The Army helicopter Boise 83 hovers 500 feet above Adams County farm country, making circles and loops. Boise is military code for a helicopter aiding in a drug-enforcement operation; 83 is the number of the helicopter that would help eradicate 300 marijuana plants -- an estimated $600,000 in street value -- on Wednesday alone. The crew, Capt. Ernie Carlson of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and state police Cpl. Kenny Hassinger of the Troop H vice unit, scan the fields below for bright-green stalks of marijuana, sometimes up to 7 feet high. [continues 508 words]
Except for a trip out West two months earlier, the Volkswagen (not the Beetle, one of those miniature station wagon things) was brand new, so the Catskills seemed like a good destination for a weekend outing. It was a time of upheaval for the nation and for me. After nearly nine years in the military, I took my discharge in 1965, partly because of my inability to embrace the proper gung-ho attitudes about Vietnam. Four years later, I still was struggling to transform myself from the world of technology, clarity and regimentation to the slapdash, irrepressible world of journalism. I had landed my first job at a daily newspaper, in Towanda, Bradford County, which was less than three hours in a VW from the scene of another upheaval -- the Woodstock festival near Monticello, N.Y. [continues 760 words]
Kudos from a thinking person on the editorial "Stop 'reefer madness': Legalize marijuana" (July 29 and TribLIVE.com)! The Trib made all the right points. Of course, marijuana should be legal. It was legal for most of the history of this country -- until 1937, to be exact. There were no problems associated with marijuana use. It was made illegal by temperance crusaders who were furious and frustrated because national alcohol prohibition had been repealed. Their job was made easy by an ignorant, apathetic Congress. It's time, at long last, to repeal prohibition again -- marijuana prohibition. Suzanne Wills Dallas, Texas The writer is director and treasurer of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas (dpft.org). [end]
For more than three decades, American high school seniors have consistently reported that marijuana is easy to get, according to the annual Monitoring the Future survey. Their use of marijuana has gone up and down and up and down. But their use of cigarettes has gone down more steadily and consistently. Legal control, taxation and credible prevention delivers public health progress. Our current marijuana prohibition fails to control supply. It subsidizes organized crime and international criminal cartels by propping up their prices and by not taxing their profits. [continues 100 words]
22 Arrested, Authorities Describe Wide-Open Drug Scene, 'Outraged' Attorney Says Church Was Targeted Authorities said there were four head shops that had 1,000 marijuana pipes for sale. People working like cocktail waitresses walked the crowd, selling "Ganja" treats -- including Rice Krispies snacks believed to be laced with marijuana, according to authorities. A total of 22 people were arrested Saturday evening as the Fayette County Drug Task Force raided the 47-acre Bullskin site of the Church of Universal Love and Music. [continues 593 words]
THE CITY IS still paying thousands of dollars in court-related overtime to four narcotics officers taken off the street after being accused of fabricating evidence and other crimes. The officers are being paid to go to court for cases that are delayed or withdrawn. They show up at the Criminal Justice Center and do nothing. Officers Jeffrey and Richard Cujdik, Robert McDonnell Jr. and Thomas Tolstoy, in addition to their $58,000-a-year salaries, have collectively earned more than $15,500 in overtime since being taken off the street, city payroll records show. [continues 1224 words]
Regarding the Trib's thoughtful editorial "Stop 'reefer madness': Legalize marijuana" (July 29 and TribLIVE.com): Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana prohibition has failed miserably as a deterrent. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands. The only clear winners in the war on marijuana are drug cartels and shameless tough-on-drugs politicians who've built careers confusing the drug war's collateral damage with a relatively harmless plant. Robert Sharpe The writer is a policy analyst for Common Sense for Drug Policy, a nonprofit advocacy organization (csdp.org). [end]
Regarding the editorial "Stop 'reefer madness': Legalize marijuana" (July 29 and TribLIVE.com): Prohibition is such a spectacular failure that marijuana is America's largest cash crop. Nationwide sales have been estimated at $100 billion per year -- about the same as beer. There are only three options for who will control the marijuana trade and get all that money. 1. Government, with proper regulations and taxes to address social problems. 2. Private business, with proper regulations and taxes to address social problems. [continues 130 words]
BULLSKIN TWP. - In what some officials were calling one of the most significant drug busts in Fayette County history, four teams of law enforcement officers raided the Church of Universal Love and Music in Bullskin Township Saturday. During a weekend event dubbed "Funk Fest" at the eccentric and eclectic church, multiple units from the Fayette County Drug Task Force raided the compound, sending shocked parishioners literally running from the grounds. "At this point, we have confiscated a large amount of contraband and made multiple arrests," Fayette County District Attorney Nancy D. Vernon said Saturday night, as multiple police vans loaded with suspects arrived at the Uniontown Police Department shortly before 10 p.m. "There have been at least 20 arrests made and we have multiple truck loads of confiscated drugs and paraphernalia." [continues 564 words]
