The Oswego Mall Complex Has Some of the City's 5,000 Kids Caught Selling Drugs -- and Some Who Kill

A shirtless boy of about 14 slurps from a plastic cup and jaws with two other teenagers in oversized T-shirts. They stand at the edge of a playground in the Oswego Mall public housing complex, enveloped in the summertime whoops and laughter of children playing all around them.

The teenagers occasionally turn toward a fourth figure, at first standing a bit apart. He is older, more man than boy, with short dreadlocks and wearing a striped polo shirt. They clearly defer to him, competing, it seems, for his approval as they dance in place and bump fists with him. To a casual observer, he could be an older brother or a favorite uncle.

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The War in Iraq Goes On, but We Shouldn't Let It Overshadow the War At Home--the War on Drugs.

It is the very nature of victimless crimes that pushes the police to use unscrupulous tactics.

Since the buyer and seller willingly participate in the transaction, the only way the police can detect the criminal activity is to set it up themselves or encourage informants. The war in Iraq goes on, but we shouldn't let it overshadow the war at home--one that frequently takes the lives of people who don't deserve to die. It's known as the War on Drugs, but it's really a war on people who themselves are not making war against anyone.

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Talk about having a lousy day in court.

As Devin K. Hoerauf's robbery trial in Rockville was wrapping up Tuesday afternoon, the 19-year-old accidentally dropped a bag of marijuana on the floor when he stood up at the defense table.

The judge's assistant noticed a plastic bag containing "a green, leafy substance" and pointed it out to a Montgomery County deputy sheriff, who picked it up and added two misdemeanor charges -- possession of a controlled substance and possession of paraphernalia - -- to Hoerauf's criminal history.

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Bigger Force, Refocused Beats Curbing Illegal Activity, Police Say

By Joshua Partlow Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, November 19, 2006; C06

A group of young men wearing dark jackets stood next to a chain-link fence along Greenleaf Road one recent evening when Maj. Markus A. Summers, giving a tour of his Prince George's County police district, drove past.

"Here's a pocket of it, right here," he said.

He pulled over. With something akin to casual hurrying, the men began to disperse. Summers jumped out of the car.

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Debate Flares Over DARE's Elimination

The race to become sheriff of one of Maryland's fastest-growing counties might turn on a popular drug education program -- and whether it does any good.

St. Mary's County Sheriff David D. Zylak (D) eliminated the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program used to warn elementary school students away from drugs two years ago, citing staffing shortages and questions about its effectiveness. His opponent, Republican Tim Cameron, is running on a platform of restoring DARE, saying parents want their children to receive accurate information about drugs from trained police officers.

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The RHA overwhelmingly failed a bill to reduce penalties for marijuana use last night, signaling an end to the first in a wave of similar resolutions set to appear before various university governing bodies in the upcoming months.

The proposed legislation would have thrown the group's public support behind an SGA referendum that favored reducing punishments for marijuana users but was rejected because some senators considered it to be too broad and poorly researched, said Residence Hall Association Director of Public Relations Alex Lockwood.

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It was early in the morning, and already you could hear the edge creeping into Kevin Zeese's voice.

The night before was supposed to be the crowning moment for him, a chance to ignite his struggling campaign for U.S. Senate. The night before, he had finally pushed his way into a rare three-way debate in Baltimore.

The next morning, however, he woke to find a sharp dose of reality waiting at his doorstep. Newspaper headlines recounted a heated debate between Republican Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele and Democrat Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin. The front-page photo in The Washington Post, Zeese angrily pointed out, had cut him out of the picture entirely. His name wasn't mentioned until the 11th paragraph.

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WASHINGTON COUNTY - Washington County's first new sheriff in 20 years will have to confront the challenges of a growing community, manpower needs and the rise of drugs and gangs, said the two men vying for the office.

While the department's second-in-command, Col. Douglas W. Mullendore, said he has the experience to get the job done, challenger Rich Poffenberger, a Maryland State Police corporal, said he is looking forward to taking to the streets as a hands-on Sheriff.

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The Baltimore City Council voted last night to give preliminary approval to a zoning law change that would make it easier to open drug treatment centers in the city, even in residential neighborhoods.

The measure supported by Mayor Martin O'Malley's administration seeks to broaden the definition of health care clinics to include the centers and to remove the requirement for council ordinances to open them.

The 15-member council's action last night advances the ordinance to the Oct. 30 meeting, where it is expected to be up for a final vote. If approved, as expected, the ordinance would permit outpatient drug treatment centers - such as methadone clinics - to open in areas zoned for various industrial and business uses, Councilman Edward L. Reisinger said.

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3rd-party Long Shot Decries Status Quo 'Influence-Peddling'

It's long after dark outside the Giant Food supermarket at the Dorsey's Search Village Center in Howard County, and Kevin Zeese is in the parking lot looking for votes.

He spots three people standing around a car and makes his way over. Tracy Meyers and Mark Davis are visiting Giant worker Laura Riesett on her break. Zeese shakes hands, introduces himself and tells them he is running for the U.S. Senate.

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Baltimore City Health Department counselor Jeffrey Long talks to a drug addict as they exchange needles inside a recreational vehicle Sept. 29. In a recreational vehicle parked along a row of abandoned rowhouses off Greenmount Avenue, drug addicts place bundles of used syringes in a biohazard container and receive new ones in return.

