The Coalinga City Council voted 4-1 on Thursday to immediately allow commercial marijuana cultivation within city limits.

Councilman Ron Lander cast the lone no vote. The ordinances required a four-fifths majority to pass.

The council also approved the sale of the city's dormant prison, Claremont Custody Center, to Ocean Grown Extracts for $4.1 million. Ocean Grown will transform the prison into a medical cannabis oil extraction plant.

This sale will immediately bring Coalinga's general fund into the black. City Manager Marissa Trejo said Coalinga was $3.3 million to $3.8 million in debt.

[continues 984 words]

Tens of thousands of people use cannabis in Fresno every day. Hundreds of people work in the cannabis industry, though few will admit it publicly -- and for good reason. Cannabis business is booming in Fresno and Fresno County, even though cultivation and retail sales are banned by local ordinances. The biggest pipe dream in Fresno is that cannabis bans work. In reality, they don't.

Even so, the Fresno City Council just voted to prohibit dispensaries and other "recreational" businesses made legal by the passage of Proposition 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. This is disappointing but not surprising. Medical cannabis has been legal since Proposition 215 passed in 1996, but City Hall has never bothered to draft local regulations.

[continues 701 words]

There has been a lot of talk about weed in San Jacinto recently, but when the City Council gathers for a special meeting Thursday, July 5, it will be discussing the pesky garden variety.

Council members, who recently put in place a number of rules related to legalized marijuana, will be asked to lift a moratorium on "discing," a type of plowing weeds that was outlawed in the city in 2007 as a dust control measure.

The ban is likely to be lifted because of current weather conditions, including the extreme drying of vegetation and high temperatures, which have led to fires being started from the use of push mowers in weed abatement. Mower blades can cause sparks when striking debris, which can ignite the brush.

[continues 61 words]

A new state law allows pot sales at county fairs, but will yours go green?

A minor clause in a recently passed California State Senate bill could lead to a dramatic increase in funnel cake sales at county fairs across the state.

On Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB-94, which combined the medical and recreational marijuana laws into one set of rules. The massive bill includes a section that allows for cannabis sales on state-owned fairgrounds -- either at county fairs or during private events -- provided certain conditions are met. These include securing proper permits and, in the case of county fairs, having a designated enclosed space for pot. No recreational marijuana sales are legal until Jan. 1.

[continues 546 words]

Government-sanctioned and supported "supervised injection centers," where addicts can bring their illicitly obtained drugs and shoot up with little fear of arrest or a fatal overdose, have been in service in Europe for decades.

There's only one in all of North America, though. It's in Canada -- a Vancouver, Canada, center called Insite. Research found that after the center opened in 2003 fatal drug overdoses decreased by 35% in the nearby community. Earlier this month Canadian officials authorized injection centers in Montreal, Toronto and other cities.

[continues 688 words]

President Richard Nixon did not see the slaughter of innocents when he launched the "War on Drugs." Of course, his staff thought he did it to punish hippies, anti-war protesters and blacks. Politicians invent wars as diversionary tactics when they choose not to take care of their citizens. They will even tell lies to do so. See Vietnam's "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution" and Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction."

Now after 40 years and hundreds of thousands of deaths in Latin America, do U.S. citizens think they are free of this government crime? When politicians make activities illegal, they may create more problems than they solve. The dead who lived through alcohol prohibition could tell you.

[continues 86 words]

When it comes to drug and alcohol rehab centers, California channels its inner Texas: few burdens on business and as free-market as possible.

That stands in sharp contrast to New York, Massachusetts and a dozen other states, where would-be rehab operators must prove there's a local demand for their services and obtain a "certificate of need" before snipping opening-day ribbons and scaling those legendary 12 steps.

The lack of such a system is a key reason why Southern California is known as Rehab Riviera, with far more centers than the region's population could possibly support, critics say.

[continues 1893 words]

SAN DIEGO -- A former Mexican lawmaker arrested at the California border was charged Thursday with working for the Sinaloa drug cartel, whose once-powerful kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was extradited to the United States in January.

Lucero Guadalupe Sanchez, a former representative in the Sinaloa state legislature, was charged Thursday in federal court in San Diego with conspiracy to distribute 11 pounds (five kilograms) of cocaine in the United States between January 2013 and January 2017.

She was arrested Wednesday morning trying to enter San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, according to court documents. A Customs and Border Patrol agent at the border crossing discovered her visa had been cancelled by the U.S. State Department and she was suspected of drug trafficking.

[continues 157 words]

A U.S. Border Patrol agent pleaded guilty Thursday to smuggling backpacks he believed contained drugs across the border.

Appearing in a federal courtroom in San Diego, Noe Lopez pleaded guilty to attempted distribution of methamphetamine and attempted distribution of cocaine.

He faces a possible minimum sentence of 10 years for each of the two counts and a maximum penalty of life in federal prison.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Sept. 8 before U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw.

Lopez, a 10-year Border Patrol veteran who worked out of the Imperial Beach station, was arrested Dec. 14 as a result of a two-month undercover sting.

[continues 213 words]

Citing an epidemic of opioid overdose deaths across the country, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Friday that California is joining with more than 26 other states to investigate whether drugmakers have used illegal marketing and sales practices.

Becerra said the probe would focus on whether drug manufacturers have played a role in creating or extending the opioid problem.

Makers of opioids have been under heat in recent years as the addiction crisis has intensified. A 2016 Times investigation revealed that Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin, knew its drug's painkilling effects might not last as long as long as marketed, which could potentially promote addiction. The investigation also found Purdue Pharma collected extensive evidence of criminal trafficking of its drug but in many cases did not alert law enforcement.

[continues 81 words]

The state has put out new rules for testing marijuana planned for medical use.

