TEN years ago, California voters were first in the nation to legalize the medical use of marijuana. We managed the Proposition 215 campaign, and later had similar success in six other states. When Proposition 215 appeared on the California ballot, political leaders and pundits of all stripes urged voters to oppose it. They made some dramatic predictions about what would happen if it passed. Let's go back and see how right, or wrong, they were. President Bill Clinton's drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey, was blunt: Legal acceptance of the medical use of marijuana would "cause drug abuse to increase among our children." [continues 616 words]
SANTA CLARITA -- Specialists who work with local kids in therapeutic programs and in the schools say drug and alcohol use among teens and adolescents is skewing younger and younger. Statistics are hard to come by, but workers in the trenches say more 13- and 14-year-olds are paying a price for tangling with off-limits substances. "We're getting called more and more by the middle schools to do drug tests for kids and we're coming in and doing early interventions on kids a lot," said Cary Quashen, founder of the nonprofit ACTION parent and teen support program. "We're finding pot, alcohol, and over-the-counter drugs like (cough medicine) seem to be real big with young people." [continues 912 words]
Police Recruitment Rules Draw The Line At Meth, Heroin To help alleviate concerns that the Los Angeles Police Department has loosened its drug policy for hiring recruits, the Personnel Department and the LAPD said they've committed to rejecting applicants who have tried methamphetamine, heroin and hard drugs other than cocaine. Personnel and police officials noted Wednesday that they haven't actually hired anybody who has experimented with those drugs, but they wanted to make it clear they won't consider recruits who have tried hard drugs other than cocaine. [continues 215 words]
Welcome to Miami Vice: The Real World. MTV-style cutting and camera tricks make you think directors Billy Corben and Alfred Spellman are trying to out-Michael Mann the original "Vice" show for a while. But soon it's clear "Cocaine Cowboys" is an alternately jazzed-up/talking-too-much-heads documentary about the Miami drug trade of the 1970s and '80s. Things settle down once all the main players are established, and a wealth of information about an extraordinary organized-crime phenomenon is imparted. [continues 376 words]
BACK in the early 1960s, I often sneaked into Mexico at the San Diego-Tijuana border. Too young to cross legally, I'd coil up in the trunk of Charlie Romero's '54 Merc. My buddies and I would head straight for the notorious Blue Fox to guzzle Carta Blancas, shoot Cuervo Gold, and take in the "adult entertainment" acts. This was not all Mexico had to offer, of course. And it was sexist and exploitative, not something I'd want my own kid doing. Yet the frontera of Mexico felt safe, even for a 16-year-old. [continues 1021 words]
Restrictions on Ingredients Are Working, Authorities Say Seizures of methamphetamine labs across California declined by nearly 40 percent last year, in part due to laws restricting the sale of over-the-counter cold medicines used to make the drug, government officials said Monday. The continued decline in California mirrored trends nationwide, which saw a 30 percent decline in seizures from 2004 to 2005. Nationally, police seized 12,100 labs in 2005, compared with 17,500 in 2004, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. [continues 425 words]
The plainly labeled brown door on the second floor of a Studio City office gives no indication of the marijuana being sold inside. Valley Collective Care keeps the deadbolt locked. Inside sits an armed security guard; another watches over the stock. There is a surveillance TV in the lobby, a few copies of Amsterdam News and a white poster board with the handwritten message of the Fourth Amendment, protection from warrantless searches. Between 11 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily, patients walk in with a slip of paper and an ID, and a few minutes later leave with a cure for what ails them. [continues 1582 words]
Valley dispensary is a far cry from '70s 'head shops' One of the San Fernando Valley's newest medical marijuana dispensaries sits in a black stucco building, adjacent to the Xposed full nude club. Racy business cards for the club and next-door bar, The Wet Spot, are stationed throughout the inside of Collective Caregivers pharmacy, which opened in Canoga Park in late March. Inside is "Taylor," a tall brunette with red and blonde highlights, a nose ring and a deep tan. On a recent day, she was wearing a black Korn T-shirt knotted to reveal six inches of midriff, a belly-button ring and a butterfly tattoo on the small of her back. [continues 215 words]
