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Baltimore City Council is scheduled to introduce legislation tonight that would surcharge suburbanites and out-of-staters who buy drugs in the city.

In addition to any criminal penalties, nonresidents of Baltimore could receive a $1,000 ticket to cover the cost of their arrest. Baltimore City residents are exempt from the fine because they pay (or should pay) taxes. Said William Cole, the councilman who sponsored the bill: “These civil citations serve as a way to extract our pound of flesh.”

However, the exemption of Baltimore City residents is raising some questions.

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Baltimore City Council is fighting it out with Mayor Dixon over a bill that changes the zoning code for residential drug-treatment facilities and other group homes.

As it stands, any group home with more than four residents requires City Council approval, but Council members tend not to support the homes because they are unpopular with their constituents. The “new” legislation — which City Council has essentially ignored for the past six years — would allow any group home with fewer than nine residents to open in any neighborhood without Council approval.

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If your life is in danger, make sure you have an audience.

The State’s Attorney’s Office will not prosecute a homicide in Baltimore unless two witnesses are available to testify. This policy is an effort to bump up conviction rates, which were subpar when relying on only one witness. The lone witness often changed testimony or simply “disappeared.”

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Residents in Baltimore County are protesting plans for a new methadone clinic in their community.

The clinic is set to open on Belair Road in Perry Hall. Nearby residents — the closest of whom would be 90 feet away — are upset that the clinic will be located so close to their homes. Zoning laws require medical clinics to be 750 feet from the nearest home, but the clinic owner has applied for an exception.

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