-------------------------------------------------------------------

Marijuana Clubs Vow To Continue Operations (Almost All 17 Clubs In California
'The San Francisco Examiner' Knows About Said They Are Seeking New Ways
To Continue Serving Their Estimated 6,300 Clients - CBCs Have 20 Days
To Challenge Injunction)

Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 10:24:03 -0800 (PST)
From: "Tom O'Connell" 
Subject: SFX 1/11: update on MMJ in SF
San Francisco Examiner, Jan. 11, 1998
Page 3, Metro

Marijuana Clubs Vow to Continue Operations

By Lisa M. Krieger
EXAMINER Medical Writer

California's cannabis clubs vow to continue distributing marijuana -one way
or another - despite a formidable attack by the U.S. Justice Department.

Almost all 17 clubs in the state said they are seeking new ways to continue
serving their estimated 6,300 clients, either by restructuring their
organizations, opening under new management or creating clandestine
distribution routes.

"We'll devise a plan to help people (get marijuana)," said Dennis Peron,
whose Cannabis Cultivators' Club was targeted in the federal probe. "We
cannot abandon the sick and dying.... This will not stop medical marijuana."

In a broad and sweeping effort to close the clubs, the U.S. Justice
Department filed suit Friday to enjoin pot distribution by six clubs in
Marin, San Francisco, Oakland, Santa Cruz and Ukiah.

Officials would not say why those six clubs were singled out, but they did
not rule out investigating activities at the others.

Activists concede, no matter what their efforts, that it will be more
difficult for legitimately ill people to obtain marijuana legally.

Clubs in Berkeley, San Jose, Los Angeles and elsewhere were not targeted -
and will keep operating while exploring new options.

"Right now, it's business as usual," said Peter Baez, whose Santa Clara
Medical Cannabis Center in San Jose was not investigated but locked its
doors for the day on Friday in fear of a raid. "It's made us realize how
reality can hit you hard ... we've known, since we opened, that we'd be at
the mercy of the federal government."

'We plan to remain open'

John Pylka, director of the Berkeley-based Cannabis Buyers Cooperative Club,
also not included in the probe, said: "We definitely plan to remain open....
I'm going to stay here, take the pressure, take the bust if I have to."

Proposition 215, which voters approved by a 60-40 margin in November 1996,
allows growing and possessing marijuana - if it is recommended by a doctor
for treatment of symptoms of AIDS, canlcer, arthritis, glaucoma, migraine or
other conditions.

The law has come under fierce attack by state Attorney General Dan Lungren,
who won a ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeal in December that the
clubs aren't "caregivers" as defined by Prop. 215, nor shielded by their
nonprofit status.

Clubs have been braced for a raid by state officials; the federal crackdown
was unexpected.

The federal action has much broader implications than previous state
interventions. The U.S. Justice Department isn't debating the language of
Prop. 215. Rather, it charges the clubs with violating the sweeping federal
Controlled Substances Act, which states it is unlawful to cultivate,
distribute or possess marijuana.

Federal law supersedes state law, the Justice Department said.

The six targeted clubs say they |will vigorously fight closure in court -
but this legal route is clearly an uphill battle.

Few have the financial resources to sustain a long legal battle against the
U.S. Justice Department.

Some, such as Peron's club, say they will continue to operate their public
storefront in the open, risking closure, steep fines or jail time. Peron
vows to commit civil disobedience, handing out joints until federal marshals
haul him away.

But others, staffed by the elderly, sick or dying, don't want to spend their
remaining days behind bars.

"I can't do something that would put everybody on staff at risk. They're
sick and dying . . . and don't want to sit in jail," said Jeff Jones of the
Oakland Cannabis Club.

"But (the marijuana) will be gotten to them," Jones promised.

"We started as an underground delivery service, we can always go back to
that. We didn't like it . . . but if that's the way it's going to be, we
will," Jones said.

Technically, any club not targeted by the probe can continue normal
operation, said attorney Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs at the
Lindesmith Center in San Francisco, a drug policy think tank and public
interest law center.

Clubs can continue selling

The clubs that have been sued can continue selling until they go to court;
they have 20 days to challenge the injunction.

Some clubs plan to restructure their operations to encourage more personal
cultivation, hoping to be less offensive to state and federal of ficials.

Valerie Corral of the Santa Cruz-based Women's Alliance of Medical
Marijuana, not cited by federal of ficials, said the club plans to expand
their emotional and medical support services for patients, as well as offer
them leased space for cultivation on hidden acreage deep in the Santa Cruz
Mountains.

