Research shows making marijuana more available would lead to more use, and that would cost us dearly As a board-certified addictionist, I must respond with concern to Rep. Bill McCamley's op-ed piece, "Legalizing pot sales makes economic sense." McCamley asserts that "prohibition increases use." Not only did Prohibition decrease consumption of alcohol - a decrease that was sustained well after Prohibition was repealed - but it also significantly decreased deaths from cirrhosis of the liver and deaths due to alcohol-related accidents and violence. [continues 582 words]
Law Officials to Talk at White House Gathering SANTA FE - Law enforcement officials here will have the opportunity to teach agencies from around the country about a new program combating opiate use at a White House conference next week. Mayor Javier Gonzales, District Attorney Angela "Spence" Pacheco and state director of the Drug Policy Alliance Emily Kaltenbach will travel with other local officials to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday to talk about a program that keeps low-grade drug offenders out of the court system. [continues 373 words]
State's Experiment Brought Increased Crime, Car Wrecks and Homelessness I'd like the opportunity to reply to and rebut Rep. Bill McCamley's proposition to legalize marijuana here in New Mexico. The lessons learned from legalizing alcohol should be a stellar role model as to why this is a bad idea. During Prohibition, the relationship between organized crime and politicians helped to transition bribes - that were/are illegal - to political contributions that were perfectly legal. We all know how special interests and dollars spent to line their pockets is working out for the politicians today. [continues 502 words]
Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham and two other members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee want to know more about why federal narcotics agents seized $16,000 from a 22-year-old African-American man in April when the Amtrak train he was taking to Los Angeles stopped in Albuquerque. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents made the seizure after they had talked to Joseph Rivers about where he was going. He was not charged with a crime, but the money was seized because agents said they believed, based on their conversation with Rivers, that it was somehow linked to narcotics trafficking. [continues 706 words]
"Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth." - - Will Rogers It's time to regulate and tax the consumption of marijuana like alcohol. Why? The reasons are compelling, conclusive, and plentiful. The most obvious? Prohibition increases use. When the United States banned alcohol in 1919 consumption initially went down. However, by the time it was repealed in 1932 more people were drinking more alcohol (a 30-40 percent increase) than they did before prohibition was passed. The same thing is happening with marijuana; as more states tax and regulate, teen use is decreasing at a significant level. [continues 522 words]
Colorado Is Making Hundreds of Millions Taxing Pot. N.M. Could, Too =93Why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as well as prohibition did, in five years Americans would be the smartest race of people on Earth.=94 =AD Will Rogers It's time to regulate and tax the consumption of marijuana like alcohol. Why? The reasons are compelling, conclusive and plentiful. The most obvious? Prohibition increases use. When the United States banned alcohol in 1919 consumption initially went down. However, by the time it was repealed in 1932 more people were drinking more alcohol - a 30-40 percent increase - - than they did before prohibition was passed. [continues 545 words]
The unveiling of Rio Rancho school district's proposed random drug-testing policy for its eighth-through 12th-grade athletes was met with no opposition and supported by three board members. Bruce Carver, the district's athletic director, presented the draft policy to the board Monday night for its first reading, which gives board members a chance to ask questions and propose changes. The policy must go through a second reading before the board can take an official vote. Board president Don Schlichte and members Ramon Montano and Martha Janssen, however, said they were in favor of the policy. Catherine Cullen was absent and Ryan Parra did not express an opinion. [continues 464 words]
Banking, Federal Taxation Issues Restrict Marijuana Enterprises From Usual Business Practices This is a marijuana update. Legal marijuana sales continue to draw national attention. BloombergBusiness recently estimated that the industry's revenues are nearly $3 billion annually - almost all in cash. The industry has attracted financing from investment funds. Willie Nelson and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson have entered businesses to support funding and legalization. The New Yorker magazine recently featured the first Marijuana Investors Summit held in Denver and more than 800 people attended the affair to learn about financing marijuana. The underlying theme of the conference, as reported by The New Yorker, was that federal legalization will occur at some time in the future and all those marijuana businesses, retail or medical, will become takeover targets for national companies. [continues 537 words]
