School Board Expected To Vote On Issue At Feb. 5 Meeting

MORTON - Morton High School students involved in extracurricular activities could be subject to random drug testing beginning next school year.

District 709 Superintendent Roger Kilpatrick unveiled a drug testing policy written by district and high school administrators at a School Board meeting Tuesday. Board members are expected to vote on the policy at their Feb. 5 meeting.

The policy mirrors one that has been in effect at East Peoria Community High School since the beginning of the 2006-07 school year.

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Students In Activities Could Face Testing Soon

SPRING VALLEY - Hall High School is one step closer to a drug-testing policy.

"We made constructive strides" during Wednesday's board meeting, said Mike Struna, Hall High School superintendent. "The board members saw the first draft and reached a consensus on three key points to revise the policy."

The seven School Board members agreed to expand the drug-testing pool to include students who participate in clubs.

The board previously agreed that students who voluntarily join extracurricular teams and compete in IHSA interscholastic competitions should be tested. The same goes for groups that represent the school. The board also decided not to include students who drive to school as part of the drug-testing pool, unless they're involved in sports, clubs, or organizations.

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CHICAGO (AP) - Three former Chicago police officers were sentenced to decades in federal prison Thursday for using their guns, uniforms and badges to rip off cocaine and marijuana from drug dealers and resell it.

"You and your merry band essentially raped and plundered entire neighborhoods," U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman said in sentencing former officer Broderick Jones, admitted leader of the ring, to 25 years.

The stiffest sentence went to former officer Eural Black, the only one of the three who didn't plead guilty and was convicted at a jury trial.

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You don't hear much about the nation's "war on drugs" these days. It's a has-been, a glamourless geezer.

Its glitz has been stolen by the "war on terror," which gets the media hype and campaign trail rhetoric.

Railing against recreational drug use and demanding that offenders be locked away is so '90s.

But the drug war proceeds, mostly away from news cameras and photo-ops, still chewing up federal and state resources and casting criminal sanctions over entire neighborhoods. Some four or so decades into an intensive effort to stamp out recreational drug use, billions of dollars have been spent; thousands of criminals, many of them foreigners, have been enriched; and hundreds of thousands of Americans have been imprisoned. And the use of illegal substances continues unabated.

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Are people really afraid of legalizing marijuana? I cannot understand why it is such a crazy idea to let people consume cannabis. People can get drunk all they want, and humanity keeps moving right along. Of course, there was a time when the country outlawed alcohol consumption, and that failed miserably. Sure Al Capone enjoyed the lucrative aspect of alcohol prohibition, but that prohibition failed and cannabis prohibition has failed for the same reasons.

Abuse of cannabis is detrimental, but there is a difference between use and abuse.

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White People Are More Likely Than Minorities to Get Narcotics From Emergency-Room Doctors, a Study Found.

CHICAGO -- Emergency-room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds.

Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.

The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency-room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.

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25 Years for Alleged Ringleader of Group That Robbed Dealers

Three rogue Chicago police officers who robbed drug dealers of cash and narcotics were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Thursday by a federal judge who said the misconduct left him "at a total loss."

U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman appeared most disturbed that the officers resold the stolen drugs, putting "lethal poison" back onto streets that they had sworn to serve and protect.

"You and your merry band essentially raped and plundered entire areas," said the judge, noting the robberies by the plainclothes tactical officers in the Englewood District took place in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

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In the Dec. 27 issue of The News-Sun, Hasan Hakeem, a lifelong resident of Waukegan, has written an insightful, comprehensive and thoughtful article on the pernicious effects of the "drug war" in Waukegan.

These effects exist nationwide. The number of drug busts is irrelevant in controlling usage. The profits to drug sellers are huge under this government program of Prohibition.

There will always be risk-takers to replace the drug sellers who are arrested and jailed. The demand exists and it will be met. But how?

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Those creatively efficient politicians down in the Illinois Legislature might be stumped on really important issues like funding the CTA or betting our future on casinos. But they are clear about saving us from ourselves -- even if we don't need it. Case in point: the salvia ban.

