POLICE searched the home of anti-drugs campaigner Shane Ragno yesterday as part of their probe into claims a petrol bomb was thrown at his Ocean Reef home on Wednesday. Joondalup detectives and forensic officers went to the Southern Cross Circle home about 9am. It is believed they were looking for evidence which would clear Mr Ragno and his family of involvement in the firebombing. Mr Ragno's son, Shane jun., died of a heroin overdose in 1999 and the family has since organised public meetings in a bid to fight drug dealers. [continues 126 words]
A close aide to Khun Sa has been arrested in Chiang Rai at the request of United States authorities, the national police chief said yesterday. Yang Wan Hsuan, or Lao Tai, was detained on Tuesday night while hiding at a house along the bank of Mae Sai river, said Pol Gen Pornsak Durongkhaviboon. The police chief announced the arrest at police headquarters with representatives of the US Drug Enforcement Agency. Lao Tai has connections with local drug dealers who traffick in heroin and methamphetamines. [continues 193 words]
Pro-pot ads banned in Boston and put up in Washington only after threats by First Amendment lawyers may be coming to a subway or bus stop near you -- assuming Mayor Giuliani doesn't snuff them out. The marijuana advocacy group Change the Climate launched its controversial ad campaign last week in the nation's capital. The ads don't encourage people to smoke and its use as a medicine. One ad features a picture of a well-dressed businesswoman quoted saying, "I've got three great kids. I love them more than anything. I don't want them to smoke pot. But I know jail is a lot more dangerous than smoking pot." [continues 147 words]
ASHEBORO -- Hoping to slow down the influx of drugs into Asheboro, Police Chief Gary Mason will convene a drug summit next month featuring local, state and federal law enforcement officials. Randolph County Sheriff Litchard Hurley, along with representatives from District Attorney Garland Yates' office and officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, is expected to attend. Each of the officials at the drug summit will give a short talk, explaining their role in fighting drug-related crime and telling citizens how they can help, Mason said. [continues 352 words]
At least two people have died from a chemical cousin of GHB and six others have overdosed in the decade since the government banned the sale of the "date-rape drug," a study found. The overdoses took place in Minnesota, Texas and Florida and were blamed on 1,4-butanediol, which turns to GHB in the body. Butanediol is used as an industrial solvent and is also included in supplements sold under names such as Thunder Nectar, InnerG and Zen. More such overdoses have almost certainly occurred but have gone unreported, in part because many coroners and emergency rooms do not test for GHB, said medical anthropologist Deborah L. Zvosec, a Ph.D. who led the study published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. [continues 217 words]
The controversial court ruling allowing drug crusader Grant Krieger to grow his own pot is being challenged by the prosecution. But the Crown may be facing a more pressing dilemma in its fight with the Calgary man -- what to do when he shows up for jail with his own home-grown marijuana. Krieger, 46, said yesterday he will begin serving a 22-day sentence on Jan. 22 for not paying two fines for breaching probation. At that time he'll bring with him more than 100 grams of pot -- which he needs to alleviate the pain he suffers from multiple sclerosis, he said. [continues 78 words]
ELKHART, Ind.--Police are looking for a woman who delivered marijuana-laced brownies to a fire station, sickening 11 firefighters. "I can't say what her intent was," Detective Steven Mock said Monday. "But it's hard to say she did it unwittingly." The woman brought the tainted brownies to Central Fire Station on Dec. 23 and left without identifying herself. The firefighters fell ill after eating the snacks, and two required hospital treatment. Fire Chief Jerry Vaughn ordered all the sick firefighters to undergo drug tests. They all tested positive for marijuana. The firefighters' union is offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the woman. The incident came on the heels of Mayor Dave Miller's call to implement a zero-tolerance drug policy for city employees. [end]
BLOUNTVILLE - Federal, state and local authorities have pulled off what a veteran prosecutor called the largest drug bust in Sullivan County in at least a quarter of a century. Seven people have been arrested on cocaine-trafficking charges stemming from indictments that had been sealed since November. They were handed down after federal authorities arrested a man trying to buy 22 kilograms of cocaine at a Kingsport hotel in April, authorities said. That man, Gerald Scott Long, since has pleaded guilty to cocaine trafficking and is awaiting sentencing. [continues 574 words]
Dan Gardner's report is perhaps one of the most important articles to grace the front page of a major metropolitan newspaper in years. Hopefully, this article, the release of the Hollywood movie "Traffic" and the outcry of such sober voices as Gov. Gary Johnson of New Mexico will herald an age in American politics when this topic can be discussed openly, free of the superficial stigma that has been attached for too long. No other problem facing the nation today is as important as the so-called war on drugs. No other problem is as vilified as the so-called war on drugs. Clearly, our nation's drug policies are an enormous, and enormously expensive, failure. It's money thrown into a black hole, for no positive results have ever come from it. [continues 90 words]
WA POLICE have applied to seize assets worth more than $140,000 from an alleged drug dealer in the first test of the State's new criminal property confiscation laws. Lana Josephine Dyson, 34, of Karrinyup, has 24 days to fight the bid. Police obtained an order to freeze the property after charging Ms Dyson last week with intent to sell or supply drugs including ecstasy, heroin and cocaine. Ms Dyson's lawyer, Judy Seif, said the charges would be defended vigorously. [continues 413 words]
Jan. 4 article criticizing Barry McCaffrey, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and national drug policy, omitted the record of real results as laid out in the National Drug Strategy Report cited in the article. Over the past two years, drug use among 12- to 17-year-olds fell 21 percent (according to the respected Household Survey) and 34 percent over the past three years (according to the Pride Survey of more than 100,000 youths). In addition, the number of drug-related murders dropped to the lowest point in over a decade, and workplace drug use has fallen to an 11-year low. Our efforts cut coca cultivation in Peru by 66 percent and Bolivia by 55 percent since 1995, and Andean coca cultivation is down nearly 20 percent overall. [continues 182 words]
The Vermont Forensic Laboratory will get $500,000 in federal money to help it handle a burgeoning number of drug cases. The crime lab, which serves 92 local, state and federal law enforcement agencies, reported a 400 percent increase in heroin cases over the past year. Those cases, coupled with a number of murders at the end of 2000, have spread laboratory resources thin. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., secured the money for the Waterbury lab. Leahy is a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the Department of Justice. Leahy added the $500,000 to the DOJ's budget, which was approved by the president Dec. 21. [continues 749 words]
When I joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1980, I was a strong supporter of the notion that illegal drugs should stay that way and that the enforcement of drug laws should be a top priority. But my views quickly changed once I hit the streets. During my first months on patrol, after handling hundreds of drug calls and arresting scores of people for possessing various illegal substances, I began to doubt what my peers and I were doing. I saw violent criminals walking the streets because the jail space they rightfully deserved was occupied by nonviolent drug offenders. When we carted off small-time drug dealers to prison, I saw other sellers quickly step in to fill the void. [continues 273 words]