U.S. District Judge Dan Jordan has ruled that Mayor Frank Melton can't use the term "crack house" during his upcoming federal civil rights trial in describing alleged illegal drug activity at the duplex on Ridgeway Street that has been the center of his legal woes for more than two years.

That ruling leads one to wonder just how Melton should refer to the former residence in mounting his defense. What should he call it? A fixer-upper? The House on Pooh Corner? Little House on the Prairie?

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As a retired police officer, I understand where my colleague, DEA agent Dunlap (Dec. 20 guest opinion), is coming from regarding marijuana prohibition. I enforced the 55 mph speed limit my entire 18-year career. It was a bad law and generated huge amounts of disrespect for law, as tens of millions of citizens circumvented the law by buying radar detectors.

Marijuana prohibition is quite similar; 100 million have smoked it, though none has died as a result.

DEA Dunlap defends prohibition because it is his paycheck on the line. Without the prohibition of drugs, he is on the street looking for a job in a bad economy.

He knows that tobacco and alcohol will kill at a roughly 40-to-1 ratio vs. illegal drugs. How dangerous a drug can be has never been the issue. Follow the money.

Officer Howard J. Wooldridge (retired)

education specialist, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Washington, D.C.

[end]

MANKATO -- A United States District Court judge has ruled evidence from a 2007 drug search can be used against a Mankato man facing a federal firearms charge. The federal charge of being a felon in possession of firearms was filed against Marcus Devon Smith, 30, in May. After his arrest on Nov. 4, 2007, Smith was charged with felony drug possession and firearm possession in Blue Earth County. Those charges were dismissed after the case was shifted to federal court.

About nine ounces of cocaine and three handguns were found in Smith's apartment in the 1200 block of Eastport Drive the day of his arrest, the Minnesota River Valley Drug Task Force reported. Agents with the task force searched the apartment after receiving a tip that Smith had a large amount of crack cocaine and was packaging it.

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Bucks County is one step closer to expanding a program developed in Middletown to offer low-cost drug test kits to parents.

Marge Hanna, executive director of the Bucks County Drug and Alcohol Commission, told commissioners on Dec. 17 that her agency will work with community partners to figure out how it could be sold to parents.

Officials have yet to decide which agency will distribute the equipment, but the program will mimic one started in Middletown a few years ago. They'll be available in locations throughout the county at a low cost and include an educational brochure and parent guide, said Diane Rosati, associate director of the commission.

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It can truthfully be said that the cost of drug abuse in terms of wrecked lives and misery cannot be calculated. This type of damage is both tragic and irreparable.

But dollars and cents costs are also borne by a community - sometimes needlessly.

Consider that Vicksburg has only one gated residential area with 24-hour security and key-card access. It's not for the super-rich. It's Waltersville estates, an apartment complex on North Washington Street owned and operated by the Vicksburg Housing Authority.

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DANBURY -- It's a single sheet of paper, easily overlooked among the sheaves of legal documents that are gradually filling Felix Cordova's criminal case file in Danbury Superior Court.

But sometime in the not-to-distant future, it will likely provide Danbury police with more than $20,000 to pay for a training course, purchase surveillance equipment, or make undercover purchases of illegal narcotics as part of a drug investigation.

Earlier this month, detectives from the department's Special Investigations Division busted the 33-year-old Cordova and several other people in connection with a street-level heroin selling operation based out of their Foster Street apartment.

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OAKLAND - "Rocking in 2009" is a chance to dance and dine on New Year's Eve and support what many call an invaluable program for young people in the community at the same time.

The fundraising dance and buffet supports the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) and Learning for Life programs, initiatives of the Oakland Police Department aimed at helping children make the right choices.

Children who make those right choices are rewarded with various trips, including an outing on Camp Bomazeen in Belgrade, skiing at Sugarloaf/USA and the chance to see a Portland Pirates hockey game.

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In response to lisakauai's letter, "Who pays for drug test?" from Dec. 27: You teachers are already in a very high paying profession. So, why not pay for your drug testing out of your own pockets? Do not take it from the school's budget.

There have been too many times teachers have been caught with drugs in their possession. Some used it themselves, and some sell for their own gains. Who did they sell the drugs to? I hope not our students while in school.

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Dear Editor,

If health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents.

The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican immigration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association. Dire warnings that marijuana inspires homicidal rages have been counterproductive at best. White Americans did not even begin to smoke pot until a soon-to-be entrenched federal bureaucracy began funding reefer madness propaganda.

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The killings in Jackson so far this year were fueled by drugs, arguments or revenge. Others were robberies gone bad, and a few were the result of domestic. Sometimes the victims knew their attackers. Sometimes they didn't. In most cases, both victim and suspect were of the same race.

