The drug war needs to end. If the AJC investigated, it would likely find most of the violence is drug war-related. The police are doing the job they were given. You may not like the way they do it, but do not blame them for doing their highly dangerous job. Either make drugs legal, or let the government compete with the drug lords by taking confiscated drugs and giving them free to drug addicts in a special recovery program. If drugs are free or legal, there is no reason for drug lords to exist. They cannot compete with free. This is the way to end most of the violence and social injustice. Not all of it, I am sorry to say, but it would be a start. L.O. COX, CONYERS [end]
Johns Creek officials disagreed on decriminalization of marijuana during a Monday meeting. City Council members opposed to a reduced penalty for simple possession said they were concerned that marijuana is a gateway to more dangerous drugs. Council members Chris Coughlin, Erin Elwood and Stephanie Endres proposed that a person in possession of less than one ounce of cannabis face no jail time and a fine of not more than $75. The current fine for simple possession is up to one year in prison and a $1,000 fine. [continues 298 words]
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms wants to restrict public access to people's criminal records for convictions of less than an ounce of marijuana - an executive action announced Monday that she said was "in keeping with our commitment to meaningful criminal justice reform." The administrative order requires city officials - specifically the chief operating officer, city attorney, solicitor and chief judge of the Municipal Court - to establish a standard process by which people can apply to have those court records made off-limits to everyone except law enforcement by Feb. 1. [continues 51 words]
A shot glass emblazoned with a marijuana leaf is up for sale. Jackpot prizes include pure hemp rolling paper. Nearby, groups of people enjoy drinks and dinner while chatting about why weed should be decriminalized and legalized in Georgia. Thaddeus Willis, a Gwinnett County resident and Air Force veteran, has heard about the push to lessen the penalty for possessing small amounts of weed in Georgia. "That's the first step," said Willis, enjoying chicken Parmesan and a soda at the monthly meeting for Peachtree NORML, a pro-marijuana advocacy group. Eventually, he said, "It needs to be made legal here." [end]
There may be some hurdles, but there is legal standing for the murder prosecution of a DeKalb County man who allegedly sold drugs to a 22-year-old who later fatally overdosed, local experts said. The case against Antoin Thornton, 28, is believed to be the first of its kind for DeKalb. Thornton allegedly sold heroin to Alexander Whitehead, who was found dead at a Dunwoody apartment complex in March. Police said the drugs, laced with the potent opioid fentanyl, caused the overdose. [continues 54 words]
The city of Chamblee is the 11th local government in Georgia to decriminalize the possession of marijuana. The City Council unanimously passed an ordinance Tuesday night eliminating the possibility of jail time and severely reducing the fine for possessing one ounce or less of weed. An adult caught with marijuana by a Chamblee police officer will be cited and fined $75 for their first offense, according to the ordinance. That charge can be paid online and a court date isn't required. [continues 61 words]
No doubt there is such a thing as ideological drift in politics, especially in primaries. Candidates often become unmoored and move right or left in a search for their party's most ardent activists. But sometimes this drift isn't ideological. It's generational. Last week, Teresa Tomlinson rolled out a package of policies she would pursue if she succeeds in her quest to replace U.S. Sen. David Perdue next year. One of them was something of a surprise. "It is time we address at the federal level the decriminalization, legalization, and regulation of marijuana as a medicinal and recreational substance," the Democrat posted on her website. [end]
It's been about three years since one DeKalb County city made history with the most liberal marijuana enforcement policy in the state. Since then, several more municipalities have followed suit, eliminating the possibility of jail time and severely reducing the fine for possessing one ounce or less of weed. Months after the state Legislature passed a bill legalizing medical marijuana sales, the push toward recreational decriminalization on the local level is continuing; the city of Chamblee is currently considering a measure that echoes the rules in Clarkston, which passed its marijuana ordinance in July 2016. [continues 79 words]
By day, Dill Avenue is a relatively quiet street: a few residents walk their dogs or ride a bike and mostly keep to themselves. It wasn't always this way. Fulton County officials have seized a "notorious drug house" with the plan to renovate it and eventually sell it to a low-income family. For the past six years, the house at 730 Dill Avenue, located in the Capitol View community, has been the site of drug use and violent crime, including a stabbing and a killing, according to online police records. Atlanta police have received numerous complaints about the derelict property, some of which resulted in nine search warrants. [continues 78 words]
