Portland NORML News - Tuesday, April 28, 1998
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Signature Count (Paul Loney, An Attorney And Chief Petitioner
For The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act Initiative Petition,
Says The Campaign Has Officially Bagged And Tagged 29,050 Signatures
Of The 73,261 Needed By July)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:20:14 -0700
To: octa99@crrh.org
From: blc@hevanet.com (Belmont Law Center)
Subject: Signature count

As of 28 April 1998, we have 29,050 signatures counted and stored. Thanks
and Praises. Please gather signatures and turn in the filled sheets that you
have.

Paul L
[http://www.crrh.org/]
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Second Drug Case Tied To Israel Dismissed ('The Daily Olympian'
Says A Thurston County, Washington Judge Has Thrown Out Charges
Against A Second Person Arrested In Connection With Multiple Drug Raids
In November Against Rock Festival Promoter Gideon Israel's Mobile Home
Property South Of Littlerock - Police Warrants Didn't Cover A Bus
On The Property)

From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen@Olympia" 
To: "Talk" 
Subject: HT: 2nd drug case tied to Israel dismissed
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 18:47:11 -0700
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

2nd drug case tied to Israel dismissed

* BUS SEARCH: A judge rules warrants didn't cover a vehicle the woman was
inside.

April 28, 1998
By Joel Coffidis
The Daily Olympian

OLYMPIA - A Thurston County judge has thrown out a second case against a
person arrested in connection with rock-festival promoter Gideon Israel
during multiple drug raids in November.

Misdemeanor charges against Becky Ruttle, 42, were dismissed by District
Judge Sue Dubuisson after defense attorney Kate Graham argued that search
warrants drug detectives used did not cover a bus that Ruttle was inside.

Police searched the bus without permission during a raid of Israel's
property south of Littlerock, said Graham, Ruttle's court-appointed lawyer.

"We showed that the police had exceeded their scope under the search
warrant," Graham said Monday.

The warrant allowed police to search Israel's mobile home and other
buildings belonging to Israel, Graham said. However, Graham said Ruttle
and boyfriend Elgin A. Sharpe, 51, made it clear to police that they, not
Israel, owned the bus.

Ruttle had been charged with possessing less than 40 grams of marijuana and
possessing drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors.

Last Wednesday, District Judge Kip Stilz dismissed the same charges against
Sharpe after prosecutors failed to turn over a search-warrant affidavit to
Sharpe's defense lawyer, Jody Backlund.

Jim Powers, county chief deputy prosecutor, said his office will appeal
Dubuisson's ruling. The warrant refers to buses or cars parked on Israel's
property, Powers said. As a result, the couple's bus was subject to a
search, he said.

Israel and six other co-defendants face a June 29 trial on felony charges
stemming from the raids. Israel, 49, is accused of using music festivals
on his property as a front for an organized drug-dealing network.

Tami Perdue, a King County deputy prosecutor called in to handle the felony
cases, was not available for comment Monday on the possible effect of the
recent dismissals on the felony cases.

Israel, who asserts the government is illegally trying to silence him by
confiscating his land, said he think rulings are an omen.

"The way they opera going to be exposed tremendously," Israel said. "This
thing could come around and bite them in the butt."

Joel Coffidis covers courts for The Olympian. He can be reached at
754-5447.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

San Francisco Marijuana Club Under New Legal Attack ('Reuters'
Says California Attorney General Dan Lungren Asked Today
For A New Restraining Order Against The San Francisco
Medical Marijuana Dispensary That Sidestepped An Order
Earlier This Month Shutting It Down)

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 01:51:06 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US CA: Wire: SF Marijuana Club Under New Legal Attack
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: David.Hadorn@vuw.ac.nz (David Hadorn)
Source: Reuters
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998

S.F. MARIJUANA CLUB UNDER NEW LEGAL ATTACK

SAN FRANCISCO -- The San Francisco medical marijuana club that earlier this
month sidestepped an order to shut down faced new legal problems Tuesday as
a judge considered whether to hit it with a fresh restraining order.

Superior Court Judge William Cahill said he would rule Wednesday on whether
the San Francisco Cannabis Healing Center, now headed by 79-year-old
grandmother Hazel Rodgers, would have to cease operations.

State Attorney General Dan Lungren asked for the temporary restraining
order after the club circumvented an earlier order to close by shutting its
doors for a day and then reopening under a different name.

``It is continuing the legacy of an outlaw operation,'' said Rob Stutzman,
a Lungren spokesman.

``Just because they changed the name on the door doesn't change the fact
that they are violating California law.''

Rodgers, who uses marijuana to treat her glaucoma, was named to head the
new organization, replacing longtime chief Denis Peron, who has been
engaged in a long struggle with Lungren over the interpretation of
California's 1996 law legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

The law, approved by 56 percent of the state's voters, allows marijuana to
be used on a doctor's advice for treating the symptoms of AIDS, cancer, and
other serious diseases.

But state and federal authorities have raised legal objections to the clubs
that distribute the drug, saying many of them are overstepping the limits
of the law and selling pot to the public at large.

Earlier this month, Judge David Garcia ordered Peron to close his Cannabis
Cultivators Club after he determined that the organization was selling
marijuana to healthy ``caregivers'' rather than to the patients themselves.

Peron agreed to close, but arranged for the new Healing Center to take over
in the same premises the following day, with Rodgers at the helm, at least
on paper.

``It is going to be a tragedy for some people,'' Rodgers said of official
efforts to close the club. ``They use marijuana to help stay alive.''

California courts have already ruled that the 20-odd marijuana clubs around
the state are illegal because they are not ``primary caregivers'' to their
members -- a condition set by the state law.

The Justice Department has also taken the clubs before a federal judge,
demanding that they be closed for violation of federal drug laws. But the
clubs have won strong support from local officials, who say the federal
government should respect the will of California's voters and allow local
governments time to develop a system to monitor club operations.

San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown and city District Attorney Terence
Hallinan have been particularly strong supporters, going as far as to
suggest the city itself could step in to supply marijuana to patients if
the clubs are forced to close.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Candidates Are Using The Internet To Plug Into . . . A Wired Electorate
('San Jose Mercury News' Says With More Than Four In 10 Californians
Already Plugged Into The Internet, Cyber-Technology Is Reshaping
The Electoral Process)

Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 21:16:12 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Mike Gogulski 
Subject: MN: US CA: Candidates are using the Internet to plug into ... A
WIRED ELECTORATE
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family 
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Author: Philip J. Trounstine, Mercury News Political Editor

CANDIDATES ARE USING THE INTERNET TO PLUG INTO ... A WIRED ELECTORATE

Digital citizens' use of technology is having the Net effect of changing
politics, bit by bit

Californians who are plugged into the Internet -- already more than four in
10 registered voters -- are enjoying an unprecedented explosion of
information sources this year as cyber-technology helps to reshape the
electoral process.

With the extraordinary proliferation of sites on the World Wide Web,
Net-savvy voters now can study candidates' stands and ballot propositions,
volunteer time and support, follow campaign reporting and analysis, watch
television commercials and hear speeches.

At the same time, some campaigns are beginning to use the Web to
communicate with voters directly by e-mail and offering political surfers
the opportunity to register to vote or obtain an absentee ballot.

No one is predicting that the exponential increase in the political use of
the Net will have a pivotal impact on outcomes in the 1998 elections. But
the changes the Internet is effecting -- on voters and campaigns alike --
are widely seen as long-lasting and profound.

``It's an empowering tool,'' said Kim Alexander, director of the California
Voter Foundation (www.calvoter.org), one of the first and most
comprehensive election sites on the Web.

``It's giving voters a choice. They can say `No' to the TV ads and the
direct mail. They can go on the Internet and get information from a
variety of sources,'' she said. ``I think that's revolutionary.''

According to Jack Kavanaugh, publisher of Rough and Tumble
(www.rtumble.com), one of the most informative free online political sites,
candidates who fail to click with Net-smart voters run the risk of
appearing out of touch.

``If you have a dorky Web site and you're running for major political
office, you have an image problem,'' he said. ``If you have an engaging Web
site, that will indicate you are someone who should really be looked at.''

To be sure, all Web sites are not created equal.

Some -- like attorney general candidate Bill Lockyer's site
(www.lockyerforag.com) -- are nothing more than e-mail links.

Others -- like U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's (www.boxer98.org), with order
blanks for ``Boxerware'' clothing and other items, contribution templates,
up-to-date-news and more -- are Java-enriched full-tilt-boogie destinations.

``Everybody knows they have to be there, but nobody knows the full impact
they can have with this new technology,'' said Leslie Goodman, of Strategic
Communications Services, publisher of political access
(www.politicalaccess.com), one of the most useful political link sites.

In addition to the California Voter Foundation, Rough and Tumble and
political access, Secretary of State Bill Jones' official site
(www.ss.ca.gov) offers a treasure trove of free political information,
including an online ballot pamphlet, voting and registration statistics,
campaign finance data and even live election results.

So dedicated to using the Internet is Jones that he assigned a team of Web
masters to teach nearly two dozen staff members in his office how to design
Web pages.

Tremendous tool

And for true political devotees -- willing to pay significant fees --
McClatchy Newspapers' Capitol Alert (www.capitolalert.com) and the National
Journal's Hotline (www.cloakroom.com/pubs/hotline) are extensive.

Online voters are finding the Internet a tremendous tool.

``It's phenomenal,'' said Lori Christian of Manhattan Beach, who joined
Democrat Jane Harman's campaign (www.janeharmanforgovernor.com) after
hooking up by e-mail. ``From an information standpoint, you can get all the
detail you need, you can find out positions on issues and you can
correspond without taking up too much time.''

Christian, 38, Mac user and mother of two with one on the way, is one of
those whom Jon Katz described in Wired Magazine
(www.hotwired.com/special/citizen) as ``digital citizens (who) embrace
rationalism, revere civil liberties and free-market economics and gravitate
toward a moderated form of libertarianism.''

According to a recent survey of California by the Field Poll, 42 percent of
the state's 14.3 million registered voters use e-mail. Moreover, Field Poll
director Mark DiCamillo estimates about three-fourths of e-mail users are
registered to vote.

These digital citizens -- 77 percent of them white -- are a distinct group.
While 47 percent of California voters are registered Democrats and 37
percent are Republicans, Field's e-mail voters are equally divided at 41
percent each.

More liberals online

Ideologically, however, they are less conservative than their non-Net-savvy
counterparts.

Nearly half the offline voters say they're conservative, 40 percent say
they're middle-of-the-road and only 12 percent call themselves liberal,
according to the Field Poll.

Among online voters, 28 percent say they're conservative, 48 percent say
they're middle-of-the-road and 24 percent say they are liberal.

Online voters are younger, more affluent, more educated and weighted with
males. According to DiCamillo, they're also more likely to read newspapers
and less likely to get their news from television than their non-Net
counterparts.

They're less partisan, less ideological and more independent than their
offline counterparts.

Interestingly, the latest Field Poll found that among all likely voters,
Attorney General Dan Lungren was leading the pack with 24 percent of the
vote, followed by Harman at 17 percent, airline tycoon Al Checchi at 15
percent and Lt. Gov. Gray Davis at 11 percent.

But among online voters, Lungren dropped to 20 percent, Harman rose to 19
percent while Checchi and Davis were tied at 10 percent. ``They're not like
the rest of the public,'' said DiCamillo of the upscale voters who are
digital citizens.

Connecting with these digital citizens is virtually uncharted territory in
political campaigns. One approach being pioneered this political season is
``e-slate,'' a classic slate mailer that will be sent by e-mail to hundreds
of thousands of online voters who, by giving their e-mail addresses to a
variety of political sites, are seen as open to receiving political e-mail.

Robert Barnes of San Francisco's Informed Voter has signed up several
Democratic candidates, including Harman, Cruz Bustamante, Lockyer, Kathleen
Connell, Phil Angelides and Delaine Eastin.

May reach 1 million

``We don't consider it spam,'' Barnes said. ``We're not selling products or
asking for money.'' The mailers will include absentee ballots, polling
place locations and information about the candidates who have paid to be a
part of the slate mailer, he said. The database, under construction now,
may reach 1 million voters ``who have publicly put out their e-mail
addresses.''

Lt. Gov. Gray Davis' campaign manager, Garry South, argues that while the
Web is a tool to augment campaign communications, ``I think you can
overstate the case. I just don't think in the final analysis elections are
going to be won or lost based upon who has the best Web site or who gets
the most hits on their Web site.''

While Harman, Davis (www.gray-davis.com), Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren
(www.lungrenforgovernor.org) and Checchi (www.alchecchi.com) all display
favorably selected news stories about themselves on their sites, only
Checchi includes negative stories about his opponents.

On the other hand, Checchi's site includes a vast array of policy papers on
issues, while Harman's offers Real Video versions of her campaign
commercials but far less by way of substantive positions.

Thus far, only Boxer's site provides visitors a means for making online
contributions using a credit card, a feat that requires expensive, secure
e-trade technology.

Even local candidates have jumped onto the Net. In San Jose's mayoral
contest, all three major candidates -- Ron Gonzales, Pat Dando and Kathy
Chavez Napoli -- have Web pages (www.rongonzales98.com,
www.dandoformayor.com and www.napoliformayor.com). Dando offers campaign
statements in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. Napoli's, however, is under
construction.

For Net surfers in search of impartial information, Rough and Tumble --
which its creator, veteran TV journalist Jack Kavanaugh, bills as ``a daily
drive-by on California politics'' -- offers links to important news stories
and commentary, most California newspapers, national publications, public
interest groups and various official sites.

Likewise, politicalaccess provides a vast array of links to media,
political organizations, election sites, government agencies and
subscription services. ``This site is designed for the press corps covering
California elections and consultants attempting to `Wag the Dog, '' Goodman
advises on her home page. But the site is a gold mine.

For those with the resources -- political professionals, newspapers,
lobbyists and legislators -- the Sacramento Bee's Capitol Alert, which
charges $300 a year, provides unmatched services such as legislative bill
tracking, attorney general's opinions, expert commentary and digests on
virtually every state and federal contest in California.

The Los Angeles Times and KMEX-TV have created ``Power of the Vote''
(www.latimes.com/HOME/NEWS/POLITICS/KMEXVOTE) as a non-partisan guide to
political participation, including useful information on how to register to
vote and report irregularities. Uniquely, the site offers information in
Spanish and English.

To date, candidates who have unleashed negative attacks on one another on
television have yet to go negative on the Web. Some political specialists,
however, expect that sooner or later the limits of propriety will be tested
on the Internet.

``One of the key calculations candidates should be making is how to talk to
people who are listening,'' said Goodman. ``But if people think the
Internet's best use is to slime voters with negative attack messages,
they're missing the point. People don't like to sign on and find smut mail.''

Alexander of the California Voter Foundation has high hopes.

``We're estimating that there will be a million Californians surfing the
Web for election information this year,'' she said. ``They're more likely
to retain information and to share information. It gives us a chance to
return to a new style of grass-roots campaigning.''
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill Is Signed Outlawing `Date Rape Drug' ('Tulsa World'
Says Oklahoma House Bill 2654, Introduced By Representative Phil Ostrander,
A Democrat From Collinsville, Will Place Gammahydroxybuterate,
Also Known As Liquid X, Fantasy, And Grievous Bodily Harm,
On The State's List Of Controlled Dangerous Substances -
Bill Also Increases Penalties For Other Drug-Law Violations)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 23:35:54 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US OK: Bill Is Signed Outlawing `Date Rape Drug'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Michael Pearson 
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Tulsa World (OK)
Contact: tulsaworld@mail.webtek.com
Website: http://www.tulsaworld.com
Author: World's own Service

BILL IS SIGNED OUTLAWING `DATE RAPE DRUG'

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A bill to outlaw a so-called ``date rape drug'' has been
signed into law.

House Bill 2654 by Rep. Phil Ostrander, D-Collinsville, would add
gammahydroxybuterate to the state's list of controlled dangerous substances
on Nov. 1. The drug is a strong sedative used by some to subdue their
victims.

Ostrander said the drug, known as ``Liquid X,'' ``Fantasy'' or ``Grievous
Bodily Harm,'' is also used by teen-agers for a ``cheap high'' that can
result in a fatal overdose.

``I wrote this bill to take a dangerous substance out of the hands of
potential rapists and teen-agers who might fall for its deadly allure,'' he
said.

Other provisions in the new law gives prosecutors more authority to seize
drug dealers' property, even if they only pass through the state. It also
allows prosecutors to seize property or proceeds from drug transactions,
even if the transactions occurred in other states.

The bill was passed unanimously by the House and Senate and was signed into
law April 13.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

New Way To Fight Drugs Needed, Researcher Says ('Saint Paul Pioneer Press'
Gives A Weak Account Of A Speech In Minnesota's Twin Cities
By Ethan Nadelmann Of The Lindesmith Center In New York City -
But Gives More Space To The Local Prosecutor For Him To Urge On
The War Against Some Drug Users)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 18:04:55 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: "MICHAEL C. CLARK" 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: New way to fight drugs needed

Saint Paul Pioneer Press
Tuesday - April 28, 1998

New way to fight drugs needed, researcher says

- U.S. Attorney critical of speaker's proposals

Charles Laszewski - Staff Writer

Ethan Nadelmann came to the Twin Cities on Monday arguing for
more scientific and compassionate ways of combating drug use,
but the federal prosecutor refused to let him off easily.

U.S Attorney David Lillehaug repeatedly said he was glad to hear
Nadelmann no longer was advocating that the right to use drugs
was equivalent to the rights of free speech and religion, as he had
five years earlier.

The debate followed an hour-long speech by Nadelmann, director of
the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy research institute in New York
City, at the University of Minnesota Law School Monday night.

In his speech to about 50 people, Nadelmann ridiculed the drug
policy objectives of the United States, which Congress stated in
1988 was to have a drug-free nation by 1995.

"Let's abandon that notion," Nadelmann said. "Instead, let's talk
about learning how to live with drugs so they can cause the least
amount of harm."

The government never has looked at whether the tough law enforcement
policies against drugs the past 15 years have worked and been
cost-effective. He argued that they have not, because effective policy
would reduce death, disease, crime, suffering and wouldn't waste
money.

Instead, in 1980, there was no such thing as crack cocaine. Now it's
use and sale is ravaging neighborhoods across the country. It was
developed by drug dealers as an easier way to transport and sell
cocaine, he said. In 1980, the federal and state governments spent
about $3 billion a year on enforcing drug laws. Now that amount is
close to $40 billion. In 1980, 50,000 were in prison for breaking drug
laws; now about 400,000 are, he said.

Nadelmann said he was not arguing for legalizing drugs, except
perhaps marijuana, because "I can't guarantee anyone that legalization
would be a better world."

Instead, Nadelmann said the nation needs harm-reduction policies.
That would include much more treatment of drug users, including
helping them control their use without necessarily abstaining from
drugs. It means needle exchanges, which even the federal government
acknowledged last week reduces disease without encouraging drug
use, he said.

"It should be based on science, common sense, human rights and
perhaps a dose of compassion," he concluded.

But Lillehaug, who was on a panel to respond to the speech, said
Nadelmann had spent nearly all his hour talking about the problems
of the current drug policy but little time prescribing cures. In particular,
Lillehaug said, federal prosecutors and police are trying to stem the
problems from the enormous sale and use of cocaine in the Twin
Cities and suburbs and the growing use of methamphetamine in outstate
Minnesota.

