Detectives in Walnut Creek, California investigated a man and woman suspected of robbing a liquor store, and stumbled on a fully-functioning DMT lab at their home nearby in Brentwood. Police say that some of the suspects allegedly used explosive materials in the presence of a child to extract and synthesize DMT.

Danielle Kumerow, 42, and Maxwell Hayworth, 44, allegedly entered Hops and Scotch, a Walnut Creek-based liquor store, and robbed them for $50,000 to $60,000 worth of alcohol, in bottles. Walnut Creek, where the liquor store was located, is known for its upscale shopping. The liquor store robbery took place on March 23, at about 12:10 a.m., and video footage shows a man and woman loading bottles of liquor into a Nissan Frontier after cutting a hole into the wall, authorities said. They rented the Frontier ahead of the crime that took place, police said.

The Mercury News reports “the pair became suspects when a rental car used in the break-in was linked back to Kumerow, court records show. But when police showed up to their home on Shasta Daisy Lane in Brentwood, they were surprised to discover lab equipment associated with the psychedelic drug DMT, authorities said.”

CBS News reports that authorities say they found three containers of an explosive compound used in the process to make DMT. Upon learning about a possibly explosive compound, The Walnut Creek Police Department bomb squad was called in and determined that the compound in the containers was triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, which is a highly volatile explosive. DMT makers use TATP because it can be easily manufactured from readily accessible reagents and is extremely difficult to detect due to its  lack of UV absorbance, fluorescence, or facile ionization. 

The area in Brentwood was evacuated for safety as crews moved the containers of TATP to another location for detonation, while one container had to be detonated in place. All the detonations reportedly went safely.

Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office announced the operation last month. On the morning of March 26, detectives served a search warrant at a residence in the 800 block of Shasta Daisy Drive.

Johnathan McCarthy, 29, was also arrested and booked into the Martinez Detention Facility on an outstanding warrant for being a parolee at large, the Sheriff’s Office said.

Court records show that both suspects, Kumerow and Hayworth, are facing charges of alleged burglary, grand theft, manufacturing and possessing a controlled substance, and child endangerment. 

One of the suspects walked free after posting bail. Hayworth remains in jail with his bail set at $380,000, but Kumerow posted $250,000 bail and is a free woman while the case is pending. Both are due in court for their next hearing on May 13.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office announced that they’d be open to tips about the alleged crimes that took place in the Brentwood home.

What DMT Labs Do

While the extraction process involved dangerous chemicals, the compound itself is found throughout nature and used by multiple cultures.

DMT or N, N-Dimethyltryptamine is a substituted tryptamine that occurs naturally in many plants and animals—including the human body—which is structurally similar to psilocybin and produces short, more intense hallucinations. At least one study has shown that the pineal gland has high concentrations of INMT, which has a role in the biosynthesis of DMT which is present in mammalian brains.

DMT labs create the compound in an attempt to produce the powerful, psychedelic effects. It can be smoked as a crystal, eaten or drunk as a tea, injected, or snorted. It’s a bit more than a party drug as the psychedelic experience provides an intense ego shift that can be a death-like purge or bring on an epiphany.

It appears in Amazonian plants used for ayahuasca like chacruna and Mimosa tenuiflora as (5-MeO-DMT) and in certain species of cacti, or in animals like toads as bufotenin (5-HO-DMT).

High Times typically reports on the potential for DMT in the field of medicine, such as its potential to treat depression or other conditions. In a study published in February in Nature Scientific Reports, researchers explored the effect that DMT had on the mental health of study participants. An analysis of the data from both studies showed that participants had a significant reduction in depression symptoms following the administration of DMT, suggesting that the drug might have potential as a quick-acting treatment with therapeutic effects on mood. The study also showed that the intensity of the psychedelic experience with DMT was linked to improvements in mental health.

Though less prevalent than cannabis or psilocybin, DMT labs pop up from time to time. Usually, however, the ability to manufacture it is simply not worth the risks involved.

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Liquor stores in Connecticut—not licensed cannabis retail stores—are selling THC-infused drinks such as seltzers legally, due to a legal loophole regarding dosages listed on the cans.

Cannabis retail stores are selling cans listed as one serving, but the same cans of cannabis-infused seltzer, usually running in sizes from 7.5 – 12 ounces, are labeled as five servings in a package at a liquor store or market.

All they have to do is ensure that each serving contains less than 1 mg of THC per serving and they can sell the seltzers without violating state law. CT Insider reports that when the drinks are labeled as five servings rather than one, they are technically legal to be sold anywhere in the state, so long as other elements of the packaging are in line with state rules.

“You can sell that in a local convenience store. It’s a seltzer. It doesn’t have any alcohol in it. It is a non-alcoholic beverage,” said Larry Cafero, Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of Connecticut executive director, and former Republican leader in Connecticut’s House of Representatives. “The manufacturer, in order to get around a Connecticut law, is creating stickers that turns a 12-ounce can that they had initially labeled as one serving into multiple servings, so that they could comply with the THC-per-serving standard.”

“So, we have this little loophole,” he said.

State authorities confirmed they are operating within the scope of law.

Connecticut’s Department of Consumer Protection (DCP) clarified that the drinks are indeed legal. “A package containing less than 1 milligram of THC per serving and less than 5 milligram per package is not considered cannabis, and may be produced and sold without a license,” DCP spokesperson Kaitlyn Krasselt confirmed. 

