Vancouver's gang problem, having reached crisis proportions, could be the Harper government's ticket to ride in the Lower Mainland. Conservatives have acknowledged that they've had only mixed success in finding a way to British Columbians' hearts. Conservative backroomer and long-time Stephen Harper helpmate Tom Flanagan expressed frustration in his latest book, Harper's Team: Behind the Scenes in the Conservative Rise to Power. "What works well in one region of B.C. will not necessarily work in another," the Calgary political scientist wrote. "We may have to get more, and more highly placed, strategists from B.C. to help us run a more effective provincial campaign." [continues 620 words]
For well over 30 years, the government has waged a "War on Drugs." By nearly all accounts, this war, much like the utopian "War on Poverty," has been an abject failure. The stated goals of the federal government's drug policy - reducing crime, drug addiction, and juvenile drug use - have not been achieved. In many instances, the aggressive prosecution of the "war" has inflamed the problem rather than solved it. At the very least, the federal government's policy has been an invasion of the constitutional rights of Americans. [continues 617 words]
Brevard Should Use K-9 Dogs For Drug Hunting The passive dismissal of school security among those tasked to educate our children continues to baffle me. It astounds me that in today's climate of violence, with very real threats to our way of life, that our security needs are not met with more vigilance. Take the case of Central Middle School in West Melbourne, which had six bomb threats in one month. In the first five incidents, the school was evacuated and building searched by a trained bomb-sniffing dog. But the sixth time school administrators, who did not want further "disruptions," chose not to allow law enforcement officers to search the school. [continues 408 words]
$2.25-Million Research Project Hopes To Blend Plant Fibres With Plastics For centuries, humans have found practical uses for hemp, weaving it into items such as rope and clothing. Now the Alberta Research Council wants to tighten those bonds by determining more cutting-edge uses for this versatile plant. A new two-year, $2.25-million project hopes to find ways to blend Albertagrown hemp fibres with locally produced plastics to create more sustainable materials. The research council is well placed to do this work because it has spent the last decade working on biofibres and bioindustrial products, said John Wolodko, the council's biocomposite program leader. [continues 350 words]
Pot Activists Hail Ruling OTTAWA -- Marijuana activists are hailing a recent court ruling as the beginning of the end of Canada's prohibition on pot, but the Crown dismisses the decision as non-binding. A trial judge in Oshawa, Ont., threw out charges of simple possession of marijuana against three young men on Oct. 19, relying on a previous court ruling that found Canada's pot law unconstitutional. In making his decision, Judge Norman Edmondson cited a decision last July by a fellow judge of the Ontario Court of Justice. [continues 241 words]
Parents of doped-out students at Hope Secondary School say they'll use "vigilante justice" to combat drug dealers. They intend to post lists including those convicted of trafficking as well as defence lawyers and judges. Great idea! But as long as they're passing out blame, why not add the names of their doped-out children as well as their own names to the list for not having instilled proper values in their kids? It's so easy to hand out blame to others. But for some reason, parents rarely find any fault in their own delinquent children -- or themselves. David Valinho Vancouver [end]
I'm no stranger to the drug war. I know that police officers want to do the right thing, want to put drug dealers out of business, and they look forward to the day when the dealers are gone and the cartels eliminated. And that is why the Interagency raid in Refugio (Victoria Advocate, Nov 5) with 28 arrests was celebrated by local law enforcement. Law Enforcement is a brotherhood and cooperation, and getting the job done always feels good. My experience tells me that we will never see the end of the dealers and cartels by fighting the drug war the way we have been. Drugs are in every town in the nation: lots of drugs, lots of different kinds of drugs. [continues 617 words]
When parents pay for students to go to school, whether by paying taxes for public school or tuition for private school, they trust that their children will be kept out of harm's way. This responsibility is certainly taken seriously by state educators. However, an educator cannot perform this responsibility to its fullest if students are allowed to bring, and essentially "hide," whatever they want in their lockers. Yes, each individual has a right to privacy, but when students enter school grounds, whether it is public or private, they make a silent agreement that the purpose of coming to school is to learn. Once a student breaks that agreement, the responsibility lies with educators to ensure that the safety of all students is not compromised by one person's actions. This is only possible if educators have access to school property, including student lockers. [continues 106 words]
