In Drug War, Tribe Feels Invaded by Both Sides
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: January 24, 2010

SELLS, Ariz. — An eerie hush settles in at sundown on the Tohono O’odham Nation, which straddles 75 miles of border with Mexico.

Few residents leave their homes. The roads crawl with the trucks of Border Patrol agents, who stop unfamiliar vehicles, scrutinize back roads for footprints and hike into the desert wilds to intercept smugglers carrying marijuana on their backs and droves of migrants trying to make it north.

By the bad luck of geography, the only large Indian reservation on the embattled border is caught in the middle, emerging as a major transit point for drugs as well as people.

A long-insular tribe of 28,000 people and its culture are paying a steep price: the land is swarming with outsiders, residents are afraid to walk in the hallowed desert, and some members, lured by drug cartel cash in a place with high unemployment, are ending up in prison.

“People will knock on your door, flash a wad of money and ask if you can drive this bale of marijuana up north,” said Marla Henry, 38, chairwoman of Chukut Kuk district, which covers much of the border zone.

The tightening of border security to the east and west, which started in the 1990s and intensified after the Sept. 11 attacks, funneled more drug traffic through the Tohono O’odham reservation, federal officials said, and especially more marijuana, which is hard to slip through vehicle crossings because of its bulk.

A record 319,000 pounds of marijuana were seized on the reservation in 2009, up from 201,000 pounds the previous year, along with small amounts of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine.

Hundreds of tribal members have been prosecuted in federal, state or tribal courts for smuggling drugs or humans, taking offers that reach $5,000 for storing marijuana or transporting it across the reservation. In a few families, both parents have been sent to prison, leaving grandparents to raise the children.

“People are afraid that if they say no, they’ll be threatened by the cartel,” Ms. Henry said.

If residents of remote villages tried to call the police, she said, help might not arrive for two hours or more.

At the same time, some residents are angry at the intrusion of hundreds of federal agents, including some who stay for a week at a time on bases in remote parts of the reservation. The surge in agents who cruise the roads has meant more checkpoints and tighter controls on a border that tribal members, 1,500 of whom live in Mexico, once freely crossed.

The once-placid reservation feels like a “militarized zone,” said Ned Norris Jr., the tribal chairman, who also says the tribe must cooperate to stem the cartels. “Drug smuggling is a problem we didn’t create, but now we’re having to deal with the consequences.”

Many residents say they live in fear of the smugglers and hordes of migrants who lurk around their homes, and also of being subjected to a humiliating search by federal agents.

The elderly avoid the desert, even in the daytime, because they might stumble upon a cache of marijuana or drug “mules” hiding in desert washes until dark.

“We can’t even go out to collect wood for the stove,” said Verna Miguel, 63, who was traumatized three years ago when a group of migrants forced her to stop on a road, beat her and stole her vehicle.

“We’ve always picked saguaro fruits and cholla buds,” Ms. Miguel said, using such desert products for consumption and rituals. “But now we don’t dare do that.”

Until recently, the reservation’s international border was porous, defended by three strands of barbed wire. Over the last two years, it has been lined with metal posts and Normandy-style barriers to stop the trucks that used to barrel through and head for Phoenix.

Federal officials describe the rise in drug seizures on the reservation as a sign of growing success on what had long been a vulnerable section of border. Barriers and surveillance have forced most of the smugglers to enter on foot rather than in vehicles and spend hours or days sneaking through the reservation, making them more vulnerable to detection, said Agent Robert Gilbert, chief of the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol.

But the large busts, here and elsewhere on the border, are also a measure of the continued trade and profits reaped by the cartels.

“The cartels use the profit from marijuana to purchase cocaine in Colombia and Peru and the ingredients for meth and heroin from other regions,” said Elizabeth W. Kempshall, special agent in charge of the Arizona office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. “So marijuana is the catalyst for the rest of the drug trade.”

The drug smugglers, mainly working for the Sinaloa Cartel, officials said, place scouts for days at a time on mountainsides, with night-vision goggles to monitor movements of the Border Patrol. The scouts communicate with Mexican or Indian guides using cellphones or two-way radios with rolling codes that cannot be intercepted, said Sgt. David Cray of the tribal police force, which has spent major amounts of money on border issues. During the day, the scouts hide in caves or under camouflage.

The Border Patrol has its own spotters and trucks with infrared video cameras that detect heat miles away. The tribe has agreed to electronic surveillance towers that in coming years will make a “virtual fence” across their lands.

Many agents spend their nights “cutting for sign,” a tracker’s term, making slow drives on dirt roads in search of footprints.

One recent chilly night, a Border Patrol spotter detected eight white dots on his screen moving steadily north, not meandering the way cows or wild mules do. With a laser beam he fixed their coordinates at a spot five miles from his mountaintop post.

