I want to applaud Ben Fulton for his well-put and very insightful honest words ["Mangled Sentence," Note From the Editor, Jan. 26, City Weekly]. The justice system really has it totally backwards when it comes to drug sentencing. My husband is serving a 24-year sentence for drug conspiracy--there was never any evidence, nothing found while he was under surveillance for over a year, nothing except the word of others who were caught doing things and got years cut off their sentences in exchange for implicating him. [continues 92 words]
The bizarrely long prison sentence given to Weldon Angelos ["Mangled Sentence," Note From the Editor, Jan. 26, City Weekly] might make some sense if there were the slightest evidence that the federal war on marijuana was having its intended effect. There isn't. Despite a record 771,605 marijuana arrests in 2004--roughly equal to arresting every man, woman and child in the state of Wyoming, plus every man, woman and child in Salt Lake City and Provo combined--the latest U.S. Justice Department "Drug Threat Assessment" reports no evidence of decreased marijuana availability anywhere in the country. But doesn't prohibition keep marijuana away from kids? Well, no. According to the 2005 Monitoring the Future survey, released in December and funded by the U.S. government, 85.6 percent of high school seniors report that marijuana is "easy to get." Despite many millions of marijuana arrests, that figure is virtually unchanged from the first "Monitoring the Future" survey in 1975. It has been said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If so, marijuana prohibition is a prime example. It's time to junk our failed experiment with prohibition and replace it with a common-sense system of regulation and control. Bruce Mirken, Marijuana Policy Project, San Francisco, Calif. [end]
Tribes Would Need Federal Recognition SALT LAKE CITY - A proposal before the Utah Legislature would limit the use of peyote to federally recognized Indian tribes during traditional religious ceremonies. Peyote is illegal for general use, but federal law allows for limited use in American Indian religious ceremonies. The Utah bill is intended to prevent people from escaping prosecution by claiming Indian heritage and religious use of peyote without being able to prove it. The bill follows state and federal court cases against Linda and James Mooney, founders of the Oklevueha EarthWalks Native American Church of Utah. In 2000, the couple were charged with drug distribution for providing peyote to members of their church and its visitors. [continues 132 words]
How should Utah respond to the growing use of methamphetamine? ("Methamphetamines: Insidious drug requires a different approach," Our View, Jan. 11). During the crack epidemic of the '80s, New York City chose the zero tolerance approach, opting to arrest and prosecute as many offenders as possible. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was smoking crack, and America's capital had the highest per-capita murder rate in the country. Yet crack use declined in both cities simultaneously. Simply put, the younger generation saw firsthand what crack was doing to their older brothers and sisters and decided for themselves that it was bad news. This is not to say nothing can be done about methamphetamine. Access to drug treatment is critical for the current generation of meth users. Diverting resources away from prisons and into cost-effective treatment would save both tax dollars and lives. The following U.S. Department of Justice research brief confirms my claims regarding the spontaneous decline of crack cocaine: http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1 /nij/187490.txt Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
I heartily agree with Robert Sharpe's Jan. 20 letter calling for treatment and not prison for drug addicts. The contradiction with this philosophy is that only a percentage of addicts are sent to prison. They do get there eventually when they 1) break your car window and hijack your stereo for money to buy methamphetamine, 2) rob a retail store to sustain their habit, 3) invade your home for the same reason, 4) steal identities to make money for drugs, or 5) commit assaults and violent acts when obtaining or distributing drugs. The drug addict does not exist in a vacuum. A mixture of treatment and punishment seems to be in order. Mike Buchanan Salt Lake City [end]
The First Step When facing up to substance abuse, the first step is not only to admit that you have a problem, but that your old ways of dealing with it won't work any better tomorrow than they did yesterday. Gov. Jon Huntsman's announced approach to the problem of methamphetamine abuse in Utah admits that the state has a problem with this harshly addictive chemical. More importantly, it admits that the traditional approach to drug abuse - jail - doesn't work. [continues 335 words]
