Connecticut's sensation the other day was the arrest of a woman from Windham for a weeklong crime spree, the robbery of six banks from West Springfield to Westerly, R.I. The woman, 34, has a criminal record involving drugs and prostitution and police believe she committed the robberies to support her drug addiction. That suspicion about her was shared in a television station's interview with a friend who lamented emotionally his inability to stop her. The friend speculated that her robberies were a "cry for help." Indeed, the woman did not disguise herself as, a bit ridiculously, she told bank tellers that she was carrying a bomb in a handbag.

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President Barack Obama's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, should be commended for initiating some basic reforms in U.S. drug policy. One of his first sensible acts was to drop the phrase "War on Drugs." "Regardless of how you try to explain to people that it's a 'war on drugs' or a 'war on a product,' people see a war as a war on them," he explained. "We're not at war with people in this country."

As the former chief of the Seattle Police, he lived under some of the most progressive drug laws in the nation. When it comes to addressing the basic premise of our failed drug policies, however, he's trapped in a linguistic box.

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Only 22 of Connecticut's 169 towns have not had at least one reported fatal overdose from heroin or pharmaceutical narcotic painkillers between 1997 and 2007, according to a study recently released by the Yale School of Public Health.

The study, culled from data from the state's medical examiner's office, found that more than 2,200 people in Connecticut fatally overdosed on pharmaceutical narcotic painkillers, heroin or methadone during that time.

Robert Heimer, the study's lead investigator, found that the number of fatal heroin overdoses has decreased to 111 annually in recent years, from an average of 131 a year from 1997 to 2000. But deaths from prescription narcotic painkillers and methadone have more than doubled, to 113 a year from 2005 to 2007 from 43 a year in the late 1990s. The researchers also found a shift in narcotic painkillers abuse and addiction from the state's cities to its suburbs, with deadly results.

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Herb Can Cause Hallucinations

Norwich, Conn. — About a year ago, as the drug salvia divinorum grew in popularity in California and New York, customers began asking Marianne Thibeault if she sold it at her downtown store, The Other Side.

In response to the demand, Thibeault indeed began selling salvia. Now, a half-gram of the organic herb sells for $32.95 at her store. One company she buys from promotes it as a sacred herb that will “turn your brain on.”

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There is a new danger in our neighborhoods that few are aware of.

It's called salvia, a perennial herb in the mint family that can induce hallucinations or delusional episodes in those who ingest it - similar to the effects one might experience from taking LSD or Ecstasy. It has become a widely popular drug of choice among young people, thanks mainly to the Internet, where word of its "powers" has spread rapidly.

A search of the Internet site YouTube produced more than 5,000 hits of videos of young people taking the drug. Spend a few minutes watching those videos and the potential danger is clear. Those using the drug lose their physical coordination, appear in a dreamlike state or show signs of confusion or madness.

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There is a back story to the issue of the legalization of marijuana (The News-Times, June 14). Most people are unaware of how its use became illegal.

Let me start at the beginning. Full disclosure: I neither smoke nor grow the stuff. Cannabis sativa is the proper scientific name for this member of the hemp family, which produces tough fibers, as well as oily compounds with pharmacological properties.

In Colonial times, American farmers were required by law to grow hemp because of its importance as a source of yarn, rope, and paper. No ships could sail without hemp cordage on board to raise and lower sails as they floated.

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Connecticut's Buzz Kill

Lawmakers called it "the blunt bill."

Connecticut landed at the center of the national debate on marijuana reform this year when two state senators from New Haven, Martin Looney and Toni Harp, proposed decriminalizing small amounts of pot possession.

Under the bill, anyone caught with less than an ounce of weed would have their mellow harshed with an infraction punishable by fines of $59 to $129 rather than a misdemeanor charge that could land you a year behind bars.

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Is Now The Time To Legalize Pot?

The Obama administration, already overtaxed with two foreign campaigns, made headlines when it waved a white flag in a fight much closer to home. Gil Kerlikowske, the White House's newly minted director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy -- the so-called drug czar -- called for an end to the "War on Drugs."

Granted, Kerlikowske wasn't signaling an intention to lay down arms and pick up a pack of E-Z Widers. His was a semantic shift -- a pledge to abandon gung-ho fighting words and imprisonment in favor of treatment. But it was newsworthy nonetheless. As Bruce Mirken, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project -- the biggest pot-policy-reform group in the country -- puts it: "Can you imagine [Bush administration czar] John Walters saying that? The Earth would open up!"

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North Stonington - The man in the video took one long drag on a water pipe and, within moments, was writhing, oblivious to his friends and unable to stand up.

"It looks like he's having a seizure," said a woman wearing scrubs, watching the YouTube clip showing someone using Salvia on Tuesday evening.

About 40 parents crowded into the meeting in the Wheeler High School library to hear information about Salvia divinorum, a legal drug that causes a short but severe high and whose usage school administrators said has been spreading through the school, especially in recent weeks.

