The local agency charged with providing treatment for drug users is failing to deliver the necessary services, so Sen. Benjamin Cruz wants to provide grants to the nonprofit groups on Guam that are providing drug treatment.

The former chief justice's Bill 41 states that the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse "has abandoned its mandated mission relative to substance abuse." The need has been picked up by nonprofit groups: the Salvation Army's Lighthouse Recovery Center, which offers treatment for men; the Oasis Empowerment Center, which treats women; and Sanctuary Inc., which provides services for adolescents.

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Sen. Benjamin Cruz introduced a bill yesterday that would benefit nongovernment and nonprofit organizations whose goals are to help curb or end substance abuse on Guam.

The former Supreme Court of Guam chief justice introduced Bill 41, which would appropriate $600,000 from the Healthy Futures Fund to the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse.

Cruz said after "New Beginnings," a 24-hour drug and alcohol treatment program, was discontinued, the department has abandoned its mission regarding substance abuse treatments.

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Last week, the Superior Court of Guam's Adult Drug Court graduated 11 men and women who successfully completed the two-year program.

These graduates -- the first from the relatively new Adult Drug Court -- had to undergo regular therapy sessions, routine drug testing and various rehabilitation classes, on top of regular court appearances, over the last two years. In exchange, they not only avoided incarceration but also got the drug charges wiped off their records.

The Drug Court is a more cost-effective way of dealing with drug offenders, according to Judge Alberto Lamorena. Not only does incarceration cost more, but it's hard to tell whether those who serve time in prison learn from their mistakes.

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Eleven men and women walked into new drug-free lives yesterday, with clean records and a new outlook on life.

A commencement ceremony was held yesterday for the first graduates of the Adult Drug Court Program at the Superior Court of Guam, where local officials, family and friends gathered to celebrate and congratulate those who have successfully completed the two-year program.

Superior Court Judge Alberto Lamorena, who conducted the ceremony, said he has worked very closely with the graduates for the past two years and has seen a tremendous change in the attitudes and self-confidence of those in the program.

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The Juvenile Drug Court Program has done more for Raymond Cruz than he would have thought when he entered the program a little more than a year ago.

After being caught selling drugs in school, the 17-year-old chose to go through the program, and has no reason to regret his choice or go back to his old habits.

Cruz and nine of his peers had their juvenile court records expunged in a graduation ceremony held yesterday for their successful completion of the program.

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After eight years of no contact with her two children, Charlene Perez looks forward to making amends and being a productive member of society again.

Perez was one of the 15 inmates at the Department of Corrections who graduated from the Residential Substance Abuse Treatment program yesterday.

Perez has spent the last year battling a drug addiction that took over her life for eight years, but she finally had to face reality when she was sentenced to serve time in prison after being arrested for possession of a controlled substance.

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In the past two years, police officials in the Federated States of Micronesia have found two headless bodies washed up on their shores.

"We believe the bodies may be connected to drug trafficking," said Pius Chotailug, director of the FSM Division of National Police, adding that shortly after the bodies were found, drugs packed in boxes were found washed up on the shores. The second box last year was found by a group of children who opened the boxes and played with their contents, not knowing what they were.

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U.S. Attorney Leonardo Rapadas, in the Aug. 7 Pacific Daily News, essentially claimed that the system of mandatory minimum sentences was the cause of the reduced crime rate, a questionable claim at best.

As a possible defense of Rapadas' position, one probable cause for the reduction of crime in the 1990s was the increased number in prison. Long sentences are a deterrent and keep criminals off the street. Sentencing is often arbitrary and not proportional to the offense. Mandatory sentencing moves the discretion from the judge who sentences to the prosecutor who chooses the charge. The judge's concern may be in line with justice; the prosecutor's concern will be with getting convictions, not with justice.

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While the Department of Public Works aggressively has imposed its drug-free workplace policy with frequent random drug testing of school bus drivers, Guam parents say more needs to be done to prevent drivers under the influence from operating buses that carry children.

Yesterday, DPW Director Joe Duenas announced that a school bus driver has been pulled from driving duty after the driver tested positive for illegal drug use.

"This matter will be dealt with swiftly and seriously," Duenas said. "As a public official, I am obligated to ensure the safety of the public whom we serve daily, as well as the many hardworking employees here at the department."

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Leonardo Rapadas' Aug. 7 opinion piece, "Mandatory minimum sentences keep streets safe," has no scientific basis. Richard Rosenfeld, writing in the Feb. 2004 Scientific American, says that tough sentencing is only one of many contributing causes, and that mandatory minimum sentences may actually do more harm than good in the long run because they "deplete the social capital of those communities hardest hit by both crime and imprisonment."

His article is "The case of the unsolved crime decline." He agrees that serious violent and property crime rates tumbled by more than 40 percent in the 1990s, but he does not assign credit to one cause. Serious examination requires that the data be broken out by city size, year of crime, policing practices, sentencing policy and race/age/gender of perpetrator and victim, etc.

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Drug Testing To Ensure Safety Of Students

It's the first day of school today and as parent Pauline Camacho said yesterday: "We're as ready as we're gonna get."

