Oak Park Heights: Minn. - A guard at Oak Park Heights Prison has been charged with smuggling marijuana into the facility. Tyler Gronskei, 28, of New Richmond, Wis., told investigators that she twice brought marijuana into the prison for inmate Timothy Baugh, according to a criminal complaint. The complaint alleges that Baugh paid her $1,000 for each delivery. Gronskei is slated to appear in court May 15 and faces up to ten years in prison if she's convicted. Gronskei was fired March 2 after an internal probe concluded she had violated prison policy against having "interpersonal association and sexual misconduct between staff and offenders," as well as having broken rules against having contraband in the prison, according to a prison memo. She admitted to having a relationship with Baugh, though the memo doesn't name the offender. Baugh is one of the most notorious serial rapists in Minnesota history. In 1994, he was sentenced to 139 years in prison for attacking 14 women in Minneapolis - in many cases after sneaking into their homes at night. A state appeals court upheld the sentence.

Police were called by the fire service just before 6.30pm last night, who had entered a premises in Balne Lane in Wakefield and discovered several hundred cannabis plants as well as hydroponics equipment.
Detective Inspector Mabs Hussain from the Wakefield District Drugs Team said: "This is a significant amount of cannabis and we would appeal for anyone who has seen unusual comings and goings to the flat on Balne Lane to contact us.
"The property was rented and we would advise landlords to be on their guard and report anything unusual to police. Tenants may be running up unusually high electricity bills and they may be reluctant to put bills in their name. If they tamper with the electricity they can also cause significant damage to the property which ultimately the landlords will be responsible for."
If anyone has information they should contact Wakefield District Drugs Team on 01924 393259 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 121.

A statement from the Interior ministry has confirmed that a total of fifteen people from Spain, Colombia, Rumania and Morocco have been arrested after 4,300kg of cannabis resin was discovered on board a coast guard auxiliary boat on its way from Morocco to Ibiza. Apart from the crew of three, nine people were arrested in Ibiza, the owner of the boat was arrested in Sevilla, one person was arrested in Valencia and another in Barcelona. During raids at the properties where the arrests were made, €13,000 euros in cash, 2kg cocaine, five pneumatic launches, four outboard motors, six vehicles, two trailers, a flare pistol, sea navigation maps and fifteen mobile phones, were seized.

A man has burnt to death when a Surrey house that was used as a cannabis factory turned into a "horrendous inferno". The massive fire happened just after 9pm on Friday at the house in Van Dyck Avenue, New Malden, and gutted the 1930s chalet-style, three-bedroom property. The intense heat prevented the 20 firefighters from getting inside the house until it was too late to save the man. He died later in Kingston Hospital with burns to 100 per cent of his body. Police said three women of oriental appearance and two children were seen running from the house. They have identified the victim but will not release details until his next of kin have been informed. An oriental man was also seen leaving the house at about the same time. Shaken neighbours, who did not want to give their names, said they called the fire brigade after their young son ran downstairs screaming that there was a fire. Within minutes the house next door to their's was engulfed in flames. One of these neighbours said: "It was just incomprehensible. There were flames coming out of every part and it was just a ball of flame. It wasn't a fire, it was an inferno." Full Inferno....

Roadblocks and raids by police have seized more than 80 grams of cannabis they say was bound for a country music festival in Western Australia. The operation was mounted by the Substance Abuse Intelligence Desk (SAID), which is focused on the illegal trafficking of petrol, drugs and alcohol in the outback, and which aims to reduce drug-fuelled crime in remote communities. The SAID operation aimed to stop drugs getting to a Tamworth on Tour country music festival at Warburton, about 1540km north-east of Perth, on April 16 and 17, police said.
Officers and the NT Dog Operations Unit set up a roadblock 20km from Wingelina in Western Australia to stop illicit substances reaching the event, 220km to the west. Officer in charge of the NT SAID, Beau McNeill, said 35 vehicles were searched, netting six grams of cannabis that lead to a house search at Wingelina, Full Haul...

A Tauranga father whose drugs operation was found in the same room he stored a large number of his child's toys faces life imprisonment after admitting multiple drug charges. Builder Adam Fletcher Heise, 24, of Welcome Bay, pleaded guilty to one charge each of cultivating cannabis, and possessing cannabis, LSD and methamphetamines all for supply, when he appeared in Tauranga District Court yesterday. He also admitted one charge each of supplying cannabis, LSD and methamphetamines, plus two charges of receiving. Possession of LSD and methamphetamines for supply and supplying these Class A drugs are counts that carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Police confirmed outside court that Heise had his under five-year-old child at his home when he was arrested. Also in the basement were numerous drug items, including a zip bag containing seven bags of cannabis weighing 78g, a silver tin with 3.25g of cannabis and 13 tabs of LSD, and four bags of methamphetamine weighing 0.72g, Full Sentence...

A Patutahi man was sent to trial on Friday accused of cultivating one of the largest cannabis plots found in this region in the past decade. Manu Terekia Busby Job, 50, appeared at a depositions hearing in Gisborne District Court on charges of cultivating cannabis, unlawful possession of explosives, unlawful possession of three firearms and theft of a motor vehicle. The charges relate to a 4300-plantcannabis growing operation found on February 13 at a property belonging to Job. After viewing hand-up briefs of evidence from seven witnesses for the prosecution, two justices of the peace ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to trial. Job pleaded not guilty to all charges against him and was remanded in custody for a callover on June 12. During the court proceedings, Job made several attempts to leave the dock to talk to his family, who were in the court room. He was warned by the police court orderly not to do so. Job continued to quietly interact with his family, reaching out to touch one young child’s hand.

A man was caught arriving in Scotland with more than 22kg of cannabis in his baggage, a court heard. Paul Ashley was found to have the drugs concealed in the lining of a suitcase when he flew into Edinburgh Airport in his light aircraft Ashley, 37, admitted being knowingly concerned in the fraudulent evasion of the ban on importing controlled drugs on 29 January. Edinburgh High Court heard how the drugs were worth £48,000. Sentence was deferred for background reports. Ashley, a British subject who lives in Harare, Zimbabwe, was stopped by a customs officer as he walked through the Nothing to Declare channel with the case, which had been wrapped in cling film. Advocate depute Alan Mackay said Ashley had travelled to Johannesburg, in South Africa, where he took possession of the case containing 22.7kg of the drug before flying to Paris. "When he checked his case in it was found to weigh 32 kilos and was required to pay excess baggage fare to get in on the flight," said the prosecutor, Full Flight..

Zambia's Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) has arrested a man aged 101 for allegedly cultivating and trafficking cannabis, local newspaper Zambia Daily Mail reported Friday. DEC spokesperson Rosten Chulu confirmed the arrest of Timothy Chilekwa, a peasant farmer of Namembo village in Southern province who was born in 1906. Chulu said the old man was nabbed for alleged unlawful cultivation of cannabis weighing 1.2 tons. He was also found trafficking two sacks of cannabis weighing 6. 95 kg, Chulu said. The spokesperson said the 101-year-old would appear in court soon. In the meantime, the DEC also arrested several other suspects from all over the country for trafficking cannabis, a drug that is widely seen in Zambia's rural areas illegally planted for quick money.

Santa-Rosa, Calif.- A Sonoma County judge said he would order the destruction of 19 pounds of pot seized by police, even though the case later was dropped because the owner was a verified medical marijuana user. The original owner of the marijuana, Shashon Jenkins, 26, was arrested in October, but the marijuana cultivation and possession charges against him were dismissed in December. Jenkins had testified that he uses marijuana to relieve chronic pain and grows it for several clients who also use it under a doctor's authorization. During the December hearing, Judge Lawrence Antolini ordered the marijuana returned to Jenkins. But Santa Rosa police refused to return the marijuana, saying it would violate federal law. On Tuesday, Antolini rejected a request from Jenkins' attorney for more time to make his case to get the pot back, after his doctor submitted incomplete medical records in the case.

A Marijuana factory was discovered by firefighters called to a blaze at a house. Around 400 plants with a street value of tens of thousands, along with a sophisticated hydroponics set-up including lamps, an irrigation system and air vents, were found at the property in Frettons, Basildon. Fire crews from Basildon and Corringham were called to the terraced house after worried neighbours saw smoke billowing from the roof. One neighbour, who kicked the door in believing people were trapped inside, described his shock at discovering the vast amount of drugs.
The 27-year-old dad, who did not want to be named, said: "I went over and one of my neighbours said he thought there was a woman and baby inside, so I did what every man would do and kicked the door down. Full Blaze..

During the recent warm snap, many of us would have given a lot to have access to our own private swimming pool. But for the occupants of one house on Millionaires' Row, a quick dip was out of the question - instead, they had filled the pool with cannabis plants worth £800,000.
Police who raided the property following a tip-off said they were left "speechless" when they discovered the massive cannabis factory, complete with special lighting, heaters and fans. The outisde of the rented house at posh D'urton Place of D'urton Lane in Broughton. They are seeking a group of people who are thought to have been renting the £500,000 property from its owner. The discovery was made on a lane of substantial, detached houses north of Preston, Lancashire, after a warrant was issued over an unpaid fine and the occupant was spotted running away. Officers forced their way in and stumbled across the industrial-scale cannabis plantation in the indoor pool at the back of the property. Chief Inspector James Lee said what they found had left them "speechless". "Neighbours had noticed the hum of electrical equipment coming from the 30ft pool but assumed it had been for heating the water. They said a group of Chinese men had been living there recently but no-one had any inkling of what was going on inside, Full Scale...

A Vietnamese chap recruited to cultivate cannabis plants with a street value of more than £36,000 at a house in Newport was jailed for two years. Asylum seeker Khan Van Nguyen, 24, of no fixed abode, was recruited at a London hotel and sent to cultivate cannabis plants at a rented house in Brynhyfryd Road, Newport crown court heard. Sentencing Judge John Curran said there had been a disturbing number of similar cases in the South Wales area. The court heard that officers called at the home and discovered Nguyen was cultivating 304 cannabis plants with a street value of up £36,640. Sharon Bahia prosecuting said: "Officers told him to open the door and when he did there was an overpowering smell of cannabis. "The man tried to obstruct the officers, then was arrested and on searching the property they saw large flexible pipes, similar to ones used in hydroponic factories and several hundred cannabis plants." Full Stink....

Landlords were today warned to be more aware of who was renting their properties after yet another cannabis factory was uncovered in Southampton. As reported in later editions of yesterday's Daily Echo, a team of detectives from the city's drug investigation unit raided a house where they discovered the makeshift farm. Today officers revealed a total of 274 plants had been found at the house in Padwell Road, in the Inner Avenue area of Southampton, following the raid at around 8am yesterday. If they were harvested and taken for sale on the streets they could potentially be worth more than £20,000. Four rooms inside the three-bedroom home had been converted into areas to grow and cultivate the drug. Hi-tech intensive heating and lighting equipment had been installed to speed up the growth of the plants, which were being grown using hydroponics, Full Revelation...

A chap attacked his ex-partner in a row over child care and when police went to his house they found a "cannabis factory" in his wardrobe.
Burnley magistrates heard how John-Paul Rowan, 30, also assaulted his former girlfriend's friend before chasing Emma Dransfield across the road, hitting her and kicking her while she was on the ground. Rowan admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, assault by beating and cultivating cannabis, on September 2. The defendant, of Gisburn Street, Barnoldswick, was given a 12-month community order with supervision and 150 hours unpaid work. He must also pay £100 compensation and £75 costs. Bill Maude, prosecuting, said Rowan claimed Miss Dransfield, 29, was not looking after their children properly. She went out with her friend Mary King for the evening and left the youngsters with a babysitter. The defendant turned up at the pub she was at, subjected her to a tirade of abuse and demanded she go home immediately, Full Factory......

(Basseterre; St. Kitts): Earlier this week Police forces from the Canine and Drug Units carried out search operations on Tuesday April 3, at the Bayfords Mountain and found 2269 cannabis plants which were subsequently up rooted. The plants which were found through the use of the canine unit, ranged from seedlings to five (5) feet in height. No one has been made answerable for the find to date. In related Police news, on Thursday, April, 5 2007, a 16-year-old male of the Irish Town Bay Road was arrested and charged with the offence of "House Breaking and Larceny" committed on 2nd April 2007. On Friday 6th Aril 2007, Athnelle Williams of Sprott Street was charged with the offence "Refusing to give his name to a police officer when lawfully required to do so" committed on 3rd March 2007. He was later granted bail in the sum of $2,000.00 to appear at the Basseterre Magistrate's Court on 16th March 2007. On Friday 6th Aril 2007, a 15-year-old male of the Sandy Point area and a 16-year-old male of Prickley Pear Alley, Basseterre were charged with the offence of "Disorderly Conduct by Fighting" committed on 6th March 2007 at the Basseterre Police Station. On Friday 6th Aril 2007, Full Find....

A suburban road had to be cleared of gathering crowds as firefighters battling a house fire discovered hundreds of burning cannabis plants. Emergency crews were ordered to put on breathing apparatus when it was realised the pungent fumes were 'a little unusual'. A roadblock was set up to keep away onlookers.
Detectives were last night investigating at the semidetached house in High Wycombe, Bucks, which had been converted into a 'farm' for the mass production of cannabis.
It is thought the blaze, which took two hours to control on Friday night, was caused by an electrical fault in the heating equipment used to propagate the plants. No one was in the house at the time and no arrests have been made.

'are ordered to act as live in gardeners'
News2020.com
April 10th 2007

Police have blamed the sinister trade of human trafficking for the rapidly growing industry of cannabis farming as they try to drive drug cartels from the streets of Hounslow. Vietnamese gangs are thought to be at the heart of trading, and police are worried that the wider issues of gang crime, murders and drug dealing could escalate despite numerous factories being closed down in the past few months. In the last ten days alone, four houses have been closed, six Vietnamese men arrested, and more than 2,500 cannabis plants confiscated with a street value of around £100, 000.
Police Constable Steven Gilbert, from Hounslow Intelligence Unit, said: "The trafficking often involves illegal immigrants who have been smuggled into the country and then forced to work off their debt, and are ordered to act as live in gardeners' in the houses that are converted into cannabis factories. "They drugs are cultivated using a series of timers that turn heat lamps and electrics on, so the main job of the gardeners' More Cultivation.....

Teen charged over cannabis haul. The plants were found in a warehouse in South Harbour Street. A teenager has appeared in court charged with cultivating cannabis. Lin Feng, 16, from Ayr, faces three charges of producing a drug, supplying drugs and possessing drugs with intent to supply. He appeared at Ayr Sheriff court in private where he made no plea or declaration. He was remanded in custody and will appear again in a week. Between 3,000 and 4,000 cannabis plants were recovered from a warehouse in South Harbour Street, Ayr, on Thursday. It is the biggest cannabis cultivation found in the Strathclyde region to date.

A 60-year-old Traralgon man will face court today charged with a string of drugs offences. Harold Willis was remanded in custody over the weekend after police searched a house in Little Crescent, Traralgon on Friday. It is alleged police found $30,000 in cash and three plastic bags cannabis heads at the house. Police allege the cannabis has a street value of $16,000. The defendant is charged with trafficking, using and possessing drugs and possessing the proceeds of crime. He will face the Latrobe Valley Magistrates Court at Morwell today.

Firemen called to a blaze at an ordinary-looking terraced house found more than just family possessions going up in smoke. For after fire crews smashed their way into the smoke-filled house in cobbled Nelson Street in Bury they discovered a secret cannabis factory. The lounge was well alight but after tackling the flames officers found two other rooms were filled with cannabis plants. The property had been set up for the mass production of the drug. It is believed the fire started in an electrical fuse box which may have become overloaded due to the number of growing lamps being used to cultivate the drug. A large quantity of the plants were later removed by police who are investigating who used the rented property. Landlord Mr Pav Khan said: "I own seven properties and rent them out. There was something funny about this one. "I told the people who rented it that I would come round and collect the rent once a month."But they are Chinese and said they did not want me to come because the lady who lived there was pregnant and for ethnic reasons they did not want me to call, More Secrets....

One man has been charged and three others issued court attendance notices following a drug operation at Darling Harbour today. At 1pm today, officers from the NSW Police Force Marine Area Command, assisted by Customs personnel, commenced a drug dog operation at Wharf 8, Darling Harbour. The operation was conducted until 5pm when the last of an estimated 1200 passengers finished boarding a ship for a three-day cruise off the NSW coast. During the operation drug dogs allegedly detected five people in possession of illicit drugs. A 38-year-old Surry Hills man, who was allegedly detected with 20 tablets, was arrested and taken to City Central Police Station where he was charged with supply and possess prohibited drug. A 26-year-old man from Yantirna (Victoria) man; a 35-year-old man from Glenmore (Victoria) and a 37-year-old Darlinghurst man were all issued court attendance notices after dogs allegedly detected drugs including LSD, speed and GHB. They will all appear at the Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday 24 April. A 55-year-old man was issued a cannabis caution notice after 1 gram of cannabis was allegedly detected in his possession. Sergeant John Cox, Marine Area Command, said the drug dog operation was launched based on risk assessment and intelligence. “Police will continue to conduct similar operations based on information we gather and we will continue to arrest and charge any person in possession of illicit drugs,” he said. The cruise ship set sail at 6pm today. Nice work Nsw Police....

A cannabis factory capable of returning a £1m-a-year profit has been closed down by police in Norfolk. More than 3,000 plants - the biggest haul in the county in recent years - were found when they raided a converted pig shed outside Attleborough on Saturday.
Officers from the force's western area had expected to find a small-scale drug- growing outfit but were shocked by the high-level operation they uncovered. Forensics experts have been examining the premises and removing the plants. It is thought the factory was set up in mid-autumn and had already produced one harvest of skunk, one of the strongest strains of cannabis available.
While traditional cannabis farms can produce just one crop a year, the hi-tech hydroponics systems installed meant this farm could produce three or four.
The building was split into eight cultivation zones and in one a crop was almost ripe for harvest and could have been ready for sale on East Anglia's streets within weeks.
Det Con Steve Hamilton, an expert in drugs farms, said: “This is clearly the work of an organised group of individuals who knew what they were doing and had the resources to invest into it, Full Grow....

A Suffolk electrician who used cannabis to ease his stammer has been warned to kick the habit or face jail. Police discovered “carrier bags” of cannabis at David Waine's home in St Mary's Street, Bungay.
The 23-year-old was initially stopped by police on July 8 last year and five cling film packages containing 16.6 grams of cannabis and three paper wraps containing 2.52 grams of cocaine were discovered in Waine's possession.
At his home a small amount of cannabis was found in a tobacco pouch but 94.6 grams of the Class C drug was found in a carrier bag and 20.3 grams divided into six cling film packages were found in another.
Ian Pells, prosecuting at Ipswich Crown Court said Waine, who pleaded guilty to possessing the drugs, told police he bought the cocaine off a man at a Thetford party and had purchased a large quantity of cannabis because it was cheaper to buy it in bulk, Full Stammer....

