Enough of the Financial Talk; How About Some Drugs, Sheep that are Asking for It and Dead Hookers?

Links for your enjoyment.

Can I get rid of Comcast yet? Sprint unviels WiMax; city-wide "hot-spot" coverage for Baltimore.

This sounds like the type of guy I would trust to give information that may send people to jail:

Informants have different motivations for working with police, but the details they provide — names, places and times — can be key in major investigations and can lead to arrests.

Until last week, Timothy Ian Boland, a 31-year-old Robbinsdale man, was one of them. He's now accused of playing a role in the death of his brother's girlfriend and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree aiding and abetting a murder.

"At this point, his value as an informant is zero," Sommer said.

But Boland's arrest won't compromise any of the task force's investigations, he said.

Of course not. But is it nuts to think that it should? I don't think so...

TtP asks the question in Feburary '06 -- Is Sheep-Fucker a Sex Offender? I'm happy to report that the Michigan Court of Appeals says no.

A Calhoun County man who sodomized a sheep will not have to register as a sex offender because the sheep cannot be considered a victim of sexual assault under Michigan law, a court ruled this week.

Jeffrey Scott Haynes, 45, is serving a 2 1/2 - to 20-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to sodomy in 2006. He was found trespassing on a farm in Bedford Township in January 2005. The farmer called police when she realized one of her sheep was injured. A DNA sample taken from the sheep matched Haynes, a career criminal with convictions dating to 1985.[...]

Haynes, who was sentenced as a fourth-time habitual offender, is at Parr Highway Correctional Facility in Adrian. He has been convicted of home invasion, forgery and uttering and publishing.

Question to my lawyer readers: What's the difference between forgery and uttering and publishing?

While most people might automatically think murder when they find a dead hooker buried in a garden with her underwear around her knees, and her legs tied together with a plastice bag ALONG with signs of strangulation; the Baltimore Coroner would disagree. A brief story about the abnormally high rate of "undeclared" deaths in Baltimore as well as a reminder that someone is going around killing prostitutes in this city.

The Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore consistently posted higher numbers of undetermined deaths than other states or large cities. In 2004, for instance, 341 deaths were ruled undetermined in Baltimore City, and 807 in the state of Maryland. The same year, Washington, D.C., had 76 undetermined deaths.

In McClary’s case, Wecht said undetermined appeared to be the “proper” ruling. “In a case like this, where they need more information, it’s the right thing to do,” Wecht said.

McClary’s body was discovered Aug. 30, 2006, on Beaufort and West Belvedere avenues, where former police Commissioner Leonard Hamm’s stepdaughter Nicole Sesker was found strangled this year.

“We always thought it was suspicious,” said Rhonda McClary, Tyra’s sister. “We’ve really never had any closure. It’s been very hard for her mother.”

There have been 26 prostitutes killed since 1998, according to records reviewed by The Examiner.

Officer, the marijuana in my possesion only looks like a lot because it's fluffy. Oh, and I stayed late after work to drink booze. Now, why did you pull me over?

That's a Shit Load of Coke

Sept. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Peruvian police made their biggest seizure of cocaine in three years, daily La Republica reported.

Police impounded a 4 metric-ton (8,820-pound) shipment headed for Holland in an operation in Lima, the daily said, citing Interior Minister Luis Alva Castro. Peruvian authorities have seized 20 tons of drugs so far this year, La Republica said.

Police arrested 20 people, including five Mexicans and three Colombians during the operation on Sept. 5, according to the newspaper. The drugs, hidden inside a shipment of steel barrels, would have been worth $400 million in Europe, La Republica said.

The shipment was organized by Mexico's Sinaloa cartel, the Lima-based newspaper said.

Somewhere, someone is asking the question -- Where is 9,000 pounds of coke when I need it?

Story here.

I Need to Become a Police Informant for a Preggo Prostitution Sting So I can "Maintain My Cover"

Drug bust in Connecticut nabs 64 street-level drug dealers; who as police say "were collectively dealing large amounts of drugs." Interesting way to distort phrase a low-level bust comprised mostly of addicts. 'Kinda like saying "collectively, everyone working at my non-profit earns a lot of money."

The Herald:

NEW BRITAIN - Complaints of street-corner dealing and a slight upswing in heroin use spurred teams of city officers to nab dozens of low-level drug dealers Tuesday in an early-morning sweep designed to curb open crack and heroin sales in the city.

