There has long been a call to legalize marijuana. Quite noticeably, the effort has been spearheaded by "potheads" more concerned with their next high than social justice. This has led to a tendency for polarization in the debate. That's why I, the author of last year's article, "A Straight Edge Manifesto," have decided to enter the ring. But I won't stop at marijuana like those sissy "potheads." I say legalize all drugs. There is no doubt in my mind that using drugs is a bad idea. But just because something is a bad idea, does not mean it should be against the law. The litmus test for government intervention should be, "harm to others." If an action harms others, the authorities should act. If it stands to harm no one but the individual acting, then the authorities should stand aside. The government should concern itself with dangerous felons: murderers, rapists, vandals, arsonists, thieves and the like. Any effort directed at victimless crimes draws our energy away from confronting real dangers. It would be more efficient and more worthwhile to concentrate focus just on real threats. [continues 568 words]
Intent on helping police agencies access some $3.8 million in federal crime-fighting funds, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff is hoping that a fast rewrite will keep an asset forfeiture bill alive at the Legislature. SB31 was shelved by its sponsor Sen. John Valentine, after the Orem Republican met with more than 100 forfeiture opponents in American Fork Saturday. By Monday, Shurtleff was on Capitol Hill shopping for a new sponsor and working on amendments to address some citizen concerns. [continues 649 words]
Thai Police Are Accused Of Operating Outside The Law Diplomats in Thailand say there is growing international concern over the rising death toll since the government announced an all-out campaign against drug dealers at the beginning of this month. It has been three weeks since Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to stamp out drugs in Thailand, and the killing seems to be getting out of hand. Every day newspapers and television programmes show grisly pictures of alleged drug dealers lying in pools of blood, all with guns and bags of methamphetamine pills in their hands. [continues 134 words]
WAYNESVILLE, Mo. - Every law enforcement agent in Missouri's Ozarks can tell stories about methamphetamine. In Pulaski County, they have more than their share. There's the local woman who stored acid -- needed to cook the drug -- in her freezer. Or the man who, days after badly burning his hands and face in a house fire he started while making the drug, had five pounds of iodine delivered by mail. Far from extraordinary, these stories of hopeless addicts are becoming increasingly common in rural Missouri, where authorities, despite their best efforts, do not believe they are winning the war on the crude, powerful stimulant better known as meth. [continues 1067 words]
No one likes to see people suffer chronic pain, much less the horror of heroin addiction. But methadone, the medicine commonly prescribed for both maladies, is looking more and more like a menace. The same could be said for its expected pharmaceutical successor, buprenorphine. People are overdosing on methadone in record numbers. Nearly 11,000 people appeared in emergency rooms following methadone overdoses in 2001, double the number from 1999, according to the federal Drug Abuse Warning Network. The East Coast in particular appears to be suffering a rash of methadone overdoses. In North Carolina, methadone-related deaths jumped from seven in 1997 to 58 in 2001; in Florida, they increased from 209 in 2000 to 357 in 2001; and in Maine, they jumped from four in 1997 to 18 in merely the first six months of 2001. [continues 396 words]
After she had her first taste of alcohol in the sixth-grade, Roxanne never looked back. Now 17, she's recovering from the years of substance abuse that began with alcohol, her gateway drug. By the time she entered Mulberry Center's rehabilitation program for teens at age 16, she had graduated to drugs like marijuana, acid, opium and methamphetamine. "Basically, I did everything but coke, crack and heroin," she said. And it was surprising how easy it was to get. A simple trip to the convenience store could net gas for her car, a pack or two of smokes and drugs. [continues 817 words]
POWELL, Wyo. (AP) - Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., was surprised, and Powell Police Chief Tim Feathers was pleased with a late hour add-on to the omnibus federal budget bill. Funding for the Byrne Grant was continued, after Enzi was told money for the program was cut out of the bill. Feathers said the appropriation means the war on drugs can continue in Powell and northwest Wyoming for the next year with funds supporting undercover work by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation's Northwest Drug Enforcement Team. [continues 260 words]
Dear Editor, Someone should remind our Solicitor General that drug prohibition has nothing to do with protecting users from the effects of harmful drugs [Courts need anti-pot push, Jan. 31, Langley Advance News]. It was initiated at the beginning of the 20th Century to protect virtuous white Christian women from the seductive wiles of blacks (marijuana), Mexicans (marijuana), and Chinese (opium). In these supposedly more tolerant times, the police are happy to make use of this evil law to harass and control all those whose lifestyle or appearance offends them. [continues 167 words]
Heath Coffield (Public Forum, Feb. 7) wrote to complain that freedom of speech was being abused by satirist Garry Trudeau's Feb. 2 comic, which depicted Mr. Butts, Mr. Jay and other drug representations whooping it up at party and Mr. Jay feeling sorry for himself because he had done so little harm compared to his legal friends. Mr. Coffield thinks that ideas with which he does not agree should be kept from his sight. This reader thinks that Mr. Coffield's desire to kill the messenger is an all-too-clear indicator that he really does not believe in freedom of speech. There is nothing irresponsible or against the public interest in expressing one's opinion in a public forum, provided no laws are broken. In this case, Mr. Trudeau has depicted a tragic truth in what many would regard as a quite humorous fashion. Doonesbury is a national treasure and for The Daily Reflector to censure Mr. Trudeau or censor his work would be quite reprehensible. CHRIS POWE, Grand Prairie, Texas [end]
Brevard County's new drug treatment center will ultimately save money for Florida taxpayers. A study conducted by the Rand Corporation found that every dollar invested in substance-abuse treatment saves taxpayers $7.46 in societal costs. There is far more at stake than tax dollars. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Not only do the children lose out, but society as a whole does too. Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders alongside hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a taxpayer-funded education in criminal behavior. [continues 74 words]
