Democratic candidate for governor Stormy Dean is criticizing Gov. Mike Johanns for the failure to obtain $500,000 in federal funding to combat the spread of methamphetamine. "Johanns dropped the ball," Dean said. Johanns' spokesman Chris Peterson said the money was not a grant, as Dean claimed, but was part of a federal appropriations bill. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey had earmarked the funding in past years, but no earmarking for Nebraska was made last year. "Stormy Dean continues to embarrass himself as a candidate for governor," Peterson said. "Today's attack by his campaign raises further questions about his credibility as a candidate." [continues 150 words]
Democratic candidate for governor Stormy Dean is criticizing Gov. Mike Johanns for the failure to obtain $500,000 in federal funding to combat the spread of methamphetamine. "Johanns dropped the ball," Dean said. Johanns' spokesman Chris Peterson said the money was not a grant, as Dean claimed, but was part of a federal appropriations bill. Former U.S. Sen. Bob Kerrey had earmarked the funding in past years, but no earmarking for Nebraska was made last year. "Stormy Dean continues to embarrass himself as a candidate for governor," Peterson said. "Today's attack by his campaign raises further questions about his credibility as a candidate." [continues 151 words]
SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- The Midwest's battle against methamphetamine has international ramifications, the director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said Wednesday. At a 13-state summit on efforts to fight the highly addictive drug, Asa Hutchinson said it has been discovered that international drug gangs supply many of the materials used to make methamphetamine. Proceeds from some of those sales have found their way to the Middle East and into the hands of terrorist organizations, he said. At the same time, the war against terrorism has helped in the battle against drugs because security is much tighter at airports and U.S. borders, Hutchinson told about 200 state and federal officials attending the three-day summit sponsored by the Midwest Governor's Conference. [continues 210 words]
SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- About 200 state and federal officials are expected today for a three-day Midwest summit designed to find ways to eliminate the scourge of highly addictive methamphetamine. Strategies for law enforcement, meth lab cleanup, education about the drug, treatment of addicts and protection of their children will be discussed by Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns and officials from 12 other states in the Midwest Governors' Conference. Often called the "poor man's cocaine," methamphetamine can be made in bathtubs, on kitchen stoves and in car trunks from commercially available chemicals. It normally contains ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, found in over-the-counter cold medications. [continues 322 words]
State Sen. Jon Bruning said Tuesday he'd target the methamphetamine drug market as attorney general. "Nebraska's meth problem has become a scourge on our society," the Republican nominee said at a Lincoln news conference. Efforts to combat methamphetamine would be one of his priority initiatives if he is elected this fall, he said. Bruning said he'd focus on elimination of meth labs, a plan to reduce costs associated with cleaning up busted labs, increased public awareness of the problem and coordination with law enforcement officers and retailers. [continues 127 words]
ORLANDO, Fla. -- Gov. Jeb Bush's 25-year-old daughter was found with what was believed to be crack cocaine at a drug rehab center where she was undergoing court-ordered treatment, police said. If confirmed, it would be Noelle Bush's second lapse since entering rehab and could result in jail. Police were called late Monday to the Center for Drug Free Living in Orlando, where workers gave them a 0.2-gram rock they said they found in Noelle Bush's shoe, Sgt. Orlando Rolon said. [continues 244 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan -- The new Afghan government has "largely failed" in its 4-month-old effort to eradicate the opium poppy crop in Afghanistan, which in recent years became the world's biggest producer of the raw material for heroin, U.N. crop experts reported Sunday. Their figures show the 2002 crop, close to the high levels of the late 1990s, could be worth more than $1 billion at the farm level in Afghanistan. "That's a big chunk of GDP," said Hector Maletta, a spokesman for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. This impoverished nation's gross domestic product (GDP) for 1999, the latest estimate available, was put at $21 billion. [continues 336 words]
Drug, alcohol and cigarette use among 6-12 graders has fallen dramatically, according to a national study released last week. The 2001-02 annual Pride Survey reported that alcohol and cigarette use is at its lowest level in 15 years. Drug use is at its lowest level in eight years, according to the survey. The reason? The results may reflect a cultural reaction to the terrorist attack of Sept. 11, suggested survey officials. "Following 9/11 Americans seemed to refocus on family, community, spirituality and nation," said survey author Thomas J. Gleaton. "That renewed awareness shows up in the data." [continues 323 words]