Lawmakers banned the sale and possession of Salvia divinorum, a virtually unknown sage plant that causes hallucinations. People who buy it in tobacco and "head" shops or online experience a 5- to 10-minute high, followed by a 20-minute comedown. Come New Year's Day, anyone who smokes, licks, chews or possesses salvia will go directly to jail -- for no less than four years. The penalty is the same as shooting heroin or snorting cocaine.

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A decision by the National Sentencing Commission will lighten prison terms for as many as 2,500 crack cocaine users and sellers.

The Daily Journal reported the story earlier. Basically, the penalties for crack cocaine, a crystallized form of the drug that is smoked, will be lowered to the penalties for powdered cocaine, that is snorted.

The average crack conviction draws a prison sentence of 10 years. A powder user can expect seven years.

There's a racial overtone to the story, too. Crack cocaine is generally thought to be far more prevalent in the African-American community. Over the years, many had complained that the sentences had as much to do with the skin color of the defendant as they did with the war on drugs.

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Marian Catholic would join 2 other Catholic high schools in region

Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights will likely become the third Catholic high school in the region to require drug testing of its students.

Parents and school officials met last week to discuss the proposal, expected to take effect next fall. Following the example of St. Patrick High School in Chicago and St. Viator High School in Arlington Heights, school officials hope the new policy will give Marian's 1,500 students another reason to turn down drugs, said Principal Kathleen Tait.

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To the Editor:

Common sense tells us that the DARE program should deter our youth from using illegal drugs. But it doesn't. DARE graduates are more likely to use illegal drugs, not less.

Common sense tells us that the Earth is the center of the universe and our solar system. But it's not.

Common sense tells us that prohibiting a product should substantially reduce the use of the product that's prohibited. Actually, prohibition tends to substantially increase the desire for the product that's prohibited.

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Youth should not be using cannabis, but isn't there a conflict of interest when Marian Catholic High School says cannabis is bad ("Marian Catholic to test all students for drugs," Dec. 18) and Christ God Our Father, the ecologician, indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they all are good, on literally the very first page of the Bible?

Why does a Catholic school discriminate against the relatively safe God-given plant cannabis, which is safer than alcohol, and not test for alcohol use? Isn't this drug testing policy going to lead toward more life-long alcoholism problems in the long run?

Stan White

Dillon, Co.

[end]

If the rationale for drug testing students is it will reduce drug use in high school, then I think administrators and teachers should lead by example and submit themselves to the same tests.

Since all of the "druggies" will be weeded out of the private schools like Marian Catholic High School and "forced" to attend public high schools or be home schooled, I suppose it would make perfect sense not to allow any teachers or staff who work with these students to be treated any differently. After all, these folks are the role models students spend their days with.

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It really would be nice to applaud the recent law enforcement action that took 21 suspected low-level drug dealers off the streets of Waukegan, or shall we say, "off the streets in the 1st Ward." The fact of the matter is that the 21 dealers have already been replaced and drugs continue to flow unabated not only in Waukegan, but throughout Lake County.

In Waukegan, it's easy to put a Band-Aid on the scourge of drugs in our community. I've been a witness to the "let's pick up some drug dealers" to convince the uninformed that we saved the poor residents of Waukegan's 1st Ward. These lowlevel drug dealers are convenient and easy to identify.

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In '08, State Will Add Type Of Salvia To List Of Banned Substances

Green, leafy and innocuous, salvia divinorum looks like it would be more interesting to a gardener than a police officer.

But the plant's unique hallucinogenic properties have turned "the sage of the diviners" into a botanical target caught in a crossfire between politicians, spiritualists and scientists over whether it's a drug that should be banned or an herb that should be freely available for research and personal use.

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Regarding your editorial Dec. 6 titled "A valuable test for students," student involvement in after-school activities like sports has been shown to reduce drug use. They keep kids busy during the hours they are most likely to get into trouble. Forcing students to undergo degrading urine tests as a prerequisite will only discourage participation in extracurricular programs.

