Orland Township Youth and Family Counseling sponsored a recent drug abuse symposium at Sandburg High School in reaction to a sharp rise in heroin-related use, arrests and deaths among youths in the Orland-Palos area.

Concerned parents and students gathered in the gymnasium to hear lengthy presentations from mainstream speakers who included a recovered drug addict now in the treatment business, an Orland Park police commander and a spokesperson for a drug treatment consortium.

All three speakers were supporters of the drug war, and all three make their living off the unintended consequences of the war on drugs - namely more crime, more drugs and more kids needing treatment. None of the speakers gave any hint of appreciation of the fact that they're on the side of the likes of Al Capone and today's drug cartels and street gangs in favoring the United Nations/U.S. costly and ineffective drug prohibition policy.

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We all have the mental image of the classic stoner: The Dude, Cheech and Chong, and basically all rock stars from the 60s and 70s, embody the image that has made generations of Americans think twice about legalizing marijuana.

However, these stereotypes portray marijuana as a lifestyle rather than something that is used occasionally for recreation.

The reality is that for most, marijuana is a relaxing and less harmful "night-out."

This past week was a great example of this. As many of you may know, Friday was "4/20," during which veteran cannabis enthusiasts and first-timers nationwide lit up to celebrate the counterculture. During this "holiday" of sorts, students got high, ordered pizza, put on "Dark Side of the Moon" and zoned out for a few hours.

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I write this with a little trepidation because our police chief, Jim Ryan, whose opinion I respect, told me he is flatly opposed to legalizing marijuana. Nevertheless, I want to take a shot at laying out a rationale for why pot should be at least decriminalized.

It all started with observing the behavior of the throngs attending our annual spring event, the St. Patrick's Day Parade on March 10. I watched the parade from the sidewalk right next to Healy's and saw a lot of beer being consumed. At that point, I wished I owned stock in one of the taverns lining our main drag.

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Regarding Steve Huntley's April 20 column in support of legalizing marijuana, there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and full legalization. Switzerland's clinical heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users. The success of the Swiss program has inspired pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. If expanded, heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base. This would render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and spare future generations addiction.

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'Legalization is not the answer," President Barack Obama told Latin-American leaders complaining that U.S. demand for drugs is fueling the appalling violence and rampant corruption from the narcotics production and trafficking in their countries. Well, as has become painfully obvious, the war on drugs isn't the answer either.

That futile campaign waged predominately in Central and South America and in poor neighborhoods in U.S. cities is a failure - and that's putting it mildly. If the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were the never-ending, never-succeeding megaflops that the war on drugs is, we would be heading for the exits at breakneck speed or ordering up a troop surge and committing the nation to do whatever it takes to win.

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You'd never have thought heroin addiction would come to torment teens in the suburbs. We all know it's an inner-city scourge, a street drug.

That comforting but errant presumption has gotten in the way of facing the problem. As our stories this past week revealed, heroin use in South Cook and Will counties has become an epidemic - one that has found teenagers more susceptible than adults, allowing it to stay hidden longer than most plagues.

While adult heroin use has stayed level for several years, the amount of heroin pumped into the drug pipeline has grown. In 2010, in the west suburban counties ringing Chicago, nine people died from a heroin overdose. Just a year later, that number ballooned to 94.

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AURORA - Most people have pretty strong opinions when it comes to the question of whether marijuana should be legalized.

Aurora University criminal justice instructor Ken Jones, a former commander with the Cook County Sheriff's Department, discussed the pros and cons of the issue with the Aurora Citizen's Police Academy alumni group this past week.

"There are both sides to this issue, and we've been debating it for years," he said.

Jones presented several arguments for the legalization effort. Prohibition does not stop usage - when it came to alcohol, Prohibition did not even slow it down, he said.

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Peoria, Tazewell counties see drug-related deaths double

PEKIN - The number of deaths attributed to drug overdoses in Tazewell and Peoria counties more than doubled over the past two years.

Synthetic drugs have captured the area's most recent attention in the ongoing battle against the crime and danger to life posed by illegal drugs. Misused prescription medicines have hit the radar screen. Meth remains a frightening scourge.

But among all the poisons and combinations of them that killed 87 people in the two counties in 2010-11, heroin remains the single deadliest.

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Jeremy Karlin Says It Gives Police Another Option

GALESBURG - The chief architect of a controversial marijuana proposal on Wednesday countered the perception that giving police the option to issue a city fine for small possession equates to legalizing the drug.

Alderman Jeremy Karlin, Ward 7, said he is willing to meet with anyone to talk about the proposed ordinance, and he already is discussing with local drug prevention groups on how to engage residents, especially teenagers, about the hazards of marijuana use.

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The scope of a drug sale investigation at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire last week drew intense public interest.

But at the end of it, the charging of only two students and recovery of less than 10 grams of marijuana revealed a problem that was entirely typical of all high schools throughout the suburbs, police and school officials said.

