John Street, City Council End City’s Drug Problems

Congratulations, Philadelphia! Our city is now safe from the scourge of marijuana addicts walking the streets all day, eating our supply of cheeseburgers and easing the pain of their glaucoma. Mayor Street has signed a bill banning the sale of legal items in the City of Philadelphia.

These legal items range from bongs to blunts, apples to two-liter soda bottles and anything else somebody could smoke out of in a pinch. Cigarette rolling papers are now illegal, too!

Yes, the city has passed the anti-blunt bill, championed by police officer Jerry Rocks. The law (full text available here, .pdf) bans selling any sort of product that could possibly be used to smoke within 500 feet of a school, church, community center, regardless of the intent. Basically, it appears to give police officers the authority to decide on a case-by-case basis what’s an exception and what’s not and puts the onus on retailers and not the people actually causing problems. (The bill was proposed to stop kids from loitering outside stores. Oddly enough, the bill sets forth fines for the year 2005, even though it was introduced last year.)

Rocks began his crusade against blunts when he decided he didn’t like that convenience (or, as the CBS 3 article calls them “convenient”) stores were selling flavored blunts.

“I believe they’re drug paraphernalia. Sunoco says old men smoke the blunts and women. But I don’t know any women who smoke watermelon blunts and any old men that smoke blueberry and raspberry blunts,” said Rocks during a June 2006 interview.

Oh! Jerry Rocks doesn’t know anyone who does it, so we should criminalize it! Hell, while we’re at it, I don’t know anyone who likes the 17 people in City Council so concerned with telling us what we can and can’t put in our body or what how we may enjoy legal products. Can we get rid of them?

Mayor Street Signs Anti-Drug Paraphernalia Bill [CBS 3]

Anti-Drug Essay Lands Ex-Drug Dealer In Prison

Recently, ex-drug dealer Andre Mitchell told his story on the Drug Free Pennsylvania website: His mom was a hooker and his dad was a pimp, he did a lot of drugs, he sold drugs, he went to prison, etc. He sold his first nickel bag at age four! (Impressive.)

Now, he writes, he’s out of prison and he’s ready to release a CD to tell kids to keep off drugs. Sounds like a great story. Those redemption/overcoming odds stories always win awards!

Of course, not all stories have happy endings, and the 42-year-old Falls resident was arrested by local authorities and faces extradition to Alabama, writes the Bucks County Courier Times‘ Elizabeth Fisher.

Mitchell faces four charges of check forgery and failure to pay restitution after his 2001 release on drug charges. The kicker? Alabama authorities were apparently alerted to Mitchell’s whereabouts after seeing his story on the Drug Free Pennsylvania website. “He would not have gone public with his new CD, nor would he have had his story [posted] on Drug Free Pennsylvania’s Web site had he known about any warrants,” his longtime companion said. She also said Mitchell wasn’t aware of any outstanding warrants and thought he had put his past behind him.

Hopefully everything will be cleared up, Mitchell can pay some heaps of fines — debt is the American way — and he can get on the path to making some horrible anti-drug music. Or good anti-drug music, though I’m not quite sure if such a genre exists.

Ex-drug dealer’s past catches up [BCCT]
Gotta Get Away [Drug Free PA]

Keystone Cops: Drug War Addicts

Keystone Cops is a look at police, crime, drug and public safety news.

• The Daily News has a big drugs package today. There’s David Gambacorta’s story about how futile the War on Drugs is — okay, it reads like that unintentionally — and Simone Weichselbaum’s story of Mickey the crack dealer, who made tons o’money selling drugs but ended up getting busted. [Daily News]

• Meanwhile, in Cherry Hill, the war on sex offenders bans one man from living in the township altogether, pretty much, and he’s at a low risk of re-offending, etc. It’s one of those laws meant to protect the public, and it screws people who were convicted of a crime even if they’ve served a sentence. C.H.’s response is nice, though: “They should blame themselves and not elected officials who are trying to protect the community.” Thanks, Cherry Hill Councilman Frank Falcone! [Camden Courier-Post]

• The number five story of the year from the Doylestown Intelligencer: Doylestown Borough’s crackdown on teens. “I’m not declaring victory yet, but it’s been pretty good lately,” Police Chief James Donnelly. Another unwinnable war. [Doylestown Intelligencer]

• Murder count climbs at year end: We’re at 403 now. [Daily News]

Cops Raid Speakeasy; Charleston Hits #1 On Dance Charts

A 49-year-old woman in Princeton was arrested for running a speakeasy.

