Jeff Wilcox, a middle-aged, clean-cut man who dresses in the Bay Area casual business attire of clean jeans, collared shirt and running shoes, may be the face of Marijuana, Inc, the corporatization of cannabis.

He has just persuaded Oakland to legalize industrial-sized marijuana farms, touting a study that promised millions in city taxes and hundreds of high-paying union jobs.

The long-struggling city, which has failed spectacularly to capitalise on the high-tech boom, could be the Silicon Valley of pot, Wilcox told the City Council this week before its historic vote to grant four permits for urban, industrial-size marijuana farms.

euronews.net

Season 6 of Weeds (Showtime, Aug. 16) promises to be another thriller. The Botwin family will be hitting the road, taking new identities and getting as far away from the Mexican Mafia as possible .

sho.com
old zack

- In Slowenien ist ein bedeutender Schlag gegen den Drogenschmuggel auf der "Balkanroute" gelungen. Nach mehrmonatigen grenzüberschreitenden Ermittlungen, an denen auch die österreichische Polizei beteiligt war, sind am heutigen Freitag in Celje acht mutmaßliche Drogenschmuggler angezeigt worden. 15,6 Kilogramm Heroin wurden beschlagnahmt, meldete die slowenischen Nachrichtenagentur STA.

derstandard.at

As local and international condemnations against the despotic regime in Banjul intensified, Ousainanou Bai Sankareh, a Gambian resident in Spain is calling for the arrest, and possible prosecution of The Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh. Mr. Sankareh, a loyal supporter of the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) said Mr. Jammeh is a “serial killer” hell bent on destroying the fabric of society in The Gambia. He warns that unless Jammeh is captured, more and more Gambians would die in vain because of what he calls this murderous monster calling himself a President.

Appearing as a guest on Freedom Radio, the outspoken UDP supporter said come the 2011 elections, Yahya Jammeh would be dislodged from power. Sankareh said Gambians are ready for change and that any attempt on the side of President Jammeh to rig the elections would be crushed mercilessly. He says they would demonstrate until Jammeh is chase out from the State House, and ultimately captured.

freedomnewspaper.com
afp
old zack

Federal authorities in Massachusetts said eight members of an alleged Colombian drug trafficking ring have been arrested and the equivalent of 3 tons of cocaine seized in the South American country.

Five of the eight suspects have been extradited to Boston, where officials say they will be prosecuted on a charge of conspiracy to import cocaine into the United States. The three others are expected to be sent to the U.S. later.

thebostonchannel.com

The U.S. apologized to Russia on Thursday for what it called a diplomatic slip-up in the case of a Russian man arrested in Africa and then extradited to the U.S. for alleged drug smuggling.

The Russian government had expressed outrage at U.S. handling of the case, calling the U.S. guilty of "open lawlessness."

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said there was an unintended delay in notifying Russian authorities that they could visit the man, Konstantin Yaroshenko, 41, now in detention in New York.

chippewa.com