Free speech goes up in smoke at school

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

June 20, 2007 at 4:33 AM EDT

WINNIPEG — It started months ago when Kieran King's high-school class heard a presentation about the dangers of drug use.

Kieran, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student in tiny Wawota, Sask., population 600, thought the presentation lacked credibility, so he did some research on the relative health risks of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis.

When he told some of his fellow students that cannabis seemed the least hazardous of the three, he set in motion a series of events that led to a school lockdown, a threat assessment involving the RCMP, a suspension and failing grades on his exams.

"It's all a bit overwhelming," his mother, Jo Anne Euler, said. "It's just totally bizarre."

She explained that her son is a compulsive researcher who tends to go on at length about what he reads on the Internet.

One student at Wawota Parkland School didn't want to hear Kieran's thoughts about marijuana, and complained to principal Susan Wilson.

The principal then called Kieran's mother because she was concerned he was advocating drug use, Ms. Euler said.

Ms. Euler told the principal her son is an A student who doesn't go out, doesn't smoke or drink, and isn't pushing drugs on other kids.

"She said 'Well, if he talks about it again, I will be calling the police,' " Ms. Euler said. "I told Kieran that and he said 'Mom, all I'm doing is sharing the facts.' "

Kieran felt his right to free speech was being trampled, so he enlisted the help of the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party.

Together they planned a school walkout for free speech, scheduled for 11 a.m. last Tuesday, where free chocolate chip hemp seed cookies would be handed out.

But just before 11 that day, the principal announced that the school was a closed campus and that no one was allowed outside.

When several students tried to leave anyway, teachers barred the doors and ordered them back to class, Ms. Euler said. Kieran and his younger brother Lucas defied and joined a ragtag group of five protesters standing across from the school holding placards.

The principal then ordered a lockdown to ensure the safety of students. The RCMP raced to the scene, only to find a small, peaceful protest.

Kieran's mother was again called to the school and told that both her sons had been suspended for three days. Later that day, the school conducted a threat assessment on Kieran with the help of the RCMP and school division counsellors, Ms. Euler said.

"In the letter I got about the threat assessment [the principal] had documented five or six times in the last year that Kieran had talked to some kid about marijuana - not one of those times was Kieran ever talked to or was I ever talked to. Were they documented before or was it a witch hunt after the fact where they said 'Let's try to remember all the times Kieran talked about marijuana?' "

Don Rempel, director of education in the South East Cornerstone School Division, said the principal acted appropriately.

"The school had received complaints that the student was promoting the use of marijuana as an alternative to alcohol or sharing information around marijuana use," Mr. Rempel said, adding that Kieran overreacted to the principal's simple request.

Kieran is now in Shanghai where he will spend the summer learning Mandarin and working as an English tutor. He had scheduled his exams early in order to accommodate his trip, but the suspension meant he couldn't attend school to write the exams. As a result, he got a mark of zero on each paper. His marks were high enough to pass, but instead of getting 85 or 90, he'll get 55 or 60, his mother said, which could hurt his chances of a university scholarship.

She is appealing to the school board to allow Kieran to write his exams in September.

Serious Illness Can Use Marijuana?

Connecticut's governor, a cancer survivor, vetoed a bill that would have allowed people with certain serious illnesses to use marijuana, saying it was fraught with problems and sent a mixed message to children.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell said Tuesday that she struggled with the decision.

"I am not unfamiliar with the incredible pain and heartbreak associated with battling cancer," the Republican said. Rell was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, a few months after taking office, and she underwent a mastectomy.

The bill she vetoed would have allowed people older than 18 with medical conditions such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and AIDS to grow and use four marijuana plants after getting written permission from a doctor and registering with the state.

The issue pits broader patients' rights against concerns of legalized access to an illicit drug. Twelve states let some patients use marijuana despite federal laws against it.
"I think this is a big step backward," said Republican state Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, a widow who risked arrest more than 20 years ago to obtain marijuana for her husband while he struggled with bone cancer.

