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

NORML Weekly News (Judge Stays Federal Request To Shut Down California
Medical Marijuana Dispensaries; Coalition Heads To Washington To Petition DEA
To Lift Hemp Ban; Oklahoma Senate Committee To Decide Today Whether To Move
On Bill Authorizing National Guard To Engage In State Marijuana Enforcement;
Congress To Recess Without Voting On Resolution Opposing Medical Marijuana)

From: NORMLFNDTN (NORMLFNDTN@aol.com)
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 17:59:53 EST
To: pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org
Subject: NORML WPR 3/26/98 (II)

A NON-PROFIT LEGAL, RESEARCH, AND EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION

THE NORML FOUNDATION
1001 CONNECTICUT AVENUE NW
SUITE 710
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036
T 202-483-8751 o F 202-483-0057
E-MAIL NORMLFNDTN@AOL.COM
Internet http://www.norml.org

. . . a weekly service for the media on news items related to marijuana
prohibition.

March 26, 1998

***

Judge Stays Federal Request To Shut Down California Medical Marijuana
Dispensaries

March 26, 1998, San Francisco, CA: Medical marijuana proponents stalled
the federal government's request to shut down six California medical
marijuana dispensaries named in a civil lawsuit. U.S. District Judge
Charles Breyer asked attorneys on both sides of the case to brief a
number of issues -- including whether Congress properly considered
marijuana's medical uses when it placed the drug in Schedule I -- and
return to court on April 16.

California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer said he felt optimistic
after yesterday's proceedings. "Judge Breyer repeatedly expressed
skepticism about the government's sweeping claims of supremacy in the
face of opposition from 56 percent of California voters, the mayors of
four cities, and amicus ("friend of the court") briefs from San Francisco
District Attorney Terence Hallinan, the city of Oakland, and the town of
Fairfax," Gieringer said. "Medical marijuana supporters ... sense[d]
that Judge Breyer was in no way predisposed to granting the government
carte blanche to shut down the distribution of medical marijuana."

Breyer said he had hoped to find a middle ground between California's
law allowing the possession and use of medical marijuana and the U.S.
Justice Department's desire to enforce federal law outlawing the drug.
He concluded, however, that he would have to choose sides because "the
federal government is not going to change their position."

"Congress has determined the world is flat," said attorney William
Panzer, who represents two of the clubs named in the federal suit. "This
court has the authority to declare the world is round."

Dave Fratello, spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights -- the group
that spearheaded the Proposition 215 campaign -- emphasized that the
federal suit is not a direct attack on California's medical marijuana
law, and said patients may still possess and use marijuana as a medicine
regardless of how Judge Breyer rules. "Proposition 215 is now the law of
California, and it will remain that way," he said. "Patients will
[retain] the right to use marijuana under a doctor's order in this state,
but how they obtain it could be complicated by this federal case."

For more information, please contact William Panzer @ (510) 834-1892 or
Attorney Tanya Kangas of The NORML Foundation @ (202) 483-8751.

***

Coalition Heads To Washington To Petition DEA To Lift Hemp Ban

March 26, 1998, Washington, D.C.: A coalition of business and
agriculture organizations convened on Washington last week to kick off a
campaign to encourage legislators to lift the government's 60+ year ban
on hemp cultivation.

"It simply makes no sense to outlaw a plant that has played a vital role
in the history of our country," said environmental and consumer activist
Ralph Nader. "Growing hemp will be a boon for our farmers; it's an
easy-to-grow cash crop that is good for field rotations that can help
sustain the soil and reduce harmful insects."

The Resource Conservation Alliance -- a non-profit environmental project
affiliated with Nader -- the North American Industrial Hemp Council,
Hawaii state Rep. Cynthia Thielen, and others recently unveiled a plan to
petition the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to legalize hemp as an
agricultural crop. Reformers also demanded that the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA) establish a system of certifying hemp
seeds and licensing farmers to grow the plant.

"In Hawaii, this is economic development," said Thielen, who
unsuccessfully introduced legislation permitting farmers to grow the
plant for research purposes in 1997 and 1998. "And the stumbling block
to this economic development is the lobbying effort of the DEA."

Attorney Don Wirtshafter, President of the Ohio Hempery, said that
petitioners may also consider filing a federal lawsuit if the agency
refuses to respond to their request. "When an agency stands in the way
of progress, the first step is to ask them to step aside," he said.
"Only when they fail to do so is it time for court action."

Jeffrey Gain, former chief of the National Corn Growers Association,
said that domestic farmers are being shut out of a growing global
economic market. "While the rest of the world is jumping on the hemp
bandwagon, American agriculture is being held hostage to obsolete
thinking," he said. It's a legitimate crop with enormous economic and
environmental potential."

Officials from the White House and the DEA, however, said they remained
unmoved by the proponent's arguments. According to the Office of
National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) current white paper on hemp,
domestic cultivation of the crop would send mixed messages to youth and
"may mean the de facto legalization of marijuana."

NORML Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. called the government's
position "absurd," noting that dozens of industrialized nations --
including Australia, England, France, Germany, and Canada -- cultivate
hemp, and that it has not caused any difficulty for law enforcement.

For more information, please call either NORML board member Don
Wirtshafter @ (740) 662-4367 or Keith Stroup of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.

***

Oklahoma Senate Committee To Decide Today Whether To Move On Bill
Authorizing National Guard To Engage In State Marijuana Enforcement

March 26, 1998, Oklahoma City, OK: The Senate Appropriations Committee
must decide today whether to approve legislation allowing the National
Guard to join forces with state law enforcement officers in anti-drug
operations. The bill, introduced by Rep. Dale Wells (D-33 District),
previously passed the House by a 95-0 vote.

"It is against the spirit and the letter of the law for the military to
be involved in domestic law enforcement," NORML Executive Director R.
Keith Stroup, Esq. said, referring to guidelines set forth in the Posse
Comitatus Act of 1879. "Men and women who volunteer for the National
Guard do so to protect their country, not to work arm and arm with state
anti-drug operations."

House Bill 2596 authorizes the Governor to "request volunteers of the
National Guard to provide assistance to federal, state and local law
enforcement officers, within or outside the boundaries of this state, in
drug interdiction and counter-drug activities." Oklahoma presently ranks
as one of the leading states in marijuana eradication activities;
however, these efforts primarily target wild growing marijuana patches
known as "ditchweed." This strain of marijuana will not get users "high"
when smoked.

"House Bill 2596 not only compromises long-standing principles of
federal law, but is an utter waste of taxpayer dollars as well," Stroup
added.

The bill's sponsor declared that the passage of the legislation is
"necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health, and safety."
The bill further declares a "state of emergency" in Oklahoma.

For more information, please call either Michael Pearson of Oklahoma
NORML @ (405) 840-4366 or Paul Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500. To
ask the status of H.B. 2596, please call (405) 521-5642. Copies of the
NORML position paper: National Guard Involvement in the Drug War are
available upon request.

***

Congress To Recess Without Voting On Resolution Opposing Medical Marijuana

March 26, 1998, Washington, D.C.: The House of Representatives will not
vote on a "sense of the House Resolution" stating that "marijuana is a
dangerous and addictive drug [that] should not be legalized for medical
use" until after the Congressional Easter break. The House will likely
debate the issue shortly after Congress reconvenes on April 21.

For more information, please contact R. Keith Stroup, Esq. of NORML @
(202) 483-5500.

				-END-

MORE THAN 11 MILLION MARIJUANA ARRESTS SINCE 1965...ANOTHER EVERY 49 SECONDS!

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Representative Peter DeFazio Supports Medical Marijuana
(The Democratic US Representative From Oregon
Responds To A Eugene Constituent's Letter, Expressing His Opposition
To House Resolution 372, Which Opposes State Medical Marijuana Initiatives)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 14:13:50 EST
Originator: medmj@drcnet.org
Sender: medmj@drcnet.org
From: alive@pacifier.com (Arthur Livermore)
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Rep. Peter DeFazio supports medical marijuana

[DeFazio's response to James M. Brewster:]

Dear Mr. Brewster:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your support for the
medical use of marijuana. While I am a strong advocate of
eradicating drug abuse in America, I believe that the voters in
California, Oregon and elsewhere ought to be able to decide
whether marijuana should be available for medical purposes.

Recently, the New England Journal of Medicine endorsed the
medical uses of marijuana. Many leading doctors and researchers
have found that marijuana is effective in relieving painful
symptoms associated with degenerative illnesses, such as AIDS,
cancer and glaucoma. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy
frequently use marijuana to reduce their severe nausea. AIDS
patients also use it to generate their appetite and relieve them
of the discomforting side effects of anti-viral drugs. With such
strong testimony from patients and doctors supporting the
therapeutic uses of marijuana, it seems ludicrous that the
Clinton Administration is prepared to harass doctors who
prescribe marijuana in accordance with state laws in California
and Arizona.

Peter DeFazio

***

[James M. Brewster's letter:]

>From: bluestar1@bigfoot.com[SMTP:bluestar1@bigfoot.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 1998 11:58 PM
>To: Defazio, Peter
>Subject: Medical Marijuana H.R. 372
>
>Dear Rep. DeFazio,
>
>A bill titled H.R.372 will soon come up for a vote in the House of
>Representatives. I strongly urge you to vote against it.
>
>The 25 year "War on the American People" more popularly known as the
>"War on Drugs" is a dismal failure. It has served to create a black
>market which causes, by some estimates, 50-80% of the property crime in
>our communities and at least half of the violent crime.
>
>It is time for politicians to stop politicizing this medical issue
>and let science and common sense prevail. At a minimum they should wait
>until the Institute of Medicine completes its scientific review of
>medical marijuana later this year.
>
>A growing number of Americans are becoming aware of the true reasons for
>the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 and are increasingly disgusted by the
>hypocrisy of our elected officials. Marijuana has been proven by
>numerous double blind studies to cause far less damage to the human body
>than either cigarettes or alcohol (Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts by
>Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D. and John P. Morgan, M.D.) and in fact was used for
>centuries as a non-toxic and non addictive medicine for a variety of
>ailments. The industrial uses of this natural plant are many and
>include fiber, pulp, oil and food in addition to medicine.
>
>It is the fear of competition from this resource by timber, oil,
>pharmaceutical and petro-chemical companies that has kept marijuana
>prohibition in effect rather than the supposed "gateway drug" theory so
>popular with our politicians (who receive huge "soft money"
>contributions from corporate lobbyists) and the mainstream media.
>
>Our government DOES NOT have a mandate in the U.S. Constitution (which
>you have sworn or affirmed to uphold) to infringe upon the freedom of
>American citizens with regard to our medical choices. As a country
>founded upon the ideals of freedom and liberty, it is an abomination
>that our elected officials have restricted those freedoms in exchange
>for special interest campaign donations. In fact it is nothing less
>than treason!
>
>Please do all that you can to STOP this "War on the American People"
>which is draining our treasury year after year and making drugs more
>available to our youth than a more rational form of decriminalization
>ever could.
>
>Respectfully,
>James M. Brewster
>Libertarian Candidate
>for U.S. Senator
>
>3426 Royal Ave.
>Eugene, OR 97402
>
>(541) 689-8377
>
>bluestar1@bigfoot.com

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Week Four, Stop The Marijuana Task Force, Pray For 'Drug Peace'
(Bulletin From American Antiprohibition League In Portland
Notes Weekly Protests Against Rogue Cops Continue 4-6 PM Friday
Outside Justice Center - List Of Endorsements Calling For MTF
Suspension And Review Grows)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 14:34:32
-0800 (PST)
From: Anti-Prohibition Lg
(aal@inetarena.com)
To: Portland OR City Council -
Comish Charlie Hales
(chales@ci.portland.or.us),
Comish Erik Sten
(Esten@ci.portland.or.us),
Comish Gretchen Kafoury
(gkafoury@ci.portland.or.us),
Commish Jim Francesconi
(jfrancesconi@ci.portland.or.us),
Mayor Vera Katz
(mayorkatz@ci.portland.or.us)
cc: Portland Police -- CW Jensen
(OfficerJensen@kgw.com),
PPB (police@teleport.com)
Subject: CanPat - Week 4, STOP THE MTF/PRAY FOR "DRUG PEACE!"
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com

The AMERICAN ANTIPROHIBITION LEAGUE

Sponsors of the OREGON DRUGS CONTROL AMENDMENT
http://ns2.calyx.net/~odca

Drug War, or Drug Peace?

3125 SE BELMONT STREET
PORTLAND OREGON 97214
503-235-4524
fax:503-234-1330
Email:AAL@InetArena.com

As of: Thursday, March 26, 1998
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Activists, supporters gather to STOP THE MARIJUANA TASK FORCE
and PRAY FOR "DRUG PEACE!"

Portland, Oregon -- Now in its forth week of peaceful protest,
antiprohibition advocates have renewed their commitment to building
momentum and an irresistible force for peace, "Drug Peace!"

"I don't care if I'm the only one out there, this is a question of
principle," quipped League director Floyd Landrath when asked by a
local radio talk show host if the Friday actions might hurt the
upcoming medical marijuana effort in Oregon.

Landrath went on to say, "I have a lot of respect for, and consider
all those working on medical marijuana here in Oregon as my friends,
but let's be honest about it. It's only the leading edge of a much
deeper problem in our society. Decades of government propaganda
promoting fear and the need to wage "war" (on the poor) in order to
control drugs, it's all a big fat lie," he said.

"Let the medical marijuana issue stand on its own, but remember it's
just another of many symptoms of a much bigger disease, the drug war.
As I see it," Landrath added, "a heroin addict gets as sick as an AIDS
or cancer patient without his or her medicine. Both are being
victimized by our screwed up drug laws and both are willing to commit
crime to relieve their pain. It's a no-win situation, except for the
illegal drug trade which now extends deep into our most important
social, political and legal institutions."

PROTEST & SPEAK OUT AGAINST MARIJUANA TASK FORCE AND
PRAY FOR "DRUG PEACE!"

