Drug Deal Becomes a Fatal Fall; From Street Dealing to Courtroom Deals Second of two articles Eighteen-year-old Tyrone Wallace woke up at noon on Nov. 22, 1994, at a girlfriend's apartment in Southeast Washington. He ate a breakfast of Corn Pops with her two sons and set out across town in his 1976 blue Cadillac to deal crack on 21st Street NE, his place of business for five years. Tyrone had been regularly selling drugs since he was 12, and he unloaded his $240 supply of crack rocks in a few hours. Traffic was slow in the neighborhood known to police as "Little Vietnam" -- a half-mile square pocket of Northeast Washington ruled by warring street crews and armed drug dealers. With his business done and the winter day fading, Tyrone caught up with his kid brother, Russell, in one of their favorite haunts. [continues 4615 words]
MIAMI (AP) -- An investigation of Miami-Dade county jails found that officers allegedly helped smuggle contraband to inmates, The Miami Herald reported Sunday. A yearlong, secret probe by police and the FBI claimed that jail officers looked the other way or took part as marijuana and cocaine were brought to inmates in exchange for cash, jewelry and sporting equipment, the newspaper said. Citing unidentified sources, the Herald reported that the probe focused on the Dade County Jail, and the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, a 1,000-bed pretrial facility, although allegations were made about all four county jails. [continues 56 words]
It's the end of the school year. Soon the streets will be full of teenagers, in the park, down at the beach, out at the video arcade, looking for kicks. This summer they may or may not try drugs. It might be a joint, maybe a line of speed, or it might be a cap of heroin. Recent reports say dealers on the streets of Melbourne are giving heroin away to recruit new users or selling it for $7 - less than the cost of a packet of cigarettes. [continues 1665 words]
ONE in four Australian teenagers has used inhalants such as glues, petrol, butane gas and hair spray to get a "high". Inhalants are the second most common illicit drug used by school students after cannabis, a survey has found. More than a third of secondary school students, or 36percent, admitted to having used cannabis. The use of inhalants was more common among younger students, whereas cannabis use grew from 13percent among 12-year-olds to 55percent among 17-year-olds. Federal Health Minister Michael Wooldridge said yesterday that he was shocked by the prevalence of cannabis use among school students. [continues 352 words]
JOHN MILLER ("Big money behind legalising drugs", Letters, 12 November) is misinformed regarding recent developments in the United States on the issue of medical marijuana. Few proponents of medical marijuana support the outright legalisation of drugs. George Soros, the philanthropist and financier who contributed to the medical marijuana ballot initiative campaigns, is on record opposing the legalisation of any drugs. US voters are smarter than Miller thinks. Polls indicate that roughly half of those who vote in favour of legalising medical marijuana do not favour broader legalisation. They clearly know what they are voting for. [continues 119 words]
I am writing you to let you know about some of the dangers and affects that drugs can have on you. I think drugs are bad because they can slow down your thinking skills. When I walk home from the bus stop, I see butts form marijuana, liquor bottles and hypodermic needles in the streets. Marijuana is one of the highly used drugs among teen-agers today. Marijuana is also know to most people as poppy. Cocaine is another drug used by teen-agers and adults. Heroin is another drug that has come back from the past and has already killed several teen-agers in Plano. [continues 70 words]
YOUR article about smokers looking for ways to avoid Proposition 10, the newest ``sin tax'' (Page 1A, Nov. 22), belabors the obvious. Did anyone think that we would cheerfully fork over an extra 50 cents a pack because ``it's the law'' or ``it's for a good cause''? I invite your attention to Prohibition and the 55-mph speed limit. Both were passed into law with good intentions. Both were almost universally ignored for many years. Did Rob Reiner, the Mercury News, and the other social engineers think that this law would be viewed differently? [continues 102 words]
Leave it to the indefatigable Don Cherry to cut through this week's frenzied debate over the plight of Canada's newest Olympian. By my reckoning Cherry arrived in Japan Friday in the nick of time to save his employer, the CBC, from going completely over the cliff in its coverage of Ross Rebagliati, the Olympic snowboard gold medalist from B.C. who was briefly stripped of his medal after failing a drug test that discovered traces of marijuana. Now, there's no doubt the two-day drama was the biggest Canadian angle of an otherwise disappointing Games so far and, as host broadcaster, the CBC was going wall-to-wall in its coverage. [continues 637 words]
San Jose -- An inmate died at Santa Clara County's Elmwood Correctional Facility Thursday, authorities said. Inmate Donald Cox was reportedly having a seizure in the minimum security portion of the complex shortly before 11:30 a.m. Cox was transported by ambulance to Alexian Brothers Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:31 p.m., according to Santa Clara County Department of Correction spokesman Rick Kitson. Cox was in custody on a drug charge and a charge of failing to appear for a court date, Cox said. The coroner's office is conducting an autopsy. [end]
Trials of safe injecting rooms for intravenous drug users have been effectively quashed after a NSW parliamentary committee voted against the proposal yesterday. Coalition and right-wing Government members of the Joint Select Committee on Safe Injecting Rooms combined to reject the trial by six votes to four, with the two Independent and two ALP Left members dissenting. One of the Independents, Mr Ian Cohen, said that in NSW one death from overdose occurred each day. "The Government is more interested in the politics of the next election than it is in saving lives in NSW and I consider that to be a terrible tragedy," he said. [continues 347 words]
I read in the Bulletin's recent series on youth drug use of Lequita Twete's difficulties in surviving her drug addictions and wondered whats is the point? Perhaps you intended it as a warning to parents. We parents were, or should have been, aware that there would be many hazards " out there " when we had our children. The headline " Drugs not a problem? Think again " suggests that there are some who believe otherwise. Such believers will be hard to find. Perhaps it is intended to be a warning against reforming or liberlizing our prohibitionist drug laws. That's pointless too, because, as the article makes clear, drug law reform cannot make "Illegal" drugs anymore available. [continues 121 words]
