To the Editor: As part of our research on the relation between the Internet and substance abuse, we have identified several Web sites that promulgate information about illicit drugs. These "partisan" Web sites are easily identified by common search engines if one uses the names of illicit substances as search terms.1 With some pages viewed more than 160,000 times per day, partisan sites appear to be effective in reaching adolescents and young adults. In a recent study, 24 percent of college students used the Internet to obtain information on illicit substances, and 27 percent of Internet-using college students reported that Internet use increased the likelihood that they would use drugs.2 [continues 686 words]
A Los Angeles woman wanted on drug charges since 1996 was arrested in Tampa, Fla., as she tried to reenter the country on a flight from Jamaica, an FBI official said Thursday. Bridgette Day, 36, was arrested Tuesday after a routine check at the airport, said FBI Agent James V. DeSarno. A check of Day's fingerprints at the FBI's national crime information center showed that she was wanted for her role in what authorities have called a multimillion-dollar crime ring that sent powder and crack cocaine to cities in the Midwest and South, DeSarno said. [continues 209 words]
[]Scandal: Men were allegedly framed by LAPD officers for possession of firearms. They are turned over to INS for deportation. Two more convictions of men allegedly framed by Los Angeles police officers have been overturned, defense attorneys said Thursday. Edgar Escobar, 31, and Roberto Candido, 25, had been found guilty of being felons in possession of a firearm, convictions authorities later came to believe were won with false testimony by Rampart Division CRASH officers. Acting on writs filed by defense attorneys--and joined by the district attorney's office--Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler on Wednesday vacated the convictions. [continues 375 words]
*Crime: Most involved disgraced ex-Officer Perez, who said police lied in their arrest reports. Some suspects served their sentences and were deported. Cases against 10 defendants who prosecutors believe were framed by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division were dismissed Thursday, bringing to 60 the number of cases overturned as a result of the widening police corruption probe. Most of the cases dismissed Thursday involved arrests made from 1994 to 1997 by disgraced former Rampart Officer Rafael Perez and his onetime partner, Nino Durden. [continues 769 words]
