Drug deaths soared by at least 20% in Wayne County last year, the result of a deadly mix of heroin and cocaine laced with fentanyl that received notoriety last spring and summer as fatalities increased in metro Detroit. On Thursday, the county Department of Health and Human Services released its figures, with the Medical Examiner's Office reporting more than 550 drug deaths through mid-December -- 93 more than that reported in all of the previous year. The department didn't release how many of the deaths were caused by fentanyl but said the cases were responsible for the increase. Previous reports noted that between September 2005 and October 2006, 198 deaths in the county were linked to fentanyl. [continues 98 words]
Drug possession decreased the most of all criminal acts in Pitt County Schools during the 2005-06 school year, according to an annual report from the state Department of Public Instruction. At the same time, total crime increased 9 percent for the same time period which compared the last school year to the 2004-05 school year. The number of incidents of drug possession in Pitt County Schools went down nearly 19 percent from 112 acts in 2004-05 to 91 last school year. [continues 1315 words]
More Funding Would Be Priority VANCOUVER -- Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said he would expand supervised-injection sites to other communities and criticized the Conservative government for agreeing to fund the Vancouver facility only until the end of this year. In a two-day swing along the West Coast, Mr. Dion visited Victoria for a $125-a-plate fundraiser Wednesday and finished the trip last night at a banquet hall in Fraserview before a crowd of supporters, including many from the Indo-Canadian and Chinese-Canadian communities. [continues 413 words]
TABLE OF CONTENTS: * This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2007/ds07.n484.html#sec1 (1) Berkeley Students Counter Drug Rule (2) In Clue To Addiction, A Brain Injury Halts Smoking (3) Three Walk Free In Cannabis Chocolate Case (4) Afghan Government Says It Won't Spray Poppies * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2007/ds07.n484.html#sec2 Drug Policy (5) Burdened U.S. Military Cuts Role In Drug War (6) NAACP Wants Drug Paraphernalia Out of Shops (7) Spring Vote Sought on Jailing First-Time Drug Law Offenders (8) S. Idaho Lawmaker Plans To Push Meth-Moms Bill (9) Hallucinogens Decrease Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptoms [continues 298 words]
By Rev. Jerry Hancock Dear Editor: In his Martin Luther King Day address, Gov. Jim Doyle announced his intention to create a commission to study the reasons why Wisconsin is one of the national leaders in the imprisonment of black men. This is a very serious problem and deserves exactly this kind of serious consideration. Any thoughtful prison reform must begin with recognition that the majority of men in Wisconsin prisons are black or Hispanic. While there may certainly be explicitly racist individuals in positions of power in the criminal justice system, the governor is absolutely right to look for wider causes of the problem. [continues 315 words]
With the optimism of a new year now upon us, DrugSense would like to begin 2007 with a quick look back at the most popular stories of 2006. Last year, DrugSense's Media Awareness Project (http://www.mapinc.org) logged another 17,299 drug-related news stories into its DrugNews Archive, bringing the total for this incredible resource to 175,760. The following list of top 10 articles is not a judgment on the most important stories of 2006, but rather a more democratic examination of what mattered to mapinc.org users based on simple popularity. [continues 527 words]
Every year, American taxpayers fund an estimated $60 billion for our incarceration system. This system staples together a network of public and corporate-run jails, prisons, pre- and post-release centers, juvenile detention centers and boot camps. All together, these facilities hold well over two million human beings, locked away without public oversight or scrutiny. Yet throwing money at the perceived scourge of criminality in the United States doesn't appear to have had the desired effect: Despite the staggering incarceration statistics, violent crime has actually begun to creep up over the last two years, according to the latest FBI Uniform Crime Report. [continues 1652 words]
Despite 7,000 UK Troops, Taliban-Backed Production Up 48% Britain's drug policy in Afghanistan's Helmand province lay in tatters yesterday as the UN declared a "frightening" explosion in opium production across the country, led by Taliban-backed farmers in the volatile south. Opium production soared by 34% to 8,200 tonnes, accounting for 93% of world supply and most of the heroin sold in Britain and Europe, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported. The record crop was fuelled by Helmand, where, despite the deployment of 7,000 British soldiers and millions of pounds in development spending, opium cultivation surged by 48%. [continues 630 words]
