WASHINGTON - Exasperated by pessimism about the "war on drugs," John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, says: Washington is awash with lobbyists hired by businesses worried that government may, intentionally or inadvertently, make them unprofitable. So why assume that the illicit drug trade is the one business that government, try as it might, cannot seriously injure? Here is why: When Pat Moynihan was an adviser to President Nixon, he persuaded the French government to break the "French connection" by which heroin came to America. Moynihan explained his achievement to Labor Secretary George Shultz, who said laconically: "Good." [continues 675 words]
JACKSON (AP) - The Rankin County School Board has approved a preliminary drug-testing plan for the county schools, joining the Pearl Municipal Separate School District. "We want to do everything we can to reverse the trend of drug use in our schools," Superintendent Lynn Weathersby said Wednesday. Pearl operates a school system separate from the county. The county and Pearl policies will randomly test students who participate in extracurricular activities, seventh through 12th grades. In addition, the county's plan calls for students in those grades to be subject to testing if a school official has "reasonable suspicion." [continues 166 words]
JACKSON - Holy deja vu all over again! Mississippi's black market tax scheme still lives in the Legislature after being buried for 40 years! Last week Mississippi House members by a better than a two-thirds margin voted for a resolution to get the Senate to go along with filing a bill to slap a tax on the possession of illegal drugs - cocaine and such. Sound cockamamie? Well, House members who pushed the idea and got 84 votes for it (after one brief failure) said three other states already have such a law, and it's bringing in between $10 and $25 million a year. [continues 897 words]
CHICAGO - He looks like the actor Wilford Brimley - round as a beach ball; grandfatherly gray mustache - but Philip J. Cline, this city's police superintendent, is, like his city, hard as a baseball. And as they say in baseball, he puts up numbers. Actually, he and his officers have driven some crucial numbers down. Last year homicides reached a 38-year low of 448, 25 percent below 2003's total of 600, which was lower than the 2002 and 2001 totals of 654 and 668. [continues 704 words]
JACKSON - Bills have passed to limit the sale of what is considered the main ingredient in crystal methamphetamine. On Thursday, the House passed two separate bills that would limit the sale of pseudoephedrine-based drugs and ephedrine-based drugs. The Senate passed similar legislation earlier this week. The drugs are used in various types of sinus medication, such as the brand-name Sudafed. It is also the primary ingredient in crystal meth, a home-made drug that narcotics agents say is highly addictive and now the No. 1 drug problem in Mississippi, especially in Northeast Mississippi. [continues 353 words]
Gov. Haley Barbour's timely State of the State proposal to crack down on crystal methamphetamine labs in Mississippi found a sympathetic audience in the Legislature, and tough countermeasures seem certain. Several anti-crystal-meth bills remain alive in the session, and it doesn't matter who authors and sponsors the one finally adopted so long as it has the right new restrictions. The key in the issue is controlling access and abuse of pseudoephedrine, the chemical that's essential in making crystal meth, an illegal drug that's dangerous, deadly, addictive and ubiquitous. [continues 295 words]
JACKSON - State Attorney General Jim Hood said Wednesday that a bill limiting the sale of certain cold medicines could be the most effective weapon against narcotics that he has seen in his career. The bill, introduced by Sen. Sidney Albritton, R-Picayune, would require a pharmacist or assistant to handle drugs containing pseudoephedrine, which is a primary ingredient in the manufacture of the illegal drug crystal methamphetamine. Senate Judiciary B Committee, chaired by Sen. Gray Tollison, D-Oxford, met Wednesday for a hearing on the bill, which also would require people to show photo identification when buying the non-prescription drug. [continues 333 words]
Mississippi's reputation as a center of "crystal meth" production and abuse is sustained by just-released statistics showing an increased number of arrests for making, possessing or selling the dangerous, homemade drug. Geography and population (easy isolation) and a good climate for helping the ingredients cook together in the right way make Mississippi attractive for drug criminals. The drug - made with ingredients that, sold separately, have been easily purchased in grocery stores and pharmacies - is addictive, dangerous and potentially deadly in all its phases. [continues 323 words]
OXFORD - Despite efforts by public and private citizens to curb the manufacture and use of crystal meth, the drug just isn't going away. In fact, a drug that was barely on the radar screen of local law enforcement 10 years ago, crystal meth now accounts for the largest portion of drug arrests at the local and state level. In the past year, the number of meth arrests has increased at all levels, a sign of the continuing problem. In Mississippi, meth arrests were up more than 50 percent over the past year and accounted for more than one-third of arrests made by state narcotics agents. [continues 1154 words]
OXFORD - Mississippi law enforcement officers say Sudafed PE, which hit stores Jan. 10, is a step but not the end of the battle against crystal meth. In December, the makers of Sudafed - an over-the-counter antihistamine - announced they were removing the ingredient pseudophedrine, an ingredient used in the manufacture of crystal meth. Capt. Terry Spillers, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, said if other drug manufacturers will follow suit, it would definitely make it harder for crystal meth cooks. However, he does not believe it will end the crystal meth problem. [continues 279 words]
