Board to vote on clubs On Thursday, El Paso County's Board of County Commissioners will consider a resolution that would extend the temporary moratorium on cannabis social clubs in the county. These are the businesses operating in a legal gray area, taking advantage of the fact that users can partake of the drug in a private area. Some accept "donations" in lieu of payment for marijuana dispensed on site, while others mandate you bring it yourself. The measure sounds like a setback for supporters, but it's actually the lesser of two evils; commissioners considered banning the clubs outright at a previous meeting. They continued the moratorium with the support of Commissioners Peggy Littleton, Darryl Glenn and Dennis Hisey. [continues 347 words]
FAIRBANKS - Alaskans - and Fairbanksans in particular - voted to to legalize the possession, use, cultivation and sale of marijuana this year, but just how the business side of things will play out statewide and locally will be decided in the next many months. Even though, under Ballot Measure 2, pot stores won't be able to open their doors until 2016, local lawmakers got an early jump on the issue Tuesday night. An intergovernmental town hall hosted by the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the city of Fairbanks and the city of North Pole drew a diverse audience to the Pioneer Park Centennial Center to hear from the community and discuss what the three governments might want to do about marijuana businesses. [continues 808 words]
FAIRBANKS - The election is finished, but the debate over legalized marijuana remains as contentious as ever. About 20 local elected officials from the three governments in the Fairbanks area spent Tuesday night hearing arguments for and against allowing commercial marijuana establishments. No legislators attended the session, an absence noted by Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Luke Hopkins. "I don't think any of us are sure what the state Legislature is going to do, how they're going to move into this," Hopkins said. [continues 338 words]
Two bills to watch Big things are afoot for medical marijuana in Michigan right now. At least that's what most activists who have their eyes on Lansing believe. House Bills 4271 and 5104 are widely expected to be passed during the lame duck session before Dec. 18. I'm not a big fan of lame duck legislation in recent years when such things as a Right-to Work bill and anti-abortion legislation have been pushed through. These bills are, however, welcome for the majority of medical marijuana patients. [continues 1118 words]
What happens when government moves too slowly for its people? In some places, you might get a protest or a riot, or even a ballot initiative. In San Francisco, you get a box filled with used needles nailed to a tree. Civic Center is the Beaux Arts meeting place for some of the city's roughly 16,000 intravenous drug users, many who sleep in the nearby Tenderloin and shower in the restrooms at the Main Library. To better service their needs, an anonymous activist nailed a red plastic box with a biohazard warning sticker on one of the trees outside the Bill Graham Auditorium. It's a drop-box for used hypodermic needles, complete with literature on HIV/AIDS protection. [continues 832 words]
Young adults addicted to opiates like oxycodone and heroin may have the best chance at long-term abstinence in residential treatment - often known as rehab - programs, according to a recent study. "Given evidence that outpatient treatment for opioid dependence in young adults is not as effective as it is in older adults, we need alternatives to protect this vulnerable population," said lead author Dr. Zev Schuman-Olivier. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the most commonly abused opiate drugs are heroin and methadone, although the opiate painkillers morphine and oxycodone (Oxycontin) are also widely misused. [continues 567 words]
Nanaimo medical marijuana producer Tilray says it is working with Health Canada to get advertising in line with standards of accuracy for the sale of a prescription drug. The national agency sent memos out to 13 commercial cannabis producers across Canada on June 30, calling for the immediate removal of inappropriate claims in advertising for medical marijuana. The federal government was "concerned about advertisements that are false, misleading or deceptive and those that advertise marijuana and remind them that their obligations, specifically that the advertising (of) marijuana is prohibited," the agency told the Ottawa Citizen the in July. [continues 172 words]
A former police detective who admitted to supplying drugs has been sentenced to almost five years in prison. In the High Court at Whangarei this morning, Mike Blowers was sentenced to four years and nine months for supplying meth and two years and three months for theft of drugs, to be served concurrently. He was discharged on charge of supplying cannabis. The former Detective Sergeant, who's 51, pleaded guilty in October to supplying methamphetamine, and stealing methamphetamine from a police exhibit room. The charges date to a period between June 2011 and June 2012. [continues 75 words]
Police top brass have admitted mistakes were made when the detective who blew the whistle on his drug-dealing boss was investigated himself after he raised concerns with management. Michael David Blowers was today jailed for four years and nine months after pleading guilty to methamphetamine offences while in charge of the organised crime unit in Northland. The 51-year-old took 34 grams of the Class-A drug from the exhibit locker at the Whangarei police station and replaced it with salt to disguise the theft. [continues 723 words]
