MIRAMICHI - One thing was clear from a sentencing this week for a marijuana grower from Wayerton. British Columbia is not New Brunswick. David Young, 59, pled guilty to charges of producing marijuana. He appeared in court before Judge Denis Lordon on Tuesday to be sentenced. Young received four months house arrest but will be allowed to travel out of the court's jurisdiction to attend work in Sussex six days a week. The sentence was a joint recomendation between defence and Crown counsel. [continues 381 words]
Re: No charges expected from marijuana seizure (Sept. 1). More RCMP Balderdash. Guess who is most pleased about this eradication policy? The 90 to 95 per cent of growers who will never be caught. Think about that: If the police busted twice as many grows this year as last year, they would still only get about 20 per cent of them. One fifth, probably less. And every time they bust one grow operation - indoor, outdoor, small or big - all they do is make the ones they don't catch that much more valuable. [continues 168 words]
MIRAMICHI - Four years after the drug bust that brought down an elaborate marijuana grow operation in Miramichi, the final court proceeding wrapped up last week. On April 19, 2005 policing agencies from across New Brunswick used search warrants to enter more than a dozen homes and businesses and uncovered "super" marijuana plants in various states of growth. The investigation leading up to the takedown involved bugging phones and homes, businesses and cars. Thousands of wiretap conversations were recorded and it helped lead to convictions of the major conspirators. [continues 1208 words]
While the potato harvest is still a few weeks away, another type of harvest is yielding interesting results for police in both Madawaska and Victoria counties. On Aug. 25, District 10 RCMP, with ssistance from the Bathurst and Edmundston Regional Drug Unit, the RCMP's Integrated Border Enforcement Team and other local policing partners, seized over 800 marijuana plants from 12 different sites in Madawaska and Victoria counties. "This was enough marijuana to potentially produce over 400,000 marijuana joints," said RCMP Constable Yannick Gagnon. "These seizures will go a long way toward disrupting the activities of the organized criminal groups behind these operations." [continues 153 words]
Outdoor marijuana grow operations in the province are being targeted by law enforcement officials. Over the last two weeks, the RCMP has worked with other agencies to seize more than 1,800 marijuana plants, capable of producing close to one million pot cigarettes. The seizures, made from sites in Madawaska, Victoria and Charlotte counties, are expected to deny organized crime hundreds of thousands of dollars. Staff Sgt. Gary Hadley, who heads up the drugs/organized crime unit at RCMP J Division, said there's nothing at this point to indicate they've seized more marijuana this year than in previous years. [continues 482 words]
The judge probably said it best. "This is the closing of a distasteful episode in the history of the Miramichi." Many would agree with the sentiment expressed by provincial court judge Stephen Hutchinson after he sentenced David and Josephine Black for their role in a money laundering scheme connected to Operation Jackpot. It has been over four years since police from around the province descended on Miramichi to take part in the takedown of Operation Jackpot. It was a day that came about as a result of an 18-month joint force investigation that investigated members of the Black family - brothers David, Paul and Kevin - and their roles in overseeing numerous marijuauna grow operations, the cultivation and trafficking of the marijuana. [continues 271 words]
The punitive policy structure regulating medical marijuana use in Canada is utterly insane, not to mention inhumane. This is by design. If the program were a success, more people would use it. Then more people would be getting well, not having seizures and not dying. Then they'd talk in the media about how pot is great and saved their lives, and that totally undermines the government's propaganda war against pot. So they underfund it, understaff it, and make up rules that are nearly impossible to adhere to. The pot grown by Prairie Plant Systems is oxidized, full of seeds and stem (making it worse to smoke), zapped with gamma radiation (which kills half the medicine), and stinks of chemicals (because it wasn't grown properly). [continues 143 words]
Drugs RCMP Officers Expect To Get Usual Flurry Of Calls From People Who Stumble On Grow Ops In Woods HAMPTON - Police expect to spend a lot of time in the woods ripping pot plants from the ground, says the head of the RCMP's District 3 plain-clothes section. "The next few weeks is when we start to get a lot of calls," Cpl. Roger Gillies said. "This is the time of year when people are in the woods and come across marijuana plants, usually planted on wood lots, Crown land or Irving land." [continues 420 words]
If you're fortunate enough to own an Apple iPhone, it seems whatever your interest, "there's an app for that," as the TV commercial tells us. "Apps" are software applications, usually small, specifically-focused, and inexpensive, that run on Apple's iPhone operating system, a slimmed-down version of Apple's Macintosh OS X for personal computers and servers. There are literally thousands of these little programs available on Apple's online App. Store, one of the newest Apple has approved for sale being named simply "Cannabis," a US$1.99 iPhone and iPod app by Los Angeles-based Activists Justifying the Natural Agriculture of Ganja (AJNAG), who operate the AJNAG.com Website and MedicalCannabis.org database. [continues 602 words]
I have to admit, I do not have any personal memories of watching CBS News during Walter Cronkite's tenure as anchor, it was before my time. However, like many, I was struck by his death - he was a key figure in the early years of television news and played an important role in setting the standards for television journalism (even though many would argue that many contemporary journalists fall short of this bar). As anchor, he commanded respect and authority as one of the primary sources of news in the United States, something which is not possible today where there is a plethora of media sources including the Internet and 24-hour news stations. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he was frequently named in public opinion polls as "the most trusted man in America." [continues 713 words]
