I-Science: NIDA's Look into the Risks of Designer Drugs

Krokodil: Russia's Deadliest Drug (NSFW)

Reflection

Announcing All-Star Speakers for National Conference 4-Days till Kickoff!

With over 300 attendees from 37 states, the 1st Annual National Marijuana Policy & Strategy Conference has exceeded all expectations. We owe the enormous registration success to our outstanding supporters, volunteers and guests like you! Please welcome our 42 conference speakers, panelists and moderators:  Ms. Calvina Fay, Executive Director, Drug Free America Foundation - Conference Host Dr. Paul Chabot, President, Coalition for a Drug Free California - Conference Host Honorable Michael Gatto, California State Assemblymember Honorable Nate Holden, California State Senator (ret.) Honorable Jackie Lacey, Los Angeles County District Attorney Honorable Dennis Michael, Mayor, City of Rancho Cucamonga, California Honorable Gregory Priamos, City Attorney, City of Riverside, California Honorable Margaret Mims, Sheriff, Fresno County, California Dr. Bertha Madras, Ph.D, Harvard Medical School Mr. Joey Esposito, Esq., Los Angeles Assistant District Attorney for Special Operations Commander Tom Blackshear, United States Naval Sea Cadets, Commanding Officer Mr. Henry Lozano, Co-Founder of National Red Ribbon Week Mr. Frank Pegueros, National President, D.A.R.E. America Mr. Richard Valdemar, Los Angeles Sheriff's Sergeant (ret.), International Gang/Cartel Expert Mr. Rusty Fleming, Award Winning Producer of "Drug Wars" Mr. Richard Beemer, San Bernardino County Undersheriff (ret.) Mr. Paul Cook, San Bernardino County Deputy Chief (ret.) Ms. Alex Datig, Author, "Unfinished Business" Mr. John Lovell, Esq., Chief for Legislative Affairs, California Narcotic Officers Association Mr. Joe Stewart, Executive Director, California Narcotic Officers Association Mr. Jeff Dunn, Esq., Attorney, BB&K Mr. Dave Evans, Esq., Criminal Lawyer, Drug Policy Expert Mr. Roger Morgan, Chairman and Founder, Take Bake America Campaign Bishop Ron Allen, President, International Faith Based Coalition Chaplain Sable "Jr." Munoz, Center Director for S.E.E.D. Mr. Richard Hernandez, Executive Director of Fresh Start Ministries Mr. Rick Seeberger, Author, "Dynamics of Marketplace Church" Mr. Ray Lozano, Youth Advocate & Anti-Drug National Speaker Ms. Susan Webber-Brown, Executive Director, Drug Endangered Children Training Center Ms. Shirley Morgan, Founder, Orgonians Against Legalization of Marijuana Ms. Carla Lowe, Founder, Citizens Against Legalization of Marijuana Mr. Joe Lyons, Media Relations Expert, KSPA Radio Mr. Monte Stiles, Esq, United States Assistant Attorney (ret.) Dr. Joel Hay, Ph.D., Professor, University of Southern California School Mr. Seth Leibsohn, Esq., President, The Leibsohn Group Mr. Rick Ko, Lieutenant, Fresno County Sheriff's Department, California Dr. Kenneth Finn, M.D. Colorado Springs, Colorado Mr. Glenn Walsh, Los Angeles Sheriff's Sergeant / CNOA Dr. Shirley Forbing, Founder, Communities Against Substance Abuse Dr. Lynn Fox, Founder, Powerful Parenting Mr. Ernie Martinez, President, Colorado Drug Investigators Association Mr. Jerry Peters, Vice President, Colorado Drug Investigators Association ********Order your seat today before it's gone! 4-days left! http://marijuanapolicyconference.eventbrite.com/ Visit the conference web-site to see our list of other outstanding speakers. www.MarijuanaPolicyConference.com Learn successes and failures in reducing marijuana use, sales, trafficking, production, and related issues, so that an effective Marijuana Policy and Strategy Guide may be produced and shared across America in order to measurably reduce the impact of marijuana and reverse current efforts to legitimize the drug. Attendees & Participants: Law Enforcement;  Business Community; Media; Schools; Youth –Servicing Organizations; Parents; Religious and Fraternal Organizations; Civic & Volunteer Groups; Health-care Professionals (including mental health, substance abuse and recovery); Youth; Local, State, Federal and Tribal Officials; Elected Officials; Other organizations involved in reducing substance abuse. Learn more:  MarijuanaPolicyConference.com Register: MarijuanaPolicyConference.eventbrite.com/# Become a Conference Sponsor today! MarijuanaPolicyConference.com/sponsorship   Ontario, CA (ONT airport code) 5-miles from event location 40-miles east of Los Angeles Sponsored by: California Peace Officers Association ****D.A.R.E. America ****BB&K Law Firm National Narcotic Officers Association**** California Narcotic Officers Association Reach Out-PIC ****Drug Free RC ****Inland Valley Drug Free Community Coalition FreeStyle Foundation **** National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence - O.C. Neighborhood Partnership Housing Services **** Union Station Homeless Services Main Street Chamber **** Chabot Strategies, LLC **** Highroad LA ****AM1510KSPA Citizens Against Legalization of Marijuana **** Safety & Wellness Advocacy Community Coalition Hosted by: Coalition for a Drug Free California **** Drug Free America Foundation

