PUEBLO WEST, Colo. - It's 9 a.m. on a weekday, and I'm at the Marisol Therapeutics pot shop. This is serious business. Security is tight. ID checks are frequent. Merchandise is strictly regulated, labeled, wrapped and controlled. The store is clean, bright and safe. The staffers are courteous and professional. Customers of all ages are here. There's a middle-aged woman at the counter nearby who could be your school librarian. On the opposite end of the dispensary, a slender young soldier in a wheelchair with close-cropped hair, dressed in his fatigues, consults with a clerk. There's a gregarious cowboy and an inquisitive pair of baby boomers looking at edibles. A dude in a hoodie walks in with his backpack. [continues 814 words]
Never in her life did Corey Lowe think her native Georgia would even consider allowing medical marijuana, but now she's hopeful that lawmakers have heard her pleas for a chance to help her improve her child's life with the drug. The Holly Springs resident said she was ecstatic Wednesday after a bill allowing non-psychoactive cannabis oil to treat seizure patients got unanimous approval in a state House committee and moved one step closer to a vote on the floor. [continues 486 words]
Medical marijuana bill offers hope but research requires much time The medical marijuana bill approved by a state legislative committee is titled Haleigh's Hope Act, named for Haleigh Cox, a young girl with a condition that causes severe seizures. "It's hope. That's all it is. Hope. That's what we're fighting for," said Corey Lowe, whose daughter Victoria, 12, suffers from mitochondrial disease that could wrack her body with up to 100 seizures a day if not controlled. [continues 444 words]
ACWORTH - One year after she buried her 23-year-old daughter, Teresa Turner is ready to share her family's story. Blonde, outgoing and an accomplished athlete and student, Elizabeth Turner died from a heroin overdose Feb. 11, 2013, after years of struggling with a drug addiction. Three weeks ago, her family started a website to spread the word about Elizabeth's death and resources for families dealing with drug addictions. As of Tuesday, more than 1 million people had visited the site and added their personal addiction stories. [continues 1200 words]
The Obama administration continues its efforts to legitimize marijuana with new rules allowing banking institutions to finance and do business with legal marijuana sellers - even as medical experts urge scientific studies of the effectiveness and safety of marijuana for medical uses. The latest pot-favoring move follows the decision by the Obama administration in August to not prosecute legal dealers who met eight requirements, including not selling to minors - even though marijuana was and still is illegal under federal law. Under the Friday rules issued by Obama's Treasury Department, "the administration went a step further by laying out a path for banks to bring marijuana commerce out of the shadows and into the mainstream financial system ... a move that could further legitimize the burgeoning industry," the Washington Post said. [continues 386 words]
Highly motivated people are energetic and dynamic. Creativity and productivity are the outgrowth of motivation. Highly motivated people break down barriers, they overcome obstacles, they do the impossible. Our president recently said marijuana is no worse than alcohol. Studies released since his statement show he is wrong. However, leprosy is no worse that cancer. Is good or bad, right or wrong simply a matter of comparison? In an unscientific way, Satchel Page, the legendary baseball pitcher, may have explained a lack of motivation. He opined, "You gotta get the juices jangling." He likely never heard the word "dopamine," but research now shows it is a "juice" essential to the brain of motivated people. [continues 445 words]
Everybody's doing it -- confessing their youthful, pot-smoking ways - -- so here goes. I don't remember. Kidding, kidding. Anyone over 30 recognizes the old adage: If you remember the '60s, you weren't there. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk. It is true that marijuana smoking tends to affect one's short-term memory, but the good news is that, while stoned, one does relatively little worth remembering. At least that's my own recollection. So, yes, I toked, too. This doesn't mean anyone else should, and I haven't in decades, but our debate might have more value if more of us were forthcoming. [continues 677 words]
HOLLY SPRINGS - Corey Lowe doesn't know if medical marijuana can help her daughter, but as a mother she said she is willing to fight for a chance to make her child's life better - no matter how long that life may be. Lowe, 35, of Holly Springs, is pushing state lawmakers in 2014 to legalize medical use of the drug in hopes it might help her 12-year-old daughter Victoria, who has chronic seizures and cannot speak because of development issues. [continues 981 words]
by The Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) - Alda Gentile was not arrested. She was not charged with a crime. Yet police in Georgia seized $11,530 in cash that Gentile said she had in a car for a house-hunting trip in Florida. Police confiscated the money after stopping the car, driven by her son, for speeding. They searched for drugs but found nothing. Her case has become a rallying cry for libertarian, conservative and other groups seeking to change laws in Georgia that allow law enforcement to seize property and cash from people who have not been convicted of crimes, a process known as civil forfeiture. [continues 1289 words]
As I take keyboard in hand, voters in the village of Breckinridge, Colo., - land of wintertime snow and summertime vistas - were deciding whether or not to legalize marijuana. This wasn't just for aging hippies, mind you. The measure would allow lawful possession of up to an ounce of pot for any adult who wants it. The feeling among the supporters is if the Rocky Mountains aren't high enough for you, you should be able to set your own cruising altitude. For ease of operation, recreational paraphernalia such as bongs and pipes are also included on the ballot. [continues 709 words]
