HAMILTON -- Loretta Young should have placed more weight on her job than a skimpy bag. The student assistance coordinator at Steinert High School was fired last month for allegedly brokering a deal of marijuana and money to occur between two students in her classroom (identified only as J.C. and G.H.) in order to fix a drug deal gone wrong, according to arbitrator Michael J. Pecklers' report. "Her efforts to sweep the controversy of the 'skimped' bag of marijuana under the rug ... became unhinged when the student she allowed to leave her office with the illegal drugs (J.C.) was later caught in possession the next period," Pecklers wrote. [continues 440 words]
Level of violence is rising from threats to stabbings, detective says PETERBOROUGH-- As Detective Constable Ryan Donaldson lifts blood samples from a Charlotte Street sidewalk, a large crowd of youth gather at the corner of Charlotte and George streets. One teen stands out amongst the group. He waves a blue bandana and says "Respect the Crips." He brags to his peers that Crips member Stephen Bate is responsible for a midday stabbing in the heart of downtown Peterborough on May 16. [continues 455 words]
ONE OF CANADA'S best-known marijuana activists says she's ready to make a leap into mainstream politics with the federal Liberal Party. In a telephone interview, Jodie Emery was quick to note she has yet to file nomination papers, but she said it's her understanding that she's in the running for Vancouver East. "They approached me," she said. "I am officially a member of the Liberal Party of Canada and I have been asked to put my name in to take a shot at it." [continues 685 words]
It's smart to clear the way for medical marijuana growers to help the city redevelop brownfield industrial sites. Hamilton has sites, the city is well located for transport, and the tax revenue would be welcome. The planning committee wants to move forward with zoning changes covering where medical marijuana can be grown. The issue goes to council next week. As it stands, commercial growing - of anything - is permitted only in agricultural zones. The changes would allow growers to take over former industrial facilities, which tend to be concentrated in the lower city. [continues 102 words]
Bylaw changes for medicinal marijuana facilities received preliminary approval from town council this week. The changes would involve site plan controls for greenhouses and their proximity to properties where residents might be adversely affected by the marijuana crop. There were no comments from residents at a public meeting Monday on the proposed amendments to the zoning and site plan bylaws recommended by planning staff. The community and development advisory committee voted to require marijuana greenhouses larger than 10,000 square feet to be subject to site plan control. [continues 212 words]
Industrial lands considered for marijuana plants Metchosin zoning bylaws may soon allow for the production of medical marijuana. At a public hearing Monday, council heard final input on a proposed bylaw change that could see such facilities allowed on industrial land, of which there are only three in the municipality. The amendment would also prevent facilities licensed by the federal government for the production of marijuana or marijuana products for medicinal purposes from operating on agricultural land. The council vote on the matter could happen as early as June 2, but if that meeting is cancelled, it would likely take place June 16. [continues 60 words]
Pete Trzos is in limbo. Nearly 16 months after the medical marijuana dispensary he opened in Holly - with village approval - was promptly raided, the case against him is on hold in Oakland County Circuit Court. Facing multiple felony charges for possession and delivery of marijuana and unable to work because of it, he passes the days, his medical degree unused and useless while awaiting his day in court. Neither he nor his attorneys are exactly sure when that day will come. [continues 1505 words]
Editor: Re: Medical pot splits doctors, April 29. I applaud Dr. William Cavers for acknowledging the atrocious federal government barriers of access to medical cannabis - which has now been legal in Canada for 14 years - and the harm being caused to patients. Neither doctors or patients have been seriously consulted during the redefinition of this program. This is not a surprise since the federal government is the wrong legislative platform for medical programs. The provincial governments are the right legislative platforms for medical programs, according to our Canada Health Act. [continues 160 words]
I believe that everyone in Minnesota should grow a patch of marijuana for our neighbors who are suffering with chemo-nausea and epilepsy, for free, and also make it illegal to sell it or drive under the influence of it. Marijuana is native to our state as hemp. Henry Ford designed his first horseless carriage to run on hemp oil, a renewable energy. The oil companies were not amused and began a century-long campaign against the horrors of drugs. Anyone in our state who is growing a traditional flower and herb garden has a pharmacy at hand, including some beautiful, legal, deadly poisonous varieties. [continues 338 words]
CLEVELAND, Ohio - The student drug testing that will start at Gilmour Academy and at St. Edward and St. Ignatius high schools has a close family connection: St. Edward President James Kubacki's brother, Raymond, is head of the testing company. Raymond Kubacki, a St. Ignatius graduate, has been President and CEO of Psychemedics Corporation since 1991. That connection was not mentioned to students, or in letters to parents of the three schools when they announced the testing on Monday. Officials at all three schools said this morning that James Kubacki has been up front about any possible conflict of interest throughout discussions between the schools. The boards of all three schools, they said, were fully aware of the connection well before each school separately selected Psychemedics. [continues 648 words]
