Anonymous Tip Led to One of County's Largest Busts

Pasquotank County sheriff's officials pulled up an estimated $3.6 million in marijuana plants Tuesday -- one of their largest illegal drug seizures in recent memory.

Acting on an anonymous tip, Investigator William Williams and five other sheriff's officials seized 2,995 marijuana plants growing in a quarter-acre plot off Lynchs Corner Road in the Newland area.

The law enforcement officials spent much of Tuesday pulling up the plants by the roots, he said.

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The North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network (NCCPN) based in Mill Spring, NC has announced the appointment of Mr. Perry M. Parks III, of Rockingham, NC as its new Veterans Outreach Director. Parks is a retired chief warrant officer (CW-4 US Army). He served two and a half tours in Vietnam flying helicopters and retired from the NC National Guard in 2001 with 28 years of service.

He was a highly decorated pilot having been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, two Bronze Stars, the Army Commendation Medal with "V" devise (4 awards) and 31 awards of the Air Medal. Parks is featured in the upcoming documentary "The Good Soldier" scheduled for release in select theatres nationwide later this year. In addition to his flying career, Parks is an aviation safety expert.

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Illegal drugs of choice materialize almost as if by trend in our society. Methamphetamine will be the subject one week, crack cocaine the next. But one of the most serious of the ilk is again rearing its head.

Highly addictive heroin is back on our streets. Heroin is a serious problem. It can cause more problems than other drugs, such as marijuana. It is a matter for all to consider with the recent arrests here and in Caldwell County of heroin dealers. The effects of heroin on our community should not be taken lightly.

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We're not sure what California's cash-strapped government has been smoking, but we hope to stay sober here in North Carolina.

California tax officials have issued a report estimating that state government could net $1.4 billion by legalizing and taxing marijuana. A bill introduced by San Francisco Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano would allow adults to legally grow, possess and sell marijuana.

There are a number of mistaken notions in the California plan, not the least of which is legalizing a substance that is detrimental to its users and the community. (Granted, plenty of detrimental substances, from tobacco and alcohol to saturated fats, are already legal, so we won't even go down that road.)

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MORGANTON - A tip and one helicopter ride later, Burke County Narcotics Task Force

investigators found 35 marijuana plants with a street value of $91,000. Sgt. Rick Hasson said investigators found the plants on N.C. 18 South near Catawba County.

With the assistance of the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the investigators took to the air to look for the marijuana plants. Hasson said investigators not only spotted the plants, but several people at the location. Charges are pending.

The task force has found more than 200 marijuana plants in Burke County since January, Hasson said.

He speculated that job losses are contributing to the number of people willing to grow the illegal substance.

Hasson said some growers can no longer afford to buy marijuana or see it as a way to supplement their income.

[end]

Rockingham native and activist Perry Parks was recently appointed to an official position with the North Carolina Cannabis Patients' Network (NCCPN).

He will serve the non-profit as its Veterans Outreach Specialist.

"First of all, I want to fight to get the same rights for veterans in this state that veterans who live in other states already have," Parks said. "We are still being penalized, and this is an injustice to veterans everywhere that we are still being denied the same benefits veterans in other states enjoy."

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Regarding "Aerial sleuthing finds pot worth $27 million" in Sampson County (June 27 news article):

Another $27 million of untaxed and unregulated marijuana, one of our biggest if not the biggest cash crop. No suspects, irrigation -- every year these operations are more sophisticated and elaborate.

All we are succeeding at with marijuana prohibition (70 years now) is building organized crime and taking resources away from actual drug problems. Some of those resources being seats in rehab, probation officers, time or money for after-school programs. There are medicinal uses of marijuana and it is impossible to overdose on (attempts to determine marijuana's LD-50 rating in test animals, has been unsuccessful), so what are we thinking?

Everything is being cut and taxes being raised, yet we continue to squander money and leave marijuana in a marketplace that has no age restrictions.

Stuart Wells

Fuquay-Varina

[end]

Mitchell County Board of Education Looks to Test All Students in Extracurricular Activities Starting Next Year

The Mitchell County Board of Education is leaning towards installing a drug testing policy for the 2009-2010 school year that tests Mitchell High School students who participate in interscholastic athletics and all extracurricular activities.

The board is still considering more comprehensive policies that test students who are granted the privilege of parking at school, and attend middle school, but decided against including these two groups of students because of a lack of money, and legal issues.

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No reasonable person disputes that public safety is one of government's core responsibilities. Systems for law enforcement, criminal justice and incarceration must be strong enough to protect law-abiding citizens from those who endanger them.

There are times, however, when legislators overreact to public fears about crime and put disproportionately large resources into incarceration. North Carolina's habitual-felons law is an example.

The General Assembly has an opportunity this year, in its closing days, to improve a 42-year-old law that imprisons some nonviolent repeat offenders for too long. It's not that we feel any sympathy for these lawbreakers, but changing the law would amount to a better use of tax money.

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Prescription painkillers made her retch. Muscle relaxants ravaged her liver. So Jean Marlowe put down her pills and rolled a joint.

"I tried marijuana, and in five minutes, my stomach stopped shaking for the first time in five years," said Marlowe, who has used marijuana as medicine since a doctor recommended the drug in 1990. "It really does work."

The founder and executive director of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients' Network, Marlowe is asking state lawmakers to pass a bill legalizing medical marijuana use. The bill is currently in the House of Representatives' Health Committee, and two of Gaston County's three House delegates who serve on the committee have indicated they would likely vote against it.

