Regarding "Marijuana find no surprise to Polk County residents" (Page B1, Wednesday), if Polk County or the state has any problem getting rid of the pot they are pulling up, I have a suggestion: Sell it to Colorado or to the state of Washington. Texas could certainly use the couple million dollars it would bring. Bob Sieckmann, Trinity [end]
Texans Need to Know Where Candidates Stand on Pot The Marijuana Policy Project advocacy group, spearhead for national pot reforms, has hired a full-time political director in Texas to focus on changing laws here. The organization has also hired a lobbyist to work the state Capitol. The idea that conservative, law-and-order Texas is ripe for change might have been ridiculed in the not-too-distant past. Things are moving fast, though, as it becomes clearer that the public is fed up with needless casualties and wasted money from the nation's decades of waging war against weed. Even in Texas, people are fed up. [continues 392 words]
With calls for change coming from across the spectrum, let states dictate marijuana laws. We always knew that marijuana altered the human brain, but it must be more powerful than we thought if it has the famously liberal New York Times editorial board in agreement with Gov. Rick Perry. In a recent editorial, the collective voice of the Grey Lady echoed a sentiment that Perry expressed last year at World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: Marijuana laws should be dictated by the states, not the federal government. It is a position that this board has reiterated over the past several years. [continues 515 words]
Regarding "Marijuana isn't necessarily safe to treat what ails us" (Page B13, Sunday), before David Murray, the senior fellow in the Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research, condemns using marijuana medically, he should ask, "What is marijuana?" The federal definition of "marihuana" is over 100 words long, but does not mention either THC, CBD or smoke. He should know that there has been a bait-and-switch to advance a political agenda. It occurred about 44 years ago, when that definition was enacted into law, then temporarily placed into Schedule 1, thus precluding the studies he requires for validation. [continues 86 words]
Re: =93Lower Sentences for Drugs =AD Commission right to offer reduced penalty,=94 Monday Editorials. For the 50-year period spanning the 1920s to early 1970s, there were about 110 state and federal prisoners per 100,000 in the United States. In 1973, President Richard Nixon created the Drug Enforcement Administration by executive order, thereby ushering in the modern war on drugs. State and federal prisoners now number about 700 per 100,000. After release, these prisoners can be legally discriminated against for the rest of their lives. They can be refused employment, housing, education, government benefits and the right to vote. [continues 132 words]
Reports repeatedly conclude habitual drug use in the United States is the root cause for children from Central America to illegally come here. The drug cartels there use violence to make them leave, or the children can stay and be killed. The armed forces, several thousand law enforcement employees, miles of fences and walls, electronic and air spying, jails and deportation proceedings - all of these combined will not greatly alleviate this latest immigration problem we bring upon ourselves. Besides, all of them are a great waste of time, money and manpower except for those among us who want to make money by these means. [continues 96 words]
Commission Right to Offer Reduced Penalty America's effort to use our prisons to stem the illegal drug problem has largely failed. Incarceration of drug offenders has seen prison and jail populations skyrocket, even as public opinion has shifted away from harsh sentences for nonviolent drug crimes. That's why the U.S. Sentencing Commission was right to decide this month that some 50,000 federal drug trafficking offenders could be eligible for reduced sentences. The amendment to federal sentencing guidelines, approved in April, is already in effect for offenders facing sentencing in the future, creating an issue of fairness: Why should the length of a sentence be determined by the date of sentencing? [continues 377 words]
No one seems to want to face up to the bad policies and laws that have created our latest immigration problems on our southern border. Starting in 1937 with the prohibition of marijuana and all other recreational drugs thereafter, America has funded all the drug cartels in Mexico and Central and South America to such an extent that they are more powerful than the governments in those countries. These cartels have destroyed the economies in these countries and created such violence and lawlessness that the refugees from these countries are fleeing here for safety and economic opportunity. Remember that alcohol prohibition fueled organized crime in America previous to this prohibition of drugs. We didn't seem to learn from the previous mistake. Easy, feel-good legislation is not always a good thing. We created this problem! Gilbert White, Ennis [end]
