Forfeiture Laws In Drug Cases Have Provided A Boon To S.C. Law Enforcement Agencies The drug trade has been good to Ridgeland. It's not that the Jasper County town of 2,500 welcomes the flow of drug traffic along I-95. But the town's 13-member Police Department has benefited through federal forfeiture laws that allow the agency to receive most of the drug proceeds seized in its jurisdiction. Since September 2002, the department has received $2.85 million in drug-seizure funds, Ridgeland Police Chief Richard Woods said. [continues 908 words]
I applaud Glenn Smith's front page feature article calling attention to the low number of drug treatment programs in South Carolina's prisons. However, the public should know that in Charleston County there are distinguished efforts being made to correct this insufficiency. Charleston County's Detention Center Intensive Outpatient Program helps approximately 250 inmates a year start on the road to recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Two recent studies have shown excellent success rates for the program. In one study, 76 percent of inmates, and 87 percent in another, were not reincarcerated after they completed the program and were released. [continues 125 words]
Thank you for exposing the critical lack of substance abuse treatment availability in South Carolina prisons in your June 12 article by Glenn Smith. The state's current policy on illegal drug use addresses drug addiction as a crime rather than a health issue. After years of this policy, it is clear that drug use and abuse continue unabated, though our legislators seem to be expecting a different result. I testified at a couple of S.C. legislative subcommittee hearings recently as new bills related to drug use were being considered. One bill offered time-off sentences for inmates who participated in prison substance abuse programs. I pointed out that such programs are usually not available in prison (Department of Corrections head Jon Ozmint has said only 1 percent of those in need can participate). I asked the subcommittee to amend the bill to fund and mandate treatment for all who need it in prison, and also in local jails so to prevent many people from going to prison in the first place. The legislators agreed more treatment programs are needed but told me the state cannot afford them. But apparently the state can afford to incarcerate addicted inmates. [continues 319 words]
Law enforcement officials in communities where the production, sale and use of methamphetamine have become a serious problem routinely call it a "plague." Like any other plague, the best way to protect a community from this epidemic is through preventive measures. Ninth Circuit Solicitor Ralph Hoisington has wisely taken that course in appointing a special prosecutor to handle meth cases. As Glenn Smith reported in Wednesday's Post and Courier, Assistant Solicitor Edward Knisley Jr. will now oversee those cases in an effort to nip this rising threat in the bud. The grim experiences of other jurisdictions offer ample evidence to justify this move. Mr. Hoisington explained: [continues 325 words]
The debate over medical marijuana's legality inevitably carries Drug War overtones. Certainly no responsible or persuasive appeal for allowing the medicinal use of marijuana should be confused with an appeal for removing all legal prohibitions against that drug. But neither does any reasonable assessment of marijuana's dangers support depriving the terminally ill and glaucoma patients from its use as a prescription drug under a doctor's care. The terminally ill often suffer chronic pain that can be eased only by such powerful drugs as morphine. In many cases, however, smoking marijuana is said to ease that suffering in an even more effective manner. Attempts to deliver an equal degree of pain alleviation through methods other than smoking by creating a synthetic form of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, have failed. [continues 241 words]
Monday's Supreme Court ruling against state-sanctioned medical marijuana use will keep the terminally ill and chronic pain sufferers from firing up a marijuana joint, getting stoned and, in addition to risking acute munchies, enjoying a temporary reprieve from hellish suffering. Thank G-d we've got that particular homeland security problem under control. Why, in the age of terror, one can never be too careful with dying people who have nothing left to lose. [continues 506 words]
Having to ask a pharmacist for a bottle of cold medicine is not too high a price to pay if it helps alleviate the rise in methamphetamine abuse. More than a dozen states already have laws that require retailers to sell Sudafed, Nyquil and other cold remedies only from behind the pharmacy counter. Sudafed and other cold relievers contain pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient used in "cooking" meth in makeshift labs across the nation. Now Congress is considering legislation that would make restrictions on the sale of these cold remedies a federal law. And while retailers once complained that the policy would be too inconvenient for customers, they and the pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs now seem willing to go along. [continues 164 words]
