More student drug testing results to speak for themselves. 

"Since the program began last April, 2,254 students in the district have been randomly tested. Of those, 1 percent of them tested positive for a drug that is on the list of banned substances, said Regina Bennett, the district’s Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) coordinator."

"The program, which costs about $100,000 per year, allows the district’s high schools to randomly test students for illegal drugs and the overuse of prescription drugs if they have a parking sticker and/or are involved in extra-curricular activities. Also, parents who have students that don’t fall into either category can voluntarily ask for their children to be included in the group"[Star Community Newspapers]

The way the numbers work out is staggering, from the article it's safe to presume roughly 22.54 students tested positive for a banned substance. Of those, 90% were for marijuana. A small percentage tested positive for amphetamines, Adderall is a safe bet.. We are talking about spending around $4400 to catch each person who tested positive, and even worse these students are denied access to school resources after we've already wasted all this money just to pick them out of 55,000 other pupils.

Regina Bennett, the district’s Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities coordinator, really smashed the nail on the head. 

“That’s good because hopefully it was a deterrent.” 

 Yes, a deterrent to students using after school programs that actually keep them off drugs. 

In the end they tested 4% of the school district and only 1% tested positive. Another $100,000 in education funding flushed down the drain by the drug war.

More student drug testing results to speak for themselves. 

"Since the program began last April, 2,254 students in the district have been randomly tested. Of those, 1 percent of them tested positive for a drug that is on the list of banned substances, said Regina Bennett, the district’s Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) coordinator."

"The program, which costs about $100,000 per year, allows the district’s high schools to randomly test students for illegal drugs and the overuse of prescription drugs if they have a parking sticker and/or are involved in extra-curricular activities. Also, parents who have students that don’t fall into either category can voluntarily ask for their children to be included in the group"[Star Community Newspapers]

The way the numbers work out is staggering, from the article its safe to presume roughly 22.54 students tested positive for a banned substance. Of those, 90% were for marijuana. A small percentage tested positive for anphetimines, Adderall is a safe bet.. We are talking about spending around $4400 to catch each of the people that tested positive, and even worse these students are denied access to school resources after we've already wasted all this money just to pick them out of 55,000 other pupils.

Regina Bennett, the district’s Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities coordinator, really smashed the nail on the head. 

“That’s good because hopefully it was a deterrent.” 

 Yes, a deterrent to students using after school programs that actually keep them off drugs. 

In the end they tested 4% of the school district and only 1% tested positive. Another $100,000 in education funding flushed down the drain by the drug war.

I swear, if you give these drug war idiots enough rope…

Authorities will file criminal charges if the investigation determines that they are warranted, a spokesman said Tuesday.

"If someone breaks the law in Richland County, we have an obligation as law enforcement to investigate and to bring charges," Sheriff Leon Lott said in a statement.

"The Richland County Sheriff's Department is making an effort to determine if Mr. Phelps broke the law. If he did, he will be charged in the same manner as anyone else. The sheriff has a responsibility to be fair, to enforce the law and to not turn a blind eye because someone is a celebrity." [CNN]

Yeah, right. Because I’m so sure that if a picture of some random dude taking a bong hit showed up on the sheriff’s desk, he’d put his best detectives on the case immediately. The rank stupidity of this was summed up nicely by Whoopi Goldberg of all people:

Elisabeth Hasselbeck is turning Michael Phelps into her own personal crusade: This morning on The View, she started hammering away at the alleged-bong-hitting Olympic star for his "illegal action," saying his example "takes the wind out of any mom trying to teach her children" good values.

"If he wasn't  Michael Phelps, wouldn't he be in jail?" she added.
"No," said Whoopi Goldberg, "because [if he wasn't Phelps], his picture wouldn't have been in the newspapers!"

As if the ritualistic public shaming of Michael Phelps weren’t sufficiently and self-evidently brainless to begin with, we must now watch in complete bewilderment as law-enforcement willfully exposes its arbitrary application of our drug laws. Putting aside my sympathy for Phelps, it’s more than a little delightful to observe such a public exhibit in the frivolity of marijuana enforcement.

They can’t prove anything and they know it, thus this is really just another pitifully ill-conceived attention grab by a frustrated sheriff who can’t stand not being at the center of a story unfolding in his backyard. Seldom has the war on drugs produced a more ironic moment than when the healthiest person on the planet is targeted for taking one bong hit.

Well, it could have been a lot worse:

A jury convicted Ryan Frederick of voluntary manslaughter this afternoon in the January 2008 death of Chesapeake police Detective Jarrod Shivers.

It also convicted him of simple possession of marijuana.

In the process, the group opted against the two most serious charges filed against the 29-year-old – capital murder and manufacturing marijuana. Voluntary manslaughter carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Marijuana possession is a misdemeanor, with a maximum sentence of 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine. [Virginian-Pilot]

I imagine this is one of those cases where both the defense and the prosecution breathed a sigh of relief. It could have turned out much differently and this outcome enables each side to claim that they did their job.

It’s hard to know what to make of this. Frederick was the victim here, no less so than the officer whose life was lost. This young man deserves no punishment and will now serve at least a couple years, I’d bet. He went down hard in what’s rapidly becoming a classic botched drug raid scenario wherein a suspect believes police are burglars and uses a firearm to defend their home with fatal consequences.

The staggering magnitude of police incompetence and corruption at stake here deserves considerable investigation and I hope today’s outcome won’t close the door on that. In the meantime, let’s keep Ryan in our hearts as he heads to the sentencing phase.