Police do not need a warrant to search an unoccupied parked car if they have reliable information the vehicle is being used to store drugs and there is a chance someone might move the car, the state Supreme Court ruled yesterday. The decision was described yesterday as a major victory for law enforcement, but public defenders said it still affords residents greater protections than the federal courts have granted on search and seizures. New Jersey courts already have allowed police to conduct searches without warrants after they have pulled over cars in situations where drivers could ditch the drugs. The latest decision for the first time addresses unoccupied parked cars. [continues 632 words]
As Arianna Huffington rightly points out in her May 9 column, "Kicking down doors all over America," the same politicians who shudder at the storm-trooper tactics used to seize Elian Gonzalez have created a drug-war machine that visits far worse official violence against suspects. How can Rudolph Giuliani object to Elian's treatment after defending the cops who killed Patrick Dorismond (the New Yorker who got shot for "just saying no to drugs")? Drug war violence is everywhere. Just recently, police in Durham, N.C., brutalized two elderly citizens based on a bogus drug warrant. Recently in Minnesota's Twin Cities, allegations arose concerning a paralyzed man who was thrown from his bed and kicked repeatedly by police during a cocaine raid in which no drugs were found. Police are rarely held accountable for these atrocities. [continues 58 words]
0ne missed opportunity in the nation's war on drugs has been the failure to provide sufficient treatment programs for criminal offenders who are addicts. That neglect is giving way to a wiser policy. A private drug treatment company has opened a 732-bed facility in Newark that will provide inpatient treatment for 500 Essex County Jail inmates as well as scores of others from state prisons. Under the program, nonviolent drug offenders will receive treatment rather than go to prison, a promising approach that should cut recidivism and alleviate crowding at the county jail. [continues 376 words]
The Colombia drug war package that sailed through the House earlier this year is mercifully hitting some speed bumps in the Senate. Last Tuesday, during the Appropriations Committee debate on the $1.6 billion package, Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) offered an amendment eliminating all but $100 million of the proposed aid, and instead of being laughed out of the committee room, the motion received 11 votes. The surprisingly close 15-11 vote makes it clear that there is growing queasiness on both sides of the aisle about helping fund Plan Colombia. Yet its proponents continue to spew their empty rhetoric. "Without a strong Colombia," said Sen. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), "an abundant and steady flow of illicit drugs will head for the United States." An abundant and steady flow of illicit drugs is what we have right now, senator, and will continue to have as long as there is a demand for it. It's ironic how tough-minded conservatives who swear by the laws of supply and demand on economic issues suddenly start proclaiming that rain will surely follow the drug war rain dance no matter how many times it doesn't. [continues 741 words]
This sort of thing just doesn't happen in America. At least that's the unexamined assumption behind the fullplumed outrage at the "excessive force" used during the predawn raid to get Elian Gonzalez, "When you see those photographs of those INS agents in combat gear with automatic weapons entering that house... and snatching the kid away," fumed Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), "that's not America. That’s not America." "I couldn't imagine something like that could happen in America," echoed Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "My first thought," protested Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), "was that this could only happen in Castro's Cuba." [continues 849 words]
While reading about the ongoing saga of the lunacy at the Sayreville school over children playing cops and robbers, I had a thought. Instead of zero-tolerant, overreacting educators spending millions of taxpayer dollars to fund mind control programs like DARE, we could actually do something to help kids think for themselves. I suggest that schools spend a fraction of that cost to purchase a book, now in pocket size, called "The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America." [continues 59 words]
In Jersey City, DARE officers still preach anti-drug messages in many of the elementary schools, but there's also a home-grown program to bring in top students from the high schools to spread the word to the younger charges. In Toms River, the effort combines police officers combining DARE, or Drug Abuse Resistance Education, with other strategies that teach broader lessons about how to cope with the peer pressure that could drive a child to drugs or alcohol. The potpourri of programs is a growing pattern in New Jersey districts, where drug prevention has become a mix-and-match of approaches that has gone well beyond the brochure-toting police officer and the "Just Say No" posters of years past. [continues 861 words]
People who run from the police would face indictment and a possible state prison sentence under a bill signed yesterday by Gov. Christie Whitman. The new law, which took effect immediately, makes it clear that running away from the police is a form of "resisting arrest" and is punishable by up to 18 months in state prison. The old law was silent on whether simply running away could be a form of resisting arrest. The new law also increases the penalties for someone who resists arrests by using or threatening force or creating a danger to others. The new maximum prison term is five years, up from 18 months. [continues 224 words]
Some fights have no winners, only losers. And the taxpayers of New Jersey are about to foot the bill for one. The battle results from the state attorney general's unwillingness to examine the employee drug-testing policy and his refusal to consider implementing safeguards to protect the innocent, as the federal government did to protect all federal employees. Recently, I was terminated from my position as a state corrections officer because of a urine drug test that resulted in a positive reading for opiates. I continue to argue that I do not take any drugs - - over-the-counter, prescribed or illegal - that could cause such a reading. [continues 389 words]