KZRG 102.9 FM/1030 AM Oklahoma: 42 Arrested In NE OK Sex Trafficking

A total of 42 people have been arrested following a four-day investigation by the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics into sex trafficking in northeastern Oklahoma.

A spokesman for the agency, Mark Woodward, says OBN's Human Trafficking Unit launched the investigation after learning that individuals, including minors, were being forced into prostitution in Tulsa, Rogers, Ottawa, and Delaware counties.

Woodward says that between Tuesday and Friday, OBN worked in several cities and locations to target and arrest individuals engaged in prostitution. Woodward says follow-up interviews were conducted to identify minors, as well as adults forced into prostitution as the result of human trafficking.

Woodward says three women were identified as victims of human trafficking and transported to a shelter facility. He says one of them is only 15 years old.

The OBN does not have data on how many of the arrests took place in Ottawa & Delaware Counties.

Source:  www.newstalkkzrg.com

STOP BULLYING: Girl jumps off building after bullying

Nancy Grace: Mom admits burning child’s remains in barrel

By Katherine Cavazini - An Idaho mother who admitted to burning her dead child’s remains in a barrel was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday. 

Veronica T. Herrera, 29, pleaded guilty in April to involuntary manslaughter, failure to notify authorities of a death, injury to a child, and four counts of destruction of evidence.  A judge Thursday sentenced Herrera to 30 years in prison with 15 years fixed.

Authorities say on August 18, 2012, Herrera approached a police officer outside the Nampa Police Station and said “she did something bad, and that her child was burnt and she made it worse,” officials said in a police report.  During an interview with investigators, the mother told police her daughter, 2-year-old Nakita, had thrown herself onto a heater and hit her head on August 15.

The mother told officials she then placed her daughter in a playpen in the living room of her Homedale home and told her 9-year-old son to watch the little girl while she went to her sister’s house in Caldwell to drop off her other children, police said.

When Herrera returned home, she told investigators she went to check on her daughter and found that “she was not breathing and had a large bump on her head,” documents state. Herrera told authorities that in a panic she wrapped her daughter’s body in a blanket and placed the body in the back of her minivan overnight.

The following day, Herrera told police she went to a market, purchased lighter fluid, and returned to the house where she put the girl’s body into a burn barrel in the backyard and lit it on fire.  “Veronica said the other children did not know what she was doing and thought it was mom just having a fire,” the police report stated. “Veronica stated that she allowed the other children to add trash and other items into the burned barrel where she put Nakita’s body to keep the fire going.”

When asked by police why she did not call authorities after her daughter had been injured, “Veronica said she did not want to lose her children, so she freaked out,” the police report stated. Herrera told police she went to check on the burn barrel the following day and stated that when she looked inside she could still see her daughter’s body parts inside the barrel, authorities said.

The mother, according to investigators, said she went back to the store and purchased two more bottles of lighter fluid and lit the burn barrel and remaining body parts on fire.  The next day, Herrera told police she added additional items, including garbage, to the burn barrel and set it on fire a third time.

“When this happened, I just got so scared of losing my kids. I made things worse, but at the time I was just thinking about losing my kids,” Herrera said during the second day of her sentencing hearing, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported. “I realize that all I did was make myself look guilty. I made myself look like I did something to make her pass away,” she added.

HLN was unable to reach Herrera’s defense attorney William Wellman for a statement Monday. However, the Idaho Press-Tribune reported that at the hearing, the defense argued that Herrera did not kill her daughter, she simply reacted poorly to her death.

“The body was all that was there. The soul of the child had already gone to heaven,” Wellman told Judge Thomas J. Ryan when before requesting a sentence of 10 years with 3 years fixed, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune.

