More than half of Vallejo fifth-graders questioned don't feel safe at school and, in some cases, outside of school, a California Healthy Kids Survey has found. Even more students in higher grades said they feel unsafe at school - - 59 percent of seventh-graders, and more than two-thirds of freshmen and juniors. Also, the survey found a growing percentage of students are drinking alcohol and smoking cigarettes. Slightly more than 10 percent of freshmen and juniors said they've participated in binge drinking - having five or more drinks within a few hours. [continues 555 words]
While the drug raids in Barre were a triumph for law enforcement, they are unlikely to make a significant difference in central Vermont's drug trade. The laws of supply and demand still hold true. In the wake of the raids, there is likely to be a short-term disruption in supply; with demand holding steady, the price of drugs will rise -- making Barre a more lucrative market. Major drug crackdowns in other cities have put numerous people behind bars and broken up criminal organizations. But the aftermath often brings an increase in violence and crime, as other dealers and suppliers rush to fill the vacuum in the market's structure. This time, most of those arrested were local residents; but Barre has just become an even more attractive place for dealers from supply centers like Springfield and Holyoke, Mass., and New York City. [continues 55 words]
"You've Just Got To Trust Us. We Are Honorable Men." - Richard Helms, Former CIA Director Missing chapters in an old, ghoulish tale recently exhumed could add new dimensions of barbarity to revelations in the press, and subsequent admission by the U.S. government, that thousands of Americans were exposed to radioactive, chemical and biological agents in the 1940s and '50s. But the government's swift and uncharacteristic expiation-by-confession of past trespasses could imply more than just a willingness to lay bare a tarnished conscience. It might instead be a Cheshire cat ploy to keep far more sinister secrets frozen beneath the thick ice of official censorship. [continues 905 words]
San Francisco -- Kevin Reed launched his medical marijuana business two years ago, armed with big dreams and an Excel spreadsheet. Happy customers at his Green Cross cannabis club were greeted by "bud tenders" and glass jars brimming with high-quality weed at red-tag prices. They hailed the slender, gentle Southerner as a ganja good Samaritan. Though Reed set out to run it like a Walgreens, his tiny storefront shop ended up buzzing with jazzy joie de vivre. Turnover was Starbucks-style: On a good day, $30,000 in business would walk through the black, steel-gated front door. [continues 1926 words]
I don't know whether America is going to win the war in Iraq, but I do know that we have lost the war against the use of drugs, which we have pursued for the past 30-plus years. The war on drugs has been a dismal failure. It is not truly a war against drugs, but a war against us - our people, our children, ourselves. President Nixon, when running for president, coined the expression, "war on drugs," knowing that appearing tough on crime would get him many votes. [continues 823 words]
More teenagers are using prescription medications and even over-the-counter drugs, like cough syrup, to get high, according to a new study. The Rio Grande Valley is no exception. A survey released last week from the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that the number of young teens abusing the prescription drug OxyContin has nearly doubled in the last four years, and slightly more teens are using the painkiller Vicodin. In addition, about 7 percent of 12th-graders reported abusing cough or cold medicines. That's about one in every 14, according to the survey. [continues 540 words]
Re: "Judge asks for man to be freed -- But his letters to board don't explain life term for probation violation," Thursday Metro story. Unfortunately, Tyrone Brown is not the only person unjustly imprisoned in Texas due to the absurdity of the drug war. Loren Pogue is serving 22 years for failing to stop a real estate sale. Mr. Pogue owned a real estate firm in San Vito, Costa Rica. He was an active member of the community, belonging to the Lions Club, Masons, Shriners, American Legion and VFW. He was past director of a children's home and had 15 adopted children. He had no history of involvement in the drug trade. [continues 117 words]
Long Hours Amid a Labor Shortage Opens the Door for Stimulants. When Bruce Humphries broke into the energy business in 1975 as an oil-field laborer, he found two things king among roughnecks: booze and bluster. Now, Humphries, a rig manager in Duncan, says the hard work is still there, but he's seeing something new he doesn't like: "It seems like the drug of choice is the meth. It's just a scourge." Little federal or state data exist to show how bad the drug-abuse problem has become in the oil patch. But some industry officials are concerned about the dangers of methamphetamine in an industry where the work is known to be hazardous. [continues 505 words]
