City commissioners are set to decide Tuesday how heavy the hand of the law should be in handing out fines related to a proposed city ordinance banning marijuana possession. Commissioners at their Tuesday meeting will debate whether a new city ordinance should deviate from state law and set a minimum fine for first-time marijuana possession. "I think it should be somewhat painful," said City Commissioner Sue Hack. "That is the tone of the communication I've heard from people, too. They're saying that it shouldn't just be a slap on the wrist." [continues 415 words]
Shawnee Mission School District Is Not Daring Students To Say No To Drugs With the help of a $99,863 renewable grant the district is teaching students how to say no. The federal government issued the Drug-Free Communities Program grant to Johnson County's Regional Prevention Center for use in the Shawnee Mission School District. Shawnee Mission is one of 176 districts to receive the grant. The district will use the money to implement Project Alert in seventh-grade classrooms. [continues 345 words]
TOPEKA, Kan. - The Topeka City Council took no action during a four-hour meeting Saturday over whether to fire Police Chief Ed Klumpp. Klumpp has announced plans to retire Dec. 16. On Thursday, two days after Klumpp's announcement, District Attorney Robert Hecht issued a 125-page report that said top Topeka police officials, including Klumpp, knew about problems in the narcotics unit by 2003, yet no officers were disciplined. Hecht's report said drug evidence was taken for personal use, officers gambled and drank alcohol while they were on duty, they falsified records about their activities and the department failed to properly oversee the use of money for drug buys. [continues 214 words]
A proposal to handle marijuana-possession cases differently in Lawrence has been mentioned in the pro-marijuana magazine "High Times." An Oct. 5 article on the magazine's Web site lists Lawrence alongside Denver and Telluride, Colo., and Traverse City and Ferndale, Mich., as cities that are considering changing their marijuana laws. At the request of a newly formed group, Drug Policy Forum of Kansas, city commissioners are looking into drafting an ordinance that would send marijuana-possession cases into municipal court instead of district court. The group also wants to make marijuana possession a low priority for police, an idea that most city commissioners said last month they opposed. City commissioners heard a presentation from the group at their Sept. 6 meeting and asked staff to research the subject further. [end]
More Charges Likely In Investigation Of Former Narcotics Officer Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht said Monday that he had dismissed criminal drug charges against 27 people because he couldn't assure the credibility and reliability of a material witness or the credibility of the evidence in the cases. He said in a news release that the necessity of dismissing the charges became evident "during the course of a joint investigation of activities of certain police officers conducted by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the District Attorney's Office." [continues 449 words]
The Marijuana Policy Project Foundation is trying to raise money by asking greek organizations to select its cause as a philanthropy project. The foundation is asking fraternities and sororities to support it based on stereotypes that are common among those who are not familiar with greek life. Assuming that greek students are affected by marijuana possession laws more than other students, and then asking for their hard-raised philanthropy money, is nothing short of outrageous. Members of greek organizations are no more likely to support marijuana policy reform than the average student. Furthermore, nationally recognized greek houses have philanthropies that are supported by chapters across the country. [continues 81 words]
A longtime Bel Aire resident has presented a petition calling for the police chief's dismissal, and the mayor has launched an investigation of what went wrong when police raided a couple's home searching for marijuana and instead found sunflowers growing in the back yard. Mayor Brian Withrow announced during Tuesday's Bel Aire City Council meeting that he received phone calls and e-mails following 10 police officers' search of Harold and Carolyn Smith's Bel Aire home. Police obtained a search warrant Sept. 6 after an officer saw tall plants in the Smiths' back yard and suspected they were growing marijuana. Instead, authorities found Maximilian sunflower plants. [continues 660 words]
