US TX: Ex-Agent Tells How to Stash Drugs

EX-AGENT TELLS HOW TO STASH DRUGS The Texas Officer Says His New Venture Is Driven by 'Injustice' In the U.S. War on Drugs TYLER, Texas -- A one-time Texas drug agent described by his former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country plans to market a how-to video on concealing drugs and fooling police. Barry Cooper, who has worked for small police departments in East Texas, plans to launch a website next week where he will sell his video, Never Get Busted Again, the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported in its online edition Thursday. A promotional video says Cooper will show viewers how to "conceal their stash," "avoid narcotics profiling" and "fool canines every time." Cooper, who said he favours the legalization of marijuana, made the video in part because he believes the U.S. fight against drugs is a waste of resources. Busting marijuana users fills up prisons with non-violent offenders, he said. "My main motivation in all of this is to teach Americans their civil liberties and what drives me in this is injustice and unfairness in our system," Cooper told the newspaper. Cooper said his website should be operating by Tuesday. As a drug officer, Cooper said, he made more than 800 drug arrests and seized more than 50 vehicles and $500,000 in cash and assets. "He was even better than he says he was," said Tom Finley, Cooper's former boss on a West Texas drug task force and now a private investigator in Midland. "He was probably the best narcotics officer in the state and maybe the country during his time with the task force." News of the video has angered authorities, including Richard Sanders, an agent with the Tyler Drug Enforcement Agency. Sanders said he plans to investigate whether the video violates any laws. "It outrages me personally as I'm sure it does any officer that has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of this state, and nation," Sanders said. "It is clear that his whole deal is to make money and he has found some sort of scheme, but for him to go to the dark side and do this is infuriating." Smith County Deputy Constable Mark Waters, a narcotics officer, said the video is insulting to law enforcement officials. "This is a slap in the face to all that we do to uphold the laws and keep the public safe," he said.







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US TX: Former Cop to Sell Video Showing Drug Users How to Avoid Police Detection

FORMER COP TO SELL VIDEO SHOWING DRUG USERS HOW TO AVOID POLICE DETECTION "Never get busted again." Law enforcement officers around East Texas were startled to find one of their former brothers of the badge is scheduled to begin selling a video describing how to avoid getting caught when stopped by police looking for illegal substances. The Tyler Morning Telegraph has learned that Barry Cooper, a former Gladewater and Big Sandy police officer, is scheduled to begin selling his DVD "Never Get Busted Again," Tuesday with the launch of a Web site and a full page advertisement in a national publication targeted toward those interested in illicit drugs. Smith County Deputy Constable Mark Waters, a drug interdiction officer, said he was appalled at the idea of a former officer selling such a video. "It's an embarrassment to all law enforcement officers across the United States, who put their life on the line every day," he said. "This is a slap in the face to all that we do to uphold the laws and keep the public safe." Cooper, once "the best" drug officer in West Texas, according to his former superiors, told the newspaper during an interview Wednesday night that he believes marijuana should be legalized, and that the imprisonment of those caught with the drug destroys their families and fills up jails and prisons across the country with non-violent offenders. He added that methamphetamines, cocaine and crack should be eradicated from the earth because they are dangerous drugs. But he says marijuana is not. "I know I won't be accepted by my peers here in East Texas, but in other areas of the country I will be celebrated," he said in his office in Tyler. "When I was raiding houses and destroying families, my conscience was telling me it was wrong, but my need for power, fame and peer acceptance overshadowed my good conscience." A three-minute promotion for the video shows Cooper in West Texas when he was assigned to the Permian Basin Drug Task Force being interviewed by media on large busts he made. The promotion has Cooper saying he is going to show people through actual footage of his busts how to not get caught, how to "conceal their stash ( do coffee grounds really work? )," "avoid narcotics profiling" and how to "fool canines every time." Cooper, who has no disciplinary actions on his law enforcement record, left law enforcement to pursue the ministry and a successful business. He said he also felt pressure from other law enforcement agencies that were jealous of busts he made, and the political pressures associated with arresting a mayor's son and a city council