As state law enforcement played whack-a-mole with illegal marijuana fields, local communities protested the "invading army." Driving through Humboldt County last winter, I heard radio ads for help harvesting and selling cannabis crops, as well as for products geared toward commercial cultivation. But less than 40 years ago, the same area was one of the main battlefields of California's war on pot growers. By the late 1960s, the three counties of the Emerald Triangle had developed a reputation for growing a high-quality product. Demand grew rapidly, and prices skyrocketed, fueling greater production. In 1983, after several unsuccessful attempts to cut down production, the state started the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP. [continues 704 words]
In mid-May, authorities discovered an acre of poppy fields in Monterey County. By the end of the month, they carried out the largest known opium poppy bust in California history, according to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office. "We know it's the biggest grow in California history and we believe it could be the biggest in the nation," sheriff's spokesman Cmdr. John Thornburg told the Monterey County Herald. In a Facebook post, the agency announced that, in addition to the acre found at Moss Landing, they found seven more fields of the flowers in a span of three days. Five of the fields were in Royal Oaks and two were in Aromas. [continues 275 words]
Texas traffickers hide in plain sight in Colorado with its lax pot laws Tien Nguyen, 35, is charged in Smith County, Texas with money laundering after allegedly being stopped with $71,900 in cash in a rental car on Interstate 20. Handout Tien Nguyen, 35, is charged in Smith County, Texas with money... Three packages were mailed one after another, each shipped from the same Colorado post office to the same Houston business in the name of the same fictitious person. [continues 1675 words]
Circumventing state laws designed to protect Californians from abusive police seizures, law enforcement agencies have routinely seized property from people never even charged with a crime. But later this month, lawmakers are expected to vote on a sweeping overhaul of "civil forfeiture." Numerous scandals have plagued civil forfeiture in California. One of the most infamous was the botched drug raid that killed reclusive millionaire Donald Scott. Searching for a suspected marijuana grow operation, 30 law enforcement officers from seven agencies, including the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, the DEA, the LAPD and the National Guard, raided Scott's 200-acre ranch in 1992. Rendering the scene downright surreal, personnel from the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory were also on site. No drugs were found. [continues 489 words]
Ranchers Rally Over Security Problems ANIMAS - Several hundred ranchers gathered at a small-town high school in the Bootheel on Thursday to rally against what they described as a broken border. Also present were members and representatives of New Mexico's congressional delegation and officials from public security agencies, including the Border Patrol, Army, National Guard and sheriffs. More than 600 people showed up at a school auditorium in Animas, population 237. Ranchers here have been steaming over the reported kidnapping of a ranch hand in December, when drug runners allegedly hijacked the man's vehicle, loaded it with narcotics and drove him to Arizona. He came home "roughed up," his employer Tricia Elbrock said, but he survived the ordeal. [continues 621 words]
Five cartel lookouts huddled beneath thick desert brush one night last month. Suddenly, they realized they'd been spotted. The scouts, who are paid to study the movements of authorities and guide drug traffickers through the Arizona desert, dropped their heavy backpacks and bolted across rocky terrain near the quiet neighborhoods and golf courses south of Casa Grande. Using covert tactics, a border-crimes team stationed at a makeshift headquarters watched as the lookouts made their getaway. "They have night-vision capabilities and they're lightning fast," said Department of Public Safety Capt. Dave Nilson, who fielded constant radio traffic as he led the operation targeting traffickers in Vekol Valley. [continues 1878 words]
Reversal Cites Damage Caused by Low-Flying Helicopters in Raid SANTA FE - The New Mexico Supreme Court, taking up a controversial 2006 marijuana raid for a second time, ruled Monday that a warrantless aerial search was unconstitutional because a low-flying helicopter - said to have damaged property, kicked up dust and raised a panic - was too intrusive. Justice Richard Bosson wrote that "when low-flying aerial activity leads to more than just observation and actually causes an unreasonable intrusion on the ground - most commonly from an unreasonable amount of wind, dust, broken objects, noise and sheer panic - then at some point courts are compelled to step in and require a warrant before law enforcement engages in such activity." [continues 468 words]
Another ode in melodic election In this daily feature until Election Day, the National Post captures a telling moment in time from the 2015 campaign trail. Two teens in baggy, vintage "Canada" sweaters stroll through the nighttime streets of Montreal's Hochelaga neighbourhood. "Stoners of the world, vote for Justin Trudeau," says rapper y.not against a solid hip-hop beat flecked with sampled quotes from Justin and Pierre Trudeau. So goes the music video for Stoners for Justin, the latest song to hit a 2015 campaign that has turned out to be surprisingly musical. [continues 533 words]
In this daily feature until Election Day, the National Post captures a telling moment in time from the 2015 campaign trail. Two teens in baggy, vintage Canada sweaters stroll through the nighttime streets of Montreal's Hochelaga neighbourhood. "Stoners of the world, vote for Justin Trudeau," rapper y.not says against a solid hip-hop beat flecked with sampled quotes from Justin and Pierre Trudeau. So goes the music video for Stoners for Justin, the latest song to hit a 2015 campaign that has turned out to be surprisingly musical. [continues 534 words]
