resist/rebel Archive through February 10, 2004

<font color="0000ff">MORE POTENT "WHITE" HEROIN IS MAKING INROADS

by Peter Shinkle, Of the Post-Dispatch,
04 Jan 2004
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Experts Fear Increased Violence And More Addicts As Use Here Is Growing And Appears To Be Spreading To Younger People

A potent form of heroin is taking hold in the St. Louis area, making addiction more accessible than ever and raising the risk of increased violence among traffickers, authorities say.

So-called white heroin is displacing black tar heroin here as it has in some larger cities, according to surveys by the Drug Enforcement Administration. Officials say the switch to white heroin comes as heroin use here is growing and appears to be spreading to younger addicts.

White heroin is of particular concern because it does not need to be injected. That provides appeal to people who are squeamish about giving themselves shots of black tar, either because they don't like needles or they fear the spread of AIDS or hepatitis through shared hypodermics.

"Traffickers are able to market this heroin better by saying you can snort it or smoke it," said William Renton Jr., special agent in charge of the DEA office in St. Louis.

Until now, black tar heroin from Mexico has dominated the St. Louis market, authorities say. White heroin comes from Afghanistan and southwest Asia. White heroin also is considerably more potent, raising the risk of overdoses. The white heroin found in the St. Louis area this year is as high as 28 percent pure morphine, nearly twice the purity commonly found in the black tar variety, Renton explained.

Heroin traditionally has been associated with older junkies in urban areas, but it now appears to be making inroads with young people of diverse backgrounds.

"A lot of times the stereotype is that a typical heroin user is an older person ... but that's not what you see," said Dr. Heidi Israel, an assistant professor at St. Louis University School of Medicine who studies heroin abuse.

Statistics from drug treatment now reflect users from all racial groups, and include more young people than in the past, she explained. "There is a younger population that is being represented in the treatment data, more 18- to 24-year-olds."

Federal prosecutors in St. Louis brought heroin trafficking charges against 53 people in the year that ended Sept. 30. That was up from 45 the prior year, which itself represented an increase from 21 the year before that.

In Southern Illinois, federal prosecutors say their caseload of heroin trafficking prosecutions has been steady since 2000, with no more than 10 defendants a year.

Renton said increased heroin use is more than an illusion from stepped-up enforcement. "We're getting informant information and source reporting that there is an increase in heroin," he emphasized.

A New Drug In Town

The DEA says it became aware of the growing presence of white heroin through a program intended to track trends.

Under its Domestic Monitoring Program, the agency uses informers to make 10 purchases of heroin on the streets of each of an array of major cities four times a year. Lab testing determines the samples' purity and origin.

For years, black tar predominated here, with white heroin showing up about once a year, Renton said.

But in the first quarter of this year, five of the 10 purchases in the St. Louis area were white heroin, he reported, which is more typically found in New York, Chicago and other larger cities.

In the third quarter, the agency focused its purchases in the Metro East area and came up with the white variety six times out of 10. There were no samples taken in the second quarter for lack of funding, he said.

Israel cautioned that it is "premature" to conclude that white heroin is widely available, noting that what undercover informers are able to buy may not represent a true proportion of what's for sale on the streets.

However, she acknowledged that it is understood among drug users that some groups with Nigerian connections are selling white heroin in St. Louis. Renton confirmed that at least one such group is under investigation.

Booming Business

Whatever the type, heroin sales in the area appear to be thriving.

In one small area of St. Louis, a gang sold an estimated $100,000 worth of black tar each week until police broke it up last year, according to federal authorities.

The gang's two leaders, Brian White and David Foston, used safe houses and had midlevel managers deploy dealers on the streets in its territory around the intersection of Cass and Glasgow avenues, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

One informer told authorities that Foston had boasted of being on the verge of reaching the $1 million mark in drug proceeds, according to a sworn statement by ATF Agent Mark Demas.

The ring's business was so good that it sometimes caused traffic backups, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Delworth said.

Its undoing was that its base was near the new Vashon High School.

St. Louis Police Chief Joe Mokwa said the ring was a "pre-eminent source of supply" that "was particularly salient to us because of its proximity to a major high school."

The new Vashon, at 3035 Cass Avenue, is just a block and a half from the intersection with Glasgow. It opened in the fall of 2002.

In December 2002, authorities arrested White, Foston and 16 others. All have pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to heroin trafficking charges.

Another big ring prosecuted last year included members of some families involved in the Moorish Science Temple of America, a cultlike group that saw many of its members imprisoned for heroin trafficking and violent crimes in the early 1990s.

Mean Streets

Heroin peddlers are known to have a special propensity for violence, Mokwa suggested. "Heroin traffickers seem to have a more aggressive stance in controlling their operations than some of the other narcotics groups."

Some of the recent cases in federal court seem to bear that out.

In June 2001, an informer told authorities he had heard two members of the Foston drug ring boast about killing Robert "Beaver" Wilson by hanging him with a rope struck over a door.

Police checked records and found that on May 22, 2001, Wilson's death had been reported to police as a suicide. The medical examiner's office later determined it was a homicide.

Another informer later said the men meant to scare Wilson but that "things got out of hand."

One of the two men named by the informer later pleaded guilty to conspiracy in a heroin case and got 10 years in prison. His lawyer said he had "vehemently denied" a role in any killings. Neither of the men named by informers was ever charged with Wilson's murder. Officials say that is not surprising. The principal informer had a record of five convictions, and thus would have had dubious credibility with a jury.