Ed. note: This is the fourth instalment of a five-part series tracing a tale of drug addiction and rehabilitation in recognition of National Drug Awareness Week (Nov. 18-24). Addiction treatment goes on behind closed doors and becomes a cocoon for addicts to become wrapped up in affirmations, 12 steps, and of course, their demons. "It's the most difficult thing you'll ever do," says Dale Gordon, director of treatment for the territory's Alcohol and Drug Services unit, and a recovering addict himself. [continues 884 words]
How Richard Paey's Pain Landed Him in Jail, Made Him Famous -- And Set Him Free At about 5 in the morning on Friday, Sept. 21, Richard Paey awoke foggy from a long night of deep sleep and instinctively reached for his locker to grab his glasses. Instead, he felt -- what, a lamp? The wood of a bedside table? He noticed his bed. Soft. His wife Linda lay next to him. It was true. The day before, he had been a prisoner, confined to a stark cell in Tomoka Correctional Institute near Daytona Beach, more than three years into a 25-year sentence for drug trafficking. [continues 4003 words]
In 2000, Afghanistan's production of the global opium/heroin supply was 70 percent. In 2005, it was 87 percent; in 2006, 92 percent. This steady increase in annual poppy harvests has occurred despite the country's occupation by U.S. military and coalition forces since 2001. In fact, these harvests can be seen as a direct result of U.S. intelligence agencies overseeing the distribution routes for this very lucrative crop. For examples of complicity, read "Who Benefits from the Afghan Opium Trade?" by Michel Chossudovsky, Gary Webb's book Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion and Deep Cover by Mike Levine. [continues 153 words]
IT'S not often that gang warfare makes its way into the legislature as the main topic of debate, but that's exactly what happened this month as the Lower Mainland seemed to morph into something out of The Untouchables. Gangland shootings -- almost a dozen deaths in recent weeks -- have dominated the headlines and newscasts, and politicians on both sides of the house found themselves grappling with an issue usually far from their bailiwick. There was a lot of talk about amalgamating police forces in the Lower Mainland into a cohesive regional force, the need for tougher sentences for gang members and frustration about immigration polices that allow some convicted gang leaders to avoid deportation. [continues 590 words]
Prison should be reserved for those who pose a To relieve prison overcrowding, save state taxpayers money and preserve families, South Carolina should limit the use of its prisons to housing truly dangerous or habitual criminals. The state's corrections facilities are crowded with drug offenders and other nonviolent criminals. This needlessly destroys families and wastes the resources of the state. Attorney General Henry McMaster says he has a plan to address the problem. While much of the public attention to his proposal has focused on his plan to abolish parole, his design includes alternatives to prison for many offenses. [continues 350 words]
A Peel Regional Police officer arrested in 2005 over allegations he was attempting to traffic cocaine is in court this week for a preliminary hearing. Const. Sheldon Cook, 39, who works out of 12 Division (east Mississauga), is scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday as his hearing continues. Proceedings, which began this past week, will determine if the Crown has enough evidence to warrant a trial. Evidence given during the preliminary hearing is under a publication ban. Cook is charged with possession of marijuana for the purpose of trafficking, along with attempt to possess a controlled substance for the purpose of trafficking. [continues 167 words]
Illegal Crops Drying Up Across Region, State Severe drought has baked the state, leaving crops withered and the water supply dangerously low, but law enforcement officials say the extreme weather isn't all bad. It's dampened the production of marijuana. Through October of this year, drug agents have seized 16,139 plants, compared to the 92,614 plants found during the same period in 2006, due at least in part to the drought, said Noelle Talley, a spokesperson for the N.C. Department of Justice. [continues 408 words]
Re: "Legalize drugs" (letters, Oct. 7). The letter writer was right on target. Let me add some fuel. Allowing pharmaceutical companies to manufacture drugs would be safer, cheaper and save lives. Legal drugs would eliminate the need to commit crimes to acquire drug money, create thousands of new jobs and raise millions in new tax revenue. The crime rate would drop, creating jail capacity for real criminals. Police would have more time to pursue real criminals and drug lords who addict our children to drugs would be gone. [continues 53 words]