Connecticut legalized adult-use cannabis in 2021 and later became available for purchase by adults at retail outlets in January 2023. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont signed legislation to legalize adult-use cannabis in June 2021, ending the prohibition on possession of cannabis by adults 21 and older and creating a framework for regulated adult-use cannabis sales. The bill also included restorative justice and social equity measures, including provisions that led to the expungement of nearly 43,000 marijuana-related convictions. 

“This is constantly evolving, and we realized as a committee that we’ve got to get further ahead of this so that’s why this session we’re going to be changing that definition to make it even just a more bright line rule,” said state Rep. Michael D’Agostino (D-Hamden), who is also chairman of the legislature’s general law committee. 

The current plan is to drop the THC limit to .5 mg per container, D’Agostino said. Any products containing more THC than that would only be available in licensed cannabis retail outlets.

“The question is, what is cannabis or not cannabis right now? The products that do not meet the definition, i.e. under 5 milligrams of THC per container, are not cannabis and therefore they’re not subject to the cannabis laws,” D’Agostino said. “But once we change this and lower the threshold, even more of those laws will apply.”

DCP issued further guidance recently to liquor stores in the state, clarifying that while THC-infused seltzers are legal to sell, they cannot be labeled as “cannabis.” That includes seltzers labeled as “canna-beverage.” As a result, some liquor stores began removing products from their shelves after receiving the guidance. 

The legislative session convenes Feb. 7.

Connecticut Doubles Limit on Cannabis Transactions

Cannabis consumers in the state are now able to purchase larger amounts per transaction. Connecticut’s cannabis regulatory agency announced in November 2023 that it is increasing the amount of cannabis that can be bought in a single transaction by doubling the state’s limit on recreational marijuana purchases. Under the new regulations approved by the Connecticut DCP, adult-use cannabis consumers will be permitted to purchase up to a half-ounce, or about 14 grams, of cannabis flower or its equivalent beginning in December 2023. 

Medical cannabis in the state is another story. The limit on purchases of medical cannabis has not been changed. It remains at 5 ounces of cannabis flower or the equivalent monthly, with no limits on purchases in a single transaction.

“DCP has continually reviewed available supply and demand since prior to the launch of the adult-use cannabis industry in January 2023,” DCP Commissioner Bryan T. Cafferelli said in a statement. “As more retailers, production companies and other supply chain licensees have come online, the capacity of the industry has increased. We are confident this measured approach to adult-use sales has resulted in a healthy market for businesses, and a safe and fair marketplace for adult-use cannabis consumers and medical marijuana patients.”

Details are being ironed out regarding where cannabis seltzers can be sold in the state.

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The city of Albuquerque now has more cannabis dispensaries than liquor stores open, KRQE News reports. New Mexico became the 18th state to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2021. They were the fifth to do so through the legislative process versus voter initiative. The law went into effect on June 29, 2021, making the announcement regarding cannabis shops news almost a year after marijuana became legal. However, the high number of stores is causing conflict between owners and turning local industry members against one another in a fight to stay alive. 

“We were coming down to our very last, you know, of our financial security. And just in time we opened up and it’s, it’s been a blessing,” Andre Galarza told KRQE News about his family-owned cannabis brick-and-mortar, 505 Farms, which opened on Lomas Boulevard in December 2022. “We literally put our entire retirement, mine and hers. And we are literally what you call all in, like all in,” Galarza continued. Because their store is a cannabis microbusiness, they can only grow 200 plants at a time. “We only support New Mexico grown, New Mexico extracted, New Mexico business, period,” Galarza stressed to KRQE News.

While, in the ever-present battle between booze-hounds and potheads, this news from New Mexico is a win for the stoners, it doesn’t mean that starting a cannabis business in New Mexico has been easy. Like any other legal state (read about the mass exodus from California), marijuana shops must deal with extensive red tape and ongoing hurdles to survive in this cut-throat industry. 

With more cannabis stores open than alcohol stores, Galarza and everyone else must deal with the competition in an industry flooded with players. The small business owner recently learned that an even bigger dispensary, ReLeaf Cannabis Company, is set to move two blocks away from 505 Farms into a former car lot.

Previously, Albuquerque denied the ReLeaf Cannabis Company the Lomas Boulevard location, as it was within 600 feet of 505 Farms, which broke a rule. However, along with a handful of other cannabis business owners on the street, ReLeaf Cannabis Company demanded the zoning hearing examiner make an exception to the rule and attended the hearing to stand up for themselves and make a case. ReLeaf Cannabis Company made the case that by using a vacant old car lot, they would be upgrading and improving Albuquerque. “We would be obviously putting back into it – into the community, redeveloping this area. They also employ local folks,” Johnn Osborn, a local cannabis attorney, explained, according to KRQE News.  

It worked. Two weeks later, Galarza learned that Releaf Cannabis Company was cleared to set up shop nearby. However, as an insight into the ongoing litigation the high number of stores is driving, Galarza is currently working on appealing the decision. The city of Albuquerque is now wading through twenty other requests for exemptions to the 600-foot rule, fourteen of which they have granted, showing that, while it might create conflict between business owners, the New Mexico cannabis industry is sailing at full speed ahead. “The number of stores, the number of licenses statewide, has far exceeded even the most optimistic projections we had when we were looking at what we thought this might be before the law passed,” says Pat Davis, City Council President and co-founder of Weeds Cannabis Consulting Service, KRQE reports. 

So, while this may be good news for the cannabis industry on a large picture, smaller business owners such as 505 Farms fear they will have to shut down as the big guys take over. “If they were to open up next door, we’re pretty much done,” Galarza told KRQE. “I mean, a small business such as myself, can’t battle something that big, right? It’s not possible. Yeah, there’s no sleep. I mean, it’s terrifying.”

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