Where does the Herald-Journal get these columnists, such as Kathleen Parker (Jan. 22 edition), who advocated legalizing marijuana? She describes forming this opinion through maturity and experience. She rightly says that alcohol or any drugs are bad for children. Then why are drugs OK for adults? The truth is that they are harmful to adults as well. One of the arguments made against the drug war is that it is ruining young lives by giving them criminal records. Our law enforcement officers are not giving our young people criminal records. They are doing this to themselves. [continues 98 words]
I believe marijuana should be legalized. Legalizing pot and taxing it would generate millions in extra revenue to help provide health insurance for the poor and help maintain Social Security. Pot is no more harmful than alcohol. If it's legal for bars, stores and restaurants to sell alcohol to rake in money, legalizing pot seems logical. Marijuana users should have the same freedom as the millions of alcohol users. A person should be able to make his or her own choice. [continues 126 words]
Lawmakers Urged to Make Ingredients Prescription Only Drug control experts and prosecutors are calling for federal lawmakers to require prescriptions for medications containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine to help stop the "meth epidemic." The number of methamphetamine cases are up nationwide -- specifically in South Carolina -- despite federal purchasing restrictions on cold medicines containing ephedrine and psuedoephedrine, which also are used to make meth. Prior to 1976, medications containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine were available only by prescription. The Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005 limits an individual's ability to buy more than 3.6 grams of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine daily and nine grams per month. The law also requires retailers to keep records on who buys those products, and police have access to those records. [continues 1176 words]
Drug Enforcement Administration staffers must be asking themselves, "Where is Barbara Billingsley when you need her?" Billingsley is most famous for playing the mother in "Leave it to Beaver," but the DEA doesn't need her to make boys toe the line. The agency needs her because of the talent she so famously showcased in the movie "Airplane" when she said: "Oh, stewardess, I speak jive." Apparently, DEA agents don't speak jive themselves, but some of the folks they are conducting surveillance on do. That's why, according to a story by The Associated Press, the DEA is looking to hire nine "ebonics" translators to help interpret wiretapped conversations between suspected drug dealers. [continues 572 words]
Spartanburg County Clerk of Court Faces Drug Charges Kitchens Accused of Conspiring With Area Businessman to Sell Drugs Held As Evidence GREENVILLE -- Federal investigators arrested Spartanburg County Clerk of Court Marc Kitchens and an area real estate developer early Tuesday after agents say Kitchens received $3,000 for a summer drug deal -- and investigators believe the drugs in question came from the evidence locker in Kitchens' office. Kitchens is accused of conspiring with Woodruff businessman Terry Glenn Lanford to take cocaine and methamphetamine from the locker and sell it to a drug dealer in the Orlando, Fla., area between April 2009 and January 2010. [continues 915 words]
College fraternity and sorority members are sometimes stereotyped as lively students known for their keg parties, and a new study suggests that this may be partly true. Greeks on college campuses are in some instances twice as likely to drink while underage and use illegal drugs as non-Greek students. That's according to a report conducted by the State Epidemiological Outreach Workgroup (SEOW), which was released recently by Spartanburg Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission. SEOW examined information on alcohol, drug, tobacco and other data to examine substance abuse in South Carolina. Each of the 46 counties received an individual report which includes data on teen pregnancy, crime, truancy, and substance abuse. [continues 958 words]
Demands to do something about prisons are piling up on lawmakers South Carolina's prison director has told lawmakers the state needs two new prisons just to hold the number of inmates it already has. The chief justice of the state Supreme Court has called on lawmakers to keep violent offenders in prison longer and devise alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders. And the attorney general has suggested a similar plan - no parole for violent criminals and non-prison punishments for others. [continues 359 words]
Lt. Ashley Harris is back in other people's labs. A chemist for the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office, Harris has helped investigate 11 methamphetamine labs in the county this year, up from only one in 2006 and four in 2005. New laws limiting the availability of key ingredients and creating stiffer penalties for meth production led to a lull in activity throughout the state and nation since 2004, when Spartanburg County saw 17 labs. Why business is again booming isn't clear. [continues 1099 words]
