`Student athletes, musicians and others who participate in after school activities could increasingly be subject to random drug testing under a program promoted by the Bush administration.
White House officials say drug testing is an effective way to keep students away from harmful substances like marijuana and crystal methamphetamine, and have held seminars across the country to promote the practice to local school officials.
But some parents, educators and school officials call it a heavy-handed, ineffective way to discourage drug use that undermines trust and invades students’ privacy.’
`So were the seeds he used to keep in a case in the store, with exotic names like Afghan Dream and Chemo Grizzly. So was the booming business he ran, complete with glossy seed catalogues describing the subtle and sublime nuances of his varieties. (“Nebula: Fruity flavor and scent. Transcendental buzz. Harvest outdoor.”) So, for that matter, are the other marijuana businesses that have sprouted up in the block around his Vancouver bookstore. The street is nicknamed “Vansterdam,” with pot-hazy cafes, headshops filled with pipes and bongs, and neon signs advertising illegal seed sales.
Until recently, nobody much cared, it seemed. The police hadn’t bothered to come around for eight years. Before that, they busted Emery for seed sales and raided him four times. But he just got fined — once with “a nice speech from the judge saying what a nice person I was and how marijuana probably shouldn’t be illegal,” Emery says — and the police stopped trying. [..]
Then came the DEA.’
`Police allowed 7kg of cocaine, worth more than $1 million, to be sold on Sydney streets in an undercover operation, but failed to recover nearly all of it.
The Sunday Telegraph says it was revealed in evidence to a Sydney court earlier this month that police had given the cocaine to a dealer to sell, but 6kg of the drug was never recovered.
It says undercover officers watched as the dealer sold the drug to contacts, but it was not until some time later that they made a number of arrests.’
`Bali police have burned the stash of marijuana that sent Schapelle Corby to an Indonesian jail for 20 years.
The drugs were piled up on top of a metal drum in a backyard beside the Denpasar District Court where a distraught Corby was convicted on May 17 last year.
There was little fuss apart from some dizziness among some of the spectators after chief prosecutor I Ketut Arthana, who led the case against the Gold Coast woman, poured petrol on the pile and set it alight.
Watching on were Denpasar Mayor Anak Agung Puspa Yoga and local police chief Hari Dono Sukmanto, as well as a small crowd of journalists, who said they became giddy as pungent smoke wafted over the yard.’
`An Alaska high school violated a student’s free speech rights by suspending him after he unfurled a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” across the street from the school, a federal court ruled Friday.
Joseph Frederick, a student at Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska, displayed the banner — which refers to smoking marijuana — in January 2002 to try to get on television as the Olympic torch relay was passing the school.’
`George Michael was arrested in London on drug charges after being found slumped at the wheel of his car, a British tabloid newspaper reported.
A passer-by contacted police after spotting the 42-year-old pop star in his car in central London on Saturday night, the Sun newspaper reported in Monday’s editions.
Michael was arrested on suspicion of possessing drugs before being bailed out to return to a police station next month, The Sun said. The report said he was checked by paramedics but did not need hospital treatment.’
`Coffee drinkers who have more than three cups a day could be dramatically increasing their risk of a heart attack, say researchers.
A study found people who were “slow metabolisers” were at greater risk because they could not process caffeine as quickly as others.
The research discovered that this type of coffee-drinker was up to 64 per cent more likely to suffer a cardiac arrest.’
`A woman is suing a big US pharmacy company for describing her as crazy and a “psycho” on paperwork that came with her prescription sleeping tablets.
Janey Karp, 53, who suffers from depression and anxiety, couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw “CrAzY!!” typed in a field reserved for patient information on a computer printout, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Elsewhere it said: “She’s really a psycho!!! Do not say her name too loud, never mention her meds by names & try to talk to her when … “‘
`While many teenagers who use the myspace website boast about using drugs, one 16-year-old from Bensalem actually showed them.
He posted pictures on the popular website of him posing with a gun, and various drugs, while bragging he made 250,000 dollars a year by selling them. Police found the Bensalem High school student after a lengthy investigation.
“One of our detectives saw this guy and thought he seemed a little bit more real than the next kid and it was enough to launch an investigation,” said Harran.
The teenager has since been charged with possession and many of those who knew him at the high school are shocked.’
`A Danville high school student faces a felony charge of furnishing marijuana after allegedly feeding half a marijuana-laced cookie to a 4-year-old boy, a Contra Costa County sheriff’s spokesman said today.
The 17-year-old Monte Vista High School senior allegedly gave the piece of cookie to the boy during a daycare class at the high school on Feb. 21, spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
Lee couldn’t release the suspect’s name because he is a juvenile. [..]
The maximum penalty for the charge of furnishing marijuana is four years in prison, Lee said.’
`A retired French colonel accused of trying to boost his children’s tennis results by drugging their opponents has admitted he spiked the water bottle of a rival player who later died in a car crash.
Christophe Fauviau, whose daughter Valentine, 15, is one of France’s brightest prospects, made his confession at the start of his trial in the south-western town of Mont-de-Marsan.
