Never mind that your Nov. 6 editorial (Drug testing: Lawsuit is misguided) contained factual errors concerning the number of children involved and the meaning of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on student drug testing; much more distressing is that the editorial's author forgot the news media's crucial watchdog role of alerting citizens that their government has gone awry.

One local division of government, the Conway Public Schools Board of Education has gone awry. Using an unproved technique (drug testing), it is forcing students least likely to engage in illicit drug use to prove themselves innocent, despite a lack of suspicion. All guilty students are to be yanked out of their activities, which is what a variety of educational and medical organizations say is the exact opposite of what should be done.

The drug-testing policy defies logic, and it violates our children's civil rights. The Log Cabin Democrat should be defending these rights, rather than criticizing those who have enough courage to stand up for this injustice.

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LITTLE ROCK (AP) - Arkansas prison officials say a state law passed a few years ago to fight the state's growing problem with methamphetamine is making their job - and their budget - tougher to handle.

Department of Correction officials say they plan to ask legislators during the session that begins in January to reconsider a law that requires certain meth offenders to spend 70 percent of their sentences behind bars. That requirement alone will cost state taxpayers millions of dollars.

The department, which last month set a record population with nearly 13,000 inmates, simply needs more money to meet those demands, department spokesman Dina Tyler said.

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Every profession, organization and agency has its own lingo. Sometimes you get so used to the lingo that you forget an outsider doesn't know what in the heck you're talking about.

I was explaining to someone recently that while DTF and SWAT are both composed of Sheriff's Office and Conway officers. They are not the same officers and SWAT doesn't always accompany DTF.

My explanation was met with a blank stare. I forgot not everyone knows what "DTF" is or how or why it's different from the Metro SWAT Team.

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Four parents have filed a civil lawsuit in Faulkner County Circuit Court on behalf of their children to stop drug testing, which was just adopted this year by the Conway School District.

Bruce Plopper, one of the plaintiffs, said Monday, "I think the students are not property and you have to treat them as human beings."

He was one of the most vocal opponents of drug testing while the issue was debated at meetings of the Conway School District's Board of Education. The school board voted 4-3 in August to adopt a drug-testing policy. Students in grades seven through 12 in extracurricular activities will be randomly tested.

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This week, Oct. 21-25, is "Red Ribbon Week," is the annual drug abuse prevention observance which is recognized by schools throughout the nation.

Students wearing red ribbons this week are a reminder of the importance of drug abuse prevention, especially among our youth. But, they are also a reminder of the serious drug problem that exists in Hope and Hempstead County.

According to Prosecuting Attorney Randy Wright, "We like every county in rural Arkansas are saturated with illegal drugs. The biggest problem is methamphetamine. We are a methamphetamine hotbed."

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Surveys show that 80 percent of the high school students in Arkansas have used drugs, crime in northwest Arkansas has increased by 10 percent in the past 10 years and drug related crimes have doubled. The agency that wants to help solve the drug problem is a Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce Committee, Drug Free Rogers-Lowell.

The director of Drug Free Rogers-Lowell, Greg Hoggatt, told the coalition of business people, social service workers, law enforcement personnel and educators about a variety of programs at the luncheon.

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In a letter printed Sept. 16, the writer states "Today, more young children and teenagers use drugs on a regular basis than ever before."

Where did the letter writer get her facts? According to the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse by the Department of Health and Human Services, illicit drug use declined from 14 percent of American adults in 1979 to 6 percent in 1996. According to the Partnership For A Drug-Free America, drug use by children 12 to 17 has declined sharply since 1998.

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Craighead County Sheriff Jack McCann has been an advocate of drug courts for a long time. He views the program and rehabilitation rather than prison for first-time, non-violent offenders as the answer to a major social and law enforcement problem.

Now he wonders if he has been "wasting our time" because he has made little progress toward establishing a drug court for the county.

McCann admits that it has simply come down to a matter of money. That's the frustrating part. The veteran law enforcement officer views drug courts as a sound investment, not decriminalization of the state's drug laws.

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Every election year a rumor starts circulating about a candidate running for office. This year is no exception. However, this year like a bad penny the rumors concerning Sheriff Dan Langston and his staff continue to surface.

By now everyone knows that the sheriff's home was not raided by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the state police. The latest rumor involves a drug bust in Memphis or Little Rock, depending on who you hear it from. Once again this rumor is exactly that -- a rumor. Stopping rumors can be compared to stopping a runaway train. The only way to stop this is to verify the rumors by calling the agency that has been associated with the rumor. We encourage all Greene County citizens to call.

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The Arkansas State Police have been awarded $166,480.70 by the Department of Justice. The money came form a portion of assets seized during the course of a two-year narcotics investigation.

The investigation began with the purchase of one gram of methamphetamine during an undercover operation in Carroll County, and eventually led federal agents on a trail of arrests through Arkansas, Georgia and Texas. During the Arkansas investigation, the state police arrested three individuals, and retrieved more than 2.5 pounds of methamphetamine, a small amount of marijuana, cash, vehicles and weapons.

