The current U.S. drug policy regarding Latin America is a stringent and unnecessary one. The U.S. government punishes such countries as Colombia, Bolivia and Venezuela by giving them less aid than other Latin American countries. Meanwhile, U.S. troops are being sent to these countries to fight the drug war. Last summer I lived in Paraguay, and I saw a different lifestyle. The Paraguayan farmers live in poverty. Many of them cannot afford healthy food for their families. Few children eat vegetables on a regular basis, because they are expensive. [continues 321 words]
Washoe County District Attorney Dick Gammick says he is considering challenging the legality of the marijuana initiative as it will be printed on the November ballot. Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell agrees with Gammick that the Legislature cannot, as Question 9 is written, "provide a system of regulation for the cultivation, taxation, sale and distribution of marijuana" without breaking federal laws. However, both say nothing can be done until after the first of two potential votes is taken in November that could legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, because the ballot has to go to the printer by Sept. 10. [continues 346 words]
"What is the world coming to?" This is the comment my 16-year-old daughter made after I told her that Nevada was probably going to make private use of marijuana legal. The three-ounce maximum possession, taxation and distribution of this drug makes me wonder about just how much we truly do care about our children. This means Mom and Dad could smoke dope in the privacy of their own home. What happens if their children are in the same room with them? We already have problems with babies and toddlers inhaling cigarette smoke, causing ear infections and lung problems. Now babies, toddlers, teens and anyone else in the same room who inhale only the smoke from the marijuana users' exhalations and burning joint can join Mom and Dad in a legal high. The kids won't even have to smoke it. All they have to do is inhale in their parents' presence and feel that special family bond of a marijuana high. [continues 59 words]
The child welfare caseworker for a 10-day-old girl who died after being sent home with her crack-smoking mother did everything by the book, according to Child Protective Services records released Thursday. Still, Anna Arnold, head of CPS, said the agency should have put the baby's safety ahead of its usual attempts to keep a family together. She also said the baby's mother should not have been allowed near her. "We have to focus on safety first," Arnold said. [continues 617 words]
You don't need a calendar to see it's back-to-school time. Armed with school lists, families wander bewildered through stores. Parents try to figure out what is required while negotiating pleas for zippered athletic shoes and lace-front jeans. While school is still about the business of education, we know that when groups of children gather, they exchange more than homework assignments. The education your children receive from their peers can have grave consequences. Parents need a clear understanding of the substance abuse epidemic among school-age children. The extent of the problem is staggering. If you think you are immune with a child in elementary school, think again. The youngest alcohol-addicted child to receive in-patient treatment in Clark County was 9 years old. Elementary-age children usually begin drinking with their parents. Children living with adult alcoholics have a 50 percent to 60 percent risk of drinking alcohol weekly. [continues 506 words]
On Tuesday, An Official Suggested That The State Of Emergency Become Permanent. BOGOTA, COLOMBIA - On Aug. 12, just five days into the presidency of Alvaro Uribe Velez, Colombia found itself in a situation not unfamiliar to many Latin Americans: living under a state of emergency. Mortar shells rained down on the city's poorest neighborhood, El Cartucho, during Mr. Uribe's inauguration on Aug. 7, killing 21 people. Less than a week later, living up to his campaign promise to govern with a "firm hand," Uribe declared a state of "conmocion interior" - a limited state of emergency - to help the government combat the country's rebel groups, the strongest of which, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), allegedly committed the inauguration-day crime. [continues 899 words]
The brightly colored pills could be mistaken for candy, especially by the young people they are intended for. The pills are known as ya ba, a Southeast Asian methamphetamine. And while the drug has not gained a foothold in the East Bay, that is where thousands of doses have been smuggled into the country, federal authorities said. Earlier this month, U.S. Customs officials in Sacramento arrested 14 people involved in the transport and distribution of the drug, and seized 45 shipments from ships docked at the Port of Oakland and at the U.S. Postal Service's international mail facility in West Oakland. [continues 666 words]
Re: A full and open debate, Aug. 20. Justice Minister Martin Cauchon needs to consider that ending marijuana prohibition does not constitute "endorsing marijuana use." Alcohol is legal not because the government endorses boozing, but rather because alcohol prohibition proved disastrous. Telling examples of drug war failure can be found very close to home. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the U.S. than any European country. Yet the U.S. is one of the few Western countries that wastes resources punishing citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. [continues 164 words]
A new federal report concludes that the younger children are when they first use marijuana, the more likely they are to graduate to drugs such as cocaine and heroin as adults. The study, released Wednesday by federal drug czar John Walters and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, also ranked Nevada among the top states for new marijuana users aged 12 to 17. The findings were culled from the 1999 and 2000 National Household Surveys on Drug Abuse. Among the findings: [continues 795 words]
BANGOR - A for-profit methadone provider whose clinic in the Portland area has come under scrutiny following a rash of fatal drug overdoses is seeking to open a clinic in Bangor. Rhode Island-based Discovery House wants to provide the heroin substitute to as many as 250 patients in what would be Bangor's second methadone treatment facility. Acadia Hospital, the city's first methadone provider, is simultaneously looking to expand its year-old drug treatment program from 150 patients to 300. [continues 255 words]
