During 2005, agents with the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation responded to 328 clandestine methamphetamine labs in the state, and, through increased public awareness and more stringent laws regulating the sale of a key ingredient in the drug's production, two years later that statewide number has been cut in half.

However, while the number of meth labs SBI authorities have responded to has dipped significantly overall in the last year, including in Sampson, this county and those surrounding it have remained a hot bed for such clandestine drug activity.

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Officials Say Possession by Students Is a Reflection of Community Problem

For the first time in three years Mitchell County leads the surrounding counties in numbers of controlled substance possession cases in its schools.

For the 2006-07 school year - a report compiled by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction - show 20 cases of possession in two schools: 18 at Mitchell High School and two at Harris Middle School.

Neighboring Yancey County had six incidents that year - two at Cane River Middle School and four at Mountain Heritage High School - and Avery County reported seven incidents, all at Avery Middle School. All counties posted average daily memberships - the seven month average attendance of students - within 60 students of each other.

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People like Gary Don Holt should be able to get out and do a little hunting.

Holt, of High Point, is, however, a convicted felon, and under current federal law, he can't even handle a gun legally unless he is pardoned for his 1986 marijuana-possession conviction. That should be easy, considering that Holt, a furniture warehouse supervisor, has been a good citizen since he broke the law as a 21-year-old and pleaded guilty.

That pardon, however, won't come from Gov. Mike Easley who, according to a recent story on The Associated Press wire, has denied all of Holt's requests for mercy. It's typical of Easley, who has pardoned only five former felons in his seven years in office. Former Gov. Jim Hunt, by comparison, pardoned more than 200 in his previous eight years.

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Few communities force elected officials to submit to drug tests. But a number of cities have explored the possibility, usually in the wake of drug scandals involving local leaders.

More often than not, the proposals are soundly rejected, for two reasons: A strong case can be made that the mandatory drug testing of officials violates the Fourth Amendment's ban of unreasonable searches and seizures. And policies that encourage officials to get tested on a voluntary basis can be a charade that wastes time and tax dollars.

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The county still lacks a comprehensive anti-crack strategy. And it has chosen a new drug treatment agency based largely on anecdotal data.

"Crack is whack," the drug-addled star singer, Whitney Houston, once famously told a television interviewer.

Amen to that, say area law enforcement officials, who expressed concern last week about the potential early release of scores of crack cocaine offenders from prison.

Many said they feared that the more than 400-plus inmates from the Triad who may see their sentences reduced could pick up precisely where they left off, selling and using the viciously addictive drug.

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Cheap, highly addictive drugs such as methamphetamine and crack cocaine cripple families. In Robeson County, the casualties can be counted in child-welfare cases and on foster-care rolls.

Drugs fuel child abuse and neglect there. According to the state Division of Social Services, there is a disproportionately high number of drug-related child-welfare cases in the county.

A two-year-old state law that limits access to the raw ingredients for methamphetamine is slowly reducing the use of that drug across the state, according to law enforcement agencies. But the state's emphasis on imprisonment and law enforcement over social services and health care has done little to keep families together.

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As a Christian, I must speak up about what Jonathan Troutman thinks is "moral" (Legalizing marijuana a dangerous prospect, Dec. 16), concerning the relatively safe God-given plant cannabis.

Caging responsible adult humans for cannabis is immoral, sinful and just plain wrong. One reason to re-legalize cannabis that doesn't get mentioned is because it is Biblically correct since God indicates he created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page.

The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5).

Does Jonathan Troutman even realize He supports caging people for using what God says is good?

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

[end]

Medical marijuana is 100 percent completely legal - however, only in a synthetic form of which there are many versions. Look at the Controlled Substance Act.

How insane it is that our government imprisons, takes away parents from their children, and destroys the lives of hard-working every-day Americans by the hundreds of thousands every year because they utilize organic marijuana instead of that prescribed by physicians.

According to Barry McCaffrey, the former federal drug czar, organic marijuana is much healthier for you because of its many natural beneficial compounds that can help people - especially suffering from muscular-selector type ailments and arthritic problems.

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Residents of the Triad need not be concerned there will be a surge of federal prisoners convicted for crack cocaine being released ("Officers wary of crack releases," Dec. 15). Although the U.S. Sentencing Commission shortened the guideline sentences for crack cocaine and made the changes retroactive, the lengthy mandatory minimum sentences for these crimes, enacted by Congress, have not changed.

For a crime involving at least 5 grams of crack, the mandatory minimum is five years. For at least 10 grams, it is 10 years.

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GREENSBORO - When Don Le locked the doors of his convenience store Saturday night, someone was waiting for him.

Le was placing a bag in the passenger side of his car when the man opened fire with a handgun in the parking lot of Andy's Pantry at 1301 Grove St .

One bullet lodged in the driver's side door of his car; another shattered the window.

As the man walked toward him, Le returned fire with his own handgun, which he carries when he closes the store.

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Jonathan Troutman makes several erroneous statements in his op-ed, essentially spouting the same myths the government has been making since cannabis (marijuana) was banned in the 1930s.

For instance, Troutman says, "Legalization of marijuana will create more drug-dependent users and increase accessibility to the youth."

Actually, cannabis has little potential for dependence, what little does exist is mostly psychological. The "gateway effect" has been repeatedly proved false.