With marijuana still illegal under federal statutes, a business based on reefer can't take usual deductions Oliver Wendall Holmes said "taxes are the price we pay for civilization." No one likes paying taxes, but Americans actually do agree that taxes are necessary and we have a wonderful system of government that allows us to choose those who represent us in our social compact of how to spend tax dollars. All we want is for the tax system to be fair. The problem is there are several notions of what a fair system would look like. As Russell Long, one of the last senators to actually understand the tax system, once said, "Don't tax you, don't tax me, tax the fellow behind the tree." [continues 603 words]
Regarding Gina Tron's March 8 column from The Washington Post ("Employers don't need to test for pot," Commentary), drug tests are essentially lifestyle tests designed to penalize marijuana consumers. Workplace drug tests may compel marijuana smokers to switch to more dangerous prescription narcotics to avoid testing positive. This is one of the reasons the American Academy of Pediatrics opposes student drug testing. Marijuana's organic metabolites are fat-soluble and can linger for days. More dangerous synthetic drugs like methamphetamine and prescription narcotics are water-soluble and exit the body quickly. If you think drug users don't know this, think again. Anyone capable of running an Internet search can find out how to thwart a drug test. The most commonly abused drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior is alcohol. Legal alcohol kills more people each year than all illegal drugs combined. Robert Sharpe, MPA Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
HERE WE GO again. It seems as if every town, large and small, is either enlarging its detention center or building a new one. This will cost lots and lots of money. For many years, we built prisons at a frantic pace as they make more money. Now the Department of Corrections tells us they are going to focus more on education inside the prisons. Most people don't know that it costs $30,000 or more to keep one person in prison for a year in New Mexico. I believe the last figure says it costs about $7,000 to educate a child. This seems to show we would really lock more people up than to educate them. [continues 146 words]
Search and Seizure Laws Are for U.S. Citizens, Not International Travelers SANTA FE (AP) - New Mexico's highest court ruled Thursday that the state's protections against search and seizure do not apply at international border checkpoints. The five-member panel made the distinction in overturning a previous ruling made by an appeals court in a 2012 drug smuggling case. In the opinion, Justice Edward L. Chavez wrote that the state law does not mean greater protections against searches at an international border checkpoint. [continues 304 words]
Neighbors Worried About Security A proposed medical marijuana greenhouse is causing some worry among residents of the Loma Parda subdivision near Mountainair and Abo. Property owners in the subdivision were notified about the plans by the operator, Trevor Reed. "He offered to meet with (the neighbors) and was very forthcoming with information," Loma Parda Subdivision resident Susan Oviatt said. Oviatt was at the Torrance County Commission on May 13 to express her concerns with the proposed operation. "We have no moral issues with growing a controlled substance, but we are concerned that the development seems to be proceeding as if no neighbors exist and the local zoning rules are not important. [continues 335 words]
Thanks to a contract with a Florida-based software company, New Mexico's medical marijuana retailers will be able to scan a photo-ID smartcard from each of the state's 14,000 or so authorized pot patients and see how much state-sanctioned weed they have purchased, and from whom. Patrick Vo, co-CEO of BioTrackTHC, says his firm's work "is going to be a huge protection to the dispensary to make sure they don't unintentionally break regs by over-dispensing to a patient." [continues 209 words]
City-County Panel to Discuss Plan Tuesday ROSWELL (AP) - A proposal to turn a former dairy processing plant near Roswell into a place to grow plants, specifically marijuana, isn't getting high praise from local officials. A joint city-county commission will meet Tuesday to consider Pecos Valley Pharmaceuticals' request to rezone the facility as a pharmaceutical manufacturing site. The Roswell-Chaves County Extraterritorial Zoning Commission oversees territory within two miles of Roswell's city limits. Officials have received verbal objections, as well as one in writing, according to a Chaves County Planning and Zoning Department report. Terry Johnson, who runs a septic system company with his family in Roswell, voiced his opposition in a letter. A venture involving marijuana would have "negative economic, social and moral impacts on our community," Johnson said. [continues 208 words]
Maybe he should have taken traveler's checks. But it's too late for that now. All the money - $16,000 in cash - that Joseph Rivers said he had saved and relatives had given him to launch his dream in Hollywood is gone, seized during his trip out West not by thieves but by Drug Enforcement Administration agents during a stop at the Amtrak train station in Albuquerque. An incident some might argue is still theft, just with the government's blessing. [continues 939 words]
