A Siskiyou County, California district attorney announced on June 14 that four police officers will be cleared of charges after shooting and killing a man who drove a truck full of cannabis through a wildfire checkpoint.

But over the past year, witnesses and cops provided conflicting stories about what happened that day, which involved an Asian American worker.

In June last year, lightning ignited the devastating Lava Fire, and amid the chaos, things unraveled when they pulled over a man driving a truck with over 100 pounds of cannabis inside.

Officers were directing a line of vehicles leaving the area to escape the torrent of flames. Soobleej Kaub Hawj, 35, of Kansas City, Kansas, was driving a pickup truck that was loaded with 132 pounds of cannabis. He was most likely working for one of the many illegal greenhouses in the area. He also had firearms in the truck.

Police say that Hawj ignored orders to turn west onto County Road A-12, a main road at a checkpoint on June 24, 2021 as a fire ravaged a rural Big Springs area near the California-Oregon border, District Attorney Kirk Andrus said.

Officers say he panicked, fired a round at one of the officers, then they returned fire and shot him in the head, chest, arms, and legs. The police say they found a loaded .45 caliber Colt 1911 handgun on Hawj’s lap. Other assault rifles were found later.

However witnesses say over 60 shots were fired at the victim and that dash cam footage wasn’t released. The incident led to national outcry over suspicions about a possible anti-Asian American hate crime with the #StopAsianHate hashtag.

Officers attempted to clear their names. The Sacramento Bee reports that District Attorney Kirk Andrus sent out a nine-page letter Tuesday that outlined his findings to the officers’ supervisors at the Sheriff’s Office at the Etna Police Department and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In his letter, Andrus said the point of the checkpoint wasn’t to find cannabis but simply to get people out of the area before it was engulfed by flames. Hawj, however, may have thought he would be stopped and searched, Andrus said.

“He had a cash crop in the back of his truck that he apparently was willing to defend,” Andrus wrote. “He may have had the misapprehension that residents were being funneled into an area where they would be searched for marijuana. He would have been wrong.”

Police say Hawj also had an arrest warrant in Mesa County, Colorado, on a cannabis and gun-related charge.

Siskiyou County already banned large-scale cannabis cultivation, but as of last year estimated there were 5,000 to 6,000 illegal greenhouses growing weed in the Big Springs area.

Locals in the Big Springs area say the farms typically involve immigrant workers of Hmong and Chinese descent. Because of the renewed focus due to the case of Hawj, The Daily Beast profiled “the embattled Hmong community in Northern California” that typically end up trimming or working in cannabis fields.

Not everyone was buying the police story, which is what led to the investigation in the first place. The Southeast Asia Resource Action center released a joint statement with Hmong Innovating Politics last August when the case was still fresh.

“One witness said over 60 shots were fired at Hawj during the incident,” the organizations wrote. “In response, Zurg Xiong held an 18 day hunger strike pushing for the release of body and dash camera footage from the shooting and an independent investigation from a different agency. On July 21, Oakland City Councilmember Sheng Thao, Elk Grove School Board Trustee Sean Yang, Sanger Unified Board President Brandon Vang, and Sacramento City Council Member Maiv Yaj Vaj sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta requesting an independent investigation into Hawj’s death.”

“The shooting is the result of escalating racial discrimination against the Hmong and Asian American community in Siskiyou County, CA. In 2016, multiple incidents of voter suppression against Hmong residents by the Siskiyou Sheriff’s Office were reported. More recently, the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors enacted water ordinances targeted at Hmong and Asian American farmers while being aggressively and disproportionately enforced by the Sheriff’s Office.”

You can read the letter in its entirety to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. Also, check out the petition to support Soobleej Kaub Hawj’s family, which ended up receiving over 14,000 signatures.

For the time being, it appears the officers are off the hook and will not face any criminal charges in the matter.

New Zealand’s recently revived cannabis eradication has gotten out of control, residents say. A couple growing three weed plants last February, for instance, were having dinner together when a helicopter flew overhead, spraying chemicals onto their three weed plants that they used for medical reasons.

