"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" star Gary Dourdan says, "Obviously, I am embarrassed to find myself in this situation and I am profoundly grateful to everyone for their support." 
"CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" star Gary Dourdan will avoid jail after pleading guilty to cocaine and ecstasy possession on Wednesday.The actor was arraigned in a California court after facing three felony counts for possession of a controlled substance, following his arrest on suspicion of possessing heroin, cocaine, ecstasy and prescription drugs last month.Charges of heroin possession have been dismissed and Dourdan has been instructed to complete a 16-class drug program, after which all remaining charges will be dropped.The 41-year-old was apprehended by police in Palm Springs, California after he was found asleep in his incorrectly parked car early on April 28. Cops then searched his vehicle, and arrested the actor on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance.Dourdan posted $5,000 bail and was released following the incident.And he is relieved he will not be spending time behind bars.
Several weeks ago, police from the Thailand Crime Suppression Division arrested Sonisa, a 19 year old former bar waitress in Patpong (Thailand’s infamous red light district) for possession of 78.6 grams of cocaine. Sonisa confessed to police that she sold drugs across Asia for a South African man and in Thailand she has several famous Thai celebrity clientèle. They range from a famous Thai model to a currently popular pra’ek and a male socialite. The young woman provided an abbreviation of the pra’ek’s name, which happens to be Puri’s abbreviated name. Now, the Thai media suspect that Puri brought drugs from this woman and is addicted to cocaine.
Lorenzo Sirignano targeted vulnerable people to do his dirty work for him and threatened them with violence if they did not follow orders.Sirignano, 51, was the mastermind behind the biggest drugs ring to be smashed in Sussex.He put up the money to pay for high purity cocaine to be smuggled from Brazil and Ghana in 2006 and 2007.
Sirignano headed a 17-strong gang involved in smuggling, storing, distributing and supplying the Class A drug.He is believed to have personally made at least £2 million before he was arrested in February last year.Detectives believe he made even more from cocaine smuggled into the country undetected.Undercover police bugged his cars and listened in as he drove around Brighton and Hove with other members of his drugs gang.In one chilling conversation he is overheard threatening to shoot or petrol bomb Robert Paige after they fell out and Paige quit the gang in fear.Sirignano and nine members of the drugs ring have so far been sentenced to a total of 100 years behind bars.Seven others will be sentenced at Hove Crown Court today.Judge Paul Tain told Sirignano: "The picture of you is one of a powerful Mr Big of the drugs world with links in Ghana, Brazil, London and locally.
"You were well versed in countersurveillance methods and the manipulation of others.
"You distanced yourself from the offences by getting others to take the risks and to do your dirty work."You were the organiser and controller behind these conspiracies and it is obvious that you were prepared to use the threat of serious violence to achieve your criminal objectives."Sirignano lived in a large detached house in Ferndale Road, Burgess Hill, and ran a property management business.But his drugs empire was based at a tatty semi-detached house in Carlisle Road, Hove, where police found cocaine and amphetamines hidden in garages and in a van. Sirignano used drug addicts, tenants or employees to do his drugs work for him.They included 64-year-old grandmother Patricia Edwards, from Lewes, who was caught trying to smuggle 3kg of cocaine from Brazil for Sirignano.She had no previous convictions but was desperate for money and allowed Sirignano to persuade her to become a drugs mule, making three trips to Brazil. Edwards is now serving four years in a jail in Sao Paulo for attempting to smuggle cocaine.Detectives smashed the drugs ring when they arrested Sirignano and his lackeys as they waited at Heathrow for 10kg of cocaine worth £1.3 million to arrive from Ghana on February 19 last year.Undercover officers had spent months following Sirignano and listening in to his conversations as part of Operation Nash.Anthony Glass, QC, prosecuting, said Sirignano's bugged conversations showed he was a professional drugs dealer. Detectives eavesdropped as he told one dealer: "I got me bloke from Ghana. We are trying to send someone over and collect 15 keys (kilograms), some shiny block."Drugs mules Gary Waterman, 41, of Bengairn Avenue, Brighton, and Dean Swaysland, 28, of Southall Avenue, Brighton, were arrested as they got off the flight from Ghana at Heathrow.Their minder Michael Mensa-Bonsu, 42, of Ashley Court, Hove, was also arrested as he disembarked behind themWaterman was jailed yesterday for seven and a half years and Swaysland for eight and a half years.Mensa-Bonsu, who has previous convictions for smuggling drugs in France and Switzerland, was jailed for 16 years.Crack cocaine addict Karen Colvin, 48, of Tilgate Close, Brighton, and drugs mule Adrian Hughes, 23, of Carlisle Road, Hove, were arrested as they waited with Sirignano in his car at Heathrow.
