A decision by the National Sentencing Commission will lighten prison terms for as many as 2,500 crack cocaine users and sellers.

The Daily Journal reported the story earlier. Basically, the penalties for crack cocaine, a crystallized form of the drug that is smoked, will be lowered to the penalties for powdered cocaine, that is snorted.

The average crack conviction draws a prison sentence of 10 years. A powder user can expect seven years.

There's a racial overtone to the story, too. Crack cocaine is generally thought to be far more prevalent in the African-American community. Over the years, many had complained that the sentences had as much to do with the skin color of the defendant as they did with the war on drugs.

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Marian Catholic would join 2 other Catholic high schools in region

Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights will likely become the third Catholic high school in the region to require drug testing of its students.

Parents and school officials met last week to discuss the proposal, expected to take effect next fall. Following the example of St. Patrick High School in Chicago and St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, school officials hope the new policy will give Marian's 1,500 students another reason to turn down drugs, said Principal Kathleen Tait.

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To the Editor:

Common sense tells us that the DARE program should deter our youth from using illegal drugs. But it doesn't. DARE graduates are more likely to use illegal drugs, not less.

Common sense tells us that the Earth is the center of the universe and our solar system. But it's not.

Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially reduce the use of the product that's prohibited. Actually, prohibition tends to substantially increase the desire for the product that's prohibited.

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Youth should not be using cannabis, but isn't there a conflict of interest when Marian Catholic High School says cannabis is bad ("Marian Catholic to test all students for drugs," Dec. 18) and Christ God Our Father, the ecologician, indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they all are good, on literally the very first page of the Bible?

Why does a Catholic school discriminate against the relatively safe God-given plant cannabis, which is safer than alcohol, and not test for alcohol use? Isn't this drug testing policy going to lead toward more life-long alcoholism problems in the long run?

Stan White

Dillon, Co.

[end]

If the rationale for drug testing students is it will reduce drug use in high school, then I think administrators and teachers should lead by example and submit themselves to the same tests.

Since all of the "druggies" will be weeded out of the private schools like Marian Catholic High School and "forced" to attend public high schools or be home schooled, I suppose it would make perfect sense not to allow any teachers or staff who work with these students to be treated any differently. After all, these folks are the role models students spend their days with.

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It really would be nice to applaud the recent law enforcement action that took 21 suspected low-level drug dealers off the streets of Waukegan, or shall we say, "off the streets in the 1st Ward." The fact of the matter is that the 21 dealers have already been replaced and drugs continue to flow unabated not only in Waukegan, but throughout Lake County.

In Waukegan, it's easy to put a Band-Aid on the scourge of drugs in our community. I've been a witness to the "let's pick up some drug dealers" to convince the uninformed that we saved the poor residents of Waukegan's 1st Ward. These lowlevel drug dealers are convenient and easy to identify.

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In '08, State Will Add Type Of Salvia To List Of Banned Substances

Green, leafy and innocuous, salvia divinorum looks like it would be more interesting to a gardener than a police officer.

But the plant's unique hallucinogenic properties have turned "the sage of the diviners" into a botanical target caught in a crossfire between politicians, spiritualists and scientists over whether it's a drug that should be banned or an herb that should be freely available for research and personal use.

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Regarding your editorial Dec. 6 titled "A valuable test for students," student involvement in after-school activities like sports has been shown to reduce drug use. They keep kids busy during the hours they are most likely to get into trouble. Forcing students to undergo degrading urine tests as a prerequisite will only discourage participation in extracurricular programs.

Drug testing may also compel marijuana users to switch to harder drugs to avoid testing positive. This is one of the reasons the American Academy of Pediatrics opposes student drug testing. Despite a short-lived high, marijuana is the only illegal drug that stays in the human body long enough to make urinalysis a deterrent.

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All students at Marian Catholic High School would be drug tested starting next school year under a proposal being considered by officials at the Chicago Heights school.

"We've had a lot of discussion (about this issue)," school president Sister Mary Paul McCaughey said, adding that the school board has "given the green light" to do the testing.

Over the past few months, Marian Catholic has conducted online and phone-based surveys and held board discussions. School officials also held conferences with students and parents about the issue.

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Two stories during the weekend made us wonder about the future of our communities.

The first examined a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and its interpretation by the federal courts that could lead to sentence reductions for 380 convicted local crack dealers, with 18 to 37 of them potentially eligible for immediate release. The justices decided that higher penalties for crack than for powder cocaine were unjust and racially unfair -- powder cocaine being an elite drug and crack being the drug of poor, black communities.

