Efforts to divert drug addicts and other nonviolent criminals away from state prisons are gaining momentum months before Alabama's 2006 legislative session. On Monday, the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates the legalization of medical marijuana and policy changes in the way America deals with drug addicts, released "Alabama Prison Crisis: A Justice Strategies Policy Report." "Substance abuse is driving the prison crisis," said Kevin Pranis, an analyst with Justice Strategies, the New York-based nonprofit group commissioned to do the report. [continues 444 words]
Sen. Norm Coleman was in town Friday for a listening session to discuss the impact of methamphetamine on Minnesota communities. "We're here today to talk about an issue of great importance to our community and to our state," Coleman said. "The nature of the drug is devastating, on the individuals who get addicted and on the communities that have to deal with it. It is overwhelming and we have to do something about it. "I want to listen twice as much as I speak today," he said. [continues 802 words]
If crystal meth labs are going to move into rural Saskatchewan, Bryan Redekop wants to be prepared. Redekop, the chief of the Herbert Volunteer Fire Department, was one of about 100 rural firefighters and other emergency workers to take in a training session on meth labs as part of the Saskatchewan Volunteer Firefighters' Association's annual training symposium Saturday in White City. "You hear so much about it lately, you see documentaries on TV and it just seems like it's a growing thing out in the rural areas," he said. [continues 451 words]
A national drug summit in Adelaide has been told of a radical proposal to address addiction before it takes hold in teenagers. Perth doctor George O'Neil suggests that high schools should test students for marijuana use as part of an annual health check and if they fail, they would be forced to undergo monthly tests. Dr O'Neil says several mining companies use a similar model on their employees. "The only punishment a school could ever give is to change from annual monitoring to monthly monitoring on the kids that were starting to be affected," Dr O'Neil said. [continues 181 words]
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is an ever-growing conglomeration that advocates ending prohibition of all Schedule 1 drugs. Recently Matthew McCally, a spokesperson for the international organization, talked to criminal justice classes at UMKC and also Blue River Community College on the merits of legalizing and maintaining the production of illegal drugs. "LEAP's goals are: (1) To educate the public, the media, and policy makers to the failure of current drug policy by presenting a true picture of the history, causes and effects of drug abuse and the crimes related to drug prohibition and (2) To restore the public1s respect for law enforcement, which has been greatly diminished by its involvement in imposing drug prohibition," reads the Mission Statement on LEAP's Web site. [continues 395 words]
Almost every day in Montana, a child awakens from a nightmare in which the forces pulling his parents away have a chemical smell. Methamphetamine has mom and dad on a short leash. Meth holds them so tightly they no longer understand that their offspring need to eat or have their diapers changed. They may not realize that the kids have been home alone all night or even that leaving them alone is not a good thing. Someone has to step in, and increasingly it's grandparents, human services workers say. [continues 1019 words]
Inpatient Wait Lists Undermine Alternative Sentencing For Addicts For Jennifer McCready, the break came halfway into a 10-year prison sentence for dealing cocaine, when a judge sent her to a long-term, residential drug treatment program in Crownsville. A year later, the 30-year-old native of eastern Baltimore County is holding down a job and renting her own apartment for the first time in years. "It worked out awesome for me," she said. "There are a lot more people out there who could do the same if given the chance." [continues 1517 words]
THE National Government lacks the goal to create employment opportunities for former drug dependents, according to Councilor Angela Librado-Trinidad. Department of Health (DOH) after care program officer Rustum Fanugao Jr. pointed out lack of employment opportunity as one of the reasons why recovering drug dependents under their care suffer a relapse. Fanugao last week said the public has developed a stigma towards former drug dependents causing them difficulty in finding a job. "Akong pag tan-aw, huyang pa diha ang lokal ug ang ahensiyang panggamhanan kung unsa pagsalo niini," Trinidad said. [continues 138 words]
Provincial policemen are hesitant to make drug arrests since they have to pay for the drug tests of their captives with their own money, says Naga police chief Renato Malazarte. Malazarte said the regional crime laboratory is out of drug test kits and he had to spend P1,200 from his own pocket to pay for the drug tests of four suspects arrested last November 1. Another police chief who requested anonymity also said they have no choice but to use their own money or ask their local government unit to pay for the drug tests. [continues 81 words]
BOSTON --For John Halpern to study the effects of peyote on American Indians who use the hallucinogenic cactus in religious ceremonies, observing from a distance was not an option. Halpern lived on the Navajo Nation reservation for months at a time and participated in prayer ceremonies. Earning their trust and cooperation would have been impossible if he refused to ingest peyote, he said. "It never would have happened if I hadn't done that. It's one of the ways they take the measure of a man," said Halpern, a psychiatrist at the Harvard-affiliated McLean Hospital in Belmont, just outside of Boston. [continues 691 words]
