Armed Traffic Stop Leads To Drug Fugitive's Arrest [ Photo- Morgantown Police Department officers S.E. Carl (above, from left) and J.H. Wells take up positions behind a cruiser so they can cover canine officer C. Lott and his police dog, Yukon. Lott and Yukon prepare to approach a stopped car on Cherry Street suspected to contain a fugitive wanted in Pennsylvania. The man was not in the car, but was captured later in Granville. Morgantown Police detective P.D. Mezzannotte (below, right) interviews one of two men who were in the Jeep that was stopped by MPD units on Cherry Street. One of the men was arrested for marijuana possession.] [continues 557 words]
TUNNELTON -- Preston sixth-graders agree that Preston Sheriff's Deputy Sgt. Bob Baylor is pretty funny, but he carries a serious message. "Snuff has battery acid in it," South Preston Middle School sixth-grader Cody Haskiell said. "And cigarettes have a lot of stuff in them," added his classmate, Ashley Johnson. "Smoking can kill you really fast," Summer Adams threw in, while Samantha Martin threw in the ultimate message "Don't do drugs!" Baylor was proud as he handed out T-shirts, rulers and diplomas to the 67 students at South during the school's Drug Abuse Resistance Education graduation ceremony. [continues 328 words]
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A desire to discourage drug use among students is not a sufficient reason to justify 'suspicionless' drug screening targeted at student-athletes, parking-permit holders and extracurricular-activity participants, the state Supreme Court ruled. The justices turned down the Delaware Valley School District's attempt to have a lawsuit in Pike County dismissed, meaning a legal challenge seeking to block the testing filed by two sisters -- who had passed the drug screening and have since graduated -- and their parents can proceed. [continues 294 words]
Regina D. McKnight was found guilty in 1991 of killing a fetus by using cocaine. Surveys in California have put the number of women who take illegal drugs during pregnancy at about 11 percent. NEW YORK (KRT)-- Stacey Gilligan is accused of drinking so much vodka during her eighth month of pregnancy that her baby was born drunk. Tayshea Aiwohi is charged with consuming such huge amounts of crystal meth while she was pregnant that her son died of methamphetamine poisoning two days after his birth. [continues 1014 words]
BOSTON -- After all these years, I have finally come up with the definition of a liberal wimp. It's someone who feels sorry for Rush Limbaugh. Here is a man who has kept 20 million dittoheads on a closed loop of right-wing rhetoric for three hours a day, five days a week, for 15 years. Here is a man for whom the word "bombastic" was invented. Imagine what he would say about some "feminazi" caught popping 30 illegal pills a day. Imagine how forgiving he would be to an "environmental wacko" scoring OxyContin while tree-hugging. Or any liberal who had to be outed by the National Enquirer before he took "full responsibility for my problem." [continues 646 words]
The U.S. response to Canada potentially decriminalizing personal use of cannabis ("Patients getting government-grown pot in Canada," Aug. 27), is a serious threat. The article said, "U.S. officials have warned of tighter border security if Canada takes that step," and this is alarming for a number of reasons. First, many American states have already decriminalized cannabis, including Alaska. The Alaska Court of Appeals unanimously declared in an opinion released Aug. 29: Adults can possess up to 4 ounces of marijuana, for personal use in their home, because the state's interest in prohibiting them from doing so is not great enough to violate a citizen's right to privacy. [continues 117 words]
TORONTO -- Jari Dvorak scored two ounces of pot Tuesday and lit up, but -- unlike in the past -- the deal involved no back alley exchange or hiding from police. This time, the 62-year-old Dvorak went to a doctor to pick up his supply, making him one of the first patients to receive government-grown marijuana. He paid $245, tax included. "I just smoked some and it's doing the trick," said the HIV-positive Dvorak, one of several hundred Canadians authorized to use medical marijuana for pain, nausea and other symptoms of catastrophic or chronic illness. [continues 187 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- California and other states that want to make marijuana available to sick or dying patients are flouting federal drug laws in much the same way that Southern states defied national civil rights laws, a senior Bush administration lawy er said. California is ground zero in a long tug of war with the federal government over the medical value of marijuana and the power of state governments and voters to make exceptions for people who may benefit from the illegal drug. [continues 329 words]
