Medical Marijuana Advocate Ends Fight to Keep Practicing

A local nurse and medicinal marijuana advocate fired by Samaritan Health Services for refusing to take a drug test has surrendered his nursing license rather than stop using pot.

Under an agreement with the Oregon State Board of Nursing that took effect Nov. 8, it will be three years before Ed Glick can apply to have his license reinstated.

Illegal drug use violates the state law that governs nursing and is grounds for disciplinary action. In interviews with nursing board staff, Glick acknowledged that he "self-medicated with cannabis" and agreed to relinquish his license after more than 20 years as a nurse.

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Gender-Specific Programs Teach Stayton Athletes About The Dangers Of Drugs Used To Enhance Performance

Huddled in a Stayton High School locker room that smelled of wet grass and sweaty gear, five football players put their heads together to hatch a skit.

The theme: Steroids not only can inflict damage on your body, they also can cost you money.

It was an evening assignment, following classes, practice and weight lifting for this band of Eagles' football players: Robert Julio, Luke Loberg, Casey Pruett, Derek Hayes and Jeremy Ziebert.

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Regarding Marcela Sanchez's Nov. 10 column, U.S. aid to Colombia could very well spread both coca production and civil war throughout South America. Communist guerrilla movements do not originate in a vacuum. U.S. tax dollars would be better spent addressing the socioeconomic causes of civil strife in Colombia rather than applying overwhelming military force to attack the symptoms.

We're not doing the Colombian people any favors by funding civil war. Nor are Americans being protected from drugs.

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Police found a sophisticated marijuana growing operation inside the north Eugene home of the victim of a violent invasion-style robbery, as well as in the home of his neighbors, whose refusal to disarm when officers arrived to investigate prompted police to fire at them, according to documents filed in Lane County Circuit Court.

Police found hidden grow rooms in the garages of both houses on Willona Drive, according to a search warrant affidavit filed by police.

Inside the neighbors' house, officers discovered about 385 marijuana plants, as well as a bag of ecstacy tablets and a bottle of what appeared to be the potent hallucinogen LSD.

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I've just read the Keizertimes article, "Bust of Local Couple"

It is important to note that doctors have faced threats from the feds if they recommend cannabis to patients. And while a few doctors may have written many recommendations for cannabis there are 2,000 doctors total. It seems to me those few signing the most should be commended for encouraging use of one of humanity's oldest and safest medicines in spite of federal "Reefer Madness."

The few patients that have violated OMMA limits knowingly and for profit do not represent the great majority of patients who lose because of this abuse.

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Re: Bust of local couple raises questions about medical marijuana policing (Nov. 3 Keizertimes).

Perhaps Capt. Kuhns would have a clearer understanding of the law if he read the statutes, rather than the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program's website. Oregon Revised Statues Section 475.323(1) unambiguously states: "Possession of a registry identification card or designated primary caregiver identification card pursuant to ORS 475.309 does not alone constitute probable cause to search the person or property of the cardholder or otherwise subject the person or property of the cardholder to inspection by any governmental agency."

Leland Berger, attorney

Portland

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Medical marijuana policing is really a war on the rights of peaceful citizens. Marijuana is a very useful plant that God gave us all to use responsibly.

Capt. Jeff Kuhns of the Keizer Police Department raises questions that goes beyond the bounds of reason. Citizens should demand the privacy rights that our constitutional laws allow us.

Kuhns suggests that "Individuals issued cards by the State of Oregon should know they too could be inspected ..." His reasoning comes from the fact that restaurants are inspected. But restaurants are commercial ventures not private residences. Commercial ventures do not have the same privacy rights.

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Residents of Bojaya in the impoverished Colombian province of Choco know misery -- flooding for four months out of each year, electricity two to three hours every couple of days, drinking water obtainable only from rain collection. Their one thing of value -- the town's location along the Atrato River -- also landed them in the middle of a 10-year battle between the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and Colombia's right-wing United Self-Defense Forces (AUC) as each rebel group sought control of an important transit zone for illegal drugs and weapons.

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Jamilla Niazi is a 40-year-old woman with a freckly face and high cheekbones. When she arrives in a refugee camp in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan to speak to me via Internet camera phone, her features are hidden behind the blue burqa she is forced to wear in the scorching summer heat. She peels back the gauze and smiles.

She doesn't do this much anymore -- not since the death threats began to come every night, pledging to burn her in acid. To jihadis, Niazi has committed an intolerable offense: She is the head teacher of a school for girls. "The Taliban have come back," says the aid worker with Niazi. "They control this area now." The night before our conversation, they burned down a school in nearby Nabili, and Taliban fighters planted a landmine in the playground of another girls school.

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High school students from around douglas county gain the tools to fight drug abuse

Plenty of students already know the dangers of drug use. Now some are learning to get their message across on television.

Students from all over Douglas County gathered at the fairgrounds Thursday to get practical advice on making public service announcements.

Douglas County Communities Aligned to Prevent Substance Abuse, or DC CAPS, organized the Youth Summit in preparation for its fourth annual Truth, Lies and Videotapes Drug Prevention PSA Challenge. Students make 30-second videos, which debut in April and then run on KPIC-TV.

