Jason Alistair Lowery, 34, is a deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and customs enforcement. He’s also allegedly a weed smuggler who led authorities on a 45-minute chase — in his government-owned vehicle — after getting busted in a marijuana smuggling sting.Arizona Department of Public Safety Officer Carrick Cook tells New…
A man wearing a gas mask was involved in a shooting in Mesa early this morning during what appears to be a botched weed robbery.According to Mesa police, about 1 a.m. today, a Mesa cop made a traffic stop in the 600 block of South Mesa Drive. The driver, whose…
Before Wednesday’s raid of a marijuana promoter Al Sobol’s compassion club, Phoenix police officials discussed a pending court case on the legality, in general, of such clubs. Cops then decided to move forward with the raid based on the same, thorny legal questions now before a Maricopa Superior Court judge…
President Obama doesn’t just want to seize the property of California medical-marijuana dispensaries and hit them with huge tax bills.Now the Obama Administration plans to prosecute people who place ads for dispensaries — and possibly the newspapers that print them.One of the four U.S. Attorneys in California, Laura Duffy, told…
The feds launched a new assault in their fight against medical marijuana today, threatening to seize the property of California medical marijuana dispensaries unless they close within 45 days.If there’s no push-back from the states that have legalized weed for qualified patients, including Arizona, it looks like this could be…
The Drug Enforcement Agency wants to make it clear that it’s not just going after kingpins. Any “individual” or organization involved in growing or distributing pot for recreational use can be a target of an investigation, the DEA warns through a U.S. Department of Justice spokeswoman. As we mentioned on…
The owner of a Tempe medical marijuana club raided by the DEA last week was already being sought by cops for possession of methamphetamine, records show.James Chaney, 37, was arrested along with co-worker Rachel Beeder, 25, on September 29 during the morning raid of the Arizona Go Green Compassion Club…
Days after helping Phoenix police take down violent gang members, the DEA has gone after a softer target: A medical marijuana club in Tempe.Agents began showing up at the AZ Go Green Co-Op at 426 East Southern Avenue around 8 a.m., according to a news report by Channel 10 (KSAZ-TV)…
The U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau — which, as we noted earlier this week, is the same agency that lets drug cartel members buy guns — is warning firearms dealers not to sell guns to medical marijuana users.The ATF wrote a letter to firearms dealers earlier this week warning…
The U.S. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Bureau, the same agency that lets drug cartel members buy guns, is warning firearms dealers not to sell to medical marijuana users.In an open letter to the nation’s licensed firearms sellers, the ATF reminds dealers that federal law prohibits any user of a controlled…
Jessica Callaway, 21, was caught on video Friday telling her 10-month-old baby to “shut the fuck up before I kick you in the mouth” as the infant was laying on the floor of her Gilbert home. Then she hit the baby in the face several times, apparently to get the…
The Arizona U.S. Attorney isn’t likely to launch a “bad faith” prosecution against state workers administering the new medical pot law, says a group opposing Governor Jan Brewer’s federal lawsuit on the issue.Besides, say lawyers for the group of defendants, those state workers wouldn’t be violating federal law, anyway.The case…
Eight doctors who have written nearly half of the state’s 10,000 or so medical marijuana recommendations didn’t check in with a DEA-monitored database as required, state officials allege. Will Humble, director of the Arizona Department of Health Services, says he notified the Arizona Medical Board and Arizona Naturopathic Physicians Medical…
If you’re missing a marijuana-growing business, maybe it’s the one Glendale police found last month.Dozens of pot plants were discovered sprouting in a commercial business space near 57th Avenue and San Miguel Street on July 28, but the owners still haven’t been found, says Glendale police spokesman Sergeant Brent Coombs.”At…
U.S. District Court Judge Susan Bolton let Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne file his extra-long response in Governor Jan Brewer’s federal marijuana lawsuit after all.So much for Horne’s quip that the response, made to refute the defendants’ motion to dismiss the lawsuit, would get better if it got shorter.The ruling…
Give me the short version, a federal judge told Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne today in a ruling on the state’s lawsuit against medical marijuana.Yesterday, Horne had asked U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton if he could exceed the 17-page limit for his arguments on why the lawsuit shouldn’t be dismissed…
Al Sobol, a prominent medical marijuana marketer, says he’s “happy” that state Attorney General Tom Horne seeks to have a court review the legality of cannabis clubs.Sobol is the manager of the 2811 Club, LLC, one of the businesses named in the legal actions filed in the Maricopa County Superior…
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne asked a court today to shut down cannabis clubs, claiming they’re “blatantly illegal” under Arizona’s medical marijuana law.The motion, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names four clubs and an individual: “The 2811 Club, The Arizona Compassion Association, Yoki A Ma’ Club, the Arizona Compassion…
The House of Glass Smoke Shop in Tempe was raided by police Tuesday after the store’s owners accepted stolen cigarettes and sold unlicensed marijuana and morphine pills to undercover cops.In February, Tempe Police were tipped off to shady behavior happening in the smoke shop’s parking lot in the 1600 block…
Arizona Governor Jan Brewer’s lawsuit against the state’s voter-approved medical marijuana law should be dismissed by the court, says the U.S. Justice Department.In a motion filed in U.S. District Court today, lawyers for the United States government argue that the legal action filed by Brewer in May against her own…
Governor Jan Brewer told the state’s police chiefs today that they should have tried harder to stop voters from passing the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. We’re a bit perplexed why that makes a difference to Brewer — she and state Attorney General Tom Horne are effectively thwarting the voter-approved act despite the fair election…
Will Humble, director of the state Department of Health Services, got the notion to ask the state Attorney General’s office whether cannabis clubs were legal after reading last week’s feature article in New Times, says a DHS spokeswoman.We figured that might have been the case and wrote in a blog…