DAYTONA BEACH -- In a move to ensure that sworn personnel -- including Police Chief Mike Chitwood -- are not abusing illegal narcotics, the Police Department will begin random drug tests next month. Starting Jan. 15, three to four officers a week will have to give a urine sample to ensure that they're free of drugs, Deputy Police Chief Ben Walton said. That will include everyone from Chitwood to the newest cop on the beat. It's the first time Daytona Beach has put such a program in place, a police union official said, recalling that in the past, officers were only tested for drugs when a "reasonable suspicion" existed. [continues 621 words]
MIAMI -- A Haitian-American man stripped of his U.S. citizenship after being convicted of federal drug trafficking charges was released to his family Thursday, after U.S. authorities failed to find a country where he could be deported. Lionel Jean-Baptiste, 59, said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials let him know Thursday morning he would be released from the Krome Detention Center, about a week after an administrative review of his case. "I'm feeling happy, I'm with my family. I didn't even think they would release me," he said in a telephone interview from his Miami home. "I couldn't wait to get out." [continues 350 words]
Few cases illustrate the senseless cruelty of California's sentencing laws than the case of Annette Imboden. In September 1998, the former mental patient with a history of drug abuse was given a life sentence for stealing from family friends. At the time of her offense, Annette had relapsed into a depression-driven cocaine binge that resulted from a broken romance. Annette was sentenced under California's rigidly constructed "three strikes" law because of a prior instance of burglary and check fraud. [continues 621 words]
SANTA CLARITA -- Specialists who work with local kids in therapeutic programs and in the schools say drug and alcohol use among teens and adolescents is skewing younger and younger. Statistics are hard to come by, but workers in the trenches say more 13- and 14-year-olds are paying a price for tangling with off-limits substances. "We're getting called more and more by the middle schools to do drug tests for kids and we're coming in and doing early interventions on kids a lot," said Cary Quashen, founder of the nonprofit ACTION parent and teen support program. "We're finding pot, alcohol, and over-the-counter drugs like (cough medicine) seem to be real big with young people." [continues 912 words]
SEATTLE -- Marijuana has become the biggest cash crop in the United States, bringing in more annually than corn and wheat combined, according to an analysis released last week by a public-policy researcher. Jon Gettman, a Virginia-based researcher, wrote the report using government data. It's among the top three cash crops in 30 states, Gettman said. He said the nation's five largest producers are California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington. [continues 254 words]
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Someone cares. That's a message the Blair County Drug Court tries to convey to addicts whose heroin or crack cocaine habits led them to the wrong side of the law. On Wednesday, a group of Central High School students showed the adults in drug court that someone cares about their children, as well. Four high schoolers who belong to Students Against Destructive Decisions and school counselor Stephanie Thompson brought armloads of Christmas gifts to the courthouse and stacked them on both sides of the hallway outside a large courtroom where drug court was being held. [continues 336 words]
Domestic Dispute Leads To Arrests TAMPA - [redacted] grew cilantro, rosemary, oregano, Italian parsley and three kinds of basil on the porch of his south Tampa rental home. What police say he cultivated in two bedrooms and a hallway could land him in a state prison for up to five years. Tampa police arresting [redacted] on a domestic violence charge Tuesday said they later uncovered 163 marijuana plants growing inside the house at [redacted]. Sgt. Keith O'Connor, who runs a street-level antidrug squad, said Winkleman had timed lights and a watering system for the plants, some of which were 4 feet tall. [continues 389 words]
The state is asking taxpayers to fork over an additional $97 million to keep convicted felons in treatment, out of trouble or behind bars. A 38 percent jump from two years ago in the Department of Correction's budget is one of the largest proposed budget increases heading into the 2007 legislative session. Part of the reason is because of a $27 million shortfall in the 2007 fiscal year. There are 609 more offenders in the corrections system than was budgeted for, said corrections Spokesman Bob Anez. [continues 778 words]
Key Points Background: Law enforcement agencies last week seized 11 expensive houses in New Hampshire that were being used to grow marijuana. Conclusion: These pot growing operations are disturbing because they show that organized crime has managed to gain a foothold in the Granite State. Until now, marijuana growing in New Hampshire has largely been a garden variety crime. The weather just isn't conducive to the high-intensity illegal agriculture that has drawn drug gangs to the national forests and parks of warmer states. But last week people woke up, and what they smelled wasn't roses. [continues 544 words]
