More Foot Patrols To Bolster Safety I 'm glad that the police can follow the smell of marijuana smoke -- but can't hear the cries of women being raped. How many man-hours -- and how much money -- has been spent to prosecute people for marijuana usage -- or gods forbid -- jogging nude with a pumpkin on their heads? Why isn't community safety the priority of our police? The last attack was at Williamson Village, at 7:45 p.m., which clearly illustrates a basic lack of personal safety in Boulder. The reason is clear: Since I've moved to Boulder in 1999, I've seen foot patrols by police in two locations: the Pearl Street Mall, and 13th Street on University Hill. [continues 304 words]
Dear Editor, If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda. [continues 62 words]
(Re: "Still smokin'," Buzz, Dec. 18.) Cheech and Chong have been effective splitting my gut exposing the prohibition, persecution and extermination of the relatively safe, socially acceptable, God-given plant, cannabis, for what it is. But cannabis prohibition is not funny. I was angry when I heard George Bush and John Ashcroft's ignoids caged Chong over this bullshit. Government is screwing the country bad with this subsidized discrimination and persecution; it's as though America is run by Nazis trying to destroy us. [continues 128 words]
Dear Editor, Reilly Capps got a bull's-eye (What Drives Cop Shop, Dec. 17, 2008) calling to end cannabis (marijuana) prohibition. Although the cannabis initiative failed a few years ago, all the ski town / counties pass it; Summit with 62% and San Miguel with a very respectable 74 percent. One of the most luciferous consequence of cannabis prohibition though is how it affects "climate change" and America's economy by also prohibiting and exterminating hemp (without THC). The United States uses corn for ethanol because hemp is illegal. America has had technology to build and fuel cars using hemp since the 1930s. Nearly every product produced from petroleum can be made with hemp resins. Some estimates indicate using 10 percent of America's farmland to cultivate hemp would eliminate any need for foreign petroleum. Before greedy ignoids conspired to prohibit hemp, it was referred to as the billion-dollar crop, when the B-word wasn't thrown around so loosely. A sane argument to perpetuate prohibiting free American farmers from utilizing the plant doesn't exist. Even communist Chinese farmers grow hemp; You know, that country America has the highest debt with. And consider how many factories and factory jobs America has lost overseas due to hemp prohibition. If America still grew hemp as it did back in the day, We'd still have those factories because hemp fields need factories nearby. America's future political atmosphere may be more conducive to changing hemp's status as a Schedule I drug along side heroin and LSD. Americans must work hard the next few years to re-introduce hemp as a component of American agriculture. In fact, environmentally conscientious Americans must fight harder than big oil and other mega corporations which profit immensely off hemp prohibition and spend huge fortunes to guarantee its existence. Because hemp prohibition is anti-American and it's shucking the country. Truthfully, Stan White Dillon, Colorado [end]
The reunion between comedy legends Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong was going to get under way in 2002 or so. But a not-so-funny thing happened, and Chong ended up in federal prison for trafficking in water pipes (which is kind of like imprisoning Don Rickles for telling a Polack joke). So logistics and life pushed Cheech & Chong back to '08, and it's finally here, with two sold-out shows at the Paramount Theatre on Saturday and tickets still available for Sunday. The duo's groundbreaking '70s stoner humor has lived on though movies like Half Baked and the Harold and Kumar series. Besides fans from back in the day, the shows are attracting a new crowd of young fans. The pair spoke from Boston about reuniting after a rancorous decades-long falling out. [continues 1503 words]
With their long-awaited reunion and a new film in the works, Cheech and Chong light it up in high style by Ben Corbett We use suppositories now," Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong chime simultaneously when asked if they still smoke marijuana. It's been 23 years since they've performed together, yet the chemistry is as impressively tight as the duo's 1970s prime, when crafting routines like Acapulco Gold, Basketball Jones, Earache My Eye and Blind Melon Chitlin - sketches as American and timeless as the minds that created them. Not to mention the infinite laughs they still inspire more than three decades after the fact. During TBS's Cheech and Chong Roasted held at Ceasar's Palace in November, the program attracted 2.4 million viewers, breaking the network's former record, and only illustrating that none other than Cheech and Chong can fill the vacuum they left in their own wake back in 1985. [continues 2091 words]
Why is the press aiding and abetting the deprivation of rights under the color of law? Millions of Americans have been arrested and their property has been seized for violating the marijuana laws. Millions of us have the right to question the validity of these laws and are denied the right to the due process of law. Marijuana is still illegal because the judiciary does not recognize marijuana users as persons and does not recognize marijuana as property. Only persons and property under the Constitution's 4th and 5th Amendments are protected from unreasonable deprivation of liberty and property. [continues 166 words]
