"Play faster!" he cried, wildly, over and over. "Play faster!" The dame who was tickling the ivories complied, out of control herself. The music revved to a dangerous velocity oh, too fast for decent, sober, well-behaved Americans to bear and ... well, you just knew, violence, madness, laughter were just around the corner. The year was 1936 and, oh my God, they were high on marijuana, public enemy No. 1 The scene is from "Reefer Madness," arguably the dumbest movie ever made but smugly at the emotional and ideological core of American drug policy for the last three-quarters of a century. The policy, which morphed in 1970 into an all-out "war" on drugs, has filled our prisons to bursting, created powerful criminal enterprises, launched a real war in Mexico and presided over the skyrocketing of recreational drug use in the United States. The war on drugs just may be a bigger disaster than the war on terror. [continues 719 words]
NAPLES -- The Palmetto Elementary School students bounded to the front of their fifth-grade classroom two-by-two, each coming under friendly questioning from Collier County sheriff's Cpl. Sandra Doria. Cassie Figga, wearing a D.A.R.E. T-shirt and red headband, took the situation in stride. "You're hanging out at Hollywood 20," Doria said. "After the movie, a pack of cigarettes is passed around. What do you say?" "First," Figga said, sizing up the question, "I would tell them that's not a very good idea, and then I'd go tell a manager." [continues 1246 words]
BUNNELL -- A dark-haired girl wearing a sandwich board smiled and waved at passing motorists along Moody Boulevard in Bunnell. Suzanne Garrison wasn't hawking coffee or tax services. Her message was personal -- "Drug Court Works." "I've been addicted to oxycodone since I was 18," the 21-year-old said, standing on the shoulder of the roadway in front of the Kim C. Hammond Justice Center. "I get treatments through the courts." Drug Court is a supervised, comprehensive treatment program for those charged with non-violent drug-related felonies, according to information provided on Flagler County's website by coordinator Mike Greenier. [continues 420 words]
Jeremy Harris' household was winding down for the night. It was about 10 p.m., his children were getting ready for bed and he was watching TV, when a uniformed deputy and two undercover detectives knocked on the door of his Dunedin home. Harris says the Pinellas sheriff's detectives told him they had gotten an anonymous tip that he was growing marijuana, and they asked if they could search his property. Harris stepped outside and was astonished to see other deputies standing nearby in groups of two - 10 to 14 of them, he estimates. [continues 836 words]
The tragedies are coming with appalling regularity. Lakeland police officer Arnulfo Crispin, 25, died Wednesday after being shot in the head Sunday night while investigating suspicious activity in a city park. The suspect is 19 years old. Last February, a St. Petersburg police officer was shot while approaching a suspicious individual on the street. A 16-year-old was charged. A few weeks before, two St. Petersburg policemen were shot to death and a federal marshal seriously wounded as they attempted to serve a domestic abuse warrant on a sex offender, who was killed during the encounter. [continues 384 words]
Arnulfo Crispin In Grave Condition As Suspect, 19, Arrested A neighborhood park where a Lakeland police officer was shot and gravely wounded is known more for being a hang-out for drug dealers than a place where children clamor over the jungle gyms. 'Little kids got guns,' said Phillip Rogers, 22, who lives near the city-owned Crystal Grove Park, 'and they ain't afraid to use them.' A 10 p.m. Sunday call about suspicious activity in the park ended in tragedy for a popular police officer, who was left for dead. By the day's end, officer Arnulfo Crispin barely clung to life at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. [continues 1051 words]
Jury Deadlocks On Trespassing Charge FORT LAUDERDALE -- A Miramar police officer was found guilty on Monday of official misconduct, falsifying records and criminal mischief in connection with the search of a drug suspect's apartment in 2010. Officer Jean Paul Jacobi bowed his head as the verdicts against him were read late Monday afternoon. The jury deliberated more than four hours before announcing they reached a partial verdict, deadlocking on trespass charges against Jacobi and his co-defendant, Det. Jennifer Conger. Broward Circuit Judge Raag Singhal declared a mistrial on those charges. [continues 544 words]
It was a typical Thursday morning at Lake Worth High School until police burst onto the scene and arrested three students in an undercover drug sting. "They knew who they were coming after," Principal George Lockhart said a few hours later. "They grabbed the kids and they were gone." The action - which coincided with nine arrests at Boynton Beach High School - was the latest milestone in a long-term investigation called "Operation D-Minus," Palm Beach County School District Police Chief Jim Kelly said. [continues 535 words]
