Police say two Blacksburg men went to a hospital after they smoked an herbal mix. It goes by many names: K2, Cloud 9, Spice, Magic Gold, Buzz, Smoke, Skunk. The melange of herbs sprayed with a synthetic marijuana substitute is blooming in popularity, and making users sick and being outlawed as it does. The stuff, still legal in Virginia, announced its presence in the region Thursday night with an ambulance call to a Blacksburg home, where two 19-year-old men smoking "Bayou Blaster" were taken to the hospital with vomiting, accelerated heartbeats, and in the case of one man, violent seizures, police said. [continues 856 words]
Profoundly immoral -- and fiscal folly, to boot. That's how the United States' continuing "war on drugs" and its horrendous impact on our neighbor Mexico deserve to be seen. Why? First, it's our appetite for officially forbidden drugs -- marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine -- that's driving the chaos on our southern border and deep into Mexico. President Felipe Calderon expected -- but has clearly failed -- to crack the vicious drug rings through police and military power. But he's dead right on one score: [continues 767 words]
Del. Harvey Morgan isn't done yet. The Gloucester Republican says his mission to reform Virginia's marijuana laws didn't end when his two bills to decriminalize its possession and expand its medical use were snuffed out in committee earlier this year. He says he'll keep introducing bills till they pass. Snickering colleagues aside. "I'm gonna try anyway," Morgan affirmed in a recent news report. Good for you, Harvey. The delegate and I may not agree on much politically, but on this issue, conservatives and liberals can find a lush green acre of common ground. [continues 600 words]
Mr. Jim Bayne's column Sunday ("Mexico has a legitimate gripe when it comes to our drug habit") refused to mention the elephant in the room; namely, drug prohibition. As he exhorts us to only use legal drugs, he and the prohibition crowd force us to use alcohol, a much more dangerous drug than marijuana, to take the edge off the day at 6 p.m. He is flat wrong that marijuana is a gateway drug. Every government research in five countries has concluded it is not (the last was our Institute of Medicine in 1999). [continues 65 words]
In his column Sunday ("Mexico has a legitimate gripe when it comes to our drug habit"), Jim Bayne wrote: "Illegal drugs impair the ability of users to act in a rational manner." He continued: "Society must have a clear mind, lest our society falls as did the Romans and others before us. However, each of us can and should set a course, for those following, which is absent of illegal drugs and undo indulgence of other items that may affect a clear mind." [continues 341 words]
I'm writing about Jim Bayne's column Sunday ("Mexico has a legitimate gripe when it comes to our drug habit"). First off, Mexico has not had more than 23,000 drug-related deaths since December 2006. It has had more than 23,000 drug prohibition caused deaths since December 2006. Even though caffeine is a drug that is more addictive than marijuana, neither Mexico nor the United States has any murders caused by it. Why? It's legal. Nicotine is a drug that's much more addictive than any illegal drug, yet we have no murders caused by it. Why? It's legal. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
Regarding Jim Bayne's column Sunday ("Mexico has a legitimate gripe when it comes to our drug habit"), drugs did not spawn Mexico's organized crime networks. Just like alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone, drug prohibition created the violent drug-trafficking organizations behind all the killings in Mexico. With alcohol prohibition repealed in the U.S., liquor bootleggers no longer gun each other down in drive-by shootings. It's worth noting that Mexico's recent upsurge in violence began after an anti-drug crackdown created a power vacuum among competing cartels. From a political perspective, Mexican President Felipe Calderon stands to benefit from the violence. [continues 108 words]
Marijuana advocates in The Old Dominion have found an unlikely ally in Del. Harvey B. Morgan, a bespectacled 79-year-old Republican. This year the Gloucester County lawmaker introduced a bill that would decriminalize marijuana possession and a bill that would allow doctors to prescribe marijuana. While both measures died in the House Courts of Justice Committee, they served as another reminder of the increasing pressure to move away from the prohibition mindset that has dominated U.S. drug policy since the 1980s. [continues 793 words]
We are in danger of becoming a society without a moral compass. I never thought that I would see a statement such as the following (as reported in the Washington Post). For background, President Felipe Calderon of Mexico was defending his drug war as vital to the country's national security -- more than 23,000 people have died in drug-related violence since December 2006. President Calderon directly blamed the United States with this statement: "The origin of our violence problem begins with the fact that Mexico is located next to the country that has the highest levels of drug consumption in the world. It is as if our neighbor were the biggest drug addict in the world." [continues 411 words]
VERONA -- It's been nearly three months since the Augusta County Sheriff's Office made its biggest marijuana seizure in the department's history when it grabbed 1,840 pounds of packaged dope hidden inside a truck at American Safety Razor's industrial division headquarters in Verona. However, the marijuana, each 23-pound bale triple-wrapped in tinfoil, brown shipping paper and plastic, remains stacked inside a locked evidence room at the sheriff's office, the space permeated by the pungent odor of the illegal drug. Drug dealers, buoyed by a seemingly never-ending demand in the United States, would have had no problem unloading the marijuana. The sheriff's office, tasked with getting rid of the shipment, is finding it a bit harder to make the stack disappear. [continues 813 words]
