Jerry Springer would love the methadone debate in Bangor, which has looked a lot like a TV talk show for the past several months. It arrived with a smash, like that watermelon dropped out of a 10th-floor window by David Letterman. The rancor in the media has been reminiscent of a Jerry Springer show where daughters were surprised to find out their boyfriends were two-timing them with the girls' mothers. Finally, in response to the city officials playing Joan Rivers ("Can we talk?"), a public hearing on the issue is scheduled for tomorrow night at the Bangor Civic Center. [continues 698 words]
Dr. Sally Weiss (BDN, July 3) now comes forward to deliver her kicks at the lynching of methadone treatment ongoing in Bangor. Her ''two decades of experience demand expression''? Her experience with competing forms of treatment! Why is it that practitioners of these other forms of treatment feel so strongly that they must deprive Bangor patients of even the option of this proven treatment? Advocates of methadone do not say the other treatments must be banned. If Dr. Weiss really has two decades of experience, she would know that there are levels of severity. The new drugs she speaks of may help some cases, and Buprenex should definitely become part of the array of options Bangor presents against the temptations of heroin if it ever makes it out of this Congress, but even its staunchest supporters concede that its limited agonist activity will be woefully inadequate for advanced opiate addiction. Bangor citizens are being presented with a larger question, one which always ends up on the agenda in these controversies: Why don't they want us to have even the option of this treatment? Do any of these vocal opponents have children or loved ones who are addicted? If the subject were cancer, we'd be seeing the radiation therapy specialists trying to ban chemotherapy under the Bangor model currently working against methadone therapy. Look to their financial motives. I suggest Bangor put this to a vote, a vote of those whose families have been affected by this syndrome, not those whose incomes would be challenged by this superior treatment. Bangor must be a top-heavy town. Dave Michon, Spooner, Wis. [end]
The announcement this week that Bangor will hold an informational hearing about a planned methadone maintenance program here is a positive sign in an issue that has produced a lot of debate but not a lot of understanding. The City Council, Acadia Hospital, which would operate the program, and state officials should use this opportunity to turn what has been an acrimonious subject so far into something helpful for the community. Discussion on the subject, often angry, has mostly been on process - who was or was not informed, who gets to influence the decision, what sort of local task force is needed, how the effect on the city would be considered. Now, after several months, it is time to move forward, time to begin acting like a community that knows it has a serious problem in the abuse of heroin and other opiates and is committed to doing something about it together. An informational hearing is not a debate, not a place to say whether you would vote in favor or against a methadone program. Instead, it is a chance for state and local officials, doctors and other medical experts to explain what such a program means, how it operates and why it was proposed. It is a chance for city and hospital officials to set out a background against which it can form a committee to dig into the specifics of this issue. Mental Health Commissioner Lynn Duby is expected to offer the state's perspective at the hearing, but local ideas are needed, too. And law-enforcement officials, including those from cities that already have methadone programs, would be a helpful addition to the discussion. [continues 113 words]
Congress is sending $1.3 billion to Colombia for its war on drugs. The majority view, shared by the president, is that this is necessary because, after the coca leaves are harvested, processed and shipped, it inevitably becomes our war on drugs. The minority view is that Congress is sending $1.3 to Colombia to fight a civil war against insurgents who just happen to be supporting their rebellion by providing protection to the drug cartels because Colombiaís recent history of utterly corrupt government made rebellion the only option. [continues 377 words]
Having worked in a methadone clinic, and treated many people with substance abuse, be it alcohol, tobacco or narcotics such as heroin, two decades of experience demand expression. Addictions are not curable, but they are treatable. Many people find decades of Alcoholics Anonymous necessary to maintain sobriety; needing Narcotics Anonymous after only one year does not deem its program ineffective. Of the three substances I mentioned, heroin is not the most difficult to stop. Methadone is more difficult to stop than heroin, and as a treatment for addiction it is dated; there are newer, less toxic, less addictive treatments available. [continues 174 words]
