Re: =93Lower Sentences for Drugs =AD Commission right to offer reduced penalty,=94 Monday Editorials. For the 50-year period spanning the 1920s to early 1970s, there were about 110 state and federal prisoners per 100,000 in the United States. In 1973, President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration by executive order, thereby ushering in the modern war on drugs. State and federal prisoners now number about 700 per 100,000. After release, these prisoners can be legally discriminated against for the rest of their lives. They can be refused employment, housing, education, government benefits and the right to vote. [continues 132 words]
Commission Right to Offer Reduced Penalty America's effort to use our prisons to stem the illegal drug problem has largely failed. Incarceration of drug offenders has seen prison and jail populations skyrocket, even as public opinion has shifted away from harsh sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. That's why the U.S. Sentencing Commission was right to decide this month that some 50,000 federal drug trafficking offenders could be eligible for reduced sentences. The amendment to federal sentencing guidelines, approved in April, is already in effect for offenders facing sentencing in the future, creating an issue of fairness: Why should the length of a sentence be determined by the date of sentencing? [continues 377 words]
No one seems to want to face up to the bad policies and laws that have created our latest immigration problems on our southern border. Starting in 1937 with the prohibition of marijuana and all other recreational drugs thereafter, America has funded all the drug cartels in Mexico and Central and South America to such an extent that they are more powerful than the governments in those countries. These cartels have destroyed the economies in these countries and created such violence and lawlessness that the refugees from these countries are fleeing here for safety and economic opportunity. Remember that alcohol prohibition fueled organized crime in America previous to this prohibition of drugs. We didn't seem to learn from the previous mistake. Easy, feel-good legislation is not always a good thing. We created this problem! Gilbert White, Ennis [end]
Re: "My bad trip on edible marijuana - Colorado coming to grips with darker side of legalizing pot for the public, says Maureen Dowd," Friday Viewpoints. Naive marijuana users like Maureen Dowd may be in for an unpleasant surprise if they choose edibles as a means of experimenting with legal marijuana in Colorado. The delayed onset effects can be overpowering. Colorado should require warning labels. First-time users should be discouraged from trying marijuana in edible form. The horror stories coming out of Colorado obscure the fact that marijuana consumption is safer under legalization. [continues 137 words]
Colorado coming to grips with darker side of legalizing pot for the public, says Maureen Dowd The caramel-chocolate-flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop. [continues 601 words]
House Vote Shows States Tired of Disjointed Tack We can't go on like this. The words are familiar to parties in many dysfunctional relationships, like the one between the federal government and states that have gone their separate ways on the failed and grotesquely expensive war on drugs. Something has to give. The U.S. House recognized that with an unprecedented bipartisan vote last week to bar the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from raiding marijuana dispensaries in states that legalized pot for medicinal uses. [continues 420 words]
HAMILTON, Bermuda (AP) - A report commissioned by the government of Bermuda has endorsed legalizing marijuana for medical purposes and decriminalizing personal use of the drug. The report from the Cannabis Reform Collaborative, which began reviewing drug laws in the British island territory in December, concluded that prosecutions for nonviolent offenses related to marijuana are overwhelming the criminal justice system and disproportionately target nonwhite and immigrant populations. It calls for phasing out penalties for marijuana possession toward eventual legalization for people 21 and older. [end]
Dallas police are still looking for the source of synthetic drugs that sent more than 90 people to hospitals in recent days, the department said Friday. Deputy Chief Christina Smith said officers have checked eight smoke shops in the area. On Wednesday, police found what they suspect is synthetic marijuana at a shop in the 3600 block of Ramona Avenue in east Oak Cliff, Smith said. The substance has been sent to a lab for testing. Officers reported finding marijuana Tuesday during a search of a shop in the 600 block of East Tenth Street. Charges in that case are pending, Smith said. [continues 100 words]
Panel Considering Warning Labels on Edible Marijuana DENVER - Colorado's marijuana experiment is threatened by the popularity of eating it instead of smoking it, leading the pot industry to join health officials and state regulators to try to curb the problem of consumers ingesting too much weed. Ed Andrieski/The Associated Press Marijuana-infused foods are booming in Colorado's new recreational market, but many people are consuming too much pot too quickly, health officials say. A task force gathered Wednesday to start brainstorming ways to educate consumers, including a standard warning system on popular edibles, which is the industry term for marijuana that has been concentrated and infused into food or drink. [continues 312 words]