The arrests were the result of a four-month investigation during which city narcotics officers tracked the activities of known dealers and videotaped their sales during controlled drug buys to informants.

The busts were focused on putting a crimp on street-level dealing in targeted areas, including the city's three neighborhood revitalization zones, public housing and the downtown area in front of City Hall.

In front of City Hall? I love it. Prohibition is such a failure that this city can't even control heavy drug dealing in front of their main municipal building. Great stuff this war on drugs.

And how about that 4-month long investigation into street-level drug dealers selling 5-15$ worth of drugs? Sounds involved and intense. I betcha' like Baltimore it must be hard to buy small amounts of crack and heroin on the streets of New Britain.

Heroin sells for about $3 a bag in Hartford, Williams estimates, but about $5 to $10 a bag in New Britain. "It's very easy to make a quick profit and then use the money to feed their own habit," Williams said.

[...]"Heroin appears to be up more than past years," Williams said. It's very easy to get and an easy way to get quick money."

Oh, never mind..It's "easy to get" and an "easy way to get quick money". That almost leads you to believe that in no time 64 people will quickly spring up to take the place of the soon-to-be incarcerated 64.

Here's the best part of this story:

One man claiming to be a confidential informant for New Britain police said two weeks before the sweep that he was paid $60 per drug buy and an extra $100 if a firearm was seized.

The informant said he had smoked some of crack cocaine bought from a dealer, to maintain his cover, before giving the rest to police.

Heh...Full story here.

Giving Drugs a Bad Name

Bad idea -- Calling the cops to report that you have drugs in your house. Really bad idea -- Calling cops to report that you have drugs in your house when you also have a Deringer on your person:

Police arrested a man and woman on drug charges Thursday after the woman claimed there was marijuana in their apartment and in her boyfriend’s truck, reports stated.

Misty Deanne Norwood, 39, of 400 Woods Road and Charles Thomas Cook, 42, of 436 Radio Springs Road, were taken into custody after police arrived and found a Deringer .22-caliber handgun on Norwood.

According to police reports, the drugs were found under a couch in the apartment. Police brought a K-9 unit to search Cook’s pickup truck and found more marijuana and a pipe with suspected methamphetamine residue in it.

Both Cook and Norwood remained at the Floyd County Jail this morning on misdemeanor assault and battery charges and possession of marijuana charges with no bond. Cook also faces felony possession of amphetamines charges.

Mushrooms Good for You

Yet another study that says psilocybin can be helpful for addiction, and paitents with fatal diseases:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "spiritual" effects of psilocybin from so-called sacred mushrooms last for more than a year and may offer a way to help patients with fatal diseases or addictions, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

The researchers also said their findings show there are safe ways to test psychoactive drugs on willing volunteers, if guidelines are followed.

In 2006, Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and colleagues gave psilocybin to 36 volunteers and asked them how it felt. Most reported having a "mystical" or "spiritual" experience and rated it positively.

More than a year later, most still said the experience increased their sense of well-being or life satisfaction, Griffiths and colleagues report in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

"This is a truly remarkable finding," Griffiths said in a statement. "Rarely in psychological research do we see such persistently positive reports from a single event in the laboratory."

Full article here.

Still Alive

I'm still alive; just been in the process of a job change that has taken up the bulk of my time over the past week. Spent yesterday at a Concentra medical center giving my obligatory cup o'piss for a 10 panel pre-employment drug screen. My default position is to not work for any company that insists on mandatory drug screens, but practicality deems that position futile in today's environment. What fun.

Anyway, sorry for the light posting, it might continue for a bit as I complete this transition. (Whether it be to the new job or to a cardboard box somewhere on the streets of Baltimore after I fail my drug screen)

As for now; back to the blogging!

-------

Pro-Life Politician: I had no idea that the $300 dollars and ride that I gave to the woman I was fucking was for an abortion. No, really he said that. Seattle Times:

A woman who dated congressional candidate Mike Erickson seven years ago said she asked him directly whether he wanted to have a baby. He shook his head no, she said, and paid for her abortion.[...]

Erickson agrees that he gave Tawnya $300 for medical help, and a ride to a doctor's office, but said he didn't know she was pregnant or planned to get an abortion.

Erickson, a Lake Oswego businessman, is the Republican candidate in Oregon's 5th Congressional District and is running on an anti-abortion platform. The charge that he provided money to Tawnya nearly derailed his campaign for the May 20 primary and could hobble his chances in the Nov. 4 general election against state Sen. Kurt Schrader, D-Canby.

