THIBODAUX -- There was never any intent to break the law, Matthew Zugsberger says. Louisiana does not make the same allowances for medical marijuana use as his home state of California. But the former oilfield diver was certain his privilege of possession would be honored here. That was until Friday, when a team of state troopers, aided by Thibodaux police, raided his St. Bernard Road apartment, allegedly seizing a little over two pounds of marijuana, some hashish oil and $4,640 in cash. [continues 598 words]
Periodically, a letter shows up in the programs office at Caddo Correctional Center declaring the jail's substance abuse treatment programs changed someone's life. A former prisoner is living clean and sober. Other times, letters come from other Louisiana prisons asking for help. There, the prisoner doesn't have access to treatment programs but realizes he or she needs it. About 80 percent of the inmates in Louisiana prisons have a substance abuse problem that contributed to their crimes: it could be possession of a large quantity, theft in order to buy more or sometimes violent crime. [continues 838 words]
DA Drops Charges in 37 Prosecutions As a member of the New Orleans Police Department's 4th District task force, officer Joseph Lusk was involved in a plethora of Algiers drug busts, arresting people for dealing or using illegal drugs. Lusk's own arrest last month on suspicion of malfeasance in office means 37 of those cases have been dropped so far by the Orleans Parish district attorney's office -- whose prosecutors can't press forward on cases with an allegedly corrupt cop as a main witness. [continues 871 words]
Ostensibly color-blind, the U.S. "war on drugs" disproportionately targets urban minority neighborhoods, Human Rights Watch and The Sentencing Project said in two reports released May 5. Although whites commit more drug offenses, African Americans are arrested and imprisoned on drug charges at much higher rates, the reports find. In the 67-page report, "Targeting Blacks: Drug Law Enforcement and Race in the United States" (hrw.org/reports/2008/us0508/), Watch documents with detailed new statistics persistent racial disparities among drug offenders sent to prison in 34 states. All of these states send Black drug offenders to prison at much higher rates than whites. [continues 568 words]
A Pineville Police DARE officer and Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office corrections officer were arrested after the DARE officer reportedly made a drug deal with a police informant while on duty Wednesday afternoon at Lessie Moore Elementary School in Pineville, officials said today. The correction officer's connection to the deal and operation wasn't released as the investigation is ongoing. Much of the undercover drug deal involving the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office Metro Narcotics Division was somehow broadcast over the police scanner, although sheriff's officials still aren't sure how. [continues 655 words]
Power and greed go together like hand and glove. People who become rich do not stay rich unless they establish a foundation of power. Those who gain power solidify that power through the lust for wealth. There have been a few common folk come to the White House but none have ever left without being wealthy and powerful. It goes together because "He, who has the gold, makes the rules". As the world evolved into one big theater, many nations, empires and super tribes began to convert their power that was gained through military prowess into a political format via vehicles of exploitation. A violent nation or empire would control its conquered subjects via front governments and psychological techniques. [continues 727 words]
NEW ORLEANS -- Cedric Allen once wrestled with his crack addiction in an apartment he shared with his fiancee or in a home surrounded by his four grown daughters. Today, Allen, 48, struggles with the same addiction alone in a camping tent under an interstate overpass in downtown New Orleans. His daughters and fiancee are gone, displaced by Hurricane Katrina. His old apartment is unaffordable. Allen is one of an estimated 12,000 people who are homeless in New Orleans, many of whom landed on the streets after Katrina. Homeless people account for 4% of the city's overall population -- more than four times that of most cities. [continues 732 words]
Americans have forgotten about the other war that this country is fighting. It is not the war in Afghanistan. It is the "War on Drugs." An estimated $19 BILLION is budgeted for this fiscal year, while it is estimated that drugs have tied up our legal system and law enforcement agencies to the tune of $50 BILLION. More than 1 million people are currently incarcerated in connection with nonviolent drug offenses. That is around 60 percent of the prison population. When President Nixon started this unwinnable battle in 1972, there were 285,750 drug offenders in prison. The estimated cost of housing a prisoner for a year stands around $30,000. There are currently more illegal substances in the United States than ever, and there is no end in sight. [continues 226 words]
The time has come to relax our laws on marijuana use and possession. Admitting one's past use of marijuana is trendy in modern America. It's even a little presidential. Barack Obama smoked his fair share of cannabis. John Kennedy, Howard Dean and John Kerry all owned up to the dirty deed as well. But it's more than just politicians. According to a recent article in The New Yorker, 40 million American adults have used pot. That's 40 percent of adults. [continues 201 words]
