Prison should be reserved for those who pose a To relieve prison overcrowding, save state taxpayers money and preserve families, South Carolina should limit the use of its prisons to housing truly dangerous or habitual criminals. The state's corrections facilities are crowded with drug offenders and other nonviolent criminals. This needlessly destroys families and wastes the resources of the state. Attorney General Henry McMaster says he has a plan to address the problem. While much of the public attention to his proposal has focused on his plan to abolish parole, his design includes alternatives to prison for many offenses. [continues 350 words]
As drug trends change so does the approach to teaching young people about the life altering effects narcotics have. The school district has approved including a drug-education program into the curriculum for grades 8-12 that mirrors a successful program taught by the Drug Enforcement Agency, said Aiken County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Steve Deibel. The D.A.R.E program has been taught in the 5th grade, but we want to expand the education to the students over a longer period, he explained. [continues 235 words]
Visibly shaken, Aiken County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Dwayne Courtney choked back tears last Thursday, saying his agency has been "knocked to its knees" by revelations of betrayal and misconduct within the ranks. The allegations center on four narcotics officers who spent a night bar-hopping and picking up women in the Augusta and North Augusta areas. At least one illicit sex act in an unmarked county vehicle was alleged in a press release issued by the Sheriff's Office. [continues 599 words]
This month the Supreme Court heard a case that touched on a 20-year-old controversy involving justice and crack cocaine. The court will rule early next year in Kimbrough vs. United States whether a federal district judge's more lenient sentencing decision, based on his disagreement with policy that punishes crimes involving crack cocaine more harshly than those involving powder cocaine, is reasonable. The case will help judges determine their ability to sentence below an advisory guideline range. Unfortunately, the outcome will leave in place the excessive mandatory penalties that the Kimbrough judge found unjust. [continues 624 words]
The drug war in your medicine cabinet S.C. soon will start tracking prescription drugs by computer. Is this a blow against the black market or invasion of privacy? The hunt for black market pushers and users of prescription drugs such as OxyContin is going high tech. As early as January, a new computer at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control will go online, linking the state's 1,225 independent and chain pharmacies. From then on, all pharmacies will upload to DHEC information on everyone in South Carolina who buys painkillers, tranquilizers or stimulants. This data includes the patient's name, date of birth, address, kind of medication, dosage and the prescribing doctor. [continues 1471 words]
Aiken, S.C. | Aiken County is dealing with the fallout of the firings of the sheriff's entire narcotics unit as prosecutors check cases made by the investigators and the county asks federal agents to help with drug crimes. The four officers were fired Thursday by Sheriff Michael Hunt who said they drove unmarked, county-owned cars to bars last month. The sheriff said at least one woman performed a sex act on one of the officers as they drove around. [continues 188 words]
Poisons Lurk As State Does Little To Notify Public, Make Toxic Sites Clean It was one of Lexington County's most hazardous home meth labs, complete with a bathtub full of a weird pink liquid. "It could have blown up -- that's how dangerous it was," said Sheriff James Metts, as officers in hazmat suits went in and out of the Gaston house in June while neighborhood children stood well back and watched. Two months later, a neighbor said the empty house still reeked of foul chemicals. [continues 2500 words]
James Matthew Quattlebaum was sure he was finished. The Indiana transplant sat in his car at the side of a Lexington County road, stopped for a traffic violation. On the seat, wrapped in tinfoil, was methamphetamine. On the floorboard were boxes of Sudafed. In the trunk, cans of ether. The deputy charged Quattlebaum with driving with a suspended license and impounded his car. But when Quattlebaum got the car back, the meth, the Sudafed, the ether -- all of it -- was untouched. [continues 2271 words]
A meth high is extraordinary, said James Wilson, treatment counselor with the S.C. Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services. Meth wildly increases the level of dopamine -- the hormone associated with the brain's pleasure center, he said. "A good cheeseburger increases your dopamine to 50," Wilson said. "Sex, to 200. Cocaine, to 600. But smoking meth will raise it to 1,200. "It's a feeling of being in complete control, of grandiosity, of power, of the absence of fear and the absence of doubt. It's a high you can't achieve naturally." [continues 257 words]
COLUMBIA, S.C. --James Matthew Quattlebaum was sure he was finished. The Indiana transplant sat in his car at the side of a Lexington County road, stopped for a traffic violation. On the seat, wrapped in tinfoil, was methamphetamine. On the floorboard were boxes of Sudafed. In the trunk, cans of ether. The deputy charged Quattlebaum with driving with a suspended license and impounded his car. But when Quattlebaum got the car back, the meth, the Sudafed, the ether -- all of it -- was untouched. [continues 2271 words]
