Whitney Houston, music legend and pop icon, has died according to a statement from Houston’s publicist to the Associated Press.

Houston’s success began in the 1980s with such hits as “How Will I Know” and “Saving All My Love For You.” Yet it wasn’t until the singer chose to cover Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” for the 1992 movie, “The Bodyguard” that her musical career hit the stratosphere as an international icon.

Unfortunately, Houston’s music would eventually be overshadowed by her public battles with drugs, and her tumultuous relationship with Bobby Brown. Her addiction would also ravage her voice, once recognized as among the best in the world.

Only 48 years old, Houston’s official cause of death has not been released, and details remain unclear at the moment.

A study by researchers from the US Centers for Drug Control and Prevention has linked the majority of hospitalizations to four drugs: warfarin, oral antiplatelet medications, insulins, and oral hypoglycemic agents. A majority of these hospitalizations are due to allergic reactions and accidental overdoses, and 48.1 percent were 80 years old or older.

The study has also shown that better management of related drugs could potentially lead to the avoidance of thousands of hospital admissions.

What always impresses me about indy/art film is the attempt. There’s an attempt to communicate ideas, themes—a perspective. Indy films take chances. They put themselves out there, not trying to be the next mindless popcorn type of movie Hollywood seems locked into these days. But one thing Hollywood still can do well is tell a riveting story; Hollywood can still entertain you even if you aren’t doing much thinking in the process. And what indy films often fail to do is to entertain while informing.

Let’s compare the indy film under consideration in this review to a Hollywood smash success, “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle.” Both concern a pair of slackers who go in search of vice. In “Welcome to Dopeland,” our heroes are in search of drugs (Oxycontin) as opposed to hamburgers. Along the way, they meet a variety of bizarre characters and have mini adventures within the big adventure. It’s not where you’re going, it’s how you get there—or so goes the trite phrase.

“Welcome to Dopeland” has big ideas about mass media, consumerism, corporatism, and our plastic society. But its narrative is flat and not terribly entertaining. Harold and Kumar had nothing intelligent to impart, but gosh darn it if it was not entertaining as hell with great laughs and a story that winged me along and kept me engaged for two hours (and the Harvard PhD who saw it with me would agree).

In the long line of road tandems (Crosby and Hope, Martin and Lewis, Farley and Spade), in Welcome to Dopeland, we have Mac and Bobby who are in search of a high as the world is about to end. The aforementioned duos are a lot to live up to, and Mac and Bobby don’t quite have the chemistry that would place them with such elite company. Mac is simply surly and unexpressive throughout, while Bobby manages to be the most engaging character as he proselytizes, sermonizes, and wanders in and out of dream-states; he’s a slightly more blithe version of the protagonist in Mike Leigh’s Naked.

The director of “Welcome to Dopeland” is Len Dell’Amico, best known as a video and concert-movie director. Dell’Amico has worked with an impressive list of musicians, from The Grateful Dead to Ray Charles to The Allman Brothers Band. This influence can be felt in some of the film’s psychedelic moments, but in truth the latter half of the movie reminded me more of Fellini than Altamont. It was La Dolce Vita or Amarcord set in the mountains of California, though not up to the standards of the master, Italian magical realist.

At our megaplex, as we see yet another in a string of Transformers or Paranormal Activities, indy films like “Welcome to Dopeland” must be admired and saluted for attempting to move and educated us. If only they could be a bit more fun to watch.

Some protestors feel that handing someone over to the same police force that recently arrested 141 of them is an act of betrayal. (Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

Depending on who is telling the story, last weekend a person either “flashed a knife at” or “pulled a knife on” a group of people at Occupy Boston. Someone felt threatened enough to let the Boston Police know. The accused person was apprehended by police and was reportedly discovered to be carrying a knife and a hypodermic needle. They were released because no one wanted to press charges.

In the lead up to this, one or more people at the Medic Tent were threatened with needles after confronting people buying and using heroin more-or-less openly in the tent city. In the wake of it, there was heated debate among protestors about whether getting law enforcement involved was appropriate or not. Some said that handing someone over to the same police force that arrested 141 protestors just days before was an act of betrayal. Others argued that if a person feels threatened, turning to the police rather than Occupy Boston’s own Safety Team was certainly their prerogative.

The urinating offender

The “knife incident” happened at about the same time as a young man who was evidently either very drunk or very high (like heroin or pills high, not marijuana high) urinated on someone’s tent, protesters said. While several news sources reported that this person and the knife wielder were the same, multiple witnesses told Blast that this person and the knife wielder were two different people. As the gravelly voices of women who’ve spent winters on the streets repeatedly yelled “he pissed on the tent!,” an 18-year homeless occupier took control of the commotion, calmed people down, and ejected the urinating offender from the camp. “I’ve been breaking up squatter fights for a long time,” he boasted.

This wasn’t the first argument over someone urinating in camp. Minor squabbles such as this happen almost daily, and almost all of them are defused quickly. Many of them involve people whose homelessness is more directly related to addictions and mental health problems than the recent economic crash. A member of the Safety Team who asked not to be identified asked, “What do you expect? They set this place up at ‘ground zero’ of the homeless in Boston…besides, look, people get into trouble anywhere. You go to a game, you see fights. Anywhere you got hundreds of people, there’s something going on. What’d you expect here? Nothing to happen?”

Walking away with laptops

There have been thefts. Many may be attributed to the country mouse naivety of those protestors who lacked a hardened Bostonian’s matter-of-fact assumption: anything of value left unattended will disappear.

Martin Dagoberto, 27, briefly left a tent and returned to find his laptop gone. After working cheerfully for the Occupy Boston Faith and Spirituality Group for several rainy days in a row, Thursday morning he explained on Facebook that he was “cold, wet, tired, and quite sad…had someone walk away with my laptop last night…this is tough.”

The theft happened in the Sacred Space — Occupy Boston’s interdenominational prayer and meditation tent – and the violation of such a churchy spot bothered many.

This same torrential week, Media (the working group within Occupy Boston that deals with the press) also reported some of its laptops stolen. They made an online request for security cables to keep them from walking away in the future, and some donors responded. Similarly, the Spirituality Group responded to the theft of Dagoberto’s laptop not only by sending him lots of love and good vibes, but also by starting to scrape together some funds to buy a new one.

There have been other thefts: shoes, clothes, wallets, phones, etc. This week, after a decision was reached at General Assembly, little padlocks began appearing on the zippers of tents. Backpacks aren’t being left in the open. People, in many ways, are demonstrating less innocence and more caution.

Media reverberation

Barry Knight says Occupy Boston “will continue to improve as those with dependency issues realize this community can offer them help if they chose to accept it.” (Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

This week, crime at Occupy Boston made headlines across the city. The same day Dagoberto lost his laptop, the Boston Herald ran a fairly sensational article which began, “A confrontation with a knife-wielding junkie at Occupy Boston and rampant thefts have tensions simmering between the protesters and the homeless.”

The article quotes protestor Andrew Warner, 36, saying “the homeless come in here and they’re looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash…but they don’t bring anything to the table at all.”

While many occupiers winced at Wagner’s statement, Occupy Boston’s detractors floated on a cloud of Schadenfreude. The Boston Phoenix commented (that same day) on the Herald readers’ obvious delight. A blogger called Pumabydesign001 re-posted the Herald article annotated with barbs against “Trust fund Marxists” and “loathsome, entitlement minded Marxist hypocrites.” One of the Herald article’s main aspects, ex-mayor Ray Flynn blustering “[Occupy Boston] should have been given one day — 24 hours and that’s it” received relatively little comment.

