Re "Student rights lost in the balance" (Editorial,Feb. 27) - I deplore the use of illegal drugs by anyone, young or old. I support all reasonable measures intended to address the problem. That support does not include adopting what would appear to be the misguided understanding by principal Dinise Severin and school board superintendent Rusty Hick of the place of the provincial Education Act and the Safe Schools Act. Provincial legislation always remains subordinate to the Charter unless the Charter's notwithstanding clause was invoked in its creation. That is not the case here. [continues 234 words]
I take issue with retired Drug Enforcement Administration agent Gary Fouse's characterization of the Tenth Amendment. He paraphrases it as "any laws not covered by federal law are left to the states" ["Drug laws," Reader rebuttals, March 4]. This is false. The Tenth Amendment reads: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively or to the people." Thus the Constitution provides that the states retain power not specifically given to the federal government by the Constitution, not by federal law, as this ex-DEA agent falsely alleges. If it were as Fouse claims, then as long as the feds pass a law in any area, there is no area in which the states could legislate. [continues 98 words]
Re "FBI joins L.A. policing effort in war on street gang crime," Jan. 19 I see there was a good start to the joint efforts of local law enforcement and federal resources to combat growing gang crime in Los Angeles. The images of flak-jacketed federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents last week shutting down sources of medical marijuana for those with prescriptions in West Hollywood are sure to help the residents in the Harbor Gateway area sleep better at night. R.L. Root Westminster [end]
Students Who Drive, Play Sports Or Are In Activities Can Be Tested EAST GERMANTOWN, Ind. - Of the 88 random drug tests conducted at Lincoln High School throughout the past school year, three came back positive for drugs. In his report to the Western Wayne school board Monday, Chris Franz of Sport Safe Testing Services, Inc. of Powell, Ohio, said 308 students were in the pool of students that could be randomly selected by the testing lab. Because the students are selected randomly for the urine tests, some students were tested more than once and only 74 different students were tested. [continues 102 words]
Students Who Drive, Join Extracurricular Activity Could Be Picked HAGERSTOWN, Ind. -- Hagerstown Junior-Senior High School next year will begin randomly drug testing student drivers and students involved in extracurricular activities. Nettle Creek school board members approved a random drug screening policy at their regular meeting Wednesday. A committee of staff, parents and other community members began working on the policy in 2004. According to the policy, the purpose of the program is "to educate, assist and direct students away from drug and alcohol use and toward healthy and drug-free school participation." [continues 431 words]
If Approved, Proposal Would Take Effect In 2005-06 School Year HAGERSTOWN, Ind. -- Random drug testing could begin at Hagerstown Junior-Senior High School in the 2005-2006 school year. According to a timeline approved by the Nettle Creek School Board on Wednesday, the board will study the policy until a final vote in March 2005. The board action followed a recommendation by junior-senior high school administrators and the student relations specialist and a community meeting about the matter. According to the timeline, oral testing kits will be purchased with a 2003-04 Safe and Drug-Free Schools Grant. Student relations specialist Kristina Dale said an eight-to- 10-member committee will be established to develop the policy and procedures. [continues 284 words]
Finally, Bob Dornan has made himself useful. In making medical marijuana the focus in his attempt to take Dana Rohrabacher's seat in Congress, Dornan has opened up a debate that's long overdue. The issue is normally considered a political third rail and is purposely avoided in elections, so the electorate is denied the opportunity to hear any meaningful debate. Hopefully over the next few months, this debate will educate voters on the science and truths concerning marijuana and expose the myths and spins that prevent a rational national policy toward marijuana as medicine. [continues 620 words]
I have to agree with Mark Dornan that there are indeed significant differences between his father, Bob Dornan, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher ["Dornan, Rohrabacher aren't cut from the same cloth," Commentary, Dec 14]. But in pointing out those differences, Dornan the younger spins the facts. Dornan charges that HR 2233, a bill Rohrabacher co-sponsored, would "legalize marijuana." The truth is that HR 2233 would prevent Drug Enforcement Administration resources from being wasted on targeting legitimate medical marijuana patients in states where medical marijuana has legal status. I'm thankful that Rohrabacher has the courage to protect individual liberty and states' rights and to see that our precious federal resources are sensibly directed. I'm concerned that our federal representatives treat all citizens with equal respect and protection per the spirit and letter of our Constitution. Rick L. Root Westminster [end]
The federal prosecution and incarceration of Michael Teague for using medical marijuana is antithetical to the principles of liberty and justice ["Man gets 18 months in marijuana case," Local, Aug. 19]. Following our state law, Teague had a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana in place of the toxic prescription medicines to which he was allergic. Yet our court rules that justice is served by incarceration. Teague sought to better his quality of life while harming no one - the essence of liberty. [continues 162 words]
"Clear the Fumes at the DEA" (editorial, Aug. 5) was right on the mark. I am simply appalled at how our federal government continues its war on medical marijuana with such a superficial attitude. But how could the Senate confirm Karen Tandy as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, a person who, when asked about the 1999 federal Institute of Medicine report that recognized medicinal value in marijuana, answered that she was "not personally familiar" with the report? Shouldn't it be required reading in the mind of any clear-thinking, justice-and-liberty-supporting official? [continues 108 words]
