Smugglers Mail Marijuana to Wrong Address

Hey, drug traffickers make mistakes, too.

A New Jersey man called police in October when he received several packages intended for someone else. When officers opened the misdirected boxes, they discovered 50 pounds of marijuana.

The accidental recipient, who lives in Hazlet on New Jersey’s northern shore, called local police in late October. The boxes were addressed to someone who doesn’t live at the resident’s address, and when officers opened them to identify the rightful recipient, they stumbled across the marijuana.

Valued at $100,000

The cannabis was confiscated by police and valued at about $100,000, said Hazlet Police Detective Ted Wittke. The department has opened an investigation to determine who sent the drugs or who was supposed to receive them.

Wittke made a tongue-in-cheek plea to the public: “If you were expecting these packages and would like to claim them, please come to Police Headquarters.”

This isn’t the first time a package of marijuana made its way to the wrong address. Last spring, an unknown smuggler sent several packages of processed cannabis to a Brooklyn deli.

Not the first time this has happened

Those boxes arrived at Kahan’s Superette, a kosher deli, in early April by way of the U.S. Postal Service. The marijuana was hidden in 10 vacuum-sealed peanut butter bags. The disguise failed to fool police in New York, who seized the packages and launched an investigation.

It’s not surprising a few packages of cannabis would go astray now and then. Drugs amount for a substantial percentage of U.S. mail, and the vast majority of these shipments go unnoticed. But mailing marijuana comes with significant risks, and the odds of getting caught are always fairly high.

That’s especially true with smugglers who operate on the fly. A risky job calls for careful risk-management strategies, but many traffickers view the game as nothing more than a quick way to get rich. And when they don’t pay attention to what they’re doing, they do stupid things – like mailing drugs to the wrong address.

Smugglers Mail Marijuana to Wrong Address

TSA Agent Charged in MJ Smuggling Case

A former agent with the Transportation and Safety Administration (TSA) has been charged with taking a bribe to let smugglers carry marijuana past airport security checkpoints.

Deondre Smith, a 33-year-old resident of South Los Angeles, was arrested in October and charged with bribery of a public official and conspiracy to distribute cannabis. He could face as many as 20 years in prison on the federal charges, both felonies.

Authorities at the U.S. attorney’s office for Southern California say Smith worked with a team of co-conspirators to move large amounts of marijuana through security checkpoints on flights bound for North Carolina. He ensured the bags of cannabis made it past screening undetected by other agents, authorities said.

Agent accepted payments to facilitate smuggling operation

Smith allegedly took payments of at least $500 in exchange for helping, prosecutors said. The smuggling operation involved at least nine incidents between 2009 and 2010, they said. In each case, Smith allegedly helped conceal a shipment of cannabis at a checkpoint.

The indictments against Smith were handed up Oct. 16. The conspiracy charges carry a maximum five-year sentence, while the maximum penalty for bribery is 15 years. The flights were all headed for Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, N.C., where authorities said the drugs were sold on the street.

“Knowing that the luggage contained marijuana, Smith would temporarily take possession of the luggage from the other co-conspirators and either personally escort the luggage through LAX baggage screen checkpoints, or deliver the luggage to make sure the baggage containing marijuana passed through security,” the indictment read.

Each of the other alleged co-conspirators has already pleaded guilty to drug charges as part of the investigation. Officials said they take a dim view of federal agents who help drug traffickers.

“I expect all federal employees to meet the high standards of ethical behavior,” said U.S. Attorney Eileen Decker. “Any acceptance of bribes to influence official conduct will not be tolerated. It is particularly serious when the employee knowingly assisted in the commission of a serious criminal offense.”

The TSA’s existing marijuana problem

The TSA is already in a tight spot with marijuana issues. With cannabis now legal in four states, at least one major airport is allowing passengers to fly with the drug, as long as they don’t carry it on flights that cross state lines or leave the country. The TSA has no official nationwide policy on the matter, leading to a confusing patchwork of strictly local airport rules.

Portland International Airport, for example, allows travelers to carry cannabis on in-state flights, while some other Oregon airports do not. But any attempt to smuggle marijuana aboard a flight between states is a federal crime, which means even passengers flying to other states with legalization are not allowed to carry the drug.

TSA Agent Charged in MJ Smuggling Case

Election 2015: A Voter"s Guide

To look at news coverage, you’d think the next election in America will come in November 2016. But there’s actually one coming a lot sooner than that: this Nov. 3.

National elections, of course, fall every two years. Presidential candidates run for four-year terms, while members of Congress run for two-year terms and senators run for staggered six-year terms. With the exception of special elections to the House or Senate, there are no nationwide elections in odd-numbered years.

Tell that to poll workers. The 2015 election will see a number of statewide races across the country, as well as votes on several major issues. One of them is marijuana.

Indeed, if things go activists’ way, they will add another state to the tally of those where cannabis is legal for any adult use. There are already four – Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Colorado – along with the District of Columbia.

Support is strong

The only major marijuana-based vote will be on the ballot in Ohio. There, a group called ResponsibleOhio is pushing a campaign to legalize the drug statewide.

Public support for the idea is strong, according to recent polls, but there are plenty of hurdles nonetheless. For one thing, the state is run almost exclusively by Republicans, and they usually oppose legalization. For another, Ohioans have yet to adopt medical marijuana, meaning voters will be asked to jump from full illegality to full legalization, all in one election.

That poses problems, but they haven’t been enough to sink the plan yet. The biggest danger lies on the ballot itself.

Competing anti-monopoly ballot initiative

Anti-marijuana crusaders are themselves pushing a ballot initiative, one that would ostensibly ban business monopolies under Ohio’s state constitution. The real intent is to kill cannabis reform, since the legalization proposal would establish a semi-monopolistic industry for the cultivation, processing, and sale of legal marijuana.

Cannabis proponents are arguing for Issue 3, which would license several businesses to cultivate marijuana at 10 sites across the state and then sell it at a limited number of dispensaries owned by the same businesses.

This vertically oriented industry model would almost certainly conflict with Issue 2, the ballot item being pushed by cannabis opponents. This proposal would prohibit any monopolistic business from operating in Ohio. The ramifications of this plan could be huge for both business and marijuana concerns but haven’t been explored in much depth by politicians or reporters.