Young black men in our communities are falling into a deep hole - a hole filled with crime, unemployment and despair. They are falling so far, and so fast, that extricating many of them might well be impossible. And yet, for their sakes and ours, we must try. Our personal lives and our many years spent as a Circuit Court judge and college professor, respectively, have caused us to question the destiny of the black community - particularly that of the black male. In December 2004 we independently published articles in a book titled The State of Black Baltimore. While one of our articles focused on the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and its continuing efforts to combat the nightmare of illegal drugs, the other focused on the job market and the overwhelming unemployment and underemployment in many black neighborhoods. [continues 903 words]
[redacted] was sitting in a blue minivan in her driveway set back 100 feet from the road of her [redacted] home when police approached her. [redacted] her residence tucked away in a development that doesn't even have a street sign. Police arrested [redacted], as well as eight other people, earlier this month in a raid of homes worth between $400,000 and $450,000 in affluent suburbs. Within the homes they found laboratories built to grow and distribute millions of dollars worth of marijuana. [continues 855 words]
The Issue: METRICH Funds Cut From $260,000 to $100,000 for 2007 Our Opinion: Campaign Against Illegal Drugs Wrong Place for Budget Cutting If we're fighting a war on drugs in north central Ohio, the state and federal government have suddenly sounded retreat. It appears the sound concept of encouraging local enforcement agencies to cooperate and share resources and information is no longer in vogue with folks controlling federal and state purse strings. That means regional drug task force efforts, like the local METRICH Enforcement Unit, may soon be scrambling for money needed to continue the fight launched here two decades ago. [continues 312 words]
The Clarke County School District could vote next month on an expanded drug-testing policy that would require drug tests for all new employees, including teachers, beginning in July 2007. The new policy also would require security personnel and employees who hold commercial drivers' licenses to submit to random drug testing, which currently is done only with school bus drivers. Beyond that, the new policy would require any school district employee, again including teachers, to submit to a drug test if there is reasonable suspicion they are impaired by illegal drugs or alcohol. At least one area school superintendent told the Athens Banner-Herald for a Monday story, "Drug-testing policy could lead to lawsuits," that the policy could serve as a model for other school systems in the region - if it survives the legal challenges likely in store. [continues 466 words]
Lynsi Donnelly sat on a couch between her mother and her mother's boyfriend playing with a cell phone. A Christmas tree, trimmed neatly with lights and baubles, stood next to the living room's front window in the Hegeler home. Carefully wrapped presents lined the walls along the side, some stacked underneath. For 15-year-old Lynsi, this Christmas is the first she'll celebrate with a sober mom in her new house and in her new life. Her mother, Becki Donnelly, graduated from the Vermilion County drug court program in December – drug-free for 15 months. [continues 1110 words]
Study Calls Plant 'Untapped Source Of Revenue' Kansas is the land of wheat, sorghum and ... weed? A new study that's raising eyebrows around the country suggests that the nation's top cash crop isn't corn or wheat, but marijuana. The report, published in the "Bulletin of Cannabis Reform," puts the value of the nation's marijuana crop at $35.8 billion, compared with $23.3 billion for the nation's corn crop and $7.4 billion for wheat. The study, by Virginia-based consultant Jon B. Gettman, found Kansas to be 31st among the states in marijuana production, with a crop value estimated at $64 million. [continues 456 words]
Abuse of Painkillers, Cold Medicine Rises Federal officials are concerned that teenagers are abusing prescription medications and over-the-counter cold remedies even as their illegal drug use continued a decade-long decline in 2006, according to a government survey released yesterday. Illegal drug use by teenagers has fallen 23 percent since 2001, but their use of prescription narcotics, tranquilizers and other medicines remains at relatively high levels, government investigators said. What's more, researchers for the first time asked whether teens were using cough or cold medicines to get high and found reason for concern there too. [continues 494 words]
WASHINGTON -- Abuse of the painkiller OxyContin by younger teens hit record levels in 2006, a national survey says. While most other teen drug and alcohol use continued a decade-long decline, teen abuse of pharmaceuticals, including prescription narcotics, barely budged, the survey says. The annual survey of 50,000 high school and middle school students, released Thursday, was conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Among high school seniors, the percentage reporting that they had used prescription narcotics, including OxyContin and Vicodin, in the past year declined from 9.5% in 2004, the peak year, to 9% in 2006, the survey found. Among younger teens, OxyContin use rose this year: 2.6% of eighth-graders and 3.8% of 10th-graders reported having used the drug, up from 1.8% and 3.2% in 2005. [continues 377 words]
