UKIAH, Calif.--The rule of law seems to have a weak hold in this county of spectacular forests, canyons, rocky coastal cliffs and some of the finest marijuana in the world. In Mendocino County, pot is the biggest cash crop, and the new district attorney is an ex-con. "People tell me one of two things," said District Attorney-elect Norman Vroman. "It's either, 'I wish I had the guts to do what you did against the IRS,' or it's 'How in the world do you believe you can be the top prosecutor if you've served time in federal prison?' " [continues 486 words]
UKIAH, Calif. -- The rule of law seems to have a weak hold in this county of spectacular forests, canyons, rocky coastal cliffs and some of the finest marijuana in the world. In Mendocino County, pot is the biggest cash crop and the new district attorney is an ex-con. "People tell me one of two things," said District Attorney-elect Norman Vroman. "It's either, 'I wish I had the guts to do what you did against the IRS,' or it's 'How in world do you believe you can be the top prosecutor if you've served time in federal prison?"' [continues 431 words]
But both say their personal views won't be a factor in how they do their jobs UKIAH, Calif. - The rule of law seems to have a weak hold in this county of spectacular forests, canyons, rocky coastal cliffs and some of the finest marijuana in the world. In Mendocino County, pot is the biggest cash crop. And the new district attorney is an ex-con. "People tell me one of two things," said District Attorney-elect Norman Vroman. "It's either, 'I wish I had the guts to do what you did against the IRS,' or it's 'How in world do you believe you can be the top prosecutor if you've served time in federal prison?' " [continues 638 words]
The B.C. government unwittingly provided $22,000 for a de facto "shooting gallery" for drug addicts in the Downtown Eastside that police say became a haven for traffickers. The Back Alley, which opened in November 1995, was operated for about a year by the now-defunct Innovative Empowerment Society. It received $15,000 from the Vancouver Foundation and $8,000 from the Central City Mission Foundation. The facility was supposed to have been run as a drop-in centre to help addicts rehabilitate their lives. However, soon after it opened, addicts began shooting up inside. [continues 616 words]
A member of the Vancouver/Richmond health board panel that proposed safe-injection sites for drug addicts says an unauthorized site she used to oversee provided a place to escape the "death camp" that is the Downtown Eastside. Ann Livingstone was one of five committee members who prepared the proposal, debated for the first time at a health board meeting Thursday night, for four safe-injections sites. She said The Back Alley, at 356 Powell Street, was used by between 80 to 200 addicts three to four times a night. [continues 443 words]
An arsenal of firearms and ammunition found in Surrey, including a submachinegun equipped with a silencer, is the biggest cache of weapons ever to be uncovered at a marijuana-growing operation in B.C. And RCMP said Wednesday that while this particular incident is unique in terms of the sophistication of the weaponry, it is part of a larger trend of pot growers arming themselves. The cache was found by Surrey RCMP during a drug raid in Whalley Tuesday. It included a silencer-equipped M-10 submachinegun, a .357 revolver, a 9mm submachinegun, an A-22 submachinegun, a .303 rifle, two 12-gauge shotguns, detonation cord and blasting caps, an M-56 submachinegun, a 9mm Luger submachinegun, six extended ammunition magazines and boxes of assorted ammunition. [continues 462 words]
Social Issues: The military admits no fault in the shooting of an American teen in Texas by a Marine last year. The U.S. government has agreed to pay $1.9 million to the family of an American teenager killed by a Marine along the Texas-Mexico border last year. Bill Weinecht, attorney for the family of 18 year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr., announced the settlement with the Justice Department and the Navy on Tuesday. The settlement is in the form of a $1 million annuity that,when paid out over the course of several years, will total approximately $1.9 million, Weinacht said. [continues 307 words]
Brutality: Allegations of Stonewalling Surround the Corcoran State Investigation. Sacramento-A code of silence and pressure from the prison-guard union repeatedly blocked brutality probes at maximum-security Corcoran State Prison, a Kings County prosecutor testified Tuesday. Prison officers stonewalled investigations, including the notorious case of an inmate who said he was deliberately tossed into the cell of a husky sexual predator who repeatedly raped him, witnesses said. "(Prison guards) are sworn officers, but they refused to cooperate with the District Attorney's Office and tell us what has occurred in prison," said Kings County District Attorney Greg Strickland. [continues 127 words]
The Guardian LONDON -- The first human trials of the medicinal properties of marijuana will controversially involve inhaling substances made from the entire weed, not derivatives, it became clear Tuesday. Dr. Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, a company he set up with a license from the British Home Office to explore the medical uses of marijuana, told the House of Lords select committee on science and technology in London that he expected to move to clinical trials, probably with multiple sclerosis sufferers, within the next few years. He hoped the drug would be licensed as a medicine within five. [continues 411 words]
POLITICS: The House approves legislation to make Clinton keep his word that he won't use federal funds for exchange programs. WASHINGTON-The House on Wednesday approved a bill designed to prevent President Clinton from doing something he has said he won't do-use federal funds for needle-exchange programs. Republicans said the bill-which bars the government from subsidizing local programs that provide clean needles to drug addicts in an attempt to reduce the spread of the AIDS virus - sends a message of "zero tolerance" for drug use. [continues 418 words]