EVERY FRIDAY UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE 4:00P.M. - 6:00P.M.
PARK BLOCK ACROSS FROM "JUSTICE" CENTER

(1120 S.W. 3rd., downtown Portland, Oregon)

***

Endorsers

Lee Berger, local attorney
Cannabis Liberation Society (Eugene)
Lewis & Clark College Hemp Club
N.O.R.M.L., Portland/Vancouver chapters
Pacific Party, Portland chapter
Jim Redden, PDX/s newspaper
Paul Loney, local attorney
Radical Women
Gary L. Dye, candidate for Metro Dist. 7
Stuart Suggerman, local attorney
Spencer M. Neal, local attorney
James Brewster (Eugene) Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate

***

Date: Sat, 27 Mar 1999 01:37:13 -0800
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon Libertarians Patriots
To: Constitutional Cannabis Patriots (cp@telelists.com)
Subject: [cp] MTF PROTEST PHOTO 2

[Image]

Content Type: image/jpeg
Content-Disposition: inline; filename="C:\WINDOWS\TEMP\nsmailS8.jpeg"
Attachment Converted: C:\INTERNET\CWINDOW2.jpg

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Two Die Using Suicide Law ('The Oregonian' Notes The First Two Deaths
Under The State's Unique Assisted-Suicide Law Allowing Physicians
To Prescribe Lethal Drugs)

The Oregonian
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Letters to editor:
letters@news.oregonian.com
Web: http://www.oregonian.com/

March 26, 1998

Two die using suicide law
Woman on tape says she looks forward to relief

By Erin Hoover
and Gail Kinsey Hill
of The Oregonian staff

Two terminally ill patients are known to have died
under Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law.

The right-to-die organization Compassion in
Dying announced Wednesday that a woman in
her mid-80s with breast cancer died Tuesday
night about 30 minutes after taking a lethal dose
of barbiturates mixed with syrup and washed
down with a glass of brandy.

"I'm looking forward to it
because being I was always
active, I cannot
comfortably see myself
living out two more months
like this," the Portland-area
woman said in an audiotape
played for the media.
"That's all. It's just, I will
be relieved of all the stress
I have."

Before this announced
death, at least one other
Oregonian died using the
Death With Dignity Act.
The family, committed to
protecting its privacy, has
not wished to discuss the
death publicly. But on
Wednesday, a close relative
of the person who died was
willing to confirm the death
in a telephone interview.

"We had a family member who was assisted in
dying and died very peacefully with the family
present," the woman said of the adult who was
suffering from cancer.

"We felt it went very nicely, very peacefully, and
it was certainly satisfactory as far as helping
someone who wanted to go." The woman was
present when the person died, surrounded by
family at the person's Portland metro-area home.

The news that the Oregon Death With Dignity
Act has been used brought intense reaction
Wednesday.

Dr. Gregory Hamilton, a psychiatrist and
president of Physicians for Compassionate Care,
which opposes assisted suicide, said he was
"profoundly grieved for the woman who died, for
her family, for my profession and for all of
America."

"This is a terrible thing because people's lives are
no longer being equally valued," Hamilton said.
"Suicide doesn't take place in a vacuum, and
when a doctor writes a prescription for them to
use to kill themselves, they are agreeing that that
person's life is no longer as valuable as the lives
of the rest of us."

Supporters of the physician-assisted suicide
option expressed satisfaction that the process
appears to have worked in these cases.

"One always regrets the death of anybody, but if
this was the patient's wish and the patient's desire,
and the patient had an easy death and was spared
a lot of suffering and loss of dignity, then
obviously it was a good thing," said Dr. Peter
Goodwin, medical director for Compassion in
Dying and a vocal advocate of the Death With
Dignity Act.

Goodwin was not aware of the first assisted
suicide, the person who died before Tuesday.

Regarding the Tuesday death, Judith Fleming,
consulting director for Compassion in Dying's
Oregon affiliate, said she received a call from the
woman and a family member within the past 30
days. The woman was looking for advice and
help to pursue aid in dying. Fleming said she
referred the woman and her family member to
Goodwin.

Goodwin said the woman told him that she had
been rebuffed by two other physicians. He
listened to the woman's symptoms and cancer
prognosis and her experience with the two doctors
who did not support her as a candidate for
assisted suicide.

He talked with her loved ones and called the last
doctor she had talked with. He said the doctor
perceived that the woman was depressed and that
her depression was affecting her desire to end her
life, a conclusion Goodwin called questionable.

"I thought she was frustrated and crying because
she was feeling powerless," he said.

Appropriate patient

Goodwin said he felt confident that she was an
appropriate candidate and so referred her to a
doctor who would help. He said he was not the
doctor who wrote the prescription or who gave a
concurring second opinion, as required by law.

Barbara Coombs Lee, who heads the Compassion
in Dying Federation, said the woman did receive
psychiatric counseling, a requirement of the law if
any of the attending physicians think the patient's
judgment might be impaired by depression or
other mental illness.

Lee decided to hold a news conference late
Wednesday afternoon when a crush of media
converged on Compassion in Dying offices in
Northwest Portland. Initially, she had said she
would wait until today to release details.

Family members and the attending physician
requested anonymity and were not present at the
news conference.

"There is just a small amount of information we
can give you," Lee said.

Lee said the woman was in her mid-80s and
dying of breast cancer. Her condition had become
intolerable, with deteriorating bodily functions and
severe shortness of breath, Lee said.

The woman took anti-nausea medication before
ingesting a fatal concoction of barbiturates
sweetened with syrup. She washed the mix down
with a glass of brandy and within five minutes
was in a deep sleep. She died within 30 minutes,
Lee said.

The audiotape, played to reporters Wednesday,
was recorded two days before the woman's death
by the woman and her attending physician. At
least one family member was present.

Shaky but resolved

The voice on the tape was shaky, like that of an
elderly woman. But she came across as resolved
and determined.

The woman talked on the tape of the things in life
that gave her joy.

"Every year I had a yard full of flowers, and I'd
go out and just be with them and even took some
in, so for the winter, for next year," she said.
"And it was my hobby."

Lee said: "She was clearly a very determined
lady. ... She really did follow the spirit and the
letter of the Death With Dignity Act."

The woman had been in hospice care until her
death. Those by her side when she died were her
family, comprising several generations, and her
doctor, Lee said.

"They are grieving," Lee said. "They have lost a
mother and a grandmother."

Goodwin said the woman's husband called after
she began the process to get a lethal prescription
and told Goodwin, "This assurance has been like
a load lifted from my spouse."

Relief was a significant factor in the death that
occurred before Tuesday, according to the family
member who talked Wednesday to The
Oregonian.

"It was like the sun had come out when the
person finally realized that there finally was a way
to do it," the woman said. "It was a terrible
feeling to have to go through every day with the
amount of problems the person had. Every day
was a torture to this person."

She said the person, not certain whether one
could even take advantage of the law, given its
controversial nature, contacted the Hemlock
Society for help after Oregon voters reaffirmed
the law in November.

Hemlock leader helped

Myriam Coppens, a licenced marriage and family
therapist and Hemlock leader, met with the family
and helped them find a doctor.

"I can't express the value" of Hemlock's role, the
family member said. "It was something the person
wanted so much. It was such a difficult time that
we were so glad to have someone there who
could help us. We felt we were at a time when
the assisted suicide law that Oregon had finally
passed was not yet really available to us. We
were caught in between."

The person who died had shared the decision to
pursue physician-assisted dying with family
members, and the family supported that decision
throughout the process.

The woman said that after the person obtained
the lethal prescription, the family "could relax and
say what a wonderful life we had. We could look
back at all the lovely things because we knew we
finally had an answer."

The person waited quite a while before using the
medication. When the person felt ready, the
family gathered at the bedside. After the person
ingested the lethal mixture of medications, death
occurred within five minutes, the woman said.

"There was a little sigh as the last breath," she
said. "It was just as peaceful as anyone would
want. I only wish that I could go as peacefully
when it is my time."

The family decided not to ask a doctor to be
present when the person died. "There's just not
enough of them out there yet who are willing to
stake their reputation on it," the woman said.

Coping with loss

Now, she said, she and the family are coping with
the loss of their loved one.

"I don't think I will ever get over (the person's
absence), but I feel very comfortable with how
my loved one went," she said.

Coppens said, "People need to know out there
that (aid in dying) is safe, and it can happen, and
people can request it, and the help is available."

She said both Hemlock and Compassion in Dying
want the same thing: "That people have all the
options available to them, every one of them. And
then it's up to the patient to decide what they
want."

Dr. Tony Marfin, an epidemiologist with the
Oregon Health Division, refused to discuss the
woman's reported suicide or say whether his
office had been officially informed.

"Our policy," Marfin said, "is not to release
anything until there are at least 10 cases. We will
be putting out a report in the fall after we have
reviewed 10."

Rob Eure, Romel Hernandez, Michael Ottey,
Steve Woodward and R. Gregory Nokes of The
Oregonian staff contributed to this report.

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

Two Die Using Suicide Law - Reaction (According To 'The Oregonian,'
Robert Castagna Of The Oregon Catholic Council
Noted That The US Justice Department Still Is Reviewing
A Drug Enforcement Administration Opinion That Using A Lethal Medication
Violates Medical Practices)

The Oregonian
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Letters to editor:
letters@news.oregonian.com
Web: http://www.oregonian.com/

March 26, 1998

Two die using suicide law - Reaction

Intensity about the issue hasn't faded since the vote

By Romel Hernandez
and Rob Eure
of The Oregonian staff

The news that the Oregon Death With Dignity
Act has finally been used brought intense reaction
Wednesday, demonstrating the passions of
activists on both sides of two bitter political
campaigns to make doctor-assisted suicide legal.

Voters first approved the measure in 1994, then
overwhelmingly a second time last fall after a
repeal referral from the Legislature. The act is the
world's first law to make doctor-assisted suicide
legal.

Dr. Gregory Hamilton, a
psychiatrist and president
of Physicians for
Compassionate Care, which
opposes assisted suicide,
said he "profoundly grieved
for the woman who died,
for her family, for my
profession and for all of
America."

"This is a terrible thing
because people's lives are
no longer being equally
valued," he said. "Suicide
doesn't take place in a
vacuum, and when a doctor
writes a prescription for
them to use to kill
themselves, they are
agreeing that that person's
life is no longer as valuable
as the lives of the rest of
us."

Dr. Peter Goodwin, a proponent of the law,
expressed satisfaction that the assisted-suicide
process appears to have worked for the two
Oregonians.

"One always regrets the death of anybody, but if
this was the patient's wish and the patient's desire,
and the patient had an easy death and was spared
a lot of suffering and loss of dignity, then
obviously it was a good thing," said Goodwin,
medical director for Compassion in Dying.

Roman Catholic Archbishop John Vlazny of
Portland, whose church spent millions attempting
to stop the law, did not return phone calls
Wednesday. Instead, his office issued a brief
statement noting that the news saddened him.

"The suicide of this elderly woman can only bring
anguish to those who have resisted" the new law,
Vlazny said.

Robert Castagna of the Oregon Catholic Council
said: "We can only regret her death and pray for
her soul as well as our own. This is a tragic day
for Oregon and our nation."

Castagna said opponents of the law still hope to
have it outlawed and noted that the U.S. Justice
Department still is reviewing a Drug Enforcement
Administration opinion that using a lethal
medication violates medical practices. He said
opponents think this is their hope of stopping the
law now.

Supporters of the law saw the Wednesday
developments as a landmark.

"Hooray for the people of Oregon," said Faye
Girsh, executive director of the Hemlock Society,
now based in Colorado. "I'm in awe. This is an
historic moment."

Many people are looking to Oregon to see how
this is going to work. And it's going to work fine. .
. . There will be many others now."

Derek Humphry, a co-founder of the Hemlock
Society but no longer a member, said the first
public use of the law is "an important piece of
social history for the nation."

"I'm sorry for this woman's death," said
Humphry, author of "Final Exit" the best-selling
suicide guide, "but I am glad she was able to take
advantage of this law and demonstrate to other
people who might wish to use it that it works."

Gov. John Kitzhaber had no comment, said his
aide, Bob Applegate. "I don't know if he should
or not," Applegate said. He said it's "a confidential
issue" involving "a person exercising a right under
the law."

But the public's need for information is a key
element, said Courtney Campbell, an Oregon
State University philosophy professor specializing
in ethics. Campbell said he was troubled by the
lack of details about the death.

"If we're trying to ensure that this is a procedure
that can be regulated without abuse, we need to
know what's working, what's not and who's
involved," he said. "We need to make sure this
law is being carried out in good faith."

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

Both Cases Followed Letter Of Suicide Law (Another 'Oregonian' Article
About The First Two Deaths Under The State's Unique Assisted-Suicide Law
Allowing Physicians To Prescribe Lethal Drugs)

The Oregonian
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Letters to editor:
letters@news.oregonian.com
Web: http://www.oregonian.com/

March 26, 1998

Both cases followed letter of suicide law

The process took months for the two terminally ill
people who died using the Death With Dignity Act

By Steve Woodward
of The Oregonian staff

The two known, terminally ill Oregonians who
died this month from self-administered drug
overdoses spent months crossing T's and dotting
I's to conform with Oregon's Death With Dignity
Act.

"It's been appropriately difficult," Barbara
Coombs Lee, a leading champion of the law, said
Wednesday. "We didn't intend it to be easy."

Both patients met the law's
first criteria: Both were at
least 18 years old, both
were Oregon residents, and
both had physicians who
determined they had less
than six months to live.

To start the official Death
With Dignity process,
eligible patients must tell
their doctor that they want
the medication necessary to
hasten their own deaths.
Once the clock begins
ticking, the patient can
receive the medicine in as
few as 15 days.

The doctor, at that point,
has three basic choices:
refuse the request outright,
try to find alternatives, or grant the request.

The woman who died Tuesday went through
variations of all three scenarios. Her first doctor
was "not interested in participating," Lee said. Her
second doctor was not opposed to aid-in-dying
but was "not actually willing to meet her needs as
she saw it." Her third doctor, a family
practitioner, wrote the lethal prescription.

After agreeing to work with a patient, the
attending physician must refer him or her to a
second physician. That physician must concur
that the diagnosis is correct, that the patient has
less than six months to live, that the patient is
mentally competent to make the request and that
the request is voluntary.

If the patient is suspected of having a mental
illness that impaired the decision, he or she will be
referred to a psychologist or a psychiatrist. The
woman with breast cancer, for example,
underwent a psychiatric evaluation, Lee said.

Once the doctors agree the patient is acting
voluntarily, the patient must make a written
request for lethal medication. The state provides a
standard form that asks for patient information
such as name, disease and whether family
members are informed.

The written request must be signed and witnessed
by two people. Neither of the witnesses can be
the patient's doctor. One witness can't be a
relative, an heir or someone connected with a
health care facility in which the patient lives or is
being treated. Both witnesses must testify that the
individual appears to be making the decision
voluntarily and rationally.

The patient then must wait at least 48 hours after
the written request and at least 15 days after the
oral request before making the second, and final,
oral request for a lethal prescription. The doctor
then must offer the patient the chance to change
his or her mind.

According to a current emergency rule issued by
the Oregon Board of Pharmacy, the physician
must note on the written prescription that the
medication is intended for use in accordance with
the Death With Dignity Act. The pharmacist,
under state law, must counsel the patient on the
use and dangers of the medication.

Once the patient accepts the medication, the
patient is free to proceed however he or she
wants. The patient can take the medicine or not,
die surrounded by loved ones or alone, take the
medicine immediately or wait.