The safest, although least convenient solution is for patients to grow their
own supply, drug attorneys say. Club members predict a resurgence in small
backyard or basement gardens.

Federal officials are unlikely to go after any seriously ill individual who,
with a doctors' recommendation, has the means and ability to grow medical
marijuana, Abrahamson predicted.

"(Federal authorities) cannot prosecute (against widespread personal
cultivation), unless they're willing to station tens of federal agents at
Californians' doorsteps," he said. Finally, clubs face the grim prospect of
going underground, returning to pre-Prop. 215 days.

Already there exist several surreptitious "personal distribution services,"
where clubs discreetly deliver pot door-to-door to clients.

The new heat on cannabis clubs "turns the medical marijuana movement from
something run by well-organized and tightly run clubs - with the support of
local officials - to back yards, basements and streets," Abrahamson said.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Cannabis Clubs Face Shutdowns ('Knright-Ridder' Summary Of
Federal And State Actions Against California CBCs)

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 21:08:03 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: US CA: Wire: Cannabis Clubs Face Shutdowns
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: David.Hadorn@vuw.ac.nz (David Hadorn)
Source: Knight Ridder Newspapers
Pubdate: Sunday, January 11, 1998

CANNABIS CLUBS FACE SHUTDOWNS

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -- Three days a week, behind an unmarked office door
above an auto-parts store, the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club discreetly
goes about distributing medical marijuana to people with serious illnesses
and pain.

The nonprofit collective has 764 members, most of whom have HIV or AIDS.
All have major health problems -- as recorded in writing by their doctors.
Staff members carefully check each application, verifying doctors' letters,
checking doctors' licenses with the state medical board. To get through the
front door, each person must pass through three security checkpoints.
Members arrive, get their marijuana and take it home to use.

Up the coast in San Francisco, a giant green pot leaf is painted on the
street-level front door of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers' Club on busy
Market Street.

Inside the 8,000-member club, people pass joints in crowded smoking
lounges, visit the head shop and greet staff members, some of whom wear
green cloth pot-leaf wreaths on their heads. They travel from floor to
floor on the Jerry Garcia Memorial Elevator, and hundreds of origami cranes
in all the colors of the rainbow hang from every ceiling.

Since Californians voted in 1996 to legalize the medicinal use of
marijuana, cannabis clubs have popped up across the state, to get the drug
to those who qualify. But the future of the clubs is in jeopardy.

In recent weeks, state and federal authorities have cracked down on the
clubs -- saying their existence is illegal and unprotected by the
medical-marijuana initiative. On Friday, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San
Francisco began legal action against six Northern California clubs and
their operators, saying they flagrantly violated the Controlled Substances
Act.

California Attorney General Dan Lungren, whose agents raided the San
Francisco club and temporarily got it shut down in August 1996, last month
successfully pushed a state appellate court to declare the club illegal and
reinstate the injunction that closed it. That decision goes into effect
Monday, although a Superior Court still has to reinstate the injunction.

Lungren says he plans to use the decision to close every club in the state.

The looming threat of closure is fracturing the medical-marijuana movement,
whose diverse elements always have barely coexisted.

On the one side are people like Dennis Peron, an author of the initiative
and director of the San Francisco club, who openly tells anyone who asks
that he believes all use of marijuana is medicinal.

On the other are those like Los Angeles club director Scott Imler, who
argues that the only way to continue to supply marijuana to those it can
help is to run very strict and businesslike operations.

``We have more rules than all the other clubs put together,'' Imler said.
``The people who come here have cancer, seizures and epilepsy, multiple
sclerosis, Lou Gehrig's disease, chronic pain from botched surgeries. Their
problems are not what I would call trivial or marginal or temporary. This
isn't about fun, and this is not the kind of club you want to be a member
of.''

Proposition 215, the medical-marijuana initiative passed with 56 percent of
the vote in November 1996 -- does not legalize cannabis clubs. In fact, it
does not provide for a method for patients to get the drug. It states
simply that marijuana can be used medically in the treatments of AIDS,
cancer, anorexia, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, migraine
``or any other illness for which marijuana provides relief.'' Patients,
with recommendations from their doctors, are granted the right to possess
and cultivate marijuana for medical use, with a doctor's recommendation.
The patients also can pass that right on to designated primary caregivers.

A section of the initiative encourages federal and state authorities to
come up with plans for ``safe and affordable distribution of marijuana,''
but such plans have not been forthcoming.

