CAMDEN, N.J. - After Ellen Krips' cousin died of an overdose of extremely potent drugs last week, the heroin addict's first thought was not how she could avoid the bad junk. It was more like: I have to get some of that stuff. A bad batch of drugs for sale on the streets of Philadelphia and southern New Jersey has killed at least nine heroin users during the past two weeks. And while authorities are warning people to stay away from the stuff, they are afraid some junkies are drawing the wrong lesson. [continues 509 words]
Just a while back I joined the Florida Sheriff's Association to support law enforcement. I greatly appreciate what the Sheriff's Office is doing in our community. I'm up some nights reading and studying the Holy Bible. These sick and crazy people need to get themselves into Bible study, like I did. After being released from the Marion County Jail 18 years ago, I learned not to use too much alcohol and stay off hard drugs. Roger Kauffman, Silver Springs [end]
Missing Woman May Help Identify Gunmen MARION OAKS - Marion County sheriff's detectives are searching for a 25- year-old woman who might help them find four masked men who reportedly shot a 17-year-old to death and critically wounded a 27-year-old man in what appears to be a drug-related home invasion. Investigators have identified the woman as Summer Dawn Wolfrom. Wolfrom was described as a white woman with brown hair, 4 feet 11 inches tall, and weighing about 145 pounds. [continues 729 words]
Affidavit: Dunnellon Officer Stole Drugs That Were To Be Evidence. DUNNELLON - A 31-year-old Dunnellon police officer was arrested Wednesday after being accused of stealing drugs that were supposed to be seized for evidence. The arrest was a culmination of a two-month investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Marion County Sheriff's Office and the Dunnellon Police. Police were suspicious that Brian Dean had been taking narcotics obtained from his investigations and using them. According to an arrest affidavit, the six-year officer found 26 baggies containing marijuana and $165 in a pick-up truck on Sept. 29, after being dispatched to the vehicle on a fake call by law enforcement officers who were watching him with video surveillance. [continues 238 words]
I am an inmate currently incarcerated at the Marion County Jail, where I have been for five months now. I found my way in here by means of a dirty urinalysis that violated my probation. I was placed on probation in January 2005 for a minor marijuana charge. Upon receiving probation, I was given a 30-day window to rid my body of the drug. I was tested after 37 days and traces of the drug were still found. Prior to this I have never been in trouble as an adult or a child. [continues 83 words]
Crackdown On Growing Results In Just 2 Percent Drop KABUL, Afghanistan - Bumper growing conditions meant that Afghanistan's opium production remained almost unchanged this year even though a crackdown on poppy farming cut the land under cultivation by 21 percent, the U.N. anti-drug chief said Monday. Antonio Maria Costa warned it could take another 20 years to eradicate opium from the impoverished country - despite the recent injection of hundreds of millions in foreign aid to fight the world's biggest drug industry. [continues 504 words]
State Attorney's Office Withholding Information, Lawyer Claims In Motion OCALA - The attorney for a man charged in a July 9 drug bust filed a motion on Monday accusing the State Attorney's Office of purposely withholding information it is legally required to disclose. "They have clearly violated the rules of criminal procedure," defense attorney James Tarquin said. He is representing Daniel James Colburn, 27, in state court and Gerald Dandridge Jr., 35, in federal court. The nine-page motion said Colburn was arraigned July 29 for possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana. At that hearing, he requested discovery. [continues 322 words]
Columnist John Tierney, who wrote "Debunking the 'Meth Epidemic' " (Aug. 15), needs serious help for his denial issue. Have him go to any state prison and see how many are imprisoned for this drug's use, sale and manufacturing. I work at the Marion Correctional Institution, where an abundance of male inmates' drug of choice is meth. As a substance abuse counselor, I have seen the damage done by this drug as well as others, and yes, addicts, or those who accept they are out of control in their use are 5 percent. The users are closer to 15 percent and they are raping, robbing and committing other crimes that affect the rest of us. [continues 148 words]
GROVELAND - Two people who reported a home invasion were busted themselves during an investigation by law enforcement. Lake County investigators found no intruders inside home on State Road 33 home in Groveland, but they reportedly did discover a drug lab and 68 marijuana plants. Ariel M. Moran, 28, and Leidys M. Diaz, 22, were charged with cultivation of marijuana and held in the Lake County Jail in lieu of $2,000 bail each. According to an arrest affidavit, investigators found the plants inside pots and buckets that were connected to an automated irrigation system. Each room was equipped with multiple grow lights and separate air-conditioning systems. [continues 164 words]
There's little evidence of a new national epidemic from patterns of drug arrests or drug use. America has a serious drug problem, but it's not the "meth epidemic" getting so much publicity. It's the problem identified by William Bennett, the former national drug czar and gambler. "Using drugs," he wrote, "is wrong not simply because drugs create medical problems; it is wrong because drugs destroy one's moral sense. People addicted to drugs neglect their duties." This problem afflicts a small minority of the people who have tried methamphetamines, but most of the law-enforcement officials and politicians who lead the war against drugs. They're so consumed with drugs that they've lost sense of their duties. [continues 656 words]
