Attempts to limit the supply of drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime. While the United States remains committed to the drug war, Europe has largely abandoned drug prohibition in favor of harm reduction alternatives. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce drug-related disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws that restrict access to syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black-market prices. Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. [continues 72 words]
IT Does Not Often Happen That the U.S. solicitor general refuses to defend an act of Congress. Nor should it. But every now and then Congress passes a law so flagrantly in disregard of constitutional norms that a defense is impossible. Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr.'s attack last year on free speech in the Metro system is a good example. The acting solicitor general, Paul Clement, made the right call in informing Congress recently that he "does not have a viable argument" in defense of the law and would not appeal a lower-court decision striking it down. [continues 305 words]
A TRADER who openly sells drugs paraphernalia from his Hull market stall has accused police of conducting a witch hunt against him after attempts to seize thousands of pounds from him failed. Carl Wagner, an outspoken advocate for legalising cannabis, had faced confiscation proceedings for more than ukp48,000 after being given a conditional discharge last year for minor drugs offences. But when the case came to Hull Crown Court on Friday, it was dismissed by Judge Michael Mettyear, after hearing there was no evidence against him. [continues 368 words]
For college football fans, the name Dontae Walker has been familiar over the years for a couple of reasons. First, the former Clinton High School star gained national recognition in the late 1990s as one of the top schoolboy running backs in the nation his senior year. Universities across the country offered scholarships for Walker to suit up for their football team. He ultimately chose to stay in the magnolia state and wear the maroon and white of Mississippi State University. [continues 159 words]
To the Editor: Give me a break! I'm a 42-year-old mother of five children and we take our share of Claratin-D and Sudafed. I can only buy two boxes at a time cause I might just go set up a meth lab? That third box might just be too much of a temptation. Punish the lawbreakers, not the folks that need a little decongestant. What will "they" outlaw next? Batteries? They use those to make meth too, ya know? And the thought of holding the store accountable for selling irresponsible? What if Wal-Mart sells steak knives to a steak knife killer? String 'em up! [continues 51 words]
Measures Target Meth Ingredients FRANKFORT - An estimated 1,500 Eastern Kentuckians poured into the Farnham Dudgeon Civic Center yesterday to rally for pending legislation that could crack down on illegal drug use. The crowd, which arrived in Frankfort in school buses, church vans and caravans of cars, cheered as elected leaders called for passage of Senate Bill 63 and House Bill 343. "It's a new day in Kentucky," said U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers, who founded and has provided $24 million in federal money for Operation UNITE, an anti-drug organization in 29 counties in southern and eastern Kentucky. "We're not going to stand by and let drug dealers control our communities any longer." [continues 217 words]
Barry Scheck's commentary urging sensible and equitable reform of federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws omitted their most indefensible and racially discriminatory aspect: the gaping disparity in penalties for drug offenses involving powdered cocaine and those involving crack cocaine. Federal law subjects any person guilty of a drug offense involving 5 grams or more of crack cocaine to a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. But the amount of powdered cocaine necessary to earn the same sentence is 500 grams. The U.S. Sentencing Commission and Congress acknowledged in the mid-1990s the absence of any policy justification for this disparity even while detailing its racially discriminatory effect. Having allowed this overwhelming evidence to languish for a decade, let us hope that Congress will now act to sensibly cure this injustice. [continues 541 words]
West Virginia pharmacists say citizens will have to expect Sudafed and similar decongestants to be more expensive with fewer varieties available if lawmakers approve Gov. Joe Manchin's bill to fight the creation and use of methamphetamines. But they and legislative leaders say the bill is needed, although not necessarily in the same form as the governor proposed. Manchin's bill is based on a law in Oklahoma that limits the amount of products containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in meth, that customers can buy at one time. It requires them to be dispensed by a pharmacist and for customers to produce identification and sign for them. [continues 750 words]
Moves to restrict the sale of herbal highs or party pills to people over the age of 18 have been welcomed by drug experts, retailers and social interest groups. The new laws - an amendment to the Misuse of Drugs Act put forward by Progressives leader Jim Anderton yesterday - also places controls on marketing and labelling of the products. The predominant ingredient in the pills is benzylpiperazine (BZP) which is derived from the pepper plant and is legal here. It is estimated that 5 million party pills have been sold in New Zealand since 2000. [continues 201 words]
HELENA -- Criminal impulses were the last thing on Wendy Walraven's mind when she started using meth. The mother of three wanted to be all the things society asked of her: efficient at work, keeper of a clean house, well groomed, talkative and vivacious. And it worked. Until meth unraveled her world. Today, she idles in the Montana Women's Prison in Billings -- a criminal. Wendy and dozens like her behind bars have an eye-level perspective on the problem lawmakers, state Corrections Department officials and Gov. Brian Schweitzer are trying to fix in the 2005 Legislature. [continues 1997 words]