Marijuana Execs Find Welcome Vibe Among the Pols Marijuana has gone mainstream at the Democratic National Convention this week. Democratic officials, including Oregon Rep. Earl Blumenauer and his state's attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, mingled with pot industry executives Monday night at a reception at a sleek bar downtown, miles away from the convention hall. A day earlier, the Marijuana Policy Project staged a fundraiser to support its work to push new laws around the country legalizing the use of marijuana. [continues 553 words]
In USA TODAY's article "Prince died of 'fentanyl toxicity,' an overdose of a painkiller," Maria Puente does an excellent job of explaining the conundrum that underlies the tragedies of fame, drugs and death.Unfortunately, the treatment platform in America continues to be one of complete abstinence. In other countries, harm reduction models have proved to be an alternative for people who are fearful of the shame and guilt associated with labels and rigidity. The same shame and guilt make many people in America reluctant to seek help. Addiction should be treated like any other illness. Hopefully, the American Medical Association will consider alternatives to the current treatment platform in the nation that is obviously not working. Stephen A. Bonick; Monterey, Calif. [end]
Colorado pot smokers are helping send 25 students to college, the first scholarships in the U.S. funded with taxes on legal marijuana. The awards offered by Pueblo County, in southern Colorado, are the latest windfall from legal Colorado marijuana sales that are also helping build schools and aid the homeless - and in one county, providing 8% raises to municipal workers. Pueblo County is granting $1,000 each to the students; recipients will be announced later this month. "It's incredible," said Beverly Duran, the executive director of the Pueblo Hispanic Education Foundation, which is overseeing the scholarships. "Every year we get a nice pool of students ... but we can always only award to a small percentage. This for us expands that to extraordinary lengths." [continues 221 words]
With an average 78 Americans dying each day from overdoses of prescription opioid painkillers and heroin, it's clear that the U.S. is losing the war on drugs. The epidemic has spread to suburbia and rural areas. The death toll from heroin has more than tripled since 2010. And the nation is desperate for answers. Congress is working on bipartisan measures that would give states, localities and non-profit groups money for an array of education, treatment and law enforcement programs. Final passage can't come a moment too soon. But it's all standard fare. [continues 421 words]
There are no "safe heroin injection sites." The only "safe" approach to heroin is not to take it. For addicts, the humane public health response is to help them get and stay sober, or at the very least, opioid replacement therapy in sustained treatment. Any approach without these goals is cruel and dehumanizing - not healing, but perpetuating harm. Addiction is a treatable disease. Millions of Americans are in recovery - living healthy, productive lives. Supporting addicts' heroin use maintains their disease, administering the poison that causes their illness and diminishes their lives. A government-approved place for unlimited heroin injection creates the conditions for neverending addiction and gives government a drug dealer's power over the addicted. [continues 217 words]
No Pot Trade With U.S., Yet Border States May Brace for Change Canada is moving to legalize pot in 2017, but don't expect it to become a new Amsterdam for Americans hoping to get a legal high just across the northern border. Canada's Liberal Party government will introduce a law next spring to legalize recreational marijuana, Health Minister Jane Philpott disclosed last week at the United Nations. She did not detail who would be allowed to grow or distribute cannabis products. [continues 534 words]
The Justice Department offered its first defense this week of a once-vast eavesdropping program carried out by drug agents in the Los Angeles suburbs over the objection of government lawyers who feared it was illegal. The Justice Department urged a judge not to throw out wiretaps agents used to arrest an accused marijuana trafficker, saying the surveillance was "authorized in accordance with state and federal law." That defense came in a filing Monday in federal court in Louisville. The Kentucky case is the first major challenge to a surveillance program by the Drug Enforcement Administration and prosecutors in Riverside County, Calif., so large that it once accounted for nearly a fifth of all U.S. wiretaps. [continues 207 words]
