Lawmakers Spark Debate in Annapolis ANNAPOLIS, Md. - The Maryland General Assembly is once again considering bills that would increase access to marijuana. Last year legislators approved a bill that would allow hospitals to study pot for medical uses, but so far none of them have. Supporters of marijuana decriminalization say the General Assembly didn't go far enough last year. They say Maryland should move closer to Colorado and Washington State, which allow marijuana to be sold to anyone age 21 or over. [continues 316 words]
Gee, 90 years ago, if someone had snitched on me, I could have gotten arrested for making gin in my own bathtub for my personal use. Wow, now someone gets arrested for growing plants in their basement. If the good doctor had been in another state, such as Washington, nothing would have happened. Sometimes criminality is just a question of geography! Ray Andersen, Newburgh [end]
Indiana State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell should be commended for speaking out against drug war failure. Police time spent arresting marijuana consumers is police time not spent going after child molesters, rapists and murderers -- real crimes with real victims. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize drug cartels, prohibition is a success. The drug war distorts supply and demand dynamics so that big money grows on little trees. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to deter use, prohibition is a failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. The criminalization of Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. It's time to stop the arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. Robert Sharpe is a policy analyst with Common Sense for Drug Policy. [end]
Indiana State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell created a stir last week when he said that if left to him, he would legalize and then tax marijuana. Left to us, and we suspect to a majority of Hoosiers, it is not going to happen anytime soon. One day, it will likely happen in Indiana and most other states -- that is, the decriminalization of marijuana use. Fifteen states have already decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, as two Indiana lawmakers have proposed. And just last month, Colorado and Washington voted to legalize the use of marijuana, while voters in one other state, Oregon, turned down legalization this year. [continues 335 words]
State police superintendent said he'd legalize and tax it EVANSVILLE -- Local law enforcement officials brushed off comments last week by the head of the Indiana State Police that appeared to support the legalization of marijuana and said they don't expect the state's laws on the drug to change any time soon. During an appearance in front of panel of state legislators Tuesday, State police Superintendent Paul Whitesell said marijuana was "going to stay" and that if he could he would legalize and tax it. [continues 607 words]
EVANSVILLE -- Vanderburgh Superior Court's seven judges will change the way the court operates to better address issues largely linked to a rising tide of methamphetamine abuse in the county. Chief Judge Mary Margaret Lloyd said the changes will begin in September. She said they are designed to resolve two main problems: How to better handle cases involving substance abuse and addiction issues and how to address a backlog of paternity cases in a Juvenile Court strained by a growing number of other cases. [continues 813 words]
INDIANAPOLIS -- Lawmakers didn't say whether they will proceed with legislation to legalize marijuana after advocates for such law dominated a four-hour Statehouse hearing last week. Sen. Karen Tallian, D-Portage, who proposed a study of the issue this year, told the Criminal Law and Sentencing Policy Committee that she had no agenda other than to "start talking about this." She said the idea for the study came from her "experience sitting in court as an attorney" and "looking at young kids pleading to minor possession charges." [continues 398 words]
Gatewood Galbraith is once again running for governor -- and he's quit smoking marijuana to prove he's serious. "I gave up smoking pot about two months ago after 40 years," he said Monday during an interview with The Gleaner. "I want people to trust that I'm going to be as clearheaded as I can possibly be." This is the fifth time the Lexington defense attorney has run for governor; the first time he made headlines with his outspoken advocacy for legalizing marijuana. He's not pushing that issue as hard as he once did, but it's still in his platform. [continues 465 words]
But Effect on Cases Is Still Unknown Questions about the validity of some drug and alcohol test results by the Indiana State Department of Toxicology have yet to affect Southwestern Indiana overtly. An audit of the lab's results from 2007 through 2009 has turned up problems with at least 200 of the marijuana test results in that time period, said Larry McIntyre, a spokesman for the department. The errors deal with issues such as handling of samples, lab processes and, in some cases, interpretation. He said the potential seriousness of the situation is not yet known. [continues 629 words]
To the editor: Sunday's column by Brian Howey about our marijuana laws did not pose the important question: When is this insanity going to end? It's obvious the so-called "War on Drugs" is not winnable. Estimates are that the U.S. is spending almost $14 billion per year on enforcing marijuana laws. When are the politicians going to start collecting taxes on the billions in lost revenue and stop putting people in jail for something that can be grown anywhere? Robert L. Smith Boonville, Ind. [end]