By 14, she was her father's main accomplice in wholesaling methamphetamine. At 17, she helped send him to prison for decades. Now, can she escape the life she learned as a child? This is what can happen when a kid grows up thinking Iowa's meth epidemic is everyday life: She will see nothing unusual about trying meth at 12. Or quitting school after eighth grade to help her dad sell it. Or driving alone in a black-windowed Oldsmobile, at 14, to buy hundreds of doses from smugglers and then deliver them to street dealers. [continues 3297 words]
Editor, the Tribune: As a Boone County resident who has never smoked marijuana, I agree with Sen. Chuck Gross of St. Charles. His proposed bill would help Columbia residents realize the importance of sending the right message to public schoolchildren: "You don't know any better!" While medical marijuana prescriptions are intended for adults and municipal possession laws apply to adults and not minors, the progressively minded Gross feels that's too risky. Student athletes must be stupid and impressionable. They get the wrong message about "legalized pot." Rumors abound, and what else is there to do for fun in Columbia? The ensuing mass of tourney-going pot smokers will send this town into a chaotic mass of children stricken with "Reefer Madness" not seen since the black days of the 1950s when the whole populace of children was driven insane smoking the wacky weed. [continues 118 words]
Drug Companies Addressing Meth Problem It is good that at least one major drug company - Pfizer, Inc. - is addressing the problem of its over-the-counter cold medications being used to manufacture methamphetamine. Pfizer, Inc., has released an alterative decongestant that cannot be used to make meth, as the company's drugs Sudafed and Actifed can. The action comes after some states had restricted customer access to over-the-counter drugs containing pseudophedrine - the ingredient used to make meth - to try to control manufacture of the drug. [continues 291 words]
The Superior Court of Guam's Adult Drug Court is definitely a step in the right direction. For non-violent offenders with chronic substance abuse problems, drug treatment is a cost-effective alternative to incarceration. Unfortunately, drug courts are being misused for political purposes. Record numbers of U.S. citizens arrested for marijuana possession have been forced into treatment by the criminal justice system. The resulting distortion of treatment statistics is used by drug czar John Walters to make the claim that marijuana is "addictive." [continues 104 words]
Gov. Matt Blunt has proposed restricting the sale of Sudafed and other decongestants in order to combat methamphetamine production in the state. Drugs such as Sudafed contain pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in methamphetamine production. Headaches, congestion and runny noses might not be the only handicaps common-cold sufferers face this winter if one of Gov. Matt Blunt's proposals passes. In an effort to eliminate the high number of methamphetamine labs in Missouri, Blunt proposed a bill Friday that would limit the amount of products containing pseudoephedrine and ephedrine consumers can purchase. Common decongestants such as Sudafed include pseudoephedrine and ephedrine. [continues 438 words]
Feds Won't Defend Rep. Istook's Indefensible Law Congratulations to Solicitor General Paul Clement for deciding, and saying in a letter to Congress, that "the government does not have a viable argument to advance in the statute's defense and will not appeal the district court's decision." It is rare for a solicitor general, the government's trial lawyer, to refuse to defend in court a statute passed by Congress. Charles Fried told The Wall Street Journal he could remember doing it only twice when he served in the post from 1985 to 1989. [continues 238 words]
Terrence Farley's latest letter to your newspaper is purportedly inspired by his feeling that readers need to hear "from a law enforcement perspective". He then goes on to enumerate his belief that various criminal prohibition-style responses to the very real societal problems of drug abuse have merit and should be expanded. Readers should know that Farley's "law enforcement" point of view is but one within the field. A growing group of police, judges and others in criminal justice -- current and retired -- are speaking out against more expansion of status-quo policies. They have organized as Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. [continues 165 words]
Opponents of a methadone clinic in Northwest Roanoke filed a lawsuit today in an effort to shut down the drug treatment center. The lawsuit, filed in Roanoke Circuit Court, claims that the California-based company operating the clinic did not obtain a special exception from the Board of Zoning Appeals as required by a city ordinance. City officials, who are not named in the lawsuit, have said the clinic had already received a business license by the time the zoning ordinance was changed in 2003 to require a special exception. [continues 84 words]
A mother of a troubled teen says parents need to have more say when it comes to helping their drug-addicted children, while the local addictions centre says research shows forced treatment doesn't necessarily improve someone's motivation to get off drugs. MLA Mary Anne Jablonski said last week parents should be allowed to put their drug-addicted teenagers in treatment facilities even if it's against the child's wishes. The Conservative Red Deer North MLA said she will present a private member's bill later this year that would give parents that right. [continues 578 words]
Frustration over downtown crime boiled over at City Hall Tuesday night. Mayor Walter Gray got an earful from 50 downtown merchants and supporters fed up with the open drug deals and scary transients accosting their customers. Minutes before last night's council meeting began, angry business operators met with Gray for five minutes in the council chamber. They demanded to know what action the city is taking to make the west end of Leon Avenue and adjoining streets safer. "We need to hear some noise out of this building. The Downtown Kelowna Association seems to think there's no problem. We're frustrated. I don't think council or the mayor understand that," said Robert Simkins, a merchant on Lawrence Avenue [continues 524 words]
