A day after what would have been her son Ashley's 38th birthday, Betty Niemi told the story of her only child's losing battle with addiction to a rapt audience Thursday night. Niemi, who has started a local chapter of Grief Recovery After Substance Passing (GRASP), took to the podium at the fourth Not My Kid: Adolescents and Addictions seminar before a crowd of about 300 at the Caboto Club. "Losing a child is like having an arm or leg amputated, but no one can see it," Niemi told the crowd. [continues 496 words]
Ontario will implement stricter drug-impaired driving penalties beginning on Sunday, but a local lawyer who handles a lot of impaired driving cases questions what practical impact it will have. Brian Ducharme said he has handled a few drug-impaired driving cases, none of which resulted in a conviction. "I've had some but not a lot, frankly, because it's very different to prove impairment by a drug," said Ducharme. "There's no scientific evidence that can prove that. "What the police do is they force you to provide a urine sample, but the urine sample doesn't prove impairment by a drug, it can prove that a drug is in someone's system, but it doesn't prove when the drug entered the system." [continues 413 words]
Stricter drug sentencing legislation being proposed by the federal government would result in worsening overcrowding in jails such as Windsor's, Windsor-Tecumseh MP Joe Comartin says. Bill C-15, which is currently before the Liberal-controlled Senate, would see mandatory minimum sentences for serious drug crime beginning at six months. "It's quite clear that we don't have the facilities," said Comartin. "We're double-bunking and triple-bunking in federal and provincial institutions already." The legislation calls for mandatory minimum sentences in a number of situations, including: . when the offence of trafficking is carried out for organized crime purposes or a weapon or violence is involved; . the drug is sold to youth or the trafficking takes place near a school; . the production of a drug presents a potential security, health or safety hazard to children or a residential community. [continues 199 words]
Citing the need to deter others from trying to smuggle cocaine across the Canada-U.S. border, a Windsor judge sentenced a Quebec trucker Monday to 12 years in prison for his attempt to bring the drug across the Ambassador Bridge earlier this year. Andre Couture, 29, of Plessisville, Que., was given the sentence by Ontario court Justice Lloyd Dean after pleading guilty to importation of a controlled substance. "The offence Mr. Couture has committed compels a sentence emphasizing denunciation and deterrence," Dean told court as Couture listened with a French interpreter. [continues 551 words]
A Quebec truck driver was to be paid $28,000 to smuggle 120.7 kilograms of cocaine worth $12 million from California to Montreal before he was caught by Canada Customs officers at the Ambassador Bridge, documents filed in court Friday reveal. Andre Couture, 29, of Plessisville, Que., was scheduled to have a sentencing hearing in Ontario Court Friday, but the hearing did not proceed because of the absence of a French interpreter. Couture's lawyer Roland Schwalm told court his client "would like to begin his sentence as soon as possible." [continues 615 words]
Residence Part of Ecstasy Case The parents of three men already convicted for their role in a ring that smuggled ecstasy into the U.S. have entered a guilty plea and surrendered their $355,000 Tecumseh home to the Crown. Adil Odish, 54, and his wife Suad, 47, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic and conspiracy to export a narcotic in Superior Court on Friday. On Monday, they surrendered their home on Funaro Crescent in Tecumseh, a 2001 Oldsmobile Silhouette, a laptop, a number of cellphones, $500 cash and 1,000 Syrian pounds to the Crown. [continues 571 words]
Part Two: How Porous Borders And Poverty Make Fertile Terrain For Drug Traffickers The wooden canoes stacked on the putrid beach of Mbour's main port tell not one story, but two. Once these locally made, satellite-equipped pirogues did a busy trade in shipping out thousands of young men for whom Mbour is the port of choice for the perilous journey to Europe. Now they have begun to export a far more profitable clandestine commodity to Europe's shores: cocaine. [continues 789 words]
Moving into a new place in Windsor and want the peace of mind of knowing it wasn't previously used as a marijuana growing operation? Windsor police can help. The force has created a new section at www.police.windsor.on.ca listing buildings in the city that have been identified as sites for hydroponic growing of marijuana and had search warrants executed. "It's something that we felt is a public safety issue, especially with the size and sophistication of some of the grow-ops we are seeing," said Staff Sgt. Ed McNorton. [continues 374 words]
There is something different in the air at Christiania these days the usual spicy aroma of marijuana smoke now occasionally mixes with the smell of tear gas and burning tires. That's because, more than three decades after Europe's oldest and largest commune was established as an antidote to "selfish society," Danish authorities are moving to close it down. More than 90 people were arrested a few weeks ago after groups of youths fought running battles with police, throwing bottles and cobblestones and burning homemade barricades. The riot, a rare occurrence in this normally placid Scandinavian country, was prompted by police arriving to demolish a shelter deemed unsafe by the authorities. [continues 669 words]
