In recent years, inspired by columnist Charlie Reese, I've used a yearend column to sample some of my political beliefs ... or heresies, depending on your point of view.

So here goes.

As I've gotten older, I've become more self-contradictory. Maybe that reflects growing confusion -- or, as I believe, an increasing appreciation for life's complexity.

So I am at once a small-government libertarian on individual issues, and a big-government activist on things like environmental regulation.

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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, a holdover from bygone days. Its glitz has been stolen by the "war on terror," which gets the news 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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Deputies Nab Two Suspects, One Gets Away; Officials See Increase in Grow Houses

MARION OAKS - Marion County sheriff's deputies dismantled a marijuana grow house Thursday night containing 171 marijuana plants with an estimated street value of approximately $200,000, and arrested two of three men seen fleeing the area.

The third man, who reportedly was seen discarding a .38-caliber revolver, managed to escape, according to a Sheriff's Office report.

Two of the men - [redacted] - were arrested on charges of cultivating marijuana, possession of drug paraphernalia and resisting arrest without violence, according to the Sheriff's Office.

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Officer: Increase Might Be a Matter of How the Crime Is Classified

Home-invasion robberies have been steadily increasing in Tallahassee over the past couple of years.

There were 27 such robberies in 2005, 38 last year, and 42 through mid-November of this year, according to David McCranie, spokesman for the Tallahassee Police Department.

"The numbers speak for themselves that, yes, we have seen an increase," said Sgt. Gary Bussell, supervisor of the Robbery Task Force, which is made up of TPD detectives and Leon County Sheriff's Office investigators.

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OPIUM SEASON: A Year on the Afghan Frontier. Joel Hafvenstein. Lyons. 336 pages. $24.95.

The author describes the dangers of helping ease Afghan farmers out of the opium business.

This real-life story, which provides a chilling sense of deja vu, offers a perfect example of the old saying: Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It's a lesson author Joel Hafvenstein relearns as a condition of employment in perhaps the "dirtiest job" in foreign service -- as a contractor in the Taliban/Khan-ruled poppy fields of Afghanistan.

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Even a "Successful" Eradication Program in Afghanistan Would Do No Great Harm to the Illegal Drug Trade -- But it Would Do Great Damage to the Government

WASHINGTON -- The power to destroy does not carry within it the power to control. A century of failed colonial rule and the American misadventure in Vietnam etched that lesson on global consciousness for a time. It has taken the huge problems that affluent, nuclear-armed nations are encountering in the miserable ruins of Afghanistan and Iraq to drive it home anew.

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Presidential candidate Barack Obama smoked marijuana, drank alcohol and used cocaine when he was still in high school.

A recent letter writer is outraged and wonders: Where is the outrage of others?

He even predicts disaster befalling our nation should a former alcohol and drug user become president.

George W. Bush is a convicted drunken driver, an admitted alcoholic who didn't get dry until he was into his forties and a cocaine abuser while a pilot in the Texas Air National Guard.

So I don't know, maybe the writer does have a point.

Greg Francisco, Paw Paw, Mich.

[end]

Boca Raton - City police have new offices thanks in large part to a 28-foot boat named Lassie, loaded with 1,400 pounds of cocaine.

That's not all: Boca Raton Fire Rescue has new headquarters. And municipal employees from across the city, and soon the region, have a new training center at 6500 Congress Ave.

City officials recently dedicated the 117,000-square-foot building, which still has about 50,000 square feet of unfinished space. Plans call for city's emergency operation center and 911 center to be housed there as well.

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It was as low a blow as has lately been landed in national politics. And it had all the subtlety of a surprise kick to the groin.

Bill Shaheen, husband of ex-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, a national co-chair of the Clinton campaign, volunteered to The Washington Post his concern at what might happen to Barack Obama, were he to be nominated.

"The Republicans are not going to give up without a fight, and one of the things they're certainly going to jump on is drug use," said Shaheen. And, as Obama has admitted in his autobiography to using drugs, this will "open the door" to further probing.

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After another trip to my local pharmacy to buy my husband his much needed allergy medication, I have come to the conclusion that this ridiculous law requiring photo ID and a one box limit per 15-day period for allergy and cold medication is ridiculous. It certainly isn't stopping the criminals from manufacturing illegal drugs. Surprisingly, they manage to supply their drug without any problems, as you can see if you watch a newscast or pick up a paper.

It is affecting the citizens that need this medication. With gas at $3 a gallon, I can't buy three or four boxes at a time to have a two-month supply. I must buy a 15-day box at a time. While it is great for the retailer - I have to go to their store on a regular basis - it is not so great for the general public. And you want to know what's really sad? The pharmacist said that in the length of time it took him to enter my ID, for me to sign and accept the law, move over to the cash register and ring up my purchase, he could have filled two or three other prescriptions.

