# 9

Loved ones not inclined to attribute deaths to adult choices made by self-administering substance abusers.  Everyone's looking for something else to blame.

Two middle-aged neighbors once introduced themselves to me and, without introducing their 20-something son, they told me he was living with them as he had been dishonorably discharged from the Navy.

About two weeks later at 0100 or 0200AM, I had a face-to-face encounter with a young man walking on my deck outside the rear door of our home.  I asked the man to leave my property.  The man stated that he was looking for his cat.  I told him that he needed to get off my property or I would call the police.  Then he stated that he was my neighbor though we were never introduced.

A few days later, during afternoon hours, I approached the parents to explain the late night encounter with their son.  After hearing my description of the encounter, the mother commenced to provide an oblique defense for what happened that night.

She said, "You have to understand that cat; it doesn't listen to him and it just does what it wants...."

I interrupted her, saying, "Lady, you are describing the behavior of a cat while I am describing the behavior of an adult human."  At that point, the husband spoke up and reported that he understood and his son would not be trespassing again.

Friends and family members of adult substance abusers may want to examine the above event and determine whether they ever find themselves deflecting responsibility away from the adult substance abuser's choices and attributing events to the "cat" or the substance.

# 8

Let's revisit the heavily emphasized issues of choice and being an adult; why do legislatures place such emphasis here?

Except for Criminal Conspiracies (where two or more actors are necessary elements for a crime to take place) a Crime occurs when two elements are present and involving a single adult:

Criminal Intent  (mens rea)

Criminal Act  (actus reus)

The Virginia Legislature built into its DWI law (below) the necessary element that the substances which have intoxicated a suspect driver had to have been self-administered (note highlighted term below).  Strangely, this is a safeguard should anyone ever find themselves the subject of abduction where the captors force the swallowing of a bottle of whisky and then release the individual ordering him to drive away.  Such a person, if they could produce evidence that they did not self-administer the substances which caused them to become intoxicated, probably could never be convicted.

Judges and Prosecutors, on the other hand, have seen far too few of these defenses and the great majority of adult DWI cases involve defendants who make no effort to assert that they had not self-administered the substance.

Clearly, the act of self-administration - made by an adult- constitutes proof that the adult made a conscious choice (mens rea) and took a conscious action (actus reus).

§ 18.2-266. Driving motor vehicle, engine, etc., while intoxicated, etc.

Bills amending this Section

It shall be unlawful for any person to drive or operate any motor vehicle, engine or train (i) while such person has a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent or more by weight by volume or 0.08 grams or more per 210 liters of breath as indicated by a chemical test administered as provided in this article, (ii) while such person is under the influence of alcohol, (iii) while such person is under the influence of any narcotic drug or any other self-administered intoxicant or drug of whatsoever nature, or any combination of such drugs, to a degree which impairs his ability to drive or operate any motor vehicle, engine or train safely, (iv) while such person is under the combined influence of alcohol and any drug or drugs to a degree which impairs his ability to drive or operate any motor vehicle, engine or train safely, or (v) while such person has a blood concentration of any of the following substances at a level that is equal to or greater than: (a) 0.02 milligrams of cocaine per liter of blood, (b) 0.1 milligrams of methamphetamine per liter of blood, (c) 0.01 milligrams of phencyclidine per liter of blood, or (d) 0.1 milligrams of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine per liter of blood. A charge alleging a violation of this section shall support a conviction under clauses (i), (ii), (iii), (iv), or (v).

The Virginia Legislature, its Prosecutors and Judges approach the Criminal Code and Narcotics Laws soberly and when the defendant is an adult they impute to every adult the standing and presumption that the adult made a choice for which, if convicted, there are consequences as well as punishment.

# 7

Near daily examples of the fatal consequences resulting from adult choices, frequently based upon misplaced trust that dosage is therapeutic, substance is pure and not laced with a second substance, and possibly that Narcan can "save the day."

Fentanyl...Heroin laced with Fentanyl.

The 22 individuals reported in this single-day case from New Haven, Connecticut may have known their distributer; but did they know the person who obtained and added the Fentanyl? 

Did they know the volume of Fentanyl which was added to the Heroin?

Did they know that they were purchasing an additional toxic/potentially fatal substance, in addition to the Heroin they thought they were purchasing?

Officials declare health emergency in Connecticut city after string of overdoses

Published June 24, 2016

FoxNews.com

Officials in a Connecticut city said Thursday they are experiencing a major public health crisis after more than 20 overdoes were reported, including two fatal cases.

