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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 2016)
5A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2016 NOW HEAR THIS Emergency agencies turn off radio encryption By DAVE COLLINS Associated Press AP Photo/Brennan Linsley Diners smoke marijuana as they eat dishes prepared by chefs during an evening of pairings of fine food and craft marijuana strains served to invited guests dining at Planet Bluegrass, an outdoor venue in Lyons, Colo. Gourmet ganja? Marijuana dining is growing up, slowly By KRISTEN WYATT Associated Press LYONS, Colo. — How to set a tone of woodsy chic at a four-course candlelight din- ner served under the stars in the Colorado foothills: Live musicians and low- ers, check. Award-winning cuisine, check. Beer and wine pairings with each course, check. Marijuana pairings? Oh, yes. The 100 diners at this $200-a-plate dinner smoked a citrus-smelling marijuana strain to go with a fall salad with apples, dates and bacon, followed by a darker, sweeter strain of pot to accompany a main course of slow-roasted pork shoulder in a mole sauce with charred root veg- etables and rice. And with dessert? Mari- juana-infused chocolate, of course, grated over salted caramel ice cream and paired with coffee infused with non-intoxicating hemp oil. The diners received small glass pieces and lighters to smoke the pairings, or they could have their marijuana rolled into joints by profes- sional rollers set up next to a bartender pouring wine. Welcome to ine dining in Weed Country. Away from Doritos The marijuana indus- try is trying to move away from its pizza-and-Doritos roots as folks explore how to safely serve marijuana and food. Chefs are work- ing with marijuana growers to chart the still-very-unsci- entiic world of pairing food and weed. And a prolifera- tion of mass-market cheap pot is driving professional growers to develop distinc- tive lavors and aromas to distinguish themselves in a crowded market. “We talk with the (mar- ijuana) grower to under- stand what traits they saw in the marijuana ... whether it’s earthy notes, citrus notes, herbal notes, things that we could play off,” said Corey Buck, head of catering for Blackbelly Restaurant, a top- rated farm-to-table restaurant that provided the meal. The grower of one of the pot strains served at the din- ner, Alex Perry, said it won’t be long until marijuana’s la- vors and effects are parsed as intently as wine proiles. But that’s in the future, he conceded. “It’s still looked down upon as a not-very-sophisti- cated thing,” said Perry, who grew a strain called Black Cherry Soda for his company, Headquarters Cannabis. Holding his nose to a small jar of marijuana, Perry said, “If I asked my mom or my dad what they smell, they’re going to say, ‘skunk,’ or, ‘It smells like marijuana.’ But it’s like wine or anything else. There’s more lavor pro- ile there.” But chefs and pot growers trying to explore ine dining with weed face a legal gaunt- let to make pot dinners a real- ity, even where the drug is as legal as beer. Colorado’s marijuana retailers can’t also sell food, so guests at this dinner had to buy a separate $25 “goodie bag” from a dispensary for the pot pairings. The bags came with tiny graters for diners to shave the pot chocolate onto their ice cream themselves; the wait staff could not legally serve a dish containing pot, even though the event was pri- vate and limited to people over 21. Diners were shut- tled to and from the event by private bus, to avoid poten- tially stoned drivers leaving the dinner. Marijuana dining may become more accessible in coming months, though. Denver voters this fall will consider a proposal to allow marijuana use at some bars and restaurants as long as the drug isn’t smoked, with the potential for new outdoor marijuana smoking areas. And two of the ive states considering recreational mar- ijuana in November — Cali- fornia and Maine — would allow some “social use” of the drug, leaving the poten- tial for pot clubs or cafes. Tasting rooms Currently, Alaska is the only legal weed state that allows on-site marijuana use, with “tasting rooms” possible in commercial dispensaries. But that state is still working on rules for how those con- sumption areas would work. For now, marijuana din- ing is limited to folks who hire private chefs to craft infused foods for meals served in their homes, or to special events like this one, limited to adults and set outside to avoid violating smoke-free air laws. Guests at the Colorado dinner were admittedly experimenting with pairing weed and food, many gig- gling as they toked between bites. It became apparent late in the evening that a rich meal doesn’t counteract mar- ijuana’s effects. HARTFORD, Conn. — Some police and ire depart- ments are bucking a trend to conceal dispatch com- munications from the pub- lic, acknowledging that radio encryption has the potential to backire and put irst respond- ers in danger. Agencies with digital radio systems have turned off the encryption to their main dis- patching channels and oth- ers have decided not to turn it on. They say their ofi- cers and ireighters may not be heard during emergencies by responders at neighboring departments with radio sys- tems that either don’t have access to their encrypted chan- nels or aren’t advanced enough to have encryption capability. Oficials also say they are