I believe him. This one time I was in Mexico and paid a hooker $50 and pulled down my pants -- but I had no idea she was going to blow me. Or that she had a penis. OK, I knew she had a penis. But really, the blow job was completely unexpected. Good, but unexpected.

So if it wasn't "I didn't know she had a penis", what was Erickson's excuse?

Erickson gives a far different account of events.

He said he thinks that a week or two before the appointment, Tawnya called asking for help with money to see a doctor. A day or two before the appointment, he said, she called to say she had car troubles and needed a ride.

He said he didn't ask her why she needed to see a doctor, saying he didn't want to pry. "I knew her pretty well but not like — it wasn't my girlfriend — but it was somebody that I had a relationship with," Erickson said.

Erickson didn't wait around. "She said her friend was picking her up and they were going to do something at the mall, or something like that."

Not even an ounce of creativity in his excuse...I'd be disappointed in this douche bag if I was a Washington Oregon voter, not because he's a fucking hypocrite, rather because he's a lazy, fucking hypocrite. Come one man, accuse the chick of being a whore, demean her character, lie about where you were on the day the abortion happen. But for God's sakes, don't say that you gave her $300, then dropped her off at a doctors office, but had no idea that she was having an abortion -- you just thought she was going to the mall...or something. What a dope. An even bigger dope than your average politician.

I Could Think of Worse Ways to Wage the War on Drugs

No parking here has helped drive down business in one of the largest open-air drug markets in city...but drug dealers aren't the only business being hurt:

Every day, Derek Kang used to chase 20 to 30 people he suspected of dealing drugs out of the vestibule of Sweet Sixteen, a women's clothing store he manages on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Now it's down to just one or two, he said, after Baltimore police began a new strategy to eradicate one of the city's largest open-air drug markets: Take away the parking.

Business has been down since late fall, when orange "No Stopping" bags first appeared on the meters lining four blocks of the West Baltimore commercial district, and Kang and other merchants along the strip have felt the impact on their bottom line. But Baltimore police officials said that calls for service are also down there and that they are monitoring the effects of the initiative to determine whether it might be applied elsewhere.[...]

The city's strategy is an example of what is called "situational crime prevention" - changing the environment to deter criminal activity, said Jean M. McGloin, a criminologist at the University of Maryland.

Interesting. Of course what usually ends up happening in situations like this is that the drug dealers merely get pushed to another area, it's not as though people want to stop getting high in Baltimore. But as far as tactics go in the War on Drugs, we could do a lot worse.

This Time They Mean It

The Netherlands looks to ban mushrooms...again:

The Dutch government has decided to ban "magic mushrooms" and announced that it would put a bill before parliament under a proposal put forward by the ministers of health and justice, Ab Klink and Hirsch Ballin.

The decision, backed by a majority of members of parliament, was taken after a number of accidents mostly involving tourists.

Flashback to over a year ago when we first heard that the Dutch government was banning the sale of mushrooms after a French teenage tourist jumped to her death in March of '07. This past February I was surprised to find that smart shops were still open and doing brisk business. So I don't know what to expect with this recent news out of the Netherlands, but it would seem as if at some point in the near future smart shops will cease to exist legally in the tolerant country.

2288 Grams is a Lot of Shrooms

Our country is no doubt a little bit safer after police confiscate 2288 grams of psilocybe mushrooms that some master drug smuggler attempted to mail cross-country via USPS. I could understand a few pills; maybe some pot, but 2288 grams of shrooms? Seems ambitious at best, really stupid at worst. Either way it failed.

The bigger War on Drugs-is-a-Big-Failure point still remains though -- we are looking at mushrooms, not a pile of dead Russian hookers that police discovered in a shipping container -- but fucking mushrooms. We spend billions of dollars a year in enforcement so that police can proudly take a picture of a huge pile of mushrooms. Pretty silly if you ask me.

More here at the always informational DEA Microgram Bulletin, including the always popular heroin in a laptop and meth, meth, and more meth.

That's So Sketchy

Kid should have stuck with his gut reaction:

N.H. Principal Lures Student Into Drug Deal

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ― A New Hampshire student is suing his high school after he was lured into an alleged drug deal by a principal from another school posing as a friend.

The deal was set up by Bishop Brady High School Principal Jean Barker on a cell phone she confiscated from one of her students, according to police reports.

She received a text message from Concord High School senior John Huckins, 17, stating "Yo, you need a bag?" according to police reports.

