Almost 100 Students Graduate Friday From Drug Program The chances a good many students at Southeast Lauderdale Middle School will get into trouble later in life by taking drugs or drinking alcohol got much lower Friday as they graduated from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program. They are now armed with the single most important weapon against drug and alcohol abuse, knowledge. During a graduation ceremony, almost 100 students received their diplomas. Along with each diploma that was handed out, there also was an expressed promise on the part of the students they would not partake in drug, alcohol or tobacco use. They made a conscious decision to keep their bodies and lives clean thereby giving themselves a clear advantage to fight temptations later in life. [continues 273 words]
Anna Moreno has 925 kids! And they keep her very busy. "I've got five children of my own but all the kids here at Clarkdale Attendance Center are mine as well," she added with a smile. "I love all these children here." A deputy with the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department, Moreno, and fellow deputy Robbie McClure, have good reason to get uniquely attached to the youngsters whose safety it is the two officers' task to protect. As school resource officers who've been recently certified to be D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers, Moreno and McClure have gained a unique perspective into the lives of children as the students go to and from classes. Both officers believe the D.A.R.E. certification will help them to do their jobs even better than before. [continues 360 words]
- -- The three men who were the subjects of an investigation involving wrongdoing at the Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force appeared in Jones County Circuit Court Tuesday morning and pleaded guilty to a variety of charges. Roger Williams, 43, the former commander of the now closed drug enforcement unit, pleaded guilty to four counts of conspiracy to falsely accuse another of a felony, one count of embezzlement, one count of simple assault and one count of obstructing justice. Randall Parker, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of embezzlement, one count of obstructing justice and four counts of conspiracy to falsely accuse another of a felony. [continues 352 words]
Samantha Demchak (letters, Aug. 6) correctly surmises in her letter concerning proposed prescription restrictions on pseudoephedrine products that there will be a cost to bear by the average citizen. While I can empathize with her $50 dilemma, I disagree with her view that Oregon lawmakers "boondoggled" another one. This is the Legislature that the voting public put into office. The meth problem has been attacked from the front, with varying methods and mixed results. When someone can't find a reason to cheer, then they have to create a reason to complain. [continues 78 words]
ICE Team Works To Slow Down Drug Traffic Through Jones County. The proliferation of drugs throughout America is such that no one agency can stop it completely. In many cases the amount of illegal drugs and the money derived from the trade resembles a flood that has for years spread throughout every state in the union. There are a lot of holes in the dike. Law enforcement agencies, including the Laurel Police Department, are trying to plug those holes. But even the officers whose task it is to transform that steady flow into a trickle know the flood gates can't be closed completely. [continues 939 words]
Sheriffs From Five Counties Meet To Discuss Funding Dilemma There were some very long faces at the headquarters of the Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force Thursday afternoon while sheriffs from five counties including Jones County met to discuss their options in trying to stare down funding shortages from federal authorities. The biggest fear from chief law enforcement officers from Jones, Jasper, Smith, Simpson, and Covington counties is that all the progress made in the last dozen years will be for naught. Jasper County Sheriff Kenneth Cross seemed to put the crisis in perspective when he said, "We all remember what it was like before the task forces were formed. We are looking at the possibility of going back to those days where drugs went virtually unchecked. If the funding dries up, then we are back where we started." [continues 934 words]
Lpd Narcotics Agent Robert Strickland Says Young Adults And Teens Are Targets For This Drug As if law enforcement officials didn't have enough to worry about. Adding to the proliferation of crack cocaine, crystal methamphetamine, and the always present marijuana, narcotics agents with the Laurel Police Department are beginning to see more and more evidence ecstasy is becoming another preferred illegal drug used by young adults. But this time, instead of predominately being a partying drug used within the young white community as was the case in the 1990s, the drug is showing up on the club scenes in the black community today. [continues 715 words]