Programs For Addicts Lacking In S.C. Prisons BISHOPVILLE--The middle-aged man ran a tattooed hand through his buzz-cut hair and gently lowered his lean frame onto a white towel draped over a rusty steel bench. Placing his hands on either side of his dog-eared Bible, he sat in hazy light filtering through the thin windows beside the bunk bed in his prison cell, trying to focus on the passages and ignore the outside din. In another day, it would be over. He would step outside the maximum-security gates of Lee Correctional Institution and try to move on, 11 years of his life gone. The 45-year-old Spartanburg native was admittedly nervous. When he last saw freedom, his days were a blur of burglaries and petty thefts, stealing what he could to support his ravenous appetite for crack and powder cocaine. [continues 1995 words]
When we treat people, it is our duty to do it using as much science as possible. I still remember the woman who came to the hospital in the middle of the night for chronic headaches. Her pain was terrible, she said. She had already taken the powerful narcotics she used daily, and yet her "chronic pain" was worse. She said to me, with slurred speech, "You haave to helppp zzzzzz." And with that, she drifted off to sleep. In a person with a sudden, new onset headache, that would have been cause for alarm. It would have been reason for a CAT scan of her brain, maybe even for a lumbar puncture (spinal tap) to look for a bleeding aneurysm or meningitis. In her case, however, this was just another normal day. I looked at her husband, who said with a sigh, "Why don't I just take her on home." [continues 629 words]
Two things stand out about the recent Supreme Court decision on the medical marijuana case, Gonzales v. Raich. First, the court did not strike down any state medical marijuana laws or take away any of the protections these laws provide to patients. It did, however, leave those patients vulnerable to federal prosecution. Second, the court explicitly recognized that "marijuana does have valid therapeutic purposes," and went out of its way to note that Congress can change federal law to address this reality. [continues 72 words]
RIDGELAND -- The Ridgeland Police Department is more than $500,000 richer. The department on Friday received its share of nearly $640,000 seized during a traffic stop on Interstate 95 in 2004. A check for $511,635 was handed over by agents from the U.S. Department of Justice Drug Enforcement Administration. The $640,000 went to the government after Paul Andres Marin, 31, of Miami was pulled over by a Ridgeland police officer on Sept. 22, 2004, for speeding. Marin later pleaded guilty to money laundering, authorities said. [continues 209 words]
Justice Thomas: "Dope is cool." Justice Scalia: "Let the cancer patients suffer." If the headline writers characterized Supreme Court decisions the way many senators and most activists and lobbying groups do, that is how they would have characterized the Supreme Court decision this week on medical marijuana in California. It was ruled illegal because the federal law (prohibiting it) supersedes the state law (permitting it). Scalia agreed with the decision. Thomas dissented. In our current corrupted debates about the judges, you hear only about results. Priscilla Owen, we were told (by the Alliance for Justice), "routinely backs corporations against worker and consumer protections." Well, in what circumstances? In adjudicating what claims? Under what constitutional doctrine? [continues 659 words]
The Supreme Court's decision on marijuana will be handled the same way the 55 mph speed limit was. Mount Pleasant [end]
Time seemed stagnant for Millie Maggard Dorman as she waited for the chance to plead with a judge to keep her husband's teenage killers off the streets. On the outside, the mother of two held strong, making sure her children were shielded as much as possible from news coverage and courtroom chatter while attorneys argued about whether to try the boys as adults. But Dorman was scared. And she was angry and frustrated by the system. She longed for closure, waited for justice to be served to the teens who took the life of 42-year-old Timothy Maggard, prayed for the day she and her family could move on with their lives. [continues 2804 words]