New Haven health officials told WTNH-TV that they activated the emergency notification system to warn residents about the tainted life-threatening heroin on the streets. According to the New Haven Independent the batches of heroin were laced with fentanyl.

Officials said by Thursday night there were about 22 overdoses and two deaths reported. Police said those numbers could rise.

“I don’t ever recall a day like this ever. I don’t think we’ve had this amount in a very, very long,” assistant Fire Chief Matt Marcarelli told the paper. “We have barely enough Narcan to get throughout the night. We’re hoping it calms down. We used up almost the whole supply of Narcan in the city.”

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/heroin_overdose/

Naloxone, also known as Narcan, is administered to someone who is overdosing on heroin to reverse its effects. The fire department was working with the Yale-New Haven Hospital and AMR ambulance in Hartford to obtain more.

Paramedics started to respond to emergency calls at around 3:30 p.m. By then, at least six people had overdoes and were unconscious within three to four blocks of each other, the Independent reported.

From the New Haven Independent regarding the same series of events, we read:

More calls followed the Bowen one: Another two overdoses back in Newhallville, then two more around 9 p.m. at the Walgreens parking lot at George and York streets. One of the two women found there — a mother and a daughter — went into cardiac arrest.
One of the women was reported dead at 10:16 p.m.
Fentanyl has become a popular additive among heroin dealers in the U.S. It produces a more intense high. It also kills more people.
“Fentanyl is 80-100 times more potent than heroin,” Marcarelli said, “so it requires that much more Narcan to reverse it.”

Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

Fentanyl  (below are links to the Drug Enforcement Agency's one page fact sheet and a documentary film which emphasizes the deaths resulting from the choices and the toxicity)

http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/drug_chem_info/fentanyl.pdf

http://interactive.fusion.net/death-by-fentanyl/intro.html

# 6

Examining what the scientists, detectives and medical examiners know about metabolism and metabolites

and

Examining how thoughtful and shrewd adult drug addicts are; removing any notion that they are possessed zombies having absolutely no cognitive control over their lives and that they cannot possibly have advanced powers to manipulate other people.

One of the greatest discoveries in medical science came in identifying opium as an effective medicine, in small quantities and used in Paregoric:

The principal active ingredient in Paregoric is powdered opium. In the United States the formula for Paregoric, U.S.P. is tincture of opium 40 ml, anise oil 4 ml, benzoic acid 4 g, camphor 4 g, glycerin 40 ml, alcohol 450 ml, purified water 450 ml, diluted alcohol^[14] to 1000 ml, and contains the equivalent of 0.4 mg/ml of anhydrous morphine; one ounce of paregoric contains 129.6 mg (2 grains) of powdered opium, or the equivalent of 13 mg of anhydrous morphine.^[15][16] The average adult dose is 4 ml by mouth which corresponds to 16 mg of opium, or 1.6 mg of anhydrous morphine."^[2]
It is unclear when the current formula for Paregoric, U.S.P. was developed in the United States, and more research is needed. For example, one formula for "Camphorated Tincture of Opium (Paregoric Elixir)" attributed to the United States Pharmacoepia of 1863 is: "Macerate 1 drachm each powdered opium and benzoic acid, 1 fluid drachm of anise, 2 ounces clarified honey, and 2 scruples camphor, in 2 pints diluted alcohol for 7 days, and filter through paper."^[17] A slightly different formula is given in the 1926 pharmacoepia.^[18]
The current formula for Paregoric, U.S.P. should not be assumed to be universal. For example, in the United Kingdom the formula for Paregoric, B.P. is tincture of opium 5 ml, benzoic acid 500 mg, camphor 300 mg, anise oil 0.3 ml, alcohol (60%) to 100 ml, and contains about 1/30th grain of anhydrous morphine in 60 minims,^[15] which is 25% stronger than Paregoric, U.S.P.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paregoric

Paregoric with opium saves young children's lives by stemming diarrhea and by suppressing cough. 

Opium, like heroin, an alkaline substance produced from the poppy plant, enters the body by many routes (oral, intravenous, snorted, etc.) and is metabolized by the liver.  It is broken down, chemically, and a byproduct is excreted through the kidneys and collected in the urinary bladder as morphine.  Not every detective or police officer knows this.  Every hard-core junky knows this and, in mostly urban settings, junkies have been known to drink each other's urine for the purpose of utilizing the morphine.  Every Forensic Pathologist should know this.

Why is this an issue?

At hospital admission, urine screening produces a quicker snapshot for Physicians than bloodwork.  When the patient is unconscious, the Doctors need to have the results of a urine screening so they can provide the best care.  In the case of a Heroin or Opium overdose, the urine screen will not test positive for Heroin or Opium because the patient's liver has performed a chemical reaction and converted the substance used into a metabolite.  

