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The situation appears under control.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

An investigation in Hugo, Colo. found THC in the drinking water. Authorities found signs of tampering on a well and initiated a criminal investigation. Additional tests are underway to confirm the finding. Initially, the cannabis community said contamination is unlikely since THC is not soluble in water.

Screening stations have been set up for residents and water is being trucked in. Hugo, a town of about 750 on the state’s eastern plains, does not have any marijuana businesses.

LA Weekly looks at how legalization  could change employer drug testing  policies. The California Supreme Court has ruled that a MED card does not allow employees to be high on the job, or overrule company drug testing policies. In the future, the piece notes, this stance may lead to disability suits.

In California, concentrates remain a “ legal gray area.”

A random controlled study out of Holland proved that alcohol makes users more aggressive and cannabis makes them less aggressive. (Read the study here.)

Vancouver activist Dana Larsen said customers don’t need prescriptions at his MED pharmacies.

Colorado has released a PSA on cannabis and pregnancy. Chronic and/or severe pain is by far the most common qualifying condition for MED.

Washington state hopes new labelling will keep kids away from edibles.

Between 2002 and 2013, it’s estimated that Massachusetts crime lab chemist Annie Dookhan, who was later convicted of perjury and evidence tampering, corrupted more than 24,000 cases. Those convicted based on her work can now seek new trials. Dookhan served three years in prison.

An audit in Houston found 298 wrongful drug convictions. A researcher at the libertarian Cato Institute argues that the drug war has made policing more violent.

Operation Sabot, Canada’s annual sweep for illegal outdoor grows, takes place at the end of summer. Each year it targets a different region right before the harvest.

Maryland withdrew a proposal to ban letters to prisoners (except legal correspondence). The state’s prisons have been overwhelmed by Suboxone, an opioid available in sublingual strips that prisoners receive in envelopes.

If California legalizes, what will happen to people in prison for marijuana offenses? Missouri governor Jay Nixon (D), signed a law that will make it easier for marijuana offenders to get their records expunged.

A bill in the U.S. Senate would protect the families of children with epilepsy from prosecution if they obtain CBD treatments.

CannabisCulture/FlickrCommons


After spending five years in six different prisons across six different states, Canada’s Marc Emery has been scheduled for release and is due back in Canada between August 10th and the 25th.
He recently gave his first interview to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) since earning that release, and if authorities in either country thought he may just silently go about his business after being caged up with thieves and killers for a half a decade, they have sorely underestimated the self-proclaimed “Prince of Pot”.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said yesterday that he would vote against a medical marijuana ballot initiative that could come before voters this fall, but that’s about all he can do. A ballot initiative approved by voters can’t be vetoed by Scott’s office.
Scott, the former head of Columbia/HCA hospitals, says he has empathy for sick Floridians, but that he can’t bring himself to approve of a freely available plant to help them. Instead, he conflated the issue and associated medical cannabis with alcohol and other illegal drug use.

When legal cannabis sales begin in Washington state next year, dispensary owners are hoping for a little business from north of the border.
Take Mike Momany, president and founder of the Washington State Cannabis Tourism Association, who plans to open a pot pedi-cab business as well as host a “Can-Am Cannabis Celebration” in a border town, a pot party where Yankees and Canucks can light up together.

Sensible British Columbia Campaign organizer Dana Larsen Sunday announced that the ballot initiative they had been pushing to decriminalize marijuana possession failed to collect enough signature in time for the deadline.
Still, the group says they collected 200,000 signatures and that they’re looking forward to 2015 with another plan to prevent police from enforcing marijuana laws in the Canadian province.

The Non Conformer

​Despite widespread criticism from experts and a massive price tag, Canada’s Harper Conservatives on Tuesday passed by a 154 to 129 vote the controversial Bill C-10, the so called omnibus crime bill or “Safe Streets and Communities Act.” The new law includes harsh mandatory jail sentences for minor marijuana offenses. The Beyond Prohibition Foundation, which has long advocated against these sweeping changes to Canada’s criminal justice system, said it was “deeply troubled by the implications of the bill.”

The bill increases sentences for drug and sex offenses, reduces the use of conditional sentences such as house arrest, provides harsher penalties on young offenders, and makes it more difficult to get a pardon, reports Bruce Cheadle of the Canadian Press.

Let Freedom Rain
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper: “No, it will not happen under our government”

​Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said on Friday that his government will never agree to the decriminalization of marijuana.

Harper’s comments came in Vancouver in response to a question at a brief news conference following an event at a downtown science center, reports CBC News.
“No, it will not happen under our government,” Harper said. “We’re very concerned about the spread of drugs in the country and the damage it’s doing and as you know we have legislation before the House to crack down.”
Harper didn’t bother to detail exactly what kind of “damage” marijuana is doing to Canada, which has one of the highest rates of cannabis use in the world.

RCMP
RCMP officers on Vancouver Island bust an outdoor marijuana grow operation

​Wet, cold weather in British Columbia this summer has cut the western Canadian province’s marijuana harvest in half, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Officers have observed “significantly smaller” marijuana plants from aerial and ground searches, according to RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Lagan, reports Katie DeRosa at the Victoria Times Colonist. Lagan said the plants were smaller this year because of poor weather at the beginning of the growing season.

Photo: CBC News
RCMP officers were amused last year when the friendly bears came out to greet them as they raided a marijuana grow operation. Now they’ve woken up after a long winter’s nap — and they have a major case of the munchies.

​The infamous marijuana bears of British Columbia have woken after their winter hibernation, and they have the munchies — but they seem to be weaning themselves off dog food, according to the man who was once feeding them $100 of kibbles a day.

Allen Piche of Christina Lake, B.C., pleaded guilty in March to feeding the roughly two dozen wild black bears on his remote property after the B.C. Conservation Service last summer charged him and ordered him to stop, reports CBC News. Piche was charged after police found the mellow bears when they raided a marijuana grow operation on his property last August.
Initially there was speculation the bears might be guarding the cannabis crop, but Piche denied that.
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