This unidentified man, a purported dealer of the deadly new street drug, "Reds," refused to speak to our reporter, and disappeared behind corner at great speed.




Department of Sanitation mark spill sites off-limits until cleanup is done.

By City Staff

    An unknown group has been spilling radioactive material in tenement rooms, retail outlet back rooms, and offices in seemingly random places in the city.
    Damage is estimated in the tens of millions, Department of Sanitation officials said today. "The sites are off-limits until cleanup is done, obviously," said a spokesman. He declined to precisely locate any, for fear of attracting the curious.
      Sentinel reporters did receive one eyewitness account, however. Malcolm Caamilusz describes what he saw when entering a basement room,

devoted to climate-control equipment in a building the Sentinel has agreed not to identify: "Green, glowing patterns. I knew something was real wrong. All over the walls, the floor. They flowed down, like bugs or rain or something."     Technicians in the Hazardous Materials Cleanup Division said Caamilusz's description could be of splashes of phosphorous, dripping down the walls. He is being treated for radiation poisoning at City Hospital.Nausea and hair loss are his chief symptoms.

Please See Radioactive on A2


Andres Bonifacieao

Wally, my bartender friend, has seen plenty of people's lives destroyed by alcohol.
    It's unfortunate, but he gave up gentle suggestions years ago to those with a problem. They don't want to hear it from him, of all people. He takes the money and pours.

He's also seen drunks clean up, sometimes becoming soda water socializers - but that's rare. It's classic, good advice: if you're trying to stay sober, don't go to bars. If you're wearing a Brooks Brothers suit, don't work with wet cement.
     But if alcoholism has any saving virtue, it's that it takes a long time to do its nasty work. You hear of college binge drinkers dying of alcohol poisoning, occasionally, but usually it takes decades to put your life in the toilet, and few more years to die.

Please See Alcoholism on A2
City officials warn that new mind altering drug causes quick and painful death.

By SENTINEL STAFF

     The city is being flooded with a new drug, "reds" which contains deadly ingredients including strychnine, authorities said today.
     A spokesman for the mayor's office announced the formation of an emergency outreach task force including police, social workers, drug rehabilitation workers, needle distribution volunteers, and others to spread the word.
     City residents are urged to turn in the drugs to police, no questions asked. Under no circumstances should they experimentally take the drug, which almost uniformly leads to death.
     The drug is being "marketed" with a peculiar rationale: that it allows a true perception of reality. As the drug-dealer's pitch usually goes, we live in a false, constructed reality governed by malign, non-human entities. The drug will allow, supposedly, the user to "wake up."
     But wake up to what? Authorities say that the described scenario is one of a blasted, war-torn world of the future, where humans cower in underground caves, eating fungus and gruel.
     "It definitely ain't the sixties," a city law-enforcement spokesman mused. "Peace, Love and Understanding? Forget it. Try war, fear and mildew. Why this would appeal to anybody is beyond me."
     Yet City Hospital officials say the Emergency Room is filling with victims who, apparently, willingly took the pills, which are usually first offered for free. Some muse that this provides a false sense of security; obviously, dealers expect users to come back for more.
     Instead, they die.

Please See Red Poison on A2




    Do you feel something's strange about this world, like me? Let's meet at the Cobra lounge and talk about it after five, weekdays. (Box198)