TV talk show host Montel Williams, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, lobbied at the state Capitol in support of the bill. He said he uses marijuana to help alleviate the pain and debilitating symptoms.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Medical Marijuana Vetoed By Connecticut Governor

Governor Jodi Rell vetoed legislation today that would have made it legal for some patients suffering severe, chronic pain to possess and grow small amounts of marijuana.

Governor Rell said that the bill "forces law-abiding citizens to seek out drug dealers to make a purchase and there is no provision for monitoring the use or proof of its effectiveness. Rell also said that the American Medical Association, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Glaucoma Society, American Academy of Opthamology, and American Cancer Society opposed using marijuana for medical purposes. Id.

I spent some time in the Connecticut capitol building as this bill was debated. Pamphlets were circulating the building from whitehousedrugpolicy.gov. One pamphlet says that " [s]imply put, the smoked form of marijuana is not considered modern medicine."

I also came across a circulating letter from Representative Toni Boucher, who opposed the measure. Her letter, which I do not know where to find on the internet, states that she

"first began work on this issue after a very emotional and tearful appeal from a mother and father who had found their handsome talented, young son dead from a drug overdose at home in his bed. They and countless others warned that this measure would be devastating to our state."

This is how medical marijuana is fought. Allusions to heartbreaking stories - but there is certainly no tie-in here to marijuana.

She also cites many studies that show "the facts are not there" to suggest marijuana has any effect on reducing pain.

Could this not be determined by the chronically suffering patient? If it didn't work, are we afraid then that these people would sell their supply?

She also contends that Yale and Connecticut medical societies have found marijuana to damage the brain, heart, immune system and lungs - among other things. "It also contains cancer causing compounds."

How about cigarettes?

A proponent of the bill, Penny Bacchiochi, stated in the article that "I don't see how we could pass the same bill in the same form while she is governor,". See above

I also came across a letter from Ms. Bacchiochi - short and to the point. She states in it that Massachusetts recently won a legal battle "to allow the University of Massachusetts to move forward with the cannabis research", after a proponent group sought to conduct federally funded studies. She also noted that much research has found marijuana to have palliative effects.

To visit Governor Rell's website, please go here. To see the bill text and so on, go here.

2 farmers suing DEA over right to grow hemp

Two North Dakota farmers who want to grow hemp are filing a federal lawsuit today to challenge the Drug Enforcement Administration's ban on the plant that is the same species that produces marijuana.

Hemp can be imported from Canada, Europe and China, but growing hemp in the USA is illegal, the DEA says.

"Hemp is marijuana," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney says. "There's no distinguishing feature between marijuana and hemp."

Lawyers for the farmers say the Controlled Substances Act, which governs illegal drugs, makes a specific exception for hemp, a non-drug version of the marijuana plant. They are seeking a court ruling that says the federal authorities cannot arrest the North Dakota farmers for growing hemp.

The federal government used to encourage farmers to grow what is known as "industrial hemp," says attorney Joseph Sandler in Washington, D.C., who is representing the farmers. Hemp plants have a low concentration of the psychoactive chemical that gives marijuana users a high, he said.

"You can smoke 17 fields of this stuff, and it's not going to do anything," Sandler says. "It doesn't make sense to say you can import all this hemp, but you can't grow it and import it from North Dakota to South Dakota."

North Dakota's Legislature began considering allowing farmers to grow hemp more than 10 years ago after disease wiped out the wheat and barley crop, says state Rep. Dave Monson, a Republican leader in the Legislature and one of the farmers filing the lawsuit.

In 1993, the disease was so bad, "we actually burned every acre of wheat and barley we produced," says Monson, who lives in Osnabrock. "I came to the realization that we needed alternative crops."

Just across the North Dakota border, farmers in Canada are growing hemp and making a profit, he says. U.S. manufacturers who use hemp to produce textiles, soaps and other materials must import the crop from countries that allow hemp farming.

