A Colorado-based initiative to open dialogue about what impact, if any, marijuana's legalization would have on sexual assault rates could soon plant roots in Lubbock. Shannon Drew, 20 and a Texas Tech sophomore from Amarillo, is using April's Sexual Assault Awareness Month to drum up local support for the Women's Marijuana Movement, or WMM. The year-old effort aims to spark what national organizer Mason Tvert in Denver called "public dialogue" on how marijuana legalization could prevent alcohol-related crimes against women. [continues 510 words]
Hockley County Sheriff David Kinney was temporarily removed from office without pay Thursday after the county's attorney filed a lawsuit claiming Kinney acted incompetently and improperly in his role. The suit surfaced just over a month after two Hockley County deputies were arrested on federal drug charges related to a major methamphetamine ring. Lubbock Judge Blair Cherry signed the order removing Kinney from office Thursday afternoon, according to court documents. Cherry issued a restraining order to keep Kinney from accessing county property or influencing witnesses. [continues 439 words]
Suspended Hockley County Sheriff David Kinney said he was caught off-guard after a civil case to have him permanently removed from office was filed Thursday and denied any wrongdoing. A Lubbock judge temporarily removed Kinney from office without pay after Hockley County Attorney Christopher Dennis filed a lawsuit against him. The suit accuses Kinney of incompetence due to the arrest of two of his deputies on charges of drug trafficking and other abuses of power. I totally deny any of these charges," Kinney told The Avalanche-Journal in a phone interview this morning. "They're not really charges, they're allegations." [continues 274 words]
Re: The letter "Drug dealers are fooling LPD by changing tactics" (A-J, Nov. 22). I would like to respond by saying I do not appreciate the criticism in regards to the drug enforcement section of the Lubbock Police Department. In my opinion, this letter was a slap in the face of the officers who lay their lives on the line for the citizens of Lubbock. The officers cannot catch all of the drug dealers in Lubbock, as there are too many, but they are catching some one drug bust at a time. Police officers do not receive the appreciation or the credit they highly deserve. Hope Lewis Lubbock [end]
Some local high school students say they smell marijuana on their classmates' clothes at school. Drugs are being brought to school and sometimes done on campus or nearby during the lunch hour. Some students are smoking marijuana in their cars right before class and others exchange drugs in the hallways or bathrooms, several students say. When asked if there are drugs on campus, Coronado High School junior Joe Delao said "of course there are," reacting as if it was a dumb question. [continues 2157 words]
Re: The Opinion page article "Does criminalization of drugs hurt society more than the drugs?" by Arnold H. Loewy, professor of criminal law at the Texas Tech School of Law. I agree wholeheartedly with the Texas Tech Law School professor about making drugs legal (A-J, Feb. 28). I don't believe there is anyone out there who hasn't had drugs affect their lives. So why don't we all rise up and make the government decriminalize them? It would save a lot of lives, broken homes and abused children. [continues 109 words]
Recently I moderated a debate to a sellout audience at Allen Theater, euphemistically called: "Heads vs. Feds." During that debate, Steve Hager, editor of "High Times" maintained marijuana was a very good thing that should be encouraged by government. Bob Stutman, on the other hand, a former DEA leader, maintained marijuana was not a good thing and should be criminalized. As a good moderator should, I disagreed with both debaters. In my mind, Mr. Stutman was much closer than Mr. Hager in describing the net impact of marijuana on individuals. On the other hand, Mr. Stutman only discussed the harm that marijuana does. He did not discuss the harm that laws against marijuana cause. [continues 557 words]
At least one thing was clear Wednesday night at Texas Tech: It was high times for the Tech Activities Board, a group of students that brings entertainment and educational programs to the university. Thousands of students packed into an auditorium to hear a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent and the editor of High Times magazine debate marijuana. Tickets for "The Debate Over the Legalization of Marijuana: Heads vs. Feds" sold out Monday, said Jana Vise, an assistant director of the Student Union Building, where the debate was held. [continues 294 words]
Ticketing May Reduce Jail Overcrowding Law enforcement agencies can reduce the strain on the overcrowded Lubbock County jail - if they begin to write tickets instead of taking some misdemeanor offenders to jail. Legislators overwhelmingly passed a law that began Sept. 1, making possession of less than four ounces of marijuana a ticketable offense instead of making officers arrest people and take them to jail. Six other misdemeanors are also ticketable at officer discretion. HB 2391 could reduce jail populations across the state and save counties money without reducing the severity of punishment associated with such drug possession. [continues 1265 words]
A Dallas man warned community members Monday of a heroin and over-the-counter drug mixture that is used by youths as young as 10 and is associated with 24 recent Dallas area deaths. "This drug is beginning to branch out," he told an audience of about 60 people who listened to him at Estacado High School. One person has been arrested in association with the drug in Lubbock and four local cheez addicts have sought treatment, Quintanilla said. Cheez is made by mixing black tar heroin with an over-the-counter allergy or headache medicine, most commonly Tylenol PM, Quintanilla said. [continues 238 words]