Colvin was one of Sirignano's tenants and was married to Darren Waterman who is already in prison for smuggling cocaine from France.Waterman, 43, of Albert Road, Brighton, will be sentenced today for transferring more than £46,000 to Brazil for Sirignano.Colvin recruited his brother Gary Waterman to make the drugs run to Ghana with Swaysland and was at Heathrow to identify him to Sirignano.Colvin also transferred more than £58,000 of Sirignano's money to Brazil, Ghana and Canada to pay for cocaine.She was jailed for 12 years.She got her son Marlon Colvin, 20, snared in the investigation by getting him to use his passport to transfer just under £2,000 to Ghana for her.A jury found him not guilty of money laundering last week after he said he was just doing a favour for his mother and had no idea the cash was to be used to buy cocaine.Robert Paige, 51, of Sackville Road, Hove, was was jailed for ten years for conspiracy to smuggle drugs and conspiracy to supply cocaine.
Michael Back, 49, of Carlisle Road, Hove, was given ten years for conspiracy to supply the Class A drug.Adrian Hughes, 23, who shared a flat with Back in Carlisle Road, was one of the vulnerable people targeted and groomed by Sirignano.He was jailed for two years for conspiracy to smuggle cocaine and conspiracy to supply cocaine.Sami Zarifa, 47, of Sussex Heights, Brighton, and Denis Mema, 22, of Montpelier Road, Hove, were given five years each for conspiracy to supply cocaine.
All the defendants had pleaded guilty to their roles in the cocaine conspiracy.Sussex Police welcomed the stiff sentences.Det Chief Supt Kevin Moore, head of Sussex CID, said: "Operation Nash was the highest profile case in recent years. It highlights perfectly the importance of policing an area at the very top of the tree when it comes to serious and organised crime."Det Insp Jez Graves, who led Operation Nash, said: "The sentences should act as a deterrent for others who plan to become involved in trafficking drugs into our communities."
Heroin addict who pricked an LAPD officer with a syringe following an extended vehicle chase and needed to be subdued by a Taser was transferred from a hospital to jail today, police said.The suspect was on heroin when he crashed a van into several parked vehicles in Venice, then struggled with two LAPD officers, pricking one with a syringe, before they stunned him with a Taser and arrested him, police said.The 44-year-old, whose name has not been released, was arrested on suspicion of possession of heroin and resisting arrest, Los Angeles police Officer Ana Aguirre said.Three other officers were treated for minor injuries, Aguirre said. The officer who was pricked will undergo additional blood testing, she said.The crash near Strongs Drive and Washington Boulevard was reported around 10:10 p.m. Tuesday, said Officer Sara Faden of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Media Relations Section.A sergeant with the LAPD’s Pacific Station told an RMG News camera crew that a patrolling officer saw a white van traveling north on Strongs Drive, crossing Washington Boulevard and slamming into several parked vehicles. The officer called for backup, the sergeant said.With officers closing in, the man in the damaged van tried to drive away from the wreckage and would not cooperate with police, the sergeant said.Police subdued the man by shocking him with a Taser twice on his back, then took him into custody, the officer told RMG.He was transported to a hospital with facial injuries and bleeding to the head—both apparently suffered when the van crashed,
Lil Wayne appeared in an Arizona courtroom on Tuesday (May 6) to answer to several drug charges, stemming from an arrest in January.As he has maintained since that arrest, the rapper (real name: Dwayne Carter) entered a not guilty plea on charges of multiple drug possession charges -- three being felonies -- and a misconduct involving weapons charge.He is scheduled to appear in court on May 19.Weezy was arrested at in late January, following a search of his tour bus during a routine stop at a Border Patrol checkpoint just outside of Yuma, Arizona.
During the stop, DEA found numerous narcotics -- including 105 grams of marijuana, 29 grams of cocaine and 41 grams of ecstasy -- and a 40-caliber pistol registered to the rapper.Wayne's legal team filed a motion in March asking for a lesser drug charge, claiming the amount of cocaine (29 grams) was incorrect. They claim that the rapper had fewer than eight grams of coke.He was subsequently arrested, along with two others, and booked into the Yuma County Sheriff's Department.A day after his arrest, he posted $10,000 bond and is currently free pending the outcome of his case.
Lindsay Lohan is not exactly toasting her latest public appearance.
A mugshot of the 21-year-old actress, who has been in and out of rehab after two arrests last year on drunken driving and cocaine charges, was prominently featured Friday in an advertisement attacking legislation for devices that measure a driver's blood alcohol level before their vehicle can start.
The full-page black-and-white ad appeared in USA Today on Friday and was paid for by the American Beverage Institute, a trade group that supports the interests of the alcohol industry. The ad reads "Ignition interlocks are a good idea for" above Lohan's mug shot from her July 24, 2007 arrest and "But a bad idea for us" above smaller photos of people drinking.
