What do the immune system and marijuana and have in common? Lots, according to senior biology major Alex Cohen. Working in an independent study with Associate Professor of Chemistry David Hall, Cohen is currently researching the relationship between the immune system and a particular class of chemicals found in marijuana. The marijuana chemicals Cohen focuses on are called cannabinoids. Interestingly, Cannabinoids also apparently occur naturally in the human body. Cohen's research pertains to the way the immune system responds to these cannabinoids. [continues 389 words]
Is your medicine legal? Jacki Rickert's isn't. The Wisconsin mother suffers from several incurable medical conditions and says the only effective treatment is marijuana. Rickert joined two state legislators and other medical marijuana supporters in late Sept. for a press conference to announce the introduction of new medical marijuana legislation. It was a symbolic day for Rickert, as it marks the 10-year anniversary of the "Journey-for-Justice," a 210-mile trek across the state Rickert and an entourage of medical marijuana supporters made in their wheelchairs that ended at the Capitol. [continues 1140 words]
For Wisconsin residents suffering from cancer, AIDS and other diseases filled with pain and nausea, relief could come through puffs of a marijuana joint, due to the work of a few progressive-thinking lawmakers. But this will come to fruition only if other legislators can get past the stigma and fear of a drug that dates back before Nancy Reagan made her famous "Just Say No" pronouncement. We're not talking about wholesale use of the drug, but rather allowing very small amounts for the grandmother suffering in hospice or the stage 4 cancer patient who has no appetite to get the nourishment he needs. Patients have reported that other drugs don't work as effectively as cannabis in alleviating nausea and pain associated with chronic and terminal illnesses. But if they use it, they face the same criminal charges as a recreational user. [continues 186 words]
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. was rightfully angry the other day at officials who shrugged their shoulders after a felon on probation recently failed two drug tests. Clarke went so far as to call Judge Joe Donald "soft." It was easy to identify with the tough-talking sheriff's frustration. But now the question must be asked of Clarke: Why did he use such a light touch himself with a half-dozen deputies who violated department policy - and the U.S. Constitution - by entering an empty house without a warrant? [continues 775 words]
A state Senate committee heard heated testimony Wednesday morning at the Capitol both for and against medicinal marijuana. The Committee on Health, Human Services, Insurance and Job Creation held a public information hearing about medical marijuana featuring testimony from three "expert witnesses" followed by responses from the public. Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, who chairs the committee, said he was approached with the idea to hold the hearing "years ago" when he first took office, by Gary Storck, co-founder of Is My Medicine Legal Yet? [continues 421 words]
The controversial issue of medical marijuana is the topic of an informal Wisconsin state Senate hearing at the Capitol Wednesday. The hearing will feature testimony by three experts leading the battle to legalize medical marijuana. Following the speakers, the floor will be open for discussion. Medical marijuana legislation was passed in the state Legislature in 1982, but the bill was only symbolic in its passage because it required but did not receive support from the federal government. Gary Storck, director of the Madison chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said a medical marijuana user in Wisconsin would face criminal charges if caught with the illegal substance. [continues 421 words]
Regarding Carl Hunter's Oct. 31st column, there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has effectively reduced disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black market prices. Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. Heroin maintenance pilot projects are underway in Canada, England, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction. [continues 123 words]
JANESVILLE -- So you inhaled when you were in college. Maybe you enjoyed yourself immensely. Wouldn't trade those days for anything. But now your child is 10 or 13 and wants to know: Did you smoke dope, mommy? What's A Parent to Do? Tell the truth, said Kate Baldwin of Partners in Prevention of Rock County. Tell the truth, said Carrie Kulinski, the Janesville School District's drug/alcohol coordinators and a longtime drug abuse counselor. Tell the truth, said Ben Masel, perhaps the most famous marijuana user in Wisconsin, known for organizing an annual marijuana festival. [continues 876 words]
A Baraboo man will serve 12 months of probation after investigators say he had 25 pounds of pot shipped to him from Texas. William J. Larsen, 51, also will spend 30 days in jail plus 30 months of probation for a more recent pot possession count after his sentencing Wednesday. Larsen appeared in Sauk County Circuit Court on a count of felony possession of marijuana with intent to deliver based on an incident in March 2006. He also faced a misdemeanor pot possession charge stemming from an arrest in June. [continues 229 words]
