Bad News for California Potheads

Pot goes up in smoke in wildfire above L.A.

Sep 18 2009

By THOMAS WATKINS - Associated Press Writer

Blog Editor's Note:

In an unanticipated major loss for California marijuana growers and users, the wildfires that have raged in the hillsides above Los Angeles have claimed an unplanned victim, a large chunk of the state's pot production.

Dick Dopehead (an assumed name), President of the California Coalition for the Legalization of Just About Everything (CCLJAE), said he expected a major shortage in marijuana supplies in the state as a result of the fire losses. "It's a shame the L.A. Transit Authority didn't run buses up near the fires, so marijuana users could enjoy some free weed," said Dopehead. "It was the opportunity of a lifetime."

Dopehead also predicted a steep rise in pot prices as regular potheads and medical marijuana users competed for a limited supply of the happy grass.

What follows is a conventional, mainstream news article by a writer for the Associated Press, which comes down pretty heavy on the side of officialdom in its war against the public. See for yourself.

Mainstream News Story

The wildfire that has ravaged a national forest near Los Angeles has burned one plant species that authorities were happy to see go: marijuana, lots of it.

The fire destroyed an untold number of marijuana plantations in the Angeles National Forest, a growing hub for pot-growing operations in California.

Three marijuana cultivation areas identified just before the fire are believed to have burned, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Phil Abner said, and many more are assumed to have been destroyed.

Sheriff's officials don't know how many plants were in the three burned grow areas. Because marijuana is grown in a hodgepodge style and the plants are concealed by tall brush, it is hard to gauge from helicopters the size of each grove. Groves can host anything from several hundred to several thousand plants.

"I don't doubt that some burned that we hadn't identified," said Abner, who heads up a multi-agency force tasked each growing season with eradicating marijuana. "It could be one (growing area), it could be 50."

Cultivation of marijuana, often by Mexican drug cartels, is rife in California's national forests, and the steep, scrub-covered canyons only a short drive from Los Angeles are no exception. Even before the blaze, authorities had removed record amounts of pot with an estimated street value of more than $2 billion.

In the days the fire was burning most ferociously, several apparent pot plantation laborers were spotted spilling from the forest and walking down highways away from the flames, Abner said.

"With no clear explanation as to why they were," he said. "The educated speculation is they came out of the marijuana groves."

And it appears they are already starting to return to the forest.

On Saturday, a team of hotshot firefighters working near a popular and badly burned recreational area high in the rugged San Gabriel Mountains found singed water lines with new ones already lying alongside them. Fearing for their safety, the firefighters called the sheriff's department, whose deputies arrested a Mexican national found hiding out with a .22-caliber rifle, Abner said.

Before the fire, authorities this year had already yanked about 595,000 plants from the national forest and surrounding areas, an amount far exceeding previous years. With each plant thought to produce about $4,000 worth of marijuana, Abner estimated the street value of the haul to be about $2.4 billion.

Across California, more than 4 million plants have been pulled by authorities this year, almost entirely from public lands, said Michelle Gregory, a spokeswoman with the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

Aside from the obvious dangers associated with having armed drug growers roaming the countryside, authorities are also concerned about marijuana plantations' environmental impact.

Barrels of pesticides and herbicides can spill into the groundwater system, especially after a wildfire, and growers leave trash, gasoline and other camping equipment lying around while they spend weeks tending their crop, said Lt. Joe Nunez of the sheriff's narcotics bureau.

They've also been blamed for starting fires.

Marijuana growers with possible ties to Mexican drug cartels caused an 88,650-acre wildfire in Santa Barbara County last month, investigators said. That blaze was sparked by a cooking device left by suspected drug traffickers at an encampment.

The current fire is not thought to have been started by marijuana cultivation, and investigators are looking for an arsonist thought to have set the blaze next to a mountain highway. Because two firefighters were killed when their truck crashed down a ravine as they fled flames, the probe is a homicide investigation.

The fire has charred 250 square miles of national forest and more than 80 homes, but could be fully contained any day.

