Legal Loopholes and How Weed Growing Can Now Be a Legal Home Occupation

Published by TRJ under Best news of the Day,Misc

http://hailmaryjane.com/legal-loopholes-and-how-weed-growing-can-now-be-a-legal-home-occupation/

Image Via Ephemeron

And all this time you were talking sh*t about your homeboy and how all he does is stay in that hot ass apartment growing his weed plants! Little did you know that your dude was actually a budding entrepreneur and weed growing is his ‘home occupation’ but only if he lives in Bingham Township, Michigan.

The Bingham Township Planning Commission is considering adopting a zoning ordinance amendment similar to one being considered by neighboring Suttons Bay Township that might allow the production and sale of medical marijuana as a “home occupation.”

This clever move was made possible by an amendment adopted by the township planners after a review of the Michigan Attorney General’s interpretation of the state’s medical marijuana law. The basis of the ordinance allows ‘growers’ to run home based businesses that provide medical cannabis to patients. The difference is that each grower must deliver the plants; no store fronts or commercial businesses are allowed to participate.

These loose ‘collectives’ can do a whole lot of good for the entire community. Having a home based business is great because it allows one to earn an income. The fact that the marijuana is being cultivated on private property and only sold to a maximum of five people and delivered door to door means there is less likelihood the police would even notice what was going on. In addition, a search of private property to cease marijuana that’s being used for medicinal purposes would seem like an invasion of privacy and a bad image for the Michigan law enforcement community.

Let’s hope other towns take advantage of city and state zoning laws to bring about access to medical marijuana that can be tolerated by both users and the citizens that love them.

Cultivator’s Handbook Still Around After Almost 40 Years

California Judge Rules Medical Marijuana Not An Agricultural Product

By Steve Elliott of Toke of the Town

Yes, marijuana is a plant you grow from the ground. No, it’s not an agricultural crop. Confused yet?

In what is believed to be the first ruling of its kind in the state, a judge in California has ruled that a marijuana collective can’t operate on land zoned for agriculture, reports Lewis Griswold of the Fresno Bee.

In his ruling last week, Tulare County Superior Court Judge Paul Vortmann dismissed a property owner’s argument that a medical marijuana collective’s cultivation of marijuana is legal because it is in an agricultural zone.

“In this state, marijuana has never been classified as a crop or horticultural product,” Judge Vortmann wrote in his ruling. Marijuana is a controlled substance, the judge said.

“The court finds as a matter of law that growing marijuana … is not an agricultural use of property,” the judge wrote.

It’s the first time a court has addressed whether medical marijuana might be an agricultural crop, according to Tulare County Counsel Kathleen Bales-Lange, whose office sued a property owner and collective on behalf of the Board of Supervisors.

Marijuana plants are “agricultural in nature” because they grow like any other crop, according to lawyer Brandon Ormonde of Tulare, who represented the property owner. He acknowledged that medical marijuana has never been legally acknowledged as an “agricultural plant.”

“If it’s not a crop, I don’t know what it is,” said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, reports the Associated Press.

The case involved the Foothill Growers Association medical marijuana collective, which rented a building south of Ivanhoe in an agricultural zone. The collective grew plants inside the building and operated a dispensary.

Tulare County sued the collective and the property owner last year, arguing that marijuana dispensaries are only allowed in specified commercial and manufacturing zones.

The group has until Friday to stop using the building. Hanford attorney Bill Romaine, who represents Foothill Growers Association, said on Thursday that he believed the cooperative had negotiated a new site to use in unincorporated Tulare County, reports David Castellon at the Visalia Times-Delta.

Five years ago, an estimate that marijuana was the top cash crop in the United States at $35.8 billion a year made headlines nationwide. The crop’s value is more than corn and wheat combined, according to legalization advocate Jon Gettman, who prepared the 2006 report.

But never mind all that. Marijuana is not recognized by the California Department of Food and Agriculture as an “agricultural commodity.” (Maybe it’s time they catch up to reality.)

No agricultural commissioner in the state — not even in Mendocino and Humboldt counties — lists cannabis in is annual crop reports.

“We don’t regulate or track marijuana at all and regard that as a law enforcement issue,” said Steve Lyle, speaking for the state agriculture agency.

