Whitehall police Officer David Artman remembers the woman's bruised face when he and his partner responded to a domestic dispute. They left that August day, he said, with her intoxicated boyfriend in handcuffs. Alcohol or drugs factor into domestic violence "almost every time," Artman told seventh-graders during a recent Drug Abuse Resistance Education, or D.A.R.E., program at J.E. Harrison Middle School in Baldwin-Whitehall School District. The D.A.R.E. program engages kids in discussions about drug abuse, peer pressure, self-esteem and bullying. [continues 509 words]
Rues Road-which winds through an idyllic and remote area of Upper Freehold Township, New Jersey, past lush farm fields and the occasional McMansion set back on a sprawling parcel of land-doesn't look much like a battlefield. But it's become ground zero in the fight over the state's Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act, in limbo for nearly two years since former Gov. Jon Corzine signed the bill on his last day of office in January 2010. A pot farm wants to move into a property on Rues Road, residents are up-in-arms, and medical marijuana advocates say a tiny but adamant group of anti-weed activists is behind efforts to stall the act indefinitely. And while many eyes here have been focused on New Jersey's nascent medical marijuana program as a potential model for Pennsylvania to adopt, the only lesson that seems to be coming out of the Garden State is how to pass a law without ever actually implementing it. [continues 1616 words]
A former Duquesne constable charged with conspiring to sell cocaine was found not guilty in U.S. District Court Friday. Prosecutors had painted him as a sworn law enforcement officer who provided safe haven for his cocaine-dealing friends. But Mr. Cobb, 30, testified Thursday that although his brothers, friends and even the mother of his son got mixed up with drugs, he chose a different path, signing on as a city firefighter from the age of 17 and working in private security. In 2006, he went to state constable school and took that post, which involves serving warrants but not making arrests. [continues 327 words]
In his Nov. 12 opinion piece, "Is the war on drugs worth it? At what cost?," Earl W. Davis characterizes the Obama administration's drug control policy as a "war" and likens it to America's experience with Prohibition in the early 20th century. On both points, he expresses an outdated view that does not reflect the comprehensive approach to prevention, treatment, recovery, and criminal justice reform being applied to the nation's drug problem today. The federal government is currently spending more on drug education and treatment ($10.4 billion) than on law enforcement ($9.2 billion) and when it comes to law enforcement, the administration is implementing a range of innovative public safety interventions that save tax dollars, treat addiction, and reduce criminal recidivism. In the past three years, drug treatment courts have sent approximately 120,000 offenders annually into drug treatment instead of prison. Through enhanced probation programs like Project HOPE in Hawaii, probationers are experiencing dramatic reductions in drug use as a result of drug testing and swift, certain, but reasonable sanctions. And through its support for the Second Chance Act, the administration has underscored the importance of substance abuse treatment, employment, mentoring, and other services that improve the transition of individuals from the criminal justice system to a new life in the community. [continues 133 words]
A New Kensington man who died after leading police on a brief chase early Sunday morning apparently choked to death in his vehicle. Allegheny County police said Curtis D. Patterson, 40, was found in his vehicle about 2 a.m. Sunday. Patterson, who fled police about an hour earlier, tried to make a high-speed turn from Freeport Road in East Deer onto the Ninth Street Bridge, but his car struck one of the concrete approaches to the bridge, according to Tarentum police Chief Bill Vakulick. [continues 159 words]
Equipment Seized From a Philadelphia-Area Marijuana Operation Is Going to Be Used to Grow a Different Kind of Herb - and Vegetables, Too. Delaware County District Attorney G. Michael Green tells The Philadelphia Inquirer the equipment taken in May from a sophisticated marijuana growing operation will go to Cheyney University and a Philadelphia community development corporation's Urban Food Lab. Authorities say the raid at a former Chester drugstore yielded industrial generators, grow lights and hydroponic plant containers. The Inquirer report ( http://bit.ly/r46Tgp) says Partnership CDC's Urban Food Lab grows greens, lettuce, peppers and broccoli. An on-campus business at Cheyney already uses hydroponic techniques to grow basil that's sold to local supermarkets. Cheyney professor Steven Hughes puts the value of the donated equipment at tens of thousands of dollars. [end]
The article describing the horrific massacre in Monterrey, Mexico, failed to note an important aspect of this story for U.S. readers: our complicity. The drug war wreaking death and destruction just south of the border is fueled by drug prohibition and lax gun control. The majority of profits feeding the Mexican mafia derives from the sale of marijuana to U.S. markets. This is profitable because marijuana is illegal, just as rum running was profitable during the era of alcohol prohibition. [continues 120 words]
FACEDOWN ON the pavement with two pounds of pot in her trunk and a cop punching her in the side, Colleen Begley could have packed her bohemian lifestyle away and called it quits. The Moorestown native could have dimed out all her longtime friends for a lesser sentence, with the hope of someday returning to a cozy life in that affluent suburb, where she could finish college and get into her family's law business. At the very least, she could have moved to Northern California, where there'd be less heat. [continues 996 words]
