AMHERST - With more than two dozen University of Massachusetts students accompanying him, Terry Franklin brought concerns to the Select Board about the number of marijuana arrests in town. Franklin, of 1040 N. Pleasant St., questioned why town money was being spent to arrest residents for marijuana violations when the town passed a marijuana resolution that he helped bring to voters. Franklin is one of the organizers of the annual "Extravaganja," a festival that features, food, music, speeches about legalizing marijuana use. [continues 243 words]
WESTFIELD - It was not retaliation, but an experiment to show restrictions of body movement when under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Students at the South Middle School were given the opportunity last week to tape up some teachers with red ribbon, a symbol of a national drug awareness program in memory of the 1985 murder of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration undercover agent in Mexico. Jeffrey W. Collier was one teacher who volunteered for the demonstration, and said he did so because, "I thought it would generate excitement and enthusiasm among students." He was right. [continues 286 words]
Putting good stuff in her body and keeping bad stuff out is a concept that Abigail Ruiz, fifth-grader at Woodbury Elementary School, now has a firm grasp on thanks to lessons she has been learning through Red Ribbon Week. Ruiz and every other student in the Marshalltown school district are taking part in the week designed to keep students off drugs and alcohol. "Smoking cigars and drinking alcohol are all really bad for you," Ruiz said. "We learned that we need to keep our bodies healthy by putting good stuff in our body." [continues 375 words]
The Davis-Bacon Act was enacted in the 1930s specifically to give whites preference over blacks in obtaining high-paid, unionized construction jobs. Outrageously, the law remains in effect. Minimum Wage Laws make it especially difficult for black men in central cities to obtain jobs. Economist Milton Friedman calls minimum wages "the most racist laws on the books." Welfare: Until the mid-1990s, welfare laws provided living wages to mothers. But the mothers were required not to work and not to marry an employed man. Therefore, millions of children have grown up without fathers in an environment of dependency. [continues 427 words]
The federal government says it won't approve the use of marijuana as a prescription medicine because it hasn't seen any scientific evidence to prove that it has any health benefits. So what happened when Lyle Craker, a plant and soil sciences professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, applied to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for a permit to grow high-grade marijuana for scientific research in 2001? The DEA lost his application. And then it said he had not filled out the forms correctly. And then it sent two DEA agents to the Amherst campus to discourage the university. [continues 255 words]
GRANITE CITY -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich signed several new laws Friday that give law enforcement more tools to protect Illinois families and farmers. The comprehensive legislative package creates new criminal offenses to help law enforcement crack down on people who assist in the dangerous methamphetamine-manufacturing process, gives meth-addicted inmates access to treatment and help before they are released back into their communities, and provides local law enforcement agencies with more support in closing down and cleaning up illegal meth labs. [continues 681 words]
SPRINGFIELD - A proposal to put a needle exchange program here will get one more fine-tuning Wednesday before the City Council votes on the controversial measure July 18. The council Planning and Economic Development Committee will discuss needle exchange at 4:45 p.m. at City Hall in City Council Chambers. In a needle exchange program, intravenous drug users get one clean needle for each used, or dirty, needle they submit. Supporters say such an exchange can get infected needles off the streets and prevent the spread of such blood-borne diseases as AIDS and hepatitis C among users prone to sharing needles. [continues 396 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - Both college towns, Boston and Boulder, Colo., share another distinction: They lead the nation in marijuana use. Northwestern Iowa and southern Texas have the lowest use. For the first time, the government looked at the use of drugs, cigarettes, alcohol and various other substances, legal as well as illegal, by region rather than by state for a report yesterday. Regions could be as specific as Riverside, Calif., or as broad as all of the state of New York (minus New York City). Federal officials say the information will help states decide where they should spend money for treatment and prevention programs. [continues 370 words]
WASHINGTON - Exasperated by pessimism about the "war on drugs," John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says: Washington is awash with lobbyists hired by businesses worried that government may, intentionally or inadvertently, make them unprofitable. So why assume that the illicit drug trade is the one business that government, try as it might, cannot seriously injure? Here is why: When Pat Moynihan was an adviser to President Nixon, he persuaded the French government to break the "French connection" by which heroin came to America. [continues 682 words]
