As heroin use jumps in Springfield and throughout Missouri, the Show Me State stands alone in not having a prescription drug monitoring program - a key to curbing the drug's proliferation, according to federal experts. Nationally, heroin use has been on the rise. It has become more prevalent among women and the middle class, and many of its users came to the narcotic after having first become addicted to prescription drugs, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [continues 1501 words]
Student Essay About Jesus and Pot Ends With RR Teacher's Resignation What seemed at first to be an innocuous creative writing assignment sparked a controversy at a Rio Rancho high school that ultimately cost Katrina Gaurascio her job, the former English teacher said Tuesday. In response to the assignment, one student wrote an essay about Jesus distributing marijuana. Another student complained to her parents about it. Gaurascio, an English teacher at V. Sue Cleveland High School, ended up being put on paid leave for three weeks, and then later asked to change her creative writing class or resign - which on Dec. 3 she did. [continues 857 words]
The Eau Claire Police Department urged county supervisors in a letter sent Monday not to cut $40,000 from the West Central Drug Task Force, as proposed by the county administrator. The cut would result in the loss of a key task force supervisor at a time when methamphetamine and heroin use is on the rise, said Deputy Chief Eric Larsen in a letter written on behalf of police Chief Jerry Matysik. "Drug trafficking is the single largest contributing factor to crime in the Chippewa Valley. Drug trafficking has been the motivation for burglaries, home invasion, kidnappings, attempted homicides and armed robberies, just in the past few years," wrote Larsen, who also leads the task force's oversight committee. [continues 385 words]
