Since 1998, the Drug Czar Has Been Mandated to Lie to the American People. So What Would a Fact-Based Drug Policy Look Like?
AMONG OUR LEADERS in Washington, who's been the biggest liar? There are all too many contenders, yet one is so floridly surreal that he deserves special attention. Nope, it's not Dick Cheney or Alberto Gonzales or John Yoo. It's a trusted authority figure who's lied for 11 years now, no matter which party held sway. ( Nope, it's not Alan Greenspan. ) This liar didn't end-run Congress, or bully it, or have its surreptitious blessing at the time only to face its indignation later. No, this liar was ordered by Congress to lie--as a prerequisite for holding the job.
Give up? It's the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy ( ONDCP ), a.k.a. the drug czar, who in 1998 was mandated by Congress to oppose legislation that would legalize, decriminalize, or medicalize marijuana, or redirect anti-trafficking funding into treatment. And the drug czar has also--here's where the lying comes in--been prohibited from funding research that might give credence to any of the above. These provisions were crafted by Dennis Hastert ( R-Ill. ) and Bob Barr ( R-Ga. ) and pushed for by then-czar Barry McCaffrey, best remembered for being somewhat comically obsessed with the evils of medical marijuana. A few Dems complained that the bill, which set "hard targets" of an 80 percent drop in the availability of drugs, a 60 percent decrease in street purity, and a 50 percent reduction in drug-related crime and ER visits, all by 2004--whoops!--was "simplistic" and "designed to achieve political advantage." Though the vote count was not recorded for history, it go! t enough bipartisan support to be signed into law by Bill "Didn't Inhale" Clinton.
If this tale strikes you as the kind of paranoid fantasy you'd expect from someone who's taken one too many hits off the joint, consider that it isn't the most bizarre, hypocritical, counterproductive moment in our nation's history with drugs. Not by a long shot. Consider that Prohibition came about when progressives got into bed with the Ku Klux Klan, but was rolled back once they'd had enough of the Mob. Or that the precursor to today's drug czar supplied morphine to Sen. Joe McCarthy because he worried about the national security consequences--not of the red-baiter's habit, but of its potential exposure. Or that drug war progenitor Richard Nixon ordered a comprehensive study on the perils of marijuana, and then ignored the study once he learned it recommended decriminalization.
But then, the drug war has never been about facts--about, dare we say, soberly weighing which policies might alleviate suffering, save taxpayers money, rob the cartels of revenue. Instead, we've been stuck in a cycle of prohibition, failure, and counterfactual claims of success. ( To wit: Since 1998, the ONDCP has spent $1.4 billion on youth anti-pot ads. It also spent $43 million to study their effectiveness. When the study found that kids who've seen the ads are more likely to smoke pot, the ONDCP buried the evidence, choosing to spend hundreds of millions more on the counterproductive ads. )
What would a fact-based drug policy look like? It would put considerably more money into treatment, the method proven to best reduce use. It would likely leave in place the prohibition on "hard" drugs, but make enforcement fair ( no more traffickers rolling on hapless girlfriends to cut a deal. No more Tulias ). And it would likely decriminalize but tightly regulate marijuana, which study after study shows is less dangerous or addictive than cigarettes or alcohol, has undeniable medicinal properties, and isn't a gateway drug to anything harder than Doritos. ( See "The Patriot's Guide to Legalization." )
So why don't we have a rational drug policy? Simple. Forget the Social Security "third rail." The quickest way to get yourself sidelined in serious policy discussion is to stray from drug war orthodoxy. Even MoJo has skirted the topic for fear of looking like a bunch of hot-tubbing stoners. Such is the power of the culture wars, 50 years on.
There is some hope. We have, at long last, a post-boomer president, one who confidently admits he partook back in the day. And while Barack Obama has said he's not interested in overhauling drug policy, his administration has made moves toward honesty--acknowledging that US demand fuels overseas production, that federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries are a waste of time and money, and that treatment should be our top priority; the Pentagon has even said that Mexico rivals Pakistan atop the list of states most likely to fail. There are other signs of a thaw: Those noted hippies at The Economist and Foreign Policy have called for ending "prohibition at any cost." Drug warrior Bob Barr is lobbying for the Marijuana Policy Project. And Joe Biden--who helped create the 100:1 crack-vs.-coke sentencing disparity--has finally issued a mea culpa.
Meanwhile, the new drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske--the first since moralizer-in-chief William Bennett not to hold Cabinet-level status--has even dared suggest that the phrase "War on Drugs" be retired. But Kerlikowske still remains bound by the 1998 mandate prohibiting him from speaking the truth. If we want a sensible drug policy, ditching the liar's law would be a good start.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n666/a10.html
Newshawk: Just Say Know: http://www.efsdp.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 1 Jul 2009
Source: Mother Jones (US)
Page: 4
Copyright: 2009 Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress
Contact: http://www.motherjones.com/about/contact#contact
Website: http://motherjones.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/277
Authors: Monika Bauerlein and Clara Jeffery
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Bray: Arrests Slow Drug Crime, but Do Not End It
Operation Spring Bling Arrests 28
Though "Operation Spring Bling" has now resulted in nearly 30 arrests, an Elizabeth City police official says no one should expect the recent roundup of drug suspects to have a lasting impact on the city's illegal drug trade.
Police may have temporarily curbed some of the nuisances associated with the drug trade -- excessive traffic and noise -- and removed several street-level drug dealers, but selling illegal narcotics is a lucrative 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week business, Sgt. Gary Bray says. And as such it will go on, despite efforts like Spring Bling to stop it.
As Bray points out: "( Drug dealers ) don't take Saturdays and Sundays off and go out to their in-laws and barbecue."
At best, police were able to inconvenience customers of the city's drug trade by locking up those they regularly buy drugs from. However, if someone really wanted to buy drugs the day police unleashed Spring Bling, they could, Bray said.
"There's going to be some people that are going to go, 'Damn, I don't have my regular person'" to buy drugs from, he said. But that doesn't mean they can't still buy drugs.
Where police are able to have impact with operations like Spring Bling is community perception of crime, Bray, head of the Elizabeth City Police Department's Drug Enforcement Unit, says.
Prior to starting their investigation, police had received complaints from neighbors of six private residences about what appeared to be illegal drug activity. Citizens complained about constant traffic and excessive noise, including in the middle of the night.
"'Man, I can't even get a good night's sleep around here,'" was typical of some of the complaints, Bray said.
Shootings and violent crimes weren't a recurring problem at the six homes, he said. But it was obvious to police that there were problems in the neighborhoods that required a police response.
"It's the quality-of-life issues that really affect most citizens in these areas," Bray said.
Police soon began watching the six homes themselves, gathering intelligence on possible crimes and offenders, Bray said. Using controlled drug buys, police were able to collect enough evidence to execute search warrants at each of the six homes, and on Friday, June 19, police unleashed Spring Bling.
During the roundup, police found both drugs and weapons at several of the residences. They also arrested about a dozen of the 38 people they had warrants for. Charges ranged from possession of drug paraphernalia to rape and violent assault. As of Friday, the number of Spring Bling suspects in custody had risen to 28.
Bray said he's awaiting word from federal officials on whether any of those arrested will face federal charges.
Most of the targets of Spring Bling were chosen because they are believed to have connections to crack cocaine, Bray said.
While marijuana may be more plentiful, it is not as serious a problem as crack, he said.
"Crack is the one ( drug ) that really destroys people's lives," Bray said.
Police can't completely end the sale of crack but they can try to reduce it and the gang-related violence that accompanies it, he said. Gangs sometimes steal cars or guns and sell them to make money, but generally their income comes from selling drugs, Bray said.
"The only way gangs can make money here in Elizabeth City is sell dope or rob people," Bray said.
Bray said he likes to conduct about two operations like Spring Bling a year. He'd like to do more, but drug roundups require a lot of police legwork and are heavily dependent on help from the public.
Bray said residents aren't "beating down the doors" to help out police. Usually it's because offering such help can be risky for both themselves and their families, he said.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n665/a12.html
Newshawk: chip
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jun 2009
Source: Daily Advance, The (Elizabeth City, NC)
Copyright: 2009 Cox Newspapers, Inc.
Contact: elizabethcity@coxnc.com
Website: http://www.dailyadvance.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1700
Author: Diana Mazzella, Staff Writer
Though "Operation Spring Bling" has now resulted in nearly 30 arrests, an Elizabeth City police official says no one should expect the recent roundup of drug suspects to have a lasting impact on the city's illegal drug trade.
Police may have temporarily curbed some of the nuisances associated with the drug trade -- excessive traffic and noise -- and removed several street-level drug dealers, but selling illegal narcotics is a lucrative 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week business, Sgt. Gary Bray says. And as such it will go on, despite efforts like Spring Bling to stop it.
As Bray points out: "( Drug dealers ) don't take Saturdays and Sundays off and go out to their in-laws and barbecue."
At best, police were able to inconvenience customers of the city's drug trade by locking up those they regularly buy drugs from. However, if someone really wanted to buy drugs the day police unleashed Spring Bling, they could, Bray said.
"There's going to be some people that are going to go, 'Damn, I don't have my regular person'" to buy drugs from, he said. But that doesn't mean they can't still buy drugs.
Where police are able to have impact with operations like Spring Bling is community perception of crime, Bray, head of the Elizabeth City Police Department's Drug Enforcement Unit, says.
Prior to starting their investigation, police had received complaints from neighbors of six private residences about what appeared to be illegal drug activity. Citizens complained about constant traffic and excessive noise, including in the middle of the night.
"'Man, I can't even get a good night's sleep around here,'" was typical of some of the complaints, Bray said.
Shootings and violent crimes weren't a recurring problem at the six homes, he said. But it was obvious to police that there were problems in the neighborhoods that required a police response.
"It's the quality-of-life issues that really affect most citizens in these areas," Bray said.
Police soon began watching the six homes themselves, gathering intelligence on possible crimes and offenders, Bray said. Using controlled drug buys, police were able to collect enough evidence to execute search warrants at each of the six homes, and on Friday, June 19, police unleashed Spring Bling.
During the roundup, police found both drugs and weapons at several of the residences. They also arrested about a dozen of the 38 people they had warrants for. Charges ranged from possession of drug paraphernalia to rape and violent assault. As of Friday, the number of Spring Bling suspects in custody had risen to 28.
Bray said he's awaiting word from federal officials on whether any of those arrested will face federal charges.
Most of the targets of Spring Bling were chosen because they are believed to have connections to crack cocaine, Bray said.
While marijuana may be more plentiful, it is not as serious a problem as crack, he said.
"Crack is the one ( drug ) that really destroys people's lives," Bray said.
Police can't completely end the sale of crack but they can try to reduce it and the gang-related violence that accompanies it, he said. Gangs sometimes steal cars or guns and sell them to make money, but generally their income comes from selling drugs, Bray said.
"The only way gangs can make money here in Elizabeth City is sell dope or rob people," Bray said.
Bray said he likes to conduct about two operations like Spring Bling a year. He'd like to do more, but drug roundups require a lot of police legwork and are heavily dependent on help from the public.
Bray said residents aren't "beating down the doors" to help out police. Usually it's because offering such help can be risky for both themselves and their families, he said.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n665/a12.html
Newshawk: chip
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jun 2009
Source: Daily Advance, The (Elizabeth City, NC)
Copyright: 2009 Cox Newspapers, Inc.
Contact: elizabethcity@coxnc.com
Website: http://www.dailyadvance.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1700
Author: Diana Mazzella, Staff Writer
Monday, June 29, 2009
Coalition Pushes for Alternatives to More Prisons
Former Sheriff Wells Scoffs at Calls to Halt Prison Construction
A call by Florida's most powerful business lobby to halt prison construction and reform the criminal justice system is gaining surprising traction among policy makers in the wake of a deepening budget crisis and growing evidence that building new prison beds will not reduce crime.
Four months after the head of Associated Industries of Florida stunned lawmakers with his plea to slow prison growth, a who's-who of business, religious and political leaders are asking Gov. Charlie Crist to consider alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, particularly drug addicts.
Crist and state lawmakers this week received an "open letter" from opinion-makers calling for a "bold and serious conversation about justice reform."
The statement was signed by three former state attorneys general -- Jim Smith, Bob Butterworth and Richard Doran -- along with retired Department of Corrections secretary James McDonough and the heads of the Florida Association of Counties and the Florida Catholic Conference.
"At a time when Florida is in serious recession and facing a deep state budget crisis, the $2 billion-plus budget of the Florida Department of Corrections has grown larger; and without reform, that budget will continue to grow at a pace that crowds out other mission-critical state services such as education, human service needs, and environmental protection," the group wrote.
Calling itself the Coalition for Smart Justice, the group is asking state leaders to bolster education, drug and alcohol treatment and faith-based and character-building programs both within the state prison system and in community settings as an alternative to prison.
Coalition members also want Crist to "immediately implement" a bill passed by the Legislature in 2008 that created "the much needed" Correctional Policy Advisory Council to offer new directions for criminal justice administration.
Staying the course, coalition members wrote, will lead to "too many non-violent individuals being incarcerated, too many prisons needing to be built at astounding public cost ( and ) too many young people moving from the juvenile justice system into the adult justice system."
At the root of the state's failures, the coalition says, is the unwillingness of lawmakers to invest in programs -- such as job training, education and substance-abuse treatment -- that can break the cycle of crime and reduce recidivism.
McDonough, the state's former drug czar and prisons chief, said Florida can avoid the need to build a new $100 million prison each year by spending one-fifth that amount on drug treatment. "The math is irrefutable," McDonough said. "That's $100 million right there that you don't have to spend immediately."
That's an assertion former Manatee sheriff Charlie Wells scoffs at, as a veteran of the debate over the effectiveness of prisons in reducing and deterring crime. Wells said he is concerned the movement to turn the state away from building new prisons will lead to the repealing of legislation he pioneered in the 1990s that mandates inmates serve at least 85 percent of their prison terms.
"I think it is a bad mistake to be flirting with the idea of cutting back building prisons under the guise of looking for ways to cut costs," said Wells. "If we stop building prisons, overcrowding will force legislators to repeal that law, which would be a serious mistake."
Wells said advocates of diversion programs for non-violent offenders in lieu of prison time often do not tell the whole story about offenders sentenced to prison.
"That argument has been there since I started fighting this battle. But what always gets lost in translation is the length of someone's record who is finally is sent to prison. Someone who is going to prison for a so-called 'minor offense' has most likely been arrested a significant number of times," said Wells. "So I think it is absurd to start chipping away at the most significant aspect of crime prevention, which is sentencing and punishment."
Gretl Plessinger, DOC's spokeswoman, said the equation is far more complicated in response to the coalition's claims. Since the prison system runs on a five-year cycle based on "strategic projections," the corrections agency cannot simply "stop construction on a dime."
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n660/a05.html
Newshawk: http://www.novembercoalition.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Bradenton Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2009 Bradenton Herald
Contact: http://www.bradenton.com/contact_us/feedback/
Website: http://www.bradenton.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58
Author: Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald
Note: Bradenton Herald staff writer Robert Napper contributed to this story.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
A call by Florida's most powerful business lobby to halt prison construction and reform the criminal justice system is gaining surprising traction among policy makers in the wake of a deepening budget crisis and growing evidence that building new prison beds will not reduce crime.
Four months after the head of Associated Industries of Florida stunned lawmakers with his plea to slow prison growth, a who's-who of business, religious and political leaders are asking Gov. Charlie Crist to consider alternatives to incarceration for non-violent offenders, particularly drug addicts.
Crist and state lawmakers this week received an "open letter" from opinion-makers calling for a "bold and serious conversation about justice reform."
The statement was signed by three former state attorneys general -- Jim Smith, Bob Butterworth and Richard Doran -- along with retired Department of Corrections secretary James McDonough and the heads of the Florida Association of Counties and the Florida Catholic Conference.
"At a time when Florida is in serious recession and facing a deep state budget crisis, the $2 billion-plus budget of the Florida Department of Corrections has grown larger; and without reform, that budget will continue to grow at a pace that crowds out other mission-critical state services such as education, human service needs, and environmental protection," the group wrote.
Calling itself the Coalition for Smart Justice, the group is asking state leaders to bolster education, drug and alcohol treatment and faith-based and character-building programs both within the state prison system and in community settings as an alternative to prison.
Coalition members also want Crist to "immediately implement" a bill passed by the Legislature in 2008 that created "the much needed" Correctional Policy Advisory Council to offer new directions for criminal justice administration.
Staying the course, coalition members wrote, will lead to "too many non-violent individuals being incarcerated, too many prisons needing to be built at astounding public cost ( and ) too many young people moving from the juvenile justice system into the adult justice system."
At the root of the state's failures, the coalition says, is the unwillingness of lawmakers to invest in programs -- such as job training, education and substance-abuse treatment -- that can break the cycle of crime and reduce recidivism.
McDonough, the state's former drug czar and prisons chief, said Florida can avoid the need to build a new $100 million prison each year by spending one-fifth that amount on drug treatment. "The math is irrefutable," McDonough said. "That's $100 million right there that you don't have to spend immediately."
That's an assertion former Manatee sheriff Charlie Wells scoffs at, as a veteran of the debate over the effectiveness of prisons in reducing and deterring crime. Wells said he is concerned the movement to turn the state away from building new prisons will lead to the repealing of legislation he pioneered in the 1990s that mandates inmates serve at least 85 percent of their prison terms.
"I think it is a bad mistake to be flirting with the idea of cutting back building prisons under the guise of looking for ways to cut costs," said Wells. "If we stop building prisons, overcrowding will force legislators to repeal that law, which would be a serious mistake."
Wells said advocates of diversion programs for non-violent offenders in lieu of prison time often do not tell the whole story about offenders sentenced to prison.
"That argument has been there since I started fighting this battle. But what always gets lost in translation is the length of someone's record who is finally is sent to prison. Someone who is going to prison for a so-called 'minor offense' has most likely been arrested a significant number of times," said Wells. "So I think it is absurd to start chipping away at the most significant aspect of crime prevention, which is sentencing and punishment."
Gretl Plessinger, DOC's spokeswoman, said the equation is far more complicated in response to the coalition's claims. Since the prison system runs on a five-year cycle based on "strategic projections," the corrections agency cannot simply "stop construction on a dime."
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n660/a05.html
Newshawk: http://www.novembercoalition.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Bradenton Herald (FL)
Copyright: 2009 Bradenton Herald
Contact: http://www.bradenton.com/contact_us/feedback/
Website: http://www.bradenton.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/58
Author: Carol Marbin Miller, Miami Herald
Note: Bradenton Herald staff writer Robert Napper contributed to this story.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Changing Mind About Marijuana
It is time to stop making the sale of marijuana profitable. There are several good reasons to do this.
A lot of crime is based on the need for drug money. Criminals who sell it could cares less what happens to the inexperienced person using it. The dealers start getting their customers in the grade schools by giving kids free marijuana cigarettes.
If we made it legal, and users could buy it only in government stores which collect taxes on sales, then dealers would have no more customers. With the new government laws on cigarettes, fewer kids will start smoking. That's a big plus.
This would lead to fewer gangs in town, and the reduced cost of arresting dealers and users and putting them in jail will be a big plus. The gang member making a huge profit off the drug will be out of business.
Also, the cancer patients who need marijuana would be able to buy it without thinking they were breaking the law. They would not have seek out drug dealers who take advantage of them, making life miserable.
I never thought several years ago that I would think this way. But when I studied the probation of alcohol, which created criminal gangs years ago, it made sense to legalize marijuana.
Now we have the drug cartels, which some people think may take over the government of Mexico. We must stop that if we can. So let's legalize marijuana and all of the above will help the state budget.
Leonard M. Nichols Vacaville
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n653/a11.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Reporter, The (Vacaville, CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Reporter
Contact: letters@thereporter.com
Website: http://www.thereporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/472
Author: Leonard M. Nichols
A lot of crime is based on the need for drug money. Criminals who sell it could cares less what happens to the inexperienced person using it. The dealers start getting their customers in the grade schools by giving kids free marijuana cigarettes.
If we made it legal, and users could buy it only in government stores which collect taxes on sales, then dealers would have no more customers. With the new government laws on cigarettes, fewer kids will start smoking. That's a big plus.
This would lead to fewer gangs in town, and the reduced cost of arresting dealers and users and putting them in jail will be a big plus. The gang member making a huge profit off the drug will be out of business.
Also, the cancer patients who need marijuana would be able to buy it without thinking they were breaking the law. They would not have seek out drug dealers who take advantage of them, making life miserable.
I never thought several years ago that I would think this way. But when I studied the probation of alcohol, which created criminal gangs years ago, it made sense to legalize marijuana.
Now we have the drug cartels, which some people think may take over the government of Mexico. We must stop that if we can. So let's legalize marijuana and all of the above will help the state budget.
Leonard M. Nichols Vacaville
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n653/a11.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Reporter, The (Vacaville, CA)
Copyright: 2009 The Reporter
Contact: letters@thereporter.com
Website: http://www.thereporter.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/472
Author: Leonard M. Nichols
Rebranding Humboldt
County-Led YouTube Effort Seeks To De-Weedify Our Image
What is Humboldt County best known for? This question was posed to more than 100 non-locals at last weekend's Oyster Festival -- 105, to be exact - -- and if the answer seems painfully obvious -- as it did to most respondents -- well, that's exactly what the folks at the county's Office of Economic Development hope to change with a new digital media project aimed at "rebranding" the Humboldt image. "We're trying to improve the image of the area beyond just pot, and work with local businesses to make this happen," Humboldt County Film and Digital Media Commissioner Mary Cruse told the Journal recently.
Cruse unveiled the "Humboldt Branding Project" to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday with a short speech followed by a film clip. The project, she explained, will yield six three-minute films showcasing aspects of Humboldt County that are overlooked by, or unknown to, the outside world, including our natural beauty, successful small businesses and artistic panache. The message will be delivered 21st century-style, through Web clips posted on sites like YouTube and Facebook.
"The way we consume media is changing," said Economic Development Coordinator Jacqueline Debets in a phone conversation Tuesday. "As much as we try to have the pursuit of happiness without our BlackBerries, YouTube and Facebook is where a lot of people live. We want to be there."
By "pursuit of happiness" Debets wasn't comparing promo Web clips to the Declaration of Independence; rather, it's the nickname for one of nine local "industry clusters" identified by the county's Economic Development Division as areas of growth in the region's economy. The "happiness" cluster includes beer, wine, cheese and flower companies. "That's the one [cluster] where they [the businesses] could really see the immediate benefit to their ability to sell products," Debets said. "That was the perfect place to start."
Debets and others involved in the branding project, including Angie Schwab, an economic development specialist with the county who has been guiding the endeavor, were reluctant to discuss the details, saying not all of the contracts have been signed. Their apprehension to take the project public may also stem from the fact that it's being partially funded through a $44,000 Headwaters Fund grant. Spending from that public nest egg frequently draws public scrutiny and criticism, and since the branding project is "innovative and cutting-edge," Schwab told the Journal on Monday, "I suspect some people will balk." The total cost, including time for staff research and the expense of the production itself, will be $96,000, with a $40,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration as well as $12,000 from the local businesses that will be featured in the clips.
Cruse, for one, is pumped. She described a "Felini-esque" scene to be shot in a local brewery and a wedding scene that will be filmed at a vineyard in Willow Creek. "We have a small, skilled and very creative crew," she said. Their chops were displayed in the short clip shown at Tuesday's Board of Supes meeting: Against a soft instrumental backdrop, a beautiful woman in a sun dress ambles through a field of tall grass. Cut to: waves crashing against a rocky shoreline, sunlight shimmering through a geyser of sea foam. It's a beautiful, professional-looking clip. You can almost hear the calming voice of a narrator intone something like, "Side effects are generally mild and may include ... ."
If the crew hopes to separate Humboldt from its illicit reputation, they have their work cut out for them. This Journal scribe meandered through the Plaza mob during Saturday's mollusk jubilee with a hand-Sharpied sign pinned to his shirt, requesting the perspective of out-of-towners. So what is Humboldt County best known for? The most popular reply was a tie between "marijuana" and "pot," each garnering 25 separate responses. Coming in third with 13 repetitions was "weed." All told, marijuana and its synonyms ( "the chronic," "the green," "smoking" ) accounted for 69 of the 105 replies -- 70 if you count the glassy-eyed gentleman who cracked a satisfied half-smile and said, "ludicrousness." The percentage may well have been higher had everyone been honest. A number of folks looked at their inquisitor like he might be a simpleton, then spat out some malarkey like "the mist," "hot chicks" ( twice on that one ) or "a place between Crescent City and Mendocino."
Granted, this informal survey was conducted on the Arcata Plaza -- essentially the bowl of Humboldt County's bong. But the Oyster Fest draws people from across the country and beyond. The ( sad? ) truth is that, for all our natural beauty and rich history, all our entrepreneurial pluck and artistic prowess, Humboldt's cannabis stigma has proved stickier than the dankest buds.
"I was in St. Croix recently," recalled one Oyster-muncher, "and when I told this guy I was from Humboldt he went, 'Oooh yeah.'"
The label, not to mention the moronic nudge-wink-guffaw that often accompanies it, irks those community members who represent the more respectable endeavors of the region, be it Humboldt State University ( "colleges" got a single Plaza response ), the business community ( "fishing" got two; "the creamery," one; "timber," zilch ) or tourism. Among drug-free responses, "redwood trees" came in first with a mere 10 tally marks, followed by "oysters" with seven and "good people" with three.
But Debets and Cruse aren't worried about the chronic labeling. "Nobody can erase the past imagery or the associations," Cruse said, "but we can work on creating something better." Debets agreed that there's no sense in trying to fight the reputation. "I don't think we have to overcome it," she said, "just move on. ... The dope story is so 20th century."
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a10.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Copyright: 2009 North Coast Journal
Contact: http://www.northcoastjournal.com/mailbox/index.html
Website: http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Ryan Burns
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
What is Humboldt County best known for? This question was posed to more than 100 non-locals at last weekend's Oyster Festival -- 105, to be exact - -- and if the answer seems painfully obvious -- as it did to most respondents -- well, that's exactly what the folks at the county's Office of Economic Development hope to change with a new digital media project aimed at "rebranding" the Humboldt image. "We're trying to improve the image of the area beyond just pot, and work with local businesses to make this happen," Humboldt County Film and Digital Media Commissioner Mary Cruse told the Journal recently.
Cruse unveiled the "Humboldt Branding Project" to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday with a short speech followed by a film clip. The project, she explained, will yield six three-minute films showcasing aspects of Humboldt County that are overlooked by, or unknown to, the outside world, including our natural beauty, successful small businesses and artistic panache. The message will be delivered 21st century-style, through Web clips posted on sites like YouTube and Facebook.
"The way we consume media is changing," said Economic Development Coordinator Jacqueline Debets in a phone conversation Tuesday. "As much as we try to have the pursuit of happiness without our BlackBerries, YouTube and Facebook is where a lot of people live. We want to be there."
By "pursuit of happiness" Debets wasn't comparing promo Web clips to the Declaration of Independence; rather, it's the nickname for one of nine local "industry clusters" identified by the county's Economic Development Division as areas of growth in the region's economy. The "happiness" cluster includes beer, wine, cheese and flower companies. "That's the one [cluster] where they [the businesses] could really see the immediate benefit to their ability to sell products," Debets said. "That was the perfect place to start."
Debets and others involved in the branding project, including Angie Schwab, an economic development specialist with the county who has been guiding the endeavor, were reluctant to discuss the details, saying not all of the contracts have been signed. Their apprehension to take the project public may also stem from the fact that it's being partially funded through a $44,000 Headwaters Fund grant. Spending from that public nest egg frequently draws public scrutiny and criticism, and since the branding project is "innovative and cutting-edge," Schwab told the Journal on Monday, "I suspect some people will balk." The total cost, including time for staff research and the expense of the production itself, will be $96,000, with a $40,000 federal grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration as well as $12,000 from the local businesses that will be featured in the clips.
Cruse, for one, is pumped. She described a "Felini-esque" scene to be shot in a local brewery and a wedding scene that will be filmed at a vineyard in Willow Creek. "We have a small, skilled and very creative crew," she said. Their chops were displayed in the short clip shown at Tuesday's Board of Supes meeting: Against a soft instrumental backdrop, a beautiful woman in a sun dress ambles through a field of tall grass. Cut to: waves crashing against a rocky shoreline, sunlight shimmering through a geyser of sea foam. It's a beautiful, professional-looking clip. You can almost hear the calming voice of a narrator intone something like, "Side effects are generally mild and may include ... ."
If the crew hopes to separate Humboldt from its illicit reputation, they have their work cut out for them. This Journal scribe meandered through the Plaza mob during Saturday's mollusk jubilee with a hand-Sharpied sign pinned to his shirt, requesting the perspective of out-of-towners. So what is Humboldt County best known for? The most popular reply was a tie between "marijuana" and "pot," each garnering 25 separate responses. Coming in third with 13 repetitions was "weed." All told, marijuana and its synonyms ( "the chronic," "the green," "smoking" ) accounted for 69 of the 105 replies -- 70 if you count the glassy-eyed gentleman who cracked a satisfied half-smile and said, "ludicrousness." The percentage may well have been higher had everyone been honest. A number of folks looked at their inquisitor like he might be a simpleton, then spat out some malarkey like "the mist," "hot chicks" ( twice on that one ) or "a place between Crescent City and Mendocino."
Granted, this informal survey was conducted on the Arcata Plaza -- essentially the bowl of Humboldt County's bong. But the Oyster Fest draws people from across the country and beyond. The ( sad? ) truth is that, for all our natural beauty and rich history, all our entrepreneurial pluck and artistic prowess, Humboldt's cannabis stigma has proved stickier than the dankest buds.
"I was in St. Croix recently," recalled one Oyster-muncher, "and when I told this guy I was from Humboldt he went, 'Oooh yeah.'"
The label, not to mention the moronic nudge-wink-guffaw that often accompanies it, irks those community members who represent the more respectable endeavors of the region, be it Humboldt State University ( "colleges" got a single Plaza response ), the business community ( "fishing" got two; "the creamery," one; "timber," zilch ) or tourism. Among drug-free responses, "redwood trees" came in first with a mere 10 tally marks, followed by "oysters" with seven and "good people" with three.
But Debets and Cruse aren't worried about the chronic labeling. "Nobody can erase the past imagery or the associations," Cruse said, "but we can work on creating something better." Debets agreed that there's no sense in trying to fight the reputation. "I don't think we have to overcome it," she said, "just move on. ... The dope story is so 20th century."
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a10.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcata, CA)
Copyright: 2009 North Coast Journal
Contact: http://www.northcoastjournal.com/mailbox/index.html
Website: http://www.northcoastjournal.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2833
Author: Ryan Burns
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
UN Drug Czar Urges Canada to Take Action
Gangs Seen As Global Suppliers Of Ecstasy, Amphetamines
WASHINGTON -- The United Nations' drug czar is urging Canada to take action on a UN report that identifies Canadian gangs as the leading suppliers of ecstasy in North America and increasingly proficient producers of methamphetamine for markets around the world.
"Canada has emerged an important hub for ecstasy and amphetamines," Antonio Maria Costa told a news conference Wednesday in the U.S. capital as he released the agency's 2009 World Drug Report.
Costa said the lucrative underground industry of manufacturing amphetamines has migrated north to Canada since both the U.S. and Mexico banned the chemical precursors used to make the drugs.
"These important measures taken by countries inevitably tend to create a problem somewhere else unless similar measures are undertaken," he said.
"So I am inviting Canada to be equally proactive in taking the measures which are preventive strikes to avoid the proliferation of manufacturing of amphetamines in that country."
An anti-gang bill currently before Parliament is being held up by the Liberal majority in the Senate, said Rob Nicholson, Canada's justice minister.
"Under the new legislation, these people are looking at two-year prison terms as a minimum," said Nicholson, who blamed the holdup on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
"I am asking him to do something, call people, get this bill moving through the system. I am hoping this increases the pressure on him to make this a priority and get this bill passed."
Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. President Barack Obama's drug watchdog, said the UN report isn't likely to lead to any further border security tensions between the U.S. and Canada.
"For quite a while, we've exchanged guns going into Canada for drugs coming back," said Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and a one-time chief of police in the border cities of Seattle and Buffalo.
Law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border are "absolutely committed to working together, to sharing information, and I know the United States is committed to working hard on those border checkpoints."
The UN report found that since 2003-2004, "Canada has emerged as the primary source of ecstasy-group substances for North American markets, and increasingly for other regions."
Before 2003, Europe was the leading producer of U.S.-bound ecstasy, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine ( MDMA ) -- a synthetic, psychoactive drug that produces feelings of increased energy, euphoria and emotional warmth.
But the trade was effectively dismantled, the UN report says, and "Canadian intelligence reports indicate that Canada-based drug trafficking organizations are attempting to fill the supply void, and have drastically increased their ecstasy production and trafficking."
Asian organized crime groups primarily control ecstasy labs in Canada, using chemicals smuggled into the country in sea containers from China.
In 2007, half the ecstasy produced in Canada was destined for markets outside Canada, most of it bound for the U.S., Australia and Japan, the report found. Japan has identified Canada as the single biggest source for seized ecstasy tablets, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
The report also found Canadian organized crime groups have significantly increased their participation in the meth trade over the past few years.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a06.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2009 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Lee-Anne Goodman, Associated Press
Referenced: World Drug Report 2009 http://drugsense.org/url/dhSmEL2y
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
WASHINGTON -- The United Nations' drug czar is urging Canada to take action on a UN report that identifies Canadian gangs as the leading suppliers of ecstasy in North America and increasingly proficient producers of methamphetamine for markets around the world.
"Canada has emerged an important hub for ecstasy and amphetamines," Antonio Maria Costa told a news conference Wednesday in the U.S. capital as he released the agency's 2009 World Drug Report.
Costa said the lucrative underground industry of manufacturing amphetamines has migrated north to Canada since both the U.S. and Mexico banned the chemical precursors used to make the drugs.
"These important measures taken by countries inevitably tend to create a problem somewhere else unless similar measures are undertaken," he said.
"So I am inviting Canada to be equally proactive in taking the measures which are preventive strikes to avoid the proliferation of manufacturing of amphetamines in that country."
An anti-gang bill currently before Parliament is being held up by the Liberal majority in the Senate, said Rob Nicholson, Canada's justice minister.
"Under the new legislation, these people are looking at two-year prison terms as a minimum," said Nicholson, who blamed the holdup on Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff.
"I am asking him to do something, call people, get this bill moving through the system. I am hoping this increases the pressure on him to make this a priority and get this bill passed."
Gil Kerlikowske, U.S. President Barack Obama's drug watchdog, said the UN report isn't likely to lead to any further border security tensions between the U.S. and Canada.
"For quite a while, we've exchanged guns going into Canada for drugs coming back," said Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and a one-time chief of police in the border cities of Seattle and Buffalo.
Law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border are "absolutely committed to working together, to sharing information, and I know the United States is committed to working hard on those border checkpoints."
The UN report found that since 2003-2004, "Canada has emerged as the primary source of ecstasy-group substances for North American markets, and increasingly for other regions."
Before 2003, Europe was the leading producer of U.S.-bound ecstasy, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine ( MDMA ) -- a synthetic, psychoactive drug that produces feelings of increased energy, euphoria and emotional warmth.
But the trade was effectively dismantled, the UN report says, and "Canadian intelligence reports indicate that Canada-based drug trafficking organizations are attempting to fill the supply void, and have drastically increased their ecstasy production and trafficking."
Asian organized crime groups primarily control ecstasy labs in Canada, using chemicals smuggled into the country in sea containers from China.
In 2007, half the ecstasy produced in Canada was destined for markets outside Canada, most of it bound for the U.S., Australia and Japan, the report found. Japan has identified Canada as the single biggest source for seized ecstasy tablets, followed by the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.
The report also found Canadian organized crime groups have significantly increased their participation in the meth trade over the past few years.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a06.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2009 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/send_a_letter
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Lee-Anne Goodman, Associated Press
Referenced: World Drug Report 2009 http://drugsense.org/url/dhSmEL2y
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/meth.htm (Methamphetamine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)
Police Get Powers To Deal With Drivers On Drugs
Police will have new powers to deal with drivers on drugs under legislation passed by Parliament tonight.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce said "very disturbing statistics" showed how important it was to bring in the new laws.
He told Parliament Massey University drug researchers carried out surveys which found that 90 per cent of `P' users and 62 per cent of Ecstasy users had driven under the influence of a drug other than alcohol during a six month period.
"Many reported driving too fast, losing concentration, losing their temper at another driver, driving through a red light and nearly hitting something while driving under the influence of a drug," he said.
Mr Joyce said another survey carried out by Environmental Science and Research between 2004 and 2008 found that 257 of 826 deceased drivers had cannabis in their system.
"People who drive while their judgment and reactions are impaired by drugs, and by that I mean both controlled drugs and prescription medicines, are a danger to themselves and other," he said.
"This bill aims to reduce this risk by creating an offence of driving while impaired and with evidence in the bloodstream of a controlled drug or a prescription medicine."
Under the Land Transport Amendment Bill ( No 4 ), which comes into force on December 1, police can decide whether a driver is impaired through a compulsory impairment test.
If the test shows a driver is impaired, it will be followed by a blood test to determine whether drugs are present.
"This bill will provide police with additional tools to get drivers impaired by drugs off the roads before they add to the road toll and injury toll on our roads," Mr Joyce said.
He described the legislation as "just the first step" in dealing with the problem.
"When a practical, affordable drug testing device becomes available that can produce results which can stand up in court, I will be happy to bring legislation to this House to enable it to be used as an enforcement tool," he said.
The bill was drafted by the previous government in 2007 and was taken over by the new government.
Mr Joyce said that when it was drafted, professional advice was that the group of drugs which include valium should not be covered by it.
"Based on evidence I have seen. . .I believe these drugs should have been considered for inclusion," he said.
"I have officials working on this now."
Mr Joyce said if he decided to include that group of drugs he would introduce a special amendment which would change the law before it came into force.
The bill was passed on a unanimous vote.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a06.html
Newshawk: http://www.norml.org.nz
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Dominion Post, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2009 The Dominion Post
Contact: letters@dompost.co.nz
Website: http://www.dompost.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2550
Author: NZPA
Transport Minister Steven Joyce said "very disturbing statistics" showed how important it was to bring in the new laws.
He told Parliament Massey University drug researchers carried out surveys which found that 90 per cent of `P' users and 62 per cent of Ecstasy users had driven under the influence of a drug other than alcohol during a six month period.
"Many reported driving too fast, losing concentration, losing their temper at another driver, driving through a red light and nearly hitting something while driving under the influence of a drug," he said.
Mr Joyce said another survey carried out by Environmental Science and Research between 2004 and 2008 found that 257 of 826 deceased drivers had cannabis in their system.
"People who drive while their judgment and reactions are impaired by drugs, and by that I mean both controlled drugs and prescription medicines, are a danger to themselves and other," he said.
"This bill aims to reduce this risk by creating an offence of driving while impaired and with evidence in the bloodstream of a controlled drug or a prescription medicine."
Under the Land Transport Amendment Bill ( No 4 ), which comes into force on December 1, police can decide whether a driver is impaired through a compulsory impairment test.
If the test shows a driver is impaired, it will be followed by a blood test to determine whether drugs are present.
"This bill will provide police with additional tools to get drivers impaired by drugs off the roads before they add to the road toll and injury toll on our roads," Mr Joyce said.
He described the legislation as "just the first step" in dealing with the problem.
"When a practical, affordable drug testing device becomes available that can produce results which can stand up in court, I will be happy to bring legislation to this House to enable it to be used as an enforcement tool," he said.
The bill was drafted by the previous government in 2007 and was taken over by the new government.
Mr Joyce said that when it was drafted, professional advice was that the group of drugs which include valium should not be covered by it.
"Based on evidence I have seen. . .I believe these drugs should have been considered for inclusion," he said.
"I have officials working on this now."
Mr Joyce said if he decided to include that group of drugs he would introduce a special amendment which would change the law before it came into force.
The bill was passed on a unanimous vote.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a06.html
Newshawk: http://www.norml.org.nz
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Dominion Post, The (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2009 The Dominion Post
Contact: letters@dompost.co.nz
Website: http://www.dompost.co.nz
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2550
Author: NZPA
Pot Establishing Medicinal Niche
Marijuana Dispensaries' Legal Status Remain In Limbo
Now that marijuana can be legally used to ease patients' pain, dispensaries are opening in Spokane to provide it.
And regardless of whether such stores are what Washington voters and legislators envisioned when they allowed medical marijuana, it may only be a matter of time before the businesses are commonplace: Medical marijuana has been approved in more than a dozen states.
The dispensaries' legal status, however, remains hazy.
For Judy, a medical marijuana customer who asked that her last name be withheld, the drug has been a blessing.
She credits it for alleviating the pain from a severe brain trauma and other injuries sustained 12 years ago when a suicidal man rammed his pickup into her car.
The crash severed her leg below the hip.
I remain thankful to be alive," she said.
After years of buying marijuana illegally, Judy now has a doctor's note that says marijuana is a proper medication to ease her pain.
She buys her supply from a shop called Change. It opened two months ago and is run by Christopher Stevens, Noah Zarate and Scott Shupe.
People smoke and buy marijuana at the Northwest Boulevard store, and police know about it. The owners wrote a letter to Spokane police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick about their business; her reply stated that her officers are committed to enforcing local, state and federal laws.
Stevens, a candidate for Spokane City Council, took her reply to mean police would not interfere with the business.
Washington voters passed Initiative 692 – the Medical Use of Marijuana Act – in 1998. The Legislature sought to clarify the law in 2007, asking the Department of Health to define a legal and appropriate supply of marijuana. The Health Department determined that a medically authorized person could possess a 60-day supply, or 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana or 15 plants.
Donn Moyer, a Health Department spokesman, said that enforcement of the laws is left to local, state and federal police.
A Health Department Web page – at www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/ medical-marijuana/ – includes a "frequently asked questions" section about medicinal marijuana.
One question: "Is medical marijuana legal in Washington?"
The answer: "Marijuana possession is illegal in Washington." The agency describes the state's medical marijuana law as a legal mechanism that "provides an affirmative defense for qualified patients and designated caregivers."
Regardless of state laws, marijuana is outlawed by the federal government, which does not accept that marijuana has medical benefits.
Another question: "How do I get medical marijuana? Can I buy it?"
The DOH answer: "The law allows a qualifying patient or designated provider to grow medical marijuana. It is not legal to buy or sell it."
The owners of Change interpret the state law differently. They contend they have the right to buy marijuana and resell it to people who have written authorization from their doctors. Stevens said he obtains a wholesale supply of marijuana from local farmers with surplus crops and sells it – sales tax included – at retail prices.
And he urges patients to be careful.
Being able to use marijuana legally as medicine is a privilege," he said. "I tell our patients that it's a privilege that can be lost."
A sale to Judy on Tuesday resembled a typical retail transaction. Stevens described the product, answered questions and made a recommendation based on Judy's questions.
When she settled on what she wanted, Judy pulled $80 from her billfold and handed it to Stevens. He unscrewed a jar lid, fetched 5 grams of a variety called "Snow Cap," weighed it, put it in a baggie and affixed a label urging users to keep the drug out of the reach of children. and cautions that it may cause drowsiness.
Judy said she liked the arrangement.
I like coming here," she said, "because it's private, I trust the source, the service is personal and I don't get hassled by anyone."
She smokes marijuana at least three times a day. She does not work, lives on disability payments and said she has discontinued other pain medications now that marijuana is easier to obtain.
Some patients aren't sure what to buy, so they are offered samples at what co-owner Zarate calls a "taste bar." The rise of such dispensaries may be inevitable.
Display ads tout the benefits of marijuana in this week's issue of the Nickel Nik, under classified listings for puppies, manufactured homes, cemetery plots and yard sales.
An ad by CBR Medical Inc., with clinics across the state including one at 3115 E. Mission Ave., claims marijuana can alleviate pain associated with many conditions, including epilepsy, AIDS and fibromyalgia.
Stevens said the next move for medical marijuana will be a push to force insurers – including the government's Medicare and Medicaid programs – to pay much like they do for prescription drug coverage.
That has to happen," he said.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a02.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2009 The Spokesman-Review
Contact: editor@spokesman.com
Website: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417
Page: A1
Author: John Stucke
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Now that marijuana can be legally used to ease patients' pain, dispensaries are opening in Spokane to provide it.
And regardless of whether such stores are what Washington voters and legislators envisioned when they allowed medical marijuana, it may only be a matter of time before the businesses are commonplace: Medical marijuana has been approved in more than a dozen states.
The dispensaries' legal status, however, remains hazy.
For Judy, a medical marijuana customer who asked that her last name be withheld, the drug has been a blessing.
She credits it for alleviating the pain from a severe brain trauma and other injuries sustained 12 years ago when a suicidal man rammed his pickup into her car.
The crash severed her leg below the hip.
I remain thankful to be alive," she said.
After years of buying marijuana illegally, Judy now has a doctor's note that says marijuana is a proper medication to ease her pain.
She buys her supply from a shop called Change. It opened two months ago and is run by Christopher Stevens, Noah Zarate and Scott Shupe.
People smoke and buy marijuana at the Northwest Boulevard store, and police know about it. The owners wrote a letter to Spokane police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick about their business; her reply stated that her officers are committed to enforcing local, state and federal laws.
Stevens, a candidate for Spokane City Council, took her reply to mean police would not interfere with the business.
Washington voters passed Initiative 692 – the Medical Use of Marijuana Act – in 1998. The Legislature sought to clarify the law in 2007, asking the Department of Health to define a legal and appropriate supply of marijuana. The Health Department determined that a medically authorized person could possess a 60-day supply, or 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana or 15 plants.
Donn Moyer, a Health Department spokesman, said that enforcement of the laws is left to local, state and federal police.
A Health Department Web page – at www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/ medical-marijuana/ – includes a "frequently asked questions" section about medicinal marijuana.
One question: "Is medical marijuana legal in Washington?"
The answer: "Marijuana possession is illegal in Washington." The agency describes the state's medical marijuana law as a legal mechanism that "provides an affirmative defense for qualified patients and designated caregivers."
Regardless of state laws, marijuana is outlawed by the federal government, which does not accept that marijuana has medical benefits.
Another question: "How do I get medical marijuana? Can I buy it?"
The DOH answer: "The law allows a qualifying patient or designated provider to grow medical marijuana. It is not legal to buy or sell it."
The owners of Change interpret the state law differently. They contend they have the right to buy marijuana and resell it to people who have written authorization from their doctors. Stevens said he obtains a wholesale supply of marijuana from local farmers with surplus crops and sells it – sales tax included – at retail prices.
And he urges patients to be careful.
Being able to use marijuana legally as medicine is a privilege," he said. "I tell our patients that it's a privilege that can be lost."
A sale to Judy on Tuesday resembled a typical retail transaction. Stevens described the product, answered questions and made a recommendation based on Judy's questions.
When she settled on what she wanted, Judy pulled $80 from her billfold and handed it to Stevens. He unscrewed a jar lid, fetched 5 grams of a variety called "Snow Cap," weighed it, put it in a baggie and affixed a label urging users to keep the drug out of the reach of children. and cautions that it may cause drowsiness.
Judy said she liked the arrangement.
I like coming here," she said, "because it's private, I trust the source, the service is personal and I don't get hassled by anyone."
She smokes marijuana at least three times a day. She does not work, lives on disability payments and said she has discontinued other pain medications now that marijuana is easier to obtain.
Some patients aren't sure what to buy, so they are offered samples at what co-owner Zarate calls a "taste bar." The rise of such dispensaries may be inevitable.
Display ads tout the benefits of marijuana in this week's issue of the Nickel Nik, under classified listings for puppies, manufactured homes, cemetery plots and yard sales.
An ad by CBR Medical Inc., with clinics across the state including one at 3115 E. Mission Ave., claims marijuana can alleviate pain associated with many conditions, including epilepsy, AIDS and fibromyalgia.
Stevens said the next move for medical marijuana will be a push to force insurers – including the government's Medicare and Medicaid programs – to pay much like they do for prescription drug coverage.
That has to happen," he said.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a02.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Spokesman-Review (Spokane, WA)
Copyright: 2009 The Spokesman-Review
Contact: editor@spokesman.com
Website: http://www.spokesmanreview.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/417
Page: A1
Author: John Stucke
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Medical Marijuana Bill Now Going To Lynch
CONCORD - With House and Senate passage of a medical marijuana bill, it is up to Gov. John Lynch to decide whether critically and terminally ill patients will have access to the drug.
The Senate voted 14-10 and the House voted 232-108 to pass a compromise bill version of HB 648.
Lynch said he has not reviewed the latest form of the bill, so does not know if he will sign it.
"My concern all along has been the cultivation and distribution of it, not its dispensation to people who need it," he said. "I'll be looking at the bill very carefully and using that test as I review it as to whether or not to go forward with the bill."
HB 648 sets up a system of three so-called compassion centers where marijuana would be grown. The non-profit centers can distribute up to two ounces of marijuana every 10 days to each patient certified by the state and their doctor.
Patients have to be suffering debilitating or terminal illness, or severe symptoms of chemotherapy or other treatment. Qualifying ailments include cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease and multiple sclerosis.
Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said she thinks 150 patients would qualify each year. After two years, two more non-profit centers could open, she said.
Thirteen states have changed their laws to allow medical use of marijuana, although it is still illegal under federal law.
Rep. David Hess, R-Hooksett, argued against the bill yesterday during debate, saying "every act authorized by this bill ... is a violation of federal criminal law." He said the bill wrongly allows compassion centers to be located within 500 feet of a school.
Democratic Floor Leader Rep. Daniel Eaton of Stoddard said the bill is the most restrictive in the country.
"Sick people should be called patients, not criminals," he said. "I believe our friends and neighbors going through darkest most painful hours of their lives should be afforded the same compassion and humanity that is afforded them in 13 other states."
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a09.html
Newshawk: Just Say Know: http://www.efsdp.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Union Leader (Manchester, NH)
Copyright: 2009 The Union Leader Corp.
Contact: letters@unionleader.com
Website: http://www.theunionleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/761
Note: Out-of-state letters are seldom published.
Author: Tom Fahey
The Senate voted 14-10 and the House voted 232-108 to pass a compromise bill version of HB 648.
Lynch said he has not reviewed the latest form of the bill, so does not know if he will sign it.
"My concern all along has been the cultivation and distribution of it, not its dispensation to people who need it," he said. "I'll be looking at the bill very carefully and using that test as I review it as to whether or not to go forward with the bill."