Conflicting proposals

It’s unclear what would happen if both issues pass – and polls suggest they will. At least one observer has predicted a “constitutional crisis” with no clear solution. Ohio has no mechanism for dealing with conflict in the state constitution.

Observers aren’t laying many bets on ResponsibleOhio’s proposal. Given the chaos and negative publicity, many predict it will fail, whether at the ballot or afterwards. But whether it passes or dies, it’s a sign times are changing.

Elsewhere, the 2015 election is mostly free of marijuana-related issues. Only three states – Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky – will elect governors Nov. 3, and there are no substantial campaigns to legalize the drug in any of them.

Even so, this year’s outcomes could give a glimpse of what’s coming in 2016. If the past is a guide, that should be quite a lot.

Election 2015: A Voter"s Guide

Massachusetts MMJ Advocate Busted

A medical marijuana proponent and consultant was arrested in Massachusetts in October and charged with drug crimes after police raided his home and said he was growing too much marijuana.

According to local press reports, Ezra Parzybok, a 41-year-old resident of Northampton, Mass., is set to be arraigned in November on charges including possession of marijuana with intent to distribute it. Parzybok was arrested at his home in September, and the charges were announced this month.

Police said a search of the house on Sept. 22 uncovered 67 growing marijuana plants, plus 59 jars containing hash oil and $1,640 in cash. The home was raided by the Massachusetts National Guard’s Counter Drug Unit and the Northern District Attorney’s Anti-Crime Task Force as part of a “marijuana eradication” plan throughout Hampshire County in Western Massachusetts.

Cannabis garden spotted from helicopter

Officers used a National Guard helicopter with trained spotters looking for outdoor cannabis gardens. Police said they spotted a garden outside Parzybok’s home, on the second-story porch, and sent a team to raid the house.

Parzybok wasn’t home at the time, but members of the National Guard said they found 21 plants growing on the outdoor porch and along the perimeter of the house. They also found a white paper bag with a green logo and the words “High End,” which contained small jars of several cannabis strains.

Detectives spotted a reflective shield hanging from a backyard clothesline, often a sign of an indoor grow site. When Parzybok returned home 15 minutes later, he gave police his state MMJ card and allowed them to search his home with the help of the Northampton Police Department.

More plants were allegedly found inside, while grow lights and other cultivation equipment were located in the basement, along with more than 20 jars of hash oil and 20 single-gallon plastic bags of dried marijuana in the refrigerator. Police said they identified multiple rooms used at various stages of growth and processing.

Facilitating patient access to marijuana

Parzybok’s lawyer, Michael Culter, acknowledged Parzybok grew cannabis but said he got “caught in the breach” between the legalization of MMJ in 2012 and the practical hardships patients still face in getting the drug.

In other words, Culter said, Parzybok was merely trying to supply patients who had no other way to get their medicine as the new MMJ program made its way through the bureaucratic system. Patients were allowed to grow at home in the time between adoption of the law and the opening of the first medical marijuana dispensaries earlier this year, but not all patients are able to do so.

“Ezra has no comment on police action or the complaint at this time,” Cutler said after charges were announced. “But we expect to formally comment on these actions within the next two weeks.”

Parzybok has long been a significant figure in the local marijuana reform movement, and was helpful in passing the first MMJ law three years ago. The proposal was widely popular with voters, although the state’s new program has run into repeated political and bureaucratic tangles.

“It is my goal to help adults understand this age-old plant and to break cultural stereotypes by being as upfront, helpful, and open as possible,” his website says.

Massachusetts MMJ Advocate Busted

Croatia Legalizes Medical Marijuana

Medical marijuana is now legal for certain suffering patients in the Eastern European nation of Croatia.

The Croatian government announced in October that it was legalizing medicinal cannabis for patients with a short list of conditions, including cancer, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis. But there’s a catch: No THC-based drugs have been registered in the country, and that means there is no medical marijuana to be bought.

The new laws prohibit home growing, and they require the oversight of a licensed physician, so the hurdles for patients are high. But the decision does mark a step, if only a small one, toward a more sane drug policy in Europe.

A step forward for European drug policy

Medical cannabis is now common across the continent, with MMJ available to patients in Germany, France, and the Netherlands, among other countries. Nor is Croatia the first Eastern European nation to allow medicinal cannabis; the Czech Republic legalized the drug for medical use in 2013.

The new rules in Croatia took effect Oct. 15, but local media reported that no THC preparations have been registered. And Croatian officials made no promises that any such medications would clear the government bureaucracy any time soon.

The Croatian Health Ministry noted that home cultivation remains illegal and that only doctors may prescribe marijuana as a medicine. The new rules allow possession of up to 0.75 grams of pure THC per month.

Croatia’s liberal political environment

Activists have worked for months to bring Croatia into the modern era on medical cannabis. The country, a recently joined member of the European Union, has a relatively liberal political scene compared to the rest of Eastern Europe.

But patients will apparently have to wait a while before they actually gain access to the medicine they need. It could take months if not years to certify THC-based drugs for the medical market, and any number of reform opponents could block the program entirely in the meantime.

Medical cannabis is hugely popular in the United States and in neighboring Canada, but it’s surprisingly hard to find elsewhere in the world. Africans typically have no access to MMJ, although its use may be legal in Cameroon; reformers are also pushing legislation that would allow it in South Africa.

Where else is medical marijuana available?

There is no medical marijuana in Asia, either, except in Israel, though there are disputed reports that cannabis is widely used in North Korea. The drug is semi-decriminalized in parts of Australia, but that country does not allow MMJ. Uruguay has legalized all marijuana, and it is the only country south of the equator that officially recognizes medical use.

That means that despite its exploding popularity, medical cannabis is legal only in parts of Europe, a small part of South America, swaths of North America, and in select islands in the Caribbean (Jamaica legalized MMJ earlier this year). Croatia’s announcement will expand those borders, if only by a little.

Most importantly, the decision reflects growing global tolerance for marijuana use by patients who need it. Many countries remain in the Dark Ages, but Croatia’s move is a signal that that medical cannabis is likely to continue its spread, sooner rather than later.

Croatia Legalizes Medical Marijuana

Halloween Urban Legend Strikes Again

It’s that time of year again: time for spooks, specters, and baseless claims from America’s paranoiacs that Halloween candy will be poisoned with THC.