Dasha Fincher said she was borrowing a friend's car when she noticed a half-eaten bag of blue cotton candy in the floorboard. It was the kind kids like to buy from gas stations near her Macon home. She thought little of it until a few minutes later when it became the biggest problem in her life. On New Year's Eve 2016, Monroe County deputies pulled the car over for a suspected window-tint violation and spotted the bag. They used a quick roadside test kit on the blue stuff and got a positive result for methamphetamine. Fincher ended up charged with trafficking meth and held in jail for three months on a breathtaking $1 million cash bond before a lab test found the "meth" was really just cotton candy, according to a lawsuit. [continues 1334 words]
JEFFERSONVILLE, GA. - When Georgia authorities found out that smoking marijuana was ridding 15-year-old David Ray of seizures that had plagued him through childhood, the consequences were swift and severe. His mother and stepfather - Suzeanna and Matthew Brill - were arrested and jailed for six days. David, no longer able to medicate with pot, was hospitalized for a week after suffering what his mother called "the worst seizure of his life." He was then discharged to strangers and sent to a Division of Family and Children Services group home after his parents were stripped of custody - another example of "how the war on drugs breaks up families," said Lauren Deal, Suzeanna Brill's attorney. [continues 106 words]
Teachers at Northwest High School near Dalton, Ga. first became concerned when their colleague, 28-year-old cheer coach and English teacher Raquel Spencer, seemed to have trouble carrying on a coherent conversation, according to the Times Free Press. Alarmed by her "unusual behavior," she was escorted to an office and consented to a search of her belongings, Whitfield County Schools spokesperson Eric Beavers told the Dalton Daily-Citizen. That's when the school resource officer found heroin in her belongings, the paper reported. [continues 258 words]
More Georgia voters than ever support changing state law to allow harvesting and distribution of medical marijuana, according to a poll by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Over three-quarters of those surveyed said Georgia's medical marijuana program should be expanded, an increase from previous years. This year's AJC poll showed that 77 percent want greater access to medical marijuana, compared with 71 percent last year and 73 percent in 2016. Meanwhile, approval of marijuana legalization for recreational use also reached new heights, with 50 percent of respondents backing legalization, compared with 46 percent last year. [continues 752 words]
As an African-American woman who has seen the negative ramifications an ounce of marijuana can have on one's life, I found the article "Atlanta Mayor Reed to review, sign changes to city marijuana laws," hopeful. According to ACLU, African-Americans are more than four times as likely to be arrested as white adults. By reducing the penalty and eliminating jail time, fewer African-Americans will have a criminal record. In Atlanta, African-Americans make up 92 percent of those arrested for marijuana possession. By decriminalizing marijuana and reducing the penalty, the crime rate amongst African-Americans will decrease. A strict drug penalty is not stopping the usage of marijuana. Why not lessen the offense and put the money into the communities that are disproportionately affected by the incarceration rate? Alexis Blackmon, Marietta [end]
Anthony Gray expected to be an old man when he got out of prison after serving a 30-year sentence for a relatively minor drug offense. Aron Tuff was certain he would die there, having been sentenced to life without parole after he was convicted in 1995 in Colquitt County for possession of .03 grams of cocaine with intent to distribute. Both men were sentenced during a time when tough on crime drug laws of the 1980s and '90s left many low-level drug offenders serving long sentences. [continues 99 words]
I am a pretty quintessential middle-class American woman. My ancestry is Danish and English-maybe some Scottish somewhere. I'm just enough of a WASP to have some ancestors who fought in the Revolution. But I certainly didn't feel superior to the blue-collar Italian and Irish kids in the lower-middle-class neighborhood where I grew up - in fact, I would have laughed at the notion that, merely as white people, any of us were privileged. I reserved that term for the rich kids living in big houses across town. In my book, privilege meant you had a lot more than my family had. [continues 207 words]
You might want to think twice before you light up that joint in Piedmont Park or anywhere else in the city of Atlanta. The drug is still illegal, despite Monday's move by the Atlanta City Council to eliminate jail time and reduce the penalty for possession of small amounts of marijuana, Atlanta Police Chief Erica Shields said Tuesday. In an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Shields said some media and advocates of cannabis decriminalization are confusing the public by suggesting the Council's action gives Atlanta residents permission to use pot without consequence. [continues 57 words]