Company Still Must Clear Hurdles Before It Can Open In Jasper County BY JESSICA FLATHMANN, The Island Packet Published Wednesday, June 8th, 2005 Recovering drug addicts throughout the Lowcountry should have better access to treatment this summer. The state gave official permission for a methadone clinic to prepare to open off of S.C. 170 in Jasper County. But before the clinic can begin operating, it needs federal approval to distribute methadone and state confirmation that it's staffed and set up properly. [continues 441 words]
Local Comment Neither North Carolina nor South Carolina is among the 10 states with medicinal marijuana legislation, in which a doctor's recommendation allows those with serious illness to use the otherwise illegal substance. Dr. John Charles, medical director of the Grand Strand Regional Medical Center, said he considers the ruling to be more a comment on states rights than about marijuana's medicinal purposes. "Most of the reasons for medicinal marijuana use is largely anecdotal," he said. "It's the case of 'nothing else worked so let's try this.' And it worked." Charles cited major illnesses as diseases in which the drug has had an effect in some patients. "It does remain sort of a drug of last resort," Charles said. [end]
JASPER COUNTY -- Recovering drug addicts throughout the Lowcountry should have better access to treatment this summer. The state gave official permission for a methadone clinic to prepare to open off of S.C. 170 in Jasper County. But before the clinic can begin operating, it needs federal approval to distribute methadone and state confirmation that it's staffed and set up properly. "We have given them a permit ... that says we're approving you to operate this type of facility," said Albert Whiteside, director of the state Department of Health and Environmental Control's Division of Planning and Certificate of Need. The approval, called a certificate of need, was issued April 26. [continues 391 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision Monday that will limit the ability of states to make their own decisions and create their own laws. The court ruled on a case regarding medicinal use of marijuana, but the case was not about marijuana. It was about whether the federal government or the people of the states have the right to make state laws. Ten states have decided to allow medicinal use of marijuana under a doctor's prescription. Federal officials object to those laws and want them to be superceded by a federal ban on the drug. [continues 318 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Monday upholding the federal government's right to prosecute all marijuana growers and users even in states with medical marijuana laws is not likely to have a big impact in South Carolina or Georgia, neither of which have such laws. But the ruling could spotlight the work of some, including a longtime Clemson University chemist's group, to create uncontroversial alternative drugs that work as well as the active ingredient in marijuana. The decision appears to chill a trend begun in 1996, when California passed its Compassionate Use Act, allowing people to grow or buy marijuana for medical use with a doctor's guidance. Now 11 states have some type of exemption for medical marijuana use, and users are caught in a state-federal power struggle. [continues 629 words]
Over the past three years, we have seen significant declines in youth drug use in America. Today, there are 600,000 fewer young people using illegal drugs than in 2001. An increasing number of young people deserves credit for making smart choices about their health and their futures. However, it must be noted that the progress we have made in reducing illegal drug use does not happen on its own. We know from 25 years of dealing with the misery of drug use that most of the work to reduce drug use in America happens at the local level. [continues 449 words]
Here we go again. Members of Congress are on the verge of passing more mandatory minimum sentencing laws. After 20 years of failure on this issue, you would think they had learned their lesson. Mandatory minimum sentences force judges to deliver fixed sentences to individuals convicted of crimes, regardless of mitigating factors. These sentences have contributed to prison overcrowding, cost taxpayers millions, failed to deter crimes and sent record numbers of women and people of color to prison. The latest congressional misadventure into mandatory minimum sentencing concerns an anti-gang bill passed recently by the House of Representatives. Called "The Gang Deterrence and Community Protection Act," it would federalize some crimes associated with gang activity, narrow the definition of a gang and apply mandatory minimum sentencing under federal law for some crimes committed by gang members and juvenile offenders. [continues 312 words]