The phenomenon is hardly new. Indeed, it’s been reappearing this time each year at least since Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize recreational marijuana, in 2012. Each Halloween, police, politicians, and others with a vested interest in the drug wars insist that malicious sociopaths across the country are sending cannabis gummies out into an unsuspecting public.

Last year, the claim went so far that the anti-drug group D.A.R.E. unwittingly posted a parody news article claiming parents should expect a scourge of lethal marijuana candies on Halloween. People who know something about cannabis quickly debunked the story, as they do every year, but it remains.

As an example, the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center told a newspaper in October that parents should keep an eye out for THC gummy bears, as well as razor blades, pins, and other dangerous items supposedly hidden in candy on Halloween.

False fears surface year after year

Year after year, the same claims arise: Kids will accidentally ingest marijuana or poison or razors on Halloween and wind up in the emergency room, if not the morgue. There has never been a recorded instance of anything like this happening on any Halloween, but that hasn’t stopped the myth-mongerers.

“Parents should also be on the lookout for any edible marijuana treats,” the Arizona Daily Star reported in October. “The edible marijuana can look like a regular treats, and if you have any suspicions that your child has ingested edible marijuana, call the center.”

‘Story telling’ on Halloween

Halloween, naturally, is the perfect breeding ground for such urban legends. People are already primed to see evil on Devil’s Night, so it’s no surprise they worry it will strike their kids.

But there are plenty of reasons, much better reasons, to believe no such thing will happen, just like no such thing happened last year or the year before, or the year before that. It’s possible a handful of idiots will spike their candy bowls with gummy THC, though exceedingly unlikely, but in any case, there will be no widespread candy-tampering.

Why?

Well, for one thing, it’s much easier to trace the origins of Halloween candy than, say, a bottle of aspirin without a label. While candy doesn’t come with individual UPC numbers, it’s relatively easy to narrow the probable suspects by determining where an injured child stopped to trick or treat.

In other words, if you try to poison kids on Halloween, you will almost certainly get caught, at least if you do it from your own home. If this were happening on a regular basis, there would be regular stories about it in the news. It isn’t and there aren’t.

The key point to remember is that kids are almost always safe while trick or treating, as long as simple precautionary measures are taken. It certainly can’t hurt to inspect candy, even if sharp objects are unlikely. But keeping children out of traffic is the more important step, since drunk and otherwise incompetent motorists pose the single biggest threat on Halloween night.

Halloween Urban Legend Strikes Again

Elderly Couple Busted for Growing Marijuana

Police arrested an elderly Florida couple in October and accused them of growing marijuana in their home.

The sheriff’s office for Hernando County, located along the northern Gulf Coast of Florida, said Lorenzo Aday, 84, and his wife, Adriana, 73, were arrested and charged with cultivation of cannabis, posession of more than 20 grams, possession of a building for the purpose of making a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and theft of services.

The grow, like many others, was uncovered when workers at the local electric company noticed the couple’s Brooksville house was using an unusual amount of energy. They tipped off the sheriff’s office, and deputies raided the home.

Power usage was a giveaway

Detectives with the sheriff’s Vice and Narcotics Unit visited the home in mid October with an employee from the Withlacoochee River Electric Co. The employee told police the house was drawing more power than its meter indicated.

That is usually a sign of a large indoor marijuana grow. Cannabis farmers need large amounts of power, but that’s expensive, and cultivators don’t want to alert the power company to their grow sites, so they often jury-rig a building’s wiring to circumvent the meter.

Even after that step, electric companies can determine how much power is going to a home, and any discrepancy with the meter readings will likewise be a giveaway of a marijuana garden. This is why the Adays were charged with theft of services, for allegedly stealing electricity.

Police found 30 plants

Detectives said they could smell the marijuana plants when they got to the house. Lorenzo Aday told the detectives and their fellow sheriff’s deputies that he and his wife were growing cannabis, and consented to a search of the home.

The detectives found 30 plants in the home’s garage, part of an elaborate grow operation. Cultivation equipment, fertilizer, scales, and plastic baggies were also found at the house and logged as paraphernalia. Deputies also found half a pound of processed bud.

Lorenzo Aday told detectives the cannabis was his, but otherwise didn’t make any statements to police. He served prison time in the past on a marijuana conspiracy conviction.

Cannabis is illegal for almost any use in Florida, though it has been legalized in non-intoxicating form to treat a short list of conditions, mostly childhood epilepsy. Voters rejected a ballot proposal last year that would have allowed full MMJ, but the idea is likely to appear on the ballot again. Most observers expect the state will approve medical marijuana sooner rather than later.

Elderly Couple Busted for Growing Marijuana

NYPD Chief Snatches Joint from Woman

Marijuana reform may be on the rise in New York, but that doesn’t mean the city’s chief of police is going to let tokers slide. At least not if he catches them himself.

NYPD Commissioner William Bratton told a law school event in October that he recently came upon a young woman smoking a joint on Wall Street in downtown Manhattan. Bratton, who leads one of the world’s largest police forces, has a well-known face in New York.

“Directly in front of me is this young woman happily puffing away,” Bratton said. “She’s got her earphones in and her schoolbag, on her way to one of the local schools.”

Bratton said he and the security officer who accompanies him approached the woman from both sides and tapped her on the shoulder. She looked up and instantly knew what was happening.

“And she looked over and I wish I had a photograph of that face – ’cause she instantly recognized me,” Bratton said, drawing laughs from the audience at New York Law School. “So we politely removed the marijuana, threw it in the local sewer and just suggested she might have a better academic day without the influence of that on the way to school.”

New York’s arrest rates are declining

The amusing story highlights a serious issue in New York: The city has long had one of the nation’s worst records when it comes to low-end marijuana arrests. The drug is decriminalized, but police have used a loophole allowing them to bust people caught carrying it in public. Until recently, the NYPD had an unusually high arrest rate for nonviolent cannabis offenses.

City leaders have promised to change that. In January Mayor Bill de Blasio instituted new, more effective rules to decriminalize cannabis throughout the city, while officials in Brooklyn have stopped charging minor offenses.

Bail reform is also being instituted. Poor New Yorkers often find themselves stranded in jail on minor possession charges because they can’t afford even minimal bail. This system is used to incarcerate thousands of people without trial, few of them white.

