Responding to Richard Craig's "A war on people" (Your Views, Dec. 5), I hope he was not as poor a detective as he is a purported authority on marijuana. Abstracts of thousands of peer-reviewed articles available on PubMed attest to the fact that cannabis is indeed addictive. Marijuana has been shown to have profound, negative effects on the cardiovascular, respiratory and immune systems; on neurocognitive function and IQ; and on the brain's delicate neurotransmitter systems, including the endogenous cannabinoid system. [continues 196 words]
If there is anyone who thinks legalizing pot is without its evils, they had better look to Washington state and Colorado. Washington state has experienced an influx of organized crime, including biker gangs and cartels. This also is taking place in Colorado,where dispensaries are being used as distribution centers by these same groups. Take a dose of reality along with John Morgan. Morgan never fails to point out in his commercials distrust for the insurance companies but doesn't seem to be able to present a clear, simple initiative proposed on a ballot. How many bereaved families will he represent when some pothead he helped put on the street kills someone while DUI? Does the government become liable for endorsing pot smokers who develop lung cancer when it promotes eradification of smoking tobacco? H.L. West Lutz [end]
The letters you published regarding medical marijuana on Dec. 1 are inaccurate. As a former narcotics detective, and a spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a police group that advocates the regulation of drugs in the same manner in which we regulate beer and tobacco, I can tell you categorically that marijuana is neither addictive nor a gateway drug. You want a real gateway "drug?" It is a government that feels it knows what's best for its citizens, without regard to their freedom of choice. [continues 141 words]
Regarding "Pot not medicine" (Your Views, Dec. 1): For someone who claims to be an expert on drug problems, Calvina Fay's letter sounds like nothing more than an advertisement for the pharmaceutical industry. Her first error was to state there are no other forms of marijuana other than the street version. If Fay were truly educated on drug research, she would learn that there are several experiments that are altering the cannabis plant to remove all traces of THC, the chemical that gets you "high." She then incorrectly states that marijuana causes mental disorders. Is she a research scientist?! How can her lack of scientific and psychological knowledge be sure that the drug use came I first, instead of the drug use being a manifestation of a particular disorder? If she'd actually bother to read the full study reports and not just the sound bites from mainstream media outlets, maybe she wouldn't make such erroneous statements. j [continues 179 words]
In reference to "Lighting Up -- the pros and cons of the medical pot debate" (Views, Nov. 24), I find it absurd that John Morgan has the gall to claim that his initiative is not about getting high but rather about helping the "truly sick." What he calls "medical marijuana" is not special marijuana. It is nothing more than street pot that contains contaminants such as pesticides, fertilizers and fungi -- hardly a substance that is safe for the truly sick. Marijuana is addictive and has been linked to harms such as cancer, schizophrenia and other mental illnesses, and respiratory diseases. It has also been shown to suppress the immune system, something that is not needed by the truly sick. [continues 67 words]
Regarding "Lighting up": Having spent 30 years in law enforcement and more than 20 years teaching DUI classes, I have done my share of homework on the legalization of pot issue. I submit that attorney John Morgan and Sheriff David Gee are both missing the point. Marijuana, like all drugs, has side effects, and if the medicinal argument was anywhere as strong as Morgan implies, it would have been a windfall in the health care industry in California, where this drug has been legal for medicinal reasons for many years. It is all about getting "high," and if the "high" were taken out of the equation, the argument would evaporate. [continues 72 words]
According to a recent Quinnipiac poll, Floridians support legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes by a whopping 82-16 margin, crossing all party lines. Frustrated by decades of inaction by the Florida Legislature, citizens have taken it into their own hands to put the issue directly before voters through a citizens' initiative to amend the Florida Constitution. The question should be whether Florida wants to join 20 other states and the District of Columbia in making medical marijuana available to its residents suffering from debilitating illnesses. [continues 747 words]
Thanks to a well-funded effort by ubiquitous trial lawyer John Morgan, Florida voters are likely to get the opportunity to vote for, or against, approving the use of medical marijuana next November. For most supporters, the issue of medical marijuana is a highly emotional issue based on personal beliefs and scientific evidence that is often criticized by the establishment. Meanwhile, opponents say approving marijuana usage for medicinal purposes is a mere foot in the door that will eventually lead to approval of recreational marijuana use. That, they say, will lead to greater use of harder drugs and create more societal ills. [continues 1629 words]