Molly Ivins was right to describe U.S. drug policy as "odd" and "tragicomic" ("Fear of crack worse than drug itself," July 13). But things are even worse than she described. Arrests for possession of marijuana -- a drug that has never, ever caused a fatal overdose and which has been repeatedly shown to be less addictive than tobacco and alcohol -- soared past 640,000 in both 2000 and 2001. While White House Drug Czar John Walt ers continues to crank up the "reefer madness" hysteria, other nations -- Canada, Great Britain and Belgium are among the latest -- have taken a sober look at the scientific data and moved toward ending arrests for marijuana possession. [continues 76 words]
AUSTIN, Texas It's an odd country, really. Our largest growth industries are gambling and prisons. But as you may have heard, crimes rates are dropping. We're not putting people into prison for hurting other people. We're putting them into prison for using drugs, and as we already know, that doesn't help them or us. Our entire system of criminal justice is becoming more and more bizarrely prosecutorial -- a federal court has just held that the Miranda rule no longer applies. (That decision, by the way, was the result of a case brought by the Landmark Legal Foundation , the right-wing outfit that gets money from the same Richard Mellon Scaife so notable in the apparently endless effort to get President Clinton.) [continues 779 words]
A 13-year-old girl was jumped in Cleveland last month. Last week, charges were filed against her alleged assailants -- all 18 of them. According to authorities quoted in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, the girl's heritage was the catalyst for the beating. She's white, and apparently, some kids in Cleveland have a bizarre tradition that May 1 is Beat Up A White Kid Day. I'm not making this up. The unnamed girl is recuperating, and her accused attackers -- 12 girls, six boys, all black or Hispanic between the ages of 9 and 15 -- are facing charges of felonious assault, aggravated riot and ethnic intimidation. [continues 588 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. officials, already concerned about illegal drugs coming across the Canadian border, are warning that a Canadian plan to decriminalize marijuana use could lead to more inspections and long border delays. ''We don't want the northern border to be a trafficking route for drugs,'' said Asa Hutchinson, undersecretary for border and transportation security for the Department of Homeland Security. Hutchinson and other U.S. officials say the Canadian proposal is especially troublesome, considering how drug seizures along the vast northern border soared following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks -- in part because of heightened security. The amount of marijuana seized from Canada quadrupled in the year after the attacks. [continues 63 words]
Customs Officer Makes Good Find at Marion Shelter Nearly a year ago on the nose, Braddock got a new leash on life. Braddock's boundless energy is most likely what landed him in the Marion County pound in the first place, but it was also his ticket out. Because boundless energy, said U.S. Customs supervisory canine enforcement officer Ed Hoisington, is exactly what the customs department is looking for. Braddock, a German shepherd mix, first made the acquaintance of the Marion County Humane Society in January 2002 when he was brought in as a stray. But luckily for Braddock, Hoisington was close by, on one of his many procurement runs in the area. [continues 588 words]
To the Editor: It's hard to pay taxes when you know your tax monies are being wasted. That's why I was among the members of Families Against Mandatory Minimums handing out literature to taxpayers mailing their tax forms Wednesday. Some 55 percent of federal prisoners serve mandatory minimum drug sentences, which are determined solely by the weight and type of drug or the presence of a firearm during a felony offense. Nearly 88 percent are nonviolent offenders, and a majority are drug abusers. Yet five-, 10- and 20-year sentences are commonplace. [continues 144 words]
To the Editor: Kudos to Jack Anderson for his thoughtful article, "Criminalization of Personal Behavior Crowds Prisons," on Monday (April 14). An aspect of the drug war he didn't address is the collateral damage, which our most weak and vulnerable citizens become in our pursuit of sobriety. Sick and dying patients are denied safe and effective medicine, while we wage an unwinnable "war on marijuana." "Drug Czar" John Walters continues, unconscionably, to order the arrest and imprisonment of good, honest, tax-paying citizens in California and elsewhere, for simply wanting to take a medicine that lets them live. [continues 204 words]
As we win the war in Iraq, we should take a moment to consider another war here at home, a war we are losing and will always lose: the drug war. The number of people incarcerated in America passed the 2 million mark last year and continues to climb even as violent crime rates go down. Almost 60 percent of prisoners serving time in federal facilities are there for drug violations -- often minor ones. This is a sorry situation that we have brought upon ourselves in a puritanical quest to control personal behavior, albeit a behavior we abhor. [continues 563 words]