Full legalization seems inevitable

Bratton’s remarks came in response to a question from an audience member who said she belongs to a group that supports legalization. Though Bratton and de Blasio oppose recreational legalization, that is the direction the state appears to be headed.

A proposal before the New York Legislature would legalize cannabis for personal use statewide. The drug has been legal for medical use since 2014, though New York has one of the most restrictive MMJ programs in the country.

Bratton did not say how old the woman was. But her treatment probably isn’t typical. It’s certainly an open question whether she would have received the same slap on the wrist had the incident happened in Harlem.

NYPD Chief Snatches Joint from Woman

Legal Weed Brings $11 Million to Oregon

Oregon is rolling in the green.

The first week of legal marijuana sales brought in roughly $11 million in sales, according to numbers released by the state in October. Starting Oct. 1, select medical marijuana dispensaries across Oregon were allowed to sell the drug for recreational consumption.

The state’s voters legalized cannabis in 2014, along with Alaska and Washington, D.C. Washington State and Colorado legalized in 2012. The first retail marijuana stores opened Jan. 1 2014 across Colorado, and sales have since attracted millions of dollars there and in Washington State.

All indications suggest opening day in Oregon was an especially big success. The new retail market was so popular it attracted cannabis users from neighboring California – where the drug is cheap and plentiful.

Industry will generate substantially more tax revenue than expected

The booming business in Oregon suggests the new industry may ultimately generate much more money than officials initially expected. That would mark yet another in a long string of wins for legalization advocates.

“It’s exciting,” said Peter, a customer standing in line at Portland’s Nectar dispensary on opening day. “It’s just really weird. It feels like it’s not even really happening, to be honest. It’s really bizarre.”

At Nectar, as elsewhere throughout the city, staffers were busy restocking their shelves as marijuana moved quickly out the door.

“We’re seeing about 500 people a day,” said Nectar owner Jeff Johnson.

Business is booming

Johnson, like other shop owners, said that’s a sign things are working exactly as intended. Oregon is now the third state with operating retail marijuana shops, as stores won’t open in Alaska until next year; it’s unclear when the first stores will open in the District of Columbia.

As on opening day in Colorado and Washington, the first day of legal sales in Oregon drew a crowd mostly interested in the novelty of the day. Emily Szczech, a customer at Nectar, said she came out because she was curious how the first day would go.

“We just wanted to come in and check it out,” Szczech said. “We’ve never been able to go into one of the stores to see what it’s like.”

Outpacing Colorado and Washington

The Oregon Retail Cannabis Association said there were $3.5 million in sales on Oct. 1 alone. Business was so good officials say the industry is outpacing those in Washington and even Colorado. Washington took roughly a month to earn its first $2 million, while Colorado took in $5 million in its first week.

Officials initially predicted legal marijuana would generate $9 million in sales tax revenue in the first year. The Oregon Retail Cannabis Association now says the real number could be three or four times as high.

The flush of new business could prove a boost not only to reformers but also to medical marijuana providers. Some of the dispensaries now swimming in cash were struggling to stay afloat before recreational cannabis sales arrived.

“There for a while, towards the end, we were thinking we might have to close the doors because we weren’t getting any kind of steady business,” said Rachel Clerk, an employee at Fresh Buds in Portland. Since Oct. 1, Clerk said, the shop is in the black and averaging 10 times as many customers as before.

“It’s just person after person after person,” she said.

Legal Weed Brings $11 Million to Oregon

420-Friendly McDonalds: Too Good to Be True?

If a story sounds too good to be true, it usually has something to do with marijuana.

Urban legends surrounding cannabis are legion, dating back as long as the drug has been a part of modern culture. Now comes a new one, suggesting McDonalds is joining the marijuana bandwagon.

Here’s the story: McDonald’s, America’s largest fast food chain, plans to convert indoor playgrounds at 15 Colorado restaurants into special cannabis-friendly seating. Indeed, each stoner customer would get his or her own “pod” for toking.

Sounds like a bad piece of humor straight out of The Onion? That’s because that’s essentially what it is.

Yet another “humor” news piece

Yet again, countless people on the Internet have fallen for a blatantly false joke-news item about marijuana. Previous stories had dozens dying from cannabis overdoses, Michele Bachmann getting busted while high behind the wheel, and children dropping from deadly cannabis gummy bears.

This time, you’d think the details would be too ridiculous for anyone to believe. Among many other real-world facts, there’s this: Federal and state laws make it illegal to smoke cigarettes anywhere inside a Colorado McDonalds. And what goes for tobacco obviously goes for marijuana.

The latest story to fool the less-intelligent of the masses comes from Now8News.com. Like many a site before it, and many more to come, it’s a half-hearted ripoff of The Onion. The stories are obviously fake – consider this headline: “New ‘Youtube And Chill’ Causing Increase In STD’s And Pregnancy In Girls Ages 10 – 12.”

Any legalization of public toking is unlikely

Colorado legalized cannabis for recreational use in 2012. But state law bars consumption of the drug in any public place, including private businesses such as McDonalds that regularly serve the public. The same goes for tobacco smoke.

Reform advocates recently launched a campaign to allow public marijuana use in bars, nightclubs, and other adults-only entertainment establishments. But the effort was called off when it became clear it wasn’t a sure bet with voters; activists feared a loss could end up hurting their cause in the long run.

It may not be surprising that people fall for marijuana myths. Many of these people are themselves high, and may not have been very bright to begin with. But it never ceases to amaze how often these fake-news stories catch on.

The phony article in this case claimed that each of the 15 restaurants “will consist of 15 smoking pods in which customers can smoke a joint, bong, or pipe without being harassed or bothered by people who are offended by it.”

Granted, stranger things have happened, in and out of the world of marijuana. But this one is exactly as it seems: too good to be true.

420-Friendly McDonalds: Too Good to Be True?

Man Calls 911 Because He"s "Too High"

Some people, it seems, just can’t hold their marijuana.

An Ohio man reportedly called 911 in early October to let them know he was “too high” on cannabis. They heard his plea for help and promptly sent someone over to arrest him. When they got there, they found him lying amid a bonanza of half-eaten snack food.

The bizarre emergency telephone call came from a 22-year-old man living in Austintown, a community located near Youngstown, Ohio. According to a local television report, which didn’t identify the man, police responded to the man’s call only to find him curled up “in a fetal position” and surrounded by “a plethora of Doritos, Pepperidge Farm Goldfish, and Chips Ahoy cookies,” according to the resulting police report.

