and is due to appear in Danielson Superior Court today.

Chris Vellon, 36, of 15 Pearl St., Willimantic, was charged with possession of narcotics, pos-session of narcotics with intent to sell and possession of narcotics with intent to sell within 1,500 feet of a school.

He was issued $75,000 bond in connection with those charges and is due to appear in Danielson Superior Court today.

He was also arrested on an arrest warrant for possession of narcot-ics and sale of narcotics with a separate $75,000 bond.

The incident occurred near the Willimantic Public Safety Complex, Willimantic Food Co-Op and Perception Programs Inc., among other businesses.

Officers blocked off Pearl Street as the incident was being investi-gated.

Parizo said police issued nar-cotic search warrants on houses at 15 and 17 Pearl St. and three individuals were arrested.

He said the tip came from a city resident 100 days ago.

“Several persons were taken into custody without incident at

around 9:40 a.m.,” said Parizo.He said no firearms were locat-

ed at the two houses, though one of the homes was fortified at the front door.

Parizo declined to say how the home was fortified.

According to Parizo, all three police canines — Sasa, Titan and Fina — were on location as well as the canine officers, Paul Hussey, Fabian Silva and John John.

“They are an invaluable resource for the police department,” Parizo said, referring to the canine teams.

The department’s SWAT vehicle

was on scene as well as several patrol vehicles.

According to several Willimantic residents observing the SWAT operation, Pearl Street is a hotspot of drug activity.

“That is one of the many neigh-borhoods we have looked at over the summer,” Parizo said.

He said Willimantic Police Chief Lisa Maruzo-Bolduc has taken a strong stance against narcotics activity in the Thread City.

“Chief Lisa Maruzo-Bolduc will not allow this in the city,” said Parizo.

Suzanne Buell, an Eastford resi-dent, said she was waiting for her granddaughter to get out ofthe dentist’s office nearby whenshe walked over to check out the incident.

She noted Willimantic has beenin the news often lately regardingcriminal activity in the Thread City.

“There’s no jobs,” Buell said. “There’s no money. There’s noth-ing to do.”

Those who witness narcotics sales in the Thread City are askedto contact the Willimantic PoliceDepartment at (860) 465-3135.

4 the Chronicle, Willimantic, Conn., Thursday, October 1, 2015

To place an obituary (funeral homes only): Classified Dept. at 860.423.8466, ext. 3363, or 860.423.8466, ext. 3337 after 5 p.m. on Fridays

organization based in Washington, D.C.Using the most recent available data from

fatal crashes, it said nearly 40 percent of the victims who were tested had drugs in their sys-tem, with about one-third testing positive for marijuana. But it cautioned that the data have limitations, including no distinction between THC, the marijuana component that causes impairment, and metabolites that remain in a person’s system long after the effects of smok-ing pot have worn off.

As debate intensifies about whether mari-juana, now legal in some form in nearly half of the states, causes an increased crash risk for drivers, better data are needed, Hedlund said.

“The jury is still very much out,” he said. “You certainly could not say unambiguously that marijuana increases crash risk.

The only thing you can say with confidence is that in laboratory experiments, it affects a lot of things that are related to driving.”

A research paper by NHTSA in February said “there is evidence that marijuana use

impairs psychomotor skills, divided atten-tion, lane tracking and cognitive functions. However, its role in contributing to the occur-rence of crashes remains less clear.”

While measurement of alcohol impairment is clearly established, with all states classify-ing an 0.08 blood alcohol level as the thresh-old of intoxication, there is no similar standard for what constitutes impairment from mari-juana, Hedlund said. Some states have what amounts to “zero tolerance” laws, while others have established largely arbitrary thresholds for THC levels.

The report recommends better public educa-tion, noting that most drivers in surveys have said they don’t believe marijuana impairs their driving, while some said it improves their per-formance behind the wheel.

While police officers routinely are trained in detecting alcohol intoxication, relatively few are schooled in recognizing impairment from marijuana, prescription medicines, ille-gal narcotics or over-the-counter medications, it said.

Police in Pennsylvania have increased their focus on drugged driving in recent years, withmore than 130 officers in various jurisdictions receiving intensive training as drug recogni-tion experts.