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Salvia divinorum, a plant traditionally smoked for generations by Shamans and which a growing number of young people are smoking, was in the news this past week. Wheeler High School Principal Michael Susi and Assistant Principal Chris Sandford called what might be considered an emergency meeting of middle school and high school parents.

They told the parents that increasing numbers of Wheeler students appear to be using the plant. They said their biggest concerns were that people often don't remember what happens during a Salvia high. (Salvia users refer to them as trips, perhaps for their short duration). Susi and Sandford said since students are reportedly using it in groups, it could lead to injury or to some students taking advantage of others.

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Community Service Officer Michael Webster realized that he was offering elementary school students an outdated drug and alcohol awareness program that included topics they would discuss in later grades.

"We had outgrown the DARE curriculum," he admitted. "They hadn't changed the program since 2001 and we were dealing with things like the Leonard case where two 12-year-old girls in town became involved with a predator on the Internet. We had a huge Internet problem but we were teaching don't use cigarettes."

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DANBURY, Conn. (AP) -- A national marijuana advocacy group has dumped its Connecticut chapter after police say an officer threatened a state senator.

The action came as a legislative committee prepared to vote Tuesday on a proposal to decriminalize marijuana. The panel ran out of time and didn't act.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, says the chapter's affiliation was withdrawn after Dominic Vita's arrest.

Vita was charged Friday with disorderly conduct. He's accused of sending an e-mail saying he was "getting ready to go postal" and implied harm against Sen. Toni Boucher (boo-SHAY'), who opposes the bill.

Vita has apologized and says he accidentally sent it to a state address instead of a friend.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger proved last week (May 5) he's not a girly-man when it comes to the debate over whether marijuana should be legalized and taxed in California.

Gov. Arnold called for a large-scale study of the consequences of legalizing pot for recreational use in California and suggested that the study might benefit from looking at the effects of drug legalization moves already made by European countries. It's true that Schwarzenegger is a lame duck and that his politically daring call was driven largely by his bankrupt state's search for new sources of tax revenue.

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In 1932, Alphonse Capone, an influential businessman then living in Chicago, used to drive through the city in a caravan of armor-plated limos built to his specifications by General Motors. Submachine-gun-toting associates led the motorcade and brought up the rear. It is a measure of how thoroughly the mob mentality had permeated everyday life that this was considered normal.

Capone and his boys were agents of misguided policy. Ninety years ago, the United States tried to cure the national thirst for alcohol, and it led to an explosion of violence unlike anything we'd ever seen.

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I've been inundated.

Last week I innocently mentioned that I've evolved on this idea of legalizing marijuana. Apparently, I'm not moving fast enough for the drug-law reformers.

They want the full monty -- the legalization of pot, cocaine, heroin and the like.

I'd like to take a more measured approach, starting with more decriminalization of reefer and a better understanding of what the consequences are. For those of you who insist there'll be none and point to post-Prohibition reports, I am still not buying.

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A bill currently under consideration in the Connecticut General Assembly could provide the most dramatic change to state narcotics law in recent history.

Late last month, the legislative body's Judiciary Committee approved a law to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, greatly reducing the penalty for possession of less than one ounce. While it lowers the disincentives for possessing marijuana, the bill will also decrease the burden on Connecticut's criminal justice system and help ease the state's budget crisis.

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Jack Cole was driving from Norwich to Hamden with his latest convert in an emerging movement to legalize marijuana. Just so happens that the new recruit is a retired cop. No, he's not undercover.

Actually, it's no surprise that former Manchester Capt. Joseph Brooks signed up for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a Massachusetts-based advocacy group of which Cole is executive director. Most of the 12,000 members are law enforcement types who share at least one thing in common: They want to make marijuana legal.

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I understand that the initial knee-jerk reaction is negative to legislation before the General Assembly regarding the reduction of penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana. It stems from the smokescreen of misinformation we have been inundated with by the government and other interested parties who profit from the continuing war on drugs.

But we must see through this smokescreen to the truth. By now, most of us have either tried marijuana or know someone who has. We know from experience that it is not the evil, harmful drug that it is purported to be. In fact, it is significantly less harmful than many prescription drugs out there.

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Thanks to the Connecticut Post for making the case for marijuana decriminalization in your April 3 editorial.

Marijuana prohibition has done little other than burden millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens with criminal records. The University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future Study" reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that use its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records.

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While the cost of the Legislature is alarming in a fiscal depression such as we are now experiencing, some other expenses that aren't being cut are downright disturbing to the majority of Connecticut residents.

Gov. M. Jodi Rell is misguided in her attempts to trim the budget. While she was quoted in recent news articles as saying "Everyone has to think about giving back," she fails to take back marijuana prohibition and fails to view the Department of Correction budget as the real financial threat it is to our state.

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