Last week I provided a basic overview of Mexico's major narco-cartels, i.e the "bad guys." Naturally, the next step is to outline the "good guys" (at least they're supposed to be good), i.e. the law enforcement and military units combating the traffickers.

Well that's no small task. Mexico's highly bureaucratic and secretive government has created a messy alphabet soup of police units and "special" military forces that defies quick explanation.

This is partly due to President Calderon's aggressive approach to countering the cartels and sweeping attempts at reform. Consequently, there are many new organizations involved in the drug wars, making it hard to sort out the organizational chart. Here's a stab, but learn more at www.thiscouldgetinteresting.com.

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Cache County School District's student drug testing program just finished its first year, and district and school officials say it's good but not perfect.

The number of students who tested positive for drugs was astoundingly low - so low, in fact, that officials believe some students are cheating the system.

Managing and coordinating drug tests for hundreds of students created a huge increase in work for the schools' athletic directors, with no increased pay.

In coming years, school and district staff hope to iron out some of these problems, with the help of a new $135,000 grant from the federal government for the program.

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James Thalman raises a number of noteworthy issues related to America's "war on drugs" (May 4). This failed "war" is particularly irrational when applied to marijuana, a substance well documented in the scientific literature to be far less harmful than legal drugs such as tobacco and alcohol.

Rethinking our marijuana laws need not imply approval of the use of marijuana or any other drug. If we treated marijuana under the law the same way we treat alcohol, we more effectively control its distribution, do a better job of curbing misuse and abuse and reduce crime.

Bruce Mirken Director of communications Marijuana Policy Project

Washington, D.C.

[end]

In a word, everybody's crazy about drugs.

Whether by prescription or on the street, whether you like your pill dressed in Pfizer blue or prefer little dull ones stamped with a bat emblem, love them or hate them, we've got a thing for drugs.

Government agencies of every variety want to control or get rid of them altogether, while every little criminal -- from the two-bit grifter on the corner to the really nice doctor eight floors above -- seem to do all they can to keep them coming.

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I'm writing about the column: "It is time for some frank talk about legalizing marijuana."

Suppose another country had almost no drug problem. Suppose that country had less than a small fraction of one percent of our drug arrests. And suppose that country had almost no "drug-related crime," and suppose that their robbery rate was a tiny fraction of our robbery rate.

There is such a country: The Czech Republic. The Czech Republic is the only country in the world where adult citizens can legally use, possess and grow small quantities of marijuana. The Czech overall drug arrest rate is 1 per 100,000 population. The United States' overall drug arrest rate is 585 per 100,000 population. The Czech robbery rate is 2 per 100,000 population. The United States' robbery rate is 160.2 per 100,000 population, according to our FBI.

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In a Feb. 29 editorial, The Spectrum's editorial board decried the loss of 70 percent of Utah's federal Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, a program dedicated to providing funds for drug task forces and criminal justice programs.

The editorial proclaims, "State drug task forces have made 9,714 arrests and have removed 1,100 pounds of cocaine, 519 pounds of methamphetamine and 486 pounds of marijuana from the street." They call this success?

Drugs and drug dealers are still on Utah's streets.

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Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank is proposing a bill that would remove federal penalties for possession and use of small amounts of marijuana.

Why do we need a federal bill?

Because the rest of the country is far behind Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Oregon in decriminalizing the herb, with Michigan on the verge of approving a similar bill. We need a federal bill because we need to put an end to this fruitless, expensive prohibition once and for all.

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Long considered a social scourge, Utah's methamphetamine labs have seemingly disappeared.

The state shuttered 121 labs in 2002, according to statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Three years later, that number was down to 50. Then 15.

And then there were none.

The Cache/Rich Drug Task Force hasn't shut down a meth lab in more than two years, Logan Police Det. Rob Italasano said.

But for all the talk of disappearing meth labs, Roland Parent, a substance abuse counselor at the Bear River Health Department, has not noticed the difference.

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His Duties Will Take on an International Focus

WASHINGTON -- Cedar City native Scott Burns was officially sworn in as second in command of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy on Friday, giving the former Iron County attorney even more responsibility in reducing drug use in America.

Burns, whose official new title is the deputy director of the office, will work closely with the office's director, John Walters, known as the "drug czar," and fill in for Walters as needed.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. - Former Iron County Attorney Scott M. Burns was officially sworn in as Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy on Friday.

Burns has served at ONDCP as the Deputy Director for State, Local and Tribal Affairs since 2002, where he has served as the principal advisor to White House drug czar John P. Walters, on federal, state, local, and tribal law enforcement matters.

He has also served as the United States representative to the World Anti-Doping Agency, an international organization dedicated to reducing and eliminating performance-enhancing substances from sport.

