Shasta County supervisors voted 4-1 this morning to start a needle-exchange program along with an education campaign against illegal drug use. The majority agreed with the Department of Public Health, which argued the program would curb the spread of hepatitis and HIV and give the county an opportunity to offer help to addicts. "I think on the whole this proposal is a very reasoned approach which balances the concerns in the community," Supervisor Mark Cibula said. Supervisor Linda Hartman dissented, saying she agreed with the education campaign but not the needle exchange. She said public officials should "send a clear message" that illegal drug use is wrong. [continues 85 words]
Having failed in a 3-2 vote in June, the notion of offering needle exchanges in Shasta County will return to the Board of Supervisors today. The county Department of Public Health is proposing a revised plan in which a syringe-exchange program would be started along with a public education campaign against illicit drug use. Used syringes would be traded for new, sterile ones twice a week at the homeless outreach HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) van, acting Public Health Director Donnell Ewert said. The van parks in front of the county health department on Breslauer Way. [continues 419 words]
Physicians: Exchange Plan Could Help To Reduce HIV, Hepatitis Cases In County Physicians are criticizing Shasta County supervisors' rejection this week of a needle exchange program requested by the Department of Public Health. Dr. Ron Reece, past president of the North Valley Medical Association, said the supervisors "missed an opportunity" to reduce the spread of hepatitis and HIV and try to rescue drug users from their addictions. "I was disappointed," Reece said of the board's 3-2 vote Tuesday to reject a needle exchange as well as a plan to allow pharmacists to sell needles without a prescription. [continues 385 words]
Last Of Four Death Suits Dismissed Six years after state agents raided his medical clinic in Anderson, Dr. Frank Fisher's legal problems appear to have ended with the quiet dismissal of the last of four wrongful death suits against him. The dismissal papers were filed late Monday in Shasta County Superior Court and delivered to Fisher's attorneys Tuesday -- the sixth anniversary of his arrest for multiple murders and massive Medi-Cal fraud. "This tells me that those malpractice lawsuits were frivolous, but I knew that all along," Fisher said Tuesday. "I'm just glad it's over." [continues 638 words]
RED BLUFF -- The Red Bluff City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to adopt standards on how much medicinal marijuana a patient can legally possess. The standards, which are tougher than county regulations, came as a disappointment to some users. "It's disappointing that the police opted to have different guidelines than the county," said medicinal marijuana activist Jason Browne. "They had the opportunity to have higher use thresholds and chose not to." The Tehama County Sheriff's Department allows 11/2 pounds of dried marijuana and either 18 immature or six flowering plants, Browne said. [continues 291 words]
The growing season for a popular, but illegal, north state plant has come to an end, and sheriff's departments are tallying up their claims on the harvest. Dozens of marijuana eradication raids between June and October netted thousands of plants in Shasta, Tehama, Trinity and Siskiyou counties. The state's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) program is reporting a record season statewide with a total of 621,315 plants seized -- a more than 33 percent increase from the 466,054 plants taken in 2003. [continues 349 words]
In early 1999, state officials spun a tale involving a drug-abusing physician whose greed and contempt for the law led him to run a pill mill that created thousands of addicts and left a trail of dead bodies. They charged him with multiple counts of murder and set his bail at $15 million. Five years later, a jury acquitted the doctor of even misdemeanor fraud charges. As for the deaths, the original murder charges were reduced to involuntary manslaughter, delayed for years, then dismissed in 2003. State prosecutors say medicine has evolved and the practices that made Dr. Frank Fisher a menace to society then would not be worth bringing before a jury today. [continues 376 words]
Frank Fisher says he knew his prescription practices had attracted law enforcement's attention the day a purported Medi-Cal patient came to his Westwood Walk-in Clinic and asked for a Vicodin prescription. "I said, 'What's wrong with you?' and he said, 'Nothing,'" Fisher recalled. "I threw the door to my office open and said, 'You need to leave.'" That was in the summer of 1996. Fisher billed Medi-Cal for the visit, a bill that later became part of the original fraud charges filed against him in 1997. [continues 926 words]
In Florida, Dr. James Graves is serving 63 years for manslaughter in the deaths of four patients. In Virginia last year, a doctor was hit with a 313-count indictment after federal prosecutors accused him of having illegally distributed a fortune in OxyContin. A Tucson, Ariz., doctor stands accused of "drug dealing with a pen." And in Virginia, again, a pain treatment specialist faces 49 felony counts, including drug trafficking resulting in death or serious injury, conspiracy and running a criminal enterprise. [continues 993 words]
Just as Frank Fisher's story isn't over, the nightmare that began with the doctor's arrest hasn't ended for his former pain patients. Toni Briano, 40, of Red Bluff still hasn't found a permanent doctor and she's still in pain. Darlene Oakes, who now lives in Sonora, considered suicide at one point. Debbie and Larry Van Meter of Redding spent money the family said it couldn't spare on trips to Oregon, where he finally found treatment. [continues 1291 words]