The Atlanta City Council on Monday unanimously passed legislation eliminating jail time and reducing penalties on possession of small amounts of marijuana, but not before mayoral candidates got into heated debates and backers of the bill became rowdy. The legislation, which was resurrected in September after spending months in committees because of concerns it might send the wrong message, brings Atlanta closer to other large cities across the nation that are either lessening penalties on pot or decriminalizing it altogether as Americans' opinions on the drug evolve. It will reduce the financial penalty for possession of one ounce or less from up to $1,000 to a maximum of $75. Jail time, currently six months for possession, would be eliminated for an ounce or less. [end]
Georgia law enforcement agencies lost access to millions of dollars in potential funding when the U.S. Department of Justice in 2015 all but shut down a practice criticized as encouraging policing for profit. Now state law enforcement leaders are welcoming U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions' Wednesday announcement that the department is reinstating "adoptive forfeiture." Effective immediately, the federal government will help state and local police agencies keep cash or other assets they have seized on suspicion of ties to state crimes. Agencies can keep such property permanently even if no one is ever convicted. New safeguards will help prevent abuses, the department said in a directive to U.S. attorneys and other Justice Department officials announcing the new policy. [end]
A federal civil rights lawsuit filed last week against a south Georgia sheriff offers new details of the bizarre school-wide search of hundreds of students where deputies allegedly touched girls' breasts, vaginal areas and groped boys in their groins. One of the nine Worth County High School students who filed the lawsuit, identified as K.P., told the AJC that the April 14 search was "very, very scary." She said the incident was stuck in her memory and it colored the rest of her senior year. The day of the search, she said, students didn't know what was happening when an announcement was made early in the day that the school was on lock-down. [end]
Even as Gov. Nathan Deal was signing the latest batch of state laws designed to keep lower-level offenders out of prison, the Trump administration was preparing a crackdown seeking the toughest possible charges against offenders convicted of nonviolent drug violations. The U.S. Justice Department released directives Friday that call for more mandatory minimum sentences and direct prosecutors to pursue the strictest punishments available. It was a sweeping shift in criminal justice policy, reversing Obama-era policies to reduce penalties for some nonviolent offenses. [continues 52 words]
The Atlanta City Council is considering making the penalty for getting caught with pot similar to finding a parking ticket flapping on your windshield. The effort is based on the idea that black residents are overwhelmingly the target of marijuana enforcement in the city, staining them with jail time, fines and arrest records that follow them in life. The effort was put forward by Councilman Kwanza Hall, a mayoral candidate who has tried to carve out his place in the crowded mayor's race by pushing to do away with some quality-of-life offenses such as spitting, jay walking, idling and loitering - things one often does while smoking weed. [end]
Atlanta wants to join a growing number of U.S. cities that are lowering the penalties for small amounts of marijuana use. But leaders learned last week that getting there won't be easy. The City Council sent legislation meant to lower fines and eliminate jail time for possession of an ounce or less of pot back to a committee last week after members had a host of questions. Chief among their concerns was whether there was buy-in from the Atlanta Police Department and city courts, two groups whose backing would be crucial to making such a plan work. Elected officials also fear that being too lenient would take away the deterrent of marijuana use. [continues 61 words]
After more than 90 minutes of debate and no consensus, the Atlanta City Council on Monday put off a vote on a measure that would have eliminated jail time for those caught with small quantities of marijuana. Advocates of the Atlanta legislation said the move is necessary to address the disproportionate number of black Americans incarcerated because of pot possession. The proposal, which also would reduce the fine for possession of an ounce or less to a maximum of $75, mirrors actions taken in cities across the nation, including Dallas, Kansas City and St. Louis. In DeKalb County, Clarkson also has reduced penalties. [continues 67 words]
Lawmakers appear to have reached a compromise Thursday that would expand Georgia's medical marijuana law. The agreement over Senate Bill 16 would add six illnesses and conditions eligible for treatment with medical marijuana in Georgia to include Alzheimer's disease, AIDS, autism, epidermolysis bullosa, peripheral neuropathy and Tourette's syndrome. It would additionally allow use for patients in hospice care, according to both state Sen. Ben Watson, R-Savannah, and state Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon. It would also keep the maximum allowable THC percentage in the form of cannabis oil allowed here at 5 percent. [end]
