When she visits schools, drug counselor Darcy Jensen hears kids tell stories of how meth provides a burst of energy and causes dramatic weight loss. Then she tells the part the kids don't hear -- where you often become hooked on the first hit and eventually die.

"In the beginning, you have more energy because meth is a stimulant. You are changing the brain chemistry. People are not sleeping for two or three days at a time," Jensen said. "You lose weight because you're not eating when you are high. When you have more of a patterned (meth) use, there is weight loss that could be anywhere from 20 to 40-plus pounds (in two months)."

[continues 1525 words]

"Meth Is Going to Be a Big Problem for Some Time to Come," Concedes Yankton Police Chief Duane Heeney.

Despite increased public awareness of its devastating consequences and law enforcement efforts to combat the problem, methamphetamine use continues to plague much of the Midwest.

And the progression of its long trail of desperation -- littered with broken bodies and broken homes -- shows few signs of slowing down.

South Dakota, and the Yankton area in particular, has not been spared.

According to the Yankton Police Department, it had 38 meth-related arrests in 2006 -- a number that Det. Neal Anderson says is about average.

[continues 825 words]

PIERRE - Drug abuse awareness and education is an integral part of school curricula nationwide.

For this reason local educators are pleased at the results reported in the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, which shows the number of high school students in South Dakota who have used some types of drugs has decreased since 1997.

The information was recently reprinted in the South Dakota "Kids Count Factbook," which is published every January by the University of South Dakota.

The survey itself has been performed every two years since 1991 by the South Dakota Department of Education.

[continues 383 words]

RAPID CITY -- After a year of wrangling with the petition-circulation policy at Rushmore Plaza Civic Center, the city council may end up leaving it basically unchanged.

The policy allows people to circulate petitions outside the building 15 feet from entrances. It was challenged a year ago when Bob Newland, a petitioner seeking the legalization of medical marijuana, was arrested inside the civic center during the Black Hills Stock Show & Rodeo for refusing to circulate his petitions outside. He was charged with failure to vacate, a misdemeanor.

[continues 442 words]

Despite More Busts, Work Increasing For Brown County Drug Task Force

Two parcels confiscated from an Aberdeen residence last summer contained more methamphetamine than Brian Locke of the Brown County Sheriff's Department has seen since the county's Drug Task Force was formed nearly six years ago.

On June 8, law enforcers confiscated more than two and a half pounds of meth from an Aberdeen home, one of the biggest drug busts in the city's history.

The amount of meth confiscated in most busts is measured in grams, said Mark McNeary, Brown County state's attorney. There are 28 grams in an ounce and a bust yielding more than an ounce is significant, McNeary said. Two pounds isn't just a big amount for Aberdeen, it's a big amount period, he said.

[continues 971 words]

In 1971, when Richard Nixon declared his "War on Drugs," calling for harsher penalties and stricter enforcement of drug laws, the renowned Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman had a John Lennon moment. He suggested we give peace a chance.

To Friedman, who died earlier this month at 94, drug prohibition was unsound public policy, economic insanity and inherently immoral. It wasn't the drug user who was immoral, as the political world asserted, the immorality stemmed from making users into criminals.

[continues 589 words]

Being an American comes with many rights. The rights to free speech, religion and general freedom to live our lives (within legal limit) as we please are among the countless many we are privileged enough to enjoy.

However, we have responsibilities for these luxuries. Paying taxes and abiding by the law are a couple of the measures required of us as citizens. The opportunities we are afforded require us to be held accountable for our actions.

Bearing this in mind, consider the following scenario: A young man in college is convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession. Part of his punishment for the crime is losing his eligibility for federal financial aid for one year. Crime, then punishment. Seems simple enough, right?

[continues 601 words]

WASHINGTON -- South Dakota student Kraig Selken has turned to Congress in his effort to soften laws that punish student drug offenders, but he won't get much help from his state's congressional delegation.

Selken, a student at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D., traveled to Washington last week to lobby Republican Sen. John Thune, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth.

He and other students say a law banning some convicted drug offenders from obtaining student loans is wrong and should be repealed.

[continues 375 words]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- South Dakota student Kraig Selken has turned to Congress in his effort to soften laws that punish student drug offenders, but he won't get much help from his state's congressional delegation.

Selken, a student at Northern State University in Aberdeen, S.D., traveled to Washington last week to lobby Republican Sen. John Thune, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson and Democratic Rep. Stephanie Herseth. He and other students say a law banning some convicted drug offenders from obtaining student loans is wrong and should be repealed.

[continues 374 words]

Once again, kids have astounded us with their ingenuity. It seems they are now able to thwart the law and go online to purchase cigarettes. The federal government is asking the U.S. Postal Service to discontinue delivering boxes of cigarettes to minors.

So, what's up with kids these days? It seems that there are daily crises reported: childhood obesity at near-epidemic proportions, binge-drinking, date-rape drugs, the list could go on and on.