That angers many club directors, who say sick people would be forced to
approach dealers on the street if the clubs were closed. They are quick to
admit that making marijuana available in pharmacies would be a much better
way to distribute the drug than their clubs, which are forced to buy much
of what they give out from dealers, often at exorbitant prices.

``What has the attorney general done besides raid clubs and try to
prosecute patients?'' said Jeff Jones, director of the 1,000-member Oakland
Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, which was one of the clubs targeted Friday.
``He hasn't offered a single alternative to what we do.''

Not all anger is reserved for the government. Some within the
medical-marijuana movement are increasingly angry at Peron for pushing the
limits of what the authorities might tolerate. State officials say
undercover police have bought marijuana at that club without prescriptions,
have found evidence of club marijuana being resold on the streets, and
witnessed minors on the club premises.

Some club directors believe such lax standards in San Francisco put the
other clubs in jeopardy.

``Dennis is widely credited with being the father of the whole movement,
and, unfortunately for the rest of us, whatever sticks to Peron sticks to
the medical-marijuana issue,'' Imler said.

``We call his club Peron's-town, like Jonestown, which was another San
Francisco-based nightmare. It's a three-ring circus.'' (He was referring to
the 1978 mass suicide in Guyana of more than 900 members of the People's
Temple cult, including leader Jim Jones.)

Hoping to make his club less vulnerable to attack, Imler works closely with
West Hollywood officials, who support him. He carefully tracks every bit of
marijuana he distributes and advocates a policy of total disclosure.

In October, he organized a conference of organizations involved in the
distribution of medical marijuana. Meeting in Santa Cruz, Calif., they
drafted an affirmation of 25 principles, resolving to, among other things,
``diligently verify all applicants,'' ``observe responsible and accountable
business practices'' and ``refrain from behavior and statements blurring
lines between medical and nonmedical use of marijuana.''

Peron's club did not sign on, but 28 other organizations did. Among them
was the Santa Clara County Medical Cannabis Center in San Jose, started by
Peter Baez and Jesse Garcia, who was diagnosed with AIDS six years ago.

Garcia began taking marijuana when his illness led to severe malnutrition.
He was losing weight rapidly. He couldn't eat or digest the drugs he was
prescribed. He had chronic diarrhea, which lasted for more than three years.

``I couldn't get my body to help repair itself,'' he said.

Marijuana changed that, stimulating his appetite.

``My whole health condition made a 180-degree turn. Marijuana changed my
life,'' he said. ``Even my mother quickly noticed the difference. She's a
68-year-old Latino woman. Marijuana isn't something she'd approve of. But
when she saw how I was improving, she said, `Don't stop taking your
medicine.'''

Garcia persuaded Baez to open the center after he found he could no longer
make the trip easily to Peron's club in San Francisco, 85 miles away.

The San Jose club, which does not permit marijuana smoking on its premises,
is housed in a nondescript four-room office, wedged between doctors'
offices in a single-story office block. As in Los Angeles, the club has
worked hard to ease the discomfort of local officials, even going so far as
agreeing to allow law-enforcement authorities to come in without warrants.

On two different occasions, when people came to the center with forged
letters, Baez and Garcia turned them in to police. Both forgers were
prosecuted.

``We don't play games with the rules or the issues. We run a very tight
ship,'' Baez said. ``We had hoped that the authorities would recognize that
when they started talking about shutting clubs down. But it doesn't look
like they're going to make any distinctions.''

Peron is unapologetic about the way he runs his club and unwilling to take
the blame for the crackdown.

``The biggest criticism of what I do is that I allow people to hang out and
enjoy the atmosphere,'' he said. ``I don't see anything wrong with that.
They're sick and they're suffering. Why not let them experience a little
joy?''

``If I could go to jail and allow the rest of these clubs to continue to
serve sick and dying people, I surely would. But in the end it's not just
me they're after, it's all of us.''

-------------------------------------------------------------------

There's No Justice In The War On Drugs (Milton Friedman
In 'The New York Times' Says Prohibition Is An Ethical Failure,
Generating Only Informers, Corruption, Overflowing Prisons, Disproportionate
Imprisonment Of Blacks, Destruction Of Inner Cities, Compounded Harm
To Users, Undertreatment Of Chronic Pain, And Harm To Other Countries)

Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 10:06:37 -0500
Subject: MN: US: NYT OPED: There's No Justice in the War on Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Art Smart 
Source: New York Times
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jan 1998
Author: Milton Friedman
Note: Milton Friedman, awarded the Nobel prize in economics, is a senior research
fellow at the Hoover Institution.

