The Associated Press: 75 students arrested in San Diego State University drug bust
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Dozens of San Diego State University students were arrested and six fraternities were suspended after a sweeping drug investigation found that some fraternity members openly dealt drugs and one even sent a mass text message advertising cocaine, authorities said Tuesday.
A five-month investigation prompted by a cocaine overdose death last year led to the arrests of 96 people, 75 of them San Diego State students. A second drug death occurred while the investigation went on.
Twenty-nine people were arrested early Tuesday in raids at nine locations including the Theta Chi fraternity, where agents found cocaine, Ecstasy and three guns. Eighteen of them were wanted on warrants for selling to undercover agents.
Two kilograms of cocaine were seized in all, along with 350 Ecstasy pills, marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms, hash oil, methamphetamine, illicit prescription drugs, several guns and at least $60,000 in cash, authorities said.
The district attorney’s office said search warrants were served in San Diego and suburban La Mesa, including the Theta Chi fraternity house and several apartments.
A member of Theta Chi sent out a mass text message to his “faithful customers” stating that he and his “associates” would be unable to sell cocaine while they were in Las Vegas over one weekend, according to the DEA. The text promoted a cocaine “sale” and listed the reduced prices.
San Diego State suspended Theta Chi and five other fraternities Tuesday pending a hearing on evidence gathered during the investigation. Members of at least three fraternities were arrested, according to law enforcement.
Investigators infiltrated seven fraternities in the course of the probe.
The undercover probe, dubbed Operation Sudden Fall, was sparked by the cocaine overdose death of a student in May 2007, authorities said. As the investigation continued, another student, from Mesa College, died Feb. 26 of a cocaine overdose at an SDSU fraternity house, the DEA said.
OK, first of all, anyone who would send out a mass text message advertising to sell cocaine should have his scholarships and grant money revoked and given to a student with with some sense. Advertising one’s felonies through traceable mass electronic communication doesn’t sound like the work of someone with stellar SATs.
However, are 75 arrests really required here? As we know, every one of those students, if convicted, will lose all federal student financial aid. They will have a drug conviction on their records for life as they enter the job marketplace. Surely, not all 75 of these arrests are for the kingpins of this enterprise. There was no violence involved. Isn’t this a bit of overkill?
Nobody wants college kids dying from cocaine overdoses. One of the reasons we lobby so hard for the end of adult marijuana prohibition is that it removes marijuana from the cohort of really dangerous illegal drugs and provides young people with the safest choice of recreational intoxicant. It’s sad that two kids died from cocaine, but how many students every year die from alcohol overdoses? When are the feds initiating a massive undercover probe to root out underaged drinking on campuses?
Just catching up on some of the reports from the March this weekend:
Close to 500 protesters took to the streets [of Calgary, Alberta, Canada] Saturday in favour of marijuana’s medicinal use and making it more accessible to those suffering debilitating pain.
Amid the incense aromas and reggae beats, several hundred Austinites rallied at the Capitol on Saturday for the legalization of marijuana for personal and medical use.
“These guys are easy compared to the anarchists,” said Sgt. Voepel of the Portland Police Department, “they’re on time, and they’re orderly.”
According to the Sarge, the only rabble rousers during the march were two drunkards who were pestering people but were unconnected to the peaceful pro-pot gatherers. No pot smokers were spotted.
Just stopping in for a second… the March in Portland was fantastic. Police estimated 750 people marching, and we had three local TV stations covering us, with a different member of the Board of Directors of Oregon NORML (myself on the CBS affiliate) quoted in the report. They gave us favorable coverage, especially of our announcement of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA) for 2010, our initiative to tax and regulate cannabis for adults and sell through Oregon liquor stores.
Audio and video coming soon… but I’m on my way to the after-party concert with Los Marijuanos, Chief Greenbud, and more.
Hollywood gets political with its stoner movies
Pot, stalk and smoking pipe barrels. Devil weed. Mary Jane. Playing twister. Reefer. No matter what you call it, cannabis continues to spark debate in popular culture. More than 70 years into the drug’s prohibition at the hands of U.S. lawmakers, it seems Hollywood is ready to blow smoke in the face of current policy.
