Mayor Sheila Dixon yesterday declined to say whether she supports decriminalizing the use of illegal drugs after being asked three times about her views on the topic at a news conference.

"Drug addiction is a health issue, and drug treatment and providing support services to families is so significant and key," she said in response to a question from a television reporter. "That is where you break the cycles."

Police say that much of the city's violence is fueled by the drug trade in Baltimore, and some believe that decriminalizing drug use would drastically reduce killings and shootings because crews would no longer fight over territory and money.

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Our View: University Police must exercise extreme caution in using Facebook to crack down on campus crime.

Without a doubt, University Police have a job: keep our campus safe and do their best to prevent illegal activities. While Students for Sensible Drug Policy feels the police do not have a right to go undercover and get information on students via resources such as Facebook, we have to acknowledge the police have a right to use every resource legally available to them in order to combat illegal activities.

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Student activists are accusing University Police of violating students' privacy with overly aggressive drug enforcement tactics in the wake of several incidents in which officers posed as students or drug dealers.

Undercover officers frequently patrol hallways in dorms searching for would-be narcotics buyers, University Police spokeswoman Maj. Cathy Atwell said. But the activist group Students for Sensible Drug Policy said police crossed the line when an officer attempted to join their Facebook group under an assumed name. The students discovered the officer when they cross-referenced her e-mail address in the university directory.

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Medical Examiner Won't Release Toxicology Report

Despite an autopsy to the contrary, the family of a Pasadena man believes he was beaten to death by six county police officers.

The family of Steven Ray Ellison refuses to accept the medical examiner's findings, believing instead that the officers beat their son to death Dec. 27 outside a friend's home.

"I don't want to say there was a cover-up, but it seems there was a cover-up," said Mary Ellison, his mother as she pointed to pictures of her son's dead body strewn out on her kitchen table in Pasadena.

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Today is the 20th of April.

To many, today may just be another day on the calendar, but to some, this is the holiday of holidays. Like the generations of marijuana users before them, today's class of pot users is embracing their affection for that enchanting, ageless Mary Jane, by continuing a long legacy of marijuana love on 4/20.

But unlike the original hippies of yesteryear, today's current mix of blunt-rolling, bong-hitting, joint-twisting reefer lovers have taken up the hobby at a time when marijuana's role has undergone drastic changes in American culture.

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Feeding On Drug Trade, Groups Increasingly Organized, Violent

Anthony Taylor Jr. was killed over the color red.

The 20-year-old Bloods gang member was partying with friends past midnight, hanging out on the corner of Guilford Avenue and East 22nd Street, a red bandana tied to his belt.

But police said a member of the Young Gorilla Family, which claimed the Barclay neighborhood as its own, had warned Taylor he was not allowed there wearing the signature color of the rival Bloods.

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Death Toll Drops As Baltimore Instructs Inmates How To Deal With Overdoses

Standing before 50 men dressed in red jumpsuits, drug educator Nathan Fields belted out the question of the hour: What are the street remedies for a heroin overdose?

"Burn their fingertips," said one inmate.

"Walk them around," cried another. "Put ice on the genitals," a voice rang out.

"Throw them in the backyard," someone said, eliciting a round of laughter.

"Guess what?" shouted Fields, addressing a rapt audience of inmates. "All those street remedies are more dangerous than the overdose itself."

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FREDERICK -- Dwight Thompson's grown daughters cried in Frederick County Circuit Court as they realized their father's decades of cocaine use had come to an end.

Thompson's daughters and granddaughters were among dozens gathered Thursday to witness his graduation from Frederick County Drug Treatment Court.

The three-phase program is targeted toward helping nonviolent adult repeat offenders who have tried to quit using drugs but failed.

"We got our dad back," Tameka Thompson said, choking back sobs as she rose from her front-row seat.

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To the editor:

Regarding Tim Rowland's March 27 column, alcohol kills more people each year than all illegal drugs combined. Prescription-overdose deaths are now second only to motor-vehicle crashes as a cause of death from unintentional injury. Television is filled with sophisticated pro-drug messages paid for by alcohol and pharmaceutical companies.

The Bush administration doesn't have a problem with corporate drug pushers. But hoist a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner at an off-campus high school rally in Alaska, and they will fight you all the way to the Supreme Court. It is not clear how this nonsensical phrase somehow merits limiting free speech.

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Our View: University policies that equate marijuana possession to rape, assault and arson are absurd and should be changed.

Neither quietly nor timidly have advocates of loosening marijuana penalties in on-campus residences lobbied for their cause the past several years, bringing a politically divisive issue to the mainstream and uniting the student body against what are still enormous odds. We hope the SGA votes to symbolically support reducing marijuana penalties in a vote tonight, but no matter the result, the issue will be far from over.

