The New York area almost had a huge influx of opium last month! That is, until officers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection at JFK decided to get nosy and crack open a porcelain cat statue that came in on a flight from Thailand. Inside they found a bag of raw opium, and, after opening the other statues, discovered a total of 205-pounds of it, worth an estimated $9 million.
Alleged crack dealer Jaquan "Jay Cash" Layne — while sitting in prison on armed-robbery charges — back in 2009 made phone calls from a Riker's Island pay phone to his lackluster sales crew in Harlem, prosecutors said yesterday according to the Post. So, how does one go about motivating a group of less-than-motivated crack dealers? Here's a several step guide, according to recorded conversations from Layne:
A new study that compared ecstasy users to non-users found that ecstasy doesn't impair cognitive ability, contradicting the results of earlier studies. This study—published on Tuesday in Addiction—was unique in that its subjects—even the non-users—were all rave-goers, and therefore undergoing the same experience of sleep deprivation, dehydration, annoying guy with the goddamn glow sticks, etc.; even then, researchers "found no ominous, concerning risks to cognitive performance" [CBC]
Is smoking marijuana making you bad at sex? "Recent research—including the finding that the penis contains receptors for marijuana's active ingredient—suggests that young men may want to think about long-term effects before rolling a joint," writes LiveScience. Dr. Rany Shamloul of the University of Ottawa, Queen's University in Canada and the University of Cairo (Wow! Good for him!) tells the website, "it's a strong message to our younger generations and younger men." Indeed!
Imagine having surgery to remove kidney stones without pain medication? That's what happened to a man in Minnesota last November after a nurse, Sarah May Casareto, shot herself up with the dose of fentanyl meant for him. According to the police report obtained by the Star Tribune, Casareto told the patient pror to surgery, "You're gonna have to man up here and take some of the pain because we can't give you a lot of medication."
Police say they found a "small bag" of crack hidden inside the foreskin of one Antoine Banks, late of Fairdale, Ky., during a strip search ordered after another small bag of cocaine was found "tied to the waistband of Banks' boxers." There are, probably, better places on one's body to secrete contraband—certainly there are more comfortable places—but the drug-concealing ability of the male human foreskin is, I think, an under-explored aspect of the circumcision debate. [WLKY]
Following Louisiana's lead, last week Florida slapped an emergency ban on synthetic drugs that are marketed as "bath salts" because people are losing their minds after snorting and smoking "Vanilla Sky," "White Lightning," and "Ivory Snow." The state's attorney general was pushed to ban the "drug" after some people flipped out, according to NPR:
America's pharmacies are under assault by desperate junkies willing to do anything for their next Oxycontin fix! If you went to high school in small-town America, this is old news; you almost certainly know at least one guy who was doing this way before it was a New York Times-certified trend. Wherever there is an assured supply of opiates, so too will there be a screwdriver-wielding mullet-sporter willing to menace a Rite Aid employee in order to get some of those opiates. But now, it must be admitted, the crimes are costing our nation's pharmacies a bit of their traditional charm:
