Americans have a right to move about without fear of being groundlessly stopped by law enforcement. As far as we know, that constitutional right applies to all Americans, not just the minority who live far removed from the nation's borders. In what is proving to be a sweeping Bush administration security initiative, the Department of Homeland Security has expanded use of its authority to operate within 100 miles of the border. That has come to include increasingly frequent use of roadblocks in Western Washington. [continues 215 words]
If it weren't for Family Services, one of 13 agencies aided by The Seattle Times Fund For The Needy, a mother of three doesn't know how she could have taken the steps toward reclaiming her life from the grip of drugs. Tericia Mitchell will never forget the Christmas she didn't remember. She was staying at a cheap motel on Aurora Avenue, her mind a blur of fortified wine and crack cocaine. She didn't give much thought to the colored lights in the lobby window, until she overheard someone looking for drugs say they might get a little extra, because it was Christmas. [continues 973 words]
WENATCHEE -- The men who sat around Table 5 at the Hospitality House homeless shelter Monday came in for a hot meal on a 14-degree night. But not all of them planned to stay. Domingo Solis, 48, said he'd sleep in his car that night. Another man, a recovering alcoholic who declined to give his name, said he'd sleep outside. Edwin Argueta, 51, said he'd spend the night at the shelter, but head out the next day to wander around the city. He hopes to find pruning work in an orchard. Many complained of health problems and hinted at troubles with alcoholism. Others have mental health challenges. But Monday night they and the other men sitting at tables in the shelter's dining room had a hot turkey-and-dressing dinner in common. They're part of the estimated 758 people who make up the Wenatchee area's homeless population, according to the most recent homeless census, taken last January. [continues 250 words]
LYNDEN -- As the presidency of George W. Bush nears its final days, a number of high-profile convicts, including former track star Marion Jones and a former Louisiana governor, are seeking presidential pardons. While Lynden resident Marie E. Eppens cannot, by most standards, be considered high-profile, Bush an-nounced Tuesday, Dec. 23, that he has pardoned her 1992 conviction of conspiracy to deal marijuana. Eppens was one of 19 people Bush pardoned Tuesday before leaving for the holidays at Camp David. [continues 373 words]
"Although virtually all mothers and fathers are concerned about the challenges of raising their kids in today's world, many fail to take essential actions to prevent their kids from smoking, drinking or using drugs," according to a report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA). Using data from a telephone survey of teens and parents, the organization defines "problem parents" as those who fail to 1) monitor their children's school night activities; 2) safeguard prescription drugs in the home; 3) address the problem of drugs in schools; and 4) set a good example. [continues 439 words]
Drug prohibition is a cure worse than the disease ["It's time to end the war on drugs,"Neal Peirce syndicated columnist, Dec. 14]. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. While U.S. politicians ignore the drug war's historical precedent, European countries are embracing harm reduction, a public-health alternative based on the principle that both drug abuse and prohibition have the potential to cause harm. [continues 67 words]
SEATTLE -- Abuse of drugs and alcohol is on the rise in Washington state, including one of the highest rates of non-medical use of prescription pain relievers in the nation, according to the state Department of Social and Health Services. In the agency's 16th annual report on drug and alcohol abuse trends, the good news is that smoking and methamphetamine abuse are on the decline. Washington state ranks sixth among the states in non-medical use of pain relievers by people 12 and older, after Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia. The prescription pain relievers being abused are mostly opiates. [continues 516 words]
Pia Marshall awoke to the familiar sound of her son's voice calling out from his nearby bedroom. Trudging down the hallway on a pre-dawn morning last March, Pia fetched her 6-year-old and guided him toward the bathroom. Passing a window, the Redmond mom of three caught the unmistakable sight of a man creeping up her driveway. "Call the police!" Pia hollered repeatedly, instinctively pulling her son toward her. But as Scott Marshall awoke and grabbed a telephone, the ski cap and sweatshirt-wearing stranger approached instead of retreating. [continues 491 words]