President Bush requested $1.4 billon of American taxpayer money for counter-narcotics aid to Mexico. It is a familiar game. U.S. leaders blame another country for our failure to reduce drug misuse here at home. That country escalates its war against drugs but asks the U.S. to pick up part of the tab. Aid is given, but it ends up having no effect on the availability of drugs in the United States . Politicians in Washington point their fingers again, and the cycle continues. [continues 515 words]
Slip-Ups On Extended Supervision Can Add To Truth-In-Sentencing Terms Seven years after David Lex went to prison with a five-year term for his role in a marijuana smuggling ring, he's still got more than four years left behind bars. Lex is still doing time because of an aspect of the state's truth-in-sentencing scheme that didn't get a lot of attention when it took effect in late 1999. And Lex is far from alone. [continues 956 words]
Earlier this month San Francisco's Public Health Department helped sponsor an all-day discussion about opening up a legal drug injection center inside the city. Wait, what? A place where you can bring heroin, cocaine, or any other intravenous drug of choice and shoot up? Absolutely! And not only shoot up but with free syringes and a safety net of supervision by a trained medical staff so if you overdose, they'll save you! Conservatives around the U.S. are already mocking those "crazy liberals" for wanting to put tax dollars towards assisting the decrepit drug abusing derelicts that put a drain on society as it is. Where is Darwinism!? [continues 557 words]
About 600 marijuana plants, with a potential worth of about $1.2 million, were seized by law enforcement personnel Thursday from a remote public hunting area in Walworth County, authorities said. The plants were grown on state-owned land, and the location is thought to be one of the largest cultivated marijuana sites found in Walworth County, according to a statement from the Walworth County Drug Enforcement Unit. Last month, officers seized about 1,000 marijuana plants from a site about 400 yards from the location of Thursday's seizure. Officers also found about four campsites thought to be used by people tending the plants, according to the statement. Authorities say they think the plants would have yielded about 300 pounds of marijuana with an estimated value of $3,500 to $4,500 a pound. [end]
I read with interest Ms. Lisa Kaiser's reporting on how the Milwaukee County district attorney views the pot scene in "Want Saner Marijuana Laws?" (Oct. 18). Ultimate reform must come from Washington, and like most huge issues, it will one day have its day at the polls. America is ever-so-slowly waking up to the folly of drug prohibition, especially marijuana, and may one day come to know they have been propagandized into a $42 billion a year "Blackwater" operation that is never supposed to end, complete with asset forfeiture, corruption, expanding prisons and drug testing. It tears us apart as a country and we must fix it. The internecine relationship of guns, money and drugs worldwide can only be reined in through regulation and treatment. The talking points of the drug war industrial complex are based on fear, gutter science and racism thrown in when necessary, like any war--but this one is against ourselves. I ask District Attorney John Chisholm to contact LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc, and have a visit with his colleagues to discuss prohibition as law enforcement professionals and not drug war sycophants. Peter Christopher Hurdle Mills, N.C. [end]
Wisconsin's prison system is like an out-of-control carousel. In 2005, for example, 7,700 new inmates got onboard just as 8,800 parolees stepped off and headed for home -- up from 1,600 in 1980. Wisconsin towns and cities are struggling to cope with the special services needed by this growing number of new parolees returning home each year. America's lock 'em up drug laws are keeping this merry-go-round spinning faster and faster. Nationally, the portion of inmates leaving state prisons after serving time for non-violent drug offenses has shot up from 11 percent in 1985 to 37 percent in 2005. Here is how this trend plays out in Wisconsin. [continues 473 words]
Change Would Mean Ticket for Simple Possession Waukesha - Joining a movement to decriminalize certain marijuana cases, Waukesha County officials are considering handling minor instances of possession like traffic tickets. If the County Board approves, first-time offenders caught by sheriff's deputies with small amounts of marijuana or drug paraphernalia would be required only to pay a fine and would not get a criminal record. Currently, deputies refer all such cases to the district attorney's office for possible prosecution as misdemeanors, with penalties of up to six months in jail possible. [continues 431 words]
Onalaska lawmakers are moving slow on an ordinance supported by police officers and landlords to allow speedy eviction of tenants convicted of drug or gang activity. Sgt. Keith Roh, an Onalaska police officer, helped introduce an ordinance to the city's Administrative and Judiciary Committee that grants landlords the right to evict tenants after five days if they live in homes used for drug or gang activity. Now, landlords must wait 30 days to begin the eviction process. Roh said he got the idea to introduce the ordinance after speaking with police officers from La Crosse, where a similar law is already on the books. [continues 518 words]