Kerriann Evans has lived a tormented life: binges of smoking crack cocaine followed by attempts to kick the habit. Fourteen times she tried to give up crack, seeking treatment in drug rehab. Fourteen times she failed. Until Friday. That's when Evans, 41, graduated from Charleston County's Family Recovery Court, a nonprofit treatment program with a zero-tolerance approach to drug relapse. If she failed to pass, chances were the Mount Pleasant woman would never see her children again. Evans' addiction dates back 20 years. Her crack habit got so bad that she quit her day job so she could drive a taxi at night. The difference was having instant cash in her hand versus having to wait for a paycheck. "My habit or my work," she said. "I had to let one go." The treatment program helped her put her old life behind her. "They really support you. It's unbelievable," she said. Evans' two daughters, Brianna, 11, and Faith, 3, played a large part in her reaching sobriety. When her habit took over, the Department of Social Services took her girls away and gave custody to Evans' sister. Evans was not allowed to see them. [continues 346 words]
Sheriff's Office, School Team Up To Create Facility BLUFFTON -- In Sgt. Renita Berry's old laboratory, the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office chemist could stand in the middle of the room and touch every piece of equipment. Looking around her spacious new laboratory Thursday in the University of South Carolina Beaufort's south campus Science and Technology building, she said, "Here, there's more room to grow, to do your job." Berry's job is to analyze suspected illegal drugs. That's an important task because to take someone found with drugs to court, it's not enough for an officer to identify the drugs by sight. [continues 471 words]
Last week, the General Assembly came a step closer to bringing some parity to drug sentencing in the state. A bill to equalize penalties for possession of crack and powder cocaine, passed in the Senate last month, now is making its way through the House. Currently, a first-time conviction for possessing crack is a felony that carries a five-year prison sentence and a $5,000 fine. But a first-time conviction for possessing powder cocaine is only a misdemeanor and carries a two-year prison sentence and $5,000 fine. [continues 281 words]
The proliferation of meth, a severely addictive drug that users brew from cold medicine and other common chemicals, is permanently marring the Greenville homes where it's made and could soon hit taxpayers with a ballooning cleanup bill. County Councilwoman Judy Gilstrap took up the issue Tuesday and asked all 11 of her colleagues to lobby state lawmakers for stiffer penalties for methamphetamine makers. Shirbie DeWees routinely walks her Westside neighborhood with a friend and said she has recently noticed an odor like burning batteries in one area, so powerful she covers her face. The acrid smell convinced her to skip church one night for a meth awareness meeting, though she's still not sure what's happening nearby her home. [continues 426 words]
FLORENCE -- A decade ago, South Carolina and local law enforcement agencies did not spend time or resources on methamphetamine. That has changed in a hurry. There were just 10 meth labs uncovered in the Palmetto State in 2001, according to statistics from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Those numbers have grown rapidly -- 36 found in 2002, 65 in 2003 and 154 last year. "There's no telling how many of them are out there that we don't know about," Florence Police Department Sgt. John Calhoun said. On Friday, Circle Park Behavioral Health Services and the Florence County Coalition for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Prevention will hold a conference at Francis Marion University about the highly addictive drug called "Meth: What's Cooking in Your Neighborhood?" [continues 358 words]
Angela Chapman, who got her first drug high at age 14, did more than complete the 13th Judicial Circuit Adult Drug Court on Thursday. She said she took one giant step forward, something she said she's never experienced. "I had lost everything," Chapman said. "I lost my home, my children, my self-esteem." Chapman said something finally clicked after decades of abusing drugs. "I wasn't willing to do what I had to do," she said. Now, Chapman, employed in a pizza shop, said she's got her daughter, Jessica, 15, back. Now she's trying to get her son, 8, returned. [continues 279 words]
Full Government Funding Needed To Help Change Lives Beaufort County's Drug Court -- like others across the state and nation -- is working well and deserves continued full funding. The court is delivering solutions to one of society's most vexing problems: drug and alcohol abuse. It tackles the root of the problem rather than pretend it can be solved by arresting suspects time after time and throwing them in jail. The Drug Court can keep defendants out of jail, but it's not an easy way out. It has been called "Alcoholics Anonymous with teeth" because it can be both touchy-feely and threatening. The program offers intensive addiction treatment to nonviolent offenders rather than hard time. The 12- to 18-month program is costly to defendants, with a personal price tag of $1,500. They must keep a job, and commit a great deal of time and effort to changing their own lives. It involves random drug testing over a long period of time. And if participants mess up, they are dismissed and go straight to conventional sentencing with a guilty plea already on record. [continues 311 words]