In his Dec. 6 response to my letter of Nov. 22, Mr. Glenn V. Hoyt defends prohibition of street drugs by saying that alcohol is destructive and that street drugs are "not benign." He worries that decriminalizing street drugs "would create more access to persons susceptible to addiction." We do not regulate alcohol. We allow alcohol to be controlled by companies whose only interest is to maximize profits. Nor do we regulate street drugs. Street drugs are controlled by criminals. We must work toward a society where addictive, intoxicating substances are controlled by the people. Government, rather than private enterprise or criminal enterprise, should control addictive, intoxicating substances. That way, the people will be better positioned to do effective intervention, treatment, rehabilitation and education. [continues 133 words]
Washington - 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. They are urging, instead, legalization and careful public regulation of mind-altering drugs. [continues 666 words]
Pia Marshall awoke to the familiar sound of her son's voice calling out from his nearby bedroom. Trudging down the hallway on a pre-dawn morning last March, Pia fetched her 6-year-old and guided him toward the bathroom. Passing a window, the Redmond mom of three caught the unmistakable sight of a man creeping up her driveway. "Call the police!" Pia hollered repeatedly, instinctively pulling her son toward her. But as Scott Marshall awoke and grabbed a telephone, the ski cap and sweatshirt-wearing stranger approached instead of retreating. To her horror, Pia saw the intruder's silhouette through the front door's frosted windows. He jostled the handle, attempting to enter the house. [continues 466 words]
America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this past 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 537 words]
Students fighting for free speech rights on Oak Harbor campuses were recently backed by a powerful advocate which convinced the school district to amend its policy. Attorney Rose Spidell from the American Civil Liberties Union sent a letter to Superintendent Rick Schulte objecting to Oak Harbor High School's "harsh disciplinary actions" and "censorship" during a campus-wide protest. Last month, six students participated in a sit-in to appeal the school's discipline of their classmate, who was given a one-year expulsion for allegedly selling marijuana at a location off school grounds. When the teens refused to return to the class, or leave the lunchroom, officials had the students arrested by Oak Harbor police for disrupting the school. [continues 519 words]
It is ironic that Mr. Byron in his Nov. 22 Saturday Soapbox letter used the 75th anniversary of the ending of prohibition of alcohol to advance the decriminalization of street drugs. I presume that this includes cannabis, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and combinations thereof -- a notion that is either naive, wantonly self-serving or just plain galactically stupid. While decriminalization might magically transform criminals into law-abiding citizens, it would not so magically transform addicts. Forget making "fewer criminals"; let's make fewer addicts. [continues 90 words]
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, has called for nothing less than the legalization of drugs. [continues 536 words]
The stir around high school protesters is all about student rights. No doubt about that. But not necessarily in the way you might think. The Supreme Court has ruled that one student right trumps all others when it comes to schools - the right to a safe and productive learning environment. A student's right to free expression ends as soon as it becomes a disruption to learning or promotes illegal activity. Here's how those rights clashed in Oak Harbor. The protest and the issues surrounding it have many sides. At its core is a story about the sale and distribution of illegal drugs. Offshoots of that event include whether the school district has the right to discipline students for illegal activity occurring off campus and whether all students were treated equally. [continues 571 words]
In the ongoing War on Drugs, zero tolerance is the common mantra. That applies to everything from heavily addictive heroin and crystal meth to a substance that most Europeans consider no worse than a stiff whiskey. We're talking here, of course, about marijuana. "Generally, in Europe it's sort of laughable that anybody would do hard time for marijuana," said Rick Steves, the prolific travel writer and, of late, a supporter for the decriminalization of marijuana. Steves will share his views during a screening of the film "Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation" at 7 p.m. Monday at the Bing Crosby Theater. [continues 402 words]
