The only marijuana magazine bringing you the stories of other pot smokers and smugglers.

Quick Hits (page 3)

Family of boy to get $2.55m

By: Jerry Bier, Fresno Bee

The family of an 11-year-old Modesto boy killed in his home during a narcotics sweep has settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against the city and several of its police officers for $2.55 million.

The total is in addition to the $450,000 settlement the family will receive from the federal government for the boy's death.

San Francisco lawyer Arturo J. Gonzalez, who represented the family of Alberto Sepulveda, said Wednesday that the $3 million total settlement is believed to be the largest paid by government for the wrongful death of a child.

The boy's father, Moises Sepulveda, still faces criminal charges in connection with the raid in September 2000 on the family home in which his son was shot in the back while following an officer's orders to lie face down on the floor.

Gonzalez said that the family "is still struggling" with the boy's loss. In addition, Moises Sepulveda's mother died Wednesday, the day the settlement was completed.

Moises Sepulveda was the target of a raid conducted at 6:30 a.m. Sept. 13, 2000, as part of a federal drug sweep with help from Modesto police.

A contingent of six officers, dressed in full SWAT gear, including masks, approached the Sepulveda home and broke down the front door. No drugs or weapons were found, Gonzalez said.

Federal drug agents reportedly had tape-recorded telephone calls of Sepulveda and Manuel Ruelas, the alleged leader of a methamphetamine-distribution ring, before the raid.

Gonzalez said he hopes the federal government will drop its criminal charges against Sepulveda. The case is set for trial Sept. 17.

"If ever a guy needed a break, it's this man," Gonzalez said.

A formal announcement of the settlement is scheduled today in federal court in Fresno before U.S. District Judge Anthony W. Ishii. A trial had been scheduled to begin July 23.

A four-month investigation into the Sepulveda boy's shooting by the Police Department determined that an officer's gun discharged accidentally, killing the youth. The family's lawsuit named the city and officer David Hawn, who fired the fatal shot, as well as several other officers.

Gonzalez said the settlement includes "significant changes" to Modesto's police policies "that will prevent a similar tragedy from recurring."

He said SWAT officers will refrain from pointing a firearm at any individual who is complying with directions from law enforcement and not displaying threatening behavior.

San Francisco lawyer Gregory M. Fox, who represents Modesto in the case, said he believes the case was settled in a way that can make law enforcement better in California.

"A lot of questions were asked, and a lot were answered," Fox said, " and this was settled in a way that hopefully this young child did not die in vain."

In the past, Fox said, local police agencies worked readily and without question with federal investigations, but now critical questions will be asked and he believes the new Modesto policy should be a model for other local agencies.

A cross-complaint by the city of Modesto against the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration will be dropped as part of the settlement, Fox said.

The settlement comes five months after the agreement was reached with the federal government for $450,000. That settlement also includes $100,000 for each of the two surviving Sepulveda children, minus $25,000 each for legal fees.

Gonzalez said the $2.55 million also includes legal fees.

Two weeks ago, lawyers representing the family and the city were in daylong negotiations overseen by U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis L. Beck, but the final settlement was not reached until this week.

Gonzalez and lawyer Robert Y. Chan, who filed the lawsuit against Modesto, are the same legal team that won a $12.5 million jury verdict for a Dinuba family after 64-year-old Ramon Gallardo Sr. was shot as many as 15 times during a police raid in July 1997. That case was appealed and later settled for $6 million.

In 1993, they also represented four women who were subjected to an unlawful body-cavity strip search after attending a meeting of the Dinuba School Board. A federal jury returned a verdict of $1.45 million, which remains the largest verdict ever in an unlawful strip search case, Gonzalez said.

Click here for more Quick Hits.

Growin' Our Own (page 3)

Eunice in Wonderland

By: Bonnie Down

Eunice, my mom (oh heavy sigh!). Born in 1923. Born a century too late. Ultra-Victorian. Always wore a mental corset. Wouldn't say shit if she'd had a mouthful. In fact, if we kids said it, she'd invariably say something along the lines of "How can you put in your mouth what I wouldn't hold in my hand!" Repressed beyond belief.

Don't think I'm putting her down, I'm not. She just had some ... quirks. She raised four kids and kept a clean, neat (if a trifle chaotic) house while she and Dad both worked. She just never quite fit into this century. She and Dad very seldom drank anything alcoholic, and drugs were never even mentioned in our home. Damned shame, that.

