Kentucky's new attorney general will launch a crackdown on drugs to be headed by Officer David James, president of the union local representing Louisville Metro police. James, who has spent 14 of his 19 years on the force as a Louisville police narcotics officer, is retiring from the department to lead the new Office of the Kentucky Bureau of Investigations. The bureau, to be formed by Attorney General-elect Greg Stumbo after he takes office Jan. 5, will focus on combating illegal drug activity throughout the state. [continues 679 words]
Article Of Clothing Has Not Been Recovered The city cop who saw Huu Pham plunge to his death during a police raid told a fatality inquiry yesterday that the boy was wearing a T-shirt - a piece of evidence forensic experts have never recovered. "I remember that very clearly," said city police dog handler Const. Dave Monson, referring to the plunge. "I thought the Asian man had on black sweat pants and a T-shirt." The inquiry is looking into the deaths of Pham, 15, and Adam Miller, 21, who died Sept. 24, 1999, when they plunged from a fourth-floor balcony at 12925 65 St. Monson was near the cop who lobbed a flash-bang device towards the balcony. [continues 406 words]
Flash-bang residue tests on the clothing of a teen who plunged to his death from a balcony during a police raid were inconclusive, a fatality inquiry heard yesterday. The inquiry into the Sept. 24, 1999, deaths of Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham, 15, who plunged from a fourth-floor balcony at 12925 65 St., heard that a police dog handler saw Pham wearing a T-shirt and track pants moments before he died. But the forensics officer who collected Pham's belongings for evidence said yesterday he only found the boy's pants. [continues 283 words]
The cop who lobbed a flash-bang during a police raid in which two men plunged to their deaths was told to throw the device if the balcony was empty, a fatality inquiry heard yesterday. Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham, 15, plunged from a fourth-floor balcony during a raid at 12925 65 St. on Sept. 24, 1999. The raid was part of an operation targeting an alleged major drug gang. Const. Ken Brander, team leader of the tactical unit which conducted the raid, told the fatality inquiry he gave an officer instructions about lobbing the device. [continues 200 words]
City police launched an apartment raid - where two men plunged from a balcony to their deaths - without a clear picture of who was inside, a fatality inquiry heard yesterday. Adam Miller, 21, and Huu Pham, 15, died after they plunged from the fourth-floor balcony during the Sept. 24, 1999, raid. Sgt. John Lamb testified yesterday that in briefings before the 12925 65 St. raid, his tactical unit was not told underage people might be inside. "On that day they didn't tell us," Lamb said in cross-examination by Tom Engel, the lawyer representing Miller's family. "They could not confirm completely who was likely to be in the suite." [continues 211 words]
Loopholes in federal laws aimed at restricting the sale of crystal meth are frustrating efforts to stop the spread of meth labs across Alberta, says a city drug cop. Health Canada's Precursor Control Regulations restrict the production and trade of the easy-to-find chemicals needed to make the drug. The regulations restrict import, export and sale of the chemicals, but too little is done to limit who can buy them, said Det. Darcy Strang, with the city police drug section. [continues 322 words]
Drugs - particularly methamphetamines - may be a major factor behind a recent string of attacks on police, say cops. Two Mounties were hospitalized Monday after they tried to stop a suspect from stealing an RCMP cruiser. Since September, there has been a rising number of incidents where suspects have tried to ram police cruisers or run down officers with stolen cars. Edmonton police Chief Bob Wasylyshen said he believes a lot of the recent attacks on police officers stem from drugs and drug-related crime. [continues 384 words]
Mississippi's legislators are spending more than $6 million a year to avoid appearing soft on crime. That's the estimate from state Corrections Department chief Christopher Epps. In testimony to the state Legislative Budget Committee recently, Epps reminded legislators that they had gone beyond federal "truth in sentencing" requirements in 1994. The result has been a skyrocketing prison population. The federal government told states that in order to receive federal prison funds, they must require inmates convicted of murder, manslaughter, rape, armed robbery or aggravated assault to serve at least 85 percent of their prison sentences. [continues 159 words]
The war on drugs is filling jails faster than governments can build them, so officials need to change their strategy, according to South Carolinians for Drug Law Reform. South Carolina needs laws that would require officials to put low-level offenders into treatment programs instead of sending them to jail, said group President Skip Johnson. The group also wants governments to decriminalize and regulate the sale of drugs. On the state level, they want the Legislature to: - -- Lower the penalties for crack use to equal those for cocaine use. [continues 240 words]
