Quick Hits (page 4)
18 Year old Sentenced to 26 Years
By: Carla Crowder (News staff writer)
Webster Alexander lives in a brown trailer on the outskirts of this Lawrence County town. The trailer, alongside a gravel road across from a seemingly boundless cow pasture, is home to Alexander's young cousins, a niece and nephew, his sister, his parents, a dachshund and a cage of fluttering cockatiels.
It is also where, last winter and early spring, Alexander sold marijuana, an ounce at a time, to someone he thought was a new kid at school.
Alexander was 18, a senior at Lawrence County High with two classes left before graduation. The "new kid" turned out to be an undercover drug agent. And four sales, together worth about $350, landed Alexander a 26-year prison sentence.
It was his first arrest.
Authorities have used the prosecution to sound a warning through the halls of this rural school, where battling drugs and alcohol has become a priority.
"Certainly it makes a point, a very big point, about accountability," said Lawrence County District Attorney Ed Osborn. His office handled the plea bargain in January that sealed the stiff sentence.
It's probably tougher than anything handed down in the Birmingham metro area, according to police and school officials. "In Smalltown, USA, they're going to throw the book at them," said Birmingham Vice and Narcotics Sgt. Richard Miller.
Prison terms of 10 years or more in drug cases are usually reserved for repeat offenders, or crimes in which guns are used, said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the NORML Foundation, a Washington-based group working to bring marijuana laws in line with alcohol and tobacco laws.
"Putting a young man in jail for 26 years, on the face of it, appears to be over-punitive, too expensive to the taxpayer and of no deterrent value," he said.
Once news of Alexander's sentence hit the Internet, NORML came to his aid. The group will lobby for a reduced sentence or probation.
Alexander was not arrested with marijuana at school. Prosecutors secured enhancements on his sentence because of a state law that adds five years when someone sells drugs within three miles of a school or housing project.
Though on an isolated country stretch, the Alexanders' property met both standards.
Many states have "drug-free schools" laws that up the penalties for drug sales near schools and churches. Usually the boundary falls within 1,000 feet. St. Pierre said he knew of no other state that extended the area three miles.
Marijuana has been so easily available in this blue-collar town of 3,300 that Alexander smoked his first joint at age 9. It was six years before he starting smoking regularly.
He doesn't deny he sold marijuana. It was easy money. But authorities' depiction of him as some sort of kingpin is far from the truth, he said. "I've been in maybe one fight in school my whole life, and now I'm sentenced to 26 years in the pen," he said. "That doesn't make any sense to me."
After his arrest and expulsion, Alexander found a private school where he completed his classes and got a high school diploma. He also graduated from a drug treatment program, found a job as a bricklayer and enrolled in Calhoun Community College.
He's hoping for mercy, that those accomplishments will impress the judge at a March 10 hearing where he will seek probation.
Alexander played football during most of his school years and summer league baseball. He was a C student. "Everybody knew me. Everybody liked me," Alexander said. "I loved going to school."
Undercover in school:
The crackdown that led to Alexander's arrest began soon after Ricky Nichols took over as principal in fall 2001.
Nichols, an Army Reservist who target-shoots with sheriff's deputies, considers himself a front-line soldier in the war on drugs. His training includes police courses on drug identification. The drug task force has given him pointers on searching students' cars for contraband.
Once a girl came in the school office asking for aspirin. She admitted having a hangover and failed a breath test. Nichols searched her car. "She didn't really have a choice," he said. "I don't have to have probable cause. The police have to have probable cause."
Nichols says there were 26 drug and alcohol incidents last year, the year Alexander was busted, at the school of 600 students. The students were either suspended or sent to an alternative school 20 miles away. Some dropped out and earned GEDs. Some just dropped out, he said.
Nichols believes every school has drug problems and conditions in Lawrence County were not unique. What was unusual was that the former sheriff offered to assign an undercover cop to the classroom.
"I would love it," Nichols recalled telling him.
