Richmond, Va. -- The herbs themselves may seem innocuous, but when laced with a special manmade chemical and smoked, the result can be more potent than marijuana. This so-called synthetic marijuana, known by such names as Spice and K2, is legal in Virginia. It can be purchased online, in convenience stores and at tobacco shops. But it may not be legal for long. Some state lawmakers have proposed banning the synthetic-marijuana substances in Virginia, as they have been outlawed in 13 other states. The U.S. military has banned the possession and use of it by service members. The Navy has placed several Hampton Roads businesses off limits to military personnel because they sell these types of substances. [continues 831 words]
Austin Raynor ("Up In Smoke," Nov. 9, 2010) got an arrow-splitting bull's eye illustrating the need to end cannabis (marijuana) prohibition and extermination. A sane or moral argument to continue cannabis prohibition does not exist. Not only should states be working to end cannabis prohibition, there should be a race to see which state can do it first. What kind of government cages humans for using what God says is good? Stan White Dillon, Colorado [end]
Del. Scott Garrett, R-Lynchburg, said Monday he has filed legislation that would prohibit the sale of fake marijuana in Virginia. Six other legislators, from widely scattered parts of the state, have proposed similar bills this fall. They will be considered in the General Assembly session that begins Jan. 12. Emergency responders in Lynchburg recently found a young adult who had smoked a synthetic substance intended to produce a high similar to marijuana, Garrett said. The victim was unresponsive and unable to move his arms or legs, Garrett said, and was taken to a hospital. The victim recovered. [continues 223 words]
Despite the Rejection of Proposition 19 in California, the Prohibition of Marijuana Remains an Indefensible Policy On Tuesday, California voters rejected Proposition 19, which would have legalized the cultivation and possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use. The proposition presented a tremendous opportunity to help reverse an expensive and paternalistic policy that has decimated state and federal budgets, spurred the growth of gangs and drug cartels and imprisoned millions of Americans for a harmless recreational activity. But Proposition 19, despite its defeat at the polls, was not a total failure. Legalization of marijuana has been transformed, in the public's eyes, from a subject of mockery to a legitimate policy possibility. According to a Gallup poll, 46 percent of Americans now favor marijuana legalization, up from 31 percent in 2000. [continues 734 words]
To the editor: (Re: Schools program worthy of praise, Oct. 31) It is tiresome to see the drug crusaders trying to justify their destructive inquisition with notions of "saving people from themselves." The notion of a drug free America is pure madness and very harmful. The claim that drug warriors are saving people by throwing them into prison is a huge lie. A lie so big that most people never question it. However, when we examine the results of drug prohibition we quickly learn that the drug crusade has failed on every front. Never since the drug laws went on the books has there been a reduction in drug use. In fact, we have more drug addicts now percentage wise than there were when the drug bans began. [continues 363 words]
As a person living in the land of the free and the home of the brave, I wonder why so many people are afraid of legalizing pot. It's not the demon weed that our government told us it was. It has many uses beyond pleasure. Put American farmers back to work. Put American citizens back to work in Amsterdam-style 'coffee shops.' If we can encourage people to 'drive' downtown to beer and wine festivals, then surely there's room for a natural plant festival. How can a plant be a crime? Mike Marks Chesapeake [end]
Many a life has been brought down or cut short because of drugs, and Suffolk Public Schools are doing what they can to influence students against using illegal substances. Schools in the system marked "Red Ribbon Week" this week with a variety of lessons and activities designed to encourage kids to be drug-free. Elementary schools, especially, got into the act, allowing students to dress in a variety of crazy outfits they may not have ordinarily been permitted to wear. For example, students at Creekside wore their shirts backwards to "turn their backs to drugs." At other schools, students arrived in sweats because "being drug-free is no sweat." [continues 228 words]
