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]
The scope of a drug sale investigation at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire last week drew intense public interest. But at the end of it, the charging of only two students and recovery of less than 10 grams of marijuana revealed a problem that was entirely typical of all high schools throughout the suburbs, police and school officials said. "That kind of thing probably goes on in every high school in America," Barrington Police Chief Jerry Libit said. "We've certainly had our share of kids using pot or buying pot or selling pot. It's a horrible situation when it happens in the high school. That's why they have enhanced penalties for it and everything." [continues 616 words]
I believe our country has a serious problem. Many people think that the war on drugs is a positive thing, but how far are we willing to take it? Right now we are spending billions of dollars to search, arrest, and imprison people for using, smoking, or possessing marijuana. Instead of focusing our taxpayer monies on marijuana it should be redirected to something more rewarding, such as health care. One way we as a community can help is to support the bill H.B. 1177, which would decriminalize marijuana and would make the penalty for possession of marijuana a $100 fine for 40 grams or less. The bill would still hold the previous penalties for minors. Quantcast [continues 86 words]