Like the old parable about the frog not noticing as it slowly boils in a pot of water, Americans are losing more and more of their rights everyday to an overweening federal government, yet we hardly seem to care. Last week's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on California's medical marijuana law is the latest example. The court has been backing the right of Congress to intervene in our lives for so long now that it's hardly news anymore. States' rights, while abused to defend the institution of slavery, once were thought to be the individual's best defense against the feds. But that doctrine has long since been rendered ineffective, and it was worthless in the marijuana case. So as the federal government grows in size and reach, the question arises: Is there any aspect of our lives left that Congress cannot regulate? Monday's ruling suggests that the answer is probably not. [continues 721 words]
The Supreme Court ruling yesterday to outlaw use of medical marijuana came just weeks before a local plant scientist is expected to appear in court, accusing the federal government of obstructing his research on the topic. Lyle E. Craker, a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, said yesterday's high court decision "certainly does not help our case." "On behalf of society, I am disappointed," said Craker, who is a professor of plant and soil sciences. "People who are ill and can benefit from use of marijuana are going to be denied a medicine that could help them in their suffering." [continues 207 words]
In the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, Congress classified marijuana as a dangerous and illegal drug that has no benefits. In 1996, voters in California passed a medical marijuana law allowing people to grow, smoke or obtain marijuana with a doctor's recommendation to ease pain. For a federal government that has been waging a decades-long war on drugs without success, it is difficult to admit that there might be some benefit in marijuana use. As a result, the Bush administration turned the war on drugs into a war on sick people. [continues 294 words]
Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey this week unveiled a drug treatment and prevention plan that would allow high schools to test students for drugs at a parent's request and create "sobriety high schools" in Boston and Springfield. The proposals are part of a $9.1 million anti-drug package that must be approved by the Legislature. Under the proposal, each community would have to set up protocol to determine how often to offer drug testing, whether to keep the results confidential between the school and child or involve parents and when to refer a student to counseling, Healey said yesterday in a phone interview. The voluntary drug-testing program would be implemented at a high school with approval from the superintendent or mayor and with parental support. Parents and schools would work together to determine if a student who tested positive needs counseling or an increase in parental involvement or both, according to Laura Nicoll, deputy press secretary for Gov. W. Mitt Romney's office. Students who test positive for drug use would not be prosecuted, Healey said. "Drug testing should never be used in a punitive manner," Healey said. "The idea to offer drug testing in schools is to create a drug-free environment where children can learn and feel safe." [continues 444 words]
Eight days before he left office in January 2001, President Clinton issued an order protecting nearly 60 million acres of national forests from road construction. At the time, the national forests contained 386,000 miles of roads, eight times the length of the interstate highway system and enough to encircle the earth 15 times. Most of the roads were built for timber access and extraction. The Clinton order sent a message to Americans not heard since Theodore Roosevelt created the national forests a century ago: Our forests are more valuable as pristine woodlands than as planks of lumber. [continues 292 words]
Imagine a Springfield man has just learned he has a life-threatening disease and he needs some medical advice. Should he ask his doctor about treatment, or should he ask the Springfield City Council? Later this month, the City Council is expected to vote on a revised proposal to establish a needle-exchange program in the city. The city's public-health experts and members of its large medical community agree that Springfield should approve the program to prevent the spread of HIV, AIDS, hepatitis C and other blood-borne disease. So far, a majority of City Council members has blocked the program. Some say it is wrong to spend taxpayer money to promote the use of illegal drugs. Others say it will attract drug addicts and criminals to the city. None gave a medical opinion. [continues 260 words]
A recent trip to Des Moines for some Woodbury Elementary students was designed to encourage them to live drug-free lives, as well as providing the students a chance to see Iowa government in action. Woodbury fifth-graders taught by Mrs. Alman and Mrs. Stevens were able to take a bus to the Wallace Building and the Capitol Building courtesy of the Marshall County Sheriff's Office Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. "There was no Marshalltown bus available, so I used grant money secured for D.A.R.E. [through a drug-free community program] to pay for a bus to take us," said Marshall County Deputy/D.A.R.E. Officer Steve Sodders. [continues 177 words]
