Police Chief Jeff Dudley Said The Program Took Up A Lot Of Man-Hours.

After two decades and nearly 3,800 participants, Salem's Camp DARE has become a victim of tight budget times.

City Manager Kevin Boggess announced Tuesday that the free summer camp, which annually hosted rising seventh-graders, will be cut indefinitely, a move he said will save the city more than $100,000 a year.

Last year, 208 of 320 eligible students attended the camp, according to city spokesman Mike Stevens. The eight-week camp hosts boys and girls separately during weeklong sessions and, running from June to August, falls in parts of two fiscal years.

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The dictionary defines "education" as the "act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life." With that in mind, I am not sure how the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program has been able to keep the "E" in its name.

The "general knowledge" the group imparts upon the public is based far more on myths and scare tactics than on factual evidence. The organization certainly does not encourage reasoning and judgment, instead relying on the students of the program to take everything presented to them at face value without even considering contrary scientific evidence.

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Testimony from a former police officer, a professor, and patients with HIV and an artificial hip wasn't enough to sway lawmakers on a House subcommittee Wednesday evening. Both of Del. Harvey Morgan's bills to loosen restrictions on medical marijuana and reduce marijuana-related penalities were voted down.

The Gloucester Republican' s first proposal, to decriminalize possession of small amounts of the drug and reduce penalties for distributing certain quantities, was voted down by committee members who disputed that it would save the state money and said it eased the punishments dealt out to drug dealers.

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RICHMOND - Before a packed room in the General Assembly Building, Delegate Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, on Wednesday called for laws allowing the medical use of marijuana and reducing the penalties for possession of the drug.

Morgan, 79, chairman of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, said the bills he is sponsoring represent a "compassionate and sensible drug policy."

"I have received more media inquiries about these bills than any measure, I believe, that I have ever patroned," Morgan said. "To me, this serves as an indication that support for a sensible approach to policies regarding the medicinal use of marijuana is widespread."

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RICHMOND -- When House of Delegates Republicans showed up for their daily caucus huddle and strategy session in the Capitol late last week, there was a plate of fresh brownies and a forged note waiting for them.

"Friends, Please enjoy these homemade brownies! -- Harvey Morgan" Conservative lawmakers pulled the munchies prank to tease Del. Harvey Morgan, a Gloucester pharmacist and Republican whose push to decriminalize pot possession and expand the state's medical marijuana statute caught many political observers off guard. In his third decade in the General Assembly, Morgan comes from the classic mold of the Virginia gentleman.

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Republican legislators in Richmond say there's a better chance of getting gay marriage in Virginia than decriminalizing pot.

Actually, that's not quite how they put it. It was more like what Del. Dave Albo, a Republican from Fairfax County, said last week about a bill presented to the General Assembly by Chesapeake Republican Del. Harvey Morgan:

"(It's) going to be dead about as soon as he finishes his explanation."

And this is what qualifies as open, intelligent debate in Richmond -- the place where you don't need a tendon hammer to make knees jerk on cue.

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It's not just "left coast" states like California and Washington that are considering marijuana law reforms to help balance state budgets. For the first time in years, the Virginia General Assembly will consider common-sense marijuana law reform. House Bill 1134 would replace criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession with a civil penalty of $500.

The bill's sponsor is no dope-smoking hippy; in fact, he is uniquely qualified to push the envelope. Del. Harvey Morgan is a Republican member of the Virginia General Assembly and an assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school. His bill is grounded in legitimate clinical expertise and much-needed fiscal conservatism.

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RICHMOND - Radical legislation doesn't usually come out of Gloucester, but Del. Harvey Morgan is pushing to reform Virginia's marijuana laws so that possessing small amounts of pot is no longer an automatic felony.

Morgan, a long-serving Republican pharmacist from Gloucester, is sponsoring a pair of bills to overhaul how Virginia treats marijuana. One bill would decriminalize marijuana possession -- turning an automatic felony and 30-day jail sentence into a $500 fine. The other bill would allow broader use of medical marijuana.

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I'm writing about Worth Richardson's outstanding column from Wednesday, "The war on drugs is not working; a new approach is needed." The so-called war on drugs is a huge industry and huge bureaucracy. Victory in the drug war is not possible, nor is it the goal. Victory in the drug war would mean that the drug war industry and bureaucracy are out of business.

There are basically two types of people who support the so-called war on drugs: The first are those who make their livelihood from it. This includes politicians and bureaucrats who are probably on the payroll of the drug cartels. (Al Capone had hundreds of politicians and prohibition officials on his payroll.) The second are suckers. These include:

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This is in regard to Worth Richardson's column Wednesday, "The war on drugs is not working; a new approach is needed."

Richardson succinctly hits the proverbial nail on the head when he states, "It seems pretty clear America's war on drugs is very inefficient and not working."

"We need, and I use the word 'all out war,' on all fronts," was Richard Nixon's reaction to his national commission's recommendation that marijuana no longer be a criminal offense, according to Nixon's Oval Office tapes. The year after Nixon's "all out war" on marijuana, arrests jumped by over 100,000.

