This past April during SGA elections, a referendum was passed suggesting the punishments in dorms for marijuana and alcohol be the same. As it stands currently, marijuana is listed as a "Section A" offense, meaning any individual caught with marijuana will have his or her housing terminated immediately, as well as be subject to other potential punishments. Possession of alcoholic beverages, meanwhile, is listed under "Section B," which requires a warning and probation from housing, as well as potential community service for first offenses.

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For years, Roland R. Griffiths had heard about the profound spiritual experiences of people who had ingested psilocybin, a hallucinogen that, if you came of age in the 1960s, you might recall as "magic mushrooms." Anthropologists had described, sometimes rapturously, the effects of psilocybin, but Griffiths, a Johns Hopkins professor of psychiatry and behavioral biology, was skeptical.

He knew of little rigorous clinical research in which psilocybin had been administered under appropriate laboratory conditions. After completing his own carefully constructed study of the drug, he is skeptical no more.

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In 2005, there were 39 million people worldwide living with HIV, 4 million new HIV infections and just fewer than 3 million deaths because of AIDS.

Four years earlier, the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on AIDS committed to substantial steps to reduce infections and provide treatment to people with HIV. Given the prevalence of HIV, as reflected in the statistics, has this commitment made a difference?

Yes, but it is not nearly enough. In the past five years, for example, the number of people receiving HIV treatment worldwide has jumped more than 540 percent. Yet despite this expansion of treatment, only about one out of five people needing anti-retroviral drugs now receives them.

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A federal court judge and jury handed Baltimore County a well-deserved rebuke this week when they found that a county zoning law discriminated against a methadone clinic in Pikesville and also violated the federal Americans with Disabilities Act. The county, which is considering an appeal, would do better to simply change the law.

When the private, for-profit clinic, called A Helping Hand, opened in 2002, protests from nearby homeowners prompted passage of a law requiring many state-licensed medical facilities, including methadone treatment centers, to be located at least 750 feet from any residence. While fears of increased crime and loitering have not materialized to any significant extent, the discomfort felt by some close-in neighbors has not dissipated.

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County Law Restricting Medical Facility Sites Faulted

A federal jury ruled yesterday that Baltimore County officials discriminated against the patients of a Pikesville methadone clinic when they enacted a law prohibiting state-licensed medical facilities from locating within 750 feet of homes.

After hearing testimony over three weeks, the U.S. District Court jury deliberated for less than five hours yesterday before finding in favor of A Helping Hand methadone clinic. The clinic, which also prevailed in a judge's ruling that the county law violated the Americans with Disabilities Act, will remain open.

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Federal Court Case Is Winding Down

Four years after the opening of a methadone clinic in Pikesville prompted protests by residents, fines from Baltimore County officials and swift legislation aimed at shutting it down, the two sides are continuing their argument before jurors in a trial nearing its end in federal court.

The result of the trial could force a change in Baltimore County and, legal experts and drug treatment advocates say, send a signal to other local governments that they, too, need to modify zoning laws for rehabilitation programs.

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Critics' Picks: New DVDs

The Wire: The Complete Third Season // HBO // $99.98

HBO's The Wire is a TV series that seems tailor-made for DVDs. Story lines and emotions in this compelling meditation on urban life are not artificially reduced to provide closure and a reassuring worldview at the end of each hour as many television dramas do. (Think Law & Order.)

Quite the contrary, creator David Simon and his highly talented team of writers and producers have instead aimed for a far more literary form of storytelling in which episodes play like chapters in a book - -- referring back and building on moments that came before, even as they leave viewers wanting to immediately see what's next when the hour comes to a close.

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Maryland's reckless endangerment law cannot be used to prosecute women who give birth to babies exposed to illegal drugs, the state's high court ruled yesterday, overturning the convictions of two Eastern Shore mothers.

Prosecutors said such charges were needed to protect children, but some advocates for pregnant women welcomed the decision by the Maryland Court of Appeals as an affirmation that such cases could make pregnant women vulnerable to prosecution for an array of potentially dangerous behaviors -- such as smoking cigarettes and driving without a seatbelt -- and that drug-using mothers need treatment, not punishment.

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Most of the time, police aren't surprised when they find a ballpoint pen crammed with cocaine, or illicit pills stashed in a secret compartment of a running shoe. But when a bag full of smiley-faced gumballs hollowed out and stuffed like mushrooms with marijuana were confiscated early this year at a Howard County high school and last week in Northern Virginia, it took authorities by surprise.

"This is very unique," said Edward Marcinko, special agent and public information officer for the Baltimore District Office of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "It is very alarming to see this."

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Jessup Prison's Lax Culture Problematic, Workers Say

Amid the steady flow of drugs, tobacco, cell phones and other contraband at the Maryland House of Corrections, officers who strictly enforce the rules end up putting targets on their backs, say former inmates and those who have worked in the Jessup prison.

Officer David McGuinn, who was not one to look the other way, was stabbed to death last week by inmates who, according to colleagues, considered his diligence an annoying burden. Since March, three inmates were stabbed to death and two officers were wounded with homemade knives.

