The survey of Licking Valley High School students regarding use of drugs, alcohol and tobacco was disappointing in many ways. Just as disturbing, it is not unique to Licking Valley.

The November survey indicated more than 55 percent of LV high school students tried alcohol within the past year. For seniors, the number came out to 70 percent.

About 33 percent of the students have used tobacco and almost 18 percent used marijuana within the past year. A 2006 survey at Newark High School found that 62 percent of the students said they had tried alcohol at some point in their lives.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Iron County Attorney Scott M. Burns was officially sworn in as Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy on Friday.

Burns has served at ONDCP as the Deputy Director for State, Local and Tribal Affairs since 2002, where he has served as the principal advisor to White House drug czar John P. Walters, on federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement matters.

He has also served as the United States representative to the World Anti-Doping Agency, an international organization dedicated to reducing and eliminating performance-enhancing substances from sport.

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In 2007, the drug legalization group the Marijuana Policy Project reported there were over 830,000 marijuana arrests in 2006. After analyzing the results, they realized it averaged out to one pot-related arrest every 38 seconds. With 2008 approaching, he'll have an opportunity. If we work a little harder, people, we can get that up to two minutes.

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It really would be nice to applaud the recent law enforcement action that took 21 suspected low-level drug dealers off the streets of Waukegan, or shall we say, "off the streets in the 1st Ward." The fact of the matter is that the 21 dealers have already been replaced and drugs continue to flow unabated not only in Waukegan, but throughout Lake County.

In Waukegan, it's easy to put a Band-Aid on the scourge of drugs in our community. I've been a witness to the "let's pick up some drug dealers" to convince the uninformed that we saved the poor residents of Waukegan's 1st Ward. These lowlevel drug dealers are convenient and easy to identify.

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Camden Residents Hope A Change Limits All Kinds Of Traffic.

Making his daily rounds delivering mail, Steve Carmichael walks some of the meanest streets in Camden.

Open-air drug sales, violence, music blaring from cars - the Whitman Park neighborhood has it all.

"It's a war out there," Carmichael said last week.

But it's also where he and his family live.

Carmichael, who returned home to Camden in 1999 after 13 years in the military and five years in South Carolina, had to make a choice. Should he do nothing, or should he get involved?

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A Supreme Court Decision Attacks Inequity In The Drug Sentencing Guidelines.

The U.S.'s system of checks and balances is under seige, but it was still lurching along late in December as the Supreme Court disappointed the White House with a ruling in a crack case. In a 7-2 decision, the justices said judges did not have to stick to federal guidelines that prescribe the same sentence for the sale of five grams of crack as for the sale of 500 grams of powdered cocaine.

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POT SHOP RAID REFLECTS LEGAL DIVIDE (NO. 8)

The Owner of a Medical Marijuana Dispensary That Was Shut Down in May Continues to Fight the Order

The owner of a Morro Bay medical marijuana dispensary that was shut down in May continues to fight the U.S. Attorney's Office over charges that he grew and sold cannabis for profit and distributed it to minors.

Charles Lynch of Arroyo Grande pleaded not guilty to charges in August. His trial is scheduled for the spring, he said.

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While most think of cancer and AIDS when hearing of medical marijuana, in recent years most marijuana recommendations have been issued for far less serious illnesses by a small cadre of "pot docs." Medical marijuana recommendations seem to be evolving into Get Out of Jail Free cards rather than treatment for serious medical conditions.

An estimated 95 percent of patients visiting "pot docs" are already significant pot users seeking approval for their drug use, and a small group of physicians are willing to fulfill their request.

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Knowing the law helps protect you from legal liability for the behavior of others.

You have a right to refuse to rent to or allow people to live on your property, based on legitimate business criteria. People with poor credit, poor maintenance habits and poor public records are not likely to increase your property value or your income.

You can be held liable for the behavior of those who live on your property. If they create a public nuisance or criminal behavior, it is you who will be held responsible (if you are aware of the infraction and allowing it). You are also held (legally) responsible for the behavior of your employees and property managers.

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Now that the city of Baltimore has exceeded last year's murder tally, it is time for The Sun and others to admit that aside from the relatively few innocent victims caught in the crossfire, the vast majority of murders in this city are drug-related, and that the murders are a symptom of a largely unaddressed metropolitan health problem known as addiction ("277th killing in '07 is grim milestone," Dec. 21). In the meantime, the majority of city residents go about their business in productive, drug-free neighborhoods and are not really impacted by this spike in violence.

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JAMES CITY - WJC's voluntary drug testing program might not be as controversial as it originally seemed.

Steve Chantry, director of student services, said that while responses were down slightly this year, the number of students who consented to be in the testing pool increased. He attributes the increase to the fact that the program is a year old now and people have had time to see that it was never designed to get students in trouble.

"We had 4,569 students return forms," he said. "Of those 1,851 said yes."

