Thursday, October 29, 2015
But he did tell them that he feels their right to burn — marijuana, that is.
For the first time, the Vermont independent urged the federal government to remove pot from its list of controlled substances, calling such a move "long overdue." Sanders did not go so far as to call for nationwide legalization of marijuana, but he said that states should be free to regulate the drug as they do alcohol and tobacco.
"In the year 2015, it is time for the federal government to allow states to go forward as they best choose," he said. "It is time to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol. It is time to end the arrests of so many people and the destruction of so many lives for possessing marijuana."
Tags: Bernie Sanders , Cannabeat , marijuana , Presidential Campaign , race , Senator , Recommended Reading , Image , Video , Web Only
Thursday, October 22, 2015
"You know, I'm looking at what's going on in Colorado and elsewhere," Sanders told talk show host Jimmy Kimmel. "But I am not unfavorably disposed to moving toward the legalization of marijuana."
The Vermont independent made the remark at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, where the Los Angeles-based comedian has been taping ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" all week.
Sanders frequently talks about ending the so-called war on drugs. He supports legalizing medical marijuana and decriminalizing pot. During last week's Democratic presidential debate, he said that if he were a resident of Nevada, he "suspect[ed]" he would vote in favor of an upcoming ballot measure that would legalize it in the state. But Sanders has thus far refrained from issuing his full-throated support for nationwide legalization.
Tags: Bernie Sanders , Cannabeat , Jimmy Kimmel , marijuana legalization , Presidential Campaign , Senator , Recommended Reading , Image , Video , Web Only
Tuesday, September 15, 2015
During a press conference attended by Gov. Peter Shumlin and a phalanx of state and federal law enforcement officers, Miller said the cases, while not directly connected, represent inroads in the fight against heroin.
"None of us up here are declaring victory," Miller said. "We all have a lot more work to do."
In court papers, prosecutors alleged that the biggest operation, based in Caledonia County, was run by a New Jersey man, Miguel Zayas, and his partner, Lamar Carter of Brattleboro.
Police also arrested six Vermont "facilitators" from the St. Johnsbury area who helped the men sell heroin and cocaine since at least early 2014, according to court documents.
Tags: Caledonia County , Eric Miller , heroin , Opioid Crisis , Peter Shumlin , Rutland , Image , Web Only
Thursday, August 20, 2015
"I was very, very upset about the shooting," said city Councilor Jane Knodell (P-Central District) during a meeting of the city council's public safety committee Wednesday night at the Sustainability Academy on North Street, across the street from the shooting scene. She called it a "real signal that things have escalated." The committee is holding four meetings in different neighborhoods to address residents' concerns.
Both Mayor Miro Weinberger and incoming police chief Brandon del Pozo attended, as did Howard Center staff.
Residents wanted to know how they could assist police, but they also had plenty of advice for law enforcement. Several people reported having unpleasant or unhelpful encounters with police officers and dispatchers and wondered why officers weren't more aggressive about putting a halt to the blatant drug activity they've witnessed. Seven Days reported on similar complaints in a recent story that recounted how one woman in the city's lower Hill Section hung a sign in a tree to discourage drug activity.
Tags: Burlington , Old North End , Burlington Police Department , Image , Web Only
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Blasphemous, right? Especially here and now, as Vermont breweries have craft-beer fans from around the world drooling at their doors.
That's the point, said Pearson, a Burlington Progressive. "This is not something either of us support. It would be ridiculous," he said. It's just as ridiculous, he argued, to prohibit the sale and use of marijuana, a substance he argues is safer by many measures.
Tags: Cannabeat , Chris Pearson , Jean O'Sullivan , marijuana legalization , Vermont legislature , Image , Web Only
Friday, January 16, 2015
Should state government tap into that money by making pot legal? The report, written by the RAND Corporation, makes no attempt to offer recommendations but instead pulls together a heap of information lawmakers might use in answering that question.
“It’s there to inform our conversation around this issue,” Administration Secretary Justin Johnson said at a Statehouse briefing Friday afternoon. “It says, essentially, it’s not something you just switch on, switch off. It’s a decision you make carefully.”
The estimated tax revenues represent a wide range because there are so many unknowns, the report's authors said.
Beau Kilmer, RAND's project leader, presented it to roughly 50 legislators, administration officials, prosecutors and others interested in the issue. Supporters were anxiously awaiting the report, hoping it would help kick off a legalization debate this year in the legislature.
Tags: Cannabeat , Justin Johnson , Marijuana legalization , Peter Shumlin , RAND Corporation , Vermont , Image , Web Only
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
In total, Donovan has dropped five cases this week as a result of the arrest of Colchester Detective Cpl. Tyler Kinney, who faces federal charges for allegedly stealing a gun and drugs from the evidence locker to support his heroin habit.