Regulators at the Food and Drug Administration last week decreed that there were no sound scientific studies supporting the use of medical marijuana. But in its zeal to quash the legalization of medical marijuana, the FDA ignored a 1999 Institute of Medicine study that found pot eases pain and suffering for seriously ill people. And if there aren't any medical studies large enough to satisfy the FDA, there's a very good reason: The federal government won't allow any serious inquiry into the medical benefits of marijuana. [continues 56 words]
The Mexican military has crossed into the United States 216 times in the past nine years, according to a Department of Homeland Security document and a map of incursions obtained by the Daily Bulletin. U.S. officials claim the incursions are made to help foreign drug and human smugglers into the United States. The 2001 map, which shows 34 of the incursions, bears the seal of the president's Office of National Drug Control Policy. The document states that since 1996, Mexican military personnel have crossed into the following sectors: [continues 981 words]
MALIBU CREEK STATE PARK - Calling it the largest single seizure of a marijuana crop in local history, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies Tuesday ripped out thousands of plants - with a street value of $28 million - from remote Malibu canyons. The bumper crop, nourished by abundant water sources from record rainfall this season, contained an estimated 28,700 plants over half a square mile. Deputies with the Marijuana Enforcement Team were tipped off to the massive crop, but no arrests were made and they found no sign of encampments. [continues 628 words]
BURBANK - The Burbank City Attorney's Office on Thursday dropped a misdemeanor drug possession charge against a Santa Cruz medical marijuana patient who was cited in July at the Bob Hope Airport, the ACLU said Thursday. The charge against Valerie Corral, who was detained when screeners allegedly spotted marijuana in her carry-on bag, was dismissed. She was cited by police even though she had a Santa Cruz County-issued medical marijuana card, authorized under the state's Compassionate Use Act, said her attorney, Christina Alvarez, with the American Civil Liberties Union Drug Law Reform Project. [continues 304 words]
Anti-drug abuse efforts face cuts even as problems get worseIn the early 1990s, crack cocaine was the hot and scary drug ravaging communities and lives across the nation, leaving a legacy of "crack babies" to grow up with a litany of health and behavioral problems. The attention paid to the drug helped authorities fight it and publicize the dangers. As a result, crack lost its notoriety as Drug Enemy No. 1. What has replaced it is as bad, or even worse: methamphetamine -- or crystal meth, with days-long highs that end in canyon-like depressions, hallucination and paranoia. [continues 270 words]
Drug's Rising Popularity Ruins Lives, Taxes Police The illegal use of methamphetamine has reached epidemic levels in Los Angeles, and its popularity has now surpassed cocaine as users seek a cheaper, longer-lasting high, officials say. Methamphetamine-related arrests by the Los Angeles Police Department have soared, from 168 during the first half of 2004 to 304 during the comparable period this year. More addicts are entering rehabilitation programs, experts say, and methamphetamine is now the most-treated drug in those programs. [continues 927 words]
State officials revived California's medical marijuana identification card program Monday, saying state employees weren't violating federal law by issuing pot ID cards. The state health department shuttered the pilot program 10 days ago, citing concerns over a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling. Last month, the court ruled that people who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain or other conditions can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws. The ruling did not strike down laws in California and nine other states that permit medical cannabis use, but said federal drug laws take precedence. [continues 145 words]
Congress, States, Lower Courts Could Heat It Up Again Legally speaking, the Supreme Court's decision on Monday was unsurprising and broke no new ground. The court, in Gonzales v. Raich, did what most observers predicted: It reaffirmed that federal law-enforcement officials have the power to enforce federal laws banning marijuana possession and cultivation against seriously ill patients who use physician-approved marijuana for medical purposes. In so ruling, the court maintained the legal status quo that has been in place for several decades. The court also presented an important opportunity for Congress to take action in defense of vulnerable patients. [continues 672 words]
City Officials, Advocates Debate Medical Marijuana Dispensary SIMI VALLEY -- R. Dean Jones wonders why he must leave Ventura County to find a cannabis club where he can legally purchase marijuana to ease the pain of his diabetes. "This county should have a facility where medical marijuana patients can purchase their medicine," said the 70-year-old Simi Valley man who drives to clinics in West Hollywood and Santa Barbara. "It's my God-given right to deal with this my way." [continues 823 words]