member on drug charges. Cooper argues that people are being sentenced to long prison terms for drugs when murderers, child molesters and rapists are getting shorter sentences. "The trillions of dollars we're spending in the war on drugs should be used to protect our children," he said. "Our children are being molested every day and everyone knows we have lost the war on drugs." Cooper believes marijuana should be legalized and regulated by the government which he says will cause the crime rate to drop. He points to Prohibition, America's failed experiment in outlawing alcoholic beverages. Prohibition merely empowered the criminals, he says, and that's just what's happening now with prohibited drugs. "We have cops and other people getting killed, and I believe we could end all of that," he said. He said the video would only show footage of how certain things interfered with a search and would not go into details, but the promotion says he will show the viewer how to beat the system. Cooper said he does not condone illegal activity - and does not use drugs himself - but if someone misuses his product, he can't be held responsible. "I have attorneys telling me that what I am doing is not illegal," he said. "I'm just selling a product." Local attorney Bobby Mims agrees. "I have seen the video, and a lot of people aren't going to like it, but it's my opinion everything he says is protected," Mims said. "And in my experience, the information he's presenting is truthful as well." When asked what he would have thought about a similar video being released when he was a peace officer, he replied, "At that time, I believed what I was taught by our government about marijuana and I would have disagreed with it ( the video ) until I interviewed the maker of the video." Lawmen Respond Cooper's former commander with the Permian Basin Drug Task Force said he was "completely shocked." Tom Finley, now a private investigator in Midland, said he was Cooper's boss in the 1990s and said Cooper was the best drug interdiction officer he had ever known. "He was even better than he says he was," he said. "He had a knack for finding drugs and made more arrests, more seizures than all of the other agents combined. He was probably the best narcotics officer in the state and maybe the country during his time with the task force." However, Finley said he was distraught to learn the video plans of his former "top cop." "I'm definitely not in agreement with what he is doing here and I am all for getting the drug offenders off the streets and putting them behind bars," he said. Cooper claims to have made more than 800 drug arrests and seized more than 50 vehicles and more than $500,000 in cash and assets. Richard Sanders, Tyler Drug Enforcement Agency bureau agent in charge, was aggravated by the soon-to-be-released video. "It outrages me personally, as I'm sure it does any officer that has sworn an oath to uphold the laws of this state and nation," he said. "It is clear that his whole deal is to make money and he has found some sort of scheme, but for him to go to the dark side and do this is infuriating." Sanders said there is no formal investigation currently, but that might change. "I'm sure we will make time to look into this as quickly as possible and there could be an investigation." he said. Big Sandy Police Chief Tim Scott said he could not believe anyone with former experience in the war on drugs would give any help to criminals. "He's going to tell all the ones we have been fighting how to get away with it and that makes me mad," he said. Texas Department of Public Safety Narcotics Service Capt. Mark Milanovich said he was going to wait and see what the video showed, but added that he has serious problems with the idea. "I think this guy needs to take a look at himself morally," he said. Scare Tactics Cooper, who raised his voice and became animated, said the government tells children that marijuana is a gateway to other illegal narcotics, but that's false. "It's a scare tactic and it's untrue," he said. Cooper said the public has been educated to believe that people who smoke marijuana are responsible for crimes. "Marijuana makes you happy, then intoxicated, then sleepy," he said. "It doesn't make you crazy." The "gateway drug" label is a fallacy, he said. "If there was a gateway drug, it would be alcohol," he said. Cooper said he does not agree with the current laws and hopes they change through legislation and sees this as a way to truly combat the nation's drug problems. "My main motivation in all of this is to teach Americans their civil liberties, and what drives me in this is injustice and unfairness in our system," he said. "I'm just teaching them how to not ruin their lives by being put in a cage. I'm not creating the problem; it is already there." Cooper said he knows there will be backlash from some, while others will agree with him. "I challenge anyone who doesn't agree with me to a public debate to hear what I have to say and I bet some people will change their minds," he said. "But I'm sure some will think of me as the devil."













