Eddie Harris "did not like screaming and hollering. It bugged his head," his mother, Rebecca Anderson, said. He was more of the type to avoid confrontation, a "follower," Anderson said -- definitely not the type to lead a raid to rip off a marijuana dealer, carrying a loaded shotgun. Harris, 24, was shot dead in the home of a marijuana dealer March 16, a Thursday. Also killed was his companion, Jaeson Shepard. When Anderson's daughter, Leah told her Eddie was dead, "I figured it was a drug overdose, I thought suicide, because Eddie was having a tough time," she said. "I never would have expected him to be shot." [continues 337 words]
For Openers, It Held About $500,000 Worth Of Marijuana Plants. It had something to do with the pegboard. What Eddie Harris and Jaeson Shepard died for, the reason Erin Van Epps was shot at, and why police suspect Brad Fandrich took his own life, was behind the pegboard in the basement. Harris, Shepard and Van Epps drove to Brad and Jeanna Fandrich's home on Highway N in the town of Argyle in March because, police believe, they had heard marijuana was growing there, and they wanted to steal it. [continues 444 words]
In early March, Jaeson Shepard sat down with his mother and said he, his girlfriend, Erin, and a guy named Eddie were going to rip off a marijuana grower. "Don't do it," Donna Fox told her son. "You're going to go in there and come across some mean (expletive deleted) and he'll blow your head off," she told him. That's exactly what happened. Shepard, 29, was fatally shot in the hallway of a converted cheese factory along a little-traveled road a few miles south of Blanchardville at 3 a.m. March 16. [continues 2045 words]
Consumer products made from a renewable resource are all you will find at Hempen Goods. At the near East Side store, clothing, backpacks, wallets, footwear, paper, even lip balm, soap, candles and dietary supplements are derived from seeds, stems and fibers of the versatile hemp plant. Hempen Goods owner Rich Ray said Americans are the world's leading consumers of hemp products. With the advantage of being an annual crop that can be grown easily throughout much of the world, hemp can be made into a variety of consumer goods from bio-diesel fuel to building materials for homes. [continues 239 words]
Somewhere within the messy American intersection of gender, adolescence, sex, drugs and cultural messages, researchers have located what they are carefully defining as an "association": Sexual activity and experimentation with illicit substances may put a teenage girl at significantly greater risk for depression than a teenage boy who engages in the same behaviors. This research also takes the widely held perception that teens who are depressed engage in risky behaviors as acts of "self-medication," and suggests that depression can also be the consequence, not just the cause, of experimentation our culture regards as both morally deviant and normal. [continues 1963 words]
UW-Madison Police arrested Ben Masel, an activist and potential U.S. Senate candidate, around 11 p.m. Thursday at the Memorial Union Terrace while he collected signatures to place his name on the 2006 ballot. The police pepper-sprayed Masel before arresting him and issued him citations for disorderly conduct, resisting a police officer and trespassing, and remaining after noticed to leave, all misdemeanors, said UW-Madison Police Lt. Bill Larson. This is not the first time Masel has run into trouble with authorities. One incident involved Masel winning a $95,000 settlement from Sauk County after police arrested him during the 2000 Weedstock festival. [continues 467 words]
New U.S. Attorney Erik Peterson knew the question was coming, but laughed and plunged into an answer. Yes, he's in a rock band with two other prosecutors. But no, he's not quitting his day job. Peterson, 36, who is settling into his first weeks as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin after 7 years as Iowa County's district attorney, moonlights as the drummer for a '70s and '80s cover band called Alibi, which he said plays a lot of benefit gigs. His band mates include Brad Schimel, assistant district attorney in Waukesha County, and Randy Schneider, assistant district attorney in Racine County. Their lead singer is Heather Zander, community development director for the city of Brillion. [continues 995 words]
Marcus J. Gumz, 77, a rural Baraboo farmer and frequent political candidate whose irascible, yet joyful, approach to controversy added color to Wisconsin politics for decades, died Friday in his town of Fairfield farmhouse. Gumz ran for public office so often that he was most often referred to in press accounts as "perennial candidate Marcus J. Gumz." He was that. But he was also a successful farmer who raised mint, potatoes, hogs, beef cattle and corn on more than 2,000 acres in Sauk and Columbia Counties, though even his farming sometimes caused controversy. [continues 287 words]
La Crosse County authorities have the option of issuing citations and fining people found with small amounts of marijuana, instead of charging them with a misdemeanor. The La Crosse County Board has adopted an ordinance that allows lesser penalties for people accused of possessing under 25 grams of the drug for the first time. The debate Thursday included testimony from the district attorney, a judge and the sheriff. District Attorney Scott Horne argued against the measure, saying the current system identifies problem offenders early, before they move on to more serious drug abuse and criminal behavior and does not taint their records if they follow court-ordered education and community-service programs. [continues 131 words]
