I would like to thank State Sen. Dave Syverson for taking a stand to protect Illinois patients. Last year, he was the lone Republican voting in favor of the medical cannabis bill in the State Senate. While that bill failed, his courage to defend patients' rights to choose their medication is very noble. This year, Senate Bill 2865 and its partner bill, House Bill 5938, would protect medical cannabis patients in Illinois. A Republican sponsors the bill in the House, so I hope this vital issue will not get caught up in partisan politics. [continues 111 words]
In a 48-hour span, authorities uncovered two massive marijuana farms growing in neighboring McHenry County cornfields, seizing and burning thousands of plants valued at nearly $4 million and arresting a man who they believe lived on one of the sites and tended to the illegal crops full time. Acting on information developed by investigators, McHenry County Sheriff's deputies searched the wooded area in a field near southeast Hebron Wednesday and discovered several cultivation areas where about 2,000 plants measuring three to five feet tall were growing. [continues 473 words]
Medical marijuana dealer Charlie Lynch went on trial in Los Angeles Friday. It's taking awhile to impanel a jury. As soon as potential jurors hear that the guy is on trial for selling medical marijuana, they take out their wallets and get in line. [end]
Editor: On Thursdays, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Napa County Health Department on Walnut Street, California State Medical Marijuana cards are issued to people with a doctor's prescription. This card allows you to grow up to 12 immature plants or six mature ones. That is the state limit. Other counties, such as Humboldt, allow more. There are a dozen doctors in Lake County who write $100 prescriptions for the first year and $50 for each subsequent year for medical patients. There are also a number of dispensers in Sonoma County. Because it is legal, medical marijuana could also be dispensed in Napa County. [continues 165 words]
A recent article in the Daily Bulletin regarding medical marijuana failed to mention the fallacies and problems associated with what has become a personal mission and profession for a limited few to blatantly distort the truth in an attempt to lead readers to believe that smoked marijuana is medicine. The simple failure to mention the scores of young adults and others who obtain marijuana cards simply to get high is rather astonishing. Instead, The Sun was scammed by the pro-legalization movement that constantly seeks out and pushes the sick in the view of the media for their own selfish cause. [continues 723 words]
Maui Drug Court strongly encourages its clients to kick the habit of a legal drug, tobacco. Anyone familiar with addiction knows that tobacco is our society's No. 1 gateway drug and a powerful relapse trigger for those trying to stay drug-free. Not only does tobacco kill 420,000 Americans yearly, it is unquestionably a steppingstone, particularly for youth, to highly addictive, lethal drugs like ice, heroin and crack cocaine - all of which are smoked today. Marijuana belongs with these and rivals tobacco as a gateway drug. Pot is not harmless, nor nonaddicting. Today's pot is a potent drug and its use leads to mental, emotional and social impairments, especially in younger, developing minds. Pot users and advocates are thoroughly misguided, just as users and defenders of tobacco are. [continues 137 words]
THE number of people using cocaine is increasing as the price of the Class A drug plummets. Cocaine is now half the price it was 10 years ago according to Home Office figures and rocks of crack cocaine can cost anything from UKP5 to UKP25. Inspector Andy Ross, from Warrington Central NPU, said: "Cocaine is currently the drug of choice because the price is so low. "I think it would be pretty naive to think there were no drugs in some of the pubs in Warrington but we are reliant on members of the public to tell us when and where people are dealing drugs. [continues 160 words]
A Chatsworth pupil got hooked on drugs in his matric year. And the easy availability of dagga from his peers made it harder for him to kick the habit. The teenager, who once had a razor-sharp mind, said although he had passed his exams, he would have scored higher marks had drugs not affected his concentration. The boy, who is now on a rehabilitation programme, said, "I used to be dazed and unable to concentrate. I started smoking zol, then went on to Sugars. It wrecked my life and I only decided to give up when I got caught. Drugs have different effects on different people. They can make you sad, happy, reserved or violent." [continues 795 words]
State Files Complaint, Says Teachers' Union Not Acting In Good Faith The Hawaii State Teachers Association, which accepted random drug testing as part of a new contract last year, now says it is opposed to such tests. Mike McCartney, executive director of the HSTA, said the teachers' union would accept "reasonable suspicion drug and alcohol testing," but not random testing. McCartney made the statement Thursday in a letter to state Department of Education Superintendent Pat Hamamoto. Teachers agreed to random drug testing in June 2007 as part of a new contract that included pay increases of up to 11 percent over 18 months. Most of the pay increases have already taken effect. [continues 423 words]
Rescinding Raises In The New Contract Is An Option For The Lingle Administration The Hawaii State Teachers Association breached its contract by refusing to implement a drug testing program for public school teachers on June 30, the Lingle administration alleges in a complaint filed yesterday. The state wants the Hawaii Labor Relations Board to order the union to set up random and reasonable-suspicion drug and alcohol tests of teachers as was required by a contract ratified in May 2007, said Marie Laderta, the state's chief negotiator. [continues 349 words]
