Bank of Montreal is open to more deals with cannabis companies, as long as those firms can get past "traps" in the lender's due-diligence process, chief executive Darryl White said. The Toronto-based lender became the first major Canadian bank to arrange a stock sale for a company tied to cannabis this month when its capital-markets unit helped lead a $200.7-million equity financing for Canopy Growth Corp. In his first public comments about the deal, Mr. White called the marijuana producer "a bona fide business operating within the boundaries of the law." [continues 530 words]
A former Independence police officer was sentenced Wednesday to four years and nine months in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to rob supposed drug couriers. Brian McGarr, 42, and his brother, Scott McGarr, 41, both pleaded guilty in April. Scott McGarr, also a former police officer, awaits sentencing. The brothers planned to rob drug couriers who were actually two undercover federal agents. The sentencing range was 51 months to 63 months in prison. U.S. District Judge Howard F. Sachs opted for 57 months. [continues 302 words]
A Jackson County judge has ordered that $4.2 million in money and property held by the Kansas City Police Department must be turned over to the state treasury. The funds have accumulated from stolen or abandoned money and property collected by police. The property includes items taken during robberies or burglaries. The funds do not include money that was seized under state or federal forfeiture acts. Forfeited money, usually seized in drug cases, has been the subject of controversy when it has been retained by law enforcement agencies instead of being used for education. [continues 169 words]
At 50, her skin seems as smooth as porcelain. Not a hair of her reddish mane is out of place. But a look of mild annoyance ruffles Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington's immaculate countenance when asked if she knows George W Bush: "Of course I do." He is, she says, a "charming man" - but not one with the imagination to do anything to help the poor, her new passion. Huffington has made a career out of knowing rich and powerful people in various phases of an eye-catching life as author, socialite and political commentator. When the name Arianna crops up around political dinner tables, nobody asks, "Who?" [continues 899 words]
The Senate's approval last week of a controversial $1 billion aid package for the Colombian military is more a victory for the art of public relations than it is in the fight against drugs. Critics have raised the prospect of America being sucked into a futile Vietnam-style entanglement in Latin America a decade after disengaging itself from the volatile region's guerrilla wars. A charm offensive by Andres Pastrana, Colombia's president, who is co-ordinating a difficult campaign to eradicate production of coca, the plant whose leaves are used for making cocaine, has helped to allay such fears. [continues 261 words]
Colombia's drug lords may think twice before messing with General Barry McCaffrey, America's "drug tsar". He is one of the few government officials who can claim to have captured bunkers in the Vietnam war by charging forward and shooting enemy soldiers with his pistol. The adversary today is different - yet McCaffrey has displayed the same fearless tenacity in the bureaucratic trenches since he exchanged his medal-encrusted military uniform for a suit in 1996 to lead President Bill Clinton's war on drugs. McCaffrey, 56, who visits Britain this week to discuss international co-operation in combating drugs, can claim some success, not least in boosting his department's budget to the size of Luxembourg's gross domestic product. Yet although illegal drug use by teenagers fell by 13% in 1998 and the number of drug users has fallen by 50% since 1979, he is not about to declare victory. [continues 805 words]