Use Of Drug-Seizure Funds Questioned WALTERBORO (AP) - The Colleton County sheriff and a councilman have asked state authorities to investigate whether former Sheriff Allan Beach improperly spent any of the millions of dollars in federal drug-seizure funds his office received. The State Law Enforcement Division has been asked to investigate "possible financial improprieties" within the sheriff's office, attorney general spokesman Trey Walker said. Beach said all the money was spent using federal guidelines and he is not worried about the investigation. [continues 327 words]
System Earns Praise, Weighs Fundraising On a recent Monday at the Beaufort County Courthouse, assistant solicitor Christine Grefe sat in for the judge during county Drug Court, an alternative-sentencing program for defendants addicted to drugs or alcohol. The prosecutor listened as two counselors gave progress reports on each participant. "Doing well ... really knows how to present himself in interviews ... but still has to stay in a halfway house" was the update on one man. Another had "acclimated well" in a halfway house and recently landed a job at a Hilton Head Island restaurant. [continues 983 words]
On a recent Monday at the Beaufort County Courthouse, assistant solicitor Christine Grefe sat in for the judge during county Drug Court, an alternative-sentencing program for defendants addicted to drugs or alcohol. The prosecutor listened as two counselors gave progress reports on each participant. "Doing well ... really knows how to present himself in interviews ... but still has to stay in a halfway house" was the update on one man. Another had "acclimated well" in a halfway house and recently landed a job at a Hilton Head Island restaurant. [continues 306 words]
Make Cocaine Penalties Equal. The Legislature is close to making the penalties for both crack cocaine and powder cocaine equal, a long overdue reform that will slightly soften the penalties for crack cocaine and while stiffening the penalty for possessing the drug in its powder form. For too long the Legislature has been paralyzed on this issue, mainly because of the inherent racial element. Far more blacks use crack cocaine and far more whites use powder cocaine. Therefore, blacks have suffered far stiffer prison sentences for what is essentially the same crime. The maximum penalty for possessing crack cocaine is more than double the penalty for possessing the powdered form of the same drug. [continues 114 words]
S.C. Hounds Women But Doesn't Help With the so-called Right to Life Act, the S.C. General Assembly is sending a clear message that women, particularly pregnant women, should not expect consideration from the majority of the state's leaders. This bill, already passed in the House and soon to be considered in the Senate, establishes that the right to due process and equal protection of the law vests at fertilization. Supporters have made clear that its purpose is to lay the groundwork for outlawing abortion. [continues 575 words]
WALTERBORO--Former Colleton County Sheriff Allan Beach says he promised to use pending federal drug seizure money to pay an Alaskan-based security company $338,600 the office owes for improvements it made to the jail last year. Beach said Wednesday that "there is more than enough" seizure money due to his old department that can be used to pay back Alutiiq. He said his successor, Sheriff George Malone, should uphold the promise he made. "I think he's obligated to pay it," Beach said. If he chooses not to, "it'll just end up in court and we'll see what happens." [continues 499 words]
The 7th Circuit Solicitor's Office on Tuesday introduced a uniform plan for treating drug-addicted mothers -- and for prosecuting them if they don't complete treatment. Hospitals, police agencies and social service providers in Spartanburg and Cherokee counties have agreed to the procedures, which prosecutors are calling "Tough Love." The plan was developed after Solicitor Trey Gowdy discovered, after a Gaffney mother was charged last year with child neglect, that agencies had no consistent policy on the treatment of drug-addicted mothers and newborns. [continues 558 words]