Lillehaug was critical of the fact that Minnesota is 49th in the nation for
incarcerating people. Only North Dakota puts fewer people per capita
in prison, he said.

For drugs, that results in "catch and release," he said - dealers are
arrested and only 10 percent go to prison. He agreed that there
should be more drug treatment but noted that some studies show
treatment in prison can be more effective than voluntary treatment.

"I have done a tremendous amount of work in the neighborhoods of
Minneapolis that have been wracked by drugs," Lillehaug said.

"It is not unanimous, but the strong feeling is that what the dealers
are doing is wrong and legalizing and decriminalizing won't help."
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Media Criticism Nark Style - Indiana Sheriff's Office Locks Up Reporter
Who Had Been Investigating Them ('The Times Of Northwest Indiana' Says
The Lake County Sheriff's Department On Friday Arrested A Times Reporter
Who Has Been Investigating Allegations Of Corruption And Mismanagement
In The Lake County Drug Task Force)

Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 13:31:05 -0300 (ADT)
Sender: Chris Donald 
From: Chris Donald 
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Reporter investigating police jailed
Source: The Times of Northwest Indiana
http://www.TheTimesOnline.com

Media Criticism Nark Style:
Indiana Sheriff's Office Locks Up Reporter Who Had Been Investigating Them

April 28, 1998

Times staffer who has been investigating allegations involving drug
task force busted on 4-year-old warrants.

BY JOE CARROLL

Times Staff Writer

CROWN POINT - The Lake County Sheriff's Department arrested a
Times reporter Friday who has been investigating allegations of
corruption and mismanagement in the Lake County Drug Task Force.

Two detectives from the sheriff's internal affairs division
arrested Times staff writer Daniel J. Yovich about 1:30 p.m. at The
Times' Munster office.

Several months ago, Yovich was subjected to a search by sheriff's
deputies.

Friday's arrest, which followed a series of stories Yovich
recently wrote detailing allegations of corruption and
misappropriation of resources at the drug task force, was for two
misdemeanor warrants dating back as far as 1993.

Yovich was released on $2,000 bond about 6 p.m., after attempts by the
Lake County prosecutor's office to get him released on his own
recognizance failed.

Sheriff John Buncich refused to discuss the arrest when approached by
a reporter Friday afternoon.

"No comment," Buncich said as a secretary pulled the blinds and he
walked into a back room in his administrative offices.

However, a few hours later, Buncich's public relations chief
issued a tersely worded statement that blamed the possible loss of
millions of dollars in drug task force grants on The Times, an
apparent reference to Yovich's stories.

"I have been advised that congressional funding may not be renewed
because of negative reporting by The Times," the written statement
said. "I, as your sheriff, along with other police chiefs throughout
Lake County, will not permit this to happen."

The officers who made the arrest - Det. Pat Tracy and Sgt. Robert
Joseph - did not return phone calls Friday. Joseph is head of the
sheriff's internal affairs division; Tracy works in the same
office.

Yovich, who joined The Times eight months ago, was arrested on two
separate misdemeanor warrants. The first dealt with a probation
revocation hearing from August 1993; the second warrant was from an
April 1994 hearing on a drunken driving charge.

Such warrants are forwarded to the Sheriff's Department's
warrants division immediately after they are issued by the courts.
That means the warrants against Yovich have been languishing in the
Sheriff's Department for at least four years and are among
thousands of such warrants that have not been served by the
sheriff's department.

No one from the warrants division was available to explain why the
warrants surfaced at this time or why no attempt was made in the last
eight months to arrest Yovich on the numerous occasions he has
interviewed the sheriff and other law enforcement officials at the
Sheriff's Department offices in Crown Point.

In addition, during two separate traffic stops in recent months,
police computer checks of Yovich's driver's license showed
no outstanding warrants, according to Hammond and Griffith police.

"It's been no secret to anyone in the county where they could
find me day or night," Yovich said in a statement from the Lake County
Jail on Friday afternoon. "I have received no notification from the
courts on this matter.

I believed the issues had been resolved. Why did this surface today
from the Sheriff's Department?

"If there are issues that are unresolved, I am not aware of them, but
I am eager to learn the details and to resolve them as quickly as
possible."

Shortly after the sheriff secreted himself in his back office Friday,
he summoned the department's public relations officer, Loy
Roberson, to meet with him. Roberson told a reporter he would have
information on the arrest after the meeting.

But when contacted later, Roberson said he knew nothing about the
arrest or the charges leading up to it.

"They're not here," Roberson said, referring to Buncich and other
top aides, "and there is no press release on it."

Two months ago, Yovich was searched for a recording device by
Sheriff's Department officials when he began writing about
problems at the sheriff's drug task force, including an
investigator who was arrested by the FBI for allegedly shaking down a
drug dealer.

The officers who conducted the search indicated they suspected Yovich
was providing information to federal investigators, though Buncich
later described the incident as a joke among friends.

More recently, Yovich's stories have detailed the widening scope
of a federal probe into alleged mismanagement and misappropriation of
resources at the drug task force, and possible conflicts of interest
with those overseeing the operation.

"The motives of the Sheriff's Department are highly suspect with
Yovich's arrest," Times Executive Editor William Nangle said
Friday. "First came the search in the shower stall and now an arrest
that may be questionable. It is interesting that the reporter bringing
to light allegations of misconduct is arrested by the very department
about which he is writing.

"If Yovich has a prior legal matter that must be resolved, we will
urge - as we would any citizen - that he deal with it as
quickly as possible."

Yovich, a 36-year-old Hammond resident, was a foreign correspondent
for United Press International in Bosnia from January 1994 to June
1996. He then worked for the Daily Southtown in Chicago before coming
to work for The Times in August 1997.

Copyright The Times of Northwest Indiana.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Alert - Cleveland Needle Exchanger Arrested
(Drug Reform Coordination Network's Rapid Response Team
Asks You To Write A Letter On Behalf Of The Xchange Point)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 19:52:32 EDT
Originator: drc-natl@drcnet.org
Sender: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (manager@drcnet.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drc-natl@drcnet.org)
Subject: ALERT: CLEVELAND NEEDLE EXCHANGER ARRESTED (4/28)

***

Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
Rapid Response Team

***

CLEVELAND NEEDLE EXCHANGER ARRESTED (4/28)

***

(To sign off this list, mailto:listproc@drcnet.org with the
line "signoff drc-natl" in the body of the message, or
mailto:drcnet@drcnet.org for assistance. To subscribe to
this list, visit http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html.)

REMINDER: Will and Meg Foster on PBS Frontline TONIGHT, 9pm EST

-- please copy and distribute --

Last year, DRCNet members wrote to officials and media
outlets in the city of Cleveland on behalf of The Xchange
Point, a privately funded needle exchange program, which had
shut down under threat of prosecution by the city
government. The city had issued an emergency order
permitting needle exchanges to operate, but then revised it
so as to specifically prohibit The Xchange Point, despite
efforts by the program to work out mutually acceptable
conditions (http://drcnet.org/rapid/1997/1-19-1.html). In
May '97, The Xchange Point resumed operations, thanks in
part to the many letters from DRCNet members and other
supporters (http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1997/5-2-1.html).
We have more than four times as many readers now as we did
then, and The Xchange Point needs our help again.

This morning (4/28), Ken Vail, founder and Executive
Director of The Xchange Point, Cleveland's second needle
exchange program, was arrested, only two days after
returning from the North American Syringe Exchange
Convention, where attendees were warmly welcomed by
Baltimore's mayor and commissioner of public health. Ken
has been charged with an "unclassified misdemeanor," a
pretty minor charge, but is being held in jail with bail set
at $10,000. His lawyer is working to get him released.

Ken was arrested for violating the City's health emergency
order on syringe exchange that was revised earlier this
year. The revised regulations had asked programs to desist
from syringe exchange until they had demonstrated widespread
community support through a variety of mechanisms such as
community forums. Ken has been working on increasing the
community support but has been vocal in criticizing the
desist component of the order. A warrant was issued for his
arrest, and he turned himself in this morning.

The city's action threatens to increase the spread of drug-
related HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other diseases. The timing
of the arrest, and the unusually high bond for an offense
that would typically carry no bond, raises the suspicion
that the arrest was politically motivated -- not only,
perhaps, as individual retaliation against Ken Vail, but as
a backlash against the headway that needle exchange has made
during the last several days: Eight days ago the Secretary
of Health & Human Services endorsed needle exchange in
principle for the first time, and three days ago several
members of the Congressional Black Caucus called for drug
czar Barry McCaffrey's resignation because of his covert
maneuvering to undermine other members of the Clinton
administration who support needle exchange (more about that
in the next Week Online).

Letters and phone calls are urgently needed to get Ken Vail
released and the program reopened. Please express your
outrage politely, and don't forget that we are on the
winning side on this issue. (And don't forget to send us
copies of your letters or notes about your phone calls.)

CALL THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC OFFICIALS:

Mayor Michael R. White: (216) 664-2000
(switchboard open from 8:30am-4:30pm EST)
via fax: (216) 664-2815
via mail:

City of Cleveland
City Hall
601 Lakeside Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114

Public Health Director Robert O. Staib: (216) 664-4370
via fax: (216) 664-2197
via mail: City of Cleveland
1925 St. Clair Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114

City AIDS Czar Bob Bucklew: (216) 420-8504

SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR AND ENCOURAGE THE MEDIA TO COVER
THE STORY:

The Plain Dealer
1801 Superior Avenue
Cleveland, OH 44114
Fax: (216) 999-6209
E-mail: letters@plaind.com

For the extra motivated:

The Free Times
1846 Coventry Road, Suite 100
Cleveland, OH 44118
Fax: (216) 321-3685
E-mail: 71632.165@compuserve.com

Gay People's Chronicle
P.O. Box 5426
Cleveland, OH 44101
Fax: (216) 631-1082
E-mail: chronio@aol.com

***

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St., NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036, or made by credit
card at http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html on the web.

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

Blowing Smoke (Staff Editorial In 'New York Times'
Pans The New Statewide $150,000 Television Anti-Smoking Ad
Starring New York Attorney General Dennis Vacco
Lecturing About The Perils Of Teen-Agers Smoking)

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 19:53:10 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Mike Gogulski 
Subject: MN: US NYT: Editorial: Blowing Smoke
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: April 28, 1998

EDITORIAL: BLOWING SMOKE

It is hard not to fume about Attorney General Dennis Vacco's starring role
in anti-smoking ads now airing around New York State. The ads feature Mr.
Vacco lecturing about the perils of teen-agers smoking. While they may be
good for Mr. Vacco, who is running for re-election, most experts on
teen-age smoking believe that the last thing we need is some adult,
particularly a politician, lecturing on why tobacco is bad.

What makes this particularly distressing is that the $150,000 for this
campaign comes from state funds that were supposed to use the "most current
research" in getting young people's attention about how cool tobacco isn't.
Experts deem pronouncements like Mr. Vacco's among the least effective
approaches. That is why these spots, and his commandeering of the funds,
have drawn the opposition of The American Cancer Society, the American
Heart Association and other anti-smoking organizations.

The Vacco ads are particularly galling because the Attorney General was a
late convert in the states' lawsuit against the tobacco industry. Only two
years ago he suggested that such an action would be like filing a complaint
against the dairy industry to get money for treating people with high
cholesterol.

For all practical purposes, Mr. Vacco's public-service ads are aimed not so
much at teen-agers as at his own potential voters. The ads should be pulled
from the air and paid for out of Mr. Vacco's campaign funds.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Drug Stings At High Schools Waste Tax Dollars (Letter To The Editor
Of 'The Sun' In Baltimore, Maryland, Says The Tactic Of Using Undercover Cops
To Pose As Students Invariably Involves Entrapment, Wasted Resources)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 13:25:18 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US MD: PUB LTE: Drug Stings At High Schools Waste Tax Dollars
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Rob Ryan 
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: The Sun (Baltimore, Md)
Contact: letters@baltsun.com
Website : http://www.baltimoresun.com

DRUG STINGS AT HIGH SCHOOLS WASTE TAX DOLLARS

As the father of a student who was arrested in a similar high school sting
many years ago, I feel compelled to speak out about the undercover cadet
program ("12 students arrested in drug investigation at three high
schools," April 17). This entrapment program has been allowed to continue
for years and is a self-fulfilling police program.

The cadets are placed in the school, befriend targeted students, badger
them to get drugs and then bust them before graduation. Just look at the
numbers: Very few kids were caught after a seven-month investigation, just
as in previous years.

Twelve students in three high schools after seven months seems like a waste
of taxpayer money.

Once again, no drug lords are exposed, no drug rings are discovered, and
the lives of 12 students and their parents will be put through holy hell in
our judicial system, while families spend thousands of dollars to defend
their children.

Go catch real criminals with our tax money and leave our teen-agers alone.

Harvey Woolf
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Message On Marijuana Gets Through To Reader (Funny Letter To The Editor
Of 'The Sun' In Baltimore, Maryland, Responds To The Drug Czar's Ad Campaign)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 13:30:33 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US MD: PUB LTE: Message On Marijuana Gets Through To Reader
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Rob Ryan 
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: The Sun (Baltimore, MD)
Contact: letters@baltsun.com
Website: http://www.baltimoresun.com

MESSAGE ON MARIJUANA GETS THROUGH TO READER

I was very impressed with the full-page ad equating marijuana with poison
ivy, which the Office of National Drug Control Policy recently ran in
several newspapers.

The ads may have cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, but
it sure persuaded me never to smoke poison ivy.

A. Robert Kaufman
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Busted - America's War On Marijuana (Transcript
Of Public Broadcasting Service's Television Special
About The War On Some Drug Users)

Fri, 29 May 1998 11:16:38 -0700
From: savages@hemp.org
Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 03:30:40 -0700 (PDT)
To: octa99@crrh.org
Subject: PBS on pot

Take a look

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope

Rastamon

FRONTLINE
Show #1615
Air date: April 28, 1998
Busted: America's War on Marijuana

Written and Produced by Elena
Mannes

INDIANA ARCHITECT: My concept
of the penalties, the whole time I was
involved with growing marijuana, was,
you know, "Gosh, I could get caught and
spend a year in prison." I mean, we were
particularly naive about what the final
result could be. [Busted - Federal
sentence: 20 years]

CRAIG RALSTIN, Indiana State
Police: There are people that are growing
it for money, but they're criminals just
like any other criminal.

WILL FOSTER: I lived a pretty decent
life. I worked every day. I paid my taxes.
You know, I didn't go out and hurt
nobody. I didn't rob nobody. I didn't
know that cultivation carried 2 to life, no.
[Busted - State sentence: 93 years]

ANDREA STRONG: They said, "Well
he can't have bond. He's facing a life
sentence." And my mom says, "Well
who did he kill?" You know, "Did he
rape somebody? Did he molest some
child? What did he do?" He was accused
of being the middleman in a marijuana
conspiracy. He connected the buyer and
the grower. [Busted - Life sentence,
Leavenworth]

STEVE WHITE: I think it's a dangerous
drug. I don't think it does any good,
period.

1st DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
Chimney on this house here. You can see
a little bit of heat coming out of it, a little
animal standing there in the back yard.

NARRATOR: In the night sky over
Indianapolis, the hunt is on: drug
enforcement agents scanning a
neighborhood for evidence of marijuana.

2nd DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
Hello!

1st DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
That don't look quite right. Yeah, a patio,
patio door, window. Window's been
covered over. Looks a little odd.

NARRATOR: The infrared camera
could reveal a marijuana-growing
operation inside any one of these houses.
Infrared detects heat, which can indicate
a "grow room" using a lot of lights.

2nd DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
The foundation certainly is warm.

1st DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
That's what I was going to say. That
foundation's hotter than fire.

2nd DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
Yeah.

1st DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
That's the only thing I see real unusual.

NARRATOR: This kind of marijuana
search is happening all over America.
The war on marijuana has become a
battle fought not only overseas, but on
home turf.

3rd DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
We've got a search warrant. The targets
are two white males-

STEVE WHITE: This is a law-and-order
part of the country. Law enforcement's
held in probably higher esteem here than
any place I've ever been.

NARRATOR: For many years, Steve
White ran Indiana's war on marijuana as
an agent with the Federal Drug
Enforcement Administration. The DEA is
spending over $13 million a year to fund
state cannabis eradication programs.

STEVE WHITE: We were one of the
first 20 states to do it, and there hadn't
been an organized effort, I don't think,
against marijuana in the U.S. since the
late 1930s.

NARRATOR: White recently retired
from active duty with the DEA and now
teaches undercover police techniques. He
went along with us on a typical arrest to
show us the world of marijuana law
enforcement.

1st DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
Search warrant! Please open the door.

2nd DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
I'll get this side door here.

1st DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
Police! Search warrant!

2nd DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say can be used against
you in a court of law. You have the right
to an attorney. If you cannot afford an
attorney, one will be [unintelligible] for
you. You understand you're under
arrest?

SUSPECT: Yes, sir.

NARRATOR: For this arrest in
Bloomington, Indiana, an informant had
tipped agents off to an indoor marijuana
grow room. It was allegedly run by a
business school student and his
roommate in the back of their house.

STEVE WHITE: This is their growing
room, and the first thing that you can see
on these plants is that they've been
topped, or the flowering tops, in other
words, have been pruned off the colis of
the plant. This is fairly typical. They've
got three lights here, the smaller plants
over there, larger ones coming up here.

I think a lot of people that grow actually
grow so that they don't have to go out
and buy dope. But the down side and
reverse side of that is, some time along
the line, they say, "Gee, I've spent this
much on equipment and this much on
fertilizer. Why don't I grow a little more
and sell it and pay for that?" And then
that's when they come into my clutches.

[to suspect] Would you hazard a guess
as to what a pound of that stuff would be
worth on the market?

SUSPECT: I wouldn't know.

STEVE WHITE: If I said $2,000 to
$5,000, could that be in the range?

SUSPECT: That would be about right, I
guess- guessing.

NARRATOR: This suspect was one of
about 3,000 people arrested for
marijuana offenses in Indiana last year.
The state's cannabis eradication program
now makes more marijuana arrests than
any state in the nation. During the
summer and early fall, when the corn is
high, the drug enforcement team heads
out to make its own harvest.

DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT: I
think we may have some [unintelligible]
marijuana plants back in the center of
this cornfield.

NARRATOR: Any one of these corn
rows may hide thousands of dollars
worth of marijuana.

CRAIG RALSTIN, Indiana State
Police: I've been spotting marijuana as a
pilot with the state police for about 19
years. I think it's one of the most
important jobs that we could be doing
because I know what the effect of the
marijuana is on our young people in our
society.

NARRATOR: An estimated 10 to 30
million Americans use marijuana, and as
much half of all the marijuana used in
America is now home grown.

CRAIG RALSTIN: We'll use
fixed-wings and helicopters and trained
spotters, and we'll find where people are
either preparing their grows or suspicious
areas that look like somebody's cut an
area out of a field. And once we find the
plant from the air, we'll direct our ground
guys, and they'll go back in and either cut
it or pull the plants out.

That's a pretty nice plant.

ARMY OFFICER: Yeah.

CRAIG RALSTIN: You can see the
growers started this one indoors some
place in a cup, and brought them and
transplanted them back out here. That's
kind of the thing that we run into. We're
always trying to keep up with the
growers and try to get them before they
get them out.

DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT: Are
these your fields here?

MAN: Right. Yes.

DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
Okay, we got some marijuana out of this
one and this one, both.

ARMY OFFICER: He contacted me.

DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT:
Okay. Okay, good enough.

ARMY OFFICER: He's the one that
told me.

WOMAN: You know, it really makes me
mad that people can come into your field
and do that, you know, and they don't
have to do any work.

MAN: And they make more money, you
know, than I will-

WOMAN: They pull out your corn
plants.

MAN: -for the whole crop, you know?
But the cows ate it all last time, except
one plant.

MIKE GAYER, Indiana State Police:
Unfortunately, every day that we fly, we
find cultivated marijuana. There is not a
day that goes by that we go out in this
aircraft that we do not find cultivated
marijuana plants. There's that much in
the state of Indiana.

RALPH WEISHEIT: "The marijuana
basket of America" would probably be a
good description of the central part of the
U.S. Marijuana is grown in every state of
the U.S., so it is a national phenomenon,
but it seems particularly prevalent in the
Midwest.

NARRATOR: Ralph Weisheit, a
professor of criminal justice at Illinois
State University, has done extensive
research on the domestic marijuana
industry.

RALPH WEISHEIT: We have to make
guesses about how much marijuana is
growing because it is an illegal crop, but it
is easily the biggest cash crop. Some
people have said it goes into the billions.
The value is far higher, probably double
the value of corn. You also have in the
Midwest a fair amount of marijuana
that's already growing wild that was
planted during the Second World War.

NARRATOR: The federal government
actually gave farmers the seeds because
hemp from the marijuana plant was
needed to make rope after supplies from
Asia were cut off.

MIKE GAYER, Indiana State Police:
It was good in the '40s. It's bad in the
'90s.

DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENT: The
government paid them to grow it, and
now the government is paying us to take
it away.

RALPH WEISHEIT: Certainly, of all
the illegal drugs, there's been no drug
about which the government has had
more mixed feelings. Marijuana has had a
somewhat different role than other drugs.
It has had a mystical sort of atmosphere
about it for some and it's been the
embodiment of evil for others.

1st WOMAN: It doesn't do anything
good for you.

1st MAN: It's very bad for you.

2nd MAN: It's a mild relaxant.

3rd MAN: This is a nice drug. It doesn't
have a hangover. You don't become
aggressive and belligerent.

4th MAN: It is dangerous.

2nd WOMAN: Changes your mind.

5th MAN: It affects short-term memory.

3rd WOMAN: Paranoia.

6th MAN: Killing brain cells.

4th WOMAN: There's a reason why it's
illegal.

7th MAN: I'm not sure I understand how
you make a plant illegal.

RALPH WEISHEIT: I find that some
law enforcement officials believe it is a
drug, and a drug is a drug, and so harsh
penalties should go with that, if we have
harsh penalties for other drugs. I have
found others who see marijuana as
completely different from cocaine or
heroin, and really believe that we've gone
far too far along in our handling of the
drug through the criminal process.

NARRATOR: More Americans use
marijuana than all other illegal drugs
combined and are spending an estimated
$7 billion a year to buy it on the black
market. It's believed that more than two
million Americans grow marijuana
themselves, either for personal use or to
sell it.

NARRATOR: ["Sea of Green" video]
Hello, and welcome to the Sea of Green.
Follow the simple instructions and soon
you will begin your harvest.

NARRATOR: Lessons on how to set up
a grow room are readily available on
videotape and in magazines. "High
Times," founded in 1974, now has a
circulation of a quarter million readers.
Even the Internet has marijuana Web
sites with discussion about softening the
laws and the experience of other
countries with decriminalization.

The mass media treats marijuana with a
mixture of alarm and laughter.

1st ACTOR: ["Home Improvement"] It's
not oregano.

2nd ACTOR: Tarragon?

1st ACTOR: This is marijuana.

2nd ACTOR: Jill cooks with marijuana?

NARRATOR: Popular culture sends a
mixed message, and for many marijuana
growers, the temptation to defy the law
seems to outweigh the risk of arrest.
Doug Keenan, who lives in a quiet
middle-class neighborhood of
Indianapolis, was even willing to go
public and show us his grow room, dug
deep underground so the infrared
cameras won't detect it.

DOUG KEENAN: The humming that
you hear is the ballast, which is driving
the light here. Most all of this equipment
can be bought at any hardware store.
Once you've decided that you're going to
be consuming it pretty regularly, then you
come up with, "Well, I'm going to need a
steady supply." Simple reason is you've
got something that's priced more than
gold. If you're going to smoke a lot of it,
you can't afford to buy it out on the
black market.

NARRATOR: Over the last two
decades, the potency of marijuana on the
market has increased and the price has
skyrocketed. In the early 1980s, an
ounce of commercial grade sold for about
$40. Today an ounce costs up to $400-
in fact, a price higher than gold, which
now sells for around $300 dollars an
ounce.

DOUG KEENAN: I will be growing as
long as I am free to do so- "free" being
that nobody's put a ball and chain around
my ankle. You have to realize that your
liberty is at risk every minute of every
day.

NARRATOR: So why go public and
take the chance of arrest?

DOUG KEENAN: It's a delicate
trade-off, but in my mind- you know, a
lot of people have asked me why be an
activist at all. The alternative is, if I don't,
you're going to have a police state in
another 30 years. And this is basically a
right of consumption. I have the right to
grow and consume anything that God
gives me the seed and the ground to grow
it in.

NARRATOR: So far, Keenan's grow
room has escaped detection by Indiana's
drug enforcement team. But often,
growers who think they're operating free
and clear for years are actually the targets
of long investigations that do end in
arrest.

INDIANA ARCHITECT: I got a
20-year prison sentence and I was just
totally devastated. I think we were all
particularly naive about what the final
result could be.

NARRATOR: This Indiana architect and
his brother, an attorney, used this farm to
grow large amounts of marijuana, which
they sold commercially. They were
arrested by Steve White after a five-year
investigation.

STEVE WHITE: The farmer that owned
this property had run into some financial
difficulties. And he was a client of the
attorney, and when the attorney's brother
called him and wanted to expand the
operation, this came to mind.

NARRATOR: The architect doesn't
want his identity revealed.

INDIANA ARCHITECT: The farmer
didn't hesitate at all. He had very few
alternatives to be able to make the money
that was going to be needed to save his
farm. And this was in the early '80s,
when all the farms in America were really
in a big financial crisis. We grew there for
a couple of years, and the first year we
grew 50 pounds, and at that time it was
worth about $100,000.

STEVE WHITE: They were the
all-American boys. They loved their
children. They loved their parents. So,
you know, how do I characterize them?
Smart. Nice. They broke the law. And
they knew better. The people of Indiana
will not tolerate this type of behavior.
Why should we say it's okay for a guy to
make a million dollars raising marijuana?
Marijuana's the threshold drug. It's the
drug that most children, kids start out
with.

NARRATOR: In a community like
Warsaw, Indiana, marijuana is not only
growing in the cornfields, it's being traded
in the halls of the high school.

1st GIRL: You can see when people's
doing it at school, the smell of it at
school.

INTERVIEWER: You can smell it at
school?

1st GIRL: Oh, yeah. Some people do it
in the bathroom.

1st BOY: The bathroom's bad.

1st GIRL: We just got caught, like, two
weeks ago. There was, like, five girls that
got caught doing it.

2nd GIRL: That was, like, the second
week of school.

3rd GIRL: You can't hide it. I mean,
you see somebody walking up and down
the street, all you have to do is ask them
and they can give it to you. They'll sell it
right there to you, on the spot.

INTERVIEWER: All of you know
somebody you could go probably call
right now?

STUDENTS: Yeah. Yeah.

2nd BOY: The guys- well, if you don't
do it, they call you wimps and all kinds
of things, and just try to put you down
and get you to do it and finally snap.

PAUL CROUSORE, Principal,
Warsaw High School: We had
indicators that we're having problem with
drugs in the building. We had a drug
sweep back a few years ago, where we
actually had the police come in and dogs
and we searched, and we arrested 17
students.

NARRATOR: The Warsaw high school
has begun testing its athletes for drugs. A
student who tests positive for marijuana
is suspended from competition for a year.

DAVE FULKERSON, Athletic
Director, Warsaw High School: The
kids have to realize there are rules that
they must go by. And that's- you know,
our society is made up of rules. The one
thing that the general public fails to
realize, that it's in violation of the law.
It's against the state law. You can be
arrested. You can be sent to jail.

2nd BOY: If they get caught, they go on
probation. Even when they're on
probation- I had a friend and- they break
probation.

1st GIRL: Sometimes when people get
caught, they finally realize that they're
doing something wrong and they quit.
But then, on the other hand, there's some
people that are just, like, "Oh, that's
okay. I'll just go out and- once I get free
I'll go out and do it again."

NARRATOR: Many drug counselors
consider marijuana to be a gateway drug
that could lead to the use of harder drugs.

BRET RICHARDSON: [to class]
Name one of the gateway drugs. Joe?

1st PUPIL: Marijuana.

BRET RICHARDSON: Marijuana.
Give me another one. Caitlin?

2nd PUPIL: Beer, wine.

NARRATOR: Lee Ann Richardson and
her husband, Bret, of the Warsaw,
Indiana Police Department, work for the
D.A.R.E. program - Drug Abuse
Resistance Education. D.A.R.E. uses
local police officers to teach drug
education in the schools.

3rd PUPIL: Hi, Caitlin. Would you like
to have some marijuana with me?

2nd PUPIL: No.

3rd PUPIL: How come?

2nd PUPIL: It'll make me sick. Oh, I've
got to go work on that homework.

3rd PUPIL: Fine.

BRET RICHARDSON: Cut. Well done!
But what if they say, "Why not?" What if
they start to tease you? Think about
three reasons why you don't want to use
drugs.

1st BOY: I really didn't know much
about marijuana. I didn't know what
harmful effects it can do on your life and
stuff like that. I mean, it's really nice to
know now. And I made the decision not
to do marijuana or any drug.

2nd BOY: It just- like, it can hurt you,
and it kills you and stuff if you do too
much of it.

GIRL: Well before I- before Officer
Richardson came in this year, I was, like,
"What's so wrong about it? It just
grows." But now I know what the
harmful effects are and I know that I will
never, ever do it.

NARRATOR: The actual effects of
marijuana on people who use it have
been the subject of scientific study, but
the results have not served to settle the
debate about its dangers.

Dr. CHARLES SCHUSTER: Marijuana
has very profound affects, particularly
when it's smoked, and the most
important thing about it is that it's
immediate.

NARRATOR: Dr. Charles Schuster, a
psychopharmacologist at the Wayne
State University School of Medicine, also
headed the National Institute of Drug
Abuse during the drug crackdown in the
1980s. He's been researching marijuana
for more than 30 years.

Dr. CHARLES SCHUSTER: It's a
powerful drug and it has powerful effects
on mood, powerful effects on your ability
to perform skilled activities, powerful
effects on cognition and powerful effects
on your heart- huge increases in heart
rate, for example, when you smoke it.
It's a powerful drug and we can't dismiss
that.

There are many differences between
heroin, cocaine, and marijuana, on the
other hand. Number one, marijuana,
unlike heroin and cocaine, has never
been associated with acute overdosage
death. To the best of my knowledge, no
one has died because they've smoked too
much marijuana. Clearly, people die from
overdoses of cocaine and of heroin.

Number two, I think that although
marijuana can produce dependence and
addiction, the likelihood of that occurring
in people is much less than with drugs
such as cocaine and heroin.

When we think about social policies and
a lot of other things, we have to realize
that the public health dangers associated
with illicit drugs depends upon the illicit
drug we're talking about. With marijuana,
I think that we're talking about a lesser
evil than we are when we're talking about
cocaine and heroin, but that doesn't mean
that it isn't an evil. [www.pbs.org: More
on marijuana in the body]

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: Marijuana's an
excellent example of how we have shifted
our views on a substance. You have
these enormous shifts and, really,
research takes place against these larger
attitudes, and it's also interpreted in these
larger attitudes.

NARRATOR: Dr. David Musto, of Yale
University, has devoted years of study to
the history of America's drug policies and
attitudes toward marijuana in particular.

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: Marijuana started
to come into the United States in the
1920s, along with Mexican immigrants.
Then, in the 1930s, when the Great
Depression hit, these people became a
feared surplus in our country, and they
were thought to take marijuana, go into
town on the weekend and create
mayhem. Now, that's very close to the
general attitude toward marijuana in the
1930s. It was thought to be a cause of
crime and a cause of senseless violence.

The head of the narcotics bureau from
1930 to 1962, Harry J. Anslinger,
decided he had to fight marijuana really
in the media. He tried to describe
marijuana in so repulsive and terrible
terms that people wouldn't even be
tempted to try it. In the 1960s, the use of
marijuana was symbolic of the
counterculture, of the anti-Vietnam war
battles. It became something that, if you
used, you used it almost ritually, as
joining a large group of people who had
similar points of view and similar
attitudes, let's say, to authority and to the
government and so on.

NARRATOR: In the early 1970s, the
Shafer Commission was ordered by
Congress to consider marijuana and the
drug abuse laws.

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: They came out
with the conclusion that marijuana should
be decriminalized. That is, small amounts
for personal use might be fined, like you
might get a ticket. And this was very
upsetting to President Nixon. President
Nixon, I think, of all of our Presidents
was the one most viscerally opposed to
drugs.

Then in the Carter Administration, I think
it was in 1978, all the heads of the
agencies came before Congress and
asked for the decriminalization of
marijuana of up to one ounce. And it was
quite interesting. There was quite a
backlash to this. You had the parents'
movement formed.

PARENT: -that if I became involved and
other parents became involved now
maybe this problem would not touch-
that the evil fingers of drugs would not
lay their hands on the shoulders of my
little boy.

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: And they created
quite a reaction and defeated some
people who were running for Congress
and had favored decriminalization. So
you move right from the Carter
administration into the Reagan
administration, which was very anti-drug
and anti-marijuana.

Pres. RONALD REAGAN: The
American people want their government
to get tough and to go on the offensive,
and that's exactly what we intend, with
more ferocity than ever before.

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: The Republicans
and Democrats, seeing this as a
tremendous, dangerous issue, vied with
one another as to all the ways that they
were going to help control drugs.

NARRATOR: One of those drugs was
cocaine, which was causing widespread
concern. Coke sales were rapidly
spreading from the cities to the suburbs,
and the 1986 death of basketball star Len
Bias, blamed on crack cocaine, put even
more pressure on lawmakers.

In 1986 President Reagan signed the Anti
Drug Abuse Act, which ordered
mandatory minimum sentences with no
parole for all illegal drugs. The federal
penalties were set according to the
amount of the drug involved, equating
marijuana plants with gram weights of
other drugs. For example, 100 plants is
considered comparable to 5 grams of
crack cocaine. The mandatory minimum
sentence for 100 plants of marijuana is 5
years; for 1000 plants, 10 years.

INDIANA ARCHITECT: I was one of
the lucky ones. Because my crime had
taken place in the early '80s meant that I
was going to be sentenced under the old
law, what's now called the old law. And
the new law, which came into effect in
1987, has got mandatory minimum
sentencing.

NARRATOR: The Indiana architect was
released after serving 5 years of his
20-year sentence. Now anyone convicted
on the same federal charges would not be
allowed parole. The mandatory minimum
sentencing ordered by the new law also
prevents judges from giving a lesser
penalty.

ERIC SCHLOSSER: The 1986 Anti
Drug Abuse Act was the most significant
drug legislation of this generation, which
shifted enormous power within our legal
system away from judges to prosecutors.

NARRATOR: Eric Schlosser wrote
about the history and impact of
marijuana law enforcement for a recent
series in "The Atlantic Monthly"
magazine. He also consulted for this
program.
ERIC SCHLOSSER: And since that law
was passed the federal prison population
has tripled. And whereas drug offenders
used to be a small proportion of federal
inmates, today about 70 percent of the
people in federal prison are drug
offenders. There are more people now in
federal prison for marijuana offenses
than for violent offenses.

ANDREA STRONG: He had a two-year
enhancement, though, I believe, for
manager organizer, but that's it.

NARRATOR: Andrea Strong's brother,
Mark Young, was sentenced under the
new law and was given life for brokering
the sale of 700 pounds of marijuana.

ANDREA STRONG: They said, "Well,
he can't have bond. He's facing a life
sentence." And my mom says, "Well,
who did he kill?" You know, "Did he
rape somebody? Did he molest some
child? What did he do?"

NARRATOR: Young had no previous
record of violence or drug trafficking.

ANDREA STRONG: It changed my
entire life. I lost my cleaning business
because we had made the news and we-
our story, Mark's story, with my name
and stuff, was in the newspaper, the local
paper, and some of the women whose
homes that I cleaned in, they didn't want
me in their home anymore. You know, I
didn't have anything to do with drugs in
any kind of way. My brother did.

NARRATOR: About 17 percent of all
federal inmates are convicted marijuana
offenders. That's one federal prisoner in
six. Because mandatory minimum
sentences do not allow parole, federal
prisoners convicted on non-violent
marijuana charges sometimes serve more
time than convicted murderers sentenced
under state law.

Scott Walt is serving 24 years for
conspiracy to possess with intent to
distribute around 2,000 pounds of
marijuana. David Ciglar: 10 years in
federal prison for cultivation of 167
marijuana seedlings.

And take the case of John Casali and
Todd Wick, two young men convicted of
growing some 1,600 marijuana plants in
northern California. Their sentence, the
10-year mandatory minimum, was
handed down by Judge Thelton
Henderson of the federal district court in
San Francisco.

Judge THELTON HENDERSON: I
told these young men that I wished I
could do something other than what I
did, and I felt awful about it, but that I
felt bound by the law. I think they were
rehabilitatable within less than 10 years.
I'm opposed to mandatory minimums, in
general, because I think they're unduly
harsh. I think that they don't allow the
judge the discretion to deal with the
individual problem. There is a formula
that says you've been involved with a
certain amount of drugs, for example,
ergo you get the mandatory minimum.

ANDREA STRONG: In the federal
sentencing, if you have so many plants
that are involved in your conspiracy - and
in this case it was over a thousand plants
- then, like my brother, you receive a life
sentence, and that means life without the
possibility of ever being paroled. And
they'll bury you in Leavenworth's back
yard, if you can't bring him home to bury
him. And that's what we were told.

NARRATOR: Andrea Strong's brother,
Mark Young, appealed his life sentence
on grounds that the prosecution had
miscounted the number of plants. He's
now serving a 12-year sentence. Andrea
Strong has become a leader in the
national organization Families Against
Mandatory Minimums.

ANDREA STRONG: Our goal is to
repeal mandatory minimum sentences
that are given to first-time non-violent
drug offenders. We believe they should
be punished, but we believe their
punishment should fit their crime.

NARRATOR: If Mark Young had been
sentenced under Indiana state law, he
would have received a lesser sentence,
but state marijuana penalties vary widely,
and in other parts of the country, the
state punishment can be even more
severe than the federal. In 15 states, you
can get life for a non-violent marijuana
offense.

NARRATOR: In Oklahoma, Will Foster
was sentenced to 93 years for marijuana
cultivation and possession in the presence
of a child. When Foster was arrested at
his Tulsa home in 1995, police said an
informant told them Foster had
methamphetamines.

