One of the largest national surveys of youth shows a 23 percent drop in drug use since 2001 and local officials say they also expect to see a drop in a survey of area students due out soon.

A recently released study by the University of Michigan showed the decline, among eightth, 10th and 12th graders. It translates into about 840,000 fewer youth using drugs in 2006 than 2001.

The study also shows a 25 percent drop in marijuana use, although it remains the most common drug used by teens.

[continues 580 words]

I don't know whether America is going to win the war in Iraq, but I do know that we have lost the war against the use of drugs, which we have pursued for the past 30-plus years. The war on drugs has been a dismal failure. It is not truly a war against drugs, but a war against us - our people, our children, ourselves.

President Nixon, when running for president, coined the expression, "war on drugs," knowing that appearing tough on crime would get him many votes.

[continues 823 words]

The Issue:

METRICH Funds Cut From $260,000 to $100,000 for 2007

Our Opinion: Campaign Against Illegal Drugs Wrong Place for Budget Cutting

If we're fighting a war on drugs in north central Ohio, the state and federal government have suddenly sounded retreat.

It appears the sound concept of encouraging local enforcement agencies to cooperate and share resources and information is no longer in vogue with folks controlling federal and state purse strings.

That means regional drug task force efforts, like the local METRICH Enforcement Unit, may soon be scrambling for money needed to continue the fight launched here two decades ago.

[continues 312 words]

You'd have to be stoned to draw any conclusions from City Manager Milton Dohoney's report on the impact of Cincinnati's new marijuana law. It's one of those reports that's most telling for what it doesn't say.

For example, the report says police arrested 2,330 people for possession of marijuana between March 29 and Sept. 30. But it doesn't say that that's significantly down from a comparable period last year.

The report covers the first six months of an ordinance making possession of less than 100 grams of pot a fourth-degree misdemeanor, with a possible 30-day jail sentence. Repeat offenders can be charged with a first-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to six months in jail.

[continues 410 words]

FOSTORIA -- Fully-loaded 1995 GMC Suburban, new electrical and paint and one incarcerated owner. If interested, contact Fostoria's new Drug Abuse Resistance Education officer at city schools.

The unveiling Tuesday night of a once infamous chrome-wheeled SUV as a DARE-mobile marked a new beginning for the truck and the program in Fostoria.

Mayor John Davoli announced the program, inactive for five years, would restart in January and introduced the vehicle and the city's newly-trained DARE officer, Matt Noftz.

[continues 143 words]

Some Irontonians are trying to reclaim the city before the drug problem gets out of hand.

On Monday, 25 people met in the conference room of the Ironton Fire Department to discuss ways to deal with the problem. The group, so far unofficially called the Neighborhood Safety Awareness Committee, is made up of church leaders, city leaders, and concerned citizens.

"Our main purpose and objectives are to serve," said Hugh Scott, the chairman of the group. "We want the community to know we are stepping out and there is a need for concern, that we have problems and we are here to hopefully mitigate the problem if not to stop it."

[continues 413 words]

Some Christmas Stories Aren't The Stuff of Hallmark Cards.

They're tough and gritty and involve poor choices and struggle to change.

They take place not in a gilded church sanctuary, but in a place closer to a cold, smelly stable.

They're about second chances, which some would say is, after all, the real meaning of Christmas.

Patti Gurule found her life spiraling out of control. She got mixed up in drugs, separated from her husband, lost custody of her three children.

[continues 391 words]

The war in Iraq goes on, but we shouldn't let it overshadow the war at home - one that frequently takes the lives of people who don't deserve to die.

It's known as the War on Drugs, but it's really a war on people who themselves are not making war against anyone. Too often individuals minding their own business are killed by government officers. In the name of decency, this war must end.

By now many people have heard that an 88-year-old Atlanta woman who lived alone was shot dead November 21 by police raiding her home on the basis of a confidential informant's claim that he had bought crack cocaine from a man at that location.

[continues 537 words]

Business is always good. That's what Capt. Greg P. Majoy commander of the Erie County Drug Task says when you ask him about his job. The task force may disband because of a lack of money for staffing, but the reality is if there were 100 members on it, there still would be a drug problem in Erie County and the rest of the nation.

Majoy, a straight shooter, doesn't make any bones about it. Arrest one drug dealer, and someone else will step up to fill the vaccum. Major cocaine dealers (by Sandusky standards) Ladonte Skelton and Shaunsay J. Gowdy have gone to prison in the last year, and the drugs continue to flow.

[continues 563 words]

Search for Low-Cost Provider Underway

GEORGETOWN - The adoption of an ordinance that would allow the Village of Georgetown to conduct random drug tests of village employees was put on hold during the Oct. 19 council meeting.

Drug testing in the workplace has become common practice for businesses over the past 25 years.

Since introduced, drug testing in the work place has become a feasible way to help safeguard the health of employees and reduce liability risks to business owners.

Drug testing is now being conducted in thousands of work places all over Ohio and, if the cost is found to be feasible, the Village of Georgetown may soon be among the many employers who use random drug-screening in order to develop safer work environments for village employees.

[continues 344 words]

District Says It Has Too Narrow A Focus

ELYRIA -- Starting next year, fifth-grade students in Elyria schools will no longer participate in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

The school board decided earlier this semester to end the agreement that brings an Elyria police officer into the schools with Superintendent Paul Rigda saying the nationally-renowned program is "narrowly focused."

To better serve the students, guidance counselors will spend more time in the classrooms teaching a broader curriculum that encompasses D.A.R.E., as well as other pressures facing today's youth.

[continues 480 words]

Forty Individuals Charged With Drug Offenses Oct. 27 & 28

FAIRFIELD COUNTY - The Fairfield-Hocking Major Crimes Unit is cracking down on drug activity in Fairfield and Hocking County with the help of canine deputies Rico, Arno and Condor, as well as other members of law enforcement and the community.

During Halloween weekend, Oct. 27 and 28, the Fairfield County Sheriff's Office canine unit and the Hocking County Sheriff's Office canine unit charged 40 individuals with drug related offenses. Most of these individuals were heading to the festivities at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio for the annual Halloween party. Some of the confiscated items include marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, a loaded firearm, pipes and other drug paraphernalia.

[continues 335 words]

Which side of reality is Tim Vonville's assertion ("OU Student Senate Injects 2 Cents Into Planned Drug," The Athens NEWS, Nov. 13, 2006) that "There is a distinct difference between marijuana and alcohol?"

Alcohol's harmfulness to society and individuals is incomparable to that of cannabis (marijuana). One of the greatest harms associated with cannabis is being caged for using the God-given plant. Punishment for cannabis use should be less than punishment for alcohol, and anything harsher should be viewed as discriminatory.

[continues 110 words]

Drug Testing Of Students, Teachers May Be Next

NEWPORT - Under a new rule, Newport student athletes may lose their playing privileges if they use alcohol or drugs, smoke cigarettes, commit vandalism or possess a weapon - even if the violations occur on their own time and property.

In front of a tense crowd of 40, the Newport School Board endorsed the code of conduct on Wednesday as a temporary measure while a committee looks into random drug testing of students and employees.

[continues 373 words]

What if you had an infection, a disease or an injury so severe that it changed your life. What if you were offered several options for treatment, all of which would leave you in great pain and bedridden? What if there was one treatment that would allow you to live in relative peace and comfort, but was illegal to prescribe or use. Which would you choose?

This is the choice that faces thousands of Ohioans every day. Cancer patients, AIDS patients, those with multiple sclerosis, those with degenerative disc disease -- the list goes on and on. Why? Because our very small thinking and very shortsighted elected officials, who are supposed to have our best interests and wishes in mind, refuse to acknowledge studies regarding the medicinal use of marijuana.

[continues 105 words]

BELPRE -- A Belpre police officer wants to raise money to purchase a new K-9 to help weed drugs out of the city.

"We have a bad drug problem and it is getting worse now that our K-9 unit has left," said Officer Terry Williams.

The Belpre Police Department's K-9 Officer Scott Smeeks and dog Dutch left the city department in September to work for the Washington County Sheriff's Department, said Mayor Bill McAfee.

"Now, if we have a problem we have to call the sheriff's department for a K-9 unit, and it would be easier if we had our own," McAfee said.

[continues 299 words]

Ohio University's policy on marijuana and other drug use should have consistent sanctions and be more focused on education than the current policy, according to a Student Senate resolution passed Wednesday.

In approving the resolution, Student Senate took advantage of a request from the OU administration to offer its input on how the university should deal with marijuana and other drug offenses before the administration unveils a new policy after winter break.

While arguing for change, Tim Vonville, off-campus life commissioner and sponsor of the resolution, said many students are confused by the complexities of the current policy and feel that the policy is not applied consistently.