This year, we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the end of alcohol prohibition. Prohibition lasted from June 16, 1920, to Dec. 5, 1933. Between those dates, the manufacturing, wholesaling and retailing of alcoholic products was in the hands of criminals. Criminals regulated and controlled an illegal alcohol market. They provided all of the alcohol that could be consumed by anyone who wanted to buy it. People did not go without. On Oct. 27, 1970, President Nixon signed the Controlled Substances Act. He claimed that we could control cocaine, heroin, marijuana and other street drugs by prohibiting their use. Instead, just like alcohol, we have given up control of these substances to criminals. [continues 86 words]
A group of 20 students held protests signs to passing traffic at the intersection of Whidbey Avenue and Oak Harbor Street, under the bruise-colored clouds of Thursday afternoon. Their signs were scrawled with "Free Speech" and the sign on the building behind them read "Oak Harbor School District Office." "This office is the dead-center of the district. What better way to send a message," student Dustin Gehring said. Students assembled at this intersection for three days, and argued their free speech rights had been violated by Oak Harbor High School staff. [continues 726 words]
Federal prosecutors have dropped drug charges against a card-carrying medical marijuana patient detained and cited at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on the Hood Canal bridge in August. Stephen Dixon, of Brinnon, was riding in a car en route to the Kingston ferry Aug. 22 when he was stopped at the checkpoint on Highway 104 just west of the bridge. He was cited by border patrol agents for misdemeanor possession of marijuana, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Western Washington. [continues 324 words]
Monday's editorial calling for a public health approach to drug use and abuse ("King County budget: Rethink drug laws") was right on the mark. In 2007, Washington law enforcement reported 30,992 arrests for drug offenses, and roughly 85 percent were for possession only. Treating drug use and addiction as a crime is an expensive and ineffective waste of our scarce public resources. We could save millions in criminal justice costs through "pre-booking diversion," which allows police officers to route low-level drug offenders to services instead of jail and the courts. Pilot projects in Seattle have shown promising results in terms of reduced recidivism, safer communities and changed lives. King County can lead by developing and implementing alternatives to the failed "war on drugs." Expanding pre-booking diversion programs throughout the region would be a smart policy that makes good fiscal sense. Alison Holcomb Drug Policy Director ACLU of Washington Seattle [end]
Regarding your Monday editorial, the drug war is a cure worse than the disease. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. While U.S. politicians ignore the drug war's historical precedent, European countries are embracing harm reduction, a public health alternative based on the principle that both drug abuse and prohibition have the potential to cause harm. [continues 84 words]
The King County Council is beginning its tough conversation about resources. How much less for criminal justice programs? Health clinics? And on and on. This is a government's version of the question every parent faces, "Which child do you love best?" We love them all. Each program has an important role -- and a constituency.But county government does not have the option of spending money it doesn't have. Every budget is balanced at the end of the day.Lisa Daugaard of The Defender Association makes the case that King County will underfund public criminal defense, making the system's maze more difficult for first time, nonviolent offenders.That may be. But this could also be a great opportunity to rethink the enforcement of drug laws by both the city and county governments. What if resources could be shifted from the prosecution of low-level drug crimes into recovery programs? Daugaard argues that fewer misdemeanor drug-related arrests by the city of Seattle, for example, could reduce the need for a new regional jail.One way ahead might be a regional summit that brings together all the stakeholders, ranging from law enforcement to those managing treatment programs. Yes, legislation would be required, and in a hurry, at that. But what if a limited budget forces a new order? This might be an ideal time to swap "drug crimes" (or worse, "war on drugs") with the notion that drug use should be treated in the public health arena. [end]
