Not Welcome: Some Libraries Reject Books On Drug Reform You can give a drug book to a library, but you can't make the library shelve it. Headquartered in Fayetteville, the Drug Policy Education Group, which hopes to liberalize Arkansass drug laws, has donated more than $8,000 worth of books, videos, booklets and article reprints to 48 public and college libraries across the state since 2002. DPEG has just completed a survey to determine whether the donated materials are placed on the libraries shelves. Materials not shelved are commonly sold at library book sales at extremely low prices, which is not only a waste of our resources, but also does not accomplish our goal of making these materials available to the general public, a DPEG report on the survey said. [continues 692 words]
Between a Rock and a Hard Place 'Tough-On-Crime' Hits the Bottom Line. Larry Norris's job is to keep some of the toughest, most dangerous criminals in Arkansas locked up. "Skittish" is not a word that applies to the director of prisons. So it was significant last May, when Norris told state legislators that the situation he faces is "scary." After 30 years of policies born out of promises to be "tough on crime," Norris and other state officials are finding themselves in a corner. They are surrounded on all sides by numbers - and the numbers relating to prisons are menacing. [continues 2067 words]
Asa Hutchinson's appointment to a high post in the new Department of Homeland Security won't scare any terrorists, but it's got a bunch of us homelanders spooked. Even more of a chicken hawk than his commander-in-chief, Asa has never been one to go in harm's way to engage the enemies of his country. He carefully avoided military service when he was of age, enlisting instead in the ranks of the Christian soldiers at Bob Jones University, where interracial daters were the most dangerous enemy. His BJU training doubtless sharpened a distaste for people with dark skins and peculiar creeds, but not to the point of taking up arms. A person could get hurt. [continues 158 words]
As we mark the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, it's important to challenge the conventional wisdom that terrorism poses the greatest threat to our lives and liberty. Speaking bluntly -- it doesn't. Yes, terrorists took over 3,000 lives a year ago. And eventually there may be more terrorist attacks, and more innocent lives may be lost. But we need to remind ourselves that far more lives are lost every year due to the misguided policies of our own government. Americans die because government denies them the right to carry a weapon. Americans die because violent felons are released from jail to make room for non-violent drug users serving federally mandated sentences. Americans die because the FDA denies them access to new life-saving medicines. Americans die because they are prevented from using medical marijuana to control the nausea produced by chemotherapy and AIDS medications. And, while would-be terrorists can threaten our lives, they can't threaten our liberty. Only politicians overreacting to the threat of terrorism can accomplish that. [continues 579 words]
We'll believe we've seen about everything when we see a Hutchinson in uniform. Both Senator Tim and former Congressman Asa diligently avoided military service while others were suiting up for their country. (Asa is now a fierce drug warrior, albeit in mufti, as head of the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. It is more fun fighting drugs than human enemies, who are bad to fight back.) The closest the brothers have come to national defense happened up in Northeast Arkansas the other day, when one of Tim's agents slapped a Hutchinson campaign sticker on a National Guard armored vehicle that she and the sticker then rode in a Fourth of July parade. God Bless America, and Tim Hutchinson's re-election campaign. [continues 233 words]
A charge filed in Washington County Circuit Court against a former Little Flock police officer has been amended. Ian Smith, 33, was arrested in January after he allegedly sold two Ecstasy pills to a woman in a Fayetteville hotel room. In a filing at the Washington County Circuit Clerk's Office on Monday, Washington County Deputy Prosecutor Matt Durrett amended the charge against Smith to accomplice to possession of a controlled substance. Durrett said the amended charge more accurate ely reflects the information he has received concerning Smith's arrest. [continues 317 words]