That could all change, though, under a proposed ballot initiative that plans a farming future for marijuana. Among other things, it proposes to apply “existing agricultural taxes and regulations to marijuana” and would prohibit zoning restrictions on cannabis cultivation.

It was recently approved by the Secretary of State’s office for signature gathering in an attempt to get it on the 2012 ballot.

Article From Toke of the Town and republished with special permission.

Pot Grows, Yet California Judge Rules It Isn’t A Crop

And the stupidity continues with stupid decisions like this going on. Who knew a plant wasn’t a plant apparently?

It grows in the ground, requires sunshine and water to blossom and earns California growers an estimated $17 billion a year. But don’t call marijuana an agricultural crop in Tulare County.

The Fresno Bee (http://bit.ly/pwDIGg) reports that a judge ruled this week against a medical marijuana-growing collective that wanted to operate on land zoned for agriculture.

Tulare County Counsel Kathleen Bales-Lange says it’s the first time that courts have addressed whether marijuana can be classified as an agricultural crop. California voters legalized pot for medicinal purposes in 1996.

The case began when the county Board of Supervisors sued the Foothill Growers Association, which operated in an agriculture-zoned building.

In a ruling finalized Tuesday, Judge Paul Vortmann said the act of growing a controlled substance is not an agricultural use of property.

(Source) http://www.mercurynews.com

San Bruno senior citizens busted on pot-farming charges

It’s pretty common these days for robbers to target homes where marijuana is being grown.

Not so common: When the suspected pot growers are two women past retirement age.

That was what San Bruno police uncovered Friday, according to San Mateo County prosecutors.

It all began when neighbors heard loud banging coming from the women’s home on Valleywood Drive, nestled in between Skyline Boulevard and Interstate 280.

Then they saw two men, later identified as Kitae Chae, 38, and Kenny Kong, 34, breaking down the front door and lingering inside for a few minutes before driving off in a BMW, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

The neighbors called police, and officers who stopped the BMW in South San Francisco found the men with $12,000 in cash, marijuana packaging material and seven ecstasy pills, Wagstaffe said.

When they arrived at the Valleywood Drive home, investigators found a substantial pot-growing operation: more than 800 marijuana plants, $3,000 in cash and a bypass through which electricity was being stolen from Pacific Gas and Electric Co., police said.

In short order, officers arrested the occupants — 72-year-old Aleen Lam and Virginia Chan Pon, 65. It’s not Pon’s first run-in with the law: She is already facing charges in Yolo County for allegedly passing more than $40,000 in bad checks over a three-day period at Cache Creek Casino.

“I have never seen or heard of women in their 60s and 70s running a grow house,” Wagstaffe said. “I certainly hope it is aberrational rather than a trend. I suppose profiteering in illegal enterprises crosses all the generations.”

The two women face a variety of drug charges, and Chae and Kong are accused of drug and burglary counts. All four have pleaded not guilty and are being held at San Mateo County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail each.

Prosecutors have filed a motion requiring that the two women show a legitimate source for any bail they post.

Teen Turns In Father On Marijuana Growing Operation

When you can even trust your own kids, who can you trust?

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A Murfreesboro father is in trouble after his own son turned him in for growing marijuana.

Police went to the family home after the 15-year-old called to report allegations of physical abuse. When officers arrived the teen handed them a marijuana plant growing in a small flower pot.  Inside the home, police found several plants in two illegal grow operations and arrested the father.

“The juvenile went inside and came out with a marijuana plant that was part of a grow operation inside the house,” said Kyle Evans with Murfreesboro Police.

In an exclusive interview the teen’s father told NewsChannel 5: “I could not believe my son would turn against his father like that.”

In addition to the marijuana plants and grow lights, Murfreesboro police also confiscated scales and supply of processed marijuana from the home. There’s no indication the suspect was growing the marijuana to sell.

(Source) http://www.newschannel5.com

Marijuana Growers’ Kids In Better Health According To Canadian Study

By Steve Elliott of Toke of the Town

A new study from Canada flies in the face of stereotypes regarding the offspring of marijuana-growing parents. Children from homes where cannabis is grown were healthy and drug-free, according to the study — in fact, healthier than other children — leading to questions about why such kids are often removed from their homes.

