DEAR ABBY: You were right to tell "Just Saying No" (Jan. 16) that his pot-smoking classmates could be headed for addiction or other problems. I worry that marijuana poses more risks to teens than they - -- or their parents -- recognize. More kids need professional help kicking marijuana than for all other drugs combined. It is not a "harmless" drug.

School failure, which you mentioned, could be only the first of many problems daily pot smokers may experience. Researchers have a long way to go in understanding the complexity of brain function, but we know that illicit drug use changes the developing brain. Many young people smoke pot before their brain development is settled, and their chronic use of the drug can affect certain centers in the brain that control emotion and reason.

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When parents find out that their child has a drug problem, one of the first things they ask is, where did you get these drugs?

Often the answer is, from a dealer.

But sometimes the drugs aren't bought on the street, because they are in the home.

Behind the door of the medicine cabinet.

And prescription drugs can be every bit as dangerous and deadly as any drug bought on the street.

No one knows this more than the family and friends of two young men from Carpentersville who died Sunday from an apparent overdose of the prescription painkiller oxycodone, according to police.

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Foundations Of Psychedelic Studies Is Not Your Average Class.

EPF 420H, an honors course, focuses on the history of psychedelic drugs, and the affect of these drugs on the mind and body.

The class tackles misconceptions commonly associated with psychedelic drugs and focuses on all sorts of drugs including ecstasy, LSD, opium, marijuana and heroin, among others.

Thomas Roberts, the class instructor, said EPF 420H fulfills a seminar requirement that juniors in the honors program have to take. EPF 420H is the first class of its kind, he said.

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Under a four-year collective bargaining agreement approved Wednesday, some 120 union employees at the Kane County Sheriff's Department will be required to submit to random drug tests.

Drug use among those whose job it is to uphold the law can compromise safety and integrity, said Sheriff Pat Perez, who pledged during his 2006 campaign to institute the policy. He believes random testing will deter drug abuse.

"Just the thought of not knowing if your number is going to be called is a deterrent," Perez said. "If they're tempted, they won't make the wrong choice."

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Judy Guenseth's guest column "Dangers, costs of legalizing marijuana too great" is disappointing and a bit odd, as it seems to undermine its own arguments. Ms. Guenseth properly notes the concerns regarding drug use by young people, something that prohibition has done nothing to stop (in fact, any gains in that area can be more properly attributed to reality based education).

So what does she want? To continue putting the decisions regarding drug safety and age of use in the hands of criminals, while feeding enormous black market profits. Legalizing marijuana doesn't mean giving up control -- in fact, it is exactly the opposite. She said, "Our society is right to prohibit the use of cigarettes and alcohol to underage youth." Yes, and we should do the same with marijuana by regulating it. It would also put the drug dealers out of business and away from kids.

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In the past several decades, drug use in the world has significantly increased. Research has dramatically opened the door for therapeutic answers to cancer, mental illness and chronic illnesses. This has changed the way most people perceive diagnosis and assisted many people to live normal productive lives.

Yet, illegal drug use has also increased greatly and caused an untold number of problems. There is a thin line between therapeutic purposes and misuse of a drug, one that our society must monitor proactively.

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A two-thirds cut in federal funding for a drug enforcement program could wipe out rural task force groups in Danville and Mattoon.

In December, Congress approved cuts of 67 percent for a program included under the Omnibus Appropriations Bill for the federal fiscal year beginning in October. The Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant program cut was $350 million or 67 percent nationwide, said Lori Levin, director of the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority.

"This is the backbone of our drug enforcement money," Levin said. "This will clearly (affect) our programs. It's really a threat to law enforcement programs in Illinois."

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Lately, Barack Obama has been quoting John F. Kennedy: "The world is changing. The old ways will not do." For a few hours the other day, I was starting to think he really meant it.

On Thursday, The Washington Times reported that in 2004, as a candidate for the U.S. Senate, Obama came out for decriminalizing marijuana use. That usually means eliminating jail sentences and arrest records for anyone caught with a small amount for personal use, treating it more like a traffic offense than a violent crime. But in a show of hands at a debate last fall, he indicated that he opposed the idea.

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Free people of America, I feel it is time for an appraisal of one of our great nation's most futile endeavors, the failed prohibition of marijuana.

Time and again, we've seen prominent and respected members of communities labeled criminals for choosing to disregard archaic legislation and exercise their perceived freedoms in private.

Proponents of this prohibition quickly judge and utter "it's illegal," never stopping to ask why or to address the consequences of banning a harmless drug that nearly 10 percent of Americans openly admit to using.

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Robert Sharpe's argument to drop drug testing sounds like the reasoning that only makes sense inside the D.C. Beltway.

While education is the best deterrent to student drug use, how would he propose to measure the success of any program without empirical verification?

We would have to rely on self reporting, but one of the problems here is the ability to hide and deny the truth. Users can deny they have a problem as long as they can hide it.

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School Board Expected To Vote On Issue At Feb. 5 Meeting

MORTON - Morton High School students involved in extracurricular activities could be subject to random drug testing beginning next school year.

