‘U.S. agents smashed a Mexican drug trafficking network by arresting more than 400 people and seizing over 18 tonnes of narcotics, authorities said on Wednesday.
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the 20-month operation dismantled the Victor Emilio Cazares-Gastellum network, which smuggled cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana from Mexico and distributed it across the United States.
Police nabbed 66 people in coordinated raids across four states, bringing the total number of arrests to more than 400, he told a news conference in San Diego, California.’
‘Japanese health authorities are investigating a flu medicine that is also available in Australia after a teenager jumped 11 storeys to his death after taking the drug. It was the 18th juvenile fatality linked to Tamiflu in 17 months.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has asked the Japanese importer of Tamiflu, an anti-viral drug regarded as the most important shield against bird flu in humans, to collect information about the conditions of patients who take the drug.
The 14-year-old boy’s death follows a similar case two weeks ago, when a girl also 14, died after jumping from an apartment building at Gamagori, in central Japan.’
‘Quebec provincial police came up lucky with a haul of marijuana found on a snowy beach in suitcases and a sports bag.
Officers got a call after a man was out walking in Forestville on Quebec’s North Shore and noticed the baggage on a local beach.
Police seized 63 kilograms of marijuana with an estimated value of $600,000 on Monday as the drugs were being loaded onto a helicopter by a man.’
‘If you are too drunk to drive, you might want to think about ditching the assault rifle. And the cocaine. Ditto the marijuana. And you definitely don’t want to pretend you’re a police officer.
Gwinnett police have arrested a 24-year-old Lawrenceville man after he asked for change for $100 at a fast-food drive-through last week and the clerk noticed an assault rifle in his lap.
He was slurring his words as he asked for change at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday at a McDonald’s on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth, police said in a news release Monday. When the driver noticed that the clerk had seen the gun, the driver claimed he was a police officer. He either passed out or fell asleep at the wheel.
Store clerks called police and said the man appeared to have been drinking. The driver awoke a moment later, got upset because he didn’t get his change and left.’
‘Abuse of prescription drugs is about to exceed the use of illicit street narcotics worldwide, and the shift has spawned a lethal new trade in counterfeit painkillers, sedatives and other medicines potent enough to kill, a global watchdog warned Wednesday.
Prescription drug abuse already has outstripped traditional illegal drugs such as heroin, cocaine and Ecstasy in parts of Europe, Africa and South Asia, the U.N.-affiliated International Narcotics Control Board said in its annual report for 2006.
In the United States alone, the abuse of painkillers, stimulants, tranquilizers and other prescription medications has gone beyond “practically all illicit drugs with the exception of cannabis,” with users increasingly turning to them first, the Vienna-based group said.’
‘A middle school principal accused of selling crystal methamphetamine from his office after school and on weekends was arrested after police found the drug on his desk, authorities said Wednesday.
There was no indication that John Acerra sold the drug to students at Nitschmann Middle School, where he was arrested Tuesday, said Dennis Mihalopoulos, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Police said they began investigating Acerra in early February after an informant told them the principal was using and distributing the drug.’
‘As various parties continue to fight over the remains of Anna Nicole Smith and custody of her baby, John Travolta has stepped into the fray.
The Pulp Fiction star has decided to use her death as a chance to promote Narconon – the controversial Church of Scientology drug rehab programme – saying it could have saved the Playmate’s life. [..]
Travolta said: ‘It’s so sad. We could have helped her with Narconon but didn’t get a chance to. I wish we had.’ [..]
Scientologists claim Narconon is 85 per cent effective.
However, critics say it is a front to recruit vulnerable drug abusers into the religion.
Either way, it is sadly too late to help Smith now.’
‘ Terry Gilliam’s film Tideland gets a second chance starting today.
The story of a young girl whose parents are drug addicts — which Gilliam describes as a cross between Alice in Wonderland and Psycho — fared poorly with audiences during a brief U.S. theatrical release last fall. [..]
Gilliam says that the movie, which also stars Jennifer Tilly, is “about people in search for love, it’s about relationships. It’s also about drugs, sex and necrophilia. What more would you want in a movie?” he adds with a laugh. [..]
But he persisted, he says, “because I think it was genuinely a good story to tell. The fact is a lot of the public won’t like it, but I’m actually interested in the part of the public that will.”‘
‘Workers at a downtown boutique called police after unexpectedly receiving two buckets of marijuana worth $90,000. Police were called to Fusion on Saturday after employees received the two packages of marijuana totaling about 20 pounds.
“Officers received a call that the manager of the store had received a package from FedEx and when he opened it there was a five-gallon bucket inside,” said Capt. Chris Werner. Inside that bucket was 10 pounds of marijuana. The second package arrived about an hour later, this one from a different delivery service but with similar contents.
Both packages were from California and addressed to the store, but there were no names on the address labels.’
‘Making hash is easier than you think!
Making hash is an ancient art. The first proto-human who rubbed her fingers together after handling a mature cannabis bud was making hash in much the same way it is made today. Although the process of removing the resins from cannabis have become more refined, the essence has remained unchanged for millennia.
