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

Crime-Fighting Exercise In Pioneer Square ('The Seattle Times'
Describes Seattle's Two-Month-Old Pioneer Square Safety Team,
Funded By The Washington State Liquor Control Board, Whose Mission
Is To Interrupt Transactions 'Between The Drug Buyer And Seller'
With Their Official Presence And Excruciatingly Orange Baseball Caps
Bearing The Black Letters 'PSST')

From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen - Olympia" 
To: "-Hemp Talk" 
Subject: HT: Drug-fighting exercise in Pioneer Square
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 11:36:35 -0700
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
Copyright (c) 1998 The Seattle Times Company
Posted at 11:30 p.m. PDT; Saturday, June 20, 1998

Crime-fighting exercise in Pioneer Square

by Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter

Early yesterday morning, a group of eight men, four women and two dogs hit
the streets of Pioneer Square to fight crime - not with guns or badges but
with bright-orange hats.

Orange hats?

Yes, excruciatingly orange baseball caps bearing the black letters "PSST,"
standing for the 2-month-old Pioneer Square Safety Team.

With an idea imported from Washington, D.C., members of Pioneer Square
organizations are taking to the streets and alleys in hopes that their
simple presence and their attention-getting headgear will make drug dealers
less comfortable.

"It's not a confrontive exercise," David Brunner, president of the Pioneer
Square Community Council, said at the start of yesterday's walk. "We're
just trying to put the orange hat in between the drug buyer and seller . .
if we can thwart their connection, maybe they'll leave."

The PSST patrol was created by the Pioneer Square Community Council and
Business Improvement Association, with help from the Seattle Police
Department and state Liquor Control Board.

PSST walkers are to be polite, greet the people they pass, pick up litter
and call police if they see illegal activity.

One of the first pieces of litter encountered yesterday, a malt-liquor can,
was particularly discouraging to Brenda Peters, a state liquor agent.

"It's back," she sighed, noting that an effort to cut public drunkenness by
eliminating sales of high-alcohol beer downtown has been undermined by
merchants unwilling to give up lucrative sales.

In fact, Peters knows of only one store in Pioneer Square still adhering to
what was hoped would be a 15-month voluntary ban begun in May.

As they started yesterday's walk, members of the PSST group put on plastic
gloves to pick up candy wrappers, pop cans and other trash along First
Avenue and in Occidental Square.

In known drug-dealing areas, such as Second Avenue near Washington Street,
they offered a cheerful "good morning" to a couple of shady-looking
characters, who slipped quickly away.

In a doorway along Third Avenue, they stepped quietly by a homeless man in
a doorway with only his shoes showing out of a pile of sheets and
cardboard.

Pioneer Square, with its missions and shelters, draws a large number of
homeless, and some people wrongly perceive PSST as "anti-homeless," said
Stephen Pruss, 55, who's been on about 30 of the walks.

But Pruss, who lives in a low-income hotel in the area, said, "We're not
against the homeless, we're just against drugs, alcohol and crime."

PSST members make the walk several mornings a week but don't want the exact
schedule publicized because they don't want to be too predictable. They
always travel in groups of five or more, and yesterday's 12-person turnout
allowed them to split into two groups for wider coverage.

Among yesterday's walkers was Chris Martin, 30, managing director of
CleanScapes, a community-council agency that sweeps the neighborhood's
streets and alleys.

It was Martin who brought Pioneer Square's attention to the street-patrol
concept, drawn from "The Winnable War: A Community Guide to Eradicating
Street Drug Markets."

The book's author, Roger Conner of Washington, D.C., came to Seattle
earlier this year and toured Pioneer Square with Martin, discussing ways
the team could work.

In the battle against drug sales, reducing the problem in one area might
mean moving it to another, but the street-patrol concept can also spread,
its backers say.

Just last week, the Denny Regrade Action Team - DRAT - had its maiden walk,
and a similar group is being formed in Queen Anne.