The call came in on the late afternoon of Oct. 2, according to police. When officers arrived at the man’s home, he told one of them that his hands were numb because he had smoked too much marijuana. He offered the police the keys to his car, where he said he had smoked the cannabis.

Police reached the man’s house at about 5:20 p.m., which means the man may have smoked at the appointed time – 4:20 p.m. – and then had a panic attack that lasted roughly an hour. There have been few if any reports of marijuana causing even minor paralysis, but there have doubtless been people who thought they were paralyzed while high.

Smoking paraphernalia was found in the car

In the car, officers allegedly found a glass pipe, rolling papers, several roaches, and a glass jar full of marijuana. Police said the man would be charged with drug possession and possession of cannabis paraphernalia. There was no word on whether his use of emergency services would lead to separate charges.

The young man joins a long and ever-growing list of people who have intentionally attracted the attention of law enforcement while stoned.

Last year a Texas woman called her local emergency services line to report that the marijuana she had just purchased wasn’t dank enough. Evelyn Hamilton, who was 37 at the time, dialed 911 after she determined that the cannabis her dealer had just sold her wasn’t up to scratch.

Hamilton told 911 operators she had paid $40 and received “seeds and residue” in return. She told them she called them when the dealer and the dealer’s family wouldn’t give her money back. She was arrested following the call and slapped with drug charges.

Early this year, a Florida couple high on drugs mistakenly believed they had locked themselves in a closet while high. They apparently had such a hard time turning the knob they called 911. John Arwood and Amber Campbell were both charged with trespassing, though they escaped drug charges – because they had used up all the drugs while “locked” in the closet.

Man Calls 911 Because He"s "Too High"

Cops Raid Illegal Grow Rings in Colorado

Federal and state law enforcement took aim at an alleged network of illegal marijuana operations in Colorado from August into October.

A series of coordinated raids across the state resulted in more than 30 arrests over six weeks. The campaign is part of an effort by local police and federal agents to drive illegal cannabis syndicates out of business.

The office of U.S. Attorney John Walsh announced the raids in early October, saying criminal charges would be filed against at least 34 people arrested during the busts. Walsh’s office had already filed multiple charges against secret cultivation operations throughout Colorado.

“This wave of marijuana grow operation sites is greater than we’ve seen the last couple of years,” Walsh told The Denver Post. “They seem to have the view that if I come to Colorado and set up a marijuana grow operation I won’t be noticed.”

But the legality of marijuana in the state may not be the only draw for illegal growers. Historic drought conditions in California may be driving farmers to better, wetter locales. Though the record dry spell has affected large parts of the American West, Colorado is not currently in a drought.

“Marijuana takes a lot of water to grow,” Walsh said.

Indeed, critics in California have complained that cannabis farms are contributing to the drought there by using up large amounts of precious water for irrigation. Marijuana plants require more water than most other crops.

Cannabis has minimal impact on California drought

Industry advocates say even if cannabis is contributing to the California drought, the difference isn’t much. And most of the blame lies with illegal growers, rather than those who legally grow medical marijuana there.

In Colorado, authorities said the 34 defendants were mostly from outside the state. Some were Mexican citizens, while others came from Honduras and Cuba. All face charges of illegally growing cannabis. Police said they uprooted about 20,000 plants and seized about 300 kilograms of dried marijuana during the raids.

Walsh said his office and state officials plan to keep the pressure on illegal operations. Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use in 2012, along with Washington State; Alaska, Oregon, and the District of Columbia joined them in 2014. But the drug remains illegal for any use under federal law.

That, Walsh said, means federal agents will continue to act aggressively against illegal marijuana sites. The feds will also go after illegal out-of-state shipments, since moving any amount of cannabis from one state to another is a federal crime.

Concern of interstate trafficking

Federal officials said they’re concerned that marijuana is flowing from legal states into states where the drug is still prohibited. Observers have called those worries overblown and have pointed to data showing no uptick in interstate marijuana trafficking. Still, Walsh said federal agents would focus on transit issues.

“There is strong evidence the marijuana is being shipped into other states where it is illegal and the price is higher,” he said.

The autumn raids targeted several farms. The biggest series of busts shut down an alleged ring operating in southern Colorado and resulted in 20 arrests on Sept. 1. That syndicate allegedly grew more than 1,000 cannabis plants at eight locations and sent the product to Florida by UPS. Agents said they found 28 guns during these busts.

Another grow site held 3,900 plants and was raided Aug. 19 in the Pike National Forest in Jefferson County. Agents also found 3,000 pounds of irrigation pipe, pesticides, camping gear, flammable liquids, and garbage, they said.

On Aug. 28 agents arrested two Mexican nationals in the Buffalo Pass region near Steamboat Springs. Roughly 1,000 plants were destroyed and one gun was confiscated.

Two arrests were made Sept. 7 in the San Isabel National Forest. This site contained nearly 12,000 plants, and agents found a gun, irrigation piping, pesticides, more flammable liquids, trash, and camping gear.

Four Mexican nationals were arrested Sept. 15 near a farm along the Dolores River on federal land. Park rangers found 1,200 marijuana plants, some growing up to six feet tall, and seized 211 kilograms of processed marijuana, as well as a rifle.

Another 1,000 plants were found Sept. 30 in Montrose, also along the Dolores River. A Honduran citizen and five Mexican nationals were arrested in this bust.

Cops Raid Illegal Grow Rings in Colorado

Boston Sports Legend: MMJ Saved Me from Addiction

One of Boston’s leading sportscasters says medical marijuana saved him from a serious addiction that could have cost him his life.

Bob Lobel, a legend on the city’s sports beats, said cannabis gave him a safe, effective substitute for the opioids that could have hooked him. Lobel, a career TV anchor and reporter well-known throughout Massachusetts, told the Boston Herald medical marijuana probably saved his life.

Lobel, 71, said he started taking opioids years ago to treat chronic pain resulting from two knee replacements, two rotator cuff operations, four back surgeries, and two leg fractures in separate accidents. He didn’t like the drugs, even when they helped the pain.

“My issue was strictly pain,” Lobel told the newspaper. “I didn’t want to take any more OxyContin or oxycodone or Percocet, for a variety of reasons. The biggest thing I was worried about was addiction. But they also made me tired and it was hard to function and I couldn’t go on TV all drugged up.”