I must express my frustrations over the current debate regarding the implementation of a methadone maintenance clinic in Bangor. I am very disappointed with the political leaders of our community, who are seemingly willing to stop at nothing to keep a methadone treatment center out of Bangor. The wrong people are being allowed to make a very important decision, one that will have a great effect on the lives of many addicts and their families in our community. The city sees addicts in Bangor as deviants and criminals - this is far from the truth. [continues 736 words]
I read with great interest the article about the Mexican heroin drug bust (BDN, June 16). The Drug Enforcement Agency representative noted that illegal drug dealers-pushers primarily target methadone clinics to sell their illegal drugs. A reason for this is that patients receiving methadone are usually using other illegal drugs at the same time. The experience of the DEA has also shown that drug dealers-pushers can often infiltrate the methadone clinics and direct clients to their sources of illegal drugs, thereby increasing the traffic of illegal drugs in a community (the goal of drug dealers). [continues 232 words]
Helping Colombia expand its war against drugs will cost U.S. taxpayers $1.3 billion. Keeping American troops deployed in Kosovo and aiding Americans stricken by disasters here at home runs to an additional $4.1 billion. Rebuilding fire-damaged Los Alamos National Laboratory could go as high as $448 million. Important undertakings, important enough for Congress to agree to fund them with emergency legislation. Expensive undertakings, but not so expensive that they add up to the $12 billion Congress is considering. [continues 513 words]
BANGOR -- In another attempt by the city to avoid the state's proposal to open a methadone treatment clinic in Bangor, officials teamed up Monday with staff from the Northeast Occupational Exchange Inc. to announce a new "drug-free" opiate treatment program. Monday's press conference, called by the U.S. Attorney's Office Communities Against Heroin task force, was a new wrinkle in the ongoing, contentious debate about whether the city would benefit from a methadone program designed to treat heroin and opiate addicts. [continues 1258 words]
Recent arrests by police in Bangor and statewide should remove any doubts that Maine is seeing an increase in the use of heroin and the abuse of highly addictive prescription drugs. The recent compromise between the state and the city of Bangor to discuss treatment options, however, falls short of what's needed. Mental Health Commissioner Lynn Duby and City Council Chairman Michael Aube last week agreed to shelve a plan for an in-depth look at methadone and other types of treatment in favor of a public forum on the issue. A forum is a fine way to get a sense of what the public thinks about a methadone clinic and may even answer some basic questions about the drug. But it doesn't allow the city to participate in making formal recommendations about how to proceed. [continues 324 words]
BANGOR — A hotly debated proposal to locate a methadone clinic here took several turns Friday, ending with the dropping of a proposal to create a controversial task force to study the issue. Commissioner Lynn Duby of the Department of Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services announced on Friday the decision to scrap the proposed 20-member task force in favor of a single public forum to discuss the treatment of opiate addicts in Bangor. In what has become an often heated and notably political tug of war, state officials cited the city's recent objections to the task force's makeup as an impetus for the decision. [continues 911 words]
There has been a lot of discussion recently concerning the scourge of heroin and other opiate drug use in the Bangor area. I applaud the Bangor Daily News and U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey for initiating this dialogue. We are all rightly concerned about our citizens and the impact of drug abuse on both the individual drug user and the city of Bangor. To date, the discussion has focused on how to treat the opiate-addicted individual. There are many viable options for helping people with drug problems. [continues 366 words]
BANGOR - State and federal drug investigators visited several pharmacies in eastern Maine this week in an effort to combat recent trends in prescription narcotics fraud and abuse, officials said. This week's action, dubbed an "intelligence mission" by state drug officials, centered on pharmacies in Penobscot and Washington counties, where reports of opiate misuse and diversion have sparked concern among law enforcement officials including the drug diversion team of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. "We're looking to identify any potential problems in the world of prescription drugs," said Peter A. Arno, supervisor at the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency in Bangor, describing the purpose of this week's random visits. "And everybody recognizes there's a problem." [continues 436 words]