Wilson's death was not unusual. During the investigation of the White-Foston gang, one informer was slain in a drive-by shooting, according to the ATF.

Another informer warned officials that the gang had been involved with murders, assaults and armed robberies, according to the ATF.

In another case, a man accused of distributing heroin, Qusai Mahasin, arranged from prison for a witness against him to be shot last year, prosecutors said.

The witness survived and limped into federal court to testify. Mahasin was convicted of attempting to murder a witness and heroin trafficking. He was sentenced to 55 years in prison.

When police arrested Leo Adams, one of the alleged leaders of another heroin ring, in October 2001, he was using a colostomy bag, the result of gunshot wounds.

He had been shot multiple times on May 26, 2001, the ATF said. Adams, who admitted that he was awaiting a shipment of up to 300 ounces of heroin at the time of his arrest, later pleaded guilty and got 30 years in prison.

Devastated Families

While the people who buy and sell heroin often die or go to prison, broken families are left behind to bear witness to the drug's destructive power.

Randall Jackson pleaded guilty in 2001 in federal court to possession with intent to distribute heroin. In January, a judge sent him to prison for 12 years.

His mother, Geraldine Jackson, who has held a job with a large local company for 35 years, said it was desire for material possessions that led her son astray. "When the kids get out there, they want to have all the stuff," she said.

"The money aspect of it clouds a person's judgment," added her husband, Vernon Jackson, who recently retired from work as a supervisor in a federal agency. "These guys are making hundreds of thousands of dollars. They can't make that kind of money at McDonald's. And everybody wants these $100 tennis shoes, the jackets, and all that. Cars, clothes and women - it comes with the trade."

The parents said they had fought their son's involvement in drug trafficking for more than a decade. "Fifteen years I've been struggling with this at night, and I prayed before I answered the phone that it was not him dead," Geraldine Jackson said.

Now, Randall Jackson's four children are in different homes in St. Louis and Atlanta, three with different mothers. One, a 9-year-old boy, is living with Vernon and Geraldine Jackson.

"The people who really suffer are the parents," Geraldine Jackson said after her son's sentencing. "Instead of being grandparents, we're going to become parents again."

Deaths Are On The Rise

A series of bleak statistics also describe the drug's destructive power. In 1993, seven people died from heroin - or a mixture of heroin and cocaine and other substances - in St. Louis County, according to the county medical examiner's office. That number has risen erratically over the past decade, reaching 24 by 2002.

It is an equal-opportunity killer. Of those 24, officials said 21 were white and three were black.

Of the 21 people who died of heroin overdoses in St. Louis that year, 14 were black and seven were white, the medical examiner's figures show.

By contrast, Madison County has no heroin deaths in 2002 or 2003, officials said.

To some extent, concerns about heroin are overshadowed by methamphetamine, said Jim Topolski, a policy expert at the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

Yet one national survey shows that from 1992 to 2002, heroin replaced cocaine as the drug most often cited by people - after alcohol - who are admitted to drug treatment programs.

There is no question that heroin is far more dangerous than most drugs, said Dr. Chris Long, director of toxicology in the medical examiner's offices of St. Louis and St. Louis County. He said it is heavily addictive and depresses the central nervous system so effectively that sometimes breathing just stops.
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/ News/St.+Louis+City+%2F+County/424D5CDEBA5B9AFA862 56E100026BB17?OpenDocument&amp;Headline=More+poten t+%2 2white%22+heroin+is+making+inroads </font>

st. louis eh ?
that's not too far to drive...

[roc]

Remember the ole china white back in the day?

What is that black tar? I know they say it's heroine but it looks like opium to me? According to the article black tar heroin averages about 14% morphine, I think thats about the same as opium. and why do they say morphine? I thought heroine was diacetylmorphine or something like that.

And why would someone want to inject some black gooey shit like that into their veins?

Black tar, you have to add water and cook it but with the white or slightly off white shit you can just add water. I always got the white or tan powder and it was very potent. One bag(1-2/10's of a gram) for a non-addict can make them pass out, usually. I was up to 10-20 bags a day. Heroin is all over now and kids in schools that you'd never expect to try it are getting addicted. So many kids in the small white towns like the one that my parents live in are getting addicted, it's not just a big city thing anymore. It is a terrible epidemic that is in part being caused by the DARE education programs. They teach you that every drug is bad and potentially addictive, yet they make no differentiation between the potential for addiction of each, nor do they explain the fairly harmless effects of marijuana and other psychedelics. They spread a shitload of false info and half-truths and when kids start to see that most of that is bullshit they disregard all their prior teachings as nonsense or they think it only happens to certain types of people. The programs need to be more geared toward education and treatment and less on law enforcement and drug eradication efforts. There will always be a supply as long as there is a demand, period.
PB

(Message edited by PissyBee on January 05, 2004)

<font color="0000ff">A NEW BREED OF DRUG PUSHER
Cracking Down on Illegal Internet Pharmacies
12/29/03

With just a few clicks of your mouse, you could buy Viagra and various medications for insomnia, hair loss, arthritis, and weight reduction. In unlimited quantities, anytime you wanted. Without prescriptions or doctor's visits or medical exams. Just by filling out a quick-and ultimately bogus-online questionnaire.

It was simple and easy, yes. But also totally illegal. And the subject of a massive undercover investigation called Operation Interpharm led by the FBI, FDA, and DEA.

