Pot ticket option, fewer cops lead to lowest narcotic bust numbers in three decades, but special unit arrests up ' considerably'

The war on drugs may not be over in Chicago, but it's in retreat.

In 2015, total drug-related arrests dropped to the lowest level in three decades, a Chicago Sun- Times analysis of city crime data found.

And the rate of drug busts plunged more sharply in the first four months of 2016. Chicago Police are on pace to make 13,000 narcotics arrests by year's end. That would be the smallest annual tally since 1973, two years after President Richard Nixon declared a national war on drugs.

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3 Men Among 58 Nationwide to Get Commutations

WASHINGTON - Three Illinois men who received long federal prison terms for drug crimes will be freed in late summer after their sentences were commuted by President Barack Obama.

The three cases were among 58 commutations the president granted Thursday.

One of the Illinois men is Artrez Nyroby Seymour of Chicago Heights, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2005 for his role in a narcotics conspiracy.

Seymour's term was cut to 20 years in March, and the commutation means he will be freed after serving almost 11 years. Seymour, 36, is in prison in Terre Haute, Ind., and had been set for release in November 2019, records show.

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Illinois lawmakers have a solid shot of passing a law to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana - and of seeing Gov. Bruce Rauner actually sign that legislation.

Lawmakers last year sent Rauner a bill to make possession of up to 15 grams of pot a ticketable - rather than a criminal - offense, but Rauner vetoed it, saying it would allow people to carry too much pot and that stiffer fines than $55 to $125 were warranted.

A new version of that bill, sponsored by Sen. Heather Steans (D-Chicago), picks up language from Rauner's amendatory veto. It would allow possessors of even less marijuana - 10 grams - to face slightly larger fines of $100 to $200.

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Medical marijuana dispensaries would be permitted in a wider swath of downtown Chicago thanks to a zoning change advanced Tuesday at the behest of the City Council's most powerful alderman.

Ald. Edward Burke ( 14th) persuaded the City Council's Zoning Committee to allow dispensaries in the zoning district known as the "downtown core."

Currently, there are four zoning districts in downtown Chicago: residential; mixed-use; service; and the area known as the downtown core. That last category includes office buildings, residential high- rises, stores, theaters and government buildings.

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Burke Teams Up With Donor on Zoning Proposal

Medical marijuana dispensaries would be allowed in the Loop under a change to Chicago zoning regulations pitched by Ald. Ed Burke and a campaign contributor he once helped nearly double his state pension through a one-month sweetheart deal.

Former-state-lawmaker-turned-lobbyist Robert Molaro told the City Council Zoning Committee on Tuesday about the roadblock that pot dispensaries now face: They're technically allowed in some Loop areas, but the potential sites are within 1,000 feet of a school or day-care facility, and that rules them out under state law.

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The Chicago Sun- Times editorial ["Law needs to rein in government seizures," April 19] supporting the reform of Illinois and federal forfeiture laws regarding drugs and suspected drug proceeds was spot- on correct, and former administrator of the U. S. Drug Enforcement Administration Peter Bensinger's contrary opinion was dead wrong. ["Seize cartel assets best way to beat them," letter to the editor, April 22].

As the Chicago Sun- Times editorialized on June 22, 2010, "America's War on Drugs is over - we lost - and it's time to get real about our drug laws."

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SPRINGFIELD (AP) - Medical marijuana in Illinois would be required to carry warning labels about possible side effects under a bill of a Republican lawmaker.

Rep. Dwight Kay, of downstate Edwardsville, said the goal is to treat medical marijuana like other prescription drugs that warn patients about possible adverse effects. His bill, up for a House committee vote Monday, doesn't specify what warnings should be on the products, leaving it to the state health department to decide.

But Kay said he would like to see warnings about how marijuana can cause drowsiness and impaired driving, and that it can affect pregnancies.

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Clinical Trial Shows Reduced Seizures in Children, Possibly Increasing Chances of FDA Approval

A marijuana extract significantly reduced seizures in severely epileptic children, according to a landmark study conducted in part at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago.

Supporters said the results greatly improve the chances for the drug, called Epidiolex, to win eventual approval by federal regulators for prescription use to treat Dravet syndrome, a debilitating type of epilepsy that strikes in early childhood. The drug would be the first derived from the marijuana plant to win such approval.

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But Opposition Fierce From Foes Including Law Enforcement Officials

SPRINGFIELD - Another attempt to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana statewide is again in front of Illinois lawmakers, but as before, the proposal faces strong opposition from law enforcement and anti-pot advocates.

The omnibus bill in the Senate also sets a standard for what's considered too high to drive and automatically purges municipal citation records for possession annually, unless local governments decide against it. Opponents of the legislation dislike both of those provisions, too, saying there should be zero tolerance and that expunging records will make it difficult to determine when someone needs drug treatment.

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There is no problem so bad that government-imposed remedies cannot make it worse, spawn new problems or both. A new confirmation of that phenomenon may be on the way, thanks to new recommendations from an agency intent on curbing the use of opiates.

On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidelines for medical professionals to discourage them from prescribing these medicines to relieve pain. The agency has grounds for concern: Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental death in the United States, with prescription and nonprescription opiates accounting for the biggest share of those fatalities.

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Tim Ryan, a Former Heroin Addict Who Lost His Son to the Drug, Aims to Bring Users into Rehab and Recovery, but Some Question His Methods

Two years after emerging from prison on drug-related charges, Tim Ryan has become a beacon for families scarred by Chicago's heroin crisis.

