Safe-injection legal battle brewing in SF — health intervention or drug den?
Original article written September 2nd 2018
If Gov. Jerry Brown goes along, San Francisco plans to establish what could be the nation’s first legal, supervised safe injection site for drug users. But there’s a potentially serious legal obstacle: a 3-decade-old federal law that was directed at shutting down dens of crack cocaine dealers and users.
Legislation on Brown’s desk, passed by bare-majority votes in both houses, would authorize the city to set up one or more sites in a pilot program through January 2022. Drug users would have access to clean needles and syringes, medical care, counseling and social services. Similar programs are operating in 10 nations.
But a day after lawmakers approved AB186 last week, the Trump administration’s deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, in an opinion piece Tuesday in the New York Times, declared injection sites dangerous and illegal and pledged “swift and aggressive action” under a 1986 law known as the Crack House Statute.
“It is a federal felony to maintain any location for the purpose of facilitating illicit drug use,” Rosenstein wrote. He argued that the sites encourage addiction by sending a “powerful message to teenagers that the government thinks illegal drugs can be used safely.”
City officials and other advocates of the sites say their purpose is not to facilitate drug use, but to protect the users from overdoses and other lethal consequences while giving them a chance to get their lives under control and making the streets safer.
“Research has shown these programs reduce overdose mortality, public injection, litter from drug use … while increasing access to treatment, safe-use behaviors, and entrance into detoxification services,” said the bill’s author, Assemblywoman Susan Eggman, D-Stockton.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who lost a younger sister to a drug overdose in 2006, says she’s willing to fight the federal government in court to allow the injection sites.
“People are going to shoot up, and we don’t have control over that,” Breed said in July. “There’s a way to get it indoors so it’s not impacting our streets in a negative way. … These places provide a location for people to be when they’re going through what they’re going through.”
California has been down this road before. The state was the first to legalize the medical use of marijuana, in a 1996 initiative, and since then has battled a series of presidential administrations over enforcement of the federal ban on all uses of marijuana.
In 2005, the clash reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where California argued that pot dispensaries were not engaged in interstate commerce when they supplied marijuana that was grown entirely within the state, and thus were not subject to federal regulation. The court disagreed in a 6-3 ruling, leading to federal closures of hundreds of dispensaries in the state under the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations.
The federal sweeps eventually prompted congressional action, in 2015, to prevent further shutdowns.
The federal government couldn’t rely on the same drug bans to go after safe injection sites, though, because — unlike the marijuana dispensaries — the city wouldn’t be supplying any drugs, said Marsha Cohen, a law professor at UC Hastings in San Francisco.
That’s where the Crack House Statute comes in.
The law prohibits anyone from “knowingly” opening, maintaining or managing a “place for the purpose of unlawfully manufacturing, distributing, or using a controlled substance.”
The statute was passed at a time of rising crack cocaine use in inner cities and was directed at private criminal outposts, not public facilities seeking to provide safety for drug users. But a legislative staff analysis of AB128 said the law would “criminalize both the behavior of the clients using the (safe injection) facilities and the owners or operators of the facilities.”
Maximum penalties under the law include 20 years in prison, fines of $500,000 for individuals or $2 million for an organization, and loss of the property.
Brown has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto AB186, or let it become law without his signature. If it becomes law, federal courts will have to decide whether the broadly worded law passed by Congress in 1986 contains an implied exemption for a government-supervised facility whose ultimate goal is to reduce drug addiction.
“There’s no evidence of (congressional) intent that this would apply to legally permitted public health interventions, trying to prevent deaths and serious injuries,” said Lindsay LaSalle, an attorney with the advocacy group Drug Policy Alliance in Oakland.
Legal analysts who support the injection sites took a similar position in an article in the American Journal of Public Health in 2008.
The federal law “was never intended to interfere with a legally authorized public health intervention” under “states’ traditional authority in public health,” said a team of researchers led by Leo Beletsky, who teaches law and health sciences at Northeastern University. “These arguments are reasonable but are by no means certain to convince federal judges.”
