Get caught dealing five grams of crack and you will get at least five years in a federal prison. It would take a case involving 500 grams of powder cocaine to get the same minimum sentence. It's a discrepancy critics say leads to harsher punishments for minorities and the poor, who experts say are more likely to buy and sell crack because it's cheaper and more potent than powder. The U.S. Sentencing Commission eased the sentencing guidelines for crack dealers and users this month, dropping sentencing guidelines two levels for crack offenders. That's good news for the 350 people imprisoned on crack charges in the Scranton-based U.S. Middle District of Pennsylvania, all of whom could be eligible for early release. [continues 824 words]
Westmoreland County officials are wondering what has led to an apparent drop in the number of deaths related to heroin this year -- the first apparent decline in the fatalities since 2002. County coroner records show that through October, there were 29 accidental drug overdose deaths, 16 related to heroin or methadone, a synthetic form of the drug often used to treat heroin addicts. A determination remains to be made by the coroner's office in eight other possible drug cases this year. [continues 606 words]
Justice is supposed to be blind, especially colorblind. But legal and civil rights advocates have agreed that hasn't been the case in sentencing crack cocaine offenders. Usually they have been black, and usually they have received harsher penalties than middle-class white offenders convicted in powdered cocaine cases. The U.S. Sentencing Commission, an agency of the federal judicial branch, is finally moving to correct this inequity. For years, groups have lobbied for parity in sentencing for crack and powdered cocaine offenders. Crack cocaine is potentially more addictive, but its chemical properties are the same as powdered cocaine. Last spring the commission set more lenient sentencing guidelines to be issued to crack cocaine offenders in the future. Now it is weighing retroactively reducing sentences of crack inmates in federal prisons. [continues 159 words]
NANTICOKE - The Greater Nanticoke Area School Board approved the first reading of a random drug-testing policy during its meeting on Thursday. At the request of district officials, state troopers used drug-trained sniffing dogs to inspect the high school on Oct. 13 while the building was in lock-down. "There were no drugs of any kind found," Superintendent Tony Perrone said. Specifics of how the entire drug-testing policy will work and how often the testing will be conducted are still being ironed out, but Perrone said the district will use a private medical lab to conduct the testing. [continues 181 words]
In late October, Wanda Parent found a peculiar essay that her son, Penn State student Justin Parent, had written for an English class last spring. It detailed how an errant friend had introduced the 19-year-old to heroin, how he became addicted and what he did to beat his dependency. On it, a teacher wrote, "Do your parents know?" Wanda had just been looking through college papers to give to Justin's younger brother as he began his application process. The essay was the first she had known of her son's struggles with heroin. [continues 446 words]
DONORA - After listening to the proponents of a proposed methadone treatment center and the residents who oppose it, borough council came out against the concept. And the borough leaders are going to take steps to ensure the proposed center is not developed in Donora. At its public meeting Thursday, council announced it wants to work with Middle-Monongahela Industrial Development Association to keep anyone from buying property inside the agency's industrial park for use as a methadone clinic. Further, council will send, by Nov. 15, a letter to MIDA outlining its stand against the proposed center. [continues 215 words]
Outside the Miami Rescue Mission, a crowded homeless shelter, a dozen men slept on the sidewalk in the sun. An army of cops rushed past them and into the Mission's chapel, where they confronted a fugitive from Philadelphia named John Jordan Lewis. He was suspected of murdering veteran Police Officer Chuck Cassidy a week ago today. Holding a picture in his right hand, one police officer questioned Lewis: "Is this you?" The 21-year-old suspect put down his Bible, pushed his arms forward and answered softly: "Yes, it's me." He was handcuffed and taken off to jail to wait for detectives to escort him back. [continues 531 words]
Toward Fairness In Sentencing The U.S. Sentencing Commission is finally allowing federal judges to treat crack and powdered cocaine about the same when they sentence drug defendants. That's welcome news. The drugs aren't that much different, but since the 1980s sentences have been much harsher for crack dealers. Authorities then were motivated by the violence due to crack dealers battling for turf. That particular violence abated years ago in most cities, but the harsher sentences remained. The result has not been good for poor, especially African American, neighborhoods where the cheaper crack cocaine is more prevalent. [continues 167 words]
Local Program Opens the Door to Recovery Adam is 35 years old and married. He has received his bachelor's degree in counseling and development from Slippery Rock University and is currently attending graduate school. He is also an addict. Although Adam has had neither drugs nor alcohol since Aug. 29, 2000, he understands the scope of student drug and alcohol abuse. It is because of this understanding that Narcotics Anonymous is making its debut on campus. "We felt that there was a need for NA in the area, especially for students. [continues 532 words]
For years, checking in with a probation officer meant making a trip to his or her office in the morning, giving a urine sample and answering some questions. Not anymore. Now, Lackawanna County probation and parole officers are dropping in on clients at homes, stopping at bars and holding evening hours to make sure they are getting a full picture of their clients' behavior. "When offenders come to the office, they're on their best behavior. You're seeing them in an artificial environment," said John Conlon, director of the county's probation and parole office. "It's important for our officers to get to know the client in his or her neighborhood, their families." [continues 495 words]
