Plan to Toughen Felons' Rights-Restoration Process Is Biased and Unfair In record time, Florida's Cabinet brought us back to Jim Crow-era laws Wednesday. Unanimously, the Cabinet undid a judicious measure that had partially streamlined the voting-rights restoration process for tens of thousands of felons convicted of nonviolent crimes. The all-Republican Cabinet -- Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam -- last month expressed support for Ms. Bondi's proposal to repeal the voting-rights reforms instituted for some felons in 2007. On Wednesday, at a rushed Cabinet meeting the group of four made it official. [continues 470 words]
We know today, June 7, Gov. Rick Scott signed a law requiring state welfare recipients to pass a mandatory drug test before receiving benefits. Now, it is obvious people's opinions fall on partisan lines, such as liberals wanting the ACLU to object to the new law and try and stop it in court. Here is my response to the bill. Any Floridian who accepts cash from the state should undergo drug testing -- beginning with Rick Scott himself. He is a Floridian, he accepts cash from the state, he should follow the same law. [continues 101 words]
Being designated as a major drug trafficking corridor could mean more resources for Brevard County law enforcement agencies as well as federal funding for the war against drugs. Sheriff Jack Parker is seeking to include the Space Coast as part of the Central Florida HIDTA, or High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, due to its proximity to Interstate 95. "Our location along this major thoroughfare, coupled with one of the busiest commercial and tourism related seaports in the country, puts us in the unfortunate position of serving as a conduit for illegal drug trafficking," Parker wrote in a proposal letter. "The I-95 corridor is a major traffic artery for the entire East Coast and serves as a well-traveled route for drug trafficking organizations based in South Florida to the entire eastern seaboard." [continues 329 words]
A parent's worst nightmare is having to bury a child. That nightmare is becoming a tragic reality for far too many families in Florida. On average, seven people die from prescription drug abuse every day in Florida. These are not just numbers. Garrett Harney's last words of despair to his mother were "Mom, I can't be helped." Garrett overdosed on Oxycontin and Xanax in 2006. His mother, a Sarasota resident, is now trying to help save lives by spreading the important message that prescription drug abuse is a deadly serious problem in Florida. [continues 454 words]
I just finished reading the Feb. 27 article regarding battling pill mills. There are statistics regarding "seven Floridians dying every day in 2009, on average, from overdoses involving prescription drugs. 2,488 total deaths." It struck me as a sad notion, but completely pale in comparison to the 440,000 people who die each year in the United States alone (according to the World Health Organization) from smoking cigarettes. Is anyone rushing to shut down cigarette makers? No! Is anyone trying to set up a tracking system as a weapon against the narcotics in cigarettes? No! Why? Because it is perfectly legal to kill yourself with tobacco. It is also fairly easy to say that you can also kill your spouse with second-hand smoke and put your childrens', friends' and complete strangers' health at risk with the same. [continues 88 words]
In 1919, the United States went dry. The great experiment of Prohibition began. It was a great "success." It criminalized a large part of the population who still wanted to drink and created organized criminals. It was 14 years before the country decided that Prohibition was a bad idea with decidedly worse, unintended consequences. Upon its repeal, those thousands of gangsters who thrived under Prohibition were out of work; however, our government then banned certain drugs. And the war on drugs has been as successful as Prohibition in keeping the suppliers wealthy. The war is going so well that it stretches from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the coca and marijuana fields of South America, Mexico and North Port. Our prisons are full of users and dealers; a shooting war is going on in Mexico and East Los Angeles, and the billions of dollars, pesos, euros, etc., spent each year to stop the drug trade are going down a black hole. Many of the people holding up banks, robbing convenience stores, or breaking into houses are doing it to buy drugs. One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different outcome each time. I think it's just dumb. Rick Garms Englewood [end]
Ex-cons like Vinny Colangelo are barred from certain business pursuits. Felons can't get a license in Florida as a pest-control operator. Colangelo can't be a private detective or paramedic or title insurance agent or bail bondsman or labor union business agent. He can forget about employment with the Florida Lottery. Or qualifying as a notary. "In Florida, this guy couldn't own a liquor store," said Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti. Yet according to the DEA, Vincent Colangelo, who couldn't kill bugs, serve cocktails or tail a cheating husband, could operate seven pain clinics and a pharmacy in Broward and Miami-Dade counties. His pill mills peddled more than 660,000 doses of oxycodone in just two years. The feds calculated Vinny's proceeds at $22,392,391. [continues 589 words]
