"Unfortunately, a little while before I was born, I lost a grandfather to cigarettes," said Kylie Schultz in an essay written for the drug education program DARE. "I never got to know him because he got lung cancer and died. He died at 69. He started smoking as a teen and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. He died younger than his seven siblings. "Luckily, my grandma is a smart person. When my grandpa was alive and smoking, she wouldn't let him smoke in the house so it wouldn't affect the kids like it does in many houses in the world." [continues 487 words]
Policy Would Extend to Clubs, Performers Stonington -- If members of the band, drama club or math club get caught with drugs or alcohol either on or off school grounds they will be now be suspended from those activities, according to a new regulation that will be considered tonight by the Board of Education. The regulation would bring all extra curricular activities in line with a similar regulation implemented for sports teams last month. Since 1998, the school system has had a regulation that outlines penalties for students possessing or using alcohol or drugs during school and at school-sponsored activities, whether they take place on or off the school premises. [continues 483 words]
NORWICH -- City police Friday announced the addition of a Jeep Cherokee to the Norwich Police DARE Unit. The vehicle was originally forfeited police through court action as a result of an arrest and seizure from a drug dealer. The car is a black four-wheel drive 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo. The vehicle was completely refurbished with custom DARE markings and show quality painted "flames" for use with the department's DARE prevention classes. The expert work and necessary coordination of the City of Norwich Fleet Maintenance Superintendent Walter Nelson, and two of the city's mechanics, Robert Nash and John Williams, was instrumental in the preparation of this vehicle for use by the DARE program police officers. [continues 147 words]
To the editor: "Now is time to head off drug scourge" (Advocate editorial, Dec. 9) is yet another example of the insanity by our authorities in a long line of insane acts. Let us not forget alcohol, cannabis, heroin, cocaine and the success we had with keeping these drugs off the street. Now, methamphetamine. The authorities are using the same tactics to combat meth as they used with all the other illegal drugs. Yet there are more drugs at cheaper prices on our streets than ever before. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. [continues 169 words]
A "police presence" including both a student resource officer and the drug-sniffing police dog will be used in Ridgefield High School, town officials have decided. After an executive session of the Board of Education on school security Monday, Dec. 11, School Superintendent Kenneth Freeston announced that the police dog would be used at the high school. "A part of the Ridgefield High School's commitment to zero tolerance will be utilizing a canine presence at Ridgefield High School. We will not be commenting any further on that; to do so would reveal the nature of investigative work that we do," he said. [continues 209 words]
MADISON - The town will tighten its plan to combat substance abuse, following the release of a drug survey in which one-third of 7th-to 12th-grade students reported drug and/or alcohol use. "It is important that this data is available to us," said Superintendent Kaye Griffin. "We are very proud that 63.2 percent of our students are abstaining from alcohol and drug use, but there is data in these reports that we find troubling." The survey was distributed by the Rocky Mountain Behavioral Science Institute based in Colorado who have put in 15 years of research into the survey. It has been administered to students since 1987 and has been developed and refined using 200,000 adolescents across America. [continues 489 words]
As far as Governor Jodi Rell is concerned, new laws are needed to keep methamphetamine use in Connecticut to a minimum. While towns across the country struggle because of a meth epidemic, Rell hopes to quell meth use in Connecticut before it takes a tight hold. Methamphetamine is a highly addictive drug commonly known as meth, crystal meth, ice, speed, or crank. Unlike marijuana, cocaine, and heroin, meth does not come from plants but is produced in laboratories. Meth is not as prevalent in Connecticut as it is west of the Mississippi, and officials want to make sure it stays that way. [continues 399 words]
Ridgefield Acts After High School Student's Death RIDGEFIELD -- Town officials plan to put a school resource officer back in the high school, a move prompted by the suicide of Ridgefield High School senior Joey Lucisano. Lucisano took his life Nov. 14, his mother Claudia Lucisano said, after they fought over marijuana found in the boy's backpack. Claudia Lucisano said her son told her that he got the marijuana at school. "I have no guilt that I failed my child," Claudia Lucisano said Friday. She believes school officials are the ones who failed him. She blames the high school for her son's drug use, which she believes led to his death. [continues 925 words]
MILFORD -- Five police officers given suspensions for their handling of a prisoner who later died in custody have up to five days to decide if they want to file a grievance, a union representative said Monday. Sgt. Jeff Matchett, president of the Milford Police Union Local 899, said the officers have five business days from receiving the suspension notice to decide if they want to fight the move. Police Chief Keith Mello announced the one-day, unpaid suspensions last Friday while releasing a report of the department's internal investigation into the death of Nicholas Brown, 24, of Stratford. [continues 185 words]
