FORT WORTH - Fort Worth narcotic officers converged on three warehouse shops Thursday morning where they discovered a methamphetamine lab that officials say appears to have been in operation for about five years. Lt. Ric Clark, narcotics section supervisor, said the man who leases the shops was apparently tipped off to the searches after hearing police chatter on a scanner. The 35-year-old man tried to flee the area, Clark said, but was stopped by two narcotics officers watching the warehouse. [continues 119 words]
AUSTIN - A rave party that drew thousands of people over the weekend from across the country ended with one man dead and Travis County officials puzzling over how to better control a wild night-life scene. Thousands of young adults poured into a makeshift dance hall Saturday night in southeast Travis County, turned the lights down and started a dance party that lasted until sunrise. They came from as far away as Oklahoma, Louisiana and New York, the Austin American-Statesman reported Monday. [continues 269 words]
After 20 Years, The Anti-Drug Program Gets Mixed Reviews, But Some School Districts Say It Is Effective With Younger Students. LAKE WORTH - Cleaning horse stables won't necessarily steer children away from using drugs and alcohol, but Lake Worth officer Chauncy London hopes it will teach students to be responsible. London, 40, is in charge of Lake Worth's Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which is offered in elementary school and high school in the small northwest Tarrant County district. [continues 446 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - Would it be forcing things too much to suggest that San Francisco may be going to pot? The city by the Bay is considering growing its own crop of marijuana. The city Board of Supervisors voted Monday to put a measure on the November ballot that would allow the city to explore the idea of growing pot and distributing it to seriously ill patients who have permission from their doctors. Supporters say such a program on city-owned land could double as agriculture job training for the unemployed. [continues 159 words]
GRAND PRAIRIE - A Grand Prairie narcotics sergeant has been suspended after an audit revealed about $1,000 missing from a drug unit cash fund, police said. The department's internal affairs unit is investigating Sgt. Blaine Smith's control of a cash fund used to purchase narcotics in undercover drug cases. Smith is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the inquiry. A discrepancy in the fund was discovered after a new sergeant assigned to the unit requested an audit of the narcotics money. [continues 293 words]
The Swisher County district attorney is expected to drop the charges against the last defendant accused in the 1999 Tulia drug bust, which drew national attention after critics said it was racially motivated. Zuri Bossett, a 22-year-old single mother who lives in Amarillo and is eight months pregnant, was accused of selling 1.4 grams of cocaine to an undercover officer three years ago. Her trial was scheduled for Tuesday, the anniversary of the day 43 people were indicted for selling drugs to officer Tom Coleman. [continues 68 words]
FORT WORTH - Drug Enforcement Administration Director Asa Hutchinson brought his national "Meth in America: Not in Our Town" tour here Thursday, warning of the health and environmental risks of the widely used drug that costs as little as $5 per hit. Flanked by prosecutors and law enforcement officials, Hutchinson called methamphetamine "one of the most destructive drugs in our society today." At a news conference at the Radisson Plaza Hotel, he vowed to make it tougher for methamphetamine cooks and traffickers to obtain large quantities of the chemicals needed to produce batches of the drug that's also known as "the poor man's cocaine." [continues 176 words]
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair's government moved Wednesday to relax its marijuana laws, guaranteeing that most users will get off with a warning while police focus enforcement efforts on harder drugs. Under the proposal, marijuana would be downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug, making its use and possession less serious crimes, Home Secretary David Blunkett told the House of Commons. Police could still arrest those caught with marijuana, who could receive up to two years in prison. But in most cases, police would confiscate the drug and issue a warning. [continues 239 words]
WASHINGTON - Authorities in North Carolina have seized $1.4 million worth of narcotics and have convicted more than 80 Marines and sailors of using or distributing designer drugs, officials said Tuesday. It was one of the biggest drug investigations involving the military in recent years. Although narcotics cases in the military are not rare, they usually involve fewer people. A recent drug scandal at the Air Force Academy, for example, implicated 38 cadets. Officials said Tuesday that a two-year investigation, code-named Operation Xterminator, was conducted by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service office at Camp Lejeune, N.C., outside of Jacksonville, along with state and local authorities. [continues 189 words]