Less government. Less state regulation. Less government intrusion in our every day lives. These are important values we share. However, these values should never trump efforts that save thousands of lives each year. We understand that the fiscal challenge our state faces requires a thorough and thoughtful review of all state programs and initiatives. However, it is important that state leaders weigh programs like the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program before cutting, or eliminating, them because in this instance, the PDMP will save thousands of lives. [continues 436 words]
SARASOTA -- U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, announced today that he was proposing legislation designed to halt the rampant growth in Florida of bogus pain clinics, or "pill mills." Saying "drug dealers posing as doctors" are able to operate lucrative clinics that dispense addictive prescription drugs, Buchanan outlined a plan that would toughen penalties and fines. The legislation also calls for using assets seized from pill mill operators to fund prescription drug databases in states like Florida. Another feature of the proposed legislation is the reclassification of narcotic drugs that are most abused in order to render them more more difficult to obtain, Buchanan said. [continues 522 words]
TAVARES -- Two mothers who lost sons to overdoses of prescription painkillers applauded county commissioners for imposing new restrictions on pain-management clinics that dispense the medicine. "I hope this saves lives," said Ellen Tidwell of Clermont, whose 17-year-old son, Justin, died from a prescription-drug overdose in July 2009, a month before beginning his senior year at South Lake High School. Tidwell, who also has called attention to the problem on her Facebook page, stood alongside Kim and Michael Cronin of Howey-in-the-Hills, whose son, Paul Cronin, 32, overdosed on hydrocodone in October 2009. [continues 401 words]
SARASOTA - U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Bradenton, intends to announce today that he will file legislation intended to crack down on "pill mills" that provide prescription pain killers to addicts and drug dealers. He has yet to release the details. Buchanan held a public forum on Monday at which he, law enforcement and a special state prosecutor asked the Legislature to start a patient database that investigators say they need to monitor the drug transactions and addicts who may be "doctor shopping." [continues 76 words]
The reasons for Florida to implement the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program "" despite Gov. Rick Scott's opposition "" are painfully apparent. Recently reported data show that the number of newborns with drug-withdrawal syndrome continued to increase last year. Last week, the Orlando Sentinel reported that, in the first half of 2010, Florida officials recorded 635 such cases. The frequency of reported cases during those six months was, according to the most recent data available, on pace to exceed the numbers from 2009 "" when nearly 1,000 babies were treated for the painful symptoms linked to withdrawal. From 2006 to 2009, Florida experienced a 173 percent increase in such cases. [continues 405 words]
Activists Say Addictive Pills' Downside Outweighs Benefits The storefront was deserted, a testament to the transient nature of the pain clinic business. A box of garbage bags sat on the counter near the receptionist's window. A flier was posted on the front door: "Dr. Becker has moved to a different location." That was the scene at All Pain Management on Griffin Road in Dania Beach at the time of last week's sweep by federal agents and local law enforcement through pain clinics throughout South Florida. [continues 696 words]
Minutes after announcing the biggest raids so far against pill mills, South Florida's top law enforcement leaders last week sent a message to Gov. Rick Scott. Standing together at a podium in Weston, several of them urged the new governor to drop his opposition to the state's much-anticipated prescription tracking system. They said the computer database would become their main weapon against the illegal narcotics trade at Florida's pain clinics. "It's critical that we have that database," Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti said. "Otherwise, Florida is going to remain a problem state for pill mills. It is a huge step backward to rescind that [system]. We cannot arrest our way out of this problem." [continues 1150 words]
The Editorial Board has missed the point. The pill mill crackdown is just one more expensive, wasted program. Since the war on drugs started in the early 1980s, the use of drugs of all sorts has skyrocketed. All this new program does is put pain pills into the underground market. Over 30 years of experience says it will do nothing to lower demand. Why are so many Americans on drugs? We must approach the problem from that perspective or just legalize the stuff. The current government activity only promotes more government jobs. Dan Roth Boca Raton [end]
These days, drugs that are bought on the streets aren't sending people to the emergency room as much as those that are bought from behind the counter. So says new data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Drug Abuse Warning Network, or DAWN. It found that, for the third year in a row, more people who had abused prescription drugs wound up in emergency rooms than people who had abused illicit drugs. In 2009, around 1.2 million visits to emergency rooms involved people who had misused pharmaceutical drugs. In 2008, such visits numbered around 1.1 million and in 2007, around 985,316. [continues 262 words]