In contrast to some Midwestern states, the idea of widespread testing of high school students for illegal drugs has never caught on in Nebraska. Things change. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has placed a clear stamp of approval on such programs, community discussion should be encouraged on whether the programs are worthwhile. Advocacy groups are sure to form, especially since corporations now see a new field for profit. In fact, the Drug and Alcohol Industry Association, made up of private drug-testing companies, already has scheduled a workshop in Washington on July 18 for school board members and principals, according to the New York Times. [continues 358 words]
WASHINGTON -- The clinical trial of a drug that helps people quit heroin by easing the withdrawal symptoms is being halted because the drug, BriLofex, works too well. Since it exceeded the criteria to show it worked, it would have been unethical to subject those study participants receiving a dummy comparison drug to withdrawal, said Frank J. Vocci, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuses' treatment research and development division. BritLofex was as effective in reducing withdrawal symptoms as a dose of morphine, but is not addictive, Vocci said. [continues 189 words]
Lincoln police and federal authorities are concerned about a growing problem in Lincoln: a deadly drug called heroin. At a Monday news conference, federal and local authorities are expected to announce the indictment of Michael Siegrist and discuss other drug-related deaths in Lincoln. U.S. Attorney Mike Heavican said Siegrist has not been arrested and will turn himself in to authorities on Tuesday. His initial court appearance in U.S. District Court is scheduled for the same day. The indictment, filed earlier this month, alleges that Siegrist distributed heroin to Craig Hofer on May 9, 2001. Hofer was found dead the next day. [continues 298 words]
Behind the astounding arrest statistics kept by the Lincoln Police Department is the sad story of a subculture caught in the revolving door of the criminal justice system. The plight of some of the repeat offenders demonstrates the need for the community to continue to support and improve services for those suffering from substance abuse and mental illness. More than 186 people in Lincoln have 100 or more arrests or citations since 1981, according to a Sunday Lincoln Journal Star story. Among those with multiple arrests are substance abusers and the mentally ill. They are the people who might be saved, unlike the career criminals who also make up the group of repeat offenders, criminal justice officials said. [continues 325 words]
GRAND ISLAND -- Drug arrests have risen in central Nebraska, and police are crediting good work from a multi-unit task force. Seventy-seven people were arrested in a 24-county area in 1999. That number grew to 119 in 2000, and had nearly doubled to 147 last year. Police at all levels of law enforcement began working together in Hall, Adams and Buffalo counties in 1991 to better coordinate efforts as part of the Tri-City Drug Task Force. Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney police are part of the task force, which covers 24 counties, as are the three counties' sheriff departments, the State Patrol, the FBI, the Internal Revenue Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the U.S. attorney's office and the Midwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. [continues 109 words]
NOOR MOHAMMAD KHAN CHARAI, Afghanistan - Mohammad Gul, tattered shoes planted in the mud, will keep a close watch on his two little acres in the coming weeks, waiting for the buds to bloom. He won't be alone. Five hundred miles up, racing silently through space, U.S. reconnaissance satellites will be watching, too, camera eyes cocked for the first signs of vivid red, the flowering of opium poppies. Here on the edge of Afghanistan's Desert of Death and on east and north across this deeply poor land, the deadly narcotic is again the raw material of life and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people. [continues 761 words]
Marijuana has been Lincoln's preferred drug for more than a quarter century, but a methamphetamine boom confined mostly to the last five years may eventually dethrone it, according to police. The Lincoln Police Narcotics Unit released its 2001 arrest statistics this week, and they echoed what Police Chief Tom Casady said earlier this month: Meth use is skyrocketing. The total number of people police arrested for possession or distribution of each drug was unavailable. Those figures would take months to compile, authorities said, so they offered the drug unit's numbers as a snapshot. [continues 462 words]
While Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady and Lancaster County Sheriff Terry Wagner had the attention of three governing boards, they wanted to drive home a point: Methamphetamine use should be a major concern for the residents of Lincoln and Lancaster County. Violent crime, including several recent homicides, have been intertwined with meth use, the two told members of the County Board, City Council and Lincoln Board of Education at a joint meeting Friday morning. The rapid increase in thefts from automobiles, with a loss of more than $2 million last year, is linked with the drug. Forgeries - up 33 percent - and frauds - - up 21 percent - are linked. [continues 514 words]