As we approach the Independence Day celebration this year, I think again of the words that launched this great nation. In particular, these phrases come to mind: that "all men are created equal" and that all of us are "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, and among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Is there any more important right than that of life itself? On June 6, Libertarian Party political director Ron Crickenberger and campus coordinator Marc Brandl were arrested for civil disobedience while protesting a federal government crackdown on medical marijuana clinics. This action was a purposeful one demonstrating that Libertarians recognize the importance of this right. [continues 95 words]
Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - The city's DARE program - the most widely used anti-drug effort in Texas schools - has been eliminated and the gang-prevention unit slashed by more than half, Chief Ralph Mendoza said Tuesday. The cutbacks were in response to a yearlong, $1.2 million study that offered 266 recommendations for streamlining the department, Mendoza said. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, known as DARE, ended with the school year last month, and the DARE police positions will be shifted to patrol, another area the study recommended beefing up, Mendoza said. [continues 567 words]
FORT WORTH -- It was about 4:30 a.m. last Saturday when Randy Kalmoe snorted heroin and then sat at his computer to chronicle the drug's effects. In the half-page journal entry, the Aledo High School senior wrote that it was the first time he had used the drug and he wanted to detail psychological and physical changes he felt after ingesting one capsule, and then another. Kalmoe's first experiment with the drug was his last. Robert Kalmoe walked into his son's bedroom about 10:30 that same morning to find the unfinished journal entry on the computer screen and his son unconscious. Three days later, the 18-year-old died at Harris Methodist Fort Worth, the victim of an apparent overdose, according to preliminary autopsy findings. [continues 742 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia - The head of Colombia's anti-narcotics police was removed on Friday after about $2 million in U.S. drug war aid allegedly vanished into the pockets of some of his officers. The widening corruption scandal had already led to the suspension of some U.S. aid to Washington's key drug-war ally and the dismissals of at least 12 police officers. Gen. Gustavo Socha was reassigned to a police unit that provides security to dignitaries, said Gen. Ernesto Gilibert, chief of the Colombian National Police. [continues 343 words]
True crime writer Barbara Davis was sentenced Thursday to two years' probation for possession of GHB, a charge that stemmed from a 1999 drug raid during which her son was killed by police. Davis, 51, hugged her attorney after senior state District Judge C.C. "Kit" Cooke announced the sentence in a Fort Worth courtroom. Before sentencing, Davis received support for probation from witnesses including an assistant U.S. attorney based in Houston, a former Rowlett police officer and a member of her church - First Baptist Church of Haltom City. [continues 393 words]
Don Erler's April 4 column on the "one-strike-you're-out" policy of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development failed to fully acknowledge the law's potential collateral damage. The zero tolerance law requires that entire families be evicted from public housing if anyone, even a guest, uses drugs. The youthful indiscretions of a rebellious teen-ager could result in homelessness for an entire family. According to the Monitoring the Future Survey, more than half of all high school seniors have tried an illegal drug at least once. Exposing 50 percent of all families living in public housing to the dangers of living on the street is not the answer to America's drug problem. [continues 110 words]
A continuing debate between liberals and conservatives centers on crime and punishment. Right-thinkers generally prefer being tough on criminals, even against liberals' justified caution that incarcerating miscreants can harm their innocent families, because we care about the happiness and safety of communities. Last Friday, I was reminded of my fondness for toughness when the driver of a large pickup zoomed through crowded 60-70 mph freeway traffic at close to 90. A huge traffic fine - which, of course, might well take food out of the mouths of his children - is utterly inadequate. The law should permit forfeiture of these vehicles-cum-missiles being demolition-derbied at, say, 20-plus mph over the speed limit or being operated by drunken drivers. [continues 448 words]
American officials have quietly abandoned their hopes of reducing Afghanistan's opium production substantially this year and are bracing for a harvest large enough to inundate the world's heroin and opium markets with cheap drugs. Although American and European officials have considered measures like paying Afghan opium poppy farmers to plow under their fields, they have concluded that continuing lawlessness and political instability will make significant eradication all but impossible. Instead, U.S. officials said, they will pursue a less ambitious strategy: persuading Afghan leaders to carry out a modest eradication program as opium poppies are harvested over the next two months, if only to show that they were serious in declaring a ban on production in January. [continues 440 words]