A vehicle recovery driver who moved a car off the motorway looked in the boot to find all the parts for a cannabis factory. The police had asked for the Toyota Corolla to be taken off the hard shoulder near Swindon after they arrested the Vietnamese driver for not having a licence. But when the car was moved it was found to contain more than 200 cannabis plants as well as hydroponics lighting and material for blacking out windows.
Ian Halliday, prosecuting, told Swindon crown court that a motorway cop spotted the car on the westbound carriageway on Thursday October 12 last year. "He pulled over and the defendant was found in the driver's seat having a cigarette. The officer established there was nothing wrong and the defendant was taking a rest," he said.
"The defendant was asked for his driving licence; he had none.She was asked about the ownership and he said it belonged to a man called Tran whose address in London he produced to the officer." Full Discovery...

2 sophisticated cannabis farms have been discovered in houses in a quiet suburban street in Bolton. The semi-detached homes in Queen's Avenue, Bromley Cross, had been converted into drug growing operations - complete with heat lamps, complicated watering systems and fans. Hundreds of plants were discovered on Tuesday afternoon by the landlord of the houses, which had been rented out, during a routine visit. Police officers described the downstairs rooms of one house as being "like a jungle". Full Tale....

Police made a astonishing drug discovery which confronted police who knocked on the door of a house on a routine inquiry in Leeds.Officers found a highly sophisticated cannabis-growing centre when they visited the house to check details of a vehicle's ownership. They could hardly believe their eyes when they saw what lay behind brick facade of the Edwardian semi. Unsuspecting, they had repeatedly knocked on the front door. As they waited for an answer, three men fled through the back door of the house in Balbec Avenue, Headingley, Leeds, last Tuesday evening.
When the officers reached the back of the house they found the back door open and an smell of cannabis coming from inside. Professional Stepping inside they found some of the most professional cannabis growing systems they had ever seen, set up in four rooms devoted to the operation. To generate rapid growth of cannabis plants a detailed system had been set-up employing water-driven, Full Astonishment...

Vietnamese organised crime is behind a sudden explosion of cannabis cultivation in Scotland in the past year, with more than 40 factories producing £5 million of the drug in the past nine months. Graeme Pearson, head of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), will today tell a drugs conference that cannabis cultivation in Scotland has gone from a "homespun cottage industry" to mass production lines overseen by Far Eastern "Mr Bigs". A network of Vietnamese gangs, responsible for mass cannabis production in North America and the south of England, is understood to have recruited members of the Chinese community in Scotland to set up dozens of factories across the country in recent months. A big rise in cannabis cultivation in parts of England has already been witnessed in recent months, with the proceeds reinvested in other aspects of organised crime, including heroin, cocaine and firearms. Last week police disclosed the results of Operation League, a major cannabis-production crackdown, mainly in the west of Scotland, which has seen about 20 factories shut down. Police made several arrests during the operation, including Vietnamese and Chinese nationals, along with Scots, Full Crime....

Police and fire safety officers are carrying out investigations after finding 1,000 cannabis plants at the scene of a fire north west of Auckland.
Eight fire appliances were needed at the rural address near Coatesville where a single story chicken shed was ablaze.
Police say firefighters smashed a hole in the side of the chicken shed thinking they were going to rescue thousands of chickens. But once inside, instead of poultry they found more than 1,000 cannabis plants growing in the shed.Police spokesman Kevin Loughlin says the cause of the fire was an overloaded switchbox which had been generating a considerable amount of electricity to assist with the growth of the plants. The owner of the farm is being questioned by police.

Police raiding a cannabis factory in Woodford Green were 'overwhelmed' by the smell of the plants which filled six rooms. The flat above a restaurant in Johnston Road contained more than 800 plants when officers from all four Woodford Green safer neighbourhood teams called on Monday, February 12. After receiving a tip-off, the Monkhams team obtained a warrant to search the flat and three Vietnamese men of no fixed address were found and arrested on a second floor roof. A sophisticated irrigation and heating system had been installed and the windows of the flat had been blacked out. The men were charged with the production of cannabis and remanded in custody when they appeared at Redbridge magistrates court the following day, Full Stink:

A teenager who featured in the national media after an incident with Conservative leader David Cameron has admitted a drug charge.
The 17-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty to possession of £5-worth of cannabis following a police raid at his home on Saturday morning. He was fined £25 with £55 costs at the hearing at Manchester City Magistrates' Youth Court. The teenager had been held in custody since his arrest on Saturday. Officers raided his home and searched his bedroom where they found a small quantity of cannabis in a bag hidden in his wardrobe. District Judge Wendy Lloyd said she was "concerned" that he had been kept in custody for possession of such a small quantity of cannabis.
She added: "That you have been dealt with differently causes me great concern."

Between 10 and 15 plants were found in the cellar of a house in Exchange Street, when police burst in at 9.30am yesterday. The room had been rigged up with strong heat lamps and tarpaulin to protect the plants, and police suspected the electricity meter had been bypassed. A woman and a 12-year-old girl were at the house when the officers arrived. The girl was taken home while the woman, who is in her 30s, was arrested. A man, who also lives at the house, was arrested at work.
Police spent several hours at the house and said samples would be taken from the plants which will be destroyed. Sergeant Jon Fryer, of Colne police, said the raid had been carefully planned after information from neighbouring residents.
After the raid, leaflets were distributed in the area, telling residents what had happened and urging them to contact police if they were concerned about activ-ities at any other houses, Full Horror.

Undercover Police uncovered a major cannabis factory in a five-bedroomed house in an upmarket Dinas Powys road last week - and took some £140,000 worth of drugs off the streets. Officers discovered more than 1,000 cannabis plants in the house at Wellwood Drive, near the Hebron Hall Christian Centre.
It is the largest such 'factory' ever discovered in the Vale - and also the largest haul of cannabis police in the Vale have recovered. A 35-year-old man from Dinas Powys, a 34-year-old man from the Cardiff area, and a 40-year-old woman from Penarth area, have all been charged with cultivating cannabis. The plants were discovered after lighting equipment overloaded an electrical circuit, causing a fire at the house, More info....

100s of marijuana plants were seized after cops swooped on two cannabis factories. The two properties, in Bromley and Orpington, were searched under the Misuse of Drugs Act, and 321 plants were seized.
Both properties had been converted to accommodate with specialist heating and lighting equipment. Supplies of chemicals were also found.
The houses were not occupied at the time of the searches, but police say their enquiries are ongoing and they are looking for the people involved. Detective Inspector Bryan Davidson of Bromley CID said: "We are targeting drug abuse, and the growing of cannabis will not be tolerated. The discovery of these cannabis factories has prevented thousands of pounds worth of drugs entering the streets of Bromley.
"Those involved in such activities are taking advantage of properties available to rent in the area and I would therefore urge landlords to be vigilant and ensure that vigorous checks are completed on those renting. Full Grow.......

Two young Cardigan men, one of them a regular cannabis user, had £70 worth of the drug when police stopped a car in which they were travelling at Llechryd during the early hours of the morning. Dafydd Wyn Rees, aged 19, a coastal farm park worker, of 6 Williams Terrace, Cardigan, and 21-year-old building worker Peter Christopher Edwards, also of 6 Williams Terrace, pleaded guilty to possessing 66.3 grammes of herbal cannabis on February 6. Prosecutor Phillipa Ashworth said Rees told officers he used cannabis on a regular basis while Edwards said he paid about a week's wages for the drug. Rees was fined £150 with £50 costs, and Edwards, who was the subject of a court community order was fined £200 with £50 costs. A destruction order was made for the seized cannabis, yes a destruction order....

A small time Stafford drugs dealer caught peddling cannabis has been caged for eight months by a judge. Police seized around £400 worth of the drug during a search raid on the home of Robert Dillon. Text messages found on his mobile phone proved he had been dealing for around two months, Stafford Crown Court heard. And the judge who sent him down, Justice Colman Treacy, warned other cannabis pushers that a "false impression" had got about over the downgrading of the drug to class C. "Although cannabis itself has been downgraded, the penalty for supplying remains at 14 years. "You and others should clearly understand there has been no change in the penalties for those who deal in drugs. "The maximum is 14 years - you are not in that class, you are at the lower end of the scale, but you were dealings in these illegal drugs for gain." Dillon, 22, of Sidney Avenue, Stafford admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply, Full Peddling......

'mumbled and slurred his speech'
News2020.com
Feb 9th 2007

Motorist Andrew David Leighton was very relaxed when police pulled him over for jumping a red light - he was halfway through a cannabis joint.
Prosecutor Jane Cook told York magistrates that the unsmoked part of Leighton's illegal cigarette was sitting on the ashtray of his Vauxhall Corsa as officers opened the door and smelt cannabis.
Mrs Cook said: "He mumbled and slurred his speech and seemed extremely relaxed and his eyes were bloodshot." Police took the bag of herbal cannabis he handed to them and arrested Leighton. Hospital health care worker Leighton, 33, of Whernside Avenue, Tang Hall, York, pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of cannabis and was banned from driving for 16 months. He was also fined £150 with £35 prosecution costs. Mrs Cook said police stopped his car after they saw him go through a red light in Heworth Green, at 9pm on October 5, Full Joint.....

A Pot PRODUCTION
Bedford
Feb 3rd 2007

Police swoop on two more cannabis'factories'.More cannabis factories have been unearthed by Luton police. Bedfordshire Police raided two addresses on Thursday morning where the illegal crop was being grown. Cannabis plants were found in two rooms in a property in Humberstone Road and three rooms in a Browning Road house. The electric supply in both sites had been dangerously tampered with to bypass the meter and avoid detection, as well as huge bills. A man was arrested at the Browning Road address on suspicion of cultivation of cannabis and was taken to Luton police station.
Sgt Martin Cahill said: "These operations send out a clear message that drugs, and the cultivation of drugs, will not be tolerated in Bedfordshire. Full Tale....

" a strange smell "
Yarmouth
Feb 2nd 2007

PC Neil Glover, from the North Yarmouth Safer Neighbourhood Team, was patrolling Market Row on Monday when he noticed a pungent smell from a flat above a shop. He searched it with members of the police tactical team and they seized a small quantity of cannabis plants along with a sophisticated hydroponics system for growing them. The factory, which covered four rooms and included specialist heat and lighting as well as air conditioning, was the eighth premises to be raided by police in two weeks - and the second factory to be found.
The owner of a nearby shop, who did not want to be named, said: “We have noticed a strange smell drifting along the road - the only way I can describe it was as a very heavy green smell - for about the last year and a half. It absolutely stank and we have complained to police before about it twice. Everyone could smell it. Full Stink.....

A cannabis haul with a street value of more than £11,000 has been seized from a house in Padiham. Police recovered 160 mature plants of the class C drug during a warrant executed on a property in Rycliffe Street at 6.30pm on Monday. A 34-year-old man from Berkeley Crescent was arrested on suspicion of the production and supply of cannabis as well as abstracting electricity. The plants were allegedly being cultivated with the use of heat lamps. He is on police bail. The plants, estimated to have a street value of £11,200, were taken away to be destroyed. The warrant was carried out by Padiham neighbourhood response officer PC Diane Murphy. She said: "This warrant was carried out following information received from the community and concerns raised at local Police and Community Together (PACT) meetings, Full Warning......

A man caught bringing a cannabis plant into a Brisbane court says he will fight drug charges as part of his long-running campaign to have marijuana legalised. Peter Till, 39, of Nimbin in northern NSW, appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court charged with possessing a dangerous drug.Security officers said they seized the 50cm-tall cannabis plant at a screening machine in the Brisbane Magistrates Court's entry foyer on Monday. Mr Till said the plant was "evidence" for a court appearance. After the plant was seized, he still faced court on drug charges stemming from his arrest in October last year for smoking a cannabis cigarette in the city's Queen Street Mall. Despite pleading not guilty, the magistrate found otherwise and fined him $600, Full Campaign...

A Lincoln police officer on his way back to the station pulled over a car on Interstate-90 between the 10th Street Exit and the Lincoln airport Thursday afternoon for driving in a suspicious manner and speeding. Through questioning, the officer asked to search the vehicle and found 115 lbs. of marijuana. Police learned Damian G. McCoy of Hoopstan, Illinois was on his way back to his hometown from California. The 56-year old was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver to person or persons unknown.

A Dublin chap has been charged in connection with the seizure of cannabis resin worth over a €1 million in Co Dublin yesterday. The man will appear before Dublin District Court on February 2nd. Gardai discovered around 165 kgs of the illegal drug after searching an open area near Parc Na Silla in Loughlinstown. Officers confirmed the seizure, depending on a forensic examination, may have a potential street value of €1.1 million. One man was arrested at the scene late last night. Following further investigations two men and a woman were arrested at a house nearby and a small quantity of cocaine was seized, Full Tale....

Redwood City-A San Bruno man accused of turning a spacious home into a marijuana factory pleaded not guilty Wednesday to several felony charges, including possessing more than $1 million in cannabis plants and dried pot. Aaron George Seits, 23, pleaded not guilty to cultivating marijuana, possession of an assault weapon and possession of a destructive device, which police say was a pipe bomb hidden under his bed. Seits, a self-employed electrician, will return to court on Jan. 17 for his preliminary hearing. He remains in custody in San Mateo county jail in lieu of $175,000 bail. Neighbors of the house in San Bruno said the discovery of an indoor growing operation was a surprise, while neighbors of another San Bruno home where the man was arrested had kind words for his grandparents, with whom he was apparently living. Full Tale....

Customs has shut down a syndicate running two cannabis plantations, seizing drugs worth about $12 million. On Wednesday, Officers of the Customs Drug Investigation Bureau stormed a Tin Shui Wai flat and a hut in Pat Heung. They seized 583 pots of cannabis plants, 20kg of herbal cannabis, and two kg of ketamine. Two men aged 39 and 44 were arrested during the raids. Customs officers estimated the cannabis plants could produce 40kg of cannabis buds. They believed the drugs were intended for distribution in entertainment venues in West Kowloon.

A three story home in Chatsworth had been converterd into a greenhouse, growing about 300 marijuana plants, some so tall the cultivators had to dig out the foundation beneath the living room, authorities said. The growers installed industrial-strength lamps to give the plants constant light. Early on Tuesday Jan 2nd , the electrical system powering the lamps overloaded, and the otherwise empty, rented house went up in flames. It took firefighters over one hour to put out the blaze. Inside they found charred marijuana, which when sold might have brought more than $3 million for the growers. It was unknown whether the owner of the home had anything to do with the pot farm, said Los Angeles police Detective Robert Columbo. Police said cannabis cultivation has grown in both scale and secrecy in the past decade from a few plants in a back yard to rather large indoor greenhouses.

Residents of a Maples-area street expressed shock and surprise yesterday that Winnipeg police had knocked over a large marijuana grow operation in their neighbourhood. "That is shocking for this street," said Noi, who declined to give her last name. "We didn't hear a thing." About 4 p.m. Friday, the police Green Team seized 627 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $702,240, from a house at 19 Gardenia Bay. The house is located across the lane from Arthur E. Wright Community School. "Are we surprised? No -- it happens everywhere. It doesn't matter where you live," said Brenley Nyhoff 83, as she and husband Harold 79 unloaded groceries from their car. "The government should hire these guys to grow their marijuana. At least it would have some strength," said Harold, referring tongue-in-cheek to the low-grade medicinal marijuana grown in a Flin Flon mine shaft, Full Happening.....

Police officers walking their beat in Yarmouth literally smelt out a sophisticated cannabis factory being run in the back bedroom of a terrace house.
Insp. Will Smith and his colleague PC Stu Wood became suspicious of a pungent odour as they were passing a home in Wells Road, Cobholm, early on Wednesday afternoon so returned to the property an hour later with reinforcements. Insp. Smith said: “We knocked on the door and when the householder opened it the smell was so overpowering we arrested him on the spot.”
Police discovered that a front bedroom had been turned into a sophisticated propagation unit with 30 cannabis plants, with a street value of £120 each, being grown under five industrial lights. The bathroom was being used as a nursery for young plants.
A 33-year-old man at the house was arrested and interviewed at Yarmouth police station. He was later released on police bail pending more inquiries.

Cannabis plants believed to be worth more than £32,000 have been uncovered in an empty house up for sale in Kent.
Police were called to the property in Westlands Avenue, Sittingbourne, on Wednesday after the owner, Charles Otto, found 250 young plants growing.
There were also concerns that the electricity meter had been by-passed.
Sgt Russ Phillips said the offenders had broken into the house and converted it into a cannabis factory within the past four weeks.
He added that Mr Otto had exchanged contracts and was awaiting completion on the property when he was alerted by the agent that cannabis growing equipment had been found inside.
"I was shocked and said we had better call the police before it is too late," said Mr Otto, who lives in London.

Police have seized over two tons of cannabis in an operation which took place on a beach in Rubite early on 24th December.
Reports this Tuesday say officers arrested a 40 year old Moroccan man named as Big M.O who is legally resident in Spain. British police have been informed of the arrest and are traveling to Spain to question him. The crew of the boat which had brought the drugs onto the beach managed to escape out to sea. Another Moroccan was arrested in Melilla the following day as he was about to board the Almería ferry with more than 75 kilos of cannabis hidden in his car.

,A 74 year old bird caught smuggling cannabis to her son in Stafford's prison has herself been jailed. Edna Arthur was already under threat of a suspended sentence for a similar offence only two months ago, Stafford Crown Court heard. She was told by Judge Paul Glenn that she only had herself to blame: "You must have left the court at Worcester with the words of that judge ringing in your ears. You chose to ignore them." Arthur was spotted handing a package to her son Alan during a visit to Stafford prison in October, said Carole Knotts, prosecuting. When officers intervened, her son swallowed the package and she was taken to another room where she produced another package from her bra. That contained 6.5g of cannabis, Full Ignorance.....

The names of 2 British men who planned to smuggle 796 kgs of cannabis from the Costa del Sol to the UK have been released as 58 year old Gordon Mackie from Scotland, and John Edward Hindby, aged 58, from the West Midlands. They were arrested at the end of last week when Civil Guard discovered 796 kgs of cannabis hidden inside the cable housing of four electricity transformers being transported by lorry. Reports say the drug had become contaminated by coolant oil inside the transformers and would have caused a serious to health to anyone who consumed it. The lorry was at the Málaga Goods Transport Centre at the time its cargo was inspected. A search of a warehouse the network used on an Estepona industrial estate revealed two large reinforced crates which officers believe the group planned to use to transport drugs in their next smuggling operation.

A Wigton baker got more than he bargained for when he started growing what he thought would be just a couple of cannabis plants in his bedroom, a court heard. Jim Moffez, 46, had been told that at least 80 per cent of the seeds would fail to sprout. But the weather was so good nearly all the seeds propagated . When police raided his house at Low Hill, Mealsgate, on September 14 they found 40 mature plants thriving in his garden. Another 10 plants were growing in pots under a sophisticated system of lights, timers and fertilisers in his bedroom. Prosecutor Linda Vance told Carlisle Crown Court that the police estimated all the plants together would have provided cannabis worth more than £1,000. Moffez, who works for a bakers specialising in what his barrister Greg Hoare described as “delicious” Cornish pasties, pleaded guilty to cultivating cannabis and possessing it in its dried form. He was given a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, and ordered to do 100 hours unpaid community work.

