As Victor Emilio Cazares Gastellum stood in a San Diego courtroom for sentencing Tuesday, the judge acknowledged the defendant was unlike the vast majority of drug offenders he sees day in and day out. Cazares was not your typical drug mule caught crossing the border, nor was he a low-level distributor. Cazares, 53, was a kingpin, the head of a large Mexican drug-trafficking organization aligned with the powerful Sinaloa cartel. He was in the business of shipping tons of cocaine from producers in Colombia and Venezuela to Mexico and distributing the drug throughout the U.S. [continues 934 words]
HANGZHOU, China - After being called an obscenity by the president of the Philippines, President Barack Obama canceled a meeting with the leader, Rodrigo Duterte, scheduled for today. Duterte had threatened to curse out the U.S. commander in chief if Obama raised the issue of extrajudicial killings by Philippine authorities in a sweeping crackdown on drug trafficking. Speaking to reporters, Duterte, who took office in June, said the Philippines is a "sovereign state and we have long ceased to be a colony," according to the Associated Press. [continues 180 words]
Smoking weed is often seen as an indulgence reserved for the young and the reckless: kids get high, in the popular imagination, but by and large their parents don't. But new federal data show a stunning reversal of that age-old stereotype. Middle-aged Americans are now slightly more likely to use marijuana than their teenage children. The research, released this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that only 7.4 percent of Americans ages 12 to 17 years old smoked marijuana regularly in 2014, a 10 percent decline since 2002. But 8 percent of 35- to 44-year-olds used marijuana regularly in 2014, surpassing use among teens for the first time since at least 2002. (Survey data prior to that year aren't directly comparable, as the methodology changed.) [continues 173 words]
LONDON - While Amazon and the British government are looking into how to use drones to deliver parcels to customers, criminals are already exploiting the technology to send drugs to accomplices in prison. Police on Monday said they recovered two drones carrying mobile phones and drugs near London's Pentonville prison and have set up a special task force - Operation Airborne - to catch offenders trying to get contraband into the jail. In the early hours of Aug. 17, police saw a man acting suspiciously near the prison. He ran away, dropping two bags containing drugs and mobile phones and managed to evade arrest, according to a police statement. [continues 186 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Killings by the police and vigilantes in the Philippines' war on drugs have soared to nearly 1,800 in the seven weeks since President Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office, the nation's top police official told a Senate hearing on Monday. Under Duterte, who campaigned on a pledge to rid the country of drug dealers, 712 suspects have been killed in police operations, National Police Chief Ronald dela Rosa said. Vigilante killings have totaled 1,067 during the same period, he said, although it was unclear how many were directly related to the illegal drug trade. [continues 175 words]
A Connecticut state worker fired after he was caught smoking marijuana on the job was punished too harshly and should get his job back, the state Supreme Court ruled Friday. Gregory Linhoff was fired from his maintenance job at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington in 2012 after a police officer caught him smoking pot in a state-owned vehicle. He was arrested, but the charges were later dismissed. State officials said firing the New Hartford resident was the only appropriate penalty for his conduct. An arbitrator disagreed and overturned the firing, saying Linhoff instead should be suspended without pay for six months and be subject to random drug testing for a year after he returned to work. [continues 87 words]
SAN DIEGO - Four medical marijuana collectives that applied for permits from San Diego County will be allowed to proceed with their plans for facilities despite a moratorium on new places to grow or distribute the controversial substance. The collectives in North and East County were far enough along in the permit process when the ban was put in place in March, and the county determined that they have the right to continue with their plans for three new dispensaries and one indoor cultivation center. The county also determined that another facility that wasn't as far into the approval process may not proceed. [continues 588 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - The Department of Justice cannot spend money to prosecute federal marijuana cases if the defendants comply with state guidelines that permit the drug's sale for medical purposes, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday. The ruling, from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, comes as voters in California and eight other states will consider allowing the recreational use of marijuana this November. Twenty-five U.S. states currently allow medical marijuana. While the sale of the drug is still illegal under federal law, Congress in 2014 passed a budget rule that prohibits the DOJ from using federal funds to interfere in the implementation of state marijuana regulations. [continues 168 words]
WASHINGTON - Delivering a major blow to backers of pot legalization, the Obama administration said Thursday that it would keep marijuana classified as one of the nation's most dangerous drugs, similar to heroin and LSD. The long-awaited decision by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration keeps intact a 1970 law that lists marijuana as Schedule 1 drug, one defined as having no medical value. That runs counter to decisions made by California and 25 other states that have already approved use of the drug as medicine. [continues 963 words]
