Voter Change in Wash., Colo. Raises Issue Here

Local law enforcement authorities believe the recent decision by voters in Washington and Colorado to legalize recreational use of marijuana is a big mistake that will only lead to more problems.

They hope the drug never becomes legal in Pennsylvania.

"I can see using marijuana for medical purposes if it's controlled," said Shamokin Police Chief Edward Griffiths. "But to me, that's the only potential benefit."

He wonders where it stops. What's the next drug that's made legal?

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A Philadelphia lawyer and a Shamokin area mother are among those who favor Pennsylvania taking the same steps that Colorado and Washington did when voters on Nov. 6 approved the legalization of small amounts of marijuana.

They believe regulation is still required, but believe legalizing pot could generate government revenue and help police concentrateon more serious crimes.

"Lawmakers hate to use the unpopular term 'tax', but if it were legalized, like other vices in the state are, it would be a great help," said Daniel-Paul Alva, a former assistant district attorney in Philadelphia and a member of LawEnforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

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It Would Be Wrong to Characterize a Legalization Movement As Being Led by 'Stoners.'

After his state became one of two where marijuana legalization was approved by voters last week, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that "federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don't break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly."

Hickenlooper's allusion to marijuana-induced munchies was amusing, but it had a sly, sinister subtext - namely, that the measure was brought about by nothing more than a ragtag army of stoners who just want the government to let them get high. Would Hickenlooper, a Democrat and Main Line native who opposed the initiative, have us believe that more than half of Colorado's electorate consists of inveterate potheads in the mold of Cheech and Chong?

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When Colorado and Washington voters passed measures legalizing recreational marijuana last week, they demonstrated - probably unknowingly - a rueful familiarity with the failure of Prohibition.

Guess whether I'm describing the 2010s (before last week, at least) or the 1920s: Government strictures make it impossible for people to legally acquire a substance they want. However, anyone who really wants it has no trouble getting it. As a direct result, large criminal enterprises create a vast underground - and not-so-underground - market. The federal prison system is forced to expand.

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Last week, Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize marijuana for recreational use. (RICK WILKING, Reuters Photo / November 8, 2012) Bill White 5:25 p.m. EST, November 12, 2012

Last Tuesday was a very good day for those of us who think marijuana should be legalized and that the 40-plus-year War on Drugs is an incredibly expensive, destructive failure.

Nine states and localities voted for more sensible drug laws, including Colorado and Washington, where voters decided to legalize and regulate marijuana, and Massachusetts, which became the 18th state to allow medical marijuana.

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It's legal to smoke pot in Colorado and Washington state now - except that it's not. Colorado voters passed an initiative this week allowing possession of 1 ounce and six plants. Washington voters said adults can buy an ounce from a licensed seller. But the federal government has the last word, and its ban on possession and distribution of marijuana stands.

What happens next depends on the Obama Justice Department. The feds can crack down or let a new haze dawn. There is plenty of history to suggest the administration will go with a hard line - and a few glimmers of hope that it won't.

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Attorney General Eric Holder is being urged by some of the nation's top law enforcement officials to speak out against ballot initiatives to legalize marijuana in Colorado, Oregon and Washington.

Holder should discuss the dangers of legalizing marijuana, said Peter Bensinger, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration. He joined others in the law enforcement community, including some former directors of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

No way, reacted the Justice Department. Spokeswoman Allison Price said Holder will not "speculate" on the ballot initiatives.

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THE "NJ WEEDMAN" is back in the Garden State, and he's looking to plant one pot-friendly person in the jury pool who might help him blaze a path to permanent freedom.

On Wednesday morning, Ed "NJ Weedman" Forchion will appear in court in Burlington County as jury selection begins in his retrial on marijuana distribution. Police found a pound of herb in his trunk during a 2010 traffic stop.

Forchion, 48, has bone cancer and a medicinal-marijuana card from California. He claims that his weed was for medicinal purposes, and notes that his arrest occurred after New Jersey had passed a law to allow medical marijuana.

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Kemba Smith Pradia went to Tallahassee, Fla., last week to demand the right to vote. Back in the '90s, when she was just Kemba Smith, she became a poster child for the excesses and inanities of the so-called War on Drugs. Pradia, then a college student in Virginia, became involved with, and terrorized by, a man who choked and punched her regularly and viciously. By the impenetrable logic of battered women, she thought it was her fault.

The boyfriend was a drug dealer. Pradia never handled drugs, never used drugs, never sold drugs. But she sometimes carried his gun in her purse. She flew to New York with drug money strapped to her body.

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The subject of drug testing at Bangor area schools has come to the forefront following the death of a high school teacher in 2009 from a heroin overdose ("Bangor hears more on drugs," Sept. 25). I support random drug testing for teachers, but my reasoning differs from that of local politician Ron Angle and the family of the late Gina Riso.

I support this type of program to protect the well-being of my school-age children, not the individual who chooses to use illegal drugs. Those people have made their own decision and should be prepared to accept the consequences.