In the early '90s, I chaired the Governor's Committee on Crime, Delinquency and Corrections. In that role, prior to serving in the Legislature, I learned a lot about our state's prisons and jails, and our correctional system. A few years ago I was tasked with the responsibility of addressing some of the prison overcrowding issues and criminal sentencing laws in West Virginia. Over the past interim we conducted extensive study of our sentencing, our prisons and our new community corrections programs. [continues 717 words]
IRWIN, Pa. (AP) -- Some customers at an alleged Westmoreland County head shop targeted in a national drug paraphernalia sweep were arrested for trying to buy paraphernalia while a raid was being conducted, authorities said. North Huntingdon Township police Chief Charles Henaghan said his local officers were assisting federal agents when they made several arrests at a store called Heads-N-Threads on Monday. The arrests occurred as customers continued to come into the shop while uniformed police and federal drug agents swarmed the store, Henaghan said. Police said some customers had drugs on them. [continues 141 words]
Helicopter Gives Imaginations A Whirl At Local Schools Morgantown Police DARE Officer Joel Smith (left) and Officer M. Charlton show off a helicopter used for drug investigations as part of the DARE program at St. Francis Elementary School Wednesday. The officers also visited North Elementary with the copter Wednesday. The If you think standing around in a snowy field being swathed in sub-zero freezing winds Wednesday sounds like torture, you aren't a fifth-grader at St. Francis Central Catholic or North Elementary schools. [continues 280 words]
PARKERSBURG (AP) -- A Wood County grand jury has cleared a county sheriff's captain of wrongdoing in the shooting death of a suspected drug dealer. Capt. Rick Woodyard shot Bryan Paul Causey on Dec. 18 after officers tried to purchase methamphetamine from the 33-year-old South Charleston man. Causey was shot during a chase as he tried to get his pickup out of a ditch. Woodyard's shot hit Causey in the arm, but the bullet fragmented and a piece struck his heart. After reviewing the case, the grand jury found Thursday that the shooting was necessary and appropriate to protect other law enforcement officers. [end]
PRINCETON (AP) -- Tougher penalties for methamphetamine producers and a clarification on when drunken drivers must submit to blood tests are on county prosecutors' legislative wish list. The West Virginia Prosecuting Attorneys Association says current state law covering the manufacture of methamphetamine is broad and isn't distinguished from the manufacturing of controlled substances like marijuana. "The dangers in the manufacture of meth, coupled with the seriousness of the problem," are reasons the law needs to be updated, said Bill Sadler, prosecuting attorney for Mercer County and the association's vice president. [continues 218 words]
Authorities Set Up Checkpoint Near Rally for Marijuana Reform in Summer of 2001 CHARLESTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union sued State Police and the Barbour County Sheriff's Department Thursday for allegedly operating an illegal drug roadblock last year. The lawsuit, filed by ACLU attorneys Allan Karlin and Jason Huber on behalf of Thomas Thacker and Brett Gasper, accuses police of operating the checkpoint near a rally organized by marijuana law reform advocates. "The authorities established this roadblock without cause and in clear violation of the fundamental Fourth Amendment right of all Americans to be free from arbitrary government intrusion," said Andrew Schneider, executive director of ACLU West Virginia. [continues 235 words]
HOLYOKE, Mass. (AP) -- The Department of Social Services is looking into a possible case of child abuse after a 4-year-old girl brought her teacher a small bag of marijuana as a gift. When Head Start Early Childhood Center teacher Iris Galvez asked where she got the gift Monday, the girl said she got it "from her mommy," according to a police report obtained by the Union-News of Springfield. The girl's mother, Shelin Colon, 32, said she doesn't have any drugs in the house and doesn't know where the girl might have gotten the marijuana, police said. No charges have been filed. A report of suspected child abuse or neglect has been filed with Social Services, a department spokesman said. Suzanne L. Parker, deputy director of the area Head Start program, declined to comment. [end]
On college campuses across America, a killer lurks. This predator often overtakes its victims unsuspectingly, inflicting injury on young people who believe they are invincible. The effects are long-lasting. The scars are real. Alcohol abuse is arguably one of the biggest problems facing college administrators today. In an effort to find answers to this age-old perplexity, representatives from all of West Virginia's colleges and universities along with city leaders and law enforcement personnel will gather next year for a meeting of the minds. West Virginia University welcomes this summit on underage and high-risk drinking, and looks forward to the sharing of successful initiatives and new ideas. [continues 588 words]