With Pot Legal in Colorado, the High Times Might Give Visiting Families Pause BRECKENRIDGE, COLO. - Chicago-based travel agent and mother of four Lynn Farrell represents a kind of worst-case scenario for Colorado's ski towns and resorts. "Who really wants to ski where everybody is stoned?" asks Farrell, president of Windy City Travel. "It is a concern." It's the second full ski season since Colorado legalized recreational marijuana sales, and the cannabis culture - or at the very least, concerns about the cannabis culture - remains very much top of mind for many out-of-state visitors. Talk to East Coasters, particularly, and you hear worries about pot smokers lighting up in the lift lines or filling gondola cars with pungent smoke, an image at odds with Colorado's carefully crafted and otherwise well-deserved image as a clean-living destination for families. [continues 782 words]
MEXICO CITY - Armando Santacruz is a clean-cut father of five and successful business owner. Nothing at all about him screams "pothead." Yet, Santacruz, 54, is at the forefront of a growing movement to legalize marijuana in Mexico - a move that could have seismic repercussions both in Mexico and the USA. He talks about legalizing pot with the same impassioned fervor many here use to describe soccer clubs or favorite restaurants. Santacruz was one of four plaintiffs who won a pivotal Supreme Court case here in November, which allowed him and his co-plaintiffs their private consumption of cannabis and galvanized a national debate. [continues 639 words]
The Obama administration is launching a campaign to educate people on the dangers of prescription drugs and heroin. Letter to the editor: Prescription monitoring databases have the potential to backfire. A federal crackdown on prescription drug abuses is fueling the use of illicit heroin. More drug war is not the answer ("How presidential candidates can address drug abuse: Our view"). The overdose risk increases when users switch from standardized pharmaceuticals to street heroin of unknown purity. Switzerland provides pharmaceutical-grade heroin to chronic addicts in a clinical setting. The end result is a reduction in disease, overdose death and crime among chronic users. [continues 107 words]
DENVER - Canada's leap to the left in Monday's elections could have the country singing a new anthem: "Oh, Cannabis." The United States' largest trade partner overwhelmingly selected Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party to run Canada, a sweeping change that may lead to full marijuana legalization for our northern neighbor, which already allows medical pot use. Trudeau promised that under his leadership Canada would create a system to tax, regulate and sell marijuana, along with stiff penalties for anyone giving pot to children or caught driving while stoned. The Liberal Party's cannabis legalization statement echoes the language used by many U.S. legalization advocates. [continues 448 words]
More Tech Industry Leaders Take Investment Roles and Support Legalization of Marijuana SAN FRANCISCO - A simmering battle among California's marijuana legalization advocates is getting new focus as Gov. Jerry Brown considers three laws laying the groundwork for legal recreational pot next year. It's a topic that's previously attracted the financial backing of some of tech's best known and wealthiest founders, such as Napster co-founder and Facebook investor Sean Parker, and they're expected to jump into the ring this time, too. [continues 587 words]
States With Legal Marijuana Sales Have Seen Voters Make That Decision. .. and It's Certainly Starting to Feel Like Really Not That Big of a Deal. PORTLAND, ORE. - What if we legalized marijuana and no one really cared? That's the overwhelming feeling I get standing inside Zion Cannabis in downtown Portland as customers buy marijuana from the friendly staff five days after legalized marijuana legislation went into effect Oct. 1. No muss, no fuss. Oregon is the third American state to legalize recreational marijuana sales, following neighboring Washington, where legal pot debuted in the summer of 2014, and Colorado, where cannabis has been legal since Jan. 1, 2014. Hardly anyone is paying attention. [continues 522 words]
Misconduct Involved Drugs, Prostitute Parties When internal affairs investigators do find wrongdoing, the most common outcome is either a letter of caution or a brief unpaid suspension. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed its employees to stay on the job despite internal investigations that found they had distributed drugs, lied to the authorities or committed other serious misconduct, newly disclosed records show. Lawmakers expressed dismay this year that the drug agency had not fired agents who investigators found attended "sex parties" with prostitutes paid with drug cartel money while they were on assignment in Colombia. The Justice Department opened an inquiry into whether the DEA is able to adequately detect and punish wrongdoing by its agents. [continues 1138 words]