SEATTLE - The federal government will announce today that it will allow more research into marijuana but has rejected requests to relax the classification of the substance as a dangerous drug with no medical use, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. The decision is the Drug Enforcement Administration's response to a 2011 petition by two former state governors who had urged federal agencies to re-classify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses, the two sources said on Wednesday. They requested anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter. [continues 130 words]
The first rule of diplomacy? Don't call a foreign envoys the "gay son of a whore." But that's exactly what Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines, did in televised remarks made Friday. Now Washington has reportedly summoned Manila's charge d'affaires in Washington to complain, in what must have been a rather awkward meeting. Duterte, a fast-talking former mayor who swept to power this spring, was telling reporters about his relationship with U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg when he made the wildly homophobic - and utterly undiplomatic - remark. [continues 368 words]
SAN DIEGO - More than two years after San Diego approved legal sales of medical marijuana, the city has just eight dispensaries - far fewer than predicted - with no others even close to opening. Medical marijuana advocates blame the relatively small number primarily on restrictive city zoning and regulations, but six dispensaries got final city approval months ago yet still haven't opened for a variety of reasons. The struggles could mean recreational marijuana, which state voters might approve on the November ballot, could be harder to find in San Diego than in many other cities. [continues 1162 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Since Rodrigo Duterte became president of the Philippines just over a month ago, promising to get tough on crime by having the police and the military kill drug suspects, 420 people have been killed in the campaign, according to tallies of police reports by the local news media. Most were killed in confrontations with the police, while 154 were killed by unidentified vigilantes. This has prompted 114,833 people to turn themselves in, as either drug addicts or dealers, since Duterte took office, according to national police logs. [continues 336 words]
One conventionally wise thing to say about Proposition 64, the statewide initiative legalizing adult use of recreational marijuana, is that millennials could very well provide the margin for victory. Millennials, the generation born after 1982 and before 1998, tend to be politically independent and socially libertarian. They're also numerous, making up more than a quarter of registered voters. But even more populous, comprising nearly a third of the voting pool, are boomers, the graying generation that grew up with revolution, and marijuana smoke, in the air. [continues 745 words]
Meet Javier Rodriguez. Born and raised in Columbia, Rodriguez immigrated to the United States in 1989. He set down roots in Logan Heights as the owner and manager of Restaurante Antojitos Colombiano. Serving authentic Columbian cuisine by an attentive, knowledgeable staff, Rodriguez's restaurant soon cultivated a loyal customer following. His business thrived, until an unpermitted, unregulated marijuana outlet opened for business next door. In no time, Rodriguez's restaurant was enveloped in a persistent, pungent cloud of marijuana smoke. As Rodriguez, his staff and patrons reeled from the fumes, a steady stream of people frequented the pot shop next door during all hours of the day and well into the night. [continues 444 words]
To a child on the prowl for sweets, that brownie, cookie or bear-shaped candy left on the kitchen counter is just asking to be gobbled up. But in states that have legalized marijuana for recreational use, notably Colorado, that child may end up with more than a sugar high. A study published Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics says that in Colorado, the rates of marijuana exposure in young children, many of them toddlers, have increased 150 percent since 2014, when recreational marijuana products, like sweets, went on the market legally. [continues 524 words]
While Californians consider legalizing recreational pot use, a few San Diego entrepreneurs are already casting their vote in favor of the state's cannabis industry. The group, called Canopy San Diego, is accepting applications for its pot-themed technology accelerator, a first for Southern California. The concept is to find and fund early-stage companies with ideas that can assist the state's dispensaries and growers. That could range from water conservation tools to more optimal packaging; payroll software to analytics. [continues 816 words]
To add to Katie Dexter's column ("Legalizing recreational marijuana hurts youth, families," July 16), there are other reasons not to legalize recreational marijuana. First, there are permanent disabling effects of heavy use of marijuana. My mother-in-law worked with these patients at a mental hospital. Second, law enforcement and health professionals state that marijuana is a gateway drug to heavier drugs. This will not keep people from looking to illegal drugs. Last, families of drug offenders suffer when their loved ones are trying to get clean. The media need to address these facts. Kim Vaughn San Diego [end]
In "After legalization, pot use for youth may stay flat" (July 1), the reporter got it wrong. Colorado legalized pot several years ago and since this ill-advised social experiment began, Colorado skyrocketed to No. 1 in the nation for pot smoking. According to the nation's most reliable and trusted data source, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, pot use among those between 12 and 17 in Colorado is 74 percent higher than the national average. Pot use among those between 18 and 25 in Colorado is 62 percent higher than the national average. And for Colorado adults 26 years and older, their pot use is 104 percent higher than the national average. The data proves legalization equals more pot use, more stoned drivers, more addiction and more societal costs. Diego Di Maria San Diego [end]
Regarding "Marijuana measure qualifies for ballot" (June 29): Remember to vote yes for marijuana legalization in November. It needs to be sold and regulated like alcohol. William Lyons Oceanside [end]