Studies dating to the Indian Hemp Commission of the late 19th century and including government studies - the Panama Canal Zone Military Investigations (1929), The LaGuardia Committee Report (1944), the Shafer Commission (1972), the NAS Committee on Substance Abuse and Habitual Behavior (1982), the DEA's Chief Administrative Law Judge Francis Young's 1988 ruling and the Institute of Medicine's 1999 report - concluded that at the least cannabis should be decriminalized.

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To combat recent rumors that he might have relapsed into drug abuse, Fayetteville City Councilman Charles Evans said he has taken a drug test that proves he is clean.

And he wants everyone else on the council to voluntarily take one, too. "I hate to bring this up, but I'm so sick of it," he said. "It's not fair." Evans, who was first elected in 2005, is a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. He pleaded guilty in 1992 to two counts of embezzlement and one count of felony possession of cocaine. He says he has been clean since 2001. Evans wants the City Council to discuss his idea at its Jan. 7 work session. Evans said he didn't know who started the rumors about a month ago, or whether they were politically motivated. He likened the idea of drug-testing the council to the city policy of making new employees take a urine test for drugs. "We are no better than city employees," he said.

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Law enforcement agencies across the nation are now facing a sweet but deadly trend in crystal methamphetamine.

Manufacturers and dealers of the drug are now marketing the illicit substance in a candy-like form.

The drug has now been found mixed with candies, powdered drink mixes intended for milk and other sweets.

Officers of the Drug Enforcement Administration suggest this technique is intended to appeal to younger people and entice first-time users.

The "candy meth" has been encountered in California, Nevada, Washington, Idaho, Texas, New Mexico, Missouri and Minnesota. Now, North Carolina has been added to that list.

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Columbus Man Claims He Grew Marijuana For Medicinal Purposes

HENDERSONVILLE - A man accused of running Henderson County's largest and most sophisticated marijuana growing operation says he did it out of compassion.

Tod Aiken, of Columbus, said Wednesday the marijuana that led to his arrest was being sold for medicinal purposes.

"There's a lot of people out there that need medical marijuana," Aiken said. "I'm a man of compassion. I wanted to help these people."

Aiken said he began growing marijuana in 2000 to help counteract the effects of hepatitis C treatments.

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LUMBERTON -- Robeson County will be the site for a pilot program to help families stay together while parents try to beat their drug habits. The program, called Robeson County Bridges for Families, will be funded by a $2.5 million federal grant awarded to the state Division of Social Services. The state agency was among 53 recipients nationwide to receive a grant to promote safe and stable families.

State officials announced the grant Tuesday at the Lumbee Tribe Soaring Eagle Community Building.

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Fear That Dealers Are Targeting Kids Sparks Effort, But Skeptics Say That Threat Is Only A Myth

JEFFERSON Drug dealers could be distributing candy-flavored methamphetamine to children. Or reports that they are could be an urban legend spreading on the Internet and in the news media, depending on who you believe. But in Ashe County, Sheriff James Williams' nose told him that a batch of pink meth seized by his investigators during a three-month investigation earlier this year sure smelled different.

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If you've been in a local pharmacy, grocery store or even convenience store lately, searching for an over-the-counter remedy for a cold or the flu, you might have encountered a troubling sign of the times.

That sign -- a placard sitting in the slot where cold medicines once sat, waiting to be picked up and purchased. Now, instead of the cold medication, you find a card with a note reading something like this, "take this card to the pharmacy counter."

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Legalizing marijuana for individuals over the age of 18 is not right for America. Illicit drug use already causes serious problems in society: Health issues, accidents, lost productivity in the workplace, and wrecked families. Legalizing marijuana would only further intensify these problems. Marijuana is a risk to our society morally and physically. Its use leads to use of harder illicit drugs which pose an even greater threat to society. Our government has a duty to its citizens to protect us from harmful drugs such as marijuana. I urge you to consider the deteriorating effects of marijuana on individuals and their surroundings.

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Hopes Stir for More Than 1,400 N.C. Inmates, but a Lawyer Warns That the Changes Won't Open Any Floodgates

A federal ruling that could bring reduced sentences for more than 1,400 North Carolina crack cocaine offenders is being hailed by some as a victory for black America, a step toward easing racial disparities in the justice system.

But some of the prosecutors who helped slam prison doors on the federal inmates say the sentencing changes could open vulnerable, drug-plagued communities to more trouble.

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GREENSBORO -- More than 400 prisoners convicted for crack cocaine in and around the Triad could soon see their sentences reduced, and law enforcement officials say that could put them back in the drug trade. Recently, federal sentencing guidelines were changed -- shortening sentences for crack convictions to bring them more in line with those for powdered cocaine. This week, the U.S. Sentencing Commission made the changes retroactive, meaning prisoners could be eligible for earlier release. "I don't have any problem with them scaling back the sentences," Guilford County Sheriff BJ Barnes said Friday. "I think we need to be consistent with sentences for crack and powder cocaine. But, I hope they've been cured of their drug addiction in prison if they're coming out." According to the U.S. Department of Justice, North Carolina's Middle District -- which includes Guilford and 23 other counties -- has 436 prisoners who could be eligible for sentence reductions for their crack convictions. Barnes said Guilford County has a serious problem with cheap, easily available drugs such as crack and methamphetamine.

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