Re: "Crack down on drug users," by Sue Biesel, Saturday Letters. Biesel is entitled to her opinion, but it's always nice when opinion bears at least a nodding relation to facts. Here are a few with regard to our treatment of drug users. It wasn't all that long ago that we did not send people to prison just for using drugs. Now, the United States has some 2.5 million of its citizens in prison - more than any other country in the world (even the ones we consider bad guys, like China and Iran). One out of every 100 adults in the U.S. is in prison. About 80 percent are in prison for nonviolent offenses, chiefly drug offenses. Punish them we already do, Ms. Biesel, but it does not stop there. [continues 62 words]
Biesel's letter on drug enforcement is not irrational. Abraham Lincoln is said to have remarked that the best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it vigorously. One must disagree, however, with placing blame for the damage done by the drug trade solely on drug users. Since it is the illegality of the trade that makes it so toxic, one must recognize that we the people also have a responsibility for the drug war's damage. [continues 103 words]
Sue Biesel wants to arrest drug users because they are "stupid people who don't care ... about themselves or their families." But what if they aren't? What if they are highly motivated, intelligent, successful people? Would entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Rick Steves and Steve Jobs and athletes like Mark Stepnoski and Michael Phelps and scientists like Carl Sagan and Francis Crick and entertainers like Oprah Winfrey and Willie Nelson be imprisoned along with the rest of the 100 million Americans who report having used an illegal drug? [continues 57 words]
So Far, Prison Terms Are Up to 12 Years for Joint Task Force Members McALLEN (AP) - Sometimes the heists were carefully choreographed ruses designed not to raise suspicion. Other times they were brazen grabs. Either way, the lawmen sentenced Tuesday in South Texas used their badges to protect drugs or steal them for resale to other traffickers. U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced four of nine former law enforcement officers to prison terms ranging from eight years to nearly 12 years before recessing to continue with the others Wednesday morning. [continues 146 words]
Fixing Jail Time Disparities Doesn't End at War on Drugs, Leonard Pitts Says It swallowed people up. That's what it really did, if you want to know the truth. It swallowed them up whole, swallowed them up by the millions. In the process, it hollowed out communities, broke families, stranded hope. Politicians brayed that they were being "tough on crime" - as if anyone is really in favor of crime - as they imposed ever longer and more inflexible sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. But the War on Drugs didn't hurt drugs at all: Usage rose by 2,800 percent - that's not a typo - in the 40 years after it began in 1971. The War also made America the biggest jailer on earth and drained $1 trillion - also not a typo - from the treasury. [continues 485 words]
Forget about going after the sellers of all the dope, meth, pills, illegal drugs. Why not arrest the users? I'm really tired of all the rhetoric about drug users being the abused ones or victims. Understandably, some are born into the drug culture, but the fact is that most people choose to take illegal drugs. Seriously, the people buying and using these drugs are the ones causing such great damage to our country. They should all be punished. Let the drug users pay the price with being in jail or prison and not in rehab centers. [continues 76 words]
Re: "Joint celebrations on 4/20 - Pot holiday was once underground; now it sees the lighters of day," Monday news story. As I read my morning DMN, I ran across a story called "joint celebrations." The story itself was disgusting in the fact that there are that many potheads in America. More disgusting was the photo that accompanied the story. The picture of the pothead known by the street name "NJ Weedman" carrying a cross adorned with marijuana leaves is an insult to Christians everywhere. [continues 124 words]
Re: "Heroin overdoses on rise - Crackdown on access to pills has fueled trend," Sunday news story. Pictures DO speak louder than words in your story. Pictured just under the title is an addict with her starter drug - the one we know as tobacco. Indeed, tobacco leads to abuse of other drugs, including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and heroin. One solution to decrease drug usage would be to ban the tobacco drug, which kills 14,000 addicts and another 1,800 innocent people (who were exposed to toxic tobacco smoke) around the world, every day. In the U.S., the tobacco pushers and their lethal drug cost our economy $200 billion every year. The solution is to eliminate this drug from society and prosecute the people who still push the killer weed. Dave Johnson, Arlington [end]
