pass drug test

BILL WOULD LIMIT NEEDLE EXCHANGES

2009-11-09T13:26:00.000-08:00

BANGOR, Me. -- For years, the location of this city's needle exchange program, in a nondescript strip mall close to highways and bus lines, was seen as a major asset.

But now, AIDS activists say, that very location could undermine what happens inside the exchange.

A bill working its way through Congress would lift a ban of more than 20 years on using federal money for needle exchange programs. But the bill would also ban federally financed exchanges from being within 1,000 feet of a school, park, library, college, video arcade or any place children might gather -- a provision that would apply to a majority of the country's approximately 200 exchanges.

"This 1,000-foot rule is simply instituting the ban in a different form," said Rebecca Haag, executive director of the AIDS Action Council, an advocacy group based in Washington. "Clearly the intent of this rule is to nullify the lifting of the ban."

Under a separate bill, all exchanges in Washington within the 1,000-foot perimeter would be barred from receiving city money as well as federal money.

"Let's protect these kids," said Representative Jack Kingston, Republican of Georgia, who introduced the Washington bill. "They don't need to be playing kickball in the playground and seeing people lined up for needle exchange."

Both bills have passed the House and a Senate subcommittee and await Senate action.

Advocates and organizations including the N.A.A.C.P. are lobbying Congress to kill the 1,000-foot provisions. The promise of federal money could not come at a better time, these officials say, as states are cutting their health and human services budgets and private donations are dropping precipitously. At least four needle exchanges have closed this year because of a lack of financing.

Many exchanges are run by organizations that provide broad-based health services like testing for the AIDS virus and hepatitis C, mental health counseling, medical referrals and condom distribution. Advocates worry that if needle exchanges disappear, drug users will lose access to those other services.

The rule "is going to kill us," said Ellis Poole, executive director of the Harm Reduction Center of Southern Oregon, which is 997 feet from a high school in Roseburg. The center runs a needle exchange and offers antidrug programs to high schools in the area. With donations plummeting, it has a $374,000 budget deficit for 2009. Mr. Poole said he worried that the center's programs would be threatened if the bill passed.

"We could move a few feet down, but the building is more expensive at the other end," Mr. Poole said. "I have to beg for money for computers. I have to ask people to come clean the carpet at no charge."

Officials at exchanges in cities like Chicago, New York and Washington say there are few, if any, places that could house a needle exchange under the rule.

"I was thinking, 'A thousand feet, how much is that?' " said Raquel Algarin, executive director of the Lower East Side Harm Reduction Center in Manhattan. "And then I found myself thinking, 'We'd probably be doing syringe exchange in the middle of the East River, and any exchange on the West Side would be in the Hudson River.' How do you work that out?"

Many advocates also worry that smaller, rural exchanges, which lack the fund-raising abilities and infrastructure of many larger, urban exchanges, will be affected by the 1,000-foot rule.

In Maine, which officials say has one of the highest rates of prescription drug abuse per capita in the country and is grappling with a recent influx of heroin, AIDS activists worry that they will receive less money just as their client base is growing. The state's four exchanges -- in Augusta, Bangor, Ellsworth and Portland -- would be ineligible for federal money.

"The federal funding would be key for us," said Patricia A. Murphy, executive director of the Eastern Maine AIDS Network in downtown Bangor.

Upon entering the office, squeezed between a veterans center and a music store, drug users are escorted into a small room, where a trained staff member checks them in, using only first names and case numbers, and carefully counts their needles.

Under Maine law, drug users may receive one clean needle for every dirty one they turn in. The exchange offers users a variety of needle sizes, along with tourniquets, antiseptic ointment, condoms and information on safe needle use, and helps refer clients to clinics and treatment centers that deal with sexually transmitted diseases. The center also has a food bank, which clients are urged to use.

Those who have built a level of trust with Ms. Murphy and her staff send fellow drug users to the office. The number of users enrolled in the needle exchange here has doubled in the past year, while funding fell by about 15 percent.

The federal money, Ms. Murphy said, would allow the exchange to grow with the number of clients, many of whom come from rural northern and eastern Maine, and set up mobile needle exchange units in communities more than 100 miles from Bangor.

"This is a critical piece of harm reduction," Ms. Murphy said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, intravenous drug use directly or indirectly accounts for about one-fifth of the nation's 1.1 million H.I.V. cases, and needle exchanges are an effective way to stem the spread of infection. The World Health Organization said in a 2004 report that there was "compelling evidence" that increasing needle exchanges reduced H.I.V. transmission. It cited studies showing that the rate of infection dropped up to 18 percent in cities with an exchange.

Luke, a 30-year-old Bangor resident who did not want to give his last name, said he exchanged his needles, and sometimes those of his friends, about once a week. He said he had become addicted to Suboxone, a drug intended to treat opiate addiction that officials say more people are starting to abuse.

In a black hooded sweatshirt and red sneakers, Luke said he often also picked up condoms and guides on how to inject drugs more safely. He said he came to the facility because its location made it discreet and few people knew what it was.

A 23-year-old man who is addicted to heroin and exchanges needles at the Down East AIDS Network in Ellsworth called the 1,000-foot limit "ridiculous." The man, who did not want to give his name because of his addiction, said he started using heroin eight years ago and exchanging needles four years ago. He said he often picked up needles he saw on the ground and brought them in for safe disposal.

"It's a dangerous thing to do," the man said of his heroin use, "but it's best to take every precaution you can. If you're going to do this stuff, you should do it right."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n1009/a05.html
Newshawk: Please Contact Your Senators - SEE http://drugsense.org/url/yvrS3vTu
Votes: 1
Pubdate: Mon, 9 Nov 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A9
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Katie Zezima
Cited: AIDS Action Council http://drugsense.org/url/bDFpDVxa
Cited: Harm Reduction Center of Southern Oregon http://www.hivroseburg.org/
Cited: Eastern Maine AIDS Network http://www.maineaidsnetwork.com/
Cited: Down East AIDS Network http://downeastaidsnetwork.homestead.com/

POLICE UNION 'MANIPULATION'

2009-11-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

Re: 'Fund more officers,' Letters to the editor, Nov. 6.

Would we listen to a tobacco worker union telling us tobacco is safe and should be consumed in greater numbers? Letter writer Steek explains clearly how public perception is manipulated by police unions to scare the public into giving them more and more money -- always more money.

The public says their number one concern are gangs and violence, while the police union spokesman is on his podium decrying the dangers of gangs and violence. Gangs are funded by the prohibition artificially inflating the cost of certain drugs and herbs. Violence comes from them fighting over their marketable "turf."

How come police unions are one of the only groups left pushing for more prohibition and they are also the main non-criminal benefactor of prohibition, as it's job security, ever-increasing budgets, and relatively easy work. This should be common sense.

MIKE FOSTER

LAVAL, QUE.

( That's what unions do, ask for more. )

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n1009/a04.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sun, 08 Nov 2009
Source: Winnipeg Sun (CN MB)
Copyright: 2009 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: editor@wpgsun.com
Website: http://www.winnipegsun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/503
Author: Mike Foster
Note: Parenthetical remark by the Sun editor.

GRASSLEY PROPOSING LIMITS TO FEDERAL DRUG STUDY

2009-11-07T13:24:00.000-08:00

Voting Delay Leaves More Time for Potential Changes to Bill.

In the eyes of Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., the statistics are staggering. The United States houses 25 percent of the world's prison population, with just 5 percent of the world population. And in less than 30 years, drug offenders in prison have increased 1,200 percent.

To study why that is, and perhaps change those facts and figures, Webb proposed a National Criminal Justice Commission. The legislation, which has 34 cosponsors from senators on both sides of the aisle, was sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which was expected to vote on it Thursday. Instead, the bill but was held over for future consideration.

The delay will give Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, more time to consider which, if any, amendments to offer to the proposed legislation.

During a conference call with reporters last week, Grassley, who is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and co-chairman of the international narcotics control caucus, said he had circulated several amendments with the intention of offering a couple of them.

While Grassley said an amendment to prohibit the commission from studying the legalization or decriminalization of drugs was not one he planned to offer, it has earned the ire of the blogosphere, including the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

"Well, my intent on that amendment isn't any different than any other amendments that are coming up," Grassley said. "The Congress is setting up a commission to study certain things, and the commission is an arm of Congress ... and the point is for them to do what we tell them to do.

"And one of the things I was anticipating telling them not to do is to recommend or study the legalization of drugs."

Grassley said the prohibition would include the decriminalization of marijuana for medical purposes, something the Iowa Legislature could consider during its 2010 session after an interim committee studied the issue.

"I see the drive toward legalization of marijuana as being a cover for the distribution of marijuana illegally, other than for medical purposes," Grassley said previously.

According to a floor statement from Webb on last week -- prior to the expected committee vote -- one of the seven tasks the committee is meant to consider is specifically a "review of our drug policy and its impact on incarceration, crime and sentencing."

The commission's other tasks include studying why the incarceration rates have increased; determining costs of prison policies at all governmental levels; identify the impact of drug activities; and examine policies as they relate to mentally ill. According to Webb's Web site, four times as many mentally ill people are in prisons than in mental health hospitals.

Grassley said, however, the commission's scope of study can be whatever Congress decides it should be. He said the commission's results and recommendations could be the basis for future legislation.

Iowa's senior senator has long been a champion of anti-drug laws. According to Grassley's Web site, "For the past decade, I've used my leadership positions ... to advance public policy that curbs trafficking, production and consumption of illegal drugs, beefs up enforcement and promotes effective treatment and prevention methods."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n1010/a01.html
Newshawk: Limiting the Commission is Despicable
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 9 Nov 2009
Source: Hawk Eye, The (Burlington, IA)
Copyright: 2009 The Hawk Eye
Contact: http://spanky.thehawkeye.com/forms/letters.html
Website: http://www.thehawkeye.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/934
Author: Christinia Crippes
Cited: The Senate Judiciary Committee http://judiciary.senate.gov/
Referenced: The National Criminal Justice Commission Act
http://drugsense.org/url/tnFxcd6f

WILL FLORIDA BE NEXT TO ALLOW MEDICAL MARIJUANA?

2009-11-06T13:23:00.000-08:00

A new federal policy toward medical marijuana has sparked discussion among Florida residents about the future of Florida's marijuana laws.

Under federal law, the use or sale of marijuana has long been illegal. But since 1996, advocacy groups have succeeded in passing laws in 13 states that made the use of marijuana for medical purposes legal within those states.

Because federal law supersedes state law, patients who used medical marijuana in compliance with the laws of their states were often still at risk for federal prosecution.

But recently, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would be shifting its marijuana prosecution efforts, and, in a memo from Deputy Attorney General David W. Ogden, said that federal prosecutors "should not focus federal resources in your States on individuals whose actions are in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state laws providing for the medical use of marijuana."

This announcement signaled that the federal government will essentially be allowing individual states to decide the legality of medical marijuana for themselves.

For legalization activists in states where medical marijuana is not legal, such as Florida, the new policy provides a powerful incentive to continue in efforts toward legalization.

"I feel emboldened," said Jodi James, a member of the board of directors for the Florida Cannabis Action Network. "One of the obstacles that we have always heard, working at a state level, is that whatever we do here in Florida, we were just going to be in conflict with the federal government. So it's exciting to think about the idea that this helps us to overcome that obstacle."

James believes that medical marijuana is essential for "healing the community," and she points to the effects of legalization in California as an example of the positive impact that legal medical marijuana could have in Florida.

"We have seen more people moving away from alcoholism, we have seen ( marijuana ) dispensaries that become one of the single largest taxpayers in a community, and we have seen the use of marijuana by children decline," she said. "So we have less spending on marijuana-related arrests, we have fewer people incarcerated for possession of cannabis, and you have patients that might have been using a medicine that is more toxic now using less toxic medicines."

However, there are others, like Lt. Tim Hayes of the Gainesville-Alachua County Drug Task Force, who think that California's experience with medical marijuana has revealed very negative effects for communities.

"I think that if we go the way California did, then it's just an absolute disaster for the state," he said.

Hayes believes that Californians have taken advantage of the state's loose regulations on medical marijuana and have simply been using the law as a convenient cover for illegal recreational use of the drug.

Hayes likened this phenomenon to "the debacle of prescription drugs" that Florida's law enforcement is currently struggling with.

"We're dealing with people illegally selling prescription drugs almost to a level more than cocaine," he said. "Because of Florida's lax laws on prescription drugs, we have people from all the surrounding states coming here and they travel around the state getting the prescription painkillers mainly to go back and sell them. I kind of look at medical marijuana in Florida like that."

Paul Doering, a distinguished service professor of pharmacy at the University of Florida, agreed that recreational abuse of pain killers has been a big problem, and he said it's likely that medical marijuana would be similarly abused if doctors continue to provide inappropriate prescriptions.

"There are enough crooked doctors out there to move a whole lot of morphine and oxycodone," he said. "And in contrast, if those guys are as crooked as the day is long, there might be others who might simply be sympathetic and might, in their own college days, have enjoyed a toke here or there, who simply think our marijuana laws are wrong and will write ( a prescription ) at the drop of a hat."

In addition to acknowledging the law enforcement problems that medical marijuana might create, Doering explained that the suspected therapeutic effects of marijuana might not be as great as some would hope.

Marijuana has been suggested for the treatment of ailments such as glaucoma, multiple sclerosis and nausea from chemotherapy, but Doering said that the effectiveness of the drug has been exaggerated by supporters of medical marijuana.

The scientific literature is just not real clear on what marijuana is good for or can be used for," said Doering. "If you were to look at the scientific evidence with the same scrutiny that you look at pharmaceutical drugs, marijuana is not that great."

Doering said he does think medical marijuana could be useful in some circumstances, but he also said that he believes the push for legalization of medical marijuana is largely a front for the legalization of marijuana for all uses.

James of the Florida Cannabis Action Network said the legalization of all marijuana is, in fact, the main goal of her organization.

"All indicators are that bringing it into the light of day would be a positive experience," she said. "We can go back to the prohibition of alcohol to see the damage that prohibition causes. It breeds criminals who are willing to stop at nothing to protect profits."

However, the main debate in marijuana policy continues to be limited to the issue of medical marijuana within the state.

The Florida Legislature holds the ultimate deciding power in this debate, and according to Charles E. Van Zant, who is vice chairman of the Health Care Regulation Policy Committee in Florida's House of Representatives, the laws are unlikely to change in the near future.

'I do not believe that any bill would pass the House or the Senate that would allow ( medical marijuana ) to become legal in Florida," he said. "It's not in the forefront of issues that we're considering in Tallahassee."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n1010/a02.html
Newshawk: Jay Bergstrom
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 9 Nov 2009
Source: Gainesville Sun, The (FL)
Copyright: 2009 The Gainesville Sun
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/yMmn4Ifw
Website: http://www.gainesville.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/163
Author: Allison Arteaga, Correspondent
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)

MARIJUANA: ARRESTS WON'T STOP USE

2009-11-05T13:21:00.000-08:00

The 33 marijuana traffickers arrested will soon be replaced. ( "33 arrested; ring moved marijuana in backpacks" Oct.28 ). They always are. As long as there are willing buyers willing to pay a substantial price for it, somebody will produce it and somebody else will get it to the willing buyers. This we can guarantee.

Why not re-legalize marijuana so it can be sold in licensed, regulated and taxed business establishments? Pot is substantially less dangerous than either tobacco that contains nicotine, or alcohol.

People consume marijuana for the same reasons they consume alcohol. Why not offer adults the much safer alternative to alcohol?

Kirk Muse

Mesa

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n1010/a04.html
Newshawk: Kirk
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 4 Nov 2009
Source: East Valley Tribune (AZ)
Copyright: 2009 East Valley Tribune.
Contact: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/page/letter_to_the_editor
Website: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2708
Author: Kirk Muse

THE ANTI-DRUG WAR GETS A DOSE OF REALISM

2009-11-04T07:44:00.001-08:00

During his immersion in his new job, Gil Kerlikowske attended a focus group of 7-year-old girls and was mystified by their talk about "farm parties." Then he realized they meant "pharm parties" - sampling pharmaceuticals from their parents' medicine cabinets. What he learned - - besides that young humans have less native sense than young dachshunds have - is that his job has wrinkles unanticipated when he became director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"People," he says, "want a different conversation" about drug policies. With his first report to the president early next year, he could increase the quotient of realism.

Law enforcement has a "can do culture" but it also instructs its practitioners about what cannot be done, at least by law enforcement alone. Kerlikowske, who was top cop in Buffalo and then Seattle, knows that officers sweeping drug users from cities' streets feel as though they are "regurgitating perps through the system."

He dryly notes that "not many people think the drug war is a success." Furthermore, the recession's toll on state budgets has concentrated minds on the costs of drug offense incarcerations - costs that in some states are larger than expenditures on secondary education. Fortunately, the first drug courts were established two decades ago and today there are 2,300 nationwide, pointing drug policy away from punishment and toward treatment.

Kerlikowske is familiar with Portugal's experience since 2001 with decriminalization of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine. Nature made Kerlikowske laconic and experience has made him prudent, so he steers clear of the "L" word, legalization, even regarding marijuana.

Asked if he thinks that is a "gateway" drug leading to worse substances, he answers obliquely: "You don't find many heroin users who didn't start with marijuana." And he warns that more intense cultivation of marijuana is yielding a product with notably high THC content - the potent ingredient.

In 1998, the United Nations, with its penchant for empty grandstanding, committed its members to "eliminating or significantly reducing" opium, cocaine and marijuana production by 2008, en route to a "drug-free world." Nowadays the U.N. is pleased that the drug trade has "stabilized."

The Economist magazine says this means that more than 200 million people - almost 5 percent of the world's adult population - take illegal drugs, the same proportion as a decade ago. The annual U.S. bill for attempting to diminish the supply of drugs is $40 billion. Of the 1.5 million Americans arrested each year on drug offenses, half a million are incarcerated. "Tougher drug laws are the main reason why one in five black American men spend some time behind bars," The Economist said.

"There is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes ( notably America but also Britain ) take more drugs, not fewer." Do cultural differences explain this? Evidently not: "Even in fairly similar countries tough rules make little difference to the number of addicts: harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates."

The good news is the progress America has made against tobacco, which is more addictive than most illegal drugs. And then there is alcohol.

In "Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson," historian David S. Reynolds writes that in 1820, Americans spent on liquor a sum larger than the federal government's budget. By the mid-1820s, annual per capita consumption of absolute alcohol reached seven gallons, more than three times today's rate. "Most employers," Reynolds reports, "assumed that their workers needed strong drink for stimulation: a typical workday included two bells, one rung at 11 a.m. and the other at 4 p.m., that summoned employees for alcoholic drinks."

The elderly Walt Whitman said, "It is very hard for the present generation anyhow to understand the drinkingness of those years. ... it is quite incommunicable." In 1842, a Springfield, Ill., teetotaler named Lincoln said that liquor was "like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born in every family." Which helps explain why the nation sobered up ( somewhat; these things are relative ). One reason crack cocaine use has declined is that a generation of inner-city young people saw what it did to their parents and older siblings.

Kerlikowske can hope that social learning, although slow and intermittent, is on his side. But perhaps he knows the axiom that experience is a great teacher, but submits steep bills.

George Will is a columnist for The Washington Post.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n978/a05.html
Newshawk: Jim
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Source: Marietta Daily Journal (GA)
Copyright: 2009 The Marietta Daily Journal.
Contact: letters@mdjonline.com
Website: http://www.mdjonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1904
Author: George Will
Note: George Will is a columnist for The Washington Post.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

EFFORT TO OVERRIDE VETO FALLS SHORT

2009-11-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

CONCORD - The determined opposition of nine state Senate Republicans and one Democrat blocked New Hampshire from becoming one of 14 states that legalized the possession of marijuana by chronically ill patients and their caregivers.

Wednesday's 14-10 vote to override Gov. John Lynch's July veto of the bill fell two votes shy of the super-majority needed to defy Lynch's action and pass the bill into law.

After three months of private lobbying, no minds were changed as the Senate vote was identical to the one when it sent the measure to Lynch's desk back in May.

Sen. Peggy Gilmour, D-Hollis, co-founded the state's first hospice for the terminally ill and pleaded for the bill's survival.

"It's up to 16 of us in this chamber to look at those who are suffering to say, I understand and I will help," Gilmour said.

But Sen. Robert Letourneau, R-Derry, said any law making marijuana legal for any purpose contradicts society's push to convince the nation's young not to experiment.

"This is a terrible message to send to our children," Letourneau said.

The leader of NH Coalition for Common Sense, Matt Simon, said he knew that a few senators had told constituents in recent weeks they were capable of making the switch to backing the bill.

"You never give up hope, so I'm disappointed. Now I'm not looking forward to making those difficult calls to people depending on the Legislature to relieve their unrelenting pain," Simon said.

Sen. Betsi DeVries, D-Manchester, who represents Litchfield, was the only member of her party to oppose it.

Sen. John Gallus of Berlin stood out as the only Senate Republican to back it.

"I am very disappointed. This is something that, at the end of the day, really helps the people of New Hampshire," Gallus said in a statement.

Earlier Wednesday, the New Hampshire House of Representatives had voted to overrode Lynch's July 9 veto, as expected.

The 240-115 vote in the House was 10 votes above the override threshold.

It marked the first time a legislative body took this confrontational step since Lynch, a popular, three-term Democrat, first became governor in January 2005.

Among House Democrats present, 94 percent voted for the bill; while 65 percent of Republicans stood with Lynch, although 57 GOP members were in favor of the veto override.

Rep. Evalyn Merrick, D-Lancaster, said supporters carefully addressed all of Lynch's concerns that prompted a conference committee that Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, had led to rewrite the entire bill.

"Today we make a decision that will affect the quality of life for many of our sickest citizens," Merrick said. "We have an opportunity to send a very clear message that we have not forgotten our citizens with long, suffering pain."

After the Senate setback, Merrick told reporters she will return in 2011 with her bill if she's re-elected.

Rep. Shawn Jasper, R-Hudson, a former volunteer firefighter, said the bill was well-intentioned but would pose problems for law enforcement.

"Legislation which changes a fundamental concept takes time and if we don't take the time necessary to do it right, we find that we must revisit that issue," Jasper said.

"If we pass HB 648 over the governor's objection, there may well be serious consequences."

The state's fire chiefs had sent an e-mail opposing the bill.

"What fireman or policeman or truck driver would feel safe if he went to work in the morning knowing that his colleague was severely medicated?" asked Rep. Robert Elliott, R-Salem. "I think this is a legitimate objection to this part of the bill."

Rep. Steve Shurtleff, D-Concord, chairs the House panel on law enforcement matters and is a retired deputy U.S. marshal.

No one could be a firefighter or policeman and qualify as a patient who had to suffer from a chronic or wasting disease who experienced either "severe pain, severe nausea or severe vomiting," Shurtleff said.

"That individual would not be fit either physically or mentally to perform the duties of a firefighter," he added.

Lynch saluted the aims of the sponsors but vetoed the bill due to concerns about cultivation, distribution, the definition of qualified patients and the volume of marijuana available to them.

Rep. Anthony DiFruscia, D-Windham, noted that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and New Hampshire's U.S. Attorney John Kacavas last week confirmed the federal government would ignore federal law and not prosecute patients with small amounts of marijuana if they lived in states where medicinal use was legal.

"I'm not here to debate what is good and bad with this drug; the reality is it's unenforceable," said DiFruscia, a trial lawyer.

"I think the governor in looking at his veto should seriously consider what his duty and responsibility is. Clearly law enforcement does not think this is a bad thing."

Critics pointed to California, which has the most loosely enforced, medical marijuana bill in the nation, where the drug is dispensed at dozens of outlets across the state.

"Every block has two or three storefronts selling marijuana and the people buying it ... don't look very sick to me," Letourneau remarked.

[sidebar]

BILL AT A GLANCE Bill No. HB 648

Sponsor: Rep. Evalyn Merrick, D-Lancaster.

Description:

The original bill would have let patients and designated caregivers have six plants and up to two ounces of useable marijuana to help who have a "debilitating medical condition" as long as it's under the supervision of a physician.

Status: Gov. John Lynch vetoed the bill in July. The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to override that veto by a margin of 240-115. The State Senate vote to override was 14-10 in favor, two votes shy of the two-thirds majority needed to create law despite a gubernatorial veto.

VOTE: A "yes" vote supported the bill and was to override the governor's veto. A "no" vote endorsed the governor's action. Committee recommendation to kill the bill, A "no" opposed that position.

Bette Lasky, D-Nashua: Yes

Peggy Gilmour, D-Hollis: Yes

Peter Bragdon, R-Milford: No

Sheila Roberge*, R-Bedford: No

Sharon Carson*, R-Londonderry: No

Betsi DeVries*, D-Manchester: No

Michael Downing*, R-Salem: No

Robert Letourneau*, R-Derry: No

* Roberge's district includes Merrimack, Carson represents Hudson, DeVries has a district that includes Litchfield, Downing represents Pelham and Letourneau's district includes Litchfield.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n977/a03.html
Newshawk: Mark (Gruesome) Greer http://drugsense.org/url/FeK8vLLu
Votes: 0
Tracknum: 10109.200910291424.n9teoh8w010003
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Source: Telegraph, The (Nashua, NH)
Copyright: 2009 Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact: letters@nashuatelegraph.com
Website: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/885
Author: Kevin Landrigan, Staff Writer
Cited: NH Coalition for Common Sense http://nhcommonsense.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)

DOSE OF REALISM IN DRUG WAR

2009-11-02T07:42:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON -- During his immersion in his new job, Gil Kerlikowske attended a focus group of 7-year-old girls and was mystified by their talk about "farm parties." Then he realized they meant "pharm parties" -- sampling pharmaceuticals from their parents' medicine cabinets. What he learned -- besides that young humans have less native sense than young dachshunds have -- is that his job has wrinkles unanticipated when he became director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"People," he says, "want a different conversation" about drug policies. With his first report to the president early next year, he could increase the quotient of realism.

Law enforcement has a "can-do culture" but it also instructs its practitioners about what cannot be done, at least by law enforcement alone. Kerlikowske, who was top cop in Buffalo and then Seattle, knows that officers sweeping drug users from cities' streets feel as though they are "regurgitating perps through the system."

He dryly notes that "not many people think the drug war is a success." Furthermore, the recession's toll on state budgets has concentrated minds on the costs of drug offense incarcerations -- costs that in some states are larger than expenditures on secondary education. Fortunately, the first drug courts were established two decades ago and today there are 2,300 nationwide, pointing drug policy away from punishment and toward treatment.

Kerlikowske is familiar with Portugal's experience since 2001 with decriminalization of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine. Nature made Kerlikowske laconic and experience has made him prudent, so he steers clear of the "L" word, legalization, even regarding marijuana.

Asked if he thinks that is a "gateway" drug leading to worse substances, he answers obliquely: "You don't find many heroin users who didn't start with marijuana." And he warns that more intense cultivation of marijuana is yielding a product with notably high THC content -- the potent ingredient.

In 1998, the United Nations, with its penchant for empty grandstanding, committed its members to "eliminating or significantly reducing" opium, cocaine and marijuana production by 2008, en route to a "drug-free world." Nowadays the U.N. is pleased that the drug trade has "stabilized."

The Economist magazine says this means that more than 200 million people -- almost 5 percent of the world's adult population -- take illegal drugs, the same proportion as a decade ago. The annual U.S. bill for attempting to diminish the supply of drugs is $40 billion. Of the 1.5 million Americans arrested each year on drug offenses, half a million are incarcerated.

"Tougher drug laws are the main reason why one in five black American men spend some time behind bars," The Economist said.

"There is no correlation between the harshness of drug laws and the incidence of drug-taking: citizens living under tough regimes ( notably America but also Britain ) take more drugs, not fewer." Do cultural differences explain this? Evidently not: "Even in fairly similar countries tough rules make little difference to the number of addicts: harsh Sweden and more liberal Norway have precisely the same addiction rates."

The good news is the progress America has made against tobacco, which is more addictive than most illegal drugs. And then there is alcohol.

In "Waking Giant: America in the Age of Jackson," historian David S. Reynolds writes that in 1820, Americans spent on liquor a sum larger than the federal government's budget. By the mid-1820s, annual per capita consumption of absolute alcohol reached seven gallons, more than three times today's rate. "Most employers," Reynolds reports, "assumed that their workers needed strong drink for stimulation: a typical workday included two bells, one rung at 11 a.m. and the other at 4 p.m., that summoned employees for alcoholic drinks."

The elderly Walt Whitman said, "It is very hard for the present generation anyhow to understand the drinkingness of those years. ... it is quite incommunicable." In 1842, a Springfield, Ill., teetotaler named Lincoln said that liquor was "like the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not the first, the fairest born in every family."

Which helps explain why the nation sobered up ( somewhat; these things are relative ). One reason crack cocaine use has declined is that a generation of inner-city young people saw what it did to their parents and older siblings.

Kerlikowske can hope that social learning, although slow and intermittent, is on his side. But perhaps he knows the axiom that experience is a great teacher, but submits steep bills.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n977/a04.html
Newshawk: Kirk
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 28 Oct 2009
Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune (CA)
Contact: http://www.sgvtribune.com/writealetter
Copyright: 2009 San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Website: http://www.sgvtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3725
Author: George Will
Cited: The Economist http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n266/a03.html
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/people/Kerlikowske

REBAGLIATI GIVES HIMSELF A CHANCE

2009-11-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

In 1991, a young Ross Rebagliati lived in Whistler, working as a busboy at Sushi Village and training as a professional snowboarder, for which he would eventually win a gold metal for Canada at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano.

One day, former prime minister and Liberal Party juggernaut Pierre Elliott Trudeau came into Sushi Village for a bite to eat.

"I had the honour of clearing Mr. Trudeau's table," recalled Rebagliati at a meeting Monday night in Penticton where he won by acclamation the Federal Liberal Party nomination for the Okanagan-Coquihalla riding.

"He asked me about what I did and what my future held. And I told him that I was a professional snowboarder.trying to become successful at it."

Trudeau signed a napkin for Rebagliati, writing on it, "Good luck with your snow boarding."

"It stayed with me my whole life," said Rebagliati, who grew up in Naramata. "I admired a lot of things about Trudeau, not understanding politics at all at the time, but I did know that he drove a cool car and that all the girls liked him.

"That was one of the last times that I ever admired a politician for those two things," said Rebagliati, naming U.S. President Barack Obama and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell as politicians he admires today.

Rebagliati said that he thinks a lot of today's youth have a similar attitude towards politics and politicians.

"All of my friends are my age or younger," said Rebagliati, 38, defining youth as anyone under 40.

"I see where they are completely uninterested with the political process and I can understand why," he said.

"They don't watch news on TV. They don't read the newspapers. And they could care less about listening to the radio if there isn't some techno beat going.

"I think it is because that the representatives who represent the political process don't care about the youth. And they haven't made an effort to connect with them and to tell them why it is important.

Rebagliati said that he thinks youth alienation from politics has been around "since the dawn of time" ( which includes the Liberal government dominated 1990s ) but that he wants to change that, which is one of the reasons why he will be running in the next federal election.

"I believe that I am going to be able to raise awareness in the voting process and in democracy itself," said Rebagliati.

In selecting Rebagliati as their candidate, Jodie Taylor, the Penticton vice-president of the Liberal Okanagan-Coquihalla Association, said the riding brain trust was looking for someone who knows how to win. "We were looking for a candidate that had a proven success record," said Taylor.

"Someone that could speak on the issues that are important to us as a constituency and someone who had demonstrated commitment in a field."

Although Rebagliati admits that up until recently he has not been an official member of the federal Liberals, he said that he has gained political experience working "closely with the Liberal Party as a sounding board for the issues" and that in the last several years he has been helping former Kelowna-Mission MLA Sindi Hawkins with "her plight with the ( B.C. ) Liberal Party, as well as her fight against cancer.

"Since I have returned back from Nagano, I have ( also ) made a point of contributing to the communities that I live in through different charities, including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Kids Help Phone line, as well as numerous other ones including Big Brother," said Rebagliati.

Asked whether Canadians were ready for an election, Rebagliati said: "We just recently had a couple of elections in the not too distant past so I think at this point and time there has been practically a non-confidence vote and the Conservatives have been basically just dragging there feet and not really accomplishing a lot, so as far as I can tell, I think Canadians are ready for a change."

And on the weed that almost cost him his Olympic gold medal, Rebagliati said that while the marijuana issue is obviously something that is going to follow him around for the rest of his life, he did not want to be thought of as an one-issue-candidate.

Having said that: "( marijuana legalization ) is an issue for sure and it will be dealt with at a later date."

Rebagliati will be taking on Stockwell Day the current MP for Okanagan-Coquihalla, who received 58.1 per cent of the vote cast in the last election.

“Anybody has a chance to win,” said Rebagliati before quoting his hero Wayne Gretzky: “You miss every shot you don’t take.”

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n977/a06.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 28 Oct 2009
Source: Penticton Western (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Penticton Western
Contact: editor@pentictonwesternnews.com
Website: http://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1310
Author: Bruce Walkinshaw, Staff Writer-Penticton Western News

DOYLE SUPPORTS MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEGISLATION

2009-10-31T07:39:00.000-07:00

Gov. Jim Doyle supports legislation to legalize marijuana for medical purposes in Wisconsin.

Doyle spoke last Wednesday at Maine Elementary School in Wausau, Wis. After explaining his plan for Wisconsin education, he said he agrees with the Obama administration's decision not to prosecute those in possession of medical marijuana in the 14 states where it has been legalized and believes that if a doctor prescribes it, a patient should be allowed to have it.

Supporters of legalizing medical marijuana in Wisconsin say that in comparison to other legal substances, marijuana is relatively user-safe.

