Her office is an afterthought at the end of a narrow hallway in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her desk is neat. Her eyes are bright. Her intelligence is pleasantly fierce. Ines Gandolfo is a university professor from Brazil. She has been here for almost a year Why? Because we practice harm reduction here. Ines said, "Harm reduction is also part of our health policy in Brazil. It's implemented in some places, and some places are doing a good job, but some people are afraid of this; there is prejudice against the practice." [continues 520 words]
People Will Give You a Lot of Reasons to Vote to Legalize Pot on November 6, but You're Not Going to Hear Much About the One That Matters Most I grew up near the edge of the Central District, and our house was at the top of a ridge, which served as a sort of racial dividing line. Houses on the eastern slope had spectacular views of the mountains and Lake Washington. They were expensive and their residents were all white. I can't recall a single black person who lived on that side of the hill. On the other side of the ridge, the houses' territorial views looked back into the gulch. With only scattered exceptions, those were all African American households. [continues 4294 words]
Citizens for Safe Schools makes the common mistake in its Oct. 21 commentary of assuming that marijuana prohibition actually deters use. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls distribution, marijuana consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. Marijuana prohibition is a gateway drug policy. [continues 81 words]
John Melvin "Pops" Walker Is Accused of Illegally Selling Pot Federal agents arrested 13 people on Thursday as part of a drug-trafficking investigation that targeted a chain of marijuana dispensaries and an Orange County man known as "Pops" who is accused of running it. The storefront dispensaries have distributed more than a ton of marijuana and generated tens of millions of dollars in income, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. Most shut down after raids in 2010 and 2011, but at least one Garden Grove Alternative Care remains open. [continues 668 words]
I am concerned about the growing push by some to legalize the use of marijuana in Washington. I imagine there is some merit to the arguments in favor of such legalization but it would appear that, unlike what we hear from the proponents, the apparent grave dangers outweigh them by far. The difference that seems apparent to me is that a person can have a drink and not be rendered under the influence. Whereas some people who have smoked (or shared for that matter) one "joint" will begin the well known, almost uncontrollable laughter over anything and everything whether real or imagined. [continues 412 words]
Strong case for new approach weakened by contrived link to director's life. "The House I Live In" is an ambitious documentary about the real object of the war on drugs, and the real results of it. Director Eugene Jarecki offers proof and expert testimony that traces the war to efforts to isolate an activity of America's counterculture, an effort that turned into wars against entire communities. Jarecki makes a pretty good case, because the evidence - that cocaine became a criminal justice obsession at a time of rising black ambitions in the U.S., that marijuana became demonized only with the rise of Latin culture in the U.S. - is there. [continues 282 words]
YCSO watches the road for likely suspects by gauging speed, behavior This article is the first in a three-part series. ON I-40 WEST OF ASH FORK - Yavapai County Sheriff's Deputy Randy Evers has parked his marked Chevy Tahoe in the freeway median and has a radar gun in hand. He spots car after car traveling well over the 75 mph speed limit, but he doesn't stop them. Evers is doing drug interdiction with his K-9 partner, Neo. [continues 522 words]
Local Parkinson's patients start to benefit from a new test using the party drug If you hear "cocaine" and think of junkies smoking crack in squalid apartments, or of downward-spiraling rock stars, this may come as a shocker. A cocaine-based drug is being used in doctors' offices around the world, including one large Pikes Peak area practice. And it's helping a lot of sick people. The drug's medical re-emergence has been a cautious one. (And it is a re-emergence, as cocaine was used as a painkiller and treatment option for everything from toothaches to wound-healing until around the turn of the 20th century.) This is no medical marijuana. Nor does the situation resemble that of the club drug ketamine, now seen as a promising treatment for depression. [continues 830 words]
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 criminal records. What's really needed is a regulated market with age controls as provided for by Amendment 64. Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. [continues 69 words]
When I see a police dog inside a train station or at a public gathering, I feel safer. I figure it is there to protect us from explosives, and if it sniffs out drugs along the way, well, that's against the law, too. But what if it turns out that the dogs aren't all that good at the job the police are giving them? If that's the case, should we think differently about when the police should use dogs to sniff us and our belongings, especially in the privacy of the home? [continues 604 words]
Reading the full text of Measure 80 reveals it is only a cleverly written deception to persuade voters to legalize marijuana in Oregon. Proposed Section 474.065 (3) states, "The cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal, noncommercial use by an adult shall not require a license nor registration." If adults wanting pot can grow their own for free, who will buy from the proposed "Oregon Cannabis Commission?" Further, although the measure would keep present "medical marijuana" laws, they would become meaningless, since now Oregonians could grow any personal amount of marijuana for any excuse at all? [continues 168 words]
Sarah tied her honey-blonde hair into a disheveled bun. She caught the blue and tan swirled glass pipe in her fragile hands and sharply, yet smoothly inhaled the smoke, as if it were instinct. Her face slightly ballooned; she held in the smoke for about five seconds and then let it out with a soft hiss. She let out a sigh, and then loosened the grip on the back of her neck the pain was leaving. Sarah is one of approximately 136,000 marijuana users in West Virginia, according to a 2009 report by DrugScience.org. Of the sampled population, 81,000 reported marijuana use in the past month. [continues 1168 words]