Leonard Pitts Jr. deserves a round of applause for his excellent piece last Sunday on the NAACP's resolution, calling for an end to the war on drugs. The NAACP's recent coming out on an issue that may not be widely popular among its mostly middle class base is indeed an act of courage and conversely may create an opportunity for the organization to reconnect with a constituency that may have viewed the NAACP as out of touch and irrelevant. [continues 91 words]
Thank you for making the case of methadone in your Aug. 7 editorial. Methadone has been proven to reduce drug use and related crime, death and disease among chronic opioid addicts. Though methadone is known as a treatment for heroin, it's also a viable treatment for addiction to synthetic opiates like OxyContin. Methadone staves off debilitating withdrawal symptoms, but does not produce a high that prevents patients from living productive lives. The tough-on-drugs alternative to harm reduction programs like methadone maintenance is a very real threat to public safety. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of trafficking. For addictive drugs like heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. Robert Sharpe Washington, D.C. [end]
There's good news for people who suffer with substance abuse and addiction and their families. A methadone therapy treatment center recently opened its doors in Ferguson Township and local residents who need treatment will no longer have to travel outside Centre County to deal with their addictions. Used in the treatment of opiates such as heroin, OxyContin, Vicodin or other opioid pain medications, methadone is the gold star treatment for substance addiction and allows patients to manage their addiction and enhance their social productivity. [continues 272 words]
The remarkable success in shrinking Philadelphia's jail population over the last two years has not produced a corresponding spike in violent crime. That should offer hope, at least, to Pennsylvania officials who are exploring ways to reduce crowding in a state prison system costing taxpayers nearly $2 billion a year. Judged by a recent report from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the city's key stakeholders in law enforcement have figured out more ways to "lock up the right people," as noted by Mayor Nutter's top aide on public safety. [continues 429 words]
You know money is tight when politicians - Republicans, no less - start talking about how expensive it is to lock people up. In more normal times, few things get elected officials more excited than rigging the justice system with mandatory minimum sentences and other legislative maneuvers designed to stiffen the spines of squishy judges. The idea, of course, is to ensure that offenders, violent or otherwise, do the hardest time possible. Voters are a skittish bunch. In large cities and small towns alike, they tend to think crime is getting worse though criminal violence has declined steadily since the early 1990s. [continues 665 words]
After months of delay, Gov. Christie has finally made the correct decision: to stop stalling implementation of the state's medical marijuana law. Christie never got the blanket assurance from federal authorities that they would honor the law. But he finally came to the same logical conclusion that others reached months ago, that it is unlikely that federal prosecutors would raid state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries. That doesn't mean federal agents won't pursue illegal marijuana operations, but they have much bigger operations to target in their war on drugs. [continues 294 words]
Many of the points made in the June 25 editorial "Marijuana on the Table" are well taken, but there are other important issues to consider. First, the much higher potency of the active ingredient, THC, in today's marijuana renders it a powerful drug that can induce significant impairment in motor and cognitive abilities, including those having to with operating a motor vehicle. Secondly, the use of any intoxicating substance is especially problematic in younger people. Full development of the brain does not occur until approximately age 22. Use of mood-altering chemicals by teenagers can have significant adverse consequences on brain development. [continues 78 words]
LYNNE ABRAHAM doesn't get it. She didn't get it when she was Philadelphia's district attorney from 1991 until last year. And she'll probably never get it, no matter how many statistics and reports show that America's 40-year-old "war on drugs" has been a hugely expensive and crime-inducing failure. "My view remains unchanged with regard to drug abuse," Abraham, 70, said from her office at the Archer & Greiner law firm, where the bulldoggish ex-prosecutor is now a partner. [continues 1310 words]
Bath Salts Should Be Banned Nationwide Synthetic drugs such as "bath salts" are now illegal in Pennsylvania. We urge the federal government to consider a national law similar to the one passed by our Legislature and signed into law recently by Gov. Tom Corbett. The new state law also prohibits synthetic marijuana. Bath salts became a popular drug because of their low price. The materials can be purchased for as little as $10 in some stores and online, The Associated Press reported. [continues 245 words]
