So you wanna make $60,000 the hard way? How about being the organizer of a bunch of grass-roots (pun intended) activists who want to legalize marijuana? The Marijuana Policy Project, a national group that advocates the legalization and regulation of marijuana, is looking for "experienced community and/or political organizers to build statewide coalitions" supporting marijuana legalization in seven states -- including Oregon, according to a help-wanted ad on an online jobs site. The project hopes to hire someone who can, among other things, organize and attend demonstrations, distribute leaflets, generate favorable news coverage, write to and meet with lawmakers, and work to pass local bills and initiatives "to demonstrate to state legislators that the public supports marijuana policy reform." Each organizer, the project's ad says, "will receive a $60,000 grant to cover his or her salary and expenses." No word on exactly what expenses might be covered. [end]
WILLITS -- The final version of an ordinance regulating in-city marijuana growing is expected to be up for a vote at the Sept. 28 Willits City Council meeting. An ordinance regulating medical marijuana dispensaries will not be on the agenda for another year. In the meantime, a moratorium will remain in effect. As presented at the Sept. 14 council meeting, the ordinance on growing bans all outdoor cultivation as a public nuisance. Cultivation is defined as planting, growing, harvesting, drying, or processing of marijuana plants or any part thereof. [continues 280 words]
BLOOMINGTON -- Amy Keil is one of three women among 129 sworn police officers in Bloomington. She likes her job as a DARE officer because of the impact she can make on children. DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) educates children about the danger of drugs, among other things. Keil learned the dangers of police work first-hand in 1996 when a suspect in a credit card fraud turned on her, strangling her and hitting her in the face. She was able to get out her gun and pull the trigger, but the gun didn't fire. The suspect was later captured and sentenced to prison. [continues 236 words]
MESA, Ariz. -- A Washington, D.C.-based pro-marijuana group is seeking activists in seven states to build grass-roots support for legalized marijuana, with the eventual goal being to get the drug legalized for all adults. The nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project is targeting: Arizona, Delaware, Idaho, Maine, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon. Project officials emphasize they have no master plan for the seven states. Instead, the group is looking for local activists whose efforts would be funded by the project's grant program. The eventual goal is to put marijuana in the same category as alcohol, with similar taxes and regulation. [continues 252 words]
OAKLAND -- In a month's time, the once-thriving Oaksterdam district has lost all but one of its medical marijuana outlets, and the number of permitted pot clubs citywide has dwindled to two. California Advocate Relief Exchange has taken root at Seventh Street and Broadway, sandwiched between a tattoo parlor and bail bonds business, across the street from Oakland police headquarters. The owners were forced to relocate from 19th Street and Telegraph Avenue because city laws do not allow medical pot outlets within 1,000 feet of churches or schools. Mayor Jerry Brown's School for the Arts relocated to the Fox Theater last year, and CARE had to move to keep its permit, said Stacey Traylor of CARE. [continues 518 words]
Park rangers dug deep Tuesday to remove more than 1,000 marijuana plants from inside Sequoia National Park as law enforcement received federal funds to combat drugs in the Valley. While rangers removed plants from the parks, Tulare County Sheriff's Department deputies and personnel from the California Department of Justice's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting could be found pulling marijuana plants from nearby grow sites on Bureau of Land Management lands. Both grow sites were found in the canyon of the South Fork and Kaweah River. [continues 234 words]
Katrina Campos, 17, was an outgoing tomboy who helped homeless people, but she also was dealing drugs, police say, and that's how she was fatally wounded Tuesday night. Katrina was shot by police during a drug bust Tuesday and died Wednesday night. The bullet pierced her brain above her ear, family members said. Her boyfriend, John Ibarra, 29, remained in critical condition Thursday at University Medical Center. Ibarra now faces a count of murder because Katrina died while he was committing a felony. Police say she was in his car when he tried to ram police officers while trying to escape as officers moved in on a drug transaction on Jensen Avenue near Highway99. [continues 743 words]
More than 7,800 law enforcement, correctional and military agencies worldwide use Tasers as a non-lethal alternative defense weapon, according to Taser International Inc. Based in Scottsdale, Ariz., Taser International is the only manufacturer of the device to date, company spokesman Steve Tuttle said. Despite the weapon's popularity, the company has been sued 35 times in state and federal courts since 2003, according to the company's Aug. 12 quarterly report. There has been only one suit filed in the area, and that is in U.S. District Court by Peorian Jason D. Malone. No cases have been reported in Peoria and Tazewell counties involving Tasers. [continues 378 words]
Authorities Believe Suspect Linked With Mexican Drug Cartel UKIAH - Evidence seized during a major marijuana raid in northern Mendocino County has led to the arrest of a Santa Rosa man suspected of having ties to a Mexican drug cartel. Isaac Maldonado, 26, is in custody in Mendocino County Jail, facing charges of cultivation and possession of marijuana for sale. Maldonado was tracked down after local, state and federal agents last week raided a series of gardens in the remote Red Mountain Creek area near Piercy. [continues 307 words]
Latest Find In Golden Gate Estates Nets 14 Plants, Grow Equipment Another man has been charged in Collier County with growing marijuana indoors. Counting the most recent raid, 23 people have been charged this year with growing marijuana in Collier houses. Thirty houses have been raided. Sheriff's drug agents have seized 3,074 plants and harvested marijuana worth more than $3 million, along with confiscating $182,000 worth of marijuana growing equipment. In connection with the lucrative indoor marijuana growing operations, three men and a woman were murdered this past June in one of the pot grow houses. That investigation is continuing. [continues 105 words]