The Santa Rosa County school district is looking to stop a drug problem in its schools before it gets out of control. Spice, also known as K-2 and Blaze it is a potpourri substance sprayed with a chemical. When smoked, the substance gives the same effects that someone might feel while high on marijuana. The drug gained popularity over the years, and is available at most gas stations and smoke shops. The federal government cracked down on the drug back in July banning the chemical in the substance. Since the ruling, the school district has continued to see the drug being used in the schools. The law passed by the government does not outlaw the potpourri, but the actual chemical it is sprayed with. Only lab tests can determine how much chemicals, if any, have been sprayed on the potpourri. [continues 267 words]
Patients Deserve Pain-Free Dignity I practiced medicine for more than 40 years and oncology for more than 30. I can remember patients literally screaming from pain all the way to death. Based on my experience, effective pain management has been the most important achievement of medical care in the last 30 years. Dr. Kathy Foley, who spearheaded this effort, is a Catholic neurologist who works at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She has devoted her professional life, supported and inspired by her faith, to bringing back a human dimension (the patient perspective) to an increasingly technological type of medicine. [continues 152 words]
The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has been using a law enforcement technique that resembles a fishing expedition. It surreptitiously trained a camera at a hydroponics supply business, turning every customer who walked through the door into a suspected marijuana grower. This kind of surveillance may be technically legal, but it is intrusive and violates the spirit of the Fourth Amendment's privacy protections. People should be allowed to pursue lawful activities without automatically provoking a police investigation. To his credit, Pinellas Sheriff Bob Gualtieri has ordered the camera taken down. Gualtieri, who was only recently appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to fill the remainder of an unexpired term, says the prescription drug problem, cocaine and other drugs where public safety is at risk will be the agency's priority. Encouragingly, he also says that his agency has to be careful about focusing attention on people who are going about their business and not engaging in inherently suspicious conduct. [continues 405 words]
I owe Kyle Vogt an apology. A former military policeman, he's now a member of a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, a group of former cops, prosecutors and judges that supports ending the war on drugs. When I interviewed Vogt for a column earlier this year, everything he said about the high cost and low results of the war on drugs made perfect sense. But he made one claim which, though I smiled politely, I didn't believe and didn't use in my column: that dozens and dozens of drug cops have contacted LEAP to express their support. [continues 530 words]
Once again police resources are wasted with surA-veillance cameras and manpower and a net result of one arrest and one marijuana plant confiscated. We are not paying attention to the lessons learned (or not) from Prohibition. The number of arrests for pot-related crimes is mind-boggling. The war on drugs a colossal failure. Pot should be legal and taxed like tobacco. Jim Caputo, Spring Hill [end]
As someone suffering with chronic pain issues, I took exception to the comment by the pharmacy owner that if an 'addict can't get oxycodone, Adderall is viewed by some as a reasonable alternative.' It is this attitude by pharmacists that is part of the problem, as well as the profiling they subject people to. People with genuine pain issues are being forced to suffer due to a small segment of the population that abuses these medicines. It is not fair that these people make snap judgment calls as to who is an 'addict' or not. Daniel Patrick McCarthy, Clearwater [end]
A federal judge in Orlando on Monday temporarily blocked Florida's controversial law requiring welfare applicants be drug tested in order to receive benefits. Judge Mary Scriven issued a temporary injunction against the state, writing in a 37-page order that the law could violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure. The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake," Scriven wrote. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state last month on behalf of Luis Lebron, a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father from Orlando who is finishing his college degree. [continues 715 words]
Lawyers Cry Foul When Deputies Focus on a Legal Hydroponic Garden Shop to Hunt Marijuana Growers LARGO - Last fall, a white Chevy truck pulled into the parking lot of a hydroponic gardening shop on Ulmerton Road. A man went in, purchased some supplies and drove off. Someone was watching. Detectives with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, watching via a camera mounted on a pole nearby, recorded the Chevy's license plate number, checked motor vehicle records to identify the owner, and soon showed up at his home in Seminole. [continues 1557 words]