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Now that Nevada is asking voters to decide the issue of marijuana legalization, talk shows are buzzing.

Asa Hutchinson, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration; John Walters, current drug czar; Barry McCaffrey, former drug czar; and other government officials too numerous to mention would have you believe that marijuana is a demon weed with no benefits, not even medical.

What they don't tell you is According to a Reuters report on March 25, Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutence University in Madrid, Spain, released evidence that THC destroys tumors in rats thus verifying results from 1974 Virginia published in the September 1975 Journal of National Cancer Institute.

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In response to the letter that appeared in your Thursday, Sept. 5, issue, I would have to disagree and say drug testing will solve many, but not all, problems. Students in after-school activities do use drugs, and if you think they don't you should take a moment and re-examine your opinion.

It is very stereotypical.

Today, more young children and teenagers use drugs on a regular basis than ever before.

They have easy access, peer pressure that people of older generations have no idea of, and in some cases two working parents, which leaves them an opportunity that may not have existed in the past.

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Conventional wisdom has it that governing bodies do not implement optional policies of questionable value in the absence of a strong consensus that such should be done. Conventional wisdom not withstanding, the Conway school board has, by a closely split vote, implemented suspicionless, random drug testing of students in extracurricular activities.

Such testing was made technically legal by a strongly dissented 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court decision in an Oklahoma case. Even those worthies in the majority, whom the devil would have happily impaneled to hear the matter of Jabez Stone, except that they weren't dead yet, concede that suspicionless, random drug testing would be unconstitutional if applied to students generally.

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As we mark the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it's important to challenge the conventional wisdom that terrorism poses the greatest threat to our lives and liberty. Speaking bluntly -- it doesn't. Yes, terrorists took over 3,000 lives a year ago. And eventually there may be more terrorist attacks, and more innocent lives may be lost. But we need to remind ourselves that far more lives are lost every year due to the misguided policies of our own government. Americans die because government denies them the right to carry a weapon. Americans die because violent felons are released from jail to make room for non-violent drug users serving federally mandated sentences. Americans die because the FDA denies them access to new life-saving medicines. Americans die because they are prevented from using medical marijuana to control the nausea produced by chemotherapy and AIDS medications. And, while would-be terrorists can threaten our lives, they can't threaten our liberty. Only politicians overreacting to the threat of terrorism can accomplish that.

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A few days ago I got a very touching letter from a young man who was in jail in another state. He begins by saying, "I saw your article about drugs and not knowing who your friends are. Someone brought a newspaper into the cell and I found it on the table. Reading about the two young men reminded me that it is not only young, college-age people who get into real trouble because of drugs." He then began to tell me, in a three-page handwritten letter, the most horrible story about events in his life that led to his incarceration and the loss of his family, at least for the time being.

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The Conway School District is doing the right thing in instituting random drug testing, but it is not the only thing that needs to be done.

The random testing among students in grades 7 through 12 involved in extracurricular activities is just one of the many steps that needs to be taken protect young people in the school system.

School board President Dr. Terry Fiddler was correct when he talked about no one being 100 percent right or wrong on this issue. It was obvious that school board members wrestled with what to do, and the decision by each of the seven individuals was not made lightly or without taking into account the thoughts and feelings of patrons and parents.

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'It's a Liability Issue,' Conway Chief Tells County Law Enforcement

Conway's police officers will soon be a buffer bunch, according to Police Chief Randall Aragon.

Aragon told attendees of the regular gathering of the counties police chiefs on Thursday that a new policy requiring police officers to take physical-ability tests will go into effect Sept. 1.

"It's a liability issue," the chief said. In some agencies, "officers who have not been able to help a citizen because of their physical condition have been sued. And officers who have tried to help citizens and got injured have sued the department, so it is a double-edged sword."

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All eyes were on Conway school board Member Gary Greene on Monday evening as he said, "aye," approving the random drug-testing policy 4-3.

Greene, who was in Washington on business when the vote ended in a tie last week, said he received "a bunch" of telephone calls, e-mails and phone messages on the drug-testing issue.

Until then, he was 70 percent sure he would vote against the policy.

"I have been contacted by so many families and individuals the last few days, and to the 'T' just about all of them said, 'Gary, we need this'."

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I recently found a piece of software that some readers may find helpful at election time. It's called Note Wonder and can be downloaded from www.forty.com. It's like a giant note pad that is searchable by any word in the note.

How is this helpful at election time? Simple. You read in the Log Cabin who on the school board voted against a proposed policy that the majority of the parents in the district support, or who on the city council voted with a developer at the expense of most of the residents of Conway, and type a note. For instance you would write, "School drug testing policy -- voted against: Carolyn Lewis, Lena Hancock and Terry Fiddler."

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Let us not be afraid. The Conway school board should not institute random drug testing of students. Innocent children should not be subjected to invasions (especially when they are not proven to be conclusive) in order to help solve problems that may exist in our school.

I don't want to see freedoms disappear, slowly, one by one, because we are afraid. There are alternatives: programs, education, community involvement. Let's work together to help those who need help, and to save the freedoms we have.

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