I thoroughly enjoyed your article concerning the growing amount of pot dispensaries in Colorado and Washington. It was interesting to learn about the large profit margins these businesses enjoy.

I'm just wondering when will the federal government jump on board and legalize marijuana and end all this chaos caused by conflicting federal and state laws? In my opinion, the federal government will legalize marijuana when someone in the capital realizes the money to be made from pot. Nothing gets people moving faster than money that could be potentially made.

Olivia DeWitt

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A controversial new Tennessee law to drug-test applicants for public benefits has already resulted in the Department of Human Services disqualifying people seeking aid since the rules went into effect July 1.

Four people were turned down because they refused to participate in any part of the drug screening process. Six other people willingly submitted to a drug test, and one tested positive. Officials with the Department of Human Services say they are making contact with that applicant for further action - which could include referral to a drug treatment program as a condition of receiving benefits or disqualification if the person refuses.

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The only time I ever thought about where the illegal drugs I was purchasing might have come from was when I lucked up in the purchase of some particularly potent cocaine.

I didn't ask about the urgency to move such product at such cheap prices, but when we got the eight ball back to our dinghy hotel room and started to break it up, we saw it: a mysterious-looking stamp pressed in the smooth side of the lump of coke, a skull and some words in Spanish prominent in the indention. The sight of it filled me with a little bit of unease, because it was further proof that we were indulging in a game that could have had potentially deadly consequences. It was obviously from someplace south of the border, and rather than contemplate the violence that had accompanied it north to the streets of Myrtle Beach, S.C., we busted it up and proceeded to get high and not think of it again.

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Two of the larger social trends of our time - the growth of payday gambling and the legalization of marijuana - have two things in common: They are justified as the expansion of personal liberty and they serve the interests of an expanding government.

The ideological alliance behind these changes is among the strangest in American politics. Libertarians seek to lift governmental restraints on consensual acts. State governments seek sources of revenue without the political inconvenience of requesting broad tax increases. Both find common ground in encouraging and exploiting the weaknesses and addictions of citizens. (And business interests and their lobbyists, of course, find new ways to profit from reliable vices.)

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The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child. Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop.

What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out. Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I'd order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.

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A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971.

Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever.

The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike.

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A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971.

Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever.

The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike.

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ALGOOD -- In an effort to engage the community in making their city safer, Algood Police have launched a drug tip hotline.

"We're asking anyone inside the city limits of Algood to report -- anonymously -- any drug activity or crime," detective Justin Medlin said. "We can't be everywhere at once, so we need the public's help."

Medlin credits Chief Gary Harris for helping him with this initiative.

"There is a drug problem here in Algood," Medlin said. "We're wanting the hotline to become community-oriented. The community is our eyes and ears."

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I recently had the privilege of being selected to serve on a jury. I sat through a full morning with 50 other citizens before they were seated on a jury or sent home. The judge thanked everyone and apologized for the time it took, but he said the courts were backed up.

The case was for simple possession of marijuana. The defendant was cited nearly a year ago. Several months later, the case went before a grand jury and it was determined there was enough evidence to go to trial.

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Gov. Bill Haslam heard the opposition. He hardly could have missed it, as a nationwide campaign exploded in the 10 days leading up to one of his most crucial decisions this legislative session.

Would he sign a law allowing women to be criminally charged for drug use during pregnancy?

With the proposal on the Republican governor's desk, thousands of petitioners, national medical associations, reproductive rights advocates and editorial writers bombarded him with demands for a veto.

But as noisy as it was - and as much as the doctors and nurses who treat babies born to drug-addicted mothers seemed united in the view that the law was a terrible idea - the outrage came too late. It never truly ignited until lawmakers had passed their bills by wide margins. And it hung on the wispy hope that the governor would apply a veto power he has put to use just twice in four legislative sessions.

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NASHVILLE (AP) - The White House drug policy director is offering a sobering message about driving while under the influence of drugs. Despite significant progress in the last few decades when it comes to getting drunken drivers off the road, an alarming number of people get behind the wheel while under the influence of drugs, Michael Botticelli said Monday in Nashville.

"We see this as a major public health and public safety issue," Botticelli told The Associated Press after speaking at the largest meeting of public safety officials in the nation. It's important, he said, that communities raise awareness of the problem. Botticelli is acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

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The top White House drug policy czar said Monday in Nashville that he couldn't comment on the decision Gov. Bill Haslam must make today about whether to sign legislation that would criminalize women who use drugs while pregnant.

Then he let fly.