NANAIMO (CNS) - RCMP say they are seeing a number of very active, independent crime groups moving large amounts of drugs between Nanaimo and the U.S. Cpl. Kirby Anderson, head of the Nanaimo RCMP's criminal-intelligence team, said this is in addition to known outlaw motorcycle gangs and Asian gang activity. "A lot of these independents are guys who've flown under the radar for years," Anderson said. But he said the "independents" do, from time to time, work with established crime groups, such as the Hells Angels. Anderson said these groups have contacts and resources that independent crime operators may not have to make international drug deals happen. [continues 85 words]
Federal Grant AIDS Sheriff's Office In Attacking The Scourge Of Meth That's Destroying Space Coast Families It's called the "poor man's cocaine" and it's destroying lives and families across the nation, including a rising number along the Space Coast. It's methamphetamine, or meth, and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office has rightly made busting the homemade labs where it's cooked a top priority. Determined to stay on the offensive, deputies have something new in their arsenal: [continues 274 words]
Hallelujah to Simon Fraser economist Stephen Easton for his opinion about marijuana. I found it amusing when a new task force recently was created to address the gang-war problem arising locally. How we love to create simplistic "might" will create right solutions and policies similar to America's war on drugs. Today's issues related to underground marijuana production are strikingly similar to the Prohibition era. Unlike alcohol, however, should cannabis be legalized, it will not lead to increased levels of violence, domestic abuse, and accelerated levels of incarceration. [continues 96 words]
Joe Novak says today's teens are bold, bright risk-takers, and policies that used to steer kids away from drugs and alcohol just don't work anymore. So the Mill Valley High School principal supports a De Soto School District proposal that could bring random drug testing to the Johnson County district. If the policy is adopted, De Soto would join school districts in Oak Grove in Missouri and El Dorado near Wichita, among others, in conducting random drug tests of students who participate in extracurricular activities. [continues 740 words]
Crystal methamphetamine (meth) addiction is so powerful, chronic users will attempt to render their own urine to re-ingest the superdrug, said a pair of leading meth antagonists at a public forum in Prince George, on the cusp of National Addictions Awareness Week. "They even smoke their scabs," said Marilyn Erickson who, with Mark McLaughlin, represented the B.C. Crystal Meth Society at an all-day series of meth education seminars on Thursday, kicking off the awareness campaign running all this week across Canada. [continues 918 words]
Re: Legalize pot, a key drug fuelling gang wars, Ian Mulgrew, Nov. 12 It is disappointing to see Ian Mulgrew promoting the legalization of pot and I hope it never happens. I live in multi-unit housing where I am surrounded by neighbours who smoke tobacco and marijuana on a daily basis. The smell is disgusting and nauseating. More importantly, the resulting exposure to second-hand smoke from these substances is downright dangerous. Even though I never smoked, I developed lung disease from my neighbours' secondhand smoke. [continues 76 words]
USA -- A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe. The California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Unlike cannabis, CBD does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports. The authors stressed that they were not suggesting patients smoke marijuana They added that it would be highly unlikely that effective concentrations of CBD could be reached by smoking cannabis. [continues 285 words]
Mayor-Elect Cites Abuse of Medical Marijuana Use Elsewhere The people have spoken, but mayor-elect Rick Davis thinks the passage earlier this month of marijuana reform initiatives will harm the city of Hailey. "We definitely got national attention, but is that the kind of attention that is going to draw new business here? I don't think so," said Davis, a 16-year City Council veteran elected Hailey's mayor on Nov. 6. Hailey voters approved three marijuana reform initiatives on election day: one to legalize medical use of marijuana, another to legalize industrial use of hemp and a third that would make enforcement of marijuana laws the city's lowest police priority. [continues 277 words]
GREENSBORO -- After admitting to only some of the behavior that led to what his own legal team called a "long fall from grace," fired Durham County sheriff's deputy Michael Paul Owens was sentenced to 21 months in prison Wednesday. The sentence was handed down in U.S. Middle District Court in Greensboro by Judge N. Carlton Tilley, who found that Owens had abused his position in law enforcement and abused the public's trust when he used his county-issued, in-car computer to look up addresses of individuals that his accomplices intended to rob. [continues 707 words]
OTTAWA - Marijuana activists are hailing a recent court ruling as the beginning of the end of Canada's prohibition on pot, but the Crown dismisses the decision as non-binding. A trial judge in Oshawa, Ont., threw out charges of simple possession of marijuana against three young men on Oct. 19, relying on a previous court ruling that found Canada's pot law unconstitutional. In making his decision, Justice Norman Edmondson cited a decision last July by a fellow judge of the Ontario Court of Justice. [continues 219 words]