When a prosecutor or family receives a death certificate or toxicology report, and they knew that the decedent was a heroin/opium abuser, there may be puzzlement when the substance found in their system is listed as morphine.

As the reader can see by examining the ingredients listed above for Paregoric, it is clear that Opium constitutes 40ml (30ml, roughly constitutes one ounce).  A much larger volume of other ingredients are used, for example 450ml of water and 450ml of diluted alcohol.  This scientific and laboratory controlled mixture produces a regulated and uniform substance which has performed its medicinal purpose for more than 100 years.

In the case of illicit substances, like powdered cocaine or heroin for example,  persons along the supply chain are commonly known to reduce the volume of the active substance by increasing inert substances.  In the criminal narcotics world, these additional inert substances increase is known as "cutting" or "stepping on" the batch.  It is a means by which distributors who have absolutely no regard for the abuser's health/safety nor for their loved ones can increase their profit by stretching a fixed amount of the illicit substance.

In a Northern Virginia case from the 1980s, a young man fell from the fourth floor of a parking garage and he was pronounced dead by a physician at the Fairfax Hospital.  The Northern Virginia Medical Examiner performed the autopsy and did not rule the death "accidental."  Instead, because she found that all of the coronary arteries and aorta were occluded by plaque originating from the cutting agents used for Cocaine (Manitol, powdered sugar, powdered milk) and the toxicology report indicated a high level of cocaine in the subject's blood, she ruled that death was caused by coronary artery disease, cause by extreme cocaine related obstructions.

If the reader harkens back to the example of KoolAid dissolved in a gallon of water, the reader must understand that dissolved substances like sugar, mannitol, flour, powdered milk can precipitate out from the solutions into which they are placed.  These precipitated, reverse-dissolved, non-active ingredients can be as harmful or more harmful than the regulated substance because they can cause infection and they can form blockages in the circulatory system, lungs, at the point of injection or inhalation.  Examine the following photo of a subject who, through prolonged cocaine abuse, perforated the soft palate at the roof of his mouth:

Intravenous substance abusers are very resourceful and single-minded about bathing their brains in their substance of choice.  Intravenous abusers start by injecting at the bend in their right or left arm.  This site allows them ease for tying-off so as to raise the vein, however, it leaves track-marks and drops of blood.  So these abusers adapt.  They start wearing long sleeved shirts...even on the hottest days.  These veins are not forgiving and, with over use and infections, they may collapse.  Resourceful abusers move to site backups and they have been known to inject between toes, under the tongue and even into their own jugular veins.

Judges are fully aware that adult abusers continue to make conscious and self-serving decisions as they go about; stealing to support their habits, destroying relationships between family and friends, neglecting spouses, children, employers.  Judges, like most of society, are not willing to entertain the "devil made me do it" defense and defense attorneys know better than to advance such nonsense.

High School Football Coach Wisdom :

Men, in life, there are three decisions which are yours and yours alone which you can make:

1.  You can chose your faith.

2.  You can chose your friends.

3.  You can chose what you put into your bodies.

# 5

Outside of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (as it applies to US Military Personnel) does the U.S. Code and do State Criminal Laws really prohibit drug use?  Or, are all such claims regarding the unfairness of jailing adults for "using" prohibited drugs; bogus?

Shouldn't the readers have a firm understanding that it is the possession of prohibited substances which carries penalties which can include imprisonment?

Let's examine this:

Obama Says Treating Drug Use as a Criminal Problem is "Counterproductive"

January 22, 2015 - By Tony Newman

President Barack Obama continues to speak out against mass incarceration, the devastating impact of our drug policies on communities of color and his expectation that marijuana legalization will continue to spread.

Obama’s comments came today during his YouTube interviews with YouTube bloggers, Bethany Mota, GloZell Green, and Hank Green.

Some Obama nuggets from today’s interview include this on marijuana:

“What you’re seeing now is Colorado, Washington through state referenda, they’re experimenting with legal marijuana,” the president said in response to a question from host Hank Green.
“The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that classify marijuana as an illegal substance, but we’re not going to spend a lot of resources trying to turn back decisions that have been made at the state level on this issue. My suspicion is that you’re gonna see other states start looking at this.”

Obama also addressed how we should treat people who are not violent drug offenders.

“What I am doing at the federal level,” Obama responded, “is asking my Department of Justice just to examine generally how we are treating nonviolent drug offenders, because I think you’re right.”