Another 2008 legal commentary, by Michael Rayfield in the University of Chicago Law Review, said the law should be interpreted to apply only to a facility that “meaningfully contributes to the drug activity beyond simply providing a secluded location for it to occur.”
The law could be tested elsewhere. Seattle officials are deciding whether to equip a mobile van as a safe injection site. New York City is considering a proposal to operate one or more injection sites as a medical research program, an option that could sidestep the Crack House Statute but would still require approval from federal agencies.
New York would be following in the footsteps of Vancouver, British Columbia, and Sydney, where medical research programs eventually became government-run safe injection sites in two of the 10 nations that have legalized them.
In any event, as UC Hastings’ Cohen noted, U.S. courts have ruled on the application of the 1986 drug law in a variety of settings, but have not been asked to decide whether it applies to government-run injection centers.
“There seems to be considerable room for argument here,” Cohen said. “Not surprising given that none of these (federal) statutes was designed to deal with those who are in good faith trying to deal with the drug scourge.”
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Lovelytea Review: Matcha Raspberry Tea
Matcha tea made its way to U.S. hip coffee shops all the way from Japan. It comes in the form of a green powder, that is actually ground green tea leaves.
Most people enjoy matcha in the form of a dairy drink (watch how Lovelyti makes a mixed fruit matcha smoothie recipe).
Personally, I try not to consume dairy. Instead, I do my best to consume 2 liters of water a day. I put about a teaspoon of matcha in my water every day. The natural raspberry flavor makes me eager to drink more water through out the week. While I prefer to enjoy my matcha in the form of flavored water, traditionally, many prefer hot matcha tea.
My 50g of the raspberry matcha lasted 3 weeks when I used half a teaspoon per 1.5 liters of water every morning, and sometimes another half a teaspoon per 1.5 liters of water in the afternoon. Besides the sweet, delicate flavor matcha can be a great morning drink, as it has a third the caffeine as a cup of coffee.
All in all, if you are not familiar with matcha I definitely recommend trying this smooth blend. If you are not new to matcha then check out premium choice matcha.
Get yours here: Lovelytea Raspberry Match Tea
Also check out: Vanilla Matcha Tea Blueberry Match Tea Latte Flavored Matcha
White US Citizen Arrested in Uganda After Racist Attack on Hotel Workers
It’s comical to me how these racist white boys and girls can go into another Country like Uganda and flex their MIGHTY WHITE PRIVILEGE EXPRESS CARD. And think they can run things in a Country that’s not even theirs. I spit my white folks tears out my mouth when he blamed his racist obnoxious behavior on an illness. That caused him stress.
Imagine being so full of your white American male privilege that you pack it up with you, fly to a continent full of black people who don’t see it for you the way your own country does, and try to force it on the people of Uganda just because they are the same color as the people you disrespect in your own country.
Ugandan police arrested a man they have identified as Jimmy L. Taylor—a U.S. citizen—Thursday after a Facebook video surfaced showing him being verbally and physically abusive to employees at the Grand Imperial Hotel in the capital city of Kampala.
Thank you for your vigilance and sending us a video of an incident that happened at Grand Imperial Hotel. We have arrested the suspect, Jimmy Taylor, an American citizen. He was detained at the Central Police Station, Kampala on charges of assault. #CommunityPolicing pic.twitter.com/zcGFqLd4AP
— Uganda Police Force (@PoliceUg) August 17, 2018
The Kampala Post reports that there was also surveillance video of the incident.
In the 4-minute Facebook video, Taylor can be seen behind the front desk in the hotel, throwing things around. As the employees move into the lobby to get away from him, he follows them, hurling racial slurs, cursing at them, and striking one of the employees several times.
Taylor calls the employees “niggers” and tells them that they have to obey him. He also threatens to kill them.
It is unclear when the video was recorded, but it was posted on Facebook Friday.
