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.

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The Issue: Citizens defied drug traffickers. Our View: It is a good sign for the U.S.

Mexican citizens defied violent drug traffickers with a simple but powerful act: Voting.

No matter whom they voted for, Mexicans cast ballots on Sunday in favor of the rule of law, for honest government and for the peaceful resolution of disputes.

The people not on the ballot - the drug traffickers and their hired guns - tried to disrupt the voting with threats, violence and intimidation. In the days before the election, one candidate for governor was murdered and the government offered other candidates bulletproof vests.

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Freeport, Ill. - I tell you often, "I'm the eternal optimist. We can fix this thing." I regret to admit that at times it gets me down. Maybe just a minute or two, then I pick myself up, brush off my britches and try to solve the problem.

Thirty years in law enforcement and legalizing medical marijuana in Illinois just don't go together. I have seen too many good lives ruined. It needs just 60 votes to pass the house. I'm told that the supporters have more than 50.

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As many as 50 people turned out Thursday night to see if the five lesser-known candidates for governor had better ideas for solving the state?s budget crisis than the two major-party candidates.

At this first debate of gubernatorial candidates at Chicago State University ? skipped by Gov. Quinn and Republican nominee State Sen. Bill Brady ? most of the candidates called for cutting taxes and spending =2E

But Green Party candidate Rich Whitney ? who took 10 percent of the vote last time around ? called for $3 billion more spending to pay for free college for all Illinois students, funded in part by a tax on real estate speculation, hiking the state income tax to 5 percent and legalizing and taxing marijuana.

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Manteno police are holding back on enforcing the village's new local cannabis ordinance that offers the choice of paying a civil fine rather than facing criminal action for those caught with a small amount of marijuana or drug paraphernalia.

"After we passed this ordinance on June 7, several trustees -- Annette LaMore and Diane Dole -- and Police Chief Bernie Thompson, said that they had some concerns about allowing those charged only two hours to come up with a $200 fine," said Mayor Tim Nugent.

"At this time Manteno will not be enforcing this ordinance until it is discussed further at the Public Safety committee meeting," LaMore said. That committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. July 28 at the Village Board Room, 211 N. Main St.

[end]

The violence in Chicago and the increasing deaths from opioids in the suburbs could both be prevented if lawmakers would learn the lesson of Prohibition.

Alcohol prohibition had the intention of making society better by outlawing the sale of an intoxicating substance, but it led to violence, corruption and products that were even more dangerous because they were unregulated and adulterated. The war on drugs is another failed prohibition.

The gangs that plague this city fight over drug-dealing territory, but if we took these substances out of the underground market and regulated them, as we do alcohol and tobacco, we would financially undermine the gangs.

Until lawmakers find the courage to regulate drugs in a legal market, cartels and gangs will control the production and distribution, and more people will become addicted.

Dan Linn, Lower West Side

[end]

We don't wait for the times to change but rather we can change this very moment in time. There are some who drift and never do anything to bring about change. Others feel they must stand up for what they believe to be just and right, no matter the cost.

The winds of change concerning the legalization of medical cannabis here in Illinois have come. It is the humane thing to do for the patients of Illinois. Please give the citizens of our state the option to choose between the many dangerous and addictive drugs like morphine, OxyContin, Dilaudid ... or medical cannabis. Please call your state representative and ask them to vote yes on Senate Bill 1381.

Robert Day

Huntley

[end]

To the Editor:

We don't wait for the times to change, but rather we can change this very moment in time. There are some who drift and never do anything to bring about change. Others feel they must stand up for what they believe to be just and right no matter the cost.

The winds of change concerning the legalization of medical marijuana here in Illinois have come. It is the humane thing to do for the patients of Illinois.

Please give the citizens of our state the option to choose between the many dangerous and addictive drugs such as morphine, oxycontin, dilaudid, etc., or medical marijuana.

Please call your state representative and ask them to vote "yes" on Senate Bill 1381.

Robert Day

Huntley

[end]

I'm writing about Robert Sharpe's thoughtful June 21 letter to Fence Post, "Marijuana ban isn't working."

The prohibition of recreational marijuana is not the proper role of a free country's government. Every justification for the prohibition of marijuana can also be made for the prohibition of hot dogs, cheeseburgers and a long list of other unhealthy foods.

Heart disease kills a lot more people than illegal drugs. Do we want our police arresting and jailing people for eating unhealthy foods? I hope not. Do we want our police arresting each other for eating doughnuts? Perhaps.

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

Heroin abuse in the Chicago area has gotten worse over the last decade, creating a crisis that is perhaps more extreme than anywhere else in the country, Roosevelt University researchers conclude in a new study.

The report, to be released Monday, finds that the area has seen an increase in people admitted to emergency rooms for heroin-related problems. It now has more than any other metropolitan area.