The Buzzard Point neighborhood where U.S. Park Police said they encountered former District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry sitting in a parked car is a desolate swath of Southwest Washington dotted with warehouses. Asked Sunday what the 66-year-old four-term mayor was doing there Thursday night, Barry's attorney, Frederick D. Cooke Jr., said: "I didn't ask him why he was at Buzzard Point. I don't know what he was doing sitting there." Police conducted a field test on substances found in Barry's car, and it came up positive for traces of cocaine and marijuana. Barry was not arrested after police determined that there was not a sufficient amount of illegal drugs found to file charges. [continues 54 words]
Where does one draw the line? How far into students' privacy will administrators delve? Where in the U.S. Constitution does it say that publicly schooled students are exempt from its protections and guarantees? The issue of mandatory drug testing raises these perplexing questions, and many districts are anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court's ruling on its legality, which likely will not be announced until this summer. Hopefully, the court will not extend 1995's 6-3 decision it issued declaring mandatory drug testing for athletes legal to include students in any extracurricular activity. [continues 598 words]
SAN FRANCISCO - "Liar! Liar!" came the voices from the crowd. Drug Enforcement Administration chief Asa Hutchinson stopped short, caught midsentence. He had started by saying: "Science has told us so far there is no medical benefit for smoking marijuana." Hutchinson pushed on with his message, reiterating President Bush's newly aggressive anti-drug policy, which links casual drug use to terrorism and objects to state laws, such as the one in California, that allow the medicinal use of marijuana. Just hours before Hutchinson's appearance Feb. 12, federal agents - with no help from San Francisco police - seized more than 600 pot plants from a medicinal marijuana club. They also arrested the group's executive director and three suppliers, including pot guru Ed Rosenthal, author of Ask Ed: Marijuana Law. Don't Get Busted. [continues 209 words]
Star-Telegram Staff Writer FORT WORTH - A Tarrant County narcotics task force risks forfeiting state funds if it does not accept new state guidelines that its members say undermine the unit's authority, overstep local jurisdiction and compromise officer safety. Under an order by Gov. Rick Perry, the Department of Public Safety took command last month of 49 state-funded narcotics task forces, including the Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence Coordination Unit. The unit's board of governors will decide today whether to follow the new guidelines or to risk losing funds from the Byrne grant, a federal fund distributed by the governor's office that accounts for $1.9 million of the unit's $3.1 million budget. [continues 885 words]
Kudos to Bob Ray Sanders for his excellent Jan. 6 column on the lack of oversight on the part of Dallas police who paid out $200,000 to a confidential informant accused of purchasing fake drugs. The combination of informants culled from the criminal underworld and overzealous drug warriors anxious to increase arrest stats has dangerous implications. Regardless of whether a defendant is actually guilty, the informant profits when a conviction is made. This is a very dangerous practice. It lends itself to entrapment and dishonest testimony. In an age when Americans are using more drugs than ever, including blatantly recreational drugs like Viagra, America's $50 billion war on some drugs is doing tremendous damage to the integrity of the criminal justice system. Robert Sharpe, program officer, The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, Washington, D.C. [end]
Bob Ray Sanders made the very valid point that fake drugs are not the problem in the Dallas narcotics department. Bad information from paid informants and bad arrests are the problem, and it is not limited to Dallas. Take the case of Loren Pogue, who is serving 22 years for conspiracy to import drugs and money laundering. He is held at the Federal Medical Center in Fort Worth. Pogue owned a real estate firm in San Vito, Costa Rica. He was an active member of the community. One day a part-time employee asked him to sit in on a closing. The purchasers commented that they intended to build an airstrip on the property and smuggle drugs. The property was mountainous and unsuitable for an airstrip. The part-time employee was a confidential informant who was paid $250,000. The purchasers were DEA undercover agents. Pogue did not stop the sale, so he was sentenced to 22 years. [continues 64 words]
Drug Arrests Warrant Scrutiny Of Dallas Police The Dallas Police Department has a serious "drug" problem that can't be cured by any amount of spin. It needs to be addressed quickly by investigators without connections to the department. It is a problem that the police chief can't dismiss with war-on-drugs statistics, I- stand-by-my-officers rhetoric or suggestions that if you're not with him on this one, you're against him. I know Police Chief Terrell Bolton has had more than his share of enemies and battles in his short tenure, but as far as we know no outside detractors have brought this latest scandal on the department. [continues 448 words]
