible Curriculum in Public Schools.)

Photo: The Skunk Stripe
Pawcuff that skunk! He smells like weed!

​A Canadian man is demanding an apology after his home was raided at gunpoint Thursday by police who thought the scent of a skunk living under his home meant he was growing marijuana.

Oliver MacQuat of Gatineau, Quebec, said a team of armed police officers barged into his rural home with guns drawn, on the assumption they were busting a marijuana grow, reports CBC News.
“I opened the door and they all had their guns drawn,” MacQuat said. “I was terrified, my heart was probably going 150 miles an hour.”
Around 10 police officers swept through his house, MacQuat said, during which time his teenaged son returned home to flashing police lights.

Photo: Marty Calvano/Daily Camera
Todd Young, owner of the medical marijuana cultivation site the Therapeutic Compassion Center, tends his plants in this November 2009 file photo.

​Just one day after Boulder, Colorado city officials removed a map from its website that showed the locations of 60 medical marijuana cultivation centers in the city — sites that were supposed to be kept secret, due to robbery concerns — a city spokesman admitted Friday that a second, even more detailed map was also accidentally made public.

The new map, removed from the city’s website on Friday, January 7, showed the locations of more than a dozen marijuana-growing operations. It also gave the exact addresses of two sites just east of downtown Boulder, reports Heath Urie at the Boulder Daily Camera.
“There was a second map on the online version [of a packet created for the Boulder City Council]and that has been removed from the website,” said Patrick von Keyserling, Boulder’s communication manager.

Photo: Gearfuse
Don’t start counting the money just yet, Brokeland.

​Don’t start counting the money just yet — Brokeland, I mean Oakland, may not get that pot tax bonanza, after all.

Fiscally-challenged Oakland, California could lose millions of dollars in potential tax revenue if the city bows to pressure to scale back or cancel controversial plans to license four large-scale commercial medical marijuana farms.

Supporters say the measure approved by the city council last July could provide the city with a tax windfall of $10 million or more each year by authorizing four city-licensed cannabis cultivation facilities, reports Michael Montgomery at California Watch.

Photo: MedicalMarijuana411.com
Federal medical marijuana patient Irvin Rosenfeld holds a tin of 300 joints, which he gets every 25 days from the government.

​Irvin Rosenfeld, the longest survivor of the four remaining federal medical marijuana patients in the United States, plans to visit Montana to speak before the Legislature next week. Rosenfeld will be there to educate people on the importance of medical cannabis and its true value as a medicine.

As a federal medical marijuana patient for more than 28 years, Rosenfeld has knowledge and experience to share with others. According to Irv, cannabis is a medicine like any other, and should be treated that way.
As senior vice president of investments for Newbridge Securities in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, he also understands the economic aspect and how medical marijuana creates jobs for thousands of Montanans.
“Montana is being watched nationally, and what happens in this legislative session could set precedence around the world,” said Rosenfeld, who serves as a director for the advocacy group Patients Out of Time.

Photo: Mark Leffingwell/Daily Camera
Dustin Shroyer, owner of the dispensary Root Organic MMC, Thursday afternoon at his growing facility in Boulder. The city accidentally made public the secret locations of 60 cultivation sites.

​A map showing what were supposed to be the secret locations of 60 warehouses and other structures where medical marijuana is being grown in Boulder, Colorado has accidentally been made public by the city.

Colorado state law prohibits local governments from disclosing the locations of “cultivation centers,” out of fear that would-be thieves might target the operations, reports Heath Urie at the Boulder Daily Camera.
City officials claim an “oversight” led them to publish the map on the city’s website, bouldercolorado.gov, last week as part of an agenda briefing sent to the City Council. Shown on the formerly secret map are 60 cultivation centers, 45 dispensaries and 12 product manufacturing sites that have applied for medical marijuana business licenses.

Graphic: Rose Law Group

​The Illinois House on Thursday afternoon narrowly voted down the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. The bill fell just four votes short of the 60 needed to become law.

Sponsor Lou Lang (D-Skokie) pledged to continue working for medical marijuana in Illinois, reports Hannah Hess at STLtoday.
“What we have to do now is wait for the new session to start, introduce a new piece of legislation and start over,” Lang said after the bill was defeated.
The medical marijuana bill — SB 1381 — would have allowed people suffering from chronic pain or nausea caused by certain debilitating conditions including cancer and AIDS to use cannabis medicinally with authorization from their doctor.
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