addressing concerns from critics who argue encryp- tion decreases police trans- parency at a time when it is needed, especially in the wake of shootings of unarmed black people by police oficers. “The overwhelming opin- ion of encryption is that it works great for preplanned tactical environments like SWAT teams staging a situa- tion,” said Eddie Reyes, dep- uty chief of Amtrak police and chairman of the International Association of Chiefs of Police communications and technol- ogy committee. “But for day-to-day opera- tions where oficers are going across borders in emergency pursuits or foot pursuits, that’s where it tends to break down,” he said. “A good number of agencies are still operating on antiquated systems and would not have the ability to accept encryption.” When Reyes was work- ing for Arlington, Virginia, police in 2006, he said, an ofi- cer who fatally shot a teen- ager outside a restaurant inad- vertently switched over to encryption mode on his por- table radio. There was tempo- rary chaos on the radio when oficers en route couldn’t com- municate with the oficer in the shooting because their radios weren’t in encryption mode, Reyes said. AP Photo/Dave Collins Police Chief Christopher Edson points out the department’s dispatching communications system in Naugatuck, Conn. an encrypted channel that is available,” he said. “But we very rarely use it when dis- cussing conidential or oficer safety information. It is sev- eral channels from our reg- ular channe,l so as not to be confused.” Gathering trend A slow trend continues toward encryption, which has been around for years. It hides communications from public airwaves by modifying voice signals with coded algorithms, preventing people from lis- tening via radio scanners, the internet and cellphone apps. Only people with encryp- tion “keys,” the information needed to access the encrypted channels, can listen. Open government advo- cates say the practice with- holds crucial information about emergency situations from the public. Concerns also have been raised by news orga- nizations, which say it cuts off journalists who monitor public safety broadcasts from being alerted to major events. Police oficials say they’re worried about the safety of their oficers, because crimi- nals have been known to track oficers’ movements by listen- ing to police communications. They also say they want to pre- vent the public broadcasting of people’s personal information, including medical histories and juveniles’ names. They further cite vio- lence against oficers around the country over the past few months and the response to the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, when people listening to police communications posted misleading and inaccurate information on social media. Among police departments that have recently encrypted all communications are those in Anchorage, Alaska; River- side, California; Manchester, New Hampshire; and New- town, Connecticut. “What happened this sum- mer really culminated in mak- ing the decision,” Newtown Police Chief James Viadero said, referring to violence against police. “I had a legiti- mate concern for my oficers.” Opposite approach Other departments are tak- ing the opposite approach. Police in New Orleans; Spo- kane, Washington; and other cities have vowed not to encrypt their main dispatch channels. Others that had encrypted their communica- tions have turned it off. Police in Mansield, Mas- sachusetts, turned off their encryption more than a year ago after oficers expressed concern they couldn’t talk with counterparts in some neighbor- ing towns, Police Chief Ronald Sellon said. Mansield is home to the 20,000-seat Xinity Cen- ter outdoor amphitheather, and there were worries about com- munications with other agen- cies if there was a mass casu- alty event at the theater. Last year, Washington, D.C., oficials switched off the encryption for ire communi- cations. The move came after ireighters had problems using their radios in a subway tunnel during an emergency response. The tunnel illed with smoke because of an electrical mal- function, killing one person and sickening dozens more. The Metro transit agency, which had a radio system in the subway that allowed below- ground communications by city ireighters, said the radio problems were the result of the ire department changing its own radio system, includ- ing adding encryption, with- out telling the transit agency. City oficials denied encryp- tion caused the problems. Police in Naugatuck, Con- necticut, like many depart- ments, are keeping their main dispatch channel open to the public while maintain- ing encrypted channels to use during tactical operations. Naugatuck Police Chief Christopher Edson cited the need to be able to commu- nicate with other emergency responders, as well as the expense of encryption, which can cost several hundred dol- lars per radio to implement. Another issue was not wanting to block out the public, he said. “We also want to be trans- parent,” he said, “during this particular climate in the country.” TRAVEL THE WORLD’S LEGENDARY RIVERS MONDAY, OCTOBER 24 6:00 PM | AAA North Coast 135 S. Highway 101, Warrenton RSVP: 503.861.3118 Join AAA Travel and river cruise expert, Michael Weldon, as we explore the value On the coast Dave Ham, Seaside police chief said, “We do not use an encrypted channel. 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