TWIN FALLS -- This isn't your old hippie uncle's dope. The newest wave of illegal drugs is easier to smuggle, cheaper and potentially far more dangerous than anything law enforcement, medical professionals and the public at large have seen so far, an expert in illicit substances said during her visit to Twin Falls Wednesday. "GHB is the drug from hell," Trinka Porrata told an audience of local law enforcement officials, medical personnel, clergy and other professionals. "These drugs are 10 times, 50 times, 100 times more dangerous than marijuana." [continues 611 words]
TWIN FALLS -- Local officials hope a substance abuse expert's visit next week will help raise the alarm about the area's potential next drug wave -- and also serve as a springboard for forming a comprehensive group to fight drug abuse. Efforts began last summer to recruit former Los Angeles Police Department narcotics detective Trinka Porrata for a series of presentations in southern Idaho, said Marlene Yardley, who works with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in Twin Falls. "She's a dynamic speaker, and her message is that you need to educate your community and let them know what is going on with the 'club-drug' scene," Yardley said. [continues 764 words]
TWIN FALLS -- Unlike its other hard-core cousins -- heroin and cocaine -- methamphetamine is a homemade drug, and that has allowed it to infest rural and small-town America, an expert on the drug said Monday. And meth cooking is apparently one of the Magic Valley's strongest cottage industries, said Dr. Alex Stalcup of San Francisco, who specializes in addiction research and treatment. "You have a terrible cooking problem here, one of the worst in the nation," Stalcup said during a talk late Monday to a crowd of at least 100 people at the College of Southern Idaho. [continues 472 words]
