It's been 10 days since Philip Seymour Hoffman, possibly our era's finest actor, was found dead and alone in his apartment, a needle in his arm. Before Hoffman, there was Cory Monteith. And Heath Ledger. Kurt Cobain. River Phoenix. Elvis. They are our dead celebrities, the famous ones who die from addiction. We love them with a strange love, and mourn them with a strange grief. We leave flowers outside the buildings where they died. We dim the lights on Broadway. We visit their graves. We easily forgive their drug use and excesses; after all, it's Hollywood. After all, they entertained us so. [continues 730 words]
To understand why the Koozer family - Justin, Annie and 2-year-old Piper - left all their friends and church family in Ooltewah to move across the country to Denver, where they knew no one, try this: Start counting from zero all the way to 2,000. Or go walk two miles. Or watch the nightly news. It should take you about 30 minutes. During that time, imagine your heart cracking in half as you watch - helplessly - as your firstborn child shakes and convulses, a victim of her own private earthquake. [continues 769 words]
Chief Savage and Sheriff Mascara seem like they have some kind of vendetta against the young people. Seems like they are targeting all the black people in the community. Are we prisoners in our own community? You never see them harassing white people like they harass black people over here, stopping them in their cars for no probable cause. I was talking to Commissioner "Butch" Alexander just the other day and he told me that as long as the people do not speak out and file a complaint, this would continue to happen. [continues 313 words]
Selected Quotations From A Monitor Breakfast With John P. Walters, Director Of The US Office Of National Drug Control Policy. On how the war on terrorism affects drug control efforts: "You hear different opinions about this. The reason you hear different opinions is that we don't have perfect knowledge of what is actually flowing so sometimes it is hard to tell the difference on the street level for some period of time because there is a certain amount in the pipeline. ...We certainly don't see reports immediately after Sept. 11 of critical shortages on the street which would be an immediate and most prominent indicator. We have seen more seizures at the border we also have seen more seizures at airports because of increased airport security. And I think there is a general consensus -- although there is always a debate about these things -- that there is less effort to move drugs through the airport because of tighter security and some border areas...But what we are trying to do is integrate what we are doing with the changes in homeland security so we get a little more stable and consistent interdiction effort along the borders." [continues 780 words]
WASHINGTON - On what DEA contributes to the war on terrorism: "What the DEA contributes that is underground, that is behind the scenes is our intelligence. ... With offices in 56 countries, we have 400 DEA agents overseas - about 10 percent of our force. If you are looking into what is happening in the bad world... in terms of human intelligence you are going to find it in that seedy hotel or bar..." On changing drug laws: "Here in the United States it is fair to debate our drug policies but we need to debate them within the context of what we have learned from history and it is moving in the wrong direction to decriminalize or take drug offenses out of the criminal context. Within the criminal context, let's debate them, but those should be the parameters." [continues 981 words]
Selected Quotations From A Monitor Lunch With Dea Administrator Asa Hutchinson. On what DEA contributes to the war on terrorism: "What the DEA contributes that is underground, that is behind the scenes is our intelligence. ... With offices in 56 countries, we have 400 DEA agents overseas - about 10 percent of our force. If you are looking into what is happening in the bad world... in terms of human intelligence you are going to find it in that seedy hotel or bar..." [continues 1046 words]
Selected quotations from a Monitor Lunch with DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson. On what DEA contributes to the war on terrorism: "What the DEA contributes that is underground, that is behind the scenes is our intelligence. ... With offices in 56 countries, we have 400 DEA agents overseas - about 10 percent of our force. If you are looking into what is happening in the bad world... in terms of human intelligence you are going to find it in that seedy hotel or bar..." On changing drug laws: [continues 1042 words]
