San Diego DA ordered to return $100K to marijuana distributor 15 months after raid

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By The Associated Press

SAN DIEGO — San Diego’s district attorney has been ordered to return more than $100,000 seized from a medical marijuana businessman and his family, 15 months after drug agents raided the company and didn’t charge anyone with a crime.

The Union-Tribune reported Monday that a judge issued the order six weeks after lawyers representing James Slatic argued that the money must be returned. Slatic owns Med-West Distribution, a firm that supplies medical pot shops with cannabis

The judge wrote that after more than a year of investigation, there’s no indication that criminal charges will be filed against Slatic.

DA Bonnie Dumanis has used state and federal civil asset-forfeiture rules for years to confiscate millions of dollars from drug suspects. Her office says Dumanis is considering an appeal of the judge’s ruling.

Information from: The San Diego Union-Tribune

What changes are coming to how California tests medical marijuana?

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By Brooke Edwards Staggs, The Cannifornian

The Bureau of Marijuana Control on Friday released a plan to make cannabis safer for patients, with rules for all medical marijuana legally sold in the state to be independently lab tested starting next year.

The 46 pages of regulations lay out everything from what clothing lab technicians can wear when collecting cannabis samples to what level of pesticides marijuana can contain.

The draft rules drew mixed reactions from industry professionals who are anxious to finally have uniform guidelines but believe the state included unnecessary testing that will drive up the price of cannabis.

“Like with any regulations, I think there’s still tons of work to do,” said Robert Martin, executive director of the Association of Commercial Cannabis Laboratories.

Martin, who runs CW Analytical lab in Oakland, said state officials visited his facility and really listened as his association members weighed in on issues such as pesticides and how to handle the plant material.

But he was disappointed to see that the proposed regulations mandate measuring heavy metals and aflatoxins, which are cancer-causing chemicals produced by certain molds.

“We’re over-testing the products,” he said.

A study by UC Davis scientists earlier this year found samples from 20 unidentified Northern California marijuana dispensaries contained bacterial and fungal pathogens that may cause serious and even fatal infections if smoked or vaped by people with impaired immune systems.

But Martin said he has 10,000 data samples showing there’s no evidence of aflatoxins in cannabis anywhere in North America.

“I think it’s going to take some real science to change opinions,” he said.

If the rules stick as proposed, Martin said labs like his will have to buy pricey new equipment to measure for heavy metals. And he said that will drive up both the cost and turnaround time for test results.

The testing regulations are part of a larger plan to finally rein in the state’s unruly cannabis industry, as California marks 20 years since medical marijuana became legal and nearly six months since residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana.

Medical marijuana regulations were mandated by a a trio of bills known as the Medical Cannabis Regulation and Safety Act, which became law in 2015.

The Bureau of Marijuana Control (formerly the Bureau of Medical Cannabis Regulation) was created by that act and charged with establishing and enforcing rules for cannabis retailers, distributors, transporters and testers.

On April 28, the bureau released a 58-page document with draft regulations for the first three segments of the market. Those rules would limit dispensary operating hours, dictate security plans for each shop, cap how many ounces of cannabis patients could buy each day and more.

The same day, the Department of Public Health published detailed rules for cannabis manufacturers. And the Department of Food and Agriculture released proposed rules for cultivators.

The bureau’s new draft regulations for testing are 46 pages long.

The testing regulations were the most challenging to develop, Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s marijuana bureau, said during a presentation Friday evening at UC Irvine.

Here are some key details in the proposed rules released Friday:

  • Labs will have to test for homogeneity; the presence or absence of various analytes, including cannabinoids, residual solvents, micro-organisms, pesticides, heavy metals, and mycotoxins; water activity and moisture content; and filth and foreign material.
  • Labs can also test for terpenes.
  • They must report in milligrams the concentration of THC, THCA, CBD, CBDA, CBG and CBN. Samples “pass” if they don’t vary from the stated THC or CBD levels by more than 15 percent.
  • Labs must report whether samples have more than allowed amounts of pesticides such as acephate, residual solvents such as butane, impurities such as Salmonella, heavy metals such as arsenic, mold that averages 5 percent of the sample by weight and more.
  • To get a full annual license, labs will need to be accredited by the International Organization for Standardization. But the state will offer 180-day provisional licenses to labs that meet all other qualifications while they work on their ISO accreditation.
  • Lab techs have to wear safety goggles, hair nets and other sanitary gear plus use sanitized tools when collecting samples for testing.
  • Labs have to collect 0.5 percent of the total cannabis batch for testing. Batches must be under 10 pounds.
  • Labs have to maintain detailed plans for chain of custody for samples, employee training, storage and more. And they have to make those plans available to the bureau if asked.

All of the draft medical marijuana regulations — which now total 257 pages — are open for public comment.

The state plans to take feedback in writing and through a series of public hearings over the next several weeks before getting a final set of rules in place in time to start issuing licenses to testing labs, cultivators, retailers and all other cannabis businesses by Jan. 1, 2018.

“We want to hear from you,” Ajax said. “We’re OK with you not agreeing with us. … Tell us what we did wrong and then tell us how we can make it better.”