Two agents in four-wheel-drive vehicles set out over a rutted ranch track, then hiked through half a mile of mesquite, cholla and prickly pear to intercept the group. Six escaped, but two Mexican men were captured with seven burlap packs, each filled with 50 pounds of marijuana that sells wholesale for $500 or more per pound.

For the agents, it was a good night’s work. “This is what we live for, stopping drugs,” said an agent who hiked in shortly after the bust to help bring in the smugglers and the contraband.

But many tribal members see the federal presence as a mixed blessing at best.

Ofelia Rivas, 53, of Meneger’s Dam Village is an Indian rights advocate and a rare border resident who agreed to speak to a reporter. She said that most families in border villages, including her own, had had a relative imprisoned for drug offenses, but that such individuals should not be blamed for the lack of legal jobs. Ms. Rivas has criticized tribal leaders for acquiescing to what she calls an oppressive federal occupation.

Federal law officials praise the tribe for its cooperation, and the Border Patrol has fielded community relations officers to minimize frictions.

Even Mr. Norris, the tribal chairman, said he had been stopped and questioned. “Quite frankly, the people are getting sick of it,” he said of the heavy outside presence. But he added that the smuggling was beyond the tribe’s ability to control.

“I hope in my lifetime we can go back to the way it used to be,” Mr. Norris said, “where people could go and walk in the daylight on our own land.”

• ‘OG Kush’ (the original cut) came from an s1 from in a bag of ‘91 Chemdawg in the Lake Tahoe area in 1996.

OG Is one of the strongest cannabis strains in the medical marijuana community. THC contents have been tested to be anywhere from 24-28% THC. The OG grows very viney with big spaces between inter-nodes. The OG loves feeding on N and calcium  & magnesium through out the vegetative state. One thing you must do when growing this strain is to let it veg out and super-crop. Many novice growers that attempt to grow OG result in low yields due to no low stress training such as topping or super-cropping. This is a plant that wants to grow strong for its environment so give it lots of speed bumps and physical training prior to flower.

Around the 6th week of flowering, progressively decreasing the nitrogen concentration, you want to up the levels of phosphorus and (P) Potassium(K). PPM’s of 1800 can be achieved with noticeable cola growth. Week 8 you want to completly cut all nutreients and give your plants a nice flush until week 10-11 depending on how well your environment treated your plants. Week 10-11 should be the window of when you should harvest OG Kush.

I recently tried the newest offering from Big Budda seeds. ‘Cheisal’ is a sativa/indica hybrid that combines the best of the original  UK Cheese and Soma’s own NYC Diesel. I have to say, this is some of the best bud I have tasted. I was amazed by the sheer amount of resin on the fruit, it looked like millions of tiny diamonds under my microscope! When I broke one of the buds apart, the smell was an intense fruity bubblegum aroma and the unmistakable scent of NYC diesel. When I lit my first joint the smoke was thick and lingering, a bit like bubble-hash, although the smell was very musty and skunky. On the inhale the smoke seemed almost creamy although it was sharp. On the exhale the UK Cheese came through with no mistake, although I got hints of lemon. I put 0.3g of the crumbled bud into my joint (I’m not sure if this is a lot, but it works for me The effects came on fast and strong and I got an amazing cerebral euphoric high. I would even say it was a creative high! I just wanted to grab an interesting book and read it (although it did affect my vision slightly). There was also a nice relaxing, floaty physical high about 35mins after the mental high wore off. Altogether, the high lasted about 60mins and i have to say it was quite an experience. I think this strain would benefit people with depression as it made me feel very social and chatty. Anyway im off for another one now so thanks for reading and hope you like my review.         Sativa.king

In another effort to change federal policy on medical marijuana, Congressional Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced the “Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act,” HR 2835, late yesterday. The bill, which was co-sponsored by 13 bipartisan Members of Congress at the time of introduction, would change federal policy on medical marijuana in a number of ways. Specifically, the Act would change marijuana from a Schedule I drug, classified as having no medical value, to a Schedule II drug, which would recognize marijuana’s medical efficacy and create a regulatory framework for the FDA to begin a drug approval process for marijuana. The act would also prevent interference by the federal government in any local or state run medical marijuana program.

Although similar versions of the Act have been introduced in previous Congressional terms, the Obama Administration’s willingness to change federal policy on medical marijuana creates a new political context and may facilitate passage of this important legislation. “We are encouraged by the federal government’s (more…)

So everybody that uses cannabis has pretty much heard of the achronym THC. THC plays the biggest role in cannabis potency however it is not even close to being the sole player. There in fact is several known Cannabinoids responsible for the effects that marijuana has. THC, CBD, CBN, THCV, CBC, CBL etc… You can read this article for most of the info but I am just going to go over the first three since they are the ones being documented by most of the seed companies out there.

