law enforcement

Police Chief Comments Excite Pot Legalization Advocates

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Sun, 05/30/2010 - 4:05pm
in
By. Steve Elliot
 
Comments made by Columbia, Mo., Police Chief Ken Burton last week have excited marijuana legalization advocates, and the chief is standing by his statement that he does not know how to enforce the city’s marijuana laws.
 
“If we can get out of the business, I think there is a lot of police officers that would be happy to do that,” Chief Burton said of using police resources in enforce marijuana laws.
 
“Unfortunately, it is still a matter of law… Crimes of violence do happen because of marijuana… I don’t have anything against it except it is against the law,” Burton said.
 
“I am with you on the fight,” Burton said of the movement to legalize marijuana. “I hope you are successful at some point.”
 
The chief’s comments came at a May 20 news conference as he was summarizing the findings of an investigation in February’s SWAT drug raid at a Columbia home in which two family pets were shot, but which resulted only in the discovery of a misdemeanor amount of marijuana, reports David Brennan of the Columbia Tribune.

Police Chief says CALM raid was a matter of law

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Wed, 05/05/2010 - 12:20pm
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By. Sandie Benitah, ctvtoronto.ca
 
TORONTO — Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair said he won't ask his officers to turn a blind eye to unlicensed marijuana facilities that have popped up around the city.
 
Without a Health Canada permit, facilities that distribute medicinal cannabis are "no different than the dealer on the street corner," Blair said Tuesday night to a room of about 50 people attending a meeting between police and the LGBT community at the Church Street Community Centre in downtown Toronto.
 
"We have to act accordingly to the rule of the law, not on a whim," he said. "There is no grey area in this situation."
 
Blair was responding to several people in the audience who complained about a March 31 police raid on the CALM Club, a medical marijuana distribution center on Queen Street East near Jarvis Street.
 
People in the audience told the chief the raid was unnecessary and harmful to the many people living in the community with AIDS and other debilitating diseases -- most of whom are licensed to use medicinal marijuana.

2/3 of Iowa resident support medical marijuana, Law enforcement lobbying begins

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 1:53pm
in

by: Natalie Tendall

A recent poll suggests nearly two-thirds of Iowans think medical marijuana should be allowed with a doctor's approval.

This comes after the state board of pharmacy reached a unanimous decision on recommending the reclassification of marijuana.

Cerro Gordo County Sheriff Pals said, "now we're gonna legalize one of the drugs we've been fighting for centuries."

The news that marijuana is potentially a legislative session away from becoming legal in Iowa for medical purposes is a big concern for local law enforcement.

Sheriff Pals said, "we've seen the effects and see medical marijuana as a gateway drug to other harder drugs and I'm not sure there's any good reason why there couldn't be any other narcotics used other than marijuana to relieve pain."

Death of Romer's Medical Marijuana Bill Presents Meaningful Opportunity for Quality Reform

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 10:34am
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By. Jessica Corry and Robert J. Corry, Jr., Huffington Post

The legislation would have required Coloradans to inform on each other Soviet-style. It sought to forfeit power to the federal government at the expense of rights afforded under the Colorado Constitution. And it advocated for industry rules that would have turned law-abiding entrepreneurs into marked targets for unrepentant thieves.

The bill deserved to die. And on Saturday evening, it was pronounced dead by its own author.
Amidst the current and often passionate debate over medical marijuana regulation, Denver Democrat Chris Romer was never able to move the proposal beyond relentless criticism coming from all sides.

New medical-pot bill to restrict providers

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 01/11/2010 - 10:12am
in

By Jessica Fender, Denver Post

The fight to regulate the rapidly growing number of medical-marijuana dispensaries took a drastic swing toward shutting down the hundreds of Colorado storefronts after state Sen. Chris Romer announced Sunday that a pending pot bill would reflect the wishes of law enforcement groups.

The attorney general, sheriff's organizations and police groups want a five-person limit on the number of patients a pot provider — dubbed a "caregiver" — can serve.

Romer, a Democrat from Denver, said the bill reflecting that cap will likely be introduced once the legislative session starts Wednesday by state Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, who could not be reached for comment.

It's a stark departure from Romer's original bill, which would have required dispensaries to provide other health services and to register their products in a database for law enforcement purposes.

Fighting Back Against Los Angeles' War on Marijuana

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 10/12/2009 - 11:30am
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by Don Duncan

More than one hundred medical cannabis supporters raised their voices, and more than a few eyebrows, at a lively and visible protest in front of the Montebello County Club on Wednesday morning. Americans for Safe Access (ASA) called for the demonstration after we learned that Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley and City Attorney Carmen Trutanich were headlining a luncheon training entitled “Eradicating Medical Cannabis Dispensaries in the City of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County.”

PATRIOT Act “Sneak and Peek” Searches Targeted Drug Offenders, Not Terrorists

Submitted by Ellis Worthington on Mon, 10/05/2009 - 4:14pm
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Phillip Smith
StopTheDrugWar
October 5, 2009

The Bush administration sold the PATRIOT Act’s expansion of law enforcement powers, including “sneak and peek” searches in which the target of the search is never notified that his home has been searched, as necessary to defend the citizens of the US from terrorist attacks, but that’s not how federal law enforcement has used its sweeping new powers.

According to a July report from the Administrative Office of the US Courts (thanks to Ryan Grim at the Huffington Post), of 763 sneak and peek search warrants issued last year, only three were issued in relation to alleged terrorist offenses, or less than one-half of 1% of all such black-bag clandestine searches. Nearly two-thirds (62%) were issued to investigate drug trafficking offenses.

video: 

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Submitted by Ellis Worthington on Fri, 03/27/2009 - 10:50pm
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from Drug War Chronicle, Issue #578, 3/27/09

Narcs gone wild, narcs cheating on their pay, narcs stealing dope, narcs lying on the stand, a perverted sheriff heads to prison, and that's just the half of it. Let's get to it:

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