Major Ring Busted. On December 3, a 108-count indictment was unsealed against three companies and ten individuals across the country. Together, they allegedly set up a massive Internet pharmacy ring that used dozens of web sites like www.get-it-on.com to hawk dangerous and addictive drugs without the proper medical supervision required by law. In the process, they dished out millions of dosages and made more than $150 million.

Two Guilty Pleas. Ten days ago, physician Marvin J. Brown and pharmacist Luke Coukos pled guilty in this case. Dr. Brown authorized more than 22,000 prescriptions, yet never met with a single patient, never performed an exam or took a patient history, and didn't check the accuracy of medical information provided. Coukos, who ran a pharmacy in Midlothian, Virginia, dispensed more than 2.5 million pills, yet knew that customer's identities were not being verified and that some customers were buying massive amounts of drugs. Because so many prescriptions were being filled, Coukos often did not even have time to prepare and review them all.

Beware the Newest Drug Pushers. As this operation highlights, drug pushers today are no longer just thugs and misguided youth hawking illegal drugs in abandoned buildings and back alleys. They are doctors and pharmacists and business people setting up illicit Internet pharmacies to sell all manner of controlled substances with no consideration for the safety of the consumer. Like drug dealers on the street, they are breaking the law and endangering the public. Their goal is not to promote health and well-being but to line their own pockets.

Bottom line: If you are buying controlled medications over the Internet, make sure you are dealing with a licensed, certified pharmacy and that you obtain the prescription from a physician you personally know and trust. It is your own health and safety that are on the line.

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec03/pharm122903.htm</font>

<font color="0000ff"> @ Hip</font>

[420]

Let me say this(even though this is 40 year old knowledge)china white,mexican brown,black tar, all must be cut,the pushers of this (death) usually buy as pure as possible,then cut to sell,now what level they are selling on determines how much they cut it,by the time it gets to the street,its been cut many times.(and you don't know how many hands its gone though &amp; what they used to cut it with)a very fine line exist there,thats why there is so many deaths.(OD'S)You take a big chance on each use.this is One high thats better left alone.It's a timebomb that WILL go off sooner or later.Please understand this data comes from the heart,use it or forget it. The whole trap with it is it's toooo good.(Which is not good)

to my knowledge what the police call black tar heroin is opium...a friend of mine got caught with about 3oz's of opium and thats what they charged her with..heroin..there idiots

black tar heroin is not exactly the same as raw opium, despite superficial resemblance in appearance.

I remember snorting the "China White" heroin back in the day. Was some good shit! To be a teen again. But you get older and you learn to stay away from stuff like that. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

[roc]

Agreed Sharkie... most young peeps need to avoid even trying it. A wise old person may want to venture there once in a blue moon.

The CIA is back in business. Anyway, don't even snort it. I know at least two people who died that way, sniffin' and drinkin'.

[420]

what makes it black they cut it with incense

tell me about it bro,i know of at least five,including my brother.he use to get a bundle for a 100, wich was ten packets in little glassine envelopes.i tried it myself right after we lost him.i had to see what was so alluring to him .i started off chippin, a little here, a little there, and before i knew it i lost about 25lbs.it can and will get a hold of ya real quick and as i found out it just isn"t worth the sacrifice, and or consequences even though it was prolly one of the most pleasureable expieriences i"ve had on drugs,except for the pukin part lol

great post sweetness.

[banjojo]

I snorted some white heroin. I never even heard of being black. A lot of people who do it here are late teens early twenties.

<font color="0000ff">Drug devices seized in raids

By Peter Boylan
Advertiser Staff Writer

Ten O'ahu convenience stores that display and sell what authorities say are drug paraphernalia were raided by state and federal agents yesterday, a move that federal prosecutors call a "warning shot across the bow" of other businesses engaged in similar sales.

Federal agents and Honolulu police conducted simultaneous raids on convenience stores, including McCully Market, to confiscate drug-related paraphernalia.

Officials say this glass pipe and wire mesh are part of the evidence seized at the Y.T. Market at 465 Kapahulu Ave.

U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo said that because no state law prohibits the sale of drug paraphernalia, federal penalties will be imposed against the 10 people, mainly business owners, who were arrested during yesterday's raids.

"The sale of drug paraphernalia may be allowed under state law, but it violates federal law — and it is a felony," Kubo said.

Federal penalties stemming from drug paraphernalia charges can amount to three years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and forfeiture of property and money associated with the sale of the illegal goods.

"I consider the sale of drug paraphernalia to be just as serious as selling drugs to our residents," Kubo said.

He said federal and state agencies will continue to actively seek out businesses in Hawaii that display and sell drug paraphernalia. He said more search warrants will be used and could bring more arrests.

Law enforcement agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Honolulu Police Department seized more than $45,000 worth of inventory. They said the items included 849 crack pipes, 759 ice pipes, 116 digital scales, 763 butane torches and 1,002 marijuana pipes.

According to the DEA, drug paraphernalia comprise any legitimate equipment, product or material that is modified or manufactured for making, using or concealing illegal drugs. They also include bongs, rolling papers, hitter boxes used to store and smoke marijuana, and everyday devices like pens and lipstick holders that have been modified to accommodate the use of illegal drugs.

Some of the businesses raided yesterday are: The Pump Liquor in Waipahu, Chubby's Pantry in Pearl City, Nani Mini Market in Kalihi, Brudda's Market on North School Street, Nu'uanu Liquors and Sundries in Nu'uanu, McCully Market on McCully Street, Date Street Grocery on Date Street, and the Y.T. Market on Kapahulu Avenue.

