I would like to say that I urge everyone to support Bill H577 (Medical Cannabis Act). I support it because I suffer from severe pain 24-7, and I know people who would benefit from it being passed - -- cancer survivors, leukemia patients -- there are all kinds would benefit greatly. North Carolina is behind the times. Not only do I know people who would benefit greatly from H577, but the revenue it would produce for the state would be tremendous. It would also alleviate the always stressed court and jail systems and would take a lot of work off of the police officers and let them be able to work on the real problems - -- the methamphetamine and crack problems. [continues 83 words]
Lequian Hudson was a freshman at Dunbar High School when he was slipped his first baggie of marijuana. In four years, his habit progressed to ecstasy and cocaine. But Hudson, now 18 and a senior, said pride kept him from quitting the drugs he sold and used, which eventually landed him in juvenile jail on weapons and drug possession charges. "I wanted to show off," Hudson said. "I saw a lot of other people get involved and I wanted to do it too." [continues 961 words]
One lesson America is reluctant to learn: Wars are easer to declare than to win. Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya elude the kind of total victory our country achieved in World War II. And we have other declared wars that command national resources even though finding a strategy for a decisive victory has been elusive. War on poverty. War on cancer. War on crime. War on terror. These wars confound us because we can find no way to total victory. [continues 594 words]
Steve Winthrop says several years ago he was a "doped-up, drooling zombie. The Wilmington resident was taking large doses of Oxycontin to ease discomfort from a spine injury first caused by a car accident and exacerbated by an injury suffered as a paramedic in New York. Winthrop said he became addicted to the drugs, but with the help of his girlfriend, got off them. Now, he said, he uses marijuana to deal with his pain and it has helped him become more active, without the side effects. [continues 631 words]
The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. With less than 5 percent of the world's population, we have almost a quarter of the world's prisoners. Experts point to several factors for explanation, but it's clear that a large number of people are imprisoned for drug-related crimes. Officially declared the "War on Drugs" by President Richard Nixon in 1971, this has become the longest and most costly war in American history. The question has become, how much more can we tolerate? America's drug war has failed to curb demand and I suspect we will never become a drug-free society. [continues 707 words]
ASHEVILLE - A favorite food of millions may have been the culprit in false drug-test results that led to a California man's jailing on cocaine charges. The Buncombe County Sheriff's Office said Friday an enzyme present in cheese and possibly some types of dough appeared to have yielded false results that led to cocaine charges against Antonio Hernandez Carranza. Hernandez spent four days in the Buncombe County jail until state lab results showed the substances in the back of his truck were tortilla dough, cheese and other food. [continues 676 words]
Perry Parks Says His Push for a New Law Is About Helping Ease Pain Of N.C. Veterans. RALEIGH Perry Parks, a 68-year-old former Vietnam helicopter pilot, is relentless in his campaign to convince the N.C. legislature to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. He doesn't just walk the halls of the legislature, often attired in his old National Guard uniform. To publicize his cause, he agreed to be photographed smoking a bong - a picture seen on national television and in newspapers as far as way as Japan. [continues 851 words]
RALEIGH -- Perry Parks, a 68-year-old former Vietnam helicopter pilot, is relentless in his campaign to persuade North Carolina's legislature to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes. He doesn't just walk the halls of the legislature, often attired in his old National Guard uniform. To publicize his cause, he agreed to be photographed smoking a bong - a picture seen on national television and in newspapers as far as way as Japan. "I call it the hit heard around the world," Parks quips. "It's all over the Internet." [continues 764 words]
There is, tragically, a long line of drugs in the United States, and in North Carolina, in the competition to be the most dangerous. Methamphetamine, called a psychostimulant or "upper" because it can produce a feeling of alertness and even euphoria, is certainly in the running, and not just because of the consequences of addiction but also because of the hazards in the amateur "labs" that produce it. The compounds used to make meth can, if not cleaned up by professionals in hazmat suits who know what they're doing, result in explosions and fires. Innocent bystanders at meth lab sites have been burned and injured by the dangers the lab operators left behind. [continues 332 words]
A recent upswing in methamphetamine-lab activity means law-enforcement officers will have to work all the harder to keep up the progress they've made against the drug in recent years. State legislators should help by tightening the law on meth labs. Rep. Craig Horn, a Republican from Union County, told the Journal this week that a bipartisan group of legislators is working with law enforcement on legislation to battle portable labs, and they hope to soon get it passed. [continues 198 words]
WASHINGTON -- Even as the numbers of small-time meth labs are increasing across the United States, federal funding to clean up the toxic sites has dwindled to almost nothing, and next year's presidential budget proposal cuts the program entirely. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration notified counties and states Feb. 22 that it could no longer pick up the tab to clean up the dangerous chemicals found in methamphetamine labs. The loss of federal dollars has law-enforcement agencies in North Carolina and elsewhere nervous as they scramble to make up for the shortfall amid an ongoing problem. [continues 777 words]
The wheels of justice grind slowly but exceedingly fine. Last week in Asheville, those wheels ground to halt. We trust justice to be served with all officials of the court and law enforcement doing their jobs, and with no one cutting corners. It's not just the job of the police to catch the bad guys. When prosecutors or defense attorneys can't trust police to protect the evidence that could convict or clear defendants at trial, then our whole system of justice is compromised. [continues 683 words]