Street racers, crack houses, marijuana grow-ops, cash - you name it, the Ontario government has seized it using controversial forfeiture legislation. According to a forthcoming report prepared for the attorney general's ministry, Ontario police departments have made 170 seizures over the past four years, snatching $3.6 million in property and freezing an additional $11.5 million in assets. The 17-page review is the first comprehensive examination of the impact of the Civil Remedies Act, which the former Progressive Conservative government introduced in 2001. [continues 697 words]
After a two-year search, the regional district has hired a co-ordinator to lead the charge against drug and alcohol abuse. No one's saying who the winning candidate is, even though she started work on Monday. Staff are setting up her office and working out other details before she's introduced in early September, said human resources director Gary Leier. "We needed to get the right person for the position," he said Thursday. "The task is too important to do otherwise. We'd rather have waited until the right candidate came along." [continues 362 words]
The battle of the buds hasn't yet gone up in smoke. The city will appeal a recent ruling that awarded $1,700 to medical marijuana user Sam Matthews. The money was meant to compensate Matthews for pain and suffering and the loss of $300 in pot that police confiscated last October. But Chief Deputy City Attorney Jeanne Schechter says giving Matthews the money would be tantamount to the city buying illegal drugs. "We believe there's no legal basis in ordering the city to pay for contraband," said Schechter. [continues 542 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Opium cultivation in Afghanistan grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching record levels for the second straight year, according to a United Nations report released Monday. Despite a $600 million American counternarcotics effort and an increase in the number of poppy-free provinces to 13 from 6, the report found that the amount of land in Afghanistan used for opium production is now larger than amount of land used for coca cultivation in all of Latin America. Afghanistan now accounts for 93 percent of the world's opium, up from 92 percent last year, the report said. [continues 724 words]
Experts Debate Whether Disease or Defect Is to Blame Many people think they know what addiction is, but despite non-experts' willingness to opine on its treatment and whether Britney or Lindsay's rehab was tough enough, the term is still a battleground. Is addiction a disease? A moral weakness? A disorder caused by drug or alcohol use, or a compulsive behavior that can also occur in relation to sex, food and maybe even video games? As a former cocaine and heroin addict, these questions have long fascinated me. I want to know why, in three years, I went from being an Ivy League student to a daily IV drug user who weighed 80 pounds. I want to know why I got hooked, when many of my fellow drug users did not. [continues 1764 words]
AS MUCH as 60% of the cocaine seized in Britain has been found to have traces of a once-banned, cancer-causing painkiller. Phenacetin was used by UK dentists until fears arose about its safety several decades ago. It has been linked to cancers of the kidney, bladder and liver following a series of laboratory tests and replaced with similar but less harmful products. But drug traffickers have realised its potential and have started mixing it with cocaine to "bulk out" their product. [continues 606 words]
Timing Is Everything RCMP Aim For Maximum Disruption Clearwater and Barriere RCMP made a number of large-scale marijuana busts last week, shutting down dozens of outdoor grow sites and destroying millions of dollars worth of the illegal drug. The busts are part of a massive coordinated effort by RCMP detachments in the interior to eradicate outdoor marijuana grow operations in remote rural areas across the RCMP's Southeast District. Called Operation Epannikin, the effort has so far yielded more than 13,000 plants in the last two weeks, and kept more than $10 million of the drug off the streets. [continues 444 words]
DANVILLE - For several weeks, Betsy Morgenroth went back and forth over whether she would participate in Saturday's communitywide march against drugs. By the night before, the Hoopeston woman knew what she had to do. "I needed to be here for him," said Morgenroth, whose 18-year-old son, John Travis Morgenroth, died from an overdose of Xanax, Valium and morphine on June 13. "I'd like for something good to come out of his death. I haven't figured out yet what that's going to be. You just feel like you have to do something." [continues 625 words]