Concord – Using upscale, mostly suburban "McMansions" as a front, a drug ring converted the pricey properties into marijuana labs where more than 6,000 plants, worth about $24 million on the street, were seized by police in coordinated raids yesterday. Ten houses, from Derry to Andover -- most costing between $300,000 and $400,000 each -- were confiscated and six people were taken into custody during "Operation Green Thumb," the name given the multi-agency probe launched after investigators stumbled upon two similar pot-growing operations in Hooksett and Epsom this fall. State Attorney General Kelly A. Ayotte said the joint federal, state and local law enforcement effort disrupted "what has to be the largest seizure of marijuana in this state's history." "It will have a significant impact on the illegal drug trade not only in this state ... but certainly throughout New England," she added. Full Impact..

An accused drug smuggler has denied using a coach-load of pensioners as unwitting mules to bring £120,000 worth of cannabis into the UK. Anthony MacAvoy, 51, told jurors on Monday he had never seen the coach where police officers found 45kg of cannabis. The prosecution allege MacAvoy smuggled the cannabis on a 43 seater, hired by a group of elderly people for a Dutch pub trip, on July 30, 2004. Coach park manager Roy Seaton, 63, and driver Graham Hull, 59, are also alleged to have been involved in the conspiracy. Giving evidence MacAvoy admitted having a book called Cocky in his possession about convicted drug baron Curtis Warren, Full Idea.....

A solicitor has appeared in court charged with smuggling cannabis hidden under her breast. Daniela Scotece, 31, is accused of smuggling the drugs when she went to meet her client Emmanuel Samuels at Nottingham Magistrates' Court. The court heard she was stopped when a sniffer dog detected the class C drug on her body. Scotece, of Sheridan Way, Nottingham, appeared in Derby Magistrates Court. When asked how she would plead to the charge of possession of cannabis with intent, she replied: "No indication". Samuels, 22, whose current address was given as HMP Leicester, appeared in court alongside the solicitor, Full Find....

3 men and three women have been charged with cultivating cannabis following dawn raids on properties in Sydney's south-west yesterday. Police allege the six were members of an organised crime syndicate. Police seized hundreds of hydroponic plants and dried cannabis with an estimated street value of more than $1 million. Raids were carried out by more than 60 officers on six addresses in south-west suburbs. A 56 year-old woman and a 29-year-old woman have been refused bail to appear in Liverpool Local Court today and a 34-year-old man and a 25-year-old woman have been refused bail and will appear at Bankstown Local Court today.

The 35-year-old performer was stopped by police as he left the NBC studio in Burbank after recording an edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Authorities found marijuana, cocaine and a firearm in the rap star's car, a police spokesman told Reuters. This latest run-in with the law is his third in three months following earlier incidents at two California airports. In October police found a gun and a quantity of cannabis in the musician's car after they stopped him for parking in a loading area at Bob Hope Airport. And earlier this month he was charged for attempting to carry a collapsible baton onto a plane at Orange County John Wayne Airport in September. An earlier arrest for affray at London's Heathrow Airport in April led to a police caution. Snoop Dogg, who rose to prominence in the early 1990s, is also known for his role in the 2004 remake of Starsky and Hutch.

Alicante is becoming a logistical centre for the distribution of hashish. The Guardia Civil have discovered that networks have chosen the Costa Blanca to store shipments which are unloaded in the province, in Murcia and Almería.
On Tuesday morning they impounded a pneumatic launch with 4 powerful 250cc motors on Guardamar beach after a chase in which its occupants dumped an estimated 2000kg of hashish into the sea. A strong wind was blowing onto the coast and when they realised they had been detected, they set off at high speed shedding their cargo along the way, before fleeing on foot when they landed.
On Wednesday night in a joint operation between the Guardia Maritime Service and Customs, they arrested two people and confiscated 4,800kg of hashish, Full Hash....

Abdul Halim and Manawi appeared in a Kuantan magistrate’s court yesterday. No plea was recorded from Abdul Halim Da-Oh, 35, and Manawi Mama, 41, of Narathiwat province. The offence allegedly took place at Lagoona Villa Cherating at the 43rd kilometre of the Kuantan-Kemaman road on Nov 16. The charge under the Dangerous Drugs Act carries the mandatory death penalty upon conviction. Deputy Public Prosecutor Kalmizah Salleh applied for a new hearing date as the prosecution was awaiting the chemist’s report. Magistrate Noralashiken Abd Razak fixed Jan 29 for the case to be re-mentioned.

Marijuana grow-ops in Ontario have undergone an ominous change of late, making it more likely that a person out for a walk could be injured or killed by a booby trap, police warn.The Ontario Provincial Police say that a few years ago, most of the marijuana growing operations they uncovered were indoors, in barns or homes. 'We had one case where this crib was mounted in the trees and it was full of rocks and lumber and had spikes in the bottom of it.'
-OPP Det. Supt. Frank ElbersThese days, they are more likely to find them out in the open, according to Det. Supt. Frank Elbers of the OPP's drug enforcement unit. "We've seen an almost total reversal," Elbers said. "Whereas five years ago, most of our grows were indoor grows, More Death....

Residents were shocked as police stormed a city property and seized a small amount of cannabis and equipment used in its production. The drugs raid was carried out at about 6.50am yesterday, in Alma Road, Millfield. A police spokeswoman said the interior of the house had resembled a “mini-cannabis factory”. Neighbours reported seeing a police van, and cars with police dogs outside the house and around the corner in Dogsthorpe Road. The raid is part of the force’s successful Door a Day drive – a crackdown against class A, B and C drugs and stolen property – which has been running since March and has now topped the 100 mark. A 26-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of cultivating cannabis. He has been bailed to return to Thorpe Wood police station on January 3.

A man has been jailed for supplying cannabis to residents in a remote Cape York Aboriginal community. Police found nearly a kilogram of cannabis in Rene Osterberger's possession after they arrested him for carrying a bottle of rum off a plane into the dry community of Aurukun in June. He told police it was the fourth time he had bought a large quantity of cannabis into the community. The 56-year-old admitted to making around $12,000 profit from selling the drugs to residents, some as young as 15. In the Supreme Court today, Osterberger pleaded guilty to eight charges including trafficking a dangerous drug. Justice Roslyn Atkinson said he gave a community that was already struggling with alcohol abuse another problem to deal with. She sentenced him to four years' jail, to be suspended after 16 months.

Brooksville: USA - A big drug bust got even bigger Thursday as authorities from Hernando, Citrus and Sumter counties revealed the stash they had taken from 10 grow houses. There were 668 plants taken out in all, some in small growing cubes, others in five-foot stalks. One hundred pounds of processed marijuana was wrapped in white paper and dumped on the Hernando Sheriff's Office floor for Thursday's press conference. The sweet smell of marijuana permeated the room.
"This is the good stuff," said Hernando Sheriff Richard Nugent, referring to the hydroponic harvest. "This is not some college kid growing marijuana in his room," added Ray Velboom, an FDLE agent, Full Grow.....

The Sureté du Québec is pursuing an investigation in order to find a man who, following a police chase, abandoned his vehicle containing about 100 kg of marijuana in Kahnawake last Sunday. At around 8:40 p.m. Sunday, Montreal highway patrol cars tried to intercept a yellow Dodge Charger that was travelling on Autoroute 40 near Autoroute 13. The driver, who was alone in the car at the time, accelerated instead of coming to a stop.
Although he did not engage high speeds, the driver took several different routes in an effort to elude police. He finally came to a stop nearly one hour later on a gravel road in Kahnawake. The suspect then fled on foot and, at last report, was still at large.
When they failed to find him, patrol officers returned to the abandoned vehicle accompanied by Kahnawake Peacekeepers. There they found in the trunk of the car three large black bags containing dozens of packets of marijuana enveloped in hermetic sacks, according to Isabelle Gendron, SQ information agent for the Montreal-Laval-Laurentides-Lanaudière district.

500 cannabis plants were seized during a police raid on a north-eastern suburbs house last night. About 8.30pm, Holden Hill police raided the house at Treweck Ave, Hillcrest, and a shed allegedly containing four separate grow rooms. About 510 cannabis plants of varying maturity were seized. Police also allegedly found an esky containing about 15kg of dried cannabis and cash. A 40-year-old man was arrested and charged with producing and possessing cannabis for sale and unlawful possession. He also faces charges of theft of electricity, with police alleging the man bypassed an electricity meter to steal power for the grow rooms. Police Confiscations Branch have also launched an investigation into the man's assets. He was bailed to appear in the Holden Hill Magistrates Court at a later date.

On Tuesday the PSNI arrested two men during a planned raid at premises on an industrial estate in Newtownards, Co. Down, which uncovered 3.5 tonnes of cannabis with an estimated street value of £18m. This was by far the largest drug seizure in the North to date. It was reported that the drugs had been smuggled in to cater for a cannabis drought and would have been sold on both sides of the border and probably in Britain. On Thursday Martin Kerfoot (39), of Bangor, Co. Down and Stephen McGivern (31), of Sunderland in England, appeared in court on charges relating to the seizure and were remanded in custody. Kerfoot is a partner in a haulage business and McGivern is a truck driver. In the South gardaí made at least three drug seizures, Full Tale......

Robert Greens, a rapist, was trapped by DNA found at the scene where he attacked a Dutch woman near Rosslyn Chapel.
Greens, 28, was jailed for ten years at the High Court in Edinburgh in April after changing his plea to guilty. A crucial piece of evidence was DNA extracted from the remains of a cannabis joint. The High Court in Edinburgh heard that Greens had been smoking a joint that fell from his mouth, Full Tale....

2 men appeared have before a judge at Carlisle Crown Court in connection with a £120,000 drugs haul. Howard Thomas Burns, 47, of Newlands Road, Cockermouth, was remanded in cutody after pleading guilty to possessing 24.8 kilos of cannabis resin with intent to supply it. The class B drug was found in a car at Burton in Kendal motorway services on June 16. Burns pleaded not guilty to a second charge of possessing amphetamine with intent to supply it. Keith Henderson, 46, of Foxhouses Road, Whitehaven, pleaded not guilty to possessing the cannabis resin with intent to supply and was released on bail to await his trial. Both men will be back in court in the week of October 23.

A Haywards Heath man has appeared in court accused of being part of a £5million drug smuggling operation.
Derek Johnson, 54, of Barnmead, is alleged to have been a member of a gang who smuggled £5m worth of cannabis hidden in rolls of carpet, a court heard. Johnson is jointly accused with fellow gang-members of arranging for 912 kilos to be stashed in specially made smell-proof compartments. He and Michael Lawson, 59, of St John's Hill, Sevenoaks; Lee Adderson, 47, of High Silver, Ingatestone; Darren Roberts, 45, of St Mary's Cray, Orpington and Donald Jones, 51, of Lorne Gardens, Wanstead, all deny conspiracy to smuggle cannabis between May 1 and October 13 2001.
The drugs were allegedly driven from Ghent in Belgium to a warehouse in Basildon, Essex, watched by National Crime Squad officers who pounced when the drugs were delivered. "It was brought over, say the Crown, in a clever, ingenious way," prosecutor Daniel Janner QC told Snaresbrook Crown Court. Full Porridge

Homeless woman fined for drug offence
Galway.ie
September 21st 2006

Ms Lisa Maher, 21 Presentation Road, was convicted of unlawfully having cannabis resin in her possession at Wolfe Tone Bridge on 12 June 2005. A charge of being intoxicated on the same date was taken into consideration. Ms Maher pleaded guilty to the offence.
Inspector Gerry Roche said the defendant was found in an intoxicated condition. When she was searched, cannabis to the value of ?40 was found in her possession. The court heard that Ms Maher had a previous conviction for a public order offence in July 2005. Ms McKeown, solicitor, said that her client had a difficult background and has very limited support from her family. She moved to Galway as a teenager. The defendant has been in rented accommodation for the past eight months and hopes to get a local authority house. Judge Mary Fahy told the defendant that she needed to be very careful.

Police raiding a lock-up were greeted by a naked man tending to his cannabis factory, a court heard. Officers found 638 plants growing in the Hastings unit rented by 42-year-old David Churchward, a crop worth up to an estimated £229,000. He admitted producing cannabis but told officers he had started growing the Class C drug to help his wife who suffers from bad health and finds it difficult to sleep. Lewes Crown Court heard Churchward, who used to run a courier firm, had gone bankrupt and that since his arrest his home in Tuppenny Close had been repossessed. He was given a suspended jail sentence after a judge decided it was unlikely he would offend again. Marcus Fletcher, prosecuting, told the court: "On April 9 last year, police executed a search warrant at unit 12, Moorhurst Road, Full Tale.....

Cannabis plants lay stacked up like Christmas trees around a police station near a remote Albanian village, a humbling sight for growers who two years ago took pot-shots at an Italian police helicopter. Why didn't you come much earlier?'' an old woman wailed at the police, berating them for not acting before work had gone into growing the crop. Four of our donkeys died fetching water for these plants. And now you come and the harvest's all gone.''Albania has been clamping down on cannabis cultivation since Prime Minister Sali Berisha pledged early this year to ``wipe it off the map''. But in the southern village of Lazarat, where plants have been uprooted by police, residents feel they are being singled out and harshly showcased.

A 58-year-old rural Salem man has been arrested after Marion County Sheriff's Deputies found 63 cannabis plants growing on the roof of his home. Daniel Brothers of Summertime Road in Salem was arrested after a search warrant was executed on his home Thursday afternoon. Deputies say they also recovered over 50 grams of processed marijuana, scales, paraphernalia and several pounds of hylcinatic mushrooms. Brothers is being held in the Marion County Jail for alleged production of cannabis plants, possession of cannabis with intent to deliver, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Sheriff's Deputies say they began investigating Brothers following a tip to the Marion County Crimestoppers. The plants growing on the roof were confirmed when a private plane was used to fly over the residence. The three to five foot tall plants were in five gallon pots. Deputies report Brothers had hid the plants from view from the road by placing tarps along the roof line of his home.

Border guards yesterday discovered seven sacks of cannabis, weighing more than 160 kilos, in a cave in the area of Delvinakio. The sacks had been placed there by drug traders from Albania and had been destined for collection by associates in Greece, according to police who observed the area for several days. No one came to collect the drugs but police believe they have enough evidence to trace the dealers with the help of Albanian drug squad officers.

Tirana. There are large fields of narcotic plants, mostly cannabis in Albania’s countryside, the Macedonian agency Makfax reported. The Albanian police that started checks in the country’s southern parts said it destroyed a few thousand cannabis plants over the past few days.
The total of 50,000 cannabis plants were destroyed over the past six months. The drug is most often exported to Italy.

The fact may get lost in the hype about multi-million dollar outdoor marijuana garden seizures at this time of year, but the vast majority of all marijuana plants seized by law enforcement are ditchweed. For those who didn't grow up in the Midwest, ditchweed is feral marijuana descended from the hemp plants farmers produced as part of the war effort in World War II. National Guard marijuana (or more likely ditchweed) eradication team, Dodge County, MinnesotaLike the hemp plants whence it came, ditchweed has negligible levels of THC, the psychoactive component of marijuana. An old saying in the Midwest is that you could smoke a joint of it the size of a telephone pole and all you would get is a headache.
According to official DEA figures, police seized an estimated 223 million marijuana plants last year. But 219 million of them, or 98%, were ditchweed. That figure is in line with previous years. And a whopping 212 million plants came from Indiana alone. Missouri came in second with 4.5 million plants, Kansas third with 1.1 million, and Wisconsin fourth with 272,000. Most states reported no ditchweed seizures.
The DEA pays for the ditchweed eradication boondoggle, something for which National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws executive director criticized it in a statement noting the annual seizure figures. "The irony, of course, is that industrial hemp is grown legally throughout most of the Western world as a commercial crop for its fiber content," he said. "Yet the US government is spending taxpayers' money to target and eradicate this same agricultural commodity." Your tax dollars at work.

TRIADELPHIA — Note to prospective gardeners: don’t try to grow a plant known as “Cannabis sativa.”
An Ohio County resident learned that lesson Tuesday, as members of the West Virginia State Police seized 10 such marijuana plants from his garden in the Triadelphia area. The seizure was part of the state police’s marijuana eradication project. According to a prepared release, the unnamed suspect was questioned at the scene and was “cooperative and peaceful.” The stalks of the plants, Full Grow...

A border patrol in Kastoria, northeastern Greece, yesterday detected six Albanian men carrying sacks full of cannabis into the country. The suspects dumped the 130 kilograms of cannabis when they were ordered to stop by authorities and fled, police said. A police sniffer dog was used in the search operation that followed but police failed to find the suspects.

The 115 cannabis bars were kept in metal boxes put in the gas tanks of the cars, registered in Spain and in Germany.
The drivers of the vehicles, both Moroccans, were referred to the judiciary police of Nador, 500 km north-east of Rabat, for further investigation and routine procedures, the Rabat-based official agency added. Also on Thursday, Tangier port's special police seized 332 kg of cannabis resin in two separated operations, More...

A BENALLA grandmother is the latest person to be arrested as part of a five-month undercover investigation into an elaborate drug and crime ring in the city and North East. The woman, 75, has been charged with three counts of trafficking cannabis, three counts of possessing cannabis, three counts of conspiracy to traffick cannabis and one count of conspiracy to traffick amphetamine. She was bailed to appear at Benalla Court on October 24. Det-Sgt David Gleeson, from the Benalla criminal investigation unit, said police had so far charged five men, four women and a juvenile with drug and crime offences following the culmination of the operation this week, Full Crime....

7500 ha of wild cannabis destroyed in Siberian Federal District, department of Federal Drug Control Service reported. Operatives summarized results of “Poppy 2006” operation achieved during the last three months. The operation allowed discovering more than 3000 crimes, 935 men were detained. Most of the crimes are considered felony, and 65 of them were committed by organized criminal groups. More than 600 kgs of drugs were withdrawn from illegal trafficking, with 580 of them being marijuana, Full Tale.....

A raid on an alleged narcotics "stash house" in an industrial area off Route 41 on Friday resulted in the seizure of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, along with the arrest of three men on charges of drug possession and trafficking. Waukegan Police Cmdr. Mark Stevenson said his department worked in conjunction with North Chicago police and agents from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in conducting the raid in the 700 block of Bonaparte Avenue. "We had the house under surveillance for about a month," said Stevenson, adding that the three men found at the scene and taken into custody are "known gang members.", Full Tale.....

The police officers, who worked jointly with the customs agents, intercepted a van transporting 304 kg of hashish, at about midnight .The quantity of drugs was hidden in a vehicle registered in Belgium. The driver, Rachid D., 30, Moroccan living in Belgium, acknowledged being a ''simple frontier runner''. He admitted that some people had suggested to him transporting a quantity of 50 kg cannabis resin for a sum of MAD 200,000, Full Crime....

A Sydney doctor and cannabis campaigner who grew almost 50,000 "benign" marijuana plants will not be jailed, a Newcastle court has ruled.Dr Andrew John Katelaris was convicted on March 8 this year after pleading not guilty to cultivating a large commercial quantity of cannabis.He grew the 49,519 plants on his property at Salisbury, near Dungog in the NSW Hunter Valley, between December 2004 and January 2005, More...

Police confiscated yesterday 1,007 cannabis plants found at a plantation on a mountainside area close to Hania, Crete. Two men found guarding the area managed to escape arrest, police added. Authorities were tipped off about the plants, which were up to 2.8 meters tall. Police have detected and confiscated 4,000 cannabis plants in the Hania region so far this summer.