“What we have done is instead of focusing on treatment — the same way we focused, say, with tobacco or drunk driving or other problems where we treat it as public health problem — we’ve treated this exclusively as a criminal problem,” the president said. “I think that it’s been counterproductive, and it’s been devastating in a lot of minority communities. It presents the possibility at least of unequal application of the law, and that has to be changed.”

President Obama and Attorney General Holder have repeatedly spoken out against the drug war and mass incarceration. Back last January President Obama made national news with an interview with the New Yorker.

“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol," Obama told David Remnick.

The president expressed concern about disparities in arrests for marijuana possession. “Middle-class kids don’t get locked up for smoking pot, and poor kids do,” Obama said, adding that individual users shouldn’t be locked up “for long stretches of jail time.”  http://www.drugpolicy.org/blog/obama-says-treating-drug-use-criminal-problem-counterproductive

As the reader can see by examining the President's selection of his words, and he is a member of the Bar and knows that the laws use the term "possession", not "use," yet he opts for a term which is not used by the legislatures which create the Criminal Law.

In contrast, examining the law as written in the Commonwealth of Virginia, readers will not find that use or usage is proscribed.


Code of Virginia § 18.2-248. Manufacturing, selling, giving, distributing, or possessing with intent to manufacture, sell, give, or distribute a controlled substance or an imitation controlled substance prohibited; penalties.

A. Except as authorized in the Drug Control Act (§ 54.1-3400 et seq.), it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture, sell, give, distribute, or possess with intent to manufacture, sell, give or distribute a controlled substance or an imitation controlled substance.

Code of Virginia  § 18.2-250. Possession of controlled substances unlawful.

A. It is unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally to possess a controlled substance unless the substance was obtained directly from, or pursuant to, a valid prescription or order of a practitioner while acting in the course of his professional practice, or except as otherwise authorized by the Drug Control Act (§ 54.1-3400 et seq.).
Upon the prosecution of a person for a violation of this section, ownership or occupancy of premises or vehicle upon or in which a controlled substance was found shall not create a presumption that such person either knowingly or intentionally possessed such controlled substance.

The following is a reference to the Federal, U.S. Code law regarding "simple possession" as found in Nevada:

Penalties

A first-time conviction of violating federal law for simple possession of narcotics carries a sentence of:

·         up to one year in Federal Prison, and/or

·         a minimum fine of $1,000

Meanwhile second-time conviction of simple drug possession carries a sentence of:

·         fifteen days to two years in prison, and

·         a minimum fine of $2,500

 And third or successive conviction of simple possession of controlled substances carries a sentence of:

·         ninety days to three years in prison, and

·         a minimum fine of $5,000

Note that past drug possession convictions in any state court count as "previous convictions" in Nevada federal court. So a defendant with only a first-time conviction of violating federal drug possession law may still be punished as a repeat offender if he/she has past drug possession convictions in a state court.

Also note that defendants who are convicted under 21 U.S.C. § 844 face extra fines to cover reasonable costs of the investigation and prosecution of the case. However, the court may waive all fines if it determines that the defendant has no ability to pay.

Finally, note that all federal drug cases in Nevada are litigated in either the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas, or the Bruce R. Thompson Federal Courthouse in Reno.

http://www.shouselaw.com/nevada/federal-simple-possession.html

Below is a reference to the Federal, U.S. Code as it applies and is interpreted in Pennsylvania; again, possession, not use, is what is proscribed.

Laws Governing Drug Use

A. Federal Law

The Federal Government prohibits the manufacture, distribution, dispensation and possession of controlled substances unless specifically permitted by statute.

In addition to the manufacture, distribution or sale of controlled substances, federal law prohibits unauthorized possession of controlled substances. Penalties for simple possession include up to one year imprisonment and/or at least a $1,000.00 fine (but less than $10,000.00) for a first offense; up to two years imprisonment and/or at least a $2,500.00 fine (but less than $250,000.00) for a second offense; up to three years imprisonment and/or at least a $5,000.00 fine (but less than $250,000.00) for subsequent offenses. Special sentencing provisions apply to the possession of crack cocaine. Special federal penalties apply to the sale or distribution of controlled substances to persons under age 21 or within 1,000 feet of school, college or university property.

http://drexel.edu/studentlife/community_standards/studentHandbook/Drug_Free_Schools_and_Communities_Act/laws_drug_use/

To continue this dialog, an open invitation for laws in the United States which carry jail time for mere use of a prohibited substance - in the absence of possession (let's say its prior use is confirmed through a urine or blood test)- is extended; please cite the Code Sections and State.  Absent any proof, all should agree that possession is what is outlawed; not use.

