As if losing out on the coveted SEIU endorsement wasn't bad enough, Rep. Dick Gephardt suffered another big blow last week when Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana reduced his grade from a B- to an Incomplete. Okay, maybe it wasn't that big a blow. But Aaron Houston, campaign coordinator for the marijuana group, said Gephardt's grade dropped after his staff backed out of a promise to put the candidate's position in writing. By the way, we were wondering. . . . Did Kerry, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards and Dean see their Medical Marijuana grades go up after they acknowledged smoking pot at last week's Rock the Vote debate? [end]
Re "Campaigns no longer go up in smoke" (Monitor, Nov.7): What is shocking about recent admissions of past drug use by Democratic presidential candidates in the America Rocks the Vote debate aired on CNN is not that three prominent, successful politicians have used marijuana. After all, nearly 40 percent of all Americans have. What is truly scandalous is that of three candidates who answered the drug use question in the affirmative, none took a position on national drug policy. When a marijuana user gets arrested every 45 seconds, when our prisons are overflowing with nonviolent drug offenders and when drug convictions keep people from receiving public benefits including loans for college, it's clear that America's drug laws result in worse harm than they avert. What we need is leadership that will not sidestep this issue as an embarrassment to their professional reputation but confront it as a real threat to our collective freedom. Julie Ruiz-Sierra Davis, Calif. [end]
Past Marijuana Use Now More Acceptable Near the end of the Rock the Vote presidential candidates' forum in Boston this week, the moderator posed a question that once filled politicians with dread. "Which of you are ready to admit to having used marijuana in the past?" Though Howard Dean joked that the candidates would "keep our hands down on this one," only former ambassador Carol Moseley Braun declined to answer the question. Dean, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and North Carolina Sen. John Edwards said they had. The Rev. Al Sharpton said he had not. [continues 829 words]
Daniel Barrick's otherwise thorough and detailed profile of Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana (Monitor, Sept. 30) may have left readers unclear about the origin of the current federal prohibition on medical use of marijuana. It was Congress, not the Food and Drug Administration, that banned marijuana from medical use by classifying it in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. This was an entirely political decision, not made by FDA scientists, doctors or health experts. Candidates who say they oppose medical marijuana laws because "politicians shouldn't interfere with medicine" need to review their history. Marijuana was a legal medicine, sold in a variety of preparations made by major pharmaceutical companies, until the "reefer madness" of the 1930s and the federal ban that resulted - a ban opposed by the American Medical Association. The American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Nurses Association and hundreds of other medical and public health organizations have called for legal protection for medical marijuana patients, but health experts can't undo a political decision. Politicians - including presidential candidates - need to find the courage to fix a bad, unscientific decision made by their predecessors. (The writer is director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project.) [end]
Aaron Houston and volunteers keep close tab on candidates' stances Like the 300 other people gathered at New England College on Friday night, Aaron Houston wanted to hear a few words from Wesley Clark. But Houston wasn't interested in Clark's plans for health care, foreign policy or the economy. He didn't care what the candidate had to say about Social Security or education. Houston had just one thing on his mind: marijuana. Houston is campaign coordinator for Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana, an advocacy group that wants to hear every presidential candidate's stance on the drug's use by terminally ill patients. In recent months, Houston has attended dozens of press conferences, town hall meetings and public forums, probing nearly all candidates on their marijuana views. Despite his narrow agenda, Houston has probably seen more of the 2004 New Hampshire campaign than anyone else. [continues 1056 words]
Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana picked a fight with Edwards last week. During and after Edwards's first town hall meeting in Concord, he fielded questions from Aaron Houston, campaign coordinator for the group. On his way out the door, Houston asked whether Edwards would support continued Drug Enforcement Agency raids in states like California, where marijuana is legal for medical use. Houston told the senator the department was jailing cancer and AIDS patients who use the drug for pain relief and agents were holding guns to the heads of clinic patients. (Federal law prohibits marijuana use, but state laws vary.) [continues 165 words]
