Belgian grandparents convicted for heroin dealing BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A Belgian court has sentenced two 73-year-old grandparents to two-year suspended jail terms this week after they were convicted of dealing in heroin and other drugs, the tribunal said on Wednesday.
The elderly pensioners had taken over the business of their grandson, who himself had been imprisoned for selling heroin, cocaine and ecstasy.
The court established that the couple had sold a variety of drugs to people, including one minor, who dropped by their apartment near the northern town of Aalst. Some even came by to make large orders, the court said.
"The only thing that counted for them was to continue the profitable drug dealing business of their grandson," the judges wrote in their ruling on Tuesday.
The couple, who had no prior criminal record, were also ordered to pay fines of 1,000 euros each.
Article is here
Found Some Morphine Pill?! I found some pills as i was walkin home ... :hopeless: .. luckily i picked them up i hope .. lots of dogs in my area .. wouldnt want one eatin them up .....
but anyways .. when i got home i showed them to my bro .. he took one an said he would ask around .. he said they might be morphine ... but he wasnt sure .. ive never seen it before ..
description:
sort of look like this ..
6mm in diameter approx ...
colour is different ... more of a lightish blue .. very faint blue ...so faint .. that one may think there was a green tinge to it ... its a very light colour whatever it is ..
thats about it ..
any ideas please .. ?
Police back drug needle machine http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/5335618.stm
What is thought to be Britain's first vending machine for dispensing clean needles to drug addicts could be set up outside a police station in Colwyn Bay.
North Wales Police chief constable Richard Brunstrom is backing the scheme to install the £10,000 machine in the town, saying it will help save lives.
A planning application to Conwy County Council will be needed first.
But the idea has been attacked by a charity which helps recovering addicts and promotes an abstinence policy.
Danie Strydom director of the Touchstones12 charity said: "What's next? The chief constable standing on the street handing out free bags of heroin?
"He is famous for enforcing the speed laws, but what about enforcing the law against drug misuse?"
"The Welsh Assembly spends £2.2m on substance misuse in north Wales and just £15,000 keeping people clean," he added.
Mr Brunstrom said the scheme will help drug addicts lacking facilities in the area.
"This proposal is in the interest of the public and is designed specifically to save lives. The problem of drug abuse will not diminish by pretending it does not exist," he said.
The machine will be imported from Australia, where its use is widespread.
It will allow drug addicts to get a clean new needle in a pack, and dispose of dirty needles in a steel bin.
Pharmacies and hospitals in many areas of north Wales already hand out clean needles, but the service does not exist in the Colwyn Bay area.
'Vigilante'
Maldwyn Roberts, a former police officer and now north Wales co-ordinator for community safety and substance misuse, defended the scheme.
"There has been a vigilante attitude from people in Colwyn Bay," he said.
"We have to face reality - they are injecting already. By not giving them any facilities, we just bury our heads in the sand.
"It is a first step to getting them help. It is not encouraging them to take drugs, it is encouraging them to get clean needles and to get them help, " he added.
The machine will be paid for and replaced by the Welsh Ambulance Trust.
It will not take money in case children try to buy and play with needles, but will take tokens provided by rehabilitation agencies in the area.
sticky the boyfriend is a heroin addict thread Agent Subby is asking if we can sticky the my boyfriend is a heroin addict thread
i am happy to but also conscious of the fact we have a lot of stickies in that section already
what do you think?
Yum Yum… Opium "And all who heard shall see them there,
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of paradise."12
Crack N Heroin Dens I may seem like a muppet asking this but just how bad is the problem in the rough places in london?
Is their literaly that many crack and herion dens?
And also are the police in the pockets of sum of the top men that run these places?12
Heroin hey i was looking for some advise about Heroin. A buddy of mine wants me to try it tonight with him... I have always stayed away from it but i feel like i am reddy to try it. i am worryed about addiction, is it possible to get addiction the first time and have physical withdrawal symptoms? I my self have done almost every street drug so i know i would handle it. Well if some 1 could answere my questions that would be great thanks :razz:
Opium erradication leads to Ya Ba The prefix is for the Peoples Demeocratic Republic of Lao (country code .la) not Los Angeles (in case anyone was confused...)
Lao tribes suffer from drug crackdown
The opium poppy that has long bloomed across the mountains of northern Laos has almost been wiped out by the government's drastic eradication campaign.
But what is being hailed as a victory by the international anti-narcotics agencies has also spawned a humanitarian crisis, due to the massive displacement of hill tribes and their loss of economic livelihood.
The campaign was spearheaded by the US government, with support from the European Union.
Such was its success that the authorities in Laos claim the country has achieved its 2005 deadline to become an opium-free country. The UNODC (the UN Office for Drugs and Crime) has confirmed that Laos had achieved a poppy reduction of 73% since 2000.
But unlike the major opium producers such as Afghanistan and Burma, Laos was only ever a marginal player in the international drugs trade.
And in order to eradicate production, an estimated 65,000 hill tribe people have been displaced from the mountains of northern Laos where the opium poppy thrives.
A survey by UN development consultant Charles Alton found that "hill tribe people moving to new villages not only lack sufficient rice, but they face fresh diseases - malaria, gastro-intestinal problems and parasites''.
Many are said to be dying of malaria and dysentery, and mortality rates as high as 4% have been recorded - rates normally found only in war zones and areas of refugee resettlement.
Change in approach
In the past, the Lao authorities tolerated opium poppy cultivation among the hill tribes, which make up more than 45% of the population.
Vientiane's liberal policy was spelt out in a 1999 memorandum entitled "A Balanced Approach to Opium Elimination in Laos."
Back then the government argued that poppy cultivation could not be eradicated until alternative crops and economic development were already in place.
However the US government and narcotics agencies escalated the pressure in 2000.
In the words of one NGO leader, who prefers to remain anonymous, "they pushed for opium elimination before economic development was in place, so they put the cart before the horse".
The dangling of a $80m carrot in aid, promised by the UN drugs control agency, led to a capitulation. In 2001 the Lao authorities plunged headlong into a hardline Western agenda of all-out war on the opium poppy.
Western embassies concede that their anti-drug policy may have been over-zealously implemented.
Sandro Serrato, the EU's chief of mission in Vientiane, admitted that "the implementation of opium eradication has probably been too rapid and [has] lacked resources".
But he also sympathised with the government's resettlement strategy, arguing: "There is such a scattered population, the government feels that only by bringing people down from the remote areas can they provide social services and development."
The EU is in favour of offering financial aid for future resettlement, as long as the government respects three points: there should be consultation, economic alternatives and the relocation must be voluntary.
But the monitoring of government compliance with any of these criteria is regarded as highly problematic, given the authoritarian nature of this one-party state.
Critics question both the sustainability and objectives of a policy that appears to have inflicted more harm than good. "Resettlement has caused the disruption of the hill tribes' way of life," one highly respected Lao academic, who wished to remain anonymous, explained. "Opium has many uses - as a major cash crop, for medicine and in traditional ceremonies and festive events."
Now, he warned, "it is the lack of opium that is far more dangerous".
Lack of alternatives
The inhabitants of Laos - both lowland and hill tribe people - have recently become victims of "ya ba" (amphetamines) and heroin flowing across the country from laboratories in neighbouring Burma.
The apparent success in wiping out opium has only contributed to far worse drug, social and economic problems, according to anthropologist David Feingold.
He warned that "likely long-term consequences will be increasing heroin and amphetamine use, [and] greater vulnerability of highland girls and women to trafficking and unsafe migration. Both of these outcomes will contribute to exacerbating HIV/Aids".
Lao specialist Bruce Shoemaker also pointed out that opium produced a high value crop using a very small amount of land.
The average opium farmer could earn about $200 a year, and Mr Shoemaker said that "no one alternative crop can come even close to matching this - it is just not sustainable".