A North Dakota State University study in 1997 found a good market for hemp in the USA, so the Legislature passed laws to regulate hemp farming, Monson said. The laws require background checks on the farmers and monitoring to make sure illicit marijuana crops aren't growing in the middle of the hemp field, he says.

Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson issued the first permits on Feb. 6 to Monson and Wayne Hauge, a farmer and accountant in Ray, N.D. The farmers applied Feb. 12 for a DEA license, indicating they would need a decision by April 1 in time to plant the crop.

On March 27, DEA deputy administrator Joseph Rannazzisi in a letter to Johnson said it was unrealistic to expect a decision in seven weeks. That's where the plan stalled.

"I think it's pretty apparent that they are quite clearly choosing not to exercise their authority to distinguish between hemp and marijuana," says Johnson, who met with DEA officials in February.

"It's pointless to continue dealing with them," Johnson says. "Their inaction is a pretty clear indication that they're not taking the application process seriously. It's been an issue 10 years in the making."

Monson and Hauge say the time to plant the hemp has passed. Monson planted wheat in his field on June 1.

Courtney says the DEA is still reviewing the application and is concerned that the farmers will not be able to keep their fields secure. "We have to take a balanced approach to the application," he said. "We have to look at every aspect of the application. I don't think you can put a time frame on that sort of issue. It takes time."

Ex-cop sells pot tips on DVD

Now for the kicker: Cooper is a former narcotics officer once considered among the top cops in Texas, where more marijuana is seized each year than in any other state.

The formerly straight-laced lawman has become a shaggy-haired militant for the legalization of weed.

Six months ago he released "Never Get Busted Again," in which the former star of West Texas' Permian Basin Drug Task Force gives tips on hiding marijuana (dashboards are rife with nooks and crannies) and throwing off drug-sniffing dogs (coat your tires in fox urine).

"I'm not helping them to break the law. It's clear the law is already being broken," said Cooper, 38, who left law enforcement a decade ago. "I will do anything legal to frustrate law enforcement's efforts to place American citizens in jail for nonviolent drug offenses."

Law officers regard Cooper as a traitor. And some pro-pot activists say Cooper's antics actually undermine their cause.

"This is like waving red meat" in front of police, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "They take great professional umbrage with this. They are not our opposition, and we don't want to agitate them."

Federal drug agents said his tips won't keep them from finding your stash, and they advise drug users to save their $20 and use it to help post bail.

Richard Sanders, an agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Tyler, brushes off Cooper's DVD as a sham. "He's just out to make money," Sanders said.

Though he will not reveal how much he has made, Cooper said he has sold more than 10,000 copies of "Never Get Busted," primarily over the Internet and at a few smoke shops.

Defense attorneys have also called him as a witness to testify about unlawful tactics he says police use to make drug cases. For instance, he testified about how drug-sniffing dogs can be made to "false alert," which gives officers legal grounds to search a car or a home. Cooper said he has used that ploy himself.

Cooper has begun filming a second DVD, called "Never Get Raided." He said he is also planning a documentary in which he plans to ply 50 partygoers with beer and marijuana and film what happens next. The aim, he said, is to prove that partygoers who get high are less dangerous than those who get drunk.

Frederick Moss, a law professor at Southern Methodist University, said Cooper appears to be protected by the First Amendment and probably cannot be charged with conspiracy or aiding and abetting because he has no direct relationship with the customers he counsels in how to break the law.

Cooper claims that as a law officer, he took part in 800 drug busts, seized more than more than 50 vehicles and $500,000 in cash and assets, and made a case against a local politician's son.

"He was among the best we had," said Tom Finley, who was Cooper's supervisor on the drug task force. "I don't understand why he would turn like this."

Cooper has owned car dealerships, started a limousine service, dabbled as a cage fighting promoter and taught in a church. He lives in a pine-canopied hideaway in this East Texas town of 1,400, where his home includes a framed picture in the kitchen of Cooper holding a joint.

It is the same town where Cooper was last a police officer in 1998, when he said his frustration with small-town politics made him quit law enforcement and begin rethinking the war on drugs.