Children found in homes where drug dealing or manufacturing is going on will get better care under new policies put in place Thursday, officials said. Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey and other officials announced new child abuse policies that give specifics for how drug-endangered children will be treated. "These are children who are not only at risk for child abuse but medical problems from exposure to chemicals found in drugs or used in their manufacture," Morrissey said. "Some people say drug cases are victimless crimes, but they are not victimless crimes when children are involved." [continues 251 words]
Every week I write the Cop Shop -- my favorite task at this paper. My life is so boring, and some of my neighbors' lives are so interesting in all these incredible, horrible, spectacular ways. The Telluride cops sometimes capture, in their police reports, a side of this town in a way official records rarely do. Every week we brawl over little things, we pass out on the sidewalk, we steal our roommate's stuff and pilfer little girls' bicycles. And why are we acting so boneheaded? [continues 603 words]
Don Marostica has a concern. He's seen what substance abuse can do to people, and he knows that many times the stories involve children. Based on that, and having seen people in prisons and jails who struggle with substance abuse, the state representative from Loveland has lent his name to a local anti-methamphetamine campaign. Marostica has teamed up with John Giroux's CLEAR - the Coalition of Loveland for Education, Awareness and Resources in the fight against meth - to help the group raise money. [continues 182 words]
Are we ready to repeat repeal? Dec. 5 marked the 75th anniversary of America's decision, in 1933, to re-amend the Constitution and set ourselves free from alcohol prohibition, a 13-year failed experiment. So is it time to free ourselves once more from an impractical and misguided prohibition effort -- the ill-starred "war on drugs" of punitive federal and state laws passed since the 1970s? Yes, argued two groups -- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation -- at a press event here last week. [continues 752 words]
Insurance May Not Cover Drug Cleanup, Even When The Homeowners Didn't Know Marcia and Robert Ashbaugh were shocked to discover their son-in-law was extracting the chemicals used to make meth in the basement of their two-story Loveland home. Their second unpleasant surprise came when they learned their insurance company didn't want to pay the $30,000 claim to clean up their contaminated property. "They treat you like, 'Well, you had an illegal activity, so it's your problem,' " said Marcia Ashbaugh. [continues 705 words]
WASHINGTON, D.C. - America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this week. The ban on the sale of alcohol unleashed a crime wave, as gangsters fought over the illicit booze trade. It sure didn't stop drinking. People turned to speakeasies and bathtub gin for their daily cocktail. Prohibition - and the violence, corruption and health hazards that followed - lives on in its modern version, the so-called War on Drugs. Former law-enforcement officers gathered in Washington to draw the parallels. Their group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), has called for nothing less than the legalization of drugs. [continues 557 words]
A 19-year-old Coloradan faces drug possession charges after a patron reported a group of teenagers smoking pot in the back of an Aspen movie theater. The police arrived promptly and pulled the teenagers out of the new Kevin Smith comedy, Zack and Miri Make a Porno, to interrogate them. The accused stoner confessed to possessing less than an ounce of marijuana and was subsequently arrested. One more example of the police using our hard-earned taxpayer money to keep our movie theaters safe from giggly youngsters. [continues 246 words]
The United States uses corn for ethanol because hemp is illegal. Hemp was made illegal due to a greedy component of capitalism combined with ignorance. Hemp prohibition is grave and dysfunctional, affecting world improvement, as Dennis Newman (Letter: "Change needed on ethanol," Nov. 13, 2008), exposes. Instead of embracing hemp for what it is; a God-awesome creation, America's leaders strive to exterminate it. Before greedy ignoids conspired to prohibit hemp, it was referred to as the billion-dollar crop, when the B-word wasn't thrown around so loosely. [continues 237 words]
Reformation Summit Urges Action Marijuana proponents are renewing discussion on the legality of the drug in Colorado. Political activists and marijuana enthusiasts met on the campus of Regis University in Denver on Saturday morning for the first statewide Marijuana Reform Seminar. The free event, hosted by Safer Alternative For Recreation and Sensible Colorado, drew a crowd of roughly 200. "We're here to learn how to change the laws, not break the laws," Brian Vicente, the director of Sensible Colorado, said. "We want to come out of this a stronger, more sound, movement." [continues 362 words]