The high rate of incarceration is an expensive situation. In this day of strained budgets, perhaps part of our crisis is caused by the tough-on-crime mentality. I wonder how many realize that we incarcerate more than one out of every 100 of our citizens in this country. Many are locked up for non-violent crimes. We do seem to have an addiction to incarceration for all our social ills. To deny someone freedom because they have an addiction or to lock up a person who really needs intensive mental health care doesn't really represent the ideals of America. When will the public recognize the connection between the government budget challenges and the extremely high cost of our extremely punitive mode of criminal justice? Lowana Krewson stanwood, Wa [end]
Travel aficionado Rick Steves will receive another memorable stamp in his passport Friday, Oct. 24, as he speaks at Western for the first time. Steves has explored the ends of the globe over the last few decades, writing 30 guidebooks along the way, and he will now pass along his tips of traveling smart and packing light to students and Bellingham residents. Steves will be leading lectures at three different venues throughout the afternoon and evening, discussing topics from how to travel on a budget, to the problems with the American drug policy on marijuana. [continues 731 words]
Educators in West Seattle may have discovered a new way to control 484 wildly cheering children: a burly federal agent wearing camouflage and brandishing a bullhorn. It was unclear who was having more fun, the kids or the cops, at the culmination Thursday of several days of drug prevention programs at the Holy Rosary School in West Seattle. The three letter agencies were there: DEA, ICE, FBI. As children wearing red sweaters and blue pants or tartan skirts lined 42nd Avenue Southwest, agents in raid jackets, swat gear and even hazmat suits slapped palms with the pumped up youngsters. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Jodie Underwood -- dressed in black and packing her service revolver -- looked armed and dangerous until she turned toward a bunch of 8-year-olds with a grin on her face and asked: "Are you guys having fun?" [continues 402 words]
Competing Candidates Share A Common Theme: It'S Time For A Change. Containing parts of Kirkland, Redmond, Woodinville, and points east, the 45th Legislative District is hardly a hotbed of radicalism. But the two candidates for one of the district's two House seats share a position well out of the political mainstream: They both advocate wholesale changes to the War on Drugs. In his time away from the capital, incumbent State Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) heads the King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project, where he works on moving drug policy's focus from crime and punishment to public health. His challenger, Toby Nixon (R-Kirkland), who held the seat from 2002 to 2006 before leaving to run for the state Senate (he lost his bid for an open seat to Eric Oemig), has spoken out in defense of Washington's medical marijuana law and pushed a bill requiring performance audits of drug-enforcement policies. [continues 352 words]
Last week's Mercer Island Reporter had an article about doing away with D.A.R.E. I'm not sure what your position is on this program, but I strongly urge you to continue support of D.A.R.E. by filling the D.A.R.E. officer position. The article, in particular, and the concept of doing away with D.A.R.E. in general, are flawed for several reasons. The article quoted "statistics" concerning alcohol use among high school seniors. Basically, the point was that "if 50 percent of high school seniors have had a drink in the last 30 days, D.A.R.E. isn't working." As any scientist will tell you, this conclusion is flawed because we don't know the percentage of those who would have had a drink (or, worse, would've been dead by now, or be on drugs or be caught drinking and driving, etc.) if D.A.R.E. had not been in place. Bottom line, we can't conclude that D.A.R.E. doesn't work based on statistics without a control. [continues 220 words]
In Leandra Reuble's English classroom, a trifold poster board is scrawled with messages and photos warning against the use of crystal meth. One Midway High School student wrote, "Not as glamorous as it looks!" next to a photo of an emaciated man. Although the board was created several years ago, the next generation of students protested its removal. "There isn't a drug problem at Midway," Reuble said. "Most who have experienced it have been through rehab and are past it. But they want to get the message to other kids, who don't think it will touch them." [continues 588 words]
