State Legislation: Maine: Drug Testing

93

The percentage of the world’s opium poppies grown in Afghanistan last year, according to the U.S. government’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. Poppy production soared in the southern provinces, where Taliban-led insurgents use drug trafficking to finance their operations. Poppy cultivation is declining in poorer, but more secure, northern and central provinces.

During a state hearing in Alaska, experts outlined the harm caused by marijuana. The Governor of Illinois has expressed concern that the video game NARC encourages drug use because, for example, game characters who use crack are able to inflict more damage on enemies. And new research suggests that pot use may lead to schizophrenia in young people. These are three recent entries in a new Web log (blog) established by the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). John Walters, director of the ONDCP and the President’s “Drug Czar,” says in a statement that the blog is designed to “provide Americans with direct updates and links about the latest efforts to ‘push back’ against drug use in America and abroad.” Go to SM Online to check out the blog.