So last February, a 26-year-old agent with the Lawrence County Drug Task Force enrolled as a 19-year-old senior transfer.
The agent, who agreed to talk about his work as long as he not be identified, said Nichols showed him photos of students suspected of being involved in drugs. He was assigned to senior English and government, both of Alexander's classes.
Courtney Bush, another targeted student, was in one of the classes.
The agent said he hit the jackpot Day One. He was sitting behind Bush, and Bush's girlfriend announced her intentions to break up with him because he was a drug dealer, the agent said. "I tapped him on the left shoulder and said, 'Hey, can you hook me up?'"
On Day Two, he made a deal with Alexander.
During the break between classes, Alexander was sitting at a table with some friends. The agent wandered over. He introduced himself as a new student and began asking questions about where to "party."
Alexander told him that he was "the one to see about the smoke."
From Feb. 29 to April 3, the agent made three buys from Alexander and two from Bush, according to court records.
The agent did some homework, took one test and made a good grade. That worried the principal. He was supposed to be a troublemaker.
Suspicions that he was a cop began to brew toward the end of his eight weeks there. To allay them, the agent and principal staged a scene outside a classroom where the agent got in trouble for being tardy.
"I reamed him out. I tore him up. I ate him alive," Nichols said. "He said a few choice words about me and bingo, he's back in the pack."
Authorities say they do not believe Bush and Alexander were working together. Bush, now 20, whose case is pending, likely will face a steep sentence as well. Unlike Alexander, he carried marijuana to school, the agent said.
Alexander's 1976 Ford pickup was unreliable, so the agent gave him rides home to make the buys. Alexander usually lit up a joint. The agent had to fake it. "I would simulate, blow out instead of inhaling. It made a lot of smoke and it looked real good," he said.
On April 9, during the agent's fourth buy from Alexander, deputies swarmed the brown trailer.
Alexander's 22-year-old sister was cooking breakfast for her children, then 1 and 4.
Deputies searched the home. Alexander was jailed overnight. He was charged with four counts of distribution of marijuana, one count of first-degree possession and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia rolling papers, scales and a pipe. An uncle bailed him out.
Also arrested was Alexander's cousin, Rodney Hicks, who lives nearby. Hicks delivered marijuana to Alexander from an oak tree between their houses, the agent said. He was charged with one count each of marijuana distribution, possession and possession of paraphernalia. Later that day, police arrested Bush in the school lunchroom. Of the three, Hicks, 19, was the lone one to receive youthful offender status from Circuit Judge Philip Reich.
Court-appointed attorney Chris Malcom of Moulton represents Bush, who qualified for indigent defense.
"I don't think he had a serious drug problem, and there wasn't a ton of money involved," Malcom said. "It kind of gave him a little bit of identity, a chance to ride around with the cool kids."
Malcom said he was not surprised that Reich denied youthful offender status for Bush and Alexander. It's consistent with the judge's history. The seriousness of these cases lies in the multiple sales. Nine times out of ten, a young person will get youthful offender status under which authorities can keep them no longer than three years for a first-time possession case, Malcom said.
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Tan 'n' Trends
Growin' Our Own (page 4)
How to Grow Marijuana
By: Mr. Greenfingers
This educational article overlaps our previous one on how to grow kind bud. This covers more specific growing information. We cover growing from seeds and growing from clones. We cover special fertilizers, soils, problems, photosensitive characteristics of cannabis, genetics, cropping, development from the vegetative metabolic stage to the dynamic changes in the budding stage. Read about lighting, harvest, drying, and testing. Note this is only an educational article and we urge you to check the laws in your location to determine if this is legal for you.
