Public Schools Will Get 50,000 Ribbons To Hand Out

OCALA - Drug use among Marion County teens has been on a steady decline the last decade and area anti-drug campaign officials say the reason is the emergence of more state and local education agencies that target youth.

Since 1996, the number of children under the age of 18 who have tried alcohol at least once has decreased by one-third, from 70 percent to 54.6 percent last year. During the same period, marijuana use declined by 30 percent and cigarette smoking by 33 percent. Since 2000, kids using hard drugs has dropped by 29 percent.

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Pilots from the Department of State Air Wing, headquartered here, sprayed 169,987 hectares of coca plantations last year in Colombia.

That and other drug eradication efforts by the unit brought the nation's drug czar to the base today to thank the men and women who are at the forefront of the war on drugs.

John Walter, director of National Drug Control Policy, spoke today before more than 100 government employees and contractors in a hanger at the base.

"I came here to do something we don't do enough of, and that is to express our gratitude for the work that you do," Walters said. "The work that you do is unique in the government. We only send you to do these things in the worst possible places in the world."

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BRADENTON -- Cocaine contaminated with dangerous levels of ammonia sickened a crime-scene technician and drew the Manatee County hazardous materials team to the police department Friday.

The chain of events started Thursday, when the cocaine was confiscated and the technician handled the drug as evidence.

Later that evening, the technician went to the hospital with respiratory problems and severe irritation on his arms and neck, according to Bradenton Police Maj. Bill Tokajer.

The Bradenton Police Department's evidence room was ventilated overnight. When firefighters encountered the cocaine the next day, some had burning throats, police said.

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Prosecutors Should Ask For Reversal Of Penalty

Pedro Zapeta managed to accomplish what many Americans have yet to master: Saving money. Now he is appealing a federal judge's ruling that unjustly took away most of his nest egg. Returning Mr. Zapeta's money would be morally right and correct a serious miscarriage of justice.

How did a humble Guatemalan without legal status manage to accumulate more than $59,000 in 10 years here? He did it the hard way, doing the kind of work that many U.S. residents won't do. Mr. Zapeta worked sweaty, low-wage jobs, mostly as a dishwasher for Stuart restaurants, and as a gardener in his "time off." He lived frugally, scrimping for the day he would have enough savings to return home, start a business and build a house for his family. When that day arrived, he bought a plane ticket and stuffed his fortune in a black duffel bag.

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Why this guy?

And why this case?

"Don't you have anything else to write about?"

That was the first response from the federal prosecutor last year when I asked him about Pedro Zapeta. Government officials have been responding that way since - to reporters, to lawyers, to people who have called their offices.

"Why are you interested in this guy?"

Mr. Zapeta, you recall, is the 39-year-old dishwasher, the illegal immigrant from Guatemala who is going mano a mano with the U.S. government. In theory, this should be one of the great mismatches of all times. Mr. Zapeta is a barely literate Mayan, who grew up speaking Quiche in a dirt-floor hut in some village called Totonicapa that even Totonicapans would have trouble locating on a map.

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There is a huge problem in this country that is just starting to get the attention it deserves: the addiction to Oxycontin and the doctors who are writing these prescriptions for profit and kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies.

Some doctors are going to jail, as they should.

If they don't know that getting off this drug is harder than getting off heroin, they either don't care because of the profits or they are blind to addiction.

Being clean and sober for 18 years and as the assistant director of a halfway house, as well as being involved in drug court, I see this drug addiction growing each year.

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Through all his years in politics, despite the endless obligation to shake hands, smile for the cameras and coax money out of contributors, John McCain has somehow avoided becoming a complete phony - something that John Edwards and Mitt Romney managed to achieve within a week of entering politics. Annoy McCain, and you won't have to wait long to find out.

Even a sickly, soft-spoken woman in a wheelchair gets no pass from him. The other day, at a meeting with voters in New Hampshire, Linda Macia mentioned her use of medical marijuana and politely asked his position on permitting it. Barely were the words out of her mouth before the Arizona senator spun on his heel, stalked away and heaped scorn on the idea.

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Regarding Robyn Chaky's op-ed "Pot's potential" (Sept. 23), while there have been studies showing that marijuana can shrink cancerous tumors, medical marijuana is essentially a palliative drug.

If a doctor recommends marijuana to a cancer patient undergoing chemotherapy and it helps them feel better, then it's working. In the end, medical marijuana is a quality of life issue best left to patients and their doctors.

Federal bureaucrats waging war on noncorporate drugs contend that organic marijuana is not an effective health intervention. The federal government's prescribed intervention for medical marijuana patients is handcuffs, jail cells and criminal records. This heavy-handed approach suggests that drug warriors are not well suited to dictate health care decisions.

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The U.S. Supreme Court Considers Sentencing Guidelines

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court, sentencing guidelines are back in the news. It may not resonate with the public like the Iraq war, the 2008 presidential campaign, or even Britney Spears' child custody battle, but the subject is important nevertheless.

Should a federal judge use discretion in imposing a penalty or do pre-set sentencing guidelines eliminate any judicial leeway? The question is an important one as the disparity in the guidelines undermines the fundamental fairness that underlies the nation's criminal justice system.

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BOCA RATON - The Caron Foundation of Florida has sent letters to Palm Beach County commissioners asking them to approve a $9.5 million tax-exempt bond that would be used in part to build a treatment facility.

Commissioners are scheduled to vote Tuesday on whether the nonprofit foundation, with treatment centers for alcohol and drug addiction, gets the bond.

The request had passed two meetings before Commissioner Mary McCarty decided to call for its denial at a meeting this month.