THERE'S NO JUSTICE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

STANFORD -- Twenty-five years ago, President Richard M. Nixon announced a
"War on Drugs." I criticized the action on both moral and expediential
grounds in my Newsweek column of May 1, 1972, "Prohibition and Drugs":

"On ethical grounds, do we have the right to use the machinery of
government to prevent an individual from becoming an alcoholic or a drug
addict? For children, almost everyone would answer at least a qualified
yes. But for responsible adults, I, for one, would answer no. Reason with
the potential addict, yes. Tell him the consequences, yes. Pray for and
with him, yes. But I believe that we have no right to use force, directly
or indirectly, to prevent a fellow man from committing suicide, let alone
from drinking alcohol or taking drugs."

That basic ethical flaw has inevitably generated specific evils during the
past quarter century, just as it did during our earlier attempt at alcohol
prohibition.

1. The use of informers. Informers are not needed in crimes like robbery
and murder because the victims of those crimes have a strong incentive to
report the crime. In the drug trade, the crime consists of a transaction
between a willing buyer and willing seller. Neither has any incentive to
report a violation of law. On the contrary, it is in the self-interest of
both that the crime not be reported. That is why informers are needed. The
use of informers and the immense sums of money at stake inevitably generate
corruption -- as they did during Prohibition. They also lead to violations
of the civil rights of innocent people, to the shameful practices of
forcible entry and forfeiture of property without due process.

As I wrote in 1972: ". . . addicts and pushers are not the only ones
corrupted. Immense sums are at stake. It is inevitable that some relatively
low-paid police and other government officials -- and some high-paid ones
as well -- will succumb to the temptation to pick up easy money."

2. Filling the prisons. In 1970, 200,000 people were in prison. Today, 1.6
million people are. Eight times as many in absolute number, six times as
many relative to the increased population. In addition, 2.3 million are on
probation and parole. The attempt to prohibit drugs is by far the major
source of the horrendous growth in the prison population.

There is no light at the end of that tunnel. How many of our citizens do we
want to turn into criminals before we yell "enough"?

3. Disproportionate imprisonment of blacks. Sher Hosonko, at the time
Connecticut's director of addiction services, stressed this effect of drug
prohibition in a talk given in June 1995:

"Today in this country, we incarcerate 3,109 black men for every 100,000 of
them in the population. Just to give you an idea of the drama in this
number, our closest competitor for incarcerating black men is South Africa.
South Africa -- and this is pre-Nelson Mandela and under an overt public
policy of apartheid -- incarcerated 729 black men for every 100,000. Figure
this out: In the land of the Bill of Rights, we jail over four times as
many black men as the only country in the world that advertised a political
policy of apartheid."

4. Destruction of inner cities. Drug prohibition is one of the most
important factors that have combined to reduce our inner cities to their
present state. The crowded inner cities have a comparative advantage for
selling drugs. Though most customers do not live in the inner cities, most
sellers do. Young boys and girls view the swaggering, affluent drug dealers
as role models. Compared with the returns from a traditional career of
study and hard work, returns from dealing drugs are tempting to young and
old alike. And many, especially the young, are not dissuaded by the bullets
that fly so freely in disputes between competing drug dealers -- bullets
that fly only because dealing drugs is illegal. Al Capone epitomizes our
earlier attempt at Prohibition; the Crips and Bloods epitomize this one.

5. Compounding the harm to users. Prohibition makes drugs exorbitantly
expensive and highly uncertain in quality. A user must associate with
criminals to get the drugs, and many are driven to become criminals
themselves to finance the habit. Needles, which are hard to get, are often
shared, with the predictable effect of spreading disease. Finally, an
addict who seeks treatment must confess to being a criminal in order to
qualify for a treatment program. Alternatively, professionals who treat
addicts must become informers or criminals themselves.

6. Undertreatment of chronic pain. The Federal Department of Health and
Human Services has issued reports showing that two-thirds of all terminal
cancer patients do not receive adequate pain medication, and the numbers
are surely higher in nonterminally ill patients. Such serious
undertreatment of chronic pain is a direct result of the Drug Enforcement
Agency's pressures on physicians who prescribe narcotics.

