To the editor:

The Supreme Court should take a cue from the nonsensical banner that inspired their decision to limit free speech. It might do them some good to take a few bong hits for Jesus. Before sacrificing more civil liberties at the altar of the drug war,they should ask themselves, what would Jesus do? Would Jesus persecute, incarcerate and deny forgiveness to nonviolent drug offenders? Zero tolerance is decidedly un-Christian.

Morally, the drug war is wrong. On a practical level, the drug war is an abject failure. There were 786,545 marijuana arrests in 2005, the vast majority for simple possession. America is one of the few Western countries that punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis, yet lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country.

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Before we sacrifice any more civil liberties at the altar of the drug war, the members of the Supreme Court should take a cue from the nonsensical banner that inspired their recent decision limiting student free speech ("Bong Hits 4 Jesus") and ask themselves, what would Jesus do ("Whose free speech? Low point for high jinks," editorial, June 27)? Would Jesus persecute, incarcerate and deny forgiveness to nonviolent drug offenders? Zero tolerance is a decidedly un-Christian policy. Morally, the drug war is wrong. On a practical level, the drug war is a complete failure.

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Happy Independence Day, your independence is dead.

The Supreme Court killed it this week with a decision that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that dressing in dark robes brings about empty thoughts and silly decisions.

In the winter of 2002 Joseph Frederick, a high school student with a quick wit and sense of humor unfurled a homemade sign as the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau Alaska en route to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The sign said "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" a message Frederick said he first saw on a snowboard and which to him was a way to proclaim his right to spout nothing but nonsense or gibberish if he so desired.

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If the issue of student free speech were not so serious, the U.S. Supreme Court's unfortunate decision in the case of a high school senior who held up a provocative banner - for which he was suspended by school authorities - could almost be chalked up to a generational misunderstanding. But the overreaction by adult authorities in this case, from school officials to a majority of the high court, has led to a bad precedent for First Amendment rights.

Joseph Frederick, who was an 18-year-old senior in 2002, has admitted that the main reason he and some of his friends created a 14-foot banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" and displayed it as the Olympic torch came through their town of Juneau, Alaska, was to attract the attention of television cameras. Mr. Frederick and his fellow students had been excused from classes to watch the torch parade from a public sidewalk across the street from their school.

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Red Tape, Doctors Say, Cuts Buprenorphine Prescriptions

Faced with Medicaid's low payments and bureaucratic red tape, some Maryland doctors are reluctant to prescribe buprenorphine for heroin addicts, even though the drug has been promoted as a potential magic bullet in the war against addiction, according to a survey set for release today.

The survey, commissioned by the Center for a Healthy Maryland Inc., found that doctors were not always sufficiently reimbursed for their time and services and that there were other "hassles," including medication preauthorization, a process that in some cases can take 48 hours, and varying and confusing protocols among Medicaid providers.

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Still Probing How SWAT Team Hit Wrong Place

Citing legal concerns, Annapolis police officials are refusing to apologize for terrorizing four immigrant tenants when they raided the wrong Spa Cove apartment earlier this week, saying it could take 10 days before they even know what went wrong. "In this day and age, people have to apologize, but as soon as you apologize, you put yourself in a defensive position legally," Officer Hal Dalton, city police spokesman, said after a media conference.

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Urban Chronicles

Two Sundays ago, The New York Times ran a travel story calling Baltimore the "forgotten middle child among attention-getting Eastern cities" but noting that a "civic revival ... has given out-of-towners reason to visit."

Two days later, seven people perished and six others were injured in a fire in a rowhouse crammed with people in one of many city neighborhoods untouched by renewal.

The former was the kind of coverage Baltimore didn't get when I moved to the city to work for The Sun in 1977 -- before Harborplace and the National Aquarium; Meyerhoff Symphony Hall; the renovated Hippodrome Theatre; and a host of other projects, big and small, too numerous to mention here.

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To the Editor:

I'm writing about the outstanding letter from Ken Metz on misguided drug laws.

When is the last time the Times-News ran front-page stories about alcohol cartels engaged in gun battles in the streets? Probably about 1933, the year we terminated the disaster known as alcohol prohibition.

If the United States and Mexico re-legalized all of our now illegal drugs so they can be sold in regulated in licensed business establishments for pennies per dose, would this solve our drug problems? No.

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During my 18 years of police service, I saw my profession lose focus on the drunk and reckless driver and spend ever more time on trying to find a baggie of marijuana under someone's front seat.-- Sam Bennett's May 15 column was correct that it is very dangerous to be on the roads of Frederick and Maryland. One big reason is my profession spends so much time on the non-public safety threat of simple possession of marijuana. As an officer, I focused on red lights, stop sign and reckless violations during day shift and reckless and drunk drivers on night shift. I urge my colleagues to do the same and save lives.

Frederick

[end]

As Homicides Climb, Street Lockdowns Are Proposed In Baltimore

BALTIMORE -- Large swaths of Baltimore could be declared emergency areas subject to heightened police enforcement -- including a lockdown of streets -- under a city councilman's proposal that aims to slow the city's climbing homicide count.

The legislation, which met with lukewarm response from Mayor Sheila Dixon's administration Wednesday -- and which others likened to martial law -- would allow police to close liquor stores and bars, limit the number of people on city sidewalks and halt traffic in areas declared "public safety act zones." It comes as the number of homicides in Baltimore reached 108, up from 98 the same time last year.

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Every bit of data about the drug war indicates that it is a colossal failure ("Data show war on drugs failing as cocaine gets cheaper, purer," May 5).

