Regarding the Feb. 6 article "U.S. offers aid to guard Colombia oil pipeline": What does this mean? Is it a war on drugs, a war on terrorism, or is it about oil and forcing the "free trade" economic model on people already suffering from its effects? I just returned from a two-week visit to oil-rich Colombia with the U.S.-based group Witness for Peace. Our mission was to evaluate the use of massive U.S. military aid bestowed on Colombia. [continues 142 words]
Find A Way To Deal With Drug From Hell I was so glad to see a front page article, on the Methamphetamine problem in our community. There is still a need for information. The public needs to be as informed as possible. What are some signs of meth use? How can you identify a "Meth House"? Most important, what are the police and the courts doing about this problem. I have an adult daughter who is addicted to Meth, she has been arrested three times that I know of, and let go. The first time, they did not hold her because she refused to take a blood test. They found a hypodermic needle and a small bottle with traces of Meth in it, in her car. They towed her car, suspended her driver's license, which was already suspended, and as far as I know that was it! The other times, were similar to the first. So, she goes about her business, which is to get more drugs. I have been told that she steals whatever she can, and recently she was driving a stolen truck. I realize our jails are full, but it seems to me that if the meth addicts are dealt with, and the meth houses are closed, that would eliminate a lot of crime. Meth is a drug straight from hell! It turns our loved ones into self-destructive criminals. There has to be a way to stop this epidemic. Snohomish [end]
How interesting that the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet, testifies before Congress about a worldwide terrorist network ("Tenet says al-Qaida still serious threat," Feb. 7). He's in a good position to do so, since he heads the largest terrorist organization in the world: the Central Intelligence Agency. How many thousands of people have been killed in the last 50 years by CIA operations such as Operation Mongoose (in Cuba), the overthrow of governments in Guatemala, Iran, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Congo, Indonesia and Haiti, and assassination plots? [continues 59 words]
GROVER - One local doctor calls prescribing narcotics "a double-edged sword," one that has cut self-styled pain specialist Dr. Joseph Talley. Area doctors who talked with The Star don't condemn the embattled Talley, embroiled in investigations for his liberal prescribing of narcotic painkillers, and linked by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to at least 23 drug-related deaths. Labels from colleagues range from "thorough" to "narrow in his thinking." The consensus, however, is that the 64-year-old family practitioner knew that scrutiny from the N.C. Medical Board and DEA would come sooner or later, as his penchant for prescribing the drugs grew over a 35-year practice. [continues 1538 words]
TOLEDO, Ohio - A siphoning hose found on the ground next to a tank filled with farm fertilizer was the first clue. Drug thieves had tapped into the tank at a fertilizer plant to steal anhydrous ammonia - a volatile ingredient in the production of methamphetamine. Fertilizer plants and farms nationwide are increasingly being targeted as the popularity and production of meth soar. The trend has been dangerous - improper handling of the chemicals has caused sickness in some people and forced evacuations of nearby communities. [continues 620 words]
Rules More Strict Than In State Court Drug laws are tough in the United States, but the harshest penalties generally are found in the federal court system, where fewer cases get plea bargained and convicted criminals must serve 85 percent of their terms before being eligible for parole. Drug punishments were not always so harsh, said U.S. Attorney John Suthers, who served as district attorney in El Paso and Teller counties. State and federal sentences for some drug and violent crimes doubled in the mid-1980s after people got tired of lenient judges, Suthers said. [continues 383 words]
An elderly man living across the street from the Hannah House, a centre for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, was lining up cement boulders along his property line on Friday afternoon as supporters of the house piled in through the front door. The Innervisions rehabilitation house on Dunbar Street celebrated its official opening at the beginning of February, but neighbours are presuming the house is a problem starter and not solver. Walter Sagorski, who lives across the street from the house, said he is concerned about the property value of his home and pointed to the torn-up grass on the lawn across the street. Parking and increased traffic on the residential street are among the many concerns for the Maple Ridge homeowner. [continues 458 words]
While several schools in Strathcona County have lost DARE, the program is very much alive and thriving in the Fort Saskatchewan RCMP detachment area. "It's a viable program that receives extremely positive feedback," says Fort Saskatchewan RCMP Staff Sgt. Nick Taylor of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program which has existed in the Fort since 1996. Sherwood Park RCMP announced plans last week to drop the program in several schools due to the lack of manpower funding. In that municipality, DARE is funded by the police department and too often officers have had to instruct on their days off as they're needed elsewhere when on shift. [continues 270 words]
Taliban's Demise Has Many Turning To Poppy Production For Cash. BADULLAH QOULF, Afghanistan -- Juma Gul squats in the dirt and points to the little green sprouts barely popping out of the earth, the poppy seedlings that are going to save his family. They don't look like much now, but in about five months their pods will burst with a milky white sap. The harvest will be refined into morphine, processed into heroin, smuggled through borders, and sold around the world to be shot into the bruised veins of addicts. [continues 1207 words]