“You need to be held accountable,” Judge Ryan told Herrera before handing down the 30-year sentence, according to the Idaho Press-Tribune. “You need to pay a debt to society.”

Herrera will be eligible for parole in September 2028.

www.hlntv.com

Remembering the Victims of 9/11

Think Progress/United Nations: What We Can Learn From The Largest International Study On Rape That’s Been Conducted So Far (Southeast Asia)

Think Progress reports:  United Nations researchers just published a sweeping study on the roots of sexual violence, spanning six countries and two years. The survey, which they say represents the world’s largest scientific project into the subject so far, aimed to investigate the “under-researched” area of male-perpetrated rape. On average, about one in ten men living in the region included in the study said they had raped someone at some point in their lives.

The UN study included over 10,000 men from Bangladesh, China, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Sri Lanka. The researchers caution that some regional attitudes about sexuality in Southeastern Asia may contribute to the results that they gathered across those six countries. Still, though, there are some big takeaways from their findings. Here’s what the new research can tell us about the landscape of sexual violence as a whole:

Many people have the wrong idea about what “rape” actually is. The researchers intentionally didn’t use the word “rape” in any of their questionnaires about Asian men’s sexual histories. Instead, they asked men whether they had ever “forced a woman who was not your wife or girlfriend at the time to have sex,” or if they had ever “had sex with a woman who was too drunk or drugged to indicate whether she wanted it.” That likely helped researchers gather more accurate information about the nonconsensual sexual acts that men had engaged in. Since many people don’t learn the lines of consent, many sexually active adults may not understand when they’re violating someone else — and they may not believe they have actually raped someone. “Rape doesn’t just involve someone with a gun to a woman’s head,” Michele Decker, a public health professor who co-wrote the commentary that accompanied the new study, pointed out to CBS News. “People tend to think of rape as something someone else would do.”

Rape occurs within marriages, too. Along those lines, many people think about rape as something that occurs between strangers, when women are accosted by criminals in dark alleyways. But that’s not the reality of sexual assault. The UN survey found that rape between married partners was more prevalent than rape among people who were not in a romantic relationship. Studies conducted within the United States have revealed similar results about the prevalence of intimate partner violence in this country. When it comes to educating people about sexual assault, it’s important to emphasize that consent never carries over — that is, even when it comes to spouses who have had consensual sex many times before, neither of them have consented to every instance of sexual contact their partner may demand in the future.

Repeat offenses are very high among rapists. Nearly half of the respondents who said they had raped at least once went on to rape multiple victims. Nearly 23 percent said they had raped two to three people, 12 percent say they had raped four to ten people, and about 4 percent said they had raped more than ten people. Here in the United States, some research has drawn similar conclusions about repeat rapists at the college level. A Harvard University study found that the young men who commit a rape in college are likely to become serial offenders — and many of them do, since lenient sexual assault policies on college campuses often allow them to evade punishment.

Unhealthy attitudes about sexuality take root at a young age. More than half of the study’s respondents who admitted they had violated someone’s consent were teenagers when they first raped someone. Most sexual crimes recorded in the study occurred when men were between the ages of 15 and 19. The authors point out this finding “reinforces the need for early rape prevention.” Sexual violence prevention advocates in the U.S. say that this type of education can begin with comprehensive sex ed. Teaching kids about the bodies from an early age helps instill a sense of self-confidence and ownership in them. Then, they’re more likely to avoid violating another person’s consent, or be more willing to speak up when someone tries to violate theirs.

Men rape because they have been taught that they have a right to claim women’s bodies. One of the fundamental concepts at the heart of “rape culture” is the idea that rape is inevitable, men can’t help themselves, and women must therefore work to protect themselves against it. Within the context of rape culture, the idea that men are entitled to sexual experiences is deeply entrenched. The UN researchers found that this attitude is pervasive among the rapists they surveyed. Among the men who acknowledged they had sexually assaulted someone else, more than 70 percent of them said they did it because of “sexual entitlement.” Forty percent said they were angry or wanted to punish the woman. About half of the men said they did not feel guilty.

Rape typically goes unpunished in Southeast Asia. Just 23 percent of the men who said they had raped someone had actually been imprisoned for their crimes. That trend holds true outside of the Southeast Asian countries that were included in the study. The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network (RAINN) estimates that, after factoring in the extremely high number of rape cases that go unreported to the police, about three percent of U.S. rapists end up serving jail time. This has been a particularly contentious issue on college campuses lately, where many rapists receive extremely light punishments, like being assigned essays and placed on social probation, instead of being expelled.