Governor, Lawmakers Need To Be Cautious With Their Plans To Decrease The Number Behind Bars After education, one of the chief issues the Arkansas Legislature will have to tackle when it meets in 2003 is prison overcrowding. It's an issue Gov. Mike Huckabee brought to the forefront in a speech to the Arkansas Bar Association last month. Saying he wants to look at ways to reduce the prison population, he advocated such things as expanding the system of drug courts and helping drug addicts break their cycle of addiction and become productive members of society. [continues 683 words]
Bipartisan excess prevailed after a federal court said the Pledge of Allegiance should be restored to its original form if schoolchildren are required to recite it. Congress interrupted serious business to bash some judges. Here in Arkansas, Gov. Mike Huckabee called the decision "One of the craziest pieces of nonsense that ever came out of a group of kooks in black robes." His opponent in the governor's race, state Treasurer Jimmie Lou Fisher, found the ruling "shocking" and "deeply disturbing." Sen. Tim Hutchinson and his opponent, Attorney General Mark Pryor, were united in horror. [continues 429 words]
I agree with Georgia Lance's suggestion to bring drug law reform, (June 6 letter, Northwest Arkansas Times). I suggest that America must start by re-legalizing cannabis. That includes ending the policy of revoking probation and parole, upon a drug test of positive, for cannabis. Simply having cannabis in urine in not reason enough to cage a human. The drug testing industry will go up in arms to protect their billions in job security, with the zeal of unionized scrutiny, but what is righteous, should prevail. [continues 96 words]
I'd like to applaud Sheriff Steve Whitmill for his honest opinion about this drug war catastrophe that is forced upon Americans by elected officials and government bureaucrats. Political expediency and money drives U.S drug policy. Successful science based harm reduction approaches, employed by most other civilized countries around the world, are given short shrift, when there's money, power, and elections to be had. Unfortunately, honest, reasoned strategies don't grab the headlines, like busts s, drive-bys, deaths, and gang wars. Even though all the things that are so sensationalized by the media, concerning drug prohibition, are the clear result of the very policy we use to combat drug use, the people are seldom allowed to hear both sides of this issue. [continues 405 words]
I ordinarily do not respond to letters to the editor, however I feel the need to set the record straight on this one. On June 6, the Northwest Arkansas Times printed a letter from Georgia Lance of Elkins, who indicated what she understood from a newspaper article in which the county judge and myself reported as responding differently to the question of what to do about the methamphetamine problem in our area. Ms. Lance's letter said that I was a "drug warrior" and the judg ge was more contemporary with his approach to the problem, in which he indicated what we need is to look at the root of the problem or why we as a society feel the need to alter our personality with drugs. [continues 368 words]
As a citizen interested in drug policy reform in Arkansas, I read with interest the two different views of Sheriff Steve Whitmill and Judge Jerry Hunton on methamphetamine use and abuse in northwest Arkansas. Hunton asked the most important question of all, i.e. why do so many people feel the need to use and abuse stimulants like meth? The same question can be asked for alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, heroin or any other mind/mood altering drug. Whitmill stated that until w we make certain ingredients illegal (more prohibition) we won't solve the problem of meth in Arkansas. He wants what every drug warrior wants -- more money, more law enforcement officers and more jails. This is the same tired old strategy we've been using for the past twenty years and guess what ... it's not working. Street drugs are still as readily available now as they were twenty years ago and we're incarcerating American citizens at an alarming rate. [continues 71 words]
It defies all logic to cage humans for using a benign plant, however it is not just a Republican (Letter: Drug war controls citizens, Feb. 26) issue. President (didn't inhale) Clinton, caged more humans for using cannabis than all those Republican presidents combined, didn't he? Although the Republicans are unacceptable, the Democrats have competed quite well, in caging the most humans for using cannabis. Christ God gave us cannabis and put cannabinoid (THC) receptor sites in our brains since the beginning. Those who prohibit that connection may well be the true terrorist ... to Christ God and the Holy Spirit of Truth. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
