Heroin use is on the rise in Burlington and authorities are concerned about its potential impact on the community. It's not that the drug is available on every street corner in the city. But it is creeping its way in and investigators in the Burlington Police Department's special operations division say the drug's potency is much higher than it was when it was popular among inner-city junkies injecting it in the 1970s. The typical user in this area is white, between 20 and 25 years old and from west Burlington, and pain killers that they find in mom and dad's medicine cabinet are often the gateway to their heroin addiction, said a Burlington police undercover drug officer who asked to remain anonymous because of ongoing investigations. [continues 754 words]
Regarding your editorial published on March 11 about marijuana laws, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the U.S., almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. [continues 95 words]
Who knew that when North Carolina and Duplin County authorities cited members of country music legend Willie Nelson's band on marijuana and alcohol charges in January that it would turn into an uproar that began in Eastern North Carolina and has swept the state. Heck, there's even a song about it that's getting some notice in Tennessee. The matter has divided the rural farming community where Nelson was schedule to play. Some think that agents from the state Division of Alcohol Law Enforcement were just doing their jobs on Jan. 28, when they searched the band's bus outside the Duplin County Events Center in Kenansville, adding that the band members are not above the law. [continues 343 words]
As the clock wound down on the 2009 session of the General Assembly, lawmakers approved a bill cutting the length of sentences for a number of criminals serving in state prisons, including some put there for committing violent felonies. The change was aimed at reducing prison crowding, a not-so-insignificant issue during a time when tight budgets are resulting in the state closing a number of smaller prisons and transferring inmates to larger and more efficient facilities. It's important to note that the closures will result in inmates being double-bunked in some prisons. [continues 319 words]
The number of cases involving heroin and methadone is on the rise and causing some concern for law enforcement agencies in Alamance County. We are starting to see this stuff much more," said Randy Jones, Alamance County Sheriff's Department spokesman. "It's becoming much more common place." The Burlington Police Department is also seeing more heroin on the streets and more methadone-related offenses, which frequently involve forged prescriptions, said Burlington police Assistant Chief Greg Seel. On Aug. 7, the sheriff's department executed a search warrant at a home on Mountain Trail in Snow Camp where undercover officers had bought .4 grams of heroin, 32 units of dilaudid and 62 units of methadone in the last few months. Six people were charged with several drug offenses, including trafficking. [continues 662 words]
I read with interest at story in the July 29 Times-News by Keren Rivas, Dozens of marijuana plants found in county. Unless you are in complete denial, the 1937 Congressional Record tells us America prohibited pot without any real scientific testimony, no medical expertise and a media campaign based on bigotry three generations ago. Meanwhile, science finds all over again a host of medical conditions that marijuana treats effectively and every objective review of the past century finds it less harmful than tobacco or alcohol products. [continues 124 words]
It's growing season for a number of plants in North Carolina, including illegal ones such as marijuana. That's one of the reasons why the Alamance County Sheriff's Department decided to conduct an aerial search Monday as part of the marijuana eradication program, a joint federally funded effort that combines state-owned aircraft and county sheriff's deputies to find and destroy marijuana plants. The result? The eradication of 40 plants ranging in height from one to four feet growing in the southern part of the county behind a mobile home park off Swepsonville-Saxapahaw Road. [continues 325 words]
Local Lawmakers Have Mixed Views About Medical Marijuana Prescription painkillers made her retch. Muscle relaxants ravaged her liver. So Jean Marlowe put down her pills and rolled a joint. "I tried marijuana, and in five minutes, my stomach stopped shaking for the first time in five years," said Marlowe, who has used marijuana as medicine since a doctor recommended the drug in 1990. "It really does work." The founder and executive director of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients' Network, Marlowe is asking state lawmakers to pass a bill legalizing medical marijuana use. The bill is currently in the House of Representatives' Health Committee, and two of Gaston County's three House delegates who serve on the committee have indicated they would likely vote against it. [continues 1202 words]
Prescription painkillers made her retch. Muscle relaxants ravaged her liver. So Jean Marlowe put down her pills and rolled a joint. "I tried marijuana, and in five minutes, my stomach stopped shaking for the first time in five years," said Marlowe, who has used marijuana as medicine since a doctor recommended the drug in 1990. "It really does work." The founder and executive director of the North Carolina Cannabis Patients' Network, Marlowe is asking state lawmakers to pass a bill legalizing medical marijuana use. The bill is currently in the House of Representatives' Health Committee, and two of Gaston County's three House delegates who serve on the committee have indicated they would likely vote against it. [continues 1202 words]
I am writing this letter regarding the April 19 Open Forum letter "Legalizing drugs is not the answer to the problem" The government does indeed determine what drug/narcotic is legal or illegal such as, alcohol, tobacco, caffeine, marijuana, cocaine, and heroin. Drugs are categorized by the FDA and the DEA as either legal or illegal depending on their potential for abuse. The war on drugs has not been very productive besides putting more drug dealers/users together. Most of the individuals that are being arrested on drug charges are small-time street-level drug dealers. A recent study by the Department of Justice states that approximately 13 percent of all federal inmates are in prison for violent crimes or had a prior criminal record before being incarcerated. Nearly 55 percent of federal prisoners are serving time for a drug offense. [continues 210 words]
Fantastic pay. Exciting travel. Danger and violence. Addiction and ruin entirely possible. A prison stay or early death likely. This is how an honest job description for a drug dealer or courier might read. Not the most reassuring ad, but plenty persuasive for those with little education, money, scruples or hope. Unlike legitimate businesses, illicit drug operations aren't advertising, of course. But that's done little to hamper them. Major operators have made Alamance County a drug hub whose spokes spread throughout the East Coast and beyond, say Sheriff Terry Johnson and Wally Serniak, the resident agent in charge of the Greensboro office of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. [continues 1355 words]
