Three Santa Ana police officers were charged with stealing protein bars and cookies from a medical marijuana dispensary during a 2015 raid, prosecutors said Monday. Brandon Matthew Sontag, 31, Nicole Lynn Quijas, 37, and Jorge Arroyo, 32, were each charged with one misdemeanor count of theft for their roles in the May 2015 search at Sky High Holistic on 17th Street in Santa Ana, according to a statement by the Orange County district attorney's office. Sontag was also charged with vandalism in connection with the smashing of security cameras inside the facility, prosecutors said. [continues 141 words]
Outdated drug policies around the world have resulted in soaring drug- related violence, overstretched criminal justice systems, runaway corruption and mangled democratic institutions. After reviewing the evidence, consulting drug policy experts and examining our own failures on this front while in office, we came to an unavoidable conclusion: The "war on drugs" is an unmitigated disaster. For nearly a decade, we have urged governments and international bodies to promote a more humane, informed and effective approach to dealing with "illegal" drugs. We saw a major breakthrough a few years ago, when the United Nations agreed to convene a special session of the General Assembly to review global drug policy. It is scheduled to begin April 19. [continues 621 words]
Anti- Drug Campaign Was Praised by Some, Dismissed by Others Drugs already had a strong grip in Compton High School when Maple Cornwell became assistant principal in 1983. Crack cocaine was just making its debut. Educators had few tools to fight what would quickly turn into an epidemic. Into this void came the voice of Nancy Reagan, with a message for children around the nation: "Just Say No." The campaign against drugs became Reagan's most memorable achievement - - lauded by some for showing the destruction addiction wrought, condemned by others who say it helped lead to mass incarceration and demonized black communities, and shrugged off by many who thought the message was naively simplistic and ineffectual. [continues 844 words]
Workers will receive a minimum of $ 13.50 an hour, medical benefits under pact that goes into effect Monday. Orange County's f irst licensed medical marijuana dispensary now has an additional distinction: f irst medical cannabis shop in the county to unionize. South Coast Safe Access has signed a collective bargaining agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 324 covering the Santa Ana shop's 20 employees. The contract will go into effect Monday. Workers will be paid at least $ 13.50 an hour and receive employer- paid medical benefits and employer contributions to a retirement pension, said Rick Eiden, executive vice president of UFCW Local 324. The state's minimum wage is $ 10 an hour. [continues 143 words]
The Volunteer- Run Nonprofit, Started by Uci Medical Students, Aims to Lower Addicts' Exposure to Infections. A year ago, a group of UC Irvine medical students realized that Orange County was missing what they considered an important public health service that every major city in California had access to: a clean- needle exchange program. So they decided to do something about it. The students organized with partners across the region and submitted a plan to the California Department of Public Health. The agency rejected the plan last summer, noting a lack of community support and funding for a program. [continues 544 words]
Up Against Billionaire-Funded Bid, Grass-Roots Groups Stand Down. SACRAMENTO - Devout cannabis advocates and social justice reformers believe this may finally be the year California voters legalize marijuana, and that optimism has led to a mashup of proposed statewide ballot measures - more than 20 filed so far. They vary from a one sentence constitutional amendment that simply declares California adults are free to "grow, own [ and] purchase" marijuana to a 62-page treatise on how to best regulate and tax legal pot. [continues 1272 words]
The Los Angeles city attorney's office has sued to stop a popular marijuana delivery service from operating in the city, according to court records. Cosmic Mind, a corporation doing business as Speed Weed since 2014, delivers marijuana to an estimated 25,000 customers and has violated the restrictions of Proposition D, the lawsuit alleges. Under the measure passed in 2013, dispensaries and their landlords can be prosecuted if the shops aren't properly registered or if they fail to operate a legal distance from public parks, schools, child-care centers and other facilities. [continues 281 words]
Call it "Potlight." Chronicling Ricardo Baca's first year as the Denver Post's inaugural marijuana editor, "Rolling Papers" takes an appropriately buzzworthy snapshot of Colorado's legalized cannabis culture. Baca, deemed the right man for the job thanks to a previous stint as the newspaper's music critic, is shown taking his new beat seriously. He created "The Cannabist" website, which features reviews assessing the subtle differences between "Ghost Train Haze" and "Death Panda" strains of mariuana, as well as recipes for edibles and even a pot and parenting column. [continues 108 words]
