SHAHR-E-KORD. A Welfare Organization drugs expert said Sunday that Iran is taking the lead in confiscation of illicit drugs but, he noted, Iran has not registered a good performance in its drug-fight. "Iran has not allocated enough investment for drug fight. We should revise the law on handling drug-trafficking cases," the head of the Anti-Drug Headquarters of Iran's Welfare Organization, Dr. Houman Narenjiha told IRNA. "In an effort to launch an effective cultural campaign against drug abuse, we need to begin our work at primary schools level and to carry out such programs in most remote arts of the country," the official said. [continues 201 words]
Feds Indict Legislator On Conspiracy, Money-Laundering Charges DETROIT -- State Rep. Keith Stallworth was accused Monday of laundering money for an infamous drug dealer, whose associates kidnapped and murdered during an eight-year run of violence. The indictment, based on a three-year investigation, charges Stallworth with conspiring to aid the drug operation and banking money for the operation, led by Milton "Butch" Jones, who was also charged in Monday's indictment with ordering two murders. Jones was the founder of Young Boys Inc., a murderous heroin cartel that terrorized Detroiters in the late 1970s and early 1980s. [continues 890 words]
A Target For Robbers, OxyContin Can Subject Addicts To Painful Withdrawal It comes in small pills, is of reliable quality, and has become the hottest drug on the streets. To users, OxyContin, a powerful prescription painkiller, is heroin without the stigma, a high without a needle. "Everybody I know is doing them," said Joe, who is in rehab in South Boston for the fourth time this year. "They make you feel awesome. For, like, two hours everything is totally excellent." To dealers, the drug is relatively easy to get - nearly every pharmacy stocks it - and demand is shooting through the roof. [continues 838 words]
A Recovering Addict, Kathryn Jett Brings Compassion And Understanding To Her Position. Kathryn Jett hadn't planned to speak at the Sacramento drug treatment conference -- much less admit that she had once been an addict herself. But a cold forced the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs director to cancel a planned flight to Los Angeles. So she decided to speak at the Dec. 18 conference kicking off state planning for Proposition 36, the initiative requiring treatment instead of prison for non-violent drug offenders. [continues 809 words]
The Officer Resigned, Then Took Narcotics From The Evidence Room, A Sheriff's Spokesman Says. TAMPA -- A few hours after he resigned as a Hillsborough County deputy, Christopher Madiedo walked into the Sheriff's Office evidence room Friday wearing a department jumpsuit and requested envelopes of narcotics from pending cases. The transaction went so smoothly that he did the same thing Saturday evening, officials said. All told, Madiedo walked away with six envelopes containing small amounts of crack cocaine, powdered cocaine and marijuana from four cases. [continues 629 words]
The alcohol industry has been very successful in lobbying to restrict America's anti-drug efforts to include only illegal drugs, even though alcohol is illegal for everyone under 21. Half of the eighth-graders and 80 percent of the 12th-graders are breaking this law. More than 90 percent of them start drinking alcohol before going to marijuana. About 25 percent of eighth-graders and 62 percent of the 12th-graders admitted being drunk. Drinking is incompatible with the obligations of work and marriage. Half of the marriages fail. One of three American babies are born to single women. [continues 221 words]
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Richard DeLong's probation officer testified Monday that she never knew DeLong was working as a police informant and wouldn't have allowed it had she known. DeLong, 37, of Joplin, has been convicted of five counts of first-degree murder for killing Erin Vanderhoef, her unborn baby and three children. Jurors are weighing whether to sentence him to the death penalty or life in prison. DeLong's attorneys have said their client lived as a police informant from 1993 to 1999, supplying drug information to police while he used methamphetamine himself. [continues 184 words]
Standing only a few hundred feet from where her nephew was gunned down on the North Side Tuesday afternoon, Sandra Lynch cried out in grief at an outdoor church service last night. "I don't want anybody else to die!" shouted Lynch, a Marshall Avenue resident and aunt of 20-year-old Carl Burley, one of two young men who died Tuesday in what police believe was a drug-related shooting. Lynch, one of about 150 who gathered for a prayer vigil, admitted she had been a longtime drug user but said she has been clean for 10 months. "I am a new creature in Christ," she said. "Through God, anything is possible. [continues 441 words]
International fugitive and alleged drug smuggler, Lisa Marie Smith, branded the most wanted woman in the world, is said to be living secretly in Australia as a newly married housewife. The Melbourne-born woman, wanted on drugs charges for extradition to Thailand by the international crime-fighting agency Interpol, has been on the run from the law for five years. But a claim she is back in Australia led to a Federal Police appeal for those harboring her to turn her in. [continues 882 words]
It is almost four years since Lisa Marie Smith vanished from Thailand. Her name appears on Most Wanted lists on three continents. Padraic Murphy and Andrew Rule report on the latest sensational twist in one of the drug world's most enduring mysteries. International fugitive and alleged drug smuggler Lisa Marie Smith, once branded the most wanted woman in the world, is said to be living secretly in Australia as a newly married housewife. The Melbourne-born woman is wanted for extradition to Thailand by the international crime-fighting agency Interpol after she skipped bail on drugs charges and fled the country. [continues 974 words]
