They're said to cause psychotic episodes and belligerent behavior well beyond a hit of cocaine.

And now the synthetic drugs labeled as "bath salts" can lead to a prison sentence.

"As soon as the emergency law was passed by DHEC, we went out to all of our convenience stores," said Commander Ronda Bamberg of the Orangeburg County Sheriff's Office. "All of them had already pulled it from their shelves."

On Oct. 21, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration classified what authorities call synthetic cocaine and marijuana as illegal drugs. If a drug becomes illegal under federal law, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control can make it illegal under state law, too. It followed the DEA within days.

[continues 484 words]

Group Says Rural Areas Could Benefit

Dezz Archie, the executive director of the Columbia chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, doesn't want you to think his nonprofit group is all about half-baked ideas on how to make it legal to puff and grow the green stuff - it's more interested in using weed to grow the state's sputtering economy.

"We're really changing up our approach to how cannabis could affect South Carolina," Archie, 22, said on a recent Sunday over coffee at Cool Beans near the University of South Carolina campus.

[continues 643 words]

Abuse of a dangerous, highly- addictive recreational drug called "bath salts" sold on the Internet and at some gas stations and convenience stores has made its way to the Lowcountry.

Some local doctors, including Summerville Medical Center emergency department physician Tim Osbon, worry bath salt abuse is on the brink of spiking in the Palmetto State, following the trend nationally.

"It's going to be a real problem," Osbon said of the powerful new stimulant with side effects he compared to those of methamphetamine. "It's about to get out of control. We're going to see a lot of it in the next year."

[continues 506 words]

My letter for today is to inform the great citizens of South Carolina about the benefits of medical marijuana. Many of you know that medical marijuana, also known as cannabis, has been helping people in states that have passed laws to allow it. What many of you don't know is that South Carolina has had a similar act on the books for over 30 years.

It's called the South Carolina Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act.

Approved in February 1980, it makes marijuana available to cancer chemotherapy patients, radiology and glaucoma patients under certain conditions for the purpose of alleviating the patient's pain and discomfort.

[continues 70 words]

GREENVILLE, S.C.-The first debate of the Republican presidential race featured a series of spirited exchanges, with five largely lesser-known candidates taking shots at President Barack Obama on foreign policy and the new health-care law while showing differences among themselves.

Just days after Mr. Obama scored one of the biggest triumphs of his presidency with the killing of Osama bin Laden, several of the candidates laid into Mr. Obama for actions taken elsewhere in the world.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty congratulated Mr. Obama on the bin Laden killing but complained that the president had deferred to allies in the intervention in Libya. "If he said [Libyan leader] Moammar Gadhafi must go, he needs to maintain the options to make Gadhafi go. And he didn't do that," Mr. Pawlenty said.

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Required Stamps Once Raised More Than $31,000

COLUMBIA --- In South Carolina, even drug dealers are expected to pay taxes. Perhaps more surprising: Some of them do.

Or at least they used to. The Department of Revenue collections from the Marijuana and Controlled Substance Tax Act has evaporated to almost nothing during the peak recession years.

The last fiscal year brought in just $149 from people purchasing an official stamp to place on their products or to add to their stamp collections.

[continues 347 words]

Some South Carolina lawmakers said Thursday that unemployed residents should lose jobless benefits if they don't show up for a drug test offered by a prospective employer.

Legislation under debate by senators also would strip any of South Carolina's thousands of unemployed residents of benefits for failing a drug test. Its advocates said job seekers who refuse or miss tests - even while on a different job interview - should lose benefits.

"A lot of time we'll offer a job, but when we tell them where to go do drug testing, they never show up because they know they're going to fail it," said state Sen. Ray Cleary, a Murrells Inlet Republican.

[continues 464 words]

The League of Women Voters of the Charleston Area thanks The Post and Courier and Thomas Ravenel for bringing public attention to the important issue of widespread illegal drug use. We think the public needs a fact-based understanding about drug use and related government policy, including an unbiased consideration about whether the criminalization of drug use has made the problem better or worse.

Recently our Charleston Area League members decided to educate ourselves on these matters. Before the League of Women Voters adopts a position on an issue, we are required to investigate all sides of the issue with an open mind. Therefore, in 2010 we did a year-long study on illegal drugs in South Carolina.

[continues 381 words]

After some "shouting" following Thomas Ravenel's op-ed article last month, the talk about illegal drugs seems to have subsided. I think this is unfortunate because the issue isn't going away, and I think it is clear to almost any observer that the current policy, costing us hundreds of millions, no billions, of dollars each year isn't working. In addition to the damage it is causing here, it is damaging our relationships with many countries, but most importantly, it isn't working.

[continues 300 words]

Charleston County is expanding its drug rehabilitation efforts to include a special court for veterans.