Growing Marijuana From Seeds
If you ever get Mexican weed it should have many seeds. A pound will usually yield almost 1 ounce of seeds. Check the seeds for color. A white color means the seed is undeveloped, immature, and if you cut it open, it will be empty. Same with green seeds, although we have seen lime green Michoacan seeds that are ready to grow. Black seeds for the most part are ones that have been damaged. The hard shell is somehow smashed, cut or pierced. This is the general rule as some black seeds can be ready to grow. If you have a magnifying glass you can examine a black seed to see if the outer shell has been cut, or smashed. We have found this true in about 90% of all black seeds. This leaves you all the colors of seeds in between. The most fertile, undamaged, seeds will be a tan to gray color. This spectrum includes brown seeds like Colombian Gold and Panama Red. Most of these seeds will have black tiger stripes and look like mini-pecans. These are the good seeds. Cut a white one open and see that there is nothing inside. Cut a tan to gray one open and you will find a white oily yolk inside. These are what you want to work with.
You take some good seeds and germinate (place them in water to open) them. There are many methods to germinate seeds. One good method is to wet a paper towel and fold it up until it's about 4" x 4". Place about 50 seeds in the towel and fold it up again. Place these in an open plastic bag or other container and put them in a window sill where they will get warmth from the sun. Check these for about 5 to 10 days. Be sure to check the towel as you want it to remain moist. As the seeds open the shell splits and a white tap root with hairs will appear. Then plant them into loose soil about
Growing Marijuana Clones
First we want to explain what a clone is. A clone is an exact genetic reproduction of the parent. Here male plants are not desirable, so clones should come from the female (mother) plant. To make a clone, and if you have an adult female plant, you simply cut off a branch and dip it into a root growth hormone. The root hormones are either liquid or powder. Always read the label on fertilizers and chemicals. Follow the directions so you don't end up with medical problems. Dispose of containers according to the specific directions. This branch (clone) is an exact genetic replica of the adult female plant. The clone is called a baby, and the female that it was cut from is called a mama. The clone is the same plant, the same age as its mama, but being a branch, is much smaller. Most clones will have 5 to 7 leaf fingers. This maturity beats growing scrawny young plants from seeds.
The 1st cloned sheep, "Dolly," died at age 6 and her mother was 6 when Dolly was cloned. Sheep have a life of about 12 years, so you get the life/age idea. Dolly probably had a time clock based on her mother's age of 6 years old. Scientists, after Dolly's death, are trying to determine if the adult's age should be included in the equation of the clone's age. What this may mean is: Dolly's genetic age at birth was 6 years old - the same age as her mother. It appears that this may become the scientist's finding on the case and for cloning in general. If determined true, for marijuana plants this is a plus. The clone or branch of a 2 or 5 month old mother plant will be the same mature age as its parent. This mature age (if determined as scientific fact) is a distinct advantage of a marijuana clone over a seedling. This theory, if true, would beat all seed growers by months. A clone will have leaf development up to 5 to 7 fingers per leaf when it's only 4 to 6 inches tall. No seed can compare to this type of production. The mother plant can live for years if tricked by 18 hour a day lighting and kept away from male pollen. This is "fooling Mother Nature," and will artificially keep the mama growing way beyond her intended annual [one year] life span. She will never go into a budding stage if kept away from male pollen and kept in 18 hour a day light. Who cares, as long as mom gives off healthy clones that can be budded and harvested in 90 days? Mama, if treated right, will outlive all her budding baby clones that will go up in smoke.
Planting Marijuana Clones
The cut and stem dipped cannabis clone will be placed into an inch of soil or liquid for growing its roots. Clone cuttings should be between 3" to 6". The purpose of the root hormone is to get the branch to grow roots where it was cut. Remember that the cutting (clone) is already part of the adult and may be a few months old, based on it's mom's age. The scientists are still out on this theory, but it seems to be a reasonable one. Growing a clone will be much faster than growing marijuana from seeds. The clone, after being dipped in rooting hormone, will develop its own root system in about 10 days and will be ready to transplant into soil or kept in a hydroponic liquid until maturity. Clone varieties can be purchased for as little as $10.00.
