During the coming holiday week many will turn to illegal recreational drugs. For some it will be an occasional dabble with an illicit substance to get silly for a time and forget life's burdens. For others it will be part of an ongoing way of life. For some people their use is, or soon will be, an addiction that separates them from normality and estranges them from loved ones. But for few will it be a "victimless crime." Yes, there will be the occasional marijuana user who partakes of a crop grown over the summer in a yard or in a neighbor's basement. Most users, however, neither know nor care where the substance they use originated. [continues 483 words]
North Stonington - The man in the video took one long drag on a water pipe and, within moments, was writhing, oblivious to his friends and unable to stand up. "It looks like he's having a seizure," said a woman wearing scrubs, watching the YouTube clip showing someone using Salvia on Tuesday evening. About 40 parents crowded into the meeting in the Wheeler High School library to hear information about Salvia divinorum, a legal drug that causes a short but severe high and whose usage school administrators said has been spreading through the school, especially in recent weeks. [continues 236 words]
Salvia divinorum, a plant traditionally smoked for generations by Shamans and which a growing number of young people are smoking, was in the news this past week. Wheeler High School Principal Michael Susi and Assistant Principal Chris Sandford called what might be considered an emergency meeting of middle school and high school parents. They told the parents that increasing numbers of Wheeler students appear to be using the plant. They said their biggest concerns were that people often don't remember what happens during a Salvia high. (Salvia users refer to them as trips, perhaps for their short duration). Susi and Sandford said since students are reportedly using it in groups, it could lead to injury or to some students taking advantage of others. [continues 530 words]
Few people go to jail for possessing small amounts of pot, anyway, so why is the state spending millions to arrest and prosecute recreational users and give them a criminal record? The Connecticut General Assembly should follow Massachusetts' lead and change possession of less than one ounce of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor to an infraction. Gov. M. Jodi Rell is looking for substantive ways to save money. Here is one. According to the Office of Fiscal Analysis, there were 9,928 marijuana arrests in Connecticut in 2007, representing 7 percent of total arrests statewide, and about one-third of those involved possession of less than an ounce of pot. By making those small-possession incidents infractions, akin to getting a speeding ticket, the state could save $11 million in reduced police, court and attorney costs, the OFA concluded. [continues 231 words]
When you learn that there is a movement on college campuses across this great nation to lower the legal drinking age your first reaction might be to tell the young whippersnappers to drink milk, get back to class and come back when they can handle their liquor. Some have said recently that such is not the wisest advice. Beyond that, the message is improperly targeted. The message needs to be directed at the presidents of many of America's finest colleges and universities. For it is they who seek to allow Buffy, Biff and the frat brats to imbibe at the student union. [continues 644 words]
Michael Phelps has achieved greatness in sport, but he is a failure as a role model. He can be trusted to win gold medals and make endorsements. He could not, however, be trusted to operate a submarine. Photographs of Phelps inhaling marijuana were recently published. Inhaling marijuana was not his greatest failing. It was the aftermath more than the offense itself that revealed Phelps' most significant shortcoming. Phelps issued a statement that began, "I engaged in behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment." [continues 589 words]
America ended Prohibition 75 years ago this week. The ban on the sale of alcohol unleashed a crime wave, as gangsters fought over the illicit booze trade. It sure didn't stop drinking. People turned to speakeasies and bathtub gin for their daily cocktail. Prohibition - and the violence, corruption and health hazards that followed - lives on in its modern version, the so-called War on Drugs. Former law-enforcement officers gathered in Washington to draw the parallels. Their group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), has called for nothing less than the legalization of drugs. [continues 545 words]
Groton - School bus drivers say they are concerned about a school district practice that asks them to contact the school first instead of the police when an incident occurs on a school bus. The drivers say the policy could be putting drivers in danger and sending students the wrong message. Two bus drivers were recently given new routes after parents complained that the drivers chose to involve police with incidents on the bus. Now several bus drivers who asked not to be identified say they felt the move sent a message: that students who misbehave can get away with it. [continues 709 words]
