To the Editor:

I'm responding to Courtney Bryce's story: "Forum to discuss medical marijuana" (Edmond Sun, 4-18).

I'd like to add that one of the medications prescribed by my personal physician for my arthritis pain and inflammation, has the rare potential side effect of death. In other words, if I take this medication as prescribed, I can die as a result.

On the other hand, marijuana has never been documented to kill a single person in the 5,000 year history of its use.

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Lighthorse Tribal Police Officer To Be Cross-Deputized

ANADARKO, Okla. - The Muscogee (Creek) Nation finalized the deal between its Lighthorse Tribal Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration in which an officer would be cross-deputized as a federal agent beginning April 8. Muscogee Chief A.D. Ellis signed the agreement into law.

A selected Lighthorse Tribal Police officer will undergo federal training to become a DEA agent based out of the Tulsa task force office. The resolution was originally passed in the Muscogee (Creek) Council March 29 and had to wait for Ellis to sign the measure to become law.

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EDMOND -- A few research studies have shown that marijuana can shrink some cancers and prevent some types of Alzheimer's. Despite this, medical marijuana is legal in only 12 states.

The Drug Policy Forum of Oklahoma and the Drug Policy Reform Network of Oklahoma will team up to present "Marijuana is Medicine" from 2:30-4:30 p.m. Saturday at the Edmond Library, 10 S. Boulevard.

The forum will include presentations by a doctor, registered nurse and several Oklahoma residents who would qualify for medical marijuana if it was legal. A question-and-answer session will follow.

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Sometimes, it's amazing what one finds out through asking. And sometimes, not even that.

Because just the other day, on the phone with Butch Peters to see if he had any favorites in the race to fill his old job as Norman High football coach, the 35-year veteran of the classroom and sideline, added a new topic to the discussion, quite clear he was on the record.

"They've talked for two years about drug testing and something needs to be done about that at both high schools," he said. "It needs to be a priority because it's a major, major problem in Norman right now."

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They not only graduated from the School of Hard Knocks, they also graduated from the District 18 Drug Court.

Seven people who were facing years and years in prison because of drug charges successfully completed the 18-24 month program and were graduated Friday.

Their charges were either dismissed or dropped altogether, and now they're out in the world, drug-free and armed with the knowledge of how to stay that way.

Special Judge Bill Layden, who has been overseeing the District 18 Drug Court since it started here, said it was only appropriate that Ryan Barton, who was the first participant, "be the first one out."

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At no point during any of my arrests, do I remember being asked if I was on drugs or if I needed any help. I was in a state of denial, like most drug addicts, so I sure wasn't going to volunteer being a drug addict and being locked up in rehab for six months when I was fixing to be let go.

I was never sent to any drug court or rehab.

While I was on probation, I never showed up to see my probation officer at the time I was supposed to. This should have thrown up a red flag, but I was never drug tested in the three years I was on probation. At one point, my probation officer asked if I could pass a drug test. I told him no, that I had smoked some pot. He told me to clean up and that was that.

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It is clear that the state Department of Corrections has problems, be it with not having enough employees or money to operate, or the inability to provide the offenders with adequate resources to actively combat recidivism.

This was especially clear to me in early January 2008, when a man who is disabled was released without the assistance of housing, SSI, DHS, or other means. It amazed me that this man, who is HIV-positive and has Hepatitis C, seemingly would have to work in fast-food restaurants or as some unskilled laborer as his illnesses prohibited him from gainful employment.

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The principal at Bishop Kelley High School says feedback on a plan to drug test all students has been positive.

Bishop Kelley High School Principal Alan Weyland said he has received only support and positive feedback since the school announced its decision to drug test the entire student body beginning this fall.

"It's all been positive from what I deal with -- tremendous support from parents," Weyland said Friday. "I can't tell you that every student, staff and faculty member is happy about it, but it's hard for them to say anything."

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The programs, including Tulsa County's, are threatened by federal budget cuts.

WASHINGTON -- A new but successful drug task force in Tulsa County and others across the state are at risk because of a dramatic and unexpected federal budget cut, officials said Tuesday.

"This is scary," said DeLynn Fudge, who leads the Federal Grants Division for the Oklahoma District Attorneys Council. "If there is nobody addressing these issues, we are afraid it will run rampant."

Fudge said her agency had been expecting to see an increase in funding in the federal grant program but learned of the cut just before Christmas.

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All students at Bishop Kelley High School will be tested for drug use beginning in the 2008-09 school year.

The school's advisory council and administration recently approved the new policy, which will use hair testing to detect illegal drug use by students.

Principal Alan Weyland said the policy was more than two years in the making.

"This is not something that was done overnight," he said. "I believe the longer we keep kids from using drugs, the better off they're going to be in their adult life."

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All students at Bishop Kelley High School will be tested for drug use beginning in the 2008-09 school year.

The school's advisory council and administration recently approved the new policy that will use hair testing to reveal illegal drug use by students.

