The recent bust of a marijuana and psilocybin growing operation in Blacksburg by the New River Regional Drug Task Force implies success to many people. "Another dealer in dangerous drugs off the street," some will say. But there are others, even those within the law enforcement community, who dissent and say that this low-level bust has really accomplished nothing and is but another insignificant bump in the perpetual war on drugs. Former President Richard Nixon declared a war on marijuana in 1971. [continues 622 words]
The shooting Saturday night of a drug suspect is the second time in 21 months that a suspect has been shot by a Lynchburg police officer. A narcotics investigator shot Eric Mays, 26, in his right shoulder Saturday after police stopped his Chevrolet Malibu around 8:50 p.m. at Fourth and Floyd streets, police said. The investigator could see Mays' hands at first, but Mays quickly moved his hands down to the floorboard and the investigator fired, said Lynchburg Police Maj. Michael Spencer. [continues 899 words]
Last week's gunbattle in a North Richmond alley may have resulted in only a leg wound, but residents in the Ginter Park neighborhood felt it in their hearts. More than 50 of them wedged into a stuffy room made for 25 people in the Ginter Park Library last night to brainstorm about what to do about neighborhood drug dealing, prostitution and landlords who turn a blind eye to lawless renters and loiterers. "I haven't looked down so many [gun] barrels since I was in Vietnam," said Larry Mier, resident and block captain of the 4800 block of East Seminary Road. "At least there, I got to shoot back." [continues 273 words]
Regarding J.D. "Whitey" Hardin's thoughtful Nov. 29 op-ed, if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. [continues 99 words]
Editor, Times-Dispatch: When I came home from the Army in 1970, I tried smoking marijuana. When I got married I stopped. Now, as a 56-year old, I am told by my eye doctor to smoke more marijuana. I have glaucoma, an eye disease characterized by increased pressure in the eyeball. It is very painful, and is a leading cause of blindness. Because of heart problems I am not able to take the medicines normally used for glaucoma. Most glaucoma medicines would be heart medicines if they weren't dropped into the eyes. [continues 295 words]
It sure is funny when I think how things in life seem to come back later in life. When I came home from the Army in 1970, I tried smoking marijuana. When I got married I stopped. Now, as a 56 year-old, I am told by my eye doctor to smoke more marijuana. I have glaucoma, an eye disease characterized by increased pressure in the eyeball. It is very painful and is a leading cause of blindness. I have tried nearly all of the prescription medications for glaucoma and had heart-related side effects. [continues 456 words]
With so many negative temptations surrounding students, local law enforcement wants to supply them with preventative tactics within a familiar classroom setting. The Culpeper County Sheriff's Office will start teaching the Drug Abuse Resistance Education curriculum at Floyd T. Binns Middle School and Culpeper Middle School today for sixth-grade health and physical education classes. DARE teaches children how to recognize and resist the daily pressures of using alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs. "This is a very positive program that is expected to have 26 million students in the United States participating and 36 million students worldwide," said Sheriff H. Lee Hart. [continues 153 words]
The U.S. Department of Justice has declared Thursday, Nov. 30, National Meth Awareness Day, an opportunity to collectively address a threat of increasing concern to Northern Virginia communities: abuse of the highly addictive drug methamphetamine. Surveying the devastation meth has brought to regions of the West and Midwest, Northern Virginia is comparatively fortunate. The area has yet to feel the full force of meth, a drug that breeds crime and violence, saps law enforcement and health care resources, and is associated with heartbreaking child abuse and neglect. [continues 543 words]
The Crime Stoppers Are Making Themselves a Force to Be Reckoned With in Suffolk High Schools. The Crime Stoppers, a "junior Crime Line" of sorts, work in the schools in conjunction with the teachers, administration and the school resource officers to promote a safe learning environment. The Crime Stoppers are regular students who are motivated to be leaders in their schools and communities. Along with their schoolwork and other activities, they also work with school resource officers on cases that are reported to them. [continues 434 words]
Recording transcripts filed by federal authorities show that on Oct. 20, 2005, Sgt. James A. Vaught explained to Sheriff H.F. "Frank" Cassell why he resigned from the department in March after the Drug Enforcement Administration had traced an illegal drug shipment to a rental property that Vaught owned. VAUGHT: " . . . And ever since then I been sittin' here thinkin' that I had an 11-year job there and you gave me everything I ever wanted, and why I did it, I don't know. I guess there's a lot of things I done I don't know why I did, but I owed it to you -- there's a few things I want to tell you tonight to get you to understand . . ." [continues 364 words]