Government officials dittoed the confidence of the Agana Heights Elementary School parent yesterday, saying schools are ready to open today despite a shortage of teachers, buses and unfinished school-repair projects.

And in an effort to ensure safety for students and for the community, Department of Public Works bus drivers went through drug testing yesterday.

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After 20 years of mandatory minimum sentences, are drugs, drug abuse and crime more or less prevalent? Are we safer?

Who said the following: "I can accept neither the necessity nor the wisdom of federal mandatory minimum sentences. In too many cases, mandatory minimum sentences are unwise and unjust.

"Consider this case: A young man with no previous serious offense is stopped on the George Washington Memorial Parkway near Washington, D.C., by United States Park Police. He is stopped for not wearing a seat belt. A search of the car follows and leads to the discovery of just over 5 grams of crack cocaine in the trunk. The young man is indicted in federal court. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years. If he had taken an exit and left the federal road, his sentence likely would have been measured in terms of months, not years."

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This letter is in response to the Aug. 7 article by Leonardo M. Rapadas, U.S. Attorney for the districts of Guam and the Northern Marianas.

The federal laws regarding mandatory minimum are flawed because they allow sentencing that is based upon prosecutorial allegations made after the trial. These allegations can be as far from the truth as the prosecutor wishes. No prosecutor has been indicted for lies or hiding exculpatory evidence or for solicitation of perjury or for paying witnesses.

Federal prosecutors are the real criminals and are terrorists in their attack on what the Constitution calls a fair trial. There are no fair trials in federal courts.

Colin Bayliss

Dover, Ohio

[end]

The U. S. Attorney for Guam believes that mandatory minimum sentences are "fair" and take "habitual lawbreakers off the streets." Neither is the case.

There is nothing fair about a sentence that is imposed for purported crimes that are not charged and over 60 percent of all federal inmates are first-time, non-violent drug offenders. Their families suffer and their children follow them into crime.

Maybe the problem is we never spent enough time on rehabilitation. This is the only country in the civilized world taking the stance that we do for ridiculously long prison sentences that perpetuate an underclass -- 96 percent of all inmates are eventually released with a bus ticket and a few dollars.

Would you want to intellectualize this argument with one of these people after release?

Kenny Linn, J.D., L.L.M.

FedCure

Dunedin, Fla.

[end]

Currently, the worst that can happen to government of Guam employees who test positive for drugs the first time is suspension. If they complete drug rehabilitation successfully, they are allowed to return to their jobs.

That means that four Public Works school bus drivers, who are charged with delivering hundreds of students to our public schools daily, soon will be back behind the wheels of a school bus. Four bus drivers who tested positive last year again are picking up and dropping off schoolchildren.

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Twenty Navy sailors who were stationed on Guam were discharged from the military and/or confined in a detention facility in connection with drug-related charges, according to the Navy.

The Navy began its investigation of illegal drug-related activity here after several sailors tested positive for drugs during random drug testing in September, said Lt. Arwen Consaul, Navy public affairs officer. The drugs involved included methamphetamine, marijuana, oxycodone, Ecstasy, Klonopin and Xanax, a Navy press release stated.

Consaul said the sailors involved in the drug bust were either stationed on Submarine Squadron 15 or the Navy security forces.

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Opinion

In order to truly understand why drugs, drug experimentation and use will always be an aspect of the human condition, and why the "war on drugs" and prohibition are damaging and ineffective, one must comprehend some basic knowledge of the neuropsycho-physiology of pain and pleasure.

It was Sigmund Freud (the father of psychoanalysis) who presented the world with "the pleasure principle." Humans, in general, are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain. But it's not that simple, in that the neural pathways in the brain that mediate pain share neural pathways that activate the brain's pleasure/reward systems. This is why some people need to be "tied up" to feel "free."

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HAGATNA, Guam -- The Guam Supreme Court has ruled in favor of permitting marijuana smoking for religious purposes.

The high court dismissed charges against Benny Toves Guerrero, arrested in January 1991 at the territory's international airport for importing more than 7 ounces of marijuana.

Guerrero said he is a member of the Rastafarian religion, and that use of marijuana is a required sacrament of his faith.

Guerrero's attorney said the Supreme Court ruling is a landmark case in Guam for First Amendment rights and freedom of religion.

[end]

A local man has won the right to smoke marijuana as part of his religion in a Supreme Court of Guam decision yesterday.

Benny Toves "Rasta Ben" Guerrero's legal battle began on Jan. 2. 1991, when he was arrested and charged with importation after between seven and eight ounces of marijuana was found on him at the A.B. Won Pat Guam International Air Terminal as he tried to enter the island. Guerrero, who is a follower of the Rastafarian religion, told court that marijuana use is a required sacrament of that faith.

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By Tod Robberson / The Dallas Morning News

SILVIA, Colombia The profits from farming opium poppy were like nothing this onceimpoverished Andes mountain town had ever seen.

After the traffickers arrived three years ago, the residents of Silvia, a Guambiano Indian town of 19,000, suddenly were able to buy trucks and cars instead of having to walk everywhere. Residents could purchase all kinds of things they didn't even know they needed before such as motorcycles, stereos, televisions and VCRs, said Juan Francisco Muelas, a tribal elder.

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