HB 648 sets up a system of three so-called compassion centers where marijuana would be grown. The non-profit centers can distribute up to two ounces of marijuana every 10 days to each patient certified by the state and their doctor.
Patients have to be suffering debilitating or terminal illness, or severe symptoms of chemotherapy or other treatment. Qualifying ailments include cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Lou Gehrig's disease and multiple sclerosis.
Rep. Cindy Rosenwald, D-Nashua, said she thinks 150 patients would qualify each year. After two years, two more non-profit centers could open, she said.
Thirteen states have changed their laws to allow medical use of marijuana, although it is still illegal under federal law.
Rep. David Hess, R-Hooksett, argued against the bill yesterday during debate, saying "every act authorized by this bill ... is a violation of federal criminal law." He said the bill wrongly allows compassion centers to be located within 500 feet of a school.
Democratic Floor Leader Rep. Daniel Eaton of Stoddard said the bill is the most restrictive in the country.
"Sick people should be called patients, not criminals," he said. "I believe our friends and neighbors going through darkest most painful hours of their lives should be afforded the same compassion and humanity that is afforded them in 13 other states."
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a09.html
Newshawk: Just Say Know: http://www.efsdp.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Union Leader (Manchester, NH)
Copyright: 2009 The Union Leader Corp.
Contact: letters@unionleader.com
Website: http://www.theunionleader.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/761
Note: Out-of-state letters are seldom published.
Author: Tom Fahey
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
US HI: Anti-Drug Coordinator Aims To Save Lives
ANTI-DRUG COORDINATOR AIMS TO SAVE LIVES
Theresa Koki And Volunteers Carry Out Plan
Some 80 to 90 percent of all crimes committed on Kaua'i are drug related. This is according to a Drug Response Plan covering 2008-2013 and generated to serve as a guide for agencies who work with youth and adults, especially those struggling with substance abuse.
And who knows those statistics better than mayoral appointee, Anti-Drug Coordinator Theresa Koki? Stepping into her third year as what some jokingly call her anti-drug "Czarina" position, Koki's office faces the same economic gloom as the rest of the nation.
And the good news? Koki and her cadre of about 100 volunteers, plus a new Americorps volunteer worker carry on. Good thing Koki is a glass half-full kind of person, because witnessing drug addiction or abuse is stressful, and she deals with it every day.
"It affects almost every family," says Koki. "It's such an ugly addiction and turns normal people into different people, ruins families and communities. I actually had a hard time keeping staff here because of what it takes to take care of it and at least try to fight it."
The Drug Response Plan addresses four interconnected components of the problem identified and addressed in the first response plan initiated during the late Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste's administration: prevention, treatment, integration and enforcement. In the process of working these four elements, Koki forms community partnerships, working with nonprofit community organizations to help get funding to continue what's working while managing grants and working with school students.
Her work is all across the board. Ideally, having a healthy budget for prevention would help nip some of the drug - and alcohol - abuse and addiction in the bud.
"If you do prevention up front, you don't have to do as much on the other end," says Koki.
An example of prevention programming is Waele A Ola Hou, meaning, literally, to take out and replenish. It's based on a federal program that goes by the name "Weed and Seed," meaning just what it says - rip out the unwanted stuff and plant anew.
But Kaua'i didn't meet population requirements for the federal funding, so Koki's office got it elsewhere and had Waele A Ola Hou going in three communities - Kekaha, Hanama'ulu and Kilauea.
Hanama'ulu worked with the Parks and Recreation Department to remove illegal campers, spruce the place up and have a celebration to let families know they're welcome and all can work to keep it safe.
It's community-building and some take issue with spending money that way, but building community is what prevention is all about, Koki said. Communities have held neighborhood walks to take back the streets, so to speak, met, mingled and gotten healthy in the process.
Koki points to her office's involvement in partnering with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, three of which are going on between Kapa'a Elementary and High School. And Koki and at least 10 other county employees are sistering and brothering with kids at Wilcox Elementary - they call each other lunch buddies.
"The fact that they have someone coming over to talk to them is exciting," she says. "It's actually a stress release for me to go over and talk with them."
One of the most dramatic prevention programs is called Shattered Dreams, a mock drunk driver crash a year in the planning and enacted over two days at a different public high school each year. Students in the enactment play various roles; all go away overnight for a retreat, some of them tapped by the Grim Reaper.
"I cannot do one without crying," says Koki.
Treatment is a vital part of the Drug Response Plan. The notion of sending youth off to another island doesn't sit well with people who are in the business of knowing what works.
"We send our kids off island and their families are here and the family falls apart," says Koki. "We need to heal together.
"The community needs to be educated. If we're saying yes, we need a treatment center, but don't put in my backyard, they need to understand it IS already in their backyard - people are using."
Welcoming former users back into the community - integration - and enforcement are the remaining key elements to the Drug Response Plan.
Says Koki, "If I can save one life every day, I think I've done my job. You don't hear about it right away, but I've known a lot of success stories, and if that person can help another person then it's a chain reaction."
To download the Drug Response Plan, go to www.kauai.gov/antidrug ; for more information or to volunteer, contact Koki at tkoki@kauai.gov or 241.4925.
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Theresa Koki And Volunteers Carry Out Plan
Some 80 to 90 percent of all crimes committed on Kaua'i are drug related. This is according to a Drug Response Plan covering 2008-2013 and generated to serve as a guide for agencies who work with youth and adults, especially those struggling with substance abuse.
And who knows those statistics better than mayoral appointee, Anti-Drug Coordinator Theresa Koki? Stepping into her third year as what some jokingly call her anti-drug "Czarina" position, Koki's office faces the same economic gloom as the rest of the nation.
And the good news? Koki and her cadre of about 100 volunteers, plus a new Americorps volunteer worker carry on. Good thing Koki is a glass half-full kind of person, because witnessing drug addiction or abuse is stressful, and she deals with it every day.
"It affects almost every family," says Koki. "It's such an ugly addiction and turns normal people into different people, ruins families and communities. I actually had a hard time keeping staff here because of what it takes to take care of it and at least try to fight it."
The Drug Response Plan addresses four interconnected components of the problem identified and addressed in the first response plan initiated during the late Mayor Bryan J. Baptiste's administration: prevention, treatment, integration and enforcement. In the process of working these four elements, Koki forms community partnerships, working with nonprofit community organizations to help get funding to continue what's working while managing grants and working with school students.
Her work is all across the board. Ideally, having a healthy budget for prevention would help nip some of the drug - and alcohol - abuse and addiction in the bud.
"If you do prevention up front, you don't have to do as much on the other end," says Koki.
An example of prevention programming is Waele A Ola Hou, meaning, literally, to take out and replenish. It's based on a federal program that goes by the name "Weed and Seed," meaning just what it says - rip out the unwanted stuff and plant anew.
But Kaua'i didn't meet population requirements for the federal funding, so Koki's office got it elsewhere and had Waele A Ola Hou going in three communities - Kekaha, Hanama'ulu and Kilauea.
Hanama'ulu worked with the Parks and Recreation Department to remove illegal campers, spruce the place up and have a celebration to let families know they're welcome and all can work to keep it safe.
It's community-building and some take issue with spending money that way, but building community is what prevention is all about, Koki said. Communities have held neighborhood walks to take back the streets, so to speak, met, mingled and gotten healthy in the process.
Koki points to her office's involvement in partnering with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program, three of which are going on between Kapa'a Elementary and High School. And Koki and at least 10 other county employees are sistering and brothering with kids at Wilcox Elementary - they call each other lunch buddies.
"The fact that they have someone coming over to talk to them is exciting," she says. "It's actually a stress release for me to go over and talk with them."
One of the most dramatic prevention programs is called Shattered Dreams, a mock drunk driver crash a year in the planning and enacted over two days at a different public high school each year. Students in the enactment play various roles; all go away overnight for a retreat, some of them tapped by the Grim Reaper.
"I cannot do one without crying," says Koki.
Treatment is a vital part of the Drug Response Plan. The notion of sending youth off to another island doesn't sit well with people who are in the business of knowing what works.
"We send our kids off island and their families are here and the family falls apart," says Koki. "We need to heal together.
"The community needs to be educated. If we're saying yes, we need a treatment center, but don't put in my backyard, they need to understand it IS already in their backyard - people are using."
Welcoming former users back into the community - integration - and enforcement are the remaining key elements to the Drug Response Plan.
Says Koki, "If I can save one life every day, I think I've done my job. You don't hear about it right away, but I've known a lot of success stories, and if that person can help another person then it's a chain reaction."
To download the Drug Response Plan, go to www.kauai.gov/antidrug ; for more information or to volunteer, contact Koki at tkoki@kauai.gov or 241.4925.
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Friday, February 06, 2009
CN BC: Abbotsford Forum Tackles Gang Crime
ABBOTSFORD FORUM TACKLES GANG CRIME
Hundreds of Abbotsford residents packed the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium last night, to voice their frustration about crime and violence in the city to Mayor George Peary and Police Chief Bob Rich.
The community safety forum was organized following a rash of shootings in Abbotsford in recent weeks.
The most flagrant shooting was a murder attempt on alleged gangster James Bacon, which saw bullets fly in broad daylight in the middle of a busy intersection.
Chief Bob Rich outlined his strategy to make Abbotsford the safest city in B.C.
Rich said the number one priority of the Abbotsford Police department is to suppress gang crime and reduce violent crime.
Gang activity, violence, and the flow of illegal firearms across the U.S. border has exceeded police capability to respond.
"We're not doing enough yet and more needs to be done," said Rich.
"There are way too many guns out there and that's a huge problem for us. Our response has not yet been appropriate."
The APD is taking steps to increase public safety, such as targeting urban marijuana grow operations, monitoring gang members and contributing officers to provincial integrated teams battling organized crime.
Abbotsford Police have also taken extraordinary measures to reduce the threat that the Bacon brothers pose to public safety, said Rich.
"We are up [at the Bacon family home] on a nightly basis. We are aggressively monitoring their bail release conditions and doing nightly curfew checks," said Rich.
The APD has made over 200 visits to the home in an east Abbotsford neighbourhood, which is also monitored by police surveillance cameras.
Specially trained officers will also start tailing the Bacons in a marked car, and the brothers have been banned from attending any city facilities.
Abbotsford brothers James, Jarrod and Jonathan Bacon are the subject of an extraordinary public warning issued by police who warned that anyone associating with the trio could be in jeopardy as they were targets of a murder plot by rival gangsters.
The warning was issued in May 2008, following the arrest of James, 23, and Jarrod, 25, in connection with two separate RCMP firearms investigations.
The pair are charged with numerous weapons offences.
As an additional measure, police want Abbotsford businesses such as gyms, restaurants, and car leasing companies to refuse service to known gangsters, said Rich, to robust applause from the audience.
Business owners aren't expected to eject the gangsters themselves but can call 911 to get police assistance.
"We want to work with you not to provide services to them in Abbotsford because it's a huge risk."
Car lease agreements to gangsters have already been revoked in some cases, he said.
"We have been going to car rental agencies and informing them of who they are renting to, and asking them to not to rent cars to these people."
Abbotsford residents also provided police and city council with feedback about how to tackle gang violence, property crime and homelessness within the community.
Suggestions included stronger sentencing, youth prevention programs, increasing the number of shelters for the homeless, stronger enforcement of city bylaws, and legalizing drugs.
The families of two innocent bystanders murdered in the gangland slaying in a Surrey apartment tower in October 2007 spoke at the forum.
Abbotsford resident Ed Schellenberg and Surrey teen Chris Mohan were killed along with four gang associates.
Schellenberg's brother-in-law, Steve Brown, said the provincial government has failed to administer justice and the courts shouldn't be releasing anyone who poses a risk to the public.
"There are people who are out on the streets who in any other jurisdiction in the world would be locked up," he said.
Mohan's mother, Eileen, thanked residents and organizers for the public forum.
"We lived very innocently beside gang members," she said, adding criminals have more rights than ordinary people.
"Seeing each one of you here tells me you won't stand for gang violence . . . seeing you all here encourages me we don't stand alone."
The mayor thanked Mohan for her courage.
He is planning to set up a crime task force with community stakeholders to get a handle on crime in the community.
However, every citizen had a role to play, said Peary.
"As you leave here tonight, I'm asking you to resolve to make a difference. Community safety is not just a police issue but a community issue."
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n131/a11.html?1140
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Hundreds of Abbotsford residents packed the Matsqui Centennial Auditorium last night, to voice their frustration about crime and violence in the city to Mayor George Peary and Police Chief Bob Rich.
The community safety forum was organized following a rash of shootings in Abbotsford in recent weeks.
The most flagrant shooting was a murder attempt on alleged gangster James Bacon, which saw bullets fly in broad daylight in the middle of a busy intersection.
Chief Bob Rich outlined his strategy to make Abbotsford the safest city in B.C.
Rich said the number one priority of the Abbotsford Police department is to suppress gang crime and reduce violent crime.
Gang activity, violence, and the flow of illegal firearms across the U.S. border has exceeded police capability to respond.
"We're not doing enough yet and more needs to be done," said Rich.
"There are way too many guns out there and that's a huge problem for us. Our response has not yet been appropriate."
The APD is taking steps to increase public safety, such as targeting urban marijuana grow operations, monitoring gang members and contributing officers to provincial integrated teams battling organized crime.
Abbotsford Police have also taken extraordinary measures to reduce the threat that the Bacon brothers pose to public safety, said Rich.
"We are up [at the Bacon family home] on a nightly basis. We are aggressively monitoring their bail release conditions and doing nightly curfew checks," said Rich.
The APD has made over 200 visits to the home in an east Abbotsford neighbourhood, which is also monitored by police surveillance cameras.
Specially trained officers will also start tailing the Bacons in a marked car, and the brothers have been banned from attending any city facilities.
Abbotsford brothers James, Jarrod and Jonathan Bacon are the subject of an extraordinary public warning issued by police who warned that anyone associating with the trio could be in jeopardy as they were targets of a murder plot by rival gangsters.
The warning was issued in May 2008, following the arrest of James, 23, and Jarrod, 25, in connection with two separate RCMP firearms investigations.
The pair are charged with numerous weapons offences.
As an additional measure, police want Abbotsford businesses such as gyms, restaurants, and car leasing companies to refuse service to known gangsters, said Rich, to robust applause from the audience.
Business owners aren't expected to eject the gangsters themselves but can call 911 to get police assistance.
"We want to work with you not to provide services to them in Abbotsford because it's a huge risk."
Car lease agreements to gangsters have already been revoked in some cases, he said.
"We have been going to car rental agencies and informing them of who they are renting to, and asking them to not to rent cars to these people."
Abbotsford residents also provided police and city council with feedback about how to tackle gang violence, property crime and homelessness within the community.
Suggestions included stronger sentencing, youth prevention programs, increasing the number of shelters for the homeless, stronger enforcement of city bylaws, and legalizing drugs.
The families of two innocent bystanders murdered in the gangland slaying in a Surrey apartment tower in October 2007 spoke at the forum.
Abbotsford resident Ed Schellenberg and Surrey teen Chris Mohan were killed along with four gang associates.
Schellenberg's brother-in-law, Steve Brown, said the provincial government has failed to administer justice and the courts shouldn't be releasing anyone who poses a risk to the public.
"There are people who are out on the streets who in any other jurisdiction in the world would be locked up," he said.
Mohan's mother, Eileen, thanked residents and organizers for the public forum.
"We lived very innocently beside gang members," she said, adding criminals have more rights than ordinary people.
"Seeing each one of you here tells me you won't stand for gang violence . . . seeing you all here encourages me we don't stand alone."
The mayor thanked Mohan for her courage.
He is planning to set up a crime task force with community stakeholders to get a handle on crime in the community.
However, every citizen had a role to play, said Peary.
"As you leave here tonight, I'm asking you to resolve to make a difference. Community safety is not just a police issue but a community issue."
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n131/a11.html?1140
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Wednesday, February 04, 2009
US TX: Teacher's Drug Charge Isn't a Simple Issue
TEACHER'S DRUG CHARGE ISN'T A SIMPLE ISSUE
Students at Roberts Elementary School learned a harsh lesson Jan. 13. That was the day the Houston Independent School District dispatched its drug-sniffing dog to check the school's teacher parking lot.
The search at Roberts was part of a larger HISD crackdown. A month before, after a string of teachers were arrested on drug charges, Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced plans to have a dog sniff every teacher parking lot in the district -- never mind whether anyone thought the school had a drug problem.
And no one thought Roberts Elementary had a drug problem -- or, for that matter, any real problem at all. Roberts, near the Texas Medical Center, is a sweet, safe-feeling place, full of kids' art and parent volunteers.
Roberts is on Texas Monthly's list of the best public schools in the state and in 2008 won six Gold Performance Awards from the Texas Education Agency. An International Baccalaureate school, it teaches its kids to think in complex ways. It's a school that works.
But on that Tuesday morning, just before lunch, Roberts suddenly had a problem. After two false alarms, the dog pointed to the last car anyone at Roberts would have expected: the car belonging to beloved art teacher Mindy Herrick.
Teacher Of The Year
Herrick, 59, has taught at Roberts for 17 years. Parents describe her as "inspirational," "talented" and "loving."
She comes to work early so kids can finish projects they didn't have time to complete in class. So many kids wanted to join her after-school art club that it had to be restricted to fifth-graders. More than one parent tells how she dropped by a student's house, bearing art books that she thought might be of interest.
She's a ferocious doubles tennis player, nationally ranked, so fanatical about her game that she hesitated a year before taking cholesterol meds that her doctor prescribed.
In 1995 and 1999, Herrick was Roberts' teacher of the year. For 2005-06, she was teacher of the year for HISD's entire Central District. And in 2009, she was busted.
In the middle of a class, police escorted her from her classroom. After she unlocked her car, police found a baggie with two Xanax pills.
Herrick said she has no idea how the pills got into her car, which other people in her family drive.
But no matter. She was hauled away from the school she loves in the back of a squad car and charged with possession of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school. If convicted of that third-degree felony, she could serve two to 10 years in prison.
Heart On The Door
Roberts parents have started a legal-defense fund, and they're organizing to provide hundreds of character witnesses. Herrick's classroom door is covered with kids' drawings. "We love you, Ms. Herrick!" says one with a big heart. In big letters, another declares, "We miss you!"
Her lawyer, Kent Schaffer, expects the grand jury to no-bill her. A drug screen showed that she had no Xanax in her system, he says. She passed a lie-detector test showing that she knows nothing about the pills. And she's asked for the baggie to be fingerprinted, to prove that she never touched it.
But for now, she's stuck in paid administrative leave, a busywork limbo. Her students miss her fiercely. And parents worry that, betrayed by the school district she served so well and so long, she may never return.
When talking with their kids, some parents try to turn Herrick's arrest into a civics lesson.
They explain that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
They explain that there's an enormous difference between dealing heroin and unknowingly having a couple of prescription pills in your glove box.
They explain that though the school district must fight drugs, a zero-tolerance witch hunt can damage the school it was intended to protect.
Probably some of the kids understand all that. They're International Baccalaureate students, after all. They've been taught to handle complexity.
Unfortunately, you can't say the same of their school district.
ref: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n123/a09.html?1119
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Students at Roberts Elementary School learned a harsh lesson Jan. 13. That was the day the Houston Independent School District dispatched its drug-sniffing dog to check the school's teacher parking lot.
The search at Roberts was part of a larger HISD crackdown. A month before, after a string of teachers were arrested on drug charges, Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra announced plans to have a dog sniff every teacher parking lot in the district -- never mind whether anyone thought the school had a drug problem.
And no one thought Roberts Elementary had a drug problem -- or, for that matter, any real problem at all. Roberts, near the Texas Medical Center, is a sweet, safe-feeling place, full of kids' art and parent volunteers.
Roberts is on Texas Monthly's list of the best public schools in the state and in 2008 won six Gold Performance Awards from the Texas Education Agency. An International Baccalaureate school, it teaches its kids to think in complex ways. It's a school that works.
But on that Tuesday morning, just before lunch, Roberts suddenly had a problem. After two false alarms, the dog pointed to the last car anyone at Roberts would have expected: the car belonging to beloved art teacher Mindy Herrick.
Teacher Of The Year
Herrick, 59, has taught at Roberts for 17 years. Parents describe her as "inspirational," "talented" and "loving."
She comes to work early so kids can finish projects they didn't have time to complete in class. So many kids wanted to join her after-school art club that it had to be restricted to fifth-graders. More than one parent tells how she dropped by a student's house, bearing art books that she thought might be of interest.
She's a ferocious doubles tennis player, nationally ranked, so fanatical about her game that she hesitated a year before taking cholesterol meds that her doctor prescribed.
In 1995 and 1999, Herrick was Roberts' teacher of the year. For 2005-06, she was teacher of the year for HISD's entire Central District. And in 2009, she was busted.
In the middle of a class, police escorted her from her classroom. After she unlocked her car, police found a baggie with two Xanax pills.
Herrick said she has no idea how the pills got into her car, which other people in her family drive.
But no matter. She was hauled away from the school she loves in the back of a squad car and charged with possession of a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school. If convicted of that third-degree felony, she could serve two to 10 years in prison.
Heart On The Door
Roberts parents have started a legal-defense fund, and they're organizing to provide hundreds of character witnesses. Herrick's classroom door is covered with kids' drawings. "We love you, Ms. Herrick!" says one with a big heart. In big letters, another declares, "We miss you!"
Her lawyer, Kent Schaffer, expects the grand jury to no-bill her. A drug screen showed that she had no Xanax in her system, he says. She passed a lie-detector test showing that she knows nothing about the pills. And she's asked for the baggie to be fingerprinted, to prove that she never touched it.
But for now, she's stuck in paid administrative leave, a busywork limbo. Her students miss her fiercely. And parents worry that, betrayed by the school district she served so well and so long, she may never return.
When talking with their kids, some parents try to turn Herrick's arrest into a civics lesson.
They explain that a person is innocent until proven guilty.
They explain that there's an enormous difference between dealing heroin and unknowingly having a couple of prescription pills in your glove box.
They explain that though the school district must fight drugs, a zero-tolerance witch hunt can damage the school it was intended to protect.
Probably some of the kids understand all that. They're International Baccalaureate students, after all. They've been taught to handle complexity.
Unfortunately, you can't say the same of their school district.
ref: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n123/a09.html?1119
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Friday, February 15, 2008
HAILEY TO VOTE AGAIN ON LEGALIZING MARIJUANA?
City Clerk Sets New Election for May 27
Hailey's electorate gets to do it all over again--vote on four new citizen-driven initiatives to legalize marijuana within the city limits.
Probably. Unless something happens to derail the whole thing.
Hailey City Attorney Ned Williamson is doing legal research to see if three of the four can be knocked off the ballot, and pro-marijuana advocate Ryan Davidson said he's willing to withdraw the initiatives if the Hailey City Council will make an earnest effort to negotiate with him.
The initiatives are not exactly new. They are identical to four marijuana initiatives that were placed before the electorate on Nov. 6, 2007. Three were approved and the other was rejected.
City Clerk Heather Dawson informed the City Council Monday night that Davidson's new initiative petitions have been certified and she's scheduled the election for May 27. The council had little choice but to approve.
City Councilman Fritz Haemmerle grumbled a little anyway.
"If you keep accommodating each and every time, you're going to have election, after election, after election," Haemmerle said.
Davidson, chairman of The Liberty Lobby of Idaho, filed his new petitions on Jan. 22 after learning that city officials planned to file a lawsuit in 5th District Court seeking a declaratory judgement on the three initiatives approved on Nov. 6. All three have provisions that appear to conflict with state and federal law.
"I kind of assumed that the council would do something like this," Davidson said.
Approved in November were initiatives to legalize medical use of marijuana, to legalize industrial use of hemp and to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for the Hailey Police Department. Click for more information about our internet advertising program
Rejected was an initiative to give the city the authority to tax and regulate sales and use of marijuana within the city limits.
Davidson said a declaratory judgement against the three approved initiatives cannot keep the four new initiatives off the ballot.
The Idaho Supreme Court ruled in September 2006 that voters have the right to vote on citizen-driven initiatives regardless of the appearance of illegality. Davidson brought that lawsuit to the high court over similar marijuana legalization initiative petitions that he submitted to the city of Sun Valley.
Despite a long history of legal battles with municipalities in the Wood River Valley, Davidson said he's willing to extend an olive branch to the Hailey City Council.
"I would be willing to make the offer to the city," Davidson said. "That if they would be willing to sit down and negotiate a way to implement the spirit of the original initiatives, if they would at least make a good faith effort to do that, then I would rescind the new petitions so they wouldn't have to be voted on again."
Thus far, the City Council has shown no such inclination.
Williamson told the council Monday that the three approved initiatives are now city ordinances and he's going to research the possibility that they can be removed from the ballot because they are already law.
As in the previous election, the council decided to print the initiatives in their entirety on the ballot rather than try to summarize them.
"I'd like to think that the citizens would read it this time," said Councilwoman Martha Burke.
"After what happened last time, maybe they'll read the fine print," said Councilman Don Keirn.
The election would cost the city about $4,000, not including staff time.
Hailey's electorate gets to do it all over again--vote on four new citizen-driven initiatives to legalize marijuana within the city limits.
Probably. Unless something happens to derail the whole thing.
Hailey City Attorney Ned Williamson is doing legal research to see if three of the four can be knocked off the ballot, and pro-marijuana advocate Ryan Davidson said he's willing to withdraw the initiatives if the Hailey City Council will make an earnest effort to negotiate with him.
The initiatives are not exactly new. They are identical to four marijuana initiatives that were placed before the electorate on Nov. 6, 2007. Three were approved and the other was rejected.
City Clerk Heather Dawson informed the City Council Monday night that Davidson's new initiative petitions have been certified and she's scheduled the election for May 27. The council had little choice but to approve.
City Councilman Fritz Haemmerle grumbled a little anyway.
"If you keep accommodating each and every time, you're going to have election, after election, after election," Haemmerle said.
Davidson, chairman of The Liberty Lobby of Idaho, filed his new petitions on Jan. 22 after learning that city officials planned to file a lawsuit in 5th District Court seeking a declaratory judgement on the three initiatives approved on Nov. 6. All three have provisions that appear to conflict with state and federal law.
"I kind of assumed that the council would do something like this," Davidson said.
Approved in November were initiatives to legalize medical use of marijuana, to legalize industrial use of hemp and to make enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority for the Hailey Police Department. Click for more information about our internet advertising program
Rejected was an initiative to give the city the authority to tax and regulate sales and use of marijuana within the city limits.
Davidson said a declaratory judgement against the three approved initiatives cannot keep the four new initiatives off the ballot.
The Idaho Supreme Court ruled in September 2006 that voters have the right to vote on citizen-driven initiatives regardless of the appearance of illegality. Davidson brought that lawsuit to the high court over similar marijuana legalization initiative petitions that he submitted to the city of Sun Valley.
Despite a long history of legal battles with municipalities in the Wood River Valley, Davidson said he's willing to extend an olive branch to the Hailey City Council.
"I would be willing to make the offer to the city," Davidson said. "That if they would be willing to sit down and negotiate a way to implement the spirit of the original initiatives, if they would at least make a good faith effort to do that, then I would rescind the new petitions so they wouldn't have to be voted on again."
Thus far, the City Council has shown no such inclination.
Williamson told the council Monday that the three approved initiatives are now city ordinances and he's going to research the possibility that they can be removed from the ballot because they are already law.
As in the previous election, the council decided to print the initiatives in their entirety on the ballot rather than try to summarize them.
"I'd like to think that the citizens would read it this time," said Councilwoman Martha Burke.
"After what happened last time, maybe they'll read the fine print," said Councilman Don Keirn.
The election would cost the city about $4,000, not including staff time.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
COULD TEACHERS BE DRUG TESTED?
CHEYENNE - Laramie County School District 1 does not have a policy to randomly test teachers for drugs.
Whether it could happen rests more with decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court than the school district.
Last week, federal authorities arrested a teacher and a teacher's assistant in Cheyenne on drug-related charges.
In light of that, LCSD1 will review how it supervises, hires, evaluates and monitors employees, Superintendent Ted Adams said Tuesday. "We need to review all our processes," he said.
Officials also will look at whether it would be possible to randomly test employees, he added, noting there have been barriers to doing that in the past.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in different cases that subjecting government employees to random tests violates their privacy and creates unlawful search and seizure.
John Lyttle, LCSD1 assistant superintendent of human resources, has asked lawyers for the district to review the question.
Adams said that if it's legally feasible to move forward with a drug-testing policy, the district could do so.
"The district is devastated by any kind of allegation like this," Adams said.
"I clearly, from my personal perspective, would be happy to have drug testing" of everyone in the district on a random basis, Adams said. "But there are challenges associated with doing that kind of testing," he said, referring to past court decisions.
The district "clearly needs to look at the options to protect children and to protect the institution and build our trust with parents," he added.
LCSD1 does drug and alcohol tests on employees for cause. The district can test employees if there is a suspicion of drug use.
If a person refuses to take the test for cause, it's considered a positive test. The employee is subject to discipline, including firing, Lyttle said.
Federal law requires districts to randomly test bus drivers or any employee who transports children, Lyttle added.
Coming up with a random drug-testing policy is a job beyond the scope of the superintendent or school boards, Adams said. It would take enabling legislation at the state and national levels.
But the local district can raise the question, Adams said.
Random testing would not be a solution in itself, he cautioned. The practice wouldn't catch drug dealers who aren't users.
District officials hire the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation to do background checks before the district hires someone. LCSD1 officials also check a registry to screen potential employees for child abuse.
LCSD1 Trustee Al Atkins does not favor random drug testing for employees. He said he doesn't think it is necessary.
"If we had a problem, I'd be in favor of it," he said.
But Trustee Dale Vosler supports testing everyone, from the top on down. Whether it could happen depends on what the law will allow, he added.
"I think it is something the board certainly needs to discuss with Ted ( Adams )," board Chairwoman Jan Stalcup said.
The school board needs to look at places that tried it and see how it worked, she said.
"It's something we need to look at seriously," Stalcup said. "We take the safety of our children very seriously."
Based on an Internet search, Hawaii is the first to enact a statewide mandatory drug-testing policy for school employees like teachers and administrative workers. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii plans to challenge the policy.
Linda Burt, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming, objects to random testing because it violates rights and isn't cost effective.
"We have a lot of information that says random drug testing isn't that effective," she said.
"What is really effective is good employee human resources programs," Burt said. These programs provide for education, treatment and good supervision of employees to spot problems and get help.
The city of Cheyenne, Laramie County and the state of Wyoming can require employees to do random drug tests if there is cause.
But only select groups of their employees n like those who work in safety jobs n are subject to random drug tests.
Rich Wiederspahn, director of human resources for the city of Cheyenne, said people applying for safety jobs n like police officers, firefighters and city bus drivers n must take drug tests before they are hired.
Employees in these jobs n and those with Commercial Driver's Licenses n are subject to random drug tests. Other city employees are not.
An opinion from the Wyoming attorney general in June 2007 concluded it's not reasonable to have random drug testing for public employees unless there is evidence of drug problems at work.
Emily Smith, human resources director for Laramie County, said people have to be drug tested before the county will hire them.
Only county employees who have CDL licenses in the Public Works Department are subject to random drug tests, she said.
Whether it could happen rests more with decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court than the school district.
Last week, federal authorities arrested a teacher and a teacher's assistant in Cheyenne on drug-related charges.
In light of that, LCSD1 will review how it supervises, hires, evaluates and monitors employees, Superintendent Ted Adams said Tuesday. "We need to review all our processes," he said.
Officials also will look at whether it would be possible to randomly test employees, he added, noting there have been barriers to doing that in the past.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in different cases that subjecting government employees to random tests violates their privacy and creates unlawful search and seizure.
John Lyttle, LCSD1 assistant superintendent of human resources, has asked lawyers for the district to review the question.
Adams said that if it's legally feasible to move forward with a drug-testing policy, the district could do so.
"The district is devastated by any kind of allegation like this," Adams said.
"I clearly, from my personal perspective, would be happy to have drug testing" of everyone in the district on a random basis, Adams said. "But there are challenges associated with doing that kind of testing," he said, referring to past court decisions.
The district "clearly needs to look at the options to protect children and to protect the institution and build our trust with parents," he added.
LCSD1 does drug and alcohol tests on employees for cause. The district can test employees if there is a suspicion of drug use.
If a person refuses to take the test for cause, it's considered a positive test. The employee is subject to discipline, including firing, Lyttle said.
Federal law requires districts to randomly test bus drivers or any employee who transports children, Lyttle added.
Coming up with a random drug-testing policy is a job beyond the scope of the superintendent or school boards, Adams said. It would take enabling legislation at the state and national levels.
But the local district can raise the question, Adams said.
Random testing would not be a solution in itself, he cautioned. The practice wouldn't catch drug dealers who aren't users.
District officials hire the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation to do background checks before the district hires someone. LCSD1 officials also check a registry to screen potential employees for child abuse.
LCSD1 Trustee Al Atkins does not favor random drug testing for employees. He said he doesn't think it is necessary.
"If we had a problem, I'd be in favor of it," he said.
But Trustee Dale Vosler supports testing everyone, from the top on down. Whether it could happen depends on what the law will allow, he added.
"I think it is something the board certainly needs to discuss with Ted ( Adams )," board Chairwoman Jan Stalcup said.
The school board needs to look at places that tried it and see how it worked, she said.
"It's something we need to look at seriously," Stalcup said. "We take the safety of our children very seriously."
Based on an Internet search, Hawaii is the first to enact a statewide mandatory drug-testing policy for school employees like teachers and administrative workers. The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii plans to challenge the policy.
Linda Burt, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Wyoming, objects to random testing because it violates rights and isn't cost effective.
"We have a lot of information that says random drug testing isn't that effective," she said.
"What is really effective is good employee human resources programs," Burt said. These programs provide for education, treatment and good supervision of employees to spot problems and get help.
The city of Cheyenne, Laramie County and the state of Wyoming can require employees to do random drug tests if there is cause.
But only select groups of their employees n like those who work in safety jobs n are subject to random drug tests.
Rich Wiederspahn, director of human resources for the city of Cheyenne, said people applying for safety jobs n like police officers, firefighters and city bus drivers n must take drug tests before they are hired.
Employees in these jobs n and those with Commercial Driver's Licenses n are subject to random drug tests. Other city employees are not.
An opinion from the Wyoming attorney general in June 2007 concluded it's not reasonable to have random drug testing for public employees unless there is evidence of drug problems at work.
Emily Smith, human resources director for Laramie County, said people have to be drug tested before the county will hire them.
Only county employees who have CDL licenses in the Public Works Department are subject to random drug tests, she said.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
BURN VICTIM ACQUITTED OF DRUG ALLEGATIONS
Judge Says Crown Did Not Prove Man Started Fire While Cooking Drugs On Stove
This much is known:
* James Robin Peterson was in the house in Dieppe when it caught fire on June 29, 2004.
* He was close enough to the flames that his face and upper body were badly burned.
* The fire started because someone was cooking marijuana oil on the stove and the volatile mix of cannabis and fuel burst into flames.
These are the unknowns:
* Did Peterson live at the house or was he merely a visitor?
* Did he have anything to do with the drugs, or did they belong to one of the several other people who occupied the rental home?
* Was he cooking the marijuana oil when it burst into flames, practically destroying the old house, or was he simply in the line of fire?
These facts were weighed during Peterson's recent trial on charges of drug possession and production. Judge Anne Dugas-Horsman heard the case and yesterday she ruled there was not enough evidence to convict the defendant.
She made her decision based on the fact the Crown presented little evidence on who actually lived in the house. There was nothing to link the residence to Peterson and there was at least one other individual in the home at the time of the fire.
"Clearly a serious fire took place in that residence as evidenced by the photographs entered into evidence," said the judge. "However, at the end of the day, I cannot conclude to possession of drugs, nor can I conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the only explanation to explain the burns of Peterson is that he was the one who was directly involved in the production of cannabis resin and that there was no other rational explanation for those burns.
"While the evidence would suggest that Peterson was no stranger to what occurred at that residence in June of 2004, I find I cannot convict on such scanty evidence."
The fire broke out shortly after 6:30 p.m. in the house on Orleans Street, which is just south of Veterans Highway, in Dieppe. Firefighters arrived and found a man wandering the street in boxer shorts, with bad burns on his face, neck, arms and upper body.
A second person, Michael Gallant, escaped the home by jumping out a second storey window, onto the top of the front porch and then down to the ground. He told police someone else in the home had banged on his bedroom door to alert him to the fire.
Firefighters were told the occupants had been cooking French fries and a grease fire erupted.
As Fire Chief Charles LeBlanc walked through the residence, he found two ignition points, only one of which was in the kitchen. Also, no evidence of grease was found, only a pot on the stove that looked like it contained water.
The bathroom area was badly damaged and a bowl was found face down on the bathroom floor, near another point of ignition.
LeBlanc returned the next day with Codiac RCMP investigator Roland Cormier and they found two large jugs of a "green plant substance" that appeared to be marijuana-related. The scene was secured and a search warrant was obtained.
During the trial, the court heard expert testimony that the substance in the containers was a combination of marijuana and fuel. Both substances were also found in the bathroom.
The court heard that when the marijuana and fuel mixture is heated, the chemical reaction transforms it into cannabis resin. But it's also highly volatile and can explode if heat is applied directly.
Placing it in a bowl and then placing the bowl in a boiling pot of water, as was found at the residence, is a technique used for producing this drug.
The Crown's theory was that Peterson was cooking the mixture and when it caught fire, he tried to dispose of it in the bathroom and was burned, dropping the bowl. This would explain his burns.
But defence lawyer Lisanne Maurice contended the Crown failed to prove he was in possession or control of the marijuana. She also argued the fact he was burned was not enough to convict him of producing the drugs.
As Dugas-Horsman said while delivering her verdict yesterday, "The fact he is burned does no more than place him inside the residence and does not amount to control over the drug inside the containers found at that location."
This much is known:
* James Robin Peterson was in the house in Dieppe when it caught fire on June 29, 2004.
* He was close enough to the flames that his face and upper body were badly burned.
* The fire started because someone was cooking marijuana oil on the stove and the volatile mix of cannabis and fuel burst into flames.
These are the unknowns:
* Did Peterson live at the house or was he merely a visitor?
* Did he have anything to do with the drugs, or did they belong to one of the several other people who occupied the rental home?
* Was he cooking the marijuana oil when it burst into flames, practically destroying the old house, or was he simply in the line of fire?
These facts were weighed during Peterson's recent trial on charges of drug possession and production. Judge Anne Dugas-Horsman heard the case and yesterday she ruled there was not enough evidence to convict the defendant.
She made her decision based on the fact the Crown presented little evidence on who actually lived in the house. There was nothing to link the residence to Peterson and there was at least one other individual in the home at the time of the fire.
"Clearly a serious fire took place in that residence as evidenced by the photographs entered into evidence," said the judge. "However, at the end of the day, I cannot conclude to possession of drugs, nor can I conclude beyond a reasonable doubt that the only explanation to explain the burns of Peterson is that he was the one who was directly involved in the production of cannabis resin and that there was no other rational explanation for those burns.
"While the evidence would suggest that Peterson was no stranger to what occurred at that residence in June of 2004, I find I cannot convict on such scanty evidence."
The fire broke out shortly after 6:30 p.m. in the house on Orleans Street, which is just south of Veterans Highway, in Dieppe. Firefighters arrived and found a man wandering the street in boxer shorts, with bad burns on his face, neck, arms and upper body.
A second person, Michael Gallant, escaped the home by jumping out a second storey window, onto the top of the front porch and then down to the ground. He told police someone else in the home had banged on his bedroom door to alert him to the fire.
Firefighters were told the occupants had been cooking French fries and a grease fire erupted.
As Fire Chief Charles LeBlanc walked through the residence, he found two ignition points, only one of which was in the kitchen. Also, no evidence of grease was found, only a pot on the stove that looked like it contained water.
The bathroom area was badly damaged and a bowl was found face down on the bathroom floor, near another point of ignition.
LeBlanc returned the next day with Codiac RCMP investigator Roland Cormier and they found two large jugs of a "green plant substance" that appeared to be marijuana-related. The scene was secured and a search warrant was obtained.
During the trial, the court heard expert testimony that the substance in the containers was a combination of marijuana and fuel. Both substances were also found in the bathroom.
The court heard that when the marijuana and fuel mixture is heated, the chemical reaction transforms it into cannabis resin. But it's also highly volatile and can explode if heat is applied directly.
Placing it in a bowl and then placing the bowl in a boiling pot of water, as was found at the residence, is a technique used for producing this drug.
The Crown's theory was that Peterson was cooking the mixture and when it caught fire, he tried to dispose of it in the bathroom and was burned, dropping the bowl. This would explain his burns.
But defence lawyer Lisanne Maurice contended the Crown failed to prove he was in possession or control of the marijuana. She also argued the fact he was burned was not enough to convict him of producing the drugs.
As Dugas-Horsman said while delivering her verdict yesterday, "The fact he is burned does no more than place him inside the residence and does not amount to control over the drug inside the containers found at that location."
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
DRUG LAWS ROOTED IN CLASS CONTROL
We tend to take the law for granted, but sometimes its origins deserve a little thought.
For example, it's something of a puzzle why certain narcotics were seen as dangerous and criminalized in the early 20th century when before 1908, there were few restrictions placed on the sale or consumption of narcotics.
For example, tonics, elixirs and cough syrups containing opium were widely available. As well, cocaine was used as an ingredient in hair dressing, wine, children's toothache drops and an obscure soft drink that shall remain nameless.
Did society suddenly discover how dangerous these ingredients were?
A lot of credit for the opium legislation of 1908 is given to a young deputy minister of labour, MacKenzie King, who travelled to Vancouver to investigate the anti-Asiatic riots of September 1907.
Agitators from Washington had organized a parade against Asians and burned the Lieutenant-Governor in effigy. Some say the tension behind the 1907 race riots was not directed against all Chinese but mostly against Asian labourers because of the perception they were taking jobs away from white Canadians.
The rioters marched to Chinatown and the Japanese quarter where they vandalized stores and assaulted people. Shanghai Alley, one of the streets most severely damaged by rioting, was home to an opium factory, legal in 1907, but not for long.
The eventual result of King's visit was the Opium Act or 1908.
One theory as to why all this happened is that the anti-drug campaign was motivated by a highly racialized drug panic. Chinese-Canadians were said to be the victims of discrimination and to have been disproportionately targeted by enforcement officials. People were resisting the tide of immigration everywhere, and the consequent threat to "Canadian" values.
A more benevolent theory is that the debate about drug addiction was initiated by medical reformers in Victorian Canada.The emergence of anti-narcotic legislation in the early 20th century was not simply thinly-veiled anti-Chinese sentiment. Rather, the motive behind the 1908 Opium Act and its unanimous acceptance by Parliament was initiated by physicians' in their self-prescribed role as protectors of national health.
Perhaps this is why the act was revised several times to include various other drugs. There was a lot of concern over cocaine, for example in Montreal in 1910, where druggists dispensing cocaine were called murderers.
And in 1923 the act was changed to also include marijuana, the users of which were called drug fiends.
However, research has looked at the role of opium legislation in the context of the government's need to deal with an increasingly difficult labour situation.
Chinese labour constituted both real and symbolic threats within the British Columbia working class, which was itself being de-skilled and unionized.
Relations between management and labour were approaching a crisis situation by the turn of the century, and the government needed a way to channel class conflict and deflect blame.
The genius of having King deal with the 1907 Anti-Asiatic Exclusion League riot was that it pinned responsibility on foreign agitators. It was the Anti-Asiatic Exclusion League that was stirring things up.
Second, the problems of the labour market with its too few jobs, was transformed into a race problem. It was the Chinese who were taking jobs away.
Third, by blaming the Chinese for the opium problem, attention was distracted from the whites who sold, distributed and used the drug.
The opium laws were a momentous change in criminal law in Canada. The result was the transformation of private drug use into a public problem. The responsibility was put on the heads of Mongolians, in King's terms.
This turned people away from socialism as a solution to labour problems. It also turned them away from seeing the labour crisis as a class issue rather than an ethnic issue.
In the process the role of the state was preserved as legitimate, the Chinese were vilified as a threat and drugs were demonized as the problem.
Did the state intend the crisis to further its legitimation? Probably not.
Did it benefit? Certainly.
Chris McCormick teaches criminology at St. Thomas University. His column on crime and criminal justice appears every second Thursday.
For example, it's something of a puzzle why certain narcotics were seen as dangerous and criminalized in the early 20th century when before 1908, there were few restrictions placed on the sale or consumption of narcotics.
For example, tonics, elixirs and cough syrups containing opium were widely available. As well, cocaine was used as an ingredient in hair dressing, wine, children's toothache drops and an obscure soft drink that shall remain nameless.
Did society suddenly discover how dangerous these ingredients were?
A lot of credit for the opium legislation of 1908 is given to a young deputy minister of labour, MacKenzie King, who travelled to Vancouver to investigate the anti-Asiatic riots of September 1907.
Agitators from Washington had organized a parade against Asians and burned the Lieutenant-Governor in effigy. Some say the tension behind the 1907 race riots was not directed against all Chinese but mostly against Asian labourers because of the perception they were taking jobs away from white Canadians.
The rioters marched to Chinatown and the Japanese quarter where they vandalized stores and assaulted people. Shanghai Alley, one of the streets most severely damaged by rioting, was home to an opium factory, legal in 1907, but not for long.
The eventual result of King's visit was the Opium Act or 1908.
One theory as to why all this happened is that the anti-drug campaign was motivated by a highly racialized drug panic. Chinese-Canadians were said to be the victims of discrimination and to have been disproportionately targeted by enforcement officials. People were resisting the tide of immigration everywhere, and the consequent threat to "Canadian" values.
A more benevolent theory is that the debate about drug addiction was initiated by medical reformers in Victorian Canada.The emergence of anti-narcotic legislation in the early 20th century was not simply thinly-veiled anti-Chinese sentiment. Rather, the motive behind the 1908 Opium Act and its unanimous acceptance by Parliament was initiated by physicians' in their self-prescribed role as protectors of national health.
Perhaps this is why the act was revised several times to include various other drugs. There was a lot of concern over cocaine, for example in Montreal in 1910, where druggists dispensing cocaine were called murderers.
And in 1923 the act was changed to also include marijuana, the users of which were called drug fiends.
However, research has looked at the role of opium legislation in the context of the government's need to deal with an increasingly difficult labour situation.
Chinese labour constituted both real and symbolic threats within the British Columbia working class, which was itself being de-skilled and unionized.
Relations between management and labour were approaching a crisis situation by the turn of the century, and the government needed a way to channel class conflict and deflect blame.
The genius of having King deal with the 1907 Anti-Asiatic Exclusion League riot was that it pinned responsibility on foreign agitators. It was the Anti-Asiatic Exclusion League that was stirring things up.
Second, the problems of the labour market with its too few jobs, was transformed into a race problem. It was the Chinese who were taking jobs away.
Third, by blaming the Chinese for the opium problem, attention was distracted from the whites who sold, distributed and used the drug.
The opium laws were a momentous change in criminal law in Canada. The result was the transformation of private drug use into a public problem. The responsibility was put on the heads of Mongolians, in King's terms.
This turned people away from socialism as a solution to labour problems. It also turned them away from seeing the labour crisis as a class issue rather than an ethnic issue.
In the process the role of the state was preserved as legitimate, the Chinese were vilified as a threat and drugs were demonized as the problem.
Did the state intend the crisis to further its legitimation? Probably not.
Did it benefit? Certainly.
Chris McCormick teaches criminology at St. Thomas University. His column on crime and criminal justice appears every second Thursday.
Monday, February 11, 2008
TEXAS' PEYOTE HUNTERS STRUGGLE TO FIND A VANISHING, HOLY CROP
Harvesting Peyote Is Legal for Only Three People, and All of Them Live in Texas
Mauro Morales picks his way through mesquite trees and prickly pear cacti. The 65-year-old cautiously steps around a thicket of tasajillo, or rattail cactus, just down the road from his small ranch near Rio Grande City. Tasajillo thorns stick you like a fish hook, he says. Then there's the cola seca--the rattlesnake--another job hazard.
"We're far enough from a hospital that you probably wouldn't make it if you got bit," he says in a quiet voice, as though a snake might take his words as an invitation to strike.
Morales has been wandering through the chaparral for half an hour, staring at the ground. He combs over small rocks with a stick. Finally, he spots a greenish knob, sprouting out of the ground under the tasajillo thicket.
"There's some medicine, right there," he says. It's a lone peyote button, about an inch in diameter, way too small to harvest. It'll be another five years before this peyote is mature. As he navigates the hostile flora, he points to three more small peyote plants, all of them too young to cut.
"I used to collect as much in a week as I now do in a month," he says. "I don't know what's going to happen to the medicine."
Morales almost never utters the word "peyote." For him, the small green-gray cactus is a sacrament with miraculous healing powers, hence his word for it: medicine.
What makes peyote different from just about any other cactus in the world is that it naturally produces mescaline, a psychedelic alkaloid that can induce hallucinations lasting for days. It was mescaline that opened what Aldous Huxley called "the doors of perception" to "the divine source of all existence."
Before LSD, before Ecstasy, there was peyote.
Peyote and mescaline are both classified by the federal government as Schedule I Controlled Substances. This puts them in the same legal category as crack and heroin, drugs that, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, have "a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision."
Much recent scientific research contradicts the DEA's verdict on peyote. There is little evidence of any adverse long-term effects on physical health and virtually no evidence that it is addictive.
Still, harvesting and selling peyote is illegal for all but three people in the entire country. And those three people happen to be located in Texas, operating in a swath of South Texas between Rio Grande City and Laredo.
These people--Morales is one of them--are called peyoteros, people who make their living selling peyote buttons to the approximately 250,000 Indian members of the Native American Church. Only 20 years ago, there were dozens of peyoteros in small towns along the border. Now, two of the three still working are in their 60s. Meanwhile, membership in the Native American Church is growing, and demand for peyote is outstripping the limited supply.
For Native American Church members, this 70-mile stretch of land used to be known as the "peyote gardens"--the only place on U.S. soil where the cactus grows in its natural habitat.
"I talk to the medicine every day," Morales says. "I pray to it. I know it works, and I want to help the Natives in any way I can."
In his 1976 doctoral dissertation, "Man, Plant and Religion: Peyote Trade on the Mustang Plains of Texas," the geographer George Morgan speculated that Hispanic traders first bought peyote from a Mexican tribe called the Huichol. To this day, the Huichol harvest the cactus during their annual 250-mile pilgrimage from their homeland in the Sierra Madre to a sacred mountain in central Mexico. The pilgrimage takes them four weeks by foot and along the way, in the desolate Chihuahuan desert, they eat peyote, hunt deer and train a new generation to become shamans.