HARTFORD, Conn. -- The two maps displayed by federal and state officials at the Capitol on Thursday showed the alarming spread of methamphetamine problems across the country. For example in 1992, only Oregon had 40 or more people per 100,000 population being treated for meth use. The other map showed that by 2004, most states west of the Mississippi had that treatment rate. The problems are clearly spreading to the eastern half of the United States, and top state and federal officials in Connecticut said Thursday that they have anti-meth efforts underway but they also need help from the public. [continues 662 words]
Joey Lucisano was a typical teenager. He liked skateboarding, listening to music and hanging out with his friends. He also liked smoking pot. The 17-year-old Ridgefield High senior committed suicide Nov. 14 because, his friends say, his drug use went from recreational to something he could no longer control. His parents say they know their son wasn't buying drugs in his neighborhood and certainly wasn't using at home. [continues 786 words]
Accusations that drug dealing is "rampant" at Ridgefield High School are nothing new to school and town officials, who say they know the problem exists and is getting worse. However, Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Freeston said claims by parents that the district is trying to cover up the problems are simply not true. "We've acknowledged there is a problem with alcohol and substance abuse for the past three years, publicly acknowledged this," Dr. Freeston said. "We've been working very closely with various town agencies to address the problem. But, I have to say Ridgefield is no different than other nearby towns or the rest of Fairfield County in this respect." [continues 896 words]
Teenagers attending three or more parties a month are at 2.5 times the risk for substance abuse compared to those who do not attend parties, according to the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse XI: Teens and Parents, which is conducted annually prior to the start of the new school year by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. The survey also revealed that teens who say parents are not present at the parties they attend are 16 times more likely to say alcohol is available, 15 times more likely to say illegal and prescription drugs are available and 29 times more likely to say marijuana is available, compared to teens who say parents are always present at the parties they attend. [continues 578 words]
If a teen learns how an illegal drug makes its way through the brain, then it could make a difference on who decides to use drugs. And the information could start as early as middle school. That's what a dozen students in the peer leadership class at Danbury High School said about the idea of learning in science class about the physiological effects of drugs and alcohol. The students, who are chosen for the class because of their leadership in the school, teach ninth-graders on a variety of topics including substance abuse. They said their class taught them that older students have a strong impact on younger students so drug education should include discussions among the grade levels. [continues 329 words]
Waterford Officials to Discuss Results Waterford -- Local officials and school representatives will meet tonight to discuss the results of a drug-and-alcohol survey that was given to middle school and high school students at the end of last school year. The main findings of the survey were that there is a significant increase in the consumption of drugs and alcohol between middle school and high school; teenagers are experimenting with drugs and alcohol but most are not persistent users; and smokers are more likely to use drugs and alcohol. [continues 400 words]
Some Educators Advocate Teaching About Drugs in The Schools Chronic use of high-inducing inhalants damages the protective sheath around certain nerve fibers in the brain, which is clinically similar to multiple sclerosis. A teen who binge drinks can decrease his or her respiration, which can lead to death from failure to breathe. Someone using cocaine can reduce the reabsorption process of dopamine, which causes continuous stimulation of receiving neurons and can result in a range of effects from increased heart rate to disturbances in heart rhythm, strokes, and seizures. [continues 1485 words]
Jamilla Niazi is a 40-year-old woman with a freckly face and high cheekbones. When she arrives in a refugee camp in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan to speak to me via Internet camera phone, her features are hidden behind the blue burqa she is forced to wear in the scorching summer heat. She peels back the gauze and smiles. She doesn't do this much anymore - not since the death threats began to come every night, pledging to burn her in acid. To jihadis, Niazi has committed an intolerable offense: She is the head teacher of a school for girls. [continues 649 words]