Alamance County is a major drug distribution center, one that also draws violence and weapons. Sheriff Terry Johnson has said so for years. On Monday, a presentation from a federal agent on the front line of local drug enforcement efforts agreed with him and used sobering statistics and photos of gruesome killings to make the point that "all roads lead to Alamance." The Alamance County connection stretches not only across the nation but to drug organizations responsible for 1,000 killings alone in Mexico since Jan. 1, said Wally Serniak, the resident agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration office in Greensboro. [continues 557 words]
Alamance County's 287(g) program has "no effect" on local illicit drug trafficking, said Wally Serniak, the resident agent in charge of the Greensboro office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. The program, named after a portion of a congressional act, allows local lawmen and detention officers to be trained and deputized as federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents. Serniak made his conclusion Monday after Alamance County Commissioner Tim Sutton, an anti-illegal immigration advocate, asked Serniak "how bad" the illicit drug trade might be in Alamance County if Sheriff Terry Johnson had not taken on 287(g), the illegal immigration enforcement partnership with the federal Department of Homeland Security. The program has been in place in Alamance County for two years. [continues 146 words]
If lawmakers are looking for ways to save a lot of money in tight budget times, then they might want to consider a change in how the state punishes nonviolent offenders. North Carolina could save hundreds of millions of dollars if it would just stop jailing nonviolent offenders. According to the Department of Correction Web site, the state's prisons housed 40,161 inmates as of Feb. 13. The average annual cost per inmate ranges from $22,218 to $32,547, depending on whether a minimum amount of supervision is required or whether correction officials need to watch their every move. [continues 234 words]
Jessica Garrison was driving on Interstate 40 Wednesday morning heading to Greensboro to pick up her fiance when she was pulled over by a Burlington police officer in an unmarked car. Garrison, 23, of 918 E. Davis St., knew she wasn't speeding and didn't know why she was pulled over. She said the officer wasn't quick to tell her. Instead, her cell phone was taken from her, and she was questioned. Eventually, Garrison, who was waiting on the shoulder of the interstate with her 2-year-old daughter and pet Chow-Chow, was told that the SBI was searching the home she rents on East Davis Street, but she wasn't told why. Meanwhile, Burlington police officers, who had obtained a search warrant, were breaking into her house along with the SBI's clandestine laboratory response team. The officers were looking for a possible methamphetamine lab or remnants of one. [continues 1060 words]
Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who met with President-elect Barack Obama on Monday, has vowed to put drug gangsters in his country out of business - and he has backed up his words with actions. Calderon has no other choice if he wants to keep Mexico from turning into a narco-state, but the decision has resulted in a frightening increase in violence, particularly along the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexican border cities from Matamoros to Tijuana have become battlegrounds for drug gangsters fighting each other and law-enforcement authorities, with the body count rising by the day. In Tijuana alone, the death toll from drug violence in 2008 reached a reported 829. The total number of slayings because of the drug wars in Mexico reached 5,300 in 2008, more than double the 2,477 reported in 2007. [continues 314 words]
An Alamance County jail officer was charged Wednesday with providing marijuana to an inmate who is accused of shooting a Lee County Sheriff's deputy in Burlington in January. Jo Ann Hensley, 58, of Mebane, who has worked as a detention officer for five years, was charged with providing drugs to an inmate. She was placed under a $2,500 unsecured bond and has a first appearance in Alamance County District Court Thursday, according to an Alamance County Sheriff's Department news release. [continues 481 words]
The North Carolina Medical Board has accused a Burlington psychiatrist of prescribing narcotics to patients without properly diagnosing their conditions, following up on alleged drug abuse and properly documenting patients' records and medical histories. Kenneth J. Headen, who specializes in psychiatry and addiction psychiatry, disputes the accusations filed Thursday following a board investigation into his records. The accusations stem from several years when he practiced in Reidsville and are based on five patients' records. Headen's Reidsville office closed in March as he began practicing in Burlington at 804 S. Church St. The board will hold a hearing on Aug. 20, at which time Headen's license could be suspended, revoked or limited by the board. According to a list of charges available on the board's Web site, the board became concerned with Headen's treatment of patients suffering from pain and that he had become a source of controlled substances for drug-seeking patients in 2005. In the board's view, he prescribed narcotics without properly documenting the need for them or monitoring their use. At that time, Headen told the board he would cease treating chronic pain and attend a narcotics prescribing course. He completed that course in November 2006. The board alleges Headen never ceased treating chronic pain. In December 2007, the board reviewed several patients' charts. The board alleges those patients were treated for pain after his attendance in the prescribing course, and that proper documentation of their conditions, treatments and medical histories wasn't kept. According to the board, those patients were prescribed narcotics such as methadone, Percocet, Cymbalta and Adderal for conditions including migraine headaches, degenerative joint disease and back pain. [continues 372 words]
Word comes down that legislatures across America are considering ways to save dollars on their prison budget as the economic slowdown starts affecting revenue figures in state capitals. They're considering alternative sentencing methods as a way to free up millions of dollars in spending. One might not be surprised that prisons might get shortchanged when money gets tight. However, we can also look at this as an opportunity for states, including North Carolina, to change the way that they decide who is going to prison. [continues 341 words]
The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world -- per capita and in raw numbers. Even China has fewer humans behind bars than the United States has. A study released Feb. 28 by the Pew Center on the States reports the U.S. incarceration rate is eight times greater than that of any other industrialized nation. For the first time in the country's history, more than one in every 100 adults is in jail. It's no wonder the United States economy seems headed for shambles. A culture on a crusade to imprison more and more people isn't well. It's delusional, following a self-destructive path, unable to distinguish wealth from poverty. [continues 297 words]