Records Show The Schneider Medical Clinic Drew State Scrutiny Over Prescriptions In 2003 The Schneider Medical Clinic in Haysville was facing state allegations of improperly prescribing dangerous narcotic drugs long before police raided the facility last week, records show. Concerns were raised as early as October 2003 about overuse of narcotics, prescriptions of multiple painkiller drugs for the same patients, and inadequate monitoring and record keeping to make sure the medicines were properly used, according to records obtained by The Eagle. [continues 1830 words]
The August 30 editorial, "New law provokes toke," levies the charge of moral error against proponents of a city ordinance that would change the way first-time marijuana offenders are handled by both the Police Department and the justice system. As I see it, the ordinance exists largely outside the moral realm. This ordinance is about saving law enforcement and the courts and, thusly, the taxpayers (e.g. students, residents, citizens, all of us), money. Simultaneously, the law enforcement community will be able to focus limited resources on investigating and prosecuting more serious crimes that take place in our fair town such as rape, domestic violence, and theft to name a few. [continues 802 words]
Plan Would Put Pot Cases In Municipal System It's like the difference between a four-course meal and a stop at McDonald's for a cheeseburger. At Douglas County's District Court, the prosecution of a misdemeanor crime can drag on for months or years. A half-block down New Hampshire Street at municipal court, however, the cases are often disposed of in a single court appearance or two appearances -- the judicial equivalent of a trip through the drive-through. [continues 588 words]
Marijuana Possession Cases Could Land In Municipal Court Lawrence police officers shouldn't decrease their efforts to find marijuana users, a majority of city commissioners said Tuesday night. Commissioners did direct staff members to research a proposal by the Lawrence-based Kansas Drug Policy Forum that would allow people charged with marijuana possession to be prosecuted in Municipal Court rather than Douglas County District Court. But three commissioners said they had concerns about a second part of the proposal that would direct Lawrence police officers to make marijuana possession a low enforcement priority. [continues 401 words]
Rising medical expenses are taking a bigger chunk of the Pratt County Sheriff's Department budget. Medical expenses this year are at a point that if they continue at the present rate, they will double the total for 2004, said Pratt County Sheriff Vernon Chinn. The medical expenses have reached $12,000 this year. The total for all of 2004 was $10,500 so with four months of the year left the final amount will approach if not surpass the 2004 amount. [continues 705 words]
To the editor: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (of marijuana), or LEAP, has more than 2,000 members. Members include prison wardens, judges, mayors and former cops. California judge James Gray advocates decriminalizing marijuana. "That would generate $2 billion annually in tax revenues that could be spent on education and drug treatment," he says (Progressive, August 2005). Jack Cole, former policeman and co-founder of LEAP, believes that by legalizing drugs and having them supplied by the government, "organized criminals and world terrorists would be monetarily crippled for many years to come." [continues 112 words]
If city commissioners decide to take a new approach to handling marijuana crimes, the impact -- in terms of sheer numbers of cases -- wouldn't be huge. Dist. Atty. Charles Branson had estimated his office would be spared two or three cases per week if marijuana-possession and drug- paraphernalia cases were directed to the more informal, streamlined municipal court rather than District Court. But the actual number of cases might be more like one or two per week. According to a review of court files Wednesday by the Journal-World, there were at least 139 marijuana-related cases -- including simple possession, cultivation and drug dealing -- filed in District Court during 2004. [continues 536 words]
Police Chief, However, Says Idea May Have Merit Lawrence's police chief thinks it could have "great merit." The mayor supports it, and so does the county's top prosecutor. But George Bush's White House says a proposal to take a streamlined approach to marijuana-possession crimes in Lawrence is a dangerous idea. Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C., told the Journal-World on Thursday that marijuana was a "harmful drug" that should be strictly regulated. [continues 588 words]
Group Seeking Municipal, Not State, Prosecution Of Offenses If a newly formed group gets its way, marijuana will become a low priority for Lawrence police. Getting busted for pot would be similar to getting a speeding ticket. And, marijuana-possession cases would be resolved in a streamlined fashion in city court. The changes, which are supported by the city's mayor, have been proposed by a group called the Drug Policy Forum of Kansas, which formed in May and has an office at 941 Ky. [continues 927 words]
