Drug Policies Don't Work Tracking down drug dealers, prosecuting them and putting them in jail costs U.S. taxpayers tens of billions of dollars every year. Some people believe drug use should be decriminalized, especially for marijuana. Smoking marijuana may be less harmful than drinking beer, wine or liquor. Norm Stamper, former police chief in Seattle, takes the argument a big step further in his Oct. 16 column in the Los Angeles Times. "I don't favor decriminalization. I favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs, including heroin, cocaine, meth, psychotropics, mushrooms and LSD. ... [continues 394 words]
I know that schools and day cares will do a criminal background check, drug tests and fingerprints before they hire an employee. What I don't understand is why they don't do random drug test on all employees throughout the year? As a grandmother of little ones attending day cares and schools, I would feel more comfortable knowing the people in charge of my grandchildren are not sex offenders or drug abusers. Which is more important, the children or the cost of the background checks and drug testing? Sandy Bailey Huntington [end]
Drug dealers have abandoned Artisan Avenue in recent months. Or else they've become more discreet. In any event, efforts are under way to crack down on drug dealing in the area. Earlier this month, the Huntington Police Department, the Cabell County Sheriff's Department and the West Virginia State Police netted 19 arrests in Huntington on various drug charges in one night. Arrests are good, but convictions will be better. What is needed most, however, is for the market for illegal drugs to dry up. As long as people buy, someone will sell. [continues 52 words]
There has been plenty of bad news in recent months about illicit drug use, particularly in regard to highly destructive methamphetamine. But there's a little good news for a change from an ongoing federal survey of teenage drug and tobacco use: Fewer teens are using illegal drugs and tobacco today than was the case a few years ago. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual survey of close to 70,000 people, illegal drug use among those ages 12-17 dropped from 11.6 percent of the group to 10.6 percent-a 9 percent reduction-between 2002 and 2004. Tobacco use also declined slightly, from 30.4 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds to 29.2 percent. [continues 159 words]
PARKERSBURG - For the past 20 years, the task of combating organized drug trafficking and other illegal activity has fallen upon the shoulders of the Parkersburg Narcotics Task Force. After 20 years of investigating crimes of every variety, the task force has accumulated a storied history. Through the years, PNTF agents have faced investigations involving illegal gambling as well as all types of narcotics trafficking, including cocaine, crack, heroin, marijuana, LSD and methamphetamine. From humble beginnings as a loosely organized, informal vice squad, the task force grew into a highly structured, federally backed unit that continues to be the bane of area drug traffickers, founding members said. [continues 1174 words]
Police: Understanding Supply And Demand Key In Battle On Drugs Editor's note: This is the second story focusing on the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, a federally-funded group of specialized law enforcement officers charged with taking drugs off the streets of Four Seasons Country. The profile on the task force is part of an ongoing Princeton Times series titled Dealing with Drugs, focusing on the local issues of illegal substance abuse and trade, the crimes they often spark and the ways local authorities and citizens are fighting their presence. [continues 1244 words]
Police: Understanding Supply And Demand Key In Battle On Drugs Editor's note: This is the second story focusing on the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, a federally-funded group of specialized law enforcement officers charged with taking drugs off the streets of Four Seasons Country. The profile on the task force is part of an ongoing Princeton Times series titled Dealing with Drugs, focusing on the local issues of illegal substance abuse and trade, the crimes they often spark and the ways local authorities and citizens are fighting their presence. [continues 1248 words]
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies will be moved behind the counter starting next month, and you'll have to show identification and sign a register to buy them. Gov. Mark R. Warner signed an executive order Thursday to limit and track the sales of certain nonprescription drugs that can be used to manufacture illegal and highly addictive methamphetamine. Earlier in the day, House Speaker William J. Howell of Stafford County and other Republican legislators said they will back legislation to make the restrictions a state law. Warner's regulations will take effect Oct. 1 and would be replaced by the statute on July 1, 2006. [continues 521 words]
PRINCETON - The key to successfully investigating drug trading organizations often depends on getting inside the operations, but that's difficult to do in a uniform and a squad car. That's why units such as the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force are critically important in the fight to stem drug deals and demand on the streets of Four Seasons Country, task force Coordinator J. Centeno said this week. The six officers on the three-county force come from a variety of backgrounds and departments. The organization includes one officer each from the West Virginia State Police, Princeton Police Department, Bluefield Police Department, Mercer County Sheriff's Department, Wyoming County Sheriff's Department and the McDowell County Sheriff's Department. [continues 833 words]
