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Legal Decisions:
Drug Use and Crime
From the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the economic damage that illegal drugs inflict on the American economy accounted for $143.4 billion in 1998. The projection for the year 2000 exceeds $160 billion.
The majority of the costs resulted from lost earnings due to drug-related illnesses and deaths, incarcerations, and work hours missed by crime victims. The report also estimates the toll that illegal drugs have on productivity, goods and services, social welfare, and health care. For example, in 1998 illegal drug use cost the nation�s health care resources an estimated $12.9 billion.
Security Officer Charged in Death of Shoplifter
In Dallas, a security officer has been charged in the death of a suspected shoplifter in a dollar store. The officer has been charged with murder.
Police said that Bennie Franklin Pointer Jr., of Dallas, shot Leshard Wilson as the teenager and two others ran from a Family Dollar store after witnesses accused them of shoplifting Saturday.
Police said they did not find a weapon on Wilson, who died in a Dallas hospital about six hours after the shooting. Pointer remains in jail, awaiting arraignment.
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