UMW Students Busted In City Drug Sweep Fourteen current and one former University of Mary Washington students have been charged in an ongoing drug investigation. Fredericksburg police spokeswoman Natatia Bledsoe said the arrests range from simple possession of marijuana to distributing such drugs as ecstasy and prescription drugs. The most-recent five arrests occurred this week in Marshall and Jefferson halls on the UMW campus, Bledsoe said. The other arrests took place at various off-campus locations. The cases involving the students began on July 29 while city narcotics officers were investigating a suspected drug dealer who was not associated with the university. [continues 458 words]
Richmond, Va. -- As middle and high school students throughout the region return to class this week, police soon will resume their unannounced drug sweeps of public secondary schools to keep the heat on young offenders. Last school year, police drug dog teams collectively conducted 121 sweeps at 64 area schools, arresting 11 students and finding drugs or alcohol 14 times, according to figures obtained by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. The primary goal is to remove drugs from schools and deter students from bringing them on campus, said Richmond police Capt. Michael Shamus. "It's not just to go in there and make an arrest," he said. [continues 1048 words]
Just as medical marijuana approaches the cusp of general acceptance -- the Department of Veterans Affairs has announced it will permit patients to smoke pot in states that allow it -- a synthetic form of the drug has gained popularity for recreational use, and states are scrambling to outlaw the new drug, variously known as spice, K2, and a few other terms. Peddled as novelty incense -- wink, wink -- spice consists of an herbal blend treated with synthetic cannabinoids. Poison-control centers have taken hundreds of reports of bad reactions, some of them in Virginia. Two young men in Blacksburg recently were hospitalized for vomiting and rapid heartbeat and (in one case) seizures. [continues 160 words]
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]
Police Chief Jeff Dudley Said The Program Took Up A Lot Of Man-Hours. After two decades and nearly 3,800 participants, Salem's Camp DARE has become a victim of tight budget times. City Manager Kevin Boggess announced Tuesday that the free summer camp, which annually hosted rising seventh-graders, will be cut indefinitely, a move he said will save the city more than $100,000 a year. Last year, 208 of 320 eligible students attended the camp, according to city spokesman Mike Stevens. The eight-week camp hosts boys and girls separately during weeklong sessions and, running from June to August, falls in parts of two fiscal years. [continues 168 words]
The dictionary defines "education" as the "act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life." With that in mind, I am not sure how the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program has been able to keep the "E" in its name. The "general knowledge" the group imparts upon the public is based far more on myths and scare tactics than on factual evidence. The organization certainly does not encourage reasoning and judgment, instead relying on the students of the program to take everything presented to them at face value without even considering contrary scientific evidence. [continues 646 words]
Testimony from a former police officer, a professor, and patients with HIV and an artificial hip wasn't enough to sway lawmakers on a House subcommittee Wednesday evening. Both of Del. Harvey Morgan's bills to loosen restrictions on medical marijuana and reduce marijuana-related penalities were voted down. The Gloucester Republican' s first proposal, to decriminalize possession of small amounts of the drug and reduce penalties for distributing certain quantities, was voted down by committee members who disputed that it would save the state money and said it eased the punishments dealt out to drug dealers. [continues 90 words]
RICHMOND - Before a packed room in the General Assembly Building, Delegate Harvey Morgan, R-Gloucester, on Wednesday called for laws allowing the medical use of marijuana and reducing the penalties for possession of the drug. Morgan, 79, chairman of the House Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee, said the bills he is sponsoring represent a "compassionate and sensible drug policy." "I have received more media inquiries about these bills than any measure, I believe, that I have ever patroned," Morgan said. "To me, this serves as an indication that support for a sensible approach to policies regarding the medicinal use of marijuana is widespread." [continues 686 words]
RICHMOND -- When House of Delegates Republicans showed up for their daily caucus huddle and strategy session in the Capitol late last week, there was a plate of fresh brownies and a forged note waiting for them. "Friends, Please enjoy these homemade brownies! -- Harvey Morgan" Conservative lawmakers pulled the munchies prank to tease Del. Harvey Morgan, a Gloucester pharmacist and Republican whose push to decriminalize pot possession and expand the state's medical marijuana statute caught many political observers off guard. In his third decade in the General Assembly, Morgan comes from the classic mold of the Virginia gentleman. [continues 764 words]