7. Harming foreign countries. Our drug policy has led to thousands of
deaths and enormous loss of wealth in countries like Colombia, Peru and
Mexico, and has undermined the stability of their governments. All because
we cannot enforce our laws at home. If we did, there would be no market for
imported drugs. There would be no Cali cartel. The foreign countries would
not have to suffer the loss of sovereignty involved in letting our
"advisers" and troops operate on their soil, search their vessels and
encourage local militaries to shoot down their planes. They could run their
own affairs, and we, in turn, could avoid the diversion of military forces
from their proper function.

Can any policy, however high-minded, be moral if it leads to widespread
corruption, imprisons so many, has so racist an effect, destroys our inner
cities, wreaks havoc on misguided and vulnerable individuals and brings
death and destruction to foreign countries?

-------------------------------------------------------------------

White Flag Time (Letter To Editor Of 'Chicago Sun-Times' Notes The Shooting
Of A 3-Year-Old Boy In The Back Was Caused By Prohibition, Not Drugs)

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 21:19:58 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: US IL: PUB LTE: White Flag Time
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Steve Young
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Pubdate: Jan. 11, 1998
Contact: letters@suntimes.com
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/

WHITE FLAG TIME

A gang shooting in a drug turf war again makes front-page news ["Charges
filed in shooting of toddler," news story, Dec. 29].

This time a 3-year-old boy, trying out his Christmas present, a Big Wheel,
was shot in the back by a bullet intended for rival gang members.

The Rev. Charles W. Lyons said of the shooting, "That neighborhood has been
a drug store since I've been there, and I arrived in 1974."

Is anyone else infuriated? Of course. But at whom? At what? The shooter?
The shooter's gang? All the gangs? Directing our anger there accomplishes
nothing.

In my book this horror story will be listed under a growing list of "drug
war tragedies." We should be pointing our finger at themost responsible
player: a drug war out of control.

Can this mindless "save our children" drug war continue to riddle kids with
bullet holes without someone in authority saying, "enough drug war. We must
stop the violence, stop funding the gangs with drug profits, stop putting
guns in the hands of kids as an unitended consequence of a misconceived
drug war."

Prayer vigils, another prison and enhanced penalties for gang bangers
picking off toddlers is not answer enough. I demand an end to drug wars.

James E. Gierach, Oak Lawn

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Drug Testing Of Workers Keeps Rising (Chicago's Police Recruits
Now Face Hair Analysis)

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 21:15:48 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: US IL: Drug Testing Of Workers Keeps Rising
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Steve Young
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Pubdate: Jan. 11, 1998
Contact: letters@suntimes.com
Authors: Cam Simpson and Michelle Roberts

DRUG TESTING OF WORKERS KEEPS RISING

City's Police Recruits Facing Hair Analysis

Though it was virtually unheard of 15 years ago, mandatory drug testing in
the workplace has spread faster than marijuana smoke at a Grateful Dead
concert.

Testing requirements now blanket millions of people nationwide - especially
job seekers. And technology is improving to the point that it's difficult,
if not impossible, for drug users to escape the net of some advanced tests.

"It's becoming more accepted and more widespread. And it's still growing,"
said Daryl G. Grecich, a spokesman for the Institute for a Drug-Free
Workplace, a pro-testing group in Washington, D.C.

The Chicago Police Department is the most recent employer here to crack
down on drug users. But the latest sweep isn't in the streets - it's now
screened through hair samples, a cutting-edge technology that can extend
the reach of a drug test almost 90 times for most substances.

"We've had people show up for processing, and when they were told aobut the
hair testing, they've just gotten up and walked away," said police
spokesman Keven Morison.

No profession, it seems, is immune. Virtually all of the Fortune 200
companies - the nation's biggest firms - require their employees or some
job candidates to submit to some kind of drug testing, Grecich said.
Pre-employment screening - requiring a job applicat to take a drug test as
a condition of employment - is the most common practice.

Nationwide, 44 percent of workers say their bosses require some form of
drug testing, according to a federal survey. It's no different in Chicago.
Of the area's 10 largest private employers surveyed by the Sun-Times, the
nine firms that responded all require some kind of drug testing.

UAL Corp., the Elk Grove Township parent of United Airlines, and
Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. appear to have the most extensive testing
programs among top Chicago area employers.

The air carrier, which has about 90,000 employees worldwide, is subject to
federal mandates on drug testing. Motorola was a leader in testing among
major companies nationwide, establishing its "universal" program in the
late 1980s.