MORELIA, Mexico - Alma Martinez got a call last year that made her whole body go cold. Her mom's voice sounded shaky and harsh: "They have him," she said, referring to Martinez's uncle. "But who has him?" Martinez asked. "Los narcos," her mother said. The narco traffickers. Martinez, 17, traveled miles Tuesday to see and hear Pope Francis, hoping his message would bring comfort to the thousands of victims of drug-gang violence like her and her family. "Something like that really hits you, you know?" she said, speaking of her uncle's kidnapping and eventual freedom, after the family paid a ransom. "And it's not just us - it happens to a lot of families here in Michoacan." [continues 1036 words]
Costa Mesa police say there was nothing to indicate that mall storefront was Native American sanctuary. Police officers who thought they were shutting down a marijuana dispensary in Costa Mesa last month were in fact raiding a Native American church that uses cannabis and other controlled substances in its spiritual ceremonies, according to a lawyer representing the organization's founders. Attorney Matthew Pappas said Oklevueha Native American Church was opening a branch in Costa Mesa when police stormed the Harbor Boulevard location. [continues 489 words]
The Move Gives Cities and Counties More Time to Develop Local Rules on the Growing of Medical Marijuana. SACRAMENTO - Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday gave cities and counties more time to develop local regulations on the commercial growing of medical marijuana amid concern that a March 1 deadline had many rushing to ban cultivation. Last year, Brown signed into law a system that will regulate, license and tax those who grow and sell medical cannabis. But a mistake in the bill's drafting set a March 1 deadline for cities to either adopt stronger rules or face living with the state restrictions that allow cultivation. [continues 174 words]
A Proposed Bill That Would Make It Harder for Registered Sex Offenders to Travel Is Vindictive and Unfair. After rousing themselves from the 30- plus-year bad trip that was the war on drugs - or rather, the war on drug users - many Americans in and out of elected office looked around for someone else to persecute. Someone, somewhere, must be so depraved and hateful that liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans could join in common cause to vilify them. They appear to have found their target: sex offenders. The current case in point is a congressional proposal to alert the nations of the world that particular U. S. citizens who have committed sex offenses against minors are planning to visit. Passports would be specially marked so that other countries could turn travelers away at the border because of old crimes for which they have already served their time in the U. S. [continues 303 words]
(AP) - The California Medical Assn., the influential trade group for the state's doctors, announced its support Monday for a high-profile initiative to legalize recreational marijuana. Dr. Steven Larson, the group's president, said in a statement that the group believes the proposed initiative is a "thoughtfully constructed measure that will allow state officials to better protect public health by ... regulating marijuana use by responsible adults." The ballot measure is backed by Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and financed in part by former Facebook executive Sean Parker. [end]
Members of Stoner Jesus Bible Study Say Pot Strengthens Their Faith As Snow Began to Fall Outside, Deb Button Snuggled Up on Her Couch, Fired Up a Joint and Spoke of the Nature of Christ. "Even If Jesus Didn't Smoke Weed, He'd Still Be a Stoner," She Said, Exhaling a White Cloud. Her Kitten Sniffed the Air Curiously. "Jesus Was Peaceful and Loving. He Went From House to House and Was Always Accepted," She Explained. "Only a Stoner Could Do That." [continues 966 words]
Suddenly, heroin is hot. Or rather, talking about heroin, addiction, treatment and non-punitive responses is hot, especially among presidential candidates as they canvass for votes in New Hampshire. A standard part of this year's campaigning has been a visit with a family who lost a child to an overdose, or a confessional talk at a drug clinic. That's because the explosion in U.S. heroin use that began about six years ago has hit New England particularly hard. [continues 641 words]
It's difficult for Coloradans to imagine California's quagmire regarding medical cannabis since we completely re-legalized the plant. ("Los Angeles needs a new medical marijuana policy," editorial, Jan. 18) Colorado residents who wish to use cannabis for an array of medical and health conditions simply purchase it over the counter - without any chaos and without a doctor or a state permit, which amount to paying extortion money for protection against police. Once California also legalizes cannabis, treating it like the relatively safe, beneficial, therapeutic plant that it is, the chaos will disappear. Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
Re "More chaos ahead for medical pot?," editorial, Jan. 18 Among the many pearls of wisdom in your editorial was the following sentence: "The City Council should not let marijuana businesses set city policy." By any chance is this the same city that allows policy to be set by the real estate lobby, the billboard lobby and local unions? Matt Richey Palms [end]