"It's tougher to raise kids than it used to be," observed the parent of two teenagers. "They have challenges we didn't have when we were growing up. Drugs, sex, Internet dangers. They're constantly on the run. If it's not soccer and dance lessons, it's school sporting events. They're hardly ever home."

[continues 683 words]

SPEARFISH - As officials from Lawrence County school districts become increasingly aware that drug and alcohol use among youth is more of a community-wide problem, rather than just a school problem, schools are taking a more active approach in prevention and taking an active role in helping children make healthy choices.

That's where YouthWise comes in. Based in Spearfish, this organization funded by the South Dakota Division of Drug and Alcohol, has contracted with Spearfish and Lead-Deadwood Schools to provide programming and curriculum designed to help students make healthier choices and stay drug free. Currently the organization is working to support existing school programs such as peer helpers and the youth advisory council, as well as provide additional programming such as speakers and after-school activities to help teach kids about healthy lifestyles.

[continues 517 words]

Opponents Concerned About Controlling Use

A movement to legalize the use of marijuana for medical uses was headed for defeat with partial election results available late Tuesday.

South Dakota's Initiated Measure 4 was patterned after laws in 11 states. Passage looked doubtful at 11 p.m. with 141,734 votes against legalized use compared with 127,713 votes in favor, a 53-47 margin, with 743 precincts out of 818 reporting.

Those against the measure said approval would have led to open use, and the public might think that it is the only medicine effective for certain ailments.

[continues 259 words]

Initiated Measure 4 is a compassionate measure to protect sick and dying people from arrest. I'm one of them, a Gulf War veteran who was exposed to nerve agents during my service. As a result, I suffer from a degenerative muscular disease that ended my career and will likely cut my life short.

I've been prescribed virtually every FDA-approved narcotic and opiate on the market. These prescription painkillers not only have failed to relieve my deep inner-muscle pain, they left me in a fog, unable to function. I could even not remember what my family said the day before.

[continues 113 words]

I have read and listened to various views on Initiated Measure 4, the medical marijuana initiative, and what I've noticed from the folks against this is that their only real message is fear.

This is for sick and dying people, not people with routine medical concerns. Someone with chronic pain usually has a severe medical condition that causes it, a condition that by definition can't be cured or relieved by ordinary treatments.

I'm one of them, a Gulf War veteran exposed to nerve agents. As a result, I suffer from a degenerative muscular disease that ended my career and will likely cut my life short.

[continues 234 words]

As one of the many seriously ill South Dakotans depending on the medical marijuana initiative's passage, I want to thank you for your support for this compassionate measure. If it does not pass, I could end up in jail for trying to live as normally as possible.

For 20 years, I have had multiple sclerosis. I have tried numerous prescription medications, but none of them have worked on my incredible stiffness and spasms. When I wake up, I am nearly paralyzed, unable to move.

[continues 118 words]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- A medical marijuana ballot issue in South Dakota is being supported by people who want to legalize drugs, a top federal drug official said Friday.

John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, said people who have been trying to legalize marijuana are exploiting the suffering of genuinely sick people to further their political ends.

South Dakota would join 11 other states that allow some medical patients to smoke marijuana to ease their pain and other medical problems if voters approve Initiated Measure 4 on Tuesday.

[continues 296 words]

A medical marijuana ballot issue in South Dakota is being supported by people who want to legalize drugs, a top federal drug official said Friday.

John Walters, director of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, said people who have been trying to legalize marijuana are exploiting the suffering of genuinely sick people to further their political ends.

South Dakota would join 11 other states that allow some medical patients to smoke marijuana to ease their pain and other medical problems if voters approve Initiated Measure 4 on Tuesday.

[continues 296 words]

RAPID CITY -- Two Stevens High School seniors who wore T-shirts to school advocating the passage of Initiated Measure 4, the medical marijuana ballot issue, say their rights to political free speech were violated when the school principal confiscated the shirts, which were decorated with the image of a marijuana leaf.

David Valenzuela, 17, and Chris Fuentes, 18, were told by a Stevens security guard to remove the shirts as they entered their first-period class Oct. 20. Principal Katie Bray confiscated the shirts a short time later.

[continues 519 words]

Editor's note: This is another in a series of stories on ballot issues and candidates facing South Dakota voters in the Nov. 7 general election.

Voters will decide next week whether South Dakota citizens should legally be allowed to use medical marijuana to treat symptoms caused by certain medical conditions.

The controversial Initiated Measure 4 would allow people with "debilitating" medical conditions to grow, possess and use small amounts of medical marijuana.

Proponents say the bill would enable those who have painful conditions to legally ease their pain.

[continues 759 words]

Regarding your thoughtful editorial on medical marijuana (Press & Dakotan, Oct. 11), if health outcomes determined drug laws instead of cultural norms, marijuana would be legal. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana can be harmful if abused, but jail cells are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents. The first marijuana laws were enacted in response to Mexican migration during the early 1900s, despite opposition from the American Medical Association.

[continues 99 words]