Smuggling: Agents Say It May Have Been Used For Two Or Three Years To Transport Drugs. SAN DIEGO -- Authorities on Wednesday discovered what they described as a sophisticated tunnel used for smuggling drugs beneath the U.S.-Mexico border in rural San Diego County. The tunnel ended inside a farmhouse about 1,000 feet north of the border fence in the community of Boulevard, Calif., about 55 miles east of downtown San Diego, said Donald Thornhill Jr., a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. [continues 260 words]
Editor: Re: Mark Lewis' column of Jan 27. The discussion of marijuana - most notably its medicinal potential - likely evoked a range of responses to your newspaper. Many will tout the effectiveness of marijuana as medicine and their preference in using it as opposed to heavy duty and addictive narcotics. Other readers will dispute these claims and cite perceived dangers of marijuana use. When the smoke clears (pun intended), here's the only essential question requiring scrutiny: Which is worse for your health - A: Smoking marijuana for medical relief, or B: Being arrested and jailed for smoking marijuana for medical relief? [continues 161 words]
Out of national self-interest, as well as humanitarian concerns, America should step up its aid to the Colombian government to suppress narco-guerrillas (mostly the leftist FARC, but there are right- wingers, too). The disorder in Colombia has powerful ripple effects here -- in illegal immigration, drugs and potential terrorism. In particular, we ought to continue to help President Andres Pastrana's government recapture a FARC-controlled "safe haven" he granted them for a while in southern Colombia that has been used as base for an accelerating number of violent acts against civilians nationwide, with massacres, kidnappings and hijackings, financed by stepped-up drug trafficking. [continues 203 words]
A recent letter-writer said it is a misperception that alcoholics and addicts can get government benefits. In reality they are being denied access to medical benefits and are being warehoused in a "vast new prison-industrial complex." Last fall, I read two books from the Gundersen Clinic library in La Crosse. The first was on Alcoholics Anonymous, written more than 50 years ago. It was deeply immersed in philosophy with quotations from St. Thomas Aquinas. The author believed the organization has helped "many," but it wasn't known how many. He wrote that doctors who had examined alcoholics reported that alcoholics were the most "selfish" people they had ever seen. (Keep in mind that this was written more than 50 years ago.) [continues 163 words]
Teen Experiments Natural, Ubiquitous Clay Evans' Feb. 17 column, "Risky brains of youth," was a refreshingly intelligent article in this era where the government wants to control the minds of its citizenry through lies, fear and intimidation. It is completely natural to explore our minds with mind- altering substances as has been done though out history by all cultures. Chairman, Biology Department University of Colorado at Colorado Springs [end]
OxyContin provides pain relief for thousands of West Virginia patients who suffer with cancer and other life-threatening conditions. Many coal miners who have intractable pain from crushing injuries face the day because of the pain relievers they take. Coal mining and related services employ the most people in Southern West Virginia and they experience greater risk to life and limb from job hazard than almost any other occupation, which can leave them maimed or in a painful condition. Banning OxyContin would be a blow to the injured worker. As an orthopedic surgeon, I treat hundreds of people every week who hurt from cancer and job-related injuries who have expressed their affront over this bill and feel that the Senate Majority leader introduced the bill to discredit me because I am a Democrat, running against him in the 6th District state Senate race. He is running his campaign on the backs of West Virginia's sickest residents. Williamson [end]
EL CAJON. Calif - Brent Whittaker spends his days breaking the law, trying to slow the spread of AIDS. Whittaker, who runs a covert illegal syringe exchange program for heroin addicts in San Diego County, gives out up to 7,000 needles a week and collects thousands of used ones for disposal through a local clinic. He drives his pickup truck, loaded with thousands of needles, to meet his 750 regular clients in shabby mobile home parks and upscale apartments, in blue collar communities like El Cajon east of the city and in ritzy beach communities, in parking lots and on street corners where boxes of needles and other medical equipment quietly change hands. [continues 846 words]
Thousands Have Hepatitis C; State Defends Medical Regimen State inmates infected with hepatitis C are being routinely refused medical treatment, says a lawyer who is considering suing the state to force medication. David Lane, who represents a death row inmate with the disease, said he is considering suing the state to prompt medication of infected prisoners. But Dr. Bob McGarry, chief medical officer for the state prison system, said prisoners are getting the right treatment. At least 17,000 prisoners are infected, Lane said. The cost of drugs would be about $25,000 a year for each infected inmate. [continues 705 words]
Investigators Have Made No Arrests ANACONDA -- The carcass of a trained black Labrador used by police to ferret out illegal drugs was found east of Anaconda over the weekend, dead of a gun shot wound. Sasha, a 3 1/2 -year-old female, had been shot once in the head, probably at close range, Assistant Police Chief Mark Blaskovich said. The body was left in an area next to Interstate 90 often used to dump animal carcasses and other refuse. The department made no announcement of the killing, and officials still withheld information Wednesday. [continues 238 words]
Whenever some unfortunate knucklehead gets busted for drugs or a shooting, we're always shocked to learn he has a lengthy criminal record. When 28-year-old Anthony Carter was arrested last fall for the shooting of young Takira Gaston, he was already in jail for a parole violation. He'd been a major gang drug dealer, had done five years in the snoozer and had gone back to selling drugs. They all have long records. This is the problem. Carter, who will go to trial in April, is one of 300 to 400 young men in Hartford, by police estimates, who commit crimes over and over, going in and out of jail, on and off probation. This relatively small band of bozos is killing the city's chances of a comeback and costing all of us a bloody fortune in the process. [continues 755 words]
Nando came home from jail to a small apartment in the Bronx that stank like a backed-up toilet. He had been gone eight months, behind bars for selling crack, and as he came through the door from Rikers Island, he wrinkled his nose at the smell. His spider plant was dead. Its blackened leaves crumpled under his touch. His telephone was dead. He blew in the receiver, but the line was out. The bathroom faucet spewed brown water. A bag of chips in the kitchen was covered in dust. [continues 2228 words]
