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Victoria Times-Colonist, 17 Feb 2010 - Latest Raid at Victoria Residence Nets Five Arrests, Guns and Ammo The province is trying to seize a house that police describe as a haven for criminal activity. Victoria police say they have been called 180 times in the last seven years to the house at 2547 Prior St. The most recent raid on the house was Thursday, when a tactical team and undercover officers arrested five people and confiscated a sawed-off 12-gauge shot gun, a replica submachine-gun and ammunition, said Victoria police spokesman Sgt. Grant Hamilton.

The Daily Tribune, 17 Feb 2010 - Says Royal Oak Man's Pot Was Illegally Confiscated. The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is urging the Royal Oak Police Department not to seize medical marijuana from registered patients.

New York Times, 17 Feb 2010 - Lawyers defending three police officers accused in a brutality case sought on Tuesday to blunt damage done by a fellow officer who had testified that he saw Officer Richard Kern jab a baton between the buttocks of Michael Mineo, a 24-year-old body piercer who had been smoking marijuana outside a Brooklyn subway station. Mr. Kern's lawyer, John D. Patten, said that prosecutors might as well have supplied the words used by the key prosecution witness, Officer Kevin Maloney. "It's not Maloney testifying," Mr. Patten said during closing arguments in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn as he turned and pointed at Charles Guria, the lead prosecutor. "It's this gentleman here testifying."

New York Times, 17 Feb 2010 - Citing insufficient evidence, federal authorities said Tuesday that they would not bring a civil rights case against the New York City police officers involved in the killing of Sean Bell, a 23-year-old black man who was shot by the police outside a strip club in Queens on his wedding day. The decision by the Justice Department came after prosecutors and federal agents reviewed the case, in which five police officers fired 50 shots into the Nissan Altima that Mr. Bell was driving. The car struck a detective in the leg and hit a police van just before the officers began firing their weapons.

New York Times, 17 Feb 2010 - Howard Lotsof was 19, addicted to heroin and searching for a new high in 1962 when he swallowed a bitter-tasting white powder taken from an exotic West African shrub. "The next thing I knew," he told The New York Times in 1994, "I was straight."

News & Observer, 16 Feb 2010 - RALEIGH - A Shaw University police officer kept four bags of seized marijuana and other campus evidence in the garage of her Johnston County home, police reports say. After deputies recovered them from a plastic box near the house, she also reported case files had been stolen from the home. In September, Johnston County deputies followed an anonymous tip to the home of Officer Argentina Rojas near Garner. There, they found the drugs, knives, toy guns, pictures and envelopes in the box, police reports said. It was unclear how much marijuana the bags contained.

Fort Collins Coloradoan, 16 Feb 2010 - For the uninitiated, a visit to a medical marijuana dispensary is an eye-opening experience. Marijuana, relegated to the shadows for decades, sits openly in bright display cabinets. Prices are posted on the wall. Helpful clerks measure out purchases on digital scales.

Iowa City Press-Citizen, 16 Feb 2010 - Nearly two-thirds of Iowans think patients should be allowed to use marijuana as medicine if their doctors approve, a new Iowa Poll shows. However, fewer than a third of Iowans want to make the drug legal for people who just want to get high, the poll shows.

Fort Collins Coloradoan, 16 Feb 2010 - The growth of the medical marijuana industry in Fort Collins has some residents worried about what that means for their neighborhoods. Much of the marijuana that is supplying local dispensaries is being produced locally by indoor "grows," including homes in residential areas, officials say. Of the 98 businesses with city sales tax licenses that identify themselves as being the medical marijuana trade, 40 are in residential zones.

El Paso Times, 16 Feb 2010 - EL PASO -- The Chihuahua state legislature has decided not to make Juarez the temporary state capital. Chihuahua Gov. Jose Reyes Baeza asked the legislature to consider moving the capital from Chihuahua City to Juarez temporarily in an effort to help the border city survive the ongoing drug cartel war. The legislature voted the proposal down Friday.

The Now, 16 Feb 2010 - Appeals/Officer Showed 'careless Disregard For Fundamental Rights' The B.C. Court of Appeal has upheld the acquittal of two men whose Charter rights were breached by police during an investigation into an alleged marijuana grow op in rural Surrey.

Summit Daily News, 16 Feb 2010 - Cops, Docs, Residents Weigh In On Cannabis Concept FRISCO - A lively public discussion on medical marijuana recently reflected the belief that, regardless of personal opinion, society is becoming more accepting of the drug - and statewide legalization is no pipe dream.

El Paso Times, 16 Feb 2010 - AUSTIN -- A $1.7 million grant from the state will pay for more prosecutors or investigators to take on gangs, drugs and human trafficking along the border, Gov. Rick Perry said Monday. Perry announced funding for the creation of the Border Prosecution Unit, which came from the $110 million allocated by the lawmakers for border security during the last legislative session.

The University Daily Kansan, 16 Feb 2010 - While state legislators were working this month to outlaw synthetic forms of marijuana such as K2, a new House bill sprouted that proposes the real thing be made available in Kansas. Gail Finney, a Wichita House Democrat who serves on the House Health and Human Services Committee, introduced bill 2610 this month. It calls for the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes.

Los Angeles Times, 16 Feb 2010 - Xalisco's Good Life Can Mean Death in the U.S. The Poorest of Mexico's Poor Can Step Up to the Middle Class When They Go North to Sell Black Tar. Last of Three Parts

Green Valley News and Sun, 15 Feb 2010 - Drugs and violent crime in Tucson and Southern Arizona have created an unlikely commonality between a pro-marijuana group and law enforcement officials, both of whom think that legalizing pot would eliminate the driving force behind much of the illicit drug trade along the U.S.-Mexico border. Even though the Border Patrol works around the clock to secure the border and prevent drug trafficking through patrols, checkpoints, fencing and high-tech measures, agents reported that from Jan. 7 through Feb. 3, they found more than 7,800 pounds of marijuana in the Tucson Sector.

Kaleidoscope, 15 Feb 2010 - On Saturday, members of Alabamians for Compassionate Care- -- a group that supports the use and legalization of medical marijuana -- marched from Caldwell Park to the fountain at Five Points west. They were there to support the Michael Phillips Compassionate Care Act. They expect the bill will be introduced to the state legislature sometime in March. It is modeled after the laws that are in effect in 14 other states and the District of Columbia, and it would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to patients who suffer from seizures, have chronic pain or have been diagnosed with cancer.

Washington Times, 15 Feb 2010 - The U.S. military assault under way in southern Afghanistan seeks to oust Taliban forces but has the secondary mission of disrupting insurgent drug trafficking in a region notorious for large-scale opium production, U.S. and Afghan officials said Sunday. A main goal of the military operation involving about 15,000 Marines, British troops and some Afghan soldiers that began Friday in Helmand province is to try to win support of local Afghans.

Times Argus, 15 Feb 2010 - MONTPELIER - Rep. Joe Baker is about as unlikely an advocate for marijuana-reform legislation as one could find. The husky West Rutland lawmaker calls himself a law-and-order Republican who has never smoked the drug in his life.

Los Angeles Times, 15 Feb 2010 - Black Tar Moves In, and Death Follows Dealers Work Systematically, Pushing Heroin in Areas Where Users Are Unprepared for Its Potency Second of Three Parts