It's business as usual for border guards at Windsor-Detroit crossings despite a B.C. judge's decision indicating a search warrant is needed for customs officers to search vehicles. "My impression is that she (the judge) has no knowledge of the Customs Act," said Marie-Claire Coupal, a Windsor-based vice-president of the Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise. "We have won this in court before." B.C. provincial court Judge Ellen Gordon last week acquitted a man, Ajitpal Singh Sekhon, of importing 50 kilograms of cocaine into Canada. [continues 356 words]
The Hells Angels will be hitting the links in Amherstburg while their archrivals --the Outlaws -- hold a major gathering across the river in Detroit. Retired Quebec Provincial Police biker unit head Guy Ouellette said many of the Hells Angels from that province love to golf and this year is the 15th anniversary of the motorcycle gang's founding of its Trois-Rivieres chapter. There are also strong links between the Windsor and Sherbrooke, Que., chapters, said Ouellette, who arrived in Windsor Wednesday afternoon. [continues 532 words]
'You'll See More Of Us Than Them,' Cops Vow Windsor police are preparing for an influx of Hells Angels members from across Canada when the city hosts the motorcycle gang's annual meeting next week. More than 500 members and associates from 32 chapters across Canada are expected to be in the city from June 22 to 24 for the annual "Canada Run." "We don't want them here," said Windsor police Supt. Dave Pickford in a video police have prepared in advance of the event. [continues 514 words]
Drug preparation was to blame for an explosion and fire that rocked an Amherstburg home last month, police said Monday. Two men, ages 22 and 23, are facing charges in connection with the explosion on the night of Jan. 30 at 84 Mickle Dr. Acting Sgt. Tom McWhinnie said the pair were preparing cannabis resin, also known as hash oil. The pair were using butane in the preparation of the oil, causing the blast, which originated in the bathroom of the home. [continues 191 words]
Canadian Border Officials Nab Three in 56-Kilogram Cocaine Seizure Agents with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) have made their third multimillion-dollar cocaine seizure of the year at the Ambassador Bridge, bringing the total amount seized to more than $20 million. The 56 kilograms of cocaine, worth an estimated $5.6 million, was found Sunday night in two suitcases hidden inside a tractor-trailer carrying a shipment of oranges. Three Cambridge men are in custody. Earlier this month, Waterloo Regional Police Service intelligence and drug units received information about the possible importation of cocaine and relayed the information to the CBSA. [continues 442 words]
Residents Of Public Housing Get Help From Mayor Two women beleaguered by prostitution and drug dealing in a Windsor Housing Authority complex got quick action in the form of stepped up police patrols after demonstrating outside city hall Wednesday. Kim MacDonald and Julie Fournier, both residents of the eight-storey building at 333 Glengarry Ave., began standing outside city hall just after 4 p.m. carrying placards detailing the activity in their building. After sitting outside for about 20 minutes, the pair were granted a meeting with Mayor Eddie Francis, who summoned Windsor police Supt. Ken McFarland and Mike Pocock from the Windsor Housing Authority. [continues 505 words]
Director of gay teen center threatens to bring in the feds and the media if local pot clubs don't give him what he wants. Poor Roosevelt Mosby is just a big lovable queen who wants to do right by the 1,300 queer youth who come to his downtown Oakland community center. But the recent explosion of medical cannabis clubs nearby is creating an unsafe environment for his kids, a neighborhood where people on the street offer drugs to his teens, and one club was the scene of a recent armed robbery. [continues 1236 words]
How Not to Write a Law The Case Of Ed Rosenthal Is As Schizophrenic As Prop. 215; But It's No More So Than Voters' Attitude About Pot. Don't bogart those pot cases, Judge Breyer. The choreography certainly was impressive. On the morning of February 12, 2002, officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration simultaneously raided a San Francisco cannabis club called the Harm Reduction Center, the private homes of Bay Area medical pot activists, and a West Oakland warehouse where High Times columnist and author Ed Rosenthal grew hundreds of plants for critically ill patients. A few hours later, as Rosenthal stewed in a cell, Bush administration drug czar and longtime Clinton antagonist Asa Hutchinson strutted onto the stage at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club and compared the federal war against medicinal marijuana to a University of Arkansas Razorback game, in a speech titled "Let's Don't Punt on the Third Down." But he'd already made his point. [continues 3106 words]
Ken Estes Just Wants To Share The Miracle Of Medical Marijuana. Everyone Else Just Wants Him To Go Away. Neighborhood lore has it that before Ken Estes set up his medical-marijuana club, the property used to be a whorehouse. The neighbors wish it still was. Back then, the customers walked in, took care of business, and got out. Bad shit never went down at central Berkeley's local brothel -- certainly nothing like what happened on the afternoon of June 5. [continues 5902 words]
Courts Hear Cases Arguing State Forfeiture Law Unconstitutional TUPELO -- U.S. Attorney Buck Buchanan made several state and local law officers smile Monday when he handed over more than $250,000 to nine law enforcement agencies. The money came from forfeiture of assets during recent drug and gambling cases in North Mississippi. Buchanan said recent forfeitures in the district have created more than $1.6 million for state and federal law enforcement agencies. Buchanan said many law enforcement agencies rely on forfeiture funds to carry out drug and gambling investigations. [continues 208 words]
