After a lifetime of abusing drugs, Horace Bush decided at age 62 that getting clean had become a matter of life or death. So Mr. Bush, a homeless man who still tucked in his T-shirts and ironed his jeans, moved to a flophouse in Brooklyn that was supposed to help people like him, cramming into a bedroom the size of a parking space with three other men. Mr. Bush signed up for a drug-treatment program and emerged nine months later determined to stay sober. But the man who ran the house, Yury Baumblit, a longtime hustler and two-time felon, had other ideas. [continues 6731 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan - Sabera came to the new treatment center for female drug addicts with a plan. In five days, she would check in along with her daughter, and this time she would leave heroin forever. And then Sabera went home. Within minutes she started smoking the brown powder on a small canoe-shaped piece of foil. So did her two children. Her son, Zaher, is 14. Her daughter, Gulpari, is 12. The family slumped on cushions against a wall. Zaher barely held his eyes open, rubbed his stomach and muttered, "God, God." Gulpari cuddled against her mother. Their fingers were black with tar. [continues 646 words]
UN Drug Report Finds 'Staggering' Rise In Afghanistan Output KABUL, Afghanistan -- Poppy cultivation in Afghanistan increased 59 percent this year, producing a record-breaking 6,100 metric tons of opium, in part because of efforts by the Taliban and other insurgents in the troubled south, according to a UN survey. Antonio Maria Costa, the United Nations anti-drug chief, called the crop "staggering." Afghanistan now produces 92 percent of the world's opium supply. If security in the south does not improve, entire provinces could fail. The southern part of the country is "displaying the ominous hallmarks of incipient collapse," Costa said Saturday. [continues 548 words]
Afghan Women Take Up Arms In War On Narcotics KABUL, Afghanistan -- Faozia Mirakai grinned widely and held her gun as if she might drop it. But if threatened, she said, she could be a killer. Mirakai wore a green camouflage uniform and tan boots. The young woman punched her fists into the air alongside the Afghan men training to be anti-drug officers. She walked with a slight swagger. She jumped with the men, tried to do one-armed push-ups with them and marched with them. She made faces at the men and joked around. [continues 1114 words]
The state's only inpatient program that's just for mentally ill substance abusers will shut down at the end of the month. Pioneer Center North, a private hospital housed on the old Northern State Hospital grounds in Sedro-Woolley, is emptying its 65 beds because state officials say they no longer have enough money to pay for it. The program is run by a private company; it was state-run until 1993. The state Department of Social and Health Services decided to end the program after losing a lawsuit filed by state workers, who claimed the private program took their jobs. The state must pay about $5 million in back pay to the workers. [continues 540 words]
After Losing Last Year, Measure Back With Specific Conditions For Medical Use Spokane - Bob McCaslin is a Republican state senator, a 72-year-old who defends conservative causes and likes small government. Yet, here he is at the lunch table at Dewey's East in the Spokane Valley, trying to persuade two similarly minded Republican men to support an initiative to legalize the smoking of marijuana by sick people. McCaslin never has smoked pot. ``Too old for that,'' he says. His wife slowly died over eight years, eating little more than milk and cereal, in pain all the time. She never asked for any marijuana. [continues 916 words]
