During the 1920s, my uncles and grandfather had a profitable business in Salt Lake City. They produced and sold bootleg whiskey. This family business fell on hard times when prohibition was repealed. Now, fast forward to 2010. Today, instead of Prohibition, we have the "Gang and Drug Cartel Enabling Act," mislabeled as the "War on Drugs."

Give the gangs and cartels their greatest nightmare by legalizing drugs in America. Establish state stores all across the country where a person can register, sign a liability release, and purchase a week's supply of most drugs for $5 to $10. Keep the anti-drug laws we now have, but have fines of $300 to $5,000, rather than taxpayerfunded jail time for illegal purchases.

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Sound the alarm!

Man the battlements! Another threat to Utah's guarded way of life looms large on the horizon.

Colorado, California, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon now allow use of marijuana as medicine.

That the West is going to pot is a troubling development for those Utahns already feeling besieged by socialists, Mexicans, homosexuals and garden-variety nutcakes.

I worry about the prevalence of a siege mentality; I don't worry at all about sick people using pot to ease pain or nausea. Anyone having firsthand experience with medicinal marijuana would hold similar views. When a friend was dying of cancer last year, my wife brought pot from Northern California. It was easy to come by. It is so commonplace there that radio stations advertise supplies for the "indoor gardeners" whose cannabis crop is a mainstay of the California economy.

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Legal and Undetected

Smoking marijuana may not destroy your life like a heroin addiction or damage your body like cocaine.

It does, however, destroy trust and damage relationships; no parent wants to be lied to, to lay awake at night wondering what's going on with their children or to explain to a 5-year-old girl why her brother isn't around much anymore and doesn't seem to like his family very much.

Now, a new substance that mimics the effects of marijuana is sold legally as an incense. It could be causing the same worries - except most parents have no idea that the marijuana substitute even exists. They don't know what signs to watch for. They don't recognize the smell. It's sold by legitimate businesses and does not show up in drug tests.

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BRIGHAM CITY -- After a controversial start, the Box Elder School District drug policy was deemed a success and will be used again in the upcoming school year.

Bear River High School Vice Principal Chad Kirby told the school board he did not believe there needed to be any amendments to the policy.

"It is working with what we are currently doing," Kirby said, adding that in this school year the resource officer will give the anti-drug information to all students rather than just the students who sign up for sports.

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SALT LAKE CITY -- A new state council that originated from a Clinton lawmaker's legislation will consider cracking down on the use of two unregulated herbs circulating as recreational drugs.

The Controlled Substances Advisory Committee met for the first time on Wednesday to consider suggesting state regulations on three items: the herb Salvia divinorum, the herb called Spice and the prescription drug Tramadol.

Earlier this year, the Weber School District banned Spice and Hill Air Force Base banned Salvia divinorum from use at their locations and were among the first entities in the state to take action on the herbal items. The products are legal and do not show up on drug tests, but both produce hallucinogenic or marijuana-like effects in some people when smoked.

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I'm writing about: "12,000 marijuana plants removed in hills above Centerville" (6-27-10).

I'm sure that many marijuana growers and sellers are thankful to the Davis Metro Narcotics Strike Force, the David County Sheriff's Office, the Centerville Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration for this latest marijuana eradication effort and others like it.

Without operations like this, marijuana would be worth what other easy-to-grow weeds are worth--very little.

Thanks to the Drug Enforcement Administration and other so-called "drug warriors," the easy-to-grow weed is worth almost as much as pure gold--and completely tax free.

Any marijuana growers, sellers or traffickers arrested will soon be replaced. They always are.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

CENTERVILLE -- Police removed more than 12,000 marijuana plants on a rugged hillside above here on Forest Service Land on Sunday morning. The operation took several hours.

Centerville resident Troy Carlson, who lives about a mile below where the plants were removed on the 100 block of 700 East, said he was surprised to hear helicopters about 9:30 a.m. and then to find out that police had found the drugs growing there.

"We just watched all day," he said. "Of course, we are concerned about it. It's about a mile from our fence line. It's not a long ways."

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"You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to." -- Richard Nixon as quoted by H.R. Haldeman, supporting a get-tough-on drugs strategy.

"They give black people time like it's lunch down there. You go down there looking for justice, that's what you find: just us." -- Richard Pryor.

Michelle Alexander was an ACLU attorney in Oakland, preparing a racial profiling lawsuit against the California Highway Patrol. The ACLU had put out a request for anyone who had been profiled to get in touch. One day, in walked this black man.

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California is on the verge of legalizing marijuana for general use - within certain age limits, of course. Debate on the subject is now raging, but the measure will be on the November ballot in the Golden State. Fourteen states, including California, already permit the use of cannabis for medical purposes, mainly pain control.

The arguments for the general use of pot are simple: It would make the state money, and it would save the state money. Legalizing marijuana, supporters claim, would fatten the state's coffers by applying a sales tax on the product when it is sold.

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Richard Bracken has brought forth a very controversial topic.