You can grow your clones in at least 2 ways. You can leave them alone (except for water and light) or you can pinch the buds for a fuller, bushier plant. If not pinched, the clones will grow straight up on the stalk, like a corn dog or popsicle. Some will bush out. We call these one stalk plants, missiles and corn dogs. Either way you go, bush or missile, the yield will be about the same. From experience, pinching buds to make a bush will slow a plant's growth for about 2 to 3 days. Any growing delay is not desirable. Try both methods and decide what's right for you. Store bought clones may come in a 2 inch square wool rock roll, (like insulation) and have no soil. No problem as they will like soil when you transplant them. Keep these babies wet until they get into soil.
Plants, Soil, Water, Oxygen, and Lighting
Your crop will depend on all of the above and the plant's genetics. Plants can be harvested in 3 to 5 months depending on the genetics of your species. Some bud fast and some bud slow. Check the variety of your plant to determine if it's a fast or slow bloomer, and big or small crop producer. If you do this in advance you will eliminate most of your worries and know what to expect.
Soil
Your soil should be a neutral PH soil. The proper soil will have a PH of 6, and preferably 7. OSH sells a 3 way needle gauge that will tell you when to water, how the lighting is doing, and the soil PH. The gauge costs about $10 and uses NO batteries. You can adjust your soil with hydrated lime mixed into water. Hydrated lime is PH neutral and will adjust the PH either up or down. We don't recommend clays or hard soils which don't allow penetration of roots and chemical fertilizers. In fact you should mix and dilute your potting soil with 50% percolite or vermiculite. Never compact your soil as you want it loose to allow the roots to fully develop. Remember that your plants get their food from their roots going into the main stalk. They will breath through their leaves. When transplanting, use a starter fertilizer with B-1. These will have a formula of 3-10-3 or 4-12-4 on the label. This will help develop strong roots that can grow into the soil where they will absorb their food. Water this mixture into the soil before you transplant the seedlings or clones. Some grow shops sell root and soil warmers, if you want to go to this extreme, it does help. Never use cold tap water to feed your babies. Let the water get to room temperature before irrigating them.
Water and Fertilizers that can be Introduced with Watering
Some cities inject chlorine into water. You don't want this for your plants. Use good, pure, lukewarm water. Don't shock your babies with cold tap water. Think about your plants. A plant is similar to your pet dog or cat. They are totally dependant on you. The plant can't talk to you and tell you how it's doing or what it needs at mealtime. There's no Friskies or Whiskas for your plant. YOU have to look at your plants and determine what they need. Let your plants utilize their water and food. Don't drown your plants and let them get to a point where they will crave water before you water them. This keeps them healthy and they won't drown through their roots.
Life Stages
Your plant has 3 life stages. First is the baby root growing stage which includes both seedlings and baby clones. Second is the vegetative stage that involves growing a strong stalk, branches, and leaves. The vegetative stage can go on for years if the lights are left on for 18 hours a day. Use a fan to blow wind on your babies and they will grow faster and be stronger. Nitrogen is important during this adolescent to adult stage and we recommend metal halide lights during this stage. The third and final stage is the budding stage. This is when you reduce the light to 12 hours a day and switch the light bulb to high pressure sodium lighting. Believe it or not this is all similar to spending time training your dog. If you take time to understand your plants you'll see good results.
A clone can be reduced to 12 hour lighting after 4 to 5 weeks under 18 hour light. The 4 to 5 weeks is enough time to develop the vegetative plant system. The plants are photosensitive and with this reduced light trick they will know that it's time to grow hairs and start budding. The shortened period of light tricks the plants into thinking winter is coming and they start their reproductive THC production budding period. This light trick is simple and a no brainer. If no male pollen is present the female plants will produce, and over produce, THC creating sticky white, sugary resin tubes everywhere. The sticky resin is produced to catch the male pollen. If no male pollen arrives there will be an over production of resin tubes (THC) with no seeds. You will have a potent crop of sensi (seedless) buds. The idea is to have about 4 to 5 weeks of metal halide light for 18 hours a day (6 hours of complete darkness) and thereafter drop the lighting time down to 12 hours a day for good sugar (THC) bud development. You will see the white appearance of the THC tubes as they develop on your buds. Now it's close to harvest time.
