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Medical Marijuana Moves Mainstream

2009-07-01T15:16:00.000-07:00

David Goldman has a chronic headache, but help is on the way. A driver arrives at his apartment and rings the doorbell, checks Goldman's ID card, then hands over a small bag of marijuana.

"It's really nice to have the convenience of delivery," said Goldman, a retired teacher who orders medicinal marijuana about once a week from the Green Cross, a medical marijuana delivery service. "I trust their product, and their prices are competitive."

As Californians consider legalizing marijuana, the Green Cross in San Francisco is a signal of just how mainstream pot has become. In some ways, the medical marijuana dispensary is just like any other retail business: It takes credit cards; it's reviewed on Yelp; and it promises delivery within an hour - there's even a $10 discount if the pot is late.

"Drivers are clean-cut, professional, and bring your goods in a discreet white paper bag," wrote one Yelp user. "Like ordering a pizza, but, of course, much better," wrote another.

Since November 1996, when California voters passed Proposition 215, medical marijuana has been steadily moving toward mainstream acceptance. Thirteen states, including Maine, Michigan, Montana and New Mexico, have passed laws allowing seriously ill patients access to medical marijuana. The cause has celebrity advocates: singer Melissa Etheridge, who used marijuana to alleviate the effects of chemotherapy, is among those now pushing for its legalization, and television host Montel Williams openly talks about using marijuana to relieve the pain of his multiple sclerosis.

Meanwhile, California's battered economy and $24 billion budget gap is fueling calls for marijuana use to be more widely legalized, as well as taxed like alcohol and cigarettes, a tactic supported by 56 percent of voters, according to an April Field Poll. And a statewide initiative to legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for all Californians 21 and older is expected to go before voters in November 2010.

Currently, only medicinal marijuana is legal and there are about 400 medical marijuana dispensaries in California, including 25 in San Francisco, though none in Santa Clara County.

The Green Cross operates out of founder and owner Kevin Reed's apartment in a large Victorian house at 11th and Howard streets. Here, 19 employees bake brownies and other THC-infused "edibles," stock cabinets with more than 40 different strains of marijuana from a changing menu ( an ounce is $310 ), and assemble orders.

Office workers wearing headsets begin taking orders for medical marijuana and edibles at 10 a.m., when the phones start ringing nonstop. Delivery service starts at noon and ends around 7 p.m., but there's usually a big rush at the end of the day.

Drivers use a fleet of tiny Smart Cars to crisscross the city's hilly streets. On a busy day, a driver will make about 25 deliveries.

"People who don't have health insurance are the people using medical marijuana the most," said Reed, an Alabama native who founded the Green Cross five years ago. "Delivery is key because some of our patients literally cannot get out of their beds. It's like hot pizza to me: Once an order is in, you've got to get it out the door in 20 minutes."

Other dispensaries in California also deliver. But the Green Cross is one of the largest, with about 2,500 active "patients," as they refer to all clients. Some struggle with depression or chronic pain; others have AIDS or cancer.

The Green Cross only delivers within San Francisco city limits. Its client base, however, extends far beyond the city, including 176 patients in San Jose. Drivers typically arrange to meet those patients or their caregivers in the parking lot of the Stonestown mall near Interstate 280.

Santa Clara County's Public Health Department has issued 993 medical marijuana identification cards to date, according to spokeswoman Joy Alexiou.

Reed grew up in Mobile, Ala. He began smoking marijuana - he prefers to call it by its Latin name, cannabis - years ago, after seriously hurting his back in a car accident. At the time he didn't have health insurance, and marijuana was easier to get than pain pills. He moved to California 13 years ago, shortly after voters passed Proposition 215, and has been involved in the medical marijuana movement ever since.

He began the Green Cross with a storefront dispensary in tony Noe Valley, but complaints by neighbors about all the foot traffic in and out eventually shut him down. He tried to open a storefront in Fisherman's Wharf, but other businesses fought the idea, saying it would scare away tourists.

Reed finally decided to sell medical marijuana out of his apartment via delivery service. He first liked the idea because it solved the problem of annoyed neighbors; he quickly learned that it was also a huge hit with customers.

Reed is a stickler for rules: Patients must show him the original recommendation for medical marijuana from their health care professional, and Reed will then verify that the doctor's license is current.

One of Reed's peeves is that most people don't understand the many difference between indica and sativa, the two main strains of marijuana. Indica is commonly used for pain or to induce appetite; Sativa reduces depression and is more stimulating and creatively enhancing. Detailed "Know Your Medication" pamphlets describing various products ( type of high, scent/taste ) go out to all patients, and all employees must pass an extensive written test.

"I go overboard because I want people to know that this can be done right," said Reed, who smokes about 10 joints a day. "Cannabis is a drug. It has side effects. It's not something that should be readily available to anyone and everyone."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n666/a04.html
Newshawk: mmfamily
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jun 2009
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2009 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@mercurynews.com
Website: http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Dana Hull, Mercury News
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Proposition+215
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Marijuana - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/dispensaries
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Marijuana - California)

HELPING ADDICTS GET CLEAN IN METHADONE CLINICS IS TOUGH AT THE BEST OF TIMES BUT HARDER STILL WITH NIMBY BACKLASH

2009-06-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

Cue the outrage, the community meetings and the angry calls to city hall.

Act Two, as always, will be the accusations.

Residents of Braeside and Cedarbrae are only upset because they are selfish, clinging to a Not-In-My-Backyard mentality, rather than embracing those who most need society's support.

Of course, those reading the script of sanctimony will live nowhere near the Braecentre strip mall, nor will they have children going to school nearby.

If they did, the idea of 500 addicts attending a methadone clinic metres away from homes and playgrounds would outrage them too -- and they, in turn, would be condemned as NIMBYs.

So goes the cyclical drama of trying to locate an undesirable business in a city where it's every alderman for himself, and where shelters and rehab centres struggle for a place to stay open.

In this case, it's the Second Chance Recovery Centre, a methodone clinic forced to close its current location in a northeast industrial park due to zoning rules.

Medical clinics aren't allowed in the Greenview industrial area, and the clinic, one of two in Calgary, can't afford the $130,000 rezoning fee demanded by the city.

The city wasn't willing to waive the fee to keep the clinic in a non-residential area.

And so, Second Chance needs a new home, but attempts to move have so far been blocked by nervous landlords and neighbours.

A location in Forest Lawn looked promising, but fell through after residents, businesses and the area alderman complained.

Now, a vacant medical clinic in a strip mall located at Braeside Dr. and 24 St. S.W. looks ideal -- unless, of course, you live nearby.

Dr. Ian Postnikoff, who runs the clinic, said he's wary of even talking about the possibility of moving to the mall, which is on the edge of Braeside and Cedarbrae, in a mainly residential area.

"We're negotiating to sub-let the lease," admits Postnikoff.

He says patients will likely have to take a C-Train and bus to reach the relatively far-flung location, but at this point, he'll be happy to call anywhere home.

"Being in an ideal location doesn't matter, when being in any location is what we need."

The strip mall, in some ways, is ideal -- a community police station is located steps away from the proposed clinic, and the area is served by a busy bus route.

On the other hand, condominiums and homes surround the site, along with soccer fields and family-run businesses.

Officials with the Braeside Community Association, having only just learned of the clinic's intention, are looking to organize an emergency meeting of the association board.

Association president Kim Edwards said she personally isn't opposed to the clinic, but she can't speak for residents who live near the former walk-in medical clinic.

"I have to speak first to the board and get their feedback -- speaking for an entire community is very difficult," said Edwards.

"I think the clinic offers a good service and if it's successful in rehab, then great, but then I'm living far enough from that mall that it may not affect me or my home.

"We need to speak to residents in that area."

Braeside, if it embraces the clinic, would be unique among Calgary communities.

Be it a homeless shelter, halfway house, or drug-rehabilitation centre, the script calls for outrage from the community and opposition from the alderman.

Brian Pincott, who represents Ward 11 on city council, couldn't be reached.

But Ald. Bob Hawkesworth, who helped remove Second Chance from its old location over zoning violations, expressed sympathy for Braeside.

Normally the social conscience of city council, Hawkesworth said methadone clinics and the addicts who use them are difficult for any community to accept, because they are too busy.

Hawkesworth said methadone is an essential service, but forcing every addict into just two Calgary clinics creates too high a concentration of clients.

"Maybe Alberta Health Services could make this available in every health care facility in the city, in which case you don't just have it in one residential area," said Hawkesworth.

"If it's dispersed all over the city, you don't have it concentrated in one location."

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n665/a07.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 29 Jun 2009
Source: Calgary Sun, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2009 The Calgary Sun
Contact: callet@calgarysun.com
Website: http://www.calgarysun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/67
Author: Michael Platt, Columnist
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?136 (Methadone)

Ruling Stands Against Hip Hop Hippies Owner

2009-06-29T20:30:00.001-07:00

A federal appeals court has upheld a drug paraphernalia conviction against a man who said smoking accessories he sold from his Gillette store weren't intended for smoking marijuana.

A federal jury found Jeffrey Wayne Doles guilty last year of three felony counts of selling drug paraphernalia. A judge sentenced Doles to three years in prison.

Police raided Doles' store, Hip Hop Hippies, soon after it opened in 2005 but a state jury acquitted Doles of drug paraphernalia charges.

In appealing his federal conviction, Doles argued that the federal jury should have been told about his earlier acquittal in state court. The 10th U.S. Court of Appeals in Denver disagreed, saying that wasn't necessary and would have been confusing.

In December, Doles became a fugitive after he didn't show up to serve his federal sentence. He was captured in April after calling The Associated Press to proclaim his innocence.

In May, Doles was indicted on a felony count of knowingly failing to surrender for the service of his sentence. If convicted, he could serve an additional two years in federal prison.

Doles attorney, Megan Hayes, could not immediately be reached for comment.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n662/a10.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sat, 27 Jun 2009
Source: News-Record, The (WY)
Copyright: 2009 The News-Record
Contact: news@gillettenewsrecord.com
Website: http://www.gillettenewsrecord.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2504
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?228 (Paraphernalia)

Attorney General Wants Review Of Cocaine Sentences

2009-06-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder sought support Wednesday for erasing the gap in prison sentences for crack and powder cocaine crimes, a disparity that hits black defendants the hardest.

The effort to change federal sentencing laws for cocaine has broad support but may still unravel amid disagreements about how equal the sentences should be, and whether the whole sentencing system needs to be changed.

"One thing is very clear: We must review our federal cocaine sentencing policy," Holder said at a legal discussion sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus.

Under current law, it takes 100 times more powdered cocaine than crack cocaine to trigger the same harsh, mandatory minimum sentences.

"This administration firmly believes that the disparity in crack and powdered cocaine sentences is unwarranted," Holder said. "It must be eliminated."

The law was passed in the 1980s during the spread of crack in American cities, which officials blamed for a rise in violence. Yet in the years since, worries about crack have declined.

The most recent government figures show that 82 percent of crack offenders are African-American, while just 9 percent of them are white.

In remarks at the Congressional Black Caucus event, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who helped craft the sentencing guidelines that now are the subject of so much criticism and debate, urged Congress to focus first on the laws creating mandatory minimums for certain crimes.