The Substance Abuse Prevention Division will be expanding its school programme this year in order to sustain its efforts to reduce drug use in the schools. "We are changing the programme and adding a new focus because we see how drug abuse in schools is negatively affecting our children's education," Substance Abuse Officer Norma Jeffrey-Dorset stated. She said they have observed that the children using illegal substances, especially marijuana, have been getting younger and younger. So, instead of providing sessions for one term in the selected schools, the officers will be targeting a school for the entire school year. Additionally, the department will be expanding the programme to outside school hours and extend it to the community. [continues 325 words]
Saturday of education about drugs was culminated by a heart-wrenching talk from former meth addict David Parnell of Martin. Parnell spoke for a solid 90 minutes about his drug history, starting with marijuana and leading to other drugs, especially meth. Parnell is married and he and wife Amy have seven children. He almost died twice, first as the result of attempting to hang himself and a second time when he put a shotgun under his chin and pulled the trigger. Amy knocked the barrel just as it was going off and the blast tore away the front of his face. He has undergone several surgeries including periodically having to have his jaw rebroken and put back together. [continues 486 words]
Needle exchange programmes in prisons and counsellors in police cells are being touted as solutions to drug use in jails. The Drug Foundation policy statement, made public yesterday, urges a "whole of government" plan across the criminal justice system, including police, courts and prisons. It wants offenders given access to treatments similar to the health sector, such as clean needles and expanded methadone programmes. "For some reason prisoners are able to get their hands on drugs," executive director Ross Bell said. [continues 204 words]
The high court gives schools a Pyrrhic victory--and little practical guidance. Two months have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Morse v. Frederick (also known as the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case), the first major case involving students' free-speech rights since 1988. ("Ruling in 'Bong Hits' Case Seen as Leaving Protection For Students' Free Speech," July 18, 2007.) And while commentators may continue to debate the merits of the court's ruling, almost all agree that it provides little in the way of practical guidance for the next teacher or administrator who has to make an on-the-spot disciplinary decision about drug-or alcohol-related student speech. In fact, if anything, the decision appears to make the boundaries between protected speech and punishable speech even less clear than before. [continues 926 words]
Today, More Afghan Land Than Ever Before Is Used to Grow Opium-Yielding Poppies, and There's No Consensus on How to Stop It TORONTO -- Afghanistan's opium poppy cultivation has reached "frightening record levels" this year, according to a United Nations report - and much of the heroin is increasingly making its way into Canada. An RCMP report shows that most of the heroin seized here in 2005 originated in southwest Asia, specifically Afghanistan and Pakistan. And the director of the RCMP's drug branch in Ottawa told The Canadian Press this month that 60 per cent of the heroin on Canadian streets comes from Afghanistan. [continues 1328 words]
The UN reported on Monday that there had been a "frightening" explosion in opium production in Afghanistan with Helmand province, where Britain has 7,000 troops deployed, leading the way. A record crop means that the country now accounts for 93% of the world's supply and the situation is getting worse daily despite billions being spent to eradicate the trade since 2001. Here the Guardian asks experts in the field what can be done to bring production of the drug to an end. [continues 1397 words]
The Vast Increase in Opium Poppy Farming in Afghanistan Is Indicative of an Inability to Grasp a Basic Law of Economics The British government for sure knows how to do one thing. It knows how to help farmers in need. Since it arrived in Afghanistan in 2001 and was put in charge of the staple poppy crop, ministers have spent hundreds of millions of pounds on promoting it. On Monday the United Nations announced the result. Poppy production in Afghanistan has soared since the invasion, this year alone by 34%. The harvest in the British-occupied protectorate of Helmand rose by 50% in 12 months. This is a dazzling triumph for agricultural intervention. [continues 986 words]
To the Editor: Re "Telltale Isotopes in Marijuana Are Nature's Tracking Devices" (Aug. 21): Violent crimes go unsolved every day, but we waste limited resources performing elaborate forensic tests on medical marijuana seized from licensed dispensaries operating legally under state laws. If the federal government is so interested in tracking medical marijuana's origins, simply stop forcing desperate patients into the shadows, and instead provide them safe, legal access to medical marijuana. Mamaroneck, N.Y. [end]
