ASAP of Anderson and police departments in Anderson County have formed a partnership to take back expired or unused medicines on Saturday.
It’s part of the 2019 Drug Enforcement Administration Rx Drug Take Back Day.
“Community members can bring their expired or unused medicines to one of the Anderson County Take Back locations anytime between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. this Saturday,” a press release said.
[Read more…]Note: This story was updated at 11:30 a.m. Jan. 24.
Local law enforcement officers haven’t noticed an impact on investigations or criminal proceedings from the partial shutdown of the federal government, but agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has helped investigate crimes in Oak Ridge, are working without pay.
The shutdown is in its 33rd day, and it is the longest ever. It began Saturday, December 22, and it affects about 25 percent of the U.S. government, including the departments of Homeland Security and Justice, among other federal agencies. The shutdown hinges on a dispute between President Donald Trump and Democrats in Congress over whether to spend $5.7 billion to build a wall on the border with Mexico.
On Wednesday, the Oak Ridge Police Department said it has not observed any impact from the partial government shutdown, and the ORPD continues to work with its federal partners. Besides the FBI, the ORPD also works with, for example, the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Seventh Judicial District Attorney General Dave Clark said he is not aware of any impact at this time, including on investigations or criminal proceedings. Clark said he just met with the Anderson County sheriff and the county’s police chiefs on Tuesday, and “there was no mention of anyone experiencing issues.” [Read more…]
The partial government shutdown that started at midnight affects nine federal departments and several agencies. They include the U.S. Department of Justice, which includes the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. attorney’s offices.
During the partial shutdown, some employees who are considered excepted for reasons that include national security and public safety might continue working, but without being paid until the shutdown is over, while others will be furloughed.
Oak Ridge Today has previously reported that FBI agents will continue working, but they will work without pay, at least for now.
The U.S. Department of Energy, which has major operations in Oak Ridge, is not affected by the shutdown, while the National Park Service, which also has operations here, is. The Park Service is part of the U.S. Department of Interior, which is one of the departments that has had a lapse in funding due to a lack of agreement between Congress and President Donald Trump over whether to include $5 billion for a wall along the Mexican border in spending legislation. [Read more…]
There will be a presentation on the opioid drug epidemic this evening at Robertsville Middle School.
The presentation is hosted by the offices of Safe Schools and Coordinated School Health. They are inviting the Oak Ridge community and friends of Oak Ridge Schools to the presentation, which is this evening (Wednesday, November 29) in the Robertsville Middle School Auditorium.
The evening will include a screening of the film “Chasing the Dragon,” a press release said. Following the film, the group will engage in a panel discussion with former Drug Enforcement Administration agent Neil Morgenstern as well as representatives from Oak Ridge Police Department, Oak Ridge Fire Department, Ridgeview Behavioral Health, and ASAP of Anderson County.
The doors will open at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday to provide those who attend an opportunity to visit with area mental health, drug prevention, treatment, and recovery agencies. The program will start promptly at 6 p.m. [Read more…]
James T. Akagi
The Oak Ridge League of Women Voters will host Lunch with the League on Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. at the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church on Oak Ridge Turnpike.
The speaker will be Oak Ridge Police Chief Jim Akagi.
The public is invited, and there is no cost to attend.
The lunch, which will last until about 1 p.m. Tuesday, will be in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, which is located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.
Akagi will talk about current issues in the City of Oak Ridge and surrounding areas that are affecting police activities—including opioid usage, immigration, and school safety, a press release said. [Read more…]
Nicholas Ryan Salpas
With help from other agencies, the Oak Ridge Police Department seized more than 70 pounds of marijuana on Wednesday, authorities said.
Police searched a home on Carlisle Lane in Oak Ridge on Wednesday, December 9, with help from the Seventh Judicial District Crime Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
They seized more than 70 pounds of marijuana in vacuum-sealed bags, as well as one vacuum-sealed bag of suspected concentrated THC resin, a press release said.