And there will likely be many more cases dismissed in the next several weeks, Donovan said. He declined to give an estimate.
"It hurts public safety, there's no doubt about it," Donovan said. "The community suffers. There is a real consequence to his alleged behavior."
Cases dropped today were against Nam Le, charged with possessing 1.9 pounds of marijuana, Frank Owen, charged with possessing 4.7 pounds of marijuana, and Kellie Quenneville, charged with possessing 3.7 ounces of marijuana and also misdemeanor drug possession.
In each case, Donovan said, seized drugs are missing and presumably were taken by Kinney. The cases were dropped before defense attorneys filed motions, which Donovan says were inevitable, challenging the evidence. "There's no physical evidence. It's gone," Donovan said. "The charge is possessing drugs, and if you can't produce the drugs, how can you proceed?"
The announcement comes a day after Donovan's office dropped cases against two alleged heroin dealers for the same reason.
Donovan's office is awaiting a report from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting a full audit of the Colchester police evidence room. Drug cases may not be the only ones in jeopardy.
In other cases that rely on evidence stored there, lawyers could argue the evidence was unreliable and potentially tainted. And cases in which Kinney was an investigator could also be in trouble, Donovan said, as attorneys could attack his credibility.
Donovan said he is obligated to abandon charges if they rely on evidence that can't hold up in court. "Our mission, our job is to seek justice, not to get convictions," Donovan said. "It's about the integrity of the system. The government, all of us, this one is on us. We own it."
Kinney is currently receiving in-patient treatment in Serenity House in Wallingford while his case is pending.
Tags: cannabis related , Chittenden County , Colchester police , crime , drugs , T.J. Donovan , Image , Web Only
Friday, October 31, 2014
Joshua Rose trafficked between 400 and 700 grams of heroin from New York to Rutland in 2012, U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin said. Rose was arrested by New York police in September 2012 with 100 grams of heroin that was bound for Rutland, authorities said.
A week before the arrest, Rutland resident David C. Blanchard III fatally overdosed on heroin sold by Rose's network.
For several months afterward, two of Rose's New York-based lieutenants, Devon Cruz, 29, and Charles Hercules, 23, continued to run the operation, authorities said. According to prosecutors, they used several heroin addicts in Rutland as middle men.
Tags: crime , heroin , Opioid Crisis , overdose , Rutland , Tristram Coffin , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
In addition to the two restroom closures, during the last 18 months, SeeClickFix, Burlington's crowd-sourced app for reporting low-level problems to city officials, documented 32 needle discoveries.
Beyond that, Councilor Selene Colburn (P-Ward 1) said the committee isn't sure of the scope of the problem, but one of their goals is to figure out a way to quantify it.
Councilor David Hartnett (D-Ward 4), the owner of the Mobile Short Stop in the New North End, said he's observed firsthand an uptick in the needles discovered in his restrooms. He bought a "sharps" container (a catch-all for sharp biowaste products) to dispose of needles he finds. "We used to just put them in Coke bottles or styrofoam cups," he said.
Tags: Burlington City Council , Drugs , Burlington , Image , Web Only
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
A week after the story ran, a federal grand jury indicted Hey, 47, on charges of conspiring to deal heroin and using her home to sell heroin and cocaine. Hey is being held awaiting trial and faces more than 20 years in prison, according to court documents.
Court documents say that Hey "confessed," to having relationships with at least six groups of out-of-state drug dealers, buying drugs from them and allowing them to use her LaFountain Street apartment as a base of operations, prosecutors alleged in court filings. As each group was arrested, Hey told investigators, she moved to the next group.
Most recently, according to court documents, Hey aligned herself with two New York City men, Tyshawn Mack and Thomas Parker, beginning in late 2013, and allowed them to use her LaFountain Street apartment as a base of operations to sell heroin. Both Mack and Parker have been indicted on federal charges.
Prosecutors allege Hey also brokered a deal inside her apartment whereby Parker and Mack bought an assault rifle and several handguns that had been stolen from a home in Underhill, according to court documents.
"Hey is not simply a user of heroin," Assistant U.S. Attorney Nancy Creswell wrote. "She has admitted using runners to sell drugs for Mack and Parker and she sells drugs herself. She allows her apartment to be used as a base for drug sales. Moreover ... she has been involved with the trading of firearms for heroin."
In interviews with Seven Days in April, Hey, who had previously been charged by state prosecutors with selling heroin, scoffed at assertions that she was, in her words, a "big-time dealer." Rather, Hey said that she sold small amounts of heroin to fund her own addiction, and was so destitute that she couldn't pay her gas bill.
Tags: Heroin , Opioid Crisis , Winooski , Image , Web Only