# 4

Qualitative Analysis and Quantitative Analysis; Substances are chemicals in large part.

If we took one gallon of cool water and poured a packet of grape KoolAid into the pitcher of water, but failed to adequately stir the mixture, the first glass of liquid poured from that pitcher would have a very high percentage of water and a very low percentage of the sugar and grape flavoring which fell to the bottom of the pitcher.

Common experience in our society indicates that the mixture would get closer to full equilibrium if we took some time to stir and dissolve the solids throughout the fluid.

Perhaps an even better solution would be created if we first dissolved the powdered KoolAid in a small volume of boiling water and then stirred in the remaining gallon of cool, pure water.

Using the above example, and bringing in Forensic Chemists, they are frequently given a fluid or a dry substance and they are asked to reverse engineer an analysis of the unknown mixture back to its original ingredients.

A reverse analysis of the KoolAid mixture may show a Chemist a finding of:

98% water

1.5% refined, sugar

0.05% artificial grape flavoring

Given that such chemical mixtures can be prepared in the clean environment of your home's kitchen, consider some of the scenes, below, where others concoct their mixtures:

From which lab would you want your substances to originate?  Which regulatory agency will insure purity for your consumption?  What level of insurance has your manufacturer purchased, for your ultimate protection?

The phenomenon of increased levels of purity, for illicit substances sold on the street and reported around the country in 2016, has happened before - even in the Nation's Capital:

HEROIN OVERDOSE DEATHS RISE AS DRUG'S PURITY TRIPLES HERE

By Nancy Lewis June 10, 1990

The level of purity of heroin available for sale on the streets in Washington has more than tripled in two years, resulting in a surge in drug overdose deaths in the last 12 months.

Medical authorities say the new potency and its unpredictability threaten longtime heroin addicts as well as new heroin users who are attracted to the narcotic as a way of easing the crash from crack.

Although complete statistics are not available, the D.C. medical examiner's records show that at least 100 people died last year with lethal amounts of both cocaine and heroin in their bodies -- twice the number who died of heroin-cocaine combinations the previous year and a 2,500 percent increase over the four deaths in 1985.

Most of last year's deaths occurred in the year's final five months. No figures are available for 1990, but sources say preliminary indications are that the high level of overdose deaths is continuing.

"Instead of the crash they normally get from crack, addicts are learning that if they do some heroin they can float down," said Beverly Coleman-Miller, a doctor with the D.C. Department of Public Health.

"Then they find that if they do more and more heroin, the crack lasts longer and longer," Coleman-Miller said.

Law enforcement officials say the deadly heroin is the result of a glut of the drug on the international market that has allowed a new breed of drug entrepreneurs to bypass traditional international networks and import the drug directly from Turkey, China and other producer countries.

Heroin, which used to be "cut" or diluted many times as it passed through numerous middlemen in the drug network, is now reaching Washington wholesalers in the full strength that it left the processing lab -- 80 to 98 percent purity.

The purity of heroin sold on the street is now routinely found to be between 30 and 40 percent.

The emergency medical personnel in the District, where the area's heroin use is centered, are seeing the effects of the stronger heroin.

"They don't wake up the way they used to," one worker said of the efforts to revive addicts who have taken the purer heroin.

The medical protocol calls for administering 2 milligrams of Narcan, the main antidote to heroin, but many addicts here now require much stronger doses, sources said.

Capt. Collin Younger, commander of the D.C. police department's narcotics branch, said the purity of street-sale heroin "started to creep up" several years ago from the longtime level of 2 to 4 percent.

Then, about a year ago, narcotics officers began finding street-sale heroin in the 30 percent purity range, a level that two years earlier was the purity of heroin at the wholesale level.

Law enforcement officials fear the purer heroin, which is strong enough and inexpensive enough to be smoked or sniffed, may also be attracting a new group of users who had previously avoided the drug because of their aversion to needles -- the traditional way to ingest heroin -- and the threat of AIDS from shared needles.

Authorities say they haven't documented a major rise in the number of heroin users, but they say that heroin addiction has been a significant and continuing problem in the District for two decades. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1990/06/10/heroin-overdose-deaths-rise-as-drugs-purity-triples-here/2da5c3a5-871d-4e94-9755-5483f87a2e22/

How do lawful substance producers ensure consumer safety?

The two pharmaceutical labs displayed above are examples of how lawful drug manufacturers meet and clear multiple hurdles established by the government in order to ensure consumer safety when they produce licit substances.