Our beautiful city has much productive commerce, yet I am loath to understand why we have commercial ventures that promote the illegal use of drugs. In the area of 27th and Randolph, a second commercial venture displays the finest glass-blown items, cartoon character bongs and water pipes used for smoking marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine. Arrays of weapons including knives and party bongs are dynamically displayed. It would be instructive for our city leaders to visit this interesting commercial venture. I question whether this type of commerce fits into the values of this community and what norm promotes the use of these items. Yes, illegal drug use exists. While not outlining the risk factors accompanying access to these items, especially for youths, this is not my community value. My hope is that all residents take a field trip to visit these commercial ventures and that you will take time to think about how such commerce promotes a positive place to live and prosper. Kate Speck, Lincoln [end]
A half-dozen times in the past year, fertilizer thieves have risked their eyesight, lungs and lives by illegally tapping into the highly unstable contents of one of the Walton Co-op's approximately 40 anhydrous ammonia tanks. Andre Hoyt, branch manager of the co-op, and Reed Priess, his boss at the co-op's Greenwood headquarters, assume the towable "torpedo tanks" farmers use to inject super-cooled fertilizer into the soil were hit as recently as two weeks ago by manufacturers of methamphetamine. [continues 482 words]
The Nebraska Supreme Court was asked Tuesday to clarify how far police officers can go in asking to enter a home without a search warrant. The high court heard the case of William D. Tucker of Lincoln, who said he gave police permission to "look around" his apartment and then watched them find drugs after opening drawers and cupboards. Tucker was sentenced to 15 months to 30 months in prison after police found marijuana, amphetamine, cocaine and drug paraphernalia inside his apartment in 1998. [continues 349 words]
KINGSTON, Jamaica - In the heart of Kingston, about a dozen men stand in an open-air emporium stacking long buds of marijuana even though the crop is illegal in Jamaica. "High-grade, the best . . . smell it," says a dreadlocked 27-year-old Rastafarian at the "Luke Lane" market, who gives his name only as Toro as he holds a bud in the air and beckons to a passer-by. Sale completed, he lights a joint of rolled marijuana and smiles. These days, he has a lot to be happy about. [continues 597 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - Battle lines are being drawn over the massive fumigation of drug crops in Colombia, with opponents saying it poses health risks while the U.S. ambassador warns that aid could be withheld if the Washington-backed plan is scrapped. The country's top anti-narcotics enforcer, meanwhile, is accusing drug traffickers - who have lost of millions of dollars in profits - of waging a smear campaign against Washington's $1.3 billion counterdrug offensive. "What I have seen is a plot against the fumigations," said Gen. Gustavo Socha, chief of the anti-narcotics police. "The drug traffickers are generating false information and forcing people to disseminate it." [continues 558 words]
LONDON - Marijuana is illegal here, but police in south London have decided to stop wasting time on pot-smokers and focus their resources on combating hard drugs and violent crimes. In a six-month trial that began recently, police in the London borough of Lambeth are issuing warnings to people caught with small amounts of cannabis. They're confiscating the drug, but they're not prosecuting. The new policy, initiated by the Lambeth Division but approved by the central Metropolitan Police office, amounts to a de facto decriminalization of marijuana in one part of the capital and has sparked a national debate about Britain's drug laws. [continues 645 words]
OMAHA - There is not enough evidence to criminally prosecute three Scottsbluff police officers for alleged brutality, according to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation. In April, the Criminal Civil Rights Division investigated Ramon Villa-Velazquez's claims that the officers mistreated him during an arrest last spring, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mike Wellman said. The Mexican native had written the department to complain about the incident. The Mexican government joined Hispanic community leaders on July 7 in calling for a criminal investigation. They wanted the U.S. government to determine if there has been a pattern of officers mistreating Hispanics in Scottsbluff, a western Nebraska city of 14,700. [continues 230 words]
