While opioids hold center stage in the nation's drug war, methamphetamine is making a destructive comeback. Though meth has largely fallen off the public's radar, seizures and arrests are up, and more people are dying from the drug. Its evolution is a reminder of the durability of the illegal drug supply, the impermanence of any single enforcement tactic and the need for a comprehensive approach to fighting and treating addiction. Potent, addictive and deadly, meth bears many of the pernicious traits of opioids. It became popular in the early 2000s, easily produced in small batches using the decongestant in over-the-counter cold medicine. In rural parts of Tampa Bay, especially eastern Hillsborough and Pasco counties and throughout Polk County, exploding "meth labs" routinely drew law enforcement's attention. Congress responded in 2005 with a law putting pseudoephedrine behind the counter, limiting the amount individuals could purchase and creating a tracking system pharmacies were required to use. Meth became much harder to make and faded from notice, overtaken by a new drug of choice: opioids. [continues 417 words]
Tremendous Opportunities for Union County Health EL DORADO - Benton Police Capt. Kevin Russell told the audience at Tuesday's TOUCH Coalition meeting that the hazards of legalized marijuana outweigh the pro-ported benefits. "I became involved in this issue about five years ago and have studied it extensively," said Russell, a 17-year veteran of Arkansas law enforcement. A recent FBI Academy graduate and member of the Benton Police Department, Russell has made it his mission to inform and educate Arkansans on the effects seen in states following the legalization of marijuana on their youth and communities. [continues 882 words]
Contamination in houses used to produce illegal drugs can easily be overlooked during routine inspections, which is why the province needs a comprehensive registry of former marijuana grow-ops and methamphetamine labs, according to the Association of Saskatchewan Realtors (ASR). "The information's available (to police), and we think it should be made available to our members and to potential buyers, so they're able to make an informed decision when they look to buy a house," ASR CEO Bill Madder said. [continues 553 words]
FRANKFORT, Ky. - Kentucky's evolving battle with drug abuse will continue into the 2016 General Assembly as lawmakers intensify efforts against synthetic drugs that can slip into communities via the Internet, wreaking sudden havoc. The legislature has enacted at least four bills targeting synthetics since 2010 and is seeking to amp up penalties for traffickers next year following an outbreak in Lewis County of the toxic synthetic drug called "flakka." "They are no less dangerous than anything else out there, and in many cases, more dangerous," said Van Ingram, head of the state Office of Drug Control Policy. "It seems to pop up in a certain community and makes a run for a short time. Then it fizzles out there and shows up somewhere else." [continues 1242 words]
I have a few concerns. I'm concerned that I may be fronting the largest drug operation since Scarface and meth labs ruled the night. I'm concerned about kids and marijuana and making more of it available to their developing young flea-brains (which, if they're like mine, will remain half-baked until their late 20s). I'm concerned about involving the government in oversight and taxation, as we know full well they fuck up everything they get their grubby hands on (and are already squabbling over and redirecting the massive tax revenue being collected). [continues 647 words]
Conservatives Prefer Status Quo Illegality; Others Call for Legalization, Decriminalization Voters shopping for a candidate with views on marijuana can pick from the spectrum: today's treatment under the Criminal Code advocated this week by Conservative Leader Stephen Harper to Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau's commitment to legalize it and turn the spoils over to taxpayers. "Colorado, Washington and Europe, they've got it government-controlled where they're protecting kids and protecting people by making sure marijuana is not laced [with other drugs]," said Liberal candidate Steve Powrie. [continues 507 words]
With the curtain about to rise on the climactic second act of the Mike Duffy trial, Justin Trudeau promised Tuesday to clean up the scandal-tainted Senate, while Stephen Harper set his sights on neighbourhood drug labs. The Liberal leader vowed to clean up the prime minister 's "mess," accusing Harper of leading the "most secretive, divisive and hyper-partisan government in Canada's history." That mess, of course, is the Senate, and in particular Duffy's trial, which was scheduled to enter its most explosive phase Wednesday with none other than Nigel Wright, Harper's former chief of staff, as the first witness. [continues 578 words]
