To the editor: This is in regard to the recent article about a drug search in the schools. Haywood County school officials shouldn't kid themselves into thinking they are doing anyone a favor by inviting drug-sniffing dogs into high schools. These days zero tolerance poses a greater threat than drugs. According to the Monitoring the Future survey, more than half of all high school seniors have tried an illicit drug. Denying a majority of the nation's youth an education and the chance to grow up to become productive members of society is not in America's best interest. [continues 150 words]
Lyn Nofziger, the cigar-chomping former newspaperman who served as spokesman and strategist for Ronald Reagan in Sacramento and Washington, died of cancer on Monday at his home in Falls Church, Va. He was 81. His death was announced by a family member, Carol Dahmen. Nancy Reagan, the former first lady, said: "Lyn was with us from the gubernatorial campaign in 1965 through the early White House days, and Ronnie valued his advice -- and good humor -- as much as anyone's. I spoke with him just days ago and even though he knew the end was near, Lyn was hopeful and still in good spirits." [continues 922 words]
Studies: Rewards Enhance Treatment PHILADELPHIA -- It's a proposition as old as parenthood: Do this thing you don't want to do -- "please?" -- and you'll get something nice for your trouble. Now, the idea that we can influence adult behavior by offering meaningful incentives -- gift cards, bus tokens, CD players and rent subsidies -- is slowly catching on in drug and alcohol treatment. More than 60 studies in the United States and in Europe show that rewarding substance abusers for staying clean helps keep them enrolled in the crucial early weeks of outpatient rehab, when dropout rates can hit 40% or more. [continues 654 words]
POSSIBLE North Korean Government involvement in the Pong Su heroin importation demanded urgent discussions at the highest level. Relations between Australia and the secretive communist regime, run by North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il, were already strained. The rogue Stalinist state had earlier been named by US President George Bush as a member of the Axis of Evil, along with Iran and Iraq. Repeated refusals by those on board the fleeing Pong Su to pull into port meant police had an international diplomatic incident on their hands. [continues 1680 words]
Four years after the Allies moved in, Afghanistan remains the world's major source of heroin. Will more British troops end the drug warlords' reign? By Westminster Editor James Cusick Seven months after the Iraq war, the distinctive figure of Hamid Karzai helped Tony Blair through one of his most difficult Labour conferences. On the conference platform in Bournemouth, wearing his trademark cape and hat, the Afghan leader said his country had received help from the rest of the world and his people had "joined hands with them to free ourselves". Karzai helped boost Blair's crumbling authority by saying he supported the war "because we want exactly the same thing for the Iraqi people". [continues 1380 words]
Local legislators are adamant about two bills they wrote that will hit the Roundhouse in upcoming weeks -- separate yet connected propositions for mandatory drug sentencing and rehabilitation initiatives. Sen. Clint Harden, R-Clovis, said he's introducing a bill that would impose mandatory methamphetamine sentencing, to "get cooks out of the kitchen," he said. A need for state-wide mandatory sentencing for methamphetamine offenses is something 9th Judicial District Attorney Matt Chandler encouraged the senator to pursue, they said. "Too many times across the state, methamphetamine cooks walk out with a slap on the wrist," Chandler said. "It's rare to see maximum sentences handed down by courts." [continues 1588 words]
I am outraged that the county supervisors voted to file suit to challenge in federal courts the rights that the people of this great state voted to enact under Proposition 215. We elected the supervisors to serve the people, not their personal interests or political ideology, or the political ideology of George Bush. If they cannot represent our interests, they might step down and let someone else who can listen to the electorate do their job. Though I do not use marijuana, I object to this subversion of the will of the state's voters and the county's residents. In "Poll: Voters support medical marijuana law" (News, Jan. 9), it reported that two-thirds of the county's residents support Proposition 215. [continues 76 words]
WHAT DO WE LEARN ABOUT DRUGS FROM PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENTS? In 1987 the famous image of the egg and the frying pan was seared into our collective conscience. Let's all say it together - This is your brain (hold up egg). This your brain on drugs (crack egg in frying pan). The commercial operated on a scare tactic philosophy and was targeted at the potential drug user - teenagers and young adults. Fast forward to 2005 and the image is of small schoolboy singing a nursery rhyme. [continues 757 words]
During 5 Years in Office, He's Granted 69 Clemency Orders WASHINGTON -- President Bush has granted 11 pardons, bringing to 69 the number of clemency orders he has issued since taking office five years ago, the Justice Department said. Three moonshiners and a bank robber are among those pardoned, as is a Denver attorney with Republican political ties. The pardons were issued Tuesday, in keeping with a tradition of granting clemency during the holiday season. "These are individuals who all applied for clemency, and their applications were reviewed by the Office of the Pardon Attorney and forwarded to the president, who makes the final decision on whether to grant clemency," said Justice Department spokesman John Nowacki. [continues 472 words]
