Obama's Justice Department to Release 6,000 Prisoners, the So-Called 'Non-Violent' Drug Offenders

I'm obviously not so thrilled about this, but Obama promised a fundamental transformation, so there you go.

At the New York Times, "6,000 Inmates to Be Freed as U.S. Tries New Tack on Drugs."

Also at Pajamas, "Happy Halloween! Feds to Release 6,000 Prisoners at End of Month."

FLASHBACK: From Heather Mac Donald, at City Journal, "Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?"

Far-Left Politics and the Obama Justice Department

At WSJ, "Notable & Quotable: Justice and the Obama Justice Department."

It's from Michael Mukasey, at the September issue of Hillsdale College's Imprimis magazine, "Justice and the Obama Justice Department."

Carly Fiorina Speaks Truth to the Depravity of Drug Abuse at #CNNDebate (VIDEO)

Watch, at CNN, "Carly Fiorina gets personal discussing drugs."

BONUS: ICYMI, Ed Gogek's new book, Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Parents, Pundits, and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case Against Legalization.

America's Legal Order Begins to Fray — #FergusonEffect

Remember, here's the trend, "Ferguson Effect: Murder Rates Rise Sharply in Urban Areas Across the U.S."

From Heather Mac Donald, at WSJ, "Amid the escalation of violent crime are signs of a breakdown of basic respect for law enforcement":

After two decades of the most remarkable crime drop in U.S. history, law enforcement has come to this: “I’m deliberately not getting involved in things I would have in the 1990s and 2000s,” an emergency-services officer in New York City tells me. “I won’t get out of my car for a reasonable-suspicion stop; I will if there’s a violent felony committed in my presence.”

A virulent antipolice campaign over the past year—initially fueled by a since-discredited narrative about a police shooting in Ferguson, Mo.—has made police officers reluctant to do their jobs. The Black Lives Matter movement proclaims that the police are a lethal threat to blacks and that the criminal-justice system is pervaded by racial bias. The media amplify that message on an almost daily basis. Officers now worry about becoming the latest racist cop of the week, losing their job or being indicted if a good-faith encounter with a suspect goes awry or is merely distorted by an incomplete cellphone video.

With police so discouraged, violent crime has surged in at least 35 American cities this year. The alarming murder increase prompted an emergency meeting of the Major Cities Chiefs Association last month. Homicides were up 76% in Milwaukee, 60% in St. Louis, and 56% in Baltimore through mid-August, compared with the same period in 2014; murder was up 47% in Minneapolis and 36% in Houston through mid-July.

But something more fundamental than even public safety may be at stake. There are signs that the legal order itself is breaking down in urban areas. “There’s a total lack of respect out there for the police,” says a female sergeant in New York. “The perps feel more empowered to carry guns because they know that we are running scared.”

The lawful use of police power is being met by hostility and violence, often ignored by the press. In Cincinnati, a small riot broke out in late July when the police arrived at a drive-by shooting scene, where a 4-year-old girl had been shot in the head and critically injured. Bystanders loudly cursed at officers who had started arresting suspects at the scene on outstanding warrants, according to a witness I spoke with.

During anticop demonstrations in Ferguson, Mo., last month, 18-year-old Tyrone Harris opened fire at police officers, according to law-enforcement officials, and was shot and wounded by police in response. A crowd pelted the cops with frozen water bottles and rocks, wounding three officers, while destroying three police cars and damaging businesses, Ferguson police said. “We’re ready for what? We’re ready for war,” some protesters reportedly chanted.

In Birmingham, Ala., an officer was beaten unconscious with his own gun last month by a suspect in a car stop. There was gloating on social media. “Pistol whipped his ass to sleep,” read one Twitter post. The officer later said that he had refrained from using force to defend himself for fear of a media backlash.

