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Stronger cannabis - and users getting stoned to a 'far more debilitating degree' - could lead to a rise in cases of schizophrenia and present the NHS with a much larger bill, a leading drugs expert will warn tomorrow. Professor John Henry believes that the Government, in its decision to relax the laws on cannabis, has overlooked the burden that greater use puts on health services and on families - as well as the way young people are seeking to heighten the effects of the drug. Henry, a toxicologist and professor of accident and emergency medicine at Imperial College London,...

<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) - With cash tight and bills looming, legislators around the country are turning to neighborhood pubs to help them drown their woes: At least 19 states are considering plans to boost beer taxes.</p> <p>Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed one of the heftiest hikes, a plan that would raise the tax on a gallon of beer for the first time since 1947, from 8 cents to a quarter. It would add 14 cents to the cost of an average six pack and raise $55 million.</p>

ATTORNEY General A J Nicholson said yesterday that legislation is now being prepared to give effect to the recommendation of a commission, which sat two years ago, for the decriminalisation of marijuana when in private use here. Nicholson did not say when a Bill will reach Parliament and neither did he give details of the drafting instructions, but stressed that decriminalising marijuana -- called ganja here -- will be within a limited scope. "Yes, it will, for private use only," he told the Sunday Observer yesterday. Marijuana is widely used in Jamaica, and is said by Rastafarians to be holy...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A measure to reduce penalties for medical marijuana is moving forward in the Senate. The legislation passed through the amendment stage Tuesday on the Senate floor and there was no debate on the issue. A vote could come as soon as Wednesday. A matching bill already has passed the full House of Delegates. The bill would allow people charged with possession of small amounts of marijuana to present evidence that they have a medical condition that can be helped by smoking pot. The maximum penalty for possession of marijuana for medical purposes would be a $100 fine....

CHAPEL HILL -- He’s a local high school student who gave his name simply as "Bob." Bob said he started drinking when he was eight. In recent years, he said, if he wasn’t high, he was trying to get high. Bob said he had used cocaine, tripped on LSD and other hallucinogens, and spent hours soaring on ecstasy, which he said he easily found at many area high school parties. When nothing else was available, he explained that he got intoxicated with common household substances. Once, he described using a plastic bag to inhale Freon from the back of an...

The war on drugs, which has cost taxpayers billions of dollars during the past 30 years, has been ineffective at best. At worst, it has clogged the legal system with an unending and unabated flow of offenders who are attracted to the trade in illegal drugs by the promise of ill-gotten riches. The drug economy is created by prohibition, which has in turn promoted a police apparatus that feeds on our national crusade to rid the country of illegal drugs. The money flows both ways, and that’s why the war on drugs has failed. That’s not to say there’s anything...

I have been discussing the ramifications of the War On Drugs (WOD) with a Canadian police officer, John A. Gayder. He has started a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Its most prominent American member is Sheriff Bill Masters of San Miguel County, Colorado who has been an elected Libertarian Sheriff since 1980. M. S. John, tell me a little about your police career? I am a currently serving Constable with the Niagara Parks Police Service in Niagara Falls, Canada. Having said that, I need to tell you right off that the opinions I express regarding drug policy reform...

Federal agents have arrested a Morgan County sheriff's deputy suspected of distributing marijuana. The deputy, Gregory Lamar Johnson, said Monday the accusations are false and come from people trying to mitigate their own trouble. Johnson was released from custody by U.S. Magistrate Judge Harwell Davis III on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Johnson and his lawyer, Robert Shipman of Huntsville, have waived a preliminary hearing. Federal prosecutors can seek an indictment from a grand jury. Prosecutors filed a complaint in federal court Monday signed by FBI special agent Patrick Stokes. In the court papers, Stokes said several accusers stated that Johnson...