A Marine on an anti-drug patrol killed an American teen who was herding goats in Texas. WASHINGTON-A Marine on anti-drug patrol who fatally shot an American teen-ager along the Texas-Mexico border will not face criminal civil-rights charges, a federal grand jury has decided. The Justice Department is expected to announce as early as Friday that the civil-rights probe of the tragedy has cleared Cpl. Clemente Banuelos of criminal wrongdoing. Banuelos and three other Marines were in camouflage on an anti-drug patrol near Redford, Texas, on May 20, 1997, when he killed Esequiel Hernandez Jr., 18, a high school sophomore, who was herding goats. [continues 214 words]
WASHINGTON - The U.S. and Mexico on Friday unveiled a comprehensive drug fighting strategy that promises closer cooperation on firearms trafficking,extradition of druglords and intelligence gathering. It was released less than a month before the Clinton administration is scheduled to decide whether to renew Mexico's certification as a cooperative partner in the anti-drug war. The strategy is aimed at reducing the $50 billion flood of illegal drugs purchased in the united States each year,much arriving across the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. [continues 203 words]
SACRAMENTO, Calif.--California's first-in-the-nation ban on smoking in taverns could go the way of Prohibition if a legislative measure to overturn the new law keeps moving forward. The bill passed the Assembly with a 42/24 vote Wednesday night, and now goes to the Senate where its fate is uncertain. The bill requires Senate approval and the governor's signature to take effect. The measure would suspend the smoking ban starting next January for two years or until federal authorities set national ventilation standards to reduce smoke to safe levels. [continues 200 words]
SOCIAL ISSUES: The University of Wisconsin,Madison,killed a sting operation because of student animosity. Now it's trying education. MADISON,Wis. Just a few blocks separate the wild extremes of night life at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. On a recent Friday, five students played Monopoly at a dormitory priding itself on intellectual pursuits. No smoke, just the sounds of an accordion, were in the air at Chadbourne Hall. A couple of blocks away, a latenight bus dubbed the "drunk bus" deposited two guys with glassy eyes and no coats outside Memorial Union. They had a bottle of booze to keep them warm alcohol is never too far away at the nation's "No. 2 party school." [continues 592 words]
Deaths,injuries and academic problems result as drinking reaches 'crisis proportions.' What happened to Eric Schwanke and Melinda Somers on the same night at nearly the same time and in much the same waybut 600 miles apartis as frightening as any Halloween story. There is some doubt that events leading up to their fates are precisely the same. Yet the similarities are enough to give chills to anyone who knows of both incidents. Their stories may give nightmares, too, to parents who send their children off to college in the belief that they will be in a safe environment where they can have fun and learn and mature into responsible adults. [continues 855 words]
Re the article about Hosep Bajakajian and his problems with the U.S. customs authorities, who seized $357,144 that he had hidden from them when he was embarking for Syria in 1994 (Nov. 4): The authorities have since learned that Bajakajian's only crime was concealing the money itself, since he had obtained it entirely legally, and was taking it to Syria to repay debts to relatives. However, under our drug laws, the government is permitted to seize and keep this money, because "it was involved in a crime." Never mind that the "crime" was simply that it was concealed; the government can and probably will keep the man's money anyway. [continues 93 words]
The authorities have since learned that Bajakajian's only crime was concealing the money itself, since he had obtained it entirely legally, and was taking it to Syria to repay debts to relatives. However, under our drug laws, the government is permitted to seize and keep this money, because "it was involved in a crime." Never mind that the "crime" was simply that it was concealed; the government can and probably will keep the man's money anyway. This is another example of an ill-conceived law, intended to be a tool in the war on drugs, that has been misapplied simply because the opportunity to do so arose. [continues 62 words]
* Re the article about Hosep Bajakajian and his problems with the U.S. customs authorities, who seized $357,144 that he had hidden from them when he was embarking for Syria in 1994 (Nov. 4): The authorities have since learned that Bajakajian's only crime was concealing the money itself, since he had obtained it entirely legally, and was taking it to Syria to repay debts to relatives. However, under our drug laws, the government is permitted to seize and keep this money, because "it was involved in a crime." Never mind that the "crime" was simply that it was concealed; the government can and probably will keep the man's money anyway. [continues 96 words]
Geeze. Slam Fire. Shoot up. These are terms synonymous with injecting heroin or cocaine or some other illicit drug. They are not exactly household words unless ... If you're not familiar with the implication of these terms, ask your representative on City Council who soon might be asked to act on a plan to offer clean needles to drug addicts. Mayor Webb's health advisers believe, probably correctly, implementing a needle exchange program will reduce the spread of a number of communicable diseases, many of them fatal. [continues 667 words]