A former Dane County sheriff's deputy, arrested Wednesday after his town of Dunn home was raided by police, employed a Waukesha County couple to bring hundreds of pounds of marijuana from Arizona to Wisconsin, according to an affidavit filed in federal court in Milwaukee. Robert A. Lowery, 57, along with Jason J. Carr, 25, and Heather R. Lane, 26, both of the town of Genesee, was charged Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee with conspiring to distribute more than 100 kilograms of marijuana. All three remained in custody Thursday in Milwaukee after appearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Aaron Goodstein. [continues 698 words]
A June 1 guest column, "Lawmakers need to listen up," stated: "The majority of Americans want their physicians, not politicians, to decide if marijuana should be used to ease suffering in sick patients." Isn't this true with any medicinal drug? All controlled substances are placed under one of five schedules. The Drug Enforcement Administration, not doctors, decides which substances are prohibited. Both marijuana and heroin are on schedule one, which, according to the DEA, has no medical use. If marijuana has medical use, it stands to reason that heroin has medical use. In the United Kingdom, heroin can be prescribed by doctors to relieve severe pain. Heroin has also been found to be effective with terminally ill cancer patients. If people want their doctors, and not the DEA, to decide what is medicine and what is not, this should apply to "all" medicine, not just marijuana. Randy Vizyak Mukwonago [end]
It was disappointing to read in Tuesday's paper that the landlord of a local all-ages alcohol-free music venue yanked its lease in response to allegations of off-premises cannabis smoking and other reasons. What Madison really needs are alcohol-free, adult-only venues where cannabis can be consumed on site. Hardly a day goes by when we don't read of some alcohol-fueled incident that caused injury, death or destruction. The same day this article appeared there was an update on the case of a man with a lingering brain injury from an unprovoked attack that was likely alcohol-related. [continues 77 words]
Madison all-ages club Journey Music closed abruptly during a show Friday night, but the alcohol-free performance space will remain open for at least another week and likely much longer. Headlining act Madison band Apparently Nothing, was shocked when Journey manager and concert promoter Tom Klein told the group the club was being shut down immediately by property owner Bob Sieger - moments before the band's set. "It was like, 'Is this a joke?' " said singer and guitarist Aaron Shekey, 20. [continues 255 words]
In the national debate over the use of marijuana for medical purposes, ordinary people and their representatives in Congress seem to be living on different planets. Poll after poll shows Americans, by a huge majority, want their doctors, not lawmakers, to decide if marijuana should be used as a medicine. Today, however, federal laws prohibit physicians from prescribing marijuana for pain relief even where state and local laws say it is OK to do so. This has not always been the case. [continues 429 words]
Members of a drug task force burst into a Dodgeville apartment Monday night and arrested two people before officers realized that they were in the wrong apartment. Richland-Iowa-Grant Drug Task Force members entered the apartment about 10:15 p.m. and arrested its two occupants in what police considered a "high-risk" drug bust, according to the Dodgeville Police Department. Minutes later, they realized that they were in the wrong place and released the occupants. The officers then headed to the right apartment, where they arrested four people after discovering marijuana and drug paraphernalia, police said. [continues 96 words]
Drug Force Apologetic For Raid Error Profuse apologies and promises of restitution, repair and investigation were made by officials Wednesday in the wake of a botched drug raid at a Dodgeville apartment building. A six-agency illegal drug task force on Monday initially broke into the wrong apartment and handcuffed an innocent couple as they were preparing to retire for the night. After officers realized their error, they eventually took four people into custody at the adjacent apartment. The two people who were released resided at 512 Montgomery St., Apt. 4. The intended raid target was Apt. 3, said Lt. Scott Marquardt, director of the Richland-Iowa-Grant Drug Task Force and a member of the Platteville Police Department. [continues 548 words]
Events like a "Day without Latinos" have helped mobilize opposition to proposed changes in federal immigration laws. With all due respect to those activists, may I propose a "Day without Cannabis Consumers" to demonstrate that people using cannabis are just normal people, too? If people only felt free enough to come out as cannabis consumers without fear of losing their jobs, educational access, housing and liberty, a diverse swath of society would be represented. They would be our families, neighbors and coworkers, responsibly using cannabis for personal reasons or as medicine. [continues 145 words]
