Drug-Free Zones - Hidden Bias Is Among the Ideas Floated for Why More Blacks Were Cited

A vexing mystery faces Portland police: Why did they ban African Americans from the city's defunct drug-free zones more often than whites or Latinos?

The drug-free zones, which faded into oblivion Sunday, lost key political support last week when a report showed that police did not equally issue exclusion notices, which bar people arrested or cited on drug accusations from returning to the zones where the alleged crimes happened.

[continues 535 words]

Alice Ivany still has nightmares about the day she lost her arm.

The horrific accident happened as Ivany operated machinery at a plywood mill in 1977. The men's gloves she wore were too big for her hands and they were wet.

As she fed lumber into the machine, her right glove got sucked into the machine taking her arm with it. The emergency shut-off bar, three feet above her head, hung just out of reach.

[continues 846 words]

After 25 years, Sandee Burbank's controversial views on drugs haven't changed, but she's become more comfortable -- and better at -- backing them up.

Having just come from an interview on Al Wynn's "coffee break," she remembers being "scared to death" on the same show 21/2 decades before and unable to respond when Rod Runyon asked, "Where did you get your information?"

"I had a briefcase full of things," recalls the executive director and co-founder of Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA), "and of course I couldn't find it. Now, I've learned to say 'I'll get back to you.'"

[continues 536 words]

Oregon - Law Enforcement Has Found 2 ,000 Plants As Of September In State's Remote, Rural Areas

Harvest season this year has law enforcement scrambling to deal with the largest crop of marijuana in Oregon history.

From counties long known for illegal foliage to those where marijuana is rare, narcotics agents say they are tracking and hacking an unprecedented number of plants in remote and rugged rural areas.

By mid-September, they had seized about 220,000 plants statewide, nearly a 100 percent jump from last year's haul of about 120,000 plants. Almost all of the crops, DEA officials say, are grown by Mexican drug cartels expanding their California operations.

[continues 781 words]

Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse (MAMA) will give a presentation, "America and Drugs - Still Crazy After All These Years," at noon Monday at the Cannery Cafe, No. 1 Sixth St. This event is part of a statewide tour to celebrate MAMA's 25 years dedicated to reducing the harm from drug use.

MAMA Executive Director Sandee Burbank will discuss how America's approach to drugs can be improved to better protect people. MAMA's program is based on personal responsibility and informed decision-making, with respect for human dignity.

[continues 94 words]

Methamphetamine continues to be a problem in Albany, and both Albany police and the Linn County Sheriff's Office are working to deal with it and think they are making some headway.

Albany police estimate there are 100 or more suspected drug houses in the city.

The price of meth and marijuana in Albany has increased about 30 percent in the last year, according to detectives. Capt. Eric Carter, spokesman for the Albany police, said the higher price is an indication of police making a difference and disrupting the suppliers so that drugs are harder to find.

[continues 418 words]

Regarding Rob McCallum's Sept.. 27 article stating student involvement in after-school activities like sports has been shown to reduce drug use. They also 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.

[continues 141 words]

The Statesman Journal deserves kudos for printing an eloquent voice of dissent against the war on drugs. Russ Jones is one of a growing body of former criminal justice professionals who see the new Prohibition as an international disaster that gets only worse, never better.

Now a trans-border problem that has foreign criminal syndicates operating in the U.S., the failures of other U.S.-led efforts to reduce drug production and trafficking can be seen in Colombia and Afghanistan where cocaine and opium production has reached record levels. The proposed escalation as outlined in Plan Mexico will serve only to exacerbate a worsening situation.

As Jones points out, the only true solution is to change drug policies from punitive to regulatory and health based. Anything else only fuels the war and enriches the cartels.

Allan Erickson, Drug Policy Forum of Oregon, Eugene

[end]

Children born into families shattered by drug addiction often end up as victims of abuse and neglect. Many are placed into an already overburdened foster-care system, social services officials say.

"Southern Oregon's high rate of methamphetamine use has devastated families and overwhelmed our fragile foster-care system," said Dr. Rita Sullivan, OnTrack's executive director.

OnTrack on Thursday received a 5-year, $2.5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. The money is designed to help Southern Oregon children grow up in healthy, drug-free families, said Sullivan.

[continues 150 words]

Seven Cornelius Residents Arrested in Multi-Agency Bust That Seizes 5,500 Plants

A multi-agency drug task force arrested seven Cornelius residents yesterday in connection marijuana growing operations on public and private forest land in Washington, Yamhill and Tillamook counties.

The Washington County Sheriff's department reported yesterday that search warrants executed on three houses and five vehicles in Cornelius led to the arrests, which were made in two sweeps.

The search warrants were obtained based on information gathered during an investigation that over the last month led to the seizure of 5,500 marijuana plants in three northwestern Oregon counties

[continues 207 words]

I applaud the community members who spoke out against proposed student drug testing as the solution to higher reported rates of substance use at Yoncalla.

Expensive and ineffective urinalysis tests alienate students by sending them the message that adults (parents and administrators alike) do not trust them to take responsibility for their actions on their own, and they need to be monitored.

The funds that would be allotted for this program need to be used to address the larger, more deeply ingrained issue of why students are using drugs at such a high rate.