Twenty-two-year-old Gabe Friedberg may have read Hunter S. Thompson, but his personality couldn't have been more different from the wild, crazy journalist known for his outrageous antics and vast drug experimentation. Gabe was quiet -- a writer, like Thompson -- but deep and introspective rather than brash and boisterous. His father, WVU law professor Jim Friedberg, said Gabe was an artistic, developing writer who identified with beat poets like Jack Kerouac and lyricis ts like Bob Dylan. And maybe that identification, that desire to look inside himself, inside of life, led to his decision to try heroin. [continues 652 words]
KEYSER (AP) -- A dozen Keyser High School students accused of taking prescription drugs brought to school by another student have been suspended for the rest of the school year. The students allegedly took the drugs Oct. 4, said Mineral County Sheriffs Deputy Craig Fraley. Teachers noticed some of the students were displaying a change in behavior after having an adverse reaction to the drugs, said Fraley, a resource officer at the school. ''We contacted their parents and they took them to the hospital,'' he said. [continues 114 words]
The hills of Morgantown form a quiet community, but not one impervious to the world's ills many think exist only in the "big city." The word 'heroin' may conjure up images of rock stars and street people for some, but the recent death of Gabriel Friedberg, makes it apparent the big city is never far away. Friedberg, a 22-year-old WVU student, succumbed to a heroin overdose on Sept. 3, said his father, WVU law professor James Friedberg. [continues 476 words]
WVU President: -- 'There's A Startling Realization That The Drug Culture Is A Part Of America' WVU President David Hardesty said his first reaction when he heard what caused the death of 22-year-old WVU student Gabriel Friedberg -- an apparent heroin overdose -- was deep sadness. "We're parents of children Gabe's age. My son knew Gabriel," he said. "We know his parents (WVU law professor James Friedberg and former city councilwoman Helen Friedberg), and we know they are good parents, and we knew that he was a good young man." [continues 468 words]
Jails are overflowing and we need more space In West Virginia, we have more prisoners than we have prisons, a challenge that is likely to worsen in coming years. So let's get creative. Today, nearly 900 convicted felons -- murderers, rapists and kidnappers -- stay in regional and county jails. Law enforcement officials say that number could climb to 2,000 in eight years. They also say those offenders do not belong in local jails, where s ervices are limited and cell space is at a premium. [continues 393 words]
Late-night comedians have the drug hungers of Noelle Bush, daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and niece of the nation's president, George W. Bush, to kick around some more. But let's get serious for a moment. Noelle, 25, needs help. She has, in the parlance of these times, ''issues.'' She was found with crack cocaine in her shoe last Monday night (Sept. 9) at a drug treatment center in Orlando where she was in a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program. [continues 588 words]
Also Listed Near Top For Packing Stadiums The amount of marijuana smoked at WVU was determined by a survey of students by the Princeton Review. The American Medical Association, among other organizations, discounts the accuracy of the annual rankings. WVU is one of the top 20 higher learning institutions nationwide, according to this year's Princeton Review college rankings. But this type of higher learning, not sanctioned or condoned by the university, stems from an extracurricular course: Pot Smoking 420. The Princeton Review, a test-preparation and college admissions company, has ranked WVU No. 16 for "Reefer Madness" -- pot smoking among students. [continues 675 words]
State College, Pa. -- Ecstasy dealers would face the same penalties as heroin dealers under a bill sponsored by a Centre County lawmaker. Republican Sen. Jake Corman, joined by county District Attorney Ray Gricar and state Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial nominee Mike Fisher, said Tuesday the bill would help convince Ecstasy users that the drug is not harmless. "I think it's a drug that has not been taken as seriously as it should be by our young people," Corman said. "This drug has been looked at as sort of harmless." [continues 51 words]
LONDON (AP)-- Prime Minister Tony Blair's government moved Wednesday to relax its laws on marijuana, stopping short of legalization but guaranteeing most users will get off with just a warning while police focus their enforcement efforts on harder drugs. Under the proposal, marijuana would be downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug, making its use and possession less serious crimes, Home Secretary David Blunkett said in outlining the plan to the House of Commons. Police would retain the authority to arrest those caught with marijuana, but in most cases would simply confiscate the drug and issue a warning. [continues 326 words]
