In response, pot-legal states are trying to clamp down on "diversion" even as U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions presses for enforcement of federal laws against marijuana. Tracking legal weed from the fields and greenhouses where it's grown to the shops where it's sold under names like Blueberry Kush and Chernobyl is their so far main protective measure. In Oregon, Gov. Kate Brown recently signed into law a requirement that state regulators track from seed to store all marijuana grown for sale in Oregon's legal market. So far, only recreational marijuana has been comprehensively tracked. Tina Kotek, speaker of the Oregon House, said lawmakers wanted to ensure "we're protecting the new industry that we're supporting here." [continues 886 words]
Winning Pot-Plant Entries Will Be Displayed at the Oregon State Fair SALEM (AP) - From seed providers to a company offering mechanized bud trimmers, those involved in the once-illicit marijuana industry in the Pacific Northwest got ready on Friday for the first-ever Oregon Cannabis Growers' Fair. Reggae music thumped from Savant Plant Technologies' display as owner James Knox, 38, of Corvallis, set up his do-it-yourself grow package, including peat and microorganisms to stimulate plant growth, among more than 80 exhibitors registered for the two-day fair that starts Saturday. [continues 188 words]
PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) - After months of public hearings with pot growers, lawmen, public health officials and others, an Oregon commission is racing to finalize recreational marijuana regulations and issue licenses to hundreds of businesses within a few months. But those who aim to produce souped-up coffee and other niche products might have to wait a bit longer. "It's like the circus around here," Oregon Liquor Control Commission Chair Rob Patridge said after a hearing in which a pot advocate and a panel member argued about whether marijuana is safer than alcohol, and an entrepreneur discussed selling marijuana-infused java, eliciting blank looks from commissioners. [continues 822 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - American agents are fighting drug traffickers by following the money -- hundreds of tons of cash every year. - Drug kingpins smuggle vast amounts of cocaine and other drugs into the United States, where they sell it in bulk. They don't take credit cards or checks -- only cash will do. That amounts to a lot of greenbacks that traffickers then want to get to Mexico and other points south. Decades of efforts to seize drugs entering the United States and to wipe out drug production in source countries like Colombia have not reduced the availability of drugs on the streets of America. [continues 639 words]
The Colombian Air Force Airlifted In Food Amid The FARC Rebels' Blockade In The Strife-Torn State Of Putumayo, Where A Lack Of Supplies Is Growing Critical PUERTO ASIS, Colombia - No gasoline. No electricity. No running water. For more than a week, residents of this ramshackle city have been living in fear and deprivation since rebels declared the state of Putumayo in southern Colombia a no-drive zone and began blowing up bridges, electrical towers and oil production facilities. As the crisis deepened, a Colombian Air Force C-130 on Thursday airlifted out 82 stranded civilians from Puerto Asis -- Putumayo's main city -- after ferrying in 12 tons of food. [continues 341 words]
Rebels Declare Southern State No-Drive Zone PUERTO ASIS (AP) -No gasoline. No electricity. No running water. This ramshackle city has been living in fear and deprivation since Colombian rebels declared the southern state of Putumayo a no-drive zone just over a week ago and began blowing up bridges, electrical towers and oil production facilities. With shortages worsening in the region, a Colombian air force C-130 ferried in 12 tons of food Thursday and then flew out at night carrying 82 civilians who had been stranded in Puerto Asis, the state's main city. [continues 516 words]
Country's Leader Vows To Continue With Fumigation BOGOTA, Colombia - President Alvaro Uribe vowed Friday to press ahead with U.S.-financed fumigation of cocaine-producing crops, even as a new White House report found that a massive aerial spraying offensive last year failed to make a dent in the area of coca cultivation in Colombia. Critics of Washington's effort to crush drug production in Colombia, the world's main cocaine-producing country and a major supplier of heroin, say the report indicates the Colombian and U.S. governments are losing the war on drugs, which has cost more than $3 billion in U.S. aid here since 2000. [continues 412 words]
Efforts Target Rain Forest In Colombia Over the jungles of western Colombia --- The newest battle in Colombia's drug war is being fought in one of the largest tracts of virgin rain forest in the Americas, an expanse of stunning beauty where crystalline rivers weave around mountains hugged by a blanket of trees. Harried by eradication campaigns elsewhere, drug gangs have been moving into the remote region, bringing in millions of seedlings for coca --- the bush used to make cocaine --- to be planted by peasants who are felling patches of trees. [continues 530 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - Insisting that the U.S.-backed campaign to wipe out Colombia's drug crops is producing results, the commander of Colombia's armed forces said Friday that cocaine-trafficking rebels are planning for the day when the drug crops are gone altogether. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as the FARC, aim to sink their millions of dollars in drug profits into legitimate enterprises, in order to keep their money working for them once the cocaine heyday is over, Gen. Carlos Alberto Ospina said in an interview with The Associated Press. [continues 519 words]
