Policies were the hot topic at the Monday night Delphi Community School Corporation Board of Trustees meeting.

A revised attendance policy for the middle school was adopted as well as changes and additions to the corporation-wide bylaws and policies manual.

The new policy manual replaces the existing version.

According to Shelly Wills, secretary to superintendent Ralph Walker, a majority of the manual did not change.

Board member Mike Shoemaker made the motion to approve the document, with a second by Melinda Rossetter. The new corporation policy manual was unanimously approved.

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While Saddened, Official Said Death Is Possibility With Heroin Addicts

PORTAGE -- Officials with the county's new drug court said they were saddened by news that one of their clients was found dead this week of a possible drug overdose.

The death of 25-year-old Jared Back is the first casualty for the nearly nine-month-old program, but is unfortunately the norm for drug courts and heroin addicts in general, Porter County Deputy Prosecutor Adam Burroughs said. The county program has had the unusual experience up until now of not having so much as a positive drug test among participants, he said.

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Nurse Graphically Recounts Tragedies She Has Dealt With

Fifth- and sixth-graders in Gary's Franklin Elementary School listened to a firsthand account of the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

The students gathered in the gymnasium to hear Glenda Brooks, a registered nurse at The Methodist Hospitals in Gary, talk about the many tragedies she has seen due to drug use. She told them about various drugs and answered their questions about drug and alcohol use.

Brooks used graphic details about the aftermath of accidents caused by people abusing drugs and alcohol. Her stories of mutilation and, often, brain damage seemed to strike a chord with her young audience.

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Marijuana users beware.

This product may cause hallucinations or psychotic behavior. Users may also experience periods where they believe they are a god.

Researchers and scientists have been studying the effects of marijuana on the brain for years. Now they are asking themselves a new question.

Can marijuana usage cause psychosis?

Some say yes, some say no, but one Purdue researcher says maybe.

"I'm not an expert in (the cannabis-psychosis link) at all," said Julia Chester, an assistant professor in psychological sciences. "It seems those who have used cannabis or marijuana tend to have more problems with psychosis."

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Red Ribbon Week Inspires Poignant Words From Police Chief

BUCHANAN -- A little over a year ago, a 22-year-old man entered Buchanan Police Chief Bill Marx's office, sat down across from him and admitted it. He was hooked.

"For an addict to come into a police department and sit down and ask for help," Marx said, "that took a lot."

Marx's poignant words hit close to home Friday morning for 10-year-old Jordan York, a Stark Elementary School fifth-grader who's had his share of dealing with a rehabilitating cousin, he said.

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LAPORTE -- At Kesling Middle School Thursday, Red Ribbon Week's anti-drug message came through via the story of a father's loss of his only child to heroin.

Mann Spitler of Valparaiso, who lost his 20-year-old daughter Manda in March 2002, spoke to Kesling students as the highlight of the school's anti-drugs week.

As Spitler wove a tapestry of tragedy, describing his daughter's happy childhood through her devastating final hours, sixth- and eighth-grade students listened in silent awe.

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Last year, Hebron Police Chief Steven Sibbrell decided that bringing the internationally renowned Drug Abuse Resistance Education to the fifth-graders of his town could only benefit the students.

"I noticed a drug problem in Hebron and the surrounding area, and I wanted to get to the kids early and change their minds," he said.

Founded in Los Angeles in 1983, DARE is a weekly course that helps students recognize and resist adolescent pressures that might tempt them to experiment with drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Role-playing situations provide an opportunity to practice decision-making.

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OOLITIC - Dollens Elementary and Oolitic Middle School students got to imagine today.

They imagined what it would be like to have 25 roommates with whom you share a breezy room, where dinner is hot cabbage and peas on a table boasting several views of toilets in use.

It's a twisted visual, but one that speakers Scott Callahan and Reno Bates wanted to make sure students got in their head as a consequence to getting involved with drugs.

Callahan, Lawrence County prosecutor, has been presenting an anti-drug message to students during Red Ribbon Week for the better part of the last 10 years.

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NEW MARKET - Fourth-graders' induction into South Montgomery Just Say No clubs Friday morning was extra special. The ceremony was the first to be scheduled for the new Southmont High School auditorium.

An estimated 125 fourth-graders participated in the annual ceremony. Ladoga fourth-grade teacher Naomi Mingus was happy the children could show their desire to say no to drugs, alcohol and tobacco, and enjoy the inauguration of the new facility.

South Montgomery normally conducts the mass ceremony during Red Ribbon Week, which concluded Friday.

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Young people pledge to remain drug-free in honor of Enrique Camarena, a fallen DEA agent.

This week marks the 21st annual Red Ribbon Week for schools in Allen County and across the United States.

Local schools are participating in all types of fun activities designed to promote saying "no" to drugs. The events range from basketball free-throw shooting contests and a special appearance by Ronald McDonald to a drug-free pledge that will be recited over intercoms after the Pledge of Allegiance.