Once a year, the Oregon Health Division must
issue a statistical report on physician-assisted
suicides under the law. But division managers say
they may issue a report earlier, once they have 10
cases or enough cases to disguise the specific
identities of the patients.

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

Judge Rejects Man's 'Prescription' For Medicinal Marijuana
('Monterey County Herald' Says Charles Palmer Of Las Lomas,
California, Who Grew Medical Marijuana In His Front Yard
To Ease His Hepatitis C Symptoms, Was Convicted Wednesday
And Ordered To Serve 90 Days In Jail Beginning April 17
Because His Doctors Refused To Officially Recommend Cannabis,
Fearing Reprisal From The Federal Government)

Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 18:41:59 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: Judge Rejects Man's 'Prescription' for Medicinal Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Joel W. Johnson (jwjohnson@mapinc.org)
Source: The Monterey County Herald (CA)
Contact: mheditor@montereyherald.com
Fax: 408-655-2749
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Author: Virgina Hennessey

JUDGE REJECTS MAN'S 'PRESCRIPTION' FOR MEDICINAL MARIJUANA

Must serve 90 days in jail.

Charles Palmer says he grew marijuana in the front yard of his Las Lomas
home to ease his hepatitis C symptoms.

Doctors agree he has the liver disease. They also agree marijuana may
offer relief from his nausea and chronic pain.

They won't, however, write him a prescription.

Palmer says the doctors have told him their hands are tied because federal
authorities have threatened to prosecute and revoke the medical licenses of
any doctor who prescribes medical marijuana.

As a result, Palmer was ordered Wednesday to serve 90 days in jail,
beginning April 17.

Palmer, 45, pleaded guilty in December to a negotiated misdemeanor charge
of possession of marijuana. He was sentenced in January to three years of
probation and 90 days in jail, but Superior Court Judge Jonathan Price said
he would review the case if Palmer returned to court with a doctor's
prescription or recommendation.

Passed by voters in 1996, Proposition 215 made it legal for people with a
doctor's recommendation to possess and grow small amount of marijuana for
medicinal purposes.

The law has attracted the wrath of federal authorities and, in some cases,
local law enforcement.

On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in San Francisco asked U.S. District Judge
Charles Breyera to order the closure of all of California's medical
marijuana clinics because they violate federal laws. Breyera indicated he
will not rule until after April 16.

That same day, the co-founder of San Jose's medical marijuana clinic, Peter
Baez, was arrested for allegedly selling marijuana to a client who did not
have a prescription. Baez and other employees of the clinic, which
previously had been allowed to operate untouched by local authorities,
maintain they had proper documentation from the client.

Palmer went to court Wednesday hoping that he, too, had proper
documentation. Appearing with his attorney, Deputy Public Defender Enrique
Martinez, he presented to Price a letter from Dr. Arnold Leff, medical
adviser to WAMM -- Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana -- in Santa
Cruz.

Leff wrote that he'd confirmed Palmer's condition and symptoms and said the
"nausea he describes as well as his symptoms of chronic pain are very
possibly relieved by marijuana."

"It might also be relieved by a couple of quarts of scotch," retorted
Deputy District Attorney Bob Hatton -- a remark that angered Palmer, who
noted later that drinking scotch in his condition would likely kill him.

Price said the letter did not qualify as a recommendation or prescription
and said he had no option but to impose the previous 90-day sentence.

He said he had already shown Palmer leniency by placing him on probation.
Because of a long history, Palmer was statutorily ineligible for probation,
but Price ruled his case was "unusual."

Price gave Palmer three weeks to arrange to serve his term on home
confinement. The Las Lomas man, who supports himself by painting addresses
on curbs for $5 a shot, says that is a luxury he cannot afford. Prisoners
on home confinement are charged about $10 day for the privilege.

"We don't have $900," said Cynthia Tipton, Palmer's live-in girlfriend.
"Do you know what three months in jail is going to do to him?"

Tipton said Palmer, who has no medical insurance, has been controlling the
disease with diet, keeping his appetite up by smoking pot to quell the
nausea.

In court Wednesday, Palmer said blood tests performed by his primary
physician confirmed that the high-calorie diet was working in controlling
the disease.

Neither Palmer's diet nor the medicinal pot will be available to him in
jail, Tipton said.

"I expected to get some kind of justice," Palmer said after the
proceedings, "and it really didn't happen."

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

Bill To End Ban On Smoking In Bars Killed ('San Francisco Chronicle'
Notes California State Senator Diane Watson, A Democrat From Los Angeles
Who Chairs The California Senate Health And Human Services Committee,
Yesterday Single-Handedly Killed A Bill To End
California's Unique Prohibition On Smoking In Bars)

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 10:42:31 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: Bill to End Ban on Smoking in Bars Killed
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Frank S. World" 
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Author: Greg Lucas, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau

BILL TO END BAN ON SMOKING IN BARS KILLED

Veteran lawmaker decides proposal won't leave committee

After a few angry digs at a fellow legislator and the tobacco industry, a
veteran state senator yesterday used her power as a committee chair to
single-handedly kill a bill to end California's ban on smoking in bars.

Since it went into effect January 1, the ban on smoking in bars and card
clubs has whipped up strong feelings on both sides.

Anti-smoking advocates hail it as a national model for protecting
nonsmokers from the dangers of inhaling second-hand smoke. Opponents of the
smoking ban say it hurts their business.

But Senator Diane Watson, D- Los Angeles, chair of the Senate Health and
Human Services Committee, bought none of the arguments pitched by those
favoring the bill to end the ban.

After two-and-a-half hours of testimony during which the author of the bill
never showed up, Watson unilaterally decided there would be no vote on the
bill, it would just stay in limbo, trapped in her committee.

``The author has not come. The tobacco industry has not come,'' Watson
said. ``The evidence is in. This bill will stay with the committee. I don't
think we need to bring it up again.

``I think the author needs to get over it and get on with his life,'' she
concluded.

Assemblyman Ed Vincent, D- Inglewood, had asked Watson to postpone a
hearing on his bill until July. Watson refused saying the issue was too
important to postpone.

Vincent declined to comment after the apparent death of the bill. Attorney
General Dan Lungren, a GOP candidate for governor, also weighed in on the
hot-button issue yesterday.

Although he opposes the smoking bill heard yesterday because it restricts
some of the powers of the attorney general, Lungren said if he were
governor he would sign a bill to allow smoking to resume in the state's
roughly 37,300 bars or bar-restaurants.

``I think there ought to be some leeway on bars,'' Lungren told reporters
yesterday before the hearing. ``What are we going to do with some of these
folks -- stamp big T's on their foreheads, the new scarlet letter?

``I would sign a bill that would allow some flexibility so that you could
smoke in bars. That's controversial, what the hell. While they're drinking
themselves to death, let them have a cigarette. With the death penalty you
used to allow someone one last smoke.''

A spokesman for Lungren said opposition to the smoking bill was being
``re-evaluated'' because passage of legislation late last year might have
ended Lungren's objections.

Vincent's bill would allow smoking to resume in bars beginning January 1,
1999 and continue until January 1, 2001.

If state or federal workplace safety agencies create ventilation standards
to remove the dangers of nonsmokers inhaling secondhand smoke, smoking
could continue after that date. No standards, no puffing.

Backers of the bill included the California Commerce casino in Southern
California, the largest card club in the state.

``Commerce Club has 200 fewer employees than we had in 1997,'' said Rod
Blonien, the card club's lobbyist. ``We can't say the nine, 10 percent
decline is due to smoking but we believe the bulk is due to smoking.''

Tom O'Rourke, owner of The Nutty Irishman in Santa Rosa, said he has laid
off two of his employees because of the ban.

``Their tips are down,'' O'Rourke told the committee. ``All we ask is the
right to put up a sign.''

On the opposing side, Tom Rankin of the California Labor Federation AFL-CIO
said the ban should stay in place.

``Second hand smoke harms whoever happens to inhale it,'' Rankin said.
``Our job is to protect the health and safety of the workers of California.

Vincent's bill is not the only measure aimed at restoring smoking in bars.

Assemblyman Brett Granlund, R-Yucaipa, has a bill that would allow bars
with five or fewer employees to permit smoking -- so long as employees who
enter smoking areas voluntarily agree to do so.

The bill would also allow smoking to resume in any workplace where all of
the employees -- part time or full time -- say smoking is OK with them.

1998 San Francisco Chronicle

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

Washington State Prison Population (List Subscriber Posts URL
Where Weekly Body Count Is Posted)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 13:50:23 -0800 (PST)
From: Turmoil 
To: SCN User 
Subject: Re: HT: [stanford@crrh.org: RE: HB 2772]
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Washington State prison population is updated weekly at
http://www.wa.gov/doc/pop.htm -

Peace

Turmoil

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

March To End Prohibition (Seattle Activists To Sponsor 'First Monday'
Demonstrations Beginning 6 PM May 4, Continuing Monthly Through November)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 14:20:29 -0800 (PST)
From: Turmoil 
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net
Subject: HT: March To End prohibition
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Several of us (Darral, Eve, Allison, Robert and myself) are in the
advanced planning stages of a series of protest marches titled:

March to End Prohibition.

These Marches will happen the first Monday of every month at 6PM starting
in May and continuing through and including November. This is a
preliminary announcement and is intended to solicit comments and
suggestions. Specifically we are looking for feedback on potential march
locations, speakers for the marches, as well as interested volunteers to
help coordinate.

Each March has a theme, and we will want help with costumes, street
theatre or speakers that match the March's theme.

We plan to do these Marches without amplified music and attempting to not
disrupt traffic. This should allow is to do these without getting any type
of permit or permission. We want these marches to be fun, colorful,
creative and educational. We are not planning any civil-disobedience.

We do intend to have lot's of banners and signs and costumes and street
theatre. We also plan to be armed with large amounts of educational
materials, flyers and, of course, petitions for folks to sign.

We have set April 13th as a date to have March locations finalized.
And are looking to have the first press releases go out April 27th.
Separate press releases will be delivered for each of the themes.
The idea is to have a "story" for each March. We also should have flyers
available my the middle of April.

So, I am opening this up to discussion from anyone on the list that would
like to contribute. Any ideas, suggestions or offers of help are very much
appreciated. All of us involved so far have numerous other projects and
duties, as well as being bound by the sad fact that days only have 24
hours. What I am trying to say that your imput and energy is welcome and
needed.

Below, you will find the first tentative schedule, with the Theme of each
March, as well as the proposed route.

March to End Prohibition -

First Monday of the Month at 6PM

May 4th - Meet at Westlake Mall and March to Space Needle
THEME- History of Prohibition

June 1st - Meet at ? March to Myrtle Edwards Park -
THEME - Global Days against the Drug War
(we are looking at ideas to co-ordinate this with the National action that
will be taking place the same week.)

July 6th - Meet at Hammering Man - March to Harbor Steps
THEME - INDEPENDENCE from prohibition

August 3rd - Meet at Alki Statue of Liberty - march along Alki
THEME - Family's March to End Prohibition

Sept 7th (labor day) Meet at Denny Park - march to ?
THEME - POW - Prison Labor Days
Bumbershoot is going on this day and we have discussed marching around the
perimeter of Bumbershoot.

Oct 5th - Meet at Harborview march to Swedish ?
THEME Medical Marijuana

Nov 2nd - Meet at King County Court House march to Pioneer Square -
THEME November march to end Prohibition
We will be working to co-ordinate this March with our friends, The
November Coalition

I hope I didn't forget anything we wanted to include in this. Thank you
very much for any input and assistance you would like to provide.

music@hemp.net
Seattle Music Web
turmoil@hemp.net
http://seattlemusicweb.com

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

US Customs Blitzes Border In Drug Hunt ('Seattle Times'
Says Crackdown On Illegal Cannabis Smuggling At Canadian Border
Is Creating Long Lines And Delays - Customs Is Using More Drug-Sniffing Dogs,
Pulling More Cars Over For Inspections, And Staging More Blitzes
In Which Every Car Is Pulled Over, But Where Once Officials Could Spot
A Suspicious Car Fairly Easily, They Say That's No Longer The Case -
Even Now, Fewer Than 2 Percent Of The 10,000 Cars Crossing The Border
Through The Peace Arch Each Day Are Pulled Over)

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 12:19:17 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US WA: Customs Blitzes Border In Drug Hunt
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Alan Randell
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Author: Susan Gilmore Seattle Times staff reporter

U.S. CUSTOMS BLITZES BORDER IN DRUG HUNT

BLAINE, Whatcom County - There was little reason to notice an elderly
Canadian couple crossing the border into Lynden last month.

But when their car was pulled over by U.S. Customs workers as part of a
drug-enforcement "block blitz," 20 pounds of high-grade Canadian-grown
marijuana was found in their trunk.

Officials weren't entirely surprised. Since U.S. Customs initiated its
tough new border emphasis in December, they've made dozens of marijuana
busts - many from unlikely suspects like the elderly couple.

Along with the busts have come longer lines of cars at the border - waits
that on weekends can stretch for two hours at the Peace Arch crossing in
Blaine.

Even on a weekday morning this week, the line was 45 minutes long, with
only two of the station's seven lanes open.

The new drug policy "contributes to slower traffic, absolutely," said
Eugene Kerven, Customs port director, who also blamed the traffic slowdowns
on a shortage of Customs workers. "We just don't have the bodies to open
lanes; that's just the way it is," he said.

He said the new drug emphasis, called the Customs' "brass ring" policy,
stems from the fact that narcotics enforcement has become the federal
agency's top priority.

Since January, there have been 29 arrests at the border, said Sgt. Steve
DeFries, with the Northwest Regional Drug Task Force, which is run through
the Whatcom County Sheriff's Office.

DeFries said that when he took over the drug task force in 1994 he rarely
got a referral from Customs. "Now it's not unusual to get three to five a
week," he said. "Luckily for us most of the (marijuana) is destined for
Southern California."

What's triggering the increase, say police and U.S. Customs officials, is
the popularity of B.C.-grown marijuana, which has a high level of THC, the
active ingredient in marijuana.

DeFries said a pound of the marijuana can be purchased in Canada for as
little as $1,500 in U.S. funds, but can sell for $3,500 in Seattle and
$6,000 by the time it gets to Southern California.

"The money goes north, the marijuana goes south," DeFries said. "It used to
be a half-pound was a lot of marijuana. Now 50 to 100 pounds is not
unusual."

To combat drug trafficking, Customs is using more drug-sniffing dogs, is
pulling more cars over for inspections, and is staging the blitzes in which
every car - for a short period of time - is pulled over.

Where once officials could spot a suspicious car fairly easily, they say
that's no longer the case.

