MADISON -- As Donald Christen remembers it, his father was the one who helped him decide to advocate for legalized marijuana. It happened one day about 20 years ago when Christen, 54, and some friends were at his dad's house complaining about laws banning marijuana. Finally, his father chimed in. "'You guys ought to stop your (complaining). If you don't like the law you should get it changed,'" Christen remembers his father saying. Christen has never looked back. Two groups that Christen is associated with are preparing to circulate petitions to allow expanded marijuana use in Maine. [continues 1216 words]
WATERVILLE -- There were 34 fatal drug overdoses in Maine in 1997 -- 19 determined by the medical examiner's office as accidental. In 2006, there were 167 drug overdoses resulting in death, 135 of them by accident. "It's epidemic," said Marcella Sorg, director of the state's Rural Drug and Alcohol Research Program at the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine. "It really started to rise in the late 1990s; it really began to rise rapidly in 2002." [continues 709 words]
A new version of the illegal hallucinogen ecstasy has yet to turn up in Maine, but state and local police saying they are on the lookout. Ecstasy laced with methamphetamine has been entering the United States via northern states from illegal labs in Canada, according to a warning issued Jan. 3 by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "This 'extreme ecstasy' is a disturbing development in what has been one of the most significant international achievements against the illicit drug trade," John Walters, the nation's "drug czar," said in a statement. [continues 365 words]
WOOLWICH -- First responders, fire fighters, and law enforcement officers from the surrounding areas attended a training session on recognition and awareness of methamphetamines at the Woolwich Central School recently. Kevin Cashman, a member of the Portland Maine Drug Enforcement agency, outlined the dangers of methamphetamine laboratories and explained some of the equipment found in them. "If you suspect you have entered a methamphetamine laboratory, get out as soon as you can and call the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency," said Cashman. "We are trained and equipped to handle the toxic substance." [continues 469 words]
A divided Supreme Court ruled this June in the case of Morse v. Frederick that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use. The court overruled the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had held that a school principal could be sued for monetary damages by a student whom she had ordered to take down a sign reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." That holding demonstrates both the strength and the weakness of the conservative majority on the Roberts Court. [continues 648 words]
STARKS -- Along with warm temperatures, longer days and mosquitoes, summer in this rural town brings a full lineup of rock concerts laced with a heavy dose of marijuana advocacy. Freedom Fest, the first of a series of six weekend concerts, starts this weekend and is followed a week later by The Maine Garden Fest. Hempstock, the oldest of the events, is scheduled for Aug. 16-19. In the 1990s, Hempstock typically drew thousands of visitors, overwhelming the town of about 600 but causing a backlash that led residents to adopt a mass-gathering ordinance. [continues 340 words]
When I came to Maine in 1969, I volunteered to teach some enrichment classes at the women's prison in Skowhegan. There were seven or eight prisoners housed in a farmhouse outside the town. Two years later, the women were moved to a new facility in Hallowell. There the windows were barred, but still the place had the look of a college dormitory. Within five years, however, the number of prisoners had exceeded the facility's limited capacity of 50, and the women were moved to the Maine State prison in Windham. [continues 228 words]
Legalization Advocate Faces Five-Year Jail Term SKOWHEGAN -- Marijuana legalization activist Donald Christen faces up to five years in jail after he was found guilty of aggravated cultivation of marijuana. A Somerset County Superior Court jury found Christen guilty of cultivating marijuana on Friday, but not guilty of the more serious crime of aggravated drug trafficking. That verdict capped a week-long trial in which Christen, an advocate of legalizing marijuana, claimed the cannabis that police seized in a November 2004 raid on his Madison home was destined for patients. [continues 494 words]
AUGUSTA - Maine voters approved the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes in 1999 by 61 percent to 39 percent. But supporters told lawmakers Monday that the law has not worked and urged passage of a new bill that would assure they have access to the drug. The proposal elicited strong opposition from the Maine State Police and the Maine Attorney General's Office, as well as from other groups. The bill's sponsor, Sen. Ethan Strimling, D-Portland, noted it has been eight years since the original measure was passed. [continues 604 words]