In an effort to bring drug education to parents and the community, Keyser Police Captain Forrest "Buddy" Ellifritz has developed what he calls "Street Drug ID Class." "I developed the class last fall and have given it to Keyser EMS, Burlington Fire and Rescue," said Ellifritz. Ellifritz has been certified by West Virginia Law Enforcement Training Committee as a law enforcement instructor. The class educates on the different drugs and how they effect people. "I explain (law enforcement and rescue) safety precautions, what to do when they encounter people under the influence," said Ellifritz. [continues 261 words]
Sadly, numerous injured or sick Americans suffer severe pain. Sadly, many terminal patients are wracked by agony. Potent painkillers are available to ease this suffering -- but America's hysteria over narcotics interferes with their care. Conservative politicians try to prevent dying people from using marijuana medically to soothe their distress. And many doctors hesitate to prescribe adequate doses of palliatives such as OxyContin because they fear that federal drug agents may file criminal charges against them. It's true that a few patients resell their prescription painkillers as street drugs. And it may be true that an extremely rare few physicians are so hard up for income that they cooperate with this illicit traffic. But this abuse is small, compared to the giant number of patients who use painkillers correctly. [continues 203 words]
In the fight against illegal drugs, the government of Mexico for too long has been all but a bystander. The spreading scourge of methamphetamine abuse, which unlike previous waves of drug abuse readily crosses social and economic lines, has changed policymakers' willingness to tolerate Mexico's indifference. Legislation rapidly gaining support in Congress would tie foreign aid to efforts to control distribution of pseudoephedrine, an essential ingredient of meth. Mexico imports far more of the chemical than plausibly could be used legitimately, and much of U.S. meth trafficking is supplied by so-called "superlabs" in Mexico. Under legislation sponsored by Rep. Mark Kennedy, R-Minn., top importers and exporters of pseudoephedrine would be subject to extra scrutiny. The president would have to certify that such countries are taking adequate measures to fight meth trafficking or else reduce U.S. foreign aid. In other contexts this might be called "pay for performance." Want U.S. taxpayers to bankroll subsidies for your country? Then help us fight meth. The measure was added to the State Department's budget bill in a lopsided House vote, and it now awaits Senate action. [continues 222 words]
Kudos To Officials For Pot, Trash Removal Area law enforcement officers have been busy during the past several days in an effort to clean up the area of marijuana crops and trash. In McDowell County, an estimated street value of marijuana plants of more than $20 million were found, and eradicated. This find is expected to take the bite out of this year's McDowell County marijuana crop and follows a series of discoveries of small crops throughout the region. Also, State Senate Majority Leader H. Truman Chafin took Sheriff Danny Wills up in his King Airplane to look for junk and refuse that has been discarded illegally in Mercer County. This is part of a major emphasis that the sheriff's department has placed on clean up of illegal dumps and other illegal sites where waste has been discarded. [continues 85 words]
Billions For What? Average folks find it hard to understand why a small minority of Americans desire to dope themselves into oblivion with narcotics. But this need is quite real, because illicit drugs are a gigantic U.S. industry, and the police war on drugs is a billion-dollar public burden. The narcotics realm keeps evolving. A few years ago, heroin was the favorite mind-blaster, then crystallized "crack" cocaine grabbed the spotlight, then OxyContin painkillers took center stage, and now "meth labs" making methamphetamine are the current menace. All the while, mild marijuana remains a bigger mainstay than the others. [continues 360 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A pilot and former House of Delegates candidate will spend 15 months in prison for a federal drug charge. Hal Clay Nease III, 55, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court in Charleston after pleading guilty in May to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. After his prison term is up, Nease must spend six months on supervised release. He also was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine. Nease was convicted of cocaine trafficking in 1986 during a massive federal crackdown on cocaine users that also led to the arrest of former Charleston Mayor Mike Roark. [continues 63 words]
WELCH - While it would have most likely lasted a lot longer if it was torched in the illegal manner, it still took West Virginia state troopers almost an entire shift to destroy more that $21 million worth of pot seized during two days of marijuana eradication raids earlier this week. "We started burning the marijuana at 5 p.m. (Thursday evening), and we were done at midnight," Sgt. W.C. Tupper, co-commander of the Welch Detachment said. "It was so heavy and green that we had to keep turning it in order to destroy all of it." [continues 57 words]