Most of the businesses are "mom-and-pop" type establishments. At least one is owned by a husband and wife.

The 10 people were arrested on federal charges of selling drug paraphernalia. They were Yong C. Tanaka, 59; Seon H. Kim, 48; Yeong E. Chung, 31; Sang M. Chung, 66; Sung K. Medeiros, 55; Edwin Medeiros, 57; Yong Kim, 55; Nan H. B. Chong, 53; Jong Y. Baik, 45; and Byung D. Hwang, 50.

The investigation that culminated in yesterday's arrests began in September when undercover HPD officers began purchasing drug paraphernalia from businesses. During each buy, the officer had to establish, through conversation, that the store owner or employee knew what the pipes or other products were used for.

Hawaii and 16 other states — including Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota and North Carolina, do not have state laws specifically prohibiting the sale or possession of the bongs, glass pipes or other devices that could also possibly be used to smoke tobacco, but federal laws prohibit their possession and sale everywhere.

HPD Capt. Kevin Lima said police cannot arrest individuals for possession of paraphernalia if no drug residue is found in the device. He said the presence of an illegal drug in the device is necessary to charge someone for paraphernalia possession under state laws.

"We're showing the public that the federal government will prosecute," Lima said.

Keith Kamita, head of the state Narcotics Enforcement Division, said Gov. Linda Lingle will ask the Legislature this session to change drug paraphernalia laws to make them similar to federal laws. Kamita said it will be part of the governor's package of legislative proposals.

Kubo said previous attempts to amend state drug paraphernalia laws have failed.

As the drug culture in America began to spread in the '60s and '70s, "head shops" and "hemp shops" made their appearance and marketed a wide range of drug paraphernalia, presumably to be used strictly in connection with the consumption of tobacco.

Some stores have tried to avoid violating federal drug laws by labeling a bong a "water pipe."

Today, with the Internet, manufacturers have expanded sales, and, according to the DEA, the business of selling drug paraphernalia is a multimillion-dollar industry.

In February 2003, a series of nationwide raids dubbed Operation Headhunter and Operation Pipe Dream resulted in the arrest of 55 people, leading Attorney General John Ashcroft to declare that the leading suppliers of drug paraphernalia in the United States had been shut down. No raids took place in Hawai'i.

Several tons of product was seized in the raids, and the 18 companies targeted accounted for more than a quarter of a billion dollars of the drug paraphernalia retail market.

Before the 2003 busts, federal drug paraphernalia laws were rarely enforced, which led to the rapid expansion of the industry.

Many groups, such as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, oppose the Bush administration's policies regarding drugs and paraphernalia. The groups believe that the Justice Department is wasting its resources on a miniscule aspect of the drug trafficking problem.

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2004/Jan /07/ln/ln21a.html </font>

"116 digital scales, 763 butane torches" I like how our dictatorial govt can call anything they want "drug paraphernalia" and seize it. I guess that us slaves should just be happy that our master is just looking out for us, after all if we get sick we can't make money so they can take it from us! Sorry just ranting

[ridder]

masta masta thank you masta! please hit me again!

so much for light bulbs or the glass viles they sell ginseng in.

don't go to your liquor store!

specialy if they have the chore boys next to the candy.

they are on to us!LOL.

plain and simple cops are pussies they bust pot heads to make them selves look like they do something with their day besides eating donuts. there just a legal gang thats too scared to bust people people selling guns crack and people who murder rape etc. what the f its discusting

Wonder why they all sound asian, or is that maybe Hawai'ian?

conscious hip hop every friday night streamed from 10pm -1am pacific standard time.

http://www.kpfk.org/programs/program_DF.shtml

this radio show is amazing.been listening to it for over 3 years and it has evolved into the most positive show I've heard on the radio.

very involved in the decolonizing of minds.spreading knowledge and wisdom.plus they play some sick cuts,have major talent....

check it out.http://www.divineforces.org/index.htm

if anybody here has not been exposed to hip hop or thinks of hip hop as violent rap.

give this show a listen.true underground hip hop.cause "rap is something we do,hip hop is something we live"

peace

We have a similar show at one of the local college radio stations. That's really the only kind of rap I care to hear. Even though the sound of it never really appealed to me, these artists say things worth saying and hearing. And the wordplay is Genius! Beats mainstream rap by miles.

Posted by ajones -- December 9, 2003


Reprinted from smh.com.au "Student's one-year headache", December 8th 2003.

An American school with a "zero-tolerance" policy on drugs has suspended a pupil for a year for having headache tablets.

Year 10 high school pupil Amanda Stiles, from Louisiana, was suspended after over-the-counter Ibuprofen pills were found in her purse.

Head teacher Ken Kruithof said the decision was in line with Parkway High School's tough anti-drugs rules, even though the tablets are legal.

Amanda and her mother Kelly Herpin appealed to a school board committee but failed.

Herpin said: "I think a one-year expulsion for an over-the-counter medicine is pretty severe.

"I'm not really sure at this point what we'll do," she told the Louisiana-based Shreveport Times.

"I'm not sure we could afford a private school."

Amanda, 14, said she carried the tablets to treat headaches.

"I think we're old enough to know how many we can take without overdosing or being in danger," she said.

Last month armed police stormed a high school in South Carolina and ordered children to the floor at gunpoint so they could conduct a drugs search.