Marijuana prohibition is a failed public policy that is wasting valuable law enforcement resources, and needlessly destroying the lives and careers of hundreds of thousands of good, productive citizens each year in this country. The costs of prohibition are far worse than any harm that may be caused by marijuana itself. We spend an estimated $10 billion annually in a futile effort to identify, arrest and prosecute marijuana smokers and those from whom they purchase the drug. This is an almost unbelievably stupid use of resources that should instead be fighting serious and violent crime, including terrorism. Is anyone really...

SAN DIEGO - U.S. Customs Service officers seized nearly 10 tons of marijuana from a tractor-trailer truck carrying computer circuits across the U.S.-Mexican border, officials said Saturday. Investigators said they believed the roughly $9 million shipment was the largest amount of marijuana ever seized on America's Southwest border. "Any time we can prevent 10 tons of narcotics from entering the streets of America, it's a great day for the U.S. Customs Service," said Michael Turner, special agent in charge of the U.S. Customs Office of Investigations in San Diego. Investigators found 4,000 plastic-wrapped packages of marijuana inside the truck with...

OAKLAND, CALIF. -- To the federal government, Ed Rosenthal is simply a drug pusher, an enemy combatant in the war on drugs. To folks like Jane Marcus, however, the Bronx-born Rosenthal is a hero -- a Jewish hero, in fact, whose cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes qualifies as a life-saving "mitzvah." Which explains why delegates to last weekend's regional convention here of Reform Judaism's national synagogue body were seen sporting buttons, distributed by Marcus, in support of Rosenthal, who was found guilty on January 31 of felony charges of cultivating marijuana. PIPE DREAMS: Rosenthal ponders questions from the media...

Sixty-nine per cent of Canadians favour the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana, according to an SES/ Sun Media poll. The survey found Canadians who were teenagers during the "flower power" 1960s were the group most likely to support easing pot laws. Among age groups, it showed 76 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 50 and 59 support decriminalization while 72 per cent of the 40 to 49 age group agree the laws against smoking dope should be relaxed. The poll surveyed 1,000 people between Feb. 2 and 11. There was strong support for decriminalization in...

There has long been a call to legalize marijuana. Quite noticeably, the effort has been spearheaded by "potheads" more concerned with their next high than social justice. This has led to a tendency for polarization in the debate. That's why I, the author of last year's article, "A Straight Edge Manifesto," have decided to enter the ring. But I won't stop at marijuana like those sissy "potheads." I say legalize all drugs. There is no doubt in my mind that using drugs is a bad idea. But just because something is a bad idea, does not mean it should be...

Benjamin Curtis, the 22-year old actor who portrays the Dell Guy in those bothersome computer commercials, was arrested late last night (2/9) on a marijuana possession charge, The Smoking Gun has learned. According to cops, Curtis was holding a "small bag of marijuana" when he was popped on Manhattan's Lower East Side (at Ludlow and Rivington for you Gothamites). Curtis is currently being held in Central Booking and is scheduled to be arraigned later today in Manhattan Criminal Court. Curtis, who lives in lower Manhattan, was charged with criminal possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor. Bonnie Shumofsky, the actor's agent, said...

Italy school trip was weedy good ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled that taking 40 joints of hashish on a school trip is not a crime. The marijuana was for personal use since the 17-year-old student planned to share it with two fellow students and a teacher, the appeals court judge said. Under Italian law, selling marijuana is a crime, but possession for personal use is not. "It could easily have been consumed during the many days of the trip," Corriere della Sera daily quoted the court ruling as saying.

Limestone County authorities busted a “Jesus” Tuesday night for using pages of the Bible to roll marijuana cigarettes. “He admitted to us that he had been smoking marijuana and using pages out of the Bible to roll it,” said Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely. “When we arrested him, he made the comment that ‘I guess God got ya’ll to get me’”. Jesus Santana, 31, of 26990 Elkins Road, Athens, was one of two Hispanics arrested when authorities raided two county homes for illegal drug activity in western Limestone County. Santana and Rafael Chavez Pena, 46, of 14741 Chris Way, Athens,...

Pot Case Jurors Call For New Trial They say they were misled when medical marijuana evidence was barred. Seven jurors who convicted a prominent medical marijuana activist called for a new trial Tuesday, rebelling against what they said was a misleading case and intimidating atmosphere. At an unusual rally outside the federal courthouse here, several jurors, defiant and shaken, expressed solidarity with defendant Edward Rosenthal four days after convicting him of running a massive pot-growing operation in West Oakland. Rosenthal is the author of a dozen books about marijuana and a how-to column for pot magazines. He was a major...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A marijuana advocate and the jury that convicted him are making an unexpected show of solidarity: Jurors claim they were misled and the defendant says it isn't them he blames. Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja," was allowed Tuesday to remain free on $200,000 bail until his June 4 sentencing on federal drug violations.</p>

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Voters in this college town will go to the polls in April to decide a ballot measure that would legalize medical marijuana and greatly reduce penalties for possession of small quantities of the drug. Under Proposition 1, doctor-prescribed marijuana use would be legal in Columbia and other possession cases involving 35 grams or less of pot would be handled in city, rather than state, court. Offenders could be punished with misdemeanor-level fines starting at $25, but no jail time. The ballot issue represents a new approach to the old battle to decriminalize pot, said Keith Stroup, executive...

Pot Trial Focus on DEA Agent Did a top DEA agent tell local medical marijuana advocates they would be left alone by the feds? The question was the center of legal skirmishing Monday, as lawyers for marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal filed an appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals trying to force Judge Charles Breyer to allow testimony from Mary Pat Jacobs, a key defense witness. Rosenthal faces up to life in prison for cultivating marijuana and conspiracy. In a sworn affidavit, Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana spokeswoman Mary Pat Jacobs testified that she had several conversations about medical...

<p>Controversy over medicinal marijuana has reached the eighth grade in Belmont, where a middle school principal has refused to let a student display her project on the possible medical benefits of pot.</p> <p>Ralston Intermediate School Principal Deborah Ferguson told 13-year-old Veronica Mouser last week she was barring her project -- called ``Mary Jane for Pain'' -- from the school science fair opening today.</p>

Alison Myrden can barely speak. She squints against the thin light from her window on a winter afternoon and slumps unconscious on her bed in the middle of a conversation. She hardly looks like the outspoken activist who once climbed courthouse steps to wave placards and protest against the unfairness of Canada's marijuana laws. For several years the 38-year-old was at the forefront of the so-called "medical-marijuana" movement, which successfully forced the government to rewrite federal drug regulations so that people who need pot are not prosecuted for using it. But over the past few months, Ms. Myrden, who suffers...

Marijuana seized by police in Chicago last month turned out to be hay from a church Nativity scene. Police got an anonymous tip that a major consignment was being moved in a truck. When officers stopped the vehicle with Jose Galvan and Juan Luna in it, two small plastic bags with crushed green plants fell out of the cab. On-the-spot tests seemed to confirm the plants were marijuana. But a spokesman for the Cook County state attorney's office has confirmed that lab tests found the initial results were erroneous and drugs charges have now been dropped. Mr Galvan and Mr...

The Green Leaf Party leadership was hosted by the US Embassy on Thursday to enable the embassy political staff to get to know the party's ideas and plans if it is elected to the Knesset. No. 2 on the Green Party list, Canadian born Dan Goldenblatt said he was buoyed by the invitation, since the embassy usually only invites parties that are already in Knesset. Goldenblatt said the meeting focused mainly on the party's cannabis legalization views and its environmental platform. He said the US officials were interested in knowing whether the party supports other drugs besides cannabis. Green Leaf...

Marijuana columnist goes on trial on charges of illegally growing pot Tue Jan 21, 3:28 PM ET By DAVID KRAVETS, Associated Press Writer SAN FRANCISCO - An author of how-to books and columns on growing marijuana and evading the law went on trial Tuesday on federal charges of illegally cultivating pot. The case against Ed Rosenthal represents the latest clash between federal agents and state and local authorities over the medical use of marijuana. Rosenthal, a former columnist for the pro-marijuana magazine High Times, has said he was growing pot to help the sick, which is legal under California law....