• Headed by Board Certified Physicians and Scientists
• Operate in approved, quality controlled and sanitary labs; open for government inspection
• Submit samples for qualitative analysis; submit to surprise inspections
• Utilize industry standards which ensure thorough distribution of the active ingredient throughout the inert substances
• Establish a social contract between lab and prescribing physicians and lab and consumer
• Provide adequate insurance for consumer protection
• Dedicate large investments to insure safe consumer packaging
• Conduct LD50 testing on laboratory animals and prepare reports on lethal dosage

Better understanding of the risks can come from an awareness of the Tylenol Packaging/Adulteration Scandal of 1986

A Brief History of the Tylenol Poisonings

By Dan Fletcher Monday, Feb. 09, 2009

Tylenol capsules are removed from the shelves of a drug store after reports of tampering in February of 1986.

Psychologists called the killer so strange that their normal guidelines "just don't work." And now, more than 26 years after Tylenol capsules laced with potassium cyanide killed seven people in the Chicago area, the Tylenol murders still have enough people scratching their heads that the FBI reopened the case and is taking a fresh look at old suspects.

The murders started in September 1982, when the parents of Mary Kellerman gave the 12-year-old a painkiller when she woke up complaining of a cold. She died hours later. Postal worker Adam Janus died in another Chicago suburb later that morning. Janus' brother and his brother's wife, complaining of headaches while mourning Adam, died too. In a few days the death toll grew — the only link being that each victim had taken Extra-Strength Tylenol. (See the top 10 unsolved crimes.)

On testing, each of the capsules proved to be laced with potassium cyanide at a level toxic enough to provide thousands of fatal doses. Police were baffled — the pills came from different production plants and were sold in different drug stores around the Chicago area. Their conclusion was that someone was most likely tampering with the drug on the store shelves. The deaths set off a nationwide panic, as stores rushed to remove Tylenol from their shelves and worried consumers overwhelmed hospitals and poison control hotlines. Chicago police went through the streets with loudspeakers, warning residents of the dangers of taking Tylenol. Johnson & Johnson, the drug's manufacturer, spent millions of dollars recalling the pills from stores.

The tampering inspired hundreds of copycat incidents across the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration tallied more than 270 different incidents of product tampering in the month following the Tylenol deaths. Pills tainted with everything from rat poison to hydrochloric acid sickened people around the country. Some copycats expanded to food tampering: that Halloween, parents reported finding sharp pins concealed in candy corn and candy bars. Some communities banned trick-or-treating all together.

Police never arrested anyone for the original Tylenol murders, but tax consultant James Lewis wrote a letter to Tylenol's manufacturer in October 1982 demanding $1 million to "stop the killings." Lewis had a strange past. He had been charged with a 1978 Kansas City murder after police found the remains of one of his former clients in bags in his attic; charges were dropped after a judge ruled that the police search of Lewis' home was illegal. But police could never tie him to the Tylenol killings and he denied committing them. Lewis was convicted of extortion for the letter and spent more than 12 years in federal prison. Richard Brzeczek, the Chicago police superintendent at the time, said it was unlikely Lewis would ever be prosecuted for the killings themselves.

But when the FBI reopened their investigation in early February, the focus shifted back to Lewis. His Cambridge, Mass. office was searched as well as a storage unit he had rented nearby. The FBI has been tightlipped about the reason for the search and haven't named Lewis in conjunction with the reopened investigation. Police still have some of the tainted Tylenol capsules from the original killings and are hopeful some DNA can be recovered from the pills for testing.

The killings did have a measurable, positive impact, however: a revolution in product safety standards. In the wake of the Tylenol poisonings, pharmaceutical and food industries dramatically improved their packaging, instituting tamperproof seals and indicators and increasing security controls during the manufacturing process. The result has been a dramatic reduction in the number of copycat incidents — although it may be of little solace to the families of the seven killed in Chicago. But now, as the FBI brings modern technology to bear on a case long gone cold, perhaps they can hope again for something else tangible: at long last, some criminal charges.

http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1878063,00.html

In case today's reader dismisses the old story from 1990, the following 2016 story brings qualitative and quantitative analysis up-to-date and adds a twist which touches on the substance which Prince chose to use...in volumes which were fatal.

Deadly batch of heroin has killed 23 in Erie County since Jan. 29

By Lou Michel | News Staff Reporter  on February 9, 2016 - 10:56 AM , updated February 9, 2016 at 1:15 PM

A young couple drove from Seneca County last week to buy some supercharged heroin that was making the rounds in Buffalo.

