The Justice Ministry's proposal to remove methamphetamines, or ya ba, from the illicit dangerous drug list is a bold attempt to tackle chronic drug problems in society. The move, as revealed last week by Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya, involves proposing an amended version of the narcotics law which would in effect destigmatise both drug users and small-time sellers to allow them reclaim their lives. It has attracted a mixed response. The bill, however, states punishments remains unchanged for drug dealers and those in possession of 15 methamphetamine pills or more. [continues 877 words]
Roadside Drug Testing Is a Back Door Prohibition on Marijuana, a Nightmare for Medical Users Before breaking for the summer, the Legislature approved an extra-constitutional one-year pilot program that allows police officers to conduct roadside saliva testing on drivers they suspect might be under the influence of a variety of drugs. It's the kind of legislation that sounds beneficial, but threatens privacy and due process rights. Gov. Rick Snyder should veto a bill that is bound to be a litigation machine. [continues 420 words]
The seizure of industrial quantities of methamphetamine near Ahipara this week should spark a bit of stocktaking. The drug bust will be remembered for the sheer quantity of the attempted importation and the comic incompetence of the criminals. (It's interesting the drug runners' ineptitude has been the object of more scathing comment than the importation itself.) The police appear to have been completely unaware of the audacious if bungled operation until locals twigged to something unusual going on. If the police were genuinely taken by surprise, the war on drugs is surely in a parlous state. Not that the authorities have ever looked like winning the war which has been an abject failure around the world. [continues 729 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]
THE OUTGOING chief of the Philippine National Police yesterday shrugged off Presidentelect Rodrigo Duterte's allegations that three "police generals" were involved in corruption or illegal drugs. PNP Director General Ricardo Marquez told reporters that an investigation had been in progress even before Duterte told his supporters at a thanksgiving party on Saturday in Davao City that corruption in the police ranks should stop and that he was asking three "generals" assigned at headquarters to resign. "We have not seen any evidence that will support the information of the involvement of active generals [in illegal drugs]," Marquez said in an interview after the weekly flagraising ceremonies at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City. [continues 582 words]
His left hand was pressed firmly into his temple as he leaned in and whispered, "Okay, once I finish this goddamn computer science project I'm going to make some Amsterdam tea." I muffled my naturally thunderous laughter as we we sat in the center of the Engineering Library. A moment of comfortable silence between friends followed, with only keyboard sounds filling the space. I didn't resume studying, for I was distracted by his plans, and it wasn't because of his choice of euphemism. [continues 792 words]
ZANESVILLE - From 2008 to 2014, 32,021 marijuana seizures in Muskingum County were reported to the Ohio Attorney General's Office, putting it at number one in the state. In 2010 alone, agencies in the county reported more than 25,000 seizures, which was nearly 25 percent of all marijuana seizures reported in the state 105,121. According to the data, Pike County and Franklin County were also top counties for marijuana seizures, and during the same time period, Perry County had 12,290 seizures reported. [continues 750 words]
The Explosion of Smuggled Mexican Heroin Is Killing Thousands "Lobos" has made another bust. Back in December, the K-9 dog Lobos and his human partner, Fayette County Texas Deputy Sheriff Sgt. Randy Thumann, made a routine stop on Interstate 10 and Lobos' super nose turned up $4 million in liquid methamphetamine hidden in the vehicle of two Mexican nationals. A month later, the law enforcement pair made another stop on I-10. This time, Lobos found $428,000 in cash hidden away in a Honda Odyssey driven by Jose Cortez, 28, and Maria Martinez, 26, both Mexican citizens. [continues 730 words]
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - An Albuquerque police narcotics operation in which undercover detectives haggled with transient drug addicts in some cases accepting the clothes off their backs in exchange for drugs, then arresting them is raising broader questions about the agency's approach to drug crimes, especially when using stings. APD says a court order allowing them to sell drugs on the streets, then arrest people is a valuable tool that lowers crime, while the public defender's office contends that police are targeting the poor and that the tactic has done nothing to battle drug crime in the city. The district attorney said the value of the operations is minimal. [continues 873 words]
Congress and President Obama are under pressure to reschedule marijuana. While rescheduling makes sense, it doesn't solve the state/federal conflict over marijuana (descheduling would be better). But more important, it wouldn't fix the broken scheduling system. Ideally, marijuana reform should be part of a broader bill rewriting the Controlled Substances Act. The Controlled Substances Act created a five-category scheduling system for most legal and illegal drugs (although alcohol and tobacco were notably omitted). Depending on what category a drug is in, the drug is either subject to varying degrees of regulation and control (Schedules II through V) - or prohibited, otherwise unregulated and left to criminals to manufacture and distribute (Schedule I). The scheduling of various drugs was decided largely by Congress and absent a scientific process - with some strange results. [continues 601 words]