Barker, who suspected Huckins was referring to bags of marijuana, asked for two. Pretending to be the phone's owner, she arranged, through text messages, to meet outside the back door of her school, and called police.

Huckins sent two messages saying he was reluctant to meet on school property, according to police reports.

He wrote "that's so sketchy" and "dude, I don't like that" and suggested waiting until they could meet after school. But the Catholic school principal persisted.

It's a shame the principal of Concord High School has nothing better to do than set-up drug deals to bust up small time pot dealers. I guess every student at Concord High has nothing else to learn about. Nothing. They are the brightest and most accomplished high school students anywhere in the world. Since he's finished his work in educating children at his school, he probably felt it was time to move onto crime fighting. Makes sense.

Full story here.

If Heroin Was Legal, You Couldn't Pay for It With Your Sister

Whose the bigger creep? The drug dealer selling his sister, or the drug dealer who accepts the woman as payment and rapes her in the back of his car? Tough call.

Espanola, NM (KOAT) - A northern New Mexico man is suspected of trading his sister for heroin.

Police say they initially investigated the case as a kidnapping, but when they dug deeper, they say they discovered something more disturbing.

Police say Herman Flores Junior accepted the woman as payment for the drugs and then forced her to have sex with him.

Full story here.

Israeli Anti-Drug Authority Shares Notes with ONDCP

Good to know anti-drug hysteria linking pot smokers to terrorist isn't limited to just within our borders. Although from looks of it Israel's Anti-Drug Authority seems to be taking the cultural "destroy us from within" approach, different from the ONDCP's "you fund terrorism with your dime-bag purchase" meme. Neither are very persuasive.

From the LA Times blog -- Babylon and Beyond:

ISRAEL: Drugs - going out with a bong?
"At the end of every joint sits Nasrallah," an irresistible headline beckoned me this morning. A mouse-click led to a critique of the new campaign ad by The Israeli Anti-Drug Authority, showing Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah wafting, genie-like, out of a bong. "They want to destroy us from within," it cautioned. Hezbollah intends to flood Israel with drugs, which pose a strategic threat to Israeli society: "Anyone doing drugs is lending a hand to the next terror attack!" The ads (below) ran in Tuesday's papers.

Drug Fueled Binges of the Rich and Corrupted

I'll admit I haven't been paying close attention to the Tony Rezko trial/scandal, but testimony like this makes me wish I had been. Also makes me wish I was a politician. Or a corrupt real estate mogul. Or just filthy rich.

Victory in the War on Pot

Via Baltimore Crime, from the Examiner:

Sniffing beats smoking pot among young teens

Sniffing solvents is more popular than smoking marijuana for teenagers looking to get high, according to a new report from the University of Maryland Center for Substance Abuse Research.

Inhalants are the most popular type of drug among children 12 to 13, the report found, with more than 500,000 young teens experimenting with solvents.

Is there any question which of these drugs is worse for the body and mind? Huffing chemicals or smoking pot? I'd stake my impressive reputation on the statement that huffing chemicals is exponentially more dangerous than smoking pot at 12, 13, 16, 20 -- you name the age.

The best part about studies like these, is that you can actually imagine the ONDCP throwing together a press release and a blog post hailing this as a victory in the War on Drugs. We've beaten the scourge of marijuana, now onto paint thinners and varnish.

Full story here.

NY Gov Can't Stop Confessing

Look, I reflexively love any guy who cheats on his wife, does blow, and smokes pot. Fun guy to be around. Perhaps though, if you are a governor of a major American state, and not a blogger at a pathetically low-brow blog, you might want to keep some of your behaviors, past or present, to yourself.
ABC News:

New York's new governor, who disclosed last week that he and his wife both committed adultery several years ago, said Monday that he used cocaine in his 20s and smoked marijuana when he was younger. In reference to cocaine, Gov. David Paterson, 53, said in a television interview that he "tried it a couple of times" when he was "about 22 or 23." "And marijuana probably when I was about 20," he said on the NY1 cable news station. "I don't think I touched marijuana since the '70s."

Any guesses on what confessions we get next from Paterson?

Sheriff Finds It Hard to Believe TSA Agents are Inept; Rest of the Country Disagrees

Someone has seen Blow a few too many times -- 45 lbs of pot goes semi-unnoticed through a Milwaukee airport:

MILWAUKEE (AP) -- A suitcase packed with 45 pounds of marijuana passed through security at Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee County.