Announcing a Labor Day weekend enforce-ment campaign, Mount Lebanon police Lt. Duane Fisher noted that a recent DUI check-point had found a reduced incidence of alcohol-impaired drivers but more who were under the influence of drugs — not just illicit drugs but over-the-counter and prescription medications.

“Those things can be just as dangerous asalcoholic driving,” he said.

With recreational use of marijuana now legal in four states and the District of Columbia, and other states considering legalization or decriminalization, states need to ramp up pub-lic education and clean up their laws regarding driving under the influence of drugs, Hedlundsaid.

“The thing that states can do that makes themost sense is to get ready,” he said.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

Drug DUIs as likely as alcohol arrests(Continued from Page 1)

ReutersHurricane Joaquin is seen approaching the Bahamas in this NOAA GOES East satellite image taken Wednesday.

Reuters

Hurricane Joaquin could hit the New York metropolitan area as a tropical storm on Tuesday, potentially following the destruc-tive course of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, weather forecasters said Thursday.

Joaquin is a powerful Category 3 hurricane with maximum sus-tained winds of 120 miles per hour located in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas, according to the latest report by the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).

The storm is expected to streng-then into a Category 4 storm with winds reaching 140 mph Friday as it turns north toward the U.S. East Coast. Joaquin is expected to weaken over the next few days before making landfall possibly as a tropical storm with maximum winds of 70 mph on Tuesday, according to the latest NHC forecast.

It could hit the U.S. coast any-where between North Carolina and Massachusetts, but the center of the NHC’s latest storm track shows it hitting the New York metro area. That region is home to the energy infrastructure in

the New York Harbor that was severely damaged by flooding from Hurricane Sandy three years ago.

U.S. energy companies said they had learned lessons from Hurricane Sandy and have used the last three years to “harden” their oil, natural gas and power infrastructure to better withstand another storm.

New York power company Consolidated Edison Inc., which supplies power, gas and steam to more than three million customers in the New York City area, said it is three years into a four-year $2-billion plan to gird its energy infrastructure after Hurricane Sandy shut down the Big Apple.

Sandy, the worst storm in Con Edison’s history, left about a million of its customers with-out power, with outages lasting a couple of weeks in the hardest-hit areas. Some customers of other utilities were without power for much longer.

The U.S. East Coast has nine refineries with an operable capac-ity of about 1.3 million barrels per day, according to government data.

Hurricane Joaquin may hit New York on Tuesday

By LUTHER TURMELLENew Haven Register

NEW BRITAIN — State utility regulators have reaffirmed Connecticut’s first-in-the-nation ban on variable rate electric contracts, which was approved earlier this year by the General Assembly and becomes law today.

The ruling issued Wednesday by the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority acknowl-edged that “the Connecticut retail choice mar-ketplace is constantly evolving.”

“Nevertheless, the Authority reiterates that the act is clear and unambiguous about vari-able pricing in residential contracts starting on and after October 1, 2015,” the 11-page ruling said in part.

“Residential contracts entered into or renewed on and after that date may not include variable pricing.”

The request for clarification by PURA came in August after the third-party electricity pro-viders who used the variable rates as a way to attract customers claimed the language found in the new law made its intent unclear.

Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz, who represents ratepayers’ interest before PURA,

hailed the regulators’ ruling as “a victory for consumers.” Katz was active in efforts to get the variable electric rate ban passed by law-makers.

“We have received thousands of complaints from residential customers of electric suppli-ers that they were hit by skyrocketing electric prices through variable rates that went up month after month with no warning and no limit,” Katz said in a statement.

“Both the Connecticut legislature and the PURA Commissioners have made it clear that variable rate contracts are not appropriate for residential consumers — which includes hard-working parents, seniors on a fixed income, people who have electric heat, low-income residents, and those with limited English skills, some of the groups most victimized by these escalating variable rates.”

The new law requires that third-party sup-pliers must offer a new customer a rate that cannot go up for at least four months, and then can offer renewal terms, possibly at a new price, that also cannot go up for at least four months.

Under variable rate contracts, consumers

could be assigned a variable rate that could fluctuate every month after an initial “teaser” rate expired.

Customers already in variable-rate contracts as the new law takes effect should be awarethat it does not immediately prohibit or elimi-nate variable rates in existing agreements, according to Katz. Instead, it prohibits con-sumers from entering into new contracts for variable rates after the law has taken effect.

