To understand why the Koozer family - Justin, Annie and 2-year-old Piper - left all their friends and church family in Ooltewah to move across the country to Denver, where they knew no one, try this: Start counting from zero all the way to 2,000. Or go walk two miles. Or watch the nightly news.

It should take you about 30 minutes.

During that time, imagine your heart cracking in half as you watch - helplessly - as your firstborn child shakes and convulses, a victim of her own private earthquake.

[continues 769 words]

In response to the Oct. 9 front page story, "Drug Babies on Rise," I believe Tennessee and our nation have miserably lost the "War on Drugs." Our state leads the country in methamphetamine use. The number of our state's drug-addicted newborn babies is horrific - 643 babies so far this year.

From babies to senior citizens and every age in between, illegal drugs destroy lives. A few pages over from the baby story, there was another about an 89- year old Detroit man who was arrested for transporting cocaine.

[continues 58 words]

KNOXVILLE (AP) - Two state lawmakers in Tennessee are pointing to Kentucky's recent approval of hemp farming as they push for a similar measure.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports Republican Sen. Frank Niceley of Strawberry Plains is drafting a bill with Republican Rep. Andy Holt of Dresden, and they plan to introduce the measure in next year's legislative session.

Nicely said Kentucky and six other states have passed measures legalizing hemp even though federal law prohibits it. Nicely said there also is support for changing federal laws, notably from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Sen. Rand Paul, both from Kentucky.

[continues 240 words]

Regarding Leonard Pitts' Aug. 18 column, the drug war is part of the problem. Illegal drug users are reluctant to seek medical attention in the event of an overdose for fear of being charged with a crime. Attempting to save the life of a friend could result in a murder charge. Overzealous drug war enforcement results in preventable deaths.

Rehabilitation also is confounded. I think it's safe to say that turnout at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings would be rather low if alcoholism were a crime pursued with zero tolerance zeal. Eliminating the penalties associated with illicit drug use would encourage the type of honest discussion necessary to facilitate rehabilitation and save lives.

ROBERT SHARPE, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C.

[end]

It's been a war on justice, an assault on equal protection under the law.

And a war on families, removing millions of fathers from millions of homes.

And a war on money, spilling it like water.

And a war on people of color, targeting them with drone-strike efficiency.

We never call it any of those things, though all of them fit. No, we call it the War on Drugs. It is a 42-year, trillion dollar disaster that has done nothing - underscore that: absolutely nothing - to stem the inexhaustible supply of, and insatiable demand for, illegal narcotics. In the process, it has rendered this "land of the free" the biggest jailer on Earth.

[continues 525 words]

It's been a war on justice, an assault on equal protection under the law.

And a war on families, removing millions of fathers from millions of homes.

And a war on money, spilling it like water.

And a war on people of color, targeting them with drone-strike efficiency.

We never call it any of those things, though all of them fit. No, we call it the War on Drugs. It is a 42-year, trillion-dollar disaster that has done nothing - underscore that: absolutely nothing - to stem the inexhaustible supply of, and insatiable demand for, illegal narcotics. In the process, it has rendered this "land of the free" the biggest jailer on Earth.

[continues 525 words]

Alberta Spruill was a 57-year-old devout churchgoer; a hardworking city employee who had never been in trouble with the law. At 6 a. m. on a May morning, Spriull was preparing to leave her Harlem apartment for work when a group of police officers broke down her door and threw a concussion grenade into her home.

The officers had received a tip from a confidential informant who told them that a convicted felon was selling drugs and guns from Spriull's apartment. The tip, it turned out, was a lie. Spruill suffered a heart attack during the traumatic police raid of her home and died two hours later.

[continues 756 words]

Government Should Be More Like Dave Chappelle

"Sometimes you should just give up. Quit!" That sage advice came from the incomparable comedian Dave Chappelle, one of pop culture's most famous quitters, during a standup performance in Chattanooga last week. Chappelle abruptly abandoned his Comedy Central sketch show in 2005, leaving $50 million on the table.

Despite the cliches about not giving up and quitters never winning, Chappelle sure seemed content entertaining the packed house at the Tivoli Theatre - probably more so than he would have been if he had continued doing something he didn't want to do year after year.