BRIDGEPORT -- Widespread knowledge of Mayor John M. Fabrizi's drug use and allegations that former Democratic Town Committee member Shawn Fardy provided him with cocaine led a federal judge on Monday to transfer Fardy's drug-trafficking trial to New Haven. U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall's decision came after she halted jury selection for Fardy's trial, as up to 90 percent of the 101 prospective jurors said they knew something about the case. "I had no idea how widely known this was," Hall said during a hearing Monday with Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Hernandez, who is prosecuting the case, and Francis O'Reilly, Fardy's lawyer. She said "Ninety percent of the people were pretty familiar with articles about the mayor." [continues 614 words]
After his name appeared unexpectedly in legal papers related to a major drug-trafficking investigation, Mayor John Fabrizi of Bridgeport, Conn., appeared to weather the ensuing uproar by coming clean with voters about his battles with drugs and redoubling his efforts to run the city. But the coming trial of the man who federal agents say told an admitted drug trafficker that Mr. Fabrizi was "coming over" and "needed a hit" has the potential to drag the mayor and his conduct back into the spotlight. Prosecutors filed a list of questions in Federal District Court in Bridgeport yesterday that they propose to ask prospective jurors tomorrow, when jury selection in the trial of the man, Shawn Fardy, is to begin. The questionnaire includes the names of 41 people that jurors may hear during the trial, most of them potential witnesses. [continues 366 words]
UConn hosted a small gubernatorial debate on Friday evening sponsored by Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). Several people gathered into College of Liberal Arts and Sciences room 105 shortly before 6 p.m. to hear a spirited exchange between Cliff Thornton of the Green Party and Joe Zdonczyk of the Concerned Citizens Party. Incumbent Republican Gov. M. Jodi Rell and Democratic nominee John DeStefano were both also invited to participate in the debate, but neither was able to attend. The two minor-party candidates spoke for one full hour on a variety of topics, ranging from marijuana legalization to the influence of money on politics. Stephanie Molden of the SSDP asked most of the evening's questions, though one excited member of the audience also made some inquiries. [continues 1726 words]
Trees around the city are a little more colorful, and it's not all due to the change of seasons. The Shelton Youth Service Bureau is participating in Red Ribbon Week and tying ribbons around trees as a symbol of a drug free community. "They're all over Shelton," said Sylvia Rodriquez, coordinator for the bureau's youth-to-youth program. "All the parks have them." Red Ribbon Week originated in 1985 to honor Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent Enrique "KiKi" Camerini, who was murdered in the line of duty while investigating a drug trafficking case in Mexico in 1985. [continues 257 words]
PLAINFIELD -- Denouncing drugs from pot to crack, more than 50 youths took to the pavement Saturday morning in an anti-drug march in three communities. The Plainfield Committee for Drug Free Youth marchers shouted phrases such as "Drugs are bad, we are rad," and "What are we? Drug free!" as they walked along neighborhood roads. The march began at 9 a.m. at the Plainfield Little League, then continued at Moosup Elementary School before a last stop in a Wauregan neighborhood by the former Mill Store. [continues 271 words]
PLAINFIELD -- Denouncing drugs from pot to crack more than 50 youth took to the pavement in an anti-drug march in three communities Saturday morning. The Plainfield Committee for Drug Free Youth marchers shouted phrases like "Drugs are bad, we are rad," and "What are we? Drug free!" as they walked along neighborhood roads. The march began at 9 a.m. at the Plainfield Little League, then continued at Moosup Elementary School before a last stop in a Wauregan neighborhood by the former Mill Store. [continues 107 words]
VERNON -- School administrators invited police and a team of drug-sniffing dogs into Rockville High School Friday and the dogs detected no drugs inside the school. One of the four police dogs did detect marijuana in a student's car in the school parking lot, and that student was arrested. Friday's exercise was the first time school officials used a relatively new board of education policy to check the school for illegal substances. "The board of education last spring passed a policy for the use of trained dogs to search on school property," Rockville High School Principal Brian Levesque said. Friday "was the first time we actually implemented that policy." [continues 135 words]
Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton was welcomed Wednesday afternoon by Students for Sensible Drug Policy, who invited Thorton to speak during their weekly meeting. Thornton described the Green Party as "a party of social and environmental justice ... it's not a legalizing party, it's a party about common sense." If elected, Thornton hopes to focus on the environment by removing 400,000 cars from the road in four years, through conservation and a mass transit policy. Thornton pointed out that although the environment is the number one priority for the Green Party, drug policy is also a very important aspect of his campaign. [continues 441 words]
Efrain Rivera is charged with possession of narcotics, essentially the same crime Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi has acknowledged committing. But he finds himself in far different circumstances. He's in Bridgeport Superior Court, a few blocks from City Hall, his wrists crossed behind his back as if someone might slap cuffs on him at any second. When seven sweaty guys in baggy jeans and leg irons shuffle in on the way to another courtroom, he looks away fast. He doesn't want to be like them. [continues 1930 words]