He filed for bankruptcy in 2005, blaming a tough divorce and the stock-market downturn after Sept. 11. He is also suing for $10 million over a 2005 raid of his home that Cooper alleges left bruises on his children — an incident he says convinced him police are hurting more families than they help. (Cooper says sheriff's deputies came to take his children away after his ex-wife complained he was not sending them to school or sharing custody.)

"My critics want to kill my credibility by claiming I'm doing this to make money and trying to keep any sincerity out of this," Cooper said. "The people who have seen me and know my work, they know I'm sincere."

AP Photo: Barry Cooper, an 8-year veteran of law enforcement and drug interdiction, with his web site...

___

On the Net:

http://www.nevergetbusted.com

Volcano Vaporizer Review

Storz & Bickel, German inventors of the balloon system.

The first time I saw one of these bad boys, I was like, “What the fuck is that?” I was not very attracted to huffing on a balloon with my drooling friends. In the pot clubs, I would see patients drooling on these things and passing them around. I thought, how medical is that? And then of course, I had to try one for myself. First of all, I had some kill. It was some of the best all year. I loaded up enough to roll a pretty thick doob for two. I cranked up the heat a little higher than the drooling patients did because I like to get good and stoned. I have to admit, this thing hits really fucking good and tastes awesome. It gave me the nose tingles, the whole bit. I was so stupid after hitting one of these. The downfall to this thing is that they over engineered the hell out of the thing. It has so many parts that it’s kinda fascinating but irritating at the same time. I spilled one load all over myself trying to change back from huffing mode to reload mode. Another great downfall is the price. If it were half the price I would own one. You have to be rolling like Snoop to afford one of these.

Rell Says 'No' to Marijuana

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have legalized medicinal marijuana, acknowledging she struggled with the decision.

CLICK HERE and listen to Reporter Fran Schneidau

``I am not unfamiliar with the incredible pain and heartbreak associated with battling cancer,'' Rell, a Republican, wrote in her veto letter. ``I have spoken and met with dozens of people on this issue, all of whom have presented their positions passionately and articulately.''

But Rell, a cancer survivor, said she is concerned that the legislation sends the wrong message about drug use to Connecticut youth, and also does not spell out where patients and their caregivers would obtain marijuana plants.

``There are no pharmacies, storefronts or mail order catalogs where patients or caregivers can legally purchase marijuana plants and seeds,'' she said. ``I am troubled by the fact that, in essence, this bill forces law-abiding citizens to seek out drug dealers to make their marijuana purchases.''

Rell said she is also concerned that the bill is not limited to terminally ill patients.

The bill won final bipartisan legislative approval earlier this month, capping a five-year struggle that pitted broader patients' rights against concerns of easier access to an illicit drug. TV talk show host Montel Williams, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999, came to the state Capitol to urge support for the bill. He said he uses marijuana in various forms to help alleviate intense pain and debilitating symptoms.

The legislation would have allowed residents older than 18 with specific medical conditions diagnosed by a physician to cultivate and use marijuana to relieve the draining symptoms of diseases such as cancer and MS. Patients with written certification from their physicians would have to register with the Department of Consumer Protection.

Lorenzo Jones, executive director of A Better Way Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supported the legislation, said Tuesday he had not known Rell would veto the bill. The organization expected to issue a formal response later Tuesday, he said.

According to the national Marijuana Policy Project, 12 states allow patients to use marijuana despite federal laws against it. A
13th state, Maryland, protects patients from jail but not arrest.

Connecticut already has a medical marijuana law, one of the first in the nation. Under the 1981 law, a doctor can prescribe the illegal drug to relieve nausea associated with chemotherapy and eye pressure from glaucoma.

But the law is unworkable because, under federal law, physicians who prescribe marijuana can be sent to prison and risk having their medical licenses revoked.

Four arrested, thousands of pot plants seized

Washington County authorities arrested four people for allegedly growing marijuana at three different homes in Saint Paul Park.

The big bust resulted in the seizure of more than 2,000 pot plants.