A former Canada Border Services Agency official with 20 years experience has been sentenced to three years in U.S. federal prison after admitting she conspired to smuggle more than 100 kilograms of marijuana into the United States. Rose Palmer, 53, rode in vehicles that were transporting marijuana because U.S. border inspectors would not search vehicles she was riding in, the U.S. Attorney's office in Vermont said in a news release issued Tuesday.
U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha sentenced Palmer to three years of supervised release in addition to the prison time, Full Time.....

KISSIMMEE -- A former Osceola County fire chief was sentenced to three years in prison Friday in connection with a sophisticated marijuana-growing operation in Holopaw. Jeff Hall pleaded guilty to cultivation of cannabis. Telling the court he was sorry and citing his years of service to the community, he asked for mercy. "I'm not here to put the blame on anybody else. I take full responsibility for my actions. I've hurt a lot of people," he said. "I screwed up, and I apologize for that." Hall served about six years as chief and was praised for his response to a variety of disasters, including a train wreck, killer tornadoes and wildfires. Accolades came, Full Tale....

Department of Justice and Sheriff's Deputies from San Bernardino and Riverside Counties conducted raids on large-scale commercial marijuana gardens over the last week. They searched for illegal growers and confiscated massive numbers of marijuana plants valued at approximately $30 million. The agents and deputies rendezvoused in the early morning hours last Friday to make preparations for a major raid on four marijuana gardens that had been discovered in the San Gorgonio Mountains near Sky Forrest, Full Story....

Quebec provincial police this hour are at a property in the Papineau region seizing an estimated 800 marijuana plants. Police spokeswoman Melanie Larouche said investigators received tips from the public about the grow operation in the area of St-Emile de Suffolk. No suspects have been identified. Police said the number of marijuana plants seized in the Outaouais over the past three years has increased substantially as the so-called grow ops increase in popularity among drug traffickers. Larouche said there are three numbers residents in the Outaouais can call to alert cops of marijuana grow ops. Anyone with information can call 310-4141 or leave anonymous tips with Quebec Info-Crime at 1-800-711-1800.

An extensive cannabis cultivation enterprise was raided by police on Sunday, August 13 when officers from the region converged at a property in Wongabarrie Road, Crystal Brook. A search revealed an underground bunker where cannabis was being grown hydroponically. Police seized a large diesel generator, a large sum of cash and an extensive amount of equipment as well as a significant amount of packaged cannabis. A man, 34, was arrested and charged with producing cannabis and possessing cannabis for sale, More...

A 1000 cannabis plants have been discovered after a police raid. Acting on intelligence, officers from the Lewisham Priority Crime Task Force made the discovery this morning at a house in South Park Crescent, Catford. Hydroponics equipment was also found during the 10.30am raid. There was no-one at the property at the time. Head of the Lewisham Priority Crime Task Force Detective Inspector Andrew Wilkins said: "These premises contained hundreds of pounds worth of equipment used specifically for the purpose of cultivating cannabis, Full Discovery....

A councillor is under police investigation as part of a large scale probe into a suspected drugs ring. Brierfield Town councillor Mazer Iqbal, 36, was arrested as part of Operation Hornbeam -- an investigation in to the alleged smuggling, production and supply of drugs to East Lancashire. Coun Iqbal, of Halifax Road, Brierfield, was arrested when raids were carried out in pubs in Accrington and Oswaldtwistle. He has been released on police bail pending further inquiries.A police spokesman said: "We can confirm a 36-year-old man from Halifax Road was arrested and later released on bail pending further inquiries." Full Investigation....

Maryland State Police charged a 25-year-old Philadelphia man Thursday with possession with intent to distribute, possession of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, after a traffic stop at King Miller Lane. Police said Jeremiah Matthew Speaks was charged after a state trooper said 63 grams of suspected marijuana and drug paraphernalia was found in his car. Speaks was held at Somerset County Detention Center on $15,000 bond.

'major drugs operation in Co Meath'
Breakingnews.iol.ie
August 12th 2006

Two men were arrested today in a follow-up raid to a major drugs operation in Co Meath. Gardaí arrested the men, who are both in their 20s, after a further two searches were carried out in the Ballivor area of the county. The searches follow three swoops in Co Meath over the August Bank Holiday weekend which netted caches worth more than €1.4m of cannabis, Full Operation....

A man who allegedly cultivated cannabis and had ammunition in his possession was on Monday refused bail by Magistrate Geeta Chandan at the New Amsterdam Magistrate's Court. Mark Anthony Welsh of Number 53 Village, Corentyne pleaded not guilty to cultivating a prohibited plant, possession of ammunition for a magnum without licence and possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking. It is alleged that on August 5 at Number 53 Village, Corentyne he cultivated cannabis plants. He also allegedly had in his possession a quantity of ammunition and three 12-gauge cartridge casings without being the holder of a firearm licence. He is alleged to have 24 1/2 grammes of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking. He was arrested and charged with the offences.

Police have seized cannabis worth over £6000 following a drugs bust in Windygates yesterday. A small amount of ecstasy was also recovered following the operation on Wednesday, and a 48-year-old man is due to appear at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court in due course. The latest haul means that Fife Constabulary has seized over £800,000 worth of drugs since April. Detective Inspector Neil Kerr, of the drugs squad, said: "We are committed to tackling crime and tackling the dealers to disrupt the supply of the drugs to our communities. "This, in turn, removes the misery which drugs and drug dealing cause us to help us get more drugs and their dealers off the streets."

An airborne task force including Santa Clara County deputies and state agents raided five pot patches today on Mount Hamilton. They say they seized some 20,000 plants, worth an estimated $80 million. The county says it has already confiscated more cannabis this pot season than all of last year's, and the harvest isn't over until November. No arrests have been reported.

Man sentenced for transporting more than a ton of cannabis. A man who was caught transporting more than £2 million of cannabis resin in the back of a van has been jailed for two and a half years by a Judge at Coventry Crown Court.
Roy Selby, 41, of Elm Row, Stockton, near Southam, had originally denied possessing 1,234 kilos of cannabis resin on February 22 with intent to supply it. But Selby, who had no previous convictions, changed his plea to guilty on the day he was due to stand trial, and the case had then been adjourned for his solicitors to obtain references about him.

Clandestine marijuana gardens in remote mountain areas are causing ecological damage in the forest. Pesticides, fertilizers sacks of ammonia sulfate, empty propane tanks and trash are some of what pot growers leave behind, sheriff's Sgt. Mark Yanez said as he surveyed public land near Soquel Demonstration Forest. "We try to clean it up the best we can, but there's not much we can do," Yanez said. The sheriff's Marijuana Enforcement Team this summer has destroyed about a dozen outdoor marijuana gardens, operations run by Mexican drug cartels, investigators said, Full Cartel....

€1.4m worth of cannabis and heroin was discovered in Trim in Co Meath earlier this afternoon when Gardaí stopped and searched a van. The discovery follows two other seizures collectively worth almost half a million euro in Dublin in the early hours of this morning. This latest haul was recovered by members of the Garda National Drugs unit and local detectives from Meath. Two men, in their 20s and 30s have been arrested and are being held at Kells Garda station.

Pot crusader Chris Goodwin was denied bail yesterday after his arrest 10 days ago for allegedly flouting the terms of previous releases from jail on charges of possessing small amounts of marijuana. Goodwin, who will celebrate his 27th birthday Monday at the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre, is the owner of the Up In Smoke Cafe. The King Street East cafe, which is currently low on stock following a police raid July 26, had been selling cannabis seeds, More....

A Stoned truck driver who smashed into a broken-down lorry on the M11, killing the driver, has been told he deserves every day of his five-and-a-half-year sentence. Banned driver Daniel Downes' vehicle ploughed into the stricken lorry near Newport, crushing 37-year-old Lithuanian driver, Darius Cepas, as he carried out repairs. Downes, 37, of Dale View, Hemsworth, West Yorkshire, was jailed at Chelmsford Crown Court in January after he admitted causing death by dangerous driving and driving while disqualified. On Thursday, London's Criminal Appeal Court ruled there was nothing "excessive" about the jail term, Full Story....

Bulgarian police officers have managed to bust 32 kg of cannabis from a country house near the southern city of Haskovo. The cannabis was found after a police operation out in the country house district of "Cuba-2", Tanya Georgieva from Darik News reported. The police officers have apprehended the owner of the country house and confiscated the opiate.

A 33-year-old Tasmanian man who grew marijuana worth more than $500,000 at his home has been sentenced to six months in jail. Timothy Joshua Burfitt pleaded guilty in the Launceston Criminal Court in Tasmania to cultivating a controlled plant for sale. In September last year, police found an elaborate hydroponic set-up at Burfitt's home containing more than 100 mature female cannabis plants and more than 120 seedlings. Justice Peter Evans said Burfitt set up the cultivation process at a time when he was either serving, or had just finished serving, a community service order for possessing a controlled drug.

'350kgs of the drug'
Irishexaminer.com
August 2nd 2006

Five men arrested after €2.5m cannabis seizure in Dublin Gardaí in Dublin have arrested five men following a major cannabis seizure on the outskirts of the city yesterday. Three of the men, aged 39, 38 and 21, were detained after officers stopped a car in the Rathcoole area yesterday and discovered 350kgs of the drug. The other two, aged 25 and 28, were detrained during follow-up searches. Gardaí say the operation was aimed at a west Dublin drugs gang and the cannabis seized had a street value of around €2.5m.

Yesterday's Metro story written by Kimberly Durnan demonstrates how eyes and ears – and even noses – are the best weapons in any neighborhood's fight against crime. Kimberly and her neighbors noticed that the new guys in their condominium complex weren't too friendly. No crime there. But something stank. Literally. So they kept comparing notes. The guys never moved in any furniture, only construction materials. And there was that humming sound. And the fact that they never parked near their condo, but always near the exit. Once neighbors compiled all these suspicions, the police had plenty of info to work with when they showed up to investigate. It didn't take long to get a judge to sign a warrant, and – bingo! – the neighbors had helped sniff out and snuff out a marijuana farm.

A wanted man unexpectedly led police to a Pakuranga cannabis crop by running through the middle of it. Cops discovered 16 cannabis plants at the Waikaremoana Place address, leading to the arrest of a 43-year-old male for charges relating to cannabis cultivation. Police say they located the crop after being led to the house by a speeding driver about 11.30pm on Saturday, July 22. “A constable on patrol saw a vehicle being driven in excess of the limit,” says sergeant Keith Olsen. “He drove away from the police constable at high speed, thereby drawing attention to himself.” The officer turned to pursue the vehicle but was unable to locate it, Full Speed.....

The Taipei District Court sentenced a 46-year-old man to six months in prison last week for growing cannabis on the balcony of his home in Taipei County. The court said in a written judgment that Yu Chien-wen obtained cannabis seeds from two overseas Chinese from the UK during May and June 2002, and used them to grow cannabis plants in flower pots on the balcony and window sills of his seventh-floor house in Sindian. The judgment also said that Yu processed the cannabis leaves into marijuana joints for his own use, More....

Bahrain has launched a major campaign, with the support of the UN, to clamp down on drug trafficking and drug abuse.
This follows a massive increase in the volume of drugs seized at the airport and other entry points, as well as the number of drug users. Police will receive training on how to catch drug pushers before they are able to sell illegal substances to users. The report also showed a phenomenal growth in the confiscation of cannabis. The authorities seized only 7.4kg hashish in 2000, but this jumped to 809kg in 2004, Full Tale....

A 35-year-old Centralia man was in the Marion County Jail Friday morning for possession of a controlled substance and possession with intent to deliver cannabis. Johnnie Jones of 1121 North Lincoln was arrested after Centralia Police executed a search warrant on his home Thursday night. Police report recovering large amount of cannabis, crack cocaine, baggies, an electronic scale covered with cocaine and cannabis, as well as more than 79-hundred dollars in cash. A four-wheeler with an open title was also seized.

Two drug retailers were arrested by police who smelt cannabis fumes drifting down the street from their smoke-filled car.VW Polo driver Alfred Oloya and Daniel Beckford were smoking cannabis while u-turning in Lavender Hill, when suspicious police on foot patrol ordered them to pull over. The pungent smell of cannabis was so strong that officers ran checks and discovered Oloya's driving licence had expired and he had no insurance.Safer Neighbourhood Team police officers seized £760 cash and ecstasy tablets from Beckford, and a custody strip search at the station found more ecstasy and cocaine. Police found Oloya had cocaine wraps, herbal cannabis, crack cocaine and £880 in cash, Full Stink....

An Oak Valley man who cultivated 87 cannabis plants on his property will spend six months behind bars. olin Stuart MacDonald, 57, pleaded guilty to two counts of producing cannabis, unlawfully possessing cannabis, possessing property for its cultivation, having drug manufacturing instructions and unlawful possession of a weapon in the Supreme Court sitting in Townsville yesterday. Crown prosecutor Peter Smid told the court police uncovered 87 healthy cannabis plants -- some over two metres in height -- in a March raid on MacDonald's Oak Valley acreage property. The court heard MacDonald told police who raided his property he had been growing cannabis there since 1999, Full Crime....

Drug squad police today uncovered a "significant" hydroponic cannabis crop inside a house at Paradise as a suburban blitz named Operation Surrey resulted in eight arrests. Police found the plants growing in three bedrooms inside the Philpott St house about 10am. The discovery was made as part of a police initiative targeting crime in the Adelaide metropolitan area. More than 70 police officers today saturated the city and surrounding suburbs, targeting drugs, outstanding warrants, robberies and driving offences, Full Grow....

Cannabis plants worth more than £1m have been seized from two suspected drug factories in Wiltshire. Police discovered the first cache when they called at a house in Okebourne Park, Liden, Swindon, as part of an unrelated inquiry on Saturday. The following day, officers went to a home in the town's Haydon Street, where they found more plants and equipment. A man and a woman have been charged with producing Class C drugs. Four other people have been arrested, Full Grow.....

Riyadh: Police smashed a seven-member gang of expatriate drug dealers and bootleggers in the Batha district of the capital on Saturday, reported Al-Riyadh newspaper. The special police anti-narcotics division arrested the gang, which mainly consisted of Pakistani nationals, in a sting operation targeted at drug dealers in the city. Undercover police officers presented themselves as customers pretending to buy drugs and were led to the gang’s apartment in a neighborhood mainly populated by Asian workers. As the undercover policemen entered the apartment uniformed police officers rushed in and arrested the gang seizing large quantities of alcohol and cannabis.

Four people are behind bars in Missaukee County after a narcotics team makes a drug raid and officers say the drug operation extended through out Northern Michigan. The Traverse Narcotics Team along with the Missaukee County Sheriff's Department made the arrests late night at 7351 Arnold Road which is off of M-66. Deputies say the home is owned by Donald and Penny Miller. Investigators allege the husband and wife are the major players in the drug operation. Two other people were also arrested during the raid. Charles Sarazin and Sandra Rogers were arrested and were charged with frequenting a drug house, More.....

Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan on Thursday remanded a man to prison after he was accused of having over seven kilogrammes of ganja in a Charlestown house. Devon Bourne, 26, of Lot 23 Saffon Street, Charlestown denied two counts of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking when he appeared in court. It is alleged that on Monday Bourne had in his possession 7,275 grammes of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking, More Trafficking....

Close to 1 000 hectares of cannabis grown land were destroyed in the region of the central-north town of Taounate, Morocco, part of the banned plant eradication campaign conducted by local authorities in June, a press release of the Taounate province said. The campaign was carried out in non irrigated lands of the Taounate and Rhafsaî districts, located close to the provinces of Al Hoceinma and Chefchaouen, by troops, rural police (Gendarmerie) and other law enforcement agents and relevant departments. The fight of cannabis growing is made in the prospect of making of the Taounate province a region free of the banned plant. Eight farmers were arrested during the June campaign for growing the plant, the press release adding some 770 others are wanted for the same offence.

Two Albanian men found with more than 195 kilos of cannabis in their possession are probably members of a larger drug-smuggling ring, police in Trikala said yesterday. Border guards and drug squad officers caught the duo, aged 33 and 38, following a stop-and-search operation on the Trikala-Ioannina national road on Sunday. They had been acting on a tip-off regarding an organized smuggling ring in the region. The car the two Albanians had allegedly used to transport the drugs had been stolen from Athens, police said.

Canton police stopped a 1995 Chevrolet Metro for an expired registration and disobeying a traffic control device, at approximately 1:33 a.m. today. Police observed that Jason M. Falsetti, 32, of Canton, was the lone occupant and driver of the vehicle. Falsetti pulled the car over near the intersection of North First Avenue and East Locust Street and proceeded to try and run from the scene on foot. He was apprehended after a brief foot pursuit. Falsetti was placed under arrest for driving while his license was revoked and driving under the influence, Further investigation revealed that Falsetti was also in possession of approximately 25 grams of cannabis and drug paraphernalia. He was transported to the Canton Police Department and charged with driving under the influence, Full Influence....

A schoolteacher has pleaded guilty to supplying cannabis, after police dropped a charge of supplying cannabis to a student. Casual teacher John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 28, of West Pymble, was originally charged last June by Eastwood police with supplying cannabis leaf to a person under the age of 16, whom they allege was a 14-year-old student at a northern Sydney high school. But in Ryde Local Court this morning, Kennedy's solicitor, Full Supply...

4 people arrested after the discovery of a large cannabis crop in Sydney face new, tougher penalties for growing hydroponic marijuana. Drug squad officers raided four houses in St Ives, in Sydney's north, about 6.30am (AEST) today, police said. Hundreds of cannabis plants were found in the four houses just metres from boy scout and girl guide halls. A 53-year-old woman and two men, aged 23 and 24, were arrested at one of the properties. Meanwhile, Queensland Police co-operating with their NSW colleagues arrested a 26-year-old man on the Gold Coast. Police say all four are helping with inquiries, Full Enquiry....

Marijuana raids in Mendocino National Forest continued last week after U.S. Forest Service law enforcement officials spotted numerous gardens during flights above the Covelo and Upper Lake Districts. Several of the illegal gardens were eradicated in raids conducted by the Forest Service along with Mendocino and Lake County Sheriff's Departments. In addition to the plants, some abandoned weapons were seized, but no arrests were made. More than a week ago, officers of the County of Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team eradicated close to 30,000 marijuana plants in the Mendocino County National Forest east of Covelo, More Eradicated....

A 4o year old chap is facing jail after admitting that he ran a drugs factory near a school and youth centre in Warehouse.William Bullard pleaded guilty at St Albans Crown Court to a charge of cultivating cannabis plants at a first-floor industrialunit in New Road. He was caught after a police raid which followed a tip-off given to the Mercury. We accompanied officers as they busted the factory on the afternoon of September 13 last year. What they found shocked nearby Christ Church C of E School and Warehouse Youth Club, which runs drugs awareness classes. Bullard was spotted near the factory by officers and arrested.The court was told that because the plants were not flowering, an expert called in by police to examine them could not say what the quality of the crop would have been., More Expertise....

A 32 year old man who was arrested yesterday, after police carrying out a routine stop and search found what is believed to be cannabis in a car, has now been charged with possession with the intent to supply.The man was arrested when police, carrying out a routine stop and search on Coombe road in Crookes, found what is believed to be £18,000 worth of cannabis.The man, who is from the Intake area, has been remanded in custody and is due to appear at Sheffield Magistrates Court on Friday 14 July 2006.

