cannabisnews.com: Police Say MMJ Related Assaults Happen Statewide





Police Say MMJ Related Assaults Happen Statewide
Posted by CN Staff on January 20, 2005 at 12:59:06 PT
By The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Dundee, Ore. -- Police in Oregon say this week's violent assault and robbery of a medical marijuana grower in Dundee is indicative of a scattered problem across the state."If you have a product that is legal for some and illegal for others — and they want it — that's an awful big temptation for bad guys," Yamhill County Sheriff Jack Crabtree told The Oregonian. "These marijuana-growing greenhouses aren't exactly reinforced with steel and concrete."
Other law enforcement officials and medical marijuana advocates said they have heard reports of thieves preying on legal growing operations."I've been getting reports from Southern Oregon and Eastern Oregon of thefts and assaults," said Paul Stanford, executive director of the Portland-based Oregon Cannabis & Hemp Foundation, an education and support group for medical marijuana users.In this week's case, Ernest R. Holter, 50, told police that he heard an alarm sounding about 5:30 a.m. Tuesday in his barn, just northeast of the Dundee city limits.When Holter went to investigate, he was hit on the head and in the face. Holter — who had a valid medical marijuana card — passed out and lay on the ground until 7:19 a.m., when he was able to call for help.He is now in serious condition in the intensive care unit at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center in Portland, where he underwent surgery for his head injuries.According to the law, an Oregon resident can obtain a medical marijuana card by applying to the state Health Division after receiving a doctor's recommendation. According to Jan. 1 figures, 9,813 Oregonians now possess the cards, with an additional 1,327 applications pending.Under the law, those enrolled in the program can possess "three mature marijuana plants, four immature marijuana plants and 1 ounce of usable marijuana per each mature plant" in their homes.However, the marijuana-growing operations, generally in homes, gardens or outbuildings, are vulnerable to thieves.In September, a Southwest Portland man was shot and wounded by thieves targeting his medical marijuana. The man was shot in the doorway of his home, and thieves left before taking anything.In 2002, two Gold Hill residents weathered repeated attempts to steal their medical marijuana. Intruders cut their chain-link fence and stabbed their guard dog.Oregon is one of 11 states allowing medical marijuana. Other states with similar programs are Washington, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada and Vermont. Arizona has a law allowing medical marijuana, but no active program.Complete Title: Police Say Medical Marijuana-Related Assaults Happen StatewideSource: Associated Press (Wire)Published: January 20, 2005 Copyright: 2005 The Associated Press Cannabis & Hemp Foundationhttp://www.thc-foundation.org/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on January 21, 2005 at 09:50:57 PT
kapt
My husband's VA doctor asked me why I smoked cigarettes. I said because I'm addicted. He sort of smiled and nodded and understood.
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Comment #9 posted by kaptinemo on January 21, 2005 at 05:32:43 PT:
Afterburner, they won't get it until it's too late
Part of the reason why many tobacco users haven't tumbled to the idea that drug law reform is a good idea is quite simple: they don't see themselves as drug addicts...while the people in power are rapidly developing that viewpoint - and inserting the intolerance and social opprobrium that goes along with that viewpoint.Despite the ever tightening turns of the legislative screw, many tobacco users haven't gotten it clear yet that to many anti-smoking advocates, they are on the same level as any common drug addict. (Cue mental picture of disheveled, unsanitary wretch sticking needle in arm.) AND DESERVE TO BE TREATED THE SAME WAY AS SOCIETY TREATS MANY ADDICTS. The same slow progression of demonization that led to the American drug laws banning todays illicits is underway against nicotinists. Unless it is publicly challenged, particularly in the news media where much of the demonization process takes place, the process will end with tobacco being banned altogether.As to the process of that demonization? Well, I'd prefer to let Barry McCaffrey, former Drug Czar, explain the basics of that (see http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=331 for a partial transcript of his taped conversation with arch-anti A. M. Rosenthal - who didn't know he was being taped):*McCAFFREY: Yeah, I agree. Well, you know, we've done it, we've started to do it with smoking cigarettes. We've started to do it with driving drunk on Saturday night - it's no longer a manly, kind of humorous thing to do; it's something you ought to be ashamed of. And if you're at a cocktail party in New York City now or in a military staff call, if you light up a cigarette you identify yourself as being a dull-witted lad or lass.* The problem is one of changing public perceptions. The government has been working overtime (and using our money) to frame the public's perceptions of the issues the way it wants them framed. What stands outside the nice, neat picture is the ugliness used in creating it. Uncle did it with cannabis; now tobacco is in the gunsight.
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Comment #8 posted by mayan on January 21, 2005 at 04:29:24 PT
The Solution...
Legalize it!Duh.