[continues 953 words]

School Searches To Rise In Fairfield County

LANCASTER, Ohio -- Rico and Arno, the drug-sniffing dogs, will be on the job more, nosing around for marijuana and other contraband in school parking lots and student lockers in Fairfield County's eight school districts.

That was the message yesterday from county Sheriff Dave Phalen as he publicized a drugcrackdown campaign that features billboards of Arno and a deputy with the message: "Drug Dealers Beware! " Seven of the billboards have gone up recently, and more are planned.

[continues 251 words]

LANCASTER - Drug dealers need to avoid Fairfield County, or they will be caught.

That was the message Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen wants to get across with new billboards around the county, which he announced during a news conference Friday.

"We are going to come early and stay late to keep drug dealers out of our neighborhoods, schools and communities," Phalen said. Phalen said during the recent Halloween weekend celebration in Athens, deputies and State Highway Patrol troopers from both Fairfield and Hocking counties patrolled the U.S. 33 corridor from Columbus to Athens.

[continues 260 words]

There is indeed terrorism in America. It is right here on the streets of America -- our citizens' drug consumption is a terrorist threat.

So while we continue to beat the dead horse known as Iraq, the Bush administration has done little to protect our children from drug abuse other than throwing money at faith-based organizations.

This is not good enough.

Domestically speaking, I have been so very disappointed in the response taken to a drug that has reaped havoc on minority populations, particular men who have sex with men. Once called the "gay drug," crystal meth has become an astronomical epidemic for a community that has been fighting the idea that AIDS is a gay disease. And now this: The Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS report correlates increased meth use with the jump in HIV/AIDS transmission by 18 percent since 1999.

[continues 435 words]

Search For Low-Cost Provider Underway

GEORGETOWN - The adoption of an ordinance that would allow the Village of Georgetown to conduct random drug tests of village employees was put on hold during the Oct. 19 council meeting.

Drug testing in the workplace has become common practice for businesses over the past 25 years.

Since introduced, drug testing in the work place has become a feasible way to help safeguard the health of employees and reduce liability risks to business owners.

Drug testing is now being conducted in thousands of work places all over Ohio and, if the cost is found to be feasible, the Village of Georgetown may soon be among the many employers who use random drug-screening in order to develop safer work environments for village employees.

[continues 637 words]

State Has Locked Up Cold Medicine

For the first time in years, the number of methamphetamine labs seized in Ohio has dropped sharply, a move authorities link to stores locking away cold medications.

Investigators say meth remains the state's fastest-growing street drug. But instead of making meth in labs, dealers have set up supply pipelines from California and Mexico to the Midwest.

"The labs might be going away, but the addicts aren't, and we know that," said Capt. Hylton Baker, leader of the Summit County drug unit.

[continues 353 words]

CLERMONT COUNTY -- The Clermont County commissioners proclaimed the week of Oct. 22 as Red Ribbon Week in Clermont County. The week, part of a nationwide observance, is designed to increase awareness about drug abuse.

"On Thursday, Oct. 19, there will be a Red Ribbon Week kick off at the Red Barn Market in Batavia," said Commissioner Bob Proud, who also serves as a member of the Clermont County Drug-Free Coalition. "We invite everyone to come to the kick-off at 6:30 p.m. to support our youth and encourage them to make positive choices in their lives."

[continues 168 words]

Study: Drug Reduces Brain Inflammation Found in Alzheimer's

Give an old, confused rat some pot and it starts remembering things.

An Ohio State University study shows that synthetic marijuana boosted memory and reduced brain inflammation in rats with brains altered to mimic the effects of Alzheimer's disease.

Researcher Gary Wenk, a study co-author and Ohio State professor, shared his work at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Atlanta this week.

The findings support the theory that anti-inflammatories might help fight the devastating disease and add to evidence that compounds in pot might be helpful in treating Alzheimer's, Wenk said.

[continues 510 words]

One family that has dealt with dark side of heroin now is spreading awareness in an effort to help others.

It's been almost one year since Zachary Davis of Dover died from a heroin overdose on the grounds of his family's Dover area business, Breitenbach Winery.

Davis' mother, Anita; grandfather, Dalton "Duke" Bixler; and former girlfriend, Lindsey Lewis, continue to see the devastating effects of drugs on young people in the area while they attempt to deal with the death of Zachary, who died at the age of 24 on Nov. 12, 2005.

[continues 478 words]

BATAVIA - Bail was set at $100,000 Friday for a Clermont County man charged with involuntary manslaughter in the heroin overdose of a fellow Miami Township resident.