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Woman Says She, Her Son Are Innocent

[redacted] isn't sure what she's going to do next.

The mother of three recently lost her job and faces eviction from her rental home in Elizabeth City this month.

If that wasn't enough, [redacted]'s son, [redacted] is facing felony drug charges and she herself has been charged with possession of drug paraphernalia and maintaining a dwelling for the use of a controlled substance.

[redacted] were both charged during "Operation Spring Bling," a police sting several weeks ago that targeted six private residences and resulted in drug and/or weapon charges against 38 suspects.

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The medical efficacy of marijuana has been repeatedly established over the last 30 years with numerous reports and studies done by governmental, medical and scholarly organizations.

Marijuana is a naturally occurring substance that is far safer than many of the legal alternatives, having fewer side effects, less addiction potential and no realistically achievable toxicity level. It is known to relieve the debilitating nausea, appetite loss and pain associated with the treatments given to HIV, cancer and Hepatitis C sufferers, thus enabling them to have increased nutrition, quality of life and the will to live and continue their treatment. While a doctor can prescribe cocaine and morphine, terminally ill patients who find marijuana helps them are forced to get their medication off the streets and risk incarceration. There are numerous medical organizations and national periodicals that publicly back the use of medical marijuana.

Thirteen states have already made its use legal. The information is out there. Do your research, inform yourself. Please stop wasting our taxes sending sick people to jail.

Alex Gunter Greenville

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During my 18 years of police service I learned one ironclad fact: namely, all drug dealers arrested are quickly replaced.

There is simply to much money to be made selling illegal drugs. Thus my colleague Sgt. Gary Bray of the Elizabeth City Police Department knows and admits that about all we can do is harass the situation much like a mosquito about to land on your arm.

There is only one change in tactics that strikes fear in the minds of drug dealers: repeal of prohibition laws and the legalization and regulation of all drugs. The dealers are unemployed the next day.

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CARTHAGE - Moore County deputies have seized more than 7,000 pills so far this year in their crackdown on the illegal distribution and abuse of prescription pills.

That compares with 1,700 prescription pills seized in all of 2008.

As part of its effort to crack down on cases of diversion - the illegal distribution or abuse of prescription drugs - a detective from the Sheriff's Office Narcotics Division was named a full-time diversion officer last year. The officer, Sgt. Jerry Aponte, focuses on doctor-shopping and prescription fraud.

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Operation Spring Bling Arrests 28

Though "Operation Spring Bling" has now resulted in nearly 30 arrests, an Elizabeth City police official says no one should expect the recent roundup of drug suspects to have a lasting impact on the city's illegal drug trade.

Police may have temporarily curbed some of the nuisances associated with the drug trade -- excessive traffic and noise -- and removed several street-level drug dealers, but selling illegal narcotics is a lucrative 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week business, Sgt. Gary Bray says. And as such it will go on, despite efforts like Spring Bling to stop it.

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CLINTON - Sampson County lawmen hit the marijuana jackpot Thursday, seizing 11,000 plants with an estimated street value of $27 million.

It was one of the largest, if not the largest, such find ever in Sampson County, Capt. Eric Pope of the Sheriff's Office said Friday.

"This was a well-established marijuana-growing operation," Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said in a news release late Thursday.

The plants were discovered during an aerial search involving the Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation.

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Sampson County lawmen hit the marijuana jackpot Thursday after seizing 11,000 plants with an estimated street value of $27 million.

"This was a well-established marijuana-growing operation," Sheriff Jimmy Thornton said in a news release issued late Thursday.

The plants were discovered during an aerial search involving the Sheriff's Office and the State Bureau of Investigation, the release said.

"Basically, the only way it could be found was from the air," Thornton said in the release. "There's no way you can just happen to wander upon it."

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Unlike any other drug in history, the burden of proof is with those who would prove marijuana safe rather than harmful. And yet the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) as well as scientists and clinicians throughout the world agree "pot" can be extremely dangerous.

Physicians, medical organizations, corporations and government agencies have sponsored full page ads in major newspapers to underscore this point. You are ill serving your readers if you highlight arguments for and against legalizing marijuana without calling attention to the ever-increasing evidence it poses a serious health threat, especially to children. I strongly urge you to run a major article that would explain how and why.

Bruce W. Frazer Durham

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If this conviction reduced or even deterred the future sale and use of drugs, I would gladly say it was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it will not. We have been prosecuting these types of crime for years and the problem has only gotten worse.

Our government has spent billions of dollars on the "war on drugs" since the Reagan administration. Yet almost any high school student or inner city resident can buy just about any drug he or she wants anywhere in the country. Add to this the fact that many violent crimes are drug-related, as are infectious diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. Clearly our current policy regarding illegal drugs is not only not working, it is consuming vast amounts of money and resources that could be used elsewhere.

I believe it was Albert Einstein who defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Jim Brown Clayton

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At a time when researchers are plunging into the rainforest in search of new medicines, there is a growing consensus that an herb easily cultivated here may help patients struggling with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other painful, difficult-to-manage conditions.

The herb is marijuana.

The N.C. House Health Committee is considering a measure that, if approved, would make North Carolina the 15th state to legalize its medical use. We think state lawmakers are right to at least consider a need to expand options for health care and help alleviate patient suffering.

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