CASSOPOLIS - Alcohol and marijuana continue to rank first and second among drugs Cass County residents abuse, with methamphetamine and cocaine third and fourth. That's what Jennifer Lester of Woodlands Addiction Center, county Meth Task Force coordinator, reported Thursday afternoon to the Board of Commissioners. Asked by Commissioner David Taylor, D-Edwardsburg, to estimate how many individuals in the county might be addicted to meth, Lester and her colleague Steve Lehman said it's difficult. The main figure they have to go by is a "lagging indicator" - those who have reached an addiction level where they are willing to receive treatment. [continues 531 words]
A marijuana-possession charge against a former Bloomingdale Public Schools counselor has been dropped. Greg Francisco, 49, of Paw Paw, said he almost wishes the case had gone to trial "because I wanted to make a splash." "I don't think Van Buren County wanted the publicity," said Francisco, who is active in the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and in Educators for Sensible Drug Policies and writes and speaks about reforming drug laws. Francisco was charged after a stem and material that tested positive as marijuana were found when his truck was searched May 5 in a school parking lot. The misdemeanor marijuana charge was dismissed Dec. 1. [continues 157 words]
Drug Cartels' Increasing Role in U.S. Corruption Requires a Clearheaded U.S. Response Crime waves, like hurricanes, periodically slam American cities. Houston suffered a sharp rise in murders during the first half of this year; Washington, D.C., was assaulted by brazen influence-selling. Now Brownsville and other cities along the Mexican border are being pummeled by corruption. Border guards, city agencies, even judges have been caught taking bribes. The crime wave shows that American officials are no more immune from the cancer of corruption than any others. [continues 577 words]
I hope you are so involved in holiday rapture that you won't read this. I have to confess to an error, always an embarrassment, and I'm hoping to do it before as small an audience as possible. I will, however, make it up to you by giving you an extraordinarily helpful last-minute shopping tip at the bottom of this column. Not surprisingly, my miscue was mathematical. The widely held belief is that media types go into newspapering and television and radio and the movies and magazines because we crave a platform from which to spew some partisan or moral venom. The widely held belief is wrong. We work in the media because we are absolutely, genetically incapable of successfully executing a math problem. [continues 470 words]
The Texas Officer Says His New Venture Is Driven by 'Injustice' In the U.S. War on Drugs TYLER, Texas -- A one-time Texas drug agent described by his former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country plans to market a how-to video on concealing drugs and fooling police. Barry Cooper, who has worked for small police departments in East Texas, plans to launch a website next week where he will sell his video, Never Get Busted Again, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported in its online edition Thursday. [continues 315 words]
A 16-year-old Columbus girl has been arrested for murder after her child was born dead last month. Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant's investigation led to the arrest under the state's "depraved heart murder" charge. Merchant determined that the baby died from a cocaine overdose. The girl's identity is not being revealed because she is a minor. The case is the second infant death charge brought by Merchant in the past four months relating to drug use by the mother. Tonya Regina Hairston, 32, of Columbus is currently awaiting trial on manslaughter charges after her baby was stillborn July 30. An autopsy on that baby determined cocaine toxicity caused its death. [continues 258 words]
A New Study Finds That Fewer Than 1 in 3 American Teens Now Use Marijuana, but Abuse of Pharmaceuticals Is Rising NEW YORK -- There's some very good news in the battle against illicit drugs: Use by America's teens has dropped more than 23 percent during the last five years. But their abuse of medicines, both over-the-counter and prescription, is rising. These opposing trends - detailed in a survey of teens released Thursday - reflect the complexity of the US drug scene. They also present a new set of challenges. The most important: How to apply the prevention tools that have apparently succeeded in combating illegal drug use to fight the abuse of legal medicines. [continues 759 words]
The percentage of U.S. teens who use illegal drugs continued a decadelong decline this year, particularly among older students, but the use of prescription drugs such as OxyContin and Vicodin remains high, according to a study released yesterday by President Bush's drug czar. The University of Michigan survey of 50,000 students in more than 400 schools nationwide found that the proportion who said they had used illegal drugs in the previous 12 months - 15 percent of eighth-graders, 29 percent of 10th-graders and 37 percent of 12th-graders - dipped 0.7 percent, 1 percent and 1.9 percent, respectively, over the last year. [continues 204 words]