Forensic Hygienist Makes Presentations On 'Clandestine' Meth Labs A "tweaker" to-do list, highlighted Tuesday in a presentation by a forensic hygienist, underscored the scattered and potentially dangerous mind of someone locked in a cycle of methamphetamine addiction. At first glance, the list appeared harmless - that is, until reading the last item. It was a reminder for the user to kill a woman and kidnap another. "This drug," said Caoimhin Connell, owner and operator of Bailey-based Forensic Applications and a law enforcement officer, "really, truly takes the humanity out of the human. It is so destructive. [continues 480 words]
For University of Colorado senior Mike West, the most effective remedy for chronic pain is, well, chronic. Recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered while skateboarding, West said he obtained a medical-marijuana card in April so he could treat his pain. "I could have gotten a prescription for opiates, but I didn't want to deal with the addictive and depressive side effects that go with them," West said Monday. "My doctor agreed, so we filled out the paperwork and mailed it in. [continues 482 words]
Lecture Warns Against Dangers Of Substance Abuse FARMERS KORNER - An emergency room nurse from Maine schooled Summit High School students on substance abuse this week, demonstrating what awaits for those who visit the ER with a gut full of drugs or alcohol. "I guarantee that if you enter drugs and alcohol into your life, something is going to suffer," said registered nurse Linda Dutil. "I guarantee it." The teenagers echoed gagging sounds as Dutil flipped through a slideshow - in the high school's auditorium - of a man receiving a stomach pumping tube through the nose. She called their attention to the pills mixed with vomit and blood on the chest. Fortunately, the percentage of Summit County high-school students using drugs and alcohol appears to have fallen in recent years. [continues 399 words]
The combined 19 arrests made this week in Larimer County show how law enforcement agencies are dealing with the changing world of methamphetamine and marijuana distribution, a police drug investigator said this week. The Larimer County Drug Task Force made 18 arrests Tuesday in the county following months of investigating methamphetamine dealers. On Wednesday, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office made its biggest marijuana bust at a single location, confiscating 1,307 plants and 47 pounds of finished pot at a LaPorte home. [continues 409 words]
Dear Gary: My stepmother invaded my privacy by going through my room. If that wasn't bad enough, she found some marijuana and a pipe. Now I am in all kinds of trouble with her and my father. Yes, I do smoke grass, but it is not a big deal. I'm 16 and a half years old I go to school every day and am doing fine. The grass helps me relax and concentrate better. When I am with my friends we like to smoke and hang out. I'm not hurting anyone and I don't see why my dad and stepmom are making such a big deal out of this. [continues 346 words]
Talk about bringing in the brigade. It's not enough to just tell kids not to do drugs. It takes a helicopter, the military, a federal agent, a professional sport team's mascot and cheerleaders to send the message. That group showed up at Greeley school's Thursday to promote Red Ribbon Week, a national anti-drug school campaign. Soldiers from the Colorado National Guard's Counter-Drug Program, accompanied by a special agent from the Drug Enforcement Agency, two Denver Nugget dancers and Edson the Eagle, the mascot for the Colorado Rapids, briefly spoke to students about the importance of staying off all drugs, including alcohol and cigarettes. [continues 333 words]
Giveaway, Quiz, Film Part Of Campus Group's First Fall Get-Together Room C250 in the Ramaley Biology was filled well past capacity as approximately 300 students representing the University of Colorado at Boulder chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws hosted its first meeting of the semester, "Fall Harvest." "I came out to meet other people who are interested in the reform of marijuana laws," said one CU freshman, who identified himself as Scott Hashy. "I'm new to the area, so I wanted to see what is being done and try to meet some cool people." [continues 268 words]
Advocates Tout 'Victory' For Patients and Caregivers Outside the University of Colorado Police Department on Monday, cheers erupted from a crowd of marijuana advocates -- some of whom were dressed as giant pot leaves -- when a student was given back medical marijuana that police took from him in May. "I wish I had a chance to talk to the officers who said I'd never get this back," said CU sophomore Edward Nicholson, 20, who's a medical-marijuana cardholder in Colorado. [continues 518 words]
DENVER (AP) - A University of Colorado at Boulder student who is a medical-marijuana cardholder expects campus police on Monday to return marijuana that they had confiscated from him. CU officials said student privacy laws kept them from discussing the case. Edward Nicholson had threatened a lawsuit after he said campus police confiscated less than 2 ounces of pot from his dorm room. Nicholson, 20, said he was holding the drug for his 23-year-old brother, a chronic-pain sufferer. State law allows marijuana to be used if recommended by a doctor for sufferers of debilitating medical conditions. [continues 217 words]
