New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is less than pleased this week to find himself the poster boy for a pro-marijuana campaign. A year ago, when he was just a billionaire media magnate known for dating singer Diana Ross and actress Marisa Berenson, New York magazine asked Bloomberg if he had ever smoked pot. "You bet I did, and I enjoyed it," he replied. The quote was spotlighted by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in ads rolled out Tuesday that demand police stop arresting and jailing people carrying less than an ounce of pot. The campaign includes radio spots and full-page advertisements in the New York Times, and eventually could include signs on subways and bus shelters. [continues 57 words]
ASHWAUBENON - I agree with the April 4 editorial on uniform sentencing. It reminded me of a comment from ex-Gov. Tommy Thompson when he was running for what seemed to be his 10th term saying that we are going to keep building prisons in Wisconsin until everyone feels safe. He failed to mention that it would also make taxpayers feel poor. It does not make sense, as your editorial stated, Wisconsin imprisons almost three times as many adults per 100,000 residents as Minnesota. Is our crime rate three times theirs? I understand Wisconsin now spends as much or more on prisons as it does on education. Is that a good sense of priorities? [continues 195 words]
In the U.S. Supreme Court's most recent evisceration of the U.S. Constitution, justices ruled that elderly folk can be kicked out of public housing if grandchildren living with them are involved with drugs. The principal argument put forward by those who applaud the decision is this: Public-housing residents are particularly troubled by the crime and violence associated with drugs, so any and all measures that will reduce these ill effects are therefore justified. If I were a Las Vegas bookmaker, I'd offer these optimists a bet at irresistible odds: 100-to-1 that drug arrests and overdoses, as well as violence in public-housing projects, are not going to decline significantly over the next two years, despite the now-absolute power of housing authorities to evict the family members of druggies. [continues 111 words]
Greenup Official to Push For More Home Incarceration GREENUP - The Greenup County Detention Center's ongoing overcrowding problem continued over the weekend with a record number of inmates. Jailer Jim Womack said the population from Friday through Sunday was as high as 137. The facility has only 84 beds. Tuesday, the number was at 115, Womack said. The jail normally averages more than 100 inmates per day. The jail tries to keep at least 40 federal or state inmates all the time, because it receives money to house them. [continues 416 words]
IS A "ONE-STRIKE" POLICY FAIR FOR PUBLIC HOUSING RESIDENTS? In the U.S. Supreme Court's most recent evisceration of the U.S. Constitution, justices ruled that elderly folk can be kicked out of public housing if grandchildren living with them are involved with drugs. The principal argument put forward by those who applaud the decision is this: Public-housing residents are particularly troubled by the crime and violence associated with drugs, so any and all measures that will reduce these ill effects are therefore justified. [continues 1023 words]
GOSHEN, Ind. - Decrying government policy in the hope of repeal is common. Less so is taking the initiative to work outside the system, and detractors of a federal student aid guideline are doing just that. The law . . . is designed to keep federal aid dollars out of the hands of college students who have criminal drug records. On the federal student aid application, fund-seekers are asked if they've ever been convicted of possessing or selling illegal drugs. For those answering "yes," one possession conviction renders students unable to receive aid for a year after conviction. For a second possession or first drug-sale conviction, the funding ineligibility is two years. . . . A network of groups pushing for drug law reform launched a scholarship program for students turned down because of their criminal drug records. The John W. Perry Fund scholarships are named for a New York cop who died in the World Trade Center attacks last fall. Perry was a staunch critic of the war on drugs. Higher education is a window of opportunity, one the existing drug law unfairly shuts. The current provisions need to be changed or thrown out altogether. Until that happens, hats off to the people who didn't want to wait. [end]
NIAGARA FALLS - State Supreme Court Justice Amy J. Fricano has ordered the city to resume paying five suspended city employees and to comply with the disciplinary process contained in its collective bargaining agreement with United Steelworkers of America Local 9434-02. John A. Soro, president of the union, said the circumstances leading to the suspension of each of the employees were different, but two of them involved mandatory random drug and alcohol testing required for commercial vehicle operators. In the cases of those two employees, the drug testing was ordered Dec. 18, the morning after the union's holiday party, which Soro called very suspect. [continues 271 words]
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Regarding your April 4 editorial, many states facing budget shortfalls are pursuing alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. At an average cost of $25,000 per inmate, prison cells are hardly ideally health interventions. Unfortunately, an arrest is oftentimes a necessary prerequisite for cost-effective drug treatment. Fear of criminal sanctions compels many problem drug users to suffer in silence. Toning down the zero-tolerance rhetoric would help facilitate rehabilitation. The option of increased drug treatment alternatives would do more than save taxpayers money. Public safety is at stake. Prisons transmit violent habits rather than reduce them. Minor drug offenders are eventually released, with dismal job prospects due to criminal records. Turning recreational drug users into career criminals is a senseless waste of tax dollars. [continues 91 words]
ESSAZAI KILI, Afghanistan- Some poppy farmers in Afghanistan's biggest opium-producing region have started harvesting this year's crop early in hopes of finishing before the government moves to destroy their narcotic-bearing plants. "We're in a hurry. We're afraid the government will come and eradicate our fields," village chief Mohammed Agha said Tuesday. His workers were slitting the green poppy bulbs and collecting the milky opium resin 10 days ahead of harvest time. The accelerated efforts of Agha and his laborers signal how difficult it will be for the weak Afghan government to carry out a U.N.-backed plan to wipe out Afghanistan's poppy crop, once the source of 70 percent of the world's opium. The narcotic is the raw material used to make heroin. [continues 678 words]
A GEOLOGIST, a geotechnician and a bricklayer have admitted their roles in a drug smuggling operation that saw speed posted to Broome inside a hollowed-out book. Broome police arrested geologist Emma Katherine Keating, 30, and geotechnician Megan Jade Erhardt, 26, in Broome after they picked up the package containing the book from Broome Airport on August 14, 2000. Bricklayer Jeffrey Robert Lehane, 41, who sent the parcel, was arrested when he returned to Australia from Bali on January 12 last year. [continues 322 words]
A former private security guard at the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation's headquarters in Nashville has pleaded guilty to charges that he stole cocaine from the agency's evidence room early last year. Jody Mark Tolar, 28, was sentenced Monday by Criminal Court Judge Steve Dozier to 15 years in prison on conspiracy charges related to selling the cocaine. He must serve at least 30% of the sentence. Two drug possession charges against Tolar were dismissed. Tolar admitted that he used a coat hanger to open the door to the TBI evidence room on two occasions last year and removed a total of about 50 pounds of cocaine, according to testimony in Davidson County General Sessions Court. [continues 147 words]
More than 30 cases against alleged drug dealers may be going up in smoke after the Tantallon Mountie involved in their arrests was charged with a narcotics offence himself. The federal Justice Department is re-examining about 25 cases in which Const. Danny Ryan was involved, and has stayed six drug charges against two people already. "In order to proceed with a case, we have to assess if theres a reasonable likelihood of conviction and unfortunately, because of Const. Ryans outstanding charges on drug charges and obstructing justice, we no longer have a credible witness," said department spokesman Glenn Chamberlain. [continues 296 words]