UAL employs almost every type of testing, said Joe Hopkins, a spokesman.
All job candidates are subject ot pre-employment screening. Workers in
safety-sensitive areas, right down to the mechanics who work on buses that
transport passengers, are suject to random testing, he said.

At Motorola, which has about 140,000 employees worldwide, the focus is on
detecting potential problems and getting employees into treatment programs,
said Margot Brown, a Motorola spokeswoman.

"It's not a one-strike-and-you're-out approach," Brown said. "We really
have been able to uncover problems early and keep employees in the work
force."

The smaller your employer is, the less likely you are to be tested.

Only 23 percent of workers at small companies (fewer than 25 employees) say
their bosses require some kind of testing, according to a survey published
by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"Everybody forgets that most people work for small companies,"

The number of employees who say their bosses have drug-testing program
almost triples (to 68 percent) for workers at big companies, the
government's study showed.

Despite the nationwide testing boom, civil liberties groups remain
staunchly opposed to any form of testing - even for cops.

"You might as well crumple up a copy of the Bill of Rights and put it in
the cup before you [urinate] into it," said William Spain, a spokesman for
the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois. An employer's sole concer,
Spain said, should be whether a worker is impaired. And drug testing, he
said, won't measure impairment on the job.

"We don't approve of airline pilots flying stoned or drunk - or even
depressed, for that matter," Spain said. "But simple dexterity tests for
transportation workers, which would simply tell employers whether you were
capable of working that shift, are much more effective."

Workers of the world are not uniting behind that argument, however.

Unlike the Chicago police recruits who walked out on the cit's hair test,
most workers seem to be accepting drug testing as a fact of life.

Even among workers who describe themselves as "current illicit drug users,"
only about 30 percent say they are "less likely" to work for a company that
requires drug testing as a condition of employment, according to the
government study.

An of workers who don't currently use drugs, only about 6 percent said they
were "less likely" to work for a company that requires drug testing as a
condition of employment, the study showed.

All that drug testing - and acceptance of drug testing - has created a boon
for the testing industry, which backs groups such as the Institute for a
Drug-Free Workplace.

SmithKline Beecham, one of the nation's largest testing firms, has done 24
million drug tests in the last 10 years.

Boston-based Psychemedics Corp. holds the patent for the hair-drug analysis
process and has been using the technology since 1987. Though urinalysis
remains the most common method of testing, Psychemedics' sales have boomed
in the last few years.

In 1992, Psychemecis had $3.9 in sales. By 1996, sales had tripled to $12.2
million, according to company reports.

The company says it has more than 1,000 corporate clients nation-wide,
including big names such as General Motors Corp. and Chicago-based WMX
Technologies, parent company of Waste Management. Casino companies also
rely heavily on hair testing, ever worried that drug users and large sums
of cash don't mix.

More than 30 police departments, including New York City and Chicago, use
Psychemedics to test police recruits, said Raoymond Kubacki Jr., president
and chief executive officer of Psychemedics.

The hair test can detect drugs that were taken 90 days before a sample was
gathered. Most drugs can escape detection through urinalysis within a few
days. The test requires a swath of hair that is roughly the width of a
pencil and about 1.5 inches long. If someone is bald, body hair samples are
taken.

For the Chicago Police Department, the results are encouraging. The
department is using hair and urinalysis side-by-side. A source close to the
department said 80 potential Chicago police officers who have passed the
urine test have failed the hair analysis.

Morison, the police spokesman, would not confirm an exact number, but said,
"There has been a significant increase in the number of people who have
been rejected because of positive drug screens since we began using hair
testing."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

New UK Drug Tsar Has An E-mail Address (Keith Hellawell
Wants To Know Your Views At CDCU@gtnet.gov.uk)

Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 12:13:00 -0500 (EST)
From: "Kelly T. Conlon" (conlonkt@mcmail.CIS.McMaster.CA)
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
Subject: New UK Drug Czar has an email address

>From the Independent on Sunday:

"Keith Hellawell, the so-called drugs tsar, has
opened an e-mail address to receive your views.
It is CDCU@gtnet.gov.uk

KTC

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Gotcha! 'Sun' Splatters Egg On Its Face With Telephone Poll (Britain's
'Independent On Sunday' Pubicizes Backfire Ensuing After Attempt
By Its Rival, 'The Sun,' To Turn The Tide Against The Popular Mood
To Decriminalise Cannabis)

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 02:25:24 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: UK: Gotcha! Sun Splatters Egg On Its Face With Telephone Poll
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Zosimos 
Source: Independent on Sunday
Contact: sundayletters@independent.co.uk
Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jan 1998
Note: The Independent has set up an e-mail for comments on their cannabis
campaign cannabis@independent.co.uk

GOTCHA! SUN SPLATTERS EGG ON ITS FACE WITH TELEPHONE POLL

Tarquin Cooper on how the latest attempt to rubbish our campaign backfired

THE Sun's attempt to turn back the tide against the popular mood to
decriminalise cannabis ended with a large portion of egg on its face last
week. The results of its "You the Jury" debate on Tuesday on whether to
legalise cannabis backfired when readers overwhelmingly supported a change
in the law when the paper has continually attacked attempts to do so.