After just one month, law enforcement officials report a new law that limits purchases of methamphetamine's main ingredient is already working to combat meth labs. Since July 8, consumers have been restricted in the amount of pseudoephedrine-laced medicines - common cold and allergy medicines - they could buy. The intent of the new law was to aid in the fight against methamphetamine, a cheap and easy-to-make drug that can cause more damage to the brain than alcohol, heroin or cocaine. [continues 633 words]
PARKERSBURG - Teen drug use continues to be an issue in the Mid-Ohio Valley, officials said this week. Patrice Zucker, executive director of the Mid-Ohio Valley Fellowship Home, said it seems youths are abusing "harder" drugs these days. "I have a background in adolescent addiction. I think that it's a very present problem. If there's a trend I've seen in the last decade, it's that the amount and the intensity of the substances that are abused have worsened. They're getting into the tougher stuff quicker," she said Friday. [continues 626 words]
A convicted drug dealer implicated in the April murder of a federal informant was himself helping authorities as they investigated cocaine trafficking in Mingo County, court filings show. George M. "Porgy" Lecco was also allowed to keep some of the drugs investigators found when they raided his Red Jacket pizza parlor in February, one U.S. District Court filing alleges. Lecco, 56, has not been charged in the murder of Carla Collins, but a sworn statement from one investigator labels him her alleged killer. Jailed since May 4 on pending drug charges, Lecco was unavailable for comment Thursday. His lawyers, the federal public defender's office, did not respond to requests for comment. [continues 653 words]
A Summersville man's charred body was found late last month, and State Police believe he was shot and burned over a disputed drug deal. Just like this incident, drugs are at the root of most crimes, according to police and prosecutors. Kenneth Michael Belknap, 54, and his son, James Roy Belknap, 19, of Leivasy, were jailed on first-degree murder and kidnapping charges in the death of 24-year-old Richard Parnell. Ron Booker is commander of the TRIDENT drug task force. Addicts, he said, will constantly shoplift and steal and then sell or trade the stolen items for drugs. [continues 614 words]
Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Miller plans no shift in policy, now that he has taken the reins from Kasey Warner. "The focus of the office is not going to change," the Putnam County native said Monday. "We're going to pursue violations of federal law where we find them. Drugs and violent crimes that we have federal jurisdiction over and public corruption are priorities of this office." Miller couldn't comment on the specifics of Warner's departure, saying only, "He left this morning. That's about all I can tell you. All I know is they contacted me and told me I am the acting U.S. Attorney." [continues 280 words]
PARKERSBURG - Wood County commissioners agreed Monday to grant a request for $43,625 to cover lost grant funding in the prosecutor's office. During a meeting last week, Conley told commissioners she needed $36,316 to help pay salaries that were part of the lost grant funds. She informed the commission Monday, the total needed, including benefits would be $43,625. The commissioners voted unanimously to allocate the funds, with the stipulation if the Drug Task Force grant furnds ($20,800) come through, that amount would be subtracted from the allocation. The funding through the drug task force grant helps partially pay for an assistant prosecutor's salary who handles drug cases. [continues 494 words]
Lately, it seems as though you can't turn on the local news without hearing about a meth lab bust somewhere in Kanawha County. Meth, short for methamphetamine, is a drug that has gone from relative obscurity to center stage in the past few years, and local law enforcement is doing everything it can to stop the problem. On Feb. 1, Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford partnered with Mike Agnello of WCHS Talk Radio 58 to educate the public on the dangers of meth. The two created the program "What's up with meth?" which they have since taken to schools and churches throughout Kanawha County. [continues 435 words]
Now Congress Is Considering Adopting A New Law From The States For several years now, people have used common products to cook up a powerful drug in their homes. The epidemic of methamphetamine that has hit the nation has concentrated largely in rural areas. Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Nik Green was shot and killed on the day after Christmas 2003 on a traffic check. An investigation of the trunk of the car revealed the driver was about to set up a meth lab. [continues 315 words]
City Must Begin Fight For Neighborhoods People shouldn't have to live like this: Bluefield residents are fighting their own neighborhood wars against thieves, drug dealers, and general human vermin. It's high time for all of us to get involved in taking back our streets, our neighborhoods, our towns, our sanity. A news report by Bill Archer in Monday's Daily Telegraph - bannered "We want to take our neighborhood back" and headlined "Highland Avenue residents call for a crackdown on 'Crack Alley' '' - should shock everyone. [continues 479 words]