Among others arrested recently was a couple with young children in the back
seat of their car, a duffel bag full of marijuana between them.

"I started in the late 1970s," said Jay Brandt, a Customs official at the
Blaine truck crossing. "We knew who we were looking for in narcotics
enforcement. We can't do it any more."

He also said people are not even trying to hide the contraband, assuming
they'll pass through the border unchecked.

Brandt said that's one reason why the lines are so slow - workers have to
take time to inspect the cars they pull over.

"We have to dedicate more resources to the secondary inspection process,"
he said, "but I hesitate to say we're catching it all." He said less than 2
percent of the 10,000 cars that pass through the Peace Arch each day are
pulled over.

Drivers who are apprehended risk having their cars seized. To get around
that, they often drive rented or leased cars, DeFries said.

"They're not stupid," DeFries said. "They know if they drive their fancy
Porsche, they'll lose it, so they don't drive it. They drive a throw-away
car. It's the price of doing business; they lose the junker."

Those arrested are generally people hired to bring drugs across the border,
he said.

In the case of the elderly couple, he said, a police report showed they
planned to park their car at a shopping center in Bellingham and that when
they returned to it an hour later the marijuana would be gone.

He said one problem in slowing the drug traffic is that the penalty is so
small. "The organization that controls marijuana growing knows the law only
allows 90 days for a marijuana possession case," DeFries said. "It's just
the cost of doing business. Their couriers don't mean anything, they're
expendible."

Certainly it's not just the drug inspections that are slowing traffic.

While the depressed Canadian dollar almost stopped southbound border
traffic from Canadians, that's picked up in recent weeks, Customs officials
say.

With gas selling for 96 cents a gallon in Blaine, some cross just to fill
their tanks.

Lew Moore, aide to U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, who represents the border
community in Whatcom County, said he's been meeting with B.C. officials
recently to discuss the border problems. In fact, at a meeting last week
the B.C. official was late - held up at the border.

Canadian officials say they aren't feeling the same border squeeze because
they aren't finding marijuana being smuggled north. But officials say they
are picking up significant seizures of cocaine heading north.

In December, seven drug users died in the Vancouver area after ingesting
unusually potent cocaine brought in from the U.S.

As for the long lines on the southbound border, little relief is expected
any time soon. But officials do offer tips:

-- Take a different crossing from Canada, where lines invariably are
shorter. They include the truck crossing at Blaine, the crossing at Lynden
or the crossing at Sumas, all in Whatcom County.

-- Timing is the key. Generally, the worst traffic is between 11 a.m. and 4
p.m. weekdays and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. This week was particularly
bad because of spring vacations in B.C.

-- Motorists who cross the border frequently can apply for a $25 PACE
sticker, which allows them to use a special lane. But getting a sticker
requires a background check and can take up to six months for processing.

Bob Burden, a tourist from England, was waiting in a long line Tuesday,
anxious about getting to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in time to
catch his plane home. "I'd gladly pay $25 to get there now," he said.

Susan Gilmore's phone message number is 206-464-2054. Her e-mail
address is: sugi-new@seatimes.com

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

Drug Tests - Presumed Guilty (Letter To Editor Of 'Des Moines Register'
Opposes Iowa's New Law Subjecting Individuals To Forced Drug Testing
By Private Employers)

Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 11:21:07 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: US IA: PUB LTE: Drug tests: Presumed guilty
Cc: maptalk@mapinc.org
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Carl E. Olsen" http://www.commonlink.com/~olsen/
Source: Des Moines Register
Contact: letters@news.dmreg.com
Contact: http://www.dmregister.com/letter.html
Website: http://www.dmregister.com/
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Editor's note: Our published letter writer, Patrick, is a frequent visitor
to the MAP discussion room on Saturday and Sunday evenings. Join us at:
http://www.mapinc.org/chat/

OPINION - THE REGISTER'S READERS SAY

DRUG TESTS: PRESUMED GUILTY

Thanks very much for going directly to the Fourth Amendment in criticizing
Iowa's new "law" subjecting individuals to forced drug testing by employers
to keep their jobs (March 16 editorial). Your pointing out the double
standard between private- and public-sector employees is well taken.

However, it is not the worst thing about this bill. The worst thing is
that, regardless of the details, it purports to legalize aggression and
requires Iowans to prove their innocence in order to be left alone to live
normal lives.

It is greatly to be hoped that many, many employees in Iowa will summarily,
and preemptively, inform their employers that they will under no
circumstances submit to drug testing, will leave "en masse" in sympathy
with the first employee who is fired either for testing "positive," or,
better yet, for refusing to be tested, and that they will provide financial
and strategic support to any lawsuits, federal if necessary, which such an
employee might choose to pursue.

-- Patrick L. Lilly, 9 Normandy Cir., Colorado Springs, Colo.

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

Supreme Court Says State Can Take Car Of Man Who Pleaded To Marijuana Charges
('Associated Press' Says New Hampshire Supreme Court Ruled Forfeiture
Doesn't Constitute Double Jeopardy, Since It Is 'Mostly A Civil Penalty')

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 13:43:54 -0800 (PST)
From: pcehthns@scn.org (SCN User)
To: hemp-talk@hemp.net, jimg@scn.org
Subject: HT: Forfeiture law appeals lost/ NH pot case
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

-- Begin forwarded message --

From: wmpig@persephone.hampshire.edu (Prison Connections)
To: november-l@november.org (Multiple recipients of list)
Subject: Forfeiture law appeals lost/ NH pot case
Date: Thu, 26 Mar

Supco says state can take car of man who pleaded to marijuana
charges

Associated Press, 03/26/98

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Nothing in the state constitution prevents the
state from taking the car of a man sentenced to prison on a marijuana
charge, the state Supreme Court ruled today.

Richard Falardeau was arrested in 1995 after police found about a pound
of marijuana and less than a gram of hashish in his 1994 Chevrolet
Caprice.

Falardeau pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana with intent to sell
and was sentenced to two to four years in state prison. His sentence
was deferred on condition he complete the ``shock'' prison boot camp
program.

State prosecutors later filed a petition to seize Falardeau's car,
saying he should forfeit the Caprice because it was used to conceal and
transport illegal drugs.

Falardeau argued that taking his car would be a second punishment for
the same crime. Being punished twice is forbidden under the ``double
jeopardy'' clauses of the state and federal constitutions.

Superior Court Judge Douglas Gray ruled in Falardeau's favor.

However, the state's highest court overturned that ruling today, saying
the state's forfeiture law was mostly a civil penalty, not a criminal
punishment, and therefore couldn't be counted as double jeopardy for a
crime.

``While forfeiture may contain some punitive aspects ... the statute
serves important nonpunitive goals by `encouraging property owners to
take care in managing their property and ensuring that they will not
permit that property to be used for illegal purposes,''' the unanimous
decision said.

The forfeiture petition was sent back to the lower court for a final
ruling.

Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company

***

PRISON CONNECTIONS: Prison Activism in New England (USA)

PO Box 3328, Amherst, MA 01004

wmpig@persephone.hampshire.edu

http://persephone.hampshire.edu/wmpig/prisoncon.html

Prison-related Event Listings *Alerts* Links

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

The Children Clinton Neglects (Syndicated Columnist Steve Chapman
In 'The Chicago Tribune' Laments The Children Who Will Die Of AIDS
Because President Clinton Refuses To Act On Needle Exchange)

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 18:52:59 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US IL: OPED: The Children Clinton Neglects
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Steve Young
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Section: 1, page 21
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Author: Steve Chapman

THE CHILDREN CLINTON NEGLECTS

We know Bill Clinton cares deeply about children because he tells us so.
Hardly a day goes by that he doesn't unveil some new program to improve the
lot of the little ones. Just this week, he's been in Africa proclaiming his
determination to help even kids living half a world away "because we want
to see the light that is in these children's eyes forever, and in the eyes
of all other children."

Well, maybe not all other children. Back here in America, hundreds of kids
are born every year infected with the virus that causes AIDS. The president
has the power to take action that would prevent many of these infections
and save the lives of a lot of children who have not yet been born. But
year after year, he has refused to lift a finger on their behalf.

Once known as a gay men's disease, AIDS is increasingly an affliction of
drug users. Every day, 33 Americans are infected with the virus because
they use a contaminated syringe to inject themselves with illicit drugs--or
because they are the sexual partners or the offspring of someone who did.
The most tragic cases are the infants. Between July 1996 and June 1997, 552
babies emerged from the womb already infected by their mothers. Most of the
mothers either used drugs intravenously or had sex with a user.

Hard-hearted types can say that gay men are to blame when they contract
AIDS through unsafe sex or that heroin addicts are to blame when they use
dirty needles to do something that is against the law. But they can't very
well blame newborns for getting the disease. Infants are in no position to
take preventive measures. If they're to be spared the virus, someone else
has to take preventive measures for them.

The simplest one is a blindingly obvious idea known as needle exchange.
AIDS activists have found that if you give drug users access to sterile
syringes, lo and behold, many decide they would really prefer not to risk
their lives just to get high. Needle-exchange programs let them trade their
old, dirty needles for new, sterile ones, thus preventing the virus from
making the jump from one addict to another.

These programs have been around for more than a decade, and a wealth of
experience has proven their value. In 1995, a panel of experts commissioned
by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that "well-implemented
needle-exchange programs can be effective in preventing the spread of HIV
and do not increase the use of illegal drugs." Last year, a report issued
by the National Institutes of Health said, "There is no longer any doubt
that these programs work."

A 1997 study in Montreal is cited by critics because it found that one
needle-exchange program appeared to raise the HIV transmission rate. But
the scientists who conducted the study said it should not be interpreted as
evidence that needle exchange doesn't help. And the American Journal of
Epidemiology, which published their report, accompanied it with an
editorial saying that what drug users in Montreal need "is not less needle
exchange, but more."

The issue has been settled beyond serious doubt. Yet this is how much the
federal government spends on AIDS prevention every year: $634 million. And
this is how much of the money goes to finance needle exchange: zero.

The law says federal funds cannot be used in these programs--unless the
president wants them to. As of April 1, all he has to do is direct his
Health and Human Services secretary, Donna Shalala, to certify that needle
exchanges slow HIV transmission and do not encourage drug use--to certify,
in short, what everybody knows. The president's own advisory council on
AIDS recently urged him to lift the ban. White House AIDS adviser Sandra
Thurman agrees.

But with each new call for him to show some courage, the president has
remained in hiding. An HHS spokesman says Shalala is still reviewing the
scientific evidence. That makes about as much sense as reviewing who won
the 1998 Super Bowl: You can rerun the videotape as many times as you want,
but the score always comes out the same. Apparently her review won't be
done until Jan. 20, 2001, at which point it will become someone else's
headache.

Why is the administration stalling? Partly because the president doesn't
want to give Republicans a chance to portray him as soft on drugs. And
partly because he doesn't want to have to overrule White House drug czar
Barry McCaffrey. Gen. McCaffrey thinks funding needle exchange would give
kids the idea that we don't really object to drug use--which is like saying
that allowing alcoholics to get treated for liver ailments under Medicaid
amounts to an endorsement of drunkenness.

Clinton clearly would like to be remembered as the president who did more
than any other to help children. But when it comes to the kids whose lives
could have been saved by needle-exchange programs, he will be remembered
for doing nothing.

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

Moyers Finds Hope In Fight Against Addiction ('New York Times'
Uncritically Plugs Bill Moyers Television Documentary Series
On His Son's Experiences With Polydrug Abuse, 'Close To Home,'
To Begin Sunday)

Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 19:49:24 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: US; NYT: Moyers Finds Hope in Fight Against Addiction
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "Dick Evans" 
Source: The New York Times
Author: Walter Goodman
Pubdate: Thursday, 26 March 1998
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/

'CLOSE TO HOME': MOYERS FINDS HOPE IN FIGHT AGAINST ADDICTION

IF there is such an anomaly as an Enlightenment televangelist, it is Bill
Moyers, who brings to his documentaries a preacher's zeal for spreading the
gospel of progress.

Never has this spirit been more impassioned than in his new series, "Moyers
on Addiction: Close to Home," which finds him bearing the good news that
addiction can be beaten if society learns to treat it as a disease, not as
a moral failing.

Moyers comes to that conviction through painful experience. His oldest son,
William Cope Moyers, fought the hard fight against alcohol and drugs and
has apparently recovered, or is in recovery, as therapists take care to put
it. The family's battle inspired this five-part series.

The devil here takes the form not only of the drugs but of injunctions to
"Just say no!" Moyers told a congressional committee this week that people
of good character, like his son, are not immune to the disease of addiction
and that beating it demands not only willpower but professional
understanding and attention to addiction's physical and social causes.
Viewers may feel they are tuned into one side of a clash between religious
sects. To Moyers' credit, he offers reporting along with the exhortations.
Sunday's dramatic opening hour, "Portrait of Addiction," is given entirely
to nine recovered or recovering addicts who tell of falling in love with
alcohol, cocaine or heroin. They describe the feelings of well-being, of
euphoria that captured them and the resultant craving and dependence that
held them in thrall.

Moyers is not much heard from, but in the directness and vividness of the
testimonies you can detect the skill of his interviewing, as well as the
years of therapy in which the confessions have been honed. The explanations
for what finally forced these people into therapy sound like religious
conversions: They realized they were losing control of their lives and
sought and happily found help, from a church, a friend, a group like
Alcoholics Anonymous. The point is made repeatedly that few addicts can
cure themselves, but no one can do it for them. A therapist tells a joke:
"How many counselors does it take to change a light bulb? Only one, but the
light bulb has to want to change."

Sunday's second hour calls attention to tantalizing research on the
workings of the brain. Much is still cloudy about how addiction gets
started and progresses, but the assumption behind laboratory studies, as
behind this program, is that the body has its reasons. "This is the best of
times," one researcher announces. "We know more than we ever knew."
Monday's program moves into therapy and the common problem of relapses, and
Tuesday's turns to the treatment of children. Both have their share of
proselytizing as the camera gives glimpses of salvation through group
sessions, and there is considerable repetition along with the insights into
the struggle for recovery.

Moyers, though a believer, is cautious: "I know from personal experience it
is difficult. It is one of the hardest diseases of all to conquer. When the
person I love and care about came out of 28-day treatment, I was scared. I
wanted him to stay there because he was safe while he was there. And sure
enough, over the next few years, he relapsed twice. It's hard." The final
hour, on Tuesday, is given to advocates for more money for treatment,
including an appearance by the younger Moyers, who, like many of the
anti-drug professionals one meets on television, are recovering addicts.
Their cause is likely to be advanced by the Public Television Outreach
Alliance, which is joining Moyers' campaign to spread the message and draw
in more converts.