PARKERSBURG -- More than 100 people have been arrested in Wood County on methamphetamine charges in the past four years, and prosecutors say many of those cases have wound up in federal court because state penalties are too weak. Since 1998, Wood County authorities have busted 70 meth labs, including 31 labs raided since January. "The penalties here (state court) are just too minor for the seriousness of these offenses," said Assistant Prosecutor Jodie Boylen, who handles drug-related cases in Wood County Circuit Court. [continues 251 words]
Complain To Preston Commission About Crowds, Noise, Drug Abuse KINGWOOD -- Sunshine Daydream's neighbors complained to county officials Tuesday about noise, traffic, trespassing and drug use caused by the music festival campground. Though County Prosecutor Ron Brown and Sheriff Ron Crites expressed sympathy for their plight, the officials cautioned the property owners that law enforcement is bound by the law when prosecuting offenses. County commissioners asked Brown to look into the new nuisance law counties can pass, wrote the State Police Superintendent to request manpower and discussed contacting Sunshine's owner. [continues 725 words]
Five fifth-grade classes at Mountainview Elementary got a gust of excitement during their school day Thursday as Morgantown DARE Officer Joel Smith, along with pilot Claude Laplante, landed a bona fide U.S. Army helicopter on the school's field. Oohs and aahs emanated from all 125 mouths as the two men circled the skies above the school before finally touching down. After the enormous blades of the helicopter came to a safe stop, each class had a chance to check the copter out from inside. [continues 338 words]
Our nation's drug czar is annoyed. If proponents have their way, the District of Columbia will vote later this year to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes for the second time. John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, took some pot shots at the issue in a recent Washington Post piece that has been reprinted across the country. Unfortunately, he brings more smoke than light. "After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories like the 1936 movie 'Reefer Madness,"' he writes, "we've become almost conditioned to think that any warning about the true dangers of marijuana are overblown." [continues 577 words]
CHARLESTON -- Police Chief Jerry Riffe said Thursday he has begun an internal investigation of allegations that police officers used racial profiling in an incident in which three black college students were pulled over, handcuffed and searched. "We've had no complaint filed with us," Riffe said. "However, when we become aware of a situation like this when there is (a report of) excessive force or racial profiling used, we automatically initiate an internal investigation, which we've done." The officers have said they were just doing their jobs when they pulled over the West Virginia State College students Tuesday night. [continues 104 words]
PITTSBURGH -- Officers from 250 police departments were invited to a high-tech giveaway in Pittsburgh by federal drug authorities but there was one problem: City and county police say they were left off the list. Pittsburgh police Chief Robert McNeilly said he is at a loss to explain why officers from the host city learned about the event only when it was coming to a close. ''Anytime you talk about free equipment, a team of horses couldn't keep us away from it,'' McNeilly said. ''I'm disappointed that they had this seminar here in our city and didn't tell us what it was about.'' [continues 168 words]
CHARLESTON -- Authorities in Kanawha and Putnam counties say the number of methamphetamine labs busted by police has surged in recent months and the increase may be related to a crackdown in Wood County. In the past six months, the Kanawha County Sheriff's Department has found five methamphetamine labs, the Kanawha County Metro Drug Unit has found five and the Putnam County Narcotics Unit has found four. ''Wood County has been seeing this problem for quite sometime,'' said Detective Don Herdman of the Putnam County Narcotics Unit. ''It's just natural that it comes to this area because of the population. They kept saying it was going to be coming, and it certainly has.'' [continues 119 words]
Local law enforcement officers agree that a proposal by the Bush administration to cut federal police funding could seriously hurt many West Virginia departments. Community Oriented Policing Services grants and funds from the Byrne grant program have allowed the Monongalia County Sheriff's Department and the Morgantown Police Department to step up manpower and build a drug task force. If those funds are cut, the departments would certainly suffer, authorities said. "Cutting federal funding would have a devastating effect on law enforcement, especially on small departments and municipalities," said Sheriff Joe Bartolo. "It would definitely mean a reduction in a lot of programs that the department would not be able to do without grant money." [continues 369 words]
