Re: "Sunshine secret weapon for era of legalization," Peter Koven, Nov. 7 Mr. Koven states that if Prime Minister Trudeau "keeps his pledge to legalize recreational marijuana, he's likely to turn a tiny commercial pot market into a much larger one". This is not correct. It is not a "tiny" commercial market in Canada today. To the contrary. It is a relatively "massive" market in Canada according to The United Nations Children Fund. Prime Minister Trudeau has repeatedly stated that marijuana is especially dangerous for young people because "their minds are still growing and developing and if it is heavily used during their teen years, their brain functions can be harmed". [continues 51 words]
A former US policeman and undercover drug agent has appalled narcotics officials by introducing a Christmas video for drug users on how to avoid arrest and fool the police. Barry Cooper, who is described by former colleagues as perhaps the best drug-enforcement officer in America, will next week begin marketing Never Get Busted Again, which will show viewers how to "conceal their stash, avoid narcotics profiling and fool canines every time". Mr Cooper, who supports the legalisation of marijuana, made the video because he believes that the fight against drugs in America is a waste of money. The convictions of marijuana users fills prisons with non- violent offenders, he says. [continues 297 words]
Police Allege There Was A Cover-Up Of An Accident About Which The Congressman Can Remember Nothing PATRICK KENNEDY, a US congressman and the son of Senator Ted Kennedy, pledged last night to seek treatment for addiction to prescribed drugs after a mysterious car accident that he said he could not remember. Mr Kennedy, 38, who claimed that he was befuddled by medication, crashed into a concrete barrier near Congress early on Thursday. Policemen on the scene later said that they had been ordered not to breathalyse the politician. [continues 534 words]
HER former assistant describes her as the supermodel from hell. Victoria Beckham called her a complete cow. And yesterday Mr Justice Morland said she lied on oath. The tantrum queen of the catwalk might have won her case yesterday but it has not improved her reputation. Capricious, hot-tempered, impossible to deal with, and that is just her friends talking, even Naomi Campbell was forced to admit during cross-examination last month that her behaviour was notorious and that she had a reputation for tantrums. [continues 383 words]
THE model Naomi Campbell told the High Court yesterday of her long battle against drug addiction, as she launched a potentially groundbreaking case against The Mirror over claims that the newspaper invaded her privacy last year. Miss Campbell, 31, sneaked into court by a side door in an attempt to avoid photographers, but once inside she was open and frank, agreeing that she had had a problem with hard drugs and that she had a reputation for tantrums. But she said that she felt "shocked, angry, betrayed and violated" by photographs of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting and an accompanying story in The Mirror last February. [continues 129 words]
The two men were given suspended sentences after the jury took the highly unusual step of issuing a statement that spoke of the "extreme provocation" they suffered. The six-day trial at Blackfriars Crown Court, London, was told that Hardwicke, 28, the youngest hereditary peer to take a seat in the House of Lords, allegedly inhaled "lines" of cocaine in front of a secret camera set up by undercover journalists at The Savoy. The next day the earl, who first sat on the Tory benches six years ago, handed a "wrap" of cocaine to Mahzer Mahmood, investigations editor of the News Of The World, who was posing as a wealthy Arab businessman. [continues 541 words]
THE evidence that rural crime, vandalism and drug-taking are threatening to destroy village and countryside life throughout Britain is overwhelming (Tim Reid writes). Police, insurers and countryside groups claim that many rural communities face crime levels that are higher than in large towns and cities. National Farmers' Union Mutual, which insures thousands of farms and country homes, said last night that rural crime had increased sevenfold in the past decade, with remote areas being targeted by travelling criminals from nearby towns. The company estimates that crime now costs farmers pounds 100 million a year. Vehicle theft alone costs them pounds 73 million. [continues 340 words]
HEARSAY evidence is to be made admissible in criminal trials in an attempt to convict more drug dealers and sex offenders. Jack Straw, the Home Secretary, hopes that the radical changes to one of the oldest and most fundamental rules of English justice will mean an increase in successful prosecutions of serious criminals, many of whom intimidate witnesses. But the proposals, contained in a draft Bill to be published this summer, were attacked last night by lawyers and civil liberty campaigners as a dangerous erosion of the rights of defendants. [continues 576 words]
POLICE officers may be required to take random drug tests as senior ranks acknowledge that the force's new recruits come from a generation in which drug use is common. There have been several recent cases in which officers involved in raids have kept drugs either for their personal use or to sell on. Senior officers fear that officers breaking the law in this way are becoming open to corruption and blackmail. Keith Hellawell, the Government's newlyappointed "drug tsar", has sent guidelines on drug testing in the workplace to all 43 forces in England and Wales. [continues 379 words]