DRUG dealers could have unfettered access to the ingredients for speed if medicines were sold through vending machines, drug experts have warned.Vending machines could be used to sell medications including painkillers, antacids and decongestants, a government review suggested. The vending machines could give consumers easier access to non-prescription medications, Melbourne economist Rhonda Galbally has recommended in a draft report commissioned by state and federal health ministers on the availability of drugs. But drug campaigners, the Salvation Army and the NSW Opposition have warned the machines should not be used to dispense medications like cold and flu tablets, which can be used to manufacture illegal drugs. [continues 195 words]
Moves to open Australia's first legal heroin injecting rooms were stalled yesterday after legal action by the Kings Cross Chamber of Commerce in the NSW Supreme Court. The chamber, which opposes the location of the injecting rooms in a disused pinball parlour on Darlinghurst Road, had sought an injunction to stop the Uniting Church from opening the premises before a hearing in the Supreme Court in March challenging the validity of the operating licence. Lawyers for the Director-General of the NSW Department of Health and the NSW Police Commissioner yesterday gave the court undertakings they would not recommend the 18-month injecting room trial start until after a judgment from the hearing was handed down. [continues 60 words]
JAKARTA (IO) - The Jakarta Metropolitan Police have nabbed six people, including three police officers, and seized 1.3 tons of marijuana during a raid at a house in Jakarta's satellite city of Tangerang late Wednesday. Chief of North Jakarta Police, Chief Commissioner Andi Khaeruddin said here yesterday that they are now being held at the North Jakarta Police headquarters for further questioning. Khaerudin said the three officers, who are members of the elite Mobile Brigade, claimed to be conducting a raid when police found them in the house. [continues 154 words]
TULSA, Okla. (AP) -- The Oklahoma Highway Patrol plans to build a facility to house evidence seized in drug raids, a project that's expected to be completed in October or September. "We are taking so many drugs off of the roadways in this state, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation has run out of places to put it," said Pete Norwood, spokesman for the OHP. Normally, drugs confiscated by highway patrol troopers are taken to the OSBI to be analyzed and stored. But the OSBI has notified other law enforcement agencies that it will hold evidence for only up to two years after that evidence has been analyzed, agency spokeswoman Kym Koch said. [continues 168 words]
When I joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1980, I was a strong supporter of the notion that illegal drugs should stay that way and that the enforcement of drug laws should be a top priority. But my views quickly changed once I hit the streets. Assigned to the rugged 77th Street Division in the heart of South Central, I saw firsthand the social problems one could find in any community awash in the trafficking and use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other controlled substances. [continues 555 words]
Bogota - With the United States on the verge of sending helicopter gunships into Colombia's war, a top US military commander expressed faith that Colombian troops would not harm civilians with the lethal hardware. Two US-trained army battalions are poised to launch large-scale operations in Colombia's southern cocaine-producing region and US special forces troops will soon begin training a third battalion here. Marine General Peter Pace, chief of the US Southern Command, said General Mario Montoya, who will command operations involving the US-supplied helicopters and US-trained troops, was a "responsible commander" who would prevent civilians from being killed with Washington's weaponry. US-trained army battalions flying aboard the helicopters will try to seize the coca fields and processing laboratories from leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitary gunmen. [end]
Wellington: The Government has begun work on reviewing the legal status of cannabis, with Justice Minister Phil Goff and Health Minister Annette King going on a fact-finding mission to Australia. Mr Goff and Mrs King met police and health officials from the State Government in Adelaide on Tuesday to examine the long-standing South Australian practice of issuing instant fines for minor cannabis offences. Mrs King said yesterday the idea had merit but there was a lot of work to be done before considering whether it could be introduced in New Zealand. [continues 141 words]
It has been reported that the RCMP are driving around the back roads of the Valley with their windows open. Their intent is to smell out marijuana grow operations. One of these operations was sniffed out over the course of several days. Sgt. Dwayne Wetteland is quoted as saying, "Some of us have colds and we all wear parkas." A loaded hand gun was found when officers raided the house on Okanagan Centre Road East. In Vernon, with the average cost of a police officer being $84,000 each a year, I can't help thinking what a waste of manpower and resources this is. [continues 189 words]
Thanks for reminding your readers of the tragedy of the Alberto Sepulveda killing. A Modesto police officer shot the boy to death during a violent raid into his house. We must cling to the memories of the innocents killed by drug warriors if we are to recover from this madness. I say to those that support militant prohibition, "This is what you do to our people." My heart goes out to the boy's family. It's bad enough that violence like this occurs. It's an absolute perversion when it is perpetrated by our own government. This level of corruption invites revolt. Santa Cruz, Jan. 11 [end]
"Traffic," a film written by Stephen Gaghan and directed by Steven Soderbergh, is an excellent movie. But the important news about the movie is its message. It shows how the war on drugs has failed. A decade ago there couldn't be Best Picture and Best Director awards from the New York Critics' Circle or any Oscar buzz about such a topic. It's astonishing how far popular opinion has moved in the libertarian direction that this movie could be made at all. [continues 272 words]