Critics Says State DCF Failing In Its Oversight Role Hartford - In 2006, a team of state inspectors halted admissions to the adolescent drug-abuse treatment programs at Stonington Institute, saying the private facility had woefully insufficient staffing, poorly trained workers and a dim concept of the remedies it was being paid to provide to troubled youths. Now, after nearly two years of monitoring by state agencies and assurances from Stonington Institute's management that it is correcting those problems, the facility's critics say there has been little meaningful improvement -- and that the state's own Department of Children and Families has failed to exercise aggressive oversight of a program in which it places struggling kids. [continues 1834 words]
Montpelier, Vt. -- For almost two decades, the Vermont Corrections Department has grappled with ever larger numbers of inmates being sent their way. New prisons have been built, cutting-edge social programs designed to keep people from needing prison have been implemented and inmates have been sent to other states for long-term, less expensive housing. Yet, despite occasional pauses in the rate of growth, the number of people in state custody has continued to grow. In an era of fiscal prudence, the Legislature has regularly funded double-digit increases to keep pace. [continues 904 words]
New London -- A proposal by City Councilor Michael Buscetto III to subject all city and school employees to random drug testing drew mixed reactions Tuesday from the unions representing many of the employees who would be affected. "Our guys are clean. They're upstanding citizens. We've got nothing to hide," said Lt. Marshall "Chip" Segar, president of the New London Police Union AFSCME Local 724. The police union, Segar said, would be willing to negotiate such a change provided testing procedures were fair and treatment and rehabilitation were available to someone testing positive. [continues 725 words]
Family of Inmate Who Committed Suicide at Corrigan Receives Settlement but Not Peace Michael Newlan left a suicide note on the bed in his cell at Corrigan Correctional Institution and hanged himself with the laces from his sneakers on March 14, 2002. The 29-year-old Newlan, who grew up in Groton but was living in New London most recently, was taken off life support three days later, after doctors at The William W. Backus Hospital declared him brain dead. The state recently awarded $550,000 to Newlan's mother, Nancy, to end a wrongful death lawsuit against the Department of Correction. [continues 869 words]
Judge Doesn't Buy That Marijuana Is A 'God-Given Right' Defense attorney Ronald F. Stevens' presentation in New London Superior Court Thursday could have been called "Marijuana 101." His client, 42-year-old Vernon Smith of Norwich, had pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to sell after police found him with more than 20 pounds of the drug earlier this year. As a Rastafarian who believes that selling, trading and possessing marijuana is "a God-given right," Smith had asked his lawyer to argue his point of view in an attempt to reduce the state's recommended sentence of seven years in prison, suspended after 30 months served and three years probation. [continues 532 words]
This is regarding the editorial titled "Free speech goes one for two," published July 4. The Supreme Court should take a cue from the nonsensical banner that inspired its decision to limit student free speech. It might do the justices some good to take a few bong hits for Jesus. Before sacrificing more civil liberties at the altar of the drug war, they should ask themselves, what would Jesus do? Would Jesus persecute, incarcerate and deny forgiveness to nonviolent drug offenders? Zero tolerance is decidedly un-Christian. [continues 151 words]
Supreme Court upholds free speech rights for the politically powerful, but not for high school students. Free speech must be guaranteed to powerful forces trying to influence the political process, but young people trying to send their own messages deserve no similar protection. The United States Supreme Court so ruled in two recent decisions. The court found unconstitutional a provision in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law that sought to ban "phony issue ads" aired close to an election. Labor, corporate and other special interests bankroll such ads. Issue ads seek to skirt campaign-spending limits by not directly naming candidates, but attacking the issues with which they are associated. [continues 468 words]
Both believers in and skeptics of the medical benefits of marijuana found some reason for hope in Gov. M. Jodi Rell's veto Tuesday of a bill that would have legalized its use for those with chronic and terminal illnesses. Mark Braunstein is a librarian at Connecticut College who was paralyzed in a diving accident and said he uses marijuana to relieve chronic pain. He said the fact that the bill made it through both chambers of the state Legislature before being vetoed by Rell showed that progress has been made. [continues 690 words]
After its longest debate of this legislative session, the Connecticut House of Representatives last week passed for its second time in three years what today is known as House Bill 6715, An Act concerning the Palliative Use of Marijuana. Courtesy of public access through Web broadcast video, I was able to listen to five of the six hours of the discussion. During debate, advocates seldom challenged the opposition's many erroneous assertions. One of the bill's co-sponsors, Rep. Penny Bacchiochi, R-Somers, did say after the vote that she could have disputed the opposition's claims, but instead she coolly sat it out and let the heated debate take its course. As a paraplegic who has used marijuana medicinally for 17 years, and publicly for the past 10, I instead must take a stand. [continues 669 words]
