Keeping kids off of drugs is high on the agenda for many adults.   
There are hundreds if not thousands of statistics regarding drug use.   
 From national estimates to specific age groups, one can find a myriad
of alarming information when it comes to teens and tweens experimenting
and/or addicted to drugs.  From scare tactics to education, there are several
ideas on how to best accomplish this.  We try to teach our children, students
and friends why experimenting with drugs is so dangerous, but many of
these tactics don't work.  Kids just don't seem to be able to see the danger
they are up against when it comes to drug use.

Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman, thinks he may have come up with
something that will at least, give kids something to think about
before they experiment with meth.  Crime statistics and scare tactics
haven't worked in the past, so he is trying a new approach; striking
at their vanity.  Allman's idea was to actually shows kids the
physical detriment of methamphetamine addiction.  Face2Face, or Face
On Meth as it is often called, is a software program designed to take
a photo of the healthy child and morph it into the face of one who has
taken meth for six months up to 3 years.  It is one thing to explain
to someone about hair loss, sunken eyes and open, festering sores but
it is quite another to showcase it.  Allman seems to have touched on
something that kids can finally respond to, he says some kids even
start crying when they see their own image altered in such ways.

Knowing that scare tactics haven't worked in the past, Allman hopes
that Face2Face will stop first time meth use.

Racial tension continues to run very high on the UCSD campus.  In the wake
of three very emotionally charged events that took place in February, school
officials and students scramble to repair the damage that has been done,
alleviate the tension and try to find solutions to head off further offense.

The fury began when a student group hosted an off campus "Compton Cook-Out"
mocking Black History Month.  Party attendees were encouraged to "dress and
act like 'ghetto chicks' by speaking loudly, starting fights and wearing
cheap clothes".  Not surprisingly there was an immediate outcry from several
students.  On the heels of this conflict, a state of racial emergency was
declared by campus minorities following the airing of a live broadcast of
what has been called an irreverent student organization.  The hosts of the
segment were reportedly in support of the cook-out, using a derogatory term
for African-Americans.  There is an investigation underway regarding this
broadcast but so far, no one has been able to locate a recording of it.  The
group responsible for the broadcast, Koala TV has been the subject of
scrutiny regarding their taste in reports on more than one occasion. 

Reacting quickly, the Black Student Union declared the state of emergency
and organized an on-campus march, prompting a meeting with school
administrators.  With a compiled list of at least 30 demands, including more
funding for minority recruitment and retention programs, and funding and
space to create three African-American-inspired art projects on campus;
students were eager to discuss their demands aiming to improve the racial
climate on campus.

If these demonstrations were not enough to tip the scales from outcry to
action, a noose was found in the school library.  In an anonymous letter to
the student newspaper, the UCSD Guardian, the author apologizes for her
insensitivity and confesses that she has been suspended.  She claims to be a
minority, and admits that her actions were "mindless yet innocent".  In her letter
she says to have watched someone tie the noose and then left to study at the library,
taking the rope with her.  Stating that after the study session, she left the library; simply
having forgotten that she hung the noose by the desk she was sitting at.
The newspaper claims to have verified the author's authenticity.  Innocently
enough or not, the timing of her blunder is catastrophic.  Naturally many
claim that her apology is empty and her innocence doubtful.

According to an article in the San Diego Union Tribune, "many students said
they are surprised by the level of hurt that surfaced at the morning protest
and meeting, but that the racial tensions on the 29,100-student campus have
been boiling for some time."

These instances have created a stir not only in San Diego County but have
drawn disapproval from lawmakers in Sacramento and prompted a silent protest
at UC Berkley.

If you asked Michelle Alexander ten years ago if she thought Jim Crow laws which guaranteed the second-class citizenship of African Americans had been eradicated she would have answered with a resounding, “YES!”  Since then, however, she has changed her mind--albeit reluctantly. After extensive research and analysis she believes she has unearthed a troubling truth. Ms. Alexander finds America's racial caste system has not been eliminated, it has simply been redesigned.

