http://www.times.co.nz/cms/news/2010/01/police_charge_teen_after_raid.php
• Howick and Pakuranga Times
A TEENAGER who lives with his mother, father and young sister has been found actively dealing in cannabis.
Confidential information led police to the family home in Archmillen Avenue, Pakuranga, on Tuesday where they found about 10g of cannabis individually bagged in small plastic zip-lock bags, commonly known as point bags, ready for distribution.
Sergeant Tony Curry, of Howick police’s tactical crime unit, says the 17-year-old’s parents were “not that surprised”.
“The boy’s behaviour had been deteriorating over the past few months, which made them suspicious,” he says.
“He had been getting into trouble with the police for traffic matters and attracting the wrong sort of crowd to the house.
“These are indicators that more serious issues, such as drugs, are evident.”
http://www.localberkshire.co.uk/news/roundup/articles/2010/01/26/44409-m...
A trial followed an incident in Queen Street, Maidenhead on June 23, last year. Police received reports of a strong smell of cannabis and went to the flats above Ladbrokes at about 5pm.
When officers arrived, several men were seen leaving one of the flats.
As police waited for more officers five men were seen climbing out of the flat window. Two of these men - Ji He and Guo Long Zu - fell to the ground awkwardly, sustaining leg and arm injuries.
In total 11.5 kg of skunk cannabis that had a street value of £115,280 was found at the property.
Investigating officer Iain Watkinson said: "It appears this was a processing plant for the finished product. Nothing like this has ever been found in the Thames Valley Police area and possibly even nationally."
here is some links to some cannabis related storys.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6062106n
The new head of the government's drug advisory panel once called for the legalisation of cannabis, it has been revealed.
Professor Les Iverson, the replacement for the sacked Professor David Nutt, has claimed in the past that cannabis is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco and even called for the drug to be made legal.
He reportedly said: "Cannabis should be legalised not just decriminalised because it is comparatively less dangerous than legal drugs alcohol and tobacco."
The professor yesterday talked lightly about any disagreements with the home secretary Alan Johnson and suggested that the drugs debate had moved on and that he has since changed his mind from the comments he made at a charity bash in 2003.
He said: "I don't remember saying that, it's certainly not my position now. That was a view I had in 2003 and a great deal has happened since then.
Monday January 18 2010
Drugs detectives have seized 1.2 million euro-worth of cannabis on the M1 motorway.
A 45-year-old man was arrested when the stash was uncovered in a lorry on the main Dublin to Belfast route, near Gormanstown in Co Meath.
The lorry was intercepted at around 7am by officers "acting on intelligence".
Superintendent Joe Kelly said: "This is a significant quantity of cannabis which has been taken off the streets."
The arrested man was taken to Balbriggan Garda station under section two of the Drug Trafficking Act.
The cannabis resin has been sent for tests.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3252049/Big-rig-stacked-with-marij...
Sentencing is set for April 12 for a Southern California man who was pulled over driving a big rig containing 14 tons of marijuana.
Federal court records show 51-year-old Angel Guillen Raya of Ontario, in San Bernardino County, pleaded guilty this week to transporting the marijuana with the intent to distribute it.
Raya was driving a big rig on Interstate 15 south of Temecula in August when he was pulled over for making an unsafe lane change, The Press-Enterprise reported.
Court records say a drug-sniffing dog alerted deputies to the presence of drugs. Deputies opened the trailer and found pallets of marijuana stacked to the ceiling.
A US attorney's office spokesman says no one else has been charged in the case, but an investigation into the source of the marijuana is ongoing.
January 07, 2010, 01:04 PM
More than 1500 cannabis plants, with a potential value of $1.5 million, have been seized by police from a two-bedroom house near Motueka.
Motueka police say the find is one of the biggest indoor cannabis-growing operations they have busted.
The number of plants, a third of which were seedlings, surprised police when they searched the Westbank Rd property on New Year's Eve.
Motueka Sergeant Robert Crawford said police were "stoked" with the raid.
"We didn't expect as many plants as we found. I can only remember one other sting that busted a bigger indoor operation. This is one of the largest search warrants for that many plants in a single house," he said.
The two-bedroom house had plants in each room, including the kitchen and bathroom, and was aided by a sophisticated lighting and watering set-up.
It looked to have been in operation for some time, said Mr Crawford.
By Andrew Koubaridis
4:00 AM Thursday Jan 21, 2010 Facebook
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10621356
Cannabis laws are breaching the Bill of Rights Act for cannabis users, an Auckland court heard yesterday.
Dakta Green - the founder of New Zealand's first cannabis club - claims laws such as the Misuse of Drugs Act discriminate against users of the drug.
He represented himself at a pre-trial hearing at the Auckland District Court where he tried to get a stay of proceedings on charges of possession of cannabis and possession for supply.
A witness called by Green, Dr Geoff Noller, completed a PhD at Otago University last year. For his thesis, he examined the culture of cannabis use.
Dr Noller told the court cannabis was included in early drug laws more as a response to international developments than domestic concern. "Cannabis came to be included more by default."
Mum's drug deals pull in buyers from all over
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10621611
By Rachel Tiffen 4:00 AM Friday Jan 22, 2010
Students, office workers and retired people flocked to a South Auckland house to buy cannabis from a mother of five children under seven.
Police have raided the Otara home three times, and each time all five youngsters were there.
On January 8, detectives saw 16 people from all over Auckland arrive at the house in three hours. One was a grandmother who said she was buying for her daughter.
"These folks don't come to Otara to do their grocery shopping, they come here to buy drugs," said Detective Toby Stallworthy. "I don't see them walking down the road from their local corner store buying their bread and milk in the morning."
Most buyers had jobs in "run of the mill manufacturing" or office work. Others were retired, or students.
New Dunedin slogan offered by Otago Norml
January 15, 2010 - 8:26pm
http://www.ch9.co.nz/content/new-dunedin-slogan-offered-otago-norml
The news this week that the DCC is looking for a new slogan to brand Dunedin has had people putting their thinking caps on to come up with a clever city catch phrase.
Otago NORML, which advocates for cannabis law reform, believe they are way ahead of the DCC and have already re-branded Dunedin 'Dunsterdam - the cannabis capitol of the South Pacific'.
Otago NORML spokesman Abe Grey says that given the amount of tourism generated by liberal cannabis laws in city's such as Amsterdam and Vancouver, the slogan could be a simple way to grow Dunedin's tourist base.
Grey says that the group will present its idea to the Council, but feels 'sitting councillors are likely to play to the choir of prohibitionists in our society', and therefore doubts it will be accepted.
