Cannabis Hemp News

High-Tech Pot Bust Becomes Political Issue Wednesday, June 16, 2004 Two Swiss pot smokers thought they could puff away undisturbed in a parked car — but they weren't counting on the military surveillance drone flying overhead. The soldiers testing the pilotless plane via remote control near the city of Lucerne (search) called police when they spotted the pair, reports the Le Matin Dimanche newspaper. Cop cars soon drove up, sirens screaming, and arrested the puffers in mid-joint. The whole thing would have ended there had not Boris Banga (search), a socialist member of the Swiss parliament, complained to fellow lawmakers that the incident in late May was an in…

York County task force makes large pot bust The marijuana bust netted 596 plants after officials staged a three-day stakeout. By Shannon Greene Lake Wylie Pilot (Published July 15‚ 2004) After a three-day stakeout, police made the largest marijuana drug bust of the season Monday on S.C. 49 near Kingsburry Road. The York County Multi jurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit cut and seized 596 plants. Police charged Francisco Palomo Ruiz, 24, of Clover with trafficking marijuana. A second suspect was still at large at press time. On Friday, the South Carolina National Guard spotted the plants from the air and called in the county's drug enforcement unit to execute…

Oakland Tribune, Rosynsky/Gammon Day after pot bust, details still hazy Controversy and confusion surrounding the largest pot bust in city history continued Thursday as federal agents filed criminal complaints against four Bay Area residents, while the defendants' relatives and medical marijuana advocates insisted the arrests were bogus. Conflicts between the California Highway Patrol and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration also surfaced as each agency gave differing accounts of how nearly 4,000 marijuana plants were discovered in a West Oakland warehouse. CHP officials insisted the huge marijuana bust was the result of a routine traffic stop that led them to the …

Marijuana smokers buying poisoned dope 28.07.2004 By AINSLEY THOMSON Marijuana users are being warned about poisoned cannabis being sold on the Coromandel Peninsula. A pro-marijuana group says the cannabis has been sprayed by police with a herbicide, a process which turns the drug blue. Unscrupulous growers are disguising the poisoned cannabis with yellow food colouring to make it look green. The National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (Norml) said the affected marijuana could cause people to cough up blood and suffer nausea and headaches. Police confirmed that when they found marijuana plots they sprayed them with herbicide. Waikato police spok…

The true price of prohibition Drug-related crime costs more than the Home Office's annual budget, but treatment for users is underfunded and locked into punishment Danny Kushlick Friday August 6, 2004 The Guardian Labour and the Tories are fighting over the law and order baton in the race for government. But both parties are committed to a regime that arguably causes more crime than any other single policy. In the 2004 comprehensive spending review last month, Gordon Brown earmarked just under £15bn to run the Home Office in 2007-08, up more than £4bn on 2002-03 but a billion less than the £16bn that the government estimates to be the annual cost of drug-related …

'Cannabis' brain tumour drug hope An extract of cannabis was used in the study An ingredient in marijuana may be useful for treating brain cancers, say Spanish researchers from Madrid. Chemicals called cannabinoids could starve tumours to death by halting the growth of blood vessels that feed it, the Complutense University team hope. By studying mice, the team has shown for the first time how these chemicals block vessel growth. Their study, published in Cancer Research, also shows the treatment appears to work in humans. This research provides an important new lead compound for anti-cancer drugs Dr Richard Sullivan, Cancer Research UK Glioblastoma…

Roadside drug tests delayed By Kenneth Nguyen July 1, 2004 Random drug testing of Victorian motorists, which was scheduled to begin today, has been delayed and may not begin until the end of the year, police said yesterday. It was also revealed that when the testing begins motorists will have to wait about five minutes for their tests to be processed before they are allowed to proceed on their journey. Inspector Martin Boorman of the police traffic and alcohol section said that despite today being the date when testing was to have begun, police were yet to decide on which testing device they would use. "It's simply taken us longer than we expected it to," Mr Boor…

Smoking cannabis could help night vision: study THE GUARDIAN , London Thursday, Jul 08, 2004, We knew it gave people the munchies and made them giggle. Now researchers claim to have found a new property in cannabis -- it helps us see in the dark. Scientists made their discovery after becoming intrigued by Moroccan fishermen, who not only failed to lose their sense of direction after smoking generous amounts of local kif, a mixture of cannabis and tobacco, but seemed to navigate better on dark nights. "They attribute their ability to see to the consumption of kif that they spend entire hours smoking before getting into their barques," one of the research team, dr…

MULLING OVER THE SWAB SQUAD Duff Beer is the brew favoured by Homer Simpson, which he drinks at home on the couch as a fun way of passing time. Curiously, the director of research at the Australian Drug Foundation is a man named Duff - Dr Cameron Duff - who kind of declared this week that drugs, notably party drugs, are the new beer. "Drug use seems to have become a leisure activity in its own right," he said, citing a foundation survey of 380 peppy Melbourne nightclubbers. In short, pillin' and chillin' are now "mainstream". Dr Duff made a careful call for national policy makers to "rethink" their approach to managing the heartland's latest hobby. His comments…