Meth Has A Long And Storied History -- Even Adolph Hitler Used It. First made by a Japanese chemist in the 1890s, meth was used during World War II by German troops to keep awake and alert. Hitler's doctor administered a shot of meth a day to the Nazi leader. In the 1950s, meth was legal in America and could be obtained by prescription. Doctors used it to treat obesity, alcoholism and narcolepsy. In 1965, in response to growing abuse, Congress passed the Drug Abuse Control Act, the first step toward severely limiting meth's sale. [continues 371 words]
Lexington 3 Hopes To Start Random Drug Tests Next Fall Students at Batesburg-Leesville public schools might have to submit to random drug and alcohol tests if they want to participate in school sports and other extracurricular activities. Lexington 3's school board is considering a policy to test students in grades seven through 12 that could begin next fall. Approximately 960 children are in those six grades, but not all of them play sports or participate in sanctioned after-school activities. [continues 705 words]
Ensnared Former S.C. Treasurer Of the 3 Men Charged in Drug Case, Only 1 Has Been Sent to Jail COLUMBIA -- Three people were charged in the federal drug case that ensnared former S.C. Treasurer Thomas Ravenel. Two are white and have yet to spend a day in jail, including Ravenel who has pleaded guilty to a federal cocaine charge and is awaiting sentencing. One man charged is black and remained in jail awaiting trial until last week, when a federal magistrate set bail for him on drug charges. That is just one reason the state NAACP says it will monitor the outcome of all the cases to make sure each man is treated equally. "There have always been disparities in the way African Americans have been treated in the judicial system," said Legislative Black Caucus Chairman Rep. Leon Howard, D-Columbia. "People are paying attention to this case to see if there will be any further disparity." [continues 359 words]
Former S.C. Treasurer Indicted But Federal Guidelines Indicate He Could Get 6 Months' House Arrest COLUMBIA -- If convicted on a federal drug charge, former S.C. Treasurer Thomas Ravenel could receive as little as six months' house arrest and probation, according to an analysis of federal sentencing guidelines by The State. The most prison time that Ravenel likely would face would be about four years. The guidelines are not mandatory but are followed in about 70 percent of federal criminal cases in South Carolina. [continues 411 words]
Recently, Authorities Have Found Bumper Crop Of Pot Plants COLUMBIA, S.C. -- From the ground, the pine forests near the North Carolina line appear unremarkable -- rows of trees that eventually will be chopped down to make way for a housing development. More than 30,000 marijuana plants have been seized this month in two raids just south of Charlotte, N.C., bringing the total number of marijuana plants seized this year to 38,000. That's nearly three times the number confiscated across South Carolina in all of 2005, and nearly as many as were seized statewide last year. [continues 689 words]
School Districts Have Ability To Censor Speech The Supreme Court of the United States extended the ability of school districts to censor the speech of high school students on Monday, and some Anderson-area students are concerned about what the ruling will mean for them. In 2002 Joseph Frederick, then an 18-year-old high school senior in Juneau, Ala., displayed a 14-foot banner that read "BONG HITS 4 JESUS" as the Olympic torch passed through his town. Mr. Frederick was suspended from school when he refused to take it down. [continues 396 words]
I'm writing about the June 11 article, "Award-winning DARE officer puts heart in substance abuse prevention, education." 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. [continues 90 words]
Sanford Suspends Thomas Ravenel, Who Faces Cocaine Charges As he crisscrossed South Carolina campaigning for the job of state treasurer last year, Thomas Ravenel was buying cocaine and using it with friends, state and federal officials say. And, they say, it has been going on ever since. Gov. Mark Sanford suspended the Republican constitutional officer after he was indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury on cocaine charges. If convicted, the Charleston real estate developer faces $1 million in fines and 20 years in prison. [continues 634 words]
The call came in to SLED in September 2005: Charleston police were working on a cocaine investigation, and it was a big one. They needed help. And from the start, Chief Robert Stewart, the veteran leader of the State Law Enforcement Division, saw a lot of promise in the case. "It was a good case with the potential of multiple defendants, pretty lengthy, a lot of undercover work," Stewart recalled Wednesday. Although federal officials suggest that Thomas Ravenel was a target early on -- up to six months before he became a candidate for state treasurer in March 2006 -- Stewart can't comment on when the high-profile Republican became a target. You have to follow an investigation through to its logical course, he said. [continues 924 words]
Gov. Mark Sanford has suspended state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel after it was announced Tuesday the Charleston Republican had been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent distribute cocaine. Federal and state authorities made the announcement in a news conference at SLED headquarters this afternoon. According to the indictment, beginning in 2005 - before he was elected state treasurer - Ravenel conspired with Michael L. Miller to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. If convicted, Ravenel faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million. [continues 213 words]
Inside South Carolina
