Kentucky goes after ‘Marijuana Belt’ growers
The News Review:
- Kentucky goes after ‘Marijuana Belt’ growers
- No more Mr Nice guy: Howard Marks, poster boy for cannabis, doubts…
- Evansdale going to pot?: Residents tired of youths’ open marijuana…
- Court log for Sept. 30
- US role and the failing drug war
Kentucky goes after ‘Marijuana Belt’ growers
USA Today - Sep 30, 2007
“Well, that’s six they won’t get,” he says, shrugging and pulling them out of the dirt. “Sometimes they just get here before we do. ”
Welcome to the battle police and marijuana growers wage each fall in Kentucky’s remote Appalachian counties, where 75% of the state’s top cash crop is grown. According to officials at the Office of National Drug Policy’s Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program (HIDTA), Kentucky produces more marijuana than any other state except California, making it home to one of the nation’s more intensive eradication efforts — a yearly game of harvest-time cat and mouse in national forests, abandoned farms, shady hollows, backyards and mountainsides. “We’re essentially in a race with the grower to get it before he does,” says state police Lt. Ed Shemelya, head of the eradication unit. This time of year, “it’s not uncommon for us to be on one side of a hill eradicating, and on the other a grower is harvesting… Authorities say their efforts keep drugs off the streets and illicit profits out of criminal hands. But critics call it a waste of time and money that has failed to curb availability or demand. “Trying to eradicate marijuana is like taking a teaspoon and saying you’re going to empty the Atlantic Ocean,” says Gary Potter, an Eastern Kentucky University professor of criminal justice who has researched the issue for decades. Traps and tradition
On a rainy morning at the Civil Air Patrol airfield just outside London, National Guard pilots, DEA agents and state police sip coffee and await their morning briefing. On the wall hangs a T-shirt reading, “Welcome to the Jungle: Kentucky Eradication 2007,” a marker of how big the pot business has become since taking root in the area in the 1970s. A typical day will involve hitting 15 to 20 marijuana plots — most spotted by Holden or another pilot in a helicopter. They have learned to spot the tell-tale earthen trails and bluish-green of pot patches.
No more Mr Nice guy: Howard Marks, poster boy for cannabis, doubts…
The Independent - Independent - Sep 30, 2007
If being slightly schizophrenic makes you want to smoke some dope to ease you through the day, I don’t think that’s a cause for concern. “To find out which of these is true will require research. One has to look into the action [of cannabis] on the brain and what happens. “He said that the reclassification of cannabis from class B to class C in 2004 followed The Independent on Sunday’s campaign to legalise the drug. Earlier this year, the newspaper abandoned its stance following growing evidence that cannabis use could lead to greater incidence of psychosis, including schizophrenia. Marks’s comments coincided with Gordon Brown’s call for celebrities to speak out against drugs. The Prime Minister emphasised the need for sportsmen, pop stars and other public figures to act as role models for young people and denounce illegal substances.
Evansdale going to pot?: Residents tired of youths’ open marijuana…
highbeam.com - Sep 30, 2007
All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. Byline: Brandy Brubaker Sep. 30–Several Evansdale residents say college students are loitering in their neighborhood, smoking pot on their streets and leaving the leftovers — marijuana joints and homemade bongs — in their yards. The residents, who live on Fairfax Drive and Hawthorne Avenue, brought their concerns to a recent City Council meeting. WVU Department of Public Safety officers won’t respond because it’s in city jurisdiction, the residents said, unless city police ask them. By the time city officers can get there, the students are gone. Police Chief Phil Scott said officers are doing what they can to put an end to the problem.
Court log for Sept. 30
phillyBurbs.com - Sep 30, 2007
Burton, 26, Bensalem, approved for ARD program for 1 year on charges of possession of marijuana Mar 31. Sentenced to probation of 3 months.
US role and the failing drug war
Jamaica Gleaner - Sep 30, 2007
and the Europeans are shooting themselves in the foot, challenging preferential trade in sugar and bananas, leading to preferred trade in coca and cannabis as the typical responseThe U. response is typical to that of Plan Colombia. 7 billion to fight Colombian paramilitary drug traffickers… ’s production of marijuana accounts for six per cent of the GDP of the province and employs more persons than mining and logging combined. Canada is now growing high potency marijuana under modern hydroponic conditions. WAR ON DRUGS FAILINGThe American report ducks the responsibility of the Americans and Europeans themselves. It hides the fact that the war on drugs is failing 36 years since Richard Nixon launched it. It is failing for a number of reasons.