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I write today in response to Kirk Boyenga?s Thursday letter ?Put OK of medical marijuana off for now?). Boyenga is troubled by the fact that our legislators are working to allow certain types of medical patients access to medical cannabis.

First, he would have us wait for the FDA to complete studies of cannabis, and, secondly, we should hold off until the budget is fixed.

I would be very pleased if Boyenga could provide me with a rough idea of exactly when the FDA is going to begin these studies, let alone come to a conclusion. We have been asking for this testing for 40 years and absolutely nothing has been done. To use this as an excuse to withhold needed medicine from people who are suffering every hour of the day is a rather cruel blow.

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Study | Area Leads U.S. in ER Treatment As Suburban Deaths Soar

More people in Chicago and its suburbs are admitted to hospital emergency rooms for heroin use than in any other major city, and heroin is now the most common illegal substance for which people in Illinois enter drug treatment, a new study shows.

In addition, heroin-related deaths have risen sharply in the collar counties, as use of the drug continues to expand among young, white suburbanites.

These are among the key findings from a report released today by Roosevelt University's Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy.

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Once depicted as a drug relegated to the alleys of poor, rough, seedy, urban environs, heroin has found a new and thriving home in the suburbs.

Huge increases in heroin use among whites, suburbanites and teenagers are a major factor in why the Chicago area suffers what might be the nation's worst heroin problem, according to a new study released today.

"It's cheaper than a six-pack of beer and it's easier to get. Drug dealers don't ask for I.D.," says Kathleen Kane-Willis, one of the authors of the Roosevelt University report on heroin use in Illinois from 1998 to 2008.

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The tobacco companies had to pay hundreds of billions of dollars to the states because during civil trials, juries found the tobacco companies libel because lawyers convinced the juries that smoking caused lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease and death.

Since these jury awards, a lot of states have banned smoking in public places because of the effect smoke has on people.

Now I read that people are pushing for medical marijuana use. Reason: to ease aches and pains. What's wrong with Advil, Tylenol, aspirin, etc.?

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Thank you for your recent editorial supporting access to medical cannabis in Illinois.

It is absurd that Illinois residents who use cannabis with the recommendation of their doctor are still considered criminals. When I first started getting involved in the medical cannabis movement in Illinois, state Rep. Larry McKeon was championing the legislation. While we have made progress in the legislature with this bill, it is still not a law and Rep. McKeon unfortunately passed away two years ago.

How much longer will patients have to be patient waiting for the political will to come around on this issue? How many more people will suffer without access to this medicine? How many more people will die because Illinois lawmakers are more concerned about getting re-elected than providing a low-cost and safe medicine to the ill in this state?

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To the Editor:

I am tired of the negativity in current headlines concerning marijuana. I advocate organizing the McHenry County Cannabis Co-operative.

Hypocritical marijuana-prohibition laws discourage networking and prevent establishment of legal businesses. Cannabis proponents are therefore isolated and oppressed Americans. But our interests could bring us together: helping individuals and the community to thrive.

Legalization would eliminate the enormous burden of controlling importation and conversely would produce tax revenue. Legalization would get rid of marijuana's gateway status; taking it out of the hands of the underworld and making it as legal as alcohol, which makes sense because pot is far less dangerous than beer.

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Your endorsement Friday of medical marijuana in Illinois is simply mind-boggling.

The clinical evidence of any medicinal benefit from marijuana is so limited that the American Society of Addiction Medicine has come out very strongly against any efforts to bypass established FDA procedures for testing. The United States has one of the best systems in the world for assessing and proving the worth of drugs. To bypass those methods by political fiat is a step backward to selling snake oil and also a step away from high-quality health care.

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Marijuana law on books but never implemented Sheriff's office continues to arrest, rather than ticket, minor offenders

Nearly a year after the Cook County Board passed a controversial ordinance allowing sheriff's police to ticket pot smokers for minor possession instead of arresting them, police have yet to issue a single ticket.

County commissioners made headlines last July when they quietly passed the ordinance that gave officers the choice to either arrest people in unincorporated areas possessing 10 grams or less of marijuana, or to hand out tickets for $200 within the county's unincorporated areas.

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Regarding Dora Dixie and Pete Bensinger's June 2nd op-ed, if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best.

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When will we accept that America's war on drugs is over -- we lost -- and it's time to get real about our drug laws?

Medical marijuana should be legalized. Pot more generally should be decriminalized. And the carnage in our streets and in Mexico begs that we rethink our nation's approach to the sale and use of more serious drugs as well.

The evidence of failure of strict prohibition is every day in the news.

Over the weekend, 52 people were shot in Chicago, a stunning tally that the police blame in large part on gangs.

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