| Presiding over a 'drug emporium'
Consultant George Camp let the cat partially out of the bag with his comment about "less violent individuals" in the state penitentiary (Tribune, Nov. 6). He neglected, however, to tell the public what he darn well knows about the rest of that cat - that 75 percent of the current prison population in the State Penitentiary are in that category, already incarcerated because of drug addiction and would be served better by facilities in Jamestown and at the Bismarck Transition Center.These two examples of "hospitals of hope" that exist around this state, are neglected by Gov. John Hoeven and certain "greed Republicans" - determined to blow millions of dollars on prison bars and cement, on "depots of despair," rather than allocating those dollars more realistically toward labor intensive drug treatment programs already up and running.Better late than never.
Surviving quitting smoking
Quitting smoking is no different than kicking an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Some even suggest it might be harder to avoid a relapse with cigarette smoking than it is with illicit drug use, as the availability of cigarettes (because they're not illegal) trumps that of illicit drugs. Perhaps the most telling testament to the difficulty of quitting is the number of people who routinely say "I've tried to quit smoking more than once." In fact, those people are very common, says Michael Fiore, M.D., M.P.H., who has acted as director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention at the University of Wisconsin since 1992. According to Fiore, the average person who has successfully quit smoking has only done so after five or six failed attempts. What this underscores is that many smokers are fully aware they need to quit, it's just that the difficulty of quitting can be overwhelming.
Emilio Martinez Gets Prison Time, Says He's "Scared to Death" To Go ...
A local judge administered justice to the third man involved in a plot to kidnap a man and beat him up. 24-year-old Emilio Martinez was sentenced for second degree kidnapping and destruction of evidence. Deputy Prosecutor Bruce Pickett argued Martinez was involved in the plan to beat up Jason Atwood last September over a drug dispute. Martinez admitted that he did the job to get more drugs. His attorney said Martinez doesn't need prison, he needs help for his drug addiction. Martinez told Judge Gregory Anderson that he is scared to death to go back to prison because he isn't the same person he was when he was in there before, as a hard-core gang member. Emilio Martinez: "I can't stand to even think of myself like that.
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