We're far away from it here in the Northeast, but if you pay any attention to national news you'll know that Mexico is rapidly falling into chaos with drug gangs taking over. Murdering judges, policemen, and their competitors; kidnapping their family members to intimidate and coerce them. Where are the AK-47s and other weapons coming from? The good ole US of A, thanks to the National Rifle Association and weak-kneed politicians.

Sadly, I have to include President Obama in that last category. After a recent meeting with the Mexican president, Mr. Obama spoke of the tragedy in Mexico and of America's role in stoking it -- with our demand for their drugs and as a supplier of guns. Yet he promised to combat it by enforcing laws currently on the books, and said he would not pursue a resurrection of the assault weapons ban that was rolled back in 2004. He admitted that the politics of that was too tough.

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is right to point out the role of Americans and United States government policy in the creation of powerful and viscous Mexico drug cartels and the violence they have spawned in that country and ours.

The secretary, during a visit to Mexico, said Americans have provided a huge market for the drugs supplied by the gangs and, thereby providing huge sums of money to bribe Mexican officials and guns to kill police officers and army personnel.

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Drink and drive and it's grrrrrrrr-eat! Smoke pot and your flakes are frosted, dude.

So seems the message from Kellogg, which has decided not to renew its sponsorship contract with Michael Phelps after the Olympian was photographed smoking marijuana at a party in South Carolina.

That's show biz, of course, but the cereal company had no problem signing Phelps despite a prior alcohol-related arrest. In 2004, Phelps was fined and sentenced to 18 months probation and community service after pleading guilty to driving while impaired.

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Editor of the Reformer:

An open letter to President Obama:

Dear Mr. President,

Not one American belongs in prison for drug use alone, in absence of a real crime. Using any drug in and of itself should not constitute criminal activity. Laws criminalizing personal behavior in which no one harms others or their property are arbitrary and subjective means that impose the will of one group of people on another. American jurisprudence too often omits the laws of nature in favor of harsh legal judgments that one-sidedly interpret some human behavior as being unlawful.

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In response to "Drug units notch 500 arrests" Jan. 25, if the drug war was working then arrests should be going down to the point of nonexistence because no one would be selling or using drugs. But, every year there are more arrests and more drugs, which is a pretty clear indication that drug prohibition has failed and will continue to fail.

I'd like to ask readers to name one stated objective of the drug war that has been achieved in the 70+ years that we have had drug prohibition.

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CABOT - People who live in close-knit villages with clapboard buildings around a green share a problem with those who live in decaying inner cities: Their children use alcohol and drugs.

Ten years ago, Cabot School parents and staff confronted the issue head-on and formed the Cabot Coalition, involving the whole community - - businesses, parents, churches, retirees, the schools - in addressing substance abuse by young people.

Over the past decade, the Coalition has won more than $1 million in federal and state drug-prevention funding, become recognized as a model and learned how difficult it is to protect children from omnipresent temptations.

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The Dodge minivan with Quebec license plates came to a stop late last month at the Highgate Springs border crossing, traveling south toward the stretch of Interstate 89 through Vermont that lay just ahead.

Behind the steering wheel was a short, stocky man with long, thick hair and a beard, both graying. Next to him sat his fiancee, a taller, blonde-haired woman who had rented the van with her credit card the day before.

Montreal residents [redacted], told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent they were headed to Long Island to visit friends for Thanksgiving, according to court papers an investigator would file later.

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HIGHGATE SPRINGS, Vt. - U. S. Customs says 145 pounds of ecatary was seized at the Highgate Springs port of entry. The Wednesday seizure was the largest ever by federal agents at a New England ground crossing.

[end]

A Burlington minister and a South Burlington police officer, both of whom claimed victory in a racial-profiling lawsuit this summer, have appealed the verdict, triggering a new round of legal maneuvering in the divisive case.

Attorneys for the Rev. Rico Diamond and policeman Jack O'Connor have filed separate claims related to the federal civil-rights case with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. The appellate court is the middle step between U.S. District Court in Burlington, where the matter was tried this summer, and the U.S. Supreme Court, which either side could ask to consider further appeals.

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MONTPELIER - A Windsor lawyer who served as a part-time family court judge will lose her license to practice law for three months and be placed on probation for a year, according to a lawyers' decision.

The disciplinary panel from the Professional Responsibility Board said her actions undermined the public's confidence in the Vermont legal profession.

Martha Davis, 62, of Windsor can appeal the decision by the board within the next 30 days, according to Beth DeBernardi, the deputy disciplinary counsel for the Professional Responsibility Board. A three-person hearing panel issued the recommendation on Davis on Friday.