AARP Connecticut was among the groupsadvocating for a ban in variable-rate electriccontracts and Wednesday, John Erlingheuser, the group’s state advocacy director, said the new law protects the most vulnerable consum-ers from predatory practices employed bysome third-party power providers.

“Variable-rate contracts have cost thousands of unsuspecting customers in Connecticut mil-lions of dollars of their hard-earned money in the form of higher electric bills,” Erlingheusersaid in a statement. “The high cost of electric-ity in Connecticut impacts everyone but isespecially hard on seniors and those living onfixed or low-incomes.”

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

Variable electric rate ban starts today

State Police and two canine patrol dogs were dispatched to the scene, Hicks said.

Hicks said police dog units searched the area but could not locate the suspect, leading police to believe the suspect ran from the store to a getaway car.

The Coventry incident may be related to another in a nearby town.

There was a report of a robbery early this morning at 12:30 a.m. of an East Hartford 7-Eleven, locat-ed at 298 Main St., with a simi-

larly described suspect dressed in black with a plastic shopping bag over his head.

Coventry police, however, were unable to confirm this morning whether the two robberies were related.

The Coventry Police Department is asking anyone who may have information about the robbery to contact the department at (860) 742-7331. Those who would like their call to be anonymous, should call the Coventry Police Department TIPS line at 860-742-2400.

Armed man robs 7-Eleven this a.m.

Courtesy of the Willimantic Police DepartmentA Willimantic Police Department SWAT raid on two dwellings on Pearl Street in the city Wednesday resulted in drug related charges being filed against, from the left, Chris Vellon, Isabel Marcano and Samuel Mojica

Three charged in SWAT drug bust

By MELISSA HEALYLos Angeles Times

Finding a way to wean America’s 42.1 mil-lion adult smokers from their deadly habit is one of the great challenges in public health. But a new study offers hope that a trick pro-posed two decades ago — dialing back the nicotine that smokers get from their cigarettes — might help many quit, and steer others toward less dangerous means of feeding their addiction.

The new research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, also offers reassurance that smokers restricted to very low nicotine cigarettes will not smoke more, nor inhale more deeply, to get the same addictive hit.

In an unusual clinical trial, longtime smokers who were assigned to smoke cigarettes with less than 15 percent of the nicotine in standard cigarettes saw their tobacco dependence drop by as much as 20 percent after six weeks.

Smokers getting their usual dose of nicotine did not reduce the number of cigarettes they smoked daily. But those who got low-nicotine cigarettes smoked 23 percent and 33 percent fewer cigarettes daily, with “minimal evi-

dence of withdrawal-related discomfort,” the researchers reported.

The fear that slashing cigarettes’ nicotine content would drive smokers into more dan-gerous habits has long discouraged U.S. health officials from rallying behind proposals to limit the amount of the chemical in combus-tible tobacco products.

That reluctance may be coming to an end.A sweeping reduction of nicotine in smoked

tobacco is “the most promising regulatory policy option” available for preventing the pre-mature deaths of at least 20 million smokers, University of Wisconsin tobacco researchers Timothy Baker and Dr. Michael Fiore wrote in a commentary published with the study.

Such an initiative would need to cover all smoked tobacco products to ensure that people could not merely switch brands to get their fix, they wrote. And the research shows that nicotine limits need not be gradual to work, they added.

Smokers in the study were not told how much nicotine was in the cigarettes they received. However, many longtime smokers who got very-low-nicotine cigarettes suspect-ed as much, said University of Pittsburgh psy-

chologist Eric C. Donny, who led the study.That wasn’t surprising, he said: In addition

to its addictive properties, nicotine “contrib-utes to that ‘hit’ in the back of the throat” when a smoker inhales.

What did surprise the researchers was thatlongtime smokers who got much smaller daily doses of nicotine than they were used to didnot experience some of the extreme with-drawal symptoms — constipation, distraction,increased appetite — that cause many would-be quitters to turn back.

Donny invoked tobacco researcher MichaelRussell’s 1976 observation that “people smoke for the nicotine, but they die from the tar.”

“That’s really at the heart of the matter,”Donny said. By finding a level of nicotine atwhich cigarettes lose their addictive hook, theresearch has gotten closer to “breaking therelationship.”

