A Merced County Superior Court judge has ordered the California Department of Motor Vehicles to pay $69,400 in attorney fees in the case of an Atwater woman who had her license revoked for being a medical marijuana user. Judge Brian McCabe ordered the DMV on Thursday to pay attorney fees to Americans for Safe Access, a national medical marijuana advocacy organization. The group filed a lawsuit on behalf of Rose Johnson, a 54-year-old medical marijuana user who had her licence revoked in June 2008. [continues 626 words]
Judge: Medicinal Pot Use No Reason To Yank License MERCED -- A Merced County Superior Court judge has ordered the California Department of Motor Vehicles to pay $69,400 in attorney fees in the case of an Atwater woman whose licensed was revoked for being a medical marijuana user. Judge Brian McCabe on Thursday ordered the DMV to pay attorney fees to Americans for Safe Access, a national medical marijuana advocacy organization. The group filed a lawsuit on behalf of Rose Johnson, a 54-year-old medical marijuana user who had her license revoked in June 2008. [continues 508 words]
Program Coordinates Efforts Among Agencies. Drug cartels beware: The Iron Triad is coming. International drug traffickers looking to unload their poison in Merced County will have to contend with a new challenge in January -- a task force that combines federal, state and local resources. Sheriff Mark Pazin, Merced County District Attorney Larry Morse II and Merced Police Chief Russ Thomas met with federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials and others to put the final touches on the North Valley High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). [continues 553 words]
It's one milestone they'd just as soon not reach, thank you all the same. But county residents don't have a choice in acknowledging that 2007 has now set a record for the number of pot plants busted in their county. Thanks to a "monster" find yesterday, which officers were still burning and hacking last night, this year's total of 77,320 far outstrips 2001's estimated 40,000 plants. That's the bad news. The worst news is that the illegal intoxicant's prime harvest months -- September and October -- have yet to turn over on the calendar. Which means the all-time high will only get higher as camo-clad law enforcement hunters search and destroy even more of the lucrative bud in coming months. [continues 553 words]
Small Claims Judge Orders City To Pay Man $1,700 For Pain And Suffering Samuel Matthews got high Tuesday ? but it wasn't from marijuana. Judge Armando Rodriguez awarded Matthews, a medical marijuana user, $1,700 for pain and suffering stemming from an October 2006 incident when he was cited by Merced police for possessing $300 in marijuana. Although the 25-year-old Merced College student was originally seeking $7,500 in damages, he said the small claims court decision was not about the money. "It's about their illegal actions," Matthews said. "(The judge) showed that regardless of the federal standpoint on medical marijuana, the police are required to follow state law." [continues 637 words]
Stoked by Criminal Gangs, the County's Marijuana Crop Has Grown Like a Weed. Law Enforcement Hunts Down Harvesters When They Find Them, but Some Say a Kinder, Gentler Approach Will Fight Crime Better. High Times Ahead? Marijuana Number One Illegal Crop in Merced County Quick -- what Merced County crop is worth more than alfalfa hay, corn silage, chicken eggs or even cotton? The answer is marijuana -- otherwise known as pot, Mary Jane, grass, ganja, hemp or weed. Whatever you call it, those buds mean big bucks. [continues 2835 words]
PLANADA -- A verdant 100-acre cornfield near Planada containing more than 20,000 marijuana plants was discovered by investigators with the Merced Multi-Agency Narcotics Task Force on Friday -- the largest pot bust to the agency's credit this year. Bruce Mosqueda, the task force's acting commander, said investigators took about 12,000 plants from the site of the operation on Friday -- and as many as 12,000 more plants are still believed to be inside of the cornfield. With a street value of $4,000 per plant, investigators believe the total value of the bust could reach $96 million. The remaining plants inside of the cornfield will be removed today, Mosqueda said. [continues 268 words]