(NEWSER) - Smoking pot could damage your semen quality, or so suggests a new study out of Denmark. Some 1,215 Danish men ages 18 to 28 were asked about their drug use over the past three months and provided a semen sample. The researchers found a correlation between men who smoked pot more than once weekly and "quite a lot" of a drop in sperm count: the count was an average 29% lower in these men than in those who reported lighter or no usage. Those who reported additional drug use (anything from cocaine to ecstasy) saw an even more severe reduction, with average sperm count down 55%. [continues 161 words]
Federal Authorities Outlaw It, So Areas Set Their Own Regulations To be considered qualified for medical marijuana, patients under all 24 programs must be diagnosed with an approved condition by a physician. After waiting in line for hours at a booth during a medical marijuana convention in San Francisco, Jeff Harrington needed only a twominute consultation and a written recommendation to become a medical marijuana patient in California. He can legally purchase and possess marijuana from any one of thousands of marijuana businesses in the state. [continues 810 words]
A Drug Kingpin's Escape Builds to an Epic Showdown Talk about timing. Don Winslow's new novel, The Cartel, which fictionally chronicles the past decade of Mexico's brutal drug-lord wars, echoes the stunning, headline-grabbing jail break from a maximum-security prison by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the legendary billionaire drug kingpin. Want to know why El Chapo probably won't be captured anytime soon? Never mind the evening news: Truth is in fiction. Read this disturbing and, yes, addictive epic tale instead. Within the first 70 of its 600-plus vivid pages, Adan Barrera, the fascinating, suave, drug-cartel patron - loosely based on El Chapo - escapes from his country's most secure prison to rebuild his Sinaloan drug-trafficking empire. [continues 468 words]
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - It was almost too juicy a story line to be true. Shane Ray, the NFL prospect cited for marijuana possession just days before the draft, gets picked by the Denver Broncos, of all teams, and heads to Colorado, home to many of America's most liberal marijuana laws. It was a tale that set social media ablaze with quips about Ray's arrival in Denver being "dope" along with references to the fact that since January 2014, Coloradans can legally purchase up to an ounce of marijuana at dispensaries across the state. [continues 66 words]
Our love affair with prescription amphetamine is hard to quit I've decided to create a new psychiatric disorder. Why not? Drug companies do it all the time. Shire, which makes Adderall, won approval recently from the Food and Drug Administration to market its amphetamine drug Vyvanse for the treatment of BED. You haven't heard of it? Neither had many people, until Shire funded studies to get the bingeeating disorder into the DSM-5 - America's official psychiatric bible of common life dilemmas translated into mental disorders. My disorder is called achievement anxiety disorder (AAD), and it explains the increasing reports of prescription amphetamine misuse, most often in the form of Adderall abuse. [continues 652 words]
DENVER - While federal law makes their entire industry illegal, many marijuana store owners, growers and retailers fear something completely different: Big Tobacco. Today, most legal recreational marijuana operations are small, limited to a single state and barred from ever getting large by regulators who want to keep a close eye on the fast-growing industry. But those small operators struggle to get bank loans for expansion, often produce an inconsistent product and sometimes have no idea how to balance supply and demand for their crops. [continues 963 words]
The voters wanted the law changed to reflect reality. A year later, legalizing pot doesn't seem to have ended Western civilization as we know it. More than a year after Colorado legalized marijuana sales, there's a pot shop just a few steps away from the Prada, Ralph Lauren, Sotheby's and Burberry stores in this toniest of tony ski towns. Tourists from around the world step into the Green Dragon cannabis store to buy small amounts of legal - and heavily taxed - marijuana. It goes on day after day after day with virtually no muss or fuss. Welcome to my reality. More than a year ago, the editors at USA TODAY asked me to join their team as the Rocky Mountain correspondent to tell stories from across the West, from wildfires to wild weather, politics and guns. But marijuana coverage quickly became a top priority, as the world watches the legalization experiments taking place here as well as in Washington, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. [continues 608 words]