Ninth Circuit Solicitor Scarlett Wilson on Monday announced the creation of a Veterans Treatment Court, where vets who end up in the criminal justice system can receive targeted attention to move them away from the addiction that got them arrested.

The strategy, which has been used in other parts of the country, is being done in conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs and Crisis Ministries.

[continues 330 words]

I understand that Thomas Ravenel wants any kind of drug to be available to one and all, and to be legal. But his breakdown of the number of deaths from the various drugs used is not the whole picture.

Some young men have cocaine delivered to their door by personal drug dealers, but thousands do not. These are the outcasts of society whose only thought is how, when, where do I get my next fix? There is nothing they won't do to stop this craving. They lie, steal, murder. Lose a wife, family, job, home, friends. Nothing is as important as cocaine and that next high.

[continues 231 words]

Bravo, Thomas Ravenel.

I agree 100 percent.

Gwen Tims

Terns Nest Road

Charleston

[end]

Thomas Ravenel might be the wrong spokesman for legalizing drugs; I believe he is. But he does make some good points. The problem with legalizing drugs, though, is the impact it would have on the socio-economic fabric of our state.

Drug criminalization keeps lawyers and judges employed. Prison systems provide jobs in South Carolina, including hard hit rural areas. The trickle-down economic benefits are the life-blood of many communities. Branding drug users as felons keeps them from competing with the rest of us for jobs and educational scholarships.

Do we really want to divert funding away from such a well-oiled system as the Drug War "industrial complex"? For what possible use?

Betsy Grund

Wesson Avenue

Charleston

[end]

I want to clarify my position on drugs. Schuyler Kropf asked me if I thought cocaine and marijuana should be legal and I said yes, but that would never be my policy initiative nor was it the object of my op-ed. As I told Schuyler, my position was to repeal prohibition as it was done in 1933.

In 1933, the repeal of alcohol prohibition didn't legalize the sale of alcohol at the federal level.

It simply turned it over to the states.

[continues 105 words]

Thomas Ravenel's Feb. 5 commentary regarding legalizing drugs gives me grave concern. Legalization could severely impact the socio-economic fabric of our state. He asks, 'Has all that incarcerating (of drug users) helped?'

Yes! The Drug War 'industrial complex' is thriving.

South Carolina law enforcement agencies, criminal courts and prison systems are expanding. As a defense attorney, I fear legalization could reduce the number of employed prosecutors, public defenders and judges who handle drug cases. Judges and lawyers would come off government payrolls. I say, let's keep them in state and federal courts.

[continues 152 words]

You brand Thomas Ravenel as 'playing the victim.' Then you add to his victimization by denigrating him as a drug law reformer.

Yes, he is a victim of both your editorial and the drug laws. When he broke the existing law, he knew he was running the risk of paying the consequences however unjust. So did anti-abolitionists when liquor drinking was illegal. So did freedom fighters when racial discrimination was legal. So do prostitutes who have no other way to make a living.

[continues 167 words]

I can't believe The Post and Courier would use the old shoot-the-messenger defense in its editorial criticizing Thomas Ravenel's column in favor of legalizing drugs. That is, if you can't attack the argument, attack the person making the argument which is what you did.

While you admitted he offered some persuasive points, you replied only that he's the wrong spokesman.

When he decried drug prohibition as "a violation of our civil rights," you answered that "he sounds as if he's playing the victim."

[continues 128 words]

In the many years I have spent as a law enforcement officer, I don't recall ever consciously using the term "Drug War" as my appellation for the societal problem of substance abuse. I may have used the term as a quote, giving in to the reality that it is so widely misused that if I stopped to discuss the term, I would deviate from the main point of my discussion.

I do not know the genesis of the use of the term, but I feel certain it was a misguided law enforcement official trying to "sell" some law enforcement program, or a politician. Thomas Ravenel's siren song of legalization or de-criminalization of drugs prompts me to address that issue. His is an old song with merely a new verse, or is it simply a re-arranging of the lyrics by a new singer?

[continues 1145 words]

Former state Treasurer Thomas Ravenel is back in the news, this time on the op-ed page as he writes in favor of the legalization of cocaine and marijuana. Readers might recall (unless they've been under a big old rock) that Ravenel spent 10 months in federal prison on a cocaine conspiracy charge and is still on probation for three years. (His defense at the time was that he was not buying cocaine to distribute but rather to "gift" his friends at parties at his home.)

[continues 624 words]

Ex-S.C. Treasurer Says Prohibition Is Destructive, Costly and Futile Strategy

Former S.C. Treasurer Thomas Ravenel is breaking his silence and taking on America's drug war, saying he advocates a repeal of the prohibition on drugs and calling the government's response a failure.

"Drug abuse is a medical, health care and spiritual problem, not a problem to be solved within a criminal justice model," he said.

Prohibition is "our government's most destructive policy since slavery," he also said.

[continues 722 words]