F.M. residents file complaint about IDOT stop.

FORT MADISON -- Carl and Jane Schneider thought their trip home to Fort Madison from a two-week vacation would be pleasant. Then they would relax in their living room and talk about the fun time they had driving in their recreational vehicle and look at pictures they took.

They were wrong.

Carl, 66, who operated Blue Grass Dairy for many years and whose family has lived for four generations in town, and Jane, 59, said instead they had to deal with an afterthought of being treated like criminals during what they described as an unnecessary and "scary" traffic stop.

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Republican Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa has indicated that he opposes President Obama's recent changes to how the federal Drug Enforcement Agency approaches medical marijuana. Grassley's tired, predictable response demonstrates the extent to which he is out of touch on this issue.

During the course of the grueling 2008 election cycle, Obama promised to end federal raids against medical marijuana dispensaries operating in states that legally allow them. Though this pledged policy change didn't occur immediately after the president's inauguration, administration officials have now made it clear that Obama intends to keep his word.

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A bipartisan group of Minnesota lawmakers is putting forth legislation to legalize the growth of cannabis, or hemp. The Industrial Hemp Development Act (HF 608) would provide licenses to qualified farmers for the cultivation of hemp, after passing background checks, of course. Iowa lawmakers must pay close attention to the progress of Minnesota's hemp act; its success or failure may signal how a similar act would fair here. Regardless of the reaction of our neighbors to the north, hemp production will dramatically change the face of agriculture in America, and Iowans need to be out ahead of this increasingly popular trend.

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Iowa Will Not Be Joining 13 Other States That Allow Using Marijuana For Medical Purposes.

A bill that dealt with that was taken off the table Tuesday.

Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, who filed Senate File 293 last week, pulled the bill during a subcommittee meeting, the first step any bill must pass through.

"He realized there were some flaws to it and he wanted to relook at it," said Sen. Randy Feenstra. "He may come back with it next year."

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Jeff Elton can't control his stomach.

The 55-year old Des Moines resident has a nasty medical condition - gastroparesis, or stomach paralysis - that precludes the normal digestion of food.

The only thing that helps his chronic nausea and vomiting?

Marijuana: the safest and most effective anti-nausea drug available, he said.

I was astounded by the fact that it delivered immediate relief from chronic nausea, with the only side effect being euphoria," said Elton, who has been prescribed a variety of anti-nausea drugs that he said have ultimately amplified his nausea.

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In 1988, then-Sen. Joe Biden led the effort to create a "czar" to oversee and coordinate the U.S. "drug war." Compromises during the drafting of the original law, and action and inaction by congresses and administrations since, have left the drug czar little more than a toothless bureaucratic tiger.

If reducing the carnage caused by the use of drugs and the battles to decrease their use is the goal, the office of the drug czar should either be scrapped or its mandate rewritten to give it actual responsibility.

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With Iowa's state government facing a budget shortfall of approximately $600 million and an increasing number of people looking for work, there is an exceedingly practical strategy for economic recovery that very few people are discussing: the legalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana.

Most politicians have now become accustomed to advocating for the development of green jobs, but almost none of them have yet been willing to consider how a radical change in national and state drug policy could help create some of the greenest jobs imaginable by facilitating the creation of a new marijuana industry. While it is true that such a major change in government policy toward marijuana cultivation, distribution, and consumption would be (extremely) politically difficult to accomplish, it is time for serious people to start considering how to best go about advocating for just such a radical shift.

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Marijuana, meth and pills.

Whether they're being smoked, snorted or injected, these drugs are abused regularly in Creston.

Creston Police Chief Paul Ver Meer said the drug problem in Creston is being combated with "aggressive patrol" by his officers. This includes the use of informants and enforcement of laws on the books, added Ver Meer.

"We have zero tolerance for any controlled substance abuse," said Ver Meer plainly. "If we find somebody with drugs, they're going to be arrested."

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Iowa's battle to shut down methamphetamine labs has led to a 24 percent overall drop in drug offenders sent to prison compared with four years ago, a new state report shows.

The decline is among several key factors behind a revised forecast projecting significantly less growth for Iowa's prison population over the next decade, according to the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning.

Iowa's prisons now hold about 8,700 inmates. The number is predicted to increase to 8,900 inmates by mid-year 2018, up 2.2 percent. As recently as 2002, Iowa's prisons had been on a pace to exceed 12,000 inmates by 2012.

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Regarding the Register's thoughtful Jan. 4 editorial, "Rethink Long, Mandatory Drug Sentences": When it comes to drugs, mandatory minimum prison sentences have done little other than give the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world.

The deterrent value of zero tolerance is grossly overrated. During the crack epidemic of the 1980s, New York City chose the zero-tolerance approach, opting to arrest and prosecute as many offenders as possible. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was smoking crack, and America's capital had the highest per-capita murder rate in the country.