The proof can be seen in a new crop of films that don’t just depict glassy-eyed potheads giggling at moronic gags in the tradition of Cheech and Chong, but go much further, suggesting pot as the symbolic cure for personal and cultural oppression.
Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke (1978) was the first film to show rampant pot use without exacting a moral price for all that fun, offering an emotional and cultural antidote to overt anti-drug films such as Reefer Madness.
Around the same time Cheech and Chong started their big screen puffing, the American government banned the word “hemp” from all school text books, insisting any mention of the once powerful hemp industry (predicted to be the No. 1 crop in the U.S. by Popular Mechanics in 1938) would only confuse youngsters who didn’t understand the difference between useful hemp fibre and the combustible of choice among teens.
NORML is pleased to announced that Salient Media is offering NORML supporters and chapters 25% off of its new film, Totally Baked. I watched the movie with friends for 4/20, and I highly recommend it! This movie will be one of your stoner-movie favorites.
Totally Baked is a comedy that focuses on why marijuana should be legalized and features new and exclusive music from Brian Johnson of AC/DC and stars some of the country’s hottest comedians. Additionally, Salient Media will be donating 10% of all direct sales to NORML to help reform marijuana laws.
Anyone interested in purchasing the Totally Baked DVD should enter the promotion code ‘high’ at Salient Media’s website to receive their 25% discount.
NORML is pleased to bring you yet another way to celebrate cannabis culture with Totally Baked during this highly celebrated time of year.
And hundreds of those who believe Canadians should have the right to smoke up without fear of being charged took to the streets of Niagara Falls to draw attention to their cause.
“You need to legalize it,” said Marco Renda, one of the demonstrators who took part in what has come to be known as the annual Highway 420 Anti-Prohibition Rally.
“I have no problem with the government regulating it, just like they do alcohol.”
The rally, which was staged for the first time in Niagara Falls about five years ago, began around 3 p.m. on a grassy patch land on Victoria Avenue overlooking Highway 420.
And around 4:20 p.m. on the University of Colorado campus, the sky grew unusually hazy.
Cheers erupted along with a heavy cloud of smoke as an estimated 10,000 people - mostly CU students joined by friends from out of town and some local residents - lit up to celebrate at an annual pot-smoking rally.
Some said they were there to advocate for the legalization of marijuana. Others - including some who came just to watch - said it was all for fun.
“It’s like, why do people drink beer on St. Patrick’s Day?” said a 22-year-old “super senior” who didn’t want to give his name. “It’s a holiday. Like the Fourth of July.”
CU police monitored the gathering, with 15 campus officers and six Boulder County sheriff’s deputies stationed around the perimeter and directing traffic.
According to a news release, the focus was to “maintain a safe environment and discourage potentially hazardous activities.”
No citations were issued and there were no arrests, although there were four medical incidents and two people were transported to local hospitals, the release stated. One person was treated for a seizure, the other for dehydration.
NORML Founder Keith Stroup was a guest on my XM Satellite radio show today, at exactly 4:20pm Eastern. You can listen to our interview using the little audio player on my site - but the post won’t be available until Sunday evening, since we must wait until the audio has played on our rebroadcasts on terrestrial stations (if you’re in the Portland area, you can catch the show from 8am-10am on AM 620 KPOJ or listen to their live stream on your computer.
The gist of our conversation revolved around the mainstreaming of the “420″ holiday, as reported on MSNBC:
Capitalist buzz surrounds stoner ‘holiday’ - Life- msnbc.com
A once clandestine counterculture pot-smoking “holiday” observed each April 20 has crossed into the mainstream this year with public gatherings that will attract thousands of participants and marketing campaigns that tout a trio of marijuana-themed movies.
As anti-drug activists chafe, the so-called “420” pronounced “four-twenty” celebrations “are taking on a life of their own,” said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, who has been working on marijuana issues for 17 years.
Don’t forget about NORML’s 420 MoneyBomb, happening tomorrow. You can join NORML for the reduced price of $4.20. It costs money for public-relations campaigns; do something tangible to help end adult marijuana prohibition.
All supporters who take advantage of this celebratory, one-day-only offer will receive a special NORML sticker, Freedom Card, and a one-year NORML membership, which usually costs $35.
