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Stronger cannabis - and users getting stoned to a 'far more debilitating degree' - could lead to a rise in cases of schizophrenia and present the NHS with a much larger bill, a leading drugs expert will warn tomorrow. Professor John Henry believes that the Government, in its decision to relax the laws on cannabis, has overlooked the burden that greater use puts on health services and on families - as well as the way young people are seeking to heighten the effects of the drug. Henry, a toxicologist and professor of accident and emergency medicine at Imperial College London,...

<p>PHILADELPHIA (AP) - With cash tight and bills looming, legislators around the country are turning to neighborhood pubs to help them drown their woes: At least 19 states are considering plans to boost beer taxes.</p> <p>Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed one of the heftiest hikes, a plan that would raise the tax on a gallon of beer for the first time since 1947, from 8 cents to a quarter. It would add 14 cents to the cost of an average six pack and raise $55 million.</p>

ATTORNEY General A J Nicholson said yesterday that legislation is now being prepared to give effect to the recommendation of a commission, which sat two years ago, for the decriminalisation of marijuana when in private use here. Nicholson did not say when a Bill will reach Parliament and neither did he give details of the drafting instructions, but stressed that decriminalising marijuana -- called ganja here -- will be within a limited scope. "Yes, it will, for private use only," he told the Sunday Observer yesterday. Marijuana is widely used in Jamaica, and is said by Rastafarians to be holy...

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- A measure to reduce penalties for medical marijuana is moving forward in the Senate. The legislation passed through the amendment stage Tuesday on the Senate floor and there was no debate on the issue. A vote could come as soon as Wednesday. A matching bill already has passed the full House of Delegates. The bill would allow people charged with possession of small amounts of marijuana to present evidence that they have a medical condition that can be helped by smoking pot. The maximum penalty for possession of marijuana for medical purposes would be a $100 fine....

CHAPEL HILL -- He’s a local high school student who gave his name simply as "Bob." Bob said he started drinking when he was eight. In recent years, he said, if he wasn’t high, he was trying to get high. Bob said he had used cocaine, tripped on LSD and other hallucinogens, and spent hours soaring on ecstasy, which he said he easily found at many area high school parties. When nothing else was available, he explained that he got intoxicated with common household substances. Once, he described using a plastic bag to inhale Freon from the back of an...

The war on drugs, which has cost taxpayers billions of dollars during the past 30 years, has been ineffective at best. At worst, it has clogged the legal system with an unending and unabated flow of offenders who are attracted to the trade in illegal drugs by the promise of ill-gotten riches. The drug economy is created by prohibition, which has in turn promoted a police apparatus that feeds on our national crusade to rid the country of illegal drugs. The money flows both ways, and that’s why the war on drugs has failed. That’s not to say there’s anything...

I have been discussing the ramifications of the War On Drugs (WOD) with a Canadian police officer, John A. Gayder. He has started a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). Its most prominent American member is Sheriff Bill Masters of San Miguel County, Colorado who has been an elected Libertarian Sheriff since 1980. M. S. John, tell me a little about your police career? I am a currently serving Constable with the Niagara Parks Police Service in Niagara Falls, Canada. Having said that, I need to tell you right off that the opinions I express regarding drug policy reform...

Federal agents have arrested a Morgan County sheriff's deputy suspected of distributing marijuana. The deputy, Gregory Lamar Johnson, said Monday the accusations are false and come from people trying to mitigate their own trouble. Johnson was released from custody by U.S. Magistrate Judge Harwell Davis III on a $10,000 unsecured bond. Johnson and his lawyer, Robert Shipman of Huntsville, have waived a preliminary hearing. Federal prosecutors can seek an indictment from a grand jury. Prosecutors filed a complaint in federal court Monday signed by FBI special agent Patrick Stokes. In the court papers, Stokes said several accusers stated that Johnson...

Marijuana prohibition is a failed public policy that is wasting valuable law enforcement resources, and needlessly destroying the lives and careers of hundreds of thousands of good, productive citizens each year in this country. The costs of prohibition are far worse than any harm that may be caused by marijuana itself. We spend an estimated $10 billion annually in a futile effort to identify, arrest and prosecute marijuana smokers and those from whom they purchase the drug. This is an almost unbelievably stupid use of resources that should instead be fighting serious and violent crime, including terrorism. Is anyone really...

SAN DIEGO - U.S. Customs Service officers seized nearly 10 tons of marijuana from a tractor-trailer truck carrying computer circuits across the U.S.-Mexican border, officials said Saturday. Investigators said they believed the roughly $9 million shipment was the largest amount of marijuana ever seized on America's Southwest border. "Any time we can prevent 10 tons of narcotics from entering the streets of America, it's a great day for the U.S. Customs Service," said Michael Turner, special agent in charge of the U.S. Customs Office of Investigations in San Diego. Investigators found 4,000 plastic-wrapped packages of marijuana inside the truck with...