The Huichol, unlike most tribes, were never quite conquered by the Spaniards. They resisted Christianity and continue to practice an animist religion based on mystical beliefs about peyote, deer and corn. Morgan discovered that Mexicans brought peyote across the border and started trading it with marauding Indian tribes from Oklahoma in the late 19th century. These tribes then passed on the cactus to other Indians to the north and west. Soon, Indians from California were arriving in South Texas in search of the fabled peyote gardens.
Anglo authorities didn't look kindly upon the Hispanic-dominated peyote trade. In 1909, a U.S. special officer named William "Pussyfoot" Johnson bought up all the peyote in South Texas and burned it. According to Morgan, the operation worked for almost a year, until Johnson ran out of money. The Bureau of Indian Affairs convinced the post office to ban peyote sent by mail in 1917, but the ban had little effect since most Indians preferred to travel to the peyote gardens themselves. The post office lifted the ban a few years later.
After these early conflicts, Anglos mostly shrugged their shoulders and left peyoteros to their business, which was starting to flourish. Indians from Oklahoma started arriving on the Texas-Mexican railway with empty burlap sacks, which they would fill with thousands of buttons of dried peyote. In some places--such as the now-deserted town of Los Ojuelos--the peyote trade was the basis of the entire economy.
The peyoteros had a natural monopoly on their crop. Even though it's illegal to cultivate, there have been sporadic attempts to transplant the cactus to Oklahoma and New Mexico, all to no avail. In the United States, peyote will only grow in the hot, dry climate of South Texas.
The peyoteros remember a time a generation ago when Indians camped out and harvested their own peyote. "Back then, it was what we call open range," says Salvador Johnson, another peyotero. "You could harvest what you needed. At that time, ranchers were poorer than we were. They couldn't even afford feed for the cattle. Now those same ranchers are multimillionaires from oil and gas royalties."
Like many peyoteros, Johnson was a little mystified when peyote suddenly became trendy in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. It was during this time that the drug caught on among hippies and New Age folk, largely through the works of Carlos Castaneda, an anthropologist turned best-selling author.
Castaneda wrote a series of books about a shaman named Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian who took the anthropologist under his wing. Don Juan believed that "mescalito"--a code word for peyote--was a vehicle for self-knowledge. Through mescalito, Don Juan said, one could learn how to fly and see beings in liquid colors. Under Don Juan's tutelage, the rational academic learned how to become a sorcerer and warrior.
Castaneda's books were a phenomenon. The author, however, turned out to be a fraud. He was denounced by fellow anthropologists for trying to pass off a fictional character as an authentic source. In a cover story in Time in 1973, the magazine presented evidence that the author had lied about his background, including his nationality. None of this, however, stopped the influx of peyote-seekers in the one place in the nation where the plant grew wild.
Poachers started arriving, many of them Anglo hippies from the West Coast. One of those poachers was Frank Collum ( not his real name ), a hippie from Connecticut who had heard about the peyote gardens through some Indian friends in New Mexico. When he first started going to South Texas in the early 1970s, he would hop a fence and camp out for a week.
Now, he doesn't think it's worth the risk of getting caught for trespassing. Collum still goes down to South Texas, but his Indian wife buys dried peyote from Salvador Johnson. ( In addition to belonging to the Native American Church, peyote buyers have to prove they are at least one-quarter related to a federally recognized Indian tribe. ) Collum raised his son in the Church, going to meetings that would include all-night ceremonies in a teepee. Those days are gone.
"Peyote is in jeopardy," he says. "You hear stories about it coming from Mexico now. The ranchers in Texas have put up tall fences you can't jump. Then, there are all the wetbacks and Border Patrol. There's just too much heat.
"A lot of the Natives are real sensitive about the situation," Collum says. "The supply will not meet the demand unless you can convince the ranchers to cooperate. And the ranchers, they don't give a fuck about peyote."
Ranchers used to be friendly with the peyoteros, who paid them a small lease for access to their land. In recent years, as land prices have skyrocketed and Hispanic immigration has boomed, Anglo ranchers have come to view the peyoteros as a nuisance. According to Morales, many ranchers would rather plow their fields to plant grass for cattle feed than protect their native plants.
Salvador Johnson used to be a full-time peyotero, but now it's a part-time job. Rather than fight the ranchers, he's started helping them organize hunting trips. He also works as a general contractor around his hometown of Mirando City, a hamlet about half an hour east of Laredo.
"The big money is in deer hunting," says Johnson.
Mauro Morales remembers when it was possible to find massive clumps of peyote growing wild. "There was medicine just a couple miles from my home," he says. He grew up on the same street where he still lives in a ramshackle, two-story pink house with a dirt driveway. As a young man, he worked in the fields harvesting peyote for extra money. The matriarch of the peyote trade, a woman named Amada Cardenas, first showed him peyote in 1950.
"Natives call the big ones 'chief,'" he says. "And when they find a chief, they get down and pray to it. Miss Cardenas showed me my first chief."
Morales says that it's getting harder and harder to find chiefs. The only way to ensure the supply, he says, is greenhouse cultivation, something he's discussed with botanists from around the world, including a group from Germany that visited him in January.
But Johnson, the only remaining peyotero in the once-thriving area east of Laredo known as the Mirando Valley, doesn't believe cultivation will solve the peyoteros' problems.
"Even if we buy the land, we don't have control of peyote because God put it here," he says. "We don't know how it grows, how it multiplies. God will give us what we need, and that's it. He's the one who makes the rain. He's the one who makes the peyote."
Johnson says that the tipping point for the peyoteros was the mid-1970s. As ranchers struck oil and gas, seemingly worthless South Texas scrubland became expensive. Many peyoteros found more lucrative work in the oil fields. Others were getting old and retiring. Stringent requirements for a peyote license, which include a letter of recommendation from the local sheriff, stopped a lot of young people from becoming peyoteros.
Johnson had returned from the Vietnam War and wasn't sure he wanted to continue the family tradition. He quit selling for a while in 1976. "We were selling peyote and making a profit, but I had to make sure I was doing the right thing for my family," Johnson says. "In the late 1970s, there were so many drugs on the market we had never seen before--angel dust, PCP, reds, yellows, blues. Then, the DEA classified peyote as a Schedule I substance. There were a lot of landowners who started to think peyote was a dangerous drug."
Johnson, a 60-year-old with a white mustache who looks like a well-tanned Wilford Brimley, wasn't sure he wanted to be associated with a drug most people thought was harmful and addictive.
"I said to myself that for me to continue doing what I'm doing, I need to understand this drug," he said. "I needed to have an understanding with my family that I was doing the right thing. I wanted to understand its effects on health."
So Johnson went to visit an Indian he'd known his entire life named Leslie Full Bull. For a few months, Johnson lived on a reservation in South Dakota and got to see for himself the long-term impact of peyote. He came away believing that the plant was a positive thing for the community.
"I'm really involved with the Native American Church," he says. "I'm so involved with it that I believe that I'm one of the smartest people in the world about peyote. I've been to Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota...Name a state, name a tribe of Indians that use peyote, I've been there."
The real test, though, was a firsthand experience of peyote in a Native American ceremony--a meeting.
"I got so involved in these meetings that the only way for me to understand what this peyote does is to take it."
According to Jody Patterson, supervisor of controlled substances registration with the Texas Department of Public Safety, peyoteros have to follow the same rules regarding peyote as everyone else. If they aren't one-quarter Indian and a member of the Native American Church, it's illegal no matter if it was taken as part of a religious ceremony.
Johnson, who says he's "probably" part Indian--"most Mexicans are"--has been taking peyote for "many, many years" and sees the legal niceties somewhat differently. He says he takes peyote only after it has been blessed by a high priest. He expects that the Indians he sells to will do the same.
"I can only hope that you're using it the right way," Johnson says. "Now, if I know you're using it the wrong way, I can report you and you'll be arrested."
Martin Terry is a Harvard-trained botanist at Sul Ross State University in Alpine who may be the world's leading authority on peyote. He runs a small nonprofit called the Cactus Conservation Institute, which is dedicated to saving peyote from extinction.
"I've become increasingly passionate about the conservation of cacti in the past 10 years," he wrote in a recent e-mail. "I've personally witnessed species becoming scarce in places where I had previously found them to be abundant."
Terry is afraid that the natural habitat for peyote in South Texas is being ruined by ranchers and poachers. "The problem is defined by access to land," he says. "The peyoteros are Hispanic. They work through family connections. More and more of the land is being bought up by Anglo owners who don't derive any benefit from the peyoteros. They don't give a damn about the peyoteros."
For the first time in history, Terry says, there's active patrolling of ranch grounds. Ranchers have cut back brush to allow trucks to ride along their fence lines. Ranchers want to protect against peyoteros getting in and deer getting out.
The ranchers' hands-off policy represents a dilemma for Terry. On one hand, protection against peyoteros will conserve the cactus. On the other, it prevents Indians from getting access to their sacred plant.
"From the point of view of the plant, the only threat is overharvesting," he says. "The fences and personnel that protect ranch lands from would-be harvesters are the very opposite of a threat, as the protected populations of peyote inside those fences are the only healthy ones in South Texas."
Still, Terry is sensitive to the peyoteros and their way of life. He considers Mauro Morales a personal friend. He wants to make sure that Indians have access to their cactus, but that's getting harder and harder.
"Everyone I talk to, they say peyote is getting more expensive," Terry says. "The buttons are getting smaller. It's now about 30 to 35 cents a button. Ten years ago it was a third of that."
As a botanist, Terry thinks he's found a solution--buying up land to protect the plant. But the price of land has skyrocketed.
"The only obstacle is the cost of buying a minimum of 2,000 acres of South Texas real estate," he says. "That means we're talking about something on the order of $2 million. For a relatively new 501©3 like the Cactus Conservation Institute, that's a fund-raising project of enormous magnitude."
It's also a challenge raising money to save a plant that the federal government considers a dangerous, addictive drug. But the biggest obstacle for conservation might be the Indians themselves. Many Indians are opposed to cultivating peyote in greenhouses. Their opposition stems from a mystical belief in the cactus as divinely planted.
Alden Naranjo, a Ute who's been traveling to the peyote gardens from Colorado since the 1960s, isn't too worked up about the disappearance of his sacrament.
"Peyote predates Christianity by thousands of years," he says. "Native Americans have their spirituality based in this sacrament. It came north to us from Mexico. I don't think it will disappear. We've used it for thousands of years, and it's still here."
Naranjo, like Salvador Johnson, doesn't want to see peyote grown in greenhouses. He would rather see it imported from Mexico, where 90 percent of the continent's supply grows. For Native Americans like Naranjo, the current crisis in the peyote supply is just the latest story in a history of injustices.
"It's just the white man's greed," he says. "The white man wants more land, and that discourages peyoteros. It's getting harder for us, with stricter trespass laws."
It wasn't always like that in Texas, he says. "A lot of that land was open. Before the oil speculators, land was cheap. Then the white man with his European concept of ownership came in. There's just too many white men."
There are, in fact, white members of the Native American Church. Frank Collum is one, and he's been welcomed into meetings by Indians. It took him a while to be accepted, but now that he's married to an Indian and a veteran of peyote meetings, he feels like he's just as much a part of the church as anyone. In the eyes of the law, however, it is illegal for Collum--or any non-Indian--to buy or consume peyote.
According to James Botsford, an attorney who has been defending peyote use by Indians for decades, there's a clear distinction between Indian and non-Indian peyote users. The law, he says, protects Native American Church members who can prove they have one grandparent from a federally recognized tribe.
There have been recent challenges to the law on First Amendment grounds. One case made it to the Utah Supreme Court, but the ban on peyote use by non-Indians remains.
"I'm comfortable with the law as it stands," Botsford says. "There's not enough peyote around to allow a broader interpretation of the law. Indian people understand peyote to be the flesh of God, something that the creator put here to help them pray."
A year ago, Mauro Morales started losing weight. He always looked forward to February when busloads of Indians descended on South Texas for meetings in the peyote gardens. Suddenly, though, he didn't have the energy to go hunting for medicine with his sons. Morales is a small man who has always weighed about 125 pounds.
"I was all skin and bones," he says. "I was down to about 97 pounds."
The doctors couldn't give Morales a clear diagnosis. They told him he needed to rest, so he spent most of his time on the couch. When the Indians arrived in February, they were shocked to learn that he could barely walk.
"The Indians kept saying, 'We need you, we need you,'" Morales says.
One Indian from South Dakota called Morales and told him he would come down to his place the next day. The man had been visiting Morales for decades, and like many Indians, he had formed a friendship with the peyotero. The Indian brought 20 people to pray for Morales in his little peyote garden behind his house. In the garden, Morales has clumps of old peyote--chiefs--as well as ultrarare specimens of the star cactus, a super-potent, highly endangered plant in the same family as peyote.
Morales' Indian friends often set up their teepees on his ranch about half an hour outside town to conduct their ceremonies. This time, though, the 20 Indians put the teepee behind Morales' house. It's not the most tranquil spot for a camp-out. The neighborhood is abuzz with ranchera music, crowing roosters and belching pickups. But the Indians wanted Morales to participate in the meeting, which goes from dusk to dawn with constant drumming, singing, praying and--of course--peyote eating.
"I was so sick," Morales says. "I didn't think I could make it in the teepee--you've got to be in there all night long. I got up at 5 a.m. to go out. I didn't want to go back in. It's so hot in there, and I'm sweating."
Still, he went back in. Morales, who had spent the majority of his life working around peyote, had never used it. Now, with his Indian friends praying over him, he took the medicine.
"I've only taken it when I've been real sick," he says. Days later, Morales started gaining weight. He got off the couch and was able to walk without pain. He's not sure how it worked, but he's convinced that the medicine--along with the Indians' prayers--healed him. Now, when they come back to Morales' place, he cuts them a deal, selling them bags of peyote at $200 a piece, which amounts to a significant discount from his regular price of $350.
"You've got to have faith in the medicine," he says. "Without faith, it won't work."
Morales says he's seen the medicine work for others as well. The most miraculous case he's seen happened when his brother was dying in the hospital. A doctor called Morales to tell him the brother had two days left. Morales started calling his family. At the same time, a group of Indians was visiting him to stock up on peyote before heading back to Arizona.
"One of them told me to write my brother's name on a piece of paper," he said. Morales wrote the name--Ajeo--and the Indians left. He didn't ask the Indians' names because he didn't believe it would work. "They told me not to worry because my brother wasn't going to die."
The family gathered at the hospital, thinking that it would only be a matter of hours. Days passed, and Ajeo held on. He didn't die for another six months. Weeks after the Indians left, one of them called Morales.
"He asked how my brother was doing," he says. "I said that he was still alive. He said it was the medicine. They were praying for him."
Other terminally ill people have turned up at Morales' door, looking for medicine. He would like to be able to help them, but if he deals to the wrong people, Morales' license to sell peyote could be revoked.
"One woman drove here from San Antonio," he says. "She had been taking chemo, and it wasn't working. Nothing had really worked for her, and someone had mentioned the medicine. But she didn't have the papers, so I had to turn her away.
"If you don't have papers, I can't sell to you," he says. Then, with a little smile, he adds, "but I can tell you where you might find it."
As Morales explains the magical power of the medicine, he inspects his supply. So far, business has been slow for the winter. It was still deer season in early January and Morales couldn't harvest much peyote if he wanted to. He sold about 5,000 buttons for December, which means that he netted around $1,750. Subtract wages for his handful of part-time workers, and it becomes clear that Morales isn't making much money, even though the price of peyote has more than doubled in the past 10 years.
He keeps thousands of buttons ready to sell. Stored in large wooden trays behind his house, some of them are covered by tarps and others by a makeshift roof. There's little security to protect his supply, but he says he's never had a problem with theft.
Morales bends down to demonstrate his technique for cutting the plant above the root so that it will grow back. He puts a button on a table and cuts a slice open. He offers it to me to smell. He gives me a little nod as if to indicate that I should try it. Without asking permission, I take a bite. Morales smiles. It tastes like a dirty, raw potato. The little button seems to suck all the moisture right out of my mouth. Suddenly, it starts tasting spicy, like a raw jalapeno. The feeling is intolerable, and I spit it out.
"Maybe you just don't have the faith," he says, winking at me.
Humberto Fernandez--known universally as Don Humberto in the village of Real de Catorce, Mexico--eats peyote for breakfast. One button--it's just enough to get him going for the day.
Don Humberto was a young Mexican hippie bumming around California in the 1970s when he heard about peyote growing wild near a ghost town in the mountains of central Mexico. As it turned out, the ghost town--Real de Catorce--was close to his hometown in the state of San Luis Potosi.
"I was hanging out in the esoteric sections of bookstores in California and reading about the Huichol Indians and peyote," he says. "I said, 'Wow, that's where I'm from.' I didn't know anything about it growing up."
On a whim, Don Humberto moved to the town and started renovating a colonial building a few blocks from the cathedral. He turned it into a boutique hotel that catered to Europeans who had heard about peyote. About 10 years ago, primarily through word of mouth, peyote tourism in the town boomed.
Before he knew it, Don Humberto was hosting Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, who came to town to film The Mexican. He points to a corner of his restaurant where Pitt ate breakfast every morning for two months. Don Humberto, with his aquiline nose and stringy black-and-gray beard, looks like a Hollywood character actor--the classic ethnic bad guy. His involvement with The Mexican led to a bit part in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but his heart is still in Real de Catorce, where he's the most recognizable face in town.
"I came here as a dropout," he says. "There was nothing in town when I arrived. There was one lady on the corner who sold rice, beans and eggs. That was it. People asked me why I was coming here, but I had a dream, a vision."
About 90 percent of the town's economy revolves around tourism. There isn't much to see in the town--an old church, some crumbling colonial architecture and abandoned silver mines. The sacred mountain of the Huichol, Wirikuta, is just an hour's horseback ride away.
While most of the locals embrace the new peyote tourism, it also attracts some unsavory characters. On street corners, young men harass foreigners for a "ride in the desert." For about $70, they'll take tourists out to the peyote gardens below the mountains. It's technically illegal, but no one seems to care much. As Don Humberto says, peyote tourists are the core of the town's livelihood.
He's hoping that Indians longing for the lost peyote gardens of South Texas will work their way to his little village on a mountaintop. He's already seen a few relocate to Real. An Indian from San Antonio bought a house and lives there part-time. Then Don Humberto and his Swiss wife, Cornelia, met a group of Indians near the Four Corners who promised to come.
"They said they had a vision that was leading them down here," says Cornelia, who was attracted to Real 20 years ago, in part because of peyote. "But peyote's not for everyone," she adds.
Cornelia and Don Humberto see peyote tourism as both a blessing and a curse. When tourists first started arriving in big numbers, local police preyed on them. "Police used to harass foreign tourists," Cornelia says. "They'd take watches and cameras as bribes. Now, they leave everyone alone."
She says that there's an unspoken agreement that police will never go into the desert looking for peyote seekers. "But," she says, "if you take it out and get caught with it, you could go to prison."
The Mexican government also has ambivalent feelings about the foreign influx. It has designated the area around Real de Catorce as a protected natural and cultural reserve. Although the government wants to promote tourism to the region, it also passes out fliers warning peyote seekers that the collection and trafficking of the cactus can be punished with up to 25 years in prison.
On the other hand, there's a long history of peyote's use as a folk medicine in northern Mexico. Mexicans have been using peyote as a cure-all for rheumatism, arthritis and other ailments for centuries. They drink it in teas or rub it directly on the skin.
Martin Terry says that even here in San Luis Potosi--the peyote heartland--the cactus is endangered. He says that the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM )--the biggest and most prestigious university in Mexico--keeps GPS data on clusters of peyote plants around the sacred area of the Huichol. Last summer, someone ripped huge roots from the area. They squeezed the mescaline out of the cactus and left the roots to die. He thinks it may be a drug cartel.
"Only six years ago, it was a place of great abundance," he says. When he went back this summer, "there were just a few plants left. Those that were of no value were left to die."
Frank Collum, the Anglo peyote eater and sometime poacher, says that Native Americans should back off the Mexican peyote gardens. "If it keeps going like it is," he says, "there'll be a war with the Huichol. They eat an incredible amount of peyote. They've got their own problems with the Mexican government."
One local from Real de Catorce, Juan Hernandez, makes his living taking foreigners to the sacred places of the Huichol on horseback. He charges about $20 per horse and serves as a guide. Hernandez is a mestizo who lives in town, but he has close ties to the Indians.
"They call me before they start their pilgrimage in April," he says. "It takes them about four weeks to walk here and when they get here, I have firewood and food ready for them."
Hernandez guides three horses straight up a mountaintop to a spiral of stones. It's not much of a monument, but the landscape is breathtaking, with a view of the Chihuahuan desert stretching as far as the eye can see. Hernandez says that this is the birthplace of the god of the sun, Quetzal. He rubs coins across his body--it is a symbol of cleansing--and enters the stone spiral. When he gets to the center, he places the coins on a mound of other offerings. There are old shoes, a driver's license, candles, and Mexican and U.S. coins.
"This is a place of spiritual renewal," he says.
Hernandez follows many of the Huichol practices--including peyote eating. He prefers to mix it with chocolate or fruit juice so he's not likely to vomit it back up. He likes it because it gives him energy. He believes--like the Huichol-- that the peyote ceremony on Wirikuta releases the shamans' spirits from their bodies. He's seen their spirits flying around the mountains like large, colorful birds.
But he's not immune to the transformations going on in his hometown. His eyes light up when the name Brad Pitt is mentioned. "He was so cool," Hernandez says. "We all hung out with him for two months when he wasn't filming."
Mauro Morales looks a little worried when he talks about Mexican peyote. He knows that there's much more medicine on the other side of the border, but he's not crossing the river to seek it out. Even though he's a licensed dealer, transporting the stuff across the border would land him in jail. And he's skeptical of the Mexican police.
"You don't want to get caught with medicine over there," he says. "In Mexico, you're guilty until proven innocent. Here, you're innocent until proven guilty."
Still, like many people following the decline of the peyote trade in Texas, he hopes that, someday, he might be permitted to import peyote into Texas. But time may be running out for him. Morales says that he knew he was getting older when Indians started calling him "grandpa" a few years ago.
Morales gets part-time help harvesting peyote from his sons in February, when deer season ends and Indians start arriving. But one son has a full-time job, and the other is more interested in his hobby of cockfighting than in picking medicine.
Morales has his eye on his 14-year-old grandson Angel, who's doing well in school and has good manners. Angel might be able to take over the family business someday. But he's not sure. "The medicine might be extinct in 25 years. Then everyone will have to go to Mexico."
Mauro Morales picks his way through mesquite trees and prickly pear cacti. The 65-year-old cautiously steps around a thicket of tasajillo, or rattail cactus, just down the road from his small ranch near Rio Grande City. Tasajillo thorns stick you like a fish hook, he says. Then there's the cola seca--the rattlesnake--another job hazard.
"We're far enough from a hospital that you probably wouldn't make it if you got bit," he says in a quiet voice, as though a snake might take his words as an invitation to strike.
Morales has been wandering through the chaparral for half an hour, staring at the ground. He combs over small rocks with a stick. Finally, he spots a greenish knob, sprouting out of the ground under the tasajillo thicket.
"There's some medicine, right there," he says. It's a lone peyote button, about an inch in diameter, way too small to harvest. It'll be another five years before this peyote is mature. As he navigates the hostile flora, he points to three more small peyote plants, all of them too young to cut.
"I used to collect as much in a week as I now do in a month," he says. "I don't know what's going to happen to the medicine."
Morales almost never utters the word "peyote." For him, the small green-gray cactus is a sacrament with miraculous healing powers, hence his word for it: medicine.
What makes peyote different from just about any other cactus in the world is that it naturally produces mescaline, a psychedelic alkaloid that can induce hallucinations lasting for days. It was mescaline that opened what Aldous Huxley called "the doors of perception" to "the divine source of all existence."
Before LSD, before Ecstasy, there was peyote.
Peyote and mescaline are both classified by the federal government as Schedule I Controlled Substances. This puts them in the same legal category as crack and heroin, drugs that, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, have "a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision."
Much recent scientific research contradicts the DEA's verdict on peyote. There is little evidence of any adverse long-term effects on physical health and virtually no evidence that it is addictive.
Still, harvesting and selling peyote is illegal for all but three people in the entire country. And those three people happen to be located in Texas, operating in a swath of South Texas between Rio Grande City and Laredo.
These people--Morales is one of them--are called peyoteros, people who make their living selling peyote buttons to the approximately 250,000 Indian members of the Native American Church. Only 20 years ago, there were dozens of peyoteros in small towns along the border. Now, two of the three still working are in their 60s. Meanwhile, membership in the Native American Church is growing, and demand for peyote is outstripping the limited supply.
For Native American Church members, this 70-mile stretch of land used to be known as the "peyote gardens"--the only place on U.S. soil where the cactus grows in its natural habitat.
"I talk to the medicine every day," Morales says. "I pray to it. I know it works, and I want to help the Natives in any way I can."
In his 1976 doctoral dissertation, "Man, Plant and Religion: Peyote Trade on the Mustang Plains of Texas," the geographer George Morgan speculated that Hispanic traders first bought peyote from a Mexican tribe called the Huichol. To this day, the Huichol harvest the cactus during their annual 250-mile pilgrimage from their homeland in the Sierra Madre to a sacred mountain in central Mexico. The pilgrimage takes them four weeks by foot and along the way, in the desolate Chihuahuan desert, they eat peyote, hunt deer and train a new generation to become shamans.
The Huichol, unlike most tribes, were never quite conquered by the Spaniards. They resisted Christianity and continue to practice an animist religion based on mystical beliefs about peyote, deer and corn. Morgan discovered that Mexicans brought peyote across the border and started trading it with marauding Indian tribes from Oklahoma in the late 19th century. These tribes then passed on the cactus to other Indians to the north and west. Soon, Indians from California were arriving in South Texas in search of the fabled peyote gardens.
Anglo authorities didn't look kindly upon the Hispanic-dominated peyote trade. In 1909, a U.S. special officer named William "Pussyfoot" Johnson bought up all the peyote in South Texas and burned it. According to Morgan, the operation worked for almost a year, until Johnson ran out of money. The Bureau of Indian Affairs convinced the post office to ban peyote sent by mail in 1917, but the ban had little effect since most Indians preferred to travel to the peyote gardens themselves. The post office lifted the ban a few years later.
After these early conflicts, Anglos mostly shrugged their shoulders and left peyoteros to their business, which was starting to flourish. Indians from Oklahoma started arriving on the Texas-Mexican railway with empty burlap sacks, which they would fill with thousands of buttons of dried peyote. In some places--such as the now-deserted town of Los Ojuelos--the peyote trade was the basis of the entire economy.
The peyoteros had a natural monopoly on their crop. Even though it's illegal to cultivate, there have been sporadic attempts to transplant the cactus to Oklahoma and New Mexico, all to no avail. In the United States, peyote will only grow in the hot, dry climate of South Texas.
The peyoteros remember a time a generation ago when Indians camped out and harvested their own peyote. "Back then, it was what we call open range," says Salvador Johnson, another peyotero. "You could harvest what you needed. At that time, ranchers were poorer than we were. They couldn't even afford feed for the cattle. Now those same ranchers are multimillionaires from oil and gas royalties."
Like many peyoteros, Johnson was a little mystified when peyote suddenly became trendy in the late 1960s and into the 1970s. It was during this time that the drug caught on among hippies and New Age folk, largely through the works of Carlos Castaneda, an anthropologist turned best-selling author.
Castaneda wrote a series of books about a shaman named Don Juan Matus, a Yaqui Indian who took the anthropologist under his wing. Don Juan believed that "mescalito"--a code word for peyote--was a vehicle for self-knowledge. Through mescalito, Don Juan said, one could learn how to fly and see beings in liquid colors. Under Don Juan's tutelage, the rational academic learned how to become a sorcerer and warrior.
Castaneda's books were a phenomenon. The author, however, turned out to be a fraud. He was denounced by fellow anthropologists for trying to pass off a fictional character as an authentic source. In a cover story in Time in 1973, the magazine presented evidence that the author had lied about his background, including his nationality. None of this, however, stopped the influx of peyote-seekers in the one place in the nation where the plant grew wild.
Poachers started arriving, many of them Anglo hippies from the West Coast. One of those poachers was Frank Collum ( not his real name ), a hippie from Connecticut who had heard about the peyote gardens through some Indian friends in New Mexico. When he first started going to South Texas in the early 1970s, he would hop a fence and camp out for a week.
Now, he doesn't think it's worth the risk of getting caught for trespassing. Collum still goes down to South Texas, but his Indian wife buys dried peyote from Salvador Johnson. ( In addition to belonging to the Native American Church, peyote buyers have to prove they are at least one-quarter related to a federally recognized Indian tribe. ) Collum raised his son in the Church, going to meetings that would include all-night ceremonies in a teepee. Those days are gone.
"Peyote is in jeopardy," he says. "You hear stories about it coming from Mexico now. The ranchers in Texas have put up tall fences you can't jump. Then, there are all the wetbacks and Border Patrol. There's just too much heat.
"A lot of the Natives are real sensitive about the situation," Collum says. "The supply will not meet the demand unless you can convince the ranchers to cooperate. And the ranchers, they don't give a fuck about peyote."
Ranchers used to be friendly with the peyoteros, who paid them a small lease for access to their land. In recent years, as land prices have skyrocketed and Hispanic immigration has boomed, Anglo ranchers have come to view the peyoteros as a nuisance. According to Morales, many ranchers would rather plow their fields to plant grass for cattle feed than protect their native plants.
Salvador Johnson used to be a full-time peyotero, but now it's a part-time job. Rather than fight the ranchers, he's started helping them organize hunting trips. He also works as a general contractor around his hometown of Mirando City, a hamlet about half an hour east of Laredo.
"The big money is in deer hunting," says Johnson.
Mauro Morales remembers when it was possible to find massive clumps of peyote growing wild. "There was medicine just a couple miles from my home," he says. He grew up on the same street where he still lives in a ramshackle, two-story pink house with a dirt driveway. As a young man, he worked in the fields harvesting peyote for extra money. The matriarch of the peyote trade, a woman named Amada Cardenas, first showed him peyote in 1950.
"Natives call the big ones 'chief,'" he says. "And when they find a chief, they get down and pray to it. Miss Cardenas showed me my first chief."
Morales says that it's getting harder and harder to find chiefs. The only way to ensure the supply, he says, is greenhouse cultivation, something he's discussed with botanists from around the world, including a group from Germany that visited him in January.
But Johnson, the only remaining peyotero in the once-thriving area east of Laredo known as the Mirando Valley, doesn't believe cultivation will solve the peyoteros' problems.
"Even if we buy the land, we don't have control of peyote because God put it here," he says. "We don't know how it grows, how it multiplies. God will give us what we need, and that's it. He's the one who makes the rain. He's the one who makes the peyote."
Johnson says that the tipping point for the peyoteros was the mid-1970s. As ranchers struck oil and gas, seemingly worthless South Texas scrubland became expensive. Many peyoteros found more lucrative work in the oil fields. Others were getting old and retiring. Stringent requirements for a peyote license, which include a letter of recommendation from the local sheriff, stopped a lot of young people from becoming peyoteros.
Johnson had returned from the Vietnam War and wasn't sure he wanted to continue the family tradition. He quit selling for a while in 1976. "We were selling peyote and making a profit, but I had to make sure I was doing the right thing for my family," Johnson says. "In the late 1970s, there were so many drugs on the market we had never seen before--angel dust, PCP, reds, yellows, blues. Then, the DEA classified peyote as a Schedule I substance. There were a lot of landowners who started to think peyote was a dangerous drug."
Johnson, a 60-year-old with a white mustache who looks like a well-tanned Wilford Brimley, wasn't sure he wanted to be associated with a drug most people thought was harmful and addictive.
"I said to myself that for me to continue doing what I'm doing, I need to understand this drug," he said. "I needed to have an understanding with my family that I was doing the right thing. I wanted to understand its effects on health."
So Johnson went to visit an Indian he'd known his entire life named Leslie Full Bull. For a few months, Johnson lived on a reservation in South Dakota and got to see for himself the long-term impact of peyote. He came away believing that the plant was a positive thing for the community.
"I'm really involved with the Native American Church," he says. "I'm so involved with it that I believe that I'm one of the smartest people in the world about peyote. I've been to Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota...Name a state, name a tribe of Indians that use peyote, I've been there."
The real test, though, was a firsthand experience of peyote in a Native American ceremony--a meeting.
"I got so involved in these meetings that the only way for me to understand what this peyote does is to take it."
According to Jody Patterson, supervisor of controlled substances registration with the Texas Department of Public Safety, peyoteros have to follow the same rules regarding peyote as everyone else. If they aren't one-quarter Indian and a member of the Native American Church, it's illegal no matter if it was taken as part of a religious ceremony.
Johnson, who says he's "probably" part Indian--"most Mexicans are"--has been taking peyote for "many, many years" and sees the legal niceties somewhat differently. He says he takes peyote only after it has been blessed by a high priest. He expects that the Indians he sells to will do the same.
"I can only hope that you're using it the right way," Johnson says. "Now, if I know you're using it the wrong way, I can report you and you'll be arrested."
Martin Terry is a Harvard-trained botanist at Sul Ross State University in Alpine who may be the world's leading authority on peyote. He runs a small nonprofit called the Cactus Conservation Institute, which is dedicated to saving peyote from extinction.
"I've become increasingly passionate about the conservation of cacti in the past 10 years," he wrote in a recent e-mail. "I've personally witnessed species becoming scarce in places where I had previously found them to be abundant."
Terry is afraid that the natural habitat for peyote in South Texas is being ruined by ranchers and poachers. "The problem is defined by access to land," he says. "The peyoteros are Hispanic. They work through family connections. More and more of the land is being bought up by Anglo owners who don't derive any benefit from the peyoteros. They don't give a damn about the peyoteros."
For the first time in history, Terry says, there's active patrolling of ranch grounds. Ranchers have cut back brush to allow trucks to ride along their fence lines. Ranchers want to protect against peyoteros getting in and deer getting out.
The ranchers' hands-off policy represents a dilemma for Terry. On one hand, protection against peyoteros will conserve the cactus. On the other, it prevents Indians from getting access to their sacred plant.
"From the point of view of the plant, the only threat is overharvesting," he says. "The fences and personnel that protect ranch lands from would-be harvesters are the very opposite of a threat, as the protected populations of peyote inside those fences are the only healthy ones in South Texas."
Still, Terry is sensitive to the peyoteros and their way of life. He considers Mauro Morales a personal friend. He wants to make sure that Indians have access to their cactus, but that's getting harder and harder.
"Everyone I talk to, they say peyote is getting more expensive," Terry says. "The buttons are getting smaller. It's now about 30 to 35 cents a button. Ten years ago it was a third of that."
As a botanist, Terry thinks he's found a solution--buying up land to protect the plant. But the price of land has skyrocketed.
"The only obstacle is the cost of buying a minimum of 2,000 acres of South Texas real estate," he says. "That means we're talking about something on the order of $2 million. For a relatively new 501©3 like the Cactus Conservation Institute, that's a fund-raising project of enormous magnitude."
It's also a challenge raising money to save a plant that the federal government considers a dangerous, addictive drug. But the biggest obstacle for conservation might be the Indians themselves. Many Indians are opposed to cultivating peyote in greenhouses. Their opposition stems from a mystical belief in the cactus as divinely planted.
Alden Naranjo, a Ute who's been traveling to the peyote gardens from Colorado since the 1960s, isn't too worked up about the disappearance of his sacrament.
"Peyote predates Christianity by thousands of years," he says. "Native Americans have their spirituality based in this sacrament. It came north to us from Mexico. I don't think it will disappear. We've used it for thousands of years, and it's still here."
Naranjo, like Salvador Johnson, doesn't want to see peyote grown in greenhouses. He would rather see it imported from Mexico, where 90 percent of the continent's supply grows. For Native Americans like Naranjo, the current crisis in the peyote supply is just the latest story in a history of injustices.
"It's just the white man's greed," he says. "The white man wants more land, and that discourages peyoteros. It's getting harder for us, with stricter trespass laws."
It wasn't always like that in Texas, he says. "A lot of that land was open. Before the oil speculators, land was cheap. Then the white man with his European concept of ownership came in. There's just too many white men."
There are, in fact, white members of the Native American Church. Frank Collum is one, and he's been welcomed into meetings by Indians. It took him a while to be accepted, but now that he's married to an Indian and a veteran of peyote meetings, he feels like he's just as much a part of the church as anyone. In the eyes of the law, however, it is illegal for Collum--or any non-Indian--to buy or consume peyote.
According to James Botsford, an attorney who has been defending peyote use by Indians for decades, there's a clear distinction between Indian and non-Indian peyote users. The law, he says, protects Native American Church members who can prove they have one grandparent from a federally recognized tribe.
There have been recent challenges to the law on First Amendment grounds. One case made it to the Utah Supreme Court, but the ban on peyote use by non-Indians remains.
"I'm comfortable with the law as it stands," Botsford says. "There's not enough peyote around to allow a broader interpretation of the law. Indian people understand peyote to be the flesh of God, something that the creator put here to help them pray."
A year ago, Mauro Morales started losing weight. He always looked forward to February when busloads of Indians descended on South Texas for meetings in the peyote gardens. Suddenly, though, he didn't have the energy to go hunting for medicine with his sons. Morales is a small man who has always weighed about 125 pounds.
"I was all skin and bones," he says. "I was down to about 97 pounds."
The doctors couldn't give Morales a clear diagnosis. They told him he needed to rest, so he spent most of his time on the couch. When the Indians arrived in February, they were shocked to learn that he could barely walk.
"The Indians kept saying, 'We need you, we need you,'" Morales says.
One Indian from South Dakota called Morales and told him he would come down to his place the next day. The man had been visiting Morales for decades, and like many Indians, he had formed a friendship with the peyotero. The Indian brought 20 people to pray for Morales in his little peyote garden behind his house. In the garden, Morales has clumps of old peyote--chiefs--as well as ultrarare specimens of the star cactus, a super-potent, highly endangered plant in the same family as peyote.
Morales' Indian friends often set up their teepees on his ranch about half an hour outside town to conduct their ceremonies. This time, though, the 20 Indians put the teepee behind Morales' house. It's not the most tranquil spot for a camp-out. The neighborhood is abuzz with ranchera music, crowing roosters and belching pickups. But the Indians wanted Morales to participate in the meeting, which goes from dusk to dawn with constant drumming, singing, praying and--of course--peyote eating.
"I was so sick," Morales says. "I didn't think I could make it in the teepee--you've got to be in there all night long. I got up at 5 a.m. to go out. I didn't want to go back in. It's so hot in there, and I'm sweating."
Still, he went back in. Morales, who had spent the majority of his life working around peyote, had never used it. Now, with his Indian friends praying over him, he took the medicine.
"I've only taken it when I've been real sick," he says. Days later, Morales started gaining weight. He got off the couch and was able to walk without pain. He's not sure how it worked, but he's convinced that the medicine--along with the Indians' prayers--healed him. Now, when they come back to Morales' place, he cuts them a deal, selling them bags of peyote at $200 a piece, which amounts to a significant discount from his regular price of $350.
"You've got to have faith in the medicine," he says. "Without faith, it won't work."
Morales says he's seen the medicine work for others as well. The most miraculous case he's seen happened when his brother was dying in the hospital. A doctor called Morales to tell him the brother had two days left. Morales started calling his family. At the same time, a group of Indians was visiting him to stock up on peyote before heading back to Arizona.
"One of them told me to write my brother's name on a piece of paper," he said. Morales wrote the name--Ajeo--and the Indians left. He didn't ask the Indians' names because he didn't believe it would work. "They told me not to worry because my brother wasn't going to die."
The family gathered at the hospital, thinking that it would only be a matter of hours. Days passed, and Ajeo held on. He didn't die for another six months. Weeks after the Indians left, one of them called Morales.
"He asked how my brother was doing," he says. "I said that he was still alive. He said it was the medicine. They were praying for him."
Other terminally ill people have turned up at Morales' door, looking for medicine. He would like to be able to help them, but if he deals to the wrong people, Morales' license to sell peyote could be revoked.
"One woman drove here from San Antonio," he says. "She had been taking chemo, and it wasn't working. Nothing had really worked for her, and someone had mentioned the medicine. But she didn't have the papers, so I had to turn her away.
"If you don't have papers, I can't sell to you," he says. Then, with a little smile, he adds, "but I can tell you where you might find it."
As Morales explains the magical power of the medicine, he inspects his supply. So far, business has been slow for the winter. It was still deer season in early January and Morales couldn't harvest much peyote if he wanted to. He sold about 5,000 buttons for December, which means that he netted around $1,750. Subtract wages for his handful of part-time workers, and it becomes clear that Morales isn't making much money, even though the price of peyote has more than doubled in the past 10 years.
He keeps thousands of buttons ready to sell. Stored in large wooden trays behind his house, some of them are covered by tarps and others by a makeshift roof. There's little security to protect his supply, but he says he's never had a problem with theft.
Morales bends down to demonstrate his technique for cutting the plant above the root so that it will grow back. He puts a button on a table and cuts a slice open. He offers it to me to smell. He gives me a little nod as if to indicate that I should try it. Without asking permission, I take a bite. Morales smiles. It tastes like a dirty, raw potato. The little button seems to suck all the moisture right out of my mouth. Suddenly, it starts tasting spicy, like a raw jalapeno. The feeling is intolerable, and I spit it out.
"Maybe you just don't have the faith," he says, winking at me.
Humberto Fernandez--known universally as Don Humberto in the village of Real de Catorce, Mexico--eats peyote for breakfast. One button--it's just enough to get him going for the day.
Don Humberto was a young Mexican hippie bumming around California in the 1970s when he heard about peyote growing wild near a ghost town in the mountains of central Mexico. As it turned out, the ghost town--Real de Catorce--was close to his hometown in the state of San Luis Potosi.
"I was hanging out in the esoteric sections of bookstores in California and reading about the Huichol Indians and peyote," he says. "I said, 'Wow, that's where I'm from.' I didn't know anything about it growing up."
On a whim, Don Humberto moved to the town and started renovating a colonial building a few blocks from the cathedral. He turned it into a boutique hotel that catered to Europeans who had heard about peyote. About 10 years ago, primarily through word of mouth, peyote tourism in the town boomed.
Before he knew it, Don Humberto was hosting Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, who came to town to film The Mexican. He points to a corner of his restaurant where Pitt ate breakfast every morning for two months. Don Humberto, with his aquiline nose and stringy black-and-gray beard, looks like a Hollywood character actor--the classic ethnic bad guy. His involvement with The Mexican led to a bit part in the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but his heart is still in Real de Catorce, where he's the most recognizable face in town.
"I came here as a dropout," he says. "There was nothing in town when I arrived. There was one lady on the corner who sold rice, beans and eggs. That was it. People asked me why I was coming here, but I had a dream, a vision."
About 90 percent of the town's economy revolves around tourism. There isn't much to see in the town--an old church, some crumbling colonial architecture and abandoned silver mines. The sacred mountain of the Huichol, Wirikuta, is just an hour's horseback ride away.
While most of the locals embrace the new peyote tourism, it also attracts some unsavory characters. On street corners, young men harass foreigners for a "ride in the desert." For about $70, they'll take tourists out to the peyote gardens below the mountains. It's technically illegal, but no one seems to care much. As Don Humberto says, peyote tourists are the core of the town's livelihood.
He's hoping that Indians longing for the lost peyote gardens of South Texas will work their way to his little village on a mountaintop. He's already seen a few relocate to Real. An Indian from San Antonio bought a house and lives there part-time. Then Don Humberto and his Swiss wife, Cornelia, met a group of Indians near the Four Corners who promised to come.
"They said they had a vision that was leading them down here," says Cornelia, who was attracted to Real 20 years ago, in part because of peyote. "But peyote's not for everyone," she adds.
Cornelia and Don Humberto see peyote tourism as both a blessing and a curse. When tourists first started arriving in big numbers, local police preyed on them. "Police used to harass foreign tourists," Cornelia says. "They'd take watches and cameras as bribes. Now, they leave everyone alone."
She says that there's an unspoken agreement that police will never go into the desert looking for peyote seekers. "But," she says, "if you take it out and get caught with it, you could go to prison."
The Mexican government also has ambivalent feelings about the foreign influx. It has designated the area around Real de Catorce as a protected natural and cultural reserve. Although the government wants to promote tourism to the region, it also passes out fliers warning peyote seekers that the collection and trafficking of the cactus can be punished with up to 25 years in prison.
On the other hand, there's a long history of peyote's use as a folk medicine in northern Mexico. Mexicans have been using peyote as a cure-all for rheumatism, arthritis and other ailments for centuries. They drink it in teas or rub it directly on the skin.
Martin Terry says that even here in San Luis Potosi--the peyote heartland--the cactus is endangered. He says that the National Autonomous University of Mexico ( UNAM )--the biggest and most prestigious university in Mexico--keeps GPS data on clusters of peyote plants around the sacred area of the Huichol. Last summer, someone ripped huge roots from the area. They squeezed the mescaline out of the cactus and left the roots to die. He thinks it may be a drug cartel.
"Only six years ago, it was a place of great abundance," he says. When he went back this summer, "there were just a few plants left. Those that were of no value were left to die."
Frank Collum, the Anglo peyote eater and sometime poacher, says that Native Americans should back off the Mexican peyote gardens. "If it keeps going like it is," he says, "there'll be a war with the Huichol. They eat an incredible amount of peyote. They've got their own problems with the Mexican government."
One local from Real de Catorce, Juan Hernandez, makes his living taking foreigners to the sacred places of the Huichol on horseback. He charges about $20 per horse and serves as a guide. Hernandez is a mestizo who lives in town, but he has close ties to the Indians.
"They call me before they start their pilgrimage in April," he says. "It takes them about four weeks to walk here and when they get here, I have firewood and food ready for them."
Hernandez guides three horses straight up a mountaintop to a spiral of stones. It's not much of a monument, but the landscape is breathtaking, with a view of the Chihuahuan desert stretching as far as the eye can see. Hernandez says that this is the birthplace of the god of the sun, Quetzal. He rubs coins across his body--it is a symbol of cleansing--and enters the stone spiral. When he gets to the center, he places the coins on a mound of other offerings. There are old shoes, a driver's license, candles, and Mexican and U.S. coins.
"This is a place of spiritual renewal," he says.
Hernandez follows many of the Huichol practices--including peyote eating. He prefers to mix it with chocolate or fruit juice so he's not likely to vomit it back up. He likes it because it gives him energy. He believes--like the Huichol-- that the peyote ceremony on Wirikuta releases the shamans' spirits from their bodies. He's seen their spirits flying around the mountains like large, colorful birds.
But he's not immune to the transformations going on in his hometown. His eyes light up when the name Brad Pitt is mentioned. "He was so cool," Hernandez says. "We all hung out with him for two months when he wasn't filming."
Mauro Morales looks a little worried when he talks about Mexican peyote. He knows that there's much more medicine on the other side of the border, but he's not crossing the river to seek it out. Even though he's a licensed dealer, transporting the stuff across the border would land him in jail. And he's skeptical of the Mexican police.
"You don't want to get caught with medicine over there," he says. "In Mexico, you're guilty until proven innocent. Here, you're innocent until proven guilty."
Still, like many people following the decline of the peyote trade in Texas, he hopes that, someday, he might be permitted to import peyote into Texas. But time may be running out for him. Morales says that he knew he was getting older when Indians started calling him "grandpa" a few years ago.
Morales gets part-time help harvesting peyote from his sons in February, when deer season ends and Indians start arriving. But one son has a full-time job, and the other is more interested in his hobby of cockfighting than in picking medicine.
Morales has his eye on his 14-year-old grandson Angel, who's doing well in school and has good manners. Angel might be able to take over the family business someday. But he's not sure. "The medicine might be extinct in 25 years. Then everyone will have to go to Mexico."
Sunday, February 10, 2008
PROPOSED RECOVERY HOUSE WORRIES RESIDENTS
Christian Organizations Focus on East Side Neighbourhood
The city's director of planning will seek city council's advice before deciding on a proposed 10-bed alcohol and drug recovery house at 49th and Fraser.
Brent Toderian will also hear concerns of area residents and businesses at a planning and environment meeting at city hall Feb. 14.
Planning staff received 17 letters from citizens opposed to the proposal, and petitions from the South Hill ( Fraser Street ) Business Association, the B.C. Khalsa Darbar Society, the Universal Buddhist Temple and the community in response to 141 notifications distributed to neighbouring property owners. Staff heard concerns about crime and parking.
A resident who lives five doors from the proposed location at 655 East 49th doesn't want to see another drug and alcohol recovery treatment in the area. "I got a list of all the residential alcohol and drug recovery places in Vancouver, of which there are 11, and this proposed one is the twelfth one," said Jenny Chin Peterson, a principal of a Vancouver elementary school outside the area. "This would be the third one along the Fraser corridor, so it'll be the third one in two miles... There's nowhere else in the city that I could see, after I mapped it out, that there's that many condensed in one area."
However, a city staff report states: "The proposed location at 655 E. 49th Ave. is in the Sunset local area, which has among the lowest number of [special needs residential facility] beds in the city, with 1.4 beds per 1,000 population, compared to a city average of 10.4 beds per 1,000."
The Place of Refuge Society, a Christian organization sponsored by five area Mennonite Churches, has applied for the facility's development permit. The Hope for Freedom Society, also a Christian organization that runs six similar houses in Port Coquitlam, is to operate the program that is based on alcoholics and narcotics anonymous. The facility would be staffed 24 hours. Facility residents, who must be drug and alcohol-free for at least 90 days, could stay up to 13 weeks or longer.
The Place of Refuge Society's volunteer chair, Erich Krause, and his wife, Gerda, bought the property on East 49th. The society is to buy it from them at cost after a fundriasing drive. Krause can't understand why residents aren't pleased that a home for people committed to abstinence will replace the boarding house that was there before. He said it previously functioned as a crack house used by sex trade workers.
Chin Peterson agrees that the area has been plagued by crime and drug dealing. But said she wasn't familiar with problems stemming from the proposed facility site. She wonders how recovery house staff are going to ensure tenants are drug-free without onsite drug testing, and about the wisdom of placing the facility two blocks from a methadone clinic.
Chin Peterson doesn't doubt that the Hope for Freedom Society has seen success in Port Coquitlam, but she presumes their success occurred in a more stable community. "This community is a community that is struggling."