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

Tobacco Deal In Congress Deserves Quick Attention ('The Herald' In Everett,
Washington, Wants Congress To Pass Tobacco Legislation
With Prohibitionist Tax Increases 'For The Sake Of Children')

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 12:19:17 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US WA: Editorial: Tobacco Deal In Congress Deserves Quick Attention
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Thu. 26 Mar. 1998
Source: The Herald, Everett, WA, USA
Contact: letters@heraldnet.com
WebPage: http://www.heraldnet.com

TOBACCO DEAL IN CONGRESS DESERVES QUICK ATTENTION

The tobacco deal in Congress isn't dead yet. Its lungs are choked with
black carcinogens. It isn't breathing very well. But fortunately, political
will has the power to revive this historic legislation. Congressional
members have no choice but to put the life back into this tobacco deal for
the sake of children.

In a recent telephone conference, Secretary of Social and Health Services
Donna Shalala said she is convinced this session will end with a
successful, comprehensive package that reduces the power of Big Tobacco.
This legislation is unique because it's easy for the common voter to
understand, it's supported by people from all colors of the political
spectrum, and it's good for the country's health. The only thing lawmakers
against the proposals have going for them is the money lining their pockets
from tobacco companies.

That shouldn't be enough to stave off the will of the people.

Attorneys general from across the country, including Washington's Christine
Gregoire, achieved the landmark success of brokering a deal with all the
major tobacco companies. The AGs' plan hinges upon congressional approval.

In the early stages, many congressional members introduced bills that
punish tobacco companies even more than the AG's original deal. President
Clinton, not to be outdone, proposed his own package of comprehensive
anti-tobacco laws. It looked like a deal stronger than the attorneys' plan
was on the horizon.

Then politics happened.

Tobacco lobbyists are working overtime to protect their precious products.
The tobacco punishing bills are waning.

Now, it looks like a tobacco deal is far from passage. But Secretary
Shalala has hope. She describes the legislative process as a poker game,
not a game of hearts. Things fall apart and then they come back together
again. Voters ought to make sure Shalala's words stand and Congress doesn't
leave this session without historic tobacco legislation.

President Clinton has announced five crucial elements that must be the
framework for a comprehensive tobacco deal. The intent is to assure fewer
children get addicted to tobacco; the FDA as full regulatory jurisdiction
over the manufacturing, marketing and sale of tobacco; tobacco companies
will never repeat their secretive, despicable acts of denying the
addictivness of tobacco and luring young smokers; anti-smoking efforts will
be prevalent in the U.S. as well as foreign countries; tobacco farmers will
receive job retraining and tobacco farming communities will benefit from
economic development projects.

Vice President Al Gore recently announced that an increase of $1.10 a
cigarette pack over five years will cut teenage smoking by an average of 42
percent nationwide. The price increase would also be accompanied by
stricter laws prohibiting tobacco sales to minors and a ban on tobacco
advertising geared toward young people. With those provisions in place,
experts say Washington state will see a 33 to 36 percent reduction in youth
smoking and premature deaths.

That's a lot of kids Congress can save. It's time Congress steps out from
the smoke and mirrors and passes a meaningful, strict package of tobacco
legislation that ends this pitiful era where tobacco reigns.

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

Feinstein Urges Decertification Of Mexico As Ally In War On Drugs
('Los Angeles Times' Says California's Senior Democratic Senator
Is Continuing An Effort She Herself Admits Is Hopeless,
Even Though It Further Strains Feinstein's Relations
With The State's Growing And Powerful Hispanic Community,
As Well As The White House)

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 10:29:00 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: US CA: Feinstein Urges Decertification of Mexico as Ally in War on Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Author: Faye Fiore, Times Staff Writer

FEINSTEIN URGES DECERTIFICATION OF MEXICO AS ALLY IN WAR ON DRUGS

Democratic senator is going against Clinton administration, conceding that
she is likely to fail. She says move is necessary to keep pressure on
southern neighbor.

WASHINGTON--As the U.S. Senate prepares to pass judgment on Mexico's record
in the war on drugs, Sen. Dianne Feinstein is waging a war of her own--one
she fully expects to lose.

California's senior Democratic senator is leading the crusade to strip
Mexico of its recent designation by President Clinton as a comrade in the
global fight against drug trafficking. It is an effort some experts say
will not only fail but also could further strain Feinstein's relations with
the state's growing and powerful Latino community, not to mention put her
at odds with the White House.

So why do it? Even a failed attempt to reverse Clinton's certification of
Mexico as an effective partner in the drug war is necessary to keep
pressure on Mexican officials to do their part, Feinstein insists. Without
the decertification threat, Mexico's meager advances on the drug front will
not improve, she said.

"I have never expected to win this," Feinstein said in an interview
preceding the Senate vote, expected as early as today. "What I expect to do
is keep the pressure up. . . . Cartels are stronger than ever--we will show
this--and there are zero arrests of cartel leaders [in Mexico]. And
everybody knows who they are."

The Clinton administration is required by law to recommend annually whether
to certify Mexico and other countries as full partners in the fight against
drugs, or find them liable for possible economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Feinstein and Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-Ga.) failed in their bid to overturn
last year's certification but won a special review by the administration of
Mexico's drug-fighting efforts. Now they are trying again, arguing that
Mexico has done little to earn the stamp of approval in a drug epidemic
Feinstein calls "a greater threat to American safety than all of organized
crime was in the 1960s."

Armed with an arsenal of charts and statistics, Feinstein intends to
spotlight in the Senate what she sees as Mexico's dismal commitment to
stemming the gushing flow of drugs into this country--particularly
methamphetamines. A surging problem in California, the rampant spread of
methamphetamine labs helped convince Feinstein to stay at Mexico's heels,
her aides said.

California is now considered the main source of the drug for the rest of
the nation, produced primarily with chemicals from across the border. There
were 1,429 methamphetamine lab seizures in California in 1996--an increase
of 61% over the previous year, Feinstein's staff said.

Feinstein is also concerned that the Mexican government has not complied
with U.S. requests for the extradition of 27 nationals wanted in this
country on major drug charges. And she cites State Department statistics
showing that in 1996-97, Mexico's heroin seizures dropped 68%,
methamphetamine seizures fell 77% and seizures of ephedrine--a chemical
used to make methamphetamine--declined 91%.

Despite such numbers, many critics argue that disgracing a neighboring
trade partner with decertification is not the way to solve an intractable
drug problem. Further, critics say that Feinstein is blaming Mexico for a
thriving narcotics market that the United States helped create: There can
be, after all, no flourishing Mexican supply without enthusiastic U.S.
demand. "It's hard for the United States to cast the first stone," said
Rep. Xavier Becerra, a Los Angeles Democrat and chairman of the House
Hispanic Caucus.

And noting that decertification could carry with it trade sanctions,
Becerra said: "The senator has to be aware that to succeed [in her fight]
would have great economic consequences for California. And the last thing
we need to do is to destroy not only diplomacy with one of our most
important world partners but economic relations."

In a vacuum, the decertification issue would be unlikely to dent
Feinstein's image with Latino voters when she faces reelection in 2000. But
with her tough stance on illegal immigration already having alienated some
Latino leaders, her bid to overturn Clinton's certification of Mexico is
not being viewed as the sort of attitude adjustment these Latino leaders
were waiting for.

"In those circles where she has lost support, this might be seen as an
extension of a pattern. Her actions on this are not without a context or a
history," said Isidro D. Ortiz, professor of Chicana and Chicano studies at
San Diego State. Becerra added: "The message out there to anyone who values
the relationship we have with Mexico is that she is turning a cold
shoulder. And there is already a critical mass that believes the senator
has been insensitive to some of the Latino community's concerns."

Feinstein counters that Latinos want the drug flow stopped as much as
anyone. And putting trade concerns before a narcotics epidemic would be a
grave mistake, she warns.

"When I make my remarks on the floor they are based on facts, not on any
kind of bias or prejudice," she said. "I would send the highest kudos to
Mexico if I saw some arrest of the cartels, but they are all flourishing
abondanza."

Feinstein's persistence on the Mexico issue also makes her appear less than
a loyal Democrat to the Clinton administration.

"We share a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, and it is in our best interest
to work with Mexico," said Brian Morton, spokesman for the Office of
National Drug Control Policy. "With all due respect to Sen. Feinstein,
Mexico has made great strides and we hope to continue with those great
strides in the future."

But behind the scenes, some administration officials applaud Feinstein's
protestations. Sources close to the White House say that Feinstein's
continuing criticism is believed to have helped push Mexico to be more
cooperative. One congressional aide added: "She may be seen as an
irritation, but that's all. Decertification won't haunt her."

Copyright Los Angeles Times

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

Senate Fails To Reverse Mexico Drug Ruling ('New York Times'
Says The US Senate Rejected, By A Vote Of 54 To 45, A Bipartisan Reversal
Of The Clinton Administration's Decision To Certify Mexico)

Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 15:03:21 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Senate Fails To Reverse Mexico Drug Ruling
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family 
Source: New York Times news service
Author: Eric Schmitt
Pubdate: Thursday, March 26, 1998

SENATE FAILS TO REVERSE MEXICO DRUG RULING

WASHINGTON -- The Senate upheld on Thursday night the Clinton
administration's decision last month to certify that the Mexican government
is ``fully cooperating'' with the United States in the fight against drug
trafficking.

Senators rejected, by a vote of 54-45, a bipartisan effort to reverse the
administration's decision.

The Senate took the action despite confidential government assessments that
anti-drug efforts by Mexico have not produced significant results, and that
the Mexican military's ties to drug cartels may be much broader than
Mexican authorities have acknowledged.

Mexican officials said that they would not comment on the decision because
they regard the whole process as a unilateral imposition by the United
States. But they noted that the process came under considerable fire in the
debate.

``As always, Mexico stands for cooperation in the drug war and against
recrimination or certification,'' said Leonardo Ffrench, a Foreign Ministry
spokesman.

The Senate vote followed 90 minutes of often passionate debate on both
sides. While closer than some officials thought it would be, the vote was
never really in doubt. No Congress has overturned a White House
certification since such evaluations became an annual ritual in 1986.

The White House strongly opposed the effort to reverse its decision on
Mexico, arguing that such an action would ``send a strong signal of U.S.
loss of confidence in the Mexican government's efforts and lack of U.S.
political will to cooperate meaningfully with Mexico.''

Several senators agreed, and cited efforts by Mexico to pass new laws and
form law-enforcement units and programs to fight drug traffickers.

``If we are going to win the war on drugs, the only way is through
cooperation,'' said Sen. Kay Baily Hutchison, R-Texas. ``Harsh rhetoric
against our neighbor is not the way to do it.''

Sen. Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican, said: ``If we vote to
decertify, are they going to get better? There's a good chance things will
get worse, rather than better.''

Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said the process was outdated and a badly
flawed instrument in gauging a country's progress in fighting drug
trafficking. He said a vote to reverse the finding would be ``misguided
anger, misguided frustration.''

But opponents of the ruling complained that Mexico's efforts were more show
than substance.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., recited a litany of signs that Mexico had
failed to rein in drug trafficking, from falling drug arrests to declining
street prices of drugs. ``Supply overwhelms demand, and prices drop,'' she
said. Sen. Paul Coverdell, R-Ga., said the administration was deluding the
public with false confidence in Mexico. ``We are losing this war and losing
this struggle, and it's not appropriate to say otherwise,'' he said.

The administration has denied certification to Afghanistan, Burma, Nigeria
and Iran. Under the law, the United States must now withhold some foreign
aid and vote against loans these nations seek from development banks.

The administration also decertified Colombia, Pakistan, Paraguay and
Cambodia but waived the penalties.

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

US Sees Deep Mexican Army Ties To Drugs (New York Times News Service
Version In 'Chicago Times')

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 18:52:59 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US: US Sees Deep Mexican Army Ties To Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Steve Young
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Section: 1, page 18
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Author: New York Times News Service

U.S. SEES DEEP MEXICAN ARMY TIES TO DRUGS

For a year the Clinton administration has presented the stunning arrest of
Mexico's drug-enforcement chief as proof of that government's strong will
to fight corruption. But now U.S. analysts have concluded that the case
shows much wider military involvement with drug traffickers than Mexican
authorities have acknowledged.

According to an extensive classified report by the Drug Enforcement
Administration and other intelligence assessments, the arrest last year of
the former official, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, came after secret
meetings between Mexican army officers and Mexico's biggest drug mafia,
officials say.

Exactly what transpired remains unclear. But the officials say there is
growing evidence that military officers discussed a deal to let the drug
gang operate in exchange for huge bribes and that some such arrangement may
have been in place before the gang's leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, died
after extensive plastic surgery last year.

The Gutierrez Rebollo case initially raised fears that he might have passed
sensitive intelligence to members of Carrillo Fuentes' gang. But U.S.
officials say it now points to the possible collusion of military officials
who are central to U.S. drug-enforcement efforts in Mexico.

"The bottom line is that all this goes a lot deeper than we thought," said
one senior official.

If the indications of wider military involvement with traffickers are borne
out, another official said, "it points to much of our work in Mexico being
an exercise in futility."

Some intelligence officials have questioned aspects of the report,
officials said, describing them as speculative. But drug-enforcement
officials presented it to Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and other senior officials
Feb. 6, one year to the day after Gutierrez Rebollo was arrested on the
orders of the Mexican defense minister.

Beyond that, officials say the report has been very closely held because of
the sensitivity of the intelligence and the volatility of the politics that
surround it.

With strong U.S. support, President Ernesto Zedillo brought the military
into law enforcement in 1996 because it was seen as the only alternative to
the country's deeply corrupt police.

A month ago, as part of its annual evaluation of narcotics control efforts
abroad, the administration assured Congress that Mexico was "fully
cooperating." But a Senate discussion of two resolutions to overturn that
endorsement could begin as early as Thursday.

U.S. officials have been reluctant to confront Mexican leaders with their
new assessment. In part, they say, their unease has to do with
still-significant gaps in the story. But they also fear that such a
challenge could imperil largely secret anti-drug programs with which the
CIA and the Pentagon have been trying to build closer ties to a neighboring
army that has long been deeply suspicious of the U.S.

The director of White House drug policy, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, said he
would not discuss the intelligence reports other than to confirm that they
had been scrutinized very closely.

Mexican Defense Ministry officials have angrily denied the few sketchy
reports that have surfaced so far about negotiations between generals and
traffickers.

After Gutierrez Rebollo testified at his trial last September that such
meetings had taken place, military officials acknowledged that several
generals did indeed meet with a top lieutenant of Carrillo Fuentes. But
they insisted that the man had used an alias and that the officers did not
know he was a trafficker.

"The claim that there were any other meetings is false," said Gen. Tomas
Angeles Dauahare, a top aide to the Mexican defense minister. He described
the allegations as "lies, slander and infamy" generated by Gutierrez
Rebollo in an attempt to save himself.

