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."

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.

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.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/3276344/Death-report-a-whitewash
By JOSH REICH - The Nelson Mail

The family of a Golden Bay man who died in Christchurch Men's Prison say a coroner's report into his death is a whitewash and they would like an apology for what happened.

Stephen Cleary, 49, died on June 11, 2007, from a pulmonary embolism arising from deep-vein thrombosis in his right calf.

He was beginning a one-year sentence for growing cannabis. After being sentenced on June 1, 2007, Mr Cleary spent five days in unusually restrictive conditions in the Nelson police cells and was transferred to Christchurch in a prison van on June 6, 2007.

In a report on the inquest into Mr Cleary's death, chief coroner Neil MacLean said the death was "probably avoidable" if someone had taken a complete overview of his care and custody.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3280149/Police-find-the-jackpot
By FELICITY ROSS - Taranaki Daily News

Police searching for a bail absconder found him in South Taranaki on Saturday along with a caravan of cannabis.

Sergeant Ivan Smith, of Hawera, said police found the man at the address of another man in the Opunake township.

"We went to an address, located the person we were looking for and the occupant was smoking cannabis," Mr Smith said.

"During a search of the address we located a substantial cannabis growing operation and which led to the subsequent arrest of two people for various offences ranging from possession of cannabis to cultivation of cannabis and breach of court bail."

Mr Smith said a caravan on the property was found to be used as a cannabis growing operation.

"It had been gutted out and had been used for the growing and cultivation of cannabis."

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1001/S00044.htm
Cannabis Party Support Daktory expansion plans
Monday, 18 January 2010, 11:16 am
Press Release: Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party

Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party congratulates Dakta Green and his Auckland Daktory Club membership for heavily pushing cannabis law reform to the fore again in New Zealand after many years of being put on the back burner by establishment, bureaucracy and media.

ALCP totally supports appropriate civil disobedience to raise awareness of glaring anomalies in New Zealand’s justice system, including counter-productive ‘crime prevention’ policing, and highly questionable legal status of marijuana alongside alcohol and tobacco.

Marijuana is NZ’s crucial law and order/community well-being/human rights issue: "The ongoing third-class-citizen status of the nation’s estimated half million marijuana consumers is unacceptable in a civil society."

http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/01/temaru-favours-cannabis-trade-in-tahi...
Pacific Scoop:
By Oceania Flash in Papeete

Former French Polynesian President and now opposition leader Oscar Temaru has this week ignited yet another controversy by suggesting – during a parliamentary debate – that cannabis should be allowed for sale and consumption to visiting tourists.

Speaking during a debate that also heralded more stringent measures against smoking in public places, Temaru said the idea of promoting the cultivation of cannabis could be one way of “canalising” an already flourishing local production while at the same time restricting its use to overseas tourists only.

He said one avenue could be to explore the concept of restricted zones, which would allow for local jobs to be created thanks to the cannabis industry.

About 30 police staff from Counties Manukau and Waitemata police districts, Auckland CIB and Metro Crime and Operations Support seized 27kg of high-grade cannabis in a joint operation on Tuesday.

They arrested eight men aged between 27 and 65 on charges including possession, possession for supply and cultivation.

The quantity seized is thought to have a street value of $270,000. The operation followed two months’ investigations into organised criminal involvement in growing and distributing cannabis. Plants and dried leaf were seized from buildings and private addresses in Manukau, Te Atatu South, Waitakere, Henderson and Green Bay.