War on Drugs

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Wild Pot Found in Indiana National Park

Park officials, police plan search-and-destroy mission

(Newser) - The National Park Service has found wild marijuana growing in a northern Indiana federal park, the Chicago Tribune reports. Officials don't know how many plants are spread throughout the 15,000-acre Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, on Lake Michigan about 30 miles southeast of Chicago, but said they will work with...

Where Does All That Seized Money Go?

Asset forfeiture: an ugly side of the drug war

(Newser) - What would you do with a few million in drug money? Last year, state and federal authorities seized about $2 billion from Mexican smugglers. The feds have to put any seized money into a dedicated fund, but the rules are looser for states. In Texas and Georgia, for example, sheriffs...

Watchdogs Say Hollywood Going to Pot

Anti-drug advocates fret over 420-friendly new releases

(Newser) - Production of cannabis-centric films is hitting a high, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Once pigeonholed with Cheech and Chong and low-budget cult films such as The Big Lebowski, movies that feature pot-smoking characters now tend toward mainstream frat-house humor. This summer alone will see four marijuana-tinged releases, including the Judd...

15 Dead in Tijuana Shootout
 15 Dead in 
 Tijuana Shootout 
Apr 26, 2008 7:20 PM CDT

15 Dead in Tijuana Shootout

Mexico sends in thousands of troops to quell further fighting

(Newser) - A gunfight between Tijuana drug cartel rivals left 15 dead and eight wounded near the US border today, Reuters reports. The worst violence in Mexico's 3-year drug war, it filled a city road with bodies and took the lives of two top hit men from the Arellano Felix cartel. "...

More Afghan Families Using Girls to Pay Debt

Farmers hit by crop woes give daughters as 'opium brides'

(Newser) - Besieged by debt, more Afghan farmers are paying lenders by handing over their girls as "loan brides," Newsweek reports. Often taken from their families forever, the girls—some younger than 5 years old—are commonly beaten or pushed to suicide by their fate. "My heart is still...

Montana Ad Blitz Busts Meth Use
 Montana Ad Blitz
 Busts Meth Use
Mar 27, 2008 1:23 PM CDT

Montana Ad Blitz Busts Meth Use

'Unselling the product' leads to 70% drop among adults, 45% in teens

(Newser) - In 2005, Montana had the fifth-worst methamphetamine problem in the US; now it’s 39th, and negative advertising is to credit for much of the stunning turnaround. Montana’s nonprofit Meth Project launched a massive blitz against the drug, blanketing airwaves, websites, newspapers, and billboards. “The intention is to...

Cocaine on the Upswing in Peru
 Cocaine on the Upswing in Peru 
Mar 23, 2008 3:48 PM CDT

Cocaine on the Upswing in Peru

US attempts to quell trafficking stagnate in coca-based economy

(Newser) - Peru's cocaine business is growing again, sparking a spate of killings, threats, and US-funded attempts to stop it, the Los Angeles Times reports. Coca bush plots have increased by a third since 1999 to feed markets in Europe, East Asia, and Brazil—but growers are hard to collar because they...

Feds Target 'Extreme Ecstasy' Spread

Potentially lethal drug, mixed with meth, coming from Canada

(Newser) - Federal drug-enforcement agents are setting their sights on a new form of ecstasy containing methamphetamines being smuggled across the border from Canada, the Detroit News reports. Known as "extreme Ecstasy," the combination of the two drugs could easily lead to overdoses and death recalling a recent wave of...

Slugger Hopes for Shortened Prison Term

Retroactive cuts in crack sentences may aid Willie Mays Aikens

(Newser) - Now that the US Sentencing Commission has agreed to retroactively reduce prison terms for crack cocaine offenses, one of baseball's record-holders stands to benefit. Willie Mays Aikens, the only player to hit multiple homers in multiple games in the same World Series (playing for Kansas City in 1980), may have...

Opulence Duels With Poverty on LA's Skid Row

But amid crackdown on crime, still a daily struggle for survival

(Newser) - While upscale lofts and hotels sprout up near crack houses and homeless shelters, Los Angeles' Skid Row has outstripped most other cities in all the races you don't want to win. LA County has a homeless population of 88,345—roughly twice as much as New York—and the 50...

Was Mexican Coke Bust Just for Show?

US $1.4B aid package must be tied to police overhaul, expert says

(Newser) - The timing of Mexico's biggest-ever coke bust was a little too perfect last week, Time says. Mexican police nabbed the nose candy—23.5 tons valued at $400 million—just as Congress was debating whether to send more drug-fighting aid. “We've seen this movie before,” grumbled one expert,...

US Cocaine Supply Plummets
US Cocaine Supply Plummets
Oct 3, 2007 5:46 AM CDT

US Cocaine Supply Plummets

Prices rocket to highest in 20 years

(Newser) - The cocaine supply has dropped sharply in the last year in 37 US cities, which law enforcement officials attribute to a crackdown on drug cartels by Mexican authorities and a record volume of drugs seized at sea. New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco were among major cities experiencing sharp...

Judges Condemn Sentencing Guidelines

High court, Mukasey may give them leeway

(Newser) - Judges across the country are condemning federal sentencing guidelines, 1980s-era anti-drug laws that force them to impose “irrational” sentences, the LA Times reports. “When I have to sentence a midlevel drug dealer to more time than a murderer, something is wrong,” said a judge forced to sentence...

Snow Job: 21-Ton Coke Bust
Snow Job: 21-Ton Coke Bust
May 9, 2007 6:43 AM CDT

Snow Job: 21-Ton Coke Bust

(Newser) - It's the biggest cocaine seizure on the high seas and the second biggest bust in US history: The Coast Guard boarded a Panamanian freighter and discovered, inside cargo containers on deck, 21 tons of cocaine with a street value of $300 Million. "It was fast and furious," says...

Mexican Drug Wars Fought in Cyberspace

Gangs use Web to recruit, plan, and intimidate rivals; cops are clueless

(Newser) - Mexican drug cartels are making themselves at home on YouTube, posting music  videos that show off the bloodied bodies of their tortured and executed competitors. The gangs have turned to the Internet to recruit members, plan attacks, and intimidate and threaten rival gangs. The result is an al-Qaeda–like virtual...

HGH Isn't Worth the Hysteria
HGH Isn't Worth the Hysteria
Mar 27, 2007 11:47 AM CDT

HGH Isn't Worth the Hysteria

Hyped as the next big doping scandal, there's not much evidence it even works

(Newser) - Crusaders against performance enhancing drugs should lighten up about Human Growth Hormone: In the sports version of the war on drugs, anabolic steroids are heroin and HGH is marijuana, writes Daniel Engber. Studies haven't shown any definitive increase in athletic abilities resulting from taking HGH, and they have minimal harmful...

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