Good governance is about good stewardship. Government executives always should consider how best to use the government's vast assets, including personnel, money and materials. In this light, continued opposition by the Drug Enforcement Administration to the legalization of cannabis - marijuana - is not only a losing battle but a waste of taxpayer money, particularly when the president, Congress and an increasing number of state legislatures are responding to the will of the people by decriminalizing nonviolent marijuana use and possession. Our federal tax dollars would be better spent by responding to the current widespread increase of heroin use in ways that will prevent continued abuse, reduce harm to users and provide for greater public safety. [continues 666 words]
How much longer will it take before the United States declares a truce in the Drug War? Without federal leadership, you can count on marijuana legalization to keep spreading one state at a time. This latter-day prohibition is taking an immense toll. And the stakes ought to be low, given that mostAmericans don't want anyone jailed for being caught with small amounts of pot. But it does require some courage to pipe up. So thank you, former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, for joining the swelling chorus that wants to see marijuana legalized. [continues 613 words]
As a former educational professional, I've witnessed the negative social impacts and negative opportunity costs of cannabis prohibition. I observed these negative impacts while working with inner city youth; I also took note that these effects existed in my own suburban neighborhood. The world is our backyard. I began to observe how easy it was for teens to access cannabis on the illicit market and how many are left to endure life-altering criminal convictions. I examined the constant draining of tax dollars, all the while watching the expansion of violent criminal cartels. [continues 473 words]
The measure, approved unanimously by the council, is symbolic. The city has very little influence over whether the Legislature legalizes marijuana and it's considered unlikely to gain approval in the 2015 legislative session. Only two speakers testified about the measure to the council, and both were in support. In a sign of how non-controversial this issue is in left-leaning Austin, it was approved with no council discussion or debate as part of the consent agenda. Council Members Bill Spelman and Mike Martinez, who sponsored the resolution, cited a Scripps-Howard poll that found 75 percent of Texans would support legislation allowing people with serious illnesses to use marijuana to treat themselves. Supporters consider it an important step in the effort to legalize marijuana for medical use. Currently all forms of marijuana are illegal in Texas. More than 20 states, including Colorado and California, have taken steps to legalize the use of marijuana for medical ailments, such as muscular dystrophy. [end]
Re: June 9 commentary, "Pot isn't harmless; making it legal would be a disaster." I agree that legalizing cannabis would be a disaster for professional drug war cheerleader Calvina Fay because she would be unemployed. I'd like to add that the cannabis legalization issue is not whether cannabis is completely safe for everybody, including children and adolescents; it is not. The issue is freedom of choice for adults. Children have died from eating peanuts and peanut butter but we don't cage peanut growers, sellers or consumers. One in thirteen children suffer from food allergies, yet we have no foods that are outlawed. And the voters of Colorado and Washington state have decided that we should not cage cannabis growers, sellers or consumers. Texas adults have the freedom of choice of whether or not to consume legal alcohol. Shouldn't they have the same freedom of choice regarding legal cannabis? MESA, ARIZ. [end]
Re: June 9 commentary, "Pot isn't harmless; making it legal would be a disaster." Calvina Fay is right about one thing. Like any drug, marijuana can be harmful if abused. Marijuana prohibition doesn't make the plant safer though. Prohibition opens up a gateway to hard drugs by granting a marijuana monopoly to drug cartels that also sell meth, cocaine and heroin. Like alcohol prohibition before it, marijuana prohibition has given rise to a youth-oriented black market. Drug cartels don't ID for age. [continues 78 words]
