WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Thursday commuted the 20-year prison sentenced imposed on Richard Ruiz Montes, convicted in 2008 for his role in the Modesto's pot-dealing California Healthcare Collective.

In one of his final presidential acts, Obama used his executive authority to cut Montes' sentence by more than half. Now held at a federal facility in Atwater, according to the Bureau of Prisons' inmate locator, the 36-year-old Montes will be released May 19.

He is identified as Richard by the White House and Bureau of Prisons, but has also been known as Ricardo. The White House listed his hometown as Escalon.

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The Chowchilla City Council voted unanimously this week to ban marijuana dispensaries, cultivation, manufacture and transport within city limits. The move comes on the eve of an election in which Californians will vote on Proposition 64, which would legalize recreational pot.

City Manager Brian Haddix said the council wanted to act now to ensure stricter restrictions were in place prior to the Nov. 8 election. He noted that marijuana is still a Schedule 1 substance under the Federal Controlled Substances Act.

Mayor Waseem Ahmed said the move was necessary to "walk the talk of being a family friendly city."

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The city of Sacramento soon may begin accepting applications from businesses wanting to cultivate marijuana.

A City Council committee this week voted to lift Sacramento's moratorium on commercial cannabis cultivation. The action means that aspiring marijuana businesses would be able to apply for cultivation permits beginning April 2 under a new ordinance that could position the capital city as regional hub for commercial pot production.

The council in November voted 5-3 to allow licensed recreational or medical marijuana cultivation in city limits under state rules governing the marijuana industry. But it is unlikely that the city will be issuing actual permits for cultivation businesses until months after the application period opens.

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[photo] A bottle of Oxycontin pills. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)

A Washington city devastated by black-market OxyContin filed a first-of-its-kind lawsuit against the painkillers' manufacturer Thursday, alleging the company turned a blind eye to criminal trafficking of its pills to "reap large and obscene profits" and demanding it foot the bill for widespread opioid addiction in the community.

The suit by Everett, a city of 100,000 north of Seattle, was prompted by a Times investigation last year. The newspaper revealed that drugmaker Purdue Pharma had extensive evidence pointing to illegal trafficking across the nation, but in many cases, did not share it with law enforcement or cut off the flow of pills.

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The Tulare County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to continue its ban on growing nonmedical marijuana in unincorporated areas for another two years.

The ban is aimed at commercial growers. It's still legal to grow up to six plants at a private residence under Proposition 64, as long as it's indoors.

Approved by voters statewide in November, Proposition 64 decriminalizes marijuana by allowing adults 21 and older to use, transport and buy it in limited amounts.

But the proposition allows local jurisdictions to impose their own regulations, including a ban on marijuana businesses, which the board adopted as a temporary measure in December and now has extended until December 2018.

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[photo] Cotton candy flavored marijuana is displayed for purchase at Butter & Weed's booth at 420 Vancouver, in Vancouver, B.C. on Wednesday, April 20, 2016.

The legal marijuana industry proved its staying power in 2016, racking up $6.7 billion in business across North America.

That number represents 30 percent growth from the year before, according to a report by Arcview Market Research, and it's expected to climb even higher over the next few years, topping $20 billion by 2021.

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All Newman resident Phillip Blanton wanted to do, he said, was bring some comfort to his granddaughter, who has stage 4 Hodgkin's lymphoma.

But his California medical marijuana card counted for nothing in Texas, where the 67-year-old now faces felony drug possession charges.

Blanton was driving to Houston to see 20-year-old Makayla Farley, who's being treated at the Houston Methodist Hospital cancer center. She's fighting for her life, he said, has a hard time eating and is always throwing up. She's on morphine and other drug cocktails for pain. "I was going to give her Papa's cookies to help with the nausea and pain and to help her relax."

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Former Inland congressional candidate Paul Chabot is leaving for Texas. In a Facebook post, Chabot , a Republican, said he and his family are moving "to find a region of the nation that embraces our values and morals we cherish."

Rancho Cucamonga Republican Paul Chabot, who ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2014 and 2016, is moving to the Lone Star State -- but not before dispensing some harsh words for California progressives.

Chabot recently used Facebook to announce his family's move to McKinney, Texas, lamenting that liberals "have degraded the State of Reagan to but a shell of its former self."

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[photo] A cross-border drug smugglers' tunnel that had been shut down but left unfilled on the Mexican side was found to be back in operation in December, officials said. (Mexico attorney general's office / Associated Press)

Mexican drug cartels have burrowed dozens of tunnels in the last decade, outfitted them with rail and cart systems to whisk drugs under the U.S. border and, after being discovered by authorities, abandoned them.

But some of the illicit passageways live on.

At least six previously discovered border tunnels have been reactivated by Mexican trafficking groups in recent years, exposing a recurring large-scale smuggling threat, according to U.S. and Mexican law enforcement officials.

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At a roadside restaurant outside Kabul, Gula Jan, far left, sells hashish to a wide array of clients. (Sultan Faizy / For The Times)

Gula Jan ground a small amount of hashish, about the size of a marble, in his hand. He mixed it with tobacco and carefully rolled it into a cigarette. Then he smiled.

"Do you know how many people come and smoke hash here?" he said. "Thousands!"

The 34-year-old counts parliamentarians, government officials, doctors, engineers and businessmen among his clients. They all stop by his usual spot on a river bend 45 miles outside Kabul for a taste of his specialty.

