It seems to me that in order to properly evaluate our nation's drug policies, we need to compare and contrast our drug policies with those of another nation with substantially different drug policies. I suggest that we use the Czech Republic for our comparison.

In the Czech Republic, citizens can legally use, possess, grow or purchase small quantities of marijuana.

In the United States, many otherwise law-abiding citizens, are locked in prison cages for possessing, growing or selling various amounts of marijuana.

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Thanks to Mr. Steigerwald for his column on the drug war "New Prohibition."

Please know that on Oct. 4, Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia held the first-ever hearing to discuss the New Prohibition as a policy issue. The topic was "Mass Incarceration in the United States: At What Cost?"

Webb promised to hold more hearings and take testimony from more experts. With the exception of Webb and Reps. Dennis Kucinich, Bobby Scott and, of course, Ron Paul, Steigerwald is most correct: There is a thundering silence on this issue, even as the drug war kills more in a month than Iraq does in a year.

Howard J. Wooldridge

The writer is a retired police detective from Fort Worth who represents LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition) on Capitol Hill.

[end]

Bill Steigerwald ("Let's end failed & dogmatic drug war," Oct. 14 and PghTrib.com) is correct that the so-called war on drugs is "immoral, irrational and expensive."

But there's more to it than residual Puritanism or simple bullying. Accept for a moment that every government program -- yes, including "defense" -- is basically a jobs program.

The "war on drugs" employs a vast army of police personnel, sheriffs, state troopers, FBI agents, informants, DEA personnel, lawyers, prosecutors and judges, many of whom work full-time at this "war."

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There is a middle ground between drug prohibition and blanket legalization. Switzerland's heroin maintenance program has been shown to reduce disease, death and crime among chronic users. Addicts would not be sharing needles if not for zero-tolerance laws that restrict access to clean syringes, nor would they be committing crimes if not for artificially inflated black-market prices.

Providing addicts with standardized doses in a clinical setting eliminates many of the problems associated with heroin use. Heroin maintenance pilot projects are under way in Canada, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

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Under a little-known caveat to a federal law, students convicted of minor marijuana offenses are seeing their financial aid go up in smoke.

The Drug Offender Exclusionary Provision of the Higher Education Act is a law that, according to Department of Education numbers, has affected more than 200,000 students since its inception in 2000.

The law established that students convicted of possession or sale of a controlled substance can be declared ineligible for federal financial aid - making college a monetary impossibility for many.

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The number of students living in on-campus housing exceeds the number of Americans in prisons for the first time ever, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report.

While the number of inmates has reached an all-time high of two million people, nearly 300,000 more are living on a college campus, according to the September report.

However, the apparently good news has another side: There are three times as many black people living in prison cells than in dorms.

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Let's hear it for America's drug police.

Last year our drug warriors made 829,627 marijuana arrests.

That's the most ever, according to the FBI. Arrests for marijuana -- arguably the least dangerous drug ever declared illegal in America -- are up nearly threefold since 1990. Total arrests for all illegal drugs in 2006 hit 1.89 million, up from 1.08 million in 1990.

If you think those 829,627 Americans were all out selling weed to 10-year-olds at the local strip mall until they were heroically brought to justice, you've had way too many Bush administration cocktails.

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To the Editor: Regarding your Sept. 25 editorial (Police dog will benefit Monessen), the police state approach to public health problems like substance abuse is a proven failure.

The steady rise in drug-sniffing dogs in schools, warrantless police searches, and random drug testing have led to a loss of civil liberties in America, while failing miserably at preventing drug use.

Based on findings that criminal records are inappropriate as health interventions and ineffective as deterrents, a majority of European Union countries have decriminalized marijuana. Despite marijuana prohibition and perhaps because of forbidden fruit appeal, lifetime use of marijuana is higher in the United States than any European country.

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A collision of conflicting desires caused the crisis our county government faces in paying for Schuylkill County's prison.

The public wants drug dealers off the street. The public wants drunk drivers off the road. The public wants longer sentences. However, the public also wants to cut costs.

It seems the county government, for several years now, has not budgeted enough money for the prison, at least according to the warden and the county's budget analyst.

It is sort of like a private household that ignores the rising cost of energy and keeps budgeting the same amount of money each year to heat its domicile. Then, when the oil bills or electric bills come in, the money has to be gotten from someplace else.

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Screening Will Apply To Prospective Employees In Northampton Area

Northampton Area has become one of the first school districts in the Lehigh Valley to require prospective employees to get tested for drugs.

Northampton is one of several local districts that discussed tightening drug policies in the wake of a Bethlehem principal's February arrest for drug dealing. Last week, Northampton school officials agreed their first step will be to require drug tests, starting next week, of everyone who receives a job offer to be a teacher, administrator or other employee.

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When federal, state and local law enforcement officers executed their drug sweep in Williamsport Tuesday, they found all the disturbing trappings that make this damaging culture so hard to eliminate.