“4/20 is a special date when cannabis consumers celebrate marijuana and all of its various unique cultural interpretations and accoutrements,” NORML Outreach Coordinator Ron Fisher said today. “With the introduction of two new federal pro-reform bills, this year’s 4/20 celebrations provide citizens nationwide who support cannabis law reform unique opportunities that NORML strongly encourages them to exercise: join NORML for $4.20 on 4/20, celebrate 4/20 responsibly, and, most importantly, lobby for reforms on 4/21.”
NORML’s 4/20moneybomb, inspired by Representative Ron Paul’s fundraising success in his recent presidential campaign, is only one part of NORML’s online outreach strategy, which includes a daily podcast, NORML’s blog, and popular pages at Facebook and MySpace.
Started only last September, NORML’s Facebook Cause group, the largest group of self-identified cannabis law reform supporters in the world, reached a membership total of 420,000 members Tuesday. “Coincidence? A propitious omen to say the least,” commented NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre.
“It’s time for the politicians to catch up with the public on this [issue],” Frank said. “The notion that you lock people up for smoking marijuana is pretty silly.”
Frank’s pending bill, co-sponsored by presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), seeks to eliminate all federal penalties prohibiting the personal use and possession of up to 100 grams (3 1/2 ounces) of marijuana. Under this measure, adults who consume cannabis would no longer face arrest, prison, or even the threat of a civil fine. The bill also eliminates all penalties for the not-for-profit transfers of up to one ounce of pot.
NORML Legal Counsel Keith Stroup, who worked closely with Frank’s staff to draft this legislation, said, “If passed by Congress, this legislation would legalize the possession, use, and non-profit transfer of marijuana by adults for the first time since 1937.” The bill incorporates the basic recommendations of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (also known as the Shafer Commission).
Currently, twelve states have enacted various versions of marijuana decriminalization, eliminating criminal penalties for minor pot violations. According to federal data, passage of these laws has not subsequently led to increased marijuana use.
“This newly introduced legislation seeks to bring the federal government into line with the over 100 million Americans who currently live in a state or municipality that has already decriminalized cannabis possession,” NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said today. “This year, the masses in the U.S. celebrating 4/20 really have something to rejoice, and to now lobby for.”
Similar statewide legislation is pending in New Hampshire and Vermont. Additionally, Massachusetts voters will decide on a statewide decriminalization measure this November.
(Washington Post) Two teams of researchers with access to thousands of documents gathered for lawsuits over the painkiller V i o x x allege that Merck waged a campaign of deception to promote its drug, moving slowly to warn of possible hazards while at the same time dressing up in-house studies as the work of independent academic researchers.
V i o x x, whose generic name is rofecoxib, went on the market in 1999. It became a “blockbuster,” with $2.3 billion in sales in 2003, but Merck voluntarily withdrew it in September 2004 after several studies showed that it increased the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Since then, Merck has been named in 26,500 lawsuits by people who say the drug harmed them. Last fall, the company created a $4.85 billion fund to settle the claims while not admitting that V i o x x caused heart attacks, strokes or deaths.
(Washington Post) Federal regulators suspect that Baxter International’s recalled blood thinner, heparin, was intentionally contaminated to increase profit, the head of the Food and Drug Administration said yesterday. Baxter recalled most of its heparin products in February after reports of allergic reactions and deaths. An FDA investigation later uncovered a heparin-like substance in some batches of the drug’s active ingredient, which is made in China.
FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach added that the FDA is not investigating the motive, but would leave that to Chinese officials.
Maybe if our federal government stopped spending so much time and resources fighting the medical marijuana that never killed anyone, they could step up regulation and testing of the pharmaceuticals that are killing people.
(Sorry about the weird spelling of V i o x x. Our servers keep eating the post if I spell it correctly. Must be some sort of spam protection.)
Super High Me | Screenings
Super High Me opens on the West Coast on 4/11 in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland at the following fine venues:
Admiral Twin
2347 California Ave SW
Seattle, WA 98116
NORML is excited to partner with Doug Benson in the Roll Your Own screenings taking place all over the country on 4/20. Take a look at the list to see if there is a screening near you. If not, go ahead and set up your own free screening and invite all your friends.