Janea Cox, her husband Brian, their 7-year-old daughter Haleigh and their chocolate Lab Kala left their Forsyth home in December 2016 for their semi-annual trip to Colorado. They flew into Denver and made their way toward Colorado Springs in a rental car, squeezing the three of them, a wheelchair and the dog into the small, four-door sedan. A handicap-equipped van would have been better, but the economy ride was what they could afford. The family checked into a budget hotel and went to sleep; not that they ever sleep well, or for very long. Young Haleigh was up through the night, as usual. She has epilepsy so severe she requires constant oversight. For most of her life, her young brain hasn't been seizure-free long enough to develop normally. So she gets around in a wheelchair, receives nourishment through a feeding tube and is barely able to communicate. Haleigh is a prisoner in her own body. She also has type one diabetes. Kala is a service dog specially trained to check blood sugar levels by smell and alert handlers of spikes - to do what Haleigh cannot do for herself, to speak out when she needs help. [end]
Jim "J-Bo" Wages and his wife, Lisa, made the decision a few years ago to wean their daughter off of pharmaceutical drugs, becoming one of the first families in 2015 to qualify for Georgia's then-new medical marijuana registry. Since then, they've seen Sydney blossom. She's eating more, has better awareness of what is going on around her. Last week, they caught her laughing as her older sister tickled her stomach before bedtime - a reaction neither had seen in years. The 13-year-old, who has autism and suffers from intractable seizures, has benefited from the state's medical marijuana law, her parents said. But they are afraid others won't. [end]
A key state House committee passed legislation Wednesday that would expand the list of medical conditions that can be treated with cannabis oil. House Bill 722 would add HIV/AIDS, epidermolysis bullosa, post-traumatic stress disorder, Tourette's syndrome and other disorders and illnesses to the list of qualifying medical conditions for the state's cannabis oil program. Lawmakers passed legislation last year that legalized cannabis oil for the treatment of eight disorders. "We're going to improve the lives of a significant amount of Georgians by the passing of this bill," said bill sponsor Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon. "Not as many as I would've liked." [continues 305 words]
The effort to expand Georgia's medical marijuana law continued Friday to receive pointed criticism, as supporters struggle to gain support from the state's law enforcement community. Chuck Spahos, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia, testified during a brief hearing before the House Judiciary Non-Civil Committee that he believes House Bill 722 would too broad and, in some spots, contradictory toward its goal of allowing Georgia manufacturers to grow and cultivate medical marijuana in-state under strict controls. [continues 169 words]
A Crawford County man was shot and killed Monday after he allegedly fired a shotgun at police officers who were serving a search warrant in a drug case. About eight officers working with the Peach County Drug Task Force were dressed in protective gear as they went to the home of Rainer Tyler Smith, 31, at 6750 Ga. 42 South shortly after 2 a.m., said J.T. Ricketson, of the GBI. "No one came to the door, so they made entry, and as soon as they made it inside, one of the occupants started shooting," said Ricketson, special agent in charge of the GBI's Perry office. [continues 688 words]
The debate over whether Georgia will become a safer space for marijuana, in medicinal or any other form, is poised to pick up speed next year. But only if the incoming Donald Trump administration doesn't shut it down. And with the nomination of U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama as the nation's next U.S. attorney general, that has become a distinct possibility. On the same November day that voters handed the New York businessman the keys to the White House, four states - California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada - approved the adult use of marijuana for recreational purposes. Three more - Arkansas, Florida, and North Dakota - passed ballot initiatives that legalized the use of marijuana derivatives for medicinal purposes. [end]
A decade ago, a little old lady living behind burglar bars in a rough Atlanta neighborhood died in a fusillade of bullets in her own living room. The invaders were cops on an illegal raid searching for drugs that never existed. A week after the Nov. 21, 2006, killing of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, then-Mayor Shirley Franklin faced an angry crowd at Lindsay Street Baptist Church on the near West Side. For four hours, residents harangued officials with stories about cops kicking in doors with unsigned warrants or teens getting slammed to the pavement simply for hanging around. [continues 77 words]
FLOWERY BRANCH - The NFLPA is not leaving any stones unturned when trying to look out for the wellness of its membership, even if the latest stone is currently banned. The union, which represents the players in the NFL, is actively looking at marijuana as a pain-management tool and plans to form a committee to study the benefits of the drug. Marijuana is a banned substance under the terms of the current collective bargaining agreement between the union and the NFL. The agreement runs through 2020. [continues 91 words]
I keep trying to imagine how frightened Kathryn Johnston, 92, must have been that night police stormed her Elm Street home. Here's what we know about the last minutes of her life. Sometime around 7 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2006, three Atlanta police officers, dressed in plainclothes and wearing bulletproof vests, forced Johnston's front door open. Johnson fired on the officers but missed. They returned 39 shots, hitting her five or six times. Prosecutors would later say that one of them, Officer Jason R. Smith, handcuffed the elderly woman as she was dying. [continues 54 words]
