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Tag: illicit marijuana

  • California's #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    California's #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    The public information campaign will highlight the potential health risks of consuming illegal marijuana. 

    In an effort to stem California’s flourishing black market marijuana trade, the state’s cannabis regulatory bureau has launched a digital public information campaign called “Get #weedwise,” which will encourage consumers to buy marijuana products from licensed businesses.

    The three-year, $1.7 million campaign, which kicked off June 21, is also intended as a warning to unlicensed businesses and growers, which will be targeted for shutdown as part of a larger campaign that is also focused on expediting business licenses. 

    The #weedwise campaign will be disseminated via ads on mobile phones and social media sites as well as billboards; Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control, which is overseeing the ads, noted that its focus will “directly impact consumer safety by clarifying that only cannabis purchased from licensed retailers has met the safety’s standards.”

    Digital ads will detail health risks that can be incurred by purchasing illegal cannabis, including exposure to chemicals, mold, metals and even fecal matter.

    Consumers who wish to confirm that their retailers of choice are licensed are directed to the state’s online database, where they can enter information about businesses by address or license number. 

    A confluence of high taxes and buyer loyalty to black market sources has helped to undercut California’s attempt to earn a revenue windfall from cannabis since Proposition 64 legalized it for recreational use in 2016.

    Legal business owners have also complained to state officials about these issues, as well as a perceived lack of action against illegal businesses, which are estimated to number more than 1,000 in Los Angeles alone. However, the ad campaign has been largely met with a positive response.

    “It’s overdue, said Virgil Grant, a dispensary owner and co-founder of California Minority Alliance, a cannabis industry group. “If consumers turn against unlicensed shops, then they can’t exist.”

    Bureau spokesperson Alex Traverso told KOVR, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, that the Get #weedwise campaign is one part of a larger, three-pronged effort to curb illegal sales that will include the closure of illegal businesses and growers, and expediting licenses to business.

    “When you have a government agency saying here’s how you know what’s legal and illegal, we feel like that’s a linchpin for success,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Alliance in Los Angeles. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • California’s #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    California’s #Weedwise Campaign Aims To Combat Illegal Pot

    The public information campaign will highlight the potential health risks of consuming illegal marijuana. 

    In an effort to stem California’s flourishing black market marijuana trade, the state’s cannabis regulatory bureau has launched a digital public information campaign called “Get #weedwise,” which will encourage consumers to buy marijuana products from licensed businesses.

    The three-year, $1.7 million campaign, which kicked off June 21, is also intended as a warning to unlicensed businesses and growers, which will be targeted for shutdown as part of a larger campaign that is also focused on expediting business licenses. 

    The #weedwise campaign will be disseminated via ads on mobile phones and social media sites as well as billboards; Lori Ajax, chief of the state’s Bureau of Cannabis Control, which is overseeing the ads, noted that its focus will “directly impact consumer safety by clarifying that only cannabis purchased from licensed retailers has met the safety’s standards.”

    Digital ads will detail health risks that can be incurred by purchasing illegal cannabis, including exposure to chemicals, mold, metals and even fecal matter.

    Consumers who wish to confirm that their retailers of choice are licensed are directed to the state’s online database, where they can enter information about businesses by address or license number. 

    A confluence of high taxes and buyer loyalty to black market sources has helped to undercut California’s attempt to earn a revenue windfall from cannabis since Proposition 64 legalized it for recreational use in 2016.

    Legal business owners have also complained to state officials about these issues, as well as a perceived lack of action against illegal businesses, which are estimated to number more than 1,000 in Los Angeles alone. However, the ad campaign has been largely met with a positive response.

    “It’s overdue, said Virgil Grant, a dispensary owner and co-founder of California Minority Alliance, a cannabis industry group. “If consumers turn against unlicensed shops, then they can’t exist.”

    Bureau spokesperson Alex Traverso told KOVR, the CBS affiliate in Sacramento, that the Get #weedwise campaign is one part of a larger, three-pronged effort to curb illegal sales that will include the closure of illegal businesses and growers, and expediting licenses to business.

    “When you have a government agency saying here’s how you know what’s legal and illegal, we feel like that’s a linchpin for success,” said Jerred Kiloh, president of the United Cannabis Business Alliance in Los Angeles. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Woman Accused Of Running Multimillion-Dollar Black Market Pot Operation

    Woman Accused Of Running Multimillion-Dollar Black Market Pot Operation

    The Massachusetts resident was charged with conspiring to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana.