The United States’ policy to criminalize the illness of drug addiction is an abject failure. Are we as a country so stupid we have to relearn the Prohibition lesson of the last century? We learned with alcohol abuse that the medical model (treating alcohol abuse as an illness) produces the best results by most measures. Isn’t it time to decriminalize other drug addictions? Methadone clinics are a step in the right direction. Franklin E. Bragg, M.D. Bangor [end]
As an emergency nurse in Washington County, I was horrified to read your first installment about the drug abuse problem in this area. Is there a problem? Absolutely. Is it getting worse? No question. I see the results of this abuse routinely and I know how wide-spread it is. To bring attention to the problem is important, however, your article read as a primer for those who may not yet have got involved with this unfortunate condition. For those in the audience who were not able to follow along by reading, you so very thoughtfully provided pictures. Responsible journalism? I think not. [continues 94 words]
I love this time of year for many reasons. Summer is heading this way, the days are longer and one of the best lessons in DARE takes place. Last week at Fairmount School, the role model lessons were held for fifth-graders. The concept is quite simple. Kids from Bangor High School and John Bapst Memorial High School come and share with the kids the importance of not using drugs, not resorting to violence to solve problems and the benefit of a good education. [continues 733 words]
Having approved the medicinal use of marijuana last November, Mainers will have to wait until at least this coming November, and possibly longer, before sick people can receive the drug. That may be for the best. LD 2580, a bill that would have put a registration and distribution system in place to get seized marijuana to the sick, was amended into a study commission led by the Attorney General's Office. That task force, which meets for the first time May 9, is expected to come up with ways to honor the voters' will by Oct. 1. [continues 694 words]
The op-ed commentary by U. S. Attorney Jay McCloskey about the metha-done clinic proposed for Bangor (BDN, April 13) causes me to respond. First, it is important to acknowledge that we are fortunate to have law enforcement officials in our community who are vigilant and concerned about the ever-increasing problems of illegal drug use. Acadia Hospital has always been supportive of efforts by law enforcement to reduce illegal drug use in our community. As U.S. Attorney McCloskey re-minded us recently, four heroin-related deaths in Bangor have occurred since 1998. What is important to know is that there are many more people being routinely treated for drug overdose in the emergency rooms of our local hospitals. [continues 900 words]
Being 41 and a lifelong resident of Washington County, I have witnessed with despair the growing horror of opiate addiction in Maine. I have watched as friends from all walks of life have succumbed to this deadly evil. I have seen how people have progressed from Percocet to OxyContin, to Dilaudid and other opiate substances in their ever-growing quest for the warm cuddly feeling. I have seen how loved ones can go from using Percocet to being daily users of the methadone clinic in Portland. I have noted that opiate addiction seems to start with recreational prescription drug use. Then when the script runs out addicts run to Bangor and cities south to fill their need with illegal heroin. [continues 191 words]
I applaud the BDN and Renee Ordway for two very informative articles on April 6, "Narcotics abuse on rise" and "Methadone clinic put on hold." I don ’t understand local law enforcement and the U.S. attorney’s opposition. Could it be job security? Why build a clinic when we have perfectly good jails? Tim Dunn, Carrabassett Valley [end]
Low-cost, high-purity heroin has come to northern Maine. Within the past 18 months, the law enforcement community has seen a dramatic increase in heroin use in Penobscot and Hancock counties. Abuse of prescription drugs, such as Oxycodone-Oxycontin, which are used for a "heroin-like high," has also dramatically increased. Since October 1998, there have been four heroin-related deaths in Bangor. In Penobscot County there was a 176 percent increase in admissions reporting heroin as a substance used-abused from 1998 to 1999. The Bangor Police Department has reported a significant increase in the number of thefts and burglaries committed by heroin users seeking money to sustain their habits. Kids - high school-aged and younger - are known to be using heroin in the Greater Bangor area. [continues 706 words]