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Three weeks ago, Keizer police officers entered the home of a couple who held medical marijuana cards and walked out with nearly eight pounds of pot they suspect was intended for sale.

The bust ended with the arrest of the pair on drug charges and put an unexpected spotlight on a little known state program that allows people to grow their own pot for medicinal use.

In the eight years since voters approved the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act, nearly 12,000 cards have been issued with another 3,400 waiting for approval.

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Drug use and kids is an issue that affects communities across the state and nation.

From alcohol and marijuana to methamphetamines -- parents, kids and teens need to be aware of and understand these drugs and learn how to deal with them, said a panel of officials on the front line of this fight in Lincoln County.

A forum held in Lincoln City on Sunday, Oct. 22, gave the community a better idea of this issue and what agencies and organizations are doing to help young people in areas of prevention, enforcement and treatment.

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Just about everyone would prefer biofuels to petroleum, but choosing the right fuel crops for cultivation in North America isn't easy, especially for Western states. That's because one of the most viable crops - hemp - is legally off-limits.

Instead, canola is getting all the attention. The June 2006 report, "Assessment of Biodiesel Feedstocks in Oregon," prepared for the Portland Development Commission, presented canola as the best oilseed crop for the region. Last month, the Oregon Legislature's Emergency Board agreed to finance a $235,000 canola research study.

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The Oregon Supreme Court today upheld restrictions that voters approved on police seizures of property and cash in connection with illegal activity.

Voters restricted police agencies from using civil courts to sell seized property unless it was tied to a criminal conviction of the property owner. The measure also directed proceeds from such sales to drug trreatment, rather than police operations.

Police initiated 1,526 seizures in 2000, but after the measure passed, only 389 in 2001.

The challenge was filed in 2001 by the Lincoln Interagency Narcotics Team. A Marion County judge upheld the measure in 2001, but a divided Oregon Court of Appeals overturned it in 2003.

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Compromise Bill From Legislature Nullified by Ruling

A divided Oregon Supreme Court decided Thursday to uphold restrictions that voters approved on police seizures of property and cash connected with illegal activity.

Voters barred police agencies from using civil lawsuits to seize and sell property unless it was tied to a criminal conviction of the property owner. The measure also directed proceeds from such sales to drug treatment rather than police operations.

Police initiated 1,526 seizures in 2000, but after the measure passed, only 389 in 2001.

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A Mistake By The Oregon Legislature Makes Selling Pot The 'King' Of Drug Crimes

Here in liberal Portland, marijuana's practically legal, right, dude? Hell, pot-smoking grandpa Don DuPay got more votes last spring in his run for Multnomah County sheriff than County Chair Diane Linn got in her reelection bid. And backers of a measure that would have made marijuana the 'lowest priority' for local law enforcement came close to getting that proposal on the city's November ballot.

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Coos County will participate in the annual celebration of National Red Ribbon Week, Oct. 23-31.

The celebration honors the memory of DEA Special Agent KiKi Camarena who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by drug traffickers in Mexico. That event produced an outpouring of grief that, over time, has generated community participation in drug abuse-prevention activities as a way to honor those working toward illegal drug eradication and prevention.

The countywide theme of Red Ribbon Week 2006 is "Too Smart to Start." In Coos County schools, all students will receive Red Ribbons imprinted with the theme. Students in kindergarten through eighth grade will be receiving information handbooks and high school students will be receiving bracelets imprinted with inspirational messages.

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Officials want a first-ever countywide income tax to fight crime, but money from the measure also would go to Lane County social service agencies, which say they try to address the root causes of crime.

At least $7 million of the $23.1 million raised annually by Measure 20-114 would support drug and alcohol treatment and prevention programs and the reduction of family violence, tax proponents said. Ballots go out Friday for a measure that would impose a 1.4 percent annual income tax for county public safety services.

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MOUNT ANGEL - Parents who suspect their kids may be using drugs now have a free tool in their arsenal to discover the truth - a drug test by the Mount Angel Police Department.

The department recently received a grant from the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police to allow parents the chance to find out if their suspicions are true, or for kids to prove their parents wrong. Officer Les Defoor from the Mount Angel Police Department said the Parent Aid Program has helped reduce drug-related incidents in many of the communities it has been established in.

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Regarding Sarah-Kate Sharkey And Riann Nel's Sept. 24 Commentary Article In The Register-Guard:

The HIV Alliance is to be commended for its life-saving work in Lane County. Needle exchange programs have been shown to reduce the spread of HIV without increasing drug use. They also serve as a bridge to drug treatment for an especially hard-to-reach population. Drug users are not the only beneficiaries.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control researchers estimate that 57 percent of AIDS cases among women and 36 percent of overall AIDS cases in the United States are linked to injection drug use or sex with partners who inject drugs. This easily preventable public health crisis is a direct result of zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes.

In the interest of containing the HIV epidemic, let's hope tough-on-drugs politicians acknowledge the drug war's tremendous collateral damage sooner rather than later.

Policy analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.

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