The families and loved ones of prisoners who visit their imprisoned relatives are continually harassed about smuggling drugs. They're subjected to humiliating and unnecessary tests with so-called "ion scanners." The gizmos are supposed to magically detect illegal drugs. The gadgets are pure nonsense! Most of the drugs in the prisons are brought in by the staff. This is made perfectly clear by the recent case of Mathew Schreckengost. Mister Schreckengost was a life prisoner at SCI-Pittsburgh, the slum which passes for a prison in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He died from an overdose of smuggled dope. When the prisoner died, nobody much noticed or cared. It didn't even make the news. Mathew Schrechengost was "only" a scumbag prisoner. To the media and public he was a step below a cockroach. A few months later it was different when Kristen Lynn Altman was arrested for providing the drugs. Ms Altman warranted notice because she was a "decent" person, a member of the prison staff. The woman was arrested for murder. It was a typical police ploy intended to intimidate the citizen. Cops are bullies. The cops allege that there was/is a whole "drug ring" operating within the prison. The truth is that the staff of most prisons assure that drugs remain available. I personally know an obnoxious opportunist of a a guard at a Central Pennsylvania prison who regularly "mules" "grass" for a group of young black prisoners. "K.," the guard, is white, divorced and anxious to make a few extra bucks and get a "piece" of the dope. The drug mania is a modern madness akin to the witch-hunting of bygone times. The use of drugs is dumb. It's self-destructive, but lots of things are dumb and self-destructive. The irrational "war on drugs" is far worse and far more dangerous. Who cares if someone uses drugs? Because drugs are illegal, they are very costly and they spawn a deluge of violence, death, heartbreak and tyranny. Those evils would vanish if drugs were legal and regulated for home use only. In Pennsylvania prisons the drug madness is surreal, irrational. It's the free citizens who suffer the most. When they visit a prison, they are victimized by official "priests" trying to stamp out the demons of "weed." For the taxpayers at large, the mania is very expensive. Drug testing costs a fortune. A more rational, realistic and cost-effective drug policy is needed. As for the scapegoat, Kristen Altman, what's the crime? She simply helped the state achieve it's goal; killing Mathew Schrechengost.