Re "Reefer Madness," the movie that helped the people who wanted to rid the earth of natural materials: This was their proof that hemp was so dangerous; we forget that "marijuana" was made up to scare people away from its real name. Hemp was used for everything including lamp oil, clothes, sails and rope. The sails of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria were made of hemp. It is used in the Holy Bible and in currency. People believed this Grade B movie to condemn the fabric that was the best, because it doesn't shrink or rot from mold or stretch out of shape like cotton. [continues 53 words]
Program Targeting Production Of The Illegal Drug Will Be Launched Today The movement to slow the spread of methamphetamine has picked up in recent weeks locally and across the country. Today, federal and state leaders will launch the S.C. Meth Watch program, designed to deter the theft and illegal purchase of common household products used to make the drug. And S.C. legislators have joined those in 21 other states by taking up a measure that would change the way residents buy some cold medicines. [continues 548 words]
IF YOU REALLY want to talk about nonsensical disparities in the way South Carolina treats different types of crime, don't compare criminal domestic violence to cockfighting. Compare it to drug addiction. In South Carolina, first-offense simple possession of crack cocaine is a felony that can land you in prison for five years. First-offense simple criminal domestic violence is a misdemeanor that can put you behind bars for no more than 30 days. Earlier this month, the Senate voted to eliminate one disparity involving drug sentences - the one that treats the form of cocaine generally used by black people as a far greater threat than the form of cocaine generally used by white people. Under current law, while crack possession is a five-year felony, first-offense powder cocaine possession is a misdemeanor that carries up to two years in prison. The Senate bill would make first-offense possession of either form of cocaine a misdemeanor, with a sentence of up to three years in prison; a second offense would be a felony with a sentence of up to seven years in prison. [continues 422 words]
To The Packet: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Colombia, South America, this week to support continued U.S.-Colombian cooperation in the war on drugs. However, there's a major catch: the drug war in Colombia is a certified flop. Last year a record number of acres of coca, the raw material for cocaine, were sprayed with herbicide. Despite the millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars that went into supporting this policy, Colombia ended the year with slightly more coca than it had in 2003 -- and almost the exact amount that it had in 2000, when the policy began. U.S. policy also has failed to reach human rights goals; the U.N. found that in 2004, as in 2003, human rights violations (rape, torture and death) by the Colombian military are on the rise. [continues 68 words]
The Target discount-store chain has taken a bold, appropriate step to combat illegal drug labs. Let's hope other retailers take notice. Last week, Target decided it would move certain cold medicines off its shelves and behind the pharmacist's counter. The medications still will be available without a prescription, but customers will have to sign for them. Why the added trouble for shoppers? Because too often, cold tablets containing pseudoephedrine are being used to cook up illegal methamphetamines, highly addictive drugs. It's thought that those who make the drugs will be leery about signing. [continues 101 words]
A touch of a cold drove Roebuck resident Ruthie Nash to a Wal-Mart shelf about a month ago to pick up some medicine. But a new company policy -- and maybe legislation -- could mean that next time she will have to ask a pharmacist to hand her the nonprescription cold medication instead. "I would buy it, but it would take more time," Nash said. This week, Wal-Mart joined Target and a growing list of companies planning to move common cold medicines such as Sudafed and Sinutab behind the counter. [continues 806 words]
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH--Police hope to train rental property owners to try to cut down on the number of methamphetamine labs. There have been six arrests in the past year here involving meth labs or people with the materials to set up labs, said Sgt. Paul Sheets. There were 154 meth labs in South Carolina last year, more than double the number in 2003. South Carolina authorities have created a program called Methwatch to help curb the spread of meth labs. The program places signs in retail stores in hopes of deterring people from stealing potential meth ingredients, such as pseudoephedrine. [continues 179 words]