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Editor:

Regarding David Servatius' thoughtful column, "Big pharma doesn't want to legalize" (Dec. 5): It's not just the pharmaceutical industry that has a vested interest in making sure marijuana is not legalized. Marijuana consumers consume substantially less alcohol than non-marijuana users. Beer and other alcoholic beverages and marijuana are a substitute for each other. The beer industry knows this. The alcoholic beverage industry knows this. Who is the biggest sponsor on TV of sporting events? The beer industry. So, why are sporting teams and the sports industry so concerned when a player tests positive for marijuana? Follow the money!

Kirk Muse

Mesa, AZ

[end]

Policy on Marijuania Is Hypocritical

Allow me to present Exhibit A in the case of Common Sense V. The United States of America.

Somewhere in this country, a man is sitting in a prison cell, wasting away. This man lived a normal middle-class American life up until his incarceration. He had paid his taxes and contributed to his community. He'd worked at a decent job. More than likely, he has a family trying to get by without him for the next 10 to 15 years. There is no chance of an early release for this man.

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Drug policies of the federal government negatively affect medical patients in need of medication and cause minorities to be prosecuted more than other drug offenders, according to a new book written by U professors.

Drugs and Justice: Seeking a Consistent, Coherent Comprehensive View, a book written by seven authors and four contributing authors from the U and Utah's legal community, says government drug policies are "incoherent" and explains why these "unjust" policies continue.

"Our legal system is a little schizophrenic -- with regards to drug policy it has multiple personalities," said Troy Booher, one of the book's main authors and a professor of law and political science at the U.

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It was disheartening to discover the U.S. Department of Justice that proclaimed Nov. 30 as National Methamphetamine Awareness Day last year chose not to this year.

Especially considering that during the time President Bush issued the declaration, criminals in China were disguising and shipping 43,000 pounds of pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in the manufacture of meth, by cargo ship to Michoacan, Mexico. This ingredient was intended to supply one of several huge meth labs that are now being established in Mexico, according to PR-USA.net.

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For the second year running, Utah County will observe National Methamphetamine Awareness Day on Nov. 30.

Utah County Commissioner Gary Anderson, Spanish Fork Mayor Joe Thomas, Mrs. Utah 2007 Tiffany Berg and State Rep. Mike Morley will speak at a dedicatory service in Spanish Fork that day.

Methamphetamine Awareness Day comes in the midst of "End Meth Now," a 10-month campaign that began in September to provide treatment and information about methamphetamines to Utah County citizens.

Methamphetamine abuse is the leading problem for women entering treatment programs at the Utah County Division of Substance Abuse. The Division of Substance Abuse program admitted 1,200 women for methamphetamine abuse treatment in the last five years.

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My dictionary defines the word incredible as, "not credible, seeming too unusual to be possible." That's what I thought when I read a letter to the editor in the Oct. 25 issue of The Spectrum & Daily News. It wasn't the ideal the writer espoused that aroused my consternation, but the thought process behind it. That, and a glaring lack of historical knowledge or perhaps just a misconception of history.

Included in the letter was a statement that, "God made a terrible mistake."

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It's marijuana harvest time in northern California, and Utah's interstates are flowing with millions of dollars in drugs and cash.

Drug traffickers will go to great lengths to hide drugs and cash to ensure police don't find their stashes, said Utah Highway Patrol Lt. Steve Winward. In a span of three days, UHP officers arrested 19 people and confiscated more than $2 million in drugs in Summit County.

Eight UHP officers, trained specifically to sniff out motorists trafficking drugs, pulled over hundreds of vehicles for traffic violations on Interstate 80 between Tuesday and Friday night, Winward said.

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The day after his boss proposed funding to help Mexico shut off the supply of methamphetamine to the United States, deputy U.S. drug czar Scott Burns was in Salt Lake City to praise a new advertising campaign to help reduce local demand for the drug.

"Much has been done, and there's a lot left to do on the supply side of the drug trade," Burns told the Deseret Morning News. "But the demand side comes down to individuals making choices. That is the key to thwarting the illegal drug trade."

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The Utah Supreme Court has ruled a child must have "reasonable" access to drugs in order for a parent to be charged under the child-endangerment statute. Prosecutors say the ruling narrows their ability to charge drug-dealing parents under the statute, but they have already worked on a remedy to amend the law during the next legislative session.

The ruling stems from two separate drug cases in which two women were arrested on drug and drug paraphernalia possession charges while children were in the homes. Both defendants were charged with child endangerment.

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Lawmakers have set aside a proposed ban on the hallucinogenic herb salvia divinorum.

Paul Ray, R-Clinton, who proposed listing the plant as a schedule 1 controlled substance, said federal regulators alerted him that they were close to reaching their own classification for salvia divinorum. The herb presently is unregulated under federal law. For at least five years, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has said it is researching the herb's effects and addictiveness, media reports say.

A spokeswoman on Wednesday said there is no clear schedule for when the DEA will conclude its examination and determine whether salvia divinorum should be regulated.

[end]