LINDEN - Gossip has a way of channeling through the Heads of State Hair Salon on Main Street.

This month, the hot topic is drugs. On Feb. 26, agents from the Cumberland County Bureau of Narcotics arrested 10 people on the outskirts of this small town on the county's northeastern edge. The arrests came six months into an investigation of drug-related crime in the area. Agents seized marijuana, cocaine, prescription drugs, money and weapons during a search of six homes.

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LUMBERTON - Robeson County deputies were ordered off the Magnolia Elementary School campus last week after lawmen began a drug search at the school. The search, authorized by the school's assistant principal, took place after drugs were found at the school.

Investigators also are looking into whether a 13-year-old boy was drugged, possibly with Ecstasy. The boy became ill after eating some candy at the school Feb. 13, said Lt. Kathy Torre with the Sheriff's Office Juvenile Division. Investigators have not determined whether the student had Ecstasy in his system.

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LUMBERTON - Robeson County school officials are defending their decision to remove sheriff's deputies and drug-sniffing dogs from Magnolia Elementary School on Feb. 25, saying that "informal protocol" was not followed by the principal. They also say they were never told that a 13-year-old student was allegedly drugged at the school.

Superintendent Johnny Hunt said that Principal Robert Locklear failed to inform the central office that he had invited detectives to the school after marijuana was found in a school bathroom five weeks ago.

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Deputies with the New Hanover County Sheriff's Office seized more than 25 times the amount of heroin in 2008 as they did in 2004, according to statistics provided by the office. Last year's seizures totaling an estimated $536,300 worth of heroin represent the largest quantity of the drug the office has seized in the past five years - a period when heroin seizures have increased drastically. Sheriff Sid Causey said the office's Vice and Narcotics Division is combatting the problem, which affects the community in many ways. "I know that this fuels our crime," Causey said. "It kills our young people. This breaks up homes and families." In the past five years, more than 30 people died from heroin overdoses in New Hanover County, according to statistics from a state health agency and the Wilmington Police Department. In addition to seizing greater quantities of heroin, Causey said deputies are finding the drug in a purer form than in years past. Capt. David Ciamillo, who heads up the narcotics division, said heroin is affecting a broad spectrum of people. He cited a raid last month of an apartment on Seabrook Court, which culminated with deputies seizing 170 bags of heroin and arresting four people, three of them University of North Carolina Wilmington students. "It's not just a problem in one location," Ciamillo said. "It's a problem throughout the county." Ongoing problem In 2008, deputies seized 13,371 bags of heroin.

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North Carolina faces a costly crunch in prison space, and strengthening the probation system could help.

As is the case with so many issues facing the General Assembly these days, lawmakers have the numbers on the burden that prisons put on taxpayers, but no easy answers as to what to do about it.

One number is $150 million, which is what would be needed this year for the state to build enough prison space to house inmates who are expected to be part of an unfortunate surge in prison populations over the next decade.

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The war on drugs this country has been waging for years is a colossal failure. It has done nothing to decrease the availability of drugs, and it has provided a very lucrative business opportunity for organized crime. It has also corrupted our law enforcement and criminal-justice system. Drug cartels have so much money and power that they can easily afford to bribe or kill law-enforcement officials. Our jails are full of people whose only crime was to seek intoxication.

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As an adult who occasionally finds salvia divinorum interesting, I'd like to point out that state Sen. Bill Purcell's ham-fisted proposal to make this non-addictive plant a Schedule 1 drug akin to heroin (news story, Feb. 17) is both absurdly wrongheaded and an insult to all thinking citizens.

If the problem is idiot teenagers misusing a substance, then the solution is already on the books and in use for alcohol: make that substance illegal for people under 21.

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This letter is to correct a misstatement by Edward Sztukowski in his article "Panel discussion challenges war on drugs."

In the article, Sztukowski wrote that I said "... between 1979 and 2005, there were 1.5 deaths per year attributed to marijuana in the District of Columbia ..."

In fact, the 1.5 deaths per year are for the entire country, which I said "includes all 50 states and the District of Columbia." This is a small but very important difference.

Of course, the point remains true that when one compares use of drugs like marijuana with other drugs (in all of the United States), it becomes obvious just how safe marijuana really is.

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Why, every time someone talks about drugs, they want to decriminalize?

Is there a good reason that we must keep the criminals fully employed?

Are the outlaws the only ones who can control and deliver the products that people want? Is there a rule that states criminals deserve the black market profits they currently collect?

Just the same as booze and tobacco, we need to stop pretending that making something illegal will stop people from using it.

So, after 35 plus years of abject failure, it's time to change.

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Editor:

The arrest of Robert Sterling Boulter for possession of 105 marijuana plants worth roughly $128,000 by local police is an example of fine law enforcement. Yet, it is simultaneously an example of wasted resources. I say it is fine law enforcement because, yes, this activity is illegal. Officers should always be commended for enforcing the law effectively. Yet, I call the arrest an example of wasted resources because the investigation by the Watauga County Sheriff's Office Special Operations Division, with assistance from the Boone Police Department Narcotics Division, could be better spent focusing on something actually harmful.