Ironically the results were more decisive than any other newspaper's poll
in support of our campaign. Last October, Mirror readers supported the
decriminalisation of cannabis by just under two to one. The results of the
Sun's debate is therefore particularly damaging to them as two to one of
Sun readers were in favour of legalising cannabis. This is after it
referred to the Independent on Sunday as "having gone to pot", when the
campaign to decriminalise the drug began last September.

Not afraid to insult their readers, a Sun leader claimed that those who
supported relaxing the laws on cannabis were "misguided".

"Straw knows that soft drugs can be the first step on the road to heroin
and cocaine. Those who treat drugs as recreational toys are dicing with
death," it claimed.

The Sun's embarrassment at the result was clearly demonstrated by
relegating the verdict to near obscurity in the bottom left-hand corner on
page 8 of Wednesday's edition.

It is the second attempt by a national newspaper to commission a poll to
rubbish this paper's campaign. In October last year the Daily Mail claimed
it had dealt the Independent on Sunday "a body blow" by showing "a decisive
majority of people against legalising cannabis". Their findings, as
discovered by an ICM poll, revealed that an overwhelming 71 per cent were
in favour of legalising cannabis for medicinal puposes and another 33 per
cent were in favour of full legalisation.

These results went further than those conducted by this paper the week
before by MORI, which found that only 45 per cent of people were in favour
of relaxing the laws for medicinal reasons. In the under-45 age group a
similar figure - 45 per cent again - believe that the drug should be
decriminalised.

Another survey, conducted by another Conservative paper, could not halt the
realisation that the majority of people back our campaign. In Friday's
Daily Telegraph, a Gallup survey revealed that 56 per cent of young people
were in favour of decriminalising cannabis. Half of the 18-to-34 age group
also ridiculed the notion that cannabis leads to hard drugs such as cocaine
and heroin.

The Sun wasn't alone in being embarrassed this week. William Hague, the
Conservative Party leader, claimed that cannabis wrecks lives. He believes
that cannabis ruined the lives of people he knew at Oxford university.

Writing in the Times last week, the assistant editor, Mary Ann Sieghart - a
signed supporter of this paper's campaign - rubbished that claim. The
contemporary of Hague revealed that of those she knew who smoked at
university: "one or two are Tory MPs".

* Keith Hellawell, the so-called drugs tsar, has opened an e-mail address
to receive your views. It is CDCU@gtnet.gov.uk

* A vote takes place this Thursday in the European Parliament to harmonise
drug laws and decriminalise cannabis. Although it is only a recommendation,
campaigners say it represents a symbolic step forward.

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Two Charged Over £32M Cocaine Haul (British Customs Nabs Cargo
In Wheels Of Land Rover About To Cross The Chunnel)

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 03:03:36 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: UK: Two Charged Over £32m Cocaine Haul
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Zosimos 
Source: BBC Online News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/)
Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jan 1998

TWO CHARGED OVER £32M COCAINE HAUL

Two men have been charged in connection with the importation of drugs after
Customs men smashed a plot to bring cocaine with an estimated value of £32m
into Britain through the Channel Tunnel.

Customs and Excise believe the haul is one of the largest destined for the
Tunnel to be intercepted.

The men were stopped at Coquelles near Calais as they passed through
Customs checks before they were due to board Le Shuttle car train on
Friday.

Their Land Rover was searched and a haul of 160 kilos (342 lbs) of cocaine
was found in the car's wheels.

The men, one from Cleckheaton and the other from Dewsbury, both West
Yorkshire, were taken to Leeds for further questioning.

Frank Ferguson, Senior Investigation Officer with the Customs and Excise
National Investigation Service, said 40 kilos of cocaine were concealed in
each of the four wheels of the vehicle.

Incisions had been made in the hubs, and the vehicle was robust enough
still to look normal and drive properly.

