Since 1996, 12 states have enacted laws to allow patients to use medical marijuana, even though federal law continues to ban the drug. Marijuana helps patients with AIDS consume and hold down food. It is a mood elevator to combat the bouts of depression associated with this disease. Scientists say an active ingredient found in marijuana, THC, may help fight lung cancer, the most lethal of all cancers. Prohibition taught us you cannot legislate morality. We need to move forward with licensing guidelines for medical marijuana. Gubernatorial candidate Gatewood Galbraith supports the use of this medicine. How do other candidates feel? Will they avoid the subject? When will Kentucky legalize its use? Lexington [end]
An investigation that has focused on drugs and public corruption in Clay County has been honored nationally. The task force that has carried out the investigation won the 2007 "Best Investigative Effort" award from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to a news release from the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The task force is an initiative of that program, based in London. "This was huge for the Appalachia HIDTA," said director Frank Rapier. "I was extremely proud." [continues 385 words]
Anyone with doubts about who and what the American Civil Liberties Union stands for need look no further than the March 17 Herald-Leader article about the recent Supreme Court hearing on the bong banner. The ACLU -- in typical pro-drug, pro-fringe, anti-Christian style -- is defending Alaskan student Joseph Frederick and his right to unfurl a banner at school stating "BONG HITS 4 JESUS." The fact that this sacrilegious statement offends Christians must make the case even more appealing to the ACLU. We need more principals like Juneau's Debora Morse and the school board members who stand against outrageous student behavior. If they do not surface, the inmates, with the help of the ACLU, will soon be running the asylum. Dan Mackey Lexington [end]
Would anyone like a bong hit for Jesus? Does anyone even know what that means? If you're unsure, then you're not alone: even the U.S. Supreme Court isn't sure what to make of it. In January 2002, the message "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" was unveiled on a 14-foot banner by a high school student named Joseph Frederick along an Olympic torch route in Juneau, Alaska. Frederick was suspended from school for 10 days because of his actions, although he was not on school property and was not in attendance at school that morning. [continues 657 words]
Students' minds lit up during the first of several debates hosted by University of Louisville Properties. Groups for and against legalizing marijuana debated last Tuesday night in Kurz Hall. Sgt. Steve Salyers of the Louisville Metro Police Narcotics/Vice unit moderated the event, and a panel of university faculty, staff and students, including a representative from the Commonwealth Attorney's Office, judged it. "I coordinated this program to encourage residents to explore a hot button topic in a different manner that gives them access to both sides of an issue," said Lamont Johnson, assistant community manager for ULP. "It will also help students develop good research and public speaking skills." [continues 229 words]
Ceremony Marks Drug Awareness As she stood in the bleachers yesterday in the Scribner Middle School gym, sixth-grader Teresa Ross praised the DARE drug-awareness program she recently completed. "I learned a lot about not smoking and drinking," she said. Down on the gym floor, Josh Baker, another sixth-grader at the New Albany school, agreed. He said lessons such as "do not smoke, and all that," were easy to remember. All 260 sixth-graders at Scribner, part of the New Albany-Floyd County school system, took part in a ceremony yesterday to mark their completion of 10 DARE classes. [continues 369 words]
WASHINGTON - The United States said yesterday that top anti-terror allies Afghanistan, Pakistan and Colombia had fallen short in the war on drugs despite enhanced counter-narcotics efforts, and it criticized perennial foes Iran, North Korea and Venezuela for not cooperating. The State Department also noted backsliding in some key Latin American nations such as Bolivia. It praised improved performances by Mexico and traditional Asian transshipment points China and Thailand, but slammed neighboring Myanmar for illicit drug production. In its annual global survey of the drug war, the report said opium poppy production in Afghanistan, long the world's top producer of heroin's main ingredient, continued to pose a major threat because of links with groups such as the Taliban. [continues 95 words]
MURRAY, Ky. -- A middle school teacher trying to buy pot was arrested after she sent text messages to state trooper instead of a dealer, police said. Trooper Trevor Pervine was at dinner with his wife and parents celebrating a birthday when his phone started buzzing with messages about a marijuana purchase. At first, Pervine thought the messages were from friends playing a joke, Kentucky State Police spokesman Barry Meadows said. But a couple of phone calls put that idea to rest, and Pervine responded to set up a meeting, Meadows said. [continues 117 words]
MURRAY - Text messages mistakenly sent to a state trooper led to the arrest of a Western Kentucky teacher, who is accused of trying to buy marijuana. Trooper Trevor Pervine was at dinner with his wife and parents, celebrating his wife's birthday, when his phone started buzzing. Pervine was getting text messages about buying marijuana Thursday night, Kentucky State Police spokesman Barry Meadows said. The person sending the messages had the wrong number. [Name redacted], 34, a teacher at Murray Middle School, is accused of sending the messages and has been charged with conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, Meadows said. [continues 92 words]
MURRAY, Ky. -- Misguided text messages led to the arrest of a western Kentucky teacher who is accused of trying to buy pot from a state trooper. Trooper Trevor Pervine was at dinner with his wife and parents, celebrating her birthday when his phone started buzzing. Pervine was getting text messages about buying marijuana Thursday night, Kentucky State Police spokesman Barry Meadows said. The person sending the messages had the wrong number. [Name redacted] 34, a teacher at Murray Middle School, is accused of sending the messages and has been charged with conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia, Meadows said. [continues 139 words]
