A little Sudafed, a handful of matches, a dollopof iodine, a dash of lighter fluid ... my sister Candy would soon discover that methamphetamine isn't hard to make, but it will make your life hell The day of my daughter's fourth birthday party, July 14, 2002, started out sticky hot. By 9 a.m., Sophie had skinned her knee running favors from our car to the picnic tables at our swim club. Inflatable beach balls, leis, bags of gummy fish -- the whole tropical gamut -- had spilled out of our cardboard boxes, and my daughter, bathing suit clammy under her shorts, was sobbing. Meanwhile, I was fuming. [continues 4964 words]
Longtime Users Say Fight to Stay Clean Never Ends They've been there, these two men, in the low, desperate place they say an addict inevitably goes. They've lied and thieved for their highs, gotten caught, gotten jailed, struggled to stay clean and repeatedly failed. Tom Canady and James Gaither have, in essence, walked the same walk that a failed drug test indicates Marion Barry is facing once again. No one understands better the pull of cocaine, crack or heroin than a fellow addict. The same holds true of the daunting effort it takes to break away. How hard? How constant? Ask someone who succeeded -- or is still trying. [continues 832 words]
What does the rise of Evo Morales as president of Bolivia mean for the average American? More than you might think. Less than you might be inclined to have nightmares about. Here are the core facts. First, Mr. Morales is committed to legalizing coca growing, implicitly supporting cocaine and coca paste syndicates in rural Bolivia's Chapare regions. If real, such a policy would accelerate coca growth all over the nation, upending longtime gains and U.S. policy. Bolivia's tottering economy would face the sort of self-inflicted wound not seen in decades. It would last years. [continues 500 words]
Late one night in 1996, suspicious that Marion Barry was using drugs again, boxing promoter Rock Newman sat him down and told him that he should resign as D.C. mayor and focus on beating his addiction. Newman said Barry cried in his arms. He remembers Barry telling him: "I love you, man. I know I betrayed your friendship." Barry agreed to leave town for a while and take a second stab at treatment. But he wouldn't give up politics. "He felt if he wasn't the mayor, he wasn't nothing," Newman said. [continues 1767 words]
There was far less "buzz" than usual during the NFL's final regular season Monday night football game between the New York Jets and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, and it had little to do with the Jets' dire season record. Rather, the ennui of the tens of thousands of atypically subdued fans in attendance could best be summed up in three words, prominently displayed on makeshift signs throughout ABC's nationwide telecast: "We want beer!" That's right, beer. [continues 486 words]
Responses Mixed on Barry Drug Test The news that D.C. Council member Marion Barry failed a court-ordered drug test in the fall drew sighs, prayers and a call for him to take a leave from his council seat. But at his old haunts and among his constituents, what was missing yesterday was a sense of surprise. For many, this is the fourth decade of the sometimes rocky, sometimes inspiring marriage between Barry, the former four-term mayor who now represents Ward 8 on the council, and the residents of his adopted city. If there was one feeling, it was an amalgam of sadness, empathy and deja vu. [continues 1181 words]
Drug Check Ordered After Tax Case Plea D.C. Council member Marion Barry tested positive for cocaine use in the fall in a drug test ordered by a court after he pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax charges, according to two sources familiar with Barry's case. Barry, who served four terms as mayor and was elected to the Ward 8 council seat in 2004, has since begun treatment for drug use, the sources said, but Barry's failure to pass the mandatory drug test puts him in legal jeopardy. [continues 1012 words]
By the latest count, more than 250,000 Marylanders are in need of substance-abuse treatment. Even in Montgomery County, considered the state's wealthiest county, the treatment gap is great. Yet despite population growth, state funding for treatment has declined. More than three-quarters of those in Maryland prisons report having an alcohol or drug problem, and four out of 10 entering the state's prisons every year are locked up for drug offenses. Maryland has the third-highest percentage of prison admissions for drug offenses in the country. [continues 388 words]