A team of local police and state troopers rousted about 38 alleged small-time drug dealers in Greenfield, Montague, Leverett, Colrain and Bernardston yesterday starting at about 6 a.m., District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel announced at a press conference. A half-dozen suspects were already in jail on other charges. Another dozen or so suspects are due to be rounded up in the near future, officials said, in the climax of the five-month Operation Slow Burn. In all, 60 arrests are expected, with maximum sentences running 10 years for distribution of heroin and one-year minimum sentences for distributing near a school zone. [continues 316 words]
AMHERST - When University of Massachusetts Police Officer Gerald R. Perkins brought his dog Max up to a car with a nervous-looking student inside, Perkins knew something was up. "I could kind of tell near the doors he was going to get something," Perkins said. Moments later, Max, a four-year-old mixed breed dog who lives to play, did his characteristic signal that there were drugs inside at the rear of the vehicle. Soon after, the young man admitted that his girlfriend had stuffed a bag of marijuana down her pants at his request when they were pulled over. "The fact that he could smell that at the rear of the vehicle, that impresses me. Not finding bales of marijuana that anyone can smell," Perkins said. Max, who unlike many police dogs is friendly and likes to be patted, is the UMass Police Department's first canine helper. Perkins has been working with him since last summer. [continues 293 words]
NORTHAMPTON - On a day when he came to praise Northampton for its commitment to needle exchange, the director of the state's HIV/AIDS Bureau stopped short of appealing to Springfield to follow suit. "Every community needs to be able to wrestle with this on their own terms," said Kevin Cranston, who was in Northampton to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the needle exchange program operated here by Tapestry Health. Noting that Western Massachusetts has been a hot spot in the spread of HIV, Cranston added, "We welcome any community willing to take on proven HIV interventions." [continues 400 words]
MARION -- A recent Supreme Court ruling will help local law enforcement agencies take a bigger "bite out of crime." The court ruled in a case originating in Illinois that drug-sniffing dogs could be used in routine traffic stops. "This ruling confirms the ability of our officers to use the dogs in a routine stop," Williamson County Sheriff Tom Cundiff said. Cundiff said that Williamson County has always had an aggressive anti-drug policy, but this will help officers in their attempt to curtail the drug problem. [continues 310 words]
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Can states allow residents to use marijuana for medical reasons when the federal government says no? That is the question being currently debated by the justices on the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of Ashcroft v. Raich. Angel Raich has tumors in her brain and uterus, and suffers from seizures, spasms and nausea. Her doctor prescribed 35 drugs before he found one that worked -- marijuana. Raich is joined in her lawsuit by Diane Monson, who first decided to file suit after federal agents raided her home in August 2002 to destroy the marijuana she uses for chronic back pain and spasms. [continues 527 words]
SPRINGFIELD - The qualifications are sketchy and the work risky, but making the FBI's informant payroll can be lucrative, according to testimony yesterday in U.S. District Court. Carlos Ortiz, code name "Sky," was paid $135,000 in fees and reimbursements over two years by the FBI in exchange for cultivating ties with alleged local gang members and videotaping drug buys, according to his FBI handler, Robert C. Lewis. Ortiz, who told agents he has worked as a live sex performer, a pimp and a heroin trafficker for Colombians, is scheduled to testify Monday against defendant Lee A. Henry, 37, of Springfield. The information about Ortiz' arrangement emerged during cross-examination, providing a rare look into the government's handling of paid informants. [continues 455 words]
Thumbs UP, Thumbs Down The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency won't let Lyle E. Craker grow marijuana in his University of Massachusetts laboratory for a federally approved research project because it is against the law to smoke marijuana. Huh? This is a smokescreen by one federal agency to obstruct legitimate scientific research that will help determine the risks and benefits of marijuana as a prescription medicine. Craker, as director of the Medicinal Plant Program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is qualified to conduct the research, which has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. [continues 59 words]
AMHERST - Lyle E. Craker's plans to grow marijuana in his University of Massachusetts laboratory to be used for medicinal studies have been put on indefinite hold by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Craker filed an application with DEA in June 2001 to establish a facility on the Amherst campus to produce marijuana for U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved research. Last July, he and two other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit demanding that the DEA respond to his request. On Friday, he got his answer in a six-page "order to show cause" from the DEA denying his request. [continues 389 words]