One of the reasons that the implementation of marijuana legalization has stumbled is because these measures failed to structure what an effective regulatory model and its market would look like. While our organization is neutral on the question of legalization, there is no denying that the modern three-tier beverage alcohol system delivers consumers a wide diversity of products in a manner that guarantees product integrity, works to prevent underage access, ensures tax revenue for government, and provides regulatory oversight. Licensed and regulated suppliers can sell only to licensed and regulated wholesalers who in turn sell only to licensed and regulated establishments. [continues 55 words]
State Could Become First to Vote to Jump From Total Ban to Legalization Is Ohio, long considered the nation's leading political bellwether state, going to pot? If some big-money investors, former sports stars and grassroots activists get their way, voters in November could make Ohio the first state to go directly from a total ban on marijuana to one allowing production and consumption of both medical and recreational marijuana. Gallup polls show that support for legal marijuana in the Midwest is 45%, lower than the 47% support in the South. [continues 658 words]
DENVER a=C2=80" Sheriffs from Colorado and neighboring states Kansas and Nebraska say in a lawsuit to be filed Thursday that Colorado's marijuana law creates a "crisis of conscience" by pitting the state law against the Constitution and puts an economic burden on other states. The lawsuit asks a federal court in Denver to strike down Colorado's Amendment 64 that legalized the sale of recreational marijuana and to close the state's more than 330 licensed marijuana stores. [continues 442 words]
The District of Columbia has joined an exclusive American club: Residents of the nation's capital can now legally grow and consume recreational marijuana in their homes. Some members of Congress are threatening to intervene. But as of Thursday the District had joined Colorado, Alaska and Washington state in permitting the general public to use marijuana. While Colorado and Washington are reaping the tax benefits of a regulated industry with hundreds of retail stores, D.C. residents must either grow their own or get it for free. [continues 478 words]
SPOKANE - Federal prosecutors in Spokane are trying to convince a jury that a cancerstricken man and his family were illegally growing and distributing marijuana on their northeastern Washington property despite claims by the "Kettle Falls Five" that they were instead raising legal medical cannabis for their personal use. The case against Larry Harvey's family has become a cause celebre among the marijuana community, which sees it as a disconnect between state and federal marijuana laws. Washington state last summer allowed legal recreational sales, although the raid on the Harvey home happened in August 2012. And Congress late last year effectively barred the Justice Department from interfering with states that have medical marijuana systems. [continues 203 words]
Keep the Drug Where We Can Watch It In Colorado and Alaska, when the states legalized recreational marijuana use, voters were sold on the idea that we weren't simply legalizing the drug; we were regulating it like alcohol. That selling point is likely to be part of 2016 campaigns to do the same in states from California to Maine. But there is one way in which marijuana regulations have, so far, not modeled themselves on alcohol regulations. They do not allow on-premises consumption in commercial establishments such as bars and restaurants. [continues 398 words]
Brave, Small Start-Up Investors Move into Market SAN FRANCISCO - Some Silicon Valley venture capitalists are high on the profit potential of pot. In an ornate ballroom of the posh Fairmont Hotel atop Nob Hill, entrepreneurs of the quasilegal marijuana trade sat down for two days this week with hightech moguls looking to get in on the ground floor of the booming, multibillion-dollar business of selling marijuana in states where it is permitted. "This is the fastest-growing industry in America," says Troy Dayton, CEO of ArcView Group, an investor network focused on the cannabis business. "Despite all the stigma, people are recognizing this could be the next great American industry." [continues 571 words]