[continues 821 words]

Methods vary across district

Some Sumner County high schools have drug tested students for decades even though the Board of Education doesn't have a formal policy on the practice. How high schools across the county handle drug testing is inconsistent and the issue needs to be addressed before school starts in August, Director of Schools Del Phillips and Portland school board member Glen Gregory said at the board's June 18 meeting.

"(Right now) we have a kind of a mix of how and whether drug testing is happening or not happening and what groups are being tested," Phillips said.

[continues 761 words]

Recently, I viewed a Georgia Public Television program promoting homosexuality.

I flashbacked to programs for legalizing marijuana. In fuzzy '50s film clips, they portrayed conservatives as obsolete as black and white television, square as their thick framed glasses and narrow as their ties. They showed liberals well-focused as colorful, courageous veterans of persecution telling their own stories - style promoting substance.

I also remembered a John Stossel program about three teenagers using marijuana. The smart kid was fine; marijuana relaxed his busy mind. The average kid became distracted; his grades went down. The weak kid became an addict; his grades plummeted.

[continues 105 words]

Opponents of marijuana decriminalization oppose replacing prohibition with government-controlled regulation, saying ,"We don't want to send our kids the wrong message" This message is: "We think it's OK if our kids abuse marijuana, suffer harmful effects and destroy their lives."

But consider the messages that continuing to support prohibition send: That it's not possible to responsibly consume marijuana; that there is no difference between marijuana use and abuse; that as a recreational substance, it's better to drink alcohol, even though alcohol causes more health problems and greater costs to society; and that it's right to continue a 45-year-old policy that has not reduced demand, cost billions of dollars and inflicted criminal records upon hundreds of thousands.

[continues 90 words]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Rev. Edwin Sanders says churches should help heal the sick, feed the hungry and set prisoners free. Even if they smoke pot. Sanders, pastor of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville, is part of a group of clergy who want to end the war on drugs by decriminalizing drug use.

Sanders said the so-called war on drugs has failed for two reasons. First, he said, addiction to drugs is a disease, not a crime.

"You don't criminalize and incarcerate people who have a disease," Sanders said. "You treat and care for them."

[continues 302 words]

Drug Laws Not Enforced Fairly, Clergy at Nashville Conference Say

The Rev. Edwin Sanders says churches should help heal the sick, feed the hungry and set prisoners free.

Even if they smoke pot.

Sanders, pastor of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville, is part of a group of clergy who want to end the war on drugs by decriminalizing drug use. They met this week in Nashville at American Baptist College.

Sanders said the so-called war on drugs has failed for two reasons. First, he said, addiction to drugs is a disease, not a crime.

[continues 705 words]

The power to prosecute is an awesome power that confers the ability to ruin people's lives, which is why an attorney general should use that power judiciously.

There should be, to borrow from language in currency at the Obama Department of Justice these days, "balance." When authorities uphold federal drug laws, they should target the worst offenders first, not prosecute and jail their biggest critics.

When Barack Obama ran for president in 2008, a campaign spokesman told me Obama "believes that states and local government are best positioned to strike the balance between making sure that these policies are not abused for recreational drug use and making sure that doctors and their patients can safely access pain relief."

[continues 417 words]

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is the second in a two-part series taken from a conversation with 10th Judicial District Public Defender Richard Hughes. Sunday's installment dealt with alternative funding. This part deals with alternative sentencing.)

There are people who commit crimes who deserve incarceration and require constant supervision separate from the community, but others would benefit from some form of alternative sentencing.

One of the repeated criticisms 10th Judicial District Public Defender Richard Hughes hears is there is so much plea-bargaining in the criminal justice system that too many criminals receive probation without paying restitution. Another criticism is the warehousing of inmates who sit around doing nothing other than waiting to get of jail and then often return to their old lifestyles and commit the same crimes.

[continues 1300 words]

In years past, the Hamilton County grand jury's recommendation that the "state legislature should consider legalizing the possession of a small amount of marijuana, which is not packaged for resale" would have set off a firestorm. Now, however, the suggestion has fostered a reasonable discussion.