Former Leeds Rhino Leroy Rivett denied being part of a plot to smuggle £800,000 of cannabis resin into the UK when he appeared in a court dock. The 29-year-old, who now plays rugby league for Hull Kingston Rovers, was involved in a gang bringing the drug out of Barcelona in Spain in blue plastic chemical drums, Leeds Crown Court heard. Richard Wright, prosecuting, told a jury how police kept observations on an industrial estate warehouse in Hunslet, Leeds as deliveries of the drug were bought in. "The drugs were to enter this country for only one purpose - the onward commercial supply and distribution," said Mr Wright, More Distribution...

3 men have been accused of having a cannabis growing operation, with a potential value of up to £70,000. A jury has been told how 54 female plants were found in an attic and locked bedroom at the home of one of the defendants. Police also searched a unit at the Waverledge Business Park in Great Harwood where 555 plants were discovered, in three different stages of growth.The unit's tenant was another defendant who had been employed as a postman for Royal Mail, but had not been in work, apparently due to illness. The three men have gone on trial at Preston Crown Court where they deny conspiracy to produce and supply cannabis, a Class C drug, Full Denial..

A drugs retailer caught hiding in bushes after a frantic police chase down the A1(M) motorway has been jailed for 21 months.Paul Gilbert James, 35, of Fairfax Road, Cambridge, was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply and dangerous driving. St Albans Crown Court heard that he was driving an Audi from London at 4pm on May 31 when police stopped him by Junction 4, near Tesco in Hatfield.When told his car would be searched, he appeared to faint, then jumped back in the Audi and sped off at about 100 miles an hour, Full Excuse...

Police have raided a cannabis factory in Crombey Street. Officers uncovered 40 cannabis plants during the raid. They also uncovered plant growing equipment and two black bin bags full of plants which had been cut in preparation for being sold on. Acting Sergeant Iain Crouch, of Swindon police, said drug dealing would not be tolerated and praised the public who provided the information that led to the raid. Acting Sgt Crouch said: "The warrant was executed following police intelligence and information from members of the public, Full Retail....

Courier Sophie Cosgrove tried to bring £90,000-worth of cannabis resin into the island to clear a £2,000 debt. But she was caught by Customs officers at the harbour and the Royal Court sentenced her to four-and-a-half years’ youth detention. Cosgrove, 19, said she did not know there were drugs in the car in which she was a passenger although she had asked the man to whom she owed the money She said he had been intimidating her and her family. The search uncovered more than 10kg in the vehicle’s roof. ‘I’m very sorry,’ she said when allowed to address the court. ‘I feel ashamed and disappointed at what I’ve done and I wish I’d never done it.’ The court heard that there was enough to have made more than 69,500 reefer cigarettes, Full Madness....

An American cruise ship passenger was hit with a costly penalty for importing cannabis to Bermuda – a $1,500 fine. Steven Keith Jackson was caught with seven cannabis cigarettes in his cabin on the Empress of the Seas last week. Crown counsel Carrington Mahoney said the 46-year-old defendant brought 4.51 grams of cannabis into Bermuda for his own personal use. Jackson, of Prospect Park, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty. He told the court: "I am sorry and embarrassed."

South Africa was the world's third-leading country in dagga seizures, according to a UN report on drugs. "For the first time, cannabis herb (dagga) seizures surpassed 6 000 metric tons in 2004," said the 2006 UN World Drug Report. "Most cannabis herb seizures were reported from Mexico, followed by the United States, South Africa, Nigeria and Morocco." The report reveals that both dagga and hashish remain the most widely used drugs in the world, with an estimated 162 million users in 2004. "The strong upward trend recorded in 2004 can be explained by exceptional high seizures of cannabis made in South Africa and Nigeria," says the report, Full Report......

A Mexician chap was arrested today after police say they found illegal drugs in his house. It happened in the 2 hundred block of Douglass Street in Reading. Police say they arrived on the scene after responding to an alarm that came from the house , and then found marijuana plants in the basement. Police arrested the owner of the house and they say they are anticipating another arrest to be made soon. Police are not releasing any names yet.

What started out as a traffic stop in East St. Louis on Thursday ended in the discovery of more than a pound of marijuana and $7,400 in cash, police said. Michael Battle, 26, of 20 Vieux Carre Drive in East St. Louis, now is charged with possession with intent to deliver marijuana. Battle was a passenger in a gray Chevrolet Impala that St. Clair County Deputy Chris Davis spotted speeding west on Marybelle Avenue, Lt. Steve Johnson said. "He drove behind the car, which continued to accelerate and pulled away from him," Johnson said. "The car was driving 50 mph in a 30 mph zone so he (Davis) turned on his emergency lights and siren and the car continued." More....

A man's claim that he grew 124 marijuana plants in a former rural schoolhouse to meet his medical needs was "far-fetched and beyond belief," a provincial court judge has ruled. Judge Robert Jackson found Mark John Evanishen, 35, guilty Thursday of producing cannabis marijuana and cannabis resin, and of possessing marijuana for the purpose of trafficking. The Saskatoon judge sentenced Mr. Evanishen to two years less one day in jail. He said he imposed a term at the longer end of the possible range to address the need for general deterrence. The charges were laid after a Feb. 23, 2005, police raid at the former school near Mayfair, 110 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon.

An aerial eradication effort by the Levy County Drug Task Force on June 27 and 28 located 141 marijuana plants that were growing in the county and resulted in the arrest of a Williston couple on charges of cultivating the illegal drug. The two-day mission was conducted in a Florida Department of Law Enforcement helicopter and was part of a larger FDLE effort that included surrounding counties. Sheriff's Lt. Danny Riffle, a hawk-eyed veteran spotter of 24 years of such flyovers, said this week that the Levy task force had eradicated the most plants out of the counties that participated. Riffle said the first day of flying yielded a total of 56 plants, More Eradication....

Police found a large number of cannabis plants in a raid on a Harrogate address. Harrogate Neighbourhood Police Team officers found 56 mature plants and cannabis cultivation equipment when they searched the building on Roberts Crescent last Wednesday night. They said the raid followed information from a concerned member of the public and local intelligence. Acting Inspector Mick Ramshaw from the Harrogate Neighbourhood Police Team said: “This is an excellent example of the Neighbourhood Police Team acting on local intelligence and targeting drug retailers in Harrogate, More Concern....

Port St Lucie: Circuit Judge Ben Bryan ruled Thursday that there is probable cause for the city to move forward with forfeiture proceedings against four more alleged marijuana grow homes, bringing the total number to 10 the city is attempting to seize. The homes in question are at 155 S.W. Glenwood Drive, 442 S.W. Friar St., 244 S.E. Thornhill Drive and 214 N.W. Biltmore St., court records show. The city alleges all have been used as marijuana grow houses and most were found based on paperwork at other similar homes. Only one property owner, who owned the home on Biltmore Street, came for the hearing, and the city agreed to allow her to keep custody of the house while the case is pending. The rest of the properties will be under the immediate control of the city until the cases are resolved, Full Forfeit......

A Tokoroa man has been given community service for his part in stealing cannabis from a dead man.Richard Ell was sentenced to 180 hours in the Rotorua District Court today for one count of burglary.The charge dates back to October 9 last year, the same night Tirohanga man Stephen George was murdered and then burnt beyond recognition in a house fire. Judge Phil Cooper told the court Ell was entitled to credit for his early guilty plea and this influenced the sentencing. Ell maintains he did not step into the house and was involved only in the burglary.No person has ever been charged in the Stephen George homicide inquiry.

A pair of vile perverts who lured schoolgirls to their shared Mansfield home for sex have been caged for a total of nine-and-a-half years. Jason Barson (31) and Andrew Cocker (26) created a honeypot for girls as young as 14 at the house they shared with 23-year-old Steffan Frost.The girls who were an average age of 14 drank alcohol, smoked cannabis and watched television at the Derby Street terraced house before at least three were sexually assaulted. The three men were in the dock at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday, where Judge Jonathan Teare said they had betrayed a position of trust.Said Judge Teare: "It has been said that you groomed these young girls. Now, maybe that is an expression you disagree with, but between you, you opened up your doors to them and created something they would never get at home. And that was a world of cigarettes, alcohol and cannabis, Full Assault...

A 20-year-old Christchurch car groomer lost his driving licence for six months after a speed camera caught him speeding at 184kmh. Jeremy Graeme Collins blasted along the Castle Hill straight on the Arthur's Pass highway early on Good Friday. Police said it was one of the highest speeds recorded by a speed camera in New Zealand, and Senior Sergeant Neville Hyland of the Highway Patrol described driving at such a speed as "stupid beyond belief". Collins today pleaded guilty in Christchurch District Court to a charge of driving at a speed that might have been dangerous. He also admitted possession of 2.4g of cannabis and a pipe for smoking it, Full Stupidity...

Several hundred kilos of illegal drugs went up in smoke yesterday morning as members of the Royal Barbados Police Force (RBPF)'s Drug Squad oversaw the incineration process. Two thousand six hundred and six cannabis plants, 19.77 kilos of cocaine, and 1 629.2 kilos of cannabis seized between this year and last October during attempts to bring these drugs into the country via the airport and various beaches were destroyed. These drugs were also part of cases adjudicated from 2003 until pre-sent. Several items of camouflage clothing and materials also seized by police were scheduled for incineration during the exercise. It is illegal for civilians to wear camouflage clothing in Barbados, Full Stink....

A young chap who was arrested in a raid on a cannabis factory has been charged with four offences. The17-year-old, of no fixed abode, has been charged with cultivating cannabis, abstracting electricity, driving while disqualified and driving without insurance. He was arrested following the raid on a property in Raglan Avenue last Wednesday.

Police were called out to deal with a noisy neighbour and found a stash of drugs in the house. Samantha Lee, of Cranmore Avenue, Park South, pleaded guilty to possession of a Class C drug at Swindon Magistrates' Court after police uncovered 36 wraps of cannabis, worth £500, at her home. The court heard how the council's environmental health team and the police went to the 22-year-old's home on June 16 to serve a noise abatement order. While they were there, Lee became aggressive and was arrested. A subsequent search of her home revealed the drugs, Full Abatement..

Cannabis and amphetamines have been seized in a weekend blitz on NSW snowfields by police. Targeting anti-social behaviour and the street level supply of drugs, the blitz ran from June 28 and ended today, with police pleased with most behaviour. "It is still disappointing some individuals choose not only to ignore the law but also the high risk to their own health in using illicit drugs," Monaro Local Area Command Duty Officer Inspector Ian Davey said."We will continue committing resources to the snowfields to relentlessly target alcohol and drug related." Among those arrested by police on the weekend were a 22-year-old Jindabyne man allegedly caught in possession of a small amount of cannabis and a 25-year-old Strathfield woman who possessed a prohibited drug believed to be cocaine.

Kalamazoo> Mich. Two people were arrested with what Kalamazoo police say was an illegal topping on their pizza. Kalamazoo Public Safety officers pulled over a sport-utility vehicle for playing loud music about 8 last night.
They learned there were several outstanding warrants against the driver. Then they found five sandwich bags full of marijuana on top of one of three just-purchased pizzas. The driver, a 25-year-old Kalamazoo resident, and a 26-year-old passenger from Pullman were arrested on marijuana possession charges. Both were taken to the Kalamazoo County Jail.

Cannabis fields against climate change? Growing cannabis might be a contribution in fighting global warming. “Cannabis is the only plant that likes polluted air”, so says Sander who specializes in developing growing techniques for the cannabis growing community. A few years ago this Belgian suffered from a series of lord hemorrhage, but no medicine could bring back his health except for cannabis. We are all familiar with the fact that trees filter the air of CO2 (carbon dioxide). Some scientists even state that mass tree planting would solve the climate problem completely. “But no tree is so eager to use a frequent dose of CO2 as the cannabis indica and sativa”, so says Sander. That is what they use for THC production. With extra CO2 in the air the THC level which is usually around 8%, may increase up to 15%. And, the plants are too busy absorbing CO2 that they hardly take on other toxins such as cannabinoïds. Considering the Kyoto climate agreement, Sander is thinking about guerilla actions. Like planting weed illegally in out-lying, hidden places. The government should consider cannabis fields as an alternative to buying fresh air elsewhere in the world. As they were actually planning to in order to achieve the goals of Kyoto.

"a jury that felt like it had to follow the instructions of the court"
StoptheDrugWar
June 2nd 2007

A federal jury Wednesday found "Guru of Ganja" Ed Rosenthal guilty for a second time of growing hundreds of marijuana plants in what is no more than a symbolic victory for federal prosecutors. Because Rosenthal has already served a lenient one-day sentence after he was first convicted of the same charges in 2003, US District Court Judge Charles Breyer, the presiding judge in the case, has already ruled that he cannot be resentenced. Rosenthal's original conviction was overturned on appeal. Vengeful federal prosecutors angered by his public criticism of their methods retried him knowing they could not further punish him. They even filed additional charges that Judge Breyer threw out as vindictive. The trial itself was noteworthy for the mass refusal of medical marijuana movement people subpoenaed to testify for the government to do so. Equally noteworthy was their escaping without contempt citations -- at least so far. Rosenthal grew the plants to produce medical marijuana for use in California, where it is legal, but his defense was unable to explain that to the jury because it was blocked from doing so by Judge Breyer. Federal law and the federal courts do not recognize "medical" marijuana. Neither was Breyer willing to let defense attorneys go too far in urging the jury to vote its conscience, Full Prosecution....

Medical Marijuana Researcher, Advocate Dr. Tod Mikuriya Dead at 73
StoptheDrugWar
May 27th 2007

Dr. Tod Hiro Mikuriya, MD , a psychiatrist, prominent researcher, and medical marijuana advocate, died Sunday night at his Berkeley, California, home. He was 73 years of age. Tod Mikuriya Mikuriya, who was a member of DRCNet's Board of Advisors, earned a medical degree at Temple University, then completed a psychiatric residency at Southern Pacific General Hospital in San Francisco before joining the US Army Medical Corps. After military service and serving at state hospitals in California and Oregon, he directed marijuana research at the National Institutes of Mental Health in 1967, but quickly quit, citing political interference with research results. He turned to a private practice in psychiatry, but his clinical interest in marijuana never waned. In 1973, he published the pioneering "Medical Marijuana Papers," an anthology of journal articles on cannabis therapeutics, and he later founded the Society of Cannabis Clinicians.

Mikuriya was deeply involved in the campaign for Proposition 215, the groundbreaking 1996 initiative that made California the first state to legalize the medicinal use of marijuana. After Prop 215 passed, Mikuriya served as Medical Coordinator of the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, the Hayward Hempery, and the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club -- organizations established to provide access to medical marijuana for patients.

In 2000, Mikuriya founded the California Cannabis Research Medical Group , a nonprofit organization "dedicated to conducting quality medical marijuana research, to ensuring the safety and confidentiality of all research subjects, and to maintaining the highest quality of standards and risk management."

In 2003, Mikuriya was placed on probation by the Medical Board of California after an investigation into allegations of unprofessional conduct in 16 cases since 1998. Mikuriya and his supporters said he was being targeted for his medical marijuana advocacy. He appealed the board ruling, and continued to practice up until his death.

Dr. Mikuriya remained an ardent and animated advocate of medical marijuana, and more broadly, social justice, up until the end. His vision, principles, and perseverance are to be emulated. They will certainly be missed.Mikuriya contributed a collection of papers that are available in DRCNet's Drug Library, Schaffer Library section, online here . Listen to the DrugTruth Network's half hour tribute, including interviews with Mikuriya and remembrances of friends and family, here .

Criminal chaps running cannabis factories across Hampshire are using booby-trapped windows and doors to keep people away from their premises, police have revealed. Drug retailers wire up the mains electricity to the doors and windows to keep rival gangs out and to protect their cannabis plants from being seized. Two cannabis factories uncovered at properties in Southampton during the past few weeks have found to be booby-trapped. Now police are urging landlords to be extra cautious when visiting or conducting checks at their properties. Their warning to landlords comes after many of the 87 cannabis factories which have been uncovered across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight during the last 12 months were found to be rented out. "This is a very sinister development and we need to make sure that people are aware of the potential danger they can face, Full Developement...

Cannabis plants have been put on display at the Chelsea Flower Show to educate visitors about the uses plants can be put to. A special licence was required to grow the plants and to show them at the Royal Horticultural Society’s premier event.A special licence was required to grow the plants and to show them at the Royal Horticultural Society’s premier event. It was claimed to be the first time that cannabis plants have been at the show but, to the disappointment of many intrigued visitors, the variety on display is different to the one popularly known as weed. The Cannabis sativa plants are the strain better known as industrial hemp and were being shown to illustrate the uses of plants in modern society. They have been carefully cultivated to be rid of any hallucinogenic or medicinal qualities and are grown strictly for their fibre. The fibres can be used as an alternative to cotton and as horse blankets. They are also regarded as a highly efficient insulator for homes. Hallucinogenic varieties, those kept away from Chelsea, are thought to have medicinal qualities and are undergoing trials in the hope that they can be offered as a prescription drug to ease the pain of cancer and multiple sclerosis patients. The decision to display cannabis was taken by the South East England Development Agency which wanted to show the uses of plants other than for gardens and food crops. The cannabis specimens will not be offered to the public as part of the traditional plant sell-off on Saturday.

A bill that would allow California farmers to grow non-psychoactive hemp passed the Assembly May 10 and now heads to the state Senate, where it is also expected to pass. A similar bill passed the legislature last year, only to be vetoed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Authored by Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine), AB 684 would pave the way for California farmers to eventually -- not immediately -- grow the plant, which is used to make food, clothing, paper, body care, bio-fuel, and auto products. If the bill were to be signed into law, industry organizations like Vote Hemp and the Hemp Industries Association, as well as the California Certified Organic Farmers, have vowed to challenge the federal ban on hemp planting. Schwarzenegger cited the federal ban when he vetoed last year's hemp bill. He claimed it would put farmers in jeopardy of federal prosecution. But proponents of this year's bill are hopeful the governor will relent. "Passage of the hemp farming bill in the Assembly is a sign it is likely to reach Governor Schwarzenegger's desk for the second year in row," said Vote Hemp legal counsel and San Francisco Attorney Patrick Goggin. "The mood in Sacramento is this bill is consistent with California's effort to be leader on US environmental policy. Hemp is a versatile plant that can replace polluting crops such as cotton and is taking off as an organic food and body care ingredient. It is time to jump into the expanding market for hemp that California companies currently import from Canada and elsewhere." American hemp product manufacturers currently have to import their raw material from China, Canada, or one of the more than 30 other countries that allow hemp production. It is the only crop that is illegal to grow in the US, but legal to import.

"Nobody ever came home stoned and beat up their wife,"
Bbc.co.uk
May 19th 2007

Singer George Michael has said the world would be an "easier place to live with" if cannabis was legal. Speaking to ITV chat show host Michael Parkinson, the star said he was not "advocating" the drug for everyone. "Nobody ever came home stoned and beat up their wife," the 43-year-old former Wham! singer said. Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to driving while unfit through drugs after he was found slumped over the wheel of his car in a London street. 'Self-destructive' He blamed his behaviour on the death of his mother, Lesley, in 1997. "I know I have a very self-destructive tendency since my mother died, I have got to be honest. That has kind of made itself clear in other ways," he said. During the interview he also, Full Beating....

