Residents Raise Alarm About Drug Dealers; Town Works To Respond

Priscilla Lemieux enjoys a smoke before bed, usually around 11 p.m. But she doesn't enjoy the activity she sometimes sees at that time, across the alley from her apartment. She sees cars coming and going, never staying long enough for a cup of coffee, and she says she knows what's happening.

She's seen drugs and money exchange hands.

"Right over there," Lemieux said recently, pointing out her living room window.

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Bill Richardson tells people he is running for president as an American who happens to be half Hispanic, but for a short while in Danbury it seemed as though he was just a little bit German, as well.

In town Sunday for a meet-and-greet at the Inn at Danbury's Oktoberfest, the New Mexico governor spoke briefly about seeing Red Sox rookie Clay Buchholz pitch a no-hitter at Fenway Park Saturday night, but spent an hour speaking privately with guests, sampling the fare, and learning how to make deep-fried potatoes -- German style.

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BRENTWOOD - A judge sentenced Dante Silva, convicted of giving his girlfriend a fatal dose of heroin, to life in prison this morning.

The case represents one of the first times that a person has been convicted and sentenced under the state's dispensing a controlled substance with death resulting law, and prosecutors called the sentence "historic." The judge said an aggravating factor was that after he provided 18-year old Kingston resident Caitlyn Brady with the fatal dose of heroin, he gathered all evidence and left to dispose of it and never tried to get her any help.

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BRENTWOOD - With a heavy thud, Gayle Brady placed the urn holding her daughter's ashes on the table in front of prosecutors yesterday afternoon, and turned to the young man convicted of giving her a lethal dose of heroin.

"That's Caitlyn," Gayle Brady said, before demanding Dante Silva, 22, of Newton, turn to look at her when she addressed the court.

Silva, who was convicted on one felony count of dispensing a controlled drug with a death resulting earlier this spring, did not turn. Silva was in court yesterday for sentencing, facing a maximum of life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 18 years -- a sentence recommended by both prosecutors and the Rockingham County probation office. Silva's attorney argued for counseling and rehabilitation, with the threat of a deferred heavy prison sentence.

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News that Al Gore's 24-year-old son, Al Gore III, was busted for pot and assorted prescription pills has unleashed a torrent of mirth in certain quarters.

Gore-phobes on the Internet apparently view the son's arrest and incarceration as comeuppance for the father's shortcomings. Especially rich was the fact that young Al was driving a Toyota Prius when he was pulled over for going 100 mph -- just as Papa Gore was set to preside over concerts during a 24-hour, seven-continent Live Earth celebration to raise awareness about global warming.

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IN JANUARY 2002, in Juneau, Alaska, Joseph Frederick had the sort of idea that makes a teenager seem like one of nature's mistakes. Last week, after five years and the attention of 13 federal judges, Frederick became a footnote in constitutional history.

His case illustrated how the multiplication and extension of rights lead to the proliferation of litigation. It also illustrated something agreeable in a disagreeably angry era -- how nine intelligent, conscientious justices can civilly come to strikingly different conclusions about undisputed facts.

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To the editor:

I'm writing about "DARE program holds first Rochester Middle School," published June 18.

Common sense tells us that the DARE program should deter our youth from using illegal drugs. But it doesn't. DARE graduates are more likely to use illegal drugs -- not less.

Common sense tells us that the Earth is the center of the universe and our solar system. But it's not.

Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially reduce the use of the product that's prohibited. Actually, prohibition tends to substantially increase the desire for the product that's prohibited.

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ROCHESTER -- Hundreds of seventh-graders made history recently when they became the first middle school class in the city to graduate from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

"I tell the kids that you'll always be the first," DARE instructor and School Resource Officer Don Funk said. "This is groundbreaking and high standards have been set."

The DARE program, which gives kids the life skills they need to avoid involvement with drugs, gangs, and violence, has been available to fifth-graders since 1990, but it has not always been offered at each of the eight elementary schools in the city.

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MANCHESTER - While city leaders keep up their fight to restore federal funding for a street-level drug fighting program, the new city budget passed Tuesday will have taxpayers pick up the entire cost of an identical operation - including paying overtime for state troopers and state drug agents. An eleventh-hour budget several aldermen presented Tuesday gave police $632,000 more than the $1.8 million hike the mayor proposed - including $291,890 for a special anti-drugs and guns initiative. Manchester police asked for $291,890 to fund Operation Streetsweeper this year, but were told the money wasn't available after Congress slashed funds for all federally earmarked programs.

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The federal government has seized more than $3 million in proceeds of the 2005 sale of the former Lakes Region Greyhound Park from its former owners, citing a drug money-laundering operation that was run at the track in 2003 and 2004. Moving under the broad powers of a federal drug money forfeiture statute, the Justice Department has essentially frozen $3.3 million paid for the track by Marlin Torguson, who re-opened the facility as The Lodge at Belmont and is not involved in the case. The money was escrowed and has yet to be paid to various members of the Hart family and Vincent DiCesare of Massachusetts.