Bruce Mirken, director of communication for the largest marijuana policy reform group in the country, the Marijuana Policy Project, said medical marijuana is currently used primarily for symptom relief of illnesses such as cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

"It is downright criminal that the ( effect of using medical marijuana as treatment for certain illnesses ) hasn't been studied more in humans," Mirken said. "There is tantalizing evidence that it may protect nerve cells from damage, slow the development of some illnesses ... and may even have anti-cancer activity."

The Marijuana Policy Project focuses on the states it feels have the best chance to pass legislation, Mirken said.

"We are the folks who got medical marijuana legislation passed in Michigan in 2008," Mirken said.

In Wisconsin, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act is currently sponsored by Sen. Jon Erpenbach ( D-Waunakee ) and Rep. Mark Pocan ( D-Madison ). However, both lack the co-sponsor necessary to bring the bill to the floor of either house. The Rickert Act is based off the legislation passed in Michigan, where two-thirds of Michigan voters approved the legalization of medical marijuana, according to the Marijuana Policy Project Web site.

Lee Sensenbrenner, spokesman for Doyle, said the governor used to be a prosecutor and understands the impracticality of prosecuting people for using a substance if it could be prescribed by their doctor.

"Of the states that have legalized marijuana, the governor thinks some have done a better job than others of closing loopholes ( in medical marijuana reform )," Sensenbrenner said. "As far as legislation goes, those kinds of things would be up to the legislature and would have to be debated before they came to the governor's desk."

A local pro-marijuana lobbying group called Milwaukee Area NORML, which meets at the Brewing Ground for Change Cafe, 2008 N. Farwell Ave., is delighted by Doyle's remarks, said Jeffrey Peterson, executive director of Milwaukee Area NORML.

"( Doyle ) has indicated in the past his willingness to sign a bill if it ever reaches his desk," Peterson said. "Legalization is our final goal. In my eyes, it's a civil right."

Milwaukee Area NORML is a chapter of a national organization called NORML that lobbies for legalizing marijuana in 40 states, including a Wisconsin chapter, a Madison chapter and now the Milwaukee chapter, which received its charter in August.

"We want to get out and educate the public about the truth about cannibis," Peterson said. "And not just for medical purposes. The effect of marijuana is safer than alcohol in many ways."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n977/a08.html
Newshawk: Is My Medicine Legal YET? www.immly.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Source: Marquette Tribune (Marquette U, WI, Edu)
Contact: viewpoints@marquettetribune.org
Copyright: 2009 The Marquette Tribune
Website: http://marquettetribune.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5089
Author: Rebecca Prybell
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)

GROW-OPS A 'BLACK EYE' ON CANADA

2009-10-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Drugs An Epidemic, Fantino Says

Illegal marijuana cultivation has reached epidemic proportions in Ontario and justice officials in the United States have branded their northern neighbour a "source country," the province's top police official said yesterday.

Marijuana is exported south and traded for crystal meth and crack cocaine, which are then brought back into Canada, OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino said.

"The going terminology is 'brown south, white north,' " he said, adding marijuana is also being exchanged for guns.

"It's a black eye on Canada when you have the United States ... refer to us as a source country of marijuana."

Investigating and shutting down marijuana grow-ops make up 60% of the workload of the force's drug enforcement unit, OPP Insp. Brian Martin said.

Cracking down on those operations should help drive down the import of crystal meth and crack cocaine, he said.

"You have to stop the problem at one end and hopefully that product's not coming back in."

OPP announced it seized and destroyed more than 118,000 marijuana plants from 220 grow operations, charging 56 people during its annual eight-week marijuana eradication program -- up from 10,000 plants from last year.

Over the last five years the force has investigated nearly 2,800 grow-ops and seized more than 2,700 weapons.

An increasing number of suppliers are moving from indoor to outdoor grow-ops, which can produce more plants, police said. The OPP found one outdoor operation producing 40,000 plants.

There is also an "alarming increase" in the use of loaded weapons, animal traps, armed guards and even illegal immigrants by growers to ward off so-called "pot pirates" and police, they said.

Organized crime is a huge operation with tentacles that reach internationally and its involvement in grow-ops is increasing, Fantino said.

The "drug sub-culture" was responsible for what Fantino called an epidemic of very serious crimes, such as robberies, several years ago in Orillia.

"( Marijuana ) is the precursor, if you will, to so much of the violence and other activities ... that end up victimizing the most vulnerable communities," he said.

"You know full well what the consequences of what crack does to a neighbourhood, the vulnerability of some of these people in these neighbourhoods, the violence associated with it."

Canada is too soft on drug-related criminals, he added.

"Those ( criminals ) working cross-border, we'd love for them to get indicted into the United States because that's where they're really going to get the business."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n976/a02.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Source: Toronto Sun (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 Canoe Limited Partnership
Contact: torsun.editor@sunmedia.ca
Website: http://torontosun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/457
Author: Susanna Kelley, Staff Writer-The Canadian Press

DRUG SQUAD PROSECUTION TO RESUME

2009-10-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

Stay Overruled

The prosecution of five former Toronto drug squad officers accused of corruption will resume after the Ontario Court of Appeal overruled the trial judge's decision to stay all charges because of unreasonable delay.

The Court of Appeal also agreed with the Crown that a new trial judge should be appointed to replace Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer to preside over the case.

The three-judge panel stated that Judge Nordheimer made errors in his January 2008 decision as to whether the Crown or defence was responsible for the time it took for the case to come to trial. The appeal court suggested it was unfair of Judge Nordheimer to comment on the quality of the management of the case by the Crown.

"There was no unreasonable delay in this case. This complex case proceeded at the pace contemplated and dictated by the parties," said the court, about what has been called the largest police corruption investigation in Canadian history.

The ruling means that the five officers will stand trial, likely in 2010, a dozen years after the original allegations surfaced that drug squad units in Toronto were robbing suspects and falsifying aspects of investigations.

The decision was described as "disappointing" by Patrick Ducharme, the lawyer representing former Toronto police officer Ned Maodus. "This has been hanging over their heads longer than it would for any other defendant," suggested Mr. Ducharme.

Mr. Maodus, John Schertzer, Steven Correia, Joseph Miched and Raymond Pollard were charged with a series of corruption-related offences in January 2004.

The charges followed a 30-month investigation by a Toronto police internal task force, led by then-RCMP Chief Superintendent John Neily.

Federal prosecutors stayed charges in at least 200 drug cases in the late 1990s in Toronto because of concerns about the credibility of the now disbanded drug squad.

After a lengthy preliminary hearing in early 2006, the heart of the prosecution case against the officers related to four separate incidents involving drug suspects.

There was also an allegation of an ongoing conspiracy between 1997 and 2002 to obstruct justice in five cases.

Judge Nordheimer observed that while there was a large volume of information to disclose to the defence, it was not an overly complex case.

The Court of Appeal made it abundantly clear in its 51-page decision that it disagreed with this interpretation. More than two-dozen times it referred to the case as complex.

"This was a very complex case. The long indictment included five accused. It related to events over a five-year period," wrote Justices Michael Moldaver, David Doherty and Marc Rosenberg.

The 13-month delay before a "difficult" preliminary hearing was appropriate because "Crown and defence counsel needed time to prepare," the judges stated.

What is not clear is how soon the prosecution will resume, since it normally takes at least six months in Toronto to set aside court time for a lengthy trial.

"We intend to proceed with the trial as quickly as possible, but the precise dates for the new trial will be set by the Court," said Brendan Crawley, a spokesman for the Ministry of the Attorney-General.

Mr. Ducharme predicted that the case is unlikely to resume until the fall of next year.

It could be early 2011 when a jury is selected, after the new trial judge hears any pretrial legal motions.

[sidebar]

Timeline

National Post1997 A Toronto police sergeant informs a deputy chief about numerous public complaints against certain drug-squad officers. It is not clear if any internal action is taken.

1999 A group of Toronto defence lawyers sends a letter to the police, alleging that drug squad officers stole money and jewelry from their clients during raids. An internal investigation begins. At a later court proceeding, one detective in the unit testifies that he suspected the then-head of his unit of leaking information to a lawyer for the drug-squad officers.

November 2000 Eight drug-squad officers are charged with stealing relatively small amounts of money from the "fink fund" normally used to pay informants.

July 2001 Toronto police chief Julian Fantino calls in RCMP Chief Superintendent John Neily to head an internal task force into the corruption allegations. An internal document released years later indicated that this was done in part to reduce pressure for a public inquiry.

February 2002 The "fink fund" charges are stayed because they could compromise the ongoing task force investigation.

January 2004 Six Toronto drug-squad officers are charged with a total of 40 criminal offences. This is despite a recommendation by Chief Supt. Neily that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute at least nine officers. May 2006 Five of the officers are ordered to stand trial on a total of 14 charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, after a preliminary hearing. A sixth officer is discharged on the conspiracy charge, but ordered to stand trial in relation to one incident where a suspected drug dealer was allegedly beaten and robbed.

January 31, 2008 Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer stays all charges against the officers for unreasonable delay and criticizes the Crown for a failure to explain the four years it took the case to come to trial.

October 28, 2009 The Ontario Court of Appeal agrees with the Crown and orders the prosecution to resume against five of the officers. The appeal court upholds the decision to stay charges against Richard Benoit.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n976/a03.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2156714
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/O3vnWIvC
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Shannon Kari, Staff Writer

U.S. SEEKS 30-YEAR TERM FOR 'DRUG LORD' UN GANG LEADER 'DANGEROUS, REMORSELESS'

2009-10-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

'His Organization Was Equal Parts Corporate And Violent,' Prosecutor Says

United Nations gang leader Clay Roueche was like a multinational entrepreneur, expanding his lucrative drug empire across North America with a combination of corporate ingenuity and violence.

He earned premier status in the criminal underworld by overseeing "the movement of tens of thousands of pounds of marijuana, thousands of kilograms of cocaine and millions of U.S. dollars," U.S. prosectors say.

For that reason, the B.C. man should spend the next 30 years behind bars when he is sentenced in a Seattle courtroom in December, the U.S. Attorney says in more than 60 pages of just-filed court documents.

"His organization was equal parts corporate and violent," says the sentencing memo, signed by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Susan Roe and Roger Rogoff.

"He used private airplanes, float planes, helicopters, cars, semi-trucks and coded BlackBerry telephones to create a secret and successful organization that he planned to extend into the Far East and South America. He employed pilots, drug couriers and money transporters to carry out the objectives of his organization."

The documents quote former associates of Roueche, who cooperated with U.S. officials, saying he threatened to kill people who wanted out. One said Roueche claimed he had beaten someone with "dull machetes."

"His organization has used any means necessary to carry out this goal, including threats and violence."

Roe and Rogoff said Roueche "worked hard, with laudable organizational skills coupled with an attention to detail, to achieve the moniker 'drug lord.'

"The affidavits of the various cooperators paint the picture of a controlled, powerful man who appeared willing to take whatever necessary steps in order to continue his lucrative drug-trafficking business."

Roueche, 34, entered a surprise guilty plea last April to conspiring to smuggle cocaine and marijuana, as well as money laundering. He was to be sentenced Nov. 5, but on Wednesday the hearing was postponed until mid-December because his lawyer requested more time.

The documents say the UN founder "was the public face of this violent, quasi-corporate group, and led its drug trafficking endeavours."

"The group used guns, threats and violence to keep its contracted workers and gang members in line and to ensure that no one informed on the group's activities," Roe and Rogoff said.

"The UN Gang is the type of organized, sophisticated drug trading group that presents a significant danger to the safety, peace and security of the United States."

The sophisticated law enforcement probe that led to Roueche's downfall is laid out in the sentencing documents.

"Using customary investigative techniques, routine arrests and seizures, confidential informants, undercover agents, recorded phone calls, a consensual wire intercept, search warrants, physical surveillance, electronic surveillance and inter-agency cooperation as well as other sophisticated law enforcement techniques, a multitude of federal law enforcement agencies undertook to dismantle or disrupt the organization," the documents say.

Roueche was nabbed in May 2008 as he attempted to attend a gang meeting in Mexico. Mexican authorities -- tipped off about his criminal connections -- turned Roueche away and he was forced onto a flight that landed in Texas, where an warrant was executed.

Roe and Rogoff say in their memo that they understand 30 years is "an extraordinary sentencing recommendation."

"The government makes the recommendation because Clay Roueche is an extraordinarily dangerous, remorseless defendant, who committed extraordinarily serious crimes. He deserves this extraordinary sentence," they said.

The breadth of the conspiracy as laid out in the court documents is startling.

U.S. agents "identified at least 15 helicopter landing sites on federal and state lands in Washington state that were being used by the UN gang for drug and human smuggling," the documents say.

The agents believe Roueche spearheaded over several years the shipment of at least 2,000 pounds of B.C. bud a month into the U.S. and the movement into Canada of 200 pounds of cocaine per month.

"This sort of criminality dramatically increases the United States' illicit drug supply by causing Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking organizations to smuggle more cocaine," Special Agent Peter Ostrovsky said in an affidavit.

"In all, the investigation resulted in the seizure of 2,169 pounds of Canadian marijuana, 335 kilograms of cocaine, $2,033,388 in U.S. currency, two pounds of crack cocaine, four pounds of methamphetamine, and five firearms," Roe said. "In addition, agents conducted the undercover delivery of $748,460 in U.S. currency at the direction of Roueche."

U.S. investigators got help from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit-B.C. after Roueche's arrest in Texas.

The CFSEU information highlights Roueche's leadership role in the organization and "his use of violence within the gang is clear from two different themes," the sentencing memo says.

Intercepted conversations of Roueche's dad Rupert indicated his son's "long-running role in drug-trafficking."

The U.S. Attorney says a Roueche letter intercepted from jail indicates "he simply wishes to continue supporting his organization until he can get out and pick up where he left off."

The letter was addressed to his mother, but began "To my Bro's [sic]," the documents say.

"Roueche spends two handwritten pages re-dedicating himself to his gang. He muses about the 'hella cool' cellmates he had in the Federal Detention Center, commenting that he closely listened to their stories because he has, 'a big thirst for knowledge.' "

The memo said Roueche was impressed by one cellmate because he had "crazy tatts and bullet wounds everywhere as well as stacks of charges LOL."

"Roueche simply shows no desire to walk away from the very people with whom he surrounded himself during his crimes," Roe and Rogoff said. "His behaviour and his letters evince a continuing need to lead his 'crew' and return to the drug trafficking he has lived for the past several years. He does not show a need or an inclination to change."

Roueche deserves to spend three decades in jail because of the "creativity, toughness, and intelligence required to build and maintain an illegal organization the size of the UN gang."

"Roueche has travelled the world to find new sources of supply and new potential markets for his drugs. He is worldly and charismatic. Unfortunately, he has chosen to use these traits in a manner that serves to hurt the people of the United States on as grand a scale as possible," the memo says.

"Roueche's participation in the distribution of drugs in this country has fuelled the destruction of countless addicts, has destroyed countless relationships, and has broken up countless families . . ."

kbolan@vancouversun.com

EVIDENCE TRACES ROUTE ILLEGAL HANDGUN TOOK FROM WASHINGTON STATE TO VANCOUVER

Glock later found in gang leader's condo

A Glock handgun found last year in the Coquitlam condo of UN gang leader Clay Roueche was purchased 10 years earlier at a Lakewood, Wash., gun shop.

Court documents filed for the sentencing hearing of the convicted drug smuggler show the circuitous route the illicit firearm took from Washington state to Metro Vancouver.

A Tacoma man named Abdul Shaheed Salaam bought the Glock on June 20, 1998 from Rainier Guns, 10505 Bridgeport Way SW, Lakewood, Wash.

Salaam presented a Washington state drivers' licence and a concealed weapons permit, according to a firearms trace summary report prepared by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

There are three little hand-written notes attached to the summary and signed by Salaam.

"I, Abdul Salaam, sell my Glock 19 SN AM 5421 to Darrow Brooks," the note referring to the Roueche gun says.

The two other notes say Salaam sold an AK-47 and a Desert Eagle 44 magnum to Brooks.

A person named Birgis Brooks later admitted to U.S. officials that he was a UN associate and bought the Glock from a Tacoma man.

"Brooks subsequently admitted that, in addition to all of his marijuana and money smuggling activity, he also procured a gun that was transported to Roueche in Canada," Special Agent Peter Ostrovsky said in an affidavit filed this week.

"He gave the gun to another man, who helped smuggle it into Canada. Brooks told law enforcement agents that Roueche and most other UN gang members had guns hidden in stash boxes ( hidden compartments ) in their cars. This particular 9-mm Glock was found in Roueche's apartment when Canadian law enforcement searched it."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n976/a04.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/todays-paper/seeks+year+term+drug+lord+gang+leader+danger
Pubdate: Thu, 29 Oct 2009
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 The Vancouver Sun
Contact: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/477
Author: Kim Bolan, Staff Writer

VOTE YES ON 2F IN BRECKENRIDGE

2009-10-27T09:51:00.001-07:00

Remove Criminal Penalties For Adults Possessing Small Amounts Of Marijuana

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result, then our current marijuana policies are insane. This country has waged a multi-billion dollar annual war on marijuana with no meaningful results. The only thing the war on marijuana has produced is misery: criminalizing the 20 million Americans who have been arrested for simple possession since 1965, causing lost jobs, lost student loans, denied housing, and a loss of tax revenue from refusing to regulate this market. It's time to end the madness.

The war on marijuana is a war on good people. It is a preemptive war that declares we must arrest everyone who uses marijuana in hopes of getting a hold of the few who might use it irresponsibly. It is the equivalent of the "let's burn the village to save the village." According to current Breckenridge law, people like President Obama, Colorado Governor Ritter, and local town councilman Jeff Bergeron are criminals because they have admitted to smoking marijuana. This is Breckenridge, not Alabama, and it's time to make our local laws express our local will.

The war on marijuana is blatantly hypocritical when compared to our alcohol policy. Every objective study has found that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, both to the user and to society at large. Alcohol use alone can kill and regularly leads to violence, where marijuana use does not. While there is no physical addiction to marijuana, the small numbers of people who suffer some psychological dependence to marijuana is half of the addiction rate of alcohol. In a society that celebrates and encourages alcohol use, it is hypocritical and bad public policy to punish people for using a less-harmful substance.

There are 13,000 marijuana arrests at a cost of $75 million per year in Colorado. There is a multi-million dollar drug task force in Summit County that spends most of its time setting up people who possess small amounts of marijuana. That is your tax dollars at work. In Summit County, there are nearly 400 marijuana prosecutions for simple possession every year - that's one fourth the number of arrests in Denver - a town more than 100 times bigger. Since Breckenridge voters overwhelmingly supported the statewide marijuana initiative in 2006 removing criminal penalties for adult possession of marijuana, there have been nearly 100 marijuana prosecutions in the town. Law enforcement has not gotten the message from the voters, and there continues to be disproportionate enforcement of marijuana laws in this county.

Breckenridge's initiative matters. Breckenridge was a leader in 1992 when it was the first town to say that medical marijuana patients should not be prosecuted. Eight years later voters statewide enshrined that principal into the Colorado constitution - legalizing medical marijuana. A yes vote on 2F means four things: your town tax dollars will no longer be used to criminalize people for using small amounts of marijuana; no longer will our visitors and residents have a criminal record as a result of a town prosecution for marijuana; the will of the voters expressed in 2006 will be respected by removing this outdated law; and the war on marijuana has failed miserably and Breckenridge voters will not support this policy.

Vote yes on Breckenridge initiative 2F on Nov. 3. Let the change begin here at home. There is nothing inherently criminal in the responsible use of marijuana by adults over 21. The long arc of time bends toward justice, and passing 2F will be yet another turn in that long journey.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n967/a02.html
Newshawk: The GCW
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 26 Oct 2009
Source: Summit Daily News (CO)
Copyright: 2009 Summit Daily News
Contact: http://apps.summitdaily.com/forms/letter/index.php
Website: http://www.summitdaily.com/home.php
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/587
Author: Sean McAllister
Note: Sean T. McAllister is a Breckenridge attorney and chair of Sensible Breckenridge, the group that petitioned to put the decriminalization initiative on the ballot.

METH FIGHT GOES TO PHARMACY

2009-10-25T07:45:00.000-07:00

States Eye Prescription-Only Cold Medicines to Limit Key Ingredient in Illegal Stimulant

A nationwide resurgence in illegal methamphetamine labs is prompting state and municipal lawmakers to consider copying an Oregon law requiring a prescription for many cold medicines, a restriction opposed by manufacturers.

Oregon in 2005 became the first state to require a doctor's prescription for medications containing pseudoephedrine, which is used in about 40 cold and allergy medicines. Pseudoephedrine also is the primary ingredient for methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant.

Oregon's prescription law goes further than the 2005 federal legislation restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine. Federal law limits how much consumers can purchase per month and during each store visit. It requires retailers to track purchases and refuse the sale of more pseudoephedrine than allowed.

Medicines containing pseudoephedrine also have to be kept behind the counter or in a locked cabinet under the federal law. In addition, authorities have access to retailers' logs to see who is buying pseudoephedrine and how much.

Since Oregon's law took effect in 2006, meth-related arrests in the state have dropped 43%; the number of meth labs has fallen to an estimated 17 this year from 587 in 2001, according to state figures. Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said Oregon had some of the nation's largest crime reductions in 2008, with a 10.6% drop in violent crime, compared with a national decline of 2.7%.

Craig Prins, executive director of the Oregon Criminal Justice Commission said he believes there is a significant relationship between the state law and the fall in crime. While there are many factors involved, he said, "there's nothing that I've seen that has the same correlation."

Oregon's prescription law has triggered interest among legislators and law enforcement elsewhere, especially as the number of meth labs has soared with the spread of the drug. Nationwide, the number of active meth labs jumped to 3,600 in 2008 from 3,000 in 2007, authorities said.

While federal laws limiting pseudoephedrine purchases helped shrink the number of meth labs between 2005 and 2007, meth producers have since found ways to circumvent those laws, such as deploying large groups of people to buy their limit of cold medicines and then pool the purchases to make the illegal drug.

The city of Washington, Mo., in June passed an ordinance requiring a prescription for pseudoephedrine and said it was modeled on Oregon's law. In October, the city of Union, Mo., followed suit. "To me, [what Oregon did] is the answer," said Richard Stratman, mayor of Washington, Mo., which became the first municipality in the U.S. to require a prescription for pseudoephedrine. "If you can tie up the pseudoephedrine and make it difficult to obtain, you can get the job maybe not completely done, but you can put a pretty good dent in those labs."

State lawmakers in Missouri and California earlier this year introduced bills proposing similar laws. Legislators in Oklahoma and Montana are studying Oregon's law.

In August, Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon drafted federal legislation calling for a nationwide prescription mandate for pseudoephedrine; he said he planned to introduce it this year. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, which establishes policies and priorities for drug-control programs, is examining Oregon's law, though it hasn't taken a position on it.

Oregon's prescription law also has drawn controversy. The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, which lobbies for companies such as Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline PLC that make over-the-counter medicines, said Oregon's law created an inconvenience and extra expense by requiring consumers to visit a doctor for a prescription. Pseudoephedrine generates about $500 million in annual sales in the U.S., excluding sales at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said Andrew Fish, CHPA's general counsel.

The prescription law is "a policy step that puts a great burden not only on consumers but on the health-care system as well," Mr. Fish said.

The CHPA and some lawmakers are instead pushing for an electronic monitoring system, which the CHPA says the dozens of drug companies it represents would pay for. The system tracks people who buy pseudoephedrine and would prevent anyone from going over a monthly limit at the point of sale. Authorities can access the system and are alerted when someone attempts to exceed the purchase limit. Kentucky, Arkansas and Oklahoma already have electronic tracking systems.

Oregon officials acknowledge getting a prescription for some cold medicines is a nuisance. But they note that consumers have alternative products available. Electronic tracking, they add, could encourage meth producers to steal identities to circumvent the system.

"As far as I'm concerned, this law [of requiring a prescription for pseudoephedrine] saves lives, it saves families and it saves a lot of money, both for the government and the property owner, from not having to clean up these things," said Rob Bovett, chair of Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski's Meth Task Force, who was the prescription law's principal author.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n964/a04.html
Newshawk: chip
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 21 Oct 2009
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/487
Author: Ryan Knutson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)

YOUTUBE VIDEO OF APD TAKEDOWN

2009-10-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

Amateur footage gets more than 20,000 hits in 24 hours since announcement: Full investigation of excessive force now underway

Amateur video footage on the popular YouTube website of two Abbotsford police officers arresting three alleged drug traffickers on Oct. 9 has led to an investigation into the use of force during the takedown.

Abbotsford Police Chief Bob Rich requested the Professional Standards Section to alert the office of the Public Complaints Commissioner to review the use of force aspect of the incident after an officer involved in the arrests brought the footage to the department's attention on Oct. 17.

The footage starts off out-of-focus, and then sharpens to reveal an Abbotsford police officer holding his gun on two men lying on the ground.

The officer's voice can be clearly heard ordering the two suspects to stay down and not move.

The video shows one suspect continuing to move erratically and being stomped by the member.

It is unclear how the existence of the video came to the officer's attention.

The incident occurred around 1 p.m. on Oct. 9 in the 2500 block of Bourquin Crescent East, after officers completed a foot patrol of Ravine Park, known for drug dealing in the area.

Upon emerging from the park, the officers saw a drug deal taking place in a nearby driveway and immediately took the three men involved into custody.

Const. Ian MacDonald with the APD described the incident as "dynamic."

"Disrupting a drug deal, two officers, three suspects and a moving car? Pretty dynamic [I'd say]," he said.

He commended the officers for getting out of their car and walking through the park to send a message that this is an area the police and the community is taking back from the drug dealers.

There is more to the arrest than what is presented in the video footage, said MacDonald, and he stressed that police compliance was not happening in the first instance and when the parties finally exited the vehicle it was in gear.

"They got out . . . and [the car] started to leave the driveway.

"So now one officer has to both handcuff the passenger and stop the car from rolling out into the street, and that's why you're left with one officer trying to deal with the two guys on the ground . . . and the one [suspect] is not prepared to stay still."

A 23-year-old Aldergrove man and a 20-year-old Fort Langley man face trafficking charges stemming from the incident.

MacDonald said the video had little to no exposure, and the department was choosing to be proactive in bringing it to the public's attention.

"We weren't going to sit back and hope that it went away."

Arresting drug dealers is a dangerous situation, said MacDonald, adding that neither suspect had been searched for weapons or drugs at the time the video was shot.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n959/a01.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 23 Oct 2009
Source: Abbotsford Times (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 The Abbotsford Times
Contact: editorial@abbotsfordtimes.com
Website: http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1009
Author: Rafe Arnott
Cited: YOUTUBE Video: APD Take Down: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_bHUqrlU0s

MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATES' HOPE RENEWED

2009-10-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

ederal Policy Helps, but State Law Unlikely

The federal government's recent decision to ease up on prosecuting patients using medical marijuana has brought hope to activists in Ohio seeking a medical marijuana law.

But getting lawmakers here to approve therapeutic marijuana use promises to be an uphill battle.

State Rep. Kenny Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat, is drafting legislation with groups that want Ohio to become the 15th state to allow those who are seriously ill to use medical marijuana. While working on getting backers to unite behind a single approach, Yuko was heartened by the recent decision by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to redirect investigations away from patients in states that allow medical marijuana.

"It's definitely good news for people who care about this issue," said Yuko, who has multiple sclerosis but is not seeking to use medical marijuana. "I hope this gives us an opportunity to get due consideration in the House and Senate."

But Yuko acknowledges that it's "not going to be an easy sell" to get a medical marijuana measure through the legislature, especially with the vehement opposition of prosecutors and police groups.

Even supporters of medical marijuana like Ed Orlett, a former Ohio lawmaker who heads the Drug Policy Alliance Ohio, said that time is running out on passing a bill this session.

"The legislature hasn't been terribly productive anyway, and I think it's not likely they will want to tackle any controversial bills next year," Orlett said.

In 1996, Ohio lawmakers passed a criminal sentencing bill that allowed an "affirmative defense" for the medical use of marijuana. However, lawmakers said they weren't aware of the provision slipped into the 1,000-page bill, and legislation removing it was passed in early 1997. Since then, several medical marijuana bills have died in the legislature.

"I think it's because of the history of it, and people still have the perception that this is really about somehow trying to get recreational marijuana legalized," Yuko said. "But what this is really about is giving opportunities to make a difference in the quality of life for some sick people."

Yuko said his legislation probably will be modeled after Senate Bill 343, which Sen. Tom Roberts, a Dayton-area Democrat, introduced last session. That bill would have allowed Ohio doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients who would be issued cards by the state health department to show to police if necessary.

House Speaker Armond Budish, a Beachwood Democrat, took a cautious approach in declining to comment on the merits of medical marijuana in Ohio. But Senate President Bill Harris, an Ashland Republican, was firm in his opposition. "He is not supportive, nor does he think there is support in the Senate for something like that," said Harris' spokeswoman Maggie Ostrowski.

A successful multimillion-dollar ballot issue last year put a medical marijuana law on the books in neighboring Michigan, but the short distance doesn't mean Ohioans have easy access to medical marijuana. Michigan will only issue medical marijuana licenses to people who live in the state - leaving few options for Ohioans seeking the drug for treatment.

Brad Forrester, spokesman for the Michigan Medical Marijuana Association, said he has met at least six people who have moved to Michigan from Ohio so they could smoke or ingest marijuana in pill form for treatment.

"It is fairly easy for people to qualify for medical marijuana" in Michigan, Forrester said, "which, in my opinion, is a good thing."

Patients with a broad range of medical conditions must submit an application that includes a note from a Michigan doctor saying marijuana use would alleviate the patient's condition.

Since April, when the state began licensing users and growers, about 4,800 patients have been registered and about 2,000 licenses have been issued to "caregivers" who are allowed to grow and sell the drug.

But the Michigan cards offer no legal protection in Ohio, said Lt. Michael Daly, of the Toledo Police Department's vice narcotics unit. Daly said the department hasn't encountered anybody with marijuana bought legally in Michigan.

"We would enforce the state of Ohio laws and let that whole scenario play out in court," Daly said.

The Michigan law was passed with the help of the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, an organization that assists states and is heavily funded by Peter B. Lewis, chairman of Progressive Corp.

Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the group, said activists in Ohio were not ready to enlist the organization's help. "The last time I heard, and this was awhile ago, there seemed to be some infighting among local activists," Mirken said.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n959/a09.html
Newshawk: Brandy Zink
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/pAuCUibW
Pubdate: Wed, 21 Oct 2009
Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
Copyright: 2009 The Plain Dealer
Contact: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/letter-to-editor/
Website: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Authors: Aaron Marshall and Joe Guillen, Plain Dealer Reporters
Cited: Michigan Medical Marijuana Association
http://www.michiganmedicalmarijuana.org
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project http://www.mpp.org/
Referenced: Michigan Medical Marihuana Program
http://www.michigan.gov/mdch/0,1607,7-132-27417_51869---,00.html
Referenced: Initiated Law 1 of 2008 http://micares.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?197 (Marijuana - Medicinal - Ohio)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Michigan+medical+marijuana
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?253 (Cannabis - Medicinal - United States)

COMMISSIONER GETS PROBATION, FINE FOR MARIJUANA, TAG CHARGES

2009-10-22T10:34:00.000-07:00

Commissioner Gets Probation, Fine For Marijuana, Tag Charges

Judge orders $800 fine, forbids drug/alcohol use while on 12 months probation Horgan attorney: he didn't purchase nor grow the marijuana

Fayette County Commissioner Robert Horgan entered a no contest plea today on charges stemming from his May 23 arrest for misdemeanor possession of marijuana and driving with an expired tag.

Fayette County State Court Judge Fletcher Sams sentenced Horgan to 12 months probation ( concurrent/consecutive ), an $800 fine and 40 hours of community service. Also while on probation, Sams ordered Horgan to avoid any drug or alcohol use for which he will be tested during the probation period.

Horgan must also submit to a drug and alcohol evaluation and follow any recommended course of treatment if there is any, Sams ordered. He must also attend one session of the county's new drug court so he can witness what happens to defendants who can't stay clean of drugs or alcohol while on probation, Sams indicated.

Horgan, 45, was sentenced under a statute designed to dispose of cases involving first-time offenders. Under that statute Horgan will not face a suspension of his driver's license.

After the hearing, Horgan attorney Christy Jindra said the commissioner did not grow nor purchase the marijuana. After further explaining that Horgan didn't want to say how he acquired the marijuana, Jindra noted that the marijuana was "found" by Horgan though it was not explained where or how he found it.

Horgan was pulled over Saturday, May 23 after a sheriff's deputy noticed his white Mazda truck had a tag that expired the previous month, according to the deputy's report.

Jindra noted that Horgan complied with all the deputy's requests, consented to a search of the truck and told the officer where the marijuana was located in the vehicle.

The deputy's report also indicated that while Horgan was sitting in his patrol vehicle, Horgan asked "If there was anything that we could do to resolve this right here, right now!"

Horgan contends that what he was attempting to find out from the deputy was whether or not he would be issued a ticket or taken to jail. Horgan said at the time he was in the patrol car, handcuffed, a position in which he has never been before.

Horgan said he never told the deputies that he was a commissioner, nor did he flash a card or badge in an effort to indicate to them his position as county commissioner.

"I never tried to throw my weight around," Horgan said.

As a commissioner, Horgan does not have any direct supervisory powers over the sheriff's office but he does have a say in budgetary matters for the sheriff's office.

A bid to remove Horgan from office via a recall vote failed after Horgan appealed the matter to a Superior Court judge as allowed by Georgia law. The judge ruled that Horgan's offense, which occurred on a Saturday afternoon in his personal vehicle, was not connected to his elected office.

A three-member ethics panel determined last month that Horgan's actions violated the county's ethics ordinance and in the future the county commission is expected to issue a decision in that matter. The commission can publicly reprimand Horgan and issue up to a $1,000 fine.

Jindra indicated this morning that Horgan is considering a legal appeal of the ethics panel's decision because the arrest is not connected to Horgan's official duties.