At the 2nd (vegetative) stage you want fertilizers strong in nitrates that promote vegetation. You want your plants lush with healthy green leaves. During this stage you will probably get up to 9 or 11 fingers on a leaf. Most clones will already have 5 to 7 fingers. Humus acid is a growth promoter. One reader claimed that every time he used this acid his plants grew 1" in a day. In the old days we used a big federal subsidy cotton farmer's gibrillic acid, and if you used too much the plant would keep growing until it killed itself. Things are more sophisticated today.
At the time you drop the lights down to 12 hours a day, you will want to switch your grow bulb to a HPS or high pressure sodium bulb. You will also back off the nitrogen and use budding or blooming fertilizers to start the 3rd and final growth stage. After about 5 to 7 days under these conditions you will see the blond or white bud hairs develop. This shows you that your plants are cooperating and starting to form buds. Soon you will see buds and green tongue leaves develop a sugar color coating which are the THC resin glands. After about 7 to 8 weeks into the budding stage you will see the bud hairs start to turn an orange or golden color. This is your first indication that it's time to harvest. You can take the whole plant by cutting its stalk at the soil or select individual buds for harvest. Let them dry upside down for a week or so and then test your harvest. It's really this simple to grow kind bud.
Grow Lights
Lights are expensive and they are a source of unwarranted confusion. If you are thinking about indoor growing you must understand lighting systems. First there is the ballast which is basically a converter. The ballasts are a metal box (about the size of a VCR) which plugs into your 110 wall outlet. Ballasts specifically come for either a metal halide OR a HPS bulb. However there are ballasts that have a toggle switch which allows changing the ballast to switch the light bulbs. You should buy these duel ballasts so you can flip the switch when you change the bulb. This switch will save you from buying 2 different ballasts, but you will still buy the 2 bulbs. The ballast is simply plugged into the 110 electrical outlet and the separate light fixture (lamp shade/reflector with bulb) is plugged into the ballast. It takes about 3 minutes to put this together and set into use. Any stoner can do this. Use a clean cloth to screw in the bulb as you don't want any body oils on it. Oils can cause bulbs to scar and even pop. Never touch any of this while hot or plugged in. Do all your installation and preliminary work before you plug anything in. Grow bulbs range from 400 to 2,000 watts. Your power cost for the 1 light bulb will be about $70 a month. The standard for growers is the 1,000 watt bulb. A 1,000 watt bulb should cover a 6 x 6 area. If you plant your pot in 5" square pots you can plant about 144 plants in a 6' x 6' area. Never use round pots as these waste space. Each plant will produce between 1 to 3 ounces of weed. This 6' x 6' size grow room with 144 plants, should give you about 9 pounds of weed every 90 days. If you buy the conversion (switch) ballast you only need the one ballast, but you should buy the 2 different bulbs. Complete light sets (ballast and shade) will run between $300 to $500. The bulbs cost about $60-$80 each. Keep these hot lights about 18" above your plants. If you don't do this you can burn your babies. Run a circulating fan [cost $20-$40.] through the plants so they blow in the breeze. This wind develops strong stalks and promotes growth. Keep the temperature between 70 to 80 degrees. Never touch the HOT lights or fixtures and don't get any water on them. The hot bulbs can burn you and blow up.
Total cost? Duel ballast and reflective shade is about $450. Two different 1,000 watt grow bulbs are about $70 each. A circulating fan is about $30. Clones are about $10 each. A complete 6' x 6' grow room with 144 plants, pots, soil and fertilizers, should cost you about $2,200. Your yield every 90 days should be about 9 pounds of good ass weed. Weed sells anywhere between $2,000 to $4,000, so your medicine should be worth at least $18,000 or maybe double that. If weed was legal you could make about 800% to 900% on your original $2,200 investment. This would be a dream to make this kind of profit on such a small investment in our depressed stock market and economy. Of course, if weed was legal everyone who wanted it would be growing it so you would make no profit.
