'Know More' Will Take Zero Tolerance Approach

Practically anyone who has lived in Salt Lake City even a brief time knows Pioneer Park is a place where illegal drugs are sold.

The dealers know it. The buyers know. Even people who don't do drugs know of the park's drug-filled reputation. Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and Salt Lake Police Chief Chris Burbank also know, and say it's time for it to end.

Friday, Anderson and Burbank stood together on the east stairs of the Salt Lake City-County building to announce what the mayor called a "major campaign" in the fight against drugs.

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I read, with interest, the guest editorial, "Legalization of drugs ends raids." The writer states that he is the founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and would like drugs legalized because the drug war is not working and is costing us lives and money. In my experience, the cost of not enforcing drug laws is even more harmful to our society. In the interest of full disclosure, let me say that I serve with the author of that op-ed as a member of the Citizens Review Panel.

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The Sept. 18 editorial, "Laud pot busts," makes the common mistake of assuming that punitive marijuana laws actually deter use. The University of Michigan's Monitoring the Future Study reports that lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country, yet America is one of the few Western countries that use its criminal justice system to punish citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis.

Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. The short-term health effects of marijuana are inconsequential compared to the long-term effects of criminal records. Unfortunately, marijuana represents the counterculture to many Americans. In subsidizing the prejudices of culture warriors, government is subsidizing organized crime.

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In Our View

Two pot busts have occurred in Washington County in the last week. OUR OPINION: We laud local law enforcement and its effort to enforce federal and state law's prohibition on marijuana. Any tips should be reported to the authorities.

The law has been broken and those responsible must be brought to justice. Detectives got a tip from a hunter who discovered a marijuana farm with 1,000 plants west of New Harmony on Sept. 1. Five days later, about 2,130 marijuana plants were removed from the Pine Valley Mountain near the Oak Grove campgrounds.

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Poppies were the first thing that British army Capt. Leo Docherty noticed when he arrived in Afghanistan's turbulent Helmand province in April 2006. "They were growing right outside the gate of our Forward Operating Base," he told me. Within two weeks of his deployment to the remote town of Sangin, he realized that "poppy is the economic mainstay and everyone is involved right up to the higher echelons of the local government."

The rumor was "that we were there to eradicate the poppy," he said. "The Taliban aren't stupid and so they said, 'These guys are here to destroy your livelihood, so let's take up arms against them.' And it's been a downward spiral since then."

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After years of calling Utah's highways home, the Grim Reaper has a new address.

He's living in your medicine cabinet under assumed names - oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, morphine, methadone. These are prescription medications that provide effective short-term and long-term pain relief to millions of people.

Without them, many would suffer terribly and some of those would seek relief in suicide.

Taken as prescribed, these powerful drugs can make life bearable for the pain-wracked patient. However, they are also addictive and, when taken recreationally or otherwise abused, can be ruthlessly lethal.

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The Supreme Court recently considered a 2002 Alaska case involving the question of limits on the free speech rights of public school students. In a 5-4 vote it said that school principals could punish students for making statements that could be "reasonably" construed as advocating illegal drug use.

At the center of the case was a banner spread in public view at the Olympic Torch Relay as runners headed for Salt Lake City. In big letters the banner proclaimed "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS."

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The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation warned that our children don't fully appreciate or respect the rights protected by the First Amendment.

The foundation released a national study in 2006 that showed nearly half the students surveyed believed that the First Amendment went too far in the rights it guarantees, and 46 percent believed that newspapers should not publish stories without government approval.

The report blamed educators for not doing a better job of teaching students how essential free expression is to our system of government.

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Students have constitutional rights to free speech, as do all Americans, but in public-school settings, their rights can be limited.

That is because students are underage, and schools are charged with providing a safe environment in which they can learn.

Still, limits put on students' First Amendment rights should apply only to activities that could impede others' education or directly incite disruptive or illegal behavior, according to past U.S. Supreme Court decisions.

A ruling by the high court Monday could expand those guidelines and open a Pandora's box of conflicting views about when school officials can limit a student's rights.

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WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is trying to roll back a Supreme Court decision by pushing legislation that would require prison time for nearly all criminals.

The Justice Department is offering the plan as an opening salvo in a larger debate about whether sentences for crack cocaine are unfairly harsh and racially discriminatory.

Republicans are seizing the administration's crackdown, packaged in legislation to combat violent crime, as a campaign issue for 2008.

In a speech June 1 to announce the bill, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales urged Congress to re-impose mandatory minimum prison sentences against federal convicts - and not let judges consider such penalties "merely a suggestion."

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It has been said the one universal taboo is betraying a friend. And the new unspoken campaign to punish snitches shows that taboo is alive and well among criminals.

