Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 1:27 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Los Angeles Times) In the end, despite a sophisticated filtration system, it was the smell that smoked out the marijuana-growing operation located just 25 feet from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Topanga station in Canoga Park.
LAPD officials said officers began noticing the smell of pot Tuesday morning, investigated, got warrants and closed down the indoor farm within eight hours.
Three men were taken into custody earlier Wednesday after officers served a search warrant on the warehouse in the 8400 block of Canoga Avenue.
Growers had built three rooms in the building — one for seedlings, another for medium-sized plants and one where harvesting was apparently conducted, police said. The lights were controlled so they wouldn’t overheat, watering systems were automated and oxygen levels were supplemented by carbon dioxide tanks, according to police.
Oh, for the life of me, I cannot even begin to imagine the cognitive processes and critical thinking that went into this particular choice of real estate for this particular commercial venture. Wait a minute, yes I can…
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 5:02 pm | By: Radical Russ
(The Snitch) Ignoring the advice of anti-pot City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, two Los Angeles City Council committees yesterday rejected a proposed ban on sales of medical marijuana.
Anti-pot zealots within L.A. city government had coordinated an 18-month assault on the dispensaries, with headline-grabbing pronouncements from media hogs Trutanich and Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley dominating coverage of the issue in recent weeks.
Both Trutanich and Cooley have been widely quoted in the press as claiming that most of the dispensaries are operating in violation of state law. Cooley’s recent declaration that “approximately zero” of the dispensaries were operating legally sent chills and outrage through the medical marijuana community, seeming to echo San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis’ statement that there are “no such things” as legal dispensaries.
Council members on both committees wrestled with the idea of ignoring the opinion of the city’s top prosecutor. But after four hours of a contentious and heated hearing, council members had heard more than enough.
A crowd of about 400 people filled the main council chamber for the hearing, with the proceedings often becoming raucous. Most of the speakers were medical marijuana supporters, along with a sprinkling of community activists and conservatives who supported the ban.
Marijuana supporters argued that dispensaries should be regulated, not banned, with a reduction in the number of shops and a crackdown on operations that become a public nuisance.
You cannot stuff this genie back into the bottle, Mr. City Attorney and Mr. District Attorney. The people of Los Angeles like their clean, reliable, diverse selections of cannabis and aren’t going to go back to hiding in shadows and purchasing on a black market. The economy has grown accustomed to the sales taxes and foot traffic the dispensaries generate. Technically legal or not, the dispensaries exist, the people are using them, and they are in many cases improving the neighborhoods where they reside. Instead of tilting at windmills because they don’t personally like cannabis and its users, the city and county should work with medical marijuana activists to come up with sensible regulations that everyone can live with.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Monday, November 16th, 2009 at 2:36 pm | By: Radical Russ
(LA Times) Two medical marijuana groups are threatening to sue the city of Los Angeles if the City Council passes an ordinance that bans the sale of medical marijuana. Two council committees are meeting today to try to finish drafting an ordinance that contains the controversial provision.
Dispensary operators have consistently said they are uncertain they could stay open with such a restriction. Most collectives, which are required to be not-for-profit, sell marijuana to their members, but they consider it a donation to reimburse their costs.
The prohibition on sales was written by the city attorney’s office. In a lengthy analysis of state law and court decisions, City Atty. Carmen Trutanich concluded that over-the-counter sales of medical marijuana are not allowed. Instead, he said, collectives are shielded from prosecution only when they are growing it.
Both medical marijuana organizations, the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients and Americans for Safe Access, take issue with Trutanich’s view, saying he has misinterpreted the law and the court decisions.
In other news, City Attorney Trutanich and the City Council have announced plans to close the barn door after the horse has bolted. Creating some regulations that clearly spelled out the rights and responsibilities of collectives in Los Angeles County is a great plan for 2006 or 2007. But it is almost 2010 and there are almost 1000 retail outlets selling marijuana in the city. What do you expect the backlash will be when tens of thousands of Los Angelenos can no longer browse and pick up their marijuana is a safe, indoor, controlled retail outlet, and instead must return to the back alleys and city parks of the black market marijuana dealer? What will happen when customers accustomed to convenience and quality have to return to waiting for a call-back from “their guy” for a bag of questionable quality and light weight?