Focused On Treatment: Governor Announces The Startup Of The 34-Person 'Equal-Partner' Think Tank Citing methamphetamine's costs to society, from bulging prisons to children abandoned to foster care by drug-addicted parents, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. on Monday announced the creation of a task force charged with putting an end to the "scourge." Members of the 34-person task force met for the first time Monday, but don't plan to meet again until after the 2006 legislative session, which ends in March. The committee has set no deadline for issuing recommendations. Huntsman's anti-meth initiative is one of several launched over the years. [continues 461 words]
Last year was the year of the very public, very deadly drug overdose. Somehow, the trend didn't turn up on anyone's top news story list of 2005. But everyone seemed to talk, wring their hands and cry about it. Perhaps it's because of the 67 people in Utah who died of accidental drug overdoses in the first nine months of 2005, 16 of them were younger than 20. They were high school and college students. One worked in a carwash. [continues 581 words]
Friends Who Don't Report Victims Of Drugs May Face Penalties A Salt Lake lawmaker, responding to a rash of drug overdose deaths this year where panicked friends didn't call 911 and watched the victims die, plans to introduce legislation that would make it a crime to not help someone they know is in trouble. Rep. Carol Spackman Moss, D-Salt Lake City, will sponsor the bill that would make it a class B misdemeanor to not render aid. "Law enforcement feels like their hands are just tied. Parents are like, 'Isn't there any consequence for these kids that abandon their friends?' " she said. "If you're going to do drugs with your friends, and somebody gets into a bad situation, you can't just abandon them or you're going to be liable." [continues 745 words]
Utah Teens Less Involved But Are Not Uninvolved Typically in the past year, one of every four Utah high school students was offered illegal drugs at school. One of every nine was in a physical fight there. And one of every 13 was threatened with a weapon at school. And typically in just the past 30 days, one of every 18 carried a weapon to school. One of every 26 used alcohol at school. And one of every 27 used marijuana at school. That widespread use of drugs, alcohol and violence in Utah high schools is reported in a new study by the National Center for Educational Statistics, based on surveys of students in grades nine through 12 in Utah and across the nation in 2003. The good news for Utah is that such problems are below the national average in every category. [continues 764 words]
Two weeks ago I wrote about the challenges Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson faces in the last half of his second term due mostly to his passion for causes that often are controversial in Utah and his confrontational style that has earned him enemies on the City Council, in the Legislature, the surrounding counties and his own Democratic Party. The following Wednesday, Anderson was the guest host of Doug Wright's program on KSL Radio. Wright was in Washington, D.C., at the time discussing with Republican operatives the possibility of running against Congressman Jim Matheson next year. [continues 704 words]
The intense rush from a methamphetamine high can last up to 12 hours, but when users fall from the high, stomach cramps, anxiety, convulsions and insomnia are there to catch them. In reality, there must be something to using methamphetamines or people wouldn't do it. Most addicts don't fit the mental picture of a runaway teenager sitting in an alley, said Luciano Colonna, The Harm Reduction Program executive director on Monday to 50 Weber State University students. The drug is so inexpensive and easy to create, it has become the drug of choice for blue-collar workers, soccer moms and homosexuals, Colonna said. In the year 2000, 3,448 addicts preferred methamphetamines -- a total that reached 5,486 in 2004. [continues 490 words]
Utah Students' Alcohol Consumption Also Up Incidents of school violence across the country are down by about half from a decade ago, but have held steady since 2000, and Utah mirrors the trends. However, student alcohol consumption and on-campus marijuana use have been rising in the state since 2000, according to a government report released Sunday. The study, conducted by the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education, looked at 2003 data from across the nation to assess violence and drug use in schools. [continues 745 words]
