When you hear the word "teenager," what does it bring to mind? Alcohol, drugs, disruption and trouble? Or maybe sports, art, good grades and volunteering?

You might be surprised to learn that in Lee County more than 80 percent of our teenagers are found in the second group. That statistic was easy to believe during the Lee County Coalition for a Drug-Free Southwest Florida's Red Ribbon Community Celebration on Oct. 30.

The students recognized during the event decorated their classrooms, developed activities for their schools and produced public service announcements, all with anti-alcohol and anti-drug themes. During the celebration, a student with a 3.66 grade-point average was honored as an outstanding artist, and two students took home the Al Oerter trophy for being outstanding athletes and outstanding citizens. It was an uplifting experience to see all of the students, their families and their teachers at our celebration.

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Statistics show marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in America, with more than half of our young adults between the ages of 19-28 saying they have used it. But today's marijuana is no Woodstock rerun; it's potent and dangerous.

In the 1960s and '70's, the average THC content (THC produces the high and causes physiological problems) in marijuana was approximately 4 percent. The THC level in the hydroponic marijuana grown today in Florida has tested up to 30 percent, and the level continues to rise through plant cloning by growers. This increase in potency has not only increased the dangerous physical effects of the drug, but also the addictive nature of marijuana use. Experts believe that the rate of addiction among daily marijuana users is now higher than that among daily alcohol drinkers.

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In the end, there wasn't a lot to say about her.

Her 14-year-old daughter, who lives with an aunt, is working on a picture to express her feelings.

Her 8-year-old son, who lives with his father, was shocked at the suddenness of her death. He hopes that she is happier in heaven, he tells the crowd gathered under the oak tree on this cold November evening. He cries.

Her mother said the young woman loved her children. She also loved tie-dyed T-shirts, tattoos and music. Her grandmother. Chocolate. And those funny, slip-on, cheap plastic shoes in bright colors.

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Equal justice under the law still remains elusive for 20,000 people serving federal sentences for crack cocaine, despite the U.S. Sentencing Commission's long-awaited reform of federal sentencing guidelines for crack, effective November 1.

These prisoners are currently serving sentences so harsh that they will no longer be imposed on future defendants, but they are ineligible for relief because the new guideline is not yet retroactive.

People serving mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine under the very laws that created the 100:1 sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine are also not affected by the new guideline. Only Congress can change mandatory minimum laws.

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Let me start out by saying I am not against the legalization of marijuana, and I am definitely for smarter drug control policy, I've even written papers on the topic. However, I must ask what was the point of the protest on campus? Does UCF have anything to do with drug policy whatsoever? Or were you all just trying to make us aware of your group? Last time I checked that's the point of tabling at the Student Union.

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The debate on the use of medical marijuana has been written so many times before. It's a battle that will never be won until more research is done.

Right now 12 states have legalized medical marijuana, but Florida is not one of them. The latest state to pass the law is New Mexico this past March and it went into effect on July 1. The state will now register users and give permits to distributors.

That's 12 states down and 38 more to go.

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Re Jim Shultz's Nov. 8 letter Evo Morales negotiated: The letter was a response to Roger Noriega's Nov. 5 Other Views article, No crime, no punishment, on Bolivia. The letter writer says that Bolivian president Evo Morales' first act after losing the elections in 2002 was not to encourage "violent protests but to sit down with the new president for cordial negotiations over the complex coca issue."

This was not the case. As Noriega correctly stated, Morales rose to power after conducting a mob-style movement to topple a democratically elected government using terror tactics.

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Federal Grant AIDS Sheriff's Office In Attacking The Scourge Of Meth That's Destroying Space Coast Families

It's called the "poor man's cocaine" and it's destroying lives and families across the nation, including a rising number along the Space Coast.

It's methamphetamine, or meth, and the Brevard County Sheriff's Office has rightly made busting the homemade labs where it's cooked a top priority.

Determined to stay on the offensive, deputies have something new in their arsenal:

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How Richard Paey's Pain Landed Him in Jail, Made Him Famous -- And Set Him Free

At about 5 in the morning on Friday, Sept. 21, Richard Paey awoke foggy from a long night of deep sleep and instinctively reached for his locker to grab his glasses. Instead, he felt -- what, a lamp? The wood of a bedside table? He noticed his bed. Soft. His wife Linda lay next to him. It was true.

The day before, he had been a prisoner, confined to a stark cell in Tomoka Correctional Institute near Daytona Beach, more than three years into a 25-year sentence for drug trafficking.

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MINNEOLA - A good dog needs a good name.

So when the city recently shelled out $5,500 to acquire a law-enforcement dog straight from the Czech Republic, officials were a little put off by its assigned name: Fatt.

It didn't seem like a good identification for the 2-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, which weighs in at a fit and trim 60 pounds.

That is why City Council members and the Lake County Sheriff's Office now are looking for help from two schools to come up with a new name.

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DELRAY BEACH -- Whitney Tower, 56, a scion of the Whitney, Vanderbilt and Drexel fortunes, squandered his trust fund and sold family treasures to support a $1,000-a-day heroin habit before landing in a tough-love facility near here seven years ago and never leaving.

