The recent arrest of a Scranton police officer for allegedly selling drugs while on duty has sparked concerns about whether the city should, or even can, randomly test its officers.

Mark Conway, 36, of 1012 Maple St., was arrested March 1 after Lackawanna County detectives allegedly found five OxyContin pills and 33 methadone tablets in his patrol car. A confidential informant tipped authorities that Officer Conway was allegedly addicted to heroin for more than a year. The informant also said he had bought heroin from Officer Conway about 10 times, according to an affidavit.

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KITTANNING -- The war on drugs is not just a matter of getting more police and more police-related equipment. It is a matter of listening to law enforcement officials, prevention and treatment specialists and prosecutors, and passing the right laws, said state Rep. Jeff Pyle, R-Ford City.

Pyle, who leads the House Task Force on Drugs and Law Enforcement, will host a Drugs and Law Enforcement Hearing at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Kittanning Country Club, 215 Belltop Drive, Kittanning.

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She's proposing a bill that would allow testing in certain circumstances. There are legal questions.

By MICHELLE PITTMAN The Express-Times

State Sen. Lisa Boscola thinks legislation can prevent a situation like the one involving former Nitschmann Middle School Principal John Acerra from happening in the future.

Boscola is working with legal experts to draft a bill giving school boards power to drug test administrators and teachers if they receive complaints about an individual's work history. But Boscola's not sure it can be done legally.

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BETHLEHEM - Parents waiting outside Nitschmann Middle School on Wednesday afternoon were outraged at the drug-dealing charges against a man who was supposed to be guiding their children.

Lynn Faraldo, who has a daughter in seventh grade, said the allegations that Principal John Acerra was dealing crystal methamphetamine out of his office set a horrible example for the students.

"It's disgraceful for the school district," particularly considering students are being taught not to use drugs, she said.

Darlene Sculley, whose son is an eighth-grade student, said Acerra was condoning drug use through his alleged actions.

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A Scranton police officer was arrested late Thursday after allegedly dealing drugs while on duty.

Officer Mark Conway, 36, of 1012 Maple St., was in uniform when Lackawanna County detectives found five OxyContin pills and 33 methadone tablets in his car, according to authorities.

He was charged with possession of methadone, possession of OxyContin, unlawful delivery of OxyContin and two counts of using a telephone for a drug transaction, First Assistant District Attorney Eugene M. Talerico Jr. said.

He was arraigned and released on a $25,000 bond.

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Drexel NORML president Dan Cardillo is to be commended for raising awareness of marijuana prohibition's collateral damage. If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association.

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BETHLEHEM, Pa. - A middle school principal accused of selling crystal methamphetamine from his office after school and on weekends was arrested after police found the drug on his desk, authorities said Wednesday.

There was no indication that John Acerra sold the drug to students at Nitschmann Middle School, where he was arrested Tuesday, said Dennis Mihalopoulos, an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration. Police said they began investigating Acerra in early February after an informant told them the principal was using and distributing the drug.

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Imagine if our overall crime rate was a small fraction of our current crime rate [Slant, "The Cost of Dying," David Faris, Feb. 15, 2007]. We once had such a situation here in the United States. Prior to the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914, "drug-related crime" didn't exist. Drug lords, drug cartels and even drug dealers, as we know them today, didn't exist, either. Back then, all types of recreational drugs were legally sold to anybody with no questions asked, for pennies per dose in grocery stores and pharmacies. Did we have a lot more drug addicts then, compared to now? No.

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If violent paramilitary drug raids and mandatory minimum penalties deterred illegal drug use, the goal of a "drug-free" America would have been achieved decades ago. Instead of adding to what is already the highest incarceration rate in the world, we should be funding cost-effective drug treatment. Attempts to limit the supply of drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits.

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Before we went for a drive around his turf, Philadelphia Police Inspector Carl Holmes handed me a flak jacket. He noted my surprise.

"We'll be in a marked car," he explained. "Sometimes it draws fire."

The war zone in question was East Division, from the Delaware River west to Broad Street, bounded on the north by Roosevelt Boulevard and stretching south to Northern Liberties. It is home to about 300,000 people, most of them Hispanic or African American. The flak jacket was just procedure, more a matter of liability than real danger, but East Division is the setting for much of the gun violence afflicting the city, and Holmes, a gigantic man who once played offensive tackle for Temple University and in the pros (Redskins and Jets), is responsible for policing it.

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As president of Drexel's chapter of NORML, I want to applaud the City Council and Officer Jerry Rocks (You rock, man!) for initiating legislation to ban marijuana paraphernalia and help protect our children. It makes sense, because even though these products aren't aimed at children to begin with, their very presence is a threat! Deal with it, you filthy tobacco smokers and burnout losers, this is one battle you criminals have lost! Okay, maybe you're already spending a fair deal money on that evil devil, weed, that kills brain cells, causes cancer, and renders you violent and insane.

