Saturday, June 16, 2012

Ky. man plants marijuana in front yard

Thursday, June 14, 2012

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Police have arrested an eastern Kentucky man who they say had almost 100 marijuana plants growing in his front yard.

Knox County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Hensley told WYMT-TV (http://bit.ly/M7ANuW) that he observed the plants after responding to a complaint from an anonymous caller.

Hensley said when he asked 42-year-old James Denver Cox of Flat Lick whether he had any more plants, the man pointed out some drying on top of a TV and some under an entertainment center. In all, Hensley said he confiscated 92 plants.

Cox declined to speak with the station and it was unclear whether he had an attorney.

He faces a felony charge of cultivating marijuana.

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Information from: WYMT-TV, http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews

Friday, June 15, 2012

IRS seizes California medical marijuana provider's bank account

By Peter Hecht
The Sacramento Bee

Published: Friday, Jun. 15, 2012

 

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Internal Revenue Service has seized bank accounts it says took in more than $870,000 in cumulative deposits in recent months, part of a federal probe into alleged money laundering involving a Sacramento marijuana dispensary.

Agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS presented search warrants earlier this week on the El Camino Wellness Center, considered the largest medical marijuana provider in Sacramento.

The seizure of bank accounts, detailed in a sealed affidavit obtained by The Bee, underscores an effort by federal authorities to crack down on California medical marijuana dispensaries by employing laws traditionally used to target money transfers by narcotics traffickers.

A June 8 IRS seizure warrant cited federal money-laundering statutes and laws against improper reporting of income to seize bank accounts of the El Camino Wellness Center and its officers, Nicholas Street and Suneet Agarwal. No charges have been filed in the case.

IRS Special Agent SoEun Park said in the affidavit that Street and Agarwal, who goes by the name Sunny Kumar, distributed "illegal drugs" from "their illegal marijuana store" and conspired with "co-schemers" to hide profits from a purportedly nonprofit dispensary.

Park alleges that the men registered their dispensary with the state as a nonprofit corporation – the Sacramento Nonprofit Collective – then "concealed the proceeds from their marijuana store."

"The concealment and deposit of drug proceeds was primarily facilitated by false statements to financial institutions to disguise the true nature of their marijuana business," Park wrote.

He alleged that the dispensary operators were "commingling drug proceeds with legitimate funds, utilizing different entity names and bank accounts and frequently transferring funds between accounts to obfuscate the paper trail."

Former Sacramento federal prosecutor Donald Heller said authorities are sending a message that they will use federal drug money-laundering laws to target dispensaries that handle hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical marijuana transactions.

"I don't think it matters if they're nonprofit or not" under California law, Heller said "What the government sees is big commercial enterprises and they're going after them."

James Anthony, an Oakland attorney specializing in medical marijuana regulation, blasted the account seizures as an assault on a legal California business.

"Did that (IRS) affidavit say a darn thing about these being medical marijuana collectives in compliance with state law? No," Anthony said. "There is a total disconnect."

El Camino Wellness Center opened in 2008 and last year became the first Sacramento dispensary issued a permit under a city regulatory program for medical marijuana outlets. The city is still collecting voter-approved taxes on local dispensaries, amounting to $1.1 million between July 2011 and March of this year.

Mark Reichel, the attorney representing Street and Agarwal, said El Camino Wellness Center was "a flagship for compliance" as a city-regulated medical marijuana provider.

Reichel said federal authorities raided the dispensary and the homes of both men, taking computers, cellphones and business records. In addition to the money-laundering probe, a DEA search warrant affidavit said Street and Agarwal are being investigated for conspiracy to distribute marijuana and maintaining a place for distribution.

"We're going to try to talk to the government and see if we can work things out and explain that these guys were in compliance with state law," Reichel said.

U.S. Magistrate Dale A. Drozd approved the request to seize up to $827,435 from a Wells Fargo business account for the dispensary. The figure was based on IRS accounting of cumulative deposits made between January 2006 and August 2011.

Max Del Real, a spokesman for the dispensary, said the actual account balance was "a minute fraction" of the deposits it had received over time. Park wrote that any deposits from "sale of controlled substances" are subject to seizure.