The test identifies cocaine, marijuana, opiates, methamphetamine, Ecstasy, Eve and phencyclidine, Principal Alan Weyland said.

"The sample of hair that we will be taking will give us a 90-day history of activity in relation to use of a variety of drugs," Weyland said.

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It has been nearly three years since Enid Public Schools implemented a random drug-testing policy for students in grades 8-12, and the program is going quite well according to school officials.

Initially, officials said, some parents were not thrilled about the testing, and several students protested with a flier campaign.

Students said at the time there was not enough information available to students and parents about the program and advised residents to investigate the policy.

Kim Poslick, Enid Public Schools drug education coordinator, said since then she has seen only a few parents and students hesitant about the testing.

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This month, House Bill 1804 went into effect, giving Oklahoma the most stringent laws on illegal immigration in the country. The law requires a check of citizenship status if a person is arrested on a felony complaint.

The law may already have had some effect on the amount of crystal methamphetamine in Tulsa County, as there has been a 10 percent to 15 percent decline in the amount seized by deputies in the months leading up to November, said Tulsa County sheriff's Sgt. Bob Darby.

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Oklahoma does not need more prison beds. It needs fewer.

Sen. Richard Lerblance, D-Hartshorne, said earlier this month that he will file a bill proposing a bond issue to pay for an additional 3,800 beds at state prisons.

According to the state Department of Corrections on Nov. 1, the state and private prisons were incarcerating more than 24,300 inmates, with another 1,100 state prisoners being held in county jails. The annual cost for Oklahoma's prisons is now more than half a billion dollars to house prisoners, and Lerblance is proposing a $309.7 million, 25-year bond issue to add 3,800 more beds.

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State drug enforcers are facing new threat: Different meth form on rise, officials say

With the enormous decline in clandestine methamphetamine labs in the state during the past few years, police have seen a significant increase in crystal meth.

Local and state law enforcement agents say almost all of the meth seized now is a crystallized, smokeable form of the drug that is produced in "superlabs" in Mexico and smuggled across the border.

For years, Oklahoma law enforcers fought what seemed to be a losing war against clandestine meth labs--homemade laboratories concealed in houses, apartments, sheds and even vehicles by meth cooks who used hazardous chemicals to create a powder form of the drug. Between the mid-1990s and 2003, the number of labs found by law enforcement rose dramatically.

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Methamphetamine manufacturers are transforming meth into fruit-flavored candy to sell a new version of the drug.

However, meth production is still taking a sharp decline and is not the epidemic it once was.

John Stanbery, a Stillwater police detective, said the department has not had to deal with this appearance yet.

"We've heard about meth being created like this, but we just don't know much about it because we haven't come across it lately," he said. "We do know that dealers create it during the manufacturing process to alter the appearance, though."

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Having once been a part of student journalism (way back in the '70s) I could only chuckle at the spelling error of writer Ben Rabun in his article, Local Hallucinogenic Plant Has Dangerous Side Effects (Wed, Oct 17).

The hallucinogenic moonflower plant (datura stramonium) is "jimson" weed not "gypsum" weed (gypsum is used in sheet rock and should not be ingested and will not get you high, but it does make for smooth walls).

The datura plant is one of the strongest hallucinogenic plants known and it was once utilized by certain indigenous tribes in the Americas.

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The Ninnekah board of education has a new member.

Jeff McConnell has stepped up to fill the board position that became open last month when Shane Fitzwater tendered his resignation.

Board President Rusty Garrett said McConnell has had an interest in becoming a member of the board for several years. Superintendent Todd Bunch said the new member will fit nicely with the other personalities on the board and with the direction the school is headed.

McConnell will fill the remainder of Fitzwater's term which will run out this coming February. At that time, the position will go back to the voters to decide who will sit on the board next.

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A plant native to Oklahoma has hallucinogenic qualities like LSD but is not listed as an illegal substance.

The plant is called moon bush or gypsum weed but many students call it "moon plant," said Brenna Gilchrist, a florist for the Oasis Garden and Gift Shop.

"The plant grows to about 3 feet and is characterized by its night blooming flowers and porcupine like round pods," she said.

It is not listed as an illegal substance in the state, but users could still go to jail because the drug is a hallucinogenic, said Lt. Mark Shearer, an OSU police officer.

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Dear Collegian Staff,

Collegian staff writer Kyle Klavetter has laid a heavy dollop of righteous ambiguity on all our heads with his pretentious and off-key screed, "Pot lacks purpose."

Cannabis is one of humanity's oldest agricultural commodities with a proud and prominent place in both global and U.S. history. Its prohibition is but seven decades old and a prohibition that began with a rotten and corrupt foundation, based on the xenophobic lies and perjured testimony before the US Congress by lifelong bureaucrat Harry Anslinger. Those corrupt beginnings are enough in themselves for any intelligent mind to see the moral failures, not in the use of cannabis, but in criminalizing those who consume it.

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