Attorney Sylvester Salcedo's dark brown eyes sweep the East Side streets, taking in the sketchy terrain while he calculates the cost of the local heroin trade. It's as if he is still on patrol as a front-line officer in the nation's war on drugs, but these days his strategy for stemming heroin use and related crime amounts to a negotiated peace. Salcedo proposes amnesty for heroin addicts. In fact, he says Bridgeport should enter the drug trade, administering heroin under medical supervision, without fear of arrest or overdose. [continues 1462 words]
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), helps restore respect for law enforcers ("Just Say 'Yes,'" Sept. 21). At the very least it would be Biblically correct to re-legalize cannabis (kaneh bosm/marijuana) since Christ God Our Father, indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see: Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). Cannabis is a blessing to be accepted, not sinfully persecuted, prohibited and exterminated. Dillon, CO [end]
Thank you for printing that story ("Just Say 'Yes,'" Sept. 21) about Peter Christ and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). I am so glad to read that someone has some sense about this whole "war on drugs," and they're law enforcement officials! I have contended for a long time that the war on drugs is a waste of time and energy. Didn't we learn anything from Prohibition in the '20s? That's how Al Capone got his start. Our society could benefit from the tax revenue if the government regulated and taxed the drugs that are now sold on the black market. Instead of all that money ending up in the hands of organized criminals, it could be used to address the reasons people use drugs in the first place, or to treat drug use. And I'm sure there would be plenty left over given the amount that is spent on drugs in this society. [continues 116 words]
Cliff Thornton, the Green Party candidate for governor, spoke to a group of students at Watertown High School on the morning of Wednesday, September 20. Mr. Thornton spent over an hour speaking with seniors in Allen Marco's fundamentals of government class. The class is currently studying state governance and Mr. Marco has invited state politicians to speak to his students. Mr. Thornton's campaign manager, Ken Krayeske, introduced his candidate and explained to the class that Mr. Thornton had to collect 750,000 signatures around the state to be on the ballot for governor. [continues 341 words]
BRIDGEPORT -- A police detective whose addiction to painkillers led to involvement with a big-time city drug dealer will be spending 45 months in federal prison. "The community looks up to its police officers," Senior U.S. District Judge Alan H. Nevas told retired city Police Detective Jeffrey Streck, 39, of Monroe, who was also fined $5,000. "They don't expect them to get involved with drug dealers." Streck, a muscular 6-footer, was one of nearly three dozen people caught up in an FBI investigation of drug dealing by Juan and Victor Marrero -- two Bridgeport businessmen who have pleaded guilty to drug charges. That same investigation also led to the disclosure that Mayor John M. Fabrizi abused cocaine. [continues 488 words]
BRISTOL - City police leaders disagree with a recent speaker who advocated the legalization of drugs before the local Rotary Club Sept. 19. Jack A. Cole, a retired New Jersey State Police officer and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, told the club last week that the 36-year-old War on Drugs has done more harm by creating drug-related violence than legalization and government oversight of drugs would. Cole said LEAP doesn't just favor the legalization of "soft drugs" such as marijuana and hashish, but also "hard drugs" like heroin and cocaine. He added that the group advocates the distribution of drugs to adults only. [continues 424 words]
SHELTON -- Shortly before the death of a teen earlier this year from a heroin overdose, the Valley Substance Abuse Action Council was already planning to present "Heads Up," a program that gives insight into heroin use and addiction. The program, presented by members of the Philadelphia Police Department, will take place early next month. "We felt we were being proactive by bringing this program to the Valley," said Pamela Mautte, VSAAC director. "Then that tragedy happened." Mautte was referring to the death of Frank Korondi, 13, on May 6 after he had snorted and smoked heroin. Korondi was one of several Valley people to overdose on heroin in the past year, but he was the youngest. [continues 300 words]
While most of the news today from the Middle East covers ongoing regional conflicts, HIV and drug addiction are rapidly becoming a new kind of killer in the area. The BBC documentary film "Mohammed the Matchmaker," which was screened Tuesday night at the Davenport College buttery, delves into the rarely documented issue of HIV in Iran and how Iranian society treats those who live with the virus. Brothers Kamiar and Arash Alaei, two physicians from Iran featured in the film, attended the showing and spoke afterwards of their medical practice with an aim to aid what they call Iran's hidden epidemic - HIV. [continues 384 words]