Mom's life was effectively over in 1966, though she lived for thirty-five more years. '66 was when the car accident happened. Dad was killed, Mom was left paralyzed from her armpits down. She couldn't do much after the wreck. Still raised the two of us kids that were at home, though. Still straight as a string. Docs gave her tranqs and pain pills after the wreck - she flushed them down the toilet (pardon me, the porcelain convenience). Said she couldn't run the house with her brain in a fog. Damn the pain, bite the bullet and never let 'em see you sweat.

That's why what my oldest brother did to (for?) her is so hilarious.

All of us kids were adults by then. My brother Bill was married at the time, and lived in a small town about 25 miles from Mom. He and his wife invited Mom to dinner one day. They picked her up in the early afternoon and took her to their modest but comfortable home. They were the best of hosts, catering to her every need. "Mom, would you like a cup of hot chocolate?" "Mom, do you need another pillow behind your back?" "Mom, would you like to listen to some Big Band music?" "Mom, would you like a couple of brownies with your cocoa?"

Oh yeah!! THAT kind of brownies. Not that Mom knew, of course. She would have died on the spot. She later said she suspected something was amiss when she heard Bill's wife telling him "Not THAT pan!! No, the OTHER pan!!" rather frantically as he was getting the brownies. She also heard him chuckling maniacally. Yup, Bill is quite the teaser.

Well, doggonit! Those brownies really hit the spot! Those were the best darned brownies Mom had ever had. Must be home made - that kind of taste doesn't come out of a boxed mix. Could she please have just one more? Bill, wanting to be the best host he could for our dear mother, hastened to fulfill her every wish ... to the tune of three more brownies over the course of the afternoon.

Mom had a great appetite that night at dinner - something she usually didn't. To hear Bill tell it, she ate everything on her plate, including the pattern. Then she had seconds, which was absolutely unheard of. She was having a wonderful time. Laughed at all Bill's jokes, laughed at Bill's wife (we all did though), laughed at everything on the television. Especially the ten o'clock news. (Another drug bust - oh, those awful people! Tee-hee-hee.)

All good things do end, however, and Mom had to go home eventually. Bill took her back to her place.

"I really can't remember when I've had such a wonderful time! (hee-hee-hee)" "Do you and Mabel always have that much fun?"

"No, Mom. Only when we watch you get stoned out of your gourd."

"WHAAAAAT???!!?" "What on earth do you mean?!"

"Well Mom, remember the brownies you liked so much? They were Alice B. Toklas brownies. They were baked with marijuana in them."

"You, you, you ... (hee-hee-hee) little stinker! (ha-ha-ha)."

Bill said she laughed for about five minutes straight then. By the time he got her into her house and situated for the night, it had gotten fairly late. The last thing I expected at midnight-thirty was a call from my Mom, still righteously stoned. Bill always seemed to get really good weed, by the way.

"Bonnie, (hee-hee-hee) do you know what that little stinker of a brother of yours (ha-ha-ha) did today (giggle-giggle)?"

"Um, Mom? Do you know it's twelve thirty?"

"Yes. (giggle-snort) I just got home."

"Well, okay. You're old enough to stay out late if you want."

"Darned tootin' I am! (guffaws of laughter)"

"Mom, what's going on? Are you alright?"

"I've never been better! (ha-ha-ha)"

She then gave me pretty much a blow by blow description of the entire afternoon and evening. I was kinda drifting off to sleep, not being intentionally rude you understand, when I heard the phrase "those pot-laced brownies". Whoa, Nellie!

"Mom, say that again - what kind of brownies?"

"Don't interrupt, dear, it's rude. I said the pot-laced brownies your brother gave me. He called them Alice somebody's brownies."

(Oh shit! My MOM is stoned!) "Mom, are you stoned?"

"Yes, (giggle-giggle) and it's the first time in years that my butt hasn't hurt!"

(Ohmigod! She is admitting to using drugs and said the word 'butt' all at the same time! I am totally freakin' out!) "Do you need some help. Mom? Do you want me to come over?"

"Why? I'm quite thoroughly enjoying myself. You'd just jabber at me and mess up my trip. Isn't that what you call it? (hee-hee-hee)"

"No Mom, you trip on acid."