MARTINSVILLE, Va. -- The trees are turning colors on the ridges across the county, Martinsville Speedway is advertising for next season and cattle graze on whatever comes up through the red clay. But along the Smith River and the streets of several surrounding towns, there is an unrelenting grayness of abandoned textile mills, boarded-up furniture plants and empty businesses for sale or lease. Residents of Henry County, a hard-luck rural area of about 58,000 on the North Carolina border, blame the North American Free Trade Agreement for their woes -- spitting its acronym like an expletive. Now, the indictment of the county sheriff and 12 former and current deputies in a drug-trafficking ring has only deepened the gloom. [continues 1160 words]
Nat Sherman Lights. They're New York cut, luxurious and delicious. The fresh scent of additive-free tobacco echoes through the foamy filter and into its buyers' soon-to-be milky lungs. It's friggin' beautiful. You light, the tobacco sparks, the paper crinkles and glows as nicotine rushes through you. Frankie says relax, and you do. Smoking may not be for everyone, but then again what is? It's dangerous, repugnant and the precursor to a myriad of terminal diseases. But the question remains, is it safer than other drugs? [continues 614 words]
The drug-related indictments of the Henry County sheriff and his officers are the talk of the town in this rural Virginia county, but residents are more concerned about their community's image than the case itself. "People are talking it up," said Chris Shuler, a beer truck driver from Horsepasture. "It just makes it harder for the county to move on." For several years now, there has been no chance to move on as one blow after another has hit this county of 56,000 residents in the Blue Ridge foothills along the North Carolina line. [continues 492 words]
Louisiana-Based Kroll Inc., Could Administer the Williamsburg-James City County's Voluntary Student Drug-Testing Program If the School Board Approves It Tuesday Night. In October, board members voted against giving the contract for the random drug-testing program to Bacon Street, a private Williamsburg nonprofit that specializes in treating teen substance abuse. The board said it could be a potential conflict of interest if students who tested positive were recommended to Bacon Street for treatment. Kroll doesn't have offices in Williamsburg, but would send a representative to the schools to oversee the testing, then send the tests to a lab in another state, W-JCC officials said Friday. The testing, paid for with a federal grant, would cost about $38 per student. [end]
The 21-Year-Old Sold The Drug To Two WSLS (Channel 10) Meteorologists A man who sold heroin to two WSLS (Channel 10) meteorologists was sentenced Monday to two years in prison, a much better deal than the life sentence he originally faced. Gilbert Dennis Hadden, 21, pleaded guilty in August to conspiracy and distribution of heroin after a lack of evidence saved him from an earlier charge of causing serious bodily injury or death. "You have flown very close to what could have been a terrible tragedy," said U.S. District Court Judge Samuel Wilson. [continues 347 words]
The Virginia Supreme Court announced yesterday that it has overturned the manslaughter conviction of a federal agent who fatally shot a man in a fight outside a Roanoke restaurant. The Supreme Court ordered a new trial. The high court ruled that evidence the state discovered after the trial should have been given to Timothy Workman's attorney before sentencing. Workman, an agent with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in Texas, was sentenced to five years in prison but has been out on bond pending the high court's decision. [continues 232 words]
M ONTROSS -- The last time Lynn C. Brownley made headlines, he was surrendering his job as county prosecutor and being convicted of felony cocaine possession. A videotape at his trial showed the then-35-year-old Westmoreland County commonwealth's attorney chopping a small, white lump of the drug on a hand-held mirror and then snorting it through a straw into his nose. "I saw the straw and the mirror and I couldn't resist," Brownley told the judge during his trial. [continues 738 words]
ROANOKE -- Henry County Sheriff H. Frank Cassell and several other members of his department were among the 20 people indicted this week on charges of racketeering conspiracy, obstruction of justice, money laundering, drug distribution and firearms offenses. "The (alleged) members of this conspiracy took advantage of the trust placed in them as law enforcement officers," U.S. Attorney John Brownlee said of the 13 current or former employees of the Henry County Sheriff's Office. A grand jury sitting in Abingdon handed down the 48-count indictment Tuesday and it was unsealed Thursday. [continues 1102 words]
