Make a sweetsale - Carolina Weekly Newspapers

Heroin cartels
(continued from page 1)
manpower can cross the border.
Heroin use is increasing partly because
the drug is cheaper than prescription
drugs such as oxycodone, known by the
brand name OxyContin. A small balloon
of heroin costs an average of $10, and one
OxyContin pill costs $20 to $25. Users
also are mixing heroin with prescription
drugs, ranging from valium to Ambien, a
prescription sedative. Over the past year,
Charlotte EMS has responded to 1,453
overdoses resulting from these types of
drug cocktails.
“These are huge increases in such a
short period of time,” Charlotte Mayor
Pat McCrory said. “These overdoses are
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department
has mapped several heroin distribution areas
in south Charlotte.
occurring across the city. We’re seeing
people of all races, all income levels,”
he said. “We have worked hard to build
a beautiful city and we simply cannot let
Legal and financial roadblocks could
stall an expanded drug-testing program
for Mecklenburg County Jail inmates.
During an Oct. 20 press conference,
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Rodney
Monroe suggested drug-testing all
inmates as they’re processed after arrest,
in part to address a local explosion in heroin
trade and use. “We want an ongoing,
day-to-day testing of individuals that have
been arrested,” Monroe said. “We’re still
gingerly working through that process.”
The number of heroin-related deaths
in Charlotte has tripled since last year,
as Mexican cartels target the Queen City
with the drug. Ten people have died from
heroin overdoses in Charlotte in 2009,
compared with three in 2008. And so far
this year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police
have seized 4,989 grams of heroin, up
from 1,075 grams throughout last year.
“We need to really draw a better correlation
between drug use and crime,”
Monroe said. “People that are coming in,
testing positive for heroin, what are they
being arrested for? Where are they being
arrested?”
drug use set us back.”
During an Oct. 20 press conference,
McCrory mentioned heroin is a citywide
problem spanning from The Arboretum
Community
Mandatory inmate drug-testing faces hurdles
Challenges could stall drug use-tracking program
Tracking those statistics would give
police a better idea of which drugs are
involved in which crimes, Monroe said.
It also would help determine the kinds of
drugs used in Charlotte.
How the program would be funded or
staffed is unclear, however. There’s no
money available from the city or county
to run the tests or hire more officers.
There also are legal questions about the
program. No North Carolina county ever
has run anything but a voluntary drugtesting
program.
“State law is kind of wishy-washy on
this,” said Jamie Markham, a criminal law
expert at the University of North Carolina
School of Government.
“The department of corrections can virtually
test anyone once they’re in prison (but)
it’s different on a local level,” Markham
said. “Cheek swabs, stuff like that, which
are minor intrusions, you can get away
with, but I’m not sure if mandatory drugtesting
would violate the inmate’s rights.”
Securing a judge’s approval could be
problematic because the program would
establish precedent, Markham said. “If
to Northlake Mall. However, CMPD confirmed
there are no statistics or cases pegging
The Arboretum or Northlake Mall as
specific problem areas at this time. q
it’s just being used for the study – if it’s
not being tied in to officer safety or safety
within the jail – I’m not sure a judge would
sign off on it,” he said.
Mecklenburg County currently operates
a program called A.D.A.M., Arrestee Drug
Abuse Monitoring, run by UNC Charlotte
professor Paul Friday. Inmates willingly
enter the program, then are tested at random
intervals. It costs $100,000 a year to
run and is funded with federal grants.
Mandatory drug-testing would also be
a big undertaking for the Mecklenburg
County Sheriff’s Department. “(Day-today
testing) would be a huge thing for us
to tackle,” Sheriff’s Department Public
Information Officer Julia Rush said, adding
that more than 50,000 people a year
are currently processed at the jail.
“What the sheriff wants to do is sit down
and see how the stats could be used,” Rush
said. “We may already have the program in
place to do what everyone wants.” Before
an expansion is considered, Rush said, the
sheriff would want to ensure funding is in
place for the drug-testing program and the
officers needed to run it. q
H1N1
(continued from page 3)
Information Officer Rick Christenbury
said. “We were told the (full) order would
be here Oct. 1, then we were told Oct. 15,
then Oct. 30. We’re doing the best with
what we have.”