The steady rise in drug-sniffing dogs in schools, warrantless police searches, and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties in America while failing miserably to prevent drug use. Based on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union countries have decriminalized marijuana. Despite marijuana prohibition, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country. The drug war threatens the integrity of a country founded on the concept of limited government. It's not possible to wage a moralistic war against consensual vices unless privacy is eliminated, along with the U.S. Constitution. America can either be a free country or a "drug-free" country, but not both. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Arlington, Va. [end]
Due process should not be tossed aside for the sake of expediency. Yet Florida state courts are doing just that by upholding drug convictions despite a recent finding by a federal judge that a key state drug law is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven of the Middle District ruled in July that Florida's statute making possession and delivery of an illicit substance a crime is constitutionally flawed and violates due process protections. But state courts have barely noticed. Miami-Dade's 3rd District Court of Appeal joined many other state courts recently in upholding the law. [continues 443 words]
TALLAHASSEE - A case that could result in the release of hundreds, if not thousands, of drug offenders is on a fast track in the Florida Supreme Court. The state's appeal of a Manatee County judge's decision on Sept. 14 that struck down Florida's drug law regarding "guilty knowledge" of illegal drugs is running parallel with, but quicker, than a similar federal case. Just two weeks after the Manatee ruling, a three-judge state appellate panel sent the Manatee case to the justices without a decision so it could get to Florida's highest court as quickly as possible. [continues 603 words]
The drug testing bill for welfare recipients in Florida, specifically for those receiving cash benefits under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, should be repealed. The bill does not include drug testing for those receiving other types of subsidies, such as food stamps. (These cash benefits are $180 a month for one person and $364 for a family of four.) The state would reimburse the welfare recipients if they tested negative. The bill recently was halted because of an appeal by a single father and Navy veteran who felt the requirement was unconstitutional. Florida federal judge Mary Scriven (a George W. Bush appointee) agreed with the plaintiff. [continues 244 words]
It didn't take long for Florida's new policy of drug testing welfare recipients to run afoul of the Constitution. The state implemented the testing July 1, and on Oct. 24 a federal judge in Orlando issued a temporary injunction to halt it on the grounds that it likely violated the Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches and seizures. ... Gov. Rick Scott promoted drug testing of welfare recipients as being necessary to safeguard public dollars. But U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven rejected that argument, writing: "If invoking an interest in preventing public funds from potentially being used to fund drug use were the only requirement to establish a special need, the state could impose drug testing as an eligibility requirement for every beneficiary of every government program. Such blanket intrusions cannot be countenanced under the Fourth Amendment." [continues 194 words]
On Oct. 24, a federal district judge blocked Florida's controversial law that mandates drug tests for temporary-assistance applicants. According to Judge Mary Scriven, compelled drug testing violates the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure and that individuals retain a right of privacy against such intrusive, suspicionless searches by the state, even when applying for temporary assistance. "The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake," Scriven wrote, confirming that the Constitution protects all of us from unreasonable searches, even if we are poor. [continues 80 words]
The Event Returns After an 11-Year Absence, and a Few Hundred Show Up to Watch. The revival of Gainesville's Hemp Fest - a celebration of the many uses of the hemp plant - may have attracted a smaller crowd Saturday than in the past, but organizers believe they are closer than ever to their goal of at least limited legalization of marijuana. Hemp Fest was held at the Bo Diddley Community Plaza in downtown Gainesville on Saturday after an 11-year absence, drawing a modest crowd for music, speeches and booths of vendors and organizations. [continues 409 words]
Florida's Drug Test Requirement For Welfare Recipients Predictably Fails First Round In Court It would be easy to praise Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature for the laudable goals of curbing drug use among welfare recipients by testing applicants and saving money by denying users aid. Easy to praise, that is, if wholesale testing really saved money and if applying for temporary cash assistance itself proves probable drug use. In the face of contrary evidence, the best the governor and Legislature could hope to achieve with a new law was to build a barrier to help for those in need. [continues 543 words]
