Police raid former Alaska TV reporter's cannabis club
Anchorage police raided a prominent Alaska marijuana club on Friday but haven’t brought any charges yet, KTVA reports.
The Alaska Cannabis Club is owned by Charlo Greene, a former television reporter who quit her job in dramatic fashion in September, telling her employers “f**k it, I quit” before heading off to the marijuana business.
Police had a warrant to search to property for evidence related to the “illegal sale of marijuana and other derivatives.” Along with items seized from the club, cops took a Dodge Dakota and Jeep Liberty.
“Rushing in for a misdemeanor, that’s what this search warrant was for, a fourth-degree misdemeanor,” Greene told KTVA. “Misconduct involving a controlled substance.”
Jennifer Castro, a spokesperson for the Anchorage Police Department, told KTVA authorities had heard of illegal marijuana sales taking place at the club.
Marijuana became legal in Alaska in late February, but regulated sales likely won’t begin until 2016.
Massachusetts lawmakers hope to legalize marijuana on their own terms
Marijuana is now legal in four states and the District of Columbia. In each of those cases, however, the laws were passed by ballot initiative, bypassing state legislatures and putting the decision directly in the hands of voters.
Some lawmakers in Massachusetts would like to have more of a voice in the process. The state is considered a possibility to legalize weed by a ballot initiative in 2016 and elected officials like State Sen. Patricia D. Jehlen (D) want to beat voters to the punch.
“Wouldn’t it be a good idea for the Legislature to look at it ahead of time, listen to every point of view, anticipate every problem that we could, and try to do it right?” she told The Boston Globe.
Marijuana legalization will be on the ballot in Nevada’s 2016 election and similar efforts are underway in Arizona, California, Maine and Massachusetts.
The push by Massachusetts legislators could run into some formidable opposition. Gov. Charlie Baker (R) and other top state officials are against legalizing pot for recreational purposes, the Globe reports.
Students suspended for marijuana more likely to reuse, study shows
Hey teacher, leave them kids alone!
A new study looking at marijuana use among teenagers found that students in schools with suspension policies for drugs were 1.6 times more likely to use marijuana in the next year compared with their peers in schools without such policies.
The study, published last week and conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and in Australia, found that counseling was a much better way to reduce marijuana consumption.
One of the authors of the study, Richard Catalano, a professor at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work, said the findings were surprising.
“It means that suspensions are certainly not having a deterrent effect,” he told UW Today. “It’s just the opposite.”
Researchers surveyed more than 3,200 seventh- and ninth-graders in 2002 and 2003 — a decade before Washington legalized marijuana. The study’s lead researcher, Tracy Evans-Whipp, said that even with the new marijuana law, the findings are “unlikely to change.”
Ted Hesson was formerly the immigration editor at Fusion, covering the issue from Washington, D.C. He also writes about drug laws and (occasionally) baseball. On the side: guitars, urban biking, and fiction.