The program isn’t settling well in the modern world—not at a time when nearly 70% of New Zealanders support legalization or decriminalization. Both leaders and residents are fed up with the waste of resources as the country races toward cannabis reform.

Legalization backer and Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick said spraying cannabis plants from helicopters isn’t the way to solve this. Last February, the New Zealand Police National Headquarters made the decision to revive its cannabis eradication program, which was canceled in January 2021.

“But obviously, we have an incredibly ineffective law when this amount of money is being continually spent on an annual basis, and making no effect on the supply on the streets,” Swarbrick told Stuff.co.nz yesterday.

Instead, Swarbrick suggested focusing on a real problem the country is grappling with—such as meth. On June 9, the New Zealand customs issued a news release that they had uncovered “435 grams of methamphetamine, approximately $455,000 in cash, and clan lab-related items.” 

New Zealand Drug Foundation executive director, Sarah Helm, agreed that the police policies don’t align with what is happening across the country. “Nearly half of the country voted for full legalization of cannabis in the 2020 referendum,” Helm said. “Polling commissioned last year by The Helen Clark Foundation found 69 per cent of New Zealand respondents supported either full legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis.”

According to uncovered documents provided to Waikato Times under the Official Information Act of New Zealand, the country spent $2,653,878 on aerial spraying cannabis nationally over the past five years. Locals are fed up that over $2.6 million was spent on destroying what the majority of the country supports.

Over 48% of New Zealander voters said they support legalizing cannabis in a referendum held last year. A poll conducted by market research firm UMR for the Helen Clark Foundation found an additional 20%, give or take, voted no but said they think cannabis should be decriminalized, bringing the total to 69%.

What the F*** are Cops Spraying on Weed?

So what exactly are cops spraying on weed? A journalist from Te Ao Māori News also wanted to know in 2018.

Officers were asked what substances they were using and one officer told Te Ao Māori News “nothing, just dye and water.” But local resident Whetu Paitai caught cops in the act, pouring a mysterious blue liquid onto the beach, and posted a video on Facebook. It turns out it’s the same herbicide they’re using to kill weed plants.

“I took a photo of the container and Googled them to find they were a weed killer called Bio-Safe from AGPRO,” Paitai said. “They have a hazchem code of 2XE which means any waste material is to be contained and removed to be correctly disposed of, as opposed to material that you can just dilute down,” 

According to AGPRO Bio-Safe’s Safety Data Sheet (SDS), it can harm aquatic life with “long lasting effects,” and it is classified a poison despite being produced using natural ingredients.

A police spokesperson claimed the spray used only affects plants and has no major impact on the soil. “A blue marker dye, which is non-toxic and environmentally safe, is used to alert growers to the fact that a plant has been sprayed,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

We can learn from the past when it comes to herbicides. When U.S.-funded cannabis eradication programs in Mexico (and other countries) in the 1970s used the dangerous herbicide paraquat, the weed made its way back into the United States where it ended up harming Americans. 

In March 1978, 21% of marijuana samples surveyed from the southwestern United States were found to be contaminated with paraquat. A recent study on paraquat poisoning in 2020 shows that “the in-hospital mortality rate was 72.7%” of people surveyed, with “acute kidney injury” being the major reason. It is also believed to cause Parkinson’s.

There are dangerous effects of smoking pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides (in legal operations, especially myclobutanil). On top of that, herbicides can harm foliage, shoots, flowers, and fruits—and the spray gets everywhere. Lab-tested legal weed is typically tested for contaminants like those. There must be better ways of mitigating illegal cannabis crops without spraying chemicals on them.

A West Virginia cannabis advocacy group called Charleston Can’t Wait has recently been collecting signatures to put a decriminalization measure on the ballot this November in Fairmount and Charleston.

The organization is connected to West Virginia Can’t Wait, which is led by former 2020 governor candidate Stephen Smith. Described as “a movement to win a people’s government in the Mountain State,” it strives to support political candidates who represent the people of West Virginia and aren’t accepting donations from corporations or the fossil fuel industry.

Charleston Can’t Wait is on track to collect the required 2,000 signatures for its decriminalization effort by July 14. As of May 27, the organization’s Facebook page reported an update on the overwhelming support from local residents. “We’re a whole heap of signatures closer tonight! Why? Because nearly every single person we ask says YES,” the organization said on its social media.

