Reacting to the city police union's allegations that his department has whitewashed crime statistics, Miami Police Chief John Timoney on Friday called for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to review the city's record-keeping. The police union called a news conference Friday to accuse Timoney's administration of systematically downgrading the severity of crimes in its record-keeping, but offered little proof of the coordinated, departmentwide effort that union officials described. Armando Aguilar, president of the union, said he has received phone calls from more than 100 officers who are uncomfortable with how Miami is recording its crime stats, but declined to share much of their information with reporters. Aguilar said some cops are afraid to tell even the union what they know. [continues 622 words]
I read with interest The News-Journal's Aug. 16 editorial "Treatment under lock: County should use jail to fight addiction cost," and I agree with the overall argument. I also read the Community Voices column "County's math doesn't add up to justify end to treating addicts" (Aug. 15) written by Edie McKnight, and I strongly disagree with her position. She states that "there is a solution to this disease through a 12-step program and divine intervention." The government should not be purchasing "divine intervention." [continues 159 words]
Plan Would Save Money by Moving Inmates to Work Release or Other Programs TALLAHASSEE -- Facing a bad economy that will require lawmakers to cut $1 billion or more from the state budget in a special session next month, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Legislature are looking for significant ways to reduce spending. James McDonough has a plan to do just that. But the political consequences may be more than Crist and the Legislature are prepared to deal with. McDonough, who heads Florida's Department of Corrections, wants to reduce hard time for thousands of the state's inmates. [continues 969 words]
Florida Budget Cuts Few adults, particularly parents, would question the need for schools to offer programs educating children and teens about the dangers of drugs. But it may be time to end, at least for now, the approach long embraced by Florida officials. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which began almost a quarter-century ago in Los Angeles, is widely used in schools in our region and around the nation. Typically, police officers are trained to talk to children about avoiding the illegal use of drugs and involvement in gangs. [continues 417 words]
Re Michael Shifter's Aug. 19 Other Views column, Help Mexico with costs of the drug war: Just like alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone, drug prohibition created the violent drug-trafficking organizations blamed for all the killing in Mexico. With alcohol prohibition repealed in the United States, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings. Mexico's recent upsurge in violence began after an anti-drug crackdown created a power vacuum among competing cartels. From a political perspective, Mexican President Felipe Calderon stands to benefit from the violence. The drug war is perpetuated by the mainstream media's complicity in refusing to put so-called ''drug-related'' crime in context. U.S. politicians have proven particularly adept at confusing the drug war's collateral damage with drugs themselves. [continues 74 words]
Few adults, particularly parents, would question the need for schools to offer programs educating children and teens about the dangers of drugs. But it may be time to end, at least for now, the approach long embraced by Florida officials. The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which began almost a quarter century ago in Los Angeles, is widely used in schools in our region and around the nation. Typically, police officers are trained to talk to children about avoiding the illegal use of drugs and involvement in gangs. [continues 326 words]
Some readers were shocked and angered by a Friday editorial page cartoon depicting a black man with a smoking gun in his hand standing over a bullet-riddled victim. "I didn't see nuttin'!" said a little girl standing nearby. "Now that's a good little ho!" said the gunman. Both the shooter and the child wore T-shirts saying "Don't Snitch!" The cartoon carried a caption: "The new rule of Law!" A billboard in the background depicted more black characters under lyrics, "Rap your life away." [continues 558 words]
In Quebec tomorrow, a large U.S. aid package to Mexico -- reportedly on the order of several hundred million dollars a year -- will be on the agenda at a North American summit meeting with President Bush, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon. The eight-month-old Calderon government has repeatedly called for substantial U.S. support to help stem the uncontrolled, drugfueled violence that is subduing city after city in Mexico. For the health of our southern neighbor's nascent democracy and the strengthening of our own border controls, it is fundamental that the United States and Mexico enhance their cooperation. [continues 751 words]
Some Argue Plans Lack Adequate Follow-Through To get an idea of how pervasive drug testing has become, consider Florida Drug Screening Inc.'s long list of clients. The Palm Bay-based company provides drug-testing for 380 businesses and organizations in Brevard County, and for about 8,000 nationwide. "We have seen a strong increase of businesses wanting to implement a (drug-testing) program," said Florida Drug Screening President Joe Reilly, who founded the company in 1993. Drug-testing programs generally started in government, and began spreading to the private sector in the late-1980s. They started to take hold on a widespread basis in the early-1990s, Reilly said. [continues 791 words]