Clearly, the American public is ready to reconsider marijuana laws, as evidenced by a March poll conducted by the Pew Research Center that found a majority of Americans favor legalizing the use of marijuana. Locally, as the grand jury clearly understands, there is a practical rationale for decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana even for those of us who do not use weed: It would save taxpayers lots of money.

[continues 219 words]

NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee authorities are preparing to test welfare recipients for drug abuse.

The Legislature passed a bill requiring it and Gov. Bill Haslam signed it nearly a year ago. The statute gives the Department of Human Services until July 1, 2014, to begin screening people receiving welfare for illicit drug use.

The Tennessean reported the agency might begin with a diagnostic quiz that could ask if assistance recipients ever have abused more than one drug at a time or if they felt bad after abusing drugs. Depending on the answers, a urine screening could be required.

[continues 223 words]

In its list of recommendations for ways improve the local criminal justice system, the Hamilton County Grand Jury encouraged the state legislature to consider legalizing the possession of a small amount of marijuana in order to reduce the burden on courts and jails. Do you believe decriminalizing marijuana for personal use would be a wise policy decision?

President of the Tennessee Eagle Forum

It seems that someone on the Hamilton County grand jury thinks that one way to improve the county's criminal justice system would be to "legalize the possession of a small amount of marijuana which is not packaged for resale."

[continues 426 words]

The legal and quasi-legal growing of marijuana is big business, and don't just take my word for it. The Wall Street Journal said so on the front page of its weekend edition in a prominent place right below its play story on the Boston manhunt.

"The Pot Business Suffers Growing Pains," says the headline, a cry for capital - seed capital, so to speak - for startup businesses that are a lot better bet, and a lot more fun, than packaging toxic mortgages for sale to municipal pension funds.

[continues 472 words]

MEMPHIS - A police presence at a Memphis park didn't deter marijuana smokers from gathering to celebrate an annual counterculture event known as 4/20.

The Commercial Appeal reported the smokers blended in with other visitors to Overton Park on Saturday. It's celebrated on April 20 each year.

Keoka Washington and nine of her friends were in the park smoking marijuana and keeping a low profile. Washington said she started smoking Saturday at 11 a.m.

"We pass it. We're a group. Sharing is caring," Washington said.

[continues 142 words]

Keoka Washington, 25, said she started smoking weed at 11 a.m. Saturday to "get a head start" on celebrating the counterculture holiday 4/20. She and nine of her closest friends revel in the holiday that marijuana users refer to as "smokeout day" by firing up a blunt and eating.

"You can bite and smoke at the same time," Washington said. "We pass it. We're a group. Sharing is caring."

April 20 is the day that smoking weed was made popular by rock band Grateful Dead, but the origins of the phrase have been disputed. Smokers gathered at Overton Park discreetly mixed into a crowd of others who barbecued, walked their pets and enjoyed the sunny weather on blankets.

[continues 411 words]

Home drug screening kits will be given away on Saturday to Memphis area parents who want to test their kids for illegal drug use.

The Rural/Metro Corp. in cooperation with notMYkid.org chose 4/20 as the distribution date for the test because it's know as National Get High Day among marijuana users, according to a company statement.

About 200 kits will be available at the Baker Community Center at 7942 Church Street in Millington from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

[end]

I had the pleasure of reading the anti-marijuana letter "Pitfalls of marijuana." The writer's points are well-taken. Now I would like to offer some hard facts about the consequences of smoking just plain old tobacco. These facts deserve knowing since they represent enormous amounts of our health care dollars. In fact, these consequences account for the single largest outlay of money for health care. Most of this information is readily accessible from the highly respected CDC. Are you ready for the 800-pound gorilla in the room?

[continues 204 words]

In response to the April 13 letter "Pitfalls of marijuana," I hope the writer is also in favor of banning alcohol, caffeine, sugar, tobacco, cough medicine and any prescription anxiety or depression medicine if he is against any drug that "creates a sensation, an illusion that is momentary." Also, I am confused as to what he means by no redeeming qualities. It has been proven marijuana has medical benefits. Just because it has bad side effects does not mean no benefits. It's a question if the benefits outweigh the negatives.