"The reason that we used Lindsay Lohan is because she's had multiple DUIs that have been high profile," American Beverage Institute managing director Sarah Longwell told The Associated Press. "We needed to create the distinction for the public what someone with multiple DUIs looked like versus a low blood-alcohol-level first-time offender."
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Lawmakers in several states have passed bills that would require drunken driving offenders to pay for and install an ignition interlock system. Under many such laws, the interlock requirement extends to first-time offenders driving while "highly intoxicated" - or with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent or higher.
The ad suggested that ignition interlocks were fine for "hard-core" drunk drivers, but suggested they would bring an end to champagne toasts at weddings, wine at dinner and ballgame beers.
"USA Today is idiotic to run such an irresponsible advertisement suggesting that drinking and driving is some kind of American 'tradition' we should protect," Lohan's lawyer Blair Berk said in a statement. "Not identifying that this ad was paid for by the liquor and restaurant industries is profoundly reckless.
"Drunk white businessmen, drunk housewives out for girls night out and drunk wedding parties should be kept off the roads of America," Berk continued. "Lindsay Lohan fully endorses ignition interlock devices, which have been well-proven to save lives."
The American Beverage Institute stood by its use of Lohan's image.
"People magazine, Smoking Gun and a lot of people have republished this mug shot," said Longwell. "It was publicly accessible. We're not using it for any kind of commercial gain. So we're well within our rights to use it."
Reached for comment about Berk's statement, USA Today spokesman Ed Cassidy issued the following statement: "Advocacy advertising is a big part of what we do. Our pages function as forum for competing views."
Former 100-metre world-record holder Tim Montgomery is scheduled to appear in federal court Monday for a bond hearing on charges of heroin distribution.
Montgomery, 33, was arrested Wednesday on charges of dealing more than 100 grams of heroin in Virginia over the past year.The former track star was taken by U.S. marshals to the Portsmouth city jail on Wednesday night, where he will stay until his scheduled hearing on Monday.Montgomery declined an interview request after his arrest but in a story published Friday in The Virginian-Pilot, he told the Norfolk-based paper that he knew nothing of the accusations and that his arrest was a surprise.The legal woes aren't the first for Montgomery, who is scheduled for sentencing on May 16 in connection with a New York-based charge.Montgomery has admitted that he helped his former coach, Olympic champion Steve Riddick, and others cash $1.7 million US in stolen and counterfeit cheques. He pleaded guilty in that case and faces up to 46 months in prison. Riddick is currently serving a five-year prison term.Montgomery's former companion, gold medallist Marion Jones, began her six-month sentence in a U.S. federal prison near Dallas in early March after being convicted of lying to investigators about using performance-enhancing drugs and about her role in the cheque fraud scam.Montgomery was banned from track for two years for doping and he retired in December 2005.In addition to the ban, all of his performances after March 31, 2001, were wiped from the books — eliminating his world record of 9.78 seconds in the 100-metre dash in September 2002.Montgomery will still retain his silver medal in the 400 relay at the 1996 Olympics and his gold medal from the 400 relay at the 2000 Olympics.
Gary Dourdan best known for his role in the hit series CSI where he plays intrepid investigator Warrick Brown ,According to police reports, at around 5:20am the Palm Springs police found his car parked the on the wrong side of Sunny Dunes Road, on closer inspection they found Gary Dourdan asleep. On waking he seemed groggy and disoriented which immediately gave rise to a suspicion of alcohol or drug use.
After searching the vehicle various substances were removed for analysis, these were suspected to be cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and miscellaneous prescription drugs. Although not detailed in the report, they also removed some paraphernalia.
He was subsequently freed on a $5000 bond, a court date has yet to be set. The reason for him being in the Palm Springs area was not immediately clear, but in near by Indo, the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival was in full swing, and Gary Dourdan is a fairly well known musician so it is possible that he had been attending it.
Vietnam has opened clinics offering drug users the substitute drug methadone, to help wean heroin addicts off injected drugs and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Two clinics have opened in the northern port city of Haiphong, which has a large number of heroin addicts and high HIV infection levels.
It's expected to treat 700 drug users with the heroin substitute methadone from now until December.More clinics will open next month in Ho Chi Minh City, which has the highest HIV infection rate in the country.The United Nations AIDS agency UNAIDS has welcomed the program, saying methadone programs can reduce illegal drug use, crime and mortality, as well as reducing the spread of HIV and hepatitis.Observers say around 300,000 people in Vietnam are believed to be living with HIV, the majority of whom are drug users, sex workers and homosexual men.
Former Brazil striker Jardel, Europe's top scorer in 1999 and 2002, has admitted he used cocaine.Jardel, who reached his peak while playing for FC Porto in Portugal, said depression and bad influences led him to the addiction."I started making mistakes when I had bad friendships. Then came a divorce, depression and then the cocaine," he told Globo TV. "I shouldn't be seen as an example to children."
