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KSFO Hot Talk 560AM sort of Sucks, LatelyWhen I am at the Bay Area office, and get a chance for a lunch break, it’s the afternoon and I turn on KSFO, usually it’s the Sean Hannity show that is being broadcast at the time. But I don’t have to listen very long before Dr. Lausra Schlessinger comes on so I flip over to this Modesto station, KMJ 580AM, and listen to folks like Ray Appleton and Bill Manders which is much better talk than the Dr. I have to say. At least I got Savage on the way out of...

MIDDLETOWN -- Peter Christ and Cliff Thornton are two men with very different backgrounds: Thornton was a substitute teacher in Hartford’s schools, and Christ is a former police officer in western New York state. But both men have reached the same conclusion -- that the ‘war on drugs’ is a massive failure that only deepens the national crisis of addiction and drug-related crime. After 20 years on opposite sides of a war that has cost over $1 trillion in 30 years, with millions of casualties on both sides, the two men, and many more around the country, are pursuing campaigns...

VOTERS in Nevada are to decide next month whether to become the first state in the United States to legalise marijuana. [...] A September 26 poll in Las Vegas showed a majority of voters supporting the measure, with 55 per cent in favour and 43 per cent opposed. In addition, the group promoting the constitutional change, Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, or NRLE, is flush with money - it has almost £330,000 on hand - and has run TV ads since September 12. Opponents, who waited until September 27 to officially form Nevadans Against Legalising Marijuana, may not even have...

<p>Bryan James Epis, the first person associated with a California medical marijuana dispensary to be tried in federal court for growing pot, was sentenced Monday in Sacramento to a mandatory 10 years in prison.</p> <p>Epis, 35, insists the crop in his Chico house was only for himself and four other seriously ill people whose physicians had recommended the drug in conformance with California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act. But he ran head-on into federal law that makes no allowance for medical necessity.</p>

"Our goal is not to cope with the drug problem, but to actively reduce substance abuse in our society," Walters said in an address to the National Treatment Accountability for Safer Communities conference. [...] "We have a responsibility - as family members, employers, physicians, educators, religious leaders, neighbors, colleagues and friends - to reach out to help these people," Walters said. "We must find ways to lead them back to drug-free lives."

New Frontier in Random Drug Testing: Checking High Schoolers for Tobacco Breath mints won't cut it anymore for students who have been smoking in the bathroom -- some schools around the country are administering urine tests to teenagers to find out whether they have been using tobacco. Opponents say such testing violates students' rights and can keep them out of the extracurricular activities they need to stay on track. But some advocates say smoking in the boys' room is a ticket to more serious drug use. "Some addicted drug users look back to cigarettes as the start of it all,"...

CARSON CITY -- Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani demanded Monday that Sen. Joe Neal, D-North Las Vegas, and a deputy district attorney apologize for saying the drive to legalize marijuana in Nevada is financed by an investor with ties to the South American drug cartel. Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, said Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement has never accepted and never will accept money from drug cartels. The group is pushing for passage of Question 9, which would amend the state constitution and allow adult Nevadans to possess up to 3 ounces of marijuana. Giunchigliani authored the bill last year that reduced the penalty...