Says Colleges Should Help Troubled Athletes

TALLAHASSEE - Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher calls marijuana use on college campuses an "epidemic" and believes colleges should create a better support system to help troubled athletes, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

"(Schools must) understand every situation where a kid comes from, what his environment is, what's the atmosphere, what kind of trauma did that young man experience as a kid," Fisher said. "Is alcohol, drugs, those kinds of things constantly in his life from the time he remembers.

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TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State's national championship-contending football program held its annual media day on Sunday, but, sadly, cornerback Greg Reid -- a media favorite, a team leader and one of the Seminoles' best players -- wasn't there.

He should have been.

But he was dismissed from the team last week following a traffic arrest in which he was charged with a misdemeanor when police found a small amount of marijuana in his car. Ironically, if Reid had been arrested for DUI with an open bottle of Jack Daniels in the front seat, he'd probably still be on the team.

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In their latest salvo in the on-going struggle against synthetic marijuana, Pinellas County officials are seeking to ban the sale of bath salts and certain herbal incense products.

The proposed ordinance is an attempt to close the loophole created when Florida banned more than 90 chemicals used in synthetic marijuana. County officials said that by the time those products were off the shelves, drugmakers had already adapted by concocting new, legal cocktails that are as dangerous as their predecessors.

"What we want to do is make sure that we took the opportunity to close those gaps to ensure those things don't come growing back," said Tim Burns, the county's director of Justice and Consumer Services.

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Paso sheriff's candidates Fortney, Nocco and Radford discuss ways to fight drugs in county

Pasco County sheriff's candidate Roger Fortney's solution to fighting drug crime is simple:

Keep close tabs on offenders.

Really close.

"I believe if we worked closer with parole and probation we could convince them to stop committing the crimes or to move out of the county," said Fortney, 59, who worked in road patrol for 23 years at the Pasco County Sheriff's Office before retiring as a corporal in 2009. He is one of three candidates -- along with Maurice Radford, 50, a former major with the Sheriff's Office and current Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco, 36 -- vying for the top spot in the Republican primary Aug. 14. The winner will square off against Democrat Kim Bogart in November.

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I take exception to the letter Thursday from Myra Ivey who writes about young people being addicted to pot. What about people, young or old, being addicted to prescription drugs? Alcohol, anyone?

Think about this: Pot does not seem to have bad side effects like a lot of prescription drugs, unless, of course, it is abused, but that goes for anything else also. Think of all the money that would flow to the local, state and federal coffers if marijuana were legalized.

I'll get off my soapbox, but not before I register my vote to legalize the weed. Remember Prohibition? It never worked, and made some people rich. Why not have a referendum, and see what happens?

Danielle T. Abbott Cocoa

[end]

It isn't a tough sell to persuade South Florida's senior citizens that they ought to give marijuana a try.

That's what struck me this week after attending a "Silver Tour" event at a suburban Delray Beach adult community. The Silver Tour is a presentation orchestrated by Robert Platshorn. He's the 69-year-old West Palm Beach man who is the Florida director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Platshorn, a former marijuana smuggler, makes his living these days promoting the idea that pot should be legal in Florida, or at least available for medicinal use, as it already is in 17 states and the District of Columbia. This past week, he took his presentation to a packed clubhouse meeting room at Vizcaya.

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WEST PALM BEACH - Convicted pot smuggler turned medicinal marijuana advocate Robert Platshorn has lost the first round in his fight with the U.S. Parole Commission.

Pointing out that Platshorn's quest for freedom to speak at such events as Hempfest Seattle, Sacramento Hempfest and Detroit High Times Medical Cannabis Cup seems to conflict with his marijuana-related crimes, U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks said the 70-year-old Golden Lakes Village resident must remain under the supervision of the parole office.

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It's a good thing that our law enforcement agencies are clamping down on the sale of the various kinds of "synthetic marijuana." The stuff is causing great physical and mental harm to many users, especially youths. It is not marijuana but, in fact, a mixture of legal herbs that have been treated with various toxic chemicals. It is definitely a dangerous substance. On the other hand, there are dozens of legitimate medical and scientific studies that have shown natural marijuana is not intrinsically harmful and is not a gateway drug. Most studies have shown that marijuana is beneficial in the treatment of many illness and diseases, both physical and mental.

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The discovery of a face-eating "marijuana monster" in Miami calls for an about-face for all of those calling for legalizing this lethal weed. We are surely in danger of facing an epidemic of cannibalistic potheads any day now. This medical freak case is lead-pipe proof that the reefer madness warnings should have been heeded way back in the 1930s.

Of course, maybe the millions of users and ex-users who wound up eating all the potato chips and ice cream during attacks of the munchies were really thinking - if that is possible under this heinous drug - that they were eating somebody's face or maybe even a dead baby. This kind of thing never happens under the influence of alcohol or any other intoxicant.

This is clear proof that all of those dangerous potheads should be locked up right now. They might make the plot of "Night of the Living Dead" look like child's play.

