Aside from governors, mayors and members of Congress, judges are also in the order of battle against illegal drugs, President Duterte revealed on Friday. Speaking at the Central Command of the Armed Forces of the Philippines at Camp LapuLapu in Cebu, Duterte warned he would have to kill them if they would not stop their illegal drug trade. "These drug lords, these mayors, these governors... don't be complacent with me, I will have you killed," Duterte said. "Now, if I read the names of the judges which I will in a few hours, a few days. It's not that I want them shamed, I do not know them. There are police officers, judges, there are congressmen. But it behooves upon me, I have the obligation to tell the Filipino people what is happening to this country," he said. [continues 685 words]
Both Medical and Recreational Marijuana Commerce Would Be Outlawed If Measure Passes In a unanimous vote Wednesday night, Grants Pass City Council referred an ordinance to the November ballot that would ban virtually all forms of marijuana commerce in the city. The decision comes about a year after the council voted to enact two ordinances banning marijuana, one dealing with recreational marijuana and the other dealing with medical marijuana. The new version approved Wednesday consolidates both medical and recreational into a single ordinance. [continues 241 words]
Country 'Drowning' Bishops, UN and Even Vice-President Alarmed at Vigilante Violence The new Philippines government's war on drugs has already killed almost 300 people since the start of July - but President Rodrigo Duterte wants the authorities to escalate the war. Mr Duterte shrugged off alarm over the rising body count in his first state of the nation address, declaring that drugs were drowning his country and human rights were no excuse to shield criminals. "Double your efforts. Triple them if need be," he said in a message to police. [continues 454 words]
MANILA - Human rights are not a concern in Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's war on drugs, he said, as he vowed to ignore due process and compared himself to Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. In the latest of a series of tirades, the country's newly elected leader doubled down on a promised campaign of widespread killings and said he wouldn't listen to "bleeding hearts". "I will retire with the reputation of Idi Amin," he said in a speech yesterday, referring to the late African ruler whose 1971-1979 regime was characterised by large-scale rights abuses that killed tens if not hundreds of thousands of Ugandans. [continues 263 words]
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Drug use behind bars appears to have increased since California started using drug-sniffing dogs and machinery to try to stop smuggling at state prisons, where overdose deaths are nearly five times the national rate, records show. It's unclear exactly why things haven't gone as officials projected. Some say the testing can yield artificially high results. Others say it's too soon to draw any long-term conclusions. Still more say the program simply is not working. Prison officials won't divulge details on results of the multimillion-dollar program. [continues 488 words]
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Drug use behind bars appears to have increased since California started using drug-sniffing dogs and machinery to try to stop smuggling at state prisons, where overdose deaths are nearly five times the national rate, records show. It's unclear exactly why things haven't gone as officials projected. Some say the testing can yield artificially high results. Others say it's too soon to draw any long-term conclusions. Still more say the program simply is not working. Prison officials won't divulge details on results of the multimillion-dollar program. [continues 338 words]
As the Heroin Epidemic Grows Worse, People Are Finally Talking About It "HERE THEY COME!" The call goes up before the bicycles roll to a complete stop on a recent Friday, sending a ripple of energy up and down the Central Eastside block. Soon, grateful drug users are coming from every direction to speak with four volunteers bearing stuffed backpacks and two bountiful bike trailers. "Needles?" asks one woman. "Who brought needles?" She's handed a pack of 50 new syringes, and offered her choice of an array of injection materials-three sizes of cotton wads, two kinds of rubber tourniquets (in case anyone's allergic to latex), tiny cups for cooking heroin, kits for treating wounds caused by injections, and more. [continues 1444 words]
Has Thailand's tough policy on narcotic drugs created a monster out of methamphetamines resulting in the poor being punished with the heaviest sentences, and prison overcrowding? An article published on the online outlet Thai Publica in July last year by Mutita Chuachang about the need to rethink the country's policy on ya ba has resurfaced recently. The content is relevant to the Justice Ministry's controversial proposal to remove crystal meth from the illicit dangerous drug list and shift the drug policy away from heavy suppression. [continues 794 words]
SARS has been hitting the "narcos" hard of late, with a number of large drug seizures, but no one seems to know its actual effect on South Africa's war on drugs. Since the beginning of the year the men, women and dogs of SARS have netted millions of rands worth of drugs at several ports of entry. At the beginning of the month, SARS officials seized drugs worth R9-million in two incidents. At the Lebombo border, officials seized 51 bags of ephedrine and 14 bags of crystal meth from hidden compartments in a car. The drugs were believed to be worth R7-million. [continues 203 words]
In October 2014, Ashley Cervantes crossed from Nogales, Arizona, to Nogales, Sonora, to have breakfast at one of her favorite restaurants. But on the way back home, the U.S. citizen was confronted at a port of entry by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers who accused her of carrying drugs. Over the next seven hours while in custody of CBP officers, she was handcuffed to a chair, checked by drug-sniffing dogs, asked to squat so a female investigator could visually inspect her, and then taken to Holy Cross Hospital, where a male physician probed her vagina and anus for drugs as part of an unwarranted body-cavity search, according to a lawsuit filed in federal court on June 8. [continues 713 words]