A doctor recommended cannabis as an alternative

At a loss, Lobel said, he went to a medical marijuana event in the city a few months ago. There, a doctor working from a new medical cannabis dispensary in Natick, a Boston suburb, recommended cannabis as a solution. Dr. Uma Dhanabalan works at the Uplifting Health and Wellness clinic and recommends patients for MMJ.

Dhabalan is one of a growing group of doctors pushing for medical marijuana as a treatment for opiate addiction. Abuse of these powerful painkillers, derived from the opium plant or synthesized to mimic it, can easily be deadly. Prescription overdose is now a leading cause of unexpected death in the United States.

“She told me medical marijuana could be used for pain reduction and I said, ‘Hey, sign me up,"” Lobel said. “I wanted to at least try it. I wasn’t interested in getting high, that’s not the goal, believe me. It was really about helping with the pain, and it did.”

Lobel got an MMJ card

Lobel said his daughter, who lives in Oregon, got him an appointment with an MMJ doctor there earlier this year. He got a medical marijuana card – Oregon is the only state that allows visitors to register for MMJ – and started using. The process took three days, he said.

Lobel isn’t yet legal to smoke up in Massachusetts, whose voters adopted medical cannabis in 2012. He’s waiting for his patient ID, he said.

“I don’t want to have to fly across the country and deal with drug-sniffing dogs at the airport,” he said. “I want to do everything legally here. I just have to wait and get my card.”

Cannabis helped “take the edge off”

The medical cannabis helped “take the edge off” the chronic pain, said Lobel, who worked many years for WBZ-TV in Boston. He said he uses an oil extract instead of smoking. He also uses edibles, but said he doesn’t need marijuana every day.

Increasing scientific evidence suggests marijuana can be highly effective in weaning addicts off more dangerous drugs, such as heroin and alcohol. Many addicts credit years of abstinence to the availability of cannabis. And as in Lobel’s case, the drug can prevent an addiction from developing in the first place.

“It’s more than a reasonable alternative once you get past the stigma like you’re under a railroad bridge smoking pot,” Lobel said. “It’s not perfect, and I still need to learn more about what works best for me. I just feel like it’s a positive once you get past the word ‘marijuana.’ I am not saying it’s the be-all and end-all. But in terms of pain relief . . . it really helps.”

Boston Sports Legend: MMJ Saved Me from Addiction

MJ Club Coming to South Dakota in December

Marijuana is decidedly illegal everywhere within the State of South Dakota. It won’t be for long.

A local tribe of Sioux Indians has announced plans to open the world’s first marijuana resort, a party town complete with cannabis, alcohol, and gambling. Leaders of the Flandreaux Sioux Tribe hope to open their “cannabis bar” with a party New Year’s Eve.

That would bring legal marijuana straight to the hostile heart of the Upper Midwest, a culturally conservative region whose voters mostly oppose legalization. Though the drug will remain illegal anywhere off the Flandreaux reservation, visitors will be allowed to buy small amounts – less than an eighth of an ounce – and use them inside what will essentially be a cannabis nightclub.

Marijuana purchases limited to small amounts

With no way to buy large amounts, smuggling should be difficult. And the tribe offers a 120-room hotel attached to its current casino, so tokers would be able to sleep off the marijuana before driving. Leaders hope the new club will include live music, arcade games, a dance club, a bar, food service, and eventually slot machines. Gambling is legal on the reservation.

“We want it to be an adult playground,” said tribal President Anthony Reider. “There’s nowhere else in America that has something like this.”

The move comes after President Barack Obama issued directives allowing Indian reservations to legalize marijuana if they choose. Several have already showed interest in the idea, but the Flandreaux Sioux are the first to act on it.

Their decision poses unique problems for local politicians and law enforcement. Native American reservations are semi-sovereign territory, meaning they answer to the federal government through treaties but owe no legal obligation to their surrounding states.

Surrounding South Dakota and local police are apprehensive

In other words, the Flandreaux Sioux can build a marijuana palace – and keep the tax proceeds for themselves. South Dakota politicians aren’t happy about this. And police say they expect serious problems with impaired driving.

Whatever the weight of those arguments, it is clear legal cannabis is coming to a part of the country that mostly doesn’t want it. This is very important, because once the drug is legally available, anywhere, it will be nearly impossible to go back. Legalization in Flandreaux ultimately means legalization in South Dakota, if only in a matter of years.

Indeed, the new marijuana club will sit in an ideal spot, located near two interstates and within a few hours driving distance of Omaha, Minneapolis, and Des Moines, all places where recreational cannabis is illegal. It could even prove a draw for tokers from as far away as Chicago.

Tribal leaders hope to get in on the market as fast as possible. As Reider noted, the first to a new market often walks away with the most business. Even when marijuana ultimately becomes legal in this part of the country, the Flandreaux Sioux will already have established themselves as a brand of entertainment – complete with cannabis, music, booze, food, and gambling.

MJ Club Coming to South Dakota in December

Washington Medical Growers Get Prison Time

A federal judge sentenced three Washington residents to prison terms in early October, bringing a possible end to a troubling story of government overreach and abuse of power.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice handed down the sentences Oct. 2 in a federal courthouse representing the Eastern District of Washington State. Rolland Gregg was sentenced to more than 2.5 years in prison, while his wife, Michelle Gregg, and his mother, Rhonda Firestack-Harvey, each received terms of one year in federal prison.

The outcome could have been worse. A jury acquitted the three family members earlier this year on much more serious felony cultivation charges. Conviction on those counts could have led to decades behind bars for each defendant.

The acquittal marked a landmark moment in the history of medical marijuana; it was only the second time an American jury had rendered a not guilty verdict against a defendant who admitted to growing cannabis for medicine.

The so-called “Kettle Falls Five” case centered on Larry Harvey, a Kettle Falls resident with several severe diseases, including terminal cancer. Harvey and his family grew about 70 marijuana plants at the home he owned with Firestack-Harvey.

Marijuana belonged to registered patients

The marijuana, all of it medical, was divided between five registered, legitimate MMJ patients: Harvey, his wife, their son, their daughter-in-law, and a family friend, Jason Zucker. Zucker received a 16-month federal sentence after pleading guilty last year.