The IRS also said it would seize up to $44,271 from a Wells Fargo account for Agarwal and deposits from two Golden One Credit Union accounts in Street's name.

The affidavit includes allegations that El Camino Wellness misleadingly listed its services as "health" – but not marijuana – when it set up merchant services accounts for credit and debit card transactions. It said one credit card company, JPMorgan Chase, stopped doing business with El Camino Wellness upon learning it was a medical marijuana provider.

Joe Elford, legal counsel for Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group for medical marijuana patients, said the investigation stirs questions over banking rights for dispensaries. He said just because a dispensary has money in the bank doesn't signal a crime.

"When you deposit money into a bank, you don't have to explain to the bank where that money came from, typically," Elford said. "And every nonprofit I know of has a bank account."

Last year, a U.S. Treasury Department criminal task force seized more than $80,000 from accounts of another Sacramento dispensary, One Love Wellness Center. The establishment closed on New Year's Eve with no charges filed.

The latest raid worries Lanette Davies, co-operator of Sacramento's Canna Care, one of 20 dispensaries still operating in city limits, down from the original 38.

Davies said that in recent years three different financial institutions, all aware Canna Care was a dispensary, initially agreed to service accounts for Canna Care but closed the accounts after deciding not to service medical marijuana businesses. The dispensary has another banking partner, but Davies worries she could be targeted by the government.

"It's almost like the federal government sets you up to fail," she said. "We are not Mexican drug cartels."

U.S. prosecutors have said they are targeting marijuana businesses "hijacked by profiteers" that they contend are operating in violation of both federal and state laws – though warrants in the El Camino Wellness case make no mention of California's medical marijuana law.

So far, federal courts have rejected legal challenges by medical marijuana advocates to the crackdown on California dispensaries.

Last year, El Camino Wellness sued U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Sacramento U.S. Attorney Benjamin Wagner, charging that federal property forfeiture notices – including one sent to the dispensary's landlord – violated rights of medical marijuana users and threatened to shut down the "supply chain of medical cannabis."

A federal judge threw out the complaint.

Read more here:

Baby soaps cause positive marijuana tests in infants...

A new study out of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill reveals some baby soaps may cause infants to test positive for marijuana, reports My Health News Daily.

While researchers aren't sure why the tests came out positive, they asserted infants were not experiencing a "high" from the soap.

"It's not marijuana in any way, shape or form," said study researcher Catherine Hammett-Stabler, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of North Carolina.

Researchers first became aware of the issue when nurses at a North Carolina hospital noticed a high number of positive urine tests, according to WFMY News.

The study was conducted so families wouldn't be falsely accused of exposing children to illegal drugs, a form of child abuse that would need to be reported to social services.

A second medical marijuana patient has been denied a transplant at Cedars-Sinai

Patient Toni Trujillo was put on a kidney transplant list earlier this year after her existing kidney transplant began to fail but she was booted off the list because of her "substance abuse," according to Americans for Safe Access.

The group that advocates on behalf of medical marijuana says that Trujillo has been on dialysis for the past five years and has suffered from kidney problems most of her life. She actually moved to California from Pennsylvania two years ago to take advantage of treatment at Cedars. She told her physicians at the time that she was using medical marijuana as an appetite stimulant to increase her protein levels, and they never raised any concerns about it. Then in April she was told over the phone that she was being booted off the list because of her marijuana use. They considered it "substance abuse."

"I don't know why Cedars would deny me a transplant simply because I use a legal medication that works for me," Trujillo told the ASA. "I hope they listen to reason and change their misguided policy, if not for me then at least for the others who will certainly follow."

Another transplant candidate at Cedars-Sinai was booted off the list for his medical marijuana use last year. Norman Smith, a cancer patient, was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009 but was removed from the transplant list because of his marijuana usage.

Using medical marijuana is frowned upon by the doctors who determine who gets on the competitive transplant list and who doesn't. At the time, Dr. Jeffrey Crippin, former president of the American Society of Transplantation and medical director at Washington University in St. Louis, told the Los Angeles Times, "If you are drunk or high or stoned, you are not going to take your medicine."