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We Must Gang Up On Gang Terrorists

While the overall crime rate has decreased in Florida, according to Attorney General Bill McCollum, gang-related crimes are increasing "substantially." That's a reality of great concern to medium-sized cities such as Tallahassee as well as to large urban areas where gangs are regrettably more a part of the streetscape.

The capital city saw a spike in gang activity this past year with the Tallahassee Police Department reporting some 150 to 200 young people thought to be involved in gangs - including more and more girls. The Department of Juvenile Justice says gangs are recruiting youngsters as young as 10 years old.

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First, the good news: Fewer young people are using illegal drugs.

The Associated Press, citing a University of Michigan study, reports about 13 percent of all eighth graders used an illegal drug sometime during the past year.

In 1996, 24 percent did it.

There was a particularly big drop in marijuana use.

Fewer young people experimenting with drugs means there may not be as many adult addicts later.

Now the bad news: More young people are, however, abusing prescription painkillers, the article reported.

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Miami-Based Group Used Homes In Secluded Areas, Officials Say

SARASOTA COUNTY -- Deputies raided two marijuana grow houses this week in rural homes east of Interstate 75 that authorities say are connected to a Cuban drug ring based in the Miami area.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has busted 18 grow houses with Cuban homeowners or tenants in North Port since April, and say this week's busts have another key similarity.

"They're looking for areas that offer some seclusion," said Capt. Jeff Bell of the Sheriff's Office.

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A Better Idea

I have a better solution than to reduce sentences for crack cocaine to the levels of powder cocaine. Why not raise powder cocaine sentences to the level of crack cocaine?

This solves the falsely claimed racism canard, yet still keeps criminals off the streets.

Why do we not as a society seek higher standards, rather than always choosing to "dumb down" our values.

RAY WIKSTROM, Jacksonville

[end]

The latest report on drug overdose deaths statewide and recent analysis by authorities signal some changes in Florida's drug trade and drug abuse patterns, particularly in South Florida.

Among the growing trends authorities say they have noticed in recent years:

Drug dealers who sell powder cocaine and crack cocaine increasingly also peddle more-profitable prescription pain killers, such as oxycodone.

Groups involved in prescription drug trafficking are growing more organized. All the while, Florida remains one of the few states that does not track prescriptions.

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ISSUE: Florida still pays a heavy price for pain-medication abuse.

"Doctor shopping," the illegal amassing of pain medication for either sale or abuse, has been a longtime South Florida problem. The good news is that the region can devise its own model solution, with a little help from an unlikely source.

Florida needs a database system that tracks prescriptions for potentially lethal antidepressants and narcotics to help authorities spot suspect prescriptions. Establishing such a system, though, may be wishful thinking, since the Legislature has rejected the idea six times before.

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This is in response to Tonyaa Weathersbee's Dec. 10 column.

It is easy for us to hate Henry Manns, the dealer of drugs, just as we hated Ted Bundy, Florida's murderer of young women.

The system could deal with Bundy, but it can't deal with Manns.

The difference between Manns and Bundy is that Manns' customers are willing buyers; Bundy's "customers" were not asking to be murdered.

It is the fatal flaw of drug war logic. Even executing Mann would not reduce drug use, because there are other dealers waiting impatiently to take his place.

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Judges should be able to judge, and equivalent crimes should result in equivalent penalties. For two decades, confusion about crack cocaine has made those seemingly obvious propositions controversial. Finally, some judicial balance is being restored.

Reacting to the rise of crack cocaine, Congress in 1986 dictated that crack be treated as 100 times worse than the chemically identical powder form of the drug. A person possessing 50 grams of crack would face at least 10 years in prison. It would take 5,000 grams of powder cocaine to get the same sentence. Reinforcing that approach, appeals courts routinely overturned sentencing by trial court judges who gave crack defendants less than the minimum term recommended under guidelines set by the United States Sentencing Commission.

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MANATEE -- A Bradenton mother of two told authorities she worried that her boyfriend would get sick if she didn't get prescription drugs to him in jail.

Now, Amanda B. Rogers, 29, is facing a felony charge of her own. Detectives say she tried to mail methadone to Darrell Russell McDonald, who faces charges of child neglect and abuse of her boys, ages 11 and 13.

Detectives arrested McDonald on Nov. 29 on charges of burglary, forgery and three counts of child neglect. He is accused of using Rogers' children, and his 7-year-old daughter, to help him steal, according to reports.

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The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this week restored common sense and fairness to punishing some crimes by allowing judges wider discretion to depart from federal guidelines that had hamstrung them in doing what judges are supposed to do - use their knowledge, wisdom and experience to mete out justice.

In a pair of decisive 7-2 rulings, the high court also restored some judicial independence that had been stripped by Congress' adoption of sentencing and drug laws more than two decades ago, including statutes that deemed the public threat from crack cocaine was more insidious than that of powder cocaine by mandating stiffer penalties for convictions for defendants involved in the crack trade.

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