Flathead Beacon
By Myers Reece, Guest Writer
11-16-08

Across the nation thousands of schools, including a handful in Montana, have adopted random drug testing for students. Just this fall, Colstrip and Anaconda implemented random testing policies for extracurricular activities, while here in the Flathead, the Whitefish school district has looked into a similar plan, and is still considering it. Meanwhile, the district has implemented a suspicion-based policy that applies to all students, not just athletes.

Whether shifting to random testing or other methods, it’s clear that school officials are actively looking for new ways to combat what they perceive as a growing drug problem, and the trend is picking up steam in Montana.

Thus far, Whitefish Superintendent Jerry House has been pleased with the results of the suspicion-based policy. House said only four students in the whole district, including a third-grader caught smoking marijuana, were disciplined under the new policy through the first quarter of the school year, which ended on Nov. 5. That number is less than a quarter of last fall’s total of 18.

“Am I saying (drug and alcohol use) has stopped? No. I don’t care what high school you’re in, that’s going to continue,” House said. “But now there’s more teeth in the policy: Whitefish school district’s not going to put up with it. So yeah, you should have a lower number. I would sure hope so.”

The Whitefish school board approved the suspicion-based policy in August, while tabling a proposed random testing policy for students involved in activities. With the suspicion-based program, a student who is suspected of drug or alcohol use is called into a meeting with one of four trained interventionists at Whitefish High School: the activities director, principal, school nurse and assistant principal.

If the interventionist, who has been trained to identify signs of intoxication, concludes that reasonable suspicion exists, then the student’s parents are asked if a drug test can be administered. If the parents refuse, then the student is automatically suspended for three days on first offense. A student who takes and fails the test enters counseling but is not suspended. Additional offenses result in suspensions.

“The big difference is that we wanted to change our student culture where it’s not OK to drink and it’s not OK to do drugs, but keep in mind the school cares about you,” House said.

House said he has heard little complaint over the policy, though the district’s random testing proposal last spring was met with considerable opposition. House said the school is still discussing that policy, but not actively pursuing it at this time. But other Montana schools are, following in the footsteps of schools around the country that have taken advantage of two significant U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

In 1995, the Supreme Court ruled that schools have the right to randomly test athletes, even if they are not suspected of drug or alcohol use. Then in 2002, the court expanded its language to include all voluntary activities like cheerleading, band and debate. Following those rulings, thousands of schools around the nation have implemented random testing for students in activities, often with the federal financial assistance.

Since 2003, the Department of Education has awarded $40 million in grants to implement or expand random testing policies in schools, and the Bush Administration has also set aside millions more for similar grants, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

This fall, Colstrip and Anaconda joined a short list of Montana schools that have random testing for students in extracurricular activities, while Butte has considered it. Anaconda’s Superintendent Tom Darnell worked previously in Missouri where he said many schools already have random testing. He believes the system is long overdue in Montana.

“In my opinion, there’s not a school district in the state that shouldn’t have this policy,” Darnell said. “There’s everything to gain from this and nothing to lose.”

Darnell conceded that the process is not cheap. Anaconda receives no federal grants and pays for the testing through its regular budget. And he said the policy has received some opposition, but countered: “The view point I take with parents is if your child is using drugs, why would you not want to know that?”

A first-time offender faces a 30-day suspension from activities, a second-time offender gets 40 days and then the third offense means expulsion from all activities.

“Third strike you’re out,” Darnell said. “You’re done forever at Anaconda High School.”

Colstrip has had a random testing policy for extracurricular activities since 2003, Superintendent Harry Cheff said, but the district switched from using saliva samples to urine samples for high school students this year. Middle schoolers still do the saliva test. Cheff said the urine sample is considerably more effective.

Cheff said several parents have expressed concern over the urine testing, but for the most part there has been little opposition. He noted that Colstrip is unique in that the major employers of the town are PPL Montana and Western Energy, which have mandatory drug testing policies. So the majority of the population, he said, is already accustomed to the process.

The district respects privacy issues, Cheff said. Only the superintendent’s office has access to the students’ records and law enforcement isn’t notified. Coaches are told of a kid’s drug or alcohol use only in the case of suspension. Administrative officials, including Cheff, also are tested.

“I feel it’s helped students from making unhealthy decisions,” Cheff said. “Because during the year there’s that chance that they’re going to be picked.”

Though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of random drug testing, local courts haven’t always been in agreement. A prominent example is Washington, where the state’s Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that random drug testing in schools isn’t allowed under the state’s constitution. Also, when Montana’s three Democratic candidates for attorney general held a forum in Kalispell in May, each candidate, including eventual winner Steve Bullock, expressed skepticism that such a policy would stand up in the state’s Supreme Court if challenged.

It remains to be seen when, and if, Whitefish will seriously consider random testing again, but discussion is sure to continue. Meanwhile, school officials in Colstrip are set to review its policy again in December, but Cheff is happy with how the program has worked so far.

“I’ll knock on wood, but as of today we haven’t been legally challenged on this,” Cheff said.

www.buzzlecom.com
Published 11/3/2008

The revelation that students at the country's most prestigious seats of learning enjoy an occasional joint is hardly the stuff of headlines - unless that country is Japan.

Judging by recent coverage, Japan is in the midst of a marijuana epidemic that is ensnaring everyone from students to suburban housewives and sumo wrestlers.

A slew of arrests for drug-related offenses among elite scholars has sparked widespread indignation that more youngsters are choosing to while away their university years in a fug of marijuana smoke.

While police once focused their attention on amphetamines and other stimulants, recent statistics show a dramatic increase in cases involving cannabis. In the first half of this year the number of cases in which suspects were questioned or arrested stood at 1,202, a 12% increase on the same time last year. The number of cases involving the cultivation of cannabis at home was up by almost 50%, the national police agency said.