Many States Have Similar Statutes In January, a batch of marijuana-laced Rice Krispie Treats cost a Tennessee man, William Hoak, $11,506 because his items were not decorated with a Tennessee illegal drug tax stamp. Illegal drug tax laws are challenged on constitutionality because many people do not understand how an illegal substance can be taxed. Most states have adopted the illegal drug tax, Arizona being the first in 1983. New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer outlined his plan this past month to adopt the illegal drug tax, according to The New York Times. This will make New York the 30th state to acquire the tax. [continues 633 words]
Prescription Abuses Probed Drug Enforcement Administration agents searched a chain of pain management clinics in Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes Tuesday that law enforcement officials and the state's medical board said had been selling prescriptions for addictive opiates. Federal agents and local law enforcement swarmed over Global Care clinics in Covington and Metairie on Tuesday morning and interviewed the doctor operating a third office for the firm in Harvey. By the afternoon they had collected surrendered licenses for prescribing controlled substances from three doctors, none of whom specializes in pain management, and took boxes and filing cabinets of medical and financial records. [continues 823 words]
Release Without Bond at Center of Legal Action A district judge today will hear a suit filed by City Marshal Nickey Picard that seeks to stop the Lafayette Parish Sheriff's Office from releasing without bonds those misdemeanor offenders who are charged under state statutes, such as operating while intoxicated and possession of marijuana. Picard filed the suit after it became clear that the Sheriff's Office would continue its new population management policy despite a recent Louisiana attorney general's opinion that seems to question the practice. [continues 317 words]
Re: "Drug conference attendees see bleak picture," Page 1, Dec. 9. Sunday's article quoted a Florida police official who described his frustration with the "revolving door" of drug arrests. "We were going to the same houses, arresting the same people, getting the same results," he said. "We cannot arrest our way out of the problem." He is correct that arrests alone will not reverse the prevalence of illegal drugs. That will happen only when we eliminate the drug marketplaces. Under the leadership of the late Mayor Louis Tallo and Assistant Chief Kenny Corkern, the city of Hammond in 2002 virtually eliminated the sale of crack cocaine within city limits. [continues 131 words]
As one who has written extensively on disparities in the criminal justice system, I am familiar with assorted statistics associated with selective prosecution. On Tuesday, the Justice Policy Institute released a comprehensive study on the issues of race, poverty, unemployment and selective prosecution within the context of the so-called war on drugs. The report's conclusion was blunt: "The drug war is primarily being waged against African American citizens of our local jurisdictions, despite solid evidence that they are no more likely than their white counterparts to be engaged in drug use or drug delivery behaviors." [continues 711 words]
This week, more than 1,000 people will gather for the 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference in New Orleans. There could not be a better venue for us to discuss how the drug war has become a war against black Americans. Louisiana's rate of incarceration for nonviolent drug-law violations is among the highest in the nation. But all over America, including states like New York, drug-war arrests, convictions and imprisonment have increased dramatically, and are disproportionately targeted against African-Americans, making this a major, though largely unrecognized, civil rights issue. [continues 628 words]
Most Policies Don't Work, Speakers Say A man wearing a pot-leaf emblem sat next to a former judge, not far from a former cop, a short hop from a lawyer. All were listening intently to the discussion, taking notes and sipping coffee. Attendees at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in the French Quarter this past week represented the whole spectrum of opinions: crime fighters and former inmates, legalization advocates and opponents, casual users and part-time abusers. As the conference, which ended Saturday, dissected the country's drug culture, no topic or approach was taboo. [continues 495 words]
U.S. Attorney's Office Delivers Hard Sell to Churches, Schools The roll call kicks off with the bass drum of a funeral dirge. Slowly, methodically, the names of each young person slain last year creeps across the projection screen. People shift in their seats, swallow lumps in their throats. Federal prosecutors Richard Rose and Abram McGull II want it that way. "We are trying to get into one young mind at a time," Rose said. Their venture, "Street Smarts NOLA" is a progressive new crime prevention program aimed at city teenagers. The program prompts students to think, to react, to question. [continues 560 words]
