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Thursday, January 5, 2012

City Council Member In Alabama Pleads Guilty to Drug Charges


On December 3rd, police from Tuscaloosa, Alabama went to an apartment in search of a possible witness to a murder. At the apartment they found two men who allowed them inside. Although the police found no witness, they did find crack cocaine and crack pipes in plain view. The two men were arrested. One turned out to be Kip Tyner, the 56-year-old City Council member. The story of the arrest is here and here.

As part of his plea, Tyner will apparently enter a court-monitored counseling program. Details about the requirements of the program are reported here.

Crack cocaine is a highly addictive and powerful stimulant that is derived from powdered cocaine. Crack emerged as a drug of abuse in the mid-1980s. It is abused because it produces an immediate high and because it is easy and inexpensive to produce.

Cocaine, in any form, is powerfully addictive. But addiction develops more quickly when the drug is smoked in crack form as opposed to being snorted – though snorting cocaine is addictive, too.

Cocaine use causes constricted blood vessels; increased temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure; and risk of cardiac arrest and seizure. Crack users may also experience acute respiratory problems, such as coughing, shortness of breath, and lung trauma and bleeding. Crack cocaine smoking also can cause aggressive and paranoid behavior.



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