ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP -- There's no need to turn on Judge Judy or The People's Court to get a different kind of courtroom experience. Just head down to Kane County Drug Rehabilitation Court. Nearly a year after former drug court Judge James Doyle -- heralded as a hero by some but called a tyrannical bully by others -- left the program, drug court still is enjoying a lot of success under Judge Bill Weir. Sitting in on Weir's proceedings for a morning, it's not difficult for one to see why so many people call it a forward-thinking program. [continues 1012 words]
Over 100 drug-related arrests have been made in the first three months of the year and there is no let-up as the Narcotics Control Bureau is on overdrive to rid the country of drug abusers and pushers. The number of arrests also reveals the dark side of the society, in which the unemployed youth seem prone to drug abuse activities. The latest NCB operation over the weekend was focused on the water village and surrounding areas in the capital. The target known as a "Black Area" was raided as officials came to know of many drug activities including abusers and traffickers. [continues 287 words]
FREDERICK -- Dwight Thompson's grown daughters cried in Frederick County Circuit Court as they realized their father's decades of cocaine use had come to an end. Thompson's daughters and granddaughters were among dozens gathered Thursday to witness his graduation from Frederick County Drug Treatment Court. The three-phase program is targeted toward helping nonviolent adult repeat offenders who have tried to quit using drugs but failed. "We got our dad back," Tameka Thompson said, choking back sobs as she rose from her front-row seat. [continues 399 words]
ROOTSTOWN -- On the street it is called crank, chalk, ice, crystal and quartz. But methamphetamine, by any name, and the process by which it is manufactured subject the "cooks" who manufacture it and those who track down and clean up clandestine meth labs to hidden health dangers. The drug is popular because it is easy to manufacture -- recipes are readily available on the Internet -- and can be injected, ingested, snorted or smoked, according to William Franks, commissioner for the Stark County Combined General Health District and a faculty member at the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine. [continues 313 words]
We know who you are and we are coming to get you. That's the prosecutors' warning to drug dealers, as they continue to compile evidence against the city's pushers of misery. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) worked alongside Humberside Police during the recent Operation Midas raids. In one month, it resulted in 43 low-level drug dealers being arrested and sentenced to a total of 128 years in prison. Although raids were carried out over a five-day period, the investigation into each of the dealers goes back nine months to last summer, when undercover officers began gathering evidence and detailed files on class A drug dealers. [continues 364 words]
The last thing Mexican President Felipe Calderon needs is an object lesson in the power and reach of the Mexican drug cartels. But he got one last week when a dozen people - including a television reporter and a police chief - were gunned down in a wave of execution-style killings, presumably the work of narcotics traffickers. Amado Ramirez, a Televisa correspondent, was shot in the back three times by an unknown gunman as he left a radio interview on Friday. Also dead in the lastest wave of execution-style killings is Chief Ernesto Gutierrez Moreno. Gutierrez was killed in Chilpancingo, the state capital of Guerrero, which includes Acapulco. The chief was killed while eating dinner in a Chilpancingo restaurant with his wife and son. [continues 391 words]
New Mexico's Democratic Governor Barely Registers in Early Polls. Supporters Say He's Got What It Takes for the Long Haul. SANTA FE, N.M. -- On the afternoon of the 58th day of New Mexico's 60-day legislative session, Gov. Bill Richardson reclined on the green leather couch in his office, rubbed his eyes and growled to the cluster of staffers surrounding him: "What can I sign?" His aides, bleary-eyed from lack of sleep, explained that the Legislature's printing office had lost three employees, keeping newly passed bills from promptly reaching his desk. [continues 1481 words]
The War on Drugs. How is that working for us in America? Is it reducing crime? Is it reducing our rates of death and disease? Is it effective in keeping drugs and drug dealers away from our children? These are important questions because our current prohibition strategy will cost us, the taxpayers, some $70 billion this year. As a police officer, I fought on the side of the "good guys" for 18 years in the War on Drugs, giving me frontline, actual experience in the trenches. After much time, consternation and out-and-out frustration with not achieving a single, policy directed long-term goal, I came to the conclusion that we must be doing something wrong. [continues 434 words]
