LONDON - Getting high may not be as harmless as some smokers think it is. Doctors in Scotland warned Tuesday that a joint or two a day of marijuana for many years could cause serious lung disease. "It might be that the psychoactive part of cannabis is harmless," said Dr. Martin Johnson of the Glasgow Royal Infirmary, "but the actual process of smoking, whatever you are smoking, can do your lungs harm." He and his colleagues treated four men with a type of emphysema, a lung disease normally caused by heavy smoking that makes breathing difficult. They could find no genetic susceptibility or explanation for the illness, apart from the fact that all of the men were reasonably heavy marijuana smokers. The cases were reported in the journal Thorax. [continues 52 words]
The government yesterday admitted that it had been underfunding drug rehabilitation - a key plank of its anti-drugs strategy - as it prepared to dismiss a call to reduce cannabis possession penalties. The Home Office minister, Charles Clarke, said the government would not support any relaxation in anti-drugs laws because it would send a political signal leading to an increase in cannabis consumption. A Police Foundation report, in part funded by the government, will this week call for a relaxation of the cannabis laws by saying the maximum penalty for possession should be cut from six months in jail to a UKP200 fine. The report, drawn up with the advice of chief constables and Lady Runciman, the former head of the government's drugs advisory service, will also call for a downgrading of ecstasy from a Class A drug. [continues 190 words]
12,000 kids party on drugs in city-owned building Nineteen young people were arrested by Toronto Police for trafficking in Ecstasy and other drugs during the largest rave ever staged in the city. The rave was held in a city-owned building less than two weeks after new Toronto Police Chief Julian Fantino and Mayor Mel Lastman both declared war on the all-night dances. Police said more than 12,000 people, from 15 to 22 years old, packed the Better Living Centre at Exhibition Place early yesterday for a "clash of the world's top rave DJs." [continues 300 words]
A Maine Sheriff Wants The Legislature To Let Authorities Dole Out Confiscated Pot To People Who Need Medicinal Marijuana. What if law enforcement agencies started giving away marijuana confiscated in drug busts to the sick? That's an idea the Maine Legislature is pondering, and it's backed by a sheriff who's fed up with the barriers to getting medicinal marijuana to those who need it. Voters in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon and Washington have legalized medicinal marijuana for the chronically ill. The Maine initiative, approved by voters in November, would allow patients to legally grow up to six plants for their own use. But even if the state approves it, those patients would still be breaking federal laws, and there'd no way for those who couldn't or didn't want to grow their own pot to get it legally. [continues 1298 words]
I am 58 years old. Since I retired two years ago I have been thinking about our government and laws. I think our approach to controlling the effect drugs have on our society needs to be changed. All my adult life the battle to control the flow of drugs has been going on. What I see is an ongoing battle, with law enforcement struggling to keep up with a pandemic. Our policies have filled our prisons with Americans. In creating an illicit drug market by criminalizing drugs, we are duplicating prohibition with its growing criminal problems. [continues 208 words]
ISSUES: This week, the city paid $400,000 to family of a man wrongly killed and was fined $10,000 in another case. DENVER -Despite a sharp decline in crime, Denver's finest are under the gun in the worst series of police scandals since the city was known as the "crooked-cop capital of the United States" in the 1960s. This week, the city paid $400,000 to the family of a man killed in a raid at the wrong house, was fined $10,000 by a federal judge for failing to cooperate with a police brutality investigation, and swore in a new cop who admitted he once used cocaine and LSD. [continues 710 words]
Last September, Colombian President Andres Pastrana presented the White House a comprehensive plan intended to rescue his country from the violence of drug lords, guerrillas and paramilitary forces. Included were programs for economic development, democratic institution-building, judicial reform, human rights protections and peace negotiations. Pastrana's approach has been well received in the White House and, for the most part, in Congress. There is a consensus in Washington that Colombia and its problems are an important issue for the United States. There is also a sense that the United States can work with Pastrana, though the White House must assure that no U.S. military personnel are drawn into combat. [continues 259 words]
AMHERST -- Voters tomorrow could make Amherst the first town in the state to approve a referendum urging police to relax enforcement of marijuana-possession laws. The nonbinding question also asks state and national representatives to work toward repealing the prohibition on marijuana. Advocates hope an affirmative vote will mark the first step in a statewide and eventually nationwide movement to decriminalize marijuana -- even if little change occurs locally. Regardless of the vote, marijuana possession will still be illegal in Amherst, and police will likely not change their policy. [continues 116 words]
Photo Caption- A Colombian police officer gives the signal to land to a U.S. donated Black Hawk helicopter in February. The plane is providing security to crop-duster planes spraying poppy crops -- the raw material of heroin, in Rionegro, Colombia. March 26 -- Only last summer, the White House seemed wary of greater U.S. involvement in Colombia's vicious drug war. Republicans on Capitol Hill wanted to add muscle to Colombia's anti-drug forces, but administration officials favored more diplomacy. [continues 974 words]
A Long Beach police officer admitted that he planned to sell 13 pounds of cocaine that he stole from an undercover agent posing as a drug dealer. Julio A. Alcaraz, 36, and 11-year veteran of the police force, pleaded guilty in federal court to charges that he participated in a conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute. He faces a sentence of between 10 and 20 years in prison. Sentencing was set for June 23 by U.S. District Judge Dean D. Pregerson. Police said Alcaraz was arrested Jan. 27 after being caught in a sting operation conducted by undercover anti-narcotics agents. [end]
Four Trinity College seniors started with prescription drugs last weekend, on a tragic binge that would leave one dead and another almost dead. At some point, police think, they left campus to buy heroin. Abuse of prescription drugs is a coming fad. Sadly, so is the use of heroin. ``Heroin is making a big comeback,'' said Superior Court Judge Jorge Simon. ``We're getting heroin cases from Marlborough, East Hartford, Glastonbury.'' We've been fighting the war on drugs, the Vietnam of domestic policy, for 25 years, and still, heroin is making a comeback. One might think this would cause a review of how we're approaching the problem. [continues 520 words]