I felt compelled to respond to the article "Police are winning the pill mill battle, but heroin may fill the void." This article presented some interesting points that are often avoided. The direct correlation between oxycodone and heroin is an epidemic. The heroin scene has been strongly affecting other states, although Florida residents have not yet had to face this issue because of the overwhelming availability of pharmaceutical heroin - prescription opiates - that are flooding the streets. Palm Beach and Broward counties have been aware of this pill mill epidemic, and are finally starting to make headway with enforcing new laws. The people supporting these pill mills are addicts, and crossing the threshold from prescription pills to heroin is going to be a simple and mindless transition. [continues 123 words]
State Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort Lauderdale, and state Rep. Ari Porth, D-Coral Springs, are at it again. The two lawmakers are trying to pass needed, positive legislation to help the state of Florida reduce the costs of operating its prisons. Lawmakers ought not to miss the opportunity to do so -- again. The legislation -- CS/HB 177 and SB 448 -- establishes a re-entry program for nonviolent offenders that offers intensive substance abuse treatment, adult education courses and vocational training as alternatives to long prison sentences. The idea is to reduce recidivism, which is essential if state officials want to get a handle on the costs of incarceration. [continues 345 words]
New Law Helps Police Tackle State's Prescription Drug Epidemic State lawmakers and law enforcement officials are working to change Florida's reputation as the nation's pill-mill capital for addictive painkillers like oxycodone. Pain-management clinics are the main reason for the prescription drug epidemic that kills roughly seven Floridians a day. Although the problem has been rampant in South Florida in recent years, last Tuesday's arrest of an Indialantic doctor, suspected of being one of the state's most prolific distributors of oxycodone, shows the Space Coast has not escaped the scourge of pill mills. [continues 449 words]
A federal judge this week shot legal holes through Florida's requirement that all welfare applicants undergo drug testing. We hope Gov. Rick Scott, who promoted the ill-advised tests, backs off the policy before more money is wasted defending it in court. The judge temporarily suspended the drug testing requirement, faulting the fact that results lack confidentiality and noting that the policy violates constitutional protections. That's because it forces welfare applicants to be tested even when there are no grounds to reasonably suspect that they are drug users. [continues 294 words]
The office manager for a pain management medical clinic in Bonita Springs says Lee County deputies are harassing customers and the business. Public records show deputies have been called to the shopping center where the clinic is attended more than 550 times in the past 10 months - -- nearly 10 times as often as they were alerted for the prior four years. The manager is upset deputies ask patients outside questions such as,"What are you doing here?" Other tenants at Sunshine Professional Center on Bonita Beach Road are upset that their customers ask questions such as "What are the cops doing here?" [continues 158 words]
It didn't take long for Florida's new policy of drug testing welfare recipients to run afoul of the Constitution. The state implemented the testing July 1, and on Monday a federal judge in Orlando issued a temporary injunction to halt it on the grounds that it likely violated the Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches and seizures. The case is to constitutional jurisprudence what a fastball over the middle of the plate is to Albert Pujols. Gov. Rick Scott promoted drug testing of welfare recipients as being necessary to safeguard public dollars. But U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven rejected that argument, writing: "If invoking an interest in preventing public funds from potentially being used to fund drug use were the only requirement to establish a special need, the state could impose drug testing as an eligibility requirement for every beneficiary of every government program. Such blanket intrusions cannot be countenanced under the Fourth Amendment." [continues 404 words]
Some are saying that drug testing for welfare recipients is unconstitutional. Really? I am employed by a major corporation, where I do business with government agencies. In order for me to maintain my employment and do business with these agencies, it is required that I be drug tested. Yet my tax dollars are being used to pay welfare recipients who deem it inappropriate. So the recipients of our tax dollars cannot have their liberties infringed upon and be drug tested, yet my job demands it and the welfare recipients are relying on my compliance. Kim Lee Clearwater [end]
Federal Judge Mary Scriven has blocked drug testing as a condition of receiving welfare payments. She says that it violates the Fourth Amendment regarding searches. What is the financial difference between Florida's Legislature gambling that a major hurricane will not wreak havoc on our economy and expanded casino gambling? None. If a major hurricane strikes Florida, the wreckage is there for all to see, and ers will be assessed because Florida's hurricane insurance program is underfunded. Casino gambling eats away at the income and assets of a person or family who cannot resist the lure of making a quick buck. Then Florida taxpayers eat the losses when losers seek free medWhat about mandatory testing when you apply for a job, even if there is no probable cause? Is that legal? What about random drug testing in police departments nationwide? Such tests have been upheld in the courts for years. [continues 53 words]