There have been a lot of lopsided military defeats over the years, but I'm not sure any of them have been as one-sided as our dismal trouncing in the war on drugs. I've read estimates that we've spent a trillion dollars since President Nixon declared a war on drugs 40 years ago last month. If our goal was overflowing prisons, legions of dead police officers and federal agents, thriving drug dealers, urban battlegrounds controlled by gangs of thugs, grossly inadequate rehabilitation efforts and no reduction of drug use, we could declare "mission accomplished." [continues 702 words]
It's a sad commentary on the disconnect between politics and common sense that only now, 40 years since President Nixon declared war on marijuana, have members of Congress summoned the brain matter to propose ending the colossal failure known as federal marijuana prohibition. A bill introduced by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., and Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, would let states legalize, regulate and tax marijuana, limiting Washington's role to cross-border and interstate smuggling enforcement. Passage wouldn't quite bring about the flat-out legalization we favor but it would be a huge step in the right direction. [continues 107 words]
Although it shouldn't be a surprise, mixed messages came out of Washington, D.C. this week. On Tuesday the Food and Drug Administration released new graphic warning labels for cigarette packages. On Thursday U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex., and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., along with other members of Congress, introduced legislation in the House to limit the federal government's role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling. The initial reaction is how can the government try to encourage more people to quit smoking, but not want to enforce laws against marijuana use. [continues 189 words]
Congressmen Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and Ron Paul (R., Texas) have introduced a bill to end the federal prohibition on marijuana and free the states to decide whether to legalize the drug for medical or recreational purposes. Under the best of circumstances, congressional action would be just the right medicine for Gov. Christie, who has refused to sign New Jersey's medical-marijuana law until he is certain that federal authorities would honor it. Some medical-marijuana dispensaries in California were raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration earlier this year, despite being legal and despite the Obama administration's having said it would lay off dispensaries that operate within state laws. [continues 270 words]
I reread Tony Norman's June 7 column (" 'The Wire' Showed the Fallacy of Drug War") and don't know whether to be confused or angered. If he is stating that the war on drugs is not a success, I cannot disagree. If he is stating that HBO's fictional series should be used as the basis to abandon the current legal system (flawed as it may be), I'm astounded. It's a fictional series. Using actors from this series to sit on a Justice Department panel and taking their comments seriously is ludicrous. Using citizens, law enforcement and judicial officials who have been involved in drug cases to discuss the system's problems would seem to be a better use of our money. [continues 114 words]
As Tony Norman's June 3 column ("Easy Up in Drug War? Smart But Unlikely") mentioned, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy immediately rejected the Global Commission on Drug Policy's call for reform and defended the "balanced drug control efforts" of the U.S. government. These "balanced" efforts have given the land of the free the highest incarceration rate in the world. Prohibition-related violence has caused upward of 35,000 deaths in Mexico over the past four years. Despite criminal penalties, the United States has higher rates of drug use than European countries like Portugal that have decriminalized. This country can no longer afford to throw good money after bad drug policy. Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
I applaud the conclusions of the Global Commission on Drug Policy -- detailed in Tony Norman's June 3 column ("Ease Up in Drug War? Smart But Unlikely") -- that announce what has become patently obvious for decades: The war on drugs is a misguided effort that foments violence and abets organized crime. However, I fear the commission's conclusions will fall on willfully deaf ears. Until Americans embrace the idea that people have an inalienable right to do what they wish with their bodies -- even if their actions are harmful -- no amount of rational persuasion or empiric evidence will succeed. Butler [end]
While reading Tony Norman's June 3 column about the Global Commission on Drug Policy ( "Ease Up in Drug War? Smart But Unlikely" ), I came across the May 15 report by Michael A. Fuoco, "Heroin Use in Region at Highest Level Ever." This is EXACTLY the problem Ruth Dreifuss faced in the early 1990s. She is a member of the commission and also Switzerland's former president and minister of home affairs. Bern and Zurich were trying to cope with an epidemic of opiate addiction and AIDS caused by IV drug use. (We Americans read about Zurich's notorious Platzspitz, aka "needle park".) She got the police and the medical community to agree on an experiment. They started in 1992 by closing Zurich's "needle park" to drug users and letting hard-core addicts register with the state to obtain clean heroin. They also offered methadone maintenance, counseling and, if requested, treatment to abstinence. [continues 183 words]
For five seasons, HBO's "The Wire" illustrated the futility and moral bankruptcy of the war on drugs. Unlike any other series on television, "The Wire" never flattered the cops, glamorized drug dealers or rationalized the destruction of whole neighborhoods in the name of drug prohibition. None of Baltimore's leading institutions escaped indictment on "The Wire." The corruption of the city's political elite, the collapse of its industrial base, the city's compromised court system, the incompetence of the police brass, the failure of the schools and the inability of the media to connect the dots contribute to what every street-level character routinely referred to as "the game." [continues 663 words]
