CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 23, 2014 | By Kate Mather
Two former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies have been charged with planting guns at a medical marijuana dispensary to arrest two men, one of whom prosecutors said was sentenced to a year in jail before the bad evidence was discovered. Julio Cesar Martinez, 39, and Anthony Manuel Paez, 32, face two felony counts of conspiracy to obstruct justice and altering evidence, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office announced Wednesday. Martinez was charged with two additional felony counts of perjury and one count of filing a false report.
SCIENCE
April 23, 2014 | By Melissa Healy
Over a five-year period, a government-mandated tracking system in France showed that physicians in that country treated 1,979 patients for serious health problems associated with the use of marijuana, and nearly 2% of those encounters were with patients suffering from cardiovascular problems, including heart attack, cardiac arrhythmia and stroke, and circulation problems in the arms and legs. In roughly a quarter of those cases, the study found, the patient died. In the United States, when young and otherwise healthy patients show up in emergency departments with symptoms of heart attack, stroke, cardiomyopathy and cardiac arrhythmia, physicians have frequently noted in case reports that these unusual patients are regular marijuana users.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 21, 2014 | By Patrick McGreevy
SACRAMENTO -- Medical marijuana dispensaries in California would have to get state Public Health Department licenses, and doctors who recommend pot would face new standards for examining patients under legislation supported Monday by a state Senate panel. The measure, supported by members of the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee, also clarifies the authority of cities and counties to prohibit pot shops within their borders. Sen. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana)
NATIONAL
April 20, 2014 | By Paresh Dave, This post has been updated, as indicated below.
Like St. Patrick's Day in Boston or New Year's Eve in New York City, April 20 seems to have a found an epicenter in Denver. The annual global celebration of marijuana drew tens of thousands of people this weekend to festivals in Denver, the capital of the first U.S. state to make the drug available for recreational use to anyone 21 and older. The annual celebration has fallen on April 20, or 4/20, because a group of rebellious California teenagers in the 1970s supposedly decided to meet up at 4:20 p.m. each day after school to smoke marijuana.
NEWS
April 16, 2014 | By Paul Whitefield
Maybe Jerry Brown was more right about marijuana than folks gave him credit for -- at least if a new study on pot has merit. You may recall that California's governor, appearing on NBC's “Meet the Press” in March, had this to say about marijuana legalization : “How many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? The world's pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day, more than some of the potheads might be able to put together.” Plenty of folks disagree with that view, of course (hey, the '60s die hard!
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
April 8, 2014 | By Alicia Banks
Three men accused of trying to smuggle roughly two tons of marijuana onto the beaches of Malibu in a panga-style boat were charged Tuesday in federal court. Carlos Millan-Rogel, Jesus Aaron Guevara-Moreno and Victor Ayala-Marin face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. attorney's office. A 20-page affidavit filed with the complaint says the three men were caught by authorities Monday morning on the sand at Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu where the boat was found washed up on the sand, leaking gas and smelling strongly of marijuana.