The brash and salty former corporate headhunter has launched a public crusade to take addicts "from dope to hope" by running recovery groups, performing interventions and handing out advice via Facebook. He claims he ushers hundreds of people a month into rehab, and that he does it with remarkable speed.

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Study Drives Home Need for Substance Counseling Services

More than 90 percent of males and nearly 80 percent of females who went through Cook County's juvenile detention center were diagnosed with drug or alcohol abuse and dependency at some point in their lives from childhood through their 20s and 30s, according to newly released findings from a Northwestern Medicine study.

The study, published Thursday in the American Journal of Public Health, looked at 1,829 youths detained at Cook County's Juvenile Temporary Detention Center between 1995 and 1998 and followed up with them at least nine times over 12 years. According to the findings, by the time the group members reached their late 20s and, for the older participants, their early 30s, more than 9 in 10 males and more than 3 in 4 females were diagnosed with a "substance use disorder," meaning they abused and were dependent on substances ranging from alcohol and marijuana to cocaine and opiates.

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When you create an underground market for anything, you create a profit incentive for people to break the law. Once they do, many of society's laws cease to apply.

As the rest of the country moves toward more sensible criminal justice policies by legalizing marijuana and reducing overly punitive sentences, the Chicago City Council seems headed in the other direction. The Council is considering anti-tobacco legislation that would increases taxes on cigarettes and double fines and impose jail sentences for those avoiding taxes by selling loose cigarettes ( loosies).

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America's epidemic of heroin and prescription-pain-reliever addiction has become a major issue in the 2016 election. The epidemic is worse than ever: Deaths from overdoses of opioids - the drug category that includes heroin and prescription analgesics such as Vicodin - reached an all-time high in 2014, rising 14 percent in a single year. But because drug policy has long been a political and cultural football, myths about opioid addiction abound. Here are some of the most dangerous - and how they do harm.

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I am writing in response to the Feb. 19 article by Dean Olsen, titled "Medical marijuana dispensary opens its doors for first time in Springfield."

Opening up a medical marijuana dispensary in Springfield is yet another step in the right direction to make it more socially acceptable and moving marijuana from the bad drug category into the useful medical category. While the steps are very involved to get accepted into the pilot program with fees and a lot of paperwork, they are very much worth all the effort put forth once accepted. This law will help many people in the state of Illinois who are interested in trying out an alternative method to the constant pills and their side effects.

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The opening of the medical marijuana facility in Springfield is proof positive that our state's political leaders are driven by money, not facts. Marijuana continues to be a dangerous drug that has not been proven to have medicinal effect on more than one or two relatively rare conditions. National medical organizations continue to argue strongly against its use as medicine.

It is certainly heartbreaking that many people experiencing serious pain or other severe symptoms are seeking help from cannabis. The sad truth is that marijuana might very well dull the discomfort, but at what cost? Marijuana, as with all mood altering drugs, offers great front-end promises, but then delivers rear-end tragedy. It would be great if everyone who felt bad, either physically or emotionally could be made to feel good with a drug. Every physician with a conscience knows that, when possible, pain relief needs to result in a productive human being. There is little to suggest that treatment with cannabis will produce such results. The more marijuana is promoted as a cure-all, the fewer contributing members of society there will be.

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The legalization of recreational marijuana in Colorado and the District of Columbia has led to a so-called green rush of prospectors looking to cash in. Can the commercial potential from this newly sanctioned vice revitalize a newspaper industry struggling in the Internet age?

Documentarian Mitch Dickman's "Rolling Papers" follows Ricardo Baca, marijuana editor at the Denver Post since 2013, to find out. Yet despite slick production values, this look at the intersection of two potentially fascinating subcultures - journalists and stoners - yields only halfbaked results.

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As a Certified Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Counselor, I see first-hand how the number of drug overdoses from abusing opioid pain medications is at epidemic levels.

I believe medical cannabis can help.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2014 there were a total of 47,055 drug overdose deaths that occurred in the U.S., more than any other previous year on record. There has never been a documented overdose death from cannabis.

In an October 2014 study in the American Medical Association's Journal of Internal Medicine, researchers conclude that medical cannabis laws are associated with significantly lower state-level opioid overdose rates. States with medical cannabis laws had a 24.8 percent lower average annual overdose rate compared to states without medical cannabis laws.

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Taboos about drugs are lying shattered across the U.S., like broken debris after a party. But even as some states have begun to decriminalize or legalize marijuana, there is an argument that is making some Americans hesitate.

They ask: Aren't many drugs, even pot, much more potent today than they were in the 1960s, when the boomers formed their views on drug use? Hasn't cannabis morphed into super skunk? Aren't people who used legal painkillers like OxyContin and Percocet sliding into heroin addiction - suggesting that legally accessible drugs are a slippery slope toward the abuse of harder drugs?

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Petition Asks for More Illnesses on Approved List

Medical marijuana advocates are mounting a petition drive and social media campaign to convince Gov. Bruce Rauner to greatly expand the program in Illinois - but the governor hasn't yet given any indication he would do so.

The campaign is driven in part by industry officials who fear their businesses won't survive without more than the current 4,000 patients statewide. Joining them are patients with a variety of medical conditions, including chronic pain and common arthritis, who say they need medical marijuana to relieve their symptoms without the side effects of prescription drugs.

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