'Seed-To-Sale' Idea Tracks Plants' Lives New Mexico has awarded a contract to a Florida-based software company to develop a medical marijuana "seedto-sale" inventory system designed to track each plant through the production cycle and cut the likelihood of fraudulent sales, a company official said. The system also calls for medical marijuana patients to receive a photo-ID smartcard that contains an integrated circuit, said Patrick Vo, co-CEO of BioTrackTHC, the firm awarded the contract. Swiping the card also will verify the card's authenticity and show the retailer how much marijuana the patient has purchased that month, even if the patient has visited several retailers, he said. New Mexico has about 14,100 patients licensed to buy medical cannabis. [continues 414 words]
Right after last November's general election, in this very column, I made the contention that marijuana was more popular than either gubernatorial candidate - Republican Gov. Susana Martinez and Democrat Gary King - at least in Santa Fe and Albuquerque. I made that claim based on the number of votes that (nonbinding) marijuana-decriminalization initiatives received in Santa Fe and Bernalillo counties. In both counties, the pro-marijuana position got more votes than either of the candidates. But Martinez and King shouldn't feel bad. As The Washington Post's Wonkblog pointed out last month, recent polls in large swing states show that marijuana is more popular among voters than any of the 2016 candidates for president. [continues 564 words]
When Gov. Susana Martinez signed into law an amendment to the state Forfeiture Act that would prohibit the seizure of property unless the owner is convicted of a crime, the dual intent seemed clear: Protect innocent property owners and remove financial incentives for law enforcement. Not so fast, says the city of Albuquerque, which has a civil forfeiture program that it wants to continue filling up city coffers unabated. Since 2010 the city has collected more than $8.3 million. The city plans to continue seizing civil assets under a city nuisance and abatement ordinance even after the state law takes effect in July. Other New Mexico cities and counties have a similar law in place. [continues 371 words]
NM Is No. 2 in the U.S. for Overdoses From Heroin, Opioids At the age of 53, barely literate and morbidly obese, Crystal Staggs hardly cut the figure of a drug dealer as she drove her white 13-year-old BMW around Albuquerque. But in June 2012, Staggs, who has a host of medical problems, was cashing in on her access to prescription Oxycodone, selling 245 of the 30-milligram pills for $4,000 to a man she had recently met through a friend. [continues 1201 words]
HOW AND WHY we have let the police engage in what is essentially racketeering is beyond my comprehension. The fact that we seem to have little ability to control the police troubles me terribly. Because our taxes pay for what police do, we are complicit when they unjustly harm people and seize their property. Today, an acquaintance of mine told me about an incident in which he was pulled over and told the officer that he'd had one drink. The officer put him through several tests, including a Breathalyzer, which he easily passed. [continues 97 words]
Governor to Decide Fate of Legislation; Federal Bill Paved the Way SANTA FE - With the federal government loosening its grip on industrial hemp, there's a resurgence of interest in growing it in New Mexico - and a bill on the governor's desk to kick-start that. It authorizes the state Department of Agriculture to oversee and license the growing of industrial hemp for research and development purposes. That would be a big breakthrough for the pl a nt that has been out lawed for decades because it's part of the marijuana family. [continues 458 words]
Men Told State Officer Cop Took Cash, Drugs What are the chances of two men who say they were carrying a large amount of cash and transporting marijuana being pulled over twice by police on the same day on interstate highways in New Mexico? Despite the odds, that's what the drug carriers and federal investigators say happened - with widely varying results. The second traffic stop, for following too closely on Interstate 40 about 9:30 p.m. June 25 in Cibola County, eventually led investigators to the recent bust of a northern New Mexico deputy accused of making deals with drug carriers. [continues 1333 words]
City Ordinance to Decriminalize Marijuana Possession Is Ignored SANTA FE - Last summer, the Santa Fe City Council took action to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making it a civil nuisance violation under city law as opposed to a criminal charge under a coexisting state statute. But it appears Santa Fe police officers, who retained the discretion to cite offenders under either law, lately have been ignoring the city ordinance altogether. The difference is significant. Those charged under state law face a criminal petty misdemeanor - punishable by up to 15 days in jail and fines up to $100 - that remains on a person's record. [continues 662 words]
Part-time farmer Jerry Fuentes has spent the last 15 years championing industrial hemp as the perfect crop for drought-ridden New Mexico and corporate America. Hemp is used to make auto dashboards, briefcases, carpeting, insulation and an array of other products. Even so, Fuentes' attempt to legalize industrial hemp seemed like a fool's errand or a cause for rebels, not button-down businessmen. Industrial hemp is a cousin of the marijuana plant. So no matter how straight-laced industrial hemp production is, and no matter how many captains of industry import products made of hemp in other countries, it could not shake outlaw status in the United States. [continues 589 words]