The 34-year-old Jardel said he did not use drugs before or during matches."I only used it in parties, not when I was playing," he said.Jardel said he stopped using cocaine about two months ago and that he wants to restart his career in Brazil.
"I've been practising recently because I believe I still have potential," he said.Jardel scored 168 goals in 161 matches with Porto. The former Brazil international also was at his best when he played for Turkey's Galatasaray and Portugal's Sporting Lisbon. Six times he led the Portuguese league in scoring.He struggled, however, during brief spells with England's Bolton Wanderers, Brazil's Palmeiras and Argentina's Newell's Old Boys.He began his career with Vasco da Gama and then helped Gremio win the 1995 Copa Libertadores under coach Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Marcus A. Hemmingway of Warren nearly choked to death Monday morning after swallowing a bag of crack cocaine, police said.Narcotics detective Melanie Gambill said it was the fourth time in the past two weeks that a suspect tried to swallow cocaine. She said swallowing of drugs is not a new trend, but it seems to be happening more often lately.‘‘We’re in a no-win situation,’’ Gambill said. ‘‘If we struggle with the suspect to try to get them to spit out the drugs, we get accused of police brutality. If we let them swallow it and they die, we get sued for wrongful death.’’Hemmingway, 31, 4145 Leavitt Road N.W., was admitted to Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital following his arrest about 3 a.m. Monday. He is set to be released today and will be arraigned in Warren Municipal Court on charges of felony drug possession, tampering with evidence and obstruction of justice, according to a warrant filed Monday by Warren police.According to a police report, Hemmingway was pulled over on Oak Street S.W. after he went through a stop sign at York Avenue.As officers were handcuffing Hemmingway, they noticed something in his mouth. He struggled with officers who attempted to get him to spit it out, the report states. Officers said they stunned him with a Taser on his collarbone, but it had no effect.Hemmingway started to spit out crack cocaine onto the back seat, but continued struggling with officers until he swallowed the bag in his mouth, the report states. Hemmingway went limp for a few seconds and was visibly struggling to breathe, so officers pulled him into a seated position and called for an ambulance.The plastic bag was stuck in Hemmingway’s throat and he was gasping for breath for about a minute before he was able to get it down, the report states. He spit more pieces of crack cocaine onto the ground while waiting for the ambulance, and hospital personnel said they recovered additional drugs, as well as the plastic sandwich bag, according to the report.Gambill said people buying a small hit of crack usually put it in their mouth to avoid detection during a pat-down. A $20 hit of crack is slightly bigger than a pea, she said.Gambill said it’s more dangerous for suspects to swallow larger quantities of cocaine for two reasons. First, they rip off the ends of the bag, which causes the cocaine to spill out and puts them at risk of an immediate overdose; secondly, the bag can get stuck and they can choke to death.Jamil R. Johnson, 24, died Oct. 2, 2004, following an eight-minute police chase in Warren. An autopsy report shows he died of acute cocaine intoxication and police think he swallowed the drug during the chase because cocaine was found in the car he was driving, according to reports.
‘‘Swallowing cocaine is the equivalent of putting a gun to your head,’’ Trumbull County forensic pathologist Dr. Humphrey Germaniuk said.
He said a person can die from swallowing crack cocaine if it’s a large enough dose, but even a small dose can kill someone under the right circumstances because swallowing it causes it to enter the bloodstream quickly.
Germaniuk said a high volume of cocaine in a person’s bloodstream leads to aggression and strength — what he called excited delirium — which results in officers having to use force to subdue a suspect. He said witnesses then claim police brutality, but the suspect could be in a cocaine psychosis and not even feel the effects of officers’ use of force.
‘‘The worst case scenario is the person dies from a drug overdose on the way to the jail, and the officers get accused in the death. Cocaine is a lethal drug, but there are a lot of factors that determine its lethality for each person,’’ Germaniuk said.
And of course, there’s always the possibility the suspect will choke to death on the plastic bag before the drugs can take effect.‘‘It’s a dangerous practice and I wouldn’t recommend it. Cocaine and plastic are not meant to be swallowed,’’ Germaniuk said.