Two new drug courts in Lancaster County just got a $1 million boost from the federal government. The programs, which try to stop the spiral of drug-related crime by helping addicts quit, began earlier this year. One court deals with adults, and the other manages juvenile cases. On Friday, Lancaster County Attorney Gary Lacey was notified that the U.S. Justice Department awarded the juvenile program $500,000 and the adult program $493,453. The state probation office administers the juvenile court, and Lancaster County administers the adult court. [continues 300 words]
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - When an epidemic of crack and gang violence erupted in cities like New Haven in the 1990s, police and lawmakers struck back hard. The war on drugs yielded dozens of new laws, including mandatory sentences for drug dealers and heavier penalties for dealing crack rather than powdered cocaine. But those laws had unintended consequences in minority communities. Black men make up less than 3 percent of Connecticut's population but account for 47 percent of inmates in prisons, jails and halfway houses, 2000 census figures show. [continues 446 words]
Gov. Mike Johanns said his three-pronged attack in the war on drugs put Nebraska in great shape for upcoming battles. Speaking from the Western Governor's Association in Boise, Idaho, Johanns told a press conference Tuesday that this year's new programs will make a significant difference in the war against drugs. Among his proposals passed in the recent Legislature: $3 million over the next two years to fund early childhood development and education. $636,326 over the next two years for eight new State Patrol troopers. [continues 223 words]
One senator's innovation is a door to horror for another. Sen. Gene Tyson of Norfolk said the legalization of the production of industrial hemp could tap potential growth and profit for Nebraska farmers. Sen. Jim Jensen of Omaha said allowing industrial hemp to be grown in Nebraska "is scary, because in fact, kids are going to try this, and eventually try the real stuff and you'll have to call paramedics to revive them." Somewhere in between there could be a resolution to a bill that would open the Nebraska market to the cultivation of industrial hemp - a plant related to, but without the hallucinogenic properties of, marijuana. [continues 477 words]
U.S. vital interests are at stake in South America's violent drug war, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel said Thursday. Hagel, who has just returned from a tour of battleground bases in Colombia and Ecuador, said narcotics traffickers are a threat to U.S. national security, as well as American economic and societal interests. "We have a very, very serious problem on our hands," he said in a telephone interview from Washington. "This is at our doorstep. We must help. We've got a big stake here." [continues 280 words]
LA ESPERANZA, COLOMBIA Buoyed by unexpected success in fumigating coca crops, a U.S.-financed offensive is targeting clandestine jungle labs in search-and-destroy missions in the heart of the world's main cocaine-producing region. Colombian army troops, trained by Green Berets and guided by spy-plane and satellite technology, have had only light skirmishes with leftist rebels and rival right-wing paramilitary gunmen who earn millions of dollars from "taxing" the cocaine industry in southern Colombia. U.S. officials say it is too early to declare victory, but the Colombian commander of the operations says rebel vows to combat the offensive have proved empty. [continues 480 words]
Ed Schrock sees nothing wrong with using anhydrous ammonia as fertilizer on his farm near Elm Creek. What bothers him is when the chemical is used to make methamphetamine, an illegal, synthetic drug. That's why the state senator wants to have the common farm fertilizer classified as drug paraphernalia in Nebraska. Schrock has nothing against his agrarian colleagues. He just wants to give prosecutors another tool to use against drug dealers. An increasing number of methamphetamine labs has been uncovered across Nebraska in recent years. [continues 340 words]
LINCOLN - Hemp grew out of the Agriculture Committee Thursday afternoon by a unanimous 7-0 vote. Under the bill, industrial hemp - argued as a nonhallucinogenic cousin of the drug cannabis sativa - would be grown by licensed farmers under supervision of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and the state Department of Agriculture. Sen. Ed Schrock of Elm Creek introduced LB273 with the hopes of expanding markets for industrial hemp. He said that many other states -- and most other industrial countries, including Canada -- have developed their own markets for hemp, and the United States currently imports some for products ranging from clothes to house-building material. [continues 196 words]
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Nebraska law enforcement officials are turning up more methamphetamine labs after seeing them proliferate in neighboring states for several years. "It's a consensus of all law enforcement that there's a tremendous meth problem in all of our areas," said Nancy Martinez, state program coordinator for the six-state High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. Nebraska is included with the Dakotas, Iowa, Missouri and Kansas. Martinez said HIDTA, which coordinates federal, state and local officers to respond to hazardous meth labs, has recorded 11 meth labs discoveries in January, exceeding a quarter of the total labs found in 2000. [continues 499 words]