WASHINGTON - A splintered Supreme Court threw the nation's federal sentencing system into turmoil Wednesday, ruling that the way judges have been sentencing some 60,000 defendants a year is unconstitutional. In ordering changes, the court found 5-4 that judges have been improperly adding time to some criminals' prison stays. The high court stopped short of scrapping the nearly two-decade-old guideline system, intended to make sure sentences do not vary widely from courtroom to courtroom. Instead, the court said in the second half of a two-part ruling that judges should consult the guidelines in determining reasonable sentences _ but only on an advisory basis. [continues 722 words]
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. -- What do you do when you sue U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and win? Fifty-one-year-old Valerie Corral, a sinewy 5-foot-tall great-granddaughter of Italian immigrants, throws back her head, laughing, her hands reaching to the clouds, hips wiggling, feet stomping. "It's my happy dance!" she says, throwing her arms around her husband, Mike. She has also planted an acre of marijuana. The decision that lets the crop remain is just one round in a long legal battle. [continues 1104 words]
ATLANTA -- Marijuana abuse and addiction have increased over the past decade, even though the percentage of people using pot has remained roughly the same, a new study says. The reason: It's not your parents' marijuana. A 25 percent increase in serious problems with marijuana from 1992 to 2002 is likely explained by a 66 percent increase in the potency of the drug, researchers from the National Institute of Drug Abuse report in today's Journal of the American Medical Association. [continues 205 words]
Mayor James Hahn and Police Chief William Bratton on Friday unveiled plans to reassign 52 police officers -- including some from the DARE program -- to "higher-priority" duties that will put more officers on the street. In his proposed budget for the 2004-05 fiscal year, Hahn also authorizes Bratton to add 30 more officers to the LAPD's ranks. The announcement came one year after Hahn lost a bid to expand the Los Angeles Police Department by 320 officers. "We lack the resources to hire hundreds more police officers, but we are looking for creative ways to put additional officers into our communities," Hahn said. [continues 342 words]
Law's Author Protests Some College-Aid Loss NEW YORK -- Given that she had been thrown out of the house by age 13 and spent her teenage years sleeping on subway trains and rotting piers, Laura Melendez figured she had kept her nose pretty clean -- even managed to get a high school-equivalency diploma. Sure, there had been a few arrests for smoking marijuana, but what did this record really amount to after an entire adolescence spent on the streets, with more visits from the police than from the parents who threw her out for declaring herself a lesbian? [continues 1160 words]
Faced with criticism of its controversial media campaign to put anti-drug messages on network television shows, White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey announced Tuesday that his office would not review scripts or tapes prior to broadcast in the future. Staunchly defending his program that gave advertising dollars to networks that included anti-drug themes in shows, McCaffrey's issued new guidelines late Tuesday, intended to clarify the most controversial element. "(Our office) and our contractors will not review program episodes for pro bono credit until after such program episodes have ai published," he said. [continues 400 words]
The active ingredients in marijuana appear to be useful for treating pain, nausea and the severe weight loss associated with AIDS, according to a new study commissioned by the government that is intensifying the contentious debate over whether doctors should be permitted to prescribe the drug. The report, the most comprehensive analysis to date of the medical literature about marijuana, said there was no evidence that giving the drug to sick people would increase illicit use in the general population. Nor is marijuana a "gateway drug" that prompts patients to use harder drugs like cocaine and heroin, the study said. [continues 1086 words]
For those few that oppose the "three strikes, you're out" law, you should realize that the felons affected by this law were caught in three felonious crimes; it does not reflect how many times they succeeded in avoiding arrest. No one is naive enough to think that the three arrests are the actual number of crimes committed. I don't use marijuana, but I feel that a person should be allowed small quantities of marijuana, as long as it is not such an amount as to be obvious of intent to sell. These minor violations are a waste of time for the police, courts and occupy needed jail space and should never be considered under "three strikes." Legalize and tax marijuana and let's focus on real crime. By the way, whatever happened to the three-time loser law from the 1960s? Louis Thompson Woodland Hills [end]
