The Good, The Bad and The Not So Bright Posted by:Rocco--Saturday, December 04, 2010

The Good, The Bad and The Not So Bright


Some news I found while looking for something else:

The Good – U.S. DEA Banning 'Fake Pot' Products


Contact: DEA Public Affairs
Number: 202-307-7977

DEA Moves to Emergency Control Synthetic Marijuana

Agency Will Study Whether To Permanently Control Five Substances

NOV 24 -- WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is using its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily control five chemicals (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and cannabicyclohexanol) used to make “fake pot” products.

This action will make possessing and selling these chemicals or the products that contain them illegal in the U.S. for at least one year.

The DEA and the United States Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) further study whether these chemicals and products should be permanently controlled.

After no fewer than 30 days, DEA will publish in the Federal Register a Final Rule to Temporarily Control these chemicals for at least 12 months with the possibility of a six-month extension. They will be designated as Schedule I substances, the most restrictive category, which is reserved for unsafe, highly abused substances with no medical usage.

Over the past year, smokable herbal blends marketed as being “legal” and providing a marijuana-like high, have become increasingly popular, particularly among teens and young adults. These products consist of plant material that has been coated with research chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and are sold at a variety of retail outlets, in head shops and over the Internet.

These chemicals, however, have not been approved by the FDA for human consumption and there is no oversight of the manufacturing process. Brands such as “Spice,” “K2,” “Blaze,” and “Red X Dawn” are labeled as incense to mask their intended purpose.

Since 2009, DEA has received an increasing number of reports from poison centers, hospitals and law enforcement regarding these products. Fifteen states have already taken action to control one or more of these chemicals.

The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984 amends the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to allow the DEA Administrator to emergency schedule an abused, harmful, non-medical substance in order to avoid an imminent public health crisis while the formal rule-making procedures described in the CSA are being conducted.

“The American public looks to the DEA to protect its children and communities from those who would exploit them for their own gain,” said DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “Makers of these harmful products mislead their customers into thinking that ‘fake pot’ is a harmless alternative to illegal drugs, but that is not the case. Today’s action will call further attention to the risks of ingesting unknown compounds and will hopefully take away any incentive to try these products.”

Click on

U.S. DEA News Release:

U.S. DEA Fact Sheet – K2

U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency Website:


The Bad - NY Bust: Medicaid Patients' Rx Drugs go to Dealers
By Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press – Sun Dec 5, 2010

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Ethel Johnson couldn't get her prescription for pain medication filled fast enough. The 60-year-old Buffalo woman was hurting — but investigators say that wasn't the reason for the rush.

According to secretly recorded telephone conversations, the sooner Johnson could pick up her pills, the more quickly she could sell them to her dealer. Her pain pills were destined for the street.

Johnson is among 33 people charged so far in a large-scale investigation that has opened a window into an emerging class of suppliers in the illicit drug trade: medical patients, including many who rely on the publicly funded Medicaid program to pay for their appointments and prescriptions. She has pleaded not guilty.

For the first time, the Buffalo investigators devoted the kinds of resources normally aimed at street drugs like heroin or crack; wiretaps, buys, surveillance and cross-agency cooperation to trace the drugs from pharmacy to street. Even they were taken aback by the burgeoning market for the kinds of pills found in medicine cabinets in typical American homes.

"I have to admit we were sort of surprised at how big this had become," said Charles Tomaszewski, former supervisor of the DEA office. "The suburbs, the city, there was no area that wasn't touched by this."

Often at no charge, the patients see a doctor, or several doctors, and come away with prescriptions for narcotic OxyContin and other pills they then sell to a dealer for as much as $1,000. If they are on Medicaid, the program is billed about $1,060 for a typical 60-pill, 80-mg prescription, along with the $23-to-$39 cost of the doctor's visit.

"These patients, in essence, become the source for the drugs," said Dale Kasprzyk, acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Buffalo.
"This is a lucrative underground business for people," he said.

A report last year by the Government Accountability Office estimated that 65,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in New York and four other states had visited six or more doctors in fiscal 2006 and 2007 to acquire duplicate prescriptions for controlled substances.

The cost to Medicaid was $63 million for the drugs alone, excluding doctors' exams. The report examined Medicaid abuse in New York, California, Illinois, North Carolina and Texas, high-volume states in Medicaid prescription drug payments.

OxyContin, a time-release formulation of oxycodone, packs 12 hours' worth of pain relief into one tablet. It is especially prized by drug abusers, authorities say, because it can be crushed and ingested, snorted or injected for the full narcotic impact, a heroin-like rush.

The criminal cases brought in July by U.S. Attorney William Hochul's office in Buffalo illustrate how patients are coached about which doctors to see and what to say when they get there. Prosecutors, in November court filings, said plea agreements are being negotiated.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press All rights reserved.

For the complete article click on "The Bad"


The Not So Bright - Man Wrongly Texts Drug Offer to Prosecutor
By Keith Rhoades - Associated Press – Thu Dec 2, 2010
MARTINSVILLE, Ind. – Police say an Indiana man was arrested after mistakenly sending text messages to a prosecutor about drugs he was trying to sell.

The Herald-Times of Bloomington reports that the 26-year-old Martinsville man sent messages last month to deputy prosecutor Courtney Swank on her department-issued cell phone.

They read "Roxy twenties fifteen" and "Hey buddy just wonderin if you needed any fortys."

Police tell the newspaper the wording refers to oxycodone and other prescription drugs.

The man is charged with dealing in a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and public intoxication.

For the story click on "Not So Bright"

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.