Irvin Rosenfeld isn't your stereotypical stoner. The 58-year-old stockbroker has smoked 10-12 cannabis sativa cigarettes every day for more than 28 years. Rosenfeld, who was the second person to get medical marijuana ever and NORML's third speaker for Medical Marijuana Month, spoke to the UCF community on Feb. 16 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the Key West Ballroom. In 1971, his first year of college, Rosenfeld was introduced to marijuana for the first time. As a young man who'd had numerous surgeries and chemical drugs to treat his rare bone disease, Rosenfeld did not understand why a healthy person would need to use illegal drugs. He admitted that he had been an advocate against it. [continues 735 words]
The Issue: Florida Grapples With Its Penal Costs Some state laws are more equal than others. Take Senate Bill 2000, essential legislation that established the Correctional Policy Advisory Council to examine Florida's penal policies and devise recommendations to reduce the state's burgeoning incarceration costs. The Florida Legislature approved the measure and the governor signed the bill into law - last year. Commission members were selected, but the panel has yet to meet. Unfortunately, the commission never received the funds to operate, and now the law establishing it is set to expire on July 1. Talk about a missed opportunity. [continues 343 words]
With the release of Gov. Rick Scott's budget proposal Feb. 7, the Legislature has much to discuss. Among the issues pending are whether and how much to cut taxes, reduce state pensions and lower school funding. What should not be up for debate are the plans for a statewide database that would enable doctors to monitor the distribution of powerful -- and potentially dangerous -- prescription drugs. Yet, as part of his budget package, Scott has proposed a bill that would eliminate the database, which the Legislature approved in 2009 but which is not yet operational. [continues 591 words]
Gov. Rick Scott wants to send the message to America that Florida is open for business. But he's also signaling that Florida is open for drug addicts. Scott's call to eliminate a still-under-development prescription drug database is an offense to public safety and ignores an epidemic claiming seven lives in Florida each day. Fortunately, Senate President Mike Haridopolos and the rest of the Legislature will ultimately decide the database's fate. Thirty-four states already have prescription drug databases, which allow doctors and pharmacies to check whether their clients have recently filled a prescription for oxycodone, Vicodin or other highly addictive pharmaceuticals. Such systems over the past decade have been shown to thwart "doctor shoppers," individuals who often begin as legitimate pain patients but discover they can obtain multiple prescriptions for drugs and then sell the excess on the streets. [continues 351 words]
With eight Floridians dying daily because of prescription drug abuse, it was expected that Gov. Rick Scott's decision to pull the plug on the pill-monitoring program would draw criticism in the state. But the decision is also drawing the ire of state lawmakers from as far away as Kentucky and West Virginia. Florida is the largest of 12 states without a system to track prescription narcotics, and the state's hundreds of storefront pain clinics attract drug dealers and addicts from around the Southeast. [continues 624 words]
Florida is being squeezed between for-profit pill mills serving drug-seeking patients and citizens who exist in agonizing pain because their physicians are reluctant to prescribe enough medication to permit their patients to live in comfort. Meanwhile, politicians, who lack expertise in either pharmacology or psychology, seek to exploit this tragedy for political gain. Florida loses seven people each day from the misuse of prescription drugs. Even one needless death is a tragedy. What is to be done? For one thing, we could re-examine the flawed public policy that some drugs are bad because they are highly addictive and other drugs (alcohol and nicotine) are acceptable because they are less addictive. Current research indicates that all substances are equally addictive. [continues 528 words]
Regarding your Feb. 6 editorial, Florida is one of many states grappling with overcrowded prisons. Throughout the nation, states facing budget shortfalls are pursuing alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. A study conducted by the RAND Corp. found that every additional dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.48 in societal costs. There is far more at stake than tax dollars. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Not only do the children lose, but society as a whole. Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders with hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in anti-social behavior. [continues 76 words]
Appalachian Region Seeks Tracking System to Stem Flow of Painkillers, but Costs, Efficacy Questioned MIAMI--Florida Gov. Rick Scott's call to cancel a state drug-monitoring program has sparked an uproar in Appalachian states that say they are deluged with illegally bought pills from South Florida pain clinics. Supporters of the program, which has yet to start operating, say it would help combat Florida's "pill mills"--shady storefront operations that provide a bounty of prescription drugs, such as oxycodone and hydrodone, for addicts and traffickers. The tracking system would include a centralized database to help identify buyers who are accumulating large numbers of pills and the doctors who are overprescribing them. [continues 677 words]