If L.A. Doesn't Start Rethinking Its Rules, the Cannabis Industry Could End Up Rewriting Them. In October, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed three bills establishing a statewide system to regulate medicinal cannabis, he called it a long-overdue framework that would "make sure patients have access to medical marijuana, while ensuring a robust tracking system." He should have added: "Everywhere in the state, except Los Angeles," because it turns out California's strict licensing regime won't apply to the state's largest city. What's more, under the terms of the new state law, if L.A. doesn't change its existing rules, all medicinal pot shops in the city's boundaries will be illegal in 2018. [continues 638 words]
Taboos about drugs are lying shattered across the U.S ., like broken debris after a party. But even as some states have begun to decriminalize or legalize marijuana, there is an argument that is making some Americans hesitate. They ask: Aren't many drugs, even pot, much more potent today than they were in the 1960s, when the boomers formed their views on drug use? Hasn't cannabis morphed into super skunk? Aren't people who used legal painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet sliding into heroin addiction - suggesting that legally accessible drugs are a slippery slope toward the abuse of harder drugs? [continues 610 words]
Ex- Facebook Chief Donates $ 500,000 to a Petition Drive for Marijuana Legalization. SACRAMENTO- Former Facebook President Sean Parker has contributed $ 500,000 of the $ 1.25 million raised so far for a petition drive to qualify an initiative that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California, according to records filed last week. Supporters need to collect 365,880 signatures of registered voters in the coming months to put the measure on the November ballot. The initiative would allow those who are at least 21 to possess and use up to an ounce of marijuana. It would also impose a15% tax on retail sales of the drug. [continues 200 words]
Medical Marijuana Patients' Stories Nudge Officials to Seek Rules for Such a Move. OCEANSIDE - In an unexpected turn, Oceanside officials agreed this week to move toward allowing licensed medical marijuana businesses to deliver within the city. The City Council signaled the move while discussing state regulations - - set to take effect this year - allowing the licensing of medical marijuana businesses in cities that haven't expressly banned them. By a 4-1 vote, lawmakers adopted an ordinance outlawing dispensaries, but asked city staff to come up with regulations that would permit delivery services. [continues 454 words]
Judge Blocks a Denver Institution That Wants to Serve the Cannabis Industry, Saying He's Upholding Federal Law. DENVER - Saying he could not look the other way in the face of criminal behavior, a federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a local credit union seeking approval to become what would be the first financial institution to openly serve the cannabis industry. Doug Pensinger In his nine-page order, U. S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson rejected the lawsuit filed by Fourth Corner Credit Union against the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which oversees Denver, for refusing it a master account that would enable it to do business. [continues 502 words]
SAN DIEGO - A new state law may prompt San Diego to regulate and allow cultivation of medical marijuana within city limits for the first time. A memo issued last week by Deputy City Atty. Shannon Thomas describes ways the city could regulate growing marijuana, including creation of zoning regulations specific to the drug or simply allowing cultivation in all areas now zoned for agriculture. The memo also says the city might need to impose a temporary moratorium on cultivation while exploring any new regulations. [continues 431 words]
A Year After Congress Decided to End the War on Medical Pot, Federal Raids Continue in California. WASHINGTON - When Congress in effect lifted the federal ban on medical marijuana just over a year ago, Californians drove the landmark change, which was tucked into a sprawling spending package by a liberal lawmaker from the Monterey Peninsula and his conservative colleague from Orange County. A year later, marijuana legalization advocates are conflicted over how big a victory the congressional vote, which was repeated last month, has turned out to be. [continues 1017 words]
The Loosening of Marijuana Laws in Much of the U.S. Increases Competition. BADIRAGUATO, Mexico - He started growing marijuana as a teenager and for four decades earned a modest living from his tiny plot tucked at the base of these rugged mountains of western Mexico. He proudly shows off his illegal plants, waist-high and fragrant, strategically hidden from view by rows of corn and nearly ready to be harvested. "I've always liked this business, producing marijuana," the 50-year-old farmer said wistfully. He had decided that this season's crop would be his last. [continues 1338 words]
Colorado Credit Union Seeks to Do Business With the Pot Industry. DENVER - Calling itself the "littlest David" battling the "biggest Goliath," a fledgling Colorado credit union took the Federal Reserve to court Monday in a case that may determine whether the cannabis industry will bank openly or continue to operate almost entirely in cash. Denver's Fourth Corner Credit Union is looking to be the first financial institution in the nation that caters openly to the cannabis industry. But the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, which oversees the Denver district, has denied it a master account needed to do business. [continues 715 words]
