Howard Woolbridge came to town last week and talked some truths about the war on drugs. It's a failure. Let's legalize everything and say that addiction is a medical problem rather than a legal problem. Woolbridge is a retired cop from Lansing, Mich., and he is a member of LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The organization is four years old, but Woolbridge has been singing from the legalization hymnal for a bit longer. He told me he's seen a shift in the public attitude. [continues 598 words]
Howard Woolbridge came to town last week and talked some truths about the war on drugs. It's a failure. Let's legalize everything and say that addiction is a medical problem rather than a legal problem. Woolbridge is a retired cop from Lansing, Mich., and he is a member of LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The organization is four years old, but Woolbridge has been singing from the legalization hymnal for a bit longer. He told me he's seen a shift in the public attitude. [continues 596 words]
I'm writing about Robert Sharpe's outstanding letter: "Drug war fuels crime" ( 3-25-06 ). I'd like to add that our marijuana prohibition policies apparently motivate marijuana users to use other, much more dangerous drugs, like meth, cocaine and heroin. There is only one country in the world where marijuana is officially legal for adults to grow and possess small quantities -The Czech Republic. ( In the Netherlands marijuana is quasi legal-not officially legal. ) The Czech overall drug arrest rate is 1 per 100,000 population. The U. S. overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000 population. [continues 111 words]
ST. LOUIS - Teenagers who drink, smoke and use drugs can derail their brain development and set themselves up for lifelong addiction. And parents who strictly monitor their teens' behavior are one of the most influential forces preventing kids from using drugs and alcohol. Now that might not sound like news to you. But truth is, until recently most of what science has known about addiction in teenagers has been extrapolated from research in adults. Now, new brain-imaging studies have shown that the teenage brain is a rapidly changing organ and doesn't work the way an adult brain does. Researchers now believe that drugs and alcohol can disrupt that massive renovation of the brain during adolescence, making it more vulnerable to drugs and easier for teens to get addicted. [continues 485 words]
Teenagers who drink, smoke and use drugs can derail their brain development and set themselves up for lifelong addiction. And parents who strictly monitor their teens' behavior are one of the most influential forces preventing kids from using drugs and alcohol. Now that might not sound like news to you. But truth is, until recently most of what science has known about addiction in teenagers has been extrapolated from research in adults. Now, new brain-imaging studies have shown that the teenage brain is a rapidly-changing organ and doesn't work the way an adult brain does. Researchers now believe that drugs and alcohol can disrupt that massive renovation of the brain during adolescence, making it more vulnerable to drugs and easier for teens to get addicted. [continues 1202 words]
Brandon Robinson got hooked on heroin when he was 12. Now, at 22, he is trying to quit. He has a lot of reasons to get clean. Friends have died or gone to jail because of drugs. He faces a possible felony conviction after an arrest last year for possession of painkillers without a prescription. But his motivation goes deeper. His top goals: To be a good father to his two young daughters. To make his mother proud. To have a future. [continues 1527 words]
Area Business Warns Of Pitfalls For Parents Who Test Their Own Children For Drugs A recent poll involving 174 people on the Daily Journal Web site showed 90 percent agreed that parents should test their children for drug and substance abuse. Local parents who may not want to order kits online are able to purchase the tests locally. Occupational Drug and Alcohol Collection Services, or ODACS, Corporate Medical Services is a local family owned and operated business specializing in drug and alcohol testing for parents, schools, and businesses, including testing of hair, urine, saliva, and SOS, or residue testing. [continues 329 words]
The Northeast Missouri Narcotics Task Force is one of 29 such units in the state that could face steep cuts unless Congress restores federal funding. President Bush has eliminated funding for Byrne-JAG grants each year in his annual budget. The grants are used by states to help law enforcement combat illegal drugs, and Congress has previously been able to restore some funding each year. Lawmakers want to add $900 million for the grants to the federal fiscal year 2007 budget that begins Oct. 1. Congress has tried to maintain funding at about that level for several years now. [continues 642 words]
The three candidates for school board emphasized the plan to build a new high school as a way to improve the district, and the community, at a forum Thursday. All of the Sedalia school board candidates said they supported the plan to build a new high school and shift grades at existing buildings to provide more classroom space for students. The candidates were divided on their views about random drug testing. The three candidates, who are running to fill two seats, spoke at the forum sponsored by the local chapter of the League of Women Voters. [continues 533 words]
Afghanistan profits from the opium trade because of drug prohibition, not in spite of it. Attempts to limit the supply of drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime. Heroin produced in Afghanistan is primarily consumed in Europe, a continent already experimenting with harm reduction alternatives to drug prohibition. Switzerland's heroin maintenance trials have been shown to reduce drug-related disease, death and crime among chronic users. [continues 111 words]