In the mellow suburban town of Clarkston, where aging hippies mingle easily with refugees, arrests for marijuana violations were never a top priority. So it wasn't much of a surprise when the city passed Georgia's most relaxed marijuana law, reducing the fine for possession of less than an ounce of the drug to $75. That was two and a half months ago. In that time, town leaders and residents are proud to say, the law has resulted in absolutely no changes. Clarkston is still Clarkston, not a drug haven. As more time passes, some say, leaders of other cities might look at the town and see that nothing bad happens when you get rid of $1,000 fines and threats of a criminal record for marijuana consumption. [end]
Since it opened in February, the narcotics treatment center Zac Talbott co-owns in North Georgia has been booming, admitting more than 250 people with addictions to painkillers and heroin amid a nationwide opioid overdose epidemic that is killing thousands of people each year. For Talbott, the work is personal. He started using pain pills for minor back pain when he was in graduate school. That habit spiraled into an addiction, and he started buying pills on the street. Talbott eventually got help and has been recovering for several years. So he was dismayed when he learned just how many pain medication prescriptions were issued in Georgia last year: a whopping 7.8 million, equivalent to more than one prescription for every single adult in the Peach State. [end]
The DEA announces it will keep marijuana on the list of most dangerous drugs. In the eyes of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, marijuana is still considered dangerous enough to remain among the likes of heroin, LSD, and ecstasy as a Schedule I drug. Ever since The Controlled Substances Act became law in 1970, marijuana has been deemed to have no medicinal benefits and a high likelihood of abuse. And despite over half the states in the U.S. legalizing medical or recreational marijuana in some form, the DEA announced this month that marijuana wouldn't be declassified. [continues 693 words]
ATLANTA - Twenty years after a federal law blocked people with felony drug convictions from receiving welfare or food stamps, more states are loosening those restrictions - or waiving them entirely. In April, Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, signed a criminal justice reform bill that lifted the ban on food stamps for drug felons in Georgia. Alaska followed suit in July, although applicants must prove they are complying with parole and are in treatment for substance abuse. And in Delaware, a bill to lift cash assistance restrictions for drug felons passed out of committee in June. The legislative session ended before the bill could be put to a vote. [continues 1261 words]
Feds Keep Marijuana on the List of Most Dangerous Drugs. Federal officials' announcement last week to keep marijuana on the list of most dangerous drugs has stunned Georgia advocates, who called it "insane" and said it would hurt families trying to access a form of medical marijuana legally allowed here. "The impact on Georgia's families could be huge, as it could further delay getting access to safe, lab-tested product here in Georgia," said Blaine Cloud, who with his wife, Shannon, have been at the forefront of an organized push by parents to expand Georgia's year-old medical marijuana law. [continues 534 words]
MACON, Ga. (AP) - Medical marijuana supporters in Georgia were hoping for something different from the federal government, not its recent ruling that cannabis should remain off-limits. Georgians like Janea Cox of Monroe County want to be able to get medical cannabis just like other prescriptions instead of breaking the law to seek therapies for themselves or their loved ones, The Telegraph reported. It was difficult to hear news of Thursday's ruling from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Cox told the Macon newspaper. The agency decided marijuana will remain on the list of most dangerous drugs, which includes heroin See page 16 [continues 541 words]
Georgia may never =93free the weed=94 but legalized medical marijuana could save taxpayers millions, say University of Georgia researchers. In a recent study, the father-daughter team of David and Ashley Bradford say in the 17 states with a medical marijuana law in place by 2013, Medicare saved approximately $165.2 million because of lower prescription drug use. If medical marijuana was approved in every state, the overall savings to Medicare would have been around $468 million. That's a lot of green. David Bradford said he knows medical marijuana is a controversial topic, and some view it as a backdoor way of legalizing recreational marijuana, but research indicates =93there's a significant amount of clinical use at work here.=94 [continues 333 words]
The GOP's rejection of medical marijuana shows just how out of touch the party really is. They're a half-century behind the times. How can they possibly think they have a viable political platform? It's just another reason why they will guarantee Hillary Clinton's election. DONALD VARN, CONYERS [end]
