The Pontotoc County Drug Free Coalition is hosting a town hall meeting to discuss marijuana legalization and the statewide impact it has had on Colorado.

The event takes place at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 21 at the Pontotoc Technology Center. This event is open to the community as well as those outside of Pontotoc County. No registration is required and it is free to attend.

The speaker will be Thomas Gorman, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area out of Denver. Mr. Gorman is a FBI National Academy graduate and served with the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agency for many years. Gorman is a veteran undercover agent, having received two Purple Hearts from being wounded while undercover. Upon retiring from the BNE, Gorman took on his current position as Director in 1997.

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Even if you oppose marijuana legalization, as I firmly do, the U.S. Supreme Court's decision recently not to interfere in the decision of Colorado voters to end cannabis prohibition was a major victory for states' rights, federalism and the 10th Amendment.

It was also a victory for all Oklahomans who do not want to be ruled by unaccountable and out-of-touch bureaucrats and politicians thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C. - and even abroad - acting in defiance of our Constitution.

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OKLAHOMA Attorney General Scott Pruitt's effort to sue the state of Colorado for its role in violating the drug laws of neighboring states fell short at the U.S. Supreme Court this week. That doesn't mean there isn't a problem, as even the attorney general of Colorado conceded.

Pruitt's lawsuit was not based on challenging the decision of Colorado citizens to legalize marijuana sales to Colorado residents. Instead, Pruitt sought to challenge Colorado state policies that are designed to generate revenue from the interstate sale of marijuana. For example, Colorado officials don't require that marijuana buyers be legal residents of Colorado, nor does the state limit the number of transactions to deter bulk trafficking. As a result, Colorado has become a hub of interstate marijuana sales and distribution.

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I was commissioned as an agent with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics in 1987 and spent more than 28 years fighting the drug issues that plague our state. My employment was a result of the "Just Say No" anti-drug initiative, which was created and championed by then first lady Nancy Reagan.

I have often wondered what the world would be like now if addicts had heeded her warning. That first needle of meth seemed so harmless. It seemed innocent the first time the crack cocaine addict took a hit off the crack pipe. The heroin looked good at the moment, to flee the world's problems and get high. Let's smoke just one joint; it's just marijuana. No one can fathom the destruction headed their way.

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What part of following a winning plan to fix our budget shortcomings does Gov. Mary Fallin not get?

Want to balance the budget and have extra left over? Then why not follow the examples set for all to follow, Colorado, Washington state, and the 20-something other states that have legalized medical marijuana, not to mention the recreational use. Millions of sales tax dollars have been collected in the states that have done so.

Why must our children's education have to suffer just because a few backward folks refuse to see the benefits of this wonderful plant that is no more a drug than aspirin, Tylenol or any other over-the-counter pain medication.

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Legislation has been proposed to overhaul the drug asset forfeiture laws in Oklahoma. Unfortunately, Oklahoma laws regarding drug asset forfeiture have been so severely misrepresented that the truth of how these laws work is lost.

Under Oklahoma law, a law enforcement officer can seize property only if he has an arrest warrant, search warrant, probable cause to believe the property is dangerous, or probable cause to believe that the property has been used, or will be used, in violation of Oklahoma narcotics laws.

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Regarding "Oklahoma, Nebraska AGs liken Colorado to 'drug cartel' over pot" (News, Jan. 7): As a Colorado resident who helped end cannabis prohibition, I strongly disagree with Oklahoma and Nebraska's claim likening Colorado to a "drug cartel." Oklahoma and Nebraska's desire to continue caging responsible adults who choose to use the relatively safe, extremely popular God-given plant is dependent on Colorado perpetuating the historically discredited "Reefer Madness" scam, dependent on punishing Colorado for not punishing its citizens for using a beneficial plant with a tantrum. In reality, citizens including Oklahoma's and Nebraska's own citizens liken cannabis prohibitionists as being anti-Christian, vulgar and just plain wrong. In the end, cannabis prohibition and discrimination will be history.

Stan White, Dillon, Colo.

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WASHINGTON - U.S. Supreme Court justices are expected to decide in their closed door meeting on Jan. 22 whether to allow Oklahoma and Nebraska to sue Colorado over its marijuana laws.

The two states claim their neighbor's licensing of growers and sellers has led their own residents to travel to Colorado to buy marijuana. That in turn has strained their own law enforcement and other resources, they claim.

In a brief filed last week, Oklahoma and Nebraska compared Colorado to a drug cartel that is now exporting pot to 36 states.

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Rhetoric is heating up about a proposal to change the state's civil asset forfeiture process.

Lawmakers return in February to the Capitol, where the issue is expected to be debated.

The leading voice for change is Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City. He has filed Senate Bill 838, which would make dramatic changes to a law that allows law enforcement to seize property and cash suspected of being used in a crime. The current process does not require a conviction.

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WASHINGTON - Oklahoma and Nebraska compared Colorado to a drug cartel Wednesday and again urged the Supreme Court to let them sue their neighbor over its marijuana production and distribution system.

In sharply written arguments, the two states said Colorado "has created a massive criminal enterprise whose sole purpose is to authorize and facilitate the manufacture, distribution, sale and use of marijuana."

"The State of Colorado authorizes, oversees, protects and profits from a sprawling $100 million per-month marijuana growing, processing and retailing organization that exported thousands of pounds of marijuana to some 36 States in 2014," the states' new brief says.

