Reforming Florida's Violent Incarceration Mentality

Like other law enforcement officials in the state, Volusia County Sheriff Ben Johnson is sowing undue fear and misinformation about legislative proposals that would reform the state's overly harsh and unsustainably costly prison system.

Johnson is following the lead of Brevard County Sheriff Jack Parker, who claims -- wrongly -- that "Florida is funding prisons less and less" while preparing to release offenders early.

Since 2001, when it was at $1.62 billion, the Department of Corrections' budget has increased by 50 percent.

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As the violence of the brutal drug war ravages Mexico, it underscores growing questions about the damage being done in the United States under modern-day prohibition.

At the root of Mexico's problems is rampant corruption -- beyond rampant. It has contaminated the police, the military, the judiciary and the highest reaches of the Mexican government, including even a former "drug czar" charged with fighting the drug war.

The Mexican drug lords have recently taken time out from their internecine battles over "turf" to flaunt their power by killing government officials, police and even members of the military.

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MEXICO CITY -- Three years ago this month, Mexican President Felipe Calderon donned military fatigues and declared a full-scale war on drugs, ordering the Army into Mexico's streets, highways, and villages. Back then, Calderon received broad support, both domestically and from abroad, for what was viewed as a brave, overdue, and necessary decision. Tangible results were predicted to come soon.

Moreover, George W. Bush's administration quickly promised American support -- the so-called Merida Initiative, signed in February, 2007 - -- and public-opinion polls showed that Calderon had, in one fell swoop, left behind the travails of his close and questioned electoral victory, gaining the trust of the Mexican people. But today, things look very different.

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The Tallahassee Democrat is seeking the release of previously sealed pretrial evidence in the murder cases against Deneilo Bradshaw and Andrea Green.

Bradshaw was found guilty last week of the murder of police informant Rachel Hoffman in a botched May 2008 drug-sting operation and was sentenced to life in prison. His defense team plans to appeal the verdict within the next 30 days.

Andrea Green, his stepbrother-in-law, faces trial in October for Hoffman's death.

In August 2008, Circuit Judge Kathleen Dekker ordered that pretrial evidence in the cases against both men be sealed in an effort to ensure an unbiased jury could be chosen in Leon County. Her order was to end after jurors in the trials were sequestered to deliberate on a verdict.

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Several Hobbs Middle School students' education might be up in smoke after being caught in possession of marijuana.

The Press Gazette has confirmed that three students at Hobbs Middle School were charged with a second degree felony on charges of possession and intent to distribute marijuana on school property on December 9. Due to the fact that they are juveniles, their names are not being released to the public.

According to Hobbs Middle School principal Stephen Shell, 12 students were found to be in possession of cigarettes or marijuana after several students came forward to administrators about the illegal issue.

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Regarding Andres Oppenheimer's Dec. 10 column U.S. may take new look at 'war on drugs,' the drug war is a cure worse than the disease. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking.

For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime.

With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. While U.S. politicians ignore the drug war's historical precedent, European countries are embracing harm reduction, a public-health alternative based on the principle that both drug abuse and prohibition have the potential to cause harm.

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BROOKSVILLE - A teacher originally suspended for smoking pot was back in front of a classroom Wednesday after being given a third chance to work for the district.

During Tuesday's school board meeting, board members voted 4-1 to reinstate Michael Provost as a teacher for the district following his apology and much discussion as to whether the board should fire or reinstate him.

Board members had originally agreed to transfer him to STAR Education Center in light of prior drug use that cost him his previous teaching job as health, career education and physical education teacher at D.S. Parrott Middle School. Much of his job involved educating youth about drug prevention.

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TPD Tapes Reveal Details of Rachel Hoffman's Death

The street-smart voice of Rachel Hoffman looking to buy "beans" and "fire" - Ecstasy and a gun - filled Leon County Courtroom 3G on Monday, as prosecutors played a police-recorded conversation between the confidential informant and Deneilo Bradshaw, one of two men accused of killing her, during the first day of testimony in his murder trial.

"You have a kind smile and kind eyes," Hoffman told Bradshaw during a May 5, 2008, meeting at the Tennessee Street car detailing shop where he worked. "Be good to me, and I'll be good to you."

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By her own admission, Diane Young used cocaine some 100 times in the mid-1980s and smoked a little marijuana on a few occasions.

She never got caught.

But something that happened more than two decades ago might not be a big deal except for two facts: Young is acting chief of the Oak Hill Police Department, and she is applying to make the appointment permanent.

Young was starkly honest about her past drug use when she applied to be a police officer with the Volusia County agency in 2002 and it didn't keep her from being hired then.

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If you had asked me 10 years ago whether the United States will ever change its interdiction-focused counternarcotics policies -- and perhaps even decriminalize marijuana consumption at home -- I would have told you, "never." Today, I say, "perhaps."

Earlier this week, in a tacit admission that current U.S. anti-drug policies are not working, the House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill to create an independent commission to review whether the U.S. anti-drug policies of the past three decades in Latin America are producing positive results.

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BRADENTON -- A Bradenton man who died Sept. 28 after being hit by a Taser fired by a Bradenton Police Department officer, died from cocaine toxicity and heart disease, according to the medical examiner's office.