"My goodness, those mandatory minimums drive ( sentencing ) guidelines in 100 different ways," Breyer said.

The justice acknowledged that curtailing mandatory minimums is not politically popular, or easy. "It's very, very hard to explain to people," he said.

The Obama administration wants to change the law to end the 100-to-1 ratio in sentencing, and make it strictly 1-to-1. Some lawmakers also want to change the law but aren't sure it should be reduced that drastically. There also is debate over whether to close the gap by raising the penalty for powder cocaine, in addition to lowering the penalty for crack.

Holder, the nation's top law enforcement officer and a former judge in Washington, D.C., said that juries have acquitted black defendants because they knew the suspects faced what jurors viewed as an unfairly long prison sentence.

The 100-to-1 ratio "is racial discrimination in practice," said Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., who is pushing legislation that would end the gap by eliminating crack as a category in the criminal code.

"I think there is a complete consensus that the present pattern for sentencing crack and powder is absurd," Scott said. "There is not complete consensus about what to do about it."

Mark Osler, a law professor at Baylor University and a former prosecutor, said there is general agreement on changing the law on crack cocaine but that any such change is likely to lead to other, more difficult questions.

"Going to 1-to-1 is a big change. The question that really hasn't been resolved is 1-to-1 at what level. Is the penalty for cocaine powder going up?" Osler asked. "Also, there's a general consensus that we'll see something happen with crack. I'll be very interested to see if they argue for a move toward broader reform in sentencing."

The Bush administration fought vigorously to preserve the current drug law that President Barack Obama, Democrats and some Republicans say is unfair and outdated. Individual prosecutors and judges have also criticized the law.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n653/a03.html
Newshawk: chip
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2009 The Associated Press
Contact: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/contact/#editor
Website: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Devlin Barrett, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing)
Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/find?258 (Holder, Eric)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

US OK: DOC Boss Wants To Close One Female Prison

2009-02-10T12:22:00.000-08:00

DOC BOSS WANTS TO CLOSE ONE FEMALE PRISON Laura Pitman Would Like To See One Of Oklahoma's Female Prisons Closed. As the boss of the state Department of Corrections's female prisons, Pitman knows it will take time to reduce the female prison population enough to accomplish that, but around 700 fewer women in prison would mean that the Eddie Warrior prison in Taft could shut its doors. Then she would like to do it again with another prison. Trimming about 1,400 women from the state prison rolls would mean Oklahoma would no longer rank No. 1 in the country in female incarceration. The state's rate would be just average. Becoming average is on the top of Pitman's things-to-do list as she begins work as the department's deputy director of female operations. The position was created late last year with a goal of reducing the number of imprisoned female offenders. Here are the numbers: As of late January, 2,665 females were behind bars in Oklahoma. That works out to 131 women behind bars for every 100,000 females in the state. Oklahoma's female incarceration rate is second to Mississippi's and nearly twice the national average of 69 women per 100,000 females. Pitman said change both within and outside the prison system is needed to lower the female incarceration rate. Within the system, Pitman said, she plans to review the way women move through the system. Her goal is to find ways to reduce their amount of time spent behind bars. "We'll be looking at how we classify women in terms of their risks and needs, and do we need as many women as we have at higher security levels than lower," Pitman said. Increasing time earned off their sentences for good behavior and reducing the number of days left on a sentence before moving an inmate to a lower security level are other areas under consideration, Pitman said. She also plans to look at programs that will be geared towards reducing recidivism. Why should people care how many females are behind bars? "For the state of Oklahoma, the question to be answered is can we maintain public safety and reduce the amount we spend on corrections," Pitman said. "I believe so because I think we over-incarcerate low-risk offenders. "When you are talking about a $503 million budget for the Department of Corrections, that means you are not spending it in other areas." In the longer term, Pitman will push to expand the use of drug and mental health courts as alternatives to imprisoning females. "Roughly 40 percent of our female offenders are incarcerated for drug-related crimes," said Pitman, who had been the department's deputy chief mental health officer . Pitman points to Tulsa County's 2007 launching of Mental Health Court as an example of programs that should be expanded throughout the state. "It disturbs me that people come into contact with law enforcement before treatment," she said. "When you don't have treatment available in the community, unfortunately persons with mental illness come into contact with law enforcement before they come into contact with treatment." The Oklahoma Academy, a nonprofit organization that identifies critical public policy issues facing the state, recommends that the state strive to lose its No. 1 ranking in female incarceration within the next five years. The Oklahoma Academy also recommends that the state female incarceration rate be reduced to less than the national average within 10 years. Pitman said she believes Oklahoma can bring its female incarceration rate down to the national average and maintain public safety. "It's obviously not an overnight thing," she said, regarding the time it will take. "It took longer than overnight to get here." As for closing Eddie Warrior, the prison likely would not actually be abandoned. Instead, it would more likely become a male prison and potentially reduce the need for private prison beds for men, Pitman said.

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US CA: Column: Olympian's Pot Case Distracts From True Goal of Drug Laws

2009-02-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

OLYMPIAN'S POT CASE DISTRACTS FROM TRUE GOAL OF DRUG LAWS It's hell being a celebrity, especially if you're young and find yourself at a party, where marijuana and cameras should never mix. And it's not exactly heaven being the sheriff of a county with escalating drug crimes and pressure to treat all offenders equally. Thus it is that Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps and Sheriff Leon Lott of South Carolina's Richland County are being forced to treat seriously a crime that shouldn't be one. As everyone knows by now, Phelps was photographed smoking from an Olympic-size bong during a University of South Carolina party last November. As all fallen heroes must – by writ of the Pitchforks & Contrition Act – Phelps has apologized for behavior that was "regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment." Check. Lott, meanwhile, is threatening action against Phelps because … he has to. Widely respected and admired as a "good guy" who came up through the ranks, Lott is in a jam. Not one to sweat the small stuff, he nevertheless has said that he'll charge Phelps with a crime if he determines that the 14-time gold-medal winner did, in fact, smoke pot in his county. Phelps has said that the photo is legit. The only missing link, apparently, is the exact location of the party. What's tough is that Lott probably doesn't want to press charges, because it's a waste of time and resources. He's got much bigger fish to fry, but several recent drug-related crimes – including at least two high-profile murders – have captured community attention. And the law is the law. Therein lies the problem. Our marijuana laws have been ludicrous for as long as we've been alive. Almost half of us ( 42 percent ) have tried marijuana at least once, according to a report published last year in PLoS Medicine, a journal of the Public Library of Science. The United States, in fact, boasts the highest percentage of pot smokers among 17 nations surveyed, including the Netherlands, where cannabis clouds waft from coffeehouse windows. Among them are no small number of high-ranking South Carolina leaders ( we knew us when ), who surely cringe every time a young person gets fingered for a "crime" they themselves have committed. Other better-known former tokers include our current president and a couple of previous ones, as well as a Supreme Court justice, to name just a few. A complete list would require the slaughter of several mature forests. This we know: Were Phelps to run for public office someday and admit to having smoked pot in his youth, he would be forgiven. Yet, in the present, we impose monstrous expectations on our heroes. Several hand-wringing commentaries have surfaced the past few days, lamenting the tragic loss for disappointed moms, dads and, yes, The Children. Understandably, parents worry that their kids will emulate their idol, but the problem isn't Phelps, who is, in fact, an adult. The problem is our laws – and our lies. Obviously, children shouldn't smoke anything, legal or otherwise. Nor should they drink alcoholic beverages, even though their parents might. There are good reasons for substance restrictions for children that need not apply to adults. That's the real drug message that should inform our children and our laws, rather than the nonsense that currently passes for drug information. Today's anti-drug campaigns are slightly wonkier than yesterday's "Reefer Madness," but equally likely to become party hits rather than drug deterrents. One recent ad produced by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy says: "Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren't many jobs out there for potheads." Whoa, dude, except maybe, like, president of the United States. Once a kid realizes that pot doesn't make him insane – or likely to become a burrito taster, as the ad further asserts – he might suspect that other drug information is equally false. That's how marijuana becomes a gateway drug. Phelps may be an involuntary hero to this charge, but his name and face bring necessary attention to a farce in which nearly half the people in the nation are actors. It's time to recognize that all drugs are not equal – and change the laws accordingly.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n129/a03.html?1140

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Warrantless Search Raises Questions

2008-02-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

City Bylaw Allows RCMP, Fire to Inspect Home If Hydro Use Deemed High

If the Jensen family is guilty of anything, it's that they are ordinary, say Fay and Lee Jensen.

They run a business in Vancouver, pay their taxes and volunteer their time.

They admit they use a lot of electricity but didn't think that might be a crime, until last week, when the RCMP showed up at their home on Goldstream Drive.

"It was such a bizarre experience," Fay Jensen said of an inspection involving the RCMP, Richmond Fire-Rescue and City of Richmond.

The inspections are part of a crackdown on marijuana grow operations and are permitted under a bylaw that the B.C. Civil Liberties Association suspects may be unconstitutional.

Jensen was at home having a shower on Jan. 28 when she heard her dogs whining. When she looked out the window, she saw two uniformed officials, including a fire inspector, looking around her house outside. She poked her head out a window and asked the fire inspector if there was a problem.

"He said, 'Yeah, you're consuming too much hydro.' It totally took me off guard," Jensen recalls.

The inspector started asking questions, like how many people live in her home. After they left, Jensen went to the front door and saw the officials had placed a large, yellow official notice there stating she had 48 hours to schedule an electrical safety inspection or the family's power would be cut off.

"I flipped when I saw that on my door," Jensen said.

The Jensens called and arranged for the inspection, which took place two days later. Having police cars parked outside their home was "a total embarrassment," Fay Jensen said. "People see a cop at your house and they say, 'What's happening?'"

Two RCMP officers accompanying a fire inspector and electrical safety inspector told the Jensens they would open every door and look in every closet throughout the home, before the inspection was done.

"I thought, 'What is going on?'" Fay Jensen said. "Is this Moscow or what? They don't have to have a search warrant to go through your house. This is a police state."

"They were pretty aggressive when they came," said Lee Jensen, who admits he was aggressive back. "I was pretty ugly to them. This is brown-shirt Germany shit. We're supposed to be living in a free country here."

When an RCMP officer approached a bedroom where the Jensens' two teenaged sons were still sleeping, Fay Jensen got worried.

"He's got his hand on his gun," she said. "This is bloody scary."

Darrell Evans, executive director of the Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, agrees warrantless searches by police are scary.

"What if one of the kids ran from the room and was carrying a toy shotgun?" he wonders. "This is like the tactics of a police state. I find it completely unacceptable. This is an invasion of privacy."

Marijuana grow ops are often booby-trapped and the growers are sometimes armed, which is why police are needed to do a sweep first.

"The officer, having their hand on their gun, I guess it's upsetting for people to see, but those are the tools we have on our belt," said Cpl. Nycki Basra of the Richmond RCMP.

"We've received no complaint about this," Basra added. "If she's got a complaint, she should call us."