Roanoke, Va. - A sheriff and 12 current and former officers in a hard-luck rural county that once billed itself the "Sweatshirt Capital of the World" were charged yesterday in a scheme to resell drugs seized from criminals. A former postal worker, a former probation officer and five other people also were indicted by federal prosecutors. The charges included racketeering conspiracy, weapons charges, narcotics distribution, obstruction of justice and perjury. H. Franklin Cassell, 68 - the sheriff of Henry County, a former textile hub about 50 miles south of Roanoke - was quoted by investigators as saying that the only way to acquire wealth is to be "a little crooked and not get caught." Cassell has been sheriff since 1992. [end]
Cassell, Keaton ordered released on $25,000 bond Henry County Sheriff H. Frank Cassell was ordered released on $25,000 bond Thursday afternoon following his arrest earlier in the day in connection with an alleged racketeering conspiracy. Under terms of the bond, Cassell will be allowed to return to work but he cannot discuss the case with his co-defendants or county or sheriff's office employees, Judge Magistrate Michael F. Urbanski ruled. Cassell, Maj. James Keaton and 18 others were indicted Tuesday by a federal grand jury in connection with the alleged conspiracy, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Roanoke said Thursday. [continues 1651 words]
The sheriff of Henry County, Va., and 19 other people were charged yesterday with taking part in a scheme to sell drugs and other evidence seized from dealers back to the community. The charges against the sheriff, H. Franklin Cassell, followed a lengthy investigation by the United States attorney's office in Roanoke. Federal investigators began to suspect that the Sheriff's Department was involved in drug trafficking in 2005, officials said, when drug enforcement officials in Philadelphia intercepted a package containing the drug ketamine that had been mailed to a house owned by a sergeant with the department. Ketamine is often used in so-called date rapes. [continues 506 words]
The longtime sheriff of Henry County, Va., and 12 former and current deputies have been charged with participating in a drug-trafficking ring in the rural county on the North Carolina border, Drug Enforcement Agency officials said yesterday. Harold F. Cassell, 68, who has been sheriff since 1992, was alerted to the illegal activity but did nothing to stop it, instead making false statements and aiding in money laundering to cover it up, federal officials said. Twenty people, including sworn officers, employees and associates of officers, dealt in illegal drugs, including cocaine, crack, steroids, ketamine and hundreds of pounds of marijuana, over a five-year period beginning in 1998, federal officials said. Participants in the conspiracy also trafficked in seized weapons, including a machine gun, according to a 48-count indictment returned Wednesday in Abingdon and unsealed yesterday. [continues 487 words]
Federal investigators began to suspect that the Sheriff's Department in Henry County, Va., was involved in illegal drug trafficking in 2005, when drug enforcement officials in Philadelphia intercepted a mail package containing the illicit date rape drug Ketamine to a house owned by a sergeant with the department. The package was mailed to William Randall Reed, a private citizen who told federal investigators that he had been the middleman in a scheme to buy and sell drugs with the help of members of the Henry County Sheriff's Department and others. [continues 547 words]
In Colorado, a ballot initiative -- Amendment 44 -- would make it legal for people 21 and older to possess up to one ounce of marijuana. If Virginia State Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-26th district, has it his way, that would never happen in the commonwealth. "If ever marijuana was to be decriminalized in this state, I would oppose it 100 percent. Period," Obenshain said. "Our laws are a matter of line-drawing on a lot of things. It sends a wrong message to our kids if we are legalizing drugs." [continues 578 words]
Theme days have long been part of week-long high school homecoming celebrations. Wearing clothing inside out and donning costumes for class are part of the fun. But three Bland High School boys have been expelled for taking "Hippie Day" too far beyond tie-dye shirts and peace signs during Homecoming week. Bland County law enforcement was called Oct. 16 to Bland High School when a teacher reported a suspicious odor to Principal Kevin Siers. When the students were questioned, they owned up to having marijuana. They did not distribute it to other students. [continues 304 words]
Law enforcement officials in Bedford and Pittsylvania counties need to accept the blame. Law enforcement authorities refused Wednesday to take reporters' questions during a news conference in Bedford about an outrageously botched child pornography raid that targeted an innocent family in Pittsylvania County. Officials read a statement and then scurried out a nearby door. Are they embarrassed? They should be. Instead of coming clean about investigators' roles in the egregious foul-up, an officer with the Bedford County Sheriff's Department blamed an Internet provider he said reported the wrong address in Gretna for a subscriber suspected of storing child pornography on a computer. Internet-savvy surfers and reporters know it's risky to trust sole-source information. If investigators relied solely, or even primarily, on FairPoint Communications to identify their suspect's address, their error looms even larger than Deputy Shaquille O'Neal -- yes, that Shaq -- who accompanied the raid. Authorities should count their blessings in that no one died during their guns-drawn assault of an innocent household. [continues 233 words]
