Toke of the Town — Marijuana and Cannibis News

California Deputies Seize $45 Million Truckload Of Drugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 25, 2010 News

Photo: San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department

Deputies discovered numerous pallets of heat-sealed drugs on a big rig trailer. They claimed the marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine was worth $45 million

Sheriff’s deputies discovered drugs worth an estimated $45 million after a tractor trailer was stopped in Rancho Cucamonga, California, on Wednesday.

The bust was described as “one of the largest ever made in San Bernardino County,” and included thousands of pounds of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine, according to the sheriff’s office, reports Melissa Pinion-Whitt of the San Bernardino Sun.

A big rig was stopped on the eastbound 10 Freeway for a traffic violation around 11 a.m.

Minnesota Mother, Son Charged With Growing Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 24, 2010 Growing, News

Photo: Duluth Police Department

These were some of the 150 plants seized by the fuzz in Duluth on Tuesday. Check out that phat Indica maiden on the left.

A Duluth, Minnesota woman and her son were arrested Tuesday afternoon after a marijuana-growing operation that police called “sophisticated” was discovered in their home.

About 150 cannabis plants and a hydroponic growing operation were discovered, according to Duluth police information coordinator Brad Wick, reports Lisa Baumann at the Duluth News Tribune.

Officers from the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force, Duluth Police Department and the U.S. Marshal’s Service served a search warrant at a house on Warren Avenue in the Kenwood neighborhood just after 2 p.m.

A 65-year-old woman and her 35-year-old son were arrested at the home and taken to the St. Louis County Jail on suspicion of a first-degree “controlled substance” crime.

According to the News Tribune, a second search was conducted at another address in the Twin Cities area after additional investigation.

N.M. Patients Face Medical Marijuana Shortage

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 24, 2010 Dispensaries, Medical

Photo: KOAT-TV

A medical marijuana shortage in New Mexico — which, for the second year in a row, is seeing its state-licensed dispensary system struggling to supply patients with cannabis — means those who use it might not be able to get the relief they need, reports KOAT-TV in Albuquerque.

According to a man who runs Peace Medical Marijuana Consultants, a nonprofit group counseling medical marijuana patients, there are around five dispensaries in New Mexico, with almost 2,000 patients.

House Republicans Move To Block D.C.’s Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 24, 2010 Legislation, Medical

Photo: You Are Hated!

Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz wants you to stay off the pot.

Reps. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) announced Wednesday afternnon that they have introduced a resolution to disapprove the District of Columbia’s city law legalizing medical marijuana, reports Mike DeBonis of The Washington Post.

“While derivatives of marijuana are available in pill form for medicinal purposes, smoked marijuana is a health danger, not a cure, and therefore remains a harmful and dangerous drug for people of all ages,” the clueless Chaffetz said.

Chaffetz, a Mormon convert, Brigham Young graduate and right-wing crank already known for opposing progressive legislation of any sort, is the creepiest sort of reactionary, the “I used to be a liberal” young kind of earnest, clean-cut, gay-marriage-opposing, pot-hating, wholesome-looking wingnut.

San Diego County Adopts Strict Marijuana Dispensary Ordinance

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 24, 2010 Dispensaries, Legislation

Graphic: Fox 5 San Diego

San Diego County has adopted restrictive rules for medical marijuana dispensaries, following a statewide trend of regulating the proliferating pot shops.

The Board of Supervisors on Wednesday ruled that dispensaries in unincorporated areas of the county must be located at least 1,000 feet from homes, schools, playgrounds and churches. Officials say that leaves only 16 available sites.

Trailer Park Boys: Pothead Canadians Rake In The Cash

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2010 Culture, Global

Photo: Trailer Park Boys

The Trailer Park Boys, from left, Ricky, Bubbles and Julian, have big plans, but little brains. Oh, and now they have big bank accounts.

They’re unlikely heroes, perhaps, but the foul-mouthed, pot-smoking Trailer Park Boys raked in the most money of any English-Canadian film last year with their second full-length feature film, The Trailer Park Boys: Countdown To Liquor Day.

The comedy grossed $2.9 million in 2009, according to Telefilm, and also earned the film’s director and writers Telefilm’s first Golden Box Office Award, reports The Globe and Mail.

A $40,000 cash prize will be split between director and co-writer Mike Clattenburg and co-writers Timm Hannebohm, John Paul Tremblay (who plays Julian), Robb Wells (Ricky), and Mike Smith (Bubbles).

Deputy Falls Off Cliff, Pulls Another With Him In Pot Grow Raid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2010 Growing, News

Graphic: Life Is A Joke

A deputy was injured as he fell off a cliff Tuesday, pulling another deputy with him and injuring him as well, during a marijuana grow raid in California.

The Kern County Sheriff’s Office Major Violators Unit (damn, they sound important) and the Kern Narcotics Enforcement Team were trying to serve a search warrant for a cannabis grow operation in the remote area of Bald Mountain, in the Havilah, Calif., area, reports KERO 23.

During the hike into the grow area, one of the deputies lost his footing while crossing a large boulder and cliff, officers said.

NASCAR Champion Suspended For Marijuana Use

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2010 Culture, News

Photo: The Joie of Seating

NASCAR champion Randy LaJoie: “I screwed up”

NASCAR on Tuesday indefinitely suspended Randy LaJoie, a two-time Nationwide driver champion, for violating the car-racing organization’s substance abuse policy.

During an interview with Sirius NASCAR radio earlier the same day, LaJoie, a crew member for Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 18 team in the Nationwide Series, admitted to smoking marijuana once following the May 30 Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, reports The Sports Network.

LaJoie on June 11 was found to have violated NASCAR’s substance abuse rules after he took a random drug test in order to become a spotter for Gibbs’ team.

Sheriff Continues To Arrest, Rather Than Ticket, Pot Offenders

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: M. Spencer Green/AP

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart: “We will act as we always have, which is arrest”

Nearly a year after the Cook County Board passed an ordinance allowing sheriff’s police to ticket marijuana smokers for minor possession instead of arresting them, officers still haven’t written the first ticket.

“The ordinance gives us the discretion to choose,” said Steve Patterson, a spokesman for Sheriff Tom Dart. “So we’ll choose to continue acting as we always have, which is arrest.”

County commissioners made headlines last July when they passed the ordinance that gives officers the choice to either arrest people in unincorporated areas possessing 10 grams or less of marijuana, or to hand out tickets for $200 within the county’s unincorporated areas, reports William Lee of the Chicago Tribune.

The ordinance came into being after Commissioner Earleen Collins’s grandson was arrested for possessing half a joint.

The ordinance, which was supported by marijuana legalization advocates, first ran aground after a county board committee rejected Sheriff Dart’s request to extend the discretionary ticket-writing power to wherever sheriff’s officers patrol. This would have included suburban Ford Heights, which Dart’s office patrols because the town doesn’t have its own police force.

Georgia Deputy Charged With Bringing Marijuana To Jail

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 23, 2010 News

Photo: Fulton County Jail

Raheim Lowery, 30, is looking at life from the other side of the bars today.

A Fulton County, Georgia sheriff’s deputy is on the other side of the bars today.

Raheim Lowery, 30, was arrested and jailed Wednesday after he allegedly brought marijuana to the jail, sheriff’s spokeswoman Tracy Flanagan claimed, reports Ty Tagami of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Lowery was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and with bringing prohibited items into jail, Flanagan said.