Kentucky's inmate population -- now at roughly 21,000 -- is growing at a faster rate than any other state's, and the need for action increases every day.

As The Courier-Journal's R.G. Dunlop reported last Sunday, almost all state-run prisons and many jails are operating at or above capacity. Kentucky's corrections budget approached $500 million this year. And relying on private prisons to pick up inmate overflow, which is no less expensive than using state-run facilities, has managed to create even more problems.

[continues 359 words]

As baby boomers grow into their golden years, one hallmark of their youth has stayed with them: drug use.

From 1992 to 2008, treatment of people 50 and older for heroin abuse more than doubled in the United States.

Cocaine abuse among those 50 and older quadrupled, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"In all of the regions among those who are older, we see pretty dramatic increases," said Kathleen Kane-Willis, a drug policy researcher at Roosevelt University in Chicago.

[continues 491 words]

Eighteen men and women graduated from the 15th Judicial Drug Court in May.

The graduation ceremony took place on the Pearl River Community College Campus.

This was the court's first graduation since it was established by Circuit Judge Prentiss Harrell in 2007.

"With our five-county district, we have a population with a tremendous need for the drug court," Harrell said. "This program allows men and women to put their lives back together again, making this program a great success and impacting our communities and their families."

[continues 140 words]

The one-pot recipe for methamphetamine is spreading and the addiction isn't stopping in Oklahoma.

Only rumors hint at the origins of a recipe poisoning Oklahomans.

Some credit a college chemistry student paid to perfect the process. Others say incarcerated drug cooks created a new method. However it came about, the "one-pot" or "shake and bake" process of cooking methamphetamine is spreading.

By May's end, law enforcement officers reported seizing nearly 300 meth labs, putting the state on track to exceed the 743 labs found in 2009, data from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control shows.

[continues 701 words]

Man Wants to Lease to Growers

The owner of a Royal Oak warehouse wants the city to let him lease the building for what could become Michigan's largest medical-marijuana facility.

The Royal Oak City Commission is to consider tonight whether to set a public hearing on the request by James Canner, listed on Web sites as executive vice president of a robotics firm, to convert a building for growing marijuana.

If Canner's tenant puts marijuana plants in all 23,000 square feet, the building could be the biggest marijuana facility in Michigan, Michigan Medical Marijuana Magazine publisher Rick Ferris said.

[continues 299 words]

A recent Michigan Supreme Court ruling makes it more difficult to prove drugged-driving cases involving marijuana.

The high court overturned a 2006 ruling that 11-carboxy-THC -- a long-lasting byproduct of metabolism created when the body breaks down the psychoactive ingredient of marijuana -- is a schedule 1 controlled substance, a drug classification that includes heroin.

Now, prosecutors will have to prove drivers had the actual narcotic or its active ingredient in their systems at the time they are alleged to have been driving while drugged.

[continues 527 words]

Legalizing marijuana could cause the drug's price to plummet while increasing use by an uncertain amount, according to a new study from a respected public-policy think tank.

RAND Corp. researchers say known production costs and surveys of marijuana's current price suggest the untaxed retail price of high-quality marijuana could drop to as low as $38 per ounce, compared with about $375 per ounce now.

"There is considerable uncertainty about the impact that legalizing marijuana in California will have on consumption and public budgets," said RAND Drug Policy Research Center co-director Beau Kilmer, the study's lead author, cautioning against believing anyone who claims to know precisely how legalization would play out. "No government has legalized the production and distribution of marijuana for general use, so there is little evidence on which to base any predictions about how this might work in California."

[continues 85 words]

ASHBURNHAM -- A combined drug investigation by local and state police with help from the Massachusetts National Guard found and destroyed more than $30,000 worth of marijuana plants this past week, authorities said.

A Guard helicopter flying low over wooded areas of Ashburnham and surrounding towns on Wednesday discovered several small crops of marijuana growing among the natural vegetation, said Ashburnham Police Detective Robert Siano, a member of the North Worcester Country Drug Task Force.

The Massachusetts State Police React Task Force also was involved in the operation. The helicopter pilot radioed the coordinates of the drug crops to ground crews, who destroyed the plants, Detective Siano said.

[continues 70 words]

In light of the new ridiculous state law that makes it a crime to sell pipes and bongs in Florida, we felt it was an opportune time to express why we think pipes and bongs should not only be sold anywhere and everywhere -- it would be profitable for girl scouts to sell bongs with cookies -- but also why marijuana should be legalized and decriminalized in the first place.

The new law makes it so that stores may sell bongs or pipes only if they have a state license to sell tobacco and derive 75 percent of their revenue from tobacco products or no more than 25 percent from smoking devices. If lawmakers think this will really curb people from smoking pot, then they must be high on something strong.

[continues 438 words]

Town Leaders Say Shops Don't Belong in Family Resort Community

VAIL - The town of Vail doesn't want pot shops in its resort community. The Vail Town Council voted Tuesday night to ban medical marijuana dispensaries effective immediately- a move made possible by a bill Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law last month.

The bill gives local governments the right to regulate and allow dispensaries - to put the measure on the November ballot for voters to decide or ban them all together.

[continues 257 words]

HUNTLEY - Of 20 tests given so far in Huntley High School's new drug testing program for extracurriculars, the results all have been negative.

A group of 10 students each involved in any extracurriculars - including sports, music groups and service clubs - were chosen at random for the months of April and May.

At $150 a test, District 158 has paid $3,000 total to Centegra Occupational Medicine in McHenry, according to district invoices.

District officials said that whether the results are a testament to the new program's success in deterring students from drugs or that the chosen students happened to not use drugs is just speculation.

[continues 374 words]