Officers are being challenged in their most basic efforts to render aid. A New York cop in the Bronx tells me that he was trying to extricate a woman pinned under an overturned car in July when a bystander stuck his cellphone camera into the officer’s face, trying to bait him into an argument. “You can’t tell me what to do,” the bystander replied when asked to move to the sidewalk, the cop reports. “A few years ago, I would have taken police action,” he says. “Now I know it won’t end well for me or the police department.”

Supervisors may roll up to an incident where trash and other projectiles are being thrown at officers and tell the cops to get into their cars and leave. “What does that do to the general public?” wonders a New York detective. “Every time we pass up on an arrest because we don’t want a situation to blow up, we’ve made the next cop’s job all the harder.”

That's actually kind of depressing.

More at the link.

ICYMI, Ed Gojek, Marijuana Debunked

I need to plug this book again, especially since I haven't had time to finish it and write a review. And I don't when I'm going to get the time, shoot!

Check it out: Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Parents, Pundits, and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case Against Legalization.

Participants at German Homeopathy Conference Accidentally Take Hallucinogenic Drug

The question is, how do you "accidentally" take hallucinogens at a homeopathy conference?

Now that's a trip!

At the Independent UK, "Homeopathy conference ends in chaos after delegates take hallucinogenic drug":

Police are reportedly looking into possibilities including the drug being taken as a joint experiment, or it being furtively given to conference participants as a prank.

No arrests have yet been made as the investigation continues into a possible violation of Germany’s Narcotics Act.

A "furtive prank"?

Well okay. If you say so.

That'd be last homeopathy conference I'd be attending, that's for sure. What a bunch of sleazebags and losers.

If anyone kicks the bucket perhaps they can get Susan Sarandon to carry their ashes at Burning Man next year.

Susan Sarandon, Far-Left Hollywood Moonbat, Carried Timothy Leary's Ashes in Burning Man Ceremony (VIDEO)

I guess you just gotta giggle at the news.

Susan Sarandon's a freak Hollywood hippy moonbat, heh.

At USA Today, "Susan Sarandon carried LSD guru Timothy Leary's ashes in a Burning Man ceremony":

BLACK ROCK DESERT, Nev. — Timothy Leary, the late father of LSD, was memorialized at Burning Man after a fantastic procession and burning of his ashes in the Black Rock Desert.

It was a spectacle that not even he probably could have imagined, as actress Susan Sarandon led a march with his ashes into a temporary church built as an art installation in the desert for the week-long festival.

The church was scheduled to burn as part of the event on Saturday after the "man", a giant wooden structure, burned.

"I think he'd be so happy. I think he would have loved the chaos (of Burning Man). He would have loved it," said Sarandon, one of Leary's closest friends. "And all these people honoring him with LSD."

When Leary died in 1996, several of his friends, including Sarandon, received some of his ashes. His friends sent most of his ashes to outer space in 1997, but Sarandon kept some.

"When I went to Burning Man last time, that's when I thought I'd bring him back here," Sarandon said.

She described him as a creative man, full of ideas. He was also hopeful for youth and "worshipped women," Sarandon said.

This year, Sarandon worked as part of the building crew for Burning Man artist and Northern California-based photographer Michael Garlington, whose work Sarandon admires greatly.

Known best for his "photo chapel" at Burning Man two years ago, Garlington debuted the "Totem of Confessions" at Burning Man last week.

This year's structure was a gothic cathedral-style piece plastered in Kafkaesque photo collages of animals and people. Much of it was gilded in gold.

On Thursday, dozens of participants were standing in line to see the inside of the 60-foot high structure, which had a confession booth and eerie peephole rooms.

When the parade of people surrounding Leary's ashes came through and separated the crowd, everyone turned to watch.

"I feel so privileged to be here. This is a great opportunity," said Orgon Hunter, who built a Burning Man art piece this year, "High Witness Tower 1963," inspired by Leary's time living in Mexico. "Tim is someone I respect a lot. He was a great thinker, just really great, genius. This would have brought him great joy."

Still more.