Hawaii has an extremely high amount of Japanese
people living there - Japan / Japanese interests
own more of Hawaii than American...

Items that can be used to HIDE drugs? Crap, that
could be just about anything! What if I just want
to hide some money, or jewelry? Is that illegal too?

People are gonna do what they want.
The New Prohibition should look to the mistakes /
realities of the old prohibition and adjust
accordingly.

Hail Bush. Fucking republicans.

sol

[banjojo]

They used to get all worked up over prescription meds at my school, and I'm sure they still do. But kids could get away with smoking cannabis all over campus, and I heard stories of people getting caught and the cop just asked them to pass it.

But yet the feed Ritilin to kids in school like it was candy! When I was a kid in Jr high they tried to put me on all kinds of stuff. I never took it, thank god as I am now seeing evidance of brain damage in kids that did take it. I was smart I sold the junk and bought weed...

You like trip hop man?

just a follow up....

"Last month armed police stormed a high school in South Carolina and ordered children to the floor at gunpoint so they could conduct a drugs search."


Newsbrief: Principal in South Carolina Drug Raid Resigns 1/9/04
George McCrackin resigned Monday as principal of Stratford High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina -- the school made infamous as an example of drug war excess after police raiding the school pulled guns and sicced drug dogs on cowering students during a November 5 raid. Videotapes of the raid led to national outrage after being televised.

Local reaction was equally fierce, with parents of students involved in the raid, in which no drugs or weapons were found, filing two lawsuits against the school district, the police department, and the individuals involved, including McCrackin. Goose Creek, a normally placid Charleston suburb, also became the scene of demonstrations and protests, with local residents joined at various points by "outside agitators" Loretta Nall of the US Marijuana Party (http://www.usmjparty.org -- see interview this issue) and Dan Goldman of Students for Sensible Drug Policy (http://www.ssdp.org), and later, the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

"I realize it is in the best interest of Stratford High School and of my students for me to make a change," McCrackin said in a prepared statement released Monday by Superintendent Chester Floyd.

While McCrackin has resigned as principal, he has not left employment with the school district, Floyd said. "Mr. McCrackin has been under a tremendous amount of stress related to this," said Floyd. "I didn't want to take a dedicated, loyal employee of 20 years and put him in a role that would put increased pressure on him." While Floyd is not sure just what McCrackin's new duties will be, they will be at the school district office, not another school, he said. One duty McCrackin will have is helping the district defend itself in the two lawsuits, Floyd added.

McCrackin, who was principal at Stratford for 20 years, was the only principal the school has ever had. It was his zeal to keep his school drug-free that did him in. Based on surveillance tapes from the school's multi-camera video system, McCrackin called in the cops. And while he claims -- and the claim is not contradicted -- that he didn't know the Goose Creek Police would come in like gangbusters, that wasn't enough for many of the families affected by the raid.

McCrackin called in the cops. Now the career educator gets to conclude his career trying to save his school district from having to pay for that decision.

I like trip hop.

I have'nt heard any lately.I guess since the late 90's .

it's trippy hip hop right.more techno like.

George McCrackin
doesn't he have a brother named Phil ?

[shroomzhilla]

maybe someone should put a gun to his head and commence a full body/cavity search! oh wait a minute! if its not done by the police its called RAPE!

[shroomzhilla]

the whole concept of "zero tolerence" is just another way of saying "I'm not responsible for my actions"
be a fucking MAN and be responsible for your actions and judgement calls!!!
this is just as bad as a kindergarten kid being expelled for kissing a classmate -sexual harrassment!
or a an elementary kid being expelled for a plastic butter knife in his lunchbox to spread some thing or other that his own mother packed!
but howmany teachers are popping pills through out the day or hitting the bottle? not to mention molesting the kids like rampant sex crazed clergy?
my kid came home on her last day from school in (I think) 1st grade and the teacher gave the whole class a basket of cheap little toys in a well meaning gesture- to my suprise - it was a squirt gun! I told her that I wasnt upset over it just that other extremeists parents would most likely have a cow the way things go now days. she said" you know I never even thought of it as being a gun" and she thanked me for pointing this out to her.
I read not long ago a little boy was expelled for pointing a friggin frenchfry "like a gun" and going "bang bang" this world is getting more nuts all the time.

(Message edited by shroomzhilla on January 14, 2004)

[banjojo]

I got suspended for taking my art scissors out on the playground.

ARGGH!

<font color="0000ff">Source: BBC News 01/16/04
Haitian killer seized in Florida

Duperval is one of 58 people tried for the massacre.
A Haitian ex-army officer sentenced to life in absentia for his role in a massacre in 1994 has been arrested in Florida and faces deportation.
Jean-Claude Duperval, an assistant commander-in-chief under the military dictatorship, had been working on boats at Disney World since 1997.

He was seized by police at his home in Orlando after his final appeal against deportation failed.

He was convicted in 2000 for the deaths of some 25 men, women and children.

"The arrest is a historic victory for... the effort to ensure that the US is not a safe haven for human rights violators."
Brian Concannon
trial lawyer

Troops rampaged through a slum in the city of Gonaives, forcing their way into dozens of homes, beating and arresting those they found inside.

Some were tortured and forced to lie in open sewers. Others were shot as they tried to flee.

"The arrest is a historic victory for those fighting for justice in Haiti and for the effort to ensure that the US is not a safe haven for human rights violators," said Brian Concannon, a US lawyer who prosecuted those accused in the massacre for the Haitian Government.