OXFORD - Lafayette County is considering a drug court that could save thousands of dollars. Charles Harrison,representing Lafayette County judges Andrew Howorth and Henry Lackey, told supervisors here Monday that adding a court to handle drug-related offenses, similar to what is being done in other states, could save about $18,000 per offender. The drug court would sentence a limited number of drug offenders to 12-24 months of intensive therapy as opposed to prison terms, Harrison explained. "By no means does that mean (the sentences) are soft on any of these folks," he said. [continues 192 words]
WASHINGTON - The number of American teen-agers using illegal drugs fell markedly over the past two years, the first noteworthy decline in more than a decade, according to government data released Friday. The percentage of high school students who reported they'd used an illicit drug in the past month fell to 17.3 percent this year, down from 19.4 percent in 2001, according to the comprehensive "Monitoring the Future" survey. That translates into 400,000 fewer high school students using drugs. [continues 771 words]
As Gov.-elect Haley Barbour prepares to take office in January, he faces the conundrum of his no-new-taxes pledge on the campaign trail against the reality of a whopping $70 million deficit in the state's Department of Corrections. Simply put, Mississippi can't afford to house the prisoners we already have in the state's penal system - much less the new one's pouring in each day under the state's "85 percent" rule that mandates that prisoners serve at least that percentage of their original sentence before being eligible for parole. [continues 486 words]
PLANTERSVILLE - A police officer who works as a school resource officer was being held Thursday on $1 million bond after his arrest on drug charges. Billy R. Hanna, 34, of 2101 W. Jackson St. in Tupelo, was arrested Wednesday after a nearly monthlong investigation by the Tupelo Police Department and the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, said Lt. Chuck Bunn. Hanna was arrested at his residence without incident, and Justice Court Judge John Hoyt Sheffield set his bond. Bunn said that during the past month suspicions were raised about the officer relating to the illegal sale of drugs. [continues 186 words]
JACKSON - The Department of Corrections will run out of money to pay for housing inmates in private and county-owned regional prisons early next year unless, its commissioner said, the Legislature passes a deficit appropriation for the agency during the 2004 session. Corrections Commissioner Chris Epps told members of the Legislative Budget Committee on Tuesday that his agency faces a $67.5 million deficit. But unlike other instances in recent years when agency heads have appeared before the Budget Committee requesting deficit funding, there was no criticism of Epps by members of the committee. [continues 409 words]
WASHINGTON - The combination of miscommunication, ignored warnings and general hubris - all in a culture that discouraged internal criticism - - virtually guaranteed disaster. No, this is not a follow-up on NASA and the Columbia space shuttle tragedy. It is a commentary on criminal justice in America. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, after months of painstaking investigation of the Feb. 1 space calamity, has issued a scathing report of those in charge. A similarly independent body ought to take a look at our criminal justice system. [continues 653 words]
CORINTH - A one-square-mile area in the heart of Corinth stands apart as one of about 40 sites selected nationwide by the U.S. Justice Department as a "Weed and Seed" site. The recognition also makes the project eligible to apply for a $175,000 grant to help improve the safety and well-being of the neighborhood, which is home to about 1,500 residents. If successful, the South Corinth Neighborhood Project will be eligible for an additional $900,000 over the next four years for a total of $1.075 million. [continues 288 words]
JACKSON - A northern Mississippi sheriff was arrested Wednesday on federal charges of using his office to secure kickbacks from stolen drug money and from a bail bond business wanting to operate in his county. Tunica County Sheriff Jerry Ellington was taken into custody by federal agents on extortion and bribery charges, said U.S. Attorney Jim Greenlee and FBI Special Agent in Charge Edwin Worthington. A four-count indictment was returned Monday. "We have been investigating this for a long time," Greenlee said. [continues 283 words]
JACKSON -- Whistle-blowers. Thank goodness we have a few of them emerging in Mississippi, opening up some dark corners where taxpayers' money has gone that people wouldn't know about if some folks hadn't blown the whistle. The latest whistle blast has come from former Jackson TV executive Frank Melton, who for several years crusaded on his own against the drug trade, and now is doing so for the state. Melton, now director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics has thrown open an investigator's report on a nasty little caper orchestrated by an aide to Sen. Trent Lott shifting two MBN aircraft worth $900,000 to two Coast counties - at no cost. [continues 938 words]
Marijuana has been legally grown in Mississippi (at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy, for research, under special permit with the federal and state governments) for over two decades, with nine states legalizing its use for medicinal reasons and now benefiting from its harvest. Mississippi is not one of those states. We grow medical marijuana here in our state but we cannot use it. Why is that? The state of Mississippi's overfed DEA locks up whomever they want - ripping apart families, stealing their property and/or their children - and auctions off anything they can get their hands on to the highest bidder. They can do this to you for even talking about marijuana over the telephone - - charging you with "conspiracy to distribute." [continues 192 words]