One of the first calls Mazzitti & Sullivan Counseling Services handled Tuesday was from a distraught mother. Her son had spent the Memorial Day weekend getting high on bath salts, a legal, readily available and worrisome intoxicant often described as "synthetic cocaine." "He was having a paranoid break with reality," said Andrew Sullivan, the Harrisburg-based counseling firm's president. That's just one episode in an epidemic of synthetic drug use that's growing with frightening speed locally and nationally, Sullivan said Friday at a public forum hosted by Dauphin County Drug and Alcohol Services. [continues 531 words]
The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world." That's just the first line of the first paragraph of the Report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy. The paragraphs that follow don't mince words, either: "Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US government's war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global policies are urgently needed," the report continued. [continues 620 words]
As a teenager interested in the well-being of our country, I am always listening to the news of our economy's recession and our government's deficit. While this is taking our politicians in Washington a long time to solve, a simple solution sticks out in my mind: the legalization of marijuana. I'm not saying this would be a quick fix, but I think it would provide favorable gains for our country. The legalization would prove to be tremendously beneficial to the United States, allowing for medicinal purposes across the country and funds to be funneled back into our economy. I am an advocate for making chemotherapy treatments a bit less painful for cancer patients; I am an advocate for taxing marijuana, which would allow for some money to be made; and I am an advocate for our government spending its time imprisoning real criminals rather than the "criminals" whose only offense was getting high. I hope this decision will be made before my generation has to pick up the pieces from the mistakes of the nation's current leaders. Cheri Sparacino College Township [end]
There is no denying the economic state our country is in right now. So with officials looking in every budget for places to cut spending, why is no one considering legalizing marijuana as a source of income? There are many ways it could help, both in increasing revenue and decreasing spending. While taxes are an item of discussion lately, no one is discussing the masses of money that could flow in if marijuana was made legal and sales taxes were applied - not to mention the fact that people are going to continue to purchase marijuana even if it is illegal. So why say no to helping our government get some greatly needed cash? [continues 94 words]
HARRISBURG - House lawmakers are adding a synthetic drug that caught the attention of law enforcement officials just weeks ago to a bill expanding the list of controlled substances. The drug 2C-E is a hallucinogenic that mimics LSD and ecstasy and is considered responsible for the death of a user recently in Minnesota. The Judiciary Committee Tuesday approved an amendment adding 2C-E to Senate-approved legislation banning the sale of "bath salts" that is getting priority attention before the legislative summer recess. [continues 227 words]
A group of local youth were given a chance to let President Barack Obama hear their opinions on some of the country's most serious and controversial issues Friday afternoon. Williamsport's YouthBuild program was one of 48 programs across the country chosen to hold a roundtable discussion with a representative of the President's administration. Following the discussion, the group will prepare a report summarizing their opinions to be submitted to the White House. Bill Wehry, state executive director for the Farm Service Agency, listened as members of the local program's advisory council voiced their opinions on a number of topics, including jobs, unemployment, health care, legalization of marijuana, same-sex marriage, social security, racial profiling and drug testing. [continues 385 words]
Regarding the May 17 editorial ("Eradicating drug dealers"), the work of the Cambria County Drug Task Force is no doubt well-intended, but ultimately counterproductive. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs such as heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to increase criminal activity to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime, it fuels crime. With alcohol prohibition repealed, liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings, nor do consumers go blind drinking unregulated bathtub gin. [continues 123 words]
Laurel to lawmen who busted ring - - Local and federal officials are to be praised for their efforts in what is being hailed as one of the largest drug busts in our region's history. On May 9, more than a dozen individuals were arrested and charged in relation to a drug ring that stretched from a tavern in the small Cambria County community of Carrolltown all the way to Canada and California. Since then, two more people have been arrested in connection with an operation that brought illegal substances including cocaine, marijuana, hallucinogenics and prescription drugs into the Carrolltown-Bakerton area. [continues 299 words]