If the facility is approved, the Hope for Freedom Society will be required to name a liaison person, likely a staff person, to whom neighbours can direct concerns. It will also have a time-limited permit, likely a year.
Chin Peterson worries if the facility fails, the building will revert back to a rooming house.
Kelly Gill, who lives next to the proposed site and owns four commercial properties on Fraser, is annoyed by what he sees as an inadequate notification process. The city notifies land owners identified on its tax rolls, not tenants. Gill expects the facility will drive down property values and put a greater strain on the already insufficient parking in the area.
The director of planning is expected to make his decision within two weeks of Thursday's 2 p.m. city hall meeting.
The city's director of planning will seek city council's advice before deciding on a proposed 10-bed alcohol and drug recovery house at 49th and Fraser.
Brent Toderian will also hear concerns of area residents and businesses at a planning and environment meeting at city hall Feb. 14.
Planning staff received 17 letters from citizens opposed to the proposal, and petitions from the South Hill ( Fraser Street ) Business Association, the B.C. Khalsa Darbar Society, the Universal Buddhist Temple and the community in response to 141 notifications distributed to neighbouring property owners. Staff heard concerns about crime and parking.
A resident who lives five doors from the proposed location at 655 East 49th doesn't want to see another drug and alcohol recovery treatment in the area. "I got a list of all the residential alcohol and drug recovery places in Vancouver, of which there are 11, and this proposed one is the twelfth one," said Jenny Chin Peterson, a principal of a Vancouver elementary school outside the area. "This would be the third one along the Fraser corridor, so it'll be the third one in two miles... There's nowhere else in the city that I could see, after I mapped it out, that there's that many condensed in one area."
However, a city staff report states: "The proposed location at 655 E. 49th Ave. is in the Sunset local area, which has among the lowest number of [special needs residential facility] beds in the city, with 1.4 beds per 1,000 population, compared to a city average of 10.4 beds per 1,000."
The Place of Refuge Society, a Christian organization sponsored by five area Mennonite Churches, has applied for the facility's development permit. The Hope for Freedom Society, also a Christian organization that runs six similar houses in Port Coquitlam, is to operate the program that is based on alcoholics and narcotics anonymous. The facility would be staffed 24 hours. Facility residents, who must be drug and alcohol-free for at least 90 days, could stay up to 13 weeks or longer.
The Place of Refuge Society's volunteer chair, Erich Krause, and his wife, Gerda, bought the property on East 49th. The society is to buy it from them at cost after a fundriasing drive. Krause can't understand why residents aren't pleased that a home for people committed to abstinence will replace the boarding house that was there before. He said it previously functioned as a crack house used by sex trade workers.
Chin Peterson agrees that the area has been plagued by crime and drug dealing. But said she wasn't familiar with problems stemming from the proposed facility site. She wonders how recovery house staff are going to ensure tenants are drug-free without onsite drug testing, and about the wisdom of placing the facility two blocks from a methadone clinic.
Chin Peterson doesn't doubt that the Hope for Freedom Society has seen success in Port Coquitlam, but she presumes their success occurred in a more stable community. "This community is a community that is struggling."
If the facility is approved, the Hope for Freedom Society will be required to name a liaison person, likely a staff person, to whom neighbours can direct concerns. It will also have a time-limited permit, likely a year.
Chin Peterson worries if the facility fails, the building will revert back to a rooming house.
Kelly Gill, who lives next to the proposed site and owns four commercial properties on Fraser, is annoyed by what he sees as an inadequate notification process. The city notifies land owners identified on its tax rolls, not tenants. Gill expects the facility will drive down property values and put a greater strain on the already insufficient parking in the area.
The director of planning is expected to make his decision within two weeks of Thursday's 2 p.m. city hall meeting.
Saturday, February 09, 2008
AMERICA'S DRUG WAR HITS WOMEN
Oklahoman Tina Thomas has been caught up in the American war on drugs.
In many respects, she fits the common profile of a woman doing time for a drug-related offense. Her crimes have ranged from possession to check forgery and theft, including an arrest for trying to steal a $64 comforter from Wal-Mart. Eventually sentenced to a two-year state prison term, Thomas admits that she committed her crimes to feed the "800-pound gorilla on my back that I just hadn't been able to shake."
Thomas is part of an alarming statistical trend and a modern-day American phenomenon. For starters, she is one of half a million people ( roughly one-fourth of the total prison population ) locked up on drug-related charges. Thomas is also an inmate in a state that locks up women at one of the highest per capita rates -- 129 per 100,000 residents, a figure that is right behind Texas, the federal system and California. Oklahoma's imprisonment of women rose a stunning 1,237 percent from 1997 to 2004.
Drug addiction is what led Thomas down the river to prison, she admits freely. What's a bit more unusual about her is that she holds a medical doctorate from the University of Illinois, and was a practicing neurologist and professor at a teaching hospital. She stood out in her field to such a degree that her colleagues felt uncomfortable around here, particularly after she disclosed she was a lesbian. What Thomas didn't disclose, however, was an early childhood marred by incest, the lingering pain from which she used cocaine as an escape. Unfortunately, her cocaine use took a painful turn into a full-blown crack addiction.
Thomas and other women have had the misfortune of being sucked into what the federal government calls the "war on drugs." We have our own "drug czar," who sits atop the massive Office of National Drug Control Policy ( ONDCP ). President Nixon started this war in 1969, and President Reagan kicked it into high gear. It's been a full-throttle battle since, even through the Clinton years.
By 1980, the number of drug-related arrests stood at 581,000. Just 10 years later, that number had nearly doubled to 1,090,000.
In 2005, the FBI reported that law enforcement officers made more arrests for drug-abuse violations ( 1.8 million ) than for any other offense.
One of the most surprising facts about these figures, as far as police are concerned, is the drug of choice: marijuana. Cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug, which means that it is one of the most dangerous drugs imaginable.
Cocaine, on the other hand, a leading cause of overdose deaths, is classified as a Schedule II. So is PCP. Go figure.
In 2005, nearly 43 percent of all drug arrests were for cannabis possession ( 37.7 percent ) or "sales and manufacture" ( 4.3 percent ). That's millions of arrests and billions of dollars -- and amounts to a lot of misery and money down the drain.
In 2008, the ONDCP drug-war budget will reach a record $12.9 billion, with $8 billion of this funding being funneled into law enforcement. Bear in mind that these are only the official numbers. Many criminal justice experts point out that the figure doesn't incorporate the costs of incarcerating people sentenced for drug offenses. The real expenditure, including the costs of imprisonment, comes close to $22 billion, according to an analysis by the drug policy newsletter, Drug War Chronicle.
We're not getting much of a bang for these big bucks. Unintentional drug overdoses have become the second-most common form of accidental death after car crashes. While the government increases funding for antidrug missions in Colombia and Afghanistan by tens of millions every year, federal allocations to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment are being cut by $32 million in 2008.
A 2006 Government Accountability Office report revealed that our $1.4 billion antidrug media blitz wasn't working, either. And it wasn't the first organization to note this. In 2003, the White House Office of Management and Budget disclosed that it found these ads lacking in any demonstrable success.
What's worse, the people who need help aren't getting it. In the rest of the Western world, assistance with drug and alcohol problems is widely accessible. They predominantly view heavy drug use or full-blown addiction as public health issues, not behavioral issues subject to prosecution ( except in cases involving other criminal activity ).
In the United States, however, rehabilitation and counseling are difficult to access without money. The waiting lists for free or subsidized rehabilitation programs can run from a few months to a couple of years -- even in progressive cities like San Francisco or Seattle.
Most American women, as well as men, have used some form of intoxicant ( legal or illegal ) during their lives, and half of all women ages 15 to 54 admit to having used illegal drugs specifically.
An estimated 22 million Americans are currently dependent on alcohol, drugs or both, although the real number is likely to be much higher, particularly as the figure does not take into account the 71.5 million people age 12 and up who use tobacco -- many of whom are likely addicted to nicotine.
Anyone who has ever smoked cigarettes habitually can relate to what even heroin and other hard-drug users have told me on several occasions -- that nicotine is the most addictive drug they have ever taken, and the hardest substance to quit. ( Small wonder that the tobacco ban in many prisons has started a fierce black market, where a single cigarette can cost between $5 and $10. )
Regardless of whether they are caught, more than 9 million women each year use illicit drugs, and another 3.7 million use prescription drugs without medical authorization.
One such woman, Danielle Pascu, 29, got hooked on prescription drugs after the birth of her daughter. At first she was grateful for the prescribed Vicodin that got her though the lingering pain from a caesarean section and untreated postpartum depression.
But it didn't take Pascu long to develop a full-blown habit, where she was eventually falsifying her prescriptions in order to get more. Pascu had no criminal record, had never used drugs before and was generally unaware of the risks involved. These days, Pascu is serving nearly three years in the sun-baked and dilapidated Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville.
At this point, drug violations and property offenses account for a majority ( 59 percent ) of females in state prison. By comparison, men in both of these offense categories add up to just 39.5 percent. Meanwhile, in federal prison, women and men convicted of drug offenses constitute nearly 60 percent of inmates.
Tina Thomas knows that she has a quadruple strike to overcome. She's a black female with a former cocaine addiction, in a state that prefers to lock people up for substance abuse and that will deprive her of public assistance when she gets out. She now faces a lifetime ban on federal benefits, including contracts, licenses and grants.
As a drug offender, Thomas won't be able to get Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF ) if she should ever need it. Food assistance, higher-education funding and even income tax deductions for pursuing a college degree are all yanked away from most felony drug offenders.
Yet nearly every other category of ex-offender -- including sex offenders, murderers, arsonists and perpetrators of domestic violence - -- is eligible for these benefits. And, as if all this isn't bad enough, Thomas will find that even getting a job will be difficult, because she must report herself as an ex-felon.
I'm often asked whether African Americans might just be using drugs more than any other group of people. My response is always met with disbelief until I prove it with the government's own health statistics: African Americans constitute only 15 percent of drug users nationwide.
FBI data, at first glance, appears to show Euro-Americans bearing the brunt of drug-related arrests. Numerically speaking, they do, in that they are still the majority of the U.S. population. But a closer look reveals something else: African Americans are arrested at three times the rate of their demographic representation.
Marc Mauer, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Sentencing Project, asks the very pertinent question of whether police are arresting crack and cocaine users in general, or specifically going into communities of color and lower-income neighborhoods, where some people are using drugs and engaging in the street trade.
"Conducting drug arrests in minority neighborhoods does have advantages for law enforcement," writes Mauer in his 2006 book, Race to Incarcerate. "First, it is far easier to make arrests in such areas, since drug dealing is more likely to take place in open-air drug markets. In contrast, drug dealing is suburban neighborhoods almost invariably takes place behind closed doors and is therefore not readily identifiable to passing police."
This is a crucial point. Many substance users are men and women with professional careers. People with middle-to upper-class incomes tend to use their drugs behind doors in nice houses, in well-to-do neighborhoods. They slip under the drug war radar, just as college students do.
A quarter of full-time undergraduate students meet the criteria for substance abuse or dependence, something the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse calls "wasting the best and brightest."
Yet none of this is anything that the Office of National Drug Control Policy cares to have mentioned, much less examine. It's just another one of those inconvenient truths.
In many respects, she fits the common profile of a woman doing time for a drug-related offense. Her crimes have ranged from possession to check forgery and theft, including an arrest for trying to steal a $64 comforter from Wal-Mart. Eventually sentenced to a two-year state prison term, Thomas admits that she committed her crimes to feed the "800-pound gorilla on my back that I just hadn't been able to shake."
Thomas is part of an alarming statistical trend and a modern-day American phenomenon. For starters, she is one of half a million people ( roughly one-fourth of the total prison population ) locked up on drug-related charges. Thomas is also an inmate in a state that locks up women at one of the highest per capita rates -- 129 per 100,000 residents, a figure that is right behind Texas, the federal system and California. Oklahoma's imprisonment of women rose a stunning 1,237 percent from 1997 to 2004.
Drug addiction is what led Thomas down the river to prison, she admits freely. What's a bit more unusual about her is that she holds a medical doctorate from the University of Illinois, and was a practicing neurologist and professor at a teaching hospital. She stood out in her field to such a degree that her colleagues felt uncomfortable around here, particularly after she disclosed she was a lesbian. What Thomas didn't disclose, however, was an early childhood marred by incest, the lingering pain from which she used cocaine as an escape. Unfortunately, her cocaine use took a painful turn into a full-blown crack addiction.
Thomas and other women have had the misfortune of being sucked into what the federal government calls the "war on drugs." We have our own "drug czar," who sits atop the massive Office of National Drug Control Policy ( ONDCP ). President Nixon started this war in 1969, and President Reagan kicked it into high gear. It's been a full-throttle battle since, even through the Clinton years.
By 1980, the number of drug-related arrests stood at 581,000. Just 10 years later, that number had nearly doubled to 1,090,000.
In 2005, the FBI reported that law enforcement officers made more arrests for drug-abuse violations ( 1.8 million ) than for any other offense.
One of the most surprising facts about these figures, as far as police are concerned, is the drug of choice: marijuana. Cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug, which means that it is one of the most dangerous drugs imaginable.
Cocaine, on the other hand, a leading cause of overdose deaths, is classified as a Schedule II. So is PCP. Go figure.
In 2005, nearly 43 percent of all drug arrests were for cannabis possession ( 37.7 percent ) or "sales and manufacture" ( 4.3 percent ). That's millions of arrests and billions of dollars -- and amounts to a lot of misery and money down the drain.
In 2008, the ONDCP drug-war budget will reach a record $12.9 billion, with $8 billion of this funding being funneled into law enforcement. Bear in mind that these are only the official numbers. Many criminal justice experts point out that the figure doesn't incorporate the costs of incarcerating people sentenced for drug offenses. The real expenditure, including the costs of imprisonment, comes close to $22 billion, according to an analysis by the drug policy newsletter, Drug War Chronicle.
We're not getting much of a bang for these big bucks. Unintentional drug overdoses have become the second-most common form of accidental death after car crashes. While the government increases funding for antidrug missions in Colombia and Afghanistan by tens of millions every year, federal allocations to the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention and the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment are being cut by $32 million in 2008.
A 2006 Government Accountability Office report revealed that our $1.4 billion antidrug media blitz wasn't working, either. And it wasn't the first organization to note this. In 2003, the White House Office of Management and Budget disclosed that it found these ads lacking in any demonstrable success.
What's worse, the people who need help aren't getting it. In the rest of the Western world, assistance with drug and alcohol problems is widely accessible. They predominantly view heavy drug use or full-blown addiction as public health issues, not behavioral issues subject to prosecution ( except in cases involving other criminal activity ).
In the United States, however, rehabilitation and counseling are difficult to access without money. The waiting lists for free or subsidized rehabilitation programs can run from a few months to a couple of years -- even in progressive cities like San Francisco or Seattle.
Most American women, as well as men, have used some form of intoxicant ( legal or illegal ) during their lives, and half of all women ages 15 to 54 admit to having used illegal drugs specifically.
An estimated 22 million Americans are currently dependent on alcohol, drugs or both, although the real number is likely to be much higher, particularly as the figure does not take into account the 71.5 million people age 12 and up who use tobacco -- many of whom are likely addicted to nicotine.
Anyone who has ever smoked cigarettes habitually can relate to what even heroin and other hard-drug users have told me on several occasions -- that nicotine is the most addictive drug they have ever taken, and the hardest substance to quit. ( Small wonder that the tobacco ban in many prisons has started a fierce black market, where a single cigarette can cost between $5 and $10. )
Regardless of whether they are caught, more than 9 million women each year use illicit drugs, and another 3.7 million use prescription drugs without medical authorization.
One such woman, Danielle Pascu, 29, got hooked on prescription drugs after the birth of her daughter. At first she was grateful for the prescribed Vicodin that got her though the lingering pain from a caesarean section and untreated postpartum depression.
But it didn't take Pascu long to develop a full-blown habit, where she was eventually falsifying her prescriptions in order to get more. Pascu had no criminal record, had never used drugs before and was generally unaware of the risks involved. These days, Pascu is serving nearly three years in the sun-baked and dilapidated Arizona State Prison Complex in Perryville.
At this point, drug violations and property offenses account for a majority ( 59 percent ) of females in state prison. By comparison, men in both of these offense categories add up to just 39.5 percent. Meanwhile, in federal prison, women and men convicted of drug offenses constitute nearly 60 percent of inmates.
Tina Thomas knows that she has a quadruple strike to overcome. She's a black female with a former cocaine addiction, in a state that prefers to lock people up for substance abuse and that will deprive her of public assistance when she gets out. She now faces a lifetime ban on federal benefits, including contracts, licenses and grants.
As a drug offender, Thomas won't be able to get Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ( TANF ) if she should ever need it. Food assistance, higher-education funding and even income tax deductions for pursuing a college degree are all yanked away from most felony drug offenders.
Yet nearly every other category of ex-offender -- including sex offenders, murderers, arsonists and perpetrators of domestic violence - -- is eligible for these benefits. And, as if all this isn't bad enough, Thomas will find that even getting a job will be difficult, because she must report herself as an ex-felon.
I'm often asked whether African Americans might just be using drugs more than any other group of people. My response is always met with disbelief until I prove it with the government's own health statistics: African Americans constitute only 15 percent of drug users nationwide.
FBI data, at first glance, appears to show Euro-Americans bearing the brunt of drug-related arrests. Numerically speaking, they do, in that they are still the majority of the U.S. population. But a closer look reveals something else: African Americans are arrested at three times the rate of their demographic representation.
Marc Mauer, executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Sentencing Project, asks the very pertinent question of whether police are arresting crack and cocaine users in general, or specifically going into communities of color and lower-income neighborhoods, where some people are using drugs and engaging in the street trade.
"Conducting drug arrests in minority neighborhoods does have advantages for law enforcement," writes Mauer in his 2006 book, Race to Incarcerate. "First, it is far easier to make arrests in such areas, since drug dealing is more likely to take place in open-air drug markets. In contrast, drug dealing is suburban neighborhoods almost invariably takes place behind closed doors and is therefore not readily identifiable to passing police."
This is a crucial point. Many substance users are men and women with professional careers. People with middle-to upper-class incomes tend to use their drugs behind doors in nice houses, in well-to-do neighborhoods. They slip under the drug war radar, just as college students do.
A quarter of full-time undergraduate students meet the criteria for substance abuse or dependence, something the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse calls "wasting the best and brightest."
Yet none of this is anything that the Office of National Drug Control Policy cares to have mentioned, much less examine. It's just another one of those inconvenient truths.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Afghanistan: Taliban Windfall As Opium Crop Is Set for Another Bumper Year
Afghanistan, the world's biggest opium producer, is set for another bumper crop this year, providing a windfall for the Taliban who tax farmers to finance their fight against government and foreign forces.
More than six years after US-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban, the failure to bring opium production under control means Afghanistan is now locked in a vicious circle. Drug money fuels the Taliban insurgency and corruption, weakening government control over large parts of the country, which in turn allows more opium to be produced.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC ) predicted the 2008 opium crop would be similar to, or slightly lower than, last year's record harvest. In 2007, Afghanistan had more land growing drugs than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined.
"While it is encouraging that the dramatic increases of the past few years seem to be levelling off, the total amount of opium being harvested remains shockingly high," said UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa.
Opium is processed into heroin and smuggled mainly to Europe, where users often turn to crime to pay for the drug. "Europe and other major heroin markets should brace themselves for the health and security consequences," he said.
Opium poppy cultivation is concentrated in the south where the Taliban are strongest, and where British troops are based. Opium production is growing "at an alarming rate" in the south and west, the UN said.
All poppy farmers surveyed in southern Afghanistan said they paid 10% of their opium income to the Taliban or corrupt government officials.
"This is a windfall for anti-government forces," Costa said. "Further evidence of the dangerous link between opium and insurgency."
The report comes as Afghan ministers and international donors meet in Japan to discuss developments in Afghanistan. Britain is pushing for long-term investment in infrastructure and assistance for Afghan farmers.
Afghanistan is calling for more aid to stamp out opium production, but diplomats and analysts say President Hamid Karzai has failed to deal with corruption among government officials.
"We can only fight drugs in Afghanistan by the support of the international community," said General Khodaidad, acting Minister of Counter Narcotics, who uses one name.
Japan, host of the two-day meeting, responded by announcing new assistance of UKP55m, including UKP5m for police reform and UKP4.5m for border management.
However, Afghanistan's plea for more assistance comes as the United States and its allies struggle to co-ordinate policy in the face of rising Taliban attacks. Canada has threatened to pull out unless other Nato countries contribute more.
Violence in Afghanistan worsened last year and at least 10,000 people, including about 300 foreign troops, have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two years, aid groups say.
Meanwhile, the number of Afghan civilians killed by accident by US or Nato forces in air strikes and ground battles doubled between 2006 and 2007, the aid agencies claimed.
Human Rights Watch and the Project for Defence Alternatives ( PDA ) said that 272 men, women and children died in bombing raids, 62 were killed by ground fire and 16 were lost to a combination of the two last year.
This contrasted with 116 known deaths from coalition bombs and 114 from small arms and artillery fire in 2006. The coalition's increasing reliance on air power to compensate for the lack of troop numbers on the ground was the major cause of the increase in "collateral damage", said a PDA spokesman.
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More than six years after US-led and Afghan forces toppled the Taliban, the failure to bring opium production under control means Afghanistan is now locked in a vicious circle. Drug money fuels the Taliban insurgency and corruption, weakening government control over large parts of the country, which in turn allows more opium to be produced.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime ( UNODC ) predicted the 2008 opium crop would be similar to, or slightly lower than, last year's record harvest. In 2007, Afghanistan had more land growing drugs than Colombia, Bolivia and Peru combined.
"While it is encouraging that the dramatic increases of the past few years seem to be levelling off, the total amount of opium being harvested remains shockingly high," said UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa.
Opium is processed into heroin and smuggled mainly to Europe, where users often turn to crime to pay for the drug. "Europe and other major heroin markets should brace themselves for the health and security consequences," he said.
Opium poppy cultivation is concentrated in the south where the Taliban are strongest, and where British troops are based. Opium production is growing "at an alarming rate" in the south and west, the UN said.
All poppy farmers surveyed in southern Afghanistan said they paid 10% of their opium income to the Taliban or corrupt government officials.
"This is a windfall for anti-government forces," Costa said. "Further evidence of the dangerous link between opium and insurgency."
The report comes as Afghan ministers and international donors meet in Japan to discuss developments in Afghanistan. Britain is pushing for long-term investment in infrastructure and assistance for Afghan farmers.
Afghanistan is calling for more aid to stamp out opium production, but diplomats and analysts say President Hamid Karzai has failed to deal with corruption among government officials.
"We can only fight drugs in Afghanistan by the support of the international community," said General Khodaidad, acting Minister of Counter Narcotics, who uses one name.
Japan, host of the two-day meeting, responded by announcing new assistance of UKP55m, including UKP5m for police reform and UKP4.5m for border management.
However, Afghanistan's plea for more assistance comes as the United States and its allies struggle to co-ordinate policy in the face of rising Taliban attacks. Canada has threatened to pull out unless other Nato countries contribute more.
Violence in Afghanistan worsened last year and at least 10,000 people, including about 300 foreign troops, have been killed in Afghanistan in the past two years, aid groups say.
Meanwhile, the number of Afghan civilians killed by accident by US or Nato forces in air strikes and ground battles doubled between 2006 and 2007, the aid agencies claimed.
Human Rights Watch and the Project for Defence Alternatives ( PDA ) said that 272 men, women and children died in bombing raids, 62 were killed by ground fire and 16 were lost to a combination of the two last year.
This contrasted with 116 known deaths from coalition bombs and 114 from small arms and artillery fire in 2006. The coalition's increasing reliance on air power to compensate for the lack of troop numbers on the ground was the major cause of the increase in "collateral damage", said a PDA spokesman.
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Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Self Improvement Trumps Jail Time For Drug Trafficker
The Crown Has Lost An Appeal Of An 18-Month Conditional Sentence Given To A Cocaine Dealer.
The appeal was launched on the grounds that the sentencing judge placed "undue weight" on the man's aboriginal background.
Martin Patrick Charlie, of Cloverdale, had pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after an RCMP officer caught him with 30 packages of cocaine and 16 packages of heroin worth about $1,200.
On the day he was arrested, Charlie was already serving nine-months' house arrest in respect to three drug charges arising out of another dial-a-dope operation he was involved in.
The Crown had argued for an actual prison term of 18 months to two years less a day, given this was his second dial-a-dope operation. The fact that his latest crime occurred while serving a sentence should have been seen as an aggravating factor, the Crown maintained.
But the sentencing judge, Peder Gulbransen, saw promise in Charlie's rehabilitation and decided to give him a break.
"Judges sometimes have to take chances," he said.
Justice David Frankel noted, in his reasons for decision, that more than two years have passed since Charlie was involved in the drug trade. "Why this case has taken this long to reach this point is not entirely clear," Frankel noted.
"However, it is a fact that during this period Mr. Charlie has been subject to stringent conditions, and is a much different person today than he was in October, 2005."
"It would be unjust," Frankel added, "and counterproductive not only to Mr. Charlie's interests, but those of society at large, to interfere with his successful efforts at rehabilitation by sentencing him to a period of incarceration at this time."
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The appeal was launched on the grounds that the sentencing judge placed "undue weight" on the man's aboriginal background.
Martin Patrick Charlie, of Cloverdale, had pleaded guilty to possessing cocaine for the purpose of trafficking after an RCMP officer caught him with 30 packages of cocaine and 16 packages of heroin worth about $1,200.
On the day he was arrested, Charlie was already serving nine-months' house arrest in respect to three drug charges arising out of another dial-a-dope operation he was involved in.
The Crown had argued for an actual prison term of 18 months to two years less a day, given this was his second dial-a-dope operation. The fact that his latest crime occurred while serving a sentence should have been seen as an aggravating factor, the Crown maintained.
But the sentencing judge, Peder Gulbransen, saw promise in Charlie's rehabilitation and decided to give him a break.
"Judges sometimes have to take chances," he said.
Justice David Frankel noted, in his reasons for decision, that more than two years have passed since Charlie was involved in the drug trade. "Why this case has taken this long to reach this point is not entirely clear," Frankel noted.
"However, it is a fact that during this period Mr. Charlie has been subject to stringent conditions, and is a much different person today than he was in October, 2005."
"It would be unjust," Frankel added, "and counterproductive not only to Mr. Charlie's interests, but those of society at large, to interfere with his successful efforts at rehabilitation by sentencing him to a period of incarceration at this time."
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Tuesday, January 15, 2008
MAN ARRESTED IN RAID SAYS POT FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES
A Meaford man who was busted last week says he's not a drug trafficker, but was growing and using pot for medicinal purposes - with his doctor's knowledge but without a Health Canada licence.
Grey County OPP have charged both James Kerr, 35, and his partner, Celena Negovetich, 30, with production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking on Jan. 4.
Kerr said after the bust his family doctor finally signed the medical use of marijuana form, which he'd had for a year.
Kerr said he mailed the licence application in this week.
Now it's up to Health Canada to decide whether to grant Kerr a licence to legally grow and possess pot for medical purposes.
Kerr, who contacted Osprey Media after his name appeared in story this week about a drug raid at his home, said he was diagnosed in September, 2005, with multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system with no cure. It causes him to suffer attacks of prolonged muscle spasms and headaches which are relieved with marijuana, which Kerr calls medicine. Kerr said his health is already worse without pot.
"My left hand is curled up, weak and almost useless. My left leg feels like it weighs 200 pounds and is weak. I'm noticeably limping now and its only been one week without medicine."
He has constant headaches and if tries to use his curled hand, the pain is "excruciating," he said.
After the bust, Kerr said police called the Children's Aid Society. Kerr's kids were placed with their mother in Collingwood while the CAS investigates.
Now Kerr is anxious to get his kids back.
Kerr said he wishes police had better understood what they were dealing with before they pounded on his front door and announced they had a search warrant.
He opened the door and was immediately pushed against a wall and handcuffed, he said. His kids weren't home when police arrived.
He told the officers he suffers from MS and grows and uses marijuana but was told to "shut up." Kerr said he told police where to find the marijuana and once they did, they arrested him.
He said he was denied his request for his hat and coat on the way out the door and that police broke a shelf and hinges to a cabinet where he told them he stored the marijuana.
Staff Sgt. Rick Sinnamon said it's best during drug raids to handcuff people for police and the resident's safety.
The police report on the raid said Kerr was co-operative, Sinnamon added. He wouldn't comment on Kerr's complaints because the matter is before the court, but noted there is a police complaints process. He said police obtained a search warrant from a justice of the peace and the search was lawful.
"Anybody that knows me knows that I have multiple sclerosis," Kerr said. "And the way they came in here, like with seven officers and they thought they had a huge operation and everything . . ."
Said Sinnamon: "I'm quite positive there's people out there for legitimate reasons in their mind, that they're suffering from some sort of medical-type problem that they're using some sort of drug to allow them some ability to function.
"And whether that's right or wrong, you and I can't decide that. That's up to the government. The law would have to be changed," he said. "There isn't anything right now that's allowing us to overlook that."
It is legal to use pot for medical relief, with Health Canada's approval.
There were 2,261 people with a licences to use marijuana and 1,581 to grow pot as of October, Health Canada's website says.
Kerr has been a stay-home dad since his illness prevented him from working in the lumber industry, he said. He lives with his partner in a rented apartment in a well-kept house in Meaford.
Kerr has explained his pot use to his kids, aged 10 and 11. He said he only uses it in his bedroom, which he kept locked, from a supply kept in a locked cabinet. He smokes it outside when his kids are at his home, he said.
Kerr said he won custody of the children in family court, where his medical use of marijuana and intention to obtain a licence to do so were disclosed.
He said his application for a licence to use and grow marijuana sat in his doctor's office for a year awaiting the doctor's signature. Kerr said his doctor was busy and had to do research before signing off.
Kerr said both that doctor and his neurologist advised him privately to smoke pot because it relieved his symptoms.
His family doctor suggested he use four grams per day, Kerr said. The doctor could not be reached for comment Friday.
Marijuana users say privately that doctors are reluctant to prescribe marijuana because it sticks their neck out with police and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It's just easier to get pot and use it under the radar of police, they say.
Police said in a news release Wednesday that they seized packaged marijuana with an estimated street value of $6,820 and $1,000 worth of marijuana plants.
Kerr says that's an overestimate.
He said he packaged the marijuana in one-ounce ( 28-gram ) packages to ensure he uses no more or less than his doctor suggested. At four grams per day, each package was a one-week supply. Individual packaging guarded against potential loss of his supply to rot.
Under the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, if five grams daily use is approved, that would equate to 25 marijuana plants and storage of 1.125 kilograms of marijuana, a fact sheet says.
"Anybody that knows me knows that I have multiple sclerosis. And the way they came in here, like with seven officers and they thought they had a huge operation and everything . . ."
Grey County OPP have charged both James Kerr, 35, and his partner, Celena Negovetich, 30, with production of marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking on Jan. 4.
Kerr said after the bust his family doctor finally signed the medical use of marijuana form, which he'd had for a year.
Kerr said he mailed the licence application in this week.
Now it's up to Health Canada to decide whether to grant Kerr a licence to legally grow and possess pot for medical purposes.
Kerr, who contacted Osprey Media after his name appeared in story this week about a drug raid at his home, said he was diagnosed in September, 2005, with multiple sclerosis, a disease of the central nervous system with no cure. It causes him to suffer attacks of prolonged muscle spasms and headaches which are relieved with marijuana, which Kerr calls medicine. Kerr said his health is already worse without pot.
"My left hand is curled up, weak and almost useless. My left leg feels like it weighs 200 pounds and is weak. I'm noticeably limping now and its only been one week without medicine."
He has constant headaches and if tries to use his curled hand, the pain is "excruciating," he said.
After the bust, Kerr said police called the Children's Aid Society. Kerr's kids were placed with their mother in Collingwood while the CAS investigates.
Now Kerr is anxious to get his kids back.
Kerr said he wishes police had better understood what they were dealing with before they pounded on his front door and announced they had a search warrant.
He opened the door and was immediately pushed against a wall and handcuffed, he said. His kids weren't home when police arrived.
He told the officers he suffers from MS and grows and uses marijuana but was told to "shut up." Kerr said he told police where to find the marijuana and once they did, they arrested him.
He said he was denied his request for his hat and coat on the way out the door and that police broke a shelf and hinges to a cabinet where he told them he stored the marijuana.
Staff Sgt. Rick Sinnamon said it's best during drug raids to handcuff people for police and the resident's safety.
The police report on the raid said Kerr was co-operative, Sinnamon added. He wouldn't comment on Kerr's complaints because the matter is before the court, but noted there is a police complaints process. He said police obtained a search warrant from a justice of the peace and the search was lawful.
"Anybody that knows me knows that I have multiple sclerosis," Kerr said. "And the way they came in here, like with seven officers and they thought they had a huge operation and everything . . ."
Said Sinnamon: "I'm quite positive there's people out there for legitimate reasons in their mind, that they're suffering from some sort of medical-type problem that they're using some sort of drug to allow them some ability to function.
"And whether that's right or wrong, you and I can't decide that. That's up to the government. The law would have to be changed," he said. "There isn't anything right now that's allowing us to overlook that."
It is legal to use pot for medical relief, with Health Canada's approval.
There were 2,261 people with a licences to use marijuana and 1,581 to grow pot as of October, Health Canada's website says.
Kerr has been a stay-home dad since his illness prevented him from working in the lumber industry, he said. He lives with his partner in a rented apartment in a well-kept house in Meaford.
Kerr has explained his pot use to his kids, aged 10 and 11. He said he only uses it in his bedroom, which he kept locked, from a supply kept in a locked cabinet. He smokes it outside when his kids are at his home, he said.
Kerr said he won custody of the children in family court, where his medical use of marijuana and intention to obtain a licence to do so were disclosed.
He said his application for a licence to use and grow marijuana sat in his doctor's office for a year awaiting the doctor's signature. Kerr said his doctor was busy and had to do research before signing off.
Kerr said both that doctor and his neurologist advised him privately to smoke pot because it relieved his symptoms.
His family doctor suggested he use four grams per day, Kerr said. The doctor could not be reached for comment Friday.
Marijuana users say privately that doctors are reluctant to prescribe marijuana because it sticks their neck out with police and the College of Physicians and Surgeons. It's just easier to get pot and use it under the radar of police, they say.
Police said in a news release Wednesday that they seized packaged marijuana with an estimated street value of $6,820 and $1,000 worth of marijuana plants.
Kerr says that's an overestimate.
He said he packaged the marijuana in one-ounce ( 28-gram ) packages to ensure he uses no more or less than his doctor suggested. At four grams per day, each package was a one-week supply. Individual packaging guarded against potential loss of his supply to rot.
Under the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations, if five grams daily use is approved, that would equate to 25 marijuana plants and storage of 1.125 kilograms of marijuana, a fact sheet says.
"Anybody that knows me knows that I have multiple sclerosis. And the way they came in here, like with seven officers and they thought they had a huge operation and everything . . ."
Monday, January 14, 2008
CONDO HUFF: DON'T FEAR THE REEFER
When Erin Maloughney came back from holidays - she was in Rhode Island over Christmas visiting her new niece, a cute little kid - she found a letter in the mail.
The letter, sent by lawyers representing the condo corporation that runs her building, is a modern bit of correspondence, unimaginable a few years ago. A few years ago the condo corporation would not have written any letters. They'd have called the cops.
Erin is a medical user of marijuana.
She lives in a co-op downtown, a handsome and secure building not far from the subway, close to everything she needs. Her building has a pool, a sauna, a weight room, a library; she uses these often.
She is also licensed to grow a little dope at home, with the permission of the government. I think that makes the condo corporation nervous.
A bit of background:
Erin broke her back in a car accident when she was in high school. She recovered, painfully and partially, over several years.
And then, when she was grown up and working, she got clipped by a car while riding her bike downtown - the driver's fault - and she broke her back again.
The insurance settlement helped her buy the two-level, one-bedroom, big-city apartment where she lives. She no longer works. She is in constant pain.
She is growing 18 marijuana plants - that's all she needs - in what used to be the closet of her bedroom. The closet reno was done by a contractor friend; he did a nice job in a tight space.
But the condo corporation has expressed concerns about the safety of the wiring, and the possibility of mould. Erin said, "Those are valid issues in a multi-unit dwelling." She showed me around the other day.
Her closet is nothing like the drug-trade grow-ops you see on the news. It is not damp, nor a hothouse, nor does she use mass amounts of electricity, nor does she grow dope by the bushel, nor is there any danger from outsiders. Her building has a politely vigilant concierge on duty all the time.
Erin's needs are modest. She takes one hit every hour on the hour, using a black ceramic bong; when that moment came - you could tell it was coming on, because her eyes had gradually narrowed and her pain now seemed to radiate from every pore - she went outside on her balcony, fired up the bong with a barbecue lighter and inhaled once.
Legally, mind you.
She said that if she did not smoke, her pain would clock in at seven out of 10 if, on the pain chart, 10 is blow-your-brains-out misery. A single hit, once an hour, keeps her more or less at level three.
Beats opiates any day.
She said, "A lot of people think my garden grounds me. I sing to my plants. I worry about them. I spray them. It gives me something to do." That's important, when you can't walk very far. She said, "I have a green thumb. I'm good at what I do." But the letter from the condo corporation is stern.
She isn't sure what she will do.
You want a clue?
On her coffee table stands a handsome 18-inch figurine of Muhammad Ali, dressed in white trunks and wearing boxing gloves, circa the second Liston fight is my guess. Should anyone, butterfly or bee, float past the champ, a motion sensor kicks in and there is that voice: "I am the greatest."
If Erin were not also a pretty good fighter, she would not be walking today.
Stay tuned.
The letter, sent by lawyers representing the condo corporation that runs her building, is a modern bit of correspondence, unimaginable a few years ago. A few years ago the condo corporation would not have written any letters. They'd have called the cops.
Erin is a medical user of marijuana.
She lives in a co-op downtown, a handsome and secure building not far from the subway, close to everything she needs. Her building has a pool, a sauna, a weight room, a library; she uses these often.
She is also licensed to grow a little dope at home, with the permission of the government. I think that makes the condo corporation nervous.
A bit of background:
Erin broke her back in a car accident when she was in high school. She recovered, painfully and partially, over several years.
And then, when she was grown up and working, she got clipped by a car while riding her bike downtown - the driver's fault - and she broke her back again.
The insurance settlement helped her buy the two-level, one-bedroom, big-city apartment where she lives. She no longer works. She is in constant pain.
She is growing 18 marijuana plants - that's all she needs - in what used to be the closet of her bedroom. The closet reno was done by a contractor friend; he did a nice job in a tight space.
But the condo corporation has expressed concerns about the safety of the wiring, and the possibility of mould. Erin said, "Those are valid issues in a multi-unit dwelling." She showed me around the other day.
Her closet is nothing like the drug-trade grow-ops you see on the news. It is not damp, nor a hothouse, nor does she use mass amounts of electricity, nor does she grow dope by the bushel, nor is there any danger from outsiders. Her building has a politely vigilant concierge on duty all the time.
Erin's needs are modest. She takes one hit every hour on the hour, using a black ceramic bong; when that moment came - you could tell it was coming on, because her eyes had gradually narrowed and her pain now seemed to radiate from every pore - she went outside on her balcony, fired up the bong with a barbecue lighter and inhaled once.
Legally, mind you.
She said that if she did not smoke, her pain would clock in at seven out of 10 if, on the pain chart, 10 is blow-your-brains-out misery. A single hit, once an hour, keeps her more or less at level three.
Beats opiates any day.
She said, "A lot of people think my garden grounds me. I sing to my plants. I worry about them. I spray them. It gives me something to do." That's important, when you can't walk very far. She said, "I have a green thumb. I'm good at what I do." But the letter from the condo corporation is stern.
She isn't sure what she will do.
You want a clue?
On her coffee table stands a handsome 18-inch figurine of Muhammad Ali, dressed in white trunks and wearing boxing gloves, circa the second Liston fight is my guess. Should anyone, butterfly or bee, float past the champ, a motion sensor kicks in and there is that voice: "I am the greatest."
If Erin were not also a pretty good fighter, she would not be walking today.
Stay tuned.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
'BREAKING BAD' SHINES IN A DIM TV SEASON
In a TV world that has gone without writers for nearly three months and is drowning in a tsunami of reality programming, there are precious few rays of sunshine these days.
But, occasionally, something will pop up to remind us of just how good television can be when smart writers come up with an intriguing concept and execute it well. A case in point is "Breaking Bad," an edgy, challenging new series that debuts this Sunday at 10 on AMC.
"Breaking Bad" - it's a Southern expression for "raising hell" - is a Coen brothers-esque take on the life of one Walt White, a high school science teacher living a dull life in suburbia. Then, one day, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. With just a few months to live, Walt White "breaks bad," becoming a manufacturer of crystal meth to raise some fast money for his family and to give himself a few thrills before he goes.
Show creator Vince Gilligan - best-known for his work on "The X-Files," including some landmark episodes as "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - says his intent from the beginning was to "take Mr. Chips and turn him into Scarface" ( the memorable Al Pacino character from the 1983 film ) "and then he drops dead of cancer."
More seriously, Gilligan says that "this has always been a story of metamorphosis and transformation. This is a guy who is in the process of reinventing himself and, not to give too much away, Walt really is not going to just dip a toe into this new world, he's actually doing to do a big cannonball right off the edge of the pool."
If "Breaking Bad" sounds a bit like "Weeds," the Showtime series about a suburban soccer mom who becomes a dope dealer, Gilligan hastens to point out that he came up with the idea before "Weeds" got on the air. In fact, he says, the first time he ever heard of "Weeds" was when he was trying to sell "Breaking Bad" to FX.
"I was so fortunate that I didn't know about 'Weeds' in advance because I might have said, 'Well, this is too much like "Weeds." ' I would have shut the whole thing down right then and there," Gilligan says.
"Now that I know about 'Weeds,' I've tried very hard to make our show even more different."
"Breaking Bad" is a good deal darker and more of a pure drama than "Weeds," although the show gets funnier as it goes along. For one thing, outside of the Drug Enforcement Administration, people tend to view marijuana as a rather benign drug. Crystal meth? That's nasty stuff and, as a plot point, it may explain why HBO, TNT and FX all passed on the series before AMC picked it up.
Even Gilligan acknowledges it will be hard for some people to relate.
Walt White, he says, "has colored inside the lines, played by the rules, his entire life. He's never so much as jaywalked and, suddenly, he's doing this despicable thing.
"And we don't shy away from that. Crystal meth is a much different drug than marijuana, and we don't defend his choice in the show. It's going to become clearer that he's made some very bad choices as the series progresses."
That, as you might expect, puts a fair amount of pressure on the actor playing Walt White to humanize someone who is doing a very bad thing. And Bryan Cranston - best-known as Hal, the father on "Malcolm In the Middle" - more than rises to the challenge, giving a beautifully crafted and shaded performance that lets you into White's soul.
Cranston wasn't really looking for a new series after "Malcolm" ( he says most of the sitcoms he was offered were pretty bad ). But, he says, the script for "Breaking Bad" was "just so compelling. I related to Walt White, I understood him, I knew who this guy was. I know people like him, anybody who lives with regret. There is a massive number of people who have that feeling of 'I should have, I could have, I wish I had' taken opportunities that were presented to me and, for some reason, didn't at the time.
"That's ultimately tragic and sympathetic. I thought if we could pull this off, we could ask the audience to at least understand the dilemma Walt White is going through - if not accept or condone his actions."
Thanks to Gilligan's writing and the work of Cranston and a fine supporting cast headed by Anna Gunn ( "Deadwood" ) as his wife and Aaron Paul ( "Big Love" ) as a former student who teaches White the meth trade, "Breaking Bad" succeeds.
It is a kind of modern morality play, engaging ( even if White's actions are sometimes appalling ) and provocative in the themes it explores.
Certainly, like the best television, it makes you think. About facing your own mortality, the choices people make in life and whether - for better or for worse - the approach of your own demise sets you free in very fundamental ways.
But, occasionally, something will pop up to remind us of just how good television can be when smart writers come up with an intriguing concept and execute it well. A case in point is "Breaking Bad," an edgy, challenging new series that debuts this Sunday at 10 on AMC.
"Breaking Bad" - it's a Southern expression for "raising hell" - is a Coen brothers-esque take on the life of one Walt White, a high school science teacher living a dull life in suburbia. Then, one day, he is diagnosed with terminal cancer. With just a few months to live, Walt White "breaks bad," becoming a manufacturer of crystal meth to raise some fast money for his family and to give himself a few thrills before he goes.
Show creator Vince Gilligan - best-known for his work on "The X-Files," including some landmark episodes as "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" - says his intent from the beginning was to "take Mr. Chips and turn him into Scarface" ( the memorable Al Pacino character from the 1983 film ) "and then he drops dead of cancer."
More seriously, Gilligan says that "this has always been a story of metamorphosis and transformation. This is a guy who is in the process of reinventing himself and, not to give too much away, Walt really is not going to just dip a toe into this new world, he's actually doing to do a big cannonball right off the edge of the pool."
If "Breaking Bad" sounds a bit like "Weeds," the Showtime series about a suburban soccer mom who becomes a dope dealer, Gilligan hastens to point out that he came up with the idea before "Weeds" got on the air. In fact, he says, the first time he ever heard of "Weeds" was when he was trying to sell "Breaking Bad" to FX.
"I was so fortunate that I didn't know about 'Weeds' in advance because I might have said, 'Well, this is too much like "Weeds." ' I would have shut the whole thing down right then and there," Gilligan says.
"Now that I know about 'Weeds,' I've tried very hard to make our show even more different."
"Breaking Bad" is a good deal darker and more of a pure drama than "Weeds," although the show gets funnier as it goes along. For one thing, outside of the Drug Enforcement Administration, people tend to view marijuana as a rather benign drug. Crystal meth? That's nasty stuff and, as a plot point, it may explain why HBO, TNT and FX all passed on the series before AMC picked it up.
Even Gilligan acknowledges it will be hard for some people to relate.
Walt White, he says, "has colored inside the lines, played by the rules, his entire life. He's never so much as jaywalked and, suddenly, he's doing this despicable thing.
"And we don't shy away from that. Crystal meth is a much different drug than marijuana, and we don't defend his choice in the show. It's going to become clearer that he's made some very bad choices as the series progresses."
That, as you might expect, puts a fair amount of pressure on the actor playing Walt White to humanize someone who is doing a very bad thing. And Bryan Cranston - best-known as Hal, the father on "Malcolm In the Middle" - more than rises to the challenge, giving a beautifully crafted and shaded performance that lets you into White's soul.
Cranston wasn't really looking for a new series after "Malcolm" ( he says most of the sitcoms he was offered were pretty bad ). But, he says, the script for "Breaking Bad" was "just so compelling. I related to Walt White, I understood him, I knew who this guy was. I know people like him, anybody who lives with regret. There is a massive number of people who have that feeling of 'I should have, I could have, I wish I had' taken opportunities that were presented to me and, for some reason, didn't at the time.
"That's ultimately tragic and sympathetic. I thought if we could pull this off, we could ask the audience to at least understand the dilemma Walt White is going through - if not accept or condone his actions."
Thanks to Gilligan's writing and the work of Cranston and a fine supporting cast headed by Anna Gunn ( "Deadwood" ) as his wife and Aaron Paul ( "Big Love" ) as a former student who teaches White the meth trade, "Breaking Bad" succeeds.
It is a kind of modern morality play, engaging ( even if White's actions are sometimes appalling ) and provocative in the themes it explores.
Certainly, like the best television, it makes you think. About facing your own mortality, the choices people make in life and whether - for better or for worse - the approach of your own demise sets you free in very fundamental ways.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
SUSPENSION'S OUT, THERAPY'S IN
Students Caught Using Drugs or Alcohol Are Sent for Three Days Of Addiction Counselling
Not long ago students caught using drugs in school got a sound thrashing. More recently they were suspended. Now they receive counselling.
Since last September, students have been required to attend three half-day sessions at Richmond Addiction Services if they are found using or possessing drugs or alcohol.
So far, 54 first-time offenders, with an average age of 15, have attended the Constructive Alternative to Teen Suspension program.
Thirty-six were boys and 18 were girls, according to Rick Dubras, youth and family program manager for RAS.
"It's marijuana and alcohol that they're getting caught for, ( although ) there's been some admission of ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and crack use," Dubras added.
So far, the program appears to be a success.
"Thus far, we're pleased with the service and pleased that we're able to work with the community to, hopefully, put together something beneficial," said Rob Inrig, school district administrator of inter-agency relations.
The program is modeled after a similar one created by Terry Bulych in West Vancouver.
"The statistics are that they have reduced re-offenders in West Van and North Van," said Dubras, who is confident the same will happen here.
The three days equip students with information about drugs and alcohol, and the consequences of using them, as well as strategies to make good decisions and say no.
"Rather than them automatically saying, 'You're out of school and come back three days later, or five days or whatever,' they're really doing some proactive work with them, helping them make better choices, different choices and understand the implications of things," Inrig said.
Dubras said the program has made a difference for participants.
"When we have had follow up sessions we've had young people say that it was important that they could go to a place where they could be open and honest. We've had people stop using, we've had people stop using nicotine and we've had people reduce their use," Dubras said.
The students learn about the continuum of addiction from no use, to experimental and recreational use, to using for effect, to habitual use and eventual dependence.
"Addiction is defined with the three c's: lack of control, using despite negative consequences and a compulsion to use," Dubras said.
"We want them to have a better understanding and ways to cope and make better decisions and choices around drug and alcohol use."
The take-home message from the CATS program is that young people have the right to refuse.
"It highlights the importance that they have free will and that they have choice. If they are addicted they don't have a lot of choice," Dubras said.
School trustee Sandra Bourque said the school district is always looking for more effective ways to deal with destructive behaviour.
"Our end desire is not punishment, but a change in behaviour," Bourque said. "This kind of response to kids who are involved in drugs is bound to be more successful."
Suspension is useful in some situations, Bourque said, such as when safety is an issue or the incident is very serious. "You're never going to totally eliminate suspension," Bourque said.
The CATS program is mandatory and open during school hours every day of the school year.
Students begin the program immediately, usually the day following a school offense, once parents are informed. Following the initial three sessions, individuals are seen for up to three individual counselling sessions.
"We want to be accessible to them after the program. The biggest thing is we're trying to create relationship," Dubras said.
Not long ago students caught using drugs in school got a sound thrashing. More recently they were suspended. Now they receive counselling.