And the taxpayers of New Jersey are about to foot the bill for one. The battle results from the state attorney general's unwillingness to examine the employee drug-testing policy and his refusal to consider implementing safeguards to protect the innocent, as the federal government did to protect all federal employees. Recently, I was terminated from my position as a state corrections officer because of a urine drug test that resulted in a positive reading for opiates. I continue to argue that I do not take any drugs - over-the-counter, prescribed or illegal - that could cause such a reading. [continues 370 words]
In tablet form it often comes stamped with the symbol of a luxury car or the image of a Buddha, and it provides a blast of euphoria and energy that override the body's need to sleep, eat or drink, sometimes with lethal consequences. The powerful mood-enhancing drug Ecstasy, favored among suburban teenagers, is now flowing into the United States in record amounts, with New Jersey one of the key distribution centers, authorities say. Yesterday, U.S. Customs officials formally declared war against the drug, warning that trafficking in Ecstasy is rising at an alarming rate. [continues 1120 words]
What ever happened to moral outrage? So many people seem inured to the injustices and indignities others suffer. A case in point is the year's prison sentence an Arizona woman recently drew for a minor drug offense. Born with no arms and only a partial left leg, Deborah Lynn Quinn, 39, was placed in a "secure" medical unit by the Arizona Corrections Department because she couldn't be sent to a regular prison. Quinn was charged with selling $20 worth of marijuana to a police informant and with possessing a small amount of the drug in her home after she had been placed on probation. [continues 716 words]
A veteran Irvington police officer yesterday admitted to holding down an unusual second job -- "riding shotgun" for drug dealers, protecting them as they ferried money and narcotics. Wendell Huggins, 34, a 10-year member of the force, confessed in federal court in Newark that on at least four off-duty occasions, he carried his service revolver while accompanying drug dealers as they made trips between narcotics locations in Jersey City and Essex County. During a hearing before U.S. District Judge William Walls, Huggins acknowledged that he destroyed his own career for what amounted to chump change. He received $200 to $350 a trip and accepted payoffs totaling about $1,000, which he has already agreed to repay as restitution. [continues 542 words]
In one of the biggest drug busts in New Jersey history, the State Police seized nearly a ton each of cocaine and marijuana with an estimated street value of $100 million, State Police Superintendent Carson Dunbar announced yesterday. The seizures, which took place Sunday outside a warehouse in Bergen County and at the New Jersey Turnpike's Vince Lombardi Service Area, followed two days of around-the-clock surveillance by the State Police after they received a tip about the shipment. [continues 779 words]
A college student who returned to his Morris County home for the Thanksgiving holiday was found dead in his bedroom yesterday afternoon, apparently from a heroin overdose, authorities said. The body of 19-year-old Patrick Howe, a 1998 graduate of Mountain Lakes High School, was found by his father in Boonton Township, said police Sgt. Joseph Morris. Wesley Howe told police his son had returned to the Old Denville Road home about 2:30 a.m. after a night on the town, and did not emerge from the bedroom the next morning or afternoon. The suspicious father entered the room about 4 p.m., found his son unresponsive and called police, Morris said. [continues 529 words]
About 75 representatives of law enforcement, education, drug rehabilitation facilities and some parents of young drug addicts held a second summit yesterday in Mendham to discuss heroin addiction and other substance abuse problems. "This was to be our second, and last, summit, but those present unanimously agreed the program should continue," said the Rev. Joseph Hennen, director of the Daytop Village rehabilitation facility, host of the two-hour conference. The first summit was held in October 1998. Yesterday's program included presentations by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the Morris County Prosecutor's Office and the parents of two former heroin addicts who brought good news to the gathering. [continues 244 words]
To the Editor: There's at least one alternative to the "anti-drug message" police think they may be sending to teens by driving around town in well-known flashy cars seized from alleged drug dealers and tricked out with light bars and other police car paraphernalia (Star-Ledger, Nov. 21). That message is that there isn't a whole lot of difference between criminals who deal drugs and police; both groups like flashy wheels and are prone help themselves to whatever they can get away with. TOM O'CONNELL MD San Mateo, CA [continues 6 words]
Newark City Councilman Luis Quintana said he will introduce a resolution next month urging the passage of state legislation that would create so-called needle exchange programs in a effort to stem the spread of AIDS virus among intravenous drug users. The state legislation, which has been vigorously opposed by Gov. Christie Whitman, was first introduced in 1993 by state Sen. Wynona Lipman, an Essex County Democrat who died earlier this year. Quintana made his announce at a sparsely attended forum on needle exchange at City Hall in Newark. "On December 20th at 7 o'clock, we are going to introduce the legislation whether the votes are there or not", Quintana said. [continues 293 words]
The teens of North Edison are used to seeing that souped-up, low-riding white BMW M3 driving around. It was the prized possession of Kent Au, a man about town who was suspected of dealing drugs. Now, more than a year after Au was arrested and charged with peddling marijuana, the students at J.P. Stevens High School in Edison still see his car almost every day. But these days, the flashy German sportster isn't hot-rodding around town with the sound system thumping, taking corners at high speeds. [continues 478 words]
Thanks to Paul Mulshine for coming clean about drugs. Yes, the fact is that pot smokers are not intrinsically criminal - not murderers, rapists or thieves but lawyers, businessmen and computer whizzes. Why should it be a crime to have a particular chemical in your bloodstream? What business is it of the government indeed! The war on drugs is nothing but a scam perpetrated on an uneducated citizenry. As always, it's the money, stupid. Through taxation, the federal government has helped itself to billions of our dollars yet can't interdict the flow of drugs. And the government reaps a further windfall with confiscatory laws that apply only to drugs. The powers to be don't even need a conviction to wrest from you all that is yours. The government has a financial incentive for prosecution. [continues 60 words]