Jindra added that while some citizens have expressed displeasure with Horgan, many have contacted him to offer their support for him.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n959/a08.html
Newshawk: Jim
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 22 Oct 2009
Source: Citizen, The (GA)
Copyright: 2009 Fayette Publishing, Inc.
Contact: editor@thecitizen.com
Website: http://www.thecitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5051
Author: John Munford
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?224 (Cannabis and Driving)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

SAFE CRACK HOUSES URGED

2009-10-21T09:18:00.000-07:00

B. C. Public Health Supports Strategy To Help Addicts

Government authorities should allow medically supervised sites where crack-cocaine users can legally smoke their potent drug, researchers and B. C.'s top public-health doctor urged yesterday after a new study suggested crack addicts are particularly prone to contracting HIV.

Sanctioned, safe crack houses would help curb the rampant transmission of dangerous infections among cocaine smokers, say proponents of the latest version of harm reduction, a controversial strategy that essentially condones an illegal activity to prevent an allegedly worse health problem. They also recommended that public-health officials be permitted to distribute "safe crack kits," including glass pipes designed to lessen the spread of viruses.

"It's very unfortunate these things get politicized and made more controversial than they need be," said Dr. Evan Wood, who spearheaded the research. "But given the costs and challenges of HIV ... it's certainly in our interest to take a public-health approach to these infectious diseases that are already breaking free of their traditional boundaries."

Dr. Wood is with the B. C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS, which oversees Insite, a contentious facility where injection-drug users can shoot up while under medical supervision.

Insite has been able to operate through an exemption to the Criminal Code's drug prohibitions granted by the federal government. The current Conservative administration has no plans to expand the concept, said Pamela Stephens, a spokeswoman for Rob Nicholson, the Attorney-General.

" 'Harm reduction' sites and similar initiatives are inherently harmful to human health," she said in an email response to questions.

"These programs not only cause physical harm, they also deepen and prolong the addictions and divert valuable dollars away from treatment."

The debate stems from a paper published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal yesterday that found use of crack cocaine had soared between 1996 and 2005 to 40% from 12% among a 1,048-strong sample of injection-drug users in Vancouver.

It also concluded that crack users, who typically heat blocks of cocaine in glass-bowled pipes and inhale the resulting smoke, were four times more likely to contract HIV than the other drug users.

One theory is that the burns and open sores they often develop around their mouths provide an easy path for infection, said the CMAJ paper by Dr. Wood and colleagues with the B. C. Centre and the Urban Health Research Initiative.

Another hypothesis is that users in the study got involved in unsafe sex or were even raped while on a crack binge, leading to virus transmission, the study suggested. Regardless of the reason, it is clear that crack-cocaine smokers are at greatly increased risk for a disease that is not only devastating to the individual, but costs the health-care system as much as $250,000 per case, Dr. Wood said.

The paper suggested that crack sites and distribution of the kits be carried out initially on an experimental basis and studied scientifically.

Dr. Perry Kendall, British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer, said he would support the idea, so long as the issue of second-hand smoke exposure for health-care workers in the safe sites was addressed.

"Do you want people smoking crack outside in public, disruptively and spreading diseases, or would you rather have them doing it in an environment where it can be controlled?" asked Dr. Kendall. "In my mind it's a relatively simple equation."

Critics, though, say safe crack sites would only encourage the addicts, and divert resources from what they really need: effective treatment.

"What they should be doing is giving them a safe environment to get them off cocaine," said Larry Molyneaux, president of the Police Association of Ontario. "A harm-reduction program without a treatment program is a failure. Just feeding their habit isn't what is going to fix it."

Dr. Wood said safe "inhalation sites" already exist in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany. Anecdotal reports indicate they have been successful in preventing disease, but no formal scientific studies have been conducted with any of those programs, he said.

Dr. Wood also pointed to the evidence around Insite published in major medical journals, which suggests that its users are less likely to suffer overdose deaths and more likely to enter treatment.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n947/a04.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://www.nationalpost.com/todays-paper/story.html?id=2121690
Pubdate: Tue, 20 Oct 2009
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/O3vnWIvC
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Tom Blackwell, Staff Writer

CAN WE ESCAPE MEXICO'S DRUG WARS?

2009-10-20T13:18:00.000-07:00

Corruption, Murders Underpinning Vastly Rich Cocaine Cartels Could Cross Canadian Border

They were not the first Canadians to run afoul of Colombian cocaine or Mexican guns, and it's a fair bet they won't be the last.

But the recent deaths of Gordon Kendall and Jeffery Ivans are another sign that what began as a Colombian disease and then morphed into a Mexican malady is now on its way to becoming something of a Canadian condition, too.

Around midnight on Sept. 27, Kendall and Ivans were relaxing in or near the condo they shared not far from the Plaza las Glorias in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta, a tourist haunt made famous when Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton conducted a very public romance there while filming The Night of the Iguana in 1963.

Half an hour later, both men were dead - the most recent Canadian casualties in a bloody conflict that has bedevilled the Mexican Republic since late 2006 at least.

That was when the country's new president, Felipe Calderon, declared war on the cocaine cartels that are now doing to his land what their South American counterparts have long inflicted upon Colombia - killing its people, sapping its spirit, and crippling its institutions in an orgy of payola and blood.

Upwards of 15,000 Mexicans have lost their lives in drug-related violence since early 2007, a spiralling death toll that eclipses most of the world's other civil conflicts.

Now Kendall and Ivans are dead, both shot repeatedly in the head by unknown assailants - killed and then "re-killed," as they say in Spanish.

Their fate provides the moral of this tale. Canadians, like Americans, cannot expect to have their cocaine without suffering its pain.

The cross-border spillover of violence and graft from Mexico is already a source of mounting American trauma. The U.S. Department of Justice calls cocaine trafficking that country's "leading drug threat." Canada has not been affected to the same extent, but that could quickly change, especially if the squeeze on drug traffickers in Mexico forces them to change their tactics.

"They're not going to simply evaporate," said Tony Payan, a political science professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and an expert on U.S.-Mexico border issues. "The U.S.-Canada border is the next frontier. That's a very open border."

Put aside the spectre of violence for a moment and consider corruption.

"The Mexicans say, `We're not the only ones with a problem,'" said Maureen Meyer, a Mexico expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. "I think we're being idealistic to think that corruption is not a concern in the United States. We'd be fooling ourselves to think that the U.S. and Canada are immune from that."

The lure of substantial bribes - say, $50,000 per transaction - is more than enough to make many a border guard, Canadian or American, at least contemplate looking the other way.

Not long ago most Colombian cocaine travelled to its destination by air. Later the cartels shifted their methods, transporting cocaine mainly by sea to transshipment points in the Caribbean and then on to Florida. Nowadays, about 90 per cent of Colombia's cocaine travels to Mexico, mainly by sea, before proceeding across the Rio Grande to the Western U.S. - nearly $40 billion U.S. worth of cocaine a year. A considerable portion of that cargo continues north to Canada.

If you are a drug trafficker, all you really need to do is corrupt one agent per border.

"The No. 1 way to move drugs is at ports of entry," said Payan. "You just have to break one link in the chain. The drug traffickers prefer that. It's easy for an agent to just wave a vehicle right through." It seems hardly surprising then that more than 80 U.S. border officers have been convicted of corruption charges in the past two years, according to The Associated Press.

Payan estimates there are 75 new corruption investigations involving U.S. border guards each year.

He's echoing a point the Mexican president has been trying to drive home for some time - it isn't Mexicans who are being corrupted here.

"To get drugs into the United States, the one you need to corrupt is the American authority, the American customs, the American police - not the Mexican," Calderon said recently. "And that's a subject, by the way, which hasn't been addressed with sincerity."

Calderon did not include Canada in his remarks, but he easily could have. In 2004, the Canadian Border Service Agency seized 321 kilograms of cocaine along British Columbia's border with the United States. Two years later, the haul soared to about 585 kilograms of cocaine, as B.C. replaced Toronto's Pearson Airport as the country's main portal for the drug. The seizures haven't abated.

If this much contraband is being seized, then it's fair to assume even more is getting through. How is this possible without at least some complicity at the Canadian border?

Meet Baljinder Kandola, 35, of Surrey, B.C., a Canadian border guard with six years' experience.

Kandola was arrested in October 2007 and now faces half a dozen charges of importing drugs and weapons into Canada.

Another Canadian guard, Jasbir Singh Grewal, was indicted this past June by a U.S. grand jury in Seattle and faces a charge of conspiracy to export cocaine from the United States into Canada.

The U.S. indictment alleges Grewal allowed an RV loaded with cocaine to enter Canada via the Lynden-Aldergrove border crossing on at least 11 occasions during 2007 alone and was paid an average of $50,000 U.S. each time.

So far, drug-related violence is confined mainly to Mexico, but this could well go international as well.

A recent assessment by the National Drug Intelligence Center, an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, found Mexican cartels now operate in 230 U.S. cities, up from 50 cities only three years ago. "Those guys can clash," said Payan. "At some point, they're going to have interests to protect."

U.S. towns on the Mexican border are havens of tranquility compared to their sister communities just across the Rio Grande, but drug-related violence is on the upswing in Southern U.S. cities, such as Tucson ( plagued by home invasions ) and Phoenix ( regarded by many as the kidnap capital of the U.S. ).

So far, Toronto Police have seen no sign of Mexican gang activity here. But British Columbia has suffered a spate of killings some refer to as "Mexico-type" gang violence.

Much of the bloodshed has involved members or associates of the so-called United Nations gang, centred in B.C.'s Fraser Valley.

In May 2008, Mike Gordon, a B.C. realtor closely connected to the gang, was shot dead in Chilliwack in what the RCMP calls a targeted killing. A UN gang member, Duane Meyer, was gunned down in Abbotsford only a few days earlier.

Just a month before that, in April 2008, two UN members, Elliott "Taco" Castaneda and Ahmet "Lou" Kaawach, were mowed down at a restaurant in Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.

Then, late last month, Kendall and Ivans both met their own sad and bloody end. Neither man was known to have had ties to Canadian gangs, but they were evidently mixed up in drugs. In Mexico these days, that can be a death sentence.

Given the state of the Mexican police, plagued by corruption and incompetence and hugely overworked, it is unlikely anyone will ever be brought to justice for their deaths - just two more grim statistics, after all, in a mounting toll.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n945/a08.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sun, 18 Oct 2009
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Toronto Star
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.ca
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author:

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REBELS VISIT DRUG-INFESTED EAST HASTINGS

2009-10-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

Several Red Deer Rebels got a first-hand look yesterday at the devastating consequences of drug addiction in Vancouver's downtown east side.

Red Deer Rebels Jordie Deagle, Nathan Green, Willie Coetzee, Colin Archer, Darcy Kuemper and Brett Ferguson were taken on a tour of East Hastings as part of Project Keep Straight.

"It's overwhelming, and of course a totally different environment for them," said Cpl. Kent Dahl of the RCMP's Red Deer Federal Drug Section of the two-day trip.

This year marked his second stint of heading to the notorious six-block area in Vancouver.

About 10,000 people are packed into this single region and about 2,000 of them are homeless. Drug use is rampant.

"You see hundreds of addicts injecting themselves. It's very shocking."

Players from the hockey team have been making the trip to Vancouver for 13 years. They have to be at least 18 years old and interested in giving back to the community and being a positive role model for the middle-school students they'll be speaking to after they return home.

Dahl added many of the players come from rural settings, so seeing the East Hastings area is particularly eye-opening.

"They've never been exposed to anything like this," said Dahl. "It makes them realize how important it is to lead a positive, drug-free lifestyle."

Once the players arrived in Vancouver yesterday morning, they underwent a drug awareness presentation explaining why the downtown east side is the way it is and how drugs are brought into the city.

They also saw drug paraphernalia up-close and had a day-time tour of East Hastings.

They also planned to visit Vancouver's harbour, and receive further insight into how the drug trade affects the city. A night-time tour of East Hastings is also included where the players can get out and talk to the addicts and get a grittier feel of what life is like on the streets.

Dahl said the Rebels were the first WHL team to partner with the RCMP and the Vancouver Police Department for the program. Once home, they will visit 18 local schools in pairs along with an RCMP officer to share their experiences with students.

Part of the tragedy of East Hastings is that many addicts spend decades trying to survive and end up dying there as well. When the players talk with some of the addicts, they learn that many had normal backgrounds and families.

"They are from all walks of life and all parts of the country," said Dahl. "It's heart-wrenching for the players because they see people who are driven by their addictions and nothing else."

Another presentation planned for today at B.C. Children's Hospital was about babies born with addictions to drugs.

Rebels player Brett Ferguson said he chose to go on the trip because he felt it would be a very interesting experience and as role models in the community, it better prepares him to talk to teens about the dangers of drugs.

He said he's visited local schools in the past to do anti-drug presentations, but after visiting East Hastings he'll have much more to offer in terms of painting a realistic picture.

"I'll be able to use my experience, share it with them and hopefully get through to them," he said.

Cam Moon, director of radio broadcast for the Red Deer Rebels, said the purpose of the trip is for players to see first hand the drug trade at its worst.

"East Hastings in Vancouver has some of the worst activity and the players meet the street people that the police know well and hear about their stories - how they got there and why they are unable to get out.

"It's far more impactful when they have gone down and seen the drug trade first hand," said Moon. "They have a basis of knowledge to go on."

Rebels' Assistant Coach Bryce Thoma said the trip to Vancouver is a "great experience".

"I was able to go when I was a player for the Rebels and you can't describe what's there until you go down there and see it," he said. "People are so open and are willing to talk to you. We heard stories of some of the people who ended up there and some of them were just regular Joes.

"Within six square blocks you can walk and see every single junkie in Vancouver. The drugs come off the boats in the harbour and then go right onto the street."

He added the Rebels will continue to participate in Project Keep Straight.

"The Rebels were the first team to do this type of thing and now there are a lot of teams who are participating as well," said Thoma. "It's very beneficial."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n945/a06.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 14 Oct 2009
Source: Red Deer Express (CN AB)
Copyright: 2009 Red Deer Express
Contact: express@reddeer.greatwest.ca
Website: http://www.reddeerexpress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2920
Author: Mark Weber

how long does marijuana stay in your system

tips on passing a drug test
how to pass a urine test
home remedies for passing drug tests

WATCHDOG WARNS ON 'INVASIVE' SEARCH LAW

2009-10-18T13:17:00.000-07:00

Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff has warned Parliament that a proposed law widening enforcement authorities' powers of search and surveillance needs more safeguards.

She says the Search and Surveillance Bill gives rise to "significant privacy issues".

"It does cover activities that are instrinsically invasive. One just can't get away from that."

Mrs Shroff said confidence that telecommunications were secure from intrusion "is an essential feature of private life and the ability to communicate freely".

The new law will bring together warrants for audio, visual and tracking surveillance devices.

Interception devices are now used in investigations of serious crime.

Rules for their use are spelled out in legislation such as the Crimes Act and the Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act, but there are few controls over visual surveillance.

The new bill gives wider scope for use of interceptions and tracking devices.

"Instead of being restricted to certain types of serious crime, enforcement officers will be able to apply for surveillance device warrants on the same basis as search warrants," Mrs Shroff told Parliament's justice and electoral committee, which is hearing submissions on the bill.

"You have got to balance that law enforcement need to make sure we can pursue the really nasty people with a public interest in privacy and making sure we strike that right balance."

Mrs Shroff said she generally supported the bill, which is the result of an extensive review and report by the Law Commission.

National and Labour support it as a way of countering the growing sophistication of criminals and technology.

Mrs Shroff said the bill needed major changes to address privacy concerns.

She wants the section on computers tightened to stop enforcement agencies going on "trawling exercises", saying the authorities should be required to say what they are looking for.

She said "production orders" - requiring people to produce information - were now limited to specified serious offences.

Under the bill, they could be used for any offence for which a search warrant could be obtained.

"This is a significant change in the law, and will dramatically increase the availability of production and monitoring orders.

"These orders potentially make a vast amount of information available to enforcement officers."

Mrs Shroff was also concerned that production orders could be issued without being examined by a judge.

"Traditional expectations are that intrusions will not be made in private communications without rigorous oversight by a judge.

"We believe the orders should be issued by judges only."

This was because of the wide-ranging nature of production orders, and because they were "turbo-charged by technology".

[sidebars]

THE BILL

* Removes right to silence for person suspected of having evidence in crime with three or more suspects.

* Widens provision for searches without warrant.

* Allows copying of material stored on computers and remote searches of computers.

* Increases covert investigative powers of the Commerce Commission, the Reserve Bank, Customs and Ministries of Agriculture and of Fisheries.

* Gives power to detain anyone at scene of search.

COMMISSIONER WANTS TO

* Require enforcement officers to notify the subjects after the surveillance has finished.

* Stop computer searches becoming trawling exercises.

* Limit to judges only the right to issue production orders.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n945/a03.html
Newshawk: http://www.norml.org.nz
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 16 Oct 2009
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2009 New Zealand Herald
Contact: letters@nzherald.co.nz
Website: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300
Author: Audrey Young

OBAMA POLICY SHIFT ON MARIJUANA TURNS HEADS

2009-10-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

Uncle Sam will no longer bother with medical marijuana users and their caregivers, so long as they adhere to medical pot laws in the 14 states that have them, according to new guidelines Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday.

The guidelines, laid out in a memo sent to all United States attorneys, formalize earlier statements by both Holder and President Barack Obama that the administration has no interest in pressing a clash between federal and state pot laws that brought frequent marijuana dispensary raids and occasional prosecutions of backyard growers during the Clinton and Bush eras.

But with varying interpretations over what kind of dispensaries California's medical pot laws allow, advocates say the impact remains unclear.

The three-page memo declared the Justice Department's commitment to fighting Mexican drug cartels and other large-scale marijuana manufacturers and traffickers, but suggested that battling patients and caregivers who are "in clear and unambiguous compliance with existing state law" is a waste of time.

"It will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers who are complying with state laws on medical marijuana," Holder said in a statement, "but we will not tolerate drug traffickers who hide between claims of compliance with state law to mask activities that are clearly illegal."

Where that leaves some of the hundreds if not thousands

of medical pot clubs statewide is uncertain. In some counties, such as Los Angeles and San Diego, local authorities, with help from the federal government, have taken aim at the wide proliferation of pot clubs, with a narrow view of a state law that says patients can exchange marijuana only in collectives or co-ops. Others, such as Alameda County, have taken a far looser approach.

How federal authorities might act in that legal gray area is unclear. Several medical marijuana advocates note that a handful of dispensaries, from San Diego to Lake County, have been raided since Holder announced the policy shift in January.

"You cannot overstate how big a deal it is for the president of the United States to end the Clinton- and Bush-era active opposition to medical marijuana across the country. It's a huge deal to not have the feds acting unilaterally to harass, intimidate and terrorize patients and caregivers," said Stephen Gutwillig, state director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "But the devil is in the details of what state compliance should be in California."

Dale Gieringer of California NORML downplayed the memo.

"It leaves a lot of latitude for the feds to pretty much go after anybody they think is in violation of state law, and there's a lot of disagreement about what state law is," he said.

The guidelines do suggest when the federal government might step in on pot clubs, citing illegal gun possession or use, violence, sales to minors, or signs of money laundering or ties to other criminal activity.

One national opponent of state medical marijuana laws said she welcomed the guidelines, particularly after Holder's earlier remarks.

"My understanding is: U.S. attorneys felt they weren't allowed to prosecute ( marijuana cases ) anymore, so it brings some clarity," said Calvina Fay, executive director of the Drug Free America Foundation.

"We don't really see this as too much of a change. It's pretty clear the guidelines did not endorse marijuana and don't in any way change the fact it's still a very harmful, addictive illegal drug. It clearly allows the DEA to shut down dispensaries that are breaking the law."

Marijuana is a banned substance under federal law, and the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 upheld the right to federally prosecute medical marijuana users in states that allow it, in a case brought by Oakland activist Angel Raich.

A Justice Department official declined to say how the federal agency would interpret California's medical marijuana law, saying only that the new guidelines shield "sick patients who have prescriptions who are within the confines of state law. It does not cover people who claim state law to mask illegal activities."

Some marijuana experts say the policy that Holder announced in January already has led to hundreds of new pot clubs opening up, mostly in Southern California. Other states that are debating legal marijuana for medical use -- including New York and New Jersey -- might be encouraged with the policy change, said Gutwillig, of the Drug Policy Alliance.

For Buzz Fowler, who runs a small dispensary on San Pablo Dam Road in El Sobrante, the new position spells relief. Not long ago, Fowler said, his landlord got spooked by a letter from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

"He had pressure from the DEA, that you're allowing a controlled substance to be sold out of your building," Fowler said. "They weren't going to renew my lease. Now he's told me, 'We don't have a problem.' That took a lot of weight off my shoulders."

One pot advocate called it another in a series of positive steps toward legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana in the state. Among them was a respected state poll this year that for the first time found a majority of Californians in favor of legalization.

"It's one more sign the prohibition is going to end," said Richard Lee, president of Oaksterdam University in Oakland, which runs a variety of marijuana-related courses. "When local officials see the federal government is backing them up less and less, they're going to be more prone to agree with us that it's time to tax and regulate."

Lee is among advocates who are pushing a ballot initiative that would allow individuals to grow and keep small amounts of pot for personal use, and allow cities and counties to tax and regulate sales and commercial growing. That may be playing with federal fire, said one drug policy scholar.

"Things are going to get hairier if one of the referendums passes," said UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, a former Justice Department official and author of "Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control and Against Excess."

"If the states decide it's within the scope of medical practice, then it's not unreasonable for the feds to get out of the way," he said. "But if they license open sales for nonmedical purposes, you again have a conflict, not only with federal statutes, but with international treaties."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n946/a09.html
Newshawk: Kirk
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 19 Oct 2009
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Bay Area News Group
Contact: ccnletters@bayareanewsgroup.com
Website: http://www.contracostatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96
Author: John Simerman, Contra Costa Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

CRIME DOWN, PRISON BOOM LOOMS

2009-10-16T13:15:00.000-07:00

Money spent on longer, harsher sentences is money wasted, because more prisons do not increase our safety

If the federal government gets its way, Canadians will witness a boom in prison construction coinciding with the longest steady decline in crime rates in Canadian history. That's the consequence of the various pieces of "get tough" legislation recently passed or currently working their way through Parliament.

Consider this: the introduction of mandatory minimum sentences for "serious drug crimes" in the National Anti-Drug Strategy plus the limiting of judicial discretion in regard to credit for time served in pre-trial detention is projected by Statistics Canada to grow the rate of incarceration by as much as 10 per cent.

The government claims that ending two-for-one credit for pre-trial detention will alleviate the overcrowding crisis in provincial detention centres by encouraging more guilty pleas and introducing "truth in sentencing." The resulting surge in Canada's rate of incarceration, currently hovering around 149 per 100,000 population, would require roughly 3,000 new beds for men and about 10 to 15 per cent of that number for women.

So what? Bad people go to jail, right? It should be that simple, but it's not.

When governments "crack down," the American evidence shows that they quickly catch the worst of the worst before reaching into the pool of the non-violent - people who might represent a threat to themselves but are little risk to their communities.

The worst crime for most of these people is either that they are racial minorities ( aboriginals will be particularly hard hit ) or that they started falling through the cracks in elementary school and carry the burden of various learning and cognitive challenges, including ADD, acquired brain disorders, ADHD, fetal alcohol syndrome, depression, trauma and a whole alphabet soup of psychiatric and psychological syndromes.

The result is prisons swollen with greater numbers of the non-violent, mentally ill, and poor and racialized minorities.

Currently, approximately 10 per cent of the federal prison population is double-bunked. Prison crowding undermines the success of treatment and degrades the working conditions of staff, encouraging higher rates of staff turnover and poorer treatment outcomes for prisoners. Most non-violent prisoners can be more effectively, humanely and economically treated in the community than they can in prison, and the government has the research to prove this.

Community supervision costs roughly $23,500 a year per person compared with approximately $101,000 a year per person on average across all security levels to keep a man in prison, and $185,000 a year per woman.

Then there's the issue of where to put them. Current infrastructure is at or over capacity. The passage of Bill C-25 will require temporary housing in the short term, but it's the long term that ought to concern Canadians - for the only land that the federal government can start building on quickly is the prison farms.

Some of the best farmland in Canada could be swallowed up by super-max prisons based on the American model. That is the vision endorsed by the "independent panel" commissioned by the government and chaired by the former minister of corrections for the province of Ontario, Rob Sampson.

So let's connect the dots. The crime rate has been declining for 26 years - those are the government's numbers - but the same government wants to build more prisons at a cost to taxpayers of billions of dollars.

Who benefits? In the U.S. case, private prison contractors and correctional officer unions. Everyone else loses: education, social assistance and health care.

Does prison building buy safer communities? Not in the United States. Money spent on increased imprisonment and longer, harsher sentences is money wasted, because more prisons do not increase community safety - and there is ample evidence that prisons create and reinforce criminal attitudes and predispositions.

If more prisons resulted in less crime, the United States would be the safest place in the world.

Canada does not need to grow its rate of incarceration, particularly in a context of declining crime rates. We do not need to "get tough," but we do need to "get smart."

Craig Jones is the executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada.

Kim Pate is the executive director of the Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n946/a07.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 1
Pubdate: Sat, 17 Oct 2009
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Toronto Star
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.ca
Website: http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Authors: Craig Jones and Kim Pate
Note: Craig Jones is the executive director of the John Howard Society of
Canada. Kim Pate is the executive director of the Canadian Association of
Elizabeth Fry Societies.

CITIES SET MARIJUANA POLICIES AS STATE, FEDERAL LAW COLLIDE

2009-10-15T14:28:00.000-07:00

San Bernardino City Councilman Chas Kelley is unambiguous about his opposition to allowing medical marijuana to be distributed in his city.

"I just don't want to be a regional magnet," said Kelley, noting that nearby cities had prohibitions on the books before San Bernardino followed their lead last month.

The nearly 13 years since California voters asked their government to legalize medical marijuana has not been enough time to settle debate on the proper use of the much loved and hated herb.

In 2009, Inland Empire-based cannabis providers continue to exist in a kind of legal haze, where state law appears to sanction their activities while federal law makes marijuana as illegal as heroin.

California voters cleared the path for medical marijuana in 1996 with the passage of Proposition 215. But voters up and down the state have also put into office politicians with very different views on medical cannabis.

In San Bernardino County, the response to medical marijuana has generally been to just say "no" - or at least "not yet." Officials in several local cities have adopted bans or moratoriums aimed at keeping cannabis providers out of some towns.

Other California cities have had different experiences, permitting marijuana providers or - as is the case in Oakland - creating a new business license tax intended to use medical marijuana as a means to balance the city's budget.

Oakland Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan touts her city's regulatory process as a tool to keep dispensaries safe for patients whose doctors recommend marijuana.

The political controversies that continue to surround medical marijuana, are in Kaplan's view, foolish.

"It's a conflict that's hurting everybody, as well as being a waste of time, money and energy," she said.

But Kaplan's views are at odds with a number of Inland Empire public officials and California law-enforcement leaders.

A California Police Chiefs Association report on medicinal marijuana is but one voice of skepticism. The paper argues that federal law trumps Proposition 215 and that dispensaries, which should be deemed illegal, are likely targets for criminals looking to score pot or cash.

"Marijuana dispensaries are commonly large money-making enterprises who will sell marijuana to most anyone who produces a physician's written recommendation for its medical use," the report reads. "These recommendations can be had by paying unscrupulous physicians a fee and claiming to have most any malady, even headaches."

Several inland jurisdictions have adopted temporary bans that block cannabis providers until more detailed policies can be crafted.

San Bernardino County extended its temporary ban in August, but some providers who set up operations before county officials acted are still dispensing marijuana.

These facilities include the Inland Empire Patient Group in Bloomington and the San Bernardino Patients Association near Chino.

Ryan Michaels and Jan Werner of Inland Empire Patient Group want to be treated as any other law-abiding enterprise.

Michaels discusses marijuana policy with a libertarian's respect for old-fashioned federalism. To him, it makes no sense for government officials in California to bow down to federal law.

"We have states that are allowed to try their own methods of solving their own problems," he said.

He also contends that without a legal option, patients will buy from street dealers.

Werner and Michaels said their operation is not a dispensary but a collective that allows marijuana patients to share crops that they cultivate.

They provide marijuana on site but said they do not technically sell marijuana. Instead, they collect donations or contributions to cover production costs.

In Los Angeles County, where hundreds of dispensaries are in operation, District Attorney Steve Cooley last week announced plans to step up prosecutions of providers that sell marijuana at a profit.

Dennis Christy, assistant district attorney for San Bernardino County, said his officeis not planning the kinds of prosecutions being discussed in Los Angeles County.

"We don't have the same number as L.A. does. That's one of the big differences," he said.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n932/a10.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Tues, 13 Oct 2009
Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario, CA)
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Contact: letters@inlandnewspapers.com
Website: http://www.dailybulletin.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/871
Author: Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer

GRADE 5S TO 'RACE' FOR HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

2009-10-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

RACING FOR DRUGS: Event developed by RCMP coming to City of Kawartha Lakes for first time later this month

The excitement of auto racing will be incorporated into a three day drug and alcohol awareness program coming to the City of Kawartha Lakes for the first time later this month.

More than 800 local students will take in Racing Against Drugs, a community-based program developed by the RCMP that will be presented at the Lindsay Fairgrounds from Oct. 27 to 29. All Grade 5s in the municipality will take part.

Drug awareness, safety issues and healthy alternative choices will be promoted to them through 13 interactive 'pit stops.'

Each is run by a different c ommu n i t y agency or group that will make a presentation that promotes a healthy, drug-free lifestyle. Students will be placed into groups of 12 and rotated every 12 minutes, making it to between 10 and 12 'stops' in a two hour session.

The interaction at each pit stop is key, said City of Kawartha Lakes OPP Const. Mark Boileau.

"It's not just them sitting and listening. It's making it interesting for them," he said, noting activities like the rollover simulator that brings home the importance of wearing a seat belt.

After visiting the pit stops, students can then watch their teachers race remote control cars on a giant race track in the morale-boosting 'Final Race' that pits different schools against each other.

The program, presented by a committee made up of representatives of local agencies and businesses, has been a big success in Durham Region for 14 years, Boileau said.

Given the current economic climate, the Community Services Officer admitted he was apprehensive at first. But so far, he said the community support has been "phenomenal."

"It's amazing to see in a time of recession," he said. "People still come together when it comes to kids."

High school students are using the event to gain volunteer hours. Bus company First Student Canada will be transporting the students free of charge.

Use of the Farmer's Mutual Building is free thanks to the Lindsay Agricultural Society. Mosport International Raceway is even bringing some real race cars to the event.

"Everyone has stepped up to the plate," Boileau said. "The whole theme of this is making it a positive experience for the kids who are there."

Presenters will include:

* RCMP ( drug awareness )

* Boys and Girls Clubs ( healthy recreation )

* Mothers Against Drunk Driving ( Fatal Vision Goggles )

* Kawartha Lakes Risk Watch ( bicycle-pedestrian safety )

* Health Unit ( substance abuse-healthy nutrition )

* Central Region Emergency Response Team ( Mental alertness and physical fitness )

* Haliburton ATV Association ( ATV safety )

There will also be a pharmacy booth with information on prescription drugs as well as presentations on youth gambling, gangs and bullying and body image.

Representatives from the Ministry of Transportation and Kawartha Lakes Fire Rescue Service will also be on hand.

Organizers hope to expand the event each year. Boileau encouraged anyone who believes they can enhance the program to contact him at the local OPP detachment at 324-6741.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n932/a04.html
Newshawk: Free Marc Emery: www.FreeMarc.ca
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 09 Oct 2009
Source: Lindsay Daily Post (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 Osprey Media
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/EYweHoXP
Website: http://www.thepost.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2333
Author: Jason Bain
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

ways to pass a drug test
how to pass a drug test
pass a drug test

SUSPECTED DRUG LAB ROCKED BY EXPLOSION

2009-10-13T09:09:00.001-07:00

Residents of a Duke Street home that contains several apartments are extremely fortunate to have escaped a Wednesday afternoon home explosion without serious injury, says an investigator with the Ontario Fire Marshal's office.

"They are very, very lucky," Mike Owens, a fire investigator with the Office of the Fire Marshal, said Thursday. "People have died in these types of incidents and people have sustained very serious injuries. "These residents were extremely fortunate."

The explosion occurred at 2: 20 p. m. Wednesday and is being investigated by police and the Ontario Fire Marshal's office. Investigators suspect [redacted] was being used as a cannabis resin drug lab.

Police obtained a search warrant and were waiting for the building to be made secure before entering the apartment.

There were two people in the residence and one suffered minor injuries in the explosion, police said.

One neighbour was dealing with a water problem in his basement when the explosion occurred.

"I was carrying a bucket of water upstairs and I heard this ba-boom," said the man, who wouldn't provide his name. "I saw glass flying out of the window and I went in to see if anyone was still in there.

"I saw my buddy in the backyard and he was in a bit of a daze."

However, the man didn't appear to have any serious injuries, the neighbour said.

The explosion occurred between 2 and 2:30 p. m., the neighbour said.

Police and the Ontario Fire Marshal's office were continuing their investigation on Thursday after workers secured the building.

The building sustained heavy damage to a rear wall as well as a side wall of the apartment, which is located at the side and rear of a multi-unit building.

Police say the two men were in the apartment were heating chemicals for the production of cannabis resin when the explosion occurred. Both people were out of the house immediately after the explosion and while one remained near the apartment, the other fled the scene, police said.

It is the first time investigators could recall such an incident in Brantford.

However, such explosions have occurred in other jurisdictions and pose a serious threat to the people trying to produce the cannabis resin and those who live near them.