While Jimi Reinke has trained 109 people to administer an antidote for heroin overdoses, he never thought he actually would have to do it himself. The drug users he works with aren't usually high when he sees them. But on Oct. 8, Reinke had parked his van in front of Luke House on Ingersoll Street, where he offers AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin services during the free meal program there, when a woman ran up and said, "You have any Narcan?" [continues 1158 words]
I'm bipartisan in my criticisms of politicians, depending on the issue. Republican Rep. Leah Vukmir, chair of WI Assembly's health-care committee, refuses to give a hearing to a bill legalizing medical marijuana in our state. The current bill has several Democratic sponsors and just one Republican. But again this year, such legislation will likely not get an up-or-down vote by our elected representatives. My mother-in-law is in her final months of a several year battle with lung cancer. Hospice workers have provided her morphine if needed. Should she be denied morphine out of objection to the drug being legal in general? What a lack of compassion that would be! When Lyn Nofziger of the Reagan Administration provided marijuana to his daughter to fight the side effects of chemotherapy, he wasn't arguing that marijuana should be legal. But he understood the value of the plant in fighting nausea and generating appetite. [continues 154 words]
Among the casualties of the war on drugs are those who use marijuana to relieve their pain and suffering. Sean--not his real name--lives in Milwaukee County and smokes pot to help him cope with multiple sclerosis (MS) and other health problems. He walks with a crutch and his joints are stiff, but he manages to get around when he needs to, thanks to his use of marijuana as medicine. "I'm a bad spokesman for MS," he said. "Pot gives me energy. Usually people with MS are kind of out of it. I'm paralyzed on one side and it hurts to walk. But pot helps me get around. It makes me more flexible. I've tried different pain medications. Morphine is a joke compared to marijuana. Pot is a much better painkiller, without the nasty side effects." [continues 369 words]
If the $42 Billion War on Pot Isn't Working, What Will? One obvious solution is to stop demonizing and criminalizing marijuana and, instead, allow people to grow their own or buy it legally and use it as they please. But those who deal with federal, state and local drug laws say that legalizing marijuana isn't an option. "I'm sensitive to the argument that enough's enough, just legalize it and derive some revenue from it," said Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. "But that's just not practical. The reality is the feds are never going to legalize it." [continues 1172 words]
RIPON -- A group promoting the rebirth of the hemp industry in Wisconsin will meet this week in Ripon. The advocacy organization, Wisconsin Hemp Order, will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 18, in the Little White Schoolhouse on Blackburn Street in Ripon. The meeting takes place on the 90th anniversary date of the founding by regional hemp growers and processors of the Wisconsin Hemp Order in Ripon. While the last American hemp mill in Brandon closed in 1957, the area is still ripe to be the center of a revived hemp industry once legal impediments are removed, according to a press release from the Wisconsin Hemp Order. The keynote address Thursday will be delivered by David P. West, the last holder of a government permit for hemp research. More information is available by contacting Order Secretary Ben Masel at (608) 442-8830 or bmasel@tds.net or West at davewest@gametec.com. [end]
"20/20" co-anchor John Stossel spoke to University of Wisconsin students Monday evening at the Memorial Union Theatre encouraging individual liberty and capitalism in a lecture presented by Collegians For a Constructive Tomorrow. Stossel graduated from Princeton University in 1969 and joined the ABC news program in 1981. He became an anchor in 2003 and has received 19 Emmy Awards. Stossel focused his lecture on the dangers of government and the importance of protecting individual rights. "Individual liberty is the most important thing," Stossel said in an interview with The Badger Herald before the event. "Central planning of all kinds takes people's freedom and their money and makes life worse." [continues 374 words]
Fleischman's Attorney Denies Allegations The chairman of the Republican Party in Brown County faces criminal charges for allegedly fondling a 16-year-old Ethan House runaway and providing the boy with beer and marijuana late last year. Donald Fleischman, 37, of Allouez, was charged last month with two counts of child enticement, two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a child and a single charge of exposing himself to a child. He was summoned to Brown County court for his initial appearance on Sept. 28. He is free having posted a signature bond as his promise to return to court. [continues 343 words]
After 25 years on the bench, U.S. District Judge John Shabaz says he's ready to scale back his caseload and President Bush should start looking for his successor. In a letter to Bush dated Oct. 4, Shabaz, 76, said he will assume senior status if the U.S. Senate confirms his successor by Jan. 20, 2009, Bush's last day in office. A federal judge can leave active status and take senior status beginning at age 65, said Joel Turner, deputy U.S. clerk for the Western District of Wisconsin. The senior designation means the judge takes on a reduced workload. [continues 1244 words]