George F. Will makes an unaccustomed historical error in assuming there were statutes against drug use when the 14th Amendment was passed ["The Abortion Argument We Missed," op-ed, Dec. 1]. In fact, drug laws are a 20th-century invention. In my grandparents' youth, the right to use drugs was commonly accepted: Opium, morphine and other narcotics were available over the counter. Local laws against Chinese opium smoking began to appear in the late 19th century, but these laws were directed at commercial dens, not private use. Not until the 20th century, when laws against possession began to be enacted, did state laws target drug users. [continues 60 words]
Odd? Maybe. Predictable? Probably. Worrisome? Definitely. Word is trickling back from Iraq, through official and unofficial channels, that "opiates" (likely of Afghan origin) may be showing up in dead Iraqi insurgents. Five questions flow from that trickle. (1) Is it true? Is it possible that, consistent with anecdotal reports of heroin and methamphetamines discovered more often (especially in southern Iraqi cities of Basrah and Najaf), insurgents are getting a mind-numbing dose of heroin prior to suicide attacks? There are ways to find out. First, add that question to current and future interrogations. Second, do basic testing where possible on remains. Third, do a drug test shortly after apprehending someone, as we often do after arrests in this country. We might discover something worthwhile. [continues 413 words]
As a police detective in Michigan, I was fully aware of the problems that the Prince George's County police face ["Bullets Keep Flying," editorial, Dec. 7]. I learned that drug laws generated about 75 percent of my caseload and that nonviolent felonies often were not investigated because of lack of time. Switzerland has cut its felony crime in half by having the state regulate and sell heroin to addicts in a government program. What part of drug prohibition is making Prince George's County a safer place to live? Will we ever be as wise as our grandparents and end drug prohibition? Howard J. Wooldridge Frederick The writer is a director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. [end]
PRINCE GEORGE'S County Police Chief Melvin C. High may think he's doing a grand job of fighting crime -- that's what he keeps saying -- but the evidence isn't there. It's grimly official now: The shooting of a man in Riverdale Park on Nov. 21 raised the number of homicides in the county this year to a record 155, topping the 1991 total of 154 killings. As of yesterday evening, the total had risen to 159. As the surge of violence continues, the reassurances of Chief High that his battle plan will deliver better days are neither comforting nor believable. [continues 428 words]
Headquartered in a basement along Pennsylvania Avenue SE, nearly spitting distance from the Capitol, the drop-in center and offices of Metro TeenAIDS (MTA) are very unassuming. The art on the walls is created by clients, using mixed media of personal photos, condoms, glue and motivational messages. The furniture is mismatched, threadbare in spots, yet comfortable. During a rainy, midweek lunch hour, the mood is upbeat. HIV may kill people, but it hasn't managed to kill youthful enthusiasm. Advertisement . Page Continued [continues 1904 words]
When Paul Kawata agreed to serve as executive director of the National Minority AIDS Council (NMAC) in 1989, the organization had a staff of four and operated on an annual budget of about $700,000. Sixteen years later, Kawata oversees a 40-person operation with a budget of $7 million. "This was supposed to be a four-year gig," he says with a laugh. "And I'm still here." Advertisement . Page Continued The reason why Kawata is still at NMAC's helm is clear to anyone who knows him. He's committed -- devoted, really -- to fighting AIDS, particularly in the hard-hit minority communities. But even Kawata, whose every e-mail features the salutation "Yours in the struggle," recognizes there is room for improvement in NMAC's work with the 3,000 community-based AIDS organizations it serves, as it helps them focus on prevention, care and treatment for people of color living with AIDS. "Our mission," says Kawata, "is to develop leadership within communities of color -- predominantly African American, Latino, Native American and Asian -- to address the challenges of HIV/AIDS." He points out that, in addition to serving as a resource, NMAC is also "a kind of trade association," providing a lobbying voice on Capitol Hill for those who might otherwise go unheard. Kawata [continues 3087 words]