As a great-grandmother, my concern is for our children. How many children have died from drugs; lives ruined, destroyed? Everything has to do with money. If marijuana was legal then the children would not be bothered by drug dealers. The time is now to make a better and safer life for the young. Kennedy said, "My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." My fellow Americans, ask not what your children can do for you, ask what you can do for your children. Keep our children free of drug dealers. Let moms and dads, the community, the churches, clubs, friends, neighbors, relatives work together to protect our children whom we love so much. They deserve the best. Jo Ann Crain, Tampa [end]
Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi's assertion that the proposed medical marijuana amendment's summary "suggests there is no federal prohibition" makes no sense. The exact wording is "Applies only to Florida law. Does not authorize violations of federal law..." That wording tells me the amendment does not alter federal law, that it alters only Florida law. Her complaint is a last-minute attempt to insert ambiguity where none exists. Bondi wants to stop the amendment because she fears that if it reaches the ballot, it will become law, and if it becomes law, it will not cause the problems opponents claim. University researchers have found that the first 16 states to enact medical marijuana laws saw traffic fatalities drop 9 percent in the first year, beer consumption down and teens' pot use unchanged. John G. Chase, Palm Harbor [end]
Amendment Supporters' Ballot Language Misleading, She Argues In Attempt To Derail It TAMPA a=C2=80" Attorney General Pam Bondi is asking the state Supreme Cou rt to invalidate the language of a proposed constitutional amendment allowing medical use of marijuana in Florida a=C2=80" a move that, if successful, could derail the measure for this election cycle. Bondi argued in a court filing that the summary of the amendment that would appear on the ballot doesn't give voters an accurate idea of the effect of the amendment and therefore shouldn't be placed on the ballot. [continues 480 words]
Two recent letters speak out against legalizing marijuana. If their reason for writing was Morgan & Morgan's project to put medical marijuana on the 2014 ballot, they need to check their facts. One letter asks, 'Why legalize the smoking of drugs to create a further burden on the healthcare system and send the wrong message to kids?' The other worries about 'a nation full of mindless people wanting to drive while being legally high.' Fact is, most patients do not 'smoke.' Instead, they use a vaporizer or ingest it in food. As for driving 'high,' the first 16 states to legalize medical marijuana saw a decrease in traffic fatalities, a decrease in beer consumption and no increase in teen pot smoking. John G. Chase Palm Harbor [end]
I agree with the writer of 'Don't legalize pot' (Your Views, Sept. 7). The writer posed two great questions. Why legalize the smoking of drugs and create a further burden on the health care system of America? And with the MADD folks doing all they can to stop drunken drivA-ing, why promote a nation full of mindless people wanting to drive while being legally high? My questions are: Will driver's licenses now need to be issued with an identifier such as 'Pot Smoker'? And should these folks also need to pay higher insurance premiums? Legalizing pot opens the door to a host of problems most of us haven't even considered yet. Just say no! Cheryl Johnston, Plant city [end]
With the government running millions of dollars in ads against smoking, why legalize the smokA-ing of drugs and create a further burden on the health care system in America? It surely is not a good influence on our youths to legalize drugs. You have the MADD folks doing all they can to stop drunken driving and now we promote a nation full of mindless people wanting to drive while being legally high? It is another agenda being shoved down our throats. Can you see why our nation is in a moral and physical decline? Kelly Langston, St.Petersburg [end]
Regarding "War on people" (Your Views, May 25): Kudos to Lt. Richard Craig. He clearly articulated the considerations associated with the insane "War on Drugs." I wish him well in his pursuit of a cure for the insanity, but I fear that it is incurable cancer, with roots in political corruption, turf protection (would the DBA accept a diminished role?), misguided religious zealotry, and the lobbying by those with direct monetary interests. Donald Barnhill Trinity [end]
I am the retired executive officer of a Northeastern police department, and I applaud the letter you recently published from John G. Chase of Palm Harbor, "Drug war a waste." As a former undercover officer, I booked literally thousands of youths for small amounts of marijuana. Never did I consider that they might lose their right to vote, their right to live in public housing, their right to certain scholarships. Thanks to my zealousness, those youths, now grown men and woman, may well have a career track that involves saying something like, "Do you want to supersize that?" [continues 162 words]
