Our mission is to unite the Anderson Valley community in efforts that promote community health through grassroots organizing to reduce the presence of drugs in the community and prevent youth substance abuse.

Updates

Q&A: ‘Methland’ author Reding drawn to story of small-town life

INDenverTimes. Wednesday, September 2, 2009. Benjamin Whitmer.

INDenverTimes’ Benjamin Whitmer recently interviewed Nick Reding, the author of Methland. Here is the first part of the interview.

INDT Benjamin Whitmer: One of the things I like most about Methland is that it draws a complicated picture of the conditions that create methamphetamine use. Methland is not only about the spread of methamphetamines in the heartland, but also the economic decimation of the region, of which rampant methamphetamine use is a symptom. Were you surprised at the level of complexity of the issues surrounding meth use once you started to dig in?

Nick Reding: Yeah, I think I was. When I started out in 1999, I was much more interested in life in a small town with a meth problem, than I was in the idea of meth in a small town. So for me interest in the town came first, and meth came second. That’s the book that I ultimately was able to write, but that’s not the book I was able to sell. The one that I sold was meth as a true crime story. And that’s a very simple story. Find somebody who goes to jail and figure out why. I went through four iterations of that book and it wasn’t working for the reason that I didn’t want to be writing about meth in that way. I wanted to be writing about the town first and meth second. So ultimately my editor and I were able to get our minds together and change that.

When I first started reporting on this I had no idea what kinds of forces were out there in the world bearing down small towns. That was surprising to me. As I reported this meth thing and kept trying to do it as a crime story, I kept realizing that it was those things bearing down on Oelwein that were driving the meth market. So it was kind of a double eye-opener I got through the eight years it took me to write this book.

Read the whole article on the In Denver Times website.

Pot ‘Plantations’ on the Rise

The Wall Street Journal. Thursday, September 3, 2009. Stephanie Simon.

Marijuana growers, many believed to be affiliated with Mexican drug cartels, are aggressively expanding their illegal farming operations in the U.S., clearing land to plant pot in dozens of national forests from coast to coast.

Illicit cannabis farms on public land first sprang up in California more than a decade ago and remain a serious problem in that state. But in the past two years, the U.S. Forest Service has documented a rapid expansion of the practice.

Read the whole article on The Wall Street Journal website..

Drug Decriminalization in Latin America

Link TV. Tuesday, September 1, 2009. Daniel Marrin.

This August, Latin American countries showed their will to dissent from U.S. drug policy, as both Mexico and Argentina decriminalized possession of marijuana and other illicit drugs.

The decision in Argentina came after a Supreme Court ruling that the arrest of eight men in 2006 for possession of marijuana cigarettes was unconstitutional. In its ruling, the court concentrated on the defendants’ rights to privacy. As Supreme Court President Ricardo Lorenzetti said, “Behavior in private is legal, as long as it doesn’t constitute clear danger.”

Read the whole article on the Link TV website..