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Panel members listen to testimonials during the House Republican Policy Committee meeting at the Pennsylvania College of Technology on Tuesday.

We need to build more jail cells" and impose "significant mandatory sentences" whenever gun and drug crimes occur together.

These were two of the get-tough recommendations local law enforcement gave to a group of Republican lawmakers during the first of a series of hearings planned across the Commonwealth by the state House of Representatives Republican Policy Committee.

The committees chairman, Rep. Mike Turzai of Allegheny County, brought the panel to the Pennsylvania College of Technology's Professional Development Center Tuesday for almost four hours of testimony that included input from both the law enforcement and treatment-prevention professions.

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Several parents, spurred by the recent Operation Raw Deal that rounded up 21 local drug dealers, listened intently during a parent night at Cranberry Elementary School to an Attorney General's office narcotics agent talk about how to keep their children out of harm's way. Elaine Surma, senior supervisory narcotic agent of the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General in Erie, told parents drugs are here to stay in Venango County.

"You're here because you want to know what's really going on in Venango County. Anything and everything," Surma said.

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The Drug War Claims More Lives Than Drugs Themselves.

Now that we have the official 2006 Philadelphia murder tally -- 406 killings -- we can start talking about ways to lower it. But wringing our hands and singing songs of solidarity isn't going to cut it. And it's unlikely that anyone will seriously propose changing the ruinously expensive and counterproductive drug policies that make Philadelphia one of the most violent cities in the country.

By the end of January, the U.S. had already spent well over $4 billion just this year trying to prevent people from putting controlled substances up their noses and into their veins. The War on Drugs -- what is it with Americans and declaring war on indefinite nouns? -- creates a predictable netherworld of nefarious suppliers and dealers who turn to violence to settle scores and turf wars. No matter how hard the police may work to disrupt these networks, they end up plowing the sea. And all that drug money leads inevitably to corruption.

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The dangerous dance with heroin finally may be hitting Cumberland County.

Coroner Michael Norris recorded 17 drug-related accidental deaths in 2006 -- a figure more than double the figure in any of the previous nine years.

Fourteen of the deaths were caused by methadone, fentanyl or heroin. Methadone is a potent synthetic drug frequently used in drug treatment programs as a substitute for morphine or heroin. Investigators have tracked drug dealers mixing lethal cocktails of fentanyl and heroin to as far away as Mexico.

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CARLISLE - Deaths from accidental drug overdoses set an unsettling record in Cumberland County last year, according to Coroner Michael Norris.

Seventeen people died in 2006 from misusing prescription or illegal drugs, or mixtures of them, Norris said.

That tally far exceeds the prior record of eight accidental drug overdose deaths set in 2004, he said.

"This is the first time that drug deaths have shot up to that level," Norris said in his annual report to county commissioners yesterday.

It is too early to tell if the 2006 figure is an anomaly or the herald of an ominous trend, he said.

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Students Score 2 Percent Higher Than the State Average in Both Areas of Usage.

CLARION - Clarion County has received its first comprehensive report card on the hard facts and dangers of drug and alcohol use among its youth.

The revealing results indicate a little more than 28 percent of all students surveyed have reported past 30-day use of alcohol, with 16 percent reporting binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks).

In comparison with state averages, Clarion County is higher by 2 percent in both areas of usage.

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The Garrett Reid Case Prompts a New Look. "It's Become More Acceptable, More Social," One Said.

The questioning last week of the eldest son of Eagles coach Andy Reid in Montgomery County and his alleged confession of heroin use has renewed attention to narcotics abuse by affluent suburbanites.

"These stories are not uncommon, but they still seem to shock people," said Jeremiah Daley, executive director of the Philadelphia County High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a law enforcement clearinghouse.

While national statistics indicate that heroin abuse has been steady in recent years, some Philadelphia-area drug-treatment experts say it appears to be on the rise.

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New police have become chips in the high-stakes poker game that is the race for mayor.

Michael Nutter and Dwight Evans say we need 500 more men and women in blue. Tom Knox has seen their bet and raised it. He wants 1,000. So does Bob Brady. The big guy will hire another 1,000 police and probation and parole officers - if elected.

There's a cost to this, of course, but what's a few million when the citizens are clamoring for the next mayor to do something - anything - about crime? It's the issue that tops the charts in all the polls, hence the bidding war among mayoral wannabes.

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James Morgan said learning about the death of a suspected drug dealer last month in York triggered memories of his own life-and-death experiences as an undercover narcotics agent.

"It just brought back memories for me, because there were so many situations that could've gone bad like that," Morgan said of the death of Antonio Luis Sotomayor.

Dealers call selling drugs "the game," but a winner's trophy or a crushing defeat aren't the outcomes of this contest. The cold reality is that defeat can mean death.

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