Group: Screening Student Athletes Against State Law

The American Civil Liberties Union told the Roane County school system Wednesday that it may face a lawsuit if it doesn't end its policy of conducting random drug tests of student athletes.

The ACLU sent a letter today to the school system claiming the policy is in violation of state law and that random drug testing "is proven to be ineffective in deterring drug use," a press release from the organization said.

The ACLU is giving the school system 30 days to abandon the random tests before taking legal action.

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Drugs may not be the root of all evil, but they're the root cause of most crime in Northeast Tennessee, according to local law enforcement.

It's a conclusion that was reached by those in attendance at a closed meeting held Tuesday at the Millennium Centre in Johnson City, according to Sullivan County District Attorney Greeley Wells.

The meeting, sponsored by the United States Attorney's Office, was an opportunity for local law enforcement to share public safety concerns amongst each other and with state and federal investigative agencies, Wells said Wednesday.

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Isn't it strange that with all the talk over bio-fuels and ethanol, the word hemp never seems to be mentioned? Here is a plant with thousands of years history that produces over 25,000 different products, including bio-fuel and ethanol. It is also good for the soil. It has very deep roots that would regenerate the topsoil. In New Guinea, topsoil is by the foot while here it is in inches. To precious to be lost. Hemp has a miniscule amount of THC, which is in marijuana.

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While On Drug Task Force, Shults Became Addict, Stole Money

SEVIERVILLE - A former 4th Judicial District Drug Task Force agent who became addicted to drugs may soon end up in prison for stealing money from suspects and his agency, authorities say.

Mark Victor Shults, 35, has pleaded guilty to three counts of theft over $1,000 - a felony - and is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 5 by Sevier County Circuit Court Judge Richard Vance.

Shults was a Sevier County Sheriff's Department deputy when he was assigned to work for the drug task force, comprising officers from law enforcement agencies in Sevier, Cocke, Jefferson and Grainger counties, according to Assistant District Attorney General Steve Hawkins.

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Two years ago, Leigh Ann Nicholson and Nakita Meeks, both 18, attended the Governor's Tennessee Youth Drug Task Force and watched as former meth users told their stories about the drug destroying their family life.

After hearing the daughter of an ex-methamphetamine user tell about how she was ripped from her home, Nicholson and Meeks decided to reach out to other children in the same situation.

"It really touched me and Nakita to hear her talk about being taken away from her home with nothing and taken away from her mother that long," Nicholson said.

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The director of the Fourth Judicial District's Drug Task Force issued a public apology Friday to a Seymour man who was wrongly accused of a crime, but said the man's attorney caused a delay in dismissing the charges.

Task Force Director Mack Smith's two-and-a-half-page single-spaced statement includes one sentence that offers a direct explanation of how James Russell Kitts came to be misidentified as a drug dealer during an undercover operation.

"The identification of James Kitts as the seller of the purchased drugs was based on information garnered from various sources, including but not limited to, Sevier County 911 records and Tennessee motor vehicle registration records," Smith wrote. His name "was not arbitrarily pulled out of a hat and there was certainly not an intentional plan or design to charge an innocent man with these crimes."

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A simple apology would go a long way to helping matters in wrong-arrest case

For the most part law enforcement officers try to do what's right. Sometimes, though, things go wrong. And when law enforcement makes a mistake, lives are affected. A Seymour man knows just how the wrongly accused feel.

Due to what appears to have been mistaken identity from an incorrect address, James Russell Kitts was charged last month with trafficking in illegal drugs. That followed an indictment from the Sevier County Grand Jury, based on actions by U.S. marshals and local law enforcement. A grand jury can only deal with the information it is given, and in this case the jurors got information that turned out to be very, very wrong.

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District Attorney General Jimmy Dunn pledged Thursday he would look into how a Seymour man wound up wrongly charged with trafficking in drugs.

James Russell Kitts was arrested June 25 after U.S. Marshals and Sevier County deputies served a warrant based on a presentment issued in January.

The information in that presentment - an indictment issued in secret by a Grand Jury that and sealed until the suspect is arrested - came from the Fourth Judicial District Drug Task Force, according to officials.

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Social Drug Re-Emerging After Lull In Use, Drug Agent Says

After a confidential informant equipped with an electronic hearing device bought several pills of the drug Ecstasy, agents with the Clarksville Police Major Crimes Unit and Tactical Unit executed a search warrant at 111 Azalea Court.

Police found 150 multicolored Ecstasy pills and several pounds of marijuana, according to court documents.

Ben Thomas Dowlen Jr., 31, was arrested in the August 2007 sting and charged with manufacturing, selling or possessing a controlled substance. In June, Dowlen pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 10 years.

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Ecstasy Treatment Requires Getting To Root Of Cause For Use

William Hobbs, drug and alcohol interventionist at Centerstone, specializes in treating meth addicts. But when he treats people who are hooked on Ecstasy, he sees similar reactions.

