Results tagged “cocaine”

Seeing as how he had such a boisterous voice and leap-off-the-screen-like presence, this should come as little surprise. Famed TV pitchman Billy Mays, whose overly-enthusiastic adoration for OxiClean and Orange Glo helped Mays achieve cult-like status before and after his death in June, was discovered to be a fan of the disco dust. Lots of it, it seems. According to CBS, his "sudden death was partly due to his cocaine use, according to an autopsy report revealed Friday." Which, yeah, that'll do it. Compounded with Mays' heart disease, blowing rails probably wasn't the best move for the wildly successful pitchman. Vicodin, Oxycodone, Xanax, Valium, benzoylecgonine, and temazepam were also found in his system.

The U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime is reporting a sharp drop in cocaine production in Colombia -- down 28% in 2008 over the previous year. Apparently the value of the coca leaf has been dropping, due to (what's this?) decreasing demand from the world's main coke markets, making the crop less attractive to farmers. Also, increased law enforcement both locally and internationally has disrupted the cocaine trade quite seriously, with 200 tons of cocaine seized in 2008 -- up 57% from 2007. In the face of Colombia's slacking, Bolivia and Peru have upped their production of the booger sugar 9 and 4% respectively. They don't call it Bolivian marching powder for nothin!

Because we've developed an addiction to this little site called Texts From Last Night -- to which users submit the funny / insane texts they either sent, or received "last night," identified only by area code -- we decided to share the best recent posts from our hometown brothers and sisters in a semi-regular feature. Don't fret, 510 and 650: should your work prove worthy, we'll spotlight you at some point too.

This one goes out to SFist commenter mcgordonliddy...

It may not be the best moment to be celebrating the blind indulgence of American consumer (and drug) culture, but fashion designer Ken Courtney of Ju$t Another Rich Kid is nonetheless forging ahead with an ironic tribute to everyone who enjoys the booger sugar: a limited edition set of silver and gold coke spoons crafted by five well known designers. The set is a kind of art object titled "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not." and each spoon in the set was designed by a different designer: Courtney himself, Terence Koh, Various Projects, Daniel Jackson and SF's own Nice Collective. Courtney's original spoon, inspired by a 1970s McDonald's coffee stirrer that was banned, allegedly, because of its popularity for use in snorting cocaine - link NSFW - was recently purchased by the SFMoMA for their design collection. It was part of a series called "Indulgences" which included a $5,000 pair of gold-dipped high-top Nikes.

After this morning's FBI raids in San Francisco and Oakland, a total of five people were arrested. For what, you ask? Well, not human trafficking. Not treason. Not even hardcore gang activity. The five people (four men and one with-child lady) were hit with charges of selling or conspiring to sell crack cocaine. The charges against five retailers -- businesspeople, if you will, who are just trying to give you a lift -- carry mandatory minimum sentences of five or 10 years. Sorry to ruin your weekend plans.

Oh yeah, we almost forgot. They're getting married this weekend somewhere in Canada at some sort of horse breeding ranch. Or wherever. Billed as an "old-fashioned wedding social," featuring "wrangler events, a cowboy cookout and barn dancing," you can read Matier and Ross getting damp over Saturday's most unholy affair here.

This ancient picture (1999!) of this contributor blasting a wallie off this sketchy bump-to-wall was taken on 15th Street, between Mission and South Van Ness. He was 20-years-old at the time.

As if cucumber- and celery-infused vodkas haven't rocked your world enough, the latest trend in intoxication is fruit-flavored blow. The DEA has come across loads of the sweet treat, most recently finding the junk in two Modesto homes that was mixed with strawberry, coconut, lemon-lime (AKA limon), and cinnamon flavoring. While this fruity trend makes disco dust that more tempting to the youth of America, what's worse is that cocaine cut with an additional flavor renders it less potent.

Take, for example, Sonoma County, which played host to one of the "biggest meth busts in the Bay Area" on Tuesday night. Three people were arrested after a trucking company in Cotati was raided by the DEA.

Better than a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow or a bowl brimming with Lucky Charms, crack retailers in Marietta, Ohio, dyed their cocaine rocks a festive green for St. Patrick's Day this year. OMG, fun! The Smoking Gun has the full report and mugshots galore, going on to say:

Degrassi: The Next Generation is known for it accurate, yet sometimes vanilla portrayal of North American teenage life. Topics such as date rape, teen pregnancy, school violence, and inevitable cocaine abuse by wayward rockers are all fair game on this Canadian after-school-special-like teenage sitcom.

At the dewy-fresh hour of 6 a.m., Oakland police officers, Alameda County sheriff's deputies, and agents with the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI went on an Oakland-wide spree of busts for heroin trafficking (as well as "cocaine and marijuana, " at least according to this morning's Mornings On 2's.)