Florida's prescription-drug epidemic continues unabated. It poses the single greatest drug-related threat to the health and safety of Floridians since crack cocaine. Not only do prescription-drug overdoses kill seven Floridians every day, but drugs prescribed in Florida are killing citizens in other states in ever-growing numbers. Pain clinics have exploded throughout the state, many operating as illegal "pill mills" where drugs are traded for cash. Florida has become a favorite destination for drug-seekers along the Eastern Seaboard and Appalachia. This threat will continue to devastate - and the deaths will increase - unless Florida takes action to implement a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). [continues 574 words]
GOP Lawmakers Say They Have Muscle To Kill Proposed System A major legislative fight is breaking out over Gov. Rick Scott's surprise proposal to kill Florida's planned computer database to combat pill mills. A longtime opponent of the database, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Hobe Sound, said many Republican lawmakers are lining up against the database project, and he predicted that the Senate and House would agree to scrap it. Meanwhile, database supporters from across the state - medical associations, police, anti-drug organizations and families who lost relatives to pain-pill overdoses - rushed to mount a lobbying campaign to fend off the challenge. [continues 807 words]
Budget Shortfalls Provide Impetus For Needed Change Prisons are one of many areas of state government that Gov. Rick Scott has targeted for cuts in his budget proposal, which he is expected to release Monday. Scott has vowed to carve $1 billion from the corrections budget over the next seven years. That would be almost a 42 percent reduction from the current funding level of $2.4 billion. Like many of the spending cuts that Scott has proposed over the last month, his plans for prisons are short on details. [continues 791 words]
The article on the death of an inmate in the Escambia County jail leaves me with a few questions for jail authorities ("Man charged in jail death," Jan. 8). First, why did the guard not hear any commotion in the cell during the fight? He should have investigated any unusual activity; no fight is that silent. Second, why was a non-violent prisoner placed in a cell with violent prisoners or second offenders? Johnny's problem was drugs. He was never involved in robbery, murder or even vicious assault. It was rumored that prisoners were to be separated into violent and non-violent categories. [continues 106 words]
The veteran sitting across the table from me looked weary after delivering yet another speech against a war that has neither a point nor, apparently, an end. It was started years ago by a Republican president, long since discredited, the veteran noted. Yet the Democrats who until a few weeks ago controlled both the White House and Congress didn't raise a finger to stop it. "I don't understand how much more money has to be wasted or how many more lives have to be ruined before we admit it's been a huge mistake," Kyle Vogt told me. "We can end this thing with the stroke of a pen." [continues 740 words]
Marijuana prohibition has failed, and in the never-ending quest for excuses, the medical marijuana movement appears to be the latest scapegoat. In a column that ran in this space on Jan. 11, "Ho hum attitude toward pot has more teens lighting up," Dr. Joel Kaufman attempted to prop up this rationalization. At one point, he claimed that "data shows (sic) that in almost every state that has passed a medical marijuana law, youth have increased the frequency of marijuana use in the past 30 days." That might be true, but the National Household Survey on Drug Use and Health, on which the claim is based, doesn't actually track frequency of use within a 30-day period, so I would have no way of knowing. More importantly, though, it doesn't tell you anything about what effect, if any, state medical marijuana laws have had on teen marijuana use trends in those states. To understand that, you would have to compare use rates before and after a medical marijuana law took effect in each of those states. [continues 441 words]
It is encouraging to see new Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly act to curtail the use of dangerous drugs, especially since Gov. Rick Scott and state lawmakers seem less than resolute. Scott immediately eliminated the Office of Drug Control, which had made a priority of fighting the "pill mills" that proliferate in Florida and prescribe pain killers wantonly. State officials say seven people a day die due to the inappropriate use of prescription drugs. Scott said a separate office wasn't needed to handle the task, and he may be right. But he has done nothing to replace the office that coordinated the anti-drug effort among state agencies and had been a leader in highlighting the threat of pill mills. [continues 412 words]
It's way too soon to know if Gov. Rick Scott really understands that he is now a politician who needs legislative allies, or still thinks he's a CEO who can issue orders to get things done. So the fact he thinks he can cut 40 percent from the state prison budget when key legislators think that's a pipe dream -- without simply releasing thousands of prisoners -- might be one of the reality checks headed his way. But Scott might have hit an administrative home run with his selection of former Indiana prison system chief Edwin Buss to run Florida's prisons. [continues 329 words]