Darcey McLaughlin made a strong argument in favour of legalizing marijuana in his July 1 column, but he didn't go far enough. I'm a Canadian police officer who supports gradually legalizing and regulating all drugs. This includes marijuana as well as ecstasy, heroin and other substances. The argument in favour of legalizing these drugs is not that they are beneficial or fun, but rather that drugs are so dangerous they need to be regulated and controlled by the government. Under prohibition the government has no control. [continues 184 words]
The people happiest about this bust [reported in the July 15 Miramichi Leader) are the 90-95 per cent of growers who will never be caught. Think about that: If the police busted twice as many grows every year, they would still only get about 20 per cent of them. A fifth. Probably less. And every time they bust one grow - indoor, outdoor, small, or big - all they do is make the ones they don't catch that much more valuable. Not only is the illegality of pot the very thing that makes growing it so lucrative, the police are subsidizing the entire industry by busting a minority of them. [continues 251 words]
Darcey McLaughlin's column on legalizing marijuana in the Canada Day issue was excellent. There are a couple of points I think worth adding. A few years ago, the Senate of Canada conducted a study of marijuana use which included holding public hearings from coast to coast to coast. Acting on the results of the commission report, the Senate recommended decriminalizing marijuana. While it is doubtful Parliament would have done that, the United States went ballistic. The American drug czar came to Canada raving about what a violent, criminal hell hole Holland had become since allowing the use of marijuana in select cafes there. He warned that the Canada, U.S. border would be effectively sealed were we to proceed with decriminalization. [continues 288 words]
Anyone who attended Miramichi Culture Fest this past weekend will tell you the folks who came out to see the show had a good time, enjoyed the music, the food, the beer and, oh yes, the pot. OK so no vendor was set up selling marijuana but that didn't stop it from being plentiful and that familiar smell was everywhere. And what's more, nobody really seemed to care. Same could be said for most big events and concerts these days. [continues 755 words]
Re: Story published June 12 called Student gets discharge for pot possession Having drugs is a crime... Having drugs in school is even worse," the judge said. I am 100 per cent in favour of legalizing marijuana for adults, but I gotta tell you, any kid dumb enough to actually bring his pot into a school deserves to spend the summer picking up trash along one of the nation's many highways. You might want to put him back a grade, too, because clearly, the basics just aren't sinking in. Russell Barth Federally licensed medical marijuana user Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis www.paidoc.org [end]
Recent Murders Shock N.B. Communities When a murder is committed in a small town in a province the size of New Brunswick, it creates shock waves that ripple far and wide. Nearby neighbours and observers around the province are even more so disturbed when young people are arrested in relation to such violent crimes. That has been the case several times in the past weeks and months, as police pressed murder charges just this week against a 15-year-old female in Demascus, and a 17-year-old male was charged with attempted murder at a residence in Notre-Dame. [continues 643 words]
Alcohol is legal, even promoted, while marijuana is illegal, for example. Alcohol does go back in recorded history a little longer. Apparently beer first came on the scene during the Neolithic period around 10,000 BC. Wine is first seen in Egypt around 4000 BC. At the same time, Marijuana was first used "medicinally" in 4000 BC in China. Zorastrian and Hindu religious practices dating from 3,000 years ago liberally use marijuana; and the first European use seems to have been around 500 BC when the Scythians brought it north. [continues 832 words]
SAINT JOHN - Quick to share a smile and a chuckle, Staff Sgt. Ed MacEachern sits behind his desk as the clock ticks down. Near his desk hangs a picture of his father Angus. The faded photo shows a young man, proud and wearing his military uniform. Above the photo is a half-hull model of one of the boats his father built. But while MacEachern got his sense of duty from his father, the woodworker genes missed him. "I can't paint a flat wall," MacEachern said. [continues 528 words]
SUSSEX - The grounds for a police raid of Arden Gregg's Marrtown property last year, which led to drug and weapons charges, has been called into question. In Sussex Provincial Court June 4, Judge Henrik Tonning announced his ruling that the ITO (information to obtain) filed by police didn't support the warrant authorized by Judge Andrew LeMesurier for the May 20, 2008 search. The ruling does not constitute a decision on the admissibility of the evidence but merely on the grounds for the search warrant. [continues 580 words]
SAINT JOHN - The complexity and costs of police investigations have risen dramatically over the past 30 years, Deputy Chief Darrell Scribner of the Saint John Police Force told the police commission Tuesday night. The costs are driven by changes brought about by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms as well as court-directed disclosure rules that now require police to copy every piece of evidence and make it available to defence lawyers, Scribner said. "Every little piece that we touch needs to be replicated and turned over to the defence," he said. "We spend hours and hours and hours burning out photocopiers in order to do this." [continues 407 words]
Inside New Brunswick