Oktoberfest photos

Because a day can't go by without some sort of cocaine mention, behold:

So hey, remember that shooting that Ross Mirkarimi helped solve? According to the Chron, the cops are saying it was a vigilante father-son duo, out for revenge after the victim stole a gold chain from the son. Whoa!

Who knew he could control a pen (charcoal? Sharpie?) the same way he does a keyboard over at the SF Weekly offices? We sure didn't. And although we love Newsom -- we do, baby, we do. shhh. -- we also love us some Smith.

There's big legal news concerning the Barry, none of which involves Curt Schilling or Grand Juries. Oh no. Barry has just been slapped with a lawsuit by an inmate in a South Carolina prison, Jonathan Lee Riches (aka "the White Suge Knight), for fraud. No, not for breaking the record while on the juice, but for perpetuating a "Fraud Against Mankind," which Lee Riches calls "Batman and Identity Robbin." The Smoking Gun has the details, but from a quick perusal here are some of the claims made:

The spectrum of coke rage runs wide. It can go from harmless rolling of the eyes and a sigh to unnecessary shouting to Lindsay Lohan. For some, it goes much further.

There aren't a lot of reviews out there for Lol Tun Restaurant, on Folsom betw. 19th & 20th streets. The folks participating on Yelp generally say the food is good and cheap, but the restaurant is loud and slow. The police, on the other hand, aren't so concerned with the restaurant's food, but the 3.8 pounds of heroin, 5 oz. of ice, and 1 ounce of cocaine hydrochloride they confiscated.

Dodgers 6 Giants 4- Before we begin the fun, we'd like to draw your attention to a pretty interesting article by the LA Times' Bill Plaschke who writes how that two game series in '97, the Brian Johnson series, completely ruined the Dodgers for ten years. Long story short, the series devastated the team that season and knocked them out of the playoffs, making it easier for Fox to buy the Dodgers and promptly trash the franchise. Good stuff. Anyhoo, the Enchanter got Cained (our new verb for when a pitcher pitches a good game only to lose due to the Giants ineptitude) as the bullpen gave up four runs in the eighth to lose the game. The damage was done by Messer’s Kline and Messenger and is it us or does Randy Messenger look like a taller, skinner Turtle from "Entourage." As for Bonds, he did nothing of much importance but we couldn’t help but notice that when he hit what looked like a decent shot at hitting the homer, the fans stood up in excitement only to see it turn into just another fly out. When he was taken out, a huge portion of fans left the stadium and yes, it is fairly typical of Dodgers fans, but it was still a 3-2 game at the time.

KGO7's Dan Noyes has it that cocaine-and-booze-free Ruby Tourk has already written two chapters of a hopefully-soon-to-be-published self-help book, which will detail her “‘hitting rock bottom with Newsom after 20 years of alcoholism and coke use.’”

Oh, Michela Alioto-Pier! Our favorite absentee supervisor finally straggled on in to an actual committee meeting, only to find out that the code of conduct she's proposing for the supervisors has loopholes big enough for a Mack truck to drive though.

Except for Mark Jackson, ACT, and a bushel of other playhouses we’re totally forgetting, sometimes it’s hard to find theatrical events in San Francisco that hit hard without leaning on antagonizing political bullshit or outrageousness in sequins. Carlo D’Amore’s hyper and “semi-autobiographical” No Parole does just that. Why? Well, it’s got cocaine! It’s got a Peruvian diva-like matriarch! It’s got riches-to-rags immigrants! It’s got a faultless one-man performance! It’s got the disenfranchised and the...

Yay! Tapioca Ed's back!

--The SF Weekly writes us (us the site and you the readers!) a totally nice note about the mix-up over our dueling Day Around The Bay columns! Hugs! [The Snitch]

--Gavin Newsom angrily denies Chris Daly's cocaine allegations, calls them "sleazy," and calls for everyone in the Board of Supes to condemn them. Tom Ammiano says he thought it was one of Daly's better speeches. [The Chron (and audio clip), CBS 5 (with video of Daly at the meeting and Newsom's denial), ABC 7 (also with video), Fog City, Beyond Chron, Examiner, SF Sentinel. Watch the video from SFGov here, around item 36.]

Here's todays news

Last week's winner, the SF Weekly: Gosh, the Chron seems awfully enthralled with that Zodiac movie, doesn't it? Also, more on the Leno/Migden throwdown, quoting Paul Hogarth from Beyond Chron (who now supports Leno). Cover article: An awesome piece about mentally ill dogs. Who knew bordie collies got OCD? Meredith goes to the Presidio Social Club; SFist Ced gruffly concedes maybe she's been doing a good job lately. Let's Get Killed laments the new boring indie rock. Speaking of rock, why's the Clipse so into cocaine? And another independent magazine (Arthur, an indie rock anarchist publication) bites the dust.