Timothy Garon Lost Out on a Potential Liver Transplant, in Part Because He Was Using Pot to Ease Hepatitis Symptoms. Now His Son Is Being Charged for Growing the Weed. In the downstairs section of Lennon Garon's house, the South Snohomish County Narcotics Task Force entered a den draped in black plastic. A combination of fluorescent and high-powered grow lights hung from the ceiling. Below the lights, 69 marijuana plants photosynthesized. The room also contained fans, fertilizer, and a carbon-dioxide generator to support the horticulture project. [continues 826 words]
A new rule determining how much pot constitutes a 60-day supply for medical-marijuana users was finalized on Thursday, a decade after Washington voters passed an initiative legalizing marijuana for people suffering from terminal and debilitating illnesses. The new state rule, which goes into effect Nov. 2, sets the supply limit at 24 ounces of usable marijuana plus 15 plants. Those who need more marijuana to manage their pain will have to prove they need it -- though how they would do that remains unclear. [continues 916 words]
Mercer Island drug and alcohol resistance program said to be statistically ineffective The Island's D.A.R.E. program is facing a dead-end street. City leaders are thinking about abandoning the decades-old program that statistically has failed to prevent alcohol and drug abuse among Island teens. Former D.A.R.E. Officer Jennifer Franklin recently became the city's new emergency preparedness director, and City Manager Rich Conrad is not planning to replace her with another police officer. [continues 508 words]
PORT ORCHARD - A Kitsap County Superior Court judge Friday found a card-carrying medical marijuana patient guilty of growing pot, saying that under the law, the Bremerton man was "not a qualifying patient." Judge Anna M. Laurie ruled that Robert Dalton's use of marijuana for chronic lower back pain didn't meet the conditions of the citizen's initiative passed by voters in 1998, or any subsequent amendment to it by the Legislature. His lawyers, Jeanette Dalton and Douglas Hiatt, had "failed to sustain his burden" on the point that his pain couldn't be "unrelieved by standard medical treatments and medications," such as opiate-based painkillers, she said, adding that marijuana for medicinal purposes should be a "drug of last resort." [continues 362 words]
Will America's ill-starred "war on drugs" and its expanding prison culture make it into the presidential campaign? Standard wisdom says "no way." We may have the world's highest rate of incarceration -- with only 5 percent of global population, 25 percent of prisoners worldwide. We may be throwing hundreds of thousands of nonviolent drug offenders, many barely of age, behind bars -- one reason a stunning one out of every 100 Americans is now imprisoned. We may have created a huge "prison-industrial complex" of prison builders, contractors and swollen criminal justice bureaucracies. [continues 743 words]
A 16-year-old Running Start student is suing Seattle Central Community College claiming she was kicked out of school after being coerced into signing a statement related to marijuana possession. The student is asking her suspension be reversed, alleging the statement she signed was false -- and that the college's campus security officers acted inappropriately by forcing her admission of guilt. The lawsuit, filed late last month on behalf of Whitney Williams and her mother, states that Seattle Central security officers smelled marijuana near Williams and two friends a block and a half from the Capitol Hill campus last April. The officers asked the students to come to the security office, where they found a bag of marijuana in Williams' book bag. [continues 442 words]
The State Patrol made 23 arrests during Olympia Hempfest on Aug. 23-24 -- including 10 misdemeanor marijuana-possession arrests and four felony drug arrests, State Patrol Sgt. Ted DeHart said. DeHart said that by comparison, one person was arrested during this year's five-day Lakefair. "I think there may be a misunderstanding that if you come down to Hempfest for two days, it's OK to be smoking marijuana, and that's not the case," he said. "We will always enforce the law." [continues 425 words]