Bush Administration Invoked The War On Terrorism As Reason To Take Case WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case about police power to search passengers on public transportation, a case the Bush administration says applies to the war on terrorism. The court said it will decide if police who want to look for drugs or evidence of other crimes must first must inform public transportation passengers of their legal rights. The ruling could clarify what police may and may not do as they approach and search a passenger. [continues 526 words]
DALLAS - In some drug busts involving a highly paid informant, the substances that were seized weren't narcotics at all, Dallas Police Chief Terrell Bolton said Monday. Bolton's disclosure of the informant, who has been paid $200,000 over the past two years, came after a drug suspect complained to local media that he was framed by narcotics officers, The Associated Press reported. He said he was charged with dealing crushed gypsum, the substance used to make sheet rock. "As it turns out, some of the evidence seized was simulated substances," Bolton said during a news conference. But, he added, "We have not found anything now to suggest that this confidential informant was not aboveboard. If we find anything wrong later, we'll make a decision about what to do at that time." [continues 437 words]
760,000-Plus Pot (Hemp) Plants Destroyed AUSTIN, Texas -- Narcotics officers from the Texas Department of Public Safety, with help from the Air National Guard and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, destroyed more than 760,000 marijuana plants across the state in 2001, officials said. The bulk of the plants were growing wild in the Panhandle, but tens of thousands of others had been carefully cultivated by growers bent on profiting through illegal sales of their crops, DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said. [continues 346 words]
DALLAS - Former Cowboys offensive lineman Nate Newton now resides in a Seagoville detention center after a judge on Friday ordered the three-time Super Bowl champion be held on federal drug trafficking charges. Magistrate Paul D. Stickney denied bail for Newton during a detention hearing in a Dallas federal court. The judge cited a concern that the six-time Pro Bowl guard was arrested by federal agents Wednesday while free on bail in connection with similar charges in Louisiana. "I find that there is no condition that I can set to assure the safety of the public," Stickney said. He added that Newton's lawyer, Howard Shapiro of Plano, can argue for bail again, if he finds new evidence justifying bail. [continues 396 words]
FORT WORTH - Cab driver Bob Spence was all smiles Thursday morning when he pulled onto a north Fort Worth street to pick up a regular customer and saw dozens of officers converged on three nearby homes. Typically, the 3000 block of Loving Avenue is filled with crack cocaine dealers looking for their next sale, he said. "Four o'clock on Sunday morning if you drive down here, they'll flag your car down," Spence said. "They'll just want to know how much you want to buy. ... They have guns and they won't hesitate to use them. That's why they keep these people living in fear over here." [continues 512 words]
EULESS- Officials arrested an Arlington man and seized 1,000 Ecstasy tablets Thursday night in the 1200 block of Airport Freeway, said Larry Romines, Northeast sector commander of the Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit. Each tablet has a street price of $20 to $30, Romines said. The arrest was the result of a three-week investigation, he said. The man, whose name was not released, was stopped by Euless police on a traffic violation. He was in Euless Jail on Friday night, Romines said. Three other people were in the car, Romines said. One person was arrested on unrelated warrants and the other two people were released, he said. [end]
A true crime writer whose son was fatally shot during a 1999 drug raid at her North Richland Hills home pleaded guilty Friday to possession of GHB. Barbara Davis, 50, showed no emotion as she entered her plea to a charge of possession of a controlled substance, 4 ounces to 200 grams, before senior state District Judge C.C. "Kit" Cooke in a Fort Worth courtroom. "I thought it was legal. I had bought it through a pharmaceutical company," she said. "I have insomnia, and that's why I bought it. This was not street GHB." [continues 375 words]
KENNEDALE - Concerns about funding prompted a divided school board to reject a proposed voluntary drug-testing program for students Thursday night. Despite the 4-3 vote, most trustees said they support the plan's concept of creating "positive peer pressure" to help Kennedale students in seventh through 12th grades refuse offers to use drugs. "But the funding for the project is not in the budget right now," Trustee Eddie Patterson said. "And I'm not sure our budget is in really good, healthy shape right now." [continues 346 words]
DALLAS - Former Cowboys lineman Nate Newton was arrested Wednesday after police stopped two vehicles in Ellis County and found 175 pounds of marijuana, a Dallas County Sheriff's Department spokesman said. Newton, 39, of East Ellijay, Ga., and two people with him were jailed late Wednesday in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center in Dallas, Don Peritz said. The arrest is the second recently for Newton, who was taken into custody in Louisiana on Nov. 4 after state police reported finding more than 200 pounds of marijuana in the van he was driving. In that case, he is accused of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute. [continues 274 words]