The Mental Health Department's flexibility in postponing a methadone treatment program in Bangor was a positive sign for the city and the potential treatment program itself. Federal, state and local officials can use the next couple of months to get a better appreciation of each other's concerns and devise the best answer for the region. Heroin and the synthetic opiates are being found in Maine in increasing amounts, with a parallel increase in crime. Though first detected in southern Maine several years ago, the problem more recently has spread statewide. A recent survey of Medicaid narcotic use or abuse shows some startling results, particularly in Washington County. More than half the patients seeking treatment at Acadia Recovery Clinic in Bangor are opiate addicts -- some heroin, some pharmaceutical drugs, some both. [continues 419 words]
AUGUSTA -- A bill debated Monday would put the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency in the unusual role of distributing marijuana as medicine. LD 2580, ''An Act to Provide Legal Access to Marijuana for Medical Use,'' would allow eligible patients to register voluntarily with the Department of Human Services in order to get as much as 4 ounces a month of confiscated marijuana from the Maine DEA. In November, Maine voters passed the Maine Medical Marijuana Initiative, which legalized marijuana use by people with certain illnesses. The problem is that there is no distribution system for legal use of the illegal drug. An Attorney General's task force is studying the issue. [continues 754 words]
Blaming Massachusetts and New York for Maine’s drug problem is nothing more than ignoring local responsibility while engaging in a bigoted scapegoating of others, be they called ``flatlanders,'' ``Colombians'' or other adjectives which ought not to appear in a family newspaper. Sixteen-year-old Maine children become addicted to heroin because of things that happen in the state of Maine, and not because there are three bridges over the Piscataqua River. Twenty years ago, most of the cocaine that came into the entire Northeast came through Penobscot Bay. Even though it was physically present, very few schoolchildren used it because Maine was a very different state back then. Children were expected to respect their parents, parents were expected to know where (and with whom) their children were, and everyone had a whole lot more respect for their local school system. [continues 444 words]
CALAIS -- Fearful that a student might end up in the hospital or dead because of a drug overdose, the school committee has taken an aggressive approach to solving the drug problem in the schools. Tuesday night, the committee held the first of several meetings to develop a consistent drug and alcohol policy that can cope with the substance-abuse realities of the 21st century. School committee members Nancy Gillis and Tracy DeWitt are spearheading the effort. Volunteers from a cross section of students, parents, staff and professionals will be included in a committee that will develop the new policy. A meeting is scheduled for 5 p.m. tonight at the Calais High School. [continues 691 words]
SULLIVAN - In an effort to clarify Sumner Memorial High School's current drug and alcohol policy, school officials have taken a fine-tooth comb to the policy's wording, trimming away statements they believe could lead to confusion among teachers, parents, students and law enforcement officials. Sally Leighton, the school's principal, said Friday that the school board approved changes to the drug and alcohol policy in December after seeing other schools in Hancock and Washington counties struggle with parents and students over the exact requirements of their policies. The changes to the policy were made, Leighton said, "so that we were clear as to what our [policy] did say." [continues 283 words]
CALAIS - Area residents concerned about a drug problem that exists among the city's youth are urged to attend a Drug and Alcohol Policy meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday night in the multipurpose room at the elementary school. Earlier this month the school committee, faced with a growing concern about drug use by children, appointed school committee members Tracy DeWitt and Nancy Gillis to form a committee to draft a new drug policy for the city's three schools. [continues 418 words]
BANGOR -- On Monday morning, the way the state deals with a serious problem will undergo a major overhaul with the start of a nationally acclaimed juvenile drug court. Maine Chief Justice Daniel Wathen hopes the program will help set the state's youthful offenders on a path of rehabilitation instead of repeat offenses. The five drug courts will be located in Bangor, Biddeford, West Bath, Augusta-Waterville and Portland. Juveniles referred to the program will undergo extensive drug treatment and will have their progress monitored weekly by state judges. Two major goals of the program are to reduce recidivism by treating the offenders' substance abuse problem and to reduce the incarceration rate of some juveniles. [continues 727 words]