By the next day, Friday, this particular Boston Herald piece had gained a bit of infamy among people at the Occupy Boston campsite. Whether they read it or just heard about it, people complained that the prevalence of crime and the rift between the homeless and other people at camp was being exaggerated. Suspicion against the press spiked as established contacts declined to be interviewed because, as one person said, “I don’t want you to ‘pull a Herald’ on me.”

On Friday, though occupiers were reviling the Boston Herald, many had good words concerning a Metro Boston article released that morning and favorably describing the work of the Safety Team. The piece had some pretty harsh quotes about “rounding up junkies and trying to kick them out” and so on, but these were mitigated by a protestor saying “crime here is no different than society in general” and an article subtitle assuring that “Despite confrontations, Occupiers feel safe.” A member of the Safety Team said, “You gotta read it. It’s on page three.”

An ongoing drug situation

Signs like these sprung up around camp on Monday. Even marijuana use is being stringently discouraged. (Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

Signs declaring drugs and alcohol to be off limits had sprung up around the camp last Monday, but some were ignoring them. On Friday, around the same time as protestors readied for a trip to Roxbury to rendezvous with the Occupy the Hood people, a small swarm of police at one corner of Dewey Park indicated trouble. Two people, a man and a woman said to have been dealing heroin from their tent behind the Info Tent, were arrested. Police tore down the alleged offenders’ tent, rifled through it, and eventually threw the whole thing in a police wagon and drove it away.

One protester asserted that the arrestees “weren’t part of Occupy Boston” — a statement which is true in one way but not true entirely. Within hours, the rumor around camp was that someone had suffered a lethal overdose and the people arrested had sold to them. Meanwhile an old woman in a wheelchair, said to have gotten drunk and possibly to be suffering from a reaction to her medicine, was being cared for by the Safety Team as they waited for Boston EMS. The relationship between Safety and the Boston Police seemed cordial and familiar.

Police combed through the tend of an alleged drug dealer at Occupy Boston (Blast Staff photo/John Stephen Dwyer)

Many protestors at Occupy Boston insist the sort of crimes occurring in Dewey Square, and the minor flare ups between homeless people staying at the camp, are things that happen year in and year out without the attention they are getting now getting that Occupy Boston is present. Despite frustrations, the majority of demonstrators show no interesting in building a social wall between those that are there to protest injustice and those there for a free meal and a warm blanket.

And many protestors acknowledge what might not be obvious to a visitor: Some of the hardest-working members of the Occupy Boston community are, in fact, seasoned “street people” who had been living outside for years before the protest started. Scott Ellis, 60, a man whose been homeless for forty years, comes to mind as an example. Long before most of the 20-somethings have emerged from their sleeping bags, Ellis (an articulate man with a Santa-like beard) can be seen circling the camp, picking up trash, uprighting whatever has been knocked over by the wind, and just generally making the tent city a better place to be. Come back sixteen hours later and he’s still doing it.

Everyone knows someone

Barry Knight, 43, has been at Occupy Boston for the greater part of the last three weeks. For much of that time, he was one of the people in camp most likely to be holding a sign next to Atlantic Avenue both day and night. More recently, he’s assumed duties watching after the Sign Tent and asking people to return whatever supplies they borrow.

Knight sees the signs of addiction and abuse at Occupy Boston as reflections of a society-wide problem.

“Everyone has been touched by [addiction], everyone knows someone affected by drugs and alcohol,” he said.

Responding to Warner’s comments in the Boston Herald, Knight said “Regardless of whether someone thinks [addicted people] bring anything to the table, they are part of the 99 percent and that’s one of the things we are concerned about. In our country we treat a dependency issue as criminal when, in fact, it’s a health issue. If we treated it as a health issue rather than a criminal issue, you’d see a lot less of these type of situations escalating until they become violent and, in fact, a criminal issue. Addicts need to be helped, not punished.”

Talking about the “no drugs, no alcohol” signs that sprung up around camp, Knight guessed “I think word is getting out that this isn’t such a good place to do that sort of thing” while acknowledging the Boston Phoenix report of a rowdy drunk causing trouble at 9 a.m. one recent morning. Knight judged that the camp was now sheltering “fewer instances of drug and alcohol use” but said the occasional smell of marijuana — a substance include in the community ban against drugs — was proof the ban wasn’t being universally heeded.

“A lot of the people with dependency issues have taken the time to reflect on themselves. Others have been ejected from the camp…[some addicts] aren’t helping themselves and aren’t helping the movement, so unfortunately, at present, the options are limited at how and where they can get the help they need,” Knight said before adding, “the first step is admitting you have a problem.”

The Sign Tent is almost adjacent to the Safety Tent, and Knight had no complaints about how the Safety Team was handling crimes and conflicts. “Based on what they have to deal with,” he said, “They are doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances. In the past week, it’s gotten a lot better. It will continue to improve as those with dependency issues realize this community can offer them help if they chose to accept it.”

A former corrections officer working in MCI-Norfolk was sentenced yesterday to 30 months in federal prison for trying to smuggle heroin into the prison for inmates.

Ronald P. McGinn, 40, of Bridgewater, also faces two years of supervised release. He was arrested in April for possession of 29 grams of heroin, which he was bringing to MCI-Norfolk for money, federal officails said.

“In a consensually recorded meeting with an undercover agent, as well as in several text messages between the two, McGinn outlined the amounts he would smuggle into the prison as well as the fee he would charge to do so,” federal officials said in a statement. “During the meeting, McGinn also discussed his prior success in smuggling items into the prison.”

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Richard DesLauriers, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division, made the announcement. The FBI investigated the case in cooperation with the Massachusetts Department Correction.

Researchers have identified traces of pharmaceutical drugs -- including antibiotics, hormones, contraceptives and steroids -- in the drinking water supplies of some 40 million Americans. (Stockbyte)

Pharmaceutical drug contamination in our groundwater, rivers, lakes, estuaries and bays is a growing problem. Millions of us are flushing unused medications down the toilet and discharging them in our body waste—even though sewage treatment plants and septic systems were never designed to deal with such contaminants. Additional discharges by healthcare facilities exacerbate the problem. As a result, researchers have identified traces of pharmaceutical drugs in the drinking water supplies of some 40 million Americans.

A nationwide study conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1999 and 2000 found low levels of pharmaceuticals—including antibiotics, hormones, contraceptives and steroids—in 80 percent of the rivers and streams sampled. According to Citizens Campaign for the Environment (CCE), the effects of constant, low-level exposure of pharmaceuticals on ecosystems and humans are uncertain, though “possible health concerns include hormone disruption, antibiotic resistance and synergistic effects.” And antidepressants, says CCE, can “alter the behavior and reproductive functions of fish and mollusks.”

CCE cites a recent Stony Brook University study showing that some fish species in New York’s Jamaica Bay are experiencing “feminization”—the ratio of female to male winter flounder was 10 to one in the studied area—likely a result of flushed pharmaceuticals that can act as “hormone mimics” and cause such effects. New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation concurs, citing a number of other studies underscoring the impacts on aquatic life. What irks CCE about the problem is that almost all known sources of drugs in the environment first pass through wastewater treatment plants where they could be filtered out, but these facilities are not required to be equipped with pharmaceutical filter devices.

In light of the problem, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in 2007 established its first set of guidelines for how consumers should dispose of prescription drugs. First and foremost, consumers should follow any specific disposal instructions on a drug’s label or the patient information that accompanies the medication—and shouldn’t flush the drugs down the toilet. If there are no disposal instructions, the FDA recommends finding out from your municipality if any take-back programs are in place. Also, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sponsors National Prescription Drug Take Back Days across the country at various sites a few times a year.