Prison should be reserved for those who pose a To relieve prison overcrowding, save state taxpayers money and preserve families, South Carolina should limit the use of its prisons to housing truly dangerous or habitual criminals. The state's corrections facilities are crowded with drug offenders and other nonviolent criminals. This needlessly destroys families and wastes the resources of the state. Attorney General Henry McMaster says he has a plan to address the problem. While much of the public attention to his proposal has focused on his plan to abolish parole, his design includes alternatives to prison for many offenses. [continues 350 words]
A man who police say injected a friend with a deadly dose of heroin and left her body in a Spartanburg motel room for at least three days has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. Spartanburg Public Safety officers say Michael Hughey Parker, 36, continued to shoot heroin and was in and out of room 229 at the Villager Inn in the days after Kimberly Lee McFalls, 40, of Pauline died of an overdose. Police found McFalls' body on Nov. 13, 2006, lying on the floor of the East Main Street motel and covered in a blanket. [continues 194 words]
Spartanburg County Detention Facility Director Larry Powers Says He Wishes the Movie "Field of Dreams" Had Never Been Made. For him, the phrase, "If you build it, they will come," just hit a bit too close to home, since he figured at the time it had more to do with jails than baseball fields. "When they built this jail, they all came," Powers said with a sardonic grin. The county's current facility on California Avenue was constructed in 1994 to remedy chronic overcrowding. Yet within a month, every bed had been filled, and within four years the county was back to square one with the jail population again exceeding space. Today, there is an average of 800 inmates at any given time with room for only 586 at the main facility and its two small annexes. [continues 601 words]
When Bryson Fowler was 8 years old, he encouraged his 19-year-old cousin to stop smoking cigarettes and cigars, because it was damaging the teen's health. "My cousin almost died because he was coughing, and he collapsed," said Fowler, now 10. "When you take drugs, you lose all your energy." Fowler, a fifth-grader at Jesse Bobo Elementary, learned the importance of saying no to drugs at a young age through his school's participation in Red Ribbon Week. [continues 390 words]
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that "no sound scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana, contradicting a 1999 review by a panel of highly regarded scientists. The announcement inserts the health agency into yet another fierce political fight. Susan Bro, an agency spokeswoman, said Thursday's statement resulted from a past combined review by federal drug enforcement, regulatory and research agencies that concluded "smoked marijuana has no currently accepted or proven medical use in the United States and is not an approved medical treatment." [continues 920 words]
It started at a party. It ended in a suicide attempt. She'd smoked marijuana before, but not methamphetamine. When she saw the older kids doing it at the party, she decided to try it. She was 12. Now she's 13 and in rehab for meth addiction. Experts say meth -- a highly addictive and euphoric drug that was once associated with rural communities and rundown hotels -- is starting to show up in the littlest addicts. For teenagers who are now entering the criminal justice system and drug counseling programs, the appeal of meth is simple -- it's easy to buy and cheap to manufacture. Another impact isn't as alluring -- it kills. [continues 1045 words]
The controversy over criminals being released on bond in Spartanburg County highlights the need to do something about overcrowding in the county jail. Officials and judges disagree about the extent to which overcrowding at the jail is a factor in decisions about setting bond for violent criminals. It's obviously a factor to the extent that if more defendants are kept locked up, the county will need more space. But others acknowledge that judges consider conditions at the jail when determining bond amounts. Law enforcement officials are unhappy with the number of criminals being released on bond only to commit new crimes. They should push the County Council to act on a plan to address overcrowding. [continues 235 words]
The chance to fight an addiction to narcotic painkillers using a medication prescribed in medical offices generates frequent waiting lists at Regional Psychiatry. It is the only clinic in Spartanburg with doctors authorized to prescribe buprenorphine-containing medication to treat opiate addiction. Patients undergoing treatment with medicines called Suboxone or Subutex may only need to meet with their doctor once or twice a week, whereas other treatment such as programs at methadone clinics typically require daily visits. Thirty-five physicians are authorized to prescribe buprenorphine in South Carolina. Two are in Spartanburg at Regional Psychiatry -- Dr. Rupert McCormac and Dr. Amishi Y. Shah. [continues 449 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision Monday that will limit the ability of states to make their own decisions and create their own laws. The court ruled on a case regarding medicinal use of marijuana, but the case was not about marijuana. It was about whether the federal government or the people of the states have the right to make state laws. Ten states have decided to allow medicinal use of marijuana under a doctor's prescription. Federal officials object to those laws and want them to be superceded by a federal ban on the drug. [continues 318 words]