BANGOR - The morning after Maine voters overwhelmingly passed a referendum legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes, the state's top drug cop sat in his office at Maine Drug Enforcement Agency headquarters and pondered the five-page document outlining the new rules governing use of the substance. Will drug agents, for example, be able to easily distinguish between drug traffickers and "caregivers,'' wondered MDEA director Roy McKinney. Identifying legal users is one of several questions law enforcement officials and prosecutors had Wednesday as they prepared to deal with the new law, which takes effect 30 days after the vote is officially tallied. [continues 1013 words]
BANGOR - Maine voters said yes to the use of marijuana for medical purposes by a wide margin Tuesday. With most of the votes counted, 62 percent of voters were in favor of legalizing pot for certain medical conditions, while 39 percent were opposed. Only in Aroostook and Washington counties was passage of the issue close at 1 a.m. York County approved the question by 2-to-1. Voters in Bangor approved the initiative 5,225 to 3,736. "We think it's clear Maine people have taken a stronger stand for a compassionate drug policy than has the federal government,'' said Craig Brown, coordinator for Mainers for Medical Rights, which spearheaded the pro-pot campaign. [continues 505 words]
AUGUSTA - A new statewide poll released Wednesday concluded the outcome of a proposed ban on late-term abortions in next week's referendum is simply too close to call. Meanwhile the medicinal marijuana initiative continues to retain strong support with three out of five voters surveyed supporting the measure. Conducted by Survey USA for the Bangor Daily News, WCSH 6 and WLBZ 2 television stations, the Newscenter Bullet Poll questioned 500 likely voters Monday and Tuesday evening on the top two ballot questions. [continues 1046 words]
We Americans celebrate a rich history. Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln are honored with special days. But some signal events seem to be greeted with embarrassed silence. The year 1999 marks the 80th anniversary of Prohibition. With both Maine and the nation today badly divided over various forms of marijuana regulation, Prohibition merits far more attention than it receives in most history texts. More than just a transient phenomenon, Prohibition was the archetype of a politics of personal reform that has been the hallmark of our culture. In the colonial era, upper middle-class citizens attempted to limit drinking to those they considered ``respected and responsible citizens.'' That category carried with it both ethnic and class connotations. Drunkards were condemned to jail or required to wear the scarlet D. Yet even in an era when such draconian punishment was seldom challenged and personal privacy often violated, overall success rates seem to have been minimal. One historian has labeled late 18th and early 19th century America ``the alcoholic republic.'' [continues 642 words]
Do you want to allow patients with specific illnesses to grow and use small amounts of marijuana for treatment, as long as such use is approved by a doctor? The arguments in favor of medical use of marijuana are well laid out in a 1997 New England Journal of Medicine editorial included in the information packets provided by Mainers for Medical Rights, the group that initiated this referendum: The advanced stages of many illnesses and their treatments are often accompanied by nausea, vomiting, pain and loss of appetite; thousands of cancer and AIDS patients have found striking relief from these symptoms by smoking marijuana; many of these patients and their families have risked jail to obtain the drug. [continues 355 words]
Your Sept. 22 article, "Poll shows support for medical marijuana" contains factual errors which must be corrected. The article said The Maine Medical Association last week voted to oppose the referendum because it was so vague and the ballot question asks if voters support the use of marijuana to treat specific illnesses without defining what those illnesses are. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact is the Maine Medical Marijuana initiative is very specific in listing the diseases covered. The act specifically lists the following medical conditions as the only conditions covered by the act: [continues 191 words]
The article said The Maine Medical Association last week voted to oppose the referendum because it was so vague and the ballot question asks if voters support the use of marijuana to treat specific illnesses without defining what those illnesses are. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The fact is the Maine Medical Marijuana initiative is very specific in listing the diseases covered. The act specifically lists the following medical conditions as the only conditions covered by the act: 1. Persistent nausea, vomiting, wasting syndrome of loss of appetite as a result of: acquired immune deficiency syndrome or the treatment thereof; or chemotherapy or radiation therapy used to treat cancer; [continues 156 words]