Sheriff David Clarke suspects it was "an inside job" because of the security breach. Clarke says it's unnerving that such a bag can bypass all the TSA security devices.

Investigators aren't saying exactly where the untagged suitcase was found, but they believe it was destined for a plane to New York.

It could have been an inside job. Or the TSA agents could have been, well, TSA agents...

Jim Landers is a Dope

An idea for columnist, reporters, and other worthless media types everywhere -- If you write a story/article on drugs, and the drug trade, make a honest effort to talk some people that don't work for the ONDCP or the U.N. It might provide some actual insight into the problems we face.

Case in point: Jim Landers from the Dallas Morning News:

WASHINGTON – Here's a recession that's welcome.

The criminal enterprises that sell illegal drugs are seeing less profit, and some are losing money, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

Drug abuse is down dramatically in the United States. It is flat around the world for the third year in a row.

What happened?

The war on drugs has shifted to a public health focus toward users, and a private business focus toward sellers.

Uh...Is that news to anybody else, or just me? "The war on drugs has shifted to a public health focus toward users". I wasn't aware we switched drug policy. Must have happened over the weekend and I missed it in the haze of St Patrick's Day weekend. A shame really -- because our previous strategy of shooting and/or imprisoning users and dealers alike seemed to be working so well for us.

I'll give Jim credit on one data point; drug use is down, and has been going down for years. It's been going down as the supply of most drugs has been increasing and the prices decreasing. More and cheaper drugs; but yet less drug use. Could it be, that if you let people alone to make their own decisions about what they put in their bodies that most will decide that drugs are not for them? That would be a revolutionary idea: Let folks make their own choices.

More:

"It may not be the best thing to arrest the most people. It may not be the best thing to focus brute force on them," said John P. Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Good one John. You almost had me there for a minute.

And finally:

Local, national and international laws restricting the sale of chemicals used to manufacture the drugs have proved surprisingly effective in disrupting the traffic in methamphetamines, or crystal meth, an illegal stimulant. Local governments were the first to curb sales of cold medicines containing ephedrine and pseudoephedrine, followed in 2006 by national legislation.

The drug makers moved manufacturing to Mexico. As of January, however, Mexico has banned imports of these chemicals.

And then people will stop using methamphetmines to get high. End of story, it's that simple. No substitution drug will pop up, no new production methods will be tried, all you have to do is ban the substances and the problem goes away. It always works.

Should Sex Offenders Not Be Eligible for Student Aid?

Rep. Ric Keller (R) of Florida thinks most definitely that they should not.

''This is the most insane waste of taxpayer money that I have seen in my eight years in Congress,'' said Rep. Ric Keller, R-Fla., who is pushing to stop the practice. ''It is a national embarrassment that we are wasting taxpayer dollars for pedophiles and rapists to take college courses while hardworking young people from lower-class families are flipping hamburgers to pay for college.''

[Fact check: federal student aid that goes to sex offenders has zero effect on what hamburger flippers or any other American can receive in aid; it is not a zero sum game and everyone is eligible.]

Rep. Keller has introduced a bill that would ban sex offenders from receiving Pell grants, which is the form of aid available to low-income students and is especially helpful to them because it is a grant, not a loan. People convicted of drug offenses are already banned from accessing student loans under similar punishment logic. Murderers are still free to seek government aid.

IMHO, a convicted criminal's pursuit of higher education is a good thing and not an outrage that should be banned de facto by denying student aid. What is the goal here? Permanent outcast status for sex and drug offenders or rehabilitation and a path to stability and re-entry into society?

Police Officer Alerts Schools to Dangerous Drug, Also Passes Along Information on Cheap Viagra and a Sweet Business Deal with Nigerian Royality

Oxfordshire, England. Hysteria run amok after a cop falls for a fradulant, chain e-mail.

A policeman alerted hundreds of families to the danger-drug Strawberry Meth - despite the fact it does not exist.

Pupils and parents at 80 schools in Oxfordshire were warned of the possible risks of the fruit-flavoured drug, also known as Strawberry Quick, by the unwitting officer.

The spurious alert came after the officer sent an email via a special system connecting police and schools without checking it with colleagues.

The drug, said to contain deadly crystal meth, had apparently been given to children in sweet form by strangers outside school gates, leading to two victims being hospitalised.

But there had never been such an incident, and the officer had forwarded on an email well known for being an Internet hoax.

Full story here.