The inspection team found neither marijuana nor any problems with the home's electrical system. What they did find was an outdoor pool, an air conditioning system, two teenagers and a family that has been the target of thieves often enough that they now leave their lights on all the time.

The Jensens knew $200 per month was high for an electrical bill, but didn't think it would result in a search of their home by police.

Such searches only became possible in 2004, when the provincial government introduced the Safety Standards Act. Prior to that, privacy legislation prevented utility companies like B.C. Hydro from releasing information about customers' consumption habits to municipalities or police.

The City of Richmond is one of several municipalities with an electrical safety inspection bylaw, which is aimed at shutting down marijuana grow operations.

Grow-ops consume large amounts of electricity and the growers often rewire the electrical systems, which can pose a fire hazard.

Of the 106 inspections conducted in Richmond since August 2007, the city found 60 grow-ops, Brodie said.

Brodie pointed out that the inspections are voluntary. However, citizens who refuse to allow inspections may find their power cut off.

That was the case in Surrey. In June 2007, a judge ordered the power reconnected to a Surrey home after it was disconnected.

The power was cut off when Jason Arkinstall refused to allow police into his house for an electrical safety inspection.

Like the Jensens, Arkinstall has an outdoor pool, which may account for the highelectrical bill that triggered an inspection.

But he also has a record for drug trafficking, and his lawyer suggested that the electrical safety inspection "is not only being done at the behest of the police but solely for their purposes."

When inspectors showed up, Arkinstall agreed to let inspectors into his home, but not police. His power was cut off.

In June 2007, a judge ordered the power reconnected, and the search is now the subject of a constitutional challenge. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has applied for intervener status in the case. "We have deep concerns that this is being used as a means for warrantless searches," said Micheal Vonn, policy director for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.

Her organization fears police may be using "alleged safety concerns" to conduct searches without getting a search warrant, which Vonn said is "obviously problematic from a constitutional perspective." While he supports Richmond's electrical inspection program, Brodie said he will ask for a review of the recent Jensen home inspection.

"I'm going to speak to staff and ask for more information as to this particular inspection and inspections in general, how they're being handled," Brodie said.

"From what I've seen to this point, we're trying to protect the safety of the people, we're trying to protect the safety of property. We're trying to reduce the number of grow-ops in our community. "I think this has been a way to protect our citizens and their property. That doesn't mean it doesn't need to be fine-tuned."

Lee Jensen said he isn't sure he wants to go to court over the recent search of his house. But he wants ordinary citizens who think they are protected from illegal searches that that may not always be the case.

He said citizens who do not speak up against authoritarianism should not be surprised to wake up one day and find they have no freedoms left.

"Do you want to wake up one morning and find out it's all gone?" he said. "I don't want to lose every freedom."

If there is one consolation for the Jensens, it is a letter they received from the city last week informing them that they would not have to pay the $3,500 fee often levied to cover the cost of an inspection.

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Taxing Marijuana Not A Bad Idea

2008-02-05T11:06:00.000-08:00

To the Editor:

Taxing marijuana wouldn't be a bad idea, providing sales were regulated and could be taxed. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer can't rely on organized crime to submit tax returns for his budget shortfall plan. There is a big difference between condoning marijuana use and protecting children from drugs. Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana and frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal records.

What's really needed is a regulated market with age controls. Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as marijuana distribution is controlled by organized crime, marijuana consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine. This "gateway" is the direct result of a fundamentally flawed policy.

Given that marijuana is arguably safer than legal alcohol -- the plant has never been shown to cause an overdose death -- it makes no sense to waste tax dollars on failed policies that finance organized crime and facilitate the use of hard drugs. Students who want to help end the intergenerational culture war otherwise known as the war on some drugs should contact Students for Sensible Drug Policy at SchoolsNotPrisons.com.

Robert Sharpe, MPA

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.

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The Pot Prescription

2006-08-17T13:49:00.000-07:00

For more than a decade, Mark Tucci has been perfecting the art of suffering. And before his journey is over, he is bound to become a master. But despite his body being wracked with uncontrollable spasms, a feeling like his legs are being electrocuted and arms that don't react to his thoughts no matter how hard he concentrates, Tucci, of Manchester, does not cry for his own suffering. Tucci, 49, does, however, weep when he thinks about the suffering of others, like when he thinks about dear friends who struggled through their last hours on a hospital bed, contorted, and their "medication" - only a breath away - blocked from ever reaching them by the government.

It is for his fellow suffering human beings that Tucci has written "The Patient's Simple Guide to Growing Marijuana," a simple 31-page booklet for people like him, who are in the throes of a debilitating illness such as multiple sclerosis ( which Tucci has ), advanced HIV/AIDS and cancer. Tucci, at regular intervals throughout an interview with the Banner in late July, puffed on a hand-blown glass pipe and a marijuana cigarette. The smoked substance was marijuana: a drug that the state of Vermont not only allows him to smoke, but also permits it to be grown for him at a secure, undisclosed location. When smoked, marijuana eases Tucci's pain, he said, and also restores his hunger after his appetite is killed from a number of medications he takes. Tucci is not alone.

There are 29 people licensed to possess and grow small amounts or marijuana in Vermont, and there are also five licensed caregivers, who go through a criminal background check and grow solely for sick friends, clients or family. To get a license in Vermont, sick individuals must apply online, fill out a registry form, have a physician's confirmation and send in two self-portraits, Tucci said. If denied, the applicant can go before a three person panel for review and reconsideration. With the passage of bill S.76 in 2004, Vermonters with AIDS, or the health equivalent of AIDS, cancer and MS are permitted to grow one mature marijuana plant, two immature plants and to possess two ounces of the cured product. Possessing more than this amount can put the individual at risk of being arrested.

Tucci has been taking all kinds of prescribed drugs since he first became ill with MS in 1994. After years of taking medications, he has found that marijuana eases his symptoms more than most. MS is a disease that attacks the sheath on nerve endings, and when those sheaths are destroyed, it sends mixed signals to the brain, causing blindness, paralysis, muscle weakness, tremors and spasms.

"Basically, it's your nervous system attacking itself," said Tucci. Tucci said the result is pain, and lots of it. "I've got pain. Like five different kinds of pain," Tucci said. "When you have the flu, and the body ache pains and stuff like that, I get that all the time. My legs feel like someone beat on them, I'm on an electric fence, and my feet are burning at the same time. And I have spasms, a lot of spasticity in different parts of the day, but mostly in the morning. Obviously, I don't walk and run like I used to."

As a result of the MS and restricted movement, Tucci's muscles have atrophied, and he walks with the deftness of a drunkard.

His spasticity, as he calls it, is so bad that his torso and legs can contract in the middle of the night to the point when they'll almost touch. His mind, though, is fine. That wasn't always the case. "I'm much more aware than when I was on narcotics and things like that," he said. Narcotic pills, of which Tucci was given a laundry list by doctors to take daily, suppressed his immune system.

It was a counterproductive treatment, Tucci said, that did more harm than good. Marijuana, on the other hand, helped Tucci more than most of the pharmaceutical drugs combined, he said. Further, he didn't build a tolerance to the drug, unlike other narcotic medications.

It's the phenomenon of "reverse tolerance," Tucci said. "You take any drug - alcohol, cigarettes, synthetic drugs of any kind, and you start doing it, and you will have to at some point do more to maintain the same high, to get the same happiness out of it. You talk to any old hippie, any old pothead, any sick person puffing weed for 20 years, they still just have to take a few hits. Isn't that amazing?

No matter how bad things are in my pain spasm world, I don't have to juice up with four joints in the morning. It's been the only drug - this and the Neurotin - that have maintained their usefulness that I haven't built up a tolerance to. What a blessing that is? Holy crap, let me tell you." Tucci was no stranger to marijuana before his MS took hold. He grew up in Danby in the 1960s and '70s, he explained.

Back then, he used pot recreationally. Whereas Tucci smoked only occasionally 30 years ago, now it's daily.

He smokes about four joints a day, sometimes even in the middle of the night to ease the wild contractions of his body. "It keeps it at bay and knocks the spasms out," he said. "It helps you eat, and it helps your attitude and helps you through the periods when you feel like crap." In writing his book, Tucci hoped to take the glamour and the mystery out of growing marijuana. Tucci believes there are many more who could reap its medicinal benefits. Tucci said that other people who are suffering - such as those with Krohn's disease, fibromyalgia and other auto-immune illness - should be allowed by the state to use medical marijuana. He said his book is for these people, and for people who just don't understand what marijuana is about.

"It tells you how to grow in the simplest terms in accordance with Vermont law," Tucci said. His target audience is sick people in the 11 states where medical marijuana has been legalized to an extent, such as Maine, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Kerry Sleeper is the state's commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, the branch of government responsible for the oversight of both Vermont's legal and illegal pot users. He said the law was drafted in such a way to prevent abuse by people seeking the ability to grow and sell marijuana for profit by focusing narrowly on the very ill people who make use of it.

"In the sense of law that was passed, I don't believe that there's any significant abuse of it," Sleeper said in an interview Wednesday. However, Sleeper said the drug grown for people like Tucci is not "medical marijuana," but rather a drug permitted for "compassionate use" by the state. He said there is no concrete evidence that marijuana has medicinal benefits, but that it does seem to provide some kind of solace for people dealing with end-of-life issues and long-term, debilitating illness.

The intent of the law then, according to Sleeper, was to permit the use of marijuana for only this group of people. Sleeper said he would advocate against any kind of expansion of S.76, as it would be counter-productive to the efforts the state and his department are making in a long-standing battle against substance abuse, especially with Vermont's youth.

"We can't be hypocrites and recognize that we have a substance abuse problem and then advocate marijuana use," said Sleeper, a former state trooper and former head of the Vermont Drug Task Force with nearly 30 years of law enforcement under his belt. Further, Sleeper believes the same groups of people who advocate for expansion of medical marijuana laws are often working for the same organizations that promote total marijuana legalization.

S.76 passed in 2004, with the help of people like state Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington/Wilmington, a legislator who has always been a strong proponent of law enforcement. Sears said Wednesday that the next legislative session would be a good time to review how S.76 has worked so far, and to expand and overhaul the scope of the law. Sears, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he believes the law should be expanded to include people who suffer from diseases like Krohn's and fibromyalgia, despite Sleeper's recommendation to do otherwise. Sears would also like to see the law shift the oversight from the Department of Public Safety to the Department of Health.

"It clearly to me is a health issue," Sears said. But Sears said he is far from approving the uncontrolled growing of marijuana throughout the state.

For him, the marijuana grown and used by people dealing with impending death or severe pain and discomfort still needs to be regulated.

"Like any prescription drug, if you abuse it, you ought to be held accountable for that," Sears said. "It's the obligation of the user to use it responsibly."

The rules regarding how much a sick person or caregiver could grow would also change if Sears has his way. He acknowledges, just as Tucci does, that one mature plant and two ounces of cured marijuana does not give people what they need to manage their illnesses successfully. He said the original Senate version of the bill provided more leeway than the current law, and that's a direction he'd like the state to move. However, Sears said he wasn't always a believer in marijuana use. That changed after he heard from the family members of those dying from cancer and from people like Tucci.