VA. Teens Sport Martial Attire in Fight Against Drugs If classes had been held in a forest yesterday at Marshall Middle School in Fauquier County, it would have been difficult for teachers to take attendance. As the first bell rang, students bounded into hallways wearing twig- and branch-imprinted jackets or sporting fatigues stamped U.S. Army. Principal Christine Moschetti said the school asked the students to don the martial clothing to show support for "the fight against drugs." She wore a leafy, oversized camouflage T-shirt that she had bought at Wal-Mart for $5. [continues 657 words]
With a Blackhawk helicopter, Humvees and a race car on school grounds, it is not hard to get students' attention. And once the National Guard officers had the Fieldale-Collinsville Middle School students' attention Thursday, they launched an anti-drug program called "Stay on Track." The kickoff at the middle school was the first in Virginia, said Chief Warrant Officer Thomas French, one of the program's organizers, because that school was the first to work out scheduling and other details. [continues 595 words]
WILLIAMSBURG -- Williamsburg-area students may be drinking, smoking and using prescription drugs more than they did in 2003, according to a release from the Williamsburg-James City County school district and the Historic Triangle Substance Abuse Coalition. New research suggests a "significant increase" in substance abuse locally, according to information from the school district announcing that both groups will release more details about the research next Tuesday. W-JCC's voluntary random student drug testing program began this school year as an attempt to curb student drug use. Students who elected to participate in the program haven't been tested so far this year because W-JCC hasn't yet picked an agency to administer the tests. [end]
When asked how common drug use is in middle school, one young girl responded, "Not that much." Another in the group was incredulous at this response and asked, "Where do you go to school?" Another student chimed in, "There's marijuana at school, I know there is." Still another added, "I'm sure there is alcohol in our school. One kid brought a bottle of alcohol to school and pretended it was something else." The group of middle schoolers gathered at the Boys and Girls Club location at Taylor Middle School shared stories about their peers. All agreed that most students think it's "cool" to use drugs. [continues 685 words]
Three Teens Looking To Buy Weed Get A Beatdown Instead. Three Stafford County teenagers looking to buy marijuana got robbed and brutally beaten instead, police said. Stafford sheriff's spokesman Bill Kennedy said deputies went to a home on Birch Lane, not far from the Sheriff's Office, after a resident reported that a shirtless boy was outside covered in blood. The teenager had a large laceration over one of his eyes. The boy said he and two of his friends, all high school students, had gone to the basketball courts in Stafford Oaks planning to buy marijuana. [continues 202 words]
You and your law-abiding neighbors in Virginia might be just one street address away from a life-threatening, midnight raid by a local paramilitary police unit. As these so-called SWAT squads increasingly become America's favored search warrant delivery service, bungled raids have skyrocketed. In these assaults on private property, scores of innocent citizens, police officers and nonviolent offenders have died. In a recent CATO Institute report, Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America, Radley Balko describes how, "Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home." [continues 605 words]
Bacon Street - the private Williamsburg nonprofit that deals with substance abuse and prevention issues for teens and their families - has been selected by Williamsburg-James City County school officials to administer the new voluntary, random student drug-testing program. The contract will be up for a vote at the School Board's Tuesday meeting. Bacon Street would charge $40 per test, according to a W-JCC memo. The testing will be paid for through a federal grant. Middle school and high school students participating in the program will be randomly selected, then called out of class for a drug test. According to the new policy, only the drug lab and the student's family will be informed if a student tests positive for drugs. [end]
Mother Rewards Son With Pot, Faces Jail Time Most of us played the game "Mother, May I?" when we were kids. Just like every other game in life, one real-life mother took this a little too far. A Pennsylvania mother pleaded guilty to giving her 13-year-old son pot for doing his homework since the time he was 11. She must have really wanted to be the cool mom around town, because she also gave pot to two of his friends, who are 17 and 18 years old. [continues 192 words]