Treatment Is Key: Some Doctors Say That Postnatal Neglect Is The Bigger Issue During the mid-1980s, so-called crack babies became an icon of the havoc wreaked by cocaine and a catalyst for new laws targeting pregnant women. Hospitals began testing pregnant women for the drug and states started jailing addicted mothers and taking custody of their children. The media warned of the creation of an underclass of exposed infants born with devastating birth defects and permanent brain damage. Twenty years of medical research have shown the prenatal effects of cocaine to be far less severe than the "crack baby" legend suggests. But the myth has resurfaced with the spread of methamphetamine and led to new labels: "meth babies" and "ice babies." [continues 1099 words]
Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson has received an award from a national group that promotes alternatives to the "war on drugs." The Drug Policy Alliance gave Anderson the Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Drug Policy Reform - which is given to individuals who "most epitomize loyal opposition to drug war extremism," according to the Drug Policy's Web site. The site noted Anderson's decision to pull funding for D.A.R.E., and the city's training of police in harm reduction and the city's efforts to educate sex workers about how to protect themselves. More recently, the mayor created a campaign urging drug users to call 911 when their friends overdose. [continues 113 words]
Weldon Angelos' supporters say he is a casualty in the war on drugs, an offender who deserves time behind bars but not a virtual life sentence for carrying a firearm while dealing pot in Utah. Prosecutors, though, insist the former music producer's mandatory 55-year term is appropriate. They paint Angelos as major dealer who hooked up with a violent street gang, carried a gun while conducting his illicit business and made his living peddling large quantities of drugs. "Addressing the epidemic social problem of armed drug distribution with increased punishment and deterrence is consistent with contemporary standards of decency," U.S. Attorney for Utah Paul Warner and assistant U.S. attorney Robert Lund write in a court brief. [continues 726 words]
A pregnant drug user locked up in the Salt Lake County jail since Sept. 22 on a special arrangement between the sheriff and a judge was checked into a residential drug treatment program Monday with her newborn girl. Tammaria Gehring gave birth Sunday night and was released from the hospital the next day to the Volunteers of America Utah. Gehring's family is hopeful she will shake her addiction, but they worry she'll walk away from the detoxification center and disappear with her child. [continues 454 words]
Salt Lake County: The Lockup Wanted To Turn Away A Suspect To Avoid Any Legal Risk; A Judge Just Wants What's Best For Baby Tammaria Gehring is more than eight months pregnant. Until Sept. 22, when she was locked up in the Salt Lake County Jail, the 30-year-old mother of two was living in a motel room and using methamphetamine. Were it not for a judge who personally lobbied Salt Lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard to book her - against Kennard's strict policy not to book pregnant women - Gehring would still be out, possibly doing drugs, despite a felony drug charge and violations of her pre-sentencing release. [continues 896 words]
After taking her first full-time job at an alternative high school, CarolAnn Duncan has taken an active interest in drugs. Her students provided her with marijuana, their bongs and joints. "I think my students taught me more than I taught them," Duncan said. "They said, 'CarolAnn is too stupid and naive, we need to teach her.'" After working in education for 25 years and seeing what drugs can do to the students she worked with, CarolAnn is perfectly suited for her new job as House of Hope director. [continues 805 words]
Strike Force Agent Works To Reach Teenagers Before It's Too Late OGDEN -- Nearly three years ago, a local teen clung to life. Randy Lythgoe, an agent with the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force, had been called to investigate the comatose teen's situation. "When I walked into his room, I didn't have my badge on. I walked through a crowd of teenagers standing vigil in the hallway," Lythgoe said. "After a few minutes, the young man's father and I walked out of the room and back through the crowd of teenagers. At that point, I had my badge exposed. Half of those kids got up and left as soon as they figured out who I was." [continues 495 words]