During his immersion in his new job, Gil Kerlikowske attended a focus group of 7-year-old girls and was mystified by their talk about "farm parties." Then he realized they meant "pharm parties" - sampling pharmaceuticals from their parents' medicine cabinets. What he learned - - besides that young humans have less native sense than young dachshunds have - is that his job has wrinkles unanticipated when he became director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "People," he says, "want a different conversation" about drug policies. With his first report to the president early next year, he could increase the quotient of realism. [continues 661 words]
Narcotics Agents In Cobb County Noted A Rise In The Nonmedical Use Of Prescription MARIETTA - Narcotics agents in Cobb County noted a rise in the nonmedical use of prescription drugs in 2002, including among teenagers, according to agents with the county's leading authority on drug abuse. In 2002, abused prescription drugs rose from being the sixth most-seized drug in Cobb County to the fourth, passing heroin, LSD and Ecstasy, said Maj. John Koehler with the Marietta-Cobb-Smyrna Narcotics Unit, which combats drug use in Cobb. [continues 472 words]
Imagine a city behind bars. By 2008, stricter sentencing laws will have created a prison population in Georgia of 56,000 to 58,000 - about the size of Marietta, the city near Atlanta. Georgia taxpayers are already paying nearly $1 billion a year to house prisoners. Georgia has the sixth-highest incarceration rate in the United States and ranks first among states in the percentage of people in prison, probation or on parole. Many of these prisoners are behind bars because of mandatory prison sentencing for nonviolent drug crimes and property crimes. In some cases, Georgia's judges are forced to give a first-time offender prison time even though his or her circumstances might warrant a more lenient penalty. [continues 150 words]
KENNESAW - After its first year with student housing, Kennesaw State University officials admit that drug and alcohol offenses have shot up on campus - but they also say that just goes with the territory when students live on campus 24-7. "I think on any college campus, you are going to have to deal with issues of alcohol, of homesickness, of drugs," said Amy Wrye, director of student life at KSU. "Overall, we are thrilled it has gone this well so far." [continues 557 words]
Its users lured by a long, cheap high, methamphetamine's popularity has steadily grown with an increasingly diverse cross-section of society, making inroads into Cobb County. Although "meth" trails marijuana and cocaine in prevalence in Cobb, the drug is a fast-growing third, local officials say. "The reason it's so popular, I believe, is because it is the same high as cocaine, but it lasts longer," Cobb Assistant District Attorney Jason Saliba said. While crack cocaine gives a high for up to 15 minutes, a methamphetamine high can last 11 hours or more. [continues 765 words]
William Bennett's "bad bet" - a.k.a. Clinton's Revenge - has the schadenfreuders in near glossolalia while posing an interesting problem for America's theocrats. Revelations that Bennett, who has made a career of promoting virtue, has a million-dollar gambling habit is nectar to the left, especially those who recall Bennett's relentless condemnation of Bill Clinton's behavior in the White House. What better expunger of those historically stained times than learning that one of Clinton's public scolds, who served as Reagan's education secretary and the elder Bush's drug policy director, was nursing a near-pathological "vice" of his own. [continues 654 words]
ATLANTA - An Atlanta-based youth civil rights organization has stepped into the fray regarding a shooting death of a 28-year-old black man by a Cobb County police officer last week. Services were held Monday in Macon for Ervin Bernard Maynard of Marietta, who was shot to death at his Lincoln Hills apartment on Wednesday while officers were trying to arrest him for a parole violation. Police said Maynard was told repeatedly by officers to show his hands and was shot after he made "threatening and aggressive movements toward officers in the doorway." [continues 530 words]
MARIETTA - Cobb County police are refusing to release information about whether the man shot to death by an officer on Wednesday was armed, police officials said Thursday. Cobb County police spokesman Dana Pierce said the order comes from the Cobb County District Attorney's Office, which said it did not want to taint a possible grand jury pool by releasing that information about the case. Unattributed broadcast reports Thursday evening indicated the man was unarmed. The incident happened about 3:30 p.m. when four Cobb County police officers accompanied three officers from the state Board of Pardons and Paroles to deliver an arrest warrant for 28-year-old Ervin Bernard Maynard at the Lincoln Hills apartment complex. The complex is located off Terrell Mill Road near Interstate 75. [continues 223 words]
AUSTELL - In an effort to get community groups on the same page, Cobb Community Collaborative Director Maggie Williams is leading the effort to train the Marietta Loop Group to become a drug task force, modeled after Austell's and Powder Spring's prevention programs. The Marietta Loop Group is a community organization that helps collect litter from city streets but is looking to branch out into other areas of service. Ms. Williams, program director of the Cobb Community Collaborative, provides technical support for the Austell and Powder Springs task forces to help families stay clear of drugs. She employs a holistic approach, dealing not only with children, but with school staff and, most importantly, the children's families. [continues 227 words]
WASHINGTON - The capture and murder by narco-guerrillas of U.S. intelligence operatives in Colombia was a disaster waiting to happen. It was predicted in a report submitted a month ago by visiting congressmen, who described the U.S. government's multi-billion-dollar Plan Colombia as an expensive failure. The incident signified that the Colombia crisis is getting worse. Details of the mission and crash of the single-engine Cessna 208 are obscure, thanks to the U.S. government's reluctance to talk about secret operations. Sources in Colombia, however, report that the plane contained four contract employees of an office in the U.S. embassy in Bogota under CIA control. Their fate was sealed by multiple security blunders, in the opinion of special operations experts. [continues 575 words]