Florida drug laws make little sense. While marijuana is illegal, even for people in serious pain, we are instead encouraged to get a prescription for pills like OxyContin, Oxycodone or Valium, which are 20 times worse for you. Drug companies, doctors and pharmacies are dispensing millions of doses of these highly addictive, often deadly pills while non-violent taxpayers in victimless crimes are being jailed for marijuana use. Illegal marijuana creates crime because of its inflated value. Legal marijuana would have almost no value, putting dealers out of business, and U.S. taxpayers would save billions. DOVER [end]
The young woman arrived at the emergency room a few weeks ago ready to give birth. She had her baby that day - just a few hours after she had refilled a prescription for pain medication. She brought her prescription bottle along with her, claiming that she needed it for back pain. And her doctor believed that refilling this medication was appropriate for a woman about to give birth - despite known risks to the fetus. Cases like this young mother's make it clear why we need to do more research on drug-addicted women having babies. At USF Health, we are working to find answers to keep mothers and babies healthy through the Women's Health Collaborative. [continues 605 words]
When it came to drug testing welfare applicants, the state aimed for the cup first and asked questions later. Anybody with a rudimentary understanding of the U.S. Constitution knew that Florida's blanket testing program was doomed. Michigan tried the same thing more than a decade ago, and it was ultimately tossed by federal courts. Sure enough, U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven temporarily halted Florida's drug-testing program this week, ruling that "there was a substantial likelihood" it wouldn't pass constitutional muster. [continues 439 words]
If Gov. Rick Scott and Florida legislative leaders would get over their obsession with privatizing prisons, perhaps they might focus on the real cause of Florida's runaway correction spending. This state locks too many people up for too long. A succession of "get tough on crime" mandatory minimum sentencing laws are primarily responsible for a state incarceration rate that is 26 percent higher than the national average. An Associated Press report this month cited the case of a man serving a mandatory five-year prison sentence for possession of a handful of Lortab tablets, "prescription-only pills containing a small amount of a controlled substance but mostly made up of the same ingredient found in Tylenol and similar over-the-counter painkillers." [continues 200 words]
The Injunction Says Testing Applicants For Welfare May Be Illegal Search And Seizure A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked Florida's controversial law requiring welA-fare applicants be drug tested in order to receive benefits. Judge Mary Scriven issued a temporary injunction against the state, writing in a 37-page order that the law could violate the Constitution's Fourth AmendA-ment ban on illegal search and seizure. 'The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake,' Scriven wrote in an order filed in the Middle District of Florida Orlando Division. [continues 743 words]
In a Strange About-Face, the President Tries to Hack Medical Marijuana Off at the Knees. The new federal crackdown on medical marijuana announced on October 7 by the four California U.S. Attorneys sent chills throughout the industry. It was a stunning reversal by the Obama administration. Only two years ago, Deputy U.S. Attorney General David Ogden wrote his infamous "Ogden Memo," announcing the feds wouldn't bother businesses in compliance with their own state laws. It proved a dose of Miracle-Gro to California, where pot-selling stores multiplied since voters approved the state's 1996 medical marijuana law. By late last year, California reportedly had more dispensaries than Starbucks outlets. [continues 3154 words]
Earlier this year, state Sen. Ellyn Bogdanoff first trotted out legislation to revamp Florida's out-of-kilter prescription-drug laws. No more mandatory-minimums for prescription-drug trafficking. Sentences that often punish addicts "" not drug kingpins "" with absurdly heavy-handed sentences for relatively light quantities. And the bill would've based trafficking weight on the amount of controlled substance in a pill, not gross weight. Makes sense. Her push didn't succeed. But the Fort Lauderdale Republican plans to take another crack at it. This time, lawmakers must discard their "tough-on-crime" blinders and see not only the prospect of significant savings, but also the chance to restore judicial discretion. [continues 311 words]
Regarding Carl Hiaasen's Sep. 27 column, Gov. Rick Scott's crusade to drug-test welfare applicants is an expansion of big government for the sake of a culture war. The most commonly abused drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior isn't included in drug tests. That drug is legal alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year than all illegal drugs combined. The war on some drugs has given the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world, while failing miserably at preventing illicit drug use. Despite the big government approach, the U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. [continues 68 words]
