A police detective should not be able to waltz into the property room at the Madison Police Department and remove evidence related to criminal cases he has little or nothing to do with. This is especially true when the evidence is heroin. Investigators believe Madison Police Detective Jeffery Hughes got away with removing bags of heroin from the property room at least 10 times. The evidence so far suggests he may have been obtaining the drugs for personal use. Nobody seemed to pay much attention until Hughes crashed his car into a guardrail Nov. 20 on Interstate 39-90 near Edgerton while off-duty. He was badly injured. [continues 352 words]
He Lobbies Lawmakers On Proposed Study Washington - Lobbyists are not always slick, smooth-talkers who try to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. Sometimes they are simply academics looking after their students. Donald Singleton, director of the Upward Bound program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was in that role when he headed to Washington last spring. His intent: to discuss with the Wisconsin congressional delegation a potentially flawed study proposed as part of the Upward Bound application process. In Wisconsin, 15 colleges receive U.S. Department of Education funding for Upward Bound, including UW-Milwaukee, Marquette University and the Milwaukee School of Engineering. [continues 672 words]
A Cottage Grove woman long identified by authorities as the driver of an SUV that hit and killed a bicyclist in February was charged Wednesday with homicide by driving under the influence of marijuana. An arrest warrant was issued for Susan K. Gorton, 45, who allegedly hit and killed Dale Connors, 52, on Feb. 6 on Femrite Drive in the town of Blooming Grove. At the time of his death, friends described Connors as an intelligent and self-sufficient man who built a tiny root-cellar-like home for himself in the woods. [continues 352 words]
More pain clinics alone are not the answer to skyrocketing chronic pain rates. Scientific studies and clinical observations have long established marijuana as an effective treatment for pain. Cannabis has shown special efficacy in treating conditions like migraine and nerve pain that often do not respond to conventional medications and treatments. Current law deprives health care professionals of this tool when compassion demands patients have legal access. Meanwhile, state legislation that would legalize this option, AB 550, the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act, remains stalled in the Assembly 's Health and Health Care Reform committees, where the chairwoman, Rep. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, refuses to hold a hearing. [continues 115 words]
The Madison Police Department has put in place new procedures for the police property room, after a Madison detective seriously injured in a car crash allegedly removed heroin from the property room on several occasions under questionable circumstances, officials said today. "The immediate changes ... are designed to make the system more proactive, while maintaining the integrity already built into the existing chain of custody procedures," Chief Noble Wray and other leaders said in a statement. The primary change is a requirement that any officer seeking release of sensitive evidence such as drugs, firearms or weapons from the property room must have a supervisor's signature on the request form. [continues 559 words]
WISCONSIN RAPIDS -- The majority of people arrested in connection with what was called Wood County's largest drug bust served time in jail, according to an analysis of the almost 150 cases involved. With all but one of the cases concluded from the bust that happened more than 18 months ago, the numbers tell part of the story. Of a list of 141 defendants related to the drug investigation, seven received prison sentences and 90 received jail time. Two defendants had their charges dismissed at their preliminary hearing and one was found not guilty by a jury. [continues 201 words]
Thanks for Sunday's article highlighting the importance of effective pain control. Unrelieved pain has a devastating impact on individuals and society. It can and should be treated. As you reported, there are many therapies for chronic pain. But opioid analgesics (narcotics) got a bad rap in your article. The emphasis was on diversion and addiction, not on the fact that opioids can be critical parts of a treatment regimen that gives quality of life and function to persons with persistent pain. [continues 128 words]
While city of Madison employees who drive heavy machinery and buses are subject to random drug testing, those charged with protecting the public are not, which may factor into why a Madison police detective was able to check out heroin from the Police Department's evidence room at least 10 times. Despite the fact that several firefighters were fired for drug use in the aftermath of a federal raid in 1999 on the now-defunct Jocko's bar downtown, police and fire unions have succeeded in avoiding random drug testing, said Brad Wirtz, Madison human resources director. [continues 771 words]
Lawmakers Fail to Recognize That Banning Salvia Does Not Mean Preventing Its Trade or Usage There is a danger growing around Madison. And no, it isn't the sexual assaults, kidnappings, bank robberies, murders or violence. According to state lawmakers (and probably Lou Dobbs), it is imports from Mexico that may be here illegally to destroy American culture and American youth. I'm talking, of course about Salvia Divinorum - a non habit-forming herb that has historically been used in the Mazatec region of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Oaxaca, Mexico as part of ritualistic healing and prophecy rituals. Since the early 1990s, it has increased in popularity in the United States (although, to call (although, to call it popular is somewhat misleading.) State Representatives Sheldon Wasserman and David Cullen authored a bill that would prohibit the sale and manufacturing of Salvia Divinorum. The Assembly Criminal Justice Committee held a public hearing on the measure last Wednesday. [continues 607 words]