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I am Ben Mitchell, the Liberty Union candidate for lieutenant governor in the state of Vermont. If I am elected and the governor leaves the state for even 10 minutes, I will pardon all nonviolent drug offenders serving time in Vermont or Kentucky prisons. I think it is stupid to pay $45,000 a year to lock up drug users when we won't spend more than $7,000 a year to educate our young people. Besides, I thought this was a free country.

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BRATTLEBORO -- While it is up for debate whether marijuana is a gateway drug, Brattleboro Police have found it to be a gateway for investigations.

The initiative started as a way to get drug dealers out of the Harmony Parking Lot and downtown area, most of whom were selling marijuana or pills.

Now, it has expanded to include cocaine and heroine sales in downtown bars.

This expansion led to the arrest of Pedro Santiago, 36, of Brattleboro earlier this month for possession of cocaine. The drugs seized had been broken down and packaged for sale, police said.

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MONTPELIER - A constitutional dispute surrounding the so-called hemp bill has finally been resolved, paving the way for Vermont to become only the second state in the country to allow its farmers to grow the crop.

Gov. James Douglas, a critic of the hemp bill, had said the measure flies in the face of federal statutes and could ultimately complicate marijuana eradication efforts in the state.

Despite his opposition, a Douglas spokesman said that the bill didn't rise to the level of a gubernatorial veto. And though he wasn't willing to sign the bill himself, Douglas forwarded the legislation in early June to the secretary of state for her to enact the bill into law without his signature.

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I congratulate Lou Magnini on his thoughtful, sensible and rational letter (Rutland Herald, June 7) on drugs and the uselessness of busts and incarceration. We have been fighting "the War on Drugs" for four decades. Has it worked? I think not. Why? Because it is too politically charged, emotionally exhausting and never, never thought over in ways that are useful or "out of the box." Some are trying (Attorney Sands among others) but they are always met with "in the box" thinkers and an older generation that is never intellectually agile enough to have any other way but to "lock 'em up."

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MONTPELIER - A bill that was poised to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp in Vermont is now the subject of a constitutional dispute over whether the legislation can become law without the governor's signature.

Gov. James Douglas, a critic of the hemp bill, has said the measure flies in the face of federal statute and could ultimately complicate marijuana eradication efforts in the state.

Despite his opposition, a Douglas spokesman said that the bill doesn't rise to the level of a gubernatorial veto. And though he wasn't willing to sign the bill himself, Douglas forwarded the legislation last week to the Secretary of State for her to enact the bill into law without his signature.

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MIDDLEBURY -- A high school teacher said he hopes to spark discussion on how to best supervise the student newspaper.

A publishing class that would focus on putting out the paper is tentatively on next year's schedule, according to Principal William Lawson.

Timothy O'Leary, an English teacher who ran the journalism class that put out the paper this year, said he hopes to take advantage of a School Board discussion of the class to talk about censorship issues. The board meets at 5:30 p.m. today at the high school.

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BRANDON -- Almost a quarter of those named in the drug sweeps Wednesday were from Brandon.

Brandon Police Chief Chris Brickell said the 10 people were 60 percent to 70 percent of the known drug dealers in town.

"I'm hoping it's going to be a big deal," he said. "Several people on the outskirts who were doing things are not looking over their shoulders.  Temporarily, we've put a dent in the trade."

Eleven police agencies from the local to federal level cooperated to bring drug and weapons charges against 41 people in the Rutland area Wednesday. Some were already in custody and others were still at large. The effort was described as the culmination of a months-long investigation prompted by drug-related violence.

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MONTPELIER - Gov. James Douglas will allow a bill legalizing hemp to become law despite concerns from the law enforcement community about its impact on marijuana eradication efforts in the state.

The legislation, which legalizes the cultivation of industrial hemp in Vermont, won nearly unanimous support in the both the House and Senate this session. Though Douglas doesn't support the bill, and has refused to attach his signature to it, he will nonetheless forward the legislation to the Secretary of State, which will effectively enact the law.

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According to Vermont Grassroots Party leader Denny Lane, when alcohol prohibition came to an end in the 1930s, the individuals who had once enforced the measure were left with a woeful quantity of time on their hands.

"So they all got together to create this boogey-man marijuana, this evil demon weed that will make you go berserk and rape your grandmother," Lane said. "What they didn't realize is that it's the most versatile, premiere plant on the planet."

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What exactly is the big deal here? It seems incredible that there's been such a drawn-out debate - actually encompassing several years - over whether to make hemp a legal crop in Vermont.

At last, however, the bill seems close to passage in the Legislature and could be on its way to the governor's desk soon.

Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, had been urged by numerous farmers and others to usher the bill along to the full Senate. He now has agreed to do that, and the bill was expected to be voted on late Thursday or today.

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