3 alleged pot growers arrested for Healdsburg shooting

 Crime
Oct 172011
 

HEALDSBURG — Three alleged marijuana growers have been arrested in the shooting death of a man in Healdsburg, authorities said today. Gabino Lopez Santiago, 46, of Healdsburg was shot in the chest, said Sonoma County sheriff’s Lt. Glenn Lawrence. His body was found dumped on the 5900 block of Mill Creek Road around 7 a.m. Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Investigators believe Santiago was shot on Chemise Road, several miles from where his body was discovered. Deputies responding to reports of a shooting there at 2:15 a.m. found what appeared to be a crime [...]

Cannabis legalization measure has Sonoma County imprint

 Initiatives
Sep 192011
 

Two Sonoma County lawyers behind a new statewide effort to legalize marijuana believe 2012 could be their year. Joe Rogoway and Omar Figueroa have drafted a ballot initiative that would repeal all laws against possessing pot, allowing anyone 18 or older to have up to three pounds and to maintain a 100-square-foot garden. The state Department of Public Health would oversee regulation and taxation of commercial sales, Paul Payne reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. The measure could go before voters at the November presidential election when turnout is expected to be larger and [...]

Mendocino officials testify for dispensary workers

 Courts
Sep 162011
 

A member of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors and a sheriff’s sergeant testified Thursday in a Santa Rosa courtroom on behalf of two employees of a Ukiah medical marijuana cooperative charged with transporting pot through Sonoma County. Supervisor John McCowen and Sgt. Randy Johnson testified in the preliminary hearing for Daniel Harwood, 33, of Willits and Timothy Tangney, 29, of Lucerne. The employees of Northstone Organics were stopped twice in two days on Highway 101 near Cloverdale while delivering marijuana to people in the Bay Area. About three pounds of marijuana was seized and [...]

Sebastopol City Council opposes second dispensary

 Marijuana News
Jul 212011
 

The one medical marijuana dispensary in Sebastopol, a city of 7,300, should be enough to serve the community’s needs, the City Council has decided. The council Tuesday night voted to urge county officials to reject a proposed medical marijuana dispensary just outside the city limits, complaining it would impact the city while outside the city’s control. “We allow for the needs of the medical cannabis community already,” said Mayor Guy Wilson. “I don’t feel it’s useful for us to support this.” The council also directed the city planning commission to amend Sebastopol’s ordinance regulating medical [...]

Appeals court rejects Sonoma County marijuana evidence

 Courts
Jun 242011
 

Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies were stumped one afternoon in 2008 when they tried to serve an arrest warrant in rural Santa Rosa but could not find the address. Assuming there was some mistake in their documents, deputies John Misita and David Tait went to the nearest house, walked through a latched gate and started looking around for people to talk to. Behind an interior fence on the Llano Road property they spotted a large barn with a locked door and an extension cord running to it. Then they heard a humming sound and saw exhaust [...]

Petaluma officials weigh grow-house regulations

 Cultivation
Jun 032011
 

In light of a number of fires at local indoor marijuana gardens, public safety officials and a number of local residents are considering new approaches to ensure that large indoor gardens don’t pose risks to the community. Police, fire, and housing officials say they plan to publish a set of guidelines for growers so that their operations don’t become fire hazards, while another group hopes to put a “grow house ordinance” on the books to properly regulate these indoor gardens, many of which are marijuana farms. Both policies are designed to address indoor growing operations [...]

Mendo collective drivers charged by Sonoma DA

 Law Enforcement
May 232011
 

Northstone Organics, a medical marijuana cooperative based in Mendocino County, appears to be about as legitimate as such an organization can be. It has a Mendocino County sheriff’s permit to grow medical marijuana as a cooperative and undergoes county inspections, Glenda Anderson reports in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. Its plants are tagged with Sheriff’s Office zip ties, a measure aimed at protecting them from being seized by law enforcement. “If what Northstone Organics is doing isn’t legal, no collective or cooperative is legal,” said Mendocino County Supervisor John McCowen, who spearheaded the county’s medical [...]

NorCal officials doubt Prop. 19 will stop pot violence

 Crime, Law Enforcement, Legalization, Marijuana News
Oct 182010
 

Marijuana prompted several men to strong-arm their way into a west Santa Rosa home last week and tie up residents with duct tape. It lured a pair into an illicit garden in Round Valley where they were shot dead by its tenders. It led an unknown killer to shoot a 31-year-old father in his Santa Rosa garage, leaving him for dead and making off with the goods. Marijuana may be a mellowing depressant when ingested, but its trade often is the nexus of violence. The huge profits made in the marijuana business drive much of [...]

4 arrests in Mendocino, Sonoma pot-for-sale busts

 Crime, Law Enforcement, Marijuana News
Sep 172010
 

BOONVILLE — Mendocino and Sonoma County authorities seized marijuana, guns and cash Tuesday after searching the home of a Boonville man who allegedly sold the marijuana to out-of-state customers in both counties, according to Mendocino Major Crimes Task Force Commander Bob Nishiyama. Agents with the Task Force and a Sonoma County narcotics task force served a search warrant on the home of Kevin Lowell Wells, 51, and seized 30 full-grown marijuana plants, 90 starter plants and about $39,000 in cash, the Ukiah Daily Journal reports. Wells, who lived on a dirt road off of Mountainhouse [...]

Santa Rosa home invasion linked to indoor pot grow

 Law Enforcement, Marijuana News
Sep 012010
 

Two men were injured during a Wednesday morning home invasion robbery at their northwest Santa Rosa home that police say was likely linked to cultivation of marijuana inside the residence. Police were notified of the incident at about 3:30 a.m. by a call from Sutter Santa Rosa Medical Center, where the two victims sought treatment for minor injuries, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports. Police were told that one of the men had just returned from work when he was confronted by several armed suspects outside his Vermillion Way home in Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park [...]

 Older Entries  Newer Entries