KENNEDALE - School board members tonight are scheduled to consider a voluntary drug-testing program for high school students. The board will have to work out financing for the program, which mirrors a 10-year-old Glen Rose school district policy in which more than 90 percent of students participate. The meeting is at 6 p.m. in the school administration building, 120 W. Mansfield Highway. Trustee Steve Hayes said the possibility of a drug test can provide incentive for students to stay clean. "This gives them an opportunity to say, 'No, thank you. I have a legitimate reason not to participate,' " he said. [continues 258 words]
NEW YORK -- Drug and alcohol abuse appears to be up in many parts of the country since Sept. 11, especially in New York City and Washington, a survey suggests. "These are people who are self-medicating because of the stress they feel," said Joseph Califano Jr., president of the Columbia University National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which conducted the survey. "I think we have the beginnings of a self-medicating epidemic." The conclusion that drug and alcohol abuse has in-creased was drawn indirectly, based on reports of people seeking substance-abuse treatment. [continues 295 words]
Signing up for choir, band, sports teams and even Future Farmers of America has always carried added expectations for students in high school and middle school. Taking on extra work, practicing before or after school, competing on weekends and maintaining high grades all go with the territory. But an increasing number of school districts are adding a new component: mandatory drug testing. School officials reason that students competing against other schools could pose a danger to themselves or others if they are taking illicit drugs. The privacy invasion is small, officials say, and the screening can discourage drug use among teens. [continues 196 words]
New over-the-counter drug tests that target young people and employees appear to be gaining fans among some authorities and parents. But the drug-screening kits, which sell for $20 to $35, are also attracting critics who say the tests could be an invasion of privacy and may not always be accurate. Some analysts wonder whether people will know what to do if tests indicate drug use. "What concerns me is, What are parents going to do if their child tests positive?" said Jane Maxwell, chief of research for the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. "What kind of resources will parents have available? Will they have a game plan if all these tests prove positive?" [continues 577 words]
Asa Hutchinson, the former Republican representative from Arkansas now serving as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, has a reputation as a straight shooter. When he was up for confirmation a few months ago, even Democrats who had strongly opposed his views as a manager of the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton testified in support of his nomination. The other morning, Hutchinson was the guest at one of the breakfast interviews arranged by Godfrey Sperling Jr. of The Christian Science Monitor. Asked what the events of Sept. 11 had done to the war on drugs, Hutchinson readily admitted that the diversion of government resources to the anti-terrorism campaign had left his agency stretched thin. [continues 704 words]
GRAPEVINE - Flanked by his wife and his attorney, former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin apologized to his fans and thanked God for delivering him from a drug charge that was tainted by faulty police work. "Make no mistake about it, I shouldn't have been in that apartment," Irvin said. "I have no doubt we would have won, but quite honestly, God stepped in." Irvin said that he has not decided whether to pursue a civil case and that he has forgiven the officers who handcuffed him. But his attorney said the police violated the Constitution by searching the apartment without a warrant. [continues 695 words]
Nate Newton Jailed In Louisiana After Routine Traffic Stop Former Cowboys lineman Nate Newton was arrested over the weekend in Louisiana when state police found more than 200 pounds of marijuana in the van he was driving. Newton, who played 13 seasons for the Cowboys and helped the team win three Super Bowls, was arrested Sunday and taken to the St. Martin Parish Jail in St. Martinville, La. Bail was set at $200,000, but it was unclear whether he was still in jail Tuesday night, said Louisiana state trooper Willie Williams. [continues 169 words]
DENTON - A felony drug charge against former Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin was dismissed Monday after prosecutors said an officer conducted a search without a warrant. State District Judge Lee Gabriel honored a state request dismissing the felony charge of possessing less than a gram of cocaine. Irvin was indicted in June, about 10 months after he and a woman were arrested at a Dallas apartment where law officers said they found marijuana and ecstasy pills. He has denied that the drugs were his. No charges were filed involving marijuana and ecstasy pills. [continues 365 words]
