North Coast Cannabis Cultivators Fear the Moneyed Establishment Shouldering into Their Scruffy Livelihood REDCREST, Calif. - For the Humboldt farmers, Sonoma County's subterranean tasting rooms and Tuscan affectations offered a glimpse into a rarefied realm of legal intoxicants. The marijuana growers had driven south from redwood country to the oak and grass hills to take part in an event called "The Women of Wine & Cannabis," a chance to visit boutique wineries and learn about appellations and branding in the $200-billion retail alcohol market. [continues 1716 words]
Anti- Drug Campaign Was Praised by Some, Dismissed by Others Drugs already had a strong grip in Compton High School when Maple Cornwell became assistant principal in 1983. Crack cocaine was just making its debut. Educators had few tools to fight what would quickly turn into an epidemic. Into this void came the voice of Nancy Reagan, with a message for children around the nation: "Just Say No." The campaign against drugs became Reagan's most memorable achievement - - lauded by some for showing the destruction addiction wrought, condemned by others who say it helped lead to mass incarceration and demonized black communities, and shrugged off by many who thought the message was naively simplistic and ineffectual. [continues 844 words]
[David Simon: "If I had to guess and put a name on it, I'd say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism. I think the two agendas are inextricably linked, and where one picks up and the other ends is hard to say."] BALTIMORE -- The mayor is black. The council is almost two-thirds black. The school superintendent is black. The police chief is black, and a majority of his officers are black. [continues 1508 words]
After His Conviction on Six Felony Counts Related to Marijuana Distribution, a Father Agonizes Over Strategy. Noah Kleinman faced his moment of reckoning: Should he tell a federal judge his marijuana dispensaries were just a front to distribute bulk marijuana and make hundreds of thousands of dollars? Or stick to his claim of innocence? Kleinman, a 39-year-old salesman from Studio City, had been convicted of six felony counts related to marijuana distribution in June. Now at his sentencing at the downtown federal courthouse, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright said he was inclined to go with the prosecutors' recommendation of 17 1/2 years in federal prison- devastating news for a father of two young children. [continues 1056 words]
Clearlake, Calif. - Transients hole up in the old cottage resorts where vacationing families once came to fish and swim. Rotted docks and pier pilings litter the lake's shoreline. Much of this city, in fact, and others nearby in Lake County, looks as if it was plucked from Appalachia - with weeds and unpaved streets, stray dogs and backyard marijuana crops. But across the water in the county seat of Lakeport, civic and business leaders talk of bringing back tourism, of planting more vineyards instead of weed. [continues 1255 words]
LOS ANGELES - Julie Shemitz watched warily as the judge asked prospective jurors whether they or anyone close to them had a card for medical marijuana. Ten hands lifted, a third of the jury pool. "Look at all those hands," the judge said. An assistant U.S. attorney, Shemitz knew that this would be a problem. The defendant, Noah Kleinman, ran a North Hollywood pot dispensary. Federal prosecutors rarely targeted medical dispensaries these days, but they accused Kleinman of using the shop as a front to sell large quantities of marijuana to other distributors in Los Angeles and to street dealers on the East Coast. [continues 1355 words]
The Acceptance of Medical Marijuana in the State Raises a U.S. Prosecutor's Concern About Biased Jurors in Weed Cases. Julie Shemitz watched warily as the judge asked prospective jurors whether they or anyone close to them had a card for medical marijuana. Ten hands lifted, a third of the jury pool. "Look at all those hands," the judge said. An assistant U.S. attorney, Shemitz knew that this would be a problem. The defendant, Noah Kleinman, ran a North Hollywood pot dispensary. Federal prosecutors rarely targeted medical dispensaries these days, but they accused Kleinman of using the shop as a front to sell large quantities of marijuana to other distributors in Los Angeles and to street dealers on the East Coast. [continues 1464 words]
Burn Clinics Are Treating Dozens of Butane Hash 'Chefs' Critically Injured by Explosions During the Dangerous Process, a Product of California's Unregulated Marijuana Industry. The "chef " hunkered over a batch of hash oil he was making in a kitchen in Redondo Beach, using a common but extremely dangerous method known as "open blasting." The 26-year-old meticulously stirred and heated the marijuana extract into the highest clarity, slowly producing "butane honey oil" that would be as clear and pure as amber. [continues 1279 words]
Justice Department Says It Won't Interfere in States That Tightly Regulate Commercial Marijuana Operations. In a significant policy shift by the Obama administration, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. signaled Thursday that the federal government would no longer interfere in states that allowed commercial marijuana sales as long as they were strictly regulated. The move comes two years after the Justice Department said federal drug agents would not tolerate large-scale or commercial pot businesses and began a campaign to shut down dispensaries and growers. The crackdown was particularly aggressive in California, where hundreds have been shut down. [continues 948 words]
