Of all the presidential contenders, Barack Obama has been the most forthcoming about his past drug use. In his autobiography, he admits to having smoked marijuana, using some cocaine, briefly flirting with the idea of trying heroin (although he never used any) and imbibing a fair amount of alcohol when he was in high school and college. Quizzed about his past drug use, he confessed to having inhaled the marijuana smoke, unlike Bill Clinton, who when faced with a similar question years ago, claimed that while he had smoked marijuana, he didn't inhale. [continues 810 words]
New York - Of all the presidential contenders, Barack Obama has been the most forthcoming about his past drug use. In his biography, he admits to having smoked marijuana, using some cocaine, briefly flirting with the idea of trying heroin (although he never used any) and imbibing a fair amount of alcohol when he was in high school and college. Quizzed about his past drug use, he confessed to having inhaled the marijuana smoke, unlike Bill Clinton, who when faced with a similar question years ago, claimed that while he had smoked marijuana, he didn't inhale. [continues 809 words]
'I call it an epidemic of marijuana arrests. New York City has been on a binge of marijuana arrests for the last 10 years." "I would call it a dragnet." These are the conclusions of Harry Levine, a professor of sociology at Queens College, and Deborah Small, director of Break the Chains, a nonprofit drug policy reform group and a longtime advocate of changing the city's drug policies. The two, who are studying the city's marijuana arrest policy, want to see the police give summonses to people who are caught smoking marijuana in public or with small amounts of marijuana on them, instead of the current practice of arresting them and jailing them overnight. [continues 705 words]
In the end, all it took was the word of the governor to get rid of a prison phone system that exploited the families of prison inmates. That's what Eliot Spitzer did on his eighth day in office. After years of public protests, intense lobbying in Albany, marches to the office of former Gov. George Pataki, introducing bills that went nowhere and a lawsuit that is still wending its way through the state courts, the governor took decisive action. He announced last week that he was directing the state's budget division to no longer count on the $16 million in yearly commissions it has been receiving out of the phone company's excessive profits. [continues 645 words]
Joseph Hayden and Jalil Abdul Muntaqim aren't the most sympathetic guys in the world. Hayden served 13 years in New York prisons for killing a man during an argument in Harlem in 1986. Released three years ago, he'll be on parole until 2007. Muntaqim was convicted of shooting two police officers in the 1970s, when he belonged to the Black Liberation Army. He's doing life in an upstate prison and probably will never get out. Both are plaintiffs in a case to be argued before a federal appeals court this month challenging New York's felon disenfranchisement law. And while until now I've been skeptical about the call to repeal such laws, I've changed my mind. [continues 547 words]
When Jonathan Gaska went to work everyday near the Far Rockaway Shopping Center, he didn't notice any drug addicts shooting up or discarded needles on the sidewalk. So Gaska, who is district manager of his local community board, was shocked when New York City public health officials told him that the Rockaways has one of the highest concentrations of intravenous drug users in the city. They tend to congregate around the shopping center. It took even more convincing by the officials to get the board to agree to let a needle exchange program into the neighborhood. But starting this summer, from a van parked four hours one day a week on Beach 19th Street south of Mott Avenue, a private AIDS agency will offer addicts new, clean needles in exchange for their old, used ones. The program aims to stem the spread of AIDS and other deadly diseases caused by needle sharing. [continues 535 words]
In December 1994, Dr. Joycelyn Elders, the U.S. surgeon general, was unceremoniously booted out of her job by President Clinton. The pediatrician and former director of the Arkansas health department had taken controversial stands on a number of issues. She urged anti-abortion groups to ''get over their love affair with the fetus and start supporting the children.'' She said it was impossible to teach teenagers how to protect themselves from AIDS ''without telling them about sex.'' She said girls who were lesbians should be allowed to join the Girl Scouts because ''none of us is good enough, or knows enough, to make decisions about other people's sexual preferences.'' [continues 472 words]
In December 1994, Joycelyn Elders, the U.S. surgeon general, was unceremoniously booted out of her job by President Clinton. The pediatrician and former director of the Arkansas health department had taken controversial stands on a number of issues. She urged anti-abortion groups to "get over their love affair with the fetus and start supporting the children." She said it was impossible to teach teenagers how to protect themselves from AIDS "without telling them about sex." She said girls who were lesbians should be allowed to join the Girl Scouts because "none of us is good enough, or knows enough, to make decisions about other people's sexual preferences." [continues 476 words]