A Texas teenager could face up to 99 years in prison for making and selling brownies infused with cannabis, despite the product being legal elsewhere in the United States. Jacob Lavoro, 19, was arrested on April 14 after a neighbour smelled suspiciously pungent smoke and called the police. The authorities allege that after entering his apartment they found an illicit baking operation that included the brownies, a pound of cannabis, hash oil and US$1675 (NZ$1900) in cash. His case is more serious because prosecutors can charge him based on the entire weight of the brownies' ingredients, which amounted to 660 grams, instead of just the weight of the oil, a substance that is more tightly controlled than ordinary cannabis buds. In Texas, possession of more than 400g of hash oil with intent to deliver can yield up to life in prison. [continues 139 words]
If Cannabis Works, We Owe Our Veterans Access to This PTSD Treatment Option. Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, plagues many veterans in this country. The depression, anxiety and flashbacks typical of this disorder can make vets' adjustment back to civilian life difficult. Some veterans say that marijuana helps alleviate symptoms of the disorder and may pose fewer long-term health risks than present treatment options such as opioid painkillers, antidepressants and sleeping pills. Some experts agree. "Legalizing cannabis for medical use won't restore missing limbs or heal skin scarred by fire, but it can help wounded veterans live a more normal life," William Martin, director of the drug policy program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy, maintains. Yet, right now in Texas, a vet who is suffering from PTSD and who uses marijuana to self-medicate is committing a crime. [continues 260 words]
Police Were Allowed in Apartment by Resident, Arrest Warrant Says GEORGETOWN- The case against Jacob Lavoro, who could face a steep sentence for allegedly making and selling pot brownies, should be thrown out because police never had a warrant to search his apartment, his lawyer said Thursday as supporters rallied outside a court hearing at the Williamson County Justice Center. Police were responding in April to a tip from a neighbor complaining about marijuana smoke coming from Lavoro's Round Rock apartment when they arrived at his door announcing they were maintenance men, said Jack Holmes, Lavoro's lawyer. Even after someone opened the apartment door, police had no evidence that there were illegal substances inside, but they entered anyway, Holmes said. [continues 425 words]
Re: "My bad trip on edible marijuana - Colorado coming to grips with darker side of legalizing pot for the public, says Maureen Dowd," Friday Viewpoints. Naive marijuana users like Maureen Dowd may be in for an unpleasant surprise if they choose edibles as a means of experimenting with legal marijuana in Colorado. The delayed onset effects can be overpowering. Colorado should require warning labels. First-time users should be discouraged from trying marijuana in edible form. The horror stories coming out of Colorado obscure the fact that marijuana consumption is safer under legalization. [continues 137 words]
Arkansas AG Approves Ballot Title for Proposed Constitutional Amendment Come November, Arkansas voters could be the first in the South to decide whether or not to legalize marijuana for recreational use. Last week, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel certified the wording of a proposed state constitutional amendment called "The Arkansas Hemp and Cannabis Amendment." The amendment would allow the "cultivation, distribution, sale and use of the cannabis plant" and all products derive from the plant throughout the state. The Legislature would have the authority to regulate, but not ban pot in the state. Now all supporters have to do is gather more than 78,000 signatures of registered Arkansas voters to secure the proposal a spot on the November ballot. Not an easy task. But not impossible, either. Two other ballot initiates regarding legal marijuana could end up on the ballot as well. Both would legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes, not recreational. [continues 233 words]
Radical shifts in public policy are far-reaching and have everlasting effects that may not be foreseen. Marijuana legalization is an extreme measure of policy reform and a dangerous social experiment. Policies should be implemented with public health and safety in the forefront. However, marijuana legalization seems to only benefit those who stand to profit. Following the legalization of marijuana, Colorado and Washington have seen increases in drugged driving and marijuana use. Colorado experienced an infestation of "drug tourism." [continues 585 words]
You might find yourself racing to the eye doctor if you picked up your newspaper and read "Governor Perry and the ACLU agree." When the discussion is about marijuana, though, you'd be wasting your co-pay. In January, at an international conference in Switzerland, Perry said he supports softening penalties for pot users. He correctly pointed out that our state has been in the forefront of the movement to implement policies that provide sentencing alternatives such as drug courts and rehabilitation programs outside the prison setting. [continues 603 words]