Our society can be better protected against crime, uncleanliness and otherwise despicable acts by getting rid of prohibition: a fallacious policy wanting of wishful thinking. Such policy has proven ineffective, inefficient and more troublesome than preventive. The 1920s era of prohibition ended in failure due to its creation of black markets, gang activity and crime; our current war on drugs does not conceptually differ. These events are useful in that they show humans, by nature and whether we choose to accept it or not, are often times attracted to vice. Only a campaign of containment can eradicate the host of problems created by the policy of prohibition; just as a controlled fire is allowed only to burn certain areas of underbrush, we can control violators' choices by disallowing them the right to choose. Simple logic and empirical evidence provide that prohibition creates a black market where tax is not paid, behavior is not regulated and crime flourishes. Additionally, prohibition does not discourage lawlessness but rather encourages it, resulting in substantial amounts of money being illegally made from which Big Brother will not see a dime, and taxpayers will bear no relief. Blake Fowler, Paris [end]
Colorado Governor Departs From Divisive Politics At a time when ballot box success seems increasingly defined by alignment with the political extremes, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper strikes us as the kind of centrist leader the nation's politicians could learn from. It's not so much his politics but the thoughtful, measured method of his delivery. We didn't immediately identify Hickenlooper's party - he's a Democrat - - in hopes that readers of all political persuasions will read on. He's no liberal, especially when it comes to the biggest issue driving news from Colorado these days: marijuana legalization. [continues 282 words]
WASHINGTON - In January, President Barack Obama said reclassifying marijuana and making it legal in any way "is a job for Congress." "It's not something by ourselves that we start changing," Obama said. In February, 18 members of the House shot back in a letter to the president, telling Obama he should use his executive power to make the change on his own. Caught in the middle are the more than 1 million Americans who use marijuana for their physical and psychological ailments. They say they face daily uncertainty about whether they' ll be able to get the drug they need or whether they' ll be arrested for possessing it. [continues 290 words]
Even Amid Shifting Views in Own Party, They're Standing Back LOS ANGELES - California voters strongly favor legalizing marijuana. The state Democratic Party adopted a platform last month urging California to follow Colorado and Washington in ending marijuana prohibition. The state's lieutenant governor, Gavin Newsom, has called for legalizing the drug. Matthew Staver/The New York Times Marijuana legalization like Colorado's is gaining in popularity, but Democratic governors are hesitant. Fear of being portrayed as soft on crime could be one reason, analysts say. [continues 371 words]
Other States Should Wait to See Consequences Before Legalizing, Gov. John Hickenlooper Says Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, finds himself in the difficult position of defending and executing the state's marijuana-legalization statutes after voters overwhelmingly approved them in 2012, over his personal objections. Points asked him to assess Colorado's experience in the three months since the first legal marijuana stores opened in his state. You've counseled other governors to wait a couple of years before following your state's course. Is Colorado having buyer's remorse on legalization? [continues 892 words]
Re: "Don't let Colorado's pot experiment draw in kids" by Steve Blow, Thursday Metro column. While I agree with Mr. Blow and his other commentators that keeping marijuana and other drugs away from teenagers is critically important, I strongly disagree with the idea implicit in his column that legalization works against this goal. The nature of a black market, like that for drugs, is that nobody is turned away. Anyone who wishes to buy is constrained only by the morals of his chosen dealer. There is nothing now that keeps Texas teens, and indeed younger children, from buying pot or any other drug their dealer is selling. A legal market, on the other hand, allows for regulation at the source and makes it much harder for children to take part. We've already learned this with cigarettes and alcohol. Ask your teenage children which is easiest for them to get: pot, beer or cigarettes? I don't know how the experiments going on in Colorado and Washington will work out, but if properly operated they will reduce black market sales, and concomitant access by teens. Paul Miller, Lewisville [end]
Colorado has legalized marijuana, and I'm glad. We need to try some new approaches to drug policy in this country, and if Colorado is willing to be the guinea pig, we should be grateful. But here at home, we need to be careful that Colorado's experiment doesn't blur one very important fact. Here, there and everywhere, teens should not be smoking marijuana. Tina Clemmons is a prevention specialist for the Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. She has been hearing more and more parents dismiss concerns about their teens' drug use. [continues 546 words]