Typically, people are trying to extract the oil or resin from a marijuana plant to produce hash oil and in some cases they use butane gas, Owens said.

"But the average person doesn't understand the volatility of butane," Owens said. "It can be ignited just like that by someone smoking a cigarette or even a light switch."

"When you're indoors, it's even more dangerous because it's enclosed."

A lot of butane is needed to extract oil from a marijuana plant, which makes the whole process even more dangerous, he added.

Even websites on the Internet which explain the process say it should be done outdoors and say using butane can result in serious injury or death.

Police have charged [redacted] with production of cannabis marijuana, arson by negligence and criminal negligence causing bodily harm.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the police street crimes unit at 519-756-0113 ext. 2286 or Crime Stoppers at 519-750-8477.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n929/a02.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 09 Oct 2009
Source: Expositor, The (CN ON)
Page: 1
Copyright: 2009 Osprey Media
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/MZWWj0Wc
Website: http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1130
Author: Vincent Ball
Note: MAP archives articles exactly as published, except that our editors may redact the names and addresses of accused persons who have not been convicted of a crime, if those named are not otherwise public figures or officials.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm (Cannabis - Canada)

GREEN DAYS RETURNING

2009-10-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Marijuana harvest season is in full swing, which means drug cops are also out in force hoping to stem the tidal wave of weed hitting the streets this fall.

The Central North Drug Unit -- which covers a massive area in the heart of Ontario -- has eradicated 34 plots in Simcoe County, including almost 21,000 plants, since June. That's in addition to the 5,100 plants in Muskoka District, 1,500 in Dufferin County and 200 in Peel Region.

The estimated street value so far this growing season is more than $27.6 million. That's one of the best years on record, says unit commander Staff Sgt. Clint Hunter.

"This year's increase was over 200%," said Hunter, who took over the unit in May. "Every year, ( our ) guys get a little more experience and they get a little better at it."

Police have arrested and charged 20 people this year in relation to four of the 50 marijuana plots, and eradication efforts will continue this month.

In 2008, Central North Drug Unit officers descended upon 17 marijuana plots and seized 3,000 plants, but no one was arrested or charged.

"The problem hasn't gotten any smaller," said Hunter, who has been a police officer for 24 years. "It's a significant issue, and it's not going away. We devote a lot of resources -- time and money -- to the issue."

But it also begs the question: what happens to the plants? For security reasons, Hunter said he was unable to provide a location or speak specifically about disposal techniques, because criminals could benefit from that information.

The drug unit's eradication program typically begins in June, with the search for seedlings and young plants -- which can be more difficult to find due to their size -- to the harvest season in early fall when the plants are fully grown and easier to spot.

Due to Simcoe County's large rural area, it's "rife" with marijuana plantations, Hunter said, although he added that city landscapes, such as Barrie, are just as likely to have marijuana plants growing somewhere outdoors.

"This is not about a person smoking a doobie in their backyard," Hunter said. "It's about big business.

"The province of Ontario is a rich playground for the bad guys," he said, adding dope plants have been found everywhere, from apple orchards and cornfields to just off the beaten track near heavily padded hiking trails. "There's a lot of money to be made and it's shipped across the world."

Det.-Const. Jason Dorion, a member of the Barrie police drug unit, said local officers don't encounter a lot of outdoor marijuana grow-ops, simply due to a lack of open space for such criminal activity. "However, we do expect that to change as we expand towards Innisfil," Dorion said.

The city is expected to increase by more than 5,600 acres in the south end next year if boundary adjustment legislation passes at Queen's Park. Most of the land Barrie would acquire is rural.

City police are more likely to bust a residential grow-op than a field full of pot inside the city limits, although there have been some smaller grow-ops uprooted in residential backyards, Dorion said.

Barrie police also found a small grow-op -- 21 plants -- near Little Lake on Sept. 16, but Dorion said that's a drop in the bucket compared to what provincial drug officers deal with.

The Central North Drug Unit's geographic coverage area includes Simcoe and Dufferin counties, Muskoka District and parts of Peel Region. Essentially, it stretches from Huntsville down to the Peel Region-Toronto border in the Caledon area. From east to west, it also goes from this side of Lake Simcoe over to the Meaford area where a different unit then takes over responsibility.

The unit -- which includes assigned enforcement officers in addition to officers based at specific detachments -- is deployed out of Orillia. It also includes officers from Rama police and the City of Kawartha Lakes.

Specialized officers are also brought in from the tactical support, emergency response and canine units to help with some of the grow-ops, many of which can be booby-trapped or patrolled by armed guards, Hunter said.

Helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft are also used to locate marijuana plots, but it's strictly eyes in the air, Hunter said. Infrared imaging isn't being used yet.

"My officers are well-trained using the necessary tools available," he said.

Public assistance is critical, Hunter said, but people must also use common sense.

"If anyone comes across a grow, they need to back off and get us the information as soon as possible," he said.

That information can be relayed through at 1-888-310-1122.

[sidebar]

HARVEST NUMBERS AT A GLANCE

Between June and September, police officers with the Central North Drug Unit have been out searching for marijuana plants. So far, 50 plots have been eradicated in Simcoe and Dufferin counties, Muskoka District and Peel Region. The breakdown is as follows:

Simcoe County -- 34 plots: 20,790 plants

Muskoka District -- six plots: 5,102 plants

Dufferin County -- three plots: 1,516 plants

Peel Region -- seven plots: 216 plants

Total -- 50 plots: 27,624 plants Estimated street value: $27,624,000

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n925/a06.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 09 Oct 2009
Source: Barrie Examiner (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009, Osprey Media Group Inc.
Contact: http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx
Website: http://www.thebarrieexaminer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2317
Author: Raymond Bowe

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DEPUTY ARRESTED ON DRUG CHARGES

2009-10-11T07:34:00.000-07:00

Sources Say Man Was Going To Smuggle Cocaine Into Jail

A man sworn to protect the public and safely escort prisoners has been arrested for allegedly smuggling drugs into the provincial jail system.

Tyrone David was picked up Friday morning after he allegedly met up with a woman at a strip mall parking lot in the 300 block of Pleasant Street in Dartmouth. The meeting and alleged transaction took place just before 9 a.m., police said.

Both the 40-year-old deputy sheriff, who was in uniform at the time, and the woman left in separate cars. She was later arrested after she was pulled over by police on Chadwick Street.

The deputy sheriff was taken into custody in the parking lot of the Dartmouth provincial courthouse, not far away.

On Friday evening, police sent out a news release saying they had charged Mr. David, 40, with 12 counts of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking.

Kathleen Kierans, 22, has been charged with 12 counts of trafficking.

Justice Minister Ross Landry said Friday that the sheriff, who's been on the job about five years, is on paid administrative leave.

Police wouldn't reveal what kind of drugs were allegedly exchanged during the meeting, but sources told this newspaper that a quantity of cocaine and cash were involved, and were passed from the woman to the deputy sheriff.

Sources said the woman is the girlfriend of well-known crime figure Jimmy Melvin Jr. but police would not confirm that report.

Mr. Melvin didn't appear in court Friday morning but his lawyer, Josh Arnold, made an appearance on his behalf.

Mr. Melvin's case was on the docket Friday so a date could be set for his preliminary hearing on charges of possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose, violating a weapons prohibition order, being in a vehicle that contained a prohibited weapon and possessing ecstasy and an anti-anxiety drug. He also faces charges of breaching bail conditions from a previous release.

It's not believed Mr. Melvin, who'll be back in court on Nov. 18 for the preliminary hearing along with two co-accused, will face any charges in connection with Friday's arrests, the sources said.

Mr. Arnold said Friday that he couldn't comment on any connection between the 22-year-old woman who was arrested and his client. He said he hadn't heard anything about the deputy sheriff's or the woman's arrest.

Halifax Regional Police spokeswoman Theresa Rath said officers didn't randomly stumble across the drug deal.

"This investigation occurred over a series of days. We were acting on information that we had received," she said Friday.

Ms. Rath wouldn't reveal what makes police think the drugs were going to the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.

"We can't get into why we think that, but suffice it to say that based on the evidence that was seized, we believe that the drugs were destined for transportation into the corrections system. Our investigation will continue ( looking ) as to where ( the drugs ) may have been destined and to whom."

She said police haven't received information to suggest that any other deputy sheriffs were involved.

Mr. Landry called the situation very disappointing.

"It's always a concern when one of your employees is alleged to be involved in illicit activities," he told reporters at Province House. ""It raises a concern."

He said the positive in the situation is that drugs were kept out of the Burnside jail.

"That's our goal and if any of our employees are involved in drug usage, we have a zero tolerance policy and we adhere to that strongly."

Aside from the police force's investigation, Justice Department officials are also conducting their own probe.

Mr. Landry said officials believe it is an isolated incident. But Liberal justice critic Michel Samson said there have been lots of stories about drug use in prison, so he thinks the Justice Department investigation should be fairly broad.

"It might be time for the minister to take a look and determine exactly how is it that illegal drugs continue to get inside of our correctional facilities in light of the protocols that one would think are in place to prevent that from happening," said Mr. Samson.

Sources from the jail have said drugs regularly find their way inside, especially on court days, weekends and holidays.

One inmate from the Burnside jail was taken to hospital in the past month suffering from an overdose. Sources said he overdosed on ecstasy but his life wasn't in danger.

Former Crown attorney Anne Calder is awaiting trial dates on charges of trying to pass drugs to a client at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility on July 14.

She faces several charges, including trafficking in prescription painkillers, possession of the painkillers for the purpose of trafficking and possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking.

Mr. Samson and Tory MLA Cecil Clarke, a former justice minister, said Friday's arrest is an unfortunate blemish on the dedicated workers in Sheriff Services.

Mr. Clarke said he expects swift, strong action.

"An example needs to be made and a message needs to be sent," Mr. Clarke said.

The province can't tolerate its employees taking drugs into jails, whether or not they've been coerced.

No one from the union representing Sheriff Services workers was available for comment Friday.

Meanwhile, it's not clear whether the cases against Walter Allan Gerrior and Kerry-Anne Zwicker, co-accused with Mr. Melvin, will be able to proceed Nov. 18 because they don't have lawyers yet. Mr. Gerrior, like Mr. Melvin, has been in custody since they were arrested in September, and will be back in Dartmouth court Tuesday for a bail hearing.

- - With Dan Arsenault and Davene Jeffrey, staff reporters and The Canadian Press

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n926/a06.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sat, 10 Oct 2009
Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS)
Copyright: 2009 The Halifax Herald Limited
Contact: letters@herald.ca
Website: http://thechronicleherald.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180
Authors: Eva Hoare and David Jackson
Note: With Dan Arsenault and Davene Jeffrey, staff reporters and The
Canadian Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

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SMALL U.S. MARIJUANA GROWERS POSE A THREAT TO MAJOR MEXICAN TRAFFICKERS

2009-10-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

ARCATA, California -- Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico.

Illicit pot production in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades. But recent changes in state laws that allow the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes are giving U.S. growers a competitive advantage, challenging the traditional dominance of the Mexican traffickers, who once made brands such as Acapulco Gold the standard for quality.

Almost all of the marijuana consumed in the multibillion-dollar U.S. market once came from Mexico or Colombia. Now as much as half is produced domestically, often by small-scale operators who painstakingly tend greenhouses and indoor gardens to produce the more potent, and expensive, product that consumers now demand, according to authorities and marijuana dealers on both sides of the border.

The shifting economics of the marijuana trade have broad implications for Mexico's war against the drug cartels, suggesting that market forces, as much as law enforcement, can extract a heavy price from criminal organizations that have used the spectacular profits generated by pot sales to fuel the violence and corruption that plague the Mexican state.

While the trafficking of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine is the main focus of U.S. law enforcement, marijuana has long provided most of the revenue for Mexican drug cartels. More than 60 percent of the cartels' revenue -- $8.6 billion out of $13.8 billion in 2006 -- came from U.S. marijuana sales, according to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Now, to stay competitive, Mexican traffickers are changing their business model to improve their product and streamline delivery. Well-organized Mexican cartels have also moved to increasingly cultivate marijuana on public lands in the United States, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center and local authorities. This strategy gives the Mexicans direct access to U.S. markets, avoids the risk of seizure at the border and reduces transportation costs.

Unlike cocaine, which the traffickers must buy and transport from South America, driving up costs, marijuana has been especially lucrative for the cartels because they control the business all the way from clandestine fields in the Mexican mountains to the wholesale dealers in U.S. cities.

"It's pure profit," said Jorge Chabat, an expert on the drug trade at the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics in Mexico City.

The exact dimensions of the U.S. marijuana market are unknown. The 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimated that 14.4 million Americans age 12 and over had used marijuana in the past month. More than 10 percent of the U.S. population reported smoking pot once in the past year.

Mexico produced 35 million pounds of marijuana last year, according to government estimates. On a hidden hilltop field in Mexico's Sinaloa state, reachable by donkey, a pound of pot might earn a farmer $25. The wholesale price for the same pound in Phoenix is $550, and so the Mexican cartels could be selling $20 billion worth of marijuana in the U.S. market each year.

"Marijuana created the drug-trafficking organizations you see today. The founding families of the cartels got their start with pot. And marijuana remains a highly profitable business they will fight to protect," said Luis Astorga, a leading authority on the drug cartels at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who grew up in Sinaloa in the 1960s and recalls seeing major growers at social functions in the state capital, Culiacan.

Led by California, 13 U.S. states now permit some use of marijuana. In many cities, marijuana is one of the lowest priorities for police.

To some authorities, the new laws are essentially licenses to grow money. With a $100 investment in enriched soil and nutrients, almost anyone can cultivate a plant that will produce two pounds of marijuana that can sell for $9,000 in hundreds of medical marijuana clubs or on the street, according to growers.

High-end marijuana grown under such special conditions often fetches 10 times the price of poor-quality Mexican pot grown in abandoned cornfields and stored for months in damp conditions that erode its quality further.

"What's happened in the last five years, it's just gotten totally, totally out of hand, as far as a green rush of people coming from all kinds of different states and realizing the kind of money you can make," said Jack Nelsen, commander of the Humboldt County Drug Task Force in Northern California. County residents who have a doctor's recommendation can legally grow as many as 99 plants.

Authorities found and destroyed about 8 million marijuana plants in the United States last year, compared with about 3 million plants in 2004. Asked to estimate how much of the overall marijuana crop was being caught in his area, Wayne Hanson, who heads the marijuana unit of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office, said: "I would truthfully say we're lucky if we're getting 1 percent."

The Mexican traffickers' illegal use of public lands is a response to the dramatic increase in U.S. production, according to authorities and growers. In the northern woods of California, illegal immigrants hired by well-heeled Mexican "patrons," or bosses, lay miles of plastic pipe and install oscillating sprinkler systems for clandestine fields that produce a cheaper, faster-growing "commercial grade" of marijuana.'After establishing sophisticated farming networks in California, Washington and Oregon, the Mexican traffickers are shifting operations eastward to Michigan, Arkansas and North Carolina, federal agents say.

Like wily commodity traders, Mexican traffickers time their shipments to exploit growing cycles in the United States. They warehouse tons of pot south of the border to ship north during periods when demand peaks and domestic supplies are scarce, Mexican anti-narcotics officials said.

The traffickers are also engaged in an escalating race to achieve higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the chemical ingredient that gives pot its potency. The THC content of Mexican marijuana seized at the southwest border jumped from 4.8 percent in 2003 to 7.3 percent in 2007, according to U.S. officials. Those levels are still less than half that of the highly potent marijuana found in places such as Arcata, where THC content often tops 20 percent.

Although most Mexican marijuana is still grown outdoors, Mexican security forces have begun to discover greenhouse operations, similar to those found in the United States and Canada. A Mexican army unit on routine patrol in Sinaloa arrested two men in a football field-size greenhouse with more than 20,000 marijuana plants inside. The greenhouse was equipped with modern, highly sophisticated refrigeration, heating and lighting systems.

In the national forests and public timberlands of Northern California, Mexican growers shoot at U.S. law enforcement agents with growing frequency and use fertilizers and pesticides that pollute watersheds and start fires. A 90,000-acre blaze in Southern California's Los Padres National Forest in August began on a marijuana farm run by Mexican traffickers, according to authorities. The fields are so inaccessible that helicopters are needed to insert agents, who cut the plants with pruning shears, machetes and even chain saws before airlifting them to be destroyed.

This season, five teams from the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in California have seized 4.2 million plants worth an estimated $1.5 billion, a 576 percent jump since 2004.

Ralph Reyes, chief of operations for Mexico and Central America for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, said intelligence suggests that the major cartels are directly behind much of the marijuana growth that is taking place on public lands. "The casual consumer in the U.S. -- the kid or adult that smokes a joint -- will never in their mind associate smoking that joint with the severing of people's heads in Mexico," he said.

But it has been difficult for U.S. authorities to prove the connection, partly because the individuals who cultivate the plants have no idea who they are working for and give little information when arrested.

A Mexican grower in Humboldt County, who recently harvested 800 plants and asked not to be identified, said the pot farmers are usually approached by an anonymous boss, who puts up the money -- sometimes as much as $50,000 -- for the seed, fertilizer, hoses, camping equipment and food needed to live in the woods for three months growing "Maribel," as the Mexicans refer to the plants.

The grower said the patron pays the growers in cash or product, which they can then sell on their own.

"The mountain can eat you up," the grower said. "You're only thinking about the next day. You have to get up at 4 in the morning to water the marijuana, because the helicopter might come by when the sun is up, and if you water too late, he'll see the mist coming off the plants. You do this every day. There's no church on Sunday or anything like that. You have to be focused. You have to give everything for them."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n926/a03.html
Newshawk: Drug War Clock www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sun, 11 Oct 2009
Source: Plain Dealer, The (Cleveland, OH)
Copyright: 2009 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@plaind.com
Website: http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/342
Note: priority given to local letter writers
Author: Steve Fainaru and William Booth
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?420 (Maijuana - Popular)

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STUDY FINDS HIGH RATE OF IMPRISONMENT AMONG DROPOUTS

2009-10-09T13:58:00.000-07:00

On any given day, about one in every 10 young male high school dropouts is in jail or juvenile detention, compared with one in 35 young male high school graduates, according to a new study of the effects of dropping out of school in an America where demand for low-skill workers is plunging.

The picture is even bleaker for African-Americans, with nearly one in four young black male dropouts incarcerated or otherwise institutionalized on an average day, the study said. That compares with about one in 14 young, male, white, Asian or Hispanic dropouts.

Researchers at Northeastern University used census and other government data to carry out the study, which tracks the employment, workplace, parenting and criminal justice experiences of young high school dropouts.

"We're trying to show what it means to be a dropout in the 21st century United States," said Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern, who headed a team of researchers that prepared the report. "It's one of the country's costliest problems. The unemployment, the incarceration rates -- it's scary."

A coalition of civil rights and public education advocacy groups and a network of alternative schools in Chicago commissioned the report as part of a push for new educational opportunities for the nation's 6.2 million high school dropouts.

"The dropout rate is driving the nation's increasing prison population, and it's a drag on America's economic competitiveness," said Marc H. Morial, the former New Orleans mayor who is president of the National Urban League, one of the groups in the coalition that commissioned the report. "This report makes it clear that every American pays a cost when a young person leaves school without a diploma."

The report puts the collective cost to the nation over the working life of each high school dropout at $292,000. Mr. Sum said that figure took into account lost tax revenues, since dropouts earn less and therefore pay less in taxes than high school graduates. It also includes the costs of providing food stamps and other aid to dropouts and of incarcerating those who turn to crime.

Daniel J. Losen, a senior associate at the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the study was consistent with other economic studies of the dropout crisis, though he said the methodology of its cost-benefit analysis "lacked transparency."

"The report's strength is that it reveals in clear terms that there's a real crisis with the high numbers of young, especially minority males, who drop out of school and wind up incarcerated," Mr. Losen said.

Previous studies have come up with estimates of the same order of magnitude on the social cost of low graduation rates. A 2007 study by Teachers College, Princeton and City University of New York researchers, for instance, estimated that society could save $209,000 in prison and other costs for every potential dropout who could be helped to complete high school.

The new report, in its analysis of 2008 unemployment rates, found that 54 percent of dropouts ages 16 to 24 were jobless, compared with 32 percent for high school graduates of the same age, and 13 percent for those with a college degree.

Again, the statistics were worse for young African-American dropouts, whose unemployment rate last year was 69 percent, compared with 54 percent for whites and 47 percent for Hispanics. The unemployment rate among young Hispanics was lower, the report said, because included in that category were many illegal immigrants, who compete successfully for jobs with native-born youths.

The unemployment rates cited for all groups have climbed several points in 2009 because of the recession, Mr. Sum said.

Young female dropouts were nine times more likely to have become single mothers than young women who went on to earn college degrees, the report said, citing census data for 2006 and 2007.

The number of unmarried young women having children has increased sharply in some communities in part, Mr. Sum said, because large numbers of young men have dropped out of school and are jobless year round. As a result, young women do not view them as having the wherewithal to support a family.

"None of these guys can afford to own a home, they just don't have any money," he said. "And as a result, any time they father a child it's out of wedlock. It wasn't like this 30 years ago."

He cited his hometown, Gary, Ind., as an example. "Back in the 1970s, my friends in Gary would quit school in senior year and go to work at U.S. Steel and make a good living, and young guys in Michigan would go to work in an auto plant," he said. "You just can't do that anymore. Today, you have a lot of dropouts who are jobless year round."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n919/a02.html
Newshawk: http://www.november.org/razorwire/newsletter.html
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 9 Oct 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Page: A12
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Sam Dillon
Referenced: The study http://drugsense.org/url/UgC5WNtW
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?247 (Crime Policy - United States)

DAVID PATERSON DOES THE RIGHT THING AND DROPS THE ROCK

2009-10-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Today is a historic day for New York, the day that the Rockefeller Drug Law reforms kicked in, setting in motion the release of 1,500 low-level nonviolent drug offenders. The new law also gives judicial discretion back to judges, who can now determine whether someone should get treatment for their addiction instead of a jail cell.

I went to Brooklyn's Supreme Court and attended a public event to mark the milestone. The court room was full of activists, politicians and service providers that have been working for years to make this reform happen.

As an activist who has felt the sting of the Rockefeller laws firsthand -- serving 12 years under a 15-years-to-life sentence for a first time nonviolent offense -- I understand the full meaning of these changes. For years the Rockefeller Drug Laws became a political hot potato that was thoroughly debated, but nothing was ever done. Bills were submitted, arguments were made and each political party blamed the other for the impasse. In the meantime, those imprisoned were rotting away in the gulags of New York state. No better off were the family members of the incarcerated, whose hopes and aspirations slowly died as nothing was done.

Governor Paterson deserves thanks and praise for getting the job done. He has been instrumental and worked tirelessly, first as a state senator from Harlem and then as governor, to make these reforms happen. He said that "today was a day for second chances." For me, the governor's statement summed up the purpose of the new reforms. For years the Rockefeller Drug Laws were a symbol of a purely punitive approach to the problems of the drug war in New York state, one based on the archaic and outdated criminal justice mentality of "lock 'em up and throw away the key." Now, under the guidance of Governor Paterson, New York has abandoned that failed strategy and committed itself to a new approach that emphasizes addiction treatment instead of incarceration.

Now that the laws have been reformed, we have to make sure the changes are done right. Advocates and service providers have jumped in and have been working diligently to prepare for implementation. Legal aid and public defender agencies are providing legal counsel. Hundreds of social service agencies around the state have volunteered to provide a broad range of services to individuals who will be released from prison as a result of drug law reform. In New York City alone, more than 100 social service groups have agreed to work with legal aid and public defender agencies to provide services such as housing, job training and drug treatment to people returning from prison as a result of the reform.

For 35 years, New York was known as the state with the worst drug laws. It's time to change directions and make New York known for having the best practices, based on public health and safety.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n916/a03.html
Newshawk: Join us in New Mexico http://www.reformconference.org/
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 7 Oct 2009
Source: Huffington Post (US Web)
Copyright: 2009 HuffingtonPost com, Inc.
Website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Author: Anthony Papa
Note: Anthony Papa is the author of 15 To Life and a communications specialist for the Drug Policy Alliance
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

LEGALIZATION IS A HOOT

2009-10-07T06:39:00.000-07:00

Re "Everybody must get stoned?" by R.V. Scheide

Thanks for the levity this morning. You've highlighted the absurdity of the current fears behind the prohibition movement ( Visine, munchies-heh ).

I must take exception, however with your ultimate conclusion. If, on the one hand, you merely argue for reflection in order to preserve the culture of compassion, then who can argue with that? But to reduce the current tidal wave against prohibition as simply another California gold rush ( green rush? ) is to grossly simplify and to really miss the point.

To be sure, cannabis legalization will not be a panacea, but the current state of affairs cannot continue. We've had nearly a hundred years of cannabis prohibition, and the costs just keep escalating. Anyone truly interested in preserving the culture of compassion should reflect for a moment on the other worthy venues that could benefit from the $40 billion we waste annually on prohibition. The responsible, measured and already thought-out response to our present quagmire known as the "war on drugs" ( more correctly, a war against U.S. cities and citizens ) is to stop wasting our resources on nonviolent so-called crime.

No one dies from consuming marijuana, but many police officers do die in the line of duty as they pursue the black-market operators created by the prohibition movement. What would one concerned with preserving a culture of compassion say about needlessly discarding our brave law enforcement officers?

To your point: Just because some stand to gain money from legalized cannabis, medical or otherwise, let's not dismiss the cause for ending prohibition. There's nothing wrong with a little entrepreneurial activity, especially if we can cut costs at the same time. The time to end cannabis prohibition is now.

Lance Farrell via e-mail

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n671/a12.html
Newshawk: The GCW
Votes: 1
Pubdate: Thu, 02 Jul 2009
Source: Sacramento News & Review (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Chico Community Publishing, Inc.
Contact: sactoletters@newsreview.com
Website: http://newsreview.com/sacto/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/540
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n633/a06.html
Author: Lance Farrell

MEDICAL MARIJUANA MILESTONE: ZIP TIES SOLD

2009-10-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Zip-ties to identify medical marijuana plants grown in Mendocino County went on sale for the first time at noon Wednesday. About 1 p.m., a man arrived at the sheriff's headquarters and paid $150 to buy the first six zip-ties sold by the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office.

The voluntary zip-tie program for medical marijuana has been in the works since 2007, when the Sheriff's Office provided free identification ties.

"If law enforcement shows up and these are attached and everything else is in compliance," Sheriff Tom Allman said, "the plants will not be eradicated."

The blue zip ties with a serial number sell for $25 each; they will be available to veterans and Medi-Cal qualified medical patients for half price. Medical marijuana zip-ties will be available at Sheriff's Offices in Ukiah, Willits and Fort Bragg.

Because of needed approval from the county Board of Supervisors and finalization of the details, the program was not able to start before now.

"I wish we could have been selling these in April," Allman said.

To buy six zip-ties like those sold Wednesday afternoon, bring a California medical marijuana card or a physician's recommendation to the Sheriff's Office front desk.

Zip-ties or tags expire either at the end of the calendar year they were sold in or when a medical marijuana card expires, is taken away, or surrendered, according to the Sheriff's Office policy. Zip-ties cannot be transferred from person to person or to next of kin.

The policy also states that some or all zip-ties can be given to a designated care giver. Zip-ties are not good in other counties and cannot be replaced if they are lost or stolen, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Confidentiality has been one concern for the program and at one time it looked as though the county's Health and Human Services department would sell zip-ties.

The Sheriff's Office makes a copy of a medical marijuana card, but name, address, phone number, driver's license or medical condition are not asked.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n671/a13.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 01 Jul 2009
Source: Ukiah Daily Journal, The (CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Ukiah Daily Journal
Contact: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/feedback
Website: http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/581
Author: Zack Cinek, Staff Writer

COUNTY SAYS NO TO DRUG TOOLS

2009-10-07T06:26:00.000-07:00

Sales And Advertising Of Paraphernelia Restricted

Strathcona County has unanimously passed a bylaw that restricts the sale and advertising of drug paraphernalia.

The alternation to the land use bylaw means retailers cannot sell drug paraphernalia within 500 metres of a recreation centre, school, park, care centre or religious assembly. No retailer can advertise or promote the sale of drug paraphernalia, the illicit consumption of controlled substances or any instruments for illegal drug use.

Existing retailers, however, can still sell drug paraphernalia, but will need to follow advertising restrictions.

Retailers outside of the 500-metre range will be allowed to continue selling the merchandise.

Mayor Cathy Olesen said the move to allow the paraphernalia in some areas of Sherwood Park was a compromise with businesses.

Olesen said the Internet is a "dark hole" that the county has no control over as far as advertising.

The bylaw was brought forward by Coun. Jason Gariepy and Coun. Peter Wlodarczak in response to concerns that drug merchandise was being sold in stores masquerading as convenience stores.

"From the beginning I have said that it is irresponsible for a retailer to target and sell pipes and bongs to teenagers in our community," Garipey said. "Selling pipes and bongs next to chocolate bars is like selling pornography next to comic books - it's inappropriate and shows complete disregard towards our community."

Federal laws state that pipes and bongs are not illegal in and of themselves. Police must find residue of drugs.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n913/a01.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 05 Oct 2009
Source: Sherwood Park News (CN AB)
Copyright: 2009 Osprey Media
Contact: http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/feedback1/LetterToEditor.aspx
Website: http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1730
Author: Catherine Griwkowsky

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Firefighter's Suspension Stokes Dispute At City Hall

2009-07-01T15:16:00.001-07:00

Criminal charges against a Pittsburgh firefighter spurred a union-management showdown yesterday, with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration calling for more disciplinary rights and drug testing, and a labor leader demanding innocent-until-proven-guilty treatment for a seven-year veteran.

Sparking the fight was firefighter Vincent Manzella, 31, who was charged Thursday with burglary, theft and calling in false alarms. The fake alarms were a diversion, according to a criminal complaint, so he could burglarize a Lawrenceville firehouse to support a heroin habit.

"We have an employee that has been placed in a great deal of trust, and he misused that trust," said Public Safety Director Michael Huss. "We tend to have within the Fire Bureau more of this type of illegal drug use than we do in our other public safety bureaus.

"It creates a tremendous hazard ... not only to his co-workers, but to the public we're trying to protect."

He suspended Mr. Manzella for 30 days and called on a trial board of three firefighters to terminate him.

"Everybody's convicted this individual before [seeing] any legitimate charges," said Joe King, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters Local 1. He said the trial board will decide the case "based on the evidence presented."

A police investigation identified Mr. Manzella as the person who called 911 three times in early April to trick firefighters into leaving their station unmanned. Police say he entered and took petty cash and personal cash.

Though perhaps less than $100 was stolen, the case involves "calling in false alarms, putting firefighters in danger, utilizing city resources," Mr. Huss said.

Mr. Manzella worked at the Lawrenceville firehouse a few years ago, but was off on workers' compensation when the calls were made. He later returned to work at the Sheraden firehouse, where police found him June 19.

According to the criminal complaint, he admitted to the ruse and "stated that he was really bad into heroin at the time" after his work injury led to narcotics addiction.

In January, the Post-Gazette reported the case of firefighter John Connors, who pleaded guilty to cocaine possession. The city sought to fire him, but a trial board found that the city took a shortcut around labor contract provisions when it demanded drug tests. Mr. Connors is back at work, having won the trial board decision and an arbitrator's award.

"Out of all the firefighters we have, there's a very small percentage that are using these types of substances. But it's something we can't tolerate," said Mr. Huss. Three firefighters are now subject to "last chance" agreements for drug or alcohol violations.

Mr. Huss called for random drug testing of firefighters, but added that he needed to bargain that with the union. Now the city can demand that a firefighter undergo a drug test in a variety of circumstances, including after a return to work after more than two weeks off on compensation.

The union has long wanted "a reasonable testing program" focused on firefighters who show signs of a problem, said Mr. King. But he said Mr. Huss "just wants it his way or no way, and that doesn't work."

Mr. King brought up an incident last year in which police pulled over firefighter William Clifford in what appeared to be a case of mistaken identity. Police found nothing, but the city had him drug tested anyway.

Mr. Huss reiterated Mr. Ravenstahl's call, made after Mr. Connors was returned to work, for the General Assembly to rewrite the 70-year-old state laws that govern discipline of firefighters in Pittsburgh. Instead of firefighters judging their own, he wants them to have the right to challenge discipline through arbitration.

Arbitration "may serve us better than what we currently have," Mr. Huss said.

"His chances of [getting] that are slim to none," said Mr. King.

Today, when a firefighter is disciplined, the public safety director and the accused each choose the names of 25 firefighters of rank equal to, or higher than, the accused. The names are placed in a box, and seven are drawn. Each side can strike two, leaving three to decide the case.

A proposed new recovery plan under state Act 47 for distressed municipalities, up for city council vote today, calls on city officials to ask the General Assembly to abolish the trial boards.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n667/a06.html
Newshawk: Just Say Know: http://www.efsdp.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jun 2009
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA)
Copyright: 2009 PG Publishing Co., Inc.
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/pm4R4dI4
Website: http://www.post-gazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/341
Author: Rich Lord, Staff Writer

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Doctor Not Accompanied by Cloud of Smoke

2009-06-30T18:48:00.000-07:00

Close your eyes.

Now imagine a garden-variety marijuana doc.

You projected someone goofy, right? Dr. Feel-Good?

Or venal? Dr. Slime-Ball?

Anecdotal evidence abounds that unscrupulous marijuana doctors will recommend weed for anyone who claims a malady, genuine or not.

I asked Dr. Bob Blake if the stories were true.

"Oh, God, yes!" he said. "Guaranteed."

Then how could this ER doctor - "highly respected," according to Palomar Pomerado Health spokesman Andy Hoang - get involved in the demimonde of medical cannabis?

"IT'S A NEW DAY: WE'RE REOPENING OUR SAN DIEGO CLINIC!!!!"