WILL FOSTER: It was about 2:00
o'clock on the afternoon of December
28th, and the police come to our house.
They didn't knock, they just
battering-rammed our door down.

MEGAN BURKE: In less than a
30-second span of time, you know, from
the minute they hit the door. My life will
never be the same.

NARRATOR: Foster's partner, Megan
Burke, was in the house with their three
children.

MEGAN BURKE: It happened so
quickly. The next thing I know, the door
exploded inward. It knocked me
backwards onto my 5-year-old daughter.

NARRATOR: They found no
methamphetamines, but they did find
Foster's marijuana grow room down in
the basement.

MEGAN BURKE: I was afraid of it,
afraid of the ramifications if we got
caught. I knew they would be steep. I
had no idea it would be a life sentence, a
death penalty, in essence. In the
beginning, I was very angry. I just
wanted to kill him because I thought, you
know, "You did this." And I had to step
back from myself because I can't give
him all of the blame. I knew what he was
doing, and I could have had a big
screaming fit and he would have stopped.
He would have been mad, but he would
have stopped. And I didn't do that. So I
guess, in that respect, I share it equally.

NARRATOR: Foster says all the plants
were for his personal use, to help with
arthritis, but the number of plants raised
suspicions.

BRIAN CRAIN, Assistant D.A., Tulsa,
Oklahoma: Other than the fact that we
found over a kilo of marijuana, there
were gram scales, which indicate
packaging and distribution. There were
baggies. There were other paraphernalia
that indicated distribution. We felt
comfortable in bringing that to trial. The
idea that you can grow marijuana, that
you can distribute marijuana, that you
can possess marijuana in the presence of
a minor- that is not something that we
will accept in Tulsa County.
[www.pbs.org: Study state-by-state
laws]

NARRATOR: Will Foster is serving his
time in a Texas prison because there's no
room in Oklahoma's overcrowded cells.
Foster is appealing on grounds that the
search warrant was invalid, and since he
was charged under state rather than
federal law, he does have the chance of
parole. The state had offered Foster a
plea bargain, but he refused.

WILL FOSTER: The reason that I went
to jury trial was that this was the only
way I could guarantee that my wife
would not go to prison. She was their
only witness. They made her testify
against me.

MEGAN BURKE: I didn't want to have
to do that. I really didn't. But it was that
or I was going to go to prison, and I
didn't know who would get these kids.
And he said "You have to. You don't
have a choice." So I testified for the
state, and I testified for the defense, and
it was the longest four days I've ever
had. And I knew that he'd get something.
I mean, it's Oklahoma. But I didn't
expect 93 years.

NARRATOR: The wives of marijuana
growers are often put under pressure to
testify against their husbands or risk
prison terms themselves. Jodie Israel
refused to take the stand against her
husband and is now serving a 12-year
federal mandatory minimum sentence.

JODIE ISRAEL: You know,
somewhere it's got to stop. If I was to
testify against someone and bring down
10 people- you know, it's got to stop
somewhere.

NARRATOR: Her husband, a first-time
offender, was convicted of growing
marijuana. He is a Rastafarian and
claimed he used marijuana for religious
reasons. Because she presumably knew
what he was doing, Jodie Israel was
charged with conspiracy.

JODIE ISRAEL: The problem with
conspiracy is it's the only time they allow
hearsay into the courtroom. So if they
can't get you for anything else, they can
get you for conspiracy. Your husband
could go away on a business trip for the
weekend and come back home, and he
could have been out, you know, buying
drugs, and you're going be charged.

When I came in, my children were 1, 2,
and my 3-year-old had just turned 4, and
my daughter was 9. And they're all in
different homes, and my littlest son
doesn't even know who I am. It's hard
because, as a parent, you want to protect
your child from hurt. And it's like I have
caused this hurt.

NARRATOR: She has seen her children
only once in each of the four years she's
already served.

JODIE ISRAEL: I made a mistake in
that I chose the wrong man. But 11 years
of my life away from my children isn't
right.

NARRATOR: Kristen Angelo, a
teenager who lives near Seattle,
Washington, is learning what happens to
a family when a parent is caught growing
marijuana.

KRISTEN ANGELO: I knew that my
Dad grew pot. I didn't know how big it
was or, you know, anything like that, but
it didn't bother me. I just never really
thought twice of it. I never thought the
consequences could be this harsh on my
family, otherwise I probably would have
said, you know, "Hey, Dad, maybe you
shouldn't be doing this."

NARRATOR: John Angelo, who
worked as a design engineer at Boeing
Aircraft, had a grow room behind the
house where he lived with his family.

JOHN ANGELO: This was an
underground hydroponic growing facility.
I had six trays on each side, 30 feet long.
Each side was capable of holding 380
plants.

NARRATOR: Angelo says he suffers
from manic depression. He is an activist,
working to legalize medical use of
marijuana.

JOHN ANGELO: I've been smoking pot
since I was 12 years old. I've been
growing it for the last 12 years. I found a
long time ago that I'm able to function
with marijuana. My oldest daughter knew
what I was doing. She never questioned
it.

KRISTEN ANGELO: You know, he
didn't smoke it around me or force me to
smoke it or anything like that. Everyone
experiments with it. And for a while, I
did use it in school and I got very bad
grades. It's a lot harder to concentrate.
You can't study very well.

NARRATOR: John Angelo and his wife,
Rachel, say the three younger children
never knew about the marijuana
operation.

RACHEL ANGELO: I'm completely
against children using marijuana. They
don't need to be putting stuff in their
bodies when they're growing, including
caffeine, drugs, alcohol-

JOHN ANGELO: Nicotine, right.

RACHEL ANGELO: -of any kind.
Their little minds need to be developing.

JOHN ANGELO: I had no idea that
they were going to take my children
away from me, that they were going to
take my property away from me, and
that they were going to put me in jail for
5 years. I had no idea.

KRISTEN ANGELO: I was out with
friends. And I came home from school
and we were pulling down the road and
my friends said, you know, "There's cop
car at your house." And I was, like, "Oh,
you're just kidding." You know, "Don't
play around with me like that." And
they're, like, "No, Kristen, we're
serious." You know, "There's a cop car
down there."

RACHEL ANGELO: They came belting
through those doors with their guns in
hand and pointing them around the room
and, you know, talking and-

JOHN ANGELO: Yelling.

RACHEL ANGELO: Well, yelling, and
yelling for John- "John, come out! John,
come out!"

KRISTEN ANGELO: My dad was in
handcuffs and Rachel was in the car, and
I was just- I was shocked. I mean, I was
just- I can't even explain how I felt. It
was just, you know, total adrenaline
rush. I didn't know what to do. I didn't
know what to say. I was really scared for
both of them.

MARK KLEIMAN: Keeping
middle-class kids from drugs has always
ranked very high among the goals of
American drug policy. And a lot of
14-year-olds have now started to use
marijuana.

NARRATOR: Mark Kleiman, a
professor of policy studies at the
University of California in Los Angeles,
has studied the patterns of marijuana use.

MARK KLEIMAN: For a while, the
number of users was falling and,
particularly, the number of young users
was falling. That unfortunately stopped in
1991, and since then, the number of
young users has been increasing. And
what's really frightening is initiations
happening at younger and younger ages.

Gen. BARRY McCAFFREY: [at press
conference] Marijuana is the principal
drug of abuse among youngsters, with
increased numbers of hospital admissions
or treatment admissions where marijuana
is cited as the principle drug threat.

NARRATOR: The alarm has sounded
for the White House Office on Drug
Policy, headed by General Barry
McCaffrey.

Gen. BARRY McCAFFREY: [at press
conference] The drug threat is changing,
and student populations are picking up on
it, and it's tending to drift into younger
years. The first use of marijuana figure -
how old were you when you first used
marijuana - has steadily dropped. And I
anticipate the next time we get a number
to give you, it will have dropped further.

NARRATOR: You won't get an
argument from many American students.
In Warsaw, Indiana, schools the talk is
about mixed messages, with families and
children torn between what the law says
and what widespread use, even in their
own homes, is telling them.

GIRL: I know I lost one of my best
friends over marijuana. Her mom found
out, and her mom was mad, but her
mom also does it, so, I mean, her mom
isn't setting a good role model, or her
dad.

LEE ANN RICHARDSON: I had a girl
tell me that her parents were smoking
marijuana. And I asked her what she did
in that situation, and she said she left and
goes to her room. And I said, "That's
very good." You know, she's making the
right choice, the right decision to get
away from the environment, basically.

BRET RICHARDSON: Just last week, I
had one of my students come to me to
tell me about one of his relatives, and he
wants something done about it, so the
information has been turned over to our
drug task force. I tell them all the
ramifications of that choice that they are
making, and if they want the police
involved in it, it's going to disrupt the
family life. And then it's up to the student
to decide if that's the direction they want
it to go. We don't encourage the kids to
spy. That's not my role. I'm there as
instructor, not as an enforcement officer.

LEE ANN RICHARDSON: And you
see he becomes- I could see he became
partially defensive on it. I think that's a
sore subject with us, especially with the
D.A.R.E. program, because it has
nothing in the curriculum about, you
know, turning people in or doing anything
that way. [www.pbs.org: How effective
is D.A.R.E.?]

STEVE WHITE: One year, we did three
indoor grows here based on the children
of the growers through the D.A.R.E.
program. They not only told us about it,
they drew diagrams, how to get to
Daddy's indoor grow. So that's tough on
a family. The more I think about it, the
more I wonder.

NARRATOR: During his career
arresting marijuana suspects, former
DEA agent Steve White found himself
asking more questions.

STEVE WHITE: I had done a lot of
undercover work. It was mainly
amphetamines, LSD, heroin and cocaine.
I thought all dope dealers were scum to
various levels, that they would sell out
their mother, and I've seen it time after
time. When I got into the marijuana
program, one thing that amazed me was
how cooperative a lot of the people were,
how proud of what they're doing, how
normal, in every other respect, they
were. And there's some of them that I
quite frankly like. This is confusing, but I
still put them in jail.

SUSPECT: I'm not hurting nobody, or at
least I don't feel I am. I'm hurting my
lungs maybe. You know, buy a joint
somewhere and you're a felon, or they
want you to be a felon. I mean, you
know, that's the name of the game for
them.

STEVE WHITE: I came to see them as a
different breed of cat. They're still
criminals, but they don't have some of
the characteristics of all the others that I
dealt with in the 20 years previously.

DENNIS FITZGERALD: There are
some agents that don't see crimes
associated with marijuana use. They
don't see the armed robberies that follow
crack use or that follow heroin addiction.
They don't see any of the crimes that
you associate generally with drug abuse.

NARRATOR: Dennis Fitzgerald was a
federal drug enforcement agent for 20
years. Now retired from the DEA,
Fitzgerald is director of the National
Institute for Drug Enforcement Training.

DENNIS FITZGERALD: Marijuana
abusers don't, generally, when they can't
get marijuana, go out and rob a liquor
store to get money to buy their
marijuana. It just doesn't follow. So an
awful lot of law enforcement officers just
don't have the personal conviction when
it comes to marijuana enforcement that
they do with the enforcement of heroin
laws or crack cocaine laws or cocaine
laws. A lot of agents feel as though the
marijuana laws misdirect an awful lot of
investigative energies, and people are
going to jail for significant periods of time
over very small quantities of marijuana.

NARRATOR: Agents like Fitzgerald and
Steve White have watched the war on
marijuana escalate. It is now costing
federal, state and local agencies at least
$10 billion a year, more than one fourth
the total budget for the war on drugs.
The enforcement effort has brought other
consequences.

DENNIS FITZGERALD: The forfeiture
of the assets directly enriches the police
agency that brings the case against the
grow operators. Now, the monies that
they receive from asset forfeiture,
primarily, it can be used to pay
informants.

NARRATOR: Dennis Fitzgerald has
written a book about how government
agencies use informants to make drug
arrests. Informants can be paid up to 25
percent of the value of assets seized in
arrests, up to $250,000.

DENNIS FITZGERALD: What bothers
me about the informant situation is the
unbelievable amounts of money that the
informants are making, that they can
make. There are pamphlets that are put
out on what to look for in marijuana
indoor grow operations: large
air-conditioning bills, large power bills,
the delivery of firewood, generators.
There's a whole laundry list of things that
people are told to look for. Ordinary
citizens are encouraged. There's just this
whole network of people that are out
there, just average citizens that have been
drawn in to become informants,
neighborhood crime watches that have
gone a step too far.

POLICE OFFICER: Police search
warrant!

NARRATOR: On this case, an
informant had told state police that this
house in Indianapolis harbored a
marijuana grow. No one was home
except the suspect's son.

POLICE OFFICER: Is your Dad home?
Well, we've got a search warrant to
search the house. Where does your dad
work?

NARRATOR: When the suspect came
home, it turned out he was being used as
an informant himself on another state
police marijuana case, so the charges on
this arrest were deferred.

SUSPECT: It's all about, I guess, they
want you to look for somebody that's
bigger than you- stepping stone.

JOHN ANGELO: They were able to get
a search warrant for an overhead infrared
search. So they come over with a
helicopter one night and saw the heat
signature of the trailer under the ground,
and that was their basis for a search
warrant, then, at that time to come in and
arrest us.

NARRATOR: An informant's tip had
also led to the arrest of John and Rachel
Angelo.

RACHEL ANGELO: I feel that the
government actually makes people feel
good about using the marijuana laws or
drug laws as a basis for- or as a bouncing
board for people to take advantage of
each other and to be vindictive with one
another. You know, "Hurt your neighbor.
It's the right thing to do."

JOHN ANGELO: Although I feel it's an
improper law and I should have worked
to change that law, and I would like to
see laws changed, I agree. Yes, I did
break a law. But I was no threat to the
community. I was no threat to the
environment or to my kids or to anybody
else. Justice would have been served a lot
better by taking my talents or my abilities
to work to let me continue with my job
and paying taxes and stuff, but
community service and home
incarceration, keeping my family
together.

NARRATOR: Rachel Angelo was facing
a five-year prison term. John could get
10 years in addition to a million-dollar
fine.

Judge THELTON HENDERSON: I
think when the sentencing guidelines first
came in, we thought they would phase
out after some period of time. They're
still around, and I see no indication of
them phasing out in the near future. But
I'm not aware of anything judges can do.
We can't lobby. We're pretty much
handicapped. We can speak out, such as
I'm speaking out now, and state our
displeasure and hope that the time will
come when Congress will revisit this.

Sen. ORRIN HATCH, (R), Utah: The
reason why we went to mandatory
minimums is because of these
soft-on-crime judges that we have in our
society, judges who just will not get
tough on crime.

NARRATOR: As chairman of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator
Orrin Hatch of Utah has been a leader in
the fight to strengthen anti-crime laws.
He strongly supports mandatory
minimum sentencing.

Sen. ORRIN HATCH: Keep in mind
these growers and these pushers, they're
killing our kids. They're the reason we
have such a drug culture in this society
that's just wrecking our country in a lot
of respects. In all honesty, I think that
when you have people who are pushing
drugs on our kids or pushing at all, we
ought to get as nails on them, and I don't
think- in many respects, we ought to lock
them up and throw away the keys.

NARRATOR: Over the last decade,
mandatory minimum sentencing has been
reconsidered by congress. The debates
have not led to any change in the law.

Rep. STEVEN SCHIFF, (R), New
Mexico: [at hearing] I think the debate,
if any, should be over how long
individuals should be in prison compared
to others. The debate should never
become whether individuals should spend
time in prison.

MARK KLEIMAN: We ought to think
about sentencing in terms of its actual
impacts on behavior, and we ought to
frame our sentences in ways that make
sense both morally and practically

NARRATOR: Mark Kleiman recently
joined a group of prominent scientists,
drug experts and public officials in
proposing a new middle-of-the road
approach to national drug policy.
[www.pbs.org: Read the proposal.]

MARK KLEIMAN: We don't want to
debate legalization versus prohibition. We
don't want to debate hawks versus
doves. We want to say, "Look, this is
really a complicated question. We need
to look in detail at individual policies and
figure out which ones will actually serve
the public interest."

One of the principles is that we ought to
base our sentencing on a balancing of
costs and benefits, and not merely use
long sentences as a way of expressing
disapproval. I think we ought to start
basing mandatory sentences on the
conduct of the people engaged. Are they
using violence? Are they using
corruption? Are they using kids? If we do
that, I think we'll have a more sensible
set of sentences.

STEVE WHITE: I cannot see somebody
in there doing eight years for marijuana
and a rapist being set free. Anybody that
abuses another human being I have a
certain loathing for. There's a disparity
there. But that's not with law
enforcement. We don't make the laws
and we don't sentence the offenders. All
we do is catch people.

NARRATOR: John Angelo and his wife,
Rachel, agreed to a plea bargain. Rachel
testified for the prosecution and was
given three months in a halfway house
with work release. After she returned
home, John would enter federal prison
for a five-year term.

RACHEL ANGELO: Just exactly what
we expected to happen. They went with
the plea agreement because it was the
easiest thing to do, I think.

JOHN ANGELO: And I'm willing to
accept what I plead to. I saved Rachel
and her father both a lot of pain and
suffering, and I'll live by that then. That's
it. Let's go home.

NARRATOR: Like John Angelo, Doug
Keenan says he needs to grow and use
marijuana for medical reasons. He's a
cancer patient. But Keenan is the kind of
marijuana grower who confuses the
issue. He freely admits he also uses
marijuana for pleasure.

DOUG KEENAN: Most of the people
that are in this want to see the plant let
free. Actually, we'd like to just see the
dialogue get started, but we're having
enough trouble, you know, getting the
government to the table on that.
Everybody on all sides agrees that it's not
working, what we're doing. Great. What
are we going to do next?

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: Actually, the
American people are, in a way, deciding
now about marijuana in a way they never
had the opportunity before. We may be
unraveling the national consensus on
drugs and bringing back to the states the
decision as to what to do with drugs
because the votes in Arizona and in
California suggest that there could be
parts of the country in which there's a
different point of view.

NARRATOR: Both California and
Arizona have passed initiatives that
permit medical use of marijuana. In
California, behind the doors of cannabis
clubs like this one in San Francisco,
marijuana openly changes hands. The
clubs are open to anyone presenting a
doctor's letter stating medical need. The
existence of the cannabis clubs has been
challenged in court.

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: The medical
marijuana debate is extremely interesting.
There's no question that people who
want to legalize marijuana are using the
medical marijuana issue as a wedge. On
the other hand, there are many
statements from people who have used
marijuana in situations in which they've
been greatly helped by marijuana, and
that's their testimony.

MARK KLEIMAN: And the answer
therefore has to be, it seems to me, let's
do the research. I've been boring people
for five years now by just saying,
whenever this question comes up, "Let's
do the research. "Let's find out. Let's try
it on some patients and see if they get
better." We shouldn't debate medical
marijuana as a shadow play about the
deeper question of legalization of
marijuana for recreational use.

Sen. ORRIN HATCH: The minute
California passed that particular statute,
we had marijuana fields start to grow up
again, on the basis that they're using it for
medicinal purposes. And in the process,
of course, we've got a lot of
indiscriminate use of marijuana now in
California that is even greater than it was
before. If you allow people to grow
marijuana and to indiscriminately grow
and use it, then you're adding to the lack
of discipline and the problems that we
have in our society and, really, to,
ultimately, the harder use of harder
drugs.

