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2/25/00
School Offering Reward to Teens Who Snitch on Classmates Students at Hudson High School in Hudson, Wisconsin will soon have a way to supplement their allowances -- by providing anonymous tips about classmates who bring drugs, alcohol or weapons to school. Under a program slated to begin next month, the local Crimestoppers group will pay up to $100 for tips that lead to contraband that is found and seized. Supreme Court To Hear Case Against Police Roadblocks The Supreme Court this week granted cert to hear a case involving police drug checkpoints. The Court of Appeals previously ruled that the stops, which entail police checking licenses and registrations of every motorist passing through, while drug-sniffing dog circles the car, were a violation of the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures. The appellate decision, while noting that state and federal appeals courts around the country have been deeply divided on the issue, found that the city (Indianapolis) had failed to establish "urgent considerations of public safety." Arguments will be heard after the court reconvenes in October. This is Not a War: Part Two US "Drug Czar" General Barry McCaffrey told reporters in Bogota this week that "there can be no military victory" in Colombia, according to the Associated Press. "There must be a coherent strategy which includes peace, the economy, democratic institutions and support for the police and armed forces," he said. McCaffrey has been under pressure to defend a proposal, now before Congress, that would provide $1.6 billion dollars in anti-drug aid to Colombia over the next two years. More than half of the package is to be spent on weapons and military training for the Colombian army. At the press conference, McCaffrey stressed that 20% of the aid would go to human rights and justice reforms. The retired General's rhetorical strategy is notable for his reluctance to use military terms to describe his proposals. As Clinton's drug chief, he has repeatedly claimed that the "war on drugs" was an inappropriate term, and insisted that "we cannot arrest our way out of the [drug] problem." Nevertheless, incarceration rates, fueled by drug arrests, have skyrocketed during his tenure. Oregon: Public Employer Develops Policy on Medical Marijuana Oregon's Tualatin Valley Water District has unveiled a policy for employees who use medical marijuana off the job, making it the first public agency to formally acknowledge the rights granted to Oregonians under the state's medical marijuana law. Under the policy, employees who are registered with the state as legitimate medical marijuana users will be allowed to use the drug off the job, as long as they notify the agency with proof of their status. The policy will not apply to federally licensed commercial drivers who work for the agency, since federal law does not recognize the medical use of marijuana. A spokesman for the Water District told The Oregonian newspaper that none of the agency's employees had yet asked for permission to use marijuana, but that its board had wanted to be proactive in rewriting its policy to accommodate the law. But the agency was under no compulsion to change; under the terms of the law, employers have the right to refuse to allow patients to use marijuana.
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