More than 30 states passed medical marijuana bills in the 1970s and '80s, including Wisconsin, but all of those left the responsibility of supplying the marijuana up to the federal government. "A bill was passed in 1981 with overwhelming majorities in both houses," said Madison marijuana activist Gary Storck. "It was signed into law by Gov. Lee Sherman Dreyfus in 1982, but, unfortunately, it was kind of a watered-down law that required the federal government to supply the medical marijuana, which the state would then dispense to approved patients who had glaucoma or were undergoing cancer chemotherapy. The bill was basically rendered symbolic." [continues 309 words]
After some research into the effects of marijuana, you might just begin to be convinced it is a miracle medicine, perhaps even Ponce de Leon's fountain of youth. The beneficial effects among patients with everything from AIDS to Alzheimer's have been documented by doctors and scientists around the world. It was a legal medicine from mid 19th century and well into the 20th century. Tincture of cannabis - marijuana in alcohol - was available in pharmacies and recommended for a variety of circumstances - as an analgesic, muscle relaxant, anticonvulsant, for asthma and rheumatism, to ease labor pains, migraines and menstruation problems, to name a few of the most popular medical uses. [continues 411 words]
Marijuana activists, advocates and adventurers will converge on Madison Oct. 5-7 for the 37th Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival. Political activist Ben Masel has been involved with the annual festival from the beginning. He was a fresh-faced freshman from New Jersey when he arrived in Madison to attend UW in 1971. "I just got to town as a freshman for that first one," he said. "It was more closely in context with the anti-war movement then." The Vietnam War ended and we've moved on to conduct wars in other parts of the world, but our internal war with marijuana goes on. [continues 753 words]
Need proof that marijuana has been demonized by your government? Consider hemp. Hemp is not marijuana. Hemp is a non-psychoactive plant that grows best in temperate climates like ours. It is a variety of the tropical cannabis sativa, or marijuana. Trying to get high on hemp is like trying to get drunk on NA beer. Your federal government makes us all look like dopes by being unable and unwilling to separate industrial hemp from marijuana. Forget that hemp was legal tender in the American colonies and beyond, that the first American flags were made of hemp, that both Washington and Jefferson raised hemp, that Ben Franklin printed publications on hemp paper, that American ships were caulked and rigged with hemp, and that hemp played an important role in both World Wars. [continues 1555 words]
Critics of "big government" point to the alleged excesses of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society programs of the 1960s to make their case. The critics have prevailed: by the late 1990s a Republican backlash aided by Democratic capitulation succeeded in dismantling the Great Society's "War on Poverty." By the mid 1990s the poverty war had become, in the words of sociologist Herbert Gans, the "war on the poor," with Project Head Start, Medicare, and Medicaid the only major surviving programs. [continues 797 words]
Nearly 300 people gathered on Library Mall this weekend for the 2007 Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival and parade to the Capitol. Harvest Fest has been put on by the Madison chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws for the past 37 years. "The purpose of the Harvest Festival is to celebrate the harvest of marijuana, to keep lobbying for the legalization of this medically beneficial substance and to keep the tradition of the festival alive," said Gary Stork, director of Madison's chapter of NORML. "This is like a family -- you come to the festival year after year and see the same people and get to know them." [continues 304 words]
Mary Powers of Madison takes marijuana to relieve nausea caused by AIDS and cancer. Brian Barnstable of Milwaukee uses it to ease multiple sclerosis pain. Both patients can get the pot they smoke and bake with on the black market, but they say medical marijuana should be legal. "Why should it be so hard?" asked Powers, 48. That question was the focus of the 37th annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival Saturday on State Street Mall. The event continues at 1 p.m. today, with a walk to the Capitol at 3 p.m. [continues 478 words]
Violent crimes are on the rise in Oshkosh, new statistics compiled by the FBI show. Although four people were murdered in 2006, murder remains rare in the city, forcible rape numbers have not risen in recent years and robberies dropped in 2006. What's driving the increase in violent crimes is aggravated assaults, which in Oshkosh accounted for 87 percent of the violent crimes documented in the FBI's annual Unified Crime Reports. According to the Unified Crime Reports, there were 197 violent crimes committed in Oshkosh in 2006. Of those crimes, four were homicides, but an overwhelming number of the crimes were aggravated assaults, attacks on individuals that may involve weapons and result in severe injury or great bodily harm. [continues 443 words]