Re "Marijuana Found in Home; Two Arrested," Jan. 12: As I read the story of the two fellows in Tustin busted for growing 149 marijuana plants in an apartment, I realized the TV commercial playing in the background was a government message telling of how the black market for drugs supports a line of distribution that has terrorists and such at the upper tiers. We do realize, don't we, that the quantity represents no more than a mom-and-pop operation in terms of distribution capability? Potential customers of the two Tustin fellows -- whose money would have been returned to our own local economy -- are now more likely to buy marijuana with a significant portion of that money leaving our community. [continues 116 words]
In reference to the congressional call for an inquiry into what U.S. officials knew about al-Qaida threats before the Sept. 11 attacks, Audrey Wicks rhetorically asks, "What American in his right mind could have had such information and not put out an alarm?" [Letters, Oct. 16] - as if it were a given that our leaders are incapable of considering average citizens to be expendable. The question deserves much more than cursory agreement to its implied rhetorical answer - not as an indictment of government involvement but as a means to show that government is capable of such callousness. [continues 562 words]
The type of "void" Rep. Bob Barr's defeat will leave in the Republican Party will be welcome, from my libertarian viewpoint ("Barr's defeat said to leave void in GOP," Nation, Thursday). Those who refer to him as a "civil libertarian" (as quoted in the article) could by the same reasoning refer to Adolf Hitler as a humanitarian. Mr. Barr single-handedly voided the votes of D.C. residents who overwhelmingly passed a medical marijuana initiative. Mr. Barr has been a tyrant's tyrant toward reefer reason, choosing to embrace blindly the worn-out reefer-madness propaganda of a bygone era. Now that he has been given the boot by his constituents, it's likely he'll get an appointment from his fellow "civil libertarian" Attorney General John Ashcroft, who also was booted from office by his constituents. [continues 78 words]
Examples of hypocrisy from politicians are hardly rare, but the example is clear in [Sen. Orrin] Hatch's unbending support for the dietary supplement industry ["A Dose of Herbal Reform," editorial, April 10] . Even though death and serious health problems are documented from the use of certain dietary supplements, his insistence is that the industry--which is mainly based in his own state--remain free of any regulation and its products be treated as food products. Yet Hatch is a staunch supporter of the federal war on marijuana, a war where even a hint of suggesting regulation is ridiculed as being preposterous. Any discussion on the subject of a state's right to regulate the medical use of marijuana is summarily dismissed, even though marijuana has never caused a single death; quite to the contrary, it is a healing herb. [continues 253 words]
Well, someone has to speak up and point out the obvious when the king has no clothes. Bill Hamburg sees a three-piece suit where the nakedness of the war on noncorporate drugs is clear ("Terrorists and drugs," Public Forum, March 3). While he may agree with the drug war-speak that claims smoking a joint is the moral equivalent of flying a jetliner into a skyscraper, I doubt he's considered that the drug war acts as a protection racket for the grossly inflated profits made off simple garden products. [continues 62 words]
In tying drug-trade profits to terrorism this government agency clearly shows us why the drug war and prohibitions should end. Clearly, the more successful the efforts are in interrupting drug flow, the higher the profits become for those involved. The drug war thusly serves as a protection racket for those high profits. It's the ONDCP, our national drug policy and drug prohibition that have made simple garden products more valuable than gold and handed terrorists a means to support their activities on a silver platter. [continues 242 words]
The Office of National Drug Control Policy, through its ads televised during the Super Bowl [and in The Times, Page A15, Feb. 4], would have us believe that those who consume prohibited drugs are in effect supporting terrorists. This is simply typical drug-war-speak, rhetoric designed to emotionally rally support for escalation of the unwinnable war on noncorporate drugs. In tying drug-trade profits to terrorism this government agency clearly shows us why the drug war and prohibitions should end. Clearly, the more successful the efforts are in interrupting drug flow, the higher the profits become for those involved. The drug war thusly serves as a protection racket for those high profits. It's the ONDCP, our national drug policy and drug prohibition that have made simple garden products more valuable than gold and handed terrorists a means to support their activities on a silver platter. [continues 242 words]
Re: Lawmakers Renew Bid for Medical Marijuana, January 31, 2001 So what's the deal? Can't the corporate-drug lobby find Vermont or do you actually have legislators who live by your wonderful state motto? RICK ROOT Westminster, Calif. [end]
In regard to John Goldie's comments (In Your View, Dec. 18) suggesting we Californians who oppose the drug war ought to legalize drugs in our state so that drug users in your state might move out here, he really ought to consider that the most likely residents to make such a move are those who otherwise are quite law abiding and who live their lives peacefully, productively and as they choose. People who can see past all the "reefer madness" propaganda know that throughout the United States we don't have a drug problem so much as we have a drug prohibition problem. Further scrutiny of failed drug policy will show that prohibition isn't about public safety, it's about public safety budgets. Addiction isn't limited to ingestable substances. Rick Root, Westminster, Calif. [end]
U.S. Cracks Down On Medical Marijuana In California To the Editor: In an Oct. 31 news article about the Justice Department's escalating war on medical marijuana in California, a department spokeswoman is quoted as saying, "The recent enforcement is indicative that we have not lost our priorities in other areas since Sept. 11." I find it rather disturbing that in the face of terrorist attacks and threats to the general population, the Justice Department has any priority toward denying the sick and dying access to a nontoxic medicine that greatly improves their quality of life. Even without the outside aggression being directed toward our country, the policy of denying beneficial medicine to those who need it is unfathomable. Richard L. Root, Communications Director American Medical Marijuana Assn. Westminster, Calif., Oct. 31, 2001 [end]