TUMWATER, Thurston County - More than 100 activists who jammed a state Health Department hearing Monday to protest proposed medical-marijuana limits won at least a minor victory: getting more time to make their case. Responding to concerns by advocates, Assistant Health Secretary Karen Jensen extended until 5 p.m. Friday the deadline for comments on a proposed rule to limit medical-marijuana users to possessing 24 ounces of cultivated marijuana, six mature plants and 18 immature plants. The action came at a 2- 1/2-hour hearing in which about 50 patients, doctors and other marijuana supporters blasted the proposal as unfair, unrealistic and unduly influenced by law-enforcement agencies. "We're not criminals. We're patients," said Melissa Leggee, of Spokane. "We just want to be left alone to do what we need to do to survive." [continues 587 words]
More Than 100 Weigh in on Proposal at Health Department Forum What sounds like a lot of marijuana for pleasure isn't enough for medication, more than 100 people at the state Department of Health headquarters said Monday. The agency was directed by the state Legislature to define how much medical marijuana a patient is allowed to have, something that hasn't been settled since Washington residents voted to allow the product in 1998. Thomas McCoy of Vancouver, Wash., said he had a stroke more than three years ago and decided to use marijuana to control his pain. [continues 551 words]
That pesky First Amendment right of free speech certainly can be troubling at times. There are some individuals in this community who want to know how Intercity Transit officials can get away with allowing advertisements for Hempfest on city buses? The answer to the question, of course, is free speech. Transit officials have realistic limits on the kinds of advertisements they won't accept. An advertisement for Hempfest does not rise to need of censorship, transit officials have said. It's the right decision. [continues 516 words]
Activists irate about a proposed state limit on medical marijuana urged crowds Saturday at Seattle's 17th annual Hempfest festival to rally at an Aug. 25 Department of Health hearing in Tumwater. It wasn't all peace, love and Hacky Sack at Seattle's 17th annual Hempfest. Activists irate about a proposed state limit on medical marijuana urged crowds Saturday at the pro-pot festival to rally at an Aug. 25 Department of Health hearing in Tumwater. Their target is a new state rule that would limit the 60-day supply for medical marijuana to 24 ounces and six mature pot plants. [continues 455 words]
They poured into Myrtle Edwards Park on the Seattle waterfront Saturday -- thousands of cannabis-lovers in Seattle to network and celebrate their favorite green plant. Some listened to activists discuss the benefits of medical marijuana. Others roamed the park looking for the newest models of bongs. Yet more lounged about on the grass listening to live music and openly smoking joints. Meanwhile, police officers walked by impassively, tolerating the pungent odor of marijuana smoke. [continues 452 words]
Marijuana has an image problem. That's not the only problem with it, but its image probably keeps it lurking in the shadows: People who smoke pot are unkempt, unruly, counterculture. Best just to drink scotch or pop OxyContin. If marijuana had the ad agencies that cigarettes have had, it would be legal, too. I'm not craving a joint. It's not my thing, but I noticed that Hempfest is coming up this weekend. Speakers at the Seattle festival will try mightily to pull the weed from darkness. [continues 436 words]
Event Aims to Be More Eco-Friendly That aroma you're picking up as you walk near Myrtle Edwards Park or downwind from the Olympic Sculpture Park this weekend? Smells slightly sweet, familiar even, with hints of patchouli and body odor? Does it bring back memories of dorm-room chats or crowded, sweaty concerts? Yeah, you got it. It's time for the country's biggest "protestival" - Seattle Hempfest - - on Saturday and Sunday. All "Reefer Madness" jokes aside, this is a serious event that is expected to draw more than 150,000 people who support reforming laws pertaining to marijuana - especially legalizing the domestic production of that less fun strain, hemp. Of course, some people might be there to check out a festival at which being stoned is no big deal. It's open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. each day. [continues 553 words]
KOMO Television Takes Pot Activists' Cash, Refuses to Air Pot Activists' Infomercial A local television station claims an infomercial hosted by travel writer Rick Steves promotes the use of marijuana and is consequently refusing to air it. But Fisher Communications, which owns KOMO television, collected thousands of dollars without airing the show. "It supported that people smoke marijuana," says Jim Clayton, KOMO's vice president and general manager, about the drug-policy-reform infomercial. "Smoking marijuana is illegal and we don't promote things that are illegal on our television station," he says. "We don't tell people to go rob banks, either." [continues 787 words]