The bulletin atop Medical Marijuana of San Diego's Web site reflects, one gathers, the euphoria of the cannabis community.

"Two years ago," Blake writes on his home page, "Medical Marijuana of San Diego temporarily relocated to the San Diego/Orange County border because there were no dispensaries or co-ops available to supply medical marijuana to our patients in San Diego County, the Board of Supervisors refused to implement the ( medical ) marijuana laws, and the district attorney served notice that all dispensaries were to close."

During this two-year dark age, as county supervisors remained hostile to the permissive state law, Medical Marijuana's local patients were forced to drive to Orange County to receive their prescriptions. And then

"With the new Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement that the federal government would leave medical marijuana alone and only go after those breaking both federal and state laws, the climate changed. When the Supreme Court refused to hear the final appeal of San Diego County, dispensaries started opening up all over San Diego."

As it happens, Medical Marijuana of San Diego, one of an estimated 20 county doctor's offices that prescribe cannabis, is rebounding from its own rough brush with the law.

In 2006, Drug Enforcement Administration agents conducted a sting at the clinic. A Medical Board of California investigation determined that Dr. Alfonso Jimenez, an osteopath, had recommended marijuana without adequate exams. In April, Jimenez lost his license to practice medicine.

This left up to 10,000 of Jimenez's cannabis patients with invalid prescriptions. The only way to save the practice was to put it in the hands of a doctor in good standing.

Enter Dr. Blake. For 20 years, Blake was the chair of Pomerado Hospital's Emergency Department. For two years in the mid-1990s, he was the hospital's chief of staff.

"Before losing his license, Dr. Jimenez turned over your care to me," Blake assures patients on his Web site. "I stand behind EVERY patient's letter of recommendation for medical marijuana written by Dr. Jimenez."

Blake's nearing 60, but the tan, lean vegetarian looks 50 in baggy shorts, T-shirt and sandals as he sips iced tea at the Pannikin, Leucadia's coffee hangout.

He grew up in North Park, went to St. Augustine High School and spent his free time gliding over the water - as a sailor and a surfer - and underneath as a diver. To stay in shape, he swims two miles most every day, from Swami's to F Street and back.

After graduating from UC Irvine's medical school, Blake went into emergency medicine.

In 2005, he'd had enough of the pressure and long hours. He started looking for a niche where he could use his skill at sizing up injuries and dealing with pain.

Around 2000, a family member had become a "chronic pain patient" after a car accident. Having explored the usual "modalities," a colleague of Blake's suggested cannabis.

His relative started out with two doses of cannabis a week - and then two a month. "The metabolites continue to work after the euphoria is gone," Blake said. Unlike opiates, "the benefits for long-term pain management are excellent."

He thought about working with medical marijuana right after quitting Pomerado, but "I didn't feel like getting in the middle of the firestorm."

Early this year, however, as the legal climate was shifting, Blake contacted Jimenez and began an internship to learn the hemp ropes, so to speak.

Then Jimenez was stripped of his license. Taking a deep breath, Blake plunged. "I had no idea what I was entering," he said of the challenges of assuming a stigmatized practice.

I asked him if his friends and former associates were taken aback at his offbeat course. He said no, not at all. ( That's one advantage of living in Leucadia, I suppose. )

Still, he's leery of the counterculture image of medical marijuana. He said he'd like to tone down the Web site and advertising he inherited from the flamboyantly hip Jimenez.

Blake's looking for an office in Mission Valley to add to his space in Dana Point. He says he spends about 15 minutes with patients - as much as a half an hour with new ones. He insists upon medical records to back up claims of distress, whether mental or physical.

If anyone showed him a marijuana bud in his office, he'd kick the person out. He practices medicine in a separate universe from dispensaries or co-ops.

Though a strong advocate of cannabis as a pain reliever, Blake says he opposes legislation to legalize the drug.

The country's mainstream isn't ready for such a radical change, he says. He worries about traffic safety if pot were legal.

Besides, it would be bad for business, he says with a smile.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n664/a09.html
Newshawk: NORML Conference http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7877
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://drugsense.org/url/6STa0kXL
Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jun 2009
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.signonsandiego.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/386
Note: Seldom prints LTEs from outside it's circulation area.
Author: Logan Jenkins

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The Rising Price of Futility

2009-06-29T20:29:00.000-07:00

I have bad news and really bad news about the war on drugs.

The bad news is that the good guys are still losing.

The really bad news is that continuing this futile battle is about to get a lot more expensive. And for that you can blame the U.S. Supreme Court -- or, if you take the long view, the criminal-coddling crowd that gave us the Bill of Rights.

In a 5-4 decision Thursday, the justices ruled that prosecutors are forbidden to use crime lab test results against criminal defendants unless the analysts who produced them are available to testify in court and face cross-examination by defense attorneys.

The majority said the exclusion of such unaccompanied lab evidence was mandated by the Sixth Amendment, which gives all defendants the right to confront witnesses against them.

Four dissenting justices said the majority had put "a crushing burden" on prosecutors and forecast that "guilty defendants would go free, on the most technical grounds" as a result. Writing for the dissenters, Justice Anthony Kennedy called the majority ruling "a windfall for defendants" that contravened 90 years of legal precedent.

Michigan's Used to It

The decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts will have relatively little impact on prosecutors in Michigan, which is among a minority of states that already require lab technicians to testify about any test results they produce.

But it effectively precludes legislation to ease that burden on Michigan State Police scientists, who are currently logging 15 or more hours of overtime a week to process an enormous backlog of forensic evidence.

Tim Baughman, chief of appeals for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, said prosecutors and state lawmakers concerned about six-to eight-month waits for crime lab results have discussed freeing technicians to spend less time in court. "That's a solution that no longer exists after Thursday's ruling," he said.

Prosecutors in the majority of states whose courts historically have allowed crime lab reports to speak for themselves are more apoplectic. "It's a train wreck," Scott Beck, the executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, opined after reading the majority's decision. "To now require that criminalists in offices and labs ... where budgets are already being cut back travel to courtrooms and wait to say that cocaine is cocaine -- we're still kind of reeling."

The High Cost of Liberty

The most interesting thing about Thursday's decision is that it was written by Justice Antonin Scalia, seldom an apologist for criminal defendants and widely regarded as the court's staunchest conservative.

Scalia must have bridled at the conservative dissenters' insinuation that he was setting drug dealers loose, but he was adamant that the Constitution entitles defendants to confront human witnesses, not just mute lab reports.

Enforcing a defendant's right to cross-examine witnesses might be inconvenient and expensive, Scalia admitted, "but the same can be said of the right to trial by jury." It was not the justices' place, he added, to decide when constitutional safeguards were no longer worth what they cost the government to uphold.

"The sky will not fall after today's decision," Scalia wrote.

He's probably right about that. But the cost of putting those who manufacture, sell and use illicit drugs rose significantly this week. And now those of us who pay the freight have even more reason to wonder if we're getting our money's worth.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n663/a08.html
Newshawk: Help keep us running! http://drugsense.org/donate
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jun 2009
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 2009 Detroit Free Press
Contact: letters@freepress.com
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125
Author: Brian Dickerson, Free Press Columnist
Referenced: The ruling http://drugsense.org/url/B9971kEO
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)

Measure F: New Tax For Medical Pot

2009-06-28T20:17:00.000-07:00

Measure F carries with it perhaps the smallest financial benefit to the city, though its backers like something else about the proposal: the potential to further legitimize medical pot.

Measure F would create a new business tax rate for Oakland's four legally operating medical marijuana clubs, hitting them with a levy of $18 for every $1,000 in gross sales.

That compares to $1.20 for every $1,000 in gross sales the clubs now pay under the standard retail business tax.

The proposed tax could produce a windfall of $315,000 — $294,000 more than under the current rate — in the 2010 calendar year, according to an analysis from City Auditor Courtney Ruby's office.

The clubs see the ballot measure as a way to help the broader cause of medical marijuana.

"Criminals don't pay taxes," said James Anthony, an attorney for Harborside Health Center, one of the dispensaries. "Law-abiding citizens do. We are nothing if not law-abiding citizens."

Medical marijuana is legal under California law, but prohibited by federal law. But some see a turning point in how people across the United States view the use of marijuana for medical purposes. For example, Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan ( at-large ) noted that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the Obama administration will end the federal raids on medical pot clubs operating in California or other states that have protected medical use.

"It is important that there be regulation and that there be a permit process and that there be taxation," Kaplan said. "Both because the city needs the revenue and to be sure that we weed out the bad actors."

Measure F came about after the clubs approached Councilmembers Kaplan and Nancy Nadel ( Downtown-West Oakland ) about instituting a new tax, Kaplan said.

The measure needs a simple majority to pass. Anthony said he expects the clubs, not patients, will absorb the cost of the tax.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a02.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Jun 2009
Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Copyright: 2009sANG Newspapers
Contact: http://www.insidebayarea.com/feedback/tribune
Website: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/314
Author: Kelly Rayburn, Oakland Tribune

US MA: OPED: The Meaning of the New Marijuana Law

2009-02-10T12:21:00.000-08:00

THE MEANING OF THE NEW MARIJUANA LAW Cambridge - As you may have heard, there is a new marijuana law on the books. In November, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly indicated they wanted to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. As you may have heard, this law went into effect on Friday, Jan. 2, 2009. I'd like to take this opportunity to clarify what the law means and what has and has not changed. In a nutshell, this new law means that anyone caught with an ounce or less of marijuana in their possession will receive a fine of $100. Those under the age of 18 who are caught with an ounce or less of marijuana, will be required to pay the $100 fine, as well as attend a drug awareness program, or receive an additional $900 fine ( the total fine then being $1,000 ) if they fail to do so within a year. In addition, parents of young people under 18 who have been cited will receive a copy of the citation, and will be liable for the fine if the child does not complete the program. The marijuana is still to be confiscated by the citing official in all cases. Each violation will result in a $100 fine, regardless of the number of previous violations. However, the decriminalization of marijuana does NOT make it legal. It is still illegal to smoke, possess or otherwise have marijuana. This law simply changes the way a person is held accountable for the possession of the substance. The act becomes a civil violation instead of a criminal one. This also means that there will be no CORI ( criminal record ) on the individual due to this infraction. It is still ILLEGAL to distribute marijuana. Sharing a joint may be considered distribution ( i.e., one person handing marijuana, in the form of a cigarette, to another person so they can smoke it ), and may still be cited as a criminal act. Selling, trafficking or manufacturing marijuana is still illegal. Also, possessing more than an ounce of marijuana is still illegal, and can result in criminal prosecution. Also very importantly, driving under the influence of marijuana is still illegal. A person can still be arrested for driving while under the influence of any substance, including marijuana or alcohol. This new law also does not affect employers' policies regarding the use or possession of marijuana. In other words, this law does "not prohibit workplace discipline that has historically been wholly separate and distinct from the criminal process," according to the state's Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, nor does this impact the ways that schools deal with students who are caught smoking pot or in possession of pot. Previous policies are still in place, and this new law does not supersede them, according to the State. Although the city police are generally going to be the entity that enforces this law, university police and transit police are also able to cite residents for the possession of marijuana. The funds from these citations will, in our case, go to the City of Cambridge. Individual municipalities, such as the City of Cambridge, are still able to pass local laws that would make smoking marijuana in public a crime. In fact, many communities are considering additional local ordinances and even state lawmakers have proposed new state-wide laws to discourage the normalization of marijuana ( one lawmaker has proposed a law that would make it possible for schools and employers to make possession on their campuses or worksites a crime ). This law doesn't make smoking pot okay. It changes the way we, as a community, have to deal with marijuana as a substance in our midst. This does not give young people or parents or anyone else free reign to smoke pot whenever and wherever they want to. Marijuana is still an illegal drug, and its use has been linked to many mental illnesses, including an increased risk of schizophrenia ( see http://www.news-medical.net/?id=28108 for more information ). I encourage the adults in our community to consider the messages they may be sending young people if they blatantly carry a few joints around. A young person who sees this may think that it is then ok to smoke pot, which is still a mind-altering drug, and which is still illegal. It is up to us to ensure that our young people know what this new law means, and that just because they won't be arrested for having pot in their possession, doesn't mean that it is okay to walk around with it in their pocket.

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CN BC: Drug Committee Aims For Better Choices

2009-02-06T08:08:00.000-08:00

DRUG COMMITTEE AIMS FOR BETTER CHOICES There was a time when students caught with drugs or alcohol at school were automatically told they were not welcome at their school for several days. This sort of automatic out-of-school suspension is fast becoming a thing of the past in School District 69 ( Qualicum ) however, as Ballenas Secondary principal Rollie Koop and colleague Gillian Wilson from the District Drug and Alcohol Review Committee explained Tuesday night. Speaking at the regular board meeting, the pair detailed the new approach to drug and alcohol incidents in the district, noting the old, punishment-based model did little more than put the students behind in their work and expose them to the risk of further substance abuse. Although the automatic out of school suspension model is no longer in favour, that doesn't mean students who come to school high or drunk get off scott free. Far from it, but the committee tailors the very real consequences to the individual situation. "One size doesn't fit all when it comes to substance abuse," Koop said. "We look at where kids are on the continuum of use. We've had kids appear before us who may have been caught the first time they experimented, and we've had students who were entrenched in some dangerous patterns." The focus, he said, is to educate, provide support, make positive changes, prevent escalation of substance use and ensure the safety of students is paramount. "When a student is found to be outside policy in terms of use or possession, we put them in an in-school suspension and begin the process of working with them to prepare them for a meeting with the district drug and alcohol committee, so they can understand their own use patterns and can look at the impacts on themselves and on others. We want to move them towards a commitment to reduced use or abstinence." The process has been successful, Koop said, noting the new model allows students and their families to discuss what's going on in their lives. "We have an open and honest conversation with their families and find out where they are at in the continuum of abuse and then shape our path in terms of recommendations for education, counselling and discipline," Koop said. Wilson noted most students caught with drugs or alcohol are from high schools and are male. She cautioned against reading too much into this. "Girls may be better at not getting caught." The pair related some of the stories they've heard from students and they were heart-wrenching. "There was a student last year who I suspected was a regular user, but who showed no signs," Wilson said. "He slipped up and came to school under the influence of alcohol. He had shame and guilt and wanted to hide things and be this perfect person. With a suspension, the shame would have continued." One of the darkest stories, Koop said, was unanticipated. "There was a young man we were working with for a year but were never able to get to the truth about his behaviours or use," Koop said. "In that hour-long interview, the disclosure came to us that for a two-year period this young man had been a guinea pig for a local drug dealer. Every time a new shipment of drugs came into the community, the adult tested them on this young man to determine the strength of the drug and its impact." That, he continued, is the key to the new direction's success - to find out what is going on in a student's life and to steer them towards making better choices. "We are moving in the right direction," Wilson said. "We are helping families find solutions."

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n132/a06.html?1140

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Tony Ryan Encourages Change in War on Drugs Policies

2008-02-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

When it comes to feeling today's financial crunch, Arizona is no different than any other state in our Union. So it's no surprise to see that Governor Napolitano is proposing to save the state over $60 million by transferring responsibility for prisoners in the state penal institutions to the counties.

In the early 1970s, Arizona had a state prison population of around 2,000. By the end of 2000 that population had grown to almost 28,000. Today Arizona houses some 37,000 prisoners in the state system and the prison population is expected to grow by over 50 percent in the next decade, a trend that is double that for the general population. Arizona's prison system now costs some $900 million a year, or about 10 percent of total state expenditures from General Fund dollars.

What's the cause of the skyrocketing number of prison inmates? Have we become a society run amok with rampant and unstoppable crime? Or is it that our policies in fact, are filling the prisons? Can we economically and socially afford this increase?

As a young man I was proud to live in a country known around the globe as the beacon of liberty. It's one of the reasons I entered a 36-year career in law enforcement serving and protecting as a Denver police officer. Now our country has over 2 million people incarcerated. We've become, according to former Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey, the world's new gulag.

"Gulag" - I remember that word. I heard it years ago when people spoke of the old Soviet Union and how they locked people up. It was used as an example of what we weren't, and would never become. I remember the end of South Africa's Apartheid, starting with the release of Nelson Mandela. That country's black voters formed lines up to a mile long for their first national election. Apartheid was an example of race relations gone bad. Nearly 850 black males per 100,000 were imprisoned under that system.

Under the drug laws of the U.S. we now imprison black males at a rate 5 to 6 times greater than South Africa did at the peak of Apartheid. Our nation's prison population has increased since the early '70s by 700 percent, yet the crime rate ( with fluctuations ) has remained about the same. Incarceration for drug offenses was less than 20 percent of the inmate population but has climbed to nearly half. Our national budget in the fight against drugs is costing us about $70 billion a year ( since 1971, when President Nixon made the declaration of a War On Drugs, we have spent nearly $1 trillion ).

Is this money well spent? Are we winning this war? Are our communities closer to being free from drugs? Have all the dealers been locked up? No. This country's drug problem is worse than ever and drugs are available in virtually every community.

After nearly four decades, our drug problem is now world-wide with a market worth $500 billion, about 8 percent of total global trade. Yet we can't keep drugs out of our jails and prisons, so how can we expect to keep them out of our children's schools?

The rising cost of incarceration is not just monetary. It affects us socially - previously incarcerated citizens have a hard time finding lucrative employment upon release, and often return to crime and go back to prison. Nationwide, our prison system is one giant revolving door of misery and Arizona is no exception.

If we are to rein in the harms of drugs, we must change the policies that have gotten us into this mess. The correlation between Nixon's declaring a War On Drugs and the explosion in prison population growth is no coincidence. The time has come for us to hold a national discussion about our failed drug policies and seek options to a war that has no end. Perhaps Governor Napolitano should consider other options to prison transfers, like reducing the flow of humanity into them. A flow brought to flood stage by our War On Drugs.

[sidebar]

Ryan is presenting at the Willcox Rotary Club meeting today, Wednesday, Feb. 6, at the Elks Lodge, 247 E. Stewart St., at noon.

Tony Ryan served more than 36 years of continuous service as a Denver police officer, and received numerous awards including the Medal of Honor, the Purple Heart, the Merit Award, and the Community Service Award. He is now a board member of and speaker for LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ( LEAP ) is an international nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to reduce the multitude of harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition.

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Getting Out Of Control?

2008-02-04T11:07:00.000-08:00

GETTING OUT OF CONTROL?

OF THE FOUR LOCAL NEWS briefs in Friday's edition of 24 hours, three of them involved marijuana grow ops in different scenarios. Isn't this getting out of control, this failed policy of prohibition? I guess not as long as police officers maintain their jobs and newspapers have stuff to write about.

- - K. Hotchkiss, via e-mail

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'Clueless' Parents Get Set Straight

2006-08-17T13:47:00.000-07:00

'CLUELESS' PARENTS GET SET STRAIGHT

Lifestyle, Grades Are No Guarantee

Study says moms and dads are 'parental palookas' who have no idea about the extent of their teens' drug and alcohol use

At first glance, Samantha Tish, 15, who lives in a small town near the Wisconsin border, would seem insulated from drug and alcohol use.

She has good grades and a tight group of girlfriends whose weekend activities run to shopping and watching movies, rather than partying. But that doesn't mean that temptation isn't lurking everywhere.

"Most parents are clueless," she said. "They have no idea what goes on at parties ... or how drugs and alcohol are everywhere. Their kids are going to do what they want to do."

Tish's observation is supported by a survey released Thursday by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Among the findings: One-third of teens and nearly half of 17-year-olds attend house parties where alcohol, marijuana and illegal drugs are plentiful--even when parents are actually in the home.

The head of CASA called the adults "parental palookas."

"Where are they?" asked Joseph A. Califano, CASA's chairman and president and former secretary of health, education and welfare during the Carter administration. "Why aren't they walking in and out of the party? Don't they smell the pot or the booze? There's just a tremendous disconnect."

The survey also found:

- Eighty percent of parents believe that neither alcohol nor marijuana is usually available at teen gatherings, but 50 percent of their kids say they attend parties where alcohol, drugs or both are available.

- Ninety-eight percent of parents say they are normally present during parties in their homes, while a third of teens report that parents are rarely around.

- Only 12 percent of parents see illegal substances as their teen's greatest concern. But twice as many teens ( 27 percent ) say drugs are a major worry.

- Thirty-eight percent of teens say they can buy marijuana within a day; 19 percent can complete the transaction in an hour or less.

"Parents are living in a fool's paradise," Califano said. "They've got to take the blinders off and pay attention. If asbestos were in the ceiling, they'd raise hell. But their schools are riddled with drugs. If they'd say, 'Get the drugs out' with the same energy, we'd get somewhere. This is a wake-up call."

The annual teen survey, a CASA staple since 1995, interviewed 1,297 12-to-17-year-olds and 562 parents ( 84 percent of whom were parents of the youth surveyed ).

The report also found that navigating the transition from age 13 to 14 is particularly perilous. The availability of illegal substances spikes at this time, with 14-year-olds four times likelier to have access to prescription drugs than their year-younger peers, and three times likelier to be offered Ecstasy and marijuana.

Finette DuFour of Buffalo Grove has first-hand experience with this passage. Her son first dabbled with alcohol at this age, which gave way to pot and other drugs, she said. Now 18, he is currently living in a halfway house, she said.

"People just want to think that this only happens in bad neighborhoods .. or with gangs. That it doesn't happen to jocks and cheerleaders. But I can tell you that no one is immune ... and when [drug use] happens, it accelerates very rapidly. Parents don't want to talk about it; they don't want the schools or the neighbors to know. They're completely overwhelmed."

She decided to fight back--not by sweeping it under the rug but by being candid about her family's problem.

In addition to volunteering at Families and Adolescents in Recovery, an outpatient program in Rolling Meadows, she started a group called Parent to Parent, which helps adults find treatment and other resources when they and their teens are in crisis.

Locally, mental-health professionals agree that there's no shortage of risky behavior, despite a plethora of anti-drug and alcohol programs.

"When you talk to teens confidentially about being responsible for their health, you'd be amazed at what you hear," said Dr. Cynthia Mears of Children's Memorial Hospital.

Other research studies indicate that when under the influence of drugs and alcohol, "[teens] can't negotiate sex; they can't negotiate getting home safely; they can't negotiate money; they can't negotiate anything."

So what should parents do? "Lock up their alcohol and introduce themselves to the parents of their kids' friends," she replied.

While recent years have shown a drop in substance abuse--the statistics for alcohol and illegal use of prescription drugs is "not moving a whole lot," said Dr. Greg Teas, medical director of the chemical dependency program at Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Center in Hoffman Estates.

After marijuana, Vicodin, a powerful painkiller, is now the second-most popular drug of choice for high school students, he said.

One reason for all the parental denial, say experts, is that they often feel their offspring are protected by affluent lifestyles, extracurricular activities and impressive grade-point averages.

However, Jennifer Filpi, a substance-abuse counselor at the Families and Adolescents in Recovery program, said it is precisely such intelligence that makes kids adept at manipulation.

"They can spin things and make them happen the way they want," she said.

Another way parents are caught flat-footed is that they desperately want to believe that their kids are doing the right thing, Filpi said. "They really want to trust them."

But kids, not just adults, say such naivete can put teens at risk.

"So many parents have put so much effort into creating the perfect son or daughter, that they can't really believe when something goes wrong," said David Cosby, a sophomore at New Trier High School. "They think, 'I've done everything'--and that image has become so solid that when something bad does happen, it's a shock." Samantha Tish of Roscoe, Ill., agrees. None of her close friends drink, but she says that makes her a rarity. "And while parents say they're home when their kids are having a party, they don't usually go down and really check ... or kids just hide it behind the couch.

"Really, I'm not sure what parents can do about parties ... except not let [teens] go."

[sidebar]

WHAT PARENTS SAY

80 Percent believe alcohol and marijuana are not usually found at teen parties

But -- What Teens Say

50 Percent say they attend parties where alcohol and drugs or both are available

What Parents Say

98 Percent say they are normally present during parties they allow their teens to have at home

But -- What Teens Say

33 Percent say parents are rarely or never present at parties they attend

Thank You For Not Snitching

2006-08-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

THANK YOU FOR NOT SNITCHING

When you're truly in a narcotic task force's crosshairs, they might give you a signal in the form of a simple rhyme: "Give us three, and we'll set you free." This couplet, most effective when recited by an agent perched on the lip of his chair, muscles tensed and ready, should be interpreted to mean that if you incriminate a handful of marbles law enforcement would rather play with, they'll drop those pending drug charges. And in an era of federal mandatory minimums that work like dispassionate Pez Dispensers handing out tart, 10- year prison bids for such crimes as, say, thinking about dealing America's most commonly used illicit drug, marijuana ( a decade for planning, not selling ), getting a suspect to "flip" on someone else can be a process smoother than photosynthesis.

So what's with Jason Weaver - father, husband, and until recently, restaurateur and hydroponics supplier praised in the local daily and the Current for taking soil-free gardening beyond the realm of toker technology? Couldn't he save himself, and tell on you?

The longboarder who affixed his surf moniker to his year-old coffee bar and deli would not own Big Kahuna's on Ashby and North Flores after today. The equipment from Jason "Big Kahuna" Weaver's other business, Casa Verde Garden Supply and Hydroponics, also housed in the 4,000-square-foot-building on Ashby, would be dismantled and shipped to Del Rio, and on to indoor farmers in Guatemala and Honduras. It was Thursday, August 10, less than two months before Weaver, 31, would report to a federal prison ( actually, a tent compound in Beaumont, Texas, surrounded by barbed wire ) and begin a three-year sentence for conspiracy to grow and sell marijuana.

Weaver spent most of the morning patching up the building painted in bright green sativas and dark-green indicas, spotted with Tiki gods drawn in a style that's part Marvin the Martian, part Polynesian pop. Inside, soul-surfer beach and fishing trip ephemera, and a 2006 Richard De La O painting of a white-winged figure slaying a green demon ( the artist said it was Weaver vs. the DEA ).

In the kitchen, Weaver made pepperoni pizza subs and assured the man in the white plastic lei, Jesse Gonzales, that he would make a phone call and get him another job prepping and cooking. And Weaver sat across from the Current, using Murphy's Oil Soap to scrub foaming caulk from his fingers, sharing what was on his mind on this last day. He came off sounding a little bit like the doomed and insightful old guy in Tuesdays with Morrie.

"I go away on September 29," he said. "I'm not looking forward to it, but I'm sure I'm going to learn from it.

"My saying is, 'Enjoy life, because you don't know what's coming from one day to the next.' When I wake up in the morning I thank my god, because everyone's god is different." Weaver riffed on about life lessons, about his new ankle tattoo, something he can carry into prison to remind him of his 9-month-old daughter ( a sea turtle ) and 6-year-old son ( a squid ). And then he added, with some bitterness: "And I would say that you can't control people."

That last bit of wisdom was rooted in his experience with the childhood friend who helped manage the garden-supply shop Weaver and his wife, Tracee Wilkerson, started online in 1999, shepherded to a half-million dollar business by 2002, relocated in 2003 to a Fredericksburg address, and into the Ashby building in 2004. Somewhere during the course of events, Weaver said, his friend flipped.

Weaver told the Current that said friend signed an affidavit incriminating him and, in exchange, received four years probation. This could not be confirmed. The U.S. Attorney's officials who handled Weaver's case are on vacation, but Weaver's attorneys assured the Current that all information related to flipping is confidential; that no representative of the legal process could divulge anything about whether or not the government offered a deal. If it's not in the plea agreement, a matter of public record, it's secret.

Let's be absolutely clear: The government had incriminating evidence against Weaver. He says he was an unapologetic pot-smoker ( as are one in seven Americans, according to the marijuana-policy watchdogs at NORML ). Now subject to drug screenings as a condition of his $100,000 bond, his green-blue eyes look into the middle distance as he fondly recalls kayaking in Port Aransas and lighting up a bowl with just a magnifying glass ( because matches would get damp ).

Weaver is represented by one of the nation's best drug-defense gurus, San Antonio lawyer Gerald Goldstein. Goldstein helped clear Hunter S. Thompson of multiple charges stemming from an illegal Colorado raid that turned up four sticks of dynamite and the usual Fear and Loathing suspects: cocaine, LSD, marijuana. Records show the investigation into Weaver and four associates ( including his alleged informer friend ) took place between January 2003 and the end of March 2005. Hundreds of marijuana plants were seized on Weaver's properties in West Rockport and his hometown Floresville ( and on the property of associates locally ). By April 2005, Weaver was arrested, and entered a plea agreement rather than face trial and be subject to a mandatory minimum 10 years for conspiring to grow up to 1,400 marijuana plants with the intent to distribute. He was sentenced in May 2006, and waived his right to appeal.

But it was during the course of the investigation, Weaver said, that he had the option of going free, when the regional narcotics task force would camp across the street at San Pedro Springs Park, then show up with a yearbook filled with photos of 300 dirtless gardeners who came from as far as Buda, San Marcos, and Corpus Christi to buy indoor-lighting systems, hydroponic systems, and organic nutrients - instruments used by NASA, 4-H clubs, orchid societies, schools, and marijuana growers.

"They told me from the very beginning, 'Give us three and we'll set you free, buddy,'" Weaver says. "I may be stupid or arrogant, but I said it's got to stop right here. This is going to ruin someone else's life." He says he burned customer records and played dumb.

Drug agents routinely rely on compromised informers to investigate homegrown marijuana cases for two reasons, according to National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Executive Director, Allen St. Pierre.

( 1 ) Pre-1980, the majority of marijuana came from outside the U.S. ( read: South Asia, Central America, Canada, Mexico, and Jamaica ).

"The domestic product, it was like someone lit up hair in a room," St. Pierre, 41, said, slandering our American weed forebears, at least the ones cultivating in Amherst, Massachusetts, in the '60s and '70s. And as the government worked to eradicate international shipments and stomped on outdoor year-round grow operations in sunny Florida, South Texas, Arizona, Hawaii, and the infamous green triangle in Humboldt, California, a new DIY generation of home brewers took root. Magazines like High Times and Sinsemilla Tips taught them how to harness a technology used in the age of the Roman Caesars and set up thousand-dollar grow systems in their closets. Today, drug-enforcement officials say indoor-growing operations produce a more potent drug than their two popular pot-producing rivals, Mexico and British Columbia.

( 2 ) It wasn't long before law enforcement started flying down city grids with infrared scanning devices mounted on helicopters to see whose closet was thowing off heat, to detect the high-intensity lamps used for indoor-marijuana growth. In 2001, the Supreme Court said hoo-rodding around the skies looking for hot spots was an invasion of privacy, a warrantless search, and a Fourth-Amendment violation. Which sent our law-enforcement Icaruses back to the ground, sometimes digging through curbside garbage without a warrant, sometimes subpoenaing UPS shipping records from garden-supply stores, and, St. Pierre said, often asking someone to "give them three ... "

Goldstein said folks have been sentenced in connection with the Big Kahuna's case, and more probably will be. "It's a never-ending spiral," the lawyer said. "As a consequence, people will do almost anything to avoid that punishment."

So the question remains: Why, if he could, didn't the Big Kahuna hand over some bigger fish, spare his family ( he and his wife are in counseling ) and his business?

"My wife, she said 'You're protecting friends and customers over your family,'" Weaver said. "She's been with me 12 years, and she's always scolded me, and there's been many times where she told me so, and not to trust people. I give everyone that opportunity and I say shame on you, not shame on me.

"And this way," he adds, "I don't have to worry about someone plugging me or beating me with a bat or burning down my place."

Big Kahuna restaurant will be closed for renovation through August, then reopen under new ownership.

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Fentanyls Tentacles Growing In Reach

2006-08-15T13:14:00.000-07:00

FENTANYL'S TENTACLES GROWING IN REACH

Strong Painkiller Is Linked With Local Heroin Deaths And Illegal Possession By Nurses

When a wave of fentanyl-related overdose deaths rolled eastward earlier this year, the painkiller made headlines as the newest pharmaceutical to hit the streets, with a deadly efficacy and a rising demand.

But the highly potent opiate has been abused for years - even here in Luzerne County - and that abuse hasn't been limited to the archetypical addict.

Illicit use of the analgesic in the medical profession was first noticed in the mid-1970s, less than two decades after its initial synthesis, and persists today, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Abuse in the health sector locally has existed since at least 2004, when a nurse was punished in response to a conviction for illegal possession of fentanyl. Another nurse was suspended for the same reason earlier this year. Neither conviction stemmed from drug thefts in Luzerne County.

In April, the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing suspended Theresa Kamus-Kelly's license for three months and ordered the Kingston woman to serve three years of probation.

Two years ago, the board revoked the nursing license of Drums native Paul A. Colasurdo for stealing fentanyl patches from his job to feed his fentanyl addiction.

While fentanyl abuse is "rare," DEA public information officer Bill Hocker said it's been a particular problem among medical professionals.

A survey published in a 2002 issue of the journal Anesthesia & Analgesia analyzed drug use by anesthesiologists at U.S. academic medical centers. The study, which reported abuse by 1 percent of faculty members and 1.6 percent of residents, found fentanyl was the favorite controlled substance.

But it wasn't until a rash of more than 400 deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin overdoses nationwide earlier this year that the public noticed the drug, which has been estimated at roughly 100 times more potent than morphine.

The drug causes respiratory depression, leading to asphyxiation, according to Luzerne County Coroner Dr. Jack Consalvo.

In Luzerne County, fentanyl is indicated in at least five recent overdose deaths. A spate of three fentanyl-related overdose deaths in two months alarmed Consalvo enough in May to ask the DEA to remove the drug from the market.

Such a ban might limit the availability of fentanyl, which, evidenced by cases like those of Colasurdo and Kamus-Kelly, is easy for medical professionals to obtain.

The nursing board called Colasurdo's actions "a most egregious violation" when revoking his license in August 2004.