WASHINGTON -- Henry J. Friendly, who died in 1986, was perhaps the most distinguished American judge never to serve on the Supreme Court, and he almost spared the nation the poisonous consequences of that court's 1973 truncation of democratic debate about abortion policy. The story of that missed blessing was told recently by Judge A. Raymond Randolph of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, in an address to the Federalist Society. In 1970, Friendly, then on the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, was a member of a three-judge panel that heard the first abortion-rights case ever filed in a federal court, alleging the unconstitutionality of New York's abortion laws. Friendly wrote a preliminary opinion that was never issued because, in that pre-Roe era, democracy was allowed to function: New York's Legislature legalized abortion on demand during the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, causing the three-judge panel to dismiss the case as moot. [continues 617 words]
Does a religious organization have the right to use controlled substances? The question was before the Supreme Court recently. O Centro Spirit Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal (UDV), New Mexico-based church is currently fighting for their First Amendment right to practice their religion freely. In the members' quest for spirtuality, they consume a cup of hoasca tea, which only grows in the Amazon River Basin, in a total of 32 ceremonies a year. The tea contains the illegal substance dimethyltryptamine (DMT). DMT is classified in the United States as a Section I illegal drug under the Controlled Substances Act, and the import of the tea is outlawed under the 1971 United Nations Convention on Psychotropic Substances. [continues 430 words]
It's time to put an end to all the headlines about achievement problems in our schools -- a far easier chore than most people imagine. All we need to do is two things: First, stop calling those establishments simply schools, when they're really hybrid institutions that are raising many of our children, not just educating them. Then ensure that those who deliver family-like services there are devoted exclusively to those tasks, so that the educators can focus fully on academics. [continues 1442 words]
Magbie Experiences Respiratory Distress at [Correctional Treatment Facility] September 24. [District Fire and Emergency Medical Services] paramedics arrived at approximately 9 a.m. During an interview, one stated that they found Magbie 'unconscious, very sweaty, and sitting at a 45-degree angle in his wheelchair.' His diaper was saturated with 'very dark' urine and his catheter drainage bag was filled with 'tea-colored urine.' One of the paramedics stated . . . that it appeared that 'Magbie had not been cleaned for several days.' His pupils were fixed and dilated. Paramedics could not get Magbie to respond verbally to a 'pain stick' or to ammonia. [continues 1189 words]
Bravo to Ryan Grim for clearly laying out the culpability of Congress in the tragic, completely needless death of quadriplegic Jonathan Magbie ("Congressional Malpractice," 11/4). While there is plenty of blame to go around for this legally sanctioned murder (and no, that is not too strong a term), the bottom line is simple: Magbie's use of marijuana to relieve his spasms should not have been a crime. The District's citizens voted overwhelmingly to make medical use of marijuana legal. Had Congress not intervened to block the voters' decision, Jonathan Magbie would never have been sentenced to jail for marijuana possession and almost certainly would be alive today. All who had a hand in this, from former Congressman Bob Barr to Judge Retchin to the jail authorities, should be forever ashamed. And Congress must get rid of the Barr Amendment before it causes another pointless death. Bruce Mirken Director of communications Marijuana Policy Project [end]
Comments On Drug Use And Treatment George Kolodner, a board-certified addiction psychiatrist and medical director of the Kolmac Clinic in Silver Spring, Md., was online Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 4:30 p.m. ET to answer your questions about Crystal Methamphetamine use and the treatment for addiction. From The Post: Meth Comes Out of the Closet (Post, Nov. 8) Kolodner was quoted in today's article: "George Kolodner, a board-certified addiction psychiatrist and medical director of the Kolmac Clinic in Silver Spring, said his clinic saw an increase in crystal meth users beginning about two years ago, but the trend has not accelerated since then. He said meth users are the most difficult patients to treat because there is no medication to prevent craving or treat the protracted post-use symptoms, such as dysphoria, or depressed mood. [continues 1191 words]
Inside District of Columbia
