I'm writing about Pat Jones' outstanding letter: "Troops need to be brought home ASAP" (6/02/07).

Our so-called drug war and our war and occupation of Iraq are very similar. Both were started with lies and under false pretenses.

The war in Iraq is over. We won. What we have now is an occupation of Iraq. Occupations cannot be won. Who is going to surrender and sign the peace treaty?

The so-called war on drugs cannot be won. Who is going to surrender and sign the peace treaty? The war on drugs is an occupation, a career, an industry and huge bureaucracy. The goal of the drug war is not to win, but rather to continue and expand.

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CABOT, Ark - A former small-town police chief and his wife were sentenced to long prison terms Tuesday for running a criminal organization dealing in drugs and jewelry. Prosecutors portrayed former Lonoke Chief Jay Campbell as running his department as a king and ignoring claims that his wife, Kelly, was having a sexual relationship with an inmate.

Special Circuit Judge John Cole followed jury recommendations and sentenced the former chief to 40 years in prison, Kelly Campbell was sentenced to 20 years.

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Ark. -- Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said Thursday that the violence in northern Mexico shows the government's campaign against drug trafficking in his nation is working, but cautioned the United States must play a role in the fight.

Fox, who was visiting Arkansas to give an address at Harding University and to visit the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, said he applauded successor Felipe Calderon's use of army troops and federal police in drug-ravaged regions and extradition of cartel leaders to the United States.

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U.S. Rep. Marion Berry, the Democrat representing Arkansas' First District, discussed issues as varied as law enforcement and access to water with about 20 local officials and residents in a forum Tuesday morning at the Baxter County Courthouse.

Baxter County Sheriff John Montgomery told Berry he appreciated the congressman's effort to increase funding to law enforcement through Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants and Byrne grants.

Law-enforcement grant funding had been cut by the previous Legislature, especially Byrne grants, which go toward anti-drug efforts.

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ASH FLAT -- The Sharp County Quorum Court voted Monday to join a class action lawsuit against a pair of pharmaceutical giants and some distributors of ephedrine and pseudoephedrine.

The vote was 8-0 with one justice absent.

The purpose of the lawsuit, filed in circuit court by Independence County last month, is to recoup damages that counties have incurred while combating methamphetamine use and addiction.

The suit contends that ephedrine and pseudoephedrine are the only ingredients that makers of the illegal drug methamphetamine cannot make on their own but must obtain from over the counter drugs.

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The president of the UA chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws spoke to the student senate on behalf of a resolution designed to better define the UA policy for punishing students who have abused alcohol or marijuana.

Jordan Dickerson, president of NORML, came prepared to the Associated Student Government Senate session Tuesday. Armed with a binder of articles, charts and graphs, he succinctly answered questions with facts and statistics in a straightforward manner.

"We believe that marijuana is safer than alcohol, and it should be treated as such," he said. "Marijuana has not been responsible for one death in recorded history." The same cannot be said for alcohol, according to the resolution. The Centers for Disease Control reported 20,067 alcohol-induced deaths in 2003.

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I'm writing about: "Sheriff Presents 'Plan B' For Jail" (The Morning News, March 8, 2007).

I have a common-sense, easy and inexpensive solution to your jail overcrowding situation.

Reserve your jail space for only those who intentionally harm others against their will. Not gardeners. Not people who use, produce or sell to willing buyers "unapproved" products.

Re-legalize the now illegal unapproved products so they can be sold in legal, licensed, regulated and taxed business establishments. Just like we do for the unapproved products tobacco and alcohol.

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Independence County is taking a bold legal step.

The county is suing a pair of pharmaceutical giants as well as some other distributors and makers of products containing ephedrine and psuedoephedrine, both of which are used in the production of methamphetamine. The purpose of the suit, which was filed in circuit court Wednesday afternoon, is to recoup damages that the county has incurred while combating meth use and addiction.

"Well we all know what a horrendous problem this is," Independence County Judge Bill Hicks said. "We've fought it for many years and something needs to be done."

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A UA NORML resolution, sponsored by two ASG senators, supporting a more lenient enforcement of marijuana laws on campus has been put on hold because of a negative response from UA Administration.

"What this [bill] would in fact do is raise the level of alcohol punishment to that of marijuana," said Megan Bright, an ASG senator sponsoring the resolution. "If it passes in ASG, it will not do what they want it to do."

Bright met with Dayna Wolek, ASG advisor, and NORML representatives Charles Mcclure and Chris Carter yesterday afternoon to discuss the UA Adminstration's response to the possibility of the resolution passing in ASG.

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At a particularly dismal moment in Martin Scorsese's "The Departed," a disgusted undercover cop mutters, "It's a nation of rats." Not quite. But the film and the recent flap in the Northeast over t-shirts that demand "Stop Snitchin' " are calling attention to a part of the legal system that critics say has gotten out of control.

While it's impossible to get accurate counts due to the inherent secrecy of the practice, moderate estimates place the number of informants working for police agencies in the U.S. in the hundreds of thousands.