The research from the Motherisk Program at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children indicates the automatic removal of kids from marijuana-growing parents can be worse for the children than allowing them to stay at home, according to Gideon Koren, a University of Toronto professor and the program’s director, reports CBC News.

“After examining 75 of the kids over several years, we came to very clear conclusions that a vast majority of these kids are doing well,” Koren said. “Well fed, well kept, doing well in school and developing well.”

“In fact, the health problems found in this population were actually fewer than those in the general Canadian population,” according to a news release from the Hospital for Sick Children.

Children often enjoyed the lifestyle benefits of having high-income parents — even though that income is made illegally — and taking them away often “does a lot of damage,” Koren said.

“Taking a small child from his or her parents in a well-adapted environment causes fear, anxiety, confusion and sadness — everything that comes from separation,” he said.

When children are found in homes identified as marijuana-growing operations, they are usually removed, separating them from their parents and often placing them into foster care.

The Hospital for Sick Children examined 75 kids between 2006 and 2010 from Ontario’s York Region, just north of Toronto.

Since 2006, child-welfare workers have learned more about the effects marijuana grow-ops have on children and have changed how they maintain the children’s safety, according to Patrick Lake, executive director of the York Region Children’s Aid Society.

“We have developed a more customize and comprehensive process to determine best response, on a case-by-case basis, while looking for ways to safely maintain children with their parents or relatives,” Lake said.

This was the first study done on the topic, and the findings mean authorities will now see these children differently, according to Koren.

“When police and children’s aid go into that situation, they have to look much more carefully on what happened to that child, and now blanket-wise moving kids out of their homes,” he said.

Article From Toke of the Town and republished with special permission.

Mexico’s Largest Marijuana Crop Ever Destroyed

Yes this is a marijuana crop in Mexico about 200 miles south of San Diego, California. It looks like some solar energy plant or something. 300-acres full of 120 tonnes marijuana worth up to $160 million. Lenny said he would love to be there when thy burn. I agree 100% with that as well. It was discovered by Mexican soldiers while patrolling the area. Only six men were arrested for this massive grow operation.  The picture below shows the decent size housing area the six men lived in. What a life that would be? Take care of 120 tonnes marijuana plants all day, everyday. Hit the jump for some amazing pictures of the bust. Spotted on MSN’s PhotoBlog.

http://hailmaryjane.com/mexicos-largest-marijuana-crop-ever-destroyed/#more-38821

The Marijuana Tipping Point Is Here

Graphic: NewsReview.com

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By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The writer and social critic, Malcolm Gladwell, defines the ‘Tipping Point’ as the moment of critical mass, the threshold, the boiling point; the point at which the buildup of minor changes or incidents reaches a level that triggers a more significant change or makes someone do something they had formerly resisted.

Another way of saying it would be that point in time and space when everything changes and there’s no turning back.

Every day there are more encouraging headlines appearing in newspapers and on the Web from California to Maine supporting medical marijuana legislation suggesting the tide is turning.

Even when the cynics call medical marijuana a joke and claim the real goal of this smokescreen movement is legalization of pot, there are medi-jane supporters with valid and logical arguments to counter-balance any archaic rhetoric with which the anti-pot forces continue to misinform.

New Jersey passed one of the most restrictive medical marijuana rights and benefits program on the books so far. The state with a very conservative governor will soon have medical marijuana. Why? Because the people wanted it.

 It does seem like Time is marching on, but when is it gonna get there?

We’re zeroing in on something but when is the Tipping Point going to kick in fully regarding medical marijuana?

What possible signs do we need to see before we believe that it works?!

Here are some small recent events that may prove someday to have influenced the way we think, tipping the scales our way towards a bigger picture…

Photo: KSL.com

Utah Atty. Gen. Mark Shurtleff opposed medical marijuana — then he got cancer.

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1) Okay, this guy never ever got high and he’s for Medical Marijuana!

June 12th: How much straighter do they have to come? 

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff approves of medical marijuana after battling cancer.

Shurtleff said he would support the legalization of medical marijuana after experiencing months of intensive cancer treatment.