In the trial, all 780 subjects acknowledgedthey that had “no current interest in quit-ting” their smoking habit. Participants wererandomly assigned to one of six groups. Fivesmoked cigarettes that ranged in nicotine strength from extremely low to high levels.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

(Continued from Page 1)

dents in the Thread City recently, local emergency responders have urged scooter operators to follow the rules of the road.

“We keep saying the same thing over and over again — that the scooters need to obey the same rules of the road as automobiles,” said Scrivener.

He also urged scooter operators to wear safety equipment, such as a helmet, and drive scooters in a well-lit area.

There have been several other scooter accidents in the Thread City recently, including two in August.

In August, a 19-year-old Willimantic man was taken to

Hartford Hospital by Life Star helicopter after his scooter col-lided with a car.

That individual, who was not identified, suffered skull and spi-nal injuries.

Police said the accident occurred on Main Street in the afternoon.

Another accident occurring in August involved a 22-year-old man who failed to negotiate a turn and crashed the scooter at the intersection of Keating Street and Holbrook Avenue.

The driver, whom police did not identify, was transported to Windham Community Memorial Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Scooter operator injured in crash

(Continued from Page 1)

(Continued from Page 1)

CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON—Forceful questioning of then-Secret Ser-vice Director Julia Pierson help-ed Rep. Jason Chaffetz earn the notice he needed to grab the House Oversight and Government Reform gavel in the 114th Con-gress.

The Utah Republican’s fierce criticism of the agency also sent scores of Secret Service employ-ees on a mission to discredit the congressman, a report by the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General re-vealed Wednesday.

The inspector general con-firmed employees accessed Chaffetz’s 2003 application for a Secret Service job, actions that could represent criminal viola-tions. The report confirmed that between March 24 and April 2, 2015, on approximately 60 differ-ent occasions, 45 Secret Service employees accessed Chaffetz’s sensitive personal information. It also identified 18 supervisors who knew, or should have known about the activity.

“Certain lines should never be

crossed. The unauthorized access and distribution of my personal information crossed that line,” Chaffetz stated in response. He called it a tactic “designed to intimidate and embarrass me and frankly, it is intimidating.”

The committee held three hear-ings earlier this year, as part of an ongoing investigation into all aspects of the Secret Service, from leadership to technology and tactics. Chaffetz said he remained “undeterred in conducting proper and rigorous oversight.”

Maryland Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, the committee’s rank-ing Democrat, called on the agen-cy to apologize and implement strict discipline.

“Chairman Chaffetz and I have worked together to help restore the Secret Service to its standing as the most elite protective agency in the world. Today’s findings by the Inspector General go directly against this goal and are com-pletely and utterly unacceptable and indefensible,” Cummings said.

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

Secret Service criticism made Chaffetz a target

apology to the young people involved through the state victim advocate, Leaming said.

Sirois is the former girls soccer coach at E.O. Smith High School who was quickly fired last fall for allegedly performing a lewd act on himself in a video he claims was mistakenly sent in bulk to a social media site, according to an arrest warrant.

Sirois was facing charges of two counts of obscenity and one count each of impairing the morals of a child and non-threatening breach of peace, according to a state police report.

The impairing the morals of a child charge is equivalent to risk of injury to a minor, state police said.

He had been out on $100,000 bail, court records indicate.

According to an arrest warrant, Sirois com-piled the video of himself performing a lewd act and, rather than sending it to a female acquaintance identified as his girlfriend, he allegedly sent it to his entire group on Snapchat.

When he realized where it went, Sirois quickly took the video down, but it was still noticed by a player, who showed others, the official said, citing the warrant.

His face never appeared, but police con-nected the act to him through testimony and matching items in the background with Sirois, Leaming said.

Several students confirmed seeing the photo over the past several months, but each asked toremain anonymous.

Among those viewing the video were 14- and 16-year-olds, according to an arrest report.

Sirois lives at 98 Trumbull Highway inLebanon and owns a deli and market in thattown. He also coached youth soccer at the premier level.

He had been the coach at E.O. Smith for a decade.

Leaming said during the case, she learned of past allegations from players on his squad last fall and former players that claimed he inappropriately touched players and said inap-propriate things.

Former coach gets AR for racy posting (Continued from Page 1)

Can reducing nicotine take the ‘hook’ out of cigarettes?