While Usage Is Legal in Some Cases, It Still Can't Be Grown in the State. The phones at the Georgia Department of Public Health no longer ring off the hook with people calling to find doctors or asking questions about how the state's medical marijuana registry works. Yet Georgia's quiet revolution in the year since it legalized a limited form of medical marijuana has shown little sign of slowing. Even so, obstacles and risks remain in the push for expansion. [continues 1037 words]
The Clarkston City Council has voted unanimously to approve the most liberal marijuana ordinance in the state, reducing fine from up to $1,000 to $75 for possessing less than an ounce, and eliminating the possibility of jail time for breaking municipal law. "We just made history," whispered Sharon Ravert, a Dahlonega resident and advocate for marijuana legalization, when she saw the council's seven hands raised in unison on Tuesday. Mayor Ted Terry has argued that drug law enforcement "disproportionately affects lower income communities and communities of color." As the state's hotbed for refugee resettlement, Clarkston is one of the most diverse cities in the state. According to census statistics, the city of 12,000 is nearly 60 percent black and 53.5 percent foreign born. [continues 533 words]
Georgia Man Says Drug Beneficial for Autistic Son. CLEVELAND - Dale Jackson, the father of an 8-yearold autistic son, flew up to the site of the Republican National Convention on Monday to ask his party's platform committee to endorse the use of medicinal marijuana where appropriate. He wanted to take Georgia's fight national. Jackson found a delegate who would pitch the idea, but his luck ended there. The 112-member committee that is currently drafting policy positions for the 2016 presidential contest rejected it out of hand, by a voice vote of two-thirds or more. [continues 348 words]
Clarkston's effort to decriminalize pot has Gov. Nathan Deal and the state's chief law enforcement officers tsk-tsking because that's what governors and chief law enforcement people figure they must do when it comes to "drugs." Drugs are bad. Marijuana is a gateway drug. Guys who smoke too much weed will grow man boobs. You've heard the Reefer Madness excuses before. But Clarkston's on to something. Arresting people for possession of small amounts of marijuana - less than an ounce - is a crime in and of itself. It's an inane use of government resources and brands people with a big green leafy M, one that will follow them for years and continually close doors to them. Clarkston is a different sort of place, a town where I saw three separate women carrying groceries on their heads during a short visit. It has became Ground Zero for the refugee resettlement debate in an era when many Americans have hardened their outlooks on immigration. [end]
Governor Expected to Sign Proposals Backed by Justice Reform Panel. The change could help some 6,600 Georgians rejected each year for food stamps because they are convicted drug felons, according to research by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute. Every time Norvell Lawhorne applied for food stamps, he was turned down because he was a convicted drug felon. That conviction has made it harder to find a job, housing and even food. He now makes his bed in an Atlanta homeless shelter. [continues 593 words]
Delegates at the Third District Republican Convention last weekend overwhelmingly voiced their support for the expansion of Georgia's laws on cannabis/marijuana-derived medicine, and for allowing the medicine to be produced in Georgia. A resolution supporting expanding the number of conditions that can be treated with oil containing cannabidiol (CBD), a component of marijuana, and in-state cultivation of cannabis used to make the oil, passed with very little opposition at the convention, held April 16 in Newnan. The resolution passed on a voice vote. Dale Jackson, Third District chairman for the Georgia Republican Party and a lobbyist for medical cannabis, said there were approximately 200 delegates and he only saw about three 'no' votes. [continues 359 words]
A Macon attorney admitted Wednesday she participated in a drug deal in the parking lot of a Church's Chicken restaurant on Hardeman Avenue, near Interstate 75 and downtown Macon, in June 2015. [name redacted], 36, pleaded guilty to possession of oxycodone and methamphetamine, with intent to distribute both drugs, during a hearing in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. A federal judge agreed to allow [name redacted] to remain on bond until her July 6 sentencing hearing. She could face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine. [continues 407 words]
Sometimes the curtain is pulled aside, allowing us to see what's going on in the often-opaque worlds of government and finance. Such an occasion has been happening with what's being called the Panama Papers, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It's going to take not months, but years, to wade through the estimated 11 million documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm that specializes in crafting tax shelters. But initial disclosures are both troubling and offer insight. "The documents reference 12 current or former world leaders, as well as 128 other politicians and public officials," CNN reported. Implicated, in particular, are associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin; FIFA, the global soccer governing body, 40 of whose officials were indicted in 2015 by the U.S. Justice Department on corruption charges; and Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson. [continues 219 words]
Georgia