Tonyaa Weathersbee makes the common mistake of confusing drug-related crime with prohibition-related crime in her Sept. 22 column. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. While U.S. politicians ignore the drug war's historical precedent, European countries are embracing harm reduction, a public health alternative based on the principle that both drug abuse and prohibition have the potential to cause harm. [continues 82 words]
Gov. Rick Scott's crusade to drug-test cash welfare applicants is turning out to be another thick-headed scheme that's backfiring on Florida taxpayers. The biggest beneficiaries are the testing companies that collect $10 to $25 for urine, blood or hair screening, a fee being paid by the state (you and me) whenever the applicant tests clean -- currently about 97 percent of the cases. The law, which easily passed the Legislature this year, was based on the misinformed and condescending premise that welfare recipients are more prone to use illegal drugs than people who are fortunate enough to have jobs. [continues 760 words]
Gov. Rick Scott's crusade to drug-test cash welfare applicants is turning out to be another thick-headed scheme that's backfiring on Florida taxpayers. The biggest beneficiaries are the testing companies that collect $10 to $25 for urine, blood or hair screening, a fee being paid by the state (you and me) whenever the applicant tests clean -- currently about 97 percent of the cases. The law, which easily passed the Legislature this year, was based on the misinformed and condescending premise that welfare recipients are more prone to use illegal drugs than people who are fortunate enough to have jobs. [continues 770 words]
Not Always Sensible I was recently assigned to review a case for possible appellate issues. The case involved a 60-year-old man who was caught selling some of his Lortabs to an undercover officer. The sale consisted of 25 pills in exchange for $100. The pills weighed 16.2 grams. Under Florida law, any sale of pills in excess of 14 grams carries with it a mandatory sentence of at least 15 years with no gain time or early release permitted. The cost for imprisoning this man for 15 years will exceed $400,000. Thought you would like to know where your money goes. Kevin Monahan, attorney, Palatka [end]
On many levels, John Reilly Schultz is a sick man. He even said so himself. Unlike many of the people who turn to using or selling drugs because they see it as a way of escaping neglected, impoverished communities that are short on jobs and long on despair, Schultz didn't have that hurdle. He's a developer. He has a respected family name. He has children. And he has a $500,000 home in Ortega. Yet while those advantages weren't enough to stop him from pursuing a crack cocaine habit, what happened last October should not have taken place. [continues 554 words]
I was shocked to hear that 157 people have died just in Hillsborough CounA-ty from accidental overdose of drugs just since January. While I work in this business of substance abuse treatment, that number is still shocking, and I know it must be shocking to others. For years we have fought the 'new addiction trend' that was alcohol, heroin, then marijuana, then crack cocaine, and now Oxys and Roxies, short for oxycodone or Roxicodone. And we learned each drug is different and treatment needs are different. But with the right dose of treatment and the right intervention, recovery from addiction is possible. [continues 399 words]
Our state government recently passed a law to stop the illegitimate sale of drugs like oxycodone by pill mills. That part is good; however, the law was not thought out well because even legitimate users are finding that they can't get their prescriptions filled. WESLEY CHAPEL [end]
Twenty-Five Years After 'Miami Vice' Became Part of the Country'S Cocaine Culture Lore, Miami Is Leading the Nation in the Beginning Of the End of America'S Three-Decade Cocaine Epidemic, Say Experts In these rough economic times, another pricey extravagance appears to be waning in South Florida: cocaine. The city that gave rise to Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs has seen a decline in people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction or dying from the drug. Twenty five years after Miami Vice became part of the country's cocaine culture lore, Miami is leading the nation in the beginning of the end of America's three-decade cocaine epidemic, say experts. [continues 777 words]
Testing For All Adults On Welfare Is Unconstitutional, A Lawsuit Says TALLAHASSEE - A state law that requires poor Floridians to pass a drug test before receiving cash welfare assistance - a key tenet of Gov. Rick Scott's campaign - is now being challenged in federal court. The complaint, from a Navy veteran in Orlando and the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, acknowledges that the state can drug test in specific instances, such as when there are public safety issues or in cases affecting certain public school children. [continues 713 words]
Inside Florida
