Taking Drugs

Maryland's new U.S. attorney said yesterday that his office would prosecute fewer city gun crimes, despite long-standing calls from his own political benefactor and Baltimore's mayor for federal authorities to pursue more gun cases as a way to help reduce street violence. An unapologetic Thomas M. DiBiagio said federal prosecutors in Baltimore instead would take on a greater number of complex drug conspiracy and violent crime cases. In an interview, he said targeting the city's worst criminals would have a more lasting impact than simply pursuing large numbers of relatively minor gun violations.

Q. My husband takes a baby aspirin every day on the advice of his doctor. He wants me to do the same, but I am afraid to. Years ago, before I met him, I had a frightening allergic reaction to aspirin. Is there any other way to get the heart protection aspirin gives him? I'd prefer a natural product if possible. A. People allergic to aspirin risk a life-threatening reaction if they are exposed to this drug. Others find that even small doses can be irritating to the digestive tract. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid.

An eighth-grade girl and seven classmates were sent to Anne Arundel County hospitals yesterday after they ingested tablets of anti-anxiety medicine she handed out during lunch period, officials said.The 13- and 14-year-old pupils at Severn River Junior High School took Ativan, a drug prescribed for anxiety disorders that relaxes the muscles. Ativan's chemical name is Lorazepam."I was scared and I went and I told," said 13-year-old Kara Zoolakis, who told administrators that the group had eaten the white pentagon-shaped tablets during lunch.

Annapolis Housing Authority employees will spend two hours immersed in the drug culture this morning, learning how a crack cocaine pipe can be crafted from a soda can and what a "Loveboat" is (marijuana sprinkled with PCP).Far from being illegal, the drug and paraphernalia class has been ordered by their boss, Patricia Croslan. And their instructor -- Annapolis City Police Lt. Robert E. Beans -- is on the right side of the law."It's of great importance for people to be able to identify drug paraphernalia, particularly when they work in an environment where they might come across it," said Croslan, the Housing Authority director.

Six weeks after developing a stopgap plan to get lawyers for indigent defendants facing felony drug charges in Baltimore Circuit Court, officials once again have a dearth of defenders.Public defenders, who represent the poor in the city's criminal courts, have told judges that they will not represent defendants indefinitely in two new drug courts because they do not have enough staff."We're back where we started," Baltimore State's Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy said yesterday. "We can do very little when defendants are not adequately represented.

While the Anne Arundel County Police Department hasrevised its policy on seizing vehicles in some drug cases, few of the cars police seized were ever formally forfeited and sold at auction.Of 534 cars seized last year, 414 were returned to the owners -- or loan holders -- before forfeiture proceedings, according to numbers from the state's attorney's office. This year, of more than 700 cars seized, police have recommended forfeiture in only 94 cases, according to the Police Department. Forfeiture is a civil proceeding in which a judge orders owners to give up the cars permanently and they are sold at auction.

A Severn man pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in Anne Arundel Circuit Court yesterday for shooting an acquaintance during a drug dispute in Pioneer City.Dexter Tyrone Brown, 18, of the 1800 block of Arwell Court could be given up to 30 years in prison when he is sentenced March 13 by Judge Pamela L. North.Brown shot Delarno Darden, 22, of Seat Pleasant in the back of the neck about 1: 45 a.m. June 6.The dispute began when Brown approached Darden, who asked Brown if he wanted to buy drugs.

Key Maryland lawmakers are hoping to require drug tests for welfare applicants and to withhold benefits from those who continue to abuse drugs after entering a treatment program.Members of the legislature's Joint Committee on Welfare Reform said yesterday that they will push a bill in the coming session of the General Assembly to require the tests -- an effort to ensure that money from the welfare program is used to benefit children and not to buy drugs.If it becomes law, the Maryland program will be one of the most far-reaching attempts to prevent taxpayer money from being used to support a drug habit.

LOS ANGELES -- California yesterday became the first state in the nation to require either the "chemical" or surgical castration of repeat child molesters.By a 51-8 vote, the State Assembly passed a bill already approved by the Senate that requires anyone convicted of two sexual assaults on minors to be injected with a drug reducing sexual drive, if they choose not to be surgically castrated at the government's expense.Gov. Pete Wilson, who backed the measure as a step toward controlling what he called "deviant" behavior, has promised to sign the legislation.

ATLANTA -- Ireland's Michelle Smith has been under an international microscope since she arrived at the XXVI Olympiad. Her age and her incredible improvement over the past couple of years have left her under an umbrella of steroid-related suspicion, and a recent International Olympic Committee ruling that stretched the entry requirements for one of her events only added to the cloud of controversy.Through it all, she has made herself the winningest athlete so far of the 1996 Atlanta Games, shaking off a slight shoulder injury to win last night's 200-meter individual medley and her third gold medal.