Numbers Have Doubled in Last 8 Years DOVER - A methadone-related death is raising concern about a methadone clinic opening in Somersworth. During the weekend, a 29-year-old Dover man died of an overdose of methadone, a drug used as a painkiller and to treat heroin addicts. The overdose, police said, involved the drug in pill or wafer form. The Community Substance Abuse Center, which is opening the Somersworth clinic, says it requires patients to take their methadone as a liquid with professionals watching. [continues 322 words]
BOSTON -- State Police officials said they have cut back on drug testing in recent years, but said their program still follows federal guidelines and takes into account tight budgets. The revelation comes amid reports that two state troopers were allegedly abusing drugs when they recently were arrested - Sgt. Timothy White for reportedly putting a gun in his wife's mouth during a domestic dispute, and Trooper Christopher P. Shields for allegedly robbing a Natick pharmacy at gunpoint. At a news conference Thursday announcing the charges against Shields, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley and State Police Col. Thomas Foley called the arrests a coincidence, and said they did not believe it was indicative of a wider problem with drugs in the department. [continues 315 words]
Goal: Give Kids Alternative To Trouble PITTSFIELD - A kid was selling drugs on the street when a police officer swooped in and arrested him. A girl, who stood alone, pulled a plastic knife from her pocket and pretended to cut her wrists. In five-minute skits at a community forum two weeks ago, about 18 middle and high school students presented snapshots of the problems they feel kids face growing up in town. They called for parental involvement to help address teenage drug abuse, sexual activity, violence, underage drinking and underage smoking. [continues 1003 words]
Critics -- Narcotics Fight Was a Mission Pentagon Never Wanted WASHINGTON - Citing the need to redirect resources to the war on terrorism, the Pentagon has quietly decided to scale back its effort to combat international drug trafficking, a central element of the national "war on drugs" for 14 years. Officials are still weighing how exactly to pare the $1-billion-a-year program, but they want to reduce deployment of special operations troops on counter-narcotics missions and cut back the military's training of anti-drug police and soldiers in the United States and abroad. And they want to use intelligence-gathering equipment now devoted to counter-drug work for counterterrorism as well. [continues 1196 words]
KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan secured its place among the world's top producers of opium this year, churning out about 2,500 tons of opium poppy despite a government ban on the crop, the U.N. special representative to Afghanistan said Thursday. Lakhdar Brahimi said putting a stop to production was a difficult task made harder by the fact that many farmers rely on sales of opium to feed their families. "Preliminary assessments have projected this year's opium poppy crop at around 2,500 tons," Brahimi said at the start of an anti-drug conference in Kabul. [continues 191 words]
Study: Schools Are Wasting Tax Money WASHINGTON - The top three programs used by schools to keep students off drugs are either ineffective or haven't been sufficiently tested, new research suggests. In a study being published today in Health Education Research, a journal for educators, researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say many schools are using popular programs such as D.A.R.E., Here's Looking at You 2000 and McGruff's Drug Prevention and Child Protection, which haven't shown the kind of results that schools should expect, despite years of use. [continues 344 words]
BOSTON - A state budget proposal would give judges discretion over whether to prosecute low-level drug offenders and others as civil or criminal infractions, according to a published report. District attorneys currently make those decisions, but would lose that authority under a measure tucked into the state budget, which is awaiting vetoes from acting Gov. Jane M. Swift. Judges, under the proposal, could choose to try cases ranging from marijuana or heroin possession to indecent exposure as civil matters. Lawmakers say the state would save much-needed money because defendants wouldn't need lawyers. The state spends $2.5 million annually on public defenders for 5,000 poor people charged every year on misdemeanor infractions. [continues 191 words]