And at Vanity Fair, "See Susan Sarandon Take On Burning Man."

ICYMI, Marijuana Debunked

Here's my earlier post, "In the Mail: Ed Gogek, Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Parents, Pundits, and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case Against Legalization."

And the book link is here, Marijuana Debunked.

Ferguson Effect: Murder Rates Rise Sharply in Urban Areas Across the U.S.

Well, events are proving Heather Mac Donald correct. Remember her piece on the "Ferguson Effect" at WSJ? See, "The New Nationwide Crime Wave." Radical leftists went batshit crazy.

Well, murders have surged across the U.S., no doubt coinciding with the retreat of law enforcement from the most dangerous urban areas.

See the New York Times, "Murder Rates Rising Sharply in Many U.S. Cities":

MILWAUKEE — Cities across the nation are seeing a startling rise in murders after years of declines, and few places have witnessed a shift as precipitous as this city. With the summer not yet over, 104 people have been killed this year — after 86 homicides in all of 2014.

More than 30 other cities have also reported increases in violence from a year ago. In New Orleans, 120 people had been killed by late August, compared with 98 during the same period a year earlier. In Baltimore, homicides had hit 215, up from 138 at the same point in 2014. In Washington, the toll was 105, compared with 73 people a year ago. And in St. Louis, 136 people had been killed this year, a 60 percent rise from the 85 murders the city had by the same time last year.

Law enforcement experts say disparate factors are at play in different cities, though no one is claiming to know for sure why murder rates are climbing. Some officials say intense national scrutiny of the use of force by the police has made officers less aggressive and emboldened criminals, though many experts dispute that theory.

Rivalries among organized street gangs, often over drug turf, and the availability of guns are cited as major factors in some cities, including Chicago. But more commonly, many top police officials say they are seeing a growing willingness among disenchanted young men in poor neighborhoods to use violence to settle ordinary disputes.

“Maintaining one’s status and credibility and honor, if you will, within that peer community is literally a matter of life and death,” Milwaukee’s police chief, Edward A. Flynn, said. “And that’s coupled with a very harsh reality, which is the mental calculation of those who live in that strata that it is more dangerous to get caught without their gun than to get caught with their gun.”

The results have often been devastating. Tamiko Holmes, a mother of five, has lost two of her nearly grown children in apparently unrelated shootings in the last eight months. In January, a daughter, 20, was shot to death during a robbery at a birthday party at a Days Inn. Six months later, the authorities called again: Her only son, 19, had been shot in the head in a car — a killing for which the police are still searching for a motive and a suspect.

Ms. Holmes said she recently persuaded her remaining teenage daughters to move away from Milwaukee with her, but not before one of them, 17, was wounded in a shooting while riding in a car.

“The violence was nothing like this before,” said Ms. Holmes, 38, who grew up in Milwaukee. “What’s changed is the streets and the laws and the parents. It’s become a mess and a struggle.”

Urban bloodshed — as well as the overall violent crime rate — remains far below the peaks of the late 1980s and early ’90s, and criminologists say it is too early to draw broad conclusions from the recent numbers. In some cities, including Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Newark, homicides remain at a relatively steady rate this year.

Yet with at least 35 of the nation’s cities reporting increases in murders, violent crimes or both, according to a recent survey, the spikes are raising alarm among urban police chiefs. The uptick prompted an urgent summit meeting in August of more than 70 officials from some of the nation’s largest cities. A Justice Department initiative is scheduled to address the rising homicide rates as part of a conference in September...

The Justice Department? What a joke.

No one's going to address the problem, which is the glorification of black thug life and the evil of political correctness that prohibits leftist elites from even discussing it.

It's going to get worse before it gets better, and it won't get better until we elect law-and-order Republicans to office in the country's inner cities.

Still more at the link.

In the Mail: Ed Gogek, Marijuana Debunked: A Handbook for Parents, Pundits, and Politicians Who Want to Know the Case Against Legalization

Leftists and potheads won't be pleased.

