After his college football career, Greg Campion became a decorated law enforcement officer for cracking large-scale drug rings and apprehending high-value suspects.

But on Thursday, with some of his old colleagues looking on, the disgraced former federal agent stood before a judge and begged for mercy.

"I have made a terrible mistake," said Campion, 38, his hands clasped behind his back. "I will offer no excuse to you, whatsoever."

U.S. District Judge Jack Camp sentenced the former agent to one year and nine months in federal prison for failing to report more than $200,000 in cash income. Camp also ordered Campion to pay back $92,614 to the IRS and the Georgia Department of Revenue.

[continues 247 words]

Continued Drug-Related Violence Signals Need To Consolidate Drug-Fighting Effort In The Countywide Police Department.

DESPITE SOME recent high-profile shootings and robberies, the larger picture of violent crime this year in Savannah is somewhat encouraging.

This week, statistics from the FBI and Savannah-Chatham County police department showed a 7 percent decrease this year in crimes such as murder, robbery, rape and aggravated assault.

While the percentage is less than the 15 percent dip that Police Chief Michael Berkow was hoping for, it does show that things are trending in the right direction for 2008 compared to 2007.

[continues 424 words]

The Bryan County Drug Free Coalition, a group initiated last year by Bryan County Family Connection, was awarded a $625,000 federal grant to help enhance its programs.

Starting this year, the Coalition is slated to receive $125,000 per year over a five-year period. Coalition Chairman Gini Nichols said this will give the group a huge boost and will help greatly to create an awareness of and help address the local drug and alcohol problem among young people in Bryan County.

[continues 323 words]

There's a war going on, and it's not overseas.

It's just over the border.

Thirty people -- including a baby and a 4-year-old -- were murdered recently in drug-related violence in Ciudad Juarez and Creel in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.

It's not the exception anymore; it's become the rule on the U.S.-Mexican border: 2,682 people have died this year alone in drug violence in Mexico, most of it near the border.

[continues 241 words]

First Distribution Set For Be A Better Bulldog

WHO: Parents of ninth-grade students at New Albany High School

WHEN: 5:30 p.m., Monday

WHERE: NAHS

DETAILS: Learn about drug trends, signs of drug abuse and more

Each middle and high school will host its own distribution during open house within the first two months of school.

Some dates are: Scribner Middle School, Sept. 2; Hazelwood Middle School, Sept. 9.

The dates for Highland Hills Middle and Floyd Central High schools were not available as of press time, but New Albany Police Officer Steve Harris said those will be within August or September.

[continues 453 words]

In spite of enormous support from the medical community and the fact that 12 states have passed laws protecting their seriously ill, Georgia has yet to introduce legislation that would protect medical marijuana patients from arrest.

I would like you to consider for a minute that a person dying of cancer who uses medical marijuana to control nausea associated with chemotherapy can be arrested and jailed in Georgia.

Leading medical organizations such as the American Nurses Association, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the American Academy of HIV Medicine, the American Public Health Association, and the American Medical Students Association support the medical use of marijuana.

[continues 105 words]

A recent increase in drug-related kidnappings in Gwinnett County has put a spotlight on drug violence in Georgia, federal agents say.

About nine drug-related kidnappings have occurred in Gwinnett this year. The latest involved a man bound and chained in a basement in Lilburn whom federal agents rescued earlier this month.

Mexican drug cartels are moving large amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana into the country for distribution up the East Coast, said Rodney Benson, the special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Atlanta. Drug-related kidnappings have increased in the past 90 days, he said.

[continues 762 words]

By 12th grade, most local students say they "agree" or "somewhat agree" that getting alcohol is easy.

The same students as a group agreed that it was even easier to get smoking tobacco; and those surveyed said that except for tobacco, prescription drugs prescribed for someone else were the easiest drug of all to obtain, even in front of inhalants like glue and paint.

Ringgold High School Principal Sharon Vaughn said she has been in education for 38 years. For her, the Georgia Student Health Survey II administered to 423 students in October is just a confirmation of what she already knew.

[continues 662 words]

Pair Said They Didn't Know He Was Officer With 'No-Knock' Warrant. That Doesn't Matter, Justices Say.

The Georgia Supreme Court ruled Monday that a person found guilty of murdering a law enforcement officer is eligible for the death penalty, even if the killer did not know the victim was an officer.

The 5-2 ruling was issued before the upcoming trials of Antron Dawayne Fair and Damon Antwon Jolly, who are accused of killing Bibb County sheriff's deputy Joseph Whitehead in 2006. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against both men, who will be tried separately.

[continues 295 words]

Contrary to Cynthia Tucker's recent column ("Just filling prisons won't make us safer," @issue, June 29), evidence proves that imprisoning criminals works. Crime is down since we decided that criminals shouldn't be on the street but in prison. We still release too many repeat offenders who perpetrate many crimes regardless of previous imprisonment. Treatment works for only a very limited and motivated minority.

Tucker complains about the number of black men in prison. If we want to reduce that number, we should reverse liberal social policies installed since the 1960s and strengthen all traditional families, not just the black family. The black family was stronger in the 1950s than it is today.

[continues 51 words]

The Muscogee County Juvenile Drug Court has been awarded a $30,903 grant from the Judicial Council of Georgia Standing Committee on Drug Courts.

