Howard Wooldridge's message ("Legalizing drugs is better way to fight problem," April 10), restores credibility and respect for police. At the very minimum, it's time to re-legalize cannabis (kaneh bosm/marijuana) which is Biblically correct since Christ God Our Father (The Ecologician) indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
Regarding Howard J. Wooldridge's Apr. 10 guest column, there is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black market prices. Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. Heroin maintenance pilot projects are underway in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands. [continues 147 words]
The War on Drugs. How is that working for us in America? Is it reducing crime? Is it reducing our rates of death and disease? Is it effective in keeping drugs and drug dealers away from our children? These are important questions because our current prohibition strategy will cost us, the taxpayers, some $70 billion this year. As a police officer, I fought on the side of the "good guys" for 18 years in the War on Drugs, giving me frontline, actual experience in the trenches. After much time, consternation and out-and-out frustration with not achieving a single, policy directed long-term goal, I came to the conclusion that we must be doing something wrong. [continues 434 words]
If Howard Wooldridge had it his way, all illicit drugs in America would be as legal as tobacco and alcohol. The retired Michigan police detective is traveling across West Virginia this week speaking on behalf of the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. The nation's drug policy is badly in need of reform, Wooldridge said in an interview with the Gazette, and the best reform is to legalize all drugs so their sales are regulated and managed by the government, not criminals, he said. - advertisement [continues 357 words]
Half-Baked Alaska Case Kenneth Starr became an object of derision when he spent nearly $50 million of taxpayer money in a futile attempt to oust former President Bill Clinton for a trivial sex fling that didn't include intercourse. Now the ex-special prosecutor is back in the news. He went before the U.S. Supreme Court last week -- without pay -- to support the expulsion of an Alaska high school student who held up a sign his principal disliked. Here's the case: [continues 440 words]
A jury trial is scheduled for this week in a civil suit that contends Powerball winner Jack Whittaker was negligent in the drug overdose of an 18-year-old boy who died in his home. Jury selection was set to begin today in the wrongful death trial in Putnam Circuit Court. Whittaker is being sued over the death of 18-year-old Jesse Joe Tribble, who died after ingesting cocaine and prescription painkillers in September 2004 while in a Scott Depot house owned by Whittaker. [continues 346 words]
Employees at Kanawha County's Metro 911 center will be subject to random drug tests under a policy proposed Tuesday. At a Tuesday meeting of the Metro 911 Executive Board, 911 Director Carolyn Karr Charnock got the nod to send the drug testing policy to the board's personnel committee. The committee will write a drug policy that will be up for a vote on March 21. Random drug testing for 911 staff was first proposed last year, Charnock said. "At Metro 911, everybody in there is dealing with emergencies," Charnock said. "We do not currently have random routine testing." [continues 202 words]
What are people to think when principals are arrested in the night? About 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 14, Charleston Police Cpl. J.F. Taylor noticed a vehicle circling the Washington Manor housing complex and then parking with its lights off. The officer pulled in to see what was happening. The car turned out to belong to David Anderson, principal of Pratt Elementary School, who was observed in the vicinity of two people who were known drug users. Police found a package in Anderson's back left pocket that contained a small amount of cocaine. He said someone had planted it on him. Witnesses testified that Anderson and some other educators ate at Bennigan's restaurant, then went to an American Federation of Teachers function. A few then went to a bar, Vandalia's, and Anderson and a former teacher at Pratt then went to another bar. [continues 278 words]
Kanawha County school board member Bill Raglin said he believes Principal David Anderson escaped conviction on a cocaine charge only because he is white. "I shudder to think what would have happened if this had been a young, black male who had been found with cocaine in his pockets by a police officer at 3:30 a.m.," Raglin said Tuesday after the board voted 3 to 2 to reinstate Anderson to his job at Pratt Elementary School. "He probably would've been eating lunches in the state penitentiary right now," Raglin said. [continues 757 words]
Kanawha Educator Acquitted Last Week The former principal of Pratt Elementary, who was acquitted of drug possession charges last week, was returned to his job Tuesday by a slim majority of the Kanawha County Board of Education. David Anderson is expected to return to work at Pratt Elementary School within the next few days, Superintendent Ron Duerring said. He said he plans to meet with Anderson in the next day or two. School board members voted 3-2 to reinstate Anderson, who was charged with cocaine possession in October. Board members Jim Crawford, Becky Jordon and Barbara Welch also approved reimbursing Anderson, with interest, for salary lost since Nov. 8. [continues 336 words]
The arrest of David Anderson, principal of Pratt Elementary, has stirred controversy among parents, educators and members of the Kanawha County Board of Education. Although Anderson was not convicted, administrators have begun to question whether such instances could be prevented with the use of drug testing. "I believe there are a lot of issues concerned with drug testing," Dr. Ronald Duerring, Kanawha County superintendent, said. "Certainly we are working through those issues now." The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals ruled in the Twiggs v. Hercules Corporation case in 1990 that drug tests cannot be administered unless the employee is in a safety sensitive position or unless there is reasonable cause to believe the employee has been using drugs. [continues 198 words]