District 709 Superintendent Roger Kilpatrick unveiled a drug testing policy written by district and high school administrators at a School Board meeting Tuesday. Board members are expected to vote on the policy at their Feb. 5 meeting.

The policy mirrors one that has been in effect at East Peoria Community High School since the beginning of the 2006-07 school year.

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Students In Activities Could Face Testing Soon

SPRING VALLEY - Hall High School is one step closer to a drug-testing policy.

"We made constructive strides" during Wednesday's board meeting, said Mike Struna, Hall High School superintendent. "The board members saw the first draft and reached a consensus on three key points to revise the policy."

The seven School Board members agreed to expand the drug-testing pool to include students who participate in clubs.

The board previously agreed that students who voluntarily join extracurricular teams and compete in IHSA interscholastic competitions should be tested. The same goes for groups that represent the school. The board also decided not to include students who drive to school as part of the drug-testing pool, unless they're involved in sports, clubs, or organizations.

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CHICAGO (AP) - Three former Chicago police officers were sentenced to decades in federal prison Thursday for using their guns, uniforms and badges to rip off cocaine and marijuana from drug dealers and resell it.

"You and your merry band essentially raped and plundered entire neighborhoods," U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman said in sentencing former officer Broderick Jones, admitted leader of the ring, to 25 years.

The stiffest sentence went to former officer Eural Black, the only one of the three who didn't plead guilty and was convicted at a jury trial.

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You don't hear much about the nation's "war on drugs" these days. It's a has-been, a glamourless geezer.

Its glitz has been stolen by the "war on terror," which gets the media hype and campaign trail rhetoric.

Railing against recreational drug use and demanding that offenders be locked away is so '90s.

But the drug war proceeds, mostly away from news cameras and photo-ops, still chewing up federal and state resources and casting criminal sanctions over entire neighborhoods. Some four or so decades into an intensive effort to stamp out recreational drug use, billions of dollars have been spent; thousands of criminals, many of them foreigners, have been enriched; and hundreds of thousands of Americans have been imprisoned. And the use of illegal substances continues unabated.

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Are people really afraid of legalizing marijuana? I cannot understand why it is such a crazy idea to let people consume cannabis. People can get drunk all they want, and humanity keeps moving right along. Of course, there was a time when the country outlawed alcohol consumption, and that failed miserably. Sure Al Capone enjoyed the lucrative aspect of alcohol prohibition, but that prohibition failed and cannabis prohibition has failed for the same reasons.

Abuse of cannabis is detrimental, but there is a difference between use and abuse.

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White People Are More Likely Than Minorities to Get Narcotics From Emergency-Room Doctors, a Study Found.

CHICAGO -- Emergency-room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds.

Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.

The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency-room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.

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25 Years for Alleged Ringleader of Group That Robbed Dealers

Three rogue Chicago police officers who robbed drug dealers of cash and narcotics were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Thursday by a federal judge who said the misconduct left him "at a total loss."

U.S. District Judge Ronald Guzman appeared most disturbed that the officers resold the stolen drugs, putting "lethal poison" back onto streets that they had sworn to serve and protect.

"You and your merry band essentially raped and plundered entire areas," said the judge, noting the robberies by the plainclothes tactical officers in the Englewood District took place in some of the city's poorest neighborhoods.

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In the Dec. 27 issue of The News-Sun, Hasan Hakeem, a lifelong resident of Waukegan, has written an insightful, comprehensive and thoughtful article on the pernicious effects of the "drug war" in Waukegan.

These effects exist nationwide. The number of drug busts is irrelevant in controlling usage. The profits to drug sellers are huge under this government program of Prohibition.

There will always be risk-takers to replace the drug sellers who are arrested and jailed. The demand exists and it will be met. But how?

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Those creatively efficient politicians down in the Illinois Legislature might be stumped on really important issues like funding the CTA or betting our future on casinos. But they are clear about saving us from ourselves -- even if we don't need it. Case in point: the salvia ban.

Lawmakers banned the sale and possession of Salvia divinorum, a virtually unknown sage plant that causes hallucinations. People who buy it in tobacco and "head" shops or online experience a 5- to 10-minute high, followed by a 20-minute comedown. Come New Year's Day, anyone who smokes, licks, chews or possesses salvia will go directly to jail -- for no less than four years. The penalty is the same as shooting heroin or snorting cocaine.

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A decision by the National Sentencing Commission will lighten prison terms for as many as 2,500 crack cocaine users and sellers.

The Daily Journal reported the story earlier. Basically, the penalties for crack cocaine, a crystallized form of the drug that is smoked, will be lowered to the penalties for powdered cocaine, that is snorted.

The average crack conviction draws a prison sentence of 10 years. A powder user can expect seven years.

There's a racial overtone to the story, too. Crack cocaine is generally thought to be far more prevalent in the African-American community. Over the years, many had complained that the sentences had as much to do with the skin color of the defendant as they did with the war on drugs.

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