Vermont lawmakers are considering whether to become the first state Legislature to legalize marijuana. Four states and the District of Columbia have legalized recreational cannabis, but in each of those cases, it was voters at the ballot box, not lawmakers, who changed the law. Vermont could become the first state in history where elected officials directly legalize pot, and Gov. Peter Shumlin said he "continues to support" efforts to legalize marijuana. Vermont's Constitution prohibits ballot referendums and initiatives, meaning any decision on marijuana would have to come from lawmakers. [continues 211 words]
DENVER a=C2=80" A new pot spray promising to help women have better sex will hit the shelves in Colorado next week. Foria, which contains marijuana extract, claims the relaxing properties of cannabis will help women have better and more satisfying sex. It's been available for a few months in California, but only to people with a medical marijuana card and doctor's recommendation. The edible coconut oil-based spray a=C2=80" users spritz it on their genitals [continues 513 words]
A Washington state farmer is selling a ton of marijuana - literally 2,000 pounds - to the highest bidder in one of the first large-scale legal pot auctions in modern U.S. history. On Saturday, Randy Williams of Fireweed Farm in Prosser, Wash., will offer for sale the marijuana he's been growing all summer. Most legal marijuana in Colorado and Washington, the only states with legal recreational marketplaces, is grown indoors under electricity-hogging lights in much smaller batches. Colorado's marijuana growers this fall harvested their first crops of outdoor-grown cannabis, and now farmers like Williams are bringing their pot to market in Washington. At retail prices, Williams' crop could be worth $6 million. Many of the plants are a dozen-feet tall, grown in the wine region just north of the Columbia River Valley in south-central Washington. [continues 197 words]
A little more than two months after Washington launched recreational marijuana sales, you would be hard pressed to stumble upon any pot shops in the state's biggest city: Until this weekend, only one marijuana store was open in Seattle, and getting there required a trek through industrial developments far from downtown. And when you reach the store, you might not find any pot on the shelves. "We're not doing well because we don't have anything to sell," said James Lathrop, owner of Cannabis City in Seattle. "It's really an insane business." [continues 242 words]
DENVER - Every time he goes to work, Harvard-trained lawyer Andrew Freedman faces federal prosecution over the source of his paycheck: Colorado's burgeoning marijuana industry. Freedman, the governor's chief marijuana adviser, faces prison time if federal prosecutors decide to step in. That's because federal law still considers marijuana as dangerous as heroin or cocaine, and prosecutors could easily bring drug-trafficking charges if they choose. Freedman's salary is paid by the taxes collected on legal marijuana sales. [continues 522 words]
The Legalization of Pot Brings Advertisers a New Opportunity The coming legalization of marijuana, advocated last week by The New York Times in perhaps the most noted editorial in its history, will create a consumer product as sought-after as cigarettes (in their day) and booze. Hence, legalized marijuana, among its other lucrative effects - including closing gaps in state budgets with certain heavy taxes - offers a gold mine for the media business. Media have, in many ways, never recovered from the loss of cigarette advertising, one of the all-time great revenue generators for newspapers, magazines, television, radio and advertising agencies. Marijuana could be as big a market as cigarettes and, as pot brands try to establish and distinguish themselves, as prodigious an advertiser. [continues 751 words]
The gold rush of legalized marijuana in Colorado and Washington is creating a confusing market of goods and services, from illegal Craigslist pot deliveries to a pot vending machine. While recreational-marijuana sales are legal in both states, the marketplaces are surrounded by a web of laws and regulations intended to keep buyers paying taxes and transactions aboveboard. But with tens of millions of dollars in profits up for grabs, entrepreneurs are flooding the market with products and services operating in a gray area. Some ventures are illegal, but the vendors escape prosecution by trying to stay low-key. Others grab headlines that are misleading at best. [continues 208 words]