Here's the book, out from Chiron Publications, Marijuana Debunked.

Marijuana subtly damages the teenage brain, causing lifelong problems. Yet four million teens in Canada and the United States use the drug, a half million of them daily. For those who have heard only the pro-legalization side, this book presents the case against marijuana on an equal footing. In it, you will learn:

- The scientific research refuting all the pro-marijuana talking points
- Why marijuana is not safe for adolescents, especially those behind the wheel
- How the news media helped to create an epidemic of teenage use
- Why the promise of tax revenue is a mirage
- Why legalization would be an economic burden on society
- The misleading language used by pro-legalization partisans
- Why marijuana laws that prohibit use are good for the public health

Ed Gogek, MD, an addiction psychiatrist for 30 years, has treated more than 10,000 addicts and alcoholics in jails, prisons, homeless clinics, mental health centers and substance abuse treatment programs. His opinion pieces on addiction and mental health have appeared in the New York Times and over a dozen major U.S. newspapers. He received his medical training in Canada and the United States.

I skimmed over the book and some of the promotional materials. I'm excited to have this in my library, and I expect I'll be reading and making reference to it on a regular basis.

More substantive comments later, but meanwhile, here's the author's op-ed at the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Medical marijuana laws dangerous and unnecessary."

U.S Coast Guard Unloads $1 Billion in Seized Cocaine in San Diego (VIDEO)

Yes, but border security is racist!

At the San Diego Union-Tribune, "$1 BILLION of cocaine unloaded in San Diego":

The crew of the USCG Stratton unloaded 34-tons of cocaine that it brought to San Diego after a four month operation in the Eastern Pacific off the coast of Central and South America involving the US Navy, DEA and other partner agencies. 39 seperate seizures from fishing boats, pangas and a few semi-submersibles yielded the large quantity of contraband. Officials put the wholesale value of the drugs at $1 billion.

Total seizures for the year are up to $1.8 billion, at LAT, "U.S. Coast Guard shows off $1-billion worth of seized cocaine."

PREVIOUSLY: "U.S. Coast Guard Seizes Homemade Submersible Vessel Carrying Eight Tons of Cocaine (VIDEO)."

U.S. Coast Guard Seizes Homemade Submersible Vessel Carrying Eight Tons of Cocaine (VIDEO)

Whoa.

That's hella lot of cocaine.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Northern California Coast Guard crew seizes $181 million in cocaine."

And at BuzzFeed, "Here’s Video of a Submarine Caught Carrying 8 Tons of Cocaine."

Before the Coast Guard could unload all the bales, the vessel sank, taking two more tons of cocaine down with it.

That is wild.

Here's the video: "U.S. Agencies Stop Semi-Submersible, Seize 12,000 Pounds of Cocaine."

L.A. Supervisors Call to Ban Raves After Two Women OD at HARD Music Summer Festival in Pomona (VIDEO)

The HARD website is here.

And at KTLA News 5 Los Angeles, "Festival in Pomona Spark Debate Over Drug Use at Raves."

Also, at the Los Angeles Times, "Suspected overdose deaths at rave spark call for ban":

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors should consider a temporary ban on raves on county property after the suspected overdose deaths of two young women who collapsed at the Hard Summer music festival at the Los Angeles County fairgrounds, Supervisor Hilda Solis said Monday.

Solis said she will ask the board Tuesday to explore the prohibition until a full investigation into the raves can be done.

While there have been fewer raves in Los Angeles since a series of drug-related problems at events at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the events continue in arenas outside the city where they still draw big crowds.

Both women -- one 18, the other 19 -- were found unresponsive Saturday at the Fairplex in Pomona, which is managed by the nonprofit Los Angeles County Fair Assn. on land mostly owned by Los Angeles County government.

