WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Combating our nation's substance abuse problem requires engaged citizens in every community -- such as those involved with Operation UNITE's efforts in Eastern Kentucky, President George Bush said Tuesday during a press conference.

"All Americans have a responsibility to encourage people to turn away from the losing spiral of addiction and to make good choices in life. But the great thing about our country, and the reason I'm so optimistic, is there are thousands and thousands of people willing to take the lead in their own communities -- people who have seen a problem and said, we're going to do something about it, like this good woman right here from Eastern Kentucky," said Bush, pointing to UNITE President/CEO Karen Engle.

[continues 457 words]

We applaud the more than 350 sixth-graders from eight Hattiesburg area schools who graduated from the Hattiesburg Police Department's Drug Abuse Resistance Education - better known as D.A.R.E. - program.

The 10-week program is an effort to steer young people away from illegal drugs and alcohol and tobacco products.

Unfortunately, there are new issues that the national D.A.R.E. program is being forced to address - prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

D.A.R.E. officials last week said a new school curriculum that addresses these new threats will be part of the group's 2008 efforts.

[continues 55 words]

GREENSBORO - When Don Le locked the doors of his convenience store Saturday night, someone was waiting for him.

Le was placing a bag in the passenger side of his car when the man opened fire with a handgun in the parking lot of Andy's Pantry at 1301 Grove St .

One bullet lodged in the driver's side door of his car; another shattered the window.

As the man walked toward him, Le returned fire with his own handgun, which he carries when he closes the store.

[continues 428 words]

Barely a year into its existence, the county needle exchange program has drawn high praise from the Board of Supervisors, including a rare public apology from Chairman Jerry Lenthall, a former police sergeant who had expressed reservations about the service.

"The culture I came from saw the death and destruction from needles," Lenthall told Public Health Director Greg Thomas last week. "You walked the walk. I owe you a public apology." Lenthall only reluctantly supported the program in a unanimous supervisory vote.

[continues 340 words]

The Supreme Court rulings on federal sentencing affirms an important principle: The authority to impose a criminal sentence ultimately lies with the judge.

It is time for the state Legislature to embrace this principle and restore judicial discretion to judges in cases involving drug offenses. Intended to target major drug traffickers, New York's Rockefeller Drug Laws have compelled judges to incarcerate low-level, nonviolent drug users.

Perhaps more disturbing is the impact these laws are having on communities of color: Blacks and Hispanics comprise more than 90 percent of those currently incarcerated for drug felonies -- far out of proportion to their actual involvement with drugs. The state's harsh mandatory sentencing scheme has neither curbed drug use nor enhanced public safety. Instead, it has destroyed thousands of lives and wasted limited tax dollars.

[continues 55 words]

Cautious Pilot Program Is The Proper Way To Go

The Worcester City Council made the right decision Tuesday night to implement, on a limited basis, a program intended to provide the public with a safe and secure means to dispose of used hypodermic needles and syringes.

The unanimous vote to start Operation Yellow Box as a six-month pilot program caps three years of sometimes contentious debate.

Instead of the eight boxes originally proposed, four boxes will be installed next month, all inside health-related facilities, including AIDS Project Worcester on Green Street, Great Brook Valley Community Health Center on Tacoma Street and the Family Health Center on Queen Street. A fourth site will be chosen and presented to the council by Jan. 30.

[continues 104 words]

Medical Marijuana Sites, Especially, Become Targets For Gunmen Seeking Cash

One October evening, just five months after buying a $400,000 home on a sleepy block in one of the better neighborhoods in Portland, a couple had some visitors.

Two men, one brandishing a gun, forced their way in the front door, used duct tape to tie up the couple and a friend. One of the men claimed he was looking for the dealer who hooked his sister on drugs.

Eventually, the men left the house, in the 4600 block of Southeast Madison Street, when the residents convinced them they had the wrong address.

[continues 1003 words]

The operators of a newly opened methadone clinic filed a federal lawsuit today claiming that Clark County commissioners are discriminating against their patients by investigating clinic operations and seeking an injunction that could shut down the business.

The suit filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis came a day after the commissioners, citing traffic congestion outside the clinic on the day it opened Dec. 12, filed a lawsuit in the county Circuit Court asking that the clinic be closed until it can prove it operates safely.

[continues 366 words]

MERCED -- Merced County officials passed an ordinance this week permanently banning medical marijuana dispensaries across the unincorporated county.

The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to support the ordinance, which mirrors ordinances adopted by the cities of Modesto, Ceres, Merced, Patterson, Atwater and Los Banos. Many other cities have moratoriums on dispensaries.

Though there are no marijuana dispensaries in Merced County, officials said during the board meeting that dispensaries have been troublesome in other communities. Besides attracting crime, they can lower property values, disrupt nearby businesses and increase illegal drug use and demands on police, county planning officials said.

[continues 472 words]

The kids (most of them) are all right (mostly). Twenty-first century American teenagers may be pudgier than in the past, but they're less likely to abuse drugs, get drunk, smoke, commit a violent crime or get pregnant.

The annual Monitoring the Future survey reported generally good news for eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders. In particular, eighth-graders are making wiser health choices.

In 1996, 21 percent of eighth-graders were smokers; that's dropped to 7 percent. Meanwhile, disapproval of smoking has soared.

