The attempt to legalize marijuana growing on Hoopa tribal lands has been defeated. Unofficial results of yesterday’s Hoopa Valley Tribe election show the measure, which would have repealed a ban on any marijuana cultivation — medical or otherwise — that’s been in effect since 1999, failed by a wide margin (63-36). The movement was launched […]
Marijuana
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McGuire Proposes Comprehensive Medical Marijuana Bill
Pot’s on a lot of minds in Sacramento these days. Our own state senator, Mike McGuire, announced on 4/20 that his proposed medical marijuana bill was approved unanimously by the Senate Business and Professions Committee. The bill would create a Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation under the state’s consumer affairs department, which would “license and […]
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4/20’s Back!
“This is lame,” murmured one of Arcata’s few hardcore stoners around 4:23 p.m. this afternoon. A couple of young men had stepped off the concrete slab at Redwood Park, the small piece of public property that the Humboldt Center for Constitutional Rights had wrested from the control of a zealous city staff over the course […]
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DA Candidates Covered in Weed
A savvy Fortuna merchant is peddling some of last year’s great green crop for what, by his/her account, is a swinging deal. Yup, for “200 a unit” you can pick up some year-old, untrimmed, seeded trainwreck via Craigslist. The seller, apparently aware that pictures = clicks on Craigslist postings, carefully piled the “good bud” on […]
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Operation Yurok Wraps With No Arrests
A three-day law enforcement sweep of marijuana grow sites on Yurok Tribal lands last week yielded 13,000 plants, 300 pounds, seven guns, zero arrests and a very short press release. The Sheriff’s Office identified suspects and will seek arrest warrants, according to a press release: From 07-21-2014 to 07-24-2014, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office joined […]
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The Search For Jeff Joseph
LA Weekly has a story this week about a family’s search for their missing relative, Jeffrey Keith Joseph, an “L.A. man on probation for running a rogue pot shop in Venice.” Relatives fear Joseph might have disappeared on a trip to Hoopa, judging by calls made on his cell phone, including the last one placed […]
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Ridding Toxic Killers
On Tuesday, California passed a regulation restricting retail sales of certain rat poisons, such as d-Con. Soon, only licensed, certified or county permitted application professionals will be able to use them. The restrictions don’t go into effect until July 1. But by Friday morning, at least one local retailer already was sweeping those products from its shelves. […]
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Arson Suspected at Unlicensed Dispensary
Fire broke out before dawn in an Arcata residential neighborhood Monday, and firemen responded to discover the burning home was really a medical marijuana dispensary with a growing operation. And, they believe it was intentionally set ablaze. Arcata Fire District Battalion Chief Sean Campbell said a call came into the department at about 5:15 a.m. […]
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New Pot Banking Guidelines Moot in CA?
Thanks to some recent direction from the Obama administration, banks are now allowed to do business with folks who make their living in the legal marijuana trade. But, maybe not in California. In response to a growing uneasiness with the cannabis cash conundrum, spurred at least in part by the introduction of legal recreational marijuana […]
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Huffman Urges Obama to Reclassify Marijuana
North Coast Congressman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, joined 17 of his cohorts today in sending a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substance Act. Currently, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I controlled substance under the act, putting it in the same category under federal law as heroin, […]
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4th Amendment Rights and SCOTUS SWAG
When the United States Supreme Court took up the only criminal case on its calendar this year, a local attorney was at counsel table. Arcata attorney Jeffrey Schwartz — husband to the North Coast Journal’s Media Maven, Marcy Burstiner — didn’t argue the petitioner’s case, but was asked to sit in and advise by appellate […]
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Humboldt County is About to See More Feds Hunting Marijuana
As we reported last year, Humboldt County Sheriff Mike Downey has long been asking the federal government for help tracking down and arresting marijuana growers, and now he’s gonna get it. Today the White House announced that Humboldt County has been lumped into the Northern California “High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area,” or HIDTA. What does that […]