JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. (FOX 10 TV) – A Mississippi high school teacher is behind bars and facing fines up to $1 million, all for growing marijuana at his St. Martin home.

Narcotics officers from two agencies searched the home of 51-year-old Patrick Charles Walker on Wednesday, November 15. Walker is a teacher at St. Martin High School.

During the search, agents found marijuana plants growing inside and outside Walker’s home. They also seized marijuana that had been recently harvested, as well as stuff to grow marijuana, like fertilizers, nutrients, fans, and Ultraviolet grow lights.

If convicted, Walker faces a fine up to $1 million and up to 30 years in the state penitentiary.

In other news from Mississippi high schools:

Desoto County, Ms (My FOX Memphis) – A substitute teacher is behind bars after Desoto County Sheriff’s deputies arrested him Monday, for allegedly having sex with multiple underage students.

23-year old Joey Johnson of Horn Lake, Mississippi is charged with multiple counts of sexual battery. Johnson is alleged to have had sex with at least two 16 year old students while working as a substitute teacher at Lake Cormorant High School near Walls, Mississippi.

Johnson isn’t the only Mississippi teacher facing charges. Last week, 22-year old Tyler Bigham, a music teacher at Desoto Central High School was arrested and charged with sexual battery for allegedly having sex with a 17-year old student at a park.

(Smoking Gun) A Mississippi teacher admitted to cops that she had sex with a 15-year-old male student to whom she sent explicit text messages and trysted with in her Jaguar, which bore the license plate “GRRRRR.” Those are just some of the sleazy details in a Biloxi Police Department report detailing Rebecca Dawn Bogard’s alleged sexual assault of the boy, who the 27-year-old educator taught at the Biloxi Alternative School.  Bogard… is facing felony sexual battery charges. She has been suspended with pay and is free on $50,000 bail.

LONG BEACH, MS. (WLOX) – A former teacher faces new sex charges. Police say Joseph Eugene Council, 33, of Long Beach confessed to having a sexual relationship with 17 year old girl.

Until May, Council taught band and choir at Pass Christian Middle and High Schools. Council was taken to the Harrison County Jail where he was being held pending $75,000 bond. Long Beach Police say the investigation is continuing and ask anyone with information about the case to call 228-863-7292.

Four different Mississippi teachers involved in sexual relationships with minors.  Their bonds were set at values between $50,000 and $100,000 dollars.  Mississippi law sets the bar for statutory rape at age 16, so only the female teacher in the Smoking Gun piece might have been charged with rape.  But in her case, and the other teacher cases, the charges are set to felony sexual battery, defined as:

§ 97-3-95. Sexual battery.

(1) A person is guilty of sexual battery if he or she engages in sexual penetration with:

(a) Another person without his or her consent;

(b) A mentally defective, mentally incapacitated or physically helpless person;

(c) A child at least fourteen (14) but under sixteen (16) years of age, if the person is thirty-six (36) or more months older than the child; or

(d) A child under the age of fourteen (14) years of age, if the person is twenty-four (24) or more months older than the child.

(2) A person is guilty of sexual battery if he or she engages in sexual penetration with a child under the age of eighteen (18) years if the person is in a position of trust or authority over the child including without limitation the child’s teacher, counselor, physician, psychiatrist, psychologist, minister, priest, physical therapist, chiropractor, legal guardian, parent, stepparent, aunt, uncle, scout leader or coach.

§ 97-3-101. Sexual battery; penalty.

(1) Every person who shall be convicted of sexual battery under § 97-3-95(1)(a), (b), or (2) shall be imprisoned in the State Penitentiary for a period of not more than thirty (30) years, and for a second or subsequent such offense shall be imprisoned in the penitentiary for not more than forty (40) years.

So remember folks, if you’re a high school teacher in Mississippi, growing marijuana plants in your own home is as reprehensible as having sex with your teenaged students.  Oh, wait, I’m sorry, it’s worse.  The felony sexual battery charges don’t carry a $1,000,000 fine.

(Buffalo News) Bianca Hervey, a 20-year-old college student, was returning home to her apartment in Attica when a village police officer drove up behind her, put on his flashing lights and pulled her over.

Hervey’s driver’s license, Officer Christopher Graham told her, had been suspended for failing to pay traffic tickets. He arrested her.

Graham handcuffed her, put her in the back of the police cruiser and took her to police headquarters. Her car was impounded and towed away.

At the police station, Graham handcuffed Hervey to a bench and told her she would probably spend the night in jail, Hervey said.

But then Graham offered her a way out of her problems.

