The district says the searches at its four high schools are meant to be a deterrent to students using drugs. Drug-sniffing dogs will be unleashed in Osseo schools' parking lots this fall. Initially, the dogs and their police handlers will do random searches at the district's four high schools. Depending on the results, the searches could expand to include high school and junior high school buildings, said assistant superintendent Kate Maguire. The searches are part of the district's plan to make schools safer, and not in response to any particular incidents, Magurie said. The school district is coordinating the searches with police departments in Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center and Maple Grove. [continues 200 words]
Though America has made strides against discrimination, troubling pockets of race-based bias persist. Case in point: Two recent national reports documented drug enforcement practices that unfairly arrest and imprison African-Americans at much higher rates than whites. Reports by the Sentencing Project and Human Rights Watch use federal data to document effects of the nation's 30-year war on drugs. Both conclude that the policies have had a devastating impact on lower-income, inner-city blacks. While the number of drug arrests rose 1,100 percent since 1980, disproportionate numbers of blacks were arrested and jailed for possession -- even though both races use illegal drugs at the same rates. [continues 354 words]
I've been heartened to follow the progress of the medical marijuana bill in the Legislature but also disappointed to hear that Gov. Tim Pawlenty has threatened to veto it. Medical marijuana could make an enormous difference to seriously ill patients in Minnesota -- patients like me. Since 1989, I've been fighting a rare disorder called neurosarcoidosis, which causes my body to produce antibodies to my own tissues, including my spinal cord and brain. My symptoms are severe and have included sporadic paralysis in my legs and left arm; nausea and vomiting; extreme pain in my extremities, and muscle spasms, some of which cause me to freeze in bizarre positions because opposing muscles contract simultaneously. [continues 528 words]
Bill Would Make Minnesota the 13th State to Allow Medical Uses Within Strict Limits. If marijuana were a new discovery, without cultural and political baggage, "it would be hailed as a wonder drug," wrote Dr. Lester Grinspoon last year. The Harvard psychiatrist has advocated for medical marijuana for decades. Yet a gap has persisted between what many believe about medical marijuana's potential and what scientists could prove. Now recent research has applied the same rigor that would be used on any new pill to testing marijuana. [continues 750 words]
In States With Medical-Use Laws, Kids Are More Likely to Smoke Marijuana. I strongly disagree with your April 17 editorial on medical marijuana. As a career law enforcement officer, I well know and have had the firsthand opportunity to observe the downside of backing away from a vigorous war on illegal drug use and abuse. The results of drug abuse are devastating. As you should know but apparently choose to ignore, marijuana is a well-known gateway drug that, all too often, leads to continuing drug experimentation and abuse of other illegal drugs. Use and abuse of marijuana and other drugs leads to increased incidences of violent crime, child abuse and neglect and ruined lives. [continues 388 words]
At a time when researchers are plunging into the rainforest in search of new medicines, there's growing consensus that a humble herb easily cultivated here may help patients struggling with cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other painful, difficult-to-manage conditions. The herb, whose slim, multi-pronged leaf makes it instantly recognizable, is marijuana. The Minnesota Senate has already approved a measure that would make Minnesota the 13th state to legalize its medical use. The House will likely vote this spring. Lawmakers, as well as the governor, should give the bill careful yet open-minded consideration and make it a reality. [continues 362 words]
The Bill Would Not Legalize the Drug, but Would Allow Certain Patients to Possess It. A bill that would allow some patients in Minnesota to use medical marijuana was resurrected on Wednesday. The bill, which passed the House Ways and Means Committee easily, would not legalize marijuana. But it would allow patients who qualify to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and to receive similar amounts on a regular basis from groups set up to dispense the drug. The measure passed the Minnesota Senate last year but did not receive a House vote. [continues 250 words]
Look at the numbers for teenage cigarette smoking. Now look at the numbers for teenage marijuana use. Folks, there's a lesson here. Last week, President Bush touted new survey results showing a modest drop in teen use of marijuana and other drugs, but he failed to mention the drug for which prevention efforts have had the most spectacular success -- tobacco. If he had, he might have had to make some troubling comparisons. Bush noted that drug use has declined from its recent peak in 1996, but sidestepped the longer-term picture that doesn't look nearly so rosy. [continues 586 words]
Hennepin County narcotics officers are busting more home-grown marijuana operations -- sometimes in upscale suburbs. One reason for increased home production is the decreased flow of high-grade pot from Canada since border controls tightened up after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, said Sheriff Rich Stanek. Another factor is more indoor cultivation of higher-grade marijuana that's is up to six times more potent than that sold years ago, he said. Higher potency raises dealer profits and also may increase addictiveness, a drug expert said. [continues 470 words]
A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by two North Dakota farmers seeking to end the federal government's ban on commercial hemp farming, saying that the issue needs to be addressed by Congress. The ruling came down Wednesday in a 22-page decision from Judge Daniel Hovland, who sits on the U.S. District Court in Bismarck, N.D. In 1999, North Dakota became the first state to endorse industrial hemp farming. In June, farmers David Monson and Wayne Hauge sued to force the Drug Enforcement Administration to issue permits to grow hemp; the farmers had applied for permits in February, [continues 269 words]