Drug testing may also compel marijuana users to switch to harder drugs to avoid testing positive. This is one of the reasons the American Academy of Pediatrics opposes student drug testing. Despite a short-lived high, marijuana is the only illegal drug that stays in the human body long enough to make urinalysis a deterrent.

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All students at Marian Catholic High School would be drug tested starting next school year under a proposal being considered by officials at the Chicago Heights school.

"We've had a lot of discussion (about this issue)," school president Sister Mary Paul McCaughey said, adding that the school board has "given the green light" to do the testing.

Over the past few months, Marian Catholic has conducted online and phone-based surveys and held board discussions. School officials also held conferences with students and parents about the issue.

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Two stories during the weekend made us wonder about the future of our communities.

The first examined a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling and its interpretation by the federal courts that could lead to sentence reductions for 380 convicted local crack dealers, with 18 to 37 of them potentially eligible for immediate release. The justices decided that higher penalties for crack than for powder cocaine were unjust and racially unfair -- powder cocaine being an elite drug and crack being the drug of poor, black communities.

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Regarding Judy Guenseth's Dec. 7 column: The importance of parental involvement in reducing adolescent drug use cannot be overstated. School-based extracurricular activities also have been shown to reduce use. They keep kids busy during the hours they're most likely to get into trouble.

In order for drug prevention efforts to effectively reduce harm, they must be reality-based. The most popular drug and the one most closely associated with violent behavior is often overlooked by parents. That drug is alcohol, and it takes far more lives each year than all illegal drugs combined. Alcohol may be legal, but it's still the No. 1 drug problem.

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Cook County's criminal courts are teetering under a massive volume of drug cases, mentally ill defendants and demands by elected officials who fail to provide adequate funding, according to a report by a legal advocacy group.

The Criminal Courts Building at 26th and California hears more than 28,000 cases a year, and each judge handles an average of 275 cases at a time, according to the report by the Chicago Appleseed Fund for Justice.

"We have an overburdened court," said Criminal Court Presiding Judge Paul Biebel on Thursday at a public forum on the report.

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A drug-abuse counselor keeps a photograph of a teen in his office, a reminder of the importance of his work.

That teen, Geneva High School graduate Jake Zegart, died at 18 from an overdose of the painkiller oxycodone.

"I have a picture of him working on his car," said Chic Williams, the community intervention coordinator for Geneva schools. "It's kind of a reminder of why we do what we do."

Although Zegart used the powerful painkiller that day in October 2004, Williams said, prescription drugs were not the usual drugs of choice for Kane County teens.

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Graduates Of Peoria County Drug Court Lean On Each Other Through Alumni Group

In the years since they graduated from Peoria County Drug Court, they've stepped into ordinary, everyday lives.

Richard Pickens, disabled with a host of health problems himself, dedicates much of his time caring for a wife with back problems and a mother with dementia.

"I don't clean up, he won't let me go in the kitchen," says his wife, Glenda. "He wants to do my laundry, too, but I prefer to do my own."

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WASHINGTON -- When the U.S. Sentencing Commission last week reduced sentences for imprisoned crack cocaine offenders--reversing years of policy that treated crack far differently from powder cocaine--the Justice Department and police groups bitterly criticized the action, warning of a flood of criminals rushing out onto America's streets.

The change "will make thousands of dangerous prisoners, many of them violent gang members, eligible for immediate release," said acting Deputy Atty. Gen. Craig Morford. "These offenders are among the most serious and violent offenders in the federal system."

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Roberto Flores scans the menu.

Pan Roasted Veal Chop $40

Smoked Chicken & Rock Shrimp Pasta $26

Flores checks the money in his pocket again.

14 OZ. New York Steak $33

Coffee Rubbed Filet Of Beef $38

Flores looks down the table. It's filled with educators -- superintendents in pinstripes and administrators in business attire at an education conference. None seem fazed by the prices.

Back in the day -- back when he was doing wrong -- Flores would have bought dinner for everyone at the table. He would have pulled up in a limo, flashed hundreds around the table. The suits' eyes would have been on him.

