Editor:

Response to: "Government could collect tax dollars on legalized marijuana" (Roundup -- July 24'07)

I must respond to the ridiculous aspect of taxes on the letter recently submitted on marijuana and taxes.

There are still long-term tests being done on marijuana and the active ingredient THC to determine what long-term use might mean to the average user.

The experience with thalidomide and other potentially "harmless" drugs should not be taken lightly. It is for the consumer's protection that all drugs are considered guilty until proven innocent. It would be absurd to study a drug in any other context.

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How wonderful to have a secular progressive, Kirk Muse of Mesa, passing his propaganda on legalizing drugs in our Tucson newspaper ("Legalized weed would bring, not burn, bucks," July 17 letter).

Nancy DILorenzo

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Editor:

I'm writing about Max Foster's story: "1,656 marijuana plants found in raid" (July 7). The marijuana destroyed will soon be replaced -- it always is. If any marijuana growers are arrested, they will also soon be replaced -- they always are.

Are we supposed to be surprised that when government policy makes an easy-to-grow weed almost as valuable as pure gold, that lots of people will take advantage of the situation?

If marijuana were re-legalized, our government could collect billions of dollars in taxes, instead of throwing billions of dollars down the drain in our futile attempt to nullify the law of supply and demand.

Kirk Muse,

Mesa

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The Gila County Narcotics Task Force is turning up the heat on those who illegally grow and harvest marijuana in Arizona's national forests.

Last year, more than 104,000 pounds of pot with a street value of $52,307,205 were collected during raids in area national forests.

The task force's most recent battle was waged July 12, north of Highway 260 near Preacher's Canyon, where agents raided an illegal garden.

There, they eradicated 1,656 marijuana plants, but did not apprehend the two tenders, believed to be Mexican nationals.

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Are we supposed to be surprised that when government makes an easy-to-grow weed almost as valuable as gold, lots of people will take advantage?

If marijuana were legal, our government could collect billions in taxes instead of throwing billions away in a futile attempt to nullify the law of supply and demand.

Kirk Muse

Mesa

[end]

WASHINGTON - News that Al Gore's 24-year-old son, Al Gore III, was busted for pot and assorted prescription pills has unleashed a torrent of mirth in certain quarters.

Gore-phobes on the Internet apparently view the son's arrest and incarceration as comeuppance for the father's shortcomings. Especially rich was the fact that young Al was driving a Toyota Prius when he was pulled over for going 100 mph - just as Papa Gore was set to preside over concerts during a 24-hour, seven-continent Live Earth celebration to raise awareness about global warming.

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Study: Community Ties Can Reduce Recidivism

If one of the goals of the criminal justice system is to keep ex-convicts from returning to prison, alienating them from society is a bad way to go about it.

One of the keys to reducing recidivism is strengthening their ties to the community, studies show.

Yet one of the most intimate connections people can have with their community - the right to vote - is denied an estimated 18,000 ex-convicts released from prison and probation each year in Arizona.

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A recent Supreme Court ruling has hindered freedom of speech for high school students. Will it have an effect on the UA?

With the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding the suspension of a high school senior in Alaska in 2002 for posting a banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus," the message has been delivered: Freedom of speech goes only so far for students.

But there are different rules that apply to high school students that do not apply to students at colleges and universities, said Diane Newman, UA Mall coordinator, and therefore freedom of speech on this campus should not change.

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There are few areas where I think common sense is more sorely lacking than in our public debates over free speech, and there's no better proof than two recent Supreme Court decisions.

But before we go there, let me state plainly where I'm coming from. First and foremost: The more overtly political the speech is, the more protected it must be. The First Amendment was not intended to protect pornographers, strippers or the subsidies of avant-garde artistes who think the state should help defray the costs of homoerotica and sacrilegious art. This isn't to say that "artistic" expression doesn't deserve some protection, but come on. Our free-speech rights were enshrined in the Constitution to guarantee private citizens -- rich and poor alike -- the right to criticize government without fear of retribution.

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In January 2002, in Juneau, Alaska, Joseph Frederick had the sort of idea that makes a teenager seem like one of nature's mistakes. Last week, after five years and the attention of 13 federal judges, Frederick became a footnote in constitutional history.

His case illustrated how the multiplication and extension of rights lead to the proliferation of litigation. It also illustrated how nine justices can civilly come to strikingly different conclusions about undisputed facts.

This story actually began in 1965, in Des Moines, Iowa, when three teenagers wore black armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War. Their school said the bands or the students must go. The students kept the bands, were suspended, sued and won a 7-2 Supreme Court victory in 1969. The court said that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

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Drugs and gangs. Gangs and drugs. They seem to go hand-in-hand.

From 1920 to 1933 alcohol and gangs went hand-in-hand. Back then alcohol was completely un-regulated, un-taxed and controlled by criminal gangs--just like meth and other recreational drugs are today.