TYLER - A one-time Texas drug agent described by his former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the nation plans to market a how-to video on concealing drugs and fooling police. Barry Cooper, who has worked for small police departments in East Texas, plans to launch a Web site next week where he will sell his video, "Never Get Busted Again," the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported in its online edition Thursday. Cooper, who said he favors the legalization of marijuana, made the video in part because he believes the nation's fight against drugs is a waste of resources. Busting marijuana users fills up prisons with nonviolent offenders, he said. [end]
Teenagers' use of illegal drugs has declined significantly in the past five years, a new government study shows, although the study found a slight increase in teens abusing prescription painkillers and other legally available substances. Comparing data from 2001 and 2006, the federal study found the number of teens who reported using marijuana within the past 30 days fell 25 percent, while past 30-day use of methamphetamine plunged 50 percent during the same five-year period. Teen use of cigarettes, alcohol, steroids, cocaine, heroin and LSD were also down, in some cases dramatically, the report from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found. Underage drinking is down more than a third since it peaked a decade ago. Past-month teen smoking is at an all-time low, with the biggest declines among 12th-graders. [continues 623 words]
Trisha Maki discovered Growing Home after seeking treatment for her meth addiction. The group provided her with $200 to put down on a two-bedroom apartment in Denver and has followed up to try to keep her on the right path. Maki, 36, said she's barely scraping by with a hotel job but has been clean for more than a year. She has her three kids back and now is training to become a drug and alcohol counselor. Her remarks have been edited for space and clarity. [continues 515 words]
Two New Studies Show Marijuana Is Not A 'Gateway' To Harder Drugs Two recent studies should be the final nails in the coffin of the lie that has propelled some of this nation's most misguided policies: the claim that smoking marijuana somehow causes people to use hard drugs, often called the "gateway theory." Such claims have been a staple of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under present drug czar John Walters. Typical is a 2004 New Mexico speech in which, according to the Albuquerque Journal, "Walters emphasized that marijuana is a 'gateway drug' that can lead to other chemical dependencies." [continues 597 words]
The Dec. 19 Chronicle article "Houston's rise in violent crime outpaces U.S." said that "violent crime in Houston increased at nearly twice the national level." Certain deductions about this near doubling of violent crime in Houston are obvious. Houston and Harris County lead the world in the incarceration of our citizenry; mostly for drug charges, minor amounts, empty bags, empty pipes or for failing a urine test for drugs. Our jails are so overcrowded that prisoners sleep underneath bunks and next to toilets, and we are contemplating building additional jails to house more drug users. Our jails and prisons are so swamped with drug prisoners that we find it necessary to provide early release to violent criminals to make room for these minor drug offenders. [continues 201 words]
State Legislature Toughens Sentences For Convicted Manufacturers Around 5:30 p.m. on May 4, 2001 then-deputy Joe Halbrooks noticed a man driving away from anhydrous ammonia tanks parked in rural Marine where he was on patrol. The man fled north on Humbolt Street. Halbrooks followed. The pursuit followed Route 143, Interstate 255, Interstate 270 and wound up at Troy Road and Montclaire Avenue in Edwardsville, where the deputy had radioed ahead to have "stop sticks" strung across the road. The triangular pointy sticks punctured the vehicle's right front tire, although the man continued driving west to Second Street. He fled on foot, but Halbrooks was able to handcuff him after he tripped. [continues 450 words]
Officials Address Concerns After Narcotics Sweep ITHACA -- In the light of the recent county-wide narcotics arrests, state and local law enforcement officials, headed by Ithaca Mayor Carolyn Peterson and Ithaca Police Chief Lauren Signer, spoke about crime and drugs in Ithaca in an hour-long press conference at police headquarters Friday. "Drugs are a problem everywhere," Signer said. "No community is safe." The multi-agency narcotics sweep apprehended 33 people in arrests Tuesday, last week and earlier this month. The operation also seized thousands of dollars and confiscated marijuana and cocaine, according to the New York State Police Community Narcotics Enforcement Team. Patrick J. Garey, CNET lieutenant-in-charge; Tompkins County District Attorney Gwen Wilkinson; and Assistant Deputy State Attorney General Michael Sharpe were also at the conference. [continues 534 words]
9:05 a.m. - Twenty students pile into a room that on any other day would be a math class. Instead of a teacher, the group is met by Chief Probation Officer Doug Swalm who gives a slide presentation showing the accouterments of mobile methamphetamine labs. Swalm describes the procedure of how the drug is made and compares glass air freshener vials to actual glass meth pipes to show their similarities. "I think I have some of it somewhere on me," Swalm says as he produces a baggie with a small amount of white powder from his pocket and passes it to the students to get a firsthand look. [continues 907 words]
