Re Mark Wilson's July 28 letter, "Florida does not need 2,000 'pot shops' ": It seems that the only devastating effects should Amendment 2, legalizing medical marijuana, will be that hundreds of thousands of suffering Floridians will get relief from cheap natural plants that won't cost $50 a pill and come with a list of hazardous side effects a mile long. I'm sure the Florida Chamber of Commerce's mission of promoting good private-sector jobs supports the sale of tobacco, which kills half a million Americans annually just as sure as the sun rises and sets. How's that for devastating? And I'm guessing the chamber's position is with the frackers in adding more carcinogens to our drinking water because it creates jobs. Forget people's health and safety. Millions will suffer illness, and many will get cancer. Art Levy, Key Biscayne [end]
A jury did not believe a Miami-Dade man who insisted he grew 15 marijuana plants inside his home only to help ease the suffering of his cancer-stricken wife. The six-member jury on Friday night convicted Ricardo Varona of trafficking more than 25 pounds of marijuana and operating a marijuana growhouse. Taken into custody to await sentencing, Varona faces a mandatory minimum of three years in prison. Varona, 43, was the second South Florida man in the past six months to claim "medical neccesity" in operating a marijuana growhouse. Unlike in the Varona case, a Broward jury in March acquitted 50-year-old Jesse Teplicki, who admitted he grew 46 plants to battle years of nausea and fatigue. [continues 381 words]
For the past three years, Florida's Legislature has failed to pass a bill that would create a needle exchange program leaving the state without a program to help drug addicts avoid exposure to disease through dirty needles. But stark new figures released this week show heroin use is surging across the country and is up around 63% in the last decade, according to a new report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In another recent study, doctors at the University of Miami and Jackson Memorial Hospital found that over one year, cases of infection at Jackson Memorial caused by injection drug use led to 17 deaths at a cost of $11.4 million, much of it borne by taxpayers. [continues 746 words]
Pot enforcement was a big ongoing story back when I landed my first newspaper job 45 years ago. Oh my, how we did love those police-combat-scourge-of-marijuana stories. The Mississippi town where I worked suffered plenty of sure-enough serious crime, but robberies and burglaries, even the occasional Saturday night juke-joint killing, would hardly turn an editor's head. If the local police managed a pot bust, that was front page stuff. The stories ran alongside photographs of the police chief, the arresting officer, the mayor himself, all them stern faced, standing behind a table displaying baggies of marijuana, rolling papers, a roach clip, a bong the size of an alto saxophone. [continues 404 words]
Nicolas Peruyero was 8 years old, blind and unable to walk or talk when his mother saw a documentary about the benefits of medical marijuana and its promise to reduce seizures. For a few moments, Nancy Peruyero imagined what Nicolas' life might be like without the relentless myoclonic seizures every day. And for the first time, she allowed herself to hope, an emotion she had rarely felt since that August afternoon in 2009 when her youngest son was diagnosed with Batten disease, an unusual neurological disorder marked by seizures, loss of motor skills and mental impairment. His life expectancy with the disease is no more than 12 years. He turned 9 on Oct.2. [continues 2118 words]
AMENDMENT 1 Florida's natural environment is its bread and butter, its tourist magnet, its lush and storied history and, if voters approve this amendment, its glorious future. Amendment 1 would use existing state revenue - money that already is being paid into state coffers - and dedicate it to purchase and preserve natural areas and wildlife habitat for the next 20 years. This is not a new tax that advocates seek to impose. Rather, it's a practical way to make up for what state lawmakers have for too long failed to do: Make preserving Florida's fragile environment the priority that it should be. The amendment would take one third of the fees that the state already collects when property is sold. The fees on these real-estate transactions are called "doc stamps," which, since 1968, have been used for water and land conservation. [continues 793 words]
The War on Drugs has proven to be ineffective in achieving its goal, which is to reduce the supply and demand for illegal drugs. On the contrary, this war has contributed to an increase in the levels of corruption and violence in the past decades. It has been said that legalization could result in a public health disaster because it would dramatically increase the number of addicts. Assuming the number of addicts increases, legalization would result in a large amount of government savings by not having to fight crimes related to illegal drug activities, and it would also result in a large amount of government revenue as a result of taxes on the new legalized drugs. [continues 62 words]
