The law should be enforced not merely for the sake of enforcement but rather for the sake of a just result. That's why the decision to deport Mirwais Ali should be reversed. Make no mistake. Ali, 24, Madison, is no model non-citizen. He belongs in jail. But he does not belong in Afghanistan, where he has not lived since he was 1 year old. Yet Afghanistan is where he is going unless federal authorities employ some rational judgment. He is now being held in a federal detention center in Illinois while he appeals a deportation order. [continues 433 words]
Immigration Service Doesn't Relent Though Conviction Cut A Madison man who was to be deported to Afghanistan because of a felony drug conviction is languishing in federal custody, although the Dane County prosecutor reduced his conviction to a misdemeanor four months ago in a bid to stop the deportation. "I'm pretty depressed. I haven't seen my mother in more than a year," said Mirwais Ali, 24, who was raised in Madison, graduated from East High School and said he'd be lost in Afghanistan, where he knows no one and doesn't understand the language. [continues 589 words]
Here's how members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted on key bills and amendments in the last week: Medicinal marijuana: The House Tuesday rejected an amendment, 273-152, to prohibit the government from trying to override state laws that allow the medicinal use of marijuana. Proponents said the federal government should respect state laws. Opponents argued that state medicinal marijuana laws interfered with enforcement of federal drug laws. In favor of the amendment: Democrats Tammy Baldwin, Ron Kind, Gerald D. Kleczka, David R. Obey. [continues 209 words]
Recently I underwent minor knee surgery. For the post-operative pain I was given Oxycontin, a powerful narcotic related to morphine. Oxycontin has been on the prescription drug market for about seven years. Soon after its introduction, it became a popular recreational drug in rural America, so much so that it acquired the moniker "hillbilly heroin." The drug has apparently moved upmarket, as evidenced by the news that the teenage son of rock musician and television star Ozzy Osbourne has become addicted to the substance. Oxycontin is both quite addictive and potentially dangerous: It's estimated that in the past couple of years several hundred people have suffered fatal overdoses from the drug. [continues 501 words]
4th District Court Of Appeals Decides Sauk County's Open Air Assembly Law Violates The First Amendment. A state appeals court Thursday struck down Sauk County's open air assembly ordinance because it violates free speech by allowing the county an unreasonably long time to process permit applications. The decision by the 4th District Court of Appeals found the ordinance violated the First Amendment rights of the organizers of Weedstock, a pro-marijuana festival that was held in Sauk County in 1995, 1998 and 1999. In 2000, the event was broken up by police after its organizer, Ben Masel of Madison, failed to get a permit for Weedstock under the ordinance. [continues 349 words]
Masel May Seek Damages With a Sauk County ordinance preventing the annual Weedstock pot festival now at least temporarily up in smoke, organizer Ben Masel is considering damage claims for lost revenue and his arrest at the aborted 2000 event. Others among the 12 arrested in 2000 also might be seeking damages, Masel said, after the Wisconsin Court of Appeals on Thursday declared Sauk County's "open air assembly" ordinance unconstitutional. The court said the Sauk County ordinance put burdensome and unlawful obstacles on citizens seeking a public permit to assemble and exercise their rights to free speech. [continues 543 words]
We Shouldn't Be Asked To Pay For Wasted Lives Wisconsin is the fourth-highest taxed state in the union. Even so, it appears that there is still such an abundance of tax dollars left to spend that now we have "treatment professionals" telling us to provide for those who have wasted away their lives with alcohol and drugs. I could not believe what I read in my Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on July 19. A "treatment professional" suggested that we, the taxpayers, provide housing for drug addicts and alcoholics after they have finished their tax-subsidized treatment ("More than halfway help for addicts"). [continues 84 words]
Marijuana rally was subject to unconstitutional permit process MADISON -- Portions of a Sauk County ordinance governing permits for large gatherings violate the First Amendment, a state appeals court ruled in a case involving a pro-marijuana rally police shut down in May 2000. The ordinance requires large groups to apply for a permit 60 days before an event that is to last more than 18 hours. The county has 45 days to decide whether to grant a permit. The 4th District Court of Appeals found both the 60-day requirement and the 45-day processing time unconstitutional Thursday. It also overturned a prohibition against advertising, promoting and selling tickets before a license is issued. [continues 236 words]
