Labour leader Phil Goff last night confirmed his daughter had appeared in an Australian court after being caught with drugs in her bra - but escaped a criminal record. Sara Goff, 25, had her case called earlier this year at Downing Centre Local Court after being nabbed with four Ecstasy tablets outside a New Year celebration. She did not front in person but instead entered a written guilty plea. The Sunday Star-Times can reveal Sara Goff, an Agriculture and Fisheries Ministry policy analyst, was stopped as she entered the main entrance of the Fuzzy Field Days Festival dance party in north Sydney's domain at 2.22pm on January 1 by Senior Constable Matthew Pople. [continues 573 words]
Party Pill Manufacturers Have Developed and Stockpiled Thousands of BZP Alternatives in Preparation for an Expected Government Ban. Advertising campaigns have begun for mind-altering products that don't contain BZP, but use substances such as kava and caffeine instead. The newest pills - expected to replace the multi-million-dollar BZP party pill industry - are in secure storage awaiting trials and approval. The developers are remaining tight-lipped about the chemical make-up of their new party drugs but say that the ingredients are not regulated under current law. [continues 374 words]
A Government-funded study into the effects of BZP had to be aborted because of the toll it was taking on participants in the trial. The subsequent report, leaked to the Herald on Sunday, says BZP - the main ingredient in party pills - has severe negative effects, especially if it's taken with alcohol. After consulting the National Ethics Committee, scientists ended the trial because participants began to suffer nausea, dizziness and hallucinations. The confidential report, commissioned by the Ministry of Health and due to be released publicly within a few months, explains the dangers of the legal highs which have been sold, with few restrictions, in shops around New Zealand for seven years. [continues 527 words]
Prescription Drugs Have Played A Part In 16 Deaths By Overdose In The Last Four Years In Mitchell When asked about the Mitchell County's biggest problem, Sheriff Ken Fox has two words: prescription drugs. Of all the illicit drugs available in Mitchell County, Fox said black market pills are consistently lethal. "People just don't realize how dangerous it is," he said. And too often, they never learn. In the last four years, overdoses from prescription pills have killed 16 people, Fox said. [continues 324 words]
Board sets vote on policy to test athletes and coaches at high school level Nathan Hall Following a one-hour closed session, the Mitchell County School Board took its first look at a drug testing policy for school athletes. Mitchell High Principal Jack Brooks developed the policy, which he said has been used in several Western North Carolina Schools. Under the policy, athletes would be tested at the start of the season, with some team members selected for testing at random times during the season. [continues 234 words]
Gerald W. Wilson, District Attorney for the Twenty-Fourth Prosecutorial District has issued a policy change that he said will help effectively fight the war against drugs. Wilson issued a press release on July 17 telling everyone in his district that the option of charging persons caught with functioning methamphetamine labs with the B1 felony of Unlawful Manufacture, Assembly, Possession, Storage, Transportation, Sale, Purchase, Delivery, or Acquisition of a Nuclear, Biological, or Chemical weapon of Mass Destruction in situations where a working or recently used clandestine methamphetamine laboratory is discovered. In the past, the charge that accompanied a working meth lab was the H felony for posessing the precursor drugs and the H felony for manufacture of methamphetamines. The problem facing law officers and prosecutors in the district has been the leniency of the felonies that can be charged in association with a meth lab. The H felonies carry minimal bonds and minimal, if any, jail time if convicted. Wilson said in many cases, after being charged with the H felony of manufacturing a schedule II controlled substance, the person would be released on an unsecured bond and be back in a working lab by morning. Martin Dwayne Miller, 24, of Boone, is one such case in point. [continues 504 words]
