One west Rock Island convenience store is out of the crack pipe business for a while and we thank Rock Island police and Rock Island Alderman Terry Brooks for that. We don't expect that seizure of a couple dozen glass tubes will have any impact in the war on drugs. But it takes moxie for an alderman to get outraged and for police to effectively follow up. Brooks was among the citizens complaining that glass tubes with tiny fake flowers being sold at a Quick Shop at 2030 11th St., were intended for drug use, not as novelty gifts. Open the tube, throw out the flower, add a bit of steel wool (also sold at the store) and you've got a ready-made crack pipe. [continues 219 words]
Judge John Kane Jr. can remember the day his mind changed about the War on Drugs. It was the late 1980s. Kane was on the bench listening to arguments in a drug conspiracy case involving almost 20 defendants. Among them were a grandfather, his sons and his 17-year-old granddaughter. One of the sons was serving time in the Colorado State Penitentiary and smuggling heroin into the prison with the help of his family. "They had corrupted at least one prison guard," Kane said. Kane was repulsed as he listened to the story of how the family had used the girl in the case. She hid the heroin in her body, went to the bathroom when she was inside and put it in her mouth. She would kiss her uncle on the mouth and the drugs would be exchanged. [continues 551 words]
Zephyrhills, Fla. -- When I visited Richard Paey here, it quickly became clear that he posed no menace to society in his new home, a high security Florida state prison near Tampa, where he was serving a 25- year sentence. The fences, topped with razor wire, were more than enough to keep him from escaping because Mr. Paey relies on a wheelchair to get around. Mr. Paey, who is 46, suffers from multiple sclerosis and chronic pain from an automobile accident two decades ago. It damaged his spinal cord and left him with sharp pains in his legs that got worse after a botched operation. One night he woke up convinced that the room was on fire. [continues 659 words]
Lawmaker Opposes Mandatory 2-Year School-Zone State Rep. William "Smitty" Pignatelli, his interest raised by the Great Barrington school-zone drug charges lodged against 17 young people last year, is working on an amendment that would eliminate the law's two-year mandatory minimum jail term for first-time offenders. The public debate over the issue has brought the issue to his attention, said the Lenox Democrat. "There are a lot of young people who have gone to jail for two years without a lot of community outcry, and these (Great Barrington) cases have brought this to my attention," he said. "It's now on my radar screen. We're thinking about it." [continues 868 words]
But Congress, Feds Shouldn't Overreact To This Drug The pattern's familiar. A problem gathers steam in America and then boils over. Washington feels the heat and takes action. That's what is happening with the highly destructive use of methamphetamine, or "meth." But Washington is in danger of repeating another pattern: acting too late, and inappropriately. A meth resurgence began as a rural problem in the early 1990s, spreading from the West to the Midwest and South, and is now seeping into urban areas. The Bush administration has maintained that fighting marijuana is its anti-drug priority (on the grounds that it's a "gateway drug" that's widely used). But many local officials argue that meth should be its priority. [continues 603 words]
RALEIGH -- State leaders are worried that a pending North Carolina law designed to stop the spread of methamphetamine abuse could be thwarted by pending federal legislation on the same topic. Weaker or inflexible federal standards, they say, could end up blunting anti-methamphetamine rules the General Assembly is drafting. "Different states have different problems when it comes to fighting methamphetamine, just as we do with any other crime," N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper said. "States should have the ability to react to their own particular problems." [continues 670 words]
Rural Community Confronts Issue, Seeks Solutions Jim Brownman called his time under the Norman Wood Bridge a natural buzz. The two-lane expanse of Route 372 crosses more than 100 feet above the Susquehanna River, connecting York and Lancaster counties and giving passing drivers a view of a wilderness paradise. This summer, the river is a series of small pools split by groves of scrubby trees bent, from times of high flows, toward the nearby Maryland border. On a day in June, the sun glinted off the seemingly still water as a lone fisherman cast a line. [continues 2376 words]
A bill that has wide support in the Oregon Legislature would take another step in fighting the scourge of crystal methamphetamine, the home-cooked drug made with popular over-the-counter cold medications. The question is whether Oregon, if this particular law is passed, would take the wrong step in its efforts to restrict access to medications that contain pseudo-ephedrine, a key ingredient of crystal meth. The state House of Representatives this week approved, by a 55-4 vote, a measure to require people to have a doctor's prescription if they want to buy medicine that contains pseudo-ephedrine. Observers expect the bill to pass the Senate, and the governor also supports it. [continues 297 words]
SEATTLE - Hyperbole is addictive when you direct the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, where John Walters has ratcheted up claims that marijuana smoking is a gateway to hard drug use and criminal behaviour. Crusading against the weed is, for Mr. Walters, a cross-country and even cross-border cause. Two cities, however, have heard him out but headed off in a new direction. One is a somewhat laid-back Seattle. The other, Vancouver, has a hard-core drug problem as serious as any place in North America. [continues 762 words]