At least three other Haitians were recently deported from Florida for their part in the massacre.

Rena Langley, a spokeswoman for Disney World, told Reuters news agency that Duperval had worked from 1997 to 2002 in the tourist attraction's watercraft division.

"He was considered a good employee," she said, adding that Disneyland had had "no knowledge of his background" while he worked there.

Pam McCullough, a spokeswoman for US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Tampa, said Duperval would "probably be deported immediately".


</font>

<font color="0000ff">Source: San Francisco Chronicle 01/15/04

Cheney's grim vision: decades of war
Vice president says Bush policy aimed at long-term world threat

James Sterngold, Chronicle Staff Writer Thursday, January 15, 2004

Los Angeles -- In a forceful preview of the Bush administration's expansionist military policies in this election year, Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday painted a grim picture of what he said was the growing threat of a catastrophic terrorist attack in the United States and warned that the battle, like the Cold War, could last generations.

The vice president's tone, in a major address to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, was sobering, unlike many other comments recently by senior administration officials that have stressed successes in the war on terrorism.

Cheney mentioned only in passing the administration's domestic policies, while saying President Bush would present a blueprint of his domestic goals in next Tuesday's State of the Union speech.

Cheney devoted the half-hour speech to a frightening characterization of the war on terrorism and the new kind of mobilization he said it demanded. He sounded the alarm about the increasing prospects of a major new terrorist attack and the extraordinary responses that are required. While many of his remarks echoed past comments by the president and senior officials, Cheney struck a surprisingly dour note and suggested only an administration of proven ability could manage the dramatic overhaul necessary for the nation's security apparatus.

"One of the legacies of this administration will be some of the most sweeping changes in our military, and our national security strategy as it relates to the military and force structure, and how we're based, and how we used it in the last 50 or 60 years, probably since World War II," Cheney said. "I think the changes are that dramatic."

He also said the administration was planning to expand the military into even more overseas bases so the United States could wage war quickly around the globe.

"Scattered in more than 50 nations, the al Qaeda network and other terrorist groups constitute an enemy unlike any other that we have ever faced, " he said. "And as our intelligence shows, the terrorists continue plotting to kill on an ever-larger scale, including here in the United States."

Cheney provided no details, however, of the kinds of attacks he expected.

Although the administration has been criticized by some, including most of the Democratic candidates for president, for not doing enough to eliminate known programs for developing weapons of mass destruction in such countries as North Korea, Cheney said they were a priority and confronted the United States with its gravest threat.

Again, he presented the risks of a terrorist attack involving these weapons in stark terms.

"Instead of losing thousands of lives, we might lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of lives as the result of a single attack, or a set coordinated of attacks," Cheney said.

While polls show that many Americans support the president's aggressive war on terrorism, he also has many critics for the way the battle has been waged. The president initially justified the war in Iraq by saying that Saddam Hussein had active programs to develop chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The United States has yet to find evidence of such programs since overthrowing Hussein and installing a military occupation, prompting questions about the president's agenda and the quality of intelligence he is receiving.

In addition, an expert at the U.S. Army War College, Jeffrey Record, recently released a 62-page analysis that concluded the war in Iraq might have set back American efforts to stop terrorists by diverting precious resources to a battle that will do little to prevent new attacks.

As a result, Record concluded, the war on terrorism "lacks strategic clarity, embraces unrealistic objectives and may not be sustainable over the long haul."

But in his speech Wednesday, Cheney compared this moment to the challenges faced by President Harry Truman at the beginning of the Cold War, when there was a hot war flaring on the Korean Peninsula and a long-term nuclear standoff developing with the Soviet Union.

Cheney said Bush was establishing, as Truman had, a new structure for a new long-term war and spreading the military into new areas of the globe. "On Sept. 11, 2001, our nation made a fundamental commitment that will take many years to see through," Cheney said.

Cheney's speech: http://www.lawac.org/speech/cheny%202004.htm </font>

hrmph.
not a very objective article, imo, interjecting irrelevant info like that just to undermine the credibility of cheney's words by association.
personally i think cheney is utterly on target and correct about the future.
it ain't pretty,
and we won't survive half measures.

"we won't survive half measures"

One could say that "half measures" are what got us into this mess.. To do something about this situation is better than being acused of doing nothing.

I do not like to see killing in any form for any reason. I still do not believe war is the answer.There does not seem to be an alternative to me, as much as I detest war. Is there an alternative to war?

(Message edited by roo on January 17, 2004)

(Message edited by roo on January 17, 2004)

not if one side wants war.
peace can never be unilateral.
our enemy has declared himself,
read his words, see the havok
unleashed on 9/11-
should we be ostriches and bury our heads ?
is it not the duty of the strong, the brave
to go out and defeat the enemy who would kill
our women and children ?
there's no point in blaming ourselves for the mass murder perpetrated by bin laden and his kind,
no amount of wishful thinking will reduce
the danger, the threat.
we must be warriors, we must hunt down our enemy wherever he lurks. kill or be killed,
that's about as basic as it gets.





(Message edited by admin on January 17, 2004)

<font color="0000ff"> Source: http://www.thewpbfchannel.com/news/2769927/detail. html
Deputies Seize 800 Pounds Of Marijuana

UPDATED: 8:12 a.m. EST January 16, 2004

IMMOKALEE, Fla. -- Collier County deputies have seized over 800 pounds of marijuana and arrested three people, saying they have disrupted 16,000 potential sales.