KABUL: In a walled compound near Kabul, two members of Colombia's counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarter combat.
Using mock wooden AK-47 assault rifles, Lieutenant John Castaneda and Corporal John Orejuela demonstrate commando tactics to about 20 new members of what is intended to be an elite Afghan drug strike force. The recruits - who U.S. officials say lack even basic law enforcement skills - watch wide-eyed.
"This is kindergarten," said Vincent Balbo, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief in Kabul, whose office is overseeing the training. "It's Narcotics 101."
Another DEA agent added, "We are at a stage now of telling these recruits, this is a handgun, this is a bullet."
It is a measure of Afghanistan's virulent opium trade, which has helped revive the Taliban while corroding the credibility of the government, that U.S. officials now hope that Afghanistan's drug problem will someday be only as bad as that of Colombia. While the Latin American country remains the world's cocaine capital and is still wracked by drug-related violence, U.S. officials argue that decades of counternarcotics efforts there have at least helped stabilize the country.
"I wanted the Colombians to come here to give the Afghans something to aspire to," Balbo said. "To instill the fact that they have been doing this for years, and it has worked."
To fight a Taliban insurgency flush with drug money for recruits and weapons, the Bush administration recognizes, More......

Cannabis smokers are unwittingly funding Islamist extremists linked to terror attacks in Spain, Morocco and Algeria, according to a joint investigation by the Spanish and French secret services. The finding will be seized on both by campaigners for a harsher clampdown on cannabis and by those who argue that legalisation is the only way to end a petty dealing trend that is dragging growing numbers of teenagers into crime. The investigation by the Centro Nacional de Inteligencia and the Renseignements Generaux was launched after Spanish police found that the Islamists behind the March 2004 bombings in Madrid bought their explosives from former miners in return for blocks of hashish. The bombings claimed 191 lives. Spain's role as a transit point for drugs was highlighted last week when Madrid hosted the US Drug Enforcement Agency's annual conference. Experts heard not only that North African hashish was funding terrorism in Europe, but also that West Africa had become a new hub for South American cocaine shipments bound for Europe, Full Plot.....

Snapshots of the Drug War
News2020.com
May 13th 2007

Day after day, week after week, year after year, the war on drugs in the US is filling court dockets across the land. This week, we visit three different jurisdictions to get a snapshot of the role of the drug war down at the local courthouse.

In April, district court judges in Grayson County, Texas, about an hour north of Dallas, sentenced 95 people on felony charges . Of the 95 cases, the most serious charges in 16 were for simple methamphetamine possession, making that charge by far the most common of any before the court. Most people convicted of meth possession were given probation. One person was charged with enhanced meth possession and sentenced to 14 years, while two were charged with possession with intent to distribute. One got 20 years, the other got 10 years probation.

Seven people were sentenced for simple cocaine possession, with sentences ranging from probation to a month in jail to 10 years in prison. One person was sentenced for enhanced cocaine possession and got 6 years, while one other was sentenced for possession with intent to distribute and got 15 years. Four people were sentenced for possession of more than four ounces but less than five pounds of marijuana; two got probation, one got one year, and one got two years. One person was sentenced to two years in prison for possession of more than 50 pounds of marijuana.

Probation violators made up a sizeable contingent, with 13 being sentenced in April. Drug offenders accounted for nine of the violators, with meth, cocaine, and marijuana each accounting for three violators. Every drug-related probation violator was sent to prison, as were all other probation violators, More...

Police in Norfolk have vowed to take a tough line on drug pushers as new figures show drug-related deaths have almost doubled in two years. Latest government figures show 60 people in the county died as a result of taking drugs in 2005 - a rise from 34 deaths in 2003. Now, in the wake of a series of successful drugs raids on properties across the county, Norfolk Constabulary says it will continue to take a hard line on drugs, and vowed to do all it can to catch and imprison organised dealers. Det Sgt Dave Mytton oversaw seven raids in Norwich in the past fortnight, which resulted in 11 arrests and the seizure of about 2,000 cannabis plants. He said: “I hope this recent series of raids and arrests has sent out a strong message to criminals. We will not tolerate it and are taking action - if you are involved in plying this trade, it is only a matter of time before we turn up on your doorstep.” In Suffolk, there were 25 drug-related deaths in 2005, in Hertfordshire there were 43, while in Cambridgeshire there were 26. Essex showed a slight increase from 45 deaths in 2003 to 47 in 2005. Penny McVeigh, chief executive of Norwich-based drug and alcohol advisory service Norcas, said: “The sad truth of the matter is that the number of problematic drug users continues to increase across the country - and Norfolk is no exception, Full Slaughter..

Sat., May 5, 4:20pm. Free. Broad and South sts. 215.268.7087. www.phillynorml.org. Here’s a riddle: What’s got 200 heads, is over three blocks long and reeks of patchouli oil? The Global Cannabis March kicks off this weekend, organized by the Philadelphia chapter of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). Philly NORML is devoted to decriminalizing marijuana and ending the drug war. NORML chapters all over the country will host rallies the same day, and similar rallies will take place in more than 200 cities all over the world. So what makes this rally special? “This year is the 70th anniversary of marijuana prohibition. And just like alcohol prohibition, the war on drugs puts all the power in the hands of the criminals,” says Robert Dougherty, chairperson for PhillyNORML. The boisterous group of stoners and activists come with a police escort and a permit to both picket and host guest speakers. The march will conclude at Headhouse Square with lectures and tables distributing leaflets about how you can get involved in the legalization effort. All the info is given up top so you won’t have to rely on your memory. Don’t space it, you damn hippies. John Steele

Two men have appeared in court after cannabis with an estimated street value of several hundred thousand pounds was found hidden in a truck in Birmingham. West Midlands Police Proactive Crime Team said they seized what is believed to be between 60-100kg (136-220 lbs) of cannabis on Saturday. Officers stopped the vehicle coming from a port in the south of England and searched it in a yard in the city. The men are accused of conspiring to supply controlled drugs. The pair appeared before magistrates in Solihull on Saturday and were remanded in custody. West Midlands Police said the arrests were the result of an intelligence led operation. The drugs are being forensically examined and dependent upon weight are believed to be worth between £300,000 to £500,000.

Nathaniel Campbell Jr. admitted to the court that he knew it was against the law to have cannabis in his possession but said he needed the substance for his personal use. Campbell as a result was convicted and fined $5,000 for cultivation of the drug, after pleading guilty to the charge. He was also charged with possession of cannabis and was convicted, reprimanded and discharged on that offence. A search warrant was executed by the police on Saturday, 21 April on Campbell’s home. During the search the police found a green bushy substance resembling cannabis, which the Bendals man admitted was indeed the drug. “Officer a little herb,” he was reported to have said. The search continued and a white foam box containing cannabis plants was found in the front of the man’s yard. Seven other plants were uprooted from the yard. Campbell was taken to the Bolans Police Station and arrested and charged.

Throngs of people gathered in the Amherst Common Saturday afternoon for the 16th annual Extravaganja. The event, organized by the University of Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition (CRC), is centered on the message that the social cost of the war on drugs outweighs the benefits, and drug laws, specifically those pertaining to marijuana, need to be changed. "We made the laws, and we can change them," said John Werner, the president of the UMass CRC, to the crowd.
Werner cited some of the problems marijuana laws cause college-aged people. A law in Massachusetts states that if a student has a single narcotics offense on record, he/she is ineligible for financial aid. "People are being kept out of college for small infractions," Werner said. He said that when people are jailed for marijuana offenses, it's harder to find a job when they're released. In turn, this may cause them to turn to crime. The laws also take resources away from combating more dangerous drugs. "I think there are drugs that are dangerous, and marijuana is not one of them," said Werner. "No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose." Full Dosage...

Illinois’ latest attempt to legalize medical marijuana is getting support from a surprising source — religious leaders. “The moral issue is relief of suffering,” said the Rev. D. Jay Johnson of the Union Avenue Christian Church in Litchfield, Ill. Johnson is one of more than 40 state religious leaders named in a letter distributed to legislators as they consider changing Illinois law to allow use of marijuana for treating pain and nausea in medical patients. But opponents also are leaning on religious morality as a central part of their argument. They say that the real purpose of the movement is to legalize recreational pot and that well-meaning clergy are being duped, Full Devine Intervention..

New York Assembly Passes New Rockefeller Law Reforms
StopTheDrugWar.Org
April 21st 2007

The continuing effort to undo New York's draconian Rockefeller drug laws took another step forward Wednesday as the state Assembly passed a bill that would expand the availability of drug treatment and give judges greater discretion in sentencing. The push comes three years after the legislature enacted modest initial reforms, but since then only 177 of the state's 15,000 drug prisoners have won sentence reductions.

The new bill would:

• Increase judges' discretion and allow some people convicted of first- and second-time drug offenses to receive treatment and probation instead of prison terms.
• Set up drug courts in every county, to make efforts to get drug offenders into treatment programs.
• Raise the weight thresholds for certain drug offenses so that the possible sentence times are reduced.
• Create or expand "second chance" programs for low-level drug defendants, such as the Court Approved Drug Abuse Treatment program, in which offenders' cases can be dismissed or reduced to misdemeanors upon successful completion of treatment.
• Create enhanced penalties for violent drug dealers and people who sell drugs to children.

"The modest reform to the Rockefeller Drug Laws enacted in 2004 and the extension in 2005 to provide for the re-sentencing of some class A-II offenders was a beginning, but unfortunately, despite pledges made by then Gov. George Pataki and the Senate to make additional changes, no further action was taken. The Assembly's repeated passage of significant drug law reform legislation for years went unnoticed by the former executive and the other house," said Speaker Sheldon Silver as the vote neared.

"This bill provides reforms that are long overdue," he continued. "It would expand the availability of drug treatment programs, allow judges to order non-violent, lower-level offenders into mandatory treatment for addiction and substance abuse and assure that prisons are most often used for serious drug offenders, offenders with violent histories and those who cannot or will not succeed in drug abuse treatment. We are confident that with the help of Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the Assembly's long-standing commitment to make the state's drug laws smarter, fairer and more effective will become a reality," added Silver.

"The opposition will say we are soft on crime," said Jeffrion Aubrey (D-Queens) who chairs the Assembly Committee on Correction and who authored the bill. "But we understand the revolving door of criminal justice and we want to shut that door."

Transform, a drug policy foundation, has attacked the government's record on drugs following the publication of a report for the UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC).
Despite the formal position of the foundation – that the prohibition of drugs is one of the great "social policy catastrophes of the 21st century" it has offered several suggestions for how drugs policy in the UK can be improved without taking such radical steps.
Transform's director, Danny Kushlick, spoke exclusively to Politics.co.uk. He urged the government to remove drug policy from the Home Office and transfer it to a different department, such as the Department of Communities and Local Government.
He also supported calls made recently by the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), which argued that drug policy should concentrate of harm minimisation instead of criminalisation, More.....

Decades of Government attempts to control illegal drugs have had "minimal" impact on levels of use and led to a position where Britain has the worst addiction levels in Europe, a report will say this week. In the latest piece of research to underline the failures of drug policy by Labour and Conservative administrations, the report is understood to point out that up to one in three people arrested on suspicion of crimes is using hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine.
The new UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) will say that Britain has the highest level of problem drug use and the second highest level of drug-related deaths in Europe.
This is despite sustained attempts to prevent young people trying drugs. It will say: "Despite successive Governments' attempts to control the demand for and supply of illegal drugs, drug policy appears to have had minimal impact on the overall level of use in the UK."
The number of heroin addicts has surged from about 5,000 in 1975 to more than 280,000 today. Estimates suggest that drugs cost society up to £13 billion a year in crime, health and other bills. Some have questioned the need for another major study of drugs policy that largely draws on Home Office and health statistics, Full Stats.....

2007 MMA CONCERTS ARE BLAZIN!

2007 American Marijuana Music Awards concert is 25 August in NYC, live music from Outlaw Nation, Herbal Nation, Rich Hardesty, T.H.C (True High Class) and The Herbillest with Paul Bullock as MC and guest appearance by Marlon Asher!

2007 American MMA Concert tickets -   http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/9469

Our International 2007 MMA Judges

Aaris of UBO Magazine

Alan Moore of Musicians and Fine Artists for World Peace http://www.butterflyspirit.org/projects/musicians_and_artists.html

KB and Holly"G" of Marijuana Radio

Tim of John Doe Radio  

Jonathon Stuart of Viper Records http://www.viperrecords.com

Stu of Undercover Music   http://www.undercovermusic.com.au  (Australia)

Mark of Sharp Studio (UK)

Bobby Black  

CraigX  

Lee Allan   http://potsgreatesthits.com/

DJ Hickory Dickory Dock   (Australia)

Keith Lawrence   (UK)

DB Recordings http://www.dbrecordings.com (Slovenia)

Brian Lee of Green Fever greenfeverrockroll (Australia)

Fitzy and Debs Elemental (UK)

A young chap who grew cannabis on his parent's Shelbourne property trafficked 15pounds of the drug within one year, a court heard yesterday. Daniel Webb, 21, pleaded guilty to nine charges in the Bendigo Magistrates Court, including trafficking, cultivating and possessing cannabis. Police found a hydroponic growing room in a tool shed when they raided his family's Nixons Road property on September 5 last year. Police prosecutor Senior Constable Mark Snell said police found three mature cannabis plants,
They also found seven separate amounts of cannabis, cannabis seeds, scales and tubs of cannabis butter when they searched a unit Webb shared with his brother. It was claimed a variety of weapons, including swords, double-edged knives, a slingshot and baton, were also found. While police were conducting the search, a man Webb knew arrived at the property and police established he was there for the purpose of purchasing cannabis, said Sen-Constable Snell. The court heard Webb was interviewed at the Bendigo Police Station the following day and was clearly under the influence of drugs, Full Influence...

The dictionary meaning of the word ‘rave’ is to ‘talk wildly, as in delirium.’ For a younger crowd, substitute dance, for talk. Though the rave party concept is old, even prehistoric by today’s standards, since it began in the 1960s, it continues to appeal to the hip youngsters of today for its mixture of a mood of abandon, electronic music and sadly, drugs.

Rave parties are quite common in parts of Goa, and in and around Mumbai too and occasionally, when the police gets to know of them, they get busted, as happened over the weekend. The Pune cops walked in, disguised as party goers, and arrested nearly 300 youngsters from different parts of the country.

It’s interesting to note that the cyber and economic crimes cell of the police picked up information on the party, since the word on the rave had been spread through a website. Even more intriguing is the fact that the party took place on Holi weekend, when Indian revelers Full Rave....

Thousands of cannabis plants worth millions of dollars have been seized by the NSW Police Force under Strike Force Hutching, the 2006 / 2007 phase of the Cannabis Eradication Program. In the most recent raids last month, more than 3500 cannabis plants of varying sizes were seized from forest areas in the Mid North Coast and Manning Great Lakes local area commands.
The drugs, which have since been destroyed, have an estimated potential street value of almost $8 million. Two people have been charged with drug offences.
Drug Squad detectives work closely with local area commands, the Police Airwing and the Dog Unit to target cannabis plantations throughout NSW each year.

Since July 2006 they have raided more than 50 sites, seizing just under 6000 plants with an estimated potential street value of more than $10 million. The plantations are found on private land, in state forests and in national parks. Commander of the Drug Squad, Detective Superintendent Greig Newbery, said police would continue to target the cultivation of cannabis throughout NSW.

“The Cannabis Eradication Program has been running successfully for a number of years and plays an important role in reducing the availability of cannabis on the street,” Det Supt Newbery said. “We work closely with local area commands, whose intelligence-based investigations are integral to the success of this program, and are assisted greatly by information provided to us by the community.
“The NSW Police Force will continue to heavily target people involved in the cultivation and supply of cannabis throughout NSW within the full extent of the law.”

Other results from the 2006 / 2007 Cannabis Eradication Program include:
Richmond Local Area Command: A number of sites were targeted in November last year and resulted in the seizure of 1862 cannabis plants with an estimated potential street value of $1.89 million. Three men were charged with drug offences.

Coffs/Clarence Local Area Command: Police raided sites in late January and early February seizing more than 400 plants with an estimated potential street value of $736,000. But the NSW Police Force’s targeting of cannabis plantations is not limited just to the Cannabis Eradication Program.
On the 19 January 2007 a joint Drug Squad and Mid North Coast Local Area Command operation led to the seizure of more than 2000 plants with an estimated potential street value of $3.3 million.
Just two weeks later more than 2300 plants with an estimated potential street value of just under $5 million were seized near Cooma in a joint drug squad and Monaro Local Area Command operation. Three men were charged with drug offences and are currently before the courts.

Amsterdam: Puzzled witnesses to a road crash on a Dutch motorway realised why the occupants of a stricken van fled so quickly when police arrived and found hashish worth 15 million euros in the vehicle.
A police spokeswoman said the van contained 3,000kg of hashish and was heavily overloaded, although police did not know whether this had caused the crash. "A van-driver heading to Amsterdam lost control of his vehicle and it tipped over... Witnesses were confused as to why a man of Oriental appearance got out and ran away even though no one was hurt in the accident," she added. The hashish would be destroyed immediately, she said. Soft drugs are legally banned in the Netherlands but under a policy of "tolerance", buyers are allowed to have less than 5 grammes of cannabis in their possession. Government-regulated coffeeshops which sell cannabis can keep stocks of up to 500 grammes. But they need to buy bigger stocks to supply smokers and so sometimes turn to illegal suppliers.

In an interview with Tommy Sheridan, the Solidarity MSP, on radio station Talk107, Mr Findlay said legalisation could help control use of some drugs by taking them out of dealers' hands. He said: " I'm talking about putting it in a legal structure, so you could buy it as you can buy alcohol, and it would give authorities, not just the police, but medical authorities and so on, that level of control. The alternative is the same, and the same is causing harm, and the same cannot be acceptable and we cannot just let this drift on."
Mr Findlay said drugs damaged not just individual, but the economy as the amount of money that was siphoned off by dealers was enough to run a small country. The QC, who was Scotland's top legal aid earner in 2006, said that while he did not like drugs, and had never tried cannabis, a more radical approach was needed.

Building on a 2005 law that made it a felony offense for people to operate methamphetamine labs in homes where children are present, a Nevada legislator has introduced a bill that would subject people growing even a single marijuana plant to the same penalties. Under the bill, they could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

The bill, Senate Bill 6, was introduced by state Sen. Joe Heck (R-Las Vegas), who doesn't see any difference between undertaking a complicated and risky chemical process and growing a plant. "You are exposing children to dangers when you are selling any illegal substance out of your house or growing any illegal substance out of your house, so you should be held to the higher penalties," Heck told the Senate Human Services and Education Committee. "If a guy has a couple of (marijuana) plants in there (now), he could be out in a week," Heck said. "But if there is a child present, with this, now he could serve five to 15 years for exposing that child to the dangers of this activity. The very behavior of small children puts them at risk around these materials, including marijuana," Heck said. "As any parent knows, the first place a toddler places anything they find is in their mouth. What if this object is a marijuana plant?"

