Eight of 16 people indicted in Colorado marijuana trafficking operation listed as having state pot licenses

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Eight of the 16 people indicted on charges they ran a massive illicit marijuana operation that sold and shipped weed out of state are listed in Colorado records as having active or expired licenses to work in the legal pot business.

Michael Alan Stonehouse, the alleged ringleader, has an active “key” license — for operating a marijuana business — that is valid until November 2018, Marijuana Enforcement Division records show. That’s despite a past felony conviction and state…

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Longmont considers marijuana home-grow limits

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Longmont’s City Council will hold a Tuesday night public hearing on an ordinance that would regulate and limit the growing of marijuana inside homes for residents’ medical or recreational use.

The council’s consideration of the residential home-grow ordinance and the sewer and water tap agreements for the marijuana cultivation business come amid continuing uncertainty about how rigorously U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions will enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in states like…

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Shut down Colorado’s gray marijuana market

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They call themselves refugees, and Colorado — with its permissive rules for growing marijuana in homes and world-renowned industrial strains of low-THC, high-CBD oils — is their haven.

For hours Monday, some of Colorado’s sickest medical marijuana patients, both adults and children, begged state lawmakers not to take away their right to grow as many as 99 plants in their own homes. For them, it’s a matter of life and death.

But there’s a dark side to the rules in Colorado that have…

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Colorado committee votes to greatly reduce number of marijuana plants allowed in home grows

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Colorado is moving toward limiting growing marijuana at home under a bill that sets a max of 12 plants per residential property.

A House committee voted 11-2 Monday to curb the nation’s most generous allowances for growing pot at home.

Colorado currently allows medical pot patients to grow up to 99 plants, far beyond other marijuana states, and it also allows recreational users to group their allotted six plants into massive co-ops, entire greenhouses of pot that aren’t tracked or taxed.

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Colorado looks at ban on co-op growing to stop black market

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Colorado may ban collective marijuana growing under a bill that calls some patient-owned marijuana grows a “public nuisance.”

A bill up for its first hearing in a House committee Monday would ban co-op pot growing by setting a statewide limit of 12 marijuana plants per residential property.

The change would effectively force some medical marijuana patients to buy from a licensed grower instead of growing their own plants.

Supporters including Gov. John Hickenlooper say the change is needed…

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Colorado governor’s weed advice for California: Focus on edibles, home grows, pesticides

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Colorado’s governor played sage to California on Tuesday, warning lawmakers that their state has a “steep hill” ahead in legalizing recreational marijuana and urging them to pay close attention to aspects such as home-grow regulations, pesticides and public safety.

Hickenlooper addressed California lawmakers in Sacramento to share his lessons learned and words of wisdom from when his state launched first-of-its-kind, adult-use cannabis sales in 2014.

“It’s one of the hardest things we’ve…

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Parker latest community to impose 12-plant limit per household on pot grows

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Parker this week became the latest Colorado community to place a cap on the number of pot plants that can be cultivated at a residence, a move town officials said is necessary to reduce odor complaints and ensure grows do not cause electrical overloads and dangerous chemical storage.

The town council set the limit at 12 plants per household, echoing measures passed by Douglas County, Colorado Springs, Denver, Carbondale, Lafayette and others in the state. It also limited electrical use to…

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Pro talk: Colorado agriculture office shares pot knowledge

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North Carolina wants to know if marijuana could one day replace tobacco as a cash crop. Louisiana is wondering how pot holds up in high humidity. And Washington state has questions about water supplies for weed.

Colorado agriculture officials this week briefed officials from about a dozen states — some that have legalized weed, others that joked their states will legalize pot “when hell freezes over” — to go over the basics of marijuana farming and swap stories about regulating a crop that…

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Pueblo County deputies arrest three in connection with illegal, 230-plant marijuana grow

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Pueblo County authorities arrested three people on Monday after a raid on what they say was an illegal, 230-plant marijuana grow at a home.

The county sheriff’s office found the grow after fielding a tip about the operation in the 32000 block of Daniel Road, just south of the Pueblo Memorial Airport. Detectives searched a home and two outbuildings on the property, finding the plants, which were in various stages of growth.

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DEA, El Paso County authorities serve warrants targeting illegal indoor marijuana grows

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Federal agents teamed up with authorities in El Paso County on Monday morning to serve several warrants and make arrests in connection with an out-of-state organization suspected of illegally growing marijuana east of Colorado Springs.

Officials say the pot was being grown indoors in violation of Colorado and federal laws.

Jim Gothe, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Denver, said he could not provide details in the cases because they are under seal. He added that an…

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Authorities: Man grew pot plants at Vermont cemetery

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RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) — A 23-year-old man has been charged with growing more than 40 marijuana plants in a Vermont cemetery.

The Rutland Herald (http://bit.ly/2dXtY7d ) reports that Adam Mahoney pleaded not guilty Monday in Rutland to a felony marijuana cultivation charge.

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Former Denver cop faces felony drug charges for illegal marijuana operation

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Hubert “Marty” Vanover

Denver District Attorney’s Office

Hubert “Marty” Vanover

A former Denver Police Department narcotics sergeant has been charged with multiple drug-related felonies in connection with an illegal marijuana operation.

Hubert “Marty” Vanover, 53, was charged with possession with intent to manufacture or distribute marijuana or marijuana concentrate, possession of a controlled substance and two counts of possession of marijuana or marijuana concentrate, according to a news release from…

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Suspects tried to destroy evidence at massive illegal Garfield County pot grow, warrant says

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Property searched in Garfield County

Federal search warrant

Property searched in Garfield County

When law enforcement officers last week closed in on a massive suspected illegal marijuana grow in Garfield County, they found people trying to destroy evidence at the site off Interstate 70, according to a federal search warrant.

Others were fleeing the area as officers closed in, only to find thousands of plants growing outdoors behind a tall green fence, the document says.

The warrant, reviewed Wednesday by The Denver Post,…

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Feds raid homes across southeast Colorado as part of investigation into marijuana trafficking organization

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Federal agents and local law enforcement simultaneously raided homes across southeast Colorado on Wednesday as part of efforts to break up a major organization growing marijuana for distribution and sale out of state.

A Drug Enforcement Administration official said the agency was working with sheriff’s offices in El Paso, Pueblo, Crowley, Bent and Otero counties on some “big operations” that are linked to one encompassing investigation. Ten of 12 properties searched were rentals,…

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Restrictions on private cannabis grows in Colorado stirs legal challenge

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Recent data from the state's survey of high school drug use is important and heartening, and seems to confirm that legalization of marijuana has not boosted teen consumption.

Denver Post file

A marijuana plant.

PARKER — This fast-growing town deep in the suburbs could become the latest of several Colorado communities to clamp down on marijuana home grows, notably by limiting the number of cultivated plants to a dozen per household.

The Parker Town Council on Monday gave initial approval to a pair of ordinances that would put in place the 12-plant restriction, regardless of whether the cannabis is grown for recreational or medical purposes.

The town points…

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