Leonard Martino

Tampa

[end]

In medicine, we learn, "When what you are doing is not working, do something different." The government, especially the federal government, believes, "When what we are doing is not working, keep doing the same thing (with more money) while expecting different results." By happy coincidence, that is the definition of insanity.

Years ago, Time magazine had a cover story about legalizing drugs, since nothing else worked or would work, and here we are today, mired in the same mess only worse.

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Paul Giavannoni of the Narcotics Unit Quits After Seeing Evidence Against Him

LARGO - The three narcotics deputies who pursued marijuana growers by monitoring a Largo hydroponics store have now all left the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, snared by allegations of trespassing and other misconduct.

Paul Giovannoni, 31, resigned Friday after reading evidence against him collected by the Internal Affairs Division, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri said.

Detective Michael Sciarrino and Sgt. Christopher Taylor, the other members of the grow house team, resigned earlier this week.

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We learn from history that men learn nothing from history. Consider marijuana. Way back in the early 20th century a bunch of do-gooders decided to end the sale and consumption of alcohol. The period at the time became known as prohibition. We know what happened next. For the uninformed, that stupidity lasted about 12 years and gave rise to the gangs that went on to satisfy the thirst that the law could not quench. Sensibly, the law was ended plus the congress realized that alcohol was a source of revenue.

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LAKE WORTH, Fla.-Selma Yeshion, an 83-year-old retiree here, says she long considered marijuana a menace. "I thought it was something that was addictive" and "would lead to harder drugs," she says.

Then she attended a presentation at the local L'Dor Va-Dor synagogue in April put on by a group called the Silver Tour. The group aims to persuade seniors to support legislation to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes in Florida. A series of speakers, including a doctor, a patient and several advocates, argued that pot was just what the silver-haired set needed to combat conditions like chronic pain and insomnia.

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The totally ineffective War on Drugs has made a bad condition even worse, especially for African-Americans. The 40 million drug convictions, since the appointment of the first drug czar in 1971, has disproportionately targeted and imprisoned young black males. It has destroyed the lives of 1 out of every 4 young black men because of felony convictions at an early age.

To market cocaine in the inner cities at an affordable price, drug traffickers developed highly addictive crack cocaine, a rock crystal form of cocaine that can be heated and smoked.

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All Progress in the Reduction of Teen Marijuana Use Has Been Lost

ST. PETERSBURG FL - The 2010 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study released by the Partnership at Drugfree_org and Met Life, demonstrated significant increases in teen marijuana use. The findings showed that teens were significantly more likely to use marijuana in 2010 than they were in 2008. Forty-nine percent reported lifetime trial of marijuana and thirty-nine percent reported past year use. Twenty-five percent reported smoking marijuana in the past month, which translates to over four million 9th- 12th graders smoking marijuana in the past month.

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In response to the federal judge in Miami striking down the random drug testing for state employees, I am baffled. Are there no safeguards to protect the public from impaired public employees?

I have worked for a private company here in DeLand for 16 years and have been randomly tested nine times. With over 2,000 vehicles nationwide, it has been a longstanding policy to ensure that the public is protected from impaired driver-employees. The work environment includes motorized equipment, and fellow workers do not feel at risk by others being impaired. A safe work environment protects the employee and the public in general by helping ensure, to the best of one's ability, that sober and straight employees are interacting with the public in the workplace, and in company vehicles in a responsible manner.

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This is in response to the May 1 letter, "Drug tests make sense." Contrary to the writer's assertion, "common sense" is not a compelling reason to infringe on individual liberties without cause. Furthermore, drug testing without cause (i.e. random or pre-employment drug screening) is a flagrant violation of a person's privacy and, in the case of a government entity conducting such tests, a person's constitutional rights.

The writer attempts to make his case by giving a hypothetical example of a county worker having an accident in a county vehicle while on drugs.

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I'm glad to see a Miami federal judge has declared unconstitutional Gov. Rick Scott's order requiring drug testing for state workers. Scott's costly drug testing policy for Floridians on welfare was also a disaster, and thankfully that too was found unconstitutional and has ended.

In that debacle, according to the figures from the state, 108 of 4,086 workers tested positive (2.6 percent of those tested) and the most common reason was marijuana use. The cost to the taxpayers was $118,140.

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You may have noticed that medical marijuana, or cannabis, has been in the news a lot lately. You could even say it's becoming a mainstream topic. There is no better time for people to examine the overwhelming evidence and begin to accept that marijuana has medicinal value.

Did you know that there's no risk of overdose with cannabis and it has been used as medicine for 5,000 years? It's true.

The facts are clear. Knowledge about the benefits of cannabis is finally spreading.

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Legalization would lead to abuse by an even greater number of youth and adults.

There is a dangerous and growing movement to make the use of cannabis for medical purposes legal in Florida. It seems that every few years the vocal marijuana advocates seek a way to normalize their drug of choice to the rest of us. It appears they somehow forget the terrible human toll exacted by drug abuse.

We have to look no further than our own friends and families, addiction treatment centers, and local hospitals to see the tragic consequences of drugs - a misery that would only be compounded by allowing medical marijuana.

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