"The most dramatic thing for me was the testimony," Sears said, who led the committee that oversaw the birth of the bill in the Senate. "When you hear the testimony, you really get a feel for what these folks are going through.

If people could hear more of Mark's story, and more people like him, they'd be convinced." Before recently retiring, Sears ran 204 Depot Street, a half-way house for delinquent youth aged 14 to 18. He knows all too well the dangers of drugs and alcohol, he said.

"I'm certainly not one to want to legalize drugs," Sears said. "It's just that I think we have a substance ( in marijuana ) that many people find relief from." With some expected resistance to the expansion of the law, Tucci still advocates for the sick and those who cannot advocate for themselves. His book, he said, is for them.

"Someone in every state knows someone who is sick, someone who can be helped by this," Tucci said. "So if you live in a state like Illinois or Connecticut, that's had legislation introduced for three or four years now, even though it's not legal, buy my book and become an activist and write a little letter to your ( legislator ). Call someone and say, 'Hey, this does help this person.' It's meant for that."

Tucci's book is available online at - - www.patientssimpleguide.com- ( http://www.patientssimpleguide.com/ ) and sells for $10.50.

Pressure Mounts To Keep Injection Site

2006-08-16T13:44:00.000-07:00

PRESSURE MOUNTS TO KEEP INJECTION SITE

Canada's Health Minister Tony Clement was put under the spotlight yesterday when supporters of a safe-injection site for IV drug users demanded to know whether the federal government was going to renew its legal exemption.

But Mr. Clement was not providing hints on what the future holds for Vancouver's landmark safe-injection site, which sparked the concern of doctors, researchers and drug users.

"The evidence is irrefutable," Julio Montaner, director of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS and president-elect of the International AIDS Society, said at a press conference yesterday.

Researchers cited studies they had done on Insite, a place where drug addicts get clean needles, medical help in the event of an overdose and assistance entering detoxification programs, should they desire it. For instance, a study published in The Lancet found the safe-injection site has reduced overall rates of needle-sharing in the community. ( Those who share needles run the risk of spreading HIV. )

The safe-injection site -- the only one in North America -- was granted a three-year operating exemption by the previous Liberal government under Section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. That exemption ends on Sept. 12.

Without it, Insite, which accommodates more than 600 drug addicts each day, would have to shut down.

During the last federal election campaign, while still Opposition Leader, Stephen Harper said he was opposed to providing government support for the use of illegal drugs.

And that has made people such as Mark Townsend, with the Portland Hotel Society, the non-profit affordable housing charity that administers Insite in conjunction with the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, concerned.

Mr. Townsend was concerned enough that he attempted to confront Mr. Clement about the federal government's position in the morning at the International AIDS conference, without much success.

But by afternoon and in front of an audience of about 1,000 people, Mr. Townsend made the bold move of jumping on stage, where members of a panel that included Mr. Clement were discussing HIV vaccine research. Mr. Townsend took to the podium, where he stressed the importance of the Vancouver site. The B.C. government lent its weight yesterday to the campaign to keep the safe-injection site operating.

Weighing in on the controversy for the first time, Premier Gordon Campbell said he feels the clinic has done a good job of improving services to people. He noted that numerous studies, including one commissioned by the RCMP, have reported positive benefits from the site.

"We think it's a positive step, and we believe it should continue. We have let the federal government know that," Mr. Campbell told reporters, after announcing a mid-term cabinet shuffle.

Its supporters unexpectedly found another ally in former U.S. president Bill Clinton, who, at another press conference yesterday, spoke in favour of harm-reduction measures like needle-exchange programs and safe-injection sites for intravenous drug users.

While he did not specifically mention the Vancouver site, Mr. Clinton did say the scientific evidence clearly shows that these programs reduce the transmission of HIV-AIDS and do not lead to higher rates of drug use.

Mr. Clinton's position is particularly notable because, as president, he opposed harm-reduction measures.

"I think I was wrong," Mr. Clinton said candidly.

Meanwhile, Mr. Clement announced yesterday an immediate, comprehensive review of the legislation that was supposed to send less expensive, generic versions of HIV-AIDS drugs to Africa. Calling the legislation flawed, he said it must be reviewed sooner rather than later. Canada's Access to Medicines Regime is two years old but not one pill has been exported.

Thinking In The Wright Direction

2006-08-15T13:39:00.000-07:00

THINKING IN THE WRIGHT DIRECTION

Blair Wright, the man behind the Alberta timothy success story wants to undertake another alternative crop market.

Hemp crops, which are similar in biomass to timothy would allow farmers to diversify their crop choices while maintaining the existing infrastructure in the agriculture processing sector.

"You've got to start sometime," said Wright. "I don't think there is a farmer out there who thinks we shouldn't have more crop choices, especially in this part of the world where the choices are slim."

Wright, who is the former president and co-founder of Transfeeder Inc. in Olds, saw an opportunity years ago to ship high fibre timothy hay into Asian markets. Now with the timothy market declining, he has been thinking hemp for the last five years.

With the help of Trevor Kloeck, senior development officer of bioindustrial development for Alberta Agriculture they presented it to Mountain View County council during their July 19 meeting of policies and priorities committee.

Olds and surrounding areas may need to look to Europe for innovations in the commercial production and use of industrial hemp.

Deemed the world's premier renewable resource by the Government of Canada and since the lifting of a 60-year ban, hemp has seen a re-emergence worldwide as the market becomes a thriving and commercial success.

Kloec, feels that Alberta, especially Peace River Country and areas on the eastern slopes of the Rockies, the black soil areas of the province, are optimum locations for hemp production.

"This is a great growing area for these crops, we can produce these crops in large volumes, it has good transportation volume ... so from a business standpoint in the province the Highway two corrider in general is the best place around for it," said Kloeck.

There are a few challenges that the industry is facing.

"There are no grading standards," said Wright. "The harvesting process is not easy."

With Europe ahead of the curve in the production and use of industrial hemp, Canada will have to play catch-up in order to advance our technology, especially in the harvesting and processing machinery.

"We don't have to start all over again. We can take what Europe has and utilize it here," Wright said.

From 1982 to 2002, Europe provided the equivalent of $50 million to develop new flax and hemp harvesting and fibre processing technologies. The similarities between flax and hemp have furthered the technological advancement for both products because the technology developed for one is usually adaptable to the other.

Although Europe is advanced on the technological side, it has failed to generate the biomass needed to get the industry going because of the small parcels of land typically found in European farms. Kloeck feels without the restrictions of land mass, that Canada would be able to set a global standard in the industry.

"We can catch up or pass our competitors very quickly if we get our act together," Kloeck said. "This is an industry on the verge of getting big."

So far, the province of Manitoba has been the leading force in Canada as far as industrial hemp growing.

With organizations like the Saskatchewan Hemp Association and Manitoba Industrial Hemp Association it's hard to imagine why Alberta is lagging behind.

Economics may be the biggest factor, since little hemp has been harvested in Alberta, cost information for hemp production is difficult to obtain.

New entrants to the industry must be prepared to carefully assess the profitability and cash flow implications of their proposed operation.

Kloeck is hoping to see Alberta's involvement change in the near future.

Wright also feels that Canada has a window of opportunity with the United States typically choosing to be anti-drug.

The stigma attached to the crop, although it has 0.03 per cent THC levels, while marijuana has somewhere between five and 25 per cent, is what is holding the American market back.

"This stuff has no drug in it, no THC," said Wright.

All the challenges aside, Wright is still thinking of the positives.

"When you think about hemp, and its biomass per acre, it is one of the highest yielding crops in this part of the world," Wright said.

Wright, who appears young at heart, also feels that he may not have the energy it will take to see this project to fruitation.

"Do I want to start this?" Wright said. "Maybe a younger man should take it on. This will take a lot of energy and a sizeable investment."

If it is anything like the timothy process, he could be labouring through the process for another 20 years.

"I have been a little bit of an innovator," Wright said modestly. "I can get people motivated, but you have to make sure the trend and the timing is right."

With rumours of the province administering a $100 million rural development fund, to be administered through county or municipal districts, Wright and Kloeck hope to ensure industrial hemp production will see some government dollars.

"You want to leave an indelible footprint in rural Alberta," Wright said. "And I think in 20 years we will see the bio-economy take a step forward."

Murders, Assaults And Overdoses, The City's Heart Is Bleeding

2006-08-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

MURDERS, ASSAULTS AND OVERDOSES, THE CITY'S HEART IS BLEEDING

If all goes according to plan, Toronto mayoral candidate Jane Pitfield will take a walk on the wild side tomorrow with a tour of the epicentre of a ghetto in this city that is saturated with illegal rooming houses, homeless shelters, derelict buildings, crack dens, drug dealers, alcohol detox centres, substance-abuse clinics, low-end hooker strolls and condom-littered alleyways spiked with discarded syringes.

And all within a few blocks of the Eaton Centre.

It should be an eye-opener for the Ward 26 councillor who hails from the leafy quietude of Leaside -- even if she is co-chairman of both the Homeless and Socially Isolated Committee and the Aboriginal Affairs Committee.

This ghetto, of course, has its bull's eye at the corner of Jarvis and Shuter, and ripples out from there -- east to River, west to Church, south to King, and north to Carlton.

It is where this city bottoms out, and where crime is chronic.

According to a 2005 United Way report, this small patch of the city's core has more social services agencies dealing with the poor, the disenfranchised and the addled than any other section of Toronto, making oft-maligned Parkdale a veritable paradise by comparison.

Super-Sized Shelter

It has the lowest median income in the city, at $15,000, an unemployment rate of 11.5%, and a population in which 44% of the people lack a secondary school education.

And city hall seems not to care about the continuing erosion and decay -- at least not Mayor David Miller and certainly not local councillor Kyle Rae.

But there is an election in November.

There are those who write about this part of town who know little or nothing about it. But I do. It is where I live while searching for the fodder for this space, in a basement apartment right by the aforementioned bull's eye.

And there is little here that I have not witnessed, including the aftermath of murders, assaults and overdoses.

Drug dealing is done openly.

A few metres down a lane from where I live, the Salvation Army is tearing down its Harbour Light Mission at the corner of Jarvis and Shuter and, with funds from the province and the feds and the approval of city hall, it will begin building a facility virtually double in size -- with 100 units of transitional housing for the homeless, and a 100-bed residential care hostel for drug addicts.

From the outside looking in, this is good.

But, according to research by those who oppose it, led primarily by the optimistically named Garden District Residents Association, this project will only oversaturate an area already saturated with everything but an officially declared red-light district and legalized shooting galleries.

And the group has a legitimate argument.

Within four blocks of the Sally Ann's planned redevelopment, for example, some 20-plus agencies are involved in administering 2,500 emergency shelter beds, 12 group homes for criminal offenders, 20 group homes for the mentally ill, six harm-reduction resource centres handing out free needles and crack pipes, 1,000 long-term care beds, thousands of social housing units and 18 cooperatives designed for affordable housing.

All close to the bull's eye.

If this is not ghetto creation, then what is it?

And then there is what has been referred to as "demolition by decay," a phenomenon which city hall bureaucrats cannot combat because there is no bylaw in existence to force developers to maintain minimum standards of maintenance for buildings that have gone derelict.

