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. […]
marijuana
Posted inNews
Candidates Spar at first DA Debate
The four candidates vying to become Humboldt County’s next district attorney gathered for their first debate Thursday. The candidates — Deputy District Attorney Elan Firpo and former prosecutors Allan Dollison, Maggie Fleming and Arnie Klein — spent the better part of two hours in the Eureka Veterans Building, answering questions composed by the hosting Humboldt […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Just Because You’re Paranoid
Last week your author mentioned that several recent studies indicate marijuana use can cause problems with teenagers’ developing brains, lowering IQs of chronic users during their transition to adulthood. It’s easy to point out that highly successful people have confessed to marijuana use in their formative years — world leaders, captains of industry, artists, actors […]
Posted inLife + Outdoors
Hide Me!
Hey McGuinty! My boyfriend is rather rough around the edges — more like jagged. He’s like this wild mountain guy with a crazy beard and an illegitimate income, if you know what I mean. He’s great and all — sweet, strong and attentive, and we have fun together. But I’m afraid we won’t ever be […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Teenage Wasteland
A growing number of studies indicate that marijuana is, like, really bad for the developing teenage brain, according to a recent NPR report. At a point when the brain is streamlining — honing its ability to think critically, make judgments and remember stuff — marijuana use is hindering development. This is not just problematic for grades and […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Pot POW
“I lived in Humboldt County. I grew marijuana. And I sold pot.” So went Brett McFarland’s recent confession in the Journal office last week, days before he would be sentenced to five years in federal prison on marijuana charges. McFarland pleaded guilty Feb. 24 to conspiring to distribute marijuana he grew between 2008 and 2011, […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
High Finance
Bye-bye bedrolls, buried coffee cans, hollow shaving cream bottles, shoe inserts — proceeds from marijuana can now be deposited in banks, according to recently loosened rules from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Financial Crimes Network. Federal laws previously prevented banks from knowingly doing business with drug dealers. Perhaps feeling icy gazes from the […]
Posted inNews
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 […]
Posted inNews
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, […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Hardball
Here’s a question of local perception about pot, which simply doesn’t engender the same vitriol as other drugs around here: Do “upstanding” locals grow and use marijuana because it’s less serious, or do we consider it less serious because more “upstanding” locals grow and use it? A prominent community member arrested last year on cultivation […]
Posted inNews
UPDATE(S): Deal Struck in Crabs Manager Marijuana Case
SECOND UPDATE: A press release on the Crabs website says Nutter had been considering leaving the team for two years, and made the decision now to be with his family. From the release: Nutter explained that after a discussion with his family, he decided after 23 years with the Crabs organization that this was a […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
International Obligations
Could the U.S. be breaking United Nations conventions as pot becomes more and more legal? That’s a question raised in a December report by the RAND Corporation’s Drug Policy Research Center. The nonpartisan group wrote that the U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board has been critical of both the U.S. and Uruguay for slackening marijuana laws […]