I live 50 or more miles from most places this column will appear, and I have a briefcase. So, I fit at least one definition of an "expert" on drugs. I'm not, though, really. I recognize a group of marijuana plants when I see them, but I don't know that I could pick one out of the underbrush passing by.

Put several "rocks" of different substances on my desk, and I don't know that I could pick out the crack or meth or whatever might be there.

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Chris Christie is not a wimp, a hippie or a countercultural icon. He's not known for taking time out from budget negotiations to smoke dope, or for his sympathy for drug dealers.

Yet he is a soft-liner on the war on drugs.

That the combative New Jersey governor and Republican rock star just tapped to keynote the GOP convention in Tampa, Fla. vocally dissents from drug-war orthodoxy is another sign that the tectonic plates of the drug debate are shifting.

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Prominent Local Cancer Patient a Reluctant User

Cancer patient Emily Williams initially resisted the idea of using marijuana for the severe nausea and pain that came along with her chemotherapy two years ago.

"Before I did my first treatment, I had someone offer to get some ' pot' for me, and I said no," Williams, 55, of Fayetteville said recently. "For all the obvious reasons."

One of them was the mere thought of using an illegal drug in the home she shares with her husband, Kit Williams, the city attorney for Fayetteville.

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Being from the North, I was quite shocked when I arrived in Jonesboro to find out that the county, city and university itself were dry.

The ban on alcohol immediately reminded me of prohibition, and I particularly thought of how outdated and primitive this law is.

I should not be surprised, though, since this is the South, and politicians and religious leaders are quick to enter our homes and regulate our personal freedoms.

But fear not -- there is a safer alternative, one that may be legal throughout the entire U.S. one day.

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With Millions in Federal Funding, One Goes on the Trail of Synthetic Marijuana.

Reporting from Little Rock, Ark.- When Jeffery H. Moran goes to work each day, he swipes his security badge, passes into an airtight chamber, opens a bombproof door and enters a lab full of deadly toxins.

As chief of the counter-terrorism laboratory at the Arkansas Department of Health - one of 62 such federally funded labs in the country - he heads two dozen chemists who are on constant alert for the release of pestilence or poisons in the United States.

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ADH Working On Statewide Regulations

JONESBORO - Throughout Northeast Arkansas, cities and counties have passed ordinances in recent months banning the sale of synthetic marijuana and making its use illegal.

Now the Arkansas Municipal League wants those laws rescinded, according to The Associated Press. Earlier this month the Arkansas Department of Health passed temporary regulations banning the substances and is working on permanent regulations, AML attorney Mark Hayes said.

In Northeast Arkansas five governmental entities - Sharp, Lawrence and Greene counties, Walnut Ridge and Pocahontas - all passed bans on the substances marketed under the names K-2, K-2 Spice, Spice, Summit or Genie.

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A couple of weeks ago, we pondered on how hard it is to fathom the human toll in a disaster such as Haiti's earthquake. This weekend there was another tragedy down on the border that's just the latest nightmare in the disaster that is Mexico's drug war.

In Ciudad Juarez, just across from El Paso, Texas, gunmen blocked off a dead-end street and went on a rampage through three houses, including one where there was a birthday party in progress. When the shooting stopped, 10 people were dead, and six more died later at hospitals, according to The Associated Press.

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In 2008 the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, named methamphetamine Arkansas' "primary drug of concern," due to the state's rural landscape and widespread availability of ingredients, including pseudoephedrine.

In 2005 the Federal Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act placed limits on the amount of pseudoephedrine and phenylpropanolamine that individuals could purchase over the counter and required pharmacies to keep written or electronic logs of such purchases.

It wasn't until May 2008 that pharmacies in Arkansas were required to keep electronic logs of individual's purchases that could be traced both locally and across state lines. Leadsonlabs.com, an online investigative service that tracks purchases of methamphetamine ingredients using a picture ID, allows pharmacies to view purchases within a 24 hours and 30-day periods within the state and nation-wide.

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Locals Weigh The Green Option

Arkansas Sen. Randy Laverty, a Democrat from Jasper, may plant a legislative seed in 2011.

In an effort to aid the state's overburdened prisons, Laverty may bring a budding discussion to the state Senate floor on the topic of legalizing medicinal marijuana in Arkansas.

Laverty told The Associated Press legalizing or lessening criminal penalties for marijuana may be one way to "curb overcrowding in Arkansas' prisons."

But District 4 State Sen. Michael Lamoureux said he would be surprised if the issue was turned into a law anytime soon.

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One of the medications prescribed by my personal physician for my arthritis pain and inflammation has the rare potential side effect of death. In other words, if I take this medication as prescribed, I can die as a result.

On the other hand, marijuana has never been documented to have killed a single person in the 5,000-year history of its use.

For me, marijuana is the more effective medication. Right now, if adult citizens opt for the safer and more effective medication, they are subject to arrest and being sent to jail with violent criminals.