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What is cannabis topical oil? And why is this Rancho Cordova couple so good at making it?

The runner-up in the "topicals" division at December's Emerald Cup cannabis competition in Santa Rosa had a familiar name attached to it: Lavender Epsom Salts by Whoopi & Maya, a company co-founded by comedian Whoopi Goldberg.

Chelsea Dudgeon and Newell Taylor of Rancho Cordova didn't have the same kind of name recognition with their product, which also provides pain relief from cannabis via skin absorption. But these partners in business and romance were equipped with something better: the winning formula.

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Uri Zeevi is used to skepticism. People hear about his Seedo indoor home cultivator and they're astonished.

"Nobody has seen anything like this," he said from his office in Israel. "It's really new, just coming onto the market."

But someday, indoor home cultivators may be as common as dishwashers or backyard gas grills -- indispensable home appliances that changed the way people live.

Without sunlight, outdoor space or experience, anyone could grow tomatoes, strawberries, gourmet lettuce, herbs and, yes, cannabis year-round inside a home cultivator.

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Marijuana and its derivatives can be effective medicines for treating pain, nausea, vomiting, muscle spasms and other conditions, but cannabis is not harmless, and more research is needed, the nation's top scientists concluded in a landmark review of research released Thursday.

The nonprofit National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine issued their report, "The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids," summarizing the current state of evidence for the efficacy of medical marijuana and recommending new studies.

The 395-page report will stand as the most official medical review of the botanical drug, which an estimated 8 percent of Americans used in the last month.

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The health and public safety concerns that kept marijuana illegal for generations are proving unfounded where it is now legal.

A new study from Columbia University found that traffic fatalities have fallen in seven states where medicinal cannabis is legal and that, overall, states where medical marijuana is legal have lower traffic fatality rates than states were medical marijuna remains illegal.

The study found that "medical marijuana laws were associated with immediate reductions in traffic fatalities in those aged 15 to 24 and 25 to 44 years, and with additional yearly gradual reductions in those aged 25 to 44 years." Medical marijuana is now legal in 28 states.

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Newport Beach Police Chief Jon Lewis, seen in this file photo, says Prop. 64, which legalized recreational marijuana possession and use for adults 21 and older in California, will make for "an interesting year" in Newport. (File photo)

Marijuana dispensaries and growing and delivery remain illegal in Newport Beach, but residents can smoke it in their homes under California law.

The possible effects of the statewide legalization of recreational marijuana use, which voters approved in November, were the focus of discussion Wednesday night at a Speak Up Newport event where Police Chief Jon Lewis and City Attorney Aaron Harp answered questions in front of more than 50 Newport Beach residents and officials.

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[photo] In this Jan. 5, 2010, file photo, a northbound Amtrak Acela passes through Middle River, Md.

For years, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has engaged in a questionable use of thousands of informants.

The DEA has used airline employees, parcel services workers and even staff at other government agencies, such as the Transportation Safety Administration and Amtrak, as its informants, in violation of Justice Department policies.

According to a recent audit from the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General, the DEA amassed an army of more than 18,000 informants between October 2010 and October 2015. Informants are offered cash rewards of up to $500,000 or 25 percent of successful cash seizures, whichever is less, and the DEA made $237 million in payments to more than 9,500 sources during this period.

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Though Prop. 64 legalized recreational marijuana, businesses aren't allowed start selling it until the state establishes a licensing system.

A security guard enters a shop with a sign posted that reads PROP 64 FRIENDLY! in Compton on Wednesday. (Photo by Ed Crisostomo, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The online ad for Green Light District -- a pot shop in a brick office building 5 miles from Disneyland -- was clear: Anyone 21 years and older was welcome to buy weed with only a "valid ID."

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Pot's legal in California. So why are people still getting busted in Yosemite?

Think pot is now legal in California? Try telling that to the National Park Service rangers ready to bust people caught with marijuana in Yosemite, Redwood, Death Valley and other federal lands across the state.

The federal government says it's not backing off on citing people who are caught with marijuana in California's national parks, monuments, recreational areas and other federal lands regardless of the landslide vote that legalized recreational marijuana in the state.

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Hi is a cannabis brand. Its logo -- "hi" in white letters inside an orange circle -- can be found above the front door of a Portland, Ore., marijuana shop and on a handful of cannabis products, including massage oil and Hi Releaf pain-relief balm.

But you wouldn't guess any of that from Hi's trademark filings. In 2015, the brand's parent company, Cannabis Sativa Inc., filed a trademark application -- not for any of Hi's core products, but for hats, T-shirts and a wide array of other apparel.

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A pot bust against legal growers in Yolo County seems to go too far

If ever you needed proof that we live in an age of confusion about marijuana laws, let me share with you the story of Ted Hicks and Ryan Mears, two Sacramento-area entrepreneurs who decided to start a legal medical cannabis business last year and ended up on the business end of assault rifles wielded by officers from a multi-agency, anti-drug task force.

I first heard about the case from Yolo County Supervisor Don Saylor in September, at a "State of Marijuana" conference aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach. Saylor, who was on a panel discussing how cities and counties were dealing with cannabis regulation, said that Hicks and Mears and their business, Big Red Farms, were considered by county officials to be "shining stars" in the cannabis licensing arena.

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