If voted into law, those caught in possession of cannabis would be charged a fine similar to that of a speeding ticket. “So, that’s what the goal is, and essentially, the ordinance that we have would do. It’s commonly referred to as, ‘No fines, no time and no court costs,’” said West Virginia Can’t Wait Director Sarah Hutson.

According to the Times West Virginia, Charleston Can’t Wait is aiming to collect 3,000 signatures in Fairmount. Only 2,010 are required, which is 15% of the city’s 13,402 residents, but they currently have under 100 signatures. In Charleston however, only 1,919 valid signatures are required, and over 1,000 signatures have been collected so far.

“In Charleston’s Charter, you do not need to pre-file to do a ballot initiative, you just start collecting signatures and then turn them in at the end,” Hutson said. “Whereas, here in Fairmont, you have to actually start with a committee of five people who are going to be responsible for the petition and you have to have an affidavit signed by each of them, then the city provides the format of the signature collection.”

Fairmount was chosen as a focus location because the organization had previously been established there in 2020 with Smith’s run for governor. To Hutson though, it was a matter of local support. “We didn’t really choose Fairmont, Fairmont chose us.”

West Virginia passed a medical cannabis law in 2017, which was signed by Gov. Jim Justice. However, the state didn’t open up license registration until May 2021, which initially began with 1,400 applicants and quickly increased to 4,000 by November 2021. West Virginia welcomed the opening of its first dispensary, located in Morgantown, in November 2021.

Medical cannabis dispensary rollout has continued, albeit not at a rapid pace. According to West Virginia Public Broadcasting, seven out of the 10 cultivators are operational now, but only 17 out of the state’s 100 dispensary allowances are currently open.

Johnny McFadden, co-founder of Mountaineer Integrated Care, explained that the state’s 17 dispensaries aren’t enough to serve the state’s many medical cannabis patients. “Unfortunately, they’re not spread out, especially the Eastern Panhandle.” said “You look at the map, there’s nothing, and that is a huge barrier to patient access right now.” To date, West Virginia’s Office of Medical Cannabis has received 10,031 medical cannabis patient applications.

McFadden added that the desire to hire local has caused a few delays. “You couldn’t possibly have legal cannabis experience as a potential employee, unless you’re breaking the law, which makes it tough to put it on a resume,” McFadden said.

Charleston Can’t Wait advocates are regularly hosting education and signature collecting events, which are happening nearly every weekend between now and July 14.

Regulators in Missouri have suspended four medical weed licenses and ordered products to be destroyed over alleged irregularities at the cannabis operators. The suspensions, which were revealed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Thursday, are part of a compromise agreement that marks the end of a dispute between the licensees and state regulators over reported violations at the facilities.

The agreement reached between the director of Missouri’s medical cannabis program and the four businesses directs the licensees to transfer operational management of the facilities to a third-party management firm by June 30. The current licensees will then have until November 30 to find a buyer and exit Missouri’s regulated medical weed industry.

“The primary owners of these licenses will not be eligible to own licenses in the future,” said Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

Cox added that the agreement “resolves the investigation” into the licensees’ operations.

The agreement also calls for the destruction of some cannabis products now held by the facilities or that have been transferred to other licensees. Some medical pot products, however, will be processed into compliant merchandise under the terms of the agreement.

“The Department’s approval of the change of ownership or transfer of the licenses is contingent upon Licensees divesting themselves of all product currently in their possession,” the agreement reads.

The medical cannabis operators that agreed to the compromise include Archimedes Medical Holdings, a company that has used the brand name Solhaus and holds two cultivation licenses. Another cultivator, FUJM, and Holistic Health, a medical marijuana products manufacturer, are also included in the agreement. All four licenses were issued for operations in Perryville, Missouri.

Suspensions Ordered Over Alleged Violations

The order to cease operations at one of the medical weed companies lists details of the reported irregularities, including a claim that “the licensee has left medical marijuana product unattended, unsecured, and in unsanitary conditions.”