Good luck and good growing!
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Pipeline (page 4)
Why Drugs Won't go Away
By: Fred Reed
Because they're too important.
Manzanillo, Mexico - Listening to the radio here the other day, I encountered a journalist who has spent the last couple of years investigating the drug racket hereabouts. He made interesting points.
For starters, he calculates that ten percent of Mexico's gross national product comes from drugs. That's huge. If he is correct, or even close, it follows that the Mexican government cannot afford to shut down the drug trade.
The usual view in the States is that the problem is bribery and corruption: If we could only get Mexican officials to be honest, the trade would die out. But, as the reporter pointed out, a government can't shut down ten percent of its economy, especially a country that doesn't have much of an economy. In short, he said, drugs are a crucial, almost legitimate part of Mexico's finances.
He pointed out that in lots of villages, all income derives from growing drugs. Farmers who could get 70 pesos a day by growing corn get 170 pesos by growing marijuana and poppies. It lets them live decently, which matters if you are the one who hasn't been living decently. A government doesn't want to re-consign its population to poverty. If it tried to, rebellion wouldn't be inconceivable.
The guy didn't say, but countless Latinos think, not unreasonably, that drugs are an American problem. If the gringos don't want to use drugs, why do they buy them? The U.S. is a rich country. People living in mud huts do not readily sympathize with our problems.
In the States, we talk about drugs, but do little. Why? Well, if you look at the Bill-Gatesian amounts of money involved, you easily conclude that enough people of importance are making out like bandits to make drugs a major part of our economy, too. I don't know just who gets it. Yet, a cynic might suspect, somebody is getting paid off. People have prices. Drug dealers have the wherewithal.
Since drug dealers can make as much money in a single day as a cop can earn in one year, some cops are easily persuaded to cooperate with drug dealers.
What would a serious attack on drugs require in the U.S.? Most conspicuously, an assault on the black ghetto, where drugs are most obviously sold. This is politically impossible. It would also mean jailing large numbers of influential whites in the suburbs, who use lots of drugs, but not too obviously. It would also mean jailing their children, who use drugs copiously in the high schools. These things also are politically impossible.
Legalization is fun to talk about, but it isn't going to happen. Politicians on the take don't want to see the cow dry up. Drugs are worth far more being illegal than legal. There is easily enough public hostility to drugs in the U.S. to make legalization a dead letter. Those who profit from drugs have the resources to overcome any attempt at legalization.
The question becomes: Who really cares about drugs? The answer seems to be: Not much of anyone. Sure, parents don't like drugs, but they don't want the schools militarized, and heavy penalties actually applied might end up on the shoulders of their own kids. The effects of drugs on kids are bad, but most survive, and most lie to their parents anyway, so everyone thinks it's someone else's problem. Parents from the Sixties aren't very horrified in the first place.
In my years on the police beat, it has seemed to me that the anti-drug effort has had a curiously pro-forma feel. We throw a lot of young blacks into prison on drug charges, largely I suspect because they're easy to catch. If we wanted to catch white kids selling drugs, it would be easy, but I note we don't much do it.
The efforts we do make against drugs don't make a dent in the problem. The effects of law-enforcement are easily measured by checking the availability and price of drugs on the street. They are cheap and easy to get. The war on drugs is a joke.
I conclude that drug traffic has come to be an accepted part of the global economy. Nobody expects to stop it. Politicians around the world are involved. So, at least implicitly, are governments. Some nations depend on drugs for the well-being of their citizens.
The drug industry is an example of racial cooperation: Mostly brown people grow drugs, mostly black people sell them, and mostly white people buy them.
Parents don't really care much. High-schools administrations look the other way. Disguised acceptance by everyone is the easiest course, involving none of the potentially disastrous costs of serious repression.
[Ed. note: Fred Reed is a former NY Times reporter]
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