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 State police say a western Pennsylvania woman tried to hide marijuana in a child's dirty diaper. 

Trooper Stefani Plume had just asked permission to search the car of 23-year-old India Banks, of Clairton, when Banks allegedly handed the diaper to the trooper and asked her to toss it into a bag of garbage inside the vehicle. 

Plume says she thought it was odd of Banks to hand over the wet diaper instead of throwing it in the bag herself. So the trooper checked inside and found a small bag of marijuana. 

Plume described the Oct. 25 traffic stop when Banks appeared in court Wednesday to waive her right to a preliminary hearing. Banks will enter a special probation program for first time offenders that will enable her record to be expunged if she complies with her probation terms. 

(Source: cbsnews.com)

 Authorities say about $15,000 worth of pot was stolen from a medical marijuana grower's building in Four Corners west of Bozeman.

Gallatin County Sheriff Jim Cashell tells the Bozeman Daily Chronicle the building was damaged Sunday night. He says it is the second time in two weeks the business has been burglarized.

Additional details about the two burglaries have not been released.

Jake Wagner, commander of the Missouri River Drug Task Force, says based on the $15,000 price tag of the medical marijuana, the burglars must have stolen about 5 pounds

(Source: necn.com)

Sounds like this heist was dreamed up with a little help from Mary Jane.

Three active duty soldiers at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs are being held on $10,000 bond after they allegedly tried to rob a marijuana dispensary but got locked inside, and it was all caught on tape.

Police say Ramone Hollins, Cory Young and Darius Thomas broke into Rocky Road Remedies just after 2 a.m. on Saturday. They reportedly broke the lock on the back door but what they didn't know was that the door locks automatically from the inside.

But that wasn't the end of their troubles. At the same time, police officers were next door responding to an unrelated call when they noticed the burglars inside, according to CBS affiliate KCNC.

Authorities say that the surveillance video shows Hollins, Young and Thomas, dressed in black, trying to break the front door of the dispensary once they realize the back door has locked them in. But the door and the windows are reinforced with metal bars, so they try to go back the way they came only to find that door locked, too.

At one point one of the alleged burglars decides to dive through a small interior sliding glass window instead of walking through the open door right next to it.

(Source: cbsnews.com)

This so called synthetic marijuana, known as Spice and K2, is legal in Virginia. It can be purchased online, in convenience stores and at tobacco shops. But it may not be legal for long. Some state lawmakers have proposed banning the synthetic-marijuana substances in Virginia, as they have been outlawed in 13 other states. The US Military and other forces has also banned the use of such substances and has also blocked off access to bases to specific companies which sell the substances.

Fort Lee has not yet taken that step. Soldiers stationed at the installation in Prince George County are not banned from area establishments that sell Spice, though they are still prohibited from using it. Spice is a synthetic blend of chemically treated, smokable leaves. With the addition of chemicals similar to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, the herbs can provide a legal high.

But that was not the intent when synthetic compounds such as K2 and Spice were developed in John W. Huffman's laboratory more than 10 years ago. K2 and other such substances have been found in some synthetic marijuana. His research is geared at understanding the interactions between cannabinoid receptors in the brain and other organs. The receptors play a role in regulating appetite, nausea, mood, pain and inflammation. They may also be involved in the development of such conditions as osteoporosis, liver disease and some kinds of cancer.

Huffman said synthetic cannabinoids can help researchers understand these interactions and may contribute to the development of new therapies. They have been discussed in scientific publications.

A judge is considering whether Walmart employee Joseph Casias was wrongfully terminated after he tested positive for pot. Casias' attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union argue he is approved for medical marijuana use to treat the pain from an inoperable brain tumor, and medical marijuana users should not have "to choose between their jobs and their medicine."

But Walmart's legal representation says Michigan's law legalizing medical marijuana was never meant to regulate business or prevent civil penalties, only to protect users from criminal prosecution.

(Source: mlive.com)

(This article was submitted by Joe Spaulding.)

When Jack Poll, the current Mayor of Wyoming, was running for election in 2009, the Grand Rapids Press editorial board gave himtheir endorsement, sighting, among other things, his opposal to the city’s notorious “crash tax.” The fees dispensed to anyone who was unfortunate enough to get in an accident within the city limits, regardless of who was at fault, were massively unpopular, nationally ridiculed, and laughingly unprofitable.

The fees were repealed within a year-and-a-half of being passed. Getting rid of them was a no-brainer, and the Press wasn’t sticking its neck out too far in supporting Poll for mayor. Unfortunately, Poll and the Wyoming city council have not learned from the mistakes of the recent past, and due to the Press’ cozy relationship with Poll, they have failed to take him to task for this.

On November 1, the GR Press published two articles discussing the state of Michigan’s recently passed medical marijuana law in terms of the City of Wyoming. The first described a Wyoming man, licensed by the state to be a medical marijuana patient and caregiver, who had his house broken into and plants and other property stolen in October. Due to the city’s ambiguous stance on the state’s law, he was reluctant to call the Wyoming Police to report the incident. Perhaps he was right to have his doubts. In an extravagant display of blaming the victim, as well as a hopelessly distorted view of public safety, Wyoming Police Chief James Carmody has stated that these types of robberies are a reason for the city to adopt a ban on medical marijuana.

The second Press article came a little later on in the evening, and was posted to mlive.com. It announced the city council’s decision to ban medical cannabis use, growing, and distribution in Wyoming city limits. The Press quoted Poll as saying “There’s a right way to do it. The state of Michigan did this the wrong way.” The article also mentions that the City Attorney stated fears that the city would be sued for being out of compliance with state law. Here is where the newspaper drops the ball. Instead of using tools available to anyone on the Internet (especially in Chile) to examine the validity of the City Attorney’s claims, the Press let his statement hang in the air as if the city’s ban has a 50/50 chance of surviving a court challenge. Within ten days, a Wyoming resident stepped up to sue the city over the obviously illegal ban.

The law, passed by the majority of Michigan voter’s (and 27 out of 28 districts in Wyoming), allows for any patient or caregiver charged with marijuana related legal violations to have those charges dismissed once his or her medical marijuana license is presented in court. Now that the city has banned medical cannabis, Poll is in a double bind – either he doesn’t encourage the arrest and prosecution of medical pot growers and patients, and the only effect the council has is discouraging otherwise law abiding citizens from assisting the already cash-strapped and over-burdened police, or the law faces challenge after challenge in court until it is innevitably overturned, costing the citizens of Wyoming thousands of dollars they do not have.

The other thing the Press failed to do was to hold Poll accountable for his evident disdain for Michigan’s initiative process (and by extension the voters and possibly the democratic process), as well as his doubts about the ability of the citizens of Wyoming (and probably all of Michigan) to determine what is best for their future. Poll talks about the medical cannabis law like it was passed by the Michigan legislature, and the Press never reminds its readers that the law is the will of the people of Michigan. Maybe the Press was afraid of looking like they were flip-flopping within a year of endorsing Poll for mayor. The end result being the will of 17,888 voters getting temporarily overturned by six city council members, and the cash-strapped,  job-starved citizens of Wyoming being left paying for court costs of trials with forgone conclusions.

(Source: griid.org)