If meth were legally available in local pharmacies for pennies per dose, would criminals gangs be involved with meth? No. Would meth users be constantly seeking new meth users to pay for their habit? No.

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U.S. Senate Ponders Big Changes As Drug Trafficking Keeps Surging In The Region

TUCSON, Ariz. -- For more than 50 years, the governments of Arizona and its Mexican neighboring state, Sonora, have gathered regularly to strike agreements, pledge cooperation and bask in border bonhomie.

But meeting here during two days, as border violence and drug trafficking have swelled and the U.S. Senate considers the most significant changes to immigration law in 20 years, a deep sense of urgency, even anxiety, hung over the proceedings.

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I'm writing about your thoughtful editorial Wednesday ("Violence from south a threat").

There is a simple and easy way to eliminate the vast majority of the violence in Mexico and the United States. U.S. and Mexico need to re-legalize all of our now illegal drugs so they can be sold in licensed, regulated and taxed business establishments for pennies per dose.

Will this solve our drug problems? No. However, it will dramatically reduce our crime rates and increase public safety.

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No More Bodies Found After Six In June's First Week

The discovery of bodies of illegal border crossers came to a temporary halt over the weekend for U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson Sector but the drug seizures continued.

Between June 1 and June 6, agents found six bodies in the desert west of Tucson. Since then, they have found none, said Richard DeWitt, Border Patrol Tucson Sector spokesman. Through May, the number of known border deaths -- 88 -- were nearly on pace with the 90 known deaths at the same time last year.

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Deadly shootouts between drug cartels and law enforcement have become all too common just south of our border with Mexico.

Last month, about 50 gunmen came to Cananea, Son., and killed seven people, including five police officers, before authorities chased them and killed 16.

Some Mexican violence has spilled across the border, giving southern Arizonans every reason to be fearful.

The volatile situation underscores the need for stronger border enforcement by way of both manpower and increased high-tech security devices. The immigration reform bill now stalled in the Senate would add thousands of border agents, hundreds of miles of vehicle barriers and fencing, and more camera towers.

As Arizona continues to bear the brunt of illegal immigration, we urge Congress to act.

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After Iraq, the most dangerous place in the world for news reporters last year was Mexico, according to the watchdog group Reporters Without Borders.

And among the most dangerous places in Mexico for reporters? Mexican cities and towns flush up against the Arizona border.

Several weeks ago, we threw a spotlight on the dangers facing Mexican authorities as they battle the increasingly violent and increasingly well-armed drug cartels in their midst. But the war does not end with those in uniform.

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Gov. Janet Napolitano Jun. 10, 2007 12:00 AM Meth is everywhere and affects every part of every Arizona community: law enforcement, schools, health care providers and businesses.

Statistics make the problem clear:

Over the past decade, more Arizonans have sought treatment for addiction to meth-related substances than for any other illicit drug. advertisement

Treatment admissions for methamphetamine-related drugs have increased 253 percent from 2002 to 2005.

According to the 2006 Arizona Youth Survey, more than 3,000 Arizona middle- and high-school students reported using meth at least once in the 30 days prior to being surveyed.

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SIERRA VISTA - Last summer, Cochise County Sheriff Larry Dever estimated 80 percent of all non-drug related criminal cases prosecuted locally were directly related to methamphetamine use.

Sierra Vista police Chief Ken Kimmel correlated increases in city property crime to the proliferation of meth.

Cochise County Attorney Ed Rheinheimer's best description of a meth user is of a malevolent zombie one sees in the movies, their former personalities decimated by the cycle of addiction.

Criminal justice and health and social services professionals remain grim in reflection that a full recovery from meth addiction is unlikely, said Troy Siler, Sierra Vista Regional Health Center manager of emergency services. About 10 people a week visit the hospital expressing some desire to kick a meth or cocaine addiction, Siler said.

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Officers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection probed a load of tomatoes and found $9.9 million worth of marijuana Saturday wrapped 267 bales inside a tractor-trailer.

The pot topped 6,000 pounds, the largest seizure of its kind at the Nogales border. That quantity is enough to supply every man, woman and child in Santa Cruz County with more than two ounces, or up to 240 cigarettes of the illicit weed.

Here's The Deal

Brian Levin, an agency spokesman, gave the following account:

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Back in the golden age of baseball, a time that existed mostly between my ears, I marveled at how Pete Rose ran to first base after a walk.

Now I wonder if it was the amphetamines that made Charlie Hustle, the drugs he admitted taking during a career played well above the speed limit.

Welcome to the icky, sticky era of enlightenment in Major League Baseball, where skeletons are flying out of closets, truths are leaking out of syringes and a married baseball player and his female companion just got outed on the cover of a New York newspaper. And in this wrecking-ball reality, the weirdest thing has happened on the field of dreams inside my head:

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