We of the ACLU of Lubbock and Texas wish to acknowledge all the kind words from those who have contacted us regarding the successful conviction of Tom Coleman, the discredited undercover agent in the Tulia drug debacle. It was the ACLU that started the long and tortuous legal and public process of reversing the tragic injustices committed by Coleman and others. It is those others, however, that we remain concerned about. While we urged the indictment of others involved in the Tulia sweep, none has been charged by investigators for anything in the Tulia drug operation. [continues 123 words]
Jury Recommends Probation For Former Tulia Drug Agent Perhaps, it was already decided that Tom Coleman would never work in law enforcement again because of his 1999 flawed undercover drug bust in Tulia, leading to his own aggravated perjury charges. A jury completely annihilated the possibility of continuing any such career late Friday when it handed down a guilty verdict and seven years in prison for Coleman. The sentence offered a brief, shining moment of happiness for former Tulia defendants in the back of the courtroom, who peered on with hopeful faces. [continues 783 words]
The Lubbock Board of Health voted to draft an ordinance that would limit the sales of over-the-counter drugs used in methamphetamine production. Since October, the board has discussed possible solutions to curbing the sales of such drugs containing ephedrine, used in common cold remedies. At Friday's meeting, health department director Tommy Camden presented board members with an ordinance draft that pulled most of its ideas from bills in the Texas Senate and House. "If you have been following the news media lately, you'll have seen some of these headlines," Camden said as he flashed methamphetamine news headlines on the projector screen. "Lubbock is not unique to this. It's occurring all over." [continues 474 words]
Times change. Crimes committed in order to provide a means to continue drug use have been commonplace in larger cities -- but not in West Texas, until the past few years. Unfortunately, those types of crimes -- primarily burglaries and forgeries -- are on the rise, especially in small rural communities. We are seeing several cases where people are moving to the country -- probably for privacy -- and setting up methamphetamine labs. This keeps the number of citizens addicted to drugs with a readily available source. [continues 311 words]
Lubbock police Officer Byron Gray holds out photocopied papers seized on the scene of a methamphetamine lab bust. Scribbled between twisted doodles are the ingredients and instructions to make methamphetamine in a lab. "Basically what you've got is Dumb and Dumber working with complex chemical reactions," Gray said. The process to make meth is not simple, and combines danger from toxic and volatile chemicals. For example, the ingredient lithium explodes when it comes in contact with water. Today, meth producers in Lubbock have moved away from producing meth with red phosphorous and poly 2 propylene (P2P) because the law pushed makers to find new ways to make meth. [continues 250 words]
Hub City Confronts Reality Of Drug Labs Making an arrest in a meth lab case goes beyond kicking in doors and slapping cuffs on unruly suspects. Officers face potential catastrophe as volatile chemicals mix in makeshift labs. The danger makes the arrests a bane to taxpayers who foot the bill for training on how to handle meth lab components. And the dangers rest in the heart of the South Plains, much of it in rural areas such as New Deal, where officers were injured in a meth lab arrest Wednesday night. [continues 459 words]
IT IS UNFORTUNATE that Lubbock police no longer will be participating with neighboring communities as part of the South Plains Regional Narcotics Task Force. We realize Lubbock officers bring to the table certain skills that may not exist in some very small South Plains counties. Nevertheless, Lubbock citizens' safety needs have to take precedence. Topping the list of Lubbock's concerns was the tremendous level of liability risk for any and all of the cities involved. As the department responsible for the $655,000 grant that funded the task force, the Lubbock force also was liable for the actions of participating officers in the 18 counties that comprise the task force, according to a police department statement. [continues 298 words]
Citing fiscal concerns, Lubbock police announced Tuesday that they will withdraw from the South Plains Regional Narcotics Task Force and forfeit the grant money that funds their participation in the agency. "It was time to re-evaluate what our participation in the task force is doing for Lubbock itself," Assistant Police Chief Tom Mann said. Topping the list of concerns were liability issues surrounding the department's participation in the task force. As the department responsible for the $655,000 grant that funds the task force, the Lubbock force is also liable for the actions of participating officers in the 18 counties that comprise the task force, according to a statement Tuesday. [continues 289 words]
I just saw on the news about the U.S. Supreme Court Justice giving a stay based on the possibility that the drugs used may be cruel and unusual. I have a suggestion that should work and save the state a lot of money. I bet the drugs currently being used cost the state quite a bit. I also think that there are a lot of people out there that, once hooked on heroin, would kill to get it. Therefore, I think the state should quit using the current, cruel and unusual drugs, and use heroin that is confiscated in drug raids to execute the prisoner. These drugs are supposedly just disposed of anyway. Craig Phillips Lubbock [end]
It is difficult to comprehend that the right-wing conservatives can find it in themselves to make excuses for Rush Limbaugh's illegal drug buying and drug addiction. He has railed about illegal drug buyers and drug addicts. Now, how quaint, he is one. He would be the first to say they should all be behind bars. Now, since he is one of the lowlifes that he has railed about, he should have to spend a lot of time behind bars. [continues 99 words]
