Ex-Sheriff's Wife Claims Charges Led To Disgrace In late May 1995, Susan Murphy said she learned that the state Board of Pharmacy was investigating her husband, then Snohomish County Sheriff Patrick Murphy. He had been involved in a series of serious accidents since 1988, and was under heavy medication. "I thought it was absurd that somebody would try to investigate somebody for seeking medical care," she told a Snohomish County Superior Court jury Wednesday. But the investigation turned into criminal charges by a special prosecutor, and the loss of an election in November of that year, thrusting her husband and family into financial turmoil and disgrace. [continues 444 words]
The federal government argues that allowing sick people to obtain marijuana for medicinal use will make the drug laws impossible to enforce. Seeking to shut down the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, it warns that "drug traffickers, acting under the guise of 'medical necessity,' will be able to manufacture and distribute marijuana with impunity." Although the Supreme Court seemed receptive to such claims when it heard oral arguments in the case at the end of March, the government's fears have not been realized in California, where voters approved a proposition sanctioning the medical use of marijuana five years ago. Growers and distributors are still convicted under state law, and the proposition does not seem to have affected overall marijuana use. [continues 632 words]
David Ferguson was confirmed as the B.C. Marijuana Party's Chilliwack-Kent riding candidate in the upcoming provincial election March 15. Ferguson, who owns Black Sea Organics in Agassiz, said he supports the party's marijuana de-criminalization platform, but his main interest is to ensure alternative medicines remain un-regulated. "It's the only party that believes in freedom of medicine and getting the government off the back of herbalists," he said. "We believe a terrible assault is going to happen in the next two years on freedom of medicine." [continues 103 words]
It doesn't take much of a military tactician to note that so far the war on drugs has been a losing battle. The United States pumps millions of dollars into a campaign that doesn't seem to be able to stop the flow of drugs into our country and into our young people. Some folks would have us believe that the martyrs in the war on drugs are folks who would benefit from medicinal marijuana. To that end, Bob Newland has announced that he will circulate a petition to get a statewide vote on the use of medicinal marijuana and the growing of industrial hemp. [continues 253 words]
Orkney MS sufferer Biz Ivol is being sent free cannabis packages through the post as a direct result of her efforts for legalisation of the drug. The outspoken cannabis user is also sent free and anonymous envelopes containing cannabis seeds. Biz (52), from Herston in South Ronaldsay, said that she has eight packages containing the drug stored in her freezer. "I am sending it out as quickly as I am getting it," she said. "The police are wasting their time trying to stop it. There are too many people using it now to prosecute." [continues 598 words]
Judge Stayed Charges Conrad Would Have Faced In Court Today Cole Harbour rave "pioneer" Derek Conrad was scheduled for trial today, charged with possessing ecstasy for the purposes of trafficking. Instead, Conrad's family is mourning his death. Conrad, 28, died Monday in the QEII Health Sciences Centre after a wild weekend drug binge. He overdosed Sunday morning at his home. News of his death spread quickly through the metro rave community, with several people turning to a local Internet chat site (www.ravehalifax.com) to express their sorrow. [continues 311 words]
The Situation In The Countryside Is Dire, But Reforms And Money, Some Of It American, Are Paying Off In A New Self-Respect BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia - This steamy oil city in the heart of Colombia has long been known as one of the most violent places in all of Latin America. But when the situation began to turn even deadlier than usual late last year, local officials pleaded with the government for extra help. Local security forces -- 400 police and more than 1,000 army troops -- couldn't cope. [continues 1693 words]
Almost as troublesome as the last-minute pardons President Clinton decided to grant rich, powerful and connected figures like financier Marc Rich are questions about the pardons he failed to issue to hundreds of very ordinary people caught in the legal traps of our misguided "war on drugs." The number of Americans incarcerated for drug offenses has spiraled upward tenfold since 1980. Some 500,000 are now held - 80,000 in federal prisons. Many are serving extremely long sentences - 20, 25 years, life - with no chance of parole. [continues 747 words]
All is not as rosy as athe advocates of drug courts would suggest. There is little compelling evidence that drug courts will reduce violent crime related to the drug trade. In late November of last year Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen announced Vancouver's controversial drug strategy and harm reduction plan. Modelled on the approaches of many European cities, the plan aims to embrace a four pillar approach, emphasizing prevention, treatment, enforcement and harm reduction. Much of what the city is suggesting is not especially novel or controversial: increased enforcement of upper-level dealers, a redeployment of police officers, a school curriculum on drugs and drug abuse, and the expansion of medical treatment for those who have difficulties with illegal drugs. [continues 1036 words]
THE COUNTRY'S only women's prison, the state-of-the-art Dochas Centre at Mountjoy, is plagued by overcrowding and a serious drug problem, according to a new report. Staff shortages and lack of adequate supervision are allowing a drug culture to continue unchecked and untackled, it claims. And the continued use of the centre as a female remand facility was undermining the entire complex and causing problems which could have "disastrous" consequential effects. The hard-hitting report, compiled for the Prison Officers' Association national executive, comes just over a year after the pounds 13m "model" prison was opened. [continues 426 words]