Abner said the marijuana-growing areas are manned almost invariably by Mexican immigrants, some of whom have been tricked into tending the plants. He said some claimed to have been standing outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles, looking for day labor, when a van pulled up and asked them if they knew anything about gardening.

"The next thing they know they are up there for five weeks," Abner said, afraid or unable to come down from the hillside and return to the city. "They often can't tell you who hired them. ... They just tell you they have been paid to put water on the weeds."

Woman Ignites Self in Florida Mall - Shoppers Pause to Take Photos & Videos But Don't Offer to Help

Photos Of Burning Woman Signal Underlying Problem
WEST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4)

A woman just stood by taking pictures as Cecilia Casals burned inside the Mall of the Americas.


Cecilia Casals is in critical condition after purposely setting herself on fire at the Mall of the Americas. What is more shocking is that many people stopped and took pictures of her burning body instead of helping.

Still images and even video captured by cell phone cameras show the woman doused in flammable liquid and walking past stores.

"It looked like something out of movie," said John Torres, who actually stopped to help the woman.

However, dozens just gawked, and many pulled out their camera phones to capture the event.

Torres cut his hand as he bashed the glass in front of a fire extinguisher case. When the fire on her was out, the shoppers-turned-paparazzi didn't stop. CBS4 News asked why.

"Voyeurism is something that is a natural impulse. People get pleasure out of watching certain things," said Dr. Ewald Horwath, Chairman of UM's psychiatry unit.

Dr. Horwath told CBS4 fear may have played a major role in why people didn't help. Some overcome fear easier than others. However, the fact that more people went for cameras rather than extinguishers may be a sign of a defense mechanism.

"The camera or smart phone is another way of putting something between yourself and shocking frightening event," said Dr. Horwath.

"Instead of watching, participating, and getting emotionally involved in a way that might lead you to do something, you take a picture and it's a kind of distancing thing."

He believes your exposure to violence, whether in sports, violent reality TV or even the CBS4 newscast all plays a role in desensitizing our natural reactions. Had this happened in a small town, he says, the outcome may have been different.

"You have a lot of violent events that occur that maybe make folks in those urban cores a little more immunized to it," he said, "or reluctant to involve themselves."

Which means Torres isn't just a hero for putting this fire out, he's a rarity.

When asked if he'd do it again, Torres answered, "Yeah. Anyday."

CBS4 News spoke to the woman who took some of the pictures shown on air. She said it was her natural reaction to take them. She said her aunt thought it was a show promoting a product. She knew it wasn't though, because she could see the flesh burning.

Epilogue

Woman Who Set Herself On Fire At Mall Dies
(8/19/2009)

Things You Don't Give Much Thought To When Checking Into the Hospital For Surgery

Illinois woman dies after catching fire during surgery

Sep 17 2009

By JIM SUHR - Associated Press Writer


A southern Illinois woman died after being severely burned in a flash fire while undergoing surgery, a rare but vexing dilemma in operating rooms. Janice McCall, 65, of Energy, Ill., died Sept. 8 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., six days after being burned on the operating table at Heartland Regional Medical Center in Marion, Ill., (photo above) her family's attorney said.

Attorney Robert Howerton said he had requested medical records from the Marion hospital and that he had few details about what happened. He declined to say why McCall was having surgery.

The Tennessee state medical examiner's office said McCall died from complications of thermal burns and classified her death as accidental.

"The family is in shock and suffering their grief," Howerton said Thursday. "Every family has an anchor, and she was it. They're really just devastated."

Heartland said in a statement only that "there was an accidental flash fire in one of the hospital's operating rooms," injuring a patient before being immediately extinguished. The hospital didn't say how the fire started, but it said, without elaborating, that it was responding with "necessary and appropriate measures."

Heartland declined to comment further on the case, citing the family's request for privacy and federal laws barring the public release of patient medical information.