Nicholas Salpas, 30, the resident and sole occupant of the home at 102 Carlisle Lane, was arrested at the scene, the release said. He was charged with three counts of manufacture, delivery, sale, or possession of a controlled substance, with an enhancement for this activity occurring within a drug-free school zone; possession of drug paraphernalia; theft of property; and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. [Read more…]
A Chattanooga pill mill operator was sentenced to 280 years in federal prison on Thursday, and the Roane County Sheriff’s Office was among the law enforcement agencies that participated in the investigation that led to her indictment and subsequent conviction, authorities said.
Barbara Lang, a.k.a. “Aunt Bea,” 61, of Rossville, Georgia, was sentenced by the Honorable Curtis L. Collier, U.S. District Judge, said United States Attorney William C. Killian of the Eastern District of Tennessee.
After a 25-day trial that spanned almost three months, Lang was convicted of two counts of conspiring to distribute and dispense Schedule II and IV controlled substances, outside the scope of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose; five counts of maintaining a premises for the purpose of distributing controlled substances; and 14 counts of structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements, a press release said.
Lang was charged along with three other people. [Read more…]
William C. “Bill” Killian
DETROIT—U.S. attorneys and leaders of federal law enforcement agencies from across six states met in Detroit on August 26, 2015, to share strategies to combat the heroin and prescription pill epidemic across the region.
U.S. Attorney William C. Killian of the Eastern District of Tennessee was among those who attended.
The summit was called in response to the national epidemic of heroin and prescription pill abuse that has hit Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, particularly hard. Heroin overdose deaths in the United States have tripled from 2010 to 2013. Nationally, the number of deaths from all drug overdoses exceeded 43,000 last year, more deaths than from traffic accidents. Heroin use in the United States has doubled from 2007 to 2012.
In the Midwest, opioid deaths have increased 62 percent. The summit seeks to target this national and regional problem by dismantling drug trafficking organizations that distribute heroin and prescription pills and by increasing prevention and educational efforts. [Read more…]
Jack Stockton
The Roane County Sheriff’s Department was one of several law enforcement agencies that took part in an investigation that led to the indictment and conviction of the owner of two pain clinics, or “pill mills,” in Chattanooga, authorities said.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation were also involved in the investigation that led to the convictions of four people, including Barbara Lang, a.k.a. “Aunt Bea,” 60, of Rossville, Georgia, who owned and operated Superior One Pain Clinic and Primary Care Pain Clinic in Chattanooga, federal officials said.
Lang was convicted of drug trafficking and financial crimes. [Read more…]
There is a prescription drug take-back in Oak Ridge through 2 p.m. today (Saturday, September 27). There is also a collection of household hazardous waste, and it also ends at 2 p.m.
The prescription drug take-back is at the Oak Ridge Police Department at 200 South Tulane Avenue. The ORPD is doing this in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration Prescription Drug Take-Back Day and Allies for Substance Abuse Prevention (ASAP) of Anderson County.
“The Oak Ridge Police Department will give the public the opportunity to prevent pill abuse and theft by ridding their homes of potentially dangerous expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs,” a press release said. “The service is free and anonymous, no questions asked.” [Read more…]
Forty-two people have been arrested in a conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine using pseudoephedrine in Anderson and Campbell counties, and another 17 have been indicted, authorities said.
The arrests and indictments of the 59 people on July 16 followed an investigation by more than a dozen agencies. The investigation found that those involved were buying pseudoephedrine at local pharmacies and using it to manufacture methamphetamine at various places in the two counties, U.S. Attorney William C. Killian said in a Thursday press release.
Those indicted include: [Read more…]
Anderson County residents can get rid of their unused medicine on Saturday as the county participates in National Drug Take-Back Day sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The Oak Ridge Police Department, Clinton Police Department, Norris Police Department, Lake City Police Department, and Oliver Springs Police Department, along with ASAP, will host the event as part of a continued effort to reduce drug abuse and practice stewardship toward our environment. Medication may be dropped off with officers between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the Oak Ridge Police Department at 200 S. Tulane Ave. or dropped in the bin at the locations listed below. All packaging materials will be recycled.
