The "stoner" superbowl, and a favorite holiday of all herbal lovers, 4/20 is a celebration of all the green glory that is marijuana. It is a day where red eyes are as common as blue, snack foods are inhaled by the pounds and tie-dye and hemp uniforms are seen all around. However, there is as much haze surrounding the history behind this holiday as the participants themselves. Many people have no idea as to why 4/20 is the preferred spark time of the green culture, and an equal amount have only heard the urban legends. Paige Nuzzolillo, 4th-semester anthropology major, believes that 4/20 is celebrated, "because it's the police code. 420 is the police code for marijuana." Tom Morph, 2nd-semester theater major, believes it's "because it was Hitler's birthday." Zane Roberts, 2nd-semester theater major, believes it's simply because "stoners need a holiday too." While these are all widely believed theories, none of them are actually correct. [continues 428 words]
Richard Van Wickler, Superintendent for the Cheshire County, NH Department of Corrections, spoke out against the United States' War on Drugs, which he characterized as ineffective, prejudiced against blacks, and bad for the economy. Winkler, who spoke in PAC 002 on Wednesday evening, is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an international non-profit organization made up of both working and retired policemen who work to legalize drugs. "We need to end the prohibition," Wickler said, "[Marijuana] is a plant. You can't make it go away." [continues 360 words]
STAMFORD - Two-thirds of Connecticut's nearly 20,000 prisoners have serious addictions, and many need to be placed into treatment to avoid an overcrowding crisis, according to a report released Thursday by two non-profit organizations. The report, commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit that seeks reform of tough drug laws, urges the state to invest in drug treatment and programs to help former prisoners re-enter society successfully. It recommends abolishing drug laws that carry mandatory minimum sentences and deal harsher punishments to offenders caught with drugs near a school, public housing project or day care center. [continues 398 words]
A report released yesterday urged officials to invest in treating drug offenders and keeping the mentally ill out of prison, instead of adopting harsher measures in the wake of last year's Cheshire home invasion murders. The report, commissioned by the Drug Policy Alliance, which seeks reform of tough drug laws, estimates that at least two-thirds of the state's prisoners have serious addictions. It recommends the state continue policies it began before the Cheshire murders sparked a temporary ban on parole and calls for a three-strikes law for repeat offenders. [continues 691 words]
Dear Annie, Please tell me a little about the effects of marijuana on the body. . Suspicious Smoker Dear Suspicious Smoker, Marijuana is a hot issue today because of its debated legalization and widespread use. It is the third most popular recreational drug in the country, behind alcohol and tobacco. Most specifically, there are three different species of Cannabis: sativa, indica, and ruderalis. Cannabis has been around for ages in various forms as a naturally growing plant around the world. Since it is literally a weed, it grows abundantly in many different climate conditions. [continues 964 words]
Being a parent means flying blind. And the cloud cover thickens in middle school and high school, the years of changing bodies, tyrannical social pressures, parties, alcohol, drugs - and those stunted, five syllable conversations between parents and teens. "A lot of parents are seriously in denial," said Steve Kangos, a Ridgefield High School senior. "If you told them 85% of the kids at the high school drink, they'd just balk at it." Even when teenagers get caught, he said, many parents believe what they want to believe. "A lot of parents, they find an excuse to tell themselves why it's not their kid's fault: He was just there. He was pressured into it. It was someone else." [continues 1799 words]
Local fourth and seventh graders spoke out adamantly against substance abuse Monday night at the fourth annual "Courage to Speak: Empowering Youth to be Drug-Free Family Night" at West Rocks Middle School. With few dry eyes in the auditorium, Norwalk students expressed their heartfelt views about drug, alcohol and other substance abuse to the hundreds of families, parents, students, and government officials that attended the event. The purpose of the popular evening was to educate local youth and celebrate those who have already denounced substance abuse. On display at the family night were a host of posters and collages designed by the students during drug prevention classes that are part of the Courage to Speak curriculum, an influential program aimed at helping the students to become anti-drug advocates and mentors for their friends and younger siblings. [continues 397 words]
The battle to legalize marijuana has always been an issue in American culture and politics. However, due to inherent hypocrisies and misconceptions in the American government and public at large, there has never been enough political capital to repeal the unjust laws governing the drug's use. Legalization is the last step in a long process that would allow for unrestrained recreational use of a drug that would not, as many people fear, lead to the downfall of American society. When people sift through all the propaganda, they will find that the only people who benefit from marijuana prohibition is the government and big business, while the average American citizen is burdened with the negative effects. [continues 1099 words]
Parents And Others Concerned About Addiction Band Together To Share Their Stories As Leona Hay sat through the memorial service for her son, one thing kept going through her mind. "I felt compelled to tell Shane's story," Hay said. "Pounding at the back of my brain was the question: 'What am I going to do with this?'" Hay, of Bristol, spent three years watching her son turn into a drug addict. She thought things had turned around when he stayed clean for eight months, but then he relapsed and died of a heroin overdose in March 2006. He was 26 and is survived by two young children of his own. [continues 1051 words]
Groton - School bus drivers say they are concerned about a school district practice that asks them to contact the school first instead of the police when an incident occurs on a school bus. The drivers say the policy could be putting drivers in danger and sending students the wrong message. Two bus drivers were recently given new routes after parents complained that the drivers chose to involve police with incidents on the bus. Now several bus drivers who asked not to be identified say they felt the move sent a message: that students who misbehave can get away with it. [continues 709 words]
