Marijuana

Lawmakers in Maryland this year shied away from legalizing the medical use of marijuana by certain very ill patients under carefully controlled clinical conditions. Voters elsewhere, it seems, are not so cautious. On Tuesday, Colorado and Washington passed ballot initiatives legalizing the possession and sale or marijuana for purely recreational use - no prescription required - making them the first states in the country to do so. (A similar initiative in Oregon was narrowly rejected, but voters in Massachusetts approved a law allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana for medicinal purposes.)

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.

A Havre de Grace teen was charged Tuesday after he allegedly bought drugs from a man sitting on a porch. Jamar Terrel Coleman, 23, of the 400 block of Battery Drive, was charged with marijuana possession, distributing a narcotic and distributing drugs on a school bus or property. Coleman was sitting on some steps in the 600 block of Congress Avenue when a 16-year-old male from Havre de Grace approached him and the two did a hand-to-hand drug exchange, according to Julie Morgan of the Havre de Grace Police Department.

An alligator was seized from an alleged Jessup gang member's home after Anne Arundel County police executed a search warrant in a drug investigation. The three-foot American Alligator, along with $3,000 worth of marijuana, cash and other items were taken from a home in the 7500 block of Gleneagle Drive on Friday. Alligators are not permitted in a residence and animal control was called to the home. Police said the alligator was healthy and was taken to a facility for exotic animals.

The Carroll County Sheriff's Office said on Friday that deputies arrested four men in the theft of scrap metal in Mount Airy this week. Police said Travis Waddell, 19,  Branden Battle, 19, and Adam Nicholas Toth, 22, all from Mount Airy; and Dwayne Douglas Frazier, 32, of Boyds, were each charged with trespassing and theft. In addition, Waddell was charged with possession of marijuana. The Sheriff's Office said that on Thursday, Nov. 1, at about 1:45 p.m., deputies were called to the 5800 block of Bethel Road in Mount Airy to investigate a theft complaint.

Two Anne Arundel County men who were found smoking marijuana at a Pasadena gas station parking lot Tuesday evening face several drug-related charges. Justin Andrew Hartman, 22, of the 300 block Alameda Parkway in Arnold, the driver, was charged with drug and paraphernalia possession and intent to distribute. Scott Matthew Stein, 27, of the 200 block Fox Tree Drive in Glen Burnie, also faces possession and intent to distribute charges as well as failure to obey a lawful order and resisting arrest.

Anne Arundel County police arrested four Glen Burnie men on drug possession charges Tuesday during a search of two residences in the Point Pleasant neighborhood. Patrick Cory Rhodes, 18, of the 7800 block Leymar Road, Chase Douglas Hynson, 23, of the 1000 block 1st Street and Anthony William Kozak, 33, of the 1000 block 1st Street are each charged with possession of marijuana and paraphernalia. Jacob Ryan Qualls, 23, of the 7600 block Marcy Drive faces those same charges along with possession of and intent to distribute hashish.

Cortly "C.D. " Witherspoon, a Baltimore minister and activist, has been scoping out convenience stores that sell products such as "Scooby Snax. " The glossy package features a picture of a dazed-looking cartoon character, Scooby Doo. A sticker advises that the contents have a blueberry flavor, though the package contains dried herbs, not candy. The minister's mission has been to get such products out of the hands of Baltimore's youth, who are smoking the stuff in hopes of getting high.

A 16-year-old Havre de Grace teen is facing drug charges after police saw her walking through a neighborhood early Friday morning. A Havre de Grace police officer on patrol around 3:30 a.m. in Grace Harbour, where several thefts from vehicles have been reported in recent weeks, and saw a female, carrying a large purse, duck behind two cars, Ofc. Jeff Gilpin, of the Havre de Grace Police, said. The officer drove up the street, turned off his lights and drove back down Canvasback Drive, where he saw the girl sitting on a porch.

Anne Arundel County police said they charged twin brothers in connection with finding more than two dozen suspected marijuana plants growing in the backyard of a home in Pasadena. Police said they had obtained a warrant to search a home in the first block of Nicholson Drive for an investigation into marijuana growing there. They searched the home around 8:23 a.m. Sunday and found 26 marijuana plants growing in the backyard and ranging in height from three feet to nine feet, police said.