I would like to open with a sincere apology to my elementary school D.A.R.E. officer. Although his mustache was more memorable than his name, the message of drug and violence resistance he promoted to a classroom full of fifth graders was both noble and necessary. At least, that's what I used to think. These days, after weighing my options, I have decided it's probably about time to start smoking pot. But I am not looking to engage in illicit drug use in order to relax myself or figure out what Pink Floyd is really trying to tell me. I plan on doing it simply because, legally, I have nothing to fear. There is a simple, self-administered test that will quickly tell your risk of drug-related incarceration. First, look at your skin. If you're white, turn up the Bob Marley and toke on. However, if you're black, just do as D.A.R.E. taught you and say no. [continues 617 words]
Two Rivers Administration Will Continue to Look TWO RIVERS -- The Board of Education approved a new policy manual Monday without the addition of a proposed policy that would've called for drug testing Two Rivers Public Schools students. District and Two Rivers High School administrators will continue to look into the costs and data regarding random student drug testing, and a policy could be implemented at a later date, District Administrator Randy Fredrikson said. The proposed policy was "not based on probable cause," Board President John Webster said Nov. 26, when the issue first was presented to the board. All students involved in extra-curricular activities, as well as those who have parking permits, would have been affected. [continues 269 words]
St. John Vianney Priest Had Served Weakland The pastor of St. John Vianney Parish in Brookfield and former priest-secretary to now-retired Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert G. Weakland, was charged Tuesday in Milwaukee County with misdemeanor possession of cocaine. Father Leonard Van Vlaenderen, 49, was arrested by St. Francis police after they got a report about 6:20 p.m. Saturday of a suspicious car in the parking lot of a vacant commercial building in the 3500 block of E. Lunham Ave., said St. Francis Police Chief Brian Kaebisch. [continues 349 words]
The Dec. 7 letter headlined "Tobacco a bigger danger than pot" makes great sense in urging an end to marijuana prohibition. An America where marijuana possession and distribution for personal use was legal was actually envisioned 35 years ago in a report by a Republican former Pennsylvania governor, Raymond Shafer, appointed by no less than President Nixon to head his National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. In 1972, the Shafer Commission recommended to Nixon and Congress that the "possession of marijuana for personal use no longer be an offense, (and that the) casual distribution of small amounts of marijuana for no remuneration, or insignificant remuneration no longer be an offense." [continues 195 words]
Andrew Winters frequents a downtown bar where he began to notice a guy coming and going all the time and spending a lot of time on the phone. Cars would routinely pick the guy up, drive him two blocks, drop him off and he would walk back to the bar. One day Winters (not his real name) saw the man making an exchange with someone out in front. "It's not rocket science, you know, he's dealing," Winters said. "This guy had a large customer base. I could tell from all the traffic." [continues 1882 words]
A bill currently in the state Legislature that would create new penalties over the drug salvia was read in a public hearing Wednesday, with bill supporters saying the drug poses a risk to users and the public. The state Assembly's Criminal Justice Committee held a hearing on Assembly Bill 477 Wednesday, which would create penalties for the drug salvia divinorum. The bill would allow law enforcement to confiscate salvia from anyone manufacturing, distributing or delivering salvia, according to an aide to state Rep. Sheldon Wasserman, D-Milwaukee, the author of the bill. [continues 309 words]
We should release all Wisconsin jails inmates who have been convicted of possessing, selling or growing marijuana. What they have done is nowhere near as bad as what the tobacco growers and cigarette companies have done: addicting smokers to nicotine, hooking them on a terrible habit which has caused the deaths of millions of people. Tobacco growers are subsidized by our government, but marijuana growers are put in jail. We should let our farmers grow the stuff and sell it at a high premium. That would increase farm income and also relieve some of the overcrowding problems in our jails. Arkansaw [end]
Dear Editor: It's encouraging that The Capital Times is exposing the current racist effect of drug laws on minorities (97 Black Drug Offenders Imprisoned for Each White One), but with further examination it's evident most drug laws were enacted as a racist means to incarcerate minorities to begin with. For bigots who instituted America's drug laws, they are working as planned. Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
A new report says Dane County imprisons 97 black drug offenders for every white offender. Critics say the report does not consider criminal history enough in its findings Dane County imprisons 97 black drug offenders for every white offender, the third highest racial disparity in the nation, according to a report issued Tuesday. The Justice Policy Institute, an advocacy group for alternatives to prison, issued the report. The report states a disproportionate number of blacks are sent to prison for drug offenses. However, according to UW-Madison Law Professor John Pray, the amount of drug use by black people is comparable to that of white people. [continues 296 words]
A state lawmaker wants to ban a Mexican herb that can cause intense hallucinations. Federal drug laws don't address Salvia divinorum, but a handful of states have adopted their own laws regulating it. The Wisconsin Assembly Criminal Justice Committee is set to hold a public hearing Wednesday on a measure that would prohibit distributing or selling the herb for human consumption. The bill's main author, Rep. Sheldon Wasserman, says Salvia is dangerous and too readily available at Wisconsin smoke shops and from online dealers. [continues 399 words]
Inside Wisconsin