Critics Says State DCF Failing In Its Oversight Role Hartford - In 2006, a team of state inspectors halted admissions to the adolescent drug-abuse treatment programs at Stonington Institute, saying the private facility had woefully insufficient staffing, poorly trained workers and a dim concept of the remedies it was being paid to provide to troubled youths. Now, after nearly two years of monitoring by state agencies and assurances from Stonington Institute's management that it is correcting those problems, the facility's critics say there has been little meaningful improvement -- and that the state's own Department of Children and Families has failed to exercise aggressive oversight of a program in which it places struggling kids. [continues 1834 words]
Medical marijuana advocates took a hit last year. And they weren't happy about it. Last year, Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed medical marijuana legislation that passed easily through the state House and Senate. It was a significant setback for those who had lobbied for years to get Connecticut to adopt such a bill. Fast forward a year later, and medical marijuana advocates remain steadfast, emboldened by a recent position paper by the American College of Physicians (ACP). The 13-page paper was written by a dozen of doctors who threw their unanimous support behind the therapeutic use of marijuana and strongly advised that more research was needed. [continues 487 words]
Marijuana has medicinal uses. Despite numerous scientific studies and the development of synthetic medicines derived from cannabis, the United States government appears to disagree with this statement. Marijuana remains a Schedule I drug according to the DEA, which only benefits the pharmaceutical companies who now have a monopoly on the therapeutic effects of a plant that can be grown with little effort. Under the Controlled Substances Act, the DEA lists and categorizes drugs, illegal and pharmaceutical, into five categories or schedules. According to the DEA Web site, the drugs are placed in a schedule based upon "the substance's medical use, potential for abuse, and safety or dependence liability." Schedule I drugs are considered the most addictive and have no medical use and are considered the most dangerous. Schedule II drugs have some medical benefits but are highly addictive and so on until Schedule V. Marijuana is considered a Schedule I drug, along with heroin and LSD, because it has a "high potential for abuse" and "has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." Apparently though, PCP and cocaine have more of a medical basis considering they are Schedule II drugs. [continues 948 words]
In order to fully understand the opposition to marijuana reform, it is important to investigate who already benefits from the status quo prohibition. Besides recreation, there are many other uses for marijuana. Many people benefit, while many others suffer negative consequences of prohibition. In most cases it is the corporations who benefit, while the individual citizens are the ones left out in the cold. There are three different degrees of possible marijuana reform, all of which have different ramifications for society. They are the legalization of hemp, the medicalization of marijuana and finally the legalization of marijuana. Only the last step is a full repeal of marijuana prohibition. With hemp and medical marijuana, it is still possible for prohibition of marijuana as a recreational drug. This column will discuss the asinine policy of hemp prohibition, while medicalization and legalization will be discussed in their own subsequent columns. [continues 980 words]
Most jurists, lawmakers and legal experts today recognize that the disparity in federal mandatory sentences for sale and possession of crack cocaine and powdered cocaine is grossly unfair. Congress, however, has been slow to eliminate the discrepancy. It's time that it did. The sentencing guidelines, contained in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, state that a conviction for distribution of 500 grams of expensive powdered cocaine carries a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, while the same penalty is triggered for distribution of only 5 grams of cheap crack. That's a 100-to-1 difference. [continues 314 words]
MERIDEN - A local attorney is seeking a permanent injunction that would prevent the Board of Education from expelling a 16-year-old Maloney High School student who was arrested on drug charges away from school grounds. The request is prompting discussion about whether automatic expulsion hearings for students arrested in connection with off-campus incidents violate their right to due process. Police notified Maloney that a student had been arrested on Feb. 5, and the school immediately suspended the teenager for 10 days. Administrators are now looking to hold an expulsion hearing. [continues 751 words]
Marijuana has been illegal for a long time. However, unlike with most drugs there has always been a rather distinguished movement to have it legalized. In the American psyche, it lies somewhere between alcohol and everything else. It recent years, doctors and patients touting its medical benefits have brought it back to the forefront, causing some states and cities to either decriminalize it or to allow doctors to prescribe it for medical uses. It is time that the history and reasons for marijuana prohibition be reexamined and hopefully significant and serious debate can be reopened among politicians. [continues 844 words]
Awarded First Prize By The New England Press Association For Social Issues Feature Story. Nikki Phillips was a beautiful star athlete, bright and personable, who seemed to have everything going for her. Yet in a moment, she was gone. A popular member of the Weston High School class of 2006, Nikki, 18, died accidentally from an apparent drug overdose in November while in her dorm room at Florida Atlantic University. The news came as a huge shock to Nikki's family, friends, and classmates. [continues 1447 words]
The Ansonia Board of Education has been ordered by a federal judge to pay $17,902 in legal fees and another $1,294 in court costs to a Bridgeport lawyer who successfully overturned the expulsion of a former high school football player arrested on a marijuana charge after school. U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall awarded the payments to Gary Mastronardi, a former FBI agent turned lawyer, for his representation of Tristan Roberts, a 17-year-old Ansonia High School junior, and his mother, Paulette Bolling, last fall. [continues 311 words]
"I would like to see some college set up a psychedelic center and after a great deal of careful preparation, make an expertly guided session available to the students willing to prepare for it," said former assistant professor of psychology Michael Kahn, advocating the academically-sanctioned use of LSD. These words were printed in an Oct. 1966 edition of the News, right in the middle of an era popularly considered synonymous with flower power, free love and psychedelia. Was Kahn's comment reflective of the mood of the times? [continues 740 words]
Inside Connecticut