Many people who passed by the PSST walkers asked about the organization,
and some offered their encouragement.

"Good for them. I'm from New York, and I've seen how a community can go to
shambles from drugs," said David Roland, 29, waiting for a bus near the
Smith Tower.

Another observer, an area resident who didn't want to be identified, was
skeptical. "Drug dealers don't scare that easy," he said. "They'll be
back."

Along Second Avenue, Elizabeth Sheppard, who works in the Seattle Fire
Department's permit section, said she's always glad to see more people
around when she gets off her bus to work early in the morning.

Sheppard said the variety of ages and attire among the PSST walkers helps
them fit the mix of people on the sidewalks of Pioneer Square. "They kind
of blend in," she said, "except for the orange hats, of course."

Jack Broom's phone message number is 206-464-2222. His e-mail address is:
jbro-new@seatimes.com

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

Police Return Pot Seized In Simi Valley Arrest ('The Los Angeles Times'
Notes The Ventura County District Attorney's Office Finally Checked
The Recommendation For Cannabis From The Doctor Of Dean Jones -
Who Will Sue Police For $4,000 For Each Of 13 Plants
They Needlessly Destroyed, The Amount California Attorney General Lungren
Has Previously Claimed Each Cannabis Plant Is Worth)

From: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
To: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
Subject: Good news (at last) on the California medical marijuana front
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 17:21:43 +0100

FROM THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

Saturday, June 20, 1998
Police Return Pot Seized in Simi Valley Arrest:
After doctor confirms man is patient, prosecutors say
he is protected by Prop. 215.

By COLL METCALFE, Times Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY--It was a rare day for the Simi Valley police - giving back pot
plants they had seized from the backyard of a man arrested on suspicion of
felony cultivation.

But Dean Jones had a legal order requiring officers to do just that. The order
came after prosecutors on Friday said Jones was protected by Proposition 215,
the 1996 medical marijuana law, and would not be charged.

"All I want are my meds," said an exasperated Jones, fanning himself with a
folded piece of paper as he waited outside the police property room. "I need
my meds."

The day began with a court hearing at which prosecutors announced they would
not file charges of felony marijuana cultivation.

At the request of Jones' lawyer, Judge Edward F. Brodie ordered police to
return all materials, including the marijuana, confiscated from Jones' home
during his May 27 arrest.

But upon opening the brown paper bags on the sidewalk in front of the police
station, Jones' happiness turned to disappointment. "They've ruined my
medicine," he said, holding a handful of moldy marijuana. "There's nothing
here that's usable. . . . It's all gone."

And of the 13 plants listed in the police report as being taken into
evidence, Jones said, he counted only 10. But, all the same, he was free and
free to grow more and that's just fine, he said.

"I've been vindicated and I'm legal, and that's all I wanted in the first
place," Jones said.

The Ventura County district attorney's decision came after the man's doctor
confirmed that he was indeed a patient and that he had received the doctor's
approval to use marijuana to treat a variety of ailments.

"We reviewed documents from Mr. Jones' doctor that showed the doctor had
approved the use of marijuana," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Redmond. "Mr.
Jones is free to use and cultivate marijuana for personal use for his
unfortunate illnesses."

Jones is a diabetic who suffers from high blood pressure, migraines, back
problems and periodic foot inflammation. He also has skin cancer.

His problems with the law began late last month after he and his wife
visited the Simi Valley Police Department to notify authorities that he was
growing marijuana for his own use, specifically to aid treatment for his back
and foot problems and high blood pressure.

The next day, officers arrested Jones and booked him into Ventura County
Jail, where he remained for about 14 hours until being released on his own
recognizance.

Police officials declined to comment on the case Friday.

Story Update: Jones is now suing the police for $4,000 per plant - the amount
Attorney General Lungren claimed each plant was worth.