The government justifies the drug war by saying it "takes drugs off the street". What it really does is raise the price so high that casual users quit. But they were no problem in the first place. Problem users will do almost anything to get the cash to pay the price. The best way to take a drug off the street is by giving it the legal status of alcohol. Then its tax revenue could be used for treatment of those who ask, and people selling to kids would lose their jobs. Start with marijuana and see how that goes. Then decide what to do, if anything, about the other illegal drugs. The funds now being wasted to arrest marijuana smokers could be used elsewhere. Most important, patients who smoke marijuana would no longer have to hide from police. John Chase Palm Harbor [end]
Los Zetas is considered the most violent drug cartel in Mexico, using terror and brute force to impose its will. In a country renowned for drug-related brutality, the cartel distinguished itself last year in San Juan by leaving 49 headless, handless and footless bodies near a spray-painted message at the entrance gates: "100% Los Zetas," a sign from the cartel that it owned the city. Ronald and Esther Winter, a retired Clearwater couple in their 70s who used to own construction businesses, have never been in trouble with the law. Ronald Winter says they raised their three children with strong morals, were part of the PTA and have worked hard to make contributions to the community. [continues 1817 words]
Regarding "The expectation of privacy" (Other Views, March 29): "Expectation of privacy"? Sounds good. But the Fourth Amendment offers much less protection than it did before the drug war began. A person expects the privacy he or she can remember. But the drug war started two generations ago, and memories fade. Expectations were different before stop-and-frisk ("Empty your pockets!"), before urine testing, before sniffer dogs, before thermal imaging to look for the warm roofs of grow houses, before traffic stop paperwork was filled out slow enough to bring in a sniffer dog, and before such arrestees were threatened with a felony record unless they snitched on "" somebody. Rather than continue to discuss the legal arcana of what is, and is not, an unreasonable search, just roll back the 1971 Controlled Substances Act, starting with marijuana. JOHN G. CHASE, PALM HARBOR [end]
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 each year. The most recent national drug survey found that 18.1 million Americans had used it during the previous month. [continues 551 words]
Concerning your Aug. 18 editorial, "Voter ID law stops fraud:" Yes, in the absolute, the voter ID law will stop fraud. But that should not be the issue. The issue should be how much and at what cost. Every change in any law or regulation has societal benefits and societal costs. The best example is our anti-drug law. Worthwhile goals to "stop voter fraud" or "stop drug abuse" are often pretexts to hold down a segment of the citizenry thought to engage in such activity. Other legislation recently enacted by Florida - and knocked down by the federal court - weakens my confidence that the voter ID law is not just pretext to hold down citizens who mostly vote Democrat. John Chase St. Petersburg [end]
It's a good thing that our law enforcement agencies are clamping down on the sale of the various kinds of "synthetic marijuana." The stuff is causing great physical and mental harm to many users, especially youths. It is not marijuana but, in fact, a mixture of legal herbs that have been treated with various toxic chemicals. It is definitely a dangerous substance. On the other hand, there are dozens of legitimate medical and scientific studies that have shown natural marijuana is not intrinsically harmful and is not a gateway drug. Most studies have shown that marijuana is beneficial in the treatment of many illness and diseases, both physical and mental. [continues 83 words]
The discovery of a face-eating "marijuana monster" in Miami calls for an about-face for all of those calling for legalizing this lethal weed. We are surely in danger of facing an epidemic of cannibalistic potheads any day now. This medical freak case is lead-pipe proof that the reefer madness warnings should have been heeded way back in the 1930s. Of course, maybe the millions of users and ex-users who wound up eating all the potato chips and ice cream during attacks of the munchies were really thinking - if that is possible under this heinous drug - that they were eating somebody's face or maybe even a dead baby. This kind of thing never happens under the influence of alcohol or any other intoxicant. This is clear proof that all of those dangerous potheads should be locked up right now. They might make the plot of "Night of the Living Dead" look like child's play. Leonard Martino Tampa [end]
Almost four years ago, Margie Weiss of Safety Harbor was on the road to Tallahassee, fielding panicked calls from friends of her daughter, Rachel. The college kids were frantic, reporting that the 23-year-old had disappeared while working as an informant for the Tallahassee police. Wednesday, Weiss again was headed to Tallahassee when she learned the Florida Senate had joined the House in passing a claims bill that would grant a $2.4 million settlement to her and her ex-husband in the death of their only child. [continues 685 words]