Ailing Man Could Get 12-Year Term in Possession Case BRIGHTON - Medical-marijuana advocates rallied Monday for a Thornton man who has AIDS and Hepatitis B but didn't register with the state to grow the pot he says keeps him alive. Jack Branson, 39, faces up to 12 years in prison, charged with cultivating and possessing marijuana with intent to distribute. Before opening statements in his trial at the Adams County Justice Center, Branson said that without marijuana, "I would have gone the way of a lot of my friends . . . friends who've died. [continues 563 words]
Yes, as our media keep reminding us, our soldiers in Afghanistan are "heroes," men and women doing a difficult, dangerous and sometimes fatal job. They are undoubtedly doing the best they can, but, through no fault of their own, that best cannot be good enough. Good enough to stop the insurgency in Kandahar and other parts of southern Afghanistan. Good enough to keep the Taliban at bay. Good enough to leave in 2009 with security assured and reconstruction under way in that corner of this post-medieval country. [continues 622 words]
LUMBERTON - The 17 former Robeson County deputies who have pled guilty as part of the Operation Tarnished Badge investigation are expected to be sentenced by the end of September. Sentencing hearings are scheduled before U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle in Elizabeth City on Sept. 25, 26 and 28. Facing some of the longer sentences are Roger Taylor, Steven Lovin and C.T. Strickland, the former deputies first indicted in the state and federal investigation that has spanned more than four years and continues to this day. [continues 580 words]
Who needs evidence that a program such as Insite's safe injection site provides benefits to drug addicts, when it is very simple to convince the public that the contrary is the truth (Renew Insite's Licence - editorial, Aug. 27)? It seems as though federal Health Minister Tony Clement and his colleagues have taken a page out of the Bush playbook and are now creating their own version of reality, one in which merely repeating a statement over and over makes it a fact. Perhaps once the Conservatives take care of the pesky problem of drug addiction, they can turn their collective mind to stamping out that ridiculous notion of evolutionary theory. Andrea Taylor Toronto [end]
MICHAEL ROSS, CIVIL-RIGHTS LEADER NEVER AFRAID TO BUCK THE TIDE, DIES AT 66 Michael K. Ross was not afraid to challenge the conventional wisdom. That's how he landed in Seattle in the first place. After serving a two-year stint in the Air Force and leaving a Kansas college to become a civil-rights field worker in the Deep South, he fell in love with another young volunteer. But Virginia miscegenation laws kept them from marrying. He was black; she was white. [continues 496 words]
UNITED NATIONS - Opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 34 percent over the past year, and the country is the source of 93 percent of the heroin, morphine and other opiates on the world market, according to a report by the United Nations' antidrug agency. "Afghanistan's opium production has thus reached a frighteningly new level, twice the amount produced just two years ago," said the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's annual opium survey, released Monday in Kabul. [continues 150 words]
LA PUENTE - Planning Department officials say they need more time to determine their stance on "smoke shops" in La Puente. Staff members are recommending the City Council vote today to extend an existing moratorium on the establishment of tobacco stores by one year to further research any potential adverse effects on the community. "Our concern, or the city's concern, is that the inventories that these smoke shops include may include items that can be used for drug use, like glass pipes and hookahs and other accessories that can promote use of drugs," City Planner Guillermo Arreola said. [continues 473 words]
Initiative Takes Some Heat Before Getting Approval Denver voters will have the final say on whether the city should change its marijuana laws, but that didn't stop several City Council members from accusing pot activists of turning city elections into a farce. "You're trying to make a joke out of the electoral process in Denver," said Councilwoman Carol Boigan. "I think this is aimed at street theater and capturing media attention." The council voted unanimously Monday to refer to voters a ballot initiative that would direct Denver police to make the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana "the city's lowest law enforcement priority." Backers of the proposed ordinance turned in several thousand signatures to earn a spot on the November ballot. [continues 327 words]
U.N. Report Describes a Scale of Narcotics Production Not Seen in Two Centuries UNITED NATIONS -- Opium production in Afghanistan has increased by 34 percent over the past year, and the country is now the source of 93 percent of the heroin, morphine and other opiates on the world market, according to a report by the United Nations' anti-drug agency. "Afghanistan's opium production has thus reached a frighteningly new level, twice the amount produced just two years ago," says the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime's annual opium survey, released Monday in Kabul. [continues 352 words]