Pregnant Women Using Illegal Drugs Are Avoiding Prenatal Care for Fear of Facing Charges After Births. As the abuse of opioids, including prescription painkillers and heroin, has risen in Tennessee, the number of babies born dependent on drugs has skyrocketed, increasing fifteen-fold during the last 10 years. In an effort to combat this troubling trend, the state approved a controversial new law in 2014 to allow women who give birth to babies "harmed by" illegal drug usage to be charged with misdemeanor assault. [continues 644 words]
With Brown's Pardons, Ex-Felons Have Their Rights - and Peace of Mind - - Restored. SACRAMENTO - Unlike his immediate predecessors, Gov. Jerry Brown has routinely acted to grant pardons to hundreds of men and women he believes have turned their lives around. Though his Christmas Eve pardons last week included actor Robert Downey Jr., there were dozens more who received a holiday gift of being eased from the burden of a felony committed, in some cases, decades earlier. They include Aaron Malloy, 38, who now lives in Los Angeles County and is battling Stage 4 lung cancer. When a representative of the governor's office called to tell him the pardon had been finalized, Malloy said he was in disbelief. [continues 560 words]
The La Canada Flintridge City Council has adopted regulations prohibiting medical marijuana dispensaries, cultivation and delivery in the city limits. California cities and towns have until March 1 to maintain local regulatory authority over medical marijuana. After that, the state's Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act allows potential marijuana growers to apply for and receive licenses from the state. La Canada Flintridge took action this month. Councilwoman Terry Walker took issue with the outright banning of marijuana delivery services. "If someone in our town is in a lot of pain and is using marijuana legally for the treatment of pain, and say they are bedridden, is there any way in this code marijuana can be delivered to them?" she asked. [continues 166 words]
As Campaigns Turn to New Hampshire, Its Addiction Epidemic Draws the Focus of Presidential Hopefuls. MANCHESTER, N.H. - Zach Brewster had a long history of addiction and was dealing drugs after flunking out of college. One night he injected a cocktail of cocaine and heroin and stopped breathing. He was taken by ambulance to the emergency room of the suburban hospital that employed his parents, where they were told their son might not survive the night. When he pulled through, his parents thought the scare might make him serious about recovery. [continues 1172 words]
State Rules for Pot Dispensaries Created Deadline in Error. SACRAMENTO - A mistake in drafting new state regulations for medical marijuana in California has cities and counties scrambling to ban or restrict dispensaries before a March 1 deadline - after which, they fear, more lax state rules may apply. Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg), an author of legislation setting new rules for the industry, said the deadline was inserted into the bill in error, and he plans emergency legislation next month to remove it. [continues 356 words]
DENVER - The Fourth Corner Credit Union occupies a prime spot in downtown Denver, not far from the state Capitol. It has a big safe, four teller windows, drive-up service and a banner out front that says, "The Fourth Corner Credit Union Coming Soon." But there's a problem. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in Missouri, which oversees Denver, has refused Fourth Corner's request for a "master account," essentially a bank account allowing it to do business. "You can't have a bank chartered by the state of Colorado and then nullified by the federal government," said Mark Mason, an attorney for the credit union. [continues 1238 words]
The Emerald Cup Draws a Crowd Who Discussed Pot and Consumed It in Innumerable Ways. SANTA ROSA - The Emerald Cup is not like any country fair you have ever visited. Photographs by Robin Abcarian Los Angeles Times AN EMERALD CUP visitor takes a hit of waxy cannabis extract from a glass pipe. The booth offered free hits of its organic cannabis products. Panel discussions focused on plant genetics, pest and mold management, and how to create medicinal grade extracts. Forget prize piglets, pie-eating contests and sheep-shearing demonstrations. This fair is dedicated to showcasing the very best marijuana grown in California, and by extension, the world. [continues 944 words]
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto came out strongly against legalizing marijuana, the same day his government announced a national public debate on the issue. He suggested the recent, informal debate has already created confusion. Mexico's Supreme Court ruled in November that growing, possessing and smoking marijuana for recreation is legal under the right to freedom, but that ruling applied only to the four people involved in the case. "I am not in favor of consuming or legalizing marijuana," Pena Nieto said in a speech announcing a child welfare program. "However, I am in favor of debate so that specialists can give us some indication of where we should be going." [continues 54 words]