A growing number of development specialists support an entirely different approach. Instead of destroying the poppies, the anonymous Lao academic advocated "a legal opium quota under strict international supervision, to be sold to pharmaceutical companies".
"If the farmers of Tasmania get benefit from opium, why not our poor farmers too?" he argued.
Although no feasibility study has ever been done, the UNODC chief in Vientiane, Klaus Nyholm, instantly rejected any prospect of Laos joining the club of legal opium producers - which includes Australia, India, and Turkey.
Whether opium is grown under legal control or illegally, many aid workers are convinced that only by ignoring human rights can they stop poor farmers from growing such a lucrative crop.
William Dangers from Church World Service development agency in Laos said these farmers would " always go back to opium unless the government uses repression to stop them".
Story from BBC NEWS:
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Lao tribes suffer from drug crackdown
UK: Country faces HEROIN flood, Blair warned – Q2 2003 UK faces heroin flood, Blair warned
Published by The Guardian - Monday 21 April, 2003
Copyright: The Guardian
Drugs investigators have told Tony Blair they fear a big increase in heroin smuggling into the UK this year because of intelligence suggesting that stockpiles of opium in Afghanistan and Pakistan are much greater than anyone realised.
Members of the inter-agency drugs action group, made up of the security services, the national crime squad, customs and excise and the police, have told ministers that unless the Afghan production of heroin is curbed, "traditional law enforcement cannot hope to win" the war against the traffickers.
They fear that the post-conflict opportunity to drastically restrict poppy growing in Afghanistan, the source of 75% of the world's heroin and more than 90% of Britain's supply, may have been lost. Good ideas, they say, have not been translated into "real work" on the ground, so the country's farmers have had little incentive to stop cultivating the poppy plants.
Customs and the police had high hopes that the ban on poppy growing in Afghanistan which began in July 2000, and the military action to find Osama bin Laden, would have significantly cut the supply of the drug to Europe.
But ministers are now being told that there does not appear to have been any impact.
While customs officers seized record amounts of heroin in the last three months of 2002, they say the size of the shipments and the methods used show that the smugglers are not short of stock.
In one operation last October, officers at Dover found 300kg of heroin in hessian sacks in a Turkish-registered lorry. No special attempt had been made to hide the drugs.
Investigators believe that any group willing to attempt "a kamikaze run like that" is not overly worried about where the next shipment is coming from.
The fear is that stockpiles of heroin from Afghanistan's bumper crops of 1998 and 1999 have not been exhausted, meaning the UN and other agencies substantially underestimated the size of the yields.
These stores will soon be replenished by a 2002 poppy harvest that is expected to produce 270 tonnes of refined heroin, enough to supply the world market for a year.
"If we still have not seen the back end of the stockpiling, it makes you wonder what is going to happen when the new crop enters the supply line," a Whitehall source said.
The agencies have been working with police in Iran - including training frontline officers - to try to stop heroin crossing the Afghan border into the country, one of the traffickers' favoured supply routes to Europe.
Terry Byrne, director general of the law enforcement division of customs, confirmed yesterday that the signs were "ominous".
"It is troubling that at the end of 2002, when heroin detection rates are at record levels, prices seem relatively stable," he said. "We had hoped that the stockpiling from the bumper harvest before the Taliban ban would by now have shown signs of being exhausted. They do not seem to have been.
"If current cultivations in Afghanistan produce bumper stockpiles, that could have a very damaging impact for more than just the next year. The international community has got to support the Afghanistan administration in doing something about this."
There are signs, however, that drug investigators are having more success against cocaine traffickers, probably because a series of joint operations launched up to three years ago against gangs in the Caribbean and South America has been coming to fruition.
The wholesale price of a kilo of cocaine in the UK soared from£20,000 last April to £29,000 by December. In one area last November, traffickers were seeking £32,000 per kilo, a sure sign that they are having difficulties.