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Today, the SGA will hear a bill that would support the RHA vote last February to urge the administration to reduce first-time possession of small amounts of marijuana to a B-level offense, thus lessening the draconian punishments the university currently imposes on students unfortunate enough to have been busted on the campus. Not only would a victory in the SGA affirm that the ramifications of such a reckless and counter-intuitive policy have inflicted far greater damage on the university than the drug itself ever could, but it would also have a further reaching and verifiable impact: It would demonstrate that the student body has the capacity to generate change and influence the highest echelons of the university.

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KEYSER - According to Keyser Primary-Middle School DARE student Brittany Miller, "only people who are dumb and think they're cool" do drugs.

She is quick to add, however, that they are not cool.

"I pledge that I will never, ever use drugs, smoke or use alcohol because I know what they contain," she said in the essay written at the conclusion of the nine-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education classes at KPMS.

"There are things that can kill you or harm you, so I'll never use any of it."

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NEW CREEK -- "The DARE program is more than just telling you to avoid drugs. It is also about making wise decisions at school, home and other places."

With those words, New Creek Primary School fifth-grader Ryan Weasenforth earned the honor of Outstanding DARE Student Thursday when the school held its annual DARE graduation.

Deputy Craig Fraley, who has taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education classes in Mineral County for a number of years, read Weasenforth's essay to the crowd of students and parents gathered Thursday afternoon for the special ceremony.

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Even though the county's prosecutor says, with good reason, that it's largely useless, the city's effort to declare a drug-free zone around community and recreation centers is still alive in the legislature.

The city wants 20-year penalties available for anyone caught dealing drugs close to facilities frequented by youth. It's a noble gesture - but State's Attorney Frank Weathersbee points out that the law does not include minimum sentences, so judges will go right on giving first-time offenders only a year or so of jail time.

That 20-year maximum sentence will look good on the books. And that's just where it will stay - useful for politicians, but not for prosecutors.

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Civil Rights Leader, County To Start Task Force To Help African-American Males

Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson unveiled plans to use the county as a testing ground to address a wide range of problems plaguing African-American males.

The partnership would look to bring officials, teachers, parents and local business owners to address problems throughout Prince George's, including unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, high-school drop out rates and crime.

Jim Keary, a spokesman for Johnson, said the task force would identify at-risk African-American males as young as 12 and provide them with access to conflict resolution centers and tutoring programs located throughout the county. The task force's primary goal would be to keep African-American males in school.

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Class clowns in schools across the nation have to be standing up to salute former Alaska high school student Joseph Frederick. Heck, none of us ever made it further than the principal's office; he's made it all the way to the Supreme Court.

For a class clown, that has to be winning the Nobel Peace Prize, liberating France and ending starvation all wrapped into one.

Dude. You rock. That banner, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" that you displayed on the street as the Olympic torch passed through Juneau in 2002, got it done.

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Rally Set in County April 20

CUMBERLAND - On the morning of April 20, pairs of people wearing purple T-shirts and holding purple posters will be positioned strategically on street corners and school grounds throughout the county.

The purple people's purpose is to promote an anti-drug environment and to encourage parents to talk to their children about the dangers of drug use.

"It's a wonderful way for the community to join together and sit down with their children, no matter how young or old, and talk to them about drug use - it's also time for people who are pregnant to think about what they are putting into their bodies," said Allegany County Board of Education member Jane Dawson.

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Regarding Brian J. Karem's thoughtful Mar. 22nd column, alcohol kills more Americans each year than all illegal drugs combined. Prescription overdose deaths are second only to motor-vehicle crashes as a cause of death from unintentional injury. Television is filled with highly sophisticated pro-drug messages paid for by alcohol and pharmaceutical companies. The Bush administration doesn't have a problem with corporate drug pushers. But hoist a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner at a high school rally in Alaska, and they will fight you all the way to the Supreme Court.

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BALTIMORE Law-and-order members of the House of Delegates put their feet down Friday, and rejected a bill that would have allowed parole for nonviolent drug offenses that now carry mandatory minimum sentences.

Constituents "are not knocking on our door to give more lenient treatment" to drug dealers, said House Republican leader Anthony O'Donnell, Calvert. The bill "makes it easier to destroy our society," he said.

The legislation (H.B. 992) failed 69-68, three votes shy of the constitutional majority of 71 it needed. It was the second time this week that the House rejected a proposal from the Judiciary Committee that was sponsored by Del. Curt Anderson, D-Baltimore City.

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ANNAPOLIS -- A measure to allow twice-convicted drug dealers the possibility of parole instead of a mandatory 10-year sentence was rejected today in the House by one vote, but its sponsor said he was hopeful the legislation could be reconsidered and supported.

The bill, which fell short of approval on a 68-69 vote, would have made a drug dealer convicted for the second time eligible for parole after about five years.

Del. Curt Anderson, the bill's sponsor, said the idea behind the measure was to help get people who sold drugs to support their own habits out of prison and into drug treatment.

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