Surgical flash fires are most often sparked by electric surgical tools when oxygen builds up under surgical drapes. They occur an estimated 550 to 600 times a year _ a tiny fraction of the millions of surgeries performed in the U.S. annually _ and only kill about one or two people each year, said Mark Bruley, vice president for accident and forensic investigation at the ECRI Institute, a nonprofit health research agency.

Concern over such blazes waned after the 1970s, when highly flammable agents such as ether gave way to safer anesthetics.

But worries have mounted in recent years with increased use of electrosurgical devices and the replacement of cloth hospital drapes with those made of more-flammable, disposable synthetic fabric. Bruley's organization has recommended that anesthesiologists stop using 100 percent oxygen and deliver only what the patient needs, perhaps by diluting the oxygen concentration with room air when surgical tools such as electronic scalpels and cauterizers that could ignite a fire are in use.

"What we've been advocating for years is that the open delivery of oxygen under the drapes essentially has to stop," with some exceptions such as cardiac pacemaker surgery or operations involving a neck artery, Bruley said.

Crackhead Son Trades Dad's Wheels for $50 of Crack Cocaine

Man accused of trading dad's Lincoln car for $50 in crack.

Man in photo might not be the actual son but a substitute.

Sep 16 2009

Authorities arrested a man they said traded his father's car for $50 worth of crack cocaine. Deputies arrested the 39-year-old man around 4 a.m. Wednesday after his 74-year-old father reported that his Lincoln had been stolen. When deputies arrived at the father's home, they saw the son walking up the street. They determined that the car had been sold for drugs.

Deputies later saw someone else driving the Lincoln, and pulled it over. The driver fled the moving car, which then hit two parked cars.

Deputies caught the driver, who was arrested on suspicion of evading an officer and resisting arrest.

The son was arrested on suspicion of car theft.

Authorities did not release the names of those involved but did release a photo of the thieving son. (See above)

Hey, Guys....Take Your Time.....I'll Tell You When I'm Dead

Ohio inmate 'traumatized' after failed execution

Sep 16 2009

ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS - Associated Press Writer


(AP Photo/Ohio Department of Correction and Rehabilitation)

This undated photo released by the Ohio Department of Correction and Rehabilitation shows Romell Broom. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland denied clemency Monday. Sept. 14, 2009, to the death row inmate who raped and stabbed to death a 14-year-old girl 25 years ago. Romell Broom, 53, was moved Monday morning from Ohio's death row in Youngstown to the death house in southern Ohio to await his Tuesday,Sept. 15, 2009, execution as two courts reviewed whether the lethal injection should be stayed.

The lawyer for an inmate whose execution was halted after an unprecedented two hours said trying to put him to death again in a week could be a disaster.

Romell Broom is still recovering from Tuesday's prolonged execution attempt and is physically and emotionally traumatized, his attorney, Adele Shank, said Wednesday.

"It went so badly when he was walking in without injured veins, to go forward so soon afterward just seems to be inviting disaster," Shank said.

Gov. Ted Strickland's decision to stop Tuesday's execution and grant a one-week reprieve appeared to be unprecedented since capital punishment was declared constitutional and the nation resumed executions in the 1970s.

Inmates in several states have experienced delays with the injection of lethal chemicals, but those executions have always proceeded the same day.

Shank said one option was to ask Strickland to consider a request for clemency and to commute Broom's sentence.

Strickland said he is reviewing the incident and consulting with prison officials and others about the next step.

"That does not mean there will be a review of the larger issue of lethal injections," Strickland said Wednesday. "That's been settled. Obviously yesterday demonstrated that we have a problem with this particular set of circumstances."

A prison log released Wednesday blamed Broom's past drug use for problems finding a usable vein.

The log indicates that executioners made the observation at 3:11 p.m., more than an hour after first trying to find a vein.

"Medical team having problem maintaining an open vein due to past drug use," said the log reviewed by The Associated Press.

Broom said at one point he was a heavy heroin user, but then said at another time that he wasn't, prisons spokeswoman Julie Walburn said Wednesday.

