WASHINGTON: The United States yesterday rejected claims by a Russian anti-drug official that it has abandoned efforts to combat opium production in Afghanistan.

"We are aggressively pursuing that because ultimately, you know, part of the solution in Afghanistan has to be  the emergence of a strong, legitimate Afghan economy," said State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

Viktor Ivanov, the director of Russia's federal narcotics control service, on Saturday accused the US of allowing Afghan drug producers to operate by deciding to abandon the eradication of poppy crops.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Six people were arrested and drugs, worth RM95,000, were seized from them in a police raid at a unit in Sentul Utama condominium in Jalan Datuk Senu, here, on Feb 17.

 

KUALA LUMPUR: Police stormed a vacant premise along Jalan Baba, off Jalan Pudu, used as a "shelter" by drug addicts, twice in the last two days and detained 26 suspects.

In the first raid on Tuesday, police arrested 13 suspected addicts and in yesterday's raid by the Kuala Lumpur Anti-Narcotics team, another 13 were picked up.

KUALA LUMPUR: Three friends were in the midst of sorting out drugs at their budget hotel room in Jalan Petaling when police burst in.

In the surprise raid on Monday night, police also seized 31 packets and 28 tubes of heroin and five tubes of syabu worth about RM3,800.

The small-time dealers, all friends for more than a year, were said to use the budget hotel as their distribution centre for two months.

It is learnt the suspects distributed drugs in the city centre in such areas as Jalan Petaling, Pudu, Central Market and Bukit Bintang.

KUALA LUMPUR: Six students were among 39 revellers involved in a 'drug orgy' detained by police at a condominium in Jalan Pudu Ulu, Cheras, this morning.

Cheras deputy police chief Supt. Abdul Rahim Hamzah Othman said the suspects aged between 18 and 30 were high on drugs when police raided the condominium at 4am.

"There were high on drugs and did not even realise that there was a raid and none of them tried to escape of resist arrest."

KUALA LUMPUR: Deputy Higher Education Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah today lamented that only three of the 20 public universities and 44 private universities were helping Pengasih, the rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, check drug abuse among adolescents.

Identifying them as Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) and Universiti Multimedia Malaysia (MMU), he said he believed tertiary institutions could provide positive impact to check drug abuse by becoming "sahabat" (friends) of Pengasih.

CITY police arrested two persons believed to be drug pushers and seized drugs worth RM34,000 in two separate operations late last month and last week.

In the operation on Nov 3, a man was arrested in the toilet of a karaoke centre in Jalan Gelang, off Jalan Sungai Besi. Police found 600 Ecstasy pills, with a street value of RM30,000, hidden inside a speaker box carried by the suspect.

City Narcotics Department deputy chief Supt Sharifah Hawariah Syed Idrus said they were investigating further to track other members of the Ecstasy syndicate.

 

WITH 46 express bus drivers out of 8,110 testing positive for drugs on Monday, alarm bells are now ringing louder than ever.

 

The Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) believes that its Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) Code of Practice was able to make safety the priority of the 250-odd express bus companies operating in the country.

BUKIT Aman and Kuala Lumpur narcotics police crippled an international drug syndicate with the arrest of nine people on Saturday.

In a raid at a house in Jalan Dang Wangi, police found and seized 59.7kg of Ketamine, 400 grams of heroin, 79 ecstacy pills (25 grams) and 150 eramin pills, as well as ganja and syabu.

MICHAEL JACKSON was a pop legend in his own time and his musical genius will be greatly missed with his untimely death.

While a second group of pathologists put the pieces together to find the actual cause of death, there are disturbing reports about the star's dependence on prescription drugs.

Celebrities and prescription drugs or otherwise tend to spell a fatal combination. Through the years many screen and stage icons have succumbed to overdoses leaving their fans only memories and memorabilia.

Jimi Hendrix