Martin said his association plans to take advantage of that public comment period to present the bureau with solid science that he hopes will shape the final regulations into something that’s more logical and fiscally sound.

California expects to release draft regulations this fall for the recreational cannabis industry, created when voters passed Proposition 64 on Nov. 8. Those rules must also be in place by the start of the new year.

Meanwhile, the legislature is grappling with how to rectify differences between the medical and recreational marijuana laws.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s office pitched its plan for reconciling the two systems in a 92-page budget trailer bill released in April. He largely recommends that California go with the more market-friendly plans included in voter-approved Prop. 64.

Lawmakers are holding hearings on that plan. And the independent Legislative Analyst’s Office on Thursday published an overview that praises parts of Brown’s proposal — such as allowing vertical integration — while urging caution on his recommendations to not start reporting on key aspects of the industry until 2023 and to limit the number of medium-sized farms allowed in the state.

If that budget trailer bill passes, the bureau said it will withdraw all of its proposed regulations and propose a new set that’s consistent with any changes in the law.

Get involved

The public can submit written comments on the draft testing regulations for the next 45 days. They can also attend public hearings that will be held throughout the state in coming weeks.

  • 1 to 3 p.m. June 1 at the Adorni Center, 1011 Waterfront Drive in Eureka
  • 1 to 3 p.m. June 8 in the Junipero Serra Building at 320 W. Fourth Street, Los Angeles
  • 4 to 6 p.m. June 13 in the King Library at 150 E. San Fernando Street in San Jose
  • 10 a.m. to noon June 20 in the Department of Consumer Affairs hearing room S-102 at 1625 North Market Boulevard, Sacramento

This story was first published on TheCannifornian.com

FBI charges Seattle officer with smuggling marijuana to Baltimore

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By Gene Johnson, The Associated Press

SEATTLE — A Seattle police officer has been charged with helping smuggle hundreds of pounds of marijuana to Baltimore.

Alex Chapackdee, a 44-year-old patrol officer who’s been with the department since 2000, was arrested Saturday. According to a federal criminal complaint unsealed Monday, he is one of four men charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana. Authorities say he is the brother-in-law of the group’s ringleader.

“While (it is) always disturbing to investigate one of our own, I am proud of the detectives and commanders who worked diligently on this case,” Seattle Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole said in a written statement. “Officer Chapackdee’s conduct is disgraceful and disappointing. While he will have his due process in the courts, I hope these charges demonstrate to our community that SPD will not tolerate corrupt behavior in our ranks.”

The FBI said Chapackdee made several trips last fall in which he drove the marijuana to Baltimore in his recreational vehicle, met up with other conspirators and then drove back with cash proceeds. The complaint says he then deposited close to $20,000 in cash into his bank account.

Chapackdee’s attorney, David Gehrke, said he wouldn’t comment on allegations before seeing the government’s evidence. However, he said the arrest has been extremely difficult for Chapackdee, whom he described as a well-respected officer, as well as for Chapackdee’s wife and four children.

“This is a huge fall from grace, an embarrassment,” Gehrke said.

Investigators began looking into him after a confidential source reported that his brother-in-law had been paying him $10,000 a month to keep an eye on marijuana grow houses and to provide him with information about law-enforcement activities, the complaint said.

Seattle police say Chapackdee is on unpaid leave. A magistrate judge on Monday ordered him held in custody pending a hearing on Friday.

NFL Players Association on marijuana policy negotiations with owners: expect give-and-take

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By Nicki Jhabvala, The Denver Post

The NFL Players Association has been down this road before.

Although the union is pushing for changes to the collectively bargained substance-abuse policy as it pertains to marijuana, it knows it will require some give-and-take with owners.

“That has not been our experience with the league or the Management Council unfortunately in most cases,” NFLPA assistant executive director George Atallah said in an interview with ProFootballTalk on Monday. “This is clearly one that falls into that health-and-safety space. We know exactly how players feel after the games, what their careers are like, and what their lives are like after they’re done playing football. It’s incumbent upon all of us to take the hard look and see how we can help players. And it’s a little bit challenging at times to feel like the only entity who cares about these players as human beings, as men, as family men, when they’re facing health and safety issues. And clearly we’ve made some significant advances over the last six-to-eight years, but on this particular issue I think it’s incumbent on the league office to — and pardon my pun — keep up with the Joneses.”

Over the past couple of years, players past and present have advocated for change to the substance-abuse policy, which is currently the most stringent among American professional sports leagues.

The union recently developed a pain management committee to assess an array of issues, including the potential use of marijuana in treating players’ football-related pain.

The NFLPA has planned to propose to the league a “less punitive” and more “therapeutic” approach to marijuana, but it has yet to be presented and specifics of the proposal have not been released.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and COO/executive vice president Stephen Jones have recently spoken out, privately and publicly, about considering changes.

“In my opinion, we should take a long, hard look at how we’re doing this and see if there’s a way, a better way to do it,” Stephen Jones told PFT last week. “What that is, I don’t have the answer. But we have a lot of smart people that can get in there and analyze something and really make some good decisions and see if there need to be changes.”