"I Was Never Really Worried About The Court Case Because I Was Following The State Law." A University of Colorado at Boulder student who has a medical-marijuana card will be given his pot back by campus police Monday. CU officials relented when threatened with a lawsuit after campus police confiscated less than 2 ounces of pot from Edward Nicholson's dorm room, and officials threatened him with suspension. Nicholson, 20, said he was holding the drug for his 23-year-old brother, a chronic-pain sufferer. [continues 400 words]
Medical Marijuana Can Be Used, Distributed, but Cultivators Face Jail HUERFANO COUNTY - Mike Stetler is proud of his garden. It took him months to get the lush jungle just right. "Beautiful, isn't it?" he said. A decade ago, the labor of planting would have been impossible for Stetler. Strung out on Demerol, OxyContin, morphine and oxycodone, the pain-addled Navy veteran was, he says, "a slobbering zombie, stupid and living in la-la land." Since 2002, though, when he started growing and smoking the medicinal marijuana he now tends so carefully, he hasn't touched a pill. [continues 2410 words]
The city of Fort Collins has rejected a local couple's request for more than $200,000 in compensation for their destroyed marijuana plants, possibly leading to a precedent-setting court fight. Under the state's medical marijuana law, Amendment 20, the government is supposed to maintain someone's marijuana plants if they are seized as part of a criminal investigation. If the investigation reveals the plants were properly kept as the law permits, the agency is supposed to return them. [continues 497 words]
DENVER - All of the tension and angst that hung over this city's streets a day earlier went up in smoke Thursday. As in, marijuana smoke. An estimated 800 people marched on Invesco Field - where Barack Obama would later give his historic speech to accept the Democratic nomination - in support of medical marijuana. For many in the group, this last march of this week's Democratic National Convention was simply to support the legalization of the drug. It was a far cry from Wednesday, when two dozen Iraq war veterans wearing their finest uniforms led thousands on a march to promote their platform of getting the U.S. military out of Iraq. It was an intense day, because the veterans had made it clear that unless they could speak with someone from Obama's campaign, they were willing to be pepper sprayed and arrested. Ultimately, Obama's campaign defused the situation by announcing a top official would meet with them. [continues 134 words]
DENVER - All of the tension and angst that hung over this city's streets a day earlier went up in smoke Thursday. As in, marijuana smoke. An estimated 800 people marched on Invesco Field - where Barack Obama would later give his historic speech to accept the Democratic nomination - in support of medical marijuana. For many in the group, this last march of this week's Democratic National Convention was simply to support the legalization of the drug. It was a far cry from Wednesday, when two dozen Iraq war veterans wearing their finest uniforms led thousands on a march to promote their platform of getting the U.S. military out of Iraq. It was an intense day, because the veterans had made it clear that unless they could speak with someone from Obama's campaign, they were willing to be pepper sprayed and arrested. Ultimately, Obama's campaign defused the situation by announcing a top official would meet with them. [continues 117 words]
At least 500 marchers, ranging from young adults to aged hippies, from medical marijuana proponents to anti-war activists, and from the thoroughly committed to the mildly interested, paraded along West Colfax Avenue from Lincoln Park to Invesco Field at Mile High in a raucous but peaceful procession Thursday afternoon. In a show of demonstrator unity the politicians inside the stadium would do well to emulate, the last major march of the 2008 Democratic National Convention left the park at 2:43 p.m. and along the way gathered up participants of just about every protester persuasion. [continues 318 words]
LINCOLN PARK -- The fragrance of marijuana wafted over Lincoln Park this afternoon as about 100 pro-pot supporters openly puffed away and prepared for a march in support of their cause and favorite presidential candidate. "This is a love in for Barack Obama," shouted Richard Eastman over a blow horn. "Medical marijuana saves lives." The march was initially schedule to start at 2 p.m., and then pushed back. About then, a band started playing for the crowd and by 2:45 p.m. the march still hadn't started. [continues 304 words]
Decades of effort yield few results In this campaign season, critics often hammer Sen. John McCain for his comment that he could see U.S. troops in Iraq for another 100 years. Although the senator meant the U.S. role in Iraq would be similar to our role in Germany and South Korea, not actively fight-ing insurgents, as the critics would have voters believe, the criticism scores points because the average American doesn't have much inter-est in fighting a seemingly endless war. Yet this country and others have been fighting a war for four decades with limited or no success, and there is no end in sight. [continues 853 words]