TALLAHASSEE -- Tallahassee city commissioners approved a $2.6 million settlement Friday in the wrongful-death suit of a police informant who was fatally shot during a 2008 drug sting. The parents of Rachel Hoffman, 23, sued after her death, claiming police were negligent in setting up the Florida State graduate as an undercover informant after she was caught with marijuana and pills without a prescription. Jury selection for the lawsuit began this week and the trial was scheduled to begin Monday. [continues 412 words]
The tragedies are coming with appalling regularity. Lakeland police officer Arnulfo Crispin, 25, died Wednesday after being shot in the head Sunday night while investigating suspicious activity in a city park. The suspect is 19 years old. Last February, a St. Petersburg police officer was shot while approaching a suspicious individual on the street. A 16-year-old was charged. A few weeks before, two St. Petersburg policemen were shot to death and a federal marshal seriously wounded as they attempted to serve a domestic abuse warrant on a sex offender, who was killed during the encounter. [continues 384 words]
Arnulfo Crispin In Grave Condition As Suspect, 19, Arrested A neighborhood park where a Lakeland police officer was shot and gravely wounded is known more for being a hang-out for drug dealers than a place where children clamor over the jungle gyms. 'Little kids got guns,' said Phillip Rogers, 22, who lives near the city-owned Crystal Grove Park, 'and they ain't afraid to use them.' A 10 p.m. Sunday call about suspicious activity in the park ended in tragedy for a popular police officer, who was left for dead. By the day's end, officer Arnulfo Crispin barely clung to life at Lakeland Regional Medical Center. [continues 1051 words]
Florida drug laws make little sense. While marijuana is illegal, even for people in serious pain, we are instead encouraged to get a prescription for pills like OxyContin, Oxycodone or Valium, which are 20 times worse for you. Drug companies, doctors and pharmacies are dispensing millions of doses of these highly addictive, often deadly pills while non-violent taxpayers in victimless crimes are being jailed for marijuana use. Illegal marijuana creates crime because of its inflated value. Legal marijuana would have almost no value, putting dealers out of business, and U.S. taxpayers would save billions. DOVER [end]
I am writing in regard to the article 'Welfare drug law ruling delayed' (Metro, Sept. 27). Apparently a retired Navy veteran is suing the government, saying this drug testing is unconstitutional. My feeling is this: First, you are coming to the table for benefits; second, if you don't do drugs, you don't have anything to worry about. Seems to me we protest too much. MARY JO FUNDOCK LAKELAND [end]
EUGENE, Ore. -- Sometime after midnight on a moonlit rural Oregon highway, a state trooper checking a car he had just pulled over found pot on a passenger. The discovery was not surprising in a marijuana-friendly state like Oregon, but the 72-year-old woman's defense was: She insisted the weed was legal and given to her by the federal government. A series of phone calls from a dubious trooper and his supervisor to federal authorities determined that the glaucoma patient was not joking: The U.S. government does grow and provide pot to a select few people across the United States. [continues 285 words]
I was shocked to hear that 157 people have died just in Hillsborough CounA-ty from accidental overdose of drugs just since January. While I work in this business of substance abuse treatment, that number is still shocking, and I know it must be shocking to others. For years we have fought the 'new addiction trend' that was alcohol, heroin, then marijuana, then crack cocaine, and now Oxys and Roxies, short for oxycodone or Roxicodone. And we learned each drug is different and treatment needs are different. But with the right dose of treatment and the right intervention, recovery from addiction is possible. [continues 399 words]
Our state government recently passed a law to stop the illegitimate sale of drugs like oxycodone by pill mills. That part is good; however, the law was not thought out well because even legitimate users are finding that they can't get their prescriptions filled. WESLEY CHAPEL [end]
TAMPA -- When drug dealers started disappearing from street corners this year, Tampa police detectives thought something was going on. And when officers made traffic stops, they began noticing something odd. They were finding "massive amounts" of preloaded debit cards along with ledgers and laptop computers, said Sgt. Terry Goff in an exclusive interview with The Tampa Tribune and News Channel 8. They soon uncovered what Goff said was an explosion of tax fraud that permeated the city's poorest neighborhoods and some of its most influential conclaves. Erstwhile street criminals were using laptops and mailboxes to steal hundreds of millions of dollars by filing fraudulent tax returns with stolen Social Security numbers. [continues 1549 words]
Mexican President Cites Lax Gun Laws, Demand For Drugs For Fueling Cartels' Violence MEXICO CITY -His voice cracking with emotion, President Felipe Calderon said Friday that the United States bore some blame for 'an act of terror' by gangsters who doused a casino with gasoline and set a blaze that killed at least 52 people. The attack Thursday in Monterrey, an industrial city of 4 million barely a two-hour drive from Texas, stunned Mexicans and seemed likely to mark a watershed in the country's intensifying war against criminal syndicates. [continues 348 words]