With businesses expected to get state licenses in January to sell marijuana in California, the top regulator said Thursday that they will be given up to six months to comply with a requirement the pot be thoroughly tested by a licensed laboratory.

State pot czar Lori Ajax said it may take months for enough testing labs to be properly screened and licensed to handle the supply of marijuana expected to be sold in California starting next year. In addition, many existing medical marijuana dispensaries will have untested supplies when licensing begins, she said.

[continues 168 words]

"Nobody got hurt" I had to re-read that excerpt from the letter Alex Rubalcava (June 16) wrote regarding former Deputy Police Chief Keith Foster.

"He has been punished enough. He made a bad choice. No one got hurt. No one is perfect."

Are you kidding me?

Illegal drug abuse is at an all-time high. Where does Alex Rubalcava think these addicts get the pills? From people just like him!

"He risked his life for 30 years on the force."

[continues 138 words]

I just heard Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer on the news discussing our gang problem, killings and crime in Fresno. He then mentioned marijuana as the drug gangs use. That might be true, but why do we rarely hear about the huge methamphetamine problem in Fresno from Chief Dyer, Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims and the local media?

Methamphetamine is being imported, made and sold widely in Fresno and surrounding areas. It is sucking the life out of our communities. Methamphetamine is the problem, not marijuana, which is legal in California. Apparently it's easier to advertise "cracking down on crime" by using our tax dollars to bust growers/dealers of this legal plant.

[continues 98 words]

In the early 1930s, the federal government cracked down on California's legal drug programs, leading to numerous arrests. Above, a California jail in 1930, occupying the third floor of Ventura City Hall.

In the early 1930s, the federal government cracked down on California's legal drug programs, leading to numerous arrests. Above, a California jail in 1930, occupying the third floor of Ventura City Hall. (Los Angeles Times)

For one bright and flickering moment last year, it looked like the global war on drugs was about to die. California -- the sixth largest economy in the world -- voted to fully legalize cannabis, while a smorgasbord of countries including Uruguay, Canada and Jamaica were also moving toward more sensible policies. But like Freddie Krueger after the nubile teenagers believe he is finally slain, the drug war is suddenly back with even sharper claws. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions is reviving the worst of the old policies that led to mass incarceration, while President Trump has said that the Philippines is doing "a great job" on the drug war under a President, Rodriguo Duterte, who publicly boasts: "There's 3 million drug addicts. There are. I'd be happy to slaughter them."

[continues 966 words]

HAYFORK, Calif. - The red and purple opium poppies that his family grew on a mountainside half a world away were filled with an intoxicating, sticky sap that his mother traded for silver coins to feed her children and pay for their escape.

Adam Lee smiles at the memory of a childhood in war-torn Laos and voyage to America, where he spent decades adapting to life in big cities.

Now 47 years old, Mr. Lee has returned to the mountains - the Trinity Alps of Northern California - and to a career farming a different mind-altering crop for his livelihood: marijuana.

[continues 1270 words]

SALINAS, Calif. - This vast and fertile valley is often called the salad bowl of the nation for the countless heads of lettuce growing across its floor. Now California's marijuana industry is laying claim to a new slogan for the valley: America's cannabis bucket.

After years of marijuana being cultivated in small plots out of sight from the authorities, California cannabis is going industrial.

Over the past year, dilapidated greenhouses in the Salinas Valley, which were built for cut flower businesses, have been bought up by dozens of marijuana entrepreneurs, who are growing pot among the fields of spinach, strawberries and wine grapes.

[continues 1291 words]

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - In the heart of Northern California's wine country, a civil engineer turned marijuana entrepreneur is adding a new dimension to the art of matching fine wines with gourmet food: cannabis and wine pairing dinners.

Sam Edwards, co-founder of the Sonoma Cannabis Company, charges diners $100 to $150 for a meal that experiments with everything from marijuana-leaf pesto sauce to sniffs of cannabis flowers paired with sips of a crisp Russian River chardonnay.

"It accentuates the intensity of your palate," Mr. Edwards, 30, said of the dinners, one of which was held recently at a winery with sweeping views of the Sonoma vineyards. "We are seeing what works and what flavors are coming out."

[continues 827 words]

Recreational cannabis may be legal in California, but buying the actual stuff still makes Scott Campbell, a celebrity tattoo artist and fine artist, feel like a class-cutting teenage stoner.

"You go in to buy weed, and it's like visiting your parole officer," said Mr. Campbell, who lives in Los Angeles. "You get buzzed through three metal gates." Inside, cannabis products are often packaged with loopy Deadhead-style graphics and goofy dorm-humor strain names like Gorilla Glue and Purple Urkle.

[continues 841 words]

[photo] Tim Scully, left, and Nick Sand pictured in a graphic from the documentary "The Sunshine Makers." (Nick Sand / Tim Scully / Passion Pictures / FilmRise)

As its title suggests, "The Sunshine Makers" is probably the happiest, most carefree drug documentary you're likely to see. The film explores the people behind the most well-known strain of LSD, who produced millions of doses in a single, sleep-deprived month. Their goal wasn't money, but instead they wanted to save the world: If everyone took LSD, they would experience the feelings of love and connectedness the hallucinogen promises.

[continues 169 words]

A man in his 20s sat handcuffed in the back of a police car Monday night after about $500,000 worth of narcotics was found in a southeast Fresno home, Fresno police Major Narcotics Unit Supervisor Timothy Tietjen said.

Several undercover investigators waited outside a home on the 700 block of south 4th Street, south of Ventura Avenue.

Tietjen said around 6 p.m. officials made their move while family members, including children between 4 and 7 years of age, were home.

[continues 132 words]