Los Angeles County Supervisors Michael D. Antonovich and Solis said Sunday that they will ask for a full probe to see if the event was properly managed to ensure the safety of patrons.

"I am very concerned about these details and will request a full investigation,” Solis, whose Eastside district includes Pomona, said through a spokeswoman.

The annual two-day Hard Summer musical festival has grown in recent years. Last year, attendance was 40,000 people per day; this year’s event expanded to 65,000 a day. It is considered the biggest music festival of its kind in Los Angeles County. Hard has another event at the Fairplex on Sept. 10.


Last year, 19-year-old Emily Tran of Anaheim was rushed to a South El Monte hospital from the Hard Summer music festival held at Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, a Los Angeles County-managed park. Tran died from acute intoxication of Ecstasy, according to coroner’s officials.

There has been much debate about whether public agencies should rent out space for raves, given the drug problems.

When raves were held at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and Sports Arena, drug overdoses spiked so much that local emergency rooms were overwhelmed with severely ill attendees, and emergency room doctors urged that such concerts end there. Los Angeles police warned that raves invite widespread Ecstasy use.

A Los Angeles Times investigation in 2013 found that at least 14 people who attended raves run by two major Los Angeles-based rave organizers, Insomniac Inc. and Go Ventures Inc., died from overdoses or in drug-related incidents since 2006.

Since then, five more have died in drug-related incidents, including a UC Irvine graduate, Nicholas Austin Tom, 24, of San Francisco, who collapsed at Insomniac’s Electric Daisy Carnival at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway in June.

A sixth person, John Hoang Dinh Vo, 22, a UC Irvine biology senior, died in March after collapsing at Insomniac’s Beyond Wonderland rave at the San Manuel Amphitheater, a venue owned by the San Bernardino County government. The coroner has not yet released a cause of death for him.

Beverly Hills-based Live Nation Entertainment, one of the world’s largest concert and ticketing conglomerates, purchased Los Angeles-based Hard Events in 2012. It did not respond to inquiries about the deaths Sunday.

Fairplex officials said they had prepared for the rave but did not provide specifics....

Both women were stricken Saturday afternoon just minutes apart, just before 5 p.m., county fire inspector David Dantic said.

The 18-year-old was rushed to San Dimas Community Hospital and pronounced dead at 6:04 p.m., and the 19-year-old was sent to Pomona Valley Medical Center and declared dead at 8:40 p.m. Lt. Fred Corral, a coroner’s official, called the deaths “apparent drug overdoses” and said autopsies will be conducted in the next few days.

Officials were still working to notify the families of the women. Their names were not released Sunday.

During the first day of the rave, 32 people were arrested, the majority on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, said Pomona Police Lt. Hector Rodriguez. On Sunday, by 6 p.m., an additional 13 had been arrested, he said.

The deaths stunned some ravegoers, though many said drugs are fairly common at the event.

Ecstasy, an illegal hallucinogen, enhances the effect of the beat-heavy music and pulsing lights of raves, and is tied to rave culture. The drug is commonly seen as harmless, but doctors say it is dangerous and can cause body temperatures to soar to 108 degrees, causing organ failure, coma and death.

“I am surprised. It is a little shocking when anyone dies. ... But people do drugs out here,” said Jackie Diaz, 19, of Irvine.

Well, people are going to die. That's the culture we have now. Permissiveness and licentiousness, and easy access to drugs. People will die, more people, and younger people.

At 71, Keith Richards Still Enjoys His 'Early Morning Joint'

Whatever gets you through the night, or the morning, as the case may be.

At the Independent UK:

Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, 71, still enjoys 'an early morning joint' http://t.co/aAN5rTpq0o pic.twitter.com/Kf11nA9CaZ

— The Independent (@Independent) July 27, 2015

Latest Anti-Police Brutality Martyr Was Doing Mushrooms Before Attacking Police and Getting Himself Killed

It's Feras Morad, who leftists claim is a "victim" who needed help.