The jury acquitted Harvey, who died shortly after the verdict, on all counts. He is widely viewed as a political hero and a martyr within the nation’s medical cannabis community. Federal prosecutors went after him and his family aggressively, their actions flying in the face of direct orders from President Barack Obama and Congress.

That means the sentences handed down this month may be legally baseless, but that won’t stop the government from enforcing them – all over a plot of land used to grow no more medical cannabis than the state’s law allows.

Prosecutors tried to prove the Harvey family was growing more than 100 plants, distributing marijuana, using a gun in connection with a drug offense, and maintaining a place for the purpose of making and distributing cannabis. The jury rejected each of these arguments: Prosecutors had no evidence of a larger grow, the guns were legitimate hunting rifles (not the weapon of choice for drug dealers), and the home belonged to Harvey and his family.

Harvey was acquitted on all counts

But even as they acquitted Harvey on all charges, the jury found the other family members guilty of the lesser federal crime of growing more than 50 but fewer than 100 cannabis plants. Medical and recreational marijuana are both legal in Washington, and have been since 2013, but the drug remains prohibited for any use by federal law.

Because the jury rejected the heavier counts, Rice had wide discretion in sentencing. Prosecutors asked for 41 to 51 months, while the defense recommended probation. The family members remain free pending their appeals.

U.S. Attorney Michael Ormsby drew intense criticism over his decision to try the Harvey family. Obama issued directives in 2013 that allow MMJ in state where it’s legal, while Congress recently enacted laws meant to stop exactly this type of prosecution.

But the Justice Department simply decided to ignore both orders, saying it wasn’t bound by them. The move was deeply confusing, likely a last-ditch grab for power by the DEA and its friendliest federal prosecutors. The legal trend is toward legalization, and fighting the tide rarely works out well.

Washington Medical Growers Get Prison Time

Did a Drug Trip Lead to Alcoholics Anonymous?

Few health organizations carry the high reputation and good will of Alcoholics Anonymous. Eighty years old, the program and its 12 steps are widely viewed as the gold standard for addiction recovery.

It isn’t true: AA has an objective success rate of no more than 10 percent. The group itself reports that less than 35 percent of its members achieve long-term sobriety. The vast majority of people who walk in the doors walk right back out and never return – hardly a picture of success.

But there’s another aspect to this story, one that raises fundamental doubts about how we treat alcoholics and addicts in America. It calls into question AA’s spiritual basis and points to drugs – the very approach AA rejects – as a better path.

How it all began

The story starts in the early 1930s, when a man by the name of William Griffith “Bill” Wilson was drying out in a drunk tank after a particularly vicious bender. Two men, including a physician by the name of “Dr. Bob” Smith, visited Wilson in the hospital and encouraged him to consider God as the answer to his health problems.

After they left, Wilson had what he later described as a powerful epiphany. In a moment of intense suffering, he called out for God. He then saw a blinding flash of light and felt a strong, euphoric sense of peace and understanding.

This moment is widely viewed as the formal start of AA. Wilson believed, and successfully convinced millions of other people, that he had found lifelong sobriety by accepting religion. It was God who saved him, not medicine.

There’s a problem, though. At the very moment Wilson had his “epiphany,” he was high on a notoriously potent – and deadly – plant used to help alcoholics dry out. It was called the Belladonna Cure, and it involved tiny doses of the fatal belladonna plant (aka deadly nightshade).

In large doses, belladonna is extremely toxic. But in very small amounts it induces delirium and vivid hallucinations. It’s similar to LSD and other hallucinogens, and it typically comes with a dose of euphoria.

Wilson “found” God while high

In other words, Wilson was probably tripping out of his mind when he “found” God that night. People in AA don’t like to acknowledge this fact, as it suggests a rigid abstinence-only program was founded on a drug high.

AA members tend to discourage each other from using any form of drugs, illicit, prescribed, even over the counter. Many make exceptions for necessary medications, but the general attitude is one of hostility toward medical treatments.

This is completely at odds with Wilson’s own beliefs – beliefs the group has never fully admitted. In the early 1970s, Wilson took part in an experiment to test the use of LSD in treating alcoholism. He came out of it convinced acid could help many other alcoholics stay sober.

Just a few years later, however, LSD was outlawed and all research into the psychotropic benefits of psychedelics stopped. What’s more, AA and its members buried almost all memory of Wilson’s late drug trip, which many would today consider a relapse.

The point? If the abstinence-only model was itself built on drugs, we should probably be looking in the same direction. There may be no cure-all for substance abuse, but moralistic prohibitions on using effective drugs only make addiction worse.

Did a Drug Trip Lead to Alcoholics Anonymous?

Study Says Teens Are Using Less MJ, Not More

It was roughly 20 years ago, in 1996, that California became the first state to legalize medical marijuana. In the time since, dozens of other states have followed suit, while four have gone even further and legalized cannabis for recreational use.

Common wisdom says the liberalizing of these drug policies should lead more teenagers to use marijuana. Not for the first time, a new study shows that simply isn’t true.

The report, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, concluded that cannabis use by American high school students hasn’t risen in the last two decades. In fact, the numbers have dropped – a lot.

Marijuana is currently legal in four states: Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, as well as the District of Columbia. Another 30-plus states allow some form of medical cannabis. But the drug remains entirely illegal under federal law.

Critics have been proved wrong

Critics of legalization have long protested that reform would make the drug more widely available, which in turn would lead more kids to use it. In fact, the opposite has happened.

The new study examined information from the Youth Risk Behavior Study prepared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The authors found that 47 percent of youths admitted to smoking cannabis in 1999. Fourteen years later, just 40 percent said the same.

Previous studies have also demonstrated that legalization doesn’t lead to increased teen use. Even as youth attitudes toward the drug have improved dramatically, relatively few teens actually use it.

The study found they still use it more than any other illegal drug, which is no surprise, as marijuana is the most popular illicit drug among adults too. Very few students admitted to trying hard drugs; just 3 percent said they had ever used methamphetamine, a drop of 6 percentage points since 1999.

General drug use on the decline

Authors of the study, including Renee M. Johnson, assistant professor in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, noted that most teen drug use is on the decline, despite dire warnings from the drug war crowd. Johnson said his team studied teenage use of a variety of substances.