BAR HARBOR - A professional association of Maine doctors expects to decide today whether it will oppose a measure on November's statewide ballot that would legalize medical use of marijuana. A four-doctor panel wrestled with the issue Thursday, the first day of the Maine Medical Association's annual meeting. The panel debated a proposed resolution that would put the association squarely at odds with the November citizen initiative. Results of the panel's deliberations will be presented to the association's House of Delegates this morning. The delegates will then have the opportunity to amend, accept or deny the resolution. [continues 647 words]
While it seems unlikely the Maine Medical Association will support a fall referendum intended to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, the medical field is by no means of one mind on the value and safety of the drug. Some doctors consider marijuana a traditional medicine that has been swept aside and vilified unjustly. Others see it as a mind-altering drug that has no medical benefits that cannot be found in tested and approved prescription drugs. In late August the Maine Medical Association's public health committee unanimously recommended that the MMA's House of Delegates publicly oppose the referendum, which would allow patients suffering from persistent nausea and vomiting, glaucoma, seizures and other symptoms to possess and use limited amounts of marijuana. [continues 1424 words]
The Legislature had a lot of good reasons to reject the citizen-initiated bill legalizing marijuana for medical purposes. The one given -- that voters should decide this by referendum -- isn't among them. Referendum is a valuable, important tool in representative democracy, especially when used for issues of conscience when the will of the majority does not trample the rights of the minority. The extent to which recreational drugs should be legalized or controlled may someday be such an issue. The issue here, however, isn't what people should or should not be able to do in their spare time in the privacy of their homes. This is about safe, effective medicine and good science. That's a matter for the laboratory, not the voting booth. [continues 387 words]
I came from another state to care for my ill sister-in-law in October. She was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. I have watched her die an inch at a time. The medications prescribed for the nausea do not work, but marijuana does. The medical community knows this, but they realize this is a hot-potato issue. There is a marijuana pill, but it is not as effective as smoking. I have never tried pot and my sister-in-law is in her mid-70s, but after watching her retch more than 30 times, I felt it was time for her to try it, and it worked. [continues 89 words]
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday let stand two requirements for people who circulate voter initiative petitions in Maine. The justices, without comment, refused to review a ruling by Maine's highest court that had upheld requirements that people who circulate voter initiative petitions be registered to vote in Maine and be legal residents of the state. The U.S. Supreme Court struck down similar requirements imposed by Colorado just last month. In its Jan. 12 ruling, the court limited state regulation of voter initiatives by striking down as "excessively restrictive of political speech" several methods Colorado used to police such measures. [continues 219 words]
PORTLAND -- Maine law enforcement agencies seized 9,900 marijuana plants worth an estimated $23 million last year, according to the head of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. Roy McKinney said Maine law enforcement officers also seized 127 pounds of processed marijuana, 117 guns and nearly $250,000 in cash. They also made 87 arrests. McKinney released the numbers this week at the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Waterville. Law enforcement agencies who participated in the fight against marijuana include state and local police, sheriff's departments, Maine Warden Service, Civil Air Patrol and federal agencies. [end]
BELFAST - Suggesting that caffeine was more harmful than marijuana, Waldo County Superior Court Justice William S. Brodrick rejected the prosecution's call for extended jail time and sentenced an admitted pot smoker to 30 days. Brodrick sentenced John Thompson, 40, of Frankfort, the town's road commissioner, to one year in jail with all but 30 days suspended, a $1,000 fine and two years probation after Thompson pleaded guilty to unlawful trafficking in scheduled drugs. Assistant Waldo County District Attorney Leane Zainea had argued for a four-year sentence with all but one year suspended. [continues 289 words]