The beating death of hairdresser Robin Malta is a perfect illustration of the folly of our drug laws. Mr. Malta allegedly was killed over a debt, by someone who had no lawful way to collect. For other kinds of business transactions, we provide a forum for dispute resolution: the civil courts, where a creditor can sue a deadbeat debtor. For drug transactions, that option is not available. Drug debts must be collected privately, and violence is the predictable outcome. If the woman accused in his murder had been able to sue Mr. Malta, he might be alive today. [continues 90 words]
BOGALUSA - Officials from a Baton Rouge-based company have been in the city recently, but the DARE funds they are raising may not be getting back to local programs. Charlie Thames is affiliated with SMG and is based in Baton Rouge. His company is a fund-raising organization and recently had people working in Bogalusa on behalf of DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education). The only problem is that for every dollar someone "donates" to DARE through Thames' firm, only about a nickel makes it to the organization. [continues 264 words]
As a Christian, I strongly disagree with Arden A. Anderson's assertions (column on Marijuana Should Be A Wake-Up Call, Oct. 28), about the relatively safe, God-given plant cannabis (kaneh bosm/marijuana). Cannabis persecution, prohibition and extermination is luciferous and Biblically incorrect to begin with since Christ, God,Our Father, the Ecologician, indicates he created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). It's time to stop caging responsible adult humans for using what God says is good. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
Local Legal Experts Say Belief Systems Must Be Changed More than three out of every four inmates entering the state's prisons likely have problems with addiction and yet just one-third of them receive treatment for it. "Substance abuse, in my opinion, is our No. 1 enemy," said Jimmie LeBlanc, who is heading up the Louisiana Department of Corrections while Secretary Richard Stalder is out on medical leave. Yet the state, largely because of the public's belief that treatment is expensive, ineffective or unnecessary, has been hesitant to fully fund efforts aimed at addressing addiction, be it inside or outside of prisons. As a result, untreated addictions are helping to fuel a vicious cycle that puts addicts in jail and then returns them to the streets where they in turn commit more crimes - often to fuel or as a direct result of those addictions. [continues 1748 words]
The Oct. 22 column by Bill Steigerwald regarding the legalization of marijuana has got to be in the top 10 of all-time stupid columns. He cites reports by Jon Gettleman and Ethan Nadlemann who both decry our laws prohibiting the legalization of marijuana. The title of Steigerwald's column is, "Cost of marijuana enforcement and lost taxpayer revenues is $41.8 billion." Of the $41.8 billion, he cites the prospective taxes on marijuana as being $31.1 billion, inferring that our present cost of enforcement is $10.7 billion. [continues 129 words]
ZACHARY - The Zachary Community School Board revised its drug-testing policy for high school student-athletes Thursday and said it will begin random testing immediately. Board member Hubie Owen said the board has had a drug testing policy since the district's inception, "but we just haven't been enforcing it." The policy change names Lane Regional Medical Center as the initial testing agency. Lane officials will use a computer to select the seven athletes to be tested by urinalysis each month. [continues 326 words]
Unless you have been on vacation or otherwise under a rock, a case that is rocking Black America involves the racist conviction of six black youths, by an all-white jury, to the tune of potential 100-year sentences, while white youths were given the comparative leniency of in-school probation and non-prosecution for committing violent acts. This legal lynching of six young Black students by officials in Jena, La. is not only a continuing manifestation of Southern justice, it is a symptom of a vicious period in American history now in existence emphasizing the use of the law to severely punish Blacks. So, while there are justified mobilizations taking place around the Jena 6 injustice, the heat of the Black community, activists, officials, church leaders, all, should be directed toward the changes in the law that have made these injustices easier to perpetrate by local criminal justice officials. [continues 563 words]
American Express commercials used to suggest that membership has its privileges. I guess having an American Express card can prove beneficial, but membership in America's ruling class most definitely has its own set of privileges. After all, a decent credit rating can warrant a credit card, but only the right connections and political pedigree earns one the privileges of being close to power. Such is the case of Scooter Libby. Libby found himself in a political firestorm and was convicted and sentenced to prison, but now his privilege has earned him a commutation of his 2 1/2-year jail sentence. [continues 534 words]
What Do Drugs, Jesus And The White House All Have In Common? For conspiracy theorists the answer might be mind control. Or for some of the President's critics it could be Bush's alleged cocaine use and pandering to the religious right. But the answer is simply that recent legal decisions involved all three. The First Amendment came under attack Monday when the Supreme Court - showing its new conservative leanings - ruled on two particular cases: Morse v. Frederick and Hein v. Freedom From Religion Foundation. [continues 691 words]
