Ketchum Certifies 2004 Pro-Marijuana Initiative Petition Marijuana advocate Ryan Davidson is in Hailey this week rounding up signatures on cannabis legalization petitions with the goal of putting the issue before the city's electorate on Nov. 6. Time is running short. He has until Friday to file two petitions. The first is a prospective initiative petition that requires the signatures of 20 registered Hailey voters and the second is a final petition that needs the signatures of only 17 of the city's registered electorate. [continues 289 words]
Pro-marijuana advocate Ryan Davidson has brought his campaign to legalize marijuana back to the city of Ketchum. In a letter to the city dated Thursday, Davidson, chairman of The Liberty Lobby of Idaho, demanded that the city certify his three-year-old prospective initiative petition to allow the electorate to vote on legalizing marijuana within Ketchum's city limits. Davidson's demand was based on his Idaho Supreme Court victory in September 2006 over the city of Sun Valley on a similar proposed initiative. The Idaho High Court ruled then that Sun Valley did not have the right to determine the constitutionality of the issue. [continues 151 words]
Davidson Seeks Referendum Votes in Valley's Municipalities If pro-marijuana advocate Ryan Davidson has his way, puffs of smoke in the Wood River Valley will be from more than just wildfires. Davidson, a Garden City man who formerly lived in Bellevue, is trying to resurrect his three-year old campaign to legalize marijuana in some of the valley's municipalities. Specifically, the cities of Sun Valley and Hailey are on his hit list. Davidson has initiated steps to try to get the issue on the ballots in those cities, perhaps as early as the general elections on Nov. 6. [continues 581 words]
POCATELLO, Idaho - Bannock County's jail is the latest local lockup considering ways to address overcrowding. Currently, the jail in Pocatello has 295 inmates in a facility built to sleep 264. Sheriff Lorin Nielsen says "We do have people sleeping on the floor." Nielsen could consider sentencing alternatives for offenders charged with relatively minor crimes. Bannock County isn't alone in Idaho as it struggles to make space for prisoners. State Department of Correction officials have sent more than 400 inmates to Minnesota and Texas to relieve overcrowding. In addition, Kootenai, Jerome, Canyon and other counties have been wrestling with an influx of inmates that exceed their often-aging jails' capacities _ especially as more and more people are arrested on drug-related charges. [end]
A drug court--which provides treatment rather than prison terms for chronic users of illegal drugs--is expected to be in operation in Blaine County by June 1. Blaine will become the 31st of Idaho's 44 counties to have such a court. Drug courts allow those charged with drug-related crimes to have their guilty pleas erased after successfully completing an 18-month treatment program. The option is not available to anyone charged with selling drugs or with a violent or sexually related felony, or to illegal aliens. [continues 322 words]
Keeping Kids Off Meth Starts With Adults, Milton Creagh Says Nicole Gibbs, an elementary school counselor in the Middleton School District, has a third-grade student who doesn't yet know how to read but can describe the steps to make methamphetamine. Gibbs said she believes drug problems, which are typically associated with inner cities, are steadily spreading to rural areas like Middleton that lack resources for enforcement and treatment. "People who say, `It's not in my community' have got their eyes closed," Gibbs said. [continues 359 words]
The Afghan government just announced a new crackdown on opium production. That country now produces 90 percent of the world's output. Opium reportedly is the largest single component of Afghanistan's GDP. Though the crackdown is laudable, history and economic theory tell us it will have only limited success. The problem with trying to limit the growing of such crops is that any success in restricting output pushes up the price of what is produced. This increases profitability for the remaining producers. The greater the effort put into eradicating production, the greater the incentive for producers to somehow keep producing. [continues 402 words]
Meth Ads Aren't Silver Bullet Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter is soliciting donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars and free media time to accommodate the in-your-face ad campaign named for the state where it started: The Montana Meth Project. Started by millionaire Tom Siebel after he heard about how meth addiction ravages bodies, families and communities, the Montana Meth Project is a product of the MTV generation. Its slick, harrowing ads feature actors covered in scabs, their teeth rotted, all with one message: try meth, even once, and this is how you'll end up. [continues 1129 words]
Public Safety: Well-Known Montana-Based Program Features Hard-Hitting Spots In Television And Print IDAHO FALLS -- Gov. Butch Otter plans to meet with the billionaire founder of the Montana Meth Project about launching an in-your-face advertising campaign depicting the perils of methamphetamine in Idaho. Tom Siebel, a part-time Montana resident who founded a software company he later sold to Oracle Corp. for $5.8 billion, created the Montana Meth Project two years ago after meeting with the state's attorney general, Mike McGrath. [continues 412 words]
A state senator from southern Idaho intends to try again to pass a law making it a felony for pregnant women to use methamphetamine or other illegal drugs. Last year, Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Delco, got the bill through the Senate but couldn't get it heard in the House. Under the bill, a pregnant woman convicted of using meth, marijuana, LSD or other drugs would have faced up to five years in prison and a $50,000 fine. "I'm still feeling my way on it," Darrington told the Idaho State Journal. "The alternative seems to be to do nothing, and it seems like that's what (the House of Representatives) wants to do." [continues 211 words]
