CINCINNATI -- Bengals cornerback Johnathan Joseph was arrested early Monday and charged with possession of marijuana, the ninth Cincinnati player arrested in the last nine months. The arrest came three weeks after coach Marvin Lewis announced he would get tougher on player conduct, hoping to stop a series of arrests that has embarrassed the team and drawn the attention of NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. "We don't comment on these matters when they're unresolved," team spokesman Jack Brennan said. "We don't believe it's appropriate when it's still at the level of charges." [continues 450 words]
New Yorkers are waiting to see whether Gov. Eliot Spitzer's campaign slogan -- "Day One, Everything Changes"-- is genuine, or just a slogan. There are a number of issues that warrant the attention of the new administration, and reforming the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws should be a priority. The Rockefeller Drug Laws, passed in 1973, mandate harsh mandatory minimum prison terms for simple, low-level drug offenses. Under these laws, people convicted of first-time drug offenses receive 8 to 20 years in prison. While the state spends millions of taxpayer dollars every year imprisoning drug offenders, spending on community-based drug treatment is pitifully low. Indeed, treatment options for people with drug problems are too limited, especially for low-income people. There are more than 14,000 people in New York prisons under the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Nationwide, over 500,000 people are incarcerated on drug offenses, more than any other industrialized nation (and more than the European Union, with 100 million more residents, incarcerates for all offenses combined). [continues 529 words]
Prisons And Crime - New Data Show That Locking Up More Criminals Doesn't Always Bring Down Crime Rates It seems to be so self-evident, so intuitively correct: The more criminals are locked up, and the longer they are held behind bars, the more crime will decrease. That is the reasoning behind "get tough on crime" laws in many states that are intended to keep offenders off the streets for many years. But there's one problem with this reasoning: It doesn't always pan out in the real world. [continues 376 words]
In 1985, DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in Guadalajara, Mexico by drug traffickers. The 37-year-old Camarena was close to exposing a multibillion dollar drug pipeline operated by Mexico's biggest marijuana and cocaine traffickers, whom he had tracked for 4 years. He was en route to meet his wife, Mika, for lunch on Feb. 7, 1985, when five armed men surrounded him, threw him into a car and sped off. Camarena's death made such an impact on the agency and his friends in his hometown of Calexico, Calif., that it was the impetus for the National Red Ribbon Campaign that runs in late October each year. [continues 284 words]
VILLA MADERO, Mexico -- The drug lords at war in central Mexico are no longer content with simply killing their enemies. They are putting their severed heads on public display. In Michoacan, the home state of President-elect Felipe Calderon, 17 heads have turned up this year, many with bloodstained notes like the one found in the highlands town of Tepalcatepec in August: "See. Hear. Shut Up. If you want to stay alive." Many in Michoacan's mountains and colonial cities are doing just that: They are tightlipped, their newspapers are censoring themselves and in one town, 18 out of 32 police officers quit saying they had received death threats from drug smugglers. [continues 376 words]
ALBANY -- Albany County prosecutors are broadcasting a new message to drug dealers they hope will resonate with even hardened criminals: Sling drugs from home, and we'll even evict your mom. When police swoop in to raid suspected drug dens, family members can and will be thrown out if they knew what was happening and did nothing about it, authorities said. "We demand that everybody be evicted," Assistant District Attorney Jessica Blain-Lewis, who has been bringing the cases since November, said flatly. "It's going to be up to the judge to decide who knew or should have known." [continues 430 words]
ALBANY -- Longtime state Capitol correspondent and Daily News reporter Joe Mahoney was arrested and charged with drunken driving and marijuana possession after police found him sleeping in his car on Morris Street on Thursday morning. Mahoney, 52, of Manning Boulevard, had fallen asleep at the wheel in the middle of the lane, the Mazda SUV still in drive, according to police. An officer found him at 4:32 a.m. Police said his alcohol content was 0.10. The legal limit is 0.08. [continues 90 words]
Prosecutors Cite Photos, Phone Intercepts in Bid to Keep Alleged Members Jailed ALBANY -- While several reputed members of an Arbor Hill street gang gathered in mid-August to mark the birthday of a slain friend, Albany detectives covertly snapped photographs from a distance. It is a scene reminiscent of Hollywood mob movies, where agents track the comings and goings at gangster funerals. These photos, along with intercepted cellphone conversations and the guidance of an unnamed turncoat gang member, lie at the center of a yearlong investigation into what authorities say is the city's largest and most violent gang. [continues 711 words]
Pharmacies Must Keep Track Of Those Who Buy Drugs That Can Be Used To Make Crystal Meth You're used to showing your photo ID at the airport. Now, you need it at the corner drug store. A federal law went into effect recently that requires customers to flash their IDs and sign a log book when buying cold and allergy medicines such as Sudafed, Afrin and Contac. Used properly, the drugs relieve nasal congestion. Used illegally, they can be "cooked" with farm and household chemicals to make crystal methamphetamine, a highly addictive drug that is a serious problem, particularly in the Midwest and West Coast. [continues 238 words]
We all need to ask some tough questions about the behavior of the Schenectady police in their raid on Anita Woodyear's home for a $60 pot bust, and the policy that drove them to do what they did. First and foremost, they watched her son for weeks, yet instead of arresting him when he walked out of the house, they mounted a heavily armed raid, complete with shots fired inside with an 11-year-old and 12-year-old present. That is reckless and irresponsible behavior. [continues 63 words]