A prime example is Walnut Hall, described by the Toronto Star's architecture columnist, Christopher Hume, as the only block of Georgian townhouses left standing in the city.

That row of old homes, on the north bank of Shuter, just east of Jarvis, has been boarded up and unheated for the last 20 years. When bricks began falling off the building, the owner, Joe Jonatan, was ordered by the city to put up protective fencing, but that was it -- with Jonatan's excuse being that it has taken "longer than expected" to come up with a feasible business plan to make Walnut Hall work.

Where's The Planning

The block, however, is now for sale, with $2.2 million reportedly being the asking price for this ruin.

But, as Hume wrote back in July: "In some cities, a developer like Joe Jonatan would be heavily fined for his actions and even have his property expropriated. In Toronto, ( however ), we have no choice but sit by and watch as he lets a unique and valuable heritage site fall apart."

Eva Curlanis-Bart is the president of the Garden District Residents Association, and the woman who will be escorting Pitfield on tomorrow's scheduled walkabout -- one that has been confirmed by Pitfield's special assistant, Paul Virdo, as definitely being on her agenda.

A year ago, to prove one of her many points about the decay and ghettoization of her neighourhood, Curlanis-Bart pulled statistics compiled by 51 Division which showed police being involved in more than 1,200 "interventions" in her district -- and that's just in the roominghouses alone.

"What has happened to urban planning, to balancing the socio-economic mix of neighbourhoods?" she asked.

"Victimhood, expediency and political correctness are not substitutes for vision, wisdom, justice and courage."

Tomorrow, therefore, will be Pitfield's opportunity to see for herself what Miller and Rae tend to see with a blind eye.

Hopefully she will not be wearing blinders.

Argentine Cocaine Trade Growing

2006-08-13T12:56:00.000-07:00

ARGENTINE COCAINE TRADE GROWING

Traffickers are setting up cocaine labs in Argentina, long merely a transit point for cocaine, and creating new addicts with 'paco,' a cheap, toxic byproduct with a short, intense high.

'Paco' boosts Argentine drug trade

Matias Salas tried marijuana when he was 11. By age 17, he smoked pot every day, sniffed cocaine when he could get it and was a regular user of pills.

Then, a new drug hit Argentina.

"I have never tried anything so addictive in my life. I am no rookie, but this just hit me like a log. I couldn't stop," says Salas, now 20 and one of thousands of working-class youths in that country hooked on smoking paco.

Experts say the sudden availability of paco, also known as basuco, is a sign that cocaine is being produced in Argentina. The white crystals, left over from refining coca paste into cocaine, are too cheap and low in quality to make them worth transporting. So wherever cocaine is refined, paco is sold.

This is a turning point for the drug business in Argentina, which until recently was only a transit point for Colombian, Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine largely on its way to Europe.

Argentina's counter-drug officials attribute the surge of cocaine laboratories to their efforts to control the export of chemicals used to refine coca paste into cocaine.

"Traffickers have changed their strategy. Instead of taking the chemicals to countries where the coca paste is produced, they bring the coca paste here and they install laboratories, primarily in the outskirts of Buenos Aires," says Jose Ramon Granero, director of Argentina's counter-drug agency, known as SEDRONAR.

Cocaine seizures in the country doubled in 2004 compared to 1999, and authorities discovered 10 clandestine cocaine laboratories in 2003, 20 in 2004 and 14 last year. Granero says seizures so far "are in line with last year's."

The State Department's 2006 international drug report said there was evidence that more drug trafficking organizations are entering Argentina, lured by the advanced chemical industry there and the low risk in shipping the coca paste into the country.

Paco is at the lowest rung of the drug business ladder.

In Argentina, paco-laced cigarettes are sold almost out in the open in poor neighborhoods -- even in kiosks that sell regular cigarettes and candy -- addicts say. A paco cigarette goes for 30 U.S. cents, compared to $1.50 for a marijuana joint.

"In my barrio, it's everywhere. It's very easy to get," Salas told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview from Fundacion Manantiales, a nonprofit Buenos Aires organization that treats addicts with government money.

Salas checked in voluntarily and has been living in the rehab center for four months. He says he tried to quit paco once on his own, but he relapsed. Now he doesn't want to return to the working-class neighborhood where he grew up until he is certain he can stay clean.

Paco is highly addictive because its effect is so short -- a couple of minutes -- and so intense that many users resort to smoking 20 to 50 cigarettes a day to try to make its effects linger.

Used regularly, it can devastate a person physically, emotionally and mentally within six months, says Cristian Laclau, a spokesman for Fundacion Manantiales.

Paco is even more toxic than crack cocaine because it is made mostly of solvents and chemicals, with just a dab of cocaine, said Jim Hall, executive director of Up Front Drug Information Center, a Miami nonprofit that has been tracking cocaine abuse for more than two decades.

Argentine media reports have blamed the surge of paco consumption -- up 200 percent to an estimated 50,000 users to 70,000 users in the last four years, according to local authorities -- on the 2001 economic meltdown that pushed thousands of Argentines into poverty and despair.

But authorities and experts look north for the answer.

The multimillion-dollar U.S.-backed Plan Colombia is disrupting the operations of traffickers there and forcing them to look for new bases for their business, said Eduardo Gamarra, of Florida International University's Latin American and Caribbean Center.

Farther south, the recent election of President Evo Morales in Bolivia, which capped three years of political instability in that country, raised concerns that his policy to clamp down on cocaine but decriminalize coca farming for traditional, legal uses may result in more paste shipped to its neighbors.

There are no statistics available, but the Argentine and U.S. governments, and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, agree that most of the coca paste entering Argentina comes from Bolivia, the world's third-largest cultivator of coca leaves after Colombia and Peru.

Argentina and Bolivia share a long, porous border through which coca paste is smuggled, Granero says. It enters the country in small planes that land on clandestine airstrips, by truck in cargo containers, or in boats.

"The border is very extended, in some places inhospitable and almost deserted, in others made of small rivers. It's difficult to patrol," Granero says.

The State Department's 2006 drug report said Argentine authorities had expressed concern that Bolivia's new policy, dubbed "Yes to coca, no to cocaine," could greatly increase the production of illegal drugs there.

But Granero was far more diplomatic.

'We think Evo Morales has good intentions. But his policies will be measured by the results. If 'Yes to coca, no to cocaine' results in an excess of coca leaves, we'll have to see where that excess goes."

30 Arrested In Bay Drug Bust

2006-08-12T12:52:00.000-07:00

30 ARRESTED IN BAY DRUG BUST

As the sun rose yesterday, 60 police officers suited up, ready for the culmination of a 10-month-operation aimed at cracking an organised drug ring in Hawke's Bay.

By the time the tired officers left work last night, 30 people had been arrested and faced charges including possession of cannabis, sale of methamphetamine and possession of a firearm without a licence.

Some were members of a prominent gang but police refused to specify which one.

Police raided 24 addresses in Hastings, Napier, Waipukurau and Wairoa, seizing more than 70 cannabis seedlings, 3kg of cannabis, several bags of methamphetamine, ecstasy tabs, a sawn-off shotgun and thousands of dollars in cash.

Police also found and dismantled two hydroponic set-ups for growing cannabis.

Eastern Police District crime services manager Detective Inspector Sam Aberahama said Operation Oyster was one of the biggest operations in recent years and they were pleased with the outcome.

The operation targeted organised crime in the region, and Mr Aberahama said police believed they had cracked the ring. "We enlisted the help of an undercover police officer," he said, but refused to elaborate.

"This is just one tool in the box of investigative techniques that we used," Mr Aberahama said.

The district commander, Superintendent Grant Nicholls, said he was delighted with the success of the operation particularly as it followed a recent successful operation in Wairoa where 17 gang members were arrested.

"This district is committed to targeting organised crime and getting to the heart of their drug-distribution networks," he said.

"We have an ongoing interest in apprehending those involved in organised crime. We will continue to focus on reducing opportunity for this type of offending."

Mr Aberahama asked people to continue passing information on to the police because it would be acted on. "If you are involved in drugs and it's reported to the police, expect some attention," he warned.

"People who choose to be involved face a real risk of apprehension."

Five people appeared in the Hastings District Court yesterday afternoon following the early-morning searches.

Although all were released as police did not oppose bail, Judge Richard Watson warned four of them that because of the serious nature of the charges they faced life imprisonment.

They were all remanded to the Hastings District Court on August 17. More of those arrested in yesterday's raids were expected to appear before the court this morning.

NC: Meth Users Put Strain On Hospitals

2006-02-21T10:35:00.000-08:00

FOREST CITY -- Emergency room visitors with methamphetamine-related illness are causing major burdens on local hospitals across the country. Patients suffering from heart, lung, kidney and brain problems associated with meth are straining hospital budgets and treatment facilities, according to two surveys to be released in Washington, D.C., this month. Studies conducted by the National Association of Counties indicate the severity of the toll of the drug on local communities, especially in rural areas where social service networks are ill-prepared to deal with the problems associated with meth. The survey revealed that 73 percent of the 200 county and regional hospitals polled reported an increase in the number of people visiting emergency rooms for meth-related problems over the last five years. Of the hospitals polled, 68 percent reported a continued increase in the last three years. Dr. John Tolhurst, Emergency Room Physician and Medical Examiner at Rutherford Hospital, began working in Rutherford County in 1989. "When I first came there was virtually no meth use here," said Tolhurst. "In the last four or five years we have seen a big increase." Tolhurst said that he has treated people with chest pain associated with smoking meth. He said the drug can cause major lung and heart problems, including heart attacks. Tolhurst said that he has treated patients with shin problems associated with what addicts call "skin popping." Skin popping is when meth, or another drug, is injected into the shin with a needle. The addicts purposefully miss the veins so that the drug is slowly released into their system. Tolhurst said that shared use of needles creates a concern for spreading diseases like Hepatitis and AIDS. Tolhurst said that patients with meth-related problems are not tracked because a problem associated with meth is not a diagnosis. But he said that he has seen a significant increase in the past five years. He said a lot of the trauma cases treated in the ER, where people are severely beaten, often involve drugs. Meth makes users agitated because it is a central nervous system stimulant that increases heart rate and irritability. Other problems associated with meth patients are financial. "The majority of the people we see here with meth problems have no insurance," said Tolhurst. "We end up treating them for free." Sheriff C. Philip Byers said that the majority of meth users in Rutherford County are unemployed and have no assets. "Treatment at the hospital is not something that most of these people can afford,' said Byers. Meth addicts in the county have been profiled as mostly white males between the ages of 20 and 35. The life expectancy of a meth addict is about ten years if they stay on the drug, according to the State Bureau of Investigation. Rutherford Hospital Vice President of Marketing and Planning Karen Moore said that meth patients also create safety concerns. Moore said that if a patient brings a hazardous material into the hospital the staff will go into a code orange and set up for the detoxification of the area, staff and other patients. When children are removed from homes with a presence of meth they have to be detoxed at the scene by firefighters before they can ride in an ambulance. The chemicals from meth labs can be very hazardous and flammable. "Our whole system comes to a stop," said Moore. "If a hazardous chemical is present in the hospital it presents a major burden for us." In the nationwide survey, 14 percent of the hospitals reported that meth-related cases make up 20 percent of their emergency room visits and 56 percent of hospitals said their costs had risen because of the growing abuse of the drug. In the second survey, 69 percent of the hospitals reported an increased demand for treatment for methamphetamine abuse and 63 percent of the hospitals reportedly do not have enough capacity to meet the demand. Treatment for meth addiction is generally long and intensive and often fails when the proper models are not use. Meth addicts do not respond as well to typical drug treatment programs and only programs specifically intended for meth users report high recovery rates. The primary ingredient used to make meth is cold medication that contains ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. Meth is made in makeshift and often mobile labs in homes, sheds and cars. Addicts us common household items like lye, coffee filters, Law enforcement officials ranked meth as their worse drug problem in a survey of 500 agencies in 45 states also conducted by the National Association of Counties. In the survey, 70 percent of local law enforcement agencies said that robberies, burglaries, domestic violence, assaults and identity thefts have increased due to the meth problem.