The United States=C3=A2=C2=80=C2=99 drug war is largely a war on marijuan a smokers. In 2012, there were 749,825 marijuana arrests in the United States, almost 90 percent for simple possession. At a time when a majority of Americans want to see marijuana legalized, this country continues to spend enormous public resources criminalizing citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis. The result of this unpopular culture war is not lower rates of marijuana use. The United States has higher rates of marijuana use than the Netherlands, where marijuana is legally available. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers will continue to come into contact with sellers of hard drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
It swallowed people up. That's what it really did, if you want to know the truth. It swallowed them up whole, swallowed them up by the millions. In the process, it hollowed out communities, broke families, stranded hope. Politicians brayed that they were being "tough on crime" - as if anyone is really in favor of crime - as they imposed ever longer and more inflexible sentences for nonviolent drug offenses. But the "War on Drugs" didn't hurt drugs at all: Usage rose by 2,800 percent - that's not a typo - in the 40 years after it began in 1971. The "War" also made America the biggest jailer on Earth and drained a trillion dollars - still not a typo - from the treasury. [continues 514 words]
Carl Hiaasen's Feb. 2 column, Dr. Cheech called -- your prescription is ready!, was a refreshing change of pace. It's certainly true that anyone in California who wants a medical-marijuana recommendation can get one. The medical recommendation allows consumers to purchase locally grown marijuana of known quality and safety from dispensaries that generate tax revenue. Does Gov. Rick Scott prefer that Florida consumers purchase untaxed, unregulated and potentially unsafe marijuana from criminals? Marijuana prohibition keeps violent drug cartels in business. When cartels control marijuana distribution, consumers are exposed to illegal cocaine, meth and heroin. This gateway is a direct result of marijuana's illegal status. Marijuana may be relatively harmless, but marijuana prohibition is deadly. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C [end]
Medical marijuana will be on the Florida ballot in November, which is bad news for Gov. Rick Scott and other Republican leaders who oppose any relaxation of the state's backward cannabis laws. They say medical use of weed is the first step toward Colorado-style legalization, and they might be right. They say that although the proposed constitutional amendment names only nine diseases, lots of people who aren't really sick will find a way to get marijuana from certain doctors. [continues 710 words]
Someone, get a doctor. The chief justice of the Florida Supreme Court caught a case of reefer madness. The malady revealed itself in Justice Ricky Polston's Monday dissent to the court's 4-3 decision to allow voters to decide a proposed medical-marijuana constitutional amendment in November. As if hallucinating, Polston warned about the risk of pot-smoking toddlers. "A physician, in his misguided 'professional opinion,' could believe that the benefits of marijuana for a teething toddler would likely outweigh the risks and, therefore, recommend that the toddler use marijuana three times a day for six months or until the teething subsided," the justice wrote. [continues 407 words]
Tallahassee's political establishment has repeatedly blocked legislative votes on medical marijuana and will ask the Florida Supreme Court Thursday to follow suit and keep the issue away from state voters in 2014. Led by Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, opponents have raised a host of objections to the proposed state constitutional amendment, which they say could lead to de facto "unfettered" marijuana legalization under the guise of compassionate medicine. "The proposal hides the fact that the Amendment would make Florida one of the most lenient medical-marijuana states," says Bondi's initial court brief, [continues 989 words]
In her Dec. 1 column, Medicinal marijuana: opposition's smoky motive , Paula Dockery argues in favor of legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, saying that, "Legislative leaders refuse to consider the use of medical marijuana despite the growing body of medical evidence as to its beneficial use." She adds that medical marijuana has many uses and clinical indications and that legalization would provide access to treatment for those suffering from debilitating diseases. But her arguments are based on inflated claims, not facts. Yes, one can find clinical trials using cannabinoid extracts to treat pain and spasticity in multiple sclerosis and to improve nausea in patients undergoing radiation treatment, but these trials are limited and rely on standardized dosages of cannabinoid extracts that the inhaled delivery of marijuana often cannot provide. [continues 107 words]