THERE IS ONE SUBJECT BEING forgotten in the 2008 Democratic race for the White House. While all the major candidates are vying for the black and Latino vote, they are completely ignoring one of the most pressing issues affecting those constituencies: the failed "war on drugs" -- a war that has morphed into a war on people of color. Consider this: According to a 2006 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, African-Americans make up an estimated 15 percent of drug users, but they account for 37 percent of those arrested on drug charges, 59 percent of those convicted and 74 percent of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Or consider this: The United States has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70 percent) of them are black or Latino. [continues 894 words]
Washington -- The Supreme Court dissected a teenager's sign Monday and tried to divine whether its "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" message was advocating drug use or just talking nonsense. Students' free speech rights could hinge on the outcome of the case. Joseph Frederick was a high school senior when he held up the 14-foot "Bong Hits" banner in Juneau, Alaska, five years ago. He said he was testing his constitutional right to free speech. His principal thought he was delivering a pro-drug message and suspended him. If the justices side with principal Deborah Morse, the result could be greater restrictions on student speech. [continues 779 words]
Groton -- Attention all drug dealers, a tip for tax season: Don't forget to purchase your marijuana tax stamps at the state Department of Revenue Services. Three people arrested this week by the Groton/Stonington Narcotics Task Force were charged with possession of marijuana without a tax stamp. By state law, not only are drug dealers expected to pay the tax, they also are expected to keep detailed records for tax purposes, logging each transaction. Connecticut is one of 20 states with similar laws. [continues 169 words]
Policy Would Extend to Clubs, Performers Stonington -- If members of the band, drama club or math club get caught with drugs or alcohol either on or off school grounds they will be now be suspended from those activities, according to a new regulation that will be considered tonight by the Board of Education. The regulation would bring all extra curricular activities in line with a similar regulation implemented for sports teams last month. Since 1998, the school system has had a regulation that outlines penalties for students possessing or using alcohol or drugs during school and at school-sponsored activities, whether they take place on or off the school premises. [continues 483 words]
Kabul, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghanistan's criminal underworld has compromised key government officials who protect drug traffickers, allowing a flourishing opium trade that will not be stamped out for a generation, an ominous U.N. report released Tuesday said. The fight against opium production has so far achieved only limited success, mostly because of corruption, the joint report from the World Bank and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said. The findings show a "probability of high-level (government) involvement" in drugs, said Doris Buddenberg, the UNODC's Afghanistan representative and co-editor of the report. [continues 709 words]
Waterford Officials to Discuss Results Waterford -- Local officials and school representatives will meet tonight to discuss the results of a drug-and-alcohol survey that was given to middle school and high school students at the end of last school year. The main findings of the survey were that there is a significant increase in the consumption of drugs and alcohol between middle school and high school; teenagers are experimenting with drugs and alcohol but most are not persistent users; and smokers are more likely to use drugs and alcohol. [continues 400 words]
If there is a list of words to exclude from a politician's official campaign biography, it's a fair bet that "heroin" is on it. And yet, there it is, bearing its baggage of addiction, shame and despair, in the first sentence of Clifford W. Thornton Jr.'s description of who he is and why he believes he should be governor. Thornton is the Green Party's candidate for governor, and, as he tells it, the only one of the four seeking the job who will try to tackle the single most important issue facing Connecticut's cities and the state at large: "No one's talking about the drug war," Thornton says. [continues 680 words]
It May Be Legal, but That Doesn't Make It Easy to Get Providence-- When Debra Nievera went before lawmakers to ask them to legalize medical marijuana, she envisioned a program that would let her safely acquire the drug to alleviate the painful symptoms of the intestinal disorder Crohn's disease and other ailments. She will probably be disappointed. Rhode Island this month became the 11th state to allow sick people to use marijuana as medicine. But federal law still bans the drug, and none of the states where medical use is allowed have found a way for patients to legally, conveniently and safely acquire the drug. [continues 844 words]
