Ocean Springs School Board members ought to reject changing the district's zero-tolerance policy toward drug possession on school property.

A degree of leniency is being sought for students caught for the first time with drugs. The current policy calls for students violating the drug policy to be sent to an alternative school for one year. Students sent to the alternative school for drug possession can request an early return to regular classes, but must spend at least 85 percent of the school year in the alternative school.

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OCEAN SPRINGS - Local school board members want to give administrators some leeway in disciplining first-time drug offenders caught with small amounts of drugs.

The board held a first reading of a new policy that will allow administrators to send students who have violated the drug policy to the alternative school for a period of 18 weeks to 36 weeks.

A proposed policy has to undergo at least two readings before it can be made official policy of the school board.

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The best ideas often come from the group, not the individual, and the Adams County Sheriff's Office recognizes that simple fact.

Two years ago the ACSO decided to use the community to fight crime by starting several Neighborhood Watch programs. Deputies meet with the groups regularly, and the sheriff has said tips from Neighborhood Watch members have solved crimes.

But when deputies talked with watch groups about drug use they got a new idea.

Drug prevention and crime prevention starts with young children and the ACSO needed to start at the beginning.

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NATCHEZ - After only a few Neighborhood Watch meetings the Adams County Sheriff's Office officials learned that the community had a question they couldn't answer.

The ACSO was trying to reach out to adults to stop crime in the county, but the adults pointed them elsewhere.

"Everyone wanted to know, 'What are you doing to stop kids from getting on drugs,'" Sheriff Ronny Brown said.

So Brown turned to the Natchez-Adams School District with a plan Superintendent Anthony Morris liked.

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From watching police shows while a student in high school, Lieutenant Byron Catchings of the Lincoln County Sheriff's Department has known since then that he wanted to be a cop. Now his influence might be what changes life for the better for local students.

Catchings just returned from the D.A.R.E. training course in Orange Beach, Ala. The two-week course prepared him to go to area middle schools and junior high schools to teach about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

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Anna Moreno has 925 kids! And they keep her very busy.

"I've got five children of my own but all the kids here at Clarkdale Attendance Center are mine as well," she added with a smile. "I love all these children here."

A deputy with the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department, Moreno, and fellow deputy Robbie McClure, have good reason to get uniquely attached to the youngsters whose safety it is the two officers' task to protect. As school resource officers who've been recently certified to be D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) officers, Moreno and McClure have gained a unique perspective into the lives of children as the students go to and from classes. Both officers believe the D.A.R.E. certification will help them to do their jobs even better than before.

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Guice Draws Ire Of Coast Delegation

JACKSON - After a long, heated debate, the House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would allow the Harrison County Board of Supervisors to privatize the troubled county jail. The bill is a response to the beating murder of an inmate and revelations by deputies that inmate beatings by jailers were commonplace.

An attempt by Rep. Danny Guice, R-Ocean Springs, to amend the bill drew debate. He proposed the bill be changed to create a study committee to determine whether privatization would be a good idea. He said the bill could set precedent for other boards of supervisors, who traditionally feud with sheriffs over jail operations, to ask for similar permission. House Penitentiary Chairman Bennett Malone echoed this argument.

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Ripley Police Chief Bert Conely is out on $5,000 bond today after pleading not guilty to each of seven counts alleging he possessed drugs to sell them.

Conely appeared Tuesday before Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander to enter his plea to the federal charges.

Although Conely is out on bond, he can't possess a firearm, must have no contact with government witnesses and must submit to supervision of the U.S. Probation Office, according to Alexander's order.

The indictment was made public Tuesday. It alleges that from May 17, 2006, until Nov. 21, 2006, Conely possessed marijuana and hydrocodone, a narcotic pain reliever with intent to distribute. The indictment quotes Conely as saying that the marijuana came from Mexico and was in a vault at the police department.

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OXFORD - A judicial opinion may end the University of Mississippi's monopoly on growing marijuana for researchers in the United States.

A field at the Oxford campus is the United States' only legal source of cannabis. Since 1968, the university has had contracts with the National Institute for Drug Abuse - competitively bid and renewed every three to five years - to grow the plant and distribute it as NIDA directs to researchers nationwide.

Dr. Lyle Craker, a horticulturist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst petitioned the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to become a second grower of marijuana. He contends DEA's enforcement mission prejudices the agency against approving research projects that could show promise.

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If the hard work of student government associations and other campus groups across the country pays off, potential college students with prior drug convictions on their criminal records may finally be able to receive federally funded financial aid.

Since 2000, college students with drug convictions have been unable to receive federal aid to attend college as a result of the passing of the Higher Education Act's Aid Elimination Penalty.

However, a student-led movement is slowly progressing in colleges and universities across America to have this Penalty overturned. A network of students called Students for Sensible Drug Policy spearheads this crusade. The SSDP seeks to empower young people to take action against this discrimination.

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Whopee! Mississippi's Number 3!

Trouble is that the index in which our state has attained that lofty status is one the taxpayers could do without.

