Editor: For a vehicle user, the most dangerous road situations are those driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs and cell phones. It is naive to believe that smoking marijuana is going to eliminate the cause of blindness from glaucoma, or the effects of diabetes, or heart disease, yet charlatan doctors can issue a prescription allowing the dangerous use of marijuana. As a senior citizen with glaucoma, diabetes, and heart disease, I cannot imagine responsible doctors providing a prescription of marijuana to satisfy the drug cravings of those with prescription manageable chronic diseases. [continues 51 words]
Lawmakers Won't Touch a Popular Law, Even If It Would Save $190 Million Over Five Years North Carolina's habitual-felon law is powerful: A three-time criminal who breaks into a parking meter or has a crack pipe with cocaine residue can be sentenced as if he were a rapist. It is expensive: These longer sentences add an average of$195,000 in prison costs for each habitual felon, a News & Observer analysis shows. Since the law took effect in 1994, taxpayers have committed an additional $1.5 billion to house habitual felons -- and an additional $264 million to build prisons for them. And it is untouchable at the General Assembly. District attorneys and sheriffs have squashed all attempts to change it by painting opponents as coddlers of criminals, said former Rep. Joe Kiser, a Republican and the former sheriff of Lincoln County. [continues 2320 words]