In late 2004, a federal jury in Alexandria convicted a McLean doctor on charges that galvanized a national debate over the prescribing of powerful painkillers. Prosecutors argued that when a doctor prescribes large doses of narcotics to patients who abuse or sell the medication, the doctor needs to be held responsible. Advocates said the enforcement would adversely affect a growing number of chronic-pain patients suffering from cancer or other illnesses. The six-week trial of former pain doctor William E. Hurwitz featured more than 60 prosecution witnesses and audiotapes of the doctor unknowingly talking to patients who were government informants. At Hurwitz's sentencing, the courtroom in U.S. District Court was crammed with his supporters. [continues 298 words]
Parents Can Download The Testing Forms From W-JCC's Web Site And Drop Them Off Or Mail Them. JAMES CITY -- The Williamsburg-James City County school district is using new technology to detect underage drinking, officials said Tuesday. When students are tested this year as part of Williamsburg-James City County's voluntary random student drug testing program, the medical lab can detect whether a student has consumed an alcoholic beverage up to 72 hours before being tested, Director of Student Services Stephen Chantry said Tuesday night. It's a new type of alcohol test, and will ensure that if a student parties on the weekend and is tested early in the week, he or she could still be detected, he said. [continues 301 words]
The federal appeals court in Richmond yesterday vacated the drug-trafficking convictions of Dr. William E. Hurwitz and ordered a new trial for the physician who specialized in treating pain. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the trial judge, Senior U.S. District Judge Leonard D. Wexler of Alexandria, should not have instructed the jury that it must not consider whether Hurwitz acted in good faith in prescribing large doses of OxyContin and other painkillers. The instructions allowed the jurors to consider good faith only on two fraud counts. [continues 303 words]
Medical groups are hailing a federal appeals court's decision to grant a new trial to a Virginia doctor accused of drug trafficking for prescribing large quantities of narcotics to his patients. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday that jurors at the 2004 trial of Dr. William Hurwitz of McLean, Va., were improperly prevented from considering whether he acted in good faith. He was convicted on 50 counts and sentenced to 25 years in prison. An appeals court judge, William Traxler Jr., wrote that the jury should have been told that Dr. Hurwitz committed no crime if he had a reasonable, good-faith belief that the prescriptions were appropriate medical care. "A doctor's good faith in treating his patients is relevant to the jury's determination of whether the doctor acted beyond the bounds of legitimate medical practice," Judge Traxler said. "The district court effectively deprived the jury of the opportunity to consider Hurwitz's defense." [continues 526 words]
Appeals Court Says Judge Erred in Jury Instructions A federal appeals court threw out the conviction of William E. Hurwitz yesterday, granting the prominent former Northern Virginia pain-management doctor a new trial because jurors were not allowed to consider whether he prescribed drugs in good faith. The decision again galvanized the national debate that the Hurwitz case had come to symbolize: whether fully licensed doctors prescribing legal medication to patients in chronic pain should be subject to prosecution if their patients abuse or sell the drugs. Patient advocate groups strongly supported Hurwitz and expressed concern that his conviction would have a chilling effect on pain doctors. [continues 450 words]
Without Marc Lamarre and Jamey Singleton, the public likely never would have heard of Chad Honaker and Gilbert Hadden. The February overdose of Lamarre, then a meteorologist at WSLS (Channel 10), linked the names of all four men in the public spotlight. After Lamarre's overdose on prescription medications, the public learned the details of his and Singleton's heroin addictions. And it learned the names of their suppliers, Chad Honaker and Gilbert Hadden. But last week, it was Honaker and Hadden who pleaded guilty in federal court to drug charges. Each of the charges to which Honaker, 33, and Hadden, 21, pleaded guilty carries up to 20 years in prison. [continues 417 words]
HARRISONBURG -- Four illegal aliens charged with conspiring to deal 500 grams or more of methamphetamine are scheduled for trial in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Harrisonburg later this month. The illegal aliens, from Mexico and El Salvador, are among seven defendants charged in an alleged drug conspiracy from which officials say they seized 11 ounces of meth and 23 firearms. Most of the guns were seized from one defendant who is a U.S. citizen, according to court records. [continues 482 words]
