While some question the effectiveness of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in elementary schools, everyone agrees it does strengthen the relationship between youth and police officers. This year, for the first time in several years, the D.A.R.E. program won't be offered in all of Dickson County's elementary schools. Fifth graders at White Bluff Elementary School and Charlotte Elementary School won't have the program due to a manpower shortage at the Dickson County Sheriff's Office. [continues 725 words]
When Ben Patton was an impressionable fifth grader he learned drugs and alcohol could either kill him or land him behind prison bars. "I didn't want any of that. I didn't want to get addicted, and I didn't want to go to jail," says the Portland High School junior who along with his peers and most of the community were shocked to learn the Sumner County Sheriff's Department was no longer supporting the 20-year-old Drug Abuse Awareness Education program. [continues 514 words]
A Hendersonville High School junior was suspended from school on Friday after rolling papers, a measuring scale and marijuana were found in his possession. The school resource officer, Sumner County Sheriff's Deputy Michael Hudson, was called in to assist school personnel in the search of two students, after they were caught being outside, ditching a class. Both students "smelled of smoke,'' according to court records. And when the 17-year-old male was searched, police found rolling papers in his pocket and a measuring scale in his socks. A search of his car yielded 46.8 grams of leafy green substance that later tested positive for marijuana. [continues 337 words]
SPRINGFIELD - A neighbor of Robertson County prosecutor Dent Morriss, who is being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and accused of mishandling evidence, says he can back up Morriss' claim that he destroyed marijuana in a brush fire. Jan Camplin, a retired U.S. Army colonel, said he and his wife were visiting Morriss and his wife, Phyllis, at their Kentucky Lake home when the prosecutor told him he had some evidence he needed to get rid of for the court. [continues 303 words]
An assistant Robertson County prosecutor said he used bad judgment when he destroyed an ounce of marijuana that had been evidence in a trial, contrary to usual procedure. A TBI investigation was ordered after a routine audit earlier this month at the Springfield Police Department brought the matter to light, District Attorney General John Carney said. Dent Morriss, who has prosecuted in Robertson County since 1988, said he used bad judgment last April when he burned the marijuana in a brush fire at his lake home in Kentucky. [continues 249 words]
Is your teen sucking on lollipops or baby pacifiers? If so, police say, he or she could be taking GHB or Ecstasy. "Blow pops, baby pacifiers and nasal inhalants are just some of the paraphernalia associated with the club drugs," said Sgt. Laurence Weathers, of the narcotics division. They "heighten the sensation of the drug," he said. According to published information about GHB, the illegal drug, when taken in low dosages, causes a euphoric effect similar to alcohol, and can make the user feel relaxed, happy and sociable. [continues 178 words]
