Cannabis Hemp News

Drugs with a street value of more than $170,000 were found stashed in a car pulled over by traffic police. A 44-year-old man has been arrested over the haul of cannabis and amphetamine. He has been charged with possessing a commercial quantity of cannabis, supplying a commercial quantity of cannabis and possessing methylamphetamine. Alice Springs police found 6.804kg of cannabis head in the boot of the man's South Australian registered car. They also found two bags of amphetamine weighing 0.08g. The man was originally pulled over by police as part of routine traffic work on the Stuart Hwy on Saturday night. While they were talking to the man, they noticed…

Hemp crops can be used to mop up troublesome sewage effluent that would otherwise be dumped at sea, say Australian researchers. A team led by eco-technologist Dr Keith Bolton from Southern Cross University in Lismore, New South Wales, is analysing hemp from a one hectare crop harvested from land next to a public sewage treatment works. His team is testing the hemp to see how well it acts as a 'mop crop', a crop that absorbs sewage once it has been treated at a sewage treatment plant. Mop crops have become an increasingly popular alternative to dumping sewage effluent in the ocean, said Bolton. Byron Bay residents had been strongly opposed to a proposed local …

POLICE Commissioner Mal Hyde believes South Australian courts are handing out lenient sentences to some drug dealers. On occasion, judges and magistrates are failing to take into account the harm and negative effects caused by illegal drugs in the community when sentencing dealers, Mr Hyde said yesterday. "From time to time you see penalties, particularly on the supply of cannabis, that you have got to ask yourself whether or not there is a full appreciation of the harm that is being produced by the supply of those drugs," he said. "You have got to ask yourself whether there is a full appreciation of that as is reflected in the penalty." Mr Hyde said courts shoul…

Vigilent policing and public input continue to form a winning combination against illegal drugs. A combined police and community effort is one of the major factors behind a series of recent cannabis hauls in the northern Barossa region, which have seen hundreds of kilograms of drugs kept off the streets. Three major busts have been carried out in the Eudunda policing district since December 2003, on rural properties at World's End, Brownlow and Bower. They follow regular smaller busts in the Eudunda, Kapunda and Freeling areas and in total have resulted in the seizure and destruction of more than 5000 cannabis plants. The first large haul occurred on December 12, when 2…

AN American assistant principal who was trying to get a student expelled admitted planting marijuana in the boy's locker, police said. Police say Pat Conroy told them he placed the marijuana in the locker at South Haven High School, Michigan, last year because he suspected the boy was a drug dealer and wanted him expelled. The plan failed because a police drug dog did not find the contraband during a school search last year. Conroy, who has been placed on administrative leave, said he "lost his perspective" and had done something "stupid, arrogant and unethical", according to a police report. He told police that he only planted evidence once, according to the report…

A VICTORIAN policeman due to be presented with an international award for fighting the drug war has been accused of being involved in drug rip-offs. The detective, formerly attached to the National Crime Authority and the elite Australian Crime Commission, was yesterday accused of stealing money and drugs from drug dealers with other corrupt police. He was named during a hearing of the Police Integrity Commission in Sydney yesterday and was later suspended without pay by Victoria Police. The Herald Sun believes the detective, whose name was suppressed by the commission, is overseas, where he was to be given a medal this week for services to the community in rel…

POLICE will hold a phone-in next month to gather intelligence on hydroponic cannabis operations. The March 10 phone-in follows a similar operation last year, which resulted in more than 1000 calls. That operation also resulted in a large amount of hydroponic equipment being seized and destroyed. Next month's phone-in is in response to the large number of crops discovered in Adelaide over the past six months. Police say there are 66 shops specialising in hydroponics equipment in Adelaide. The believe many of these are selling equipment and fertilizers to hundreds of cannabis growers. It has been established that many of these shops have clear links to organised…

DRUG BARON LAW RARELY USED... Only one person has substantial property frozen. By Sean Cowan PROPERTY confiscation laws designed to bring down drug dealing Mr Bigs have been used just once since they were intro- duced more than three years ago. The laws allow police to freeze suspected criminals' assets without charges being laid. If the suspects want the property back they must prove it was bought with legally obtained funds. A list of police targets obtained by The West Australian reveals that 11 people have been the subject of unexplained-wealth seizures. Nine of them had already been charged over drug hauls but were arrested before a law was passed that allow…

A GERMAN high school student today admitted baking a hashish-laced chocolate cake that briefly landed 10 of his teachers in a hospital, and police said his apology likely would spare him being charged with any offence. The 19-year-old, identified only by his first name, Ole, told reporters he had volunteered to spend 10 days working at a local hospital in the northern town of Lueneburg to show his regret over placing the cake outside the school staff room on Thursday. "I created a real mess a few days ago," Ole said after appearing before an assembly of his school's 700 students and 65 teachers. "I would like to apologise." Ten teachers were taken to a hospital aft…

In leafy Artarmon, the greenery is not confined to the garden. A cranky cat whose meows worried the neighbours has exposed its owner as a small-scale cannabis grower. Cranky at having been left alone for the weekend, the tabby meowed so loudly that neighbours called the RSPCA. What they found was a fat and happy feline living among a brightly lit jungle of cannabis plants worth nearly $100,000. The cat's owner, Rhonda McIntyre, 49, an unemployed landscape gardener, had turned her green thumb to hydroponic marijuana cultivation while recovering from a back injury. She pleaded guilty in North Sydney Local Court yesterday to possessing an indictable quantity of cannabi…

PRESS RELEASE 16/2/2004… The Network Against Prohibition (NAP) announced today the group will continue it’s campaign of civil disobedience in 2004 to further highlight the unworkability of current Northern Territory drug legislation. Since forming in 2002 as a response to the Labor government’s amendments to the Misuse of Drugs Act, NAP has instigated an ongoing campaign of direct action and public rallying demanding recognition of drug user rights. NAP spokesperson Nicolette Burrows said “2004 will see the Network Against Prohibition continue our campaign against Labor’s ‘drug house’ laws using a variety of strategies, including civil disobedience. NAP urges the com…

Another bust in todays paper. A rented house on the gold coast was raided. Police found 12 plants with an estimated street value of $32,000. It was a hydro setup. Really seems to be some police commisioners and pollies scoring some points in the bust dept' lately. Elections are in the air!

A 45-YEAR-OLD man was charged after police found a sophisticated underground hydroponic set-up at two Strath Creek properties, a Bendigo court heard yesterday. Gheorghe Dancints, of Norman Street, St Albans, yesterday pleaded guilty in the Bendigo County Court to four charges relating to the possession and trafficking of cannabis. The court heard Danci was arrested in January, last year, after police raids on properties in Strath Creek and St Albans uncovered about half a kilo of cannabis and two hydroponic set-ups located beneath floorboards in backyard sheds. Prosecutor George Slim said police discovered large underground water tanks, growing tubs, lamps and an "elabo…