Drug-Related and Economic Crime Among Unauthorized Latino Immigrant and Other Arrestees in California

Abstract

This paper employs 1994-1996 California Drug Use Forecasting (CALDUF) and 1994 Los Angeles County Mexican Immigrant Residency Status Survey (LAC-MIRSS) data to estimate the level and determinants of drug-related and economic crime among unauthorized Latino immigrant and other arrestees in California. Controlling for various potential individual, contextual and geographic determinants, logistic regression results suggest the use of illicit drugs, having entered the United States more recently and residing in a home without paying any rent or mortgage positively-and residing in a home where another is dependent on an illegal substance negatively-influenced being apprehended for a drug-related crime. Although being an unauthorized Latino resident also had no effect on having been arrested for an economic crime, U.S.-born blacks and Latinos as well as non-Latino immigrants were each more likely than non-Latino U.S.-born whites to be arrested, as were younger females. Working full time and depending on another for a place to live diminished the probability. In sum, although illicit drug use augmented the probability of having been arrested for a drug-related crime, neither this nor unauthorized residency status among Latinos increased the likelihood of being arrested for an economic crime. A concluding section discusses several policy implications.     

Following the price: identifying cocaine trafficking networks in Colombia

ABSTRACT

International cocaine trafficking has been well-studied, but little is known about cocaine flows within Colombia, the largest producer and exporter of cocaine in the world. Using a unique dataset on the monthly wholesale prices of cocaine across 32 municipios in 2016, this paper estimates patterns of flows of cocaine within Colombia. For the 496 possible resulting pairs of municipios, price differentials are used to infer direction of flow, and price correlations are used to infer connectedness. Among the new findings, 38 suspected municipio-to-municipio flows that are new to the literature are identified. Interestingly, cocaine is inferred to flow through two distinct networks: one that originates in Buenaventura and the other in three points in southern and eastern Colombia. These networks may correspond to distinct criminal trafficking systems, a finding that has potential implications for drug control policies and measures.     

Acute Psychosis Induced by Bath Salts: A Case Report with Clinical and Forensic Implications

Bath salts are new designer drugs with stimulant effects on the central nervous system. White or brown powder sold online and in mini‐marts under different brand names, bath salts can be used by injecting, snorting, smoking, or ingesting with food or drink. The case of a 30‐year‐old Caucasian male who developed acute psychosis within a few hours of injecting himself with bath salts is described. The patient was hospitalized with a complaint of hearing voices. The drug also induced in the patient a state of euphoria, increased energy level, along with decreased need for sleep and decreased appetite. The psychological effects of the bath salts subsided within a few hours of injection and his reality testing remained consistently intact over the next 3 days of hospitalization. This case brings to attention the fact that bath salts were legal throughout the United States until recently and is still not completely controlled. This report informs clinicians of harmful effects of bath salts, including severe agitation with possible rhabdomyolysis, psychosis, suicidal ideation, hypertension, tachycardia, and death.     

Spectrofluorimetric and Spectrophotometric Analysis of Two Analgesic Drugs in Pharmaceutical Formulations and Biological Fluids

Simple, reliable, sensitive, and accurate spectrofluorimetric and spectrophotometric methods were proposed for the determination of two selected analgesic drugs, namely tramadol and morphine, in pharmaceuticals and biological fluids. The proposed methods were based on the oxidation of the studied drugs by Cerium (Ce)IV in an acidic medium. The spectrofluorimetric method is based on measuring the relative fluorescence intensity of Ce(III) arising from Ce(IV) at 350 nm with an excitation wavelength at 250 nm. The spectrophotometric method involves on addition of a known excess of Ce(IV) to the studied drugs in an acid medium, followed by the determination of residual Ce(IV) by reacting with a fixed amount of methyl orange and measuring the absorbance at 510 nm. Different variables affecting the reaction conditions, such as the concentrations of Ce(IV), type and concentration of the acid medium, reaction time, temperature, and the diluting solvents, were carefully studied and optimized.     

Paisaje antes de la batalla. Notas sobre el contexto de la guerra contra las drogas en México

Mexico’s security crisis and Felipe Calderón’s (2006-2012) security strategy had its roots in drug trafficking, the prohibition of drugs, contraband and the border shared with the United States. Standard accounts of the violence experienced in the country, which reduce it to confrontations between drug cartels, are of little use. This article presents part of the context in which the security crisis developed, putting it in a historical perspective, and attempting to take a step towards a more nuanced interpretation. It holds that drug trafficking between Mexico and the United States is a complex, many-sided reality which admits dense symbolic elaboration. Apart from the very concrete shipping of drugs, drug trafficking is part of Mexico’s relation with the United States, a register that imbues the asymmetry between both countries with meaning, a space of political negotiation and a resource of American global diplomacy which is crystallized in a clandestine foreign policy system. Furthermore, through the demystification of the imagery that envelopes organized crime, corruption and contraband are examined, conceiving these two as phenomena that are integrated organically into borderland society.     

