DENVER - Fake drugs are coming into Colorado from all over the world. Those are the findings of investigators with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). "We have a number of ongoing investigations," said Kumar Kibble, Special Agent in charge of ICE-HSI in Denver. ICE-HSI, in partnership with the Department of Justice, seized 686 websites that were illegally selling counterfeit medications. Project "Bitter Pill" is part of a global law enforcement operation known as "Pangea V." According to an ICE press release, "Pangea is an annual operation aimed at disrupting the organized crime networks behind the illicit online sale of fake drugs. Worldwide, preliminary results show Pangea has accounted for 79 arrests and the seizure of 3.7 million doses of potentially life-threatening counterfeit medicines worth an estimated value of $10.5 million. Additionally, approximately 18,000 websites engaged in illegal sale of counterfeit drugs were taken down." Kibble says those sites will sell counterfeit drugs to anyone, even people without a prescription. "Their money is going to fund an organized criminal network that is then using those proceeds to continue to push fake and potentially harmful drugs around the world," Kibble said. A quick Google search will pop up … Continue reading →

Editors Note: This is the first article in a three-part series on drug addiction in Dedham. Other articles in this series will tackle the personal stories and town response. In 2012 alone, Dedham Police responded to three fatal drug overdoses. Drug addiction is also responsible for countless robberies in town, according to Dedham Police detectives Robert Walsh and Kevin Mahoney. They deal with the lions share of the departments drug cases. Drug use is probably one of the bigger issues facing Dedham, Walsh said recently in his office on High Street. But Ill also say this: its no bigger a problem here than it is anywhere else. Police are working to control the problem, but Walsh and Mahoney said they are getting overwhelmed. The need for drugs and the money to buy them drives people to shoplift, steal from family members and break into cars and homes. Finding a way to reverse the trend toward addiction could go a long way toward improving life in town, they said. The primary cause of the widespread problem is the explosive growth of opiate pain medications pills like Percocet and OxyContin which contain habit-forming active ingredients, according to a recent statewide drug report. … Continue reading →

The world has watched the crescendoing pushback, coming mostly from Latin America, against the United States-dominated "war on drugs" for the past three years with incredulity as the drug policy debate continues to mark new firsts. First, in 2009, it was former presidents from Latin America who declared the war on drugs was an outright failure (they were later joined by officials and business leaders from around the globe communicating a similar message). Then, sitting presidents from across the region began to speak out, urging the US to rethink policies that they say have only contributed to more violence and mayhem in Latin America. This spring they pushed the topic onto the agenda for the summit of the Organization of American States (OAS), which for the first time agreed to study alternative drug policies. And then Uruguay proposed a state-regulated legal marijuana market that would be the first of its kind. But now, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico hardly liberal bastions have taken the matter a step further. The Latin American countries, each threatened by drug violence, sent a clearly worded declaration to the United Nations, inviting member states to undertake a consultation process to come up with more effective drug … Continue reading →