Trey Radel owes Big Government. Big time. Like other tea partiers, the freshman political newcomer from Fort Myers went to Washington to keep government out of our lives and to fight government spending. At the same time, Radel and some buddies were snorting cocaine. In his private tea parties, the question of one-lump-or-two of sugar had a whole different meaning. On Oct. 29, the two parties collided. Radel was busted after an undercover agent in Washington sold him what's known as an "8 Ball," an eighth of an ounce of cocaine, or 3.5 grams for $260. [continues 1279 words]
If a medical marijuana initiative makes Florida's ballot next year, it could pass with an astonishing 82 percent of the vote, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday that finds voters also favor outright legalization as well. Support for the proposed constitutional amendment is strong among voters of every political stripe, age and income level, with independents lending the most support: 88 percent, the poll shows. The overall 82-16 percent support for medical marijuana is the biggest to date. The previous high-point for Florida approval was about 70 percent in a poll taken earlier this year by the medical-marijuana advocacy group, People United for Medical Marijuana. [continues 600 words]
Re Fred Grimm's Nov. 9 column, Florida GOP fights yesterday's war on pot: The days when politicians can get away with confusing the drug war's tremendous collateral damage with a comparatively harmless plant are coming to an end. If the goal of marijuana prohibition is to subsidize violent drug cartels, prohibition is a grand success. If the goal is to deter use, marijuana prohibition is a catastrophic failure. The United States has double the rate of marijuana use as that of the Netherlands, where marijuana is legal. Turning into criminals those Americans who prefer marijuana to martinis has no basis in science. The war on marijuana consumers is a failed cultural inquisition, not an evidence-based public health campaign. Not just in Washington and Colorado but throughout the nation, it's time to stop the pointless arrests and instead tax legal marijuana. Robert Sharpe, policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy, Washington, D.C. [end]
Two guesses why I've found myself standing mid-way down the aisle in Home Depot, staring stupidly at an array of flappers, flush valves, drip irrigators, bath tub levers, PVC piping and sump pumps, with no memory of what I'm doing here. Surely my forgotten mission has nothing to do with the "GoBidet Ultimate Electric Bidet Seat," though the gadget does come with a control panel with more offerings than a video game. A fellow could stay occupied most of the morning running through the options. [continues 1006 words]
The backers of a Florida medical-marijuana initiative have rewritten their proposed constitutional amendment and now face the toughest of paths to even get on the 2014 ballot. After consulting with high-powered lawyers and conducting polls and focus groups, People United for Medical Marijuana decided to scrap its original initiative out of a fear that it wouldn't survive the courts or might not withstand the attacks of anti-drug activists. A new survey conducted by the group, nicknamed PUFMM, shows the latest proposal could garner as much as 71 percent of the vote. It takes 60 percent of voters to approve a state constitutional amendment. [continues 839 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Marijuana has long been accused of being a gateway to deadlier vices. But could cannabis be a swinging door that might also lead people away from hard drugs? That's what this capital city is trying to find out. In coming weeks, Bogota is embarking on a controversial public health project where it will begin supplying marijuana to 300 addicts of bazuco - a cheap cocaine derivative that generates crack-like highs and is as addictive as heroin. Bogota has 7,500 bazuco users among its 9,500 homeless population, said Ruben Dario Ramirez, director of the Center for the Study and Analysis of Coexistence and Security, which is spearheading the project. [continues 957 words]