Grant CO. Driver Evidently Slipped Past Random Tests A Grant County school bus driver, had illegal drugs in her system after the bus she was driving crashed, doctors said. A Grant County bus driver involved in a crash that injured 17 students apparently managed to slip though a random drug-testing system similar to those in place in other area school districts. Doctors found cocaine, marijuana and several prescription drugs in her system after a Jan. 17 accident that sent two middle school students to the hospital and injured 15 others. She was indicted Wednesday on several counts that included assault, wanton endangerment and possession of a controlled substance, marijuana, and drug paraphernalia. [continues 568 words]
Recovery Programs Crucial To Winning Drug War Think about the families fractured this holiday because of drug abuse. Some missing family members are in prison; some are dead. Some may be around the house, but not really present. No one thinks drug abuse is OK. The question is how best to fight it. There are signs that the answer is shifting toward fighting drug abuse one person at a time, helping users recover, preventing others from getting hooked. It's slow, it's personal, it's expensive. But without it, history and economics say, we are doomed to failure. [continues 601 words]
NEWPORT - The Newport Independent School District will have to wait until 2010 if it wants to consider drug testing any of its teachers because of a collective bargaining agreement passed in June that does not call for the tests. "It is against our contract to drug test teachers," Newport High School teacher Carol Dunn said. Dunn serves as co-president of the Newport Teacher's Association, the union that put together the collective bargaining agreement. She said because the four year contract was just approved in June, the board will have to wait until June 2010 to ask for changes and additions to the next contract. [continues 519 words]
The Herald-Leader's Nov. 25 article about using helicopters to eradicate marijuana left me with a few questions. How many millions of dollars in tax money are being spent on these weed-pulling missions? Helicopters are expensive, and so is manpower. How many schools have to do without proper books, computers and teachers to finance these commando-style plant-eradication junkets? How many terrorists, illegal aliens and bales of cocaine come across our borders while our police are wasting time pulling weeds? Protecting our borders is a much better use of scarce resources than trying to arrest rural Kentucky gardeners. To all those who claim to be for balanced budgets, smaller government and less spending: Why can't you see that the war on marijuana is a failed effort that is merely used as pork spending? [continues 71 words]
Methamphetamine use is not just a drug problem. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Hydee Hawkins, it's a "national epidemic," affecting otherwise law-abiding Americans and their children, and is the number one drug that law enforcement battles today. This was the focus of an hour-long symposium last night in the Small Ballroom of the Student Center for National Methamphetamine Awareness Day. The day was created after President George W. Bush issued a proclamation earlier in November. "On National Methamphetamine Awareness Day, we underscore the dangers of methamphetamine and reaffirm our collective responsibility to combat all forms of drug abuse," Bush wrote in a statement. [continues 436 words]
Spotters Spent More Time in Air Extra time in the air by spotters helped authorities destroy more marijuana growing outdoors in Kentucky this year than in more than a decade. Police cut and burned 557,276 plants this year, up nearly 50,000 from 2005 and the most since 1995. Arrests also were up: 475 in 2006 compared with 452 in 2005. If each destroyed plant had produced one pound of pot with an estimated worth of $2,000, that would mean $1 billion was prevented from entering the illegal drug market. [continues 544 words]
Police destroyed more marijuana growing outdoors in Kentucky this year than they had in more than a decade, according to numbers compiled by state police. One factor in the increase was that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration brought in several helicopters and an airplane for six weeks during the summer, creating more opportunity for airborne spotters to find pot patches, said Lt. Ed Shemelya, head of the marijuana-eradication program for the Kentucky State Police. "Anybody in this business will tell you the more eyes you get in the sky, the more dope you'll find," Shemelya said. [continues 1288 words]
The Pike County Board of Education is drug testing more students more often, but there are still some problems with the policy. Vice-Chairman J.C. Chaney asked Board of Education members to revamp the district's random student drug-testing policy after one child, who is not in the random drug testing pool, was tested because officials suspected illegal drug use. The student, whose parents weren't notified by the Board of Education or the school, passed the test, Chaney said. [continues 568 words]
In reaction to an underage drinking scandal that police said included a school board member, two teachers and high school students, the Newport school board took steps Wednesday to tighten the district's drug and alcohol policies. At the recommendation of Superintendent Michael Brandt, the board authorized him to: Research drug-testing policies in other districts. Form a task force to study a random drug-testing policy for students. Create a code of conduct for students who want to participate in sports and other extra-curricular activities. [continues 506 words]
It's encouraging to read "Students meet for marijuana reform" (Nov. 3), and I hope it leads to the end of cannabis prohibition. Another reason to stop caging people for using cannabis that isn't mentioned is because the Bible indicates God created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only Biblical restriction place on cannabis is that it be accepted with thankfulness (1 Timothy 4:1-5). Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]