Their smiling photos conveyed youth's bright hope. Accompanying newspaper stories blared addiction's blind hopelessness. One of them, a 24-year-old full-time substitute teacher at the city's Creative and Performing Arts high school, was charged late last month in a bank heist with her boyfriend and with stealing more than $22,500 in laptop computers from CAPA to feed the couple's $100-a-day heroin habit. The other, a 20-year-old student at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, was killed early last Sunday in McKees Rocks when a deal to trade his iPad for $200 worth of heroin went bad, police said. [continues 1021 words]
LOCK HAVEN - Clinton County District Attorney Michael Salisbury has asked the county for an ordinance banning the sale and use of "bath salts" commonly consumed as a legal but highly dangerous synthetic drug. Clinton County may join a number of counties looking for a temporary solution to a growing problem to fill the gap while the state grapples to create a more permanent, statewide ban. "In my three-and-a-half years in office, this is only the second time I've felt it necessary to approach the board of commissioners on an issue," Salisbury said. "I am saddened by what I am seeing. (Thursday) evening, we had a high-speed chase on Interstate 80 that eventually involved dozens of officers and led to the injury of one officer, along with risking the lives of many others and the public." [continues 662 words]
Wednesday's editorial, "Christie blowing smoke on medical marijuana," was quite right. But not only should medical marijuana be made available to patients in need; adult recreational use should also be regulated. Drug policies modeled after alcohol prohibition have given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Illegal drug dealers don't ID for age, but they do recruit minors immune to adult sentences. So much for protecting the children. Throwing more money at the problem is no solution, either. Attempts to limit the supply of illegal drugs while demand remains constant only increase the profitability of drug trafficking. For addictive drugs such as heroin, a spike in street prices leads desperate addicts to greater criminal activity in order to feed desperate habits. The drug war doesn't fight crime; it fuels crime. [continues 67 words]
The Christie administration has found yet another way to delay implementation of New Jersey's medical marijuana law. Enough already. The measure was debated for years and thoroughly vetted by the state Legislature. It was finally adopted and signed into law by Gov. Jon S. Corzine more than a year ago. But Christie has sabotaged it at every turn. The law took effect last October, but it's still unclear when medical marijuana will be dispensed. Many chronically ill patients have been waiting for years. Elise Segal, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, told the Drug Policy Alliance that she and "other sick and dying patients" feel like "pawns in a game of politics being played by the Christie administration." [continues 261 words]
YOU'D smoke it. Or, hey, the economy's down, so maybe you'd sell it to your buddy who brought a joint to the college reunion. But only about a third of the more than 1,500 readers who voted in a Philly.com poll yesterday said that they would call police - as an Upper Darby couple did last week - if 5 pounds of pot mysteriously showed up on their doorstep. Upper Darby Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood Sr. said that he's disappointed in the nearly 70 percent of you who wouldn't turn the marijuana over to authorities. [continues 311 words]
Regarding Ronald Elgart's April guest opinion, the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2009, there were 858,405 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police officers, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not lower rates of use. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Decriminalization is a long overdue step in the right direction. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls distribution, marijuana consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. This "gateway" is a direct result of marijuana prohibition. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy [end]
Marijuana has been in the news an awful lot lately. The ballot referendum in California. Medicinal marijuana becoming legal in many states, including New Jersey. Philadelphia's decision to downgrade the possession of a small amount of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a summary offense. Cable TV shows that tell us how marijuana has become mainstream in America. But in the rest of the state, and particularly here in Bucks County, sorry guys, it is still a crime. It used to be that clients who sat across my desk from me were more than a bit embarrassed after being arrested for possessing weed. But in the past year or so, perhaps because of the public debate or from watching too many Judd Apatow movies, my prospective clients from teens to seniors, now look at me like I have a third eyeball in the middle of my head when I tell them about the long list of penalties and expenses they are facing. [continues 429 words]
As in many other areas, the government needs to look at these designer drugs as a problem that cannot be solved by threat of jail time. For one thing, the current generation has a different perception of jail. It has become an accepted and even expected part of growing up. For another, in this time of unemployment, we have to expect that people will continue to use ingenuity to solve their fiscal crisis. Government will never keep up with the manufacturers, no more than our "war on drugs" has cured the past situation. [continues 104 words]