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Trumann Chief of Police Larry Blagg was recently invited to take part in a panel discussion geared towards the production and use of meth sponsored by the Criminal Justice Institure of the University of Arkansas systems in Little Rock.

Chief Blagg was one of eight panel members.Panel members were made up of sheriffs, chiefs and assistant chiefs. The group discussed new curriculum for classes the CJI will sponsor statewide for law enforcement officers.

One topic the group discussed was how the production of meth is down in Arkansas due to new laws regarding the sale of certain items used in the production of meth, but that the import of meth is greater. They spoke about ice, a new form of crystal meth, and the need to concentrate on routes and directions used to bring the drug into Arkansas.

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Milton Friedman, arguably the best known and most influential free-market economist in the world for the last 40 years, died last week at age 94. Friedman advised presidents, prime ministers and helped foreign countries set up market economies. But more important to the everyday American, he was a major popularizer of the moral and practical benefits of freedom and capitalism. On March 26, 2001 -- as the dot-com crash continued, the country's economy was slowing and President Bush was planning a major tax cut -- I talked to Friedman by telephone from his home in San Francisco:

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A group that persuaded Eureka Springs voters to pass a pro-marijuana initiative plans to continue its efforts by proposing a similar ordinance in at least one other town, a spokesman said.

The ordinance, which passed in Tuesday's general election, makes arrests and prosecution of adults for misdemeanor marijuana possession of an ounce or less and paraphernalia possession, a low law-enforcement priority.

In September, Fayetteville NORML collected 156 petition signatures in Eureka Springs, a dozen more than needed to put the question to voters.

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Having an Ounce or Less Would Be Akin to a Traffic Violation

EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. Here in the heart of the Bible Belt, where local laws often restrict the sale of liquor, grassroots campaigns to decriminalize marijuana have gone nowhere.

But to the surprise of enthusiasts across the state, residents in the small tourist town of Eureka Springs will vote Nov. 7 on whether to make misdemeanor marijuana arrests the city's lowest law-enforcement priority.

Local leaders of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the group that collected the signatures needed to get the initiative on the ballot, hardly can believe their day has come.

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BENTONVILLE -- People must make decisions every day about what they do and who they spend time with, Joe Falcon told students Friday at Spring Hill Middle School.

Falcon is a corporal with the Bentonville Police Department and a Bentonville Board of Education member. He shared perspectives from both entities about how important it is to keep students away from drugs. His talk closed a week of drug awareness throughout the country called Red Ribbon Week.

" Every day you have to make choices about who you're with, " Falcon said of spending time with people who might do drugs or drink alcohol. " Don't put yourself in a situation where you suffer repercussions for their poor choices. "

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Teachers, Counselors Use Games, Programs, Prizes To Help Get The Drug-Free Message Across

For the state-wide Red Ribbon Week, a program designed to prevent or stop drug and alcohol abuse among students, schools in the Russellville School District acknowledged the week in a variety of ways.

Although it is not tied to the state Red Ribbon Week, the secondary school's Alcohol Reduction Grant from the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the United States Department of Education provides funding to promote drug-free activities all year, according to Jenny Barber, federal programs coordinator at the district.

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University of Arkansas football coach Houston Nutt told area fifth-graders on Thursday that the secret to success is to stay drug free.

" As you get older, there's going to be more temptation, " Nutt said. " One day, someone's going to ask you to ' drink this' or ' smoke this' or ' take this pill' because it will make you feel better. Well, I'm here to tell you that's a lie. "

Nutt was one of three speakers during the 10 th annual Red Ribbon Rally at Bud Walton Arena.

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Rhetoric was high but attendance was low Saturday morning during a candidate forum sponsored by the White County Farm Bureau. Only 50 were in attendance, including Asa Hutchinson, the Republican candidate for governor, and Andy Mayberry, the Republican candidate for the third Congressional district. Ginger Beebe represented her husband, Mike Beebe, the Democratic candidate for governor, while Ed Fry represented Congressman Vic Snyder, the Democratic incumbent.

Stanley Hill with the Farm Bureau spoke for Preferred Question One, saying the investment of $250 in Arkansas' higher education was necessary. The states of Mississippi and Tennessee have invested $600 million and $1 billion respectively in recent years, Hill said.

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COTTER -- Cotter Police Chief Joe Robison resigned Tuesday, Mayor Mo Mosley said.

"It was more than he was willing to contend with," Mosley said.

Mosley asked Robison to take a drug test; and after Robison consulted with his attorney, he declined to take the drug test and resigned, Mosley said.

Robison could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Mosley, who was contacted after business hours, said The Baxter Bulletin could receive a copy of the resignation letter Wednesday.

Robison was hired as Cotter police chief April 17.

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In a few weeks, Eureka Springs voters will have an opportunity to make an important statement. While some believe voting to make enforcement of marijuana laws in the city a low priority is pointless because state and federal laws trump city ordinances, the point is to make a long overdue point. The point of voting for this measure is to announce to the world that the people are wise to the hoax of this war on marijuana, and that they are no longer going to sit by quietly and allow the government to squander resources and ruin lives for no actual purpose.

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