Australia: Towns In For A Shock

2006-02-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

No Drug Problem, Say Residents, But THE results of a survey in Culcairn and Holbrook which showed participants predominantly thought neither town had a drug problem was a major shock, the chairman of the Culcairn Holbrook Youth Action Team, David Dunbar, said yesterday. The team is presently presenting the results of its research project to meetings in both towns with guest speakers providing details about the types of drugs available in the region and strategies parents might adopt to help reduce the risk of their children using and abusing drugs. Mr Dunbar, a Culcairn pharmacist, said those survey respondents who denied the existence of a drug problem in either town were ignoring crime statistics from the region related to drug use. "Over the past five years in Holbrook and Culcairn there have been 327 criminally recorded drug and liquor offences," he said. "There are many others who do not engage in criminal activity but are regularly using alcohol and other drugs in our towns." He said acceptance of the problem was an important step. "As with any social issue, recognition of the problem is the first step toward possible change," he said. "The community and each individual member of it must decide whether they accept the statistics showing there is a drug and alcohol problem in our community and whether or not they are comfortable with local drug and alcohol misuse. "Id like to think Im the only person in town selling drugs but the truth is Im not." The teams research project, undertaken by Serena Kent over three months, was completed in December. It focused on parents of pre-school and primary school aged children and aimed to identify strategies that could motivate parents to attend anti-drug information events. Miss Kent said the results indicated an overwhelming amount of participants were not sure if there was a drug problem in the area and consequently could see no reason to implement intervention programs to their children. The regions drug and alcohol liaison worker, Adelle Kennedy, said she had clients in the area with drug problems who purchased drugs locally. "Drugs may not be as big a problem in rural communities as in the cities but they are still a problem and parents should not assume living in a small town will ensure their children will be safe from drugs," Ms Kennedy said. The team has already held a meeting in Holbrook this week and will hold a second meeting looking at the research results on Wednesday, February 22 at the Culcairn Public School from 7.30pm. l For details of the teams activities contact Mr Dunbar on ( 02 ) 6029 8917 or Ms Kennedy on ( 02 ) 6029 8917.

IL: Medical Cannabis Bill Gains Momentum

2006-02-19T10:34:00.000-08:00

Legislation Makes Third Appearance In General Assembly Julie Falco came to Springfield last week for the third year in a row to persuade lawmakers to legalize marijuana for medical purposes. With her, she brought a Tupperware container with marijuana-laced brownies and "popped them right in the room." That drew reactions - "most of them were grins or something's up" looks, she said - from people in the hearing room. "I would not have been able to testify in front of the Senate ( committee ) if I did not have my cannabis because I get very sensitive to really loud atmosphere, a lot of people, a lot of movement," said Falco, a Chicago resident who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis 20 years ago. "It's just too much on my nervous system." With her doctor's written endorsement, Falco eats three 1-inch marijuana brownie squares a day to treat her condition, which causes her legs to lock up and shake. On Wednesday, she said, the brownies "made it tolerable to be in an arena like that." Under legislation that passed out of the Senate committee to which Falco spoke, Illinoisans could legally grow and use marijuana to treat terminal illnesses and other debilitating health conditions. Although the bill, Senate Bill 2568, was moved to the full Senate by a vote of only 6-5, the committee's action signaled a growing push in Illinois to legalize use of marijuana for medical purposes. The medical cannabis bill is making its third appearance in the General Assembly and is as close as it has ever been to becoming a legislative reality. Previous bills have not made it through the committee stage. Earlier this year, Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize marijuana for patients with terminal illnesses and other debilitating conditions, such as AIDS, glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. New Mexico and Connecticut reportedly are debating the issue this year. "There's more support than people realize," said Dr. Christopher Fichtner, a medical adviser to Illinois Drug Education and Legislative Reform and a former mental health director for the state Department of Human Services. Among those backing the bill is the Illinois Nurses Association, he said. If the proposal passes the full Senate and the House and is signed by the governor, it would allow patients with a doctor's prescription to grow as many as 12 marijuana plants each. A patient could possess no more than 2 1/2 ounces of the drug in its usable form at any one time. Critics say the legislation is unnecessary because Illinois has a 1978 statute that allows patients to apply for federal research projects in which marijuana would be provided. But no one has applied to undertake such research, according to Tom Green, spokesman for the Department of Human Services. Opponents of the bill also say Marinol, a prescription drug that contains tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, an active cannabis ingredient, is available for patients. Aside from that, the Federal Drug Administration has not labeled marijuana as medicine. "We should hold it to the same standards as any other medicine, and we're simply not ready in terms of research," said Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, who voted against the bill. Falco and other medical cannabis advocates said drugs such as Marinol do not work for everybody. People respond differently to how marijuana is consumed, she said. "Smoking it, for me, didn't really work as did eating it," Falco said. Laimutis Nargelenas, deputy director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said the legislative action to legalize medical marijuana is moving too fast and sends mixed messages to the public about the dangers of controlled substances. "We're a compassionate community, but at the same time we have a job to do right now on the war on drugs, and marijuana is an illegal drug," Nargelenas said. "We have now gone so far to take meth and most cold medicines behind the counter, and yet to turn around and legalize marijuana, it doesn't make sense." Illinois Church Action on Alcohol and Addiction Problems also is against the bill because it would be "very difficult to regulate and control who has the marijuana," said executive director Anita Bedell. Sen. John Cullerton, D-Chicago, the legislation's sponsor, said the bill still needs work to "assure the other senators that the law won't be abused" by caregivers who would be responsible for dispensing the drug to patients unable to take it independently. "When people realize that cannabis will be used as medicine, I think we can gain support," he said. Falco said she uses only the word "cannabis" in the ongoing debate because "marijuana" is a loaded word that keeps the issue bogged down in controversy. "Medical patients do not get high," she said. "It's a pain reliever. But that's where people go ... to the old stereotypes about what cannabis is." And although she has never been arrested or confronted by law enforcement, Falco said she fears getting that knock on the door. "Multiple sclerosis is a stress-related disease, and I can't even imagine myself sitting a jail cell without the cannabis," she said. "I'm doing this because I know there are thousands of others using it for medicinal reasons. We have illnesses we deal with every day ... we don't want to be worrying about getting arrested."

NC: Drug Busts Slowing Trade

2006-02-18T10:33:00.000-08:00

CLINTON -- The Sampson County Sheriff's Office saw drug seizures rise by more than $7million from 2004 to 2005. And this year, officers grabbed $20 million in cocaine in one incident. The rising drug amounts reflected in the increased value of seizures is an indicator of the county's persistent drug problem, Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said. Deputies recovered $1 million worth of marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines in 2004. The amount skyrocketed to $8.8 million last year. So far this year, agents have uncovered three meth labs and seized 440 pounds of cocaine in one of the largest arrests in county history. The street value of the cocaine was estimated at $20 million. Two men were charged with trafficking the drug by possession. Court records say the men were carrying the cocaine in a 1997 Ford Ranger. The drugs were confiscated Jan. 23 along Edmond Matthis Road, a rural road in southern Sampson County. Investigators are not releasing details in the case. On Feb. 9, deputies raided a home on Jeanette Lane near Godwin where they seized $561 worth of marijuana and charged two people who live in the house with intent to sell and make the drug. Breeding ground Sampson County has become a hotbed for drug activity, Thornton said, and he wants it stopped because drugs breed other crimes such as break-ins and robberies. The number of robberies, especially, has increased, he said. "I think that we are seeing more violence now," the sheriff said, "whereas before I don't know that we had that much." The amounts are alarming, he said, but the figures also show law enforcement's commitment to battling the drug problem. The Sheriff's Office often teams with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the State Bureau of Investigation, the state Highway Patrol and surrounding sheriff's offices to build cases against drug dealers. "They've all shared in this," Thornton said. "We didn't do it without help." Emmett Highland, resident agent in charge with the DEA office in Wilmington, said the state in general has experienced an increase in drug trafficking because the population has grown. Highland said state, federal and local agencies have combined their resources to target the larger drug dealers. By doing so, they are able to seize bigger amounts of drugs. Cocaine is the top drug that is being trafficked in southeastern North Carolina, he said. The state is not only a destination for the drug, the DEA Web site said, but a distribution point for northern states on the East Coast. Statewide, the number of federal cocaine seizures rose from 275 pounds in 2003 to 862 pounds in 2004. Sampson County belongs to a DEA task force of local and federal officers. Over the past year, the task force has made significant seizures that have hurt the drug trade in the southeastern part of the state, Highland said. "We've had some great successes over the last 18 months or so," he said. The seizure of the 440 pounds of cocaine in January has been one of the biggest in the region, Highland said. He would not discuss details of that case but said it is an indicator of what law enforcement agencies are facing "I think people have to wake up and realize that we've got a serious problem," Thornton said. Thornton attributes the increase in drug seizures to better cooperation and coordination with local, state and federal agencies and his office's philosophy for vigorously targeting drug dealers. Interstate connection Chief Deputy John Conerly said Sampson County is an easy target for drug dealers because it is rural and because of its proximity to Interstates 40 and 95. Interstate 40 runs through the eastern part of the county and has exits near Newton Grove. I-95 meets I-40 in Johnston County near the Sampson County line. The county has 500,000 miles of paved highways, which makes it appealing to drug traffickers who want to travel undetected on back roads. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the production, trafficking and use of illegal drugs is a growing problem in rural counties. A 1997 report on the issue says that "growing competition and effective law enforcement efforts" in cities have forced drug dealers and producers into remote areas where they can avoid being seen and the competition is less hostile. Law enforcement's best weapon against them, Conerly said, has been anonymous tipsters. People report suspicious activity in their neighborhoods and investigators follow those leads. "We need those tips," he said, "to point us in the right direction."

