PORTLAND, Ore. — Vaping products, one of the fastest-growing segments of the legal marijuana industry, have taken a hit from consumers as public health experts scramble to determine what's causing a mysterious and sometimes fatal lung disease among people who use e-cigarettes. The ailment has sickened at least 530 people...
Downtown Hanford's First Marijuana Store Gets Council Greenlight
Hanford's first downtown shop selling medical and recreational marijuana to adults could open as soon as early 2020 in downtown, and another downtown marijuana dispensary is on the horizon, Mayor Sue Sorensen tells GV Wire. The City Council voted Tuesday to grant a business permit for a downtown dispensary to...
Modesto Hells Angels VP, Secretary Indicted on Drug Charges
The federal government's investigation into the activities of the Modesto Hells Angels Motorcycle Club yielded new indictments Thursday in Fresno. Chapter vice president Michael Shafer, 31, of Modesto, was charged with conspiring to distribute marijuana, conspiring to distribute heroin, distribution of marijuana, and two counts of use of a communication...
Only on AP: Popular Pot Vape Gets Makeover to Counter Fakes
LOS ANGELES — A short walk from police headquarters in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, a cluster of bustling shops are openly selling packaging and hardware that can be used to produce counterfeit marijuana vapes that have infected California’s cannabis market. Bootleggers eager to profit off unsuspecting consumers are...
Program to Erase Old Pot Charges Aids 58 California Counties
SACRAMENTO — Every California county prosecutor can now use new technology to erase or reduce an estimated 220,000 old marijuana convictions after voters broadly legalized the drug in 2016. Code for America, a San Francisco-based nonprofit tech organization, announced Thursday it is making its computer algorithms available for free to...
How Much Pot in That Brownie? Chocolate Can Throw off Tests
How much marijuana is really in that pot brownie? Chocolate can throw off potency tests so labels aren't always accurate, and now scientists are trying to figure out why. In states where marijuana is legal, pot comes in cookies, mints, gummies, protein bars — even pretzels. These commercial products are...
How Much Pot in That Brownie? Chocolate Can Throw off Tests
How much marijuana is really in that pot brownie? Chocolate can throw off potency tests so labels aren't always accurate, and now scientists are trying to figure out why. In states where marijuana is legal, pot comes in cookies, mints, gummies, protein bars — even pretzels. These commercial products are...
California's Legal Marijuana Watchdogs Are Stressed Out
The agency overseeing California's legal marijuana market has been overmatched by the job and is struggling to hire sufficient staff and set an overall strategy for the nation's largest cannabis economy, an audit found. About two-thirds of the 219 staff positions authorized for the Bureau of Cannabis Control remain unfilled,...
WATCH: Coast Guard Makes Dramatic Drug Seizure, Raiding Submarine
CORONADO — U.S. Coast Guard members boarded a semi-submarine racing through the waves, one of 14 operations seizing cocaine and marijuana since May in international waters off Mexico and Central and South America. The agency released dramatic video of the encounter with smugglers on Thursday. It shows a Coast Guard...
Ninth Circuit Court Upholds Keith Foster's Drug Convictions
In a ruling filed last week, the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the 2017 heroin and marijuana trafficking convictions of then-Fresno Deputy Police Chief Keith Foster. Foster's legal team made four claims in arguing his felony convictions should be overturned: — Insufficient evidence to convict. —...