PORTLAND, Ore. - The doctor who signed a third of all medical marijuana cards in Oregon lost his license to practice medicine on Wednesday, in what medical regulators and advocates for the drug say marked the first such case in the nine states where marijuana is legal as a medicine. Dr. Phillip Leveque, 81, a Molalla osteopath, was placed on probation in 2002 for signing medical marijuana applications for patients he had not examined in person and whose medical history he had not reviewed. [continues 455 words]
Officials Meet At A Statewide Summit To Brainstorm Solutions. CLACKAMAS -- State police, whose ranks are thinned by budget cuts, retirement and new obligations for Homeland Security, have less than one-third as many troopers searching for methamphetamine labs today as two years ago, officials said Thursday. That means fewer drug labs are found and destroyed, said state police Superintendent Ron Ruecker, speaking at a statewide "methamphetamine summit." In the first such gathering in Oregon, police and social workers met to create solutions to the growing meth epidemic in the state, where an estimated 116,000 people out of a population of 4.1 million use methamphetamine. [continues 206 words]
The Attorney General Also Draws Protests During A Speech In Portland PORTLAND -- U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on Friday praised Portland law enforcement for their cooperation with federal officials that led to the arrest of six local residents on terrorism charges. "They are key to the war on terror, the strategy of preventing additional attacks on the USA," Ashcroft said of the Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force. His speech was greeted by applause from rows of county sheriffs, Portland police officers and FBI agents inside the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse. [continues 213 words]
MOSCOW (AP) -- A day after publicizing the drug arrest of what it called an agent-in-training for American intelligence, Russia's Federal Security Service said Wednesday that no espionage charges would be filed. The agency had suggested that John Edward Tobin, a 24-year-old native of Ridgefield, Conn., had U.S. intelligence training. It said his arrest showed that potential spies could be found even under cover of exchange students. But a spokesman for the Federal Security Service, known by its Russian acronym FSB, stressed on Wednesday that Tobin faced only drug charges. [continues 330 words]
