The Oakland City Council postponed a vote Tuesday to amend a city law that licenses large-scale medical marijuana growing operations.

It decided to send the proposed measure to the public safety committee for consideration on Feb. 8 before the change goes before the full council for a Feb. 15 vote.

sfgate.com

Farmers growing marijuana in remote Mexican mountains are adopting techniques pioneered in the United States to produce more potent pot and boost profits from the cash crop that is fueling a deadly drug war.

In the fertile mountain valleys of Sinaloa in northwestern Mexico, soldiers this year found 60 acres (24 hectares) of covered greenhouses equipped with sophisticated irrigation and fertilization systems growing seemingly endless rows of marijuana plants.

Reuters

A steady drizzle of rain dampened the atmosphere but spirits remained high in more ways than one at the seventh annual Emerald Cup north of Laytonville.
Marijuana aficionados talked shop, smoked marijuana and examined pot-related wares in a narrow canyon along Highway 101.

“It's kind of wonderful,” Jon Staples, of Petaluma, said, noting the openness of the event, a far cry from the days when growing and smoking marijuana were strictly covert operations.

pressdemocrat.com
Inside The Emerald Cup: Northern California's Pot Competition

And the 2010 Emerald Cup Winner is: “Sour Best Shit Ever”
1st Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number 117, ” Sour Best Shit Ever” @ 19.62%THC, .25% CBD’s
Judges Take on ” Sour Best Shit Ever”:
Strain Background ; 1978 Old School Lao Affie X Sage.
Judges Comments: “Fuzzy Looking velvety buds had a good trim job and tasted of minty choc-coconut apricots,and a hint of mint, Has an intoxicating aroma as it burns like a pine forest floor and earthy. Produces clearing effects that would be great in the morning and make you babble mouthfuls of philosophy. I can feel my legs again…. for a moment!”
2nd Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #92 “Cheese” @ 17.78%THC, .21% CBD’s
3rd Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #101 “In the Pines Pineapple” @ 19.02%THC, .35% CBD’s
4th Place Emerald Cup Winner Is Entry Number #99 “Headband” @ 23.20%THC, .26% CBD’s
5th Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #103 “Cheese to Please” @ 21.70%THC, .26% CBD’s
6th Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #18 “Lemon Diesel” @ 19.56% THC, .20% CBD’s
7th Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #57 “Pineapple Afghani” @ 21.65% THC, .28% CBD’s
8th Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #102 “Kracky Tobacky” @ 18.85% THC, .57% CBD’s
9th Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #124 “Purple Mr Nice” @ 7.40% THC, .14% CBD’s
10th Place Emerald Cup Winner is Entry Number #4 “Maui Purple” @ 14.33%THC, .14% CBD’s

sacbee.com

How was your 2010? For the cannabis community, it was a wild flip of the calendar, with dispensaries opening and closing, police raiding, a medical cannabis luminary thrown in jail for meth charges -- and we vaguely remember something about a legalization ballot measure.

There's still time yet before 2011 -- who knows what the next few weeks will bring?. In any event, here's your recap of the Year in Pot (to date).

sfweekly.com

In an effort to waste time, or whatever, Santa Clara County authorities on Thursday busted several medical marijuana clubs selling weed in the county. "An official with the County Special Enforcement Team said narcotics agents served warrants on two MediLeaf medical marijuana clubs in San Jose and properties in Gilroy and Morgan Hill," reports AP (via CBS 5)."Task force commander Danielle Ayers said agents shut down the clubs, seized marijuana, documents and computers."

sfist.com

Billed as "the world's only outdoor, medical cannabis competition," the Emerald Cup will be held on Saturday in Laytonville, California. Nearly 200 strains of marijuana, hash and other concentrates will be judged. Lukas Nelson's band, Promise of the Real, is headlining the all-day musical lineup.

emeraldcup.wordpress.com

Earlier this year, the City Council of Oakland, California, voted to issue permits for industrial-scale medical marijuana farms. Four hydroponic warehouses, each holding some 30,000 cannabis plants, are expected to yield the city between $4.8 and $7.7 million per year in tax revenues.

City boosters hope the farms will help re-brand this rusting port city as a capital of all things cannabis, an “Oaksterdam” with its own brands of pot-related products and tourist destinations. But there’s a hitch, California Watch reports, and it involves the federal government.

cannabisnews.org
mercurynews.com

Workers at warehouses just feet from the U.S-Mexico border would come and go at odd hours. Few, if any, knew what their trucks carried.

Few knew, too, that the buildings sat atop the openings for two of the longest, most sophisticated tunnels ever built to smuggle drugs from Mexico to the United States.

"Look over there across the street, I have no idea what they do," said neighbor Mario Rodriguez, 46, pointing to a large warehouse with no trucks outside.

npr.org
cbs8.com
mydesert.com
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