A Myrtle Creek man was sentenced to nearly eight years in prison Friday for breaking into the home of a Tri City man, beating him and stealing his medical marijuana. A jury convicted Jeffry T. Lindenmeier, 19, of first- and second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery, and second-degree assault on July 14 after a two-day trial. In addition to the 90-month sentence, Lindenmeier will be subject to three years of post-prison supervision. Lindenmeier and five others broke into the victim's mobile home in the early morning hours of March 21, 2003, while the man was surfing the Internet on his home computer. [continues 297 words]
A Myrtle Creek man was convicted last week of all four charges against him in the beating and robbery of a man growing medical marijuana. A jury of seven men and five women found Jeffry T. Lindenmeier, 19, guilty of first- and second-degree robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and second-degree assault. The jury deliberated about an hour and a half before reaching its decision Wednesday following a two-day trial. Lindenmeier, one of six men and teenage boys to be charged in the March 21, 2003, attack on Craig Hobbs, will be sentenced Aug. 13. [continues 159 words]
A sheriff's deputy testified Tuesday that he followed a trail of marijuana leaves from the scene of a brutal attack last year on a Tri City man to a home where several of the suspects in the case were later found. Deputy Jason Zanni said the attackers carried off a marijuana plant from the home of Craig Hobbs, the victim in the case. As they ran, the plant shed leaves and stems that investigators were able to use to track to another home, located around the corner about 100 yards from Hobbs' residence. [continues 349 words]
A judge dismissed a case Friday filed on behalf of a medical marijuana grower who claimed the Douglas County District Attorney's Office was improperly applying the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act. Judge Thomas Kolberg ruled that the case, John Doe v. Jack L. Banta, et al, was a thinly veiled attempt to get him to interpret the act in a manner favorable to Doe so he could avoid prosecution. Portland attorney Leland R. Berger told the court that his client -- whom he declined to identify to protect him from prosecution -- had called the Douglas County Sheriff's Office to report his medical marijuana plants had been stolen. [continues 424 words]
Article 1: Meth's Misery (Introduction) URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n000/a447.html Article 2: A Way Out Of Meth's Cycle URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n000/a448.html Article 3: Andrea's Story URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n000/a451.html Article 4: Trafficking In Tragedy URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n2001/a03.html Article 5: Property Owners Absorb Meth Lab Cleanup URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n000/a452.html [continues 95 words]
Real estate broker Tim Smith is still upset about the cost he incurred to clean up his house after police arrested his tenant for having a methamphetamine lab. Smith had been renting the Roseburg home to the man for about six years when the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team raided the home, arrested the man, and declared the property uninhabitable about two years ago. "Actually, I saw the police report in the paper," Smith said. "This happened to be one of my own personal properties." [continues 721 words]
Meth's Misery: Woman Tells How Life And Family Were Devastated By Methamphetamine's Influence The ecstatic rush of the methamphetamine used to hit Andrea York before the needle was even out of her arm. As the drug flooded her system with artificially elevated levels of adrenaline and dopamine, she reveled in a rapturous swoon. "I don't know how to describe it, except just completely euphoric ... it literally takes your breath away," Andrea of Roseburg recalls. The initial rush - which lasts anywhere from 15 seconds to an hour - gives way to a less intense high that can last for several hours. [continues 2320 words]
Meth's Misery: Local Prevention Groups Say Drug Education Strategies Need To Change Editor's Note - Today's story on drug abuse prevention efforts among teens concludes a four-day series examining the methamphetamine problem in Douglas County. It wouldn't have been possible without a candid account of the life of a meth addict and extensive interviews with the district attorney's office and law enforcement officers, who allowed us to photograph the remnants of a meth lab. Reporter Christian Bringhurst, whose beat includes crime reporting, conceived the idea of the series after hearing about the drug's involvement in so many local crimes. He spent nearly three months interviewing and writing the series, while also reporting stories for the daily editions. [continues 1589 words]
Meth's Misery: Coping With The Social Costs Of Methamphetamine Addiction Harry and Marita Campbell don't need anybody to tell them how bad the methamphetamine problem is in Douglas County. Their daughter has been addicted to the drug for years, forcing the Myrtle Creek couple to take care of their 3-year-old granddaughter, Danielle Rose. "If you love your kids you're not going to let your grandkids go down the tubes too," Harry Campbell said. "It's a horrible experience to see that, the mental and physical deterioration of somebody you love, and just literally see their life in the toilet." [continues 1060 words]
Meth's Misery: Mandatory Treatment Offers The Change To Quit ... Or Else. Getting caught with methamphetamine, even in small quantities, is a felony in Oregon that can result in a jail sentence. However, for many Douglas County drug offenders, a bust can also result in a referral to drug court or some other mandated treatment program that could lead to recovery. Deputy District Attorney Jeff Sweet describes the drug court intervention as a "fantastic program." It's designed to motivate addicts to stay clean by holding the threat of jail or work crew over their heads, while addressing some of the underlying personal issues that contributed to their addictive lifestyles in the first place. [continues 527 words]