The Supreme Court will hear arguments today in a case that will determine whether patients in 11 states may use marijuana for medical purposes, in violation of a federal ban on marijuana. Opponents say it contributes to crime, sets a bad example for young Americans, leads to the use of other drugs and results in drug addiction. For a nation that has been waging an unsuccessful war against drugs for decades, it is not easy to admit that something good might come of marijuana use. Opponents also fear such laws will lead to the decriminalization and eventual legalization of marijuana. That's another debate for another time. Under the supervision of a physician, with adequate controls to prevent its abuse or improper use, marijuana is a proven, effective treatment for some seriously ill patients. [continues 224 words]
A public forum at Wabash Valley College concerning the problem of meth use was correctly titled "Right Here, Right Now." The large audience at Brubeck Arts Center auditorium learned in the three-hour Methamphetamine Panel Forum last Thursday night that this drug is an increasing problem here. The forum was sponsored by the Wabash County Health Department in concert with AOK, Wabash County Drug Recovery Network and the Hope Pregnancy Center. A current report from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, titled "Trends in Measures of Methamphetamine Activities in Illinois' Second Judicial Circuit" shows a 74 percent and 150 percent increase in methamphetamine submission cases in Wabash and Edwards counties, respectively, from 1994 to 2003. [continues 829 words]
BELCHERTOWN - Belchertown police have uprooted and destroyed marijuana plants with an estimated street value of $32,000 to $35,000 over the last two months. Flying in Army National Guard helicopters, Belchertown Detective Kevin G. Truehart and Officer James C. Daniels spotted from the skies about 25 marijuana plants in eight outdoor locales. Most of the plants were found near swamps and far from homes. While some of the pot plants officials saw from the sky were nearly dead or had already been harvested, many had been fertilized and were thriving. [continues 167 words]
BOSTON - There's more on the line Nov. 2 than who goes to Beacon Hill or Washington. On election day in Western Massachusetts, some voters will consider ballot questions that could change the legal, social and economic landscapes of their communities. There are no statewide referendums on the ballot in Massachusetts, but several communities and districts feature ballot questions. Consider some referendums: Voters in many communities will also decide nonbinding referendums on issues such as decriminalization of marijuana, workplace bullying, the Patriot Act and redistricting of congressional and state legislative seats. [continues 77 words]
Franklin Elementary School students tried out their bowling skills at Totem Bowl Thursday. The event coincided with Red Ribbon Week, which advocates drug prevention. "This activity shows another way to have fun without drugs or alcohol," said Anne Paullus, principal of Franklin Elementary School. Students wore red to school on Wednesday and will have an assembly that focuses on responsible behavior as part of the event-filled week. "Many haven't had the experience of bowling," Paullus said. " We have a lot of parents here willing to help out and bowl." [continues 167 words]
MARION - The official theme for Red Ribbon Week 2004 is "Drug Free: I have the power!", but students, teachers and administrators around the Marion Unit 2 school district are providing their own messages about the dangers of drug use. On Wednesday students at Lincoln Elementary "Socked it to Drugs" by wearing crazy mismatched socks, the kids at Washington Elementary were "Too Bright to Do Drugs" wearing the brightest colors they could and students at the junior high were decked out in red. [continues 278 words]
OHIO -- The purpose of Red Ribbon Week should last a whole lot longer than one week, according to Scott Horsch, principal at Ohio Grade School. On Monday morning, about 110 elementary students grabbed helium-filled, red balloons and congregated on the school's playground to kick-off Red Ribbon Week. The students launched the red balloons into the morning's blue sky. As the students waited for the balloon launch countdown, Horsch said Red Ribbon Week activities are designed to encourage students to lead healthy lifestyles and to make good choices. The decision to stay away from illegal drugs is something students need to take with them year 'round, the principal said. [continues 159 words]
CHICAGO - Mayor Richard Daley, a former prosecutor, runs the nation's third-largest city with a pragmatic, law-and-order style. He wears his hair short, and you'll never catch him in a Grateful Dead T-shirt. So when he starts complaining about the colossal waste of time and money involved in prosecuting small-time marijuana cases, people take notice. "This is absolutely a big deal," said Andy Ko, director of the Drug Policy Reform Project for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state. "You've got a mayor in a major American city ... coming out in favor of a smart and fair and just drug policy." [continues 656 words]
SPRINGFIELD - City police are seeking warrants against the president of Arise for Social Justice after a search at the group's Rifle Street office yielded 380 unused hypodermic syringes, 62 hypodermic syringe preparation kits and a medical container of used needles. Capt. William Cochrane of the police Narcotics Bureau said it appeared Arise had "set up its own unlicensed needle exchange program." Arise, a private, nonprofit group, has been a proponent of needle exchange programs as a way to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS by drug addicts who share needles. Springfield has not opted to accept a needle exchange program as Northampton and Hartford have. [continues 627 words]
