Last week I was thrilled to be offered a position with a local company and was instructed to complete a drug screening. I filled up with water so that I would be able to produce a sample only to find that it would be "about an hour" even though there were only 5 or so folks in the tiny waiting room. I was told that I could not leave the building nor use the restroom during this time.

I lasted about 15 minutes and begged the attendant to let me use the restroom so that I could start drinking water and be ready in 45 minutes. She repeated her original instructions and I was forced to demand my driver's license back and quickly find the nearest public restroom.

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Dear Editor,

Decriminalizing marijuana is inadequate ["Perry Chills on Pot Decriminalization," News, Jan. 31]. It's time to completely re-legalize the plant.

Another reason to stop caging responsible, adult cannabis users that doesn't get mentioned is because it's biblically correct, since God created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they're all good on literally the very first page of the Bible. A sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition doesn't exist.

Stan White Dillon, Co.

[end]

With Severe Health Issues, State's Strict Laws, Some Feel It's Their Only Option

After calling Texas home for 30-plus years, Amber Loew plans to move her family in March from near Houston to Colorado Springs. Her 3-yearold, Hannah, has Dravet syndrome, a rare form of epilepsy that causes her more than 50 seizures a day.

"She's gone into respiratory failure twice at home in the last six weeks," Loew said. "We've tried just about everything. She's on 12 anti-seizure medications."

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N. Texans Getting in on High-Flying Industry's Action

"Come on in the store. We've got everything you could want. We got uppers, we got downers. We got laughers, we got screamers. We got sodas, we got edibles. We got light chocolates, we got dark chocolates. Whatever you want, we got it." - Sales spiel by "bud-tender" A. J. Walsh at Denver marijuana dispensary MMJ America

DENVER - Here in America's Amsterdam, even locals are still getting used to the idea that they can be open about purchases once made in secret.

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During a panel discussion last week at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Gov. Rick Perry made national headlines by saying not only that Washington and Colorado had every right to legalize pot, but also that he's long been a supporter of drug decriminalization policies in Texas. Oh, if it were only that simple.

Perry's comments, made on a panel with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and former United Nations Secretary Gen-eral Kofi Annan, reiterated his traditional "states' rights" stance.

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Editor:

Decriminalizing cannabis (marijuana) doesn't go far enough ("Perry defends states' right to legalize marijuana," Jan. 24). It's time to completely re-legalize the plant. Another reason to stop caging responsible adult cannabis users that doesn't get mentioned is that it's biblically correct since God (the Ecologian) created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they're all good on literally the very first page of the Bible.

A sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition doesn't exist.

Stan White Dillon, Colo.

[end]

Regarding your thoughtful editorial "Growing up" (Page B8, Friday), there is a big difference between condoning marijuana use and protecting children from drugs.

Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana and spares users criminal records. What's really needed is a legally regulated market with age controls. Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical.

As long as violent drug cartels control marijuana distribution, consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine, meth and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition.

Taxing and regulating marijuana may send the wrong message to children, but I like to think the children are more important than the message.

Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.

[end]

Cartels Will Remain Strong in Dysfunctional Nation, Says Alejandro Hope

Since Jan. 1, Colorado has had a legal marijuana market.

The same will soon be true in Washington state, once retail licenses are issued. Other states, such as California and Oregon, will probably follow suit over the next three years.

So does this creeping legalization of marijuana in the United States spell doom for the Mexican drug cartels?

Not quite.

The illegal marijuana trade provides Mexican organized crime with about $1.5 billion to $2 billion a year. That's not chump change, but according to a number of estimates it represents no more than a third of gross drug export revenue.

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Washington's and Colorado's legalization of recreational marijuana and President Barack Obama's recent comments in The New Yorker have reignited a marijuana legalization debate in Texas. The president's words were perfectly banal to anyone who has studied drug policy - "I don't think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol;" I don't think it's a "good idea;" minorities are disproportionately punished; it's "a vice," etc.

In fact, academic research consistently finds that the health consequences of problem marijuana use are far lower than problem alcohol use. The president was actually understating the case.

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WASHINGTON - Cheap, low-quality Mexican marijuana is facing increased competition in Texas from Colorado's higher-potency pot, federal law enforcement officials say.

When it was legal to buy Colorado pot for medical use only, Texas was a favored destination - but now that Colorado has made personal use completely legal as of this year, state and federal law enforcement officials expect the smuggling into Texas will increase.

Texas ranked fourth among states as destinations for marijuana trafficked by highway in 2012 from Colorado, according to a Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking area (HIDTA) report. The report recorded 18 seizures in Texas of Colorado pot grown for the medical marijuana market.

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On a rare blessed Monday when I arrived home from my medical practice in time to watch the 5:30 p.m. news with my precocious 13-year-old daughter, I abruptly found myself engaged in a conversation that, as an American father, I never expected to have: Explaining to her why the president of the United States was wrong to tell us that marijuana use is "no more dangerous" than alcohol "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer" and "not very different from cigarettes."