Son Died In 1999 Police Raid On Alleged Drug Gang The crumbling case against an alleged drug gang is shocking, says the city mom of a man who died in the sweeping raids that landed the so-called Trang gang in custody. "I'm appalled, I'm totally appalled," Allie Miller told The Sun yesterday. Her son, 21-year-old Adam Miller, died during one of the 1999 police raids. Adam and 15-year-old Huu Pham of Calgary died after falling from a fourth-floor Edmonton apartment balcony. Both suffered multiple injuries in the fall and later died in hospital. [continues 211 words]
Los Angeles -- Arianna Huffington enters a windowless room that is a near-perfect cube and sits down in the center on a chair. In this gray cube, there is little else but a television camera pointed toward her. When a technician closes the cloth-paneled door, the seams around it almost disappear and she is hermetically locked inside the cube, alone facing only the camera. A little apprehensive in an interview earlier, she comes alive. "Hi Daaaavid," she says in her silky Greek accent, speaking to the unblinking eye of the camera but really to Republican Rep. David Dreier, who is interviewing her for MSNBC. Huffington later jokes with Dreier about trying to set him up with a wife. [continues 1494 words]
HAMPTON -- Addictions landed Esstease Bellamy and Ernest Giles III in court facing prison time on drug charges. Bellamy and Giles admit to their addictions. They say they want help. On Wednesday, a circuit court judge agreed to help them by making the two addicts the first clients in Hampton's newly-formed drug court program. Drug courts offer non-violent drug offenders an opportunity to clean up their lives while staying out of jail. In Hampton, the program has been up and running since February, but until Wednesday hadn't found eligible and willing participants. [continues 542 words]
The former operational head of Scotland Yard's drug squad today praised a woman who uses cannabis for medicinal purposes for speaking out saying he backs the argument for legalising all drugs. This week, the Evening Post has highlighted the plight of Sybil Lucas-Brewer, of Preston, who relieves her crippling pain with marijuana. The 48-year-old mum spoke out to defend her right to use the "God given herb" and appealed for a change in the law which currently labels people like her as criminals. [continues 407 words]
Park Squatters Pose a Threat, Says Ranger If you go out in the woods today, be ready to run into used syringes and condoms. That's thanks to a fivefold jump in the number of people camping illegally in Edmonton's river valley since 1999, a problem directly tied to the city's growing homeless population, says park ranger Ian Hosler. "What we see in the parks is really just symptomatic of a much larger problem," he said yesterday. "We're just trying to manage the safety and quality of experience people have on our parkland. Just moving these folks around isn't a long-term answer." [continues 362 words]
Court Numbers Triple In Last Decade The number of kids in Canadian courts on drug charges has tripled in the last decade despite a drop in nearly every other form of youth crime, says Statistics Canada. More often than not, it's small amounts of pot that put a kid in Alberta before a judge on drug charges, said lawyer Neena Ahluwalia of the Youth Criminal Defence Office, a government-funded legal aid agency for minors. "The vast majority of drugs we see are marijuana," Ahluwalia said. "Of course, they're not going to have large quantities of drugs, especially if we're talking marijuana, because it's so easy to get." [continues 353 words]
Judge Sends Some Young Drug Offenders To Church Programs A local judge looking for ways to help young drug offenders has been sending them to church. "If they're not responding, it's one of the things we try," said Family Court Judge Charlie Segars-Andrews, who also oversees Charleston County Juvenile Drug Court. "We'll try any thing." "We've seen some lives changed," she said. Drug court is an alternative to detention for juveniles with drug problems. The court sends them to counseling, tutoring and community service to try to turn around their lives. They're required to attend and report back to the court as part of their probation. [continues 957 words]
Peter Goldring Says He'd 'Never, Ever' Try Doing What He Did in His Youth Edmonton Alliance MP Peter Goldring says he knows through personal experience why smoking marijuana and getting behind the wheel of a motor vehicle is bad news. "Living in Toronto in the '60s and '70s as a young bachelor, you're nightclubbing, you're doing what everybody else is doing," Goldring told The Sun yesterday. "I was driving across the 401, after having smoked (marijuana), and realized the problems associated with trying to do that." [continues 302 words]