The popular TV series "Weeds" is about a widowed suburban mother who deals pot to preserve her family's cushy California dream. Not a few Californians would like to see the theme writ large for their state. California has legalized medical marijuana, its cannabis crop is valued at $17 billion a year, and people there smoke pot openly. But the state can't collect a penny of revenues from the enormous enterprise. As California faced budget Armageddon, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for "a debate" on the potential of tapping marijuana as a source of tax revenues. That's all he can do, because federal law still criminalizes marijuana use. [continues 524 words]
It's time to legalize marijuana. Note we did not say it's time to "decriminalize" marijuana. And note we did not say it's time to legalize marijuana nationwide for medicinal purposes only. It's time to flat-out legalize the production, possession, sale and use of marijuana. This should be a no-brainer for thinking people. After all, alcohol prohibition in the early 20th century was such a "success," right? The federal prohibition against marijuana took effect 72 years ago this Sunday. It has flooded our legal system, jails and prisons. It has cost taxpayers billions of dollars annually. [continues 224 words]
Let me go over my "this one has got to go" checklist one more time. Costly? Some in Washington will disagree, but $150 million is still a lot of money to me. Ineffective? The goal was a 50 percent reduction in drug crop production and seven years later we have a 23 percent increase, so I'd say "ineffective" is on target. Unethical? Even the most stone-faced on Capitol Hill would have to admit that spraying an untested chemical mixture over innocent civilians despite the U.N.'s claim that there is "credible and trustworthy evidence" suggesting human health impacts would qualify as unethical. [continues 514 words]
Midstaters who want Pennsylvania to become the 14th state to legalize medical marijuana use rallied Saturday on the steps of the Capitol. About 20 people marched from the Capitol to the corner of Market and Second streets, holding signs and handing out literature on marijuana's benefits to those suffering from cancer treatments, glaucoma and depression. Chuck Homan, the York-area man who organized the event, said a bill is pending before the state Legislature -- the most restrictive proposed to date -- that would allow Pennsylvanians to purchase small amounts of marijuana for treatment purposes. [continues 184 words]
There was good news and bad news concerning police at last week's West Manchester Township board of supervisor's meeting. First, the good news: Good request: We randomly drug test bus drivers, train engineers, student athletes and professional athletes -- and many companies randomly test employees of all ranks. But we don't drug test cops. Well, not all of them. It came as something of a surprise to learn officers in the West Manchester Township Police Department are not required to pass random drug tests. [continues 345 words]
Criminal charges against a Pittsburgh firefighter spurred a union-management showdown yesterday, with Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration calling for more disciplinary rights and drug testing, and a labor leader demanding innocent-until-proven-guilty treatment for a seven-year veteran. Sparking the fight was firefighter Vincent Manzella, 31, who was charged Thursday with burglary, theft and calling in false alarms. The fake alarms were a diversion, according to a criminal complaint, so he could burglarize a Lawrenceville firehouse to support a heroin habit. [continues 653 words]
My friend from the "old neighborhood" sent me an e-mail with an attachment. I detest attachments. My aging computer chokes and gags on them, so I'm a little gun shy. I was hesitant, but I opened the darn thing. It was a pitch from my friend Bill to legalize marijuana. Why, Bill, you old "head," and of course I'll bong-bond with you (dream on) and watch your Mets games, reminding you that the '62 team was the worst ever, eat M&Ms by the bushel and drive home at 5 miles an hour with a buzz looking for the nearest White Castle and a bag of grease-bomb burgers. Got the munchies, man. [continues 731 words]
SOME ARGUE, and I'm one of them, that we're entering a new progressive era like the one from 1900 to 1920 that followed the excesses of the robber barons and the Gilded Age. That period saw the rise of a school of philosophy called Pragmatism. The point was to move beyond ideology and pure power, and look out the window to see how people actually lived their lives and to figure out practical ways to make it all work better. [continues 699 words]
State Rep. Mark Cohen, D-Phila., introduced legislation (H.B. 1393) at the end of April that would allow the use of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania. Few subjects stimulate the heated discussion legalizing a drug vilified for decades as a gateway to further drug abuse can cause. But Cohen is right to say the time has come to recognize a need to expand options for health care and help alleviate patient suffering. Medical cannabis, (commonly referred to as "Medical marijuana"), refers to the use of the cannabis plant as a physician-recommended drug. [continues 435 words]
The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office dismissed yesterday more than a dozen drug and gun charges against a Kensington man, in what is believed to be the first case dropped because of the ongoing investigation of narcotics officer Jeffrey Cujdik. Common Pleas Court Judge Jack A. Snite Jr. approved the dismissal of charges against [name redated], 35, but allowed the prosecutor to refile if the probe's outcome makes that possible. The [name redated] case was hitting the deadline by which it had to be tried. Scores more cases resulting from the work of the veteran narcotics officer could soon be in the same place. [continues 531 words]
City prosecutors yesterday dropped charges against a suspected drug dealer after a judge denied their request to continue the case pending the outcome of an investigation into the arresting officer, Jeffrey Cujdik. Cujdik is at the center of an FBI and local police probe that arose after Cujdik's longtime informant, Ventura Martinez, said in a Feb. 9 Daily News article that Cujdik had instructed him to lie about some drug buys so that officers could obtain search warrants to enter homes of suspected dealers. [continues 244 words]
Inside Pennsylvania