Drug use by school athletes and other students involved in middle and senior high school activities -- and potential random testing of those students -- could be the focus of a legislative study later this year. Members of the West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission have agreed to participate in such a study. They did so after state Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, introduced legislation to randomly test high school athletes in state championship rounds for performance-enhancing drugs. "The more of us that work together on this, the better solution we're going to come up with," said Mike Hayden, executive director of the SSAC. [continues 450 words]
If lighting up a marijuana joint is in your evening plans, you'd better hope you're not screened for drugs within the next 30 days. Cannabis can be detected in a person's urine up to a month after usage, said Dr. Patrick Callery, chairman of Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences at West Virginia University. In hair samples, it can show up within 90 days. But several harder drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, tend to leave the body much sooner without a trace. Those are usually detected in urine only two to five days after abuse. [continues 978 words]
David S. Anderson, a former Pratt Elementary School principal, says he can now move forward with his life after he was found not guilty of knowingly possessing cocaine. Anderson, 43, expressed relief when Magistrate Marva L. Crouch read the verdict. "I just wanted to tell the truth and let it be heard," Anderson said after Thursday's jury trial in Kanawha Magistrate Court. "I have good friends, a wonderful family, and I will move on." Anderson's friends were calling people on their cells immediately after leaving the courtroom, excitedly informing them of the verdict. [continues 870 words]
County Commission President Kent Carper believes a proposed drug-testing policy for the county does not go far enough. The commission had an initial review of the proposal on the agenda for its meeting on Thursday. The proposal would require employees in safety-sensitive positions to be randomly tested for drugs. The positions include any commission employee who routinely operates a vehicle, carries a firearm and uses dangerous tools, equipment or chemicals. Carper said positions he considers safety-sensitive were left out of the plan. He said the definition in the proposal needs to be expanded. [continues 328 words]
Top administrators in Kanawha County's schools would be randomly screened for drugs under a proposed drug-testing policy. School board members said the policy would be revised to include administrators at the central office and board members themselves. "From the beginning, we've said everybody would be included," School Superintendent Ron Duerring said Thursday at a board meeting. Board member Pete Thaw criticized the proposed policy earlier this week. It called for random drug testing of employees in "safety sensitive positions" -- specifically teachers, school service personnel and those with direct contact with students. [continues 594 words]
PETE Thaw is the voice of dissent on the Kanawha County Board of Education as it considers expanding its random drug testing program to include 3,700 of its employees -- all but top administrators and school board members. Thaw asked why the schools will test everyone except those at the top. But the real question is why should the board expand the testing beyond bus drivers and mechanics? The proposal is to test all workers in "safety sensitive" jobs. At the board's request, school officials came up with a list that includes principals, assistant principals, guidance counselors, teachers, mechanics, carpenters, cooks, custodians, electricians, locksmiths, etc. [continues 95 words]
Kanawha County schools' proposed drug-testing policy would exempt upper-level administrators and board members from screenings, while requiring principals, teachers and school service personnel to undergo random tests. Board member Pete Thaw says that is not fair. The revamped policy -- up for discussion at a meeting Thursday -- will require all workers deemed to be in "safety sensitive" jobs to be randomly drug tested. The policy, however, does not include testing of administrators at the county's central board office. Thaw said all administrators, even board members, should be tested. [continues 388 words]
Kanawha County Proposes Policy A proposed drug testing policy for Kanawha County school employees will include board members and central office workers if it's approved, board members affirmed Thursday. Meanwhile, the former principal whose arrest kick-started discussions about drug testing was found not guilty on misdemeanor drug possession charges in Kanawha County Magistrate Court on Thursday. The Kanawha school board -- and the county's teachers and principals unions -- had been uncertain about administrators' role in the random drug-testing scenario because the policy outlined Thursday did not specifically mention top employees or elected officials. [continues 550 words]
Leaders of West Virginia teachers unions object to Kanawha County's proposed drug-testing policy that would require teachers to be screened but not officials at the board's central office. The board of education was to consider the proposal at a meeting today. "We do have some concerns about a policy that doesn't include everybody," said Judy Hale, president of the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers. The policy would exempt upper-level administrators and board members, while requiring principals, teachers and school service personnel to undergo tests. [continues 324 words]
Inside West Virginia
