In an era of unmanned drones, night-vision goggles and wireless sensors, Sloan Satepauhoodle scours the desert along the Mexican border for drug smugglers in the old ways. She is a tracker, a former Secret Service agent and customs inspector in Washington who traded in her desk and computer to work "intel" in the desert, employing sign-cutting -- or tracking -- skills once used by her Kiowa ancestors to hunt animals. Satepauhoodle (pronounced SAY-paw-who-dle) roams this vast Indian reservation in a four-wheel-drive pickup, armed with an M-4 rifle and a .40-calibre semi-automatic pistol. Her job: to look for the tiniest sign that a smuggler has been around and then go after him. [continues 941 words]
NFL Advised To Delay Miami Dolphin Running Back's Reinstatement Ricky Williams, who spent last season in the CFL while serving an NFL drug suspension, has tested positive again for marijuana, according to a source. A person familiar with the case said the former NFL rushing champion tested positive last month. Williams had applied to the NFL for reinstatement in April but following the latest positive drug test, clinicians in the program advised league commissioner Roger Goodell to delay reinstatement, the source said. [continues 151 words]
As a retired police officer with 18 years of experience, I can assure you that my profession will have no problem enforcing a medical marijuana law in Minnesota. When the patient has a state-issued card, certifying that person as a medical marijuana patient, the officer who comes in contact with that patient and marijuana will simply not arrest, nor seize the marijuana. This is the same concept that many states with concealed weapon permit use; for example, if the possessor of the pistol has a permit, we let them go. The possessor does not have a permit, we arrest them and seize the weapon. This is not rocket science. The majority of officers do not want to chase sick people. Howard J. Wooldridge, Frederick, Md. Wooldridge is a retired officer and the education specialist for LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. [end]
Think crystal meth is a West Coast problem? Think again, says RCMP Cpl. Brent Hill. Since 2006, the RCMP has busted six large crystal methamphetamine labs in Ontario controlled by organized crime. "Crystal meth is present in the Sarnia area," he said. Don't just take Hill's word for it. Const. Mel Wright, a longtime officer with the Sarnia police, said "we do have a significant meth population here in Sarnia." The drug is growing in popularity and production, Hill said during a seminar last night at the Sarnia Library called, Crystal Meth: Why Risk It? [continues 294 words]
Parents in Milan are being offered free urine-testing kits so they can find out if their teenagers are using illegal drugs. In a part of the northern Italian city, which is controlled by the right-wing National Alliance party, almost 4,000 families will receive a coupon they can exchange for a kit to test for widely used drugs, including cannabis and cocaine. The kits, available free to all parents of children aged 13 to 16, are similar to pregnancy tests in that they need to be dipped in urine for a few seconds and then they give a positive or negative reading for a variety of drugs. [end]
PERRYTON - Remember years ago, when TV stations played a public service announcement that said, "Parents, it is 10 o'clock - do you know where your children are?" I always thought that was kind of funny, because I always thought I knew where my children were. Even today, as I tell my son (while he sighs and rolls his eyes) to be home by a certain time; to take his cell phone and answer my calls; and ask him who he's going to be with, I know he does not understand the importance of these requests. [continues 697 words]
I must take issue the claim in a recent letter that "nobody wants to be an injection drug user." The first time a person injects illicit drugs, he or she is demonstrating a desire to become an injection drug user. Many who progress to stronger drugs and shoot up end up addicted. Ergo, most who are addicted now became that way through their own actions. Is enough emphasis put on teaching in schools, so that young people are aware of what their actions will lead to? Guy Pocock, Victoria [end]
You're a store clerk and a customer walks up to the cash register with a set of digital scales, then says, "Man, I want to buy these to weigh my cocaine." What do you do? Hint: The correct answer is not "Complete the sale." Six convenience-store owners in High Point learned that lesson the hard way Friday as they and some of their employees were cited for allegedly making such sales to undercover agents. Officers from the state Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement and the High Point Police Department issued citations for drug violations at four stores on various parts of Green Drive, and at one each on Kivett Drive and West English Road. [continues 281 words]
It's Hard To Wean Afghanistan's Poor Farmers From Only Crop That Pays With Toxic Results KANDAHAR - At the only heroin treatment clinic in the province, the Addiction Recovery Symposium comes to order. One after another, men step to the podium -- young men, old men, crippled men -- telling their stories of salvation and offering thanks to Allah. Islam can be a powerful proscription against the ruinous narcotic. It all belies the fallacy that drug addiction is strictly a Western problem, Afghanistan merely the bountiful cornucopia for poppy production. [continues 926 words]
The letter from Stephen J. Barringer entitled "Pot reconsidered" (May 3) is a classic example of attempts to distort science through selective presentation. At issue is the relative danger of marijuana when compared to other drugs of potential abuse. Barringer stressed: "Research published in the medical journal The Lancet... shows cannabis to be more dangerous than LSD or ecstasy." A more accurate statement would have also said that research published in The Lancet shows cannabis to be less dangerous than cigarettes and much less dangerous than alcohol. (Also, there were two independent panels involved and one ranked ecstasy as more dangerous than marijuana.) [continues 144 words]
Williams done as an Argo and NFL return in jeopardy There will be no second coming of Ricky Williams with the Argonauts. Team president Keith Pelley made that clear yesterday, not long after a report surfaced that the ignominious star running back, who spent last season with the Argos, had failed a substance abuse test that could prevent him from returning to the NFL this season. "I can say definitively that Ricky will not be back this year," said Pelley, pointing out that the CFL's board of governors passed a resolution last month that prohibits a player who is under a drug suspension with the NFL from playing in the CFL. [continues 492 words]
