"A 16-year-old boy who allegedly shot three people and a dog in a Seattle park Monday apparently was reacting to a drug deal gone bad, not confronting homeless people, according to Seattle police. ...Now police say the boy apparently was in the park looking for marijuana. Somehow a conflict arose over the drug deal and the shots were fired, police said." (Drugs blamed in shootings, Seattle Times, December 17, 1998)

"In the small northwest Pennsylvania town of Edinboro, 14-year old Andrew Wurst opened fire at an eighth-grade dance late Friday, killing teacher John Gillette and slightly wounding a second teacher and two teenage boys, police said. ...Wurst was charged as an adult with criminal homicide, aggravated assault and reckless endangerment, and gun and drug charges. He had a small amount of marijuana, police said." (Shooting followed a deadly pattern, Seattle Post Intelligencer, April 27, 1998)

"Prosecutor Stew Menefee estimates that nearly 75 percent of the criminal caseload on Grays Harbor is either directly or indirectly related to drug abuse. Fully 48 percent of the criminal charges his office has filed over the past two years have been drug crimes, ranging from possession of methamphetamine to manufacture of marijuana, according to Menefee’s statistics. He and his deputy prosecutors estimate that about half the remaining cases - from burglaries to forgeries to violent crime - are linked in some way to drug and alcohol abuse. ...Criminal justice officials don’t believe Grays Harbor is much worse off than any other area of the state, but as Judge Foscue puts it, ‘it’s a very pervasive situation.’" (Drugs: A ‘pervasive situation,’ Aberdeen Daily World, April 25, 1998)

"Olympia - Saying that Claude Allen Price Jr.’s actions had devastated people, a judge sentenced him Thursday to 101 years in prison for trying to murder a former Tumwater couple. ...Price, who had 24 prior felony convictions, including 10 as an adult, was also charged with theft of a firearm, assault, attempted theft, attempt to elude an officer and possession of stolen property. ...Phillip Myers, who described himself as Price’s friend of 1- ½ years, said justice was served. ‘He had a drinking and drug habit,’ Myers said, ‘When he’s under that (influence), he becomes pretty evil.’" (Man in car-to-car shooting gets 101 years, The Olympian, April 10, 1998)

"Law officers report that more than half the youths they charge with crimes test positive for marijuana." (Study: Marijuana devastates lives, Rocky Mountain News, April 1, 1998)

"The first national survey of probationers, conducted for the Bureau of Justice Statistics, found that 46.8 percent of probationers had used either alcohol, drugs, or both at the time of their offense. This was lower than use among incarcerated criminals at the time of their offenses. Among jail inmates 60 percent had used alcohol, drugs or both when they committed their crimes; among state prison inmates, the figure was 49 percent." (Drugs, Alcohol Dominate in U.S. Crime Nearly Half of all Probationers Under the Influence at Time of Their Offenses, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 23, 1998)

"The most commonly used drug was marijuana. Among all probationers, 67 percent said they had used marijuana or hashish at least once in their lives..." (Drugs, Alcohol Dominate in U.S. Crime Nearly Half of all Probationers Under the Influence at Time of Their Offenses, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 23, 1998)

"The second trial of the man accused of killing Pierce County sheriff’s deputy John Bananola began Tuesday with a tape recording of rapid gunfire that made jurors jump. Brian Eggleston, 27, a bartender and small-time marijuana dealer, is accused of killing the deputy during a drug raid on Eggleston’s East Side Tacoma home October 16, 1995. ... ‘On October 16, 1995 Brian Eggleston shot John Bananola in the head three times and killed him,’ deputy prosecutor Jim Schacht told jurors. ‘That’s what brings us here today.’" (Taped Gunfire Opens Eggleston Retrial, The News Tribune (Tacoma), March 11, 1998)

"A senior deputy district attorney (Jim McIntyre) gives his version of what happened the day a Portland police officer was killed and two others wounded - ...In a downstairs bedroom, police found a 51-plant marijuana grow. Only a couple of the plants had been pulled out and burned in a wood stove, McIntrye said. At least nine guns were in the house, including two shotguns, two SKS 7.62 mm semiautomatic rifles, two 30-06 hunting rifles, a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle, a .357-magnum handgun and a .45-caliber handgun." (Prosecutor re-creates nightmare in drug house, The Oregonian, (Portland), March 8, 1998)

"Lacey - Forgery and narcotics arrests rose sharply in 1997 - and both trends are related to increased methamphetamine use, the police chief said. ‘The biggest increase we saw was in forgeries, an 82 percent increase,’ Police Chief John Mansfield said. ...Detective Chris Ward said the increase was mostly caused by meth use, but police also saw increases in marijuana, heroin and crack cocaine." (Meth use prompts rise in forgery, narcotics arrests in Lacey, The Olympian, February 26, 1998)

Auburn - A small piece of paper with ‘No Drugs’ scribbled across the front remains taped to a window at the entrance of the Iris Apartment complex. ... ‘Over 100 people used to come in and out a day - at all hours of the night,’ said Jamie Beasley Koch, who has five young children and lives next door. ‘We woke up Easter morning to a gunshot. We had to put the children on the floor several nights.’" (One Auburn neighborhood won its war on drug dealing, South County Journal (Seattle), January 26, 1998)

"In Washington state, costs of alcohol and other drug-related crimes, including crimes of violence, was estimated to be $348 million in 1990."(Alcohol, drugs linked to crime, violence, Skamania County Pioneer, January 14, 1998)

"A 1989 national study found that over 50 percent of those arrested for property crimes tested positive for illicit drug use." (Alcohol, drugs linked to crime, violence, Skamania County Pioneer, January 14, 1998)

"Alcohol and other drug crimes account for over one-third of all arrests in this country, according to the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. ‘Alcohol, marijuana and other drugs can impair judgment, which contributes to violence,’ said director of the Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Kenneth D. Stark." (Alcohol, drugs linked to crime, violence, Skamania County Pioneer, January 14, 1998)

"Here in the District of Columbia, 70% of juveniles arrested in 1996 tested positive for drugs." (Kids and drugs: What works by Barry R. McCaffrey, The Washington Times, January 13, 1998)