Much of the Lisa Cropp hearing yesterday was spent with the defence challenging the right of the Judicial Control Authority to hear the charges of Cropp returning a positive drug test to methamphetamine. It was the fourth day of the hearing arising from Cropp's positive result to a routine drugs test at Te Rapa in May. After lengthy submissions yesterday it was ruled the JCA had the right to hear the charges. The hearing continued late in the day, but there were indications there would be a further challenge and the hearing may now last into next week. [continues 121 words]
A mechanic charged with supplying Ecstasy to the alleged ringleader in a so-called white-collar drug ring can be identified. Adamu Shazizi Awahdi, 30, is charged with possession of Ecstasy for supply and supplying Ecstasy to company director John Francis Waterworth. Awahdi is also charged jointly with conspiracy to supply Ecstasy. Name suppression for Awahdi and another accused, Marcus Worrall, was lifted yesterday. Worrall, 32, appeared in court in Queenstown last week charged with buying Ecstasy and conspiring to supply Ecstasy. [continues 279 words]
Alcohol or drug impairment could be affecting as many as four out of every 10 workers in the Bay. And, of that group, one in 10 is classified as an alcohol or drug abuser. These are the official figures being used by Hanmer Clinic in Tauranga, a specialist group that picks up the pieces after people realise they have a problem. The statistics were presented at a major work safety conference in Tauranga this week by Ken Branch, an addiction counsellor at the local clinic. [continues 693 words]
Next week's meeting of the Association of Yukon Fire Chiefs will be an opportunity for the territory's fire fighters to learn and exchange information, says Whitehorse fire chief Clive Sparks. The Association has their convention next week, Aug. 17-20, at the city's Gold Rush Inn and will see about 40 firefighters from across the territory come to Whitehorse to take part in the event. "This particular convention is open to all firefighters from across the territory," Sparks said. [continues 329 words]
Passed Grow-Op Data To Two Men Plan Was To Reap Crops Before Raids BARRIE -- A police officer who co-ordinated a program to wipe out marijuana outdoor grow operations fed information about the location of the crops to two men, so that they could harvest the pot before police raids, a court has heard. Ontario Provincial Police Det. Const. Scott Duguid, 34, pleaded guilty in the Ontario Court of Justice yesterday to breach of trust in connection with incidents in Simcoe County in August and September, 2003. [continues 257 words]
A man killed by police at a motel early Friday morning was shot during an undercover drug investigation after driving to West Palm Beach from New Jersey to buy $80,000 worth of marijuana smuggled from Jamaica, according to court records. An undercover Jupiter police officer, working with federal agents and a countywide narcotics task force, shot Donovan Brooks, 40, after Brooks and an accomplice were ordered to lie on the ground in the parking lot of the Days Inn at 2300 45th Street, according to records and sources familiar with the operation. [continues 554 words]
Parental Drug Addiction Devastates Children An estimated 6 million U.S. children live with at least one parent who abused alcohol or other drugs in 2001, the Annie Casey Foundation noted in its annual Kids Count Data Book. A study of children in a welfare program showed that children, especially adolescents, with drug-abusing parents had more behavioral, emotional and physical problems than their peers in drug-free families. Likewise, children whose parents abused drugs were more likely themselves to engage in risky behaviors. [continues 343 words]
After just one month, law enforcement officials report a new law that limits purchases of methamphetamine's main ingredient is already working to combat meth labs. Since July 8, consumers have been restricted in the amount of pseudoephedrine-laced medicines - common cold and allergy medicines - they could buy. The intent of the new law was to aid in the fight against methamphetamine, a cheap and easy-to-make drug that can cause more damage to the brain than alcohol, heroin or cocaine. [continues 633 words]
Each week we read about some 'grow-op' being raided in Vancouver or Surrey, or some other big city neighbourhood. Less often we read in our local papers about the same bust happening in our own neighbourhoods. Rest assured that fewer busts are the result of smaller overall population, not fewer grow-ops per capita. In our small communities, we are no less likely to come to grips with the problems arising out of the cultivation of illegal crops. How big a problem are marijuana growing operations? According to a study published earlier this year by the University College of the Fraser Valley (UCFV), between 1997 and 2000, "the number of individual incidents of marihuana grow operations increased by over 220 per cent." Though the numbers levelled off after 2003, production did not: "the amount of marijuana produced each year in British Columbia is estimated to have increased from 19,729 kilos in 1997 to a seven year high of 79,817 in 2003." [continues 396 words]
You wouldn't know it from all the rainbows, sunshine, fireworks and lollipoppery going on, but we are a nation at war, people! War! Our commitment to the War on Terror grows in Afghanistan. A new front is opening up against the Danes on Hans Island to the north. Terrorist cells could be multiplying in our midst, but do we ale-swilling, pot-puffing, decadent Canadians care? Huh? What? Exactly! That's why I'm mightily relieved that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is stepping up to finger dangerous criminals in our midst like BC Marijuana Party leader Marc Emery. And I'm pleased as punch that our obedient pigs participated in last Friday's porking of the self-proclaimed Prince of Pot. [continues 577 words]