There Are Signs That Heroin Is Returning As a Cheap Alternative to Prescription Pills, the By-Product of Florida's Successful Crackdown on Pill Mills. Kevin Foley stood before a judge in Broward County's drug court - fellow abusers sitting behind in him in the pews - talking about the fitful life of a recovering addict, the random drug tests, the counseling and what he hoped was his next, clean chapter. Foley, 21, has been hooked on heroin for nearly two years. Before that, he was popping oxycodone and other prescription pills snapped up as Florida become a bustling marketplace of illegal pill mills. He turned to heroin after his drug of choice became too expensive. "I was chasing the next high," says Foley, who landed in drug court after a heroin possession arrest in December. "I wanted to try it all." [continues 1624 words]
The war on marijuana is going up in smoke, and it's about time. There is no bigger waste of money and resources in all law enforcement. Failure is too polite a description for the long campaign to eliminate the pot trade in the United States. A colossal flop is what it is. After four decades and billions spent, marijuana is easier to get, and more potent, than ever. More than 40 percent of all Americans over 12 have tried it, and at least 30 million people smoke it every year. The most recent national drug survey found that 18.1 million Americans had used it during the previous month. [continues 720 words]
Every time her son, Tod, relapsed, Maureen Barrett sat with him all day at a rehab facility, hoping she could save him. Tod died last spring, after years of abusing opiates - everything from heroin to oxycodone. His death left Barrett, of Davie, to mourn the third child she lost to drugs. Years earlier, Palm Beach County resident Karen Perry sent her son off to college, not knowing he'd gotten hooked first on oxycodone, and then something cheaper and stronger: heroin. [continues 751 words]
Police Chief Orlando Martinez De Castro Said Mayor Philip Stoddard Doesn't Understand The Rules For The Money, Which Comes From Seizing The Assets Of Alleged Criminals. South Miami's mayor is accusing the police chief of using money meant for crime-prevention to pay for an awards dinner. But the chief says he followed the law just as he has been doing during his long career in law enforcement. Every month, around 100 guests, sometimes more - mostly police brass from different departments in Miami-Dade County - meet to recognize an officer of the month. The departments take turns covering the costs. Some dinners have been known to cost about $4,000, and some have been held at places like the Rusty Pelican in Virginia Key. [continues 749 words]
Judging from what Uruguay's President Jose Mujica told me in an extended interview last week, there is a real possibility that people in his country will soon be able to buy marijuana legally from a state-regulated company that will be in charge of marketing and selling the drug. Mujica, 78, earlier this month submitted a bill to congress that may be the boldest marijuana legalization proposal anywhere in the world. It calls for the state to "take over the control and regulation of activities related to the importation, production, acquisition, storage, marketing and distribution of marijuana." [continues 691 words]
I want to thank the Drug Enforcement Administration for making it utterly impossible for any pharmacy or pain-management clinic to fill valid scripts anymore. Not a pharmacy in Broward County can supply those of us who legitimately require pain relief in order to function. The feds have terrorized clinics, pharmacies, their distributors and even hospitals. Do they think that everyone in South Florida is having a good time with oxycodone or any other opioids? I'm not. In fact, thanks to their overzealousness, I've been unable to work or, for the most part, even leave the house for two weeks, with no end in sight. I'm weak as a kitten and have little appetite, lost about 15 pounds and had little help from the medical community because it is terrified, too. I have scripts, but no one can fill them. [continues 80 words]
When the recent Summit of the Americas in Colombia decided to commission a study on whether to decriminalize drugs, many thought that would be the end of it, and the whole thing would be quickly forgotten. Well, maybe not. For starters, it was the first time that such a large group of heads of state ventured into that once taboo area. And there are several other nonrelated factors that may contribute to putting decriminalization on the front burner later this year, or in early 2013. [continues 624 words]
If President Obama had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. So the president famously said. And the president's son would thereby find himself at significantly greater risk of running afoul of the so-called "War on Drugs" than, say, a son of George W. Bush. Depending on what state he lived in, a Trayvon Obama might be 57 times more likely than a Trayvon Bush to be imprisoned on drug charges. This is not because he would be 57 times more likely to commit a drug crime. To the contrary, white American men commit the vast majority of the nation's drug crimes, but African-American men do the vast majority of the nation's drug time. It is a nakedly racial disparity that should leave the U.S. Department of "Justice" embarrassed to call itself by that name. [continues 500 words]
Gov. Scott Wrong on Drug-Treatment Bill In a stunning example of dogma trumping common sense, Gov. Rick Scott vetoed a bill that addressed one common cause of crime, a bill supported by 152 of 156 legislators in both houses. One wonders if he read the bill or thought beyond the use of a veto as a one-line campaign slogan. The bill championed by Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, a Republican, and Ari Porth, a Democrat, both of Broward, would have permitted inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes who have drug abuse problems to enter drug-treatment programs after completing half of their sentences. [continues 346 words]
The Arrests of the Two Alleged Sinaloa Cartel Members Is Strongest Sign Yet That the Group Might Be Active in the Dominican Republic. SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic -- Two alleged members of the Sinaloa cartel were caught here and promptly extradited to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges, providing new evidence that the feared Mexican criminal group is establishing a presence in the Dominican Republic. Hector Andres Chavez Ramirez and Jorge Herman Peralta Medrano, also known as "El Nazi," were caught late last month in a Santo Domingo hotel as part of a low-profile sting operation organized by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). [continues 611 words]
BOGOTA -- As the hemisphere's leaders gather in Colombia this week for the VI Summit of the Americas, their on-camera discussions will be dominated by perennial convention topics: poverty, cooperation, the need for roads. But behind closed doors, they are expected to tackle a more contentious issue: the narcotics trade. The 40-year-old war on drugs has cost billions in treasure and countless lives, but has produced mixed results. Drug abuse rates in the United States have been virtually unchanged over the last decade, as dips in cocaine use have been offset by rising consumption of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines. The United States has the highest overdose rates in the world - almost four times higher than Europe, according to the United Nation's 2011 World Drug Report. [continues 1223 words]
NEW YORK -- Sales of prescription painkillers are exploding in new areas, and experts are worried that's creating a wave of addiction. Pharmacies, hospitals and physicians dispensed the equivalent of 69 tons of pure oxycodone and 42 tons of pure hydrocodone in 2010. That's enough to give 40 5-mg Percocets and 24 5-mg Vicodins to every man, woman and child in the United States. An analysis by The Associated Press shows distribution of the two drugs is booming from New York's Staten Island to Santa Fe., N.M. Some places saw effective per-capita sales increase sixteenfold between 2000 and 2010. Oxycodone is the key ingredient in OxyContin, Percocet and Percodan. Hydrocodone is in Vicodin, Lortab and Norco. [end]
The human nervous system interacts in pleasing and addictive ways with certain molecules derived from some plants, which is why humans may have developed beer before they developed bread. Psychoactive - consciousness-altering - and addictive drugs are natural, a fact that should immunize policymakers against extravagant hopes as they cope with the United States' drug problem, which is convulsing some nations to our south. The costs - human, financial and social - of combating (most) drugs are prompting calls for decriminalization or legalization. The United States should, however, learn from the psychoactive drug used by a majority of U.S. adults - alcohol. [continues 662 words]
A crowd of avid readers packed Books & Books in Coral Gables Thursday night for a lively discussion with Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. and book author Michelle Alexander on a thorny subject: similarities between today's "profiling" of blacks who end up behind bars and the Jim Crow era. "In the era of mass incarceration what it means to be a criminal in our collective consciousness has become conflated with what it means to be black," Pitts read to the audience. "So the term white criminal is confounding while the term black criminal is merely redundant." [continues 208 words]
Crisis Coming As Caribbean Drug-Running Heats Up The fight against drug trafficking is heating up on South Florida's doorstep. Drugs are coming in our direction again, and Puerto Rico, U.S. territories and the island nations of the Caribbean are once more caught in the middle. "There's increasing concern that as the pressure increases in the Central American corridors, the balloon will expand back into the Caribbean zone," Sen. Marco Rubio of Miami said during a Senate hearing in December. [continues 496 words]