But during the Monday hearing on the bill, representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and the Clark County (Las Vegas) Public Defenders Office urged legislators to think twice. "The way the bill is currently drafted states that someone could be growing marijuana for their personal use and not for the purposes of distributing it, selling it or engaging in drug trafficking and they would be treated as if they were engaged in those activities," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada.
The proposed new law amounted to "shooting fleas with cannons," Peck said, adding that it could impose an even greater burden on the state's overflowing prison population. "No one who is testifying in support of the bill can actually talk about the implications in respect to the incarceration rate," Peck said.

Applying the same penalties to meth lab operators and pot plant growers is inappropriate, said public defender Jason Frierson. "The reason that statute was written the way it was is because meth labs have a tendency to explode and the chemical components, the fumes and the chemical burns -- the exposure to those were the reasons for the greater penalties," Frierson said. "As I read it, this is treating the growth of one marijuana plant similarly with the existence of a meth lab in the presence of children."

The usual suspects supported the bill, including the Nevada District Attorneys Association, the Nevada Sheriffs and Chiefs Association and the Peace Officers Research Association. "It is our belief that anytime you have drugs and children together, it is a dangerous combination, a dangerous mix," said Kristin Erickson, a Washoe County deputy district attorney speaking for the state association.

Nevada is a state where medical marijuana is legal and patients or caregivers can grow up to three or four plants, but the bill makes no mention of that.

Proposed Draconian Drug Law in Namibia
Stopthedrugwar.org
Feb 10th 2007

A proposed tough new drug law in Namibia that would send any drug offender to prison for 20 years—no matter which drug nor how small the quantity—ran into a buzz saw of opposition at a public hearing in the national capital, Windhoek, this week. Rastafarians, the arts community, legal scholars, and legal aid groups alike used the first of three days of public hearings to condemn the proposed measure as unduly harsh, and many called openly for the legalization of marijuana, according to a report in The Namibian .

But attendees at the hearing were not shy about criticizing the law or calling for the legalization of marijuana. "If lawmakers think that this law will bring the crime rate down, they know very little," argued local artist Elmotho Mosimane. "Why in 2007, while the rest of the world is moving in the opposite way, are we going this route? In Amsterdam, where it is legal, where I can smoke marijuana in a bar, the crime rate is very low. How do we know that this law was not just brought in because of someone's personal feelings and convictions?" he asked the panel.

Lawmakers should consider the large number of people in Namibia who smoke marijuana and whether it really wants to jail them for decades, said media practitioner Augetto Graig. "No study has been made to establish how many people consume marijuana ... If such a study is completed thoroughly, I'm sure you'd find that these are at all levels of society, from the lower levels all the way up to parliamentarians," he said. "Where will you house all these people? Jails are already overcrowded, and we know that our jails have a reputation for being factories that create criminals."

But it wasn't just Rastas and bohemian artists who objected to the proposed law. The punishments envisioned were disproportionate to the offenses, said attorney Kaijata Kangueehi of the Magistrate's Commission. "The sentences are just too extraordinary, in the sense that they are way too heavy," Kangueehi argued as he handed the panel a 29-page presentation. "Nowhere in the Act is it looked at the quantity a person is caught with. If you are found with an amount which fits in a match box, you're treated the same as if you were caught with two tons. You don't need Solomon's wisdom to understand the unfairness of that situation," he said.

The Namibian Legal Aid Center also raised objections to the harsh sentences in the proposed law and even raised questions about its constitutionality. Namibians would find the sentences "shocking," especially when compared to alcohol, the group argued. "The effects of alcohol on neighbors and families are documented in our newspapers every day, yet it would appear that our legislature rightly accepts that it is a personal choice should one wish to use or abuse alcohol, insofar as the rights of others are not being violated."

The Legal Aid Center recommended that proposed sentences be drastically reduced. "If it is found that minimum sentences must be entertained in respect of certain drugs, the length of sentences should be considered, a period of six months to 12 months being suggested. This would coincide with most rehabilitation treatment periods," the organization said. The Center also called for drug sentences to be served "at a facility specifically designed for such rehabilitation purposes."

The Center objected to the language about promoting "instruments or literature for illegal consumption of drugs," arguing that it could lead to people being prosecuted for selling rolling papers or water pipes, or even for promoting any literature or video related to reggae music or Rastafarianism, where marijuana smoking is part of a religious ceremony. "This provision would almost certainly offend against religious freedom and freedom of thought, consequence and belief which is protected under article 21 of the Namibian constitution," the Center said.

Namibia's new drug law is not a done deal yet. If legislators are actually listening to the people at the public hearings on the law, they will go back to the drawing board.

Landlords in Kirklees are being urged to be vigilant for tenants who may be cultivating cannabis in their properties. The warning follows the discovery recently of nearly 200 cannabis plants at an address in Batley and 12 plants at an address in Dewsbury Moor. Inspector Ian Gayles from the Kirklees North Neighbourhood Policing Team said: “Both of these seizures are from rented properties and we would urge landlords to be on the lookout for any unusual activity. “Cannabis plants are grown in brightly lit houses and there is an unusual pungent smell in the immediate vicinity of the property. “Occupiers are likely to be coming and going with electrical equipment, bags of compost and fertiliser. Whilst the latter would not be an unusual sight if they were being taken to a shed, garage or garden, questions should be asked if they are going through the front door. Full Illuminations.....

"Overkill"
Bavid Borden
Stopthedrugwar.org
Jan 6th 2007

Images from the war in Iraq have become a daily sight on the cable news networks. One of the bits of footage that recurred this week was a tape of US soldiers forcibly entering a home, presumably looking for insurgents or other perpetrators of terrorist violence.

Though the image ran only as background to the discussion by news reporters about the US political situation, it jumped out at me. What I found striking was how carefully the soldiers did their job. With carefully measured force they pushed the door open, stood to the side, cautiously looked in, and only then entered -- with guns drawn, of course, but slowly and carefully. It struck me because of how strong a contrast it seemed to the way paramilitarized "SWAT" teams here in the US do business. Originally SWAT teams were created as select units to be used in high-intensity emergency situations -- hostages, snipers, that sort of thing. They were deployed a few thousand times a year back then, but now the annual number is about 40,000. According to "Overkill," a report issued last year by the Cato Institute, the great majority of SWAT deployments are for routine serving of search warrants in minor drug cases. Typically, or at least commonly, the SWAT teams don't show the kind of care and restraint that our soldiers in Iraq did when entering that building. Instead, we often see the black-clad SWAT officers rapidly battering down the door, running in and shouting, setting off flashbang grenades, and pointing guns at the heads of the confused and disoriented adults, children and pets who were unfortunate enough to be at home when it happened. The raids tend to be done very early in the morning or in the middle of the night, to increase the disorientation and confusion. Of course, this also increases the trauma, even when no one winds up getting physically hurt.

Not surprisingly, criticism of these tactics can get intense. Many police defenders will defend them just as intensely. Among the main arguments is that police need to use these tactics, because some of the people inside are dangerous criminals, who will have more of a chance to pull their own guns and shoot if they don't. One of the counterarguments is that such tactics tend to escalate the situations -- most of which are in fact do start out as routine and non-dangerous -- into something more tense, more shocking, more likely to end in needless tragedies.

Tragedies like the killing last year by Atlanta police of 88-year old Kathryn Johnston. When the police stormed her apartment, Johnston, not able in the scarce seconds available to her to thoughtfully reason that the armed, loud, sudden invaders of her home were in fact just police who meant her no harm, took out a gun given to her by her niece for her protection in the tough neighborhood she lived in, and opened fire. She wounded three of the invaders (er, peace officers), before they were able to shoot and kill her. Obviously the SWAT tactics did not produce a favorable outcome in this case, neither for Johnston nor for the officers themselves. Of course, it turned out to be a wrong address, no drugs were found there, and it was all based on the uncorroborated word of an anonymous, paid informant. Various indicators of police misconduct have come out in the media since that time, one by one contradicting statements made by department spokespersons under pressure to hide the severe blame that the department deserves.

And so we come back to our soldiers in Baghdad, the ones in that video, despite the great peril of their situation showing such care when entering the suspected insurgent house, despite the very real possibility that someone inside would try to shoot them or blow them up. I'm sure that things have gone wrong with the conduct of US troops on plenty of occasions, because that is built into the nature of war. But I also get the sense that the way these particular soldiers handled this raid is in fact what was expected of them, and that that is what our soldiers usually do.

And so I have trouble accepting the police argument that they have to use paramilitary tactics in routine drug raids for the sake of police safety. What about safety for the rest of us? I respect the risk our police officers take every day, just be being police officers. But the purpose of the job is to protect the public safety, not to put members of the public in danger. There are extremely few law enforcement situations in which police in the US are under as much potential threat as our troops are in every day in Iraq. If our soldiers can show as much care and restraint as they demonstrated while hunting insurgents in Baghdad in that news video, our police can do so too while serving routine search warrants on suspected, low-level, nonviolent drug offenders here.

Also, many police clearly don't know how to properly handle these kinds of tactics -- the dozens of needless killings in recent decades under circumstances similar to Kathryn Johnston's demonstrate that pretty clearly. It's time to re-separate our police and military and turn our police officers back in peace officers as they were intended to be. It's too late to save Kathryn Johnston from the horrible fate Atlanta police inflicted on her. But it's not too late to save the next Kathryn Johnston.

The discovery of two well developed cannabis plots in Northland confirm the drug is still popular despite the methamphetamine boom, police say. Trampers discovered the plots – covered in netting for pest-protection – in the Whanui Conservation Area, about 10km north of Whangarei. Detective Sergeant Grant Smith, head of the Northland police organised crime squad, told the Northern Advocate police expected to find and seize a record number of cannabis plants this growing season. In the past five years cannabis plant seizures had been steadily increasing, showing cannabis was still the "base funding" for other drug and criminal offending. The trend in Northland was a return to larger, more commercial crops, he said. Police praised the trampers who left discreet marks and photographed identifiable trees to help police locate the plots.

Tacoma> As 2006 draws to a close, drug-enforcement chappies in Washington say they have destroyed more than 150,000 marijuana plants this year as part of a joint state and federal eradication effort. That's nearly the same as last year, when a record 150,000 plants were destroyed under the Washington Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said in a news release. This year's seizures have led to more than 360 arrests and 290 weapons seizures. Officials attributed the number of destroyed plants to the movement of drug traffickers from Canada to Washington in an effort to avoid tightened border security. "Washington state is susceptible to both outdoor marijuana growers, who typically use and damage public lands to ply their illegal trade, and previously Canadian-based indoor cultivators attempting to avoid cross-border detection," said DEA special-agent-in-charge Rodney Wambat. Agents said growers have dammed streams, clear-cut forest lands, used large quantities of insecticide and killed wildlife to aid outdoor drug-growing operations.

Official documents issued by the United Nations are often dull enough to induce sleep. Despite dealing with the most important of policy issues, U.N. documents normally rival the official publications of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or the Federal Register as soporifics. Begin reading any randomly selected document issued by one of the many U.N. departments and offices and before long your eyes will probably glaze over and sleep softly beckon. That’s probably why the world press missed the chance to report that the United Nations Office of Drug Control, or UNODC, had inadvertently made the case for ending cannabis prohibition in its 2006 World Drug Report. What the world press did report was what they were told to report. Rather than actually bother to read the 420 pages of the recently issued 2006 report, reporters gathered their information entirely from the short September 12, 2006, Full Laugh.....

A cannabis farm was uncovered by police after a mid-morning raid on a Nelson house. Acting on intelligence from members of the public, police in riot gear burst into a property on Hallam Road shortly after 11-30 a.m. on Tuesday.Shocked residents looked on as police stormed the house, but were reassured when community support officers circulated information leaflets explaining why the incident was taking place. While undertaking a search of the house officers uncovered what they called a "sizeable quantity" of cannabis being grown in the loft space. Sgt Mick Nichols said: "We found about 25 large cannabis plants when we entered the house. We also found drug growing equipment and drug paraphernalia." A local man, in his 30s, was arrested by police at the scene and was detained in police custody pending further questioning. Sgt Nichols praised local residents for their involvement in helping police with their inquiries.

A 78-year-old pensioner who smuggled cannabis into Stafford prison for her son has been jailed for 18 months. Stafford Crown Court heard that Edna McArthur was already subject of a suspended sentence for an almost identical offence, involving cocaine, at a different prison. McArthur, of Dingston Road, Dorking, admitted supplying her son Alan with cannabis and possessing the drug with intent to supply. Judge Paul Glenn told her: “Drugs cause huge problems in prison. You may have been pressurised by your son but you chose to ignore the inevitable consequences of your action.”The nine-month sentence for the earlier offence was activated and mCArthur was jailed for a further six months for the new offences, to run consecutively. Miss Carol Knotts, prosecuting, said Arthur was seen passing a package to her son that contained 12.5 grammes of cannabis. A second package, hidden in her bra, contained a similar amount.

BC Business-Academic Panel Tells Government to Consider Legalizing Drugs
StopTheDrugWar.Org
December 10 th 2006

A very establishment advisory group to British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell has advised the Liberal leader that if he wants to deal with crime and illegal drugs in the province, he has two starkly contrasting choices: Legalize it, or unleash an all-out drug war. The panel from the BC Progress Board made the recommendations in a research report released November 15, " Reducing Crime and Improving Criminal Justice in British Columbia: Recommendations for Change ."

The BC Progress Board is a group of 18 businessmen and academics selected by the provincial government to provide advice on economic and social issues. Simon Fraser University criminologist Rob Gordon, a board member, was the report's primary author.

The report comes as BC grapples with crime rates higher than the Canadian average. The board identified illegal drug use and the drug trade as one of four motors driving crime in the province. The others were deficient child rearing and services, mental illness, and the "impoverished and unstable lifestyles" of many people living in inner urban areas.

In its second recommendation to Premier Campbell, the board said that "the provincial government must address the problem of the illegal trade in drugs in a clear and consistent manner." The first option it listed was to "lobby the federal government to legalize the trade, perhaps limiting access to products to adults in the same way that access to alcohol and tobacco is limited."

That would allow the government to treat drug use and abuse as public health -- not criminal justice -- problems and would allow the government to obtain revenue from taxing the sales of drugs.

But the BC Progress Board was careful to note that it was not endorsing drug legalization, merely providing options for the provincial government. The board's second recommendation on drug policy made that perfectly clear. In the event legalization proves impossible to implement, the board suggested, "the provincial government should provide the resources to eliminate the drug trade entirely in the province." Alternately, the board suggested a combination of recommendations one and two. The province should first spend 10 years trying to wipe out the drug trade, then move to legalization.

While the board's recommendations are not exactly a clarion call for legalization, the panel put the idea squarely on the table.

Belgian Representative Stijn Bex of the left liberal party Spirit has become the first Belgian elected official to publicly join the growing Cannabis Social Club movement. The movement is designed to create associations of marijuana users who come together to grow limited amounts of marijuana to satisfy their needs without resorting to the black market. A project of the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies (ENCOD), cannabis social clubs currently operate in Spain and Belgium.
Stijn BexThe cannabis social clubs are a concrete manifestation of ENCOD's Freedom to Farm campaign, which, according to the cannabis social club web site, is "aimed at the right of every adult citizen in the world to grow and possess natural plants for personal use and non-commercial purposes."
In an open letter to the newspaper De Morgen, Bex announced he would become a member of Draw Up Your Plant, a cannabis social club in the Antwerp area. Draw Up Your Plant is working to establish a marijuana collective farm on the principle of one plant per member. Under current Belgian drug policy, possession of one female marijuana plant by an adult is given the lowest law enforcement priority.
Draw Up Your Plant is planning to start its first indoor garden at the end of November, and ENCOD reports that Belgian authorities plan some sort of hostile response. But the group is building support among the media, and now it has its first MP.

AZALEA — Narcotics officers busted a marijuana grow Monday that led to the arrest of one man and the seizure of a dump truck load of pot plants worth more than $1 million.
Officers with the Douglas Interagency Narcotics Team were scouting the outdoor grow Monday afternoon in a rugged area near Galesville Dam when they encountered two men, according to a DINT press release.
The two men fled on foot, but officers caught up with 24-year-old Gonzalez Pedro Bravo of Albany. The second suspect was able to elude police and has not been located, Full Tale......

Barely days after police intensified operations against drug trafficking, marijuana (cannabis sativa) fields have been confirmed in the thick forests of Nyungwe National Park. The national tourism office (ORTPN) has disclosed that the drug is cultivated by people living around the park. "We are faced with a very big problem of drugs in this park. It (cannabis) is grown by Nyungwe forest encroachers most of whom have lived in this game park for over ten years," the Chief Warden, Francoise Bizimungu, said.
Speaking to The New Times in an exclusive interview at the ORTPN office in Kitabi, Southern province on Thursday, Bizimungu said, most of the gardens were being discovered by game rangers as they trail poachers, Full Problems...

Sheriff's deputies arrested an Inglewood man Wednesday on suspicion of selling high-grade marijuana on the popular want-ad website craigslist.org. Eugene Church, 20, was arrested after he offered to sell marijuana to an undercover detective at a prearranged location in Agoura Hills. Church had 5.5 ounces of marijuana in his car at the time, Sheriff's Capt. Ron Nelson said. He is being held on $200,000 bail. "We catch the dumb ones," Nelson said.

A mother whose son died after a history of cannabis-induced psychosis has teamed up with a charity to fund a cautionary play for secondary schools. The family of 22-year-old Giles Brown believe it was the use of cannabis that cost their son his life. He was found frozen to death in an outbuilding in Keighley near his home last New Year.
Now Giles' mother Diana Bayliss, with the help of family and friends, has raised £3,000 in his memory and is using it to get actors into schools with an emotional theatre production. The money has been channelled through the Hearing Voices charity to Full Monty actor Steve Huison's Shipley-based Shoestring Theatre Company, Full Sadness...

A large hydroponic cannabis plantation has been discovered in a house in Sydney's north-west. Police searched the Carlingford home, on Pennant Hills Road, about 6pm (AEST) on Tuesday following a tip-off that it was being used to cultivate cannabis. Inside the house, police found sophisticated hydroponic apparatus and a large number of cannabis plants, up to one metre in height, in several of the rooms. Police allege there were between 50 and 100 plants, Full Tale..

Arusha, Tanzania, To drive home his stance against drug consumption, Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has ordered his compatriots to immediately stop growing cannabis, the main narcotic product consumed in the country, a local daily paper, The Guardian reported Tuesday. The paper said Kikwete emphasised the negative impact of cannabis use on the youths as he pronounced the order during a rally in Musoma, Mara district (north), at the weekend. He praised the engagement of the population in agriculture, but deplored the cultivation of cannabis by some villagers, commended the police for being successful in the fight against armed robbery, the paper added. In an operation carried out last April, the Tanzanian police seized 68 firearms, 221 kilos of cannabis, 853.5 grammes of heroin and destroyed two hectares of cannabis plantation.

2 gang members arrested after police found imported cannabis resin worth up to £172,000 - Lancashire's biggest seizure of the drug - at a Burnley house have been jailed. The town's Crown Court heard how the remnants of a large ecstasy haul were also discovered at the empty property in Hilary Street, in March. Cannabis was growing in two sealed bedrooms and the kitchen was used for no other purpose than as a distribution centre for drugs, Full Sentence....