STEVE WHITE: I do not believe that
decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana is
going to help in any way. I think it's a
dangerous drug. I don't think it does any
good. Period.

DENNIS FITZGERALD: I'm not for
blanket legalization of marijuana. I think
certain offenses should be decriminalized.

MAN AT ANTI-DRUG RALLY:
Marijuana is the cure-all wrong message.

Dr. DAVID MUSTO: Should the
government intrude on your private right
to do something? Or does the
government have an obligation to take
steps to protect you in ways that you
couldn't protect yourself? This goes back
to the Federalist papers, I mean, or to the
Constitution. How should we run our
lives? And marijuana has become the
symbol of how we should think about
something that's medicine or not a
medicine, a private right or a public right.
And people bring to it their deepest
feelings and their image of how they
would like the world to be run.

STEVE WHITE: It's an emotional issue.
It's right there with gays in the military
and abortion. Everybody's got an opinion
on it. When I started in law enforcement,
the general opinion, particularly in the
white middle class community, was
"Marijuana? Send them to jail," because
they're probably black or Chicano, to
begin with, and it wasn't something that
affected us. Now it touches everybody in
America. And I don't think anybody
doesn't have a family member in an
extended family that hasn't been touched
by it.

ANNOUNCER: Discover more of our
report at FRONTLINE's Web site. Take
the marijuana quiz, explore the
interactive guide to federal and state laws
on marijuana, read an essay by the
grower who's gone public, and take a
close look at two case histories, plus a
timeline on marijuana in the U.S., the
best of the pro and con arguments and
much more at FRONTLINE on line at
www.pbs.org.

Next time on FRONTLINE-

1st LAWYER: We've been considered to
be tilting at windmills.

ANNOUNCER: -a modern-day David
and Goliath story.

2nd LAWYER: I wanted to get the truth
out.

1st LAWYER: We bet the ranch on it.

ANNOUNCER: How a couple of
small-town lawyers used secret tobacco
industry documents-

2nd LAWYER: The evidence was so
powerful.

ANNOUNCER: -to build the biggest
case in American legal history.

1st LAWYER: When Liggett actually
settled, it was earth-shaking. It started the
walls crumbling.

ANNOUNCER: Get the real story when
FRONTLINE goes "Inside the Tobacco
Deal."

For videocasette information about
tonight's program, please call this toll-free
number: 1-800-328-PBS1.

Now it's time for your letters and the
huge response to our program on the
origins of Christianity: lots of praise, but
also some criticism. Here's a sample.

KENNETH FIELDS: [Palmyra, NJ]
Dear FRONTLINE: From a purely
secular standpoint, an interesting show.
From a true Christian perspective, the
show was without merit and it is obvious
that this show was produced to discredit
Christianity as a faith. I'm sorry, but I
hoped for something better.

JEFFREY CARVER: [Arlington, MA] I
can understand the desire of the
producers to shy away from the question
of Christ's divinity. It's a hot topic, after
all. But really, if you're afraid to address
that question, then much of the rest rings
rather hollow. You can leave belief or
unbelief up to the viewer, but you can't
just pretend it's not there.

JOHN MURRAY: [Redwood City, CA]
As a committed Catholic, I was very
impressed by your program, even
conceding its secular liberal bias. The
program did something which,
unfortunately, occurs all to infrequently
in our parishes on Sunday morning. It
actually got us thinking about our faith,
how it became formed and what it really
means.

ANNOUNCER: Let us know what you
think about tonight's program by fax
[(617) 254-0243], by e-mail
[FRONTLINE@PBS.ORG] or by the
U.S. mail [DEAR FRONTLINE, 125
Western Ave., Boston, MA 02134].

WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY
Elena Mannes

EDITOR
Ted Winterburn

CO-PRODUCER
Libby Kreutz

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Greg Andracke

SOUND
Duncan Forbes

NARRATOR
Will Lyman

PRODUCTION OFFICE COORDINATOR
Shivani Khullar

RESEARCHER
Micah S.Fink

POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR
Linda Patterson Sharpley

CONSULTANT
Eric Schlosser

ASSISTANT EDITOR
Josh Marston

ADDITIONAL CINEMATOGRAPHY
Mark Allan
Gino Bruno
Don Friedell
Tom Hurwitz
Eddie Marritz
Rick Thompson
Mark Trottenberg

ADDITIONAL SOUND
Jeff Duncan
Al Feuerbach
John McCormick
Bernard Russo
Frank Tonhazy
Russell Beeker

ONLINE EDITOR
Steve Audette

SOUND MIX
Jim Sullivan

ARCHIVAL MATERIAL
ABCNews VideoSource
A/P Wide World Photos
Archive Films/Archive Photos
FAMM
High Times Productions
Historic Films
Human Rights 95
Johnson County Indiana Daily Journal
Library of Congress -
Prints & Photographs Division
National Archives & Records
Adminstration
The New York Times

SPECIAL THANKS
Cannabis Cultivators Club
DARE America
DEA
The Drug Policy Foundation
Harrison Elementary School, Warsaw,
Indiana
Indiana State Police Eradication Unit
NORML - National Organization Reform
of Marijuana Laws
Warsaw High School, Warsaw, Indiana

POST PRODUCTION DIRECTOR
Tim Mangini

AVID EDITORS
Steve Audette
Shady Hartshorne

PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Julie A. Parker

SERIES MUSIC
Mason Daring
Martin Brody

SERIES GRAPHICS
LoConte Goldman Design

CLOSED CAPTIONING
The Caption Center

COMMUNICATIONS MANAGER
Richard Byrne

PUBLICIST
Chris Kelly

OUTREACH COORDINATOR
Emily Gallagher

PROMOTION ASSISTANT
Frances Arnaud

SECRETARY
Denise Barsky

SENIOR STAFF ASSOCIATE
Lee Ann Donner

UNIT MANAGERS
Robert O'Connell
Valerie Opara

BUSINESS MANAGER
Karen Carroll

WEBSITE RESEARCH ASSISTANT
Tracy Loskoski

WEBSITE PRODUCTION
COORDINATOR
Stephanie Ault

WEBSITE PRODUCER/DESIGNER
Sam Bailey

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER
Mary C. Brockmyre

STORY EDITOR
Karen O'Connor

STAFF PRODUCER
June Cross

COORDINATING PRODUCER
Robin Parmelee

SENIOR PRODUCER
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Sharon Tiller

SERIES EDITOR
Marrie Campbell

SERIES MANAGER
Jim Bracciale

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER
Michael Sullivan

SENIOR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER (pause)
David Fanning

A FRONTLINE coproduction with
Elena Mannes Productions, Inc.
(c) 1998
WGBH EDUCATIONAL FOUNDATION
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

New Content (c) 1998 PBS Online and WGBH/FRONTLINE

***

Date: 25 Jun 1999 11:31:05 +0000
From: "Scott Clevenger" (Scott_Clevenger@wgbh.org)
Subject: Reprint of "Busted" Transcript
To: "Portland NORML Webmaster" (pdxnorml@pdxnorml.org)

At 11:31 AM 6/25/99 +0000, you wrote:

We recently noticed that you have placed the transcript for "Busted," A
"Frontline" program, on your web site at: http://www.pdxnorml.org/980428.html
While we appreciate your interest in our "Busted" program.  However, we must
request that you remove the transcript from that page.  Please feel free to
link directly to the transcript at:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/etc/script.html

The reasons why you cannot reprint the transcript are copyright issues and
contractual agreements we have with various guilds including the Writers
Guild. Please comply with our request ASAP.  Any further contact from our
end will be through our lawyers. Thank you in advance for your
understanding and cooperation.

Scott Clevenger
Frontline On-line website Assistant
WGBH, Boston

[to which webmaster Phil Smith replied:]

Fuck you. I know what the Fair Use Act says. You can't tell me what to
print and what not to print.

So sue me,

Phil Smith
webmaster
pdxnorml.org

PS - As a courtesy, I will add your link from the Portland NORML page you
mention to the "Frontline" URL you provide. However, in the future,
I would suggest that you'd get better results if you started out asking
nicely, and consider that the people you are harassing might just be familiar
with the law.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Stop Herbicide DEAth Squads (Bulletin From Colorado Hemp Initiative Project
And Hawai'i Hemp Council Tells How To Lobby Against The DEA's Plan
To Use Herbicide Against American Wild Hemp)

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 00:27:22 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: AMMO (ammo@levellers.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: ACTION ALERT: Stop Herbicide DEAth Squads

Please re-distribute and re-post this announcement.

ACTION ALERT:
Prepared by the Colorado Hemp Initiative Project (cohip@levellers.org)
and the Hawai'i Hemp Council (pakaloha@gte.net)
April 28, 1998

DEA Takes Public Comment on Chemical Herbicides to Eradicate Cannabis

For more information and updates, see:
http://www.levellers.org/cannabis.html

The "Draft Supplement to the Environmental Impact Statements for Cannabis
Eradication in the Contiguous United States and Hawaii" (DSEIS) is
available online at:
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/cannibis/pubmeet/fednoti.htm
(Note: the misspelling of cannabis is the DEA's, not ours.)

Deadline for written comment: June 1, 1998
Public meetings: Denver, Honolulu, Boise, Atlanta, and D.C.

Summary:

This plan is an update to the 1985 and 1986 Environmental Impact Statements
(EIS) on cannabis eradication. In the Draft Supplement EIS (DSEIS), the DEA
seeks to add triclopyr as an herbicide replacement for paraquat (which has
been discovered to be toxic to humans since it was approved in 1985) and
add amine formulations of 2,4-D to its list of approved chemical
herbicides. The DEA will continue the use of glyphosate (Roundup).
The DEA also seeks to implement a new technology, called "aerial directed
treatment of herbicides" from helicopters, which it claims to be safer than
"broadcast aerial treatment". The DEA would also like to allow the use of
certain chemical dyes as markers in combination with aerial application.

Below are some links on the dangers of biocides (pesticides, herbicides,
fungicides) to animal and plant life. See also Rachel Carson's book,
Silent Spring (1962). Biocides, on food crops alone, are estimated to
cause 5,000 to 10,000 deaths per year from cancer. Cannabis has never
killed anyone, in over 10,000 years of constant use world-wide. In fact,
use of cannabis to replace cotton as a fiber crop would actually save
lives, because cotton is such a chemically-intensive crop and cannabis
requires NO BIOCIDES to grow as a fiber crop.

This is the public's first opportunity to comment on the DEA's biocide
application plan in over 10 years. We hope you will use the opportunity
and encourage others to do so. Please re-distribute and re-post this
announcement, especially to any local or national environmental, pesticide
action, or health advocacy groups you may know.

Herbicide = genocide
We all live downstream.

To subscribe to our mailing list for updates (if you aren't already), send
email to cohip@levellers.org with the word SUBSCRIBE in the title.

***

Public Meetings on the DSEIS

Public comment on the DSEIS will be taken from 4pm to 8pm in the following
cities. Activists in Colorado and Hawaii are planning a press
conference/protest to be held at 3pm at the location of the meetings (see
addresses further down.) If you live in these areas, please plan on
attending and bringing your friends, signs, etc. If you know of anyone
organizing a response in other areas, please contact CO-HIP so we can
coordinate efforts.

5/12 - Denver, CO - Public Meeting
Contact: Colorado Hemp Initiative Project (cohip@levellers.org)

5/15 - Honolulu, HI - Public Meeting
Contact: Hawai'i Hemp Council: Roger Christie (pakaloha@gte.net)

5/19 - Boise, ID - Public Meeting

5/20 - Atlanta, GA - Public Meeting

5/27 - Washington, DC - Public Meeting

6/1 - DEADLINE for written public comment (see address further down)

***

Deaths caused by pesticides every year = at least 5,000
Deaths caused by cannabis in over 10,000 years of constant use = ZERO

***

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

1) How many people are killed each year by pesticides in and on food in the
U.S.? Answer: 5,000 -10,000
(Note: The National Academy of Sciences report which is summarized here
doesn't even address the use of pesticides on non-food crops such as
cotton!)
http://www.alaska.net/~anc4hemp/es328.html

2) Hemp can save 400-800 lives per year, if it were used to replace cotton,
because hemp requires no biocides.
http://www.levellers.org/skid.htm
http://www.alaska.net/~anc4hemp/es320.html

3) Vermont State Auditor's Report on hemp eradication in Vermont:
http://hemp-cyberfarm.com/htms/countries/usa/eradication.html
This report shows 99% of the marijuana eradicated nationwide is DITCHWEED
(uncultivated, feral hemp, which usually has low enough THC levels to be
categorized as industrial hemp.) Is the DEA eradication plan really a plan
to eliminate the U.S. gene pool for potential future industrial hemp crops?

4) Hawaii's failed "War on Weed":
http://starbulletin.com/96/07/23/news/story1.html

5) Our Stolen Future: 2,4-D as an endocrine (hormone) disruptor:
http://www.osf-facts.org/basics/basics.html

6) Greenpeace's Glyphosate (Roundup) Fact Sheet
http://www.greenpeace.org/~usa/reports/biodiversity/glyp.html

7) Use of glysophate on cannabis in Oklahoma: NORML Updates (June 11, 1996:
"Environmentalists Voice Concern Over State's Decision To Spray Marijuana
With Pesticides")
http://www.norml.org/news/archives/96-06-11.shtml

8) Chemical profile of 2,4-D:
http://pmep.cce.cornell.edu/profiles/extoxnet/24d-captan/24d-ext.html

9) National Resources Defense Council's report entitled "Our Children At
Risk" (Nov. 1997) for information on the toxic effects of biocides on
children: http://www.nrdc.org/nrdcpro/ocar/chap5.html

10) Pesticide Action Network of North America
http://www.panna.org/panna/

11) Hoosier Environmental Coucil - Pesticides, Toxins & Endocrine
Disrupters
http://www.envirolink.org/orgs/hecweb/archive/pestfile/pesticide.htm

12) Rachel Carson Homestead Home Page
http://www.rachelcarson.org

13) Andean Information Network - Deaths caused by police eradicating coca
in Bolivia
http://www.drcnet.org/rapid/1997/4-23-1.html

14) The DEA's Draft Supplement to the Environmental Impact Statements -
April 1998: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/cannibis/pubmeet/fednoti.htm

***

For information on the environmental benefits of hemp as a fiber crop:

1) Colorado Hemp Initiative Project
http://www.welcomehome.org/cohip/PAGES/IND_HEMP.HTM

2) Dr. Dave's Hemp Archives
http://www.pressenter.com/~davewest/hemp.html

3) Eric Skidmore's Hemp Archives
http://www.alaska.net/~anc4hemp/skidmor2.html

4) The North American Industrial Hemp Council
http://www.naihc.org

5) Ecolution
http://ecolution.com/

***

The official notice from the DEA, with locations of meetings and address
for public comments, follows:

***

U.S. Department of Justice
Drug Enforcement Administration

***

BILLING CODE 4410- 09-M

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Drug Enforcement Administration

DEA NUMBER 175N

PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DOCUMENTATION ON HERBICIDAL ERADICATION

AGENCY: Drug Enforcement Administration

ACTION: Notice of Public Meetings

SUMMARY: This notice advises the public that the "Draft Supplement to the
Environmental Impact Statements for Cannabis Eradication in the Contiguous
United States and Hawaii" (DSEIS) is available for public review and
comment and that public meetings will be held regarding this document. On
August 13, 1996, we announced our intent to supplement the programmatic
EIS's on eradication of Cannabis on Federal and non-Federal lands and
welcomed comments (FR 61 42056). The DSEIS is an update of the latest
scientific information regarding the herbicidal alternatives in the
original environmental impact statement (EIS) documentation.

In 1985 and 1986, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) published
programmatic EISs for its Cannabis eradication program. The first EIS was
prepared for Cannabis eradication on Federal lands in the continental
United States, and the second EIS was prepared for the program as it
pertained to non-Federal lands, Indian lands, and the State of Hawaii,
including Native Hawaiian Homestead lands. The alternatives analyzed in
detail in the EIS include the use of manual, mechanical, and herbicidal
eradication methods.

In the DSEIS, changes to the herbicidal eradication alternatives in the
1985 and 1986 EISs were analyzed. The changes analyzed were (1) the
addition of triclopyr as an approved program herbicide; (2) elimination of
paraquat as an approved program herbicide; and (3) changes in program
delivery, including elimination of broadcast aerial applications of
herbicides, use of new technology in aerial directed treatments of
herbicides, use of marker dyes, and use of amine formulations of 2,4-D.

DATES: Five public meetings will be held:

Tuesday May 12, 1998
4 PM -8 PM
Denver, Colorado
Renaissance Denver (Ballroom)
3801 Quebec Street
Denver, Colorado 80207

Friday May 15, 1998
4 PM - 8 PM
Honolulu, Hawaii
Ala Moana Hotel (Hibiscus Ballroom)
410 Atkins Drive
Honolulu, Hawaii 96814

Tuesday May 19, 1998
4 PM - 8 PM
Boise, Idaho
Boise Center on the Grove (The Summit Room)
850 West Front Street
Boise, Idaho 83702

Thursday May 21, 1998
4 PM - 8 PM
Atlanta, Georgia
Westin Atlanta Airport (Grand Ballroom 1)
4736 Best Road
Atlanta, GA 30337

Wednesday May 27, 1998
4 PM - 8 PM
Washington, DC Metro Area
Holiday Eisenhower Metro Center (Eisenhower Station Ballroom)
2460 Eisenhower Avenue
Alexandria, VA 22314

The public comment period will be open for 45 days beginning with the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's formal Notice of Availability,
anticipated to appear in the Federal Register on April 17, 1998. The DSEIS
will be mailed to the names on the mailing list.

CONTACTS: Comments and participation at the public meetings are invited.
Speakers are requested to present one original and three copies of the
written text of their presentation to register. Speakers may pre-register
by facsimile at (301) 734-3640 any time of day or by calling Ms. Vicki
Wickheiser, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Service (APHIS). Speakers should identify which meeting they
plan to attend. Speakers may also register starting at 3 p.m. the day of
the meeting. Again, they should present written text as described above.

ADDRESSES: Comments and participation at the public meetings are invited.
Speakers are requested to submit text of their presentation to:

Ms. Vicky Wickheiser
DOA/APHIS
4700 River Road Unit 149
Riverdale, MD 20737-1228.

Anyone unable to attend one of the above meetings, who wishes to submit
written comments to the DSEIS may submit them to the above address prior to
June 1, 1998.

COPIES OF THE DRAFT DSEIS: Copies of the DSEIS have been sent to all
agencies and individuals who responded to the DSEIS Federal Register Notice
of Intent, and to all respondents from the Original EIS Mailing list who
responded positively to a mailing list query, and to other individuals that
have requested copies of the document. Persons wishing copies of this DSEIS
should immediately contact:

Mr. Jack Edmundson, DOA/APHIS, 4700 River Road, Unit 149, Riverdale, MD
20737-1228, phone (301)-734-4844, facsimile (301)-734-5992.

Copies of the DSEIS will be available until May 10, 1998. There will be a
limited number of copies of the DSEIS at each public meeting. We have also
arranged to have Internet online access to the document through the Drug
Enforcement Administration's web site: ( www.usdoj.gov/dea) Click on
Programs then select Cannabis.