Actually, he was a drug-addled loser who attacked a cop while tripping on mushrooms, and paid for it with his life.

Feras Morad was hopped up on mushrooms and attacked a policeman? No wonder he's dead. #FerasMorad http://t.co/gVRIWfddMJ

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 7, 2015

Bad things happen when you take "recreational" drugs. This loser proves it.

Roger Daltrey Threatened to Walk Off Stage If Fan Smoking Marijuana Didn't Put It Out

We live in interesting times.

You can't even smoke a fat one at a Who concert nowadays, man.

At LAT:

Talkin' 'bout his generation: The Who's Roger Daltrey tells pot smoker to knock it off at show http://t.co/8SnOTewsYW pic.twitter.com/njS3C1v6IC

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 23, 2015

Soft-on-Crime Leftists Lobby Against Efforts to Roll Back Proposition 47

Pretty soon no one will be put behind bars.

Sheesh.

At LAT, "Different kind of crime-victim group lobbies against rolling back Prop. 47":

Albania Morales stood behind the coffin-shaped placard that bore her dead husband's face, practically eclipsed by her political prop. Ricardo Avelar-Lara died last November in Los Angeles, shot by sheriff's deputies.

I am a crime victim, Morales said: I saw the officers kill him.

Morales was taking part this week in a rally with a twist: She and other self-described crime victims were not backed by the usual law enforcement groups. And the last thing they wanted was for California to get tougher on crime.

Morales was joined by former inmates, families of people in prison, those who had lost loved ones to murder. The participation of traditional crime-victim groups that for 26 years occupied the Capitol lawn for this annual event had been called off.

Organizers of this week's activities say theirs is a truer reflection of what a victim is, their goals a more accurate representation of what crime victims want and need. Last fall, the group masterminded Proposition 47, the law that removed most felony penalties for drug use and minor theft.

They are now lobbying against efforts to roll back portions of the law and in support of redirecting corrections spending toward trauma services for victims and alternatives to incarceration for criminals.

Criminal justice experts say that agenda is part of a national shift in the public safety debate, one that focuses more on conflicts between communities of color and the criminal justice system, including abuses of force by police and lengthy prison sentences.

"That static idea of a victim of crime as somebody attacked by a stranger, and as somebody who is white … is becoming an obsolete thought," said Mai Fernandez, executive director of the National Center for Victims of Crime in Washington, D.C.

"The reality is a lot of crime in the United States happens in communities of color," she said. "A person can be a victim at one point, and they turn around and perpetrate a crime."

Representatives of traditional crime-victim groups are appalled by the blurring of lines between victim and criminal.

"To use the term 'victim' so freely is kind of offensive to me," said San Bernardino County Dist. Atty. Michael Ramos, who is planning to run for state attorney general.

Ramos drew a distinction between the family members of murder victims he had consoled on the morning before the rally and some of those recruited to the event. He accused the organizers of co-opting the definition of crime victim for political purposes.

The rally was held by Californians for Safety and Justice, a group spawned by foundations that include the Ford Foundation and the California Endowment, and by New York hedge fund mogul George Soros. The group began recruiting people to speak out as crime victims shortly after it was formed, to help press for new criminal justice policies.

The effort focused on reducing penalties for drug use and other nonviolent crimes, and the foundations directed $14 million in grants to community groups that then campaigned for or otherwise supported Proposition 47. Law enforcement associations and traditional crime-victim groups opposed the measure.

Beginning in 2013, the organization assembled advocates to provide an alternative to views voiced for more than two decades at the Capitol rallies held by Crime Victims United of California. The annual event was hosted by the state's prison guard union, and often the governor attended.

Harriet Salerno, the mother of a murder victim and founder of Crime Victims United, canceled this year's gathering out of concern that it would be marked by confrontation. At the past two rallies, she said, those showing support for police were harassed.

"I don't need to be abused," Salerno said.