Madison - Portions of a Sauk County ordinance governing permits for large gatherings violate the First Amendment, the state Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in a case involving Weedstock, a pro-marijuana rally police shut down in May 2000. The ordinance requires large groups to apply for a permit 60 days before an event that is to last more than 18 hours. The county has 45 days to decide whether to grant a permit. The 4th District Court of Appeals found both the 60-day requirement and the 45-day processing time unconstitutional. It also overturned a prohibition against advertising, promoting and selling tickets before a license is issued. [end]
If you follow taxes and budget matters - and you should - you've probably heard the sound bite that if trends continue, we soon will spend more of our state budget on corrections than on the UW System. Gov. Jim Doyle's proposed fiscal year 2005 budget would spend $831 million on the UW System and $792 million on corrections. The obvious rub is that a society that spends more to keep people locked up than it does on its public universities is in trouble and/or has its priorities messed up. [continues 443 words]
In the article detailing another marijuana prohibition-linked tragedy, "Two Men To Be Charged In Murder" (Wednesday), Robb Hale, the cases lead investigator is quoted, "This was a tragedy that should not have occurred." Hale is correct. Were it not for the fact that marijuana prohibition has made a humble weed more valuable than gold, Nathaniel Divine would still be alive while Ben Napier and Tekeith Tate would not be facing spending the rest of their lives locked away in prison at a cost to taxpayers approaching $30,000 per year. [continues 54 words]
Gov. Jim Doyle said he will sign state budget plans to open two empty and long-fought-over new prisons in April 2004, helping clear the way for nearly half of the 2,290 prisoners held out of state to return to Wisconsin. Doyle, a Democrat, had proposed leaving prisons in New Lisbon and Chippewa Falls closed until at least mid-2005 to save money. But Doyle said over the weekend that he would approve language added to the 2003-05 state budget by Republicans that would bump up the opening dates. The news is likely to surprise some Republicans, who had been told by administration officials that opening the prisons would cost too much compared to leaving prisoners out of state. [continues 556 words]
I would like to comment on the Waukesha court system. I received a speeding ticket on April 29 from a Waukesha state trooper on Interstate 43 and appeared at the Waukesha courthouse on June 4 to enter my plea. At that time, there were about 25 other citizens there for the same reason, with the exception of one. This man was there for a few additional reasons besides his speeding ticket. He had gone to court and entered a plea in January for an OWI, and then was in court that morning for other reasons. When he arrived in the courtroom prior to the court commissioner, the district attorneys could not find his file. It seems he was told at the morning hearing to come back at 1 p.m. since his citation was issued from a state trooper. [continues 236 words]
Kudos to U.S. Rep. David Obey for standing up for medical marijuana patients in a recent Appropriations Committee hearing in Congress. Sources at the hearing quoted Obey as saying: "Nothing makes me more angry than this issue. When I decide what I want on the way out, or what a family member needs on the way out, it's none of your damn business!" Obey reportedly shouted this last sentence while pointing directly at the Republicans on the committee. The amendment went down to defeat 31-16. But, while Republicans voted as a block against it, 16 Democrats led by Obey stood up for the rights of District of Columbia voters who passed a medical marijuana law in 1998, only to have former Rep. Bob Barr push through an amendment overturning the vote. [continues 167 words]
Some Wisconsin courts - including those in Milwaukee and Waukesha counties - have collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from criminals and doled the money out to local do-good groups such as the Boys & Girls Clubs and DARE. But such collections have all but ended in Fond du Lac County, where a prosecutor bemoaned the loss of money to such groups. And Dane County judges have washed their hands of the practice. As the state Ethics Board investigates whether former attorney general candidate Vince Biskupic violated the law by secretly not charging people who gave money to local groups, prosecutors and judges are interpreting the law differently on when and how criminals can be ordered to pay. [continues 869 words]
