News

Up to 25 Hospitalized by Deadly Ecstasy While some die dropping E, many have close calls. "Although the fatalities are tragic, the number of those who were hospitalized and survived is at least two to three times higher than those who died," says Dr. Mark Yarema, the Poison and Drug Information Service medical director and an ER physician.

They heard about it at their bridge games, or from the corkboard at the senior center, or through their grandkids who use the Internet. Then they carpooled to Temple Shaarei Shalom in Boynton Beach this recent Sunday afternoon - trios of little old ladies with short white hair and thin sweaters, and wizened men reading the Sun-Sentinel while wearing clunky black shades indoors.

Defendants on probation in Colorado may not use medical marijuana even if they have a medical marijuana identification card authorizing them to do so, the Colorado Court of Appeals has ruled.

No new medical marijuana businesses will be allowed to open in Boulder for at least nine months after the City Council unanimously approved extending a moratorium on the industry Tuesday night.

Opinions

Some people shake in their boots at the thought of legalizing marijuana. The idea that it could be regulated and controlled like alcohol and tobacco scares the hell out of them. Those people are ignorant and disillusioned, and it's at no fault of their own.

RICHMOND B.C. -- Another person -- a teenaged boy -- has died from an ecstasy overdose in Vancouver this month, bringing to 19 the number of ecstasy-related death in the past six months in B.C.

Readers of the Jan. 29 Sunday Olympian woke up to two front-page headlines, five full-color photos and 85 column inches about the legal woes of local medical cannabis providers. The story had all the makings of great political drama: ambiguous laws, ambivalent lawmakers, undercover cops, lawyers of all stripes.

Unemployed Should Always Be Ready to Return to Work, Employers are the folks who pay for 100 percent of unemployment insurance costs, and most agree that when someone loses a job, through no fault of his or her own, there should be a safety net.

Letters

Re: Metchosin weighs in on legalizing pot, News, Jan. 18, 2012. The move of several municipalities to urge the legalization of cannabis will, I hope, have some influence of national policy, or at least police enforcement.

Editor: Not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need, but adult recreational use should be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children.

Drugs did not spawn Mexico's organized crime networks. Just like alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone, drug prohibition created the violent drug-trafficking organizations behind all the killings in Mexico.

Re: "Message is simple: If you do the E circulating on the streets right now, you're going to need one of these expensive, shiny boxes," (Jan. 31). What a disappointing column by Michael Platt. Surely only an ignoramus would warn us against using a particular illegal drug without pointing out the screamingly obvious point here: Illegal drugs are always inherently dangerous. Clean, pure, government inspected legal drugs are not. Does Michael Platt know nothing about prohibition?

Re: 'Drug scourge takes its toll,' Jan. 27. The RCMP should realize that when they're saying it's "probably just the tip of the iceberg" what they are saying, in effect, is they're only eliminating rival dealers' competition. The scourge of drug prohibition is so entrenched in the 21st century that it has become, essentially, the (un)necessary evil for providing platforms for politicians and making work for enforcement.

In her letter of Jan. 27, Theresa Null, describes an acquaintance "Sarah", who had a stressful family life, made an apparent escape but then began using medical marijuana (MMJ), which, Null claims, caused "Sarah" to sink into apathy, affecting her responsibilities and relationships.

Re "NYPD cops involved in shooting of unarmed man placed on modified duty" (Nydailynews.com, Feb. 3): This tragedy happened because of the city's ridiculous policies on marijuana. Nobody should face arrest or jail time for small amounts of marijuana. It's a waste of money and a danger to the public.