In her recently published book, "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness," Michelle ascertains that the criminal justice system in the U.S. works to bar African American men from voting. According to her, in the nation today, "there are more African Americans under correctional control -- in prison or jail, on probation or parole -- than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began."

When Ronald Reagan proclaimed the war on drugs, it opened the door to a new ball game with old rules which denies felons the right to vote. Anti-drug legislation and “felon disenfranchisement laws” work together to undermine the Voting Rights Act. Drug laws promulgated in the 1980s with the advent of the war on drugs are still in effect today and have resulted in prisons and jails full of African American men with felony convictions. Alexander asserts statistics show the War on Drugs is not colorblind. "Even though studies consistently show that people of all colors use and sell illegal drugs at remarkably similar rates" one third of our nation's young black men are under the control of the criminal justice system. Ms. Alexander points out that in some states, African Americans are up to 57 times more likely to be incarcerated for drug crimes than whites.

In many states once a drug user or seller is convicted of a felony, he or she loses the right to vote while on probation or parole; in other states, felons lose the right to vote for life.  Consequently, the rate at which African American men are being disenfranchised due to felony convictions is extraordinarily high. "As of 2004, more African American men were disenfranchised due to felon disenfranchisement laws than in 1870, the year the Fifteenth Amendment was ratified prohibiting laws that explicitly deny the right to vote on the basis of race."

Alexander’s research begs the question: How can we guarantee the right to vote to all Americans? Michelle Alexander's book "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” is now available. The book is a must read.

Richard A. Widom of Los Angeles, California has been found not guilty of a domestic violence charge.  Just one week after Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Louis M. Meisinger dismissed a civil suit by Lisa Kerner,  against him, Widom was acquitted of one misdemeanor count of inflicting injury on a spouse and one misdemeanor count of spousal battery.  

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Minnesota man, Daryl Fleck went to sleep behind the wheel of his car.  He was presumably drunk at the time he fell asleep, telling officers that he'd had about a dozen beers that night and had a .18 blood alcohol level.  The car keys were in the center console of the car when police arrested Fleck for DUI.  The car was parked legally in front of his apartment complex.  During his trial, Fleck was "unsympathetic" and had a history of receiving DUIs.  He was convicted and will serve a four year prison sentence.  

There are many cases where someone has been arrested for DUI who are not driving the car, for example when found in a car with a warm engine.  The idea is that, had they not been driving while drunk, the engine would be cold.  Alarmingly, in recent years, it has become more common for people to be arrested for DUI even if there is no evidence that the car had been driven.  Like, for instance, where the engine was cold.  The argument being that a drunk person in a car could decide to drive at any moment, in a sense being arrested for the intent to commit a crime.  This has rekindled the debate on whether or not you must be in the act of or already committing a crime before actually being arrested.  Most prosecutions require more than just ability to commit a crime.  

Based on the facts revealed so far this sounds like an aggressive but arguable prosecution.  Even though the engine of his car was cold, a man was found drunk in the driver seat of his car with the keys close at hand.  He admitted to having several beers and had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood.  Combining these facts it seems that Daryl Fleck was undoubtedly wading into murky waters of legality.  The only thing that sets this case apart is that Fleck's car was inoperable at the time of his arrest.  Meaning that even if he had changed his mind, and decided to drive drunk, it would have been impossible because the car would not have started. 

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If you have been arrested for DUI contact attorney Stacie L. Patterson (619) 269-8074.

An Illinois National Guard soldier in Afghanistan has been charged with possessing child pornography.  His unit came home last August but he must remain in the country until his court martial.  His mother, Terri Miller says she sent the photos of the child to help him get over his homesickness.  A little girl whom he "treated as his own child" when she was diagnosed with cancer.  

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If you or a family member is under investigation for possession of child pornography, contact Stacie L. Patterson (619) 269-8074.