Illegal drugs are everyone's problem, said the program manager for HIDTA, the federal agency known as the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Agency.

Or at least everyone should be willing to step up and help fight the issue.

"A lot of this problem is our own doing," said John Postlethwaite, who has been in law enforcement for almost 40 years. "Without the demand, there wouldn't be a supply."

That doesn't mean law enforcement agencies -- local, state and federal - -- are not going to fight the issue of drugs on the streets but those agencies would like help.

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Wadsworth Man, Wife Receive Probation for Cultivating Weed

MEDINA - A group representing the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws protested Tuesday morning outside the Medina County Courthouse with signs defending medicinal marijuana. They were there in support of a Wadsworth man and woman who were being sentenced for cultivating marijuana.

Jerry Welty uses marijuana to deal with a kidney disease, his lawyer, Michael Ash, said in court. Before sentencing Welty, Common Pleas Judge Christopher J. Collier noted growing marijuana is illegal in any circumstance. He said he would take Welty's condition under consideration in the sentence. Welty, 57, of 396 Akron Road, was sentenced to two years probation on the third-degree felony charge. His wife, Barbara Welty, 58, of the same address, received the same sentence. If either violates their probation, he or she will be sentenced to a year in prison.

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Regarding the Marietta Times' Friday, Jan. 15, headline story: "Drug testing at MHS?"

According to the school officials, teachers, and coaches interviewed for this article, there appears to be no identifiable drug problem within the Marietta school system. Good news indeed and credit should be given to the school board and all system employees for this accomplishment. The testimonials in the article related to drug abuse prevention is evidence that regular, open conversation between adult role models and students is a proven abuse deterrent.

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Good news, teens are using less drugs. Bad news, there is an exception.

State and national statistics say that fewer teens are using most types of drugs. The percentage of Ohio teens who said they have tried smoking cigarettes plunged from 73.1 percent in 1999 to 51.2 in 2007, according to a state survey. Illegal drug use is dwindling or not increasing in most areas.

But, amid the good news is a bit of bad news, to wit, prescription abuse.

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Ohio should be the 15th state for medical cannabis. The side effects from prescription drugs are often too bad, and some cause death. People are just sick and tired of being sick and tired, and no one is listening to them. Not even our gov-ernment is willing to listen to the sick, so who will?

There is no evidence cannabis causes cancer! Actually, research has shown it reduces tumors. If you have multiple sclerosis, AIDS/HIV, wasting disease, and/or need to have chemo, medical cannabis is the best. It stops the tremors and helps you eat and gain weight. Medical cannabis helps with nausea, sores in the mouth and the sick feeling that comes from chemo. It can also help with a lot of other afflictions.

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LIMA, Ohio - The family of a 26-year-old mother who was shot and killed during a police raid of her Lima home in 2008 will receive $2.5 million from the city's insurance company as a result of a negotiated settlement announced yesterday.

Tarika Wilson's family filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Toledo against the City of Lima and Sgt. Joseph Chavalia in August, 2008, claiming wrongful death and negligence. The unarmed woman was holding her 1-year-old son when she was shot and killed Jan. 4, 2008, during a police drug raid of her home.

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Stephanie Peters' story, marked with broken promises, is typical of a drug addict.

She started experimenting with drugs as a teen in Johnstown. She jumped from marijuana and alcohol to prescription opiates such as Vicodin and Percocet.

She tried heroin for the first time at age 17, taking a couple of "bumps" -- slang for lines of powder.

"Within 15 minutes I was puking my guts up, and I swore I would never touch it again," she said.

That pledge lasted for about five years before it was replaced by another: I'll never use a needle.

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For 17 years, Sergeant Don Wilson has been teaching the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program at Springboro schools and he doesn't plan on stopping any time soon.

"I have a lot of fun," Wilson said. "Believe it or not, I've been doing this for 17 years and I still to this day love to come into the classroom."

The DARE program at Springboro schools is taught to second, fourth and seventh graders and is entirely taught by Wilson. It covers topics such as peer pressure, sources of peer pressure, drug education and ways to say 'no'.

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Heroin conjures up images of junkies sharing needles in trash-strewn alleys. Powerful painkillers are clean and distributed legally by a network of doctors and pharmacies.

That's the public perception. But there's a disconnect between perception and reality. Abusing painkillers can lead people to make the same decisions as heroin addicts, with sometimes fatal consequences.

"They don't understand that people can develop addiction and dependence over a relatively short period of time," Dr. Robert Carlson, professor at the Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University, said of the use of legal opiates.

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DENVER - Inside the green neon sign, which is shaped like a marijuana leaf, is a red cross. The cross serves the fiction that most transactions in the store - which is what it really is - involve medicine.

The U.S. Justice Department recently announced that federal laws against marijuana would not be enforced for possession of marijuana that conforms to states' laws. In 2000, Colorado legalized medical marijuana. Since Justice's decision, the average age of the 400 persons a day seeking "prescriptions" at Colorado's multiplying medical marijuana dispensaries has fallen precipitously. Many new customers are college students.

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Two Toledo Police officers are temporarily off duty without pay after the department's first random drug testing revealed that both had allegedly used marijuana.

Police Chief Mike Navarre declined to identify the officers last night pending their administrative hearings.