***

“It’s clear violence against women is far more widespread in the general population than we thought,” Rachel Jewkes, a member of South Africa’s Medical Research Council and the leader of the new study, said in a statement about her results. Previous research that Jewkes also oversaw found that one in three women worldwide has experienced some type of intimate partner violence, prompting the World Heath Organization to declare it an “epidemic” global health problem.

Jewkes and her fellow researchers hope that their new study — one of the first to focus on male perpetrators of sexual assault, rather than female victims — will help encourage concrete policy changes to reverse some of the dynamics that contribute to rape culture. “Prevention of rape is essential,” they conclude. “Interventions must focus on childhood and adolescence, and address culturally rooted male gender socialization and power relations, abuse in childhood, and poverty.”

Source: www.thinkprogress.org

Cavalry Daily: McDonnell praises anti-trafficking laws, Virginia improves in Polaris rankings

On Thursday, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell recognized improvements the state has made against human trafficking in rankings released last month by the anti-human trafficking group Polaris.

Polaris ranks every state and the District of Columbia on the stringency of their laws combating sex trafficking and supporting trafficking survivors. In the past three years, Virginia has moved from Polaris’ fourth and bottom tier to the organization’s top tier.

G. Stewart Petoe, the director of legal affairs at the Virginia State Crime Commission, however, said the Crime Commission thought Virginia’s previous laws on human trafficking were sufficient. The commission is a state criminal justice research agency that seeks to “ascertain the causes of crime and recommend way to reduce and prevent it,” according to its website. The commission conducted a review of state human trafficking laws in 2010 and is currently reviewing newly proposed trafficking laws.

In his press release, McDonnell praised the nine laws related to human trafficking that he has signed since 2011, including a measure signed this year that enhances the penalty for encouraging a minor to engage in prostitution.

“Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world,” McDonnell said in the press release. “I’m pleased with the progress that Virginia has made by enacting tougher legislation.”

The General Assembly referred five bills related to human trafficking and sexual offenses to the Crime Commission for review earlier this year. Three of the bills allow victims of forced prostitution to petition to have their criminal and police records wiped clean.

The other two proposals allow prior sex offense convictions to be presented as evidence before a jury in future trials. Petoe said these proposals will help law enforcement prosecute repeat offenders. “It will be a tool for prosecutors to use to help bolster their case and get a conviction,” he said.

Though the commission has previously evaluated sex trafficking legislation, Petoe said they will consider the issues anew when reviewing the latest proposals.

“We always try to hit a topic with a fresh mind when it comes back up,” Petoe said. “The issues are interesting. I don’t know if there are any stark, correct answers one way or the other.”

Source:  www.cavalrydaily.com

Humor

A Message from California Against Slavery

Let's be clear: Predators with a history of disregarding the rights and dignity of other human beings have forfeited certain privileges, including complete anonymity online and offline. See ya in court!

Christian Science Monitor: Kevin Sabet of Project SAM - 7 big myths about marijuana and legalization

Just days after President Obama told the press through his spokesman that he was not prepared to change federal marijuana laws, the Justice Department announced last week that it would defer its right to challenge state laws legalizing marijuana in Washington and Colorado. Its decision not to enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in those states mark a significant change for the administration, and Americans can now expect the creation of large, for-profit commercial marijuana enterprises that will threaten public health and safety.

As a former drug-policy adviser in the Obama administration, I’m often asked why anyone would oppose marijuana legalization. The answer is found in my new book, “Reefer Sanity: Seven Great Myths About Marijuana.” In short, my work has shown that marijuana legalization would pose too many risks to public health and safety. Based on almost two decades of research, community-based work, and policy practice across three presidential administrations in which I have worked, here are seven widely held myths about marijuana that Americans need to know.

Marijuana activist Brian Vicente speaks in Denver Sept. 4, advocating for Proposition AA, which would enact a 15 percent excise tax on the wholesale distribution of marijuana as well as a 10 percent sales tax at the retail level. Op-ed contributor Keven A. Sabet writes: 'Legalization will cost America. For every $1 in state and federal revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes, America spends more than $10 in social costs.' (Brennan Linsley/AP)

1. Myth: Marijuana is harmless and non-addictive

Admittedly, marijuana is not as dangerous as cocaine or heroin, but to say it is harmless or nonaddictive is to deny science. TheNational Institutes of Health reports that 1 out of every 6 adolescents who try the drug will develop an addiction. This may not amount to the experience of the Woodstock generation, but scientists now know that the average strength of today’s marijuana is some five to six times what it was in the 1960s and 1970s (and some strains are upward of 10 times stronger than in the past). This translated to almost 400,000 marijuana-related emergency room visits in 2008 due to things like acute psychotic episodes and car crashes. 

