The Rocky Mount Police Department's Street Engagement Team is continuing its efforts to crack down on illegal drugs, firearms and street violence within Rocky Mount. So far this year, the SET team has seized more than 160 weapons, made significant drug arrests and confiscated large amounts of illegal drugs. Rocky Mount police Capt. Robert Baggett - the division commander who oversees the team - said department wide, police have seized 366 firearms this year. When compared to last year's total of 282, the number is significant, Baggett said. [continues 410 words]
To the editor: Unlike the editors of The Salem News, I do not see the vote on Question 2 as "puzzling considering recent history." I expected the margin of victory to be at least 65 percent given the similar magnitude of support votes on non-binding public-policy questions around the state obtained beginning with the general election of 2000. It was that year that the first petitions for marijuana law reform using public-policy questions appeared and won on the ballot in one Senate and two state representative districts. In 2002, voters in 19 districts petitioned their representatives. In 2004, voters in Sens. Fred Berry and Tom McGee's districts and four House districts petitioned, and it was "dACopyright jA vu all over again" in the election of 2006 as two more representative districts petitioned their representatives. These petitions passed each time with an average margin of 60 percent. [continues 162 words]
Like alcohol, not everyone abuses drugs, but for those who do, unlike alcohol, the vast majority aren't a nuisance to others. Far more crimes are committed by those who abuse alcohol! Before the prohibition of any drugs in the early 1900s, 2% of the world's population was abusing drugs, and under drug prohibition, this percentage is exactly the same. What does it tell us? Would more people do or abuse actual "illegal" drugs if they were all legal? I wouldn't, and I suppose that most people who already made up their minds about all kinds of drugs wouldn't either. Under legalization and regulation, would our actual "illegal" drugs still be available to kids in schoolyards -- or largely just to consenting adults? How responsible towards all society are our governments under drug prohibition? Sadly, most cops don't realize this. Unless Const. Glen Klose (Letters, Nov. 13) and the majority of our Canadian cops prefer that organized crime and violent street gangs control illegal drugs? Marc Paquette (Most cops I know just want to help people and bust bad guys.) [end]
Reformation Summit Urges Action Marijuana proponents are renewing discussion on the legality of the drug in Colorado. Political activists and marijuana enthusiasts met on the campus of Regis University in Denver on Saturday morning for the first statewide Marijuana Reform Seminar. The free event, hosted by Safer Alternative For Recreation and Sensible Colorado, drew a crowd of roughly 200. "We're here to learn how to change the laws, not break the laws," Brian Vicente, the director of Sensible Colorado, said. "We want to come out of this a stronger, more sound, movement." [continues 362 words]
Although the details regarding Proposal 1 and Michigan's upcoming medical marijuana program still are being discussed, some people have concerns about the program's implications. The Board of State Canvassers must meet in the next two to three weeks to certify the 2008 election, after which the Michigan Department of Community Health must promulgate a series of rules to implement the constitutional amendment by Dec. 4. The administrative process must be ready to operate by April 4. Dianne Byrum, spokeswoman for the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, said the remaining steps must be taken by the Department of Community Health and she is confident they will meet all deadlines. [continues 337 words]
If you're reading this column you probably live somewhere in the vicinity of UC Berkeley, a university that is famous (or infamous) for a few things. One would be deeply depressed nerds bawling over their latest midterm-a stereotype I see a great deal (in the mirror). Another may be the amazing scientific research that goes on in the laboratories all around campus, or the infectious activist spirit, the large homeless population, a fantastic academic environment and last, but certainly not least, marijuana. Yes, everyone from Berkeley has almost certainly come in contact with Cal's favorite plant somehow, most likely by walking down Telegraph Avenue. I never really enjoy it when I'm out for a stroll and the unmistakable smell mauls my nostrils, but in the end it's just another one of those lovable Berkeley quirks. [continues 616 words]
EAST HADDAM - Among ideas passed around at a drug forum Thursday was one for parents and children to have secret codes. Erinn Knoll, community liaison for the Middlesex County Substance Abuse Council, suggested encoded messages could be a good step toward preventing drug and alcohol use in youth. If a teen, out at a party, calls home and says to her mother, "No, I didn't get the laundry done," Mom's ears may perk. It could be an encrypted message allowing the teen to say in a manner her friends will not understand, "I do not feel comfortable here, come and get me." [continues 560 words]
To the editor: I do not see the vote on Question 2 as "puzzling considering recent history." I expected the margin of victory to be at least 65 percent, given the similar magnitude of support votes on nonbinding public policy questions around the state obtained beginning with the general election of 2000. It was that year that the first petitions for marijuana law reform using public policy questions appeared and won on the ballot in one state Senate and two state representative districts. [continues 235 words]
Dear Editor: One of the hallmarks of the Bush administration has been creating and maintaining its own alternate reality on seemingly most, if not all, issues. Continuing to maintain the legal fiction that cannabis is an evil Schedule 1 drug with a high potential for abuse and no medical use was one facet of this policy. With his landslide victory, President-elect Barack Obama has both the political capital and the opportunity to start with a blank slate. Two statewide marijuana ballot initiatives even outpolled Obama. Michigan voters legalized medical marijuana by a 63 percent margin, and marijuana decriminalization passed in Massachusetts by a 68 percent margin. Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, sponsor of federal legislation that would decriminalize possession of marijuana nationwide (Rep. Tammy Baldwin is a co-sponsor), depicted the current situation as "a case of people being ahead of the politicians." [continues 81 words]
Mr. Obama, bring on the change. Bring on that new dawn of American leadership you say is at hand. Bring on your soaring rhetoric, your mandate from the media, your party's near filibuster-proof legislative majority. Get down to Washington in January and use your political superpowers to begin solving what you say are "the greatest challenges of our lifetime -- two wars, a planet in peril and the greatest financial crisis in a century." Yes you can try. We your people understand, as you have said, that the road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep and we may not get to wherever very liberal place you're taking us to as a nation in one year or -- rather conveniently for you -- even in one term. [continues 491 words]
