A law that took effect July 1 legalized hemp and CBD products containing traces of THC, the compound in marijuana that gets you high. But field tests and crime labs haven't caught up. Texas hemp enterpreneur Zachary Miller, interviewed here by a television reporter, was arrested in Okaloosa County after products found in his car tested positive for THC. THC is illegal in Florida unless prescribed by a doctor for medical use but trace amounts are allowed in now-legal hemp products. [Courtesy of Zachary Miller] [continues 1525 words]
It can be bought online and shipped to your doorstep, like shoes from Zappos or a mystery novel from Amazon. It's cheap, just $40 for a gram. Nicknames: pink, U4. Potency: eight times more powerful than morphine. Death toll: at least 50 and counting. Two recent casualties should be incentive enough to clamp down on the drug's availability and the people who profit from it. Best friends Grant Seaver and Ryan Ainsworth from Park City, Utah, got their hands on the drug, formally named U-47700, through a teenage friend who bought it online from a company in Shanghai. Both Seaver and Ainsworth were 13. Grant's parents found him dead from an overdose of pink Sept. 11. Two days later, Ryan's father found his son dead on the couch. [continues 432 words]
The only sure way to know if the dire warnings against Amendment 2 (medical marijuana) will happen is to vote it in and find out. Fortunately for Florida, other states have already done that. The four states where marijuana is fully legal began with medical marijuana about 15 years before. Those years of experience told voters that the dire predictions were wrong. Amendment 2 is tightly written, with many safeguards, including room for the Legislature to act. Floridians are beneficiaries of the 'laboratory of the states.' If Amendment 2 passes and does not live up to its hoped-for benefits, Floridians will surely reject full legalization. John G. Chase, Palm Harbor [end]
A Mother Risks Prison and Splits Up Her Family in a Desperate Attempt to Rid Her Son of Cancer. The Rockies unfurled outside Kristen Yeckley's passenger window, but she kept her eyes on the speedometer. No more than 5 mph over the limit, she urged her mother. Hands at 10 and 2. She had stayed up past 3 a.m., sobbing, praying, plotting the route back to Pinellas Park. The drive meant committing a federal crime with her 5-year-old son in the backseat. Kristen kept imagining handcuffs, the fear on Tyler's trusting face. If they were pulled over, she would use his medical records to plead for sympathy. She and her husband, Joe, had saved up for their dream home with a backyard pool. They had comfortable jobs, poker nights, a college fund in their son's name. Then came Tyler's diagnosis. When doctors said he was out of options, Kristen and Joe vowed to do anything, even split up their family, to give Tyler a chance with a treatment Florida doesn't allow. That brought Kristen to the sloping road out of Colorado last summer, 2,000 miles from home - with vials of liquid medical marijuana buried in her mother's suitcase. Worry first tugged at Kristen in the line to see Santa Claus. [continues 4161 words]
A 29-Year-Old Man Was Killed In A Raid That Was Later Deemed Justified. Police Found $2 Worth of pot. TAMPA - The mother of a man who was shot and killed by Tampa police officers during a raid on his home in 2014 has sued the city, its former police chief and the officers involved over her son's death. The lawsuit, filed late last week in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, accuses the police of negligence for acting on the word of an informer with a history of heavy drug use and criminal activity. It also says that officers used excessive force against 29-year-old Jason Westcott, who was killed, and his boyfriend Israel 'Izzy' Reyes, who was 22 and is a plaintiff in the lawsuit. [continues 603 words]
Recent statistics from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office show that although African-Americans are 10 percent of the county population, they represent 41 percent of the arrests for minor amounts of marijuana. National statistics have prompted the American Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties Union to call for the decriminalization of the possession of up to 20 grams of marijuana by making it a civil violation, punishable by a ticket, rather than a criminal offense. I proposed creating a civil citation program in St. Petersburg in October. This proposal does not legalize small amounts of marijuana or the other minor offenses covered in the ordinance. It does make the punishment fit the crime. No one deserves a permanent criminal record or to be forced into drug treatment for possessing small amounts of marijuana. No one's future job prospects should be limited for littering or stealing a shopping cart. [continues 576 words]