Regarding Nicole Brochu's Jan. 11 column: There is a big difference between condoning marijuana use and protecting children from drugs. Decriminalization acknowledges the social reality of marijuana and frees users from the stigma of life-shattering criminal records. What's really needed is a regulated market with age controls. Drug dealers don't ID for age. Separating the hard and soft drug markets is critical. As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. [continues 88 words]
The half-gram bottle of bath salts promises an "invigorating" and "energizing" experience. But to local and federal authorities, it's another dangerous product misused as fake cocaine that's sending youths to emergency rooms and mental hospitals in Florida and across the country. As federal officials prepare to ban synthetic marijuana, specialty shops and convenience stores across Florida have started stocking up on bottles of bath salts. Louisiana and Florida authorities have linked these bath salts to at least two suicides in Louisiana, 21 calls to Florida poison control centers and dozens of hospital visits in Central and South Florida in the past year. [continues 809 words]
It's difficult to raise the topic of marijuana usage in America today without somehow touching off intense debate over whether this relatively mild, but still harmful drug should be decriminalized, even fully legalized. That's how much the pro-pot crowd has hijacked the national conversation over the nation's ongoing struggle with drug use. Exhibit A: an opinion piece posted in this space earlier this week by a drug treatment psychologist bemoaning a national spike in teen pot smoking and attributing it largely to society's growing tolerance of marijuana use. [continues 848 words]
The state has a budget deficit. One area where large savings can be found is in providing effective community treatment rather than incarceration. Florida has more than 100,000 in 60 prisons and plans to build 10 more. There are thousands more in county jails. The Florida Substance Abuse and Mental Health Corp. reports 66 percent of the inmates have substance-abuse problems and many are mentally ill. Few receive badly needed treatment. A criminal record is difficult to overcome. Florida ranks 16th in the nation in incarceration and 48th in mental health treatment per capita funding. [continues 145 words]
Given the amped up push to legalize pot, it was no surprise to many of us that a recent study shows marijuana use has spiked among teenagers. But it is interesting to hear the perspective from an expert in drug addiction as to why more and more teens are lighting up a joint, and why this may be a trend that continues to climb. So give Dr. Kaufman's viewpoint a read and tell me what you think at nbrochu@sun-sentinel.com. -- Nicole Brochu [continues 526 words]
For Three Decades, a Federal Agency Has Supplied Irvin Rosenfeld With Marijuana to Control a Rare Disease. He Tells About It in a New Book. On a recent chilly morning, Fort Lauderdale stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld interrupted his client calls for a quick marijuana cigarette in the company parking lot. Then he went back to work. The cigarette - perfectly legal for him - was one of about 120,000 the federal government has provided to him at taxpayer expense for the past 29 years. He's one of only four people who remain in a now-closed "compassionate" drug program that at its peak provided 13 patients across the country with daily doses of pot to help manage medical conditions. [continues 1293 words]
PANAMA CITY -- With or without a statewide Office of Drug Control, local advocates will continue their work to prevent substance abuse. Gov.-elect Rick Scott announced recently he would close the Florida Office of Drug Control, which prompted a critical response from the Drug Free America Foundation. "Without this office, Florida will most assuredly face the prospect of increased substance abuse, treatment costs, medical costs, crime and incarceration," Executive Director Calvina Fay said in a news release. Locally though, the closure won't have a profound impact, said Tunnie Miller, vice president of the Florida Association of DUI Programs and CEO of Chemical Addictions Recovery Effort (CARE) in Bay County. [continues 167 words]
The letter "Difficult seeing Mayfair decline" (Dec. 10) mentioned what a nice development the Mayfair subdivision was when the writer came here more than 40 years ago. Ditto. Mayfair was a home for many retired Navy officers and working people. You could ride a bike without being mugged. You did not need a Doberman for protection, or to lock your doors the minute it turned dark. We were proud of our homes with manicured yards and flowers. It was an enjoyable place to live. [continues 123 words]
Two recent reports on smoking describe two very different trends. One report is national, the other from California. When it comes to tobacco, a California Health and Human Services Agency survey released Dec. 20 found that more and more California residents are kicking the habit. The rate of decline is more than double the national average, and California's incidence of lung cancer has fallen three times as fast as the national average. Let us hope that California's reputation as a harbinger holds true in this case. [continues 314 words]
Gov.-elect Rick Scott has trimmed a cuticle on the body of Florida's state government. But judging by the reaction it has received, you would think he had hacked off an arm. Before Christmas, Scott announced he would abolish the Office of Drug Control and fold its duties into the departments of Health and Law Enforcement. The loss to Florida: four staffers and $500,000. Given the fact that the state is facing a budget shortfall of nearly $3 billion in 2011, the savings are minuscule. But critics say the impact on drug abuse will be enormously negative. [continues 464 words]