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MARION -The Marion Police Department will be better equipped to control the marijuana trade and use in Marion thanks to a new ordinance passed Monday night by the city council.

Prior to the new law, the police were hampered in dealing with individuals who were in possession of drug paraphernalia. According to the wording of the ordinance this would include: "all equipment, products, and materials of any kind which are intended to be used unlawfully in planting, propagating, cultivating, growing, harvesting, manufacturing, compounding, converting, producing, processing, preparing, testing, analyzing, packaging, repackaging, storing, containing, concealing, injecting, ingesting, inhaling, or otherwise introducing into the human body cannabis or a controlled substance in violation of the law."

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Crackdown in Streets, Prisons Cuts Power, but Factions Fight On

In a city where legendary street gang leaders Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover took their place beside Al Capone in the local criminal hall of fame, the powerful Chicago gang kingpin is looking more and more like an endangered species.

Major street gangs that once carved up the city into virtual fiefdoms for drug trafficking are producing fewer of the "super" leaders who dominated their organizations with charisma, ruthlessness and guile in years past, law-enforcement officials and other experts say. Hierarchies traditionally topped by a powerful few have decentralized.

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MOUNT VERNON - The Drug Abuse Resistance Education program - known for the slogan "Just Say No" -is a life lesson, according to officer Ray Gilbert with the Mount Vernon Police Department.

"DARE is alive," he said. "DARE is very much alive in Mount Vernon."

Gilbert serves as the school resource officer and the DARE officer. He said although some communities are no longer participating in the national program, Mount Vernon considers it an important part of the ongoing war against drugs.

"The City of Mount Vernon and especially the police department and Chief (Chris) Mendenall think the DARE program is very important to the city," he said. "I took it over two years ago from a guy that retired. They have been doing it since the '90s."

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TAYLOR RIDGE - A Rockridge parent plans to once again address the district's school board about a new random drug testing policy for students.

Scott Fairman said he plans to ask school officials for a town hall meeting about the policy, which began this year for junior and senior high students in the Rockridge School District. The Rockridge School District's board meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Monday.

"I'm going to try and get another town hall meeting set up for parents," Mr. Fairman said. "I want another town hall meeting so all parents can voice their opinion."

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GALESBURG - Although drug abuse is frequently in the news and destructive on many levels; most people have become desensitized to this very real problem.

Some will recall the puppies that were surgically implanted with drugs. They were transported across the border, and then reopened to retrieve the drugs. Most died in this process. There was a massive protest regarding this despicable practice; on the other hand, barely a whisper is raised in regard to people who continually die because of substance abuse. According to the Drug Enforcement Agency, in the United States about 21,000 people die annually from drug abuse.

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Officer Should Have Been Booted, Not Given Desk Job

Even with a shortage of eligible black men, it's unlikely that a crackhead from Englewood had consensual sex with police Sgt. John Herman.

Let's start with the beady eyes, Nazi mustache and double chin.

But Herman's lawyer, Peter Hickey, ripped the woman -- an admitted crack user -- who says she was raped by Herman in 2004. "This is about money. This is about a woman who was out walking the streets," Hickey said.

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Marquette Catholic High School in Alton began testing all of its students for drugs at the start of the school year, but you might not have even heard about it if we hadn't mentioned it in an article the other day.

A few years ago, such a policy would have prompted the kind of heated debates that we heard during the Mascoutah hugging flap. But today, people generally consider drug testing a routine matter. It's a requirement of employment at many businesses. And school is our children's version of a job.

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African-Americans in Cook County were imprisoned for drug offenses at 58 times the rate of white people--the seventh-worst racial disparity among large counties nationwide, according to a new report.

The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based think tank advocating alternatives to prison for social problems, was set to release a study Tuesday detailing the different treatment white and black drug offenders receive under the criminal justice system. The institute found that nationwide, African-Americans are imprisoned for drugs at 10 times the rate of white people.

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SPRINGFIELD - Governor Rod R. Blagojevich recently signed a law that toughens current anti-methamphetamine laws by making any attempt to possess, procure, transport, store, or deliver a key meth ingredient a Class 4 felony. Class 4 felonies can carry a prison term of one to three years and/or a fine of up to $25,000.

