Enjoy, readers:
"States fight ‘tourists’ trafficking painkillers" Associated Press, July 09, 2012
LEBANON, Ohio — Authorities trying to crack down on prescription painkiller abuse at home say they are being stymied by so-called drug tourists, people traveling to states like Florida and Georgia where drugs are easier to get.
Investigators say these prescription tourists thwart local efforts to combat the illegal sale of painkillers and to treat addicts by bringing huge volumes of drugs in from outside.
Prescription tourists are based in a variety of states, but investigators in Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia, where authorities have already cracked down on local pill mills — are among the busiest trying to track trips to Florida, Georgia, and elsewhere.
Oh, right, time for me to take a pill.
It involves drug dealers sending underlings to states with pill mills where they load up on painkillers, then return to sell the drugs to addicts willing to pay as much as $100 a pill, or as much as 10 times the drugstore price.
Cracking down on the trade requires complicated prosecutions crossing multiple states.
Florida was a popular spot for years because of its virtually unregulated pain clinic industry, which provided access to thousands of painkillers marketed by names like OxyContin, Vicodin, and Percocet....
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Man, do I ever feel out of it....
"Investigators: Ohio teen suspected in drug ring" Associated Press, July 17, 2012
LEBANON, Ohio — The drug kingpin had six lieutenants and was selling as much as $20,000 worth of high-grade homegrown marijuana every month to high school students, being careful not to do business on school grounds, where they knew it was riskier, investigators said.
And all this before he graduated.
A 17-year-old high school student was at the center of a distribution ring that operated in two Cincinnati-area schools, the Warren County Drug Task Force said Monday.
A yearlong investigation culminated in the arrest of the teen and seven adults, as well as the seizure of more than 600 hydroponically grown marijuana plants....
Globe editors must have been high because they forgot this:
The adults who were indicted range in age from 20 to 58. All face multiple charges, including possessing, cultivated, and trafficking in marijuana.
They were indicted Friday and were still being rounded up Monday, said John Burke, the commander of the task force.
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Look, I'm not for the kids smoking the stuff; however, look at all the time and money wasted on the demon weed when legal drug$ are the real killers.
"1 Ohio bridge bomb plot suspect pleads guilty" Associated Press, July 26, 2012
AKRON, Ohio — One of five men charged with plotting to bomb an Ohio highway bridge pleaded guilty Wednesday and agreed to testify against his codefendants....
His attorney, Michael O’Shea, said Anthony Hayne, 35, of Cleveland, who has a criminal record for theft and breaking and entering, hopes to get leniency in return for his testimony....
‘‘I don’t think any of these guys intended harm to human beings,’’ O’Shea said. ‘‘I think they just thought this was a way of making some sort of political statement. But I’m relatively confident none of these people had any desires to actually hurt anybody.’’
O’Shea said Hayne was a latecomer to the alleged plot and, as such, had the least standing to argue that he had been manipulated by an FBI informant, as other defendants have contended.
Authorities have called the men anarchists, and investigators say the group planted what turned out to be a dud bomb provided by an FBI undercover informant on a bridge south of Cleveland and then tried to detonate it....
Not guilty. Next.
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Related: Cleveland Crap
I thought I smelled something.
Also see: Ohio freight train derails, causing fiery blast
It MUST have been the TERRORISTS!
Next Day Update:
"Student threatened ‘shooting’ on Twitter, ordered to avoid Kent State" Associated Press, July 31, 2012
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A Kent State University student accused of posting a message on Twitter saying he would be ‘‘shooting up’’ the northeastern Ohio campus was instructed Monday to stay away from the school and its president.
William Koberna, a 19-year-old sophomore, was ordered released after posting part of a $50,000 bond set at Portage County Municipal Court in Ravenna....
WTF?
Conditions of his bond require Koberna to wear a GPS tracking device and to stay away from the university’s president, Lester Lefton, and the school.
University officials said an employee was monitoring social media mentions of the school when a profanity-laced tweet posted July 25 was discovered. The public tweet mentioned Kent State University, identified the university president by name, and included a threat that he planned to be ‘‘shooting up’’ the school. The tweet ended with ‘‘ASAP.’’ It is no longer available.
Koberna was arrested Sunday afternoon at his parents’ home in the Cleveland suburb of Brunswick after university officials contacted police about the tweet. Officials said he was taken into custody without incident....
Koberna has been charged with inducing panic, a felony, and aggravated menacing, a misdemeanor. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Friday at the Kent branch of Portage County Municipal Court. Court records do not list an attorney for the teen.
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Also see: US Quiet on Kent State Killing
Update: Ohio man shoots wife of 45 years in hospital ICU
He wanted to end his wife’s suffering.