"If I went back to New York I'd be dead in two weeks," he said.

In some ways Tower, who spent three decades in and out of treatment, remains a creature of his pedigree. He favors foppish linen suits and drops names of the fast crowd he once ran with.

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DELRAY BEACH, Fla. -- Whitney Tower, 56, a scion of the Whitney, Vanderbilt and Drexel fortunes, squandered his trust fund and sold family treasures to support a $1,000-a-day heroin habit before landing in a tough-love facility near here seven years ago and never leaving. "If I went back to New York I'd be dead in two weeks," he said.

In some ways Mr. Tower, who spent three decades in and out of treatment, remains a creature of his pedigree. He favors foppish linen suits and drops names of the fast crowd he once ran with.

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DELRAY BEACH -- An officer fired from the Boca Raton Police Department for steroid use in 2003 was arrested Wednesday and charged with two counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance.

Following the raid of the Linton Boulevard office, a Boca doctor - already facing six counts of the same charges - also was detained.

Anthony Forgione, 43, of Boca Raton was arrested and Dr. Gary Brandwein, who is being investigated for supplying steroids and other drugs to professional wrestlers including the late Chris Benoit, is being questioned as part of "Operation Which Doctor," a nationwide crackdown on anti-aging clinics that police say are prescription mills for steroids.

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The threat of a death sentence once was seen as a deterrent to anyone thinking of killing a police officer.

Not anymore.

"You used to just see a guy turn around and flee before they'd ever take a shot at a cop," said Lt. Mike Wallace, of the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office. "Now there's no hesitation. They don't think twice before shooting at the police.

"We've just been lucky so far in Palm Beach County, luckier than what's happened in Broward or Miami-Dade," said Wallace, commander of the county's sheriff's Violent Crimes Task Force. "But I can tell you we're having more people shoot at us than I've ever seen."

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As if our communities and lives weren't complicated enough, a new threat has been emerging over the last two years. The threat is called "Cheese." Unlike store bought cheese, this cheese can kill you. This cheese is a concoction of Mexican black-tar heroin and nighttime cold medicine. When mixed together, it resembles grated Parmesan cheese.

The most disturbing news is that drug dealers are targeting middle schools. Kids as young as 11 are getting hooked on this snortable high. The double sedative effects of the heroin and nighttime cold medicines make for a deadly brew.

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Brevard Should Use K-9 Dogs For Drug Hunting

The passive dismissal of school security among those tasked to educate our children continues to baffle me.

It astounds me that in today's climate of violence, with very real threats to our way of life, that our security needs are not met with more vigilance.

Take the case of Central Middle School in West Melbourne, which had six bomb threats in one month.

In the first five incidents, the school was evacuated and building searched by a trained bomb-sniffing dog. But the sixth time school administrators, who did not want further "disruptions," chose not to allow law enforcement officers to search the school.

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Is Bill McCollum a complete moron when it comes to the subject of marijuana or just pandering for the holier-than-thou crowd?

The only problem with marijuana is that it is illegal! My guess is the alcohol trade wants to keep it that way to keep the competition out of the drug trade. Yes, I said drug trade because alcohol is a drug and a much worse drug than marijuana is, was or could ever be.

How many calls do the police get for domestic violence, robberies, fights or other crimes that the person is intoxicated on marijuana? How about compared to alcohol?

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Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum just doesn't get it. Indoor marijuana grow operations are a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Legitimate farmers do not steal electricity to grow produce in the basements of rented homes. If legal, growing marijuana would be less profitable then farming tomatoes.

As it stands, the drug war distorts market forces such that an easily grown weed is literally worth its weight in gold. For an objective take on marijuana, look to Canada.

In 2002, the Canadian Senate concluded that marijuana is relatively harmless, marijuana prohibition contributes to organized crime, and law enforcement efforts have little impact on patterns of use.

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Regarding "The Growing Threat Of Marijuana McMansions" (Commentary, Nov. 4):

Bill McCollum almost makes my case. The only thing worse than our current drug laws would be full-scale legalization. The Canadian government already sells medical marijuana at a huge profit. It has a large grow house operation going on underground.

Remember back when "bolita" was illegal? Now, the government runs a state lottery, not to mention liquor and tobacco revenue.

When I was a kid, there was an old man in the neighborhood who made his own wine. He didn't need a large operation to satisfy his needs. If the attorney general proposes to shut down operations that use hydroponic methods because pot is illegal, then he should be in favor of allowing people to grow a couple of plants for their own use.

I am not impressed with the circular argument that "It's bad because it's illegal."

Leonard Martino, Tampa

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WEST PALM BEACH - A construction worker looking to buy drugs was robbed and shot in a troubled city neighborhood on Thursday morning, police said.

Rick C. Smith was taken to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he was treated for a gunshot wound to the right arm, police spokesman Lt. Chuck Reed said. His injury was not life-threatening.

Smith told police he and his three friends were looking to buy marijuana from a man in the 800 block of Ninth Street around 3:30 a.m., Reed said. Smith told police he got out of his car and found himself staring at black revolver, according to a police report.

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