    Recreational marijuana may be legal in Massachusetts, but black market operations will not be tolerated in the state, judging by the experience of one woman who is now facing federal drug-trafficking charges for allegedly operating a black market pot service. 

    Milton resident Deana Martin was charged with conspiring to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana, according to a press release by the U.S. State Attorney General’s Office. Martin allegedly operated a black market business between 2015 and 2018 that had about 25 employees and grossed more than $14 million from 2016 to 2018. 

    The company, Northern Herb, claimed to be a medical marijuana company, but did not check that clients had medical marijuana licenses. It was not clear whether Northern Herb was a licensed medical marijuana provider in the state. The company operated online, selling marijuana, pre-rolled joints and marijuana-infused edibles that were delivered to clients. 

    In addition to operating outside the medical marijuana field, the company got into trouble for leaving packages unattended at homes and in apartment hallways. This would allow the drugs to potentially be picked up by someone other than the person who had ordered them. 

    Martin apparently planned to incentivize her employees for selling a certain amount of marijuana each month. 

    “One such incentivized tier, for instance, would be for selling more than 10 pounds of marijuana per month,” the Attorney General’s Office said. 

    Despite the fact that cannabis became legal in Massachusetts in 2017, Martin was not interested in joining the legal market. In Massachusetts, marijuana is taxed at 17% and local governments can add an additional tax on top of that. In an email discussing tax rates for legal cannabis businesses, Martin wrote, “Zero taxes is still better.”

    Although she didn’t file taxes for the businesses, Martin claimed an income of $80,000 a month during the time that she was operating Northern Herb. She used the money to pay down her mortgage, which was about $300,000, and to purchase a Porsche, court documents said. 

    She did not pay any taxes for the business, or provide employees with proper tax documentation, the Attorney General’s Office said. In fact, she laundered the money that came through the business and hid it in accounts that were not in her name, the Attorney General’s Office said. 

    If Martin is convicted of the federal charges, she faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years, and up to 40 years in prison. She could also be fined up to $5 million. 

    View the original article at thefix.com

  • Thrift Store Workers Uncover Massive Pot "Donation"

    Thrift Store Workers Uncover Massive Pot "Donation"

    The unusual donation was worth a few thousand dollars, according to police.

    Employees at a Florida thrift store found much more than the usual faded blouses and old shoes when they were sorting through donations this week and found five pounds of marijuana outside the store’s donation box. 

    According to Fox 13, employees at Pines Thrift Store in Sarasota found a large tote outside the donation box, where items for the store can be left after hours.

    Initially, employees ignored the tote, but when they opened it on Thursday they found a taped paper bag containing four plastic bags.

    When they cut into a bag it became clear what was inside: 2,100 grams of vacuum-sealed marijuana, according to 7 News Miami. That’s when they decided to call the police. 

    The unusual donation left area residents and store employees wondering about the motives of whoever left the cannabis behind. 

    “Somebody probably had a change of heart or something and wanted to turn it in, but didn’t want to get themselves in trouble,” said Bles Mclean, who was interviewed about the find. “So they just probably thought they were doing a good deed in donating it. I guess. I don’t know.”

    Mclean speculated that it could have been a joke gone wrong.

    “Maybe someone is being vindictive,” she said. “It doesn’t sound like a prank. I wouldn’t know, but it’s very shocking.”

    If it were a prank, it would be an expensive one. The drugs have a street value of a few thousand dollars. No arrests have been made, and no one knows where the drugs might have come from or how they came to be in the donation box. 

    “Either someone lost track of a really big package or someone didn’t calculate the numbers right or something,” Mclean said. “How it got in the donation box is definitely baffling.”

    Finding the drugs at the thrift store, which is part of The Pine Retirement Community, was jarring for some residents. 

    “That’s pretty shocking to hear about, to know it was in the donation box,” Jacueline Aguilera said. 

    Police have requested surveillance video from the store and from neighboring businesses, hoping that that might help them identify the person who left the tote outside the donation box.  

    Police are also doing testing on the drugs to try to identify where they may have come from, according to ABC News. 

    Although Florida does have a medical marijuana program, recreational use of cannabis is illegal under state law. 

    View the original article at thefix.com