NEWTON, Kan. - When police found a methamphetamine lab in a home two years ago, they arrested two adults living there but didn't know what to do with the two children. They called Harvey County Attorney David Yoder, but he didn't have the answer. "The police officer asked what they should do with the children," Yoder said. "I asked what the protocol for that was. He said, 'We don't have one.'" That's when Yoder realized something needed to be done. [continues 398 words]
"We have a wide array of incentives at our disposal. Can you think of any place that is more deserving of these tools than the Prospect Corridor?" Troy Nash, Kansas City council member On a recent day, a stone church on Prospect Avenue maintained its dignity in the rain, surrounded by a closely clipped lawn. But next to the church parking lot an out-of-town trash hauler had deposited an entire dumpster's contents - piles of wood and old window frames, tires, a filthy blanket, black garbage bags and fast-food waste. [continues 1997 words]
They're meant to be taken as prescribed pills and absorbed by the body gradually. But OxyContin, Vicodin and similar prescription painkillers are increasingly being abused in the Lawrence area, police and substance-abuse counselors say - often by young people. "One of the things they're doing now is taking these pills, crushing them and snorting them," said Lawrence Police Sgt. Tarik Khatib, head of the joint city-county drug unit. "You basically bypass the time release, and it's a much quicker onset. My personal view is that It's just coming, and it's been underreported so far." [continues 403 words]
The ability of Wichita police to find illegal drugs is moving one more set of paw prints forward. The Police Department is getting a third drug-sniffing dog, which will allow the department to have a canine drug detector on the job seven days a week. The new dog is a 1-year-old, 40-pound Belgian Malinois named Kelly. She and her handler, Officer Chad Cooper, will be based at the community policing office in Old Town, probably by August. First, she must undergo two months of intensive training. [continues 306 words]
I'm writing about your top story: "DARE students pledge to avoid drugs" (5-03-05). Common sense tells us that the DARE program should deter our youth from using illegal drugs. But it doesn't. DARE graduates are more likely to use illegal drugs--not less. Common sense tells us that the Earth is the center of the universe and our solar system. But it's not. Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially reduce the use of the product that's prohibited. Actually, prohibition tends to substantially increase the desire for the product that's prohibited. [continues 91 words]
As many as 5,000 screaming elementary school children will flock to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater next week to celebrate their commitments to resisting drugs and violence. The students, mostly metro area fifth- and sixth-graders, will participate in the annual Metro D.A.R.E. Fest beginning at 10 a.m. May 12. There, a host of entertainers, celebrities and government leaders will congratulate the students on their recent D.A.R.E. graduations and echo the program's core message of resisting drugs and violence. D.A.R.E., a program used by schools across the country, stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. [continues 325 words]
WICHITA — A judge troubled by a defense lawyer's behavior in a murder case declared a mistrial after a urine test indicated the lawyer had used marijuana and cocaine. Sedgwick County District Judge Ben Burgess took the action Thursday, a day after he sent jurors home for the day and held a hearing on the performance of the lawyer, Michael Lehr. Lehr was representing Joseph Sutton, charged with second-degree murder in the shooting Dec. 5 of Tyrone Lewis. The judge was concerned after getting three reports suggesting the lawyer could have been under the influence of alcohol or drugs on the first two days of the trial. [continues 315 words]
Here are some things Aaron Long learned from the program he and dozens of other youngsters recently completed: Marijuana smoke contains 50-75 percent more cancer causing chemicals than tobacco smoke. Too much alcohol can slow down the body and lead to coma and even death. Per serving, beer, wine and liquor all contain about the same amount of alcohol; "there are so many alcohol advertisements," he said, "and I think that's horrible." There are 200 poisons in cigarette smoke, "and that can harm you even if you don't smoke." [continues 957 words]