Never before has methamphetamine been so prevalent in Douglas County. The place we call home is one of seven Oregon counties with the most severe methamphetamine abuse problems. Oregon annually ranks in the top 10 for states with the most meth labs seized. The drug wreaks havoc in our society, contributing to crime, domestic violence, child abuse and neglect and vehicle accidents. The drug's users put a strain on law enforcement, social services, schools and the health care system. Users bring children into the world who are already damaged by the drug or neglected because their parents are more interested in getting high than caring for them. [continues 51 words]
The Growing Use Of Methamphetamine Is Stretching Douglas County Health Care Providers' Resources. Charlie Ross, an emergency room doctor at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg for the past six years, said methamphetamine abusers appear in the hospital with increasing frequency after snorting meth, taking it orally or intravenously shooting it into their bloodstreams. By the time an addict reaches the ER, it's usually because of an overdose or psychiatric problem. Patients on meth exhibit a "fight or flight" reflex, Ross said. They come into the hospital sweaty, their hearts racing and paranoid. Some experience seizures. [continues 730 words]
Meth Addiction Affects Many In County Today's News-Review features the conclusion of "Meth's Misery," a four-part series focusing on Douglas County's most troubling addiction. News-Review crime reporter Christian Bringhurst spent more than three months working on the series, and came up with some fascinating and heartbreaking information about methamphetamine's impact. He talked with former addicts, with the men and women of law enforcement fighting the problem, with counselors and family members wounded by a loved one's struggles. [continues 435 words]
For those who work in law enforcement, it is widely accepted that as methamphetamine use goes up in the community, so does the crime rate. A report prepared by the federally funded High Intensity Drug Trafficking Awareness program states that homicides, robberies, assaults and vehicle thefts all increased in Oregon in 2002 compared to the previous year. It also lists methamphetamine abuse as a primary contributing factor in the commission of many of these crimes. [continues 1128 words]
Meth's Misery: The Illicit Methamphetamine Trade In Douglas County LOOKINGGLASS - The pile of trash strewn about a dry creek bed in October hardly seemed to call for a hazardous materials cleanup crew and a police investigation. Found by construction workers at the intersection of Coos Bay Wagon and Flournoy Valley roads near Lookingglass, the trash pile included canisters of fairly common household chemicals such as denatured alcohol, Red Devil lye, lighter fluid and camping fuel. Other items aroused more suspicion, if only for the condition in which they were found: a grocery bag full of matchbooks missing their red phosphorous striking plates, two dozen used-up cold medicine packages, iodine-tinged coffee filters, and an empty Gatorade bottle stained white with residue. [continues 1807 words]
Alternative Medicine May Not Be So Alternative After All. When the Alternative Medicine Outreach Program opened in Roseburg three years ago, it was primarily as an avenue to obtain a prescription for medical cannabis. Cannabis, more commonly called marijuana, can be prescribed for therapeutic benefit in Oregon in cigarette form or as cannaboid pills. The clinic, located at 455 Corey Court in Roseburg, has since grown and serves hundreds of patients from as far away as Brookings and Coos Bay. Donna Eide, the founder and owner of the clinic, said its concept was born out of her own medical struggles. She suffers from interstitial cystitis and degenerative disc disease. She underwent surgery and was prescribed several narcotics to handle her chronic pain. [continues 808 words]
Bryan Clark Combs told the judge he was planning on getting some help for his alcohol and drug addictions -- until he "stumbled upon the garden." The 23-year-old Riddle man was sentenced by Douglas County Circuit Judge Joan Seitz to 15 months in prison and two years of post-prison supervision Thursday for raiding a legal medical marijuana garden in Riddle Sept. 25. Combs was caught with copious quantities of the medicinal crop by the man he stole it from, said Senior Deputy District Attorney Rick Wesenberg. He pleaded guilty to possession of a substantial quantity of marijuana and possession of methamphetamine in a case that highlighted what Wesenberg off-handedly described as "the perils of medical marijuana." [continues 468 words]
The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated drug manufacture and delivery convictions won against a Winston couple. The high court unanimously reversed an earlier decision by the Oregon Court of Appeals to throw out the 1998 convictions of Craig and Lisa Trax, who were arrested after a search of their apartment led to the discovery of two marijuana plants and drug paraphernalia. The couple argued successfully before a split Court of Appeals that the warrant used to carry out the search of their residence on Cary Street was faulty because the house contained two separate apartments and the document did not specify which residence was to be searched. [continues 442 words]
A Tiller man claiming to have grown marijuana in a humanitarian effort approached a Douglas County judge this week hoping his case would be heard by a jury or dismissed. He's still waiting. A controversial medical marijuana advocate and doctor appeared in Douglas County Circuit Court this week to defend his patient, 39-year-old Richard Freeman of Tiller. Freeman was arrested during a drug bust in Tiller last October. He said although he was not a registered user of medical marijuana at the time, he was entitled to grow the plants for several card-carrying medical marijuana users who were too ill to harvest it themselves. [continues 745 words]