As Marijuana Becomes Increasingly Acceptable, Contradictory Federal and State Laws Raise Numerous Issues, Ignite Disputes Marijuana has evolved from a substance that a former U.S. president "tried but never inhaled" to a state tax bonanza, exotic medical treatment and a frequent subject of employment-related disputes. Colorado, Washington, Alaska and the District of Columbia have now legalized recreational use, although the District's enactment is complex and has significant limits. Almost half the states and the District of Columbia permit medical marijuana. Nonetheless, under federal law, marijuana is still listed as a Schedule One drug under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act. U.S. attorneys can pursue growers and dispensers of marijuana, even though such business may be "legal" under state law. [continues 523 words]
HB 560 Targets Abuse but Is Still Tough on Crime and Takes the Profits Out of Serious Crime For those New Mexicans who believe in bipartisan government, reaching across the aisle and the political spectrum - there is good news. The New Mexico Legislature unanimously passed HB 560, without a single dissenting vote in either house. HB 560 revises the procedure involved in the forfeiting of citizens' assets by government agencies, a practice referred to as "asset forfeiture." Every year, federal and state law enforcement agents seize billions of dollars during traffic stops, simply by alleging the money is connected to some illegal activity. Under federal and New Mexico's laws, these agencies are entitled to keep most - and sometimes all - of the money and property, even if the property owner is never convicted and, in some cases, never charged with a crime. [continues 543 words]
Law Enforcement Seeks Veto of Legislation Ending Civil Asset Forfeiture SANTA FE - Prompted by calls from across the political spectrum, New Mexico lawmakers took aim during this year's 60-day legislative session at civil asset forfeiture - decried by some as "policing for profit." The measure, which was approved unanimously by the House and Senate, would prevent law enforcement from seizing money, cars or other types of property from people on civil grounds during an arrest or traffic stop on suspicion the property was connected to a crime. [continues 1190 words]
When is this country going to wake up - really wake up - to the catastrophe that prescription opioid painkillers have caused since they came into widespread use in the early 1990s? Before then, deaths related to prescription opioid overdose were practically unknown. In 2013, though, opioids killed 16,235 people; that's approximately half as many as died in traffic accidents that year, and about 2,000 more than were murdered. Both traffic accidents and murder have been declining for years, however, while painkiller-related deaths quadrupled between 1999 and 2013, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [continues 663 words]
A majority of the nonprofits licensed to grow medical marijuana for the state are suing the state Department of Health and Secretary Retta Ward over new rules adopted last month for the state's Medical Cannabis Program. They claim the new rules are arbitrary and capricious, are not evidence-based and are unenforceable because they exceed the department's authority. Organized under the name Cannabis Producers of New Mexico Inc., 19 producers say in documents filed in District Court late Monday that they want the court to declare the new administrative rules void, stop the department from enforcing them and require that patient forms published after the rule conform to state statute. [continues 172 words]
Having Less Than 1 Ounce Means a Fine SANTA FE - The Senate on Saturday voted to lessen penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana, while the House voted to clamp down on medical marijuana providers. The bill to decriminalize the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana squeaked out of the Senate on a vote of 21-20 and went to the House, with a week to go in the legislative session. Under the bill, an offender would be ticketed and fined $50 for having an ounce or less of the drug. [continues 311 words]
Three senators, two Democrats and a Republican, introduced a bill on Monday that would allow patients to use marijuana for medical purposes in states where it is legal, without fear of federal prosecution for violating narcotics laws. The bill makes a number of important changes to federal marijuana policies - and it deserves to be passed by Congress and enacted into law. Though this legislation would not repeal the broad and destructive federal ban on marijuana, it is a big step in the right direction. [continues 226 words]
A Senate bill that would allow farmers in the state to grow industrial hemp for research only has sailed through its first New Mexico House panel. The Agriculture, Water and Wildlife Committee Wednesday unanimously approved and moved Albuquerque Democrat Sen. Cisco McSorley's proposed legislation to the Judiciary Committee. McSorley's proposal would allow the New Mexico Department of Agriculture to set up regulations and fees for the processing of hemp for research and development, not for sale. Hemp has a negligible content of THC, the psychoactive compound that gives marijuana users a high. Many products made from hemp, such as oils and clothing, are legal. The federal government currently allows growing hemp for research. A bill pending in Congress, if passed, would approve cultivation for commercial production as well. [end]