Shank said she was unaware of any such drug use.

"If there's such a thing, it's got to be at least 25 years old," she said. "I don't think it should be having an impact at this late date."

Broom, 53, has been placed in a cell in the infirmary at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville where he is on close watch similar to the constant observation of death row inmates in the three days before an execution.

"It was the right place to keep him," Walburn said. "The less we can transport an offender, the better."

Death row inmates are housed in a Youngstown prison and executed in the death chamber at Lucasville. There's no precedent for housing an inmate whose execution didn't work.

The night before his scheduled execution, Broom told his brother over the phone that he was ready to die.

"He is tired of being in prison and having people tell him what to do everyday," according to the prison log.

Broom was sentenced to die for the rape and slaying of a 14-year-old Tryna Middleton after abducting her in Cleveland in September 1984 as she walked home from a Friday night football game with two friends.

Richard Dieter, director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center, said he knows of only one inmate who was subjected to more than one execution.

A first attempt to execute Willie Francis in 1946 by electrocution in Louisiana did not work. He was returned to death row for nearly a year while the U.S. Supreme Court considered whether a second electrocution would be unconstitutional.

In 2007, the Georgia execution of inmate John Hightower was delayed for several minutes while officials struggled to find a suitable vein in his left arm.

Florida halted executions after the death of Angel Diaz in December 2006 was delayed for 34 minutes because needles were accidentally pushed through his veins, causing the chemicals to go into his muscles instead. Florida resumed executions in 2008 under new procedures.

In Texas in 2000, the execution of Claude Jones was delayed by about 30 minutes because of difficulties finding a vein in either arm to insert the drugs. Authorities used a vein in his left leg instead.

Problems accessing veins also delayed Ohio executions in 2006 and 2007.

In 2006, the execution of Joseph Clark was delayed for more than an hour after the team failed to properly attach an IV, an incident that led to changes in Ohio's execution process.

The state also had difficulty finding the veins of inmate Christopher Newton, whose May 2007 execution was delayed nearly two hours.

Since Clark, the state's execution rules have allowed team members to take as much time as they need to find the best vein for the IVs that carry the three lethal chemicals.

Ohio has executed 32 men since Wilford Berry in 1999, an execution slightly delayed also because of problems finding a vein.

___

Associated Press Writers Stephen Majors in Lucasville and JoAnne Viviano in Columbus contributed to this report.

Woman Steals Gas $37, Cheetos $1.89, Claims to Be Wife of Governor, Fakes Call to Fibbies and Leaves Without Paying

Cops: Woman who stole gas claimed to be N.C. Governor's wife

Sep 16 2009

Thief

Police say a woman who stole fuel and a bag of Cheetos from a Pooler convenience store claimed to be Gov. Beverly "Sonny" Perdue's wife.
N.C. Governor>>>


Pooler police say the woman pumped a little more than 15 gallons of gas, worth $37, into a white Ford Explorer at the Clyde's Market on U.S. 80 near Pooler Parkway around noon Friday.

Police say she went inside, got a bag of chips and offered a check and debit card, but both payment modes were declined.


That's when the clerk tells police the woman said she was the governor's wife, then started to whisper into the phone, pretending to speak to the FBI.

The woman then grabbed her purse and the chips and escaped before paying for the food or the gas. Police are investigating.

"Why Don't We Do It in the........ Dumpster?"

Kansas couple's trash bin tryst takes wrong turn

Sep 15 2009


A tender moment in a trash bin went all wrong for a couple who found themselves being held up at pocket knifepoint. Police said two 44-year-olds had climbed into a dumpster to have sex just after 6 p.m. Saturday when two men interrupted them and demanded their belongings. Officers said the man and woman were engaged in "an intimate moment" when they were robbed of their shoes, jewelry and the man's wallet.

Police said one of the robbers was a 64-year-old man who egged his 59-year-old companion on during the robbery.

The suspects were found a short time later and the stolen property was returned. The suspects were charged with aggravated assault, robbery and coitus interruptus.