In the Weeds

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Marijuana Eradication Team (MET) is wrapping up a series of raids on illegal pot grows this week. The team, along with state agencies, spent the summer raiding eight different grows — many run by crime cartels.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Marijuana Eradication Team (MET) is wrapping up a series of raids on illegal pot grows this week. The team, along with state agencies, spent the summer raiding eight different grows — many run by crime cartels. Robert Handa reports.

A once-thriving cannabis and hemp company in Half Moon Bay is now being investigated by state and local authorities for possibly cheating it’s farmworker labor force out of two months of pay.

A once thriving cannabis and hemp company in Half Moon Bay is now being investigated by state and local authorities for possibly cheating it’s farmworker labor force out of two months of pay. Robert Handa reports.

The pending dismissal of 2,735 marijuana convictions was announced Friday as part of a program by Sonoma County District Attorney Jill Ravitch that uses a state software application to evaluate eligibility under a 2016 state proposition reclassifying cannabis crimes.

By the middle of next week, the Santa Clara County Superior Court will reduce or expunge over 11,500 backlogged marijuana conviction records for more than 9,000 people, the court said in a news release Friday.

Another change brought on by COVID-19 — San Francisco’s 4/20 celebration in Golden Gate Park.

Another change brought on by COVID-19 — San Francisco’s 4/20 celebration in Golden Gate Park. Terry McSweeney reports.

One company rushed to expand its delivery fleet. Another has seen sales triple. The global coronavirus pandemic has left millions of people locked out of bars, restaurants and theaters, but it’s been an unexpected boost for some U.S. pot shops. Marijuana users in the nation’s largest legal pot shop, California, and elsewhere are on a buying binge, as they...

A handful of jurisdictions around the Bay Area have said that marijuana dispensaries are considered “essential businesses” under the widespread shelter-in-place mandates enacted this week, but advocates are urging governments to ensure they continue to operate throughout the state and region.

Following the closure of marijuana dispensaries and delivery services in San Francisco per the regionwide shelter-in-place order that began Tuesday in response to the novel coronavirus, city officials announced the businesses could reopen.

Santa Clara city officials are urging councilmembers to ban marijuana sales once and for all, saying commercial cannabis stores wouldn’t really benefit the city financially and would lead to more arrests and extra work for first responders.

Despite opposition by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, the Oakland City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday night to give final approval to a tax reduction for the city’s largest cannabis businesses.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf says she opposes a proposed tax break for the city’s largest cannabis businesses that the City Council will consider at its meeting on Tuesday evening.

A higher percentage of California marijuana products are passing strict safety tests, but the sudden closing of a lab that state authorities found wasn’t correctly checking for pesticides has raised new questions about the system intended to protect the purity and potency of legal cannabis.

The Compton 20 Cap Collective just south of Los Angeles that was raided earlier this spring is one of hundreds of illegal marijuana stores operating in LA County, where marijuana is legal for anyone 21 and over and retailers must be licensed to sell to them.

As more states lessen or eliminate marijuana penalties, the Army is granting hundreds of waivers to enlist people who used the drug in their youth — as long as they realize they can’t do so again in the military.

California’s legal marijuana marketplace is coming with a kaleidoscope of new taxes and fees that could influence where it’s grown, how pot cookies and other munchies are produced and the price tag on just about everything.

Two Northern California marijuana farmers have been charged with offering a sheriff $1 million to turn a blind eye to their pot growing operations.