Re 'Measuring success in war on drugs,' editorial, May 24: There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users. Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with illicit heroin use. The success of the Swiss program has inspired heroin maintenance pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base, rendering illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable and sparing future generations from addiction. [continues 107 words]
If there's a common cause we all can rally around, surely it is this: Government shouldn't pump tax dollars into ineffective programs. It's a theme shared - at least in speeches and writing - among all political parties and their leaders, who constantly make pledges to end wasteful spending and be good stewards of taxpayers' money. Consider these: "Federal programs should receive taxpayer dollars only when they prove they achieve results.... No program, however worthy its goal and high-minded its name, is entitled to continue perpetually unless it can demonstrate it is actually effective in solving problems." That was the introduction of President George W. Bush's plan for rating federal programs in his 2004 budget. [continues 474 words]
Thomas Bowman's article "Buying Marijuana Supports Violent Drug Cartels and Instability in Mexico" caught my interest, because the author seems to blame the drug war exclusively on one drug, and advocates a solution that apparently overlooks the merits of an alternative solution that seems obvious to me. Mexican drug cartels are supported by more than marijuana sales. They are a major supplier of methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. Therefore, eliminating the demand for marijuana alone will not eliminate their incentive to stay in business. So why only emphasize pot in the article? [continues 234 words]
Regarding Matt Cameron's March 31 column ("Highly liberating"), the drug war is largely a war on marijuana smokers. In 2008, there were 847,863 marijuana arrests in the U.S., almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when state and local governments are laying off police, firefighters and teachers, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis. The end result of this ongoing culture war is not necessarily lower rates of use. The U.S. has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. An admitted former pot smoker, President Obama has thus far maintained the prohibition status quo rather than pursue real change. Would Barack Obama be in White House right now if he had been convicted of a marijuana offense in his youth? [continues 85 words]
Another reason to stop caging humans for using the relatively safe, God-given plant cannabis that doesn't get mentioned in Matt Cameron's column is because marijuana is biblically correct. 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 of the Bible (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). Stan White Dillon, Colorado [end]
Left out of Matt Cameron's excellent, balanced report on marijuana was the issue of public safety. As a police officer for 18 years, I saw the horrific waste of good police time spent chasing the non-violent, non-problem causing marijuana smoker (think Willie Nelson and Michael Phelps). As officers tear apart hundreds of thousands of cars looking for a baggie, the deadly DUI kills a Virginian every day. As our detectives fly around in helicopters looking for green plants, they miss rapists who stalk the sidewalks and jogging paths. No question, the prohibition of marijuana reduces public safety. Howard Wooldridge Drug Policy Specialist [end]
Legalizing Marijuana Would Do More to Facilitate Open Conversation About Drug Use With Teenagers and Undermine Mexican Drug Cartels The possession and use of marijuana for recreational purposes is illegal in America, but anyone who has spent even a brief time at the University knows that it is a highly visible substance both on Grounds and in the surrounding community. In fact, it has become so prevalent that one occasionally spots a student walking to class in broad daylight with a blunt dangling carelessly from his mouth. [continues 827 words]
Retired police detective Howard Wooldridge has a very compelling reason for lifting marijuana and its community out of criminal conduct ["Pot is a distraction," Feb. 18]. As the letter suggests, marijuana is a distraction or, more so, a pastime. Intoxicants should not be judged by their effects, but by their threat to the community. I think we find very little harm and tragedy associated with marijuana. Sean Alan Romanek Fredericksburg [end]
As a retired police detective, I certainly agree with Richard Moter's thoughtful letter ["Legalization of marijuana is no joke," Feb. 12]. Every hour we chase the Michael Phelpses and the Willie Nelsons of the Commonwealth, we have less time for the deadly reckless and DUI drivers, and less time for catching child molesters and other public safety threats. My profession needs to return to its original purpose: public safety. If you have a problem with marijuana, alcohol, or cigarettes, see a doctor for treatment. The Thin Blue Line has much more important tasks. Howard Wooldridge Washington [end]
Recent articles on the current pot decriminalization bill emphasize that hard-line Republicans treat this bill as a joke ["Morgan tries to get his legislation past the pot jokes," Jan. 26]. For Americans with medical problems eased by cannabis, it is not a joke. I can assure readers that people who are sick, dying, and suffering take it seriously. The people have spoken. Marijuana has become acceptable in American society. The government's policy is pure oppression and tyranny, and we aren't buying it anymore. We want our religious freedom and our medical freedom. [continues 77 words]
Inside Virginia