They found high-level local and regional drug dealers, the people that get illegal drugs to the street level while keeping larger names in the drug network anonymous and safe.

They found poor living conditions in the targeted residences, evidence that these dealers have either a transient existence or consider their home address and neighborhood of no consequence to their lives.

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In the past seven years, about three-dozen of Fayette County's homicides involved either drugs or alcohol.

It was the direct catalyst for several of them and had a tangential involvement in others.

Perhaps the most prominent example of a drug-related homicide in the county was the deaths of three people and an unborn child at the hands of Mark Duane Edwards Jr.

Edwards, 24, of Uniontown was sentenced to death for shooting and killing Larry Bobish Sr., his wife, Joanna, and their daughter, Krystal, on April 14, 2002. He also killed Krystal Bobish's unborn child, and nearly killed the Bobish's young son, Larry Jr., when he shot and cut the boy's throat at his North Union Township home.

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From a suspected drug-dealing mother of two to a heroin operation where a homemade bomb was found, Quakertown police and state police have teamed up for some high-profile drug busts in Upper Bucks.

A Quakertown detective says the arrests are the fruition of increased collaboration between his department and troopers at the Dublin barracks. The crackdown appears poised to continue.

"Every investigation we have leads to another one and it snowballs," said Quakertown Detective Donald Bender, who frequently works in conjunction with state police.

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Philadelphia police have made their first seizure of the drug khat, a narcotic plant that is popular in East Africa and the Saudi Arabian peninsula.

Undercover narcotics cops on Wednesday seized 740 pounds of khat that was being delivered to an East Falls address, said Lt. Frank Vanore, a police spokesman. The value of the drugs has been put at about $148,000.

Vanore said it was the first seizure of khat (pronounced COT) in Philadelphia and perhaps the first in the state. No arrests had been made as of yesterday afternoon.

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The powers that be at Cooper University Hospital in Camden have decided it is not appropriate to have a methadone clinic, which draws the undesirables of society, at its door.

So they have decided to move it to Waterfront South. This section already has to deal with a Camden County municipal waste facility, a country trash-to-steam facility, a new cement plant, and a constant flow of diesel trucks, so why not give it a methadone clinic?

Since 60 percent of the clinic's patients are not residents of the city of Camden, why not place it in an adjoining township or borough?

Gerald White

Pennsauken

[end]

Seizure Of 'Khat' A First Encounter For Phila. Police

An ancient drug has found a new illegal market in Philadelphia. The drug, khat, is a stimulant with varying degrees of potency. It is found in the leaf of an evergreen shrub from East Africa and the Arabian peninsula, both places where it is widely used.

Philadelphia police said yesterday they seized 740 pounds of khat wrapped in burlap and packed in 17 boxes in a house in East Falls on Wednesday.

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The Newest Member Of Monessen's Police Force Is Ready To Take A Bite Out Of Crime.

Police dog Dax was introduced to city council last week. The 15-month-old German shepherd is trained to sniff out drugs and other suspicious substances, and to aid in searches for missing persons.

Dax came to Monessen through the efforts of officer Jim Quattro, who conducted a fund-raising effort earlier this year. Quattro's campaign brought in more than $10,000 in contributions from area residents and businesses. That money was used to purchase, train and take care of Dax.

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The Schuylkill County district attorney will hire a third full-time prosecutor and Pottsville police will have the ability to give officers overtime in the war on drugs thanks to a $449,993 federal grant, city and county officials said Monday.

Schuylkill Community Education Council "This is a substantial grant," said District Attorney James P. Goodman, "and it will go a long way in helping local law enforcement."

The COPS 2007 Methamphetamine Initiative grant is targeting communities facing significant meth problems. This year, the federal government awarded 117 law enforcement agencies across the nation a total of $43.6 million through the program. And the only other grant this year was awarded to a law enforcement agency in the state, a $377,965 grant to state police, according to the Department of Justice Web site.

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Philadelphia - Four Graterford State Prison guards and an alleged drug dealer were indicted Friday on federal charges of smuggling drugs and cell phones to inmates.

The federal government took control of the investigation and prosecution using provisions of the Interstate Commerce Act.

In separate indictments, Graterford guards Tony Strong, 46, Allen Littles, 37, Sheri Allen, 38, and Ronald Smith, 51, all of Philadelphia, are charged with smuggling pot, cocaine, marijuana and cell phones to inmates. Each of the guards is also charged with extortion.

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LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - They couldn't believe it happened to them.

The young man in the video described himself as "a good kid, from a loving family" He's shown playing soccer, smiling for the camera.

But the boy turns from sports and good grades to drinking alcohol with his friends as a teenager. Alcohol consumption turns to drug use. Drug use becomes more frequent, more lethal until he nearly dies from an overdose.

"My family was devastated," his weeping sister said in the video. "It doesn't happen to people like us."

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