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Why do U.S. citizens tolerate the cost and ineffectiveness of the war on drugs? America has spent billions of dollars combating drug movement into the country and has legislated mandatory sentencing laws that require the continual construction of jails to house the guilty. Law enforcement and social services spend an inordinate amount of time on drug cases.

U.S. drug policy has helped create well-organized and armed drug cartels and warlords that illegally produce, process, distribute and penetrate U.S. borders. At the same time, drug use by Americans (the highest per capita in the world) continually increases drug demand, which thwarts all the efforts to control supply.

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To those who know Reed Prior, he seemed the last person who would be sentenced to life in federal prison. To those who know George W. Bush's reputation, he seemed the last president who would set Prior free in an act of mercy. Yet, both happened, and the irony reveals injustice not just in one case but in criminal sentencing in general.

Prior, 59, was granted a rare commutation by President Bush two days before Christmas, which means Prior will soon leave a federal prison in Greenville, Ill., a free man. Without that presidential act, Prior would have spent the remainder of his life in prison. Many people - including a who's who list in Iowa business and political circles - urged the president to act. They were moved not only by Prior's otherwise exemplary life but also by what seemed to them an unjustly excessive penalty for the crime of selling illegal drugs.

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Accountability.

That's what got him where he is today.

Matt Heath graduated from Plymouth County's Drug Court Dec. 10 as one of the first from the program that celebrated it's one year anniversary in October.

"This is the best I've felt since I was 14 or 15," the 34-year-old said. "Drugs do bad things to your life."

Heath entered drug court in February, a decision he didn't really want to make because of the commitment and changes he new were ahead.

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HAMPTON -- Eighteen months after their son, Bob, died from an overdose of illegal drugs, Philip and Pauline Strand believe his death could have been prevented by Grinnell police.

The Strands say their son would be alive today if police in Grinnell, a city of about 9,200 in central Iowa's Poweshiek County, had removed items from a vehicle they had impounded -- including a drug-laced water bottle. The Strands claim the water bottle was left in the vehicle by two people involved in a Grinnell drug arrest.

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Regarding your thoughtful Nov. 14 editorial, 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.

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The decisions made this past week to lessen the penalties surrounding one certain leafy green plant has left many proponents of medical and recreational marijuana (not horticulturists) swooning. In Massachusetts, voters elected to decriminalize up to an ounce of the substance. Similarly, voters in Michigan voted in favor of Proposal 1, which will now allow the prescription of medical marijuana in the state.

This decision will positively affect both states, and other states should follow their lead. Fourteen states across the nation allow the use of medical marijuana, and 12 states have decriminalized it. Even though many opponents of marijuana believe that allowing medical use of the substance will only contribute to the deterioration of society, transforming children into drug-obsessed heathens and generating marijuana dispensaries as plentiful as gas stations on every street corner, there are many benefits that will surface with these new decisions.

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The last week in October marks a national tradition of Red Ribbon Week.

The red ribbon symbolizes a need for action, enforcement and compassion with issues of alcohol, tobacco and other illegal drugs.

Action can be done by taking a stand against drugs and alcohol. Talk with kids about making health choices; they need to hear it from several different sources: the school, their parents and community members.

Enforcement of the law not only happens through the police, but happens with the help of all individuals. If you know of someone who is struggling with addictions to drugs or alcohol, get them assistance to receive the help they need. Some addicts have said they wouldn't have gotten help themselves, but they were glad to receive treatment after they were turned in.

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LeClaire, Iowa - Elizabeth Ann Wehrman, 56, of LeClaire, Iowa, died October 14, 2008, at her home as a result of pancreatic cancer. A visitation will be held 4-8 p.m. Friday, October 17, at Weerts Funeral Home, Kimberly at Jersey Ridge, Davenport. Celebration of Life services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home. Private interment will be in Glendale Cemetery, LeClaire. A memorial fund will be established in Beth's honor. Beth believed life was best spent in a pair of blue jeans, so please join the family in honoring her wish by wearing them to all services.

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This year's Spirit of Marycrest award will be presented today to Elizabeth Bemenderfer Wehrman of LeClaire, Iowa.

A 1986 graduate of Marycrest College, Wehrman was a registered nurse for 35 years.

Her resume includes work as a street nurse for the Partnership with the Chicago Recovery Alliance, Needle Exchange Program. Known as the "Needle Lady of Illinois," Wehrman is estimated to have exchanged more than 11,000 needles to help prevent the spread of HIV.

She also was the executive director of the AIDS Project Quad-Cities from 1994-1997 and worked with the John Lewis Coffee Shop Homeless/HIV Street Outreach from 1997-1999.

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Once again I have no organized topic for this week, so here are a couple of random items that will hopefully pass for some semblance of an article.

I am back this semester teaching a criminal justice intro class at Iowa Western Community College. I kind of enjoy doing that, as most of the students are pretty good and I like the interaction with them. This year I am trying something new, I am having the students blog on a site I set up on different topics from each chapter of the textbook. They can write whatever they choose to write, as long as it is respectful and civil.

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