http://www.stuff.co.nz/oddstuff/3261229/Aspen-to-host-cannabis-contest

A cannabis festival in the US ski resort town of Aspen this spring will allow approved growers to put their strains in a contest.

The Western Slope Cannabis Crown will have about 50 state-approved medical marijuana growers enter their strains of weed. The marijuana strains will be diagnostically tested for their THC levels. Growers will also be able to sell to medical marijuana patients. The customers would vote on a "people's choice" strain.

The Cannabis Crown organizer, Bobby Scurlock, says about 1,500 tickets have been sold for the two-day event, the Post Independent reported.

Dunsterdam will be next -Bert-

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/3226576/Cannabis-club-fo...
By JO GILBERT - The Marlborough Express

The next few years could see Blenheim become home to a cannabis club, where users flout the law by meeting to smoke and buy the class C drug.

But not if the police can stop it.

Next month, founding members of New Zealand's first cannabis connoisseurs' club, Auckland's The Daktory, plan to start a tour to meet cannabis users throughout the country and help set up venues in other cities.

Although club founder Dakta Green said the tour would stop in Blenheim in the second half of this year, the focus for establishing venues was first in major cities.

But he expected Blenheim would have its own Daktory "in the next few years".

"When we get inquiries from Blenheim people we'll look into it.

"Every community with a light industrial area should have a Daktory established there."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/3261934/Wake-up-call-over-cann...

'Wake-up' call over cannabis
By AARON LEAMAN -

Waikato Times Last updated 13:00 26/01/2010SharePrint Text Size Relevant offers
A young Cambridge man caught offering to supply cannabis to a police informant was only trying to make friends in a new town, his lawyer said.

Justin Stacey Collins, a 20-year-old apprentice electrical engineer, was sentenced yesterday in the Hamilton District Court to 80 hours' community work after pleading guilty to a charge of possessing cannabis for supply.

Collins was arrested in Cambridge on October 27 last year after offering to supply cannabis to a police informant.

The pair had met at a skateboard park.

Defence counsel Len Caley said Collins' offer was an unfortunate attempt to impress his "new friend". "He was just trying to make friends in a new town. He was trying to impress rather than make money."

Drug tests spark school probe

By Rachel Grunwell
Sunday Feb 7, 2010

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10624642&r...

A high school renowned for producing a string of Kiwi sporting stars has been accused of inappropriately drug-testing some students.

A source told the Herald on Sunday the allegations centred around three students from Rotorua Boys' High School's Tai Mitchell Hostel, who were excluded after they were tested for cannabis.

It is alleged tests were done in-house by staff, with boys forced to drink water and strip to their underwear before undertaking a urine test.

Parents are understood to be upset and irate and to have raised concerns over school management practices.

The Ministry of Education recently appointed Dennis Finn as the school's limited statutory manager, a move which removes some of the powers of the school board.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/3298503/Detective-blames-marijuana-spiked-m...

A former New York City counterterrorism detective who says he was unfairly fired as a result of a failed drug test he blamed on his wife's marijuana-spiked meatballs has lost a court bid to get his job back.

A state appeals court upheld Anthony Chiofalo's dismissal on Thursday. The 22-year veteran was suspended in 2005 after failing a random drug test and was fired in 2007.

Catherine Chiofalo told police investigators she secretly substituted marijuana for oregano in meatballs, hoping a failed test would make her husband leave police work.

Anthony Chiofalo's lawyer, Philip Karasyk, says he's considering options for continuing the case.

Police department lawyer Edward Hart says there was more marijuana in Chiofalo's system than the meatballs could explain.

http://www.odt.co.nz/entertainment/music/92008/jamaica-cancels-bob-marle...
Fri, 5 Feb 2010

An annual concert that draws hundreds of tourists to celebrate Bob Marley's birthday has been canceled for the first time since its inception in 1992 over noise complaints.

Police denied promoter Clive Pringle an event permit because of several run-ins with police and residents in Negril, superintendent Dezeita Taylor said.

The Bob Marley Birthday Bash that Pringle organised every February 6 regularly exceeded the 2am curfew established under the Noise Abatement Act, she said.

Last year Pringle was fined $US560 ($NZ787), police said.

Pringle said he appealed, but doubts the concert will be held. The show was launched in 1992 in Negril - a seaside town west of Kingston - and has attracted up to 3500 people, Pringle said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3292287/Problem-passenger-high-on-...
AP
09:29 04/02/2010

A San Francisco man claims he was high on a double dose of medical marijuana cookies when he screamed, dropped his trousers and attacked crew members on a cross-country flight, forcing its diversion to Pittsburgh.

Kinman Chan, 30, was charged in a criminal complaint with interfering with the duties of a flight attendant, on allegations that he fought with crew members of United States Airways Flight 1447 from Philadelphia to Los Angeles on Sunday. His federal public defender, Jay Finkelstein, declined to comment.

Crew members said Chan made odd gestures before he entered the plane's rear restroom shortly after takeoff and began to scream, according to the complaint.

IGrow: Walmart of weed opens in Oakland

Matthai Kuruvila, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 28, 2010

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/27/BA4T1BOGCV.DTL

Call it the Walmart of weed.

In a 15,000-square-foot warehouse just down the road from the Oakland Airport, an entrepreneur is opening a one-stop shop for medicinal marijuana cultivation that's believed to be the largest in the state.

Don't know the first thing about growing pot? The folks at iGrow have a doctor on site to get you a cannabis card and sell you all the necessary equipment for indoor, hydroponic cultivation - from pumps, nutrients and tubing to lights and fans.

Don't know how to set it up? For a fee, on-site technicians will show you how to build it in your home and even maintain it weekly.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/law/jan-june10/marijuana_02-01.html
AIR DATE: Feb. 1, 2010
SUMMARY

Medical marijuana is booming in Colorado. In Denver alone, there are more dispensaries legally selling the drug than there are Starbucks. But as medical marijuana use expands, regulation has struggled to keep pace.

Temaru denies calling for cannabis to be sold in French Polynesia

Christine Webster
Thu, 28 Jan 2010

http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201001/2804106.htm?desktop

The former French Polynesian President, Oscar Temaru, has denied calling for cannabis to be legally sold to tourists in the territory.

The Opposition Leader suggested during a parliamentary debate about the high taxation of cigarettes that tourists be allowed to use cannabis in restricted areas.

But when contacted by Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program he denied the claim.

Tahiti Pacifique Editor, Alex du Prel, says when Mr Temaru was criticised in parliament by other MPs, he told them his comments weren't meant to be taken seriously.

"He ended up saying, this is a joke okay."

Mr Temaru's Tahiti Independence Party has now put out a communique expressing concern at the tough legislation France has on cannabis, which applies to French Polynesia.