They may have been a small class, but fifth-graders from Saint Paul Lutheran School appeared to make up for it in enthusiasm as they celebrated their culmination in the DARE program. County commissioner Don Navinsky, a guest at Friday's ceremony, noted after the culmination that the Saint Paul students were the liveliest group he's ever seen during the years he's attended such events for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. The students offered loud cheers throughout the ceremony for each other, their teacher and others. [continues 269 words]
TOPEKA - Cold sufferers will find it a little more inconvenient to obtain a box of Sudafed or Actifed tablets in Kansas after Wednesday. That's when a new law limiting access to products like those containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine goes into effect. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius signed the bill Friday. Currently, those over-the-counter medications can be purchased in convenience stores and supermarkets. Under the new law, however, they can only be purchased at pharmacies and, then, only from behind the pharmacy counter. [continues 162 words]
Judging by the official numbers, Kansas has made steady progress in shutting down methamphetamine labs over the past four years. But those numbers almost certainly understate the meth problem in Kansas, officials said this week, and the error potentially costs the state millions of dollars in federal money that could be used to find and clean up meth labs. Missouri, on the other hand, keeps strict records that rank the state first in the number of meth-lab seizures. Those records have made it easier for Missouri to win $8 million more in federal Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area awards than Kansas has since 2003. [continues 619 words]
Bills In Two States Would Restrict Sale Of Pseudoephedrine Proposals to restrict the sale of popular cold tablets used to make methamphetamine were approved Wednesday by the Missouri House and the Kansas Senate. The Missouri House gave unanimous first-round approval to a bill to restrict the sale of medicines with pseudoephedrine. Drugs that contain pseudoephedrine, such as Sudafed and Actifed, could be sold only at pharmacies. A customer would have to produce a photo ID and sign a log for each purchase. Customers would be limited to 9 grams of the medicine, or about 300 pills, per month. [continues 423 words]
TOPEKA - The Senate on Wednesday named a bill aimed at reducing access to cold and allergy medicine used to make the illegal drug methamphetamine after a sheriff who was shot to death last month while serving a warrant at a suspected meth lab. The bill, SB 27, will be named the Samuels Act after Greenwood County Sheriff Matt Samuels. Samuels was killed Jan. 19, the same day a Senate committee was hearing testimony on the new bill. The Senate gave the bill first-round approval Wednesday. Samuels' family is expected to be in Topeka today when the Senate takes a final vote on it. [end]
Convicted Marijuana Dealer Arrested In Lawrence Among First Defendants A man caught in Lawrence with 190 pounds of marijuana is among the first wave of defendants affected by a U.S. Supreme Court decision that revolutionized federal sentencing laws. When Edgar Illescas appears for sentencing next month in U.S. District Court in Kansas City, the judge handling the case, John W. Lungstrum, will have more discretion than federal judges have had in decades. The reason is that last month the Supreme Court told judges they're no longer required to follow sentencing guidelines -- a strict set of rules begun in the mid-1980s to ensure similar penalties for similar crimes. From now on, judges need only consult the guidelines. [continues 391 words]
Brando is the Sumner County Sheriff Department K-9, an 8-year-old Dutch Shepherd who has dedicated six years of service to the department. "He lives for the work," said Deputy Danny Ellis, K-9 handler. Unfortunately, Brando has begun to develop some hip problems and has had to retire a few of his duties as a patrol dog. Soon, he will retire from the department altogether. Ellis says Brando no longer does the bite work because the training was hard on his hips so they couldn't keep him certified in that area. [continues 612 words]
Meade County Living According to the National Drug Intelligence Center, "Methamphetamine is a principal drug threat to Kansas, primarily because of the drug's ready availability as well as the violence and environmental harm that often result from its production and abuse. The number of methamphetamine laboratories seized in Kansas has more than quadrupled and many law enforcement agencies report that they are witnessing an adverse environmental impact from the presence of methamphetamine laboratories." The problem may only get worse as surrounding states enact tougher restrictions on the sale of ingredients that are needed to produce methamphetamine. [continues 302 words]