FLORENCE -- A decade ago, South Carolina and local law enforcement agencies did not spend time or resources on methamphetamine. That has changed in a hurry. There were just 10 meth labs uncovered in the Palmetto State in 2001, according to statistics from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Those numbers have grown rapidly -- 36 found in 2002, 65 in 2003 and 154 last year. "There's no telling how many of them are out there that we don't know about," Florence Police Department Sgt. John Calhoun said. On Friday, Circle Park Behavioral Health Services and the Florence County Coalition for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention will hold a conference at Francis Marion University about the highly addictive drug called "Meth: What's Cooking in Your Neighborhood?" [continues 358 words]
The 7th Circuit Solicitor's Office on Tuesday introduced a uniform plan for treating drug-addicted mothers -- and for prosecuting them if they don't complete treatment. Hospitals, police agencies and social service providers in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties have agreed to the procedures, which prosecutors are calling "Tough Love." The plan was developed after Solicitor Trey Gowdy discovered, after a Gaffney mother was charged last year with child neglect, that agencies had no consistent policy on the treatment of drug-addicted mothers and newborns. [continues 558 words]
A touch of a cold drove Roebuck resident Ruthie Nash to a Wal-Mart shelf about a month ago to pick up some medicine. But a new company policy -- and maybe legislation -- could mean that next time she will have to ask a pharmacist to hand her the nonprescription cold medication instead. "I would buy it, but it would take more time," Nash said. This week, Wal-Mart joined Target and a growing list of companies planning to move common cold medicines such as Sudafed and Sinutab behind the counter. [continues 806 words]
CHARLESTON -- Ten years after it was created, a little-known law requiring marijuana dealers to pay taxes on pot sales has had little impact, officials say. State officials say it appears not a single dealer has purchased the required stamps. Instead, the stamps have created a market and a demand among collectors. Of the 433 pot stamps sold by the state since 1994, the overwhelming majority were bought as novelties, according to the South Carolina Department of Revenue. The stamps are required for every gram of illegal drugs sold by a dealer in the state. They are similar to the stamps affixed to other vices taxed by the state, such as liquor and cigarettes. [continues 101 words]
Seven UPS workers, including two men accused of selling prescription narcotics that were being shipped to a Spartanburg wholesaler, have been fired. Dan McMackin, UPS spokesman in Atlanta, said Monday an investigation was continuing but would not say whether additional arrests or firings were expected. "So far, it's been shipments of only Lortabs that have been affected," he said. "And that's all of the firings as of today." McMackin would not give details of the other five employees' involvement or the arrest last week of James Kendrick Blackwood, 26, and Jonathan Tyler Kirby, 27. [continues 373 words]
Solicitor Trey Gowdy Wants Drug-Dependent Women To Have Easier Access To Birth Control Methods. Gowdy formed a committee of medical professionals, attorneys, Department of Social Service case workers, ministers, and alcohol and drug abuse experts to develop guidelines for hospitals and law enforcement officers to follow after a woman tests positive for drugs. The committee has considered pre- and post-birth procedures for pregnant women who test positive for drugs. During their meetings, the solicitor suggested that state agencies streamline the process for a drug-dependent woman to get birth control. [continues 488 words]
GAFFNEY -- Circuit Court Judge Mark Hayes has refused to reduce a prison sentence for a woman whose newborn tested positive for drugs. Public Defender Don Thompson asked Hayes earlier this month to reduce the four-year prison sentence he ordered for Pamela Cruz-Reyes in December. Cruz-Reyes, 22, pleaded guilty to unlawful child neglect after her she tested positive for cocaine and marijuana and her newborn tested positive for cocaine. When she was arrested, her newborn was placed in the care of the Department of Social Services. Cruz-Reyes has two other children, ages 2 and 6, who are in the care of relatives. [continues 208 words]
