Pubdate: Sun, 04 Jul 2004
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2004, The Sun Herald
Contact:  http://www.sunherald.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432

GREAT DAY TO DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM DRUG DEPENDENCE

When enough Americans had had enough of the British crown, they declared 
their independence and waged war to achieve it.

When, oh when, will enough Americans decide they have had enough of illegal 
drug use - especially by our children - and rid society of this ravaging 
scourge?

For all the time and treasure invested in the "war on drugs," you would 
think that our enemies in this struggle would be cornered by now. Instead, 
playgrounds remain battlegrounds.

We need to put more bite into the notion that "users are losers."

And, suggests Congressman Gene Taylor, one of the most effective ways of 
doing that would be to ensure that users - especially underage users - lose 
their driver's licenses.

Certainly some people who are already breaking the law by using illegal 
drugs, or using other drugs illegally, would not hesitate to break another 
law by driving without a license.

But just the thought of not having a driver's license ought to be enough to 
discourage many young people from experimenting with drugs. And, as former 
attorney general Mike Moore points out, strict enforcement of such a law 
would provide many young people with an understandable excuse to just say 
no to their peers.

But for such an excuse to be accepted, young people will have to be 
convinced that there are dire consequences to the illegal choices they 
make. They have got to be convinced that if they use, they will lose. That 
will require a great many more underage users being busted.

If this suggestion hits a little too close to home for you, then perhaps 
this Fourth of July would be an especially appropriate day for you to 
declare your own independence from drug dependence.

Executive and court orders underscore legislative failures

Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures, but there is 
nothing extraordinary about keeping an agency of state government in operation.

Yet last week the state Department of Human Services - which services 
hundreds of thousands of Mississippians - came within hours of shutting down.

Having failed during their four-month-long regular session to reauthorize 
DHS, legislators again failed to do so during a special session on 
Wednesday. Gov. Haley Barbour issued an executive order to keep DHS in 
business and Attorney General Jim Hood, thinking DHS needed more backing 
than that, obtained a court order to keep the doors open at DHS.

And then there is the ongoing issue of 65,000 Mississippians set to be 
kicked off Medicaid on Sept. 15.

It is expected that elected officials are going to dicker and bicker. But 
there is a cruel irresponsibility about leaving these particular matters 
unresolved for so many for so long.

As the attorney general said late last week: "I'm tired of having to be a 
referee in the feud between the Legislature and the governor. They need to 
negotiate like grown-ups and act on these very important issues."
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