Making hash is the process of extracting and preserving the psychoactive resins from the cannabis plant. These resins are found primarily on tiny glands called trichomes, which under a magnifying glass look like mushrooms – a head on top of a stalk. These trichomes are part of what gives cannabis buds their “frosty” appearance.’
‘A middle school teacher trying to buy pot was arrested after she sent text messages to state trooper instead of a dealer, police said.
Trooper Trevor Pervine was at dinner with his wife and parents celebrating a birthday when his phone started buzzing with messages about a marijuana purchase.
At first, Pervine thought the messages were from friends playing a joke, Kentucky State Police spokesman Barry Meadows said. But a couple of phone calls put that idea to rest, and Pervine responded to set up a meeting, Meadows said.
Authorities say Ann Greenfield, 34, arrived at the meeting point and found Pervine and other law enforcement officers waiting for her.
“She learned her lesson. Program your dealers into your phone,” Meadows said.’
‘What would happen if an astronaut became mentally unstable in space and, say, destroyed the ship’s oxygen system or tried to open the hatch and kill everyone aboard?
That was the question after the apparent breakdown of Lisa Nowak, arrested this month on charges she tried to kidnap and kill a woman she regarded as her rival for another astronaut’s affections.
It turns out NASA has detailed, written procedures for dealing with a suicidal or psychotic astronaut in space. The documents, obtained this week by The Associated Press, say the astronaut’s crewmates should bind his wrists and ankles with duct tape, tie him down with a bungee cord and inject him with tranquilizers if necessary.’
‘An “epidemic” of counterfeit therapeutic drugs is sweeping south-east Asia, costing hundreds of thousands of lives as victims take them under the mistaken belief that they are receiving vital treatment for their illnesses. A British doctor working in the Laotian capital, Vientiane, found that most of the anti-malarial medicines tested in a sample were sophisticated fakes, often displaying holograms on the packaging, originally aimed at making counterfeiting difficult.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that 200,000 of the 1m malaria deaths each year would be prevented if all the drugs taken were genuine.
But the epidemic goes far beyond anti-malarials. [..]
Up to 50% of the drugs sold in Asia and Africa are fakes, in a trade estimated by the US Food and Drug Administration to be worth between $35bn and $44bn (£18.5bn-£23.1bn) annually. [..]’
‘The following system is provided as a free service for anyone researching different ways to pass a drug test. This system explains how to successfully pass a standard urine drug test using simple items you either have at home or can purchase at a grocery or drug store. It also explains how to successfully pass a hair drug test. The system is mainly designed for low to moderate-level users who will be taking a drug test at least 8 DAYS in the future.’
‘Smoking a joint is no longer cool among the young, according to a new poll, which found one in three regard it as unacceptable.
A study by the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found marijuana had become socially unfashionable in the same way as cigarettes.
“Clearly, it’s not as acceptable as it once was to be stoned,” said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the centre at the University of NSW.’
I don’t know what’s wrong with kids today. 🙂
‘Women who claim to be victims of ‘date-rape’ drugs such as Rohypnol have in fact been rendered helpless by binge-drinking, says a study by doctors.
They found no evidence that any woman seeking help from emergency doctors because their drinks were allegedly spiked had actually been given these drugs. [..]
Around one in five tested positive for recreational drugs while two-thirds had been drinking heavily.
The findings further erode the theory that there is widespread use of Rohypnol and GHB, another drug said to be favoured by predatory rapists.’
‘An 18-year-old Lyle High School student is facing two felony charges for allegedly lacing brownies with laxatives and distributing them at school, making staff and students sick. [..]
The principal said that on Feb. 6, the defendant had brought a pan of 16 brownies to school and gave them to staff and students. He said Orth admitted on Feb. 7 that he and two other 18-year-old males baked the brownies at one of their homes. The principal claimed the defendant had admitted to purchasing the laxatives and other ingredients.
The complaint stated that the other two males said they were “just watching” while the defendant made them.’
‘The opiate drug morphine is effective in easing long-standing coughs, as doctors have suspected, a study shows.
Physicians have been prescribing, on a hunch, the powerful drug to people with stubborn coughs for years.
But until now, there was no hard proof from a trial comparing the effect of morphine with a dummy treatment.’
‘AIDs patients suffering from debilitating nerve pain got as much or more relief by smoking marijuana as they would typically get from prescription drugs – and with fewer side effects – according to a study conducted under rigorously controlled conditions with government-grown pot.
In a five-day study performed in a specially ventilated hospital ward where patients smoked three marijuana cigarettes a day, more than half the participants tallied significant reductions in pain.
By contrast, less than one-quarter of those who smoked “placebo” pot, which had its primary psychoactive ingredients removed, reported benefits, as measured by subjective pain reports and standardized neurological tests.’
‘Early on the morning of Dec. 13, police officers responding to a 911 call arrived at a house in Hull, Mass., a seaside town near Boston, and found a 4-year-old girl on the floor of her parents’ bedroom, dead.