The Uganda Police Force charged Taylor—who claims to be a former Marine as well as a missionary—assault and malicious damage. They say that during his arrest, he spat on police, became rowdy and uncontrollable, and tried to disarm the arresting officers.
When he was questioned, Taylor admitted to attacking the hotel employee. He blamed his outburst on an illness which caused him to suffer stress that subsequently caused him to attack the hotel staff unprovoked.
The Post reports that Taylor is currently being detained at Central Police Station Kampala while the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
https://www.facebook.com/dynamq/videos/235779623788630/
READ MORE FROM THE ROOT
Advocating for Community Inclusion Stories from the Spectrum
I had the great pleasure of meeting this young lady the other day and will be working with her in the near future ! As a person with intellectual developmental disabilities I understand her. I know where she’s coming from. We all have a voice. And some voices are not heard. This young lady is her own self advocate and not only has a voice for herself and is an advocate for people just like her just check out her story below.
Stories from the Spectrum
Advocating for Community Inclusion
by Ivanova Smith
My passion is for the inclusion of people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD). For a long time, I was isolated from my community. I was not included during the first five-and-a-half years of my life. I was born in Latvia, a country that was suffering under Soviet occupation. I was born premature and unwanted. These realities around my birth and orphanhood have had a great impact on my passion! I feel we all should be wanted. We should all be included in the community!
During the time when I was raised in an institutional orphanage, I did not know what family meant. I did not understand the concept of private property. I remember looking forward to just going outside in the orphanage. I remember been happy to see pieces of colorful glass on the ground. I had no friends there. I remember always being alone. I remember not getting much to eat but watery vegetable soup. I could not communicate verbally. I remember just making noises. I remember the day that all changed, the day I was included in a family! I was adopted and become part of the Anderson family. I remember being scared at first of this new world that was ahead of me. But over time, I started to love it. When my family kept feeding me and not denying me food, I was so happy to get to eat! My family now loves telling the story of how much I would eat after we left the orphanage, and how I had breakfast and only stopped to have lunch.
I was so happy to be free. I want that for all people with intellectual/developmental disabilities. I know that as an autistic person, I was at risk of being put in a mental institution if my family had not been able to adopt me. It happens not just in other countries. I moved to Washington State in 1994 where people with I/DD were just starting to be included in their communities.
I was happy to be brought to the USA and be raised in a Christian home! But the United States was not perfect. During school it was hard. Lots of people did not understand me. Lots of people I did relate with were segregated from other students. As a kid in special education, it was very confusing. I heard of how people like me were put in institutions. I heard justifications for that which made me scared of ever having to return to an institutional environment.
It happens here in the USA. We live in a world that says it is ok to put people with intellectual/developmental disabilities in institutions. This is not justice; this is segregation. When I started my journey as a disability-rights advocate, it was after I overcame a lot of challenges. I testified to legislators of Washington State for the first time in 2015. It was during my first Advocacy Day. (Advocacy Days are held during each legislative session to involve self-advocates and families in the legislative process, giving them opportunities to make their voices heard by legislators and to have an impact on policy and budget legislation that affects the services and supports available to them.)
When I heard about what Washingtonians who live in four different institutions had to deal with, it made me want to advocate more. When I heard how people with I/DD are not being given an equal education, it pushed me to advocate more. When I was told it was okay for people with developmental disabilities to be paid below minimum wage, I knew that people like me were not being treated equally in the workforce. Segregation is what hurts us. It why I work with self-advocacy organizations like Self Advocates in Leadership (SAIL), People First of Washington and Allies in Advocacy. Members in each of these groups each have a passion to advocate for rights of people with disabilities.
I also love living in the community! My family worked hard to make sure I was included! My mother was determined for me to go to college and eventually to a university. She believed in me when I did not even believe in myself. I want to help families see the abilities in their I/DD children. I want our youth to not feel ashamed for having a disability. I want people with I/DD to feel comfortable advocating for support. I have been given many opportunities, thanks to networking skills I learned through Central Washington University and Arc of King County. I am honored to work as a Faculty Mentor for the University of Washington’s Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (UW LEND) Advocacy program. I hope my work helps to bring more people with I/DD into positions of leadership. Our work is valuable and I want that to show.