Soon after smoking it, the 21-year-old Waterloo woman lost consciousness. Her 26-year-old boyfriend managed to call 911. It took three doses of Narcan, an opiate antidote, before Amherst Police Officer Sean D. Shaver revived the woman.

She was lucky. These days, heroin being widely sold in the Buffalo area is really fentanyl or heroin heavily laced with the laboratory-produced opioid that is 30 to 50 times stronger than ordinary heroin.

Nearly two dozen other addicts were not so fortunate over the last two weeks. Twenty-three people have died as a result of opiate overdoses in Erie County during an 11-day period that started Jan. 29. Twelve of the deaths occurred in Buffalo, and the others were in the county’s suburbs and rural areas. The ages of the deceased range from 20 to 61.

Alarmed at the deadly spike, County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz along with County Health Commissioner Dr. Gale R. Burstein and federal authorities Tuesday issued an “emergency warning,” urging drug addicts to discard any packet of heroin they recently purchased but have not used.

The reason?

It could kill them.

‘White China’ heroin

This particular brand of street heroin, sometimes referred to as “White China” heroin, contains fentanyl that Chinese laboratories are manufacturing and sending to Mexican drug cartels, which repackage and ship it to the United States.

“The vast majority of the deaths, 19 of the 23, are believed to be related to heroin laced with an extremely fatal batch of fentanyl,” Poloncarz said. “If you have a packet of this drug you recently purchased, it is basically a death sentence. This epidemic knows no boundaries. It affects people from Buffalo to the affluent suburbs and to rural communities.”

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/police-courts/deadly-batch-of-heroin-has-killed-23-in-erie-county-since-jan-29-20160209

Every four year-old child who is handed a box of Cracker Jacks understands that the box contains a surprise for them and they quickly open the box and search for their surprise.  In the world of distribution of illicit substances in the United States, those pills and powders also contain surprises for the youth and adults who chose to purchase them from strangers or associates, knowing that they do not know who manufactured the substance...yet they ingest the substance and hope for the promised effect.  This child-like faith in an unknown substance, produced by an unknown person and possibly in an unimaginable "lab" environment (refresh mind by viewing above images) produces too many deaths in America and around the world.  Like the Prodigal Son, these adult abusers need to "come to themselves."

High School Football Coach Wisdom :

Men, in life, there are three decisions which are yours and yours alone which you can make:

1.  You can chose your faith.

2.  You can chose your friends.

3.  You can chose what you put into your bodies.

Provbs. 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

# 3

Exactly what happens when someone self-administers a mind altering substance?  and Why does anyone want to alter their mind?

The human brain is the control center of the Central Nervous System (CNS); it has three membranes which protect it from the inside of the boney skull (dura mater, pia mater and arachnid mater).  Additionally, the brain and spinal cord constitute the CNS and they are bathed in cerebral/spinal fluid.

The user/abuser of any substance needs to find a way which introduces the desired substance into the circulatory system and also to provide the easiest means of crossing the blood/brain barrier in order that the active ingredients of the substance will deliver the substance to the screaming brain receptors.

In the case of alcohol, for example, oral consumption roughly routes 6% into the circulatory system via absorption through the stomach wall blood vessels and 94% is metabolized by the liver prior to introduction to the circulatory system.  A relatively slow means of delivering alcohol to the brain's receptors.  Persons from other cultures, for hundreds of years have found a quicker means of delivery which bypasses the liver: beer enemas provide absorption through the walls of the colon and circulation takes the substance immediately to the brain.  In modern times, persons have devised means of inhaling vaporized ethyl alcohol and its delivery is even quicker than the beer enema after the substance moves quickly from the lungs to the heart and into the brain by a very short route.

So exactly what is going on when the desired substance reaches the corresponding brain receptors?

For the majority of licit and illicit substances; the desired effect is either that the CNS is stimulated or it is depressed.  In the case of adult basketball star Len Bias, exactly 30 years ago today, he self-administered a fatal dosage of the CNS Stimulant Cocaine and his brain receptors initially experienced the analgesic effect (pain killed or dulled) and his heart rate and respiration increased.  His brain was altered and all cocaine abusers/users experienced the perception of invincibility,  In Bias' case, however, the volume of the substance exceeded his body's ability to metabolize, discharge through the kidneys and control the signals the brain was sending to Bias' lungs and heart to speed-up their rates.  The medical examiner's report at autopsy indicated that the young athlete developed a heart arrhythmia and died of heart failure.  Bias' heart rate increased to an unmanageable level resulting in death.  In examples of CNS Stimulants, the term "high" is accurate in that vital body functions and rates are elevated and, with toxic levels self-administered, the adult is recorded as having taken a Fatal Overdose.  Other CNS Stimulants producing similar effects are Nicotine, Caffeine, Methamphetamine, Ritalin, PCP, etc.  An excessive dosage level is frequently fatal.