Become a confidential informant for the Wyoming County Drug Task Force, he told her, and he could make the charges disappear.

Police departments throughout the country use people arrested on drug charges to inform on others. In return, their charges are reduced or dismissed.

But Hervey said she doesn’t use drugs and, having just moved from Batavia to the tiny village of Attica, doesn’t know anyone in Attica who does.

That didn’t stop her recruitment as a confidential informant.

Neither Wyoming County Sheriff Ferris Heimann, nor District Attorney Gerald Stout has a problem with how Smith’s department handled the case.

Asked about recruiting someone who said she is not part of the drug trade, Stout responded to The News: “But she agreed to do it.”

Nothing more aptly demonstrates the idiocy of prohibition than a system of law enforcement and justice that uses young people as bait.  Surely nobody in the close-knit group of drug users in the tiny town of Attica, NY, is going to think twice about the new girl in town who is so desperate to buy a large amount of cocaine or pills or weed, but doesn’t seem to know which end of a joint to light.

This is even more shameful than the Rachel Hoffman case.  At least Rachel was someone who hung around with a cannabis and ecstasy-using crowd.  This Bianca Hervey sounds the majority of young people who, believe it or not, don’t do any drugs!  When police infiltrate criminal organizations, they’ve had months of training, so why do they think they can take a young lady who doesn’t pay traffic tickets and turn her into supercop?

(Denver Post) Leo Cisneros was sentenced to 15 years in prison today for selling marijuana out of his family’s Denver apartment, nearly two months after a jury found him not guilty of child abuse resulting in the death of his daughter, Auralia.

Cisneros, 31, was convicted of possession with intent to distribute marijuana and having a gun while dealing drugs.

Three men tried to force themselves into the Cisneros family home the night Auralia was killed and they exchanged gunfire with Leo Cisneros. Auralia was shot in the face in the crossfire.

The intruders — Trivi Trujillo, Joshua Rojas and Juvencio Hernandez — all pleaded guilty in the case and are serving between 16 and 24 years in prison.

I’m not saying it’s a good idea to deal a pound of weed per week out of your apartment when your little girl is living there.  What I’m saying is that it is unjust to sentence a man who was selling a non-toxic substance to willing customers to one year less than a man who violates the sanctity of your home, guns blazing, and kills your child.

Of course, I’ve always had a problem with how we sentence pre-meditated violence in our country compared to other crimes.  To me, there is no greater crime than assaulting or killing another human being.  There should certainly be some temperance when we’re talking about spontaneous or emotional violence, but when someone coldly plans to physically harm another person, I’ve got a “one strike and you’re out” policy.

For example, take Bernie Madoff.  A really rich guy suckers some other really rich people into throwing away more money than I’ll ever see on a too-good-to-be-true Ponzi scheme.  The really rich people who were snookered lost a lot, but it’s not like you’re going to see Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon standing with a “Will Act for Food” sign at a freeway onramp anytime soon.  And it’s not as if once this was all revealed, Bernie Madoff was going to be able to pull it off again.  But for the sake of preserving society and punishing Madoff, he’s sentenced to 150 years and will never see the light of day again.

But if Bernie Madoff were just Bernie the Child Molester or Bernie the Rapist or Bernie the Murderer, depending on the circumstances he would likely be out of prison in three-to-six years.  We have mandatory minimum sentences for people who sell drugs to other people who willingly buy them, but no such mandates for people who rape, assault, and kill innocent others.  We have jails and prisons that are at 200% capacity, being ordered by federal courts to release tens of thousands of prisoners, but they can’t release the non-violent drug offenders because of the mandatory minimums, so thieves and violent offenders must be set free.

AMSTERDAM, Nov 5 (Reuters) – The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands’ well-known tolerance of the drug, according to a regional study published on Thursday. Among adults in the Netherlands, 5.4 percent used cannabis, compared with the European average of 6.8 percent, according to an annual report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, using latest available figures.

A higher percentage of adults in Italy, Spain, the Czech Republic and France took cannabis last year, the EU agency said, with the highest being Italy at 14.6 percent. Usage in Italy used to be among the lowest at below 10 percent a decade ago.

The policy on soft drugs in the Netherlands, one of the most liberal in Europe, allows for the sale of marijuana at “coffee shops”, which the Dutch have allowed to operate for decades, and possession of less than 5 grams (0.18 oz).