When I get on the stage to give a speech, I put all my passion into it. I want people who watch me to know that people like me are human just like they are. People with intellectual and developmental disabilities are equal in the eyes of God. We should not be institutionalized! We should not be segregated. I love public speaking, It has been a gift that I cherish. I hope my voice can help people see the value and skill people with Intellectual/developmental disabilities bring. Being Autistic, I am proud and happy to get to live in a country where I can speak freely about the issues that matter most to me. I realize in this time more than ever, we need to advocate more. Lots of changes are going to happen in our country and I want make sure my people are included and not forgotten about.
Because of my passion and advocacy experience, I was invited to speak on October 25th, 2016 at the Legislative Candidates Forum on Disabilities in Clark County, Washington. This was a great honor. I was so happy to see so many people, including advocates and legislative candidates, wanting true inclusion for all people with I/DD. The evening showed me how allies and DD advocates can work together on these issues and make the world a more inclusive place. It reminded me that I was not only one fighting for this! Even the legislative candidates heard the policies I was advocating for in my speech. My hosts were truly kind to invite me to show what self-advocates really need from their government!
I support policies that help people like me live a full meaningful life in the community! I support policies that allow all I/DD people to be included in meaningful integrated employment. Big companies like Microsoft have already seen the potential of autistic programmers! We need more businesses to follow suit. So many people’s talents are ignored because of their disabilities. There are so many media stories talking about how bad it is to be developmentally disabled. It makes me think that our youth don’t see their value…
I am excited to enter this legislative session with the goal that more people are included! I am here to change minds about what my community is! We are not burdens! We are epic people that seek to be included and that is what I fight for.
READ Spectrum magazine
Blac Chyna Addresses Her New Assets?
It’s been long rumored that the model and entrepreneur got butt implants during her stripping days, but could it be that she had them removed? The photo is pretty convincing.
CoCo Khaleesi@JayJaySweetszI think Blac Chyna forgot her ass at home
Welp, looks like her Instagram Story says it all. This is just a screen grab, but her original post featured a boomerang of her twisting her backside.
Article via: Blac Chyna’s New Bum
Killer Curves: Bodies To Die For – BET Trailer
Killer Curves Trailer: BET documentary on black market cosmetic surgery
In the last decade, with the rise of hip-hop videos and the video vixens that frequent them, the black market for butt injections has increased astronomically. Often times, women would be willing to meet strangers for under $3,000 in seedy motels in exchange for a more voluptuous backside. What many did not realize at the time was that they were being pumped with harmful garage concoctions of oil, fix-a-flat, cement and so on. Within two years the body would start to reject these harmful potions, and the foreign material would begin to corrode the buttocks.
Killer Curves is produced by Lala Anthony, and will feature K. Michelle.
Watch BET’s trailer for the documentary here:
At the moment there are no plans to re-air the documentary. However it will be housed on bet.com and the BET NOW app.
Watch Lovelyti’s videos here:
Fitness Guru “Get Bodied By J” Shares Butt injection Removal Photos as a warning to other women
K. Michelle breaks down crying after being rushed to hospital over Silicone Infection
Nutty NY~BET Issues Statement on Employee Who Died After Receiving BOOTLEG Butt Injections
Florida Man Dumps Port-A-Potty Waste In 7-Eleven As Revenge, Police Say
As criminal accusations go, this one is pretty crappy.
A Florida man is accused of dumping a bucket containing human feces and urine inside a St. Petersburg 7-Eleven.
Damian A. Simms’ alleged act of criminal caca happened early Wednesday, according to The Smoking Gun. He “apparently obtained the waste from a portable toilet,” the site reported.