THE EU is stepping up its multi-million pound effort to coax Latin American producers into areas other than illegal drugs. This was one of the anti-drugs tactics which emerged from a recent meeting of EU Foreign Ministers and their counterparts in 12 South American countries. A spokesman for Foreign Minister David Andrews, who attended the series of meetings in Panama City, said, yesterday, all sides had recognised two significant points. Firstly, the crucial importance of removing European demand for illegal drugs and secondly, the need to steer Latin American drug producers towards alternative sources of income. The EU has already provided some incentives for Latin American growers to channel their energies into legal operations. And this strategy is expected to be further developed prior to next June's special general assembly of the UN, which has placed the fight against illicit drug trafficking at the top of its agenda. [continues 101 words]
The idea to offer auto insurance discounts to students who pass drug tests might sound good to shareholders in drug testing firms, but otherwise it doesn't make much sense. Rewarding young people for merely obeying the law, as if it isn't an automatic expectation, degrades the idea of self-responsibility. And offering a trade off, an invasion the teen's personal privacy for a small economic benefit, undermines the notion that liberty is priceless. For those who couldn't care less about these issues, there is another important question. Where is the discount going to come from? Straight from the increased premiums of other policy holders, no doubt. Martin Luther King Jr. said he dreamed of a country where people would be judged by the content of their character. Instead of taking on this difficult task, more and more frequently we are satisfied to judge people simply by the content of their urine. Stephen Young Roselle [end]
It is every parent's nightmare: your child has become a drug addict and, unable to break the habit, she's become a prostitute to pay for her crack and heroin. JILL TURNER talks to Angela Harrison, who found that keeping a diary of her daughter's spiral of self-destruction has kept her sane Angela Harrison is in the front room of a Victorian terrace house in a smart suburb of Stratford-upon-Avon, leafing through her photograph album. Neat in skirt and sweater ensemble brightened with patterned scarf, pearl earrings and gold-winged spectacles, she is the image of a Sunday school teacher, or music mistress. But the story that unfolds as she flips over the pages of pictures is a grim parody of middle-class family life. She chronicles her daughter, Jamie's, development as she goes: 'Here she is with her brother; and in her confirmation dress; here she is at 14, a bit difficult she was then. [continues 1354 words]
PARENTS are living in ignorance of the fact that over one-third of Irish teenagers have been offered drugs according to the findings of a new national survey. Boys and girls were targeted equally and the dangers increased significantly as the children grew into the higher risk age category of 15 to 17. The survey carried out by Landsdowne Market Research revealed that the teenage drugs problem is three times worse than parents imagine with 5% of urban based parents guessing that their children had ever sampled drugs. [continues 492 words]
The Prime Minister is expected to announce today more money for the Australian Federal Police (AFP), amid concerns that heavy funding cuts are hindering the fight against crime. The move comes on the heels of renewed attacks from the Premier, Mr Carr, over cuts to the front-line fight against drug importations at Sydney Airport, where only one in 50 international flights is searched for drugs. Mr Howard's announcement would follow private meetings yesterday between Government officials and representatives of the Australian Federal Police Association about the budget controversy. [continues 444 words]
MPS ARE to be asked to investigate claims that Britain's biggest tobacco company knew 20 years ago that its profits depended on the addictive nature of cigarettes. The claims are based on internal British American Tobacco papers presented in a US court case in Minnesota, which show that the company feared losing smokers, as they died or gave up, and considered developing alternative products that would also be addictive but produce no smoke. It is the starkest evidence yet that the tobacco industry recognised that the success of its business was based on nicotine addiction. [continues 405 words]
FORENSIC tests have confirmed that a drug which caused five people to collapse at a city nightclub last week was Fantasy. Police investigating the overdoses are now trying to find the source of the potentially deadly anaesthetic, which almost killed a woman, 20, and a man, 36, at a Hindley St nightclub on Friday morning. Despite claims by two of the women involved that their drinks were "spiked," the acting officer-in-charge of Adelaide CIB, Detective Inspector Madeleine Glynn, said information provided to police indicated those affected had knowingly imbibed a drug. [continues 150 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House drug policy chief Barry R. McCaffrey charged Monday that House Speaker Newt Gingrich was playing partisan politics and being ``irresponsible'' in rejecting out-of-hand President Clinton's plan to reduce illegal drug use. ``I've got an enormous concern about this,'' McCaffrey told The Associated Press. ``My immediate reaction is that this is irresponsible.'' Clinton and Gingrich both talked about drug policy in separate radio addresses Saturday, with the speaker dismissing the president's long-term plan as a ``hodgepodge of half-steps and half-truths'' and saying he will ask the House to pass a resolution asking for the White House to withdraw it. He described it as the ``definition of failure.'' [continues 368 words]
We must counter Big Tobacco's persuasion and manipulation, which have built a profitable market of 4 million teenage smokers THINK OF teenage smoking as a tug-of-war between tobacco companies and the forces of sanity. For years, the battle rope has been pulled in the direction of Big Tobacco, which has built an army of more than 4 million smokers between the ages of 12 and 17. The success of the tobacco industry in recruiting new smokers shows that advertising and other forms of persuasion work. Every day, 3,000 more kids start smoking. Nearly nine of 10 of those kids smoke one of the three most heavily advertised brands - Marlboro, Camel or Newport. [continues 279 words]