In the case of hundreds of self-administering heroin abusers, the fatal dose of the CNS Depressant Heroin initially took the abuser down; slowing his breathing and heart rate.  Due to the excessive amount/purity level, the abuser's body's ability to metabolize, discharge through the kidneys and control the signals the brain was sending to the abuser and his respiratory center gave instructions to pass sleep, cross through coma and enter death by cessation of respiration.  Respiration was arrested.  Other CNS Depressants producing similar effects are Alcohol, Morphine, the synthetic opioids, etc.  An excessive dosage level is frequently fatal.  While Heroin and Opiates chart a graph which has life descending with corresponding heart rate and respiration slowing, as described above, the descent to death is anything but a "high" and it may more accurately be referred to as a "low."

The human brain is frequently more resourceful and protective of the individual than the conscious individual himself.  Consider the thousands of high school and college students who self administer a full bottle of whisky or rum - generally a fatal dosage amount.  While the abuser passes through the stages of inebriation, intoxication to sleep; the brain frequently intercedes and prevents the stages of coma or death by stimulating the urge to vomit.  If a self-administering alcohol abuser does not aspirate his own vomit and die an asphyxia death, he frequently learns a valuable lesson which he may never repeat.

On the other hand, some humans believe that they can administer a CNS Depressant and a CNS Stimulant which produce all of the positive/desired results while cancelling-out the toxic risks.  In the case of John Belushi, authorizing a cohort to administer Cocaine and Heroin produced a Fatal cocktail and neither substance cancelled the other's effects.  Belushi expired.

The sedative/hypnotic group of abused substances is joined by the hallucinogens and designer/synthetics as a third category of substances which youth and adults abuse and they introduce a new dynamic of compounding the negative effects when certain substances are combined with alcohol.

A raft of reasons given by adults to explain the choices they have made,

Not all relate to real or perceived pain.

The very term recreational drug use suggests that the substance of choice is unrelated to any malady.  Adults and youth regularly purchase their substance of choice; frequently from strangers, without inquiring about the strangers who manufactured the substance and absolutely unknowing of the percentage of the active ingredient they seek to use to bathe their brain.

Obama had written in his first book, "Dreams From My Father" (1995), before entering politics, that he had used marijuana and cocaine ("maybe a little blow"). He said he had not tried heroin because he did not like the pusher who was trying to sell it to him.  http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/world/americas/24iht-dems.3272493.html?_r=0

Some abusers claim to be able to risk their life on an unknown substance by screening the substance's marketer, as described above.  Despite this view, recent celebrity substance related deaths included the element of a Physician or regular salesperson who was known to the decedent.

Some abusers seek to lose weight as their reason for seeking CNS stimulants.

Some abusers seek to stay awake for long periods of time; frequently the reason given by recording musicians, truck drivers, soldiers and their commanders and college exam students.

Other abusers seek to join their friends as an act of social acceptance and they provide this as their reason for making unwise decisions.

These non-pain related rationales for either starting down the path of substance abuse (gateway activity) or for entry into the world of physiological addiction to particular substances all contain a singular kernel of truth which deniers cannot substantially refute: for every addicted substance abuser, there was probably the day before addiction in the timeline of the individual's life.  Largely, it is this group of readers of this blog who are the targeted audience.  Choices made by adults are life and death matters when the substance considered has an LD50 risk which is not hidden from the literature and may be a Google-query away.

Certainly, there are parents and family members who will want to contest even the assertion that for every substance abuser there was  the day before addiction; to refute this claim regarding the timeline of a human life, some will argue that their loved one's brain receptors were significantly programmed while in the womb.  Interestingly, this view ends the discussion by removing adult/teen choices described by the football coach as universal to all of us; it removes any notion if child rearing responsibilities which our society places on parents - like the one suggested in the cited Proverb - and it holds no one responsible.  Like grace, it just happened!

Yes, there are people who want to attribute the negative effects delivered to an adult who made a decision to self-administer a harmful substance to the substance and not to the adult who made his or her choice to purchase/acquire and self-administer.  Running counter to the social view of individual responsibility, proponents for giving a pass to the adult abuser will seek to bash the substance; usually in the absence of any outcry for eradication of the fatal substance.  These proponents hold the adult abusers as blameless victims.

Next: Qualitative Analysis and Quantitative Analysis; Substances are chemicals in large part.