The Hippocratic Oath begins with the order, "First, do no harm." With the Supreme Court's ruling on Tuesday, doctors can now be reasonably sure they won't be prosecuted if they follow that dictum. The decision lets stand an appeals court ruling that doctors may not be investigated, threatened or punished for prescribing medical marijuana. That means doctors in the 12 states where medical marijuana is legal can actually talk about it with their patients, rather than skirt the subject for fear of losing their licenses. [continues 630 words]
In an effort to stem what's perceived to be a rampant problem with drug abuse on high school campuses, more and more schools around the country are gearing up to conduct random drug tests on students. Morgan County is one of them. Starting this fall, it will test about 5 percent of students in each school between three and eight times throughout the school year. And Decatur City Schools are already doing it. It could be argued, as indeed it has, that testing students for drugs is a violation of their Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. Civil libertarians point to random drug tests as a serious invasion of a student's privacy. [continues 743 words]