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Comment #7 posted by afterburner on January 20, 2005 at 23:39:52 PT
re Comment #4 & 2
A recent TV news report interviewed an alarmed convenience store worker who testified that due to the punitive "sin taxes" the Ontario government has levied on cigarettes, cigarettes have become a popular target of thieves. Like many other places in Canada, the USA, and other countries, tobacco increasingly is being demonized with the same kind of results that have been plaguing the cannabis community. The nanny state politicians are creating a near-Prohibition for cigarettes that is producing the same type of problems, which in those politicians' unapologetic way they will, no doubt, blame on tobacco and tobacco addicts. How does it feel, tobacco people to be treated like social pariahs because of a medical condition of a powerful addiction (second only to heroin, which also used to be legal)? How does it feel to be on the receiving end of justice enforcement (anti-smoking by-laws affecting offices, restaurants, bars, public places, even cars)?Tobacco smokers are increasingly treated in the same way that cannabis people have gotten used to being treated for years. They are natural allies in the "land of the free."
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Comment #6 posted by siege on January 20, 2005 at 17:41:31 PT
Polish Government Considers Pot Decriminalization
Polish Government Considers Pot Decriminalization
  Warsaw, Poland: The Polish Parliament is considering legislation
proposed by the Ministry of Health that seeks to decriminalize the
personal use of cannabis and other controlled substances.
  Stating his support for the law change, Health Minister Marek Balicki
said: "We still have the illusion that if we have criminal punishment for
illicit drugs possession, then we will solve the drug problem. Making
criminals from young people that have tried drugs is without sense. This
is not a good road."
  In recent years, several European and Eastern European nations -
including the United Kingdom, Russia, Belgium, Croatia and Portugal - have
liberalized and/or decriminalized the possession and use cannabis.
  For a summary of European cannabis laws, please visit:http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5445
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Comment #5 posted by siege on January 20, 2005 at 17:06:14 PT
pharmaceutical crops
It is time to take the LEO to court for not doing there JOB of protecting the citizens of there state. any resident of any state that has programs for medical marijuana. it is just like any other Drugs that you take to stay healthy.
When these people are caught they should be chared with the same as one that robbed a     ...."pharmaceutical crops".
This is what they are "pharmaceutical crops"
when they are hold the paper's work for the state there in.
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Comment #4 posted by JustGetnBy on January 20, 2005 at 14:22:56 PT
Thieves and LowLifes
The innuendo here is that Cannabis is the cause of the thefts and assaults. PROHIBITION !!!! is the culprit.Thieves and lowlifes will steal anything of value that is not well protected.Heck, by that logic convenience stores are the cause of petty theft and robbery.
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Comment #3 posted by tokenitallup4162 on January 20, 2005 at 13:36:25 PT:
another reason for legalising!!!
good article afterburner, I just recently gotten some medicinal smoke that seems to have been hidden in perfume, SHREWW... man it's rough, throwed it away and went to supplier and told him to get this crap off the streets. seemed to work for now. it is a shame when kids have to exploit their ripoff technics to get their money, I guess this is another reason for getting smoke legalised, Toker
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on January 20, 2005 at 13:29:41 PT:
Ever get that feeling?
The one you get when you're watching some idiotic game show on the Tube, and the contestant has just been pitched one of those moldy-oldie softball questions like "Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?" and the contestant freezes. You are practically screaming at the boob to make the obvious answer...and he flubs it.Every time one of these LEO Einsteins is interviewed, they make the obvious lead up...and just like the goof-ball contestant, fail to deliver the goods: This grow-ripping happens because of the UNNECESSARY ILLEGALITY of the product. No one is assaulting closet rutabega growers. It's enough to make you wistful about eugenics...
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Comment #1 posted by afterburner on January 20, 2005 at 13:25:43 PT
Watch Out, ''Lacing'' Seems to Be Back in Fashion
ctv.ca, Canada, Tue., Jan. 18 2005
 
Beaconsfield Junior High School in St. John's, Nfld.
  St. John's teens sickened by tainted pot
CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1106088378338_2{Police are investigating after three St. John's, Nfld. teenagers became ill after smoking some apparently toxin-laced marijuana.{Two of the teens -- a 14-year-old female and a 15-year-old male -- were taken to hospital . A 13-year-old male was treated by a paramedic on Monday.{Police said the condition of one of the boys was serious.{"At the time the male was taken from the school he was in a semi-conscious state," Staff Sgt. June Layden told NTV News on Tuesday.{Police speculate the three teens were experimenting with drugs over their lunch hour and what they thought was marijuana was in fact contaminated with some type of poison.{"We came to the understanding that these students on their lunch on their lunch hour purchased drugs from a fellow student," Layden said.{"On returning to school, they started to suffer some very ill effects -- throwing up, very lethargic, things like that."{No arrests have been made yet. The police investigation is continuing.{"We do have an indication as to who the other student was that sold the drugs," Layden said.{"Unfortunately, at this point we haven't been able to obtain a sample for analysis of what these students consumed and that is something we would like to do, to be able to determine for sure what they ingested."{Beaconsfield Junior High School has co-operated with police and is stepping up its drug education program.}
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