Colasurdo, now deceased, had pleaded guilty to, among other charges, three felony counts of criminal conspiracy in March 2002 in Carbon County and guilty to three counts of theft by unlawful taking and defiant trespass in April 2003 in Schuylkill County.

Working at a nursing home, he would support his addiction to fentanyl by removing fentanyl Duragesic patches from elderly chronic-pain sufferers and inject the liquid from the patch, Colasurdo admitted to the nursing board. He also said he would go to the home when he wasn't working to steal patches.

He said his addiction began at age 17, after a doctor prescribed him painkillers after a car accident. At the time of the hearing in 2004, he claimed he went to counseling and attended Narcotics Anonymous meetings several times a week, a claim substantiated by his mother, Janice.

His family confirmed Aug. 4 that he died in October at age 24 of a drug overdose, but declined further comment for this story.

In the more recent case, Kamus-Kelly pleaded guilty in Lehigh County to possession of a controlled substance and acquisition of it by fraud after supervisors found a small vial of fentanyl in her locker at the Lehigh Valley Hospital. The guilty plea last October triggered an automatic suspension of her nursing license in January.

Kamus-Kelly said she didn't use fentanyl, but admitted to police she obtained it by faking hospital records. She later told the nursing board she had become addicted to Vicodin, a moderately potent opiate she used by prescription to handle pain after two neck surgeries.

She did not return multiple calls for comment.

In April, she accepted a consent agreement with the nursing board of a three-month license suspension and three years of probation thereafter.

Kamus-Kelly told the board that after being confronted at the hospital, she attempted to enter voluntary recovery programs twice and wasn't admitted, but successfully completed a treatment program at the Marworth chemical dependency center in Waverly.

In August 2005, after disclosing her addiction problems and the resulting criminal charges, she landed a registered nurse anesthetist job at the Berwick Hospital Center. She received random drug screenings under the supervision of Lawrence Reid, the medical director of the hospital's anesthesiology department.

But the license suspensions have kept her from working since January, even though the hospital is "willing and desirous of re-employing" her because she will be under supervision and is "an excellent nurse from the standpoint of both technical skills and compassion for her patients," according to a letter written by Reid to the State Department's prosecutor.

In June, after being told she could not work as a regular nurse until mid-July or a registered nurse anesthetist until July 2007, Kamus-Kelly petitioned for a modification of the consent agreement that would allow her to work.

The petition was discussed at a board hearing on Friday afternoon in Harrisburg, according to state Department of State press secretary Leslie Amoros, but the board's decision was not known.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A Life on Hold in California Prison

2006-08-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

A LIFE ON HOLD IN CALIFORNIA PRISON

Sara Jane Olson has gone from SLA fugitive to suburban mother to low-key inmate. Now, in 'enforced idleness,' she awaits her 2009 release.

CHOWCHILLA, Calif. -- Shortly after 8 each weekday morning, Inmate W94197 reports for work on the prison yard. She earns 24 cents an hour emptying trash cans and tidying up. She is grateful for the job.

Caught in 1999 after living as a fugitive for 23 years, she was convicted of murder and other crimes stemming from her link with the Symbionese Liberation Army, a violent band of radicals best known for kidnapping newspaper heiress Patty Hearst.

Then Sara Jane Olson went to prison, and turned invisible.

At the Central California Women's Facility here, Olson -- whose name was Kathleen Soliah in the heyday of the SLA -- is now a white-haired woman of 59, serving out her seven years.

Her experience, related in letters and a series of conversations, reveals much about punishment and survival in a state system that holds 11,730 women.

She fears falling ill and landing in the prison healthcare organization that experts say claims one life a week through malpractice or neglect.

She laments the absence of anything meaningful to do. She craves privacy. And she tiptoes nervously through each day while awaiting that moment in 2009 when she'll go home to her husband and daughters in Minnesota.

To be famous is no advantage. The savviest convicts strive to be unremarkable, undeserving of concern. Olson does not discuss her past, and few women living alongside her in this San Joaquin Valley town are aware of it. There is, inmates say, an unwritten rule behind bars: You do not ask an incarcerated sister what she has done.

Still, there are rumors, the marrow of prison life. Prisoners often peer into Olson's face and insist they know her. One said she'd heard Olson belonged to Al Qaeda.

Amid the crowd, Olson's posture is nonthreatening, a semi-slouch. Her expression is blank. To show emotion is to attract unwanted attention - -- or, worse, risk causing offense.

Anonymity is best.

*

A Fugitive Is Caught

Olson's entry into California's criminal justice system began June 16, 1999, when her minivan was pulled over by police near her home in St. Paul, Minn. After more than two decades, she had been found, living openly as a doctor's wife and mother of three girls in an ivy-covered Tudor home.

"I had a really good life," Olson recalled. She acted in community theater and taught citizenship classes. She volunteered for groups aiding African refugees, the poor and other causes, and recorded books for the blind.

Friends were stunned to learn that she had been associated with the SLA, a short-lived group whose slogan was "Death to the Fascist Insect That Preys Upon the Life of the People." Many, however, rallied around her, raising $1 million in 10 days to win her release on bail.

Olson had been on the lam since 1976, when she was charged with conspiracy to murder Los Angeles police officers by planting bombs beneath their squad cars the previous year. The bombs did not explode and no one was hurt. The eldest of five children from a middle-class Palmdale family, she was indicted -- and then disappeared.

While accounts of her involvement with the SLA vary, she and others say her link was forged after a close friend and five other SLA members were killed in a shootout with Los Angeles police in 1974. In previous interviews, Olson said she then provided shelter, food and other aid to SLA members hiding from police but never planted any bombs.

After Olson was returned to Los Angeles for trial, prosecutors amassed 23,000 pages of documents, fingerprints and other evidence against her, and lined up 200 potential witnesses. The trial promised high drama -- the saga of a fetching high school pep-squad member turned fugitive -- and a revisiting of the social tumult of the 1970s.

Then came the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and Olson decided not to take her chances in court.

"For the first time," she recalled, "people started referring to me as a terrorist."

Instead, she pleaded guilty to attempting to explode a destructive device with the intent to commit murder. In another plea agreement in a separate SLA case, she and three others were convicted of second-degree murder stemming from a Sacramento-area bank robbery in which customer Myrna Opsahl was killed.

"We were young and foolish," Olson said at the time in a letter to the court, and "in the end, we stole someone's life."

Today, she doesn't want to discuss the events that landed her in prison, but she has expressed remorse more than once in the past.

"I'm incredibly sorry," she told the state parole board in 2002. "Of course, I can't take it back, so I have to take responsibility, and that's what I'm doing now."

Earlier that year, Olson -- who had formally changed her name after her arrest -- had been dispatched to Chowchilla, 260 miles north of Los Angeles. Her community now is a warren of squat, sand-colored buildings circled by an electrified fence. Beyond the barrier, almond groves stretch for miles, colliding at the horizon with a sky of blinding blue.

*

A Steady Diet of TV

Olson's days pass in a locked, 18-foot-by-18-foot dorm-like cell shared with seven other women. She spends hours on her metal bunk, writing on yellow legal pads to 30 friends and relatives. She also watches more TV than she ever has before.

The concrete room is sterile, with shower and toilet doors that have cut-outs at waist level so inmates are always visible. Prison rules forbid homey touches, save for pictures of family taped here and there.

While she can expound for hours on current events, history and myriad other topics, Olson prefers not to talk about herself. She has inmate friends but says that, aside from the many women who form lesbian relationships, prison is not a place for sharing confidences.

"There is some sort of sisterhood in here, I guess," she said. "But people really can't trust each other.... You can only throw so much on other people, because they are dealing with their own isolation from their lives."

Olson's straight hair falls just below her jaw. Thick bangs top a narrow face bearing a thatch of wrinkles and bright blue eyes behind large oval glasses.

A lifelong runner, she remains lean with arms tanned dark, the result of working outside in a place where the sun slams down hard from dawn to dusk. She is 22 years older than the average woman behind bars in California.

In the beginning, Olson went through a period many newly incarcerated people describe -- wondering whether she could survive. Some scream and yell; others stare out the window day after day.

"I grabbed a shovel and dug and hoed and raked on the yard for a couple months," Olson recalled. "Some people thought I was crazy, but the old-timers understood."

Surviving in prison meant accepting what she called "enforced idleness," with one monotonous day sliding into the next. The noise is ceaseless, the facility packed to twice its intended capacity.

"We live on top of each other," she said. Anything private "has to be done inside your head."

To escape the din and pass the time, she walks obsessively -- hour after hour, loop after loop around the prison yard.

Her custody status is "Close A," meaning she is among the most intensely supervised inmates. She has challenged the label because it limits privileges, prevents her from joining certain prison programs, requires her to be counted seven times a day and eliminates any chance of transferring closer to home.

So far, those appeals have been denied. Her attorney, David Nickerson, said corrections officials view her as an escape threat who would be a danger to society if she got out. A prison spokesman described her as a quiet inmate who caused no trouble, but would not comment further.

About 10 times a year, Dr. Fred Peterson journeys from St. Paul to Chowchilla to see his wife of 26 years. An emergency room physician, Peterson tries to bring at least one of the couple's three daughters each time, though family finances, depleted by Olson's legal bills, are stretched thin.

The rules allow one kiss and one hug at the start of each visit, and a second round of affection at the end.

"We make the most of it," Peterson said. "Visits are what keep everything going, so we consider ourselves exceedingly fortunate to be able to go."

The future, Peterson said, is a favorite topic, although plans are vague. Nibbling on food from the visiting-room vendor, Olson receives a run-down on her husband's work with the Inmate Family Council -- a group that meets regularly with the warden about prisoners' concerns - -- and enjoys detailed reports on her daughters, including their latest boyfriends, jobs, hopes and disappointments.

Her oldest, 25, graduated from college this year and is talking about law school. The youngest is 19 and a budding actress, while the middle daughter, 24, is a student and singer, with a regular gig at a jazz club.

"It was very hard on all of them," she said of her girls, "in different ways and for different reasons. Being cut off is the worst thing. Everything else you just deal with."

*

Politically 'Invigorated'

While she keeps her past private inside prison, Olson said incarceration has "invigorated" her politics and led to an addiction to talk radio. In one conversation over several hours, her topics skittered from the Iran-Contra scandal to theater, poverty, African politics, the future of the Internet, bankruptcy law, the music industry, the war on drugs and the civil rights movement.

In the privacy of an interview, away from guards and other convicts, the quiet inmate's voice becomes lively, her manner almost merry. Her hands flutter to and fro, punctuating speech that reflects an avid reader with a wide vocabulary. After a monologue of several minutes, she stops and lets out a loud, ringing laugh, apologizing for "standing on my soapbox."

For a year, she served on the inmate advisory council, organizing special events and bringing grievances to the warden. She said the experience amounted to "mostly beating one's head against a wall."

A three-year effort by inmates and their relatives to win permission to plant a vegetable garden is one example. The project would give inmates something to do, said Olson, one of a handful of prisoners promoting the idea, and the harvest would be donated to local food banks.

A prison spokesman said the warden was still evaluating the suggestion but that if approved, the garden would be limited to flowers. Fruits or vegetables could be sneaked in and used to brew pruno, a crude alcoholic beverage some inmates concoct behind bars.

At ground level, Olson says conflict with fellow inmates is best borne silently. Let harassment roll off your back, because responding could lead to an argument, followed by a disciplinary citation to mar one's record.

The wild card is the presence of so many inmates who are mentally ill. "They have no idea how to behave, no ability to get along," she said. "It just adds to the anxiety of the place."

Some guards are helpful, some not. "Some staff want to be reasonable, you can see it in their eyes," Olson said. But within the officer corps, it doesn't pay to be inmate-friendly. "It's seen as weak. Still, everyone knows who you can get a kind word from now and then."

Before she arrived in prison, Olson thought the experience would be "educational." She recalled that Father Philip Berrigan, an activist priest from Baltimore who was arrested more than 100 times before his death in 1993, once suggested that all middle-class people should spend time in jail to "know what goes on."

Today, Olson said, "I can still see his point, but I wouldn't wish this experience on anyone."

California's correctional system, she says, treats all incarcerated females as if they are "violent predators" and puts them in high-security lockups. Yet the majority -- about 66%, according to state figures -- are serving short terms for nonviolent crimes.

In her frequent writings for newsletters and other publications, she elaborates: "Develop programs that place female lawbreakers in communities where we can maintain strong ties with our families and our homes. Help us to learn to become assets to our society, not its outsiders."

In January, the Schwarzenegger administration offered a model anchored in that sort of philosophy, proposing that 4,500 nonviolent women be moved out of prison and into private, locked facilities in their own communities.

The plan has not found enthusiastic support in the Legislature, but it will be debated this month as part of a special session on corrections.

Olson worries most about the growing number of older women in prison. Younger inmates prey on the elderly, stealing their belongings, extorting food and favors.

Prison medical care, recently seized by a federal judge and placed in the hands of a receiver, is another concern.

In 2003, Olson said, her mammogram showed a suspicious lesion, and a follow-up biopsy was ordered. Months later, the test still hadn't been done. Olson was not given a reason for the delay and did not consider it unusual, given the waits routinely faced by prisoners with more serious diagnoses.

Back in Minnesota, her husband fired off an e-mail to then-Gov. Gray Davis. That cleared the way; the biopsy was done and all was well. Prison officials would not comment, citing the confidentiality of inmate records.

*

'That's the Old Life'

Olson says she does not stay in touch with her co-defendants, only one of whom -- her brother-in-law, Michael Bortin -- has been released from prison. Two others -- Bill Harris and Emily Montague, his former wife -- are due to be released from other California prisons within a year.

As for the SLA days, Olson says: "For me to come forward with some kind of spiel about what I did in those times, and what was happening from a political perspective, it's just not a discussion for public consumption right now. That's the old life."

Has Sara Jane Olson changed in prison? The question prompts a pause. Hard to say, she finally responds, "because I don't see myself reflected on the outside.

"I'm older -- oh, who am I kidding, I'm old -- and I've become really paranoid," she said. "I've also become very good at masking my emotions. It scares my daughters, when they see my face, but in here, it's just what you do to survive."

Drugs Issue Sparked Up By Dickel

2006-08-13T12:55:00.000-07:00

DRUGS ISSUE SPARKED UP BY DICKEL

Why do drug cheating athletes think they can get away with it? Will sport ever be clean? Cannabis is not performance enhancing, so what's the big deal? What image do drug cheats send to the influential minds of young athletes striving to be the best?

The questions just keep coming. As soon as one is answered, more arise.

Basketballer Mark Dickel tested positive for cannabis after the Tall Blacks' match against Australia in Napier last month. He admitted the offence and awaits punishment.

That admission should be praised, the drug use should not.

The Ministry of Health says marijuana is the third most common recreational drug used in New Zealand, but it is not good for you or sport's image and that makes it a banned substance in the World Anti-Doping Agency's eyes.

"It meets the criteria that WADA established," Drug Free Sport New Zealand executive director Graeme Steel said.

"There are three categories: it must be performance enhancing, it must have harmful health consequences or it must be contrary to the spirit of sport.

"It seems that under the third category, along with the second one, WADA has decided to incorporate it on to the list. In other words, it is contrary to the spirit of sport and the health of the athlete."

The black mark it puts on basketball's image has not been overlooked.

"From our point of view, it is extremely disappointing," Tall Blacks coach Tab Baldwin said yesterday, when Dickel was suspended for this weekend's test series against Qatar, which tips off tonight in Dunedin.

"Mark knows he has let a lot of people down and must now face the consequences."

It has been a big couple of months in the hazy world of drugs in sport.

Wallabies wing Wendell Sailor was benched for two years after his positive test to cocaine.

The world's ( equal ) fastest man Justin Gatlin faces a life ban after a positive result to testosterone. He had a suspension reduced a few years back after convincing officials a positive drugs test was due to medication he was taking.

Tour de France winner Floyd Landis is trying to convince the world the high level of synthetic testosterone found in his body was natural.

"With these recent cases, we may only be seeing the tip of the iceberg," WADA head Dick Pound said recently.

It suggests getting drug users out of sport is a huge task.

There is a big difference between using testosterone and cannabis but there is also a key similarity - both are on the WADA list of banned substances.

WADA's international standard 2006 anti-doping code cannot be clearer.

"Cannabinoids ( eg Hashish, marijuana ) are prohibited".

For testosterone there is a lot of fine print to explain what is an acceptable level and what is not but smoke just one joint and you face a positive result.

Drug Free Sport New Zealand outlines the risks for athletes who use substances such as cannabis.

"Marijuana will be tested for in competition in all sports," DFSNZ states on its website.

"All users of marijuana must be aware that traces may be detected many weeks after taking it, particularly for those who have been heavy or long time users.

"It is listed as a 'specified substance' which means that it is possible to get a lighter penalty for the first offence."

That last sentence may be some consolation for Dickel. A positive test to cannabis will not be career-ending. Between July 2004 and May 2005 nine New Zealand athletes tested positive to cannabis. The heaviest penalty was a six-month ban, given to a bodybuilder.

All other penalties have been either a warning, reprimand, fine or a combination of those.

"The matter is initially referred to Basketball New Zealand," Steel said.

"Their rules, as I understand them, would require them to refer it to the Sports Disputes Tribunal, which is an independent body which hears these kinds of cases.

"In the case of cannabis, if the athlete can show or satisfy the tribunal that it wasn't used to enhance performance then, because it's what's called a specified substance, the range of sanctions alters and the range applicable in that case is a warning at the bottom end to a one-year ban at the top end."

With Dickel already admitting his guilt the likelihood of a small penalty and the matter being finalised before the Tall Blacks fly to Japan for the world championships is high.

Methadone Clinic Wins

2006-08-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

METHADONE CLINIC WINS

County Law Restricting Medical Facility Sites Faulted

A federal jury ruled yesterday that Baltimore County officials discriminated against the patients of a Pikesville methadone clinic when they enacted a law prohibiting state-licensed medical facilities from locating within 750 feet of homes.

After hearing testimony over three weeks, the U.S. District Court jury deliberated for less than five hours yesterday before finding in favor of A Helping Hand methadone clinic. The clinic, which also prevailed in a judge's ruling that the county law violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, will remain open.

The findings do not immediately repeal the four-year-old law, but they could prompt changes in the law to avoid similar challenges from other methadone clinics that might seek to open in the county, said Steven J. Barber, a lawyer for A Helping Hand.

"It's a great day for the people in Maryland who have serious need for treatment," said Barber, adding that his Washington law firm, Steptoe and Johnson, represented the clinic on a pro bono basis. "And the message to the county should be clear: [The law] should not survive."

County attorneys said they would probably appeal the judge's ruling, but it was unclear yesterday whether the county would also appeal the jury's verdict.

The private, for-profit clinic in the Ralston neighborhood filed the federal lawsuit against the county in 2002, claiming that the law discriminated against the clinic's patients and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. The American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland joined the suit against the county. And three of the clinic's patients, identified in the court proceedings as John Doe One and Two and Jane Doe One, were also listed as plaintiffs in the suit.

The jurors found that the county had not interfered with the individual rights of the clinic's clients and awarded no damages. The county might have to pay the legal expenses of the clinic, though the judge didn't rule on the amount yesterday. The jury found that the clinic's right to due process was violated.

District Judge Catherine C. Blake, who presided over the trial, had ruled Monday that the county law had a "disparate impact" of being discriminatory, meaning whether it was intentional or not, the law had the effect of violating the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Donald I. Mohler, a county spokesman, said that County Executive James T. Smith Jr., a former Circuit Court judge, would carefully review the case and its "implications for the county taxpayers."

Mohler said the county was disappointed by the verdict. He called the dispute an "important case for families in Baltimore County."

Lawyers for the county had argued that officials were employing zoning law to keep certain types of businesses out of neighborhoods, much the way the county prohibits factories and other companies from being located too close to homes.

They pointed out that methadone clinics are permitted in areas zoned for manufacturing, and that the 2002 law doesn't single out drug treatment facilities, but applies to all state-licensed medical facilities, including kidney dialysis offices. The law mentions adverse effects on the community from such facilities, such as increased traffic and parking problems.

Lawyers for the clinic argued that the county based its law on stereotypes of drug addicts and had violated protections for disabled people by bending to fears held by residents about drug treatment facilities.

Richard Griffiths, an attorney for the ACLU of Maryland, said yesterday's verdict "serves to bolster the rights of people under the ADA, especially those with disabilities that might be disfavored by certain groups, such as government entities."

He said he didn't know of any jurisdictions in Maryland with zoning laws similar to Baltimore County's but said that the case could serve as precedent to any government seeking to single out those in drug treatment.

Blake struck down county laws in 2000 and in 2002, ruling that they violated the ADA because they were stricter about methadone clinics than other similar medical practices. However, a 2002 appeals court ruling held that a jury should have decided whether the law violated the ADA, according to county attorneys.

A Helping Hand is the only for-profit methadone treatment clinic in Baltimore County. A public-private hybrid program is in an industrial park in Timonium. Another private, for-profit methadone clinic that had sought to open in Pikesville settled with the county out of court last year.

UT: Survival of the Sacred

2006-02-21T10:29:00.000-08:00

Controversy Simmers Over Whether Non-Indians Can Understand and Respect Native Spirituality When news spread that Arvol Looking Horse would be visiting Utah, many who practice American Indian spirituality were thrilled. Some also felt a chill. Looking Horse, after all, has come to represent the growing sentiment among many American Indians that non-Indians do not belong in the center of sacred ceremonial practice. A Lakota spiritual leader, Looking Horse - with the support of dozens of Lakota, Dakota, Nakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho leaders - issued a proclamation in 2003 calling for an end to exploitation of ceremonies. Non-Indians, he says, are welcome to join Indians in prayer and on the periphery, but they should not lead the most sacred ceremonies, such as the Sundance and Vision Quest. Not only do Indians with little appreciation of tradition pervert and sell ceremonies and their tools, he argues, but also non-Indians dabble in something they do not fully understand. Drawn by native spirituality's understanding of nature, plants and animals - and often packing their own New Age notions - scores of non-Indians have been attracted to native spirituality. "A lot of people are doing things, and they've only got a shadow," says Lacee Harris, a social worker from Salt Lake City. Harris is a Northern Ute-Northern Paiute. When Looking Horse was invited to Utah from South Dakota for various appearances along the Wasatch Front last week, audiences expected to hear him expound on the issue. He didn't. But that doesn't mean Looking Horse, averse to conflict, has backed away from his insistence that Indians reclaim their faith. Indeed, he believes the future of the human race hinges, in part, on the ceremonial practices. "There is a lot about our [way of] life that is essential to the survival of the two-leggeds," he said in an interview. Those who take part in ceremonies for their own gratification do not realize there are ramifications for others, he says. "They begin a slow killing of the medicine," he says. "They don't realize they destroy the creator by doing this," adds his wife, Paula Horne Mullen. Time to 'pick up the pipe': Ogden resident Robin Naneix is one of those struggling to understand where that leaves her. Reared in Georgia, Naneix was taught Indian ways - such as talking to plants and looking for signs in nature - by her grandmother, whose own mother was Cherokee but who never called her ways "Indian." For a number of reasons, the family did not end up on the tribal roles. Naneix is fair-skinned, with dark blond hair. After trying on Christianity and looking into Buddhism, Naneix turned to Indian ways eight years ago. She studied and gradually learned the complexities of native spirituality, careful to respect traditions. Like many who began practicing Indian spirituality as adults, Naneix adopted Lakota ways because the Lakota Sioux generously have shared their traditions with strangers for the past century. Through the years, Naneix believes she has been confirmed in her path. She regularly finds eagle feathers as she spends time outdoors, a gift of the creator, she says. Dreams and visions told her three years ago that it was time to "pick up the pipe," a significant step in a spiritual journey. In December, she decided that next summer, she will do the Sundance - four days of nearly nonstop dancing with no food or water. "In that sacred circle, you are one on one with creator," Naneix says. Looking Horse, she says, is a "very wise and spiritual man." But, "at the end of the day, he is a man. . . [who is] telling us we can't be with the creator." "For me and my friends, it feels like it's because of our color," Naneix says. "We say that sounds racist." In her mind, taking part in sacred ceremonies should depend on one's heart and preparation, not heritage. "It comes down to: Are you being mindful and acting out of your heart?" Rights & rites: Forrest Cuch, executive director of the Utah Division of Indian Affairs, notes another dimension to the controversy: legality. "It is the only ethnic minority that has a political relationship with the U.S. Congress that came about as a result of war," he says. "The treaties were made with the American Indian people, not with other people." Certain rights belong only to members of federally recognized Indian tribes, such as the right to possess eagle feathers, which represent knowledge and are vital in many native ceremonies. Another is the right to use peyote, a hallucinogen derived from cactus. Federal law requires one be a member of the Native American Church of North America as well as a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe to use peyote. Utah law, however, had a loophole allowing peyote use by non-Indians. The Legislature this session passed HB60 to make state law conform to federal law and it's awaiting the signature of Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. Cuch and leaders of Utah's Indian tribes praise the measure as a step in remedying exploitation of native practices. "A controlled substance has to be regulated," Cuch says, "otherwise it will be abused." Like Looking Horse, Cuch laments the disrespect shown to native spirituality as it becomes popular among non-Indians. "Far too many of them think that because they participate in a few ceremonies, they can become shamans and medicine people." But Cuch's views on non-Indian participation in sacred ceremonies shows there is a wide divergence among Indian leaders. "They [non-Indians] need to devote 15 or 20 years working as an apprentice. When they achieve that, Indian people will recognize and support them." Harris agrees it's not impossible for a non-Indian to develop enough spiritually to be in the center of ceremonies. "It is possible if they want to put in the time." Eleanor Iron Lightning, a Lakota who lives in Salt Lake City and invited Looking Horse, says "only a drop" of Indian blood is necessary for one to be on a path toward full participation in Indian ceremonies. Looking Horse acknowledges he does not have the authority to enforce his view. That call is up to each community's spiritual leader in each situation. But, he and his wife say, the creator, through prophecies and revelation, has given particular ceremonies to particular native people for a reason. "I wouldn't want to start making ceremonial sand painting because I had a dream I was a Hopi," Horne Mullen says. "As a Lakota, I have to respect that." She recognizes that many who have joined native circles are "really good people." "We're trying to help them understand the delicate nature of the situation. We say 'share prayer, but keep in place the boundaries of respect for who we are.' "

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FL: Cocaine Intrudes On Paradise

2006-02-20T10:28:00.000-08:00

ACHUTUPO . After keeping the world at bay for five centuries, the Kuna Indians on Panama's unspoiled Caribbean coast now confront an insidious intruder: cocaine traffickers. The fiercely independent tribe inhabits Kuna Yala, a semiautonomous area that includes a coastal strip and the San Blas islands. The region is known mainly to foreign eco-tourists who can afford to reach its isolated white sand beaches. The Kuna have fought off incursions by Spanish conquistadors, rubber growers, gold miners and, most recently, tourism promoters who ply them with a steady stream of resort proposals. But they jealously protect their sovereignty, won after a bloody uprising in 1925. Today, the tribe permits no outside ownership of its land. The Kuna control almost 400 picture-postcard islands but inhabit fewer than 50 of them, which are crammed with bamboo-sided, thatch-roofed huts. The women are known for gaily colored dresses and for their embroidered molas, or tapestries, coveted souvenirs. Men spend the day fishing, gathering coconuts and catching lobsters. "Foreigners often view the Kuna as simple mola makers with hardly a care in the world, but it is they who decide when and if outsiders, including Panamanian police and other authorities, can enter their lands," said Scott Doggett, author of Lonely Planet's Panama guide. In the past few years, however, the Kuna have faced an interloper that has proved difficult to fend off -- and has brought the scourge of addiction. The 200-mile-long Kuna lands lie just south of a transit route for Colombian drugs on their way to the U.S. market, much of them stowed aboard sleek boats often outfitted with a trio of 200-horsepower engines and guided by satellite positioning systems. A consequence of the increasing drug traffic is the increase in drugs that wash ashore, dumped by drug runners to avoid detection or to be picked up by associates. The cocaine then gets sold or used locally. The so-called go-fast boats have proved elusive to U.S. and Panamanian authorities trying to stem the flow of drugs. They are difficult to track and intercept because their speeds reach 80 mph and they travel at night. Officials who run the U.S.-Panamanian drug interdiction program say they have had success recently in catching some of the boats. This nation's top anti-drug prosecutor, Patricio Candanedo, said that in 2005, Panama seized 35 tons of cocaine in seaborne raids, nearly four times as much as in 2004. One American official said the anti-drug efforts have been helped by a U.S. gift of several go-fast boats that Panamanian law enforcers use to chase down the drug runners. But the surveillance has pushed drug boats' skippers to run closer to Kuna Yala shores so they can ditch their boats and cargo on shorter notice. And that has increased the incidence of what the locals call "ocean jackpots," or the recovery by Kuna tribesmen of cocaine that is then distributed locally. On some islands, up to half of Kuna men between 18 and 25 are addicts, said pharmacist assistant Galindo Morales, a health-clinic worker. Residents still talk about an incident over the summer that brought home the risks of being close to a narcotics shipping lane. After a boat loaded with a ton of cocaine beached on the mainland in June with mechanical problems, the skipper asked a fisherman to stand guard over the cargo. Instead, the Kuna tribesman sold it to traffickers in Colon for $700,000, according to several island sources. Traffickers returned days later to find their merchandise gone and threatened the entire population of Achutupo with death. Terrified, elders then made an almost unheard-of appeal to the Panamanian government for police protection. For a time, 40 police officers stood guard over the island waiting for the reprisal from drug runners. Today, four remain on constant watch.

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Bermuda: Police Blitzes and Jail Terms Will Never End Drug

2006-02-19T10:28:00.000-08:00

A recovered heroin addict who went on to found a US drug rehabilitation centre said Bermuda would never defeat the scourge through Police crackdowns and imprisonment. Israel Cason told a Bermudians Against Narcotics rally a possible solution was to get recovering junkies to help existing addicts. "People always say experts need to do it but may I remind you that experts built the Titanic and amateurs built the arch." More than 120 people defied looming rain clouds to gather at St. George's square for the rally. Mr. Cason, who founded the Baltimore "I can't, We can" programme, said addiction affected people from all walks of life, not just people on "skid row". "I came from a good family, my mother was a preacher and my father was a deacon," he said. "In my neighbourhood there were 'exciting' people and I decided I wanted to be a hustler. I had no knowledge of what the lifestyle was but I thought it looked more exciting than being a preacher." "I was a heroin addict for 30 years. Despite that I managed to maintain a business and family. I owned my house. I thought I was fine and didn't realise that instant gratification would bring lifelong pain.The disease is progressive and chronic. It comes on so slow you can adapt to it and don't realise it has happened." "In the end the same drug I took to kill the pain became the very thing that caused the pain. It's a vicious cycle. I wound up sleeping in my car in a parking lot for the last two years of my addiction. "Pain is a universal motivator. It motivates you to change you lifestyle or continue getting worse. I needed to feel that pain before I realised I had to change my lifestyle." Minister of Drug Control, Wayne Perinchief, spoke later at the rally and said that Mr. Cason's message about pain was pertinent to Bermuda. "In Bermuda we never allow the pain to get too much that they have to leave. Mothers enable their sons to be weak, tough love is needed on this Island. "Brother Cason brought that message home to me. I know how hard it can be. I had a son who used drugs and caused me so much pain I didn't know if I wanted him alive or dead sometimes. But we need to stop enabling our sons and allow them to reach the pain that will motivate them." Saafir Rabb, another "I can't, We can" official, said the Baltimore programme had helped 9,000 addicts since 1997, 6,750 of whom have remained clean and sober. He said the programme was spiritually based and looked to change the lifestyle of addicts. Another aim was to remove the desire to associate with drugs. A main feature of the programme was empowering addicts to help each other. And another key to its success was self sufficiency. There was no reliance on Government grants. "The programme is unique in that it is not set up to be a burden on society or the government," he said. "It is set up to be self sustaining, we set up businesses that provide revenue to fund the recovery programme." Mr. Rabb said that the organisation had come to help BAN in anyway possible and hoped that a similar programme could be established on the Island. Mr. Cason said it was important to realise that recovery takes a holistic approach. "Recovery and sobriety are two very different things," he said. "After I went to rehab with a cousin I came out and realised everyone that I had hung around with was still a junkie. If I didn't change the people around me I would have been drawn back in." "I had to change my lifestyle, morals and belief. Each phase involves difficulties. Change equals stress, but in the difficulties is the ease it does get better. If we endure the pain the rewards are great." Mr. Cason also said the drug problem on the Island had reached an alarming rate and needed to be properly addressed. "Bermuda needs to realise it will only get worse if we don't do something. We cannot Police our way out. We cannot incarcerate our way out. We've tried that and all we end up with are more prisons The solution is in the problem, we get recovering addicts to help out current addicts. People always say experts need to do it but may I remind you that experts built the Titanic and amateurs built the arch."