Change threatens U.S. institutions, devalues science, fact, he says WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior U.S. drug enforcement official urged Congress and others Tuesday not to abandon scientific concerns over marijuana in favor of public opinion to legalize it, even as the Obama administration takes a hands-off approach in states where voters have made legal its sale and use. The deputy administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration, Thomas Harrigan, testified Tuesday before a House oversight panel that easing laws governing marijuana threatens U.S. institutions. [continues 436 words]
I am one of few people alive today who lived through the days of Prohibition in the 1920s when the sale and consumption of alcohol was illegal. With Prohibition in force, murderous Sicilian Mafia gangs controlled the illegal alcoholic beverage trade. When that law was repealed, Mafia kingpins like Al Capone disappeared from the American scene. Now the so-called Mexican Mafia controls the marijuana trade, and their crimes against innocent civilians and children make the Sicilian Mafia look like a benevolent organization. [continues 85 words]
Re: "Legalization will create monster," by Gary Schornick, and "Compare liquor, pot prohibitions," by Kent Kelley, Saturday Letters. Schornick's letter is one of the most irrational circular arguments against legalization I've ever heard. His argument is that legalizing weed will simply cause the black market to push other illegal drugs in its place. Schornick's reasoning is actually one of the strongest arguments one could possibly posit for the decriminalization of all drugs, not just marijuana. When Prohibition was overturned in 1933, they didn't just legalize gin or just vodka, they legalized ALL alcoholic beverages. [continues 141 words]
Nations Consider Following U.S. Lead in Easing Positions on Pot (AP) - In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Argentina, the nation's drug czar, a Catholic priest who has long served in its drug-ravaged slums, is calling for a public debate about regulating marijuana. [continues 1463 words]
I read with much amusement all the articles and letters recently about legalizing marijuana and how legalizing pot will somehow end the drug war. If you believe that, you must be smoking way too much of the stuff. People much smarter than you and me recognize the drug war as a chess match. If we legalize marijuana, then the cartels will simply start dumping cheap meth and black-tar heroin on the market and an entirely new generation of users will be created. You've solved one problem and created a whole new monster, another unintended consequence of feel-good policy. [continues 88 words]
Colorado State Will Spend Some Funds on Substance Abuse Prevention DENVER (AP) - Colorado's legal marijuana market is far exceeding tax expectations, according to a budget proposal released Wednesday by Gov. John Hickenlooper that gives the first official estimate of how much the state expects to make from pot taxes. The proposal outlines plans to spend $99 million next fiscal year on substance abuse prevention, youth marijuana use prevention and other priorities. The money would come from a statewide 12.9 percent sales tax on recreational pot. Colorado's total pot sales next fiscal year were estimated to be about $610 million. [continues 281 words]
They're Standing Firm Despite State's Growing Prison Population OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Despite last week's largest pro marijuana rally at the Oklahoma Capitol in recent history, there is little appetite in the conservative Oklahoma Legislature to join other states in legalizing cannabis, even for medicinal purposes. Legislators from both sides of the aisle say that while attitudes may slowly be shifting toward loosening laws that prohibit Oklahomans from smoking pot, the idea isn't worth the potential political fallout in a state with a tough-on-crime reputation, especially during an election year. [continues 238 words]
I remember reading in an older article that Mark Davis warned if cannabis were legalized, the streets would be filled with drug-addled zombies. I called it the Bob Dylan retort - to paraphrase, "everybody might get stoned" - and it looks like he still believes that fallacy. I'll concede that there would be more people sampling cannabis if it were legal, but I seriously doubt it would be more than a small percentage. Mr. Davis also asserts that "the freedom to get high is nowhere in the Constitution, but this is: the right to aggregately pass laws to allow or disallow whatever we wish toward the goal of a better nation." Are you saying, Mr. Davis, that you espouse the progressive interpretation of the Constitution, that just because it says "promote the general welfare," "regulate commerce" or "necessary and proper," that the government has permission to make any laws it wants? [continues 57 words]
Mark Davis' latest column, summed up: "I am a libertarian when it suits me, and not when it doesn't." In a piece stunningly devoid of logic, Davis regurgitates 1930s-style Reefer Madness "thinking" in arguing against marijuana legalization. Now, I am not advocating for people to spark up, nor would I want my kids doing so. However, those at the "table of rational thought" (a phrase Davis invokes on his radio show) realize both that (1) people are going to use it anyway, and (2) according to polls, pot is easier for underage students to get than is alcohol. [continues 109 words]
