Re Dispensing With Common Sense (editorial, May 30): The pot shop issue is really quite simple. Close them. There are 31 licensed producers in Canada under the marijuana for medical purposes regulations. They are listed on Health Canada's website. Clients, with a doctor's authorization, order their product from one of these and it is delivered by courier. This is the legal way to buy medical marijuana. Marijuana sold in pot shops, dispensaries and compassion clubs is an illegal product. Concerns about pesticides, fungicides, mould and irradiation are valid. There are no controls in the black market. [continues 101 words]
WASHINGTON - Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up. Nine District of Columbia police officers smashed through her door, pointed a shotgun at her face and ordered her to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a soft-spoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 990 words]
WASHINGTON - Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up. Nine District of Columbia police officers smashed through her door, pointed a shotgun at her face and ordered her to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a softspoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 516 words]
Pursuing Drugs and Guns on Scant Evidence, D.C. Police Sometimes Raid Wrong Homes - Terrifying Residents Sallie Taylor was sitting in her apartment in Northeast Washington one evening in January 2015 watching "Bible Talk" when her clock fell off the wall and broke. She turned and looked up as nine D.C. police officers smashed through her door. A shotgun was pointed at her face, and she was ordered to the floor. "They came in like Rambo," said Taylor, a soft-spoken 63-year-old grandmother who was dressed in a white nightgown and said she has never had even a speeding ticket. [continues 3913 words]
In a move it hopes will spur research into medical uses of marijuana, the nation's second-largest physicians' group is calling on the government to ease criminal penalties for doctors who study and recommend the plant, and patients who smoke it. The American College of Physicians says several nonmedical factors - a fierce battle over legalization of the drug, a complicated approval process, and limited availability of research-grade marijuana - has hobbled scientists from looking into its full benefits. [continues 638 words]
Meet Abraham Brown, self-appointed marketing man for Camden's new needle-exchange program. After more than 20 years on the street, the acknowledged drug addict knows whom to tell about the blue van parked Tuesday afternoons in the Waterfront South area of Camden. The program could use Brown's help. In the two weeks since it launched, only seven people have signed up for the Camden Area Health and Education Center syringe-exchange program, in a city with more than its share of intravenous drug users. [continues 881 words]
Slate Hill -- Minisink Valley High School Principal Jack Latini Liked To Cut Kids Some Slack In The Name Of Fairness. And now it might have got him into trouble with his district. Police sources say that Latini failed to immediately turn in drugs he confiscated from a student, thus violating district policy. The sources said Latini held onto the drug, the substance of which was unknown yesterday, for a short period of time before turning it into the school administration. School policy requires that all confiscated drugs be reported to the district immediately. [continues 377 words]
The drug combats overdoses, but experts say the proper dose isn't being given. And the antidote isn't readily available to all patients. Two months ago, as scores of drug users in the city began dying of heroin overdoses, two city paramedics discovered something alarming. Narcan, a powerful drug that could almost instantly revive a patient, wasn't working. In the following weeks, an apparent culprit would be unmasked: Heroin dealers were adding fentanyl to their product, an opioid up to 100 times as powerful. More than 500 people across the country have died of the tainted heroin - a number that is sure to climb. [continues 1744 words]
Number of Seized Labs Rises in Boone County. Sheriff's deputies and members of the Boone County Hazardous Materials Response Team resorted to gunfire recently in dealing with two plastic drums of anhydrous ammonia. The top of one container bulged from built-up pressure inside, and its screw-on cap looked as if it were about to pop, Boone County sheriff's Detective Ken Kreigh said. Using a .223-caliber rifle, Kreigh said, he shot both drums from about 35 yards away. On impact, the bulging container sprang up about five feet, releasing a cloud of vapor through the bullet hole. [continues 545 words]
Rendell's proposed budget would cut $66 million from 2 substance-abuse programs, affecting 30,000 people. Directors of drug- and alcohol-treatment centers across the region said yesterday they would have to turn away half their clients if the state budget proposed by Gov. Rendell is approved by the legislature. Rendell on Tuesday proposed cutting $66 million from two programs that pay for substance-abuse treatment for people who are not eligible for medical assistance, about 30,000 of the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians, according to supporters of these programs. These programs also pay for treatment of people with behavioral problems. [continues 948 words]
CAMP LEJEUNE - Civilian and military investigators seized more than $1.4 million worth of illicit drugs and convicted 82 Marines and sailors on drug-related charges during a two-year operation, military officials announced Tuesday. The announcement came at the end of "Operation Xterminator," in which military and local authorities conducted 150 undercover investigations at nightclubs in Wilmington to identify users and distributors of designer drugs. Ninety-nine civilians were also charged in the operation. It began in February 2000, when Wilmington police called the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and reported that military personnel were frequently seen in local clubs where designer drugs were sold and used, said Maj. Steve Cox, a spokesman for Camp Lejeune. [continues 329 words]
An evaluation and referral program for offenders in Durham is found to be 'severely understaffed.' DURHAM -- State probation officials said Tuesday that because of communication breakdowns and severe understaffing at a drug treatment program, probation officers were waiting months to reel in criminals who flunked drug tests or failed to show up for court-ordered drug treatment. The findings came after Robert Guy, who runs the state's probation and parole agency, met with the statewide director of Treatment Alternatives to Street Crime, the program that evaluates offenders and refers them to treatment. [continues 492 words]
A Colombian man, accused of heading an international drug cartel that prosecutors alleged shipped thousands of pounds of cocaine to the United States and Europe, faced criminal charges in federal court in Manhattan yesterday afternoon, three days after his extradition to the United States. The man, Alberto Orlandez-Gamboa, who prosecutors have said is the head of the Caracol drug cartel, has been charged with conspiring to transport the cocaine and with conspiring to launder tens of millions of dollars in profits from drug sales. [continues 642 words]
The plaintiff says he was just visiting a neighbor, but officers say he made a grab for a lawman's gun. DURHAM -- An elderly man who says he was punched in the face, held against his will and strip-searched by police during a drug raid at the home of a friend last May has filed a civil suit against the city and several police officers. The suit, filed by James Cates, 71, is the latest in a case that has involved an SBI investigation, a review by a citizens board and allegations of police brutality by the Durham NAACP. [continues 322 words]
It has become a familiar story: a felon is released early from prison and commits another crime, prompting calls for the elimination of parole. But in New York parole is already tougher than it was just a decade ago. Inmates have a much smaller chance of being released on parole now than they did in the early 1990's, state figures show, and for the most violent inmates, the chance of early parole has almost been eliminated. Nationwide, parole has been tightened or abandoned as prison policies have shifted from rehabilitation to punishment and prevention. In the last 15 years, 27 states have modified their systems, and 14 have done away with early parole release altogether. Nationwide, states are requiring prisoners to serve more of their sentences. [continues 1259 words]
