A LIGHT WIND whips through Hunting Park on a blustery morning, tossing leaves and cigarette butts from one deserted street corner to another. Jim Coolen Jr. settles into the cramped rear of a dilapidated van that he will call home for the next eight to 12 hours. The musty vehicle creaks and groans every time Coolen moves. Most days, it has all the warmth and comfort of an igloo. But the van is the perfect cover for Coolen, a veteran undercover narcotics cop, allowing him to watch a notorious local drug kingpin and his henchmen blatantly conduct their trade on the street. It's all part of a choreographed surveillance operation run by Coolen and other cops in Narcotics Field Unit 2. [continues 1749 words]
'Tis the season for the state Department of Agriculture to crank out press releases reminding us that Pennsylvania is a national leader in Christmas tree production. The latest yearly numbers -- 1.7 million pine trees worth nearly $14 million in sales to their growers -- sure sound impressive. But $14 million is chicken feed next to what some Keystone State "farmers" are pulling in each year by growing America's No. 1 cash crop -- marijuana. The state Ag Department's press corps doesn't send out releases on annual pot sales. [continues 497 words]
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Someone cares. That's a message the Blair County Drug Court tries to convey to addicts whose heroin or crack cocaine habits led them to the wrong side of the law. On Wednesday, a group of Central High School students showed the adults in drug court that someone cares about their children, as well. Four high schoolers who belong to Students Against Destructive Decisions and school counselor Stephanie Thompson brought armloads of Christmas gifts to the courthouse and stacked them on both sides of the hallway outside a large courtroom where drug court was being held. [continues 336 words]
As a businessman active in Luzerne County for almost 40 years and a longtime drug harm reduction activist, I would like to add some thoughts concerning how to protect our children to the commentary published on Nov. 28 by William Kashatus entitled, "Time to get serious about heroin epidemic." I can best accomplish this through the following unsolicited recent letter from a student graduating from college to his mother, a public health specialist: Dear Mom, It has been eight years since I entered high school on the heels of your famous advice about drugs: "Johnny be skeptical and, most of all, be safe." Although I'd like to tell you that I never needed your advice because I never encountered drugs, I'd prefer to be as honest with you as you have been with me. [continues 330 words]
The Issue: The number of people incarcerated in the United States sets a record. Our Opinion: More drug treatment programs need to be developed as alternatives to jailing non-violent offenders. The get-tough-on-crime policies that were in vogue three decades ago have resulted in jails and prisons across the country bursting at the seams. Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice reported that at the end of 2005 there was a record high of 2.2 million people behind bars in this country, an increase of 2 percent over 2004 that saw a similar increase over 2003. [continues 492 words]
In response to the Dec. 5 article "Researchers Say Smoking Pot Not Always Path to Hard Drug Use": The results of this study are hardly shocking. The National Institute on Drug Abuse has funded similar studies in which the government hoped to reinforce some of their "facts" about smoking marijuana. A recent study at UCLA found that there was no link between smoking marijuana and lung cancer. Dr. Donald Tashkin, a UCLA pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years, said in a Washington Post article in May, "We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer and that the association would be more positive with heavier use, What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect." More and more we are seeing that the myths surrounding the use of marijuana are being debunked. It's time to get rid of the social stigma and criminal records associated with its use. Joe Province Shaler [end]
Even the Few Prevention Models That Phila. Uses Lack Resources. They are called the "gold standard" for violence-prevention programs: 11 models - out of more than 600 examined - that have proved most effective at thwarting crime and violence. At least five of these prevention efforts, aimed at children and teens, are being used in Philadelphia, but often on a very small scale or desperately short of funding or volunteers. With gun violence and murders mounting in Philadelphia, the lack of interest or investment in proven programs raises questions about why the city hasn't done more. [continues 1587 words]
A Search at Moorestown High Found "Significant" Amounts of Cocaine, Amphetamines and Other Drugs, Officials Say. A search at one of the most elite public high schools in the region turned up "significant" amounts of cocaine, amphetamines, diet pills, marijuana, prescription drugs, and drug paraphernalia, school authorities said last night. The drugs were found at Moorestown High - a school flush with Advanced Placement courses, where 94 percent of students go on to college and where most participate in extracurricular activities. After an investigation by school officials, six students were questioned by authorities Wednesday, searched, and given drug tests and arrested, interim district Superintendent Timothy Brennan said. [continues 572 words]
Pittston Twp. Officer Charles Michael Byra Jr. Is Accused Of Stealing Evidence. A federal prosecutor said a Pittston Township police officer accused of stealing evidence targeted minority drug dealers and had female suspects perform sex acts on him. U.S. Assistant Attorney William Houser further said Charles Michael Byra Jr., 28, gave a .380-caliber pistol he stole from the Dupont Police Department where he worked earlier this year to a convicted felon. Houser described some of the alleged evidence against Byra during a hearing in federal court in Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday. Calling that evidence "overwhelmingly strong," Houser attempted to convince U.S. Magistrate Judge Malachy Mannion that Byra is a "continued danger to the community" and should remain in federal custody. [continues 644 words]
Studies have shown that the recreational drug Ecstasy can cause brain damage when used often, but a new study suggests that even a few doses of the illegal substance can alter the brain's memory system and that the changes may be long-lasting. "We didn't expect to find such changes," said Dr. Maartje De Win, a resident in radiology at the Academic Medicine Center in Amsterdam. She and her colleagues tested the effects of the popular drug on 188 young adults (average age 22) they recruited who said they had intentions of trying Ecstasy but had not done so yet. [continues 290 words]