TULIA - A black man who said he was unfairly targeted in a 1999 drug bust because of his skin color has settled with local authorities for $30,000. Billy Wafer settled with Swisher County officials for $5,000 in cash and $25,000 in attorneys' fees. Wafer was among 43 people, 37 of them black, who were arrested during an undercover drug bust in Tulia. Tulia, a town of about 5,000 about 40 miles south of Amarillo, is home to about 250 blacks. [continues 250 words]
FORT WORTH - It was Sept. 12, and the country was reeling from the terrorist attacks as Mohammed Jaweed Azmath and Ayub Ali Khan sat on a train rolling toward Fort Worth. As the train approached, local police and federal officers assembled at the downtown Amtrak station, preparing to question the men as to why they had purchased one-way train tickets at the last minute, with cash, in St. Louis. The officers said in a report that they were looking for drug dealers, not for terrorists tied to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and outside Washington. [continues 1348 words]
Although U.S. borders remain at the highest security level since the Sept. 11 attacks, illegal drugs are still seeping through in close-to-normal quantities, federal officials say. In the days immediately after the attacks, drug seizures dropped off dramatically along the U.S.-Mexico border, said Roger Maier, a U.S. Customs spokesman in El Paso. Intensive searches probably scared smugglers off. But the drug-runners didn't hold back for long, and seizures are now back up to pre-attack levels. [continues 604 words]
How many times in the past month have Americans been told that their nation is engaged in a conflict unlike any they have ever seen? That is the justification spurring Congress to rapidly adopt new anti-terrorism statutes to expand law enforcement authority. In truth, this "war on terrorism" is not unlike the nation's "war on drugs." The enemy is well-financed yet shadowy and elusive. The strategy for bringing him down? Go after financial assets while passing new laws to make it easier to cripple his operations and catch his operatives. [continues 421 words]
A judge ruled Friday that a warrant permitting a drug raid at the North Richland Hills home of true crime writer Barbara Davis in 1999 was valid. Davis's son, Troy Davis, 25, was killed by police during the raid. Her attorneys had filed a motion to suppress the search and arrest warrant from being used as evidence in her drug possession trial. Senior state District Judge C.C. "Kit" Cooke ruled against the motion. No date has been scheduled for Barbara Davis's trial. The warrant, issued by state District Judge Sharen Wilson in December 1999, states that police suspected the two of growing "a substantial amount of marijuana." [continues 253 words]
WASHINGTON - Afghanistan's dramatic drop in opium production will probably be reversed as a result of the war on terrorism, U.S. and U.N. officials said. U.N. officials said the Taliban government in Afghanistan has told farmers they can once again produce opium, the raw material for heroin, if the United States launches an attack on the country, reversing its position last year when the group's leader said drug cultivation was "un-Islamic." Afghanistan had been the world's leading producer of opium before the Taliban, citing Islamic religious principles, banned it in July 2000, resulting in a 97 percent drop in production. [continues 53 words]
Few Texas hospitals are complying with a 1999 state law requiring them to report overdoses of illegal drugs, because no money was allocated for enforcement, health officials said. Even when hospitals make reports, the information sits unused in computers because no one has been hired to analyze it, health officials said. State Sen. Florence Shapiro who sponsored the legislation, said she is "shocked" to learn that the law is ineffective. The legislation, which took effect in September 1999, requires hospitals to report overdoses of nearly all illegal drugs within 24 hours. Shapiro pushed for the legislation after authorities said that they were surprised by increased use of heroin in North Texas and that they often did not recognize drug problems until someone died or was arrested. [continues 543 words]
MIAMI - In the city's worst police scandal since the days of "Miami Vice," 13 current and former officers were accused by federal prosecutors Friday of planting guns, lying to investigators and otherwise trying to cover up four shootings in which three people died. In one of the shootings, a SWAT team fired 123 bullets into an apartment during a 1996 drug raid and then lied about finding a gun in the hand of the dead 73-year-old man inside, the FBI said. [continues 654 words]
BOGOTA - President Andres Pastrana, one of Washington's closest allies in the global war on drugs, called Thursday for a review of that struggle, saying it has produced few victories. "The conclusions are not good," Pastrana said in a rare talk with foreign journalists ahead of next week's visit by Secretary of State Colin Powell. "The conclusions are that drugs are still the first-or second-biggest business of mankind." In the wide-ranging discussion in the presidential palace, Pastrana said he still hopes for a negotiated end to Colombia's civil war. He also said the United States should re-establish intelligence-sharing with Colombia's air force about suspected drug flights, and urged President Bush to help organize an international narcotics conference. [end]