社区禁毒工作思路探析

毒品问题是我国乃至世界所面临的一个重大的社会问题。禁毒冶理是一项规模宏大的社会性综合治理工程,关系到国家的长治久安,而社区禁毒是其中的一个重要组成部分。在科学发展观的指导下,充分利用社区的组织、人力、文化、教育等资源,全方位、多角度地开展禁毒斗争,是禁毒的有效途径。     

Utility of immunoassay in drug screening in skeletal tissues: sampling considerations in detection of ketamine exposure in femoral bone and bone marrow following acute administration using ELISA

Detection of ketamine exposure in skeletal tissues by automated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and gas chromatography with electron capture detection (GC-ECD) is described. Rats (n = 18) received 0, 15, 30, or 75 mg/kg ketamine hydrochloride acutely (i.p.), and were euthanized within 15 min or 1 h. Ketamine was extracted from ground femoral bone by methanolic incubation followed by liquid-liquid extraction (LLE), while marrow was homogenized in alkaline solution, and then underwent LLE. Extracts were analyzed by ELISA, and subsequently by GC-ECD following derivatization with trifluoroacetic acid anhydride. The effect of tissue type (i.e., diaphyseal bone vs. epiphyseal bone vs. bone marrow) on the immunoassay response was examined through determination of binary classification test sensitivity (S) and measurement of the relative decrease in absorbance (%DA, drug-positive tissues vs. drug-free controls) in each tissue type. The %DA varied significantly between different tissues examined under a given dose condition, and generally decreased in the order marrow > epiphyseal bone > diaphyseal bone, at all dose levels examined. Measured S values for marrow, epiphyseal bone, and diaphyseal bone were 100%, 77%, and 23%, respectively (75 mg/kg dose). These results suggest that the type of skeletal tissue sampled and position sampled within a given bone (diaphyses vs. epiphyses) are important parameters in drug screening of skeletal tissues.     

Analysis of pain management drugs, specifically fentanyl, in hair: application to forensic specimens

This article discusses the immunoassay screening of pain management drugs, and the mass spectrometric confirmation of fentanyl in human hair. Hair specimens were screened for fentanyl, opiates (including oxycodone), tramadol, propoxyphene, carisoprodol, methadone, and benzodiazepines and any positive results were confirmed using gas chromatography or liquid chromatography with mass spectral detection. The specific focus of the work was the determination of fentanyl in hair, since autopsy specimens were also available for comparison with hair concentrations. Using two-dimensional gas chromatography with electron impact mass spectrometric detection, fentanyl was confirmed in four of nine hair specimens collected at autopsy. The accuracy of the assay at 10 pg/mg was 95.17% and the inter-day and intra-day precision was 5.04 and 13.24%, respectively (n=5). The assay was linear over the range 5-200 pg/mg with a correlation of r(2)>0.99. The equation of the calibration curve forced through the origin was y=0.0053x and the limit of quantitation of the assay was 5 pg/mg. The fentanyl concentrations detected were 12, 17, 490, and 1930 pg/mg and the results were compared with toxicology from routine post-mortem analysis. The screening of pain management drugs in hair is useful in cases where other matrices may not be available, and in routine testing of hair for abused drugs.     

体液中常见滥用药物的系统筛选分析

本文建立了体液中常见滥用药物的筛选分析体系.尿液或血液经固相萃取(SPE)或液提取(LLE)后,直接用GC/NPD分析或经TFA、BSTFA衍生化后用GC/MS分析.方法适用于同时分析甲基苯丙胺、MDMA、度冷丁、去甲度冷丁、曲马多、美沙酮、EDDP、可卡因、苯甲酰芽子碱、可待因、安定、氯丙嗪、吗啡、单乙酰吗啡等十四种常见滥用药物及代谢物.SPE法和LLE法回收率分别为66～102%和50～86%,最低检出限为2-5ng/ml尿.涉毒案件的鉴定应用表明该分析方法简便、快速、可靠.     

论药品的警示缺陷责任

药品生产商对药品的警示缺陷应承担无过错责任。在追究药品生产商的严格责任时 ,应注意考察药品生产商在药品危险警示方面是否尽到了充分的、持续的、及时的注意义务。在药品生产商对药品危险具有充分知识而未尽警示义务的情况下 ,药品生产商应对药品对消费者所带来的损害负赔偿责任。对于处方药 ,药品生产商应对医师尽危险警示义务 ,这归因于医师处于权衡利弊并减少损害风险的位置。当药品生产商的促销行为使得医师作为评估者和决策者的地位减弱或丧失时 ,药品生产商应对消费者直接尽警示义务。药品危险警示义务的主体是生产商。药师不负有一般的药品危险警示义务 ,除非存在足以使人警觉从而引发较大注意义务的额外因素。