He is charged with the manslaughter of Alexandre Lagardere by unintentionally causing him to fall asleep at the wheel of his car. Mr Lagardere had earlier been overcome by drowsiness while playing Fauviau’s son Maxime in the final of a local tournament.
Fauviau, 46, a former helicopter pilot instructor with an exemplary military record, is also accused of administering toxic substances to 21 of Valentine’s opponents and six of her brother’s.’
`A man showing off his OnStar system in his Cadillac Escalade found out the system worked too well. Ralph A. Gomez, 38, was being held Wednesday on $15,000 bond on charges of possession of an illegal narcotic within 1,000 feet of a church and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Gomez was showing off his OnStar system to his girlfriend, but the volume was set so low that he couldn’t hear the OnStar operator. OnStar comes on many new General Motors vehicles and allows a customer to contact an OnStar representative in an emergency or to get directions.
If there is no response, OnStar contacts police.’
`A woman pleaded guilty Monday to attempted murder charges for trying to hire a hit man to rob and kill four men for what she thought was cocaine, but turned out to be cheese.
Jessice Sandy Booth, 18, hatched the plot after she visited the home of the men, and mistook queso fresco – a white, crumbly cheese common in Mexican cuisine.
But the hit man she hired turned out to be an undercover police officer.
“They asked her numerous times ‘Do you really want to go through with this?'” prosecutor Paul Hagerman said. “They gave her numerous chances to back out, but she said she was serious. She said she needed the money for modeling school.”‘
`RCMP officers in Montreal have dismantled an international operation that they allege was selling marijuana seeds over the internet.
Investigators claim they seized 200,000 seeds, enough to run 500 grow operations if planted and nurtured correctly.
That many plants would have the potential to generate about 42 million joints, reporters were told as police displayed the seized material Tuesday.’
`Why do so many people using DMT see insects? The DMT insect race comprises “larval beings,” “alien space insects,” praying-mantis entities and so forth. Why so many visions of insects?
“Something in the insect seems to be alien to the habits, morals, and psychology of this world, as if it has come from some other planet, more monstrous, more energetic, more insensate, more atrocious, more infernal than our own.” — Maurice Masterlinck, Belgian playwright, 1862-1949 ‘
`A Gulf War veteran undergoing medical treatment said he was given placebos — or sugar pills — instead of real medicine.
Like thousands of other soldiers, Army veteran Mike Woods said he developed bizarre symptoms after serving in the first Gulf War — blackouts, chest pain and numbness in the extremities.
Woods looked to the Veterans Administration for help. He said his VA doctor prescribed him a drug called Obecalp.
“She told me there was this new drug out that would really help me with all of my physical conditions, and my pain. She really wanted me to try it,” said Woods.
But when the pill provided no relief, Woods did some research and learned that Obecalp isn’t a medicine at all, but a sugar pill. He was shocked to learn the word “obecalp” is placebo spelled backward.’
`Three UK ex-servicemen have been given compensation after they were given LSD without their consent in the 1950s.
The men volunteered to be “guinea pigs” at the government research base Porton Down after being told scientists wanted to find a cure for the common cold.
But they were given the hallucinogen in mind control tests, and some volunteers had terrifying hallucinations.
The Foreign Office said the secret intelligence body MI6 had made the settlements after legal advice.
The out-of-court settlements are thought to be under £10,000 for each of the men.’
‘A clerk at a GetGo station made a horrifying discovery last night after a man walked into the minimart and asked her to heat something wrapped in a paper towel in the store’s microwave.
When the item in the microwave gave off an unusual odor, the clerk opened the over door, unwrapped the paper and found what appeared to be a severed human penis, according to KDKA-TV.’
and Police Uncover Twist In Bizarre Case:
‘According to McKeesport’s police chief, a man and a woman had inserted urine into a fake penis that the woman was planning to use to pass a drug test.’
`A unanimous Supreme Court decision on Tuesday gave a small religious sect the right to keep importing a hallucinogenic tea, central to its ritual observance, that the government wants to ban as a controlled substance under federal narcotics law. [..]
For the past 35 years, he noted, the government has permitted American Indians to use peyote in their religious rituals despite the fact that peyote and its active ingredient, mescaline, are banned for general use under the Controlled Substances Act and have been found by Congress to be dangerous substances with a high potential for abuse. [..]
The tea, known as hoasca, is made from two plants found only in the Amazon rain forest. Its active ingredient is dimethyltryptamine, usually referred to as DMT.’
`Two U.S. air marshals face federal drug charges accusing them of using their positions to smuggle narcotics through airport security and onto planes for transport, federal prosecutors said. [..]
Shawn Ray Nguyen, 38, and Burlie L. Sholar III, 32, were arrested Feb. 9 after an informant delivered 33 pounds of cocaine and $15,000 in “up front money” to Nguyen’s Houston home, authorities said. They were ordered to remain in federal custody until a bond hearing Thursday.’
`A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed.
The sixth-grade student at Waldo Middle School was also suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends.