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Recently I heard a speech about legalizing the distribution of marijuana and putting a tax on the substance to raise money for government. I have never really been on the "legalize marijuana" side. I have always thought of it as a negative drug. After more thought and a more realistic sense of what the drug really does to your body, I started thinking, "Maybe it should be legalized."

Much as alcohol was available back in the day when it was illegal, pot is being grown and distributed illegally today. After the Constitution was changed to make alcohol legal again, the illegal sale of it was eliminated almost entirely. This made it significantly safer to drink alcohol because safety standards were placed on the companies that mass-produced it. So why would it not be the same for marijuana?

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(Re: Dec. 20 letter, "Users don't go to prison for their habit alone," by Bobby J. Rogers.)

Rogers surely must realize that the "dope heads," as he called them, aren't all in prison because they "committed a crime to support their habit." Many are in jail only for possession of drugs.

Rogers doesn't seem to understand that drug addiction affects people who could be the guy next door, or people who work for a living. Drug addiction is not a respecter of persons. It destroys lives from the common thief to the downtown businessman.

Prison doesn't solve anything for the average drug-user. There needs to be more programs available for those who truly need and want help.

Lisa Kimbrell

Amarillo

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Court Orders and Ballot Measures Like Jessica's Law Have Helped Fuel Spending, Which Has Climbed 79% Since '03.

SACRAMENTO -- When a judge put Robert Sillen in charge of healthcare in California prisons, the medical staff was vastly underpaid. Software used to track inmates' medical histories could not transfer information between computers.

San Quentin State Prison had only one phone line for incoming calls and none to dial out, isolating doctors who needed to talk to specialists and other professionals.

"It's just shameful what the state has done," Sillen said in an interview.

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The Hailey City Council will scratch its collective head a little longer over three sticky marijuana initiatives approved by voters in November.

"This is such a unique situation that I feel comfortable for you to take your time in dealing with it," Hailey City Attorney Ned Williamson told the council Thursday evening after discussing a report on the initiatives from the Idaho Attorney General's Office.

The report identifies three legal conflicts with the initiatives. One, marijuana is illegal in Idaho and cities do not have the authority to override state law; two, provisions of the initiatives that require city officials to lobby for reform of marijuana laws violate constitutional free speech rights; and three, the initiative that makes enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest police priority inappropriately meddles with administrative matters.

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MOUNT VERNON - According to court officials, there are 24 juveniles enrolled in the Knox County Juvenile Drug Court Program for various drug-related crimes. This represents the highest level of participation at any one time since the program's inception.

Created by Juvenile Judge James M. Ronk in March 2001, the drug court program was designed to specifically address the intervention needs of the growing body of Knox County teens exhibiting addictive or potentially addictive drug-related behavior.

"Throughout the time I've been judge, there have been teen drinking parties and smoking marijuana," said Ronk. "[At the time], I wasn't happy with our response. We were looking around for evidence-based programs that offered the opportunity for more effective interventions."

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To the Editor:

Recently, the United States Sentencing Commission voted unanimously to allow federal prison inmates to seek reductions in their crack cocaine sentences ("Retroactively, Panel Reduces Drug Sentences," front page, Dec. 12).

Roughly 3,800 inmates could be released within the next year. The most important question is: Is our society prepared to help these young men and women become productive members of society?

I am an inmate at the federal correctional facility Gilmer Camp in Glenville, W.Va., currently serving a sentence for a crack cocaine offense. I can speak only for myself, but I have been preparing myself for many years for the day I am to be released.

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BOSTON - During some of the bloodiest years of the drug wars of the 1980s, crack was seen as far more dangerous than powder cocaine, and that perception was written into the sentencing laws. But now that notion is under attack like never before.

Criminologists, doctors and other experts say the differences between the two forms of the drug were largely exaggerated and do not justify the way the law comes down 100 times harder on crack.

A push to shrink the disparity in punishments got a boost last month when reduced federal sentencing guidelines went into effect for crack offenses. Then, earlier this month, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which sets guidelines for federal cases, voted to make the reductions retroactive, allowing at least 19,500 inmates, mostly black, to seek reductions in their crack sentences.

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To the Editor:

While in the Bay Area last week, I had the opportunity to sit and observe that a medical marijuana dispensary (as allowed by law) was by far the busiest business in a small strip mall; raking in big bucks.

Now, I am just a retired civil servant unable to find employment and not the brightest nail in the box, so here is an idea that someone must have thought of and not bothered to follow through on.

With local law enforcement pulling up tons of marijuana plants a season, to defray costs, why don't they just package the product?

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The Governor's Office Has Denied a Budget Request to Pay for Teachers' Drug Tests.

THE state administration, which insisted on a non-negotiable provision for drug tests of public school teachers in their current contract, now refuses to provide the $523,723 needed to conduct the tests.

Gov. Linda Lingle's team contends the Department of Education already has enough money to absorb the cost of random and reasonable-suspicion drug tests for teachers, and for a $300,000 program to have dogs detect drugs on campuses. That might be, but the push for testing came from the governor's office and it should be willing to pay for it.

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