The U.S. Supreme Court made an important decision Monday that placed tighter control on students' freedom of speech. The Court ruled, 5-4, that schools can restrict student expression when their messages seem to support illegal drug use. This decision directly stemmed from an incident where a high school student displayed a 14-foot long sign reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" near his high school in 2002. The student, Joseph Frederick, who was later suspended from the school, displayed his banner outside the high school grounds while the Olympic torch relay passed through Juneau, Alaska, for the 2002 Winter Olympics. [continues 279 words]
President Nixon's declaration that drug abuse is "public enemy number one in the United States" in 1971 launched a "war on drugs" that has raged since the war in Vietnam. Like the war in Vietnam then and in Iraq today, this war has proven to be much more complex than a simple "red versus blue" campaign. The soldiers are sworn law enforcement officers and organized crime members playing a dangerous game of "cops and robbers." The victims are varied, some helpless, destitute, or hardened criminals themselves, but all are civilians. [continues 863 words]
President Nixon's declaration that drug abuse is "public enemy number one in the United States" in 1971 launched a "war on drugs" that has raged since the war in Vietnam. Like the war in Vietnam then and in Iraq today, this war has proven to be much more complex than a simple "red versus blue" campaign. The soldiers are sworn law enforcement officers and organized crime members playing a dangerous game of "cops and robbers." The victims are varied, some helpless, destitute, or hardened criminals themselves, but all are civilians. [continues 943 words]
ST. MARTINVILLE -- Country music legend Willie Nelson and his tour manager were ordered to pay $1,024 each and were sentenced to six months of probation after pleading guilty to possession of marijuana here Tuesday. Nelson, tour manager David Anderson, Nelson's sister and two of the singer's tour bus drivers were cited on misdemeanor drug charges in September while traveling on Interstate 10 through St. Martin Parish. State Police investigators said they found 1 1/2 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of hallucinogenic mushrooms in a search prompted by a "strong odor of marijuana" during a routine motor coach inspection stop of his tour bus. [continues 583 words]
Section one of the April 3 edition of The Advocate was dominated by stories about the terrible epidemic of murder and other criminal activity causing great distress in New Orleans. All these problems could be eliminated with one stroke of the government's pen. Decriminalize the use and sale of drugs. Because these drugs are illegal, their price is very, very high. Nevertheless, many people are willing to risk long jail sentences, murder people, or be killed themselves trying to get the drugs for their own use or to sell at huge profits. [continues 214 words]
The Supreme Court is a solemn forum where America's greatest legal minds gather to soberly weigh serious issues. But that doesn't mean they can't have a bit of a laugh every now and then. In the 1960s and 1970s justices would gather to munch on popcorn and watch pornographic movies to define what was "obscene" or not. Monday, the court heard arguments on whether "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" qualifies as free speech. It all started when Joseph Frederick, a then-18 year-old high school senior, unfurled a 14-foot banner reading "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" while his classmates and teachers gathered to watch the 2002 Olympic torch relay pass through Juneau, Alaska. High school principal Deborah Morse saw the banner, confiscated it from him, destroyed it and suspended Frederick for 10 days. Now his sophomoric prank will be the genesis of another landmark case considering the extent of student free speech on and off campus. [continues 607 words]
Annual Award Given To Pair From Drug Unit BOGALUSA - Pfc. Wendell O'Berry and Sgt. Kendall Bullen of the Bogalusa Police Department's Drug Task Force were honored as Policemen of the Year at this week's Rotary Club meeting. Bogalusa Police Chief Jerry Agnew said last year the entire department was recognized instead of just one or two individuals, but this year the drug task force officers were chosen. "They have the vision," he said in his introduction, noting that they looked at all the officers and recognized that these two are visionaries who work their beat, anticipate reality and have a dream for the city. [continues 658 words]
NEW ORLEANS - When De La Salle High School resumed drug testing after Hurricane Katrina, officials were surprised to find that 8 percent of the student body tested positive for marijuana or other illegal substances - the highest percentage at the Roman Catholic school since it began testing nine years ago. Since then, the figure has dropped to under 3 percent, the principal says, a result that both she and the White House drug czar, who is set to visit the school Thursday, attribute to the constant threat of random drug testing. [continues 638 words]