PHILADELPHIA - For years, parents, doctors and regulators have squabbled over the medicinal value of the prescription drug Ritalin and its ability to get distracted and hyperactive children to calm down and pay attention at school. Now, they have more to squabble about: As use of Ritalin has exploded in the last decade, the medicine's easy availability and its powerful stimulant effects are fueling a growing epidemic of drug abuse. On Wednesday, for example, police in a Philadelphia suburb arrested a young man who is accused of breaking into his high school's medicine cabinet last week and making off with hundreds of pills of Ritalin and Adderall, medicines widely used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. [continues 167 words]
OMAHA - Nebraska spent about 8 percent of its budget in 1998 on the costs incurred by drugs, alcohol and cigarettes, a private study estimates. The state spent $291 million, or $176 per person, on the direct and indirect influence of substance abuse costs, said the study released Monday by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. The study, which recommends greater investment in prevention and treatment programs, particularly in prisons, said that out of each dollar spent in Nebraska on substance abuse costs, only 3 cents went to treatment. [continues 502 words]
No less than Christopher Columbus, Betsy Ross and Thomas Jefferson were brought into Tuesday's legislative debate on whether to legalize the growing of industrial hemp. Columbus and almost every other sailor of his time used hemp-sails. Ross made the first American flag out of hemp. And Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on hemp paper, possibly grown by hemp farmer George Washington, Sen. Ed Schrock told the Agriculture Committee. But hemp use is considered a criminal act by the Drug Enforcement Administration because of the plant's best-known byproduct: marijuana. [continues 453 words]
HYANNIS (AP) - It had been 10 years since anyone was arrested for drugs in Grant County, but in the last 30 days the sheriff has been busy, arresting six people in three separate drug busts. With only about 800 people living in the Sandhills county, Sheriff Mark Crouse did not worry much about drugs in his jurisdiction until recently. "We handle traffic cases, accidents, domestic disturbances, trespassers and game violations," Crouse said. "We just don't have much drug activity up here." [continues 240 words]
A small increase in the cost of a bottle of beer or a glass of wine could provide much-needed treatment programs across the state, according to Sen. Jim Jensen, who plans to offer a alcohol tax increase proposal next year. The proposed tax increase, which would be the first since 1987, would be relatively small, said Jensen - 1 cent for a bottle of beer, about 12 cents for a liter (about a quart) of alcohol, and 5 cents for a liter of wine. [continues 679 words]
U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Kopf has rejected a lower court recommendation that a Lincoln man serving a life sentence for dealing drugs either be resentenced or retried in light of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Kopf said the Supreme Court ruling, which changes the way federal prosecutors try drug cases, did not apply to the government's case against Jimmy C. Johnson, whom Kopf sentenced in 1998 for distributing crack cocaine. The judge said the ruling, Apprendi vs. New Jersey, decided by the high court this summer, was not retroactive. Kopf's order Thursday rejected a lower court finding that Johnson should receive a new sentence or trial because of the Apprendi case. [continues 248 words]
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court entered the debate over medical marijuana Monday, agreeing to decide whether the drug can be provided to patients out of "medical necessity" even though federal law makes its distribution a crime. The justices said they will hear the Clinton administration's effort to bar a California group from providing the drug to seriously ill patients for pain and nausea relief. A lower court decision allowing the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to distribute the drug "threatens the government's ability to enforce the federal drug laws," government lawyers said. [continues 485 words]
Narcotics officers descended on a home in north Lincoln early Thursday morning and came away with what could be the largest seizure of methamphetamine in Lincoln. Officers who served the search warrant at 5744 Walker Ave. found 3 1/2 pounds of methamphetamine, 6 ounces of cocaine and $110,000 cash. Two people at the residence -- Dario A. Arreola, 18, and Miguel A. Rodriguez, 26 -- were arrested. A day earlier, police had arrested Adel Martinez, 27, 6235 Holdrege St., No. 6B. [continues 305 words]
SAN ISIDRO, Colombia - At almost any sudden noise, the children in Adiela Vela's class give a startled jump. Eyes dart through windows to a band of right-wing militiamen whose weapons are trained down the road. Leftist rebels are only about a mile away, manning their own outpost on the rutted dirt track. This is the front line in the battle for the heart of the world's cocaine-producing industry. And not only are civilians caught in the cross fire, they are also now enduring a rebel blockade. [continues 355 words]
