Following the death of an SFA student from alcohol poisoning, SFA is being accused of being far more lenient toward alcohol-related incidents than marijuana-related ones.

In a press release, Colorado-based nonprofit group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation criticized SFA for policies that penalize marijuana use more heavily than alcohol, despite statistics that show alcohol is related to far more deaths than marijuana.

"There is no logical reason why an institution of higher education should punish a student more for using marijuana than for using alcohol and this incident demonstrates what can happen when students are steered toward drinking by such imbalanced policies," said SAFER Executive Director Mason Tvert.

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Through the years, Mexico has struggled with corruption fostered by drug trafficking.

Which is why it was such positive news that a federal judge in Mexico is seeking to extradite Mario Villanueva, the former governor of Quintana Roo, to the United States on drug smuggling charges, Reuters reported recently.

Villanueva, who spent six years in prison in Mexico City, faces more time behind bars on charges of helping to smuggle 200 tons of cocaine into the United States.

The incident allegedly occurred in the 1990s. If the former governor is extradited, he would become the highest-ranking former Mexican official to stand trial on drug-trafficking charges in the United States.

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Good news is that, along the border, there seems to be increased cooperation between local officials here and those as far south as Mexico City in regard to fighting Mexico's drug cartels.

Mexican cartels produce the drugs, and we've been blaming Mexico for that.

We have the appetite for drugs, and Mexico blames us for that.

We wish the quest for solutions to that dilemma would carry north to Washington D.C. and become more of a national priority, right along with our dilemma of securing our borders from terrorists.

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I am utterly disgusted at the way in which Sheriff McCoy blatantly disregards the recent changes in the state's marijuana possession laws! Arresting anyone who is caught with marijuana no matter the amount, after a state law has been passed strongly suggesting otherwise, is not only a slap in the face to the state but is also a huge waste of taxpayer dollars obviously. I challenge anyone but especially Mr. McCoy to show not only myself but the rest of the community how marijuana poses more of a social threat than alcohol or tobacco!

Nick Baker

Paris

[end]

A Dallas man warned community members Monday of a heroin and over-the-counter drug mixture that is used by youths as young as 10 and is associated with 24 recent Dallas area deaths.

"This drug is beginning to branch out," he told an audience of about 60 people who listened to him at Estacado High School.

One person has been arrested in association with the drug in Lubbock and four local cheez addicts have sought treatment, Quintanilla said.

Cheez is made by mixing black tar heroin with an over-the-counter allergy or headache medicine, most commonly Tylenol PM, Quintanilla said.

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What if our prison system wasn't just a reflection of society - but a force that shaped it? CHRISTOPHER SHEA explores a new way of looking at lock-up.

What if America launched a new New Deal and no one noticed?

And what if, instead of lifting the unemployed out of poverty, this multibillion-dollar project steadily drove poor communities further and further out of the American mainstream?

That's how America should think about its growing prison system, some leading social scientists are saying, in research that suggests prisons have a far deeper impact on the nation than simply punishing criminals. Fueled by the war on drugs, "three strike" laws and mandatory minimum sentences, America's prisons and jails now house some 2.2 million inmates - roughly seven times the figure of the early 1970s. And Americans are investing vast resources to keep the system running: The cost to maintain American correctional institutions is some $60 billion a year. For years sociologists saw prisons - with their disproportionately poor, black and uneducated populations - partly as mirrors of the social and economic disparities that cleave American life. Now, however, a new crop of books and articles are looking at the penal system not just as a reflection of society but as a force that shapes it.

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Re: "Don't make Jena out to be more than it is - Events there certainly merit scrutiny, but they're not emblematic of country's race relations, says Heather Mac Donald," Sept. 30 Points.

To justify her contention that the largest prison system in the history of the world is filled with black men because they choose to be criminals instead of attending elite universities, Heather Mac Donald points out that blacks commit many more murders than whites.

Never mind that only .01 percent of all arrests are for murder.

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Re: "U.S. may send Mexico $1.4 billion in drug war -- Money in Pentagon budget targets training, high-tech tools," Tuesday news story.

It is ironic that the government should be sending $1.4 billion to the Mexican government to fight the drug traffic when the U.S. drug laws help send some $30 billion-plus each year to the Mexican cartels that finance the drug importation business.

The only way to stop the violent and criminal border traffic in illegal drugs is to change the drug laws so that the traffic becomes moderate, legal and regulated. Prohibited drugs, like prohibited alcohol, are transported and sold by people like Al Capone. A legal drug, like legal alcohol, is sold by companies like Walgreen's.

Can the $1.4 billion we send one side of this struggle overcome the $30 billion we send the other side? Not likely.

Buford C. Terrell, Houston

[end]

Stability to the South Pays Off in the North

The traditional time for Mexican presidents to brag about success is early in the administration, long before reality has overtaken the illusion of progress. But in the case of President Felipe Calderon's first 10 months in office, there's genuine reason to believe his government's claim of headway against crime and corruption.

Mr. Calderon took office amid a street war in which drug gangs were turning cities into killing fields. Police chiefs, politicians and journalists were among the main targets of cartel assassins. Ripple effects of the lawlessness reached even into North Texas. Mr. Calderon took the controversial decision to send in the military, and early indicators suggest that this and other strategies are working.

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Heroin Mixture A New Variation On An Old Problem, Officials Say

It was like ordering takeout.

