SANTA CRUZ - After the last several WAMMFests encountered challenges, organizers of Santa Cruz's annual medical marijuana awareness event appear to be in for an easier time getting the city's nod of approval. Today, the City Council will consider lifting a smoking ban at San Lorenzo Park for five hours Sept. 25 to allow authorized pot users to medicate inside open-air tents designed to create privacy. The item is on the council's consent agenda, indicating that it may not be as controversial as in years past. [continues 556 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- UC Santa Cruz officials will restrict visitor and vehicle access on campus Sunday in anticipation of thousands gathering to mark the so-called 4/20 cannabis culture holiday. According to a memo sent to faculty and staff Thursday by Executive Vice Chancellor David S. Kliger, UCSC will take numerous measures to block unauthorized vehicles from entering campus and parking, as well as parking along Empire Grade, the 1.2 mile stretch between the main and west gates. Students also will not be allowed to have overnight guests tonight or Saturday. [continues 302 words]
BENICIA - Lying on the cement floor of a solitary confinement cell known as "the Hobbit," Brandon Whitney had a lot of time to think about his addiction. After months of stealing from his parents to buy marijuana, Ecstasy and alcohol, the son of City Councilmember Bill Whitney was forced to dry out at a strict rehabilitation facility in northwestern Montana. Now 19 and a member of the firefighter academy, Brandon returned last spring, deciding "I don't want to do this any more." And his family has re-inherited the loving teen who once spiraled out of control. [continues 1801 words]
Children as young as 9 have been offered free "party packs" of pure methamphetamine as the P epidemic deepens - but communities are fighting back. Across the country, small towns have taken imaginative steps to combat the drug and a Herald survey has found hopeful signs that the scourge can be contained. Anti-drug campaigners say the "party packs" give children a glass bomb (pipe), a lighter and enough P for two smokes. Children aged 9 and upwards have been offered them by older youths in Whakatane, says Johanna Wilson, who helps run the town's "no need for speed" team. [continues 599 words]
Communities Are Finding Ways To Keep Young People Away From P and Other Drugs. Murupara's anti-P campaign has been so successful that schoolchildren are said to have drug dealers running scared. Eight months ago, Murupara's community leaders and social service agencies worked out a plan which other towns now aspire to follow. District councillor Jacob Te Kurapa said Murupara's school students have learned about the pitfalls of P and signs to watch for. Young people who are approached, he said, are now saying to users, "we know you, we're going to tell". [continues 1362 words]
People seem to believe our society is violent but statistics suggest otherwise A survey assessing attitudes towards crime shows most people believe our society is more violent than it really is. Of the 1500 people questioned during the Ministry of Justice study, two-thirds of them thought that at least half of all crime reported to the police involved violence or the threat of violence. Police statistics show around 10 per cent of crime actually falls into that category. Many people also overestimated the likelihood of a household being burgled, leading the study's authors to conclude that many people had "an inaccurate and negative view of crime statistics". [continues 258 words]
Health Minister Annette King has asked for an urgent report on whether moves by Rotorua GPs and pharmacists to ban all pseudoephedrine products from the city should be introduced nationwide. Pseudoephedrine-based cold and flu pills are used to make pure methamphetamine, known as P. People trying to gather the drug's raw ingredients often break into pharmacies or go from town to town buying as many pills as possible. Many pharmacies across the country have already stopped stocking pseudoephedrine products as a result, but this is the first time a group of GPs has refused to prescribe them. [continues 431 words]
DRUGS: Nine states -- Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington -- allow medical use of marijuana. DENTON--When George McMahon picks up his pain relief medicine, he has to go through two sets of locked doors and, once home, store it in a locked safe. He's just done a drug deal, but it's legal. McMahon, who smokes 10 marijuana cigarettes a day to ease chronic pain, is one of a handful of patients in the government's little-known medical marijuana program. [continues 670 words]
DENTON - When George McMahon picks up his pain relief medicine, he has to go through two sets of locked doors and, once home, store it in a locked safe. He's just done a drug deal, but it's legal. McMahon, who smokes 10 marijuana cigarettes a day to ease chronic pain, is one of a handful of patients in the government's little-known medical marijuana program. McMahon, 54, was a guest speaker at a public forum Wednesday at the University of North Texas on the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The event was hosted by the school's Department of Rehabilitation, Substance Abuse and Addictions. [continues 622 words]
On a wet, wintry evening last month, around 180 Murupara residents crowded into a school hall to hear about a drug that has already begun to harm their tight-knit community. Concern about the arrival of P in the small Bay of Plenty town was so great that everyone from schoolchildren to the elderly had turned out. And they were shocked to learn about the devastating effects P was having. Some cried. Some felt sick. But they also decided that enough was enough. [continues 552 words]
Although crime in Vallejo is down overall this year, elected officials, police and citizen crimefighters agree the city will see long-lasting progress only when its widespread drug problem is controlled. According to figures released recently by the FBI, major crime in Vallejo for the first half of 2003 decreased in all categories except homicide, as compared to the same time frame in 2002. City officials said the drop bucks an overall Bay Area trend of increasing crime rates. Vallejo showed the biggest improvement in the number of assault cases, which were down 21 percent from 385 in the first half of 2002 to 284 so far this year. [continues 539 words]
With Intervention And Treatment, Addicts Can Reclaim Their Lives What can you do if someone you love is addicted to drugs or alcohol? Every day, people we know put themselves and others at risk due to addictions. Although the decision to drink alcohol or use illegal drugs is a matter of choice, many become addicted. The disease of addiction is often progressive and fatal. The economic cost of addiction is staggering. In the United States alone in 2000, costs for addiction-related health care, law enforcement, crime and lost productivity were estimated at $160.7 billion, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Many states spend more on addiction/abuse annually than on education. [continues 542 words]
Police have exposed Taupo businessmen, housewives and schoolchildren as drug users after an undercover operation revealed the extent of criminal behaviour in the area. Detective Inspector Graham Bell said he was astonished at how many "respectable" Taupo residents were using methamphetamine, commonly known as speed. "People who come from decent homes and nice neighbourhoods have now been lured into the use of this drug in epidemic proportions," he said. A police operation launched four months ago into burglary and stolen property came across the widespread drug scene. [continues 370 words]
An Auckland man shot in the leg while selling cannabis is refusing to tell police who pulled the trigger. Detective Sergeant Neil Grimstone said a 25 year-old man was shot in the thigh about 3 am yesterday while selling drugs from a house at Caravelle Close, Mangere. Police believed that a gang member was responsible for the attack but the injured man claimed that he did not see who it was. "I suggest he has every idea who it was but he's not prepared to tell us at the moment," Detective Sergeant Grimstone said. [continues 150 words]
Strip-searching prison visitors and examining inmates' bodies for drugs are among ideas being considered by the Corrections Department to stop illegal items entering prisons. Draft proposals are being considered for the new Corrections Act to halt drug use in prisons, as nearly one-third of prisoners drugs-tested last year returned positive results. Ideas include allowing officers to strip-search adult prison visitors with their consent and conducting full body examinations of inmates. Prisoners now could be strip-searched and have their nose, ears and mouths examined but the new proposal would cover all orifices. [continues 182 words]
By noon each day, thousands of New Zealand forestry workers have each scaled more than 50 pine trees and dragged ladders, harnesses and metre-long pruning shears through dense gorse and blackberry bush. But instead of putting their feet up and taking it easy, many eat on the run while they go in search of a different kind of relaxation. A recent survey on cannabis use in the forestry industry showed 77 per cent of silvicultural workers, who plant, prune and thin trees, had smoked marijuana in the previous year. [continues 537 words]