[continues 124 words]

The president's position on pot continues to be dangerously vague and confusing."

As the nation's capital prepares to open its first legal medicinal marijuana dispensary and Sen. Rand Paul's call for legalization basks in bipartisan praise, it's time for President Barack Obama to clear the air around his own passive-aggressive position on pot.

Until now, the president has been remarkably adept at taking positions that seemed to be ahead of their time - and getting ahead of them.

[continues 642 words]

I recently read that a pot dealer in Trenton, Tenn., was given 30 years in the penitentiary for distributing a couple thousand pounds of marijuana. This is an extremely foolish carbon-copy repeat of the religiously spawned federal Prohibition of beer and other alcoholic products nearly a century ago.

The only drugs I do are aspirin, Finasteride and a few other benign medications my VA doctors prescribe; however, I have known hundreds of good, solid citizens who do smoke pot in their leisure time, and who do function as honest, upstanding members of the business world.

[continues 146 words]

Cites Respect for Changes on Possession

WASHINGTON U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen has asked the Justice Department to respect Colorado and Washington state referendums making marijuana possession legal, saying it would be "a mistake for the federal government to focus enforcement action on individuals whose actions are in compliance with state law."

Voters in Colorado and Washington passed laws Nov. 6 that make possession of less than an ounce of marijuana legal for individuals 21 years old or older, going beyond laws in other states where cannabis is legal for medical purposes. Colorado also permits cultivation of up to six plants and calls for an excise tax for marijuana sales with revenue devoted to school construction.

[continues 558 words]

Colorado and Washington will be on a Rocky Mountain high as recreational use of pot became legal in the two western states, but the possibility of the first southern state passing medical marijuana legislation went up in smoke for Arkansas.

Medicinal marijuana was almost a drive across the Memphis-Arkansas Memorial Bridge away, but Arkansas failed to pass the act with 51 percent against it and 49 percent in favor.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act would have allowed doctors to certify patients with "qualifying medical condition[s]" to grow, possess and use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

[continues 774 words]

PUTNAM COUNTY -- Drug and alcohol prevention isn't just the responsibility of adults.

Just ask Maggie Amoss.

The 15-year-old Cookeville High School sophomore has done her share of rallying for the cause, having been involved in any way she could through the years to get the word out.

"I've always been interested in the anti-drug and alcohol effort from when I started in the DARE program (when I lived) in Murfreesboro," she said. "From that time, I've wanted to help make my community a better place."

[continues 679 words]

I'm writing about a thoughtful letter, "Pot prohibition more harmful than use."

Is there any legitimate reason that a natural herb that has never killed anybody should be classified the same as heroin? I think not.

I know from personal experience that marijuana is a substitute for potentially deadly painkillers like Vicodin and is also a substitute for alcohol.

The pharmaceutical industry knows this and so does the alcohol industry. And this is probably why marijuana remains a criminalized substance.

Kirk Muse,

Mesa, Ariz.

[end]

October 4, 2012 at 6:46 p.m.

Tom Armstrong, Maryville

A recent Gallup poll shows record support for marijuana legalization, at 50 percent. Perhaps the U.S. is ready for legalization, and three states - Washington, Oregon and Colorado - are going to vote on it this November.

But it's an uphill battle, with anti-marijuana advocates championing the status quo of criminalization. Those opposed to legalization regularly associate the drug with a loss of personal responsibility and America's counterculture. The objection to marijuana legalization is therefore usually more moral than practical or economic. But what's moral about criminalization?

[continues 276 words]

Heroin has become the deadly crest of a wave of addictive drug use in communities around the country.

With addicts desperate for a cheaper high than prescription drugs or seeking a more powerful fix, experts are seeing heroin addiction treatment admissions, overdoses and fatalities rising in nearly every region, including areas where the drug has seldom been seen before.

In Ohio, state officials say drug overdoses from heroin increased 25 percent between 2008 and 2009, and are continuing to rise.

In Cowlitz County, Wash., an unusually pure shipment of heroin killed seven people in just five days during April.