— CHICAGO (Reuters) - Teen-agers who smoked marijuana before turning 17 were more likely to use and abuse harder drugs and alcohol as young adults, a study of Australian twins released on Tuesday said. The "gateway" hypothesis -- where the use of "soft" drugs can lead to a desire for "hard" drugs offering a more intense high -- appeared to be born out in the study of 311 sets of fraternal and identical twins. All the twins included one who had begun smoking marijuana before age 17 while the other had not. The study found those who had smoked early...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO(AP) - The federal marijuana cultivation trial of former High Times columnist Ed Rosenthal began Tuesday like so many drug cases. Prosecutor George Bevan told jurors that agents seized some 3,000 plants growing in Rosenthal's wharehouse in Oakland. "It's a federal offense," Bevan said.</p>

Medical Marijuana Gets Nod of ElrichFriday, January 17, 2003 by Tim Craig, Sun Staff Baltimore Sun (email) (web) Baltimore, Md -- Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced yesterday that he would likely back decriminalizing marijuana for terminally ill patients, a stance that is expected to give momentum to the issue this year in the General Assembly. Ehrlich said he has been a longtime supporter of so-called medical marijuana, including co-sponsoring a bill last year in Congress that would have allowed states to liberalize drug laws so terminally ill patients could use the drug. "I am predisposed to support it. It...

<p>During his 13-year stint in the NFL, Mark Stepnoski smoked marijuana. Not very often. Not in Snoop Dogg-shaming quantities. But enough to know the real thing from oregano and enough to claim he never suffered a single deleterious side effect. Excluding, of course, the munchies. "That wasn't a problem," Stepnoski said with a laugh. "I was one of those people who had to work to keep weight on."</p>

Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) said Thursday that he would sign legislation to legalize medical marijuana, giving new hope to advocates who say the drug can help relieve nausea from chemotherapy and other debilitating conditions. At an unscheduled news conference on his first foray into the governor's State House offices, Ehrlich pointed out that he has long supported legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, and said that "if the bill makes sense," he would sign it into law. With last year's chief medical marijuana advocate, Del. Donald E. Murphy (R) of Catonsville, now out of the legislature, a doctor,...

Two UF students are on a quest. Josh Manning and Matt Jones want to educate others about the risks associated with marijuana, which they said are exaggerated by mainstream media. The two freshmen started a chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws at UF and within two months had nearly 400 members. The first meeting of the semester is being held Friday at 8 p.m. in Room 282 at the Reitz Union. Both Manning and Jones said they are firm believers that the responsible use of cannabis should not be considered a crime. “We’re not asking...

LOS ANGELES The only medical-marijuana case to end in conviction in Long Beach Superior Court has been overturned on appeal, and prosecutors have not yet decided whether to retry the case. Marie Rutledge was charged last year with possessing marijuana in her car but claimed it was medically prescribed to treat her asthma, muscle spasms and migraine headaches. Her Long Beach jury disagreed, finding her guilty of cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana and public intoxication. After reviewing the case and hearing oral arguments in Los Angeles last month, the Second Appellate District Court of Appeal reversed the jury verdict based...

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Easing marijuana laws would remove Canada from the "lonely corner" it now shares with the few remaining Western countries that use criminal convictions to punish users, experts say. As an all-party committee of MPs prepares to release a report in Ottawa tomorrow that could recommend decriminalizing marijuana, researchers say too many people are unaware that such legal changes are already common around the world. "Pretty much all the countries are doing this," said Benedikt Fischer of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto. Sweden and the United States are among the last countries to enforce strict laws against...