More drivers who are high on drugs instead of booze are getting caught by city police. And with new laws to back them up, it's easier for cops to prove that a toke is as bad as a pint behind the wheel. In 2007 city police issued about 200, 24-hour suspensions to drivers who were impaired because of drugs, said Const. Ian Brooks, who conducts alcohol and breath testing with the Edmonton Police Service. This year, they have already had 163 drug-based 24-hour suspensions - well on the way to topping 2007 numbers. [continues 369 words]
LAWRENCE -- When Officer Tim Dube pulled his cruiser alongside an illegally parked car on Ames Street at midnight Wednesday, he noticed a telltale odor -- marijuana, he said. The five men in the Honda Civic began to squirm, and Dube ordered them to put their hands where he could see them, he said. Then, he asked for the marijuana, and promised not arrest them if it was a small amount. He'd summons them to court instead, he told them. The men denied having marijuana in the car, but Dube knew he'd smelled it. So he gave them a second chance to come clean and avoid being arrested. [continues 56 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Kanawha County school board members will seek public comment before voting on a tougher drug policy that would apply to nearly all school system employees and include random testing. "We want to be careful to do this one like we do every other one," said board member Pete Thaw. "If we fall, let's fall on merits, not technicalities." The board had unanimously passed a weaker version of the drug-testing policy earlier this year. It calls for all school system job candidates to be subject to pre-employment testing and all employees to be subject to tests for cause, when substances turn up missing, when fitness is an issue and when those on leave return to duty. [continues 410 words]
Pair Said They Didn't Know He Was Officer With 'No-Knock' Warrant. That Doesn't Matter, Justices Say. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that a person found guilty of murdering a law enforcement officer is eligible for the death penalty, even if the killer did not know the victim was an officer. The 5-2 ruling was issued before the upcoming trials of Antron Dawayne Fair and Damon Antwon Jolly, who are accused of killing Bibb County sheriff's deputy Joseph Whitehead in 2006. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both men, who will be tried separately. [continues 295 words]
Sarasota Officers Stormed Restaurant to Nab Drug Suspect SARASOTA - Undercover police officers stormed a McDonald's restaurant and ordered diners and employees to the ground as they tried to catch a suspected cocaine dealer Thursday. The Sarasota police officers were dressed in black, carried rifles and wore masks when they ran into the restaurant on the corner of Beneva and Fruitville roads. They burst through the door at dinner time, yelled for patrons to hide under tables and chased a 24-year-old man who hid in a bathroom. [continues 458 words]
9th Circuit Judges Reinstate Two Other Rulings in the Case of Savana Redding, 13, Who Was Searched for Ibuprofen at School. Schools may not strip-search students for drugs based on an unverified tip, a federal appeals court ruled Friday. Overturning two other rulings, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said an assistant principal at an Arizona middle school violated the constitutional rights of a 13-year-old by ordering her to be strip-searched. He thought the honor student had prescription-strength ibuprofen; she did not. [continues 681 words]
A Mendocino County court has dismissed the remnants of a 1999 Placer County prosecution of medical marijuana proponent Steve Kubby. The ruling -- which sees Kubby's misdemeanor convictions for possession of a magic mushroom stem and peyote buttons expunged under California law -- came last week. Full erasure of the conviction would take a governor's pardon, but Kubby said Tuesday that the court decision to dismiss the case leaves him "fully vindicated and in possession, once again, of my inalienable, inseparable, non-transferable rights." [continues 251 words]
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has reiterated its determination to commence the screening of all top government functionaries, particularly aides to state governors while travelling out of the country. Speaking at an interactive session with journalists at the agency's Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO) Plc, Ikeja, Lagos office yesterday, NDLEA Director-General/ Secretary, Otunba Lanre Ipinmisho, said the action was meant to prevent the usage of the presidential wing and lounge of the nation's airports for drug trafficking. [continues 732 words]
Dear Sir: The other day, when I read yet another story of a grow-up in town and the argument that the individual had a medical need for smoking pot I thought one should publicize some scientific facts about smoking pot. Smoking dried plant material, whether it is tobacco or cannabis, is a well-known health hazard. After all, one is inhaling gases of combusting thousands of chemicals in these plants. No reasonable person would stick their head into a chimney of a burning woodstove which we know, emits a number of well-known carcinogens and other hazardous hydrocarbons. [continues 374 words]
Taxing and regulating cannabis similar to alcohol would generate needed income for the state and local governments of Illinois and cut spending on areas such as imprisoning nonviolent drug offenders. Why are we arresting otherwise law-abiding citizens for their recreational use of cannabis? Isn’t this a free country? Arresting responsible marijuana users wastes tax dollars and the 70-year cannabis prohibition needs to be repealed. Taxing responsible marijuana users could provide needed funds for the government. Taking a common-sense approach to drug policy should reveal that responsible users are not the problem and should not be punished, unless it is in the form of a reasonable tax. There will be those who break laws while under the influence of cannabis and they should be punished. They broke the law and being high is no better an excuse than being drunk. [continues 136 words]