Marijuana advocates say pot could cut down on the maddening number of aggressive drivers on Alberta roads. An April 2003 Canada Safety Council study suggests Alberta has the greatest number of aggressive drivers in Canada, with 89% of surveyed drivers in Wild Rose Country admitting to at least one aggressive driving act in the past year. "Pot people are more paranoid, so they drive more carefully," said B.C. Marijuana Party president Marc Emery of Vancouver. Emery said he's been smoking pot and driving for 25 years, and, if anything, cannabis mellows out a driver. [continues 289 words]
Marijuana Decriminalization Legislation expected this week to decriminalize simple possession of pot will drive up prices and attract hardcore criminal elements to the trade, say marijuana advocates. Recent media reports say the federal government will introduce legislation by the end of the week aimed at making possession of less that 15 grams of pot a ticketing offence. Federal sources said the new law would simultaneously crack down on the trafficking and production of marijuana. Because pot is so cheap to produce, price is determined by the amount of risk involved in selling it, said Munir Ahmad of the Edmonton Compassion Network, a group that distributes marijuana to people who have licences to use it. [continues 356 words]
Twenty groups with shifting, divided loyalties vying for a share of the illegal drug market are behind Edmonton's ongoing gang violence, says a cop with the city's gang unit. The arrest of alleged members of the Trang family drug gang in September 1999 and the subsequent death of Long Duy Hoang, a.k.a. 'Crazy Jimmy,' in a January 2000 shootout with police, left no dominant power on the streets, said Sgt. Warren Ottenbreit. "When they got taken down, it sort of opened up the market for everybody and anybody to come in," he told The Sun yesterday. "The 20 groups that we have now, it's some of those ones that were around previously. Some of those have split away and formed their own groups." [continues 295 words]
Bush Cracks Down, Students Fight Back Approximately 43,000 otherwise qualified students this year will be denied for federal financial aid because they have a history of drug use. 100,000 students have already been turned down for loans and aid since the Higher Education Reform Act Drug Provision passed in 1998. It wasn't until the Bush administration began a policy of strict enforcement of the act, systematically denying any federal aid for education to anyone with a drug conviction, that the issue really came to the spotlight, and has met with heated opposition from groups such as the Students for Sensible Drug Policy. [continues 305 words]
Losing War Keeps Good People Locked Up Reflecting upon the movement to reform financial aid drug policies, which have denied 100,000 students aid since 1998, my mind can't help but dwell on that simple, sad, undeniable fact: drug laws put good people in prison. The government and the media has gone to great lengths to demonize drugs of any kind, and portray users as fiendish criminals, junkies, and deviants of the worst kind. The fact of the matter is, as we all know, drugs are everywhere. Mailmen, policemen, politicians, teachers, people of all professions and all walks of life indulge in all varieties of illicit substances. [continues 457 words]
NORFOLK -- A life sentence this week for a kingpin in a Poquoson-based drug ring brought to a close the prosecution of one of the largest drug operations ever on the Peninsula. George Haugen, who ran the marijuana and cocaine operation using members of his family, has already been sentenced to 30 years in prison. Haugen's partner, a New Mexico man named Anthony Pacheco, received life in prison Monday. "The sentencing of (Pacheco) brings to justice one of the most notorious and violent drug dealers in Hampton Roads," Paul McNulty, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement Tuesday. [continues 267 words]
Once-Sacred Areas Now Fair Game Sacramento -- There is nothing like a $35 billion catastrophe to open the mind. As California faces a record-breaking budget deficit -- greater than deficits in the 49 other states combined -- lawmakers are looking at once-taboo areas to fill the overwhelming fiscal gap. Set prisoners free. Tax the Internet. Stop prosecuting certain parole violators. Make rural counties pay extra for their expensive and devastating wildfires. Close San Quentin State Prison. Raise the property taxes on office buildings. Tax the lobbyists. [continues 991 words]
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove must have lost his mind. How else can anyone explain his decision to appoint a man to head the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics who does not have one hour of law enforcement experience? This appointment is an insult to all those working in state law enforcement, particularly those members of the bureau. It says Gov. Musgrove does not believe there are any qualified law enforcement professionals in Mississippi who could fill this position. How can he expect the men and women of the bureau to have any respect for a director with no experience? [continues 114 words]