The State Government last night passed tough new laws so anyone selling cannabis bongs or drug implements will face fines of up to $50,000 or two years in jail.
The laws cover the sale of implements such as hookahs, bongs, cocaine kits and pipes used to smoke deadly crystal methamphetamine, otherwise known as ice.
One local drug expert, pharmacology associate professor Rodney Irvine, said users will seek other ways to inhale smoke and that could be more dangerous.
“When you close one loophole another one emerges, a different pattern of use emerges,” he said
“They’ll make them out of anything, obviously.
“I would say that there’s a possibility those alternative homemade ones will have some problems.”
Dr Irvine said smoking through a bong or water pipe was probably slightly less dangerous than using joints or pipes.
“Intuitively, I would say that smoking anything through a water pipe is a better option than smoking it in a joint or a spliff,” he said.
“If you’re smoking tobacco through a water pipe you’ve got cooler smoke. If there’s cooler smoke, there are less volatile substances, therefore less tar.”
Until now, courts had to establish, beyond reasonable doubt, that the person in possession of the equipment intended to use it in connection with preparing or consuming an illegal drug.
“Your Honor, when that surfer dude came into my head shop, I had no idea he was going to take that triple-chambered, dual-carb, psychedelic… uh, glass art sculpture, and use it for smoking marijuana! I’m shocked, d’ya hear, shocked!”
I’ve always found both sides of the paraphernalia issue somewhat silly. On our side, the defense for head shops is that they somehow aren’t selling bongs so long as nobody says the word “bong”. Every head shop I’ve ever visited has the sign saying, “don’t say bong”, as if they were The Knights Who Say “Ni!” in the old Monty Python film. One old head shop owner on the Oregon/Idaho border once told me they were “functional glass novelty items”.
On the other hand, banning something because someone might do something illegal with it seems odd, especially when we sell handguns to people. Nobody seems to apply the bong standard to other items. If I went into a hardware store and got myself a baseball bat and a shovel, and said to the clerk, “How much for this head basher and corpse burier?”, would it be illegal for him to sell them to me? Unwise, certainly, and I hope he’s calling the cops, but it wouldn’t be illegal.
Besides, it’s just a stupid idea because it can’t work and solves nothing. We cannabis consumers are like McGuyver when it comes to making bongs. The only ones hurt here are the head shop owners who were contributing some of our incomes to the local economy and sales taxes, diverting it instead to apples, paper towel tubes, and tinfoil.
German dealers ‘add lead to marijuana’ - World - theage.com.au
Drug dealers looking for extra profits apparently added lead flakes to packets of marijuana, inflating their value while causing dozens of cases of serious poisoning, doctors in Germany reported today.The lead made up, on average, 10 per cent of the material in the marijuana packets, boosting profits by about $US1,500 ($A1,613) per kilogram, Franzika Busse of University Hospital Leipzig reported.
“One package contained obvious lead particles; this strongly indicated that the lead was deliberately added to the package rather than inadvertently incorporated into the marijuana plants from contaminated soil,” the researchers wrote in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.
The problem was discovered last year when the first of 29 patients, aged 16 to 33, started showing up in four Leipzig hospitals with abdominal cramps, fatigue, nausea and varying degrees of anemia. One was ill enough to be suffering from hallucinations.
It took eight weeks to uncover a common pattern: all were young, smoked, had body piercings and were either students or unemployed. All regularly used marijuana.
Three patients brought in their stashes. All samples tested positive for lead contamination, with one having lead flakes that were obvious under a microscope.
After two more weeks, an anonymous screening program for marijuana users uncovered 95 other people who needed treatment.
Busse’s colleague, Dr Michael Stumvoll, said in an email that about 200 people had now been identified. The screening was continuing, he said, although it did not appear that the practice was continuing among dealers.
“The medical community, including pediatricians, should consider adulterated marijuana as a potential source of lead intoxication,” the German team wrote.
Once again we see the sad but predictable consequences of prohibition. When your product is illegal, you don’t have to submit to any sort of government testing or licensing program. Unregulated markets will go to almost any lengths to maximize profits, whether it’s a Chinese company cutting corners by using lead-based paints on toys or a German pot dealer adding weight to the pot with lead flakes. On the other side of the coin, when a drug is legal and regulated, these things don’t happen; when’s the last time you heard of anyone going blind from drinking impure whiskey?