The pot was already boxed, baled and ready for sale when it was discovered in a bedroom of a house in Immokalee this week. Now it's in a police evidence locker.

The bust is the second-largest in recent Collier County history. In September, deputies took 2,000 pounds of marijuana from a tractor-trailer on a cross-country, drug distribution trek from Southern California.

Undercover deputies made a 100-pound buy on Wednesday. That afternoon, they were led to the 774 pounds being held in a home. </font>

You are right..

It is us Americans, the children of a every religion, race and culture that fight the true Jihad. The more I look at this situation, it is realy America that is fighting a just war. I have been looking quite hard this past week. Sometimes it is difficult to see the big picture. It has been quite difficult to sort through all this "noise" regarding the war. Good and evil are relative concepts. If someone breaks into your house, thretens your family, you shoot and kill them. It is your right. It is not murder.

The more I read and the more opinions I get, the more I do think this is necesary war. The only think I dislike is I realy do not know if I can believe we are there to help the Iraqi people. Bush is very hard for me to figure out. I did vote for him becouse I did not not Clinton/Gore.

They where men of "half measures". They made us appear weak. Bush does seem to believe that what he is doing is right. It seems to me that only a small amount of people in the islamic world dislike him. Most muslims voted for him over Gore. They just do not like the fact that we support the saudi goverment and the rest of the royal families in the middle east. Also egypt. These are totalitarian states.

I just get pissed when I see people seeing it as a war against a religion, a whole religion! This is BS, it would be like me judging all of Christianity by the actions of Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and friends. Bush realy did reach out to the American Islamic community after 911.

I think it is BS to judge everyone in a religion, race etc by a few idiots. To hate people so bad that one could care less if they are seen as fellow humans. This crap went on in Vietnam, people where de-humanized. I am due to marry a woman of a jewish background this summer. If I had judged all Jews by the actions of men like Sharone, I would have never been as lucky as I have to have met her. She brought balance to my life.

I am still sorting out the facts on the war. You have an interesting opinion on it. I very much think the country is in danger also. I think there are those within the country who are trying to use the war to advance a certain religious or political beliefs. Both right and left. There are those that wish to purify the nation through a narrow reality. There are also those who wish to distort the facts just to defeat Bush. It is hard to believe that one puts these things above the safty of the nation. This is the noise that is so hard for me to get through. I am realy trying hard to see where people are comming from when the either oppose or support the war. Are they doing it becouse they have some sort of narrow political or religious adgenda, or are they stating facts?

It is another election year! Beware!

<font color="0000ff">Source: Rocky Mtn News 01/16/04
Gun law may be altered

Under bill, checks would be run only in actual arms sales.

By Peggy Lowe, Rocky Mountain News
January 16, 2004

Amendment 22, the law that closed the so-called gun-show loophole to require background checks on gun buyers, could be altered for the first time by the Colorado legislature.

On Thursday, a House committee took the initial step toward changing the voter-passed law, approving a bill requiring gun sellers to run background checks only when there's a sale, not when there's an "attempted" sale.

The wording in the bill is subtle, but anti-gun advocates say it would make profound changes by allowing sales transactions started at a gun show to be completed off-premises later - without the background check.

"We're splitting hairs over an act that opens a wide, gaping loophole," said Eileen McCarron of Colorado Ceasefire, an anti-gun group.

Amendment 22 was passed by nearly 70 percent of voters in the months following the Columbine High School shootings in 1999. Weapons used in that attack were obtained by a friend of the gunmen who did not have to undergo a background check because they were purchases at a gun show.

The sponsor of the new bill, Rep. Ray Rose, a Montrose Republican, said his measure simply removes ambiguous language that could put an unwitting, law-abiding prospective gun seller in violation of the law.

Rose's bill removes the word "attempts" from the current law, which states that "before a gun show vendor transfers or attempts to transfer a firearm at a gun show," the vendor must run a check.

What does "attempt" mean? Rose asked.

If a gun show shopper stops at a table and picks up the seller's business card, does that constitute an "attempt" to buy a gun, thereby obligating the seller to make a background check? Rose asked.

But people like Tom Mauser, who testified against the bill Thursday, said the bill is an attempt to subvert the will of voters.

Mauser is the father of Daniel Mauser, one of the 13 Columbine shooting victims, and a key backer of Amendment 22.

Rose said he sympathized with Mauser because he, too, lost a child - his 20-year-old son died in a car-pedestrian accident.

But then Rose lashed out. "I don't see anyone trying to outlaw cars," he said. "To bring that emotion into Colorado law is wrong, absolutely wrong."

Amendment 22 advocates say Rose's bill is an attempt to chip away at the law and that attempt was deliberately written into the law. A seller and buyer could do a "wink-wink" over the table at a show then later hook up to make the sale so they could get around the background check requirement, they said.

Lawmakers have a right to redefine terms - or clarify language - in voter-passed laws such as Amendment 22, explained Rep. Rob Fairbank, a Littleton Republican.

As Rep. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, said, "People who live under the law shouldn't be confused by the law."

Republican lawmakers on the House State Affairs Committee agreed with him, passing the measure 6-4 along party lines.

</font>

<font color="0000ff">Exactly.</font>

from http://www.poppies.org/news/9952908705679.shtml
Posted by ajones -- July 16, 2001


Reprinted from the Sunday Times article "Russians thrash their drug takers to stop addiction" by Mark Franchetti

THE teenage heroin addict knew what would happen when his mother brought him to the City Without Drugs rehabilitation centre. He had heard about the beatings given to new arrivals. It was just after midnight when his turn came.

