Contra Costa County

Five California high school students got sick after eating marijuana brownies they bought at school, authorities said. A 17-year-old senior at a Richmond, Cal., high school allegedly sold pot brownies to other students Sept. 4 at De Anza High School. She charged $3 per brownie or $5 for two. Five younger students, between 14 and 16 years old, ate the ...

The business owner who holds one of six permits to sell medical weed in Richmond agreed to pay the city $62,000 in back fees while he continues his search for a place to open shop. Four years ago, Richmond granted permits allowing three medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in the city. The number was increased to six in 2012, making ...

Another day, another city in Northern California has banned outdoor marijuana grows. The city council of Martinez, located in the northern Bay Area, voted 4-0 May 7 to prohibit all outdoor cultivation of cannabis, despite the state law that specifically allows California residents to grow their own medical weed. Martinez becomes another in a growing list of California communities targeting ...

A group hoping to establish a nationwide certification for medical marijuana dispensaries gave its first-ever stamp of approval to two California pot shops Feb. 20. Americans for Safe Access, a pro-marijuana group, certified two dispensaries in the Bay Area: the Berkeley Patients Group and the San Francisco Patient and Resource Center. The group uses a certification process known as Patient ...

Contra Costa County firefighters are adopting new strategies to deal with what they say is a growing problem: blazes breaking out at marijuana grow houses. Any fire poses grave risks to firefighters, said Vic Massenkoff, investigator for the Contra Costa Fire Protection District. But fires at large-scale cultivation sites are especially dangerous, and they require unique approaches, he said. Those ...