As someone who writes about marijuana for a living, it recently started to seem a little strange I hadn't actually been to the promised land of legal cannabis that Colorado has become over the past couple of years. So on Memorial Day weekend, I flew to Denver on a mission to buy weed legally. I already knew the rules. Dispensaries close promptly at 7 p.m. You must be 21 or older to buy recreational cannabis; public consumption is a no-no. And so forth. [continues 309 words]
The leader of an advocacy group supporting family members of inmates in federal institutions says something needs to be done to correct the high numbers of false positives for drug residue picked up on ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) devices, or ion scanners. These false positives have resulted in visits by family members being rejected or changed to a higher security setting. "Once your son, daughter or husband is involved in the justice system, you're just thrown for a loop," Anne Cattral of Ottawa of Mothers Offering Mutual Support (MOMS), a group of approximately 35 mothers of federal and provincial inmates offering support for new family members of new inmates, said in a phone interview. "Nobody knows where to turn or how to get advice, information or anything, so that's our No. 1 mandate." [continues 1073 words]
"I've spilt more than you've smoked," my brother-in-law, let's call him Marty, bragged to my husband in the throes of his addiction. A measure to legalize recreational marijuana is heading toward the California ballot in November. Marty would have been thrilled - but then, he didn't bother much with voting. My vote, too, would have been a no-brainer some years ago. Legalize it, tax it, make it safer, I would have said then, back when I felt more certain about everything, when I viewed addiction as a lack of self-discipline and personal weakness. I never dreamed it could take down an entire family. [continues 1080 words]
"I've spilt more than you've smoked," my brother-in-law, let's call him Marty, bragged to my husband in the throes of his addiction. A measure to legalize recreational marijuana is heading toward the California ballot in November. Marty would have been thrilled - but then, he didn't bother much with voting. My vote, too, would have been a no-brainer some years ago. Legalize it, tax it, make it safer, I would have said then, back when I felt more certain about everything, when I viewed addiction as a lack of self-discipline and personal weakness. I never dreamed it could take down an entire family. [continues 1027 words]
Dogs Affected by Marijuana Toxicity Could Be Growing Problem in Canada Canadians can expect federal marijuana legislation to be introduced in the spring of 2017. According to Minister of Health Jane Philpott, the legislation will aim to keep marijuana out of the hands of children, but will it also keep it away from our pets? Research conducted in some U.S. states where marijuana has already been legalized, suggests that marijuana toxicity in Canadian dogs is going to be a growing problem over the coming years. [continues 600 words]
Regarding the drug issue, let's cut through all the political correctness and revert to reality. For most of my adult years, I drove big rigs. Perhaps you are aware of a federal law stating that any driver can be drug tested at any time. I wonder how this would work for all the drug users. As soon as a company looking for quality employees at top wages mentions a drug screening test, half of the potential applicants spontaneously get up and leave. [continues 311 words]
Re: Curious dog munches mistakenly on pot, May 21 Since Colorado legalized marijuana, veterinarians are seeing a rise in the number of dogs ingesting marijuana products. In Jefferson County, staff at the emergency animal hospital report attending to at least five cases a day for dogs who have ingested marijuana. Denver emergency rooms are also reporting admitting at least one person, each and every day for marijuana overdosing and the same is happening in Seattle. Where are the statistics for British Columbia for our pets, for hospital admissions, and for the number of kids dropping out of school or being expelled as a result of their use of marijuana products? Pamela McColl, SAM Canada, Vancouver [end]
A 29-Year-Old Man Was Killed In A Raid That Was Later Deemed Justified. Police Found $2 Worth of pot. TAMPA - The mother of a man who was shot and killed by Tampa police officers during a raid on his home in 2014 has sued the city, its former police chief and the officers involved over her son's death. The lawsuit, filed late last week in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, accuses the police of negligence for acting on the word of an informer with a history of heavy drug use and criminal activity. It also says that officers used excessive force against 29-year-old Jason Westcott, who was killed, and his boyfriend Israel 'Izzy' Reyes, who was 22 and is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. [continues 603 words]
Steamboat Springs - Armed with a stack of photos, research, statistics and zoning maps, the operators of a local marijuana business on Tuesday will try to convince at least one more Steamboat Springs City Council member to let them move into a more visible spot between a restaurant and a liquor store. The hearing on Natural Choice's proposal to move to Curve Plaza in west Steamboat is a do-over for council. Whatever the council decides is poised to be controversial. [continues 549 words]
Neighbors Upset About Odors, Noise, Traffic With the start of the outdoor marijuana growing season, Jackson County officials are gearing up for complaints from neighbors upset about nearby grows. Last summer, neighbors complained about skunk-like odors from maturing marijuana plants, barking and aggressive guard dogs, people camping out to guard and tend crops, traffic, guns and noise. Although most marijuana plants are still small or haven't been transplanted outdoors yet this season, the county is already fielding complaints. "What we've experienced so far is people had neighbors growing last year. They're calling now to complain when the neighbors are not doing anything," said Jackson County Development Services Director Kelly Madding. [continues 1158 words]