"Delray Beach and Boca Raton have become the national gathering place for drug rehab and sober houses," McCarty said, noting that she's tired of it. They are luring people all over the country. These are people with serious addiction issues, and again, when these people fall off the wagon it's the local governments who have to deal with the problem."

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If Sarasota County Commissioner Shannon Staub has her way, anyone convicted of a drug-or alcohol-related infraction may soon pay an extra fine, which would go into programs designed to address those problems.

Staub said the fine -- mandated in a new ordinance -- would be very useful in this time of countywide budget cuts.

"A large percentage of our convictions come from alcohol- and drug-related infractions, such as DUI and so on," Staub said. "This fee would come on top of what they would have to pay, serving as another source of income to programs that would provide treatment, such as First Step of Sarasota."

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Started With Holiday Traffic Accident

It began as a routine traffic accident story in The News-Press. One dead, three injured on Fourth of July weekend, 1998.

The story probably would have ended there if I'd missed a call a couple of days later.

It was my retired cop friend. He said we needed to dig deep on the accident. Otherwise, he said, everything would be covered up.

What we found and exposed over the next few weeks convinced three members of Congress to ask for an investigation, forced changes in federal and Hendry County drug enforcement policy and cost a U.S. Drug Enforcement agent his job in Fort Myers.

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When my stepdaughter was 13 she tested positive for drugs after being picked up for shoplifting. The judge slapped her hand and sent her back home, back to the streets where she gotten them from in the first place, with a warning. At 16 she was in trouble again, tested positive again for meth and, although we begged the judge to take her off the streets, even went down and signed a Marchman Act, the judge laughed and sentenced her to house arrest. She disappeared as soon as she could.

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Caron Foundation Won't Receive Tax-Exempt Bonds

With Web sites decorated with images of sunsets at the beach, sea gulls and big ocean waves, at least 40 substance-abuse treatment centers in south Palm Beach County attract thousands from around the globe for help with their addictions.

Now, some local officials say the drug and alcohol abuse treatments are an economic enterprise that the community doesn't desire.

On Tuesday, after hearing Delray Beach Mayor Rita Ellis complain that clients at many treatment centers have become a burden on local law enforcement, Palm Beach County commissioners rejected one center's request for financial help.

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The mental devastation leaves users paranoid and delusional. The physical toll ages users decades, leaving dark circles under the eyes and sagging skin on the face. A user can literally blow holes in the nose by snorting this wicked stuff day after day.

We've witnessed the havoc methamphetamine can leave on a community. The idiots operating meth labs have touched off explosions that destroy rental homes - and possibly one or two next door. Infants have been found crawling in these labs among dangerous chemicals and toxic fumes. Hazardous waste teams, all wrapped up in hazmat suits, have to clean up abandoned labs, but some houses still get torn down due to contamination. Meth makers have even resorted to rolling labs in the back of cargo trucks. Robberies and theft skyrocket as those desperate for a fix grab whatever they can sell.

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Police Face Many Dangers As Arrests Go Wrong, They Say

GREENACRES - An ex-convict, already arrested 15 times, is headed back to jail for allegedly striking a deputy with his car after a drug sting.

Deputies stormed Thomas Burgess' car after he sold $200 worth of crack cocaine to an undercover agent Sept. 19 in the parking lot of Paul's Motel, on Lake Worth Road, the Sheriff's Office said.

Burgess, 22, screamed a curse, put his 2008 Kia in reverse and stepped on the gas, investigators said.

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Regarding "Change Florida's Draconian Drug Trafficking Statute" (Other Views, Sept 26):

Florida legislators all should read Robert Batey's op-ed. He acknowledged the difficulty in fixing Florida antidrug law. So he proposed a compromise: Remove legal opiates from the section that mandates minimum sentences.

Florida antidrug law now mandates minimum sentences for all but the most trivial offenses. The worst effect of such law is to shift courtroom power from the judge and jury to the prosecutor, who preordains the sentence according to the charges he brings. It is especially dicey if the key evidence is testimony by witnesses under the thumb of the prosecutor.

Batey's proposal is not a perfect solution but would lessen prosecutorial abuses against legitimate pain patients and their doctors. Let judges decide those sentences. Surely every judge in Florida knows the difference between trafficking and pain treatment.

John Chase, Palm Harbor

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DAYTONA BEACH -- A 38-year-old woman was found Thursday night hanged in her jail cell, the victim of an apparent suicide, officials said Friday.

Muriel Comeau tied a shoestring to the top bunk of her cell at the Volusia County Correctional Facility and hanged herself in what is the jail's first suicide in almost six years, authorities said. Efforts to resuscitate her failed and she was pronounced dead at 10:45 p.m.

The Ormond Beach woman was arrested Wednesday, charged with possession of crack cocaine. The jail's mental-health staff judged her demeanor as normal.

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Manatee's Samoset Community Gets Improvement Plan

MANATEE COUNTY -- Virginia Facundo's predawn walk to work takes her a mere three blocks through Samoset, a mostly residential neighborhood. Yet that walk is more dangerous than it sounds.

Crime is a problem here, but the streets themselves are the more immediate hazard. They are unlighted and too narrow for two-way traffic. Instead of sidewalks, they are lined by deep ditches often filled with standing water. Drivers seem oblivious and regularly zoom by.

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The recent release of Richard Paey by Florida's Clemency Board - the governor, chief financial officer, agriculture commissioner and attorney general - is a cause for rejoicing.

Paey, a chronic pain patient, had been sentenced to 25 years in prison for "trafficking" in pain medication, even though there was never any evidence that he sold or even gave his drugs to any other human being.

Paey's 25-year mandatory minimum - the sentencing judge had no discretion - was triggered simply by the fact that he was found in possession of more than 28 grams of pain medication (about an ounce) without a valid prescription. The Clemency Board overturned this ludicrous sentence.

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