Senate Bill 274, sponsored by State Senator Larry Bomke (R-Springfield) and State Rep. Jil Tracy (R-Quincy), makes it a felony to attempt to steal, improperly store, or transport anhydrous ammonia. Anhydrous ammonia is a key ingredient in the production of methamphetamine, and its storage in unauthorized containers can be extremely dangerous. This increased penalty will deter those who may be planning to steal anhydrous ammonia to manufacture methamphetamine.

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ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP -- In Sue Sullivan's health class, she teaches students about the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs.

But instead of just telling the children how drugs can ruin a life, Sullivan took that lesson a step further Friday, taking half of the Central Middle School seventh-graders to the Kane County Drug Court.

The students were able not only to hear as dozens of drug offenders appeared before the judge, but also to see how drugs hurt individual lives.

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URBANA - Jesus T. Martinez never thought he'd be excited about getting up every morning to clean apartments.

"I never thought about working. It was just something I never did," said the 27-year-old Urbana man whose lifestyle was more centered on drinking alcohol, smoking weed, and selling drugs.

Having completed his thirteenth month of drug treatment, Martinez is liking the regular paycheck.

"I live for that – to get up and go to work, to say good morning, and do something productive on a daily basis," he said.

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If you're hoarding leftover or expired prescription drugs, the kind that someone might want to chew or snort to get high, the federal government has some advice.

* Remove the pills from their original containers.

* Mix them with an unappetizing substance, such as kitty litter or coffee grounds, and put them in empty cans or sealed bags so they aren't eaten by children, pets or Dumpster divers.

* Then, throw them in the trash.

* If the drugs are particularly powerful and addictive painkillers or stimulants, flush them down the toilet instead of disguising them in waste, if the label says the drugs are flushable.

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Illinois is now making the move to ban salvia, a naturally growing plant that is sold as a legal, light hallucinogen. This is business as usual for American politicians.

Marijuana is the most widely used illegal drug in America and because of that, it has been the scourge of opportunist politicians, moral finger-wavers and all types of other grand-standers.

The war on marijuana (yes, war on a plant, even though it can't really fight or talk), has cost taxpayers in the country billions of wasted dollars, prevented the development of a much needed and promising industry, and has ruined the lives of non-violent offenders and their families.

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'Professional' Drug Labs In Mexico Taking Over; Local Decline Credited To Tough Laws

PEKIN - A few years after methamphetamine spread across the fields and towns of central Illinois, authorities believe they have stunted the growth of small-time meth manufacturing for the time being, thanks to collaboration between police and lawmakers.

But as domestic production of the drug drops off, the shortage has been offset by large-scale, "professional" laboratories in Mexico that have been gradually expanding their trade and now account for the lion's share of the drug's supply.

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Phil Angelo "I'm a crackhead. I'll always be a crackhead, but now I'm a clean crackhead."

So spoke a tall, middle-aged blond woman, one of six graduates of Kankakee County Drug Court. The most recent "graduation ceremony" was held Nov. 2 in Judge Mike Kick's courtroom. Grads undergo intensive supervision, counseling and treatment for up to a year. In return, if they stay off the dope, the state drops the charges.

It's a program that changes your perception of the drug problem, and challenges the stereotypes.

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CARBONDALE - If there's one thing Jed Riffe can't stand, it's the media's handling of the subject of medicinal marijuana.

Riffe said the subject he takes very seriously is treated as tongue-in-cheek with many news outlets. Because he didn't see anyone else taking it seriously, Riffe made a documentary on the subject.

"Waiting to Inhale" will screen at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Student Center.

The film follows patients who use marijuana to help with their illness and parents who have lost their children to addiction. Riffe said it was important to show both sides of the argument because it makes a better film and richer learning experience.

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Cora Wortham and Cecilia McBride took the Drug Court opportunity and ran with it.

On Thursday, with their fellow Drug Court participants, court employees and family members packed into an Adams County courtroom, they paid tribute to the man who pushed them to run.