According to recent studies, police officers are having a harder time solving crimes because informants are becoming unwilling to talk with them. Being a "snitch" has become a bigger crime in some circles than burglary and assault. Salt Lake City police are already seeing "Stop Snitching" T-shirts around town, while in some coastal cities tight lips and stonewalling have become a growing social movement.

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The bill Gov. Bill Richardson signed (12 States Give OK To Medicinal Cannabis, April 14, by Ed Kociela,) isn't just morally and compassionately correct, it's also Biblically correct since Christ God our Father (The Ecologician) indicates He created all the seed-bearing plants, saying they are all good, on literally the very first page (see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30). The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it is to be accepted with thankfulness (see 1 Timothy 4:1-5). And, "But whoever has the world's goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?" (see: 1 John 3:17)

Stan White

Dillon, Colo.

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Cache Board Of Education Calls Step Regrettable But 'Wise'

NORTH LOGAN -- Voicing disappointment in the necessity of such a change, the Cache County Board of Education voted Thursday to approve a drug testing policy for any high school student who participates in Utah High School Activities Association events.

Starting this fall, students who take part in every UHSAA-sanctioned sport or activity will need to pass a urine test that looks for several drugs and alcohol. Participation fees will increase by $20 to help pay for the tests.

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Prescription overdose deaths are now second only to motor-vehicle crashes as a cause of death from unintentional injury. Television is filled with pro-drug messages paid for by alcohol and pharmaceutical companies. The Bush administration doesn't have a problem with corporate drug pushers. But hoist a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner at an off-campus high school rally in Alaska, and you'll be fought all the way to the Supreme Court.

It's not clear how this nonsensical phrase somehow merits limiting free speech. Culture warriors in the White House seem to think the war on pot is more important than the Constitution. Unfortunately, it doesn't stop there: By raiding medical marijuana providers in California, the very same Bush administration that claims illicit drug use funds terrorism is forcing cancer and AIDS patients into the hands of street dealers. Apparently, marijuana prohibition is more important than protecting the country from terrorism, too.

Robert Sharpe, Arlington, Va.

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Suppose that all types of recreational drugs were re-legalized and the drug were legally sold in local licensed business establishments for pennies per dose.

Would this solve your drug problems? No.

It would however, greatly reduce your violent and property crime. Many judges and prison wardens have said that 70 to 80 percent of all property crime and violent crime is drug-related. Actually, almost 100 percent of all so-called "drug-related crime" is caused by drug prohibition policies, not drugs.

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PROVO -- Just because the mother of three young children is caught using meth in her home doesn't mean prosecutors can immediately charge her with child endangerment. "We have to prove actual exposure," says Utah County prosecutor Dave Sturgill. "We can have people with 100 pounds of marijuana in the basement and a child upstairs, and if there hasn't been actual exposure, then we're out of luck." Exposure would mean the child had touched, consumed or inhaled the drug. "Our statute should be drafted in such a way that children and drugs don't mix," Sturgill said. "I don't care if they're not actually exposed.

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Utah County Task Force, DCFS Pulling Kids From Homes

PROVO - A 9-year-old girl sketches a marijuana bong for her social worker, saying she found one beside her bed.

A young boy shows the social worker a cigarette burn on his hand given to him by his dad.

Stories like these are heart-wrenching. And unfortunately they're all too common, say Utah law enforcement officers and social workers who pull babies, toddlers and school-age children out of drug houses and meth labs. During the six-month period between last July 1 and Jan. 1, Utah's Division of Child and Family Services removed 631 children from homes due to drug and alcohol problems. Not unexpectedly, the Salt Lake Valley had the most: 223.

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How far can a school go in regulating what students say, even off campus?

That's the question the Supreme Court is wrestling with in the case of Morse v. Frederick, also known as the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case.

The case dates back to 2002, when the Olympic Flame was making its way to Salt Lake City. When the torch run passed through Juneau, Alaska, students from Juneau-Douglas High School were given a break from class to watch. Joseph Frederick, then a senior, was across the street from the school holding up a sign that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" (whatever that means) as the torch passed.

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She's the woman you see at the mall, with her 13-year-old tagging behind her.

Getting into her sedan at the end of the trip, new pink sweater in the Macy's bag, her cell phone rings.

But sometimes when Mechelle Leifson's phone rings, the mother of four recovering drug addicts' heart jumps.

There have been too many late night phone calls in the past six years for her stomach to not still drop, for her to not worry about her boys.

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Between hourly updates on the decomposing body of Anna Nicole Smith and the balding of Britney Spears, we can confidently declare that the Jerry Springerization of America is complete.

The travails of these two tragic characters would be of little interest in a normal world, but "celebrity" is the new normal. Like it or not, we're all in this together.

Britney and Anna Nicole, after all, are our inventions. We made them celebrities, awarded them icon status, gave them life. Now, like Dr. Frankenstein upon realizing he's created a monster, we've become instruments of their undoing.

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