School Hires 34 Year Old Former Stripper at Minumum Wage; Stripper Does Her Part for Predictable Ending

And I thought TtP's hiring policies were lenient:

A special-education aide at Highlands Senior High School resigned under pressure yesterday and faces possible drug and corruption of minors charges for a hotel party involving high school teenagers.

New Kensington police said they found suspected crack cocaine, empty beer cans and used condoms in a room that Abbiejane Swogger, 34, of Harrison, shared with minors Thursday night at New Kensington's Clarion Hotel. The room contained drug paraphernalia and a marijuana odor when officers arrived just before noon on Friday to follow up on reports of missing teens, said Detective Dennis Marsili.[...]

The one-time exotic dancer worked since September for the school district at a job paying minimum wage or slightly above. At the time Ms. Swogger was hired, the school district had no drug-testing policy for employees at her level, Dr. Galcik said. The school board later expanded its policy to require such testing in January for new employees, she said.

Drug testing? I'm not sure preventing casual pot smokers from teaching will accomplish much in the way of preventing pedophilia.

How about whore testing? That would be a more effective policy to stop the hiring of middle-aged whores as teachers. You can take this as a formal offer of my services Westmoreland County. Not to brag but I'm like a human lie-detector machine. Only I detect whoreness. It's a complicated process where I see if the women in question will go home with me. Never fails.

More:

Ms. Swogger says she rented a hotel room to socialize and drink beer with adult acquaintances, but teenage friends of her son showed up and refused to leave. She maintained yesterday that she knew nothing about drugs in the room and did not give the teens any beer.

"I think if they drank, I would have known about it," she said, adding that she unsuccessfully urged the two girls to leave.

Ms. Swogger also said she did not have sex with any of the young people present. They may have had sex with one another, she said, but did so "discreetly."

That's a good excuse...They might have had sex in the same room as me, but if they did so, they were 'discreet' about it. I'll have to tuck that one away for further use. Like this Saturday. Me: "Officer, there may have been a dozen or so street walkers shooting heroin while blowing me in the bathroom. But if they did, they were discreet about it. Now, am I free to go back to more discreet prostitutes that may or may not be in my bedroom?

Full story here, with a hitable picture of the former teacher in question.

John Walter's Annual Get-A-Way Spot

Why does anyone continue to travel through or to Dubai?

In all seriousness, do any readers know if it is a hub for any international destination? Africa?

Watch Out for Toothless, Rotten Gummed, Iron Lunged, Szichophrenic Pot Heads

Rotten gums, the latest medical consequence from smoking pot:

An international team tracked the dental health of 1,000 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand, in 1972 and 1973.

They found heavy cannabis smoking was responsible for more than one-third of the new cases of gum disease among the group by the age of 32.

Right. Buried down at the end of the article is this:

Overall, 29% of the sample showed some signs of gum disease.

29% showed some sign of gum disease. Don't forget that most of the smokers were smokers; of both tobacco and marijuana, and that gum disease is a very common ailment.

More on drugs: Check out this article in the Washington Post on cocaine trafficking out of Columbia using submersible vessels. Pretty cool stuff. Definitely read the whole thing, but let me excerpt the last few paragraphs that remind anyone with an ounce of common sense of the futility of the prohibition exercise.

Here in the navy yard, in addition to the seized submersibles, there is a torpedo-like tube, designed to carry cocaine, that traffickers planned to attach by cable to a ship. There are also several "go-fasts" and an earlier mode of transport for drugs -- fishing trawlers -- now rotting in dry dock. Together, they could make up a Smithsonian exhibit.

Some officials say the submersibles should be destroyed.

"We've been debating what to do with them," Angel said. "I'm partial to keeping them because they are part of the history of our country. And when we put an end to drug trafficking, our sons and grandsons should know what these criminals did."

Kids Get Creative; Find Ways To Get Gigh, Without Getting High

Great headline:

Lewisville teen's hand sanitizer gel sniff 'not a crime'

By WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning News

Denton County prosecutors decided Friday to wash their hands of a case against a Lewisville middle school student accused of trying to get high by sniffing his teacher's hand sanitizer.

Three days after filing delinquency charges against the youth, prosecutors did a turnaround and decided that the common cleaning gel is not an abusive inhalant under the Texas Health and Safety Code.

"It's not a crime. Hand sanitizer does not fall within that statute," said Jamie Beck, first assistant district attorney in Denton County. "The police agency brought it up mistakenly thinking it was."