Doctor And Pharmacy Owners Overcome Charges, Lose Footing There's an old police saying -- "You might beat the rap, but you won't beat the ride." And the ride is far from over for a doctor and pharmacy owners busted by drug agents almost six years ago in highly publicized dual raids of his Anderson clinic and their Redding drug store. Attorney General Bill Lockyer called a press conference to hail the murder, drug trafficking and Medi-Cal fraud arrests of Dr. Frank Bensell Fisher, pharmacist Stephen Miller and his wife, Madeline. [continues 1601 words]
The Redding Convention Center roared with the sounds of nearly 1,000 enthusiastic fifth-graders Tuesday during the annual D.A.R.E. awards rally. Students from 14 schools celebrated graduating from the 17-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education program with stomping, cheering and boisterous applause. Redding police Chief Leonard Moty congratulated the rowdy bunch and encouraged them to resist peer pressure. He asked the crowd what they will say when older kids offer them drugs or alcohol in the coming years. The raucous answer: "No." [continues 324 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - In a decision that could have a substantial impact on California's Proposition 36, the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that people convicted of driving under the influence of drugs must go to jail and not into treatment programs. Citing the danger to the public from drugged drivers, among other reasons, the justices unanimously interpreted the initiative -- which prescribes treatment and forbids incarceration for first- and second-time nonviolent offenses "related to the use of drugs" -- to exclude DUI. [continues 351 words]
Popularity of meth, pot may be fueling increase in burglary RED BLUFF -- Major crime in Tehama County climbed during 2003 with assault, theft and burglary jumping to the highest levels in five years, according to the Sheriff Department's annual report. Sheriff Clay Parker said the crime rate could reflect a number of other problems such as fewer officers on the street because of budget cuts, hard economic times and drug use. "Drugs are probably the number one problem (because) other crimes stem from that," Parker said. In Tehama County, methamphetamine and marijuana are the most commonly used drugs. [continues 305 words]
December 17, 2003 -- 2:07 a.m. Federal officials may not prosecute marijuana smokers whose doctors say pot is their only medical relief - -- at least so long as the users grow their own or obtain it from growers without charge, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 2-1 decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco would protect many medical marijuana users from prosecution in states that have laws approving the use of marijuana for medical purposes. [continues 54 words]
A Supreme Court ruling and a bill signed by Gov. Gray Davis last week go a step toward legitimizing and regulating the use of medical marijuana, but they leave in place a fundamental clash between federal and state laws that has sick users still feeling a justifiable paranoia. Thanks to the Supreme Court's refusal to reconsider lower court decisions, doctors cannot be persecuted by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency for discussing the possible benefits of marijuana use with their patients. Thanks to Senate Bill 420, which Davis signed, a patient with a doctor's recommendation for marijuana can sign up for a state ID card and have clear rules to follow to avoid arrest. [continues 558 words]
Maline Hazle Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) "This particular law isn't going to satisfy everyone, but at least from law enforcement standpoint it gives us some guidelines." Larry Schaller, Shasta County undersheriff An attempt to clarify California's Compassionate Use Act will change protocols adopted by Shasta County law enforcement three years ago as police and prosecutors grappled with enforcement of Proposition 215. The new rules are included in S.B. 420, which was signed into law Sunday by Gov. Gray Davis and takes effect Jan. 1. [continues 552 words]
A state appellate court has overturned convictions of a Redding mother and son found guilty of conspiracy to cultivate marijuana in a highly publicized medicinal marijuana case three years ago. A three-justice panel of the state's 3rd Appellate District in Sacramento ruled Monday that defense attorney Eric Berg of Redding should have objected to an instruction that may have persuaded jurors to convict Lydia Hall, 65, and her son James, 41. The same jury acquitted the Halls of growing marijuana and also acquitted Jim Hall on a charge of possession of marijuana for sale. [continues 409 words]
Officer OK After Pot Garden Raided West Of Red Bluff Alex Breitler Record Searchlight (Redding, CA) August 22, 2002 -- 2:12 a.m. RED BLUFF- A marijuana harvester shot a Tehama County sheriff's deputy in the arm during a raid early Wednesday at a rural pot garden, officials said. Deputy Troy McCoy was treated at St. Elizabeth Community Hospital and by Wednesday afternoon was resting at his Paynes Creek home, authorities said. It was the first time in recent memory that an officer was shot, said sheriff's Capt. Paul Hosler. "He's pretty shook up, but real happy it turned out the way it did," Hosler said. One man, a 23-year-old Mexican citizen, was in custody, and three others were missing in the foothills more than 10 miles west of Red Bluff. The shooting is at least the third at a California marijuana plantation in two years. [continues 726 words]
Shasta Union District Will Offer Intervention Plan For Offenders For the first time in a decade, the Shasta Union High School District has changed its policy about how to punish students who are caught with drugs or alcohol on campus. Beginning Monday, students caught on campus with an illegal substance or drug paraphernalia will be transferred to a continuation school in the district, unless they agree to complete a new five-week drug intervention program, Superintendent Mike Stuart said. The district's board of trustees voted 4-0 this week in favor of the policy change. Trustee Diana Anderson did not attend the meeting. [continues 396 words]