Shouldn't adult citizens have the freedom to choose what goes into their own bodies in the privacy of their own homes?

Kirk Muse

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

Missing from the balanced report of Doug Smith on medical marijuana was the sad fact that every hour my profession spends chasing and arresting the non-problem causing marijuana user, the less time we have for the deadly DUI and those who hurt our children and women. When detectives fly around in helicopters looking for a pot garden, they are not arresting a rapist or child molester. When road officers are searching car after car for a baggie of pot, the deadly DUIs sail on by and kill innocents. Marijuana prohibition reduces public safety period.

Detective/Officer Howard Wooldridge (ret)

Dallas

[end]

Many Are Ready, Including A Prominent Legislator.

State Sen. Randy Laverty of Jasper says that after the news media reported last month on his proposal to legalize medical marijuana, he got more response than on any issue he'd been associated with in his 15 years as a legislator -- telephone calls, e-mails and personal contact. "And it was all positive.

That never happens."

Laverty says that at the next regular legislative session, in 2011, he'll introduce a bill to permit the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

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Arnold Schwarzenegger proved last week he's not a girly-man when it comes to the debate over whether marijuana should be legalized and taxed in California. Gov. Arnold called for a large-scale study of the consequences of legalizing pot for recreational use in California and suggested that the study might benefit from looking at the effects of drug legalization moves already made by European countries.

Arnold earned high praise from drug-law reformer Ethan Nadelmann for doing what most politicians are too chicken to ever do -- go on record as being in favor of honestly discussing the pros and cons of ending drug prohibition.

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Dear Editor of The Herald,

Another beneficial component of re-legalizing cannabis (marijuana) that doesn't get mentioned (Grass Could Bring In Governmental Green, Mar. 12, 2009) is that it will lower hard drug addiction rates.

DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) will have to stop brainwashing youth into believing lies, half-truths and propaganda concerning cannabis, which creates grave future problems.

How many citizens try cannabis and realize it's not nearly as harmful as taught in DARE type government environments? Then they think other substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to deadly drugs.

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The United States has been fighting a losing war on the consumption and possession of marijuana for decades.

In the 1970s Nixon began the 'War on Drugs,' which imposed stricter penalties and stronger regulations, but also defined drugs in different levels or 'schedules' depending on the severity of each drug.

For example, in Arkansas, anyone in possession of less than an ounce of marijuana will be charged with a misdemeanor, making marijuana the only drug offense that will not bring a felony charge just for simply possessing it.

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Dr. Joycelyn Elders, a living monument to the black experience in Arkansas, may be retired, but she's not retiring about the issues that made her a controversial surgeon general.

Fourteen years after President Bill Clinton fired her as surgeon general of the United States for uttering one final impolitic remark, Dr. Joycelyn Elders is long into retirement, but hers is not a repose that the meek would envy or her many old critics would cheer.

And if you were wondering, no, she never shut up or took up mincing words.

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Stuttgart, Ark. - Since 1988, Arkansas has been involved in "Red Ribbon Week," which has given awareness to school-aged children about the choice of a drug-free lifestyle.

Red Ribbon week in Stuttgart will be held Oct. 27 through 31 and will feature a celebration rally from 3:30 to 5 p.m., Monday, Oct. 27 at the Reinsch Softball Complex on West 22nd and Buerkle Streets.

"Throughout the United States Red Ribbon Week is a celebration to bear witness to the efforts of one person who can make a difference in the fight against drugs," Beth Prine, of Community Organization for Drug Education (CODE), said.

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Clarksville High School will spend $7,000 this year on random drug tests of students. The school is one of more than 100 in Arkansas that administers such tests.

Don Johnston, Clarksville School District superintendent, hasn't seen studies that suggest such tests are effective. In fact, two studies by the University of Michigan suggest that random drug tests do nothing to reduce student drug use.

Studies or no, Johnston says he believes the drug tests work in Clarksville, and that parents, for the most part, support the program.

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The group Sensible Fayetteville has gathered enough signatures to put a measure on the Nov. 4 ballot that will make a misdemeanor possession of marijuana the lowest priority for law enforcement.

Many have mixed feelings about the effect this ordinance could have on the city: Jacob Holloway, field organizer for Sensible Fayetteville, said an initiative like this sends "a message that we will no longer accept inaction," while City Attorney Kit Williams said the ordinance essentially would have "no effect" on Fayetteville residents.

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Sensible Fayetteville will submit its second round of signatures today in hopes of giving local voters the choice on election day to make adult marijuana possession the lowest priority for police.

"We needed about 300 additional signatures, and so far, we've collected upwards of 900,"Ryan Denham, campaign director, said."We've almost tripled what we needed, and we're still going. We'll turn them in at the end of [today ]."

Sensible Fayetteville is a local coalition made up of the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology, the Green Party of Washington County, the University of Arkansas student branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and the Alliance for Reform of Drug Policy in Arkansas Inc.

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