The Ordinance Is in Reaction to Regulatory Act Signed by Brown. Bricks-and-mortar marijuana dispensaries and delivery services are now illegal in Newport Beach. Despite some protests, the City Council approved an ordinance last week banning the cultivation, processing, distribution and delivery of medical cannabis in Newport Beach. The ordinance was in response to the state's Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Oct. 9. The act, which becomes effective Jan. 1, will create California's first statewide licensing and operating rules for pot growers, manufacturers of cannabis products and retail outlets since state voters legalized medical marijuana nearly 20 years ago. [continues 153 words]
New 'Seed-To-Sale' Regulatory System Seen As a Boon, but Challenges Remain. SACRAMENTO - An unmistakable scent, rotten-sweet and earthy, greets visitors to Basil McMahon's pine- and oak-sheltered Nevada County farm. It wafts from cannabis plants growing in a murky legal terrain between acceptance and prohibition. Over the next few years that will change, as a sweeping new package of laws will reverse years of state silence by regulating and licensing every stage of the medical marijuana industry. [continues 1419 words]
Tommy Chong Looks Back on the Early Bit and All the Pot He Smoked LAS VEGAS - Dave's not here. For more than a generation, for both the young and the not-so-young anymore, those three words have become synonymous with a state of chemically induced confusion. They're the brainchild of Richard "Cheech" Marin and Tommy Chong, the up-in-smoke comedy duo who in the 1970s first captured the spacey hilarity and wild wonderment of being high on pot, stoned to the bejesus. [continues 1027 words]
Entrepreneurs Gather in San Francisco to Show Off Their Marijuana Products and Make Sales. SAN FRANCISCO - Robert Gaither is a 39-yearold former salesman, a teddy bear of a guy with a full brown beard that makes him look a little like a mountain man. He does in fact live in the mountains - Lake Arrowhead, to be exact - but right now he is standing in an exhibit space at a downtown San Francisco hotel, showing off his wares at a conference exploring the intersection of cannabis, tech, media and finance. [continues 842 words]
Mexico's drug violence casts a long shadow over the city of Ocotlan, and the Southern Californians who love it. The children paid no heed to the priest from Jalisco as he celebrated a fiesta Mass in the backyard of a La Puente ranch, or to their parents urging them to sit still for the misa, or even to the rooster crowing nearby. They were too busy studying the animals they didn't see in Los Angeles every day: a small herd of goats, a single black pig - and a troupe of dancing horses. [continues 1106 words]
Fewer felony cases and fewer jail inmates should translate into funding for other programs. Thousands of felony cases that would have been prosecuted by the office of Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacey became misdemeanors late last year because of Proposition 47. Lacey's caseload dropped precipitously - first, because police were making far fewer arrests for drug crimes and theft, so they were bringing in far fewer cases; and second, because so many of the cases they did bring in were now misdemeanors that went to L.A. City Atty. Mike Feuer and his counterparts in a handful of other cities - Pasadena, Long Beach, Santa Monica, even Hawthorne. [continues 839 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - Carlos and I are bombing around San Francisco in his 1999 Maxima, delivering marijuana to people who have ordered it from Eaze, a company that many have called the "Uber of cannabis." I had forgotten how fast 25-year-old guys like to drive. But this is good, because Eaze boldly promises customers, all of whom must have medical marijuana cards, that they will receive their weed in 15 minutes or less. Our first delivery of the afternoon, about $200 worth of sweet-looking bud, goes to a woman who lives in the Mission. She comes out to the sidewalk to meet us. She looks as if she's in her early 30s, is in the retail wine business, and does not want to give her name. [continues 834 words]
CHICAGO - Patients bought $210,000 of medical marijuana in the first week it was legal in Illinois, marking what patients and industry officials said was a welcome, if overdue, start. "By and large, things have gone well," said Joseph Wright, director of the Illinois medical marijuana pilot program. More than 800 patients have bought 13,000 grams of cannabis since the state's first dispensaries opened Nov. 9. That's about half an ounce per customer, at an average price of $16 per gram, or about $450 per ounce. [continues 246 words]
The City Council OKs a Draft Ordinance to Ban Even Delivery of Regulated Pot. Marijuana growing, dispensaries and delivery will be illegal in Newport Beach under a new ordinance. The Newport Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve the first reading of an ordinance banning the cultivation, processing, distribution and delivery of cannabis in the city. Newport Beach's municipal code previously did not address medical marijuana, although dispensaries have not been allowed to operate in the city, according to City Manager Dave Kiff. While there are no brick-and-mortar pot dispensaries operating in the city, several online services say they deliver marijuana to people in Newport Beach. [continues 345 words]