Don Helley's eviction reminds us that the culture war on cannabis users routinely violates human rights, and apparently the folks at Common Wealth were "just following orders" when they made the decision to evict an everyday Madisonian and model tenant for botanical crimes. "Common Wealth Boots Longtime Tenant" (Watchdog, 5/30/03) Common Wealth getting all sanctimonious about drug use while itself benefiting from the sales of the legal drug alcohol at the Willy St. Fair seems a tad hypocritical, and they no doubt have had more problems with tenants abusing alcohol than marijuana. Gary Storck [end]
They're Accused Of Killing Drug Dealer To Steal His Marijuana Two men in custody for the murder of a Wild Rose man were drug dealers who didn't want to pay Nathaniel Divine, 24, for four pounds of marijuana worth at most $8,000, town of Madison police said Tuesday. "The victim was trying to sell it. They tried to take it and they shot him," police Chief Scott Gregory said at a news conference. "I would consider it a drug deal gone bad," he said, adding that all three men earned their livings selling drugs. [continues 561 words]
Relationships With Appleton Attorney In Question The Wisconsin Department of Justice has referred to the FBI bribery allegations involving former Winnebago County Dist. Atty. Joe Paulus. According to Winnebago County Circuit Court documents, the referral alleges a "guarantee" of a lenient sentence made by Appleton attorney Richard Bollenbeck to a Menasha client, The Post-Crescent confirmed Wednesday. Melinda Otto, a former Bollenbeck client, filed a post-conviction motion alleging Bollenbeck guaranteed she would avoid prison time at her 2001 sentencing on two counts of causing injury by drunken driving because of his close friendship with Paulus, then Winnebago County's district attorney. Paulus is a subject of an ongoing FBI investigation into alleged cash-for-leniency agreements in Winnebago County courts. [continues 321 words]
Head Of State Board Accused Of Lying About Credentials At Hearing For more than 20 years, William Olcott was a leader in setting professional standards for drug addiction counselors in Wisconsin. [SIDEBAR: William Olcott Photo/File William Olcott is accused of lying under oath about his credentials during a state administrative hearing on disciplinary action against a colleague. Quotable: The DA has the wrong impression, but I don't want to get into it.- William Olcott, former president of the Wisconsin Certification Board] [continues 963 words]
Our federal government has set a precedence showing that cannabis is medicinal. The Federal Medical Marijuana program has not only shown that cannabis works but that it's a safe and effective medicine. The federal government sends out several thousand pre-rolled joints every couple of months to the few medical marijuana patients still enrolled in the program. It is urgent that we all show compassion for those seriously ill patients being mistreated by our government and denied safe access to medicinal marijuana. [continues 66 words]
Thanks to Dave Zweifel for shedding some light on the federal government's cruel policies toward medical marijuana, in his column Friday on the treatment of Ed Rosenthal, "War on drugs turns into atrocity." While federal authorities are appealing Rosenthal's one-day sentence, Rosenthal has also filed an appeal over questionable actions by both the judge and prosecutor in his case. In the meantime, Rosenthal, no stranger to Madison, is at last word still planning to speak at this year's Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival Oct. 4 in Madison. Rosenthal is expected to be joined by Dennis Peron, a longtime San Francisco medical marijuana activist who helped write Proposition 215, which became California's groundbreaking medical marijuana law when passed by voters in 1996. [continues 63 words]
As investigators closed in on him, Appleton resident Floyd Banks tipped the scales of justice in his favor. He pulled out his checkbook. By signing a secret agreement to "donate" $5,000 to police and court programs "as a sign of remorse," Banks, a machinist, bought his way out of being charged with a felony in 1996, according to public documents obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal. Eight others involved in the case were charged with felony perjury and convicted of felony and misdemeanor offenses for helping an Appleton man conceal $75,000 in lottery winnings in a divorce case. [continues 2629 words]