“Licensees disagree with the Department’s position,” the agreement said, according to a copy provided to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by the Department of Health and Senior Services.

The settlement between regulators and the facility was reached to “resolve the Department’s allegations” and notes that the agreement “shall not be construed as an admission of liability or wrongdoing by any Party.”

The suspension order for two of the cultivation operations includes allegations that the facilities’ “employees are using and applying pesticides without proper training or proper Personal Protective Equipment.”

The four licensees will also be required to transfer the operations to a new owner by November 30. According to the agreement, “Licensees shall submit change of ownership or transfer of license change requests to the Department” for the four suspended licenses.

“If Licensees fail to submit a timely change request, … that license will be deemed to have been surrendered to the Department, effective December 1, 2022,” the agreement continues.

In April, a medical weed company based in Kansas City filed suit against Archimedes, claiming state regulators had determined that the cultivator had trafficked cannabis into Missouri from out of state and that $1.7 million worth of inventory had been frozen. However, orders to suspend operations issued by the state last year do not include references to any such violations.

Tanner Rolfes, attorney for the licensees, wrote in an email that “Archimedes, along with individuals harmed by false accusations, will continue to seek legal action against any and all unscrupulous entities or individuals that opportunistically made and pursued false and defamatory claims.”

“My clients are pleased with the settlement agreement and looking forward to the future,” Rolfes added. “Most importantly, the settlement confirms that Archimedes et al, as well as any affiliated entities or individuals, were not involved in any unlawful conduct.”

Atlantic City, New Jersey could return to its original glory as a tourist destination with the boom of the Green Rush and the cannabis business events that follow. A city once dominated by the gambling industry is now facing its unknown future, and local experts think cannabis business-to-business events could solve that problem.

The familiar “glitter and sleaze” of Atlantic City’s boardwalk is known to locals, but the city has been on the decline for decades. Donald Trump’s Taj Mahal casino and hotel closed for good on October 10, 2016, and things haven’t gotten any easier for the gambling industry since then. Revel Casino Hotel followed, closing doors and being sold as well.

Things seemed to get worse in 2019, and despite an upturn in casino industry revenue in 2021, mostly due to a tax break, the city is still miles away from where it used to be. In addition, Atlantic City Tropicana’s workers are picketing for better pay and to unionize as the casino’s future remains uncertain. 

However, the economic effects of the rollout of the cannabis market could be the answer to the city’s long-term financial woes. During the first month of adult-use cannabis sales in New Jersey, the state brought home $24 million in tax revenue.

Skift Meetings, focused on event professionals, released a recent report about the true potential Atlantic City offers for the Green Rush—putting more than a bandaid on the city’s economic fallout.

The most obvious comparison is the boom of business events in Las Vegas, such as MJBizCon or CHAMPS Trade Show, drawing tens of thousands of tourists looking for networking opportunities and more. Atlantic City is home to 17,029 hotel rooms—a high ratio of rooms compared to other cities of its size as it is designed for tourism. Atlantic City could house large-scale events of the same nature.

Stu Zakim, president of Bridge Strategic Communications and a member of the Marijuana Business Association said “[Atlantic City] can be a wildly successful destination to host cannabis conventions,” Zakim told Skift Meetings.

Several others agreed that the new cannabis market in New Jersey is especially ideal for a city like Atlantic City. That’s especially true for cannabis conventions that need large facilities.

“The legalization of cannabis in the State of New Jersey opened a new vertical market for meetings and conventions in Atlantic City. We see cannabis as a growing industry, and it will have a significant increase on the overall economic impact of the destination,” said Meet AC’s President and CEO, Larry Sieg. Meet AC focuses on convention development in Atlantic City.

And the idea is nothing new. Then-Democratic Assemblyman Reed Gusciora—who is now Mayor of Trenton—called for Atlantic City’s enormous potential for the cannabis boom in 2016.

Atlantic City reached its peak long ago in the 1930s as a “wet city,” and since then, has succumbed to rapid decline, and casinos are failing. Its population nosedived to half the size when the city was booming.

The 3rd Annual New Jersey Cannabis Convention (NECANN) is being held September 9-10 at the Atlantic City Convention Center.