He has brought forth his ideas formally, but his argument is fairly weak. The author states that "marijuana being more harmful than alcohol or cigarettes have no basis in fact." This is a double-edged sword because he is making an appeal to the masses by saying that everyone knows that alcohol or cigarettes are worse than marijuana, when it actually depends upon the person on whether or not it is more deadly.

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I'm writing about Richard Bracken's thoughtful column: "Legalizing Marijuana Just Makes Sense."

I'd like to add that it makes no sense, economic or moral, to jail marijuana users or sellers. Our jails and prisons should be reserved for those who harm others against their will. We don't jail or imprison those who produce, sell or use tobacco products, even though tobacco is a highly addictive and very deadly product.

We don't have criminals growing tobacco in clandestine locations. We don't have tobacco producers or sellers attempting to settle their disputes with each other with gun battles in the streets. If we were to criminalize tobacco, the situation would change.

We learned our lesson about criminalizing alcohol in only 13 years. Why can't we learn the same lesson about marijuana?

Kirk Muse, Mesa, Ariz., resident

[end]

Another reason to stop caging responsible adults who use marijuana that doesn't get mentioned is because it's biblically correct. God indicates he created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only biblical restriction placed on marijuana is it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5).

The list of reasons to end marijuana prohibition, persecution and extermination is growing faster than the plant itself.

Stan White, Dillon, Colo., resident

[end]

A petition in California has placed a measure in support of the legalization of marijuana on the ballot for November, and the success of this measure will demonstrate the resolve of the American people not to be ignored by their government.

The federal government has exhausted all avenues through which to block the legalization of marijuana. They have inflated the budgets of law enforcement and bloated our prisons; they have refused the acknowledgment of well-known and well-regarded medicinal benefits, and they have demonized a harmless plant and the proponents of its use. They have done so consciously and maliciously, and the public has lost patience.

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Ceremony - Fifth-Graders Have Mayor, Police Chief Onboard.

Murray - If high school graduation is the seminal moment of teenagers' lives, then D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) graduation just might be the equivalent for fifth-graders.

On Dec. 17, students at Longview Elementary had their D.A.R.E. graduation, each receiving certificates and new crisp, white D.A.R.E. T-shirts. The ceremony was attended by Murray City Mayor Daniel Snarr, Police Chief Peter Fondaco, D.A.R.E. officer Keith Huber and assistant superintendent Steven Hirasse.

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Right now, everyone is wondering how we will pay for health care reform. No one wants to be taxed more. No one wants money to be taken from other programs. No one wants to be left uninsured. I have a solution: Legalize, tax and regulate marijuana like we do alcohol. State and federal governments spend an estimated $44 billion a year on the war on drugs, and by legalizing cannabis, a significant part of that amount would be saved. Additionally, the tax revenue from legalization would net around $12 billion. This money could go toward health care reform, eliminating the need for tax increases or money being taken from our schools or other programs.

Adrienne Murphy

Salt Lake City

[end]

"The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!

Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason...

But I think that the most likely reason of all

May have been that his heart was two sizes too small."

When I first read that one of our state lawmakers is thinking the poor should be drug tested if they receive "welfare," the story of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" came to mind; but not even Dr. Seuss could imagine that. Yet, it's a dilemma policymakers face.

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Their Cases Dismissed, Officers Say Working Around Drug Labs Sickened Them.

Utah County sheriff's Lt. Dennis Harris may be the best example of the divide between science, the law and police who say methamphetamine sickened them.

Harris spent the past month undergoing a treatment purporting to alleviate symptoms of meth exposure. In the midst of Harris' 30-day effort to sweat out poisons, an administrative judge dismissed his worker compensation claim for lack of evidence.

"Physically I feel a lot better," said Harris, 54, whose treatment ended Nov. 19. "Mentally, I feel fantastic."

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PLEASANT VIEW -- High schools in Weber School District are giving kids an excuse to say no to drugs and alcohol.

In order to participate in such extracurricular activities as sports, student government, cheerleading, drama, debate, the band or choir this year, students must submit to random drug testing.

"This is a way to say, 'I am on the team and can't do this if I want to stay on the squad,' " said Weber High School Principal Steve Elsnab.

Bonneville High School implemented drug testing during 2008-09, and things went so smoothly, the program was expanded to other high schools in the district.

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Salt Lake County Sheriff's Sgt. Gary Sterner ticked off the ailments he attributes to methamphetamine exposure.

Headaches, joint pain, esophageal problems.

"Let's see. What else," Sterner said.

"Memory loss," replied his lawyer, Susan Black Dunn.

"Oh, yeah."

But science has not yet supported the claims made by police officers like Sterner. Neither has Utah law.

The Utah Labor Commission this year has dismissed 19 cases filed by the so-called "Meth Cops" or their survivors seeking workers compensation benefits. Many of the cases, which were first filed four years ago, were dismissed at the requests of the officers, who wanted more time to find evidence that busting meth labs contributed to their ailments before they refile their claims.

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This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon's start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.

"We've spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs," Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told me. "What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It's a dismal failure."

For that reason, he favors legalization of drugs, perhaps by the equivalent of state liquor stores or registered pharmacists. Other experts favor keeping drug production and sales illegal but decriminalizing possession, as some foreign countries have done.

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