In the war on drugs our canine friends are suiting up for battle. Drug and bomb sniffing dogs have been around for a long time, but recently their powerful noses have been creating some powerful questions.

One question that has recently arisen is does a dog’s nose constitute probable cause to search or enter. In other words, if a dog smells marijuana is that grounds to enter a locked, private residence. In Florida it has fallen to the states Supreme Court to decide.

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide whether police may use a drug-sniffing dog at the front door of a house or an apartment to detect marijuana, even if the officers have no evidence of criminal conduct.

This is just the latest test of the 4th Amendment's protection against "unreasonable searches" in drug cases says the LA Times.

In the past, the court has upheld the use of dogs to sniff luggage at airports and to sniff around cars that were stopped along the highway. The justices said that using trained dogs in public areas didn't violate anyone's right to privacy.

Also in the past, the Supreme Court was unwilling to permit "dog sniff tests … at the home of any citizen" unless the police had probable cause of criminal wrongdoing.

As marijuana use continues to skyrocket it will be interesting to see if courts start to move toward allowing the searches.

It seems like society is teeming with marijuana everywhere you look. Of course I live in a state where medical marijuana is currently legal so I see the dispensaries all over the place. If there wasn’t enough real weed, now there is a growing market for synthetic marijuana.

One area that has seen a great increase among synthetic marijuana user is the US military. Men, armed to the teeth, in incredibly stressful situations, doped out of their mind. Sounds like a lethal cocktail right?

U.S. troops are increasingly using an easy-to-get herbal mix called "Spice," which mimics a marijuana high, is hard to detect and can bring on hallucinations that last for days.

Military leaders are alarmed to the point of launching a major campaign of drug testing to stop it. So far they have investigated more than 1,000 suspected users.

So-called "synthetic" pot is readily available on the Internet and has become popular nationwide in recent years, but its use among troops and sailors is of serious concern to the Pentagon.

Two years ago, only 29 Marines and sailors were investigated for Spice. This year, the number topped 700, the investigative service said. Those found guilty of using Spice are kicked out, although the Navy does not track the overall number of dismissals.

The Air Force has punished 497 airmen so far this year, compared to last year's 380, according to figures provided by the Pentagon. The Army does not track Spice investigations but says it has medically treated 119 soldiers for the synthetic drug in total.

Spice and other chemical substances have no place in society. The growing epidemic of drug abuse all over the planet has me concerned. I think there needs to be stronger attention to having our military personnel take drug classes.

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/synthetic-marijuana-use-us-troops_n_1176879.html

Trying to control the rampant abuse of prescription drugs is a prescient problem. So far no strong remedy has been discovered. Do you have any thoughts on how to curb this problem?

How would you feel about a national prescription drug database?

The state of California had established just such a database to help control its raging problem. For some reason California officials are preparing to shut down the database used to track abusive pill seekers and doctor shoppers.

Ending this database would be dangerously shortsighted and costly, reversing years of proactive prevention work aimed at thwarting prescription drug abuse in this state. Doctors would no longer be able to check an important and lifesaving database to see if a patient is doctor shopping or using multiple narcotics at the same time. Law enforcement efforts would be severely hampered.

Oldest Monitoring System About to Close

California’s prescription drug monitoring program, founded in 1939, is the oldest in the nation. Its database, known as the Controlled Substance Utilization Review and Evaluation System (CURES), contains more than 100 million entries of controlled-substance drugs.

In addition to its widespread use by law enforcement, CURES responds to more than 60,000 requests from medical practitioners and pharmacists each year. The database provides information critical in the fight against prescription drug diversion and abuse.

Thirty-six states have followed California’s lead, implementing prescription drug monitoring systems. Of those, California is the only state in jeopardy of not having an active database.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, prescription drugs, including opioids and antidepressants, are now responsible for more overdose deaths than all illegal street drugs.

Frightening Statistics

In San Diego County alone, prescription drugs were the leading cause of accidental deaths in 2010, according to the county medical examiner. That’s more than the total number of deaths attributable to motor vehicle crashes.

While the most tragic cost is human life, there are many other costs tied to prescription drug abuse – many of which are paid by taxpayers. It doesn’t take much imagination to see law enforcement, judicial and societal problems associated with criminals who have turned to prescription drugs to satisfy their need to get high.

According to a 2010 San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) report, two in five arrestees, or 40 percent, say they have used prescription drugs illegally. OxyContin tops the list of most recently abused. The report also found that arrestees who previously abused prescription drugs were significantly more likely to use other illicit drugs.

Those numbers are sure to creep higher if the state pulls the plug on the program. They may even catapult. We cannot allow this to happen.

Questions That Need To Be Addressed

Do you really want California to become a state that attracts drug abusers and dealers because their home states see the value of funding prescription drug monitoring programs? Do we really want “Pill Mills” to become synonymous with California? Is this really worth the risk? I don’t think so!

The DEA’s prescription drug unit in San Diego uses CURES on every case it investigates. It’s an invaluable tool. If gone, it will slow law enforcement investigations. With that comes a hefty price tag – from higher crime rates to more deaths to more babies being born hooked on the drugs their mothers are using.

State officials estimate that it costs less than $1 million to run the CURES database annually.

It seems well worth it to me.

No one will deny that drugs are ruining their country. Mexico is spending on its federal police forces like never before as it fights powerful drug cartels, trying to overcome a long history of corruption, abuse and incompetence.

Since taking office in late 2006, President Felipe Calderon has pumped up the public security ministry's budget threefold, growing federal police ranks from 6,000 agents to 35,000 now.

Financial aid from the United States has helped pay for top-of-the-line equipment and training aimed at creating a model force to outperform inefficient and underpaid state and municipal officers, often accused of working for drug gangs.

But the results have so far not met the government's hopes, and reports of abuses across the country are rising.

Complaints of rights violations by the federal police - including arbitrary detention and torture - last year reached almost 600, quadruple those filed in 2006, according to the national human rights commission, or CNDH.

The charges often do not go very far.

Between December 2006 and June 2010 there have only been 41 investigations into accusations of torture and of those, just one went to trial.

Widespread abuse charges reflect a deeper problem in Mexican security forces - sub-par investigative skills and low salaries that can be a hook for wealthy drug gangs looking to put police on their payrolls.

Corrupt local cops in the border city are a key part of the drugs trade and helped form La Linea, the enforcement arm of the Juarez cartel.

Recognizing the weaknesses of the police, Calderon pulled in the army and the marines to take a leading role in the drugs war.

They have captured or killed several senior traffickers, but Calderon is well aware that strong police work is critical for any kind of lasting solution.

He proposed a unified police command to dissolve municipal forces that fail background checks or hand them over to state authorities, but the checks are behind schedule.

Reforms passed by Congress in 2008 to introduce oral trials and improve Mexico's justice system are also moving slowly.

The drugs war has killed more than 44,000 people since Calderon became president.

With no end in sight to the violence and his efforts to clean up the police falling short, his conservative National Action Party, or PAN, is way behind in early polls ahead of the presidential election next July.

Mexican drug cartels have gained way too much power. With police on the take, the government has an even bigger task of trying to curtail the power of these cartels. Does anyone have a suggestion to halt cartel power?