Instead, drug testing is addressing only a symptom and not the true problem of the whole disease of deviant behavior.

Anastacia Cosner

University of Maryland,

College Park, Md.

President, Students for Sensible Drug Policy

[end]

Neighborhoods - Residents Have Mixed Feelings About the Demise of the Controversial Exclusion Policy

Albert Johnson cuts through an alley near Northeast Simpson and MLK. Police say the area is a waiting room for junkies, though just blocks from the police precinct and in the heart of one of Portland's expiring "drug-free zones."

Johnson pleaded guilty a year ago to possessing heroin. He became one of the hundreds of Portlanders to get banned from the city's drug-free zones. That meant he could only travel his neighborhood to get to work, home or necessary social services, not to visit friends, buy socks or grab a beer.

[continues 1022 words]

A few traits I remember having in my teenage years was a ferocious appetite, the desire to sleep past noon and off and on boredom.

I later found out these are common traits among all teens, not just me. It's like that where I grew up, it's like that in downtown Portland and it's like that in Yoncalla.

Teenage boredom can be a big problem. I chose to deal with it by playing sports. There are many other good solutions -- school activities like drama and choir, clubs like FFA and 4-H.

[continues 485 words]

These days zero tolerance poses a greater threat to students than drugs. According to the Monitoring the Future survey, half of all high school seniors have tried an illicit drug. Denying a majority of the nation's youth an education is not in America's best interest. Most students outgrow their youthful indiscretions involving illicit drugs. An arrest and criminal record, on the other hand, can be life-shattering.

After admitting to smoking pot (but not inhaling), former President Bill Clinton opened himself up to "soft on drugs" criticism. And thousands of Americans have paid the price in the form of shattered lives. More Americans went to prison or jail during the Clinton administration than during any past administration. As an admitted former drinker and alleged illicit drug user, President George W. Bush is also politically vulnerable when it comes to drugs.

[continues 75 words]

YONCALLA -- Higher than average use of alcohol and drugs by Yoncalla High students has prompted the school board to consider drug testing for its athletes.

A special meeting to discuss the issue with the public was held Wednesday night.

The board had few specifics about what kind of testing it would do and what the costs would be, but it's looking at testing because of the results of the Oregon Healthy Teens Survey, according to board Chairman Hop Jackson.

The 2006-07 survey, which was given to eighth- and 11th-graders, showed that Yoncalla's students drink alcohol and use marijuana more than the state average, and significantly more 11th-graders used inhalants in the month before the test than the state average.

[continues 538 words]

I agree with Col. Austin Bay in his Aug. 3 online article, "Mexico wages war on drug lords, corruption of federal police," that President Calderon is to be commended for his fight for judicial and police reforms, rooting out corruption and modernizing Mexico.

I respectfully disagree, however, with his assessment that President Calderon can successfully smash the drug lords. Although Colonel Bay is correct that Mexico cannot eradicate drug smuggling because of the demand for drugs in the U.S., he fails to see that it is the demand for drugs that will ensure a never ending supply. Mexico can eliminate one drug lord after another and new cartels will always step up and fill the void.

[continues 399 words]

Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse is touring the state with a message about drugs that's different from the norm.

MAMA Executive Director Sandy Burbank is traveling with two people registered in the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program. Burbank was among the founders of MAMA in 1982. The founders quest is reducing the harm from drug use. Their presentation will be at 7 p.m., Oct. 1 in Room M8 of Morrow Hall on the Pendleton campus of Blue Mountain Community College.

[continues 254 words]

Congratulations. You've made the cut to attend this illustrious West Coast institution - an NCAA powerhouse, home of respected environmental law, journalism and physics programs, and bastion of pseudo-hippie illicit drug use.

In short there's something for everyone. And as you make your way through this establishment, the classes you choose to take over the next four years will make up one significant part of your professional identity. Choose wisely, because your academic major will greatly define you - both in the work force and in the social world.

[continues 817 words]

Anne Saker's article ("DEA tries to look into patient files," Aug. 11)points to another front in the vicious assault on sense and science being demonstrated by today's anti-cannabis forces. Is it any coincidence this case dovetails so well with Kevin Mannix's plan to destroy the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program with his new intiative?

Cannabis is effective. Science continues to prove it and patients continue to swear by it. The feds have been driven to maniacal fervor in their illogical and evangelical endeavor. And, in spite of their utter failure, they continue with a bullheaded insistence that they're right, when they are so very wrong.

Eugene

[end]

At Hempstalk, stoners politely sneak off to the woods while organizers and police celebrate their absence.

The dank, earthy scent of ganja lingered last weekend over Hempstalk at Sellwood Riverfront Park, but at least blazing partakers were nowhere to be seen.

The third annual celebration of all things hemp had been threatened earlier this year when the Portland Parks and Recreation Bureau raised concerns about the potential for pot smoking in the public park. But the city then reached agreement with Hempstalk organizer the Hemp and Cannabis (THC--nudge, nudge) Foundation that pot and alcohol wouldn't be allowed (see "The City and the Giant Hempstalk," WW , Aug. 15, 2007).

[continues 417 words]