Gov. Ronnie Musgrove must have lost his mind ("Melton tapped to be Miss. drug czar," Dec. 5)! How else can one explain his decision to appoint a man to head the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics who does not have one hour of law enforcement experience? This appointment is an insult to all working in state law enforcement, particularly those members of the bureau. It says Gov. Musgrove does not believe there are any qualified law enforcement professionals in Mississippi who could fill the position. How can he expect the men and women of the bureau to have any respect for a director with no experience? [continues 113 words]
The Province's Chief Medical Officer Is Among Those Advocating A Needle Exchange Program For P.E.I. To Stop The Spread Of Diseases Recovering drug addict Daniel Nowogorski says the number - and diversity - of IV users in the province should serve as a sharp stab in the gut to the many Islanders oblivious to the alarming problem. "See, a lot of people have to understand that it's not just a typical picture of a junkie," he said. "It's not this homeless guy standing on a street corner or shooting it in alleyways. It's professionals, it's mothers, it's fathers, it's brothers, it's sisters - and people we talk to every day of the week." [continues 1488 words]
Refusing to pay his gas bill has cost an Old Kildonan resident more than $1 million in potential revenue and set him up for a probable criminal record. The unidentified man lost more than 900 marijuana plants Wednesday night when police raided a house at 100 Commonwealth Ave. 'SOPHISTICATED' "It was a very sophisticated operation," said Staff Sgt. Al Scott. Police were alerted by Manitoba Hydro officials after a neighbourhood transformer exploded, said Scott. A repair crew traced the trouble to the grow operation, which needed a large amount of heating electricity after Centra disconnected the gas for nonpayment. The power surge apparently knocked out the transformer, police said. [continues 121 words]
The Province's Chief Medical Officer Is Among Those Advocating A Needle Exchange Program For P.E.I. To Stop The Spread Of Diseases Recovering drug addict Daniel Nowogorski says the number - and diversity - of IV users in the province should serve as a sharp stab in the gut to the many Islanders oblivious to the alarming problem. "See, a lot of people have to understand that it's not just a typical picture of a junkie," he said. "It's not this homeless guy standing on a street corner or shooting it in alleyways. It's professionals, it's mothers, it's fathers, it's brothers, it's sisters - and people we talk to every day of the week." [continues 1484 words]
Your most recent issue has once and for all confirmed my suspicion that your publication is nothing more than a poorly disguised bullhorn for the local chapter of the Al Qaeda terror ring. Half the paper was plastered with pro-pot propaganda which demonized our own federal government. Meanwhile, the Shredder made his usual rant against law and order, chastising the current administration for doing its best to protect our inalienable rights: "G.W. this and congressional leadership that." How soon before you start advocating medical anthrax? And whatever happened to your responsibility as a local paper, your accountability to the burning issues of the Central Coast? Instead, you just whine on about how terrorism's not your fault that the dope you've been smoking is 100 percent terror-free. [continues 138 words]
Canadians are getting mixed messages about the dangers of pot and consensus is needed to clear the air, say police and drug policy analysts. "The lines are blurred. That's the problem the Canadian Police Association has said exists all along," said CPA vice-president Sgt. Glen Hayden. Debate flared up over cannabis last September, after a special Senate committee recommended legalization. "We're sending a mixed message out to everybody, to our young people and to the community," said Hayden, also a former Edmonton drug section officer. [continues 295 words]
Canada Must Get Tough On Growers Legalizing cannabis will hurt organized crime more than any other group, says a veteran member of the Edmonton police's anti-cannabis Green Team. "One of the older guys compared it to prohibition, not that he was around then, but maybe that's almost where we're at," Green Team Det. Clayton Sach told The Sun yesterday. "People want booze, and in the old days we didn't give it to them and the mobsters made lots of money. [continues 516 words]
