Taking open-minded look at recreational use could change common opinion I would like to begin with a disclaimer: I do not encourage anyone to use, distribute or otherwise get involved with drugs. Drug use is often a terribly destructive aspect of both personal and family life. Drug use, and more specifically, habitual drug use, is a serious matter that is not to be trivialized. That being said, I feel that many people have an extremely skewed perspective of recreational drug use. As I define it, recreational drug use involves the use of a drug or drugs in an appropriate atmosphere in the free time of an individual. Recreational drug use is not habitual. In other words, if you are truly a recreational drug user, you don't feel a need to use. It is simply a want. [continues 323 words]
The Palm Springs city attorney said he will soon propose that the city allow medical marijuana cooperatives. City Attorney Douglas Holland said he has studied the issue for more than 18 months and plans to bring his proposal to the City Council in coming weeks. He said cooperatives would satisfy the need of the people and the laws of the state. "Those collectives would have to be very narrowly tailored and organized," Holland said. If the city council approves the cooperatives, Palm Springs will become one of the only cities in Riverside County to pass an ordinance allowing medical marijuana cooperatives. [continues 312 words]
NEW ORLEANS -- Cedric Allen once wrestled with his crack addiction in an apartment he shared with his fiancee or in a home surrounded by his four grown daughters. Today, Allen, 48, struggles with the same addiction alone in a camping tent under an interstate overpass in downtown New Orleans. His daughters and fiancee are gone, displaced by Hurricane Katrina. His old apartment is unaffordable. Allen is one of an estimated 12,000 people who are homeless in New Orleans, many of whom landed on the streets after Katrina. Homeless people account for 4% of the city's overall population -- more than four times that of most cities. [continues 732 words]
Like trying to swat mosquitoes with a hammer, there's bound to be collateral damage if city council pushes ahead with an attempt to ban crack pipes in Calgary. Ban one pipe, and you ban them all -- that's the fear of the local cannabis community, as city council debates the issue today. That aldermen would consider prohibiting paraphernalia has Calgary bong and pipe purveyors uptight -- they say politicians are meddling in a perfectly legal business. And they're right, technically. [continues 671 words]
Army Surprised by Discovery Lab Equipped to Make Leaves into Cocaine Also Found in the Amazon SAO PAULO, Brazil -- The army said Sunday it has discovered the first known coca plantations in Brazil's Amazon, along with a fully equipped laboratory to manufacture cocaine. The army used helicopters and small boats to reach the plantations and the lab near the northwestern city of Tabatinga, close to the border with cocaine-producing nations Peru and Colombia, army Lt. Col. Antonio Elcio Franco Filho said. [continues 231 words]
As of 2005, the total prison population of China was 1,565,771, the second largest in the world. Not too surprising, of course. After all, China is a dictatorship with little regard for the rule of law or individual rights. As of 2006, the per capita rate of incarceration for Cuba was 531 per 100,000 persons. That ranks Cuba fifth in the world. Once again, not much of a surprise. Cuba, too, is a dictatorship. But what is surprising (at least to me) is the country that ranks first both in absolute prison population numbers and in per capita rate of incarceration. As of 2006, the U.S. prison population was 2,258,983. That's more than 40 percent higher than second place China. The U.S. also is first in per capita prison population rate at 751 per 100,000. Russia ranks second at 628. To put the U.S. position in further perspective, here are rates for other Western democracies: France -- 91, Germany -- 92, England -- 147, and Spain -- 149 (King's College London, http://www.prisonstudies.org/). The European rates are nearly an order of magnitude lower than ours. Surprising numbers I don't know about you, but those figures shock me. Maybe I'm naive, but I thought we were the good guys. I believe in being tough on crime. [continues 547 words]
Too many minor criminals with drug problems are being jailed and then receive poor treatment in prison, a damning report warns today. The UK Drug Policy Commission said some even take fatal overdoses after their release because of a lack of support. The influential think-tank also said that routine drug-testing for lesser offences, which was introduced five years ago, is proving counter-productive. Its warnings follow the disclosure that heroin and other opiates were now used more widely in jails than cannabis, with up to one in six inmates in some prisons regularly taking class A substances. [continues 482 words]
Alain Olivier Claims He Was Entrapped By Police And Deserves $47 Million Metro Vancouver resident Fiona Flanagan is spitting mad. Nineteen years after her Mountie husband Derek was killed on the job in Thailand, the painful case is being dredged up again by an admitted heroin importer who was targeted by police in an international smuggling probe. In recent days, Alain Olivier has been making the media rounds in B.C. claiming he deserves $47 million in compensation from the RCMP after they "entrapped" him in an elaborate undercover operation in which Derek Flanagan died accidentally. [continues 689 words]
A decade ago, Edmonton's Tony 'Bad Boy' Badea had fought his way close to pro boxing's mountaintop. Then, after a few setbacks in the ring, the one-time Canadian and Commonwealth champion hurtled into the crevasse of drug and alcohol abuse. By December of last year, the mercury dipping to minus-18, Badea was found lying in a ditch outside of Edmonton, stoned and drunk. Police took him to the inner-city Hope Mission, which today still serves as his home and where he makes sandwiches feeding hundreds not so very different from himself. [continues 198 words]
Woman Lost It All; Use Of Drug Is Rising In N.C. High Schools In three years, Sara Silva lost her car, house, job, marriage and custody of her 3-year-old daughter. As a Minnesota girl, she once competed in beauty pageants and had dreams of working in law enforcement. She's unrecognizable in pictures before and after her drug addiction. At a town hall meeting last week at ImaginOn McColl Family Theatre, A&E Network, the Partnership for a Drug-Free N.C. and Time Warner Cable partnered to raise awareness about methamphetamine abuse and how to combat the growing epidemic. [continues 295 words]
Throw the book at smugglers According to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, there is a strong link between the seemingly harmless crime of cigarette smuggling and the much more lethal illegal drug trafficking industry. The Mounties have identified 105 organized crime groups that have set up shop in this region. At least 65 are involved in drug trafficking. Police acknowledge that their record illegal cigarette seizures of late are only the tip of the iceberg. Increased police resources would help, but it's not the answer. What's needed is more support from our weak-kneed court system. [continues 61 words]