Accompanied by another young addict, he was taken in silence from a damp, overcrowded cellar where he had briefly been held and escorted to a derelict house nearby.

He was strapped face down to a narrow bed and his trousers were pulled down. Moments later the screaming began.

The "treatment" he received is meted out by City Without Drugs, a group that has declared war on narcotics in the industrial city of Yekaterinburg, 900 miles east of Moscow. The group's founders, three wealthy businessmen, claim remarkable success in curing addiction - but the cure is intimidating in the extreme.

Standing in darkness on either side of the teenager's bed, the guards pulled out leather belts and folded them for extra thickness. They then beat his buttocks, taking it in turns to strike while his cries grew louder and more desperate with each passing minute. One of the assailants used a cigarette lighter to inspect red buckle marks on raw flesh. Satisfied, he barked a few threats and called for his next victim.

The second addict, who had been lying terrified on an adjacent bed, was beaten without delay. At one point the pain was so great that he passed out. His tormentors hit him in the face to bring him round and resumed the thrashing. By the end of the session each had received 300 lashes; both had to be helped back to the cellar, where they were to spend the rest of their first week at the centre.

"On the first day we beat them with belts until their buttocks turn blue," boasted Igor Varov, one of the three businessmen behind City Without Drugs. "Every week we have to buy a new belt because they go too soft, but we have been impressed with the quality of Gucci belts.

"Drug addicts are animals who have lost all sense of values. This way, the next time they think about getting a fix they remember the pain of the thrashing rather than the rush of the drugs. It's very effective. You cannot solve this with mild manners - you need tough measures."

It was two years ago that Varov, one of the richest men in Yekaterinburg, and his partners launched their campaign against the drug menace. They said they had been forced to take matters into their own hands because the local authorities had failed to address a level of addiction that is among the worst in Russia.

Their followers mounted ferocious punitive raids on drug dealers. One suspected dealer was tied to a tree with a sign saying he was poisoning the city's youth. Others had their legs broken or their homes set on fire. But such was the demand for places at the rehabilitation centre that a second one has opened.

After their initial beating, addicts spend their first few weeks handcuffed to a bed, left to face their withdrawal symptoms with nothing stronger than bread and water. Later the inmates are put to work chopping down trees or labouring.

Nobody is allowed to leave during the treatment, which lasts a year. The few who have tried to escape have been brought back and punished. Former inmates who test positive for drugs are also subjected to beatings.

Before handing over their children, parents are required to sign a form absolving the managers of responsibility for any harm that might be done. Some 200 young addicts are under their supervision. Varov claims his methods have cured 50 former addicts in less than 18 months, several of whom have stayed on to work at the centre. Drug consumption and trafficking in the city have also dropped sharply, he says.

Many condemn the methods. Police officers have gathered evidence of inmates being beaten with batons and sticks. They have also recorded testimony from addicts who claim to have been handcuffed to iron bars and left dangling. Such allegations are denied by the centres.

Andrei, 20, who was treated at the centre and is too afraid of reprisals to give his full name, described how he tried to escape from one centre but was beaten so badly that he spent three weeks in hospital and was scarred for life.

"I was made to lie on the floor. Then two guys, one with a rubber baton and another with a wooden handle from a spade, beat me until I was unconscious," he said. "I was then left to hang handcuffed for three days from a wall. They are sadists. They love the power - that's what it is all about. You can hardly call it therapy."

I cringe when I see folks still equating the horrible crimes of 9-11 with the Iraq oil grab. I guess everyone is addicted to FOX news.

Well, yeah, but it's pretty easy to capitalize on fear, and this administration's doing that well. Problem is, why have they also declared war on the environment and fiscal integrity? Who pushes through three tax cuts mainly helping the top 2 percent of money-earners while spending at record levels? Would you buy a new house just after losing a job? Ex-Treasury Secretary O'Neil, Fed Chairman Greenspan and other economists told them at the time it was reckless and could take generations to pay off. Cheney responded, Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. If you ignore foreign investment, that's possibly true short-term, not to this generation and millionaires. It does, however, place a huge burden on future Americans, not to mention the effect it will have on Social Security. You have to admit, that's pretty irresponsible. Bad fiscal policy can be just as devastating as terrorism - possibly moreso because it affects everyone. The Soviet Union collapsed because of economics, not terrorism. (I've always felt economics should be mandatory in schools.)

Motivating people through fear can backfire. The opposition needs merely ask, "Do you feel any safer?" And the people will answer "no" at the ballot box.

How does environmental degradation help in the war on terror? Bush recently met with hunting and fishing groups, who promoted conservation and expressed concern over his administration's conservation efforts, or lack thereof. He listened to them, but wouldn't even meet with environmental scientists.

Overall, I agree that foreign policy should be clear, consistent and determined, but there are some incongruous and fishy things going on. Now they want to get the hell out of Iraq, just before the U.S. November elections, even though there's no way it'll be secure there by then. I thought we were fighting terrorism there... how could they already know in January that the anti-terrorism job will be done in June 2004? It just might have something to do with politics, with an election.

Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rowe, Rumsfeld don't listen to those with whom they disagree - a crucial, narrow minded error (even tactically). Whenever you think you know it all, you're setting yourself up for a big smackdown. They need more balance and need to give domestic issues some positive attention.