National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Ondo State has destroyed 10 hectares of Indian hemp (Cannabis) in parts of the state. The farms are located in Ifon and Ala forests in Ose and Akure North local government areas. The State Commander of NDLEA, Mr Shedow Gaura, told newsmen that four persons were arrested at Ifon with 90 kg of hemp. He said owners of the farms attacked NDLEA Operatives with guns, charms and other dangerous weapons at Ogbese forest in Akure North Local Government Area two weeks ago. [continues 171 words]
Re: "Pot raids extinguish a million joints," Aug. 25. According to the article, it took the RCMP, municipal police and the Canadian Armed Forces four days to capture 10,000 pot plants -- a million joints, they gleefully proclaim. I did the math and a million joints works out to about 250 kilos. I could easily fit that into the trunk of my car. There is mention of the use of three Sea King helicopters in finding these evil weed-growing sites. [continues 93 words]
But Chief Says Public Perception Is The Exact Opposite Crime rates are falling in Barrie, but the fear of violence is on the rise, says the city's top cop. "The fear of crime is up as much as it's ever been," Barrie police Chief Wayne Frechette said. According to Statistics Canada, almost all types of crime fell in 2006 compared to 2005. The number of robberies increased nominally last year. The use of weapons in the commission of a crime is still staggering to police. [continues 667 words]
Police Officers Are Getting High To Get Marijuana Off The Streets. Using three Sea King helicopters provided by the Department of National Defence, Vancouver Island RCMP are taking to the skies to search for illegal marijuana grow operations on Crown land. Cpl. Greg Cox, an RCMP spokesman, said the first two days of the operation have already been successful. On Day 1 (Tuesday) we confiscated 2,150 plants from an operation north of Campbell River," said Cox. "So we got off to a good start. The project will last until there is no more work to do." [continues 180 words]
Adding detox facilities to Vancouver's Insite safe-injection site makes such good sense it should have happened long ago, but the province still deserves credit for coming through on this important addition. When the Onsite facility opens in mid-September, addicts will be able go directly into detox in the same building where they go to inject drugs. That's a huge step forward in facilitating treatment: Studies have shown addicts are far less likely to consider a detox program if there are wait times or travel involved. [continues 258 words]
Senlis Council Calls For Nato Action On Soaring Opium Production The United Nations has no choice but to legalize Afghanistan's poppy crop after its latest study documented "frightening" new levels of opium production, the Canadian-led Senlis Council think-tank and the Liberal opposition say. Afghanistan's status as the world's leading supplier of the key ingredient of heroin remained unchallenged as opium production soared 34 per cent in the last year, according to the latest annual audit by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, released yesterday. [continues 397 words]
Rehab Can Do More Than Cut Costs James McDonough is one of the longest serving top state officials in Florida, having been the so-called Drug Czar for most of the Jeb Bush administration and now serving as secretary of the Department of Corrections under Gov. Crist. He is also a man who has the wisdom and the gumption to try to lead the leaders, coming up with proposals such as this week's suggestion that his agency can save 10 percent by moving thousands of state inmates from prisons to work release, substance abuse and education programs. [continues 473 words]
Police have not ruled out the possibility the city's first homicide of the year had links to the drug trade. Kamloops RCMP operations commander Insp. Yves Lacasse said Monday the latest in the investigation of a North Shore stabbing early Saturday suggests the victim, 21-year-old Devin Prince, may not have been randomly attacked. Police initially said there were no links between the victim and the man accused of stabbing him, but Lacasse said developments in the case might now suggest otherwise. [continues 444 words]
Thursday August 2, 2007 would have gone like any other day in the ancient city of Katsina but the normal serenity was broken for a noble cause. The road leading to Jibia, an international border town between Nigeria and Niger Republic was unusually busy. As early as six o'clock in the morning, trucks carrying various sacks were seen plying the road as if it was a neighboring village market day. One would have thought that the goods belong to traders going to the market in anticipation of jumbo sales, but that thinking was however far from reality. The heavy presence of armed security personnel accompanying the goods may have also betrayed the fact that the goods are the normal market commodities. In fact, it was the evacuation of various narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances from the strong room of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) situated in a popular area called Kofa Kwaya (gate of drugs) in Katsina. [continues 486 words]