Colorado coming to grips with darker side of legalizing pot for the public, says Maureen Dowd 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. [continues 601 words]
FORT WORTH - Move over, GOP convention-goers, the marijuana reformists are in Cowtown, too. The Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is hosting the second annual Texas Regional NORML Conference this weekend in downtown Fort Worth. More than 300 people are expected to attend. A few blocks away, thousands of Republicans are attending the state party convention at the Fort Worth Convention Center. NORML organizers decided that this weekend was the ideal time to broach the issue, saying the stage is set for reform. [continues 174 words]
House Vote Shows States Tired of Disjointed Tack We can't go on like this. The words are familiar to parties in many dysfunctional relationships, like the one between the federal government and states that have gone their separate ways on the failed and grotesquely expensive war on drugs. Something has to give. The U.S. House recognized that with an unprecedented bipartisan vote last week to bar the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from raiding marijuana dispensaries in states that legalized pot for medicinal uses. [continues 420 words]
This would be easy to overstate, but in comparison with much of the world, our country does a decent job of administering justice in a measured, equitable manner. Sure, there's lots of room for improvement. For example, blacks are considerably more likely to be executed or incarcerated than are whites who commit the same crime. We should work on this. Still, in a world that has at least 37 countries that outlaw homosexuality, at least 10 of which punish it with the death penalty, we do a reasonable job of administering even-handed, let-the-punishment-fit-thecrime justice. Then there's Jacob Lavoro. Last week my local newspaper, the Austin American Statesman, reported that Lavoro, a 19-year-old from Round Rock, Texas, has been charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. [continues 548 words]
Let's End Hyperbolic Warnings and Focus on Actual Threats - Like Prescription Pills. Since its inception, the war on drugs has essentially been based on fear-mongering to children. Drugs will ruin your life! Buying drugs gives money to terrorists! One puff of a joint, a lifetime of consequences! All these warnings have done little to reduce drug use, but they have instilled a deep sense of cynicism in far too many kids. With changes in drug laws across the country, perhaps it is time we started to tell children the truth: No one is going to die from overdosing on marijuana. Prescription painkillers are a different story. [continues 520 words]
Marijuana Supporters Encouraged by Politicians' Comments. Democrats want to turn Texas blue. Republicans want to keep it red. Now, members of a new advocacy group in Austin have something else in mind: They want to make Texas green. The Washington, D.C.based nonpartisan organization isn't blowing smoke about environmental causes. Rather, the Marijuana Policy Project sees an opening to loosen marijuana laws in Texas, following recent comments by Gov. Rick Perry and other state politicians. Heather Fazio, the newly installed Texas political director of the Marijuana Policy Project, said she, a lobbyist and several volunteers will work toward passing state laws that would permit the use of medical marijuana, decriminalization of the controlled substance and eventually allowing adults to possess small amounts of marijuana. Similar efforts will be made in several other states. [continues 724 words]
Teen Could Get Life for Making, Selling Marijuana Brownies Several states have made the use of marijuana legal for certain medical conditions with a doctor's prescription. And two states-Colorado and Washington-have made recreational use of the drug legal. But possession, sale and use of marijuana is still illegal under federal law and in many states. That means if you get caught with pot in the wrong part of the country, the penalty can range from a slap on the wrist to prison time-a lot of prison time. Just ask Jacob Lavorno. Lavorno, 19, lives in Round Rock, Texas. He has no previous criminal record. But he is now facing a possible life sentence for violating the state's drug laws. How? Well, he made some marijuana brownies. No, we aren't kidding. According to prosecutors, Lavorno had quite a little business making and selling marijuana brownies and cookies. And when police raided his apartment, they found some pot, more than $1,500 in cash and the brownies. [continues 317 words]
A Travis County grand jury has declined to indict a sheriff's office deputy for firing his pistol during a narcotics investigation in 2012. Christopher Douglas and two other deputies were investigating possible drug activity at the Promontory Point Apartments at 2250 Ridgepoint Drive in Northeast Austin on Nov. 30, 2012. When a resident of an apartment answered a knock on the door, Douglas and another deputy could smell marijuana and see a baggie of what appeared to be marijuana on a table inside the apartment, according to a news release from the district attorney's office. [continues 80 words]
