This week I'm going to talk about how the terror war took your rights. I am also going to show that it really wasn't the terror war that took your rights. You already gave them away to fight the war on drugs. The terror war merely broadened the giveaway to all citizens. Those of us who have been fighting the drug war for a number of years warned Americans that this would happen. We begged America not to go down that road. We said that the drug war was only the first step. That the next step would be to get all Americans in the net. America told the anti-prohibitionists that the law couldn't be used against most Americans because most Americans don't use drugs. The anti-prohibitionists replied that they are only using the drug war as a prototype to see what America will stand for, to see how many of us have forgotten the Constitution and why we have one. It appears that the anti-prohibitionist were correct. [continues 872 words]
BARABOO -- A judge has ordered Weedstock marijuana festival organizer Ben Masel to obey the Sauk County ordinance governing large assemblies, but Masel's attorney said he would recommend appealing the decision. In an order filed Tuesday, Columbia County Circuit Court Judge Daniel S. George ruled the Open Air Assembly Ordinance is a constitutional regulation of time, place and manner of speech. The judge was assigned to rule on a county injunction against Weedstock 2000 after Sauk County judges decided they could not rule on a case brought by members of the Sauk County Board of Supervisors and Sheriff Randy Stammen against Masel and co-defendant Marcus Gumz. [continues 492 words]
Two Orangeburg men were sentenced to life in prison Tuesday after being found guilty in federal court of bringing cocaine from out of state and selling it in Orangeburg. Timothy Gadson, 32, and Darron Owens, 22, got life without the possibility of parole on charges of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, and on charges of distribution of more than 5 kilograms of cocaine as well as more than 50 grams of crack cocaine, according to the U.S. attorney's office. [continues 146 words]
This is in response to the Bangor City Council's decision not to allow a rave dance for the area young, old, or other people. The concern was over drug use. I was wondering why it is that the middle part or a free society will not trust its future part, and come to think of it not even its wisest part sometimes, to make an important decision in their lives. Let's hope when this middle part of society are making mansion tours in their wheel chairs that the future part will not embrace the middle part's past sense of fairness and trust. Ronnie F. Wyman Sr. Hermon [end]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Thousands of people have been uprooted by a U.S.-backed aerial offensive to wipe out drug crops, but fears of a massive refugee crisis have not materialized, a top U.N. refugee official said Wednesday. "The fumigation has not displaced the numbers of people expected," Leila Lima, of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told a gathering of reporters in Bogota. Lima said the number of displaced people could increase, however, if Washington's drug war intensifies as planned next year. [continues 221 words]
Drug dealers and other criminals who adopt lifestyles that most working stiffs can only dream of get away with it often because their neighbours aren't suspicious enough to tip off police, according to members of Kingston's Proceeds of Crime Unit. "If they see someone who's moved in next door and they bought a big house that's $300,000 and they see that they don't work, [they should be asking] 'How do they live like that?' " RCMP Sgt. John Dempster, head of the unit, told a law enforcement seminar in Kingston last week. [continues 551 words]
If they get the pre-lunch munchies, employees at the Drug Enforcement Agency in Concord could step outside their offices to snack on food provided curbside today by the New Hampshire Hemp Council. At 197 Loudon Road, passers-by can enjoy a hodgepodge of hemp products including pretzels, blue corn chips, nut butter and chocolate bars. The council's gesture aims to counter the DEA's recent introduction of federal rules outlawing hemp in food. Similar actions in 70 cities around the country are also happening today. [continues 350 words]
At least one New Hampshire community is taking steps to end all-night dance parties - parties that are more commonly known as "raves." Nashua Mayor Bernie Streeter has asked the city's legal department to draft an ordinance that would ban public dancing between 2 a.m. and noon. Streeter, formerly a long-time member of the Executive Council, is not approaching public dancing as some kind of 17th century prude. What he is looking to do is shut down noisy activity at times when it is most likely to be a public nuisance. [continues 271 words]
Hemp food is about to be outlawed. Did you know that? Did your newspaper carry the story? Did you learn about it on the web, as I did at www.votehemp.com/action.html? The DEA on Oct. 9 passed a ruling that had no public input, was not disseminated widely, and had no congressional oversight. If Congress had had oversight, my representatives would have voted the ruling out of existence because it's apparent to any rational being that hemp as a food causes no one damage. [continues 205 words]
THREE huge cheers to the government of San Francisco for standing up to The Ayatollah Ashcroft and his anti-drug thug minions at the DEA. These unfortunates are scared to death that if they lose the great bogey man that is marijuana, they could well lose their precious jobs. John McKee Columbia Falls, Mont. [end]
Man Has Prescription, Alleges Discrimination FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- When one of the seven people in the country legally allowed to puff marijuana called a news conference in the summer and threatened to sue Delta Air Lines for refusing to allow him on a plane with his herbal medicine, he was not just blowing smoke. Irvin Rosenfeld, a 48-year-old Boca Raton stockbroker, never got the apology he wanted, so he filed a federal discrimination lawsuit Wednesday in Ft. Lauderdale, seeking unspecified monetary damages and a promise from Delta that it would stop violating the Air Carriers Access Act of 1986. [continues 262 words]
The Drug Enforcement Administration still has the records of Dale Schafer and Dr. Molly Fry -- minus 65 boxes. DEA agents on Friday returned the boxes to Schafer and Fry, a married couple who operate a medical marijuana clinic in El Dorado County. The portion of files sent back are related to Schafer's previous law practice that dealt with worker's compensation issues, not medical marijuana. The rest of the records, which include medical files on more than 7,000 patients, about 400 of which are from South Shore, remained sealed but still in the hands of the government. [continues 290 words]