"Well I can't trip on anything - I can't walk!"

This bon mot is followed by gales of laughter as though this is the best joke of the night. She's really weird now. I'm still freakin'.

"Hey, Mom ..."

"Hay is for horses, it's the first stage of horse poo-poo, don't say naughty things to your mother! (HA-HA-HA-HA)"

(Shit, now she's a comedian. My mother, who can never remember a punch line.)

"Mom, aren't you feeling sort of sleepy? Pot usually makes people sleepy, I hear."

"Yes, I am a little tired. It has been a long day. Will you kill your brother for me?"

"Uh, can I sleep on that?"

"You'd be more comfortable on your bed, don't you think? (Subdued giggles) It's past my bedtime, I'm going to sleep."

"A wise choice, Mom. Sleep well, and have good dreams."

"Oh wait, wait!"

"Yes, Mom?"

"Be alert! The country needs more lerts!"

All I heard was laughter echoing down the line as she hung up the phone in my ear with a resounding crash.

Click here for more Growin' Our Own.

Pipeline (page 3)

Can We Have Rope Without Dope? (Originally published September, 1943)

By: Alden P. Armagnac

We need hemp - lots of it - for cordage, but hemp means marijuana, too. Can scientists take the drug menace out of this useful plant?

Co-operating with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, American farmers will produce 75,000 tons of hemp fiber this year, and probably more than twice as much in 1944. The record-shattering crops will replace Manila fiber from the Philippines and sisal from the Dutch East Indies, which are now cut off by the war.

The result will be a boon to users of cordage - and a headache for law-enforcement officers. A Jekyll-and-Hyde plant, hemp provides twine and rope urgently needed for military purposes. But it also yields marijuana, a drug that makes depraved creatures of its addicts. What can be done to keep these enormous new supplies, from which there almost inevitably will be "leaks," out of their twitching hands?

"Drugless hemp" is the bold proposal of the Department of Agriculture for solving the problem. In short, it is attempting to breed a strain of hemp of good fiber quality, but containing a negligible amount of the baneful marijuana drug. For aid, it has enlisted the expert services of Dr. H.E. Warmke, at the Cold Springs Harbor, N.Y., experimental station of the Carnegie Institution.

First of Dr. Warmke's problems has been to develop a method of determining reliably the amount of marijuana in individual hemp plants. With undesirables weeded out, he then cross-pollinates and breeds the desirable, or relatively drug-free, plants. Only a little more time will be needed to learn whether he can establish a pure, self-perpetuating race of them.

Fish serve as test animals for determining the potency of marijuana extracts. Previous experimenters have used dogs, and tried to estimate the extent of their marijuana "jag" - something hard to reduce to cold figures. But when a fish is placed in a strong solution of marijuana extract, it soon is most thoroughly dead, and such an observation cannot be disputed. Therefore, Dr. Warmke puts two killifish, or "Atlantic minnows," into each of four beakers containing precisely measured dilutions of the drug - very strong, strong, medium, and weak. Then he can record the number of fish killed and get a definite measure of the poison in the plant.

First encouraging results show a great range in the amount of marijuana in different hemp plants. Some prove to be one eighth as poisonous as others an excellent starting point for a plant breeder. And actual breeding has definitely resulted in improvement. With true scientific caution, Dr. Warmke refuses to admit having "Burbanked" a drugless hemp until a few more plant generations have been tested, but to a layman's eyes he seems close to his goal.

This year America will grow 75,000 tons of hemp fiber whose leaves and flowers will contain marijuana.

1. The seedling of one of many plants being bred to reduce the marijuana content of hemp.

2. Dried center leaflets from each leaf of mature plant are ground to powder in mortar.

3. Measured amount of powder is put in vial, and a chemical is added to extract marijuana.

4. To determine the potency of the extract, a pair of killifish are placed in each of four beakers containing solutions of the drug ranging from very strong (left) to weak (right). In this way, the number of fish that are killed gives a graduated measure of the amount of marijuana in the plant tested.

5. In effort to breed a "pure" hemp, plants with low toxicity are cross-pollinated by shaking pollen from male plant (right) on stigmas of female.

Click here for more Pipeline.

Josephine's Reptile Nail & Body Wrap - for information, write to:
P.O. Box 2536
Sun Valley, Idaho, 83353