The op/ed on mass incarceration (StarNews, Aug. 8) points out the fact that the United States jails people at a much higher rate than even China or Russia. It states that this is due to the war on drugs and "tough-on-crime" policies, and that black males are imprisoned at more than six times the rate of white males. All true, but what it fails to add is that mass incarceration has created a new class of millions of "untouchables" (prisoners and those who have served their time), who are denied basic rights and who can be legally discriminated against. Once you enter the system, you become part of a permanent underclass -- poor, powerless and mostly black and brown.

[continues 109 words]

UNICORPORATED JACKSON COUNTRY, N.C - The chemist who unwittingly helped spawn the District's synthetic drug epidemic is a hard man to find. His phone numbers are listed under his wife's name. Strangers who call his laboratories at Clemson University are told he doesn't return messages.

To find him, you must travel deep into the Smoky Mountains and take a road that winds into the clouds. There, atop a mountain, you will discover a stooped, elderly man padding about a house cloaked in mist.

[continues 1902 words]

The marijuana plant possesses an extensive history of human use dating back thousands of years, thus providing society with ample empirical evidence as to its relative safety and efficacy ("Our View: Medical marijuana should be allowed in North Carolina," June 1). Moreover, cannabis and its compounds are among some of the most well-studied biologically active substances of modern times. A search on PubMed, the repository for all peer-reviewed scientific papers, using the term "marijuana," yields more than 20,000 scientific papers referencing the plant and/or its constituents, nearly half of which have been published just within the past decade.

[continues 169 words]

I understand The N&O's desire to present all sides of an issue, but sometimes science and facts override "fairness." The June 9 letter "No medicinal purpose" regarding medical marijuana was so full of misinformation and factually incorrect statements that it bears a response.

The reason medical marijuana is listed in the Controlled Substances Act as Schedule I has nothing to do with any actual inherent dangers, but everything to do with politics and dates back to the 1930s and then "drug czar" Harry Anslinger.

[continues 85 words]

Regarding the June 2 editorial "Yes to medical marijuana" reprinted from the Fayetteville Observer: How disappointing that you would publish, without comment, a guest editorial extolling the medical benefits of marijuana.

Marijuana is listed in the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule I, which means a drug "with no currently accepted medical use." Marinol is a synthetic version of THC, which was approved by the FDA in 1985 and supported by the National Cancer Institute.

THC in marijuana indisputably damages cognition, especially among teenagers, and results in auto and industrial accidents and decreased mental acuity and academic achievement. Different from alcohol, a legal drug, THC is not water soluble like alcohol, and trace amounts remain in the brain for extended periods, with potential brain damage.

Marijuana is not bad because it is illegal; marijuana is illegal because it has no medical value. Check with the scientists and the doctors. It is said that "emotion is the enemy of analysis."

Jack Lawn

Chapel Hill

[end]

Thirteen current and former law enforcement officers from Eastern North Carolina were arrested Thursday as part of an undercover drug-trafficking sting that started with a tip to the Halifax County Sheriff's Office almost two years ago.

The sting led to drug conspiracy and weapon charges against seven current or former Northampton County deputies, three state corrections officers, a Northampton County emergency dispatcher, a Windsor police officer, a former Weldon police officer, a Raleigh resident and a Virginia corrections officer.

[continues 522 words]

WILMINGTON - An object about the size of a AA battery glinted in the dirt. Susan Stroup turned it over with her tongs, revealing milliliter markings along the side.

She picked up the broken syringe just a few feet from a jungle gym at the edge of Robert Strange Park.

"Yep, that's exactly what that is," said Stroup, an N.C. Harm Reduction Coalition volunteer, as she dropped the syringe into a biohazard container.

On Saturday, the coalition hosted an event to collect needles discarded by injection drug users around Wilmington. Volunteers searched areas including Greenfield Lake Park, parts of Orange and Ann Streets, and the railroad tracks near 17th Street and Oleander Drive, finding eight syringes, one crack cocaine pipe and other drug paraphernalia.

