They may have committed a high crime, but a former Dearborn cop and his wife are only going to be charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly smoking pot in Dearborn Heights.

Edward Sanchez, 30, and his wife, Stacy, 27, are expected to turn themselves in for arraignment on one charge each of using marijuana, according assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Maria Miller.

On April 21, 2006, Sanchez, who lives in Dearborn Heights, called 911 in a panic after he and his wife ate brownies laced with marijuana he said he took from criminal suspects.

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If elected president, Texas congressman Ron Paul said he would change drug laws to free non-violent offenders from prison.

"Mandated lifetime sentences are insane," he said during an interview Friday with the Free Press editorial board. "I'd release them. I'd pardon them."

The Republican presidential candidate, who used to be a Libertarian, also would work to extract the federal government from the medical marijuana debate by allowing state laws to stand unfettered.

By freeing up law enforcement from chasing down drug users and non-violent drug dealers, Paul said they could spend more time looking for rapists, murderers and child molesters.

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Homicides in Detroit are down from last year, but a surge of at least 10 killings in the past few days has demonstrated the close link between homicides and the illegal drug trade.

Police said a quadruple killing late Monday night appeared to be drug-related. Officers found a marijuana-growing operation in the basement and marijuana plants in the backyard of an east-side home on Runyon.

On Monday morning, officers sent to a west-side home on Tuller, in which a 42-year-old man and his 17-year-old son were killed, believed the deaths were related to the marijuana trade, police said.

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Organization Is a Reincarnation of a Defunct Group

Like many University students, LSA sophomore Chris Chiles says drugs should be decriminalized.

Unlike many University students, he's decided to do something about it.

This year, Chiles decided to re-form the University's chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a national group that pushes for the liberalization of drug laws. It was formed in 1998, but its presence on campus had deteriorated. The University chapter had about 20 members at the beginning of the school year and now has several dozen more students that are considering membership in the group, said Chiles, the group's executive director.

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A former Wayne County Sheriff's Office deputy pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Thursday to charges he distributed illegal drugs while working in law enforcement.

Federal prosecutors say Dorian Merriewether, 36, of Farmington Hills used his position as a deputy to transport and distribute cocaine and marijuana to inmates in the Wayne County Jail.

He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 15.

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A former Madison Heights police officer accused of stealing a gift card during a drug raid was acquitted of larceny charges.

Richard Michael Craze, 36, of Macomb Township, had been a 12-year member of the Madison Heights Police Department until the felony charges led to him leaving the department earlier this year.

Craze could have faced up to five years in prison if convicted of taking the $125 gift card during a drug raid of a Pontiac home on March 20.

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Journal Series Sparks Users, Survivors To Tell Of Their Heroin Hell

Their stories - of the rise in heroin addiction, the pain it brings and sometimes the deaths of loved ones that result - resonated with Flint Journal readers.

After a series about heroin addiction among young people appeared earlier this month, others wanted to share their experiences.

Their stories are dramatic, heartbreaking, hopeful. Among them:

"My husband and I have been through hell and back trying to help my son, and we have taken him in on numerous occasions, only to be slapped in the face for doing it," his mother said.

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Editor's note: Courtney, a Swartz Creek High School graduate, wrote this letter about her experiences to The Flint Journal after stories earlier this month about heroin addiction among teenagers and young adults. The letter has been edited for length.

My name is Courtney. I have been following your articles about addiction. I am 20 years old and suffer from a heroin addiction just like the people I have been reading about. Except I am one of the lucky ones who have made it by reaching out, talking, getting help and living the Narcotics Anonymous program.

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You cannot simply flush your secrets away.

That is just one of the implications of new research from a team at Oregon State University. They sampled spoonfuls of sewage water from 10 unnamed U.S. cities and found that "community urinalysis" could be both practical and useful. The Office of National Drug Control Policy is interested in the idea as a way to track the spread of drugs or identify hot communities for certain types of drug problems.

Researchers refuse to say which cities they tested, only that there were huge differences in levels of amphetamine use and that the ingredient Americans apparently consume and excrete the most is caffeine.

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Which parents should be most concerned about whether their teens will use drugs, drink or smoke?

Here's the answer, according to a survey: Parents of teens who consider themselves to be popular.

That doesn't mean parents of loners and of kids with relatively little self-esteem should take their youngsters' well-being for granted.

Instead, it should be a wake-up call for all parents.