The tree of life, also known as cannabis, kaneh bosm and marijuana, is a plant, not a drug. However, it is one of the most important considering your column: "Religion, Drugs Similarly Affect Brain" (Feb. 23, 2007), though America's current political leaders - read, disobedient Christians - deem it the devil weed. Cannabis holds survival in its realm; the very last page of the Bible tells us the leaves of the tree of life are for the healing of the nations. Healing in every sense of the word with the ability to bring world peace and cure disease. Interestingly, while God, The Ecologist, indicates all the plants are good on the very first page of the Bible, cannabis prohibition may be the original sin. If there ever was a plant that greedy war mongers should fear and exterminate, it's the tree of life. Stan White Dillon, Colo. resident [end]
Revelers' beer bingeing episodes on Fat Tuesday and somber Catholic masses on Ash Wednesday are traditionally viewed as far removed from each other. One day is filled with an excess of food, drink and hedonistic pleasure seeking. The other is a day when the devout begin to cleanse themselves with an ashen mark of the cross on the forehead and forego those bad habits - well at least for 40 days. The mood may be different, but religion, drugs, drug users and the devout share a kinship in their experiences, attitudes and behavior. [continues 647 words]
The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelming passed a bill that could help fight Methamphetamine production in Louisiana. The Methamphetamine Remediation Research Act of 2007 gives the Environmental Protection Agency $1.75 million to fund research on meth, help state and local authorities clean up labs and study long-term meth exposure to children. U.S. Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La., co-sponsored the bill which also gives another $750,000 to the National Institute of Standards and Technology to research equipment that can detect meth [continues 56 words]
NEW ORLEANS -- When the body was brought out, the two little boys did not stop chewing their sticky blue candy or swigging from their pop bottles. The 18-year-old mother wheeling her baby came to watch, and the teenager with the spiky hair and the bulky duffle coat was laughing up on the worn stoop. Only the cries of Linda Holmes -- "Oh, Lord, have mercy on me, Jesus, oh my baby!" she said, over and over -- were a tip-off that this was her teenage son Ronald the man in the lab coat was laboring to pull out of the empty apartment in the Iberville housing project. [continues 2312 words]
Top State Court Rules Against Resentencing In the six months since he got out of Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Wesley Dick has been trying to get his life on track. The Lacombe man had been sentenced to life in prison for selling heroin to an undercover cop. But after a judge in Covington ordered his release in July, he quickly got a job, started to pay child support for his daughters, 9 and 12, and saved enough to buy a pickup truck. [continues 973 words]
According to a news release from Vermilion Parish Sheriff Mike Couvillon, authorities conducted a random drug search on the campus of Abbeville High School on Friday after receiving complaints about possible drug activity on school grounds. Couvillon said a minimal amount of suspected marijuana was found in a student's vehicle, and according to school officials, the student has been suspended from school pending an expulsion hearing. Couvillon said the student may also face criminal charges, depending on the results of an investigation. The search was conducted by more than 30 officers and 14 trained K-9 dogs from the Vermilion Parish Narcotics Task Force, Vermilion Parish Sheriff's Criminal Investigations Division, Special Response Team, K-9 division and Water Patrol division. [end]
Surveillance Cameras, Random Drug Checks and More Are Planned to Ease Residents' Concerns After a String of Slayings. NEW ORLEANS -- Responding to residents' outrage over a sharp increase in crime that claimed nine lives in the first eight days of 2007, Mayor C. Ray Nagin announced a slate of crime-fighting initiatives Tuesday, two days before a planned residents' march on City Hall. "We are drawing a line in the sand and saying we've had it," Nagin told reporters at a briefing held at the site of the year's first slaying -- that of a man who was shot in the head on the evening of Jan. 1. [continues 695 words]
The halcyon months after Hurricane Katrina when peace ruled the streets of New Orleans officially ended in June when police allege 19-year-old Michael Anderson gunned down five teenagers in Central City. After the incident, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco dispatched the National Guard and state troopers to New Orleans to patrol the city's largely uninhabited neighborhoods in the Ninth Ward and eastern New Orleans. The move freed police to concentrate on high-crime zones but the bloodletting continues. In late July, Raymond Amison, 18, and Kevin Amison, 21, were charged with gunning down three brothers and a friend in Treme. Through last Monday, 150 people had been murdered in New Orleans in 2006. [continues 746 words]
Another reason to RE-legalize cannabis, kaneh bosm or marijuana, that doesn't get mentioned, ("Cannabis: A Token Issue No Longer," Nov. 14, 2006), is because it is biblically correct since Christ God our Father indicates he created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the first page - see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30. The only biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness - see 1 Timothy 4:1-5. It's time to stop caging humans for using what God says is good. Stan White Dillon, Colorado [end]