Organized Crime Groups Have Significantly Increased According To The Criminal Intelligence Service Canada (Cisc) 2007 Annual Report On Organized Crime In Canada Released Last Week. In the report, the Canadian criminal intelligence community identified approximately 950 organized crime groups in 2007, compared to an estimated 800 groups in 2006. "The distribution and street level sales of illicit drugs are probably the number one organized crime activity," Rick Bohachyk, Criminal Intelligence Service of Alberta director, said. "And [that is] prevalent in all areas of the province." [continues 578 words]
We asked our readers: Should the state legalize medical use of marijuana? Here are your opinions: Geoff Corey, Chenango Bridge Marijuana should most definitely be legalized for medical use. It has been proven in many studies that it can prolong life for elderly citizens suffering certain terminal illnesses. For politicians to say that they truly care about our senior citizens, and then not support this, is hypocrisy. However, what truly baffles my mind is that alcohol consumption can cause one to become disoriented, get sick, and become addicted and abusive. Smoking marijuana can cause one to become disoriented. Wait a minute ... you're saying alcohol is legal? [continues 958 words]
Man in Wheelchair Faces Possible Federal Drug Charges After Raid MALAGA, N.M. -- Agents with a regional drug task force raided Leonard French's home in southeastern New Mexico on Tuesday and seized several marijuana plants. But the wheelchair-bound man said he's certified by the state Health Department to possess and smoke marijuana for medical reasons. The 44-year-old lost the use of his legs about 20 years ago as the result of a motorcycle crash and now suffers from chronic pain and muscle spasms. [continues 627 words]
In his Aug. 23 letter, Eric Voth decries former Attorney General Bob Stephan's endorsement of medical marijuana. Dr. Voth states that marijuana isn't a safe drug and is not "clearly effective." He goes on to list some of the side effects of its use. The point here isn't whether medical marijuana is more or less effective, or more or less dangerous, than many of the other drugs regularly prescribed by doctors for their patients. The point is to decide who will make our medical decisions. Will it be the patient herself, teamed with a licensed medical professional? Or will it be non-medical groups intent on imposing their non-medical agendas on the rest of us? [continues 52 words]
In order to protect the identities of the people featured in this story, the mother of a drug-addicted young person will be called Peggy Strife, and her son will be called Brad. One local mother says it's time for parents to wake up and realize all youths are at risk of becoming drug addicts. Peggy Strife, who lives in a $400,000 home in a good neighbourhood, has been grappling with her 20-year-old son Brad's crystal meth addiction for the past several years. [continues 243 words]
Dr. Eric Voth's letter, "Goal isn't medical help," (Aug. 18) is truly what is terrible about medical marijuana. The anti-cannabis fanatic's colors wave dull and dark in Voth's screed. Dr. Voth in declaring his chairmanship of the Institute on Global Drug Policy also declares his association with the worst of the prohibitionist movement in the 21st century, including folks like Mel and Betty Sembler, who were instrumental in the failed and torturous Straight Inc. organization, a group that has tortured American children in the jihad against drugs and those who use them. [continues 138 words]
Stacia Cosner, a university senator and head of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, she has spent two years struggling to see marijuana users treated less like violent criminals by the university. Now, Resident Life's administrators have, perhaps half-heartedly, relented. The department's associate director, Steven Petkas said Resident Life will give more leeway to community directors to decide punishment for students evicted from housing because of drug violations. The fight's not over, but Cosner feels vindicated. "They're punished by the school, the state and the county," said Cosner. "If I can take away one of those, or lessen the impact, I've done my part." [continues 607 words]
It's no secret that Florida's economy has taken it on the chin with regard to the distressed housing market. The downturn in such a key economic sector of our state has now compelled Gov. Charlie Crist to ask Florida lawmakers to return once again to Tallahassee to reduce the state's spending plan. But legislators will be faced with trimming a budget already pruned pretty tightly. It's not just fat that will be hitting the butcher's floor this time around. Budget reductions will affect programs and policies of great significance in the sunshine state. [continues 437 words]