***

Donnie R. Marshall
Acting Deputy Administrator

***

Distributed as a public service by the:
Colorado Hemp Initiative Project
P.O. Box 729, Nederland, CO 80466
Our hotline has been disconnected b/c the voice mail
company went out of business. :(
Email: (cohip@levellers.org)
Web: http://www.welcomehome.org/cohip.html
http://www.levellers.org/cannabis.html
"Fighting over 60 years of lies and dis-information
with 10,000 years of history and fact."
ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE???

***

To be added to or removed from our mailing list,
send email with the word SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in the title.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

HIV/STD Prevention Needed For Crack Users ('Reuters' Says The April Issue
Of 'Sexually Transmitted Diseases' Warns That Efforts Are Urgently Needed
To Prevent The Spread Of Disease Via Crack Cocaine Users Who Sell Sex
To Sustain Their Habits)

Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 02:12:57 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Melodi Cornett 
Subject: MN: US WIRE: HIV/STDPrevention Needed For Crack Users
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Anti-Prohibition Lg 
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Reuters

HIV/STD PREVENTION NEEDED FOR CRACK USERS

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- HIV/STD prevention efforts are "urgently needed" for
crack cocaine users who sell sex, according to a report in the April issue
of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Such individuals are at very high risk of
both transmitting and acquiring HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases
(STDs), say researchers.

Previous studies have found correlations between crack-smoking sex workers
and high rates of HIV infection, noted Dr. Kathleen L. Irwin of the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues.
However, no large quantitative studies have focused on the sexual practices
in this high-risk population.

In the current study, Irwin and members of the Multicenter Crack Cocaine and
HIV Infection Study Team evaluated 419 crack-smoking sex workers in three
large urban areas. They found that 30% to 41% of both males and females
reported having sex with injection drug users, and 8% to 19% reported having
sex with individuals infected with HIV. More than 50% said they used condoms
inconsistently and 73% to 93% had a history of a sexually transmitted disease.

"Sex workers who worked in crack houses or vacant lots, were paid with
crack, or injected drugs had the riskiest sex practices," the authors wrote.

They also noted high rates of HIV/STDs in these subjects. "More than 25%
were infected with HIV (27.9%), syphilis (37.5%) or herpes simplex virus
type 2 (66.8%)."

Based on these findings, Irwin's group concludes that more effective
prevention and treatment methods for crack addiction, along with better
access to treatment, "...especially for women and youth, will be critical to
sustaining success in (HIV/STD) prevention." Previous studies have also
shown that prompt diagnosis and treatment of STDs can substantially reduce
the rates of HIV infection.

Other areas that require attention include "...the underlying hardships,
psychological stressors, psychiatric morbidity, and community disintegration
that are associated with initiation of sex work, crack smoking, and HIV/STD
risk behaviors." SOURCE: Sexually Transmitted Diseases (1998;25:187-193)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

US Health Secretary Draws Jeers ('Philadelphia Inquirer' Says AIDS Activists
Disrupted A Visit To Bryn Mawr By Health And Human Services Secretary
Donna Shalala, Demanding Federal Funding For Needle Exchange Programs
And Challenging Her To Resign If She Wouldn't Stand Up For
A Disease-Prevention Technique She Herself Said Is Successful)

Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 16:15:21 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US: U.S. Health Secretary Draws Jeers
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Kevin Zeese
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer (PA)
Contact: editpage@aol.com
Author: Stephanie A. Stanley Philadelpha Inquirer Correspondent

U.S. HEALTH SECRETARY DRAWS JEERS

AIDS activists disrupted a visit by Donna Shalala, demanding federal
funding for needle exchanges.

BRYN MAWR -- Dozens of protesters last night greeted U.S. Health and Human
Services Secretary Donna Shalala with signs bearing the names of those who
died after contracting the AIDS virus via dirty needles.

The protesters, about 150 strong inside Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, then
chanted, their voices rumbling through the sanctuary: "Clinton, Shalala
killed my brothers." "Clinton, Shalala killed my sisters."

The AIDS activists, many who journeyed to the Bryn Mawr church from
Philadelphia, were there to demand that Shalala lift the ban on federal
funding on needle-exchange programs -- programs that, just a week earlier,
she had said reduced the spread of AIDS and did not increase the use of
illegal drugs.

And they were there to challenge her to resign if she would not stand up
for a disease-prevention technique that she herself said was successful.

"You're refusing to support something that you know works," Joyce Hamilton
shouted at Shalala above the chants. "When you get back to Washington . . .
you tell them to find some money for us."

As the protesters chanted, a few shouting for her to stand up or step down,
Shalala, who had traveled from Washington to give a speech titled "Raising
the Children of the Next Millennium," sat in a towering wood-backed chair,
her chin in her hand, and waited patiently for the voices to quiet.

Fifteen minutes after they began, the activists marched outside for
another, louder, 20-minute protest, allowing Shalala to begin her speech
about the children of the future.

Last week, Shalala enraged AIDS activists when she said the scientific
community supported needle-exchange programs but added that the Clinton
administration would not lift the ban on federal funding to pay for such a
program.

"I have a deep respect for those who disagree with the administration's
decision," Shalala said in a news conference before her speech. "Yes, the
science is there. But we made a decision not to fund the program."

She strongly encouraged local governments and agencies to develop their own
exchange programs.

Activists, however, believe she is avoiding her responsibilities as the
nation's top public health official.

"They're letting politics get in the way of science," activist Paul Davis
said in an earlier interview.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Needles, Pinheads And Politicians ('San Francisco Chronicle' Columnist
Endorses Needle Exchange But Says Maybe It's All For The Best
That The Federal Government Doesn't Get Involved)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 19:09:27 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Melodi Cornett 
Subject: MN: US CA: OPED: Needles, Pinheads And Politicians
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Tom O'Connell and Frank S. World
PubDate: Tuesday, April 28, 1998
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Author: Debra J. Saunders

NEEDLES, PINHEADS AND POLITICIANS

San Francisco's needle exchange program has been an unqualified success: The
city has not reported a single case of pediatric AIDS in three years. And
there's not exactly a shortage of junkie moms in San Francisco either.

HIV infection among women is low. Nationally, 14.9 percent of adults with
HIV are women. In San Francisco the figure is about 3.2 percent. ``One of
the reasons is that we've had needle exchange from early on in San
Francisco,'' Derek Gordon of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation opined. The
needle initiative prevented HIV from spreading through the needle community.
For the bargain price of about $500,000 annually, the program has spared the
lives of children born to drug shooters.

Last year I spent an evening at a local exchange for women. A stream of
women -- some down and out, a few remarkably smart looking -- turned in
1,615 used needles. Workers and volunteers in turn provided the women with
1,615 clean needles, drug treatment referrals for the rare user who asked,
juice, food, vitamins, medical checks and a play area so that children
wouldn't have to watch their moms clutching needles.

A lesson learned: Even self-destructive drug addicts can care enough about
their health to save their needles up for Thursday nights, gather those of
their friends and schlep to Valencia Street to trade them in for clean
paraphernalia.

Amazing grace, after I wrote a column about the needle exchange, I didn't
receive a single complaint from a neighbor. That's how well it was run. (As
an aside, there is another exchange a block from The Chronicle. I'm a quiet
needle exchange neighbor myself.) Having written the above, this is where I
am supposed to trash President Clinton for not keeping his campaign pledge
to earmark federal funds for needle exchanges. This is where I'm supposed to
excoriate Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala as well, because
Clintonia didn't change its policy despite hints that a shift was coming. I
can't. I see the success of San Francisco's needle exchange -- and I cringe
when I think of what would happen to it if federal funds entered the
picture. Federal funds inevitably come with strings attached. I shudder at
how Uncle Sam could botch a good program: paperwork, reporting requirements,
a phone book-size code on which disability-friendly and transit-accessible
buildings could be used, staffing regulations, motor voter, formulas for
gender, age and ethnic representation. Ugh.

You know that if this Congress would approve funding only for an exchange
program if members could add something truly counterproductive or stupid --
like, require clean-needle recipients to watch a DARE film.

(And it's not just because Congress is craven. It's also because members
understand the need to take their constituents' legitimate concerns to the
table when they fund any program.)

Which presents a point that needle-exchange supporters generally seem to
have forgotten: Not every good deed gets federal money. Some things are
better handled by private charities and local institutions. Needle exchange
doubtless is one of them. What's more, with zillionaire George Soros' second
annual donation of $1 million to needle programs, there is reason to believe
that private largesse can continue to carry the load.

Clinton critics have faulted the president for putting politics ahead of
lives. But if they really want to save lives, they might lay off Clinton and
instead fight for funding of smart local programs.

(c)1998 San Francisco Chronicle
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Anti-Drug Initiative ('USA Today' Says US House Republicans
This Week Will Unveil Anti-Drug Proposals That Include A Ban
On Loans For Students Convicted Of Drug Violations,
And Funding Of Groups Involved In Needle Exchange Programs)

Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 20:57:03 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Mike Gogulski 
Subject: MN: US: Anti-Drug Initiative
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Mike Gogulski 
Source: USA Today
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/
Pubdate: 28 Apr 1998
Author: Paul Leavitt with staff and wire reporters

ANTI-DRUG INITIATIVE

House Republicans will unveil this week anti-drug proposals that include
cutting off federally backed loans for students convicted of possessing or
trafficking drugs. The GOP also wants to double a $10 million program for
communities to devise anti-drug strategies, and implement a new program to
help small- and medium-sized business fight drugs in the workplace. There
also would be more money for more border guards and tougher penalties for
some drug crimes. Republicans plan a House vote Thursday on their proposal
to cut off federal money for any needle-exchange program. Federal money is
not used to buy clean needles, but the GOP plan would go further and deny
funding to organizations that use their own money to run needle-exchange
programs.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ron Paul's Statements On The Drug War (Excerpts From The Congressional Record
For April 28, 1998, March 6, 1997 And June 25, 1997, By The Texas Republican
US Representative Show A Consistent Disdain For The War
On Some Drugs' Impact On The Constitution)

Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 22:04:04 -0400
From: Scott Dykstra (rumba2@earthlink.net)
Organization: http://www.november.org/
To: cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com
Subject: CanPat - Ron Paul's Statement on the Drug War
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)

"The real issue here is not drugs but rather the issues of privacy, due
process, probable cause and the fourth amendment. We are dealing with a
constitutional issue of the utmost importance. It raises the question of
whether or not we understand the overriding principle of the fourth amendment.

A broader but related question is whether or not it is the government's role
to mold behavior, any more than it is the government's role to mold,
regulate, tax and impede voluntary economic contractual arrangements.

No one advocates prior restraint to regulate journalistic expression, even
though great harm has come over the century from the promotion of
authoritarian ideas. Likewise, we do not advocate the regulation of
political expression and religious beliefs, however bizarre and potentially
harmful they may seem.

Yet we casually assume it is the role of government to regulate personal
behavior to make one act more responsibly. A large number of us in this
Chamber do not call for the regulation or banning of guns because someone
might use a gun in an illegal fashion. We argue that it is the criminal that
needs regulated and refuse to call for diminishing the freedom of
law-abiding citizens because some individual might commit a crime with a gun.

Random drug testing is based on the same assumption made by anti-gun proponents.

Unreasonable efforts at identifying the occasional and improbable drug user
should not replace respect for our privacy. It is not worth it."

(Congressional Record Apr. 21, 1998)

"It is easy to accept the argument by many of us here in Congress that
welfare should be a State function, education should be a State or local
function. But so often there is a resistance and no consensus on what we
should do with the police powers, whether we are fighting the war on drugs
or the war on the environment or whatever. But under the Constitution, it
was never intended that police powers would gravitate as they have here in
Washington.

So my suggestion here is that we should seriously think about that in the
area of police activity, because now we have a national war on drugs which
is a total failure, has not done any good, has done great harm. Not only has
it not solved the serious problem that we face with the massive use of
drugs, this very dangerous precedent, but it also has cost a lot of money,
and it has been a cost to our civil liberties."

(Congressional Record March 6, 1997)

"The emotional frenzy surrounding the war on drugs has allowed Federal
police powers to escalate rapidly into the areas of financial privacy, gun
ownership, border controls and virtually all other aspects of law
enforcement. Many see this trend as dangerous to our liberties while doing
little or nothing to solve the problems of violence, gang wars,
deterioration of the inner cities or the decline of the public educational
system."

(Congressional Record June 25, 1997)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Report Warns Of Rise In Ethnic Smoking ('New York Times'
Says The US Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, Warned Monday
That Increases In Smoking By Minorities, Especially Minority Teen-Agers,
Threaten To Reverse Significant Declines In The Incidence Of Cancer)

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 01:20:02 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US: NYT: Report Warns of Rise in Ethnic Smoking
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: emr@javanet.com (Dick Evans)
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: New York Times
Contact: lettes@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com
Author: Cheryl Stolberg

REPORT WARNS OF RISE IN ETHNIC SMOKING

In a report that afforded President Clinton the perfect opportunity to
renew his call for comprehensive tobacco legislation, the surgeon general,
Dr. David Satcher, warned Monday that increases in smoking by minorities,
especially minority teen-agers, threaten to reverse significant declines in
the incidence of cancer.

The study, the first surgeon general's report to examine the health risks
that tobacco poses to minorities, found that American Indians and Alaska
natives were the ethnic group most at risk. Forty percent of them smoked,
compared with 25 percent of the general U.S. population. From 1990 to 1995,
while lung cancer deaths declined among other minority groups, they rose
among American Indians and Alaska natives, the study found. Among
teen-agers, cigarette use increased among all racial and ethnic groups in
the 1990s. But it was rising most rapidly among blacks, reversing declines
in that population in the 1970s and 1980s. If the pattern continues,
Satcher estimated, 1.6 million black children will become regular smokers,
and 500,000 will die as a result.

"These increases in tobacco use are a time bomb for our minority
populations," the surgeon general said at a ceremony to present the report,
on the South Lawn of the White House. He concluded: "Smoking is the most
preventable cause of death in America. So let's get busy and prevent it."
Satcher then presented the 332-page tome to the president, who wasted no
time in denouncing the tobacco industry for advertising to young people.
Nearly three dozen children dressed in bright red T-shirts with the logo of
the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, a Washington advocacy group,
lined up behind Clinton as he spoke.

"These are the replacement smokers of the advertisers' strategy," Clinton
said, "but these are our children, and we can't replace them." Moments
later, he added: "They're just kids. We're the grown-ups. If we know what
the danger is, and we know what the remedy is, are we going to do what it
takes to save their lives and their health and their future, or not?"
Rarely are surgeon general's reports issued with such pomp and
circumstance. But Monday's, the 24th in a series on tobacco use that began
34 years ago, and the first issued by Satcher, came at a time of great
political uncertainty over the prospects of tobacco legislation. The Senate
Commerce Committee has overwhelmingly approved a measure, put forward by
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that requires the tobacco companies to pay $516
billion over 25 years and raises the price of cigarettes by $1.10 a pack by
the year 2003. Senate leaders have said they hope to bring the bill to the
floor for a vote next month.

Three Senate Republicans were on hand for Monday's White House ceremony;
one of them, Sen. Bill Frist of Tennessee, shared a spot on the stage with
Clinton, in an effort by the White House to demonstrate, as Clinton said,
that tobacco control "is a medical, not a political issue, and an American,
not a partisan issue."

But the issue is very much partisan in the House of Representatives, where
Republican leaders have indicated they will oppose the McCain bill, which
is also opposed by the tobacco industry. Proponents of the legislation said
that Monday's report will put pressure on the Senate to act quickly. "There
is no turning back without the public holding Congress accountable," said
Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. The study
looked at four major ethnic groups -- black; Hispanic; Native American and
Alaska native; and Asian and Pacific Islander -- that together make up a
quarter of the U.S. population.

The study, based on statistics from 1994 and 1995, found that no single
factor determines patterns of tobacco use among these groups, but rather a
complex interaction of factors, including socio-economic status,
assimilation, stress, biology, targeted advertising and the price of
tobacco, accounts for trends that vary widely from ethnic group to ethnic
group. For instance, the study found that while Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders are the least likely of the four ethnic groups to smoke, several
local surveys reported very high smoking rates among recent male immigrants
from Southeast Asia.

"This new report leaves no doubt that cigarette smoking impairs and kills
people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds," Satcher said, 10 million of
whom currently smoke. Tobacco, he said, is "holding hostage the hopes for a
better life."
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Smoking Rises Among Minority Teens ('San Jose Mercury News' Version)

Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 01:44:10 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Melodi Cornett 
Subject: MN: US: Smoking Rises Among Minority Teens
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family 
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/

SMOKING RISES AMONG MINORITY TEENS

Surgeon general's report warns of `time bomb' for young tobacco
users

WASHINGTON -- The first surgeon general's report to focus on the
smoking rates of racial and ethnic groups showed Monday that, while
the overall use of tobacco is declining among adults, it has begun to
rise among minority teenagers, creating a ``time bomb'' for minority
populations.

Unveiling the report by Surgeon General David Satcher in the White
House Rose Garden, President Clinton cited it as new evidence that
Congress should pass sweeping legislation that protects children from
tobacco companies that direct advertising at young people.

``They are still becoming the targets of highly sophisticated
marketing campaigns,'' said Clinton, surrounded by junior and senior
high school students. ``They are replacement smokers of the
advertisers' strategy. But they are our children, and we can't replace
them.''

The report on minority smoking habits looked at four ethnic groups --
blacks, Hispanics, Asian-Americans/Pacific Islanders and American
Indians/Alaska Natives -- that together make up a quarter of the
nation's population. It concluded that black men ``bear one of the
greatest health burdens.''

Although deaths from lung cancer are declining, the study found, it
remains the leading cause of cancer death for all four racial and
ethnic groups, with black men having the highest lung cancer death
rate.

Moreover, the report said black men who contract lung cancer are 50
percent more likely to die from it than their white counterparts. But
the study also said researchers could not explain the difference.

The study echoed findings of a report released earlier this month by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed smoking by
black students -- once hailed as a success story for their continually
low cigarette use -- has almost doubled.

Smoking among black teens has increased 80 percent over the past six
years, three times as fast as among white students, the study said.

And the general trend toward fewer lung cancer deaths could change if
minority teens' smoking rates continue to rise. In the past, minority
teens were a success story for public health advocates because of
their relatively low smoking rates. But now they are catching up with
white teens. Smoking rates are especially high among Hispanic high
school students (34 percent smoke cigarettes), while almost 40 percent
of white teens smoke cigarettes.

Clinton turned up the volume on his demand that Congress stop
bickering over ``complicated'' details of tobacco policy and pass a
sweeping bill this year that would reduce teen smoking rates.

But leading Republicans criticized Clinton for not proposing a
specific solution.

``The president has not provided leadership on the tobacco issue,''
said Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

``He's provided lots of rhetoric, lots of talk. And he's not shown any
real courage in saying what things can be done, what things must be
done in order to achieve something that will pass,'' said Lott.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, complained
that even if Clinton refrains from proposing his own tobacco
legislation, he has called for ingredients like price increases that
would bankrupt the tobacco industry and drive young people to marijuana.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Minority Smoking Is Up ('Seattle Times' Version)

Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 10:36:10 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US: Minority Smoking Is Up
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Seattle-Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://seattletimes.com/
Author: Steven Thomma, Knight Ridder Newspapers

MINORITY SMOKING IS UP

WASHINGTON - A surgeon general's report detailing a dramatic increase in
the use of tobacco among young minorities touched off a new round of
political sparring yesterday between the White House and Congress.