“If no instructions are given on the drug label and no take-back program is available in your area, throw the drugs in the household trash, but first take them out of their original containers and mix them with an undesirable substance, such as used coffee grounds or kitty litter,” says the FDA. This will make them less appealing to children, pets or people who may intentionally go through your trash, says the agency, which adds that a final step is to put the medication into a sealed bag or other container to prevent leaks.

CONTACTS: CCE, www.citizenscampaign.org; National Prescription Drug Take Back Days, www.nationaltakebackday.com; FDA’s “How to Dispose of Unused Medicines,” www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/ResourcesForYou/Consumers/BuyingUsingMedicineSafely/UnderstandingOver-the-CounterMedicines/ucm107163.pdf.

Advertising giant and search engine default Google has agreed to forfeit $500 million in proceeds it received from allowing Canadian pharmacies to illegally target American consumers for prescription drugs, the Justice Department announced.

“The Department of Justice will continue to hold accountable companies who in their bid for profits violate federal law and put at risk the health and safety of American consumers,” said Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole, in a statement. “This settlement ensures that Google will reform its improper advertising practices with regard to these pharmacies while paying one of the largest financial forfeiture penalties in history.”

Google had sold the ads through its AdWords network.

The news was announced at press conference Wednesday morning in Providence.

As a general rule, the shipment of prescription drugs from foreign pharmacies to people inside the United States violates the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act and in the case of controlled prescription drugs, the Controlled Substances Act, according to federal officials.

According to the statement, Google knew as early as 2003 that it was usually illegal for its Canadian pharmacy advertisers to ship drugs to the US.

Besides the patent illegality of it, federal regulators obviously take no steps to verify the legitimacy or chemical makeup of foreign drugs.

“This investigation is about the patently unsafe, unlawful, importation of prescription drugs by Canadian on-line pharmacies, with Google’s knowledge and assistance, into the United States, directly to U.S. consumers,” said U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha. “It is about taking a significant step forward in limiting the ability of rogue on-line pharmacies from reaching U.S. consumers, by compelling Google to change its behavior. It is about holding Google responsible for its conduct by imposing a $500 million forfeiture, the kind of forfeiture that will not only get Google’s attention, but the attention of all those who contribute to America’s pill problem.”

The Boston Globe reported that in May Google noted in a regulatory filing that it had set aside $500 million to settle a Justice Department investigation of “certain” advertisers.

LAS VEGAS — That will be $585 please.

That was the bill for Cy Waits, Paris Hilton’s ex, who copped a plea to a driving under the influence charge on Wednesday.

Waits was stopped on the Las Vegas Strip last August when a police officer saw a “vapor trail” or marijuana smoke coming from his Cadillac Escalade, the Associated Press reported. Hilton was a passenger at the time.

The 25-year-old former Vegas club manager pleaded no contest to misdemeanor driving under the influence of drugs.

Hilton is currently on probation after pleading guilty in September to cocaine possession and obstruction.

A man died in Bangor, Maine last week after telling police he was high on the new hallucinogenic designer drug known as “bath salts.”

Ralph Willis, according to the Associated Press, had been running around the streets of Bangor, yelling and screaming at people on Friday night. When police arrived, he charged at them, fought them, broke an antenna off a police cruiser, and smashed a rear car window before running into a truck that was leaving a nearby funeral home.

As he was being arrested and taken to the city jail, he admitted he had been using the drug.

A short time later, he was taken by ambulance to Eastern Main Medical where he suddenly died.

The official cause of death is pending an autopsy.

“Bath salts” have nothing in common with the things you put into your bathtub. Bath salts are most commonly the chemical methylenedioxypyrovalerone, or MDPV. The drug causes extreme agitation, paranoia, hallucinations, chest pain, high blood pressure, and has been linked to sudden suicide. Users snort it, shoot it or mix it with food or drink.

Little is known except that the drug appears extremely dangerous.

It is illegal in the UK, but the US government has not caught up yet. Only Florida and Louisiana recognize MDPV as a scheduled drug and only a handful of states ban some of the ingredients used to make it.

Amy Winehouse’s family blames her abrupt withdrawal of alcohol, not drugs, for killing her. The cause of her death will not be known for weeks, pending the completion of toxicology tests.

Amy Winehouse at Kalemegdan Park in Belgrade, Serbia. This was the singer's last live concert performance before her death on July 23, 2011.

The 27-year old ignored doctors’ advice to steadily cut back from her heavy drinking. Instead of listening, she went cold turkey. Her family believes this was too much of a shock for her system.

Sam Zakhari, director of the metabolism and health effects division at the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism said, “People who drink heavily and stop suddenly may go through alcohol withdrawal, which can cause symptoms ranging from anxiety to tremors to full-blown seizures and delusions,” adding, “Sometimes, this can affect the heart, causing cardiac arrhythmia, and in rare cases, this can be fatal.”

Usually the death of abusers is due to an excessive amount of alcohol or drugs- even a combination of the two. This is a rare case where someone did die from quitting suddenly.

Winhouse also had issues with an eating disorder, destructive relationships, and abortive performances. These dangerous habits may have damaged her body to the point where she could not recover, even after quitting alcohol.

Zakhari said all alcoholics should taper off slowly and quit under a physician’s supervision to avoid severe symptoms. Prescription medications like benzodiazepines may be useful to calm the brain and counteract the stimulant effect that kicks in when the body is no longer getting a depressant, such as alcohol.

If Amy quit under the supervision of a physician, heart risks based on family history and other factors would have been considered when providing treatment.

If you have a teen struggling with a drug or alcohol addiction, consider a teen rehab as a treatment option.

Amy Winehouse performs in London last year (WireImage)

Singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London apartment Saturday.

She was 27.

“On arrival, officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene,” a police statement said.

Winehouse had been a soulful singer whose American popularity came to a head in 2007 and early 2008. By age 24, she had already won six Grammy Awards.

But perhaps no singer in American popular culture history has appeared in the spotlight and fallen from grace so quickly as the wispy Winehouse. Her success in the United States barely established itself before her addictions got the better of her.

Winehouse battled drug addiction for years, to the point where he affected her onstage performances. She had recently been booed off stage at European concerts for stumbling around and even forgetting lyrics to her songs.

She ended up canceling her European tour after a disastrous performance in Belgrade in June.

No cause of death has been released. Police are investigating it as an “unexplained” death.

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Nine New Bedford men were arrested today on federal and state gun and drug charges according to the United States District Attorney, Carmen M. Ortiz.

The arrests sprang from a joint federal and state investigation into gun and drug distribution in New Bedford, which began more than a year ago.

Four individuals were indicted on federal charges and five were charged by the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.

The harshest sentence may be life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

“Today’s arrests demonstrate our commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who terrorize our communities by illegally possessing and distributing guns and drugs,” said Ortiz. “We will not allow criminals to endanger the people of New Bedford or their neighborhoods without consequence.”

After deciding he needed a fix before his concert, the bassist of the rock band Coheed and Cambria allegedly robbed a Walgreens of oxycodone, using his Blackberry rather than a weapon.

Michael R. Todd, 30, and his band were opening for the popular 1990s band Soundgarden at the Comcast Center in Mansfield on Sunday night, when Todd allegedly walked into the store at Pleasant Street and Starkey Avenue in Attleboro and told the pharmacist to give him the drug.

Todd then held is Blackberry up for the pharmacist to see a note reading that he had a bomb and wanted her to give him the painkillers, according to court records.