Two Australians Sentenced To Death

2006-02-17T09:42:00.002-08:00

BALI, Indonesia Two Australians were sentenced Tuesday to death by firing squad for leading a drug smuggling ring on Indonesia's resort island of Bali, verdicts that could strain ties between the countries. Andrew Chan, 22, and Myuran Sukumaran, 24 who masterminded the trafficking of 18 pounds of heroin to their homeland showed little emotion as their verdicts were read in a packed courtroom. Four other members of the so-called "Bali Nine," all of them Australian, have been given life sentences. The sentences for the final three were expected Wednesday. Indonesian anti-drugs campaigners cheered after the death sentences were read out for Chan and, in a separate trial, for Sukumaran. Family members in the public gallery broke down in tears. The verdicts were broadcast live in Australia, where recent drug trials involving citizens in Indonesia have triggered intense public interest. Australian Prime Minister John Howard, whose government opposes capital punishment, said the sentences were predictable given the "weight of the evidence." Some members of the ring were arrested at Bali's airport with heroin taped to their bodies, while others were in a hotel room purportedly plotting another shipment. "I feel desperately sorry for the parents of these people, I do," Howard told reporters in Canberra. "But the warnings have been there for decades, and how on Earth any young Australian can be so stupid as to take the risk is completely beyond me." Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, under pressure to crack down on illegal drugs in the world's most populous Muslim nation, said he hoped the verdicts would serve as an example. Judge Arief Supartman said a panel of three judges at the Denpasar District court found Chan guilty of "exporting heroin in an organized ring," and accused him of "damaging Bali's international reputation." He also criticized Chan for showing no remorse. Later, judges found Sukumaran guilty of involvement in an organized drug ring and said he, too, would face a firing squad. "There is no reason to justify the actions of the defendant," said Judge I Gusti Lanang Dauh. Police escorted the two out of the courtroom in handcuffs, pushing them past hundreds of reporters and television crews and into a prison van. Four of the "Bali Nine" drug mules Michael Czugaj, 20; Martin Stephens, 29; Renae Lawrence, 28; and Scott rush, 20, - were sentenced to Life in Prison in separate trials on Monday and Tuesday.

Growth In 'Trendy' Drugs Sparks Concerns

2006-02-17T09:42:00.001-08:00

Have You Heard Of Jimson Weed? Chances Are, Your Kids Have. The ancient, and occasionally deadly intoxicant has lately been enjoying resurgence as a "trendy drug," according to Marilyn Belmonte, co-chair of the Burlington Drug and Alcohol Task Force. "Middlesex County is seeing a huge problem with heroin, Oxycontin, prescription drugs and lots of other drugs," Belmonte said. "There are so many different drugs that kids are abusing, and as a community we need to work together to try to solve this problem" Belmonte will be conducting a Citizen Drug Recognition Academy beginning March 1, at 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the theater of the Wilmington Middle School, 25 Carter Lane. During the five-week - each Wednesday at 7 p.m. in March - in a multi-media program, Belmonte will train parents to be on the lookout for signs of drug use in their children, and give them tools to combat potential addiction. Topics will include traditional and plant based drugs, prescription and over the counter drugs, club drugs including Ecstasy, GHB, Ketamine, and more, and drug-facilitated sexual assaults. The final session will discuss how parents can talk with their kids about drugs. The program is being offered in cooperation with the Wilmington Police Department. Belmonte began her career as a drug educator as a volunteer with Burlington' s drug task force. She began taking classes at the Massachusetts State Police Academy, eventually becoming certified as a trainer, and working with parents and school faculties. The program was created, Belmonte said, in order to enlist parents on the front lines of the drug war. The need for such a program is acute, Belmonte said, as rates of drug use and overdosing has been on the rise in local communities. Helplessly hoping "Parents often feel they have no control," she said. "They don't know enough about the different drugs and they feel helpless. They tell their kids to pick up their socks and they don't listen to them, they think they won't listen about drugs." Belmonte says in truth, parents have a huge impact on whether or not kids do drugs, "more than they realize." "Studies show that when kids who don't do drugs are asked why they don't, they say it is because of their parents. They don't want to lose their parents' respect." Belmonte's program trains parents how to spot potential drug use and abuse by identifying a wide variety of drugs and their paraphernalia, and physical effects and behaviors. To find the reason for the dramatic growth in drug abuse, look no further than your own medicine cabinet, Belmonte said. Kids, accustomed to self-medicating all their lives with sweet-tasting medicines, think nothing of popping a few Vicaden or Oxycontin to deal with the stress of their lives. Since a prescription high gets expensive, the next step is often heroin, which is terrifyingly cheap and easy to procure. "Parents need to be watch dogging their kids," she said. "When parents are empowered, they can do so much more."

Supes OK Medical Marijuana IDs

2006-02-17T09:42:00.000-08:00

Hollister - While the Board of Supervisors complied with state law Tuesday and approved a county program to issue medical marijuana identification cards to afflicted locals, supervisors made it clear that they did not want marijuana to be dispensed within the county. Under the program, county residents with a doctor's prescription for medical marijuana may apply to receive an ID card that will allow them to purchase and transport medical marijuana. The county won't actually be providing the marijuana, however a state law passed in 2003 requires all counties to offer medical marijuana ID cards to those with a doctor's prescription to use the drug to treat illnesses ranging from cancer and AIDS to anorexia and chronic pain. Supervisors Anthony Botelho and Don Marcus said they had concerns about having a county medical marijuana ID program, however Supervisors Jaime De La Cruz and Reb Monaco said that they had no problem with it. "In my book, it is still an illegal substance," Botelho said after the meeting. "I just don't want to see our program abused and subsidized by taxpayers." San Benito's program will cost about $8,500 per year - which includes the purchase of a digital camera and other supplies. Those costs will be covered by a fee that participants will pay. There are 230 potential participants in San Benito, according to state estimates. The fee charged for an ID will be determined by an ongoing countywide fee study. While the medical marijuana ID program won't begin until the county's fee study is finished and a fee for the program has been determined, County Administrative Officer Susan Thompson said they are working hard to get the study done, but did not know exactly when that will be. De La Cruz said that he supported the ID program and thought medical marijuana was a good thing for people suffering from an illness. "I have friends who are sick, and actually they use medical marijuana," he said. "So I see the benefits first hand." Though they hold different views on medical marijuana, supervisors were united in their desire not to have medical marijuana dispensed in San Benito. "At this point, unless we hear more testimony I'd be opposed to dispensaries in the county," Marcus said. De La Cruz said that having establishments that distribute medical marijuana within the county would make it easier for the general population to obtain marijuana for non-medical use. "We will provide the card only," he said, "but not allow people to sell marijuana." Medical marijuana is dispensed through clubs and cooperatives, rather than through the government. Within the region, there are medical marijuana cooperatives in Santa Cruz. Before voting to approve the medical marijuana ID card program, the board directed county staff to draft an ordinance prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries within the county. During Tuesday's meeting, Sheriff Curtis Hill was neutral on the issue of ID cards. He said he will work with the county health department to make sure all his deputies knew what the cards looked like and how they are issued. "For me it's a non-issue," he told supervisors. "We're going to follow what ( the law ) says." After the meeting Hill said that if a deputy stops a person who has marijuana and a medical marijuana ID card, the deputy will allow that person to keep the marijuana and be on their way, unless there is some other violation. Hollister Police Chief Jeff Miller also told supervisors that he doesn't have any major concerns about the county's medical marijuana ID card. While San Benito is adhering to the law, not all of California's 58 counties are willing to go along with it. In January, San Diego County sued the state of California and its director of health services, saying federal law that prohibits marijuana use trumps state law that allows it. Soon after, San Bernadino County joined the lawsuit. California voters approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes a decade ago with the with the passage of Proposition 215. The debate made its way to San Benito County last month in a court case involving medical marijuana which was confiscated by the Hollister-Gilroy California Highway Patrol. In defiance of a court order, CHP Cmdr. Otto Knorr had refused to return the marijuana for months, saying it would violate federal drug laws. However, on direction from the Attorney General's Office, Knorr relented just days before a contempt of court hearing which was scheduled for January. During Tuesday's meeting, Knorr voiced concerns about people not having their ID cards with them while they are transporting marijuana, ID cards being counterfeited and people driving under the influence of marijuana, which is illegal regardless of whether a person has an ID card.

TeamUp Brings Abuse Prevention Expert To Town

2006-02-17T09:40:00.000-08:00

As the generation gap between parent and child continues to stretch beyond recognition, many parents begin to view their own children as strangers and are unsure how to open up the lines of communication with out sounding like the enemy. Tuesday, Feb. 28, TeamUp Inc. of Marblehead will present "Understanding the Teenage Brain: A Discussion on Drug and Alcohol Use, Risky Behaviors and Prevention Strategies," a program featuring consultant, teacher, coach and former director of the Training Institute of Narcotic and Drug Research Inc. Michael Nerney. The program will run from 7-9 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center of the Marblehead Veterans Middle School. During the presentation, which is geared for an adult audience, Nerney will provide extensive, concrete evidence of the effects of alcohol and drug use on an adolescent brain, as well proactive steps towards building a strong line of communication between parent and teen. Nerney is also speaking in Swampscott the following day. In both March and May, Nerney will come back to speak directly to several adolescent groups,50 students at a time in both Marblehead and Swampcott middle and high schools, along with hosting a pre-prom seminar at the high school level. Nerney will also hold special professional development programs with teachers and faculty over the next few months. In Massachusetts, 28 percent of children 13 and under have had a drink, and 12 percent have used marijuana. With the percentages constantly rising, Joyce Alla, marketing chairwoman of TeamUp, which is sponsoring Nerney's appearance in Marblehead, says more needs to be done. "The 'just say no' slogan doesn't work anymore," Alla said. "As parents we really need to work on opening the lines of communication." TeamUp President Susan Hauck added. "We need to increase awareness of the effects of drugs and alcohol as well as promote the tactic of early education." Swampscott guidance counselor Reardon said seeing Nerney last year in Marblehead was the motivation for bringing him to Swampscott, thanks to a grant from the local educational support organization, SUCCESS. For many parents, the thought of talking to their elementary and middle school aged children doesn't seem necessary, but TeamUp advocates feel the sooner the better. "It's better to be talking to your children all along than when it's too late," said Elizabeth Moore, principal of Marblehead Veterans Middle School. "Parents should just cater their talks to the different age levels their children are at." Moore, who has attended presentations by Nerney in the past, thinks children relate to the research Nerney brings to the table, and that they like to have evidence that they can hold in the palm of their hands. "Children like to see concrete evidence showing them what definitively what can happen to them if they do something," Moore said. "Last year [Nerney] showed parents and teachers research he had done on the brain, showing that as they enter adolescence their forebrain is not as developed and they become impulsive." In terms of when to talk with your children, Steve McFadden, guidance counselor at the Village School, also in Marblehead, has also adopted a sooner rather than later view on the situation. "Though a lot of parents may think how does this relate to my young child, they have to realize that these issues come up quicker than you think and it is always best to be prepared," McFadden said. Local counselor Larry Robinson says the main thing most parents need to learn is how not to talk down to their children as if they know everything, yet instead create an equal playing field where the kids feel that they can talk to their parents rather than fight with them. Part of his own method in his Lynn office is making his clients feel comfortable from the moment they step over the threshold, whether it be from the soothing smell of incense of the Native American pictures and artifacts placed around the waiting room. "Children need to gain your trust, otherwise if you criticize them from A to Z they are not going to listen to anything you have to say," Robinson said. "Kids at this age are angry because they have to be. Their parents are no longer their friends and they are now responsible for making adult decisions." Robinson says a lot of the problem is that middle schoolers see what their older siblings are doing and figuring that this what is "cool," creating a tremendous amount of pressure to be just that. "We need to work toward changing what defines 'cool'," Robinson said. "If we accepted kids more for who they are then they would be better at deciding what 'cool' actually is." Currently one of the more effective programs in place is the athletic department's social contract which was brought in by director Michael Plansky. Since putting the contracts in place, Plansky says they have only had to in force the policy once this year. "We bring the responsibility to the kids by making them form their own social contracts saying here's what they want to do and if we want our team to succeed we all need to follow by these rules," Plansky says. "The students are in charge of assigning penalties unanimously so that everyone is on the same page and they can look out for each other." Plansky added, "The goal is to have the students looking out for each other and learning together how to be responsible. Our hope is that if they are out and see someone breaking the rules they will say 'hey, that's in our contract and you shouldn't be doing that'." Swampscott High School has a similar student teaching student method known as SADD, an organization of Students Against Destructive Decisions. "We are an active chapter and two of our high school students are on the board," Reardon said. "We do presentations every year that are funded through a SUCCESS, Inc. grant and this year we are going to mirror what Marblehead did last year by having 50 students at a time work with Nerney." "Many parents are trying so hard to be there child's best friend, but as parents that is not what we signed up for," said Marblehead Police Detective Sgt. Marion Keating. "Parents should create an information exchange where they have all the cell phone numbers and email addresses so that at any point in time they are able to get in touch with their child." Keating added, "Parents are now having to talk to their children about subjects they never thought they would have to before. For example, what should your child do if they are babysitting and the parents come home drunk and are going to drive them home? These are things that we don't think of but need to because they happen." Judy Luise, adjustment counselor at Marblehead High School, suggests teaching children how to act in advance, trying to advert problems rather than deal with the consequences. "We try and teach them in a non-judgmental environment how to react rather then reflect after the fact," Luise said. According to Jim Ryan, director of Northeast Center for Healthy Communities, several surrounding communities have taken the initiative to effectively attack the problem. "Hamilton-Wenham is currently collecting data to develop strategies, and Lynn has a whole study done up on risk factors along with protective factors and building strong neighborhoods," Ryan said. "Many communities are forming coalitions trying to get parents engaged in the issue and building communication so they can be mentors in the situation." "No parent can fully protect their child," said Moore. "What they can do is continue the conversation. It can be as simple as asking you kids how they feel after you both witness a character in a television show doing something wrong. As parents we should always be talking." JUST THE FACTS What: TeamUp lecture on drug and alcohol awareness and prevention, featuring former Director of the Training Institute of Narcotic and Drug Research, Michael Nerney, now working with Partners in Prevention. Not recommended for student attendance. When: Tuesday, Feb. 28, 7-8:30 p.m. Where: Marblehead Veterans Middle School Performing Arts Center

