The School Board here plans to use drug-sniffing dogs to check parking lots around school buildings. "We're looking at this as preventative," said Ron Gruwell, assistant superintendent of secondary education. The School Board on Monday unanimously approved putting the dogs to work in all parking areas surrounding the schools, whether district owned or not, and including side streets. The School Board was told by its attorney that the use of the dogs is not considered an illegal search. "It's what you do after a dog would hit on a car that could be problematic," Gruwell said. [continues 70 words]
State rules for growing industrial hemp are close to taking effect, although federal drug agents will have the final say on whether farmers may cultivate it, Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson said. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem issued a letter Wednesday saying the proposed rules comply with state law. A legislative committee that reviews North Dakota agency regulations still must go over them before they take effect, Johnson said. Industrial hemp is a relative of marijuana, but does not have the hallucinogenic chemical that provides a "high" when the leaf is smoked. It is used to produce an assortment of goods, including paper, rope, clothing and cosmetics. [continues 228 words]
Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson has extended the comment period for rules on the production of industrial hemp in North Dakota. The new deadline is Oct. 30. Johnson said his department made some changes after a public hearing in June and wants to give people more time to review them. The rules require growers to pass a criminal background check and be fingerprinted. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration would review each permit application and have the final say on whether a farmer is allowed to grow hemp. [continues 72 words]
North Dakota's Supreme Court has reinstated a law that requires methamphetamine defendants to assent to random drug testing, at their own expense, if they're freed on bail. A Fargo judge had declared the provision unconstitutional. East Central District Judge Steven McCullough used a procedure that was "not conducive to reasoned decision-making" in ruling the law should not be enforced, the state Supreme Court justices said in a unanimous opinion. "Our jurisprudence for deciding constitutional issues requires an orderly process for the development of constitutional claims, which . was not followed in this case," Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle wrote in the court's decision Thursday. [continues 215 words]
BISMARCK, N.D. -- North Dakota is pushing ahead with plans to license state farmers to grow industrial hemp even as it tries to allay law enforcement fears about marijuana's biological cousin. State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and his department are crafting hemp rules after meeting in February with Drug Enforcement Agency officials in Washington. A public hearing on the proposed rules is slated for June 15. The rules would require a criminal background check on farmers who want to grow hemp. The sale of hemp and location of the hemp fields must be documented. And the farmer must get a permit from the DEA. [continues 454 words]
BISMARCK, N.D. -- North Dakota is pushing ahead with plans to license state farmers to grow industrial hemp even as it tries to allay law enforcement fears about marijuana's biological cousin. State Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and his department are crafting hemp rules after meeting in February with Drug Enforcement Agency officials in Washington. A public hearing on the proposed rules is slated for June 15. The rules would require a criminal background check on farmers who want to grow hemp. The sale of hemp and location of the hemp fields must be documented. And the farmer must get a permit from the DEA. [continues 468 words]
The musical review was in full swing. Decked out in jack-o'-lantern orange T-shirts emblazed with the Drug Abuse Resistance Education logo, fifth-graders at Reinertsen Elementary School in Moorhead clapped, snapped and gestured their hearts out to relay a simple message: They won't do drugs. "Actions have consequences don't you see?" about 100 fifth-graders sang. "Choose your behavior responsibly." The performance, part of a D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony last week, marked the end of eight lessons geared toward helping kids say no to drugs and alcohol. [continues 1331 words]
The Bismarck Police Department is investigating a case where a newborn baby tested positive for cannabis, the chemical found in marijuana. Lt. Dan Donlin said Burleigh County Social Services contacted police after a doctor at Medcenter One filled out a form 990, which is a report of suspected child abuse. The police report stated that a doctor tested the baby for cannabis after seeing symptoms of drugs in the baby's system. Donlin would not release the names of the child or the parents because he said the case is under investigation. [end]
Ag Commission Johnson says Drug Enforcement Agency 'cordial,' but cautioned about fed law complications Herald Staff Report North Dakota and three other states made their case today with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to allow the cultivation of industrial hemp, according to the state Department of Agriculture. North Dakota Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson and counterparts from West Virginia, Massachusetts and Wisconsin met with several DEA officials. In a news release, Johnson said his department is drafting new rules to control the production of industrial hemp, and that he wanted to solicit input from DEA. The new rules would implement state laws, passed by the Legislature in 1999 through 2005. [continues 189 words]
A regional law enforcement agency, credited with stemming the volume of methamphetamine and other drug issues in the area, is at risk of losing the entire federal grant that subsidizes it. The Northwest Narcotics Task Force is scheduled to lose all of its Edgar G. Byrne Memorial Grant in 2007. "We need to have 100 percent of it reinstated," said Williams County Sheriff Scott Busching. "It makes no sense to me. It's one of the only federal programs where you see tangible results. It's money well spent." [continues 948 words]
