A momth ago, Sangamon County Sheriff Neil Williamson urged county police chiefs to help ease overcrowding in the county jail by not arresting people accused of some minor offenses.

Rather than being booked into the Sangamon County Jail, those offenders should instead receive orders to appear in court, Williamson recommended.

Now comes Springfield Ward 2 Ald. Gail Simpson with a suggestion that not only would fit Williamson's request, but might also be a useful tool in the effort to keep Springfield's two branch libraries open in the face of a strained city budget.

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The Public Safety Committee in Schaumburg unanimously agreed to cancel the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in School District 54 for lack of results and to bolster street patrol duty.

The vote was Dec. 11 and became effective this week, said Richard Casler, Schaumburg director of police operations.

Casler said the need to cut such less critical programs was driven by a tightening budget, and the police officer released from DARE will join the traffic control unit at $116,000 a year in salary and benefits.

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Elgin's budget crunch has already resulted in city layoffs and increased fees for residents, but it can claim another casualty: the Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or DARE, program for Elgin Area U-46 District fifth-graders.

Elgin Police Chief Lisa Womack confirmed Wednesday that to help save on officer overtime, the three DARE officers that serve U-46 middle schools will be moved back to patrol duty Jan. 1. In early November, the police union cried foul over this and other reassignments, but Womack said the cost-cutting moves were just proposals and nothing was final.

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CLINTON -- The fight against methamphetamine use in DeWitt County will get a boost from a grant through the University of Illinois and DeWitt County Human Resource Center.

"Being in a rural county, it's sometimes very difficult to find grant money for meth abuse because much of that is targeted for the urban areas," said Helen Michelassi, prevention program manager at HRC.

"We haven't been able to do much with meth abuse education because of that, and we feel very fortunate that we are going to be able to do work on that."

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Two remarkable stories about the state of law enforcement--one exasperating, one encouraging--broke in Chicago last week. Both story lines intertwine in one elaborate saga. We aren't often captivated by press releases.

But the opening passage of a U.S. Justice Department account succinctly juxtaposed the story lines:

A six-passenger, twin propeller engine aircraft flew on May 13 this year into west suburban DuPage Airport where three men awaited its arrival. Two of them--Ahyetoro A. Taylor and Raphael Manuel, both Cook County Sheriff's Office correctional officers--accompanied an individual whom they believed brokered large-scale drug transactions but, in fact, was an undercover FBI agent.

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I must disagree with guest columnist Jim Gierich's opinion on the legalization of drugs and hope the SouthtownStar editors do share it.

Our nation has grown and matured since the Roaring '20s and the days of Al Capone. We must realize that prohibition does not keep people addicted, as Gierich states, but availability and curiosity get people started and possibly addicted.

Contrary to Gierich, prohibition is the right of the government to regulate and control illicit drugs and their movement across states lines. Although it has been stated that most drug users are white, that may be because the majority of the U.S. population is white. And the U.S. Department of Health has shown that nearly 40 percent of whites, 33 percent of blacks, 33 percent of American Indians and a quarter of all Hispanics have used drugs sometime in their lives. However, the non-whites admit to using drugs within the past month or the past year. The most common users fall into the 18- to 25- and the 12- to 16-year-old age groups.

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In November's election, Michigan became the thirteenth state of the United States to legalize medical marijuana, defying federal law in the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which classifies "marihuana" as a Class I drug. When Congress passed this act, it audaciously declared cannabis to have a high potential for abuse, a lack of acceptable safety in use, and no medical value. Meanwhile, they scheduled cocaine - - a drug which had caused countless deaths, was known to be dangerously addictive and involved in international organized crime - as a Class II drug. Apparently, the venerable usage of marijuana in medicine was spurious compared to cocaine's highly limited utility in certain anesthetic applications (in which the highly toxic drug can often be replaced by safer medications anyways).

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WASHINGTON -- America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this week. The ban on the sale of alcohol unleashed a crime wave, as gangsters fought over the illicit booze trade. It sure didn't stop drinking. People turned to speakeasies and bathtub gin for their daily cocktail.

Prohibition -- and the violence, corruption and health hazards that followed -- lives on in its modern version, the so-called War on Drugs. Former law-enforcement officers gathered in Washington to draw the parallels. Their group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, has called for nothing less than the legalization of drugs.

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President-elect Barack Obama's new drug czar needs to be someone other than another friend of Big Al Capone. So, speak up.

In a single week in 2004, 50 tons of illicit narcotic drugs were seized in Iran. Four years later, opium production in U.S. troop-cluttered Afghanistan is at a record level.

The drug war does not work.

Tell Obama. Not only does it not work, but the drug war funds terrorists abroad and gangbangers at home. Prohibition on drugs enables the bad guys (just as it did in Capone's day with alcohol), keeps people addicted, permits amateurish drug manufacturing and packaging, and forfeits the right of government to regulate and control illicit drug dosage, purity and labeling.

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A job candidate has to be pretty stupid, or pretty something, to take a drug test when he knows he isn't going to pass it. Yet between February and November, 60 people offered jobs with DCFS or one of the private social service agencies it contracts with took and failed a drug test. That's 2 percent of candidates.

Those 60 people would be working directly with kids today if it weren't for the drug screening. No telling how many other drug users dropped out of the running for jobs once they learned about the testing requirement.

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Drug testing high school athletes is not a wise investment for our schools.