This past Tuesday was sort of depressing, not because of the election results; but studying for two exams the following day meant I could not participate in any planned election night drinking hijinks or dull my pain each time CNN saw fit to "check in on the bloggers." Adding to that pain was the major media outlets' coverage of Amendment 44 in Colorado, Question 7 in Nevada and Initiative 4 in South Dakota which with the usual array of bad puns and metaphors: they went up in smoke, voters just say "no," a hazy issue, a pipe dream, etc. [continues 759 words]
This week, students and everyone associated with Vernon Parish Schools saw red and it was one of the rare occasions in life when seeing red is actually a good thing. Students, faculty and staff at all of the Vernon Parish public schools have spent the week participating in various events linked to National Red Ribbon week. At Leesville Junior High, the students participated in two community service projects. "We just completed a can drive for Helping Hands," Lois Spurgeon, LJHS' Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Resource Officer, said. "We're also doing a community-service project called 'Wash Out Drugs.' We'll collect soap products to be donated to a worthy charity." [continues 656 words]
Walk into the smallest primary school or the largest high school, and all the public schools in between here in Webster Parish this week and you will likely see more than one hint that it is "National Red Ribbon Week." This campaign carries with it a strong message to our youth: only they can take a stand and eliminate alcohol and drug abuse from their lives. Students in each school are celebrating this campaign in several different ways. Some are distributing flyers, decorating the schools with posters and red bows, inviting guest speakers who explain tragic statistics with students regarding the adverse effects of drug usage. [continues 335 words]
The subject of whether marijuana should be legalized in Louisiana has been a highly debated topic even among the students on the campus of Southern University. The laws involving marijuana use differ from state to state, however there are only twelve states in which marijuana is decriminalized. These states include Alaska, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, Nebraska, Minnesota, Mississippi, North Carolina, New York, Maine and Ohio. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is a non-profit organization that allows people to speak out about resisting the prohibition of marijuana. [continues 333 words]
Many students in the United States have lost their financial aid due to the use or possession of marijuana. According to Tom Angell, campaign director for Student for Sensible Drug Policy, about 200,000 students in the U.S. were denied financial aid because of drug convictions. "Yearly there are about 35,000 students that are denied financial aid," Angell said. "There have been a few years where the numbers have dropped, but it mainly stays persistent." According to the SSDP, Indiana has the highest percentage with 50 percent of its students being denied aid due to marijuana charges, preceding California with 36 percent. According to the SSDP, approximately 22 percent of students have been denied federal or state financial aid in the state of Louisiana. Some students on Southern University's campus agree that financial aid should be denied if students have been convicted for using or possessing illegal drugs. [continues 215 words]
More Parents Will Be Notified Of Infractions The University is looking toward revision and stricter enforcement of student conduct policies, and regulations involving underage drinking and drugs seem to be a main priority on judicial officials' list. Office of the Dean of Students officials are becoming more proactive in notifying the parents of students who are caught engaging in underaged drinking or partaking in drug-related activities on campus, residential halls in particular. The non-academic misconduct portion of the Student Code of Conduct states the University's prohibition of any student under the age of 21 from "consuming, possessing or serving without the proper authorizations, alcoholic beverages in a campus residence (including Greek houses). These rules also prohibit "illegal manufacture, sale, distribution or use of narcotics or... any controlled substances." [continues 740 words]
Next time he goes "On the Road Again," Willie Nelson might want to be careful about what he packs for the trip. The 73-year-old country music legend and four fellow musicians were cited for misdemeanor drug possession yesterday after Louisiana cops boarded their tour bus and seized 1-1/2 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of psychedelic mushrooms, police said. The five were busted after their bus was stopped just east of Lafayette for a routine commercial inspection and a state trooper smelled marijuana, cops said. Cited along with Nelson were (redacted). Nelson has long advocated pot's legalization. He appears as himself in the new movie "Beerfest," looking for teammates to join him in a mythical world championship marijuana-smoking contest in Amsterdam. [end]
Inside Louisiana