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Nebraska Also Asks the Supreme Court to Let It Sue Over the Legal Sale and Production of Weed.

WASHINGTON - Oklahoma and Nebraska compared Colorado to a drug cartel Wednesday and again urged the Supreme Court to let them sue their neighbor over its marijuana production and distribution system.

In sharply written arguments, the two states said Colorado "has created a massive criminal enterprise whose sole purpose is to authorize and facilitate the manufacture, distribution, sale and use of marijuana."

"The State of Colorado authorizes, oversees, protects and profits from a sprawling $100-million per-month marijuana growing, processing and retailing organization that exported thousands of pounds of marijuana to some 36 States in 2014," the two states' news brief says.

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FOR the second time in as many years, proponents have fallen short - far short - of gathering enough signatures to place a medical marijuana measure before Oklahoma voters. Backers say they will try again. But their repeated failure suggests this is an issue lacking meaningful support in Oklahoma, and that petition organizers are wasting their time.

Last week, Green the Vote submitted petitions containing roughly 70,000 signatures seeking a public vote to legalize medical marijuana in Oklahoma. The group needed 123,725 signatures to get the issue on the ballot.

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Washington (AP) - Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has said that he plans to continue to press the U.S. Supreme Court for permission to sue Colorado over its marijuana laws, despite objection from President Obama's administration.

Oklahoma and Nebraska asked for the court's permission a year ago to sue Colorado over aspects of its marijuana legalization plan.

A spokesman for Pruitt said that written arguments will be filed next month.

Oklahoma and Nebraska say that Colorado laws allowing the manufacture, possession and distribution of marijuana violate the federal Controlled Substances Act and have led to more illegal drugs crossing state lines.

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Marijuana Is the No. 1 Drug Found in Drivers Who Tested Positive for Drugs in Oklahoma, According to the Osbi

As more states legalize marijuana for recreational use, concern rises about the risk of people getting behind the wheel while high. While many supporters point to the potential positive impact on economics that legalization in Oklahoma could hold, law enforcement officers who are faced with the deadly outcomes of driving while under the influence of marijuana or other drugs during their work point to the risks.

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ADVOCATES for legalizing recreational marijuana argue that shift shouldn't upset people, claiming the drug's use differs little from alcohol consumption. A new report from Colorado suggests that's only true if people are fine with drunk driving and public intoxication of school children.

That report, by the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, demonstrates that legalized marijuana's impact in Colorado is not benign. The report examines a wide range of statistics over several years that marijuana became less regulated. In 2006, Colorado legalized "medical" marijuana use. Greater commercialization was unleashed in 2009. And since 2013, full-blown recreational use has been legal.

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Legislators heard opposing arguments at opposite ends of the Turner Turnpike on Tuesday as two Republican state senators waged dueling public hearings on the state's civil asset forfeiture law.

At the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, witnesses assembled by Sen. Kyle Loveless, R-Oklahoma City, testified to a forfeiture process rife with real and potential problems that encourage the seizure of private assets by law enforcement. At the Tulsa Police Academy in north Tulsa, a roomful of law officers and prosecutors voiced outrage at that notion and said forfeiture is one of the most important weapons in the war against drugs.

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Efforts to Legalize Medical Marijuana Move Ahead in State.

OKLAHOMA CITY - Supporters of an effort to legalize medical marijuana hope to begin gathering signatures in early September.

Last week, members of Green the Vote filed paperwork with the Oklahoma Secretary of State's office indicating their intent.

Following a protest period and a review of the ballot title, they hope to hit the streets, Isaac Caviness, president of Green the Vote, said Thursday. He said the organization is not anticipating a challenge to the petition.

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WASHINGTON - Novelist and conscientious objector to America's longest "war," Don Winslow was skeptical when he was in Washington on a recent Sunday. This was shortly after news broke about the escape, from one of Mexico's "maximum security" prisons, of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Mexico's top drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has twice escaped from a maximum-security prison.

Guzman reportedly escaped through a five-foot-tall tunnel almost a mile long and built solely for his escape. Asked about this, Winslow, his fork poised over an omelet, dryly said he thinks Guzman might actually have driven away from the prison's front gate in a Lincoln Town Car. What might seem like cynicism could be Winslow's realism.

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WASHINGTON - Don Winslow, novelist and conscientious objector to America's longest "war," was skeptical when he was in Washington on a recent Sunday morning. This was shortly after news broke about the escape, from one of Mexico's "maximum security" prisons, of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Guzman reportedly escaped through a 5-foottall tunnel almost a mile long and built solely for his escape. Asked about this, Winslow dryly said he thinks Guzman might actually have driven away from the prison's front gate in a Lincoln Town Car. What might seem like cynicism could be Winslow's realism. Fourteen years ago, Guzman escaped from another "maximum security" prison simply by hiding in a laundry cart.

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Senator Denies Claims That Plan to Change Law Is Grab for Money

A state senator has upset law enforcement officers across the state by saying the state's drug money forfeiture law needs to be changed to protect the innocent.

"Completely asinine," said the most vocal critic, Canadian County Sheriff Randall Edwards.

At issue is the law as written allows police - in some instances - to seize and keep cash found during traffic stops even when no drugs were discovered and no criminal charges were filed.

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