Measure would fight meth problem State lawmakers are taking notice of the growing methamphetamine problem, and local pharmacists this week said they would welcome a state law restricting the sales of over-the-counter medication used to make the illegal drug. South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster is pushing a bill that would allow customers to buy only three packages of cold medication containing pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in methamphetamine. Just this week, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue signed into law a measure putting drugs with the sole active ingredient pseudoephedrine behind the counter of retailers and pharmacies. [continues 416 words]
Few, if any, addictive drugs more vividly demonstrate the appalling depths of substance abuse than methamphetamine. The disturbing rise of "meth" in this state has prompted a response by South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster, and should prompt needed legislation. Mr. McMaster last month announced Operation "Meth Watch," an initiative that encourages retailers that sell products containing pseudoephedrine to take prudent steps against those who buy them to make meth. The attorney general tells us that part of the insidious menace posed by this drug is the ease with which it can be produced, explaining: "With cocaine, you've got to have distribution and importation networks. But anybody can make this right here for a few dollars." [continues 324 words]
For nearly two decades, the maximum penalty for possessing crack cocaine in South Carolina has been more than double that of powdered coke. The reason, according to some, is rooted in stereotypes that crack is an urban drug used mostly by the poor, while powdered cocaine is the illegal drug of choice for wealthy suburbanites. A measure quickly moving through the state Legislature would treat both addictive drugs the same -- a change advocates say corrects a knee-jerk approach to the war on drugs almost 20 years after the first crack arrests. [continues 469 words]
I was impressed by the April 6 commentary by Frank Pinckney, president of the Greenville Hospital System. He pointed out many outstanding features of the health-care services he heads, and for which this community can be grateful. However, it is disappointing that residential treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction is not among the programs he can cite. It's strange, too, because the American Medical Association long ago classified alcoholism and drug addiction as primary diseases as well as contributors to other illnesses. [continues 71 words]
FLORENCE -- Coordinators are calling the recent multi-agency interdiction effort orchestrated by the Florence County Sheriff's Office a success, one that could likely to be duplicated before the year is out. During a five-day period beginning March 28, officers on the local, state and federal levels, acting on behalf of their host agencies, performed traffic enforcement at the area's two high-traffic corridors: Interstates 95 and 20. Instructed to enforce all local, state and federal laws, they also patrolled nearby roads in search of any and all criminal activity. Meanwhile, state transport police conducted safety inspections of commercial motor vehicles, Sheriff Kenney Boone said. [continues 352 words]
Recovering drug addicts using methadone could get their treatment in Okatie starting this summer. That's because the legal battle over whether a methadone clinic should be located in Okatie, greater Bluffton or both should be coming to an end, said Jimmy Long, a Columbia lawyer representing a Pennsylvania-based group that wants to put a clinic in greater Bluffton. Judge John Geathers, with the Administrative Law Court, said last month he would issue a ruling allowing the state to consider applications for clinics in both areas separately instead of in competition with each other. [continues 392 words]
Recovering drug addicts using methadone could get their treatment in Okatie starting this summer. The legal battle over whether a methadone clinic should be located in Okatie, greater Bluffton or both should be coming to an end, said Jimmy Long, a Columbia lawyer representing a Pennsylvania-based group that wants to put a clinic in greater Bluffton. Judge John Geathers with the Administrative Law Court said last month that he would issue a ruling allowing the state to consider applications for clinics in both areas separately instead of in competition with each other. [continues 393 words]
Columbia, S.C. -- People convicted of possession or distribution of powder and crack cocaine would draw the same penalties under a bill that cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. The legislation ends years of stiffer penalties for the potent but less expensive rock form of cocaine. People arrested on cocaine charges, however, would face more prison time. A handful of legislators for years have said it makes little sense for one form of an addictive drug to have less harsh penalties to than the other. [continues 191 words]
Inside South Carolina