Drug Court Director Mary Bode said the grant will be used to help pay a salary in the department.

Since beginning in 2002, Drug Court has offered services to juveniles who have been arrested for drug-related offenses such as marijuana possession.

Taking part in the program requires at a minimum, substance abuse treatment, appearances in front of the judge every two weeks, frequent random drug screens, home monitoring visits and other services. The program can last up to two years.

[continues 55 words]

Two North Georgia troopers say they followed their noses to almost 3 pounds of marijuana stashed in the trunk of a car they stopped on I-75.

Troopers Jeff Adamson and Kevin Turner said they caught a whiff of "raw marijuana" from within [redacted]'s car.

This gave them probable cause to search, find the pot and arrest [redacted] and his passenger, [redacted].

But [redacted], of Chattanooga, claims that something about the arrest smells funny.

Specially trained dogs are often used to sniff out illicit drugs, but is the human nose that sensitive?

[continues 730 words]

Smith Used $615,000 in Federal Funds for Tuition, a Lease, Private Lawyer and More

ST. MARYS - Camden County Sheriff Bill Smith stopped paying jail inmates from seized drug assets when state investigators began looking into the controversial practice last July, according to copies of checks he released to avoid a lawsuit last month.

But Smith continued to use the federal forfeiture money for other questionable expenditures such as college tuition for favored deputies, a Kingsland boxing club's lease, and a retainer for a private lawyer, the checks show. And he used the federally regulated fund to pay routine expenses after county commissioners cut his operating budget last year.

[continues 1036 words]

New public safety programs in Hall County's schools, from drug dogs to driver education, have earned the Hall County Sheriff's Office a national distinction.

Meanwhile, a private citizen has come forward to purchase two more dogs that will be used for periodic checks in high school halls.

The 13 deputies who serve as school resource officers for the Hall County school system's six high schools and six middle schools are being recognized with the Model School Resource Officer Agency Award by the National Association of School Resource Officers. The award will be presented at the association's annual conference next month.

[continues 348 words]

In several speeches, Barack Obama has used an easy, if imprecise, formulation to express his despair over the high incarceration rate of young black men. "I don't want to wake up four years from now and discover that we still have more young black men in prison than in college," he said at a rally last year, repeating, more or less, a line used frequently by critics of the criminal justice system.

But it's not accurate. If you were to check with academic and criminal justice sources, you'd find, happily, that there are far more young black men in college -- about 530,000, ages 18 to 24 -- than in prison -- about 106,000 in the same age group.

[continues 630 words]

Thank you for the recent opportunity to discuss the efficacy of drug prohibition in America.

Columbus defense attorney Stephen Hyles says we are "stunningly stupid" to call for an end to drug prohibition and uses -- for example, the fact that moonshiners are still around even with the end of alcohol prohibition. As a percentage of the marketplace, do we really think moonshiners compete, in any way, with Budweiser or Jack Daniel's? And who controls and regulates that marketplace?

In Switzerland they have had a state-run heroin maintenance program for 10 years. Not one addict has overdosed during this program's existence, but perhaps the most telling statistic, as reported in the June 2, 2006 issue of the prestigious medical journal Lancet is the 82 percent decline in new heroin users over the 10-year period.

[continues 167 words]

The Augusta Judicial Circuit's new drug court is definitely a step in the right direction, but an arrest should not be a necessary prerequisite for drug treatment. Would alcoholics seek help for their illness if doing so were tantamount to confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would putting every incorrigible alcoholic behind bars and saddling them with criminal records prove cost-effective?

The United States recently earned the dubious distinction of having the highest incarceration rate in the world, with drug offenses accounting for the majority of federal incarcerations.

[continues 111 words]

The Augusta Judicial Circuit's new drug court will try to fix what's causing up to 80 percent of crime

You know that commercial where the cell phone customer is being shadowed by an army of cell phone company employees?

In a smaller way, and for a much different purpose, that's what a select group of drug offenders are going to experience starting later this month in the Augusta Judicial Circuit.

Officials are creating a drug court in Richmond and Columbia counties, and later in Burke County, to help reduce drug-related crimes -- those directly involving illegal drugs, and those inspired by the drugs. Together, they account for perhaps 80 percent of all crime.

[continues 354 words]

The Hall County School Board voted Monday to expand random, mandatory drug testing to all permitted student-drivers as well as student-athletes for the 2008-09 school year.

Until now, the school system has conducted random tests only on student-athletes.

But board members hope the expanded program will further educate students about the dangers and problems of alcohol and drug abuse and give "kids another reason to say no," West Hall Athletic Director Greg Williams has said.

And just like student-athletes who test positive for drugs, student drivers who test positive the first time will not be allowed to drive to school for 10 percent of the semester, according to the school system's proposal.

[continues 122 words]

Soldiers To Plead Guilty In Robbery Scheme

Four U.S. Army soldiers who were caught planning a commando-style armed robbery of a purported drug stash house are preparing to plead guilty for their roles in the incident, according to court records and lawyers for the servicemen.

The four soldiers from the Camp Frank D. Merrill mountain training facility in Dahlonega initially were charged with drug conspiracy and weapon offenses after being arrested in January. If convicted, they each faced mandatory minimum prison sentences of at least 15 years.

[continues 432 words]