If Elected Mayor, He Plans To Curb Illegal Gun Sales As Rochester police chief, Robert Duffy said he took numerous steps to lower crime in a city with the highest homicide rate in New York. As mayor, Duffy said he would bolster crime-fighting initiatives, announcing Thursday that he would establish a crime commission to coordinate efforts among agencies. The idea was part of Duffy's crime platform, which includes cracking down on illegal gun sales, adding police officers and possibly starting a community court to handle minor crimes. [continues 385 words]
Lab Proliferation Challenges McDowell County Investigators To Get A Handle On The Problem MARION -- On a white board deep inside the McDowell County Sheriff's Office, a dozen names and addresses are scrawled in red and black marker, connected by arrows and circles -- a complex web of drug production in a small community that, until a few years ago, had little clue how to combat a new scourge. McDowell County has landed the dubious title of most meth-riddled community in the state, during a time when North Carolina has seen methamphetamine cases skyrocket. [continues 1452 words]
I'm writing about Robert Sharpe's outstanding letter, "Reefer Madness revisited?" (June 9-16): If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, coffee would be illegal but marijuana would be legal. If we drink 65 cups of coffee in a single day, we have a 50 percent chance of dying as a result. On the other hand, if we smoke the world's most potent pot all day long, the worst effect would be a severe case of the munchies. (Actually, the worst effect would be getting arrested and thrown in jail with violent criminals). [continues 93 words]
Health Experts Debunk Notion That The Drug's Use Is a White-Only Phenomenon A town meeting exploring how the use of crystal meth affects gay and bisexual men of color drew roughly 75 people to the National Black Theater in Harlem on January 11. "One of the things that we rarely get to hear about is crystal and African-American and Latino men who have sex with men," said Soraya Elcock, deputy director for prevention services at Harlem United, an AIDS service organization and one of three sponsors of the event. [continues 710 words]
TABLE OF CONTENTS: * This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2005/ds05.n384.html#sec1 (1) Rising Cannabis Use Prompts Call For War On Drugs 'Epidemic' (2) Proposal Targets Lenient Pot Laws (3) GW's Cannabis-Based Spray A Step Closer (4) Deja Vu * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2005/ds05.n384.html#sec2 Drug Policy (5) Gays' Rising Meth Use Tied to New HIV Cases (6) Syringe Exchange Group Reaches Gay Men (7) Court Refines Marijuana Law (8) Former U.S. Drug Czar Says Drugs Are Bigger Problem Than Terrorism (9) Prison Companies' Stocks See Hefty Gains [continues 226 words]
The U.S. is ready to save the world from oppression, if President George W. Bush's inaugural address can be believed. While I'm happy to be an American and I wouldn't really want to live anywhere else, I believe we need to look at domestic oppression before saving everyone else. I didn't hear anything about drugs in the speech, but I heard a lot about freedom for those who don't have it. Illegal drug users have little freedom now in this country. [continues 365 words]
Man, 48, Turned To Booze, Cocaine after Wife Ended Their Relationship A man who turned to booze and cocaine to mend his broken heart narrowly avoided a stint behind bars after pleading guilty to drug trafficking. Roger Young had 12 ounces of cocaine with a street value of about $40,000 when he was pulled over by police in July 2003. Normally such a seizure would mean an automatic trip to the penitentiary. But yesterday, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Colleen Suche agreed to a joint recommendation for a conditional sentence of two years less a day, allowing Young to serve his time in the community. [continues 303 words]
MADISON - U.S. Attorney J.B. Van Hollen announced his resignation Tuesday, saying he might consider a run for state attorney general. President Bush appointed Van Hollen as U.S. attorney of the 44-county Western District of Wisconsin in 2002. Van Hollen, 38, a native of Bayfield, said he's done everything he wants to do as U.S. attorney and plans to go into private practice. Van Hollen has served as district attorney in Ashland and Bayfield counties. He said he hasn't ruled out running against state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager in 2006. Lautenschlager, a Democrat, was arrested for drunken driving last year and is battling breast cancer. [continues 130 words]
An estimated 55,000 Americans died prematurely from taking Vioxx, and who knows how many Canadians suffered the same fate. All the Cox-2 drugs are now under a lethal cloud of suspicion. But we continue to hassle those who find pain/symptom relief from medicinal cannabis. I guess we want potheads to die from FDA-approved pharmaceuticals, like the good, law-abiding citizenry does. Marilyn Bachmann, Sidney [end]
Desperate parents of drug-addicted children should have the power to force them into treatment centres, says Red Deer North MLA Mary Anne Jablonski. Jablonski plans to introduce a private member's bill in March that would give parents and provincial authorities the right to place children in treatment centres - even if it's against their will. "The bill would recognize that children who abuse drugs are victims and need help and protection," said Jablonski. "It recognizes that families should be actively involved in ensuring the safety of their children, especially when they're involved in drug abuse." Jablonski said Bill 202 - the Protection of Children Involved with Drugs Act - would be the first of its kind in the world. [continues 296 words]
Not too long ago Darrell Gray was looking at a 2 1/2-year-jail sentence, but on Tuesday Gray was at the Cape Cod Museum of Art looking at works from its collection and at a drug and alcohol-free future. The reason for Gray's turnaround was the Gosnold BAND Drug Court Treatment Program. BAND is the acronym for Barnstable Action for New Directions Program. It was created by Barnstable District Court Presiding Judge Joseph Reardon in conjunction with Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O'Keefe and Ray Tomasi, president of Gosnold, which provides treatment for substance abuse. [continues 356 words]