President Clinton used the report to ratchet up pressure on Congress to
adopt legislation to curb underage smoking.

But even as Clinton focused on the details of the problem, leading
Republicans criticized him for not proposing specifics of a solution.

"The president has not provided leadership on the tobacco issue," said
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

"He's provided lots of rhetoric, lots of talk. And he's not shown any real
courage in saying what things can be done, what things must be done in
order to achieve something that will pass," said Lott.

And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, complained
that even if Clinton refrains from proposing his own tobacco legislation,
he has called for measures like price increases that would bankrupt the
industry and drive young people to marijuana.

Between the political sparring, the day focused on the escalating rates at
which young minorities are smoking.

Surgeon General David Satcher used the annual report to focus for the first
time on smoking among young minorities.

-- About 20 percent of African-American high-school students smoke. While
they still smoke less than other groups - half the rate of whites - their
rate of smoking jumped by 80 percent from 1991 to 1997.

-- About 20 percent of Asian-American high-school students smoke, up 17
percent from 1990 to 1995.

-- About 33 percent of Hispanic high-school students smoke, a 34 percent
increase from 1991 to 1997.

-- About 50 percent of Native-American high-school students smoke, up 26
percent from 1990 to 1995.

"Unless they are reversed, these increases in tobacco use are a time bomb
for the health of our minority populations," said Satcher. "If tobacco use
continues to increase among minority adolescents, we can expect severe
health consequences to be felt in the early part of the next century."

With about 30 teenagers from the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids standing
behind him, Clinton noted that the tobacco industry, to survive, must
attract young people as customers to replace those who quit or die. And he
insisted that it is up to parents and other adults to discourage children
from smoking.

But Lott complained that Clinton is not helping to work out the details of
what would be an historic attempt to punish and regulate the tobacco
industry.

"He's got to quit the critical rhetoric and get in here and . . . help us
fight teenage smoking and deal with the health problems caused by smoking,
but not just view it as, oh, great, this is a cookie jar whereby we can
enlarge government, we can have more taxes."
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Federal Judges Get More Power In Drug Sentencing ('Associated Press'
Says The US Supreme Court Today Gave Federal Judges Greater Power
To Impose Longer Terms Behind Bars For Some Convicted Drug Sellers,
Unanimously Upholding The Prison Sentences Given To Five Illinois Men)

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 01:02:12 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: US: Wire: Federal Judges Get More Power In Drug Sentencing
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: David.Hadorn@vuw.ac.nz (David Hadorn)
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998

FEDERAL JUDGES GET MORE POWER IN DRUG SENTENCING

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court today gave federal judges greater
power to impose longer terms behind bars for some convicted drug
traffickers, unanimously upholding the prison sentences given to five
Illinois men.

Writing for the court, Justice Stephen G. Breyer said it does not matter
that a federal jury did not make clear whether it found the men guilty of
conspiring to distribute cocaine in its powder or ``crack'' form. The
sentencing judge was free, Breyer said, to sentence the men as if they had
been convicted of dealing in both illegal drugs.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, the punishment for crack-related
crimes is much tougher than crimes linked to powder cocaine.

Vincent Edwards, Reynolds Wintersmith, Horace Joiner, Karl Fort and Joseph
Tidwell were convicted in 1993 for their participation in a drug-selling
conspiracy based in Rockford, Ill.

The trial judge told jurors they could convict the men of violating a
federal drug-conspiracy law if prosecutors proved they were involved with
measurable amounts of powdered cocaine ``or'' crack cocaine.

After the jury found the men guilty of participating in an illegal
conspiracy, the judge sentenced them based on his finding that the illegal
conduct had involved both cocaine and crack.

Fort and Wintersmith were sentenced to life in prison. The other three
received prison sentences ranging from 10 to 26 years, and a federal
appeals court upheld all five sentences.

All five men appealed, contending that they were entitled to shorter
sentences or even a new sentencing proceeding. But today's ruling rejected
those arguments.

``The judge was authorized to determine for sentencing purposes whether
crack, as well as cocaine, was involved,'' Breyer said, adding that the
jury's belief about which drugs were involved was beside the point.

The case is Edwards vs. U.S., 96-8732.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Text Of US Supreme Court Decision In Edwards Et Al. V. United States
(Defendants Lose Crack-Cocaine Sentencing Appeal)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:52:05 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Maximillien Baudelaire 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: Re: Supreme Court Sentencing Decision
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 10:25:28 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: martin@WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU
Sender: owner-liibulletin@listserv.law.cornell.edu
From: "Peter W. Martin" 
To: liibulletin@listserv.law.cornell.edu
Subject: liibulletin - 28 April 1998 (1 case)

***

AN E-BULLETIN
LEGAL INFORMATION INSTITUTE -- CORNELL LAW SCHOOL
lii@lii.law.cornell.edu

***

The following decisions have just arrived via the LII's
direct Project HERMES feed from the Supreme Court.

These are not the decisions themselves nor excerpts from them,
but summaries (syllabi) prepared by the Court's Reporter of
Decisions. Instructions for accessing the full text of any of
these decisions are provided at the end of this bulletin.

***

EDWARDS ET AL . v. UNITED STATES

No. 96-8732 -- Argued February 23, 1998 --
Decided April 28, 1998

105 F.3d 1179, affirmed.

http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/96-8732.cpanel.html

***

At petitioners' trial under 21 U. S. C. Sects. 841 and 846 for
"conspir[ing]" to "possess with intent to . . . distribute
[mixtures containing two] controlled substance[s]," namely,
cocaine and cocaine base (i.e., "crack"), the jury was
instructed that the Government must prove that the conspiracy
involved measurable amounts of "cocaine *or* cocaine base."
(Emphasis added.) The jury returned a general verdict of guilty,
and the District Judge imposed sentences based on his finding
that each petitioner's illegal conduct involved *both* cocaine
*and* crack. Petitioners argued (for the first time) in the
Seventh Circuit that their sentences were unlawful insofar as
they were based upon crack, because the word "or" in the jury
instruction meant that the judge must assume that the conspiracy
involved only cocaine, which is treated more leniently than crack
by United States Sentencing Guidelines Sect. 2D1.1(c). However,
the court held that the judge need not assume that only cocaine
was involved, pointing out that, because the Guidelines require
the sentencing judge, not the jury, to determine both the kind
and the amount of the drugs at issue in a drug conspiracy, the
jury's belief about which drugs were involved - cocaine, crack,
or both - was beside the point.

Held: Because the Guidelines instruct *the judge* in a case like
this to determine both the amount and kind of controlled
substances for which a defendant should be held accountable, and
then to impose a sentence that varies depending upon those
determinations, see, e.g., Witte v. United States, 515 U.S. 389,
it is the judge who is required to determine whether the
"controlled substances" at issue - and how much of them - consisted
of cocaine, crack, or both. That is what the judge did in this
case, and the jury's beliefs about the conspiracy are irrelevant.
This Court need not, and does not, consider the merits of
petitioners' claims that the drug statutes and the Constitution
required the judge to assume that *the jury* convicted them of a
conspiracy involving only cocaine. Even if that were so, it would
make no difference here. The Guidelines instruct the judge to
base a drug conspiracy offender's sentence on his "relevant
conduct," Sect. 1B1.3, which includes *both* conduct that
constitutes the "offense of conviction," Sect. 1B1.3(a)(1), *and*
conduct that is "part of the same course of conduct or common
scheme or plan as the offense of conviction," 1B1.3(a)(2). Thus,
the judge below would have had to determine the total amount of
drugs, whether they consisted of cocaine, crack, or both, and the
total amount of each - regardless of whether he believed that
petitioners' crack - related conduct was part of the "offense of
conviction" or "part of the same course of conduct, or common
scheme or plan." The Guidelines sentencing range - on either
belief - is identical. Petitioners' statutory and constitutional
claims could make a difference if they could argue that their
sentences exceeded the statutory maximum for a cocaine - only
conspiracy, or that their crack - related activities did not
constitute part of the "same course of conduct," etc., but the
record indicates that such arguments could not succeed. Their
argument, made for the first time on appeal, that the judge
*might* have made different factual findings had he known that
the law required him to assume the jury had found a cocaine-only
conspiracy is unpersuasive. Pp. 2-5.

105 F.3d 1179, affirmed.

BREYER, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

***

These and all other recent Supreme Court decisions are
archived in full text at
http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/
(in hypertext versions prepared by the LII and the
original word-processing files received from the Court)
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Recovering Our Honour - Why Policing Must Reject The War On Drugs
(URL Posted For Text Of Controversial Recent Speech
At The Fraser Institute By Vancouver, British Columbia,
Constable Gil Puder)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 21:12:05 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Jim Rosenfield 
To: Multiple recipients of list 
Subject: New at Think for Yourself

Recovering Our Honour

"Why Policing Must Reject the "War on Drugs"
By Gil Puder, Presentation to the Fraser Institute

is now at http://mall,turnpike.net/~jnr/think.htm
full text with notes.

Jim Rosenfield
-------------------------------------------------------------------

There Must Be A Better Way Than The War On Drugs
(Staff Editorial In Toronto 'Globe And Mail' Praises Vancouver Constable
Gil Puder For Risking His Career To Speak Out Against The War
On Some Drug Users)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 20:14:46 -0400
From: Carey Ker 
Subject: Canada: OPED: There must be a better way than the war on drugs
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
Priority: Normal
Source: The Globe and Mail, April 28, 1998, Page A23
Newshawk:carey.ker@utoronto.ca
contact: letters@GlobeAndMail.ca


THERE MUST BE A BETTER WAY THAN THE WAR ON DRUGS
by Gordon Gibson in Vancouver

Globe & Mail
April 28, 1998

Suppose you were a uniformed policeman preparing for a major conference,
and at the last minute you received the following from the chief (who
had known the contents for weeks): "I confirm that you were ordered by
me not to present your paper titled 'Recovering Our Honour: Why
Policing Must Reject the War on Drugs'..." Well, Constable Gil Puder,
Vancouver City Police badge number 1167, went ahead and gave his speech
anyway. This was not a career-advancing move.

The powerful presentation was the wind-up event of last week's Fraser
Institute gathering in this city on "sensible solutions to the urban
drug problem." Speakers from around North America concluded the
obvious: Current drug policy in Canada (as imported from the United
States, and then diluted for the gentler Canadian psyche) is just not
working, and more of the same won't help. It may be obvious, but as the
chief's words above imply, the senior establishment of our justice
system is not ready for a fundamental look at alternatives.

Various conference papers pointed out the human tragedies, the enormous
economic cost of illicit drugs, and the grotesque monopoly profits that
accrue untaxed to criminals as a result of the artificial market created
by the law. (The legal alcohol and tobacco drugs have costs, too; but
the habits are out there where we can see them, tax them and in due
course beat them back through education.)

Richard Stevenson of Liverpool University argued that the unique and
largest cost of illicit drugs is their threat to institutions and to
respect for and observance of law and order. The law is called into
disrepute just that extra bit further when millions of Canadians are
branded cannabis crooks. The financing of other organized crime, the
corruption of public officials and the diversion of scarce police
resources to chasing the pathetic users take their own toll. As Milton
Friedman said almost 10 years ago, "Drugs are a tragedy for addicts. But
criminalizing their use converts that into a disaster for society."

There are answers out there. Ueli Minder of the Swiss Federal Office of
Public Health described a large-scale, long-term heroin maintenance
experiment in his conservative country, in which a number of addicts
were given regular doses of heroin under controlled conditions. The
dramatic results have included large drops in homelessness, a major
reduction in illicit heroin and cocaine use, an improvement in the
employment rate (in the treatment group) to 32 per cent from 14, and an
eventual significant switch to other, more conventional treatments such
as methadone maintenance and abstinence therapy.

Dr. Jeffrey Singer of Arizona explained how, through the use of
initiatives in that state (which enable a large enough group of citizens
to force a proposed new law to a public vote), a new legal regime has
been adopted. Studies had shown that 91 per cent of Arizonans were
convinced that the "war on drugs" was a failure, but only 21 per cent
were prepared to legalize them, because they didn't want to send the
message to young people that any drug was "okay".

The new Arizona law, which passed by a margin of 65 per cent to 35,
applies to all illicit drugs and makes three changes. The first is
tough: Violent crime associated with drug use means no eligibility for
parole. But recreational possession draws only probation for the first
two incidents (on the third strike, you're out); and the medical use of
any drug is permitted, with a doctor's certificate.

Many at the Vancouver meeting wondered why we aren't trying such things
in Canada. This was not your usual Fraser Institute conference - copies
of Cannabis Canada (a magazine) were passed out by the publisher, and
people arrived at the microphone to describe their 20-year heroin habit
- so there were representatives of drug reality on hand, and they asked
that question. One of them, obviously known to the police delegates,
asked why not a single politician in the country would carry the case of
the three million Canadians (his number) who use marijuana.

Economist and former MP Herb Grubel gave one answer. Herb got into big
trouble in the last Parliament by asking simple, basic questions about
Canada's equally failed aboriginal policy, and was totally trashed by
the media and other parties for his pains. Politicians seek votes, he
told the Fraser gathering, not hard truths or controversy. As Daniel
Savas of Angus Reid told the group, a slight majority of Canadians would
support the decriminalization of marijuana, but the political risk is
high. We need a few brave leaders - which brings us back to Gil Puder.

He is very much his own man, which is no doubt why he is still a
constable after 16 years. He is highly respected by the rank and file,
and much published. He has shot bank robbers and lost a colleague in a
drug raid. He teaches hand-to-hand combat, has beaten cancer - and
speaks his mind.

There is not enough room here to assess the substance of his analysis
and remedies (creating a government-regulated marijuana system, and
approaching other drugs as health rather than criminal issues). But here
is an insider who has put his job on the line to advance the public
debate. Thank you, Mr. Puder.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Shameless Admission (Letter To Editor Of 'Halifax Daily News'
Faults Columnist For Her Admission That She Has No Compassion
For Drug Addicts)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 19:40:22 -0700 (PDT)
To: letterstoeditor@hfxnews.southam.ca
From: arandell@islandnet.com (Alan Randell)
Subject: Shameless admission

Editor
Halifax Daily News

letterstoeditor@hfxnews.southam.ca

April 28, 1998

Dear Editor,

While I pleased for Nancy Radcliffe that the penny has finally
dropped, if only part way (Legalize drugs, all of them, April 26), I
am disappointed that the residue of three generations of state-
sponsored anti-drug propaganda still lingers in her psyche.

Was there ever a more shameless admission of bigotry and hatred
published in recent times by a major Canadian newspaper than
Radcliffe's statement, "I don't have an ounce of compassion for drug
addicts. I'm just tired of watching innocent people pay for their
problem. Let's stop trying to save addicts from themselves and start
thinking about how we can save ourselves from them."

My dear cold-hearted Ms Radcliffe, even a cursory examination of our
current drugs fiasco will tell you that it is the prohibition of
certain drugs that causes the crime, not the drugs themselves. When
was the last time you heard of a robbery being perpetrated "to finance
an alcohol habit?" May I respectfully suggest that you do some
research and check your prejudices at the door before you clamber
aboard your computer next time?

Just as Hitler's speeches convinced his citizens to hate Jews, the
Canadian government's drug propaganda has spawned within Ms Radcliffe
a visceral hatred toward the innocent users of certain drugs. Let's be
clear on this. There is no more reason to persecute drug users and
distributors today than there was in the past to burn witches at the
stake, lynch Blacks or gas Jews.

Alan Randell
-------------------------------------------------------------------

US Vets Level Charges At Mexico ('Associated Press'
Notes A Group Of US Military Veterans Charged Friday
That The Mexican Army Is Using US Anti-Drug Military Equipment
To Intimidate Indians In Southern Mexico)

Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 01:25:10 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: Mexico: Wire: U.S. Vets Level Charges at Mexico
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Kevin Zeese 
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Author: Julie Watson, The Associated Press

U.S. VETS LEVEL CHARGES AT MEXICO

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The Mexican army is using U.S. military equipment
intended to stop drug-smuggling to intimidate Indians in southern Mexico, a
group of U.S. veterans charged Friday.

``Our government is supplying arms, equipment and training to the army of
Mexico ... that are being used against the poor people of Mexico,'' said
Wilson Powell, a Korean war veteran and a member of the Veterans for Peace
delegation.

The four-member delegation spent 10 days monitoring military activities in
the southern Mexican states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, where leftist guerrilla
groups have risen up in recent years. They also visited the Chiapas hamlet
of Acteal, where 45 peasants were gunned down by a pro-government
paramilitary group in December.

Veterans for Peace, based in Washington, D.C., plans to present its
findings to church groups and schools in the United States in hopes of
pressuring U.S. officials to monitor the use of its military equipment and
training in Mexico. The group says its purpose is to increase public
awareness of U.S. military involvement in other nations and end the arms
race.

Last year, the State Department pledged $6 million to train narcotics
officers hired after Mexico purged its anti-narcotics program to fight
corruption.

The veterans charge that a lack of monitoring allows the Mexican government
to use such training, as well as military equipment, for purposes beyond
the drug war.

Mexico's government dispatched thousands of troops to the highland region
following a short-lived 1994 rebellion by leftist Zapatista rebels seeking
greater autonomy for Mexico's Indians. The lack of a permanent peace accord
has polarized the zone with some Indian communities siding with the rebels.
Mexico says its maintains troops there to pacify the area and quell
sporadic violence.

During their stay, the veterans saw U.S.-made Huey helicopters flying over
small villages. They heard accusations that the helicopter pilots
intimidated some communities with by flying low over their homes, sometimes
daily.

In recent years, the United States has donated dozens of military planes
and helicopters, including UH-1H Huey choppers, to Mexico to transport
troops assigned to intercept drug shipments.

Mexican soldiers and immigration officials kept a close watch on the group
and repeatedly demanded to see their papers, the veterans said.

``We felt some of the same intimidation the indigenous people who live
there feel,'' Powell said.

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Resort Seized By Mexican Drug Agents ('San Diego Union Tribune'
Says The Mexican Attorney General's Office Wants To Take
The Oasis Resort Hotel And Convention Center In Tijuana Through Forfeiture
Because Of Purported Evidence The Property Belongs To
Alleged Illegal Drug Seller Manuel Aguirre Galindo,
Though The Official Owners Deny It)

From: "Rolf Ernst" 
To: "MN" 
Subject: MN: US CA: Resort Seized By Mexican Drug Agents
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:18:45 -0500
Importance: Normal
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Tom Murlowski 
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Author: Gregory Gross

RESORT SEIZED BY MEXICAN DRUG AGENTS

They say evidence links hotel to cartel; owners deny charge

TIJUANA -- With its whitewashed buildings, Mediterranean architecture and
seaside views, the Oasis Resort Hotel & Convention Center could be taken for
some peaceful, sun-washed vacation spot on one of the Greek islands.

But this resort, about two miles north of Rosarito Beach, has become the
site of a tug of war between a Mexican government bent on rooting out drug
traffickers and a hotel ownership that feels it is being unjustly harassed.

Mexican federal narcotics agents, backed by elements of the Mexican army,
raided the resort Friday afternoon and seized control of its operation.

Hotel guests, including members of a Warner Bros. film crew working on a
movie at the Popotla film studio south of Rosarito Beach, were startled to
suddenly find themselves amid scores of young men in black fatigues toting
automatic rifles.