According to the Executive Office of the President Office of National Drug Control Policy, teen drug used has dropped by 11 percent over the past two years. The report finds that parents play an important role in keeping kids off drugs. On the local scene, there are many programs that are designed to educate Marshalltown students. One program, D.A.R.E., Drug Abuse Resistance Education, is taught to 5th and 6th graders in Marshalltown's elementary and middle schools. According to D.A.R.E.'s web site, the program's primary mission is to provide children with the information and skills they need to live drug-and-violence-free lives. [continues 434 words]
HOLYOKE - Police and school officials will eliminate a federal drug education program this year and instead increase the number of resource officers patrolling schools. Officials said they want to make better use of their money during a time when schools and the Police Department are scraping for funds. Two years ago the Police Department funded two school resource officers and two officers who taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education, better known as DARE. School officials additionally spent $200,000 to hire five more officers daily and paid them overtime to patrol the schools. [continues 391 words]
AGAWAM - When city fifth-graders come to school this fall, a new drug-education awareness curriculum will be taught to students in the classroom. And according city officials and law enforcement personnel, the city-funded education program goes beyond simply teaching the hazards of drug use. The program teaches students how to make smart decisions throughout their lives. "If it (the program) saves one student, it's worth it," Mayor Richard A. Cohen said yesterday. The new fifth-grade curriculum is part of the long-established, sometimes-controversial nationwide Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. Created in 1984, the anti-drug awareness program known as DARE has been taught in schools throughout the country. [continues 276 words]
Lyle E. Craker, director of the Medicinal Plant Program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is authorized by the federal government to conduct medical marijuana research, but it won't let him grow the drug. How dopey is that? Craker is a plaintiff in one of two lawsuits filed Wednesday accusing the government of violating federal law by obstructing medical marijuana research. The Amherst campus is one of the nation's most distinguished research universities, and Craker is immensely qualified to grow marijuana for legitimate medical and research studies. [continues 73 words]
Amherst - All Lyle E. Craker wants to do is grow marijuana in his lab at the University of Massachusetts to supply other scientists with the plant so studies about its medicinal benefits can take place. But after filing an application with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in June 2001 to establish a facility on the Amherst campus to produce marijuana for U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved research, he hasn't received a yes or no. To get an answer, Craker has teamed with two other parties as plaintiffs in one of two lawsuits scheduled to be filed today that accuses the federal government with obstructing medical marijuana research. [continues 306 words]
For a nation that has been waging a decades-long war against drugs without success, it is difficult to admit that someone might benefit by smoking marijuana. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week to decide whether seriously ill people who smoke pot under a doctor's care are subject to a federal ban on marijuana. Attorney General John Ashcroft strongly opposes the California law that permits medical use of marijuana, saying it "seriously undermines Congress' comprehensive scheme for the regulation of dangerous drugs." [continues 288 words]
PRINCETON -- The Princeton Elementary School Board will not start an after-school program at this time. At Monday night's board meeting, the PES Board agreed to follow a recommendation by Superintendent James Whitmore to take no action on implementing an after-school program in the district. The board had considered starting the after-school program next fall. At the May 3 PES Board meeting, Sherry Hockings, representing the University of Illinois Extension office, presented preliminary findings of a survey taken of PES parents on their interest in starting an after-school program. According to Hockings, 190 parents answered the survey, and 87 of those parents expressing a need for an after-school program. Hockings estimated the after-school program could be handled for $4-$5 per student per day. [continues 368 words]
WILBRAHAM - Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs are effective if they are given repeatedly throughout a child's education, DARE officer Dennis LaPlante tells parents. They are ineffective if they are taught only in one grade, according to LaPlante. Wilbraham has a strong DARE program, backed by the regional school district, the town's selectmen and police chief, and students here receive DARE education in grades three, five, seven and again in high school. In addition, LaPlante runs five-week programs for adults. [continues 202 words]
