TACOMA – With just a few days left in 2006, drug enforcement officials in Washington said they have destroyed more than 130,000 marijuana plants, arrested more than 340 people and seized 90 weapons.
The number of marijuana plants destroyed in the state in 2005 was 135,000, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration reported in a news release.
Officials attributed the number of destroyed plants to the movement to Washington of drug traffickers from Canada trying to avoid tightened border security.
“Washington state is susceptible to both outdoor marijuana growers, who typically use and damage public lands to ply their illegal trade, and previously Canadian-based indoor cultivators attempting to avoid cross-border detection,” said DEA special-agent-in-charge Rodney Benson.
Agents said growers have dammed streams, clear-cut forest lands, used large quantities of insecticide and killed wildlife to aid outdoor drug-growing operations.
Port Angeles: Charge of attempted murder
A woman accused of trying to kill herself and her 10-year-old daughter on Christmas Day with a cocktail of prescription drugs mixed with grape juice has been charged with first-degree attempted murder.
Bail for Rhonda L. Marchi, 41, of Port Angeles was set at $1 million during her first appearance Thursday in Clallam County Superior Court.
Deputy Prosecutor Carol Case called the crime “heinous, egregious and unconscionable.”
“It is imperative that this defendant not have any access to even nonprescription drugs,” Case said.
Marchi told Judge George Wood that the bail amount was “absolutely ridiculous” for someone without a criminal history. “I’ve never been in trouble in my life,” she said. She also denied that her actions were premeditated.
Wood said the allegations were serious enough to justify the high bail amount.
According to court papers, Marchi called 911 on Tuesday and told the dispatcher that she had deliberately taken a large amount of pills in a suicide attempt and that she also had given a large amount to her daughter. Marchi told the dispatcher that “she was now afraid for her daughter and needed help for her.”
The girl, who is not identified in the documents, did not regain consciousness for 24 hours.
Seattle: Virus sickens 22 in nursing home
Residents of two nursing homes have contracted a norovirus, which has sickened 22 people in one long-term care facility and nearly 30 in another.
Merrill Gardens on lower Queen Anne and Providence Mount St. Vincent in West Seattle were both thoroughly disinfected and public areas such as dining rooms closed in an attempt to stop the spread of the illness. No one from either facility has been hospitalized.
Noroviruses are a group of viruses that cause gastroenteritis, commonly known as stomach flu. Outbreaks are common in nursing homes and cruise ships.
Merrill Gardens’ first case was diagnosed in early December, and 22 of its 150 residents had been affected by Thursday, said spokeswoman Loree Wagner. Most have recovered, she said.
Associated Press
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