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HAYESVILLE - Narcotics officers assigned to a two-county drug task force drank beer and ate pizza outside the home of a suspected marijuana dealer after executing a search warrant there, authorities acknowledged Monday.

The incident nearly two years ago became public last week after the prosecutor trying the case that came from that search questioned the officers about the beer and pizza on the witness stand. No one was drunk that day in July 2007, said Clay County Sheriff Joe Shook, who crossed the state line into Georgia to get the beer because his county is dry. "It was bad judgment on my part that I let it happen," Shook said Monday. "I can assure you it won't happen again, and it shouldn't have happened then." Though not a beer drinker himself, Shook said he got the 12-pack after one person in the group suggested a beer would be good with the pizza the sheriff had offered to buy.

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CHAPEL HILL - At a recent news conference, Gov. Beverly Perdue rejected the use of marijuana for medical purposes. "I don't see any way I would support medical marijuana," she said. "Right now, every child I look at who's had a problem getting off pot -- I worry about that." As a researcher of illicit drugs, I strongly disagree.

Perdue is right that we should not initiate a policy that would cause young people to get hooked on pot, but evidence suggests this is not a problem. The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, was told by law enforcement that the medical marijuana programs in Alaska, California, Hawaii and Oregon had not been taken advantage of by adolescents.

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BRIDGETON- A weekend checkpoint set up to test sobriety caught more than drunken drivers. Officers also found cocaine and marijuana and made at least 15 drug charges.

The Bridgeton Police Department was the host for the multi-agency sobriety checkpoint, which was held Friday night and early Saturday morning near the intersection of U.S. 17 and N.C. 55. Numbers were still being tallied Saturday, but more than 100 citations were issued during the four-hour checkpoint.

"It was very successful," said Deputy Chief Chip Hughes. "I don't think any of us expected that many drugs. We made at least 15 drug charges, and four of those were felony charges."

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Sometimes rounding up drug suspects is the easy part for law enforcement officers. Ultimately, the sentences those suspects receive in the judicial system determines how much of a long-range impact the arrests have. The Davidson County Sheriff's Office, State Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Marshal's Service took care of the investigation into a methamphetamine ring, and the U.S. Attorney made sure those arrested received stiff sentences. A press conference Wednesday revealed the depth of the ring. Twenty-five people were arrested, and most have already been sentenced to as much as 30 years in prison.

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Gov. Beverly Perdue is not in favor of legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Perdue was asked about the issue Friday at a forum for nonprofits held in Raleigh. The questioner said medical marijuana could produce jobs and tax income and provide relief to sick people. "Right now," Perdue said, "I don't see any way I would support medical marijuana. "Right now," she continued, "every child I look at who's had a problem getting off pot ... I worry about things like that."

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The student American Civil Liberties Union partnered with the Campus Anti-War Network to hold a discussion about the War on Drugs Monday.

The event was initially intended as a debate, but the plan went up in smoke because the police could not make it to the event.

Three members of the community led the panel discussion. Mathew Robinson and Renee G. Scherlen, both associate professors in the government and justice studies department, led the discussion for decriminalization.

On the other side of the room Charlie Byrd, assistant district attorney for Watauga County offered input and answered questions from the audience regarding legal aspects.

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Flawed "court of critical thinking" concludes (My Case For Decriminalizing Marijuana, Feb. 10, 2009) "that tobacco and alcohol are similarly dangerous and unhealthy," because tobacco alone kills over 1,000 Americans daily and booze is almost as bad. In over 5,000 years of documented use, cannabis (kaneh bosm / marijuana) hasn't killed single person. Cannabis is less addictive than coffee.

Cannabis should be RE-legalized and one reason that doesn't get mentioned is because it is Biblically correct 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. The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5)

Stan White

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School Board to hold special meeting about drug testing students at Mitchell High School

The Mitchell County Board of Education made a goal on Jan. 15 to eliminate illicit drug use at the high school.

They offered proof at their regular session on Feb. 16 that they are serious about making this happen.

The board voted unanimously to set up a special session with its legal counsel to determine which students are to be included and what the system can afford.

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Mitchell County's School Board is working on a new drug testing policy for Mitchell High School. They will have a hearing for the public to comment. We encourage all parents of older children to attend. This is a policy that will directly affect your children.

In our opinion, the policy does not go far enough, and we are not sure that it can legally. Here are our changes:

All students at the high school need to be candidates for random testing.

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The American approach to fighting crime is reminiscent of the ages-old treatment for leprosy -- banish lepers to colonies and let them rot away, out of society's sight and mind.

We do that with criminals, jailing people for all manner of offenses, violent or not. We're good at it. We have a higher percentage of our population in jails and prisons than any other country in the world. By a large margin.

One in every 100 adult Americans is behind bars. Since 1978, our incarceration rate has increased 700 percent We should see by now that this treatment is as effective as leper colonies were in ending leprosy. Or, to use another analogy, as effective as warehousing was in treating mental illness. Here in Fayetteville, as in many other parts of the state and country, the crime rate is rising anyway, despite intense efforts of well-trained police out there, doing their best. Robberies, for example, were up more than 30 percent last year. Aggravated assaults up more than 20 percent.

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