Canada trails only the corruption-riddled regimes of Mexico and Colombia as the top supplier of killer-quality weed to the U.S., says Ontario's Public Safety and Security Commissioner. "That's not something to be proud of," Bob Runciman told The Sun. "We can see the United States wanting us to play a more active role in dealing with this." Runciman - meeting with provincial and federal justice ministers in Calgary this week - plans to push for minimum sentences for pot house operators once he's there. [continues 368 words]
The Chretien government's delay for a special Commons committee report before rolling out pot decriminalization legislation is just a smokescreen, says a drug policy analyst. "Some politicians were having cold feet about confronting the issue of legalization boldly," said Eugene Oscapella, a founding member of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, and an Ottawa lawyer serving on the Law Reform Commission of Canada. Last week's throne speech promised changes to Canada's drug laws, including the possibility of decriminalizing marijuana possession. [continues 207 words]
How can students be kept from using drugs? Should expulsion rule over suspension when student drug offenders are caught? Those were just two of the questions tossed around at a Monday night meeting of the Bristol Virginia School Board. According to Patty Bowers, director of student services and special education, the school system's role in keeping kids off drugs boils down to "prevention and intervention" and "balancing consequences and student needs for education." Bowers presented a sample drug and alcohol program to the school board, outlining ways the school system might deter students from using drugs. She also offered examples of how the school system might discipline pupils caught with drugs. [continues 198 words]
Cops Benefit From Drug Laws Police have the same vested interest in maintaining pot prohibition as do organized crime groups, says the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy (CFDP). "(Police) acknowledge that drugs are a major source of income for organized crime," said Eugene Oscapella, a founding member of the CFDP and an Ottawa lawyer serving on the Law Reform Commission of Canada. "They never acknowledge that prohibition is also the source of their income. The police do benefit. They get employment." [continues 260 words]
A condensed version of the facts in no way impairs the Canadian Police Association's argument that pot is a "gateway" drug, says executive director David Griffin. In its submission to the special Senate committee that ultimately favoured legalizing pot, the CPA cited a U.S. National Academy of Sciences study. "Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first," reads the police association brief. "In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana - usually before they are of legal age." [continues 225 words]
Pot proponents say cannabis can still be therapeutic despite studies saying it's no safer to smoke than tobacco. "No one advocates smoking any kind of herb," said drug policy analyst Chris Donald, with the Media Awareness Project. Ideally, people intent on using pot for pain relief should have easy access to vaporizers, which are safer, he said. According to a paper by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse Policy, pot smoke can cause the same lung damage as does tobacco smoke. [continues 206 words]
Contrary to police claims, Alberta pot - in fact most marijuana studied on the planet - doesn't have harmful psychoactive levels, say Canadian senators backing legal weed. Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chairman of the special committee behind the report, said studies show marijuana has an average THC level of around 8%, which the committee says is safe. In July, Edmonton police Chief Bob Wasylyshen said he hoped the report could speak to what police have been calling dangerously high levels of THC, which officers say are becoming more common. [continues 258 words]
Marijuana users who claim the drug is harmless will have their chance to sway Canada's top judges on Dec. 13 - a Friday. Lawyers for three convicted pot smokers will argue that a federal law banning possession of the fiercely debated herb for personal use is unconstitutional. The high court ruling on pot laws won't likely come until several months after its December hearing. The appeal covers three cases involving Chris Clay of London, Ont., David Malmo-Levine of Vancouver and Victor Eugene Caine of Langley, B.C. [continues 111 words]
Canadians should be able to choose marijuana as a medical option without a doctor's approval, says a special Senate committee recommending the drug be legalized. Some concern remains about how effective pot is in easing pain, said Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, chairman of the Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs. And as it stands now, doctors have too much power to control access to medical exemption status, Nolin said. "We've analysed how the regulations were implemented," he said. "We found out doctors have too much of a role to play. They are the gatekeepers." [continues 196 words]