The bassist then fled the store and jumped into a taxi, which took him to his tour bus at the Comcast Center, according to the taxi company.

While the rest of the band continued on with the tour, Todd was arraigned in Attleboro District Court yesterday on armed robbery and drug possession charges.

Sandra Ferreira, his attorney, pleaded not guilty on his behalf. The judge ordered him held on $25,000 cash bail and scheduled a preliminary hearing for August 9.

The alleged robbery occurred at 12:55 p.m. and the band was scheduled to perform at 7:30 p.m.

Coheed and cambria immediate replaced Todd with multi-instrument musician Wes Styles for the remainder of the tour.

“We are surprised to say the least and will address the situation with Michael after the tour. For now, we just want to have a great time out here and finish with some killer shows in Boston, Poughkeepsie, Quebec City and Halifax,” the band said on its website.

SPRINGFIELD — A 14-year-old’s call to police about a home invasion went vastly awry for her father when he was arrested for various drug offenses on Tuesday.

The young girl called police to report a break in at 139 Maybrook Road in Springfield. She reported that two armed men came into her house while her father was at the bank and demanded her to show them her father’s room.

After she showed them his room, the suspects forced her into the closet, where she used her cell phone to text her grandfather for help and call the police.

Police arrived after the men had fled, but proceeded to check the house for safety. Inside, the officers were “overwhelmed by the sent of unburned marijuana.”

They didn’t find the men, but they did find a “marijuana grow house” throughout three rooms equipped with hydroponics, including high intensity lights and watering equipment.

The father, Nicholas J. Korniotes, 40, returned to the house in the middle of the search and agreed to go to the station to answer questions.

Officers seized Korniotes’ home, his boat, car, bank accounts, motorcycle, and are looking to seize five other homes he owns. The suspect admitted to owning the grow house.

Korniotes was arrested for cultivating marijuana, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, and violation of a drug free school zone.

Police arrested and indicted eighteen alleged drug dealers in a long-term investigation into cocaine and heroin distribution called “Operation Tanglewood,” according to Daniel F. Conley, Suffolk County district attorney, and Edward Davis, Boston police commissioner.

The offenders were all located and suspected to be selling drugs in the area of the Lenox Street Housing Development.

“This should serve as a clear message to any individuals engaging in violent activity in our communities,” Davis said. “We will continue our relentless efforts to hold violent perpetrators accountable. We will not allow these individuals to destroy quality of life for hard-working, law-abiding community members.”

According to Conley, plainclothes officers were able to buy cocaine and heroin repeatedly and with ease.

“The density of drug retailers in this area forced residents to walk a gauntlet every time they left for school, came home from work, or went out to the store. They brought us their concerns, we acted, and the result is safer streets, homes, and parks for families and businesses,” Conley said.

The operation was waged due to many citizen complaints, and to disrupt the local drug trade. It targeted distribution suspects known to the Suffolk DA’s Gang Unit, as well as others who made themselves known in the drug trade throughout the investigation.

A Suffolk County Grand Jury indicted the suspects on multiple charges, as well as “about a dozen” additional people who were charged with drug offenses.

After an extensive investigation, police arrested three Braintree men for illegal drug sales.

Paul A. Gravelle, 38, and Andrew G. Alexopoulos, 25, both of Braintree, were named the main components in the deal and search warrants were issued for their vehicles and homes.

From these searches, police learned that Gravelle was allegedly en route to Florida to get large amounts of Ocycodone through prescription in his name and used various “runners,” including Alexopoulos, to sell the drugs in the Braintree area.

Gravelle also got Oxycodone from people with legal prescriptions, who then illegally sold him the drugs.

Police were able to cinch the investigation when they observed Gravelle allegedly selling drugs to David C. Anderson, 41, on Monday.

Police followed both suspects and stopped them short distances from their respective homes.

Thirty-three 30mg Oxycodone pills were found in Gravelle’s car, along with $401 believed to have been from the drug sale. Investigators believe that Anderson swallowed his pills, however they found one pill under the seat of his car.

Officers then searched the homes of Gravelle and Alexopoulos and found more Oxycodone and $3400 in a safe in Gravelle’s home. They also encountered more evidence that suggests Gravelle was buying pills in Florida. Sixteen pills and $230 in cash were found in Alexopoulos’ home

Gravelle was charged with possession of a Class B substance with intent to distribute, distribution of a Class B substance, conspiracy to violate the Controlled Substances Act and a drug free school zone violation. Alexopoulos was charged with possession of a Class B substance with intent to distribute and Anderson was charged with possession of a Class B substance and conspiracy.

Legalizing pot (left-hand image), some say, would eliminate many negative environmental impacts associated with clandestine growing and illegal smuggling. It would also likely open the door for the legalization of hemp (right-hand image), a relative of the cannabis plant that can't get you high but could help us sustainably meet a good amount of our fiber and fuel needs. (Wikipedia)

It is well known that legalizing pot could have great economic benefits in California and elsewhere by allowing the government to tax it (like it now does on liquor and cigarettes), by ending expensive and ongoing operations to eradicate it, and by keeping millions of otherwise innocent and non-violent marijuana offenders out of already overburdened federal and state prisons. But what you might not know is that legalizing pot could also pay environmental dividends.

Nikki Gloudeman, a senior fellow at Mother Jones magazine, reports on the change.org website that the current system of growing pot—surreptitious growers illegally colonizing remote forest lands and moving pesticides, waste and irrigation tubes into otherwise pristine ecosystems—is nothing short of a toxic scourge. Legalizing pot, she says, would clean things up substantially, as the growing would both eliminate the strain on public lands and meet higher standards for the use and disposal of toxic substances.

Legalization would also reduce the environmental impacts of smuggling across the U.S./Mexico border, says Gloudeman: “Cartels routinely use generators, diesel storage tanks and animal poison to preserve their cache, when the border area is surrounded by more than 4 million acres of sensitive federal wilderness.”

Also, legalizing pot would move its production out into the open, literally, meaning that growers would no longer need to rack up huge energy costs to keep their illegal indoor growing operations lit up by artificial light. This means that the energy consumption and carbon footprint of marijuana growers would go way down, as the light the plants need for photosynthesis could be provided more naturally by the sun.

Yet another green benefit of legalizing marijuana would be an end to the destructive eradication efforts employed by law enforcement at bust sites, where the crop and the land they are rooted in are sometimes subjected to harsh chemical herbicides for expedited removal.

The legalization of pot in the U.S. would also likely open the door to the legal production of hemp, a variety of the same Cannabis plant that contains much lower amounts of the psychoactive drug, THC. Proponents say hemp could meet an increasingly larger percentage of our domestic fiber and fuel needs. Cannabis, the plant from which marijuana and hemp is derived, grows quickly without the need for excessive amounts of fertilizer or pesticide (it’s a “weed” after all) and absorbs carbon dioxide like any plant engaged in photosynthesis. The fiber and fuel derived from hemp would be carbon neutral and as such wouldn’t contribute to global warming—and in fact could help mitigate rising temperatures by replacing chemical-intensive crops like cotton and imported fossil fuels like oil and gas.

Of course, one might argue that the best thing for the environment would be to stop growing cannabis altogether. “But let’s be real: That’s never going to happen,” says Gloudeman. “In light of that, the next best bet is to make it legal.”

CONTACTS: Change.org, www.change.org; Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org.

Boston Police acquired more evidence against an alleged drug dealer after his mother inadvertently gave it to them.

Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement that after police arrested Travis Curry, 25, in his Tremont Street apartment building on Feb. 9 for a narcotics transaction with an undercover officer, officers asked Curry’s mother if she’d like to get some warmer clothes for Curry to wear. He was wearing shorts. Curry’s mother agreed and retrieved a sweatshirt and a pair of jeans from inside the apartment, where she handed the clothes to an officer. The officer felt a “hard object” inside the jeans, and upon inspection found a large folding knife, nine bags of crack cocaine and 15 bags of heroin.

Curry was arraigned yesterday in Suffolk Superior Court following his April 20 indictment on charges of distribution of a Class A substance, possession with intent to distribute Class A and Class B substances and violating the state’s drug laws within 1,000 feet of a school. Curry faces enhanced sentences as a second or subsequent drug offender.

Curry is being held on $2,000 cash bail and is ordered to stay away from Madison Park High School property, where Curry allegedly met the undercover officer prior to their encounter at the Tremont Street apartment building. He will return to court on June 20.

REVERE — In the cinematic world, the city of Boston has earned something of a dubious reputation, one of guns, drugs, and violence. Films like “The Departed,” “Mystic River” and “The Town” paint a grisly picture of mean, dark streets stalked by criminals of every stripe. Many locals decry this characterization, but for one Charlestown native, the fiction is a hell of a lot closer to the truth.

John Hickey did not follow the usual path to screenwriting success. Instead of writing short stories or attending film school, Hickey devoted much of his early years to a life on the streets – selling drugs, committing robberies, and starting fights. Indeed, he was already a well-known to local law enforcement when a seemingly innocuous prescription drug arrived on the market in 1996.

Oxycontin, a time-release opioid manufactured by Purdue Pharma, appeared to be the answer to the prayers of many chronic pain sufferers – one pill that offered the same relief over the course of a day as a handful of Percocets. But for Hickey and his fellow “townies”, already doing a lucrative trade in painkillers and ecstasy on their streets, the arrival of Oxycontin would prove a goldmine.

By removing the time-release seal on the pills, the prescription medication was instantly transformed into a narcotic infinitely more powerful and addictive than any other on the market – one that could be sold for top dollar and, as Hickey’s friends soon discovered, was far easier to obtain than the typical hard drugs.

Thus began a string of brazen robberies – of pharmacies, corner markets, any place the drug was sold – by Hickey and his crew. These robberies, often in broad daylight, earned them the moniker “Oxy Bandits” from the Boston Police and a great deal of local and national attention. Already dubbed “hillbilly heroin” for the frequency of its abuse in the Appalachia region, Oxycontin use became a hot topic in the early 2000s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQosySmYRfI

By 2004, Hickey’s reign of terror over Charlestown had come to an end – sentenced to three years in prison, he began to write the script that would become “Oxy-Morons.” Semi-autobiographical in nature, the film would prove to be Hickey’s redemption – his opportunity to get clean, get straight, and share his cautionary tale with the world.

“I always knew I’d make this movie,” Hickey stated at a recent showing of “Oxy-Morons” in Revere, Massachusetts. The film, initially released in 2010, is enjoying a second round of screenings, accompanied by panel discussions with Hickey, his costars, and members of the law enforcement and drug rehabilitation communities – an attempt, it would seem, to put this extraordinarily violent movie in context.

For a film of this nature – a low-budget endeavor rendered in crystal clarity by the RED camera – context is all but necessary. Unlike Darren Aronofsky’s “Requiem for a Dream” or Brian De Palma’s “Scarface,” films that have come to personify and glorify their respective drugs, “Oxy-Morons” eschews these stylistic trappings and goes straight for the gut. In vivid, at times appalling detail, Hickey showcases the Charlestown that he knows best – crime-ridden slums, rampant drug abuse and the gritty captivity of life, whether in prison or out. To further emphasize the reality, Hickey himself stars in the film, alongside other former residents of the Charlestown projects, Brenden Brennan and Hickey’s childhood friend David Burns.

Indeed, despite a 107-minute runtime, the film does not linger long on the good times, the flash and wealth that come with large-scale drug running. “I don’t want to show that side of it,” Hickey explained. “I want to show how it really is.” How it really is, it should be noted, is not for the faint of heart. Those who are squeamish may have difficulty enduring the rape, brutal beatings, drug overdoses and sheer volume of blood that soaks this film.

While shocking and controversial, the film is not without purpose: “There’s no sugarcoating it. The message needs to get out,” said Vincent Piro, founder of the H.E.A.T. (Heroin Education Awareness Taskforce) Program and the chief probation officer of the Woburn District Court. Piro has joined forces with Hickey in promoting “Oxy-Morons” with the sole mission of educating youths and their parents about the dangers of opioid use.

For many, Oxycontin and its derivatives serve as a “gateway” to heroin, a drug that has similar effects and is cheaper to obtain, but remains far more deadly. This spiral, so luridly depicted in the film, is what Piro and Hickey hope will extinguish any lingering glamor teens may see in prescription pills. As Hickey put it, “Watching them going from a pill to heroin to everyone being dead – that outweighs the rims and the guns and the money.”

While admittedly “loosely” based on his life, the honesty of Hickey’s film shines through, even in the seemingly impossible moments. Hickey’s character miraculously survives a fall off the roof of a multistory housing project, yet the fact of the matter is still more improbable: Hickey himself survived being thrown off an 80-foot cliff by a rival drug dealer. Despite massive internal injuries and doctors’ firm beliefs that he would never walk again, Hickey made a full recovery, though the incident proved to be a much-needed wake-up call: “It took me falling 80 feet to realize that that wasn’t a good life.”

That life is exactly what Hickey, Piro, and their supporters hope to keep future generations away from. Donations from the likes of the Boston Police Department and the Massachusetts Department of Correction allowed Hickey access to police cars, SWAT equipment and jail cells well beyond the film’s limited budget. This intense realism, especially palpable in the grim walls of Barnstable House of Correction, serves the film’s purpose well. “We made it as dark as possible to deter people from going down this path,” Hickey said.

Hickey, now fully recovered from his addiction to Oxycontin, has harsh words for those on the same track. His film closes with a stinging diatribe against the ingrained racism, codes of silence, and criminal culture that dominate “the towns,” perpetuating the violent lifestyles he has worked so hard to escape. “It has an expiration date,” Hickey explained. “You either go to jail, you get killed, or you expire yourself.”

The film is, for Hickey, education first and entertainment second. Far from being limited to the press, the audience for the movie and panel included a couple who would soon be bringing their teenage son, an Oxycontin user, home from rehab. They praised Hickey and Piro for their work in promoting awareness of the drug’s dangers, expressing hope that the film’s raw brutality would discourage future users.

Such is the ultimate goal for the drug dealer and convict turned indie screenwriter. John Hickey has learned from the past and shared that knowledge with the future, in the hopes that we will not be doomed to repeat it. For Vincent Piro, and others like him, who continue their efforts to keep young adults off of heroin and other deadly drugs, even the smallest victory from “Oxy-Morons” is a step in the right direction: “If you can save even one life, everything he’s done, the film, will be worth it.”

A boyfriend and girlfriend were arrested in Gloucester on charges they provided a fatal bag of heroin that was shared by another boyfriend and girlfriend, one of whom died Feb. 17 of overdose, according to the Gloucester Times.

Jeremiah Sullivan, 32, and Rheanna Bednarik, 31, who each have a criminal record for past drug violations and were on probation, face charges of distributing heroin, driving under the influence of drugs, and leaving the scene of an accident from a traffic crash.

According to the Times, Sullivan and Bednarik confessed they sold heroin to Amanda Scola, who shared the drugs with fiance, Michael Rogers. Rogers later died.