Standards Erase Gaps Among Municipalities A person caught two or more times in the city of Milwaukee with a single marijuana joint faces a criminal conviction, suspended driver's license and a permanent criminal record. Whereas, if that same scenario happened in Whitefish Bay, the person would be given a citation, no matter how many times he or she was caught. Such inequities are set to be remedied under landmark standards being unveiled today that would treat defendants charged in Milwaukee County non-felony cases equally across gender, class, racial and municipal lines. [continues 869 words]
It didn't get much play here in the Midwest, but the man in a closely watched marijuana case in California was set free last month despite the U.S. government's determination to send him to prison for five years. Ed Rosenthal of San Francisco had been arrested by the feds for growing more than 100 marijuana plants. Rosenthal was growing the plants as an officer under California's medical marijuana law that allows people to grow pot for medicinal purposes. Marijuana is known as a significant pain reliever for people with cancer and other terminal illnesses and some states have approved its use for those kind of things. (Wisconsin is still not one of them.) [continues 330 words]
Kudos to The Northwestern for your July 4 editorial, "Significance of liberty cannot be overstated." Today, we find the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Independence increasingly under attack by a power-grabbing federal government. As the declaration notes, "All men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness." Yet Americans, who choose to use a medicinal plant, marijuana, increasingly find themselves squarely in the crosshairs of a bloated bureaucracy that is actively trying to revoke unalienable rights, like Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. [continues 144 words]
Our federal government has set a precedence showing that cannabis is medicinal. The Federal Medical Marijuana program has not only shown that cannabis works, but that it's a safe and effective medicine. The federal government sends out several thousand pre-rolled joints every couple of months to the few medical marijuana patients still enrolled in the program. It is urgent that we all show compassion for those seriously ill patients being mistreated by our government and denied safe access to medicinal marijuana. Let your congressman know that it's time they stop this unethical abuse of our state's medical marijuana patients and allow them the right to seek out safe and reliable access to the medicine they need. Please call your local congressman and ask them to co-sponsor and support H.R. 2233, the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act. If you need help finding the contact info for your congressman, you can go to www.winorml.org Joe Adams Kenosha [end]
This Madison Police Officer And Her Canine Partner Arno Find Drugs And Evidence, Track Suspects And Nab Criminals A distraught man with access to knives had barricaded himself inside a home and was threatening to set the place afire and kill himself. That's when the Madison Police called on Officer Christine Boyd and her partner - a 65-pound Dutch shepherd named Arno. "I've needed to kiss him goodbye a couple of times," Boyd said, recalling the feeling of letting Arno enter the house. [continues 949 words]
STURGEON BAY - Joe Heller's June 25 cartoon of Canadian-bound seniors finding a pot smoker and a gay couple in their midst offers an older, conservative person's view of a changing world. I don't know much about medical or recreational marijuana use, but I do understand that the gay men depicted seek a kind of fairness the seniors are after in filling their medical prescriptions. We have one life in which to care for ourselves and our loved ones, and we' ll do it with or without the help of our governments. [continues 99 words]
Slavery was supposed to have been abolished after our Civil War. For the men and women sitting in a prison cell or working on a chain gang because they used some unapproved product or sold some unapproved product to a willing buyer, slavery is not over. It has just changed its name. ("Report: State Blacks 53 Times More Likely To Go To Prison For Drug Offense" 6-07-03.) Our war on drugs needs a name change. It is not a war on drugs. It's a war on the users of certain (politically selected) natural herbs and chemicals. Our drug laws are not Draconian--our drug laws are diabolically evil, diabolically cruel, diabolically wicked and diabolically inhumane. Kirk Muse Mesa, AZ [end]
Editor: It is alarming to page through any daily newspaper and see the number of stories highlighting alcohol-related injuries and deaths. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 560 people will die over the Fourth of July weekend, and that 55 percent of those deaths will be alcohol-related. The Drug-Free Marshals, an anti-drug campaign sponsored by the Church of Scientology and inspired by drug prevention technology developed by founder L. Ron Hubbard is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. In a continuing effort to encourage safety in our communities, we would suggest that each person with a drivers license take a moment to realize the responsibility which goes along with the privilege of driving. [continues 115 words]