After almost two weeks of speculation, the Spartanburg County Coroner's Office released an autopsy report Wednesday for a man killed by undercover sheriff's officers. Spartanburg County Coroner Jim Burnett said Aaron Clark Gray, 24, was wounded five times from three gunshots from officers following a drug buy two weeks ago. Burnett said the Coroner's Office couldn't determine the total number of shots fired, but only the number of times they believe Gray was hit. Burnett said Gray's death is being ruled a homicide and the fatal shot was to the forehead. Gray also suffered a grazing wound to the chin, in and out wounds to the upper chest and a wound to the cheek possibly from a bullet splitting, Burnett said. [continues 409 words]
A Friday autopsy showed a 24-year-old man died by a gunshot wound to the head when two undercover sheriff's deputies opened fire on him. Limited information was released in the Thursday night death of Aaron Clark Gray of 145 Raintree Drive as the investigation continued, said Chief Investigator Brad Wall with the Spartanburg County Coroner's Office. Gray died in Spartanburg Regional Medical Center at 9:18 p.m. Thursday. Maj. Dan Johnson with the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said the deputies reported Gray tried to run over them with the car he drove after a drug buy was completed and they attempted to arrest him. [continues 397 words]
GAFFNEY - A circuit judge is considering a defense attorney's motion to reduce the prison sentence for a woman whose newborn tested positive for cocaine. Defense attorney Don Thompson said his client, 22-year-old Pamela Cruz-Reyes, should have the opportunity to reconcile with her child, who was born in November and tested positive for cocaine. Judge Mark Hayes sentenced Cruz-Reyes in December to four years in prison followed by five years probation. She would be eligible for parole in April 2007. [continues 396 words]
Undercover officers shot to death a young man who tried to run them over after a staged drug deal, the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said late Thursday. The State Law Enforcement Division was called to investigate shortly after the 7 p.m. shooting, said Maj. Dan Johnson with the Sheriff's Office. Investigator Wendy Alley with the Coroner's Office identified the deceased as Aaron Clark Gray, 24, of 145 Raintree Drive in Spartanburg. Johnson would not release the names of the two officers involved. [continues 98 words]
A Union police officer faces charges of swapping crack for sex and other illegal conduct over the past seven years following a State Law Enforcement Division investigation. SLED agents arrested 35-year-old Rodney Curt Johnson Thursday morning. "A lot of the people were shocked that this happened -- disbelief," said Union Public Safety Chief Sam White. "We talked about it, everybody that was working today." Johnson, a full-time officer since 2000, was released from Union County Jail Thursday night on a $20,000 bond. [continues 278 words]
The owner of a Spartanburg methadone clinic has received approval from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control to open a similar clinic in Gaffney. The certificate of need is in the mandatory 10-day stay that allows anyone wishing to protest to voice concerns to DHEC. Barring any protest, the facility will receive final approval Jan. 11, said Jerry Grice of DHEC. It will be between two and three months after Brady receives approval before his clinic opens. Gaffney Treatment Associates will be located in the adjacent suite to Dr. David Lydon's office at 103 Stuard St. [continues 343 words]
State social service officials should work with 7th Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy to push drug-using mothers into the treatment they need. Gowdy has complained that his office is not notified when women give birth, and they and their babies test positive for illegal drugs. It is likely that the Solicitor's Office hasn't been notified out of a conviction among health care and social workers that such mothers need treatment rather than prosecution. That conviction is correct. But Gowdy's plan represents the best way to get those mothers into and through treatment. [continues 281 words]
Solicitor Trey Gowdy plans to prosecute mothers whose newborns test positive for drugs unless they have successfully completed a drug treatment program. Gowdy sent a letter on Dec. 2 to area hospitals asking for their reporting procedures on pregnant women and newborns who test positive for a controlled substance. According to Ray Trail, director of the Spartanburg County Department of Social Services office, his agency has a drug review board that meets monthly to look at such cases. In most cases, Trail said, the mother is placed in a treatment program. [continues 429 words]
The people of California and nine other states have decided that they want their citizens to be able to use marijuana when a doctor prescribes it as medically necessary. The federal government disagrees. So now the question is before the Supreme Court: Who gets to decide? Do the people of these states have the right to make their own laws? Or should these laws be dictated to them by Washington? The court should side with the states. The issue is not whether marijuana is medically necessary or whether the social benefits outweigh the ills of allowing medicinal use of the drug. The issue is whether the federal government has the power to dictate these matters and to overrule the decisions of the people of these states. [continues 271 words]