Mark Davis would get agreement from the world's experts on the fact that marijuana is not harmless. Combining 15 different scales, the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs ranked it the 8th most dangerous drug in The Lancet in 2010. They also ranked alcohol as the most dangerous drug by a wide margin over second-place heroin. I have studied volumes of often obscure drug data from our government closely for 20 years. Most of the claims by Davis are not supported by the facts. It's difficult to imagine any significant increase in use when extensive surveys by Monitoring the Future, funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1975, report that 79 percent of those now aged 50 have tried marijuana and that marijuana has been "universally available" to teens for 40 years. [continues 63 words]
Re: "Libertarians, you've lost me on weed - Name one societal benefit of legalizing marijuana, Mark Davis challenges. You can't." Wednesday Viewpoints. At last, after more than a decade of columns from Mr. Davis (no relation), he has finally come down on the same side of an issue as me. No, not the one in his column's title, the isolationist policy of libertarians he mentions as the only two issues keeping him from whole-heartedly embracing their philosophy. [continues 147 words]
I try to be tolerant of other people's ignorance. I really do. However, when I read this Mark Davis column, it seriously taxes my goodwill. How anybody, much less a person who writes for a living, can offer the argument that there's not a single social benefit to legalizing drugs, especially weed, leaves me struggling for words to articulate my level of disbelief. Mr. Davis, do you honestly lack the intellectual capacity to understand that the criminalization cure is 100 times worse than the ill? Intrinsic contraband comes with a thousand negative liabilities to all of society, including the possibility drugs might be planted on innocent people. [continues 94 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration gave banks a road map Friday for conducting transactions with legal marijuana sellers so the new businesses can stash away savings, make payroll and pay taxes like any other enterprise. It's not clear banks will get on board. Guidance issued by the Justice and Treasury departments is the latest step by the federal government toward enabling a legalized marijuana industry to operate in states that approve it. The intent is to make banks feel more comfortable working with marijuana businesses that are licensed and regulated. [continues 535 words]
Name One Societal Benefit of Legalizing Marijuana, Mark Davis Challenges. You Can't. Libertarians are an odd bunch. I should know, because on many issues, I am one. But I've always identified two things that will keep them from full participation in the American mainstream. One is the profound ill wisdom of isolationist foreign policy. The other is weed. With the collapse of our national will to act as a force for good in the Middle East, libertarian energies are freed to pursue their other pet project, which accrues to our detriment: the notion that legalizing marijuana is a good thing. [continues 533 words]
HOUSTON (AP) - A Houston man who once portrayed McGruff the Crime Dog has shown his commitment to crime-fighting apparently wasn't very deep. John Morales was sentenced this week to 16 years and three months in federal prison on drug and weapons charges after police found more than 1,000 marijuana plants and 27 weapons, including grenade launchers, at two indoor farms. Morales wore the McGruff costume for the Harris County Sheriff 's Association in the late 1990s. A real crime dog - the drug-sniffing variety - detected pot plants in Morales' trunk after he was stopped for speeding in Galveston in 2011. Authorities say officers found a clipboard with maps to the indoor farms. Defense attorney Ken Fesler II said Morales entered the drug trade to help sick relatives. [end]
NEW YORK - In a major drug bust that drew little attention just a week before Philip Seymour Hoffman's death, authorities found a sophisticated heroin packaging and distribution operation in an apartment in the Bronx. There, workers with coffee grinders, scoops and scales toiled around the clock to break down bricks of the drug into thousands of tiny, hit-size baggies bearing stamped brands such as "Government Shutdown" and, in a nod to the Super Bowl, "NFL." The seizure of $8 million worth of heroin was the result of the latest raid on heroin mills located behind the doors of New York homes, which authorities say are a sign of a well-oiled distribution network that caters to more mainstream, middle- and upper-class customers such as the Oscar-winning Hoffman. [continues 593 words]
With Severe Health Issues, State's Strict Laws, Some Feel It's Their Only Option After calling Texas home for 30-plus years, Amber Loew plans to move her family in March from near Houston to Colorado Springs. Her 3-yearold, Hannah, has Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that causes her more than 50 seizures a day. "She's gone into respiratory failure twice at home in the last six weeks," Loew said. "We've tried just about everything. She's on 12 anti-seizure medications." [continues 350 words]