It's harvest time in Nebraska. Forget the combine, put away the tractor, bypass the grain elevator and pull out the biggest garbage bag around. Because this plant - ill-tended, uncultivated and illegal - is the other Nebraska crop. Although some law enforcement officers say fewer people seem to be harvesting the plant, most people seem to think the drought hasn't done the weed much harm. "The marijuana around here grows 12 feet tall," said a Nebraska State Patrol investigator in charge of eradicating ditchweed. "Along these creekbeds it will run down the creek for a mile." [continues 630 words]
It sounds downright un-American, but the federal Drug Enforcement Administration says Hector Herrera has to prove $4,000 the agents seized at Omaha Eppley Airfield is not drug money before they will give him his money back. The burden of proof is on Herrera. That's the law, the federal drug seizure law. Um, er, well, that was the law until Aug. 23. Then it changed. Now the federal government bears the burden of proving seized money was earned in illegal drug transactions. [continues 424 words]
Please -- no wailing and gnashing of teeth at news that the D.A.R.E. program is being phased out. The program doesn't work well enough to keep pouring money and manpower into it. Despite the program's popularity, there has been persuasive evidence since the early 1990s that the program fails to stop youths from smoking marijuana, drinking booze, popping pills and doing any other drugs. A 1990 study funded by the Canadian government reported that "D.A.R.E. had no significant effect on the students' use of any of the substances measured. ... They included: tobacco, beer, pop, marijuana, acid, Valium, wine, aspirin, uppers, downers, heroin, crack (cocaine) liquor, candy, glue and PCP." [continues 334 words]
I agree with Sylvester Salcedo's commentary in the March 30 Journal Star. But just as our "War on Drugs" has ravaged Colombia for 30 years, it has had untold effects in our country as well. Our prisons are bursting at the seams with so-called criminals, ordinary citizens who use drugs. The "War on Drugs" has cost us billions of dollars in tax revenue that could have been used much, much more wisely. Furthermore, there is such a lack of trust by citizens toward police officers that witnesses of real crimes, violent crimes, are unwilling to come forward because they fear incriminating themselves. These hostilities between officers and civilians are increased when the officers are pressed by their superiors, whether they are within the force or outside politicians, to employ illegal search and seizure tactics to find these drugs. [continues 369 words]
State officials will take a closer look at how public funds -- nearly $20 million last fiscal year -- are used for drug abuse programs. That action comes in the wake of a task force report showing Nebraska inmates, the state's most at-risk community, are getting but a tiny fraction of those funds. Sen. Nancy Thompson of Papillion, a member of the task force, said the report found the state Department of Correctional Services received about 4 percent of the funds last fiscal year. Up to 85 percent of Nebraska inmates need substance abuse treatment. [continues 578 words]
A unanimous Nebraska Supreme Court said Friday a State Patrol trooper's seizure of 229 pounds of marijuana from a motorist's trunk in 1997 was the fruit of an illegal search. The ruling could mean a new trial for Christopher D. Anderson, who had been found guilty in Hamilton County District Court of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and sentenced to 1 ½ to 3 years in prison in 1998. Hamilton County prosecutors could choose to not retry Anderson. [continues 467 words]
A Nebraska man found with 1 pound of marijuana won't be prosecuted if an Appeals Court opinion stands.On Tuesday, the Appeals Court said the drugs should be suppressed as evidence because authorities based the search on an unreliable source. Jerry S. Keen of Kearney County was arrested in February 1998 after the Nebraska State Patrol seized the marijuana from his home. "I'm obviously happy about the decision," Keen's attorney, Greg C. Harris of Kearney, said. "I don't think I should comment any more because they might appeal this to the Supreme Court." Kearney County Attorney David G. Wondra was unavailable Tuesday. Harris said authorities found "a touch more than a pound" of marijuana in Keen's home. [continues 212 words]
Marijuana eases pain and quells nausea in cancer patients and others, but research is needed to find alternatives to smoking it, an advisory panel to the federal government said Wednesday in a report that reignited the national debate over medical marijuana. Contradicting administration policy that marijuana has no medical value and can lead to using harder drugs, a panel of experts found that marijuana is not addictive and said there is no clear evidence that smoking it leads to consumption of heroin, cocaine or other narcotics. [continues 292 words]