In a swift pivot from impeachment, President Clinton began a quick summit in Mexico on Sunday to encourage its struggle against narcotics and government corruption, and grow its markets for U.S. products. The president and his wife were greeted at their sunset arrival by Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and his wife, Nilda. A military honor guard saluted the Clintons, and four children presented bouquets of flowers. The two leaders and their wives were later headed to a private dinner. Clinton, traveling abroad two days after his acquittal by the Senate, was accompanied by about a half-dozen members of his Cabinet, including retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; Attorney General Janet Reno; and Export-Import Bank President James Harmon. [continues 642 words]
Teen drug use has stabilized after years on the rise, the government reported Friday, though it's still much higher than in the early 1990s. Drug use rose through most of this decade after the intense prevention efforts of the '80s were relaxed, researchers say. But now schools, parents and TV are again focused on the dangers, and researchers say teens are again getting the message. The annual report has now marked two straight years of steady - and in some cases, dropping - drug and alcohol use, suggesting that the rising trend truly has been stemmed. [continues 331 words]
VENTURA -- A 62-year-old Simi Valley man who notified police he was growing marijuana for his own medical use pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a cultivation charge and plans to use Proposition 215 for his defense. "I have my doctor's approval," said Rex Dean Jones, who is facing a felony count of growing marijuana. "This insanity has got to stop. ... I am not guilty of what they say I'm guilty of." Following a brief arraignment, Jones recalled how he told Simi Valley police he was growing marijuana in his back yard under provisions of Proposition 215, in an effort to avoid just the sort of legal entanglements in which he now finds himself. [continues 266 words]
The 12yearold Thousand Oaks boy began doing poorly in school and coming home with a glazed look, red eyes and reeking of a strange, pungent odor. His mother feared her son was using drugs, but she didn't want to confront him with just suspicions. So she sought the help of a discreet specialist in drug abuse and detection a private investigator. "She found a pipe in the house and we sent it off to the lab," said Russ Whitmeyer. "It came back positive for marijuana." [continues 662 words]
By: Yvette Cabrera, Lee Condon and Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writers Daily News Staff Writer Sharline Chiang contributed to this story. Before his arrest for growing 4,116 marijuana plants in a rented BelAir mansion, Todd McCormick cultivated a reputation as an ``in your face'' advocate in California's marijuanaasmedicine community. His appearance in court Wednesday on federal charges was the latest arrest stemming from his promotion of pot as a drug to treat cancer including his own and other ailments, including AIDS. [continues 798 words]
Amid the glitz of West Hollywood, there are many exclusive clubs, but just one where not anyone can become a member. The main criteria of joining the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club is singular in nature a debilitating disease that requires marijuana to ease pain, boost appetite or provide other therapy. ``It's a nice club if you need it, but who wants to have the preconditions to get in?'' asked Scott Imler, founder of the club, which is housed in an airy secondfloor loft above an auto garage on Santa Monica Boulevard. [continues 434 words]
Todd McCormick's arrest for growing pot in a BelAir mansion dubbed ``Liberty Castle'' is likely to become an important test case of the voterapproved initiative legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes. It also could help resolve conflicts between California's new law and federal law prohibiting all marijuana use. At a detention hearing in U.S. District Court on Wednesday, McCormick's lawyers said he has had cancer since childhood and relies on pot to numb chronic pain. He was growing the pot for himself and to provide for others who use it as medicine, they said. [continues 417 words]
Former House Speaker Jim Wright knows a thing or two about corruption. After all, he was arguably the most corrupt speaker ever to disgrace the House. Now he feels it necessary to hold forth about the alleged ''insult'' to Mexico by our legislators, who briefly decertified our southern neighbor when evidence of drug corruption was revealed (''United States sticks thumb in Mexico's eye,'' Opinions, April 2). Wright presents Mexico as a sincere partner, upholding ''pride,'' ''national traditions'' and ''wellformed moral precepts.'' He excoriates the United States for ''insensitivity'' in pursuing measures to control our borders against a massive invasion of illegals from Mexico. [continues 236 words]
