Officers Push For Community-Based Response During a random house check last week, Blaine County Parole Officer Jodi Brown discovered that a 17-year-old former Wood River High School student was using methamphetamine. The student, who had been kicked out of school because of his alleged involvement with drugs, violated the terms of his probation. Brown said the teenager allegedly bought the drugs on Lollipop Lane in Gannett, the small town south of Bellevue where Brown lives. A search of the youth's home produced a modified light bulb used for smoking a rock of methamphetamine. [continues 699 words]
Hopeful that more federal money will still come in 2006 to help fight crime related to methamphetamine abuse, Blaine County Sheriff Walt Femling's hopes were temporarily dashed last week as Congress adjourned for the holidays. Scheduled as a rider on the USA Patriot Act renewal bill, legislation geared toward regulating the production of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine was killed when the U.S. Senate voted to extend the Patriot Act for six months. Methamphetamine legislation that was approved by the House of Representatives earlier in the month was stricken from the bill. [continues 254 words]
When Jan Rosenquist, a St. Luke's Wood River Medical Center emergency room doctor, sees a patient who appears highly agitated with high blood pressure, who may not be responding to verbal stimuli, she consults medical information about the effects of methamphetamine on the body. Taken orally, injected, inhaled or snorted, methamphetamine is a potent central nervous system stimulant, typically with more staying power than cocaine. And, it is cheaper. Toxic household chemicals like battery acid and other compounds such as rat poison are used to reduce ephedrine, a common ingredient in cold medicine, to methamphetamine, but other acids, catalysts and ephedrine substitutes are also used. [continues 442 words]
'It's A Growing Concern In The Wood River Valley' It would be convenient to think of crystal methamphetamine use as just another moral panic, such as the one epitomized by the 1936 film "Reefer Madness"--a cult classic for young pot smokers widely recognized as a propaganda film documenting the "evils" of smoking marijuana. A humorous footnote to an era of prohibition on pot, the film is no longer considered an accurate depiction of the social scourge marijuana was once pegged to be, although pot is still the first priority of the ongoing war on drugs. [continues 1721 words]
Surprisingly, Nancy Kneeland, who left the Wood River Valley when she was 18, said she is not too busy at the Hailey branch of The Walker Center for drug and alcohol treatment and rehabilitation. "There is no waiting list," she said, surprised that there is a perception that the treatment facility on River Street in Hailey is overwhelmed with people suffering from methamphetamine addiction. It is in the realm of inpatient services in a residential program where needs are not met in the Wood River Valley. [continues 602 words]
Citing a 10th Circuit Court decision, Chandler v. Arvada in Colorado as precedence, the Liberty Lobby, a Bellevue-based marijuana legalization advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit in 9th Circuit Court in Boise claiming that a Hailey city ordinance governing the initiative process is unconstitutional. The complaint filed by Liberty Lobby Chairman Ryan Davidson last week contends that the Hailey ordinance violates due process, which protects the public's right to propose new laws. The initiative, planned for the November ballot also in Sun Valley and Ketchum has become part of a 5th District Court lawsuit between the Liberty Lobby and the city of Sun Valley. [continues 422 words]