With the curtain about to rise on the climactic second act of the Mike Duffy trial, Justin Trudeau promised Tuesday to clean up the scandal-tainted Senate, while Stephen Harper set sight on neighbourhood drug labs. The Liberal leader vowed to clean up the prime minister's "mess," accusing Harper of leading the "most secretive, divisive and hyper-partisan government in Canada's history." That mess, of course, is the Senate, and in particular Duffy's trial, which was scheduled to enter its most explosive phase Wednesday with none other than Nigel Wright, Harper's former chief of staff, as the first witness. [continues 543 words]
Harper Talks Up Tough-On-Drugs Policy With the curtain about to rise on the climactic second act of the Mike Duffy trial, Justin Trudeau promised Tuesday to clean up the scandal-tainted Senate, while Stephen Harper set his sights on neighbourhood drug labs. The Liberal leader vowed to clean up the prime minister's "mess," accusing Harper of leading the "most secretive, divisive and hyperpartisan government in Canada's history." That mess, of course, is the Senate, and in particular Duffy's trial, which was scheduled to enter its most explosive phase today with none other than Nigel Wright, Harper's former chief of staff, as the first witness. Wright, Harper's former chief of staff, is the man who provided Duffy with $90,000 of his own money to repay his disallowed housing and travel expenses. The former Conservative senator has pleaded not guilty to 31 charges including fraud, bribery and breach of trust. [continues 490 words]
With the curtain about to rise on the climactic second act of the Mike Duffy trial, Justin Trudeau promised Tuesday to clean up the scandal-tainted Senate, while Stephen Harper set his sights on neighbourhood drug labs. The Liberal leader vowed to clean up the prime minister's "mess," accusing Harper of leading the "most secretive, divisive and hyper-partisan government in Canada's history." That mess, of course, is the Senate, and in particular Duffy's trial, which was scheduled to enter its most explosive phase Wednesday with none other than Nigel Wright, Harper's former chief of staff, as the first witness. [continues 577 words]
PORT CLINTON - Many have seen it, heard about it, or binge-watched it: "Breaking Bad," the ratings juggernaut of a TV show, tells tales of a chemistry teacher who teams with a former student to make and sell crystal meth. The popular show, whose final episode in 2013 drew 10.3 million viewers, is fiction, but the real world demand for meth is growing - and the number of arrests for meth-related crimes is on the rise in Sandusky County and Ohio. [continues 1587 words]
SACRAMENTO - Tracey Clark's two teenage sons landed in intensive care, enveloped in gauze and their faces raw and red from burns over 40 to 60 percent of their bodies suffered in a fire, which prosecutors say was caused by an illegal hash-oil lab at their uncle's duplex. "I was scared they were going to die," said Clark. Similar scenes have played out throughout California in recent years as intense fires from the illegal manufacture of butane hash oil - cheap and easy to make but extremely volatile - have exploded [continues 245 words]
On her cellphone, Tracey Clark keeps snapshots of her two sons dressed as groomsmen at a family friend's wedding last fall. The younger boy, 13, smiles under a mop of curly brown hair. His older brother, 15, is clean cut and handsome. Flipping ahead in her phone's photo gallery, Clark shares pictures of her boys taken two months later, when they're almost unrecognizable. In November, the teens landed in intensive care at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Sacramento, enveloped in gauze, breathing tubes in their throats, their faces raw and red from the massive third-degree burns suffered in a fire, which prosecutors say was caused by an illegal hash-oil lab at their uncle's duplex in Butte County. [continues 1434 words]