She was lying on her side, in a pink diaper, the police said, sprawled across some discarded magazines and a stuffed brown bear.
Last week, prosecutors in Plymouth County charged the parents, Michael and Carolyn Riley, with deliberately poisoning their daughter Rebecca by giving her overdoses of prescription drugs to sedate her.
The police said the girl had been taking a potent cocktail of psychiatric drugs since age 2, when she was given a diagnosis of attention deficit disorder and bipolar disorder, which is characterized by mood swings.
The parents have pleaded not guilty, with their lawyers questioning whether the child should have been prescribed such powerful drugs.’
‘Two women are accused of soaking a homeless, drug-addicted prostitute with gasoline and burning her to death after she reported that one of them had robbed her.
Leslie “Jill” May, 49, was abducted from the street and killed at Candlestick Park the day she told the police that Mia Sagote, 30, robbed and beat her over a debt May’s boyfriend owed, authorities said.
Sagote and Leslie Siliga, 29, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and kidnapping.’
‘A man’s plans to bail himself out after a drug bust went more than a bit awry over the weekend.
With the aid of a drug-sniffing dog, police found 48 grams of cocaine on the 32-year-old man after pulling him over for speeding, police said.
The suspect then arranged for his aunt to bring a small safe which he claimed contained money for his bail. But when his aunt opened the safe in front of a state trooper, they found cash, drug paraphernalia and another 16 grams of cocaine, police said.
Additional drug charges were filed against the man and his bond was increased to $125,000. He was later bailed out by another relative, police said.’
‘Medical researchers need more marijuana sources because government supplies aren’t meeting scientific demand, a federal judge has ruled.
In an emphatic but nonbinding opinion, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s own judge is recommending that a University of Massachusetts professor be allowed to grow a legal pot crop. The real winners could be those suffering from painful and wasting diseases, proponents believe.
“The existing supply of marijuana is not adequate,” Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled.’
‘That’s when they say two fourth grade girls, one nine-years-old, the other 10-years-old, spotted Donatelli repeatedly dipping a pen cap into a small green plastic bag filled with white powder, and bringing it up to her nose. [..]
Lewiston-Porter Central Schools has an intensive drug and character education program for its students beginning in Kindergarten. School officials confirm Donatelli taught full-time during the 2003-2004 school year. That curriculum, say school officials, would have included a drug-education curriculum.’
‘The apparent key to the difference was that LSD activated the receptor in a subtly different way from natural chemicals, said Mount Sinai’s Stuart C. Sealfon, a co-author of the paper. The receptor seems to be “like a switch that can go on in more than one direction,” he explained.
When the mind-bending drug activated the receptor, it not only triggered the typical changes in the cell, it caused additional cell responses, he said. The evidence for this, the group reported, was that the LSD seemed to cause a characteristic chain reaction of brain chemistry involving a class of molecules called G proteins, which are often involved in normal signaling processes.’
‘Blame global warming. An Albany, N.Y., man is accused of riding nude in a gondola at Stratton Mountain Resort on Dec. 15. William N. Barrett III, 46, pleaded not guilty to felony lewd and lascivious conduct and misdemeanor marijuana possession Tuesday in Vermont District Court.
A witness reported to lift attendants that Barrett was nude and touching himself inappropriately while riding the lift.
Barrett, who was fully clothed when he reached the bottom of the hill, denied being nude. He told police he had taken off his jacket and shirt because of the nice weather.’
‘The video cuts to a decade later, a few months ago. “That was me, Barry Cooper,” he says, “top narcotics officer.” His hair is longer. That ‘stache is now a full-on goatee. The top cop has become a dude. “I’m going to show you places that I never found marijuana hidden.” He talks with his hands, like a mellowed-out P.T. Barnum. “I’m going to teach you exactly how narcotic-detector dogs are trained, and I’m going to answer that age-old question: Do coffee grounds really work?”
It’s quite the pitch: Former drug warrior sees the light, goes to the dark side and makes a video, Never Get Busted Again, with shady tips on how to fool the fuzz. Stoners rejoice. The new beginning of the end of prohibition is near.’
‘The man arrested for shooting a snorkeler in the Smith River near here on Tuesday told police he believed he was shooting at a large rodent. [..]
Roderick told detectives he was house-sitting a home on Tuesday when he saw what he believed to be a nutria swimming in the river about 2 p.m. Roderick went onto the deck of the house and fired at the object with a .22-caliber rifle, police said.
When Roderick realized he had shot a person, he went to the shore and tried to get help for the snorkeler, 44-year-old John Chessman of Marcola. Chessman, who suffered one gunshot to the head, was listed in serious condition at OHSU in Portland on Wednesday.’
”She tried to secretly give me a bit of extra “motivation” in bed with two pills of Viagra in a glass of wine.’
He was treated by doctors who confirmed he had suffered a massive heart attack.
Di Angelino added: ‘I’m not angry with her over it.
‘In fact, the whole episode of having a heart attack has made me cut down the stress in my life and pull back at work. And because of that our sexual relationship has got better.”