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New Hampshire crime fighters say they fear drug dealers and gun traders could retake hard-fought territory since Congress stripped funding for a street-level anti-drug program at a time when narcotics-driven gun violence is on the rise.

Manchester alone lost two thirds of its drug-fighting punch when funds for Operation Streetsweeper and other earmarked federal programs were cut this year. "If you take away two-thirds of what we've had in past years as an operation to target drug trafficking, it's going to have an impact on the city," Manchester Deputy Police Chief Glenn S. Leidemer said yesterday. The multi-agency initiative -- long touted by law enforcers for helping beat back drug crime -- provides federal grants to police departments statewide, primarily for undercover narcotics operations.

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HANOVER -- An article on next Tuesday's town meeting warrant asks voters whether police ought to make arresting medicinal marijuana users their lowest priority.

But a vote in favor would have no impact on town policy, Town Manager Julia Griffin said.

"As currently written, this article by petition cannot legally be enforced by town staff, because it violates state law," she said. "- We certainly understand where people are coming from. It's not that we don't appreciate their position."

The petitioned warrant article says Hanover police would be "urged" not to arrest people age 21 and over for marijuana possession if the person can produce a doctor's note showing that marijuana "would likely provide therapeutic benefit" for the person's medical condition. The policy wouldn't apply to distribution, sales or driving under the influence of marijuana.

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Hanover -- A New Hampshire group pushing for changes to drug policy has placed an article on the Town Meeting warrant asking voters to allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The article states that Hanover police officers "are urged" not to arrest anybody over the age of 21 for marijuana possession if the person can "produce written certification," signed by a doctor, stating that the drug is for a therapeutic use. It would not apply to "distribution, cultivation, or sale" of the drug, nor to driving under the influence.

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Joyce Nalepka, in her letter "Anti-marijuana editorial lauded" of April 9, says nothing to defend her notorious prohibitionist stance.

Nalepka (nor the Foster's editors who wrote the editorial she responded to) cannot actually defend the prohibition to which she (they) subscribes. Our war On (some) drugs -- Prohibition II -- is the longest running fraud ever perpetrated by our government upon us and your foolishness is part of it.

Cannabis is medicine:

-- It is, as stated in 1988 in the words of DEA administrative law judge, Francis Young, "one of the safest therapeutic substances known to man."

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To the editor:

This letter is in response to one that appeared on April 5, "Anti- marijuana editorial lauded.'

As a retired New Jersey state trooper with 12 years as an undercover drug narc, I've got a sobering response to letter writer Joyce Nalepka's suggestion that leaving the marijuana market on the street is preferable to a legal, regulated system.

Based on my experience as a cop and that of my many colleagues who make up the membership of our international organization, we know that an illegal drug market stimulates distribution to minor-aged kids, while also increasing the direct involvement of minors in sales. This is especially true when talking about marijuana, when our teenagers tell us that obtaining pot is much easier than getting access to regulated drugs.

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To the editor:

"It is also worth noting that despite the 1996 legalization of medicinal marijuana in California, proponents have not been able to produce convincing scientific evidence of their claims - evidence that by now should be widely accepted by the medical community if it existed." ("Anti-pot message needs to be louder," Foster's April 4)

You surely know that the medical journal Neurology recently published a study demonstrating the efficacy of marijuana on neuropathic pain. Thus, your disingenuous article exposes you as a hypocrite with your own hidden agenda.

John R. Malmo

Attorney at Law

Fresno, Calif.

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To the editor:

The effort to stop caging sick humans for using a God-given plant needs to be louder (Anti-Pot message needs to be louder, April 4,). One reason that doesn't get mentioned is because it's Biblically correct, since Christ God Our Father indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30).

The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). And, "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (see: 1 John 3:17).

Dillon, Colo.

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To the editor:

Another interesting fact about hemp: it thwarts illegal pot growers.

The very last place anyone would want to grow pot is near a hemp field. The hemp would pollinate the pot, causing it to go to seed. The resulting pot would be useless as a drug, and the seeds it produces would be next-to-useless as well, because the plants the seeds would produce would be too rough for pot and too short for hemp.

So, to cut down on clandestine marijuana fields; cover the continent with hemp.

Ottawa, Ontario

Editor's note: Russell Barth adds that he is a federal medical marijuana license holder in Ottawa.



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To the editor:

I'm writing about: "Former N. Y. police captain speaks in York about legalizing some drugs" (April 5).

Actually, Peter Christ and LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) favor the re-legalization of all of our now illegal drugs. For most of our nation's history there were no such things as illegal drugs. For most of our nation's history there was no such thing as "drug-related crime" or even drug dealers as we know them today.

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To the editor:

Bravo to the staff at Foster's Daily Democrat for standing up against the drug legalization movement that is surging across America.

Members of these groups that I've spoken to openly admit to their own drug use -- from marijuana to heroin. One of their colleagues spoke to 100 or so students at Coppin State University and when asked, "Why are you trying to tell us drugs should be legalized? It is our black communities that are most damaged by drug use. Have you ever used drugs?"

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