Source: Akron Beacon Journal Contact: Please address your letters to "Voice of the 3 July 1997 Police recruits sue Dayton over drug policy DAYTON, Ohio (AP) Five people blocked from becoming police officers because of a drugpolicy dispute filed a multimilliondollar federal lawsuit against the city Thursday. According to the lawsuit, the plaintiffs were accepted into the Dayton police academy, quit their jobs, moved their families to Dayton and bought the necessary equipment. But on May 18, Montgomery County Common Pleas Judge David Gowdown granted a request by the Fraternal Order of Police to bar the five from beginning the academy class and to allow the FOP to arbitrate the drug policy with the city. The FOP said the city's Civil Service Board violated a 1995 contract between the FOP and the city by accepting the recruits. The contract bars the city from hiring police officers who have used illegal drugs other than marijuana. Recruits also must have gone at least two years without using marijuana. Following a similar dispute last year, the board decided in January that any police recruit who used illegal drugs in the past five years would be disqualified. But it refused to uphold the stricter drug policy in the current contract between the FOP and the city. City Attorney Anthony Sawyer declined to comment. The lawsuit said the five cannot support themselves and their families and have lost retirement and health benefits. They seek damages of $5 million apiece.