DEAR DOCTOR K: I have a teenager, and I'm worried he might try marijuana. I'd like to give my teen some facts about marijuana that will make him think twice about using it. What can I tell him? DEAR READER: You've asked an important and timely question. Marijuana use is on the rise, especially among teens. It's easier to get than many other drugs - and cheaper. Also, teens think that it is safer than other illicit drugs. Two states have legalized recreational use of marijuana by adults. The message that it is safe to use is stronger than ever. That's why it's vital for parents to talk to their pre-teens and teens about marijuana. [continues 353 words]
Dallas police are still looking for the source of synthetic drugs that sent more than 90 people to hospitals in recent days, the department said Friday. Deputy Chief Christina Smith said officers have checked eight smoke shops in the area. On Wednesday, police found what they suspect is synthetic marijuana at a shop in the 3600 block of Ramona Avenue in east Oak Cliff, Smith said. The substance has been sent to a lab for testing. Officers reported finding marijuana Tuesday during a search of a shop in the 600 block of East Tenth Street. Charges in that case are pending, Smith said. [continues 100 words]
A small but important study that has shown remarkable results using a combination of the drug MDMA - known on the street as ecstasy or "Molly" - and conventional therapy to treat post-traumatic stress disorder could be of significant value to thousands of veterans in Texas. The South Carolina study, performed by Dr. Michael Mithoefer and his wife, Ann, under the auspices of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, involves the short term use, under close psychiatric care, of the drug 3,4-methylenedioxyN- methylamphetamine, known medically as MDMA. [continues 1006 words]
Re: "Crack down on drug users," by Sue Biesel, Saturday Letters. Biesel is entitled to her opinion, but it's always nice when opinion bears at least a nodding relation to facts. Here are a few with regard to our treatment of drug users. It wasn't all that long ago that we did not send people to prison just for using drugs. Now, the United States has some 2.5 million of its citizens in prison - more than any other country in the world (even the ones we consider bad guys, like China and Iran). One out of every 100 adults in the U.S. is in prison. About 80 percent are in prison for nonviolent offenses, chiefly drug offenses. Punish them we already do, Ms. Biesel, but it does not stop there. [continues 62 words]
Biesel's letter on drug enforcement is not irrational. Abraham Lincoln is said to have remarked that the best way to get rid of a bad law is to enforce it vigorously. One must disagree, however, with placing blame for the damage done by the drug trade solely on drug users. Since it is the illegality of the trade that makes it so toxic, one must recognize that we the people also have a responsibility for the drug war's damage. [continues 103 words]
Sue Biesel wants to arrest drug users because they are "stupid people who don't care ... about themselves or their families." But what if they aren't? What if they are highly motivated, intelligent, successful people? Would entrepreneurs like Richard Branson, Rick Steves and Steve Jobs and athletes like Mark Stepnoski and Michael Phelps and scientists like Carl Sagan and Francis Crick and entertainers like Oprah Winfrey and Willie Nelson be imprisoned along with the rest of the 100 million Americans who report having used an illegal drug? [continues 57 words]
So Far, Prison Terms Are Up to 12 Years for Joint Task Force Members McALLEN (AP) - Sometimes the heists were carefully choreographed ruses designed not to raise suspicion. Other times they were brazen grabs. Either way, the lawmen sentenced Tuesday in South Texas used their badges to protect drugs or steal them for resale to other traffickers. U.S. District Judge Randy Crane sentenced four of nine former law enforcement officers to prison terms ranging from eight years to nearly 12 years before recessing to continue with the others Wednesday morning. [continues 146 words]
Fixing Jail Time Disparities Doesn't End at War on Drugs, Leonard Pitts Says It swallowed people up. That's what it really did, if you want to know the truth. It swallowed them up whole, swallowed them up by the millions. In the process, it hollowed out communities, broke families, stranded hope. Politicians brayed that they were being "tough on crime" - as if anyone is really in favor of crime - as they imposed ever longer and more inflexible sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. But the War on Drugs didn't hurt drugs at all: Usage rose by 2,800 percent - that's not a typo - in the 40 years after it began in 1971. The War also made America the biggest jailer on earth and drained $1 trillion - also not a typo - from the treasury. [continues 485 words]