[continues 275 words]

Miami-Based Group Used Homes In Secluded Areas, Officials Say

SARASOTA COUNTY -- Deputies raided two marijuana grow houses this week in rural homes east of Interstate 75 that authorities say are connected to a Cuban drug ring based in the Miami area.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has busted 18 grow houses with Cuban homeowners or tenants in North Port since April, and say this week's busts have another key similarity.

"They're looking for areas that offer some seclusion," said Capt. Jeff Bell of the Sheriff's Office.

[continues 393 words]

The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling giving federal judges more discretion to give lesser sentences in crack cocaine cases was an overdue adjustment.

Although sentencing disparities for powdered cocaine and crack evolved from an understandable concern about the crack epidemic of the 1980s, the difference became an inequitable punishment for African American defendants.

By no stretch of the imagination does the ruling signal intent to go easy in crack cases; it merely equalizes justice. The district judge in the case heard by the high court handed down a 15-year sentence instead of the recommended minimum of 19 years.

[continues 144 words]

Prosecutor: Informant Set Up Four People

A federal informant staged drug deals with friends while investigators watched but disguised the identities of the friends to frame innocent people and get them sent to prison.

Informant Jerrell Bray gave drugs to friends and arranged for them to make sales to undercover federal officers. Then, Bray testified in court or gave sworn statements identifying others as the parties in the deals, said Bruce Teitelbaum, a federal prosecutor investigating how a controversial drug case spun out of control.

[continues 371 words]

The 2007 report of the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study has been released ( http://www.monitoringthefuture.org ). MTF is a survey of American 8th, 10th, and 12th graders pertaining to their illicit drug use. Recent claims by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) with regard MTF data are misleading and do not tell the whole story about youth drug use.

First, ONDCP's online summary of the MTF findings focuses on a very short period of time -2001-2007 ( http://whitehousedrugpolicy.org/news/youthdrug_declines.html ). As in its annual National Drug Control Strategy reports, ONDCP downplays long-term drug use trends among young people. In fact, the ONDCP website depicts only four figures, all showing declines. ONDCP does acknowledge increases in some drugs (e.g. Oxycontin), but it does not depict these increases in figures. Instead, as in its Strategy reports, ONDCP visually depicts declines in drugs like meth and steroids.

[continues 543 words]

Although I agree with Greg Francisco ("Stop getting tough on drugs, get smart," Valley Times, Dec. 13) that cigarettes arguably kill more Americans than all other drugs combined, his comparison of nicotine use to alcohol, heroin, methamphetamine or other such substances shows the weakness of his entire argument. Tobacco is a legal substance for adults to purchase and ingest. Tobacco does not impair one's ability to drive or think clearly, nor do nicotine addicts rob, steal, burglarize or murder to support their nicotine habit.

[continues 248 words]

After all the lies of reefer madness the government and law enforcement say about cannabis (marijuana) how do citizens, and especially youth, know they're telling the truth about meth? ("Continue, expand fight against meth," Valley Times, Nov. 29.)

According to government reports, cannabis is the biggest problem in North America, not meth - just ask the U.S. drug czar.

Today's pot is more like cocaine, causing cancer and all. Cannabis which, to my knowledge, has never killed anyone in over 5,000 years of documented use is a Schedule I substance right next to heroin, and meth is only rated a Schedule II substance - so meth must not be a big deal, right?

What's the truth?

Dillon, Colorado

[end]

The Commission Is Trying to Get Out From Under a Court Order for Reform. Critics Say the New Policy Is Invasive and Won't Work.

The Los Angeles Police Commission approved a plan Thursday to require hundreds of anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose detailed information about their personal finances, triggering an immediate court challenge by the police officers union and a debate at City Hall over whether to overrule the panel.

At issue in the rapidly intensifying dispute is what LAPD Chief William J. Bratton and the five-member commission hope will be one of the final pieces of a broad reform campaign that began after the Rampart corruption scandal and has kept the department under federal oversight since 2000.

[continues 1086 words]

Instead of Jail, Addicts Can Be Sentenced to Treatment Programs

Damon Fuseyamore vividly recalls smoking "my last nickel of crack" on June 16, 1997, while sitting on the steps outside his New York City residence. He said he owed loan sharks money and had been arrested two weeks before "with six nickels of crack and a bunch of money."

He was charged with selling crack and was looking at two to seven years in prison. But he had another option.

"I had a choice of doing jail time or changing my life and going through treatment," he said. "If you have a choice between doing two-to-seven or going through the program and going into treatment, any smart person would take the program."

[continues 743 words]

Anna Sappah is to be commended for making the case for substance abuse treatment ("I know from experience: Drug treatment does work," Dec. 2). A study conducted by the Rand Corp. found that every additional dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.48 in societal costs. There is far more at stake than tax dollars. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe.

Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Not only do the children lose out, but society as a whole does too. Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in antisocial behavior.

[continues 73 words]

Near the end of his column "Making drugs legal not a fix, say ex-users" (Dec. 12), Jay Hancock responds to comments about the inability of drug legalization to solve problems associated with illegal drug use from recovering addicts at Man Alive's Lane Treatment Center by saying, "Any nation trying it would encounter devilish complications."

Switzerland has proved that this statement is not necessarily true.

Through their current Heroin Assisted Treatment program, the Swiss have drastically reduced drug-associated crime, reduced new addiction and positively increased the health and social situations of heroin addicts.

[continues 103 words]