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Legalization Rejected, but Lesser Sentences, Drug Courts Backed

Texas Gov. Rick Perry said Thursday that he favors decriminalizing marijuana use and lessening punishment for minor offenders as the nation moves toward a more moderate approach to pot use and two states have legalized the drug.

Perry's comments surprised some, since the governor has repeatedly criticized the Obama administration for not stepping up border enforcement to counter the power of Mexican drug trafficking cartels. Perry has also supported legislation that would mandate drug testing for Texans seeking unemployment benefits or public housing.

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The Harris County district attorney is wrong about which mind-altering drug is most widely used by young people: It's alcohol, a much more dangerous drug than marijuana. And because of its destructive effects, we once tried Prohibition. That really worked out well, didn't it? It made two-bit thugs like Chicago's Al Capone into rich and powerful men with lots of police and judges on his payroll. It also made Prohibition agent Eliot Ness use methods that were as violent and ruthless as Capone's in his version of the war on drugs. Sound familiar?

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Politicians Should Stop Treating Voters Like They're Kids When Discussing Drug Policy.

The fact is that the war on drugs has failed to reduce consumption by kids, and the prohibition on marijuana only encourages the rise of deadly drug dealers.

There eventually comes a point in life when parents start to tell the truth. The noble lies of parenting fall away - no, your face won't actually stay like that - and children are addressed as adults. Playing the chief executive's role as national father figure, President Barack Obama crossed that line with America in his recent interview with The New Yorker magazine editor David Remnick. After generations of a drug war mentality and "Just Say No" rhetoric, the president essentially admitted that our current laws against marijuana don't make sense.

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Regarding "DA: Obama's comments on pot reckless" (Page B1, Tuesday), the president's comments have greatly undermined my job as a parent to teach my children to stay away from drugs. A joint as harmless as a beer? How does a parent respond now? One more vice that the president recommends his daughters "avoid." Good for him, as the federal law still stands that it is still a crime to possess, smoke or deal marijuana. Or can his children experiment with this "not such a good thing" and, if caught, have the privilege of immunity?

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Says That States Should Be Able To Set Own Policies On Abortion, Gay Marriage And Marijuana Legalization.

AUSTIN - The Republican governor of Texas supporting less jail time for pot users?

Gov. Rick Perry, a staunch conservative, riled the Lone Star state Thursday when he told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he supports the decriminalization - though not the legalization - of marijuana use.

"As the governor of the second-largest state in the country, what I can do is start us on policies that can start us on the road towards decriminalization" by introducing alternative "drug courts" that offer treatment and softer penalties for minor offenses, Perry said during an international panel on drug legalization at the summit.

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Regarding "DA: Obama's comments on pot reckless" (Page B1, Tuesday), Lloyd Oliver, a Democratic candidate for district attorney, said "I could sell a person a beer and it's a gateway to what: good Scotch whisky? Marijuana is simply a gateway drug."

I have an opinion based on 55 years of observation. I have lost two immediate family members due to drinking and driving. I watched three friends/neighbors literally drink themselves to death.

The tally for marijuana leading to other harder drugs, at least in my middle-class world, is a big, fat zero. To believe that alcohol is harmless is ignorant bliss. To believe marijuana is a bigger threat than alcohol to our youth is simply not true.

Ruth Dodson, Montgomery

[end]

Time to Decriminalize Marijuana, Ex-Toker Kathleen Parker Says

Everybody's doing it - confessing their youthful, pot-smoking ways - so here goes. I don't remember. Kidding, kidding. Anyone over 30 recognizes the old adage: If you remember the '60s, you weren't there. Nyuk-nyuk-nyuk.

It is true that marijuana smoking tends to affect one's short-term memory, but the good news is that, while stoned, one does relatively little worth remembering. At least that's my own recollection.

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The funds Kilgore police officers seize from local drug dealers eventually make it back to the community, reinvested in efforts to fight the drug trade here.

It turns criminals' illicit activities against them, Kilgore Police Chief Todd Hunter says, here and elsewhere.

"We're not in this for the money. It doesn't cover our cost of being involved as a task force participant," Hunter explained. "We're involved to impact the drug trade. One of the reasons you want to seize these funds is all about disruption of the drug organization. One of the ways we can disrupt them is remove the funds they have to operate.

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President Barack Obama's comment that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol was a reckless statement that could encourage use of a harmful drug, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson said Monday.

"I adamantly disagree with the president," Anderson said in a news release. "According to a 2012 Drug Use and Health survey, marijuana is the number one drug that citizens over the age of 12 are addicted to or abuse. The negative effects of marijuana use on a developing brain can be permanent, and our president is recklessly giving what amounts to parental permission to our most impressionable citizens to break the law. Marijuana is creating deadly situations right here in Harris County."

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