Shurtleff said never used marijuana himself, but had talked to other patients who had traveled out-of-state to receive marijuana treatment.

Photo: 99Post

Miss USA Alyssa Campanella: “Medical marijuana is very important to help those who need it medically”

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2) Not innocent enough. Okay, as they say, from the mouth of babes…

June 26: Miss USA and medical marijuana

During the question-and-answer part of the competition, Miss California Alyssa Campanella was asked about her perspective on the medicinal cannabis.

“Well, I understand why that question would be asked, especially with today’s economy, but I also understand that medical marijuana is very important to help those who need it medically,” Alyssa said.

“I’m not sure if it should be legalized, if it would really affect, with the drug war,” she said. “I mean, it’s abused today, unfortunately, so that’s the only reason why I would kind of be a little bit against it, but medically it’s OK.”

She got Miss USA.

When’s the last time you had the crown on the line and you spoke the truth?

I actually can understand why someone could dismiss a beauty queen and a cancer patient as being not scientific enough. They’re just regular people.

​3) What about Big Business. They have scientists? They have economists? They understand the world…? Don’t they?

June 13: Good Weeds, Bad Weeds - High Hopes at Miracle-Gro In Medical Marijuana Field

Scott’s Miracle-Gro Company has long sold weed killer. Now, it’s hoping to help people grow killer weed.

In an unlikely move for the head of a major company, Scott’s Chief Executive Jim Hagedorn said he is exploring targeting medical marijuana as well as other niches to help boost sales at his lawn and garden company.

“I want to target the pot market,” Mr. Hagedorn said in an interview.

“There’s no good reason we haven’t.”

​4) We’ve heard from the People, Big Business, and now from across the aisle comes…

June 22: Ron Paul, Barney Frank to jointly offer bill to end war on weed

Congressmen Ron Paul, Barney Frank and others will introduce legislature Thursday that aims to end a major part of the war on drugs — namely the battle against marijuana.

Reps. Paul (R-Texas) and Frank (D-Mass.), though technically on opposite sides of the aisle, have often spoken out against the war on drugs and will propose a bill “tomorrow ending the federal war on marijuana and letting states legalize, regulate, tax, and control marijuana without federal interference,” according to a statement from the Marijuana Policy Project via Reason.

The bill would allow the individual states to decide how they want to deal with pot.

The legislation, co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), is the first of its kind to be proposed in Congress that would end the 73-year-old federal marijuana prohibition that began with the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

…….

These four events that just transpired in the last month couldn’t be more current, more ‘now.’ What is it going to take in order for that cosmic plate to tilt to our side? And stay that way!

Entrepreneurs and forward thinkers are testing the waters of the medical marijuana Industry with venture capitalists abroad throwing dollars into edible research think-tanks and other esoteric ganja-related enterprises.

Politicians and law enforcement from all walks and talks of life are coming forward, decrying that the time is now to lose the campaigns that have never worked and to embrace a new way of thinking. To challenge the uncommon wisdom and to end the wars on law abiding citizens who because they ingest a specific weed, they could have their lives ruin because we, as a nation and a society refuse to change.

Sixteen states support medical marijuana. Every poll taken shows public support for medical marijuana. GW Pharma (Weed) and Novartis (Ritalin, Excedrin) have become partners in Sativex (medical marijuana spray) licensing pact overseas and now, in America.

“My professional view of cannabis as a substance is that it appears to be a remarkably safe substance in comparison to most medicines prescribed today,” said Dr. Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals. “The more I learn about this plant the more fascinated I become. It has through its various constituents multiple effects of therapeutic interest, many of which are now being validated by the enormous growth in basic cannabinoid research.”

What is it about marijuana that makes us afraid to go forward and embrace a new safer tomorrow? Pharmaceutical giants are moving forward with patents and marketing. You would think that the data from research geeks would be refutable, they’re the same people who give us our aspirin, for gosh sakes.

The data’s coming in like a Haboob through Phoenix. Unstoppable. Marijuana has applications that can help certain people. That’s it. It can’t be changed.

Marijuana does some good. It’s proven.