The letter recently published comparing the Prohibition of alcohol and drugs is right on target. Until we remove the $250 billion profit per year from the drug scene, we will have no progress toward its reduction. Until all drugs are made noncriminal, medical, and free, it will only get worse. All of the crime is because of the amount of money in drugs. Drug rehab costs $10,000 (1997 costs per year per the attached) and at least $25,000 (again 1997 costs) per year to keep a drug offender in jail. I prefer fewer drug addicts, but really prefer their having the opportunity for free medical treatment or continuing their habit at our expense no charge so the entire money and criminal element is eliminated. Herbert Colker Huntington [end]
In a July 19 letter to The Herald-Dispatch titled "With Drug Trade, Too Many Look Other Way," the writer ironically touches on the absurdity of laws that have resulted in thousands of deaths and millions of incarcerations, yet calls the comparison of the drug war to the Holocaust absurd. For the record, many millions of Americans die each decade from the use of legal alternatives to marijuana. At any given time, more than 2 million are behind bars for drugs, their lives destroyed, businesses ruined and possessions confiscated, all because our "leaders" look the other way. [continues 93 words]
You can call it by a plethora of names -- pot, herb, weed, boom or even the popular 1960s-born slang term, "Mary Jane." Whatever moniker is applied to the leaves and flower of the hemp plant Cannabis sativa -- some 200 are available -- there's one thing you're not apt to call marijuana in West Virginia -- legal. Or a source of revenue. Yet, new research conducted at the university level suggests West Virginia is shelling out mega-bucks each year in a futile war to dry up fields of marijuana, long considered the state's biggest cash crop, while missing out on a potential tax windfall. [continues 947 words]
Marijuana can get you in a heap of trouble in West Virginia. Simple possession is a misdemeanor, but it can net an offender a jail term of 90 days to six months, along with a $1,000 fine. Drug paraphernalia constitutes a separate offense, but the punishment is a bit steeper -- jail time of six months to a full year and a maximum fine of $5,000. >From there on, the crimes are considered worse, and, hence, the punishment grows tougher. [continues 314 words]
Kanawha Sheriff Says Calls To Hotline And Arrests Are Down A new law that limits the amount of medicine containing pseudoephedrine a consumer can buy apparently is having a chilling effect on the state's burgeoning methamphetamine problem. Kanawha County Sheriff Mike Rutherford said he's seen less meth activity in the county. "We've gone from busting three or four labs a day to busting two or three labs a week," said Rutherford, who vowed to address the county's meth problem when he took office earlier this year. [continues 483 words]
The crack cocaine trade is violent. The White House has labeled marijuana as the nation's most substantial drug problem. County sheriffs throughout the United States, however, see the methamphetamine trade as a bigger problem. For some lucky reason, the meth trade hasn't hit Cabell County as hard as it has neighboring counties. Part of that could be the flourishing crack trade here. Or the meth is here, and we just don't know about it, yet. But we can't expect meth to avoid us forever. [continues 257 words]
If an employer suspects that people are using illegal drugs in the workplace, does the employer have a right to use surveillance technology to catch lawbreakers who may be endangering their co-workers by getting high on the job? According to the National Labor Relations Board and the D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, no. The facts in a case decided by the court are these: Anheuser-Busch suspected that some brewery workers were using an elevator control room to smoke marijuana during work hours, so the company installed a tiny surveillance camera. [continues 225 words]
MARTINS FERRY - After growing concern over drug-impaired drivers, Belmont County's prosecutor and police chiefs have teamed to obtain drug testing devices for each county police agency. Belmont County Prosecutor Chris Berhalter on Tuesday announced that testing kits to determine drug use by impaired drivers will be issued to every law enforcement agency in Belmont County. The announcement was made at a news conference at the Martins Ferry City Building, and Berhalter said the kits will be distributed to county police departments through the Ohio State Highway Patrol. The Ohio State Highway Patrol Crime Lab has also agreed to perform testing on those kits. Berhalter said he sought the kits for Belmont County police departments after speaking to Martins Ferry Police Department Sgt. John Bumba who told Berhalter the department has had an increasing problem with motorists driving under the influence of drugs and not just alcohol. [continues 243 words]
This is a reply to a recent column concerning the seizure of property from landlords who rent to drug dealers. There are other ways to do background checks on potential renters other than the magistrates' office. It can be done on the Internet, by public records and having the renter sign a release of information to check his/her background. If he/she does not sign, don't rent. Also, there is eviction. It's always better if someone else can be blamed. The police never have been and never will be the answer to the drug problem. The answer is in the people - their beliefs, hearts and minds. The drug problem is so bad because too many people have looked the other way for far too long. [continues 106 words]