"That kind of thing probably goes on in every high school in America," Barrington Police Chief Jerry Libit said. "We've certainly had our share of kids using pot or buying pot or selling pot. It's a horrible situation when it happens in the high school. That's why they have enhanced penalties for it and everything."

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Kudos to Rich Miller for his outstanding Feb. 10 column: "Legalizing society's vices is best way to hurt outfit."

Miller didn't mention our nation's multibillion-dollar drug trade. But he didn't have to.

Kirk Muse,

Mesa, Ariz.

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Writing as a retired detective, I heartily agree with Rich Miller's column on marijuana prohibition.

As we waste time on a drug much less dangerous than beer, pedophiles and drunken drivers are caught in lesser numbers.

Worse, kids selling pot are shot from time to time because of their "job."

What kind of nation has a policy which generates a job option that gets kids killed?

This is so immoral I could scream.

Howard Wooldridge

Washington, D.C.

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Drug enforcement measures in place for decades have filled jails with poor and minority offenders, marred police officers' credibility in the neighborhoods they patrol and fractured communities, Chicago police Superintendent Garry Mccarthy and Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle agreed at a forum Wednesday night.

"(Drug use) is a driver of crime, but we have adopted a policy that it is the crime itself," Mccarthy said at Chicago Forward, a panel discussion hosted by the Tribune at the Chase Auditorium downtown.

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Outfit crime boss Michael "The Large Guy" Sarno was sentenced to 25 years in prison this week. Sarno ordered the bombing of a business that was encroaching on his illegal video poker racket.

I'm glad that Sarno's going to prison. I'm also happy that Illinois finally wised up and legalized video poker machines for taverns, fraternal clubs and truck stops.

A legal, regulated video poker industry means wise guys like Sarno will be put out of business. Illinois' ridiculous "For Amusement Only" tax stickers on poker machines will finally come to an end once the legal, regulated machines are put into place. Nobody plays video poker at a tavern purely for their own amusement. They play because they're hoping to win an illegal jackpot.

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Prohibition Costs Illinois Big Bucks

As marijuana traffickers go, Jason Alan Spyres was far from the best.

He was just 19 when police in Woodford County found a bag of pot in Spyres' car and arrested him for possession. Less than a year later, he was arrested again and charged with cannabis trafficking in Macon County his mother had shipped 38 pounds of pot to him from California via United Parcel Service, with police intercepting the package. While out on bond, he was caught again, this time during a raid that also netted a meth dealer, and received a second trafficking charge.

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Mounting heroin use and deaths in Lake County and the Chicago suburbs needs to be addressed through prevention and education.

U.S. Rep. Robert Dold, R-Kenilworth, held a roundtable discussion Monday on the rise of heroin use, especially in suburban areas =AD an issue that has been on the radar in Lake County since overdose cases started increasing in 2007.

We need to get on the same page and have a cohesive plan,=94 said Dold, =93and get more parents involved.=94

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The cop clutched a framed photograph and sat doubled over on the courtroom bench, wracked with sobs after a reputed drug dealer had been convicted Thursday in the 2008 murder of Chicago police Officer Nathaniel Taylor.

After officers erupted in cheers and spectators began filing out of the packed courtroom, Officer Bert Munguia remained, crying for 15 minutes.

At first, he did so alone, but soon he had other officers beside him. They put their arms around his shoulders and told him to let it out. "We got your back," one said.

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Thank you for publishing Kirk Muse's thought-provoking letter "End marijuana prohibition" (Jan. 13). It's maddening that this administration wants to continue failed prohibition polices that do nothing to reduce drug use and succeed only in funneling billions of dollars into the pockets of cartels, criminals, drug dealers, and violent gangs.

Obama needs to remember his campaign pledge in 2004 not to waste scarce resources interfering with state marijuana laws.

It's time to deliver the "real change" that he promised.

Steven Larson

Stockton

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A recent study conducted in part by Northwestern researchers suggests that occasional marijuana usage may slightly improve rather than decrease lung function.

Dr. Ravi Kalhan, Feinberg associate professor of pulmonary and preventive medicine, helped author the study, which was published Jan. 11 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

"The hypothesis was that marijuana use when smoked would be similar to tobacco smoke -- that heavy smoking would lead to detriment to lung function," Kalhan said. "(The results were) a little unexpected."

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Mesa, Ariz. -- In Ken Burns' outstanding PBS documentary "Prohibition," it was revealed that alcohol prohibition corrupted all levels of our government -- all the way up to Warren G. Harding in the White House. The alcohol cartels had hundreds of politicians on their payroll.

Is it unreasonable to suspect that the drug cartels of today are following in the footsteps of the alcohol cartels? It's obvious that medical marijuana dispensaries were making a major dent in the income of the drug cartels.

Would a $10 to $15 million bribe motivate Obama to change his policy regarding medical marijuana? We will never know. But I certainly suspect so.

Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. (formerly of Freeport)

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