Since last September, students have been required to attend three half-day sessions at Richmond Addiction Services if they are found using or possessing drugs or alcohol.
So far, 54 first-time offenders, with an average age of 15, have attended the Constructive Alternative to Teen Suspension program.
Thirty-six were boys and 18 were girls, according to Rick Dubras, youth and family program manager for RAS.
"It's marijuana and alcohol that they're getting caught for, ( although ) there's been some admission of ecstasy, cocaine, heroin and crack use," Dubras added.
So far, the program appears to be a success.
"Thus far, we're pleased with the service and pleased that we're able to work with the community to, hopefully, put together something beneficial," said Rob Inrig, school district administrator of inter-agency relations.
The program is modeled after a similar one created by Terry Bulych in West Vancouver.
"The statistics are that they have reduced re-offenders in West Van and North Van," said Dubras, who is confident the same will happen here.
The three days equip students with information about drugs and alcohol, and the consequences of using them, as well as strategies to make good decisions and say no.
"Rather than them automatically saying, 'You're out of school and come back three days later, or five days or whatever,' they're really doing some proactive work with them, helping them make better choices, different choices and understand the implications of things," Inrig said.
Dubras said the program has made a difference for participants.
"When we have had follow up sessions we've had young people say that it was important that they could go to a place where they could be open and honest. We've had people stop using, we've had people stop using nicotine and we've had people reduce their use," Dubras said.
The students learn about the continuum of addiction from no use, to experimental and recreational use, to using for effect, to habitual use and eventual dependence.
"Addiction is defined with the three c's: lack of control, using despite negative consequences and a compulsion to use," Dubras said.
"We want them to have a better understanding and ways to cope and make better decisions and choices around drug and alcohol use."
The take-home message from the CATS program is that young people have the right to refuse.
"It highlights the importance that they have free will and that they have choice. If they are addicted they don't have a lot of choice," Dubras said.
School trustee Sandra Bourque said the school district is always looking for more effective ways to deal with destructive behaviour.
"Our end desire is not punishment, but a change in behaviour," Bourque said. "This kind of response to kids who are involved in drugs is bound to be more successful."
Suspension is useful in some situations, Bourque said, such as when safety is an issue or the incident is very serious. "You're never going to totally eliminate suspension," Bourque said.
The CATS program is mandatory and open during school hours every day of the school year.
Students begin the program immediately, usually the day following a school offense, once parents are informed. Following the initial three sessions, individuals are seen for up to three individual counselling sessions.
"We want to be accessible to them after the program. The biggest thing is we're trying to create relationship," Dubras said.
Friday, January 11, 2008
GIVE YOURSELF A CHANCE TO GROW UP
On the one hand, Pembroke students should be hailed for their openness and honesty in talking about their alcohol and drug use.
On the other hand, a study by the Southeast Center for Healthy Communities should raise an alarm for parents and educators that they need to drive home the message that does not appear to be taking hold that substance abuse is a dangerous path to take at such a young age.
A study by the health consortium found that nearly half of Pembroke High School students - 48.7 percent - said they had drunk alcohol at some point in their lives. About one-quarter of students said they had smoked marijuana.
Pembroke's figures are slightly above the national average for both alcohol and marijuana use and above the state's average for drinking but slightly below for smoking marijuana.
But far more troubling was the admission by 30 percent of high school students who said they drove a car while under the influence in the 30 days prior to the survey.
"I've worked in other high schools, and the most painful experience a principal can go through is the death of a student, and when it is related to drugs or alcohol, it's just tragic," Pembroke High principal Ruth Lynch said following the presentation to the school committee Thursday night.
Tragic indeed. Each year more that 10,000 young people in the United States are killed and 40,000 injured in alcohol-related automobile accidents.
The rate of fatal crashes among alcohol-involved drivers between 16 and 20 years old is more than twice that for alcohol-involved drivers 21 and older, according to a federal study.
Pembroke is clearly not an island but more of a microcosm of today's youth in society. But anyone concerned about the future of today's teens needs to take a hard look at the figures.
According to the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychology, people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence at some time in their lives compared with those who have their first drink at age 20 or older.
Alcohol use interacts with conditions such as depression and stress to contribute to suicide, the third leading cause of death among people between the ages of 14 and 25.
Adolescence is a time to allow your body to grow and develop, not a time to experiment with harmful substances. Pembroke students showed they are willing to talk honestly about their use of drugs and alcohol.
Perhaps that is an indication they are also willing to listen.
On the other hand, a study by the Southeast Center for Healthy Communities should raise an alarm for parents and educators that they need to drive home the message that does not appear to be taking hold that substance abuse is a dangerous path to take at such a young age.
A study by the health consortium found that nearly half of Pembroke High School students - 48.7 percent - said they had drunk alcohol at some point in their lives. About one-quarter of students said they had smoked marijuana.
Pembroke's figures are slightly above the national average for both alcohol and marijuana use and above the state's average for drinking but slightly below for smoking marijuana.
But far more troubling was the admission by 30 percent of high school students who said they drove a car while under the influence in the 30 days prior to the survey.
"I've worked in other high schools, and the most painful experience a principal can go through is the death of a student, and when it is related to drugs or alcohol, it's just tragic," Pembroke High principal Ruth Lynch said following the presentation to the school committee Thursday night.
Tragic indeed. Each year more that 10,000 young people in the United States are killed and 40,000 injured in alcohol-related automobile accidents.
The rate of fatal crashes among alcohol-involved drivers between 16 and 20 years old is more than twice that for alcohol-involved drivers 21 and older, according to a federal study.
Pembroke is clearly not an island but more of a microcosm of today's youth in society. But anyone concerned about the future of today's teens needs to take a hard look at the figures.
According to the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychology, people who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence at some time in their lives compared with those who have their first drink at age 20 or older.
Alcohol use interacts with conditions such as depression and stress to contribute to suicide, the third leading cause of death among people between the ages of 14 and 25.
Adolescence is a time to allow your body to grow and develop, not a time to experiment with harmful substances. Pembroke students showed they are willing to talk honestly about their use of drugs and alcohol.
Perhaps that is an indication they are also willing to listen.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
SMUGGLERS SEE HAITI AS NEW GATEWAY FOR DRUGS
MALPASSE, Haiti - Three beefy men wearing wraparound sunglasses and gold chains leaned against their SUV at this remote border crossing with the Dominican Republic. As one of them muttered into a walkie-talkie, four Haitian policemen pulled up looking like they meant business.
The SUV's back hatch was opened. The cops eyeballed its load of opaque plastic-wrapped bundles. One officer picked up a package the size of a bread loaf, appraising its weight with his forearm.
Then the police and the bejeweled trio knocked fists in solidarity, traded vehicles and drove off toward the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. And thus ended the drug bust that wasn't.
Pandemic police corruption in Haiti is just one reason drug-running through Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has more than doubled over the past two years. It accounts for more than 10 percent of illegal substances reaching the United States and an even larger share of the volume destined for Europe, U.S. and international agents say.
With counter-narcotics operations choking off traditional routes from Colombia and Mexico, smugglers are finding unfettered paths in lawless Haiti, where poverty, isolation and inept law enforcement combine to provide traffickers a new path of least resistance.
"Why are they bringing it here? Because this is the weakest point in the region," said Fred Blaise, a Haitian-born Florida police officer serving in Haiti with the United Nations Stabilization Mission.
"Haiti doesn't have helicopters. It doesn't have planes. It doesn't have radar to even know what's coming and going."
A fledgling coast guard has been restored after a four-year hiatus that followed the flight into exile of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the chaos that ensued. But the force has few officers and no speedboats. The 1,500-mile coastline is wide open to smugglers' fast boats and airdrops.
"It takes only eight hours for speedboats coming from Colombia and Venezuela to get to Jacmel," Haiti's police commissioner, Mario Andresol, said of the southern port town of dilapidated gingerbread houses. "Once the drugs get to Haiti, they can be loaded onto vehicles and sent to Port-au-Prince, then north for the trip to the United States."
Haiti has no army or border guard to patrol the 225-mile frontier with the Dominican Republic. At best, a couple of police officers are sometimes on hand at the four legal crossings.
From Malpasse, contraband can be dispatched across the enormous saltwater Lake Azuei in fishermen's crude, black-sailed sloops, in all-terrain vehicles that speed over denuded mountainsides into gang-ruled central and northern cities, or loaded into dump trucks at a roadside quarry that is abandoned but for the transactions that traffickers make little attempt to hide.
Much of Colombia's cocaine now comes to the southern coast of Hispaniola via Venezuela. Last year, then-U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said the volume flowing through Venezuela had quintupled since 2001 to as much as 250 tons a year. That's a quarter to half of Colombia's production.
The Joint Interagency Task Force of the U.S. military's Southern Command tracked 81 unregistered flights from Colombia or Venezuela to this island in the first nine months of 2007. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reports that more vigorous surveillance of the Colombian coastline has compelled highly adaptive smugglers to use new routes.
"There is always the balloon effect," said Vito S. Guarino, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's Caribbean Division. "Wherever you put pressure, they go somewhere else." He estimates that drug transshipment through the Caribbean is up as much as 30 percent.
Haitian or Dominican authorities are often tipped off about illegal flights and voyages that have been spotted by the U.S. or other nations, but local law enforcement officials are rarely in a position to intercept them.
Haitian farmers and fishermen in coastal villages can be induced with a few dollars to store drugs, guard makeshift warehouses or cart the contraband to the next stop on the route, spawning local economies that are becoming increasingly dependent on the drug trade, the police commissioner said.
Narco-trafficking enterprises already are entrenched in central Haiti, having cropped up along the one passable road from the capital to the northern coast.
"We are looking for bandits and gangsters, but we are also finding police and congressmen among them," said Andresol, who concedes that he can't trust most of the 5,000 men on his force.
Andresol, an anti-corruption crusader who has made it his mission to restore a conscience to Haitian law enforcement, said the November arrest of a lawmaker from the central plains town of Maissade, Joseph Willot, deflated his sense that interdictions this year had put a dent in the island's drug trade.
Venezuela's status as a favored launch pad for illegal flights taking Colombian dope toward its final market is the direct result of extensive corruption in the armed forces of President Hugo Chavez, foreign counter-narcotics officials say.
The SUV's back hatch was opened. The cops eyeballed its load of opaque plastic-wrapped bundles. One officer picked up a package the size of a bread loaf, appraising its weight with his forearm.
Then the police and the bejeweled trio knocked fists in solidarity, traded vehicles and drove off toward the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. And thus ended the drug bust that wasn't.
Pandemic police corruption in Haiti is just one reason drug-running through Hispaniola, the island shared by Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has more than doubled over the past two years. It accounts for more than 10 percent of illegal substances reaching the United States and an even larger share of the volume destined for Europe, U.S. and international agents say.
With counter-narcotics operations choking off traditional routes from Colombia and Mexico, smugglers are finding unfettered paths in lawless Haiti, where poverty, isolation and inept law enforcement combine to provide traffickers a new path of least resistance.
"Why are they bringing it here? Because this is the weakest point in the region," said Fred Blaise, a Haitian-born Florida police officer serving in Haiti with the United Nations Stabilization Mission.
"Haiti doesn't have helicopters. It doesn't have planes. It doesn't have radar to even know what's coming and going."
A fledgling coast guard has been restored after a four-year hiatus that followed the flight into exile of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and the chaos that ensued. But the force has few officers and no speedboats. The 1,500-mile coastline is wide open to smugglers' fast boats and airdrops.
"It takes only eight hours for speedboats coming from Colombia and Venezuela to get to Jacmel," Haiti's police commissioner, Mario Andresol, said of the southern port town of dilapidated gingerbread houses. "Once the drugs get to Haiti, they can be loaded onto vehicles and sent to Port-au-Prince, then north for the trip to the United States."
Haiti has no army or border guard to patrol the 225-mile frontier with the Dominican Republic. At best, a couple of police officers are sometimes on hand at the four legal crossings.
From Malpasse, contraband can be dispatched across the enormous saltwater Lake Azuei in fishermen's crude, black-sailed sloops, in all-terrain vehicles that speed over denuded mountainsides into gang-ruled central and northern cities, or loaded into dump trucks at a roadside quarry that is abandoned but for the transactions that traffickers make little attempt to hide.
Much of Colombia's cocaine now comes to the southern coast of Hispaniola via Venezuela. Last year, then-U.S. Ambassador William Brownfield said the volume flowing through Venezuela had quintupled since 2001 to as much as 250 tons a year. That's a quarter to half of Colombia's production.
The Joint Interagency Task Force of the U.S. military's Southern Command tracked 81 unregistered flights from Colombia or Venezuela to this island in the first nine months of 2007. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency reports that more vigorous surveillance of the Colombian coastline has compelled highly adaptive smugglers to use new routes.
"There is always the balloon effect," said Vito S. Guarino, assistant special agent in charge of the DEA's Caribbean Division. "Wherever you put pressure, they go somewhere else." He estimates that drug transshipment through the Caribbean is up as much as 30 percent.
Haitian or Dominican authorities are often tipped off about illegal flights and voyages that have been spotted by the U.S. or other nations, but local law enforcement officials are rarely in a position to intercept them.
Haitian farmers and fishermen in coastal villages can be induced with a few dollars to store drugs, guard makeshift warehouses or cart the contraband to the next stop on the route, spawning local economies that are becoming increasingly dependent on the drug trade, the police commissioner said.
Narco-trafficking enterprises already are entrenched in central Haiti, having cropped up along the one passable road from the capital to the northern coast.
"We are looking for bandits and gangsters, but we are also finding police and congressmen among them," said Andresol, who concedes that he can't trust most of the 5,000 men on his force.
Andresol, an anti-corruption crusader who has made it his mission to restore a conscience to Haitian law enforcement, said the November arrest of a lawmaker from the central plains town of Maissade, Joseph Willot, deflated his sense that interdictions this year had put a dent in the island's drug trade.
Venezuela's status as a favored launch pad for illegal flights taking Colombian dope toward its final market is the direct result of extensive corruption in the armed forces of President Hugo Chavez, foreign counter-narcotics officials say.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
MORE CLEAN NEEDLES
The omnibus spending bill recently passed by Congress contained at least one piece of good news for Washington: A longtime restriction on using local funds for needle exchange programs was lifted. Removing the restriction was overdue because the district has one of the nation's highest rates of HIV/AIDS infection, and distributing clean needles to drug users could help slow the spread. Regrettably, a nationwide ban on using federal funds for needle exchange programs remains in place. Congress should follow its sensible action on D.C. and lift the national ban as well.
Although the federal prohibition has been in effect since 1998, it is estimated that more than 210 needle exchange programs are operating in 36 states, with about half the programs using local and state funds. While these programs are no panacea to the drug epidemic, some studies show that clean needles can at least reduce new cases of HIV. That's been true in Maryland, where injection drug use as the cause of newly diagnosed HIV cases has dropped from 60 percent in 1994 to below 30 percent as of June 2007, according to the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Despite such progress, conservative Republicans in Congress have continued to block federal funds for needle exchanges. And for the past decade, they have also prevented Washington from using its own tax money for such programs. After regaining control of Congress in the 2006 elections, Democrats pushed successfully for a course correction.
Local Washington officials could now follow Baltimore's example, where more than 3 million syringes have been distributed since 1994. The city's Health Department operates two vans that visit 18 sites around the city nearly every weekday as well as many evenings and weekends. Since July ( the current fiscal year ), the city's needle exchange program has served nearly 6,100 clients, and more than 163,860 syringes have been exchanged.
Despite progress in reducing needle sharing and other risky injection behaviors, the battle is far from over. Recent studies show that Maryland and Baltimore rank second in new AIDS cases among states and major cities, respectively. But people who inject drugs and may become infected with HIV or develop AIDS don't always stay in one place. More federal resources devoted to the struggle would be welcome.
Although the federal prohibition has been in effect since 1998, it is estimated that more than 210 needle exchange programs are operating in 36 states, with about half the programs using local and state funds. While these programs are no panacea to the drug epidemic, some studies show that clean needles can at least reduce new cases of HIV. That's been true in Maryland, where injection drug use as the cause of newly diagnosed HIV cases has dropped from 60 percent in 1994 to below 30 percent as of June 2007, according to the state's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
Despite such progress, conservative Republicans in Congress have continued to block federal funds for needle exchanges. And for the past decade, they have also prevented Washington from using its own tax money for such programs. After regaining control of Congress in the 2006 elections, Democrats pushed successfully for a course correction.
Local Washington officials could now follow Baltimore's example, where more than 3 million syringes have been distributed since 1994. The city's Health Department operates two vans that visit 18 sites around the city nearly every weekday as well as many evenings and weekends. Since July ( the current fiscal year ), the city's needle exchange program has served nearly 6,100 clients, and more than 163,860 syringes have been exchanged.
Despite progress in reducing needle sharing and other risky injection behaviors, the battle is far from over. Recent studies show that Maryland and Baltimore rank second in new AIDS cases among states and major cities, respectively. But people who inject drugs and may become infected with HIV or develop AIDS don't always stay in one place. More federal resources devoted to the struggle would be welcome.
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
DRINK AND DRUG TESTS ON POLICE 'A WASTE OF MONEY'
YORKSHIRE police forces are spending a six-figure sum each year testing officers for alcohol and drug abuse even though there is no evidence of a problem.
Not one of the region's 12,000 officers has failed any of the random tests, which were introduced early last summer, even though the alcohol limit is one-third of that for driving.
But the four forces are locked into the regime indefinitely, with costs expected to top UKP1,000 for each officer checked in one area, sparking criticism that it is a waste of money.
The Home Office is now facing a call to review the scheme to check it is delivering value for money. There is also fierce criticism from the Police Federation, with a claim the policy is a deliberate Government tactic to under-mine the service's credibility.
With officers already at odds with Ministers over their pay rise, any extra spending on testing is likely to be controversial.
The West and South Yorkshire forces have not yet set their budgets for testing next year but if they follow this year's level the total in the region is likely to be about UKP220,000.
Humberside is allocating the most resources, despite being a small force, with plans to test only 80 staff, using a budget of almost UKP93,000 - more than UKP1,000 for each anticipated test.
That contrasts with West Yorkshire, where senior officers this year have managed to test 30 officers a month from an annual budget of UKP30,000.
Liberal Democrat leader and Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg is calling for the scheme to be reviewed.
"At a time when police budgets are under so much pressure it is vital money is spent sensibly so that police officers can be out on the streets cutting crime and keeping us all safe.
"It is extremely important that police are free from the influence of alcohol and drugs but testing should be proportionate and flexible."
South Yorkshire Police Federation spokesman Insp Bob Pitt accused the Government of "a consistent attempt to undermine the credibility of police" in the eyes of the public.
"It is a rather alarming waste of money, particularly when we are looking towards having to reduce numbers of police over the next couple of years.
"Forty million pounds is being saved by not backdating our pay award; some of that will be put into drug testing when we know we are not taking drugs.
"There is no evidence to suggest individuals are taking drugs and we have always had the opportunity to report any concerns, either through Crimestoppers or our professional standards department."
The Home Office has distanced itself from the situation, telling the Yorkshire Post it introduced legislation to allow the tests but left the decisions on how to proceed to individual forces, which "have discretion to determine the scale of testing, taking into account the extent of the risk".
However, a circular on the topic states a previous Home Secretary had approved a recommendation that "anational policy be introduced for testing" police officers and recruits.
A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Police, which faces financial problems next year because of a change in the way Government grants are calculated, said: "It is a policy decision taken by the Home Office. It is compulsory."
Humberside Deputy Chief Constable David Griffin defen-ded the testing policy and said: "It is important that the public can have full confidence in their local police and we see this as an important step to achieve it."
He was pleased "the results indicate our police officers do not seem to have issues" related to drugs or drinking. "We are, of course, not complacent and will continue to monitor the results of the testing carefully."
South Yorkshire Police also has no plans to do less testing.
Not one of the region's 12,000 officers has failed any of the random tests, which were introduced early last summer, even though the alcohol limit is one-third of that for driving.
But the four forces are locked into the regime indefinitely, with costs expected to top UKP1,000 for each officer checked in one area, sparking criticism that it is a waste of money.
The Home Office is now facing a call to review the scheme to check it is delivering value for money. There is also fierce criticism from the Police Federation, with a claim the policy is a deliberate Government tactic to under-mine the service's credibility.
With officers already at odds with Ministers over their pay rise, any extra spending on testing is likely to be controversial.
The West and South Yorkshire forces have not yet set their budgets for testing next year but if they follow this year's level the total in the region is likely to be about UKP220,000.
Humberside is allocating the most resources, despite being a small force, with plans to test only 80 staff, using a budget of almost UKP93,000 - more than UKP1,000 for each anticipated test.
That contrasts with West Yorkshire, where senior officers this year have managed to test 30 officers a month from an annual budget of UKP30,000.
Liberal Democrat leader and Sheffield Hallam MP Nick Clegg is calling for the scheme to be reviewed.
"At a time when police budgets are under so much pressure it is vital money is spent sensibly so that police officers can be out on the streets cutting crime and keeping us all safe.
"It is extremely important that police are free from the influence of alcohol and drugs but testing should be proportionate and flexible."
South Yorkshire Police Federation spokesman Insp Bob Pitt accused the Government of "a consistent attempt to undermine the credibility of police" in the eyes of the public.
"It is a rather alarming waste of money, particularly when we are looking towards having to reduce numbers of police over the next couple of years.
"Forty million pounds is being saved by not backdating our pay award; some of that will be put into drug testing when we know we are not taking drugs.
"There is no evidence to suggest individuals are taking drugs and we have always had the opportunity to report any concerns, either through Crimestoppers or our professional standards department."
The Home Office has distanced itself from the situation, telling the Yorkshire Post it introduced legislation to allow the tests but left the decisions on how to proceed to individual forces, which "have discretion to determine the scale of testing, taking into account the extent of the risk".
However, a circular on the topic states a previous Home Secretary had approved a recommendation that "anational policy be introduced for testing" police officers and recruits.
A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Police, which faces financial problems next year because of a change in the way Government grants are calculated, said: "It is a policy decision taken by the Home Office. It is compulsory."
Humberside Deputy Chief Constable David Griffin defen-ded the testing policy and said: "It is important that the public can have full confidence in their local police and we see this as an important step to achieve it."
He was pleased "the results indicate our police officers do not seem to have issues" related to drugs or drinking. "We are, of course, not complacent and will continue to monitor the results of the testing carefully."
South Yorkshire Police also has no plans to do less testing.
Monday, January 07, 2008
NARCOTICS GROUP HITS 'MASSIVE' CUTS
A coalition that represents dozens of state narcotic officers associations wants Congress to explain what the group calls "massive cuts to critical criminal justice programs" in the fiscal 2008 appropriations bill.
"More than 26,000 Americans die each year as a direct result of drug abuse. Drug abuse and addiction destroys communities, robs children of their hopes and dreams and weakens our economy. Drug sales fuel gangs and are responsible for much of our nation's violent crime," said Ronald E. Brooks, president of National Narcotic Officers' Associations' Coalition ( NNOAC ), which represents 44 state associations with nearly 70,000 drug-enforcement officers.
"Drug trafficking is domestic terrorism and is a chemical attack on American communities," he said, adding it was "extremely disappointing" and "irresponsible for our nation's leaders" when Congress cut the programs instead of supporting effective anti-drug initiatives.
The fiscal 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill cuts $350 million, or 67 percent, from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant ( JAG ) Program, which authorized the awarding of grants to states and local governments to improve the criminal justice system -- with emphasis on violent crime and serious offenders -- and enforce state and local laws that establish offenses similar to federal drug statutes.
Grants also are used to provide personnel, equipment, training, technical assistance and information systems for more widespread apprehension, prosecution, adjudication, detention and rehabilitation of offenders who violate such laws. Grants also have been used to provide assistance to victims of crime.
Funding for the federal program leverages state and local resources to address the most pressing criminal problems in local areas.
Mr. Brooks, director of the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and the Northern California Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center, said many states support multijurisdictional drug task forces that take down regional and local drug-trafficking organizations including gangs.
Others use the funds for gang task forces, substance-abuse prevention and treatment, crime victim support programs, drug courts, justice information sharing initiatives, sex offender management, community corrections, offender re-entry and juvenile justice programs. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has reported extremely encouraging reductions in illicit drug use, especially among teens," Mr. Brooks said. "In addition, domestic meth labs are way down, cocaine availability is down, and prices are up.
"All these indicators of progress in our nation's continuing struggle to prevent drug distribution and use are threatened because of the Draconian cuts to the Byrne JAG program in this Omnibus Appropriations Bill," he said.
At least 75 percent of every JAG dollar goes to local sheriffs and police departments and the program has been described by both federal and state law-enforcement authorities as highly successful.
Mr. Brooks said state, local and tribal jurisdictions depend on the program to leverage local resources used to fight violence and drugs and that NNOAC is concerned that drastic cuts to the Byrne JAG program will cause multijurisdictional drug task forces to disappear in many states, "giving drug dealers a free pass."
"More than 26,000 Americans die each year as a direct result of drug abuse. Drug abuse and addiction destroys communities, robs children of their hopes and dreams and weakens our economy. Drug sales fuel gangs and are responsible for much of our nation's violent crime," said Ronald E. Brooks, president of National Narcotic Officers' Associations' Coalition ( NNOAC ), which represents 44 state associations with nearly 70,000 drug-enforcement officers.
"Drug trafficking is domestic terrorism and is a chemical attack on American communities," he said, adding it was "extremely disappointing" and "irresponsible for our nation's leaders" when Congress cut the programs instead of supporting effective anti-drug initiatives.
The fiscal 2008 Omnibus Appropriations Bill cuts $350 million, or 67 percent, from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant ( JAG ) Program, which authorized the awarding of grants to states and local governments to improve the criminal justice system -- with emphasis on violent crime and serious offenders -- and enforce state and local laws that establish offenses similar to federal drug statutes.
Grants also are used to provide personnel, equipment, training, technical assistance and information systems for more widespread apprehension, prosecution, adjudication, detention and rehabilitation of offenders who violate such laws. Grants also have been used to provide assistance to victims of crime.
Funding for the federal program leverages state and local resources to address the most pressing criminal problems in local areas.
Mr. Brooks, director of the Northern California High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area and the Northern California Regional Terrorism Threat Assessment Center, said many states support multijurisdictional drug task forces that take down regional and local drug-trafficking organizations including gangs.
Others use the funds for gang task forces, substance-abuse prevention and treatment, crime victim support programs, drug courts, justice information sharing initiatives, sex offender management, community corrections, offender re-entry and juvenile justice programs. The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has reported extremely encouraging reductions in illicit drug use, especially among teens," Mr. Brooks said. "In addition, domestic meth labs are way down, cocaine availability is down, and prices are up.
"All these indicators of progress in our nation's continuing struggle to prevent drug distribution and use are threatened because of the Draconian cuts to the Byrne JAG program in this Omnibus Appropriations Bill," he said.
At least 75 percent of every JAG dollar goes to local sheriffs and police departments and the program has been described by both federal and state law-enforcement authorities as highly successful.
Mr. Brooks said state, local and tribal jurisdictions depend on the program to leverage local resources used to fight violence and drugs and that NNOAC is concerned that drastic cuts to the Byrne JAG program will cause multijurisdictional drug task forces to disappear in many states, "giving drug dealers a free pass."
Sunday, January 06, 2008
WAR ON DRUGS LEVIES A HEFTY TOLL
The War on Drugs claimed yet another victim last week when Wake County Alcoholic Beverage Control investigators conducted a drug raid that left one man dead and another wounded.
The deceased was a Texas fugitive by the name of Stephen Scott Thornton; a man who was wanted on federal drug charges for growing marijuana, which he claimed was for medicinal purposes. Thornton had been living in Raleigh for the last several years under an assumed name.
Acting upon a two-month investigation, Wake County ABC agents raided Thornton's home for marijuana plants, where a resulting shoot-out left Thornton dead and a sheriff's deputy wounded in the leg according to Wake County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens.
While none would argue that Thornton's actions weren't illegal, a question arises: at what cost should we continue to enforce the current laws? The fact is, the War on Drugs has already taken countless lives -- those of police officers, innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and other unsavory individuals whose crimes still hardly merit the death penalty.
All the while thousands more lives are ruined -- particularly those of college students, who are instantly disqualified from federal student aid if they are convicted of a drug-related offense. Ironically, even crimes like rape and murder manage not to warrant this level of attention.
To be sure, Thornton hardly comes across as a pitiable character. The incidents that lead to his first conviction in Texas began with Thornton brandishing a gun on a neighbor who had come to confront him about a violent outburst involving the neighbor's dog. When police came to investigate the gun incident, they found dozens of marijuana plants inside Thornton's home.
Thornton pled guilty to charges of illegal possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, yet fled the state while awaiting sentencing.
Compounding this is the fact that Thornton shot at the officers serving the warrant on his home so Thornton's death is not likely to evoke much sympathy. Yet the question remains -- despite Thornton being by all accounts a bad neighbor and potentially a menace, did his crimes warrant death?
Clearly, Thornton sealed his fate when he fired upon one of the officers serving the warrant, and the consequences he paid for it were most severe. However, none of this would have happened were we not stuck with a legal regime which prohibits substances such as marijuana to begin with.
Critics immediately point to the fact that it was marijuana that was responsible for Thornton's unfortunate end, as well as that of countless others. Yet this same flawed logic would just as soon blame alcohol for Al Capone's rise, rather than the real culprit: the Prohibition regime which allowed him to monopolize the bootlegging market and fund his criminal empire. Without Prohibition, bootlegging no longer proved to be a profitable criminal enterprise - and the rest is history.
Thus at some point the question must be asked - at what cost do we continue to wage the War on Drugs? While supporters would point to the negative social consequences from the abuse of drugs like marijuana, how many lives -- both those taken and those destroyed -- do these averted harms possibly justify?
Steve Skutnik
The deceased was a Texas fugitive by the name of Stephen Scott Thornton; a man who was wanted on federal drug charges for growing marijuana, which he claimed was for medicinal purposes. Thornton had been living in Raleigh for the last several years under an assumed name.
Acting upon a two-month investigation, Wake County ABC agents raided Thornton's home for marijuana plants, where a resulting shoot-out left Thornton dead and a sheriff's deputy wounded in the leg according to Wake County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Phyllis Stephens.
While none would argue that Thornton's actions weren't illegal, a question arises: at what cost should we continue to enforce the current laws? The fact is, the War on Drugs has already taken countless lives -- those of police officers, innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and other unsavory individuals whose crimes still hardly merit the death penalty.
All the while thousands more lives are ruined -- particularly those of college students, who are instantly disqualified from federal student aid if they are convicted of a drug-related offense. Ironically, even crimes like rape and murder manage not to warrant this level of attention.
To be sure, Thornton hardly comes across as a pitiable character. The incidents that lead to his first conviction in Texas began with Thornton brandishing a gun on a neighbor who had come to confront him about a violent outburst involving the neighbor's dog. When police came to investigate the gun incident, they found dozens of marijuana plants inside Thornton's home.
Thornton pled guilty to charges of illegal possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, yet fled the state while awaiting sentencing.
Compounding this is the fact that Thornton shot at the officers serving the warrant on his home so Thornton's death is not likely to evoke much sympathy. Yet the question remains -- despite Thornton being by all accounts a bad neighbor and potentially a menace, did his crimes warrant death?
Clearly, Thornton sealed his fate when he fired upon one of the officers serving the warrant, and the consequences he paid for it were most severe. However, none of this would have happened were we not stuck with a legal regime which prohibits substances such as marijuana to begin with.
Critics immediately point to the fact that it was marijuana that was responsible for Thornton's unfortunate end, as well as that of countless others. Yet this same flawed logic would just as soon blame alcohol for Al Capone's rise, rather than the real culprit: the Prohibition regime which allowed him to monopolize the bootlegging market and fund his criminal empire. Without Prohibition, bootlegging no longer proved to be a profitable criminal enterprise - and the rest is history.
Thus at some point the question must be asked - at what cost do we continue to wage the War on Drugs? While supporters would point to the negative social consequences from the abuse of drugs like marijuana, how many lives -- both those taken and those destroyed -- do these averted harms possibly justify?
Steve Skutnik
Saturday, January 05, 2008
GRAVEL TELLS KIDS: USE POT OVER ALCOHOL
Not much has been heard recently from former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel as the candidate continues his long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, but he did gain attention with recent remarks on alcohol and drugs during a high school visit.
Gravel, 77, appeared Sunday night at the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter as part of a series in which candidates and candidate representatives were asked to speak to students about their campaigns. At one point Gravel, who has called the war on drugs a failure, offered the students some advice.
"I'm sure a lot of you have tripped out on alcohol," Gravel said. "It's a lot safer to do it on marijuana."
Gravel, whose comments were recorded by WMUR-TV in Manchester, also told the students, "With respect to other drugs, if you've got a problem with coke, go to a doctor, get a prescription and get it filled at a drug store."
Critics have contended that Gravel has come off as the old angry uncle in his early appearances with the other contenders. But that was before most debate sponsors stopped inviting him to participate. Gravel has billed himself "eclectic."
He has maintained that drug use is a public health problem, not a criminal one, and has proposed replacing what he calls "prohibition" with a regulation of hard drugs. His campaign has reprinted a conversation he had in May with the Iowa Independent Web site in which he expressed support for decriminalization of marijuana.
"Go get yourself a fifth of Scotch or a fifth of gin and chug-a-lug it down and you'll find you lose your senses a lot faster than you would smoking some marijuana," Gravel said.
Julie Quinn, director of communications for Phillips Exeter, would say only that "the candidates have a right to their own opinions."
Gravel, 77, appeared Sunday night at the Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter as part of a series in which candidates and candidate representatives were asked to speak to students about their campaigns. At one point Gravel, who has called the war on drugs a failure, offered the students some advice.
"I'm sure a lot of you have tripped out on alcohol," Gravel said. "It's a lot safer to do it on marijuana."
Gravel, whose comments were recorded by WMUR-TV in Manchester, also told the students, "With respect to other drugs, if you've got a problem with coke, go to a doctor, get a prescription and get it filled at a drug store."
Critics have contended that Gravel has come off as the old angry uncle in his early appearances with the other contenders. But that was before most debate sponsors stopped inviting him to participate. Gravel has billed himself "eclectic."
He has maintained that drug use is a public health problem, not a criminal one, and has proposed replacing what he calls "prohibition" with a regulation of hard drugs. His campaign has reprinted a conversation he had in May with the Iowa Independent Web site in which he expressed support for decriminalization of marijuana.
"Go get yourself a fifth of Scotch or a fifth of gin and chug-a-lug it down and you'll find you lose your senses a lot faster than you would smoking some marijuana," Gravel said.
Julie Quinn, director of communications for Phillips Exeter, would say only that "the candidates have a right to their own opinions."
Friday, January 04, 2008
MENDOCINO COUNTY VOTERS TO REASSESS POT LAW IN JUNE ELECTION
UKIAH - Mendocino County voters in June will decide the fate of a 7-year-old landmark marijuana ordinance that was the first in the nation to decriminalize personal use of pot.
At the end of a contentious three-hour public hearing Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to put Measure G up for voter review in the June 3 primary.
"It's a big step toward regaining control of our county," said Ross Liberty, an organizer of a citizen drive to repeal Measure G.
Tuesday's vote capped weeks of public debate on how to rid Mendocino County of its national reputation as a haven for marijuana growers, blamed in large part on Measure G's passage in 2000 and liberal local law enforcement policies that followed.
Measure G doesn't specifically address medical marijuana limits but rather allows up to 25 plants per person for personal use without fear of prosecution. Under current medical pot rules, Mendocino County allows a licensed user to possess two pounds of dried pot. Sonoma County allows three pounds per user, while Lake County follows recommended state guidelines allowing one-half pound.
The Mendocino County board's vote Tuesday signaled that current county marijuana policies are likely to dominate this year's local elections, including races for three seats on the county board.
Board incumbents Jim Wattenburger, Mike Delbar and Kendall Smith were joined by Supervisor John Pinches in deciding to give voters a second crack at Measure G. Supervisor David Colfax voted no, contending backers of the repeal Measure G drive should be required to go through a lengthy and potentially costly signature-gathering process to get the measure on the ballot.
"We're not deciding. We're simply allowing the voter to decide," Wattenburger said.
Tuesday's board vote followed three hours of public debate, including strenuous objections from longtime local advocates of decriminalizing marijuana for personal and medical uses.
"The rights of cannabis patients are at stake," said medical marijuana advocate Beth Bosk.
Nearly 40 people spoke to the board during Tuesday's hearing held in typical Mendocino County fashion.
Speakers ranged from pot advocate "Professor Ping Pong" to rural residents fearful of dope growers operating down the road. A few members of the audience wore T-shirts proclaiming "It's Only a Plant," while others waved placards in support of Measure G.
At the end of a contentious three-hour public hearing Tuesday, the county Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to put Measure G up for voter review in the June 3 primary.
"It's a big step toward regaining control of our county," said Ross Liberty, an organizer of a citizen drive to repeal Measure G.
Tuesday's vote capped weeks of public debate on how to rid Mendocino County of its national reputation as a haven for marijuana growers, blamed in large part on Measure G's passage in 2000 and liberal local law enforcement policies that followed.
Measure G doesn't specifically address medical marijuana limits but rather allows up to 25 plants per person for personal use without fear of prosecution. Under current medical pot rules, Mendocino County allows a licensed user to possess two pounds of dried pot. Sonoma County allows three pounds per user, while Lake County follows recommended state guidelines allowing one-half pound.
The Mendocino County board's vote Tuesday signaled that current county marijuana policies are likely to dominate this year's local elections, including races for three seats on the county board.
Board incumbents Jim Wattenburger, Mike Delbar and Kendall Smith were joined by Supervisor John Pinches in deciding to give voters a second crack at Measure G. Supervisor David Colfax voted no, contending backers of the repeal Measure G drive should be required to go through a lengthy and potentially costly signature-gathering process to get the measure on the ballot.
"We're not deciding. We're simply allowing the voter to decide," Wattenburger said.
Tuesday's board vote followed three hours of public debate, including strenuous objections from longtime local advocates of decriminalizing marijuana for personal and medical uses.
"The rights of cannabis patients are at stake," said medical marijuana advocate Beth Bosk.
Nearly 40 people spoke to the board during Tuesday's hearing held in typical Mendocino County fashion.
Speakers ranged from pot advocate "Professor Ping Pong" to rural residents fearful of dope growers operating down the road. A few members of the audience wore T-shirts proclaiming "It's Only a Plant," while others waved placards in support of Measure G.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
METHODIST PROGRAM TO BATTLE METH LABS
Congress has awarded Methodist University nearly $400,000 in federal money to develop a program to teach people to detect and destroy illegal methamphetamine labs.
The labs are a growing problem in North Carolina, particularly in some of the rural counties around Fayetteville.
The money for the Methodist program is an earmark in the omnibus spending bill Congress approved just before Christmas.
Methodist officials said they will use the money -- $399,500 -- to buy equipment for the Methamphetamine Education Training Project. The program's goal is to provide training for police and others how to identify and handle the volatile chemicals that are associated with meth labs. The chemicals are an explosive threat and can release toxic fumes. And the waste products of meth production are an environmental hazard. Methodist officials are scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss the grant and to develop the next steps for the program, university spokeswoman Melissa Jameson said.
Four Methodist professors in criminal justice, chemistry and environmental management programs are developing the training.
"Our faculty members are developing this training program in response to the needs of the local community and the state of North Carolina to increase advanced technology used in the field," University President Elton Hendricks said. Methodist's program comes as more meth labs are popping up near Cumberland County. According to December statistics from the State Bureau of Investigation, 41 counties reported meth labs last year. Two counties that border Cumberland -- Harnett, with 13, and Sampson, with nine -- are second and fourth, respectively, in the number of labs in the state. Cumberland County had two labs in 2007, SBI statistics show.
Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, said meth's addictive qualities and toxic vapors made the drug dangerous. She said that investigators have learned that some meth sellers are forgoing the traditional meth lab production and are producing and selling the drug from the back of vehicles, posing a new challenge for investigators.
The labs are a growing problem in North Carolina, particularly in some of the rural counties around Fayetteville.
The money for the Methodist program is an earmark in the omnibus spending bill Congress approved just before Christmas.
Methodist officials said they will use the money -- $399,500 -- to buy equipment for the Methamphetamine Education Training Project. The program's goal is to provide training for police and others how to identify and handle the volatile chemicals that are associated with meth labs. The chemicals are an explosive threat and can release toxic fumes. And the waste products of meth production are an environmental hazard. Methodist officials are scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss the grant and to develop the next steps for the program, university spokeswoman Melissa Jameson said.
Four Methodist professors in criminal justice, chemistry and environmental management programs are developing the training.
"Our faculty members are developing this training program in response to the needs of the local community and the state of North Carolina to increase advanced technology used in the field," University President Elton Hendricks said. Methodist's program comes as more meth labs are popping up near Cumberland County. According to December statistics from the State Bureau of Investigation, 41 counties reported meth labs last year. Two counties that border Cumberland -- Harnett, with 13, and Sampson, with nine -- are second and fourth, respectively, in the number of labs in the state. Cumberland County had two labs in 2007, SBI statistics show.
Debbie Tanna, spokeswoman for the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office, said meth's addictive qualities and toxic vapors made the drug dangerous. She said that investigators have learned that some meth sellers are forgoing the traditional meth lab production and are producing and selling the drug from the back of vehicles, posing a new challenge for investigators.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
DRUGS FOUND IN VACANT HOUSE
Thousands of Dollars of Marijuana Plants Collected; Suspect is Still Being Sought
OCALA - Authorities raided a vacant home Sunday afternoon and found $43,000 worth of marijuana plants - products of what they called a sophisticated drug growing operation.
Investigators have identified a suspect but had made no arrests as of Sunday evening, sheriff's Sgt. Billy Dietrich said.
The raid was the work of the the Marion County Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement Team ( MADET ) and the Ocala High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area ( HIDTA ) Team.
Dietrich said it all started when authorities received a tip about suspicious activity at 8045 Juniper Road, which is west of Baseline Road, south of Southeast 73rd Street and near the county landfill.
They investigated and then obtained a search warrant, which they executed about 1 p.m. on Sunday. Dietrich said they found 43 marijuana plants. The street value: $1,000 each.
He said three rooms were being used for the drug operation. "We're taking [the drug operation] apart right now and collecting our evidence," Dietrich said during a telephone interview Sunday afternoon.
According to the Property Appraiser's Office, the homeowner's mailing address is in Hialeah. The home's assessed value is about $135,000, and the owner hasn't claimed the standard $25,000 homestead exemption. Efforts to reach the owner were unsuccessful.
This raid marks the second time in recent weeks that authorities have busted what they called a sophisticated drug operation.
On Dec. 27, sheriff's deputies dismantled a marijuana grow house at 4675 S.W. 112th Lane. They said they found 171 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of approximately $200,000. Two men were arrested.
OCALA - Authorities raided a vacant home Sunday afternoon and found $43,000 worth of marijuana plants - products of what they called a sophisticated drug growing operation.
Investigators have identified a suspect but had made no arrests as of Sunday evening, sheriff's Sgt. Billy Dietrich said.
The raid was the work of the the Marion County Multi-Agency Drug Enforcement Team ( MADET ) and the Ocala High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area ( HIDTA ) Team.
Dietrich said it all started when authorities received a tip about suspicious activity at 8045 Juniper Road, which is west of Baseline Road, south of Southeast 73rd Street and near the county landfill.
They investigated and then obtained a search warrant, which they executed about 1 p.m. on Sunday. Dietrich said they found 43 marijuana plants. The street value: $1,000 each.
He said three rooms were being used for the drug operation. "We're taking [the drug operation] apart right now and collecting our evidence," Dietrich said during a telephone interview Sunday afternoon.
According to the Property Appraiser's Office, the homeowner's mailing address is in Hialeah. The home's assessed value is about $135,000, and the owner hasn't claimed the standard $25,000 homestead exemption. Efforts to reach the owner were unsuccessful.
This raid marks the second time in recent weeks that authorities have busted what they called a sophisticated drug operation.
On Dec. 27, sheriff's deputies dismantled a marijuana grow house at 4675 S.W. 112th Lane. They said they found 171 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of approximately $200,000. Two men were arrested.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
LEGAL LIMITS NEEDED ON DRIVERS' DRUG USE
AT THE END OF 2007, Alberta's highest court ruled, in effect, that public safety can override human rights legislation when it comes to drug use.
As we see it, the time is ripe for the same philosophy to be applied when it comes to highway traffic safety.
The landmark case involved the right of a construction company based at the Syncrude project in the Alberta Oil Sands to enforce a ban on any form of illegal drug use by an employee in a job where there's a high risk of accidents. The employee was fired in 2002 when mandatory pre-employment drug test showed traces of marijuana had remained in his system five days after he smoked the pot.
The employee, John Chiasson, complained to to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, but a hearing panel dismissed the complaint. A Court of Queen's Bench judge overturned the panel's ruling, but the Court of Appeal restored the original decision.
There were two key points involved. The first was the right of a company to enforce a zero-tolerance rule, and the second the right of an individual to act in a manner that might endanger others. Those ingredients, surely, should apply in the case of highway traffic safety.
The Criminal Code and the Highway Traffic Act already have provisions against driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol and the Code sets a legal limit of .08 parts per 100 millilitres in a driver's blood. But there's no similar limit set for drug-impairment.
Highway traffic is at least as safety-sensitive as any construction job. We would suggest that the statistics would bear that out.
As we see it, the statutes should be amended to establish a guideline on drug-induced impairment. Granted, this might give rise to cases in which a driver had been both drinking and toking and while his blood-alcohol and drug levels were within the legal limit, the combination rendered him unfit to drive.
But hopefully our legislators have enough intelligence to iron out any possible enforcement complications. In the interests of public safety, they should take a cue from the Alberta court and find a way to outlaw drug use on the highways.
As we see it, the time is ripe for the same philosophy to be applied when it comes to highway traffic safety.
The landmark case involved the right of a construction company based at the Syncrude project in the Alberta Oil Sands to enforce a ban on any form of illegal drug use by an employee in a job where there's a high risk of accidents. The employee was fired in 2002 when mandatory pre-employment drug test showed traces of marijuana had remained in his system five days after he smoked the pot.
The employee, John Chiasson, complained to to the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission, but a hearing panel dismissed the complaint. A Court of Queen's Bench judge overturned the panel's ruling, but the Court of Appeal restored the original decision.
There were two key points involved. The first was the right of a company to enforce a zero-tolerance rule, and the second the right of an individual to act in a manner that might endanger others. Those ingredients, surely, should apply in the case of highway traffic safety.
The Criminal Code and the Highway Traffic Act already have provisions against driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol and the Code sets a legal limit of .08 parts per 100 millilitres in a driver's blood. But there's no similar limit set for drug-impairment.
Highway traffic is at least as safety-sensitive as any construction job. We would suggest that the statistics would bear that out.
As we see it, the statutes should be amended to establish a guideline on drug-induced impairment. Granted, this might give rise to cases in which a driver had been both drinking and toking and while his blood-alcohol and drug levels were within the legal limit, the combination rendered him unfit to drive.
But hopefully our legislators have enough intelligence to iron out any possible enforcement complications. In the interests of public safety, they should take a cue from the Alberta court and find a way to outlaw drug use on the highways.
Friday, December 14, 2007
US TX: Drug Use By Teens Drops
DRUG USE BY TEENS DROPS Study finds overall decline, but painkillers' popularity is constant WASHINGTON ( AP ) - Illicit drug use by teens continued to gradually decline overall this year, but the use of prescription painkillers remains popular among young people, according to a federally financed study released Tuesday at the White House. The survey, by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, looked at the behavior of 8th, 10th and 12th graders nationwide. The study, in its 33rd year, found that overall drug use is falling, thanks to a drop in the popularity of marijuana and methamphetamines. The drugs most responsible for this year's decline in illicit drug use are marijuana and various stimulants, including amphetamines, methamphetamine and crystal methamphetamine. At least one in every 20 high school seniors has at least tried OxyContin, a powerful narcotic drug, in the past year, the study said. The popularity of the painkiller Vicodin also remained constant. The percentage of students using Vicodin was 2.7 percent, 7.2 percent and 9.6 percent in 8th, 10th and 12th grades, respectively. Marijuana still remains the most widely used of all the illicit drugs. Cocaine was the one stimulant that did not show a decline this year. The study tracked a fairly sharp increase in the use of anabolic steroids by male teens in the late 1990s, 2000, 2001 and 2002. Since those peak years, the annual prevalence rate has dropped by more than half among the 8th and 10th grade males - to 1.1 percent and 1.7 percent, respectively - and by 40 percent among 12th-grade males to 2.3 percent this year. "The cumulative declines since recent peak levels of drug involvement in the mid-1990s are quite substantial especially among the youngest students," said Lloyd Johnston, the principal investigator for the study, which was financed by the National Institute on Drug Use. It surveyed 50,000 teens. "The most encouraging statistic relates to the use of methamphetamine, which has plummeted by an impressive 64 percent since 2001," President Bush said. The study also reported an increase in the use of ecstasy. Ecstasy use among teens dropped dramatically in the early 2000s, as concern about the consequences of use grew. However, the proportion of students seeing great risk in using this drug has been in decline for the past two or three years at all three grade levels, and use has begun to increase, at least in the upper grades.
