In response to the SVN editorial "Challenge to citizens: Gang up on gangs" from Feb. 18, I think the underlying point was missed, since it never stated that the war on drugs is causing most of the gang violence, because the illegal drug market is instigating the same violence that alcohol prohibition did in Chicago. The violence will not end until the profits from an illegal drug market are eradicated, and the way to do that is to regulate, medicalize, and tax currently illegal drugs. Not only would that take away the profit that fuels gangs and leads to gang violence, but it would also make some of the most dangerous substances safer. [continues 145 words]
Cannabis activist Dan Linn hit the bull's-eye ["Legalize cannabis so it can be taxed and regulated," Daily Gazette, Jan. 14] calling to re-legalize cannabis; but one important reason doesn't get mentioned. Re-legalizing the relatively safe, socially acceptable, God-given plant would lower deadly, hard-drug addiction rates by eliminating lies, half-truths and propaganda in drug awareness education. How many citizens try cannabis and realize it's not nearly as harmful as taught in Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) type government environments? Then they think other substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to deadly drugs. [continues 116 words]
Mexico is dripping with blood. You may have seen news coverage of the bold murders committed south of the border in the past couple of months. Your reaction might have been similar to that of other Americans: What's wrong with those people? But what you may not know is that we comfortable gringos north of the border are pretty intimately involved in the mayhem unfolding down there. In one of the more recent outrages, a 45-year-old man was found shot dead in a vacant lot in Juarez, a town that shares the border with El Paso, Texas. The man's hands had been severed and laid atop his private parts. The taking of this man's life was not newsworthy - dozens are murdered every week in Juarez. What put his name in the papers was the dismemberment, no doubt a message of some sort. Mutilation is a mode of communication currently in vogue among Mexico's drug lords. [continues 575 words]
Taxing and regulating cannabis similar to alcohol would generate needed income for the state and local governments of Illinois. Why are we arresting otherwise law-abiding citizens for their recreational use of cannabis? Isn't this a free country? Arresting responsible marijuana users wastes tax dollars. The 70-year cannabis prohibition needs to be repealed. Taxing responsible marijuana users could provide needed funds for the government. Responsible users are not the problem and should not be punished. There will be those who break laws while under the influence of cannabis, and they should be punished if they broke the law. Being high is no better an excuse than being drunk. [continues 188 words]
CHICAGO (AP) - Three former Chicago police officers were sentenced to decades in federal prison Thursday for using their guns, uniforms and badges to rip off cocaine and marijuana from drug dealers and resell it. "You and your merry band essentially raped and plundered entire neighborhoods," U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman said in sentencing former officer Broderick Jones, admitted leader of the ring, to 25 years. The stiffest sentence went to former officer Eural Black, the only one of the three who didn't plead guilty and was convicted at a jury trial. [continues 461 words]
WASHINGTON - Mexico recorded its deadliest year yet of drug-related killings in 2007, and the violence is expected to increase if an initial $500 million U.S. aid package to Mexico is approved by Congress this year, U.S. and Mexican officials and analysts say. Drug-related killings surpassed 2,500 in 2007, eclipsing 2006's figure of more than 2,100, according to the Austin-based Stratfor consulting firm. The killings underscore the timing of the Merida Initiative, an anti-drug agreement forged by Presidents Bush and Felipe Calderon and representing a new strategy of "shared responsibility," U.S. and Mexican officials said in interviews. Much of the aid would be used for helicopters, technology and information sharing. [continues 719 words]
The first reaction for anyone reading "The Cocaine Epidemic" package in Sunday's paper should be alarm. Profound, unsettling alarm. Mounting cocaine arrests across the region during the past year testify to the epidemic's pervasive nature. Rising crime committed against businesses and private property hits home for many. Worst of all, violence spawned by drugs and gangs is increasing. Two homicides in Rock Falls appear to fit the mold. However, it's the second reaction to this news that is more important. [continues 403 words]
STERLING - From a secure location, an undercover officer peered through binoculars, looking for movement at a house on a busy Sterling street, well known to police. Dressed in torn blue jeans, the Black Hawk Area Drug Task Force officer barked his observations into a pair of cell phones, one in each hand. On the other end were police from Sterling, Rock Falls, the Whiteside County Sheriff's Department and the Illinois State Police - a total of 17 officers - taking part in a joint drug operation. [continues 602 words]
Drug abuse has reached "epidemic proportions" in Sterling and Rock Falls - splitting families, disrupting public safety, straining government resources and hurting the bottom line of area businesses, Whiteside County's top prosecutor warned in his annual report to the county board. The most common drug police encounter is cocaine, in both its powder and "crack" forms, and the substance's effects are devastating the community, Whiteside County State's Attorney Gary Spencer said in an "editorial comment" attached to his report, which will be reviewed at Wednesday's board meeting. [continues 944 words]
CHICAGO -- U.S. drug czar John Walters said Monday that federal agents, working in cooperation with the Mexican government, have closed down a lab in Mexico that might be the main source of the powerful painkiller fentanyl that has killed heroin users in eight states. Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said it's still not clear whether the fentanyl was mixed with heroin at the lab in Mexico or after it entered the United States. Fentanyl-laced cocaine also has turned up in some cities, he said. [continues 393 words]
SPRINGFIELD -- A deeply divided Illinois Supreme Court gave police broad authority Thursday to use drug-sniffing dogs to inspect cars during routine traffic stops, a move critics call an erosion of personal liberty. The Illinois attorney general's office, however, applauded the ruling for giving police more freedom to use "an invaluable tool." The court's 4-3 majority found that a dog sniffing the exterior of a car does not constitute an unreasonable search. Click for larger view. "A dog sniff will not reveal the contents of diaries or love letters; it will not reveal the individual's choice of reading materials, whether religious, political or pornographic; it will not reveal sexual orientation or marital infidelity," Justice Rita Garman wrote. [continues 522 words]
OREGON - Don't ask Cheri Brodzik if the DARE program works. She has been involved with the program for the past 11 years and knows it can do some good. "If I keep one kid from getting involved with drugs or cigarettes, I consider that a success," said Brodzik, DARE officer for the Ogle County Sheriff's Department. "Teenagers I taught while they were in grade school will come up and talk to me, so I know I am having an impact." [continues 438 words]
