New Program Aims to Help Prevent Drug Users From Spreading Disease For decades, the message about drugs has been to just say no. But some advocates are taking the approach that people make bad choices, and when they do, there's often no one to tell them the safest way to do something wrong, like shooting heroin or crack. Zach Baker, head of Salt Lake Community College's Students for Sensible Drug Policy, is preparing to launch the Harm Reduction Project, an organization that, besides offering literature to addicts on healthier ways to get high, will also serve as the state's first-ever clean-needle-distribution program. While some of Baker's literature, like Getting Off Right: A Safety Manual for Injection Users, will likely be criticized for encouraging bad behavior, Baker says the reality is that addicts who don't share needles don't spread disease and therefore are less of a medical burden to the state. [continues 979 words]
Davis County Sheriff: Legalizing marijuana would harm society Editor, True conservatives oppose nanny-state policies. Obviously, I was wrong. What could be more pro-nanny-state than marijuana prohibition? Beyond the fact that marijuana prohibition is counterproductive and a complete waste of money, what about the right of adult citizens to be left alone - especially in the privacy of our own homes? We don't punish those who attempt suicide and survive. So why do we punish those who consume the wrong (politically selected) recreational drugs? I don't want my government attempting to protect me from myself. I want my government to protect me from those who want to harm me against my will. [continues 77 words]
WEST JORDAN - A Utah mother whose 11-year-old son has severe epilepsy is helping to launch a legislative initiative to legalize a liquid form of medical marijuana in the Beehive state, which may put a new face on the issue. The face will be of children who could potentially be helped by a strain of the drug, not of unkempt potheads who roll their own weed. Jennifer May, of Pleasant Grove, believes a hybrid form of cannabis offers hope to patients, such as her son, who suffer from Dravet syndrome, which can trigger hundreds of seizures a day for its victims and limit the life expectancy to 18 years or fewer. Her family currently spends more than $75,000 a year on medication in an effort to provide some relief and hope for their child in dealing with his epilepsy. [continues 593 words]
As the pro-marijuana movement continues to gain national traction following an important concession from the Department of Justice, multiple local law enforcement agencies are adamant that enacting any measures to legalize the drug would mean treading down a dangerous path. Recently, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the DOJ would not challenge state laws passed last year in Colorado and Washington state that allow the distribution and recreational use of marijuana. The announcement comes just months after a poll released by the Pew Research Center showed that a majority of Americans support legalizing the drug. [continues 992 words]
"No other options are left" for the 11-year-old, she says. Pleasant Grove - Jennifer May has tried 25 treatments in 10 years, a mix of prescribed diets and drugs, to quiet the lightning in her son's brain. Only two eased Stockton May's seizures. But their toxic side effects ravaged his bones and immune system, and the relief was temporary. His rare and intractable form of epilepsy, Dravet syndrome, "always found a way around the treatment," said his mom, a self-described conservative and devout Mormon who is now pursuing what for her was once unthinkable: medical marijuana. [continues 1150 words]
Onetime Defendant in Dismissed Drug Case Is First to Sue. A onetime defendant in a drug case tossed out amid allegations of misconduct in the West Valley City Police Department has sued the department in federal court, claiming the agency's narcotics officers violated his constitutional rights when they detained his family and searched their home without a warrant last year. Attorneys filed the lawsuit on behalf of Dante Donell Ketchens, his girlfriend, Danielle Swasey, and Ketchens' two children on Wednesday in Salt Lake City's U.S. District Court. [continues 368 words]
I would like to applaud Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, along with Richard Durbin, D-Ill., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., for their bipartisan effort to give judges more discretion in handing out drug sentences. They are using the correct avenues to change the flawed mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related crimes that flood our prisons with low-level offenders. Attorney General Eric Holder recently announced a similar policy shift within the Justic Department, but it is not his place to choose how to enforce current laws. He must wait for Congress to amend the drug laws first, and once they have done their jobs, he can do his. Marcor Peterson Alpine [end]
Crime) Police officers were unprepared for what happened Jan. 4, 2012, investigators say. Hindsight is always 20/20, and for prosecutors involved in the Matthew David Stewart case, one thing became clear after the Jan. 4, 2012, shootout in Ogden that killed one police officer and injured five others: You can never let your guard down. Weber Morgan Narcotics Strike Force agents who served a knock-and-announce warrant at Stewart's Jackson Avenue home on that winter evening were not expecting to be met with gunfire, Deputy Weber County Attorney Branden Miles said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune this week. [continues 1098 words]
OGDEN -- The war on drugs may have been declared over by national drug czar Gil Kerlikowske in 2009, but the controversy over the laws in place to control drug use continues to incense people on both sides of the legal argument. According to LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - the problems caused by America's drug laws warrant enough attention to be kept in the public consciousness. James Mooney, a former undercover narcotics officer who is now a public speaker on behalf of LEAP, spoke about his experience at Tuesday's Weber County Commission meeting. [continues 479 words]
Cartels escalate drug war with tanks Drug war death squads prowling Mexico OGDEN -- The war on drugs may have been declared over by national drug czar Gil Kerlikowske in 2009, but the controversy over the laws in place to control drug use continues to incense people on both sides of the legal argument. According to LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - the problems caused by America's drug laws warrant enough attention to be kept in the public consciousness. James Mooney, a former undercover narcotics officer who is now a public speaker on behalf of LEAP, spoke about his experience at Tuesday's Weber County Commission meeting. [continues 582 words]
Editor, The God-given plant cannabis has never killed a person; but our prohibition of it has just taken another life (May 24, "Stewart hanged himself with bedsheet, authorities say"). Humans friended cannabis millennia ago. Were there a downside, it would be well known by now. For a downside, our American prohibitionists have to gin up the wildest stuff. Our political leaders are still feeling too vulnerable to charges of being soft on drugs. Stewart and Francom share a cell in purgatory, awaiting the end of cannabis prohibition hereabouts. If only that could make any sense of their deaths. Jay Bergstrom Forest Ranch, Calif. [end]
Inside Utah