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

Mexican Military Helps Drug Traffickers, US Reports Say
(Lengthier 'New York Times' Version)

Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1998 01:14:31 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Anti-Prohibition Lg 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: NYT,Mexican Military Helps Drug Traffickers, U.S. Reports

The New York Times, March 26, 1998

Mexican Military Helps Drug Traffickers, U.S. Reports Say

By TIM GOLDEN

WASHINGTON -- For a year the Clinton administration
has presented the stunning arrest of Mexico's
drug-enforcement chief as proof of that government's
strong will to fight corruption. But now U.S. analysts
have concluded that the case shows much wider military
involvement with drug traffickers than the Mexican
authorities have acknowledged.

According to an extensive classified report by the Drug
Enforcement Administration and other intelligence
assessments, the arrest last year of the former
official, Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, followed secret
meetings between Mexican army officers and the
country's biggest drug mafia, officials say.

Exactly what transpired remains unclear. But the
officials say there is growing evidence that military
officers discussed a deal to let the drug gang operate
in exchange for huge bribes, and that some such
arrangement may have been in place before the gang's
leader, Amado Carrillo Fuentes, died after extensive
plastic surgery last year.

The Gutierrez Rebollo case initially raised fears that
he might have passed sensitive intelligence to members
of Carrillo Fuentes' gang. But U.S. officials say it
now points to the possible collusion of military
officials who are central to U.S. drug-enforcement
efforts in Mexico.

"The bottom line is that all this goes a lot deeper
than we thought," said one senior official who, like
others, would discuss the report only on condition of
anonymity.

If the indications of wider military involvement with
traffickers are borne out, another official said, "it
points to much of our work in Mexico being an exercise
in futility."

Some intelligence officials have questioned aspects of
the report, officials said, describing them as
speculative. But drug-enforcement officials still
presented it to Attorney General Janet Reno and other
senior officials Feb. 6, one year to the day after
Gutierrez Rebollo was arrested on the orders of the
Mexican defense minister.

Beyond that, officials say the report has been very
closely held, because of the sensitivity of the
intelligence and the volatility of the politics that
surround it.

With strong U.S. support, President Ernesto Zedillo
brought the military into law enforcement in 1996
because it was seen as the only alternative to the
country's deeply corrupt police.

A month ago, as part of its annual evaluation of
narcotics-control efforts abroad, the administration
assured Congress that Mexico was "fully cooperating."
But a Senate discussion of two resolutions to overturn
that endorsement could begin as early as Thursday.

U.S. officials have been reluctant to confront Mexican
leaders with their new assessment. In part, they say,
their unease has to do with still-significant gaps in
the story. But they also fear that such a challenge
could imperil largely secret anti-drug programs with
which both the CIA and the Pentagon have been trying to
build closer ties to a neighboring army that has long
been deeply suspicious of the United States.

The director of White House drug policy, Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, said in an interview that he would not
discuss the intelligence reports other than to confirm
that they had been scrutinized very closely.

"It is my view that the Mexican military's actions,
both internally and publicly, have been to resist
attempts to penetrate them, intimidate them and corrupt
them," he added.

Mexican Defense Ministry officials have angrily denied
the few sketchy reports that have surfaced so far about
negotiations between generals and traffickers. After
Gutierrez Rebollo testified at his trial last September
that such meetings had taken place, military officials
acknowledged that several generals did indeed meet with
a top lieutenant of Carrillo Fuentes, but they insisted
that the man had used an alias and that the officers
did not know he was a trafficker.

"The claim that there were any other meetings is
false," Gen. Tomas Angeles Dauahare, a top aide to the
Mexican defense minister, said in an interview. He
described the allegations as "lies, slander and infamy"
generated by Gutierrez Rebollo in an attempt to save
himself by implicating others.

Until his arrest, Gutierrez Rebollo was one of the
Mexican military's most prominent and respected
commanders. A gruff, bald commander with a thick-set
frame and a bulldog face, his presence suggested a
take-no-prisoners style.

After he was plucked from a regional military command
and named by Zedillo to head the National Institute for
the Combat of Drugs, he was described by McCaffrey as a
soldier "of absolute, unquestioned integrity."

But early last year, just two months after his
appointment, an anonymous caller to the Defense
Ministry -- later identified as Gutierrez Rebello's
driver -- reported that the general was living in a
luxurious Mexico City apartment that had been occupied
by Carrillo Fuentes, the trafficker.

Gutierrez Rebollo may have fought vigorously against
some trafficking gangs, the driver and other officers
testified later, but he carefully avoided Carrillo
Fuentes. In return, they said, the traffickers gave the
general armored cars and encrypted cellular telephones
and paid off some of his subordinates.

Confronted by the defense minister, Gen. Enrique
Cervantes, and several of his aides, Gutierrez Rebollo
angrily denied having done anything wrong. His
daughter, Teresa de Jesus Gutierrez, said he was then
forcibly sedated and bundled off to the Central
Military Hospital.

Twelve days later, Cervantes assembled his commanders
for an extraordinary televised address. Denouncing the
drug-enforcement chief as a turncoat, the minister said
Gutierrez Rebollo had suffered a heart attack when
confronted with evidence of his treason.

In a separate statement, Zedillo said the arrest
confirmed the government's "unshakable determination to
pursue and punish drug trafficking and combat
corruption."

Initially, Mexican officials announced that more than
30 military officers and civilians had been detained.
Over the past year, the armed forces cited the
prosecution of more than half a dozen generals on
drug-related charges as proof of their intolerance of
corruption.

Yet U.S. intelligence and law-enforcement officials
have remained deeply troubled by the Mexican
government's handling of the case.

In several early assessments, they identified
contradictions in the military's account of what was
known about Gutierrez Rebollo's contacts with the
traffickers and why he was arrested. Later, they
collected a considerable body of intelligence
indicating that despite Mexico's denials, several
senior military officers met not once but three times
with the traffickers.

U.S. law-enforcement officials have found that a series
of murders last year have a common characteristic: the
victims were said to have acted as intermediaries
between drug smugglers and the military. Some U.S.
officials say that when Gutierrez Rebollo was arrested
and hospitalized, the military intended to kill him and
then announce that he had died of diabetes or heart
trouble. Others, including some intelligence officials,
discount that.

Although the analysts still have only partial theories
about the results of the reported negotiations between
the traffickers and the military, two officials said
the intelligence reports had turned up nothing to
refute a chilling account they heard from an informant
even before Gutierrez Rebollo's arrest: that the
officers were negotiating for a bribe of $60 million or
more, in return for the protection of Carrillo Fuentes'
drug operations.

According to these officials, the intelligence reports
say Gutierrez Rebollo attended the first such meeting
in the fall of 1996, shortly before he took charge of
the nation's anti-drug effort. Others present
reportedly included two senior generals and Carrillo
Fuentes' lieutenant.

A second meeting took place in Mexico City in early
January 1997, the officials said, and the military
representatives again included the two senior officers
and the army's powerful chief of staff, Gen. Juan
Humberto Salinas Altes.

U.S. officials say a third meeting, on Jan. 12, was the
one that Defense Ministry officials have acknowledged
took place at their headquarters between Eduardo
Gonzalez Quirarte, who is Carrillos Fuentes'
lieutenant, and four generals and a colonel. Mexican
military officials said the encounter was set up by two
private lawyers; an attorney for Gutierrez Rebollo said
the lawyers actually worked for Zedillo's military
staff, an allegation the government denies.

In his testimony at his trial last fall, Gutierrez
Rebollo said the third of three meetings actually took
place Jan. 14. And last summer the Mexico City news
magazine Proceso published a military intelligence
document with that date that appears to refer to
Carrillo by his initials.

"A.C. does not intend to surrender," the document
reads. "A.C. wants to negotiate with the government, to
make a pact."

It goes on to list the conditions under which "A.C."
will help the authorities wipe out "unorganized
narcotics trafficking": he would sell his drugs
exclusively in Europe and the United States, not in
Mexico, and "act like a businessman, not like a
criminal."

Two officials cite recent evidence that they say
corroborates another piece of the seemingly implausible
original story -- that at the last meeting Gonzalez
Quirarte made a down payment of $6 million or $10
million on a bribe that was intended to be 10 times
more.

Mexican government officials vehemently denied having
taken any money from the traffickers and, like their
military counterparts, attributed the claims to a wild
effort by Gutierrez Rebollo to implicate others.

How Gutierrez Rebollo ran afoul of his comrades also
remains a subject of internal U.S. debate.

Officials say there is some evidence for his claim --
and that of several of his former subordinates -- that
Gutierrez Rebollo clashed with another powerful general
because of the drug czar's aggressive pursuit of the
Arellano Felix brothers, a drug cartel based in Tijuana
and Carrillo Fuentes' most bitter rivals.

That second officer, Gen. Guillermo Alvarez Nara, is
now the head of Mexico's federal police force.

U.S. officials say there are also hints of a deal
between Carrillo Fuentes and suspicious killings that
followed his death.

One victim was a former congressman who had been an
aide to Gen. Juan Arevalo Gardoqui, a former Defense
Minister and current adviser to the ministry. The
congressman was the partner of a Mexican money
launderer in two foreign-exchange offices that moved
military officers' money out of the country, U.S.
officials said.

Four days after the death of the former congressman,
gunmen in Guadalajara killed a former local beauty
queen who had been intimate with military officers and
with major drug traffickers for years.

But U.S. officials said the most disturbing victim was
Tomas Colsa McGregor, whom they identified as an
accountant for Carrillo Fuentes who paid the bribes to
military officers.

Shortly after Carrillo Fuentes' death in a Mexico City
hospital, agents of Alvarez Nara's federal police force
arrested Colsa and began to question him. At one point,
they even allowed him to be interviewed by United
States law-enforcement officials.

When Colsa was next seen, however, he was dead. U.S.
officials said he had been bound, gagged and brutally
tortured.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

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

Mexico Fights Drug War On Its Own Terms ('Los Angeles Times'
Examines Mexico's War On Some Drugs And Notes, Among Other Things,
'There Is Little Public Support In Mexico For A High-Profile Fight
Against Traffickers')

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 10:37:44 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: Mexico Fights Drug War on Its Own Terms
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998

MEXICO FIGHTS DRUG WAR ON ITS OWN TERMS

MEXICO CITY--Fernando Gastelum, a top security official in the state of
Baja California Sur, was invited to lunch recently at a local military
base. Little did he know that he was to be the main course.

As Gastelum sat down with other officials to discuss crime, an aide
informed him that he had a phone call. Heading out of the dining room, he
was seized by black-clad federal agents. Within hours, he was in detention
in Mexico City.

The Mexican attorney general's office charges that Gastelum organized a
notorious 1995 shipment of cocaine--10 tons packed into a passenger jet
that was met and unloaded by police in Baja California Sur. Gastelum says
he is innocent.

To Mexican authorities, his detention last month is a key example of the
skirmishes they are waging and winning in the war on drugs.

But if Mexico claims it is winning more and more battles, critics in the
United States say the country is losing the war. Sen. Dianne Feinstein
(D-Calif.) and other lawmakers are seeking to strip Mexico's annual
certification as a full partner in fighting drug trafficking, a step that
would chill relations between the neighbors. The U.S. Senate is scheduled
to vote on the measure today, although it is not expected to pass.

Who is right? To some extent, both sides are. Even skeptics praise the
integrity of top Mexican anti-drug officials. But analysts say their
victories pale before the size of the problem--a multibillion-dollar drug
trade that supplies more than half the cocaine entering the United States.

The Mexican officials face odds that are often more daunting than those
confronting anti-drug authorities in Los Angeles or New York. They must
contend with widespread corruption, fragile institutions and traffickers
who have billions of dollars at their disposal--thanks to U.S. drug users.

In addition, Mexican anti-drug officials must deal with a problem rarely
acknowledged by authorities here or in the United States: There is little
public support in Mexico for a high-profile fight against traffickers.

"There is nothing driving the government to wage a war on drugs," political
scientist Jorge Castaneda said, noting the low level of drug use in Mexico.
Opinion polls routinely indicate that the trafficking problem is a low
priority for Mexicans, far outweighed by such issues as common crime and
unemployment.

"There's no consensus in Mexico on this," Castaneda said. "You can't wage a
war without consensus. It doesn't happen. It didn't happen in the U.S.
[with] Vietnam. Why do countries lose wars? Because their people don't want
to fight them."

Seeing Progress, but Big Obstacles Remain

Mexican officials say they have made progress despite the difficulties. In
the past year, authorities have arrested several important members of the
powerful Tijuana cartel. Its reputed leaders--the Arellano Felix
brothers--are apparently lying low because of the pressure. The government
also believes its pursuit of top trafficker Amado Carrillo Fuentes drove
him to undergo extensive plastic surgery in July that cost him his life.

Meanwhile, a new law has resulted in 19 criminal cases against alleged
money launderers. And a program to thoroughly vet the national anti-drug
police force is bearing fruit: Nearly 900 members have passed the battery
of background checks and drug tests, and 1,000 officers suspected of
corruption have been fired.

"We're beginning to see the first results, and we'll consolidate them
little by little," said Mariano Herran Salvatti, who became Mexico's
anti-drug czar a year ago. "There is going to be a drop in the amount of
drugs passing through [Mexico]."

But authorities face huge obstacles. Drug corruption has turned police and
officials into well-paid allies of the traffickers. One trafficker
alone--Carrillo Fuentes--is believed to have spent more on bribes per year
than the entire budget of the Mexican Justice Department, which this year
is $425 million.

Jesus Blancornelas would seem an unlikely fan of the government's
performance against drug traffickers. In November, the editor of a
muckraking news weekly was attacked by gunmen allegedly working for the
Arellano Felix brothers, just days after the state government suddenly
withdrew his bodyguards. His car was riddled with 100 bullets, and he was
seriously wounded. Still, Blancornelas said federal authorities, in close
cooperation with U.S. officials, are making progress against traffickers in
Tijuana. The problem, he said, is that the federal police and army are
sometimes frustrated by the very people who should be their allies--local
authorities. "The [federal prosecutor's office] is working well in
Tijuana," he said. "But there's corruption in the state prosecutor's
office."

How Deep Does the Corruption Run?

Mexican officials say they are trying to expose corrupt local officials,
and point to the Gastelum case as one example of progress. Gastelum is
being held for questioning but has not been charged. But some analysts
wonder whether the corruption goes so deep that uprooting it would
destabilize the political system.

Raymundo Riva Palacio, a well-informed columnist for the daily El
Financiero, recently wrote that the government has linked several top
officials to Carrillo Fuentes. But the government took no action, he wrote.