The heavily armed agents who patrolled the 150-room beachfront hotel were
called off yesterday afternoon after one of the resort's owners, Urbano
Hernandez Somero, pleaded with Gen. Josi Luis Chavez Garcma, head of the
federal Attorney General's Office in Baja California.

The reason given for the takeover was that the Attorney General's Office,
known by its Spanish initials PGR, had found evidence that the property
belongs to Manuel Aguirre Galindo.

Aguirre, alias "El Caballo" or "The Horse," is alleged to be a member of
the ruling council of the Arellano Filix drug cartel, based in Tijuana.

Major drug traffickers often buy into resorts, office buildings and other
expensive properties to launder drug profits through them. They hide their
involvement by using go-betweens known in Mexico as prestanombres, or
name-lenders. The traffickers put up the cash while the name-lenders sign
the papers.

Efforts of local news reporters to obtain comments from PGR officials in
Tijuana were unsuccessful.

However, the owners of Oasis held a news conference yesterday and angrily
denied having ties to the region's infamous narcotics trade.

"We are innocent," Hernandez told reporters. "All we ask is that you give us
a chance to prove it. There is no proof of any crime we have committed to
justify these acts (by the government)."

Hernandez acknowledged knowing Aguirre and said Aguirre once was part-owner
of the 10-year-old resort, licensed under the name "Oasis Tourist Complex."

But Hernandez said that he currently co-owns the resort with Aguirre's
mother, sister and son and that Aguirre sold out eight years ago.

However, the federal Attorney General's Office said it had confirmed that
the resort property belonged to Aguirre.

Hernandez said he was told by the raiding officers that they had both
authorization to seize the facility and a warrant to arrest an unidentified
suspect.

"They never showed me any warrants or any orders," Hernandez said. "They
never showed me anything. They looked around, and they didn't find anybody."

It's not the first time the PGR has raided the Oasis in an attempt to link
the resort to drug traffickers, Hernandez said.

"When they came last November, they didn't even bother saying they had a
warrant," he said. "They just said, 'We have orders from our boss.' "

The hotel owners are seeking a writ known as an amparo to protect them from
further government action.

But it may be too late to prevent the Warner Bros. crew from pulling out of
the hotel, making a move that could cost the Oasis up to $2 million in lost
revenue. Hernandez said he was to meet today with representatives of Warner
Bros. in hopes of persuading them to stay.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hemp Group To Contest Seats (Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Says The Group Help End Marijuana Prohibition, In Northern New South Wales,
Will Contest Seats In Three States At The Next Federal Election)

Date: Sat, 02 May 1998 15:06:23 -0400
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: Richard Lake 
Subject: MN: Australia: HEMP Group To Contest Seats
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Ken Russell
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

HEMP GROUP TO CONTEST SEATS

The northern New South Wales based Help End Marijuana Prohibition group
says it will contest seats in three states at the next federal election.

The National HEMP party will be launched on Sunday during the annual Nimbin
Mardi Grass and Cannabis Law Reform Rally.

Organisers say they will stand candidates in South Australia, Victoria and
New South Wales.

HEMP's National President Michael Balderstone says his group has "high
hopes" for the party's success at the polling booths.

Mr Balderstone says he does not have any political ambitions and will not
be running for parliament as a HEMP candidate.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

The Dangerous Ignorance Of Those Who Say 'Legalise Pot'
(Op-Ed In Britain's 'Daily Mail' By A Psychopharmacist
Admits Cannabis Is Less Dangerous Than Tobacco Or Alcohol,
But Alludes To Discredited 'Studies' Purporting To Show Its Dangers,
And Cites Her Own Perceptions That Cannabis Causes Long-Term Harm
To The Brain)

To: ukcia-l@mimir.com
From: webbooks@paston.co.uk (CLCIA)
Subject: ART: The dangerous ignorance of those who say 'legalise pot.'
Date: Wed, 6 May 1998 14:12:37 +0100
Source; Daily Mail, UK
Section : Commentary
ART: The dangerous ignorance of those who say 'legalise pot.'
Author: Professor Heather Ashton
Pub Date: April 28 1998
Contact : letters@dailymail.co.uk
Comments: "Professor Ashton is a psychopharmacist at Newcastle University
who has spent more than 20 years studying the effect of drugs on the human
mind." Personally I doubt her qualifications, experience and sincerity.

***

The dangerous ignorance of those who say 'legalise pot.'

There are literally millions of people of all ages and all classes in this
country who have tried cannabis and claim to have had no ill effects.

Indeed, as the Government launches its drugs White Paper - a document that
maintains the strict official ban on cannabis - it's probably fair to say
that the weight of liberal opinion is in favour of its legalisation.

There are MPs who argue that its use is harmless. At countless dinner
parties the law is derided. One serious broadsheet newspaper has campaigned
openly for cannabis to be made legal.

Why not, so the argument goes, when the drug is not nearly as dangerous as
heroin, nor as addictive as cocaine, nor as unpredictable in its
consequences as LSD or Ecstasy?

Why not, when the anti-cannabis laws are flouted so openly, when half the
students at universities have tried it and when the drug is said to pose
fewer dangers than either alcohol or tobacco?

Well, there are good reasons why not. As someone who, since the Seventies,
has studied the effects on the human brain of various drugs - including
cannabis - it seems to me that the 'legalise pot' campaigners are jumping
ahead of the evidence in a cause that owes more to fashion than to hard science.

During my research I have come into contact with many different types of
cannabis user, from students who consume it on a casual basis to habitual users.

I must stress I am not speaking as an anti-cannabis campaigners, I'm an
academic, not a pundit or a politician keen on promoting a particular policy.

But as the pressure grows to legalise cannabis, it seems to me increasingly
important that the facts should be understood, particularly by those who
argue that cannabis isn't really harmful, anyway. It is time we took a
long, dispassionate view of the evidence.

Take the claim that cannabis isn't addictive. Research demonstrates that
this simply isn't true. My own experience with students users shows that
they can and do suffer severe withdrawal symptoms when they try to come off
the drug.

Once I was unable to complete my study of one group of chronic cannabis
smokers in a commune because they could not keep their appointments.

They lost their academic edge, and their studies suffered badly. And,
crucially, those who stopped smoking the drug exhibited nor great improvement.

A study in the U.S. conducted about ten years ago, underlined the point. A
group of regular cannabis users were given oral doses of the drug under
strict laboratory conditions. Later, unknown to them, the drugs were
replaced by a harmless placebo.

Without their regular genuine 'fixes', they ended up suffering tremors,
stomach pains, nausea, headaches and a range of other unpleasant
side-effects. One of the reasons is the way cannabis is absorbed by the
body. It isn't like alcohol, which can be sweated out within 24 hours. The
narcotic effects of a single joint last 48 hours.

But the various chemical residues in the drug find their way into the body
fat, where they remain for as long as a month. And of course regular users
keep on absorbing more and more.

Contrary to claims by the legalise pot campaign, it definitely effects the
brain function. A Department of Transport study in the late Eighties
confirmed that cannabis impairs the ability to drive. Another study showed
that, after alcohol, cannabis is the most common drug involved in road deaths.

Research into airline pilots who have smoked one moderate dose of the drug
not only found that it had a marked impact on performance, but that the
impairment lasted up to 48 hours.

Just a disturbing was the finding that, after 24 hours, those pilots were
unaware that their abilities were still affected, But they continued to
make potentially disastrous mistakes when they were tested on a light simulator.

Now all this may seem somewhat overstated to the people who smoked the odd
joint back in the Sixties and seventies without seeming to suffer any great
harm. Indeed, the legalisation campaigners point to the experience of those
years as evidence that the drug is relatively safe.

But I fear they are missing the crucial point. Over the years, the strength
of the average cannabis joint has increased because of careful
plant-breeding and hydroponic farming to produce more potent varieties, such
as Silver Pearl and Skunkweed. The old reefer of the Sixties offered a
relatively mild dose. A modern joint can be as much as 30 times stronger.
And of course the very fact of that increase in strength adds to the
chemical deposits in the body and stimulates the desire for another strong buzz.

Whether or not this ;leads on the experimentation with harder drugs may be
open to debate. But I think there is an analogy with alcohol abuse. Most
people like a drink, but relatively few go on to become alcoholics. It must
be true, however, that the more drinkers here are, the more alcoholics there
will be. I suspect the same pattern applies to cannabis. The more users
there are, the more will be tempted to try something stronger.

This, after all, is what is suggested by the experience in Holland, where
cannabis has been legal for years. The use of hard drugs has risen noticeably.

It is interesting to note that the Dutch authorities have now reduced the
amount of cannabis that can be sold for personal consumption.

There is one other point that the legalisers tend to overlook: the risk of
cancer.

It took decades before the carcinogenic effects of tobacco smoke were fully
understood. How long will it be before it dawns on cannabis users that they
risk very nasty cancers of the throat, tongue and mouth, not to mention
emphysema and other chest troubles?

In fact, in some respects a joint can be more dangerous than a cigarette
because it has no filter and a higher igniting temperature.

If any future government is tempted to lift the ban on cannabis, it will
have to do so despite the evidence that it creates dependency, that it
impairs the cognitive function of the brain and that it poses a risk of cancer.

The only argument hat is left concerns the undoubted fact that the present
law is so widely flouted as to be virtually unenforceable. But wouldn't
the law be equally unenforceable if the ban were lifted? After all, since
cannabis clearly has a deleterious long-term effect, many groups in society
would be forbidden from using it, no matter how liberal the Government
wanted to appear.



There has been plenty of emotion in the drugs debate, plenty of passion and
commitment. Am I alone in wishing for a more considered approach? And for
a climate if in which science and rational analysis can take the place of
tub-thumping zealotry?

Don't miss out!

***

Derek's VIDEO of the IoS Cannabis March in London, is now available
from the CLCIA in VHS format at £10 inc. P & P.

CANNABIS QUIZ - WIN A TRIP TO AMSTERDAM
SEE : http://www.paston.co.uk/users/webbooks/canquiz.html
This is a fund-raising quiz. Entry is just 2 pounds.

***

CLCIA On-Line Bookshop :
http://www.paston.co.uk/users/webbooks/webhome.html
tested safe and secure purchase through Amazon.com

***

Campaign to Legalise Cannabis International Association (CLCIA)
54C Peacock Street, Norwich, Norfolk, NR3 1TB, England.
Campaigners' Guide : http://www.paston.co.uk/users/webbooks/index.html
CLCIA : http://www.foobar.co.uk/users/ukcia/groups/clcia/clcia.html
e-mail : webbooks@paston.co.uk Tel : +44 (0)1603 625780
"The use of cannabis ought to be a matter of choice, not of law."

***

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

Children To Get Drugs Warning From Age 5 ('The Scotsman'
Notes British Drugs Tsar Keith Hellawell Has Unveiled
A UK Anti-Drugs Strategy For The Next Ten Years)

Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 19:04:41 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Olafur Brentmar 
Subject: MN: UK: Children To Get Drugs Warning From Age 5
Newshawk: shug@shug.co.uk
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Contact: Letters_ts@scotsman.com
Website: http://www.scotsman.com/
Author: Jenny Booth Home Affairs Correspondent

CHILDREN TO GET DRUGS WARNING FROM AGE 5

PROFITS seized by the courts from convicted drug dealers will be channelled
into fighting Britain's £4 billion a year narcotics habit.

Putting to positive use the £5 million seized annually from dealers is part
of a UK anti-drugs strategy for the next ten years, unveiled by the "drugs
tsar", Keith Hellawell.

It is built on four priorities: keeping young people off drugs, treating
addicts, reducing drug-related crime and cutting the supply of illegal
drugs.

Stress will be laid on education, with children learning about the dangers
of drugs from the age of five in primary school classrooms.

The Government hopes that much of the £1.4 billion a year spent on fighting
drugs can be reallocated away from "react-ive" enforcement - the revolving
door of police, courts and prison in which many addicts are trapped -
towards treatment schemes.

Drug treatment and testing orders for criminals, under which addicts are
given help to stay off drugs or face jail, will be piloted across Britain.

The policy will be implemented throughout England, with Scotland
cherrypicking key parts for inclusion in its own plans, the Scottish
Secretary, Donald Dewar, said last night.

"I expect the Scottish Office, with advice from the Scottish Advisory
Committee on Drug Misuse, to look for aspects of the new UK strategy which
we should pick up ," Mr Dewar said. "We have our own distinctive approach
to tackling drug misuse in Scotland."

Scotland's anti-drugs strategy was set out in a 1994 ministerial drug
taskforce report.

The white paper admits that spending on drugs had been "ad hoc, complicated
and random" and there had been a "lack of co-ordination between objectives,
resources and outcomes". In future, cash would go to programmes that got
results.

The white paper, Tackling Drugs to Build a Better Britain, was introduced
to parliament by the Leader of the House of Commons, Ann Taylor, and then
promoted by Mr Hellawell at the Trocadero mall in Piccadilly.

"We have got to recognise that some people do experiment with drugs and
some people become addicted to drugs. In the longer term we do want to wean
people off drugs," Mr Hellawell said.

Targets had been set to ensure the strategy was working, including:

Cutting the proportion of under-25s using illegal drugs.

Cutting reoffending among drug users.

Getting more drug users into treatment, including those in prison.

Reducing access to drugs among 5-16-year-olds.

Later, Mr Dewar announced a £200,000 Scottish Office grant to expand the
Scottish drug misuse database, creating an information strategy which would
give a clear picture of Scotland's drugs problem.

Mr Dewar said that this information strategy would also allow Scotland to
set targets and measure how well it was doing at tackling drugs.

The cash was welcomed by David Macauley, the director of the official
anti-drugs fund-raising body Scotland Against Drugs.

He said: "I would like the database to be used for evidence-based analysis
of problems, so for the first time we know what's working and what isn't.

""If half what I hear is true, a lot of the money we are spending on drugs
programmes is being wasted."

Mr Macauley called for Scotland's criminal justice system and drugs
services to act in a more "sophisticated" way, seeking to rehabilitate
addicts rather than simply jailing them again and again.

The 1994 Scottish task force report had recommended rehab services in
Dundee and Aberdeen, yet both cities had still to see them, he added.

David Liddell, the director of the Scottish Drugs Forum, said Scotland's
new information strategy should take care to measure meaningful factors,
such as whether the number of drug-related deaths was rising and falling,
to show whether policies were really working.

"We are particularly keen for the database to use more anecdotal
information from drug users groups, drugs services and the police, as well
as hard statistical data, to provide a better picture of what's going on,"
said Mr Liddell.

Some Scottish drugs groups, which refused to be named, were sceptical about
the new UK strategy.

One warned there was no proof that schools-based drugs education had any
effect in "innoculating" youngsters against future drug use. Another said
the strategy was the same old rhetoric as before, with its pledge to be
tough on dealers.
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Teachers Attack Drugs Education For Infants (Britain's 'Daily Telegraph'
Says The Government's Plan To Educate Children As Young As Five
About The Dangers Of Drugs Was Criticised By Education Leaders Last Night,
While The General Secretary Of The National Association Of Schoolmasters
Union Of Women Teachers Also Accused Prime Minister Tony Blair
Of Setting A Bad Example By Receiving Noel Gallagher Of The Band Oasis,
Who Said Last Year That Taking Drugs Might Be As Normal As Getting Up
And Having A Cup Of Tea In The Morning)

Date: Fri, 01 May 1998 10:40:38 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Melodi Cornett 
Subject: MN: UK: Teachers Attack Drugs Education For Infants
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: webbooks@paston.co.uk (CLCIA)
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Section: Editorial
Contact: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Author: Philip Johnston and Liz Lightfoot

TEACHERS ATTACK DRUGS EDUCATION FOR INFANTS.

(Caption: Cartoon of a small girl with her father - the child is saying "I
hate Tuesdays, it's double Heroin followed by Cocaine Studies")

Government plans to educate children as young as five about the dangers of
drugs, as part of a long-term strategy to curb abuse, were criticised by
teachers' leaders last night.

Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National association of
Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, also accused Tony Blair of setting a
bad example by courting pop stars.

"As always, politicians expect others to act," he said. "The Prime Minister
could probably achieve more than 1,000 lessons in drugs education if he set
a good example and refrained from inviting pop stars associated with the
drugs scene to receptions at No 10."

Guests at Downing Street have included Noel Gallagher, of Oasis, who said
last year that taking drugs might now be as normal as getting up and having
a cup of tea in the morning."

Mr de Gruchy also attacked the Government for "dumping social problems on to
schools. It is unrealistic to expect schools to fill the moral vacuum
created by so many different forces at work in society. Dumping on schools
is a cop-out by Government and society."

A White Paper published yesterday said that the national curriculum should
include lessons introducing pupils aged five to the dangers of drugs.

Keith Hallawell, the so-called drugs tsar, who devised the strategy,
defended the proposal, though some ministers believe that eight or nine
would be a more suitable age.

"We do not intend to start talking to children aged five about crack cocaine
and all the paraphernalia," said Mr Hallawell. "But they need to understand
the consequences that drugs have."
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Don't Toy With Drugs (Staff Editorial In Britain's 'Daily Telegraph'
Also Takes A Dim View Of Anti-Drug Education For Five-Year-Olds)

Date: Sat, 02 May 1998 23:29:09 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: Melodi Cornett 
Subject: MN: UK: Editorial: Don't Toy With Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: webbooks@paston.co.uk (CLCIA)
Pubdate: Tue, 28 Apr 1998
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Contact : dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

DON'T TOY WITH DRUGS

The protection of childhood innocence is a sacred trust; parents and
teachers have a duty to defend the young against the evils of the adult
world - among the most harmful of which is the misuse of drugs. That duty is
best exercised by keeping children out of harm's way and giving them simple
rules and moral guidance; it is wrongly exercised by arming them with
knowledge beyond their years and encouraging them prematurely to make
judgements of their own.

But Jack Straw, the Home secretary, and his "drugs tsar", Keith Hallawell,
seem to think otherwise. Spelling out the facts to primary classes is to be
an integral part of a 10-year "war on drugs", outlined in a White Paper
yesterday. Mr Hallawell has spoken of "appropriate drugs education from the
age of five" : but young children do not need to know the difference of
effect between one drug and another, or the price on the street - any more
than they need to know about techniques of safe sex. They simply need to
know that they should never play with pills, just as they should never speak
to strange men.

To fill children's minds with information they cannot understand is to
corrupt them. By talking about illegal drugs in a matter-of-fact way,
teachers risk making them seem all too normal; by wrapping drugs education
in artful presentation, schools run the risk of glamorising the subject and
making it all the more intriguing. Inevitably, the task of drugs education
will fall to those teachers who are themselves most familiar with the topic,
and more likely to present drug abuse as a matter of adult choice rather
than outright evil.

Mr Hallawell has supported his proposal by claiming "there is no evidence ...
that more knowledge encourages drug misuse". But it is clear, for example,
that emphasis on practical sex education, accompanied by free distribution
of condoms, encourages promiscuity - leading to more, rather than fewer,
teenage pregnancies. It is a failure of moral responsibility to say -
whether about sex or drugs - that children are bound to be tempted sooner or
later, and better forearmed so that they can minimise the risks if they
choose to indulge Children are best equipped against life's dangers not by
precocious knowledge of what is "safe", but by real understanding of what is
right and wrong. That will not be achieved by filling five-year-olds minds
with images of heroin and cocaine.

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[End]

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