THC: Tetrahydrocannabinol. Produces the cerebral floating fealing found in good Sativas. May induce a psychoactive response if injested in large enough quantaties. THC has been synthiticly derived and is dubbed ‘Marinol’. Marinol has little medical applications and is largley discredited due to it’s leagthly response time (2-3 hours after ingestion). THC will not create any sleepiness in the user.

CBD: Cannabidiol. CBD is really just an enhancer to THC. Without THC, CBD has little to no effect. In a marijuana strain that is high in CBD the user will feel sleepy, hungry and genrally ‘out of it’ . CBD is responsible for the numbing body sensation that can occur when laying down. Primarly found in Indica’s, CBD is most noted for it’s ability to leangthen the effects of THC. A strain high in CBD may keep the user medicated for sometimes twice as long! Chocolate has also been claimed to increase the duration of cannabis effects. CBD has also been toted as being a very promising cancer killer.

CBN: Cannabinol. CBN is the little brother of all the cannabinoids. It doesn’t carry potent mind bending effects like THC and CBD but it has it’s place. Just like steel oxidizes to create rust, THC oxidizes to create CBN. CBN does increase the leangth of a users experience but not nearly as much as CBD. CBN is noted for it’s ability to make a user feel confused and dizzy. A strain high in CBN will induce a sleepy hangover that is usually unwanted. For the most part, CBN should be kept to a minimum of 0-.5% since it’s usually a result of exposure to air.

Justices reject appeals from San Diego and San Bernardino counties seeking to throw out the state marijuana law. Patients likely will be able to seek ID cards showing they’re eligible to use the drug.

The Supreme Court rejected appeals today from two hold-out counties in Southern California that object to the state’s 13-year-old medical marijuana law and claimed it should be struck down as violating the federal drug-control act.

Without comment, the court turned down the pair of appeals.

The action likely will clear the way for patients in San Diego and San Bernardino counties to seek county-issued identification cards that show they are eligible to possess and use marijuana.

These identification cards have been required under state law since 2004, but the two counties have refused to issue them. Their lawyers had asserted the state’s authorization for using medical marijuana conflicted with the zero-tolerance policy set by federal law.

“Our theory is that a state law which authorizes people to violate federal law is preempted” and, therefore, unconstitutional, Thomas Bunton, a deputy county counsel in San Diego, said last week.

Federal officials have continued to insist that all use of marijuana is illegal, even in states such as California. However, Atty. Gen. Eric Holder said recently that the federal government will not devote great effort to prosecuting low-level marijuana cases.

Lawyers for San Diego and San Bernardino counties had gone to court seeking a clear ruling on whether the state law violated the federal drug law. San Diego NORML, a marijuana advocacy group, had threatened to sue the county in 2005 for not complying with the state law by refusing to issue identification cards.

Last year, a state appeals court upheld the California medical marijuana law and said it was not rendered void by the federal drug law. The California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the two counties.

However, both counties appealed to the Supreme Court, but their appeals were dismissed today.

Graham Boyd, director of the ACLU’s Drug Reform Law Project, said today’s order “marks a significant victory for medical marijuana patients and their advocates nationwide.” It dispels any remaining doubts that the state laws are valid, he said, and it “leaves ample room for states to move forward . . . with independent medical marijuana policies.”

Since California’s voters adopted the Compassionate Use Act in 1996, 12 other states have approved measures permitting medical use of marijuana. The others are Alaska, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. The New Hampshire Legislature passed a similar measure recently that awaits action by the governor.

The federal government, however, has continued to insist that the sale or use of marijuana is illegal under the Controlled Substances Act. This 1970 law designates marijuana as a Schedule I drug that has “no currently accepted medical use” in the United States.

Federal authorities also have asserted they can arrest and prosecute all those who use or sell marijuana in California and other states that have authorized medical use of the drug.

Four years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that Congress and the federal government had the constitutional authority to regulate the sale and use of marijuana under its power over interstate commerce. The 6-3 decision, in the case of Gonzales versus Raich, rejected the claim that personal use of homegrown marijuana was off limits to federal authority. But the court did not rule then on whether the state’s law allowing medical use of marijuana was void because it conflicted with the federal drug-control law.

In its appeal, San Diego county’s lawyers had questioned whether the California law authorizing medical use of marijuana “is preempted under the Supremacy Clause” of the Constitution by the federal law forbidding all use of marijuana.

I have access to Clones of the original chem-4 from JoeBrand.   My caregiver grew out this very stuff, and it was some of the most potent buds I’ve ever had. Super pungent, almost sour along with the sweet smell OG Kush has.  Immediate sensory alteration. Its has the high of a hard hitting sativa but carries along the nice subtle indica effects that most patients seek. Definitely a head stone. Be ready for your cranium to blast off of your shoulders into the stratosphere.  Be warned if your not doing much you might doze off with your shoes on. Nice thick blanketed feeling on your body.  For both, indica and sativa lovers.