National Perspectives Let's talk about the drug problem, which has been the object of America's phony war on drugs dating back to the Nixon administration. First, forget about Colombians, Afghans, Burmese, Mexicans or any other foreign suppliers. They aren't the problem. They are supplying product to meet a demand, and the demand -- 100 percent American in its origin, for our purposes -- is our drug problem. Demand in other countries is their drug problem. If there w were no demand, there would be no supply. Why, then, do Americans take these drugs? The answer is simple. At first, they take them because the drugs make them feel good. Later, they take them because they are addicted. Reducing demand will require two strategies: education to prevent as many first-time users as possible from becoming addicted, and rehabilitation for addicts. [continues 566 words]
Drug courts are building a record of success, a judge said. BENTONVILLE -- Innovative drug courts will need more money from the state in 2003, Judge Jay Finch advised a state legislator from Benton County. There are six drug courts in the state, including one in Benton County that started last summer. Dedicated to changing drug offenders' behavior, drug courts provide an opportunity for the courts to use both conventional and unconventional methods to try to help drug offenders turn their lives around. [continues 279 words]
Thank you for printing some true, factual information about the War on Drugs. This "war" was begun by President Richard Nixon and Republicans today see their opportunity to dominate and control American citizens and people of other countries with their war on some drugs rhetoric and policies. The United States is now being sued, under NAFTA rules, for banning a Canadian company from selling hemp products in the United States. Medical marijuana users in the Unite ed States are still waiting for our government to do legitimate, useful research on the medicinal benefits of marijuana. As usual, America lags behind other countries in doing this research, but at least other countries don't have the narrow, moralistic viewpoint of Asa Hutchinson and his gang of thugs who are currently attacking and terrorizing medical marijuana users, doctors, and buyers clubs in California. Talk about the war on drugs supporting terrorism, it certainly is, right here in the good ole USA. Georgia Lance, Elkins [end]
The National Rifle Association argues that the safety of the First Amendment depends on those who believe with the NRA that the Second Amendment entitles anyone to carry a gun anywhere. It's bunkum. The U.S. House of Representatives just shot up the First Amendment for the umpteenth time, voting to restrict free speech under the guise of flag protection. Three Arkansas representatives, all faithful followers of the NRA, joined in the assault: Marion Berry, Asa Hutchinson, Mike Ross. Only Vic Snyder stood up for freedom. Again. [continues 381 words]
ROGERS -- Rogers Police Chief Tim Keck said the city will offer about $30,000 to the state for drug-fighting equipment left over from the now-defunct 19th Judicial District Drug Task Force in an effort to resolve a year-long dispute. The quarrel is over about $100,000 worth of gear that the state said Rogers police should have returned after the Rogers-based drug task force disbanded in 2001. State Drug Director Bill Hardin has been asking Keck to turn over the gear -- surveillance cameras, weapons and other items -- for more than a year. [continues 309 words]
I've Wondered For Years: What Does Hutchinson Know About Arkansas's Biggest Drug Smuggler? And When Did He Know It? Asa Hutchinson and I share a passion for the subject of drugs. As a crusading member of Congress, he talks a lot about them. As a reporter focused on crime, my writing centers on them. Hutchinson wants to intensify this country's war on drugs. I think three decades of failure have proven the war a disaster. Now President George W. Bush has nominated Hutchinson to head the DEA, the biggest drug-fighting squad in the world. But before Hutchinson assumes that post, there are some questions about high-level cocaine trafficking in Arkansas while he was a U.S. attorney here that he should be required to answer. The questions have hung about for years, but so far he has managed to dodge them. [continues 4117 words]
Go figure. The top cops in the 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force are in a quibble with Prosecutor Terry Jones over forfeiture monies -- one of the most controversial law enforcement elements in the changing debate over Arkansas' war on drugs. Members of the "Fighting Fourth" are displeased that Jones is paying an outside attorney to handle forfeiture cases, a court procedure outside the criminal realm that requires a civil judgment before the task force can keep money and property from those convicted of drug offenses. [continues 697 words]