John Melvin Walker is expected to plead guilty to drug and tax evasion charges. The marijuana shops evoked health and homeopathic care, with names like Dana Point Safe Harbor Collective, Belmont Shore Natural Care, Alternative Herbal Care and Costa Mesa Patients Assn. Nine dispensaries in all, they appeared to be run by different owners around Orange and Los Angeles counties, little different than any of the hundreds of dispensaries that have popped up in the last five years. But they were secretly owned and operated by a 56 year-old convicted drug dealer from San Clemente, who used the stores to make millions. [continues 605 words]
DENVER - Two hedgefund partners - monogrammed shirts, taut Windsor knots, cufflinks - step into a hipster cafe called Sputnik on an unorthodox mission. They are meeting a business consultant to discuss a way to bolster share prices at one of their portfolio companies, which sells indoor garden kits for tomatoes, herbs, flowers and salad greens. Their idea is to tap into a new market, but they must be discreet for fear of blemishing the publicly traded company's reputation - with a marijuana connection. [continues 1268 words]
Growing Marijuana for California's Medical Cannabis Boom Hurting Wildlife in Parts of State. EUREKA, CALIF. - California scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish. In a remote, 37- square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants - mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it. [continues 728 words]
Entrepreneurs Ramp Up After the State's Voters Approved a Constitutional Amendment Legalizing Recreational Use of Pot DENVER - Two hedge-fund partners - monogrammed shirts, taut Windsor knots, cuff links - step into a hipster cafe called Sputnik on an unorthodox mission. They are meeting a business consultant to discuss a way to boost share prices at one of their portfolio companies, which sells indoor garden kits for tomatoes, herbs, f lowers and salad greens. Their idea is to tap into a new market, one they need to be discreet about for fear of blemishing the publicly traded company's reputation: Marijuana. Similar meetings have been taking place across Colorado in the two months since state voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing the adult use of recreational weed. The state has become a nucleus of the rapidly evolving marijuana industry, offering a glimpse at what life might be like if weed is legalized nationwide, with companies, entrepreneurs and investors maneuvering for a piece of the expected boom. [continues 1191 words]
Mendocino County Is Defying Federal Orders for Data on Registered Cannabis Growers. Mendocino County is fighting efforts by federal prosecutors to get records on medical marijuana growers who signed up for a program intended to sanction their businesses under state law. The county's resistance creates a rare legal clash between local and federal authorities over conf licting marijuana laws. The U.S. Justice Department has been targeting growers and purveyors of medical cannabis, and threatening local or state officials who try to regulate the trade, saying all marijuana use is illegal under federal law. [continues 757 words]
Farms in Forests Divert Water, Poison Land and Animals EUREKA, Calif. - California scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish. In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants - mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it. [continues 784 words]
Few Cartel Ties Found in Forest Operations WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in central California. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure whom they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers or just poorly paid fieldworkers camping miserably in the brush. Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickup trucks and sift into the high desert brush. [continues 1272 words]
U.S. Crackdown On Growers Fails To Lead To Big Players Weldon, calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County, Calif. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their rifles and ammunition, not exactly sure who they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid fieldworkers camping miserably in the brush. Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickup trucks and sift into the high-desert brush. [continues 1063 words]
'POT' GROWERS FIND NATIONAL FORESTS ROOMY WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty California field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure who they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid field workers camping miserably in the brush. Twenty minutes later, after a lights-off drive for a mile, the agents climb out of two pickups and sift into the high desert brush. [continues 1584 words]
Investigators Find It Difficult to Trace Marijuana Growth on National Forest Land to Mexican Cartels. WELDON, Calif. - A few minutes after 4 a.m., agents in camouflage cluster in a dusty field in Kern County. "Movement needs to be slow, deliberate and quiet," the team leader whispers. "Lock and load now." They check their ammunition and assault rifles, not exactly sure whom they might meet in the dark: heavily armed Mexican drug traffickers, or just poorly paid field workers camping miserably in the brush. [continues 1615 words]
State's Medical Marijuana Boom Is Wreaking Havoc on Some Fragile Habitats. EUREKA, Calif. - State scientists, grappling with an explosion of marijuana growing on the North Coast, recently studied aerial imagery of a small tributary of the Eel River, spawning grounds for endangered coho salmon and other threatened fish. In the remote, 37-square-mile patch of forest, they counted 281 outdoor pot farms and 286 greenhouses, containing an estimated 20,000 plants - mostly fed by water diverted from creeks or a fork of the Eel. The scientists determined the farms were siphoning roughly 18 million gallons from the watershed every year, largely at the time when the salmon most need it. [continues 1450 words]