Regarding the Oct. 27 op-ed column, "Good police work aside, drug crime is society's choice": Bethlehem attorney Donald P. Russo is to be commended for speaking out against the war on drugs. 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. [continues 119 words]
College students may face more than jail time and fines if arrested for a crime involving marijuana. Convicted students may be stripped of their financial aid eligibility as well. The Aid Elimination Provision restricts a student's financial aid for a period of time based on the student's record of offense. Since the law's enactment in 2000, nearly 200,000 students have been denied financial aid, according to a press release from the Students for Sensible Drug Policy organization. [continues 637 words]
Walk along East Tusculum in Kensington and there, amid the litter in this hardscrabble neighborhood, you'll notice the used syringes - some capped, others not - on the sidewalks, in a narrow patch of grass skirting a freight rail line, and under a bridge crossing the tracks. There's one, then a dozen, and before you know it, you stop counting - just along a two-block stretch of the street. And if the number of discarded syringe wrappers is any indicator, there would be considerably more if addicts left all their needles behind. [continues 891 words]
"We will choose to have the criminals in our midst deliver a product that is highly in demand." On Tuesday, federal, state and Schuylkill County law enforcement officials praised the teamwork that caused a routine traffic stop in 2004 to lead to the breakup of a New York City gang's drug operations in Minersville, Shenandoah and Pottsville. The federal district court in Scranton has now closed the case and announced the sentencing of the drug ring's leader, Bremen Miranda. All but one of the men arrested were affiliated with the Latin Kings gang. They have been sentenced to a total of more than 88 years in prison for selling crack, cocaine and heroin. Martin C. Carlson, acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, characterized Miranda -- who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possession of crack cocaine -- as the "architect" of the drug operation. [continues 680 words]
Let's not just decriminalize ("Lighten our prison load: Decriminalize marijuana," Jack Markowitz column, Business, Oct. 21 and PghTrib.com), but completely re-legalize the relatively safe, God-given plant cannabis (kaneh bosm/marijuana). Cannabis is safer than alcohol, especially when compared with whiskey. It's less addictive than coffee and hasn't killed one single human in over 5,000 years of documented use, compared to cigarettes, which kill over 1,000 Americans daily. It is unrealistic that the federal government claims cannabis is a Schedule I substance along with heroin, while meth is only a Schedule II substance. Yes, "It's time," Mr. Markowitz, that responsible adults be allowed to choose to use cannabis without the threat of being caged because of discredited laws. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
Summertime arrests in the city netted more than 200 drug dealers and their wares and weapons. Displaying 15 guns, a bulletproof vest and bags of marijuana, heroin and cocaine seized by vice and intelligence officers, Allentown authorities on Tuesday showed off what they did over the summer. They arrested more than 200 higher- and lower-level drug dealers at 143 locations -- mostly downtown -- in the four months that ended Sept. 1. Many of the 208 arrests have already been reported, but officials wanted to highlight the considerable time and resources that have been spent trying to crack down on Allentown's drug trafficking. [continues 580 words]
San Francisco is considering opening a room where drug addicts can inject themselves with heroin, cocaine and other drugs under the supervision of nurses. Few ideas can be considered more foolish than this one. Drug use is illegal. Governments should do nothing to encourage or even tolerate it. Yet this is the ultimate example of a mixed message, where drug use is condemned at the same time it is tolerated. It is, in effect, giving up the effort to fight the insidious and awful damage drugs do to people by giving them a place to do it. [continues 71 words]
Slowly, grudgingly, the conversion process goes on. One of these days, America is going to legalize -- more exactly, decriminalize -- narcotic drugs. Even conservatives are coming around. Not because they'd like to "use." Their worst fear is for children and grandchildren: that the kids will be tempted by drug pushers in high school or even elementary school. That revolting commerce certainly continues to go on, no matter the "war on drugs." There is just too much money in it. The economic incentives are too rich. [continues 383 words]
The turning point for Ed Volovitch almost came too late. The North Scranton native opted to enroll in Lackawanna County's drug court, an intensive program launched in 2000, to avoid a prison sentence in 2003. His parents had turned him in after he tried to break into a safe to get money to buy heroin. No one would put up the $500 for bail. He was desperate. The turning point for Ed Volovitch almost came too late. The North Scranton native opted to enroll in Lackawanna County's drug court, an intensive program launched in 2000, to avoid a prison sentence in 2003. [continues 1548 words]
Debbie Lovas wants Warren to fight back against the prostitution and drug crimes that are frightening residents and ruining many of the city's once proud working-class neighborhoods. ''We are tired of the gunfire, the innocent people and children that are getting harassed, shot at, wounded, targeted and murdered,'' she told City Council last week. ''We want the drug dealers, users and the prostitutes out of Warren.'' As chairperson of the Northwest Warren Neighborhood Association, she would get complaints from residents at all hours of the day, and she set out to find a solution. [continues 592 words]
Inside Pennsylvania