Risch, Drug Czar Ponder Drug Tests For All State Employees In an effort to set a good example for private businesses last month, Gov. Jim Risch said that he wants to make state government a "drug-free workplace." He never really elaborated on the concept. But since then, Risch and the state Drug Czar Jim Tibbs said they are considering expanding drug testing to all state agencies and employees. "If Idaho state government is concerned about the use of drugs, particularly methamphetamine, we've got to walk the talk," Tibbs said. "And this is how you do it." [continues 938 words]
18-Year-Old Tells Rotary Most Cell Mates Are Meth Users, And Teens Have Easy Access To Drug COEUR d'ALENE -- Magistrate Judge Robert Burton on Friday asked his fellow Rotary Club members to declare war on methamphetamine. On Monday, it was learned Burton ordered jailers, over their objections, to bring an inmate to the luncheon to speak at The Coeur d'Alene Resort. "Methamphetamine is being used by a lot of people in a lot of different walks of life," Burton said. "So, be aware." [continues 467 words]
New Drug Prevention Program Will Require Students to Act As Drug-Free Role Models Students will be required to learn and live this program if they choose to join it. The Kimberly School District has received a charter to begin offering the Idaho Drug Free Youth prevention program this year. The program educates middle and high school students about drugs and alcohol, and then asks them to act as role models for other students. When Kimberly students sign the program's agreement, they will be required to attend training meetings, act as leaders for the program and even agree to take random drug tests in order to ensure that they are practicing what they preach. [continues 196 words]
Drug Czar Asks For Cooperation Among Agencies TWIN FALLS -- Idaho's first drug czar said the state must not fail in its fight against rising methamphetamine addiction. During the United Way campaign kickoff on Monday morning, Jim Tibbs, who was appointed July 11, told local business owners and members of the community that he will submit a plan to the governor next month that will recommend changes to the state's current system of treating drug and alcohol addiction. Although Tibbs did not share details of the plan, he said a fundamental part of it is encouraging state agencies to work together to prevent and treat methamphetamine addiction. [continues 258 words]
If meth is the tortoise, Pam Green is the hare. It was not until late in life that she decided to focus on tackling drugs. But now that she's doing it, the chapter head of Mad Mothers Against Methamphetamine says nothing can break her course. Not even a near-fatal health attack from which she is recovering. The recently appointed Idaho Drug Czar Jim Tibbs spoke in Twin Falls on Monday morning. While Green listened to him, her brain fried from a 103-degree temperature. [continues 207 words]
Gov. Jim Risch appointed former Boise police officer and City Councilman Jim Tibbs as Idaho's new drug czar, prompting optimism from local detox center advocates and increasing speculation among Democrats about Tibbs challenging Mayor Dave Bieter in 2007. As drug czar, Tibbs will be in charge of coordinating efforts among state agencies to fight drug abuse across the state. He reports directly to the governor and serves as long as the governor wants him. Tibbs' first order of business in his new job will be to compile a complete list of the state's resources for fighting drugs and how they are being used, he said. [continues 679 words]
Idaho drug czar and Boise City Councilman Jim Tibbs, while serving as interim police chief, drove a patrol car to the scene of a police shooting after drinking alcohol, a violation of city policy he knew about before breaking it. Community ombudsman Pierce Murphy's 59-page report into the Dec. 18, 2004, shooting noted that an officer, identified in the report only as Officer No. 6, had admitted drinking one glass of wine before he was notified of the shooting of teenager Matthew Jones outside his North Boise home. [continues 467 words]
Series Of Free Classes Offered For Parents And Teens A new program will help teenagers and parents to confront methamphetamine abuse and other problems with drugs in the Wood River Valley. "I thought there was a need expressed by the community," said Janene Heldman, a Hailey-based therapist. She is also the founder and president of Counseling Works Services, a nonprofit organization that is actively campaigning against methamphetamine and other drug abuse through education and support groups. "The goal is to create a social network of people who will have a similar attitude of refraining from drugs," Heldman said. [continues 318 words]
Idaho Measure Would Create Felony BOISE -- Pregnant women who use controlled substances such as methamphetamine or marijuana could be charged with a felony and imprisoned under a bill the Idaho state Senate approved 18-16 Tuesday. SB 1337 creates a new criminal violation: endangering children through the use of controlled substances. The felony charge carries a $50,000 fine and up to five years in prison. It instructs courts to consider drug treatment options rather than prison time but does not mandate treatment. [continues 500 words]
BOISE - The so-called "meth moms" bill that could lead to pregnant drug users serving jail time in Idaho squeaked through the Senate Tuesday by a mere two votes. Sen. Denton Darrington, R-Declo, the bill's sponsor, acknowledged treatment programs would be a preferable alternative to law enforcement intervention, but said under the state's current landscape meth babies are being born with increasing frequency. "Shouldn't it be a crime for a mother to induce those chemicals into her baby?" he asked during his closing argument. [continues 399 words]
Inside Idaho