Question 31 on the Free Application for Federal Students Aid, could be a life changing one -- and no one knows why. The question asks whether a student has been convicted of the possession or sale of drugs, because as part of Title IV of the Higher Education Act, convictions for the sale or possession of drug make you ineligible to receive educational federal aid. However, few people seem to be aware of it. The Daily Universe contacted 91 high school students in Utah County and asked them what they knew about the Higher Education Act. Two of the students knew what it was. Of the rest, 82 percent said they knew nothing about it and the remainder either mistook it for Bush's No Child Left Behind Act or didn't answer. [continues 511 words]
Title IV of the Higher Education Act is up for reform this year, a law that has reportedly affected more than 160,000 students across the nation. Sec. 483 of Title IV of the Higher Education Act states "a student who has been convicted of any offense under any Federal or State law involving the possession or sale of a controlled substance shall not be eligible to receive any grant, loan or work assistance under this title ..." Periods of ineligibility vary, depending on the number of offenses. In general, a student convicted of one offense is ineligible for a year, two offenses marks ineligible for two years and three offenses brings indefinite ineligibility. [continues 394 words]
The American Civil Liberties Union announced Monday that it would join in the lawsuit filed against the Utah County Sheriff by a Salt Lake City-based rave promoter whose party was busted on Aug. 20. The ACLU's Margaret Plane said the sheriff's decision to raid the event with 90 officers, automatic weapons, dogs and a helicopter raises concerns about the First Amendment rights of those in attendance. Law enforcement has singled out the often clandestine, DJ-driven dance parties as events with the singular intent of distributing and using illegal narcotics. Plane said that view is a generalization that is not fair to those who attend the shows with no intent of breaking the law. [continues 270 words]
Why Did Utah Police This Summer Storm A Harmless And Legal Rave With Guns And Dogs, Terrorizing Partygoers? You Don't See Them Busting Down The Gates At Nascar Races Or Concerts By Crosby, Stills And Nash. Close to midnight on a Saturday evening late this summer, a police helicopter crested over a ridge in a desert canyon near Salt Lake City, descended into a low hover over a private ranch, and lit up the area with floodlights. Below, about 1,000 young people were dancing to electronic music at a legal, long-planned rave. They had no idea the police in the sky were armed to teeth and had them surrounded. [continues 2568 words]
To the editor: I'm writing about: "Drug task force celebrates accomplishments on T-shirt" (9-07-05). Drug task forces are just government bureaucracies. And like all government bureaucracies -- guaranteed to expand. Why? Because heads of the bureaucracies get paid in direct proportion to how many employees work under them, not according to how well they perform their mission. Throwing more and more money at our drug problem is not the answer. We have been doing this for more than 35 years. The net results are that illegal drugs are just as available today as they were in 1969. The only thing that changes is the name of the evil drug du jour. [continues 165 words]
Looking for a way to pat themselves on the back, members of the Cache-Rich Drug Task Force decided the easiest way would be to wear their accomplishments on their back. Logan City Police Officer Jeff Simmons recently was promoted to sergeant in the department's patrol division, and with the change in duties, left behind his job as a task force agent. As sort of a going-away present, the task force created a T-shirt that lists 100 search warrants the group served from April 2004 to August 2005. [continues 185 words]
Kicking The Addiction: The High Number Of Narcotics Cases Points To The Need For Special Drug Courts Drug-related crimes top the list of those most often prosecuted in Utah. They accounted for the largest group of felony charges filed in fiscal 2005 - - as well as the top two misdemeanor filing categories. Not far behind: forgery, theft and protective order violations. Members of the Utah Judicial Council, which sets policy for the state courts, heard the statistics as part of a recent budget planning session. [continues 357 words]
CEDAR CITY - Forest Service officials are turning to the grass roots - hikers, hunters, passers-by - to help root out, well, grass. You know, the illegal kind. Pot. Dope. Weed. Yes, marijuana increasingly is springing up in remote areas throughout the West, including Utah, and federal officers are seeking public help in eliminating the illegal plants from public land. "A large grow was reported by a citizen last year on the Pine Valley Ranger District [of the Dixie National Forest] just north of St. George," says Special Agent Charlie Vaughn, criminal investigator for the Dixie, Fishlake and Manti-La Sal national forests in southern and central Utah. [continues 351 words]