A Fix For Virgina's Prison Woes WASHINGTON--Sadly, America's first blue-rib-bon prison panel in 30 years failed to tackle, head-on, the root causes of our lock-'em-up culture and to find ways to reduce the number of people behind bars in Virginia and elsewhere. Formed last year, the privately sponsored Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons brought together 20 civic leaders, scholars, prison officials, and a former prisoner. Based on many public hearings, interviews and research, the panel's recent report, "Confronting Confinement," is a how-to manual to help wardens cope with overcrowded prisons that breed violence, disease, and recidivism. [continues 605 words]
The Louisa County Sheriff's Office finished some overdue yard work at Geoffrey Cummings' Mt. Airy Road home last Wednesday, cutting the grass and pulling a whole lot of weeds. In the largest marijuana manufacturing bust in the county's history, the LCSO, with the assistance of other agencies, seized 352 marijuana plants from four fields on Cummings' 30-acre property. Officers also recovered a firearm and evidence that may connect Cummings to the cultivation of the fields, including a shovel, transplanting bins, and a hose which was hooked up to the home's water supply. [continues 538 words]
An assistant U.S. attorney said he plans to turn over the evidence, including medical results and cellphone records. A defense attorney's wish list on Thursday provided some clues to the possible defense of a man accused of selling heroin to former WSLS (Channel 10) meteorologist Marc Lamarre. David Damico, who is representing Gilbert Dennis Hadden of Detroit, said he needs to know how a government expert will testify regarding the absence or presence of drugs in Lamarre's system. [continues 400 words]
ARLINGTON, Va. - The Arlington County Police Department in Virginia said it might have found the man who distributed marijuana-filled gumballs to Howard County. Police arrested and charged Paul C. Cofer, 20, of Arlington, with drug possession with intent to distribute July 22 after finding "hundreds" of yellow smiley-face gumballs in his apartment, some of which were filled with marijuana compound. "Our concern is obviously that gumballs are appealing to young children, and we don't want these to harm anyone," said Detective Steve Gomez of the Arlington police force. [continues 238 words]
WE WERE somewhere around the 1970s on the edge of the Acid Wave when the drug war began to take hold. The politically typical thing to say today is that the so-styled "War on Drugs" is without foreseeable victory -- and how unfortunate, really. Almost without exception, however, America regards its beloved war as one worth fighting. And it is, to an extent. But the tactics need some adjustment to accomplish anything beyond the current, hopeless stalemate. The most crucial step to changing America's atrociously flawed drug policy is to reevaluate our rules of engagement, so to speak. If we don't, we continue along a path to nowhere, entrenched in a war with endless enemies and no peace in sight. [continues 672 words]
A Speaker At A Major Conference On Addiction Says Newer Treatment Approaches Often Aren't Better For Patients. WILLIAMSBURG -- Counselors need to get back to basics to help people stop abusing drugs and alcohol, according to a speaker who kicked off a national conference on addiction in Williamsburg on Monday. While studies have shown programs such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous work, some therapists look to newer approaches such as acupuncture, boot camps and long individual talk sessions, said Delbert Boone, a New York-based consultant who also is a recovering addict. [continues 417 words]
Sadly, America's first national prison commission in 30 years failed to tackle, head-on, our lock 'em up culture and to find ways to reduce the number of people behind bars in Virginia and elsewhere. The commission's recent report is little more than a how-to manual to help wardens cope with overcrowded prisons that breed violence, disease and recidivism. What we really need is a road map to drastically shrink Virginia's prison population and, at the same time, save state taxpayers a lot of money. [continues 588 words]
About 40 Suspects Charged, 26 Still Sought After 18-Month Investigation About 40 people have been arrested and more than 20 are being sought in Prince William County in what law enforcement officials said yesterday was one of the largest crackdowns on gun and drug trafficking in Northern Virginia. The operation, dubbed "the Highway Men" because much of the activity occurred near the Jefferson Davis Highway (Route 1) corridor, involved more than 250 federal, state and local officials over 18 months. Officers began rounding up suspects Tuesday, with about 40 arrests made by yesterday and more than 31 firearms seized. [continues 557 words]
The school board will sign off on a plan within months to combat drug use and other problems. Pulaski County school officials are planning an initiative to drive alcohol and substance abuse out of their schools. While the plan is far from finished, the tools discussed range from education to drug tests to searches with drug dogs to a hotline students can use to anonymously report drug use and drug dealing. "No students in our schools will use illegal substances ... bottom line," said Superintendent Don Stowers. [continues 770 words]
Inside Virginia
