Morton Downey Still Talking Morton Downey Jr. was released from the hospital a week after losing the rest of his right lung to cancer. ``He's doing great. He'll be back at work Monday,'' publicist Les Schecter said after Downey left a hospital in L.A. The 64-year-old talk show host underwent surgery a week ago, and Dr. Robert McKenna said Downey has an excellent prognosis for a full recovery. Doctors removed a cancerous tumor from Downey's lung in July 1996. [continues 120 words]
Malmo (TT) The new, extra potent hasch drug 'Skunk Weed' is feared to produce the same type of permanent brain damage as solvents. The Warning was delivered Tuesday at a narcotics conference in Malmo. It was Thomas Lundquist, psychologist at a Drug Information Center in Lund, who told about the worriesome conclusions drawn from careful studies of 'Skunk Weed', as reported in the media of southern Sweden. 'Skunk Weed' is an improved cultivar of cannabis. Earlier it was believed that it contained unusual large amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol, THC, the substance that produces intoxication from smoking hasch. [continues 154 words]
'Sting' by state put drugs on the street: Undercover work raises questions They were fresh out of prison, and looking to get back into the methamphetamine business. But brothers Erwin and Michael Spruth could not find a steady supply of ephedrine, the raw material they used to manufacture the drug known on the streets as "crank." They were so desperate for the chemical, tightly controlled by federal authorities, that they resorted to extracting it from allergy pills they bought from a Costco store in Redding, the men admit in court records. [continues 1481 words]
A union official calls indictments against eight Corcoran Prison guards "a grandstand play" by federal prosecutors. The Fresno guards indicted on federal charges of inmate abuse are good people handling an extremely difficult assignment, union representatives said in a radio interview. The accusations of the officers staging inmate fights are absurd, Mike Jimenez, the union vice president, said on Fresno station KMJ. He called the indictments "a grandstand play by the U.S. Attorney's Office." Eight Corcoran State Prison guards were indicted last month on charges of violating civil rights. The officers also are accused of conspiring to set up a fight in 1994 that ended in the death of inmate Preston Tate. [end]
Jail heroics and other factors don't significantly help Thomas G. Sherrett, convicted in Oregon's largest such marijuana case Thomas G. Sherrett made millions of dollars smuggling about 400,000 pounds of marijuana into the United States, but he wasn't anyone's stereotypical drug kingpin, his lawyer told a federal judge at a sentencing hearing Wednesday. A key point in Sherrett's favor is that after his arrest he helped rescue a Multnomah County Justice Center corrections deputy as inmates punched, kicked and possibly tried to hang the man in a 1995 outbreak. [continues 1139 words]
The Food and Drug Administration warned consumers on Tuesday to stay away from a product known as Sleeping Buddha, saying it contains a potentially dangerous prescription drug. The drug is sold as an herbal alternative to prescription sleeping pills but contains prescription-strength levels of estazolam, a member of the abenzodiazepine family. "Estazolam is known to have serious side effects, including the potential to cause fetal damage if a pregnant woman consumes the drug," the FDA said in a statement. "Also, because this product is a sedative, it poses a special risk to consumers who take the drug while driving, while operating heavy machines or while taking other sedative drugs or alcohol," it said. [end]
The move is welcomed by Vancouver city police officials, who have been pressing for help to fight out-of-control gang crimes. Claiming police are losing the battle against biker gangs, Attorney-General Ujjal Dosanjh is promising immediate action to combat out-of-control crimes involving smuggling, drugs and intimidation. Dosanjh promised an action plan within two weeks, hinting it may include further police resources. Vancouver city police, whose members have been pressing for more officers and money to fight biker gangs, welcomed Dosanjh's comments Wednesday. [continues 491 words]
I applaud the Chronicle's March 4 editorial stand against Bill Clinton's extortion plan to get the states to pass lower DWI blood-alcohol limit laws under the threat of withholding highway tax funds. The proposed change is eyewash, at best, designed to appear that something significant and meaningful will result, but it won't. The current law is adequate. Lowering the level, as proposed, won't stop an irresponsible drunk driver whose blood- alcohol level is probably well in excess of legal limits to begin with, but it undoubtedly will get many responsible drinkers arrested. Frank Hazel, Houston [end]
I was appalled by the Chronicle March 4 Editorial page editorial, "Bad Idea: Let states, not power-hungry Clinton handle DWI." The reason our courts do not have a better conviction rate for DWI is the permissive attitude of our society on individual rights. I have the right to expect that everyone driving a car is going to be sober and that I will not be killed by someone who has made a conscious choice to drink and drive. As our laws stand now, the punishment for driving while drunk does not fit the crime. [continues 244 words]
The World Health Organization has angrily denied reports in the British media that it had suppressed a study showing that secondhand smoke doesn't cause lung cancer. Articles in London's Sunday Telegraph and Monday's Times of London said the seven-year study was an embarrassment to the agency. British-American Tobacco Co. said the study casts "further doubt" on the health effects of passive smoking. WHO countered in a statement Monday, saying the study had not been with held and that its design was the reason it could not conclusively link cancer with secondhand smoke. "Passive smoking does cause cancer. Do not let them fool you," WHO said. [end]
BOSTON -- A woman who allegedly abandoned her 2-month-old baby outside the Museum of Fine Arts had been smoking crack before the incident occurred, prosecutors said at her arraignment yesterday. Cassie Somers, 28, a former resident of Boston's Mattapan section who now lives in Solon, Maine, was ordered held on $250,000 bail on charges of abandoning a child. Another hearing in the case was scheduled for March 26 in Roxbury District Court. Somers allegedly left the boy on a patch of dirt near some bushes outside the Museum of Fine Arts at about 5:30 a.m. Sunday. The temperature was 32 degrees and the baby was clothed only in a T-shirt, sweater and diaper. [continues 189 words]