Local law enforcement officials are now using a new Web-based method for tracking the sale of pseudoephedrine and other common items used in the manufacture of methamphetamine. The Indiana Methamphetamine Investigation System works by combining pseudoephedrine purchase records with criminal records to track suspicious purchasing habits and connect frequent purchasers of pseudoephedrine. Indiana State Police Sgt. Niki Crawford spoke at a news conference Thursday at the Indiana State Police post in Evansville about the system and new website. "We're putting a lot of information at the hands of law enforcement," said Crawford, who is also the commander of the Indiana State Police Methamphetamine Suppression Section. [continues 244 words]
The hard-luck city of Oakland, Calif., an aging port and factory town, has decided to reinvent itself as an agricultural center. The City Council voted 5-2 this week to license four large facilities where marijuana could be grown and processed. The hope is that the grass factories will create hundreds of jobs, pay millions of dollars in taxes and give Oakland a jump on rival cities if Californians vote this fall to legalize recreational marijuana. The measure attracted heated opposition, but not from the people you might think, those who believe that approval of the cultivation and sale of marijuana would lead to rampant drug use. [continues 114 words]
If a neighbor throws his garbage out into his yard and leaves it, it won't be long before your neighborhood will be swarming with flies. The same is true for mosquitoes if the water is allowed to collect in buckets or tires and such. Having the authorities come out and swat a few flies or mosquitoes won't come close to solving the problem. You have to get rid of the garbage or the water. Nothing else will work. The point is that drug dealers, like flies and mosquitoes, are drawn into neighborhoods by the garbage that buys what they're selling. [continues 330 words]
The Issue: Citizens defied drug traffickers. Our View: It is a good sign for the U.S. Mexican citizens defied violent drug traffickers with a simple but powerful act: Voting. No matter whom they voted for, Mexicans cast ballots on Sunday in favor of the rule of law, for honest government and for the peaceful resolution of disputes. The people not on the ballot - the drug traffickers and their hired guns - tried to disrupt the voting with threats, violence and intimidation. In the days before the election, one candidate for governor was murdered and the government offered other candidates bulletproof vests. [continues 245 words]
The criminal justice system in this country is broken. We have a greater percentage, by far, of our population in jail than any of the other western democracies in the world. We sentence more persons to the death penalty than any other western nations. The percentage of adult, black males in our prison system is a national disgrace and a disaster. As I've argued on these pages previously, we need to decriminalize the possession of drugs for personal use and legalize, plus tax, their proper distribution. [continues 244 words]
To the editor: The solution to overcrowding at jails and prisons everywhere is simple: Just decriminalize the possession of substances for personal use. It's far past time we realize the policies we have been pursuing for years have not worked and will never work! It's costing us billions of dollars every year to pursue failed policies. Isn't it time to change? Ray Andersen Newburgh [end]
To the editor: I wrote to you in April asserting that Indiana and the United States should drop the war on drugs. Instead of criminalization, we should regulate certain drugs as we do alcohol. Since then, lawmakers in 14 states have begun considering the legalization of marijuana. Since that time 14 states are considering legalization of marijuana. The Obama administration has floated the idea as well. Recently, a columnist in the The Guardian newspaper of London called for an end to the drug war: "The anti-drug crusade will go down as among the greatest foibles of modern times," John Gray wrote. "The fact is that the costs of drug prohibition now far outweigh any possible benefits the policy may bring." Empty our prisons of drug users. Save money. Use money to treat, not imprison. F. Wesley Bowers Evansville [end]
Owensville Faces Its Own Big Crime OWENSVILLE, Ind. -- The items displayed in the glass case in Rodger Leister's office are visual aids about the dope business. Stolen prescription pills. Marijuana pipes. Crack cocaine pipes. But the main focus of the display is methamphetamine: precursors for making it, syringes for injecting it, pieces of burnt aluminum foil after it's been smoked. "I saw my first meth lab in 1998," says the 37-year-old town marshal of the small Gibson County town (population about 1,300). "The use has exploded since then. It's practically everywhere. Definitely not just in Owensville." [continues 776 words]
A new statewide survey indicates that among Indiana high school students, cigarette smoking is holding steady or declining, but use of snuff and chewing tobacco could be edging upward. Overall youth drug use by sixth-through 12th-graders in Indiana is down, according to latest annual survey by the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Daily use of smokeless tobacco by ninth-grade students has gone up slightly, from 1.5 percent in 2001 to 1.9 percent in 2008, the survey showed. [continues 440 words]
The Issue: United States Is World's Largest Jailer Two reports by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics show that the rate of growth in the prison and jail populations of the United States has slowed slightly but that the country still has the dubious distinction of being the largest jailer in the world. As of June 30, 2007, the country held roughly 2.3 million people behind bars, either in local or state jails or in federal prisons. [continues 326 words]