More Harm Done When User Is HIV Positive, Researchers Say OCALA - Methamphetamine abuse continues to spread, despite new laws and public education campaigns aimed at stamping it out. Now, medical researchers are warning that meth is not only addictive, it literally causes brain damage - all the more so when mixed with an HIV infection. Both methamphetamine abuse and HIV infection distort different parts of the brain, diminishing thought processes such as memory, problem- solving and attention span, researchers at the HIV Neurobehavioral Research Center of the University of California-San Diego report in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry. [continues 690 words]
Dear Gov. Jeb Bush, Not that I believe you will ever see this, however, I am trying to save the life of my child. I have a 14-year-old son who is already addicted to drugs. I have tried everything I can to help him. I either make too much money - yet I can't afford treatment - or I am not on public assistance to qualify for Medicaid. Did you know you can get help for your child if you are on Medicaid, but if you work real hard and stay off of public assistance, there is no help for these children? [continues 131 words]
I'm writing about the outstanding letter, "Don't force all" (July 24). I'd like to add that prohibition not only doesn't work -- it's counterproductive. Before marijuana was criminalized via the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, the vast majority of Americans had never even heard of marijuana. Now everybody in the U.S. knows what marijuana is, and our government estimates that at least 90 million Americans have used it. About half of all high school students will use marijuana before they graduate. [continues 160 words]
It's the same border and the same policy; only the drug has changed. In 1929 U.S. Assistant Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt wrote, " 'Good' liquor comes through the Canadian border in great quantities. . . A little more than a year ago Florida was the leakiest spot, with great quantities of liquor flowing in from near-by British islands. But aggressive action by that splendid service, the Coast Guard, in conjunction with . . . my office in the Department of Justice, deprived Florida of this doubtful honor." The central lesson of alcohol prohibition, now being relearned, is that prohibition works only if everyone agrees, but if everyone agrees, then it is unnecessary. Palm Harbor Adviser, The November Coalition [end]
Regarding Rob Kampia's July 10 op-ed, "Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat," if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. [continues 92 words]
Sunday "blue laws" are archaic laws written many years ago but have never accomplished what they were originally intended to. That's why they have largely been done away with across this country. Prohibitionists, like those who opposed Sundayalcohol sales in Belleview, feel morality can be legislated or controlled by banning booze, that these laws will abate the urge for alcohol and create pillars of the community. Prohibition was repealed was because it didn't work. Juries failed to convict. Drinking was worse than before the 18th Amendment and people were drinking "rot gut" whiskey and getting sick and dying. We can see similarities with our drug laws. We have a "war" on drugs and drug use is worse. We don't need another war on alcohol. We have already been there, done that and lost. [continues 167 words]
LYNDEN, Wash. - Federal agents have shut down an elaborate, 360-foot drug-smuggling tunnel dug underneath the U.S.-Canadian border - the first such passageway discovered along the nation's northern edge, officials said Thursday. Five people were arrested on marijuana trafficking charges, U.S. Attorney John McKay said in this border town about 90 miles north of Seattle. The tunnel ran from a quonset hut on the Canadian side and ended under the living room of a home on the U.S. side, 300 feet from the border. Built with lumber, concrete and metal reinforcing bars, it was equipped with lights and ventilation, and ran underneath a highway. [continues 176 words]
Thank you for printing the outstanding op-ed piece "Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat" (July 10) by Marijuana Project Executive Director Rob Kampia. He gets it exactly right. With public support of allowing the terminally ill access to medicinal marijuana currently running 75 percent and growing larger by the day, on this issue the public is leading. Our elected leaders now have two choices: follow the lead of the people, or go get an honest job. Paw Paw, Mich. [end]
Thank you for printing Rob Kampia's commentary, "Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat" (July 10). His is a refreshing outlook compared to the unrelenting and ardent prohibitionist policies of the Bush administration and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. President Bush and the ONDCP insist marijuana is no more useful than heroin as medicine, despite the testimonies of several thousand doctors and several hundred thousand patients in the 11 states that permit patients' legal access to their medicine. This does nothing but turn otherwise law-abiding medical patients into criminals. [continues 121 words]
MIAMI - Law enforcement agents arrested 10 people Friday for illegally selling prescription painkillers and other controlled drugs worth more than $10 million on the Internet, in a sweep authorities called the largest state crackdown of its kind. Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist said those arrested were using licensed pharmacies to get pills, then reselling the drugs on the Internet without prescriptions. Calling it a "horrific drug operation," Crist said. "Internet pill pushers operate without regard for the law or medical necessity, and certainly without regard to safety. Their primary focus is on making a quick buck." [continues 481 words]