OGDEN -- Some 75 recovering alcoholics and substance abusers took over the bowery at Lorin Farr Park Saturday evening for the 4th annual Ogden Drug Court Alumni Picnic. About 200 family members and friends joined the gathering with the alumni group, one of the stronger components of the 2nd District Court alternative program for drug abusers. When the first alumni group of drug court graduates gathered about 41/2 years ago to form the alumni committee, their number was about five. Typically it takes a year to get through the intensive therapies and testing of drug court to reach alumni status. [continues 375 words]
Convicted marijuana users in Cache County are seeing little time, if any, in jail, and rarely go to prison unless their use of marijuana leads them to harder drugs. However, local statistics conflict with a report released today by the Washington, D.C.-based Justice Policy Institute, which says the United States today is spending 300 times more on drug control than it did 35 years ago and, partially as a result, there are more people serving time in the U.S. for marijuana-related charges than the total inmate population of eight European Union countries. [continues 355 words]
Unless people were there Saturday night, participating in the "rave" party in Spanish Fork canyon, it would be hard for them to draw conclusions as to whether police used excessive force when they busted things up, as party organizers are alleging. But there can be no question as to whether the health of party goers was endangered by illegal drugs that were circulating, and there can be little question that the event's organizers were sloppy and ill-organized. Communities worldwide are dealing with the rave phenomenon, which has been en vogue for several years now. Organizers of this event apparently had a permit from the health department and had medical personnel on-hand, but they had not obtained a necessary permit from the Utah County Commission, which is what led police to be suspicious. Police who raided the party found the usual lineup of illegal drugs, ranging from Ecstasy and cocaine to alcohol. [continues 314 words]
State Seeks 'Do Not Resuscitate' Order; Preemie's Mom Was Shot To Death A girl born minutes after her mother was shot to death has tested positive for three types of narcotics, is suffering from brain injuries and is on life support, according to state lawyers. The lawyers, speaking in a child-welfare hearing Tuesday, asked for a "do not resuscitate" order for the girl, whom medical staff reportedly call "Janie." Third District Judge Elizabeth Lindsley said she would have to review Janie's medical status before ruling on the state's request and asked the lawyers for a formal written motion. [continues 584 words]
Firsthand accounts conflict so starkly that one might wonder whether law enforcement busted two separate events last weekend in Spanish Fork Canyon. Yet the Diamond Fork-area location is among few details confirmed by both the roughly 300 partygoers and about 90 law enforcement personnel who dispelled them at 11:30 p.m. Saturday. Uprock Records of Salt Lake City promoted the event as an "album-release party" on fliers and Internet sites like www.utrave.org. In addition to live performances by DJ Craze of Miami and Spor from the United Kingdom, the party featured typical highlights like a laser light show, barbecue, oxygen bar and glow sticks. [continues 703 words]
Utah County: Sheriff Defends The Actions, Denies Wrongdoing Partygoers at a rave in Spanish Fork Canyon that was busted by police Saturday night say officers used brutal and excessive force to clear the crowd. As many as 90 police officers from several agencies, including SWAT members and major crimes investigators, stormed the DJ-driven dance party around 11:30 p.m. dressed in full SWAT gear and holding automatic weapons. A helicopter announced the police presence as it crested a nearby hill and began shining a spotlight on the outdoor dance area, said 19-year-old Scott Benton of Logan. [continues 670 words]
Party's Over: 90 Officers From Several Agencies Cite 60 At The Event, Which Had More Than 400 People In Attendance About 60 people were arrested Saturday night when police officers busted an illegal rave in Spanish Fork Canyon. Those arrested were cited on a variety of charges including the possession of illegal narcotics, weapons violations, DUI, illegal consumption of alcohol by a minor, disorderly conduct, assaulting a police officer and drug distribution. The youngest of those cited was 15 years old, said Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Dan Gilbert. [continues 460 words]