Great. Good to see we take a sane approach to all drugs substances, from hand sanitizers up to heroin. This is the kicker of piece:

Joni Eddy, assistant police chief in Lewisville, said Friday that hand sanitizer has become a popular inhalant. "That is the latest thing to huff," she said.

Really? You're going to try and claim that? You want to try and back that up with any, what's it called...evidence? Maybe some data points or anything? Or have we just caught you in a bold-faced lie, developed to save your own departments ass?

Because to the best of my knowledge there is no such fad. Some small number of mentally deficient kids might be drinking the stuff; but I highly doubt anyone is huffing hand sanitizer to get high. I pay close enough attention to the ONDCP and their media machine and if there was even the slightest amount of data indicating that some kid somewhere was huffing hand sanitizer, I would have read about it in a press release warning the pubic about the latest epidemic -- Purell.

A spokeswomen for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in the same article that they have "no data about hand sanitizers being abused as inhalants". A simple googling, along with a few deep huffs of my own Purell backed up the claim.

Full article here.

Cannabis: Africa's Biggest Drug Problem

I understand that the West Coast of Africa has become the latest hot-spot for global drug trafficking. What I don't know, is what size the piece of the trafficking pie is dedicated to marijuana. allAfrica reports:

The Chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade said at the weekend that Cannabis otherwise known as Indian hemp is the biggest drug challenge in the country and the African continent.[...]

Giade, decried the dangers of hard drugs to humanity and stressed that the destruction exercises is to spite drug barons and also to demonstrate the superiority of law enforcement agents over illicit drug dealers.

According to Giade "the threat of narcotic drugs is palpable. It is difficult to ignore this peril starring at us in the face. Cannabis control constitutes the biggest drug challenge in Nigeria and Africa . This is because it grows effortlessly in the country. This drug has the propensity to destroy our society but we equally have the capacity to subdue it".

Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State in his goodwill message said that it is sad that some indigenes of the State are getting involved in the illicit drug trade when they are highly respected as good business men and women.

"Anambra citizen has no business with illicit drugs and I assure you that the State will partner with the NDLEA to ensure that Anambra State and by implication the entire country is completely drug free"he said.

Giade pointed out that illegal drug business is a covert affair that makes drug control a very cumbersome task demanding enormous resources, training and dexterity. The NDLEA boss said that no drug baron wants his drugs seized let alone destroyed because they have paid so much to acquire them.

My title is a bit misleading, as even the official seems to make the distinction of 'cannabis control', rather than the plant itself. I'm sure Nigeria is no friend to drug reformers, but their officials seem willing to honestly admit that policing the drug trade is the problem in and of itself*. That's more than we can say for U.S. drug warriors. Story here.

*Yes, I understand that NDLEA probably usues this rehetoric to demand more money for its efforts. Just because it may be out of self-interest, doesn't make it any less true, or refreshing to hear.

Extreme Exctasy

Compare and contrast the coverage.

Drug Inspired Friday Links

Cigarettes, pot, crack, and coffee. What more could you want in one cafe?

Bound to make your skin crawl and your temper flare. Prepare yourself for a DEA reality show coming to Spike TV this year. From producer Al Roker:

Television viewers will get the same unprecedented access to the inner workings of the DEA as our camera crews – the raids, the risks and the danger," said the show's executive producer, Al Roker. "This series is the real deal, exposing elements of the illegal drug trade that you could not imagine. When you watch DEA, you will feel like you have gone undercover."

"Exposing elements of the drug trade that you could not imagine." No, I can pretty easily imagine what they are going to show. I'm guessing it will be nothing like Traffik, and completely like Dallas Swat.

Don't worry Amy; they make me give DNA samples just to enter other countries. Or I think they do...Come to think of it, that "nurse" under the stairs at BWI Airport did kind of look like a homeless troll. Not a "Government Testing Official" like his name tag read...I really didn't think a stool test was necessary for trip to Europe.

Let's wrap this post up with some typically dramatic drug stories from the British press. 1) A user who suffers a heart attack from meth sues her dealer.

“I have gotten sober. I think that’s taking responsibility for my actions. I don’t think I should have to take responsibility for both of our actions. I think he should meet me half way. That’s what this lawsuit is about,” she said.

2) Pot puts 500 a week in hospital.

Doctors say cannabis abuse can contribute to mental health problems including forms of psychosis, paranoia and schizophrenia. There can be harmful physical side-effects, disrupting blood pressure and exacerbating heart and circulation disorders.

Oooooooo scary....

EXTREME EXCTASY!!!!

