Marijuana Blog

WEST JORDAN — A Utah mother whose 11-year-old son has severe epilepsy is helping to launch a legislative initiative to legalize a liquid form of medical marijuana in the Beehive state, which may put a new face on the issue.

 

The face will be of children who could potentially be helped by a strain of the drug, not of unkempt potheads who roll their own weed.

 

Jennifer May, of Pleasant Grove, believes a hybrid form of cannabis offers hope to patients, such as her son, who suffer from Dravet syndrome, which can trigger hundreds of seizures a day for its victims and limit the life expectancy to 18 years or fewer. Her family currently spends more than $75,000 a year on medication in an effort to provide some relief and hope for their child in dealing with his epilepsy.

 

Annette Maughan, president of the Epilepsy Association of Utah, said there are at least 30 families in the Beehive state that would be affected dramatically by access to the drug. There are more than 100,000 Utahns overall who have epilepsy, she said.

 

Currently, a form of medical marijuana is legal in 18 states. Under Utah law, possession of one ounce of marijuana can carry a sentence of up to a year in jail.

 

Read more: http://www.standard.net/

Private plane pilots, especially those traveling to or through states with relaxed marijuana laws, are being subjected to warrantless searches by state and federal law enforcement, the Toledo Blade reported Monday.

 

The newspaper reported that the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which represents small plane owners and operators across the country, said it had received dozens of complaints from members “subjected to random searches” by Customs officers, local police, or both.

 

“None of the stops resulted in anything being found,” said Steve Hedges, a spokesman for the owners and pilots association. “In most cases, the pilots were stopped and held while their planes were searched… I’m told one pilot was asleep in a motel room with his wife when agents kicked the door down and took them back out to the airport to search his plane, only to find nothing there.”

 

Hedges said the pilots’ group has filed Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation justifying the searches, but didn’t expect to get a response for months.

 

The Blade also cited a June blog entry by the editor of Flying magazine, Robert Goyer, where Goyer described email and phone conversations with an unnamed “law enforcement source… who is knowledgeable about aviation matters” who described his 2009 training to participate in a federal drug interdiction program targeting private pilots. That source said he was taught pilots were to be treated as though they had no right to refuse a search.

 

“What they taught law enforcement officers and agents was that all aircraft can be detained since they fall under the… authority of the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration],” Goyer quoted the source. “This, in effect, gives them complete search authority of any aircraft.”

 

Goyer described the training as an “aviation drug interdiction” class sponsored by a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) office. The training was conducted by two agents, one from Homeland Security and one from Customs and Border Patrol, the source said.

 

Read more: http://www.theweedblog.com