I find it insulting that the Sentinel would print Beth Kassab's column on John Morgan ("Legislature won't do Morgan favors on marijuana," Nov. 7). As she stated, the Sentinel is a supposedly family-friendly newspaper; then she goes on to focus on Morgan's loss on the medical marijuana amendment, and acknowledge that the duly elected Republican Legislature won't do him any favors. What is most disturbing is Kassab reported that Morgan blamed the loss on older people (defined by him as 65 and older), but not to worry, as Morgan adds, many of them will be dead by the next election. [continues 81 words]
Punitive Approach to Legislation Is Just Making the Problem Worse We are supposedly engaged in a "war on drugs." What war on drugs? It's a war on people - the young, the uneducated and the aboriginals. A phoney war, because it provokes that which it proclaims to repress. Take three countries with different approaches to recreational drugs: the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. The first two rely on a punitive approach. The Netherlands prefers harm reduction. As is notorious, Dutch citizens can openly enjoy cannabis in coffee shops. [continues 819 words]
We are supposedly engaged in a "war on drugs." What war on drugs? It's a war on people - the young, the uneducated and the aboriginals. A phoney war, because it provokes that which it proclaims to repress. Take three countries with different approaches to recreational drugs: the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. The first two rely on a punitive approach. The Netherlands prefer harm reduction. As is notorious, Dutch citizens can openly enjoy cannabis in coffee shops. So does the Netherlands swarm with drug-crazed zombies? Do the Dutch die in droves from overdose? Find the answer in World Drug Report 2011, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. [continues 784 words]
Other Charges Expected When Grand Jury Meets Next Week Opelousas Police Chief Larry Caillier is expected to enter a plea of not guilty when he is arraigned later this week on five charges of malfeasance in office. "He will not appear in person. He will wave his appearance. He came in this morning to sign a motion," Caillier's attorney Edward Lopez said Monday. The arraignment, which is a formal reading of the charges, is set for 9 a.m. Friday before 27th Judicial District Court Judge Alonzo Harris. [continues 408 words]
Caillier's Use of Funds Still Under Question. OPELOUSAS - Opelousas Police Chief Larry Caillier has been unapologetic in his response to auditors' concerns about $44,379 in "drug-buy" money, saying the expenses aren't documented because of the confidential nature of undercover narcotics work. But other law enforcement agencies have developed procedures for tracking these kinds of funds without compromising their investigations or informants. Laura Balthazar, chief deputy of the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office, said the Sheriff's Office has had a written policy in place since the creation of its narcotics unit in 1988. [continues 415 words]
More than 400 fifth-grade St. Landry Parish students will pledge to lead lives free from drugs and violence over the next two weeks. They will take that pledge as part of graduation exercises following completing a 12-week Drug Abuse Resistance Education program. DARE coordinator Adolphe Lagrange with the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office, has invited students' families and friends to come to the ceremony. He urged parents especially to join their sons and daughters at the one-hour program. [continues 272 words]
EUNICE - The Eunice Housing Authority wants the city of Eunice to declare it's four housing complexes "drug free zones." "We have some bad problems. We have drug problems. On behalf of our residents, employees and the board of commissioners I'm asking for your help," said Kelly McFarlain, executive director of the Housing Authority of the City of Eunice. Police Chief Gary Fontenot said the designation, similar to a school zone, increases the penalty for anyone caught with drugs. "It doubles the time and doubles the fine," Fontenot said. [continues 70 words]
Canada is on the map. Yesterday's luminous but explosive report of the Senate committee on illegal drugs will be heard like a cannon shot across the world. In a unanimous judgment, nine experienced senators told Canadians that cannabis (a.k.a. hemp, pot, hashish, marijuana) should be made legal in this country and that it should be readily purchasable by all Canadian residents over 16, who would also be authorized to cultivate it for their personal use. Commercial cultivation and distribution to the public would be authorized under licence, according to conditions set by federal, provincial and municipal governments. [continues 467 words]
Well, it's a start. Federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon didn't just confirm that he's thinking of decriminalizing simple possession of marijuana. He actually confessed he'd smoked the stuff -- and made no excuses, no apologies, no silly evasions a la Bill Clinton. Remember? "I didn't inhale." (He didn't have sex with "that woman," either.) Mr. Cauchon, when asked, took it for granted that he had tried pot. "Yes, of course. I'm 39 years old . . ." Well, I'm more than 39 and I've tried pot, and so has almost everyone I know. It would help to put the debate in context if many more people from all walks of life -- responsible citizens, including judges and clergymen - -- were to acknowledge publicly that they had smoked pot without going on to inject heroin, and their lives would have been damaged had they been caught and convicted. [continues 456 words]
It was cops against pot this week at the Senate committee on illegal drugs. The Canadian Police Association, lobby for 30,000 of the country's 65,000 guardians of the law, came out with guns blazing against the threat of our Draconian drug laws being liberalized. "Canada must resist the seductive temptations being advanced by a sophisticated drug lobby," David Griffin, a former police officer now employed by the association, told the senators. Detective Sergeant Dale Orban, executive director of the association, warned of the threat. "Drugs are not dangerous because they are illegal; drugs are illegal because drugs are dangerous. There is no such thing as soft drugs nor hard drugs nor bona fide criteria to differentiate between these terms. People who refer to hard drugs or soft drugs generally do not understand much about drugs or are seeking to soften attitudes toward the use of certain illicit drugs." [continues 445 words]
When will the madness end? No, not the escapades of Stockwell Day, but something far more serious: our laws on illicit drugs inherited from the 20th century but akin in spirit to the 14th century's witch burnings. On Monday, criminologist Marie-Andree Bertrand appeared as a witness before the Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs. She is professor emeritus at the University of Montreal's School of Criminology and was a commissioner on the Le Dain Commission that proposed in 1970: "No one should be liable to imprisonment for simple possession of a psychotropic drug for non-medical purposes." [continues 499 words]
The war on drugs makes many casualties. Most who are wounded or die suffer their fate in anonymity. An exception: Constable Barry Schneider of the RCMP. When he died at home in Courtenay, B.C., on Nov. 29, it was first assumed that he died of a heart attack. He was considered a model citizen and more than 500 people attended his funeral. Then, last week, it was revealed that he died of a heroin overdose, and had traces of cocaine in his system. [continues 591 words]
The three judges of the Ontario Court of Appeal showed the wisdom of Daniel on Monday when they unanimously struck down as unconstitutional the law making the possession of marijuana a crime. They declared it unjust and unacceptable in a free and democratic society. It continues to be operative for 12 months so as to avoid a legislative vacuum, but the judgment will have far-reaching consequences beyond the issue of marijuana-as-medicine, on which the decision was based. The judges have invited the government to rewrite the law. They've given our society an opportunity to rethink a blanket prohibition against marijuana that was first imposed in 1923 from ignorance and superstition. [continues 691 words]
The "war on drugs" reminds me of the Vietnam War. In both wars, all you read in the newspapers was about the latest victory. During the Vietnam War, it was the daily body count. The Americans counted their victories by the number of Viet Cong reported killed. They won every day until the final defeat. In the war on drugs, you read recurrently about police raids, drugs seized, people charged, convicted, sentenced, imprisoned. Each story presents a victory over an underground army of criminals, enemies of the people, many of them bikers and many foreigners. [continues 747 words]
