News

Madonna’s son Rocco, 16 years old, has been arrested for pot possession in London, the London Sun reports.

The tabloid, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch and delights in hounding the pop star and her family, says that Rocco Ritchie was supposedly “acting suspiciously” in the swanky Primrose Hill Neighborhood of London.

The poor kid had been the subject of a custody dispute between his parents over the past year. The paper had printed a photo of him smoking a “suspicious-looking” cigarette earlier this year.

Read More:http://hightimes.com/news/madonnas-son-busted-for-pot-in-uk/

It’s been just under two weeks since his political career imploded in spectacularly casual fashion, so let’s check in with the lovable and charismatic Chris Christie.

Now that it’s clear the New Jersey governor is more likely to serve time in federal prison than he is to fetch even so much as a McDonald’s Filet-o-Fish in President-elect Donald Trump’s White House, Christie is free to do things like actually govern.

In Jersey—where Christie is implicated in the creation a life-threatening, record-breaking traffic jam, punishment for a mayor who dared not endorse his Goodfellas-style governance—this involves going on talk radio to engage with the people on their level. Or, failing that, to drag them down with him.

Read More:http://hightimes.com/news/chris-christie-goes-back-to-lying-about-marijuana/

WASHINGTON (AP) — An Obama administration Justice Department that emphasized the need to be “smart on crime” is being replaced with a Trump presidency that campaigned on being “tough on crime.”

The difference between those two philosophies remains to be seen, but one area where the divide is likely to be felt most acutely is in the thousands of drug cases the Justice Department prosecutes annually.

If confirmed as attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican and former prosecutor, would inherit a Justice Department that’s pursued dramatic changes in the treatment of nonviolent drug criminals. Department leaders, most prominently former Attorney General Eric Holder, have directed prosecutors to limit their use of mandatory minimum punishments, sought to roll back a sentencing structure they see as overly harsh and encouraged the early release of hundreds of inmates.

Read More:http://hightimes.com/news/trump-justice-dept-could-shift-drug-prosecution-policies/

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Some California medical marijuana users are getting a tax break.

State officials announced Thursday that certain purchases of medical cannabis are now exempt from sales taxes, under the law approved by voters this month that legalized recreational pot in California.

Under the new law known as Proposition 64, a 15 percent excise tax will be imposed in January 2018 upon purchasers of all marijuana and marijuana products, including medical cannabis. A tax on cultivators will also be imposed.

Until then, the tax holiday goes to people who make purchases with a medical marijuana identification card from the California Department of Public Health.

Read More:http://hightimes.com/news/legal-pot-brings-temporary-tax-break-for-some-medical-users/

Shipping marijuana via the mail is always a dicey proposition. There is nothing legal about it—the U.S. Postal Service is a federal entity, and federal law trumps state law, making even an in-state cannabis delivery illegal—and tales of dummies literally writing their own indictment on the envelope abound.

And even if the police don’t show up at your door when you were expecting that package of contraband, there’s a serious probability your shipment still disappears, without ever falling into the hands of police. It might have been stolen by the likeliest suspects of all: the government employees handling the mails.

Postal workers discover marijuana in the mail with reliable frequency. USPS found 34,000 pounds of mailed cannabis in 2015, according to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service—a figure that’s in fact significantly down from the 47,000 pounds found in 2013, the last year before recreational marijuana retail shops opened up in Washington and Colorado—and about 1,000 people are arresting for mailing drugs or drug money every year.

Read More:http://hightimes.com/news/is-your-friendly-neighborhood-postman-stealing-your-weed/