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]
Inside Texas