Dog Also Killed During Bust 18-Year-Old Charged With Misdemeanors, Violation SCHENECTADY -- A police strike team raided a woman's Prospect Street apartment and handcuffed her children and killed her dog early Tuesday in a $60 pot bust. The woman called it excessive force and a case of mistaken identity, but officers said they stormed the home for a good reason: One of her sons was selling marijuana there. The Police Department's tactical squad knocked down the front door of the upstairs apartment at 110 Prospect St. and flooded into the apartment shortly after 6 a.m. [continues 630 words]
SCHENECTADY -- A law enforcement team made up of Schenectady police, a sheriff's deputy, probation officers and a prosecutor has been created by the Schenectady County Legislature. Lawmakers voted unanimously Tuesday night to establish the new Office of Field Intelligence, which will use $800,000 in state funds for a law enforcement team aimed at eradicating gang activity and drug dealing in Schenectady. The new office will be based at the Schenectady Police Department and include three city detectives, an assistant district attorney, probation officers, patrol officers and a crime analyst. [continues 166 words]
Stephen J. Pasierb offers excellent advice in his Aug. 27th op-ed. The importance of parental involvement in reducing adolescent drug use cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities also have been shown to reduce use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely to get into trouble. In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce harm, they must be reality-based. The most popular drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior is often overlooked by parents. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but it's still the No. 1 drug problem. [continues 121 words]
Hey man, pass the chips. Wait, maybe not... Lindsay Hough, a professor at the Albany Medical College's Center for Neuropharmacology and Neuroscience, has received a $1.053 million, four-year research grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to continue developing improgan, a marijuana-like pain relieving drug discovered in the college lab in the 1990s. Improgan has shown promise as a pain reliever that mimics marijuana but does not have the undesirable side effects such as addiction or increased appetite. [continues 474 words]
A recent survey by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found that increasing numbers of young people were prone to abuse alcohol along with several kinds of drugs, including prescription drugs, at parties and other social gatherings. Worse yet, the study found that most parents had no clue about such activities, even those at home during many of these parties. As parents open their eyes to this reality, they must also know that the intentional abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs to get high has quickly established itself as a serious new tier of teen substance abuse, one that deserves great attention and their immediate action. [continues 374 words]
Taliban, Drug Lords, Poppy Growers All Have Stake In Thwarting Effort To Bring Rule Of Law KABUL, Afghanistan -- Southern Afghanistan, homeland of the Taliban and hub of the global heroin trade, is spinning out of control. Islamic militants are launching suicide attacks, corrupt authorities are undermining the central government and a disgruntled population is hooked on growing opium. On Monday, fixing Afghanistan's biggest problem area falls to NATO, the Western military alliance. It promises to be the toughest combat mission in NATO's 57-year history, and a stern test for a powerful force with surprisingly little experience in fighting. [continues 972 words]
Rash Of Arrests And Deaths In Capital Region Linked To Fentanyl When Watervliet Police Sgt. Edward Watson learned a man was arrested for allegedly selling a fentanyl pain patch to undercover officers, his heart sank. It was another indicator that the prescription drug is gaining a foothold in the city. In recent months, authorities across the Capital Region have seen a rash of arrests and fatal overdoses related to fentanyl, a prescription pain patch used for everything from back trouble to cancer pain management. [continues 452 words]
Arthur Caplan and Glenn McGee's May 21 Perspective column on making HIV testing routine is not well thought out and neglects many barriers that exist in addressing the HIV epidemic. I agree that everyone should know their HIV status. Physicians are currently able to, and should, routinely test their patients. However, Caplan and McGee miss the mark in understanding how the epidemic can be managed. The majority of the projected 250,000 unsuspecting HIV infected people will not be reached with routine testing by primary care physicians. [continues 257 words]
Federal Officials Say $352,680 Found In SUV Is Tied To Drug Dealing ALBANY -- Federal authorities are moving to seize $352,680 in cash that Illinois state troopers confiscated from a car being driven across the country by the husband of a former Albany County prosecutor. The Justice Department contends the money, which was sealed in shrink-wrap and lined with scented fabric-softener sheets, is the proceeds of drug dealing and therefore subject to seizure. But Robert L. Schultz, 45, who is married to former Assistant District Attorney Kimberly A. Mariani, is challenging the government's assertion. He filed court papers in Illinois last week arguing that troopers illegally searched his car and authorities cannot keep the money simply because he gave varying accounts of where it came from. [continues 497 words]
Judge tosses indictment of city man, saying cop didn't have just cause ALBANY -- Albany County Judge Thomas A. Breslin dismissed a gun and drug possession case on Wednesday, ruling that a city police officer stopped and searched a man in February without just cause. Rayquinshawn Harrison allegedly had a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and 38 packets of marijuana in his overcoat. "It wasn't even a close call," said his attorney, Cheryl F. Coleman. "I know police think they have to hold the line ... but if this search had been upheld, it would have been open season on anybody walking the streets of Arbor Hill." [continues 386 words]