The full report is available here.  Some interesting stats of note:

• While 41% or 102 million Americans have tried cannabis in their lifetime, only 22% or 74 million Europeans have.  Interestingly, there are about the same number of Europeans as Americans who will use cannabis this year (about 22 million) and this month (12 million), but of course that represents a lower percentage of population since America has 304 million and Europe has 491 million.
• While cannabis represents 49.8% of all drug law arrests in America, it represents between 55% and 85% of all drug offenses in the majority of European countries.
• While 25% of American 15-16-year-olds have tried cannabis in the past year, only 15% of European 15-16-year-olds have.  The same percentage of 15-16-year-olds in the Netherlands used cannabis in the past year as in the USA, 25%.
• The greatest decrease among European countries in the prevalence of cannabis use among young adults aged 15-34 has occurred in the United Kingdom since 2003, where past year use has dropped by a third.  Incidentally, 2003 was the year the UK downgraded cannabis to a Class C offense, essentially decriminalizing it.

(B) If you had asked him two weeks ago, Zach Brown would have said he didn’t think marijuana legalization would happen in his lifetime.

Things have quickly changed. Brown, the president of the University of Maryland, College Park chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, now is optimistic the country will see significant change in perhaps two decades.

“It seems up until this point, we’ve been working against the wind in a way, pushing our goals to hard opposition,” Brown said. “But there’s now a rapid growth of support. The winds have changed, and we’re riding with them now.”

It’s an exciting time for marijuana advocates, and Brown, a 19-year-old sophomore and Eagle Scout, feels even more motivated to push his cause.

I wonder if there are Boy Scout merit badges for joint rolling?    Seriously, though, what a great opening to this article in Baltimore’s alt-weekly, the B.  Good work, Zach, and all you NORML Terps, and thanks for showing that even Eagle Scouts think marijuana prohibition is wrong.

(WHIO) DAYTON, Ohio — A 7-year-old boy led officers to his father’s marijuana grow operation, police said.

The father in question, Oliver McGuire, was arrested and taken into custody.

According to police reports, McGuire’s son told his school counselor about marijuana growing in the basement of his home.

Officers said they went to the Stewart Street home and found four pounds of marijuana, along with two plants and grow equipment.

“Thanks for your honesty, little Joey*.  You were right to tell us about those funny plants your daddy was growing.  Now we’re going to take your daddy away until you’re a teenager.  But it’s all for your own good, you see, because your daddy’s gardening could have seriously hurt you.  It’s OK, Joey, don’t cry, you can visit your daddy every week in a big scary building.  Your mommy will be fine, though she’ll probably have to take another job to keep you fed, housed, and clothed, so you might not see her as much, either.  You’ll be all right, we’ll see to it that we get your mommy some Food Stamps and other public assistance to make up for your daddy’s missing paycheck.  Then, in a few years, when your daddy gets out, he can go get another job to help support you and mommy, though he won’t make nearly as much money since he’ll have to put ‘ex-con drug felon’ on all his applications.  Yes, Joey, I know it is sad and scary, but remember, you did the right thing, because police officers like me are here to protect you.”

The next time some prohibitionist wants to scream “What About The Children!?!” in response to marijuana legalization, bring up Joey McGuire and ask, “Yes, indeed, what about the children?”  Prohibition of marijuana ruined Joey’s family life far more than marijuana ever did.

*I don’t know that the kid is named “Joey”, but it’ll do.

(FOX 12 Oregon) OREGON CITY, Ore. — An Oregon City man was held at gunpoint and his three children were locked in a closet after three intruders invaded their home in search of medical marijuana.

At about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, the man heard someone knocking on his front door and proclaiming that his girlfriend had just sideswiped their vehicle, according to Oregon City police. When the man answered the door, three masked men, at least one of them armed with a handgun, rushed through the door, police said.

The victim said the three men ransacked the home, demanded money and took about 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana. At one point, the victim’s 12-year-old daughter witnessed her father on the floor while one of the intruders held a gun to his head, police said.

No one was injured during the robbery, but police said the children were shaken up by the home invasion.

The victim told police it was the first marijuana grow he had harvested.

How do the invaders know the man has a girlfriend?  If you’re a complete stranger, a criminal staking out a suspected treasure trove of medical marijuana, and you see a man, a woman, and three children living there, don’t you assume a female leaving the home around morning commute time is a wife?

Loose lips cause rips. I’m betting these criminals know someone who knows this man.  Who stages a home invasion at 8:30am on a weekday?  Who takes such a risk without knowing there is medical marijuana available within?  I don’t mean to play “blame the victim” in this case, but to whom did the victim brag about his first marijuana harvest?  Did he take precautions to eliminate the smell from harvest time?  Did he make public the fact that he is a medical marijuana patient and grower?