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Kenya: Cut To The Chase, UK And US Tell Kenya Over Drugs

2006-02-18T10:27:00.000-08:00

Nairobi - The Government is under unprecedented pressure from the international community over the handling of the twin cocaine seizures - one worth Sh6.4b and another worth Sh1.1b - by police in December 2004. The international community is demanding from the seemingly reluctant Kenyan authorities that the drugs, according to one diplomatic source, be tested, weighed and disposed in accordance with the international standards. The pressure from the representatives of the various foreign missions in Nairobi and the relevant agencies of the United Nations, diplomatic sources say, are still being exerted through quiet diplomacy. But it may only be a matter of time before the quiet diplomacy channel is abandoned in favour of what diplomatic sources describe only as "other more effective channels" should the government fail to act on their demands. In what could be the clearest indication yet of disquiet on the government's handling of the cocaine seizures - in the face of widespread speculation that the consignment could well have been tampered with - the US and UK envoys met the Attorney General, Amos Wako, and Director of Public Prosecutions, Keriako Tobiko, last Wednesday during which they expressed reservations about the government's argument that the drugs could neither be tested nor weighed until George Kiragu, the prime suspect, is extradited from the Netherlands. A court in Netherlands last week ruled that Kiragu had a case to answer over the cocaine consignment and ordered that he should be extradited to Kenya to face trial, but he quickly filed an appeal in which he is arguing that he may not get a fair trial in Kenya due to the many vested interests in the matter. The UN, US and European Union member states are reportedly of the view that, by citing Mr Kiragu's extradition as the reason for not testing - let alone destroying - the drugs, the government is shifting goal posts and buying time. This is because the authorities had early last year attempted to secretly destroy the drugs, but changed tune when the move was blocked due to keen public attention and instead started resisting, citing Kiragu's extradition, requests for transparent testing and disposal. Sources told The Sunday Standard that US ambassador, William Bellamy, and the UK High Commissioner, Adam Wood, wondered why the government was procrastinating the disposal of the drugs even after it promised recently that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime would be invited to test each of the 954 packets of the seized cocaine. The UN office on Drugs and Crime had in May last year applied to the Kenyan authorities for permission to test each of the packets in a bid to allay fears that it may have been interfered with, a request to which President Mwai Kibaki acceded. In a subsequent meeting between the UN representative and Wako later last year, the AG is said to have assured the international body that its experts would be allowed to test the drugs as requested. In their meeting with the AG last week, the diplomats are reported to have also expressed concern that, since the seizure, cocaine has been finding its way to the UK through the Kenya Airways, something that had never been witnessed before December 2004 when the consignment was impounded. This, it is felt, appears to lend credence to the now widely held view that the cocaine may not be intact, after all. When contacted for comment, Jennifer Barnes, the US embassy's press attachE, tacitly confirmed in a carefully crafted statement that the meeting took place. "Mr Bellamy has had a number of conversations with the government concerning that pile of drugs ( cocaine ) that they have been holding. We are interested in having the government test, weigh, verify and dispose of the drugs in accordance with international standards. It is important that the government of Kenya moves as quickly as possible," she said in a statement she issued only after wide consultations. But the UK Deputy High Commissioner, Ray Kyles, could neither confirm nor deny that the meeting took place, pleading only that he did not wish to speak to the press at this time. Other reports had also indicated that, in their meeting with the AG, the diplomats had hinted that the national carrier, the Kenya Airways, could be in the spotlight over the increasing cases of some of its staff members being arrested at Heathrow Airport, London, with packets of high-grade cocaine. Such open concerns from the British authorities have for the last two days given rise to fears in the aviation industry about the possibility of the Kenya Airways being banned from plying the highly lucrative Nairobi/London route, especially if it is established that the cocaine consignment currently in the custody of the government was tampered with. But the UK and US missions in Nairobi categorically denied that there was any such a move, primarily because the airline's Managing Director, Titus Naikuni, has recently expressed concern over the recent arrests of its staff while trying to smuggle cocaine to London. "I am not aware of any such a move and there would be no ground for banning the airline," said Ms Barnes. But impeccable sources say Naikuni has received two letters, one of them preceded by an email, from British authorities warning him on the impending action and urging him to "put his house in order". One of the letters is said to contain a list of prominent Kenyans to whom the airliner should not issue tickets to London. The Kenya Airways management denied any knowledge of plans to slap a blanket ban on its liners to London. "We have received no such communication from either the Kenyan government or the British authorities. Ordinarily, they would have communicated to us had that been the case," said Michael Okwiri, the Head of Corporate Communication. Okwiri also disclosed during the interview that, thanks to the three incidents in which KQ staff have been arrested in London, the airline has introduced a special sniffer dog, among other security arrangements, to improve on its methods of detecting illicit cargo.

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Bid For ID Cards For Tuolumne County Medical Marijuana

2006-02-17T09:41:00.000-08:00

A program to provide identification cards to Tuolumne County medical marijuana patients failed to win county approval yesterday. The Board of Supervisors split 2-2 on whether to establish the state-mandated registration program. The program, voluntary for users, would have provided state photo ID cards to people "authorized to engage in the medical use of marijuana," according to state law. Although the county won't face any state penalties for not complying with the requirement, yesterday's decision does mean someone could file a lawsuit to force the county to adopt the program, County Counsel Gregory Oliver said. Supervisors could have followed the lead of San Diego County and filed a lawsuit in federal court to avoid complying with the program. But that option failed to win support from the board. "I'm against spending our local money to have a redundant lawsuit," Supervisor Dick Pland said. "There is already a lawsuit. We don't need another." The issue is complicated by disagreement between the state and federal governments over the legality of medical marijuana. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which allows possession of marijuana for medicinal use with a doctor's recommendation. The state Legislature in 2003 created a law which requires counties to create identification card programs for medical marijuana users. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has held that people in California who use medical marijuana can still be prosecuted by the federal government. So far, 16 counties have adopted a marijuana registration program, county Health Officer Todd Stolp said. Tuolumne County's program would have required applicants to have a doctor's recommendation for medicinal marijuana. A panel of three local doctors, including the county health officer, would have reviewed each ID card request. That applicants would not need a recommendation from a doctor practicing in Tuolumne County concerned Pland, who joined Supervisor Mark Thornton in voting against the program. "That indicates a lack of local accountability," he said, referring to cases elsewhere where doctors have handed out questionable medical marijuana recommendations. Voting for the program was tantamount to endorsing the concept of medical marijuana, Thornton said. He also worried that, in some cases, taxpayers would be subsidizing the program. The county Health Department had planned on charging $60 for the card. Medi-Cal or County Medical Services Program patients would have been charged $30 instead. Supervisors Liz Bass and Paolo Maffei voted for the ID card program. Maffei said it could be helpful, but wasn't perfect. "People shouldn't have to sign a paper to get their pain medication," he said. Medical marijuana advocates are split on whether an ID card program is a good thing. Some have concerns over registering with the government. Others said the card could be useful. "The card is there to protect people who are concerned with law enforcement harassment," F. Aaron Smith, of the medical marijuana advocacy group Safe Access Now, told supervisors.

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BC: Forum To Be A Wake-Up Call To Parents

2006-02-16T13:11:00.000-08:00

There are lots of parents in New Westminster who have a "My kid wouldn't do that" attitude and that's one of the reasons police and school district officials are organizing a public meeting this Tuesday. New Westminster is becoming known as "party central" for youth aged 12 to 18 and police are regularly breaking up gatherings that can number as many as 200. Most of the teens are either using alcohol or drugs like marijuana. When police arrive at these gatherings they go into "triage" mode, said Sharon MacKay, the district's community school co-ordinator. They assess which teens are so intoxicated that they require hospitalization and if others need to be driven home because they may endanger themselves. "Because some are so drunk or high, police feel the need to take care of them, rather than just disperse the crowd," said MacKay. What's even more puzzling is the reaction of parents to this, said Karen Janzen, the school-based prevention worker in the district. "Often when the kids are brought home, the parents are like, 'Well, we used to do it, kids will be kids and kids will drink' kind of thing," said Janzen. "That's obviously an issue. The impression I'm getting from a lot of kids is they say no one's really stopping them, 'So why should we stop?' Their parents don't like it but they're not stopping them." The seminar for parents, entitled "My Child Wouldn't Do That," is this Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Glenbrook Middle School gymnasium. One of the keynote speakers is Randy Miller, a former drug addict who spent 13 years on Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, addicted to heroin, cocaine and other drugs. The New Westminster resident was a star athlete at New Westminster secondary school in the early 1970s. "For me it was gradual," said Miller, 52. "Kids think they're bullet-proof and it won't happen to them. That's why I'm doing this. To educate them that it can happen to them." Miller argues that marijuana is a gateway drug leading to others. When he smoked pot in high school it had a THC ( tetrahydrocannabinol: the main active ingredient in marijuana ) content of three per cent. Today's hydroponic marijuana has a THC content of 23 per cent. "Especially if they have an addictive personality," said Miller. "It can be like eating candy. You just keep doing it until you're way into it." In 1999 Miller's drug life on the Downtown Eastside was chronicled in the documentary Through a Blue Lens, made by members of the Vancouver Police Department. Soon after that he went into recovery and is now drug-free, working full time and educating children and youth about the dangers of drugs. He doesn't like what he's hearing about the drug and alcohol-laced gatherings in New West. "It's up to the parents to be their kids' friends and talk to them about what they're up to." The age of some of the teens involved in the gatherings shocks Janzen. Police have identified youth as young as 11 and 12 who are involved. And it's not just one or two beers that they're sipping at. Janzen has spoken with middle school students who tell her they consume a 26-ounce bottle of hard liquor like vodka. Her student interviews also find these gatherings can involve sexual activity where young girls are trading sexual favours for drugs and alcohol. Once they get stoned or drunk, their level of intoxication also puts them at risk of further sexual exploitation. "It seems like parents aren't responding or they're not getting it that it's their kids who are involved in this," said Janzen. Parents also tend to believe their child is using drugs and alcohol or involved in sexual activity because they're hanging out with the wrong kids. The truth is that those teens are just as involved as the others, she said. "That's why we're doing this and drawing attention to what's really going on." The seminar is free but pre-registration is required. To attend call 604-517-6345 and register for course N88. Baby-sitting will be provided free of charge for those who need it.

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BC: Guru of Ganja Marks 10 Years of Pot Advocacy

2006-02-15T13:10:00.000-08:00

Since he began supplying chronically ill people in Victoria with marijuana out of a van 10 years ago, Leon "Ted" Smith has seen some major changes in his role. Not the least of those has been his legal banishment from having anything to do with the operation of the Cannabis Buyers' Club he founded in 1996. Despite being forced by the courts to watch the fruits of his labours from arm's length, Smith said this week he is extremely pleased with how far the club has come in achieving its mandate. "It's extremely important for me to have this club perceived as legal, and being vindicated in court is a necessary step in that," he said. In all, Smith, whose aim is to see marijuana legalized, has faced 11 charges related to marijuana and its distribution. Some stemmed from raids on the club storefront, while others came from such activities as passing out pot cookies on International Medical Marijuana Day and sharing joints at a weekly Hempology 101 meeting at UVic. Most of those charges were dismissed, largely due to constitutional questions and the application of existing laws in situations involving medical marijuana. "Going through all the trials, being acquitted for all the club trials - - that's 11 charges done and gone and the club is free and clear," Smith said. "It gives me a warm feeling inside every time I think of it. I'm really proud of it." Not everyone has seen him as a saviour in that time. After Smith was acquitted on a handful of charges in 2004, Victoria police Insp. Grant Smith stated "my personal opinion is that Ted Smith definitely has an agenda to get marijuana legalized in Canada." While he stopped short of questioning Smith's integrity, the inspector said "there definitely is an ulterior motive." After five years of operating the club and having the occasional run-in with the law, Smith and his compatriots were ordered by police to get a storefront. While in some ways that legitimized the club's activities, there were the inevitable members who flauted the rules and re-sold pot they bought from the club. These days the Buyers' Club is limping along, barely making enough to pay the bills - Smith said it is $40,000 in debt. But its "sister" organization, Hempology 101, continues to thrive. There are more than 250 members of the marijuana educational organization at the University of Victoria alone, making it one of the largest clubs on campus. As well, Smith's Wednesday night presentations in the foyer of Ministry of Health building on Blanshard Street have been attracting upwards of three dozen participants. Due to popular demand, Smith plans to teach a weekly course at UVic starting in September. The content, he said, will range from hemp to the history of cannabis, its uses, the history of prohibition, medical uses and other topics. "I would like to get some guest speakers, maybe some sociology profs, and talk about the current legal status of cannabis," he said. Aware that upwards of 100 people a week could attend the classes and be looking to learn, Smith said he'll need to be on his best behaviour. "It's quite different than downtown, where we kind of goof around. When you stand up in front of 100 students you better damn well know what you're doing." With a little more time on his hands lately, he's in the middle of writing a textbook on marijuana, hemp and its uses, with the goal of finding a distributor locally and elsewhere. That may or may not provide him with financial self-sufficiency, but regardless, he's feeling good about where he's at. "The level of life I live is so much greater," Smith said. "When you work with people who are sick and dying like I do, just being able to walk around is amazing."

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6 PDEA Agents Relieved For 'Shabu Market' Fiasco

2006-02-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Include DILG, PNP In Probe - Miriam Six team members of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency ( PDEA ) were relieved of their duties yesterday for their alleged failure to detect the existence of a "shabu market" that was discovered by a police raiding team in Pasig City last week. Undersecretary Anselmo Avenido Jr., PDEA executive director, yesterday ordered the six PDEA team members to undergo investigation for possible neglect of duty following the discovery of the shabu den on E. Soriano St., Sitio Mapayapa, Barangay Santo Tomas in Pasig City. The relieved PDEA personnel were identified as SPO2 Arsenio Gregorio Jr., team leader; and members SPO2 Oscar Rudas, SPO1 Tomas Calicdan, PO3 Eleonito Aptuhan, PO2 Celino Sumauang and PO2 Ramil Policarpio. Assistant Secretary Rodolfo Caisip, PDEA deputy chief, said the six will be placed under investigation for possible lapses in their duty. "They will also be subjected to drug tests to be supervised by the PNP Crime Laboratory Service to determine if they are users of prohibited drugs such as shabu and marijuana," Caisip added. Immediately after the raid, PNP chief Director General Arturo C. Lomibao ordered the relief of 19 policemen assigned at the Police Community Precinct ( PCP ) 20, Pasig City Police Anti-Narcotics Unit, and Eastern Police District ( EPD ) Drug Enforcement Unit. Lomibao expressed disgust over the discovery of the "shabu market" located just a few meters away from PCP 20. Lomibao did not rule out a connivance between police authorities and drug syndicates. "The drug den could not have lasted this long without the cooperation of corrupt police officials and men. They should be unmasked and punished. No one should be spared," Avenido stressed. A total of 319 persons - 216 of them adults while the rest minors - were picked up by elements of the Anti-Illegal Drugs -Special Operations Task Force ( AID-SOTF ) during the raid last Friday. Last Sunday, the PNP-CLS authorities found 179 of those arrested positive for using shabu and marijuana. Of the 179, 11 are minors. They are now detained at the PNP Custodial Center in Camp Crame in Quezon City. As of press time yesterday, PNP authorities were still waiting for the arrival of the prosecutors from the Department of Justice ( DoJ ) in Camp Crame to file the appropriate criminal charges against those found positive of using illegal drugs. AID-SOTF authorities also recovered two kilos of shabu, several drug paraphernalia and two handguns during the raid in the 1,000-square meter shabu den. Heads Will Roll Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago filed a resolution yesterday mandating the proper Senate committees to investigate, in aid of legislation, public officials who allowed a slum area in Pasig City to become a virtual public market of illegal drugs. Senate Resolution 442 also directed the Senate to include in its probe the liability of officials of the Department of Interior and Local Government ( DILG ), the local government of Pasig and the Philippine National Police ( PNP ) as well as barangay officials of Palatiw in Sitio Mapayapa, Pasig City. "The compound is composed of numerous 'one-stop-shop' shabu restaurants where users could rent shabu paraphernalia and buy drugs at R5,000 per gram," said Santiago adding that the operation has been going on for almost a year without being caught by local barangay and police officers in the area. Santiago pointed out that under Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Act of 2002, the government shall pursue an intensive and unrelenting campaign against the trafficking and use of dangerous drugs and other similar substances through an integrated system of planning, implementation, and enforcement of antidrug abuse policies, programs, and projects. The latest incident, however, where rampant peddling of illegal drugs remained unabated for almost a year in broad daylight means that authorities may not be taking the law seriously. According to Santiago, it is alarming that reports by the United Nations ( UN ) indicated that the country, despite its stringent penalty being imposed by the law, has remained one of the countries with a high incidence of drug addiction especially in Asia. The same report also claimed that the Philippines is one of the leading countries with a high volume of shabu being manufactured locally.

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NC: Sheriff's Drug Unit Is Special Breed

2006-02-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

DURHAM -- Before the third and last leg of a recent 12-hour shift, detectives from the Durham Sheriff's Anti-Crime Narcotics Unit congregate in their headquarters in one of the less-glossy pockets of Northgate Mall. A bulletin board -- cluttered by photographs of seizures from the biggest busts of the past two years -- hangs just beyond the office meeting room. The pictures show detectives standing next to large bricks of marijuana, fuzzy digital shots of snowy bags of white powder, and collections of high-powered illegal guns fanned out on conference tables. In the meeting room, four detectives finish the tedious process of bagging and labeling drugs and weapons as evidence. Conversation jumps from topic to topic like a scanner hopping channels. There's congratulatory back-slapping, then reminiscing about past cases, followed by straight-faced discussions about the spike in weapons seizures and the growing street buzz about gangs. The unit's leader is Lt. Derek O'Mary, who took over the 10-man squad two years ago. During his tenure, the squad reportedly has seen a 600 percent increase in drugs seized. O'Mary expects 2006 will be a banner year, and gives credit to his men. "This unit, as small as it is, is having an impact," he said. "We hear about it from people on the streets. They're changing the way they do business because the word's out." Every man in the unit, O'Mary says with obvious pride, has been trained in technical surveillance, woods surveillance, interrogation, and special weapons and tactics. The training allows them to handle both investigations and actual arrests. That sets them apart, he said, from many other similar units. "You look at these guys and they look very ragtag, but I'm telling you they know what they're doing. It's comforting to work in the company of these folks," O'Mary said. After taking the handguns and marijuana confiscated earlier in the day to the courthouse, the team stopped for a 15-minute dinner. Gathered around a table at a relatively empty sub shop, the detectives downed hot sandwiches and playfully argued about what neighborhood "hot spots" they were going to focus on for the rest of the shift. Two hours after dinner, O'Mary parked himself near an alley he knew to be a meeting place for drug deals. His unmarked patrol car idled next to a storm sewer brimming with trash. He got out and did a slow walk around the edge of the area, stopping to talk with residents and the occasional pedestrian ambling down the dark, empty street. O'Mary said one of the things he likes most about the unit was the wide variety of work the men did in a single shift. The detectives could spend hours staking out a single parking lot, or spend the night patrolling known drug areas and making arrests the unit refers to as "takedowns." O'Mary joined the Sheriff's Office after four years in the Air Force. In two years, he rose to the rank of investigator. He has spent 11 out of 16 of his years in law enforcement in drug investigations, and can rattle off drug street names and gang symbols as easily as he can recite the alphabet. O'Mary said the drug problem in Durham was like a "dam that springs a leak -- you plug it with a finger and soon you're running out of fingers and toes." Less than a decade after the city seemed reluctant to admit to a gang problem, O'Mary and his men have seen record numbers of weapon seizures, as well as drug busts ranging from marijuana and cocaine to heroin. On Jan. 6, a stakeout in the 600 block Belt St. resulted in the recovery of 1.76 ounces of heroin. The estimated street value: $25,000. Foot chases, flashing lights and police "10" codes notwithstanding, O'Mary pointed to a big difference between daily life in his unit and what the general public sees on television cop shows. After searching a vehicle for evidence of crack cocaine, the detectives shook hands with the people and tell them to stay safe. After a similar, almost strangely polite interaction, a man O'Mary's unit just searched said he didn't have enough gas in his car. O'Mary reached into is wallet, handed the man a few $1 bills and told him to "stay warm." "This is why [my men] are so successful," O'Mary said. "You don't have to be a jerk to people." Still, O'Mary keeps a predatory instinct. "It's a cat-and-mouse game," he said. "If we don't catch 'em this time, we'll get 'em next time."

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Let's Admit It - The Good Five Cent Cigar

2006-02-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

But how can we expect it to be? Its staff is composed of hard-working, full-time college students, living on tight deadlines and meager stipends. For providing such an invaluable service to our community, the staff members of the Cigar deserve far more credit and compensation than they current get. They also deserve our understanding when their articles don't reach the highest echelons of journalistic excellence. This is why I was not shocked and appalled when the Cigar reported earlier this week that LSD is primarily used as a date rape drug, it is most popular between the ages of 12-25, and its sole source is the Hells Angels ( "Retired investigator says heroin, LSD use growing in popularity", 2/7/06 ). These claims, made by retired investigator Gino Rebussini, range from exaggerations to blatant fabrications. Had the reporter had the time and resources to investigate this, Rebussini would not have been able to spread misinformation so easily. But we know the Cigar is doing the best with what they've got. Journalistic integrity, however, is not as optional as journalistic excellence. So when a reporter intentionally misrepresented my stance to further his own agenda in yesterday's Cigar, I was shocked and appalled indeed. Anthony Maselli came to me last week looking for confirmation of his suspicion that President Carothers' intention in softening the campus marijuana policy was simply to boost the university's image by yielding fewer arrests. While I admitted that I could not be certain of the Carothers' intention ( since I had not yet spoken to him about the issue ), I noted that his past actions would not lead me to believe that this was the case. The following quote - part of an e-mail interview with Anthony - sums up the view that Students for Sensible Drug Policy ( SSDP ) and I hold: "For years, President Carothers has worked alongside SSDP in our efforts to repeal the law that denies federal financial aid to people with drug convictions. I cannot be certain of his intentions this time around, but he has often expressed a willingness to keep students out of the criminal justice system and in school. In any case, the actual effect of this policy is much more important than the intentions behind it. If this policy results in a decline in student arrests, that is an image the university can rightly be proud of. However, there are several images that the university cannot rightly be proud of. A "scarlet letter" taped to a student's door in Narragansett. A dismayed student looking on as his dorm room is searched without his consent. These are not images to be proud of. But - oddly enough - I can be pretty sure that President Carothers' intentions are pure, even while supporting the policies that create these demoralizing situations. Just as - oddly enough - I suspect that Anthony Maselli's heart was in the right place even as he injected his own bias into a supposedly unbiased news article. But good intentions only go so far when good actions are left behind. Yesterday, I received a personal apology from Anthony, which I now publicly accept. I forgive you. In the same way, it is my hope that SSDP and I will work alongside President Carothers and that he will come to realize that imposing harsh, invasive disciplinary policies has done more harm than good to this university. Perhaps he will even work with SSDP to sculpt sensible campus policies for alcohol and other drugs - policies that respect a student's autonomy and privacy, while also helping that student when he or she is in trouble. Rhody Rides is an excellent first step. For students interested in working with SSDP on these issues, we invite you to an event, co-sponsored by Students for Social Change, called "Dinner, Dessert, and Dissent." It will be held in the Union 193 Coffeehouse, today from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. As the event title suggests, you will be well fed. Sincerely, Micah Daigle URI Students for Sensible Drug Policy Editor's Note: The Cigar offers an apology to Micah Daigle, President Carothers and other members of the administration for the clear bias in Maselli's story.

Whoa On Drug Testing

2006-02-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

I am a prosecutor in York County, but I live in James City and have two children who are graduates of the school system. There is no question that drug and alcohol use are an issue in our community. I see the effects of abuse every day in our court system. But I take issue with leaping from recognizing there is a problem to assuming that random drug testing of high school students is the best, or even the most advisable, solution. The Supreme Court has ruled that these programs are constitutionally permissible, but it has not addressed their viability. That is not their function. It is that of the school system. When both the Gazette and the school system freely admit that there is no empirical data to support the effectiveness of random student drug testing, but that doing something rather than nothing is advisable, I have a problem. At a minimum, if the proposed program is to proceed, there should be a sunset provision with a review of the data to judge effectiveness. At a minimum, we should be exploring what programs have been utilized by other school systems with documented effectiveness. Beyond the bottom-line issue, I have the following concerns about the program being proposed. 1. If part of the first-time positive drug tester's treatment is a five-part education-treatment program, wouldn't all students, particularly middle school students, benefit from exposure? Prevention means stopping the behavior before it starts. 2. How does confidentiality not become a phantom concept if students begin disappearing for two weeks at a time from activities? 3. The program has no exception for students who are given alcohol by their parents under their supervision and control. Virginia Code 4.1-305 allows parents to give alcohol to their children "by order of parent," as do parents in other countries within their own homes and under their authority, i.e., the taste-of-wine-with-dinner concept. 4. Withdrawing positive samples on school property is indicative that students are in possession of alcohol or drugs ( on school property ), a violation of Virginia state law. Are James City County officers or prosecutors comfortable with/able to overlook actual violations of criminal law? I suggest utilizing programs with proven effectiveness. I would explore securing grant funding for a drug dog devoted exclusively to use in the school system ( overseeing parking lots, lockers, classrooms, school buses ). Yes, it wouldn't catch every user, but neither will a random 10% testing policy. Its advantage is that it is established practice, accepted by the students, and is directed against everyone, not just kids who would be deterred by testing from participating in positive school activities . Once drug users are detected, utilize the existing framework for supervision and treatment within the court system. First-offender possessors of alcohol and drugs face treatment, supervision, an analysis of what other services are needed, continued drug testing, and have the opportunity, after dealing with the wake-up of a judge and the court system, to have the contact wiped off their record. The second contact carries real consequences with a proven track record. I ask that our school system and parents consider all options to select the one most effective in guiding students to legal, healthy behavior. Nancy Bolash James City

Pasco County Man's Case Shows Unfairness of Drug War

2006-02-10T12:50:00.000-08:00

TAMPA, Fla. - Supporters say Richard Paey was a wheelchair-bound man in constant, brutal pain who needed large amounts of prescription narcotics just to live a normal life. Prosecutors say he sought way too many of those often-abused painkillers and that makes him a criminal. On Tuesday, as Paey's attorney tried to persuade the 2nd District Court of Appeal to throw out his 2004 drug trafficking convictions and mandatory 25-year sentence, advocates for chronic pain sufferers said the case illustrates flaws in the law and how people who are dependent on strong pain medication can get tangled up in the government's overzealous war on drugs. "I don't think anybody ever thought the war on drugs was going to mean a war on pain patients and their doctors, but that is in fact what it has meant," said Siobhan Reynolds of the Pain Relief Network, an advocacy group that is helping with Paey's appeal. Paey is a 47-year-old former attorney and father of three who suffered a serious back injury in a 1985 car accident and since has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. He was left in a wheelchair and constant agony. Nothing blunted the pain - he has described it as feeling like his legs were on fire - except strong narcotics like Percocet and Vicodin, which he bought from pharmacies in numbers that got the attention of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and local authorities. Prosecutors said he was forging prescriptions and getting so many pills that he had to be selling them, even though investigators' two-month surveillance turned up nothing and there was no other evidence supporting that claim. Paey said that because doctors in Florida were reluctant to prescribe medication in the amounts he required, he got his former doctor in New Jersey to send him undated prescriptions he could fill here. The doctor testified at trial that he had never authorized the number of the pills Paey bought, even though other evidence contradicted him. A jury convicted Paey of 15 counts of prescription forgery, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and drug trafficking. The judge imposed the minimum mandatory sentence of 25 years. Paey's wife, Linda, said her husband was offered plea deals that would have kept him out of prison. But he rejected them because he didn't think he had done anything wrong and shouldn't have to live with the conviction and label of drug trafficker. "I think they expected most of these drug-war type of victims to take a plea, and they were absolutely shocked that he wouldn't take it," she said. "He thought he was going to win." On Tuesday, his attorney, John P. Flannery, told the three-judge appellate panel that the 25-year mandatory sentence was cruel and unusual punishment. Further, Flannery said, the doctor lied on the witness stand and the prosecutor knew it. Flannery told the judges that Paey is now getting pain relief in prison, via a morphine drip. "It's amazing to me that the Florida prison understands what the Florida prosecutor does not," he said. Assistant Attorney General John W. Klawikofsky defended the conviction and sentence, saying that the evidence seized from Paey's house amounted to "a little prescription factory." The law, he said, dictates that someone who has a large number of pills is considered to be trafficking, even if there is no evidence of sale. Paey at one point got 800 pills containing oxycodone in 1 1/2 months, when just 100 would have been enough to charge him with trafficking, Klawikofsky said. He noted that Paey was offered plea deals, and that the minimum mandatory sentence he eventually received was dictated by Florida Legislature. Linda Paey said she hopes the appeal and national attention that included a segment on the "60 Minutes" TV show last month will help. "I'm hoping that the judges here can act with courage and right this terrible wrong and help me get my family back together again," she said. The appeals court did not indicate when it would rule.

Regulation, Not Prohibition, Is Answer to U.S.

2006-02-09T12:47:00.000-08:00

Regarding Robert Sharpe's outstanding Jan. 27 letter, "Being tough on drugs threatens public safety": If tough-on-drugs policies worked, the quixotic goal of a drug free America would have been reached a long time ago. And if tolerant drug policies created more drug use, the Netherlands would have much higher drug usage rates than the United States. They do not. In fact, the Dutch use marijuana and other recreational drugs at much lower rates than Americans do. See www.drugwarfacts.org/thenethe.htm. And if tolerant drug policies caused more overall crime, especially violent crime, the Dutch would have much higher crime rates than the United States. They do not. The Dutch murder rate is less than one-third the U.S. per-capita murder rate, and their rate of incarceration is about one-seventh the U.S. rate. In the Netherlands, marijuana is sold to adults without criminal sanctions in coffee shops. In America, marijuana is sold by criminals who often sell other, much more dangerous drugs, and who often offer free samples of the more dangerous drugs to their marijuana customers--thus the gateway effect. Legalize, regulate and control the sale of marijuana to close the gateway. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz.

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Jury Selection Starts In Luyao Retrial

2006-02-08T12:46:00.000-08:00

PORT ST. LUCIE -- In December 2001, detectives concerned over painkiller prescriptions first served a search warrant at the Port St. Lucie office of Dr. Asuncion Luyao. Five years later, the question of whether Luyao, 64, ran a legitimate medical practice or a criminal one has yet to be decided. Jurors in her first trial took a week -- likely a county record -- debating the charges against her without reaching a consensus, resulting in a mistrial. Today, jury selection will begin in her retrial and a new group of people will have the opportunity to decide her fate. Attorneys on both sides declined to comment prior to trial, citing a gag order in the case, but the first trial presents a blueprint for some of the issues that will likely resurface the second time around. The retrial is expected to last three to four weeks. The case Dr. Asuncion Luyao faces six counts of manslaughter, six counts of trafficking in oxycodone and a single count of racketeering. Prosecutors say her medical practice was a criminal enterprise that flaunted the law and resulted in six patient overdose deaths in 20 months. The trafficking charges come from an undercover agent who allegedly received painkillers without a physical exam, past medical records or diagnostic studies. Prosecutors also argue the racketeering charge, often used in Mafia cases, applies in the Luyao case because her medical office allegedly was a "criminal enterprise," where Medicare was billed for prescriptions in "bad faith" and she allegedly trafficked in non-legitimate prescriptions. Luyao's defense counters she was a caring, but overworked, doctor who was manipulated by addicts desperate for drugs. In her first trial, the defense presented testimony from a medical examiner who thought natural causes were responsible for some of the patient deaths and pointed out that suicide could not be ruled out in two of the cases. Many of the deceased patients also abused their medication or mixed it with other drugs against Luyao's instructions, the defense says, arguing her actions might not have been the best medical practice, but they were not criminal. Luyao's first trial Charges: 13 counts ( racketeering, manslaughter and trafficking in oxycodone ) Trial length: 18 days Jury deliberations: 5 days Prosecution witnesses: 55 Defense witnesses: 3 Exhibits: More than 200 Chronology Dec. 6, 2001 -- A search warrant is served at Dr. Asuncion Luyao's office after a six-month investigation reveals a "tremendous" amount of painkiller prescriptions being written. March 26, 2002 -- Luyao is arrested on drug trafficking, racketeering and Medicaid fraud charges. The state Department of Health suspends her medical license, citing complaints that drugs she prescribed contributed to patient deaths. April 4, 2002 -- Supporters pack a courtroom in support of Luyao during a bond-reduction hearing. Her bond is lowered, but remains above $1 million. May 3, 2002 -- The Fourth District Court of Appeal rules Luyao's bond is too high and a judge drops the amount. Later that month she is freed on bond after 49 days in jail. June 24, 2002 -- Luyao is arrested again on four counts of manslaughter in connection with the deaths of patients and freed again on bond. July 24, 2002 -- Luyao settles a civil suit filed by the family of a deceased patient for $231,250. It is the second civil suit settled out of court. Feb. 12, 2003 -- Two more charges of manslaughter are added against the doctor. Sept. 20, 2004 -- Luyao's scheduled trial is delayed because of the hurricanes. May 9, 2005 -- Jury selection begins in her first trial. May 27, 2005 -- Deliberations begin after jurors heard testimony from more than 50 witnesses. June 3, 2005 -- Mistrial declared after jurors can't agree on a verdict on any of the charges. Feb. 7, 2006 -- Jury selection begins in the retrial.

