Mass Incarceration Has Gone Too Far and Helped Little, Critics Say TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Stephanie George and Judge Roger Vinson had quite different opinions about the lockbox seized by police from her home in Pensacola, Fla. She insisted she had no idea that a former boyfriend had hidden it in her attic. Vinson considered the lockbox, containing a half-kilogram of cocaine, to be evidence of her guilt. But the defendant and the judge fully agreed about the fairness of the sentence he imposed in federal court. [continues 1812 words]
Last month, Massachusetts joined 17 other states in legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, acting on a large body of evidence scientific and anecdotal that it is useful in treating a wide range of illnesses. Even some who led the opposition to the ballot question agreed marijuana has legitimate medical applications. That puts the state not only in opposition to federal law, which considers possession of marijuana for any purpose a criminal offense, it presents a conflict on a matter of fact. For 40 years, marijuana has been classified as a Schedule I drug, which is defined as having no medical application. [continues 372 words]
GREEKS: New details emerge about drug ring involved in B.C.'s longest criminal jury trial, cops say They were convicted in three drugrelated slayings, but police suspect they were also involved in four other murders. In November, five members or associates of the Greeks gang in Vernon were found guilty of three grisly deaths following the longest criminal jury trial in B.C. history. But what the jury didn't hear was the full extent of their crimes, police say. [continues 882 words]
Mothers On Oxycodone Give Birth To Drug-Dependent Babies; 'It's Heartbreaking SARASOTA, Fla.: Hospitals around the country are confronting an unsettling consequence of the prescription-pain-pill epidemic: a surge in the number of babies born dependent on drugs such as oxycodone. One recent morning a 12-day-old girl lay writhing in the neonatal intensive-care unit at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Erin Weatherwax, a nurse, tried to console the newborn by holding her against her chest and patting the baby's back. She placed the girl in a motorized swing that made cricket sounds. But the infant continued to squirm, unable to sleep more than a few minutes at a time. [continues 1019 words]
There is nothing clandestine about Julian Rojas's coca plot, which is tucked deep within acres of banana groves. It has been mapped with satellite imagery, catalogued in a government database, cross-referenced with his personal information, and checked and rechecked by the local coca growers' union. The same goes for the plots worked by Mr. Rojas's neighbors and thousands of other farmers in this torrid region east of the Andes who are licensed by the Bolivian government to grow coca, the plant used to make cocaine. [continues 1312 words]
TUCKER, Ga.-After his Florida used-car dealership failed two summers ago, Jeffrey Gonzalez decided to switch careers. So he moved to Georgia and opened a clinic prescribing opioid painkillers. He picked this Atlanta suburb because while Florida law stipulates that only doctors can own such facilities, Georgia imposes no such restrictions. Within a few months, Mr. Gonzalez was open for business. To staff up, he hired two physicians through a Craigslist ad. His lead doctor wasn't a pain specialist, but a gynecologist. [continues 2279 words]
AMONG the results of last month's elections was a startling cultural development: Two states, Colorado and Washington, became the first to legalize the sale of marijuana for any purpose to adults over 21. This coincides with national polls that show increasing support for marijuana legalization. Yet on this issue, conservatives and liberals alike have balked at defending individual rights and states' rights. Since 1996, when California allowed the medicinal use of marijuana, 17 more states and the District of Columbia have followed suit. A Washington PostABC News poll three years ago found overwhelming support for legalizing medical marijuana use: 81 percent were in favor. More recent CBS News and Quinnipiac polls have shown Americans almost evenly split on legalizing recreational sale of marijuana to adults, with supporters ahead by 3 to 4 percentage points. In 1969, only 16 percent favored legalization. [continues 484 words]
U.S.-Vetted Sensitive Investigative Units Rack Up Impressive Successes In The Drug Wars Using American Technology And Training At A Relatively Low Cost. CARTAGENA, Colombia - Under cover of a moonless night in early July, the crew took no more than five minutes to load more than a ton of cocaine on a motorboat beached on a deserted shore of the Guajira peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Equipped with three 200-horsepower engines, the "go-fast" craft then roared off toward the Dominican Republic, the first stop on the drugs' way north. [continues 866 words]
Special Units Rely on American Technology and Training, Racking Up Impressive Successes at a Relatively Low Cost. CARTAGENA, Colombia - Under cover of a moonless night in early July, the crew took no more than five minutes to load more than a ton of cocaine on a motorboat beached on a deserted shore of the Guajira peninsula in northeastern Colombia. Equipped with three 200-horsepower engines, the "go-fast" craft then roared off toward the Dominican Republic, the first stop on the drugs' way north. [continues 1543 words]
We can grow some drugs locally and fair-trade drugs can supply the rest. Following the principles of the 100-mile diet, medical marijuana is best grown close to home to reduce transportation costs and support local growers. Kamloops' city council is sensibly looking at zoning of industrial land for marijuana crops and the federal government wants to reduce small grow ops in favour of larger facilities. However, it's not practical to grow drugs such as coca and poppies close to home. And practicality aside, many of these growers could benefit from fair trade and legalization. [continues 423 words]
A pair of multi-year studies from the B. C. Centre for Excellence in HIV/ AIDS and UBC found that homelessness and childhood abuse are linked to intravenous drug use in youth. Two separate studies set out to determine why some young people begin to inject heroin, cocaine, amphetamine, or opioids while others do not. They were funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the U. S. National Institute on Drug Abuse as part of a larger initiative looking at various stages of a drug user's life story and the outcomes of addiction. [continues 437 words]