MONTROSE - Law enforcement agencies stopped just short of passing the hat, but they made it clear: the local drug task force is in dire need of funding. The Seventh Judicial District Meth/Drug Task Force is reeling from the cessation of federal Byrne grant funding, which, officials say, was hardly adequate to begin with. The task force is now seeking anything from grants to private donations. Its $47,000 Byrne allotment for this fiscal year wasn't enough to pay rent, Colorado Bureau of Investigation Agent Curt Williams said Wednesday, during a multi-jurisdictional meeting about the task force. [continues 697 words]
A Fort Collins couple is planning to sue the city and Larimer County for more than $200,000 after police officers destroyed their 39 marijuana plants two years ago. Last year in court, James and Lisa Masters successfully showed that city police illegally seized their plants following a raid at their home on Aug. 2, 2006. Judge James Hiatt in December ordered the city to return the seized pot plants, which by then were dead. The couple said they use the marijuana for medicinal reasons, growing some for their personal use and dispensing the rest to other people registered under the state's medical marijuana law. [continues 1003 words]
A panel set up to review Denver's marijuana policies has recommended that police refrain from arresting adults who fire up during the Democratic National Convention. Police will have to deal with numerous security issues next week when thousands of people -- from protesters to delegates -- descend on Denver, said Mason Tvert, leader of a group that sponsored a law mandating that marijuana be a low-enforcement priority. "It is absolutely absurd for the police to be spending any of their time worrying about adults using a drug that is less harmful than alcohol," he said today. [continues 303 words]
DENVER - A city drug panel has voted to urge police to refrain from arresting adults for marijuana possession during next week's Democratic National Convention, but the cops aren't necessarily on board. Lt. Ernie Martinez, the police department's representative on the panel, said police, bracing for potentially tens of thousands of protesters during the Aug. 25-28 convention, would have more pressing duties than rounding up pot smokers. At the same time, he said, authorities wouldn't ignore blatant flouting of the law. "If something occurs in front of us, we're going to act," he said. [continues 549 words]
A Larimer County couple already being prosecuted for marijuana cultivation was re-arrested Thursday after investigators in two counties seized 25 pounds of pot and more than 200 live plants. Christopher and Tiffany Crumbliss were arrested by Larimer County sheriff's deputies after raids at four locations in Larimer County and one in Breckenridge, the Sheriff's Office said in a news release. The exact locations where the marijuana was seized were not released, and the Sheriff's Office said it would release no further information about the case, pending the court process. [continues 421 words]
A terminally ill man who claimed to have been treated "like an animal" after he was booked into the Denver jail is poised to get a $150,000 settlement from the city. Timothy Thomason, who has non-Hodgkins lymphoma, filed a lawsuit against the city and sheriff's Deputy Joseph Cleveland, alleging he was deprived of his constitutional rights when he was denied medical treatment and access to his medications while he was in the city's custody. "I've experienced excruciating pain in my life with my cancer. But this was one of the most painful and scary experiences I've ever had," Thomason said in a 2006 interview with the Rocky Mountain News. [continues 293 words]
A Denver group that advocates for marijuana decriminalization launched an Internet ad campaign Tuesday labeling Sen. John McCain's wife, Cindy, a "drug dealer" because of her ownership stake in an Anheuser-Busch distributorship. SAFER Colorado director Mason Tvert said it would be hypocritical if a first lady owned a beer company while people were being jailed for smoking marijuana. "It clearly lays out the case that Cindy McCain is not only the dealer of a drug," Tvert said, "but the dealer of a drug far more harmful than marijuana." [continues 174 words]
Organizers of this year's Democratic National Convention have talked a lot about making it the "greenest" political convention ever. Yet one particularly popular green substance has been conspicuously absent from their plans and the public discussion: marijuana. After all, the convention is being hosted in Denver, a city known not only for its commitment to sustainability, but also for being the first municipality in the nation to make possession and private use of marijuana legal for adults. A solid majority of voters approved a ballot initiative doing so in 2005. [continues 555 words]
Why this country allows its citizens to consume alcohol, but not marijuana, is a bit of a mystery. Both substances have mind-altering capabilities. Both substances, if abused, can destroy the lives of the user and anyone who crosses the user's path. But both substances can be used responsibly and moderately, according to Rep. Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat. And perhaps most importantly, our government spends an inordinate amount of time and money arresting and prosecuting pot users - about 12 million citizens have been arrested on a marijuana-related charge since 1965, according to NORML, an organization that wants marijuana use to be legalized. [continues 377 words]