It began last Monday at 1335 3rd St., where authorities opened the door and found 365 marijuana plants.

Sheriff Steve Pott called it part of the biggest marijuana growing operation in recent memory.

"For some reason people don't see (marijuana) as glamorous as cocaine or methamphetamine, but it's one of the more common drugs," he said, "especially in Washington County."

An anonymous tipster led investigators to the house on 3rd Street, and to two other homes just blocks away. Between the three locations, Pott said authorities collected 2100 plants, with a total estimated street value of $250,000.

"Between the three (locations)," Pott said, "we estimate them (producing) about a million dollars worth of marijuana a year."

Pott said he didn't know if the three operations are linked, even though the three houses are located in the same neighborhood.

Four people now face charges felony drug charges:

James R. Super, of Minneapolis, faces the most serious charges. He was found inside the house on 3rd Street and charged with second- and third-degree felonies for possession and intent to distribute. He also is charged with a firearms violation for possessing a handgun.

Authorities arrested Jennifer L. Rolfing, and Jeremiah Hirman, at 8084 Grey Cloud Island Drive. Both are residents of Forest Lake, and both were charged with fifth-degree manufacturing and possession offenses.

Nicholas A. Lebow was arrested at 1190 Main Street and faces a third-degree manufacturing charge.

When investigators found the plants, they also found elaborate lighting, heating and watering systems.

These were people who took their marijuana seriously, Sheriff Pott said.

Cannabis goes mainstream... again

This headie advert comes your way via the Scene insert in this week’s San Francisco Bay Guardian. Lacking the ubiquitous pot leaf that adorns most medical marijuana advertising, the target audience here appears to be those for whom marijuana might not be an obvious choice. Imagine that: marketing marijuana as medicine.

Judge hands freedom to pot-hauling trucker

A Toronto area commercial trucker accused of smuggling 21 kilograms of pot across the Ambassador Bridge appeared to not believe his ears when a judge ruled Monday there was insufficient evidence for a conviction.

It took a few minutes before reality sunk in and Pius Idahosa, 36, realized he wasn't going to jail.

When it finally hit him outside Superior Court Justice Mary Nolan's courtroom that he was a free man, he struggled to a lobby chair before bursting into tears and sobbing loudly with relief.\

"Thank you, Jesus. She is an honest judge," he said of Nolan.

The judge had serious questions about parts of Idahosa's story but concluded the prosecution hadn't presented a solid enough case for conviction.

"Because I'm left with a doubt, I must give him the benefit of that doubt," said Nolan.

Canadian border agents discovered the large stash of baled pot, worth an estimated $206,000, in a hockey bag in the cab of Idahosa's rig on April 15, 2005.

Idahosa took the stand himself during his recent three-day trial and testified there were many drivers who had access to a number of keys to his truck, one of many similar-looking vehicles in his company's fleet. He said it had been left unattended over a two-day period, and the court heard the duffle bag with its well-wrapped contents had been in the truck for 10 days before the bust.

PROBLEMS WITH TESTIMONY

But the judge also noted problems with Idahosa's testimony.

Idahosa's last trip had been arranged by his company after he said he needed a route through Illinois to visit his sick aunt in a Chicago hospital.

After his request was accommodated, he said his aunt was no longer in hospital. Idahosa was unable to tell the court where his aunt lives or what hospital she was in.

The judge also wasn't satisfied with how Idahosa explained two $5,000 payments to his mother in Nigeria in the previous weeks to pay for a home.

Idahosa said it was proceeds from the sale of his Mercedes, but Nolan said the accused was "quite confused" when discussing his "unexplained wealth" and how he originally afforded that vehicle.

"She weighed all the angles," Idahosa said outside the courtroom after Monday's verdict. As defence lawyer Andrew Bradie exited the courtroom, Idahosa abruptly interrupted a cellphone conversation with his wife so that he could give him a big bear hug.

"Her honour gave a thoughtful and well-reasoned judgment. The Crown respects the decision of the court," prosecutor Richard Pollock said when asked whether an appeal would be considered.