Canada's chamber of sober second thought backs legalizing marijuana Citing decades of research and public opinion, Canada's Senate is backing legal pot -- but the move faces months of stiff opposition. While senators said Canada should suck it up and make pot legally available to anyone over 16 years of age, the Canadian Police Association called the recommendation "a back-to-school gift for drug pushers." The Special Senate Committee on Illegal Drugs launched its study on marijuana in March 2001, with a mandate to study pot's social and health impacts in Canada and abroad. [continues 442 words]
Butt out those joints - a U.S. researcher is close to rolling out an alternative for medical marijuana exemptees that may put an end to their need for weed. Dr. Mahmoud ElSohly has developed a rectal suppository that delivers a therapeutic dose of THC - the active ingredient of marijuana - without the harmful effects of smoking and with one other twist, he says. "You don't get that stoned feeling," said ElSohly, a University of Mississippi research professor who does U.S. government sponsored research of marijuana and other drugs. [continues 119 words]
Parksville Letter-writer Heather Sparrow means well, but the allegedly anti-drug programme DARE in effect dares kids to try psychoactive drugs. (The News, July 9.) She doesn't realize how a programme which touches her emotionally fails to equally affect dare-devil teens. Face the statistics: DARE fails. The programme's cops try to scare kids into refraining from illegal drugs. That makes those drugs more appealing to some alienated youth. Many youngsters want to prove themselves brave by 'beating the odds' that they learn about in DARE. Many with low self-esteem also feel they deserve the misery that they learn accompanies the artificial thrill of dope. [continues 150 words]
Federal regulators said yesterday that nicotine-laced bottled water, which is being marketed as a dietary supplement, is an unapproved drug and cannot be sold in the United States without federal clearance. The product, Nico Water, fell squarely in the middle of the debate about whether substances that contain nicotine, but do not make drug claims, should be classified as dietary supplements or drugs. In April, the Food and Drug Administration ordered nicotine lollipops and nicotine lip balm off the market. [continues 323 words]
Captured Man Could Shut down Hydroponic Operations: Cop A dangerous American fugitive captured in his girlfriend's home town of Innisfail by RCMP will help Mounties shut down hydroponic pot growing operations across Canada, says a U.S. marshal. Innisfail RCMP arrested 29-year-old Robert Michael Shimek on an area acreage early Saturday - a notoriously violent fugitive and target of an eight-year international manhunt, according to Deputy U.S. Marshal David Drake. "This could easily lead to the seizure of hydroponic grow operations in Canada," said Drake, who has personally hunted Shimek for the last four years. [continues 342 words]
Alberta Mounties Nab One Of America's Most Wanted Central Alberta RCMP ended a seven-year international manhunt yesterday, capturing an American fugitive U.S. marshals call a "violent felon" with links to the Hells Angels' drug network. "He's a violent, violent felon. His propensity for violence is extraordinary," deputy U.S. marshal David Drake, from Maine, told The Sunday Sun yesterday. "I've been hunting him for four years." With the help of Calgary and Red Deer RCMP tactical teams, Innisfail Mounties arrested Robert Michael Shimek, 29, a Minnesota native, without incident at 5:30 a.m. on an acreage west of the town, said Sgt. Ed Plitz. [continues 381 words]
Charges stemming from an anonymous tip that turned up drugs outside cop headquarters have been tossed out of court after a judge ruled the vehicle search was unconstitutional. According to court records, an acting staff sergeant got an anonymous phone call Feb. 21, 2001, naming someone who was allegedly dealing drugs at the York Hotel. The hotel is across the street from Edmonton's police headquarters, near 104 Avenue and 96 Street. The staff sergeant went to a window overlooking the hotel, spotted a car and dispatched three officers, who converged on the vehicle. Inside, cops found money, marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs and a knife. The occupants of the car were arrested. [continues 182 words]
Drug Bust Money Will Remain With Law Enforcement An $850,000 windfall from a recent drug bust won't likely end up in school coffers, and a court ruling will likely guarantee it. According to the state constitution, fines and forfeitures are supposed to go to the public schools. However, law enforcement isn't required to share seized money with schools when federal charges or agencies are involved. When authorities in Craven and Onslow counties seized the money last week, they said at the time it would be divided among law enforcement agencies through the Asset Forfeiture Program usually administered by the U.S. Attorney's Office. [continues 272 words]