The potential has been building up for over a year. On February 22, 2021 New Jersey became the fourteenth state to legalize adult-use cannabis.

“The cannabis market in Atlantic City specifically is huge, untapped, and brimming with potential,” NECANN writes. “With only one major cannabis dispensary in the city. We are beyond excited to see the potential of Atlantic City’s cannabis community become a reality. NECANN prides itself on bringing personalized cannabis expos to fit the local communities and their needs.”

Check local listings for more events which are sure to follow.

Two bills were recently introduced to prevent illegal cannabis cultivation efforts, which are using more water than ever in the wake of a historic California drought.

“Illegal cannabis farming is devastating the desert communities of San Bernardino County,” said San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman in a press release. “The County is determined to stop this terrible damage to the environment and to protect the lives and property of our residents from lawless criminals.”

The county is sponsoring Assembly Bill 2728, introduced by Assemblymember Thurston Smith, and Senate Bill 1426, introduced by Senator Anna Caballero, to tackle these concerns.

AB-2728 would increase the fines for illegal cultivation to $1,000 for each day of violation, and $2,500 for each acre-foot of water diverted (and if that measurement isn’t specified, $500 per plant). These stipulations would only take place in a “critically dry year immediately preceded by two or more consecutive below normal, dry, or critical dry years” in the event that the California state governor has issued a state of emergency. “Our state is dealing with an unprecedented number of illegal cannabis grows, particularly in the rural desert communities that I represent in the legislature. Because of this, our laws need to require compliance and ensure that illegal activity is punished,” said Smith about the bill. Most recently, AB-2728 was referred to a committee on June 1.

SB-1426 would punish “unauthorized tapping into a water conveyance or storage infrastructure or digging or extracting groundwater from an unpermitted well.” “Illegal cannabis farming is killing wildlife and wreaking environmental damage across the state,” Caballero said in a San Bernardino press release in March. “This bill will help stop the pollution of our groundwater supply and the theft of water, which are all the more important during an ongoing multi-year drought.” Currently, as of May 19 the bill is “Held in committee and under submission” for the time being.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency for California’s drought three times so far in April, May, and July 2021 due to the impacts of climate change. In July 2021, he asked California residents to cut down on water usage with a goal of reducing water use by 15%. More recently in March 2022, Newsom shared that that goal was not met, and he asked local water agencies to “implement more aggressive water conservations.”

San Bernardino County is one of many regions in California experiencing dry conditions. Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva explained the data in relation to the amount of water required to grow cannabis. “The average marijuana plant requires a minimum of 3 gallons of water per plant, per day,” said Villanueva, according to NBC Miami. “Just the 2021 numbers alone amount to 150 million gallons of water used to bring that crop to harvest. That’s just enormous.”

However, the amount of water that a cannabis plant needs to thrive is highly dependent on its location, growing medium, and current stage of growth. A 2019 survey called “A narrative review on environmental impacts of cannabis cultivation” estimates that outdoor cannabis requires 5.5 gallons per day per plant in August, and 5.1 gallons per day per plant in September, whereas indoor grown plants used 2.5 gallons in August and 5.1 gallons in September. Ultimately, the study stated that cannabis plants need much more water and nutrients to thrive, unlike other crops such as wheat, corn/maize, soybean, cotton or rice.

Another study published in October 2020, called “Water storage and irrigation practices for cannabis drive seasonal patterns of water extraction and use in Northern California,” stated that legal cannabis cultivation farms use groundwater wells more often than other water sources, such as streams, captured rainwater, springs, and municipal water systems. “Our findings indicate that water extraction from farms using groundwater wells generally occurs during the summer dry season and highlight the need to assess their potential impacts to connected surface water in streams,” the study authors wrote.

Assemblymember Tom Lackey, a longtime resident of the California high desert, issued a statement of his own in regards to water being used and polluted by illegal cultivators. “To any of those who are engaged in the illicit grows: I want you to know there’s a collective effort, and we’re coming after you,” Lackey said at a press conference on May 18. “You come after a very sacred thing: our community. You come after our desert, and you’re stealing our water. You’re poisoning our land, and enough is enough.”