Republican political consultant Mike Madrid isn't used to getting calls from the ACLU, and yet he has found himself working with the civil liberties group because some practices are so egregious that Republicans and Democrats should have no trouble finding common cause. The issue is civil asset forfeiture - also known as "policing for profit." The federal government can seize your property, and the only way you can get it back is to prove you are not guilty of a crime. California law prohibits local authorities from permanently seizing most property without a conviction, but there's a loophole in the law - called "equitable sharing." Local police can seize your property, hand jurisdiction over the feds, and get rewarded with up to 80 percent of the goodies even if prosecutors fail to convict - or even charge - an offender.

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When I hear people stressing out about the millions of Americans who use marijuana on a regular basis, a little voice pops into my head. It belongs to the comedian Chris Tucker.

"Ain't nothing wrong with smoking weed," his character, Smokey, said rolling a joint in the movie "Friday." "Weed is from the Earth. God put this here for me and you. Take advantage, man, take advantage!"

In California, many of us do just that. (Not me, though. I swear!)

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Supporters of a California initiative to legalize recreational marijuana filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing opponents of including false and misleading language in official ballot materials.

The Yes on Proposition 64 committee sued in Sacramento County Superior Court, asking a judge to change or delete several arguments that opponents make against the measure on the November ballot.

The lawsuit objects to opponents' claims about television advertising and arguments that the measure would undo consumer protections that Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed into law.

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Compromise Boosts Support for Measure to Protect Poor Residents

SACRAMENTO - Major law enforcement groups and state Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) have reached a deal on legislation to limit the ability of police in California to permanently seize cars, cash, homes and other property from suspected criminals without a conviction, potentially paving the way for California to join the growing list of states that have reined in the practice.

Known as civil asset forfeiture, the tactic began in earnest as a response to the drug war in the 1980s, allowing law enforcement to fund their anti-narcotics operations by taking drug dealers' property.

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The campaign to legalize marijuana for adults in California is suing over what it calls "grossly false" and "provably wrong" claims made by the opposition.

The lawsuit aims to force the Secretary of State to throw out portions of official statements from Proposition 64 opponents, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, that would otherwise appear in voter information guides for the Nov. 8 election.

"Defenders of the failed war on marijuana are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts," said Jason Kinney, spokesman for the legalization campaign.

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Again, again? Are you kidding me? Yes, the Inland Cannabis Growers Association (better known to law enforcement in Butte County as pot profiteers) have done it again. Last Tuesday they presented enough signatures to the Board of Supervisors to put measure MC-3 on the ballot in November.

We, the voters, thought we had voted to limit pot growing in Butte County by voting overwhelmingly for Measure A two years ago. But no. We had to vote to stop them again last June (with Measures G and H).

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COSTA MESA - A raid by Costa Mesa police at a medical marijuana dispensary that was caught on hidden cameras is being challenged by an attorney who alleges officers exceeded their legal authority during the operation.

"These guys were doing this to shut down a business without due process because they don't like it," said Matthew Pappas, a Long Beach lawyer who represents the now-closed Costa Mesa Collective in the 2000 block of Harbor Boulevard. "They became judge, jury and executioner."

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Cannabis Reducto Ad Absurdum

Damn, but we love our views.

We love them so much that, back in 2011, some of us successfully levied this love into stopping the big baddies at Shell Energy from installing wind turbines on Bear River Ridge, just south of Ferndale. "Unsightly!" was the argument.

OK, well, there were other arguments, like the prospect of large equipment trucks barreling down the Wildcat and the well-documented negative impact of wind farms on bird species.

But the loudest shouts came from those who didn't want Ferndale's postcard-ready face pockmarked by progress, even if that progress represented a step toward alternative energy.

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Legalizing Recreational Cannabis May Have Varying Implications for Health of Kids and Teens

Come November, California could join Alaska, Colorado, Oregon and Washington by becoming a state where adults can legally buy, possess and use cannabis recreationally as well as medically.

What would this mean for kids and teens? We now may have an idea.

Colorado was the first of these states (plus the District of Columbia) to enact laws calling for such blanket legalization, passing Amendment 64 in 2012. Two recent reports focused on Colorado-one on teenage use, one on kids' accidental ingestion-offer a mixed picture.

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What kind of pot should I smoke if I want to be social at a party?

- -Wanda Wallflower

Good question. Different kinds of weed can definitely make you feel a certain way. Most indicas will give you the quiet introverted couch lock in a hurry. I have definitely killed a party or two with a fat indica joint (usually the Granddaddy Purple).

Also, be careful with concentrates and hashes. More than one person has dabbed into oblivion and sat in a corner at the party, staring into space and thinking their own thoughts.

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California tokers, why are you trippin' so hard?

You keep saying that marijuana helps manage anxiety. But those of you who work in or partake of the cannabis industry sound like the most stressed-out people in California.

