JACKSON COUNTY -- A Jackson County judge Tuesday signed off on an order dismissing drug-related charges against Dr. David Bruce Allen, a retired heart surgeon who was jailed 14 months before a mistrial was declared at his trial last year. Allen was arrested in 2009 on charges accusing him of growing marijuana on his 50-acre farm on Mississippi 63 in the Escatawpa community, also known as "The Blue Hole." Allen, who had been a medical marijuana doctor in California, was released from the Jackson County jail in February after the mistrial was declared on charges of manufacturing and transporting a controlled substance. Circuit Court Judge Robert Krebs dismissed four other charge against Allen, 55, because of a lack of evidence. [continues 582 words]
JACKSON COUNTY -- A store owner was arrested after undercover narcotics agents went into her business and purchased spice, a synthetic form of marijuana outlawed in the state, Sheriff Mike Byrd said. Agents with the Narcotics Task Force of Jackson County seized three brands of spice Tuesday at Jr.'s Discount Cigarette and Beer on Government Street, Byrd said. The store's owner, Son Thi Nguyen, 48, of Linda Circle, Ocean Springs, was charged with sale of a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute. [continues 94 words]
We teach our children to stay drug free, not to drink alcohol, not to have sex outside marriage and to be faithful to their spouses once they are married. Then we offer them candidates for the highest offices in the United States who have personally broken all of these rules or who have family members who have. Are these the people that we want to set the standards of behavior for our children and grandchildren? Not only is it more of the same; it's worse! [continues 132 words]
LUCEDALE - Idice Terry's dream for a drug-free life has come true, with two years of sobriety behind her and a diploma that shows she is one of nine South Mississippi residents to graduate from the drug court program in George and Greene counties. "This program basically raised me all over again," Terry said Thursday before the drug court's first-ever graduation. The program started in South Mississippi in 2002 at the direction of Senior Circuit Judge Kathy King Jackson. [continues 431 words]
Some families don't go outside GULFPORT - One customer stands out to once notorious crack cocaine dealer Willie Smith, who is now a Harrison County prisoner serving a sentence for burglary and awaiting court proceedings on a charge of possession with intent to distribute the drug. "I had a guy show up at my house at 3 o'clock in the morning," said Smith, who started selling crack at 14, earning the nickname "Big Timer" over the years in the Magnolia Grove community off Hewes Avenue. [continues 1271 words]
OCEAN SPRINGS - For Rebecca and Joseph, finding their way to sobriety meant the difference between life and death. Though the Ocean Springs couple, now sober for two years, didn't know each other while they were using, their paths to addiction started in much the same way. "My drug of choice was more, more of anything," said Joseph, 29, and now a recovering addict who celebrated his second year of sobriety in August. "It started out drinking... not necessarily because it made me fit in but it made me forget that I didn't. I started drinking... pretty much three or four days a week, mostly beer and occasionally whiskey, either Southern Comfort or Wild Turkey." [continues 1187 words]
Citing Danger, Pascagoula Official Condemns Homes Housing Meth Labs Paying The Price PASCAGOULA - Rental property owners in Pascagoula are paying the cost to clean up methamphetamine labs, even though their tenants were responsible for the damage. The property owners are expected to pay thousands of dollars to test the properties for possible chemical contamination and then clean it up, though they had no knowledge of the labs that operated on their properties. Stephen Mitchell, Pascagoula's chief building official, is encouraging landlords to take added precautions to ensure that their tenants are not contaminating their properties. He offered the following tips: [continues 1426 words]
Cafeteria Worker Finds Drug In Box Of Meat HURLEY -- Fifteen pounds of cocaine found in a ground-meat box at East Central Upper Elementary School came from the same shipment sent to an Ellisville school, where 15 pounds of cocaine was found in a ground meat box last week. A cafeteria worker at the Hurley school found the cocaine in a box stamped Lot No. 021 early Monday morning. "Some of the ground meat was taken out, and in its place was six bricks of cocaine," Lark Christian, food service director for the Jackson County School District, said Thursday. "When she was lifting the box to put it on a shelf, she knew it felt unusual. When she went back to check that box, sure enough it had been tampered with. It was the same lot number that Ellisville had." [continues 259 words]