While random student drug testing has become an issue elsewhere, Fargo school officials say it hasn't been on the front burner here. School district Activities Director Ed Lockwood said random testing was considered several years ago, but now the district is trying to educate students aE" including those involved in athletics and extracurricular activities aE" about drugs using speakers, posters, literature and videos. Last week, New Jersey became the first state to approve random drug testing for high school athletes. [continues 768 words]
Barnes County will feel the effect of federal budget cuts come January when one officer on the Stutsman-Barnes Narcotics Task Force will be eliminated. This is the certain outcome of the latest legislative session in which federal funds were redirected from the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program. Funding from this program enabled task forces in all states to maintain officers specific to drug enforcement. "That person's job is focused on drug enforcement," said Valley City Police Chief Dean Ross. "He could follow through without other things getting in the way, such as traffic stops, deaths, assaults, and accident reports. It keeps the drug agent doing what he does best." "It is frustrating that we can get funds to buy equipment, but nothing is available to maintain officers ..." VC Police Chief Dean Ross Ross indicated the supporting funds for the program have been declining over the past years. "It started at a 72 / 28 match, then 65 / 35. Now it's a zero match." [continues 214 words]
Regarding David Chapman's Oct. 30 column on drug testing, there is far more at stake than liberty. Random drug testing in the workplace may do more harm than good. The invasive tests may compel users of relatively harmless marijuana to switch to harder drugs like methamphetamine to avoid testing positive. Despite a short-lived high, marijuana is the only drug that stays in the human body long enough to make urinalysis a deterrent. Marijuana's organic metabolites are fat-soluble and can linger for days. Synthetic drugs are water-soluble and exit the body quickly. An employee who uses meth on Friday night will likely test clean on Monday morning. If you think drug users don't know this, think again. Anyone capable of running a search on the Internet can find out how to thwart a drug test. [continues 76 words]
Pastor Mark Haines, prison chaplain from Jamestown, summed up the methamphetamine problem in a few words. "There's an epidemic out there." Haines was the featured speaker at the Meth Task Force quarterly meeting held in Valley City on Monday. He explained what he does in his job and how the community can help. "There are some tough days, such as when a baby dies or a mother dies, but there are many great days and people getting well," he told members of the Meth Task Force. [continues 717 words]
Until I tried my first federal drug crime case, I had never seen an illegal drug up close. I could not have differentiated between marijuana and tea leaves. I am not embarrassed by the naivete on this issue. I simply have no inclination to venture into the subculture of drugs it never even occurred to me. As a drug na?ve citizen, I still find the trend towards mandatory, random drug testing in the workplace to be disturbing. Random drug tests mean just that. The workforce is targeted at random in the workplace and tested for controlled substances through urinalysis. The drug user and the drug na?ve are all caught in the same net. [continues 493 words]
BISMARCK, N.D. - Authorities who stopped a man's car twice in less than an hour to check its illegally tinted windows were justified in searching it for marijuana, a divided North Dakota Supreme Court concluded. The court's five justices split 3-2 in their ruling Tuesday, with Justice Mary Muehlen Maring and Chief Justice Gerald VandeWalle arguing that police conduct in the case "bordered on harassment." The decision upholds Brent Bartelson's guilty plea to a felony charge of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. [continues 504 words]
A woman charged with child abuse and neglect for exposing her unborn baby to methamphetamine appeared in Burleigh County District Court on Monday for a preliminary hearing. Orlonda Hopkins, 19, of Mandan, is accused of smoking meth from the time she was seven months pregnant to June 16, when her son was born. Bismarck Police Detective Mark Gaddis testified that doctors at Medcenter One noticed the baby was acting strangely. He would not wake up to be fed. His behavior prompted doctors to test him for various drugs, and the tests came back positive for meth. [continues 257 words]
There has been plenty of bad news in recent months about illicit drug use, particularly in regard to highly destructive methamphetamine. But there's a little good news for a change from an ongoing federal survey of teenage drug and tobacco use: Fewer teens are using illegal drugs and tobacco today than was the case a few years ago, according to those that responded to the poll. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual survey of close to 70,000 people, illegal drug use among those ages 12-17 dropped from 11.6 percent of the group to 10.6 percent between 2002 and 2004. Tobacco use also declined slightly, from 30.4 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds to 29.2 percent. [continues 169 words]
North Dakota Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem says a law requiring shoppers to show identification to buy cold pills has had a big impact on the production of methamphetamine. Stenehjem said last week that since the law took effect June 1, authorities have found 23 meth labs, a 64 percent drop in the number of labs that were discovered during the same three-month time period from last year. In August 2004, law officers broke up 16 meth labs. In August 2005, police found only four such facilities. [continues 156 words]
BISMARCK, N.D. - Requiring North Dakotans to show identification to buy cold pills has throttled the growth of illegal methamphetamine labs, which need the pills to make the illegal drug, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said. "This is the first truly good news on the meth-lab front that we've seen since the epidemic first started in North Dakota eight years ago," Stenehjem said Thursday. In recent years, the Legislature has imposed a number of restrictions on buying cold remedies that contain pseudoephedrine, a compound that is distilled to make methamphetamine. Meth is a toxic, highly addictive stimulant. [continues 313 words]
Inside North Dakota