Privacy Arguments Aside This Testing Is Expensive and Does Not Effectively Screen for Good Employees. Legal barriers to marijuana are falling all over the United States. Pot, tried by nearly half of all Americans at some point in their lives, is already legal in some form in 23 states, and four states allow recreational use. Last month, two House bills were filed that could end the federal prohibition of marijuana, including one which would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act's schedules and regulate it similarly to alcohol. [continues 626 words]
High-Value Crop Would Be for Research and Development, Not for Sale SANTA FE (AP) - The New Mexico Senate has given a thumbs-up to allowing farmers in the state to grow industrial hemp for research only. The Senate voted 33-8 Monday to approve Albuquerque Democrat Sen. Cisco McSorley's legislation. The federal government currently allows growing hemp for research. A bill pending in Congress would approve cultivation for commercial production as well. The state will be poised to capitalize on the drought-resistant plant as a cash crop once federal restrictions are lifted, McSorley said. Farming groups have supported the legislation because of ongoing drought in the state and hemp's potential as a cash crop. [continues 250 words]
A former Bernalillo County prosecutor told a group of UNM law students Wednesday that the decades-old war on drugs "has failed in every respect and exacerbated every problem it was called on to fix." Ethan Simon, an assistant district attorney from 2008 to 2011, spoke on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of police officers and former officers who oppose the prohibition on drugs. He was invited to the University of New Mexico School of Law by Students for Sensible Drug Policy. [continues 356 words]
No pot smoker would put hemp in his pipe. No pot grower wants his (outside) crop to be anywhere near a hemp patch because cross-pollination would ruin his crop's potency. Many useful products come from hemp fibers: A World War I poster reads "Hemp for the War" to make ropes. It is ignorant, illogical and wasteful to classify hemp with cultivated marijuana. Let hemp growing be allowed. Bob Williams Los Alamos [end]
Producer Licenses Are on Hold for Now Increasing the maximum allowable concentration of THC in cannabis products from 60 to 70 percent, and eliminating a proposed rule requiring patients to submit "biometric" information when applying for cards, are among the revisions to proposed new rules for the state's Medical Cannabis Program. The recommendations were made by Albuquerque attorney Susan Hapka, the hearing officer hired to oversee the state Health Department's overhaul of the program. Her report was filed with the Health Department on Thursday, which is "in the process of reviewing it" before making final decisions about rules, said department spokesman Kenny Vigil on Friday. He added that there was "no set time frame for finalizing the rules." [continues 230 words]
A bill to allow New Mexico farmers to grow an industrial version of marijuana's nonintoxicating cousin has passed a Senate panel. The Senate Conservation Committee voted unanimously this week to send the Industrial Hemp Farming Act to the Senate Judicial Committee without a recommendation. Sen. Cisco McSorley, an Albuquerque Democrat, recently filed the legislation, Senate Bill 94, aimed at legalizing the selling of hemp and licensing of farmers to grow the crop. [end]
A hearing officer hired to oversee the state Health Department's overhaul of its Medical Cannabis Program is recommending several revisions to the proposed new rules, including elimination of a requirement that applicants submit biometric information and an increase in the allowable concentrations of THC in marijuana produced for the program's patients. Patients, producers and would-be producers for the program have been closely following the rule-change process, in part because the Health Department has said it would not begin issuing licenses to new producers until after the new rules are in place. [continues 417 words]
A Senate committee on Thursday approved a measure to let New Mexico voters decide whether the state's constitution should be amended to legalize marijuana and regulate production, sale and taxation of the substance. If voters approved the ballot issue, the possession and personal use of marijuana by those over age 21 would become legal in New Mexico. The measure, Senate Joint Resolution 2, sponsored by Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-Albuquerque, was approved 5-4 by the Senate Rules Committee and sent to the Senate Judiciary Committee. The measure likely has slim chances in the House. The House Agriculture, Water and Wildlife Committee last week voted 7-1 to table a proposal to legalize and tax recreational marijuana. [end]
Representative: Measure Is 'All About Business' A bill to legalize marijuana previously went down in flames, but a separate measure for commercial use of hemp in New Mexico breezed through its first legislative test Tuesday. The Senate Conservation Committee voted 9-0 to advance the Industrial Hemp Farming Act. Committee members voted to move the bill forward without recommendation because it was modified a bit just before the hearing began. State Sen. Cisco McSorley, the sponsor, said Congress already has approved a Farm Bill that permits states to proceed with research projects on hemp. [continues 358 words]