Re: Heroin epidemic demands a federal response - March 8, commentary I don't doubt that Rep. Vern Buchanan's motives are good, but he proposes trying harder on a policy that has never worked in 100 years: the federally supported drug war. He writes of 'disrupting the local and global heroin supply chain' and 'federal grants to combat drugs' and his 'fight against bogus pill mills.' That's the same drug war-speak we've been hearing forever. I suggest we ask the Swiss for help. Their policy began in 1994 as an experiment, then expanded and was voted by referendum in 2008 to be part of their health services. Methadone is not a 'controlled substance.' The goal is not abstinence. Addicts who cannot get by on methadone are prescribed heroin. Most important, there is no heroin supply chain to disrupt; it dried up because there was little profit in it. John G. Chase, Palm Harbor [end]
For millions of families, including those in our own Florida communities, a drug-fueled pattern of devastation and heartbreak has become a painful part of life. Too many of our loved ones are losing their struggle with heroin and other addictive substances. The facts are sobering. Thousands of Americans die each year from heroin, the most addictive drug on the planet. In Florida, heroin overdose deaths have increased 900 percent in recent years, rising from 48 in 2010 to 447 in 2014. [continues 425 words]
The Tampa City Council should approve an ordinance that favors civil citations over arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana. The council gave its initial endorsement to the rule last week and should give final authorization when the issue comes up for a vote later this month. There is no need to create potentially life-altering criminal records over minor infractions for people who could use a second chance. Council members voted 6-1 on Thursday to allow people caught with less than 20 grams of marijuana to receive a civil citation and pay a fine rather than face jail time. Under the proposal, the first infraction would cost offenders $75. Subsequent offenses would rack up fines of $150, $300 and $450. If the council grants final approval and Mayor Bob Buckhorn backs the effort as expected, it could take effect as soon as April. [continues 354 words]
Decriminalization of marijuana is coming as a refreshing breeze. We Americans deal ourselves a triple whammy when we enforce a law that makes a felony of behavior that is not criminal. First, there is the waste of taxpayer money to enforce that law. Second, there's the loss to society of contributions the felon would have made if he had not been fighting the charge. Third, there's the loss of respect by the public for a criminal justice system that focuses on small offenses. [continues 53 words]
The Tampa City Council is right to explore ways to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana by issuing civil citations. Council members should look seriously at the issue and adopt a measure that will appropriately punish lawbreakers without saddling them with criminal records as a similar effort continues in St. Petersburg and Pinellas County. In a unanimous decision last week, Tampa City Council members voted to discuss the creation of a civil citation ordinance. In February, the council plans to look at what other local governments have done and determine how to best move forward in Tampa. Separately, Mayor Bob Buckhorn said police and city attorneys have been working on a civil citation ordinance for eight months. [continues 321 words]
The liberal media has demonized mandatory minimum drug sentences, referring to them as punishment for 'nonviolent' crimes. What about the violence that illegal narcotics have done to a large segment of our population? Comparing the cost of incarcerating drug offenders with the cost of drug damage would be instructive. Mandatory minimum sentences played a major role in reducing the flow of illegal drugs into Florida and the rest of the country. We seem to have lost that bit of history. I spent seven years interviewing federal drug prisoners for intelligence on successful drug smuggling. The information was obtained at little cost. None of these inmates would have cooperated were it not for their attempts to reduce sentences. Charles M . Fuss Jr., St. Pete Beach [end]
Florida Gov. Rick Scott is going to have to think outside the drug war box if he wants to reduce heroin overdose deaths. Groundbreaking research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that states with open medical marijuana access have a 25 percent lower opioid overdose death rate than marijuana prohibition states. This research finding has huge implications for states like Florida that are grappling with prescription narcotic and heroin overdose deaths. The substitution effect was documented by California physicians long before the JAMA research. Legal marijuana access is correlated with a reduction in opioid and alcohol abuse. The marijuana plant is incapable of causing an overdose death. Not even aspirin can make the same claim, much less alcohol or prescription narcotics. The phrase 'if it saves one life' has been used to justify all manner of drug war abuses. Legal marijuana access has the potential to save thousands of lives. Robert Sharpe, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