You can’t go backwards with that. Only thing you can do is not open your eyes to what’s in front of them.

Why aren’t we coming together as a nation over this issue when people with perspectives as different as those of Miss USA to the Mormon Attorney General of Utah support medical marijuana?

When law enforcement officials and Ex-President Jimmy Carter come forward to say the War on Drugs not only doesn’t work, it’s unwinnable. A waste of money.

Speaking of money, when Wall Street, Main Street and Home Depot all say the time is right to build the future fields of dreams of medical marijuana that only Weed-Gro can protect. What more do we need to hear?

Do we need Nancy Reagan in her Chanel housecoat to come forward to say she was wrong? Would that be the final straw? Would that be our national Tipping Point? To have someone other than ourselves say it is okay for us to have this weed? Mommy, please say its okay because in 1937, someone said it was bad.

Right now President Obama has alienated the Ganja Nation with his reversal on leaving the medical marijuana community alone. More and more his obtrusive agenda is forcing the hand of medical marijuana to take a stand, one way or another in various localities. Howard Zinn said you can’t be neutral on a moving train.

Opinion is sliding to the side where the weed grows green and high. Mendocino County is aggressively constructing a platform that is workable for growers and law enforcement alike. Not perfect, but a start.

Growers are paying taxes in exchange for their right to grow medical marijuana. They pay just like anyone else.

The Tipping Point is already here. Embrace it.

Pot Dogs: It’s Time To Treat Them Like Man’s Best Friend

Photo: The Tizona Group

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By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Anyone’s who has spent any time behind the Redwood Curtain knows that dogs are a grower’s best friend. Most farmers I know have at least one dog, if not more.

When you live in an isolated community cultivating the number one cash crop in the world, it pays to have a security system that you can rely on and for the most part, that can scare away any unwanted guest without firing off…a mean word. Dogs are an invaluable source of protection in lieu of setting up a .50-caliber foxhole.

Also for the bachelor-farmer, a dog plays therapist, friend and ally when all around you seems hopeless. There’s a saying in Mendocino: If you’re coming to Mendo for a vacation, bring a hat. If you’re coming to Mendo to live, bring a woman. There’s about one woman for every ten thousand guys. You could say, pets keep things sane up there.

Photo: Fun Ripper

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For many a walk at the end of the day to check out your babies reaching for the sky with your pooch at your side relieves many a fearful moment.

Without a dog or dogs, life not only becomes harder for you, but without an early advance warning system, the gentleman farmer who is probably already a either a partial-survivalist who believes its only a matter of time before the world ends or maybe is a conspiracy freak who’s waits everyday for the arrival of Black Helicopters.

These are the types that may get a little skittish and may be apt to pull a trigger at dark shadows if Lassie’s not on the front porch barking hysterically to let him know something out there.

Plus there are bears, cougars and mountain lions, and many other four-legged creepy-crawlers that might mosey by a cabin late at night startling the inhabitants who, on their own without a pooch for protection might send out a few warning shots. With a dog present, the iterant four-legged scavenger just keeps on walking — just like the other lazy opportunists do in the big city.

Dogs are more than animals in the country. They’re friends, family, and confidants that never lie or betray your words to anyone else. And they hardly ever talk back.

Photo: Fun Ripper

​ ​Last year, I wrote in my blog about dogs being routinely shot and killed by police officers when approaching a possible drug house. In my piece dated May 17, ‘More on the War on Drugs, Pt. 109,‘ I wrote about the Missouri State police killing three dogs during a botched raid when invading the wrong house by mistake.

Being a cop is hard and they never know what they’re getting into. But shooting dogs as part of a protocol is wrong, especially when said bouquet of Whoopsy-daisies is caught on tape.

My friend the gifted writer, Kym Kemp, among a million other things, writes about Humboldt County in her blog, ‘Redheaded Blackbelt.’ In her column dated June 30, 2011, she wrote about two dogs that were stolen out of the back of a pick-up. At first this sounded like a Rodney Dangerfield joke. “Hey, I tell what bad luck I have. I bought two guard dogs and someone stole them.” Boom! Laughter.

Then I thought, how do you steal dogs without the dogs barking and yelping and snarling? I thought how bummed I be if someone took my cat. I just couldn’t imagine a person doing that to someone else.

