News

Dana Beal, a longtime fixture in New York City’s cannabis activist scene, is once again back in the slammer.

In this new misadventure, Beal was popped this past weekend by sheriff’s deputies in Northern California’s Trinity County. He was apparently pulled over near the town of Hayfork and is currently being held in the jail at county seat Weaverville.

Sheriff’s representative Jill Lynn told the New York Daily News, “It was a traffic stop where the K9 alerted to the odor of narcotics.”

She said the vehicle had been swerving and driving about 15 miles under the speed limit and a search turned up 22 pounds of pot. 

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/veteran-cannabis-activist-dana-beal-busted-again/

Mexico is set to legalize the sale of marijuana-based products early next year, despite the country’s struggles with the illicit drug trade.

On Wednesday, Mexico’s health regulator announced plans to permit the sale of cannabis-based foods, drinks, medicines and cosmetics in the market.

Arturo Tornel, spokesman for health regulator Cofepris (The Federal Commission for the Protection against Sanitary Risk), said that the agency plans to formally publish the regulation for marijuana-based goods within the next few days, allowing those items to enter the Mexico market in around a month.

Read More:http://www.newsweek.com/mexico-legalize-marijuana-based-food-drinks-cosmetics-medicine-754994

Connor Clements relocated to Dubai—the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates and a global coalescing point for wealth and power (and the very stupid and extremely criminal things that happen when too much of either clouds sense)—because he wanted to turn his life around.

The 24-year-old from Liverpool, in the UK’s northeast, hadn’t been doing much at home: Smoking weed, hanging out, “stuck in a rut,” as he explained to the Liverpool Echo. Upon arriving in the Middle East, where as many as 240,000 fellow UK citizens live in Dubai, lured there by the boomtown economy and the notable absence of an income tax, Clements scored a job as a waiter—which is when his current “living nightmare” began.

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/man-faces-jail-dubai-pot-smoked-flight/

Swiping a crucial chapter out of the good book of Portuguese drug policy, the Norwegians have stood up in favor of decriminalizing all illegal substances.

The overall goal behind this newfound, common sense approach to dealing with the darkness of these addict days, is to replenish the soul of civil society by helping drug users sink their teeth into the treatment they need rather than try to change their ways in prison.

It was late last week when the Norwegian Parliament, often referred to as the Storting, voted in favor of developing legislation that would eventually lead to the decriminalization of all controlled substances. According to a report from the Independent, the majority of the lawmakers agreed that it makes more sense to put ailing addicts into rehab programs, while saving the throes of the criminal justice system for dope slingers and other unsavory characters of the black market drug trade.

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/norways-parliament-votes-decriminalize-illegal-drugs/

RENO — California ski towns are going to have to wait a little longer for recreational marijuana. 

On Jan. 1, adults 21 and over will be allowed to possess up to 1 ounce of recreational marijuana in California, but most ski towns in Northern California won't allow sales of retail product yet. 

Some of the most popular ski towns in Northern California — South Lake Tahoe, Truckee and Mammoth Lakes included — have moratoriums on recreational marijuana businesses, which means that product won’t be available until late spring, at the earliest.

Ski communities are hoping that the delay will give them time to conceive local ordinances since the state only last month issued more than 100 pages of state regulations dictating California's newly legal recreational marijuana industry. The industry could bring in as much as $5 billion to the state next year, according to some predictions. 

Read More:https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/nation-now/2017/12/20/californias-tahoe-ski-towns-wont-have-recreational-pot-new-years/967878001/

Canada’s renowned pot power couple, Marc and Jodie Emery, have officially pleaded guilty to a variety of drug-related charges in a Toronto court on Monday morning.

Royal Reefer: Canadian Pot Activists Plead Guilty To Marijuana Charges

Marc Emery, who considers himself the “Prince of Pot,” pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana for purpose of trafficking, trafficking marijuana and possession of proceeds of crime more than $5,000.

His wife, Jodie, pleaded guilty to two out of the same three charges as her spouse—possession of marijuana for purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime over $5,000.

The couple was arrested back in March at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, en route to a cannabis festival in Europe. While in custody, Canadian officers raided several pot shops owned by the activists, where they found documents proving the couple had transitioned their business into a franchise model of dispensaries.They were eventually released on $30,000 bail.

Read More:https://hightimes.com/news/canadian-pot-activists-plead-guilty-marijuana-charges/