One of the officers allegedly admitted to a personnel captain Friday that he had used marijuana and was immediately taken off-duty. The other was forced off-duty Monday, the same day administrators received results of the drug tests, Chief Navarre said.

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More Than 100 Officers, 13 Agencies In Drug Crackdown

WARREN - Law enforcement flexed its muscles Wednesday, as more than 100 officers from 13 agencies raided five homes as part of a crackdown on the drug trade.

The locations were each hit about 9:10 a.m., and in the afternoon, officers were on the streets in the northwest and southwest side neighborhoods, pulling over cars and knocking on doors in an attempt to let people know the police are serious, said Trumbull County Sheriff Thomas Altiere.

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MANSFIELD -- The sentencing of a Richland County sheriff's detective who admitted lying during a drug trial has been continued until Feb. 4.

Chuck Metcalf, 46, faces up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. He pleaded guilty May 14 in U.S. District Court to one misdemeanor count of deprivation of rights in a court of law. Metcalf had been scheduled for sentencing this past Monday.

The charge stems from a 2005 local drug investigation called Operation Turnaround. Metcalf falsely testified July 14, 2006, during the trial of Dwayne Nabors, who was charged with conspiring to distribute cocaine and distributing cocaine for a controlled drug buy Sept. 20, 2005.

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SYRACUSE -- The connection between crime and drugs was discussed and a chairman for a neighborhood crime watch program was named at Wednesday's meeting of Syracuse residents and others at the Syracuse Community Center.

Meeting with the residents were Detective Jason Kline and Deputy Jimmy Childs of the Athens County Sheriff's Department, along with local officials, Police Chief Shannon Smith and Leslie Edwards of the Syracuse Police Department and Mayor Eric Cunningham.

Following a program by Detective Kline on various drugs, their addiction and effects on a user, the residents began the process of organizing a neighborhood crime watch. Tom Weaver volunteered to serve as the leader for the group and volunteers are being solicited to serve on the committee. Weaver can be contacted at 992-3272.

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Regarding "Medical marijuana advocates' hope renewed" (Oct. 21):

It should be noted that marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug by Ohio and the federal government.

A Schedule I drug is defined as one that fits all the following criteria: a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States and a lack of accepted safety standards for its use under medical supervision

The last criterion is interesting. It says even a doctor could not use marijuana safely. Thus, marijuana is considered deadly, addictive and with no medical use. I challenge Ohio Senate President Bill Harris, an Ashland Republican who opposes the proposed bill, to prove any one of those criteria.

The real question is what moral or ethical justification we have for putting people in jail simply for possessing or using marijuana for their own medical needs.

Robert Ryan

Ryan is president of Ohio Patient Network.

[end]

Federal Policy Helps, but State Law Unlikely

The federal government's recent decision to ease up on prosecuting patients using medical marijuana has brought hope to activists in Ohio seeking a medical marijuana law.

But getting lawmakers here to approve therapeutic marijuana use promises to be an uphill battle.

State Rep. Kenny Yuko, a Richmond Heights Democrat, is drafting legislation with groups that want Ohio to become the 15th state to allow those who are seriously ill to use medical marijuana. While working on getting backers to unite behind a single approach, Yuko was heartened by the recent decision by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to redirect investigations away from patients in states that allow medical marijuana.

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Finally, people such as Gwynne Dyer are coming to grips with what Libertarians have recognized for the last 35 years: The war on drugs, which has really been a war on people, is the most destructive and counterproductive war ever.

Like Prohibition, it stops no one from using and definitely increases the use of drugs. Drug prohibition has been responsible for crime, corruption, gang warfare, jail overcrowding, the destruction of families, unnecessary loss of lives and property, and helps fund our enemies such as the Taliban.

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Anti-Drug Lessons Trimmed As Budget Cuts Move Officers Back To The Road

Two deputies who taught anti-drug lessons in Knox County schools are absent this academic year because they've moved from the classroom to the road.

Sheriff David Barber wrote a letter to district superintendents this month, saying he regrets ending the D.A.R.E. program for the 2009-10 school year. Barber explained that he has reassigned Deputies Scott Baker and Chuck Statler because of unexpected budget cuts by county commissioners.

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This off-and-on debate about legalizing marijuana has been hot and cold since the 1970s. The pros and cons make one wonder who's against it and who's for it.

Now TV is saturated with commercials for medicines with dangerous side effects, including bleeding ulcers, blurred vision, stroke and blood clots. Marijuana can relieve the pain of cancer and glaucoma and relieve depression with only three side effects: laughter, hunger and sleep.

Could it be getting a bad rap because it's not taxable? This makes it a dangerous thing.

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HAMILTON - The Butler County Sheriff's Office showed off several classic cars this morning, June 30, that residents can buy, courtesy of area men convicted on drug charges.

This included four cars seized from Mark Henson, a convicted Hamilton drug dealer: a candy apple red 1966 Chevrolet Chevelle SS; a canary yellow 1969 Chevrolet Camaro; a 1970 Chevette SS, black with white racing stripes; and a 2006 Chevrolet Silverado truck.

Convicted former University of Cincinnati and NBA basketball star Corie Blount gave up a 2004 Cadillac Escalade when convicted of drug charges.

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