Contamination in houses used to produce illegal drugs can easily be overlooked during routine inspections, which is why the province needs a comprehensive registry of former marijuana grow-ops and methamphetamine labs, according to the Association of Saskatchewan Realtors (ASR). "The information's available (to police), and we think it should be made available to our members and to potential buyers, so they're able to make an informed decision when they look to buy a house," ASR CEO Bill Madder said. [continues 553 words]
HELENA, Mont. (AP) - A Montana State Prison guard has been accused smuggling methamphetamine and marijuana into the prison in exchange for cash. A federal grand jury indicted Martin Reap on conspiracy, drug possession, drug distribution and bribery charges earlier this month. The case against him was unsealed on Thursday. The indictment alleges that Reap conspired with unnamed inmates to smuggle the drugs into the Deer Lodge prison for distribution to other inmates between February 2015 and last month. In return, Reap allegedly received more than $5,000 from others who participated in the drug-smuggling conspiracy. Federal Public Defender Michael Donahoe, Reap's attorney, was traveling and did not immediately return a call or email request for comment. Reap does not have a home phone listing. Montana Department of Corrections officials did not immediately return a call for comment. [end]
PENDLETON, Ind. - An Indiana inmate who died of unknown causes was once accused of being a leader of a drug ring operating out of state prisons. Pendleton Correctional Facility Superintendent Dushan Zatecky said 32-year-old [name redacted], of Crawfordsville, died Monday at St. Vincent's Anderson Regional Hospital. Madison County Coroner Marian Dunnichay told The (Anderson) Herald-Bulletin that an autopsy did not find a medical reason for [name redacted]'s death. She said a toxicology report would take three to four weeks. [continues 216 words]
SAVANNAH, Ga. - A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer JCB held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an alarming thing happened: About half of them left. That story still circulates within the business community of this historic port city. But the problem has gotten worse. All over the country, employers say they see a disturbing downside of tighter labor markets as they try to rebuild from the worst recession since the Depression: They are struggling to find workers who can pass a pre-employment drug test. [continues 1186 words]
Pot-Related Fatal Crashes in Washington Spiked Upward After Marijuana Was Voted Legal in the Fall of 2012. For years, the percentage of fatal accidents in which a driver was high on pot stood at about 8 percent. But from 2013 to 2014, the number of marijuana-related crashes doubled, according to a study by the AAA Foundation of the AAA auto club. The increase occurred even before pot was available legally in retail pot shops in Washington in July 2014, said Jennifer Cook, a spokeswoman for AAA in Seattle. [continues 355 words]
The president for the union representing correctional service officers at Quinte Detention Centre in Napanee applauds the provincial government's commitment to install full-body scanners at all of its 26 correctional facilities across the province. "We've been lobbying for this for a very long time," said Tom O'Neill, president of Local 467 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, in a telephone interview Thursday. Earlier this week, Yasir Naqvi, the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, announced that the scanners, at a cost of $9.5 million, will all be installed by the end of 2018. [continues 834 words]
After the Factories and Mines Closed, Drug Abuse Filled the Vacuum. Overdoses Are Now Common but Help Is Hard to Find, Writes Chris Arnade On the outskirts of Kingsport, Kim, a therapist, faces a small group of people sitting on folding chairs. She's trying to help them rid their lives of illegal drugs. The attendees are all white and working class, describing themselves as "dirt poor", and none has a college degree. They have come to spend hours talking of past and present pains, to offer each other support and urinate in a cup. If they pass the test, they will get their weekly prescription of Suboxone, a federally approved narcotic for opioid-addiction treatment. Or as it is called on the streets, "fake heroin". [continues 1749 words]
A number of critical airline staff have tested positive for hardcore drugs and alcohol while on the job, leaving passengers concerned about the protocols in place to keep them safe in the air. At least 14 Australian airline and airport employees operating in 'safety sensitive' roles came to work affected by alcohol and drugs in 2015, according to The Daily Telegraph. Three ground staff were found with traces of cannabis and methamphetamine in their system, an engineer tested positive for cocaine and a student pilot tested positive for cannabis. [continues 408 words]
What if LSD could treat PTSD, or magic mushrooms could help you quit smoking? Overseas research is advanced, but trials of psychedelic drugs can't get approval in Australia. Are we missing out on cures? Konrad Marshall reports. When Martin Williams' research plan was first rejected by an ethics committee in 2012, he understood why. The medicinal chemistry researcher could see some valid sticking points. For one, the psychiatrist attached to his detailed protocol didn't quite have the requisite clinical trials experience. [continues 2533 words]
WAVERLY, Ohio - Sure, some people grow marijuana in Pike County. And, yes, some people nurture the tender plants near clearings where the sunshine will hit them and where a water source - generally the Scioto River or one of its feeder creeks - is readily available. Increasingly often, though, people are moving their operations indoors, adding grow lights and irrigation to keep it all under roof, hidden from nosy neighbors and men and women with badges. This is not just a Pike County problem. Growing marijuana as a cash crop isn't uncommon in Appalachian communities, where the land is fertile and the opportunity to make money doing something else often isn't. [continues 1033 words]