Ted Smith, marijuana activist and founder of the Vancouver Island Cannabis Buyers Club, has launched a constitutional challenge to Canada's drug trafficking laws. Smith told the Weekend Edition he and attorney Bob Moore-Stewart plan to argue that the nation's trafficking laws are both "arbitrary and disproportionate", in that they don't distinguish between selling a controlled substance (in this case, marijuana) versus giving or sharing that substance with others. Their draft constitutional question notice (sent last week to B.C. Attorney General Graeme Bowbrick and Attorney General of Canada Anne McLellan) comes on the heels of two incidents in November, 2000, in which Smith was arrested by Saanich and Victoria police, and charged with possession of a controlled substance and trafficking in a controlled substance. [continues 455 words]
Gangster Al Capone decreed that Bugs Moran had to go With Valentine's Day only five days away, what could be more appropriate than to recall the most horrendous crime ever perpetrated on that holiday. This account appeared in The Toronto Sun on Feb. 12, 1977. In all the annals of U.S. crime, one man has become synonymous with American gangsterism: Al Capone. The very name brings to mind images of fast cars, fast guns, fast women and rivers of booze -- as well it should -- for Al Capone was surrounded by all of these and much more. He was to attain a stranglehold on the rackets of Cook County, Ill., and its major city, Chicago. [continues 1572 words]
BOGOTA -- A joke making the rounds has Colombian President Andres Pastrana going into a bank to cash a check without ID and being asked to do something to prove who he is. He just shrugs and says: "I can't think of anything." The cashier pays him instantly. The gibe reflects the belief of many ordinary Colombians that Pastrana, who took office in August 1998 after a record voter turnout, has essentially run out of ideas on how to deliver on his centerpiece pledge to negotiate a peaceful end to the country's 36-year-old, drug-fueled guerrilla war. His popularity has slumped to just 21 percent, and roughly three quarters of Colombians have lost faith in slowmoving peace talks with Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas, according to a recent Gallup Poll. [continues 361 words]
NZ's drugs market is changing. Paul Yandall reports that cannabis is being replaced by trendy drugs which can keep you dancing all weekend. And the police admit they are losing the war against narcotics. Glen: 24, single, Auckland urban professional, likes golf, dancing and class A and class C drugs. Police believe Glen and his ilk are driving a change in the market for illegal drugs in this country. "They're the ones who are supplying most of the demand for the new Party drugs - young Aucklanders with disposable income who want to dance all weekend," says the head of the Auckland drug squad, Detective Senior Sergeant Colin McMurtrie. [continues 886 words]
No. Anything to do with drugs should be put in the dump and make sure a bulldozer goes through it. Howard Norris, Sparwood Yes, marijuana legislation is going to get turned over in less than one year and look at what the government is losing in revenues. Ivan Butler, Sparwood Yes, today's society is more liberal than it used to be. The debate is contentious. There are benefits and downfalls with it. Alain Frenette I don't know, but (legislation) should go through in terms of being legal because in a lot of ways it is useful for medical purposes. Neil Beranek, Sparwood (Expletive) no and I can add to that! I figure if most of these guys are on marijuana, they don't have any brains to start with. Phil Musil, Elk Valley [end]
Peru Pays In its October 1998 annual report the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) welcomed the successes achieved in Bolivia and Peru. Peru's policy is to shoot down suspect aircraft and sever the air link to stop the transfer of coca and basic coca paste (the first stage in processing it into cocaine) to Colombia. It has certainly had an effect. And so has the involvement of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. But they do not tell the whole tale. Far from it. [continues 266 words]
In the wake of marijuana being legalized for medical use in California by Proposition 215 in 1996, Michael Riggs founded FloraCare, a group dedicated to helping bona fide patients get their medicine. Riggs says he has long taken marijuana for chronic pain and other ailments related to a heart defect that required open-heart surgery as a child and from a 1988 accident that broke several vertebrae in his neck. Along with fellow patients, Riggs began operating a "cannabis club" out of his Citrus Heights home and growing marijuana for club members in a Carmichael warehouse. [continues 907 words]
The Ministry of Health has stopped the distribution of a legal party substance that doctors and police want banned. The potentially lethal One4b has put comatosed users into hospital. Director-General of Health Karen Poutasi issued a warning yesterday for people not to take products like One4b that contain 1,4 butanediol, an industrial solvent. The United States Federal Drug Administration has warned that 1,4 butanediol can cause dangerously low respiratory rates, unconsciousness, vomiting, seizures, and death. Risks are increased when the chemical is mixed with alcohol or drugs such as depressants. [continues 359 words]
TULIA - In a pivotal move that may shed some doubt on the credibility of an undercover officer involved in a controversial 1999 drug bust here, the 7th District Court of Appeals in Amarillo dismissed charges this week against a man arrested during the bust. The court's ruling will prevent Billy Wafer, 41, from being tried on charges that he sold drugs to an undercover officer during the 1999 bust. Of the 43 people arrested during the bust, 40 of them were black. [continues 425 words]
West coast growers have been making a lot of money on BC bud and in general the authorities seemed inclined to set it slide. But then it became a hot commodity for export south of the border and that's where our story starts. Because that's when Uncle Sam got mad about BC bud and flexed some American muscle. The story is told by our colleague from CBC British Columbia, Gloria Macarenko. Macarenko: A dead end road in the middle of nowhere. No fence or barrier, just footpaths that lead to a ditch. You'd never know that this is the border between British Columbia and Washington State. US border patrolman Tom Ferrindino used to work the US/Mexico border, now he works the border of Canada. [continues 3445 words]