Enforcing the law on Class A drugs such as heroin and crack cocaine has become a low priority for police as they concentrate on trying to achieve government targets. Known addicts are seldom searched when officers spot them in the street, even though it is a serious offence and many addicts are involved in petty crime to fund their habits, according to a study funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. It found target-setting and a move towards visible street patrols had lessened the focus on problem drug use. [continues 56 words]
I do not want our children tested for drugs. All three have participated in science clubs, honor activities, scholars bowls, math and sports teams, and more. Often it is the children who are doing the right thing who end up getting punished for the few. I spent almost 28 years in the Army having to undergo numerous random drug tests, no matter that all the previous ones had come back negative. They only made me annoyed and resentful. No matter how it is done, drug testing is invasive, degrading, discriminating, and, although slim, there's always a chance of a false positive whose stigma will remain. In a school district crying for money and asking for fees and dues and doing an untold number of fundraisers for the same students it is targeting, it would be a waste of money that could be used better elsewhere. [continues 131 words]
New Police Commissioner Questions Policies on Drugs, Arrests The City Council is to vote tonight to approve Frederick H. Bealefeld III as Baltimore's 36th police commissioner since 1850, and the first under the administration of Mayor Sheila Dixon. The 45-year-old began his law enforcement career a quarter-century ago in Baltimore and has worked under 10 commissioners. With Baltimore on the verge of recording 300 homicides in a year for the first time since 1999, Bealefeld faces a daunting challenge. Violent crime, drugs, gangs and witness intimidation threaten to undermine recent improvements in public safety that have sparked a resurgence in many neighborhoods. [continues 1055 words]
Seattle journalist Silja Talvi reveals the living nightmares of the female inmates who are filling U.S. prisons in ever greater numbers. Journalist Silja Talvi has written extensively on race, gender, and poverty for more than a decade, with a focus on the War on Drugs and the growth of the U.S. prison system. Her first book, Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the U.S. Prison System, documents the sharp increase in the number of women in prison and how the penal system has dismally failed to adapt to their needs. She will be reading from her book at the Elliott Bay Book Company on Sat., Nov. 17, at 2 p.m. [continues 2065 words]
A properly obtained and executed search warrant can crack even the toughest of cases, police say. When a police officer has a strong belief physical evidence can be found at a certain location, the officer fills out a search warrant and presents it to a judge for approval, said Randy Nordstrom, a detective with Jacksonville Police Department. He and Capt. Gary Dixon detailed a home invasion where detectives had found the firearm used in the robbery. They discovered a tiny drop of blood in the handgrip of the pistol. [continues 1355 words]
D.C. Group Helps Win Relaxed Penalties Julie Stewart was sitting at her desk at a think tank in the District 17 years ago when her telephone rang. It was her brother calling to say he had been busted for growing marijuana. "How stupid," she recalled thinking. She figured he would get off with a relatively light punishment -- perhaps a little jail time, maybe probation. After all, she reasoned, he had no record. And it was "only" marijuana. Instead, for cultivating 365 six-inch marijuana plants, Stewart's brother received five years in federal prison, a sentence Stewart considered harsh. [continues 1019 words]
The proposed free-trade agreement with Colombia has stalled in Congress. The success and stability of Colombia and the Pan-American region depend on our ability to recognize the importance of this agreement to the United States, to Colombia's economy, to human rights progress and to enhanced U.S. national security. This fall I spent several days in Colombia, meeting with President Alvaro Uribe and other high-ranking officials in the government and military. I visited refugee camps, economic development zones and counter-drug operations. The Colombia I recently visited is drastically different from the place I visited seven years ago when I served as the U.S. national drug czar. [continues 674 words]
Justice is supposed to be blind, especially colorblind. But legal and civil rights advocates have agreed that hasn't been the case in sentencing crack cocaine offenders. Usually they have been black, and usually they have received harsher penalties than middle-class white offenders convicted in powdered cocaine cases. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, an agency of the federal judicial branch, is finally moving to correct this inequity. For years, groups have lobbied for parity in sentencing for crack and powdered cocaine offenders. Crack cocaine is potentially more addictive, but its chemical properties are the same as powdered cocaine. Last spring the commission set more lenient sentencing guidelines to be issued to crack cocaine offenders in the future. Now it is weighing retroactively reducing sentences of crack inmates in federal prisons. [continues 159 words]
