Meth is not good -- and a community in Montana, US, used a young woman who looked oddly like Elsa from Frozen to remind its citizens. An anti-drug campaign called the Montana Meth Project (MMP) erected some billboards and signs calling on people to "just let it go" -- "it" being meth, an illegal substance that causes misery around the world. On the boards was a blonde girl, visibly blighted by drug abuse, with a tired face and jumbled hair. She was shackled, too, apparently caught for possession by police. [continues 216 words]
The Haldimand- Norfolk Health Unit wasn't exaggerating last year when it warned about the threat of illegal street drugs cut with powerful synthetic opioids. Norfolk paramedics responded to 37 drug overdoses in all of 2014. This rose to 59 in 2015. In 2016, the total was 90. "These are only the number of calls that were specifically dispatched as drug overdoses and do not account for other primary problems associated with overdose that the crews were sent to such as vital- signs- absent, unconscious-unresponsiveness, seizures, respiratory problems or behavioural-psychiatric occurrences," Sarah Townsend, Norfolk's manager of emergency medical services, said Jan. 6 in an update on opioid occurrences. [continues 366 words]
Dr. [name redacted], 50, of Parkland, was arrested Wednesday on prescription drug allegations at his Wilton Manors practice, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. (Sun Sentinel / Drug Enforcement Administration Handout) A Broward doctor and his medical assistant were arrested on prescription drug charges Wednesday, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. Dr. [name redacted], 50, of Parkland, was arrested after a six-month investigation that showed he illegally supplied methamphetamine to some of his patients at his Wilton Manors practice, authorities said. He is also accused of dispensing medically unnecessary prescriptions to use with the methamphetamine "to further enhance the patient's altered state of mind," agents wrote. [continues 120 words]
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say officers in Cincinnati intercepted more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine that was concealed inside a statue of a snail. Authorities say the package, which came from Mexico and was labeled "Mexican stone crafts," contained a decorative snail statue that exhibited "interior anomalies" during an X-ray inspection on Dec. 30. Customs officers drilled a hole into the statue and found 53 pounds of a white crystalline powder that tested positive for meth. Richard Gillespie, CBP's Cincinnati Port Director, says the agency's officers excel at preventing dangerous packages from reaching innocent citizens. The snail's intended destination was Lawrenceville, Georgia. [end]
The 81 barangays in Cebu Province that were initially declared by the police as drug-free are still subject for validation, a top-ranking official said Tuesday, January 3. Chief Superintendent Noli Talino, Police Regional Office (PRO)-Central Visayas director, said that it is up to the Cebu Provincial Anti-Drug Abuse Office (CPADAO) to declare a barangay free from drugs. "Yung sa amin, hindi pa naman final yung report ng Cebu Province. Ang sabi ko sa kanila for recommendation as a drug-free barangay pero hindi pa final yun. Ipapa-validate pa natin 'yun (For our part, the report from the Cebu Province is not yet final. What I told them was only to submit a recommendation of drug-free barangays but these are not yet final. This (recommendation) will still be validated," said Talino. "So if I will not approve it then it's back to zero." [continues 158 words]
A leader of a ring that conspired to smuggle methamphetamine from San Diego to Hawaii has been sentenced in federal court to 28 years in prison, the U.S. Attorney's office in Honolulu said today. Jesse Wade Pelkey, 38, of Imperial Beach, Calif., was sentenced Thursday by Senior District Judge Helen Gillmor. In September, Pelkey pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, according to a news release from Florence T. Nakakuni, U.S. Attorney for the District of Hawaii. [continues 84 words]
Mt. Juliet Police conducted a search warrant Tuesday afternoon as part of a heroin and methamphetamine investigation that closed Old Lebanon Dirt Road near Nighthawk Lane. The search warrant included explosions that police described as "flashbangs," which were deployed as distractions because of information the individuals inside may have been armed, Mt. Juliet Police Lt. Tyler Chandler said. "So, using distraction methods, helps minimize risk for the Special Response Team members making entry," Chandler said. Old Lebanon Dirt Road between Nighthawk Lane and Eagle Trace Drive was closed for a period of time before being reopened. The Tennessean will provide additional information as details become available. [end]
I've only just started! Filipino President Duterte's bloody war on drugs has claimed 6,000 lives and seen 900,000 addicts surrender in just six months -- as he claims his country is now safer for normal people * The Philippines government has claimed it is winning the war on drugs after a brutal crackdown on dealing * 6,000 people have been killed by police or vigilantes in a six month campaign ordered by President Duterte * The Filipino government has said that thanks to the crackdown, the country is now a safer place for residents [continues 1462 words]
About 4,000 of drug suspects were killed by vigilantes or executions on the spot. [photo] Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte greets spectators during a ceremony to honor the death anniversary of national hero Jose Rizal, at the Jose Rizal Park in Manila, Philippines, on Dec. 30, 2016.(Photo: Mark R. Cristino, EPA) MANILA -- Sammer Torculas had just returned home from playing with his children outside in Pandacan, a lower-middle class district in the Philippine capital, when he heard a knock at the door. [continues 1004 words]
Foreign governments are keeping noticeably quiet as the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is leading one of the world's bloodiest anti-drug campaigns [photo] Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte salutes with other military officers during an anniversary celebration of the Armed Forces. Photograph: Erik de Castro/Reuters Even the most adamant supporters of the war on drugs agree that it is failing. At a major UN summit on drug policy earlier this year, many member states argued forcefully for a more balanced and humane approach. But there's one anti-drug crusader who refuses to face the facts. For the past six months Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines has waged one of the world's most vicious counter-narcotics campaigns. [continues 1085 words]
New Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana shied away from recommendations by his predecessor Gen Paiboon Koomchaya to de-criminalise amphetamines, marijuana and krathom. (File photo by Thanarak Khunton) Thailand should adopt an integrated approach to tackle the problems of drug abuse and addiction, Justice Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana says. Strategies to solve the problems need to be adjusted, Mr Suwaphan said, adding legal measures alone would not solve the drug scourge. He was speaking at a meeting in Bangkok Thursday which he chaired to discuss social measures to help curb the impacts of drug abuse and addiction on communities. [continues 239 words]
Teaching in a large urban secondary school of 3,000 grade 8-12s in the early 1970s, I knew we had several students with a serious drug problem. We knew who they were and the school did what it could, but it was a losing proposition. Later, as an administrator in that same school and still later as a superintendent in a different school district, I knew some students had serious drug problems. Right up to retirement, when I was asked: "So the schools have a drug problem?" my answer was always: "No, but a few students have serious problems, and students have these problems only if there are drug problems in the community - schools don't exist in a vacuum." [continues 577 words]
As Victor Emilio Cazares Gastellum stood in a San Diego courtroom for sentencing Tuesday, the judge acknowledged the defendant was unlike the vast majority of drug offenders he sees day in and day out. Cazares was not your typical drug mule caught crossing the border, nor was he a low-level distributor. Cazares, 53, was a kingpin, the head of a large Mexican drug-trafficking organization aligned with the powerful Sinaloa cartel. He was in the business of shipping tons of cocaine from producers in Colombia and Venezuela to Mexico and distributing the drug throughout the U.S. [continues 934 words]
LUBBOCK, Texas - Across from a sprawling cotton field, among mobile homes in varying states of decay, one stood out: a double-wide with a new, expansive metal garage and the only paved driveway on the dead-end street. It was here that an unemployed former computer repairman with a bad back ran what a drug informant called the biggest fentanyl ring in Lubbock. All Sidney Lanier needed was a computer and an elementary knowledge of chemistry to order shipments of the potent synthetic opioid from China and turn it into a highly profitable - and dangerous - street drug. [continues 1455 words]
MANILA, Philippines -- An average of 30 people have been killed daily in the past 167 days under the Duterte administration's intensified campaign against criminality, especially the illegal drug trade. Records from the Philippine National Police (PNP) showed 2,102 drug pushers and users killed after allegedly fighting it out with police, and 2,886 others getting killed under sketchy circumstances and whose cases are listed as "death under investigation" or DUI. The reported deaths totaled 4,988 in less than six months. [continues 414 words]
In war, there is collateral damage. In the case of the vicious war on illegal drugs, President Duterte acknowledged last week that there have been "unintended killings" that have claimed the lives of innocents including children. In fact practically everyone killed in the drug war was legally innocent since guilt beyond reasonable doubt was never established in court, and most of the slain weren't even indicted. For the unintended killings, the President said he's sorry, although he made it clear that it would not stop his relentless war. Such a cavalier attitude toward human life is likely to rub off on the forces fighting the drug menace, making them careless about hitting innocents in the crossfire. It can encourage them to continue disregarding laws and rules on armed confrontations and the conduct of arrests and searches. [continues 223 words]
MANILA, Philippines - Maaaring magkaroon din sa Pilipinas ng mga asylum para sa mga adik na tuluyan ng nasira ang ulo dahil sa paggamit ng ilegal na droga partikular ng shabu. Ito ang sinabi ni Pangulong Rodrigo Duterte kaugnay ng mga adik na hindi na kayang i-rehabilitate dahil lumiit na ang utak sa matagal na paggamit ng shabu. "If the brain is shrunk and it was your forensics who told us that that is the case. They have conducted the --- and almost all of them have shrunk brains," ani Duterte. [continues 114 words]
No matter how the questions were rephrased, the President stuck to his guns in his replies on his much criticized campaign against illegal drugs. For a man who made a campaign vow to bring genuine change in the country, it may come strange. For his new year's resolution, President Rodrigo Duterte promises no change in his administration's offensive campaign against illegal drugs. President Duterte though already publicly declared "sorry for the unintended" killing of innocent by-standers in his administration's deadly war against illegal drugs. But President Duterte vows to continue the anti-drug campaign despite the alleged extra-judicial killing controversies that hounded him in his first six months into office. [continues 1002 words]
Narcotics suppression police question Francis Mukwamba, a Zambian passport holder whose real nationality is uncertain, at a hotel room in Sukhumvit area of Bangkok on Dec 26. (Photo taken from the Narcotics Suppression Bureau Facebook page) Two foreign nationals were arrested after 4kg of cocaine were found in their bags when they arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport from Africa and a third, their alleged contact, was later apprehended at a city hotel. Pol Maj Gen Sommai Kongwisaisuk, acting commissioner of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, said Johnny Halop Sajulga, a Filipino, and a Vietnamese woman, Chao Thi Thuong, 37, arrived from Ethiopia on Flight ET 628 on Dec 26. [continues 159 words]