A new silent killer, addictive and lethal, is stalking Ohioans and killing them in massive numbers. Fentanyl,a synthetic, highly addictive opiate 50 times more potent than heroin, was involved in 502 fatal overdoses last year, pushing Ohio drug deaths to 2,482, a staggering 17.6 percent jump over 2013, the Ohio Department of Health reported on Thursday. It was another record year for death in a state that has lost more than 12,000 people to overdoses since 2002 and seen its drug death rate nearly quadruple. [continues 750 words]
I hear the Pentagon ordered Gov. Christie to tell his National Guard commander to lose weight. At first I thought it was an Internet hoax, then I had to take a couple bong rips to stop laughing so hard. Ummm, can you say "Pot, meet the kettle." The late-night TV hosts have had a ball with this one. I can only take that as a funny scenario. Is it political or intentional? As far as timing goes it was perfect - right in the middle of his presidential campaign. I'm with the "just say no to Christie" pot-smoking crowd. [continues 805 words]
Washington, Pa.- The first call came at 7:33 p.m. last Sunday: Two people had overdosed on heroin in a home just a few hundred yards from the station where firefighters were awaiting their nightly round of drug emergencies. Six minutes later, there was another. A 50-year-old man had been found in his bedroom, blue from lack of oxygen, empty bags of heroin by his body. At 8:11, a third call. Then another, and another, and another and another. [continues 1313 words]
Bust season is in full swing, with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office serving warrants on parcels suspected of harboring marijuana grows in the northeastern corner of the county, near Weitchpec. Sheriff's Lt. Wayne Hanson says it's all part of the yearly, decades-old eradication measures the county takes, and says there are about 20 law enforcement personnel involved, including officers from the county drug task force, the National Guard, Fish and Wildlife and CAMP. Details were scant, though, as the Journal went to press. Sheriff's Lt. George Cavinta, who was in charge of the Island Mountain raids a couple weeks ago, was on scene in the Weitchpec area July 13 and 14, but hadn't compiled statistics from the first two days' operations (North Coast News reported 1,000 plants were eradicated Monday). [continues 517 words]
Ukiah - "Emerald Tri-County," a marijuana raid that occurred last week at the junction of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties, led to the eradication of 86,578 plants, Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman reported. Allman opened a press conference Friday by conceding law enforcement hasn't paid much attention to the Island Mountain area, which is described as the original Emerald Triangle, but plans to go back in September for another round. The Humboldt and Trinity county sheriff's offices also participated in the eradication, which didn't include federal officials. [continues 583 words]
More than 86,500 marijuana plants were seized this week during a four-day eradication operation in the heart of Northern California's Emerald Triangle, where law enforcement officials from three counties also reported finding "egregious" environmental violations. The plants, along with cash, firearms and thousands of pounds of dried pot, were confiscated from the remote Island Mountain region where Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity counties meet. Some 30 to 40 people - mostly law enforcement officers from the three counties' sheriff's departments, assisted by Fish and Wildlife and a handful of National Guard officers - participated in the assault on what they say were obviously illegal growing operations, most of which included more than 1,000 plants each. [continues 844 words]
Human, Financial Toll High As Tens of Thousands Linger INSIDE COLEMAN PRISON, Fla. - Twenty-one years into his nearly 50-year sentence, the graying man steps inside his stark cell in the largest federal prison complex in America. He wears special medical boots because of a foot condition that makes walking feel as if he's "stepping on a needle." He has undergone tests for a suspected heart condition and sometimes experiences vertigo. "I get dizzy sometimes when I'm walking," says the 63-year-old inmate, Bruce Harrison. "One time, I just couldn't get up." [continues 2635 words]
[David Simon: "If I had to guess and put a name on it, I'd say that at some point, the drug war was as much a function of class and social control as it was of racism. I think the two agendas are inextricably linked, and where one picks up and the other ends is hard to say."] BALTIMORE -- The mayor is black. The council is almost two-thirds black. The school superintendent is black. The police chief is black, and a majority of his officers are black. [continues 1508 words]
For Years, Huge Budgets and Plenty of Manpower Were the Norm - but Those Days Are Long Gone The Hawaii National Guard was a pioneer in the war on drugs, flying Huey helicopters in support of a big law enforcement roundup of marijuana plants in a 1977 Hawaii island operation called Green Harvest. Former Gov. George Ariyoshi related in a 1982 New York Times story how 49 National Guardsmen flew into Kauai's mountains by helicopter in 1981 to ferret out a dozen marijuana growers because police were afraid to go. [continues 1036 words]
Measure inspired by Cedar Rapids couple, local ordinance CEDAR RAPIDS - The city's action against the sale of synthetic drugs - which tackled the substances from a consumer fraud-and-protection approach rather than trying to keep pace with their ever-changing chemical make up - came just too late for Jerrald Meek. After struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and a two-year addiction to synthetic marijuana, the Army veteran took his life in his parent's Cedar Rapids home, on Aug. 26, 2014. [continues 1830 words]
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A Homer legislator has proposed delaying regulations for marijuana concentrates to allow officials to focus this year on rules for the sale and growth of legalized pot and licensing of marijuana businesses. But Timothy Hinterberger, the chairman of the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol in Alaska, said the bill would "defy the will of the voters" and open the state to litigation, "which it would surely lose." Republican Rep. Paul Seaton, the incoming chair of the House Health and Social Services Committee, said Friday that he wants regulations taken up in manageable units so there can be adequate time for consideration. [continues 464 words]