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US CA: Sobering Vacation

SOBERING VACATION A New Wave of Addiction Treatment Centers Is Turning Malibu into the Capital of Luxury Rehab -- and Raising Questions About Whether Five-Star Service and Recovery Mix. MALIBU, Calif. -- Each sumptuous bed here at a retreat called Promises has been fitted with Frette linens and a cashmere throw. The elongated pool beckons as does the billiard room beyond, tucked into the Santa Monica mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean. But not just anyone can come to this exclusive getaway -- and really, not many would want to. Promises is an addiction-treatment center that caters to a mix of celebrities, corporate chiefs, their families and people who want to live like them. Promises is part of a growing niche in the burgeoning business of addiction treatment: centers that are truly, deeply luxurious. With more than a dozen recovery centers in this seaside village, Malibu has become the center of the high end of the industry -- perhaps logically, given its resort-like location, enclaves of celebrity homes and proximity to Los Angeles, a city whose primary industry is rife with partying and free-flowing cash. California law has helped by allowing rehab centers to be located in residential neighborhoods if they have no more than six beds. At Renaissance, where a staff of 50 caters to a dozen patients, one bedroom suite for a single resident measures 2,000 square feet -- as big as many three-bedroom homes. Another center, Harmony Place, will supply personal concierges and pedicures if patients ask. A few miles north of Promises on the Pacific Coast Highway, Passages offers surfing instructors. Clients stroll around in swim trunks chatting on cellphones in a sprawling sea-view mansion that is hard to distinguish from a luxury resort. "We are a very comfortable place to do some very uncomfortable work," says Don Grant, admissions director for Harmony Place. There are conflicts between recovery and luxury, according to addiction experts. Many of the 14,000 or so treatment centers in the U.S. adhere to guidelines that include an element of hard labor -- bed making, floor scrubbing, laundry and other duties that are intended to serve as equalizers among all addicts. Robert DuPont, former national drug czar under presidents Nixon and Ford and now president of the nonprofit Institute for Behavior and Health in Rockville, Md., says: "Self-centeredness is the key to the addiction....To get well, they have to leave their ego behind." But at luxe centers that charge $35,000 to $75,000 a month, many clients expect five-star service, not equality. Some Malibu facilities argue that they treat people who might not otherwise seek rehab. "We're talking about people who wouldn't go into treatment in a place where they had chores," says Mr. Grant, of Harmony Place, where clients do their own laundry. Chris Prentiss, co-founder of the center called Passages, eschews the benefits of chores. "We don't believe in punishment," Mr. Prentiss says. "There's no floor washing here." Most of the other treatment facilities here adhere to the traditional 12-Step philosophy that has guided addiction treatment for decades: From Step 1, an admission to being powerless to the addiction, through Step 12, promising to carry the recovery mission to other addicts. The rehab process involves hours of daily group and individual therapy with licensed counselors treating people who generally arrive in crisis, often with injuries sustained in falls, car accidents or other mishaps that precipitated their arrival. The minimum stay for most centers is about 30 days -- an industrywide norm established by insurance carriers. Some carriers might reimburse for a fraction of the cost, but many patients in these places pay for the whole thing themselves. Patients at some Malibu centers can take acupuncture and walks on the beach with therapists. There is also equine therapy, an art that Sal Petrucci, a former dentist who founded Renaissance Malibu, says doesn't involve riding, but involves getting a horse to respond to vocal commands. He describes it as trying to "get into the soul of the horse and connect as one with it." In the case of a celebrity who is in the midst of a project, Promises will provide a sobriety escort who will ferry the celebrity to and from the set, making sure he or she doesn't sneak off and relapse. For many years, the Betty Ford Center was considered the pinnacle of addiction treatment. But in recent years, as the rehab taboo has lessened and more people have sought treatment, the Ford Center's larger, more hospital-like facilities, with costs of roughly $21,000 for month's stay, have maintained their reputation for excellence but have come to seem more clinical against the new competition. While earning double-digit profit margins, many Malibu operators are expanding rapidly. Renaissance is working on a plan to expand to the Philippines and England as well as elsewhere in the U.S. Passages has purchased two houses on one gated Malibu street and is in negotiations to buy a third, and Mr. Prentiss, its co-founder, says he hopes one day to own all seven homes on the street: "At nearly $60,000 a month, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we're taking in $20 million a year." It's hard to tell, though, whether these places are any more successful than any other. And with the exception of Passages' Mr. Prentiss, the Malibu centers aren't claiming to be more successful -- just more comfortable. There is no standard to measure the success of addiction treatment. The problem lies both with the lack of a clear definition of success - -- sober for one year, five years or a lifetime? -- and verifying it, which would require addicts to report in honestly. People often say they choose the Malibu facilities because they've heard famous people went there, and assume the treatment must be good, or because they want the creature comforts. "I knew I had to do something," says Kristen Bufe, who attended Passages for two months in 2004 after she could no longer find a fresh vein to shoot up heroin. "I'd heard of rehab, but I had this vision of Betty Ford where you had to clean toilets and things like that." Many experts believe that creature comforts have little to do with success in recovery, and that the best way for