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]