Drugs, including alcohol and misused prescription drugs, are a problem for some students, but instituting a random drug testing program for athletes would be a diversion from the schools' charge of educating.

At a retreat Nov. 1, District 205 board members discussed drug-testing athletes as a way to maintain the health and safety of teens. While such a program would be well intentioned, we have several concerns about it.

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Sold 'Guns And Badges'

FBI agents posed as drug dealers in a year-long sting that targetted alleged corrupt law enforcement officers who "sold their guns and badges" to criminals.

In one instance, two sheriff's officers helped count what they thought were bags of cocaine in an airplane, loaded the "80 kilograms of drugs" into duffel bags and then carried it to the car of the "dealer."

"When drug dealers deal drugs, they ought to be afraid of the police - -- not turn to them for help," said Patrick J. Fitzgerald, U. S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

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Cannabis prohibition has failed just like alcohol prohibition failed. When will politicians learn that adults who want to get high will find a way to get high, just like those who wanted to get drunk were able to get drunk during alcohol prohibition?

A regulated and taxed cannabis market for adults is long overdue in America. By regulating the market it would make it tougher for teenagers to acquire the substance as well, since our current system of prohibition has no oversight of dealers. By making cannabis sales similar to alcohol sales, with licensed sellers and age restrictions, teenagers would actually have a more difficult time acquiring cannabis. Plus, this would allow adults to purchase the product legally instead of being forced to go through the black market.

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Why not tax and regulate all currently illegal drugs instead of locking up all those who are involved in their acquisition and use?

We could still imprison those who break the law while under the influence of drugs for the crime they committed while under the influence and those who use recreational drugs responsibly could pay a tax when buying a regulated product.

Alcohol prohibition failed, and now its use is regulated, although there are still problems associated with alcohol abuse, surely our current approach is better than outright prohibition.

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Thank you to members of the General Assembly and the Governor of Illinois for prioritizing and voting to restore funding for programs that address the diseases of substance abuse and alcoholism.

By doing so, they have voted to save thousands of lives, save millions of taxpayer dollars in the long-run and capture more than $55 million in federal dollars.

Since July, the State of Illinois had cut the budgets for drug and alcohol programs by a disproportionate 43 percent, leaving thousands of vulnerable people and families. Statistics show one in three families are impacted in some way. In the last few months the substance abuse industry, the large but once silent community afflicted with the disease, and constituents at large, galvanized to educate our legislature and the community about the past success of Illinois recovery programs that made these cuts, in essence, penny wise and pound-foolish. Illinois substance abuse successful protocols are being heralded as a National model. Illinois programs are showing improved results in mainstreaming those afflicted with a renewed sense of purpose, productivity and accountability to themselves and others. The funding benefits programs that studies show save $7 for every $1 spent on treatment. In addition, by voting to restore the budget for substance abuse the State of Illinois averted the loss of a dollar for dollar federal match. Well done.

Vice President

A Safe Haven Foundation

Chicago

[end]

Four Harvey police officers, 10 Cook County jail guards and a Chicago police officer have been charged with providing muscle for what they thought were major drug deals - but were really fake transactions that were part of an FBI sting.

In one of the largest crackdowns on law enforcement officers in recent years, the FBI is accusing the officers of accepting between $400 and $4,000 each on one or more occasions to serve as lookouts and intervene if police or rival drug dealers attempted to interfere with shipments of cocaine and heroin.

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The American Spirit was the banner carried by my class of '75.

This we need today like never before.

For the love of God, country and my classmates, begin by sharing these truths.

During the Bush administration, the hopes and chances of repealing the federal prohibition on industrial hemp and medical cannabis were about zero. Of the G8, only the USA prohibits hemp farming, yet we allow imports.

How can I call myself a Christian, and just watch my sick, dying neighbor be needlessly denied God's free, most healing plant?

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As I have never written to the editorial page before I must commend the opinion of Tom Martin, the editor, for writing about the (former) policeman who has stolen drugs from the police station.

Being in my 70s, it is unbelievable how he has gotten by with this so long (18 months) within the police department, let alone the fact that this whole ordeal has been strung out for two years. There have been many arrests on drug charges on the streets of our town, but have there ever been any cases that have taken this long to prosecute?

In my estimation, and I am sure many think like me - what's the problem? He's guilty and very undeserving of a pension, only jail time.

Pat Mitchell

Galesburg

[end]

A choked-up Sangamon County Clerk Joe Aiello Friday apologized for taking three years to let the community know that he had undergone drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

Aiello also said he's been "clean and sober" since 2005 and intends to serve out his term in office. He said he'll decide later if he'll run again in 2010.

"It'll be a decision in the best interest of my family, the office and myself personally," Aiello said.

Aiello, 49, revealed the rehabilitation stint in a statement that followed a disciplinary hearing at the State Police Merit Board office in Springfield for a state trooper who is accused of having warned Aiello, a longtime friend, to stay away from a man involved in a local cocaine ring.

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On Election Day, Michigan voters made their state the 13th to allow seriously ill patients to use medical cannabis upon the recommendation of a physician. Now, 71 million people, about 24 percent of Americans, live in one of the 13 states that allow the doctor-advised, medical use of cannabis.

However, suffering patients in Illinois still face arrest for relieving their symptoms with an effective treatment option. Illinois should follow suit and pass SB 2865, the Compassionate Use of Medical Marijuana Pilot Program Act before the Jan. 13 legislative deadline.

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