Flood of fentanyl and heroin is straining budgets, putting police at risk as drug networks spread During an attempted drug-trafficking bust this spring on Chicago's South Side, police Sgt. James Madden took off running after a young man, chasing him into a darkened yard before losing the trail. Sgt. Madden didn't know where he was going. That's because he works for a sheriff's office 500 miles away, in the northwestern corner of Wisconsin. The officer's work doesn't normally take him so far from his home of Superior, Wis., (population 27,000), but today's drug trade is imposing unprecedented new burdens on small-town law enforcement. He made the eight-hour drive to pursue a Chicagoan who allegedly traveled to Superior to sell large quantities of a dangerous drug called fentanyl, a synthetic opioid up to 50 times as potent as heroin. is supercharging the longstanding problem of drugs in small towns. Police, forensic labs and prosecutors are struggling to identify and safely intercept new narcotics that can sicken or kill anyone who handles them, and to combat trafficking networks that sometimes extend many hours away. Death rates from overdoses are now higher in rural areas than in big cities, reversing a historical trend. [continues 1970 words]
Zoning change proposed to ban new tattoo, tobacco and cheque cashing business from opening Following an announcement two weeks ago that the District of Mission will be spending $3.5 million to enhance the downtown area, Mayor Randy Hawes has now asked for zoning changes that will forbid several types of businesses from being allowed to set up shop in the area. During Monday's council meeting, Hawes suggested excluding tobacconists, vape shops, cheque cashing companies, the sale of marijuana paraphernalia (bongs, pipes, rolling papers and other smoking needs) and tattoo shops. It was also suggested that massage parlours and flea markets be excluded as well. [continues 556 words]
Big Pharma steps up to oppose recreational weed initiative A couple weeks ago, we took a look at opioid use and prescription in Arizona and how states have seen a decrease in opioid overdoses after legalizing medical marijuana ("An MMJ Win," Sept. 1). Well, now it seems one such manufacturer of a fentanyl-based drug is concerned about recreational marijuana interfering with its future business plans. Insys Therapeutics plans to roll out a new line of THC medicine in the near future and decided to donate $500,000 to the Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy to aid the opposition of Prop 205. [continues 528 words]
Moral dilemmas, NIMBY-ism and budgets pose obstacles Coun. Donna Skelly was curious what safe injection places for drug addicts look like. So Dr. Jessica Hopkins, Hamilton associate medical officer of health, drew her attention to slides of the Insite facility in Vancouver, one of two legally operating injection sites in Canada, both in Gastown. It has subdued lighting and shiny floors. It has mirrored booths where junkies can shoot up with heroin or any other illegal drugs they get their shaky hands on. [continues 612 words]
Broken crack pipes, used condoms, liquor bottles, and various bits of trash have accumulated on Chilliwack middle school's sports field, prompting the school to ban students from accessing it unsupervised. Some parents at the school were taken aback by the change, which was explained to students in an assembly on Wednesday. Those parents took to social media to band together and try to find some answers. Cheri Bojcic said the school told students the field is city property, and that they are not to use it unsupervised, or hang out there at lunch. [continues 860 words]
The Illinois Supreme Court on Thursday announced it has created new rules for the state's cannabis decriminalization law - including setting a $ 120 fine for those caught with up to 10 grams of cannabis or drug paraphernalia. The law, which Gov. Bruce Rauner signed on July 29, gave the state Supreme Court the authority to further clarify the newly defined "civil law violation" of possessing up to 10 grams of cannabis or drug paraphernalia. Under the law, the violation is punishable by a fine between $ 100 and $ 200. In one of six newly created rules, the fine was set at $ 120 per violation. [continues 384 words]
Victorians would be free to smoke and grow marijuana if a push by the Sex Party to legalise the drug is successful. On Wednesday, Sex Party MP Fiona Patten will introduce a motion to the upper house calling on the government to immediately remove criminal sanctions for the possession, use and cultivation of marijuana for personal use by people 18 and older. The motion will also urge the government to allow the drug to be grown by farmers, which would create an additional revenue source through taxation. [continues 268 words]
D.C. Tenants Face Eviction As 'Drug Nuisances' Even When No One Is Charged With a Crime For eight years, Rajuawn Middleton, an assistant at a major downtown law firm, lived in a four-bedroom red-brick home she rented on a quiet tree-lined street in Northeast Washington - until she was forced out over a few cigarettes containing a "green leafy substance." In March 2014, police arrested her adult son on charges of possessing a handgun outside a nightclub. He had not lived with Middleton for years, but two weeks later, D.C. police looking for more guns raided her home. [continues 3063 words]
Philpott Says Effects of Respect for Communities Act - Introduced in 2015 - Being Monitored, Leaves Door Open to Changes If Needed Canada's Health Minister says Ottawa has no plans to repeal Conservative government legislation that harm-reduction advocates say makes opening new supervised-consumption sites unduly onerous - if not impossible. British Columbia's Health Minister, provincial health officer and others say the Respect for Communities Act puts unnecessary obstacles in the way of a proven health intervention. Overdose deaths are at a record high in B.C., having surpassed 433 as of July 31 - a 74 per-cent increase over the same period last year. [continues 552 words]
Advocates Say Clean Paraphernalia for Inmates Will Curb Blood-Borne Illness Rates in Prison, but Correctional Staff Say They're Unsafe The availability of illicit drugs in B.C. prisons underscores the need for needle exchanges to curb the transmission of blood-borne illnesses behind bars, civil liberties advocates say, but correctional staff are strongly opposed to the idea, arguing that the increased availability of clean needles could do more harm than good. Marijuana is the most commonly seized intoxicant from federal prisons in British Columbia, with 225 seizures from eight sites between January, 2010, and June of this year, according to records obtained by The Globe and Mail under freedom of information legislation. [continues 582 words]