“The criminal approach leads to death. Harm reduction leads to life,” said John Conroy, representing the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. Operators of North America's only supervised injection site for users of illegal drugs have gone to court to stay open.The facility saves lives, reduces harm to drug addicts and increases their motivation to seek treatment, lawyers argued in B.C. Supreme Court yesterday. As a result, they said, federal drug laws against possession of heroin and cocaine should not apply there. The controversial injection centre, known as Insite, has been operating under a special judicial exemption from prosecution, but that is scheduled to run out at the end of June. Site advocates fear it will not be renewed by the Tories because of ideological opposition to condoning the use of illegal drugs, even at a medically supervised safe injection site.“We are now heading into the beginning of May, and there is no indication from the government what it intends to do,” lawyer Monique Pongracic-Speier said.“The clinic has been operating in an atmosphere of continual uncertainty … with no chance for forward planning,” she told Mr. Justice Ian Pitfield. “There is an obvious and urgent need to decide the case now.”In Ottawa, as he announced $3-million in spending on anti-drug ads, federal Health Minister Tony Clement gave no hint when a decision would be made on Insite's fate.“That has to be made by the 30th of June. We're not making it today,” he told reporters.Ms. Pongracic-Speier was responding in court to the federal government's attempt to have the matter put over to a full trial, rather than have it decided during a 10-day hearing on the basis of expert affidavits and submissions.VANDU and the Portland Hotel Society, co-operator of the site, are asking for a declaration that it would be unconstitutional to apply federal drug laws against Insite users because the facility is a place for medical care, and therefore, under provincial jurisdiction.However, in a possible reflection of what the Conservatives may eventually decide, federal lawyer John Hunter questioned those who trumpet the site's benefits.“The harm-reduction philosophy is not universally endorsed by experts on addiction. It may well have harms,” Mr. Hunter said.He also played down the generally positive findings of an expert advisory committee appointed by Health Canada to assess the pros and cons of the site.According to the lawyer for the federal Attorney-General, the experts' report found no direct evidence Insite reduced drug overdose fatalities, curbed HIV infection or reduced public disorder.Mr. Hunter further noted that fewer than 5 per cent of all illegal drug injections in the Downtown Eastside occurred at the 12-stall site, where users inject heroin or cocaine in a supervised environment.“It's very difficult to assess the evidence just on paper,” he said.He said there was a need to dampen the enthusiasm of proponents for the site, which numerous peer-reviewed studies have found to lessen deaths from drug overdoses, reduce the risk of transmitting HIV and enhance the desire to seek detox programs without increasing crime in the area. Mr. Hunter urged Judge Pitfield to find that “these drugs are dangerous and harmful to persons who inject them, and that self-injection is not a medical use of those drugs, but a person's use of those drugs.”The judge said he would rule on the Attorney-General's call for a full trial after hearing evidence in the form of affidavits and other written material presented over the next two weeks. “I am mindful of the urgency of this case, with the exemption due to expire at the end of June.”Ms. Pongracic-Speier began by submitting an affidavit from a drug addict who said her regular contact with the staff at Insite had prompted her to begin methadone treatment after 13 years of using heroin.
The addict listed numerous benefits from having a safe site for injections, including the freedom to take one's time.“If you're in the alley, you're always looking over your shoulder for the police … At Insite, it's much less stressful. You can find a good vein and go slowly. You don't OD and your needles don't break.”
University academic Rowdy Yates, 57,vice-president of the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities was found to be double the limit. expert on drugs and alcohol addiction has been banned from the road after he was caught drink driving twice. Only four months before, officers had breath-tested him at twice the limit at his house, minutes after being tipped off about his dodgy driving.
He claimed he got home sober but then swigged whisky in his garden shed. But a sheriff refused to believe him afer hearing he would have had to down three large drams in minutes to give such a huge reading. Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: "It seems strange to be going out to your shed to have a glass of whisky. You would have had to drink a significant amount over a relatively short space of time." Yates has kept his job as senior research fellow at Stirling University's Scottish Addiction Studies Group despite his conviction. In the first incident, police went to his home near Auchterarder, Perthshire, after a taxi driver saw him driving erratically. He told officers he had a drink in the pub then drove home and "topped up" in his shed because his wife had a "problem" with his drinking. At the time he said he had only taken a swig from the bottle but a medical expert claimed it would take three very large whiskies to be double the limit. The academic admitted driving while nearly twice the limit in the second incident, in December. Police stopped him in his Vauxhall Frontera 4x4 close to his home because his registration plate was hidden by mud and smelled booze on his breath. Sheriff Foulis found Yates guilty of the first charge and warned him he would be banned for several years as a result of being convicted twice. He was banned from driving while he awaits sentence at Perth Sheriff Court. Sentence was deferred for community service and social background reports. Last night Yates refused to comment but a pal said: "Rowdy has had problems in the past and has admitted being a former drug addict. "The university are aware of that so it's unlikely there will be any implication at work." The university confirmed Yates was employed there but said: "We don't comment on individual staff members." Last month Yates criticised the Government for failing to speak to him in a consultation of Scotland's experts on their new drugs policy.
