June 2006
The Archives
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Entertainment, North America, People, Smuggling, The Media
“The Return of Superfly”
With production set to begin this month on the Ridley Scott-directed “American Gangster” starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, about drug-lord Frank Lucas who made his name in the 70s selling heroin on the streets of Harlem, I thought I’d put up a profile of Lucas written for New York Magazine in 2000 - “The Return of Superfly” - by the always readable Mark Jacobson.
Lucas, who was said to be worth millions in his heyday, before being bust and sent to prison, now cries poor. Unrepentant about his drug-dealing past which included, notoriously, smuggling heroin from Southeast Asia’s Golden Triangle in the coffins of dead American soldiers killed in the Vietnam War, he takes Jacobson through his old New York haunts and reminisces about the criminals and celebrities he hung out with as well as the enemies who dared to cross him.
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Entertainment, North America, War on Drugs
The Wire: Season Two
Please note: If you haven’t seen the first season of the HBO series “The Wire”, about a drug investigation in Baltimore from the perspective of the police, dealers and users… hurry up! And not to worry, this review, which necessarily contains plot spoilers for season one, will still be here when you’re ready.
The second season of “The Wire” begins as the dust from the events of the first series has started to settle. Renegade Detective Jimmy McNulty is working in the lowly Baltimore Police Harbour unit after having fallen out of favour with Major Rawls. (You may recall it was McNulty who had set in motion the events that led to the setting up of the wiretap on mysterious drug dealer Avon Barksdale, much to the displeasure of the brass.)
Lieutenant Daniels, who was in charge of the task force, has been demoted to the evidence room after standing up to Deputy Commissioner Burrell - who is definitely on his way up. Avon Barksdale and his nephew D’Angelo are in prison on drugs charges, with Stringer Bell having gained more control over Avon’s drug operation. And other members of the task force have gone their separate ways, until…
The body of a pretty young girl is found in the Baltimore Harbour by McNulty, followed some time later by the discovery of a shipping container at the docks, with 13 young and very dead women inside. This will mean trouble for the local stevedore union and those of its members who are, on the side, helping a mobster smuggle contraband. Throw into the mix a major battle between a police major and the secretary-treasurer of the union over a seemingly minor dispute at their local Catholic church, and the seeds of another splendid season of this complex but not convoluted series have been sown.
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Legislation, North America, People, Studies
It’s only a matter of time smokers
For smokers it’s starting to look more and more like that. This past June was a bad month for many smokers and an early Christmas holiday for many anti smokers and the folks who lobby on behalf of limiting smoking rights and freedoms.
A few of the more news worthy and important smoking items (At least to me) were:
Philadelphia Pennsylvania’s city counsel after wrangling for almost two years finally passed a bill to ban smoking in almost all public spaces. Following the lead of the states of Delaware, and more recently New Jersey (Statewide bans) Philly has decided that it needs to protect people from themselves whether they like it or not. Business owners be damned. At first it got very little support from the council and was voted down at least once and then tabled. But like everything else in Philly the real game was played on the sly and just when it was thought to be dead for at least a good long time it amazingly, out of nowhere came back to life. Councilman Michael Nutter (Who is annoying to the extreme, in Philly that takes some doing) was behind the scenes tweaking the bill and cajoling folks to support the new version and finally got the votes needed. I know the majority of you could care less about Philly politics, but the point I’d like to make here was and is the insidious nature of how this bill was tweaked and passed if only to show that some folks will do anything no matter how deceptive to forward their agenda. Those were small items like not making the bill an all-encompassing ban. For instance, small neighborhood bars would be exempt if they could show that less than 10% of their income came from the sale of food, and outdoor cafes would allow you to light up also, allowing establishments lots of wiggle room to bend and twist and find loopholes. Like one other member of city council said “It’s like allowing smoking in economy class on a plane and not first class.” Typically Philly, and yet a reason the mayor still may not sign it into law. And of course Nutter wants to be our next mayor…blech!
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North America, Studies
Lighten up…then again maybe not
Why is it I always find out that what I’ve been doing up until now in fact is not for the better, but for the worse? No matter how much logical or practical intuitive sense it seemed to have made at the time it always turns out that some experts will arrive on scene to make some triumphant announcement that everything you know or thought you knew is wrong!
