A Vancouver woman was shocked to find a toy shaped like a hypodermic needle complete with fake blood in the Halloween section of a Kitsilano drugstore. Wendy Dalton was shopping at her local Shoppers Drug Mart on Broadway this week when she came across a bucket full of what looked like syringes featuring either blue or red liquid and a plunger. She was troubled to see children pretending to shoot up with the plastic novelty pens. Dalton was curious what other people would think, so she bought two pens and began conducting her own poll around her neighbourhood and on the bus. [continues 257 words]
'The House I Live In,' Directed by Eugene Jarecki A call to national conscience, the activist documentary "The House I Live In" is persuasively urgent. Directed with heart by Eugene Jarecki, the movie is an insistently personal and political look at the war on drugs and its thousands of casualties, including those serving hard time for minor offenses. It is, Mr. Jarecki asserts - as he sifts through the data, weighs the evidence and checks in with those on both sides of the law - a war that has led to mass incarcerations characterized by profound racial disparities and that has created another front in the civil rights movement. [continues 827 words]
Four sons of Maria Herrera Magdalena are missing. "Two of my sons disappeared on August 28, 2008, in the state of Guerrero," she said Thursday in a visit to the Rio Grande Valley. "And after two years I again have the same thing happen. Two more sons have disappeared." Herrera Magdalena is part of the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity that is traveling across the United States to promote bilateral efforts to end the drug violence in Mexico and along the border. [continues 307 words]
A 21-Year-Old Maple Ridge Woman Is Dead After a Night of Partying Another young Maple Ridge person has died from what appears to be a drug overdose after a night of partying. Mounties and the coroner are investigating the sudden death of a 21-year-old woman after emergency services were called to an apartment during the early morning hours of Sunday - after a Saturday-night party. The young woman was found unresponsive and rushed to hospital in serious condition. She died two days later. [continues 416 words]
In honor of Mother's Day on Sunday, Diane Goldstein of North Tustin was busy all week with media interviews to support the Moms United to End the War on Drugs movement. Goldstein, a retired Redondo Beach police lieutenant with almost 22 years of service, has also been a member of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, since 2010. She lectures across the country and throughout Orange County on behalf of the group, advocating for legislative change in drug laws and the legalization of cannabis. Article Tab: Diane Goldstein of North Tustin, a retired Redondo Beach police lieutenant who is working to support the Moms United to Stop the War on Drugs movement. Diane Goldstein of North Tustin, a retired Redondo Beach police lieutenant who is working to support the Moms United to Stop the War on Drugs movement. [continues 773 words]
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld the absolute discharge of a young woman who brought 34 kilograms of khat into Canada, a leafy substance used as a popular social drug, the way alcohol is, that is legal in many countries. "This is an important ruling because it recognizes that while khat is illegal in Canada there is no empirical evidence that this drug is harmful to the individual or the community at large," said Toronto defence lawyer Mark Halfyard, who argued the appeal. [continues 501 words]
Assemblywoman Norma Torres has it right, and we thank her for paying attention to an issue affecting every single community in California - - drugged driving. We have more people driving "high" on our highways than we do driving drunk. While great strides have been made for decades to reduce drunken driving, virtually nothing has been done to address "drugged driving." With the explosion of domestic marijuana cartels in California selling pot out of storefronts, Californians are largely not surprised to learn that an ever-increasing number of traffic incidents involve people under the influence of marijuana - especially those driving to and from marijuana dispensaries. [continues 575 words]
Thanks to more than half a million dollars in federal funding the Salvation Army will be able to assist women recovering from addiction. Capt. Robert Sessford said he couldn't be happier to be able offer the service in Regina. The Salvation Army Regina Waterston Centre is receiving over $500,000 in Homelessness Partnering Strategy funding to place women taking part in the Regina Drug Treatment Court program in a supportive residential facility. The two years of funding will go toward operating costs and the new women's program. [continues 405 words]
The first thing Tammy Jordan did was erase the damnable number from her cell phone. Not the second thing, not the third. That number was gone. Where Jordan was headed, the number had no place. She just graduated from Dawson County's drug court and vowed to look forward, not back. She would devote herself to the two daughters she had neglected and care for her father because she had abandoned her mother. Jordan's methamphetamine addiction had led her to months-long absences from her family. The boyfriends she found could be as bad as the dope, including one who beat her to the point of unconsciousness in front of her two young daughters. [continues 1253 words]