'Epidemic' of drugs forces judge to acquit jail guard Instead of hard time, inmates are doing high time in prisons that sound more like drug dens than detention centres. An Ontario judge was recently forced to acquit a jail guard and an inmate on drug trafficking charges because the "epidemic" of illicit substances in the jail left a reasonable doubt about whether the pair were responsible for the pot and hash oil discovered during a search. Drugs are so common at London's Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), said Ontario Court of Justice John Skowronski, that a surveillance video inside the jail showed a "veritable conga line" of inmates apparently waiting their turn to buy what was being sold in the showers outside of camera range. [continues 613 words]
'Epidemic' Of Drugs Forces Judge to Acquit Jail Guard LONDON - Instead of hard time, inmates are doing high time in prisons that sound more like drug dens than detention centres. An Ontario judge was recently forced to acquit a jail guard and an inmate on drug trafficking charges because the "epidemic" of illicit substances in the jail left a reasonable doubt about whether the pair were responsible for the pot and hash oil discovered during a search. Drugs are so common at London's Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC), said Ontario Court of Justice John Skowronski, that a surveillance video inside the jail showed a "veritable conga line" of inmates apparently waiting their turn to buy what was being sold in the showers outside of camera range. [continues 613 words]
You would be forgiven for not recognizing the nondescript brick warehouse in Phoenix's Grand Avenue industrial district as the site of a high-tech agricultural facility. But as soon as you step inside, the smell of hundreds of marijuana plants is overwhelming. As you make your way through the small rooms that line the main hallway, you can hear the whoosh of ventilation fans and the gentle hum of huge artificial lights suspended above a lush green canopy of leaves. Reggae, old-school hip-hop, and pop-punk blare from a portable speaker as a crew of 30 or so workers trim, water, and inspect the all-female crop of cannabis plants casually known as "the ladies." [continues 3709 words]
Youth representative says B.C. failed to provide necessary treatment B.C.'s Representative for Children and Youth says the suspected overdose death last weekend of a Coquitlam teenager was a "tragedy that could have been prevented." Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond said her office worked with 16-year-old Gwynevere Staddon's family to try and find her treatment, and said her father did everything possible to properly navigate the system and ask for help. She called the family's case "a heartbreaking nightmare" that was completely preventable. [continues 1028 words]
TRENTON - Marijuana activist Ed Forchion gave a famous Los Angeles graffiti artist $300 cash, an ounce of weed and an expensive bong to paint a political statement on the side of his "Weedmobile" in 2008. The provocative portrait showed NJ Weedman blowing smoke into Uncle Sam's face. The van would later become a rolling billboard for Forchion's Trenton restaurant and pot temple, capturing in cartoonishly large candor his pro-marijuana views and disdain for New Jersey's "hypocritical" drug laws. [continues 930 words]
Kate Karassev Began an Online Poll Last Week, and Will Present It to Council A Sooke mom is afraid of a mass arrival of medical marijuana dispensaries in town and wants tougher action by district officials. Kate Karassev began an online poll Thursday urging city council to regulate the medical marijuana industry in Sooke. The poll can be found here. Sooke currently has three dispensaries. The first one opened its doors in April. The City of Victoria is moving forward to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries that have popped up on city streets, in an attempt to control the booming sector. [continues 227 words]
It's a rare occurrence for Cochrane park users to stumble across strewn syringes and hypodermic needles in a public area. Needless to say, it created concern for soccer player Lucy Lovelock when she came across a scattered pile of such paraphernalia in the soccer field parking lot in community of GlenEagles the evening of Aug. 2. "I have no issues with what people do in their private lives, but it concerns me to find this in a public area used by kids all the time," said the mother of two, who contacted Cochrane Fire Services to dispose of the mess. [continues 125 words]
TRENTON - Facing an 11-count indictment on drug charges, Ed Forchion, aka NJ Weedman, is not breaking a sweat. In fact, the pro-marijuana activist has challenged acting Mercer County Prosecutor Angelo Onofri to take the lead on the case. "I'm ready for it," Forchion said Tuesday shortly after learning of the indictment. "I really hope that Prosecutor Onofri presents this case and takes this ass whooping himself." Onofri announced Tuesday in a press release that a grand jury returned the indictment charging the 52-year-old with numerous drug offenses stemming from a raid on April 27 at his restaurant and pot temple directly across from City Hall on East State Street. [continues 630 words]
Police Lack Test to Identify Those Too High to Drive There are certain telltale signs that a person is stoned: bloodshot eyes, forgetfulness, ravenous late-night cravings. But the November ballot measure that would legalize recreational pot in California says nothing about how police should detect tokers who climb behind the wheel. There's no marijuana equivalent to the famed bloodalcohol content tests - taken by breath, blood or urine - that have planted .08 into the American consciousness. It's not a pressing concern for marijuana advocates, even as entrepreneurs try to develop a better sobriety test for dope smokers. But it's a big quandary for California law enforcement officers, who are facing a question that has vexed several other states where recreational pot is legal. [continues 1255 words]
Unsanctioned Tent a Response to Overdoses, Mayor's Rebuff Only hours before the B.C. government announced a new high-level task force to curb skyrocketing overdose deaths, a small ragtag group took action themselves in one of the Lower Mainland's injection-drug hot spots. They set up a tent on the side of 135A Street in Surrey's Whalley neighbourhood. Before 9 a.m., the group had unfolded plastic tables, separated sterile drug paraphernalia into cardboard bowls and clipped Naloxone overdose response kits to their belts. [continues 286 words]