It seems that in the noble interest of getting tough on crime, Mississippi's policymakers have created a correctional system that is at least equally tough on taxpayers.

As pointed out in a commentary in today's "Perspective" section by authors Marc Mauer and Ron Welch, a recent analysis by the U.S. Department of Justice shows that Mississippi now ranks third in the nation, behind only Louisiana and Texas, in its rate of incarceration.

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A recent analysis from the U.S. Department of Justice reports that Mississippi now ranks third in the nation, behind only Louisiana and Texas, in its rate of incarceration.

This status takes on particular significance given that the United States is now the world leader in its use of imprisonment. With over 21,000 people in prison - a 166 percent increase from the 8,000 offenders in 1990 - the state of Mississippi is spending $292 million a year to operate this vastly expanded penal system.

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Pascagoula - Young offenders will be be prosecuted, defended and judged by their peers in a new drug court in Jackson County.

Jim Yancey, executive director of the Jackson County Community Coalition, said the project had been on the drawing board three years.

A recent $37,366 grant from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety's Office of Justice Program will allow the project to become reality.

The Jackson County Youth Court is a program partner.

"What happens is the judge oversees the process . The kids will have their cases heard by the judge and other teens," said Yancey.

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Program Trains Teens To Help Teens

PASCAGOULA - Jackson County is in line to set up a long-awaited drug court for teens at Youth Court for one year, beginning mid-February.

County supervisors on Tuesday voted to allow the Jackson County Community Services Coalition to set up and run the drug court on Youth Court property under the supervision of Judge Sharon Sigalas, with a $37,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, justice programs.

Jim Yancey, coalition director, said it's a program Sigalas has worked for and wanted for three years - having teens involved in solving the teen drug problem.

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Mantachie - "Zako" exploded into a fury of tail wagging and sniffing, responding happily to a pat on his head. Bouncy and jovial, the young Belgian Malinois was excited to receive the attention his owner, Mantachie Police Chief Terry Jones, was giving him.

Although young, "Zako" is the small town's newest and possibly best defense against narcotic sale and use.

"This is a single purpose dog," Jones said as "Zako" settled at his feet. "He is a drug dog."

Certified by the National Narcotics Drug Dog Association and National Police Canine Association, "Zako" may be young, but he's already packing a lot of experience. After receiving an initial eight weeks of training on scents and drug detection, he began training with Jones at the Little Rock Canine Academy and is ready for use in Mantachie's schools.

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A 16-year-old Columbus girl has been arrested for murder after her child was born dead last month.

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant's investigation led to the arrest under the state's "depraved heart murder" charge. Merchant determined that the baby died from a cocaine overdose.

The girl's identity is not being revealed because she is a minor.

The case is the second infant death charge brought by Merchant in the past four months relating to drug use by the mother. Tonya Regina Hairston, 32, of Columbus is currently awaiting trial on manslaughter charges after her baby was stillborn July 30. An autopsy on that baby determined cocaine toxicity caused its death.

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We sincerely hope that the newly established Tate County drug court will help curtail the growing problem of drug-related crimes.

It seems common sense not to simply throw the offenders in jail, where they can sometimes continue to procure their illicit substances, but to offer them a way out of their addiction.

Yes, it will be expensive, but those enrolled in the program are being expected to hold steady employment and contribute towards the cost of their treatment.

Some of these individuals are seeing structure and accountability for the first time in their lives.

If the root cause of the crimes is drug addition, it seems elementary that the ultimate solution is ridding the offender of that addiction.

[end]

As the nation ponders its lost cause in Iraq, it's past time to reconsider yet another misbegotten crusade: America's 35-year-old "War on Drugs." Conceived by President Richard Nixon in 1971 partly as an attack on the anti-Vietnam war "counterculture," like most governmental efforts to abolish sin and folly, it's a complete failure.

For different reasons, Democrats and Republicans alike refuse to acknowledge reality. I yield to none in my contempt for the romance of narcotics.

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A member of the state Legislature told a group of graduates Monday he wants them to be examples for the entire state.

While that's not an unusual theme for a commencement address, state Rep. George Flaggs, D-Vicksburg, was talking to people who have completed Warren County Drug Court's rehabilitation program.

"You will be a walking advertisement" for the drug-court concept, Flaggs said, encouraging five graduates to use the tools they had learned in overcoming their own addictions to help them face other challenges.

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Police officers should be subjected to random drug testing.

The recent arrest of a Moss Point police officer is an indication of how critical such a simple procedure such as frequent and random drug tests may be for public safety.

Police officers are not immune from the ills of life, such as substance abuse. Law enforcement officers are in a unique position because they are entrusted to carry weapons in the course of their work. Police officers and deputies also are called upon to make life and death decisions from the use of a weapon to even how a vehicle is driven. The public ought to be assured all reasonable safeguards are taken to make sure the person given such authority is not impaired by substance abuse. Testing would be a reasonable safeguard.

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