From 1995 to 2005, the federal drug war budget rose 79 percent.

During that time, the number of people in the United States who had used drugs in the past year rose 55 percent, drug-induced mortality went up 116 percent, drug arrests went up 25 percent and drug rehab admissions went up 22 percent.

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The war on drugs was lost before it began ("Data show war on drugs failing as cocaine gets cheaper, purer," May 5).

No matter how much money we throw down the drug war rat hole, we will never be able to nullify the immutable law of supply and demand.

As long as people want recreational drugs and are willing to pay a substantial price for them, somebody will produce these drugs and somebody will get them to the willing buyers.

This we can guarantee.

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This letter is in response to David Smith's May 3 sob story about the City of College Park's law enforcement. Smith is overtly over-sympathetic to the city's drug team, apparently led by Julie Heng. Also, I am shocked at Smith's "lump-summing" of criminals, as he puts murderers in the same category as the casual pot smokers. To quote Smith, "This is an unfair game that police officers must play every day. There are no rules for the criminals. They choose to use any tactic at their discretion, including murder." Who gets stoned and kills someone? The "criminals" targeted by Heng and her Super-Secret-Undercover-Facebook-Swat-Team are not murderers - they're stoners! Make the distinction, recognize that pot crimes are not murders, and ask yourself: Whose side are you on?

Senior

Marketing

[end]

A diverse crowd of about 200 apparent stoners, skaters and curious straight-edge students listened to a heated debate last night between a retired Drug Enforcement Agency agent and the current editor in chief of High Times Magazine over the legality of marijuana.

In the Stamp Student Union's Colony Ballroom, retired DEA Agent Bob Stutman and long-time marijuana advocate Steve Hagar argued for two hours, but during this stop on their college campus tour, they agreed to disagree.

Presented by Student Entertainment Events, the marijuana debate was booked two months prior to when the Student Government Association passed a non-binding resolution to reduce first-time resident marijuana offenses last month, which would allow on-campus drug violators to still live on campus after being caught.

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To the Editor:

In a recent commentary, Dave Crockett correctly asserts that, "There's no reason why hardworking adults shouldn't consume marijuana anymore than they shouldn't drink beer or cocoa or tea." He further suggests that questions about drug use in America should be answered by "the powers of reason and wits, not by conservative zero-tolerance prohibitionists" or by government seeking to protect us from ourselves. We should heed Mr. Crockett's advice.

Government's track record at protecting us from ourselves has been less than impressive. For instance, Prohibition in the 1920s criminalized alcohol consumption and sales, replacing previously legitimate producers and sellers of alcohol with a new, Congress-invented class of criminals: The bootleggers and other black marketers.

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As a member of the Student Government Association, I am deeply disappointed in Director of Resident Life Deb Grandner's decision not to rectify the marijuana policy for resident students. In my short time at the university thus far, never before have I seen such an organized and overwhelming push for a change in policy. The lobby, led by the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, has picked up student support from both the Residence Halls Association and SGA along the way. They have met with administrators, built coalitions and, most importantly, tirelessly researched the issue to present their case in a dignified and educated manner. I commend the students of SSDP for their professionalism in this cause.

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Has personal responsibility in leadership fallen victim to outsourcing? Has "the buck" not stopped at executive desks in America, but rather flown across the pond to faraway states?

Today's international news sections light up with examples of foreign leaders and figureheads taking personal and verbal responsibility. Prince Harry, serving as a 22-year-old second lieutenant, is set to deploy for Iraq. He continues a tradition of service historically repeated throughout the British monarchy. The prince leads by example.

In other news, I find rare praise for the state of Israel. Upon criticism by an official report regarding the cause and method of military action against Lebanon (by questionable proxy to Hezbollah), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted his mistakes. It is his acknowledgment that "serious mistakes have been made by the leadership that I head" that separates his service from the rhetoric of the American political sphere. Granted, his words do not rebuild Beirut or resurrect innocent Lebanese or Israelis, but they admit the flaw behind the conflict and promote peace.

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Our View: Invasive university security measures unfairly threaten students' freedom of expression.

Last week, two invasive and largely unchecked university policing tactics have bubbled to the surface.

First, we discovered University Police have not hesitated to monitor campus groups on Facebook that advocate controversial viewpoints, raising questions about how much officers value freedom of speech.

Next, a student told The Diamondback that an undercover police officer had monitored him in the classroom after the professor complained about the student's reaction to a difficult quiz. While we must support increased security in light of the Virginia Tech massacre, we must also recognize that knee-jerk reactions are not just ineffective - they're an invasive threat to inherent student liberties.

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Wednesday's announcement that the Department of Resident Life will not implement the proposed change in residence hall rules for marijuana possession is profoundly disappointing. It would allow lenience in cases of students caught in possession of marijuana so they would not automatically have their housing terminated. This is not a compromise of student democratic power that Students for Sensible Drug Policy is willing to accept, and neither should the Residence Halls Association, the University Senate or the Student Government Association.

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Despite pleas from the RHA and SSDP, Resident Life Director Deb Grandner said yesterday she won't reduce penalties for smoking marijuana.

Grandner said, however, talks with both organizations have elicited more sympathy from her, and she plans to examine those appeals from students who are caught with drugs more closely than those who receive other RHA violations.

"We want to look at individual circumstances so that, on appeal, that person might be allowed to stay here," Grandner said.

The decision comes after the RHA passed a resolution in February recommending reduced punishments compared with the current drug policy, which results in immediate housing termination for residents who are caught with marijuana in their rooms. A coalition of students has gathered throughout the year in support of the resolution, including members of the Student Government Association and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

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