I guess I should be used to it by now, being proved wrong over and over again by the overeducated but alas I’m not. The most recent example was the revelation that light cigarettes are not less addictive, but in fact are MORE addictive then full strength smokes. Whodathunk it? Not me that’s for sure. All this time I’ve graduated to the point where all I smoke are “Ultra lights” and I thought it was a GOOD thing. Obviously not as good as it would be to just quit but better. Psychologically I was of the mind that if there were “Ultra ultra super lights” that would then be my brand of choice, so imagine that virtual smack in the face I received when I learned lights were more addictive and individuals who smoked them regularly were much less likely to quit smoking, and that percentage lessened even more as they advanced in age! I guess I’m doomed. I wish I never stopped smoking those full strength Camels.
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People, Studies, The Media
Powerful family meals
With all of the modern day hustle and bustle and the seemingly endless need and feelings that one must be in two places at once, is it any wonder that our quality of life starts to suffer? That the fabric of a healthy functional family starts to break down? That rampant obesity and diabetes are becoming the norm? That our children start to experiment with sex and illicit and dangerous substances at earlier and earlier ages? Well is it?
It really shouldn’t make anyone wonder about the “whys” and the “hows” if you invest the time to read some of the premises of writer Janet Peterson. This nice Utah based church lady will be only too happy to tell you via her new book “Family dinners: Easy ways to feed your kids and get them talking at the table” how the importance of the family meal and very specifically dinner is the basis and backbone to circumventing and minimizing future behavioral issues with your children. That’s right folks, having dinner together as a family regularly, lessens the chance that children will engage in risky behaviors like drug abuse and promiscuous sex at an early age and are also less prone to smoke or show symptoms of depression just by sitting and sharing conversation and food together.
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Asia
Accused in high-profile Indian drug case to be given “brain-mapping” tests
Events in the Rahul Mahajan drug prosecution have taken an interesting turn with a special Delhi court having just allowed police to subject him to “brain mapping” tests. Police had decided last week to withdraw their application for Mahajan and co-accused Sahil Zaroo to have a “narco-analysis” test performed on them. Mahajan, you may recall, is the son of slain BJP senior leader Pramod Mahajan who, along with his father’s former aide Vivek Maitra, collapsed at his Delhi home at the beginning of this month before being rushed to hospital; Maitra died on arrival. Zaroo was said to have supplied the drugs. Police, who don’t seem to have got very far with the accused, say they want to conduct the tests to get to the “truth”.
During a “narco-analysis” test - also known as a “truth serum” test - the suspect is injected with sodium pentothal and then interrogated while under a hypnotic state.
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Europe, North America, People, Treatment
Free to Choose?
There was a story recently in The Indianapolis Star about the murder of 54-year-old James Reese, a homeless man with a long history of drug & alcohol abuse and arrests, after he was attacked in his wheelchair by a cellmate in a county jail. His death saddened those who knew him. Byron Davenport, a resident of Indianapolis who first met Reese playing baseball and basketball before both went on to attend the same high school in the late 60s, remembered him back then as having an affable outgoing person with great athletic abilities. It was when he got involved with a gang at school, and started consuming drugs and alcohol, that he reportedly went off the rails.
For the next thirty years after leaving high school he was constantly arrested for disorderly conduct and public intoxication, living and begging off the streets when he wasn’t in jail. During this time he was offered various opportunities by people and organisations that dealt with the homeless and drug & alcohol addictions, but spurned many of them.
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Africa, Smuggling, War on Drugs
Dealers Beginning to Target African Markets?
The Internal Security Minister of Kanya, John Michuki, today expressed concern that hard drugs were becoming more easily available to the youth of Kenya.According to Michuki, the involevment of Kenya has gone from being almost exclusively a crossroad for drug traffickers to being the actual target destination for many of the drugs. This trend had lead to Kenya’s increase in drug-related crime according to the minister.
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Africa, Smuggling
Only one out of seven defendants in Kenyan drug trial found guilty
Only one person out of the seven indicted last year in Kenya on charges of trafficking 1.1 metric tons of cocaine has been found guilty. Nairobi Chief Magistrate, Aggrey Mucheluloe, ruled Wednesday that only Kenyan businessman David Mugo Kiragu was guilty. Kiragu, who will appeal, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and also given a $270,000 fine.The cocaine, which was found by police in the capital, Nairobi, and a coastal town, Malindi, at the end of 2004, was on its way to Europe where the chief suspect in the case, Kiragu’s old brother, George, is serving a jail term on a drug charge; Kenyan authorities still wish to extradite him.
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North America, The Media, War on Drugs
“One soccer mom’s take on the drug war”
Jessica Peck Corry, a public policy analyst at the Colorado-based free market-orientated Independence Institute and self-described “soccer mom”, has written an opinion piece in The Denver Post, “One soccer mom’s take on the drug war“, that is very critical of marijuana prohibition because of what she sees as its ineffectiveness and waste of resources that could have been better spent elsewhere.
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