Baltimore City Health Department counselor Jeffrey Long counts the old needles and enters the numbers into a laptop computer. "Five, 10, 15, 20," he counts.

The scene at 24th and Barclay streets is part of the daily routine for the health department's Needle Exchange Program, which operates in 14 neighborhoods with high addiction rates.

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Hoping to make a revolutionary treatment more available for heroin users, Baltimore officials are taking the unusual step of subsidizing a training program that could more than double the number of physicians permitted to prescribe a new medication to cure opiate addiction.

Buprenorphine, commonly referred to as "bupe," is being used in place of methadone to wean addicts off heroin because it can be taken at home, is less prone to abuse and is easier to discontinue when the patient is ready. But fewer than 90 physicians in Baltimore have completed the eight-hour training course required to prescribe the drug."In a city like Baltimore, where we have a lot of doctors, this really offers a potential for a major expansion of access to care," the city's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, said of the training initiative. "Getting doctors trained is just incredibly important."

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HC DrugFree, a Howard County nonprofit organization working to help teens avoid alcohol and other drugs, will offer a free program, "Drinking and Drugging in Howard County: Find Out What's Happening," from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in the Homewood Center cafeteria.

The program for high school students and their parents will begin with an overview of teen use of alcohol, marijuana and other drugs in Howard County, presented by Mary Ann Warnke, of the Howard County Health Department, and by an officer from the Howard County Police Vice and Narcotics Unit.

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BERLIN -- Maryland is making slow progress toward the goal of providing treatment, not incarceration for non-violent drug offenders, according to a report released last week, but Worcester is ahead of most jurisdictions thanks to its award-winning drug court established last year.

The Justice Policy Institute last week issued a report on Maryland's efforts to offer drug treatment as an alternative to prison sentences for non-violent substance abusers, which shows jurisdictions across the state are making slow, but steady progress in attaining the goal. It is widely accepted that substance abuse treatment, not incarceration is more successful in reducing recidivism, dropping crime rates and ultimately costing much less in the long run and Maryland adopted measures several years ago to provide treatment as an alternative for non-violent offenders.

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Poor Economy Hurt Ehrlich Initiative

Maryland continues to spend far more on sending drug offenders to prison than to treatment programs despite a high-profile bid by Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to reverse that trend, according to a report released today by the Justice Policy Institute.

The study by the D.C.-based think tank found that the state has made "slow progress" in diverting nonviolent offenders from jail and prison. For each dollar spent to put them behind bars, the state provided just 26 cents through its Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration to treat drug-dependent adults referred by the criminal justice system, the report estimated.

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As a student leader in a different state with a different set of problems, I find Megan Maizel's conclusion that changing the sanctions for marijuana possession would amount to a "mockery [of the law]" to be counterintuitive.

It strikes me that the mockery comes from the fact that government has assumed the authority to punish people for possessing and using a drug. This is clearly not the legitimate role of a government that respects liberty, whether this government takes the form of a nation, a state or a university.

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A Maryland Court Rules That Addicted Moms-To-Be Would Be Best Served by Treatment, Not Imprisonment

Let's say you're pregnant. Driving without a seatbelt, playing ice hockey, subsisting on Cheetos: They may not be recommended by What to Expect When You're Expecting, but do they constitute illegal reckless "child endangerment" -- punishable by imprisonment? In a decision hailed by National Advocates for Pregnant Women, Maryland's highest court has, in effect, said no.

"Imprisonment is not only the most costly thing the state could do," Lynn Paltrow of NAPW told the Washington Post. "It's the most family-destructive thing the state could do."

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Maryland's New Title As "'No. 1 Counterculture School' Leaves Some to Question Campus Reputation

Thirty years ago, College Park students were more likely to find shops selling bongs and rolling paper than burritos or Starbucks coffee, and McKeldin Mall was often dotted with long-haired hippies conducting hazy smoke-ins rather than bikini-clad girls getting suntans.

But according to High Times monthly magazine -- the weed-smokers' bible -- the university may not be so far behind those free-love days of puff-puff-pass with its recent designation as the No. 1 counterculture school in the nation. High Times doesn't use the tired old standard of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, however: The critical factor in the ranking decision was last semester's ballot referendum that asked students whether the university should loosen penalties for marijuana possession on the campus.

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Last week I wrote an article in favor of the legalization of marijuana in Colorado. My point had to do with the concept that, in fact some drugs really are not as dangerous as others. Right as the paper with that article went to print, we got a fax in the office having to do with students being kept out of universities due to drug related convictions. This sheds light on a whole other aspect of the unfair effects that current drug policies have on Americans. Not only are we not free to make an informed choice about what we put in our bodies, the government and school systems actually punish users by making enrollment in universities after drug convictions difficult if not impossible.

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Megan Maizel's Sept. 5 column "Marijuana lobby aims off target" contributed yet another opinion to the ongoing, hotly contested marijuana debate, and though the column provided several insightful points, it lacked sufficient arguments that should change anyone's mind about this issue.

First and foremost, the author's belief that last year's referendum, in which students overwhelmingly showed their support to decrease punishment for marijuana-related offenses on the campus, should represent only a symbolic victory is false. NORML and SSDP clearly do not have the clout to alter our country's national policy on illegal drugs. As such, working to amend policy at the university level is a goal not only worth working toward, but one within reasonable reach.

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