Drug Court Gave Woman 'Stability' To Get Life Back For many years, Charlotte Whitlock's bedroom was the most comfortable spot she could find under a city bridge. She would break down cardboard boxes she found on the streets and put those on top of rocks or concrete, the way the other crackheads and bridge dwellers had shown her, then she would pad the cardboard with a lot of blankets and seek the sleep that would take her away from who she was. She saved bottles of water to brush her teeth, and she would get meals and clothes from charities around downtown Atlanta. [continues 1337 words]
Victoria Turley Provided Reasonable and Sufficient Care, Judge Finds A woman accused of failing to provide sufficient medical assistance to a 16-year-old girl who died after taking ecstasy has been acquitted. At the end of a 90-minute oral judgment, B. C. Supreme Court Justice Sunny Stromberg- Stein acquitted Victoria Turley of failing to provide the necessaries of life to Shannon Raymond, who died while sleeping at her Maple Ridge home. At the time, Turley said the overdosing teen would be fine and suggested she sleep it off. [continues 458 words]
A woman who owns land in the Round Mountain area has filed a claim against Shasta County alleging deputies unlawfully searched her property and destroyed hundreds of pounds of legally grown marijuana there. Filed by Santa Rosa attorney Joe Rogoway on behalf of Esmeralda Sanchez Garcia, 25, the claim is the precursor to a lawsuit. It alleges agents with the Shasta County Marijuana Eradication Team searched Sanchez Garcia's Dunn Moody Road property without a warrant and destroyed more than 800 pounds of legally grown marijuana, violating her state and constitutional rights. [continues 798 words]
All his life, Austin Powers was surrounded by people who loved him. His mother. His sister. His fiancee. His son. His friends. But Austin Powers died alone in his Fort Collins apartment, an empty heroin syringe next to his body, a needle mark on his forearm. In addition to being a beloved son, brother, fiance, father and friend, Powers, 24, was an addict. He abused prescription drugs such as Oxycontin. Alcohol. Heroin. Cocaine. He went to rehab and got clean. Relapsed. Got sober. Relapsed. [continues 2030 words]
Throughout history, women have been instrumental in initiating social change. So it's no surprise women are now organizing in the fight for medical marijuana. One of the most vocal advocates for medical marijuana is PatiCakes, aka The Queen of Cannabis Baking and the host of the weekly Internet cannabis radio show hempradio.com. She, along with several other local business women, decided it was time to start an Orange County sub-chapter of NORML's Women's Alliance. Since 1970 NORML the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws has been the recognized organization promoting advocacy and change for marijuana laws. [continues 612 words]
Three years ago, Bloomington resident Sharon Blair lost her oldest child, 29-year-old Jennifer Reynolds, to what most people might not call a disease: drug addiction. But Blair, 54, believes an illness is what caused her daughter's accidental overdose on Jan. 15, 2009. "The brain is malfunctioning. It's not processing," she said. "So it is a disease. That is something no one wants to talk about." However, Blair intends to get the attention of lawmakers in Indiana and Florida, where Blair and her family lived when her daughter died. [continues 577 words]
WHEN Lori Davis spoke, her dead son Chad was beside her, in a dark wooden box. "I've been asked to provide a glimpse on the effects of drugs on a family," Davis told the media and others assembled at an RCMP news conference Friday. "So I will begin by introducing Chad. His urn of ashes is here on my left and is the only physical reminder my husband and I have of Chad. Drugs killed my youngest son.' With that, the room went silent. Reporters stopped typing on their BlackBerries and iPhones. The background noise of rustling paper and shuffling feet stopped. [continues 495 words]
The mother of a one-time marijuana dealer, who claims drug squad officers beat him and stole his money, says she was shocked to see how badly injured he looked hours later. "He was all bent over, shuffling and bent over," testified Greeba Quigley, 75, mother of Christopher Quigley, 46. "His face was completely red," she told a police corruption trial, recalling how her son looked when she bailed him out hours after the alleged assault 14 years ago. "He had a big cut in between his eye and forehead." [continues 380 words]
Cody Gorlick spent the hours before his death cuddled up with his girlfriend of two years watching movies in his dorm room. His death is under investigation by police as a possible drug overdose, but Monday at a small memorial on the SAIT campus where he studied welding, his girlfriend, Amanda Roger, said she still doesn't understand what happened. "We were just laying in bed watching movies all night, it was nothing out of the ordinary," recalls Roger. But in the early morning hours Saturday, Roger realized something was wrong. [continues 460 words]
ONEIDA, N.Y. - A central New York woman faces child endangerment charges as well as drug offenses after police found 8.5 grams of cocaine hidden in her baby's crib. Oneida Police Chief David Meeker says [name redacted], 23, was charged Tuesday after investigators with a warrant searched her apartment at 6 a.m. They found a container of cocaine in her baby's crib, but Meeker said the packaging prevented the child from having contact with the drug. [name redacted] was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. Her two children, both under six, were placed with other family members and [name redacted] was sent to Madison County Jail on $2,500 bail. She's due in court on Friday. Police didn't know if [name redacted] has a lawyer. [end]