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Wednesday, December 12, 2007
US OR: King Bong
KING BONG Paul Stanford Is Oregon's "Drug Czar." Now He's Under Attack. Paul Stanford should be at the top of his game. After more than two decades growing, toking and agitating to legalize cannabis, the 47-year-old Portlander is now running the largest chain of medical-marijuana clinics in the nation. Stanford spends half his time jetting between home and Honolulu, Los Angeles, Denver and Seattle, visiting his clinics that have helped thousands gain medical-marijuana permits. His nonprofit, The Hemp & Cannabis ( ahem, THC ) Foundation, is on track to rake in $2 million this year. His headquarters in Southeast Portland is the center of Stanford's dank ganja empire. On a recent Monday morning, the folding chairs and overstuffed couches in the waiting room were filled with about 30 people--many looking as if they'd just rolled out of bed--who were busily scratching out applications for permits to toke. If there is a kingpin of pot in Portland, it's Stanford--a man who can be credited with helping more people smoke legally here than anyone else. Of the 14,831 patients currently registered in the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, Stanford estimates more than half, 8,000, gained their license to burn with the help of his clinic. "The goal of my life has been to end the adult prohibition from marijuana," Stanford says. Oregon's medical-marijuana initiative, which Stanford helped pass in 1998, brought him one step closer and landed Stanford's clinics on the national map. "He's certainly well known," says Allen St. Pierre, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in Washington, D.C. Stanford is also winning accolades--on Dec. 15, he's set to receive the Freedom Fighter of the Year award from Oregon NORML. But all is not well in Stanford's green-tinted world. Even his own daily dose of the herb can't dispel the fact that his five-state operation--and his own reputation--is under simultaneous attack from three quarters, each one a potent buzz-kill in its own right. Taken together, they're like dirty bong water spilled on a clean set of sheets. First, there's former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kevin Mannix, who's pushing a 2008 initiative that would eliminate most of Stanford's client base by killing Oregon's Medical Marijuana Program. "It's gone overboard, and yes, he's been a part of taking it overboard," Mannix says. And then there's the Internal Revenue Service, which WW has learned is investigating Stanford for allegedly running his nonprofit as a personal slush fund. "This is a million-dollar organization that's being run like a lemonade stand," says Victoria Cox, spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice. Finally, there are those within the movement itself who claim that Stanford and others like him are driving Oregon's medical-marijuana program in the wrong direction by running it as a thinly veiled commercial enterprise. "All they're doing is endangering this program for the very sick and disabled people who count on this medicine," says Jerry Wade, spokesman for the Stormy Ray Cardholders' Foundation, a Salem nonprofit promoting patient rights. It's a treacherous time for Stanford, who nevertheless manages to shrug off his critics like an after-school DARE ad. A look at his past reveals that he's had his share of downers--a stint in the Oregon prison system, multiple allegations of fraud, even a bizarre plot by conspirators to take over his clinics. Sitting recently at a Starbucks, sipping a seasonal drug of choice, an eggnog latte, Stanford was downright mellow about the world crashing down around him. "I'll keep carrying on," he says, "because I believe in what I'm doing." Stanford is a chubby guy with a warm handshake and no small amount of charm--tools he employs to take a stranger or a roomful of people quickly into his confidence. He's a familiar face to many Portlanders from his weekly local-access cable TV show, Cannabis Common Sense . In 25 years fighting to liberalize Oregon's drug laws, he's smoked with just about everyone who matters in the ganja counterculture, including Willie Nelson, Woody Harrelson and Tommy Chong. It becomes clear soon after meeting Stanford that he gives the lie to most stereotypes of a stoner. His memory is impeccable--he effortlessly rattles off dates ( his first marijuana rally: July 4, 1978 ), statistics ( 40 percent of his clients are low-income ) and details, down to the lyrics of the song that was playing the first time the police kicked down his door in 1986 ( "the future's uncertain and the end is always near," from the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" ). Despite his multimillion-dollar cannabis empire, Stanford doesn't go in for bling. His ride is a powder-blue 2007 Chrysler Town&Country minivan cluttered with stray Bob Dylan CDs, and he lives with his wife and three kids in a small rented house on a dead-end street in Laurelhurst. His weekends aren't exactly the stuff of a Biggie Smalls biopic either. Friday nights see him shuttling his kids to school events, then rushing to tape his cable show--where he reads the latest cannabis news, invites potheads to play guitar, interviews guests and gives advice on growing. It's the last bit that draws the most urgent calls from viewers--after three decades cultivating world-class cannabis, Stanford is an acknowledged expert who can rattle off the optimal amount of light to give a plant during vegetation ( 18 hours ) or, more obscurely, the perfect angle at which to keep plants tilted during bloom ( 50 degrees ). True, being a drug czar sometimes interferes with family life. His wife--who, like Stanford, holds a medical-marijuana card and partakes almost daily--doesn't let him come to her office Christmas parties. She lives in fear someone will recognize him from TV and she'll be drug-tested at work. The kids, who attend Mount Tabor Middle School and Franklin High School, know perfectly well what Mom and Dad are up to when they hide themselves away. But Stanford says they show no interest in experimenting with their parents' stash. "They're like all kids," he says. "They don't want to do what their parents do." Stanford's 25 years in Portland have seen a string of hard luck and false starts. The Texas transplant attended Portland State University but never graduated, started a failed hemp-importing business, ran a string of unsuccessful campaigns to legalize pot, and supported himself by selling dope from illegal grows--getting busted twice and spending five months in prison. But when the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act passed in 1998, Stanford saw opportunity and seized it. His window: Many doctors were wary of cannabis as medicine, and patients were afraid to ask their regular physician to sign for a medical-marijuana card. Stanford's plan was to hook up patients with sympathetic doctors. After meeting each patient and consulting their medical records, Stanford's physicians provide their signatures and Stanford charges a $160 fee--less for low-income patients. With offices in five states, Stanford has more locations than any other medical-marijuana clinic in the country, opening in 2000. He's helped 24,000 people get permits, 18,000 of them in Oregon. In Portland, he was first on the scene. "I am always going to have a special allegiance to Paul, because when the chips were down, he was the only clinic there," says Dr. Richard Bayer, one of the original chief petitioners for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Stanford's headquarters is a 5,000-square-foot building on Southeast Ankeny Street. It's clearly not a typical medical clinic. Psychedelic posters advertise Hempstalk, the annual outdoor dope fest Stanford puts on in Portland. His patients are a disheveled-looking crowd, mostly middle-aged. The spicy scent of unburnt bud wafts off the patients and Stanford's 12-member office staff--most of whom hold medical-marijuana cards themselves. One of those patients is Jerry, a general contractor from Southeast Portland who did not give his last name. Gulping a Full Throttle energy drink in Stanford's clinic, where he comes to renew his permit once a year, Jerry said he started smoking as a teenager, went "from recreational to habitual," then got a medical marijuana card two years ago for chronic pain and hepatitis. Now he grows at home and smokes every couple of hours. "I don't believe in pills and I don't believe in drugs," he says. "Marijuana is not a drug." Stanford's success depends on the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. And that's exactly what Kevin Mannix wants to do away with. Mannix, a wonkish former Democrat reborn as a tough-on-crime Republican, is a point person for Initiative 131. If it makes it to the ballot and passes, the measure would do three things: increase penalties for repeat sex offenses, increase penalties for repeat DUIIs, and nix medical marijuana. Instead, it would allow prescription THC pills, which patients say are too expensive and not as effective. Pending a court challenge, the campaign has not yet begun gathering signatures. For most voters, the idea of locking up serial drunk drivers and sex offenders is a slam dunk. The question is whether support for medical marijuana 10 years after the law was passed is strong enough to justify a "no" vote on the measure. And that's an open debate, because there's no small number of people--from police to neighbors living next to large pot grows--who view the act as merely a legal front for stoners to get high. "It's been hijacked by those who are legalization proponents to use the drug--not for medicinal purposes but for recreational," says Pat Donaldson, a founder of the Citizens' Crime Commission in Portland. And he sees Stanford as part of the problem. "I'm questioning his motives," Donaldson says. "What he is doing is legal. But he is ultimately enabling people who may not be in need of this." Mannix's call to eighty-six medical marijuana echoes long-held concerns that the program is a safe haven for illegal growers. Oregon law allows medical pot permit holders to designate so-called "caregivers" who can grow up to six plants for each of their patients, but they are not allowed to sell. Yet police across the state have reported trouble with caregivers cultivating massive commercial grows. Stanford himself is a caregiver for 20 patients, and he has indoor and outdoor grows in Southeast Portland. Among the strains he grows are White Widow, Crippled Rhino, Medicine Woman, Green Goddess and Strawberry Cough. And not surprisingly, he's already taking an active role in opposing Initiative 131, blasting the measure on his cable show and preparing to pile money into a counter-campaign. Even if Mannix's measure fails to shut down medical marijuana, an ongoing IRS investigation could hit Stanford with the ultimate come-down--revocation of his foundation's status as a nonprofit. Based on a tip by a former employee, the state Department of Justice's Charitable Activities Section began looking into the foundation's finances in 2005. After interviewing Stanford in May of last year, the state turned the case over to the IRS--a spokesman there declined to say when the probe will be completed. In an interoffice memo obtained by WW , DOJ investigative auditor Douglas Pearson noted the following concerns about Stanford's foundation: * The THCF board consists only of Stanford, his mother, and Tim Herman, Stanford's friend and handyman. They meet once a year. * The nonprofit has no internal financial controls, with Stanford overseeing all income and disbursements. * In 2006, Stanford received $100,000 to cover "personal expenses." ( Stanford told WW he pays himself only $30,000 a year ). * Stanford pays no federal income tax for his employees and appears to have "serious and repeated violations of IRS regulations." Stanford is convinced the government is cracking down on him in part because he opposes the war on drugs. Cox, the DOJ spokeswoman, says that's absurd. "An organization of this size needs professional management, and they have their corporate records in shopping bags--literally," she says. Stanford denies any financial wrongdoing and remains convinced he'll retain his nonprofit status. "I haven't really worried or stressed on it because I haven't done anything wrong," he says. The feds are predictable enemies of a man like Stanford. More surprising, and far more personal, are attacks he endures from within the pro-marijuana movement itself. The most vicious come from Jerry Wade, spokesman for the Stormy Ray Cardholders' Foundation. ( Stormy Ray suffers from multiple sclerosis and was one of the original petitioners for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. ) Wade accuses Stanford of using his position as a ganja giant to push for legalization at the expense of patients. "It completely discredits medical marijuana and gives ammunition to everyone who's against us," Wade says. "If you want to change the law, change it, but don't do it on the backs of sick and disabled people." As a negative example of the way things might go in Oregon if people like Stanford have their way, Wade points to California, where commercial dispensaries have become clubs and boutique shops catering to wealthy college students--and too expensive for many sick people to afford. Stanford doesn't hide his goal of legalizing weed. He's pushing an initiative for the 2010 state ballot that would tax and regulate the sale of cannabis to adults 21 and over, while providing medicinal dope at a nominal price in pharmacies. But he disputes Wade's criticism. "I'm absolutely against anything that would raise prices for patients," he says. There are two other nonprofit clinics in Portland that specialize in hooking up patients with medical-marijuana permits--Voter Power, and Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse. Both are located in Southeast Portland and are headed by longtime associates of Stanford's. Their client lists don't approach Stanford's in size, and in the incestuous world of Portland pot politics, neither clinic's owner is a particularly big fan of Stanford. John Sajo, head of Voter Power, professes respect for Stanford's business savvy--though their 25-year, on-again-off-again partnership campaigning for legalization and growing bud has at times been strained. Sandee Burbank, head of MAMA, says she's known Stanford "for too many years"--that is, since the 1980s. "He's misrepresented to me, lied to me and stole," she says. "I don't want to go into it." The success of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act in 1998 prompted Microsoft millionaire Bruce McKinney to try to legalize dope in Washington state. In 1999, he gave Stanford $100,000 to start a campaign--but in a federal lawsuit filed in Portland the following year, he claimed $63,000 disappeared while in Stanford's hands. A judge found McKinney's claim was mostly right, and in 2003 he ordered Stanford to pay back $39,000, including $4,200 Stanford had allegedly spent on a Ford Thunderbird. Stanford says he never paid. McKinney--now a real-estate developer in Silver City, N.M.--blasted Stanford in an email to WW . "Basically, Paul Stanford is a thief," McKinney wrote. "He makes a living taking advantage of drug reformers and stealing their money. There is some debate about whether Stanford is consciously a crook...or if he is a sincere reformer who just can't separate his own personal interest from the interests of the organizations he works for. Either way, he has a long history of deceit and betrayal." Stanford takes issue with McKinney's lawsuit, but he acknowledges that it occurred during what Stanford recalls as his darkest period. On top of the court battle, Stanford filed for bankruptcy multiple times in 1999 and 2000, his house was foreclosed on in 2001, and his wife temporarily left him that same year. Then, in 2005--in an event that ranks as bizarre even in the Stanford chronicles--the normally tranquil atmosphere at his clinic was interrupted when Rochelle Leveque, a former receptionist at the clinic who had been fired three weeks prior, arrived with her attorney, Frederick Smith, in tow. Stanford says the two tried to take over the clinic and change the locks, then left after police arrived. Leveque was working with a man named Daniel Keys, who was down in Salem at the Secretary of State's office that same day registering the name The Hemp & Cannabis Foundation--Stanford had failed to reapply with the state to keep the name. He lost a lawsuit against Keys to get the name back and has since changed the foundation's official name to THCF. Leveque, who died in September of a heart attack, was the daughter of Dr. Phillip Leveque, the clinic's first doctor until he lost his medical license in 2004 for qualifying patients for the medical-marijuana program without seeing them in person. Dr. Leveque confirms his daughter planned to turn the clinic over to him after ousting Stanford. "I knew more about the damn thing than he did," Leveque says. Don DuPay, a marijuana advocate who worked at Stanford's clinic for a year starting in 2006, says chaos prevailed. "He's always one step away from disaster," says DuPay, who lost a run for Multnomah County sheriff in 2006. "Bouncing payroll checks is one of the things that pissed me off. He's too unstable for me to be around." Whatever his detractors say, it's clear Stanford is determined to maintain his empire. He's considering buying property for his patients' marijuana grows in east Multnomah County, and next year he plans to open a new clinic in Nevada. "I'm going to keep helping as many patients as I can," Stanford says. "We keep growing." [sidebar] TIMELINE 1980: Stanford enrolls at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Wash., where he gets involved with the pro-marijuana movement and joins Abbie Hoffman's Yippie party. 1982: On summer break in L.A., Stanford crashes in the blacklight room of a headshop owned by "Captain" Ed Adair, a famous marijuana crusader. There Stanford learned about Oregon's voter initiative to legalize marijuana, which did not make the ballot. 1984: Stanford moves to Portland, where cannabis icon Jack Herer writes portions of his seminal pro-ganja book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes , in Stanford's house on Southeast 34th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard. 1986: Stanford leads a petition drive to put legalization on the state ballot. Vice President George Bush and first lady Nancy Reagan tour the state in opposition, and it loses with 26 percent of the vote. Stanford says proceeds from sensimilla he grew were the major source of funds for the initiative campaign. Cops raid his four grow houses and bust down the door at Stanford's girlfriend's place to find him smoking a joint. Stanford is sentenced to five years of probation and a $7,500 fine. 1991: Stanford does five months in prison on a probation violation for visiting China ( a violation of his sentence ) and getting busted for possession at the U.S. Capitol, where guards searched his camera bag and found three-quarters of an ounce. When he showed his fellow inmates a picture of himself in the marijuana magazine High Times , Stanford says he was treated "like a guest of honor" in prison. 1992: Stanford starts Ropewalk Paper&Fiber with seed money loaned from Steve Orgel, owner of the House of Hemp in downtown Portland. The company, which imported legal hemp products from China, goes belly up, and Orgel sues Stanford. A judge rules in 1996 that Stanford owed Orgel $24,000, with interest--a sum Stanford admits he never paid back. [sidebar] THE BLUNT TRUTH When famous Oregonians first--and last--Smoked pot. Darcelle XV, Portland's most famous transvestite "It was at one party in 1971. I went to sleep and missed the party. And that was it. Didn't want to miss any more parties." Kevin Mannix, backer of an intiative to kill the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act "I follow the U.S. Navy's policy of nuclear weapons on its vessels: I do not confirm or deny. I don't engage in discussion in these kinds of questions...whether Bill Clinton wears boxers or briefs." Lee Montgomery, editor of Tin House Books and 2007 Oregon Book Award winner for The Things Between Us "That's just so irrelevant. The last time was probably 1975. The first time was probably 1969." John Callahan, syndicated cartoonist "The first time was when I was 14. I didn't think I was stoned the first time, but we were sitting watching some cows in a field. It came to a culmination when we were driving and I leaned my head out the window and made the sound of a sheep as we were passing a herd of cows. I had gotten the salutation wrong, and everyone laughed at me. I couldn't quite figure out why. And then I had a bad LSD trip when I was 18. It scared me so badly that I think that's the last time I smoked pot." Bill Sizemore, political activist "I never smoked pot. But let me tell you this story: I was a park-ranger aide during a rock festival in 1970, I believe it was. I had to go around and make all the people outside the fence pay to stay in the state park. Every tent I went to I got a very strong whiff of marijuana smoke every time I pulled back the tent flaps. I never got a buzz. I didn't see how they could breathe it. I grew up around the drug culture, and I was curious about it but never drawn to it." Mary Starrett, former AM Northwest host, Constitution Party candidate for governor in 2006 "First time I was a senior in college in Boston. The year was 1975. The next time I smoked pot was in 1983. Both times were horrible experiences. Someone told me there must have been something in what I smoked. It was just very oppressive, very disturbing. It was almost terrorizing. I must be THC-sensitive. So I never tried it after that because it wasn't something I enjoyed." Storm Large, actress and singer "First time was in seventh grade....last time was about a week ago...and the next time will be when I go to Zoolights." Patty Wentz, acting spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Kulongoski "The governor is very busy dealing with the disaster response. We can get back to you with an answer to this question after all the people in Vernonia, and Tillamook, Lincoln and Clatsop counties are taken care of. Until then, we're heads down." John Doussard, communications director for Mayor Tom Potter "My guess is that Tom isn't going to see much utility in participating in this." We also left messages with U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer ( D-Ore. ); Democratic U.S. Senate contenders Jeff Merkley and Steve Novick; state Sen. Kate Brown; city Commissioners Sam Adams, Randy Leonard, Erik Sten and Dan Saltzman; ex-Mayor Bud Clark; Pink Martini's Thomas Lauderdale; Brian McMenamin, Portland LumberJax owner Angela Batinovich, and Beavers owner Merritt Paulson. They did not return our calls by the time WW went to press. [sidebar] Stanford's pain from an Army knee injury qualifies him for a medical-marijuana card, which he uses to inhale high-grade skunk from a vaporizer most nights before bed. A vaporizer heats buds to convert the active ingredient, THC, into a mist. The user then inhales the pure drug without the harsh smoke. This year, an assistant U.S. attorney in Yakima, Wash., tried to subpoena records for 17 of Stanford's patients--an attempt Stanford defeated in court with the help of the ACLU. Stanford's local-access cable TV show airs Fridays at 8 pm on Comcast Cable Channel 11. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates there are 300,000 regular marijuana users in Oregon, which has a population of 3.7 million. To qualify for the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, patients must have been diagnosed with one of the following: Alzheimer's, cancer, hepatitis, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS or another condition that causes nausea, severe pain, seizures, muscle spasms or cachexia ( loss of appetite ).
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Tuesday, December 11, 2007
CN AB: Grow Op Storage Costing Thousands
GROW OP STORAGE COSTING THOUSANDS Police Plan To Destroy Equipment Calgary police are taking steps to get rid of eight years' worth of seized marijuana grow operation equipment they have been paying to store in an Edmonton warehouse -- a move that could have a ripple effect for police services across the country. "There's no reason to keep it," Sgt. Ron Ternes said of the hundreds of crates of equipment. "Why are we holding all this stuff?" The Edmonton warehouse is being used to store at least 630 crates -- each about three metres by two metres. Police say they will dispose of unclaimed goods and move toward a system where the equipment is destroyed at the scene. This is expected to save tens of thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- of dollars. Ternes began looking into the storage issue about four years ago as he started refining the process for storing and dealing with drug growing equipment seized under warrants. But the problem still remained that there was a massive volume of seized grow op equipment that had been shipped to Edmonton, where it was stored in a warehouse by an arm of the federal government. The goods were held in the provincial capital because the special projects management directorate doesn't have storage in Calgary, Ternes said. About 18 months ago, a deputy chief analyzing figures related to proceeds of crime reimbursements from the federal government realized the number was smaller than it should be. The officer discovered the service was being charged to have the equipment stored in Edmonton. "It was almost like a hidden cost," Ternes said. Ternes questioned why taxpayers were shelling out to store equipment for trials that had come and gone. "If we hadn't taken this action, they would have just kept storing it and storing it and leasing more warehouses," he said. "That comes out of our budget, which comes out of the taxpayers' pockets. "The monies we save can be put toward policing in Calgary," Ternes said. The chairman of the Calgary police commission praised the service for taking action, but said he wasn't surprised to hear of the problem. "Wherever you get a big operation and you're working in an integrated fashion with other services, these things happen," Denis Painchaud said. "What's important is people are paying attention and are doing something about it." He said that policing is the largest budgetary item taxpayers are funding in the city. Police departments from B.C. to Ontario are facing similar situations and are keeping a close eye on Calgary's progress, with the hope of following suit. "It's become an issue right across the country," Ternes said. "We're the farthest ahead in the process. We're getting a lot of inquiries from departments across the country about the process." In working through the process to get rid of the stored items, Ternes has had to get a series of forfeiture orders signed by a provincial court judge. The judge also said, to cover all bases, the service would have to notify the owners of the equipment that Calgary police are moving toward having it destroyed. In a massive classified advertisement listing hundreds of case file numbers, police are giving notice they will destroy the marijuana grow operation equipment seized by officers between January 1999 and March 2007. The ad says anyone who owned the equipment and wants to make a claim to have it returned can contact Ternes. But he doesn't expect people will step forward because once they admit ownership of property related to a criminal offence, they will be subject to further investigation. "It's a technicality," he said of the ad. Ternes expects the service will get the authorization in the first week of January to go ahead with destroying the stored goods. The majority of the items are metal and will be recycled.
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US MN: Marijuana Growers Tend Potent Kind Of Pot
MARIJUANA GROWERS TEND POTENT KIND OF POT Hennepin County narcotics officers are busting more home-grown marijuana operations -- sometimes in upscale suburbs. One reason for increased home production is the decreased flow of high-grade pot from Canada since border controls tightened up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said Sheriff Rich Stanek. Another factor is more indoor cultivation of higher-grade marijuana that's is up to six times more potent than that sold years ago, he said. Higher potency raises dealer profits and also may increase addictiveness, a drug expert said. Hennepin County's biggest bust, which reached into Anoka County, occurred at Bloomington and Blaine homes owned by brothers Derek and Jon Stoa. Police seized 1,250 marijuana plants with a $4.8 million street value in raids at the properties, county records show. More plants were found in a room hidden behind a bookcase in a barn near Barnum, Minn., that the brothers owned. If convicted on federal drug charges, the Stoas could forfeit $1 million in real estate. This fall, narcotics agents confiscated another 1,100 marijuana plants worth more than $4.4 million from an upscale home in a west-metro suburb. The suspects had stolen electricity for growing lights by chopping through the basement wall and digging underground to tap a utility power line, Stanek said. In dozens of busts since January 2006, Hennepin deputies and the West Metro and Southwest Hennepin Drug Task Forces have seized: Sixty guns. About 6,900 marijuana plants and 330 pounds of processed pot with a street value of about $29 million. Real estate valued in excess of $1.37 million. $801,000 in cash and bank accounts. Lights and growing equipment worth $370,000. Vehicles worth $220,000. High Potency, Higher Price Stanek said well-armed SWAT teams are used to bust indoor pot operations because "these high-grade marijuana growers are protecting these crops at any cost." Indoor pot can be grown faster and has a higher content of the illicit drug's main active chemical, THC. That can increase one plant's value to as much as $5,000, compared to $300 for an outdoor plant, said sheriff's spokeswoman Kathryn Janicek. In the past decade, marijuana has sent more people into Twin Cities addiction treatment programs than any other illicit drug, said Carol Falkowski, author of semiannual reports tracking hospital drug and alcohol admissions. The more potent pot, like other stronger drugs, "can hasten the progression from occasional use to regular use to addiction," she said. In 2006, marijuana was the principal drug problem for 18.3 percent of area hospitals' drug admissions, followed by cocaine at 14 percent, she said. ( Alcohol accounted for 48 percent of admissions, she said. ) Hennepin County efforts mirror crackdowns across the country. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, federal agents have confiscated more than 400,000 marijuana plants with a potential value of $6.4 billion so far in 2007. That compares with 270,000 plants seized in 2006. It took 20 minutes to break through the barricaded basement door at one of the Stoa brothers' Bloomington homes, Janicek said. The Stoas had no legal income that would support lifestyles that included several lake homes near Barnum, which prosecutors are seeking to have forfeited because they allegedly were bought with drug money, she said.
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US CA: Edu: Column: New Pot Raids Call For New National
NEW POT RAIDS CALL FOR NEW NATIONAL LEADERSHIP For all you stoners out there, we all took a hit a couple of weeks ago ( and I'm not talking about the kind that makes you all happy and giddy ). The hit I'm talking about is when the feds raided a Long Beach medical marijuana dispensary. Long Beach Compassionate Caregivers ( as the joint was officially called ), located on 342 E. Fourth St., has now been "closed indefinitely" after the feds served a search warrant "on the basis of probable cause." "We believe they are in violation of federal law," said a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. There are currently 12 states that acknowledge the medicinal value of marijuana by allowing shops like Compassionate Caregivers to operate. However, federal law still refuses to recognize it because of this so-called "War on Drugs" that's been going on for virtually forever now. It's all politics. They disregard and overlook the health-related benefits for the seriously ill and dying. Medical cannabis patients cannot be prosecuted in the state of California, but they can be prosecuted under federal law because federal laws supersede state laws. Recently, in Garden Grove, the court ordered police to return medically prescribed pot confiscated during a traffic stop, after police refused to do so because of federal law. The judge ruled that it's not the responsibility of local police to enforce federal drug laws. You would think that the state laws would be made in accordance with federal law. Even so, it's sad that we, the people who voted for the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, can't even get the backing of the men in black, who claim they are working for us and not against us. If you ask me, the federal government is exercising discrimination against the 12 states that recognize medical marijuana in their laws. That was all the "probable cause" they needed. The feds have nothing better to do, so to cause a little raucous, they attack California, a state about as liberal as they come. How fitting for this to have occurred. It might be a political message to presidential candidate Barack Obama who admitted to inhaling when he was a kid. "I inhaled frequently. That was the point," said Obama during a televised interview. That is the most candid thing I've ever heard out of a politician's mouth, especially one running for president. Remember when Bill Clinton said, "I did not inhale?" Who was he kidding? We saw right through you, Bill. So you smoked a little ganja back in the day, big deal. Speaking of Bill, Hillary Clinton better watch out because Obama might be winning over the votes of stoner America with the issue of legalizing medical marijuana. The War on Drugs would be another twist to the election besides this whole "War against Terrorism." As a woman, I was all for Clinton becoming the first woman president. But, in light of the fact that Obama may possibly be a supporter of medical marijuana, I am given hope that, one day, marijuana will become a controlled substance just like alcohol and tobacco. "I would not have the Justice Department prosecute anybody with medical marijuana. It's not a good use of our resources," said Obama just a few months ago. He seriously said that. Look it up on YouTube. It'll make any pothead start chanting his name in song. It's no wonder he seems to appeal to the younger voters. With Obama in the White House, maybe there is a chance at legalizing marijuana. He's been there, done that. He knows how it goes. People are going to smoke pot regardless of what laws are in place, the same way minors are still consuming alcohol despite the age limit set forth by our laws. The government should just stop fighting it and capitalize on the black market sales of marijuana by legalizing and regulating it. They can tax the hell out of it and pump that money back into our economy. Plus, instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on federal raids like the one in Long Beach, they would be saving themselves a lot of money. Like Obama said, it's just not a good use of our resources. Up with hope! Legalize dope!
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CN AB: Grow Op Storage Costing Thousands
GROW OP STORAGE COSTING THOUSANDS Police Plan To Destroy Equipment Calgary police are taking steps to get rid of eight years' worth of seized marijuana grow operation equipment they have been paying to store in an Edmonton warehouse -- a move that could have a ripple effect for police services across the country. "There's no reason to keep it," Sgt. Ron Ternes said of the hundreds of crates of equipment. "Why are we holding all this stuff?" The Edmonton warehouse is being used to store at least 630 crates -- each about three metres by two metres. Police say they will dispose of unclaimed goods and move toward a system where the equipment is destroyed at the scene. This is expected to save tens of thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- of dollars. Ternes began looking into the storage issue about four years ago as he started refining the process for storing and dealing with drug growing equipment seized under warrants. But the problem still remained that there was a massive volume of seized grow op equipment that had been shipped to Edmonton, where it was stored in a warehouse by an arm of the federal government. The goods were held in the provincial capital because the special projects management directorate doesn't have storage in Calgary, Ternes said. About 18 months ago, a deputy chief analyzing figures related to proceeds of crime reimbursements from the federal government realized the number was smaller than it should be. The officer discovered the service was being charged to have the equipment stored in Edmonton. "It was almost like a hidden cost," Ternes said. Ternes questioned why taxpayers were shelling out to store equipment for trials that had come and gone. "If we hadn't taken this action, they would have just kept storing it and storing it and leasing more warehouses," he said. "That comes out of our budget, which comes out of the taxpayers' pockets. "The monies we save can be put toward policing in Calgary," Ternes said. The chairman of the Calgary police commission praised the service for taking action, but said he wasn't surprised to hear of the problem. "Wherever you get a big operation and you're working in an integrated fashion with other services, these things happen," Denis Painchaud said. "What's important is people are paying attention and are doing something about it." He said that policing is the largest budgetary item taxpayers are funding in the city. Police departments from B.C. to Ontario are facing similar situations and are keeping a close eye on Calgary's progress, with the hope of following suit. "It's become an issue right across the country," Ternes said. "We're the farthest ahead in the process. We're getting a lot of inquiries from departments across the country about the process." In working through the process to get rid of the stored items, Ternes has had to get a series of forfeiture orders signed by a provincial court judge. The judge also said, to cover all bases, the service would have to notify the owners of the equipment that Calgary police are moving toward having it destroyed. In a massive classified advertisement listing hundreds of case file numbers, police are giving notice they will destroy the marijuana grow operation equipment seized by officers between January 1999 and March 2007. The ad says anyone who owned the equipment and wants to make a claim to have it returned can contact Ternes. But he doesn't expect people will step forward because once they admit ownership of property related to a criminal offence, they will be subject to further investigation. "It's a technicality," he said of the ad. Ternes expects the service will get the authorization in the first week of January to go ahead with destroying the stored goods. The majority of the items are metal and will be recycled.
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US MN: Marijuana Growers Tend Potent Kind Of Pot
MARIJUANA GROWERS TEND POTENT KIND OF POT Hennepin County narcotics officers are busting more home-grown marijuana operations -- sometimes in upscale suburbs. One reason for increased home production is the decreased flow of high-grade pot from Canada since border controls tightened up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said Sheriff Rich Stanek. Another factor is more indoor cultivation of higher-grade marijuana that's is up to six times more potent than that sold years ago, he said. Higher potency raises dealer profits and also may increase addictiveness, a drug expert said. Hennepin County's biggest bust, which reached into Anoka County, occurred at Bloomington and Blaine homes owned by brothers Derek and Jon Stoa. Police seized 1,250 marijuana plants with a $4.8 million street value in raids at the properties, county records show. More plants were found in a room hidden behind a bookcase in a barn near Barnum, Minn., that the brothers owned. If convicted on federal drug charges, the Stoas could forfeit $1 million in real estate. This fall, narcotics agents confiscated another 1,100 marijuana plants worth more than $4.4 million from an upscale home in a west-metro suburb. The suspects had stolen electricity for growing lights by chopping through the basement wall and digging underground to tap a utility power line, Stanek said. In dozens of busts since January 2006, Hennepin deputies and the West Metro and Southwest Hennepin Drug Task Forces have seized: Sixty guns. About 6,900 marijuana plants and 330 pounds of processed pot with a street value of about $29 million. Real estate valued in excess of $1.37 million. $801,000 in cash and bank accounts. Lights and growing equipment worth $370,000. Vehicles worth $220,000. High Potency, Higher Price Stanek said well-armed SWAT teams are used to bust indoor pot operations because "these high-grade marijuana growers are protecting these crops at any cost." Indoor pot can be grown faster and has a higher content of the illicit drug's main active chemical, THC. That can increase one plant's value to as much as $5,000, compared to $300 for an outdoor plant, said sheriff's spokeswoman Kathryn Janicek. In the past decade, marijuana has sent more people into Twin Cities addiction treatment programs than any other illicit drug, said Carol Falkowski, author of semiannual reports tracking hospital drug and alcohol admissions. The more potent pot, like other stronger drugs, "can hasten the progression from occasional use to regular use to addiction," she said. In 2006, marijuana was the principal drug problem for 18.3 percent of area hospitals' drug admissions, followed by cocaine at 14 percent, she said. ( Alcohol accounted for 48 percent of admissions, she said. ) Hennepin County efforts mirror crackdowns across the country. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, federal agents have confiscated more than 400,000 marijuana plants with a potential value of $6.4 billion so far in 2007. That compares with 270,000 plants seized in 2006. It took 20 minutes to break through the barricaded basement door at one of the Stoa brothers' Bloomington homes, Janicek said. The Stoas had no legal income that would support lifestyles that included several lake homes near Barnum, which prosecutors are seeking to have forfeited because they allegedly were bought with drug money, she said.
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US CA: Edu: Column: New Pot Raids Call For New National
NEW POT RAIDS CALL FOR NEW NATIONAL LEADERSHIP For all you stoners out there, we all took a hit a couple of weeks ago ( and I'm not talking about the kind that makes you all happy and giddy ). The hit I'm talking about is when the feds raided a Long Beach medical marijuana dispensary. Long Beach Compassionate Caregivers ( as the joint was officially called ), located on 342 E. Fourth St., has now been "closed indefinitely" after the feds served a search warrant "on the basis of probable cause." "We believe they are in violation of federal law," said a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. There are currently 12 states that acknowledge the medicinal value of marijuana by allowing shops like Compassionate Caregivers to operate. However, federal law still refuses to recognize it because of this so-called "War on Drugs" that's been going on for virtually forever now. It's all politics. They disregard and overlook the health-related benefits for the seriously ill and dying. Medical cannabis patients cannot be prosecuted in the state of California, but they can be prosecuted under federal law because federal laws supersede state laws. Recently, in Garden Grove, the court ordered police to return medically prescribed pot confiscated during a traffic stop, after police refused to do so because of federal law. The judge ruled that it's not the responsibility of local police to enforce federal drug laws. You would think that the state laws would be made in accordance with federal law. Even so, it's sad that we, the people who voted for the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, can't even get the backing of the men in black, who claim they are working for us and not against us. If you ask me, the federal government is exercising discrimination against the 12 states that recognize medical marijuana in their laws. That was all the "probable cause" they needed. The feds have nothing better to do, so to cause a little raucous, they attack California, a state about as liberal as they come. How fitting for this to have occurred. It might be a political message to presidential candidate Barack Obama who admitted to inhaling when he was a kid. "I inhaled frequently. That was the point," said Obama during a televised interview. That is the most candid thing I've ever heard out of a politician's mouth, especially one running for president. Remember when Bill Clinton said, "I did not inhale?" Who was he kidding? We saw right through you, Bill. So you smoked a little ganja back in the day, big deal. Speaking of Bill, Hillary Clinton better watch out because Obama might be winning over the votes of stoner America with the issue of legalizing medical marijuana. The War on Drugs would be another twist to the election besides this whole "War against Terrorism." As a woman, I was all for Clinton becoming the first woman president. But, in light of the fact that Obama may possibly be a supporter of medical marijuana, I am given hope that, one day, marijuana will become a controlled substance just like alcohol and tobacco. "I would not have the Justice Department prosecute anybody with medical marijuana. It's not a good use of our resources," said Obama just a few months ago. He seriously said that. Look it up on YouTube. It'll make any pothead start chanting his name in song. It's no wonder he seems to appeal to the younger voters. With Obama in the White House, maybe there is a chance at legalizing marijuana. He's been there, done that. He knows how it goes. People are going to smoke pot regardless of what laws are in place, the same way minors are still consuming alcohol despite the age limit set forth by our laws. The government should just stop fighting it and capitalize on the black market sales of marijuana by legalizing and regulating it. They can tax the hell out of it and pump that money back into our economy. Plus, instead of wasting taxpayer dollars on federal raids like the one in Long Beach, they would be saving themselves a lot of money. Like Obama said, it's just not a good use of our resources. Up with hope! Legalize dope!
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Monday, December 10, 2007
US MI: OPED: Serving Our Veterans, Ditching the Ideology
SERVING OUR VETERANS, DITCHING THE IDEOLOGY Everyone knows war results in the death and destruction of human life. Any veteran can tell you it's not like in the movies. And for those injured vets who live to tell about it, any and all effective, appropriate means for medical care are welcome. The only problem is, certain proven procedures have been "off the table" for non-medical reasons. One of America's leading organizations promoting innovative approaches to such care is Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access. Incorporated in 2007, VMMA can claim sole ownership to the title of being this country's only advocate for veterans' rights to access medical marijuana for therapeutic purposes. Thus far, VMMA has been busy in a number of areas. As Executive Director Martin Chilcutt points out, "The VMMA is serious about minimizing whatever potential harm comes from using marijuana. I've talked to a good number of vets from around the country at conventions, on the phone and at veterans hospitals, and they tell me there's a real concern about conviction and going to jail. That's why we take this issue so seriously." Because of this concern, VMMA works with all legislative bodies, both locally and nationally, to endorse the responsible, therapeutic use of medical marijuana. Implied in this effort is the legislative push to end all prohibitions associated with the use of medical marijuana. Chilcutt, who is a veteran and has a service-connected disability, adds that another primary focus of the organization is helping to preserve the long-established, doctor-patient relationship. "Privacy rights are a big issue when it comes to medical marijuana," says Chilcutt, a licensed psychotherapist. "Vets need to know it's safe to openly discuss this topic within the Veterans Administration health-care system." A related concern for VMMA, according to Chilcutt, is a present-day political reality about making medical marijuana available to veterans. He notes, "The current administration in Washington is blocking medical research on medical marijuana. There are many research centers that want to do it, but the Drug Enforcement Administration will not let them. It's political garbage, because a lot of research has been done in other countries showing how much it helps various conditions." Showing his passion for the cause, Chilcutt lambasts what he sees as political cowardice on the part of government leaders. And all at the expense of those injured men and woman who have been willing to pay the ultimate price for their country. "The Bush/Cheney administration is betraying us," he concludes. "The veterans they say they support, many of them need and use medical marijuana. The lack of action from the top speaks louder than their words of support for the troops." For more information on VMMA, go to www.veteransformedicalmarijuana.org
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Friday, November 23, 2007
US ND: Judge Plans to Rule on Industrial Hemp Motion by End of
JUDGE PLANS TO RULE ON INDUSTRIAL HEMP MOTION BY END OF MONTH BISMARCK, N.D. - North Dakota producers who are thinking of seeding industrial hemp next spring like their Canadian neighbors could be one step closer by the end of November. After hearing arguments on the industrial hemp lawsuit Nov. 14 in Bismarck, N.D., U.S. District Judge Dan Hovland said he will issue a ruling on the case by the end of the month. That won't be the final answer however. Tim Purdon, one of the attorneys for the two farmers who filed the lawsuit - North Dakota State Rep. David Monson of Osnabrock, and Wayne Hauge of Ray - said if the judge rules in their favor, there will other motions that "will be put into play." The current case the judge will rule on is the DEA's motion to dismiss the producers' lawsuit. Adam Eidinger, communication director for VoteHemp ( a single-issue group that wants U.S. farmers to be able to grow industrial hemp ), said the court "asked all the right questions" for a ruling that could go in favor of the two producers. "I felt good about how it went," Eidinger said. "We were thankful the court gave us as much time as he did. That wouldn't happen in Washington, D.C." During arguments, Hovland said he doubted the two North Dakota farmers would ever receive a license from the DEA to grow hemp, citing the status of an application to the DEA by North Dakota State University to cultivate hemp seeds to find varieties that suit the Northern Plains as required by the ND State Legislature. NDSU has been waiting eight years for the DEA license but has never gotten one. DEA attorney Wendy Ertmer countered that there had been two cases of the DEA granting university licenses for marijuana research - one to Hawaii and one to Mississippi. She didn't, however, know the specifics of either case. Ertmer added that there "could be any number of reasons" why the application was taking so long. However, she was not able to state those reasons, saying the only time frame requirement for the DEA to respond to any application is the initial 60 days. Hovland said, "Why doesn't the DEA deny the application so we can move on from here? In my view, I don't see any realistic prospect that the DEA will issue ( a license to the farmers )." Attorney Joe Sandler, who argued the case in court for the two North Dakota producers, said what makes this case different than any other case where farmers wanted to grow hemp was the state license. "North Dakota is the first and only state with a regulatory system in place for cultivating industrial hemp," Sandler said. The state has not only issued the producers a license to grow it, but has passed laws ordering the state ag department and the attorney general to regulate it, he said. The only part of the hemp plant that would leave the farmer's field would be the seed, stalk, or oil - parts which are used to make consumer products. Eidinger later said that there are no flowers on the industrial hemp plant, anyway, as there are with a marijuana plant because it is pollinated. The growing season is different so the hemp will produce seeds, not flowers. Industrial hemp in North Dakota would have to have less than .3 of 1 percent THC ( rendering it non-psychoactive ). "That's the lowest amount of any country growing industrial hemp in the world today," Sandler told the court. The judge asked if there would be "enforcement nightmares" from regulating industrial hemp. Sandler said it was unclear why the DEA was concerned about industrial hemp growing in North Dakota since none of the parts containing THC would ever leave the farmer's field. The judge asked Ertmer if she knew about a House bill introduced in Congress that would redefine marijuana to exclude industrial hemp. That bill would essentially remove hemp from the controlled substances regulation. Ertmer said she had no idea of the status of the bill, stating that since hemp contains a small amount of THC, it is a controlled substance. Sandler told the court there had been no hearings on the House bill, and added changing a law of this kind in Congress would likely take a long time. Eidinger later said the reason the bill is languishing in the House is because Congress is waiting to see what happens to the case in North Dakota. Ertmer told the court during arguments that the two producers shouldn't be able to move forward on a lawsuit until after they had grown hemp and were criminally prosecuted by the DEA. "They have to open themselves to a crime to challenge the DEA?" the judge countered. At a later interview, producers Monson and Hauge talked about the many commercial endeavors possible for industrial hemp. Monson said his neighbors to the north in Canada who grow hemp are still reaping a $200 to $300 profit per acre over traditional crops. Two years ago, Monson spoke at a winter conference in Winnepeg, where he found out that Canada was willing to sell U.S. farmers its hemp seed. They don't see the U.S. as competition because of the amount of possibilities for hemp - such as rope and clothing. Currently, the U.S. can import hemp products, but can't grow it. "If we could grow it, right now there's a number of businesses that could use it. We could supply a niche market," Monson said. Monson added he had some good crops on his farm this year, but knows hemp would produce better because it grows tall and crowds out weeds. Diseases are not really a problem with hemp, either. Monson said he suffers almost every year from scab in wheat. "Wheat that should have had yields of 60 to 80 bushels this year were down to 40 to 45 bushels," he said. "We had some very good crops but we're not getting the yields because we're too wet." Fortunately this year, the scab was early enough that it didn't affect the sampling, Monson said. He said he didn't get a discount for his wheat at the elevator, mainly because wheat is in short supply throughout the world. Monson said industrial hemp would also be good as a biomass crop for ethanol plants. "We need more biofuel with the price of fuel," he added. With hemp not an option right now, Monson said he introduced a bill this year in the state House that would "advance switchgrass as a biofuel." Other states are using corn stover, but North Dakota would be an ideal state to grow switchgrass in, he added.
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Thursday, November 22, 2007
UK: Drug Barons Target Norfolk, Say Police
DRUG BARONS TARGET NORFOLK, SAY POLICE Quiet Norfolk suburbs are being targeted by crime barons looking to turn rental properties into lucrative drugs factories, it emerged last night. The alert came after one couple let their Wymondham home to a person they thought was a respectable Malaysian businessman - then discovered the semi-detached property had been used in a sophisticated cannabis growing operation. Each factory is capable of producing tens of thousands of pounds in profit. After the latest discovery police have reissued advice on how to stop criminals operating under our noses. It is not the first time homeowners and agents have been exploited - in the past year similar discoveries have been made in Norwich, Yarmouth and King's Lynn - and dozens more may be unwittingly letting properties to gangs. Police spokesman Kristina Fox said the force had led a number of successful prosecutions in recent months and other cases were still waiting to come to court. Many of these involved gangs leasing properties in residential streets. She added: "We have undoubtedly made a big dent in local cannabis supply. We would appeal to members of the public to report anything suspicious to us so we can repeat this success. "If you have a property near to you where no one seems to be living but there are suspicious comings and goings report it to us. "Cannabis production is a serious offence and our work to combat this issue will remain on-going. "We urge the public to remain vigilant in respect of cannabis cultivation in their community. Should a member of the public grow suspicious of a property, they shouldn't approach the occupiers, but call the police." David Hastings let his three-bedroom property in a leafy street four months ago. He now faces a repair bill of up to UKP20,000 after he uncovered the crime. He said: "There were a large number of empty boxes in the house and garage which had contained power packs, switchboards, lamps and reflectors and there is evidence that the electricity meter has been tampered with. "There were ventilation holes in the ceilings and floorboards had been hacked up. We now have a big clean-up on our hands and it seems like there is little the police can do." Drugs farmers often use hydroponic systems to accelerate plant growth. This means they can reap up to three harvests a year. "Gardeners" are employed to tend the crops with the income being passed up the chain. It seems likely that at least one yield was produced at the Hastings' property, meaning that a profit worth tens of thousands of pounds would have been made. The tenants had made excuses to cover up their activities. The man who signed the contract said his wife was "shy" and asked that Mr Hastings did not approach the property without permission. This also explained why windows were covered up. Mr Hastings noticed that the property was kept unusually warm but put this down to cultural differences. He only became suspicious when he asked to inspect the house and the tenants were evasive. By then it was too late as they quickly vacated the property. "They had carried out some remedial work which included painting the ceilings with white gloss paint and some holes in the ceiling had been poorly repaired and covered with Artex ceiling roses," he said. "It was obvious they had been growing cannabis in there, it even had a funny smell. But they had the nerve to ask for their deposit back." Landlords and letting agents should be aware of tenants offering to pay months of rent in advance or going above the average rate. They should never accept cash and always ask for bank details. They should be particularly suspicious if a tenant denies them access to the property or refuses entry to certain rooms.
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US WI: PUB LTE: 2008 Forum to Offer Latest on Medical Cannabis
2008 FORUM TO OFFER LATEST ON MEDICAL CANNABIS Sir, Thanks for the series on medical cannabis ( October issue ). May I point out that the complete report on the use of therapeutic cannabis you wrote about is properly titled, "Chronic Cannabis Use in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program: An Examination of Benefits and Adverse Effects of Legal Clinical Cannabis." ( Russo, Mathre, Byrne et al 2002 ) The complete study may be found at www.medicalcannabis.com. Patients Out of Time ( Mr. ( Gary ) Storck is on our Board of Advisers ) is a 501c3 educational charity. We educate medical doctors and registered nurses about the therapeutic applications of cannabis. Our next forum is "The Fifth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics" to be held April 4&5, 2008, near Monterey, CA. The elected politicians who speak derisively of medical cannabis need to understand that this accredited conference is co-sponsored by the Medical School of the University of California-San Francisco and the California Nurses Association. This accreditation process is approved by the American Nurses Association and the American Medical Association. Past conferences have been similarly supported. These are hardly institutions that are being duped by that ever-present lurking band of marijuana legalizers. Please also note that "The Petition to Reschedule Cannabis" sits in the Office of the Surgeon General of the U.S. awaiting signature. To see the over fifty thousand pages of worldwide research on the subject, information that does not seem to impress some of your less than enlightened politically adept lawyers you folks call Representatives, see www.drugscience.org which will provide you with over 15 pages of references. For those that want to watch and not read, at the video section of www.google.com search "Patients Out of Time" and dozens of lectures taken from this conference series are available to all. Cannabis and pregnancy, cannabis and Neuroprotection, cannabis and nutrition, cannabis and AIDS, and dozens more subjects are provided for your state's education. The efficacy of medical cannabis is not a myth. The myth is that folks like Ms. L. Vukmir, RN, speak with authority. Do some reading, watch a video, attend an accredited conference of experts and watch the faulty, ignorant, opinions of Vukmir and others disappear in volumes of peer-reviewed science. Al Byrne, co-founder Patients Out of Time 1472 Fish Pond Rd. Howardsville, VA 24562
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Monday, November 12, 2007
Afghanistan: Drug Dogs Unleashed in Kandahar Searches
DRUG DOGS UNLEASHED IN KANDAHAR SEARCHES OTTAWA - Canadian military police have started using drug dogs to search troops' bags at Kandahar Air Field after being tipped about soldiers suspected of using heroin, hash and pot, say newly released documents. Although there were no drug seizures reported, a briefing note says illegal drugs are readily available in Afghanistan and present a "temptation for Canadian troops in the form of personal use and in the form of importation for the purpose of trafficking." The documents, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act, indicate there were at least five targeted and random searches of soldiers' belongings in June and July at Kandahar Air Field. The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service, an independent military police unit, used dogs trained to sniff out drugs to search about 90 soldiers and more than 100 barrack boxes. Military police took the names of soldiers in a convoy that was searched following a tip in July. The briefing note says that search didn't produce enough evidence to justify charges, but military police were to check their records "for any other indication of illicit drug use/trafficking" among those in the convoy. It's unclear why military police did the background checks because an e-mail outlining the incident was partly censored. Defence Department spokeswoman Capt. Julie Roberge said she wouldn't comment on specific searches. She said the military uses the dogs if it has a "reasonable doubt" there may be drugs at Kandahar Air Field or at one of the forward operating bases. "As soon as there's a doubt . . . of course there's going to be a followup," Roberge said. She said the dogs are a "NATO asset" shared among coalition forces. The Canadian military is field-testing its own drug-sniffing dogs in Canada with the intent of eventually using them in Afghanistan, she added. Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre, who travelled to Afghanistan last month on an unofficial fact-finding trip, said he saw no evidence of drugs nor did he witness any dog searches. The briefing note raised questions about whether the searches violated soldiers' Charter rights, particularly their expectation of privacy and the right to be secure against unreasonable searches. But it concludes that targeted and random searches of convoys are an "effective and efficient method" of deterring troops from using or trafficking drugs without negatively affecting operations. Word of the Kandahar searches follows charges laid this week against an Ottawa-based soldier for allegedly trafficking pot and hashish after an 11-month undercover sting operation by the military police unit. Master Cpl. Steven Pearson was charged with five counts related to the alleged trafficking and possession of marijuana and hashish dating back to January 2006. There have been other high-profile incidents in recent years of alleged drug trafficking within the military. Four crew members of HMCS Saskatoon were charged this year after a military police unit launched an undercover sting operation targeting the small coastal patrol ship in early 2006. A court martial for one officer charged with trafficking cocaine and disgraceful behaviour under the National Defence Act has been adjourned until next year. Two other crew members pleaded guilty and were given suspended sentences and fines, while the third was cleared of one charge and had a second one stayed.