'Cannabis Keeps Viral Progression Down' DIRECTOR of the Caribbean Drug and Alcohol Research Institute Dr Marcus Day believes the time has come for regional governments to legalise marijuana to counteract the spread of HIV. "I think we should regulate cannabis (marijuana) use the same way we regulate alcohol use, the same way they are talking about regulating it in the states of Washington and Colorado in America," said Day, an HIV/AIDS specialist and coordinator of the Caribbean Harm Reduction Coalition. [continues 659 words]
In November, Colorado and Washington both passed referendums allowing for recreational use of marijuana by adults over the age of 21. At the same time, Connecticut and Massachusetts passed measures legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes, making them the 17th and 18th states to do so. Washington D.C. also has a law legalizing the drug medicinally. But despite the expansion of the marijuana reform movement, it is yet to be seen if the changes have had any effect on Ohioans' perception of the drug. [continues 1382 words]
Among the results of last month's elections was a startling cultural development: two states, Colorado and Washington, became the first to legalize the sale of marijuana for any purpose to adults over 21. This coincides with national polls that show increasing support for marijuana legalization. Yet on this issue, conservatives and liberals alike have balked at defending individual rights and states' rights. Since 1996, when California allowed the medicinal use of marijuana, 17 more states and the District of Columbia have followed suit. A Washington Post-ABC News poll three years ago found overwhelming support for legalizing medical marijuana use: 81 percent were in favor. More recent CBS News and Quinnipiac polls have shown Americans almost evenly split on legalizing recreational sale of marijuana to adults, with supporters ahead by 3 to 4 percentage points. In 1969, only 16 percent favored legalization. [continues 280 words]
HMCS Ottawa Plays Key Role In International Enforcement Operation Local singer-songwriter Vince Vaccaro wrote his hit Costa Rica to illustrate a tired man yearning for a fresh start along the shorelines of the picturesque Central American country. "Can I lose my name, be someone new, and I'll throw my troubles into the wild blue," Vaccaro sings. For the crew aboard a Costa Rican fishing vessel last month, the lyrics couldn't have resonated more, as the HMCS Ottawa emerged out of the rain and fog of the Pacific Ocean. [continues 313 words]
"Mandatory sentences breed injustice," Judge Roger Vinson told the New York Times. A Ronald Reagan appointee to the federal bench in Florida, Vinson was railing against a federal system that forced him to sentence a 27-year-old single mother to prison life without parole because her dealer ex-boyfriend had stored cocaine in her house. Note to D.C. Republicans: This would be a great time to take on the excesses of the war on drugs. The Times was writing about conservatives, including Jeb Bush and former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson, who advocate for smarter, more humane incarceration policies under the rubric "Right on Crime." In light of the GOP's need to woo more young voters, drug-war reforms offer an ideological good - limited government - and also might be politically savvy. Think: Ron Paul and his rock star status on college campuses. [continues 667 words]
"Mandatory sentences breed injustice," Judge Roger Vinson told the New York Times. A Ronald Reagan appointee to the federal bench in Florida, Vinson was railing against a federal system that forced him to sentence a 27-year-old single mother to prison for life without parole because her dealer ex-boyfriend had stored cocaine in her house. Note to D.C. Republicans: This would be a great time to take on the excesses of the war on drugs. The Times was writing about conservatives, including Jeb Bush and former Watergate conspirator Chuck Colson, who advocate for smarter, more humane incarceration policies under the rubric "Right on Crime." In light of the GOP's need to woo more young voters, drug-war reforms offer an ideological good limited government and also might be politically savvy. Think: Ron Paul and his rock star status on college campuses. [continues 670 words]
ANYONE PAYING attention knows that prohibition of pot alone has done little to prevent kids from using it. Today's children have no difficulty finding the drug. In fact, anti-marijuana legislation may have had the unintended and disastrous effect of giving parents and school officials a false sense of security. Beyond question, prohibition put the trade entirely into the hands of underground dealers who never check IDs. It is potentially easier to keep children off cigarettes because they are sold by regulated vendors who put their livelihoods at risk if they sell to minors. Underground dealers have no such concerns. [continues 475 words]
Ah, the great American West, where man can generally breathe free and also inhale - woman, too. Thank you, thank you, voters in Colorado and Washington state, for legalizing marijuana. But will Washington, D.C., leave you alone? Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department will weigh its response to the state referenda. A new national poll finds 58 percent of Americans in favor of making marijuana legal and only 39 percent against. A raft of other state laws easing the prohibition on pot and growing public contempt for the existing law should be enough to change the policy. And so should a basic sense of decency. [continues 515 words]
If the years of Prohibition taught the United States nothing else, it should have been that laws for which there is little, or no, popular consensus are not only likely to be treated with disdain, but also breed corruption. So, during the ban on alcohol, speakeasies flourished and mobsters like Al Capone 'owned' law-enforcement officers and public officials. Dry America was a boon for the Mafia. Nearly 80 years after the lifting of Prohibition, America is fighting, and losing, another of these battles of morality. Only, this time, the fight has spread far beyond its borders, with deleterious consequences for many of its neighbours, including Jamaica. [continues 449 words]