[continues 1178 words]

GREENEVILLE - Since the state of Tennessee passed legislation banning synthetic drugs, Kingsport, Bristol and Sullivan County say a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the local bans has become moot.

Which is why the three governments are seeking once again to have the federal case dismissed.

Earlier this year, Ultimate Smoke of Kingsport, Cloud 9 Emporium of Bristol, and White Cloud Emporium and Hard Packs - both in Sullivan County - filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Greeneville challenging local bans of synthetic drugs by the three governments.

[continues 288 words]

The state affiliate of NORML, the organization that seeks to legalize marijuana, is making a more aggressive push in Tennessee with the unveiling of a billboard near the Capitol.

The billboard makes the case for medical use. It will be unveiled at 11 a.m. Saturday at the corner of Third Avenue North and Gay Street.

"It is time for Tennessee to seriously consider the facts about medical marijuana," said Doak Patton, president of Tennessee NORML. "It's time to end the war on medical cannabis that's targeting sick and elderly Americans."

[continues 94 words]

Memphis drug-ring accomplice testifies of violence that drove him to flee with his family

A former member of Craig Petties' drug organization told jurors Tuesday about a series of ghoulish events that drove him from Memphis and ultimately into the federal witness protection program.

Dana Bradley, testifying in the federal trial of two alleged hit men, said the disturbing errands he was asked to carry out on behalf of the drug ring included digging a grave, carting around a heavily armed death squad from Mexico and burning up a murder victim's car.

[continues 647 words]

Admitted drug trafficker Curtis Keller walked into Criminal Court for sentencing Tuesday, shielding himself from cameras with a sheet of paper on which he had printed: "Massive Corruption Within the Courts."

Things went downhill from there.

Keller, in bright red jail garb and escorted by two jail officers, was convicted last fall of directing a 2010 home invasion in Collierville, a scheme he acknowledged planning in an effort to get his marijuana back.

Kicking in a door in the middle of the night, threatening a woman and children with guns and pistol-whipping the man at the house, however, was the crowning achievement in a lifetime of crime, the judge said.

[continues 490 words]

Sitting in the driver's seat of his Chevy Cavalier, Chris Burns gripped a 20-ounce soda bottle and waited for his "shake and bake" methamphetamine to cook.

Then came the explosion and fire.

Burns and passenger Bobby Joe Joyner fled as blazing chemicals scorched their skin.

When police caught up with the pair, they admitted to cooking meth and causing the explosion while sitting at a stop sign on a rural Fayette County road. But it was months before either faced criminal charges.

[continues 1051 words]

Trial offers view of Memphis' drug lords Case of 2 cousins -- accused of being hit men in Petties' violent gang -- to resume Monday

Killers callously hunting down their Memphis targets. A Mexico death squad armed with assault rifles and silencers hidden in Cordova. A 6-year-old boy caught up in a shootout over a multi-million-dollar drug heist.

This portrait of Memphis' secret seedy side is continuing to take shape each day in the ongoing federal trial of two alleged hit men from the city's most notorious drug organization.

[continues 871 words]

It didn't surprise former U.S. Customs investigator Jamie Haase that a drug trafficker testified in federal court about cocaine sent from Mexico into the U.S. via FedEx.

Haase said the FedEx Express world hub in Memphis, which handles about 1.5 million packages on a typical night, just doesn't have enough people, drug dogs and detection gear to catch everything.

"The sheer volume of packages that goes through there makes it a win-win for drug traffickers," said Haase, who works in loss prevention in Greenville, S.C., and advocates for a group that favors liberalization of drug laws.

[continues 951 words]

KINGSPORT - Police Chief Gale Osborne said on Tuesday the "wheels of justice" are moving toward addressing the synthetic drug situation in the Model City, noting that the department has been in contact with the city of Knoxville, which shut down four "head shops" last week.

In response to the growing number of people using synthetic drugs, such as synthetic marijuana and so-called bath salts, Kingsport approved a citywide ban on the products Dec. 6 with the penalty for the sale and possession of such products being a $50 civil penalty.

[continues 282 words]