He said: "I hesitate to say that I'm incredulous that I've not been consulted because that makes me sound arrogant but the simple facts remain that I'm on their doorstep. "I'm vice-president of the European Federation of Therapeutic Communities, an ex-drug user who has provided a service for over 20 years and is regarded in other countries as an expert. Why haven't I been consulted?" Yates has worked in the drugs field for more than 35 years.
In 2000 he sparked fury when he claimed the ecstasy death of Leah Betts only gained widespread media attention because she was middle class and photogenic.
Before his job at Stirling University, he was the director and co-founder of the Lifeline Project - one of the UK's longest established drug services.
His published work includes a book on drugs, music and popular culture since the 60s. In 1994 he got the MBE for his work on the prevention of drug misuse.
Figures due to be presented to Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust board on Tuesday show that patient suicides have soared from four in 2004-5 to 35 in 2007-8.
The largest increase was among patients living in the community rather than hospital residents.So-called community suicides rose tenfold, from three in 2004-5 to 31 in 2007-8Inpatient suicides also showed a slight increase, from one in 2004-5 to four in 2007-8.The figures are revealed as part of list of what are known as Serious Untoward Incidents, which were recorded by the trust before and after the merger of the County Durham and Darlington Priority Services Trust and Tees and North-East Yorkshire Trust to form the bigger trust two years ago.While suicide rates among the general population in the UK reached a 30-year low in 2005, the North-East remains one of the worst blackspots.Some experts have blamed the region's high general suicide rate on a combination of unemployment and drugs.Health bosses in Teesside and County Durham have seen some improvements since introducing projects to try to reduce the death toll from suicides.A study in 2005 found that while two-thirds of suicides on Teesside have a psychiatric diagnosis of either schizophrenia or depression, only 28 per cent had been in contact with mental health services before their death.Board members will be told that measures are being taken to try to ensure that "timely investigations"can be made to head off potential suicides.
New checks have been carried out to ensure that nothing in the trust's hospitals can be used to help patients take their own lives.A spokeswoman for the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Trust said: "This is a serious issue. While we were pleased that the most recent figures were below the national average, we must continue to do all we can to prevent suicides. We are currently working with healthcare colleagues in the North-East to review all suicides and to see what lessons we can learn."
Juan dela Rosa—a specialist on mentally ill, drug addicted inmates—worked for the mammoth Prison Health Services, a controversial company, which runs jail medical programs in many states and holds a big money contract with the city. He worked in a program known as MICA at Rikers.
On Oct. 4 at 208th Street and Union Turnpike, dela Rosa and an accomplice sold $100 worth of cocaine in two plastic bags, and the powerful pain reliever Percocet, to an undercover police officer, according to a criminal complaint. But police didn't bust dela Rosa right away, perhaps, letting him operate some more while they observed his movements and contacts.Authorities finally reeled in Dela Rosa on Jan. 6 at the mouth of the vast prison island in East Elmhurst, and found him holding more drugs: 105 packets of heroin, labeled “Black Gold,” in his front jacket pocket, plus two baggies of cocaine inside his rear back pocket. He had six more packets of “Black Label” heroin in his wallet. Sources say investigators also found drugs in his office on Rikers, raising new questions about the island’s security procedures for employees.Dela Rosa, of East Elmhurst, was removed from his office at the Anna M. Kross Center, where he had close contact with the most vulnerable inmates in the prison population. Every inmate in the unit had to undergo a urinalysis. A person who answered Dela Rosa’s phone refused to speak with a reporter. A PHS official insisted she had to get Dela Rosa’s permission before discussing his arrest.It’s unclear why the police did not immediately take him off the streets following the initial arrest, given his sensitive job. It’s possible they were watching him to see if any other jails officials were involved.Dela Rosa’s arrests were greeted with the standard no-hear, no-see from the city Department of Health, Prison Health Services and the Department of Correction. Each agency ducked or referred questions about the case and the broader security issues that it raises. It seemed not to trouble anyone that someone with a security clearance in a sensitive job was able to slip drugs into Rikers with impunity.None of the agencies would say how much dela Rosa made, what he did, or whether other people have been caught up in the investigation.
Correction sources say, shockingly, it is actually extremely easy for an employee to smuggle drugs and contraband onto the island and into the facilities themselves. There is no frisk of employees on their arrival, though bags and parcels are checked. Vehicles are search only on departure.
“It’s unfortunate, but if someone has those bad intentions, it could be done and quite easily,” a Correction source said.