For one thing, most of the successful dispensaries will go semi-underground and become delivery services. The rest will go back to the way things used to run, dealing in the street and through clandestine networks. The prices will increase, access will decrease, and truly sick and disabled patients will suffer needlessly.
The proliferation of dispensaries in Los Angeles and the unseemly nature of a few of them is not the fault of the entrepreneurs who want to run a legitimate and lawful business and help satisfy a community need. It is the fault of cowardly and moralistic politicians who refused to take action to implement the will of the people as expressed in Prop 215.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 1:46 pm | By: Radical Russ
I can’t do any better than MPP’s Bruce Mirken on this one:
(LA Times) Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the pro-legalization Marijuana Policy Project, ridiculed the effort. “Let me guess, they set a record number of plant seizures and marijuana has now been eradicated from California?” he quipped.
Mirken said the campaign has caused growers to move from private lands into wilderness areas. “This is an annual exercise in futility. Not only does it not do anything meaningful, it actually makes the problem worse,” he said.
It’s all part of California’s CAMP – Campaign Against Marijuana Planting – which over 27 years has been funding law enforcement to take helicopters into the hills so police can get paid triple time to pull weeds and then fly them all over the wilderness blowing their seeds across the land so the cops can go weeding again next year. According to the report:
Los Angeles County, which has seen a whirlwind expansion in medical marijuana dispensaries this year, has notched another marijuana milestone. The county has moved to No. 5 for the amount seized in the state’s annual eradication campaign, with 340,187 pot plants uprooted — more than a fourfold increase.
Statewide, the 27-year-old effort, known as the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, found and destroyed almost 4.5 million plants in 41 counties, up from 2.9 million seized in each of the two prior years’ growing season. The amount has climbed steadily since 1996, when California voters approved the nation’s first medical marijuana law.
State officials put the wholesale value of this year’s eradicated marijuana at $17.8 billion.
Let’s see, the standard California sales tax, minus any county or local taxes, is 8.25%, so that eradication represents about $1.46 billion dollars in tax revenues. Obviously marijuana has not been completely eradicated by CAMP and I think even the cops will tell you they’re only scratching the surface. Let’s be generous and suppose they’re pulling up 10% of California’s outdoor crop. That would be $14.6 billion in taxes going uncollected. It’s even more money if we include indoor grows and figure they’re catching much less than 10% of the crops.
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 2:59 pm | By: Radical Russ
Lou Dog, from Suburban Noize recording group the Kottonmouth Kings, has been named the new assistant director for the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
“I am proud of the appointment and I am prepared to continue lending my energy and resources towards the advancement of the cause,” commented Lou Dog.
The Kottonmouth Kings have been on the frontlines fighting for the legalization of marijuana for over a decade. The group has been acknowledged for their never-ending commitment to spreading awareness and understanding about the plant, marijuana.
The group had previously helped organize a demonstration at the U.S. Federal Building, alongside other pro-cannabis organizations, to protest the federal prosecution of pot users under the federal Controlled Substances Act. The event attracted national media attention and challenged the Bush Administration’s “War on Drugs”.
You can hear Lou on the Oct 26 edition of the Stash as he was on the panel with Tommy Chong and B Real at the Cypress Hill Smokeout.
RevRayGreen: MASS TWEET THIS -@ChuckGrassley Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer sadness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
RevRayGreen: @ChuckGrassley http://bit.ly/55Ejsi Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer madness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
SneakerPimp: one last thing Puff puff pass to any one who wants it
SneakerPimp: i wanna here about the imminent MiniSpof sounds like time for some
SneakerPimp: im estatic and excited for NSL today.
SneakerPimp: mountain time wake n bake
SneakerPimp: oh yea also wake n bake
SneakerPimp: its central im high as a kite everybody
SneakerPimp: ill grab that WUD
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
Smell of pot dooms indoor marijuana grow near LAPD station
sounds like time for some 
mountain time wake n bake 
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
Fresh Stash V RSS Feed
Loading ...
, or can...