Up To $60,000 Saved Yearly On Rejected Applicants May Be Nullified By Expenses TALLAHASSEE -Since the state began testing welfare applicants for drugs in July, about 2 percent have tested posiA-tive, preliminary data show. Ninety-six percent proved to be drug free, leaving the state on the hook to reimburse the cost of their tests. The initiative might save the state a few dollars anyway, bearing out one of Gov. Rick Scott's arguments for impleA-menting it. However, the low drug test fail-rate undercuts another of his arguA-ments: That people on welfare are more likely to use drugs. [continues 767 words]
Some Pleased; Others Squeezed TAMPA -They walked into the clean, red brick medical offices and demanded prescription painkillers. The doctor shoppers and drug addicts thought the Tampa Pain Relief Center on East Fletcher Avenue was just another storefront clinic that freely dispensed powerful painkillerswithout proper background checks. When they were turned down by the nurse at the front desk, they grew angry, refused to calm down and were removed from the lobby by police. 'Some patients were threatening,' said Douglas Constant, a pain management physiA-cian and anesthesiologist at the practice. 'We've had some people come in thinking they can get anything.' It's a common occurrence in a town known as a hotbed for so-called 'pill mills' and in asociety grappling with an epidemic of prescripA-tion drug addiction, law enforcement and health officials say. [continues 867 words]
Regarding 'New laws require pension contributions, ultrasounds' (Metro, June 30): The new law that took effect July 1 requiring all state welfare applicants get drug-tested before they can receive assistance is a shameful and foolish precedent. Drug tests are notoriously inaccurate. Administering them will require more government bureaucracy, and studies show welfare recipients are no more likely to use drugs than the average person. A federal court struck down a similar state law as unconstitutional, and lawmakers in Idaho recently determined that welfare drug-testing would cost their state more money than it would save. It is cruel to insist that the poor pay out of their own pocket for a drug test that cannot even tell the difference between the poppy seed bagel eaten for breakfast and street heroin. GRANT SMITH WASHINGTON , D.C The writer is federal policy coordinator, Office of National Affairs, Drug Policy Alliance. [end]
Union Pacific Refuses To Pay, Says It's Unable To Stop Smugglers EL PASO, Texas - A border security program to X-ray every train rolling into the country has prompted as much as $400 million in fines against U.S. railroads, which are held responsible for the pungent bales of marijuana, tight bundles of cocaine, and anything else criminals cram into the boxcars and tankers as they clickety-clack through Mexico. Union Pacific, the largest rail shipper on the U.S.-Mexico border and the largest recipient of fines, refuses to pay what now amounts to more than $388 million in fines, up from $37.5 million three years ago when the screening began. [continues 276 words]
Regarding 'Fighting pill mills' (Our Views, May 18): For the short run, we have no alternative. But for the long run we should consider other methods. The best example is a Swiss 'experiment' to offer heroin to hard-core addicts while greatly expanding methadone maintenance. It began is 1994 and is now known as HAT (heroin assisted treatment). In a 2008 referendum the Swiss people voted over 2 to 1 to make it a permanent part of their national health system. [continues 110 words]
I have been following the 'pill mill' articles with much interest over the last few weeks. The thing I do not understand is that all we read about are deaths and over-prescription. No one ever mentions the thousands of us who now have this medication, and it has been a godsend. We - most of us - have documented medical conditions that are extremely painful. Yet bring a prescription for this medication (written by a Florida M.D.) to almost any pharmacy, and they treat you like a drug addict. [continues 72 words]
It is disheartening to see presumably serious politicians such as Attorney General Pam Bondi and state Sen. Mike Fasano argue without nuance and without specifics that a prescription drug database represents a meaningful solution to a serious issue. In the early days of the computer age, coders created one of the first catchphrases of the cyber era -- "garbage in, garbage out." Without necessary controls over what goes into a database that by its very nature invades the privacy of those whose personal information is included, it is almost certain that the database will be misused. [continues 299 words]
What is the problem of asking those whose salaries we pay through our taxes to submit to a drug test? Do we have to pay for their drug habits? Can we trust those who are responsible for our state's business if they are opposed to drug testing? OK, I know, the ACLU says we're infringing on their rights. How about my rights? Don't I have the right to demand that those whose salaries I pay be clean of drugs? [continues 56 words]
