The U.S. Government Is Cracking Down On Pain Specialists. Doctors And Their Patients Are Crying Foul On a cold morning last April, in the shadow of Montana's Beartooth Mountain range, five agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) walked into the office of Dr. Richard Nelson, a Billings neurologist. For six hours, they combed through his records, seizing 72 patient charts and confiscating his drug-dispensing permit. The charge? None so far, but the assumption is that he is suspected of improperly prescribing narcotic drugs. Despite a distinguished professional record spanning more than four decades, Nelson has had to spend $20,000 on lawyers, fearing that the government will indict him if it turns out that one of his patients has misused his medicine. "My practice is sunk," says the physician, 73, who specializes in chronic-pain treatment. "I can't even write a prescription for Tylenol 3 if someone has a migraine." [continues 1526 words]
The Feds Are Cracking Down On Pain Specialists, And Doctors--And Their Patients--Are Crying Foul On a cold morning last April, in the shadow of Montana's Beartooth Mountain range, five agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) walked into the office of Dr. Richard Nelson, a Billings neurologist. For six hours, they combed through his records, seizing 72 patient charts and confiscating his drug-dispensing permit. The charge? None so far, but the assumption is that he is suspected of improperly prescribing narcotic drugs. [continues 1585 words]
The penalty for smoking pot in Alabama is up to 99 years in prison. But that hasn't stopped the Cotton State -- along with Mississippi and Georgia - -- from siding with California in its battle to keep medical marijuana legal. All three filed briefs supporting Left Coast medipot users before the U.S. Supreme Court, which will hear arguments on Nov. 29 on whether patients can cultivate and possess physician-prescribed cannabis. "We happen to believe California's medical-marijuana policy is misguided," says Alabama solicitor general Kevin Newsom. "But this isn't about the drug war. It's about states' rights." [continues 140 words]
Drug Dealers Are Planting Pot Farms All Over U.S. National Parks, And The Park Service Is Struggling To Root Them Out. TIME Goes On A Raid A blue-gray dawn tickles the tops of the ponderosa pines at the Sugar Pine Recreation Area in California's Tahoe National Forest. Campers slumber in lakeside tents; bikers have yet to hit the trails. But all is not quiet on this cool July morning. A platoon of camouflaged figures equipped with rifles, pistols and bulletproof vests creep through manzanita brush with a police dog. Their objective: a marijuana plantation a few hundred yards from a well-traveled tourist area. [continues 1436 words]
Drug Dealers Are Planting Pot Farms All Over Our National Parks, And the Park Service Is Struggling to Root Them Out. TIME Goes on a Raid Sunday, Jul. 27, 2003 A blue-gray dawn tickles the tops of the ponderosa pines at the Sugar Pine Recreation Area in California's Tahoe National Forest. Campers slumber in lakeside tents; bikers have yet to hit the trails. But all is not quiet on this cool July morning. A platoon of camouflaged figures equipped with rifles, pistols and bulletproof vests creep through manzanita brush with a police dog. Their objective: a marijuana plantation a few hundred yards from a well-traveled tourist area. [continues 1433 words]
Note: After a Supreme Court decision, distributors of medical marijuana fear a federal shutdown. Sales were strong at 7494 Santa Monica Boulevard last week. Prices were neatly posted; customers paid by credit card; computers tracked inventory; a Better Business Bureau plaque gleamed behind the counter. On the lounge TV, a video showed Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca praising the place: "A great success...things are done properly and people who need services are getting those services." But the success and services of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center and similar medical-marijuana distributors across the country could soon be history. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous decision declared that illness is no excuse for legalizing marijuana--not even to ease the suffering of patients with cancer, AIDS or other life-threatening diseases. The folks on Santa Monica Boulevard, however respectable, are committing a federal crime as they collect baggies of Maude's Mighty Moss ("large and luscious reddish green buds, easy to break and roll," $18 a gram) and Adobe ("compressed green bud, fresh and tasty, with seeds and stems," $4 a gram). [continues 504 words]
Sales were strong on Santa Monica Boulevard last week. Prices were neatly posted; customers paid by credit card; computers tracked inventory; a Better Business Bureau plaque gleamed behind the counter. On the lounge TV, a video showed Los Angeles County Sheriff Leroy Baca praising the place: "A great success...things are done properly and people who need services are getting those services." But the success and services of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center and similar medical-marijuana distributors across the country could soon be history. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court in a unanimous decision declared that illness is no excuse for legalizing marijuana--not even to ease the suffering of patients with cancer, AIDS or other life-threatening diseases. The folks on Santa Monica Boulevard, however respectable, are committing a federal crime as they collect baggies of Maude's Mighty Moss ("large and luscious reddish green buds, easy to break and roll," $18 a gram) and Adobe ("compressed green bud, fresh and tasty, with seeds and stems," $4 a gram). [continues 503 words]
As Bush Proposes A Hard-line Drug Czar, Many States Are Retreating From The "Lock-'em-up" Approach How do you feel about the war on drugs? That may depend a bit on how you feel about the never-ending drama of Robert Downey Jr. Already facing a court date this week for a drug-related arrest in November, Downey was busted again last week when police found him lurking after midnight in an alleyway behind a motel in Culver City, Calif. He was cited for suspicion of being under the influence of a controlled substance. [continues 864 words]
At first glance, the stuffy basement room in the Maricopa County courthouse seems unremarkable: a black-robed figure looming over the dais; lawyers and sheriff's deputies at the ready; a line of 72 convicted felons up for sentencing. First comes the lanky forklift driver caught with crystal meth. Then the surly mechanic, father of three, busted for cocaine. And the pale 19-year-old with shorn red hair, on probation for using marijuana, who has failed his latest drug test. He shuffles his feet as his mother looks on, wipes away a tear and mumbles, "I messed up." [continues 416 words]