"One explanation could be that the penetration of narcos in the government
and society is so great, that the regime couldn't handle unveiling it," he
wrote.

Mexico also suffers from weak institutions. During seven decades of
one-party rule, the police and courts were often used to carry out the
bidding of political leaders. Only recently have authorities tried to build
a more professional, independent justice system.

Craig Chretien, who retired last fall from a senior post in the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration, praised the purge of the Mexican anti-drug
force. But, he said, the selection of honest cops can't fully compensate
for a lack of experience. "You're still talking about at least one or two
generations of police officers before you effect any real institutional
changes," he said.

And that assumes that top anti-drug officials aren't changed every year or
two, as they have been. Analysts here say the U.S. government must
understand that Mexico's democratic institutions are in their infancy. "The
Mexican state is under construction," said Jorge Chabat, a political
scientist who studies narcotics issues.

Little Political Pressure to Act

Further complicating the anti-narcotics fight is the lack of a clamor here
for a war on drugs. Unlike in Colombia, where drugs became a major issue
after traffickers assassinated politicians, journalists and judges, Mexican
traffickers have largely aimed their guns at one another. That means there
is little political pressure to fight drug trafficking. No Mexican
political party has made the issue a priority.

Many Mexicans blame the United States, saying the drug trade is controlled
not by their efforts here but by the great sniffing sound to the north. And
close cooperation with the United States is not a popular policy. To the
Mexican government, such steps as sending soldiers for anti-drug training
in the United States, or extraditing Mexican citizens, must be undertaken
gingerly or even secretly, to avoid inflaming nationalist passions.

The drug issue has been largely overshadowed by issues such as Mexico's
sweeping political transformation, the economic crisis and soaring common
crime. Still, while many Mexicans might not view drugs as a priority, the
traffickers could be a severe threat to the country's nascent democracy.

Luis Astorga, a sociologist who studies drug trafficking, notes that in the
past, the authoritarian political system was strong enough to contain any
challenge from criminals. But that system is crumbling and hasn't yet been
replaced by strong democratic institutions.

"These mechanisms [of control] have collapsed because of the deterioration
of the political class," he said. "The risks grow every day, because there
are fewer and fewer controls."

Copyright Los Angeles Times

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

Leaders Urge Cooperation At Anti-Drug Conference ('Dallas Morning News
Suggests A Call For Better Cooperation During A Meeting
Of South America's Drug Czars
At The International Drug Enforcement Conference In San Jose, Costa Rica,
Will Have To Overcome Widespread Mutual Mistrust,
Such As That Arising From The Conviction Of Mexico's Former Drug Czar
On Corruption Charges)

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 12:19:17 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: Costa Rica: Leaders Urge Cooperation At Anti-Drug Conference
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: adbryan@onramp.net
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Source: Dallas Morning News
Contact: letterstoeditor@dallasnews.com
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com
Author: Tracey Eaton / The Dallas Morning News

LEADERS URGE COOPERATION AT ANTI-DRUG CONFERENCE

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - When Costa Rican President Jose Maria Figueres this
week urged Latin America's drug czars to reinvent the concept of
sovereignty to better fight international organized crime, some people were
shocked.

"What's that mean?" asked an anti-drug official from a small South American
nation. That they were supposed to let the gringos or somebody else take
over our counternarcotics operations?

Not at all, said U.S. officials attending the International Drug
Enforcement Conference in San Jose. What Mr. Figueres was talking about,
they say, is that better cooperation is crucial if law enforcement
authorities are to defeat - or at least control - the world's major
trafficking gangs.

"We have to work with each other," said Brig. Gen. Carlos Alberto Ayala,
head of Paraguay's National Anti-Drug Secretariat. "Crime is transnational.
Crime has no borders. Well, we can't erase the borders, but we can join
forces."

But working together to catch globe-trotting crooks isn't always easy, drug
agents say. Officials from some countries don't trust their counterparts
from other nations. Indeed, some of those attending the heavily guarded
conference at a San Jose hotel whispered to each other that some in their
midst might be loyal to traffickers and not the law.

"Sure, this place could be infiltrated," one participant said. "Look what
happened in Mexico last year. Their No. 1 drug enforcement official was
mixed up with the Amado Carrillo gang."

Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, former head of Mexico's anti-drug agency, was
arrested last year and accused of taking payoffs from Mr. Carrillo, a
notorious trafficker who died after plastic surgery last summer.

The general has denied the charges but was convicted nonetheless, and
Mexican officials say his ties with the Carrillo gang likely
compromised valuable drug intelligence information.

Mexico's new anti-drug chief, Mariano Herran Salvatti, has vowed to clean
up corruption in his country's counternarcotics forces. And he agreed that
cooperation with other nations - the United States included - is essential.

U.S. and Mexican agents, said to be working together more closely now than
they have in years, traditionally have had a tense relationship. Many
American agents remain bitter over the killing of Drug Enforcement
Administration Special Agent Enrique Camarena in Mexico in 1985. Some of
the Mexicans ultimately arrested in the case had law enforcement ties.

But law enforcement officials at the conference vowed to put aside any
differences and work against the common enemy.

"Now, more than ever, cooperation is needed," Thomas Constantine, head of
the Drug Enforcement Administration, told his colleagues from 30 countries.

"This is a critical period for free society as we struggle to counter these
vicious criminal syndicates," he said. "Every nation here today is being
attacked by predators and their criminal mafias.

"To me, there is really no choice but to win this struggle," he said. "If
we do not win, if the problem continues or becomes progressively worse, if
drug trafficking and abuse continues, even more of our children - our most
precious asset - will become enslaved by drugs."

The first International Drug Enforcement Conference was held in 1983. And
agents say countries throughout the Americas have made steady progress in
working more closely together.

Take the case of Colombia, Peru and Brazil, which share borders. Two years
ago, agents say, traffickers ran circles around the police, hopping from
one country to the next, confusing and confounding their pursuers.

Today, the three countries have united in a range of drug operations with
such names as Friendship II and Porras II. And the traffickers are losing
the upper hand, said Mauro Sposito, federal police superintendent in the
Brazilian state of Amazonas.

"We've seen results," he said. "Not only have we arrested traffickers, we
think we've dealt a psychological blow to these criminals. They know that
police from different countries are working together to put them in jail."

DEA agents throughout the Americas are active in cooperative efforts.

"We become true partners," said Pat Healy, the DEA attache in Brazil.
"We've made great progress in Brazil over the past two years. It's been 110
percent positive."

Many of the 200 or so drug trafficking suspects operating in the Amazon
basin have been arrested or are under constant surveillance, Brazilian
agents say. Sixty planes have been seized, 16 clandestine airstrips have
been destroyed and drug stash sites have been discovered.

In Peru, agents have stepped up their investigation of Colombian planes
found to be picking up drug loads in Peru, then flying them to refining
laboratories back home. Peruvian air force pilots forced down four
Colombian planes in 1997 and shot down seven others, killing most of the
occupants.

"By law we're allowed to shoot down planes that don't obey orders to land,"
said Gen. Dennis del Castillo Valdivia, head of Peru's anti-drug agency.
"It's a drastic measure, but there's no other way to fight organized crime.
These traffickers are very powerful and very wealthy.

"They're the kind of people who use hit men to kill people. And they do not
understand persuasion."

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

Newly Available GAO Reports And Testimonies (US General Accounting Office
Posts URL For New Report, 'Drug Control -
Status Of Counternarcotics Efforts In Mexico')

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 09:26:53 EST
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: adbryan@onramp.net
To: Multiple recipients of list (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Newly Available GAO Reports and Testimonies, March 26, 1998
-- Begin Included Message --
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 07:46:46 -0500
Message-Id: (9803261246.AA04950@www.gao.gov)
From: documents@gao.gov
To: daybook@www.gao.gov
Subject: Newly Available GAO Reports and Testimonies, March 26, 1998
Sender: owner-daybook@www.gao.gov
Reply-To: documents@gao.gov

March 26, 1998

The following items were added to GAO's World Wide Web site in
Portable Document (PDF) format.

- Drug Control: Status of Counternarcotics Efforts in Mexico.
T-NSIAD-98-129. 15 pp. March 18, 1998.
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/ns98129t.pdf

These reports and testimonies will also be added to our
WAIS database in ASCII and PDF formats within the next 24 hours.

This database can be searched from the World Wide Web from the
search page at:

http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/aces160.shtml

If you are using speech synthesizer equipment or lack World Wide
Web access you may search this database with GPO's public swais
client by telnetting to: swais.access.gpo.gov

Any individual report may be retrieved directly from that archive
in text and PDF formats with the following URL:

http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?RPTNO

replacing RPTNO with the report number (e.g., GAO/OCG-98-1).

To UNSUBSCRIBE from the GAO Daybook mailing list, send an e-mail
message to: majordomo@www.gao.gov
with: unsubscribe daybook (your_email_address)

in the message body. Please do not reply to this message to
unsubscribe from the mailing list.

Thank you.

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

Randy Caine Arguments Online (List Subscriber Posts Legal Briefs
From Randy Caine's Constitutional Challenge
To Canadian Marijuana Prohibition - Decision Due April 15)

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Cc: vcaine@uniserve.com
Subject: Randy Caine arguments online
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 12:47:33 -0800

I finally got around to putting the arguments presented and the case law
cited in Randy Caine's constitutional challenge online. The document has
been available for awhile in MS .doc format at the Canadian Activists
Coalition web site ...

http://www.elray.com/cac/enter.htm

... but you can now read it online at ...

http://www.hempbc.com/library/memorand.htm

The document is long but well worth the read. After 5 years of delays, a
decision is expected on April 15.

Sorry for taking so long Randy. More to follow.

Matt

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

Time To Debate Marijuana (Letter To Editor Of 'London Free Press'
In Ontario Thanks Olympic Snowboarder From British Columbia
Who Won A Gold Medal And Almost Lost It
After Supposedly Testing Positive For Marijuana, Noting His Triumph
Has Re-Sparked A National Debate On The Issue Of Decriminalization -
Except In Parliament)

Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 15:41:22 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: Canada: PUB LTE: Time To Debate Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Chad Michael Burkhart 
Pubdate: Thu, 26 March 1998
Source: London Free Press (Canada)
Section: Letters to the Editor
Contact: letters@lfpress.com
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html
Author: Chad Michael Burkhart

TIME TO DEBATE MARIJUANA

Kudos to Ross Rabagliati for bringing home the gold and for rehashing the
drug debate in this country.

About 600 000 Canadians have been convicted of simple marijuana possession
and now have criminal records. This is unacceptable to most Canadians. A
recent Angus Reid Poll found over 50 percent of Canadians support
decriminalization of cannabis possession.

Our politicians have been promising for decades they would open a debate on
decriminalization. Over 25 years ago, a royal commission recommended
decriminalization and education to replace the costly and ineffective legal
prosecution. MPs have disregarded this recommendation ever since.

Many Canadians have lost faith in Parliament and have turned to the courts
to challenge the laws constitutionally. In a recent case in London, R vs.
Clay, the Ontario Supreme Court justice said it should be up to the
legislature to change the laws and many Canadians would not object to such
changes.

There has never been a death directly related to the use of marijuana. The
propaganda that it is a "gateway drug" has been effectively shot down.
People do not become insane from smoking cannabis. Marijuana use does not
lead to criminal activity, nor is there any evidence it is addictive.

It is time for politicians to debate this issue. Now is the time for the
decriminalization of marijuana possession.

CHAD MICHAEL BURKHART London

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

Sign Please (List Subscriber Invites You To Sign A Resolution
From The Ninth International Harm Reduction Conference Last Week
At Sao Paulo, Brazil)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 22:08:23 +0100
To: press@drugtext.nl
From: mario lap (mario@lap.nl)
Subject: Sign please

Hello,

Antiprohibitionists, legalizers and those that simply believe there are
better ways dealing with substance use :-), Please join this effort for
humane policies

There is document which you can sign that was conceived at the 9th
international harm reduction conference of last week in sao paulo brazil.
It may seem conservative but please read and you will understand the
importance...

http://www.drugtext.nl/statement/

ciao,
mario

***

The drugtext press list.
News on substance use related issues, drugs and drug policy
webmaster@drugtext.nl

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

Marco Pannella In London (Bulletin From Transnational Radical Party
Notes The Anti-Prohibitionist Leader From Italy's Radical Party
Will Take Part In The 'Decriminalise Cannabis March' This Saturday,
March 28, In London, England)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 15:03:24 EST
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: pr.bruxelles@agora.stm.it
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: London "decriminalise cannabis march"
Organization: Transnational radical Party

MARCO PANNELLA IN LONDON

The anti-prohibitionist leader and the Radical Party will take part to
the London "decriminalise cannabis march" this Saturday 28th of March

The Italian anti-prohibitionist leader Marco Pannella will take part
to the demonstration organised by the "Independent on Sunday" for the
decriminalisation of cannabis. Participants will meet at midday in
Hyde Park and march to Trafalgar Square, where Marco Pannella and
Olivier Dupuis (MEP, Secretary of the Radical Party) will hold a
speech, together with Rosie Boycott and Paul Flynn
(anti-prohibitionist Labour MP).

Marco Pannella, the historical leader of the Radical Party - one of
the few parties to support the legalisation of drugs -, former
Italian MP and MEP , has been fighting in favour of the legalisation
of cannabis for more than 20 years, starting with a public civil
disobedience action when he smoked cannabis during a press conference
in 1975 to be arrested and raise the debate. The Italian Parliament
depenalised cannabis consumption on the same year. He then supported
the foundation of CORA - Radical Anti-prohibitionist Co-ordination -,
an organisation federated to the Radical Party that leads eurowide
antiprohibitionist campaigns. He launched in 1995 another nonviolent
campaign of civil disobedience for the legalisation of cannabis
derivatives, and 8 public initiatives were undertaken with Italian,
Belgian and French citizens handing out cannabis bags. In order to be
prosecuted, Marco Pannella resigned from his European Parliament seat.


Emma Bonino, European Commissioner and former Secretary of the Radical
Party, supports the initiative, as a well as a group of
anti-prohibitionist MEPs who will take part to the march, among others
Gianfranco Dell'Alba, Olivier Dupuis, Ernesto Caccavale. Supporters
from Italy, Belgium and France will also join the march.

At the end of the demonstration (around 3.30 pm) Marco Pannella,
together with the anti-prohibitionist MEPs, will meet the journalists
during one hour for a press conference in the Charing Cross Hotel,
Strand, London WC2N 5HX (just beside the Charing Cross train and tube
station).

A press kit is available at the EP office, 2 Queen's Anne's Gate, room
37.

An operational meeting with the anti-prohibitionist supporters and
members from the Italian community in London to plan the future
actions to take on the legalisation campaign on a European level will
follow.