Then when you factor in that it happen in a small town like Garberville or the like? I wonder how something like that could transpire, particularly in towns that are so animal-friendly and where you depend on your dogs for so much.

Then I heard about this from a friend in Mendo…

Photo: Fun Ripper

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For years there has been horror stories of Pot Dogs that have been abused in order to protect large grows. Stories of dog’s vocal cords being slashed so there is no warning bark for intruders. The owners supposedly feed their canines gunpowder to make them more aggressive and mean.

Or what happens on a daily basis, dogs are being tethered and chain to grows and gardens with some food and water in a bucket, unless something happens to that like the wind or the dogs tipping the sustenance over.

Then at the end of the growing season, the dogs are either shot or left to roam the forest in feral packs. These are some of the abuses that we know of.

Barbara Shults, R.N., Founder and Director of the non-profit North Coast Animal Welfare Advocacy Center and host of the radio program Animal Advocate on Northern California Emerald Triangle-based KMUD has started a campaign – Not A Pot Dog, to raise awareness of the cruelty and abuse entailed.

Ms. Shults tell us what got her started with the Pot Dogs issue. “I’ve been involved with animal welfare issues for over 13 years now. About 18 months ago, I found a severely abused dog roaming the neighborhood. It was a dog well known to the community for being tethered for years without shelter on a two foot rope at an outdoor ‘grow’. I took it to our local animal shelter and in thanks, the Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos is prosecuting me for theft. A man who stated publicly in a D.A. debate in 2010 that it was okay to leave a dog tethered, in violation of state law, to a ‘grow’ 24/7 as long as it had food and water.”

That’s right. For her efforts, Ms. Shults, was tried and convicted by D.A. Paul Gallegos after a jury trial, by all accounts, that was filled with perjured statements and misleading evidence, found her guilty of Petty Theft misdemeanor.

At press time, the 13 year- old dog remains in the same location with the same owner and with pounds of dog food and 5 gallons of water by its side, right back in the same place, vulnerable and alone.

As stated by the noted Civil Rights & Criminal Law attorney Greg Allen, “Basically what the D.A. has said is that anyone who is concerned enough to take a dog to the Humboldt County Animal Shelter can be prosecuted.”

I spoke to some of many of my grower friends about this issue, none of them would go on record with their quotes but they basically said, “If a cop shot my dog, let’s just say, I’m ready to go to prison for what I would have to do.”

Another farmer stated that anyone who steals another person’s animal up here, “We’ll settle that score ourselves. The Sheriff’s Department and Animal Abuse won’t have to get involved.”

From my research and interviews that I’ve done in the last few months, the summer of 2011 is going to get hot up there behind the Redwood Curtain. Homeland Security and the DEA have set-up shop in the Redwoods. Tempers and the hostility between growers and the law enforcement are already piqued.

Mendocino Sheriff Tom Allman is courageously trying to change to the environment with his Zip-tie and Mendo’s 9.31 permitted programs.

We’re at the crossroads of marijuana, medical and recreational. Some call it a movement, while others call it an industry.

Bottom line, it is up to us to take care of our own. We’re close to pointing the finger where cartels are growing Titanic-like gardens. People know what’s going. And if you didn’t, you know now.

It is up to us to stop the negative aspects of marijuana before the corrupt Powers-That-Be turn ourselves against each other. Let’s police ourselves so the Man doesn’t have to.

When so much is at stake, we, the people need to stop animal abuse. Not only is it a travesty to the animals, which is foremost and paramount, but there is a powder keg that could explode if a man’s animal was hurt, rightly or wrongly.

Trust me, there’s a couple of guys I’ve met that if one of their dogs were shot or stolen, I wouldn’t want to be around when that guy found the perpetrator, whether that perp’s wearing a uniform or not.

At press time, Ms. Shults is raising funds for an appeal against this serious miscarriage of justice. You can donate to the North Coast Animal Welfare Advocacy Center, a 501(c) tax exempt organization or donate directly to the legal fund set up by Christine Garcia, Esq., at www.animalattorney.com/getactive.html.

The amount needed for the appeal is $5,000.00.