PORTLAND, Maine - Southern Maine's methadone clinics have agreed to limit patients' take-home prescriptions at the request of state officials. Following the Portland area's 17th overdose death of the year, the Maine Office of Substance Abuse asked that the clinics open on Sundays and revoke patients' biweekly and monthly take-home privileges. The request came Wednesday, a day after the state released a report that said Discovery House in South Portland and CAP Quality Care in Westbrook were in compliance with all state and federal regulations and a day after a 20-year-old woman died of an apparent overdose of cocaine and methadone obtained from a clinic patient. [continues 292 words]
Letter to the editor: Ms. MacAllen's sixth grade reading class at the Weare Middle School deserves a great deal of praise for discovering and trying to solve a serious social problem. In their reading, these students discovered that between 3 and 6 p.m. on school days, significant numbers of "home alone," latchkey children become involved in tobacco and drug abuse. The students determined to do what they could to address this problem. In a logical way, they researched its nature and possible solutions. They read articles and periodicals, contacted neighboring towns, used the Internet, surveyed their fellow students and wrote to those they thought could help (including President Bush!). Their conclusion? An after-school program of activities that would appeal to young people. The students presented their findings to a classroom full of parents, businesspeople and community leaders, the very people whose support they will need if they are to succeed. And succeed they may. The students' presentation was so well done that many of the invited guests signed up to help. I did, and I hope many townspeople in Weare will join these dedicated students to make their dream a reality Neal M. Kurk Weare [end]
St. Paul's Handling of a Serious Problem Should Be a Model While the recent arrest of a St. Paul's student for dealing a dangerous drug to a group of his fellow students was frightening, the school's response to the situation offers a heartening lesson in how such matters should be handled. The drug involved, gamma hydroxybutyric acid, also known as GHB or "Liquid Ecstasy," is a new member of the constantly changing "designer drug" pharmacopoeia. These drugs, many cooked up in clandestine labs using little more than kitchen chemistry, have become popular at clubs and dance halls catering to teenagers. Some are so new that they present challenges to emergency room physicians who must diagnose what ails a convulsive or comatose young experimenter. Many are too new for authorities to have a good handle on how widespread their use has become. [continues 465 words]
PORTLAND, Maine - Increased use and abuse of methadone is prompting state officials to review procedures at southern Maine clinics that use the synthetic narcotic to treat opiate addiction. The state Office of Substance Abuse will examine the dispensing practices at two clinics in light of several recent overdose deaths and reports of illegal methadone sales on the street, director Kim Johnson said. "We're most interested in the dosage issue and the take-home issue," Johnson said. "We're going to visit both facilities and review the whole process." [continues 274 words]
Despite colorful nicknames such as Liquid X, Easy Lay and Georgia Home Boy, the designer drug GHB is difficult to spot. In liquid form, GHB lacks color and smell - and a few drops are enough to get high. "It's a lot easier to conceal than a six-pack of beer," said Douglas Dickson, dean of students at St. Paul's School, which recently expelled a student for allegedly selling GHB to his classmates. GHB joins the ranks of drugs popular among teenagers at dance halls and all-night techno raves. Less of a household name than Ecstasy, the drug produces a similar feeling of euphoria. Like the more familiar Rohypnol, GHB has also been linked to date rape. [continues 311 words]
ORONO, Maine - The first charges have been filed against a former University of Maine student accused of running a drug laboratory out of his dorm room. Noel March, chief of the University of Maine Department of Public Safety, said Monday that Scott C. Turner, 20, of Rockport, has been charged with possession of a usable amount of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. March said he expect additional state and federal charges to be filed as well. "We made a decision to proceed with what state charges we could consistent with our position that drug cases are especially harmful to our community," March said. "They were two of the more minor charges relative to the serious federal charges still pending." [continues 196 words]
Teen's Case Before U.S. Supreme Court Dartmouth College HANOVER - Dartmouth College student Lindsay Earls sat in the wood- paneled Tower Room of Baker Library last week, studying judicial review for a course titled "Civil Liberties and Individual Rights in the United States." For Earls, who's thinking about a career in constitutional law, the course's topic resonates beyond the realm of academics: She is the 19- year-old freshman whose U.S. Supreme Court case will decide whether public schools nationwide can conduct random drug testing of students involved in a wide array of extracurricular activities. [continues 993 words]