Leonard Pitts Jr. says the move to extend clemency to nonviolent drug offenders may be Barack Obama's most transformative legacy. It swallowed people up. That's what it really did, if you want to know the truth. It swallowed them up whole, swallowed them up by the millions. In the process, it hollowed out communities, broke families, stranded hope. Politicians brayed that they were being "tough on crime" -as if anyone is really in favor of crime - as they imposed ever longer and more inflexible sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. But the "War on Drugs" didn't hurt drugs at all: Usage rose by 2,800 percent - that's not a typo - in the 40 years after it began in 1971. The "War" also made America the biggest jailer on Earth and drained a trillion dollars - still not a typo - from the treasury. [continues 515 words]
Forget about going after the sellers of all the dope, meth, pills, illegal drugs. Why not arrest the users? I'm really tired of all the rhetoric about drug users being the abused ones or victims. Understandably, some are born into the drug culture, but the fact is that most people choose to take illegal drugs. Seriously, the people buying and using these drugs are the ones causing such great damage to our country. They should all be punished. Let the drug users pay the price with being in jail or prison and not in rehab centers. [continues 76 words]
Re: "Joint celebrations on 4/20 - Pot holiday was once underground; now it sees the lighters of day," Monday news story. As I read my morning DMN, I ran across a story called "joint celebrations." The story itself was disgusting in the fact that there are that many potheads in America. More disgusting was the photo that accompanied the story. The picture of the pothead known by the street name "NJ Weedman" carrying a cross adorned with marijuana leaves is an insult to Christians everywhere. [continues 124 words]
Re: "Heroin overdoses on rise - Crackdown on access to pills has fueled trend," Sunday news story. Pictures DO speak louder than words in your story. Pictured just under the title is an addict with her starter drug - the one we know as tobacco. Indeed, tobacco leads to abuse of other drugs, including alcohol, marijuana, cocaine and heroin. One solution to decrease drug usage would be to ban the tobacco drug, which kills 14,000 addicts and another 1,800 innocent people (who were exposed to toxic tobacco smoke) around the world, every day. In the U.S., the tobacco pushers and their lethal drug cost our economy $200 billion every year. The solution is to eliminate this drug from society and prosecute the people who still push the killer weed. Dave Johnson, Arlington [end]
Our society can be better protected against crime, uncleanliness and otherwise despicable acts by getting rid of prohibition: a fallacious policy wanting of wishful thinking. Such policy has proven ineffective, inefficient and more troublesome than preventive. The 1920s era of prohibition ended in failure due to its creation of black markets, gang activity and crime; our current war on drugs does not conceptually differ. These events are useful in that they show humans, by nature and whether we choose to accept it or not, are often times attracted to vice. Only a campaign of containment can eradicate the host of problems created by the policy of prohibition; just as a controlled fire is allowed only to burn certain areas of underbrush, we can control violators' choices by disallowing them the right to choose. Simple logic and empirical evidence provide that prohibition creates a black market where tax is not paid, behavior is not regulated and crime flourishes. Additionally, prohibition does not discourage lawlessness but rather encourages it, resulting in substantial amounts of money being illegally made from which Big Brother will not see a dime, and taxpayers will bear no relief. Blake Fowler, Paris [end]
Colorado Governor Departs From Divisive Politics At a time when ballot box success seems increasingly defined by alignment with the political extremes, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper strikes us as the kind of centrist leader the nation's politicians could learn from. It's not so much his politics but the thoughtful, measured method of his delivery. We didn't immediately identify Hickenlooper's party - he's a Democrat - - in hopes that readers of all political persuasions will read on. He's no liberal, especially when it comes to the biggest issue driving news from Colorado these days: marijuana legalization. [continues 282 words]