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28,000 Students Will Participate In Porter County Alone

The message for a rally opening Red Ribbon Week, Porter County's anti-drug school program, wasn't lost on Cynthia Harris. The fourth-grader from Aylesworth Elementary School, who came to the rally with classmates from her Portage school, already is against drug use. A relative recently died of an overdose.

"That showed me a lot about drugs," Cynthia said. "That showed me that I would never use drugs in my life."

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'Ice' Heats Up Amid War Against Indiana-Made Drug

Greenwood police have seized $300,000 of methamphetamine -- a drug that police in Indiana have been fighting hard to eradicate -- in a bust involving a highly addictive and often-imported variety called "ice."

Police say ice, often three times as pure and expensive as its Indiana-made counterpart, typically travels a route that begins in Mexico, crosses the border and then is distributed across the United States.

"They jam our borders with up to a dozen semis at a time, and they know that every one of them can't be checked," said Matt Fillenwarth, investigations commander for Greenwood police. "If four trucks are found loaded with drugs, that means eight more got through."

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MUNCIE -- This year the ribbon in Red Ribbon Week actually will be a bracelet imprinted with the phrase "Believe, Achieve, Succeed -- Drug Free" for students to wear.

"We got a donation this year which enabled us to buy the bracelets," Delaware County Coordinating Council to Prevent Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Executive Director Pat Hart said on Thursday as she busily packed 20,000 bracelets along with activity brochures and contest prizes in boxes to deliver to local schools.

Red Ribbon Week, which will be Monday through Oct. 28, encourages students in grades K-12 to avoid using drugs, alcohol and tobacco. Participating schools will have various activities during the week and local retail outlets will offer discounts or free goods to students wearing the red bracelets.

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PRINCETON - A week of drug awareness, prevention and red ribbons kicked off Monday in Gibson County.

Red Ribbon Week is a week that promotes drug prevention. Hill said he believed this is the 16th year for Red Ribbon Week in Gibson County.

"It sends a positive message to kids that there are other things to do besides that," said Jeff Hill, a deputy with the sheriff's department and Drug Awareness Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) officer.

Hill said the county's drug problem is probably the No. 1 topic of discussion in the county.

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Homestead High School Junior Dylan Currie Was the Winner of the Golden Pen Award for September.

Dylan Currie, 17, whose letter appeared Sept. 29, has been selected as last month's Golden Pen Award winner. In the judgment of the editors, he had the most effective letter to the editor during September.

A junior at Homestead High School, he is involved in student publications, including the school newspaper, the Spartana, and Mirador, the school magazine. He's also involved in student government and has played football. He plans to play lacrosse in the spring.

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Many studies and statistics show that the effects of alcohol are more harmful, both short- and long-term, than those of marijuana. Organizations like Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, or SAFER, are attempting to make marijuana laws comparable to alcohol laws.

Short-term marijuana use is statistically proven to be less harmful to a person than short-term alcohol use. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a person who uses marijuana will experience problems with memory and learning, distorted perception and a loss of coordination. Even though these effects are harmful, they are the same no matter how much marijuana a person uses in a given day.

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I was very pleased to read Thursday's editorial regarding the adoption of a legal limit for marijuana ("State should adopt legal limit for pot," Oct. 5). Carter was right on the money in the late '70s when he said, "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself."

I believe a decriminalization of sorts at Purdue would definitely provide a safer alternative to the normal party festivities of the general Purdue population. More than 50,000 deaths per year are due to excess consumption of alcohol, while marijuana cannot cause death by overdose.

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I agree with "State Should Adopt Legal Limit for Pot," (Oct. 7) legalizing cannabis (kaneh bosm / marijuana). This is a chance for citizens who use or don't use cannabis to help change an ignorant anti-Christian law.

It is a chance for parents and mothers to help protect children from the laws of prohibition and its harms. A chance to guide police toward serving and protecting, rather than maintaining a misguided prohibition. It's a chance for true fiscal conservatives to stop government from unsuccessfully spending additional money to control what people put in their bodies. It is a chance for DARE graduate students who've been lied to to speak out.

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ALBION -- A drug addiction rehabilitation program, know as a drug court, could be part of the Noble County court system by January.

Noble County officials applied to establish a drug court in the spring and are waiting for certification by the Indiana Judicial Center.

A drug court allows court officials to refer people to the multi-step program where accountability to stop using drugs is key. At the beginning of the program, participants meet with a probation officer several times a week and typically appear before a judge once a week to track their progress.

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The 12-year old sitting next to your son may be the 1 of 10 middle schoolers who already has tried alcohol. By 10th grade, half of 15-year-olds have experimented with alcohol and may be encouraging your child to use it, too. Our roads are unsafe, with an estimated 3 million youths aged 12 to 20 driving under the influence of alcohol each year.

Drugs are another problem. Of the adults who used marijuana for several years, a few said they started before turning 12, and more than half report using marijuana for the first time between the ages of 12 to 17, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the lead Federal agency for improving the quality and availability of substance abuse prevention, addiction treatment, and mental health services in the Unites States.

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