The 33-year-old reality-television star, whose real name is Stephen Glover, entered his plea in a Los Angeles courtroom and was ordered to return on May 13 for a hearing in the case.Steve-O, the stunt-performing star of the MTV series "Jackass" and its movie spinoffs, pleaded innocent on Wednesday to a cocaine possession charge stemming from his March arrest in Hollywood."I've been clean for 44 days," he told reporters outside court while signing autographs for people reporting for jury duty in unrelated cases.Glover is one of several pranksters who made a name for himself doing outrageous stunts on the "Jackass" show. The two "Jackass" movies that followed in 2002 and 2006 were surprise hits at box offices with combined ticket sales of more than $160 million worldwide.Glover was arrested on March 3 at his residence in Hollywood after someone complained that he had vandalized a neighbor's property.He was reportedly hospitalized for psychiatric evaluation after his arrest and blogged about the experience on his Web site (https://www.steveo.com) in a post headlined: "You Should All Know I'm In The Looney Bin."The British-born performer has a long history of legal woes, some related to his outlandish on-stage antics.Authorities in Louisiana brought obscenity and assault charges against him in 2002 after a nightclub performance in which Glover stapled his scrotum to his thigh in a stunt he called "The Butterfly."
Andrea Townsend, 45, and Gemma Evans, 25, both of Pwll, Llanelli, are denying the manslaughter through gross negligence of Carly Townsend.The 16-year-old, who is Townsend’s daughter and Gemma Evans’ sister, died of heroin poisoning at her mother’s home in Bassett Terrace, Pwll, last May.The prosecution case is that Townsend and Evans were grossly negligent in failing to summon an ambulance for Carly when she collapsed after injecting heroin.Andrea Townsend, under cross- examination in the witness box, told the court this week that 20 of her friends had died due to heroin overdoses. She told the court an ambulance was not summoned for Carly after she collapsed because it was felt she would “sleep it off”.
The jury has heard a drug dealer from Llanelli, Andrew Taylor, was jailed for two years for supplying Carly with heroin.Yesterday, the court heard closing speeches in the case.Ian Murphy QC, defending, said, “Andrew Taylor was charged with an unlawful act which he pleaded guilty to, supplying heroin.
“But it’s Carly’s mother and sister who’ve been singled out for this very serious charge because the prosecution say they owed her a duty of care...that’s the trigger for this prosecution.”Paul Thomas QC, prosecuting, said, “No-one wanted Carly to die but in failing to act in her best interests when they knew, or ought to have known, she was at risk of dying, they are, the prosecution say, each guilty of manslaughter.”
They've suffered little, matured little and are not well-educated," said Modesto Salgado, who runs one of Spain's main drug rehab programs. "They live for the moment, to enjoy."
Salgado says Spain's predominant drug problem in the '80s and early '90s was heroin. Today, cocaine is by far the drug of choice: Nearly two-thirds of the patients in the 26 centers managed by his program, Proyecto Hombre, are cocaine abusers. Proyecto Hombre started the coke program only five years ago; it hadn't seemed necessary before that, Salgado said.
At his rehab center in Guadalajara, a bedroom community 35 miles northeast of Madrid, patients are in yearlong residential programs or larger outpatient regimens. Most are in their late 20s and are middle- or upper-class professionals.
On a recent evening, the mostly male clients were standing in front of the new brick building, having a smoke. Their mothers and other relatives were inside attending a special meeting for families; some emerged tearful.Rodriguez, the business student, was there. A tall, strapping man with good looks and an easy smile, Rodriguez said the danger of cocaine is that it sneaks up on you. And, compared with heroin, it's still socially acceptable and, in the minds of many, associated with glamour and success. Plus, it's cheap -- a line costs about as much as two cups of coffee."You think you can live normally, but you don't see what it does to your health, over time," said Rodriguez, who added that he has kicked a 10-year habit. "I couldn't finish anything I started. My parents didn't know where I was or what I was doing. The tragedy is the core of my family life was destroyed."
The overwhelming majority of cocaine users in Spain, and of those who seek rehab, are men, Salgado and other officials said. Women still face more of a stigma than do men when it comes to using drugs and turning to treatment, said Antonio Cuadrado, a therapist at Proyecto Hombre.Around dawn on a Sunday, packs of young people are huddled at stoplights, or ambling down Paseo del Prado.Despite the hour, the day isn't just beginning for them. Like thousands of young Spaniards, they are ending a long night of hard-core partying that very likely included the unbridled snorting of cocaine.At crowded clubs and throbbing bars along Madrid's Gran Via, and on side streets radiating from the Puerta del Sol, the city's heart, a gram of coke is casually sold for 50 euros -- about $79 -- and quickly consumed in restrooms or nearby parked cars."It's easier to get cocaine than to get a library card," said Gustavo Rodriguez, a 31-year-old business student, recalling his nocturnal carousing before he went into rehab.
Spain has become the top consumer of cocaine in continental Europe, according to a recent European Union study on drug use. By a United Nations count, 3% of Spain's adult population consumes cocaine; that's a bigger percentage than the erstwhile leader, the United States, at 2.3%.Among younger age groups, the number of Spanish users has doubled, even quadrupled, during the last decade, the statistics indicate.