GATES MILLS -- Moments after learning in a morning assembly that they would be subjected to mandatory drug testing starting in the fall, four Gilmour Academy students volunteered to sit down with the Plain Dealer. The students - all juniors - expressed surprise and concern about the news delivered to them by Head of School Brother Robert Lavelle. One said he wondered if the announcement was triggered by a specific event. But they also shared the positive points they said the testing, which will be done by analyzing hair samples, will bring to the Gilmour community. [continues 1119 words]
FOR 44 YEARS the United States has fought the war on drugs, wasting 1.5 trillion of our tax dollars on ever-harsher policies that have been complete failures. During that time, we made more than 48 million arrests for nonviolent drug violations, nearly half of which were for marijuana offenses. And yet today, drugs are cheaper, more potent and far easier for our children to access than they were when I started buying them in 1970 at the start of my 14-year assignment as an undercover detective in the New Jersey State Police. [continues 646 words]
In 1986, lawmakers wrote new mandatory crack cocaine penalties in a few short days, using the advice of a perjurer. March 23, 2014 12:00AM ET by Evan Hill @evanchill & Alia Malek @aliamalek Vials of crack cocaine Members of Congress said they crafted mandatory minimum crack sentences to take down high-level traffickers, but the amounts they targeted swept up tens of thousands of low-level street dealers.New York Daily News Archive/Getty Images Shortly after sunrise on June 19, 1986, inside a University of Maryland dorm room, college basketball sensation Len Bias collapsed in a seizure. [continues 1393 words]
The legal sale of marijuana is nothing new in America, but now pot sellers are using the airwaves to reach the masses. Marijuana ads on television? The possibility used to be a pipe dream for some folks. Suddenly, it's a reality. The first marijuana ad to appear in a national TV campaign, viewable on various websites, doesn't talk about weed right away. It talks about something truly fishy. "Yo, you want sushi?" says an actor playing a seedy looking street dealer in a coat lined with little strips of raw fish. "Ain't nobody sellin' but me." [continues 446 words]
In 2010, a dentist extracted my wisdom teeth, told me to gargle with salt water, and sent me home with a prescription for a Costco-sized bottle of hydrocodone pills. During the procedure, she knocked me out with propofol- the same drug that killed Michael Jackson-and afterward I felt no pain. After a few hours, I popped one hydrocodone, more out of politeness than need. Weeks later, I still felt fine, but I popped two more, just to see what it was like. Hydrocodone's dreamy, pain-dulling effect was impressive: I bit my cheek hard enough to draw blood, and it didn't hurt at all. But the pills made me woozy. I then put the remaining 57 or so of them into my medicine cabinet, and I have no idea what happened to them after that. Lost in a move, I guess. [continues 1221 words]
Tilray filtered through more than 400 applications for jobs at its Duke Point medical marijuana factory during a unique hiring fair over the weekend. Selected candidates were invited to a downtown hotel where they interviewed for jobs to cultivate, sell, trim, secure and ship cannabis in the first event of its kind ever to hit Nanaimo. Tilray's medical marijuana facility will open April 1 when law changes take cannabis growth out of homes and into large-scale production. Tilray Vice President Philippe Lucas said in an interview on Sunday that job fair attendees were "enthusiastic." [continues 208 words]
I read with much amusement all the articles and letters recently about legalizing marijuana and how legalizing pot will somehow end the drug war. If you believe that, you must be smoking way too much of the stuff. People much smarter than you and me recognize the drug war as a chess match. If we legalize marijuana, then the cartels will simply start dumping cheap meth and black-tar heroin on the market and an entirely new generation of users will be created. You've solved one problem and created a whole new monster, another unintended consequence of feel-good policy. [continues 88 words]
Feds Grappling With Their Own Rules As more state legislatures vote to allow medical marijuana use and research, and public approval in the United States for ending the federal ban on cannabis continues to rise, there is still much official opposition. And perhaps the most entrenched opponents are those in Washington actually charged with enforcing that federal ban. Some of President Barack Obama's own "drug abuse" advisers have publicly disagreed with his published comments that cannabis is no more dangerous than alcohol or other drugs. DEA chief Michele Leonhart reportedly told a law enforcement group in a speech a few days later that the president's comments were reckless and irresponsible. [continues 801 words]
Re: "Public deserves apology from Obama on marijuana" (guest column, Feb. 5). I'd like to add that the cannabis legalization issue is not whether cannabis is completely safe for everybody, including children and adolescents; it is not. The issue is freedom of choice for adults. Children have died from eating peanuts and peanut butter but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers. And the voters of Colorado and Washington state have decided that we should not cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers. Montana adults have the freedom of choice of whether or not to consume legal alcohol. Shouldn't they have the same freedom of choice regarding legal cannabis? Kirk Muse, Mesa, Ariz. [end]
I'm writing about Mike Holst's not-so-thoughtful letter: "Legalizing marijuana" (2-5-14). The cannabis legalization issue is not whether cannabis is completely safe for everybody, including children and adolescents, it is not. The issue is freedom of choice for adults. Children have died from eating peanuts and peanut butter but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers. And the voters of Colorado and Washington state have decided that we should not cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers. Minnesota adults have the freedom of choice of whether or not to buy and consume legal alcohol. Shouldn't they have the same freedom of choice regarding legal cannabis? Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