'Soft On Drugs' Charge Is Absurd Nobody wants their daughter taking meth. Nobody wants their son shooting heroin. Not because those behaviors are illegal - though they are and almost certainly always will be - but because that junk kills people. But no parent protects her children by denying that drug abuse exists. Even the most bellicose of the drug warriors will tell you that. And when the anti-drug crusaders condemn such reasonable and realistic efforts as the Harm Reduction Project as somehow being soft on drugs, then it is the drug warriors who are in deep and harmful denial. Harm Reduction advocates know better than anyone that drugs kill people. In many cases it is their own children who have died, or who have come much closer to death than any parent wants to imagine. [continues 282 words]
Meth, Sex Are Often A Dangerous Mixture At the height of his methamphetamine-induced psychosis, Josh Pace found himself wandering through a Salt Lake City cemetery following signs to a funeral. He was sure the funeral he was looking for was his own. The psychosis, along with paranoia, compulsion and restlessness, are all classic repercussions of a long-term, high-dose methamphetamine addiction - effects that new reports show are including HIV infection at an alarming rate. Pace was infected with HIV through unprotected sex with a man while high on crystal meth in June 2002. [continues 864 words]
It's encouraging to see the Bush administration acknowledge that methamphetamine use is a problem. Until Thursday the federal government has largely ignored the ravages of this deadly, fiercely addictive and swiftly spreading scourge. Still, the soft jab outlined by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, drug czar John Walters and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is mostly window-dressing. Instead of cracking down on meth producers, smugglers and users, the White House is offering a toothless proposal to spend $1 million for anti-meth ads and $16.2 million over three years for treatment grants and to establish an educational Web site. Nothing for law enforcement, whose federal funds have been cut by hundreds of millions of dollars a year. [continues 278 words]
Speaking Out: The Bush Administration's Handling Of The Methamphetamine Problem Is Criticized Common Ground: Police And Social Workers Agree More Money Is Needed To Fight The Drug Problem It was an odd scene Friday at the downtown Salt Lake City Hilton: Folks who provide free sterilized needles to drug users schmoozing with law enforcement officers. Often perceived to be on different sides of the prevention fence, social workers and cops came together to explore new strategies for combating America's methamphetamine problem. [continues 548 words]
The war on drugs has been an "absolute unmitigated failure - a disaster in this country." Strong words spoken by Salt Lake City's Mayor Rocky Anderson during a panel discussion Friday night at the Harm Reduction Conference. In the two hours following Anderson's opening remarks, civic and community leaders from around the country echoed his sentiments, calling for greater outreach, education and prevention for drug abuse. "We want to prevent, when we can, the abuse of all substances and for those who choose to use, reduce the harm," Anderson said. The second part of his quote, the notion which, in some form, accepts drug use and looks to minimize its risks, is what the Harm Reduction Conference is all about. [continues 237 words]
Motel Shooting: The Killing Most Likely Was Drug-Related, Police Say; Doctors Save The Child With A Caesarean Section Trouble had long followed Darla Marie Woundedhead and her children. She lost custody of three of her kids, at least two of whom were born with drugs in their system. Woundedhead, 30, who was due to give birth again in two months, was killed Thursday when someone fired a shotgun through a Salt Lake City motel room doorway. Struck in the upper abdomen and chest, Woundedhead died a short time later at LDS Hospital. Doctors performed an emergency Caesarean section operation to remove the child, a girl, who remained in critical condition late Thursday at the hospital. [continues 724 words]
When It Comes To Drug Testing, City Garbage-Truck Drivers Are Held To A Higher Standard Than Cops How would you feel about forcing cops to piss in a cup? Secure in knowing the flatfoot frisking you in the park won't be tempted to filch your dubage? Anxious in the realization that officers tasked to serve and protect are drawn from your own booze-and-drug-scourged ranks? With both considerations in mind, Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse wants his boys and girls in blue subjected to random drug and alcohol testing. [continues 959 words]