Youngsters from 14 to 20 years old, from Rockwall and neighboring hamlets, hung out at a shopping center to hook up with friends who would make the run. Then they'd "order up," hand over their money, and the runners would be on their way.

But they weren't going for pizza. These mostly middle-class suburban kids were going to South Dallas "trap houses" where they bought drugs - - cocaine, pills, and the cheap, cleverly marketed form of deadly heroin called "cheese."

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They are not listed on any stock exchange, but drug smugglers make profits that rival the top companies in America.

If you combined the Mexican cartels into one entity, it would generate more revenue than 40 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, according to a recent report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

The cartels produce about $23 billion in annual revenue, the GAO investigators determined.

If the statistics are not enough to depress -- or frighten -- you, consider this: Both the U.S. and Mexican governments, through bureaucratic bungling, are unwitting accomplices in this pernicious pipeline of drugs.

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The Aransas County Sheriff's Office (ACSO) has a new deputy on staff, but he won't be recognized by a uniform or a badge. In addition, the latest staff member's hiring was made possible by the generosity of two local residents who are committed to the community.

Deputy Flaco, a two-year-old Labrador, was purchased, and Investigator Lou Lourcey was sent to Somerset to train with him. The two are now ready to hit the streets and schools in Aransas County in an effort to abate the drug problem in the community.

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East Texas needs drug money.

That's what the region's detox and rehab center officials say while waiting to hear if any of the $13.5 million in federal addiction-kicking money Texas received Thursday will go to them.

Some don't think it will.

"Yes, we're rural, we're sometimes overlooked, and in my opinion there is a disparity of funding," said Susan Erwin, director of East Texas Center for Alcohol and Drug Abuse, the region's screening and referral center. "All too often rural communities miss out on a lot of funded programs."

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ARLINGTON -- Two men are dead, and drug-prevention experts are warning that a toxic mix of heroin and over-the-counter medicine has arrived in Tarrant County.

The Tarrant County medical examiner's office has ruled that the July 7 death of 26-year-old Pedro Duque in Fort Worth and the July 31 death of James David Burnette, a 17-year-old who had attended Martin and Venture high schools in Arlington, were caused by "cheese," a mix of heroin and diphenhydramine, which is found in common allergy medicines and pain relievers.

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LPD Officials to Arrest Anyone Possessing Drugs -- in Any Amount

Marijuana smokers who think they can avoid arrest due to a new law that leaves it to police discretion to issue a citation to anyone possessing four ounces or less of the drug better think again.

In Lampasas, police will continue to arrest those in possession of marijuana -- or any other drug -- in any amount.

Chief of Police Tim Angermann said drug users won't find a billboard in Lampasas to welcome them.

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Re: "Council repeals alarm policy - Police to again respond to all calls at businesses," Thursday Metro.

If Dallas Police Chief David Kunkle is looking for a way to make up for lost police time since the repeal of the verified response policy, perhaps he should implement a new policy recently made available to him by the passage of HB 2391, which gives local police the discretion to quickly issue a citation for possession of small amounts of marijuana instead of arresting the accused, which could take hours.

Does it really make sense to spend valuable police time arresting individuals when they will probably receive no jail time for the offense?

Matt Wolfgang, Dallas

[end]

PALESTINE -- Palestine Independent School District trustees heard and approved the district's 2006-07 student drug testing report during the board's regular meeting Monday.

Assistant Superintendent Suzanne Eiben reported that 35 students were tested at the middle school, with none testing positive for drugs. At the high school, 595 students were tested, with 19 testing positive for drugs.

Eiben reminded the board that any time a student signed a refusal for testing, it was automatically considered a positive and the student would have to be retested at every administration.

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Wichita Falls City Manager Darron Leiker went into the budget process for 2007-08 knowing that part of the undertaking would have to include salaries to fold six employees into the Wichita Falls Police Department.

Those six had been part of the North Texas Regional Drug Enforcement Task Force, which appears set to shut down at the end of September as the interagency agreement funding it ends.

The reality started to sink in several months ago as the Texas Legislature wrapped up its session without bolstering the task force, Leiker said. The city and surrounding areas had hoped some dollars would come through.

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City Code Officials, Police Work Together To Clean Up The Streets

PALESTINE -- From the curb, the small, abandoned frame house had the look of one that had seen better days -- weeds and dirt competing for space in the front yard, a dirty, broken commode sitting upright, discarded near the front porch, old clothes scattered nearby, graffiti sprayed on the carport.

In the back, piles of trash were heaped behind the house, creating a refuge for rats, flies and mosquitoes.

Flanked by interim police chief Larry Coutorie and officers Melvin Hill and James Lewis, city Director of Development Code Warren Oakley and code enforcement officer Clydell McPeak carefully walked around the property, noting where trash had been moved and what remained in violation of city code.

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A teenage student has become the latest victim in Dallas to die from a powerful and highly addictive new street drug known as 'cheese'. The rise of the drug, a mixture of black tar heroin and powdered headache tablets, has been described as an epidemic.

Dealers often sell it at $2 a time to get youngsters hooked. Because it is snorted, teenagers do not realise they are taking such a lethal heroin-based drug.

Since 2005 at least 23 teenagers in the Texan city have died after taking cheese, so called because it resembles crumbled Parmesan. The latest victim was 18-year-old Scott Clark, a volunteer for a local animal charity and a fitness fanatic.

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