NORML’s Freedom of Information Act request on the “Stoners in the Mist” video I blogged about on Friday. Let’s just find out how much taxpayer money our government used to insult and stereotype you.
REQUEST FOR DOCUMENTS PURSUANT TO THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT
Dear Action Officer:
This is a request for records from your agency under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. Sect. 552, as amended and as implemented by your office.
Materials Requested
1) Contracts and total expenditures to create, host and maintain the online video “Stoners of the Mist” found at ONDCP’s “Above The Influence” webpage:
2) All letters, emails or Freedom of Information Act requests from the public to ONDCP regarding “Stoners in the Mist”
3) All media news releases or press material published or broadcast to promote “Stoners in the Mist”
4) The name of the ONDCP employee(s) who approved the video for its public health and scientific content
5) All future expenses or anticipated costs associated with ONDCP broadcasting “Stoners in the Mist” video (i.e., a third party under contract to maintain the webpage or anti-cannabis promotion beyond the launch date)
Pushed out of its traditional spot on the Diag by a University of Michigan student group called FOKUS, a modified 30-minute Hash Bash took place in what organizers of both parties said was in the spirit of getting along.
A crowd filled the U-M Diag on a sunny day with temperatures in the high 50s. The people crowded on steps, many expecting to hear speakers for the Hash Bash, a pro-marijuana rally held on campus since 1972.
What those on campus for the Hash Bash didn’t know was that the space - and public address system - had been reserved for FOKUS, which wanted to hold its annual block party on the Diag. The group compromised and allowed poet John Sinclair to speak.
A former Ann Arborite, Sinclair is best known for the marijuana conviction that led to a 1971 “Free John Sinclair” rally at U-M’s Crisler Arena. That rally featured the late John Lennon.
Campus police estimated 1,200 to 1,500 on the Diag. The News estimated the number at closer to 2,000.
Sinclair kicked off the impromptu Hash Bash at 12:20 p.m. and spoke for about 15 minutes.
“I like to get high,” Sinclair told the crowd. “I believe I have a right to get high.
“People want drugs,” he said to cheers. “They want to get high. … Because it’s all good.”
We spoke with Steve Bloom from CelebStoner.com on Friday who pointed out that it is a common tactic by our opponents to try to find some group that will reserve a traditional venue used by anti-prohibition groups, in order to disrupt our right to assemble peaceably and petition our government for a redress of grievances. We had a similar incident with our Portland Hempstalk last year here in the Rose City, but our event is only three years old. After 37 years, it stretches the limits of credibility to think there is a student group that is not aware that the first Saturday in April is the Hash Bash at the Diag. It would be like somebody trying to schedule a folk music festival at Times Square for the night of December 31st!
The latest prejudicial stereotyping of cannabis consumers comes as part of the ONCDP’s “Above the Influence” ad campaign. It is a website and interactive Flash video called “Stoners in the Mist”, and it copies the look and feel of a National Geographic-style safari documentary, complete with a white-mustachioed “explorer” in a pith helmet introducing us to the hunt for his elusive prey:
It is a beautiful day. And while most people are out and about enjoying friends, activities, life in general…the creature that we seek is sedentary, uninspired, and remarkably unmotivated. My associate and I are in search of the lair of a magnificent specimen: the mature stoner.
Oh, goody! I wonder which mature, sedentary, uninspired, unmotivated stoner he’s seeking out? Ricky Williams, that former NFL running back? That guy is so lazy, what with his two-a-day workouts, yoga, and 3% body fat. Willie Nelson? Yup, there’s a mature stoner who never amounted to anything. Montel Williams? Talk about amotivational syndrome, hosting a TV show and running an MS foundation! Too bad Carl Sagan is dead, because there you had one completely uninspired stoner.
In this interactive feature, we will explore and attempt to explain the social interactions and natural responses of this elusive and baffling creature. I am your host, Barnard Puck and this… is Stoners in the Mist.
Apparently, “Dr.” Puck and his assistant have no problem being peeping Toms. Well, this should be fun. More screenshots and offensive stereotypes follow after the jump…
