News

Student in Area Schools Continue to Have Drug and Alcohol Prevention Message Delivered in Schools

Marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and kava use by students have decreased a lot according to an Impact Evaluation Report on the Training of Trainers for Teachers from 2009-2011 released by the National Substance Abuse Advisory Council recently.

Canada's new mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders are based on "very bad criminal law policy" and constitute a threat to public health as well as the concept of judicial proportionality, former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Louise Arbour says.

In the Weeds A resolution that would have marked a shift in city policy toward prosecuting marijuana possession was ultimately passed by City Council last week as a watered-down request for the state to re-examine its drug policy, but that didn't keep the debate over legalization from raging on.

Opinions

President Obama tried again to do the right thing and let states alone to regulate and enforce medical marijuana laws, keeping federal law in place in case they're needed to clean up any danger to the industry. For now it looks like the plan is mostly working. California and Colorado have become perps for federal agents to clean out. I'm a liberal Libertarian and proud of our President and his staff, for in a conservative way are successfully being pro-active before people making too much money get more greedy. I have a license, if you will, to purchase legal marijuana when presenting my recommendation for prescription is up to date. I'm 59 years old and have been buying illegal dope with what-all in it from bikers and poor folk and street vendors, sharing between friends.

The violence to the south of the American border took another gruesome turn this weekend when authorities discovered a site with 49 headless and otherwise mutilated bodies. The discovery was made near the town of San Juan, near the Texas border. A welcome sign near the site reportedly was tagged with the saying "100% Zeta," referencing one of Mexico's most powerful drug cartels.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews seems to think that by making things harder for people in prison, he's keeping those on the outside safer.

Few DARE Tell the Truth About Drugs "You ask any DEA man, he'll say, 'There's nothing we can do.'" - Glenn Frey, "Smuggler's Blues"

Letters

Consider our war on drugs from a historical perspective: We no longer put distributors of wine, beer and hard liquor in jail. Alcoholism is treated as a health issue, not a criminal offense. We've come a long way from Prohibition, the days in which alcohol consumption was demonized as strongly as marijuana is today.

Selling and possessing marijuana is still a federal crime. Selling marijuana near a school is an elevated crime. Does the federal government prohibit the sale of alcohol and tobacco within a thousand feet of a school?

As an educated, conservative housewife and writer with fibromyalgia, I may not seem a likely medical marijuana candidate. Yet, 15 months ago I went from debilitating pain, migraines, panic attacks, memory issues, depression and exhaustion, to fully functioning in just days.

This is regarding an article stating: "The financial incentives created by civil asset forfeiture laws create a dangerous precedent" (Telegram & Gazette, May 1). Police can confiscate cars, cash and homes without bothering to charge owners with a crime. Vague allegations of drug trafficking don't justify turning protectors of the peace into financial predators. The drug war threatens the integrity of a country founded on the concept of limited government.

It is regrettable that in the editorial of April 28, The Daily Courier chose to take a number of cheap shots at the thoughtful and politically courageous B.C. mayors who are calling for the decriminalization, taxation and strict regulation of marijuana.

If the U.S. Congress was smart, it would jump on legalizing the marijuana plant and start two profitable businesses that could give a boost to our economy instead of a boost to China's and the cartels' economy.

Re: Pot legalization advocates fail to convince school trustee, Letters, May 9 Mandatory minimum imprisonment and criminal records for growing more than five pot plants are not preferable to legalization and education.