Rick Steves Talks About His Crusade to Legalize Pot, Trips to Amsterdam PBS's affable man of travel, Rick Steves, was none too happy when he heard Seattle's KOMO television had refused to run an infomercial he hosted about marijuana laws. After all, KOMO's parent company, Fisher Communications, accepted thousands of dollars in fees to record the program at its studios. We reached the globe-trotting host in Brussels before he returns home to address the throngs at Seattle Hempfest in Myrtle Edwards Park this weekend, August 16 and 17. He speaks both days at 4:20 p.m., of course. He will probably give the standard rap that has astounded mainstream media-using his immaculate reputation to push for decriminalizing marijuana. After hearing his stump speech for several years, The Stranger wanted to ask Steves about his favorite place to get stoned, whether his crusade to legalize pot is making progress, and how hippies are making his job harder. [continues 2337 words]
You don't have to visit Nicaragua to get busted for pot. Every year in King County, the FBI reports, police arrest around 4,000 pot smokers. Yes, Seattle voters made pot possession the city's lowest law-enforcement priority in 2003-Seattle officers arrest people for pot possession at about one-tenth the rate of the state as a whole-and thousands of people will be toking freely at Hempfest this weekend (Sat Sun Aug 16 17 from 10 am to 8 pm in Myrtle Edwards Park). But you can still get busted, particularly once you leave the city limits. [continues 401 words]
An advertisement featuring a marijuana leaf that's on the sides of some Intercity Transit buses has drawn complaints from two residents and one of IT's own bus operators. The complaints concern the content of the Olympia Hempfest ad, which includes the image of a marijuana leaf and the phrase "Equal Rights are for Everybody," said Meg Kester, an agency spokeswoman. The Olympian also received a complaint about the advertisements. Intercity Transit forbids advertising on its buses that is obscene, defamatory, racist, sexist or "that is directed at producing imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action." The agency does not endorse any issue or product advertised on its buses, the exception being self-promotion, according to its policies. All political and issue advertisements identify who sponsored them. [continues 378 words]
Crop Could Surpass Grapes In Value This Year WAPATO, Wash. - Across central Washington's fruit bowl, farmers are buying vineyards, hoping to establish roots in the area and capitalize on the booming wine industry. Authorities believe some of the buyers are living in Mexico and their vineyards are producing tens of thousands of illegal marijuana plants - - a crop that could easily surpass grapes in value this year. Law enforcement officials in the Yakima Valley already have converged on seven vineyards that had been converted to marijuana operations this summer. At least five had been recently purchased - the buyers are still being tracked - and one had been leased to pot growers by an unknowing owner. [continues 537 words]
An advertisement featuring a marijuana leaf that's on the sides of some Intercity Transit buses has drawn complaints. Intercity Transit received complaints from two residents and one bus operator about the content of the Olympia Hempfest ad, which includes the image of a marijuana leaf and the phrase "Equal Rights are for Everybody," said Meg Kester, an agency spokeswoman. The Olympian also received a complaint about the advertisements. Intercity Transit forbids advertising on its buses that is obscene, defamatory, racist, sexist or "that is directed at producing imminent lawless action and is likely to produce such action." The agency does not endorse any issue or product advertised on its buses, the exception being self-promotion, according to its policies. All political and issue advertisements identify who sponsored them. The quoted language is taken from a landmark 1969 U.S. Supreme Court case on the limits of free speech, Brandenburg v. Ohio. For more information, see Page A1 in Monday's Olympian. [end]
Is it possible that methamphetamine, for more than 20 years Clark County's most sinister illegal drug, can be controlled? The addictive stimulant is still flowing freely into the community in the hands of Mexican smugglers, officials say. That's one reason the number of local meth labs raided here has been small, officials say. It's easier to just buy it. But change may be coming, said Cmdr. Rusty Warren with the Clark-Skamania Drug Task Force. Mexico last year tightened its restrictions on pseudoephedrine, the ingredient in many cold medicines that's the most common way to cook meth. [continues 449 words]
Inside Washington