James "Jamie" Nicholas Thompson, 26, pleaded not guilty during a hearing before Judge Robert P. Ringland of the Court of Common Pleas. Thompson remains in the Clermont County jail in lieu of bail.

A resident of Pebble Ridge Drive, Thompson was indicted Wednesday by the Clermont County grand jury in the death of Charles Ray Smith Jr.

[continues 343 words]

Athens County Prosecutor C. David Warren said last week that a secretary in his office, arrested Thursday with her husband in Atlanta for alleged drug smuggling, did not pose any risk of compromising ongoing criminal investigations while she worked in his office.

Members of a multi-county crime task force had informed Warren over the summer that [Name redacted], 33, and her husband [Name redacted], 42, were under investigation for possible drug offenses.

When he learned this, Warren said Friday, he immediately directed the task force officers to report their progress to a special prosecutor, David L. Landefeld of Fairfield County.

[continues 324 words]

The gang started with a few members in Avondale who sold heroin and called themselves "A-1 Darkside," police say.

Soon, they say, the gang evolved into something much bigger: A network of drug dealers and thugs who imported heroin from New York, intimidated or killed potential rivals and expanded their business throughout Cincinnati.

Police say members vowed they weren't afraid to "get grimy" - to rob or harm others if necessary - and renamed the group the Grimy Gang. They even printed T-shirts bearing the gang's misspelled name: "Grimmie."

[continues 450 words]

Programs Teach Dangers Of Drugs/Alcohol

If it's not D.A.R.E. expanding in Northeast Ohio, it's PLUS growing in central and eastern Lake County, all aiming to help underage kids stay away from illegal drugs and alcohol.

D.A.R.E. is Drug Abuse Resistance Education, founded nationally in 1983. PLUS is Peers Learning Usable Skills, established by the Lake County Narcotics Agency.

D.A.R.E. started this academic year by showing up in Eastlake for the newly merged Catholic school of St. Mary Magdalene of Willowick and St. Justin Martyr of Eastlake. PLUS started its first full academic year in the Perry School District while still operating in Mentor and Kirtland school districts.

[continues 795 words]

So U.S. "drug czar" John Walters says attacking the problem on the demand side will win the drug battle ("Focus drug fight on the 'demand' side," Sept. 19). Hasn't trashing the U.S. Constitution through drug testing and 40 years of failure been enough? Not to mention all the crime and lives lost.

Either make drugs available to the addicts or bomb the countries that grow the drugs, you know where they are through satellite images.

I forgot about all the drug lobbyist money to the politicians. I guess we will just keep banging our heads against the wall.

Tim McDonald

Norwood

[end]

You and your law-abiding neighbors in Ohio might be just one street address away from a life-threatening, midnight raid by a local paramilitary police unit. As these so-called SWAT squads increasingly become America's favored search warrant delivery service, bungled raids - including many to the wrong address - have skyrocketed. In these assaults on private property, scores of innocent citizens, police officers and nonviolent offenders have died.

In a recent CATO Institute report titled "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America," Radley Balko describes how "Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home."

[continues 561 words]

Students expressed mixed feelings Wednesday after a swarm of police officers and drug sniffing dogs swept through area schools and parking lots.

In the first of what is expected to be several surprise searches at Washington County schools this year, no drugs were found.

Officers searched Fort Frye High School, Frontier High School and Newport Elementary School on Wednesday.

"The bottom line is we're happy we didn't find anything. We'd rather find nothing than something. It indicates our teachers and students are doing things right," said Maj. John Winstanley of the Washington County Sheriff's Office.

[continues 357 words]

If you're a parent, you've likely worried -- or may someday worry -- that your children will use drugs. You may even hope against hope they don't start.

But hope alone can't ease that concern. Talking can.

Right now is a good time to take up the topic and start your kids on the road to some good decision-making. Parents have more influence than they realize over whether or not their kids will use drugs.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, children who learn about the risks of drug abuse from their parents or caregivers are 36 percent less likely to smoke marijuana, 50 percent less likely to use inhalants and 56 percent less likely to use cocaine.

[continues 444 words]

Cleveland Residents, Officials Act To Save Neighborhoods

Judy Novak considers the neighborhood she lives in on Cleveland's West Side a great location -- just a mile from Lake Erie and a few blocks from the Lakewood border. But she's concerned about her safety.

Novak, 40, and her husband, Brian Egizii, 37, moved into the area 10 years ago. Lately, however, the neighborhood has changed. They and their neighbors see more drug dealers and prostitutes on the street. They say the lawbreakers are tarnishing the neighborhood.

