Factual data, as opposed to anecdotal reports, tend to paint a more accurate depiction of a situation. It's unfortunate that media stories about decriminalizing marijuana tend to lack the former ("Assembly moves to decriminalize marijuana," April 5). I've been following this story for the past few months and have yet to see any data to support the premise that prisons are bursting with low-level drug offenders and cost taxpayers millions by relegating countless harmless, well-meaning marijuana users to a life of unemployment. [continues 146 words]
The Partnership for a Drug Free America has recently published a study which indicates that kids who see at least one anti-drug public service announcement per day are less likely to do drugs than those who do not. This should not be shocking in any way as the "repetition equals truth" formula and idea of ignorant faith are often employed by legal/moral authorities to indoctrinate. Look at religions. I'm still dumbfounded by the idea that a person is expected to make informed decisions about personal drug use, despite the fact that almost all public drug education consists entirely of gross exaggeration, continuous citing of irresponsibly flawed studies, deliberate misinformation and outright lies. [continues 755 words]
This is so much hogwash. This convicted criminal is making a refugee claim in Canada, against his own country, so he can smoke pot. How ludicrous. How has he been supporting himself in Canada? This man has cost Canadian taxpayers way too much already, not to mention the cost of processing his refugee claim. By his own admission, Kubby smokes large amounts of marijuana daily, allegedly to control his cancer. I hope he doesn't drive. The Canadian taxpayers have had enough of "users" like Steven Kubby. Go home. Jim Wallsmith, Port Coquitlam [end]
About to be sentenced yesterday to life in prison for "managing" two street corners where lots of crack cocaine was sold, a convicted North Philadelphia drug dealer insisted he had been framed. "I been convicted because I associated with people. That's hard," Anthony "Chester" Watson, 25, of Oakdale Street near 26th, complained to U.S. District Judge J. Curtis Joyner. "I might never get a chance to really play with my daughter again." Seated behind him, Watson's mother, two sisters, and his daughter's mother all wept. [continues 223 words]
Big-time drug dealers rarely leave a federal courtroom in Philadelphia smiling. They usually get slapped with big-time sentences. But Clifton Cato, a former South Street shoe dealer, had good reason to be pleased and relieved yesterday. Cato, 42, admittedly had grossed millions of dollars since the 1970s by smuggling more than 12 tons of marijuana into the city. But after leaving his Jamaican hideout and voluntarily surrendering to authorities in 1998 to face smuggling charges, Cato became a witness for the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, and helped to convict more than 30 other drug traffickers. [continues 333 words]
In response to the letter, "Ice cream to pot?" (Feb.8), whether we are using pot or alcohol we are using a chemical that stops the brain from functioning properly, and when we reach the point of not being sober we consider ourselves to be having fun or being high. Once we tickle or stimulate that part of the brain we are open to other forms of titillation. If you ask any crack user, heroin addict, alcoholic or pill popper how they started, most will tell you the same story. It was fun in the beginning, something to do. [continues 75 words]
Not long after a jury was selected yesterday for Camden Mayor Milton Milan's corruption trial, federal prosecutors unveiled a tactical weapon that had the defense screaming foul. Although the case against Milan doesn't charge the mayor with drug trafficking, the prosecution hopes to call two admitted Camden drug kingpins-turned informants, to elicit testimony that Milan trafficked in cocaine and borrowed drug money before turning to politics. Such testimony is "clearly meant for one purpose," defense attorney Carlos A. Martir Jr. complained to U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano, "and that is to taint this trial." [continues 405 words]
Two big-time Philadelphia marijuana dealers, who authorities say were dealing in veritable tons of pot, can thank a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision for cutting their prison time in half. And hundreds of other convicts are hoping the new rules bode as well for them, defense attorneys said yesterday. In the first criminal case in the area to be affected by the Supreme Court's recent decision, water-ice dealer Lenwood Malachi was sentenced to five years in prison, and co-defendant David J. Fitzgerald, a dry-cleaner, was jailed for 10 years for conspiring to traffic in pot. [continues 264 words]
Mom Weeps As He's Sentenced For Drugs Wearing prison khakis and standing before a federal judge yesterday, ex-Pennsylvania State Trooper Antonio Romero Jr. cried and begged for mercy. Romero's mother, a soft-spoken Philadelphia School District retiree, expressed similar sentiments. But little mercy could be shown, and Romero, an admitted turncoat in the war on drugs, was sentenced to eight years in prison without chance of parole. Romero, 32, a trooper for 11 years who last worked on a narcotics task force based at the Belmont Barracks in Philadelphia, had done the unthinkable in police circles. [continues 301 words]
Pennsylvania State Trooper Antonio Romero Jr. was a turncoat in the war on drugs. A "narc" working out of the Belmont Barracks in Philadelphia, Romero last year helped a convicted drug dealer with ties to Colombian traffickers escape from state police custody in hopes of getting a $3 million payoff that never arrived. Romero, 32, of Leithgow Street near George, also had stolen nealy 50 pounds of marijuana - evidence that he had been entrusted to transport for the state police in 1997 and 1998. [continues 297 words]
It was a big bust for a Philadelphia Housing Authority narc. Two international drug traffickers were under arrest, and more than 3.2 pounds of heroin, worth at least $500,000 in street sales, had been seized from their car without a shot being fired. Within days, the feds elected to prosecute the pair, part of a Guatemalan heroin smuggling ring, hoping to send them to prison for a long time. And the gung-ho cop who made it all happen, Harry Fernandez, soon was recruited to work for the U.S. Drug Administration's local task force, a feather in any cop's cap, on an ongoing investigation of the Guatemalan connection. [continues 299 words]
by Jim Smith, Daily News Staff Writer Another gopher prosecutors say middleman in the Philadelphia drug trade was jailed this week for life without chance of parole. U.S. District Judge Charles R. Weiner had no option. A life sentence was mandatory because prosecutors declined to seek even the smallest measure of leniency for the defendant, David Padilla, 30, formerly of Franklin Street near Cumberland. Padilla was arrested a year ago for driving a van that contained 12 kilograms of cocaine, worth about $120,000. The father of two had two prior federal convictions for drugselling. [continues 274 words]
Plea expected in DEA pot case by Jim Smith Daily News Staff Writer For a cop who was tempted late in his career to traffic in marijuana, the assignment was ideal. Back in 1992, Michael J. McCue was a veteran Philadelphia police officer working on a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration task force, a trusted, highly regarded foot soldier in the neverending narcotics wars, one of about two dozen city cops on the elite undercover squad. One of his more menial jobs was to destroy marijuana that was no longer needed as evidence in criminal cases. [continues 324 words]