Supporters of doctor-assisted suicide have tried four times to pass a bill legalizing "death with dignity.'' Each time the bill failed by huge margins. Now they're trying a new tactic, one that is increasingly common in recent years: a citizen initiative. And for the volunteers who went to the polls on Tuesday carrying petitions, things just got a lot easier. Instead of having to collect 51,131 signatures from registered voters around the state, they will probably only need something like 42,000 signatures. Every vote counts. That's more true than ever in an election with low turnout, not only for the individual races decided by just a handful of votes, but also for the effect it has on the next year's ballot. [continues 776 words]
- -- Supporters of doctor-assisted suicide have tried four times to pass a bill legalizing "death with dignity.'' Each time the bill failed by huge margins. Now they're trying a new tactic, one that is increasingly common in recent years: a citizen initiative. And for the volunteers who went to the polls on Tuesday carrying petitions, things just got a lot easier. Instead of having to collect 51,131 signatures from registered voters around the state, they will probably only need something like 42,000 signatures. Every vote counts. That's more true than ever in an election with low turnout, not only for the individual races decided by just a handful of votes, but also for the effect it has on the next year's ballot. [continues 776 words]
- -- ROCKLAND - Police Chief Alfred Ockenfels is fed up with drug dealers out on bail and still dealing drugs. "I blame our judicial system when persons with prior drug counts are released on bail or given fines instead of being sent to jail," Ockenfels said Monday. "How else is a drug trafficker going to make his bail or pay his fines other than doing what he knows best?" Ockenfels' observation was made in response to the arrest on Friday of two alleged local drug traffickers. Robert Harford, 43, of Rockport and William Burns, 45, of Rockland were both arrested as part of an ongoing undercover drug investigation by city police and the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency. [continues 353 words]
ATHENS - Law officers discovered recently that not only can helicopters be used to spot marijuana growing operations from the air, their thumping blades can tip off the growers that they"ve been had. Somerset County drug officers arrested Herbert "Ted" Hampe, 35, Friday night after they spotted marijuana growing on his property from the air. At the same time they spotted the pot, Hampe spotted them, according to Detective Lt. Carl Gottardi II of the Somerset County Sheriff"s Department. "Before we could land and get back there, he harvested about 160 plants," said the detective. Hampe was arrested after he was discovered hiding under a truck parked by the growing field. More than 300 marijuana plants were confiscated, along with a cache of mushrooms, pills and cultivation equipment. [continues 203 words]
STARKS - The eighth annual Hempstock festival with the Maine Vocals as hosts begins today with celebration, music and food at Harry Brown's farm in Starks. More than 8,000 fans are expected to descend on the Somerset County town in support of legalized marijuana. More than 30 bands are scheduled to play over the four-day event, according to Maine Vocals founder Don Christen. Many of the groups are donating their time to help raise funds for the effort to repeal marijuana prohibition, he said. [continues 448 words]
CAMDEN - Just as the town is divided over recent police actions, so is the Board of Selectmen over the idea of forming a task force to review Police Department policies. The selectmen voted 3-2 this week to create a task force to review police policies in the aftermath of public complaints about the way the department conducted a drug bust last month. Some in town deplored the methods used, others commended police for working to keep the town drug free. [continues 805 words]
SKOWHEGAN - Brick after brick of marijuana, each triple-wrapped in blue, brown, and then clear plastic wrap, were weighed Wednesday morning by detectives from the Somerset County Sheriff's Department. "This is the way they are wrapped for shipment in and out of state," Detective Carl Gottardi explained. "It's to mask the odor." Spices had been sprinkled over the 53 bricks to further disguise the heavy smell of pot. "This is very professional," the detective said, "and very high-grade, worth about $2,000 a pound." [continues 234 words]
SKOWHEGAN - Local police, working with a Maine Drug Enforcement agent who posed as a United Parcel Service delivery man, seized 8 pounds of marijuana and 2 ounces of methamphetamine in a package sent to a Skowhegan residence from Arizona. Skowhegan Police Chief Butch Asselin said the drugs seized Friday night from 19 Parlin St. had a street value of more than $20,000. The chief said no arrests were made, but charges are pending. Asselin said MDEA agents called his department Friday morning about the delivery to a local residence of a package from Arizona containing drugs. [continues 222 words]