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Tuesday, October 09, 2007
UK: Editorial: Drugs Are, and Should Be Treated As, a Menace
DRUGS ARE, AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS, A MENACE For the past three decades or so, drug use and the criminality it spawns have posed the greatest threat to our social fabric. Any contribution to the debate on how to combat this menace is welcome. A specialist committee set up by the Royal Society of Arts has spent two years examining the problem and its report, Drugs - Facing Facts, is nothing if not thorough. It explores ways of reducing the supply of drugs, discouraging demand and treating addicts, while formulating new mechanisms for the delivery of drug policy. Along the way, it has useful things to say about education, treatment and rehabilitation. Yet the overall tone of the report is naive, and dangerously so. While the committee is under no illusion that drugs are bad, it strikes a note of fashionable tolerance that suggests it does not want to combat this scourge, but accommodate it. "The use of illegal drugs is by no means always harmful any more than alcohol use is always harmful," it asserts, as if an ecstasy tablet or cannabis joint are as benign as a glass or two of Chilean red. In fact, there is a profound difference. The use of soft drugs all too often leads to the use of harder drugs and addiction. Even more sanguine is its contention that "a majority of people who use drugs are able to use them without harming themselves or others". Really? What a complacent, middle-class take on recreational drug use is encapsulated in that sentence. In the real world, the victims of drugs are predominantly poor people on sink estates preyed on by ruthless drug dealers. Their need to fuel their drug-taking habit accounts for about 70 per cent of criminal activity in this country. "Without harming themselves or others"? We don't think so. As part of its light touch approach, the committee wants drugs to be classified alongside alcohol and tobacco, rather than in a category of their own. Such a move would simply blur the boundary between illegal drugs and the two legal drugs; it would only be a matter of time before the boundary vanished altogether. The report also bemoans the fact that drug policy is seen primarily as a criminal justice issue, rather than one of health. It wants to redress the balance by giving the Department of Local Government and Communities the lead role, rather than the Home Office. That is simply throwing in the towel. The report's most galling assertion is that current drugs policy is driven by "moral panic". Not so. It is driven by the desperation of people whose streets are not safe from the depredations of thugs hooked on illegal drugs looking for money for their next fix. That demands not greater tolerance, but the vigorous policing of unambiguous anti-drug laws.
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Friday, July 27, 2007
UK: Cannabis Smokers 'Are Taking Huge Risk of Psychotic
CANNABIS SMOKERS 'ARE TAKING HUGE RISK OF PSYCHOTIC ILLNESS' Cannabis users are 40 per cent more likely to develop a psychotic illness than non-users, a study has found. Heavy users are more than twice as likely to suffer mental illness, according to a group of British academics, who calculate that about one in seven cases of conditions such as schizophrenia is caused by cannabis. The warnings come as the Prime Minister and the Home Secretary signalled that the "softly softly" era for cannabis may be coming to an end. Gordon Brown said last week that the Home Office would be consulting on whether it had been right to downgrade cannabis from a Class B to a Class C drug in 2004. Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, is to ask the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to review the evidence. The paper, published in The Lancet, is written by a group of seven psychiatrists and psychologists from Bristol, Cardiff, London and Cambridge. They have pooled the findings from 35 studies in a number of countries, including the United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Britain, and concluded that there is "a consistent association between cannabis use and psychotic symptoms, including disabling psychotic disorders". They admit that they cannot be certain that the association means that there is a simple cause and effect, but say that policymakers "need to provide the public with advice about this widely used drug". They go on: "We believe there is now enough evidence to inform people that using cannabis could increase their risk of developing a psychotic illness later in life." As well as looking at psychotic illness, they looked for evidence that cannabis could cause affective disorders such as depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts. Almost all the studies point towards an increased incidence of such disorders. The evidence is less strong, the writers say, but is still of concern. The study was welcomed by many experts, but others counselled caution. Leslie Iverson, of the University of Oxford, a member of the advisory council, said: "Despite a thorough review the authors admit that there is no conclusive evidence that cannabis use causes psychotic illness. Their prediction that 14 per cent of psychotic outcomes in young adults in the UK may be due to cannabis use is not supported by the fact that the incidence of schizophrenia has not shown any significant change in the past 30 years." But Robin Murray, of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College London, called it "a very competent and conservative assessment of what research studies tell us about the relationship between cannabis and psychiatric disorders". He said that the risk could be even higher then the authors had estimated, because the cannabis available today was stronger than in the past. "This report cannot tell us whether the risk is higher with the use of the skunk-like preparations which are now widely available, and which contain a higher percentage of tetrahydrocannabinol," he said. "My own experience suggests to me that the risk with skunk is higher. Therefore, their estimate that 14 per cent of cases of schizophrenia in the UK are due to cannabis is now probably an understatement." Martin Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope and also a member of the council, said: "Cannabis is not harmless, and although it has been known for some time that the drug can worsen existing mental health problems, it may also trigger the onset of problems in some people." "The challenge is to ensure that information on cannabis use and the associated risks is understood by teachers and health professionals working with young people and conveyed in ways that young people will listen to. Since reclassification, cannabis use has continued to fall. We need to make sure this trend continues." Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity SANE, said: "The Lancet report justifies SANE's campaign that downgrading a substance with such known dangers masked the mounting evidence of direct links between the use of cannabis and later psychotic illness. The debate about classification should not founder on statistics but take into account the potential damage to hundreds of people who without cannabis would not develop mental illness. "While the majority can take the drug with no mind-altering effects, it is estimated that 10 per cent are at risk. You only need to see one person whose mind has been altered and life irreparably damaged, or talk to their family, to realise that the headlines are not scaremongering but reflect a daily, and preventable, tragedy." Martin Blakeborough, director of the Kaleidescope Project and a member of the council, said that it would be a waste of public money for the same panel, with the same evidence, to review the issue again. "There is significant danger in reviewing cannabis again, as it takes experts' minds off more important issues. Classification itself, although important, is not as urgent as the increasing epidemic of hepatitis B and C among drug users and the wider community, or the increase of stimulant drugs in our community."
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Wednesday, May 02, 2007
US: Web: New Studies Destroy the Last Objection to Medical Marijuana
NEW STUDIES DESTROY THE LAST OBJECTION TO MEDICAL MARIJUANA Anyone who advocates for medical marijuana sooner or later runs into arguments about smoking: "No real medicine is smoked." "Smoking is bad for the lungs; why would any doctor recommend something so harmful?" It's a line of reasoning that medical marijuana opponents have used to great effect in Congress, state legislatures, and elsewhere. Indeed, the FDA's controversial 2006 statement opposing medical marijuana was couched in repeated references to "smoked marijuana." But new research demonstrates that all those fears of "smoked marijuana" as medicine are 100 percent obsolete. The smoking argument was the closest thing to a scientifically meaningful objection to medical marijuana. While marijuana smoke, unlike tobacco, has never been shown to cause lung cancer, heavy marijuana smoking has been associated with assorted respiratory symptoms and a potentially increased risk of bronchitis. That's because burning any plant material produces a whole lot of substances such as tars, and carbon monoxide that are not good for the lungs. Nevertheless, inhalation is clearly the best method for administering marijuana's active components, called cannabinoids. Cannabinoids such as THC are fat-soluble molecules that are absorbed slowly and unevenly when taken orally, as in the prescription THC pill Marinol. This means that Marinol typically takes an hour to two hours to work, and dose adjustment is nearly impossible. Patients often report that when it finally kicks in, it hits like a ton of bricks, leaving them too stoned to function. For that reason, The Lancet Neurology noted a few years ago, "Smoking has been the route of choice for many cannabis users because it delivers a more rapid 'hit' and allows more accurate dose titration." Because the effect is nearly instantaneous, patients can simply take as many puffs as they need, stopping when they've achieved the needed effect without excessive intoxication. So far, no pharmaceutical product -- not even Sativex, the much-touted marijuana spray now marketed in Canada -- achieves this combination of rapid action and simple, accurate dose adjustment. Back in 1999, the Institute of Medicine's White House-commissioned report on medical marijuana conceded marijuana's medical benefits, saying that what is needed is "a nonsmoked rapid-onset cannabinoid drug delivery system." The new studies -- one from the University of California, San Francisco, and the other from the University at Albany, State University of New York -- confirm that such a system is here. It's called vaporization, and has been familiar to medical marijuana patients for many years, but few outside the medical marijuana community know it exists. Unlike smoking, a vaporizer does not burn the plant material, but heats it just to the point at which the THC and the other cannabinoids vaporize. In the Volcano vaporizer tested at UCSF, the vapors are collected in a detachable plastic bag with a mouthpiece for inhalation. The UCSF study, conducted by Dr. Donald Abrams and colleagues and just published online by the journal Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics ( to appear in the journal's print edition on May ) compared a commercially available vaporizer called the Volcano to smoking in 18 volunteers. The subjects inhaled three different strengths of marijuana either as smoked cigarettes or vaporized using the Volcano. The researchers then measured the volunteers' plasma THC levels and the amount of expired carbon monoxide, which is considered a reliable marker for the unwanted combustion products contained in smoke. The two methods produced similar THC levels, with vaporization producing somewhat higher levels, and were judged equally efficient for administration of cannabinoids. The big difference was in expired carbon monoxide. As expected, there was a sharp increase in carbon monoxide levels after smoking, while "little if any" increase was detected after vaporization. "This indicates little or no exposure to gaseous combustion toxins," the researchers wrote. "Vaporization of marijuana does not result in exposure to combustion gases, and therefore is expected to be much safer than smoking marijuana cigarettes." A second study, by Dr. Mitch Earleywine at the University at Albany, State University of New York, involved an Internet survey of nearly 7,000 marijuana users. Participants were asked to identify their primary method of using marijuana ( joints, pipe, vaporizer, edibles, etc. ) and were asked six questions about respiratory symptoms. After adjusting for variables such as age and cigarette use, vaporizer users were 60 percent less likely than smokers to report respiratory symptoms such as cough, chest tightness or phlegm. The effect of vaporizer use was more pronounced the larger the amount of marijuana used. "Our study clearly suggests that the respiratory effects of marijuana use can be decreased by use of a vaporizer," Earleywine commented. "In fact, because we only asked participants about their primary means of using marijuana, it's likely that people who exclusively use vaporizers will get even more benefit than our results indicate, because no doubt some in our study used vaporizers most of the time but not all of the time." In a rational world, the government officials objecting to medical marijuana based on the health risks of smoking would greet this research with open arms. They would join with groups like the Marijuana Policy Project in spreading the word about this important, health-enhancing technology. Don't hold your breath.
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
CN MB: Edu: 420 Reasons To Celebrate
420 REASONS TO CELEBRATE What's the deal with the stoner magic number? Four-twenty. Though pot-smokers' relationship with the first 419 integers in the numerical system is decidedly indifferent, the number 420 elicits salivation, giddiness, and a rustling of Zig-Zags upon its very utterance. Now, why is that? As April 20, the widely recognized pot-smoking holiday approaches, it's time to look at this mysterious number and try to figure out its hazy significance. If you ask four stoners what 420 means, odds are you'll get four different answers. So what's the truth? Many claim that 420 is the penal code section for marijuana use ( those sober-minded enough to realize every province or state has its own penal code often add "in California" ). Alternatively, it is stated that 420 is the police call number for "marijuana smoking in progress." Neither of these is true -- not in California, not anywhere. Some say the Grateful Dead came up with the number 420, either because they always stayed in hotel room 420 when on tour, or because their San Francisco address was 420 Haight Street. Again, these are both false. Others point to the fact that April 20 is Adolph Hitler's birthday ( in 1889 ), which is true. But, though Hitler was a methamphetamine addict late in life, there is no evidence that would connect him to pot usage, and it's hard to imagine why peace-loving weed smokers would possibly want to connect themselves to Hitler in any way. On a less sinister note, April 20 is also Carmen Electra's birthday ( She will be 35, so get the right amount of candles ). Yet another theory is that the first intentional usage of LSD occurred on April 20 at 4:20 p.m.. This is almost true; Albert Hoffman, believed to be the first scientist to deliberately dose himself with the experimental narcotic, actually dropped on April 19, 1943, though his notebooks confirm that the time was indeed 4:20. However, stoner experts now consider this little-known tidbit coincidental. What is now the most commonly accepted theory is that, in 1971, a group of students at San Rafael High School, in the California town of the same name, used to meet up under a statue of Louis Pasteur at 4:20 p.m. after class to get high. Their code word for smoking was "4:20 Louis." Why is this now the "commonly accepted theory?" As far as I can tell, it is because it was endorsed by High Times magazine, the famous stoner periodical that popularized 4:20 in the early '90s. In 1998, the High Times editors received letters from one of the San Rafael students "proving" that he had originated the term. "Well, here's the concrete theory," Chris Buors, the leader of the Manitoba Marijuana Party told me. "You pull out your record from Boston, in the '70s or '80s, and they did a song called "Smokin." That tune is exactly four minutes and 20 seconds long." According to Buors, roadies started the 420 tradition in the '70s when they smoked up to the tune of Boston's riffs. He said he first heard this theory from well-known Canadian cannabis enthusiast Mark Emery, who used to be a roadie. Boston's eponymous first album, which includes the track "Smokin" ( indeed, it does have a running length of 4:20 ) was released in 1976, so Buors' and Emery's theory does not necessarily disprove the San Rafael theory. Outside of graffiti, references to 420 can be found everywhere. Bill 420, passed by the Governator in 2004, regulates medical marijuana usage in California. And if the numerical choice was not deliberately referential, that's, like, really fucking trippy. You may have heard that in Quentin Tarantino's in-joke-laden Pulp Fiction, all of the clocks are set to 4:20, which is almost true. The one exception is the "gold watch" -- when Christopher Walken gives it to the little boy who will be Bruce Willis, you can see it reads 9:00. That Bob Dylan song where he sings, "everybody must get stoned" is titled "Rainy Day Women #12 and 35." Without resorting to a calculator, who can tell me what 12 times 35 is? What is most important to Winnipeggers is that 4:20, or April 20, represents the day when marijuana smokers can revel in their habit. For several years now, the occasion has been marked by a pot-fuelled protest at the Manitoba legislature in the hopes of repealing marijuana prohibition laws ( or, at least, in the hopes of getting fucked up on city property ). "Well, there's nothing really organized. It's kind of just an underground, word-of-mouth type thing," Buors, a vocal local pot promoter, says of the annual 420 protest. "It brings attention to the cause," he adds. "It's always important to let these politicians know that we're out there in strength." Though mostly high school students attend, and Buors is not allowed to hold an "official" protest, he relishes the opportunity to consort with other cannabis consumers. "To me, I love this, because [politicians] spend millions of dollars educating their students, which is of course political indoctrination . . . I get the opportunity to make the case to the kids [for legalization], and have a good chit-chat while I'm there." So, if you love weed, make sure to head down to the legislature on 4:20, take part in the mysterious tradition, and burn one down for Carmen Electra.
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US TX: Sheriff Speaks From Personal Experience At Meth
SHERIFF SPEAKS FROM PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AT METH MEETINGS Bowie County Sheriff James Prince has a unique perspective when it comes to dealing with methamphetamine users and their families. Three and a half years ago, he had his own 31-year-old son arrested on drug charges. ‘Its a tough thing to put your kid in jail, but a lot of people are doing it. The alternative is a whole lot worse. I told my son I would rather see him in jail than in a casket' Prince said. Prince spoke Tuesday night in Redwater, Texas, at the first town hall meeting held by the Bowie County Sheriffs Office and the East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse. He said he caught a plane to Georgia when he received a phone call saying his son might be doing drugs. Once he arrived, his son who just months before had called his dad every two weeks dodged him for three days. When Prince did finally see his son, he barely recognized him. ‘All of his life hes been told he looks like Tom Cruise. He took care of himself. He was preppy' Prince said. The son he saw that day in Georgia had oily hair and unkept fingernails. He was thin and paranoid. ‘He didnt look like Tom Cruise that day' Prince said. Afraid that his son would continue to decline, Prince worked with undercover investigators in Georgia to have him arrested. ‘I applied tough love' he said. Prince, who flew to Georgia to pick his son up after he was released from prison a few weeks ago, hopes it has worked. ‘My boy told me Daddy, I would not have gotten off it if you had not done what you did' Prince said. However, he remains concerned about relapses because it is so common among meth users. ‘I hope and pray he stays off it' the sheriff said. Prince said parents of meth users should not be ashamed if their sons or daughters are on drugs. ‘You have not done anything wrong' he said. He said often good people fall in with the wrong people and make dangerous mistakes. ‘I am not happy with the mistake ( my son ) made in life but I still love him' he said. The purpose of the town hall meetings is to educate parents and other relatives about the symptoms of meth use and some of the other signs associated with it. Meth Watch, a national awareness program, has been implemented in a number of other states and is now starting in Texas. DeAnna OMalley, education specialist for the East Texas Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, said Meth Watch has been established as part of Senate Bill 66 with the intention of informing retailers of the problems associated with meth. Signs and brochures will be placed in retail stores near the merchandise that could be purchased for drug manufacturing or use. A grant from Texas Gov. Rick Perrys office is paying for the signs, brochures and other materials. State law already requires any store that carries pseudoephedrine-based products to place those products behind sales counters or in locked cabinets. Another town hall meeting will be held at 6:30 tonight at Texas High School.
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Saturday, March 17, 2007
US MI: New Legislation Makes Sale of Bongs, Pipes Illegal
NEW LEGISLATION MAKES SALE OF BONGS, PIPES ILLEGAL Retailers who sell bongs, dugouts and pipes designed for drug use will face prosecution after March 20, thanks to legislation signed into law by the governor in December. The legislation, which has direct ties to a case heard in Alpena County in 2003, closes a loophole that allowed the continued sale of these items despite a law that prohibits businesses from selling drug paraphernalia in Michigan. Bongs, dugouts and pipes were exempt because they could be used to smoke tobacco or herbs. "That exemption is now gone," said Presque Isle County Prosecutor Richard Steiger, who handled the case while he served as an assistant prosecutor with the Alpena County prosecutor's office. "With the loophole now closed up, it will be illegal for businesses to continue to sell those items in the State of Michigan." The case arose when the Alpena County prosecutor's office gave notice to Concert Connection owner Wayne Gauthier that he would be prosecuted for the sale of drug paraphernalia, Steiger said. In response to the notice, Gauthier's attorney filed a request for the 26th Circuit Court judge to make a declaratory ruling stating whether or not the sale of the items was illegal according to Michigan statute. Steiger said the court ruled all the items in question, with the exception of scales, were in fact drug paraphernalia. When the case was appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals, the court of appeals agreed with the 26th Circuit Court opinion that the items were drug paraphernalia. But the court also ruled a clause in the statute that creates an exception for items that could be used to smoke tobacco or other herbs allowed for the continued sale of bongs, dugouts and pipes. "The court of appeals stated right in their opinion that it was an absurd result, but their hands were tied," said Alpena County Prosecutor Dennis Grenkowicz. The court invited Michigan legislators to amend the statute that created a loophole for drug paraphernalia that also could be used to smoke tobacco. The legislation was passed last year and signed by the governor in December. "I'm very pleased with the change in law," Grenkowicz said. "I think it will be a big improvement. We were always troubled with mixed message that was being sent to young people that drugs were illegal but it was all right to sell drug paraphernalia." Sale of drug paraphernalia is a 90-day misdemeanor. Steiger said the legislation will enable prosecutors to better enforce the statute that prohibits sale of drug paraphernalia. The change in law won't affect the sale of tobacco pipes, he said. Gauthier declined to comment.
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
US PA: Boscola Wants Drug Testing On The Table
BOSCOLA WANTS DRUG TESTING ON THE TABLE She's proposing a bill that would allow testing in certain circumstances. There are legal questions. By MICHELLE PITTMAN The Express-Times State Sen. Lisa Boscola thinks legislation can prevent a situation like the one involving former Nitschmann Middle School Principal John Acerra from happening in the future. Boscola is working with legal experts to draft a bill giving school boards power to drug test administrators and teachers if they receive complaints about an individual's work history. But Boscola's not sure it can be done legally. "I would only consider drug testing for school employees under very limited circumstances where their behavior could clearly pose a hazard to students," she said. "Right now I'm exploring whether that could be done constitutionally and contractually." Boscola began looking into state laws following a meeting Wednesday with Bethlehem Area School District officials and hundreds of parents at Nitschmann Middle School regarding the arrest of Acerra, who faces felony drug charges after police said they caught him dealing crystal methamphetamine from his school office. "A lot of the parents' concerns were focused around drug testing," Boscola's Chief of Staff Bernard Kieklak said. "Many were calling for mandatory screening, but ( Boscola ) felt that was impractical and not the right way to go. It's basically saying the employees are guilty until proven innocent." Bethlehem Area School District Solicitor Ellis Katz told parents Wednesday that random drug testing for teachers and administrators is all but out of the question. As employees in the public sector, school personnel are protected from unreasonable search by the Fourth Amendment. Drug testing is considered a violation of their civil rights. "It wouldn't withstand constitutional scrutiny," he said. Teachers unions also complicate the matter. Even if the collective bargaining unit agrees to random drug testing, individual employees wouldn't necessarily have to consent, Katz said. "One ( lawyer ) said there are other employees -- pilots, bus drivers, charter bus drivers -- that have to be tested because they would be putting lives at risk. We want to see if those laws can be stretched to apply here," Kieklak said. "But then there's the other side that says district employees are already fingerprinted and have a background check done. They say there's no way drug testing can be put into their contract. It's a very hairy thing to do." The Pennsylvania School Boards Association does not have a model policy for drug testing. If there is a district that does test employees, association spokesman Scott Shewell said he isn't aware of it. "Obviously there are people's constitutional rights you always have to be careful about. But the people who serve the children and public should be open to the suggestion" of drug testing, said Pamela Colton of the Bangor Area School Board and IU board of directors. "I think what gets lost sometimes in these certain situations is think of how many people work in the 501 districts and the majority of them are there for the welfare of children. It's only the one in a million that causes a problem." Boscola agreed. "I believe that 99.9 percent of our teachers and school administrators are appalled by the thought of another teacher or principal using drugs or dealing drugs and would not hesitate to call the police if they suspected something like that going on in their school," Boscola said. Boscola's bill will also focus on better ways of getting complaints to school board members. "The board would have to have strong enough evidence to request a drug test," Kieklak said. "They'd be looking at work history, missed days, unexplained absences." The only employees of the Bethlehem Area School District who are subject to random drug tests are those with a commercial driver's license, according to Superintendent Joseph Lewis. "I'm not opposed to drug testing. It's the standard in our society today," Bethlehem Area School Board member Loretta Leeson said. "But we would have to have a reason. And the way it is now, it would make it very difficult for the board to build a case." Boscola said she has already drafted legislation that would increase the penalties for a school employee dealing drugs out of the school. Dealing drugs on school property is not considered a separate crime under state law. If a person is convicted of selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, the Drug Free School Zone statute mandates sentencing increase by no less than two and no more than four years. Kieklak said Boscola will also review the laws dealing with employee pensions. Under the current state school code, Acerra is eligible for his pension even if he is convicted of the charges against him. Reporter Doug Brill contributed to this article.
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Sunday, March 11, 2007
US TX: PUB LTE: Repair Police Mistake
REPAIR POLICE MISTAKE Re: "Mistake by police sent her to jail -- McKinney defends officers who arrested woman on drug charge," Tuesday news story. I am a pro-law enforcement individual who has several friends who work for area police departments. However, this has to be said: It is a disgrace that police departments and other agencies can devastate a life, then hide behind the shield of immunity, while their victim has to clean up the mess they have made. What is even more disgraceful is that this victim was not immediately given her job back by the school district without penalty. It was bureaucrats covering other bureaucrats' mistakes. We as citizens need to demand of the Legislature that they change the immunity statute to require agencies and officers who make these mistakes to clean up after themselves. If not, there is always the next election. This would not necessarily require settlements, but that the agency or officer admit their mistake to the victim -- and work with them to repair the damage, contacting employers, creditors, etc., to explain the error and request that any adverse action be reversed immediately. To those who say this would cost too much money: I say it would not, as departments would tighten the rules to avoid these mistakes. How long would it have taken to determine that the woman in question did not have a tattoo? STEVEN GAUSS Dallas
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Saturday, February 24, 2007
UK: You Don't Know The Half Of It
YOU DON'T KNOW THE HALF OF IT You probably realise your teenage kids aren't exactly angels. But do you really know what they get up to? Are they taking drugs, having sex, shoplifting? We commissioned an ICM poll, asking parents about their children's bad habits. Then we asked the kids themselves for the truth. To introduce the results, Polly Samson and her 16-year-old son Charlie come clean Polly and Charlie Samson The Guardian ( UK ) The mother Like many parents, I wouldn't honestly expect, or even want, to be dazzled by my teenager's halo, so when I filled in the survey about Charlie, I knew that a saintly clean sheet would be an unlikely result. The boxes I ticked, probably like most participating parents, reflected what I hoped as well as believed he had experienced. At my most optimistic, I imagine my children will try most things - but just once - because there are activities I regret missing out on during my early teens. Shoplifting, for example. I was surprised that 65% of parents didn't think their children had shoplifted, because I assumed that most kids would give it a shot at some point. I would hate to find myself doing a Winona now, but I yearn to try my sleight of hand and it just isn't age-appropriate. So, off you go, children - but remember, only steal from large conglomerates and not from small businesses. In fact, when I was Charlie's age, I wouldn't have been able to tick many of the boxes in the survey myself. And I don't think that's because the times have changed, because I remember feeling miffed about the credit I didn't receive for my relatively good behaviour at the time - my parents clearly believed me to be something of a raver ( "If I ever catch you with drugs, I'll march you straight to the police station" ), but the reality was nothing more alarming than the underage Bacardi and Cokes in the one pub in town whose rheumy-eyed landlord enjoyed the company of children. It was a strain carrying around this perceived disapproval, wanting to scream, "Don't you realise how lucky you are?" I made a point of telling them true stories about my more wayward friends, who did terrifying things like losing their virginity at the age of 11 with the 12-year-old super-stud from our class. I particularly enjoyed throwing in the grisly detail: "And it was by the water jump on the racecourse." We know that the things we do rub off on our children. We read books, they read books; we despair about global warming and so do they; and what a credit to us they are when they bother to switch out a light as they leave the room. It's harder to accept responsibility for their vices, however, and that might explain why only 9% of parents face the fact that their children smoke ( and is probably the reason that my mother never questioned the improbable quantity of cigarette packets on her monthly grocery bill ). Smokers are born of smokers, and by the time I had children I was addicted to opening the third packet of 20 each day and had failed utterly and miserably to kick the habit. However, the thought that my children would smoke, too, made me stop ( although I do smoke the occasional joint, not so much to get stoned but just for the sheer nostalgia of inhaling ). Given that children mimic the good and bad habits of their parents, it may seem odd that I don't hide my occasional joint-smoking from Charlie, but I do think he's a rather peculiarly reasonable child - and we have an unusually candid relationship. He's not perfect - I wouldn't want him to be - and his 15th birthday party certainly removed any rose-tinted vision I might have had. I emailed all the parents in advance to let them know that we'd decided to provide a limited amount of beer and wine, on the condition that nobody brought spirits. Rather you than us, came most of the responses, bar one mother who replied, "You mean to say you are giving alcohol to the children ?" As it turned out, the lovely children hid the vodka - many, many bottles of vodka - in the hollow legs of the tables. Two hours in and the pizzas we had supplied reappeared in pools all over the house. A boy in a white shirt had vomited so much that he resembled a painting by Jackson Pollock; several girls had to be walked around in the cold night air to keep them conscious. Out of my peripheral vision I witnessed Charlie smoke a joint, swig vodka from the bottle and snog a variety of girls. It was not the best night of my life, nor of his, but it did provide the groundwork for the honest relationship I believe we have built since. At the end of the evening, I was amazed to see his formerly barely conscious friends one by one spring to their feet and switch identity - Keith Richards to choirboy - in the click of a car door. "Yes, thank you, Mummy. I had a lovely time." Several days later, Charlie and I struck a deal on the dope smoking: "If you give up, I will." Now we tell each other if we succumb, though since it's usually me, I could do without the feeling that I'm stuck in an episode of Absolutely Fabulous. I don't think that what works with Charlie will necessarily work with my three younger children, at least one of whom has a particular glint in the eye that tells me I won't always have the luxury of feeling this smug about the reassuring honesty of my offspring and that it may well be time my own occasional foible goes underground, or that I stop altogether. And just as I won't necessarily want to be as open with my more cagey children as I am with Charlie, I'm not sure how much I'll want, or need, to know about their teenage kicks. Enough to believe that they are not in mortal danger, I suppose. Judging by some of this survey's results, that is no mean feat. Teenagers are more of a mystery than ever before, mainly due to the mobile phone and MSN messaging. This survey will prove most interesting to parents who would formerly have been able to monitor their offspring's behaviour by hovering around the family phone gesticulating about the phone bill while in reality taking the opportunity to tune in to the nefarious plotting. My 11-year-old already shrinks the computer screen when I walk in when he's messaging, which I'm told is typical, so it's no wonder so many parents are in the dark. But even with my potentially sneakier younger children, I still hope I'll know them well enough not to be one of the 65% of parents who wrongly assume their teenagers have not tried drugs. I would prefer not to think about it too much, and the ideal is that they stay in optimum health, but I would find it more alarming to be the parent of a child who never would. I am always fascinated by the four daughters of friends, three of whom I've witnessed during their teen years driving their parents to drink with their often exceptionally wild behaviour, including episodes of cocaine abuse and an unwanted pregnancy. What interests me, though, is that the daughter who worries them the most - in fact, the one who throws them into despair - is the eldest who, now in her late 20s, has never had any sort of lost weekend, doesn't drink, has never taken drugs and, as far as anyone knows, has yet to experience sex. There is an inherent problem with the age range of this survey, because it is impossible to consider the behaviour of most 11- and 12-year-olds in the same breath as that of 15- and 16-year-olds. My 11-year-old son, for example, would be appalled if someone thought he might have taken drugs or had sex. He even objected the other day when I suggested he offer his piano teacher a glass of wine: "But won't she think you're an alcoholic if you keep giving her wine?" Charlie has asked me to fill in the survey as if I were a 16-year-old, and I wonder if that's because he thinks he doesn't know me as well as I know him. I think he'd be surprised by my moderation, perhaps even a little disappointed. Internet porn? Nope. Ketamine? Nope. Shoplifting? Regrettably, nope. Unprotected sex? Well, he wouldn't be here if I hadn't. Looking at the survey makes me realise anew just how little I did experience, and now that I'm a reasonably responsible mother of four, it's too late: perhaps I should have spent less of my teens trying to please my parents and more time pleasing myself. I'll just have to fantasise about old age, which by then will be the new teen age. I'll shoplift to my heart's content and I'll have all my friends to stay. We'll smoke opium all week and drop ecstasy on Saturday nights just to tell each other how beautiful we really are. There's just one problem: Charlie says that if I do, he won't bring my grandchildren to see me. Polly Samson The son So, teenagers lie to their parents and parents lie to themselves. What's the story? Actually, this study suggests parents lie to themselves more than their children do. In my view, one of the most worrying findings is that 44% of kids have communicated with strangers online and, not only that, the majority did so with their parents' full knowledge. On questioning my 11-year-old brother, I was pretty shocked to discover that he had, in fact, talked online to strangers and seemed fairly unaware of the dangers in doing so. My mother and I filled out the survey in separate rooms, me listing my experience of smoking ( no ), alcohol ( yes ), drugs ( yes ), sex ( oh yes ), internet ( yes ), truancy ( where do you think I found the time to write this piece? ) and shoplifting ( no ) - in short, the seven deadly sins - and she calculating how much of a sinner I'd been. On comparison, I discovered she was, eerily, almost 100% right, estimating my alcohol intake slightly lower and my drug intake slightly higher - and she thought I'd taken magic mushrooms! - but otherwise spot on. Among my friends, those with the most domineering parents tend to spin the most elaborate lies and usually get the most trashed on whatever they can snort, smoke or drink. At the other end of the spectrum, one of my friends has a seemingly rosy relationship with his mum - "Yeah, we're really close, I tell my mum everything." This picture of domestic harmony is shattered when he adds, "Then I laugh in her face 'cos she can't stop me!" Clearly her laissez-faire attitude drives him to distraction. Indeed, she is so disengaged that when we returned to his house at four in the morning after a bout of heavy drinking, she didn't even question his claim that we had been at an all-night tiddlywinks marathon. I doubt her reaction would have been any different if he had claimed we'd been out shooting heroin at the local needle exchange. Paradoxically, she works as a social worker specialising in family strife. If she had been a participant in this survey, I don't think she would've had a clue what he really gets up to. My friend's mother is not alone in this. I suspect it's a lot less painful for a parent just to accept their child's lies than it is to accuse them of dishonesty; and often the lie is to spare the parent embarrassment. Although it's against my interests to say so, it probably is better that the parent knows what's going on with their child. The survey shows that around one in five adolescents admits to shoplifting, but only 8% of parents seem to be aware of their children's light-fingered practices. I've stolen only twice, both times from my parents. The first item was a large bottle of vodka carelessly left in temptation's way. Upon discovering the theft, they accepted my ridiculous explanation that I'd drunk the missing half-litre, and even seemed pleased that I felt able to confess. In actual fact, the vodka had been integrated into an explosive mixture brewing among the smelly socks and other undesirable oddments under my bed. My parents realised their mistake when, in a fit of pure teenage rebellion and stupidity, I detonated the lethal concoction of alcohol, fertiliser, weedkiller and various substances liberated from the school chemistry lab. As I ran around the house with my hair and eyebrows on fire, screaming, at least they knew the time and effort put into my education had not been wasted. The second theft involved alcohol, too, this time a bottle of cooking wine that I smuggled into school for a clandestine party. It ended in disaster, thanks to the crushing disciplinary regime at the college and the insistence by my parents that, instead of replacing the cooking wine, I cough up UKP100, the cost of a bottle of wine sufficiently marvellous to negate the stress I'd caused. This survey shows that more than a quarter of teenagers admit to drinking in a normal week - on average, five units a week, though this is likely to be concentrated in binges rather than the odd pint with the family curry. Parents, on the other hand, thought that only 19% of their kids drank in an average week. Well, there's plenty of time for sobriety in later life, and getting drunk is a major teenage pastime, essential for lowering our inhibitions and providing an excuse for our behaviour the night before. It's all too easy to obtain large quantities of alcohol. In my experience corner shops and supermarkets are the most likely to accept your ID without checking the date of birth written on it. Failing that, a fake driver's licence, realistic enough to convince the local barman if not the immigration authorities, can be found on the internet for as little as UKP10 under the guise of "novelty identification". As a child of liberal parents, incidents of real dishonesty such as this have been the exception rather than the rule for me. At least one of my parents has been there and back with drugs, and they leave me little to rebel against. They've always told me the truth and given me reasonable advice, and because of that - nothing to do with those classes at school ( "Just Say No!" Gosh, thank you, PC Cake, for that invaluable advice ) - I tend to avoid drugs. The survey reports that 13% of kids aged 11 to 16 have at some point taken drugs, and less than half their parents know about it, the drug of choice in most cases being cannabis, with 25% of those admitting to taking drugs using skunk, the super-strong cousin of marijuana. Cannabis used to be more than a drug, it was a lifestyle choice - you were either turned on or you were a square; but today it's become just another way of getting wasted, making it that much harder for parents to know if their kids are using it. I was 13 when, with my older half-brother, I smoked my first joint, and I'm certain my parents were unaware. The increased availability of cheap marijuana means that, where alcohol isn't readily available, cannabis is often seen as a viable, and more portable, alternative or even a superior option. Most of the wild-side walkers will be among the older participants. In fact, a recent EU survey showed that 42% of all 15- to 24-year-olds admit to smoking cannabis. Cannabis today is far stronger than the mild toe fluff smoked in the misspent youth of the parental generation. As a direct result of regularly smoking large quantities of skunk with a high psychotropic content, two friends I've known since toddlerhood have been brought to suicidal depression; one was so scarred he is nowa day patient in a mental-health unit. At my school, a co-ed in the countryside, cannabis and alcohol are the main drugs of choice. Both have been used at some point by most of my year - everyone wants to be a rock star, and cannabis is smoked more in the hope of tarnishing some of that shiny private-school persona and gaining cool than it is for the actual effects. In fact, my mother smokes more pot than I do, and I often find myself having to play the drug police. The worst part about her habit is that she hasn't learned simple drug etiquette: when smoking a joint, it is terrible manners not to share it, something she doesn't seem to have quite grasped. As cannabis becomes increasingly socially acceptable throughout society, perhaps, just as parents are encouraged to demonstrate responsible drinking to their children, they should encourage responsible smoking. The open relationship I have with my mum regarding our occasional indulgences actually helps us both curb our intake as we discuss the similar negative effects it has on us. Pretty liberal though my parents are, I still can't quite imagine us trading recipes for hash brownies while sharing a family joint before dinner. Most teenagers will smoke cannabis if it's there, so why not just accept it and help them do it in the safest way possible, rather than forcing them to lie to indulge their curiosity? I have noticed that my mother's joints tend to appear when my grandparents come to visit, and I get the feeling part of her still smokes it to get at her parents as she mischievously passes the lit spliff to my grandmother who, in her 70s, has too much bravado to refuse. There's nothing quite as surreal as your stoned grandma telling you for the third time in 10 minutes about the time she had tea with Ho Chi Minh. The thing that surprised me most when reading the survey was the proportion of kids who'd had unprotected sex: 51% of those who'd lost their virginity hadn't used protection. I conducted my own thoroughly unscientific survey and found that only two out of the 20 or so people in my class had had unprotected sex, probably due to the graphic images of the effects of syphilis on the human genitalia shown to the school during a seemingly innocent lecture on modern Catholicism. Though relatively few, more parents than I'd have expected think their children have had unprotected sex: with the increased anonymity surrounding teenage abortions and sexually transmitted disease clinics, there is less need for the parent to be involved when sex goes wrong. If the participants had been older, I think the results of this survey would have been more dramatic. Looking at my 11-year-old brother, it's impossible for me to conceive of him touching any of the drugs listed in the survey, smoking or even drinking; and if, aged 11, I'd been part of the survey, I probably would have made a pretty dull statistic, too. My first joint was at age 13; first cigarette, 14; first ride on the proverbial train of love, 16. Thinking about it now, I did talk to strangers online, although I had full knowledge of the dangers and found baiting paedophiles in online chatrooms, then posing as a member of the police, a rather amusing game for a while. In all, teens commit 10% of antisocial behaviour, yet in opinion polls they are cited as the main cause. It seems to me that the so-called degradation of the morals of adolescents and the rise of uncontrollable hordes of "feral youth" are just desperate attempts to live up to the expectations of our elders. Charlie Samson Gilmour Teen survey results Drugs, cigarettes, drink Of the children who have tried drugs, 65% of their parents believe they haven't taken drugs, or don't know. Of the children who smoke, 52% of their parents believe they don't, or don't know. ( Among the smokers, the average number of cigarettes smoked per day is 7. ) Of the children who drink, 45% of their parents believe they don't, or don't know. ( The average alcohol consumption per week among these child drinkers is five units. ) Sex Of the parents who say they are the ones who first taught their children about sex, 58% are wrong, according to their children. ( They mostly say they learn from their friends. ) Of the children who have lost their virginity, 50% of their parents believe this is not the case, or don't know. Of the children who have had unprotected sex, 83% of their parents believe they have not had unprotected sex. ( More than half of the children who have had sex have had unprotected sex. ) Online Of the children who have communicated with strangers online, 46% of their parents do not think they have done so, or don't know. ( 15% of children have talked about sex online. Few - 3% - admit to meeting a stranger they encountered online, but only 1% of their parents believe such a meeting took place. ) Of the children who have looked at pornography online, 60% of their parents do not think they have done so, or don't know. ( By the age of 16, at least one-third of children have looked at pornography online. ) Bad habits Of the children who have shoplifted, 65% of their parents do not believe they have done so or don't know. ( By the age of 16, half of children have played truant, and a fair number of parents - 61% - are aware that they have. ) . ICM Research interviewed a random location, quota sample of 1,038 people, half of whom were aged 11-16; the other half were one of their parents who lived in the same household. Interviews were conducted around the country and the results have been weighted to the parental profile of eligible parents. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
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US: Budget Boom
BUDGET BOOM States Set Big Spending Plans As Washington Preaches Austerity Washington may currently be focused on fiscal austerity. But a major spending spree is shaping up in the states, as local legislators abandon a half-decade of fiscal conservatism to pursue bigger budgets. From New York to Montana to California, states are proposing budget increases that outpace inflation and far exceed the 1% rise in domestic outlays -- outside of defense and homeland security -- that President Bush recently proposed in his fiscal 2008 federal budget. In Montana, Gov. Brian Schweitzer is cutting taxes and boosting spending by 26% over two years, including $100 million for new "meth prisons" that blend incarceration with intensive drug rehab for those convicted of methamphetamine crimes. In Vermont, Gov. Jim Douglas wants to borrow $40 million to create "the nation's first e-state," where free wireless broadband is available to all. And in Arizona, the only dispute between a Democratic governor and a Republican legislature over a half-billion-dollar road-repair program is whether to borrow the money or pay cash. The binge is bipartisan. Last year, the Massachusetts legislature approved a $1.56 billion universal health-care plan under Republican Gov. Mitt Romney, who is now running for president. This year, at least ten states -- most notably Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger's California -- are weighing similar programs. But that's just one of many areas where state governments are seeking to expand services that were long considered distant dreams by advocates. Universal prekindergarten is being championed by several incoming Democratic governors, such as New York's Eliot Spitzer, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Mike Beebe of Arkansas. Democratic leaders in Colorado and Pennsylvania and several other states want to create funds for state "energy independence." Many of these proposals will be topics of conversation at the National Governors Association's annual meeting, which begins in Washington today. The new state activism is driven in part by the Bush administration's budgetary focus on Iraq, defense and homeland security, which leaves states to grapple with domestic concerns on their own. Higher tax receipts and growth in energy royalties, from higher oil and natural-gas prices, have also left many states flush. But even states faced with declining revenue are mulling ways to ramp up spending -- not with unpopular tax increases, but by privatizing valuable public assets in return for big slugs of cash. Michigan and Illinois, among others, are looking at selling off their lotteries, while Missouri is considering doing the same with its student-loan portfolio. The growing popularity of health-care programs and higher teacher salaries raises the risk that states, giddy from surging revenue, may be in danger of expanding beyond their means, using short-term windfalls to create new long-term obligations at a time when tax increases remain unpopular with voters. It was just a few years ago that states last found themselves in financial dire straits. In the early 2000s, many state governments were hit hard by recession and constitutional requirements to balance budgets. Reluctant to unwind fresh tax rollbacks, states were forced not only to cease creating new services but also to cut back on many basics, such as road repairs and prisons. In 2003, the National Governors Association reported that states collectively were undergoing the worst budget crisis since World War II. Even after their economies and revenue streams recovered in the middle part of the decade, state governments concentrated on building surpluses and kept spending relatively in check. But now, many states are returning to their old ways: along with spending more, several governors are proposing hefty tax cuts as well. Like many governors, Arizona Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano faced a looming budget shortfall -- $1 billion in her case -- when she took office in 2003. Now, thanks to strong economic growth, surging sales-tax revenue and low unemployment, the state has $650 million in reserves. For fiscal year 2008, Ms. Napolitano has proposed a $10.4 billion budget that calls for a 6.9% increase in spending on top of the 18% increase last year. The extra money allows Ms. Napolitano to put tens of millions of dollars toward her priorities: pay raises for teachers, 12% more for state universities, and $60 million for projects to train and attract high-tech workers and businesses. "Somewhere out there is the next Microsoft," Ms. Napolitano said. "I'd just as soon that it be in Phoenix or Tucson." Montana's Mr. Schweitzer, who also faced an austere outlook when he first took office, is now enjoying a $1 billion surplus, largely due to higher tax revenues on capital gains and energy production. As he sees it, states spend nearly all of their money to "educate, medicate and incarcerate." His two-year, $7.7 billion budget boosts spending on all three. Legislative analysts peg the budget increase at 26%; Mr. Schweitzer excludes the rainy-day fund and payments towards pension obligations and says the jump is closer to 13%. The state's prison system will see one of the largest increases. Mr. Schweitzer says Montana leads the nation in the per-capita number of citizens incarcerated. Because the vast majority of those are for drug-related crimes, he's proposing a program that would marry the state's prison system with its Department of Health. The resulting "meth prisons," as he calls them, would combine incarceration with intensive rehab programs, which he says would allow for more early releases and, over the long term, would lower the state's cost of maintaining its prisoners. It's an unusual idea, and one he says that the federal government is unlikely to help finance. "The feds aren't really interested in new and novel things," he says. Mr. Schweitzer's budget also offers about $150 million in tax cuts and a $170 million capital construction program. "The best part is I don't have one dollar of bonding in my program," Mr. Schweitzer said. "We're paying cash." Another reason states are loosening their purse strings is to compensate for a sustained decline in federal revenue sharing. In the past, the federal government could often be relied on to help finance big projects such as highways and new state initiatives, such as antipoverty programs. But the days of expanding federal revenue sharing have been on the wane for years. And the Bush administration, with its focus on war and antiterror spending, has shown little interest in supporting these efforts. In fact, governors and others say they expect cutbacks in federal support. "I don't think anyone feels the federal government is going to be a source of revenue increases any time in the near future," says Robin Prunty, a credit analyst, who specializes in state finances for bond-rating firm Standard & Poor's Corp. In New Mexico, Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson, who is running for president, is proposing a $5.7 billion budget, 11% bigger than last year's. The spending plan not only provides more than $100 million in raises for school employees, but includes some projects he had originally intended to supplement with federal grants, such as the state's commuter-rail system. "We had a commitment from the feds for $65 million but we haven't seen it yet, so I'm putting it in my own budget," Mr. Richardson says. His budget also includes a $77 million proposal to expand health care. In many states, universal-health-care proposals are potentially the most expensive propositions, and none top the gargantuan plan offered by California's Mr. Schwarzenegger. His $12 billion health-care plan would insure an estimated 6.5 million people by imposing new fees on doctors and hospitals and giving $1 billion in tax breaks to individuals who purchase their own health insurance. Mr. Schwarzenegger is touting his plan over the objections of many legislators in his own party, who argue that the program will cause budgetary havoc if the state's economy sours. It wouldn't be the first time an ambitious insurance plan created fiscal problems for a state. Tennessee launched such a plan in 1994 but was forced to painfully unwind the program in 2005, when it had grown into a $7.8 billion behemoth that accounted for nearly a third of all spending and threatened to throw the state into deficit. The biggest contributor to costs: insuring middle-aged citizens, especially those with pre-existing medical conditions. They were the first of the estimated 170,000 Tennesseans to be tossed out of the program. Scott Pattison, executive director of the National Association of State Budget Officers, says the Tennessee experience is unlikely to be an anomaly. While it's relatively cheap to insure healthy children, "a 52-year-old diabetic is a lot more expensive to cover," he says. To be sure, some states, fearing a quick reversal of fiscal fortunes, are trying to keep a lid on spending. In Alaska, a state that derives much of its revenue from oil royalties, high energy prices are expected to increase general-fund revenue to $5 billion this year, from $2 billion in 2003. Yet freshman Republican Gov. Sarah Palin vowed to limit budget growth to $3.3 billion, up less than 3% from this year. She points to a recent legislative report that predicts falling energy prices will result in declining revenue for the state as early as next year and a potential $1 billion deficit by fiscal 2010. Already, there are indications that the flush times are ending. One early sign: by late 2006, nearly a third of those states participating in an annual survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures -- 14 of them -- were either experiencing or expecting to see a decline in revenue. Moreover, the group says, for the first time in years, projected spending increases this year seems likely to outstrip revenue growth, with outlays expect to rise 7.5%, and receipts, just 3.1%. The obvious solution to flagging revenue is new taxes. But while many governors seem disposed to spend more, those same politicians remain largely conservative on taxes. Big increases, particularly on broad levies like income and sales taxes, are still considered political suicide. Instead, states from Arizona and Montana to New York, Florida and New Jersey have enacted or are considering tax rollbacks. Many states are looking at other ways to raise cash. In Massachusetts and New York, Messrs. Patrick and Spitzer are toying with the idea of legalizing gambling to raise money. In New Jersey, which already has legalized gambling, Democratic Gov. Jon S. Corzine is entertaining a wager of another sort: leasing a portion of the state's turnpike to a private company in order to raise cash. Governors in Pennsylvania and Texas are considering similar proposals. The schemes can be a windfall for states: In Indiana last fall, Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels essentially sold Interstate 85 under a 75-year lease that garnered a $3.8 billion cash payment. Now he is proposing to lease the state's lottery in return for a similar windfall -- as are several other states, including Illinois, Texas and New Jersey. But lease deals have proven controversial. Critics fret that states won't properly value the assets or will strike deals that somehow hinder future growth. Chief among the critics is the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, a trucker lobby. The lease deals being considered involve sections of some of the nation's busiest roadways. Because the deals almost always include provisions that bar states from building new roadways that might compete with the toll routes being sold, future gridlock is all but assured, the group says. In some states, there's plenty of cash -- at least for the moment. In Arizona, Ms. Napolitano finds herself allied with the conservative Goldwater Institute as she tries to beat back a proposal by the Republican-dominated legislature to raid the state's rainy-day fund for a $400 million road-improvement program. Like her Republican brethren, Ms. Napolitano wants to fix the roads. But she would rather borrow the money and keep the $650 million rainy-day account for the economic downturn she assumes is all but inevitable. "When I came in, we had no rainy day fund," says Ms. Napolitano. "I wouldn't wish that on anybody."