Police officers have been on the front lines of the "War on Drugs" in this country for more than 30 years. Now some of them are saying the war is not working and are calling for an end to the drug war through the legalization and regulation of all drugs. A group of former police officers who decided they did not believe the drug war was the best way to control drugs in 2002 founded Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). They began delivering their message and gathering members across the country. Representatives will address Rotary and Lions clubs in Connecticut over the next two months. [continues 770 words]
It's 7 p.m. on a Wednesday, and a ponytailed man is speaking with no small enthusiasm to a small room filled with laughing people, devouring their dinners and listening with rapt attention as he cajoles them to help him legalize every illicit drug in America. If you're flashing back to your teenage years and picturing a basement filled with stoned kids and aspiring Timothy Learys, think again. The merry audience is the North Branford Rotary Club, one chapter of the international civic organization that leans towards older and more conservative membership. The charismatic speaker is Peter Christ, a retired police officer who spent twenty years arresting people for drug offenses before retiring and enlisting in the drug policy reform movement. [continues 947 words]
Equipment Confiscated From Marijuana Growers Will Be Donated To Vocational Agricultural Program SOUTHINGTON -- A massive drug bust two years ago left police with everything someone would need to grow a lot of marijuana - the kind of stuff that they typically are ordered to destroy. But police say the equipment they seized in September 2004 can be put to better use, and so they are donating it to Southington High School's vocational agricultural program, where students learn legitimate farming skills. Today, police will turn over to high school staff grow lights, fertilizer and electrical power equipment that they seized in the bust. [continues 483 words]
VERNON - The Vernon Police Department has pulled out of a regional drug enforcement task force, citing a philosophical difference between the local state's attorney's office and task force officials. The Vernon department formally pulled out of the East Central Narcotics Task Force last week after nearly 20 years of working with nearby departments on drug investigations, seizures, and enforcement actions. Instead, police will pool their resources with a statewide narcotics task force administered by the state police. The narcotics task force was made up of Vernon, Manchester, South Windsor, East Hartford, and Glastonbury and was designed to allow those departments to combine resources to track illegal drug use in the area. [continues 547 words]
That was a fine article ("Vice Squad," Aug. 31) about the failed "Drug War." Most drugs are bought in drugstores anyway, let's let ALL of them get bought there. In [an instant] we would take most the violence out of the USA. And even disarm all those terrorists who buy their guns with illegal drug sales. We could make the Afghan farmers really rich & the Colombians could be set free of their drug lords. Not to mention all the poor slobs in jail we could set free for doing little else than drugging. We could save billions of dollars & millions of people. Rick Baldwin Hartford [end]
A Shelton man and his ex-wife charged with manslaughter in connection with the heroin overdose death of a 13-year-old boy had their case continued until Oct. 16 at a Milford Superior Court appearance Tuesday. James Krasowski, 32, and his former wife, Angela Krasowski, 23, have each been charged with first-degree manslaughter, three counts of risk of injury to a minor, and one count each of possession of heroin, possession of heroin with intent to sell, possession of drug paraphernalia, interfering with police, tampering with evidence and possession of a controlled substance. [continues 783 words]
Consider the Green Party with its warts, threats to the status quo and all. Decriminalizing and "medicalizing" drugs could jeopardize the judicial system, where a disproportionate percentage of inner-city blacks and Hispanics fill the state's prisons. That's one of the Green Party planks that, in real life, marginalizes the group in so-called mainstream public-policy debates. While it may make eminent sense to many people around the world, any Democrat or Republican who even utters the word "decriminalize," is soft on crime and a candidate for early political retirement. Every year it costs about $600 million in your tax dollars to keep Connecticut's prisons operating, including paying for its 7,000 employees. This week, more than 23,300 are being "supervised" by the state's Department of Correction, including 17,334 men and 1,403 women in prison, plus nearly 5,000 people in local jails awaiting court appearances. [continues 718 words]
Connecticut declared war on childhood obesity this year when it became the first state to ban sugary soft drinks from public schools. It has reinforced that strategy by promising more state money to schools that agree not to sell high-fat snacks and other goodies. Now it is time for Hartford to turn its attention to a far greater problem: drug use among school-age children. The state's focus on obesity could do some good. A survey by the Public Health and Education Departments showed that about 11 percent of the state's children are overweight. The survey of high school and middle school students also showed that parents matter -- students whose parents know their whereabouts are 30 percent more likely to avoid premarital sex, and 50 percent more likely to avoid drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes. [continues 375 words]