Bolivia has its first indigenous Indian president after a landslide victory that leaves relations with the United States at a historic low and Washington's war on drugs in tatters. Evo Morales, 46, who was the clear favourite, far exceeded expectations, with exit polls and quick counts of the ballots showing him passing the 50 per cent barrier. He will be the first president to do so since the country returned to democracy in 1982. "We have won and now we are going to change this country," said Mr Morales, surrounded by delirious supporters. "All the majority together. The people are finally in power." [continues 866 words]
Re: Harper's drug-war flashback, DEC. 7. Kudos to Dan Gardner for his excellent opinion article. Stephen Harper is, indeed, a frightening character on the Canadian political landscape. The notion that a small handful of arbitrarily designated illegal drugs, almost all of which are less harmful than hundreds of legal drugs, are an enemy "attacking" our values, and that maintaining the serious and costly social problems triggered by their prohibition should be considered desirable, leaves one wondering about Mr. Harper's motivation for entering politics. [continues 109 words]
In Newest Film, 'Traffic' Writer Studies Addiction To Mideast Oil In "Traffic," writer Stephen Gaghan's Oscar-winning movie about the global drug trade, there were so many merging story lines to keep track of that a system of color-coding scenes had to be devised so that audiences could read the film almost like a map. For "Syriana," his new thriller about international petro-politics that opens Friday, Gaghan returns to the multiple-story template. But this time he has blown up the map. [continues 863 words]
Two Vancouver MPs say Conservative leader Stephen Harper's comments on drug addiction could mean the city's supervised injection site would be scrapped under a Conservative government. Vancouver-South Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who is also Canada's health minister, compared Harper's views on crime to those of U.S. President George Bush. "Here is a man who essentially looks at crime in the way Texans, particularly President Bush, would look at crime," Dosanjh told the Courier Monday. "It's sort of the Texan hang 'em high, Bush-style attitude to crime." [continues 496 words]
The South Coast Interagency Narcotics Team will get a significant boost to its anti-drug efforts next year thanks to the recent passage of a congressional appropriations bill. The agency was notified earlier this week that a part of its federal backing will nearly double, going from $60,000 in 2003 to $100,000 next fall. The funding is part of an omnibus spending bill that now moves on to President George Bush's desk for signature into law. He's expected to sign the bill within the next month. [continues 631 words]
WHAT a curious state of affairs in Britain, when models are sorely judged for using drugs, while politicians are excused for the same behaviour. As the New Statesman asked, "Politicians on drugs, what's new?" Does this finally explain the decision to go to war in Iraq? What's going on? First, the model. It's been a wonderful irony that the icon of heroin chic, the spindly legged, gaunt-cheeked Kate Moss, is now a cautionary tale for anti-drugs campaigners. [continues 680 words]
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH: Residents of Denver, the Mile High City, have voted to let residents over 21 years old possess up to an ounce of the wascally weed marijuana. "Marijuana is less harmful to the user and society than alcohol," says Mason Tvert, campaign organizer for Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation. "To prohibit adults from making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana is bad public policy," says Mason. Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project says he hoped the approval will launch a national trend toward legalizing a drug whose enforcement he says causes more problems than it cures. [continues 52 words]
To me, Red Ribbon Week is a time not only to make the good arguments against drugs to kids, but time to salvage what shreds of national sanity remain after decades of America's war on drugs. Next to solving every foreign policy problem militarily, the war on drugs is America's No. 1 bad idea. The illogic, the staggering cost, the ruinous toll in human lives -- all for a campaign that arguably is a boon to drug cartels and which hasn't banished drugs. [continues 674 words]
It was a simple question at an Observer meeting in Blackpool... but it has exploded into an issue that could derail David Cameron's leadership bid. On the eve of the vital Tory vote, Ned Temko looks at a favourite at bay The Observer The grandly named Baronial Hall in Blackpool's Winter Gardens - in fact, a large second-floor function room - was packed to overflowing. Members of the audience chatted in the kind of excited anticipation that nowadays signals the arrival of an A-list movie celebrity; or in years past, of someone on the scale of the great Harry Houdini. [continues 2939 words]
David Cameron's halo is tarnishing fast due to his refusal to candidly answer questions on past drug use, writes Westminster Editor James Cusick From leader-in-waiting to derailed boy-wonder under pressure: David Cameron' s rise and potential downfall has regenerated the debate on what kind of past life a politician is justified in keeping secret. In Cameron's case, the secret he's now fighting to protect is whether or not he dabbled with class A drugs, in particular cocaine, especially during his years at Oxford University. [continues 1398 words]
David Cameron, the new favourite to win the Conservative leadership, will undergo a severe test of his political toughness tomorrow when he faces backbench Tory MPs keen to learn the limits of his youthful indiscretions. The stakes were raised yesterday when a discussion of drugs and crime at Question Time on the first day of the new parliamentary season prompted Labour heckles about "Cannabis Cameron" and other witticisms. The shadow education spokesman triggered alarm bells among wavering colleagues at the weekend when he brushed aside a series of questions about the drugs he did or didn't take at Oxford University 20 years ago. [continues 355 words]