Legal marijuana is spreading like a weed across the land, but it has yet to take root in the place where people might benefit most from inhaling: the U.S. Capitol. The Maryland General Assembly finished work Monday on a marijuana decriminalization bill, joining two dozen other states and the district in some form of legalization. Colorado and Washington allow recreational pot, while most others have legalized only medical marijuana, but the combined campaign has redefined the meaning of a grass-roots movement. [continues 655 words]
State House Panel Seeks To Curb The Trend AUSTIN, Texas - Beyond the always illegal drugs that come through back alley deals on street corners, Texas has another drug problem: illicitly used prescription medication. A state House committee in Austin met Monday to hear testimony on an issue House Speaker Rep. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, laid out for lawmakers to address before the next legislative session. The House Public Health Committee is looking to "recommend strategies to curb emerging substance abuse trends among children, pregnant women, and adults, as well as to reduce health care costs and mortality," according to the speaker's interim charge. [continues 441 words]
Two high-ranking police lieutenants who were relieved of duty last year for alleged sexual harassment of female employees under their command have quietly retired with full benefits from the Houston Police Department. Both officers previously had been disciplined for serious violations that could have resulted in their dismissals but were allowed to keep their jobs, HPD personnel records show. Lt. Carl Gaines, 50, whose retirement in January still allows him to get his $87,675 yearly paycheck, admitted to harassing a number of women, both officers and civilians, at his post at the city dispatch center. One civilian employee was subjected to various physical contacts, and Gaines made a lewd gesture to a female police officer, city records show. [continues 1415 words]
DALLAS (AP) - Some states, including Texas, are reporting a rise in heroin use as many addicts shift from more costly and harder-to-get prescription opiates to this cheaper alternative. A look at what's happening in Texas: Heroin overdose deaths have more than tripled in Texas during the last 15 years. Drug smugglers use Texas' 1,200-mile border with Mexico to transport heroin that ends up in cities and rural towns all over the state. While use of so-called "cheese heroin" - a mix of heroin and over-the-counter pills such as Tylenol PM - that was popular in the last decade has faded, cities across Texas are seeing higher uses of Mexican "black tar" heroin. It's a gummy substance that users dilute and inject, but can also smoke or snort. [continues 149 words]
Re: "Don't let Colorado's pot experiment draw in kids" by Steve Blow, Thursday Metro column. While I agree with Mr. Blow and his other commentators that keeping marijuana and other drugs away from teenagers is critically important, I strongly disagree with the idea implicit in his column that legalization works against this goal. The nature of a black market, like that for drugs, is that nobody is turned away. Anyone who wishes to buy is constrained only by the morals of his chosen dealer. There is nothing now that keeps Texas teens, and indeed younger children, from buying pot or any other drug their dealer is selling. A legal market, on the other hand, allows for regulation at the source and makes it much harder for children to take part. We've already learned this with cigarettes and alcohol. Ask your teenage children which is easiest for them to get: pot, beer or cigarettes? I don't know how the experiments going on in Colorado and Washington will work out, but if properly operated they will reduce black market sales, and concomitant access by teens. Paul Miller, Lewisville [end]
Colorado has legalized marijuana, and I'm glad. We need to try some new approaches to drug policy in this country, and if Colorado is willing to be the guinea pig, we should be grateful. But here at home, we need to be careful that Colorado's experiment doesn't blur one very important fact. Here, there and everywhere, teens should not be smoking marijuana. Tina Clemmons is a prevention specialist for the Dallas Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse. She has been hearing more and more parents dismiss concerns about their teens' drug use. [continues 546 words]
Momentum Builds for Lone Star Legalization of Marijuana For more than a decade, Austin Democratic state Rep. Elliott Naishtat has brought to his Capitol colleagues a modest proposal: Create an affirmative defense to prosecution on pot possession charges for seriously ill Texans. For seven sessions now - that's every other year since 2001 - he's either authored or sponsored a measure that would give bona fide patients - those suffering, for example, from AIDS, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, cancer - the ability to have a judge decide if a criminal charge for pot possession should be dismissed. [continues 2160 words]
Inside Texas