Smoky Cloud Lifted From Official 'Pothead'

2006-02-07T12:40:00.000-08:00

Mario Altuzar appeared to be a pretty seasoned pothead. When he smoked the stuff outside the bars of Washington County, he even "French inhaled," breathed, that is, the smoke that he blew out his mouth back in through his nose, those who were with him told investigators. They were absolutely convinced he was getting high - so convinced that they let down their guards and became ensnared in what Washington County Sheriff Brian Rahn now calls, and quite justifiably, Altuzar's "phenomenal accomplishment." Mario Altuzar wasn't a drug user. Nor, a long investigation by the state attorney general's office has concluded, is there any credible evidence he ever assaulted anyone, contributed to the delinquency of a child or did any of the other things his detractors once claimed. He is, rather, an unusually talented undercover officer who gathered evidence against a fairly extraordinary number of people: somewhere around 50. The fact that there was an "aggregation of allegations" by a good number of them did, Assistant Attorney General Gary Freyberg wrote in a summary of his investigation of Altuzar, give him "pause." Freyberg also wrote, however: "Taken in context, the allegations against Altuzar are the product of criminal defendants and their allies, all of whom have obvious biases, and in some cases, lengthy criminal records. None of the accusations of wrongdoing by Altuzar was made until well after the defendants were formally charged with committing their own crimes. The majority of the accusations were made by individuals who, by their own admissions, had been consuming alcohol, drugs, or both, at the time they claim to have witnessed Altuzar's alleged misconduct, and were recalling their observations months or years after the events. The allegations are vague as to time, place and circumstances. There is no physical evidence to substantiate the allegations. Some of the allegations are contradicted by other available information. In sum, there is no credible basis upon which to issue any criminal charge." Thus ends one of the more sensational - though ultimately unmerited - investigations of law enforcement around here in some time. Freyberg's report, which was issued in November but never became public, runs 14 pages and addresses in detail numerous allegations. In some instances, it's clear, his accusers probably only thought they saw something. They thought Altuzar was getting drunk when he could just have been dumping many of his drinks down a bathroom sink. They thought he was "French inhaling" when what he could, just as easily, have been doing was using a simulation technique taught to undercover officers. In other instances, it appears, his accusers either made things up out of whole cloth or were incapable because of the fog of alcohol and drug use of knowing exactly what happened or when. The allegations of Altuzar's misdeeds received quite a bit of publicity, and the Washington County Sheriff's Department itself, as a result, was also put under a cloud. Two state investigators, according to the sheriff, came in and scrutinized the department's operations. They found nothing improper. Altuzar was filling out the proper reports, they found, and there's nothing to suggest his supervisors were not in the loop. If he'd been a rogue officer, Rahn suggested, if he'd been coming in drunk or high after nights out working, it would have been noticed. Moreover, says Rahn, these sorts of allegations often arise in drug cases. The difference in this particular case was that some of the defendants had attorneys - Waring Fincke, William Mayer and Daniel Patrykus - who took the unusual step of requesting both the appointment of a special prosecutor and criminal charges. Fincke said he doesn't agree Altuzar was necessarily exonerated. He thinks the attorney general's office simply found there was insufficient evidence to establish wrongdoing beyond a reasonable doubt. In fact, my reading of it is, the only way anybody would ever have gotten a jury to convict the guy based on the flimsy or non-existent evidence was if they got the jurors themselves to inhale. And you'd have to watch pretty closely, everyone now knows, to make sure they really did.

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Heroin Ods In Overdrive

2006-02-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

Potent Batch Suspected In Deaths Near South Side Public Housing An unusual rise in drug overdose deaths near a public housing complex on Chicago's South Side has police investigating heroin in the area to determine if a particularly lethal batch is being sold there. While toxicology tests from about half a dozen autopsies are done, narcotics officers will focus on drug busts near Dearborn Homes, Deputy Supt. Charles Williams said. "We'll be analyzing what we're seizing in there from now on too," Williams said Sunday. Narcotics investigators conducted a major undercover drug conspiracy bust in Dearborn Homes in the last couple of months, Williams said, and it is "more than likely" that whoever has attempted take control of the turf after those arrests is responsible for selling the questionable drugs. Police did not know if the drug was strong or had been mixed with another potent substance. At Dearborn Homes, a complex of mostly six-story apartment buildings at South State and 27th Streets, residents said word of the potent heroin began circulating over the weekend. Along a two-block stretch of State, police cameras are mounted atop light poles and a hospital advertisement painted on a bench at mid-block asks, "Are you addicted?" Dan Bigg, director of the Chicago Recovery Alliance, said drug users began talking last week about some strong heroin available on that stretch of State, known as a busy heroin corridor, particularly for people from the southwest suburbs. Two of the program's participants are believed to be among the dead, he said. Andrew Hyde, an alliance outreach worker, said manufacturers and dealers routinely cut the drug before it hits the streets, which can be a problem when the drug is mixed with a particularly strong substance. "It's a case of the heroin being too good, too pure, too strong," Hyde said. "They're thinking they're using less." The overdoses become even more dangerous, he said, because they often attract more customers to the area rather than scare them away. "It usually piques interest," Hyde said. "It makes them want to go out and get the dope because it's stronger. It's a messed up mentality." DePaul University sociology professor Greg Scott said Sunday a man who hosts heroin addicts in his home told him he had seen five people overdose last week on heroin bought in the area, including one person twice. All overdosed in a four-hour stretch but were revived with naloxone, a liquid that reverses the fatal effects of opiate drugs, said Scott, who studies transmission of viral disease among injection drug users. "They didn't know it was that potent," he said. "They had no idea what they were getting themselves into." Cindy Serpliss of Galena believes her son fell victim to a toxic batch of heroin after driving 160 miles to buy it. On Jan. 25, Josh Serpliss, 21, was found dead in the passenger seat of a car parked in Maywood, along the Eisenhower Expressway. His friend, Justin Jobgen, 23, sat in the driver's seat, still clutching the syringe that also led to his death. Maywood police immediately suspected a lethal batch of heroin, the parents of both men said. Officials there could not be reached Sunday to comment if that case might be linked to the Dearborn Homes deaths. Josh Serpliss began using heroin about a year ago, and last year his family sat by his side for three days, helping him through the violent reactions of getting clean, and supported him as he went through rehab in November. "We helped him through detox ourselves. It was some of the most satanic systems you've ever seen a person go through," said Cindy Serpliss of her older son. "He was so proud of the days he had been clean." The Serpliss family talked with Josh about heroin's potent allure. He knew that if he slid back, his body couldn't withstand the doses he once needed for the high, his mother said. She said she is comforted to learn from a medical examiner that his arms were unmarred by the telltale needle scars of heroin addiction. He had one small puncture wound, she was told. Randy Jobgen, also of Galena, had been checking his own son's arms. But Justin Jobgen was clean for about two months. The young man was a promising chef for an upscale pizzeria. Work was the only thing that dulled the need for heroin. "He told me, when you go to bed, you dream about it. When you wake up, you wish you had it. You forget about it for a while when you go to work. Then you go to bed and it starts all over again," his father said. Police told the father that the parking lot at 1st Avenue and I-55 is popular with drug users as they leave Chicago. "They get it, and pull into this because it's a real quick on and off. They do it there, they come down a little bit and drive off." Both families live in Galena, a western Illinois tourist destination and town of 3,500. "My fear is kids will see this and say it won't happen to me," Ron Serpliss said. "It's the same thing as saying, 'I won't get addicted.' But it grabbed Josh by the throat. It was just the most incredible thing."

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A Glimpse Inside The San Francisco Hall Of Justice

2006-02-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE SAN FRANCISCO HALL OF JUSTICE, WHERE 90 PERCENT OF THE CASES ARE DRUG RELATED One afternoon in February 2000, when I was learning the ropes at the district attorney's office, I got a call from Phil Matier of the Chronicle who wanted to talk about police chief Fred Lau. On Chinese New Year's the SFPD's Lion Dancers had performed at a party in Brisbane, for which they got four hours of overtime pay, authorized by Lau. Matier wanted to know if the DA's office was investigating the episode; if a complaint had been received; and the section of the law pertaining to misuse of funds. I said I'd look into it. It occurred to me that by making a big deal out of episodes like this, which may have cost the taxpayers a thousand dollars, the media directs attention away from the big ongoing story: one-third of all San Francisco cops' pay is overtime. Overtime pay goes out to the vice and narcotics squads daily, in amounts that add up to millions a year. Because it happens every day, it's routine; it's not news. Thus the system is never exposed. A thousand dollars in bullshit overtime pay is news. A thousand thousand dollars in bullshit overtime pay is not news. Seventy percent of the cases handled by the district attorney's office are for possession or sale of illicit drugs--mostly crack cocaine--and another 20 percent involve attempts by poor, desperate people to get money for drugs. On a typical morning in Department 10, one of the four municipal courts on the first floor, 26 people wait patiently as the proceedings begin at 9:20 a.m. None appear to be affluent. Guessing from their demeanor and attire, six are regularly employed, including a muni driver and his wife. The rest are lumpen. There's a tall white man with dyed black hair, a Carl Perkins impersonator. Two Samoans, four Latinos, a white woman dozing, a white-haired Greek gent in his sixties. Everybody else is African American. At the end of the day I debriefed the assistant DA--a self-described "progressive" hired by Terence Hallinan--who handled all those cases. FG: One third of the cops pay is overtime. That's a big story. And the people of San Francisco do not know it. ADA: As you saw today, they don't always earn it. A lot of times they get a subpoeana returned and they drop a card upstairs to get paid - -they have an expression, "drop a card." I believe that happened today. I know that they were under subpoena and didn't appear. That I know. At least one of the officers who didn't appear had a partner sign in for him. I asked his partner, " Where's Joe?" He said, "He can't be here today he had me sign in for him." FG: Sign in so he could collect his overtime pay? ADA: I can't think of any other reason. And that's the core of what's wrong here. That's where the real reform needs to happen, but nobody says it The cops have a financial interest in not ending the war on drugs. A lot of them make substantially more in overtime than they make on their base salary. They even have a word for these cards they drop -they call them "salmon." The cards are kind of salmon colored. The cops say, "I gotta get my salmon." Meaning: "I gotta get a big stack of these overtime cards I can drop upstairs. " ( The Assistant DA flicks open a computer print-out ): Look at the cases: drugs, drugs, drugs These are the prelims I had scheduled today. FG: Do you know what drugs and what quantities are involved? ADA: Very small quantities, typically. For example, this is an eleven three fifty, We wound up putting on the hearing and it was less than a gram of cocaine base. So they charged 11350, which is simple possession of cocaine. This is a 52 which is a sales. FG: To make a sales bust do they have to catch someone with a certain quantity? ADA: No, it's the conduct. Most of the sales cases we get are hand-to-hand sales from an undercover buy officer -a police officer posing as a willing customer. Although we're getting an increasing number of what they call observed sales where the cops are hiding somewhere with binoculars in a high drug area and they watch people make transactions and then they arrest them and they seize the drugs and the money on them and they file those cases. So, drugs, drugs, drugs, drugs -all four of the cases on this page are drugs. Drugs, that's the fifth one. FG: Are they all cocaine? Can you tell? ADA: Yes, every one of these is cocaine and I believe every one is cocaine base. Most of our cocaine cases are cocaine base, as opposed to cocaine salt or cocaine powder. Drugs. Maria's case was not drugs. I think it was a robbery case. FG: Which could be to get money to buy drugs. ADA: Yes, that's typically what a defense attorney's going to tell you. ( finds case on print-out ) Yes, it's a robbery. Mr. E. is on two grants of probation for narcotics-related offenses, which makes it seem likely that that's what he was doing. They call it "drug-seeking behavior." And if you're to believe anecdotally what defense lawyers tell you, what defendants tell the police, what defendants say on probation reports, Yeah, the vast majority of burglaries and robberies are done to obtain money for drugs -an overwhelming percentage of them. I'd bet it's more than 75 percent; it may be more than 90 percent. FG: Make a ballpark guess, what percentage of cases handled in the Hall of Justice are drug cases? ADA: Eighty percent. Maybe more. FG: What else is there? ADA: Robberies. First and second-degree burglaries. Auto burglaries and auto thefts. Then you have your murders, your attempted murders, your rapes, and your assaults. Less than five percent for all those things. And combined less than 20 percent for all those things. ( He focuses again on the print-out ) So, we have one narcotics, two narcotics, three narcotics, four narcotics, five narcotics, six narcotics, seven narcotics, eight narcotics I'm keeping a record to show how often no one shows up. Here: I have Officer X, who never showed up. The other officer who signed him up appeared for the first time at 12 noon to sign in, and he had no dope and no 115 form. It's a massive problem. FG: When Dr. Mikuriya didn't make it up to El Dorado county to testify in a case recently, officers from Alameda County gave him a citation. He now has to go up there and deal with a contempt charge. Why isn't there an equivalent response when a cop who's subpoeaned doesn't come to court? Isn't that against the law? ADA: That's what it says on the subpoena form. FG: Well, they're not supposed to be above the law. Justice is supposed to be even-handed. If the cops routinely don't show up when subpoenaed, why isn't that a scandal? ADA: I try and get along with these guys and I try and accommodate them. So on this case, I was able to get it continued. I covered for them. FG: Did you cover for them all today? ADA: On this other case the officer had a pretty good excuse -he was testifying in another department. And, to his credit, he checked in first thing in the morning and wrote "jury trial, city hall." I have no problem with him -he's a professional. ( Reviewing the "Preliminary hearing sign in sheet." ) This guy showed up first thing with no dope, told me he couldn't be here after 11 o'clock, and then disappeared. Said he was gonna come back and disappeared. So when his partner came back I told the partner to go get the dope. Turns out the other guy had already taken the dope and had disappeared with it. So, this guy was useless to me and the other guy was missing. I managed to get it continued This case went without a hitch No cops ever showed on this case and I don't know where they are When I come down in the morning I spread the files out in numeric order and I have my calendar and I have this sign-in sheet. The police know it's standard practice to sign in with their pager number and their location, or their extension number if they happen to be inspectors who are upstairs. FG: What are they getting paid at this point? ADA: They get paid for three hours just for signing in. FG: Three hours overtime? ADA: Unless they're on duty. Most of the cops today were getting overtime. And I covered for them, I'm complicit. FG: Are you afraid of them? Why go out of your way to cover for them? ADA: Well, if we're getting along the cops will be more likely to sign off on my dispos. If I give some guy a third referral to diversion, he won't start complaining to the community, "Hallinan's giving away the store." Most cops don't like the idea that diversion exists. So to refer someone three times, you have to sell them on that The bulk of our cases are 11350s -simple possession of cocaine. An 11350 doesn't get me worked up. I see it for what it really is: a bottom-feeder case, usually Cocaine base -crack- and cocaine salt combined has to be at least three-quarters of our cases -mostly base. Then comes marijuana, then heroin. Ecstasy and those things you don't see much at all. FG: What kind of marijuana cases do we see? ADA: In prelim court you only see sales or possession for sale, because simple possession is a misdemeanor in California. The typical marijuana case that we get is a Haight Street caper or buy bust where a cop goes undercover and buys a baggie, usually a $20 baggie of marijuana from some kid on one of the corners and then the arrest team's there and they arrest the person and charge him with sales. FG: And they do that at the behest of the Haight St. merchants. ADA: They certainly hype that in their reports that they've received numerous citizen complaints about narcotics trafficking on Haight St. A lot of cops write that in the body of their police reports. They indicate that there's a great hue and cry for their services out there. There's a lot of narcotics busts out there for marijuana. FG: How many heroin cases do we get? ADA: We apparently have an epidemic problem vis a vis other American cities, but still vis a vis those other drugs it's not a huge amount. FG: Isn't it obvious that making opiates available through doctors' offices would solve the problem just like that? ADA: What you saw today on the micro level with these individual cops exists on the macro level. Individually and collectively have a tremendous interest in maintaining the war on drugs. They're part of a whole complex that includes the religious right and politicians who want to pander to them. This system is so entrenched and so calcified, it now has a life of its own. FG: Do you see any chance for opposition to the war on drugs developing within the law enforcement community? ADA: I think there'd be tremendous peer pressure for them not to. I've had conversations with cops who say the war on drugs is fucked. But then they say there's no better solution that's tenable or acceptable to them The cops are human beings. There's lesbian cops and black cops and Democrats and Republicans. There's people who are angry and probably shouldn't have a gun; there's people who probably wouldn't use a gun even if they had to. They run the whole continuum. A lot of them have a lot of humanity and a lot of decent intentions. And by and large I think they have a hard job. But there's some real rot at the core of the way we're administering justice here. It's money more than ideology.. I've got to believe that one of the reasons the POA doesn't like Mr. Hallinan is that they see Mr. Hallinan's narcotics policies as a threat to salmon. You'll never convince me otherwise. FG: So you might say the cops are in the "save the salmon" movement. ADA: But if you ask them they'll say that they're doing the right thing and they're trying to protect the neighborhoods they work in. They have these community meetings and we get invited to them and they bring in people who own businesses and they say, "Why are these hookers and drug dealers allowed to hang out and do business on our streets?" The cops blame the DA. FG: Could you make any generalizations about the defendants coming through today? ADA: Most are these marginalized characters, mostly charged with simple possession or sales of a very small amount. They're clearly not big fish, they're clearly not major traffickers or drug kingpins or anything like that. Most of them have drug addictions themselves. No money. No education. Most of them have health problems. A lot of them have psychological problems. FG: What was the story of the man and woman where she was out of custody and he was still in? ADA: We had done a search of the house and found drugs in the house and found them there. We had a CRI -a confidential reliable informant. The drug cases that don't involve us doing either a buy bust or an officer-observed sale typically come by way of warrant. In order to get a warrant you have to demonstrate probable cause to a magistrate. The typical way you demonstrate it is by police officers staking out an area and recording their observations; and police officers receiving information from CRIs. These are people who anonymously give the police tips which cause them to further investigate and prepare a warrant package and come to us. We typically sign off on them. Sometimes we'll say "this is insufficient," and sometimes we'll say "this is bullshit." And then they go to a judge and try to get a judge to sign the warrant. FG: Why was he in custody and she not? ADA: My recollection is that he was on probation I think for a narcotics thing, what's called a 1203 hold. When you're on probation and pick up a new arrest there's typically a hold placed in superior court. And typically if you're on felony probation it's a no-bail hold and you're stuck. FG: Do you know the drugs involved and the quantities? ADA: I have it back in my office. I can tell you some of them were under a gram. Amador was under a gram. Kosyn was under a gram. I believe two of Logan's cases were under a gram. FG: What did you make of the domestic violence case where you got bail of $40,000? ADA: That is a really hot issue in his building. Terence deserves a lot of credit for sensisitizing the judges. When we came here they were diverting domestic violence cases and a lot of people were getting Ored. Now, if you're charged with felony DV you're almost definitely not going to get Ored and you're certainly going to have a reasonably high bail set. FG: What was the Elvis impersonator charged with? ADA: He was charged with mnisdemeanor stalking. 646.9 of the penal code. One of the more intrepid misdemeanor deputies decided that the conduct was actually felonious and took it upon themselves to amend it to make it a felony. FG: What about the Muni driver? ADA: Domestic violence case. FG: He was accompanied by a woman. ADA: Very good chance she was the victim. Standard custom and practice is for them to reconcile shortly after he's taken into custody. And henceforth they work at cross-purposes with the prosecution. They create problems for us in prosecuting their batterers. Fred Gardner is the editor of O'Shaughnessy's Journal of the California Cannabis Research Medical Group.

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Ex-Hammonton Man Takes Drug Arrest Story to '60 Minutes'

2006-02-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

A former Hammonton man serving a 25-year sentence in Florida for possessing prescription narcotics has taken his case to CBS's "60 Minutes." Richard Paey, 47, was convicted last year of drug trafficking for possessing a large quantity of prescription narcotics. He says he needed the medicine to alleviate the excruciating pain caused by a car crash and subsequent botched back surgery. But Florida officials say he was buying too much of the drug for personal use. In an interview Monday, Paey's wife, Linda, said three months of police surveillance revealed no evidence that Paey was selling drugs, but police were able to charge him with drug trafficking anyway, under Florida laws that don't require evidence of actual sale. "We just couldn't believe that this could happen," Linda Paey said from her Florida optometrist's office. "It's so mind-boggling." Her husband's story was detailed Sunday on "60 Minutes." Paey's troubles began in 1985, when a car crash during his last year of law school left his body and future shattered. The crash, and an operation that to put metal screws in his spine, left him using a wheel chair and in excruciating pain. Paey finished law school but didn't take the bar exam, his wife said. He focused on the battle with pain that came to rule his life. When the Paeys moved to Florida in 1994 because Richard's father was dying of cancer there, Linda Paey said her husband found it increasingly difficult to get the medicine he needed. Doctors feared being charged with a crime if they prescribed enough to alleviate his suffering, she said. A Hammonton doctor, Stephen Nurkiewicz, agreed to send Paey prescriptions for Percoset, 60 Minutes reported. Some of them, the TV show said, were undated so Paey could fill them as needed. Linda Paey said Nurkiewicz and her husband were friends and trusted each other. What the couple didn't know was that the pharmacies where Paey's prescriptions were filled were keeping tabs on him. They reported him to local and federal investigators. After three months of surveillance, authorities raided the Paey home and arrested Richard - despite the fact that surveillance had yielded no evidence that he was selling drugs, Linda Paey said. "They assumed that ... he was taking too many medicines for one person to take," Linda Paey said. "They thought that he had to be selling." Investigators, she said, told Nurkiewicz that Paey was selling his medication to get Nurkiewicz to cooperate with the investigation. She said she believes Nurkiewicz was frightened of losing his license. He cooperated, she said, and testified against her husband. Nurkiewicz did not return a telephone call to his office seeking comment Monday. According to state regulators, he holds a valid medical license and has never been cited for any violations. Paey was arrested in 1997. Linda Paey said it took three trials and seven years to convict her husband of drug trafficking. The first trial ended in a mistrial; the second resulted in a conviction that was thrown out on a legal technicality, and a third produced guilty verdicts on 15 charges of drug trafficking, obtaining a controlled substance by fraud, and possession of a controlled substance. Paey was sentenced to the mandatory minimum of 25 years in prison in 2004. He is appealing his conviction. "You don't go all the way to this point without totally losing faith in the system, and I've lost all faith in the system," Linda Paey said. Today, Richard Paey gets intravenous morphine to control his pain and lives behind barbed wire at Tomoka Hills maximum security prison just outside of Daytona Beach. Nora Callahan, the executive director of the November Coalition, said Paey's case highlights how the war on drugs in Florida puts many people who live with chronic pain at risk. The November Coalition is a nonprofit grassroots organization, founded in 1997 to combat "destructive, unnecessary incarceration due to the U.S. drug war." "The drug war has gotten so fierce that doctors are afraid ( to prescribe properly ) and then they drive patients to do crazy things," she said. "How do we, as taxpayers and citizens, justify police around things that should be a public health issue, not a criminal issue?" She said the November Coalition has gotten numerous e-mails from people who saw the "60 Minutes" episode and fear that they, too, will end up behind bars. The November Coalition is pushing to revamp drug laws that call for mandatory minimum sentences, saying there's a double standard for people such as Paey and people such as Rush Limbaugh and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter Noelle, whose addictions to prescription drugs have been highly publicized but have not earned them lengthy prison terms. Paey's brother Jim, who lives in Nazareth, Pa., said his brother rejected plea agreement offers because he believed he could win at trial -- and because he didn't want his family to live with the stigma of a drug trafficking conviction. Also, Jim Paey said, his brother feared that a conviction would make it harder to get the medication he needed. "He was just trying to collect the pills to survive, to live," Jim Paey said. "He's a very depressed man right now -- very depressed, very angry." A spokesman for the Florida governor said Bush can't pardon Paey until he's served one-third of his sentence. He said the governor does not plan to alter the state's tough drug laws or reduce mandatory minimum sentences. "If a person who was convicted feels that they were wrongly convicted of a crime, there is an appellate process," spokesman Russell Schweiss said.

Depths Of Depravity - Drug-Carrying Puppies

2006-02-04T09:33:00.001-08:00

Recently, on the CBS Morning News, I heard a story that is beyond shocking. Just when we think we've heard everything, we find out that there is still greater depths of depravity to which greed will drive men. How about drug traffickers using innocent puppies to smuggle heroin from Colombia into the United States? Yes, that's right. A litter of Labrador puppies carrying bags of liquid heroin in their bellies. They had been crudely operated on in a lab in Colombia. Three of the puppies later died from infection. If this horrifies you as much as it does me, then I pray that you will do all in your power to stop drug trafficking. And, if you are a user, realize that your habit is destroying lives and marriages, and now, the ultimate in cruelty and depravity, using innocent animals to satisfy your habit. Is there nothing too despicable that human greed will not sink to? Vivian Robinson Jamestown

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Area Law Authorities Plan Drug War Strategy

2006-02-04T09:33:00.000-08:00

Funding To Expire For Drug Task Force Due to changes in the federal funding structure, Anderson County, the City of Palestine and others throughout the state are in the process of developing a new strategy in waging the war on drugs. As of March 31, the federal Byrne Grant which has been the primary source of funding for the Dogwood Trails Narcotics Task Force expires. Participants in the multi-jurisdictional task force include Anderson County; City of Palestine; Houston County; and Cherokee County. While the participating city and county entities have historically contributed either an officer's salary or cash, the Dogwood Trails Narcotics Task Force has been chiefly funded through the Byrne Grant. Although the federal share has steadily dwindled in recent years, the local task force received a total of $565,901 during its 2004-05 fiscal year, with $416,483 coming from the Byrne Grant and the remainder from local sources. Federal monies previously earmarked for drug task forces throughout the country are now being funneled into programs designed to combat terrorism, according to persons familiar with the process, so Anderson County is not alone in the cutbacks. The effect of that shift in philosophy at the federal level is that rural law enforcement agencies such as the Anderson County Sheriff's Office and the Palestine Police Department are now forced to either seek new methods of funding or reduce their efforts in fighting the trafficking of illegal narcotics. "I understand from a national standpoint for the security of our country," Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor said of the federal shift. "I think they're going to find in the rural areas like East Texas that drug dealers are our terrorists." Still, Taylor said drug dealers and concerned, law-abiding citizens alike can rest assured of at least one thing. Local law enforcement authorities will continue to commit financial and human resources to wage the war on drugs. "I don't consider it a victory for them ( drug dealers )," Taylor said. "We will adapt and overcome. It's not the end of narcotics enforcement by any stretch of the imagination. "The Byrne Grant no longer exists to fund narcotics task forces solely," the sheriff continued. "The money is being funneled into JAG ( Justice Assistance Grant program ). There is money available to apply for. We're a little unclear of exactly how much narcotics funding there will be." Taylor, however, did concede those monies would be far less than what has been available through the Byrne Grant. The sheriff made it clear Anderson County and the City of Palestine remain "committed" to providing resources to fund some type of narcotics task force. At what level that task force will operate is a question that only time will answer. Currently, Anderson County and the City of Palestine both fund the salary of an officer dedicated to the Dogwood Trails Narcotics Task Force. Taylor said he and Palestine Police Chief Chuck Edge will likely approach the Anderson County commissioners' court and Palestine City Council respectively in the coming months, requesting additional funds possibly to pay for the salary of a second officer. The salary and benefits of a full-time officer will cost an additional $40,000-to-$45,000, according to the sheriff. Some of the other participating entities, such as Cherokee County which currently contributes a total of $20,000 to the task force, could also possibly increase their commitment. "Our first goal is to have a multi-jurisdictional task force ( two or more counties ) like we do now," Taylor said. "The difference will be there will be no ( federal ) funding." The Palestine office of the Dogwood Trails Narcotics Task Force houses eight officers and two administrative assistants, according to Taylor. In all likelihood, the two support positions are gone come March 31, he added. "It's unfortunate that anyone isn't retained," Taylor said. "We're going to do everything we can to retain as many as possible." It may be later in the year before the immediate future of a narcotics task force including Anderson County becomes entirely clear. Taylor, however, said the show must go on because the stakes are too high. "We're going to continue to pursue the drug dealers no matter what funding we get," Taylor said. "We must. There will always be narcotics enforcement in Anderson County and the City of Palestine regardless of the funding.

'One-Stop Shopping' For Guns

2006-02-04T09:32:00.000-08:00

'ONE-STOP SHOPPING' FOR GUNS Enters Guilty Plea, Faces 12-Year Term Inflamed Violence In City, Court Told If you needed a .40-calibre Glock handgun, Jeffrey Tuck was your man. A sawed-off shotgun? No problem. A semi-automatic rifle? Tuck could get that for you, too. In fact, the 24-year-old Toronto man could get just about any type of weapon and ammunition quickly with his place-your-order, get-your-gun, criminal enterprise. He could get drugs as well -- marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine and heroin. Toronto prosecutors yesterday portrayed the clean-cut and seemingly polite Tuck as a major gunrunner who was responsible for fuelling gun violence on city streets. "He is the individual who is supplying the people who are basically causing havoc in the Toronto community," Crown attorney Warren Thompson told Justice Ramez Khawly after Tuck pleaded guilty to 29 gun and drug-related charges. The Ontario Court judge heard that Tuck had been running a "one-stop shopping" and "purchase-to-order" operation selling guns and drugs, until police put an end to it in 2003 with an undercover operation that netted several high-powered weapons and a large quantity of drugs and ammunition. Thompson said Tuck would tell potential buyers: "I'll get you a Glock, I'll get you a sawed-off shotgun." And what's worse is Tuck was running his guns and drug business while out on bail on a murder charge, Thompson told the judge. "You basically put your order in and got your gun," the Crown said, adding that among the nine guns police bought or seized from Tuck were six handguns, two shotguns and a rifle. The weapons ordered through Tuck's criminal enterprise had no other purpose than "for killing people." Thompson and federal prosecutor Chris de Sa urged the judge to send a strong message to those who sell guns that they will face stiff jail sentences. The prosecution argued that Tuck should be locked up for at least 12 years. "If you don't go after the source, then we have no ability to stop the gun violence," Thompson told the court, while urging Khawly to impose a sentence of eight to 10 years on the gun charges alone. Det. Const. Corrado Rabbito said in an interview outside court that Tuck charged between $600 and $5,000 for the weapons he sold, with the Glocks commanding the top price. Among the guns Tuck offered to sell to undercover officers were a pump-action shotgun, two .40-calibre Glock handguns and a .32-calibre revolver. Rabbito said the guns and ammunition came from break and enters all over the province, although a couple of guns had been "imported." The federal prosecutor called for an additional six years on the six drug charges, noting that it is unusual for an individual to move such a variety of drugs. The fact that he was also dealing guns made him a serious threat to society, he said. The prosecutors said they would settle for a sentence of 12 years. During the investigation, undercover officers also seized 2,700 ecstasy pills, about a quarter-kilo of cocaine, an ounce of heroin and 314 grams of marijuana. Tuck was arrested on the gun and drug charges in December 2003, along with other alleged gang members. Almost 150 charges were laid by police in that operation, with almost one-third of them directed at Tuck. At the time, he had been on bail for a second-degree murder charge in the February 2001, stabbing death of Salim Jabaji at The Docks nightclub. He was acquitted in October after testifying that he had defended himself after being attacked by Jabaji. At yesterday's hearing, Tuck seemed almost bookish, neatly dressed in a green shirt and dress pants. When asked to enter a plea to the charges, he said in a calm, clear voice: "Guilty, your Honour." After hearing the Crown's arguments, the judge questioned why the defence and the prosecution had not submitted an agreed statement of facts, which is customary when a person pleads guilty to a crime. Khawly gave the lawyers until Thursday to clearly outline the 29 charges Tuck admitted to in court yesterday. Tuck's lawyer, Christopher Hicks, will make his submissions on sentencing when the court hearing resumes on that day. Statistics show that of weapons that end up in the hands of criminals, there is almost an even split between the number of guns smuggled into Canada and those stolen from legitimate Canadian gun owners. Between 2,000 and 3,000 firearms are stolen or reported missing in Canada each year and many of those end up being used by criminals in robberies and murders, police say. While there are few recent statistics on gun storage, a survey of 504 Quebec gun owners in 1994 found that 35 per cent of them had failed to comply with at least one of the three criteria for safe storage. A cross-Canada survey of 282 gun owners conducted by Angus Reid in 1999 put the figure of unsafe storage at 17 per cent. In 2005, which has become known as the "Year of the Gun" in Toronto, 52 of the 78 homicides were shooting deaths -- an all-time high. That compares to 24 gun-related deaths in 2004.

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Drugsense Weekly, Feb. 3, 2006 #435

2006-02-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

DRUGSENSE WEEKLY, FEB. 3, 2006 #435 TABLE OF CONTENTS: * This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n435.html#sec1 ( 1 ) U.S. Congress Probing Mexican Incursions In Texas ( 2 ) Australia: Hard Line On Drugs ( 3 ) US NM: Medical Pot Clears Senate ( 4 ) Spencer's Hit With Paraphernalia Charges * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n435.html#sec2 Drug Policy ( 5 ) Man's Supervisor Run Prompted By Pot Suit ( 6 ) Senator Won't Quit On Needle Exchange ( 7 ) New York Addicts Can Cash In On Staying Clean ( 8 ) TV Show Zeroes In On Drug Abuse ( 9 ) OPED: The Trouble With Tough Love Law Enforcement & Prisons ( 10 ) Potent Mexican Meth Floods In As States Curb ( 11 ) Mexican Official Blames U.S. Troops ( 12 ) U.S. Warns About Ties To Tunnel ( 13 ) Wrongly Convicted, Man May Be Freed ( 14 ) County Could Save Millions Cannabis & Hemp ( 15 ) Pot Activist Asking To Use Drug In Jail ( 16 ) Lawmakers Pass, Kill, Pot Measure ( 17 ) NORML Participants To Roll In Grass Revolution ( 18 ) Police Say Some Dope Meth-Laced International News ( 19 ) Tomas 'Not Sad' About Cebu City Murders ( 20 ) Bishops Take Up Murders Issue ( 21 ) 2 Lorega Brothers Gunned Down ( 22 ) Coca Grower To Fight Drugs ( 23 ) Afghanistan's Opium Future * Hot Off The 'Net http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n435.html#sec3 Messing Up The System 2006 Drug Policy Reform Congressional Voter Guide Afghan Opium Conundrum Cultural Baggage Radio Show MPP's Rob Kampia Discusses San Diego County's Attack On The CCUA Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies News Update Drug War Reformer Peace Summit II MAPS Vs DEA Podcast * What You Can Do This Week http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n435.html#sec4 Steve Kubby Is In The Place County Jail : A DrugSense Focus Alert Job Opportunity at SSDP Join Us For "How To Increase Drug Policy Reform In Your Local Media" * Letter Of The Week http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n435.html#sec5 Data Can't Prove That Marijuana Causes Mental Illness / By Jim Grose * Feature Article http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n435.html#sec6 Alaska: Governor's Bid To Challenge State's Long-Standing Pot Policies Stalls / By NORML * Quote of the Week http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n435.html#sec7 Michael Sanchez

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