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Regarding Judy Guenseth's Dec. 7 column: The importance of parental involvement in reducing adolescent drug use cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities also have been shown to reduce use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely to get into trouble.

In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce harm, they must be reality-based. The most popular drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior is often overlooked by parents. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but it's still the No. 1 drug problem.

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Cook County's criminal courts are teetering under a massive volume of drug cases, mentally ill defendants and demands by elected officials who fail to provide adequate funding, according to a report by a legal advocacy group.

The Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California hears more than 28,000 cases a year, and each judge handles an average of 275 cases at a time, according to the report by the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice.

"We have an overburdened court," said Criminal Court Presiding Judge Paul Biebel on Thursday at a public forum on the report.

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A drug-abuse counselor keeps a photograph of a teen in his office, a reminder of the importance of his work.

That teen, Geneva High School graduate Jake Zegart, died at 18 from an overdose of the painkiller oxycodone.

"I have a picture of him working on his car," said Chic Williams, the community intervention coordinator for Geneva schools. "It's kind of a reminder of why we do what we do."

Although Zegart used the powerful painkiller that day in October 2004, Williams said, prescription drugs were not the usual drugs of choice for Kane County teens.

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Graduates Of Peoria County Drug Court Lean On Each Other Through Alumni Group

In the years since they graduated from Peoria County Drug Court, they've stepped into ordinary, everyday lives.

Richard Pickens, disabled with a host of health problems himself, dedicates much of his time caring for a wife with back problems and a mother with dementia.

"I don't clean up, he won't let me go in the kitchen," says his wife, Glenda. "He wants to do my laundry, too, but I prefer to do my own."

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WASHINGTON -- When the U.S. Sentencing Commission last week reduced sentences for imprisoned crack cocaine offenders--reversing years of policy that treated crack far differently from powder cocaine--the Justice Department and police groups bitterly criticized the action, warning of a flood of criminals rushing out onto America's streets.

The change "will make thousands of dangerous prisoners, many of them violent gang members, eligible for immediate release," said acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Craig Morford. "These offenders are among the most serious and violent offenders in the federal system."

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Roberto Flores scans the menu.

Pan Roasted Veal Chop $40

Smoked Chicken & Rock Shrimp Pasta $26

Flores checks the money in his pocket again.

14 OZ. New York Steak $33

Coffee Rubbed Filet Of Beef $38

Flores looks down the table. It's filled with educators -- superintendents in pinstripes and administrators in business attire at an education conference. None seem fazed by the prices.

Back in the day -- back when he was doing wrong -- Flores would have bought dinner for everyone at the table. He would have pulled up in a limo, flashed hundreds around the table. The suits' eyes would have been on him.

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MARION -The Marion Police Department will be better equipped to control the marijuana trade and use in Marion thanks to a new ordinance passed Monday night by the city council.

Prior to the new law, the police were hampered in dealing with individuals who were in possession of drug paraphernalia. According to the wording of the ordinance this would include: "all equipment, products, and materials of any kind which are intended to be used unlawfully in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, containing, concealing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body cannabis or a controlled substance in violation of the law."

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Crackdown in Streets, Prisons Cuts Power, but Factions Fight On

In a city where legendary street gang leaders Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover took their place beside Al Capone in the local criminal hall of fame, the powerful Chicago gang kingpin is looking more and more like an endangered species.

Major street gangs that once carved up the city into virtual fiefdoms for drug trafficking are producing fewer of the "super" leaders who dominated their organizations with charisma, ruthlessness and guile in years past, law-enforcement officials and other experts say. Hierarchies traditionally topped by a powerful few have decentralized.

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MOUNT VERNON - The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program - known for the slogan "Just Say No" -is a life lesson, according to officer Ray Gilbert with the Mount Vernon Police Department.

"DARE is alive," he said. "DARE is very much alive in Mount Vernon."

Gilbert serves as the school resource officer and the DARE officer. He said although some communities are no longer participating in the national program, Mount Vernon considers it an important part of the ongoing war against drugs.

"The City of Mount Vernon and especially the police department and Chief (Chris) Mendenall think the DARE program is very important to the city," he said. "I took it over two years ago from a guy that retired. They have been doing it since the '90s."

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TAYLOR RIDGE - A Rockridge parent plans to once again address the district's school board about a new random drug testing policy for students.

Scott Fairman said he plans to ask school officials for a town hall meeting about the policy, which began this year for junior and senior high students in the Rockridge School District. The Rockridge School District's board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday.

"I'm going to try and get another town hall meeting set up for parents," Mr. Fairman said. "I want another town hall meeting so all parents can voice their opinion."

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