In fact, according to the British Medical Journal, marijuana intoxication doubles your risk of a car crash. Mental health researchers are also noting a  significant marijuana connection with schizophrenia. And educators are seeing how persistent marijuana use can blunt academic motivation and significantly reduce IQ – by up to eight points according to a very large recent study in New Zealand. Regular marijuana use hurts America’s ability to learn and compete in a global marketplace.

2. Myth: Smoked or eaten marijuana is medicine

While the marijuana plant has known medical value, that does not mean smoked or ingested raw marijuana is medicine. Just as patients don’t smoke opium or inject heroin for morphine’s medical benefits, they should not smoke marijuana for such reasons.

A pill, Marinol, based on marijuana’s active ingredient, is available by prescription at US pharmacies today. Nearly two dozen countries have approved a new oral spray comprised of marijuana extract. The spray, Sativex, produced in Britain, does not get you high, contains levels of ingredients rarely found in street-grade marijuana, and has proven its effectiveness for relieving cancer pain and muscle spasticity. It will be available in the US soon, and in the meantime, the federal government should start a research program to allow medications like this one to be used by qualified patients under physician supervision.

The point is not to deny patients a medication to help them, but to prevent smoked or eaten marijuana from becoming a smokescreen for recreational use, or from being misused. Patients should be able to access a medication that is both scientifically approved and obtainable at a pharmacy – not “medical marijuana lollipops” at stores that feature bouncers, bongs, and a neon green cross on the door.

3. Myth: Countless people are behind bars simply for smoking marijuana

Reducing America’s high incarceration rate is a lofty goal, and one that I wholeheartedly support. But legalizing marijuana will not make even a small dent in America’s state or federal imprisonment rates. That is because less than 0.3 percent of all state prison inmates are there for smoking marijuana.

Moreover, most people arrested for marijuana use are cited with a ticket. Very few serve time behind bars unless it is in the context of another crime or a probation or parole violation.  At the same time, society shouldn’t saddle low-level marijuana users with criminal records. But legalizing marijuana in order to solve that problem is not the answer.

4. Myth: The legality of alcohol and tobacco strengthen the case for legal marijuana

“Marijuana is safer than alcohol, so marijuana should be treated like alcohol” is a catchy, often-used argument in the legalization debate. But this assumes that America’s alcohol policy is something worth modeling. In fact, because alcohol and cigarettes are used at such a high rate due to their wide availability, the country’s two legal intoxicants cause more harm, are the cause of more arrests, and kill more people than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol happens to be legal for cultural reasons, and it would be difficult to turn back the clock on its legalization. But why add a third drug to the list of legal killers?

5. Myth: Legal marijuana will solve government budget problems

A motivating factor for some legislators and voters who favor legalization is a well-intentioned desire to raise government revenue. After all, why let the drug dealers and cartels make all the money in a time of depleted budgets?

Unfortunately, neither states nor the federal government can expect any net gain with marijuana legalization. In fact, legalization will cost America. For every $1 in state and federal revenue from alcohol and tobacco taxes, America spends more than $10 in social costs, according to a complication of US government and other studies cited by the White House. Additionally, two major business lobbies – big tobacco and the liquor lobby – work hard to keep taxes on these drugs from rising and to promote use. The last thing the country needs is the “Marlboroization of marijuana.” But that is exactly what we can expect if we let marijuana into the open marketplace.

6. Myth: Portugal and the Netherlands provide successful models of legalization

Contrary to media reports and partisan think tanks, Portugal and the Netherlands have not legalized drugs, including marijuana. In Portugal, someone caught with a small amount of drugs is sent to a three-person panel and given treatment, a fine, or a warning and release. The result of this 2001 policy is less clear. Treatment services were ramped up at the same time the new policy was implemented, and a decade later there are more young people using marijuana, but fewer people dying of opiate and cocaine overdoses.

In the Netherlands, officials seem to be scaling back their marijuana non-enforcement policy (lived out in “coffee shops”) after witnessing higher rates of marijuana use and treatment admissions there. The government no longer allows non-residents to buy marijuana. What all of this says about how legalization would play out in the hyper-commercial US, which is obsessed with advertising, is another point entirely.

