Business Profile: Geoffrey Guy believes his company is close to success in creating a legal drug from an illegal one Geoffrey Guy has a conviction: possession of cannabis, with intent to supply. Not a criminal conviction, of course, since Dr Guy is an upstanding businessman and pillar of the community in Dorset. Just an evangelical belief that cannabis has an array of medical benefits and that his own painkiller, developed from the plant, will be available on the National Health within months. [continues 1183 words]
Police Need 'Knock And Announce' Methods Law-abiding citizens who find themselves living in fortifications rather than homes because of the criminal element can take heart from this week's U.S. Supreme Court decision, allowing law enforcement officers the flexibility to enter a domicile for just cause after knocking and waiting at least 20 seconds. This is good news not only for Greenville and Washington County, but for every hamlet in Mississippi and across America. We believe it is about time that law enforcement has more crime-fighting teeth to rid this scum that relentlessly plies on our communities and intrudes on the normalcy of our daily lives. [continues 216 words]
To the editor: Re: Lance Anderson's column on Friday Nov. 28, 2003 Perhaps Lance Anderson can explain why the alcohol trade is brisk in Saudi Arabia if stiffer punishment deters drug users? Thailand lines drug dealers up against the wall and shoots them, so does China. There are still plenty more risk takers to replace those dealt with in the most brutal of regimes no matter what the substance prohibited is. Pictures of Al Capone behind bars did not stop one single drinker from indulging their vice. Frank Nitty, Capone's right hand man, saw to that. [continues 140 words]
The Facts Do Not Justify Attributing This Death To Officers' Misconduct The coroner says he called it homicide only because he had no choice. Under Ohio law, he explained, his only other options were to categorize the death as accidental, natural or suicide. None of those, he felt, adequately accounted for how Nathaniel Jones died -- i.e., after being beaten with nightsticks wielded by Cincinnati police officers. The officers say they were only seeking to subdue the 41-year-old black man after he began acting strangely -- dancing and barking out numbers -- and then became combative during an encounter outside a fast-food restaurant. [continues 573 words]
In my opinion the war on drugs was really created to pass a series of laws that affect all citizens today. These laws were the beginning of the government's control and the loss of privacy for all of us. The big corporate drug companies wanted to protect their monopoly on the drugs. They, in turn, with their huge profits, buy the president, senators and representatives with their campaign contributions. This is the long and short of it, and they are not concerned about the health and well-being of the general population, only the profit. [continues 230 words]
Shift Is Intended To Make Area Safer Burton Park in Durham has been a sanctuary for drug dealers and users for years. Their days may now be numbered. During a ceremony Saturday at the park, Mayor Bill Bell passed control of the small swath of land to the Durham Housing Authority in an effort to crack down on criminal activity and make the park safe for kids. "Hopefully by the time summer arrives, we'll see a park full of children," said James Anderson, a housing manager, before he and others accepted a symbolic key to the park from the mayor. [continues 261 words]
Video Shows Goose Creek Police Using Canines In School Sweep, Apparently Violating Procedure. CHARLESTON (AP) - The Goose Creek Police Department appears not to have followed its own rules on using drug dogs in its guns-drawn raid at Stratford High School last month. A videotape the Police Department released shows a police dog passing close by students who had been forced to kneel on the floor during the Nov. 5 raid. It also captures an officer lecturing students as that part of the raid ends. [continues 621 words]
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP)-- Rush Limbaugh's attorney accused a prosecutor Friday of having political motives for investigating whether the conservative radio commentator bought painkillers illegally. In search warrants released Thursday, investigators alleged that Limbaugh engaged in illegal drug use and went "doctor shopping" for prescription painkillers. Investigators said they were looking for medical, insurance and appointment records for Limbaugh as well as cash receipts and prescription forms during raids of two doctor's offices Nov. 25. The warrants say Limbaugh "alternated physicians to obtain overlapping prescriptions" and failed to tell each doctor that he was seeing others." [continues 543 words]
A FASCINATING news report last week revealed that Canada and the United States are more estranged than ever in their modern history. Two neighbors of North America are drifting apart, both socially and politically. The separation is post 9-11 but aggravated by differing national agendas in Ottawa and Washington, D.C. The story in The New York Times showed two societies diverging dramatically on social issues. A relationship that once accepted cross-border Canadians and Americans as two peas of the same pod has split along the same fracture lines that divide Americans from each other. [continues 540 words]
The articles concerning the tragedy of a child's death in an accident related to his parents' illegal crystal methampetamine lab brought back memories for me --- of a peaceful America, a completely different, nondysfunctional America that existed before our drug war began in the late '60s. Before the drug crackdown, the saddest thing about drug use was the slow suicide of some addicts, not the violence associated with the production and self-policing of an illegal industry. JAMES SHIRLEY, Athens [end]
Regarding "Rush Is Still Stone Wrong" [Currents, Nov. 23]: One inescapable fact of Rush Limbaugh's situation that neither he nor William Bennett can deal with is that jailing Limbaugh alongside violent felons would have proven counterproductive. There is no place for criminal law and subsequent sanctions in dealing with problematic drug use. These are human beings, not mules to be manipulated with sticks and carrots. The relapse rate for Limbaugh's problems after treatment is high. He should be thankful he has received special treatment and compassion from the drug warriors - the rest of us middle class folk would probably go to jail for the same offense. I keep wondering if he will stand up for what is right and proper: ending the Drug War with decriminalization. Matthew Hulett Brick, N.J. [end]