Marijuana

A strong odor of marijuana in a Joppa home where Harford County sheriff's deputies had responded to settle a domestic dispute on Sunday has led to the arrests of a young couple and the seizure of about eight pounds of marijuana, the Harford County Sheriff's Office said Thursday. Deputies responded to the home in the 800 block of Chatfield Road about 12:15 p.m. for a report of a verbal altercation between Michael Allen Brandt, 26, and Julia Michele Leonard, 24, the sheriff's office said.

A 44-year-old Ellicott City man who police said used his basement for an "extensive" marijuana-growing operation pleaded guilty Wednesday to manufacturing a controlled dangerous substance. Richard Marriott was arrested in December after the 20-year-old driver of a speeding sports car lost control and crashed into Marriott's residence in the 5100 block of Montgomery Road. The driver, later identified as Bryan Bolster of Elkridge, was pronounced dead at the scene, according to police.

A 26-year-old Sacramento man was arrested by Baltimore police Saturday night as officers investigated the shooting of his girlfriend in a downtown hotel room near the Inner Harbor, records show. The circumstances of the shooting - which was reported at the Brookshire Hotel in the 100 block of E. Lombard St. - remained unclear Monday. Police said Saturday night that the shooting may have been self-inflicted or accidental, but have listed robbery as a possible motive.  Police said a sergeant was sitting in a marked patrol vehicle around 9:40 p.m. Saturday when the victim's boyfriend, Andrew Gasway, approached and said his girlfriend had been shot.

A 16-year-old boy was charged Friday with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after Harford County Sheriff's deputies were called to investigate a complaint about a party near Bel Air. Deputies were called to the 1400 block of Halkirk Place in the Fountain Green area around 10:50 p.m. Friday for a report of a loud party, according to Eddie Hopkins, spokesman for the Harford County Sheriff's Office. When they arrived, deputies found a small party in progress. One deputy spoke with the parents at the home, who were controlling access to the party at the front door, while two deputies went to the rear of the home "to get a better vantage point of the party and who was there," Hopkins wrote in an e-mail.

Last month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released its accounting of all arrests made by law enforcement agencies across the fruited plain. Cops and federal agents made 12,408,899 arrests in the USA in 2011. No wonder we're known around the world as Incarceration Nation. Let's walk through the breakdown of that big number: •Of the total, 534,704 arrests were for violent crimes, and that number was down about 5 percent from 2010. •Driving under the influence accounted for 1.21 million arrests.

The marijuana smoke filled the Baltimore rowhouse in a "haze" that "engulfed" the four people sitting around the kitchen table, all of them within arm's reach of the smoldering remains of a "blunt" in an ashtray. One of the men appeared "groovy" and "relaxed" and was "just going with the program." It was, the state's highest court said in a ruling issued Friday, "reminiscent of a scene from a Cheech & Chong movie." Baltimore police had burst into the Lanvale Street rowhouse on Dec. 6, 2006, and arrested the men at the table, including Clavon Smith, who police said also had 15 small bags of marijuana in the pocket of his black leather jacket, which was hanging from the back of a chair.

A drug investigation that started at Lexington Market led to a raid Tuesday evening in Northeast Baltimore that netted 85 pounds of suspected marijuana and the seizure of more than $2,100 in cash, police said. The raid occurred about 5 p.m. in the 1600 block of Waverly Way, in the Renaissance Club apartments. Detective Kevin Brown, a city police spokesman, said David Andrews, 48, and Dwayne Jackson, 51, are believed to have been supplying dealers at the downtown market. Court records show the men were apprehended after fleeing from the back of the residence when police knocked on the door.

Police arrested a Cape St. Claire man Monday on drug charges after marijuana was found in his pocket, county police said.Donald Thomas Scott, 19, of the 900 block of St. Margaret Drive was charged with possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. His car, a 1991 Ford Mustang, was seized because it was used to carry drugs, police said.Officer Steven T. Burrell was parked on a lot in the 1300 block of Cape St. Claire Road about 3: 30 p.m. when a man approached the Mustang, which was parked nearby, gave the driver money and got something in return, police said.

People accused of being members of a drug ring that has imported more than $150 million in marijuana to the mid-Atlantic region since the late 1970s were named yesterday in an indictment unsealed by federal prosecutors.Assistant U.S. Attorney James Alsup described it as the largest marijuana case ever prosecuted in the district."If you'd told me an operation of this size was operating in this region and was able to unload the amounts they were able to unload, I wouldn't have believed it," he said, describing an operation that mainly used sailboats to bring in marijuana from South America, Mexico, Jamaica and Thailand.

CHICAGO -- Among American officeholders, there are two points of view about the drug war. Some are for it, while others are really, really for it. In Canada, though, Prime Minister Jean Chretien has said something no American politician would ever say: Marijuana users should no longer be treated like criminals. The drug war has some things in common with the Iraq war: The United States has found itself without many allies, facing vocal disagreement in many countries. The big difference is that we don't have a prayer of winning the war against drugs.