NBC11 in the Bay Area reported that thousands of marijuana plants, valued at $40 million according to authorities had been spotted near Mount Umunhum, in a remote part of the Santa Cruz mountains in south Santa Clara County. They needed helicopters to remove the 10,000-15,000 plants estimated to be there. There's a cool slideshow on the site.

That's the headline of a story that appeared in Australia's Daily Telegraph. This is the sort of story that would never make the Chronicle, but is too good to pass up: Four French pot smokers get the bright idea of breaking the world's record for the longest joint . They were working on a four-foot, 70-gram doobie when they were caught short by a lack of tobacco.

On Friday, the DEA returned to the more than a dozen dispensaries in San Diego raided a couple of weeks ago and warned them to shut their doors. For the Drug War Chronicle this week, I'll be looking into that and what it might mean across the state. I'm also waiting for the Portland "lowest law enforcement priority" initiative's signatures to be verified. I'll write about that this week if we get an official announcement.