Many parents reportedly are in denial, desperate or both. For their kids' sake, they should wake up and get help from health care professionals, guidance counselors and clergy.

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Ex-Police Detective Howard Wooldridge on the Costly Failure of the War on Drugs

Since the War on Drugs (or Drug Prohibition) began back in 1971 under the Nixon Administration, United States taxpayers have spent over $1 trillion dollars and arrested 36 million Americans with zero return on the investment, as hundreds of warehouses filled with illicit drugs continue to spread across our country.

As a result of this 36-year campaign, street drugs today are cheaper than ever to acquire and easier to buy than when Nixon first declared his war.

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OK, so you're rich and famous and have a drug problem. You relapse and get arrested. What do you do?

It seems the latest trend in countering your likely conviction is not hiring a "dream team" of legal defenders but immediately enrolling in a rehab drug program.

Lindsay Lohan, the troubled Hollywood starlet, joins a host of other high-profile celebrities, including Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and the son of the former vice president, Al Gore III, who have adopted this novel strategy.

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Missing Cocaine Estimated At $2.4 Million

A Detroit police narcotics officer, trusted to handle seized drugs as evidence, has been suspended under suspicion that he stole 6 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of about $2.4 million from the department's property room.

Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said Thursday that the veteran officer, on the job since 1989, ran a scheme in which he signed out the drugs from the property room as evidence and replaced them with a substance that looked like cocaine.

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DETROIT -- A 17-year veteran narcotics officer is suspected of stealing six kilos, or 13 pounds, of pure cocaine worth at least $2.4 million, authorities said.

Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said Thursday the officer, whom she didn't identify, signed out the drugs from the department's evidence room and replaced it last week with imitation cocaine.

The officer has been suspended, she said, and the matter has been turned over to the FBI for further investigation. Meanwhile, the department will continue to review whether the officer is suspected in other illegal activities, she said.

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The phrase "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" doesn't have a hidden meaning. In fact, it doesn't mean anything at all. When high school senior Joe Frederick held up a banner with those now-famous words in 2002, though, he triggered a chain of events that led to the 5-4 Supreme Court ruling drawing new lines around student free-expression rights in public schools.

Frederick unfurled his "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" message while students and faculty were gathered to watch the Olympic torch pass by his school in Juneau, Alaska.

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WASHINGTON -- News that Al Gore's 24-year-old son, Al Gore III, was busted for pot and assorted prescription pills has unleashed a torrent of mirth in certain quarters.

Gore-phobes on the Internet apparently view the son's arrest and incarceration as comeuppance for the father's shortcomings. Especially rich was the fact that young Al was driving a Toyota Prius when he was pulled over for going 100 mph -- just as Papa Gore was set to preside over concerts during a 24-hour, seven-continent Live Earth celebration to raise awareness about global warming.

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FLINT TWP. - Robert Berishaj is still in limbo, not allowed to work in the United States but not yet allowed to leave.

"It's kind of like it's not sunny, but it's not raining," said Berishaj, 27, who has lived in the United States since he was 9 but faces deportation to his native Montenegro due to legal entanglements.

Monday was supposed to be a day of reckoning for Berishaj, who went to U.S. immigration offices in Detroit, where he was scheduled to receive a passport that would allow him to be deported.

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Nancy Crawley's column, "No blackout on freedom of speech" (Press, July 1) supported the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the First Amendment by appealing to America's most valuable resources, its free minds and free markets.

Crawley also pointed out an obvious inconsistency: If open discussion is valuable to society, then why did the Supreme Court abridge First Amendment liberties in the recent student speech case, Morris v. Frederick?

This contradiction must be addressed.

The Supreme Court's decision granting schools the ability to censor student speech that "can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use" cheapens the value of reason and personal responsibility. Virtues that were crucial to the founding of our nation have been replaced by the vice of patronizing micro-management.

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As the executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, or SSDP, at the University of Michigan, I was sad to see such a decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 25. Joseph Frederick clearly should not have been suspended for displaying his "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner.

Fortunately, the new ruling "provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue, including speech on issues such as 'the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use,'" which was concurred by Justice Alito.

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Prohibition! That is the crime and many are its victims. Attention should be focused on the fact marijuana laws have become more harmful to society than the behavior they were intended to regulate.

It is about cultural discrimination and, frankly, greed. Recent polls show almost 80 percent of Americans now support legal access to medical marijuana. Where is the legislation reflecting that support?

Ralph Worick

Portage

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