IN DECEMBER 1994, Joycelyn Elders, the US surgeon general, was unceremoniously booted out of her job by President Clinton. The pediatrician and former director of the Arkansas health department had taken controversial stands on a number of issues. She urged antiabortion groups to "get over their love affair with the fetus and start supporting the children." She said it was impossible to teach teenagers how to protect themselves from AIDS "without telling them about sex." She said girls who were lesbians should be allowed to join the Girl Scouts because "none of us is good enough, or knows enough, to make decisions about other people's sexual preferences." [continues 478 words]
In December 1994, Joycelyn Elders, the U.S. surgeon general, was unceremoniously booted out of her job by President Bill Clinton. The pediatrician and former director of the Arkansas health department had taken controversial stands on a number of issues. She urged anti-abortion groups to "get over their love affair with the fetus and start supporting the children." She said it was impossible to teach teenagers how to protect themselves from AIDS "without telling them about sex." She said girls who were lesbians should be allowed to join the Girl Scouts because "none of us is good enough, or knows enough, to make decisions about other people's sexual preferences." [continues 480 words]
Melissa Ann Rowland won't win any medals for Mother of the Year. But prosecuting her for her son's murder is a big mistake. The 28-year-old Salt Lake City, Utah, woman has a history of mental illness, drug abuse and child abuse. She surrendered two children for adoption, and had two others taken away by the authorities. Now she's accused of murder because, while pregnant with twins, she defied her doctor's advice that her twins were in grave danger unless she had a Caesarean section. When she did submit to surgery about two weeks later, her son was stillborn and her daughter tested positive for cocaine and alcohol. [continues 620 words]
Why isn't this man in jail? That was my reaction upon learning that Bishop Thomas J. O'Brien, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, had cut a deal with the chief local prosecutor over his role in covering up allegations of sexual abuse by priests for decades. At least 50 current and former priests and church employees stand accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with minors in the diocese during the past 30 years. In his agreement with the attorney for Maricopa County, Ariz., O'Brien admits to knowingly allowing priests who were accused of sexual abuse to work with children and transferring priests who were accused of misconduct without warning their new parishes. [continues 501 words]
THE BRITISH TOOK a big leap forward recently, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug. Instead of treating pot like much harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will push a proposal to put it more on par with, say, steroids. Instead of arresting people who're caught with small amounts of marijuana, the police in most cases will simply confiscate the drugs and give the offender a warning. The point is to free the police to concentrate on more serious crimes. [continues 451 words]
THE British took a big leap forward recently, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug. Instead of treating pot like much harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will push a proposal to put it more on par with, say, steroids. Instead of arresting people who're caught with small amounts of marijuana, the police in most cases will simply confiscate the drugs and give the offender a warning. The point is to free the police to concentrate on more serious crimes, government officials said. [continues 518 words]
The British took a big leap forward recently, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug. Instead of treating pot like much harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will push a proposal to put it more on par with, say, steroids. Instead of arresting people who're caught with small amounts of marijuana, the police in most cases will simply confiscate the drugs and give the offender a warning. The point is to free the police to concentrate on more serious crimes, government officials said. [continues 530 words]
The British took a big leap forward recently, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug. Instead of treating pot like much harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will push a proposal to put it more on par with, say, steroids. Instead of arresting people who're caught with small amounts of marijuana, the police in most cases will simply confiscate the drugs and give the offender a warning. The point is to free the police to concentrate on more serious crimes, government officials said. [continues 521 words]
The British took a big leap forward last week, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug. Instead of treating pot like much harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will push a proposal to put it more on par with, say, steroids. Instead of arresting people who're caught with small amounts of marijuana, the police in most cases will simply confiscate the drugs and give the offender a warning. The point is to free the police to concentrate on more serious crimes, government officials said. [continues 520 words]
The British took a big leap forward recently, announcing a plan to downgrade marijuana's status as an illegal drug. Instead of treating pot like much harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, Prime Minister Tony Blair's government will push a proposal to put it more on par with, say, steroids. Instead of arresting people who're caught with small amounts of marijuana, the police in most cases will simply confiscate the drugs and give the offender a warning. The point is to free the police to concentrate on more serious crimes, government officials said. [continues 520 words]