West Allis - A West Allis woman filed a federal lawsuit against the city and more than a dozen of its police officers, accusing them of arresting her in an illegal drug raid and parading her in handcuffs to a waiting police car in view of her neighbors. Angela Talaska-Zumbach, whose W. Rogers St. home was raided May 5 with an unsigned search warrant, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages, both compensatory and punitive. The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee by Brookfield attorney Mark A. Phillips, accuses the officers of incompetence and the city of failing to properly train them. [continues 281 words]
2 City Officers Trained To Detect Impaired Motorists Two Wausau police officers are using a new 45-minute, 12-step test on the city's streets to evaluate the drugs a driver has used and how it affects judgment on the road. A drugged driver can be just as lethal on the roads as one who has been drinking, says the state Department of Transportation, which coordinates training on the test for police in Wisconsin. Although Wisconsin law prohibits a blood-alcohol level exceeding 0.10 percent, the state has no similar standard for drugs detected through a blood or urine test. A decade ago, authorities focused on people who got behind the wheel drunk. Now officials are rallying against drivers who use drugs, including over-the-counter medications, that impair their ability to observe, react and stay alert on the road. [continues 424 words]
New Law Would Outlaw Drugged Driving, Mete Out Harsher Penalties Madison - Wisconsin prosecutors seeking to come down harder on drugged drivers would get a powerful new tool under zero-tolerance legislation set for introduction today by state Rep. Mark Gundrum. The New Berlin Republican, chairman of the Assembly Judiciary Committee, said the measure would outlaw driving under the influence of illegal drugs and slap those in fatal crashes with stiffer prison sentences. "You should not get behind the wheel of a 2,000-pound bullet if you're on drugs," said Gundrum. "We've already made it public policy that you shouldn't have any of these drugs in your possession. We're just taking the next logical step." [continues 544 words]
The subject of this letter is that there are no "Drug-/Gun- Free School Zones" in the Fond du Lac School District. I have been to the following with my question: Fond du Lac High School administration, Fond du Lac School Board and the high school's police liaison officer. They have bulldozed "smoker's corner" and now have a clear line of sight from the structure to the road. That came after I spoke with a school board member. I had a student at Fondy High who made a wrong turn when the "drugs" were offered, hence my personal interest. [continues 91 words]
Thanks to Doug Hissom for the update on Ed Rosenthal in the June 12 Expresso, "Ed Spared." Hissom was right: Ed is a hero. Ed's sentence, which also requires three years of federal probation, will be appealed. In a recent e-mail to a California drug policy reform listserv, Ed said the judge did him no favors, outlining a number of his questionable actions. He said the judge acted more like a prosecutor, denying the introduction of key evidence and refusing to OK defense motions regarding some of the prosecutor's actions. Rosenthal also called his sentencing "a sugar-coated poison pill," noting that the judge's terms explicitly precluded future defendants from using defenses that were excluded from his own trial, including issues involving the Ninth and 10th amendments to the Constitution, the commerce clause, federal immunity and lesser harm. [continues 60 words]
Editor: The county's priority system worked especially well in eliminating funding for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education ("PET drives Marathon Co. budget"). Although popular, the DARE program has consistently failed to prove effective. A very low-cost alternative, the social norms marketing technique, has repeatedly been found effective in reducing both the consumption and the abuse of alcohol. Most students incorrectly believe that more of their peers consume and abuse alcohol than is the actual case. Therefore, they tend to conform in order to "fit in." When a credible survey of a student body is conducted and then the surprising results widely promoted, student drinking drops dramatically as they discover the truth. The technique is easy and inexpensive to implement and the effects occur quickly. There is no justification for using unproven techniques when a successful alternative is available. Our young people deserve nothing less. Chapel Hill, NC [end]