In San Francisco County Jail Number 8, the 21 orange-suited women in the SISTER program are getting a lesson in self-esteem from Jackie Gordon, a one-time heroin and crack addict who did 18 months in California State Prison and has been clean and sober for six years. "What limits you?" she asks. "You go so far and then you go back to what is familiar." A light-skinned Hispanic woman named Carolyn raises her hand. "I don't know if you guys know it, but I'm on my way out of here. It's my fourth time going into a program and I always relapse." [continues 1865 words]
TYLER, Texas - A former Texas drug agent described by his former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country plans to market a how-to video on concealing drugs and fooling police. Barry Cooper, who has worked for small police departments in east Texas, plans to launch a Web site next week where he will sell his video, "Never Get Busted Again," the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported Thursday. Cooper favors the legalization of marijuana. [end]
I must object to Ms. Stanford's Dec. 16 letter for several reasons ("Keep fighting marijuana laws"). Regardless of what the San Diego County Board of Supervisors does or doesn't do, young people will experiment with marijuana and other kinds of stimulation, legal or not, because they are young people and crave adventure. It would presumably be less expensive to obey state law and print ID cards for medically certified patients than to pay legal fees to appeal an ill-designed measure that has been rejected twice by a Superior Court judge. [continues 131 words]
Regarding your Dec. 10 article "Patients say they'll appeal to county over medical marijuana law," I applaud the Board of Supervisors' legal action and I hope they will continue to protect our young people and the public by seeking legal relief from SB420, an ill-conceived legislative bill. SB420 forces San Diego County to spend our tax dollars to create the marijuana ID card program. The county should not be involved in an expensive and fraudulent program. San Diego County's Health Department has the responsibility to provide for the best public health measures available, and smoking a plant is not it. [continues 89 words]
Officials Express Disappointment With 'Never Get Busted Again' An ex-Permian Basin Drug Task Force officer -- described as being a fine lawman -- plans to sell a video that shows people how to get away with having narcotics. Barry Cooper, who also worked for the Gladewater and Big Sandy police departments, will begin to sell his video "Never Get Busted Again" beginning Tuesday. Cooper said in a promotional video that "Never Get Busted Again," shows viewers how to "conceal their stash," "avoid narcotics profiling" and "fool canines every time." [continues 462 words]
School-age children aren't just interested in marijuana, cigarettes and alcohol anymore. A national study released yesterday showed the number of students who are using marijuana is decreasing, but the number of students abusing cough syrups and prescription drugs to get high is on the rise. Locally, officials said New Hampshire teenagers mirror the trends revealed in the 2006 National Institute on Drug Abuse survey. Each year, the survey is taken by 50,000 students in grades eight through 12 at more than 400 schools nationwide. [continues 670 words]
BURKE, Va. - Locking up nonviolent offenders is not just the most expensive form of punishment. Time in a Texas penitentiary or county jail also condemns nonviolent men and women to a violent, disease-riddled world where many become likely to commit more serious crimes. In other words, prisons can do more harm than good and destroy rather than rehabilitate lives. Too few leaders in Washington seem to care. One exception, Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., recently spent a night in a Louisiana prison to publicize that prison's need to start rebuilding lives. [continues 678 words]
Riviera Beach - The city is trying to revitalize itself, officials said. The first phase came in 101 suspects on drug charges. After a 45-day multi-agency investigation, police arrested 25 of the suspects Wednesday night. There are 60 warrants for the other suspects and probable cause to arrest the remaining 16 suspects, police said. One was a juvenile; most are Riviera Beach residents, police said. The suspects were videotaped selling illegal drugs to undercover officers. At a news conference Thursday, Chief Clarence Williams praised Operation Peace on Earth. [continues 111 words]
First, let's make one thing perfectly clear: I did not inhale. But there were plenty of people who did at the fifth annual Oregon Medical Cannabis Awards. Right there on the porch at the Ambridge Event Center in Northeast. Strictly for medicinal purposes, of course. The daylong event Dec. 9 was sponsored by the Oregon chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. It was billed by organizers as "the only event of its kind in the United States." [continues 380 words]
Inside United States