Scanner Adds To Arsenal Used At Customs It's getting tougher to bring illegal drugs through customs at Winnipeg International Airport as technology grows more sophisticated, customs officials say. One relatively new device now in use at the airport is the Ion Scan testing machine, which Mike Molotkin, customs superintendent at the airport, said can even detect tiny traces of drugs on currency, debit cards and dollar bills. "If you've been in recent contact (with the drug), then the chances of a positive reading are higher," he told the media yesterday on International Customs Day. [continues 315 words]
A retired restaurateur has admitted raising a kitty with other pensioners to buy cannabis which she used in her recipes for "medicinal purposes". Patricia Tabram, a grey-haired grandmother, turned to the drug in an attempt to offset the effects of tinnitus, mild depression and pains after a car crash. She began using it in soups, cakes and hot pots in her country kitchen and introduced others to the secret ingredient. Police raided her stone-built cottage in the village of Humshaugh, near Hexham, Northumberland, after a tip-off. [continues 531 words]
Rogers Gets Funds For UNITE Program PIKEVILLE - A federally funded anti-drug program has entered what U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers called the "most expensive and most difficult" phase of its war on Eastern Kentucky's drug epidemic. After helping arrest nearly 1,300 street-level drug dealers since 2003, UNITE officials joined Rogers yesterday to help launch at least two drug-treatment centers in the mountains. "If our people cannot access the treatment they need, we will not be successful," Rogers told a crowd of local and state officials at Pikeville College. [continues 516 words]
Would Levy Big Fines Winnipeg police are looking at nipping the city's marijuana grow op problem in the bud by hitting homeowners and landlords where it counts -- the pocketbook. Drug unit Sgt. Danny Smyth told The Sun police are exploring the potential benefits of adopting tough new municipal bylaws that are being used in a handful of cities in B.C. and Ontario. Cleaning Costs In Chilliwack, B.C., where residential dope operations have flourished in recent years, offending homeowners and landlords are subject to court-ordered fines of up to $10,000. [continues 398 words]
Lawmakers Think Tightening Access To The Drug Could Curb Meth Production In The State How much inconvenience are you willing endure to buy a package of Sudafed? Will you show identification and sign a log at a pharmacy just to take home the common cold medication? This year's Georgia General Assembly is considering statewide tight restrictions on access to cold and sinus remedies that contain pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used to make methamphetamine, an illegal, homemade stimulant. The goal is to curb meth makers from buying cold medication. [continues 960 words]
Abandoned Pooch Now Sniffs Out Dope Being abandoned turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Jake. Unwanted by his owner, the black Labrador puppy from Kelowna, B.C., was tied to the door handle of a parked car and left to the mercy of a stranger. The stranger took him to the humane society where he lived a short while before he was "discovered" by talent scouts at Canada Border Services Agency. Motivated, Fearless "We took an interest in him, and now he's got a good life," said Connie, a dog handler with Canada Border Services Agency who did not want her last name published to protect Jake's safety. "He's working for a living now." [continues 265 words]
RE "POT shot: U.S. Snowboarder rips Ross" (Jan. 22): Chris Klug imagines that he is making an indictment against Ross Rebagliati by calling him the Bob Marley of snowboarding. Klug is out of touch with reality. Robert Nesta Marley was a self-made man who used his own natural talents and abilities to lift himself from dire poverty in the slums of Kingston to become one of the highest-earning recording artists in the music business across the globe. Bob Marley still sells 10,000 CDs per month. A man who can maintain a prosperous career in a cutthroat, competitive industry more than 20 years after his death is not a man to be mocked by the likes of Chris Klug. I predict that 20 years from now, people will still remember Bob Marley, but they will forget all about Chris Klug. Patricia Schwarz Pasadena, Calif. (A safe bet, we'd say) [end]
A public forum to discuss illegal drugs and other criminal activity will take place Thursday, Feb. 3 at the Community Center. The event will begin at 6:30 p.m. and is scheduled to last several hours. The forum between the police and the public is a result of several mothers speaking out about Wickenburg's drug activity. Mayor Ron Badowski suggested late last year that a forum of this nature take place. Last week, mother and former Wickenburg Unified School Board member Laura Bovee asked the mayor to stand by his words. [continues 147 words]
THE Court of Appeals yesterday issued a freeze order on the bank accounts, amounting to P1.3 billion, of two suspected drug traffickers linked to the shabu laboratory in Mandaue City. The CA 8th Division gave credence to the findings of the Anti-Money Laundering Council that suspects Joseph Yu and Allan Yap Garcia have bank accounts with the Allied Bank and that the money "were the fruits of the crime of both suspects." The suspects were arrested by policemen after the house they were renting in Mandaue City was found to house a shabu laboratory. [continues 90 words]
An impassioned group of mothers appeared in a gesture of unity Monday night when they told the Wickenburg Town Council they wanted something done about the drug activity in town. Led by parent and former Wickenburg Unified School District board member Laura Bovee, a supporting group of about 40 mothers, children and concerned citizens made sure the council got the message loud and clear. "It's gone too far," Bovee said regarding the drug activity in Wickenburg. "We've had kids die, and it's time for the council to listen and take action." [continues 734 words]