A Traverse City judge who admitted smoking marijuana at a Rolling Stones concert is scheduled to begin hearing cases Monday. District Judge Thomas Gilbert has been on voluntary leave since November sixth. He was in a 28 day alcohol rehabilitation program. Gilbert will hear only civil cases such as small claims and landlord-tenant disputes in his first week back. After a two week vacation, he'll begin hearing criminal cases but not those involving drunken driving or marijuana. Gilbert has called the incident at the October 12th concert in Detroit the stupidest thing he's ever done. Both the local bar association...

Eugene, Oregon's, Whiteaker neighborhood sounded like a war zone around dawn on October 17, and residents are fighting mad. It wasn't a terrorist attack, though, just another example of a drug war run amok. Police serving a search warrant for an alleged marijuana grow enlisted an armored personnel carrier and 45 SWAT team officers armed with shotguns and automatic rifles to raid a cluster of houses in Whiteaker. But after throwing flash-bang grenades, kicking in doors, and handcuffing four people -- including one nude woman and one woman dressed only in underpants and a t-shirt -- for hours in a...

High Court Marijuana Case in Limbo The Supreme Court of Canada judges have written a letter questioning whether they should proceed with a federal government case against marijuana smoking today, given that Justice Minister Martin Cauchon says he is going to decriminalize the drug. As soon as the judges read about Mr. Cauchon's announcement earlier this week, the court wrote lawyers for the federal government and three marijuana enthusiasts, asking whether the case should be put on hold in light of the developments. At the same time that Mr. Cauchon is planning decriminalization, his own Justice Department lawyers are scheduled...

TOM COHEN, Associated Press WriterThursday, December 12, 2002 ©2002 Associated Press URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/12/12/international1520EST0678.DTL (12-12) 12:20 PST TORONTO (AP) -- Getting caught with an ounce or less of marijuana in Canada should bring fines, not prison time and a criminal record, a parliamentary committee said Thursday. The committee was the second in Parliament that has called for Canada to ease its marijuana laws -- despite protests from the United States. Canada's Supreme Court is also preparing to hear a constitutional challenge to laws that make it illegal to possess pot, and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said this week that legislation to...

OTTAWA - The federal government will introduce legislation decriminalizing marijuana within the first four months of the new year, Martin Cauchon, the Justice Minister, suggested yesterday. Mr. Cauchon said that should the House of Commons committee on illegal drugs recommend decriminalization in its report this Thursday, the government will respond quickly. The committee is expected to recommend that growing pot for personal use should not be a crime. A member of the committee said the report will probably suggest a 30-gram limit for personal use. "I mean, we'll see what will be the recommendations of the report," Mr. Cauchon told...

Bradley Nowell of the band Sublime sang of smoking two joints in the morning and smoking two joints at night. George Mcmahon, a medicinal marijuana user, smokes 300 pre-rolled joints a month and it is perfectly legal. After suffering a lifetime of pain, Mcmahon is now one of only five citizens in the United States to receive federal medical marijuana. Mcmahon feels he is one of the lucky ones and wants to get the message out that marijuana can be beneficial to patients in need, and sometimes is a better cure than many painkillers prescribed today. Each month Mcmahon receives...

Police arrest former Webb commissioner, deputy BY TRICIA CORTEZ Times staff writer Acting on a tip, the Laredo Police Department's Narcotics Task Force reportedly seized nearly 300 pounds of marijuana Monday evening at the home of a former Webb County Commissioner on Ceniso Loop in south Laredo. Officers arrested Maria Rosa "Rosie" Centeno, 52, and her 56-year-old husband, Ramiro Hinojosa, who was identified as an ex-county deputy by police officials. "At around 6:30 p.m., task force officers obtained consent from Centeno to a search. In a room in her house, used for storage, they found two boxes with marijuana," Police...

SAN ANTONIO -- Two people were injured when members of a San Antonio police SWAT team searching for guns and drugs entered the wrong apartment. "We are sitting here and then all of them arrived," 20-year-old Salvador Huerta said. Huerta and two cousins were watching television when police shattered the back glass door Wednesday night. "We were kicked and punched at least 20 times. I couldn't talk. I was good and scared." Salvador Huerta suffered a broken front tooth and swollen face. His cousin, 19-year-old Marcos Huerta, was treated and released for a cut face and bruised head. After realizing...