This strain may benefit patients with any chronic illness, Glaucoma, Chronic Pain, Sleeping issues, eating disorders, Diabetes, Apnea, Asthma, Bi-Polar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, Migraines, GastroIntestinal issues, Crohns disease, Muscle spasms, Arthritis

At a Grateful Dead show at Deer Creek Amphitheatre, ‘joebrand’ (aka ‘wonkanobe’) and ‘pbud’ met ‘chemdog’ and sold him an ounce of very high quality pot for $500. joe and chemdog exchanged numbers and they later arranged for two ounces to be shipped to chemdog on the east coast. According to chemdog, one ounce was seedless and the other had 13 seeds.

In ’91, chemdog popped the first 4 seeds. From these seeds, one male was found and disposed of (chemdog was young, you can’t blame him). The 3 females were labeled ‘chemdawg’ (now ’91 chemdawg), ‘chemdawg a’ (now chemdawg’s sister), and ‘chemdawg b’. In ‘01, chemdog and his girlfriend attempted to germ 3 more seeds, labeled ‘c’, ‘d’, and ‘e’. the ‘e’ seed never germinated, ‘c’ turned out to be junk (according to chemdog), and chemdawg ‘d’ was the keeper. In ‘06, ‘chemdog’ and ‘joebrand’ reunited and joe was given 4 of the last 6 beans: Chemdawg phenos 1-4, ‘4′ being the chosen keeper. Joe thought the ‘4′ was the best representation of the original and thus dubbed it the ‘reunion pheno’. Chemdog still has two seeds left in his stash.

Chem 4 Grows very similar to OG kush only with a bit more Vigor. Super cropping is highly suggested. Chem 4 has a tight bud structure with a large cola build. Chem 4 should be taken 10 weeks. See OG Kush for more details.

Here is the latest case on medical marijuana concentrates in California. According to the ruling, all chemical extracted THC from Marijuana is Illegal. Which means, any THC extracted using Butaine,  alcohol, or any other type of chemical is not prohibited. Here is the full case hearing:

Niall Patrick Bergen appeals from the judgment entered following his plea of (more…)

NYC Diesel By: “Cakes”

An amazing bud. I’ve heard it disparaged due to it originated from a bag seed but there is no way that someone would say it to it’s face. It’s not the high (although I found it unique) or the yield or the smell that makes it special.. it’s the taste. we are talking an extra dimension same as we found with Godbud. It has the regular beautiful bouquet that all herb has but then it is like if there were a dessert served with that. not an altering of the regular beauty, just an extra separate plate of it. It’s a must try. like black and white tv turned color.

funny thing is, although the taste was like double, the high was almost like half a high. and the other half of the high was found in the other plant. there was two plants i grew and each was a different pheno (although the separation in phenos did not show early). One plant was good to smoke at first but then you needed the other to come down properly without a headache and unsatisfied feeling.

Yield was average old school indica style. none of the heavy budding or mainstem leafage you see on some of today’s hybrids. Buds formed at the ends of branches and matured quickly. a good candidate for one mid-veg pinching. not much advantage to growing it over 18 - 24″ inside (2/3m or less) as long as flavor and high remain full. non-stretchy. good eater. couldn’t take being too alkaline. keeps bud density under fluoros.

As everyone knows Canada is the first country in the world to sell marijuana to certified medical marijuana patients. Nonviolent drug offenders in that country are normally not given lengthy sentences by the court. There is a clear move towards marijuana decriminalization or even full legalization. Way back in 2002 Canada’s Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs did a comprehensive study on cannabis and concluded that the drug ought to be legalized. “Scientific evidence overwhelmingly indicates that marijuana is substantially less harmful than alcohol, and should be treated not as a criminal issue, but as a social and public health issue,” said Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, Chair of the Special Committee. Unfortunately, America is putting pressure on Canada not to pass harm minimization laws. This is despite the fact that our northern neighbor seriously monitors and evaluates the reforms that it has taken.

US Drug policy is much more influential south of the border. Drugs are seized on the way to the US in expensive interdiction campaigns. US demand is responsible for the influx of drugs but the failure of the authorities to contain this problem seems to lie on the shoulders of Mexico. On October 14, 2008 a bill was proposed in Mexico City’s Congress to legalize the consumption, possession and commerce of Marijuana. The bill states that only a person over 18 can have access to the drug, the places where marijuana is sold cannot also sell alcoholic drinks, and must be at least 1000 meters away from schools. The Government would issue special licenses for the distribution of marijuana in special places, similar to the legislation in the Netherlands. The Bill has yet to pass.

The US government’s influence on the decision-making of our neighbors is evident. However, it is satisfactory to note that a counter-current now exists and we will soon positive changes in the horizon.