The case of a Gaffney woman facing felony child neglect charges after she and her newborn had cocaine in their bloodstream has ignited debate on whether addicted mothers should be prosecuted. Pamela Jane Cruz-Reyes of Gaffney was charged with unlawful child neglect on Nov. 27 after she and her newborn tested positive for cocaine. A magistrate Monday ordered her to have no contact with her child. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster contends the law is clear: Taking cocaine is illegal and such conduct won't be tolerated. [continues 678 words]
After reading the article in the Upstate on Oct. 16 about the race for sheriff, I see Chuck Wright as a candidate with a logical solution to the drug problem. On the other hand, there's candidate Jack Owens, whom I might have randomly voted for, being a loyal Democrat. Owens is for stiffer penalties for drug offenders to resolve our drug problems. It's hard to believe some still think adding more time to offenders' sentences will fix the problem. South Carolina not only has stiff drug penalties already in place, it has strict mandatory minimum sentences. Oftentimes, small-time drug dealers must serve 85 percent of their sentences because these tough laws classify many of them as violent offenders. [continues 172 words]
In the new term the U.S. Supreme Court started this week, it will decide whether the federal government can thwart and override state laws regarding the medicinal use of marijuana. The case isn't really about drug use. It's about who has authority over state laws. The court should uphold and protect the ability of states to form their own laws and limit the ability of the federal government to impose its will on the states. The case the court will hear involves Angel McClary Raich, a California woman who suffers from a brain tumor. Ms. Raich's doctor advised her to smoke marijuana to relieve the pain from her condition. California law makes such use of the drug legal. So the woman started growing marijuana for her own use. [continues 256 words]
FLORENCE -- Prosecutors say a 31-year-old Lake City woman has been charged with homicide by child abuse after tests showed her stillborn infant had cocaine in its system. Prosecutor Ed Clements III provided The (Florence) Morning News with few details about the arrest of Brenda Elmore Black. It is not clear when Black's baby was stillborn, how far along the fetus was or where Black gave birth. Clements did not immediately return a phone call from The Associated Press. [continues 131 words]
Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy has added his voice to those of the American Bar Association and the people in calling for alternatives to long prison terms. A commission of the Bar Association has issued a report urging that judges be given more discretion in handing down sentences and in urging that alternatives to incarceration be used for nonviolent crimes. Kennedy announced last week that he agrees with the proposal. He noted that the nation's use of long prison terms means that "our resources are misspent, our punishments too severe, our sentences too long." [continues 263 words]
COLUMBIA -- A statewide drug sales monitoring system will curb diversion of prescription medicine to drug dealers and abusers, advocates say. They want a state database to collect information on prescription drug sales ranging from morphine to cough medicine with codeine as part of an effort to catch people shopping their ailments to multiple doctors just to get powerful drugs. The state has no way of knowing the extent of the problem, though. "Without a program like this, we don't really know what's going on," said Wilbur Harling, with the state Bureau of Drug Control at the Department of Health and Environmental Control. [continues 521 words]
Legislation that would allow nonviolent offenders to serve their sentences outside state prisons is in trouble because of opposition by prosecutors. House Speaker David Wilkins sponsored a bill that would send nonviolent offenders to prison for the start of the sentence and then allow Corrections Department officials to determine whether they should be moved to an alternative sentence such as house arrest and electronic monitoring. It is a good plan that would relieve the crowding in the state's prisons while the Corrections Department is struggling to contend with a series of budget cuts. [continues 287 words]
The General Assembly should support Corrections Department Director Jon Ozmint in his drive to use alternative sentences to reduce the state's prison population. That support will be necessary to keep South Carolina's prisons running safely and efficiently. State lawmakers have worked to get tougher on crime. They have passed longer prison sentences and other rules that keep offenders in prison longer. As a result, the prison population is growing. It grew by 1,100 inmates last year, by 2,500 in the past three years. But the number of guards has not kept pace with the growth in the inmate population. And the state continues to cut the Corrections Department budget. [continues 307 words]
