Counties

New regulations on medical marijuana dispensaries in San Jose could lead to a de facto ban in the city, advocates said in early May. The City Council is set to vote May 13 on two ordinances to regulate pot shops in San Jose. The city has been trying to crack down on a booming dispensary business for several years, with ...

Mexican police seized 44 tons of marijuana in a raid just across the border from San Diego May 1. Mexico’s attorney general said the Tijuana police, along with the military, conducted one of the country’s largest weed busts to date. The largest, in 2010, netted about 150 tons of pot. According to a statement by the attorney general’s office, authorities ...

At least she didn’t try to bring it in her carry-on. Security officials at Oakland International Airport discovered 81 pounds of packaged marijuana inside three suitcases checked for a flight to Mississippi May 2, they said. The woman who checked the luggage, 26-year-old Anastasia Murdock, was arrested and booked into the Santa Rita Jail on charges of possessing marijuana for ...

Real estate agents visiting a home in West Covina stumbled across a large indoor marijuana grow April 26, police said. The agents dropped by the house on Felicia Street at 1:30 p.m. and found the garden inside, said West Covina Police Lt. Dennis Patton. Officers seized about 700 plants, which they valued at $1.5 million, Patton said. “This home is ...

Police ended a yearlong investigation into the marijuana trade in Northern California by announcing the arrests of 26 people in late April. Operation Safe Counties, as it was known, targeted cultivators and distributors in Shasta County and in Trinity County in the Emerald Triangle. The crackdown was announced by U.S. Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner, Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko, and ...

Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were arrested in April and charged with trying to frame two workers at a medical marijuana dispensary. Anthony Manuel Paez, 32, and Julio Cesar Martinez, 39, both were arrested April 18. They were each charged with two felony counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice and altering evidence. Martinez was also charged with felony ...

The grow bans are spreading in California. Sacramento County supervisors voted to ban outdoor pot cultivation April 22. The county is just the latest community to turn on growers in the local war on medical marijuana. The vote was unanimous. Sheriff Scott Jones told supervisors cultivation sites have increased across the county because of ambiguous laws and inconsistent enforcement. He ...

A young Northern California woman could be deported to Mexico after she was convicted of selling pot brownies to her fellow students in a scheme to raise money for a prom dress. Saira Munoz of Yuba City was also convicted of employing a minor to sell marijuana. She hired an underage student to sell the brownies at a bake sale. ...

At least eight people were arrested on felony charges during 4/20 celebrations in San Francisco, police said. Thousands of stoners and marijuana proponents gathered on Hippie Hill in Golden Gate Park, near the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, to mark the pot smokers’ holiday. They lit up at 4:20 p.m., the sacred moment for tokers. Smokers and users were joined by scores of ...

A Los Angeles-area medical marijuana activist is suing police over what she describes as a constant campaign of surveillance and harassment. Susan Soares, who has tangled with local authorities in the past, filed a lawsuit against the Redondo Beach Police Department and other defendants. She claims they labeled her one of five targeted “career criminals” operating in the city and ...