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CRISFIELD -- The urn on the TV stand in Heather Britton's living room is testament to a community's need for the Somerset County Drug Task Force.

Had Donald Lee "Bunky" Britton lived, the Crisfield waterman, husband and father would have turned 26 in June. In August, he would have seen his daughter turn four. And next week, they would have celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary.

Instead, Britton was lifted from a bathroom floor at a Somers Cove Apartments unit and placed in an ambulance, where he died en route to Crisfield's McCready Memorial Hospital.

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Zeese Tries to Woo Voters in Wee Hours

Amid the drunken revelry of a Thursday night at the entrance to Bushwaller's Irish Pub in Frederick, a man who wants to be Maryland's next U.S. senator introduced himself through a haze of cigarette smoke: "I'm the Midnight Candidate," Kevin B. Zeese said.

There was no crowd to hear his stump speech and no babies to kiss. But a young blond woman, her earrings dangling and her shoes lighting up with each step, did stick Zeese's campaign flier down her cleavage.

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Baltimore County - When former Glen Burnie pizza shop owner Joel Prell wanted to distribute regulated narcotics to heroin addicts in a quiet Pikesville neighborhood, the local county council had to do everything in its power to stop him.

That's what attorneys told a federal judge Tuesday as they defended members of the Baltimore County Council against claims they passed a discriminatory zoning law to keep a methadone clinic out of a neighborhood. Opening statements began before U.S. District Judge Catherine Blake in the case that tests the 2002 county zoning ruling and will determine if the Pikesville clinic can stay open.

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Sex Trade Plays A Part In Vicious Cycle Of Urban Blight

Editor's Note: Aliases have been used to protect the identity of some sources.

SALISBURY -- In the middle of the humid July heat, Shelly Johnson sat down to the first full meal she's had in weeks wearing a long-sleeved hooded sweatshirt, which was far too big, and baggy blue jeans that had seen better days.

ADVERTISEMENT These were the only clothes she had left, and in the past six months, her clothes had been stolen six times.

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Govans Principal Who Wrote Letter For Ex-Con Might Retire

Parents, children and community members rallied outside Govans Elementary School in Baltimore last night for the principal, who was asked to retire after writing a letter in support of a teacher who pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine.

A lawyer for Edith M. Jones, who has been the principal of Govans for eight years, said the school system knew that special-education teacher Martius Harding was a convicted felon when it hired him in 2002. The lawyer, Ron Kowitz, also said Jones contacted the system's legal office last summer after learning of Harding's guilty plea in a cocaine possession case.

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A Baltimore man who appeared in the anti-police video Stop Snitching pleaded guilty in federal court yesterday to conspiracy to distribute heroin.

In a statement of facts presented at his plea, George Butler, 31, admitted that he bought large quantities of drugs from a drug gang that prosecutors have said distributed heroin in and around Baltimore.

Toward the end of the Stop Snitching digital video disc - an underground production that warns people against cooperating with police - Butler speaks to the camera as he grabs a gun from his belt: "We don't talk about what we're going to do. We just do it."

Butler faces at least 10 years in prison at sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 15.

The suspected leaders of the drug organization, Howard Rice, 39 and Raeshio Rice, 33, both of Baltimore, are scheduled to go to trial Oct. 10.

[end]

Letter Asks Judge For Leniency For Convicted Felon

A Baltimore principal used school stationery to request leniency for a teacher who had pleaded guilty in August to carrying 5 pounds of cocaine in his car and was allowed to continue teaching until his sentencing two weeks ago.

The two-page letter of support from Principal Edith M. Jones defended Martius Harding as a talented but troubled teacher who shepherded his special education pupils and served as a role model for children and staff at Govans Elementary School.

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Eric Sterling wrote about the recent increase in robberies in and around the Metro (''Better policing through better management," June 14 letter). I wish to respond to his criticism of our department and address his reasoning about resource allocation.

Mr. Sterling contends that since the department makes so many more marijuana arrests than robbery arrests this indicates that too much emphasis is being placed on narcotics enforcement to the detriment of robbery investigation, resulting in the recent increase. In fact the vast majority of those marijuana arrests are made by patrol officers proactively conducting street level enforcement to reduce all types of crimes.

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As a Silver Spring business person, the recent robberies near the Silver Spring Metro are very alarming ("Early-morning robberies plague area near the Silver Spring Metro," June 7 story). I fear the occurrence of these robberies may be a symptom of mismanagement by the county police department.

According to the Maryland Uniform Crime Reports, 856 robberies were reported in the county in 2004 and 310 robbery arrests. On the other hand, there were 2,746 drug offense arrests; 1,536 of the arrests were for the possession of marijuana.

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Two years ago, my 23-year-old brother became addicted to painkillers after breaking his leg and undergoing several operations to repair it.

Last year, while he was checking into rehab for abusing OxyContin, I was drafting a chapter in my new book calling for drug legalization. It was a difficult moment to believe in individual liberty: I felt firsthand the effects of what it's like when people make bad decisions. I saw how hard my brother struggled to get clean, first moving forward and then backsliding again into substance abuse.

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