State representatives file bills to ban sales of the risky get-high product. Identical bills filed by two Jacksonville-area lawmakers would make the sale of synthetic marijuana illegal in Florida. The product is marketed as incense, and many packets are labeled as not for human consumption, but its growing popularity as a way to get high has caught the attention of lawmakers across the country. It's banned in more than a dozen states. "A friend of mine told me her daughter got into it," said state Sen. Stephen Wise, R-Jacksonville. "She said it felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest." [continues 351 words]
Kimberly Madison is poised and confident, well-dressed, with sunglasses perched atop her thick, dark hair. "She glows," says a friend, Mary Petrella. It's a big jump from Madison's dull-eyed photo of six years ago, when she was a drug addict whose one-woman crime spree meant prison stints in Florida and Alabama. "It's like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," says Madison, 47. "I do look better now than I did at the end of my 'using' years." [continues 341 words]
Cigarettes are a natural nemesis for parents of teenagers. But perhaps parents should be more worried about marijuana. A recent annual report by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the University of Michigan says pot smoking went up for 2010 over the previous year in all three grades surveyed: eighth, 10th and 12th. And then there's this: More high school seniors smoked marijuana (21.4 percent) during the last 30 days than smoked cigarettes (19.2 percent). The institute says marijuana affects learning, judgment and motor skills at a time when young brains are still developing and are most at risk. [continues 301 words]
Ban Targets 'Synthetic Marijuana' DAYTONA BEACH -- Rob Smith reached to the floor behind his store's front counter, pulled a thin, green packet from its box and dealt it like a playing card on the glass. "Anyone from bikers to lawyers to doctors," he said. "You'd be surprised if you sat here for one day. I've had 67-year-old people coming in here for this stuff. I've had people on chemo." The "stuff" in the packet is Lux Stimulus, the newest brand of herbal incense available at Pumpernickel Pops, a beachside smoke shop on International Speedway Boulevard open since 1978. Smith, the new owner of the store, keeps each packet stored out of sight, where a customer has to specifically ask for one. [continues 1241 words]
Dr. Dixon explains the need for "a fact-based public discussion of the problem free of the hysteria and morality play..." But fact-based discussions, so far, have been useless because they begin with the tacit assumption that the problem is "drugs." so we flap our gums comparing drug A to drug B to drug C, and end by agreeing that no drug is risk-free. We should have been discussing how to manage that risk. If the problem were "drugs" we'd have prohibited such substances as laughing gas and model airplane glue (for sniffing), tobacco and alcohol. (Actually, we did prohibit alcohol in the 1920s, but learned not to try again, and not to try with tobacco.) So, yes, a fact-based public debate, "resolved that prohibition causes more societal damage than it prevents." John Chase, Palm Harbor [end]
Kudos to William Dixon for speaking the truth about our absurd war on drugs. A fact-based public discussion is exactly what is needed. When questioned about the utter ineffectiveness of their efforts, drug war bureaucrats crow about the latest seizures and arrest figures as evidence of success. In fact, the only legitimate measure of success for drug policy is whether it saves more lives than it destroys. In that regard, prohibition is an unmitigated disaster. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that black market violence, adulterated drugs, and the spread of HIV are all exacerbated by prohibitionist policies. Yet when confronted with hard evidence, our politicians choose to disregard scientific fact and mutter vaguely about "the message this sends to our children". It's time for drug policies based on scientific evidence, not political dogma. Anders Froehlich, San Rafael, CA [end]
Perhaps the time has come for the government to consider legalizing marijuana and treating its use and sale the same as alcoholic beverages. I have never used it or knowingly been around anybody smoking it, but it appears that almost anyone who has a desire to use it could buy some. The billions of dollars a year in largely illegal sales - medical marijuana is legally sold in some states - are going directly to drug cartels and criminals. Several states control the sale of alcoholic beverages by allowing those beverages to be sold only through state owned and operated stores. This could be done with marijuana, and the state would then become the beneficiary of any profit and taxes received. [continues 324 words]
In Mexico the drug cartels bribe politicians and police officers while slaughtering those whom they can't buy. Murders this year of gang members, government officials and innocent bystanders number in the thousands. Related Links: In New York arrests were made of five University students selling drugs out of their dorm rooms " to pay for college". Students at one of the nation's elite universities selling drugs? What next? Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". That is what we have been doing in our efforts to combat illicit drugs. [continues 600 words]
Inside Florida