Florida Legislature Advances GOP Bills That Make Recipients Pay For Procedures TALLAHASSEE - Bills are advancing in the Florida Legislature requiring all applicants for federal welfare benefits to take and pay for drug testing, despite opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans. In a House committee hearing Wednesday, the bill's sponsor revised it to make it tougher, applying to all applicants for welfare, not just those with criminal records for drug offenses. That brings it in line with the Senate bill, which already applied to all applicants, but also raises more questions about whether the bill is constitutional, according to the legislative staff analysis. [continues 561 words]
Florida's prescription-drug epidemic continues unabated. It poses the single greatest drug-related threat to the health and safety of Floridians since crack cocaine. Not only do prescription-drug overdoses kill seven Floridians every day, but drugs prescribed in Florida are killing citizens in other states in ever-growing numbers. Pain clinics have exploded throughout the state, many operating as illegal "pill mills" where drugs are traded for cash. Florida has become a favorite destination for drug-seekers along the Eastern Seaboard and Appalachia. This threat will continue to devastate - and the deaths will increase - unless Florida takes action to implement a Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP). [continues 574 words]
It is encouraging to see new Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly act to curtail the use of dangerous drugs, especially since Gov. Rick Scott and state lawmakers seem less than resolute. Scott immediately eliminated the Office of Drug Control, which had made a priority of fighting the "pill mills" that proliferate in Florida and prescribe pain killers wantonly. State officials say seven people a day die due to the inappropriate use of prescription drugs. Scott said a separate office wasn't needed to handle the task, and he may be right. But he has done nothing to replace the office that coordinated the anti-drug effort among state agencies and had been a leader in highlighting the threat of pill mills. [continues 412 words]
TAMPA - For about a year, semisubs seemed to be the way to go for Colombian cocaine smugglers.Investigators with the Tampa-based Operation Panama Express were plucking crews out of the eastern Pacific Ocean at a rate of about one a month in 2009. But so far this year, investigators have intercepted just two semisubs, the most recent in July. The prosecutor overseeing the cases thinks the drop-off may have something to do with a federal law conceived in Tampa. [continues 432 words]
PALM HARBOR - The addiction started after he injured his shoulder and spine in two car crashes. He was prescribed seven tablets of Vicodin a day to numb the pain, but it didn't take long for Robert Palmisano to crave stronger doses. His family physician refused to prescribe more potent medication. So Palmisano found relief at pain management clinics, where he paid cash for up to 120 opiate-based pills during each visit. "I was just trying to get right," said Palmisano, of Palm Harbor. "That's when all hell broke loose." [continues 1316 words]
Boston - In the upcoming California referendum on legalizing marijuana for recreational use, Mexican President Felipe Calderon and U.S. drug czar Gil Kerlikowske have something in common. Both are missing the forest for the weed. According to recent polls, Californians are on the verge of approving the legalization of marijuana and overthrowing nearly a century of failed American drug prohibition. Hail to the Golden State. In the four decades since President Richard Nixon declared a "War on Drugs," the toll of prohibition includes at least $1 trillion in taxes spent, according to The Wall Street Journal. Worse are the millions of lives damaged by prison time and street violence. In 2007, for example, about 500,000 people were in jail on drug charges. [continues 580 words]
An innocent man was sent to prison in 2004 for 20 years, the mandatory sentence. Did he murder, rape, assault or rob? No, his crime was being unable to prove that the pain pills he took for his severe chronic pain were received from prescriptions properly written by his doctor. This unfortunate man, with multiple sclerosis, had been in a car accident and had operations, hospitalizations, treatments and therapy that left him in a wheelchair with a morphine pump to control his pain. He would still be in prison now if not for the courageous politicians who pardoned him - my husband Richard - in 2007. [continues 78 words]
Regarding "The GPS as creepy shadow" (Our Opinion, Sept. 10): Creepy? Yes. Shocking? No. Just another example of the excesses of prohibition. This recent intrusion into privacy is just another in a long chain that began with a 1929 Supreme Court decision affirming the conviction of the notorious bootlegger Roy Olmstead. It was the first wiretapping case to reach the Supreme Court. In his dissent, Justice Louis Brandeis coined two notable concepts. One was that "the greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachments by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding." The other was about "the right to be left alone." His warnings are often quoted but seldom heeded. We have lost cherished legal traditions in our futile attempts to stamp out popular drugs, first alcohol and now marijuana. It can't be done, but we keep trying, so the losses accumulate. Palm Harbor [end]