To say the statewide slate of Green Party candidates faces a tough election campaign underestimates the obstacles that Republican and Democratic domination have built in Connecticut since Henry Dutton, a Whig, was governor in 1855. Political experts and observers say the 2,200-member Green Party, while addressing some major issues that concern state voters, cannot get its message out to enough people to overcome the massive media campaigns of the Republicans and Democrats. But amid the expected cacophony of attack advertising in this year's quadrennial gubernatorial race and the sizzling-hot U.S. Senate campaign, the Greens will provoke Connecticut's electorate to think beyond traditional party politics. [continues 1246 words]
MANCHESTER - Local police say they have evidence that one of their own officers and a department records supervisor were using cocaine while working for the department, although no criminal charges were ever filed against the two women, who dispute the allegations. Documents made public Friday also say that Dawn Cushman, the Police Department's former records supervisor, issued a pistol permit to a local man from whom she was buying cocaine on a regular basis. The documents also say she informed Susan Lowry, who was then a local police officer, of an investigation that related to her suspected drug use. [continues 1207 words]
MANCHESTER, Conn. -- A police officer and a records supervisor allegedly bought cocaine and used it for more than a year before they left the department under pressure in the spring of 2005, police found during a criminal investigation. Investigators said they also found that Dawn Cushman, a former records supervisor, obtained access to computer records of the narcotics probe and tipped off the officer, Susan Lowry, that she was being watched, according to a police report released Friday. Neither Cushman nor Lowry has been criminally charged and both deny the reports' findings. [continues 387 words]
Margaret Thornton is wearing tiny peace-sign earrings and well-worn Birkenstocks, but it's not what you think. She's staying with a daughter who's a wildlife rehabilitator, and if she's pitching in to care for the wounded birds and animals, that's not what you think, either. She is simply being helpful. Besides, says Margaret Thornton, laughing, "I'm too old to be a hippie." You have to say that up front when your husband is the Green Party candidate for governor and people's notions about that party are so askew - and entrenched. (For some perspective, read the commentary outside of Connecticut about the state's Democratic Party. Did you know that since the Democratic primary, George McGovern's people have come back from the grave and are ready to party? That's not true, of course. Senatorial candidate Ned Lamont is no more a lefty than I am the Queen of May, but there you are: The chattering class has spoken.) [continues 556 words]
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. -- The type of hair-follicle analysis that Bridgeport Mayor John M. Fabrizi underwent this month is cutting into urine testing turf as employers' favored way to screen workers for drug use. Hair testing is more costly than urine testing, but advocates say it's more reliable, less invasive and reveals abuse over a much longer time. "We are actually having some preliminary discussions about making the switch from urine testing to hair-strand testing," said Noreen McNicholas, spokeswoman for St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport. "There's definitely interest in it." [continues 776 words]
Police K-9 Unit Will Assist In Random Drug Searches At Newtown High This Year NEWTOWN - Before school starts Aug. 29, Newtown High School students and parents will receive letters stating random drug searches will take place at the school this year. On Tuesday, the Newtown Board of Education approved bringing the Newtown Police K-9 unit to the high school to sniff for drugs in lockers and vehicles on school property. According to board member Andrew Buzzi, the goal to protect students' rights while meeting the board's responsibility to provide a safe school environment."We want to teach students that they should never be subjected to unlawful search and seizure, and stress that we respect the law," Buzzi said. [continues 584 words]
PROSPECT -- A four-legged soldier in the war against drugs will make the rounds at Woodland High School this fall. The Region 16 Board of Education approved a plan Wednesday to allow state police to bring a drug-sniffing dog into the high school, which serves students from Beacon Falls and Prospect. High school Principal Arnold Frank is in the process of drafting a letter that would be sent home to parents in September or October, informing them of the new policy. [continues 279 words]
It's been 25 years since we first learned of a disease that was killing a handful of white, gay men in a few of our nation's largest cities - a disease that later became known as AIDS. But lulled by media images that portrayed AIDS mainly as a white, gay disease, we looked the other way: Those people weren't our people. AIDS was not our problem. It had not entered our house. We had our own problems to deal with, so we let those people deal with their problem. But that was a quarter-century ago. Now, in 2006, almost 40 million people worldwide have HIV, and 25 million are dead. And most of those who have died and are dying are black. That's not just because of the devastation the pandemic has wreaked upon Africa. [continues 537 words]
Inside Connecticut