An Ohio County Sheriff's Department truck is piled high with harvested marijuana plants seized from a site near North Park Friday. Nearly 4,000 marijuana plants, some nearly 8 feet tall, were harvested from a site near North Park in Wheeling, according to a spokesman for the Ohio Valley Drug and Violent Crime Task Force. The seizure of 3,850 plants was the largest to occur in Ohio County in recent memory, officers noted. No arrests have been made and none are expected, officers said late Friday. Without surveillance, arrests would not be possible, an officer noted. The plants were discovered by an unidentified individual who apparently stumbled on them recently, task force officers noted. The individual reported the matter to Wheeling Police Department detectives, who verified the information and then reported it to the task force, Full Tale.....

Heavy Cannabis Use Not Independently Associated With Cardiovascular Risks
August 11th 2006
Norml.org

San Francisco, CA : Heavy marijuana use is not independently associated with high blood pressure or other cardiovascular risk factors, according the findings of a 15-year longitudinal study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Cardiology .

Investigators at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, San Francisco, assessed the association between marijuana use and caloric intake, body mass index (BMI) and cardiovascular risk factors in 3,617 young adults participating in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults project (CARDIA). Though heavy self-reported use of cannabis was associated with higher caloric intake (3,365 calories per day in those who used cannabis >/= 1,800 days over a 15 year period versus 2,746 calories per day in non-users), marijuana use alone was not associated with higher levels of triglycerides, atherosclerosis, or blood pressure among respondents.

Investigators did note that the heavy use of cannabis and alcohol together was positively associated with cardiovascular risk factors.

A previous review of cannabis use and cardiotoxicity published earlier this year in the journal Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology reported that moderate marijuana use likely poses little cardiovascular risk in humans.

In human trials, cannabis smoking is typically associated with a dose-dependent increase in heart rate and blood pressure in marijuana-naive subjects, though users often become completely tolerant to these effects over time. By contrast, cannabinoid administration in animals is typically associated with vasodilation, transient bradycardia and hypotension . The administration of synthetic cannabinoids has also been shown to lower blood pressure in animals and has not been associated with cardiotoxicity in humans.

In addition, recent studies demonstrate that anandamide and other endocannabinoids profoundly suppress cardiac contractility in hypertension and can normalize blood pressure .

Police in South-Western Sydney raided two homes in Greenfield Park on Monday, seizing $1 million worth of cannabis. Both houses were located on Smithfield Road. The two houses were raided at 11:30 AM AEST on Monday where police found what they called "ellaborate hydroponic set-ups". Police seized 360 cannabis plants in addition to a large quantity of processed cannabis. At the time of the raids, there was nobody at home.Charges have been laid over the discovery, and two people have been nicked,but police say they are continuing investigations. According to police, the Wetherill Park Target Action Group are cracking down on the cultivation of hydroponic cannabis.

A judge said yesterday that a man caught on camera watering 354 cannabis plants at Lake Eppalock had to be more than a gardener. Massimo "Max" Paris, 36, pleaded guilty to cultivating a trafficable amount of cannabis and cultivating cannabis at his then home in Tullamarine. Defence lawyer David Brustman told Melbourne County Court that Paris was paid $2000 to tend to the crop at Patons Road, where he was captured on police surveillance between November 29, 2004, and January, last year, when he was arrested by Bendigo Crime Investigations Unit detectives, Full Flim....

Most people fortify themselves with a bowl of cereal, a piece of toast and cup of coffee or tea before heading to work for another day. But as an exclusive report in today's Sunday Telegraph reveals, an alarming number of workers rely on something much harder. As many as a quarter of a million people take illegal drugs during their working day. Many of these employees work in dangerous industries such as construction and transport, where an impaired decision can snuff out a life. It's not hard to find evidence of the disturbing level of illegal drug use in the workplace. Last week, workers at a Sydney construction site were observed climbing on and off their scaffold to smoke marijuana, Full Impairment...

Seattle Hempfest Sues City
Stopthedrugwar.org
August 4th 2006

Who would have thought the organizers of the Seattle Hempfest , the world's largest marijuana law reform rally, would have to take legal action against the progressive city of Seattle and one of its art museums? But that's exactly what happened Monday, when Hempfest announced it was suing the city over its failure to process the permit application in a timely manner and its failure to address transportation and access issues caused by construction at Seattle Art Museum.

The Hempfest takes place each year at Myrtle Edwards Park, a narrow strip of land adjoining Puget Sound just north of downtown Seattle. Access to the park is limited, and the Seattle Art Museum's ongoing construction at its Olympic Sculpture Park leaves only a 14-foot-wide point of access for the estimated 150,000 people that will attend over Hempfest's two-day run. Hempfest organizers say they are running out of time and cannot wait any longer for permits and resolution of the access issue. The permit application for the event was filed on January 3, and the city should have replied within 60 days, but has yet to do so. Nor has it arrived at a transportation plan that addresses the crucial access issue.

"Since the late fall of 2005, Hempfest has been meeting regularly with Seattle Art Museum (SAM) and city officials to resolve all issues and allow adequate space for pedestrian access, as well as access for police and fire officials. Public safety is a top priority for Hempfest," organizers said in a press release announcing the lawsuit . "Construction of the Olympic Sculpture Park is in risk of jeopardizing public safety and depriving the public use of a major park," said Vivian McPeak, Executive Director of the Seattle Hempfest and plaintiff. "After months of negotiations with the City and SAM, I am confident that there is room for both the Sculpture Park and Hempfest," he added.

Organizers were quick to clarify that Hempfest will take place. Period. This year's event, set for August 19 and 20, features dozens of musical acts and speakers. This year's line up includes former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper and Seattle City Council President Nick Licata (not to mention DRCNet associate director David Guard). Hundreds of exhibitors will sell hemp wares and dozens of organizations, including the ACLU and NORML and DRCNet, will recruit for their organizations and advocate an end to the drug war.

Roadside screening devices capable of detecting "drug-drivers" are expected to be introduced within two years, The Scotsman has learned. The UK government is set to give the green light by January for the development of new equipment to catch people who get behind the wheel after taking illegal drugs. Home Office sources say manufacturers have already been told about the likely requirements of the kits, which will look for drugs such as heroin, cannabis, Ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamines. It is anticipated that a pilot scheme, Full Screening....

Police uncovered yesterday a 100-kilo batch of hydroponic cannabis in Corinth, in the Peloponnese, hidden on board a refrigerator truck in what authorities described as the biggest drug find of its kind in Greece. Police said that the hydroponic cannabis, also called skunk, had been smuggled on board the truck transporting frozen meat from the Netherlands. Two Greek nationals, both aged 45, along with a 50-year-old Albanian man, were arrested in connection to the operation. Authorities said that they followed the vehicle, which entered Greece from Patras, to the driver’s home in Corinth. A raid of the home and truck uncovered the cannabis, hidden among frozen chickens, a gun, 31,610 euros in cash and 10 counterfeit 50-euro notes. Police are searching for two more men, including a 27-year-old Greek man though to be the head of the operation.

Marijuana is not a soft drug and Australians should be aware of how dangerous it can be, an anti-drug campaigner says. Drug Free Australia chairman Craig Thompson is urging the community, young people in particular, to change their thinking about cannabis because of its serious effects on health. "The road fatalities caused by cannabis-intoxicated drivers, links to cannabis and psychosis, birth defects and greater potency of the drug are just a few issues of enormous concern," Mr Thompson said. He says cannabis continues to be accepted as a low-risk, non-addictive drug, but this is not the case, Full Freedom.....

Results of clinical trials of cannabis have been mixed and it now seems there are fundamental problems with how our bodies respond to the stuff
If anecdotes and ancient medicine are to be trusted, cannabis is a wonder drug. Yet results of clinical trials have been mixed and its use in modern medicine remains limited. Now it seems the reasons may be practical as much as political and cultural: there are fundamental problems with how our bodies respond to the stuff. Some compounds in cannabis, including THC and cannabidiol, interfere with a natural signalling system throughout our brains, nerves and immune system. This system, which produces its own cannabis-like compounds called endocannabinoids, plays a role in many medical conditions including pain, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, depression and schizophrenia, More...

Police busted an outdoor marijuana grow operation in Northeast Portland which bordered a high school soccer field, authorities said Wednesday. The pot plants are visible on the right side of the fence. The only thing separating the marijuana plants from the Parkrose High School soccer field was a fence, said Sgt. Brian Schmautz, spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau. “All a student would have to do is reach out and grab some dope,” he said. Although school is not currently in session, many people use the soccer field during the summer and those who do complained to police about the visible marijuana plants, More Dope....

Police in France said today they had thwarted an attempt by a group of marijuana smokers to roll the world's longest joint by seizing a work in progress measuring 80 centimetres in length. "At some point, these young people had wanted to craft a joint of 1.12 metres to beat the world record in the discipline and get it officially registered," a police officer in eastern France said. "We don't know who had the idea. Sometimes ideas are created in an astonishing way," he said. During an investigation targeting a group of four smokers in the eastern Vosges area of France, police discovered the giant joint containing 70 grams of cannabis resin. It had not been finished because of a lack of tobacco. One of the smokers is to appear before a court charged with drug use on October 19. Two minors will appear before a juvenile court on October 6.

Lebanon— A corrections officer of nine years was arrested Monday for accepting money and marijuana from an undercover agent, according to the warden's assistant at Warren Correctional Institution outside of Lebanon. Michael Miller of Clarksville was arrested at Showcase Cinemas in Mason at 12:30 p.m. after accepting $600 in cash and four ounces of marijuana with the intent of smuggling the drugs into WCI, said Mark Stegemoller, warden's assistant. More..

Winthrop Harbor — A 21-year-old man was arrested after police found marijuana worth $120,000 growing on state property near North Point Marina and at his home.Winthrop Harbor, Lake County Metropolitan Enforcement Group and Illinois Department of Natural Resources police teamed up for a two-month investigation that led to the seizure of 120 plants at the two locations. A resident provided the initial tip that someone was growing marijuana plants on state property near the marina and officers confirmed they were cannabis and notified MEG. Evidence then was obtained that identified the grower as Daniel W. Pocklington, Full Identifaction....

An energy healer and her three sons have been arrested over a $2 million cannabis haul on Sydney's north shore. Gilla Mogilevsky, a devoted student of Kabbalah – a religious mystical system of Judaism – was arrested at her home in St Ives early today. About 40 armed police raided another three adjacent homes belonging to the 53-year-old woman, allegedly uncovering just under 1000 cannabis plants worth an estimated $2 million. Two of Ms Mogilevsky's sons, aged 23 and 24, were also arrested at St Ives while a third, aged 26, was arrested on the Gold Coast with the help of Queensland police. Detectives are seeking his extradition to New South Wales, police said, More.....

A farmer who caught two men stealing his cannabis crop has been jailed on firearms and kidnapping charges. And Judge Louis Bidois had some advice for Melios Kyriakides Newman, who he said panicked and made the wrong decisions. "You could have told them to drop the dope, fired a couple of shots in the air and they'd probably have cut their losses and left." Newman (29), of Opunake, was appearing for sentence in the Hawera District Court yesterday for unlawful possession of a firearm (.22 rifle), cultivation of cannabis, intentional damage and kidnapping, at Oeo on March 19. He was given leave to apply for home detention, Full Expedition....

An eight-metre boat carrying women and children has been used in a plan to allegedly smuggle cannabis from Papua New Guinea (PNG) to Yorke Island. Customs officers from Thursday Island found up to 659 grams of the drug aboard the traditional PNG vessel when they searched it at Yorke Island on Friday, June 30. The vessel had travelled from Daru in PNG and was bringing guests to a wedding ceremony on Yorke Island. During a search of the vessel, Customs officers noticed that an empty fuel drum was unusually heavy. Closer examination allegedly revealed the cannabis concealed inside .Full Code...

Singapore: Acting on a tip-off, narcotics officers arrested 6 people and seized over 8 kilogrammes of cannabis. The drugs, with a street value of $280,000, is the Central Narcotics Bureau's largest seizure since 2004. The arrests came after a dramatic chase of the suspected syndicate leader, who sped off and dashed through two red lights. Narcotics officers managed to intercept the vehicle at Pioneer Road but the suspect locked himself in. The officers had to smash the windscreen before they could arrest him. Narcotics officers also arrested five others - two are believed to be the leader's associates and the rest, his clients.

A young chap found to have almost three-quarters of a kilo of herbal cannabis at his Blackburn home has been sentenced to 12 months in prison. A court was told that Atif Ali had used the drug as relief from a painful condition.
And, in order to fund the habit, he sometimes supplied to friends. Ali, 22, of Lancaster Road, Blackburn, appeared at Preston Crown Court, having pleaded guilty to possessing a Class C drug with intent to supply. The skunk-type drug had a street value of £4,700. Ali had no previous convictions for supplying, or possession with intent, Full Intent....

Police have estimated that cannabis plants seized from a city house have a street value of more than £250,000. A team of officers smashed their way into the property in North Street, Stanground, Peterborough, at about 7.30am yesterday. They say they found more than 640 plants which were being grown in five different rooms under high-powered lights. Speaking at the scene, Detective Constable Shanie Nayar said it was believed the plants had been in the house for at least three months. She said: "This was an intelligence-led operation which has resulted in the recovery of a large number of cannabis plants, Full Intelligence....

A 21-year-old man was arrested last night and charged with the murder of Tony Stanlake, whose mutilated body was found at Red Rocks. The accused will appear in Wellington District Court this morning. Police have seized a dark blue Subaru Legacy sedan they had been seeking. They had earlier sought the driver of a Subaru Legacy which became buried to its bumper at Owhiro Bay on Saturday night.A 1995 four-door vehicle with sunroof and spoiler was found at a Wainuiomata address and is now being forensically examined, Full Decapitation...

Police have recovered 100 kilogrammes of mbanje worth $3 billion after intercepting a Harare-bound Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) bus at Mabvuku turn-off along Harare-Mutare road early yesterday morning. Officer Commanding Harare Suburban Superintendent Washington Mundanda said police arrested three men -- Trymore Shayamombe (23) Methias Kembo (25) and Obert Mapawona (22) -- in connection with the discovery. He said police stopped the Zupco bus and conducted a search resulting in the recovery of three bags containing the drug stashed in the boot, More Mbanje....

Homicide squad detectives are investigating whether a mix of marijuana and mental illness was a factor in four murders in the past month. Two young men and a couple who left behind a young child were the victims of fatal stabbings in the space of nine days. It is suspected psychosis brought on by marijuana may have been a factor. Drug counsellors have warned super-potent, genetically modified dope grown in suburban houses is severely affecting some users, Full Illness.....

Cons are getting high on a massive haul of drugs being thrown over their jail walls - and then reeled in with makeshift fishing lines. Almost half a million pounds worth of cannabis has been chucked into Wormwood Scrubs in west London in the past year, the People can reveal. Prison officers seized 8.5 kg in the last six months before amateur anglers among the 1,000 inmates could hook it. But authorities believe the total drugs drop amounts to at least ten times more, More Throwing....

A former pot grower who turned himself into an expert on hydroponic marijuana grow operations has failed in a bid to prevent another Saskatchewan pot grower from going to jail. Jason Hiltz, twice convicted of growing cannabis, offered his services as an expert witness for the defence in the trial of Mark John Evanishen, 35, charged with several offences related to growing pot in an old rural school near Saskatoon. Hiltz, of Saskatoon, testified at the trial, describing the operation run by Evanishen as "low end," but Evanishen was convicted of a handful of charges Thursday anyway, Full Testimony....

Herts police raiding a drugs factory this week and learned that the county is fast becoming a prime area for 'cannabis commuters'.Organised criminal gangs are moving cannabis-growing operations out of London to Hertfordshire to evade Met Police crackdowns in the capital. We have already revealed how one £30,000 drugs factory was being run beside a school and youth club in Ware. But Hertfordshire Constabulary sent out a strong message to dealers and growers on Tuesday, when more than 40 officers raided a house in Gonville Crescent, Shephall, in Stevenage. Full DNA....

There is a long-standing debate as to whether cannabis (ganja) use causes persons to become mad. I have deliberately avoided this discussion but almost every day, as a mental health professional, I am confronted with the issue. How extensive is cannabis use in Jamaica? The last survey, done in 1997 among students in school, indicates that one-third of students 'have ever used cannabis in one form or other over a lifetime'. In terms of recent use (use in the past 30 days) only 10 per cent of students admitted to this. The mental disorder that some persons contend is associated with cannabis smoking is schizophrenia. Yet, only about two per cent of the population has this condition in Jamaica and in most countries where this disorder has been studied. So, from these figures we can say that most persons who use cannabis do not become mentally ill, Yes.....

2 people were sleeping in a car at a traffic light at the intersection of Southern Boulevard and Royal Palm Beach Boulevard. An officer observed the car sit through two cycles of the traffic light without moving. The officer approached the car and noticed the two occupants sleeping. They were disoriented and there was an odor of marijuana coming from the car. The driver ignored commands to keep his hands on the steering wheel and kept reaching behind his seat. He was placed in handcuffs. A search revealed a cigar tube with marijuana inside his pocket and a glass pipe in the glove box.

2 men have been charged over allegedly using an 8m boat carrying women and children to smuggle cannabis from Papua New Guinea to a small Australian island in the Torres Strait. Customs officers from Thursday Island found up to 659 grams of the drug aboard the traditional PNG vessel when they searched it at Yorke Island last Friday. The vessel had travelled from Daru in PNG and was bringing guests to a wedding ceremony on Yorke Island. During a search of the vessel, Customs officers noticed an empty fuel drum was unusually heavy, Full Story....

Larimer County - Police seized 65 pounds of marijuana and 50 plants from the home of a man injured in an accident while trying to evade police. On Sunday, police responded to a report of menacing at 181 Ramona Drive in Livermore and began their search for William Moylan, 36. During the search, a rollover accident happened on County Road 74 East. Police realized that Moylan was the driver. Police said he managed to escape from the vehicle before they could arrest him. Officers went to his home at 136 Haystack Drive where the female tenant, Michelle Wilson, allowed them to search for Moylan. Full Tale....

'over 64 kilogrammes of compressed ganja'
Stabroeknews.com
July 3rd 2006

Five persons, including a nursing mother, who were arrested following the discovery of over 64 kilogrammes of compressed ganja in a Norton Street house, made an appearance last Friday in the Georgetown Magistrate's Court. Anthony Williams, Kirk Browne, Roshelle Gordon, Sherwin Browne and Raj Paul, all pleaded not guilty to the joint charge of trafficking in narcotics. Gordon was released on $100,000 bail by Acting Chief Magistrate Cecil Sullivan after it was revealed that she had a one-week old baby. The others were remanded to prison by the magistrate. It is alleged that last Thursday the defendants at Norton Street, Lodge had 64 kilogrammes, 545 grammes of cannabis sativa for the purpose of trafficking, Full Tale....

10 flats owned by a convicted drug retailer are to be sold, with the proceeds going to the public purse. The flats in Dundee belong to Paul Cox, who was jailed two years ago after being caught with cannabis resin worth more than £80,000. The properties can be sold under legislation allowing the proceeds of crime to be seized and are expected to raise £150,000 once mortgage repayments have been made. Cox also had substantial savings, most of which were recovered by the Crown. He was jailed for 3 years.