TELLURIDE, COLO. - Like all sometimes-great notions, this one was born in a bar. It was March, and a group of scientists who'd been lecturing in Telluride decamped from their esoterica and headed out to the New Sheridan to get a drink. There, a talkative chemist named Thomas Cheatham started talking about drugs in this new and novel way -- about the connections between prescription drugs, illegal drugs, natural medicines and the chemicals your Very Own Body produces every day. Nana Naisbitt, director of the Telluride Science Research Center, was there that night and recalled how the conversation sparked an idea: Bring this Cheatham guy back to Telluride, and get him to talk about the science of drugs. [continues 469 words]
A survey taken by Moffat County High School students in the 2007-08 school year reveals that alcohol use among the student population had declined since 2005-06 while tobacco and marijuana use increased during the same period. MCHS principal Thom Schnellinger said he thinks results of the 2007-08 Healthy Kids Colorado Survey reflect concerns within the local community as well as the behaviors of the student body. "The issues we're talking about are indeed community issues," he said. [continues 489 words]
Nearly anyone these days can recognize the hollowed-out features, skinny limbs and pockmarked skin that characterize someone hooked on methamphetamine, thanks in part to intensive local education campaigns. It's precisely that education, coupled with a crackdown on meth users and dealers that has helped get pounds of meth off local streets, law enforcement officials report. Yet, like any supply-and-demand equation, that is causing a decrease in the amount of the locally available drug, lowering its quality and making it more expensive. That shift has tipped the scales in the drug-buying business, now making cocaine relatively less expensive and more likely to be discovered by undercover officers in drug raids, according to spokeswoman Karen Flowers, resident agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Grand Junction. [continues 765 words]
"Aspen" and "cocaine" are nearly as synonymous as "Philadelphia" and "cheese steak." But when a 30-year-old local man was accused of selling and using heroin in Aspen last month, people were shocked. Most American heroin addicts, it turns out, are a lot like Ryan Welgos, the Aspen native who was arrested at the end of a months-long federal undercover operation. They are male, they are white, and they do not live in large cities. That last characteristic belies the notion that heroin use is an urban phenomenon, or that it doesn't exist in well-to-do places like Aspen. In fact, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 60 percent of heroin users live in rural areas. [continues 298 words]
The iconic mountain biker, who resided in Durango for more than a decade, won 14 national titles and was the world champion downhill racer in 1994. She screamed down slopes on the edge of control, landing in either an ambulance or on the podium. Her persona - she dangled a dried piranha around her neck and tucked her dead dog's ashes in her bra when she raced - and talent made her mountain biking's highest-paid athlete, earning her well over $2 million. [continues 1029 words]
Although the overall number of students expelled in District 51 schools decreased for the 2007-08 school year, the number of high school students expelled for drug-related offenses increased by 41 percent. The number of expelled students dropped from 116 to 95 in 2007-08, with almost every category of expellable offenses - alcohol, tobacco, assault, dangerous weapons, robbery, destruction of school property and others - decreasing except drugs and other controlled substances at the high school level. Twenty-two high school students were expelled for either distributing controlled substances or possessing them as a second offense in 2006-07. That number jumped to 31 students last school year, according to the district expulsion report. [continues 311 words]
Marijuana proponents want to know why federal officials continue to allow people to use alcohol on airplanes, but won't allow pot smoking in the lounges at Denver International Airport. "Does it make sense to allow adults to use a drug that causes problems on airplanes and not allow them to use one that does not cause problems on airplanes?" asked Mason Tvert, executive director of Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation. SAFER held a press conference on Tuesday outside the offices of the Federal Aviation Administration in Denver to propose a solution to the rash of in-flight disturbances on airplanes over the last year. [continues 246 words]
'Alcohol-Related Air Rage' Threatens Travelers, He Says Attention: You are now free to float about the cabin. Well, not yet, but maybe someday - that is, if Mason Tvert has anything to say about. Tvert, a crusader for legalizing marijuana, has called for pot-smoking lounges in the nation's airports. His reason for doing goes beyond his cannabis liberation mission: He wants to help make flying safer. "There's been this growing trend of alcohol-related air rage," he said Tuesday, alluding to episodes of drunken passengers creating in-flight disturbances. [continues 338 words]
Inside Colorado