Saving Lives: Activists Condemn Drugs, But Hope Addicts And Friends Can Bring Down Fatality Rates It has been 10 years since Jack Plumb's son overdosed on heroin. But the pain is still searing, bringing tears to Plumb's eyes as he explains how Andrew's "so-called friends" left him to die. They didn't phone for help, but had the presence of mind to scoop up their drugs and personal belongings before fleeing. The scene was so devoid of clues that police first treated Andrew's death as a homicide, said Plumb. [continues 770 words]
Need medicine with pseudoephedrine? It may take longer if bill limits access. Top of Utah residents who want to treat a case of the sniffles may soon find themselves part of the war against methamphetamine. A bill that will be considered in Congress following summer recess would require that cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, a precursor drug to meth, be sold only from behind pharmacy counters. Mixing and cooking pseudoephedrine with other chemicals creates meth, which authorities say is the leading cause of drug-related arrests in Weber and Morgan counties. [continues 714 words]
"Harm Reduction": Rep. Souder Says HHS Will Use This Weekend's Conference in SLC to Promote a Light-Handed Fight Against Drugs SLC Conference: An Indiana Lawmaker Says the Government Is Too Light-Handed, Pointing at the Upcoming Utah Gathering As an Example The Bush administration is expected later this week to unveil its plan to contain America's methamphetamine epidemic, amid criticism that the president has largely ignored it and favors drug abuse prevention over a legal crackdown. One target: a national meth conference being held Friday and Saturday in Salt Lake City, which lists U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a sponsor. [continues 585 words]
DAVIS COUNTY - Increasing abuse of the prescription drug OxyContin has led to the arrest of a few medical doctors and pharmacists in Davis County and a robbery Friday at Bountiful's Walgreens. An apparent "run" on OxyContin, leading to illegal activities, began in May, Salt Lake City physician Dr. Alexander Theodore was arrested for allegedly running an OxyContin drug ring. Police charged that he had prescribed nearly 74,000 tablets over the previous 12-16 months. Similar busts have been made in Davis County over the past four months. [continues 551 words]
A two-day conference later this month in Salt Lake City is expected to draw about 900 healthcare workers, law enforcement officials and researchers to explore the growing epidemic of methamphetamine use and its impact on HIV and hepatitis. Planning for the First National Conference on Methamphetamine, HIV & Hepatitis, set for Aug. 19-20, began as a way to respond to a belief that increased meth use will lead to higher HIV and hepatitis rates, according to Luciano Colonna, executive director of the Harm Reduction Project, which is playing host to the conference. [continues 551 words]
Dinse Hired In 2000, Has Overseen Several High-Profile Cases In what he described as a "very difficult decision," Salt Lake City Police Chief Rick Dinse announced Wednesday he planned to retire by early next year. "I've been toying with the idea for a while," Dinse said. "I've got 40 years in the business. I think it's time to try something different. Retirement is something I've been looking forward to." Dinse said he informed Mayor Rocky Anderson of his decision last week. He said he wanted to give the mayor ample time to find his replacement and not leave the city with a long-term interim chief. [continues 1001 words]
Utah Expert Says: "We Know What Needs To Be Done. We Need To Put More Money In Treatment" When a crime trend hits the major newsweeklies, it's a sign it has either gone mainstream or run its course. Methamphetamine's march through rural and urban America was dubbed a "new drug crisis" last week in a Newsweek magazine cover story, featuring graphic images of emaciated meth users and the scarred bodies of meth-lab burn victims. The article, which took aim at the Bush administration for largely ignoring the problem, has sparked outrage from columnists and bloggers debunking the so-called "epidemic." [continues 490 words]
In recent months, the obituary page and police news columns of the Deseret Morning News have documented tragic tales of teens and drug abuse. Since March 11, five teens or young adults are believed to have died of suspected drug overdoses. At least two of the dead were honor students. The deaths, some of which remain under investigation, point to a troubling trend. Heroin is making a comeback in Utah. This comes while police already struggle to deal with the scourge of methamphetamine and rampant prescription drug abuse. [continues 348 words]
Inside Utah