addicts to improve their chances is to simply spend more time in rehab. Dennis O'Sullivan is the executive director of People in Progress, a residential rehab center that treats former prisoners and other down-and-out addicts in the San Fernando Valley. At a cost per client of $60 a day, covered largely by donations and government programs, People in Progress clients sleep on bunk beds with blankets donated by a local homeless shelter. But clients are required to commit to living there for a year. "The longer your exposure to treatment, the better your chances of recovery," Mr. O'Sullivan says. Just a few years ago, Promises was the only luxury rehab center in Malibu. Richard Rogg, a lanky recovering cocaine addict, was running a West Los Angeles recovery center in 1997, when some deeply troubled clients surprised him by demanding more luxury. "They're being wheeled in on a gurney to save their lives, and they're looking around going 'what's the thread count of the sheet?' " Mr. Rogg says with a shake of his head. Still, he looked around with the thought of upgrading his center when he came upon a sprawling Mediterranean home in Malibu with a separate guest house. He bought it. Within weeks of opening in Malibu, "some of my friends referred some celebrities," Mr. Rogg says. Soon, comings and goings at Promises were being photographed by paparazzi from on a hillside using long-range lenses. Mr. Rogg, a lantern-jawed former real-estate developer with a sometimes morose demeanor, says he was surprised by the center's popularity with big names. "I didn't come up here and say, 'Let's hit up the rich and famous and get all these celebrities,' " he says. His celebrity contacts have come in handy. These days, Mr. Rogg is creating a new Los Angeles facility that will treat low-income mothers and their children, to keep the children out of foster care. Earlier this year, at a fund-raiser at the polo games at Will Rogers State Park, actor Tom Arnold spoke, as did comedian Richard Lewis. Actor Louis Gossett Jr. addressed the crowd: "My name is Louis and I'm an alcoholic." They raised $280,000 for the treatment shelter that day, Mr. Rogg says, noting with a hint of cheer, "That's enough for our first year of operations." A 12-Step devotee, Mr. Rogg and others say that Promises Malibu maintains a sober approach to recovery. Every patient has chores. Corporate executives, he says, are often the best workers, wiping out ashtrays with fervor. Promises patients have come to call the facility "the Rock" for its seat in the coastal mountains, as well as its tough-love role. "They hit you mind, body and spirit. The money spent has given me a new life," says one former client, whose employer, an advertising agency, sent him there, and is now deducting the cost from his pay. "It might have fancy sheets and it might have triple-A food, but at the end of the day, it's a hard-core program." It took only a few years before other entrepreneurs -- many of them recovering addicts themselves -- began to replicate Promises' business model. The copycats are a source of steady irritation to Mr. Rogg and none more than Passages, whose treatment philosophy is at odds with Promises but whose name he says is similar. One former Passages client says he ended up there because he was looking for Promises when he was loaded and got the names mixed up. Mr. Prentiss, of Passages, argues that he has discovered a cure for addiction that involves uncovering a core problem through hours of individual therapy. This approach stands in stark contrast to many rehab centers around the country. Mr. Prentiss is a real-estate developer and the self-published writer of self-help books with titles like "For Once in Your Life, Be Who You Want, Have What You Want." He opened Passages as the "recovery plan" for his son Pax, the now-32-year-old co-founder, who had been addicted to heroin and other drugs since adolescence. "We cure people every day," says Mr. Prentiss. He argues that "alcoholism doesn't exist. It's a condition created so that insurance companies would pay for treatment. If I had an itch and scratched, would you say I have scratchism?" Claims of a "cure" run counter to most in the addiction-recovery business. "I know of no reputable scientist who doesn't see it as a chronic disease," says Barry Karlin, chief executive of CRC Health Group Inc. in Cupertino, Calif., a fast-growing chain of rehab centers. The evidence Mr. Prentiss offers of his success is anecdotal: It includes the case of a young woman who did drugs because, Mr. Prentiss says, she believed she wasn't pretty. "I took her into the bathroom and stood her in front of the mirror. I took her hair back and I took her shoulders and pulled them back. She was lovely." Mr. Prentiss says that by the end of her stay, the young woman was using makeup, had her hair fixed and now makes a living as a model. Two koi ponds flank the entrance to Passages' marble and gilt main building, where 34 therapists treat 29 patients in three residences where most share a room. They include two spiritual counselors -- one drives a Lexus sports car and says she's psychic -- as well as massage therapists, "life purpose counselors," hypno-therapists and an "image therapist" who encourages patients to use digital cameras to express themselves. One chef came from Spago. The staff leans toward attractive young women dressed in jeans and T-shirts. Sitting in a cushy leather lounge chair in Passage's great room, Mr. Prentiss greets, hugs, and pats his clients as they roam by. "How ya doin'?" he asks a young woman who passes with her just-delivered dry cleaning. "Not too well," she responds. After she disappears, Mr. Prentiss confides, "She just found out she's pregnant two days ago." Not everyone who attends these places is rich. One patient at Passages recently was a Hawaii bartender who paid the fee for three separate stays with an inheritance from her mother. Her hands shake as she pours herself a glass of lemon water. "She'll be dead if she doesn't get it this time," Mr. Prentiss says, out of earshot. Another recent client there sells cable-television services door to door. Convinced that Passages offered a solution that didn't label him diseased, he paid his bill by remortgaging his Los Angeles condo. "When you're there putting your heart and soul into therapy -- and then you get a massage," he says, "it's the relief."