The Bush administration's efforts to ban the medical use of marijuana may have just gone up in smoke. The Supreme Court last week let stand a ruling that bars the federal government from punishing doctors who recommend it to their patients. This should clear the path for Congress to reclassify marijuana, allowing for its use when prescribed by a doctor. Doctors should decide whether pot is good or bad for a patient, not the Bush administration's lead man in the war against drugs, who wouldn't know an ulcer from heartburn. [continues 287 words]
GREENFIELD - Either Joseph White is an excellent fund-raiser, or he has an excellent cause. White, a 40-something-year-old parent in Greenfield and professional fund-raiser, founded and single handedly runs Change the Climate Inc., which advocates nationwide for the legalization of marijuana. The annual budget for the 3-year-old nonprofit is about $500,000, all from donations, White said. None of the donations pay for salaries, he said. His regular job is as senior executive at the Amherst-based fund-raising firm, Share Group Inc. [continues 619 words]
GREENFIELD - A legalize-marijuana billboard sponsored by a Greenfield-based advocacy group lasted less than a day on Route 9 in Westborough. It was pasted over with the billboard it had replaced - a composite sketch of an at-large serial rapist. The short-lived billboard, paid for by Change the Climate Inc. of Greenfield, showed photographs of three people - a teacher, a firefighter and a state trooper whose photograph was taken without authorization from a recruitment brochure, the state police said yesterday. [continues 262 words]
The Aug. 10 column by Sunday Republican Publisher Larry McDermott, "Community effort needed to stop violence" is the same old broken record that I've heard all my life. He states that "most street crime in urban areas such as Springfield and Holyoke is driven by the sale and use of drugs." He's correct because the law defines the sale and use of any drug on the street as a crime, but it is quite a leap to infer that the sale and use of a drug equates to violence. [continues 358 words]
A letter writer contended that marijuana is safer than aspirin (History shows marijuana still safer than aspirin, Aug. 2). I think you have an obligation to publish a different view. The effects on most users of marijuana is that they experience an increase in heart rate, redness of the eyes and dryness of the mouth and throat. Studies show that the drug temporarily impairs short-term memory, alters the sense of time and reduces the ability to perform tasks requiring concentration, swift reaction, and coordination. (Like driving a car or operating machinery.) Feelings of euphoria, relaxation, altered state of body image, and bouts of exaggerated laughter also are commonly reported. [continues 117 words]
As a physician with more than 20 years of experience in dealing with patients who are addicted to drugs, I am often asked my professional opinion about a contentious public health question: what is the medical basis for smoking marijuana? The answer needs some context. Americans today have the world's safest and most effective system of medical practice, built on a process of scientific research, testing, and oversight that is unequaled. Before the passage of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1907, Americans were exposed to a host of patent medicine "cure-alls," everything from vegetable "folk remedies" to dangerous mixtures with morphine. The major component of most "cures" was alcohol, which probably explained why people reported that they "felt better." [continues 562 words]
Gov. George Pataki the other day came up with a new plan to water down the state's Rockefeller-era drug laws. But, rather than notify Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno of the details, the governor chose to brief rap mogul Russell Simmons and controversial civil-rights activist Al Sharpton, instead. Both Simmons and Sharpton have been active in the movement to reform the strict drug-sentencing laws. And, as influential black leaders, both men are in a position to help Pataki not only politically, but in the fund-raising department, too. [continues 679 words]
It didn't take an independent consultant very long to discover Plattsburgh has a drug problem that needs to be routed. Doyle G. Hyett of Hyett Palma consultants was speaking of a study his firm had just completed on the future of downtown Plattsburgh. Hyett Palma has done similar studies for cities all over the United States, including Syracuse; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; and Shawnee Mission, Kans. Hyett said that the first order of business for Plattsburgh is to rout its drug traffic. Besides conducting interviews with all kinds of people at all times of the day and night downtown, he deduced the presence of a serious drug trade from the fact that he noted three head shops doing business there. [continues 336 words]
ELIZABETHTOWN -- Essex County Public Defender Mark Montayne says he'll have responsibility for representing poor defendants in the new Drug Court. "The Drug Court is going to take someone to respond immediately," Montayne said. "That's not going to work out when you have a public defender who's supposed to handle every felony." Montayne said he may ask for a change in the county's local law creating the Office of the Public Defender so the assistant public defender can handle felonies if he gets called to a Drug Court case. [continues 190 words]