Another Gloucester man, Andrew Moulton, 27, died of heroin overdose Feb. 21, increasing calls for substance abuse programs in the diverse fishing community in the North Shore.

A fender bender accident proved deadly for a North Shore cab driver.

Shortly before 8 p.m. Friday, a 2003 Ford Crown Victoria taxi cab struck a 2010 Chevrolet Cobalt from behind on Rt. 1 in Lynnfield. The two drivers pulled over to the breakdown lane to check the damage, and the Cobalt driver called State Police on her cell phone. Suddenly, the trooper taking the call heard a loud crash, and the line went dead, State Police said in a statement.

While the drivers were standing between their vehicles in the breakdown lane, a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica crossover suddenly struck the Cobalt and then hit the taxi driver.

William J. Halpin III, 25, of Melrose, was the third driver. He was arrested and charge with driving under the influence of narcotics, said State Police Spokesman David Procopio.

The cab driver, Victor Vargas, 42, of Lynn, was taken to North Shore Medical Center-Lynn Union Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A 6-year-old boy who was a passenger in the Cobalt suffered a serious injury to his arm when the Pacifica struck the Cobalt and was treated at a local hospital.

The Cobalt’s driver, Patricia Ediamen, 30, of North Andover, who was also outside her vehicle at the time of the fatal crash, was not injured. Two other passengers in the Cobalt, a Framingham woman — whom police believe called the barracks after the initial minor crash — and a three-year-old boy, were also not injured.

Halpin also faces charges of motor vehicle homicide while under the influence, drug possession, speeding, and a marked lanes violation. He was being held and will be arraigend Monday in Peabody District Court.

State Police said that Halpin has a prior OUI charge on his record, but they did not elaborate.

Singer Bruno Mars, 25, arrested in a casino restroom last September, allegedly with 2.6 grams of cocaine in the left front pocket of his jeans. However, the prosecutor’s office confirmed Friday that Mars, whose real name is Peter Hernandez, could avoid prosecution for a drug arrest if he stays out of trouble for a year, gets drug counseling, does 200 hours of community service and pays a $2,000 fine.

According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal newspaper, the deal provides for the “deferred adjudication”  of the felony drug charge so the district attorney will not pursue the charges for 12 months as long as the singer complies with terms of their deal.

A multi-agency law enforcement team in Phoenix had an early start this morning, when their task force arrested 20 defendants out of a 53-count indictment.

The indictment states that from about September 2009 to December of 2010, the defendants conspired to purchase hundreds of firearms to be illegally exported to Mexico.

“Our office is committed to stopping the illegal flow of guns into Mexico,” said Dennis K. Burke, U.S. attorney for the district of Arizona in a statement. “The massive size of this operation sadly exemplifies the magnitude of the problem — Mexican Drug Lords go shopping for war weapons in Arizona.”

The Justice Department is trying to crack down on the gun trafficking across the Southwest Border. There have been reports of parallel cases, another 14 people have been charged with gun-trafficking crimes. The defendants are pending trial.

Special Agent in Charge of the ATF Phoenix Field Division, Bill Newell said, “This investigation is further proof of the relentless efforts by Mexican drug cartels, especially the Sinaloa Cartel, to illegally acquire large quantities of firearms in Arizona and elsewhere in the U.S. for use in the ongoing Mexican drug war.”

A program known as the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) has been put into place, The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply. This task will hopefully combat the Mexican Cartels and all of the associated violence, firearms trafficking, money laundering and corruption.

SAN DIEGO — An Oceanside truck driver pleaded guilty Thursday to transporting more than 19,400 pounds of marijuana to various distribution points in California.

Carlos Cunningham Jr., 29, admitted in San Diego federal court that he drove multiple trailer loads of marijuana from San Diego to the Central District of California, and that he was aware the marijuana was smuggled into the United States from Mexico through a cross-border tunnel. He faces 21 to more than 27 years in federal prison when he is sentenced April 18, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri Walker Hobson.

Cunningham was followed from the tunnel’s exit point — a warehouse in San Diego — to the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Temecula.

The 600-yard underground tunnel was discovered November 2. Agents seized an additional 28,782 pounds of marijuana from the warehouse, authorities said. Mexican authorities seized 9,878 pounds of marijuana from the tunnels entrance in a Tijuana home.

According to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, more than 77 cross-boarder smuggling tunnels have been detected in the last four years by federal authorities, mostly in California and Arizona.

Braintree police arrested a 15-year-old local alleged drug dealer, after he allegedly got high and stole his mother’s mini-van.

“Officer Kenneth Murphy was traveling on Union Street near the rotary late Wednesday evening … when he observed the mini- van in front of him without displaying headlights,” said Deputy Police Chief Russ Jenkins. “Officer Murphy effected an enforcement stop and approached the operator and immediately smelled an odor of burnt marijuana coming from inside the vehicle.”

Police said that the boy, whose name was not released because of his age, told police he had been smoking marijuana. Police then found some in an overhead sunglasses storage area.

Police did not say much much marijuana was found, but possession of less than ounce has been decriminalized in Massachusetts, and the boy was charged with possession.

The boy was cited for operating under the influence of drugs, driving without a license, using a motor vehicle without permission, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana, operating to endanger, and failure to display headlights.

He was brought home to his parents.

TUCSON, Ariz. — In the November election, Proposition 203 passed in Arizona by about 4,000 votes, legalizing medical marijuana here. Now people who are ill and meet the qualifications are allowed to purchase it from dispensaries in the state who obtain licenses to grow it.

With recent election results producing a controversial republican governor in Jan Brewer, some Tucsonans weighed in on why they think such a liberal proposition passed.

Lucas Baer, 26, who said he was “completely for” the proposition passing, believes that the people of Arizona still have the Wild West mentality. Baer, who is starting up his own business and is originally from Minnesota, has noticed that in Arizona, with its “open, adventurous landscape,” people are not quick to give up their individual liberties. Baer believes that Arizonans vote conservatively for officials, but when it comes to someone telling them what they can and cannot do they won’t stand for it.

“My old boss used to carry a gun on his hip,” Baer said, “and it was totally legal.” In this case, though, he tends to agree that marijuana’s bad image is “not necessarily justified,” and that it could potentially have some healing benefits.

Justin Freitag, 43, a school guidance counselor, also supported the proposition. In his opinion, the government “needs to legalize marijuana to gain control over the drug market.” If marijuana is legal, then it can be taxed, which would make the government money. Freitag believes that Pima County, of which Tucson is a part, is the only liberal county in Arizona. The rest of the counties, including Maricopa County where Phoenix rests, are conservative. He believes the other counties stack up this way because there are a lot of religious Christians and Mormons living there, and they tend to vote conservatively. He also believes that because the University of Arizona, with its hugely diverse population of students, is in Tucson, it also accounts for the more liberal voting in Pima County. Freitag, although he is in favor of Proposition 203, doesn’t think it will ever actually be implemented. He thinks it will be blocked with too much red tape. “Arizona is a very strange place,” he says.

“It’s just weird. Arizona is a contradiction. Technologically, it’s progressive. A lot of people have moved out here, yet education is horrible and we are a conservative red state.”

While some, like Baer and Freitag have formed pretty strong opinions about the subject, other Arizonans remain more neutral. Mr. Warren, a middle school science teacher, is undecided whether or not he is in favor of medical marijuana. Although he is not really sure why it passed, he believes that “everything boils down to money.” He is not entirely convinced that marijuana is a bad substance, because he believes that any plant could have medicinal purposes because of it. The makeup and photosynthesis of plants ensure that they have a lot of nutritional value. He is also not yet entirely convinced that marijuana, in any form but the plant form, has any medical benefits. He also thinks that there is no way to regulate between personal and medicinal use of marijuana. Even with the passing of Proposition 203, Warren is still not concerned either way. He says he has bigger things to worry about than medical marijuana.