And that leaves me wondering what's in your bongs, especially since 2016 is supposed to be a year of great triumph for you. Cannabis is booming in California. New regulations on medical marijuana are coming together, and a November ballot initiative to legalize recreational use seems likely to pass. California is thus well on its way to becoming Mary Jane's global capital, and a national model for how to pull cannabis out of the black-market shadows and into the legal light.

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Two marijuana tax proposals are heading for the November ballot after the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Tuesday agreed to do so.

The board put its own tax measure on the ballot, while the grower-backed measure, the "Mendocino Heritage Initiative," was officially certified for the ballot by the supervisors on its consent calendar.

Besides a tax structure, the Heritage Initiative would also repeal county marijuana ordinances and replace them with a more "comprehensive regulatory framework for medical cannabis cultivation, processing testing, distribution, transportation, delivery and dispensing in the county of Mendocino." It includes a higher plant count and larger growing areas than current county rules.

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Summer is a fabulous time to drink your cannabis.

Doing sporty things in the sun can bring up a strong thirst, and outdoor vacation activities - like purchasing an $18 inflatable raft called "The Gator" for a self-guided drift down the not-too-frigid Truckee River - can generate as much stress as they're meant to relieve. (To say nothing of a dusty roadside hike back to the car while schlepping The Gator sets up your bare tootsies for a painful journey laden with rocks and hot pavement.)

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Laguna Beach residents will have the option of deciding whether or not to undo the city's ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in November. Still to be determined is exactly what an end to the city's 2009 ban could look like.

In April, the council decided to place a citizen initiative on the ballot which would allow up to two dispensaries to operate in the city. This prompted Laguna Beach Police Chief Laura Farinella to author a countermeasure which would allow only one dispensary to operate under tighter restrictions.

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Editor,

Somehow I just feel that this should be printed in an American newspaper - the Philippine Star on July 27 reporting on the continuing drug war bloodbath:

MANILA, Philippines - The United States has vowed to provide the Philippines $32 million to support the Duterte administration's intensified law enforcement efforts.

Washington's support for law enforcement activities was one of the topics discussed by President Rodrigo Duterte and visiting US State Secretary John Kerry during their meeting Wednesday in Malacanan.

"The US committed $32 million in training and services," presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said in a press briefing. ... Abella confirmed that Duterte had also briefed Kerry about his crackdown on drugs and crimes.

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Dream up your legal weed garden with Oakland's celebrity author latest tome.

Legalization is in the wind. Can you smell it? With less than one-hundred days until a historic California vote on adult-use of marijuana, many are wondering what they'll do if Proposition 64 passes.

Odds are fifty-fifty that, for the first time in more than a century, Californians ages 21 and over could be able to legally garden up to six cannabis plants. No doctor's note needed. Just be 21.

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State Initiative Draws Fire for Opening Door to TV Commercials.

Nearly a half-century after tobacco ads were kicked off television in the United States, an initiative in California would take a first step toward allowing TV commercials that promote a different kind of smoking - marijuana.

Proposition 64, which is on the November ballot, would allow people 21 and older to possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana and would allow pot shops to sell cannabis for recreational use.

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The Santa Rosa City Council declared Tuesday that medical marijuana support services such as testing labs and oil extraction businesses can legally be located in certain nonresidential areas of the city.

The move, which takes effect immediately, opens up significant new areas of the city to the medical cannabis industry, as long as they follow a host of other regulations.

City officials said the goal was to close the gap that exists between two cannabis uses that are already allowed in the city with property permits - commercial cultivation of medical marijuana and sales at dispensaries.

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One conventionally wise thing to say about Proposition 64, the statewide initiative legalizing adult use of recreational marijuana, is that millennials could very well provide the margin for victory.

Millennials, the generation born after 1982 and before 1998, tend to be politically independent and socially libertarian. They're also numerous, making up more than a quarter of registered voters.

But even more populous, comprising nearly a third of the voting pool, are boomers, the graying generation that grew up with revolution, and marijuana smoke, in the air.

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Even though the residents and voters of the city of Marysville, in the June election, voted down Measure A (Marijuana Cultivation) and Measure B (Marijuana Dispensaries), the City Council continues to march down the slippery slope of establishing city-supported marijuana dispensaries. Marysville residents need to take a hard look at the direction the City Council is taking them.

A public records request of all related emails in this matter indicated the city manager received back room direction from a majority of the council to pursue establishing Marysville marijuana dispensaries. City staff, including the police chief and marijuana interests, was involved in developing a "done deal" long before the first public hearing. In effect, the results are a city supported marijuana industry monopoly providing kickbacks (taxes) to the city coffers. Each dispensary also directly funds a city police officer; would this officer be used to ensure local marijuana users cannot grow their own and must shop at the city supported marijuana dispensary? This whole deal is looking more like Chicago-style politics.

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