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Thursday, February 22, 2007
US CA: California Prison Drug Treatment Called Waste Of Money
CALIFORNIA PRISON DRUG TREATMENT CALLED WASTE OF MONEY The State Overseer Of The Corrections System Says The $1 Billion Spent Since 1989 On Programs Has Failed To Lessen The Recidivism Rate SACRAMENTO -- California's $1-billion investment in drug treatment for prisoners since 1989 has been "a complete waste of money," the state's inspector general said Wednesday, and has done nothing to reduce the number of inmates cycling in and out of custody. One study of the two largest in-prison programs found that recidivism rates for inmates who participated were actually a bit higher than those of a group of convicts who did not receive treatment, Inspector General Matt Cate said. He said corrections officials were told in more than 20 reports since 1997 that the programs were failing but did nothing to fix them, choosing instead to expand them and fund more studies of their results. Successful treatment programs could increase public safety, "change lives and help relieve the state's prison overcrowding crisis," Cate said in releasing the 50-page special review. "But so far the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has squandered that opportunity." The Office of the Inspector General is an independent state agency that oversees the corrections department. In anticipation of the scathing report, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ordered a shake-up of the department's drug treatment operation and put someone new in charge. Kathryn Jett, director of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs since 2000, will lead the reorganized division within corrections. The governor called Jett, 53, "the right person at the right time to take on this critical responsibility." Cate applauded Jett's appointment and the governor's "willingness to address this problem at its very foundation. What I didn't want was a patch job, because this is such a total failure," he said. Jett said she welcomed the challenge of improving outcomes for drug-addicted inmates -- and for taxpayers. In an interview, she called the inspector general's report "an excellent blueprint for change" and said she took the job because of the governor's "strong commitment to reform." One in five inmates in California is serving time for a drug offense, and an even larger proportion -- more than half of the 172,000 men and women behind bars -- need drug treatment, the inspector general said. California's recidivism rate, meanwhile, remains among the highest in the country, with about 70% of inmates returning to prison within several years of their release. Cate said treatment for substance abuse "offers one of the state's best hopes of reducing the number of inmates who repeatedly cycle in and out of prisons." Breaking that cycle could alleviate the severe overcrowding that grips the correctional system. The state is under federal court pressure to ease the jam-packed conditions by June or face a possible limit on new prison admissions. The state spends $143 million a year on substance abuse treatment for inmates and parolees, in part through 38 privately operated programs at 22 prisons. About 78,000 prisoners have been treated behind bars since the programs began in 1989. The programs' ineffectiveness, Cate said, boils down to poor management by the department, which often houses them in prison settings where they are doomed to fail. Among the problems: The state's "therapeutic community" treatment model calls for participants to be separated from other inmates, but such separation rarely occurs. Instead, participants share yards and other prison facilities with general population inmates, and security procedures routinely disrupt treatment. Some treatment programs are at prisons that are subjected to frequent lockdowns, meaning that inmates are confined to their cells around the clock. When that occurs, treatment for them essentially stops until the lockdown is lifted. Recognizing the importance of intensive group counseling, the contracts with program providers require enough counselors for an 18 to 1 ratio of inmates to counselors. About two-thirds of the programs do not meet that standard. Cate said one egregious example of the department's mismanagement was its willingness to pay for extensive studies that evaluate the treatment programs without then correcting problems those studies identified. Over a nine-year period that ended last year, the state paid $8.2 million for such studies by UCLA and San Diego State University. The research identified weaknesses and recommended fixes, but the department failed to act. Meanwhile, the Legislature twice funded an expansion of the programs without evidence that they were delivering positive results, the report said. "The litany of problems adds up to a $1-billion failure," the report said, including "most tragically, failure to help California inmates change their lives and, in so doing, make our streets safer." Rod Mullen, who runs an organization that has operated drug treatment programs in the state prisons since 1990, called the report "a mixed bag." "Saying it's a billion-dollar failure is really a mischaracterization of what's happened, because there have been some very successful programs that have delivered amazing reductions in recidivism," said Mullen, chief executive officer of Amity Foundation. Mullen agreed, however, with Cate's suggestion that it was a waste of money to provide in-prison treatment without follow-up care in the community. "That's the key, and we've known that for 10 or 15 years," Mullen said. "What's been missing is a commitment by the department, the Legislature and the governor to make sure it happens." The inspector general's report can be viewed at http://www.oig.ca.gov/.
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Sunday, February 18, 2007
US CA: The Pot Haze
THE POT HAZE Faced With Conflicting State, Federal Laws, Local Officials Struggle With Medical Marijuana Issue Ten years after state voters approved the use of medical marijuana, Sonoma County's courts, law enforcement, politicians - and patients - are still struggling to make the law work in the face of unyielding federal policy that considers any use of the drug illegal. That conflict is playing out this month in two Sonoma County courtrooms, in the Sebastopol council chambers and in the daily lives of 375 holders of state-issued medical marijuana ID cards who face huge fee increases. The courts are dealing with law enforcement authorities who are refusing to return medical marijuana because they say they are bound by federal law. At the same time, Sebastopol, following the lead of Santa Rosa and county government, is trying to set rules for setting up medical pot dispensaries in the city. The result is a dizzying array of costly policies and regulations intended to both regulate marijuana use and help and protect medical marijuana users. "It's a big mess," said Sonoma County Sheriff Bill Cogbill. "I'm really worried about how this is all going to play out. Unless something is done to clarify the law in this regard, we're going to see the proliferation of marijuana in society." Berta Bollinger, 54, an active member and patient of the Caregiver Compassion Center in Santa Rosa, said advocates are working hard to get the federal government to recognize medicinal uses for marijuana. "It's not going to happen in this administration," said Bollinger, who has a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana to treat her depression, panic disorder and pain and fatigue symptoms. "It's a slow process but we're getting there." The proposed ordinance that goes before the Sebastopol City Council on Tuesday would require a public permit process handled through the city's Planning Department. Cotati also is considering an ordinance to regulate dispensaries within city limits. Sebastopol and Cotati are moving forward after a period of several years in which cities countywide put a halt to the unregulated cannabis clubs that began appearing after the passage of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. Local officials on their own Since the act does not address the issue of how or where people are supposed to get their medical marijuana, local officials are on their own designing local regulations. "It's been a struggle. This was just so unclear in state law," said Jane Riley, a planner with the Sonoma County Permit Resource and Planning Department. "With things like granny units, state law is very specific." Sonoma County gave preliminary approval three weeks ago to an ordinance allowing for dispensaries to be set up in urban areas of the unincorporated county. The ordinance, which goes before supervisors March 20 for final approval, would require dispensaries to obtain a use permit to operate. The final language in the ordinance is currently being fine-tuned, but supervisors have said they do not want on-site consumption and that operations should be restricted to beyond 1,000 feet of a school ground. Under the proposed Sebastopol ordinance, only one dispensary would be permitted during the first year the ordinance is enacted. Another would be allowed in the second year. The number of dispensaries would be capped at two. "We are putting it through the standard public hearing process," said Kenyon Webster, a city planner in Sebastopol. "We see this as a sensitive land use that needs careful review." Webster cited potential adverse effects, such as parking and traffic problems as well as the potential for criminal activity. Criminal activity is the element that upsets neighbors and the reason cities struggle to find locations. In November, two men carrying guns and wearing ski masks forced their way into a Sebastopol home, bound the couple living there and left with marijuana plants intended for medical use. In April, a 31-year-old Santa Rosa man was shot and killed in his Wheeler Street home. Police believe the shooter was there to take the victim's marijuana, kept for medical reasons. Such examples have cities throughout the county moving carefully as they try to determine just where to allow marijuana to be sold. "There are significant legal issues between what the voters of California envision and the federal government," said Webster. Unlike under the county ordinance, on-site consumption would be allowed in Sebastopol. Legal experts say that inconsistencies such as these are a direct result of a lack of direction from the state. Santa Rosa City Attorney Brien Farrell said it's taken many years to make sense of Proposition 215 and SB 420, subsequent state legislation that created a voluntary medical marijuana ID program that was supposed to clear up ambiguities in the original proposition. Law still 'getting worked out' "There's a clear desire for consistency and clarity and an interpretation of what rules apply," Farrell said. "What is the law in California? That is still getting worked out these many years later." Santa Rosa got its medical marijuana ordinance in November 2005, just seven months after adopting a ban to gain control of unregulated dispensaries, including one on Sonoma Avenue near Juilliard Park. Nowhere has the conflict between federal and state marijuana laws become more evident than in the county courtrooms, where some law enforcement officials are refusing to return confiscated medical marijuana. On Thursday, Deputy Sonoma County Counsel Anne Keck, representing the Sheriff's Department, was handed a setback in her effort to avoid returning 25 pounds of marijuana taken from the home of an employee of Marvin's Garden, a medical marijuana cooperative in Guerneville. Superior Court Judge Raima Ballinger rejected Keck's request for lengthy civil discovery that would allow the Sheriff's Department to verify the legitimacy of Marvin's Garden, as well as the employee, Kenneth Wilson. "We don't think that returning this property is legal," said Keck, adding that it was not clear if the marijuana was being held by "a lawful person." Judge cites court's role Ballinger made it clear to Keck that it was up to the court to decide whether the marijuana should be returned and that the job of the Sheriff's Department was to act as custodian of the confiscated property. In a similar case, Judge Lawrence Antolini has ordered the Santa Rosa Police Department to return 18 pounds of medical marijuana to Shashon Jenkins, 26. Jenkins was arrested in October but the District Attorney's Office decided not to file charges after Jenkins provided evidence that he was a medical marijuana user and a provider for other patients. In both cases, law enforcement officials argue that returning the marijuana would put them in jeopardy of violating federal laws that make marijuana illegal, regardless of whether it is being used for medicinal purposes. But William Panzer, an Oakland-based attorney who co-wrote Proposition 215, said that argument is a smoke screen. Panzer, who represents Marvin's Garden, said it's a question of jurisdiction. "If you're in federal court, federal law applies. If you're in state court, state law applies," said Panzer. "Law enforcement doesn't like ( Proposition 215 ) and they don't want to follow it." Lack of federal clarity Sheriff Cogbill said it's not that simple. He wants more clarification from both the Supreme Court and Congress. Cogbill said the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said medical use of marijuana was still illegal under existing federal laws fell short of declaring such laws as Proposition 215 illegal. "What it does is put law enforcement and criminal justice in a quandary," Cogbill said. "If it has a medical use, then the federal government needs to recognize that and schedule it as one of those drugs that has a medical purpose." The quasi-legitimacy of marijuana use has led to a lack of oversight and regulation of its use as a medicine, Cogbill said."If we don't have tighter controls on it, it's going to get out of hand," said Cogbill. "Those cannabis clubs have to get their pot from someplace. Are we now allowing organized crime to have a foothold in our community?" The challenges are significant, but they are the natural result of trying to resolve the law and community needs, said one medical marijuana provider. John Sugg of the Caregiver Compassion Center in Santa Rosa said city and county ordinances regulating marijuana dispensaries are a sign that marijuana laws are being taken seriously. "Sure, it's been 10 years since the law passed, but the ( Santa Rosa ) ordinance demonstrates that the whole thing is maturing," he said.
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Friday, February 09, 2007
US MA: High School Drug Policy Still Subject For Debate
HIGH SCHOOL DRUG POLICY STILL SUBJECT FOR DEBATE The Martha's Vineyard Regional High School district committee was on the receiving end of some tough questions on Monday night - all of them centered on drugs at the high school. What would happen if a police dog found drugs in a student's locker? Would it automatically become a police matter? What if one student put drugs in another student's locker - or in a teacher's things? And what about student rights? The school committee is considering a new policy that would allow the regional high school principal to use state police dogs to search school buildings and parking lots for drugs. The proposed policy has stirred a debate in the school as well as the community. Before voting on the policy, which it plans to do in the coming weeks, the high school committee invited members of the public to voice their opinions at the Monday night meeting. State police Lieut. Robert Moore also attended the session. Turnout was slim, but the views were wide-ranging. "I think our goal is to say to the larger community that we are doing everything we can to keep our school environment drug free," said Vineyard schools superintendent Dr. James H. Weiss. Mr. Weiss and principal Margaret ( Peg ) Regan have said that canine searches are the most effective way to get drugs out of the school. Mrs. Regan has said that if the policy is adopted, she will give students two or three weeks' notice of the first drug search and the assurance that more searches will follow. The plan, Mrs. Regan said, will not stop students from doing drugs, but it will ensure that drugs are not in school. "We're not looking to arrest anybody - we're looking to have a drug-free zone at our school," Mrs. Regan said. "My goal is to have no drugs in the school when the dogs come." She also said: "We do have drugs here. If you want them, you can get them." Mrs. Regan said she sees cars driven by people in their early 20s, idling on the periphery of campus at the end of the school day. "They're here to sell drugs," she said. "So we call the police and put no trespassing orders on them." According to police, the regional high school is the epicenter of drug activity during the off-season on the Vineyard, Mrs. Regan said. She said students have told her it is easy to procure drugs at school. Oak Bluffs school committee member David Morris, who grew up on the Island, recalled that drugs and alcohol have always had a strong presence at the school. "I can't think of a reason why we wouldn't make it harder to bring drugs in school," Mr. Morris said. "You've got to be one step ahead of them and make it harder." A 2005 survey of Island high school students showed that over half the students had smoked marijuana - higher than the number who had smoked cigarettes - and roughly 40 per cent had smoked marijuana in the last 30 days. "Perhaps a lot of us adults are in denial," committee member Leslie Baynes of Edgartown said. "As a society, on the Vineyard, we're infested with drugs and I don't know what the answer is." Some argued that drug dogs are the wrong approach to solving the problem. "I'm not for search and seizure - I think it's a real invasion of personal rights," committee member Roxanne Ackerman of Aquinnah said. "I think it's the wrong message to send our kids." Former Oak Bluffs school committee member Timothy Dobel agreed. "I am appalled by what is going on in the area of civil liberties in our country right now," Mr. Dobel said. "Do we really really have to bring dogs in our schools?" Three regional high school students also expressed views at the discussion on Monday. "A majority would be against it," said junior Ben Williams, who attends the high school committee meetings with fellow junior Rachel Schubert to give student reports. "I've heard it from many students and many teachers that it isn't necessary." Student body president Marguerite Cogliano said that although that may be the popular view at school, the searches are in students' best interest. "There obviously are drugs at our school and I don't think high school is the place for drugs," Ms. Cogliano said. She said many students appear confused about the proposed policy and the administration's goals. Mr. Weiss said that in the last school system he worked in, there were virtually no drug finds; he said canine searches seemed to rid the school of illegal substances. Three to five students are caught each year for drug-related offenses at the regional high school, assistant principal Stephen Nixon said. "But are we going to treat the entire school like criminals for those three to five kids?" asked committee member Judy O'Donoghue of Oak Bluffs. She suggested the school use preventative programs instead. Mrs. Regan responded that the students who are caught are never the dealers. "They are the small fries," she said, adding: "I do see our students as victims of much larger dealers." Committee member John Bacheller of Tisbury said preventative programs have been around for years, but drugs still have a presence at the high school. "What is the alternative that's actually going to work?" he asked. Ms. Schubert said discussion about the drug dogs have proved to be a distraction in school, but assistant principal Anne Lemenager said she is happy with the debate the issue has generated among students and in classrooms.
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
US: Web: What a Long Strange Trip It's Been
WHAT A LONG STRANGE TRIP IT'S BEEN Ecstasy, the New Prescription Drug? This year, the drug MDMA, otherwise known as ecstasy, could take a step toward medical respectability. Researchers in South Carolina have begun experimenting with MDMA for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder. At Harvard, a long-awaited pilot study will begin on whether the drug can help relieve anxiety and pain in terminal cancer patients in connection with psychotherapy. And studies will also start in Switzerland and Israel, where a former chief psychiatrist of the Israel Defense Forces will oversee work with people whose PTSD stems from terrorism or war. Ecstasy gained notoriety as a party drug in the 1980s and 1990s. ( Recall teenagers at raves with sparkly eyes and pacifiers rolling and dancing all night; a revival appears to be under way in England. ) Enthusiasts say the drug makes them feel relaxed, energetic, and mentally clear. One likened it to a six-hour orgasm. In rare cases, however, users died after dancing for hours and overheating, or after taking mixtures of ecstasy and other drugs. Animal studies have shown that long-term, heavy ecstasy use can be risky for the brain. Human studies have found some ill effects in chronic users, as well. The government classifies MDMA ( or 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine ) along with heroin, LSD, and marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, which means that it's illegal and has no recognized medical uses. But research has not proved that moderate or low doses of ecstasy are particularly dangerous. And avant-garde psychiatrists have long argued that in a controlled clinical setting, low amounts can play a role by reducing fear, without sedation, and so encourage openness and emotional insight. "There is nothing else like this in psychiatry--a fast-acting anti-anxiety medication that makes people alert and talkative," says Julie Holland, a psychiatrist at NYU Medical Center. If available to treat patients, "It would be incredibly useful." Some mental-health professionals interested in exploring MDMA's therapeutic uses protested when the government made it illegal 20 years ago. Stories of the drug's power to combat the psychological effects of terminal illness have continued to surface over the years. But proponents have had little but anecdote to go on. The current wave of studies should bring new rigor to answering an old question: whether MDMA deserves to be a prescription drug. MDMA was patented more than 90 years ago by the German chemical company E. Merck. For years, it was essentially shelved for reasons that aren't clear. In the 1950s, the U.S. Army conducted research on MDMA, perhaps as a potential incapacitant or truth serum, but apparently dropped the idea. The compound was rediscovered in the late 1970s by chemist and psychedelic cult hero Alexander Shulgin, who synthesized it for recreational use ( and supplied it to at least one psychiatrist interested in trying it with patients ). Ecstasy works by prompting the brain to release a flood of neurotransmitters, including serotonin, which is believed to kick off the sensations of physical pleasure and euphoria. That sounds nice, but animal research suggests that high doses of the drug can cause the nerve endings that release serotonin to degenerate, ultimately lowering its levels in the brain. Some studies suggest that heavy users sustain damage to their serotonin systems. Long-term users may also experience increased anxiety, depression, or sleep disturbances. Recently, researchers in the Netherlands reported preliminary findings to suggest that in new users, low doses of ecstasy can alter blood-flow patterns in the brain and may result in small decreases in verbal memory. In truth, this litany of harms is not as scary or as conclusive as it sounds, however. The best-known neuroimaging work purporting to show ecstasy-related long-term damage to the human serotonin system was fraught with methodological problems. Much of the research on the drug's apparent psychological or behavioral effects in chronic users fails to account for other drugs, like cocaine or marijuana, which ravers often take, as well. Nor does most research account for other substances like methamphetamine, DXM, and ketamine that pills sold as X may contain. John Halpern of Harvard Medical School, who is running the study on MDMA for cancer patients, has tried to avoid this problem by studying a group of ravers in Utah who took large quantities of ecstasy but rarely used other illegal substances or drank alcohol. ( Apparently, the mores of this largely Mormon area allowed the ravers to conclude that X isn't as bad as drinking--Halpern isn't sure why. ) He found that those who took the drug 60 or more times performed worse on a number of neuropsychological tests, especially those involving mental processing speed and impulsivity. But the heavy users still performed within the normal range. And those who used X fewer than 50 times did not show these effects. When Halpern combined data on all the users, regardless of the extent of their use, he found no significant differences between users and nonusers, including in their scores on memory tests. ( The recent Dutch work that links low doses of X to small memory changes is, so far, difficult to evaluate. ) Minor and probably transient memory impairment may not be so bad. And MDMA would be safer in a clinical setting, where the patient's mind-set would be different and the drug's purity guaranteed. So can the anti-anxiety effects of ecstasy be harnessed to good effect under a psychiatrist's care? George Greer, perhaps the best known of the doctors who gave their patients MDMA in the 1980s, prescribed it to about 80 patients who suffered from mild depression, anxiety, or relationship troubles. He says they could more freely remember and discuss difficult events. A few felt tired, depleted, or anxious the next day. But according to Greer, none suffered lasting side effects. Other psychiatrists say that ecstasy has the potential to accelerate therapy and to enhance the therapeutic alliance, creating a closeness that carries over to future sessions. But neither Greer nor anyone else conducted any controlled studies to prove the point. In the Harvard and South Carolina studies, patients will be screened for physical and psychological conditions that might make MDMA dangerous to them. ( High blood pressure and major medical problems are pre-emptive, as are psychoses. ) The idea is to look for benefits in psychotherapy, but also to watch out for adverse reactions. The studies include two psychotherapy sessions with the drug and multiple sessions without it, so subjects and their therapists can integrate material stirred up under the influence. Both are designed as randomized, double blind, controlled trials--the gold standard of scientific research. And both have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It's too soon to say what these trials will yield. But if all goes well, MDMA could help some patients, and also help build acceptance for parallel work on the potential therapeutic effects of psilocybin ( found in 'shrooms ) or even LSD. Even at this late date, it's possible to imagine for psychiatry a small psychedelic renaissance.
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Monday, January 22, 2007
US NC: Edu: Trip-seekers Find Means In Legal Salvia
Philip Emanuel took a hit of salvia, held the smoke in his lungs for a few moments and then let it escape his lips. "Oooh, it works!" he said mere seconds later, his eyes wide. Beforehand, Emanuel explained that a salvia trip produces "the most dissociative effect you can possibly have." He just might have been correct. For the next five minutes, the sophomore moved and spoke as though spirits had passed through his hookah's tubes and seized control of his body. He spoke gibberish between fits of uncontrollable laughter and was unable to respond coherently to anyone. When he tried to stand, he staggered and then looked around with astonishment as if he were seeing the world for the first time. "I will not admit any doings of any kind," he said, a statement he wouldn't recall making only minutes later. After about five minutes had passed and the most intense segment was behind him, sweat beads covered Emanuel's face, though the temperature was a windy 45 degrees. Emanuel had smoked salvia divinorum extract, a legal hallucinogen available at head shops nationwide. Historically, Mazatec Indians, who lived in southern Mexico, consumed salvia for spiritual purposes; indeed, salvia is often referred to as the "sage of the seers." "The active ingredient is salvinorin-A, the most active, naturally occurring hallucinogen," said Bryan Roth, a professor of pharmacology at UNC's School of Medicine. In 2002 Roth helped discover how salvia influences the brain. He said it only affects a single brain receptor - the kappa opiate receptor. "Here you have this drug that has a profound effect on the brain, and it only affects a single receptor out of hundreds," Roth said. He said this indicates that the receptor alters consciousness, which means studying it could be helpful for treating mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. But what does it feel like when salvia activates your kappa opiate receptor? "It felt like my head was in a box and some outside force was moving it around and determining my viewpoint," Emanuel said as the effects wound down. "It's like tunnel vision. You only see one thing at a time, but each time you look at something you get a different feeling; you feel what you are looking at." He stood up and looked down at his hookah and said the distance had become distorted. "Right now it seems like it's a mile away from my face," he said. It was no more than six inches away. Emanuel also said he was unable to process sounds made by himself or others. Despite its potency, salvia remains legal in most states, including North Carolina. Sophomore Sara Thomas, an employee at the head shop Hazmat Inc., said salvia is a popular item because of its legality. The plant costs $80 for one gram at 20x strength at Hazmat. Potencies at the store range from 5x to 20x . Emanuel used about a third of a gram in one sitting. Roth, however, said he doesn't think it will remain uncontrolled. "The only reason it's legal is that it hasn't yet been made illegal," Roth said. He added that most people he talked to did not enjoy their experience because of its intensity. Thomas said her manager had smoked the plant and said he would rather "bang his head against a wall than do salvia again." Emanuel, on the other hand, described his experience as pleasant. "During your trip, you have to realize on an instinctual level that you're OK," he said. "There's no reason to be afraid; it's an illogical fear and paranoia." From a health perspective, little is known about salvia. However, Roth said there are no signs it's addictive and that one formal study in rodents found no overt toxicity. Roth advised against consuming salvia because "if you are in a disoriented condition you can get yourself into some trouble." Many mistakenly view salvia as legal marijuana or legal LSD. "Salvia's structure is very different," Roth said. "It's completely unique."
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
CN MB: Officers Faced Grilling At Trial
OFFICERS FACED GRILLING AT TRIAL Defence Planned To Attack Conduct Of Police Chief'S Stepson, Partner DEFENCE lawyers were preparing to attack the conduct of two Winnipeg police officers who are now under internal investigation for allegedly lying under oath in a drug prosecution that collapsed, according to court documents obtained Friday by the Free Press. Const. Peter O'Kane and his partner, Const. Jess Zebrun -- the stepson of Chief Jack Ewatski -- would have been grilled at trial about the validity of a search warrant they obtained and whether the information sworn to a magistrate was "sufficient and accurate" if the case had not been recently stayed by the Crown. Even if the warrant was found to be valid, lawyers Evan Roitenberg and Darren Sawchuk planned to argue that the officers "may have illegally entered a hotel room where the drugs were located prior to the warrant being obtained." The intended defence is contained in a pre-trial memo located on the court file of the two accused. Scott Guiboche and Danny George walked free on serious charges of possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime last November, despite the fact police found approximately two pounds of cocaine and $30,000 cash. Crown attorney Michael Foote offered no explanation for entering a stay of proceedings. However, Foote did express concerns during a February 2006 preliminary hearing that police "have not been forthcoming" with their disclosure of information pertaining to their search warrant. The Winnipeg police professional standards unit is now investigating the two officers and their roles in the case. Both officers have been reassigned to internal desk duties while the investigation is ongoing. A hotel employee has provided information that supports the theory of defence lawyers that the officers had gone into the hotel room without a warrant, according to police and legal sources. When they testified at the preliminary hearing, O'Kane and Zebrun claimed their suspicions about the hotel room weren't based on an illegal sneak peek but rather on the information of a mysterious informant. The pair told a judge they never entered Room 1707 at the Fairmont Hotel until after they had obtained a search warrant, which they based on a tip from the unknown source, according to a transcript of the case that is on the court file. But the pair gave different accounts in court of when they first went to the hotel and how many times they stopped in at the hotel the day the arrests were made in July 2005. O'Kane and Zebrun told court how the now-controversial drug investigation began with a routine call about a disturbance. The officers found a drunk and disorderly man named Scott Guiboche and took him to the Main Street Project for lodging under the Intoxicated Persons Detention Act. However, their focus shifted when a routine pat-down uncovered nine rocks of crack cocaine, court was told. Guiboche was taken to the Public Safety Building and put in a holding cell, now facing a charge of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking. The story takes a twist, O'Kane testified, when an anonymous phone call came into the police station just as they were processing Guiboche. The caller -- whom O'Kane identified only as 'X" -- had some revealing information about Guiboche. "He said he had a room, 1707 at the Fairmont, which was a reloading station. He said he has lots of cash and crack in there," said O'Kane. The caller claimed he had been in the room with Guiboche and had previously given confidential information to another police officer in a theft investigation. Under cross-examination, defence lawyers appeared skeptical about the existence of the informant. O'Kane said he took no steps to obtain any information about the mysterious caller, such as his name or background. Instead, he said he felt the man was a reliable source after he called the other officer, who confirmed the nameless caller had once been a source of good information. O'Kane said he also expressed shock to his partner about the good timing of the informant's call about the very man they had just arrested a couple hours earlier. "I said 'you won't believe this guy just phoned here and says there's a room at the Fairmont with crack and money," he told court. As well, the tipster's information seemed to mesh with a Fairmont Hotel swipe card they found in Guiboche's pocket during his arrest, he said. O'Kane told court he and Zebrun then went to the Fairmont, spoke with the night manager and confirmed Room 1707 was being rented out by a man named Danny George. He said they called for some additional officers to watch the exterior of the room while they returned to the PSB to fill out an application for a warrant. Zebrun told a different story. He testified he and O'Kane went to the Fairmont for the first time only after they had already obtained the warrant. "( The night manager ) advised us of the suite number that the card belonged to and who was renting that suite, the name at least that was on the paper. And then we went up and executed the search warrant," said Zebrun. "OK, so you had the search warrant with you when you went and saw the manager," asked Sawchuk. "Yes, I believe so," said Zebrun. "How many times did you go into that suite, 1707, that day?" asked Sawchuk. "Just one," said Zebrun. In their information to obtain a search warrant, O'Kane and Zebrun swore before a magistrate they had "conducted police investigative techniques" to verify that the informant's information about the hotel suite was accurate. O'Kane told defence lawyers in cross-examination the investigative techniques involved learning from his fellow officer "X" was a good source, confirming the swipe card found on Guiboche was valid and confirming that the room was registered in George's name. Lawyers also questioned the two officers about the fact they specifically noted "crack, money, scales and packaging material" could be expected to be found in the hotel suite -- even though the informant apparently only mentioned drugs and cash. Packaging material such as Ziploc baggies and Saran Wrap were found immediately upon entering the suite, court was told.
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Thursday, January 04, 2007
CN MB: Drug Message Changes From Just Say No, To Go, Go, Go
DRUG MESSAGE CHANGES FROM JUST SAY NO, TO GO, GO, GO Drugs have always played a role in popular music, from '60s acid rock and the ganja-slowed rhythms of reggae to grunge's heroin-wracked self-loathing. But none of these narcotics have influenced a genre as intensely as crack-cocaine has hip-hop. For the past year, the subgenre known as crack-rap -- a.k.a. cocaine rap or, more poetically, trap-hop -- has dominated the charts. Nearly every major hip-hop album has sniffed around the subject, but rather than describing their own habits, these rappers have been boasting about drug-dealing day-jobs. Veteran Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface named last spring's critically acclaimed solo CD Fishscale -- slang for pure-strain cocaine -- and sprinkled stories of drug lords and street-sellers amongst his '70s soul samples. Meanwhile, oversized newcomer Rick Ross -- a former dealer whose nom-de-rap was borrowed from imprisoned L.A. crack kingpin "Freeway" Rick Ross -- blew up with his Miami anthem Hustlin', on which he brags about being into "distribution" and knowing Pablo Escobar and Manuel Noriega. The song sold a million ringtones before he dropped his chart-topping debut album, Port of Miami, and was re-released as a remix with Jay-Z and Young Jeezy. In fact, Young Jeezy, a raspy-voiced Atlanta MC who goes by the less-than-subtle alias "The Snowman," just debuted at the top of the U.S. Billboard charts with his second coke-obsessed LP, The Inspiration, a swaggering follow-up to last year's smash Thug Motivation 101 that brought crack-rap into the mainstream by making dope-dealing seem like an aspirational vocation. Now it would be much easier to dismiss the entire movement as just more amoral fantasies for the suburban set if it didn't also include Clipse, a sibling duo from Virginia Beach whose recently released Hell Hath No Fury was hailed by many not only as the year's best rap record, but as one of the year's overall best: review compiler Metacritic.com rated it 2006's third most-acclaimed album, nestled between Tom Waits and Bob Dylan. The cover features Malice and Pusha-T perched on a gas-fired oven, presumably for cooking their product, wearing lopsided crowns. But their kingdom never extends beyond the street corner and they belie their crack-slinging braggadocio with starkly experimental but deeply funky beats from popular producers The Neptunes that use wheezing accordions, metallic clanks and minimalist drums to reinforce their lyrics' paranoid and fatalistic subtext. Clipse may see the drug trade as a necessary escape from ghetto life, but even they ignore the irony of how it makes the buyer's metaphorical prison ever more secured. One of the first "conscious" rap records was Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's White Lines ( Don't Do It ), but that was 1983 and concerned the upscale coca leaf derivative, seen as a symbol of decadence but not destruction. The rise of crack in the inner city was a bigger-than-Katrina disaster. Hard living became impossibly harder as streets filled with amped-up addicts looking for a fix. When hip-hop first emerged in late-'70s New York, it was block party music, fuelled by breakdancing b-boys, record-scratching DJs and upbeat MCs. But the optimism surrounding this new cultural outlet was battered by crack. In the late '80s, Public Enemy railed against crack's devastation with Night of the Living Baseheads. The startling video depicted zombified addicts while Chuck D cursed brothers who "sell to their own, rob a home/ while some shrivel to bone." P.E.'s puritanical raps were somewhat discredited by member Flavor Flav's own crack habit, while more light-hearted rappers of the day, like De La Soul, started to seem hopelessly out of touch. Enter gangsta rap. Crack provided employment to discouraged youth who saw selling rocks as the best means to make money. This often created urban war zones that groups such as Compton's N.W.A. depicted in their controversial lyrics. On the other coast, the biggest New York stars were also dealers-turned-rappers, including drive-by victim Notorious B.I.G. This freebased capitalism was a dark twist on the American dream, but at least the '90s-era rappers were rhyming about the crack-embattled environment they grew up in. By 2000, the epidemic had somewhat abated, but crack has not only become a more popular subject in rap than ever, it's being rhymed about by young men who may not even remember the original plague. These aren't just vicarious fantasies for rap fans, but for the rappers themselves. They rarely discuss the deadly effects, instead concentrating on how to cook it, bag it, sell it and buy bling with the profits. Considering how many metaphors crack-rappers use to discuss their alleged activities -- at least partly to avoid potential legal implications -- crack itself has become a metaphor for power, money, and respect. Nobody does this better than Clipse, whose words are so clever, efficient and dark they artfully describe the horror-show toll cocaine has taken without having to condemn it. But if the Clipse brothers are full-fledged street poets, most of their peers are selling simple escapist fodder, music with a visceral kick that loses it's rush all too quickly. Gangsta rap was about the side-effects of crack, but this is just about the sale of it. There are only so many ways to talk commerce, even if it is illicit, and Clipse just used up most them.
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Saturday, December 23, 2006
US TX: Ex-Agent Tells How to Stash Drugs
EX-AGENT TELLS HOW TO STASH DRUGS The Texas Officer Says His New Venture Is Driven by 'Injustice' In the U.S. War on Drugs TYLER, Texas -- A one-time Texas drug agent described by his former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country plans to market a how-to video on concealing drugs and fooling police. Barry Cooper, who has worked for small police departments in East Texas, plans to launch a website next week where he will sell his video, Never Get Busted Again, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported in its online edition Thursday. A promotional video says Cooper will show viewers how to "conceal their stash," "avoid narcotics profiling" and "fool canines every time." Cooper, who said he favours the legalization of marijuana, made the video in part because he believes the U.S. fight against drugs is a waste of resources. Busting marijuana users fills up prisons with non-violent offenders, he said. "My main motivation in all of this is to teach Americans their civil liberties and what drives me in this is injustice and unfairness in our system," Cooper told the newspaper. Cooper said his website should be operating by Tuesday. As a drug officer, Cooper said, he made more than 800 drug arrests and seized more than 50 vehicles and $500,000 in cash and assets. "He was even better than he says he was," said Tom Finley, Cooper's former boss on a West Texas drug task force and now a private investigator in Midland. "He was probably the best narcotics officer in the state and maybe the country during his time with the task force." News of the video has angered authorities, including Richard Sanders, an agent with the Tyler Drug Enforcement Agency. Sanders said he plans to investigate whether the video violates any laws. "It outrages me personally as I'm sure it does any officer that has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of this state, and nation," Sanders said. "It is clear that his whole deal is to make money and he has found some sort of scheme, but for him to go to the dark side and do this is infuriating." Smith County Deputy Constable Mark Waters, a narcotics officer, said the video is insulting to law enforcement officials. "This is a slap in the face to all that we do to uphold the laws and keep the public safe," he said.
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Thursday, December 21, 2006
US TX: Former Cop to Sell Video Showing Drug Users How to Avoid Police Detection
FORMER COP TO SELL VIDEO SHOWING DRUG USERS HOW TO AVOID POLICE DETECTION "Never get busted again." Law enforcement officers around East Texas were startled to find one of their former brothers of the badge is scheduled to begin selling a video describing how to avoid getting caught when stopped by police looking for illegal substances. The Tyler Morning Telegraph has learned that Barry Cooper, a former Gladewater and Big Sandy police officer, is scheduled to begin selling his DVD "Never Get Busted Again," Tuesday with the launch of a Web site and a full page advertisement in a national publication targeted toward those interested in illicit drugs. Smith County Deputy Constable Mark Waters, a drug interdiction officer, said he was appalled at the idea of a former officer selling such a video. "It's an embarrassment to all law enforcement officers across the United States, who put their life on the line every day," he said. "This is a slap in the face to all that we do to uphold the laws and keep the public safe." Cooper, once "the best" drug officer in West Texas, according to his former superiors, told the newspaper during an interview Wednesday night that he believes marijuana should be legalized, and that the imprisonment of those caught with the drug destroys their families and fills up jails and prisons across the country with non-violent offenders. He added that methamphetamines, cocaine and crack should be eradicated from the earth because they are dangerous drugs. But he says marijuana is not. "I know I won't be accepted by my peers here in East Texas, but in other areas of the country I will be celebrated," he said in his office in Tyler. "When I was raiding houses and destroying families, my conscience was telling me it was wrong, but my need for power, fame and peer acceptance overshadowed my good conscience." A three-minute promotion for the video shows Cooper in West Texas when he was assigned to the Permian Basin Drug Task Force being interviewed by media on large busts he made. The promotion has Cooper saying he is going to show people through actual footage of his busts how to not get caught, how to "conceal their stash ( do coffee grounds really work? )," "avoid narcotics profiling" and how to "fool canines every time." Cooper, who has no disciplinary actions on his law enforcement record, left law enforcement to pursue the ministry and a successful business. He said he also felt pressure from other law enforcement agencies that were jealous of busts he made, and the political pressures associated with arresting a mayor's son and a city council member on drug charges. Cooper argues that people are being sentenced to long prison terms for drugs when murderers, child molesters and rapists are getting shorter sentences. "The trillions of dollars we're spending in the war on drugs should be used to protect our children," he said. "Our children are being molested every day and everyone knows we have lost the war on drugs." Cooper believes marijuana should be legalized and regulated by the government which he says will cause the crime rate to drop. He points to Prohibition, America's failed experiment in outlawing alcoholic beverages. Prohibition merely empowered the criminals, he says, and that's just what's happening now with prohibited drugs. "We have cops and other people getting killed, and I believe we could end all of that," he said. He said the video would only show footage of how certain things interfered with a search and would not go into details, but the promotion says he will show the viewer how to beat the system. Cooper said he does not condone illegal activity - and does not use drugs himself - but if someone misuses his product, he can't be held responsible. "I have attorneys telling me that what I am doing is not illegal," he said. "I'm just selling a product." Local attorney Bobby Mims agrees. "I have seen the video, and a lot of people aren't going to like it, but it's my opinion everything he says is protected," Mims said. "And in my experience, the information he's presenting is truthful as well." When asked what he would have thought about a similar video being released when he was a peace officer, he replied, "At that time, I believed what I was taught by our government about marijuana and I would have disagreed with it ( the video ) until I interviewed the maker of the video." Lawmen Respond Cooper's former commander with the Permian Basin Drug Task Force said he was "completely shocked." Tom Finley, now a private investigator in Midland, said he was Cooper's boss in the 1990s and said Cooper was the best drug interdiction officer he had ever known. "He was even better than he says he was," he said. "He had a knack for finding drugs and made more arrests, more seizures than all of the other agents combined. He was probably the best narcotics officer in the state and maybe the country during his time with the task force." However, Finley said he was distraught to learn the video plans of his former "top cop." "I'm definitely not in agreement with what he is doing here and I am all for getting the drug offenders off the streets and putting them behind bars," he said. Cooper claims to have made more than 800 drug arrests and seized more than 50 vehicles and more than $500,000 in cash and assets. Richard Sanders, Tyler Drug Enforcement Agency bureau agent in charge, was aggravated by the soon-to-be-released video. "It outrages me personally, as I'm sure it does any officer that has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of this state and nation," he said. "It is clear that his whole deal is to make money and he has found some sort of scheme, but for him to go to the dark side and do this is infuriating." Sanders said there is no formal investigation currently, but that might change. "I'm sure we will make time to look into this as quickly as possible and there could be an investigation." he said. Big Sandy Police Chief Tim Scott said he could not believe anyone with former experience in the war on drugs would give any help to criminals. "He's going to tell all the ones we have been fighting how to get away with it and that makes me mad," he said. Texas Department of Public Safety Narcotics Service Capt. Mark Milanovich said he was going to wait and see what the video showed, but added that he has serious problems with the idea. "I think this guy needs to take a look at himself morally," he said. Scare Tactics Cooper, who raised his voice and became animated, said the government tells children that marijuana is a gateway to other illegal narcotics, but that's false. "It's a scare tactic and it's untrue," he said. Cooper said the public has been educated to believe that people who smoke marijuana are responsible for crimes. "Marijuana makes you happy, then intoxicated, then sleepy," he said. "It doesn't make you crazy." The "gateway drug" label is a fallacy, he said. "If there was a gateway drug, it would be alcohol," he said. Cooper said he does not agree with the current laws and hopes they change through legislation and sees this as a way to truly combat the nation's drug problems. "My main motivation in all of this is to teach Americans their civil liberties, and what drives me in this is injustice and unfairness in our system," he said. "I'm just teaching them how to not ruin their lives by being put in a cage. I'm not creating the problem; it is already there." Cooper said he knows there will be backlash from some, while others will agree with him. "I challenge anyone who doesn't agree with me to a public debate to hear what I have to say and I bet some people will change their minds," he said. "But I'm sure some will think of me as the devil."
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Saturday, December 16, 2006
US CA: Sobering Vacation
SOBERING VACATION A New Wave of Addiction Treatment Centers Is Turning Malibu into the Capital of Luxury Rehab -- and Raising Questions About Whether Five-Star Service and Recovery Mix. MALIBU, Calif. -- Each sumptuous bed here at a retreat called Promises has been fitted with Frette linens and a cashmere throw. The elongated pool beckons as does the billiard room beyond, tucked into the Santa Monica mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But not just anyone can come to this exclusive getaway -- and really, not many would want to. Promises is an addiction-treatment center that caters to a mix of celebrities, corporate chiefs, their families and people who want to live like them. Promises is part of a growing niche in the burgeoning business of addiction treatment: centers that are truly, deeply luxurious. With more than a dozen recovery centers in this seaside village, Malibu has become the center of the high end of the industry -- perhaps logically, given its resort-like location, enclaves of celebrity homes and proximity to Los Angeles, a city whose primary industry is rife with partying and free-flowing cash. California law has helped by allowing rehab centers to be located in residential neighborhoods if they have no more than six beds. At Renaissance, where a staff of 50 caters to a dozen patients, one bedroom suite for a single resident measures 2,000 square feet -- as big as many three-bedroom homes. Another center, Harmony Place, will supply personal concierges and pedicures if patients ask. A few miles north of Promises on the Pacific Coast Highway, Passages offers surfing instructors. Clients stroll around in swim trunks chatting on cellphones in a sprawling sea-view mansion that is hard to distinguish from a luxury resort. "We are a very comfortable place to do some very uncomfortable work," says Don Grant, admissions director for Harmony Place. There are conflicts between recovery and luxury, according to addiction experts. Many of the 14,000 or so treatment centers in the U.S. adhere to guidelines that include an element of hard labor -- bed making, floor scrubbing, laundry and other duties that are intended to serve as equalizers among all addicts. Robert DuPont, former national drug czar under presidents Nixon and Ford and now president of the nonprofit Institute for Behavior and Health in Rockville, Md., says: "Self-centeredness is the key to the addiction....To get well, they have to leave their ego behind." But at luxe centers that charge $35,000 to $75,000 a month, many clients expect five-star service, not equality. Some Malibu facilities argue that they treat people who might not otherwise seek rehab. "We're talking about people who wouldn't go into treatment in a place where they had chores," says Mr. Grant, of Harmony Place, where clients do their own laundry. Chris Prentiss, co-founder of the center called Passages, eschews the benefits of chores. "We don't believe in punishment," Mr. Prentiss says. "There's no floor washing here." Most of the other treatment facilities here adhere to the traditional 12-Step philosophy that has guided addiction treatment for decades: From Step 1, an admission to being powerless to the addiction, through Step 12, promising to carry the recovery mission to other addicts. The rehab process involves hours of daily group and individual therapy with licensed counselors treating people who generally arrive in crisis, often with injuries sustained in falls, car accidents or other mishaps that precipitated their arrival. The minimum stay for most centers is about 30 days -- an industrywide norm established by insurance carriers. Some carriers might reimburse for a fraction of the cost, but many patients in these places pay for the whole thing themselves. Patients at some Malibu centers can take acupuncture and walks on the beach with therapists. There is also equine therapy, an art that Sal Petrucci, a former dentist who founded Renaissance Malibu, says doesn't involve riding, but involves getting a horse to respond to vocal commands. He describes it as trying to "get into the soul of the horse and connect as one with it." In the case of a celebrity who is in the midst of a project, Promises will provide a sobriety escort who will ferry the celebrity to and from the set, making sure he or she doesn't sneak off and relapse. For many years, the Betty Ford Center was considered the pinnacle of addiction treatment. But in recent years, as the rehab taboo has lessened and more people have sought treatment, the Ford Center's larger, more hospital-like facilities, with costs of roughly $21,000 for month's stay, have maintained their reputation for excellence but have come to seem more clinical against the new competition. While earning double-digit profit margins, many Malibu operators are expanding rapidly. Renaissance is working on a plan to expand to the Philippines and England as well as elsewhere in the U.S. Passages has purchased two houses on one gated Malibu street and is in negotiations to buy a third, and Mr. Prentiss, its co-founder, says he hopes one day to own all seven homes on the street: "At nearly $60,000 a month, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we're taking in $20 million a year." It's hard to tell, though, whether these places are any more successful than any other. And with the exception of Passages' Mr. Prentiss, the Malibu centers aren't claiming to be more successful -- just more comfortable. There is no standard to measure the success of addiction treatment. The problem lies both with the lack of a clear definition of success - -- sober for one year, five years or a lifetime? -- and verifying it, which would require addicts to report in honestly. People often say they choose the Malibu facilities because they've heard famous people went there, and assume the treatment must be good, or because they want the creature comforts. "I knew I had to do something," says Kristen Bufe, who attended Passages for two months in 2004 after she could no longer find a fresh vein to shoot up heroin. "I'd heard of rehab, but I had this vision of Betty Ford where you had to clean toilets and things like that." Many experts believe that creature comforts have little to do with success in recovery, and that the best way for addicts to improve their chances is to simply spend more time in rehab. Dennis O'Sullivan is the executive director of People in Progress, a residential rehab center that treats former prisoners and other down-and-out addicts in the San Fernando Valley. At a cost per client of $60 a day, covered largely by donations and government programs, People in Progress clients sleep on bunk beds with blankets donated by a local homeless shelter. But clients are required to commit to living there for a year. "The longer your exposure to treatment, the better your chances of recovery," Mr. O'Sullivan says. Just a few years ago, Promises was the only luxury rehab center in Malibu. Richard Rogg, a lanky recovering cocaine addict, was running a West Los Angeles recovery center in 1997, when some deeply troubled clients surprised him by demanding more luxury. "They're being wheeled in on a gurney to save their lives, and they're looking around going 'what's the thread count of the sheet?' " Mr. Rogg says with a shake of his head. Still, he looked around with the thought of upgrading his center when he came upon a sprawling Mediterranean home in Malibu with a separate guest house. He bought it. Within weeks of opening in Malibu, "some of my friends referred some celebrities," Mr. Rogg says. Soon, comings and goings at Promises were being photographed by paparazzi from on a hillside using long-range lenses. Mr. Rogg, a lantern-jawed former real-estate developer with a sometimes morose demeanor, says he was surprised by the center's popularity with big names. "I didn't come up here and say, 'Let's hit up the rich and famous and get all these celebrities,' " he says. His celebrity contacts have come in handy. These days, Mr. Rogg is creating a new Los Angeles facility that will treat low-income mothers and their children, to keep the children out of foster care. Earlier this year, at a fund-raiser at the polo games at Will Rogers State Park, actor Tom Arnold spoke, as did comedian Richard Lewis. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. addressed the crowd: "My name is Louis and I'm an alcoholic." They raised $280,000 for the treatment shelter that day, Mr. Rogg says, noting with a hint of cheer, "That's enough for our first year of operations." A 12-Step devotee, Mr. Rogg and others say that Promises Malibu maintains a sober approach to recovery. Every patient has chores. Corporate executives, he says, are often the best workers, wiping out ashtrays with fervor. Promises patients have come to call the facility "the Rock" for its seat in the coastal mountains, as well as its tough-love role. "They hit you mind, body and spirit. The money spent has given me a new life," says one former client, whose employer, an advertising agency, sent him there, and is now deducting the cost from his pay. "It might have fancy sheets and it might have triple-A food, but at the end of the day, it's a hard-core program." It took only a few years before other entrepreneurs -- many of them recovering addicts themselves -- began to replicate Promises' business model. The copycats are a source of steady irritation to Mr. Rogg and none more than Passages, whose treatment philosophy is at odds with Promises but whose name he says is similar. One former Passages client says he ended up there because he was looking for Promises when he was loaded and got the names mixed up. Mr. Prentiss, of Passages, argues that he has discovered a cure for addiction that involves uncovering a core problem through hours of individual therapy. This approach stands in stark contrast to many rehab centers around the country. Mr. Prentiss is a real-estate developer and the self-published writer of self-help books with titles like "For Once in Your Life, Be Who You Want, Have What You Want." He opened Passages as the "recovery plan" for his son Pax, the now-32-year-old co-founder, who had been addicted to heroin and other drugs since adolescence. "We cure people every day," says Mr. Prentiss. He argues that "alcoholism doesn't exist. It's a condition created so that insurance companies would pay for treatment. If I had an itch and scratched, would you say I have scratchism?" Claims of a "cure" run counter to most in the addiction-recovery business. "I know of no reputable scientist who doesn't see it as a chronic disease," says Barry Karlin, chief executive of CRC Health Group Inc. in Cupertino, Calif., a fast-growing chain of rehab centers. The evidence Mr. Prentiss offers of his success is anecdotal: It includes the case of a young woman who did drugs because, Mr. Prentiss says, she believed she wasn't pretty. "I took her into the bathroom and stood her in front of the mirror. I took her hair back and I took her shoulders and pulled them back. She was lovely." Mr. Prentiss says that by the end of her stay, the young woman was using makeup, had her hair fixed and now makes a living as a model. Two koi ponds flank the entrance to Passages' marble and gilt main building, where 34 therapists treat 29 patients in three residences where most share a room. They include two spiritual counselors -- one drives a Lexus sports car and says she's psychic -- as well as massage therapists, "life purpose counselors," hypno-therapists and an "image therapist" who encourages patients to use digital cameras to express themselves. One chef came from Spago. The staff leans toward attractive young women dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Sitting in a cushy leather lounge chair in Passage's great room, Mr. Prentiss greets, hugs, and pats his clients as they roam by. "How ya doin'?" he asks a young woman who passes with her just-delivered dry cleaning. "Not too well," she responds. After she disappears, Mr. Prentiss confides, "She just found out she's pregnant two days ago." Not everyone who attends these places is rich. One patient at Passages recently was a Hawaii bartender who paid the fee for three separate stays with an inheritance from her mother. Her hands shake as she pours herself a glass of lemon water. "She'll be dead if she doesn't get it this time," Mr. Prentiss says, out of earshot. Another recent client there sells cable-television services door to door. Convinced that Passages offered a solution that didn't label him diseased, he paid his bill by remortgaging his Los Angeles condo. "When you're there putting your heart and soul into therapy -- and then you get a massage," he says, "it's the relief."
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