Can there be any better example of the irrelevance of North American policy in our own hemisphere than Paul Stockton's March 2 Other Views article, The U. S. defense role in Latin America, Caribbean? While he blathers on about significant and positive implications, multilateral institutions and collaborative frameworks and the rise of security exporting partners, we watch the few remaining judicial and prosecutorial institutions capable of transcending volatile political personalities corrode. Democratic institutions in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Honduras are under siege from our children's thirst for illicit drugs. [continues 60 words]
Legalizing Illicit Drugs Remains A Bad Idea Vice President Joe Biden delivered a needed message this week to Central American leaders thinking about drug legalization: Forget about it. Mr. Biden diplomatically left the door open to a "legitimate" discussion of the issue, but he made it clear the United States believes legalization remains a terrible idea. It creates more problems than solutions, more questions than answers. Who would be allowed to have drugs? Under what terms? At what age? Who decides? [continues 146 words]
Re Andres Oppenheimer's Feb. 19 column, Pro-drug legalization forces gaining clout: There's 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 addicts. The success of the program has inspired pilot projects in Canada, Germany, Spain, Denmark and the Netherlands. If expanded, prescription heroin maintenance would deprive organized crime of a core client base and render illegal heroin trafficking unprofitable. Marijuana should be taxed and regulated like alcohol, only without the ubiquitous advertising. As long as organized crime controls marijuana distribution, consumers will come into contact with sellers of hard drugs. Unlike alcohol, marijuana has never been shown to cause an overdose death, nor does it share the addictive properties of tobacco. Marijuana may be relatively harmless, but marijuana prohibition is deadly. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
After reading the Feb. 1 article DEA: Sharp drop in Florida oxycodone purchases, highlighting the recent drop in Florida pharmacy purchases of oxycodone, I was stuck by the lack of balance and sensitivity toward legitimate patients. As a pharmacist who cares for cancer patients on a daily basis, I'm increasingly concerned that many of the efforts to reduce pill mills in Florida have not only reduced the amount of pain medications available to those trying to abuse and sell them, but it has also reduced the ability for legitimate patients to obtain them. [continues 194 words]
A Federal Judge in Miami Will Decide on the Constitutionality of Gov. Rick Scott'S Policy Requiring Random Drug Testing of Thousands of Government Employees. A federal judge in Miami Wednesday cast serious doubts about Gov. Rick Scott's order requiring thousands of state government employees to undergo a random drug test, suggesting his policy "sweeps too broadly." U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro peppered a government lawyer with questions about the constitutionality of Scott's policy, saying she had "trouble understanding the circumstances under which the executive order would be valid." [continues 453 words]
For the first time since the United States launched its "war on drugs" four decades ago, there are signs that the forces supporting legalization or de-criminalization of illegal drugs are gaining momentum across the hemisphere. Granted, this is a debate that is just starting at government levels, and that will take years to produce concrete results. But there are several new factors, including a reduction of U.S. anti-narcotic aid to Latin America proposed by the Obama Administration in its 2013 budget announced last week, that are beginning to pose an increasingly serious challenge to the traditional interdiction-based U.S. anti-drug strategies. [continues 647 words]
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) -- Guatemala's first president with a military background in 25 years said Tuesday the drug war can't be won with arms alone, and pledged that his administration will focus on fighting hunger, which he called a security problem. In an interview with The Associated Press one day after he promised to propose legalizing drugs in Guatemala, President Otto Perez Molina said the Central American country isn't following U.S. orders, despite American opposition to legalization. "We are not doing what the United States says, we are doing what we have to do," said Perez, who was elected on promises of an "iron-fist" approach to rampant crime and surprised observers by proposing drug legalization. [continues 152 words]