FORD CITY -- Despite their involvement in numerous drug arrests in the borough, Ford City police officers are not a part of the county's drug task force, and some council members think they should be. "There has been drug activity in the borough and our officers alone can't handle the problem," said councilman Homer Pendleton, who requested the issue be brought to the table. "With all the talk of meth labs and the known drug houses in town, we need to do something to solve the problem." [continues 348 words]
Contrary to popular belief, smoking marijuana need not be a steppingstone between using alcohol and tobacco and experimenting with illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin. Researchers led by Ralph E. Tarter, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh's School of Pharmacy, found that nearly a quarter of the young men they studied used marijuana before they began drinking or smoking cigarettes. It's the reverse of what's known as the "gateway hypothesis," in which drug use is thought to progress from alcohol and tobacco to marijuana to hard drugs. [continues 865 words]
They seem to be getting younger, the teens who parade before the Cumberland Valley School Board for their fate to be decided in discipline hearings. Ninth- and tenth-graders are getting caught with marijuana and abusing prescription drugs, and when the board's discipline committee asks, most of the teens say they started using drugs during the summer before ninth grade, says Assistant Superintendent Mary Riley. "That summer is absolutely crucial," Riley says. Twenty-six students faced discipline hearings in the first two months of school, a disturbingly high number compared with the 56 teens who had hearings during the entire last school year, when the first hearing occurred after the October Homecoming dance, she says. [continues 317 words]
Faced with a rising number of young teens getting involved with drugs and alcohol, the Cumberland Valley School Districts is inviting parents to become students for a night. On the curriculum -- the ABCs of stopping substance abuse. "Drugs 101" on Dec. 7 will teach parents how to recognize the signs their child may be headed for trouble -- and how to spot often innocuous-looking drug and alcohol paraphernalia. The two-hour program, put together with the Cumberland Valley Community Action Committee, will also bring parents up to speed on what's out there -- from stolen prescription meds and pot to inhalants, cocaine and heroin -- that could hurt their kids. [continues 390 words]
Dumping near those "No Dumping" signs that dot the roadways through rural Pennsylvania is a common sight, but some worry that the trash might have a sinister source. In Michigan, for example, hunters have come across at least three methamphetamine labs so far this hunting season, according to reports from that state. Materials used to make the drug are explosion hazards, state police said, making the manufacturing facilities highly dangerous and pushing their construction far away from population centers. And, although no such lab has yet been found on a public hunting land owned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, officials are asking hunters to be on the lookout for them as they join the million-man orange army marching into the Keystone State woods today. [continues 305 words]
Good cop and bad cop? Thought to be a shining example, a born-again Camden officer is accused of allegedly helping the bad guys. On the day Cpl. Michael Hearne was appointed to lead the faith-based efforts of the Camden Police Department, he drove to a seedy supermarket to meet an old friend. The friend had a proposition: Lend me a gun to rob drug dealers, and I'll give you half the cash. Hearne agreed, according to state police. [continues 848 words]
Dumping near those "No Dumping" signs that dot the roadways through rural Pennsylvania is a common sight, but some worry that the trash might have a sinister source. In Michigan, for example, hunters have come across at least three methamphetamine labs so far this hunting season, according to reports from that state. Materials used to make the drug are explosion hazards, state police said, making the manufacturing facilities highly dangerous and pushing their construction far away from population centers. And, although no such lab has yet been found on a public hunting land owned by the Pennsylvania Game Commission, officials are asking hunters to be on the lookout for them as they join the million-man orange army marching into the Keystone State woods today. [continues 255 words]
As a retired police captain, I applaud the police work that went into the recent breakup of the drug ring that netted 937 grams of cocaine. But, if my years of experience in those positions has taught me anything, it is that nothing will change except the lives of those arrested and their families. Ever since President Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1970, U.S. taxpayers have paid over $1 trillion to arrest our way out of our drug problems. We have made over 35 million arrests and currently spend $69 billion a year on this war. [continues 608 words]
They Want to Know How Son Could Shoot Self in Cop Car The parents of a Southwest Philadelphia man who police said shot himself in the head while handcuffed in the back seat of a cop car demanded answers yesterday from the Police Department. Oliver P. Neal Jr. and his ex-wife, Beverly, sat next to family attorneys and complained that police have not contacted them about their son, Oliver P. Neal III, 26, of Wheeler Street near 57th. "They haven't the decency to knock on my door," said Neal. "Why didn't they contact us? What kind of system is that?" [continues 517 words]
Milton Friedman, arguably the best known and most influential free-market economist in the world for the last 40 years, died in the San Francisco area Thursday at age 94. Friedman, who lived for years in the liberal epicenter of House Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi's downtown San Francisco congressional district, advised presidents, prime ministers and helped foreign countries set up market economies. But more important to the everyday American, he was a major popularizer of the moral and practical benefits of freedom and capitalism. A principled enemy of socialism, monopolies and big government, a friend of competition and choice, he argued early, hard and persuasively for such things as a voluntary army, educational vouchers and an end to the prohibition of drugs. [continues 1517 words]
Inside Pennsylvania