The boy, who is not being identified because he is a juvenile, said he brought the bag to school to ask his science teacher if he could run an experiment using sugar.’
`Those of you fortunate enough to own Final Cut Pro 4.5, or those who promote eclecticism: nested in your FCP application itself is a string that is quite out of the ordinary. [..]
“If we can’t ship this puppy by then, we might as well be herding yaks. I’m glad it’s getting weird again. I didn’t understand it when it wasn’t weird. The C switch statement: Mmmmmm! Chock full of nooses! That would be like crossing the streams or something. Mmmm… Chicago style pizza! I’ve got my blankie, I’m good to go. A lot of this job is mental. “Mostly clockwise, sometimes reverses…” What’s the sound of one luma clamping? I just wanna be in the app! Oh, rough and woeful music which we have! Cause it to sound! The Yak is a delightful creature… rather like a visit with a bovine Confucious Nobody might know anything. I don’t know, somehow it just works. How do you tempt a Yak? [..]”
[..] 10 bucks drugs were involved.’
`Australian scientists say they have developed a drug that may help prevent and reverse debilitating inflammatory diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis.
The new drug, developed by the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, also could help sufferers of multiple sclerosis (MS), asthma, sepsis, heart attack and psoriasis as well as transplant patients. [..]
Scientists have identified the mechanism by which a white blood cell enters a tissue, releasing toxic substances and causing damage in the joints.
The drug, once injected, works within hours to completely return a diseased tissue back to a normal tissue.’
`The man who caused outrage by dressing as a suicide bomber during London protests over the Mohammed cartoons was arrested and taken to prison today, police have revealed.
Omar Khayam, 22, was pictured outside Denmark’s embassy in London wearing a simulated suicide bombing outfit to denounce the cartoons, first published in a Danish paper, satirising the prophet Mohammed.
The student was given six years in prison in 2002 for possessing crack cocaine with intent to supply and is still on licence after being released last year halfway through his sentence. [..]
Khayam’s arrest in Bedford was carried out at the instigation of the Home Office for breaching the terms of his licence.’
`”Fukitol” has come together with the objective of developing an all-purpose drug to assist with psychologically influenced mental conditions. It is anticipated that the success of “Fukitol” will be similar to Viagra and other wonder-drugs that have flooded the marketplace, with one key difference: “Fukitol” will work. It will relieve all the symptoms that the other drugs do, with no side effects.
Until the release and approval of “Fukitol” by the FDA and other global drug-control agencies, we’re here to spread the methodology of “Fukitol”; because it is more than a drug, it’s a lifestyle.’
`Seeds of an illegal plant were inadvertently sown after a police officer stopped a car with no license plate light early Friday morning and smelled a strong odor of marijuana. When the officer returned to his car and called for backup, the driver drove away, Milford Police Chief Carlos Phoenix said.
As several law enforcement agencies joined the chase, the fleeing driver tore open and threw 17 to 19 bags out of his window.
“There was marijuana flying everywhere,” Phoenix told the Waxahachie Daily Light.
After driving over a second set of spikes set out by authorities, the suspect finally stopped and was taken into custody, and he was “literally covered in marijuana,” Phoenix said.’
`The Frenchwoman who received the world’s first partial face transplant showed off her new features to the public today, saying in a heavily slurred voice that she now looks “like everyone else” and hopes to resume a normal life. [..]
She said she was passed out when the dog bit her, and she did not immediately realize the extent of her disfigurement when she awoke.
“When I woke up, I tried to light a cigarette, and I didn’t understand why I couldn’t hold it between my lips,” she said. “That’s when I saw the pool of blood and the dog next to me. I looked at myself in the mirror, and there, horrified, I couldn’t believe what I saw — especially because it didn’t hurt. Ever since this day, my life has changed.”
The dog was euthanized.’
with video.
follow-up to My strange life with someone else’s face.
`If you can’t beat ’em … joint ’em? The City of Amsterdam has begun selling recently introduced “no toking” signs to prevent the official ones from being stolen as collector’s items, a spokesman said Friday.
The signs were created as part of an experimental ban on smoking marijuana on the street in “De Baarsjes,” one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods. The measure, which went into effect Feb. 1, was intended to reduce loitering and petty crime.
“On Wednesday we placed the first sign, and it was gone the next morning,” said Wim de Graaf. “We put up a new one Thursday, and it was taken the same night as well. That’s when the idea came to us to just sell them.”‘
`A Martha’s Vineyard man is charged with taking morphine from his mother’s intravenous drip minutes after she died.
Robert S. Peatie, 37, was arrested last week after a nurse at Cape Cod Hospital caught him pouring the morphine into a water bottle, the Cape Cod Times reported Friday.
His 62-year-old mother, Linda Peatie, had just died from an undisclosed illness.’
`An issue of a student magazine which contained a “how-to-guide” on drug rape has been banned.
The official censor said the article in Otago University’s Critic promoted sexual violence and criminal activity.
Police and Rape Crisis expressed anger at the article – headlined “Diary of a drug rapist – no means no, but if they can’t talk, they can’t turn you down” – when it was published in September last year.’