"His heart was enlarged. He had at least one large blockage," Dr. Russell Vega said in an interview Tuesday. "We see that as a cause of death by itself."

Derrick Humbert, 38, of Bradenton, was Tasered by a Bradenton Police officer after he fled from a traffic stop in the 700 block of 27th Street East. He was stopped for not having a light affixed to the front of his bicycle.

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Dwindling Number of Patients, Ailing Economy Prompt Hospital to End Intensive Outpatient Program

LAKELAND | People seeking intensive outpatient group counseling for substance abuse will no longer find it through Lakeland Regional Medical Center.

A dwindling number of participants, because of the uncertain economy and patients' losing insurance, led hospital officials to end the Intensive Outpatient Program, or IOP, for substance abuse-dependence this fall.

The program's staff treated thousands of patients and families during the past 20 years, a time when that type of treatment was expanding nationwide.

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Local Company Looks Into Providing Medical Marijuana

Seeing an economic opportunity in medical marijuana, a health consulting company based in Indian Harbour Beach believes there is money to be made as several states and the federal government ease rules on the medicinal plant.

"We are approaching all 13 states where it's legal right now and working through the legalities of it," said Thomas Gaffney, president and CEO of Health Sciences Group Inc. "We are certainly preparing for the day it goes nationwide, and I'm sure it will."

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Specialized Courts That Counter The Impact Of Addiction

Drug courts work. Sometimes they work miracles.

Local officials have seen that for themselves. Volusia County has had a drug court since 1997, and more recently added a drug court for juveniles and a court specialized to deal with addiction in child-protection cases. Circuit Judge Kim C. Hammond oversaw Flagler County's first drug-court graduation in April 2008.

Drug courts offer an alternative to the traditional cycle of addiction, drug use, crime and incarceration. Instead of going to jail, participants -- who are almost always accused of low-ranking, non-violent offenses, often related to their craving for drugs or alcohol -- are offered a program that includes regular court appearances, drug tests, addiction therapy and support in gaining life skills. The programs, which recognize that offenders occasionally slip up, keep pushing for long-term success. In Florida, where drug courts began 20 years ago, about 80 percent of drug-court graduates are not re-arrested.

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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- At a picnic table outside his office building, stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld took a long drag on his 115,000th marijuana cigarette.

"It's delicious because it's legal," said Rosenfeld, 56. A bag bearing a prescription label that orders "use 10 cigarettes daily" lay before him. "I'm appreciative, happy and healthy because I have the right medicine."

Rosenfeld was celebrating.

Since 1982, he said, he has received a free tin of 300 marijuana cigarettes from the federal government every 25 days. And he wants the world to know how it has helped him cope with multiple congenital cartilaginous exostosis, a bone disorder that resulted in scores of tumors in his body.

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Cancer patients, glaucoma patients and others can benefit from medical marijuana, and now a new analysis shows that it can help multiple sclerosis (MS) patients find relief from the muscle spasms that are the hallmark of the debilitating autoimmune disease.

"The therapeutic potential of cannabinoids in MS appears to be comprehensive, and should be given considerable attention," said lead researcher Dr. Shaheen Lakhan, executive director of the Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation.

"Spasticity, an involuntary increase in muscle tone or rapid muscle contractions, is one of the more common and distressing symptoms of MS," the researchers noted in their review. "Medicinal treatment may reduce spasticity, but may also be ineffective, difficult to obtain or associated with intolerable side effects," they added.

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A statewide report on drug-related deaths shows that the number of fatalities from prescription drugs continues to eclipse those caused by illegal drugs such as heroin and cocaine.

The painkiller oxycodone, a class of anti-anxiety drugs that includes brand names such as Xanax and Valium, and the heroin-addiction-treatment drug methadone caused the most drug-related deaths in Florida during the first half of the year, according to a report by the state Medical Examiners Commission.

In the Orlando area alone, oxycodone caused 23 deaths, while methadone caused 15.

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Thirteen states in America have made it legal in the past 13 years to smoke marijuana for medical reasons.

Another two states have eased the penalties against using marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Three states have licensed nonprofit corporations to grow medical marijuana and two state legislatures, in California and Massachusetts, are conducting hearings on whether to legalize pot.

In Europe, seven countries have decriminalized marijuana. In Latin America, the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia and Mexico -- all demoralized by the violence associated with the illegal drug trade -- have proposed the repeal of prohibition.

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SEBRING - Since starting its drug testing policy about 15 years ago, the Highlands County School District has turned away some applicants and terminated a few employees who have tested positive for drug use.

District Director of Human Resources Vivianne Waldron said employee drug screenings started in the early to mid 1990s.

"Each year when we start hiring new employees, through the drug testing process, we have two, three at the most, who are not able to be hired due to positive drug tests," she said. "We shut it down right then; they never step foot in the classroom."

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You may worry about the economy, foreign affairs, war, health care and a multitude of other major concerns. Our biggest concerns are the issues that strike at the heart of every American community. That would be the flood of narcotics on our streets.

It affects every single one of us. The retiree who gets mugged coming out of the supermarket. Overcrowded prisons and jails. Gang shootings, murders, robberies and burglaries that leave us feeling defenseless. Parents who work hard to raise good kids (from all walks of life) then lose them, many times forever, because of drug addiction.

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