A surge in heroin use in Hillsborough County and throughout Florida underscores the need for increased state funding for substance abuse treatment and mental health services. Gov. Rick Scott has wisely recognized that Florida is not doing enough to help people addicted to drugs and living with mental illness, and the Legislature next year should follow his lead and invest more money in these critical services. Heroin deaths in Florida reached an all-time high in 2014 of 447 people, according to a report released last week by state medical examiners. Hillsborough County recorded 22 heroin-related deaths in 2014, up from just three a year earlier. Officials have already linked 18 Hillsborough deaths to heroin in the first half of this year. Public health officials across the country say law enforcement's crackdown on doctor shopping, pill mills and the opioid drug oxycodone has prompted the addicted to look for an alternative. Increasingly, drug users are turning to heroin, a relatively inexpensive opioid that is easy to obtain as drug cartels from Mexico find ways to produce a more potent product and smuggle it north, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The spike in heroin deaths highlights an enormous gap in the care offerings for drug addicts, a problem Florida would be smart to quickly address. [continues 216 words]
Why Is Unclear, But The Surge Comes As Prescription Drug Deaths Drop Heroin deaths are on the rise across the Tampa Bay region - but they're exploding in Hillsborough County. Heroin has killed four times as many people in Hillsborough in the past two years as it did in all of the previous four years combined. Data from the Hillsborough Medical Examiner's Department reflects a dramatic increase in fatalities attributed to the drug, which has seen a resurgence statewide and nationally following a crackdown on the prescription drug abuse epidemic. [continues 956 words]
Supporters of a movement to legalize marijuana for medical use in Florida reached an important milestone last week, gaining enough valid petition signatures to prompt a Florida Supreme Court review of the ballot language. This was expected after the effort fell just shy of winning enough votes in 2014 and the Legislature refused to take up the issue this year. It should be clearer than ever to legislators that they have one more chance to pass legislation that legalizes medical marijuana or voters likely will do it themselves next year by amending the state Constitution. [continues 277 words]
Kudos to columnist John Romano for acknowledging that it is long past time to correct Florida's 'ill-advised anti-marijuana crusade.' No other state routinely punishes minor marijuana infractions more severely than Florida. Under state law, marijuana possession of 20 grams or less (about two-thirds of an ounce) is a criminal misdemeanor punishable by up to one year imprisonment and a $1,000 fine. Marijuana possession over 20 grams, as well as the cultivation of even a single pot plant, are defined by law as felony offenses - punishable by up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Annually, an estimated 60,000 Floridians are arrested for possessing marijuana, the third-highest total of any state. [continues 73 words]
As America entered the 21st century, Florida became the home of retirees, tourists and prescription drug abusers. Law enforcement officials referred to Interstate 75 as the 'Oxy Express,' as people flooded into Florida to take advantage of the state's easy access to drugs. 'Florida was ground zero for pill mills,' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Simon Gaugush. During a six-month period in 2010 at just one pill mill in Tampa, 1,906 patients from 23 states made 4,715 visits. Doctors at this one facility wrote prescriptions for 1 million oxycodone pills. [continues 2762 words]
Re: Notorious drug kingpin escapes | July 13 In Don Winslow's most recent book, The Cartel, he describes the elaborately choreographed escape of the head of the fictional El Federacin, the world's most powerful drug cartel. The book's time proximity to Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's escape (it was just published in June) gives Winslow's story a prescient quality. Winslow's account also undercuts the simplistic accusation (made by Donald Trump among others) that the escape is evidence of Mexican malevolence toward the United States. By portraying the global impact and political complexities of the illegal drug business, he shows that it is the marketplace that determines the direction of the drug business. Thus it is not a problem that will be solved by changing immigration law or policy. How would tweaking immigration policy have curtailed the illegal importation of alcohol during Prohibition? [continues 64 words]
Tommy Powell, international drug smuggler, picked an odd time to think about where he would like to retire. It was 1984. Powell, who was just in his mid 30s, had been extradited after spending a decade on the lam overseas. He stood accused of importing more than 300,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States. A maximum sentence of life plus 70 years would have left details of his retirement entirely in the hands of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. [continues 1350 words]