[continues 315 words]

A state House committee unanimously rejected a proposal to legalize medical marijuana after an emotional hourlong hearing that ended with a legislator saying he was assaulted by a marijuana advocate.

House Bill 78 marks the most progress any marijuana proposal has had in the N.C. General Assembly. Two years ago, a similar bill was directed to the House Rules Committee, where Republican leaders allowed four people to speak before cutting off discussion and killing the bill.

Wednesday's hearing took place in the more prominent House Judiciary I Committee, and more than a dozen people spoke about the proposal in a packed meeting room. "For those in the room speaking today, this is huge - - that you're even here allowed to speak before the Judiciary I Committee," said Rep. Becky Carney, a Charlotte Democrat who co-sponsored the bill. "That's a big step. It's not a defeat."

[continues 361 words]

In a notable instance of bipartisanship, Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) co-sponsored a bill last session seeking to address concerns about the harmful effects of mandatory minimum sentencing. If it had passed, the Justice Safety Valve Act would have allowed judges to deviate from mandatory minimums in instances where they deemed a lesser sentence to be warranted. Mandatory minimums imposed by legislatures prescribe specific sentences for certain offenses, particularly those involving drugs. This policy was intended to alleviate reasonable concerns that the discretion afforded to judges resulted in varied sentences for defendants who had committed similar crimes. Although uniformity in punishment and equal treatment under law ought to be objectives of a functioning legal system, mandatory minimums routinely result in unnecessarily lengthy prison sentences while also failing to deter crime.

[continues 551 words]

Poor, miserable, depressed people take drugs. That's the way it always has been and that's the way it always will be. It's a fact of modern life. Our solution to this situation is a "war on drugs." The reality is that it's not a war on drugs, it's a war against people. There is no doubt that the government has the right and obligation to regulate the sales of addictive, destructive and deadly substances. However, it should not come as a surprise that people will possess these substances regardless of sales regulations. It should not be a crime. By eliminating "possession" laws, the biggest point of contention between citizens and the police would be effectively removed. It really is nobody's business what "substance" an otherwise law-abiding citizen may have in their possession, even to the police. The police should really have no business searching people's bodies and effects for these substances. It's ludicrous, it's ridiculous, and it is certainly unfair to the downtrodden in our society. ... Give the police a break. Let's stop tasking them with enforcing ridiculous laws and fighting our drug war. It's not fair to them or to the people.

Paul Denny, Leland

[end]

Buoyed by dozens of supporters on Monday - so many that they didn't all fit in the courtroom - former New Hanover County Sheriff's Office lieutenant Joseph Antoine LeBlanc was sentenced to more than four years in prison for crimes he committed to feed his pain pill addiction while he was second in command of the vice unit.

After being fired in June 2013, being indicted on 128 counts related to the stealing of drug evidence and the forging of a judge's signature to procure more pain pills, and the dismissal of at least nine drug cases, LeBlanc could have received 285 years in prison for the charges to which he pleaded Monday, said Superior Court Judge W. Douglas Parsons.

[continues 670 words]

Want better funding for education, healthcare, better help for the mentally ill and homeless? Stop the longest war the U.S. has ever fought. Getting out of Afghanistan would be great, but=C2=85I'm not referring to Afghanistan.

I'm referring to the never-ending "War on drugs''. There are more drugs available now than 40 years ago when the war began. What we have managed to do is raise the price for users and the profits for the traffickers.

[continues 137 words]

Pro-pot forces dominated a town hall discussion on marijuana laws hosted by two television stations Thursday at the WNC Ag Center.

By a show of hands, most of the roughly 100 people attending the televised forum favored legalizing marijuana for medicinal or recreational uses. But at least two panelists urged caution before North Carolina goes the way of Colorado and Washington in legalizing adult use of pot.

The "Your Voice, Your Future" town hall was sponsored by WLOS News 13 and WMYA and moderated by Mark Hyman, host of Sinclair Broadcast Group's opinion segment, "Behind the Headlines." News 13 streamed the program live on its website and WMYA will broadcast it Saturday at noon.