Gene Miley, who is awaiting sentencing for burglary in Jones County, agreed to an interview detailing his past as a drug addict, enforcer, and father. This is the third of a three-part series written from the interview which took place at the Jones County Adult Detention Center recently. It is both graphic and heartbreaking in its subject matter. Miley wanted to use this opportunity to inform young and old about the trappings of drug addiction and the type of life you will be led into if you chose this path. The contents may be offensive to some readers. [continues 735 words]
Gene Miley, who is awaiting sentencing for burglary in Jones County, agreed to an interview detailing his past as a drug addict, enforcer, and father. This is the second of a three-part series written from the interview which took place at the Jones County Adult Detention Center recently. It is both graphic and heartbreaking in its subject matter. Miley wanted to use this opportunity to inform young and old about the trappings of drug addiction and the type of life you will be led into if you chose this path. The contents may be offensive to some readers. [continues 1766 words]
A basic premise in America is that faster is better. From instant tea to TV dinners to sports, Pentium IV processors to G4 Powered Macs, if there's a way to do something faster, we'll figure out how to do it. That's a big reason why stimulant drugs have proliferated from the western United States across to the eastern seaboard. Speed drugs are a complex group of chemicals with one thing in common: They can cause all sorts of problems for people who take them -- and all kinds of people are taking them these days. [continues 1345 words]
Southeast Mississippi Drug Task Force Commander Roger Williams claims the arrest of Robert Eugene Wilson is a prime example the Jones County District Attorney's Office isn't doing their job. "We nabbed this guy back in November of 2001 for the same thing," Williams said of Wilson's arrest Thursday morning on charges of possession of precursors with intent to manufacture crystal methamphetamine. "If the DAs office had done their job, he would've been in jail serving time instead out on the street making more crystal meth." [continues 389 words]
With all the attention given to police dogs and their handlers, it may have been good timing for one of Laurel Police Department's K-9 teams to make a public appearance and answer many questions the general citizenry may have concerning that specialized arm of the LPD. Gavin Guy, who has been at the LPD for almost two years but has served with the Lamar County Sheriff's Office and the Richton Police Department previously, spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Laurel accompanied by his canine partner Mufasa. [continues 765 words]
Don Strange didn't mind coming out of retirement to lead the fight against drugs in his home state of Mississippi. Strange, a native of Meridian, was recently appointed by Gov. Ronnie Musgrove to become executive director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics. "I've been all over the country. Even though I believed at the time what I was doing was helping keep some drugs off the streets of towns in Mississippi, I just couldn't really see it because I was so far removed from the state," the veteran lawman told the Kiwanis Club of Laurel. [continues 295 words]
Freddie Reeves, as head of the Pretrial Diversion Unit of the Jones County District Attorney's Office, wears two hats. Reeves acts as both an investigator and probation officer. The defendants who qualify for the diversion program have to report directly to Reeves each month in order to pay restitution to victims, fines and administrative fees and are subject to random drug and alcohol testing. All drug testing is now conducted by Reeves at the DA's office rather than having to farm that function out to a local lab. By doing so, the cost of such testing has been reduced from $45 to $10 per test. The lowered expense of the tests are passed on to the defendant. [continues 149 words]
It has been long said that a dog is man's best friend. It could also be said that a dog is man's best partner in combating drug related crime. The Jones County Sheriff's Office has two new K-9 officers by the name of Brutis and Cas. Brutis is a 5 year old German Shepherd and Cas is a 4 year old Belgian Malinois. "Brutis was donated to the sheriff's office and was already partially trained from being with a previous law enforcement agency for what we need him to do," said Stan Livingston, JCSO K-9 handler. "I had to go through a 10-week certification course in order for he and I to work together." [continues 371 words]
An initiative signature drive launched this week in Washington state is the first in the nation to distribute petition forms entirely via the Internet--and state officials would set a precedent if they accept the petitions. The initiative, sponsored by the Reasonable People's Campaign, would change state law so people found guilty of possession (as opposed to manufacture or sale) of any illegal drug could be sentenced to a treatment program but not prison. Possession of less than 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of marijuana would be a minor infraction punishable only by a fine. [continues 561 words]