The recent so-called drug raid at Stratford High School in Goose Creek is just another example of how out of control our police forces are becoming. All too often their tactics consist of using fear and intimidation when dealing with the general public -- a far cry from the Officer Friendly I remember from my childhood. Our society has allowed our police forces to be dressed, trained, equipped and armed like soldiers fighting a war, and I'm afraid that the American people have become their enemy. Unless we begin to question the way police are trained and the mind-set they adopt afterward, we are going to continue to have problems. [end]
MYRTLE BEACH -- Methamphetamine producers are setting up labs at alarming rates around South Carolina, and the trend shows no sign of slowing. Police found more than 130 meth labs statewide in fiscal year 2003 -- October to September -- compared with eight in 2001, state Drug Enforcement Administration officials said. "There has been a dramatic increase in meth labs in South Carolina," said Freddie Bradshaw, resident agent in charge at the DEA office in Florence. Most are found in the Upstate. The fewest are in the coastal regions from Charleston to the Grand Strand, police officials said. [continues 554 words]
GOOSE CREEK -- This small community just a few miles north of Charleston is split on whether police went too far last week when they conducted a high school drug sweep with their weapons drawn. More than 100 Stratford High School students were crouched in a hallway, some were restrained with plastic handcuffs, while 14 officers and a drug dog searched for drugs. None were found and no drug arrests were made. Some parents are angry over the treatment of their children -- captured on surveillance video and seen repeatedly on national television news programs. Others, including some students and the school principal, say the sweep was a necessary evil to combat a growing drug problem at the school. [continues 858 words]
GOOSE CREEK -- A principal under scrutiny since police drew guns during a drug raid at Stratford High School received support from more than 100 teachers and staffers who staged an after-school rally. Teachers and staffers silently held signs backing Principal George McCrackin after school ended Friday. Students leaving the school joined the group, and several drivers honked support. Faculty members would not speak to reporters, but one teacher handed out a statement that read, "We are a group of Stratford staff members showing our support for our principal ... We have chosen to stand here with our signs to visibly show our support and to give the community a way to show theirs." [continues 361 words]
GOOSE CREEK - An effort to stem a growing drug problem at a Lowcountry high school netted no illegal narcotics but did get some complaints. Fourteen officers cordoned off the main hallway of Stratford High School at 6:40 a.m. Wednesday to search for marijuana. No drugs were found. "Several officers did unholster their weapons in a tactical law enforcement approach," said Lt. Dave Aarons of the Goose Creek Police Department. "There was no force whatsoever. Everyone was very compliant," he said. [continues 330 words]
COLUMBIA -- Kenneth Curtis wants the state Supreme Court to decide he had no intent to help people defraud drug tests when he sold kits containing his urine. The high court heard arguments Tuesday in Curtis' appeal of his six-month sentence and conviction for selling his urine. Prosecutors say Curtis knew the law and broke it when he sold urine and a kit containing a heat pack, tape and tubing so it appears a user is giving his own sample during a drug test. [continues 294 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld free speech rights and the principles of federalism by refusing to let the government punish doctors for recommending medicinal marijuana use. Regardless of federal policy on marijuana, there is evidence that the drug has medicinal benefits, and many doctors believe it can help their patients, particularly those suffering the side effects of cancer treatments. Political thought in Washington should not be allowed to hamper the medical advice given by a doctor in California. Unless the treatment is medically unacceptable, physicians should be able to give their patients their best advice, even if it conflicts with the government line. [continues 254 words]
The federal government should not force employers to rehire workers who have violated their trust and broken their rules. But that's just what the Supreme Court is being asked to do. A suit heard by the court this week seeks to use the Americans With Disabilities Act to force companies to rehire employees who were fired for drinking or using drugs on the job. Joel Hernandez lost his job with a missile manufacturer in 1991. He had showed up for work smelling of alcohol, and a drug test showed he had been using cocaine. [continues 303 words]