SAN FRANCISCO -- A quarter-century after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first prescription drugs based on the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, additional medicines derived from or inspired by the cannabis plant itself could soon be making their way to pharmacy shelves, according to drug companies, small biotech firms and university scientists. A British company, GW Pharma, is in advanced clinical trials for the world's first pharmaceutical developed from raw marijuana instead of synthetic equivalents- a mouth spray it hopes to market in the U.S. as a treatment for cancer pain. And it hopes to see FDA approval by the end of 2013. [continues 925 words]
I owe Kyle Vogt an apology. A former military policeman, he's now a member of a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, a group of former cops, prosecutors and judges that supports ending the war on drugs. When I interviewed Vogt for a column earlier this year, everything he said about the high cost and low results of the war on drugs made perfect sense. But he made one claim which, though I smiled politely, I didn't believe and didn't use in my column: that dozens and dozens of drug cops have contacted LEAP to express their support. [continues 530 words]
A federal judge in Orlando on Monday temporarily blocked Florida's controversial law requiring welfare applicants be drug tested in order to receive benefits. Judge Mary Scriven issued a temporary injunction against the state, writing in a 37-page order that the law could violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure. The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake," Scriven wrote. The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state last month on behalf of Luis Lebron, a 35-year-old Navy veteran and single father from Orlando who is finishing his college degree. [continues 715 words]
Florida's Drug Test Requirement For Welfare Recipients Predictably Fails First Round In Court It would be easy to praise Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature for the laudable goals of curbing drug use among welfare recipients by testing applicants and saving money by denying users aid. Easy to praise, that is, if wholesale testing really saved money and if applying for temporary cash assistance itself proves probable drug use. In the face of contrary evidence, the best the governor and Legislature could hope to achieve with a new law was to build a barrier to help for those in need. [continues 543 words]
Gov. Rick Scott's crusade to drug-test cash welfare applicants is turning out to be another thick-headed scheme that's backfiring on Florida taxpayers. The biggest beneficiaries are the testing companies that collect $10 to $25 for urine, blood or hair screening, a fee being paid by the state (you and me) whenever the applicant tests clean -- currently about 97 percent of the cases. The law, which easily passed the Legislature this year, was based on the misinformed and condescending premise that welfare recipients are more prone to use illegal drugs than people who are fortunate enough to have jobs. [continues 770 words]
Twenty-Five Years After 'Miami Vice' Became Part of the Country'S Cocaine Culture Lore, Miami Is Leading the Nation in the Beginning Of the End of America'S Three-Decade Cocaine Epidemic, Say Experts In these rough economic times, another pricey extravagance appears to be waning in South Florida: cocaine. The city that gave rise to Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs has seen a decline in people seeking treatment for cocaine addiction or dying from the drug. Twenty five years after Miami Vice became part of the country's cocaine culture lore, Miami is leading the nation in the beginning of the end of America's three-decade cocaine epidemic, say experts. [continues 777 words]
Casino Fire Signals A New Stage In Criminal Violence That Mexico-U.S. Must Battle Together The appalling barbarity of a deliberately set casino fire that left 52 people dead in the northern city of Monterrey last week is all the more reason for Mexican President Felipe CalderA3n to intensify his country's courageous fight against drug criminals and for the United States to do everything it can to help its southern neighbor. Mexico is waging the fight of its life, with an uncertain outcome that carries huge stakes for the future of that country and the well-being of the United States, as well. [continues 496 words]
There was a quake last week, but you likely didn't feel it. See, this particular quake was not of the Earth, involved no shifting of the planetary crust. No, what shifted was a paradigm, and the implications are hopeful and profound. On Tuesday, you see, the NAACP passed a resolution calling for an end to the War on Drugs. Said NAACP President Benjamin Todd Jealous in a written statement, "These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African-American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America." [continues 466 words]