The current CBA expires after the 2020 season, but, like in 2014, players and owners could renegotiate the current substance-abuse policy at any time if both sides agree to do so.

This story was first published on DenverPost.com

Amazing photos from the 2017 Global Marijuana March

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By The Cannabist Staff

On Saturday May 6, cannabis enthusiasts in cities around the world took to the streets for the 2017 Global Marijuana March (GMM, in some places known as the Million Marijuana March), to push for cannabis legalization. In São Paulo, Brazil alone, organizers estimated 100,000 attendees. Here’s a look at some of the scenes from America and beyond:

Photo gallery:

A man lights a bottle-neck pipe filled with marijuana as he joins a crowd of about two thousand people for a march through the city centre to call for the complete legalisation of marijuana (locally known as dagga) in Cape Town on May 6, 2017. A recent South African High court case made it legal to smoke and cultivate marijuana in one’s home, but not in any public place. / AFP PHOTO / RODGER BOSCHRODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images

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São Paulo, Brazil

Prague, Czech Republic

Freiburg, Germany

Stuttgart, Germany

Cape Town, South Africa

Indonesia

Lubbock, Texas, USA

Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Vancouver, Canada

Toronto, Canada

Persistent prosecution of Oklahoma head shop seems like “a waste of taxpayer money” to residents

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By Sean Murphy, The Associated Press

NORMAN, Okla. — For years, attempts to open up shops in this left-leaning college town to sell things like rolling papers and smoking accessories have faced a harsh crackdown from local law enforcement. Officers raided stores, confiscated merchandise and shut down the operations.

While other states across the nation are easing penalties for marijuana use or legalizing the drug altogether, Norman police and its Republican district attorney are taking the opposite tack: pursuing criminal charges against the now-shuttered Friendly Market shop owner Robert Cox and several of his clerks for selling glass pipes in a local store.

But the latest target of police and prosecutors is fighting back.

Cox and three of his former clerks, including a popular city councilman, have refused plea deals as a third jury trial began this week on charges that carry prison time. They also have the help of a national individual liberty group that says law enforcement should quit wasting taxpayers’ time and money.

The determination of the district attorney to pursue charges — even after a hung jury and an acquittal in the trials of the first two clerks — has left many residents in this central Oklahoma college town scratching their heads.

“We get a lot of people talking about it, and a majority of them think it’s a waste of taxpayer money,” said Angie Mize, 32, a waitress at The Diner, a popular lunch spot a few blocks from the Cleveland County Courthouse. “I think it’s very heavy-handed.”

The latest jury trial is underway on a dozen charges, including one felony count each of acquiring proceeds from drug activity, against Cox and store clerk Stephen Holman, a councilman re-elected earlier this year with nearly 80 percent of the vote despite the pending criminal case.

The charges followed a series of undercover sting operations and police raids on the store that sold a variety of items like tapestries, jewelry, locally made art and glass pipes.

In addition to taking all the glassware from the shop, police seized about $4,000 in cash. Police are seeking to keep the money under the state’s civil asset forfeiture laws.

The police investigation was launched after Holman, whose city council ward includes a large swathe of the University of Oklahoma and student housing, opposed plans by the local police department to spend $280,000 on an armored vehicle.

District Attorney Greg Mashburn and a spokeswoman for the Norman Police Department declined to comment on the case, citing the ongoing trial. A telephone message left with the city attorney was not returned.

Despite Norman’s reputation as a liberal college town, local police have relentlessly targeted so-called “head shops” for years that sell items like pipes and bongs they consider drug paraphernalia.

Cox maintains that all of the items can be used to smoke tobacco and are therefore legal under state law, and similar shops have existed for years in other cities across the state.

The case hinges on the state’s definition of drug paraphernalia, which includes a dozen criteria. Those include things like whether there was drug residue on an object or if the owner knew the buyer would use it for illegal drugs.

Mark Woodward, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, said his agency has raided similar shops across Oklahoma numerous times, although he acknowledges the agency’s raids focus on shops where store employees discuss using the products for illegal drugs or market illicit substances like synthetic marijuana.

Brecken Wagner, an attorney representing Holman and Cox with his partner, Blake Lynch, maintains that the case isn’t about the sale of glass pipes, but about police and prosecutors wielding power over the citizens.

“This goes to … the power of the government to come in and take your things, and you’re just supposed to take it,” said Wagner, who said Cox refused an offer by prosecutors to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and allow authorities to keep his seized cash and merchandise. “You can’t fight back because you don’t have the money to fight back.”

Wagner said the defense costs are being paid by DKT Liberty Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit committed to privacy protections and “guarding against government overreaching.”

Wagner lamented the costs to taxpayers of the police investigation and ongoing prosecution.

“We had a three-day jury trial, twice, on misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia charges,” Wagner said about the two previous trials of two store clerks. “You’re talking about an investigation that was multiple departments over several days each time with city, state, county and federal officials involved.

“I can’t even imagine what the cost to the taxpayer is.”

Follow Sean Murphy at @apseanmurphy