<p>Tuesday, November 19, was truly [1] a black, black day for this nation and one I never dreamed would happen here.</p> <p>I remember vividly as a child watching Nikita Khrushchev standing at the UN beating his shoe against the podium and shouting that they (the then Soviet Union) would take us over without firing a shot. Little did we know or ever dream then that the Soviet Union would fall but that a truly [2] evil man from Texas and his equally evil regime from Cheney on down would take us over from within and that the Democrats would completely collapse before our eyes and help him do it. This truly [3] began with the stolen election of 2000.</p>

November 30, 2002 Medical marijuana laws working well, report says By The Associated Press WASHINGTON - Law enforcement officials in four of the states that allow medical use of marijuana say the laws have had minimal impact on crimefighting, although they at times complicate prosecution of drug cases, a congressional report said Friday. The report by the General Accounting Office said that only a small fraction of the people in Oregon, Hawaii and Alaska used marijuana for medical purposes. The results in California, the fourth state studied, were limited to only four counties and no statewide data were available. Some...

<p>A Great Falls man whose 10-year-old son allegedly led the babysitter to his marijuana stash has lost his job and resigned as president of the Rotary Club. Gregory A. Hughes, 50, 1100 23rd Ave. S.W., was fired from his job as vice president in the Wells Fargo Trust department. He had worked for the company more than 25 years.</p>

Physicians can discuss the pros and cons of medicinal marijuana with their patients without worry of the Drug Enforcement Administration cracking down on them, a federal appeals court ruled in October. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco unanimously ruled that a 1996 federal policy that said physicians could lose their DEA numbers if they discussed the issue tramples on First Amendment rights that allow a doctor and patient to discuss medical issues. The policy had some physicians fearful of discussing the issue with patients who have cancer, AIDS or other debilitating diseases...

Medical marijuana and the feds Debra Saunders If the federal government were right that medical marijuana has no medicinal value, why have so many doctors risked their practices by recommending its use for patients with cancer or AIDS? Marcus Conant, the doctor who identified the first cases of Kaposi's sarcoma among San Francisco AIDS patients, can answer that. Imagine you're the doctor for a 40-year-old lady with breast cancer. They put her on chemotherapy, and every time she takes her therapy, she throws up. She can't sleep; she's up sick all night. She has trouble caring for her children. Medical...

The drug czar is ready for pro wrestling. He already has the name, and now he's got the prefight talk down cold. In every speech he makes in Nevada, where Bush appointee John Walters has traveled to fight an initiative that would legalize marijuana, he calls out his three sworn enemies as if he were Tupac Shakur. The czar has a problem with billionaire philanthropists George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling, who have bankrolled the pro-pot movement, and he wants everyone to know he's ready for battle. At an Elks lodge meeting in Las Vegas, he ticks off their...

Marijuana Arrests For Year 2001 Second Highest Ever Despite Feds' War On Terror, FBI Report Reveals Washington, DC: Police arrested an estimated 723,627 persons for marijuana violations in 2001, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's annual Uniform Crime Report, released today. The total is the second highest ever recorded by the FBI, and comprises nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States. "These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). "In fact, the war...

Free marijuana? 10/28/2002 By Kim Kapilovic / 3TV PHOENIX -- It's the campaign claim that has people shaking their heads -- will officers readily be giving out free marijuana? 3TV took this issue to both a proponent and an opponent of the Drug Medicalization, Prevention and Control Act of 2002. Cannibus, hemp, Mary Jane, pot. Marijuana has a lot of names and it has had a lot publicity over the last 6 years in Arizona. Prop 203: Read the initiativeIt passed as a medicinal drug in 1996 and was reaffirmed by the voters in 1998. Four years later, Proposition...