91% of Those Locked Up Were Racial or Ethnic Minorities The nation's top gun-enforcement agency overwhelmingly targeted racial and ethnic minorities as it expanded its use of controversial drug sting operations, a USA TODAY investigation shows. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has more than quadrupled its use of those stings during the past decade, quietly making them a central part of its attempts to combat gun crime. The operations are designed to produce long prison sentences for suspects enticed by the promise of pocketing as much as $100,000 for robbing a drug stash house that does not actually exist. [continues 833 words]
DENVER - The unmarked armored truck rumbles to a stop in a narrow alley, and former U.S. Marine Matthew Karr slides out, one hand holding a folder, the other hovering near the pistol holstered at his hip. With efficient motions he retrieves a locked, leather-bound satchel from a safe set into the truck's side and presses a buzzer outside the door. It swings open to reveal a cavernous warehouse filled with marijuana and a safe stuffed with cash. Welcome to the rear guard of Colorado's rapidly expanding legal marijuana industry, where eager users pour millions of dollars - most of it in small bills - into buying pot, hashish, and marijuana-infused foods and drinks. All that cash adds up, and there are few places to put it: Federal regulations, which still classify pot as an illegal drug, make it difficult for marijuana producers to deposit their profits into traditional bank accounts. [end]
SEATTLE - A visit to a pot shop isn't like a trip to the candy store. The high-value goods inside make the foray more like a cross between a bank and a jewelry store if a visit Monday to a medical marijuana dispensary here is any indication. "We have been open here for more than three years," said John Davis, chief executive of Northwest Patient Resource Center. "It is built like a bank on steroids." To protect the people working, the pot and the profits, several layers of security are needed, he said. [continues 221 words]
Does the federal Bureau of Reclamation believe that marijuana will magically cease to exist if it denies water to farmers who grow it in states where it is legal? This latest example of federal reefer madness is bad news for the environment ("Fighting pot with water: Column"). We hear a lot about climate change, yet no one in the federal government seems to care that one of the biggest cash crops in the country is cultivated in secret suburban basements with artificial lights and massive carbon footprints. What goes on above ground is no improvement. [continues 82 words]
The Federal Government Has Devised a Sneaky Way to Punish Pot Growers When voters in Washington state and Colorado legalized possession and sale of recreational marijuana in 2012, federal officials were not happy. They will be less happy today when pot officially goes on sale in Washington. Though the Obama administration has pledged to respect state laws, it is quietly going in the opposite direction by cutting off water to the growers. The idea seems to be that if the administration cannot dry up the public support for legalization, it will just dry up the plants themselves. [continues 666 words]
SEATTLE - Pot shops opened to long lines Tuesday as Washington became the second state to legalize recreational marijuana. After a busy day of sales, people were still in line just before 10 p.m. PT, minutes before Cannabis City in Seattle was set to close. As of 9:30, 857 customers had been served. Earlier in the day, dozens of people were waiting their turn when Top Shelf Cannabis in Bellingham opened for business at 8 a.m. PT - as soon as allowed under state regulations. [continues 633 words]
State Begins Sales of Recreational Marijuana Today Smoke 'em if you've got 'em: Washington state this week joins an exclusive club as residents and tourists alike get their first chance to buy recreational marijuana. The second state to legalize recreational pot - Colorado allowed sales starting Jan. 1 - Washington joins a fast-growing market that's already generating tens of millions of dollars in taxes with no signs of slowing down. All that demand is expected to cause significant pot shortages and prices to temporarily skyrocket in the short term as growers match supply and buyers adjust to a system where marijuana is legally bought and sold from state-regulated stores. [continues 854 words]