N. Texans Getting in on High-Flying Industry's Action "Come on in the store. We've got everything you could want. We got uppers, we got downers. We got laughers, we got screamers. We got sodas, we got edibles. We got light chocolates, we got dark chocolates. Whatever you want, we got it." - Sales spiel by "bud-tender" A. J. Walsh at Denver marijuana dispensary MMJ America DENVER - Here in America's Amsterdam, even locals are still getting used to the idea that they can be open about purchases once made in secret. [continues 1675 words]
Cartels Will Remain Strong in Dysfunctional Nation, Says Alejandro Hope Since Jan. 1, Colorado has had a legal marijuana market. The same will soon be true in Washington state, once retail licenses are issued. Other states, such as California and Oregon, will probably follow suit over the next three years. So does this creeping legalization of marijuana in the United States spell doom for the Mexican drug cartels? Not quite. The illegal marijuana trade provides Mexican organized crime with about $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year. That's not chump change, but according to a number of estimates it represents no more than a third of gross drug export revenue. [continues 551 words]
At Swiss Forum, He Says He Doubts Texas Would Legalize It Anytime Soon AUSTIN (AP) - Gov. Rick Perry is defending the rights of states, such as Colorado and Washington, to legalize marijuana, and he said Thursday that Texas has taken steps toward decriminalizing the drug. Perry was on a panel discussing drug laws that included former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Annan and Santos said drug laws had proved ineffective and had made criminals out of generations of young people, as well as helped empower drug cartels. [continues 282 words]
Time to Decriminalize Marijuana, Ex-Toker Kathleen Parker Says Everybody's doing it - confessing their youthful, pot-smoking ways - so here goes. I don't remember. Kidding, kidding. Anyone over 30 recognizes the old adage: If you remember the '60s, you weren't there. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk. It is true that marijuana smoking tends to affect one's short-term memory, but the good news is that, while stoned, one does relatively little worth remembering. At least that's my own recollection. [continues 621 words]
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama said he doesn't think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer." 'A BAD IDEA' "As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol," the president said in an interview with The New Yorker. Smoking marijuana is "not something I encourage, and I've told my daughters I think it's a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy," Obama added. [continues 144 words]
Brain Scientist, an Ex-User, Advocates Decriminalization Drug policy is a far greater problem than illegal drugs, says Dr. Carl Hart, a brain scientist, author and federal government adviser. Drug policy is a far greater problem than illegal drugs, says Dr. Carl Hart, a brain scientist, author and federal government adviser. Hart delivered that uncomfortable message Friday at a Dallas conference organized by Mothers Against Teen Violence, a nonprofit group focused on drug policy. "I sold drugs. I used drugs. I engaged in petty crimes," the neuroscientist told an audience of about 150 at the Adolphus hotel. "I tell you this not as a badge of honor. ... We need people from a wide range of backgrounds so that when we talk about solving problems, we actually have people there who understand something about the problem." [continues 444 words]
Governor Devotes Speech to It, Seeks Additional $10m to Deal With Crisis MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) - Behind the facade of pristine ski slopes, craft beer, quaint village greens and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, Vermont is grappling with painkiller and heroin abuse, a challenge leaders say is fueling crime and wrecking lives and families disproportionately in this tiny state. Nearly every day, police across Vermont respond to burglaries or armed robberies investigators believe are prompted by the unslakable hunger for money to feed heroin or pill habits. In many cases, law enforcement officials say, what began as the abuse of prescription drugs has turned into heroin use because it's less expensive and, more recently, easier to get. [continues 355 words]
Legalization will make things worse because of one simple and plain consumer reality - more access to drugs (legal or illegal) leads to more drugs on the street that, in turn, equates to more drug use and abuse. The proponents of legalization mistakenly believe we can all use drugs just like alcohol in moderation and without serious consequences. However, in real environments with little family or social structures that practice and teach self discipline and responsibility, there is an opposite effect. Independent of the "no different than alcohol" argument, why add another easily available substance to the scene? [continues 76 words]
Re: "It's not deadly, stupid," by Don Chase, Wednesday Letters. There is a lot of discussion about marijuana following the Colorado legalization. U.S. society has made major progress in reducing tobacco use, but has done little to curb our No. 1 drug addiction, which is alcohol use. I submit that the political control of addictive or intoxicating substances is much more about tax revenue than any consideration for public welfare. John Helmer, McKinney [end]