HARRISBURG - With new types of dangerous synthetic drugs quickly appearing on the market, state lawmakers and law enforcement officials face a challenge to keep legislation banning their sale up to date. The House plans a final vote the week of April 4 on a bill to ban the sale of "bath salts," which mimic the effects of cocaine and methamphetamine, as well as other synthetic narcotics. This bill is a conglomeration of proposals to add various synthetic narcotics sold in different parts of the state to the list of controlled substances. Once approved, this bill would go to the Senate, which has bills of its own. [continues 358 words]
Grieving Mom Screams at Him on Courthouse Steps SCRANTON -- Leaving a courtroom where he had just been convicted of racketeering for taking a $1 million kickback from the builder of the for-profit lockups, a former juvenile court judge defiantly insisted he never accepted money for sending large numbers of children to those detention centers. Former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella was convicted Friday in what prosecutors said was a "kids for cash" scheme that ranks among the biggest courtroom frauds in U.S. history. Ciavarella, 61, left the bench in disgrace two years ago after he and a second judge, Michael Conahan, were accused of using juvenile delinquents as pawns in a plot to get rich. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has dismissed 4,000 juvenile convictions issued by Ciavarella, saying he sentenced young offenders without regard for their constitutional rights. [continues 711 words]
As much as officials agree a danger lurks in bath salts and synthetic marijuana, they do not believe those types of "legal highs" are widely used in this region. While synthetic marijuana has been around for a while, bath salts are relatively new on the scene. Both can be easily obtained locally. "I know it's here, but I haven't seen it a lot," said city police officer Ken Mains. Mains believes it is critical that parents are aware of the products. [continues 571 words]
Bangor School Board President Joseph BoyleThe Bangor Area School District has taken an important first step toward protecting students from teachers who have problems with drugs or alcohol by implementing a drug testing policy for new hires. But that's all it is. An important first step. The next step must be a screening program for existing teachers, an idea the school board has supported in theory but has not yet approved. Superintendent Patricia Mulroy says the policy will be part of labor negotiations with the teachers union sometime later this year. The board's solicitor has reportedly shared concerns about whether a random drug testing policy for teachers would be constitutional. So the board is aiming for a policy where teachers would be tested if there's just cause, according to board President Joseph Boyle. Boyle said the school district doesn't want to waste taxpayers' money or administrators' time defending the policy in court. [continues 138 words]
Upon reading Pete Blanchard's letter to the editor ("Was drug arrest just a big show?" Jan. 16), I felt that a response was needed. I couldn't believe that Pete apparently felt the incident involving the alleged selling drugs out of Ali Abualburak's house was a "small case." I was astonished to read how insignificant it was viewed by this young person. Selling drugs in any form is against the law and, more important, it can affect the "customers" redirecting them from healthy and productive lives to ones of social and financial destruction. Once they become "hooked," it's now the taxpayers who will be required to finance the burden to meet all the social and medical issues associated with these customers' use of drugs. [continues 75 words]
HARRISBURG -- Some call it "K2." Others call it "genie," "spice" or "legal bud." State Rep. Jennifer Mann calls it dangerous. The Lehigh Valley Democrat is renewing her effort to criminalize possession of synthetic marijuana. A similar proposal overwhelmingly passed the House this fall but the legislative session closed before the bill could come to a vote in the Senate. The product, which sells online and in smoke shops for $10 to $20 an ounce, is made from plant products sprayed with chemicals that, when smoked, mimic the effects of marijuana. [continues 405 words]
The Inquirer hit a bull's eye with the editorial "Sell drugs or go jobless" (Tuesday), and it's not just locally. It's throughout North America and beyond. You say that "there must be consequences for people who violate the law," but "war on drugs" laws are discredited and unaffordable and create contempt for government. It's time for credible drug-law reform, and at the very minimum that means legalizing the relatively safe, extremely popular, God-given plant cannabis (marijuana). Legalizing and regulating cannabis will create jobs, increase tax revenue, lower crime rates, lower hard-drug addiction rates, add credibility to government drug messages, open the door to hemp farming, and bring dozens of other benefits. Cannabis should have never been prohibited from the beginning. Stan White Dillon, Colo. [end]
I applaud Alfred Lubrano's recent article ("The drugs dilemma," Sunday) for its insight into the complex challenges associated with breaking the stronghold of the drug trade and the cycle of addiction in Kensington. One key barrier that the article fails to mention, however, is the difficulty many face accessing quality substance-abuse treatment. There are many reasons for this among substance abusers: reluctance to take the first step to enter treatment; uncertainty about how to navigate the treatment system; and limited treatment options in the Kensington section of the city, particularly for youths. Programs like New Pathways, which actively recruits drug users on the streets to help them enroll in treatment and supports their recovery when they return to their neighborhoods, can help address these barriers. [continues 61 words]
Inside Pennsylvania