Mexican Press Faces Bullets For Their Drug

2006-02-16T13:13:00.000-08:00

R Recently there were stories on the Mexican government's hiring of an American public relations specialist to improve its image in the U.S. Other elements of Mexican society, it seems, are also concerned about what appears in the press. But even as the government's PR man plans a "feelgood" campaign, those other elements are carrying out a "feel-bad" one. Very bad. In Nuevo Laredo, a border city of 300,000 that has been wracked by turf wars between rival drug-trafficking gangs, at least four men attacked the editorial office of the newspaper La Manana with automatic weapons and a hand grenade last Monday. Reporter Jaime Orozco Tey was hit five times. If he lives, he will never walk again, doctors report. Orozco Tey, 40, worked with the paper 14 years. He has two daughters, ages 9 and 7. Witnesses said the goons kept shooting him even as he fled to cover. Nuevo Laredo journalists were already walking on eggshells -- they have told the Associated Press that names of drug-gang victims have been omitted and stories held after traffickers have called and threatened reporters. And now they are throwing in the towel. On Tuesday, Ramon Cantu Deandar, the owner and general manager of La Manana, announced a "zero investigations" policy regarding the drug trade. "They are forcing us to do that, to not inform about violent incidents so that the city's image and credibility are not stained," he told the Laredo ( Texas ) Morning Times. Well, that's one way to keep your coverage from having a negative spin. Mexican President Vicente Fox denounced the attack in loud tones and promised safety for border journalists. But in a city where the murder rate has been running at about one a day since the beginning of the year, and in a country whose law-enforcement agencies are hamstrung by its long-standing culture of "impunidad" -- the impunity purchased by stacks of criminal cash -- faith in such promises is utterly lacking. Such Mexican lawmen as have not been bought off by the traffickers are likely to be outgunned by them. Reports emerged last year that the mega-gang run by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has set up "Los Zetas," a paramilitary group manned by former Mexican army special operations commandos, some trained at Fort Benning in the U.S. The attack on La Manana, which has all the earmarks of a military operation, is likely to have been conducted by such a group. Cantu Deandar's public surrender may seem craven, but what is he, or any other threatened Mexican journalist, supposed to do? If the police can't or ( because of "impunidad" ) won't protect journalists, and they cannot protect themselves -- Mexican law imposes virtually total gun control, except for those who have bribed their way to "impunidad" -- they have no choice but to go silent. In America, there has been much talk and worry about securing the border from terrorism. In Mexico, shamefully, control of the border appears to have been largely yielded.

Party Pills Can Help Save Lives

2006-02-15T13:13:00.000-08:00

With party pills under renewed scrutiny, including talk of a ban, Matt Bowden argues that they are providing safer, legal alternatives to addictive and harmful illegal drugs. Over the last five to six years about 20 million legal party pills have been sold in New Zealand. This represents 20 million times that mostly young New Zealanders have chosen a safer, legal alternative to dangerous, illegal drugs like P, methamphetamine. We have all seen the tragic costs of the use of illegal and highly addictive drugs like P - untold high profile murders, maimings, robberies, overdoses and suicides. I first created and introduced BZP- based party pills into New Zealand towards the end of the 1990s following the ecstasy-related death of a member of my own family. I was committed to finding a safer, legal alternative to dangerous drugs that kill people, and party pills have been successful in achieving this. There have been no instances in New Zealand of party pills causing any lasting harm, and there have been reports that police officers have linked a declining demand for the drug ecstasy as a result of the pills' increased availability. Although some people may feel uncomfortable about the recent availability of party pills, I believe party pills have saved lives that would otherwise have been lost through the use of drugs like methamphetamine and ecstasy. Party pills can continue to help minimise drug-related harm in, but I also acknowledge that these products need to be better controlled. Last year most of the party-pill industry joined in convincing the Government to begin regulating the industry. Most importantly, an 18-year age limit was introduced, as well as some labelling and marketing restrictions. This was a good start to properly control party pills but, with some simple legislative amendments, they could be much more effectively controlled and, as a result, safer. A lot of the recent concern that has surrounded party pills is well founded. In Christchurch, in particular, one or two rogue operators are producing party pills with excessive levels of BZP of about 500mg a pill. The vast majority of the party-pill industry belongs to the industry association, the Social Tonics Association ( Stanz ), which has a voluntary code of practice limiting BZP levels to 200mg a pill. We are calling on the Government to finish the job it has started and to introduce a limit on BZP levels per pill of 200mg. This is common-sense policy which would further protect people who choose to use party pills, and remove many of the problems centered on Christchurch. I believe there would be widespread political support for these further regulations and I would like to see the Government take this step urgently.. Although we want more controls, it is important to keep BZP and party pills in context. One form of BZP is used in a heart-surgery medicine, and people have been taking piperazines for years. It has been widely used around the world for decades and there has not been a single case of a BZP death anywhere in the world. By any standards, BZP has proved to be a remarkably safe substance, as evidenced by it being legal in most countries. The Government is to be applauded for committing to an evidence-based approach to policy on party pills. As a community we all need to put aside our prejudices ( and plenty of hypocrisies ) regarding people choosing to take substances that alter the way they feel. Every human culture since the beginning of time has done this, and will inevitably continue to do so. The challenge we all face is to make doing so as safe as we can. Party pills have already demonstrated they can provide a safer alternative to dangerous drugs. Properly controlled through more sensible government policy, party pills can be even safer and can continue to save lives. Matt Bowden represents Stanz, www.stargate.org.nz.

Kids DARE To Be Great

2006-02-14T13:12:00.000-08:00

Drug Abuse Resistance Education has been taught in Grosse Ile schools since 1993 and has graduated approximately 150 students per year. Although the curriculum has changed, the primary emphasis is for students to recognize and resist the temptations to do drugs. "We focus on a variety of different principals: decision-making, consequences, building strong friendships and confidence, to name a few," said Detective Kenneth Pelland, who runs the program for the Grosse Ile Police Department. "There are 10 lessons in the D.A.R.E. curriculum, however I expand the program by adding a high school role model lesson." Since the program was started on Grosse Ile, the drug surveys in the school have shown a significant drop in usage for those students that participated in D.A.R.E., according to Pelland. "This is evidence that the program works here," he said. "Plus, the D.A.R.E. instructor is able to build bonds with the students and school staff. D.A.R.E. is the most rewarding part of my job." Each student had to write a report about what he or she had learned in the program. During graduation ceremonies at the two elementary schools, a few of the students had the opportunity to read their essays. The following are the essays that were read during the ceremonies at both Meridian and Parke Lane elementary schools. Editor's note: Only one of the essays appeared in the paper. The rest are available at http://www.ilecamera.com/stories/021006/loc_20060210007.shtml My D.A.R.E. Report By Alexandra Santori, Meridian I learned in D.A.R.E. that trying drugs is bad for you and your body. If you try drugs, you will have side effects like feeling dizzy and out of control. You can also get hurt by trying tobacco, especially if you are under age, because your body is just developing. If somebody asks you to try drugs, they are not your friend, and you should just say no. D.A.R.E. taught me that inhalants, alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco all affect your body in different ways. All of these drugs can affect your brain, mouth, throat, lungs, heart and liver. The addiction you can develop will cause problems for not just you, but your friends and family too. I saw how smoking hurt my papa and the cancer he got from it. First they took out his voice box and he couldn't talk to me without covering the permanent hole left in his throat. Then the cancer spread to his lungs and they had to cut part of his lungs out. The cancer then spread through his body and he was in a lot of pain until he died just after Christmas. People that are addicted to drugs often spend all their money on drugs. You can't support yourself or family when you are addicted to these drugs. Often drugs lead to violence. People on drugs harm others because they are not thinking straight and also commit crimes to get more drug money to support their addiction. Jails are filled with people who were once good people that just messed up on drugs. They can spend a long time, if not their whole life, in prison because of their bad choice. I commit not to ever smoke or do drugs. My answer would be NO to anyone who asked me if I wanted a cigarette that costs too much money or a puff of a marijuana cigarette. I love myself and my family too much to give either up to drugs. I would like to have as healthy a life as possible. I chose not to have a habit of smoking, smell bad/have yellow teeth, or worse, die a painful death.