WASHINGTON (AP) - No one knew what was in the baggie. It was just a few tablespoons of crystalline powder seized back in April, clumped like snow that had partially melted and frozen again. Emily Dye, a 27-year-old forensic chemist at the Drug Enforcement Administration's Special Testing and Research Laboratory, did not know if anyone had died from taking this powder, or how much it would take to kill you. What she did know was this: New drugs were appearing in the lab every other week, things never before seen in this unmarked gray building in Sterling, Virginia. Increasingly, these new compounds were synthetic opioids designed to mimic fentanyl, a prescription painkiller up to 50 times stronger than heroin. [continues 2297 words]
[photo] MICHAEL BRYANT / Staff PhotographerCharito Morales, center, with Homequarters and Friends, passes out hot chocolate and candy to those that ask for it at 2nd and Indiana as part of a holiday program on Monday, Dec. 19. The sun gave off no heat and just a flash of orange light as freezing do-gooders sang Christmas carols Monday evening in Fairhill to an encampment of homeless heroin addicts. The singers, many from Home Quarters and Friends, a nonprofit faith-based community group, stood on the edge of the infamous El Campamento, a tent city of 75 to 120 addicts beside the Conrail tracks. [continues 416 words]
MILITARY VETERANS and New Jersey lawmakers are lobbying Gov. Christie with new vigor to approve a bipartisan bill that would allow marijuana use to treat posttraumatic stress disorder. In the past, the Christie administration had rebuffed requests to add the condition to the list of ailments that qualify for cannabis use. But Christie did not rule out signing the bill when asked about it two weeks ago at a news conference. "I'll read it," he said, softening a bit from his oft-repeated previous statements that he would veto any expansion of the six-year-old medical marijuana program. [continues 802 words]
NOT WANTING their protests during the Democratic National Convention to go up in smoke, the men who pushed for the decriminalization of marijuana in Philadelphia informally met with two of the city's police supervisors Friday to discuss how pot smokers and activists will be handled by authorities during the DNC next week. "We have a lot of cannabis consumers coming in from out of town - and some of them are delegates," said Chris Goldstein, cochairman of the board of directors of Philly NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). [continues 510 words]
ANITA GUPTA first suspected that the Philadelphia heroin trade could be taking a deadlier turn months ago, when she saw overdose patients at Hahnemann University Hospital who didn't respond as they should have to the antidote drug emergency workers gave them. "The symptoms were worse than we were used to seeing," said Gupta, an anesthesiologist, pharmacist and pain specialist at Drexel University College of Medicine. "We were getting patients with symptoms of near-death, and often required multiple doses of the antidote naloxone." [continues 694 words]
TUESDAY, May 17, 2016 (HealthDay News) -- A hallucinogenic compound found in "magic mushrooms" shows promise in treating depression, a small, preliminary study found. "Depression continues to affect a large proportion of the population, many of whom do not respond to conventional treatments," said Dr. Scott Krakower, a psychiatrist who reviewed the study. "Although this was a small study, it does offer hope for new, unconventional treatments, to help those who are battling with severe depression," said Krakower, who is chief of psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, N.Y. [continues 471 words]
Will Gizmo to Weed Out Drivers Who Take the High Road Hit a Stone Wall? IT'S ALL HAPPENING so fast. Just three years ago, marijuana was illegal for recreational use nationwide. That changed when voters in Colorado and Washington legalized it in 2012. Oregon, Alaska. and the District of Columbia passed similar legislation last year. Philadelphia has reduced possession of a small amount of marijuana to a $25 citation, and Mayorelect Jim Kenney - South Philly Mummer turned pot-friendly progressive - has said he would like to eliminate weed citations altogether. [continues 1213 words]
Young African-Americans Lost in Cycle of Poverty, Violence and Drugs THE NUMBERS that drive Philadelphia prison-reform advocate Patricia Vickers on her mission aren't the big abstract ones. Not 36,000, the shocking recent estimate of young black men in Philadelphia either behind bars or dead before their time. Not 1,500,000, the national tally of what academics now call "missing black men." No, the digits that motivate the 66-yearold mom have been pounded with a sharp needle, black ink jabbed into the soft flesh under Vickers' right bicep - 20 digits that mark the birthdays of her four kids as well as her own. [continues 2093 words]
'Clean Slate' Proposal Better Than Prescribing 'Poison Pills' IN A BLACK AND WHITE world, the bad guys are locked up in prison and the good guys are on the outside, living blemish-free lives. But the world has never been black and white, and the issue of who gets locked up in jail has become increasingly gray over the past few decades, even as the prison population has exploded by a factor of four in as many decades. The fact is that who gets locked up is not inscribed in the Constitution. Society and its shifting mores has always determined who gets jailed - including the 17th century when people could be imprisoned for incurring debts. [continues 413 words]
Taking Drug Criminals' Food Stamps Makes Matters Worse WHAT'S THE worst noncapital crime there is? Child abuse? Rape? Public corruption? According to at least one of our state lawmakers, the worst crime you can commit is possessing enough drugs to warrant a felony conviction . . . which, in this state could be a small amount of marijuana, or a second offense for possession. Rep. Mike Regan, R-Dillsburg, wants to impose a lifetime ban on food stamp and Temporary Aid to Needy Families benefits to anyone convicted of a felony drug offense. No similar ban applies to any other criminal category. Those convicted of other crimes who have served their sentence and are in compliance with parole can receive benefits. Drug convictions are the only ones that would draw a lifetime ban. [continues 392 words]