The New DEA Chief In Colombia Says He Aims To Break Up Small Cartels, Which Have Emerged After The Cali And Medellin Cartels Were Beheaded BOGOTA - Since Colombia's giant drug cartels were smashed with American help, ''microcartels'' have emerged that smuggle cocaine and heroin to the United States, according to the new top U.S. drug agent in Colombia. ''The head of the mother snake was chopped off . . . but now we have to chase the baby poisonous snakes, which can be nevertheless just as venomous,'' David Gaddis told The Associated Press in his first interview since taking over the Drug Enforcement Administration's operations in Colombia at the start of the year. [continues 456 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Colombia's smaller rebel army said it shot down a State Department plane that crashed last month, killing its Costa Rican pilot, while fumigating cocaine-producing crops. It was the first claim of responsibility in the Sept. 21 downing of the OV-10 plane in northeastern Colombia. Mario Alvarado, the pilot, was the sixth U.S. government contractor killed in Colombia this year. The claim by the National Liberation Army, seen Friday, was posted on the insurgent group's Web site. [continues 202 words]
CUCUTA, Colombia (AP) - Pilots contracted by the U.S. government are facing immense challenges and hazards as they fumigate drug crops at ground-hugging altitudes in their latest offensive in eastern Colombia. But the pilots' missions are made even dicier because they are flying beyond areas cleared of rebels by army troops, two senior Colombian army commanders told The Associated Press. The practice, which they say exposes pilots to hostile fire, goes against tactics normally used in the anti-drug campaign - and may have already cost one contractor his life. [continues 540 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- A U.S. State Department plane used to fumigate drug crops crashed Monday and its American pilot was killed, the U.S. Embassy said. It was not immediately clear if the crash was caused by an accident or if it had been shot down, the embassy said. The American, whose name was not released pending notification of relatives, was the fourth to die in three crashes of U.S. government planes in Colombia this year. Three other Americans were killed when their single-engine Cessna plane crashed and burned in southern Colombia on March 25 while searching for three other Americans who were captured by leftist rebels after their plane went down on Feb. 4. [continues 240 words]
SARAVENA, Colombia - Colombian troops battling leftist rebels are getting inspiration from U.S. Army Green Berets - and from U.S. Gen. George S. Patton. On an edge of a military base amid vast expanses of scrubland in an eastern region dominated by rebels, a sign carries the famed World War II general's words exhorting soldiers to not sacrifice their lives for their country, but to "make the other poor bastard die for his." U.S. Army special forces, wearing wraparound sunglasses and armed with assault rifles and grenade launchers, roll past in Humvees on their way to train Colombian soldiers to set up ambushes and other offensive tactics. [continues 658 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - U.S. special forces will begin training a new Colombian army commando unit this month to attack outlawed armed groups, U.S. officials said Thursday. The officials, speaking on condition they not be further identified, told journalists the Colombia soldiers would be trained at an army base near the capital and would then form a new special forces commando battalion. "It's similar to commando battalions in different armies around the world that do direct action raids," one of the officials said. [continues 352 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - A U.S.-funded aid program under which farmers were to have destroyed their own cocaine-producing crops has fallen far short of its goals, U.S. officials said. Top Stories The bleak assessment of the results of the initiative to provide coca farmers with an alternative to growing drug crops comes as the United States and the Colombian government embark on an all-out effort to eradicate coca crops in the southern region. Tens of thousands of peasant farmers in Putumayo state were to have received development aid under the $1.3 billion Plan Colombia, an initiative of the Clinton administration that was approved by Congress and is still active under the Bush administration. [continues 432 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - Eighteen months after an American missionary plane was accidentally shot down, the United States will resume a campaign to help Colombia track and force down drug flights, officials from both countries said Wednesday. The program was suspended in April 2001 in Colombia and Peru after a Peruvian warplane mistakenly shot down the missionary flight over the Amazon, killing an American woman and her infant daughter. Colombian warplanes will intercept drug flights based on intelligence from the United States, Colombian Gen. Hector Velasco said Wednesday. Velasco, the Colombian air force commander, said operations are expected to resume this month. [continues 149 words]
Miami --- American troops will train Colombian soldiers and police to help them take control of a region of the country crawling with rebels and paramilitaries, a senior U.S. military officer said. The training by U.S. Special Forces is part of a larger American effort to help Colombia battle insurgents who have waged war in the South American country for 38 years. In the past, U.S. military aid focused on stemming the flow of cocaine and heroin from Colombia and depriving rebels and their paramilitary foes of drug profits. But the United States now plans to directly help Colombia attack the outlawed groups. [continues 415 words]
MIAMI - American troops will train Colombian soldiers and police to help them take control of a region of the country crawling with rebels and paramilitaries, a senior U.S. military officer said. The training by U.S. special forces is part of a larger American effort to help Colombia battle insurgents who have waged war in the South American country for 38 years. U.S. military aid has focused on stemming the flow of cocaine and heroin from Colombia and depriving rebels and their paramilitary foes of drug profits. But the United States now plans to directly help Colombia attack the outlawed groups. [continues 428 words]
PUERTO ASIS, Colombia - Black spirals of buzzards mark the fresh corpses that turn up in this frontier town and in the nearby coca fields, jungle and pastures. Despite patrols by Colombian soldiers and police, paramilitary death squads roam freely, killing suspected rebel collaborators or anyone else who gets in their way. The carnage is mounting, and terrified residents don't know where to turn for help. "We are in Puerto Asis, where there is no justice, no law," snapped a medical worker, who asked not to be named for fear he might be killed for speaking out. [continues 393 words]
