A national organization that has raised $8 million over two years to fight substance abuse is urging West Virginia legislators to pass two laws designed to reduce drug overdose deaths. Shatterproof, a nonprofit headquartered in Connecticut, supports a "Good Samaritan" law that would give immunity to people who call 911 to report a drug overdose. Another measure would expand the availability of a life-saving medicine called naloxone, which reverses the effects or heroin and prescription painkillers. West Virginia has the highest drug overdose death rate in the United States. [continues 565 words]
Most Americans realize that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and tobacco - yet booze and cigarettes are lucrative legal products, while pot-puffers face jail. This contradiction makes no sense. The New York Times, America's flagship newspaper, finally has launched an all-out crusade for legalization of marijuana. It declared: "It took 13 years for the United States to come to its senses and end Prohibition, 13 years in which people kept drinking, otherwise law-abiding citizens became criminals and crime syndicates arose and flourished. It has been more than 40 years since Congress passed the current ban on marijuana, inflicting great harm on society just to prohibit a substance far less dangerous than alcohol." [continues 315 words]
CVS Pharmacy sales of a cold medication that's also used to manufacture illegal methamphetamine have doubled over the past year in West Virginia, according to a Charleston Gazette analysis of sales data released last week. CVS stores are now West Virginia's No. 1 seller of pseudoephedrine, a key meth-making ingredient sold under brand names such as Sudafed and Allegra-D. "CVS stores are really crowding the top of the list," said Mike Goff, a state Board of Pharmacy administrator and former State Police meth lab investigator. [continues 1002 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The time has come to legalize marijuana for those that can benefit from it. I am 72 years old and have never touched marijuana or any of the other illegal junk drugs peddled on our streets. But, I have difficulty understanding the opposition to legalizing medical marijuana. If a doctor says it is a substance that will help out many in pain, it should be treated like any other prescription medication. As we are finding out every day many of the prescription and nonprescription drugs now approved for use are more deadly and addictive than that claimed for marijuana. [continues 162 words]
Once again, legislators are pondering whether to legalize medicinal marijuana to relieve pain, nausea and other miseries of sick West Virginians. We hope this humane effort finally passes, simply because it's merciful. Further, it could provide additional state revenue. Gradually, Americans are becoming tolerant of pot, which is no more harmful than beer or whisky, which are legal -- and is much less harmful than tobacco, also legal. Back in 1969, a whopping 84 percent of Americans opposed legalization of pot. But this year, a Pew survey found that 52 percent now want marijuana to be legal. The same poll found that three-fourths think police efforts to exterminate pot cost more than they're worth. [continues 413 words]
Supporters Argue Financial, Medical Benefits of Halting Prohibition CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Legislation to legalize marijuana use, especially for medical purposes, is being discussed again in West Virginia. Today, sale of medical marijuana is legal in 18 states and Washington, D.C. Today, 30 percent of Americans live in states where marijuana is legal in some form. On Nov. 6, popular votes in Colorado and Washington state legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Supporters of marijuana legislation in West Virginia back various reform laws they say could offer people medical help, create new state tax revenues, cut prison costs and enhance an industry already booming underground. [continues 1085 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Fighting the epidemic of prescription drug abuse is the top priority for both candidates running for sheriff in Putnam County. They told Gazette editors Monday that's what most crimes can be traced back to. Steve Deweese, a Republican, and Bud Lett, a Democrat, would increase the size of the county's drug task force, which has three officers. "I'd draw from some local departments inside the county and build back the task force like it was when I was supervisor," said Lett, a former federal Drug Enforcement Administration officer and State Police trooper who is now chief of the Kenova Police Department. "We had six men, at one time." [continues 417 words]
Editor: Regarding your June 25 editorial, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2010, there were 853,839 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not lower rates of use. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls distribution, marijuana consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
Editor: Kudos to The Charleston Gazette, for recognizing that the criminalization of marijuana is a failed and destructive public policy that needs amending ("Pot: Almost legal," June 25). According to the federal government's own surveys, over 100 million Americans have consumed cannabis despite the drug's prohibition, and one in 10 use it regularly. Criminalization hasn't dissuaded anyone from consuming marijuana or reduced its availability. But it has ruined the lives and careers of millions of people who chose to use a substance that is objectively safer than alcohol. [continues 78 words]
Editor: Regarding your thoughtful editorial: "Pot: Almost legal" (June 25), I agree that marijuana use should not be a criminal act. While reducing the penalties to an infraction is preferred to having it a felony or misdemeanor, I believe the real long-term answer is full legalization. Only fully legal products can be regulated by any government agency. Only fully legal products can be controlled by any government agency. And only fully legal products can be taxed by any government agency. Only full legalization takes the distribution of marijuana out of the hands of criminal gangs. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a potential Democratic candidate for president in 2016, wants to reduce penalties for simple marijuana possession. Long ago, New York's Legislature decreed that private possession of less than 25 grams of pot is a mere "violation" -- less than a misdemeanor -- subject to just a ticket and fine. Like a parking ticket, it creates no criminal record. However, police stop-and-frisk tactics used chiefly against black and Hispanic youths force them to empty their pockets, displaying bags of pot in public view, which raises the offense to misdemeanor level. [continues 302 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It is possible that the hospital doctors and nurses who care for you in the future will be tobacco free but stoned, if things get any more squirrelly. Let us put aside parsing legal terms and requirements contained within various federal and state laws and regulations, including the Americans with Disability Act and analyze the situation from a common sense perspective. From a medical standpoint, with a few rare exceptions, almost all physicians would advise their patients and employers that smoking tobacco and marijuana has negative health and safety consequences for the smoker and those in the smoker's close proximity. From a public policy perspective, "Drug Free Workplace" and "Clean Air" statutes and ordinances have supported this advice for several decades. [continues 467 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- State lawmakers will once again debate a bill designed to curb methamphetamine production in West Virginia. The legislation -- called the Larry Border Act after the late delegate from Wood County -- would require a prescription for cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine. The drug is a key meth-making ingredient. Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, introduced the bill Thursday. "What we're trying to do is eliminate the meth labs," Foster said during a press conference. "There's the toxic issue. [Meth labs] affect our children. They're like bombs." [continues 514 words]
Nearly a century ago, America's historic attempt to ban alcohol was a monumental failure. Prohibition turned millions of Americans into criminals because they visited illegal "speakeasies" for drinks or bought furtive bottles from bootleggers. It created the Mafia as smuggler gangs fought each other over lucrative hooch-hauling. It filled prisons with harmless offenders. It corrupted police and courts as enforcers took payoffs to ignore the booze traffic. Prohibition finally was abandoned as a wasteful mistake. Today, the "war on drugs" fills the same role that Prohibition did. Billions of taxpayer dollars are wasted on undercover police work and overcrowded prisons jammed with petty, pathetic users. Many American families are hurt as youths are jailed, their futures wrecked. The endless crackdown achieves little, because the narcotics flow doesn't diminish. [continues 265 words]
Appalachia is being ravaged by a flood from shady Florida "pill mills" that shell out painkillers to addicts and drug dealers, no questions asked. As our "Pillage" series pointed out, West Virginia leads America in overdose deaths. Police invest vast time and energy prosecuting "pillbillies" and their suppliers. Florida's legislature passed a tough monitoring law to catch illicit clinics -- but Florida's controversial Tea Party governor, Republican Rick Scott, says he will scuttle the project. Scott claims it's an "invasion of privacy" to keep tabs on stooges buying carloads of pills. [continues 352 words]
WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Questions linger over Putnam County Schools' new, costly, controversial and relatively rare policy to test middle and high school students for drugs by swabbing their saliva. Some wonder if saliva tests are as effective as urine tests, which school board members had originally planned to implement but nixed in favor of the less-intrusive saliva swab. Experts, though, say saliva tests are just as foolproof as urine tests, if administered correctly. "Lab-based oral fluid testing has been proven to be as good as urine testing for all the drugs," said Dr. Todd Simo, director of medical services for the drug-testing agency HireRight. "The positive rates between the two are almost exactly identical." [continues 1008 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In Tuesday's U.S. election, several attempts to legalize marijuana fell short. By a margin of 3.8 million to 3.3 million, California voters declined to approve pot possession for recreational use. Arizona, Oregon and South Dakota rejected medical marijuana, but two Massachusetts districts gave tentative approval. Regardless, it seems clear that public support is fading for America's police blitz that throws hundreds of thousands of young people into cells for smoking the wrong plant. [continues 377 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The state Supreme Court has suspended the law license of a Jackson County lawyer, the state bar's Office of Disciplinary Counsel announced. Jessica A. Sullivan, of Jackson County, was suspended by a court order on Sept. 9, according to the news release. Sullivan was arrested in July and charged with delivery of a controlled substance, possession of precursors with intent to manufacture methamphetamine, and conspiracy to commit a felony, the order states. The court instructed Chief Jackson Circuit Judge Thomas C. Evans III to appoint another attorney to handle Sullivan's cases. Sullivan had previously been indicted by a Jackson County grand jury on drug-related charges in July 2009, October 2009, and June 2010, according to the order. [end]
Soon, State Police helicopters will swoop over West Virginia hilltops, spotting lush marijuana patches. The tall plants, worth millions in the underground dope business, will be chopped down and burned. Other clusters missed by troopers will be harvested secretly and funneled into the illicit trade. There's another option: Pot-growing could be legalized and licensed by the state, creating legitimate jobs and a flood of state revenue. Gradually, efforts to decriminalize dope keep expanding -- especially in Latin America, where tens of thousands of people are killed in battling over control of the billion-dollar drug flow into the United States. More than 28,000 have died in Mexican violence. [continues 327 words]
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Since President Richard Nixon launched the "war on drugs" four decades ago, U.S. taxpayers have poured $1 trillion into the crusade that is largely a flop. Narcotics are more rampant in America now than ever. Numerous drug murders and robberies happen daily. U.S. prisons and jails are bursting with 2.5 million inmates, mostly drug-related. America has the world's worst lockup rate, wrecking millions of families at horrible public cost. A recent roadside survey found that one-sixth of drivers tested positive for dope. Prescription pills are a rising menace. [continues 345 words]
