The Crime Report (https://thecrimereport.org/category/drugs/)
Faouzi Jaber, a 61-year-old Ivorian citizen, pleaded guilty this week in a case involving smuggling arms and drugs to Colombia’s FARC group. But the undercover tactics by U.S. agents raise questions about future drug-war strategies in Colombia.
A federal task force is expected to release a report next week that criminal justice reform advocates fear will link marijuana to violent crime and recommend tougher sentences for those caught growing, selling and smoking weed.
An increasing number of cities are using the Safe Passage program pioneered in Gloucester, Mass., where drug users who present themselves to police are fast-tracked into rehab. The program is drawing many takers in some Illinois cities–but very few in others.
The prosecutor in Staten Island has brought criminal charges in more than 240 overdose cases. The prosecutions are difficult, hinging on evidence that a dealer knew the risks of the drugs yet provided them anyway.
USC said it is moving quickly to fire its former med school dean, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito. But for 15 months, the school stonewalled Los Angeles Times inquiries about his alleged drug use.
“Weak patenting standards and ineffectual policing” have helped turn the pharmaceutical industry into a key driver of the opioid epidemic, according to a study published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review.
Hours after Attorney General Jeff Sessions touted the demise of two “dark net” drugs sites, AlphaBay and Hansa, dealers began migrating to another, DreamMarket. The scenario highlights the whack-a-mole challenges of policing drugs sold online.
“How did this happen to a 10-year old?,” asks-Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle, saying that investigators do not suspect the child was exposed at home. “It’s the nightmare that every parent fears.”
To keep the contraband from coming in, one Maine jail makes photocopies of greeting cards and won’t let inmates make personal contact with visitors.
It would take a “microscopic amount” of synthetic opioids like fentanyl or carfentanil to be fatal to a dog, said New York-based veterinarian Paul McNamara. McNamara runs ODIN’s Fund, which provides first aid training to K-9 units across the U.S.