It's good news and bad news for Rome and Floyd County in the battle to curb methamphetamine labs here. First, the good news: the efforts of law enforcement to find and destroy home-grown meth-cooking operations of significant size in this area have been very successful. That, combined with stricter regulation and monitoring of ingredients used by labs, has caused a decline in local meth production. Now users have gravitated to the "one pot cook method," says Barry McElroy, assistant commander of the Rome-Floyd Metro Task Force. This involves making a small quantity of meth in a soft drink bottle and then tossing the bottle away. In the past two years, McElroy's unit has been called to the sites of no more than two labs and they were not full-sized, active operations. [continues 401 words]
It Was Supposed to Be One of the Biggest Blows to Cartels in Decades, So Why, Asks Jo Tuckman in Culiacan, Has Little Apparently Changed The fortune-teller smiled as she gazed towards the distant peaks of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range. "The mountains are glowing red, and it will be a good harvest," she predicted. The forecast was not based on second sight, however, but on conversations with local farmers looking forward to a bumper crop of marijuana. This is Mexico's own golden triangle. Straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua, the Sierra has been a stronghold of the country's drug trade for as long as anyone can remember: its deep canyons and dense pine forests have harboured generations of narcos and hidden plantations of marijuana and opium poppies. [continues 1482 words]
At the US-Mexico Border, a Flood of Heroin, Meth Show the Trade Is Changing SAN YSIDRO, Calif. - Mexican traffickers are sending a flood of cheap heroin and methamphetamine across the U.S. border, the latest drug-seizure statistics show, in a new sign that America's marijuana decriminalization trend is upending the North American narcotics trade. The amount of cannabis seized by U.S. federal, state and local officers along the boundary with Mexico has fallen 37 percent since 2011, a period during which American marijuana consumers have increasingly turned to the more potent, higher-grade domestic varieties cultivated under legal and quasi-legal protections in more than two dozen U.S. states. [continues 1257 words]
Seizure Data Shows Drug Trade Is Changing SAN YSIDRO, CALIF. - Mexican traffickers are sending a flood of cheap heroin and methamphetamine across the U.S. border, the latest drug seizure statistics show, in a new sign that America's marijuana decriminalization trend is upending the North American narcotics trade. The amount of cannabis seized by U.S. federal, state and local officers along the boundary with Mexico has fallen 37 percent since 2011, a period during which American marijuana consumers have increasingly turned to the more potent, higher-grade domestic varieties cultivated under legal and quasi-legal protections in more than two dozen U.S. states. [continues 1251 words]
It's "just a point" of crystal meth, Angela says. No big deal. But the fix will send her into orbit. In a graffiti-filled Windsor alley mid-afternoon, she pierces the crook of her arm, slowly pulls wine-red blood into the syringe, and "smashes" a .1-gram blast of methamphetamine hydrochloride into her vein. The rocket rush immediately takes her. "I hate that I love it so much," said Angela, 26, who has used crystal meth for a decade, injecting it the last four. "Other than the extreme burst of energy it gives you, I just feel super confident." [continues 2011 words]
For four decades, the "war on drugs" has yielded more harm than good. With a trillion dollars spent, a million drug-related arrests a year and international interdiction efforts to stop people from intoxicating themselves, it is clear that drug prohibition has been a failure. Drug prohibition, as with alcohol prohibition, is yet another showcase of the failure to suppress desires through decree. Inevitably, unintended consequences arise as markets adjust and adapt to legal prohibition, and the market goes underground. The Press-Enterprise recently reported on a few such unintended consequences of drug prohibition. There have been multiple cases of drug lab explosions, a proliferation of unauthorized marijuana growing operations and a need by local governments to ban synthetic analogues of illegal drugs. [continues 425 words]
Officials say cheap, long-lasting street drug can be attractive to youth, but its effects are severe GUELPH - The influx of the street drug crystal methamphetamine has authorities concerned as they watch addiction set in and the community afflicted with spinoff effects. "It's a very bad drug," Guelph federal prosecutor David Doney said Monday. "This is a very serious and dangerous drug." He's increasingly encountering it in the justice system. "It seems to be becoming more prevalent," Doney said. [continues 618 words]