Editor, the Tribune: I'm writing about a March 5 article, "Student group drums up opposition to drug war." It seems to me that to evaluate our nation's drug policies, we need to compare our drug policies with those of another nation with very substantially different drug policies. In the Czech Republic, citizens can legally grow and possess small quantities of marijuana. The Czech overall drug arrest rate is one per 100,000 population. The U.S. overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000. The Czech robbery rate is two per 100,000. The U.S. robbery rate is 145.9 per 100,000, according to the FBI. [continues 83 words]
WASHINGTON - Some states with significant methamphetamine problems have not received their share of federal money because lawmakers have directed most of a grant program to favored projects in their districts. Missouri was cited Thursday by the Justice Department's inspector general as one example of a shortchanged state. Missouri ranked second, behind California, in seizing 11,859 meth labs between 1998 and 2004. But it was 10th in grants received, with $3.7 million. Texas and Illinois were 10th and 11th in the number of labs seized, but 23rd and 25th, respectively, in money from the meth initiative. [continues 196 words]
Not surprisingly, a former DEA agent and the editor of High Times magazine had widely differing views on the question of marijuana legalization. At "The Great Debate" on Thursday night in the Millennium Student Center, Robert Stutman, a retired special agent for the Drug Enforcement Agency, had a heated debate with Steve Hager, editor in chief of High Times magazine. Stutman, who has been called "the most famous narc in America," by New York Magazine and has made numerous television appearances including on "Today," "60 Minutes" and "48 Hours," became a special agent in charge for the New York City office in 1985. He worked for 25 years with the DEA, making more than 15,000 arrests on drug charges. [continues 1286 words]
On Thursday, President Bush signed the "Combat Meth Act," a nationwide law requiring that all medications containing pseudoephedrine, a substance used in the production of methamphetamine, be placed behind store counters, lessening accessibility and creating a paper trail for those that abuse. "This is a major victory for people in neighborhoods across Missouri and the country who are threatened by meth," Sen. Jim Talent said. Missouri passed a similar law last year. "This will create thousands fewer labs and addicts and fewer children will be contaminated," Talent said. [continues 261 words]
This year, the body of 17-year-old Jacob Bowers was found in a parking lot behind a furniture store in Cape Girardeau. He had been shot once in the back. The bullet went through his heart. A small quantity of cocaine was found in one of his pockets. He had also been carrying a two-shot derringer pistol. It was loaded. Both bullets were dented from the gun's hammer. Apparently, the pistol had misfired. Three days later, Bernard Richards, 19, was arrested and charged with Bowers' murder. The interesting thing about the case was the total absence of virtue. [continues 737 words]
George McMahon walked into MU's Arts and Sciences building Saturday and dumped a can of "marijuana cigarettes" on the floor just to make a point. He is one of many speakers who came to MU for the 2006 Midwest Drug Policy Conference, a three-day event sponsored by the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. The conference ends today. The conference features student activism workshops, books, merchandise and guest speakers from Columbia and around the country. [continues 209 words]
Gary Davey smokes marijuana and credits the drug with relieving pain from injuries he received in a head-on collision that shattered most of his bones from the waist down and confined him to a wheelchair in 1989. G.J. McCarthy photo Corley Koprowski, a University of Missouri-Columbia freshman, is in the audience yesterday as panelists Andrea Brandon, left, of Urbana, Ill., and Heather De Mian of Columbia, right, discuss the medicinal use of marijuana during a conference of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy in the MU Arts and Science Building. [continues 604 words]
When Cliff Thornton takes the stage, he tends to talk about race and class biases associated with the war on drugs. The Green Party candidate for governor in Connecticut will give the keynote address this evening at the Midwest Drug Policy Conference in the Arts and Sciences Building on the MU campus. "Cliff's focus is on issues that relate specifically to minority and poor people who are often victims in the war on drugs," said Dan Viets, state coordinator for the National Organization of the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Those groups are often disproportionately impacted by drug laws." [continues 388 words]
The Columbia City Council last night approved a revised marijuana possession ordinance that supporters say will prevent felons and repeat drug offenders from taking advantage of the law's lenient sentencing guidelines. However, detractors of the updated law called it disingenuous and accused council members of shortchanging Columbia voters who overwhelmingly approved the original pot law in 2004. "I don't think you should be deciding what the people have already decided," said Tony Nenninger, a law student at the University of Missouri-Columbia. "It's the people you should listen to." [continues 262 words]
On Nov. 2, 2004, marijuana won in a landslide in Columbia. Proposition 1, known as the "smart sentencing" proposition, won with 61 percent of the vote. On any other issue, a 61 percent victory would have shut up the opposition. However, this is pot. On Monday, after months of haggling, the City Council ratified changes to the marijuana decriminalization ordinance passed by voters in 2004. As president of the MU chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, known as NORML, I'm close to this debate. I won't go into the changes adopted, though in the interest of being a good citizen, if you don't know them, I encourage you to find out. [continues 343 words]
Inside Missouri