Presbyterian Healthcare, meanwhile,
has received about 1 percent of the
400,000 doses it ordered, said Presbyterian
Hospital public relations manager
Marcia Meredith. She said the vaccines
were distributed to affiliated medical
South Charlotte Catholic church
changes procedures for H1N1
practices and the system’s hospitals: Presbyterian
Hospital, 200 Hawthorne Lane;
Presbyterian Orthopaedic Hospital, 1901
Randolph Road; Presbyterian Hospital
Matthews, 1500 Matthews Township
Parkway; and Presbyterian Hospital Huntersville,
10030 Gilead Road. Presbyterian
Children’s Hospital, located on the second
floor of Presbyterian Hospital, received
most of that facility’s supply. At other locations,
most doses were given to children
and pregnant women, considered at-risk
populations.
A spokesman for Carolinas HealthCare
said the company still is trying to determine
how much of the vaccine its facilities
have. Carolinas HealthCare hospitals
can order doses themselves, making it
more difficult to get totals from each of
its 200 facilities.
by Regan White
regan@thecharlotteweekly.com
On Oct. 27, the Rev. Msgr. John
McSweeney of St. Matthew Catholic
Church, 8015 Ballantyne Commons
Parkway, sent an e-mail to the south
Charlotte church’s more than 27,000
parishioners explaining the church
will take precautions and make procedural
changes to protect churchgoers in
response to the H1N1 state of emergency
declared Oct. 26 by President Obama.
Only the Eucharistic wafer will be
offered at Communion, meaning no
more communal drinking at the wine
chalices. “Effective immediately, we will
offer only one species, the body of Christ,
at all daily and weekend liturgies until
further notice. No cup will be offered,”
the statement read. McSweeney recommends
that parishioners receive
the Eucharist in their hands, although
church members who still wish to
receive the consecrated wafers on their
tongues can’t be denied. In addition, a
public sign of peace – shaking hands and
saying “Peace be with you” – will be suspended,
as will holding hands during the
Lord’s Prayer.
McSweeney also continued to ask
that people sick with the flu or flulike
illnesses refrain from attending Mass to
prevent spread of the virus.
The same changes have been made
at Catholic churches across the country
since H1N1 flu first began circulating
last spring. St. Matthew Catholic’s
Facilities Operations Director Antoinette
Usher said Oct. 27 that the move
to make the changes at St. Matthew
was McSweeney’s decision, not a directive
from the Diocese of Charlotte.
McSweeney has been very proactive on
behalf of the parish since H1N1 first
broke out last spring, Usher added. “We
probably have the largest supply of hand
sanitizer in the south Charlotte area –
both alcohol- and non-alcohol-based
sanitizer,” she said, adding that since
the spring McSweeney has stressed the
importance of not shaking hands or coming
to church when feeling sick.
“We’re right under 8,000 families so
that translates to well over 27,000 folks,”
Usher said. “With our kids in the parish,
they’re in more than 139 different educational
institutions. As you can understand,
Monsignor has to respond to a
very real need.” q
Manufacturing delays to blame
The Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention announced Oct. 23 that the
number of doses expected to be shipped
that month dropped from 40 million to
30 million doses at most. Of that amount,
11.3 million doses had been distributed
nationwide. Another 16 million were
expected to ship on Oct. 30; of that shipment,
Mecklenburg will get 200 doses.
During an Oct. 23 conference call,
CDC Director Thomas Frieden blamed
manufacturing delays. “It’s frustrating to
all of us,” he said. “Manufacturers are
working hard to get as much vaccine out
as safely as possible. …
“This is not unusual for influenza,” Frieden
said. “It’s a chicken-and-egg process.
It doesn’t move as quickly or as efficiently
as we’d like, and it’s not as predictable.” q
www.thecharlotteweekly.com
South Charlotte Weekly • Oct. 30-Nov. 5, 2009 • Page 11