Tift County School System administrators should think carefully before implementing a proposed random drug testing program for some students in grades seven through 12. The school officials' desire to prevent drug abuse is understandable, especially since gang activity seems to be more prevalent in the schools today. But why test only athletes and students involved in extracurricular activities? Wouldn't kids involved in sports and extracurricular activities be less likely to use drugs than those who goof around after school doing nothing? [continues 127 words]
Users Often Hurt Many Morethan Themselves Usually, people have connotations about Catholic high schools that generally fall somewhere between nuns with rulers and skirts with knee-highs. These assumptions have a nasty habit of separating students in these schools from those in public or other private institutions. And yet, Catholic high school students suffer the same temptations and pitfalls as any other student. Our schools just get to use religion as a way to explain the moral consequences of our actions. [continues 291 words]
'Heroin is killing our kids." This has been the headline on the South Shore and in the Northeast for too long! Opiates are the leading drug problem in the Northeast and it is the only region in the country where this is so. Providing Narcan to an addict is a tool, it is an emergency measure to treat an overdose for themselves or someone else. No addict wants to be given Narcan. Working in the field of addiction at Boston Medical Center, I have yet to see a person who was still responsive hear the word "Narcan" uttered and not try to flee the situation. When Narcan is administered, it displaces the opiate from the receptor in the brain, making the person physically ill, and reverses the respiratory depression that causes the overdose. [continues 653 words]
Interior and Narcotics Control Minister Lt Gen (r) Hamid Nawaz Khan directed the Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) Monday to launch a vigorous campaign against narcotics and drug peddlers to achieve drug-free status for Pakistan this year. Presiding over a high-level meeting of the Narcotics Control Ministry, he said that all possible measures would be adopted to curb this menace. Earlier, Narcotics Control Secretary Jalil Abbas briefed the minister about ongoing projects of the ministry. ANF Regional Director Brig Pervaiz Sarwar told the minister that all-out efforts would be made to rid the country of the scourge of narcotics. [continues 257 words]
Although the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Salinas is a foregone conclusion, if last week's debate on the topic is any indication, the City Council is in for another lively discussion. For the sixth time this year, the council will debate the pros and cons of allowing medical pot shops to be set up in the city, an issue that's strongly opposed by three council members and Mayor Dennis Donohue, and has been consistently backed by the rest of the council. [continues 247 words]
In almost every neighbourhood, there is a marijuana grow op. In almost every community, there is a meth lab. And when police raid these operations, high-powered guns are usually part of the seizure. While police may do their part, the justice system doesn't do its part as most raids and seizures take place without consequences to the perpetrators, said federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who was in B.C. last week to talk about the Conservative government's proposed 'Tackling Violent Crime Act.' [continues 478 words]
SURREY A teenage boy in Surrey has become the latest bystander to fall victim to a drug-fuelled shooting in Metro Vancouver. He was hit in the lower back by a single bullet Saturday, but was not seriously injured. RCMP Sgt. Roger Morrow said in a news release that the boy was struck as he and a friend walked near what police termed a well-known " crack shack" in Whalley just as shots rang out after midnight Saturday. The shots were apparently aimed at a 33- year-old man, " known to police," who had just arrived in a taxi. The man was hit numerous times and was in hospital in critical condition. Morrow said the man is expected to survive and said police believe the shooting is drug- related. [continues 132 words]
Re Jim Shultz's Nov. 8 letter Evo Morales negotiated: The letter was a response to Roger Noriega's Nov. 5 Other Views article, No crime, no punishment, on Bolivia. The letter writer says that Bolivian president Evo Morales' first act after losing the elections in 2002 was not to encourage "violent protests but to sit down with the new president for cordial negotiations over the complex coca issue." This was not the case. As Noriega correctly stated, Morales rose to power after conducting a mob-style movement to topple a democratically elected government using terror tactics. [continues 193 words]