She also bridled at criticism from leaders of Californians for Safety and Justice that the previous rallies gave little voice to minority victims with complicated stories of crime and violence.

The speakers for Californians for Safety and Justice this week included Dionne Wilson, the wife of a slain police officer who now regrets advocating for the death penalty against her husband's killer and became the lead voice for crime victims supporting Proposition 47.

Other speakers were a woman pushed into prostitution as a child and a rape victim who said most prison inmates are themselves victims of crimes.

In a series of Sacramento workshops over the last year, they have urged people to lobby for changes in the justice system, including reduced spending on prisons. The motto of this week's rally was "Remember. Recover. Reform."

More.

Workers Abuse ADHD Drugs to Boost Productivity

Look, when social norms have completely legitimized recreational drug use, is it any surprise that prescription pharmaceuticals will be abused as well?

At the New York Times, "Workers Seeking Productivity in a Pill Are Abusing A.D.H.D. Drugs":

Fading fast at 11 p.m., Elizabeth texted her dealer and waited just 30 minutes for him to reach her third-floor New York apartment. She handed him a wad of twenties and fifties, received a tattered envelope of pills, and returned to her computer.

Her PowerPoint needed another four hours. Investors in her health-technology start-up wanted re-crunched numbers, a presentation begged for bullet points and emails from global developers would keep arriving well past midnight.

She gulped down one pill — pale orange, like baby aspirin — and then, reconsidering, took one of the pinks, too.

“O.K., now I can work,” Elizabeth exhaled. Several minutes later, she felt her brain snap to attention. She pushed her glasses up her nose and churned until 7 a.m. Only then did she sleep for 90 minutes, before arriving at her office at 9.

The pills were versions of the drug Adderall, an amphetamine-based stimulant prescribed for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that many college students have long used illicitly while studying. Now, experts say, stimulant abuse is graduating into the work force.

Reliable data to quantify how many American workers misuse stimulants does not exist, several experts said.

But in interviews, dozens of people in a wide spectrum of professions said they and co-workers misused stimulants like Adderall, Vyvanse and Concerta to improve work performance. Most spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of losing their jobs or access to the medication.

Doctors and medical ethicists expressed concern for misusers’ health, as stimulants can cause anxiety, addiction and hallucinations when taken in high doses. But they also worried about added pressure in the workplace — where the use by some pressures more to join the trend.

“You’d see addiction in students, but it was pretty rare to see it in an adult,” said Dr. Kimberly Dennis, the medical director of Timberline Knolls, a substance-abuse treatment facility for women outside Chicago.

“We are definitely seeing more than one year ago, more than two years ago, especially in the age range of 25 to 45,” she said.

Elizabeth, a Long Island native in her late 20s, said that to not take Adderall while competitors did would be like playing tennis with a wood racket.

“It is necessary — necessary for survival of the best and the smartest and highest-achieving people,” Elizabeth said. She spoke on the condition that she be identified only by her middle name.

Most users who were interviewed said they got pills by feigning symptoms of A.D.H.D., a disorder marked by severe impulsivity and inattention, to physicians who casually write prescriptions without proper evaluations. Others got them from friends or dealers.

Obtaining or distributing stimulants without a prescription is a federal crime, but the starkest risks of abuse appear to be overdose and addiction.

A 2013 report by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found that emergency room visits related to nonmedical use of prescription stimulants among adults 18 to 34 tripled from 2005 to 2011, to almost 23,000.

The agency also reported that from 2010 to 2012, people entering substance rehabilitation centers cited stimulants as their primary substance of abuse 15 percent more often than in the previous three-year period...

More.

Suspected Drug Tunnel Discovered Near Tijuana Airport

Pretty amazing, especially the audacity of it.

At ABC News 10 San Diego, "Border tunnel discovered near Tijuana airport."

Aging Baby Boomers Bring Drug Habits Into Middle Age

Great.