Cooperation between British and Jamaican investigators has had a big impact on the amount of cocaine brought into the UK by drug "mules".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
World: China ‘smashes’ heroin ring – February 2002 China 'smashes' heroin ring
By BBC News - Tuesday, 5 February, 2002
Copyright: BBC News
Chinese police say they have made their largest ever seizure of heroin and arrested 21 people involved in a major smuggling ring.
State media also reported the Burmese authorities had shot dead one of China's most wanted drug traffickers following a joint operation.
China last year pledged to step up co-operation with neighbouring countries in the fight against the drug trade but officials say trafficking remains rampant in border areas.
Police in China's south-western Yunnan province hailed the seizures as a victory for cross-border co-operation.
Gun battle
They said Burmese police involved in a joint operation shot dead drug trafficker Liu Ming during a firefight last week.
State media said Liu was responsible for smuggling half-a-tonne of heroin into China over the past eight years. His gang was also found to have amassed an armoury including machineguns and an artillery piece.
His death follows the smashing of another gang smuggling drugs from Burma to Guangdong province near the Hong Kong border.
A routine check on a truck in Yunnan led to the discovery of 673kg (1,480 pounds) of heroin and the arrests of 21 people, 12 of them from Hong Kong.
Rampant trade
State media said the arrests had dealt a blow to the drugs trade between Yunnan and Burma's Golden Triangle region.
But the head of narcotics control in Yunnan told the China Daily newspaper that drug trafficking remained rampant in border areas and only global efforts could stop it.
He said progress had been made in closing some drug-producing laboratories inside the Golden Triangle following a conference in Beijing last year, when China, Burma, Thailand and Laos promised to step up joint action against drugs.
But suspicions remain about Burma's determination to crack down on the lucrative trade.
Its scale was highlighted by figures showing that seizures of heroin in China doubled last year to around 13 tonnes, along with almost five tonnes of the drug ice or meth-amphetamine, which is also regularly smuggled in from Burma.
Chinese police this month launched a six-month campaign which they say will target nightclubs, karaoke bars and other places described as havens for drug dealers.
China officially has 900,000 registered drug users but experts say the real figure is far higher, with heroin, ice and ecstasy widely available.
China arrested 73,000 people for drug-related offences last year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Giving ecstasy the same status as heroin and cocaine misleading One of the Government's leading drug advisers has called on the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, to downgrade ecstasy to a class B drug. Professor David Nutt, who is on Mr Blunkett's official drug advisory panel, said giving ecstasy the same status as heroin and cocaine misleads young people.
"One of the sad things is giving them the message that ecstasy is as dangerous as heroin," said Professor Nutt, who is on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. "Millions of kids every week take ecstasy and it's actually a very safe drug. I'm fully signed up to it being class B."
His views will strengthen calls from drugs campaigners, senior police officers and politicians for further reform of Britain's drug laws.
In July, Mr Blunkett announced the first relaxation of the laws for 30 years with the downgrading of cannabis to class C. Next month, he is expected to outline plans to improve access to treatment for drug addicts and increase the availability of heroin on prescription. But the Home Secretary has rejected calls from MPs on the home affairs select committee to reclassify ecstasy.
Professor Nutt, head of clinical medicine at Bristol University, added: "It's clearly safer than heroin or crack but more dangerous than cannabis. Politics is never far away with ecstasy. I think the Home Secretary's decision to reclassify cannabis and not ecstasy was based on fear of public opinion [after the death of the teenager, Leah Betts]."
Last year, 40 ecstasy-related deaths were reported. Between 1993 and 1997, 72 people died after taking the drug compared with 275,000 who died from smoking or alcohol-related illness. This year, three leading psychologists started a controversy by claiming ecstasy may not be dangerous.
One, Dr Harry Sumnall of the University of Liverpool, said previous research was flawed, researchers were biased and there is no conclusive evidence to show the drug damages the brain.
Dutch psychologists are planning a five-year study into ecstasy's side effects.
Pubdate: Nov.24 2002
Author: Sophie Goodchild, Home Affairs Correspondent
URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=355267
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