Jackson's 73 homicides have happened in every corner of the city, from outside nightclubs to shady motels and vacant buildings. Some victims also were discovered in their own homes or cars.

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CHAMPLAIN - U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced Saturday the arrest of a U. S. citizen who attempted to smuggle $34,639 into the United States.

According to CBP officers, he was encountered as he applied for admission into the United States at the Champlain port of entry.

During the primary inspection, CBP officers say, he claimed that he was en route to Florida on vacation. Further questioning raised the suspicion of CBP officers and he was subsequently referred to CBP for a secondary enforcement exam.

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ALBANY - A state appeals court has unanimously reversed the 2007 conviction of a man found with cocaine in his buttocks, finding Schenectady police wrongly strip searched him before his arrest. Jonathan Gonzalez was arrested after he allegedly approached a wired informant and asked, "What do you need? I can get you whatever you need."

Gonzalez was taken to a police station, where he was required to disrobe for a body cavity search. He was "repeatedly ordered to bend over and spread the cheeks of his buttocks," the Appellate Division ruling stated. After Gonzalez eventually agreed, investigators "spotted a small plastic bag, later determined to contain cocaine, protruding out of his rectum," the ruling stated.

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In reference to the Dec. 21 front-page story, "Cocaine threat growing":

What percentage of America's drug problem is due to prohibiting the relatively safe, socially acceptable, God-given plant cannabis (marijuana)?

Cannabis hasn't killed anyone in more than 5,000 years of documented use, yet it is classified as a Schedule I substance along with heroin, while methamphetamine and cocaine are only Schedule II substances.

How many youths and adults try cannabis and realize it's not nearly as harmful as taught in DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)-type government environments? Then they think other substances must not be so bad either, only to become addicted to deadly drugs.

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The Sheriff's Office stands to receive nearly $160,000 from the ill-gotten assets seized by federal authorities this year.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa announced this week that it recovered more than $19-million in cash and property during fiscal year 2008. Of that, some $8-million was distributed to local law enforcement agencies.

Forfeiture laws allow law enforcement to seize assets, including cash, houses and cars, that are acquired criminally. They commonly target drug traffickers and money launderers.

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BOSTON -- Guidelines for a new Massachusetts law that ends minor marijuana arrests say the law may also apply to other drugs with the same psychoactive ingredient, such as hashish.

The guidelines obtained Monday by The Associated Press say the law that takes effect Friday ends criminal penalties for possession of an ounce or less of THC - the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, hashish or hash oil.

Voters passed a referendum in November that instead imposes a civil penalty of a $100 fine and forfeiture of the drug.

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To the Editor:

The defeatist attitude of Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard in his willingness to consider legalizing marijuana is not only sad, but dangerous (Story in Herald/Review on Dec. 24). Pot smoking can lead to other drugs. Should we then legalize them? Do we want Arizona to become like Amsterdam?

Mr. Goddard, do not fall victim to the thinking that the ends justify the means.

Joel Fago

Sierra Vista

[end]

The year was 1915, and a Mexican revolutionary named Doroteo Arango, aka Francisco "Pancho" Villa, was launching raids along the Mexico-U.S. border, killing Americans in the hopes of drawing the U.S. into a larger confrontation with Mexico.

In response, U.S. President Woodrow Wilson ordered the deployment of troops to Texas and New Mexico to guard the border. Brigadier Gen. John J. Pershing was sent to Fort Bliss to guard the border from Arizona to just southeast of El Paso.

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(Regarding "Cocaine threat growing; Heroin also major problem here, authorities say," The Tribune-Democrat, Dec. 21:)

During my 18 years of police service, I learned that the use of alcohol was the No. 1 cause of police calls. With all due respect to my colleague, (Somerset County Drug Task Force coordinator) Detective Jason Hunter, the use of heroin never generated a police call for service. He was probably referring to the need for heroin addicts to steal, because instead of paying a dollar per day for heroin, addicts need a hundred times that.

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MUNCIE -- Local women in need of drug and alcohol rehabilitation services are often left with limited options in Muncie. And that's especially true if they are coming home after spending time in Indiana's jails and prisons.

"Basically, they just go back to the same environment they left," said Karen Watson, who ministers to women in the Indiana Women's Prison in Indianapolis. "If they have a good environment, they're lucky. If they have a bad environment, then they end up ... back on drugs or in prison."

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TERRE HAUTE -- As Santa's boots shuffled across Wabash Valley rooftops early Thursday morning, for hundreds of area residents it was just another day in jail.

The Vigo County Jail population was 280 Friday afternoon, about 12 over the maximum allowed but nothing unusual.

"It might be just a hair more but not a big difference," Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said in reference to jail overcrowding being the norm. "That's a constant battle."

Neighboring counties also posted normal numbers, ranging from the high end in Clay County at 97 down to Sullivan County's 63, jail personnel in those counties reported.

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