Republican legislators in Richmond say there's a better chance of getting gay marriage in Virginia than decriminalizing pot. Actually, that's not quite how they put it. It was more like what Del. Dave Albo, a Republican from Fairfax County, said last week about a bill presented to the General Assembly by Chesapeake Republican Del. Harvey Morgan: "(It's) going to be dead about as soon as he finishes his explanation." And this is what qualifies as open, intelligent debate in Richmond -- the place where you don't need a tendon hammer to make knees jerk on cue. [continues 696 words]
It's not just "left coast" states like California and Washington that are considering marijuana law reforms to help balance state budgets. For the first time in years, the Virginia General Assembly will consider common-sense marijuana law reform. House Bill 1134 would replace criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession with a civil penalty of $500. The bill's sponsor is no dope-smoking hippy; in fact, he is uniquely qualified to push the envelope. Del. Harvey Morgan is a Republican member of the Virginia General Assembly and an assistant clinical professor of pharmacy at Virginia Commonwealth University's medical school. His bill is grounded in legitimate clinical expertise and much-needed fiscal conservatism. [continues 487 words]
RICHMOND - Radical legislation doesn't usually come out of Gloucester, but Del. Harvey Morgan is pushing to reform Virginia's marijuana laws so that possessing small amounts of pot is no longer an automatic felony. Morgan, a long-serving Republican pharmacist from Gloucester, is sponsoring a pair of bills to overhaul how Virginia treats marijuana. One bill would decriminalize marijuana possession -- turning an automatic felony and 30-day jail sentence into a $500 fine. The other bill would allow broader use of medical marijuana. [continues 462 words]
I'm writing about Worth Richardson's outstanding column from Wednesday, "The war on drugs is not working; a new approach is needed." The so-called war on drugs is a huge industry and huge bureaucracy. Victory in the drug war is not possible, nor is it the goal. Victory in the drug war would mean that the drug war industry and bureaucracy are out of business. There are basically two types of people who support the so-called war on drugs: The first are those who make their livelihood from it. This includes politicians and bureaucrats who are probably on the payroll of the drug cartels. (Al Capone had hundreds of politicians and prohibition officials on his payroll.) The second are suckers. These include: [continues 111 words]
This is in regard to Worth Richardson's column Wednesday, "The war on drugs is not working; a new approach is needed." Richardson succinctly hits the proverbial nail on the head when he states, "It seems pretty clear America's war on drugs is very inefficient and not working." "We need, and I use the word 'all out war,' on all fronts," was Richard Nixon's reaction to his national commission's recommendation that marijuana no longer be a criminal offense, according to Nixon's Oval Office tapes. The year after Nixon's "all out war" on marijuana, arrests jumped by over 100,000. [continues 300 words]
Morally there is little doubt the abuse of narcotics is wrong, and scientifically there is little doubt it is unhealthy both physically and mentally. However, the way in which our government looks to shield society from the dangers of illegal drugs may be lacking. Richard Nixon coined the phrase "War on Drugs" back in the 1960s. Since then, America has waged this war, but with little success. The supply and use of drugs has not changed in any fundamental way since then. In fact, the business of illegal drugs is bigger than ever and more dangerous than ever. [continues 415 words]
NEWPORT NEWS -- Numb from the drugs that ran through her petite body, Vanessa Rickerson returned to the streets after a stranger raped her. She didn't know his name -- he was anonymous just like all the other men Rickerson met as a prostitute. "You still go back and do it because you want that drug," recalls 39-year-old Rickerson, who needed the money to feed a heroin habit that wouldn't loosen its grip on her. Then another man raped her. This one hit her to get what he wanted. She struggled to break the cycle of prostitution and drug addiction. It was a lifestyle that ended with Rickerson being convicted twice for prostitution. Talking from a tiny jail interview room, Rickerson recounted how she fell into this lifestyle. [continues 529 words]
