GREAT DAY TO DECLARE INDEPENDENCE FROM DRUG DEPENDENCE

When enough Americans had had enough of the British crown, they declared
their independence and waged war to achieve it.

When, oh when, will enough Americans decide they have had enough of illegal
drug use - especially by our children - and rid society of this ravaging
scourge?

For all the time and treasure invested in the "war on drugs," you would
think that our enemies in this struggle would be cornered by now. Instead,
playgrounds remain battlegrounds.

We need to put more bite into the notion that "users are losers."

And, suggests Congressman Gene Taylor, one of the most effective ways of
doing that would be to ensure that users - especially underage users - lose
their driver's licenses.

Certainly some people who are already breaking the law by using illegal
drugs, or using other drugs illegally, would not hesitate to break another
law by driving without a license.

But just the thought of not having a driver's license ought to be enough to
discourage many young people from experimenting with drugs. And, as former
attorney general Mike Moore points out, strict enforcement of such a law
would provide many young people with an understandable excuse to just say
no to their peers.

But for such an excuse to be accepted, young people will have to be
convinced that there are dire consequences to the illegal choices they
make. They have got to be convinced that if they use, they will lose. That
will require a great many more underage users being busted.

If this suggestion hits a little too close to home for you, then perhaps
this Fourth of July would be an especially appropriate day for you to
declare your own independence from drug dependence.

Executive and court orders underscore legislative failures

Extraordinary circumstances require extraordinary measures, but there is
nothing extraordinary about keeping an agency of state government in operation.

Yet last week the state Department of Human Services - which services
hundreds of thousands of Mississippians - came within hours of shutting down.

Having failed during their four-month-long regular session to reauthorize
DHS, legislators again failed to do so during a special session on
Wednesday. Gov. Haley Barbour issued an executive order to keep DHS in
business and Attorney General Jim Hood, thinking DHS needed more backing
than that, obtained a court order to keep the doors open at DHS.

And then there is the ongoing issue of 65,000 Mississippians set to be
kicked off Medicaid on Sept. 15.

It is expected that elected officials are going to dicker and bicker. But
there is a cruel irresponsibility about leaving these particular matters
unresolved for so many for so long.

As the attorney general said late last week: "I'm tired of having to be a
referee in the feud between the Legislature and the governor. They need to
negotiate like grown-ups and act on these very important issues."