The weed warriors are back, peddling pot for the California ballot. And one old tale they're spinning is pure bunk. It's that too much tax money, cop time and jail space are wasted corralling and incarcerating marijuana users. Maybe that was true decades ago. But today it's a myth. No one gets busted and jailed for merely smoking a joint. Anyone who's caught possessing less than an ounce of marijuana - about a sandwich-baggie-full - is, at worst, cited for an infraction and pays a fine, like for a traffic ticket. [continues 828 words]
Mexico may soon enter an elite club composed of Holland, Portugal, Uruguay and Colorado, Oregon and Washington state: It's on the verge of excluding marijuana from the destructive war on drugs. But will the United States stand in its way? On Nov. 4, Mexico's Supreme Court voted by a wide margin to declare unconstitutional the country's ban on the production, possession and recreational consumption of marijuana. A group of citizens had banded together in a so-called cannabis club (named SMART, for the initials in Spanish of its full title) and requested permission to grow and exchange marijuana among themselves; the government's health agency (the equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) denied them permission; the group sought a writ of habeas corpus, and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which granted them the writ and ordered the agency to legalize the club and allow it to function. [continues 538 words]
Ruling Reins in U.S. Cases Against Medical Marijuana Sales. WASHINGTON - A recent federal court ruling in San Francisco deals a blow to Justice Department efforts to limit the sale of medical marijuana in California and 22 other states, according to legal experts and government officials. Anne Cusack In a scathing opinion last month, U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer challenged the Justice Department's narrow interpretation of part of a law Congress passed last year that bars the department from spending any money to prevent a state from implementing its medical marijuana laws. [continues 650 words]
Former Facebook President Plans to Spend Millions on Legalization Effort. SACRAMENTO - A coalition that includes former Facebook President Sean Parker on Monday proposed an initiative that would legalize the recreational use of marijuana in California and place a 15% tax on retail sales of the drug. Parker, a billionaire who also co-founded the file-sharing service Napster, plans to put millions of dollars behind the proposal, intended for the November 2016 ballot, according to those in the coalition. "It's very encouraging to see a vibrant community of activists ... coming together around a sensible reform-based measure that protects children, gives law enforcement additional resources and establishes a strong regulatory framework for responsible adult use of marijuana - - one that will yield economic benefits for all Californians," Parker said in a statement. [continues 256 words]
Public Opinion Is Rapidly Changing. but Legalization Remains a Vexing Issue for Most Presidential Hopefuls. WASHINGTON - Pot is very much on the minds of voters, with millions poised to decide whether to legalize it. That raises a tantalizing question for presidential candidates: Is there political opportunity in the wind? Some are beginning to believe there is. The latest sign was the full-throated call last week by Sen. Bernie Sanders to end federal prohibition. With that one move, the candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination plunged into uncharted territory - and, arguably, so did the presidential race. [continues 915 words]
Re "Drug courts, now," Opinion, Oct. 29 Drug courts are based on the premise that the criminal justice system has a role in health interventions. This has far-reaching implications. Drug courts seek to divert nonviolent drug offenders into treatment. All illicit drug use is considered abuse. If the drug court concept were applied to alcohol, people who drink an occasional glass of red wine with dinner could be forced into unwanted substance-abuse treatment. Treatment is indeed cheaper than incarceration for taxpayers. It's cheaper still for government to mind its own business and leave adults who aren't harming others alone. There is an effort underway to create a kinder, gentler drug war by marrying the for-profit prison industry to a growing for-profit treatment industry. This is an ominous development. Robert Sharpe Washington The writer is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy. [end]
Hsiu- Ying Tseng Is Convicted of Murder for Prescribing Painkillers to Patients Who Overdosed. A Rowland Heights doctor was convicted of second-degree murder Friday in connection with the overdose deaths of three patients, capping a landmark case that was closely watched by medical and legal professionals across the country. Dr. Hsiu- Ying "Lisa" Tseng, who prosecutors say is the first doctor convicted of murder in the United States for recklessly prescribing drugs to patients, was accused of ignoring "red flags" about her prescribing habits, including the overdose of a patient in her clinic and nine phone calls in less than three years from authorities informing her that patients had died with drugs in their systems. [continues 1099 words]