[continues 986 words]

Local drug enforcement experts say the major cocaine bust Saturday by the Canton Police Department at The Strip shopping center in Jackson Township will have an immediate impact for a few weeks.

But in the long term, they say, there's too much money to be made and the demand is too high for all the sources of supply to dry up.

[Name redacted], 60, of Burbank, Calif., was arrest Saturday in a rental car with $23,000 in cash and two kilos of cocaine (4.4 pounds), valued at $44,000 to $50,000, said Lt. Ron Shank, with the Canton Vice Bureau.

[continues 338 words]

RACINE - Three drug dogs sniffed out hits but no illegal drugs yesterday at both Southern Elementary and Southern High School during what was described as a "proactive" district lock down required by law.

Special drug dogs meant to sniff out a variety of narcotics had hits on 16 lockers at the high school and four at the elementary school. The dogs were under the control of the Meigs County Sheriff's Office and law enforcement from Parkersburg, W.Va.

These hits are defined as the dog detecting what could be the odor of illegal drugs. However, if the dog stopped at a student's locker this doesn't mean that student is taking narcotics and could mean either the student was exposed to drugs in a second-hand manner or it could mean the adjoining locker was the actual "hit." Adjoining lockers were also searched.

[continues 282 words]

O'Neill Says He Is Committed To Discussing The Progress Of Setting Up The Adult Court With Justice Action Mercy.

Clark County Common Pleas Judge Richard O'Neill committed to discuss quarterly the progress of establishing an adult drug court in the county with Justice Action Mercy.

"I will let them know anytime something happens affecting the drug court," O'Neill said at the group's Monday meeting. "But there may not be something to report every quarter."

JAM is working on a proposal to establish a separate docket specifically to handle drug and drug-related crimes.

[continues 227 words]

Conference Looks At Racial Progress

More than 100 black judges from across the country filled a downtown hotel banquet room Saturday to discuss "Modern Day Civil Rights Issues."

Panelists from Harvard and The Ohio State University law schools, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Equal Justice Society and Saul Green, the collaborative agreement monitor who tracks reform efforts by the Cincinnati Police Department, said the issues today are much they same as they were years ago.

"It's ironic to call it modern day because some of the issues are very old," said Charles J. Ogletree Jr., director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School.

[continues 347 words]

Dan Asbury wanted a normal life.

He wanted to walk his dog, pay bills, go grocery shopping and fight for a cause.

Unfortunately, the cause Dan chose was a losing one--the legalization of marijuana for medical use.

Dan was uniquely qualified for this fight. He was a quadriplegic who used marijuana to quell the pain in his legs and control violent spasms that more than once rocketed him out of his wheelchair. Pot did for Dan what prescription drugs did not. It also brought him into the public eye and led to a felony conviction.

[continues 817 words]

MOUNT WASHINGTON - Marijuana, smoke, a bong, a red-hot flame - and a baby.

Photos document images of a Hamilton County foster mother caring this week for a little girl while high on marijuana.

Some five weeks after the Marcus Fiesel case cast a spotlight on the quality of foster care locally, another foster mom is in hot water with authorities and has had the children she was caring for taken away.

One of the last photos taken sometime between Monday night and early Tuesday shows Stephanie Edwards, 25, on the ground cuddling the nine-month-old baby girl who has been in her care since she was born.

[continues 809 words]

U.S. "drug czar" John Walters says half of the world's terrorist groups bankroll operations with profits from the illegal drug trade. His original confirmation hearing in 2001 was cancelled by the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Yet, in a meeting Monday with the Enquirer editorial board, Walters repeatedly referred to drug abuse as a "disease" and said attacking the problem on the demand side is the key to winning the fight against drugs.

That's an enlightened approach. The U.S. is pursuing a balanced strategy to attack supply and demand, with some success, but one thing the studies confirm is that all U.S. drug abuse could be cut just by delaying youth drug use. Walters says young people who don't start abusing drugs by age 18 to 20 are highly unlikely ever to develop drug addiction. Even those who start young, if identified early enough, can be saved by treatment and counseling.

[continues 225 words]

FAIRFIELD - A black Cincinnati couple claiming to be victims of racial profiling has filed a complaint against a Fairfield police officer, prompting an internal investigation.

Tony Betts told city council Tuesday night he and his wife were humiliated after their sport utility vehicle was searched by a drug dog on Dixie Highway

"My wife and I were derogated, embarrassed, humiliated and our most basic civil liberties violated and treated as if we were common criminals, drug (dealers), or narcotics distributors without justification or cause," Betts said.