"Under the Obama administration, we've really tried to reframe drug policy not as a crime but as a public health-related issue, and that our response on the national level is that we not criminalize addiction," said Michael Botticelli, acting director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "We want to make sure our response and our national strategy is based on the fact that addiction is a disease."

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Tennessee women who use drugs while pregnant can be criminally charged for harm done to their infants beginning July 1.

Gov. Bill Haslam signed the legislation Tuesday after "extensive conversations with experts including substance abuse, mental health, health and law enforcement officials," he wrote in a statement. "The intent of this bill is to give law enforcement and district attorneys a tool to address illicit drug use among pregnant women through treatment programs."

The governor's decision comes after a week of mounting nationwide opposition from civil and reproductive rights groups. They argued that criminalization would drive vulnerable women away from drug addiction treatment.

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Simple Answer: Amid controversy, sometimes the basic facts of drug addiction get lost.

The nation is watching Tennessee for new legislation that would allow women to be criminally charged if they use drugs during pregnancy that harm their newborns.

State and national groups have asked Gov. Bill Haslam to veto the bill before Tuesday, saying criminalization isn't the right approach to stem the state's growing numbers of babies born dependent on drugs.

This complicated epidemic raises many questions, yielding few simple answers. Here are a few:

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A petition hand-delivered to Gov. Bill Haslam's office on Friday includes the names of 10,500 people asking him to veto legislation that would allow women to be criminally charged for drug use during pregnancy.

Haslam has until Tuesday to act before the legislation becomes law. He hasn't said what he will do, and a spokesman said he's still collecting information. In four legislative sessions, Haslam has vetoed two bills and allowed one to become law without his signature.

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A U.S. Army veteran and his wife say they are moving from Clarksville to Pueblo, Colo., in order to obtain the marijuana that helps control the pain Max Bailey suffers from injuries acquired in Afghanistan.

Jen Bailey told The Leaf-Chronicle doctors want to put her husband on opiate pain killers, but he does not want to end up addicted to pills. She said marijuana worked well for him until police raided their home on Feb. 25, confiscating 12 marijuana cigarettes and charging her with simple possession.

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Republican infighting doomed legislation that would have allowed limited use of medical marijuana and started to privatize the state's beleaguered child welfare system. Now Gov. Nathan Deal is exploring administrative changes to carry out what lawmakers failed to do.

Deal has consulted with state agency heads about steps that would allow Georgia families to use cannabis oil to treat medical disorders until lawmakers return to Atlanta next year. And he said he's considering signing an executive order to jump-start the foster care privatization push that failed last week.

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Georgia Lawmakers Say No; Tennessee Leaves Door Open.

A medicinal oil made from marijuana that won't get you high - but has parents moving to Colorado where it's used to treat children suffering from hundreds of potentially fatal seizures each week - won't be allowed in Georgia this year.

Georgia lawmakers did not pass legislation meant to make it easier for parents to get the cannabis oil.

Meanwhile, Tennessee legislators left the door open a crack.

A committee voted down a broad medical marijuana bill Tuesday. But legislators still may approve a four-year study to determine whether oil low in tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the component that causes marijuana's "high," is effective at alleviating children's intractable seizures, under a bill authored by Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah.

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A new conventional wisdom is on the rise: Drug prohibition, or "the war on drugs," is a costly flop. It not only failed to cut drug use and associated social ills significantly but has also imposed additional social costs - or "catastrophic harm," as my colleague Radley Balko put it - far exceeding the benefits. Those costs include violent crime linked to the black-market drug trade as well as the mass arrest and incarceration of small-time users, a disproportionate number of whom are African-American.

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Albert Einstein purportedly defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This perfectly describes our country's drug policy. In his column of Feb. 12, David Cook is of two minds about legalizing drugs, saying correctly that legally selling drugs does not qualify the U.S. to be that shining beacon on the hill we all wish it to be, but his conclusion that we therefore should not legalize them is incorrect.

Under present laws, extensive tax funds are used to pursue, capture, prosecute and incarcerate nonviolent drug users. This foolish program of proven failure should be scrapped, and all drugs should be legalized, taxed and rigidly controlled, and the funds diverted to education and other positive state needs, such as rehab for those who want it, cleaning our neighborhoods, promoting business and fighting poverty. Many adults can safely use drugs, and do (alcohol and tobacco are legal). The problem isn't drugs, it's addiction, and its cost to society. If you want to pay fewer taxes, drop the war on drugs. We know what doesn't work; it's time to try something else.

Dayton, Tenn.

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