OAKLAND, CALIF. -- To the federal government, Ed Rosenthal is simply a drug pusher, an enemy combatant in the war on drugs. To folks like Jane Marcus, however, the Bronx-born Rosenthal is a hero -- a Jewish hero, in fact, whose cultivation of marijuana for medicinal purposes qualifies as a life-saving "mitzvah." Which explains why delegates to last weekend's regional convention here of Reform Judaism's national synagogue body were seen sporting buttons, distributed by Marcus, in support of Rosenthal, who was found guilty on January 31 of felony charges of cultivating marijuana. PIPE DREAMS: Rosenthal ponders questions from the media...

Sixty-nine per cent of Canadians favour the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of marijuana, according to an SES/ Sun Media poll. The survey found Canadians who were teenagers during the "flower power" 1960s were the group most likely to support easing pot laws. Among age groups, it showed 76 per cent of Canadians between the ages of 50 and 59 support decriminalization while 72 per cent of the 40 to 49 age group agree the laws against smoking dope should be relaxed. The poll surveyed 1,000 people between Feb. 2 and 11. There was strong support for decriminalization in...

There has long been a call to legalize marijuana. Quite noticeably, the effort has been spearheaded by "potheads" more concerned with their next high than social justice. This has led to a tendency for polarization in the debate. That's why I, the author of last year's article, "A Straight Edge Manifesto," have decided to enter the ring. But I won't stop at marijuana like those sissy "potheads." I say legalize all drugs. There is no doubt in my mind that using drugs is a bad idea. But just because something is a bad idea, does not mean it should be...

Benjamin Curtis, the 22-year old actor who portrays the Dell Guy in those bothersome computer commercials, was arrested late last night (2/9) on a marijuana possession charge, The Smoking Gun has learned. According to cops, Curtis was holding a "small bag of marijuana" when he was popped on Manhattan's Lower East Side (at Ludlow and Rivington for you Gothamites). Curtis is currently being held in Central Booking and is scheduled to be arraigned later today in Manhattan Criminal Court. Curtis, who lives in lower Manhattan, was charged with criminal possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor. Bonnie Shumofsky, the actor's agent, said...

Italy school trip was weedy good ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled that taking 40 joints of hashish on a school trip is not a crime. The marijuana was for personal use since the 17-year-old student planned to share it with two fellow students and a teacher, the appeals court judge said. Under Italian law, selling marijuana is a crime, but possession for personal use is not. "It could easily have been consumed during the many days of the trip," Corriere della Sera daily quoted the court ruling as saying.

Limestone County authorities busted a “Jesus” Tuesday night for using pages of the Bible to roll marijuana cigarettes. “He admitted to us that he had been smoking marijuana and using pages out of the Bible to roll it,” said Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely. “When we arrested him, he made the comment that ‘I guess God got ya’ll to get me’”. Jesus Santana, 31, of 26990 Elkins Road, Athens, was one of two Hispanics arrested when authorities raided two county homes for illegal drug activity in western Limestone County. Santana and Rafael Chavez Pena, 46, of 14741 Chris Way, Athens,...

Pot Case Jurors Call For New Trial They say they were misled when medical marijuana evidence was barred. Seven jurors who convicted a prominent medical marijuana activist called for a new trial Tuesday, rebelling against what they said was a misleading case and intimidating atmosphere. At an unusual rally outside the federal courthouse here, several jurors, defiant and shaken, expressed solidarity with defendant Edward Rosenthal four days after convicting him of running a massive pot-growing operation in West Oakland. Rosenthal is the author of a dozen books about marijuana and a how-to column for pot magazines. He was a major...

<p>SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A marijuana advocate and the jury that convicted him are making an unexpected show of solidarity: Jurors claim they were misled and the defendant says it isn't them he blames. Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja," was allowed Tuesday to remain free on $200,000 bail until his June 4 sentencing on federal drug violations.</p>

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Voters in this college town will go to the polls in April to decide a ballot measure that would legalize medical marijuana and greatly reduce penalties for possession of small quantities of the drug. Under Proposition 1, doctor-prescribed marijuana use would be legal in Columbia and other possession cases involving 35 grams or less of pot would be handled in city, rather than state, court. Offenders could be punished with misdemeanor-level fines starting at $25, but no jail time. The ballot issue represents a new approach to the old battle to decriminalize pot, said Keith Stroup, executive...

Pot Trial Focus on DEA Agent Did a top DEA agent tell local medical marijuana advocates they would be left alone by the feds? The question was the center of legal skirmishing Monday, as lawyers for marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal filed an appeal in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals trying to force Judge Charles Breyer to allow testimony from Mary Pat Jacobs, a key defense witness. Rosenthal faces up to life in prison for cultivating marijuana and conspiracy. In a sworn affidavit, Sonoma Alliance for Medical Marijuana spokeswoman Mary Pat Jacobs testified that she had several conversations about medical...