You see, there is news this week!

A month-long investigation (!) led to the arrest of Dilma Regaldo Rios. She was charged with selling alcoholic beverages without a license, warehousing alcoholic beverages and paraphernalia and storing alcoholic beverages with the intent to sell.

It’s not known why one would sell alcohol illegally when one can sell it legally, but Rios’ court date is Jan. 9, so perhaps we can find out then. Patrons used her house as a speakeasy and as a take-out service. (Secrecy in a speakeasy isn’t as important anymore now that alcohol is legal.) On Thursday, officers executed a search warrant and confiscated $650, 14 cases of beer, one bottle of tequila and 18 limes.

It’s not known if this is the first time a lime has been identified as drug paraphernalia.

1 charged for alleged illegal alcohol operation [Trenton Times]

Keystone Cops: The 400 Blows

Keystone Cops is a look at police, crime, drug and public safety news.

• Over the Christmas weekend the homicide rate surged past 400, hitting 402 by the end of Christmas Day. [Daily News]

• Oh wait: Number 403 this morning. Sigh. [Inquirer]

• New movie: NJ Weedman shows off the “420 Raffle” he held to support his U.S. Senate bid. Alas, Mr. Weedman did not win the election. [YouTube]

• A toll collector on the New Jersey Turnpike was held up by a driver. The car’s license plate was covered with a plastic bag, and the man got away with coins and cash. He, unfortunately, spent it all at the next rest stop. [AP/NBC 10]

Key Source Of Killer Heroin Discovered; Additional Killer Heroin To Be Out On Street Within Days

The Inquirer’s Troy Graham reported today about a major drug bust in Pennsauken that happened over the summer.

The story doesn’t say why this wasn’t announced until now, but 30-year-old Jaime Castellar was arrested in October and is in federal custody. He’s accused of running a heroin mill that laced the drug with fentanyl, a legal painkiller 80 times more powerful than morphine. The laced heroin — which makes the drug more powerful but can easily cause overdoses if it’s not made correctly — has caused deaths up and down the East Coast throughout the summer and as recently as Thanksgiving (with not much media coverage, to boot).

Castellar’s fentanyl came from Mexico, of course, since the drug is regulated in the U.S. and only smart guys in white coats have access to it. Here’s why it caused so many deaths.

The problem, McAleer said, is that people working in basement heroin mills aren’t exactly scientific about their methods, and they can easily put too much fentanyl in a bag. “They don’t have any technical measurement equipment,” he said. “A typical mill, they’re sitting around, using tiny spoons.”

Gee. I can’t possibly think of a way to end this without doing that really annoying argument style where you just state your opponent’s position and act all high and mighty about it. So I’ll just do this: Stop the drug war.

Key source of lethal heroin discovered, officials report

Keystone Cops: Billions And Billions Served

Keystone Cops is a look at police, crime and public safety news. It’s rather, uh, easy to do — yesterday, I didn’t even write any jokes! — so it looks like it’s going to happen every day. Smaller logo coming soon, though I love this photo.