My thanks go out to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for clearing away some of the smoke surrounding the marijuana debate. It was not his idea. He was involuntarily drawn into it by a $500,000 print, broadcast and bus ad campaign by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation. As part of NORML's campaign against the city's policy of arresting and jailing public pot smokers, the ads feature a blown-up photo of Bloomberg next to a quote he gave last summer as a mayoral candidate. [continues 648 words]
Post Office Has Lots Of Foot Traffic Monday The post office on South High Street was a busy place Monday as taxpayers hurried in and out to meet the April 15 deadline, making it an ideal place for local folks to peddle their platforms. Members of the local chapter of Families Against Mandatory Minimums took advantage of the heavy foot traffic at the post office to hand out flyers that read, "Do you know where your taxes go?" "Basically, we are out here because there is a lot of tax money being spent for incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders, first offenders, and it could be a heck of a lot better for us and everyone else if we spent that money on rehab instead," said Connie DeVore, co-organizer of the local FAMM chapter. [continues 526 words]
NOOR MOHAMMAD KHAN CHARAI, Afghanistan -- Mohammad Gul, tattered shoes planted in the mud, will keep a close watch on his two little acres in the coming weeks, waiting for the buds to bloom. He won't be alone. Five hundred miles up, racing silently through space, U.S. reconnaissance satellites will be watching, too, camera eyes cocked for the first signs of vivid red, the flowering of opium poppies. Here on the edge of Afghanistan's Desert of Death and east and north across this deeply poor land, the deadly narcotic is again the raw material of life and livelihood for hundreds of thousands of people. [continues 1691 words]
CHARLESTON (AP) -- While West Virginia needs to take aggressive action on OxyContin abuse, an outright ban on the drug's main ingredient may not be the best course of action, the state Bureau for Public Health commissioner says. "OxyContin and related narcotics are very useful in pain management, particularly in end-of-life care," Dr. Henry Taylor said Tuesday. "We need to balance the benefits of pain management with the problems caused by addiction and trafficking." Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, introduced a bill earlier this week that would put oxycodone, the active ingredient in OxyContin, on a Schedule I list of controlled substances that are prohibited under West Virginia law. [continues 207 words]
Almost 200 fifth-graders gathered in the auditorium of North Elementary Tuesday morning to celebrate their commitment to staying drug free. Morgantown DARE Officer Joel Smith, joined by special guests Lt. Reese Groscup of MPD, Board of Education member Nancy Walker, Mon County West Virginia Education Information System Coordinator Betsy Mullett, WVU Mountaineers coach Rich Rodriguez and "Voice of the Mountaineers" Tony Caridi, welcomed the 170 North Elementary and St. Francis students and their parents. "These students have spent the past 17 weeks preparing themselves for when they move on to middle school and through life," Smith said. "DARE not only teaches the kids about drugs, but it also teaches them how to make decisions, understand the consequences of their actions, handle peer pressure and build self esteem." [continues 468 words]
It's time for political posturing in the West Virginia Legislature; and in this election year, legislators are posturing for all they're worth. Earlier this week, the deadline arrived for introducing legislation under rules for the 60-day regular session, and lawmakers introduced a flurry of legislation designed to make voters believe they have their best interests at heart. The abuse of the drug OxyContin has held a prominent place in statewide headlines over the past year, and one state senator made sure his constituents knew of his concern by introducing legislation that would ban oxycodone, the main ingredient in the drug. [continues 420 words]
To the Editor: In the aftermath of Jennifer Holman's tragic death, The Dominion Post was quick to print speculation that under-age drinking and drug abuse were involved. One example from the Jan. 29 paper: "...Jennifer Lee Holman, of Masontown, died after a night of bar-hopping with friends, allegedly drinking and smoking pot." The use of "allegedly" may protect the newspaper legally, but the tone of this sentence and its inclusion in a story about under-aged drinking served only to link this young woman's death with substance abuse in the public mind. [continues 126 words]
President Bush Holds Up A Report That Outlines His New Battle Plan In The War Against Drugs During A Speech In The East Room At The White House In Washington On Tuesday. WASHINGTON -- President Bush set a goal Tuesday of cutting drug abuse by 25 percent in five years through greater efforts toward prevention, treatment of addicts and improved law enforcement. Bush announced his administration's drug-fighting strategy, which also seeks a 10 percent drop in illegal drug use in two years. [continues 386 words]