Gov. Charlie Crist will hear the clemency request of Richard Paey, who is serving a 25-year drug trafficking sentence for illegally obtaining painkillers he said he needed for his chronic pain. The Governor's Office announced Friday that a waiver was granted allowing the Hudson man's case to be heard by the Florida Board of Executive Clemency. Paey was arrested in 1997 after buying more than 1,200 pills with fake prescriptions. But he turned down a lenient plea deal on principle, was convicted in 2004 and got the mandatory sentence. [continues 61 words]
Man given 25 Years to Get New Trial TAMPA - For the second time in the past 30 days, an appeals court has overturned a 25-year prison sentence for someone convicted of possessing Vicodin even though the defendant insisted he had a prescription for the narcotic pain pills. On Wednesday, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said Darryl M. Smith, 37, deserves a new trial because a judge did not tell the jury that having a prescription for a drug was a valid defense. [continues 371 words]
County Should Use Jail to Fight Addiction Cost Addiction costs more than the $20 an addicted person pays his dealer for a rock of crack cocaine. It costs more than the hourly salary of a law enforcement officer who makes a bust and takes that user to jail; more than the cost of processing a dozen or more people into the branch jail each night on drug charges. The cost is spread across the community, in shattered families, higher taxes and increased fear of crime. It's a cost that everyone eventually pays. [continues 439 words]
DAYTONA BEACH -- Marlee Hull got high before her swim meets and practices last school year. She often went home to smoke marijuana and take anti-anxiety pills she got from a friend, then to the pool to swim for the Seabreeze High team. She tells how once after an hour in the pool she vomited and coughed up blood in the bathroom. The 16-year-old knew the drugs were damaging her body but she didn't care. Hull was depressed with life's problems, including those that come with having divorced parents; a childhood friend also died. She wanted to forget. [continues 1852 words]
Drug Database Could Hurt Patients Once again Florida is under pressure to build a database of people who take powerful opiate painkillers. The rationale behind the database: Identify doctors who are writing fraudulent prescriptions and single out patients who are going from office to office "doctor shopping" for drugs to sell or get high with. Federal authorities blasted Florida this week, claiming the state is becoming a haven for black-market dealers and users. They cited statistics: For example, sales of codeine, morphine, oxycodone, hydrocodone and meperidine -- the most commonly abused painkillers -- increased by 90 percent from 1997 through 2005 [continues 450 words]
Workplace Drug Tests Showed A Big Decline In Cocaine Use Across The Country And Especially In South Florida. Cocaine use in South Florida's workforce has experienced a sharp decline this year compared to 2006, mirroring a national trend that shows the drug's use at a 10-year low, a leading U.S. testing firm reports. "The Miami-Fort Lauderdale area saw a dramatic decline of approximately 18.1 percent in cocaine positivity rates among workers," said Barry Sample, the director of science and technology for employee testing at Quest Diagnostics. "This drop may suggest that employees in the area either are choosing not to use cocaine or lack access to the drug." [continues 464 words]
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A Pasco County man with multiple sclerosis who was convicted of drug trafficking for having a large stash of prescription drugs he said were for pain should receive clemency, his family said Thursday. Richard Paey has served four years of a 25-year minimum mandatory sentence for drug trafficking. The former lawyer and father of three injured his back in a 1985 car crash and has said he has pain from that in addition to his multiple sclerosis. He argued in court that only large amounts of strong narcotics eased that pain. [continues 217 words]
Community Wants Safety and Youth Programs, Despite $4 Million Shortfall LAKELAND -- The message was the same. Don't cut Lakeland police's aviation unit. Or DARE or PAL. About 50 people, some of them city employees, showed up Monday night to tell the Lakeland city commissioners what they thought of potential cuts to offset a $4 million shortfall brought on by property tax reform and decreased revenue from sales and communication taxes. Just as some of them did less than a month ago, they told commissioners that public safety and youth programs are crucial. [continues 261 words]
My 76-year-old mother lives with me, and she takes some serious medications. What am I suppose to do when I pick them up? Have the pharmacist break up the script into 10 bottles, so I can make 10 trips to the store in an effort to not cross some unknown threshold number? I don't believe any person in his correct mind, if called to be on any jury where there was no crime committed and the prosecution's case was based upon a person having legally prescribed drugs, would even have to leave the jury box to find that person innocent. Officials at the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office really need to stop wasting our tax dollars. They need to get over this one and move on to important cases. You win some; you lose some. You lost this one, so move on! Raye Minor St. Petersburg [end]
I understand that it is customarily editors and not the writer of a news story who pens the headline, but in reading your recent "Homeless face new harsher wilderness" article, I concluded that the title fits the tone. I commend the efforts of Ranger Rick Lint and his staff to make the Ocala National Forest a cleaner and safer place for visitors. However, the newspaper's article makes it sound like the ranger is harassing the poor and disadvantaged. This is simply not the case. Reading the comments posted online, it would seem that other readers agree. [continues 196 words]
Inside Florida
