BOSTON - There's more on the line Nov. 2 than who goes to Beacon Hill or Washington. On election day in Western Massachusetts, some voters will consider ballot questions that could change the legal, social and economic landscapes of their communities. There are no statewide referendums on the ballot in Massachusetts, but several communities and districts feature ballot questions. Consider some referendums: Voters in many communities will also decide nonbinding referendums on issues such as decriminalization of marijuana, workplace bullying, the Patriot Act and redistricting of congressional and state legislative seats. [continues 77 words]
CHICAGO - Mayor Richard Daley, a former prosecutor, runs the nation's third-largest city with a pragmatic, law-and-order style. He wears his hair short, and you'll never catch him in a Grateful Dead T-shirt. So when he starts complaining about the colossal waste of time and money involved in prosecuting small-time marijuana cases, people take notice. "This is absolutely a big deal," said Andy Ko, director of the Drug Policy Reform Project for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state. "You've got a mayor in a major American city ... coming out in favor of a smart and fair and just drug policy." [continues 656 words]
SPRINGFIELD - City police are seeking warrants against the president of Arise for Social Justice after a search at the group's Rifle Street office yielded 380 unused hypodermic syringes, 62 hypodermic syringe preparation kits and a medical container of used needles. Capt. William Cochrane of the police Narcotics Bureau said it appeared Arise had "set up its own unlicensed needle exchange program." Arise, a private, nonprofit group, has been a proponent of needle exchange programs as a way to combat the spread of HIV and AIDS by drug addicts who share needles. Springfield has not opted to accept a needle exchange program as Northampton and Hartford have. [continues 627 words]
HOLYOKE - Police and school officials will eliminate a federal drug education program this year and instead increase the number of resource officers patrolling schools. Officials said they want to make better use of their money during a time when schools and the Police Department are scraping for funds. Two years ago the Police Department funded two school resource officers and two officers who taught Drug Abuse Resistance Education, better known as DARE. School officials additionally spent $200,000 to hire five more officers daily and paid them overtime to patrol the schools. [continues 391 words]
AGAWAM - When city fifth-graders come to school this fall, a new drug-education awareness curriculum will be taught to students in the classroom. And according city officials and law enforcement personnel, the city-funded education program goes beyond simply teaching the hazards of drug use. The program teaches students how to make smart decisions throughout their lives. "If it (the program) saves one student, it's worth it," Mayor Richard A. Cohen said yesterday. The new fifth-grade curriculum is part of the long-established, sometimes-controversial nationwide Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. Created in 1984, the anti-drug awareness program known as DARE has been taught in schools throughout the country. [continues 276 words]
Lyle E. Craker, director of the Medicinal Plant Program at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, is authorized by the federal government to conduct medical marijuana research, but it won't let him grow the drug. How dopey is that? Craker is a plaintiff in one of two lawsuits filed Wednesday accusing the government of violating federal law by obstructing medical marijuana research. The Amherst campus is one of the nation's most distinguished research universities, and Craker is immensely qualified to grow marijuana for legitimate medical and research studies. [continues 73 words]
Amherst - All Lyle E. Craker wants to do is grow marijuana in his lab at the University of Massachusetts to supply other scientists with the plant so studies about its medicinal benefits can take place. But after filing an application with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in June 2001 to establish a facility on the Amherst campus to produce marijuana for U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved research, he hasn't received a yes or no. To get an answer, Craker has teamed with two other parties as plaintiffs in one of two lawsuits scheduled to be filed today that accuses the federal government with obstructing medical marijuana research. [continues 306 words]
For a nation that has been waging a decades-long war against drugs without success, it is difficult to admit that someone might benefit by smoking marijuana. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week to decide whether seriously ill people who smoke pot under a doctor's care are subject to a federal ban on marijuana. Attorney General John Ashcroft strongly opposes the California law that permits medical use of marijuana, saying it "seriously undermines Congress' comprehensive scheme for the regulation of dangerous drugs." [continues 288 words]
WILBRAHAM - Drug Abuse Resistance Education programs are effective if they are given repeatedly throughout a child's education, DARE officer Dennis LaPlante tells parents. They are ineffective if they are taught only in one grade, according to LaPlante. Wilbraham has a strong DARE program, backed by the regional school district, the town's selectmen and police chief, and students here receive DARE education in grades three, five, seven and again in high school. In addition, LaPlante runs five-week programs for adults. [continues 202 words]
The Bush administration's efforts to ban the medical use of marijuana may have just gone up in smoke. The Supreme Court last week let stand a ruling that bars the federal government from punishing doctors who recommend it to their patients. This should clear the path for Congress to reclassify marijuana, allowing for its use when prescribed by a doctor. Doctors should decide whether pot is good or bad for a patient, not the Bush administration's lead man in the war against drugs, who wouldn't know an ulcer from heartburn. [continues 287 words]
GREENFIELD - Either Joseph White is an excellent fund-raiser, or he has an excellent cause. White, a 40-something-year-old parent in Greenfield and professional fund-raiser, founded and single handedly runs Change the Climate Inc., which advocates nationwide for the legalization of marijuana. The annual budget for the 3-year-old nonprofit is about $500,000, all from donations, White said. None of the donations pay for salaries, he said. His regular job is as senior executive at the Amherst-based fund-raising firm, Share Group Inc. [continues 619 words]
GREENFIELD - A legalize-marijuana billboard sponsored by a Greenfield-based advocacy group lasted less than a day on Route 9 in Westborough. It was pasted over with the billboard it had replaced - a composite sketch of an at-large serial rapist. The short-lived billboard, paid for by Change the Climate Inc. of Greenfield, showed photographs of three people - a teacher, a firefighter and a state trooper whose photograph was taken without authorization from a recruitment brochure, the state police said yesterday. [continues 262 words]
The Aug. 10 column by Sunday Republican Publisher Larry McDermott, "Community effort needed to stop violence" is the same old broken record that I've heard all my life. He states that "most street crime in urban areas such as Springfield and Holyoke is driven by the sale and use of drugs." He's correct because the law defines the sale and use of any drug on the street as a crime, but it is quite a leap to infer that the sale and use of a drug equates to violence. [continues 358 words]