Part of the reason for the dramatic increase is that Spain is the primary transit point for cocaine smuggled into Europe from Latin America. In cargo ships and on airplanes, hidden in machine parts, frozen octopus or just about anything else, tons of cocaine arrive at Spanish and Portuguese ports every month.And you can't be a transit point forever without eventually sampling the goods.
It was a similar story a couple of decades ago for the world's top producing countries, Peru, Bolivia and Colombia; for years they boasted of being free of drug addiction in their own populations -- they merely grew and processed the stuff and shipped it onward. But it didn't stay that way.
In Spain, the rise in consumption is also linked to a swift transition in Spanish society. In barely one generation, this nation of 40 million moved from a long, repressive military dictatorship to a dynamic, youthful democracy with (until recently) a vibrant economy.With Spaniards' newfound freedom came a cultural reawakening and fast-paced change, an era called La Movida that also gave way to permissiveness and a breakdown in traditions. And though some of the hedonism of the '80s has evolved into something a little more sophisticated, a fresh crop of young Spaniards won't let go of a firmly held compulsion for frenzied celebration of the weekend."It's a spoiled generation. Police and some government officials question the ranking of Spain as Europe's top consumer. Authorities say they think they are getting a handle on the problem, and the Health Ministry says consumption among the young fell last year for the first time.But no one disputes the prevalence of the drug and the fact that cocaine being shipped through Spain is leaving a trail of dust and dope.Traffickers, peddlers and other purveyors of the powder "are finding a very good market here," said Jose Luis Conde Velazquez, chief of the drugs and organized crime police unit.Yet the government is still figuring out the best way to fight cocaine. Carmen Moya Garcia, an epidemiologist who heads the Health Ministry's National Plan on Drugs, said attention that has been focused on the interdiction of traffickers is finally shifting to include consumption.A four-year action plan launched last year by the government attempts to break the glorifying myths surrounding cocaine with TV and Web campaigns. And nightclubs, bars and other establishments of leisure are being asked to cooperate with authorities in prohibiting drug use on their premises, by posting signs and keeping bathrooms clear.
Moya said authorities have been able to argue to the clubs, with some success, that cooperation won't hurt business.
Last summer, in party mecca Ibiza, the government sent a message by shutting down three clubs on the Mediterranean island with such names as Amnesia for a month or more, at the height of the season, as punishment for what police said was flaunting of drugs.
Demand for rehab treatment has soared the way consumption has, and programs such as Proyecto Hombre are at capacity. The experts in those places say the crisis is a deeper phenomenon of questioned ideals and changing values, something that cannot be resolved merely by cracking down on clubs and rounding up small-time pushers, known here in slang as camellos.
"Society has gone from being very rigid to too permissive," said Cuadrado, the therapist. Cocaine abuse "is going to grow," he said. "We are only just beginning to treat this."
Toronto police have issued a warning about a potentially deadly batch of heroin circulating the streets after eight people were admitted to one hospital for severe overdoses in less than two weeks. Investigators say that Humber River Regional Hospital in north-central Toronto has seen eight people near-death from heroin overdoses since March. 26. The side-effects exhibited by the eight patients — some of which still remain in hospital — were more severe than those regularly linked with using the illegal drug. None of the patients have been charged, police said.
Toxicology reports were ordered over the weekend to determine if the heroin in these cases are from the same batch and whether the drug was laced with another substance.
TWO Asian expatriates have been sentenced to six months imprisonment following their conviction of possessing and using marijuana.
The criminal court of first instance, however, cleared one of them of the charge of trading in drugs “for lack of evidence”.
A medical test had proved that both the accused were drug addicts.
A total of 2.24gm of marijuana was seized from them but the court found no proof that it was used for trade purposes.
The court imposed a fine of QR10,000 against the two Sri Lankan convicts. Both of them have been in jail for nine months and so it is expected that they would be freed soon, a court source said.
According to the Qatari law, fines could be substituted according to the equation of QR100 for one day of imprisonment with a maximum of six months. In this case, a QR10,000 fine means 100 days of imprisonment.
Police had received information that the first accused, a 31-year-old Sri Lankan watchman in a private company, traded in the drug and an agent was asked to pretend that he was interested in purchasing marijuana for QR200.
Though the deal took place near a public telephone in the Mansoura area, police could not arrest the man as he fled the scene in a taxi.
However, he was arrested the next day, July 6, 2007, with the help of the same police agent.
The accused had in his pocket the QR50 banknote that he had received from the police agent. The bill was photographed earlier by the police.
The second accused, a 24-year-old Sri Lankan working as a cleaner, was caught in a police raid at his accommodation in Doha Jadeed following information provided by the first accused.
Lawyer, Abdul Hadi al-Marri, told Gulf Times that his clients would not appeal the verdict.
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