Splattered poop got on a straw hat and a do-rag, with a total estimated value of $28.
The 41-year-old Simms was ID’d by the store manager and recorded on surveillance video, according to the police report.
It’s possible the alleged bowel movement bucket dump was an act of revenge: The police report notes that Simms was banned from the store in May.
Simms was charged with trespass and criminal mischief, both misdemeanors. As of Friday, he was still in the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $300 bond.
He has been ordered to stay away from the 7-Eleven and its manager, according to Fox News.
READ MORE FROM HUFFPOST
Boy Died After Mistaking Dad’s Meth For Breakfast Cereal: Police
A 8-year-old boy in Indiana who died after reportedly mistaking his dad’s methamphetamine for breakfast cereal had more than 180 times the lethal amount of the drug, according to a toxicology report released Thursday.
Curtis Collman III died June 21 after overdosing on meth at the home of his father, Curtis Gilbert Collman, 41, according to WAVE TV.
Reports said the boy ingested several grams of meth that were on a plate, thinking it was cereal.
Around 10 a.m., the elder Collman noticed his son seemed ill and called a friend who came over to look at the child, according to reports.
When the woman suggested calling 911, Collman Jr. allegedly ripped the phone out of her hand and said, “I’m not going back to prison.”
He then grabbed a handgun from another room and threatened to kill himself, the woman and his son, according to the Seymour Tribune.
Collman then took his son to his parents’ home, but fled when they too wanted to call 911, reports said.
Although the suspect’s parents called for help, the boy later died.
Police finally apprehended the elder Collman on Thursday evening and charged him with failure to register as a sex offender, which stemmed from a 2006 conviction on a Class D felony of sexual misconduct with a minor, the Tribune reported.
Collman has since been charged with neglect of a dependent causing death, pointing a firearm and theft.
On Friday, he requested a bond reduction so he could spend time at home with his parents while awaiting trial, but Jackson County law enforcement officials planned to fight to keep Collman behind bars. The judge was to decide by close of business Friday if the bond would be lowered.
Source: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/curtis-collman-meth_us_5b64de1de4b0b15abaa351b7?utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=hp_fb_pages&utm_source=main_fb&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063
Detroit area Popeyes shut down after viral video shows roaches and unsanitary conditions
I’m starting to think I’m just going to eat at home now
Management fired. Clean up and sanitation in progress.
Living while black in racist white America The tale of the counterfeit coupon
Disclaimer: This article is the opinions of the lovelytitv writer Tawny Hembry and NOT that of Lovelyti or other Lovelytitv writers.
Racism has always been hazardous to their health. Racist white folks are always talking and or writing checks they mouth and fingers can’t pay. Racist ignorant White folks tend to have selective hearing and seeing when it comes to what they understand, see, hear and do when it comes to people of color. Our very black existence frightens them. Our presence makes them shake with fear.
We could assume that this bigoted racist white store manager has the beginning stages of Parkinson’s disease? Writers Note: I’m in no way making light of those with Parkinson’s disease. I’m just observing this I have/know a lot of African American black friends ignorant bigoted white mans apparent physical shacking problem. Anyway we could assume he has an adrenaline rush ? We could assume he was just doing his job. This racist bigoted white man’s fragility got me to thinking and researching on counterfeit coupons and was there really a problem . Apparently, there is a big problem.
Exibit A
https://www.facebook.com/anthony.campbell.3158/videos/1821104764649990/
When doing my research I found that there is such a detailed operation where people do spend all day everyday producing counterfeit coupons. There’s an organization dedicated to this very thing . Called CIC Counterfeit Information Corporation This African-American BLACK lady was falsely accused of hop skipping in to CVS to pass off a counterfeit coupon. But what African-American black hoddie wearin’ person would even think to walk into a store and try to pass off a counterfeit Coupon ? Now African American black folks and food stamps is another story. I know one thing these racist ignorant bigoted white folk tears is making me full. But I’m greedy so I guess I’ll get me another cup.