One must marvel at the unlimited capacity of the human race not to learn from the past. Take wars, for example. No war has in the long run achieved anything. Millions of people have died unnecessarily, mostly at the a whim of the regent, president, paramount chief, prime minister or reichs-chancellor. Another case in point relates to what one could call "synthetic" political systems, such as communism. While attractive in theory, it gets mangled by imperfect humans such as Lenin, Stalin or Chaiman Mao and their personal agendas. Mostly such systems have been discredited. [continues 529 words]
To the Daily: I'm writing about Mike Eber's column earlier this week about subtle racism in our society (Is that just the way it is?, 11/12/2007). It's obvious that the so-called war on drugs is actually a war on certain people - politically-selected people, who happen to be black people. Where is the outrage for these unfair drug laws? Where is the outrage from the black community? Where is outrage from black leaders? Where is the outrage from America? Where is the outrage from the rest of the world? The whips and chains of slavery have been replaced with prison cages. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
What do the immune system and marijuana and have in common? Lots, according to senior biology major Alex Cohen. Working in an independent study with Associate Professor of Chemistry David Hall, Cohen is currently researching the relationship between the immune system and a particular class of chemicals found in marijuana. The marijuana chemicals Cohen focuses on are called cannabinoids. Interestingly, Cannabinoids also apparently occur naturally in the human body. Cohen's research pertains to the way the immune system responds to these cannabinoids. [continues 389 words]
Dan Rather, the former CBS news anchor, recently finished a whirlwind tour of Canada's poorest postal code to report on the dark side of our urban paradise. The legendary broadcaster got an eyeful of street life on the Downtown Eastside, which, as most visitors there know, comes complete with strewn garbage and overflowing dumpsters. Not that Rather needed to head to the corner of Main and Hastings to witness the grungy side of the city. Throughout the downtown area, back alleys have become this city's unofficial dumping ground. [continues 393 words]
A drug treatment court for addicts will continue operating for at least one more year after city council approved spending $250,000 in 2008. The court, which has been running as a pilot project in the Salvation Army Centre of Hope, allows judges to send drug addicts who commit non-violent crimes for rehabilitative treatment instead of jail. "It makes sense," said Mayor Dave Bronconnier, who, along with Ald. Druh Farrell, brought forward the request during budget talks Monday. "We are looking at people who have chronic dependencies on the street that are costing the city -- the taxpayer -- in some cases $150,000 to $200,000 for one person." [continues 217 words]
ALBANY -- For decades, addiction-treatment programs have focused on drug and alcohol abuse and shrugged at patients' near-universal use of tobacco. But faced with growing awareness of the power of nicotine addiction and that smoking kills more people than all other addictive drugs combined, New York officials have decided the state can no longer afford to ignore smoking. "The entire field has struggled with the really incorrect notion that treating nicotine addiction would be really a hardship on the chemically addicted," said Karen Carpenter-Palumbo, commissioner of the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. [continues 760 words]
Marijuana Commission Major Step In TJ Award Winner's Career In 1969, Richard J. Bonnie was teaching at UVA's School of Law, from which he had just graduated, when he read about a case in Roanoke that involved a sentence of 20 years in jail for possession of a small amount of marijuana. It was the height of the counterculture wars, and similar events were playing out around the country. White Panther John Sinclair, for instance, was sentenced to a decade in prison that same year for possession of two joints and became an icon when John Lennon named a song after him, demanding, "They gave him 10 for two, what else could the bastards do?" [continues 654 words]
Federal Campaign Drives Growers Indoors No doubt without intending to, a U.S. Justice Department report on the ambitious federal marijuana plant eradication program (called Campaign Against Marijuana Planting or CAMP in California), documents that the campaign has not only failed to make much of a dent in the marijuana marketplace, it has had the perverse effect of driving producers to indoor sites, notably to suburban homes. In other words, if one of your neighbors (probably in a rented house) has converted the place to an indoor marijuana plantation, guarded by somewhat unsavory-looking characters who look as if they might be packing heat and attracting a number of disreputable-looking hangers-on, you can thank the state and federal governments. Your tax dollars at work. [continues 181 words]