TOPEKA -- Kansas needs to do more to keep some cold medications out of the hands of illegal manufacturers of methamphetamine, law enforcement officials told lawmakers Wednesday. They urged legislators to adopt an Oklahoma law that keeps the medications behind the pharmacy counter instead of on drugstore shelves, making it more difficult for methamphetamine manufacturers to obtain them. Missouri lawmakers are considering a similar measure. "We have done everything," Larry Welch, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, told the Senate Judiciary Committee. "We have tried everything. The one thing Oklahoma has that we don't is Senate Bill 27." [continues 438 words]
Chuck Sasse's customers typically comb their hair and wear cowboy boots and jeans when buying small supplies of crystalline iodine to treat hoof ailments. So the Olathe retailer became suspicious when unkempt strangers began asking to purchase large quantities of the medication. It soon became apparent to him that his new customers were not horse people. On Tuesday, Sasse and five other persons were recognized by the Johnson County Methamphetamine Prevention Project for their efforts to curtail the sale of over-the-counter ingredients used to make the toxic and highly addictive drug. [continues 549 words]
TOPEKA - Restrictions on the sale of the cold and allergy medicine commonly known as Sudafed will be the subject of a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are key ingredients in making the illegal drug methamphetamine. If the law passes, buyers of cold medications containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine would be limited to a one-month supply, and required to show photo identification and sign for receipt of the medicine. Oklahoma passed a similar law last year, which authorities there say has resulted in a sharp drop in meth labs. Kansas law enforcement officers say they have seen an increase in the number of Oklahomans attempting to buy or steal large quantities of cold medication here. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in Room 123-S at the Capitol. The bill is SB 27 and can be read online at www.kslegislature.org. [end]
Oklahoma passed a bill last year restricting the sales of popular medicines such as Sudafed that contain ephedrine -- a key ingredient in making the highly addictive and dangerous drug methamphetamine. Already, Kansas has seen a sixfold increase in arrests of people coming from Oklahoma to buy medicine for meth. That's why Kansas needs to follow Oklahoma's lead and pass a law making it more difficult to purchase off-the-shelf cold medicines. A recently proposed bill -- supported by Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston -- would, among other things, move these drugs behind the counter, and require customers to sign for them and show photo identification. It would be only a slight inconvenience for cold sufferers, but a major new obstacle for drug pushers. [end]
Increased meth-making activity in the state stirs Kansas law enforcers to lobby for a law like Oklahoma's, which makes certain cold tablets harder to buy. Since spring, police and prosecutors around Wichita have seen more drug traffickers coming across the border. But these traffickers don't come from Mexico, which has traditionally sent illicit drugs into Kansas. They come from Oklahoma. That's because last year Oklahoma passed a law making it more difficult to buy the over-the-counter cold medicines some use to manufacture highly addictive and potentially lethal methamphetamine. [continues 384 words]
TOPEKA - You may soon have to sign a form and show identification when buying popular decongestants in Kansas as part of the state's efforts to fight methamphetamine. Lawmakers gathered Thursday to announce a plan to restrict the sale of over-the-counter tablets containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in the manufacture of methamphetamine, a highly addictive and dangerous illegal drug often called meth. Sudafed, Actifed, Nyquil and more than 300 other products contain pseudoephedrine. The rules would not apply to those products when sold in gel-tab or liquid formulas, which are not easily used in meth production. [continues 229 words]
U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren is getting help fighting drug crimes in Kansas. Melgren has hired two new prosecutors, including former Sumner County Attorney William Mott of Wellington, to specialize in prosecuting drug crimes. Mott will join the Wichita office, and David Zabel of Lawrence will work out of Topeka. "The prosecution of drug trafficking crimes is a high priority for our office," Melgren said in a statement announcing the new hires. The special prosecutor positions are part of a White House drug initiative for so-called High Impact Drug Trafficking Areas [continues 472 words]
Inside Kansas