Hobbs said the common ingredient in Ecstasy is methamphetamine, or meth.

Ecstasy's formal name is methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA. It is an illegal drug that acts as a stimulant and psychedelic, producing an energizing effect.

"Ecstasy is meth with other ingredients and hallucinogens in it," Hobbs said. "Many young people know about the danger of taking meth, but because not much is known about Ecstasy, and it's not known it contains meth, they try it.

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Long-Term Effect Of Use Is Memory Loss

Getting ready for a night on the town, a woman who was 24 years old and a group of her friends decided to try a drug they thought would help them enjoy a club party.

The woman and her friends tried Ecstasy for the first time. It was 2000, and the drug was a hot commodity in California, where they lived.

The woman said the first dose of Ecstasy led her into a yearlong addiction.

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Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork has requested five new officers be hired and assigned to the Metro Narcotics Unit. County commissioners sent the request for review by the county budget committee. Woolfork should get the officers, and the sooner the better.

Commissioner Gary Deaton asked for the budget committee review to make certain the money is there to fund the new officers. It's a sensible request. But we would add that it is up to the budget committee to find the money for this important improvement in public safety and the community's fight against crime.

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I'm writing about your recent online poll question: "Do you think marijuana should be legalized? (4-17-08).

It seems to me that you asked the wrong question. The question should be: Should marijuana remain completely untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminals?

Because marijuana is now illegal, it is sold only by criminals (criminals who often sell other, much more dangerous drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine), and they often offer free samples of the more dangerous drugs to their marijuana customers. Thus the so-called "gateway effect."

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Attorney Jay Fisher revealed his and others' belief that the war on drugs is eroding the rights of civilians.

Fisher spoke on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, with the term prohibition referring to the current illegal status of narcotics, from marijuana to crack cocaine and ecstasy.

LEAP consists of sheriffs, constables, and cops, as well as academics such as linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky and noted economist Milton Friedman.

"The act of prohibition effectively sets up the black market which America fights against," Fisher said. "The notion of an absolute ban is a failure. The question of policy can only be debated proactively after elected officials have hashed out the current situation."

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Issues of Legality Don't Deter Some Student Smokers

The driver reaches for the ignition, and the engine lets out a loud roar with a clockwise turn of his right hand. It doesn't hold my ears' attention for long. The engine's noise is quickly subdued by speakers, blaring Metallica's "Master of Puppets."

I have no idea where the three of us are going, but a particular destination isn't the purpose of our drive. To be blunt, the purpose of the drive-for the two men in the front seat-is to "get high."

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Methamphetamine lab seizures have fallen statewide in the last four years, and officials say many factors -- from tougher laws and better education to meth makers who are more wary -- contributed to the decline.

Since 2004, when Tennessee had nearly 1,600 meth labs seized, seizures decreased to 583 in 2007, according to the Tennessee Methamphetamine Task Force.

The statistics do not mean the fight against meth will wane, said Larry C. Black, commander of the Lookout Mountain Judicial Task Force serving Walker, Catoosa, Chattooga and Dade counties.

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Betty Bomar began using drugs at age 11, raiding her parents' medicine cabinet to get her fix.

"I remember the first time I used, I knew I was in love," she said.

Her 32-year affair with drugs and alcohol included a tryst with making and abusing methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant that creates an energy surge for the user.

When she entered treatment, she was experiencing emotional claustrophobia, she said.

"I felt like if I didn't die or didn't get help, my sanity was literally going to snap and I wasn't coming back," she said.

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House Committee Approves Measure That Would Affect Only Some Students

NASHVILLE - Tennessee school systems could conduct random drug tests of all students involved in extracurricular activities, under legislation approved by the House Education Committee after lengthy debate on Wednesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that such random testing is permissible, but a 2007 state attorney general's opinion states that current state law prohibits it.

Under present Tennessee law, a student may be tested for drugs only if there is a "reasonable individualized suspicion" that the youngster has used illegal drugs, Stephen Smith, lobbyist for the Tennessee School Boards Association, told the panel.

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Alcohol and drug use on campus is on the rise, according to officials.

According to the student handbook under the Student Rights and Responsibilities section, "Use, possession, or being under the influence of alcoholic beverages on University-owned property" is not permitted.

Robert Ratchford, chief of campus police said the police department is currently in the middle of a drug inventory.

"There is a legal process that we have to go through for drug disposal," Ratchford said in reference to the drugs that the UTC police collected last year.

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Officials May Transfer More Than $100k to the Police Department to Hire 13 New Officers

The Jackson City Council on Tuesday will consider transferring more than $100,000 to the police department to hire 13 new officers during the final months of this fiscal year.

The budget amendments, which spring from recommendations of a city crime task force, would send five new officers to the city-county Metro Narcotics Unit.

The task force recommended that unit receive an almost $1 million total boost in personnel and resources. It was the group's main proposal for attacking a drug problem city and county law enforcement officials told task force members was the biggest influence on the area's crime.

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