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CHRIS GOLDSTEIN, a marijuana advocate and editor of freedomisgreen.com, pulled a lighter from his pocket and sparked a joint at 4:20 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, right in the middle of Independence Park.

Nothing happened, except he got a bit stoned.

"This is how smoking marijuana should be," he said.

But not everyone is so lucky. That's the point.

"Every day, there are thousands of people getting arrested for pot, and for this amount of pot," Goldstein said, holding the burning joint as thick smoke wafted across the park. "Not for a pound of marijuana, not for growing marijuana, but mostly young black men are getting arrested for this."

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MILFORD, Pa. - As a 12-year-old seventh grader, Glenn and Kathy Kiederer's older daughter wanted to play sports at Delaware Valley Middle School here. She also wanted to join the scrapbooking club.

One day she took home a permission slip. It said that to participate in the club or any school sport, she would have to consent to drug testing.

"They were asking a 12-year-old to pee in a cup," Kathy Kiederer said. "I have a problem with that. They're violating her right to privacy over scrapbooking? Sports?"

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MILFORD, Pa. - As a 12-year-old seventh-grader, Glenn and Kathy Kiederer's older daughter wanted to play sports at Delaware Valley Middle School here. She also wanted to join the scrapbooking club.

One day she took home a permission slip. It said that to participate in the club or any school sport, she would have to consent to drug testing.

"They were asking a 12-year-old to pee in a cup," Kathy Kiederer said.

"I have a problem with that. They're violating her right to privacy over scrapbooking? Sports?"

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Participants in the historic Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity already have tried to hold Mexico responsible for the violent drug war that its government estimates has claimed at least 60,000 victims and devastated families.

Now, they want the United States to accept its share of blame.

The caravan set off in mid-August from Mexico City on a journey to 27 cities - many in border states - to raise awareness about the drug war.

The caravan, sometimes including up to 500 participants in cars and buses, was scheduled to end this week in Washington, D.C.

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Alarmed by a surge in heroin deaths, Delaware County officials joined together for the first time Friday to attack a problem they see devastating families and communities.

There were 33 heroin-related deaths in the county in the first six months of the year. In 2011, there were 62 deaths, and in 2010 there were 50, said Frederic Hellman, the county's medical examiner and a member of a task force newly appointed to address the issue.

In contrast, there has been one heroin death in Chester County. In 2011, that county saw 13 deaths where heroin was involved, and four in 2010.

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I read with great interest your article in the Daily News in which you recommend a carrot-andstick approach to drug addiction (Bykofsky, Aug. 10). I agree completely but wanted to point out that drug courts employ just the kind of sanction-and-reward system that you suggest.

I am the public defender assigned to the Philadelphia Treatment Court, the first drug court to operate in Pennsylvania. We have successfully graduated thousands of drug-addicted participants through an approach that rewards clean time and holds addicts accountable for their behavior. This method employed by drug courts across the nation has proved successful for all kinds of addicts, potheads and cocaine and heroin users alike. The court is in session every week in Room 1006 at the Criminal Justice Center and our judge and coordinator are always happy to speak about our remarkable success.

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Judging by what Uruguay's President Jose Mujica recently told me in an extended interview, there is a real possibility that people in his country will soon be able to buy marijuana legally from a state-regulated company that will be in charge of marketing and selling the drug.

Mujica, 78, submitted a bill to congress earlier this month that may be the boldest marijuana legalization proposal in the world. It calls for the state to "take over the control and regulation of activities related to the importation, production, acquisition, storage, marketing, and distribution of marijuana."

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Recent busts have reduced supply in Berks, but addicts still need to satisfy their fix

Whenever there is a high-profile heroin arrest and seizure, as there have been lately, area hospitals and emergency medical personnel brace for an increase in overdoses as addicts find different sources of the drug.

After years of drug abuse, addicts can overdose on an amount they normally take to get high, said Dr. William Santoro, director of detoxification and rehabilitation services at Reading Hospital.

Heroin is doubly dangerous because no regulatory agency or quality-control office oversees its manufacture and packaging, Santoro said. Abusers never know what they are getting in terms of dosage, purity or strength.

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The gentle tones of an electric piano provided a mournful backdrop for the sad silence filling the auditorium at the Passavant Hospital Foundation Conference Center in McCandless.

As a spring night outside effortlessly embraced nature's renewal, those inside hoped for a similar transformation. All had suffered personal winters of despair, watching helplessly as a loved one fell victim to the allure of drugs.

A baby cried. Adults cried, too, as more than 40 people walked in single file to the front. Each lit a candle while speaking of the suffering of sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, lovers and ex-spouses, relatives and friends -- some now clean, some still struggling, some departed. Handed white roses, they carried their candles back to their seats.

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Carlisle's elected tax collector is fighting a move to bar him from official duties while criminal charges against him move through court.

George Thomas Hicks Jr., through his lawyer, is disputing a claim that there would be overwhelming public outrage if he continued performing his official duties.

In fact, attorney Karl Rominger said accusations that Hicks sold pot to an undercover cop would be no more sensational to taxpayers than revelations that U.S. presidents had used illegal drugs before they were elected.

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