Traditional Methods of Treatment May Not Be Enough for Some Abusers ONEIDA -- The line Ron Hill draws to represent the history of his people is absurdly short given that it stretches from "creation" to present time, but it's enough to make his point. "We have to go all the way back to the beginning," said Hill, a cultural wellness facilitator for the Oneida Tribe of Indians. "The emphasis on creation -- they're not just stories. There's a lot of meaning that still applies today." [continues 457 words]
Democratic Lawmakers Hope Law Will Get Passed This Time Around If medical marijuana legislation ever gets passed in Wisconsin, it will bear the name of Jacki Rickert of Mondovi - "if" being the operative word. "She's been an incredibly persistent pioneer. Her stamina amazes me," said Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, who along with Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, introduced the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act at a news conference two weeks ago that went almost unnoticed. A similar bill, which would have provided for the legal use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, died in committee in March 2006. So did bills in the 2003, 2001 and 1997 legislative sessions. [continues 554 words]
A former Clark County district attorney charged with growing marijuana in the basement of his former Neillsville home pleaded guilty Thursday. Sentencing for Gene B. Radcliffe, 55, has been set for Dec. 19 in Clark County Court. Radcliffe served one term as district attorney in the late 1970s and later worked many years at a Black River Falls bank. He was charged with a felony court of manufacturing marijuana and misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia. According to the criminal complaint: [continues 160 words]
The People Want Medical Marijuana, but Uncle Sam Is Hooked on Demonizing Weed Someone has been telling lies about Mary J. Take, for example, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's position paper on medical marijuana (www.usdoj.gov/dea/marijuana_position.html). The lies are so blatant and self-serving that if there were any political leadership in this country, the DEA's bloated budget would be frozen immediately while it undergoes investigation into whether the public that pays its $2.5 billion budget and employs its 11,000 workers is best served by the agency's current policies and practices. [continues 2533 words]
Dear Editor: Ten years ago The Capital Times published the first letter to the editor I ever wrote about medical marijuana. I wrote it days after meeting the medical marijuana "Journey for Justice" at the Capitol on Sept. 18, 1997. The journey was a 15-patient, 210-mile, seven-day, 4 mph wheelchair march from Mondovi, just south of Eau Claire, to the Capitol. It was led by a very determined woman named Jacki Rickert. We first met that day and have been friends ever since, trying to build awareness of what a difference this simple herb, cannabis, can make in seriously and chronically ill patients' lives. [continues 263 words]
Police Identified Suspect, But No Charges Were Ever Filed In Amos Mortier Case In the front room of her small east side home, Margie Milutinovich skims computer records she's compiled over the nearly three years of searching for her son, Amos Mortier. "Missing" posters hang on the walls. Notes, timelines and piles of court records are scattered on a desk. "Should I put on the coffee?" Milutinovich asks a reporter. "Once you get started, it's hard to keep anything straight." [continues 1703 words]
Reps. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Frank Boyle, D-Superior, recently introduced legislation that would legalize medicinal marijuana in Wisconsin. We urge the state to lift its ban and pass the bill. Messrs. Boyle and Pocan introduced similar legislation in 2001. It failed then and two more times in 2003 and 2005 despite the addition of a Republican sponsor -- former Oshkosh Rep. Gregg Underheim. The influence of the "war on drugs" has convinced our elected officials that pain treatment for AIDS, cancer and glaucoma victims comes secondary to the threat of drug dealers abusing the system. They live in an alternate reality where dealers aren't easily accessible and those who seek marijuana's medicinal benefits are not tempted to help fuel a vast underground economy. Seriously ill patients deserve a legal avenue to acquire their preferred painkiller. [continues 380 words]
A new medical marijuana bill named for Mondovi resident Jacki Rickert, a longtime Wisconsin medical cannabis patient-activist, will be introduced in the coming weeks. In a press conference Tuesday, Sept. 18, in the Senate Parlor at the State Capitol in Madison, State Reps. Frank Boyle (D-Superior) and Mark Pocan (D-Madison), announced they are planning to introduce "The Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act" in early October, calling it Wisconsin's "most comprehensive medical marijuana legislation to date "I'm real proud that for the first time we are giving the bill a real name," Boyle said. "This bill will forever be known as the Jacki Rickert Bill." [continues 339 words]