A record 2,423 violations were recorded in 2006, but police expect that figure to be beaten with ease this year.

Recreational marijuana use hit the headlines this summer when three Russian sumo wrestlers were kicked out of the sport for allegedly smoking the drug. In recent months newspapers have reported arrests for dealing, cultivating or possessing marijuana at some of Japan's best universities.

Daytime TV shows, meanwhile, blame foreign suppliers for corrupting gullible Japanese teenagers and, increasingly, bored housewives, as they move out heavily policed city centers into the suburbs.

The Mainichi Shimbun, often a progressive voice on other issues, devoted part of its front page yesterday to a fuming editorial warning of the potential ruination of Japan's finest universities by the evil weed.

Noting that students of the 1960s concerned themselves only with "world peace", the paper derided their modern-day counterparts' unhealthy obsession with attaining a different kind of tranquility.

Of the recent campus arrests, it says: "It is rational to believe that these cases are just the tip of the iceberg, and that 'drug pollution' at university campuses is more widespread than generally thought."

There does not appear to be a problem with supply. In July, police in Tokyo seized 180kg of cannabis - Japan's biggest haul - with a street value of ?720m (?4.6m).

Smokers who prefer not to risk buying from dealers - who charge, on average, six times the going rate in the Netherlands - are growing their own. Accordingly, the number of people arrested for growing the plant at home, many with seeds bought on the internet, has risen fivefold over the past 10 years.

Japanese law takes a dim view of the recreational use of soft drugs. The 1948 cannabis control law calls for prison terms of up to 10 years and hefty fine for anyone found importing, exporting, growing, selling or buying cannabis.

Its use for medical purposes, permitted in some other countries, is also banned.

Japanese activists are pushing for a change in the law to permit the use of cannabis among sufferers of diseases such as cancer, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's.

"Cannabis is harmless compared to alcohol and tobaccos, but still the government overreacts and ruins the lives of anyone found with it," Koichi Maeda, the founder of the Japan Medical Marijuana Association, told the Guardian. "We asked the government to provide evidence of the harm they say marijuana causes, but they couldn't."

Maeda, who runs a hemp restaurant in Tokyo, believes recent media coverage of the issue shows how far public attitudes towards dope smoking in Japan lag behind those in Britain and parts of Europe.

"The authorities use the media to peddle their claims that marijuana is a gateway drug to harder substances, and the media are too stupid to check if what they are being told is true," he said. "All the newspapers do is run sensationalist articles based on what the police tell them. It makes me so angry.

Tell Your Representative to Support H.R. 5843!


NORML is pleased to report that H.R. 5843, an "Act to Remove Federal Penalties for Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults," has been introduced in the House of Representatives by Representatives Barney Frank and Ron Paul.

This measure, if passed, would strip the federal government of its authority to arrest responsible adult cannabis consumers. NORML founder and Legal Director Keith Stroup worked extensively with Frank’s staff to write this important legislation, which represents the first cannabis decriminalization measure introduced in Congress in 24 years.

Under current federal law, the penalty for cannabis possession is up to one year imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

Please take a moment today to write your Representative and urge him to support this important legislation. For your convenience, a prewritten letter will be sent to your Representative when you enter your zip code below.

Thanks for supporting NORML’s efforts to reform marijuana laws in the United States.

Ron Fisher
NORML Outreach Coordinator
ron@norml.org

Hidden within the historic presidential election were two referendums that represented a victory for marijuana reform activists. The first was proposal 1, which legalized marijuana in the state of Michigan for medical use. It was passed despite a smear campaign from opponents that claimed that marijuana dispensaries would open near schools and playgrounds.

The law, however, does not allow for the creation of licensed dispensaries. It only removes penalties for cultivation and buying of marijuana by severely ill patients.

The law goes into effect on December 4th, at which point nearly a quarter of the US population will live in one of the 13 states that allow access to medical marijuana.

In Massachusetts, voters chose to decriminalize the possession of one ounce of marijuana or less, and the crime will no longer be a punishable by time. The offence is now punishable by a citation, a $100 fine, and the confiscation of the drugs.

If the offender is under the age of 18 they must complete a drug awareness course or face a harsher $1,000 fine.

Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, spoke about the two victories. "Tonight's results represent a sea change," he said and, "Voters have spectacularly rejected eight years of the most intense government war on marijuana since the days of 'Reefer Madness."

By Diana Bubser
Issue date: 11/6/08


On Oct. 24 at 12:30 a.m., Campus Police was dispatched to Townhouses South on a controlled dangerous substance (CDS) complaint.

Upon arriving at the building, an individual was seen in a second-story window with a fan on the windowsill.

The officer knocked on the front door three times and a first-floor resident opened the door. He did not detect the smell of smoke downstairs and proceeded upstairs.

The officer knocked on the door to a room and opened the door, when he immediately detected what he believed was the smell of marijuana.

The officer identified himself to the person inside and informed him he was dispatched to this location to investigate a complaint of marijuana burning. The student said he did not know about anyone smoking marijuana.

The officer then proceeded to a different student's room on the same floor and asked if he could step inside.

When asked about the smell of marijuana in his room, the student said he had smoked some marijuana earlier in the evening but none currently was in his room.

The officer asked where the marijuana came from, and the victim said a small bag in his pocket.

The student proceeded to remove one empty clear baggie and one baggie containing approximately one ounce of a green, leafy substance the officer believed to be marijuana from his right front pants pocket.

The student then said he did not remember the bag containing the marijuana was in his pocket.

The student was placed under arrest for possession of CDS and was taken to the office of Campus Police for processing.

He was later released on a Ewing Township summons for possession of 50 grams or less of marijuana.