I write in response to Susan Lampert Smith's column last Sunday on the prosecution of Susan Lampert. I am not writing to defend our decision to prosecute Lampert (no relation to the columnist) for her role in Terrance Larson's marijuana operation. In criminal cases, friends and others who are sympathetic to the defendant often object to decisions made in a case. Your columnist is entitled to her opinion. Instead, I am writing to correct the record and mischaracterizations. One premise of the columnist's opinion -- and the headline -- is that Lampert died as a result of her incarceration. The reported facts in the column, however, simply do not support that conclusion. [continues 342 words]
A Federal Study Finds That Wisconsin Bucks the National Trend. Underage drinking nationwide was nearly unchanged from 2002 to 2004, but increased in Wisconsin and California, according to a study released Thursday. The report by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, based on interviews of 135,500 people, is the first to document state-by-state drug and alcohol use from 2002 to 2004. It found that teen alcohol use remained basically unchanged -- from 17.67 percent in 2002 to 17.65 percent in 2004. [continues 470 words]
We were friends of Susan Lampert, whose tragic death in federal prison was ably reported on Sunday by State Journal columnist Susan Lampert Smith, who has a similar name but is not related. Regarding Lampert's minor role in a Columbia County marijuana operation, we were among those who wrote in vain to Judge John Shabaz to plead for leniency, in light of Lampert's minimal culpability and obvious frail health. Many of her friends doubted she would live long enough to serve out her sentence. They were proven right after a few weeks. At what point does this kind of brain-dead, rigid sentencing - especially since the conviction was quickly overturned on appeal - amount to gross misfeasance by a federal judge? It's past time for Shabaz to retire. - - Frances and Jeremy Crane Madison [end]
A woman who shared my name, Susan Lampert, died a month ago today and her death troubles me. While we met only a few times - all at the Dane County Farmers' Market - our common name bonded us and we had at least one mutual friend. I wondered if she cringed when she would see me in the newspaper, shooting off my mouth. I certainly cringed when I finally saw her in the newspaper. It was last June, when a farm near Lodi was busted as a marijuana- growing operation. Actually, I heard about it because some of my competitors at a rival news organization mistakenly (and gleefully) thought I had been busted. [continues 875 words]
When did law enforcement decide it's OK to withhold important safety information from the public? Thursday's shooting scene in Blanchardville is one example in recent years where police issue a routine statement that everything is "isolated" and "no suspects are at large" only to later reveal the opposite. In the Blanchardville case, police were told in the 911 call that shots were fired at a dark-colored minivan as it sped away from the shooting scene. County officers then found a scene of guns, ammo, drugs and shooting victims and then tell the public there is no danger. OK, so the person or persons in the getaway car were not yet suspects. Are we supposed to believe there was no danger to the public? Law enforcement's need to protect the investigation should not trump their obligation to warn the public. Routine statements that the public is not in any danger sound like they are coming from a public relations firm instead of the police. Stan Scharch Madison [end]
The investigation into three shooting deaths in rural Blanchardville expanded over the weekend to include two drug arrests in Green County and the discovery of a large, "extremely concealed" indoor marijuana cultivation effort. The marijuana operation - "several hundred live plants" - was discovered on the property off Highway N, west of Blanchardville, where Bradley Fandrich shot and killed two armed intruders and himself Thursday morning, said Lafayette County Sheriff Scott Pedley. State investigators joined a special State Line Area Narcotics Team to execute search warrants at the property Saturday night. They found the plants, estimated to have a value of $450,00 to $500,000, in an undisclosed area equipped with cultivation equipment, video cameras and weapons. [continues 673 words]
The tragic deaths of Sarah Stellner and Michael Ace from drug overdoses, and the charges against the woman alleged to have sold them heroin, should cause us all to reconsider drug policies which have been burying our family members for decades. Is prohibition the best way of addressing addiction? At first thought, it would seem so. But prohibition does more harm than good. In almost all these cases, the victims were misinformed about the strength of the drug -- a tragic, needless mistake. [continues 155 words]
A convicted heroin dealer, who police say had bragged that her drugs were so good that they killed, was charged Friday with her second drug overdose homicide. Lavinia M. Mull, 26, of Madison, who pleaded guilty in January to first-degree reckless homicide for the drug overdose death last year of Sarah Stellner, was charged Friday with first-degree reckless homicide for the May 5 heroin overdose death of Michael Ace, 31, of Madison, at his West Wilson Street apartment. Ace died just nine days after Stellner. After Stellner's death a drug buyer working as a police informant said that Mull was still selling heroin and "had been advertising it as being so good that it has killed people," a criminal complaint in the Stellner case states. [continues 436 words]