A recent Associated Press article carried in the Reporter, "Mayville teen charged with selling drug that's legal" (June 19), contained a statement that must be challenged. The article quoted DEA Special Agent Ed Childress as defining Schedule I drugs as "those that have no medical purpose and a high propensity for abuse, such as marijuana, heroin and LSD." While the DEA continues to maintain the legal fiction that marijuana has no medical use and a high potential for abuse, science says otherwise. With over 80 percent of Americans supporting legalizing medical cannabis for patients who can benefit, it is time for Congress to acknowledge reality by passing HR 2233, the bipartisan States Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, which would reschedule marijuana so doctors can prescribe it, as well as let states set their own policies on medical use. [continues 73 words]
I am responding to Jim Horning's 6-4-03 letter about correction officers and marijuana. Our country now has over 2 million people in jail. We have 5% of the world population but 25% of the prisoners. 2 million people in prison. Something is wrong. It is a good time to be working for the prisons. Good job security, good pay, and good benefits. When the electorate wants to change the drug laws, which is at the core of the 2 million in prison, the correctional industry comes out in full force to stop any such changes. [continues 102 words]
Jim Horning, like others in the prison industry, has a severe separation from the truth and did not state all the facts. Why isn't it accurate to blame corrections officers (letter, "Don't blame COs for incarcerations," on June 4) for overuse of the prison system since you are responsible for passing and perpetuating the legislation regarding cannabis (marijuana), when you take into account your unions work to enable laws that in fact do just that? Why does Horning think animosity is misplaced toward him and our judicial system, when he supports the prohibition of cannabis? Why doesn't Horning feel responsible for the ever-increasing inmate population, when he belongs to a union that does support that crime. [continues 190 words]
Festival Moves Up To Canada Weedstock is going north of the border this summer to escape the legal runaround in Sauk County. The pro-marijuana rally will join forces with the Planetary Pride Hempfest in Ophir, Ontario, from Aug. 22 to 24. Ophir is located outside Sault Ste. Marie, just north of the Canadian border above the upper peninsula of Michigan. With Weedstock's court case still under appeal, its director, Ben Masel, said the group decided to take the event to a place where the government isn't cracking down so hard on marijuana. Under some circumstances, it is presently legal to smoke marijuana in Ontario; the law there is being re-evaluated. [continues 429 words]
In Colleen Kottke's report, Dodge County District Attorney Steven Bauer, in deciding to let the almighty Feds prosecute those charged in the June 4 marijuana raid, says, "...state and local law enforcement will receive a percentage of what is forfeited." Obviously, this is all about forfeiture money and how the haul will be divvied up. That doesn't make Bauer or Dodge County guilty of anything; the federal forfeiture laws have always been abused this way. It's in their nature. [continues 59 words]
Mr. Jim Horning writes that he and his fellow officers are not responsible for the ever-increasing inmate population. How galling. Every time there has been a ballot initiative to stop treating drug abuse as a criminal matter, police and corrections officers (and their unions) outdo each other in a rush to condemn it. They use scare tactics and dire warnings instead of medical evidence and real-world examples. Confusion is their goal, because sensible consideration of drug laws would end their decades-long industry boom. [continues 105 words]
Allegedly Sold It As Ecstasy West Bend (Associated Press) A teenager is accused of selling a drug called AMT, even though state law does not yet ban the substance. Lucas M. Mueller, 18, of Mayville allegedly sold an undercover officer 50 tablets purported to be the illegal drug Ecstasy for $800 in November 2002. Investigators with the county's Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Group found no traces of Ecstasy but did find the new drug AMT. Mueller was in Washington County Circuit Court Wednesday on a charge of being party to the crime of delivering an imitation controlled substance. [continues 179 words]