7. Myth: People have always smoked marijuana and always will. Why try to stop it?

Less than 8 percent of Americans smoke marijuana versus 52 percent who drink and 27 percent of people who use tobacco products. Instead of normalizing marijuana, we should be keeping it illegal and continue to spend resources on reducing demand. These efforts work. Communities that implement local anti-marijuana strategies by area-wide coalitions of parents, schools, faith communities, businesses, and, yes, law enforcement, have shown significant reductions in marijuana use. Brief interventions and treatment for marijuana addiction also work, as do probation reform programs and drug treatment courts.

Marijuana policy is not straightforward. For some, using pot is not a dangerous issue. For others, marijuana use is a serious problem. For society as a whole, its use is a large and growing public health issue with significant costs.

The Justice Department’s decision to allow for-profit marijuana businesses to take root is dangerous and misguided, inconsistent with international law, and undermines the president’s own objectives to promote health and education. A greater effort should be exerted to make nonsmoked, scientifically approved medications derived from marijuana available, but we should not let myths guide marijuana policy. America can do better.

Source:  www.csmmonitor.com

Denver FOX 31: Pot tax protesters plan to hand out thousands of joints at Civic Center Park

Huffington Post: Cost of ONE Cruise Missile $1.4 Million

In the opening days of the assault on Libya, the United States and the United Kingdom launched a barrage of at least 161 Tomahawk cruise missiles to flatten Moammar Gadhafi's air defenses and pave the way for coalition aircraft.

In fiscal terms, at a time when Congress is fighting over every dollar, the cruise missile show of military might was an expenditure of nearly a quarter of a billion dollars. Each missile cost $1.41 million, close to three times the cost listed on the Navy's website.

Read more at www.huffingtonpost.com

A Message Brought to You by Sober Nation - www.sobernation.com

Drunk Driver Guilty of Vehicular Manslaughter Confesses asking for Full Prison Sentence to Honor Memory of Victim Vincent Canzani, a 61-year old Veteran

Los Angeles Police Department: 19 Johns Arrested for Soliciting Undercover Vice Cops for Prostitution in Sepulveda Corridor

North Hills.  The Vice Unit of the LAPD’s Mission Police Station conducted a sting operation on

August 22, 2013, targeting men who solicit women for prostitution along the Sepulveda Corridor in North Hills.  The four-hour operation caught 19 men, mostly locals, for soliciting undercover female vice officers for sex in exchange for money. 

The sting focused on two San Fernando Valley motels, the Travel Inn and the Palm Tree Inn, both in the 8500 block of Sepulveda Boulevard. 

“The motels can act as a magnet for crime, but we’re lucky to have cooperative motel proprietors who are partners with us in weeding out the criminal element,” said Captain Todd Chamberlain, commanding officer of the Mission Police Station.  “Most of these men are not criminals, per se, but their willingness to solicit prostitutes is what keeps the vice activity and its related crimes here.” 

Patrol officers, narcotics investigators, and gang officers regularly patrol these many motels, from Roscoe Boulevard, north to Devonshire Street, routinely finding criminal activity.  “Stolen cars and stolen loot from stores and homes are common, as well as parolees,” explained Capt. Chamberlain.  “While the motels are a legitimate business, we want to discourage any and all illicit activity, as do the owners.”

Targeting the Johns for arrest, rather than the prostitutes, is just another way to discourage a bad element from hanging out along the Sepulveda Corridor, which lies adjacent to a large residential neighborhood. 

Arrestees ages ranged from 19 years to 38 years.  The majority was from Panorama City, North Hills and, Van Nuys, while one each traveled from Palmdale, Sherman Oaks, San Bernardino, and Encino.  Seven men claimed to be unemployed, and the remainder came from blue-collar jobs like construction, auto repair, and carpentry.   The charge was 647(b) PC, a misdemeanor crime for soliciting prostitution.

“We’re publicizing this to discourage vice activity by reducing the demand,” Capt. Chamberlain added.  “For other men thinking of coming here, be warned:  this time, these men were just JOHNs, but next time we may up the ante by releasing the real names of the JOHNs arrested.”

Anonymous tips can be called into Crimestoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477), or by texting 274637 (C-R-I-M-E-S on most keypads) with a cell phone. All text messages should begin with the letters “LAPD.” Online tips may be placed at www.LAPDOnline.org, click on “webtips” and follow the prompts.

Sources:  www.lapdonline.org  and  www.mmp.org