Three Were Sentenced To Jail Or Prison After A Friend Died After Overdosing On Heroin. Three friends of Sarah Stellner, who died last year after a heroin overdose at her Langdon Street apartment, will spend time behind bars for their roles in getting the heroin to Stellner. The family of the 20-year-old Soldiers Grove native watched quietly as Morgan Fenick, 18, of Chicago; Samuel Katz, 27, of Madison; and Ryan Daley, 24, of Madison; were sentenced to time in jail or prison for their roles in procuring and injecting the heroin that killed Stellner on April 26. [continues 442 words]
It's been over 3 months since Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, held a hearing on his medical marijuana bill, AB-740. His Assembly Health Committee has not voted. Underheim's staff says this is because they aren't sure they have the votes. Despite compelling testimony from health care professionals, patients and caregivers - as well as stacks of studies demonstrating the medicinal efficacy of cannabis -- most committee members have been silent or voiced hostility. But the public deserves to know where the committee stands. Very ill people traveled long distances to testify before the committee on how medical cannabis helps them. It is the committee's duty to fairly weigh the evidence and vote the bill up or down. [continues 78 words]
The same Supreme Court justices who decided in June 2005 that terminally and seriously ill Americans cannot use cannabis to help them stay alive have now ruled that it's OK for Oregon physicians to prescribe drugs to help terminally ill people die. Ironically, if all the reefer madness lies were true and marijuana could be used to hasten death rather than manage suffering, it would, apparently, have the blessings of the Supreme Court justices. The ruling by justices that the federal government overstepped its bounds in attempting to overturn Oregon's assisted suicide law is appropriate. But the dissenting rulings show that rather than consistently upholding the Constitution and traditional American values like compassion, the Supreme Court seems to be content to take a piecemeal approach that is neither constitutional nor compassionate. [continues 55 words]
I don't question that we need to protect our children, but sex offenders are not the only ones our children and families need protection from. How about registries for drug dealers, murderers, burglars, gun owners, etc? I think the residency restrictions placed on sex offenders should also pertain to drug dealers, since they most often prey on children. And how many children have died because they had access to a parent's gun? Targeting one class of people, as we have done with the sex offender, is discriminatory. If we are going to have registries for the safety of society, then we need to be complete in our efforts. To limit ourselves to only sex offenders is unfair. [continues 111 words]
To a grieving family, it must seem like too little, too late. Last week the Wisconsin State Journal reported that a man was convicted of reckless homicide for buying the heroin that killed 19-year-old Sarah Stellner. In February, the drug dealer who sold the OxyContin that killed Julie Zdeblick, 17, was sentenced to five years in prison. Can't we arrest these drug dealers before someone dies? That's what Waunakee grandmother Arlene Schmitz was thinking when she called Waunakee and Dane County authorities to report the person she believes sold OxyContin to her daughter. On Monday, her daughter checked in to the Huber Center to begin her sentence for driving under the influence, leaving behind a 3-year-old in the custody of relatives. The alleged dealer is still free. [continues 414 words]
Every day for the past 23 years, Irv Rosenfeld has smoked up to a dozen marijuana cigarettes. On probably every one of those days, someone, somewhere, was arrested for doing the same thing. But the government not only doesn't care about Rosenfeld's drug use; it's been his supplier. One of just seven remaining patients in the federal government's "compassionate use" program, which provides marijuana for medical uses, Rosenfeld said the drug helps him cope with the excruciating pain caused by an estimated 200 benign bone tumors that daily poke at his muscles and veins. [continues 534 words]
Regarding Sunday's editorial about addiction and prisons, U.S. government statistics reveal that the drug war is waged in a racist manner throughout the nation. Blacks and whites use drugs at roughly the same rates. Only 15 percent of the nation's drug users are black, but blacks account for 37 percent of those arrested for drug violations, over 42 percent of those in federal prisons for drug violations and almost 60 percent of those in state prisons for drug felonies. Support for the drug war would end overnight if whites were incarcerated for drugs at the same rate as minorities. [continues 100 words]
Sunday's State Journal editorial on the costs of addiction in Wisconsin was a welcome departure from drug war rhetoric. Addicts comprise over 70 percent of our prison population, with more coming. Clearly, this is a failed policy. The ratio of black to white prisoners underscores the unfair nature of these laws. Time to try something different. But "drug courts" and referral programs are not different; they are merely new ways to incarcerate and attempt to coerce abstinent behavior that is just not possible for the sickest addicts. Indeed, the very nature of addiction is that the addict has lost all control, so these programs are predisposed to fail. [continues 153 words]