The editorial opinion given by The Herald-Dispatch on cracking down on landlords and confiscating their property is totally correct as long as the same rules apply to city, county, state and federal housing authorities. Imagine every time there is a drug bust in a Section 8 housing property, we the people will be able to evict, confiscate and, according to a recent Supreme Court decision, develop the property into something useful and profitable. We can't just arrest, evict and rent the property out again. Forfeiture is the only answer, since our government won't do background checks on their tenants or more importantly, random drug test on all Section 8 residents and welfare recipients. Why should we expect more out of private landlords than we expect out of our tax-supported welfare landlords? Sam Hogsett Crown City, Ohio [end]
Recently in The Herald-Dispatch, there was a story on the awareness meeting held on behalf of the drug and violence problems in our area and there were a few small pictures of various individuals with a small quote from each one of them. One of the quotes from a gentleman was, "Why would someone work at McDonald's for minimum wage when he can deal drugs and make $3,000 a weekend?" Well, if that's the perspective people are going to use, I guess we're all in a lot of trouble. [continues 93 words]
McDowell Raids Need Public Support Marijuana may be a profitable enterprise for those who have yet to be caught by the long arm of the law, but it is one business we do not want operating in the Mountain State. This week, the West Virginia State Police launched a public awareness campaign encouraging the public to report sightings of marijuana plants. "We're beginning our marijuana eradication season, and are looking for tips from the public," Trooper A.H. Young, with the Princeton Detachment of the West Virginia State Police, told the Daily Telegraph. [continues 318 words]
WELCH - Authorities in McDowell County are experiencing "marijuana-mania," as they again uncovered several thousand dollars worth of the illegal plants. Although the peak growing season is still weeks away, authorities have located marijuana plants in five different locations across the county in the past few days. The most recent plants were discovered by Deputy R.K. Auville with assistance by the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force, Sheriff Danny Mitchell said. "We are not in the peak season yet," Mitchell said. "We won't hit the peak season until August. But what you are getting is your small plants. You are getting them in their first stages of growth. We have been lucky. We've had a lot of information from people in the communities that are helping us out and help us to take care of the problem." [continues 275 words]
A recent letter writer makes a fundamental error thinking that a "united front" or tougher law enforcement will ever stop the illegal drug trade. Drug prohibition laws contain the seeds of their own defeat in the fact that a drug ban provides the price subsidy that enables the criminal black market. Prohibition laws do not work because they increase the market price of the product being banned dozens of times. No amount of law enforcement can stop the competition for easy drug profits made possible by misguided laws. [continues 111 words]
CHARLESTON - Lawmakers were told by officials with the Department of Health and Human Resources' that each county's Child Protective Services Division doesn't handle all cases the same. "Every county handles them differently," said Paula Taylor, a social services coordinator for Monongalia and Marion counties. Taylor was responding to a question from a member of the Legislature's special committee on Child Protective Services, which met Monday during legislative interim sessions. "Because of different judges in different counties, cases such as a baby born addicted to drugs could be handled differently," Taylor said. "For example, in Monongalia County, the court system doesn't want to hear about it until something happens with the baby, but in Marion County the fact the baby was born addicted to drugs is enough for them to file to take custody of the baby." [continues 472 words]
States Are Being Overwhelmed By The Children Of Addicted Parents Major newspapers have focused attention on the crystal meth problem that has hit rural America. It's created a huge new social problem -- meth orphans. Parents addicted to crystal meth neglect their children, failing to feed them or otherwise care for them, often exposing them to pornography or sexual abuse. Eventually, the state must step in. Kate Zernike of the New York Times visited a shelter in Tulsa, Okla., that is supposed to house 38 children for 24 hours until foster care can be arranged. [continues 332 words]