For more information, call +44 171 227 43 40
(Ottavio Marzocchi, Alexandre de Perlinghi - London),

or

+32 2 284 7198 (Paolo Atzori, Brussels).

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

Courtroom Bad Place For A Drug Deal (Cautionary Tale From 'Canadian Press'
Says Two Men In London, Ontario, Were Busted For Hash Oil
After One Seemed To Pass Something To The Other
While Both Were Being Arraigned For Breaking And Entering)

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Courtroom bad place for a drug deal
Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 08:28:04 -0800

March 26, 1998

Courtroom bad place for a drug deal

WOODSTOCK, Ont. (CP) No. 1 on the list of top 10 bad places to
make a drug deal is one chosen earlier this week by two London men.

The two, aged 20 and 22, were in court Wednesday to answer charges of
breaking and entering.

While they were being arraigned, a police officer noticed one of the
men passing something to the other. The second man then put something
in his pocket.

The officer got suspicious and, after the arraignment, searched the
man and found a vial of hashish oil.

The two were charged on the spot with drug offences.

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

Drugs War To Be Extended ('Belfast Telegraph'
Says Britain's Newly Appointed Deputy Drugs Czar, Mike Trace,
Yesterday Met With Delegates From Across Northern Ireland To Hammer Out
The Latest Strategy In The On-Going War Against Some Drug Users)

Date: Fri, 27 Mar 1998 15:03:11 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: UK: Drugs War To Be Extended
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "(Zosimos) Martin Cooke" 
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Source: Belfast Telegraph
Contact: editor@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
Author: Jason Johnson

DRUGS WAR TO BE EXTENDED

ULSTER'S war against drugs is set to enter a new phase following a top
level review session by those on the front line.

The UK's newly appointed deputy Drugs Czar, Mike Trace, yesterday met with
delegates from across the province to discuss the issues and begin
hammering out the latest strategy in the on-going fight.

He said the meeting, held in Coleraine, was the next step in trying to
crush the comparatively small but nonetheless significant drugs problem in
Ulster.

Plans to be firmed up among voluntary and statutory sectors include
building on prevention and education techniques, examining enforcement
strategies and improving research methods.

Latest statistics suggest that drug use among over 16-year-olds here has
fallen in the last 12 months but is on the rise in specific parts of the
province.

It is also thought that the gap in male and female adolescent drug taking
is narrowing.

Sixty members from the four local drug co-ordination teams here heard Mr
Trace tell of a "situation on a smaller scale" to that across the water,
but he said there was no room for complacency.

Speaking afterwards, he said he had come along primarily to hear about the
drugs situation in Northern Ireland.

"What we want to do first is write a national strategy for England and then
pass that on to the profession here and see what they make of it," he said.

The workshop conference was the second since Security Minister Adam Ingram
set up the central co-ordinating group - which grew from the previous
government's Northern Ireland Drugs Campaign - to bring together those who
know the situation in the province.

Said Mr Trace: "Overall, we are optimistic about the situation.

"We are by no means in the scenario where our young people are being lost
to drugs, so we shouldn't panic about it." Statistics compiled from various
studies here show that:

* The use of Ecstasy last year compared to 1996 levelled at 2% among those
aged 16-59 and over, while the use of cannabis increased from 7% to 8%.

* The use of LSD fell from 3% in the same age group to 1%.

* The primary single reason people reported taking drugs was that they made
them feel good.

* Despite recent seizures of Crack, there is still no discernible usage of
this drug, or of heroin and cocaine, in Northern Ireland.

Said Mr Trace: "Heroin and cocaine are by and large of greater impact on
communities than other drugs."

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

Warrants Invalid As Man Cleared Of Drug Dealing (Ireland's 'Examiner'
Notes A Cork City Man Was Cleared Yesterday Of Possessing And Selling
Cannabis Resin After A Court Ruled Search Warrants Were Improperly Prepared -
Cases Continue Against His Two Sons)

Date: Sat, 28 Mar 1998 09:18:40 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: jwjohnson@netmagic.net (Joel W. Johnson)
Subject: MN: Ireland: Warrants Invalid as Man Cleared of Drug Dealing
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: "(Zosimos) Martin Cooke" 
Source: Examiner, The (Ireland)
Contact: exam_letters@examiner.ie
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998
Author: Diarmaid Mac Dermott

WARRANTS INVALID AS MAN CLEARED OF DRUG DEALING

A CORK city man was cleared of drugs dealing charges at the Special
Criminal Court yesterday after the court ruled that search warrants
obtained by gardai from a peace commissioner were invalid.

James Stanton (53), of Kilkiernan Close, Knocknaheeney was discharged after
the prosecution offered no further evidence against him after the court's
ruling. The trial of two of Stanton's sons on drugs charges continued after
the ruling.

Kieran Stanton (20), of Kilkiernan Close, Knocknaheeney and Gerard Stanton
(29), of Foyle Avenue, Knocknaheeney have denied possession of cannabis
resin and having the drugs for sale or supply at Hollyhill, Cork on October
18, 19 and 21, 1995.

Mr Justice Morris said the defence had challenged three search warrants
issued by Mr Gerry Walsh, a peace commissioner, to gardai to search two
houses in Knocknaheeney.

He said the court was satisfied that peace commissioners had power to issue
search warrants in the area for which they were appointed by the Minister
for Justice.

He said the court had heard that Mr Walsh was appointed a peace
commissioner in 1988 but the court had no evidence of the area of his
jurisdiction or if the relevant premises were within his jurisdiction. The
judge said that the court therefore found that the warrants were invalid.

Stanton was cleared of possession of cannabis resin and having the drugs
for sale or supply at Hollyhill on October 18, 19 and 21, 1995.

He was also acquitted of handling a stolen mobile phone worth #900 pounds
between June 1 and October 21, 1995 and allowing his home to be used for
the sale, supply or production of cannabis resin on October 21, 1995.

The court was told that gardai mounted a surveillance operation on a soccer
pitch and houses in the Knocknaheeney area as part of an anti-drugs
operation.

Mr Patrick Mac Entee SC had argued that the search warrants issued were
invalid because they showed no jurisdiction on their face.

He said that a peace commissioner could only issue search warrants for the
area to which he was appointed by the Minister for Justice and this was not
specified on the warrants in question.

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

Jail Term Urged For Mailing Joints To French MPs ('Reuters'
Says A State Prosecutor Asked For 18-Month Sentences For Jean-Pierre Galland
And Other Members Of His Paris-Based Collective For Information And Research
On Cannabis - CIRC - For Staging The Stunt In An Effort To Encourage Debate
In Parliament About Decriminalising Marijuana Use)

Date: Thu, 26 Mar 1998 21:26:39 -0500
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: France: Jail Term Urged For Mailing Joints To French MPs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: GDaurer 
Source: Reuters
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Mar 1998

JAIL TERM URGED FOR MAILING JOINTS TO FRENCH MPs

PARIS, March 25 (Reuters) - A state prosecutor urged a Paris court on
Wednesday to jail the leader of a group that mailed a marijuana cigarette
to every French MP along with a plea to ease France's tough drug laws.

Prosecutor Bernard Pages said Jean-Pierre Galland and his Paris-based
Collective for Information and Research on Cannabis (CIRC) had committed a
serious crime.

He urged the court to convict Galland of ``encouraging drug use'' and
called for an 18-month jail sentence, one year of it to be suspended.

CIRC officials, boasting that the hand-rolled joints were made exclusively
from marijuana grown in France, had said they wanted only to encourage
debate in parliament about decriminalising marijuana use.

``This was a symbolic and political act rather than a question of law,''
Galland told the court.

One member of parliament, Charles Amedee of the centre-right Union for
French Democracy, joined the proceeding as a civil plaintiff.

A second MP, Socialist Yann Galut, told the court he favoured a public
debate on decriminalisation. He stated however that he had not smoked the
joint mailed to him.

Some seven million of France's approximately 60 million inhabitants have
tried marijuana at least once and about two million are regular users,
according to official estimates.

Hundreds of French residents are jailed each year and thousands are fined
for use, possession or sale of marijuana, according to the organisation.

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

Antiprohibitionist Action Report, Year 4, Number 6 (Biweekly Summary
For Activists Of International Drug Policy Reform News, From CORA In Italy)

From: cora.belgique@agora.stm.it
Comments: Authenticated sender is (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
To: "CORA LIST EN" (cora.belgique@agora.stm.it)
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1998 21:09:00 +0000
Subject: CORAFAX 6 (EN)
Priority: normal
Sender: owner-hemp@efn.org

ANTIPROHIBITIONISTS OF THE ENTIRE WORLD...#6

Antiprohibitionist action report

March 26, 1998 - (Year 4) #6

***

CO.R.A.

Radical | Association federated with
Antiprohibitionist | the Transnational
Coordination | Radical Party

***

OLD - Observatory of laws on drugs

***

PAA - PARLAMENTARIANS FOR
ANTIPROHIBITIONIST ACTION
European campaign for the revision
of international conventions

***

CORA-ITALY
Via di Torre Argentina 76
00186 ROME
Tel:+39-6-68.97.91
Fax:+39-6-68.80.53.96
E-mail: cora.italia@agora.stm.it

***

CORA-BELGIUM
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c/o European Parliament
Rem 5.08
1040 BRUSSELS
Tel:+32-2-230.41.21 - 646.26.31
Fax:+32-2-230.36.70
E-mail: cora.belgique@agora.stm.it

***

*CORAnet http://www.agora.stm.it/coranet (in Italian)

***

Director: Vincenzo Donvito
All rights reserved

***

NEWS FROM CORA

AN ANTIPROHIBITIONIST ZHIRINOVSKIJ

The fight of March 11, at the State Duma between Liberal-Democrats and
Communists should by no means make us forget that Vladimir
Zhirinovskij is probably the only political personality in Russia that
has expressed a favorable view on the legalization of 'soft drugs'.
Mr. Zhirinovskij expressed his opinions during a TV program last March
8.

ITALY

A JUDGE FROM PISA INVESTIGATES ON SOME SERIOUS IRREGULARITIES OF THE
PUBLIC SERVICES FOR DRUG-ADDICTS Following the denounces deposited by
CORA in over 50 cities, Andrea Raggi of CORA-Pisa has been convoked by
the Procurator of the Republic of Roma to confirm the terms of CORA
denounces. The Procurator gathered information from SERT of Pisa and
found that some of the irregularities mentioned by CORA, lack of
personnel and office hours, were sounded.

NEWS FROM THE WORLD

GREAT BRITAIN

According to a report of the General Director of the Jail System,
British prisons are in the hands of drug lords. The mobsters sell
cannabis and heroin. In order to fight this, authorities have
prohibited to inmates physical contacts with their relatives during
visits. (THE TIMES 11-12/3)

FRANCE

Demand reduction and supply reduction are the pillars on which the
strategy of the UN Programme on narcotic control coordinated by Pino
Arlacchi is built. The world needs the culture of tolerance instead.
There is the need to live together with drugs rather than to fight
them, says Bertrand Lebeau MD. (LIBERATION 12/3)

GREAT BRITAIN

18 MPs has stated in a survey that in the past years they have used
drugs. Secretary of State Jack Straw has proposed a 'royal' commission
to control narcotics in the case in which the Government remains
undecided on the matter. Mr. Straw opposes the decriminalization,
because he thinks that will increase the consumption of substances.
(THE TIMES 16/3)

SWITZERLAND

The experiment of the controlled distribution of heroin started three
years ago in 18 public structures. According to the data collected and
publicized so far, as of December 1996, only 83 addicts out of the
1,146 who joined the project have decided to join rehab programs. (IL
GIORNALE 16/3)

SPAIN

During a recent interview in Bolivia, Prime Minister Jose' Aznar has
expressed the EU position on Certification. It should be dealt by an
international institution and not solely by the U.S. (EL PAIS 18/3)

U.S.

The helicopters, sips and military planes that have been sent to
Mexico by the U.S. are largely ineffective and inadequate to fight
drug trafficking. This is the opinion of the General Accounting
Office, the investigative 'arm' of the Congress. The Senate will
probably vote a resolution against Clinton's decision to 'certify'
Mexico. (INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE)

AUSTRIA

According to the '1997 Drug Report', drug consumption and drug
addiction concern only a small part of the population, and the
percentage is stable. The number of opiate addicts is 15,000 units. On
the other hand, there has been an increase in the number of cases
signaled to the judiciary; 1996 has set the record of 16,196 cases of
small quantities. (DIE PRESSE 12/3)

GERMANY

The 1997 Official report on drugs has been issued. Deaths diminished,
but there has been an increase in the consumption of 'hard drugs',
while heroin and ecstasy did not grow. The Government is of the
opinion that prevention should start at the kindergarten, and
continues its opposition both to the controlled distribution of heroin
and to the liberalization of soft drugs. SPD and Greens are asking a
new orientation in drug-related policies, CDU does not agree.
(FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG, NEUE ZUERCHER ZEITUNG, SUDDEUSCHE
ZEITUNG 13/3)

COLOMBIA

The airport police of Barriquila have discovered eight Kilos of heroin
hidden in the stomach of 10 boa serpents. The Minister of Environment
Eduardo Verano de la Rosa has said that cases like this have become
more frequent recently. (SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG 12/3)

AUSTRIA

The Minister of Education Elisabeth Gehrer (VP) has launched a
campaign called 'No Drugs'. 6,000 schools are invited to participate
in the initiative. They will post signs in which 'Drug-Free Zone' will
be written and stickers, leaflets, and murals will also be
distributed. April will be the big month, with panel discussions and
conferences with experts. The sponsors are three Olympic champions.
(DIE PRESSE 19/3)

ITALY

The Government wants to modify the norms of the criminal treatment
reserved to drug addicts. The draft bill proposes the abolition of
incarceration for people with AIDS and the administrative sanctions
for addicts.

GREAT BRITAIN

A local Court has acquitted a man that got a liver operation and
therefore was using marihuana to alleviate the pain. The smoking was
considered a mitigation. (THE TIMES 24/3)

EUROPE

Manchester - At a Conference for crime analysts, Interpol and White
House expert on drugs Ramachandra Sundaralingam has stressed the fact
that over the next few years, after the fall of economical barriers,
Europe will be invaded by a huge quantity of drugs. Turks and
Albanians are foreseen to become the most active. (THE TIMES 23/3)

***

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***

* CORA
-COORDINATION RADICALE ANTIPROHIBITIONNISTE
-ANTIPROHIBITIONIST RADICAL COORDINATION
-COORDINAMENTO RADICALE ANTIPROIBIZIONISTA

Federated with the Transnational Radical Party NGO
with category I consultative status at the UN

Emailto:cora.belgique@agora.stm.it
URL - Http://www.agora.stm.it/coranet

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

[End]