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Palmer, Alaska (AP) -- The mother of the man former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's daughter Bristol had planned on marrying has reached a plea deal in her drug case. Sherry Johnston pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of possession with intent to deliver the painkiller OxyContin. Five other felony counts were dropped. Johnston was placed in pink handcuffs and taken to a correctional facility where she'll be held until her Nov. 20 sentencing.

FRANKLIN, Tenn. - An arrest warrant issued for Mindy McCready says the country singer has violated her probation on a drug charge, authorities said Wednesday. A judge signed off on the warrant Monday because McCready left Tennessee without getting permission from her probation officer and didn't report to the officer during July, according to Williamson County Sheriff's officials interviewed Wednesday. Authorities said this was McCready's second probation violation, which means she cannot post bond this time and likely will have to serve time in jail. The probation violations stem from charges brought against the singer last year, when she pleaded...

 Last week, in response to mounting problems with the painkiller OxyContin, I filed legislation in Congress to withdraw its Food and Drug Administration approval and remove it from the market. While the bill received a robust response from both supporters and opponents, there remains considerable misunderstanding as to the nature of the OxyContin threat.      This product is one of the most addictive substances to be sold legally in the United States. It is more addictive than cocaine and second only to heroin in addictiveness among narcotics. The premise of my legislation is that the drug is so inherently addictive that...

Mass congressman Stephen Lynch (http://www.house.gov/lynch/) has proposed a complete ban on the drug Oxycontin.On the Blute and Scotto show yesterday he clearly implied that anyone who took the pill became instantly addicted.So because a few idiots are addicted to it, people who desperately need it should be denied their relief.He'd better ban aerosol spray paint as well, many people are addicted to "huffing" the fumes.And anyone over 40 would remember the fears about model cement in the 70'sMr. Lynch is sounding a little like Carrie Nation, leader of the temperance movement.

A gun-toting pharmacist - beloved by paying customers for his friendly banter - opened fire on an armed OxyContin robber as the two swapped lead instead of cheery hellos yesterday afternoon.No one, including two workers and a customer who were in the store at the time, was injured. Lawrence Maida Sr.'s pharmacy is just one of dozens hit in recent years by armed robbers looking for so-called ``hillbilly heroin.'' Cops say Maida's store has been robbed several times before, and this is not the first time the second-generation druggist has used a gun to run off bandits.

Ex-Lansing detective admits drug theft 3/31/2005, 12:14 p.m. ET The Associated Press LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A former city police detective admitted in court that he stole prescription painkillers from an acquaintance's house last fall. Darren Duso, 42, pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking the OxyContin in return for a dismissal of more serious charges. He faces up to two years in prison when Ingham County Circuit Judge Paula Manderfield sentences him on May 4. The 15-year Lansing Police Department veteran resigned in November, one month after county sheriff's officials arrested him on charges of stealing drugs from the Dansville house....

FRANKLIN, Tenn. Country singer Mindy Mc-Cready was arrested today and charged with prescription drug fraud. Authorities said she used a fake prescription to obtain the pain medicine OxyContin. Investigators said the 28-year-old Mc-Cready presented a fraudulent prescription at a pharmacy last February, paid for the drugs and then left. Officers said they later learned that Mc-Cready was not a patient at the doctor's office from which the prescription purportedly originated. Mc-Cready was released on ten-thousand dollars bond. The singer had a Number One hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time."

NEWPORT, Tenn. — A woman was convicted of killing her 4-month-old son by giving him a pacifier she had rolled in crushed OxyContin pills. According to the statement Debra Elaine Kirk Moore gave police, she and her husband had crushed Oxycontin tablets and taken the drug before lying down with the baby. The boy, Lacy Moore III, soon awoke and would not go back to sleep. Moore "took his pacifier into the bathroom where the OxyContin had been crushed. There were crumbs and dust, and I stuck the wet pacifier into the dust and crumbs and put it back into...