[continues 208 words]

Maybe You Read About The Kansas School District That Has Taken Drug Testing To A New Level.

The district, in El Dorado, Kan., near Wichita, has instituted random drug testing for all middle- and high-school students who participate in or even attend any extracurricular activity -- not just sports and clubs, but even school plays, field trips and driver's ed.

Anyone who doesn't agree to the testing is prohibited from taking part in or attending sports events, dances, plays -- in fact, they can't even park their car on school grounds.

[continues 207 words]

Activist Battled to Pass Medical Marijuana Laws

Daniel Gene Asbury, 50, a Toledo-area activist who spent more than 20 years lobbying state legislators to introduce the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes, died Wednesday in Flower Hospital from complications of a massive heart attack.

Mr. Asbury, an ardent environmentalist, also was opposed to the expansion of the Envirosafe Services of Ohio Inc. site near his South Wheeling Street home in Oregon.

A quadriplegic, Mr. Asbury, who used a wheelchair after a fall that left him paralyzed from the chest down 26 years ago, relied on marijuana to ease the pain of muscle spasms, his sister, Susan, said.

[continues 482 words]

Crack cocaine. Marijuana. Pills of every sort. Local authorities routinely arrest people for peddling these kinds of drugs.

But Monday night, agents with the Lawrence County Drug and Major Crimes Task Force encountered a drug they do not normally see offered on the streets of Lawrence County: heroin. "The drug task force was started in 1998. This is the first time we have purchased heroin in Lawrence County," Lawrence County Sheriff Tim Sexton said. "We have a concern now. We have someone here who was trying to peddle this stuff."

[continues 183 words]

Over the last few months, The Times-Reporter has attempted to shine a spotlight on the growing problem of heroin abuse in Tuscarawas County. Though in actuality the number of young adults and teenagers addicted to heroin is relatively small, the problem is magnified not only by the addicts' ancillary criminal activities but also because of the negative overall impact those crimes have on family and friends, the justice system and social services.

As we start another school year and at the risk of sounding like an old tired preacher, we have a bit of advice for parents.

[continues 613 words]

Officials Fear Spread Of Lethal New Mix

Heroin is becoming a much deadlier problem in Greater Cincinnati, with overdoses skyrocketing and a more lethal combination drug making the rounds, officials say.

The problem is hitting communities across the region:In Covington, paramedics say their number of heroin overdose calls in the past six months have climbed from about two a month to nine per week.

In Independence, six people overdosed on the street drug on one August day alone.The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force has seized more of the opiate this year than in the last five years combined.

[continues 987 words]

Ohio's new drugged-driving law is more nuanced, particularly as it pertains to marijuana, than indicated in the Aug. 17 Dispatch article "Law quantifies drugged driving levels." Defense lawyers should take note.

Prior to Aug. 17, Ohio had a virtual zero-tolerance law on drugged driving. The State Highway Patrol has acknowledged that any trace amount of marijuana or its metabolites, a byproduct of smoking that can stay in the body for several days, found by a simple roadside urine test could be the basis for a conviction. The patrol has claimed that it achieved 2,500-3,000 convictions in Ohio on that basis in 2004. Few defendants can afford a lawyer and a toxicologist to mount a successful defense.

[continues 122 words]

A Columbus woman has been charged with manslaughter after an autopsy on her stillborn baby found it died from cocaine toxicity.

[Name redacted], 32, Columbus, was arrested Sunday at 1 p.m. and charged with culpable negligent manslaughter after her baby was stillborn July 30.

"Coroner Greg Merchant advised that he had suspicions of possible illegal drug use as the cause of the stillbirth," Columbus Police Chief J.D. Sanders said in a statement Monday.

An autopsy performed by state medical examiner Steve Hayne in Jackson found the cause of death of the infant was cocaine toxicity.

[continues 200 words]

Drug Tests On Way For Drivers, Athletes

New Policy In Effect As Classes Begin

PORT CLINTON - Student drivers who park in the school lot must stay clean this year, and that doesn't mean washing their cars.

Random drug testing at Port Clinton City Schools will involve not only students who park their cars at school, but also those who participate in sports or other extracurricular activities.

"The Board of Education felt that we have to make sure our students are safe and drug-free," Superintendent Pat Adkins said. "I think it's important to note it's not a cure-all to drug use."

[continues 535 words]