Both Trujillo and Smith were told that they have to abstain from marijuana for six months to re-qualify for the wait list and take drug abuse counseling for the same period, according to ASA. Both have given up medical pot, even though they said it was helpful in treating their health problems.

Related:
Cancer Patient Denied Liver Transplant After Using Medical Marijuana

CONTINUE READING

Sunday, June 10, 2012

3 charged with abuse for marijuana smoke

olice: Toddler found under 'cruel confinement'

GEORGETOWN, Ky. -

Three central Kentucky residents have been charged with third-degree criminal abuse after police said they exposed an 18-month-old girl to secondhand marijuana smoke.
The Georgetown News-Graphic  reported that 21-year-old Travis Kyle Ross, 20-year-old Christina Renee Ohlendorf and 35-year-old Ennis Roquel Payton were arrested Tuesday night.
Ross also was charged with trafficking in marijuana in amounts between 8 ounces to 5 pounds.
Payton told WKYT-TV in Lexington that Ross and Ohlendorf weren't smoking marijuana around the baby. Payton told the station that police apparently smelled marijuana smoke in the air "so they arrested everybody in the house."
Police said they found the toddler under "cruel confinement" and exposed to "harmful toxins."

To view the video click here: www.wkyt.com/home/headlines/PoliceChild_exposed_to_harmful_toxins_157919875.html

Read more: http://www.wlky.com/news/local-news/kentucky-news/3-charged-with-abuse-for-marijuana-smoke/-/9718420/14758318/-/fjf2fk/-/index.html#ixzz1xRrxmxgq

Thursday, June 7, 2012

National Medical Marijuana Business Conference Announced for 2012

National Medical Marijuana Business Conference Announced for 2012: More Than 200 of America's Cannabis Dispensaries, Infused Product Makers & MMJ Entrepreneurs to Attend

PRWeb

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

More than 200 medical marijuana industry professionals from across America are expected to gather in Denver CO this November for the National Marijuana Business Conference 2012, featuring keynotes from Steve DeAngelo of Harborside Health Center and Rob Kampia of Marijuana Policy Project. The Conference is being produced by MMJ Business Daily and sponsored by the National Cannabis Industry Association. Reservations and more info available at http://NationalMarijuanaBusinessConference.com

Denver CO (PRWEB) June 06, 2012

More than 200 medical marijuana industry professionals, including dispensaries, infused product makers, investors, lawyers, and related entrepreneurs from around America are expected to gather in Denver CO for the first annual National Marijuana Conference on November 8-9, 2012. Produced by MMJ Business Daily and sponsored by the National Cannabis Industry Association, the Conference is 100% dedicated to the business, financial, and legal aspects of the industry. Information and reservations are available at http://NationalMarijuanaBusinessConference.com

Confirmed speakers include Steve DeAngelo of Harborside Health Center, Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project, Troy Dayton of The ArcView Group, Tripp Keber of Dixie Elixirs & Edibles, Genifer Murray of CannLabs, Kayvan Khalatbari of Denver Relief, and Betty Aldworth of Evolution Consulting.

In addition to marijuana business management workshops, legal advisory sessions, and "lessons learned" case studies presented by MMJ entrepreneurs from around America, the Conference will feature an Expo Hall with exhibits of the latest infused products, technology, and related products and services for dispensaries.

The Conference will be held at the Sherman Street Event Center in Denver CO two days after the national elections. Legal advisors, regulators, and professional lobbyists will be on hand to analyze how election results will affect the MMJ industry moving forward.

About MMJ Business Daily:
Producer of the National Marijuana Business Conference, Medical Marijuana Business Daily is the top trade publication to America's legal cannabis industry. Its coverage focuses on legal, financial, dispensary and related vendor news. The editorial team is based in Denver CO, with business offices in Newport RI. Subscriptions are free at http://mmjbusinessdaily.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/6/prweb9572229.htm

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2012/06/06/prweb9572229.DTL#ixzz1x6NAmbYU