Drug Trade, Clientele Are Not What They Used to Be Women juggling espresso drinks and shopping bags bustle past a Jeep parked at a shopping center one sunny afternoon in June as a drug dealer hops into the passenger seat. He exchanges three grams of heroin for $125 from a mother of teenagers. The transaction takes 45 seconds. It's a scenario that plays out all over Albuquerque and other cities as heroin dealers catering to young, affluent suburban addicts shift their operations from backalley deals in shady parts of town to delivery on demand at downtown offices, high-end malls and suburban homes. [continues 2117 words]
Border Drug Seizures Rise, but About 90% of It Slips Through Net "When we arrest one, it's hard for us to get the entire picture, because everybody has a role in the organization, but nobody knows what the others' roles are." Douglas Coleman, DEA NOGALES, ARIZ . The driver of a blue Dodge Durango appeared unusually nervous to a Customs and Border Protection officer working the eight-lane entrance into the USA from Mexico. He directed the mud-streaked SUV with Arizona plates to an inspection area. [continues 1217 words]
SEDGWICK, Colo. - A marijuana store owner this week opened up a new frontier in the ongoing cat-and-mouse border war between pot buyers and police officers across the Nebraska state line just six miles away. Sedgwick Alternative Relief opened for legal marijuana sales Saturday in this town of about 150 people tucked into Colorado's far northeast corner, more than 170 miles from Denver. Police officers in small Nebraska towns along the Colorado border say they've seen a massive influx of marijuana flowing into and through their communities, particularly along the east-west Interstate 80. They say it's now only natural to expect even more pot will find its way across the border, where it remains illegal. [continues 708 words]
Pot Arrests Have Skyrocketed Across State Lines A marijuana store owner this week opened up a new frontier in the ongoing cat-and-mouse border war between pot buyers and police officers across the Nebraska state line just 6 miles away. Sedgwick Alternative Relief opened for legal marijuana sales Saturday in this town of about 150 people tucked into Colorado's far northeast corner, more than 170 miles from Denver. Police officers in small Nebraska towns along the Colorado border say they've seen a massive influx of marijuana flowing into and through their communities, particularly along the east-west Interstate 80. [continues 405 words]
Ganja Association Urges Country to Capitalize on Crops KINGSTON, JAMAICA This tourist mecca may soon be known as the Colorado of the Caribbean. Given the ready availability of "ganja" as the locals call it, outsiders may assume marijuana is legal in Jamaica, but it's not ... yet. Encouraged by legalized marijuana in Colorado, Washington state and Uruguay - the first country to legalize and regulate the weed - Jamaican farmers and some politicians want to capitalize on what already is a homegrown industry with an international brand. [continues 252 words]
BOULDER, Colo. - A few years ago, retired electrical engineer Tom Thompson noticed it was getting harder and harder to hear his friends across the country talking to him on their ham radio sets. So Thompson built a portable antenna system so he could walk his neighborhood and track down whatever was interfering with his radio transmission. The culprit? Marijuana grow operations, whose powerful grow lights can emit interference blocking radio broadcasts on the ham and AM spectrums. The first grower he encountered wasn't pleased to know Thompson, now 73, could tell exactly what was going on. "He said 'what are you going to do, call the cops?' " Thompson said. "And I said, well no, it's a federal matter." [continues 412 words]
CORNELIA, Ga. -- A toddler caught in the middle of a drug raid was seriously injured Wednesday when a police flash grenade exploded in his playpen. The raid in which the 19-month-old child, who is recovering at Grady Hospital's burn unit in Atlanta, was injured was at a house in Habersham County. Habersham County Sheriff Joey Terrell, who described the device in various ways - a "stun grenade" and "flash grenade" and "flash bang" - said there was no indication that a family with four children were guests in the suspected drug dealer's house when his team went in and threw that flash grenade to try to arrest the suspect. [continues 377 words]
Legal Haze Hangs Over Federal Trial Five people face federal marijuana charges - in a state where marijuana is legal. The group, called the Kettle Falls 5, will be tried for growing 68 plants in rural eastern Washington. The trial is set for July 28. Prosecutors contend the five conspired to manufacture and distribute marijuana. The defendants are also charged with possessing firearms as part of a drug-trafficking crime. If convicted, they could face a minimum of 10 years in prison. [continues 302 words]