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US: Web: The Futility Of Drug Prohibition

THE FUTILITY OF DRUG PROHIBITION Since the recent death of economist Milton Friedman, I've been thinking about the times that my life crossed paths with his. I've got a photograph on my bookshelf of me with him at the conference of the Drug Policy Foundation in 1991. In that year we gave him our most prestigious award, a lifetime achievement award named in honor of noted philanthropist and Chicago commodities trader, Richard Dennis. When we gave Dr. Friedman the award it was controversial. Many in the reform movement are liberal Democrats who are offended by Friedman's view that "the government solution to a problem is usually as bad as the problem." But, no doubt all in the drug policy reform movement would agree with that statement when it is applied to the government's never-ending war on drugs. As Friedman correctly said: "Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal." Indeed, Friedman came to the conclusion about the futility of drug prohibition early. When President Nixon started the modern war on drugs he wrote a column in Newsweek criticizing the policy. He warned that it would not reduce addiction but instead would promote crime and corruption repeating the mistake of alcohol prohibition. He concluded: "So long as large sums of money are involved-and they are bound to be if drugs are illegal-it is literally hopeless to expect to end the traffic or even to reduce seriously its scope. In drugs, as in other areas, persuasion and example are likely to be far more effective than the use of force to shape others in our image." See "Prohibition and Drugs." In 1989 when drug czar Bill Bennet was escalating the drug war on behalf of President George H.W. Bush, Friedman wrote an open letter in the Wall Street Journal reminding him that the problems he was trying to combat were the made worse by prohibition. He warned that crack was a product of prohibition correctly pointing out "it was invented because the high cost of illegal drugs made it profitable to provide a cheaper version." He concluded the letter: "Moreover, if even a small fraction of the money we now spend on trying to enforce drug prohibition were devoted to treatment and rehabilitation, in an atmosphere of compassion not punishment, the reduction in drug usage and in the harm done to the users could be dramatic. "This plea comes from the bottom of my heart. Every friend of freedom, and I know you are one, must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence." See "An Open Letter to Bill Bennett," April 1990. Friedman's view of the harms from drugs was not only the wasted money -- now about $1 billion per week -- but more so the destruction of inner cities, racially unfair incarceration, corruption of the police, wars in Colombia, Mexico and other countries that cost thousands of lives and the corruption of foreign economies as well as our own. The drug war has spurred the largest prison system in history with more than 2 million behind bars -- one in four of the world's prisoners residing in the land of the free. As Friedman pointed out: "Had drugs been decriminalized, crack would never have been invented and there would today be fewer addicts... The ghettos would not be drug-and-crime-infested no-man's lands... Colombia, Bolivia and Peru would not be suffering from narco-terror, and we would not be distorting our foreign policy because of it." When Friedman gave his key note address at the Drug Policy Foundation conference in 1991 he did not limit his talk to drug policy. He put forward a wider ranging analysis that covered a host of issues - -- schools, housing, medical care and the post office. Of course, this just added to the controversy around his nomination. But it was an opportunity to hear a perspective that no doubt held important truths on the limits and fallibility of government -- truths that could lead to more sensible approaches whether you completely agreed with Friedman or not. ( You can read a transcript of his speech and the questions and answers here. Friedman also appeared on a television show we produced, America's Drug Forum, and I crossed paths with him at two conferences at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and with Arnold Trebach edited a book on the writings of him and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz. He always put forward a clear vision and persistent attitude. Indeed, his persistence is something all advocates can learn from -- he went from being ignored and shunned to winning the nobel prize for economics and being an adviser to presidents. His life should give all of us hope that change is possible, indeed it is inevitable, and if we persist change will move in our direction.