As background, I have been a teacher at the Prairie du Chien state prison since 1997. Sunday's State Journal editorial about black drug offenders has it wrong. Addiction to drugs isn't the reason so many are incarcerated; the majority are there for selling drugs, not using them. There is no profit in using your supply yourself. They may be smoking a "blunt" when apprehended, but most won't be using crack, meth or cocaine. They do have an addiction to running the streets from an early age. A surprising number have never had a legal job. Many will tell you flat out, "Thug life forever!" [continues 131 words]
The number of blacks in Wisconsin prisons is so high that a prominent Web site recently named the state the worst place to be black. While there are myriad reasons why more than 4 percent of blacks of all ages and both sexes are in prison, addiction may be one of the strongest. Blacks made up 38.7 percent of Wisconsin's incarcerated population, according to the 2000 census. And an estimated 70 percent of all prisoners have substance-abuse problems. [continues 348 words]
"There is no single profile of someone who abuses prescription drugs. There is no set stereotype." And Catherine Zdeblick should know. Her daughter, Julie, was a 17-year-old Middleton High School student when she overdosed on OxyContin in March 2004. Zdeblick describes her daughter as "a risk-taker - she was smart, committed to social causes, and well-liked." Despite all that, she started using drugs. According to Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, 2.3 million youth ages 12 to 17 took legal medications illegally in 2003, the latest year with figures available. That means nearly 1 in 10 teens have used - and abused - prescription drugs, nearly triple the numbers from a decade ago. [continues 810 words]
Advocates for legalizing marijuana for medical use in Wisconsin are rallying support at this weekend's Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival for a bill they say is expected to be introduced by Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh. Underheim, who chairs the Assembly's Health Committee, said in June that after talking with cancer survivors while he was receiving treatment for prostate cancer, he planned to introduce legislation to allow limited use of medical marijuana when prescribed by a doctor. He could not be reached for comment on Saturday. [continues 626 words]
A Republican friend phoned to pass this along. A bartender informed him that if you walk into a Madison bar - no, stay with us, this isn't a bad joke - and light up a cigarette, it's a $150 fine. If you walk into a bar and light up a joint, it's a $135 fine. That would be $35 more to smoke a cigarette than a joint of marijuana in Madison. We decided to run this bar-time hearsay past City Attorney Mike May. [continues 616 words]
The three young people partying with Sarah Stellner the night she died may have thought they were having fun. But they and an accused heroin dealer now stand accused of being a party to first-degree reckless homicide as a result of their actions that night. Stellner, 20, was found dead on April 26 in her apartment at 211 Langdon St. Tests indicate she died as a result of using heroin. Stellner's roommate and best friend, Morgan Fenick, 18, admitted to police that she injected Stellner with the drug. Ryan Leo Daley, 23, of Caledonia, Minn., allegedly purchased the heroin and Samuel Katz, 26, of Madison, was with him. [continues 580 words]
Q: I want to be a state trooper, but they give a poly graph test and ask about drug use. I've never abused drugs, but years ago, when young and dumb, I tried marijuana. Should I lie during that part of the test or tell the truth and hope they forgive it as a stupid mistake in my past? A: Don't even try to lie. Tell the truth. You're not alone. Q: Recently, my boss gave me an unexpected, decent bonus. He then told me to re mind him in four months about my salary review. Be cause that time is now, I won der what is the best way to bring up the subject. [continues 197 words]
If a drug user overdoses, friends and fellow drug users should be encouraged to take the patient to medical treatment without fear of prosecution. The Progressive Dane Drug Policy Task Force has worked for years to find a way for law enforcement officials to offer amnesty to individuals who seek medical assistance when a friend, often a fellow intravenous drug user, is experiencing an overdose. Our concern is the circumstance in which people don't seek medical attention, because of fear of prosecution, and let others die. [continues 354 words]
Marijuana today is what alcohol was during the 1920s and the early 1930s; the only difference is that marijuana has many medical benefits while alcohol seems to cause major health problems, and this is coming from a guy who has been known to fancy the drink. I can admit this, while others deny, deny, deny. This includes those in power. The hypocrisy of our leaders never ceases to amaze me. Many of our politicians have been convicted of drunk driving or of using illegal drugs. [continues 81 words]