Of course our opponents are quick to condemn the victim for having a pound and a half of marijuana in his home in the first place.  They condemn the medical marijuana law that supposedly puts people like the victim and his children at risk.  To them I say that the criminals are to blame, not the patient and not the marijuana.  Criminals commit violent acts to steal valuable goods for resale on the black market.  The victim’s home could have been invaded over a collection of fine art or gold coins; it’s the value of the theft that attracts the criminals, not the nature of the item stolen.

Marijuana prohibition is the only thing that could make it worth enough money to break into someone’s home to steal a weed.  That prohibition also prevents legitimate medical patients from reliably buying small amounts of marijuana, so they tend to hoard large amounts to get through crop failures and seizures.  That prohibition also creates a lucrative black market where stolen weed can be trafficked.  That prohibition also prevents non-medical users from buying marijuana legitimately so they will support a black market.

Or to but it more succinctly: I’ve never heard of three masked men breaking into someone’s home at gunpoint to steal Budweiser.

I’m happy to announce the formation of three new college chapters of NORML at the University of Virginia, Arizona State University, and Minnesota State University. Contact information for the three new chapters will be online at http://norml.org/chapters tomorrow morning if you wish to contact them.

If you would like to form a new college chapter or community chapter of NORML, just send me an email at stash@norml.org. You just need five members to form your board and we’ll send you the instructions from there.

And if you are unable to contact one of the existing chapters on the NORML website, please let me know. I am working to cull the inactive chapters from the listings and your help will make that task easier.

(The Daily Titan) When Eden Gonzalez, 21, first arrived at California State University Monterey Bay, she wanted to take her doctor-prescribed medication. Her resident adviser said no. The reason? Her medicine was marijuana.

“The biggest problem we were having at CSUMB was the issue with Residential Life,” Gonzalez said. “Campus police were actually pretty cool and I’ve had friends whose med-stash was returned after showing medical proof. But with Res-Life, you can have your medical marijuana, but you can’t smoke it, which is the problem.”

Because of the dorm rules, Gonzalez had to either give up marijuana or her convenience of living on campus. She eventually moved out of the dorms and into an off-campus apartment nearby. Gonzalez now serves as the executive director of CSUMB’s chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Gonzalez is one of many students trying to figure out how state, federal and university law applies to the use of medical marijuana.

CSUF police continue to stop students from smoking marijuana,”It’s still a federal offense,” [Sergeant Nigel Williams of CSUF police department] said.

CSUF police Lt. Don Landers concurred with Williams, “it is in violation of campus policy and if students bring marijuana with or without a prescription it will still be confiscated,” Landers said.

CSUF police officers would probably not arrest a medical marijuana user. “However the individual will be subject to a judicial citation and referral to the judicial affairs officer on campus,” Landers said.

When asked why it would be a problem at all, Landers answered, “It is against federal law and the university receives federal funding, not just state.”

Isn’t nice to know the fine college cops of the California State University system have been entrusted to enforce federal law?

Oh, wait, they aren’t charged with enforcing federal law.  See, this case called City of Garden Grove v. Kha was denied review by both the California and United States Supreme Courts, which let stand the lower court ruling, which, in a nutshell, said “it is not the job of the local police to enforce the federal drug laws.”

Now if it is a violation of campus policy, then students, please, organize to change these campus policies!  If you do not have a NORML chapter on your campus fighting to protect on-campus medical rights, then contact me at stash@norml.org and I’ll help you get started.

Click here to read the actual marijuana booklet produced by the Foundation for a Drug-Free World

Right off the bat, you’ve got to distrust anyone called the Foundation for a Drug-Free World. Might as well be called the Coalition for an Ice-Free Antarctica or the Alliance for a Sand-Free Sahara. Not only is it a completely unattainable goal, but also an undesirable one. Do we really want a world without Lipitor, OxyContin, or Prozac? (Not good drugs, silly, they mean the bad drugs.)

This is one of thirteen little booklets, similar to the “Man or Monkey” and “Are You Saved” cartoon booklets you find left by religious proselytizers in phone booths, that you can order for free from the Foundation for a Drug-Free World. The 24-page booklet on marijuana may just set an Anslinger Rating record.

Let’s start with Page 7, displayed above, which compares alcohol and marijuana.

Alcohol consists of one substance only: ethanol.

Which, we should note, is a poison that is toxic to healthy cells and organs. When metabolized by the body, it produced acetaldehyde, an organic chemical linked to cancers of the upper aerodigestive tract. Recent studies show that lifetime use of alcohol corresponds to a greatly increased risk of cancer.