Eighty million Americans have smoked marijuana, including me. I tried it five or six times, only because I am a slow learner. I am allergic to weeds. Nothing kills an illicit high faster than a sneezing fit. But there are worse things than being allergic to marijuana. You could be allergic to common sense. This country gets the hives when it thinks about changing direction in the war on drugs, which is being lost, with a large toll in ruined lives. Not just the lives ruined by hard drugs, but the lives ruined by the hard lines of politicians who know that the laws against marijuana possession are worse than the drug itself. [continues 624 words]
Uncle Sam's Unwillingness to Provide Drug Addicts With Sterile Syringes Has Spread Disease and Cost Plenty. Being a journalist, I'm no expert on making money. But you don't have to be Warren Buffett to recognize one way to get rich: Find someone who will give you $600,000 if you give them 25 cents. A few swaps like that, and you're a permanent resident of Easy Street. You might assume that no such deal exists, and that if it did, no one would pass it up. You would be wrong. This advantageous exchange is available anytime our leaders in Washington want to take it. But so far, they've refused. [continues 650 words]
Collaboration Was Key in Curbing St. Paul Drug Dealing. Chalk up one for the good guys. Thanks to a recent police sweep against drug dealers, downtown St. Paul will be a more civil, pleasant place. After a three-month investigation called Operation Shamrock, officers fanned out last week to arrest 100 people charged with drug dealing. More than 30 were picked up right away, and arrest warrants were issued for the others. Law enforcers responded to an increase of open-air drug sales, fighting, mugging and intimidation that occurred near bus stops. Bus riders and others complained of behavior that made them afraid to wait at certain bus shelters. [continues 356 words]
In An Effort To Deter Students From Bringing Illegal Drugs To School, Several West-Metro High Schools Have Been Working With A Company That Provides Drug-Sniffing Dogs Whether it is Charlie sniffing his way past rows of hallway lockers, Andie checking out cars on the street or Tosca canvassing the parking lots, the dogs of Metro Canine Detection Services all work in the spirit of drug prevention. John Roux's Eagan-based company provides dog searches aimed at detecting and deterring illegal narcotics at businesses, private homes and schools. He currently conducts searches at 15 metro-area schools, including St. Louis Park, Benilde-St. Margaret's and Mound-Westonka high schools. [continues 451 words]
A 10-day suspension from high school has created strange bedfellows before the U.S. Supreme Court. Every group in power has its fervent rationale for believing that it has a right, even a duty, to suppress speech it doesn't like. That's why America has a Supreme Court -- to slap some sense into the censorious. Monday, lawyers argued a case that should have been settled years ago. It began in January 2002. As an Alaska high school released students so that they could attend a "Winter Olympics Torch Relay," then-18-year-old senior Joseph Frederick unfurled a banner that read, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," from a Juneau sidewalk. Frederick thought the nonsensical message would get him on TV. [continues 574 words]
As a family practitioner with more than 20 years of experience, I have treated numerous patients who have told me that marijuana was effective in combating their symptoms. This has been particularly true of patients suffering from peripheral neuropathy, an excruciatingly painful condition for which there is currently no FDA-approved treatment. Now a top-notch study, published in last month's issue of the peer-reviewed journal Neurology, has come to the exact same conclusion that my patients have been telling me for years: Medical marijuana is an effective treatment for this kind of pain. [continues 108 words]
The Controversy Surrounding a Bill to Allow the Use of Medical Marijuana Hits Home for a Junior-High Student in Brooklyn Park. Shannon Pakonen told a House committee Thursday that his 15-year-old son, Sam, was interrogated this week by a teacher at Brooklyn Junior High School in Brooklyn Park about his father's use of marijuana for medical purposes. The incident, Pakonen said, demonstrates the need for legislation to authorize medical use of the drug. Lisa Hunter Jensen, the Osseo School District's director of school/community relations, said the district had only sketchy information about the incident from the school's principal but said the district is investigating the matter further. [continues 641 words]
Support is growing at the Capitol for a measure to allow its use in seriously ill patients. A proposal that once inspired fears and jokes about drug abuse -- legalizing the use of marijuana for medical reasons -- stands a good chance of passage in the Minnesota Legislature this year. Political support for that controversial step is coming from unlikely places. Advocates for a bill to allow seriously ill patients to use marijuana with their doctors' recommendation say that as many as half of the 49 Republicans in the House would support the measure in a floor vote. [continues 1032 words]
The Accusations Involve The Sale And Possession Of Marijuana At Chaska Middle School East. In an unusual case, drug charges were filed Friday against six seventh- and eighth-graders, accused of selling and possessing marijuana at Chaska Middle School East. Two 12-year-olds and a 13-year-old were charged with fourth-degree marijuana sale, a felony. Police said they had been able to document four sales ranging between $3 and $10 that occurred in the school. The case stands out to officials who work in Twin Cities area schools or with juvenile crime because of the allegation of students selling marijuana in a middle school. [continues 443 words]
The Minnesota Department of Health issued an alert Tuesday that heroin possibly mixed with a drug used to treat horses may have reached Minnesota. Local health experts suspect a man treated Sunday at a Twin Cities hospital used heroin cut with clenbuterol, a veterinary drug used to treat respiratory problems in horses. The drug causes long-lasting heart palpitations in humans. The incident in Minnesota echoes other such incidents reported across the country. The man admitted to snorting heroin and then experiencing a "rapid, pounding heart beat" that wouldn't subside, said Dr. David Roberts, medical director of the Hennepin Regional Poison Center. [continues 535 words]