Hispanics, too, sent to prison more than whites, study finds African-Americans and Hispanics convicted of drug trafficking in Wisconsin are more likely to wind up in prison than white drug dealers, according to a report on race and sentencing by the state Sentencing Commission. Compared with whites, Hispanics are 2 1/2 times as likely to be imprisoned, while blacks are nearly twice as likely to end up behind bars for dealing drugs, according to the report issued last month. [continues 879 words]
First, it was reported that a violent street gang calling itself the Punishers was operating within the Milwaukee Police Department. Now we learn a Milwaukee police officer accused repeatedly of using excessive force and planting drugs on citizens, instead of being disciplined or terminated, received a promotion. When we hired Milwaukee police officers to go after crime kingpins, we didn't realize it would turn out to be an inside job. Milwaukee's blue crime wave should settle once and for all whether police can be trusted to police their own. They can't. [continues 717 words]
Two state representatives and other protestors marched from Library Mall to the state Capitol on Tuesday. The legislators then introduced "the most complete medical marijuana legislation to date." Protestors marching for the legalization of medical marijuana made their way to the state Capitol yesterday, where two local legislators introduced the "Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act." The marchers were honoring the 210-mile journey of Jacki Rickert that took place in 1997, according to a release by the pro-marijuana group "Is My Medicine Legal YET?". [continues 130 words]
Is your medicine legal? Jacki Rickert's isn't. The Wisconsin mother suffers from several incurable medical conditions and says the only effective treatment is marijuana. Rickert joined two state legislators and other medical marijuana supporters Tuesday for a press conference to announce the introduction of new medical marijuana legislation. Tuesday was a symbolic day for Rickert, as it marks the 10-year anniversary of the "Journey-for-Justice," a 210-mile trek across the state Rickert and an entourage of medical marijuana supporters made in their wheelchairs that ended at the Capitol. [continues 456 words]
Bold headlines proclaiming "Seduction of the Innocent," "Marijuana: Weed From the Devil's Garden" and "Menace to U.S. Youth" provide the backdrop to Mercury Players Theatre's production of "Reefer Madness," a musical comedy about drugs, sex, mayhem and murder. Although this is the musical's Wisconsin premiere, "Reefer Madness" has a history that dates back to a 1936 film originally titled "Tell Your Children," an anti-drug propaganda piece that overemphasized the consequences of smoking marijuana. Contrary to its intent, the renamed film later became a cult hit in the 1960s and '70s, particularly among college students. In the last decade, "Reefer Madness" was rewritten as a musical parody and in 2005 released as a Showtime movie starring Kristen Bell and Alan Cumming. [continues 522 words]
Dear Editor: The headline "UW trying to get alcohol message across" ran atop the story about UW's steps to inform incoming freshmen about alcohol dangers. I suspect UW-Madison pays lip service to the dangers and takes affirmative and passive measures to get a consumption of alcohol message across. Has there been any research to show what the alcohol industry means to the university in terms of financial support and student employment? If there is any doubt about the city of Madison's position on the effects of alcohol -- check out the Metro bus sporting the full body paint beer ad: "Drink Miller Genuine Draft!!!" [continues 106 words]
Union officials say Dane County prosecutors are guilty of "an unconscionable abuse of power " for bringing drug charges against two state parole agents based on the claims of a convicted felon and despite a review of their actions by the Department of Corrections that partially cleared the two. "There is literally no physical evidence (of drug use) whatsoever, " said Tom Corcoran, president of American Federations of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2748, which represents the state 's probation and parole agents. "They are being crucified for having made the mistake of having too much to drink (at a party) in May 2006. " [continues 688 words]
Methadone, Available in Madison, Is a Horrible Drug That Is Detrimental to Society in General. Two locations in Madison distribute drugs to recovering heroin addicts: one on East Washington and the other on Ann Street. These clinics give out methadone and suboxone, two substances that work like opiates on the brain, binding to the same receptors as heroin and oxycontin. The belief is that these substitute drugs will slowly allow addicts to withdraw from their dependency and help them to re-enter society. [continues 393 words]
Gangs are on the rise in Sheboygan. Though the groups are less visible and the members less violent than their big-city counterparts, Sheboygan gang-bangers are nevertheless a growing threat that police say now number 1,000 members strong. "Over the last two years we've seen a very large spike in the gangs showing up in Sheboygan -- the number of gangs (is) significantly rising," said Officer Paul Olsen of the Sheboygan Police Department's Street Crimes Unit. "Hopefully we can get a handle on it and prevent it from getting worse. However, with our current situation of resources and where we allocate our time and investigations, it's hard to say what it's going to be five or 10 years from now." [continues 1375 words]
Inside Wisconsin