Mr Ferguson said this was an extremely unusual method for concealing drugs.

"Drugs have been hidden in wheels before, but they are usually in the spare
wheels," he said.

"It was a very professional method of concealment."

Customs officers say the most popular method of smuggling drugs is by
swallowing packages or hiding them inside their bodies.

The Channel Tunnel is said to be becoming the fastest-growing route for
drug trafficking. Seizures of drugs under the Channel have doubled in the
last year.

Mr Ferguson said this was one of the largest seizures ever made.

The largest British seizure on record had a street value of £250m. It was
found in drums of bitumen in a steamer calling at Birkenhead, Merseyside,
in February 1994.

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Drugs Football Team Blows Final Whistle (Britain's 'Sunday Times' Reports
Calton Athletic, The Football Team Of Former Drug Addicts In Glasgow
Which Advised The Makers Of 'Trainspotting,' Is Disbanding)

Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 02:30:07 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: UK: Drugs Football Team Blows Final Whistle
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Zosimos 
Source: Sunday Times UK
Contact: editor@sunday-times.co.uk
Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jan 1998
Author: Lucy Adamson

DRUGS FOOTBALL TEAM BLOWS FINAL WHISTLE

CALTON Athletic, the football team of former drug addicts which advised the
makers of Trainspotting and was immortalised in a television drama starring
Robbie Coltrane and Lenny Henry, is to be disbanded.

David Bryce, director of Calton Athletic recovery group, said its drugs
prevention and schools work would continue but its Glasgow drop-in centre
would close with the loss of six full-time workers, including Bryce and his
deputy, David Main. Both plan to continue as volunteers.

All work on recovering addicts will stop, including the day programme which
last year saw more than 100 "graduates" from the rehabilitation programme.
Prison outreach work will also be discontinued as Calton concentrates
solely on prevention and schools.

Greater Glasgow health board provides £250,000 for Calton, but Bryce, with
the backing of his staff, decided last week to withdraw from funding after
criticising the board and the council's social work department.

Bryce recently claimed that Calton had fared better under a Conservative
government and criticised Labour's lack of support for abstinence-based
projects.

The group's recently opened drugs awareness academy will continue. Scotland
Against Drugs, the cross-party campaign, has contributed £50,000 to the
academy which will train drug workers and devise prevention schemes.
Additional funds have come from Figment Films, Polygram Video and the
Celebrities Guild of Great Britain because of the group's contribution to
Trainspotting.

Bryce has recently suffered ill-health and says he owes it to his family to
reduce the pressure. "It was extremely difficult making these choices but I
have a responsibility to the other group workers and the schools action
team and this restructuring is for the good of the club," he said.

Calton Athletic began 12 years ago as a football team for recovering
addicts, as depicted in the television drama Alive and Kicking starring
Coltrane and Henry. The group acted as advisers to the makers of
Trainspotting and recently received a cheque for £20,000 from video sales
of the film.

Calton at present works with 1,000 addicts in central Scotland, through the
drop-in centre, prison outreach work, and work and education programmes
with addicts' families. Bryce said he would "honour present commitments"
before restructuring in April.

He said Calton hoped to expand its influence south of the border with
several projects based on its work in Glasgow. Next month advisers would
visit London to meet the Stone Foundation, a charity concerned with drug
and alcohol addiction.

Thaddeus Birschard, clerk to the Stone trustees, said: "The trustees were
immensely impressed and saw Calton as real people doing real work."

Bryce said it would be easier to expand in London. "We get more support
there than we do in Scotland. We will not stand for anything less than full
co-operation now," he said.

In May, Calton will visit the Tower Hamlets Drug Challenge Fund in London
and work with third division Leyton Orient FC.

Dr Tim Crabbe, of Goldsmiths University, is organising a Government-backed
conference that will hear the experiences of Calton and its work with sport
and drugs.

"There's a lot of interest in their ability to use sport as a way to get a
message across and their success is reflected in the number of people who
come to them," he said.

Bryce was optimistic about the future in London. "I feel this is the
direction we must head in because of the rejection and mistrust we put up
with here," he said.

Dr Laurence Gruer, consultant in health and public medicine for Greater
Glasgow health board, said he was optimistic that an agreement could be
reached but agreed that Calton might have found its working relationship
restrictive.

David Macauley, campaign director of Scotland Against Drugs, described the
decision as "a dreadful loss to the city of Glasgow" and said he was
extremely distressed by the news.

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[End]