Federal agents are targeting a turbo-charged form of Ecstasy that is gaining in popularity, fearing it will lead to fatal overdoses similar to ones experienced a few years ago caused by heroin mixed with fentanyl.

Michigan and nine other states along Canada's border would see the first wave of any such overdoses, and officials are warning that the so-called "extreme Ecstasy," which is mixed with methamphetamines, is becoming a problem.

"They (drug dealers) are remarketing and packaging it and trying to glamorize it," said Scott Burns, deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "We just went through this issue with fentanyl. We learned a lot of things from that. We have to get on it early and get on it aggressively."

Drudge has a link to a this story in the Detroit Times about the potential of a new, and much more potent form of ecstasy that contains methamphetamine. Officials, in a hope to simultaneously scare the beejbus out of parents, and intrigue kids everywhere, have labeled the "drug" extreme ecstasy. Good work guys, way to borrow a page out of Mountain Dew's marketing book.

As with most ONDCP claims, this is all hype and very little substance, and does nothing but point to the larger failures of the very war that they are losing. The street-drug version of MDMA is a composite drug. You don't buy pure MDMA tablets; ecstasy pills are usually MDMA adulterated with some combination of ketamine, procaine, caffeine, cocaine, heroin, and yes methamphetamine. The combination of drugs that are used can be endless. When we talk about controlling the purity of drugs by legalizing them this is what we mean. A buyer has no idea what he/she is getting when you buy purported ecstasy on the street.

The funny thing about this particular case? People are not dropping dead in the street from this combo ecstasy. The Feds try to compare this to the mass heroin overdoses that were/are most likely caused by some bad batches of the drug that were heavily adulterated with fetanyl. But that's a stretch for even drug warriors to make. We haven't seen anything like that with the combo ecstasy tablets, and I have no idea why we would. Fetanyl is not the same thing as meth. Not nearly, and the amounts of methampthetimine used in producing ecstasy is usually under 5% of the body of the drug. We aren't talking about a lollipop size of meth.

Here, here, here and here are examples of component ecstasy. Read it for yourself. And here's what the DEA Microgram Bulletin had to say back in August about these multi-component forms of ecstasy:

Once unusual, these multi component type Ecstasy tablets have recently become very common in the region served by the South Central Laboratory.

Show me some bodies.

The Supreme Court On Crack

Baltimore Sun:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court today said judges may impose shorter prison terms for crack cocaine crimes, enhancing judicial discretion to reduce the disparity between sentences for crack and cocaine powder.

By a 7-2 vote, the court said that a 15-year sentence given to Derrick Kimbrough, a black veteran of the 1991 war with Iraq, was acceptable, even though federal sentencing guidelines called for Kimbrough to receive 19 to 22 years.

Full article here.

Parkinson's Drug Releases the Homo Inside of Patient

Not much I can add here:

A father-of-two with Parkinson's disease may be awarded damages in France after he turned into a gambler and a thief with uncontrollable homosexual urges because of drugs prescribed for his treatment.[...]

During his highs he turned to gambling and accumulated debts of €130,000.

He began to steal from his family, friends and neighbours to support his addiction and even sold his young son's toys.

Mr Jambart also began looking for partners on gay internet sites to invite back to his home

Full article here.

War on Breath Mints

Hershey's goes after the allusive, "I want mints that look like crack" market. Who would have guessed anyone would have a problem with it?

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ― The Hershey Company is under fire for making a product that law enforcement says resembles crack cocaine.

When Philadelphia narcotics officers first saw the breath mints, called Ice Breakers, they actually ordered a field test to determine its contents because the package looked so much like illegal drugs.[...]

Police fear the similarities between the newly released mints and the long-time packaging of deadly drugs could put children in danger.

"We could have a real tragedy, that child could consume that product thinking that it was candy," Blackburn said.[...]

Linda Wagner, a Philadelphia narcotics officer whose teenage daughter Krystal died of a drug overdose, is shocked that Hershey would market such a product.

"I just couldn't believe that such a large company would be so irresponsible to put out a product that resembles drugs," Officer Wagner said.

And I can't believe that a parent would be so irresponsible that she would allow her child to overdose...Two can play the responsibility game.

More from Wagner:

Officer Wagner, who teaches drug awareness in her daughter's memory, believes the only answer is to change the product or take it off store shelves.

"To have a company that produces a product like this, you feel defeated," Officer Wagner said.

Don't let the Feds hear you talking like that...They wouldn't like that secret to get out. Full article here. More here.