• Cops in Bordentown arrested a man selling crack out of the drive-thru at McDonald’s on Route 130. Customers interviewed said it was the Happiest Meal they’ve ever head. [Camden Courier-Post]

• A former school board president in Reading has been arrested for robbing a bank, apparently unaware this is not the 1890s. A current school board member: “He had a lot of good works in the city. That’s got to count for something.” [AP/NBC 10]

• To be honest, I just want to know the backstory of this incident in Richland: “Don Woodward, 68, of Kintnersville, was charged with harassing an employee at the Dollar Tree on North West End Boulevard on Monday, police said. Barbara Woodward, 63, of Kintnersville, faces disorderly conduct charges stemming from the same incident, police said.” [Doylestown Intelligencer]

• And, in Northeast Philly, a car drove into a building, proving that no place is safe from traffic accidents up there. [6 ABC]

Keystone Cops: Wait, ‘America’s Most Wanted’ Is Still On?

Keystone Cops is a look at police, crime and public safety news.

• New Jersey authorities began receiving tips about the Atlantic City serial killer after the killings were featured on America’s Most Wanted. Authorities responded by saying it’s not a serial killer. [Inquirer]

• After Felicia Johnson was convicted for first degree murder, she tried to throw a water pitcher and a microphone at the judge. She was found guilty of murdering a 15-year-old and making the janitor work overtime. [NBC 10]

• The (Pointless) War on Drugs did at least lead to this lead today: “More than a dozen local crack suppliers will be having a blue, blue Christmas - without their cherished drug stashes - because of two well-timed weekend raids.” The second “blue” is what sells it, I think. [Daily News]

• And a standoff with police also led to another good journalism moment, this headline on the West Chester Daily Local’s website: “BREAKING NEWS! BREAKING NEWS! Standoff ends in Uwchlan.” [Daily Local]

Meth Labs Not The Only Thing Blowin’ Up

Remember the guy who was arrested for growing marijuana in a condo at $600k-a-pop Dockside? Well, despite still sitting in prison, he’s been arrested again for a marijuana-growing operation in Upper Darby, the Daily News‘ Christine Olley reports.

Now that’s a man with a commitment to his business.

Saji Ravindran, 29, was arrested on charges similar to the ones he’s facing in Philly: manufacturing, possession, possession with the intent to deliver and risking a catastrophe. On Saturday, Ravindran’s sister went to check on her parents’ house in the U.D. and heard smoke alarms. The cops and firefighters broke down the door and put out the fire, I guess, and later seized all the marijuana growing paraphernalia.

Upper Darby police superintendent Michael Chitwood, though, was happy he had to print one less “SCUMBAG” t-shirt:

For now, however, Chitwood is relieved. “We are lucky that we didn’t have an entire block blow up,” he said.

Shit! Marijuana growing operations can blow up now, too?

Jailed suspect charged with running 2nd pot lab [Daily News]
Dec. 7: Just Wait ‘Til The Trouble When Symphony House Opens
Upper Darby Enters T-Shirt War

Upper Darby Enters T-Shirt War

Upper Darby police superintendent Michael Chitwood is winning the War on Drugs. How? Well, last year, when he was hired in the job, he called drug dealers in the U.D. “scumbags.”

And perhaps taking a message from the “Cap’n Blunt” t-shirts, two Upper Darby police officers decided to make t-shirts out of the saying.

Two officers, Tim Law and Angelo O’Rangers, who were joking about the matter-of-fact expression, capitalized on it and ordered a couple dozen T-shirts emblazoned with the Upper Darby Police Department badge logo on the front and “Not in my town Scumbag” on the back.

“It was after reading it the first time in the Daily Times that the guys were talking about it,” Law said. “We figured since Superintendent Chitwood already had the slogan ‘protecting the community’ imprinted on the police cars that we should take the word and put it on T-shirts and picked the slogan ‘Not in my town Scumbag.’”

Yeah! Not in my town scumbag! What a great slogan for the only war rivaling Iraq in pointlessness. And coming soon: bumper stickers! Man, I think the whole drug problem just ended. Thanks, Upper Darby!

Upper Darby tells ’scumbags’ to get lost [Delco Times]
Aug. 21: T-Shirt Turned 21 In Prison Doing Life Without Parole