GAUTIER - A Year Of Rehab Led Couple Back From A Life Of Escalating Use Robby was 28 when he found himself standing in a graveyard, a casket in front of him that held his older brother, Tony, and Tony's only child, 22-month-old Ericka McKenzie. Robby's family and Tony's widow, Ellen, wanted McKenzie buried in her father's arms. "She was a daddy's girl," Ellen said. "She always loved being with her daddy." [continues 1777 words]
Drug Court Saves Counties Money, Helps Addicts Recover LUCEDALE - Lisa Kyle has been smoking marijuana for 20 years, but that all changed in March when she was arrested on a possession charge and ended up in George County's Drug Court. Police caught Kyle, 28, with almost two pounds of marijuana, but she got a break when Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Kathy King Jackson accepted her in the two-year Drug Court program that started in November for offenders in George and Greene counties. [continues 739 words]
Meth Addiction Cost Him Time With His Father, Now Deceased GULFPORT - When James Porter started snorting crystal methamphetamines as a freshman in high school, nothing mattered to him but his next fix. By the time he was 17, he was skipping school so he and his girlfriend could hang out at a drug dealer's house and snort the drug throughout the day. He'd met his new friend one night after some other teenagers invited him to go to a friend's house. [continues 1083 words]
LONG BEACH - One week before 19-year-old Derek Johnson died of a drug overdose in August, his mother, Angie Johnson, noticed that her eldest son was acting differently. Derek Johnson's moods changed in a matter of weeks. He had a new group of friends but was depressed and cried to his grandparents after attending a church service five days before his death. The sermon that day focused on the effects of drugs in one's life and how they could affect "where you wanted to be in your life." [continues 709 words]
LONG BEACH - Brian Cuevas was 21 when he died of a drug overdose during a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans this year. The 2001 graduate of Long Beach High School didn't know he was risking his life when he ingested methadone and drank alcohol. Cuevas apparently got the drug from a heroin addict in New Orleans who was supposed to be taking the drug to help him fight his addiction. Law enforcement officials say a lot of people are taking these drugs and don't know anything about the risks involved. Cuevas risked his life and lost. [continues 255 words]
GAUTIER - Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part series. The scar on Robby's right forearm serves as a reminder of the years he spent plunging drug-filled needles into his veins to stay high. For his wife, Ellen, the scars from her own drug addiction aren't so evident. They remain hidden deep inside, the result of one rainy day in 1997 when her former husband, Tony, and their 22-month-old daughter, Ericka McKenzie, died in a car wreck in Louisiana. It was the day after Thanksgiving. [continues 908 words]
Vancleave Meeting To Address Teen-Agers' Use Of Substances VANCLEAVE - The fight against drug use is on in this rural community, with two residents planning a meeting Tuesday night to discuss drug use and its effects on those who use them. Residents Sue Bennett and Melanie Sanderson said recent talks with some graduating seniors about ongoing drug use among teens prompted them to schedule the meeting. "We have lived here all our life and we have seen what is going on around us," Sanderson said. "I don't think these kids are aware of the consequences and how easy it is to get hooked on the drugs." [continues 242 words]
But Only A Few Parents Show Up For Meeting At High School Ocean Springs High School junior Brett Walker, 17, was one of those at Thursday's Community Involvement on Drug Prevention and Control program at the school. Only a handful of students and parents were on hand for the program. Ocean Springs High School student Meagan Walters says that she has seen drugs at a party within the last couple of weeks in her community, but not at school. OCEAN SPRINGS - Only a handful of parents attended a meeting Thursday at Ocean Springs High School, where city leaders said drug arrests at the school are rare and most illegal drug use among teens occurs off campus. Principal Robert Hirsh pointed out that media reports often blame schools for teen drug use even when the illegal activity occurs off campus at parties, such as the recent rave party in Jackson County, where several Ocean Springs and St. Martin high school students were arrested. Another party in Jackson County led to the arrests of two parents who held the party, attended by an estimated 100 minors who were drinking alcohol. [continues 283 words]
