Red Deer Man Has Multiple Provincial Titles A 20-year-old champion boxer from Red Deer is one of the nine men arrested recently during a year-long police investigation into a major drug trafficking network based out of Calgary. Cameron O'Connell has multiple provincial titles and a national championship to his credit, according to a Red Deer boxing website, and was a 2007 world champion in an amateur tournament called Ringside. O'Connell now faces two drug-related charges connected to what police call a highly sophisticated cocaine network that moved drugs across the country. [continues 260 words]
Three children have been apprehended after a routine checkstop on the Trans-Canada Highway led police to discover seven kilograms of fresh marijuana in an SUV. The children--aged one, five and six--were in a Dodge Durango that was reeking of pot, police said. The smell was strong enough to prompt an officer to search the vehicle as it was stopped near Lake Louise on Tuesday. Cochrane RCMP Sgt. Dave Hardy said the odour was probably stronger because the marijuana was not dried. [continues 267 words]
As you know from previous columns, there are a handful of crack houses in Parkdale, and maybe there are one or two in your neighbourhood as well. What to do? The answers are not as obvious or as immediate as you might think. Here's what I think: The first thing, let's license all the landlords. Because this is how easy it is to turn an apartment building or a rooming house into a hellhole: If you're a dealer, find somebody living on a two-bit pension in a part of town where you want to do business, and offer him a hundred bucks a week for the use of his room during the day. Bingo -- all of a sudden you have a base from which to deal. [continues 490 words]
300 Suspects Are Held in Nationwide Raids on La Familia, a Brutal and Fast-Growing Drug Gang From Mexico. Drug agents swept through Los Angeles and dozens of other locations Wednesday and Thursday, arresting more than 300 people and seizing large quantities of drugs, weapons and money in the biggest U.S. crackdown against a Mexican drug cartel. The months-long offensive, the fruit of dozens of federal investigations over the last 3 1/2 years, will put a significant dent in the U.S. operations of La Familia Michoacana, one of Mexico's fastest-growing and deadliest cartels, authorities said. [continues 865 words]
A Proposal to Ban All Sales of Medicinal Marijuana Unlikely to Be Taken Up Next Week. The Los Angeles City Council moved Thursday to consider a controversial medical marijuana ordinance in early November, as a poll released by a national organization that supports marijuana legalization found that more than three-quarters of voters in the county want dispensaries regulated, not prosecuted and closed. The council action comes after a Superior Court judge ruled Monday that the city's moratorium on dispensaries had been illegally extended. With the city unable to enforce it, Councilman Greig Smith decided Thursday not to hold a hearing on the proposed ordinance in the Public Safety Committee, but to send it straight to the council. [continues 499 words]
Cannabis prohibition has failed just like alcohol prohibition failed. When will politicians learn that adults who want to get high will find a way to get high, just like those who wanted to get drunk were able to get drunk during alcohol prohibition? A regulated and taxed cannabis market for adults is long overdue in America. By regulating the market it would make it tougher for teenagers to acquire the substance as well, since our current system of prohibition has no oversight of dealers. By making cannabis sales similar to alcohol sales, with licensed sellers and age restrictions, teenagers would actually have a harder time of acquiring cannabis. Plus, this would allow adults to purchase the product legally instead of being forced to go through the underground market. [continues 55 words]
