Drug Policy

Americans made history on Nov. 5, 1996, by voting to pass two state ballot initiatives legalizing the medical use of marijuana. Those votes constituted the first major reassessment of the war on drugs since the repeal of Prohibition more than 60 years ago.Given the recent reports about rising marijuana use, and the concerted efforts to defeat the California and Arizona initiatives, how can it be that millions of citizens in each state approved these medicalization...

In a report meant to rekindle debate over drug policy, a Baltimore grand jury suggests that marijuana be "decriminalized" and that doctors be allowed to dispense drugs such as heroin and cocaine to addicts.The grand jury, in a report scheduled for release today, rejects the blanket legalization of drugs, arguing that would increase drug addiction. However, the panel cautiously promotes a "medicalization" model -- allowing addicts to receive treatment on demand and, in some cases, allotments of drugs -- as a way to stem the tide of drugs on city streets.

I just read about the 23 bodies found in Mexico due to drug wars. It makes me sick that people are dying for marijuana. I don't smoke marijuana, but I did when I was younger and almost everyone I know did. How do we justify our drug policy that kills people in our neighboring country? Legalizing marijuana would end this travesty. Didn't we learn anything from prohibition? Or are we so callous because it only kills people in another country and the poor of our country? The only moral issue here is ignoring the suffering of others - not the use of this relatively harmless drug!

Mike Gimbel's letter ignores some rudimentary facts regarding medical marijuana ("Md. wouldn't be able to control marijuana dispensaries," Readers respond, Feb. 4). Many polls have recently showed that as many as eight out of every 10 Americans say they want medical marijuana to be legalized and regulated. Unlike Mr. Gimbel, they understand that giving needed treatment to sick people needs to take precedence over the politics and misguided taboos of the past. Fourteen states already have medical marijuana, and the reason that many more have legislation pending is because for some severely ill patients, the treatment works.

WASHINGTON - Amid the policy-makers and legal professionals who devise the tactics of the nation's "war on drugs," Tara Andrews thinks one voice hasn't been heard. African-Americans as a group have been silent for too long, said Andrews, director of the Maryland Justice Coalition, a Baltimore organization pushing the state to give nonviolent drug offenders treatment instead of jail time. Yesterday, representatives of 15 black professional organizations that formed the National African American Drug Policy Coalition in the fall met to devise a strategy for changing drug laws they say unfairly punish African-Americans.

WASHINGTON -- Last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain delivered a major policy speech on crime in which he said Baltimore had conducted a "misguided experiment" that effectively legalized drug trafficking in some sections of the city. City officials and specialists on drug issues say no such policy -- informal or otherwise -- has ever existed in Baltimore. McCain, speaking against the backdrop of a huge American flag to an audience of law enforcement officials in Columbia, S.C., last Tuesday, said: "It is a deadly indifference that nourishes the ill-conceived notion that the war on drugs cannot be won, so it's time to wave the white flag of legalization."

The nation's failure to tame the drug epidemic ravaging cities such as Baltimore has brought Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke's advisers to a stark admission: Many people are going to remain addicts, so society ought to reduce the harm they cause themselves and others.In the wake of the sweeping proposal made Wednesday by a mayoral panel, Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson said the goal of any new drug policy will be to get people off drugs for good.But he admits that the proposal places heavy emphasis on programs aimed at reducing crime, disease, joblessness and alienation even as people continue to abuse illicit drugs.

WASHINGTON -- As governor of Arkansas, Bill Clinton authorized a criminal investigation of his own brother for selling cocaine. As president, he termed drug abuse as serious a problem as the nation confronts. He appointed a respected police official as his drug policy director while also setting as his goal drug treatment "on demand."His words have been well-received by those fighting the drug war, from Drug Enforcement Administration agents working undercover to counselors in drug treatment centers in the country's blighted big cities.

The Philadelphia Eagles have tested all their players and some of their front-office personnel for the AIDS virus, a member of the team's medical staff is quoted as telling The Washington Post in today's editions.Vincent J. Distefano, Philadelphia's team doctor, told the newspaper that the tests were done at the start of training camp and were part of the "routine physicals" given to each player.Distefano said that none of the players or front office people had tested positive for the disease and that everyone tested signed consent forms.

Roger Clemens is expected to meet one-on-one with Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, today at 10:30 a.m. to discuss performance-enhancing drugs. Clemens apparently contacted some members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and offered to meet with them privately, a spokeswoman for Cummings said. Cummings, who is co-founder and chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Drug Policy, accepted the offer. He hopes to speak to Clemens about the effect performance-enhancing-drug use in baseball has on youth and to discuss the Maryland-based, anti-steroid initiative "Powered By ME!"