Others, like Jessica Clines, 30, of Phoenix are very against it. Clines, a Mormon stay-at-home mother of two, believes the proposition passed because people were “voting based on what’s accepted and what feels good rather than what is actually the most beneficial for society as a whole.”

In her opinion, legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes puts the state that much closer to legalizing it completely.

“Young people engage in risky behavior enough without being encouraged to do so,” Clines said. She believes Arizona youths would abuse marijuana if it were legal, as they do now with alcohol. Clines thinks complete legalization of marijuana would be “detrimental” to the state.

But enough Arizonans came out in favor of medical marijuana to get it legalized. Medical marijuana will be legal to grow and purchase within the borders of the state by 2011. Only time will tell how Arizona is able to regulate this new process, and if it will help or hurt the state’s dwindling economy.

UNH's Thompson Hall. (Media Credit/Jimmy Emerson via Flickr)

The University of New Hampshire ranked number one in a recent Daily Beast list about the nation’s top 50 “druggiest” colleges. Bryant University follows at number two, with the University of Maine taking the number three spot.

The Daily Beast based its rankings on the prevalence of drugs on campus as reported by students to the website College Prowler, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services statistics measuring drug use by state and U.S. Department of Education data for on-campus drug-related arrests in 2009.

Williams College, Northeastern University and the University of Vermont are a few of the other New England colleges that made the list.

Other Daily Beast lists include the 30 Deadliest Meals of 2010 and America’s 25 Coldest Cities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized more than 2,100 pounds of marijuana and identified a cross-border smuggling tunnel Monday in Nogales, Ariz.

According to ICE, agents doing surveillance in Nogales identified a white Ford panel van that appeared to be riding low tot he ground. They later saw a round bundle fall out of the van as it pulled out of a parking lot. Agents stopped the van and found more than a ton of marijuana inside, which was packaged in ways that resembled marijuana seized from tunnel operations used to smuggle drugs from Mexico into the US>

“Whenever we identify bundles that appear to have come through a tunnel, it’s all hands on deck until we can identify the source,” said Kevin Kelly, assistant special agent in charge for Nogales. “In this case, we called in the Border Patrol and the Nogales Police Department and we were able to find the illicit tunnel east of the Morley Pedestrian Port of Entry.”

Agents later found a 13-foot tunnel in Nogales that extended from the Mexican International Border Fence right through a street surface. The tunnel was 10-inches in diameter and used only to move the drugs, not people.

Mexican authorities secured the tunnel on their end. Local officials in Nogales put a steel plate over the tunnel as federal agents collapsed it.

The van’s driver fled and was not arrested. A passenger was arrested and faces federal charges of possession of drugs with intent to distribute.

The passenger was in this country illegally and has been deported in the past.

A video showing Miley Cyrus smoking from a glass bong has exploded and become very controversial since sites like TMZ began posting it.

The video was taken last month around Cyrus’ 18th birthday and posted by TMZ. Precisely, the bong contained the herb salvia, a hallucinogenic drug made from a plant in the sage family and legal in many states.

Blast covered the salvia saga in November 2007.

Her father Billy Ray Cyrus tweeted about the incident: “Sorry guys. I had no idea. Just saw this stuff for the first time myself. Im so sad. There is much beyond my control right now.”

How do you think this will affect her career? Share your thoughts in the comments section.

A small civil war broke out briefly in Brazil in November, as the government tried to clamp down on Rio de Janeiro’s massive drug and gang problem. Boston.com’s Big Picture blog captured the scene wonderfully.

But as a December 2005 cable posted Tuesday by Wikileaks reveals, the problem is nothing new.

On November 30, 2005, drug dealers chose a passenger bus at random and burned it, killing five people and injuring 14 others.

“In a city where police brutality and drug gang violence have become almost daily routine, the story that 12 drug gang members had burned the bus to seek revenge on the Military Police who had killed one of their members the same day in the same favela, Bras de Pina, was shocking,” reads a cable from the US Consulate in Rio De Janeiro.

“The bus was apparently chosen at random; one of the armed gang members refused to let the bus driver open the back exit while other gang members poured gasoline on the bus floor and set fire to it. Only a few people managed to escape through the windows. Given the intensity of the blaze, the victims, burned alive, can only be identified through dental records or DNA testing (which could take up to one year).”

The cable shows a startling lack of security in Brazil, thought to be a modern country in South America and chosen to host the 2014 World Cup and beat out Chicago to host the 2016 Olympics Games.

“While civilians are frequent victims of police and criminal behaviour, a new level of violence was achieved with this act: instead of stray bullets from raids, assaults in the home and on the street, carjackings and ‘lightning kidnappings’ which appear random, this was an intentional act taken against innocent civilians,” the Cable reads.

In a December 9, 2005 cable, State Secretary for Security Marcelo Itagiba told a visiting American Congressional delegation headed up by Henry Hyde of Illinois that he was “optimistic about combating crime, drugs.”

“Itagiba described a series of measures which are better positioning Rio’s law enforcement community to fight the state’s notoriously high crime rate,” the cable reads.

But a November 2009 cable refers to increased problems as “a full-blown internal armed conflict, and not simply an urban crime problem.”

According to a November 2009 cable from the American Consulate in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, put online by Wikileaks on Tuesday, the elite young people there “party like the rest of the world.”

“Behind the facade of Wahabi conservatism in the streets, the underground nightlife for Jeddah’s elite youth is thriving and throbbing. The full range of worldly temptations and vices are available — alcohol, drugs, sex — but strictly behind closed doors. This freedom to indulge carnal pursuits is possible merely because the religious police keep their distance when parties include the presence or patronage of a Saudi royal and his circle of loyal attendants…”

Jeddah is on the coast of the Red Sea and is the major urban center of western Saudi Arabia. It is the largest port on the Red Sea and second largest city in Saudi Arabia. The population is about 3.4 million.

The party scene has recently been pushed further underground due to a recent increase in religious conservatism, the cable reads.

On Halloween 2009, Consulate employees attended a party with more than 150 young Saudis, mostly in their 20s and 30s, at a house of a Saudi prince.

“…the scene resembled a nightclub anywhere outside the Kingdom: plentiful alcohol, young couples dancing, a DJ at the turntables, and everyone in costume. Funding for the party came from a corporate sponsor, XXXXXXa U.S.-based energy-drink company as well as from the princely host himself,” the cable reads.

The party was under a strict guest list, and Saudi religious police, the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, were nowhere to be found.

Young people try to throw these kinds of parties at the house of a Saudi prince or elsewhere as long as a prince attends. There are more than 10,000 Saudi princes, so finding one is not difficult.

The cable also says that drugs and prostitutes were readily available.

Alcohol, though strictly prohibited by Saudi law and custom, was plentiful at the party’s well-stocked bar, well-patronized by Halloween revellers. (SIC) The hired Filipino bartenders served a cocktail punch using “sadiqi,” a locally-made “moonshine.” While top-shelf liquor bottles were on display throughout the bar area, the original contents were reportedly already consumed and replaced by sadiqi. On the black market, a bottle of Smirnoff can cost 1,500 riyals when available, compared to 100 riyals for the locally-made vodka. It was also learned through word-of-mouth that a number of the guests were in fact “working girls,” not uncommon for such parties. Additionally, though not witnessed directly at this event, cocaine and hashish use is common in these social circles and has been seen on other occasions.