Marijuana contains more than 400 known chemicals, including the same cancer causing substances found in tobacco smoke.

Yes, which makes marijuana much like every other plant that also contains hundreds of chemicals. The carcinogens are found in marijuana smoke, but also found in marijuana smoke are cannabinoids that seem to mitigate the carcinogens. In thirty years of study, Dr. Donald Tashkin tried to find a link between marijuana smoke and cancer and instead found a protective effect against cancer.

Alcohol is eliminated from the body in a few hours, but THC stays in the body for weeks, possibly months, depending on the length and intensity of usage. …the chemicals in marijuana, some of them cancer-causing, remain in the body long after the drug is taken.

Main metabolic route for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Alcohol is eliminated from the body by the liver, which over time with drinking can no longer do the task, one gets cirrhosis, and one dies. Meanwhile, THC is actually metabolized by the body within hours, and the remaining inactive metabolites, THC-COOH and glucuronide, are neither impairing nor carcinogenic.

THC damages the immune system. Alcohol does not.

These studies purporting that marijuana harms the immune system are ridiculous and achieved by using impossibly high doses of THC to cells in a lab. No studies have shown that pot smoking among humans has any effect on the immune system. HIV patients using cannabinoid therapies have actually seen increases in their T-cell counts. However, it does seem very clear that acute and chronic alcohol exposure causes severe immunosuppression in humans.

That’s just one page in a 24-page mini-booklet, and already we’ve found five distortions or outright lies. Won’t you join me for some more debunking after the break?

Here are the rest of the lies, distortions, and just plain weirdness from the booklet.  In the interest of time I’m just throwing out a snarky caption for each one, but you can click the pictures for the link to a webpage with the science to debunk this garbage. — “R”R

Who the hell is calling weed "astro turf"?

You know what doesn't get laced with PCP? Alcohol and tobacco.

Studies show no comparative difference between cannabis smokers' lungs and non-smokers' lungs.

Cannabis users experience no serious cognitive decline compared to non-smokers

Would this be the study where they hooked monkeys up to cannabis gas masks and they died from lack of oxygen?

Ah, yes, that famous 1% THC pot all the bell-bottom-wearing, tie-dye-making, Hendrix-listening kids of the '70s were smoking rears its hempy head again!

Seems to me that 40 years of handling marijuana your way really hasn't worked, has it?

"Involved" meaning "the patient mentioned it or we found it in blood tests". Since so many people smoke pot and it stays detectable for so long, it's not surprising. Now did marijuana "cause" the ER visit? No.

Again, since so many people smoke marijuana this is not a surprise. And since marijuana is illegal, it's no surprise many criminals use it.

So are you trying to convince us that kids shouldn't smoke pot? Agreed! Now here's a stat: 102 million people have tried marijuana, yet there are only 350,000 heroin addicts in America.

And once again, you're detecting an inactive THC-COOH metabolite that tells you nothing about what caused the crash.

"Often" followed by depression? Please. Yes, some people experience discomfort from using marijuana. I'd recommend them to stop.

Nope. delta-9 THC becomes 11-carboxy-THC and then becomes inactive THC-COOH within hours.

And yet, a link between marijuana and lung cancer has never been found and marijuana smokers have less risk of head, neck, and oral cancers.

True, we can get bronchitis, but there's no link to emphysema or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The most recent ten-year survey showed NO increase in schizophrenia and psychosis even during a great increase in marijuana smoking

That must explain why all the Rastafarians died out and why we never see hippie kids playing hacky sack anymore.

Yeah, that pot smoker Carl Sagan sure had a diminished brain capacity.

Don't you think we'd have heard of an epidemic of "pot babies" by now?

No, nope, uh-huh, wrong, lie, no, nein, no sir, no way, not really, and I'm not understanding things clearly?

Marijuana is a gateway... to drug dealers. Separate the markets, like the Netherlands, and you find half the drug use rates.

Workplace accidents and fatalities in Oregon have never been lower, steadily declining since the state introduced medical marijuana. Studies show drug testing does not improve safety, productivity, or reduce drug use. As for the college students, if you're smoking every day, yes, you're likely to do worse on mental tests. What they don't find, however, is a correlation between pot use and educational attainment.

Funny, another Australian study found cannabis plays "no significant role" in traffic accidents.

This should be of great concern to those of you with word-list remembering jobs.

Students who use marijuana are kept out of extra-curriculars and denied student aid for college, and may have been using marijuana to cope with other issues that affect grades.