Kudos to Doug Harlow for his outstanding story "Ex-officer likens drug war to Prohibition" (April 4). For those who want to continue our current drug prohibition policies, I'd like to ask them: why do you want recreational drugs to remain completely unregulated, untaxed and controlled exclusively by criminals? Only legal products can be regulated, taxed and controlled by any government agency. The drug alcohol was not re-legalized because the powers that be decided that alcohol was not so bad after all, but rather because of the crime and corruption that its prohibition caused. When is the last time the Morning Sentinel ran a story about alcohol distributors killing each other? Probably about 1933, the year we terminated alcohol prohibition. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
Retired police officer Peter Christ on Tuesday compared the contemporary war on drugs to National Prohibition of the 1920s. He even likened the bloody St. Valentine's Day Massacre to a "drug-related shooting" in today's big cities. "When some reporter writes a story about a drug-related shooting, the reader says, 'See what drugs cause,'" he said. "Not one reporter in 1929, when reporting on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, referred to that as an alcohol-related shooting. They all called it what it was -- a Prohibition-related shooting." [continues 586 words]
WATERVILLE -- Retired police officer Peter Christ on Tuesday compared the contemporary war on drugs to National Prohibition of the 1920s. He even likened the bloody St. Valentine's Day Massacre to a "drug-related shooting" in today's big cities. "When some reporter writes a story about a drug-related shooting, the reader says, 'See what drugs cause,'" he said. "Not one reporter in 1929, when reporting on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, referred to that as an alcohol-related shooting. They all called it what it was -- a Prohibition-related shooting." [continues 582 words]
WATERVILLE -- A retired police captain is touring Maine this month to call for an end to marijuana prohibition. Peter Christ, who spent 20 years as a captain on the police force in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., is a founding member of LEAP -- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. He will be speaking at Colby College tonight at 7 p.m. in Room 122 in the new Diamond Building on campus. The title of the lecture is "War on Drugs? Or War on People?" [continues 256 words]
PORTLAND, MAINE A psychiatrist who founded a methadone clinic in Westbrook was sentenced to six months in prison Monday for his convictions last year for prescription fraud. Dr. Marc Shinderman was convicted of writing prescriptions for controlled substances using the name and drug registration number of another physician. Shinderman, who was not licensed to write the prescriptions in Maine, said he thought the arrangement was acceptable. Shinderman also must serve another six months of home confinement during two years of probation. U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby also ordered him to pay $35,800 in restitution. [continues 188 words]
A doctor described as a giant in the field of addiction treatment will spend six months in prison for forging prescription slips and medical records, a judge decided Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland. As a psychiatrist in Illinois, Marc Shinderman, 64, wrote groundbreaking articles on the proper dose for methadone patients and simultaneous treatment of psychiatric and addiction disorders. But in Maine, where he was not licensed to prescribe controlled drugs, his practice of forging prescriptions and then falsifying log books to make it look as though patients had been seen by doctors with valid registrations led to criminal charges. He was convicted in July of 58 felony offenses. [continues 664 words]
Schools Not Well Served If Second-Guessed by Courts The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals says that they do, as long as they advocate drug use without also causing a disturbance. The Supreme Court, which took up the question this week, is likely to reverse -- the Ninth Circuit is already batting 0 for 9 in the Supreme Court this term -- but the fact that this case is in the courts at all demonstrates the absurdity of our current law regarding student speech. [continues 668 words]
MADISON -- Madison schools may become the first in the state to require students to take drug tests. School Administrative District 59 this week decided to create a committee to consider what could be a precedent-setting policy. Superintendent Sandra J. MacArthur said Thursday there has been no spike in drug abuse issues this year at Madison Area Memorial High School, but student drug use is an ongoing concern. "We're looking at random drug testing," MacArthur said. "We feel that it would maybe help curb some of the drug usage." [continues 349 words]
Cities and towns from Washington state to Arkansas passed ordinances last year making the enforcement of marijuana crimes the lowest priority for local police. Law officers say the enforcement of marijuana laws already are a low priority, even if an unspoken one, for most departments. Opponents in nearly all the states where these initiatives are pending or have been passed say that they're either illegal or that they will only add to the crime rate. Proponents including the former chief of police in Seattle say the changes decrease crime and save taxpayers millions of dollars on courts and incarceration. [continues 529 words]
Inside Maine