And to think, it's easier all the time now use gateway drugs, what with all the marijuana legalization going down across the country. Now we see baby boomers continuing to destroy their lives with drugs, and we've got whole generations of youth lining up behind them, throwing it all away.

At WSJ, "Older adults are abusing drugs, getting arrested for drug offenses and dying from drug overdoses at increasingly higher rates":

UPLAND, Calif.—From the time he was a young man coming of age in the 1970s, Mike Massey could have served as a poster child for his generation, the baby boomers. He grew his hair long to the dismay of his father, surfed, played in rock bands and says he regularly got high on marijuana and cocaine.

The wild times receded as he grew older. In his 30s, he stopped using drugs altogether, rose into executive positions with the plumbers and pipe fitters union, bought a house in this Los Angeles suburb and started a family. But at age 50, Mr. Massey injured his knee running. He took Vicodin for the pain but soon started using pills heavily, mixing the opioids with alcohol, he said.

“It reminded me of getting high and getting loaded,” said Mr. Massey, now 58 years old, who went into recovery and stopped using drugs and alcohol in 2013. “Your mind never forgets that.”

Today, the story of this balding, middle-aged executive continues to reflect that of his generation.

Older adults are abusing drugs, getting arrested for drug offenses and dying from drug overdoses at increasingly higher rates. These surges have come as the 76 million baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, reach late middle age. Facing the pains and losses connected to aging, boomers, who as youths used drugs at the highest rates of any generation, are once again—or still—turning to drugs.

The trend has U.S. health officials worried. The sharp increase in overdose deaths among older adults in particular is “very concerning,” said Wilson Compton, deputy director for the federal government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The rate of death by accidental drug overdose for people aged 45 through 64 increased 11-fold between 1990, when no baby boomers were in the age group, and 2010, when the age group was filled with baby boomers, according to an analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mortality data. That multiple of increase was greater than for any other age group in that time span.

The surge has pushed the accidental overdose rate for these late middle age adults higher than that of 25- to 44-year-olds for the first time. More than 12,000 boomers died of accidental drug overdoses in 2013, the most recent data available. That is more than the number that died that year from either car accidents or influenza and pneumonia, according to the CDC.

“Generally, we thought of older individuals of not having a risk for drug abuse and drug addiction,” Dr. Compton said. “As the baby boomers have aged and brought their habits with them into middle age, and now into older adult groups, we are seeing marked increases in overdose deaths.”

Experts say the drug problem among the elderly has been caused by the confluence of two key factors: a generation with a predilection for mind-altering substances growing older in an era of widespread opioid painkiller abuse. Pain pills follow marijuana as the most popular ways for aging boomers to get high, according to the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, which conducts an annual national survey on drug use. Opioid painkillers also are the drug most often involved in overdoses, followed by antianxiety drugs, cocaine and heroin.

Wall Street Journal interviews with dozens of older drug users and recovering addicts revealed an array of personal stories behind the trend. Some had used drugs their entire lives and never slowed down. Others had used drugs when they were younger, then returned to them later in life after a divorce, death in the family or job loss.

“If you have a trigger, and your youth is caught up in that Woodstock mentality, you’re going to revert back,” said Jamie Huysman, 60, clinical adviser to the senior program at Caron Treatment Centers, a residential drug treatment organization that plans to break ground this summer on a $10 million medical center in Pennsylvania catering to older adults. “We were pretty conditioned that we could be rebellious, that we could take drugs, and so this is how we respond today.”

Drug-rehabilitation programs are grappling with how to handle the boom in older patients. More than 5.7 million people over the age of 50 will need substance-abuse treatment by the year 2020, according to estimates from government researchers. Meanwhile, hospitals have seen a sharp increase in the number of older adults admitted for drug-related health problems, government statistics show.

“We’re still in the process of figuring out: How do we ensure we have a strong workforce that can address this, and the appropriate settings to address this?” said Peter Delany, director of the Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality at the Department of Health and Human Services...

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