The Missoulian reports that medical marijuana providers who were raided by the feds last year in Montana are receiving sentences somewhere between what they deserve (not time at all) and what federal law prescribes (five to 40 years in prison). Since compliance with state law is no defense in federal court, their convictions would be pretty much assured if they went to trial, where they would not even be permitted to say why they were growing or distributing marijuana. Hence all of them so far have opted for plea agreements, under which prosecutors and judges are letting them serve much less time than they would if convicted of drug offenses carrying mandatory minimum sentences: Read more »
A judge in Las Vegas threw out charges in a medical marijuana criminal case, declaring that he couldn't make sense of Nevada's pot laws.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports (http://bit.ly/qS1mJj ) that Clark County Judge Donald Mosley complained Monday that the state Legislature should decide if medical marijuana is legal or not.
Mosley dismissed charges against Leonard Schwingdorf stemming from a police undercover buy at a Las Vegas medical marijuana business called Sin City Co-Op.
The judge ruled that a grand jury should have been shown evidence the marijuana wasn't for sale and that a co-op donation wasn't necessary to obtain it. Read more »
The manager of a Vancouver medical marijuana dispensary has offered help to the people trying to resurrect a similar dispensary in Langley.
Well-known marijuana activist Dana Larsen said assistance from the Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary could include loans of money and marijuana on credit to re-establish the Langley Medical Marijuana Dispensary that was closed down following a July 19 raid by the Langley RCMP.
“Our dispensary has donated medicine and cash to other dispensaries that get into legal trouble,” Larsen told The Times.
The Vancouver dispensary has also offered help to the recently-raided North Island Compassion Club dispensary in Comox.
The Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis Dispensary has been operating since 2008
Like the Langley dispensary, the Vancouver facility has far more clients than the two-per-legal-grower limit allowed under current Canadian law.
But unlike Langley, the Vancouver dispensary has been able to operate without police interference.
Larsen said Vancouver authorities are generally more “enlightened” about marijuana and other drug issues than other Lower Mainland communities. Read more »
After his recent marijuana arrest, legendary musician Willie Nelson said it was time for an increased political focus on changing our nation’s failed marijuana laws. “Tax it, regulate it and legalize it,” he said, “and stop the border wars over drugs. Why should the drug lords make all the money? Thousands of lives will be saved.”
With that in mind, MPP has teamed up with the folks at Change.org to ask Willie to help the cause in a way that only he can:
[I]f Nelson wants to help end pot prohibition, he can do more than inspire the push for reform — he can help lead it. And one relatively easy way he can do so is by hosting a benefit concert next year to draw attention to the evils of the drug war, using his iconic pop culture status to raise money for those organizations and people that are working to make the dream of reform a reality. [...] Read more »
A California deputy has admitted using a doctor's recommendation and stolen identity from a legal medical marijuana patient in order to buy pot in a drug sting.
Deputy Steve Avila of the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department said during questioning that he had used the patient's recommendation, with a falsified birthdate, to persuade a dispensary owner to sell marijuana to an officer.
Avila claimed he obtained the medical marijuana recommendation "from an investigation we conducted," but also claimed he "did not recall" which officer obtained it, or how it was obtained.
Jay Smith of K Care Collective, the dispensary owner who was tricked into selling marijuana to an officer, said Calaveras County is waging a war against medical marijuana, and is doing so using unethical means, reports Dana M. Nichols of the San Joaquin County Record.
Robert Shaffer, the medical marijuana patient whose identity was stolen, tells the same story.
According to Shaffer, Deputy Avila violated his privacy by using his identity and documents in the sting operation. Read more »
Original post, Wednesday, March. 3, 4:22 p.m. (updates below): I’ve just been informed by Candi Cooper that the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department raided the Never Get Busted headquarters in Travis County at approximately 6 p.m. on Tuesday night. Barry Cooper has been taken into custody.
Officers allegedly seized their computers, phones and other digital media. Barry is allegedly being charged with a misdemeanor offense. Candi claimed the charge is making a false report to a police officer, in relation to a sting operation her husband recently carried out against an officer in Liberty Hill, Texas.
In his sting operation against Liberty Hill Police Captain George Nassour, Cooper did make someone in Cooper’s crew made anonymous phone calls regarding a suspicious package possibly containing drug paraphernalia, as a way of testing the officer to see if he would steal the money. Cooper alleges that Nassour did in fact steal $45 from the trap bag, thereby committing a felony by tampering with evidence. The Liberty Hill Police Chief confirmed that an investigation was underway following a confrontation with Cooper.
Iqaluit marijuana activist Ed Devries was released from police custody Monday after RCMP raided two local residences late last week.
Devries, 51, a self-described healer and founder of the Qikiqtaaluk Compassion Society, was arrested after RCMP found 0.9 kilograms of marijuana and $7,200 in cash in a search of his home and the Iqaluit marijuana club on Friday afternoon.
He was charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking and possession of property obtained by crime.
Federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration earlier this week raided a Denver potency testing laboratory and seized medical marijuana samples.
Cannabis advocates say the federal raid is the latest example of continued official harassment of the medical marijuana industry, reports John Ingold at The Denver Post.
The raid of Full Spectrum Laboratories happened on Wednesday, according to Betty Aldworth, the lab's outreach director. Aldworth said federal agents took dozens of medical marijuana samples, both small amounts of pot and test tubes of "extraction fluid," but left the lab's equipment.
No employees were arrested.
Aldworth was at the State Capitol to watch lab co-owner Bob Winnicki testify about State Senator Chris Romer's new medical marijuana bill when both Full Spectrum employees got an email letting them know the DEA had "stopped by" the lab, reports Michael Roberts at Westword.
The arrest of three people who police said were running a one-stop pot shop has highlighted yet another murky corner of the state's medical-marijuana law, people on all sides of the issue said Tuesday.
Investigators with the North Metro Drug Task Force arrested the trio Saturday in Brighton on suspicion of felony drug-distribution charges, after officers broke up what they described as an "assembly line" to give patients medical-marijuana recommendations and then pot.
Task force Sgt. Jim Gerhardt said the reason for the arrests was that police believe the people running the operation were selling marijuana to people who couldn't legally buy it, even though they had received the required doctor recommendation.
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The Missoulian reports that medical marijuana providers who were raided by the feds last year in Montana are receiving sentences somewhere between what they deserve (not time at all) and what federal law prescribes (five to 40 years in prison). Since compliance with state law is no defense in federal court, their convictions would be pretty much assured if they went to trial, where they would not even be permitted to say why they were growing or distributing marijuana. Hence all of them so far have opted for plea agreements, under which prosecutors and judges are letting them serve much less time than they would if convicted of drug offenses carrying mandatory minimum sentences: 
By. Las Vegas Review-Journal
By Dan Ferguson - Langley Times
By. Mike Meno, MPP
By. Steve Elliot, Toke of the Town
By. 
By. CBC News
By Steve Elliott, Toke of the Town
By John Ingold, The Denver Post