Beer and brandy are doubtless Wisconsin's legal drugs of choice. But of the illegal drugs, Wisconsin has a particular fondness for marijuana. It's the most available and most abused drug in the state, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency. In the past 10 years, Wisconsin's marijuana smokers have taken a big hit due to police crackdowns. Marijuana dominated drug possession and sales arrests in Wisconsin in 2000. It accounted for almost 80 percent of Wisconsin's drug possession arrests and about half of the state's drug sales arrests, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. [continues 126 words]
I have lived at my current address for three years, and recently I had something happen to me that has never happened before. A former coworker of mine stopped to pick up some items that she had left at work. I walked out to her car, which was parked on the street, and we sat and talked for a few minutes before she left. As I was walking back to my house, a police officer pulled into my driveway and questioned what I was doing. I told him my friend came to pick up some compact discs. He told me he had reason to believe that he saw an exchange take place. He then proceeded to ask me if he could frisk me. I, never being in trouble before, said OK. He had me do the whole routine - turn around and put my hands on the car - while he patted me down. He asked what was in my pocket and I told him it was money. He asked if he could check there and I said yes. I gave him no reason to continue because I didn't do anything wrong, and like I tried to explain to him, I am not into drugs in any way, shape or form. [continues 90 words]
The Madison Police Department is getting a warm reception for plans to deploy more officers to neighborhoods. The department intends to create new Community Policing Teams comprised of one sergeant and five officers in each of the city's five districts, Chief Richard Williams and other supervisors told city officials Tuesday. To do so, the department will redeploy two sergeants and 10 officers from the Dane County Narcotics and Gang Task Force, a sergeant and six officers from the evening Traffic Enforcement Safety Team, two sergeants from within the department and nine patrol officers. [continues 305 words]
MADISON - I wonder what substance David Lee Gauthier might be indulging in after reading his erroneous conclusions in his June 13 Forum letter, "Relaxing drug laws is stupid." Gauthier's claim that tobacco impairs memory is suspect and no link to cancer from smoking marijuana has ever been proven. Marijuana is much safer than tobacco. Regarding the medicinal use of marijuana, unlike most over-the-counter and prescription drugs, it has no lethal dose. Some people are allergic to or intolerant of most prescription drugs used for pain relief. Should these people suffer needlessly to send a message to children? Children can tell the difference between substance abuse and medical use. Marijuana use among youth actually declined after California passed its medical marijuana law in 1996. [continues 69 words]
Measure deleted from state budget proposal had critics among judges A proposal to study possible mandatory sentencing guidelines for circuit judges has been dropped from the state budget, to the relief of many judges and lawyers. A state lawmaker said that he believes the policy issue will be revived after the budget passes. But the State Bar of Wisconsin committee chairman said he hopes the matter dies. "I don't think it should be considered even as a separate piece of legislation," said Milwaukee attorney John Birdsall, chairman of the Bar's Criminal Law Section, which opposes mandatory sentencing guidelines. [continues 589 words]
WAUKESHA -- A woman whose home was the scene of a police raid is asking the county to pay $1,060 to repair doors that she says were damaged by officers. Jacqueline Marinello, who lives on Green Lane in the Town of Waukesha, contends that officers from the county's Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Unit were unnecessarily violent when raiding her house March 6. No arrests or criminal charges have resulted from the raid, in which, court records indicate, authorities found a small amount of "vegetative material," some pipes, plastic bags and a scale. [end]
GREEN BAY - On May 30, the Press-Gazette reported on the state Assembly's approval of a lower alcohol limit. The article also noted that Mothers Against Drunk Driving was disturbed about the softened penalties for first offenders. So am I. Drunk driving kills kids. On the same day, a report revealed that smoking is bad for your brain. A study of 2,000 cigarette smokers showed poorer memory at middle age. Two days earlier, the paper reported that the Canadian government is relaxing marijuana laws. If tobacco is ruining people's memory and even secondhand smoke is causing cancer, what in the world would marijuana do? Would we have sharp people driving safely, or self-inflicted dopes driving four-wheel cruise missiles? [continues 83 words]
Inside Wisconsin