Cowlitz County's top law enforcement officers are speaking out against a measure on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana possession, saying the law would give children the wrong idea about drugs and open the door to legalizing methamphetamine and heroin use. "Don't be fooled, folks. There are people out there who will advocate the same arguments for cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and every other kind of drug that is out there," Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson writes in an open letter to the public that was also endorsed by Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha, Kelso Police Chief Andy Hamilton, Castle Rock Police Chief Bob Heuer, Kalama Police Chief Randy Gibson and Woodland Police Chief Rob Stephenson. [continues 1071 words]
I don't know what they've been smoking in Victoria... but I wish they'd roll some more and pass it around a bit more freely. Our very own outgoing MLA, Joan McIntyre, has, belatedly, come out in favour of legalizing British Columbia's unofficial herb, marijuana. Tempting as it may be to make a joke about deathbed conversions, I'll gladly take any support this common sense movement can garner. Funny though, why is it that when Joan was actively holding office her lips were sealed and the only thing she was inhaling was the stale air of Liberal doublespeak? [continues 1056 words]
Nobody chooses to become a drug addict. People succumb to dependency on prescription drugs for different reasons. It might start with a curiosity or a legitimate medical need. But eventually, the user may need the substance just to feel normal. Powerful pain medications used to be reserved for cancer patients and patients with terminal conditions. Over the past decade, many doctors have embraced opioids as effective, lucrative means of pain management. Most people are unaware that prescription drugs like OxyContin are closely related to heroin. They belong to the same narcotics family, and they are both opiates. The main difference is that one is made in a laboratory, and the other is grown, processed and smuggled into the country from global drug farmers who make a convenient scapegoat for the war on drugs. [continues 390 words]
Initiative 502 causes more harm than good. It promotes "legalization" of marijuana (cannabis). "Legalization" fosters a perception that cannabis is harmless and less risky. This will be associated with more people trying and using cannabis, both adults and teens. Marijuana is neither safe nor harmless. There are more than 400 compounds in the cannabis plant and 60 or more cannabinoids (the active substances in the marijuana plant). Only a few of these substances have been studied. Smoking marijuana produces harmful substances similar to those produced when tobacco is smoked. Smoking causes lung problems similar to tobacco. Cannabis causes a decrease in short-term memory, attention, learning, and concentration. This causes problems in school, at work and with driving. For some users, the psychological effects are even more troubling. Anxiety and paranoia can be crippling. Studies with schizophrenics have shown that cannabis use made their schizophrenia worse. [continues 995 words]
Police Arrest Nine in Bust that may have Gand Connections Buyers may have spent $ 1,000 a month on coke Nine people suspected in a major dial- a-dope operation in Kamloops are out on strict conditions awaiting charges in a police bust that RCMP say has gang connections. Wiretaps, surveillance and undercover officers from other detachments were involved in the eight-month investigation, Insp. Yves Lacasse said Thursday. Police laid out some of the take from the five search warrants they used in their arrests last week: 1.3 kilograms of cocaine, $ 142,000 in cash, body armour, a 9- mm Ruger handgun, a .30- 06 rifle, a .22 rifle, a .300- calibre rifle, three sawed-off shotguns, a cutting agent, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, a money-counting machine and a cocaine press. [continues 897 words]
At the recent Drug Summit of the Treasure Coast, the panel on understanding the scope of drug addiction was posed a question about legalization of marijuana. It appeared that the panelists were united in opposing that idea, some with great enthusiasm. Meanwhile, along our beaches, packages of marijuana were washing ashore. It's happened before. It will happen again. Supporting the continuation of prohibition is supporting a market where allegedly dangerous drugs are being handled in an unreliable, untraceable distribution system that runs the risk of having children stumble upon unknown substances, be it marijuana, cocaine or pharmaceuticals. This is a dangerous and irresponsible policy. Law-abiding adults should have the responsibility of production, manufacture and distribution to make it easier to keep our children safe. Ethel Rowland Fort Pierce [end]
WASHINGTON - Marijuana supporters told a federal appeals court panel Tuesday that government agencies have created a "self-fulfilling prophecy" by keeping cannabis illegal despite evidence that using it can be medically beneficial. Marijuana activists are seeking to "reschedule" marijuana as a drug suitable for medical use and thus remove it from Schedule I of the government's drug classification system, reserved for drugs with high abuse potential. The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services say marijuana has no medical use, is as dangerous as ecstasy and heroin, and has even more abuse potential than cocaine. [continues 229 words]
A Medical Marijuana Advocate Cites a 'Bias,' Saying the Benefits Are Ignored and the Dangers Exaggerated. WASHINGTON - A medical marijuana advocate urged a federal appeals court to require the U.S. government to relax, or at least rethink, a more-than-40year-old rule that treats marijuana as a highly dangerous drug with no medical value. Federal drug regulators "have failed to weigh the evidence" from a growing number of medical studies showing that marijuana is effective for relieving pain and nausea, said Joe Elford, counsel for Americans for Safe Access. [continues 447 words]
