Most Policies Don't Work, Speakers Say A man wearing a pot-leaf emblem sat next to a former judge, not far from a former cop, a short hop from a lawyer. All were listening intently to the discussion, taking notes and sipping coffee. Attendees at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in the French Quarter this past week represented the whole spectrum of opinions: crime fighters and former inmates, legalization advocates and opponents, casual users and part-time abusers. As the conference, which ended Saturday, dissected the country's drug culture, no topic or approach was taboo. [continues 495 words]
U.S. Attorney's Office Delivers Hard Sell to Churches, Schools The roll call kicks off with the bass drum of a funeral dirge. Slowly, methodically, the names of each young person slain last year creeps across the projection screen. People shift in their seats, swallow lumps in their throats. Federal prosecutors Richard Rose and Abram McGull II want it that way. "We are trying to get into one young mind at a time," Rose said. Their venture, "Street Smarts NOLA" is a progressive new crime prevention program aimed at city teenagers. The program prompts students to think, to react, to question. [continues 560 words]
A potent, heroinlike drug is being blamed for most of the 22 people who were sent to area hospitals Saturday in the latest rash of overdoses, Chicago officials said. One person died of an overdose, said a Fire Department official, although it is unclear if that person used the heroinlike drug. Most of the overdoses were reported on the West Side. At least nine medical emergency calls originated Saturday morning, all within about a one-mile radius in the Humboldt Park area and all within two hours, police and fire officials said. [continues 309 words]
A potent form of laced heroin sent at least 15 people from Chicago's West Side to area hospitals Saturday, the latest in a rash of neighborhood-centric drug overdoses, officials said. At least nine medical emergency calls originated Saturday morning, all within about a one-mile radius in the Humboldt Park area and all within a two-hour period, police and fire officials said. At least 12 of the victims were men in their 20s or 30s. Shortly before 10 a.m. police received a call reporting two alleged drug users stumbling from a garage behind a home in the 1100 block of North Springfield Avenue, Chicago police Lt. Diane O'Sullivan said. [continues 309 words]
State Police are searching for at least three men who attempted to hijack a tractor-trailer Friday night that police say was involved in drug trafficking and carried close to 800 pounds of marijuana. Ontario, Canada, residents Harpreet Chahal and Harjiven Cheema were traveling in the tractor-trailer westbound on the Massachusetts Turnpike at 10:30 p.m., when a white van with the numbers "1995" printed on the side signaled them to pull over, said Turnpike Authority spokesman Sean O' Neill. [continues 253 words]
