I keep trying to imagine how frightened Kathryn Johnston, 92, must have been that night police stormed her Elm Street home. Here's what we know about the last minutes of her life.

Sometime around 7 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2006, three Atlanta police officers, dressed in plainclothes and wearing bulletproof vests, forced Johnston's front door open.

Johnson fired on the officers but missed. They returned 39 shots, hitting her five or six times. Prosecutors would later say that one of them, Officer Jason R. Smith, handcuffed the elderly woman as she was dying.

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In the mellow suburban town of Clarkston, where aging hippies mingle easily with refugees, arrests for marijuana violations were never a top priority.

So it wasn't much of a surprise when the city passed Georgia's most relaxed marijuana law, reducing the fine for possession of less than an ounce of the drug to $75.

That was two and a half months ago. In that time, town leaders and residents are proud to say, the law has resulted in absolutely no changes. Clarkston is still Clarkston, not a drug haven.

As more time passes, some say, leaders of other cities might look at the town and see that nothing bad happens when you get rid of $1,000 fines and threats of a criminal record for marijuana consumption.

[end]

Since it opened in February, the narcotics treatment center Zac Talbott co-owns in North Georgia has been booming, admitting more than 250 people with addictions to painkillers and heroin amid a nationwide opioid overdose epidemic that is killing thousands of people each year.

For Talbott, the work is personal. He started using pain pills for minor back pain when he was in graduate school. That habit spiraled into an addiction, and he started buying pills on the street. Talbott eventually got help and has been recovering for several years.

So he was dismayed when he learned just how many pain medication prescriptions were issued in Georgia last year: a whopping 7.8 million, equivalent to more than one prescription for every single adult in the Peach State.

[end]

The DEA announces it will keep marijuana on the list of most dangerous drugs.

In the eyes of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, marijuana is still considered dangerous enough to remain among the likes of heroin, LSD, and ecstasy as a Schedule I drug.

Ever since The Controlled Substances Act became law in 1970, marijuana has been deemed to have no medicinal benefits and a high likelihood of abuse. And despite over half the states in the U.S. legalizing medical or recreational marijuana in some form, the DEA announced this month that marijuana wouldn't be declassified.

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ATLANTA - Twenty years after a federal law blocked people with felony drug convictions from receiving welfare or food stamps, more states are loosening those restrictions - or waiving them entirely.

In April, Gov. Nathan Deal, a Republican, signed a criminal justice reform bill that lifted the ban on food stamps for drug felons in Georgia. Alaska followed suit in July, although applicants must prove they are complying with parole and are in treatment for substance abuse. And in Delaware, a bill to lift cash assistance restrictions for drug felons passed out of committee in June. The legislative session ended before the bill could be put to a vote.

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Feds Keep Marijuana on the List of Most Dangerous Drugs.

Federal officials' announcement last week to keep marijuana on the list of most dangerous drugs has stunned Georgia advocates, who called it "insane" and said it would hurt families trying to access a form of medical marijuana legally allowed here.

"The impact on Georgia's families could be huge, as it could further delay getting access to safe, lab-tested product here in Georgia," said Blaine Cloud, who with his wife, Shannon, have been at the forefront of an organized push by parents to expand Georgia's year-old medical marijuana law.

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MACON, Ga. (AP) - Medical marijuana supporters in Georgia were hoping for something different from the federal government, not its recent ruling that cannabis should remain off-limits.

Georgians like Janea Cox of Monroe County want to be able to get medical cannabis just like other prescriptions instead of breaking the law to seek therapies for themselves or their loved ones, The Telegraph reported.

It was difficult to hear news of Thursday's ruling from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, Cox told the Macon newspaper. The agency decided marijuana will remain on the list of most dangerous drugs, which includes heroin See page 16

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Georgia may never =93free the weed=94 but legalized medical marijuana could save taxpayers millions, say University of Georgia researchers.

In a recent study, the father-daughter team of David and Ashley Bradford say in the 17 states with a medical marijuana law in place by 2013, Medicare saved approximately $165.2 million because of lower prescription drug use.

If medical marijuana was approved in every state, the overall savings to Medicare would have been around $468 million. That's a lot of green. David Bradford said he knows medical marijuana is a controversial topic, and some view it as a backdoor way of legalizing recreational marijuana, but research indicates =93there's a significant amount of clinical use at work here.=94

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The GOP's rejection of medical marijuana shows just how out of touch the party really is. They're a half-century behind the times.

How can they possibly think they have a viable political platform? It's just another reason why they will guarantee Hillary Clinton's election.

DONALD VARN, CONYERS

[end]

While Usage Is Legal in Some Cases, It Still Can't Be Grown in the State.

The phones at the Georgia Department of Public Health no longer ring off the hook with people calling to find doctors or asking questions about how the state's medical marijuana registry works.

Yet Georgia's quiet revolution in the year since it legalized a limited form of medical marijuana has shown little sign of slowing. Even so, obstacles and risks remain in the push for expansion.

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The Clarkston City Council has voted unanimously to approve the most liberal marijuana ordinance in the state, reducing fine from up to $1,000 to $75 for possessing less than an ounce, and eliminating the possibility of jail time for breaking municipal law.