Backers of Proposal Vow to Keep Trying SANTA FE - New Mexico appears unlikely - at least for now - to join four other Western states that have legalized recreational marijuana use, after a House committee on Friday voted down a proposal to regulate and tax the drug. Members of the House Agriculture, Water and Wildlife Committee tabled the pot proposal on a 7-1 vote, making its passage highly unlikely during the 60-day session that ends March 21. Opponents of the measure said legalizing marijuana use could pose a public safety threat and lead to more impaired employees on New Mexico work sites. [continues 401 words]
If we weren't such a nation of addicts, maybe hordes of drug smugglers wouldn't crash our borders to feed our habit. Maybe drug cartels wouldn't terrorize Mexico and Central America - our gift to our southern neighbors. Maybe drunks wouldn't kill so many on our highways, or our health-care system wouldn't be so overwhelmed and costly. Maybe not so many families would fall apart and our cities wouldn't be bloodstained by gang wars - or so many adolescent lives wasted before they could even get started. [continues 633 words]
SUCH A WASTE, to risk the life of one of our finest to accomplish what any high school student can do - purchase $60 of meth in a parking lot. Shouldn't we allocate our resources in more meaningful pursuits? Even if we had succeeded in busting a street level addict/dealer without injury to an officer, what would we have actually done? We would saddle our legal system with tens of thousands of dollars in expenses trying him, we might pay his room and board in jail for years, and does anybody think that would prevent even one other addict from buying $60 of meth from a different dealer that very night? Let's treat our police with more respect. Albuquerque [end]
THIS LETTER is in response to Patricia Monaghan's letter about medical marijuana and driving, published Jan. 12. Monaghan is missing the point about Rep. Bill Rehm's bill seeking penalties for drugged driving equal to those for drunken driving. The point is impairment. We need impaired drivers off the road, whether they are impaired by alcohol, marijuana or any other substance. There's no argument about this: There are more alcohol-impaired drivers than cannabinoid-impaired drivers. To start with, Americans consume more alcohol. [continues 162 words]
English Teacher Who was Forced to Resign Praised; Now at an ABQ Charter A handful of people showed up to Monday's Rio Rancho school board meeting to support former V. Sue Cleveland High English teacher Katrina Guarascio, who resigned last month amid controversy over a writing assignment and how she conducted herself in class. The district accused Guarascio of being unprofessional, repeatedly using profanity and sexually explicit language in her class. They said "numerous parents" raised concerns about her and her classroom. [continues 625 words]
We are all disheartened by the conflict between police and many black men. A major factor seems to be the War on Drugs that we ask police to wage. It is public knowledge that the arrest rates of African Americans is many times that of white youth although statistics show that usage is comparable among similar age groups. In effect, the police have been asked to wage a war not supported by the general public. It is generally acknowledged that the War on Drugs has been a phenomenally expensive disaster. Perhaps it is time to resurrect common sense and end the war. National attitudes on marijuana use have changed indicating that this direction is gaining acceptance. We should end the war. This will require the public attitude, especially of social conservatives, change. This is not as a war on conservatives but a time of reconciliation. Bernard Gross Santa Fe [end]
SANTA FE - The state Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case of northern New Mexico man who claims his privacy rights were violated after a flyover prompted a ground search. That search turned up more than a dozen marijuana plants on his remote property. The outcome of the case could affect the ability of law enforcement agencies to use drones and other means of aerial surveillance. The home of Norman Davis, now 79, in the Carson area of Taos County was checked during a 2006 joint operation of New Mexico State Police, National Guard and state Game and Fish. Authorities were looking for pot-growing operations. A search was conducted with Davis' reluctant consent after a spotter in a helicopter saw vegetation in Davis' greenhouse and plants outside. [end]
Police Reveal Few Details but Say Sting Operation Changed at the Last Minute Veteran narcotics Lt. Greg Brachle is the Albuquerque police officer who shot and critically wounded a fellow officer during a $60 undercover methamphetamine sting last week, the police department confirmed. Police didn't release much more new information about the shooting Monday - including why exactly Brachle fired or what the perceived threat was - but did say that the plan for the operation was changed at the last minute and that the undercover officers took the unusual step of revealing to the suspects that they were police. [continues 713 words]
New Mexico