THINK OF ALL the stupid - and criminal - things you did as a teen: Drinking in the woods with your friends. Smoking marijuana. Fistfighting. Or worse, stealing. Was it wrong? Yes. Did you get caught? If you grew up in white suburbia, probably not. But think about what could have happened if you grew up poor in a black or Latino neighborhood, where the "War on Drugs" felt like a war on you; where police officers routinely targeted you, just because you looked like you might be up to no good. And what if you were up to no good? Should the cops, prosecutors and judges write you off as a lost cause, lock you away and set you on a course of failure? [continues 649 words]
Former Marijuana Dealer Says Accused Cops Stole $110,000, Trashed Apartment ROBERT KUSHNER told a federal jury yesterday that back in 2007, he was a Lower Merion High School and George Washington University graduate who was selling marijuana when cops robbed him of $110,000, including money he kept in his apartment safe. Kushner, 32, now a basketball coach, said he was driving on Ridge Avenue in the city about 7:30 p.m. Oct. 16, 2007, when an unmarked police Ford Expedition signaled for him to pull over with a blue siren on its dashboard. [continues 541 words]
After reading the article about the mother who pursues her addicted son in the Kensington area of Philadelphia, my heart breaks for her and the families of addicts. Generations of teenagers and young adults have found themselves addicted to heroin and/or crack cocaine, searching for their next fix in the Kensington section of Philadelphia. President Nixon announced the War on Drugs a long time ago. This is an endless war with only lost lives and fractured families listed as causalities. The continuous efforts of arresting buyers and sellers of narcotics have historically failed. We now have two, maybe three generations of this behavior. Is there a new answer or approach to these problems? Is addiction a health problem or is it a combined law-enforcement and health problem. [continues 131 words]
MAYOR NUTTER and Councilman Jim Kenney have struck a deal on the councilman's bill to end mandatory arrests for possession of small amounts of marijuana. Kenney's bill, which would decriminalize possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, was passed by Council, but the mayor has refused to sign it. The compromise reached yesterday would amend the bill to include a $100 civil fine for smoking pot in public, which alternately can be paid off by nine or 10 hours of community service. The $25 civil fine for carrying less than an ounce would stay the same. No handcuffs. No fingerprinting. No criminal record. [continues 133 words]
Medical Use Gathers Momentum ATLANTIC CITY - It was always just weed, grass or pot. No one ever called it marijuana when he was growing up in South Philly, and as far as Jeffrey Matteo knew, all it ever did was get you high, hungry and tired. But decades later, as his mother, Josephine, fought and beat a round of lymphoma only to see it come back and ravage her some more, Matteo learned more about the plant and its medicinal powers. He persuaded his mother to try it, for the second time in her life, dipping a toothpick in hemp oil and putting it on her tongue, and it began to pry her and constant pain apart. [continues 545 words]
Regarding Will Bunch's recent column, the institutional corruption engendered by drug prohibition stretches from coast to coast and reaches the highest levels. The corrupt Philadelphia police officers fired for misconduct is the latest example. Entire countries have been destabilized by U.S. drug policy. Like alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, drug prohibition is causing tremendous societal harm while failing to prevent use. Throwing more money at the problem is no solution. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. [continues 76 words]
Says Nutter Is Out of Touch WHATEVER CHANCE it had of gaining Mayor Nutter's support, City Council's small-amount-of-marijuana bill may have been lost in a media skirmish between the mayor and Councilman Jim Kenney. Both politicos have upped their fervor both for and against a measure that would give police officers the discretion to write a ticket carrying a $25 fine for possessors of an ounce of weed or less. "My problem is his arrogance relating to this issue. It is astounding, and clearly he has not been living in the real world for the last 5 1/2 to six years," Kenney said. [continues 282 words]
Attytood Unfortunately, the people who have the power to change things still don't get it. Last week, Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey lashed out in anger . . . not at corrupt cops as much as at the Daily News. To Ramsey, it was a "slap in the face" that this newspaper on Thursday ran a front-page illustration of police headquarters wrapped in yellow crime-scene tape. I don't know: With 146 police officers fired for misconduct during the time of Ramsey and his boss Mayor Nutter, including 88 who were arrested and 48 convicted of crimes including murder, rape and extortion, it seems like the crime-scene picture reeked . . . of understatement. [continues 401 words]
As the War on Drugs Ebbs, So, Too, Should the War on Nonviolent Offenders THE NATION'S retreat from a maniacal and misguided mission to arrest and imprison our way out of our illegal drug problem has taken another important step. A federal commission has voted to allow federal inmates serving time on nonviolent drug charges under harsh mandatory-minimum guidelines to petition the courts to reduce their sentences. As many as 46,000 federal felons, some of whom already have spent substantial time in prison, could have their sentences reduced by an average of two years. [continues 501 words]
CITY COUNCIL today will consider final passage of Bill No. 140377, introduced by Councilman Jim Kenney, which would allow police to issue a $25 fine for the possession of a small amount of marijuana (under 1 ounce) instead of the current policy of mandatory custodial arrests. In 2012, the current policy led to the arrest of about 4,270 people for marijuana possession. Under the Kenney bill, most of these people would ultimately be fined $25. The police would have 17,000 hours to do serious police work. The courts would not have to hear these cases. The D.A. would not have to try these cases. The families would not have to hire and pay lawyers to handle these cases. The city would not have to pay the Defender Association or other lawyers to represent indigent defendants in these cases. The defendants would not be at unnecessary risk of a criminal record and all the lifetime disadvantages that go with it. [continues 241 words]