[continues 578 words]

Several Durham police officers lied about non-existent 911 calls to try to convince residents to allow them to search their homes, a tactic several lawyers say is illegal. The officers targeted residences where individuals with outstanding warrants were thought to be living, and told them that dispatch had received a 911 call from that address, when no such call had been made.

However, Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez says the 911 tactic was never a part of official policy. Last month, the department officially banned the practice, according to a memo from Lopez.

[continues 489 words]

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) signed a law Thursday allowing limited use of medical marijuana to treat seizures. North Carolina joins states that include Alabama, Mississippi and Florida in allowing the controlled use of a cannabis extract, cannabidiol.

[end]

RALEIGH (AP) - Gov. Pat McCrory says a new law he signed allowing some physicians to treat epilepsy in North Carolina using an extract from a marijuana plant could also lead to the discovery of other therapies.

McCrory signed the hemp oil bill Thursday during an Executive Mansion ceremony. The legislature sent him the bill supported by family members whose children aren't responding to conventional drug treatments.

The law allows neurologists to participate in clinical trials with the oil, which is taken orally. Lawmakers say the oil doesn't produce a high.

Patients and physicians would register in a state database. Possession of the oil wouldn't be illegal in these cases. Universities would be encouraged to conduct hemp extract research.

The law was named for 5-year-old Haley Ward, who attended the ceremony.

[end]

Several local parents are celebrating the move by the state House and Senate to approve oil that is derived from marijuana plants that has shown some early success in other states treating children with severe seizure disorders. "I was really surprised that it all happened so quickly," said Wilmington school teacher Annetta Saggese. "Not only could it be so incredible for our kids, but it's also refreshing to see that it was bipartisan, that our representatives listened and took the time and cared." Annetta and her husband Matt are the parents of 4-year-old Netta, who began having seizures at about 6 weeks old, severely stunting her development. The StarNews featured the Saggeses and other North Carolina families in an article in September, during which time parents were gearing up for a fight to push legislation legalizing what's known as CBD oil during the short session. Parents largely connected through a Facebook page lobbied their legislators hard, and their educational efforts paid off. The bill passed with very little opposition, and Gov. Pat McCrory said last week that he intended to sign it into law.

[continues 450 words]

Police are supposed to serve and protect, but increasingly special police units are being used to attack with military-style raids to serve search warrants or look for drugs. Sometimes these pumped-up Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) operations target the wrong house or injure children living with a suspect.

Last month in Georgia, for instance, a SWAT team looking for drugs battered down the door of a home in the middle of the night and tossed in a stun grenade that landed in a playpen where a 19-month-old boy was sleeping. The toddler, whose family was visiting the home, suffered serious injury and was put in a medically-induced coma. No drugs were found.

[continues 476 words]

While medical marijuana activists march along U.S. 70 ramping up awareness of House Bill 1161 -- the North Carolina Medical Cannabis Act -- it could, perhaps, be all for not.

At least that's the opinion of N.C. House Rep. Hugh Blackwell (R-86).

While he has not viewed the bill, Blackwell said he doesn't think it will make it out of its assigned committee.

Once bills are introduced in the General Assembly, they are reviewed by judiciary committees before they are brought before the voting body of government.

[continues 457 words]

With 2014 being an election year for the North Carolina General Assembly many issues will be debated and decide races.

As the public becomes more aware of House Bill 1161 -- otherwise known as the North Carolina Medical Cannabis Act -- it will perhaps become one of the most debated topics during the election season.

The North Carolina Medical Cannabis Act, co-sponsored by Rep. Kelly Alexander (D-107), Carla Cunningham (D-106), Susi Hamilton (D-18), Pricey Harrison (D-57) and Annie Mobley (D-5), seeks to legalize the use of marijuana to for medicinal purposes for patients with debilitating medical conditions.

[continues 548 words]