Cannabis Hemp News

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…

Australia: Cannabis laws state by state. Decriminalized in Western Australia & South Australia. Tasmania, Victoria, & Queensland Western Australia Decriminalizes Marijuana Possession, Approves Heroin Trials, Rejects Safe Injecting Rooms 11/30/01 The Labor government of Western Australia Premier Geoff Gallop announced a sea change in the state's approach to drugs this week. Delivering its long-awaited response to the state's Community Drug Summit held in August, the government announced it was accepting 44 out of 45 recommendations, including the decriminalization of possession and consumption of small amounts of marijuana and prescription heroin trials. The dru…

TOWNSVILLE will host the country's first random sampling study of drivers to discover what drugs are being used by Australian motorists. The Queensland University of Technology and the Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety Queensland (CARSQ) will conduct their research in the Townsville region from Easter. For two to three months, researchers and local assistants will select random locations throughout the district to conduct drug tests. Deputy Director of CARSQ Dr Jeremy Davey yesterday said the latest technology in saliva testing would be used in the non-invasive tests. "It is not a police program and we will give people $20," Dr Davey said. "Basica…

THREE men were charged with drug offences after police discovered cannabis crops with a potential street value of $16 million in South Australia's mid-north. About 6000 marijuana plants were discovered yesterday growing hydroponically in sheds and buildings on a property at Bower, about 25km north of Eudunda, a police spokesman said. Three men ? a 35 year-old from Brownlow, a 41-year-old from Athol Park and a 31-year-old from Prospect ? had been charged with cultivating cannabis for sale, the spokesman said. He estimated about 640,000 street deals of cannabis had been prevented by the discovery, made by police after a routine assault inquiry about 4pm CDT yesterday.…

A MAN will appear in court today after police seized hundreds of cannabis plants worth more than two and a half million dollars in Sydney's south-west. Police said raids uncovered more than 1,085 cannabis plants at various stages of maturity, growing in hydroponic equipment inside homes and garages in Canley Vale, Fairfield West, Cabramatta, and Birrong. More than 50 officers from the South East Asian Crime Squad, Drug Squad and Cabramatta and Fairfield Police were involved in the raids that started at 9.30am (AEDT) yesterday. Two men, aged 56 and 39, and a woman, 42, were arrested and taken to Cabramatta and Fairfield police stations for questioning. The 56-year-…

GOODS made from hemp cannot be outlawed by the US Government's narcotics agency, under a court ruling after a two-and-a-half-year legal battle. The ruling on Friday by the Ninth Circuit US Court of Appeals was hailed by a coalition of companies that make hemp-based foods including waffles, vegetarian burgers and nutrition bars. The court ruled the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) overstepped its authority by issuing a so-called zero-tolerance rule for the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, or tetrahydrocannabinols. The court ruled the DEA officials "can regulate foodstuffs containing natural THC if it is contained within marijuana, and can regulate synthetic …

our people have been arrested and cannabis plants with a street value of $16 million seized in a search of a farm in central western NSW. Police said officers discovered 8,000 cannabis plants during a search at a Tullamore property, west of Parkes, on Friday. A 37-year-old Cabramatta man, a 35-year-old Bankstown man and a 46-year-old Bankstown man were arrested and charged with being knowingly concerned with the cultivation of a larger than commercial quantity of a prohibited drug. They will appear in Dubbo Bail Court on Saturday, police said. A 59-year-old Kemps Creek man was also arrested on Friday night near Parkes. He was charged with cultivating a larger th…

A TOTAL of 18 people have been charged with supplying drugs after a two-day police operation on the Sydney rail network. Police said Operation Guardian, which was conducted with rail transit officers, had targeted drug offences at major city rail stations. More than 400 people were searched during the operation, resulting in 150 cannabis cautions, 130 court attendance notices, and 18 people being charged with supply of a prohibited drug. One of those charged was a man on his way to the Big Day Out music festival, who was arrested at the Olympic Park Rail Station in possession of 46 ecstasy tablets, police said. The operation included more than 300 police from ten …