“Saudi youth get to enjoy relative social freedom and indulge fleshly pursuits, but only behind closed doors — and only the rich,” the cable reads toward the bottom.

Legendary country singer Willie Nelson, 77, was charged with marijuana possession above 6 ounces, which was allegedly found aboard his tour bus.

Police spokesman Bill Brooks explains that the tour bus pulled into the checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas around 9 a.m. Friday. An officer smelled pot when a door was opened and happened to actually find marijuana.

In the end, three people were arrested, including the country singer.

Sheriff Arvin West told the El Paso Times that Nelson, a Texas native, claimed the marijuana was his. The singer was held briefly and paid $2,500 before being released.

SAN DIEGO — Proposition 19 has failed. It’s a done deal, and marijuana will not be legal in California.

But the poll numbers are looking a lot closer than many in the War on Drugs may have expected.

With 93 percent of precincts reporting, Prop. 19 received 54 percent opposition and 46 percent support.

Not bad for a measure that was universally opposed by law enforcement, elected officials in the Republican and Democratic parties, not to mention the entire federal government, which threatened to enforce anti-drug laws on Californians anyway, even if voters approved the measure.

Prop. 19′s place on the ballot did not bring people to the polls. Some people felt there would be a surge in young voters looking to legalize marijuana. Exit polls showed that only 1 in 10 voters came out to vote because of Proposition 19. The governor’s race was by far the top issue, followed by the senate race.

The measure would have allowed people possess an ounce of marijuana and grow up to 25 square feet of marijuana in their backyards.

Rapper Gucci Mane, who just got out of prison in may, was arrested in Atlanta on Tuesday afternoon for allegedly driving on the wrong side of the road.

According to police, the music star, whose real name is Radric Davis, was charged with failure to stop, damage to government property, obstruction, driving without a license, driving without proof of insurance, and other traffic citations.

Gucci Mane has a long history of drug problems and recently served six months of a year-long sentence for a parole violation

SAN DIEGO — Proposition 19, which would have legalized marijuana in California and subjected it to a state tax, has failed.

Prop. 19 made national headlines, but the idea had almost no backing from organizations with the funding to mount a statewide campaign.

Law enforcement groups, politicians from both major parties, and the federal government had come down hard on the idea of legalizing marijuana.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the Obama administration would overtly enforce federal drug laws in California, even if the measure passed.

Actor Zach Galifianakis famously smoked a joint on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” Friday night to show support for the bill.

Proposition 19 would have made it legal for adults age 21 and over to possess an ounce of marijuana and to grow a small amount of it. Local governments would also be allowed to tax it and permit commercial cultivation.

Lindsay Lohan arrives for a mandatory court appearance before a judge at Beverly Hills Courthouse on September 24. (WireImage)

Lohan is ordered to appear in person, and she has voluntarily spent the last three weeks at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., which is at least her fifth time in rehab after she bailed out of jail on September 24.

People reports that Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Steve Sitkoff, who is not directly involved in the case, said, “The key here is her progress in treatment. … The better she’s doing in rehab, the less likely Judge Elden Fox will throw her in jail.”

People magazine estimates that those are the possible scenarios on Friday:

• Lohan could be found in violation and be sent back to jail on the spot
• She could be ordered to stay in rehab in lieu of jail
• She might skip the hearing if her attorney can provide a letter from the Betty Ford Center demonstrating her progress
• Judge Fox could postpone the hearing all together to see how well she does in treatment

SAN DIEGO — In the biggest drug bust in Mexican history, officials seized more than 105 tons of Marijuana on Monday.

The marijuana was headed for the United States and is street valued at an amazing $340 million.

Initially, Tijuana police noticed a suspicious line of vehicles during a routine patrol. The officers came under fire and later discovered the drugs.

Eleven people were arrested during the bust for drug trafficking. One police officer and one suspect sustained injuries.

The packages were wrapped and displayed logos of specific distributors in the United States. The packages were found in trailers, houses, as well as a storage facility disguised as a recycling plant. The drugs had been accumulating for some time, arriving by land, air, and sea.

It is deemed likely the drugs belong to the Sinaloa cartel, headed by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Alejandro Poire, security spokesman for President Felipe Calderon.

T.I. has been sentenced to 11 months in jail for violating his probation after he was arrested on a drugs charge last month.

The 30-year-old rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, had been on probation after serving 10 months behind bars for a weapons conviction. He was stopped by police in Hollywood in September who arrested him on suspicion of possessing ecstasy. Also, the judge ordered the rapper to serve a year of supervised release.

During the hearing, Harris begged US District Court Judge Charles Pannell not to send him back to prison, saying he needed to get help for drug addiction.

“I screwed up big time, and I’m sorry. I’m truly and sincerely sorry. I don’t want and I don’t need to use drugs anymore. I want them out of my life,” he said.

His lawyers had argued that no-one had been jailed in the last 10 years in the northern court district of Georgia for a first drug violation of their probation, but the judge said he thought the rapper “had about the limit of second chances.”

Harris is expected to surrender voluntarily to authorities on November 1.

Dwayne Day, 40, of Braintree and his brother Michael, 38, of Boston, were arrested in Braintree on Wednesday afternoon on multiple drug and weapons charges, police said.

Drug unit detectives have been investigating drug activity in the area of 35/37 McCusker Drive for several months and have had the area under periodic surveillance. On Wednesday, Detective Michael Reynolds observed a suspicious vehicle in the visitor’s parking lot occupied by two men, later identified as the Day brothers. The vehicle drove away after the driver saw the police officer, but the car was stopped a short time later after another officer noticed he allegedly failed to signal a turn near the Braintree police station.

A K-9 unit was called in, and Officer Richard Seibert and his partner, “Lucky,” an English Labrador trained as a drug-sniffing dog, were called to the scene and Lucky alerted his partner to the car’s center console.

Inside, police found six bags of cocaine, totaling 14.6 grams. Dwayne also had about $1,300 in cash on him.

The brothers were arrested, and Dwayne’s McCusker Drive home was searched. Inside, police found more cocaine, two .38 caliber handguns and plenty of bullets. One of the guns had its serial number filed off.

Both men were charged with multiple drug and weapons charges, including trafficking in cocaine, conspiracy to violate the Controlled Substances Act, a school zone violation, possession of a firearm without a permit, possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number and possession of ammunition.

The Day brothers were arraigned Thursday in Quincy District Court and are being held on $15,000 cash bail. Their next court date is November 8.

A Braintree man faces charges after a two-month police investigation into the sale of cocaine in the small city south of Boston.

Jeffrey P. Laun, 35, was arrested after police acted on tips that he was responsible for much of the city’s coke problem.

According to a police statement, Braintree police put Laun under surveillance at his home. On Friday, officers followed him to another house on Drinkwater Avenue. A second man arrived at the home about two hours later. Police said the second man was Laun’s drug connection and that they saw Laun accept “delivery of drugs” from the second man.

As Laun drove away five minutes later, police stopped him and searched him and his car, finding six bags of cocaine in his pants pocket and a seventh bag in the car.

The second man also drove away — and police said nothing else about him or whether he was arrested.

The homeowner, a 32-year-old Briantree man whose name was not released, also faces drug charges after police raided his home and seized a bag of cocaine and drug packaging materials.

Laun is being charged with trafficking in cocaine, conspiracy to violate the Controlled Substances Act and a drug free school zone violation, since he was allegedly receiving his shipment near the May School in Braintree.