"We just made history," whispered Sharon Ravert, a Dahlonega resident and advocate for marijuana legalization, when she saw the council's seven hands raised in unison on Tuesday.

Mayor Ted Terry has argued that drug law enforcement "disproportionately affects lower income communities and communities of color." As the state's hotbed for refugee resettlement, Clarkston is one of the most diverse cities in the state. According to census statistics, the city of 12,000 is nearly 60 percent black and 53.5 percent foreign born.

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Georgia Man Says Drug Beneficial for Autistic Son.

CLEVELAND - Dale Jackson, the father of an 8-yearold autistic son, flew up to the site of the Republican National Convention on Monday to ask his party's platform committee to endorse the use of medicinal marijuana where appropriate.

He wanted to take Georgia's fight national.

Jackson found a delegate who would pitch the idea, but his luck ended there. The 112-member committee that is currently drafting policy positions for the 2016 presidential contest rejected it out of hand, by a voice vote of two-thirds or more.

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Clarkston's effort to decriminalize pot has Gov. Nathan Deal and the state's chief law enforcement officers tsk-tsking because that's what governors and chief law enforcement people figure they must do when it comes to "drugs."

Drugs are bad. Marijuana is a gateway drug. Guys who smoke too much weed will grow man boobs. You've heard the Reefer Madness excuses before.

But Clarkston's on to something.

Arresting people for possession of small amounts of marijuana - less than an ounce - is a crime in and of itself. It's an inane use of government resources and brands people with a big green leafy M, one that will follow them for years and continually close doors to them.

Clarkston is a different sort of place, a town where I saw three separate women carrying groceries on their heads during a short visit. It has became Ground Zero for the refugee resettlement debate in an era when many Americans have hardened their outlooks on immigration.

[end]

Governor Expected to Sign Proposals Backed by Justice Reform Panel.

The change could help some 6,600 Georgians rejected each year for food stamps because they are convicted drug felons, according to research by the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute.

Every time Norvell Lawhorne applied for food stamps, he was turned down because he was a convicted drug felon. That conviction has made it harder to find a job, housing and even food. He now makes his bed in an Atlanta homeless shelter.

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Delegates at the Third District Republican Convention last weekend overwhelmingly voiced their support for the expansion of Georgia's laws on cannabis/marijuana-derived medicine, and for allowing the medicine to be produced in Georgia.

A resolution supporting expanding the number of conditions that can be treated with oil containing cannabidiol (CBD), a component of marijuana, and in-state cultivation of cannabis used to make the oil, passed with very little opposition at the convention, held April 16 in Newnan.

The resolution passed on a voice vote. Dale Jackson, Third District chairman for the Georgia Republican Party and a lobbyist for medical cannabis, said there were approximately 200 delegates and he only saw about three 'no' votes.

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A Macon attorney admitted Wednesday she participated in a drug deal in the parking lot of a Church's Chicken restaurant on Hardeman Avenue, near Interstate 75 and downtown Macon, in June 2015.

[name redacted], 36, pleaded guilty to possession of oxycodone and methamphetamine, with intent to distribute both drugs, during a hearing in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia.

A federal judge agreed to allow [name redacted] to remain on bond until her July 6 sentencing hearing. She could face up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

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Sometimes the curtain is pulled aside, allowing us to see what's going on in the often-opaque worlds of government and finance. Such an occasion has been happening with what's being called the Panama Papers, released by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It's going to take not months, but years, to wade through the estimated 11 million documents leaked from a Panamanian law firm that specializes in crafting tax shelters.

But initial disclosures are both troubling and offer insight. "The documents reference 12 current or former world leaders, as well as 128 other politicians and public officials," CNN reported. Implicated, in particular, are associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin; FIFA, the global soccer governing body, 40 of whose officials were indicted in 2015 by the U.S. Justice Department on corruption charges; and Iceland's Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson.

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Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, which means it has no medicinal value and is highly addictive.

But the Drug Enforcement Administration is, once again, considering moving it to a less restrictive category that better reflects both its danger and the undeniable facts on the ground - that nearly half the states in the nation allow the use of cannabis for medical purposes, and several allow it to be used recreationally. The DEA told lawmakers that it intends to make a decision by July.

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Clarkston leaders may try to make their city the first in Georgia to decriminalize marijuana.

Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry said the City Council's public safety committee this month will review whether to make possession of less than 1 ounce of marijuana a ticket-only offense, putting it on the same level as a run-of-the-mill traffic violation. He expects the full council to bring it to a vote as early as May.

"The bottom line is the War on Drugs has failed," said Terry, also a vice chairman of the Democratic Party of Georgia. "It is time for elected officials to use evidence-based policies to make our communities safer and fight drug abuse."

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Mayor Ted Terry may want to make Clarkston the first Georgia city to decriminalize marijuana, but one of the state's leading law enforcement advocates had a blunt message about the effort: No way.

"The only thing I can say about that is no municipal government has the authority to decriminalize anything that the Georgia General Assembly and federal government still say is a crime," said Chuck Spahos, executive director of the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council of Georgia.

"State law and federal law will still apply to the citizens within the municipality" even if Clarkston enacts the proposal, said Spahos, who is also solicitor general in Henry County.

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