Three Investigated Over Missing Items ASHEVILLE - The Police Department will use $175,000 in drug seizure money to pay for an audit of its evidence room after guns, drugs and money disappeared, city officials said Wednesday. Three people are under investigation, and two of them, police employees assigned to the evidence room, have been suspended with pay after nearly 400 oxycodone prescription painkillers were found missing April 1, District Attorney Ron Moore said. "Anybody who had access to it has to be investigated," he said. [continues 492 words]
The N.C. House of Representatives will once again take up the issue of medical cannabis in the coming months, with seven representatives signing onto a bill described as "having some merit" by this district's representative. North Carolina Cannabis Patients' Network President Perry Parks, of Rockingham, lauded the introduction of House Bill 577 last week, and pointed to efforts to make medicinal marijuana available in this state, the home of Fort Bragg and other large scale military installations, is a key effort to help veterans recovering from wounds they received, especially in combat. [continues 901 words]
RALEIGH -- A local state lawmaker introduced a bill this week that would make it legal to grow and use marijuana for medical purposes. Rep. Patsy Keever, D-Buncombe, is one of three primary sponsors of the North Carolina Medical Cannabis Act filed on Thursday. The legislation would allow patients with debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana to alleviate their symptoms. It would set up a system for operating medical cannabis centers and growing marijuana for medical use. Keever said marijuana has proved to be a good, affordable pain reliever for people who suffer from chronic illnesses or are undergoing cancer treatments. She said the state could also make money from growing it. [continues 310 words]
Editor: Jackie Heninger is misinformed (letter: "Don't legalize marijuana," Feb. 10). According to science, cannabis (marijuana) does not kill brain cells. The murders at the Mexican/American border are not due to cannabis but rather cannabis prohibition, the same way the original prohibition with alcohol caused high murder rates, which diminished for 10 years after its repeal. Cannabis does not damage lungs more than cigarettes or cause cancer. In over 5,000 years of documented use, there still is not one single dead body to show cannabis has ever caused cancer while cigarettes kill over 1,000 Americans daily. Cannabis prohibition and extermination is luciferous and based on lies, half-truths and propaganda. Heninger is simply parroting prohibitionist government "Reefer Madness" lies. And speaking of hell, that may be where people go who support caging responsible humans for using what God says is good on literally the very first page of the Bible. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
Editor: Letter writer Jackie Heninger piously says about marijuana prisoners, "Don't do the crime if you can't do the time." However, like all other drug crusaders Ms. Heninger neglects to supply any reasons why marijuana should be illegal in the first place. She provides no justification for the 20-year to life sentences given to marijuana growers and sellers. Heninger's health accusations are entirely false because marijuana use does not cause brain damage or injure the body in any way. Marijuana does not cause lung cancer because to date the Centers for Disease Control have yet to trace the first case of cancer of any kind to marijuana use. (See: "Large Study Finds No Link between Marijuana and Lung Cancer," www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0002491F-755F-1473-B55F83414B7F0000, and "Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection," www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/25/AR2006052501729_pf.html [continues 345 words]
Editor: I had to reply to Marvin Callahan's letter on legalizing marijuana. I will admit I am a straight-laced prude. I don't drink, smoke or do drugs nor have I ever understood some people's need for such things. North Carolina is not California nor should we strive to be. California is morally corrupt and financially bankrupt. It is on the edge of a cliff and doesn't have the moral backbone to back away. Mexico is a prime example of the true nature of the drug culture and the criminals behind it. Don't you read about the murders and how horrible it is on our border because of these drug lords? Do you really want the state to be a drug pusher? [continues 393 words]
Editor: My grandson was in the car with someone who had marijuana in his possession. The man admitted to the officers and in court that my grandson had nothing to do with it, but he was charged and convicted anyway, placed on probation and given fines over $3,000. There was no way he could pay, so now he's in jail. I sat in his probation office, and everyone was there for drug offences. One did 10 years in jail and a lady eight years. The only way they could pay their fines was to sell more drugs or steal. Probationers must pay to see their probation officer and even pay a fee to do community service. If you lose your case, you pay both the court-appointed lawyer's fee and court costs (his court costs alone were over $800). If found not guilty, he owed nothing, so where then is there an incentive for his lawyer to defend him? That lawyer would lose his fee defending him, wouldn't he? [continues 257 words]
DAVIDSON COUNTY - Under a proposal reviewed by the Davidson County Board of Commissioners this week, approximately 200 of the county's employees could be subject to random drug testing. Commissioners on Tuesday will consider updates to the county's substance abuse policy. The biggest change is random drug testing for employees who have safety sensitive positions, said Jim Tysinger, the county's human resources director. Tysinger said the updates to the policy are needed because it was written in 1996. Since that time, the U.S. Department of Transportation has mandated random testing for drivers within the county's transportation department. "We don't have a major problem that we are aware of," Tysinger said. "We haven't did the random testing of safety sensitive positions in the past other than the drivers, but this will enhance our random testing pool by about 200 employees." [continues 194 words]
Inside North Carolina