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US HI: Edu: Student Uses Web to Expose Undercover Agents

STUDENT USES WEB TO EXPOSE UNDERCOVER AGENTS Photo, Names Posted in Response to Father's Arrest for Fraud Fearing for his family's safety, University of Hawai'i at Manoa student Christopher Yeung recently removed the Internet postings he used to expose the identities of undercover agents who investigated his father's medical practice. Yeung, whose father Kachun Yeung was charged with illegally distributing narcotic prescription drugs and Medicaid fraud earlier this year, went on the national Web site WhosaRat.com to reveal agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency ( DEA ) and Honolulu Police Department ( HPD ) who posed as patients during a 2002 investigation. He said that his goal was "to show other doctors that they may become victims of a sting, too." Because the undercover investigation ended in 2002, and the information was already revealed in court, 24-year-old Yeung did not violate any federal or state laws, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Loo. But Yeung said that since posting the information, he received several threats from federal agents. "I don't believe what I did was wrong," he said, "and accept responsibilities for my actions. I just don't want anything to happen to me or my family." Yeung admitted to using the Web site during an August court hearing after the team of federal attorneys brought up the issue. According to Loo, the team found out about the posting from a DEA agent. "I knew the attorneys and DEA check the site," Yeung said. "But I don't regret what I did." He posted profiles of three federal agents and a photo of one of them earlier this year. On the Web site, Yeung described one as "a known liar and a dirty agent. He is an absolute disgrace to the American justice system." "It was not like a typical hand-to-hand drug transaction," Yeung said. "My dad treated them [the undercover agents] as if he would treat anyone in pain. Now it looks like he's a drug dealer." If the case had still been under investigation, or the undercover agents were working on other cases, Yeung could have faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, according to federal obstruction of justice laws. Yeung, who plans to major in law, currently serves as a paralegal on his father's defense team, for which he helps prepare case files and sits in during hearings. The next trial is scheduled for March. He would not comment on how he found out about the WhosaRat Web, site nor would he say if his father was aware of his actions before he admitted to them in court. "The site doesn't play into the decision-making process," Loo said. "We [the U.S. district attorneys] also have not been talking about changing our practice of turning over materials from undercover investigations, since attorneys are required by the U.S. Constitution to do it anyway." For undercover agents, the threat of being exposed puts added stress on them, said Pam Fitzgerald, who researched officers of the HPD Narcotic Vice Division from 1998 to 2002. Fitzgerald received master's degrees in Counseling Psychology and Criminal Justice Administration from Chaminade University and developed a survey measuring stress among officers. "There is definitely that fear of their covers being blown," she said. "Oftentimes, they experience anxiety." Fitzgerald said that agents might even have psychological problems as a result of their undercover work. HPD has no preventative measures for these long-term mental effects and lacks support for them, she said. The WhosaRat Web site claims to identify more than 4,000 informants and undercover agents since first starting in 2004 as a resource for defense attorneys and prosecutors, according to a Nov. 30 USA Today article. Users can submit biographical information about witnesses or undercover agents and court documents. However, as of Thursday, users must pay for site access and can no longer upload photos of undercover agents, which may be harmful to officers. An Alabama judge ruled two years ago that a similar Web site, carmichaelcase.com, should not be shut down because it did not pose any kind of threat to those identified, according to The National Law Library. Kachun Yeung, 53, was charged in March with 30 counts of distributing painkiller Oxycodone, also known by its trade name OxyContin, "outside the course of professional medical practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose" and 19 counts of fraudulently billing Medicare for more than $2,000 in services rendered. He also had to surrender his DEA certificate permitting him to prescribe controlled drugs, and although he appealed the order to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals three months ago, his request was denied. Yueng continues to practice medicine at his Vineyard Boulevard office. According to a September 2006 court document submitted by Yeung's attorneys to the Court of Appeals, the order upholds "unduly restrictive bail conditions that are factually unsupported and that unlawfully abridge [his] ability to make a living as a physician." The grand jury also charged Wai'alae doctor Barry N. Odegaard, 53, that same month in a separate case with 10 counts of distributing Oxycodone and submitting false billings to Medicaid. Both plead not guilty to the federal charges and could face up to 20 years in prison for illegally prescribing narcotic drugs and up to 10 years for Medicaid fraud.













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