Let Those Poor Sick Folks Inhale We now have an answer to the question of whether U.S. agents should knock down doors and bat the reefer from the fingers of cancer patients. Yes! By all means, yes. The Supremes have ruled that federal anti-weed laws must trump individual states' laws on medicinal marijuana. So much for the idea that the states are the laboratories of democracy. Of course, this doesn't mean they can be the meth labs of democracy. [continues 617 words]
Talk about medical marijuana is a convenient distraction from the real issue: Why is marijuana illegal in the first place? Folks like Karen P. Tandy would have you believe that it is partly a health issue. If that's so, why not cigarettes, which are far more addicting physically and harmful to the lungs? Perhaps it's the physical effects of the substance -- sedation, increased appetite, laughter. Regarding the notion that it will send the wrong message to our kids, here's a heads up. The fact is that a kid who wants to get high will get high, just as a kid who wants to get drunk will get drunk. It's up to us to teach moderation, not to prohibit. - -- Rhett C. Buckley, Madison [end]
Although some media reports have been unclear, two things stand out about Monday's Supreme Court decision on the medical marijuana case. First, the court did not strike down any state medical marijuana laws or take away any of the protections these laws provide to patients. It did, however, leave those patients vulnerable to federal prosecution. Second, the court explicitly recognized that "marijuana does have valid therapeutic purposes," and went out of its way to note that Congress can change federal law to address this reality. [continues 79 words]
The government claims marijuana cannot be legal for medicinal purposes because it is too dangerous. Yet government statistics show alcohol and tobacco kill 500,000 Americans per year. Prescription drugs kill approximately 100,000 Americans every year. But the government cannot cite a single human death caused by a marijuana-induced health problem. The government claims there is no scientific evidence showing that marijuana is an effective medicine. There are dozens of scientific studies that show otherwise. The government claims that marijuana cannot be legal unless scientific evidence proves it to be safe -- a criteria that red meat, dairy products and junk foods can't meet. But the government had no problem making marijuana illegal in 1938 with support of outrageous claims of "reefer madness," claims that have been proven false. [continues 65 words]
Most of the public understands why a doctor should be able to recommend marijuana to a cancer patient suffering from severe nausea, loss of appetite and pain. Next week, Congress - including Wisconsin's delegation - should show that it understands, too. The House is expected to vote on an amendment to an appropriation bill that, in effect, would prevent the federal Justice Department from arresting or prosecuting medical-marijuana patients in states that have legalized the drug's use. The bipartisan bill, sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R- Calif., has gradually been picking up votes in recent years. Almost 150 members of the House supported it last year, including all of Wisconsin's Democrats. [continues 370 words]
Justices Rule That Federal Agents May Arrest Even Sick People WASHINGTON -- People who smoke marijuana because their doctors recommend it to ease pain can be prosecuted for violating federal drug laws, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, overriding medical marijuana statutes in 10 states. The court's 6-3 decision was filled with sympathy for two seriously ill California women who brought the case, but the majority agreed that federal agents may arrest even sick people who use the drug as well as the people who grow pot for them. [continues 402 words]
In Wisconsin, state Rep. Gregg Underheim, R-Oshkosh, said he plans to reintroduce legislation soon allowing limited use of medical marijuana. Under the bill, the drug would have to be prescribed by a doctor. The patient would then obtain a card from his or her local public health department certifying need, which could be presented to police showing the person has a right to possess small amounts of marijuana. Significantly, the bill is silent on how a person might obtain the drug. Last session, Underheim proposed "growing clubs" that could provide marijuana to patients, but "I'm not sure the public is ready to sanction people growing this drug in their home and then distributing it," Underheim said. "I'm going to throw it out there and see what reaction I get," Underheim said of the bill, which he said was inspired by conversations he had with cancer survivors while he was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer. [end]
Our society has come to believe that marijuana use is good medicine, a cure-all for a variety of ills: A recent poll showed that nearly three-fourths of Americans over age 45 support legalizing marijuana for medical use. It's a belief that has filtered down to many of our teens, if what I'm hearing during my visits with middle school and high school students across the country is true. I'm amazed at how well versed in drug legalization these teens are. It is as if legalization advocates stood outside their schools handing out their leaflets of lies. Here is what students have told me about marijuana: "It's natural because it grows in the ground, so it must be good for you." "It must be medicine, because it makes me feel better." "Since everybody says it's medicine, it is." [continues 351 words]