“Interestingly, we found that use of other drugs, including alcohol, cigarettes, hallucinogens, ecstasy, meth, and cocaine, also decreased over the time period,” Johnson said.

Lifetime cigarette use, for example, declined from 70 percent in 1999 to just 41 percent in 2013. Alcohol use dropped from 81 percent in 1999 to only 66 percent in 2013.

Johnson and his fellow researchers also learned that a one-time gender gap in marijuana use has closed. In 1999, 51 percent of boys had smoked cannabis compared to just 43 percent of girls. By 2013, the numbers had dropped to 42 percent for boys and 39 percent for girls.

Study Says Teens Are Using Less MJ, Not More

Cops Are Arresting More People for MJ

With marijuana rapidly going legal and public attitudes toward the drug softening by the minute, common sense suggests police would arrest fewer people on cannabis charges. Common sense, as it turns out, isn’t always the same as reality.

Law enforcement agencies across the United States – local, state, and federal – are arresting people for marijuana offenses at record rates, according to data released by the FBI in September. Last year alone, more than 620,000 people were arrested for simple possession, an act that is legal in four states and decriminalized in more than a dozen others.

What’s more, the real number is probably much higher because several states report little or no crime data to the FBI each year. At the reported rate, one person is busted for cannabis every minute in the United States – 1,700 per day.

Even accounting for the dropped charges and acquittals, many of those thousands of lives are irreparably damaged by jail time and criminal records. Cannabis arrests account for more than 5 percent of all arrests in the United States, a highly disproportionate number. The same number was just 2 percent 20 years ago, at the start of the war on drugs.

The new numbers paint a portrait of revolt by police across the country. Arrests for simple possession have plummeted in Colorado, Oregon, and other states where the drug is legal, but many other states are overcompensating by arresting more people. Presumably many of these police officers are reacting to the popular perception that marijuana should be legal – a perception they dispute.

“It’s unacceptable that police still put this many people in handcuffs for something that a growing majority of Americans think should be legal,” said Tom Angell of the Marijuana Majority. “There’s just no good reason that so much police time and taxpayer money is spent punishing people for marijuana when so many murders, rapes, and robberies go unsolved.”

Indeed, the solve rates for major felonies in the United States is abysmally low, proof that cracking down on drugs doesn’t reduce other types of crime. Police clear less than half of cases involving every type of violent crime except homicide (63 percent) and aggravated assault (55 percent).

Americans waste huge amounts on money on marijuana busts. Each arrest costs taxpayers at least $750, according to the ACLU, not including court and detention costs. At that rate, the states wasted almost half a billion dollars on simple marijuana arrests in 2014.

“These numbers refute the myth that nobody actually gets arrested for using marijuana,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. “It’s hard to imagine why more people were arrested for marijuana possession when fewer people than ever believe it should be a crime.”

The consequences of an arrest are severe, even if it doesn’t lead to criminal charges or trial. A simple arrest record can block housing opportunities, cut off access to public benefits, and severely restrict employment opportunities.

Cops Are Arresting More People for MJ

MJ Lands in Arizona Carport

Marijuana falling from the sky? That’s a wonderful thing. Twenty-three pounds of marijuana falling from the sky? That’s more like a nightmare.

Two Nogales, Ariz., residents, Bill and Maya Donnelly, woke on the night of Sept. 8 to a loud thud. They assumed it was thunder and returned to sleep. But the next day, they found a giant hole in the roof of their carport and their dog kennel crushed by a 23-pound bundle of cannabis that apparently fell from the clouds.

The bundle, dropped from a drone or ultralight aircraft smuggling drugs across the Mexican border, crashed through the carport’s roof and completely destroyed the kennel, the Nogales Police Department said.

The errant cannabis didn’t hit anyone, and the family dog wasn’t in the kennel at the time of the crash, police said. The dog and family are doing fine, Maya Donnelly told the Associated Press.

“It’s all right on top of our dog’s house,” Donnelly said. “It just made a perfectly round hole through our carport.”

A failed smuggling operation

The Donnellys called the police to report the damage, and Nogales officers confiscated the marijuana. A department spokesman, Robert Fierros, told The Washington Post the cannabis probably fell off a privately owned ultralight during a botched smuggling operation.

Fierros said Mexican drug smugglers frequently attach baskets or cages containing marijuana to drones and ultralights, and then fly them across the border to remote drop sites in the United States. Ultralight and unmanned aircraft are playing an increasingly large role in marijuana smuggling.

“We’ve seen ultralight activity used to drop narcotics within town,” Fierros said. “When we have been able to see or catch it, it’s more on the outskirts or further north toward the next town, not in a well-lit, residential area. This case in particular is unique for that reason.”

Worth $10,000 in street value

Cops said they thought the Arizona drone dropped some of its load prematurely. They valued the lost drugs at about $10,000 on the street, but said there were probably other bundles carried by the aircraft that got away.

“Someone definitely made a mistake, and who knows what the outcome of that mistake might be for them,” said Nogales Police Chief Derek Arnson.

Like drones, ultralights are only lightly regulated by the FAA. Pilots don’t need to register their aircraft or obtain certification, though they’re only allowed to fly during daylight hours.

Officials at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection office for Western Arizona said ultralights are “one of many methods used by smugglers to move drugs across the border.” Still, they said the scheme is relatively uncommon.

And the numbers are dropping. Reported sightings of marijuana-running ultralights have dropped over the past few years.

Ultralights “normally carry average loads of approximately 200 pounds of marijuana,” the customs agency said. “They have not been known to carry any other cargo other than illegal drugs. They typically make a very short single flight originating and terminating in Mexico, dropping the cargo at a prearranged site. The Border Patrol and Air and Marine Operations work together to locate and seize cargo smuggled by (ultralights) with frequent successes.”

Unmanned drones used for smuggling into prisons

Police have ramped up their efforts to stop cannabis smuggling by ultralight and drone. Unmanned drones are proving a particular problem, and have been used to sneak cannabis, tobacco, and other contraband into prisons across the United States.

If what happened to the Donnellys is any indication, law enforcement isn’t having much of an impact. The couple are just glad theirs was a near-miss, even if it will cost them $500 to fix their carport and replace the dog house.

“Thank God it didn’t land on our house,” Bill Donnelly said. “Or over one of the kids’ rooms.”

MJ Lands in Arizona Carport