Wortham and McBride, both former crack cocaine addicts, graduated from Drug Court and praised former probation officer Frank Calkins, who helped start Drug Court a year ago.

Calkins, who has ALS and is unable to talk, was visibly moved when a speech he had written was read in the courtroom.

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It's not easy to explain the lure of drugs to teenagers, or what exactly happens to their brains physiologically if they succumb.

Andrea G. Barthwell hopes to clear some of the confusion and give parents guidelines on ways to steer their children from drugs.

The former deputy drug czar under President Bush will present "Risky Behavior: What's at Stake and How to Prevent It" at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Glen Ellyn.

The free session, open to all DuPage County parents, will be held in the Glenbard West auditorium, 670 Crescent Blvd., Glen Ellyn. There's an hourlong discussion group for parents starting at 6 p.m.

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The Rev. Michael Pfleger, of St. Sabina Church, led yet another march on Chuck's Gun Shop in sunny Riverdale on Saturday. Why? To stop the killing, he says.

Unfortunately, Pfleger is leading his flock down the wrong path.

Mayor Richard Daley, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Pfleger all tout the goodness of more gun control, but all three of them shy away from the central issue. How can we take guns out of the hands of young men who join gangs, make their living selling drugs and rake in outrageous profits in the process?

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McCaffrey Speaks At SIUE's Arts & Issues Series

Drugs are funding the war in the Middle East, four-star Gen. Barry McCaffrey, U.S. Army (Ret.), told the crowd gathered to hear his discussion about the war on terror at an SIUE Arts & Issues presentation Saturday night.

"(Our government) has been willfully in denial of that reality."

He said the majority of the 44 recognized terrorist organizations are not funded by any communist state, but rather by the international crime of drug smuggling.

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Seventy years after the federal government decided to make it a crime to grow or possess marijuana, its use is still prevalent, and the industry literally growing.

The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 was just four years after the passage of the 21st amendment repealing alcohol prohibition, which lasted only 13 years but was marked by violence, organized crime and an unregulated product that was still highly consumed.

Marijuana prohibition has lasted 70 years, and although some people might not agree, it should be repealed as well.

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Recreational intravenous drug usage has been regarded as one of the most effective methods of drug administration associated with a rapid effect and primary factors in disease transmittance. Despite the high addictiveness associated with this type of drug use, recent research shows that there are intriguing network patterns among users.

A cross-sectioned study regarding the social network patterns and HIV risk behavior among intravenous drug users was conducted this year in three separate Los Angeles communities by researchers JB Unger and MD Kipke. Participants were aged 15 through 23, and had to fulfill the requirement of having intravenous drug usage within three months and/or sexual intercourse with an IV drug user within 30 days prior to the conducted study.

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ST. CHARLES TOWNSHIP -- Fresh from a two-month stint in rehab, the teenager had a good outlook.

"I've learned I was an addict and I was not only hurting myself but others in my life," he said. "Drug court has been better than I thought it would be."

He told 16th Circuit Judge Wiley W. Edmondson that he feels ready to move on with his life in a positive way. The teen said he was looking for a job and planned to enroll at a local community college in January.

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Plainfield High School

PLAINFIELD -- Addiction counselor Claudia Evenson promised the high school students she wasn't there to give a lecture on how bad weed was or how alcohol will make them go blind.

Instead she wanted to show them the different roles one plays at a party.

"I need a girl who will be willing to have a party," Evenson said, who spoke to junior health classes Friday at Plainfield High School Central Campus as part of Red Ribbon week, a national event advocating a drug-free life.

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CARBONDALE - Higher education was among several topics U.S. Rep. Danny Davis touched on while visiting with the public before the banquet.

Davis was the keynote speaker at the dinner, but took time earlier to speak on several topics, including his continued push for equality in education.

"We've been having some fun in higher education," he said. "There are thousands of kids who need financial aid."

Davis said restrictions on federal financial aid funding due to criminal drug charges create obstacles for students in such a way that might deter them from an education.

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