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Morally there is little doubt the abuse of narcotics is wrong, and scientifically there is little doubt it is unhealthy both physically and mentally.

However, the way in which our government looks to shield society from the dangers of illegal drugs may be lacking.

Richard Nixon coined the phrase "War on Drugs" back in the 1960s. Since then, America has waged this war, but with little success.

The supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way since then. In fact, the business of illegal drugs is bigger than ever and more dangerous than ever.

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NEWPORT NEWS -- Numb from the drugs that ran through her petite body, Vanessa Rickerson returned to the streets after a stranger raped her.

She didn't know his name -- he was anonymous just like all the other men Rickerson met as a prostitute.

"You still go back and do it because you want that drug," recalls 39-year-old Rickerson, who needed the money to feed a heroin habit that wouldn't loosen its grip on her.

Then another man raped her. This one hit her to get what he wanted. She struggled to break the cycle of prostitution and drug addiction. It was a lifestyle that ended with Rickerson being convicted twice for prostitution. Talking from a tiny jail interview room, Rickerson recounted how she fell into this lifestyle.

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ISLE OF WIGHT -- Heroin -- a narcotic more commonly found in urban areas -- is making inroads into rural Isle of Wight and Surry counties.

Authorities are still searching for [name redacted], 47, of Dendron, one of 22 people indicted Thursday on federal heroin drug trafficking charges.

The indictments allege that [name redacted] is a drug courier and a mid-level dealer for the drug ring, which stretched from New Jersey to Hampton Roads, according to federal officials.

[name redacted] is charged with one count of conspiring to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison.

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His Wife Placed On Three Years Probation

HARRISONBURG -- A United States District Court judge sentenced a Verona methamphetamine dealer Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison but spared his wife in a case that saw a regional drug task force confiscate more than 500 grams of meth, nearly $170,000 and 27 vehicles.

Judge Glen Conrad, labeling the sentence "just," said, "This was just not a one-time deal."

Authorities arrested Douglas Rankin, 45, and his wife, Lisa Rankin, 41, in January after being tipped off about Douglas Rankin's illegal meth operation, according to federal court records. WASSP Task Force members seized drugs from the couple's Parkins Lane home, as well as 23 guns, 27 vehicles and $169,874 in drug proceeds.

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When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in March that the federal government would stop prosecuting medical-marijuana cases, Elliston resident Michael Krawitz cheered.

Krawitz did it again when Holder renewed that pledge in a written directive in October.

He cheered again this month, when the American Medical Association reversed its longstanding opposition to expanded research into marijuana as a treatment for pain, glaucoma, HIV wasting syndrome and certain other maladies.

Krawitz, 47, is a disabled American veteran. He's disabled as a result of a bad motorcycle crash he had in Guam while stationed there with the U.S. Air Force.

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Editor, Times-Dispatch:

Regarding the editorial, "Richmond Jail: Solutions":

Richmond is one of many cities grappling with overcrowded jails. Throughout the nation, state and local governments facing budget shortfalls are pursuing alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. A study conducted by the RAND Corporation found that every additional dollar invested in substance-abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.48 in societal costs.

There is far more at stake than tax dollars. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction, and delinquency. Not only do the children lose out, but society as a whole does, too. Incarcerating non-violent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in anti-social behavior.

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Richmond officials' recent trip to Durham to study how that city is helping convicted drug offenders re-enter society brought back this encouraging datum: Relapse among those who have been through the two-year Triangle Residental Options for Substance Abusers program is a mere 8 percent after one year -- compared with a roughly 50 percent relapse rate elsewhere.

What's more, the two-year TROSA program is largely self-financed. Only 5 percent of its revenue comes from government grants. That's a huge selling point during extraordinarily tight fiscal times.

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Since I have become the leader of the Virginia Tech chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, I have continually encountered the same question: Are you pro-drug? Individuals make the assumption that the fact that I oppose ineffective anti-drug legislation somehow implies that I advocate drug use.

In a sense, I find such an assumption sort of confusing.

Does being pro-choice imply that one is pro-abortion? Does supporting one's right to eat fatty foods from McDonald's suggest that you are pro-obesity? The simple answer is no. In both of those scenarios, we have acknowledged the fact that a person has the right do what she pleases with his or her own body, so long as nobody else is hurt.

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Local prosecutors are worried that a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in late June could hamstring the criminal justice system — and cause some defendants to escape prosecution.

In a 5-4 ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, the high court determined that prosecutors are responsible for having crime lab experts on hand for trials so that the defense can challenge their findings. That clashes with Virginia's court practices, which placed the responsibility on the defense attorney to request the analysts' presence.

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To the Editor:

I was very disappointed to receive a letter from our congressman, Republican Randy Forbes, recently in which he stated he is unalterably opposed to marijuana legalization for medicinal or recreational use. I was mostly disappointed, because in his letter he was not familiar with drug classification in the United States by the Drug Enforcement Agency. He referred to cocaine/crack as a schedule I narcotic and looped it in with meth, PCP, marijuana, heroin and, as he put it, 100 other schedule I narcotics.

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