ISLE OF WIGHT -- Heroin -- a narcotic more commonly found in urban areas -- is making inroads into rural Isle of Wight and Surry counties. Authorities are still searching for [name redacted], 47, of Dendron, one of 22 people indicted Thursday on federal heroin drug trafficking charges. The indictments allege that [name redacted] is a drug courier and a mid-level dealer for the drug ring, which stretched from New Jersey to Hampton Roads, according to federal officials. [name redacted] is charged with one count of conspiring to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 40 years in prison. [continues 281 words]
His Wife Placed On Three Years Probation HARRISONBURG -- A United States District Court judge sentenced a Verona methamphetamine dealer Tuesday to 20 years in federal prison but spared his wife in a case that saw a regional drug task force confiscate more than 500 grams of meth, nearly $170,000 and 27 vehicles. Judge Glen Conrad, labeling the sentence "just," said, "This was just not a one-time deal." Authorities arrested Douglas Rankin, 45, and his wife, Lisa Rankin, 41, in January after being tipped off about Douglas Rankin's illegal meth operation, according to federal court records. WASSP Task Force members seized drugs from the couple's Parkins Lane home, as well as 23 guns, 27 vehicles and $169,874 in drug proceeds. [continues 279 words]
When Attorney General Eric Holder announced in March that the federal government would stop prosecuting medical-marijuana cases, Elliston resident Michael Krawitz cheered. Krawitz did it again when Holder renewed that pledge in a written directive in October. He cheered again this month, when the American Medical Association reversed its longstanding opposition to expanded research into marijuana as a treatment for pain, glaucoma, HIV wasting syndrome and certain other maladies. Krawitz, 47, is a disabled American veteran. He's disabled as a result of a bad motorcycle crash he had in Guam while stationed there with the U.S. Air Force. [continues 687 words]
Editor, Times-Dispatch: Regarding the editorial, "Richmond Jail: Solutions": Richmond is one of many cities grappling with overcrowded jails. Throughout the nation, state and local governments facing budget shortfalls are pursuing alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. A study conducted by the RAND Corporation found that every additional dollar invested in substance-abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.48 in societal costs. There is far more at stake than tax dollars. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction, and delinquency. Not only do the children lose out, but society as a whole does, too. Incarcerating non-violent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in anti-social behavior. [continues 70 words]
Richmond officials' recent trip to Durham to study how that city is helping convicted drug offenders re-enter society brought back this encouraging datum: Relapse among those who have been through the two-year Triangle Residental Options for Substance Abusers program is a mere 8 percent after one year -- compared with a roughly 50 percent relapse rate elsewhere. What's more, the two-year TROSA program is largely self-financed. Only 5 percent of its revenue comes from government grants. That's a huge selling point during extraordinarily tight fiscal times. [continues 132 words]
Since I have become the leader of the Virginia Tech chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, I have continually encountered the same question: Are you pro-drug? Individuals make the assumption that the fact that I oppose ineffective anti-drug legislation somehow implies that I advocate drug use. In a sense, I find such an assumption sort of confusing. Does being pro-choice imply that one is pro-abortion? Does supporting one's right to eat fatty foods from McDonald's suggest that you are pro-obesity? The simple answer is no. In both of those scenarios, we have acknowledged the fact that a person has the right do what she pleases with his or her own body, so long as nobody else is hurt. [continues 697 words]
Local prosecutors are worried that a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in late June could hamstring the criminal justice system — and cause some defendants to escape prosecution. In a 5-4 ruling in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, the high court determined that prosecutors are responsible for having crime lab experts on hand for trials so that the defense can challenge their findings. That clashes with Virginia's court practices, which placed the responsibility on the defense attorney to request the analysts' presence. [continues 811 words]
To the Editor: I was very disappointed to receive a letter from our congressman, Republican Randy Forbes, recently in which he stated he is unalterably opposed to marijuana legalization for medicinal or recreational use. I was mostly disappointed, because in his letter he was not familiar with drug classification in the United States by the Drug Enforcement Agency. He referred to cocaine/crack as a schedule I narcotic and looped it in with meth, PCP, marijuana, heroin and, as he put it, 100 other schedule I narcotics. [continues 528 words]
Inside Virginia