Laws dealing with criminal matters are written with the intent to protect the innocent citizens from the criminal element. Most laws do this. However, many of the laws do this while at the same time inconveniencing the very people the laws are written to protect. On Friday, we will again witness this when a law official comes on the books to combat the making of methamphetamine. Last week, on July 8, all stores selling any over-the-counter cold and allergy medication in which pseudoephedrine is the single active ingredient was required to be moved from the shelves to the counter. Before a sale can be made, stores require a picture ID, a signature and a reporting of the sale to the state Pharmacy Board. In addition, customers are only be allowed to purchase up to three packages of the drug every month. And, because of the limited amount of counter space at pharmacies, the fear is many drug stores will now carry fewer brands of these cold medications. [continues 363 words]
Tom Johnson, the U.S. attorney who has proposed to solve the drug trafficking problem in our cities and states by seizing landlords' properties, was born too late. He would have been right at home in Germany 1939, taking property and possessions from the Jews. I am a landlord who has cooperated with the police on local, county, state and federal levels with regard to drug activity for 25 years and have provided information, sometimes at personal risk to myself and family. [continues 412 words]
Criminals from other states who want to buy guns have learned that West Virginia is open for business. And drugs are the desired tender. The gun-and-drugs link keeps law enforcement officers, prosecutors and the courts busy. But U.S. Attorney Kasey Warner said he is trying to send a strong message to criminals. "We're focusing very hard on gun crimes," said Warner. "And I think the word is on the street. Our prosecutions are way up. We're never going to do away with it entirely, but I think we are no-nonsense about guns." Warner admits that West Virginia is a place where plenty of guns are owned, used and sold. And that means criminals from other states often buy guns here. "There are just certain pockets where people own large numbers of firearms, and West Virginia is one of them," said Warner. "It's easy to get guns here. There's a very robust firearms trade in this state. [continues 449 words]
Wheeling Island Was A Haven For Narcotics And Prostitution, Until Property Owners Traded Information And Stopped Renting To Suspected Criminals. The vicious circle of guns, drugs and violence has gripped many West Virginia communities. Small wonder, when you look at the stakes. A well-supplied, big-city drug dealer can make more than $100,000 a month in West Virginia. If he can get illegal guns while he's here and get back home alive, he could quadruple his money. It's a short, violent life, but one that kids trapped in shattered cities find hard to resist. But for the innocent people, there is no upside. [continues 515 words]
Purchase Will Also Require Signature Starting Friday Want to buy some cold medicine? Step right up and sign the logbook. Starting Friday, the purchase of some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies will require a picture ID, a signature and reporting to the state Pharmacy Board, all in an effort to control the spread of illegal methamphetamine labs in West Virginia. West Virginia is the latest state to seek to control pseudoephedrine - -- found in some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies. The chemical can be extracted and used to make methamphetamine. [continues 525 words]
Purchase Of Some Cold Remedies To Require Picture ID, Signature Want to buy some cold medicine? Step right up and sign the logbook. Starting Friday, the purchase of some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies will require a picture ID, a signature and reporting to the state Pharmacy Board, all in an effort to control the spread of illegal methamphetamine labs in West Virginia. West Virginia is the latest state to seek to control pseudoephedrine - -- found in some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies. The chemical can be extracted and used to make meth. [continues 525 words]
Police officers say West Virginia is a great place for crooks to do business. And they worry the murders of four teenagers may just be the beginning. Law-abiding West Virginians may struggle to lure employers here, but for out-of-state dope pushers and gun runners, our state is a great place to do business. Every day, in every city in West Virginia, we're importing and exporting danger. The people on the front lines say if this keeps up, the murders of four teenagers in Huntington could be just the beginning. [continues 574 words]
Huntington landlords might want to watch what could be the next arena in the fight against illegal drugs. Tom Johnston, the U.S. attorney for West Virginia's Northern District, would like to see tougher penalties for landlords who allow drug dealers to operate out of rental property. Johnston would like to see more property confiscated and see the forfeiture laws that apply to drug dealers' homes apply to the landlords who lease houses or apartments to dealers, according to The State Journal newspaper. [continues 237 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Want to buy some cold medicine in West Virginia? Step right up and sign the logbook. Starting Friday, the purchase of some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies will require a picture identification, a signature and reporting to the state Pharmacy Board, all in an effort to control the spread of illegal methamphetamine labs. West Virginia is the latest state to seek to control pseudoephedrine, found in some over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies. The chemical can be extracted and used to make methamphetamine. [continues 459 words]
Inside West Virginia