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

Simi Police Return Marijuana Plants To Patient (A Different Version
Of The Same 'Los Angeles Times' Story)

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 00:46:29 -0500
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US CA: Simi Police Return Marijuana Plants To Patient
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Pubdate: 20 June 1998
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Fax: 213-237-4712
Author: COLL METCALFE, Times Staff Writer

SIMI POLICE RETURN MARIJUANA PLANTS TO PATIENT Authorities say
62-year-old Dean Jones, who was arrested last month, is protected by a
law that allows for medical use of pot.

SIMI VALLEY--It was a rare day for the Simi Valley police--giving back
pot plants they earlier seized from the backyard of a man arrested on
suspicion of felony cultivation.

But Dean Jones had a court order requiring officers to do just that.
The order came after prosecutors Friday said Jones was protected by
Proposition 215, the 1996 medical marijuana law, and would not be charged.

"All I want are my meds," said an exasperated Jones, fanning himself
with a folded paper as he waited outside the police property room. "I
need my meds."

The day began with a hearing during which prosecutors announced they
would not file charges of felony marijuana cultivation.

At the request of Jones' lawyer, Stanley Arky, Judge Edward
F. Brodie then ordered police to return all materials, including the
marijuana, confiscated from Jones' home during his May 27 arrest.

Accompanied by Arky and Andrea Nagy of the now-defunct Thousand Oaks
Cannabis Club, the 62-year-old Simi Valley resident recovered his
marijuana Friday. But upon opening the brown paper bags on the
sidewalk in front of the police station, his happiness turned to
disappointment.

"They've ruined my medicine," he said, holding a handful of moldy
marijuana. "There's nothing here that's usable. . . . It's all gone."

And of the 13 plants listed in the police report as being taken into
evidence, Jones said he only counted 10. But he was free, and free to
grow more, and that's just fine, he said.

"I've been vindicated and I'm legal and that's all I wanted in the
first place," Jones said.

The district attorney's decision came after prosecutors confirmed with
the man's doctor that he was indeed a patient and had received the
doctor's approval to use marijuana as part of a regimen to treat a
variety of ailments.

"We reviewed documents from Mr. Jones' doctor that showed the doctor
had approved the use of marijuana," Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Redmond
said. "Mr. Jones is free to use and cultivate marijuana for personal
use for his unfortunate illnesses."

Jones is a diabetic who suffers from high blood pressure, migraine
headaches, back problems and periodic foot inflammation.

He has also been diagnosed with skin cancer and earlier this month
underwent surgery to have lesions removed from his face and neck.

His problems with the law began late last month after he and his wife
visited the Simi Valley Police Department to notify authorities he was
growing marijuana for his own use, specifically to aid treatment for
his back and foot problems and high blood pressure.

The next day officers arrived at his home and Jones invited them in.
Officers arrested Jones and booked him into Ventura County Jail, where
he remained for about 14 hours until being released in the early
morning on recognizance.

Police said they were well aware of Proposition 215, but believed
Jones to be in violation of the law and even consulted with the
district attorney's office before making the arrest.

Police said earlier the amount of marijuana, about 8 pounds,
constituted more than what could be considered as personal use and
that he did not have a prescription.

Arky contends police simply asked the wrong question.

"They asked if he had a prescription and he said no, which is right.
But doctors can't prescribe cannabis because there's no place to fill
such a prescription," he said. "My client had approval to use the
medicine and that's all that's needed under the law."

Police officials declined to comment Friday and forwarded all queries

to the city attorney, who also had no comment.

According to Proposition 215, which was passed by 56% of state voters
last year, criminal marijuana laws "shall not apply to a patient or to
a patient's primary caregiver, who possess or cultivates marijuana for
the personal medical purposes of the patient upon the written or oral
recommendation or approval of a physician."

After Friday's hearing, Arky filed a claim against the Simi Valley
Police Department and three officers, claiming false arrest.

Arky, Nagy and Jones all trooped to City Hall, where they served the
claim to city officials.

Nagy, who is no stranger to the problems associated with the use and
distribution of medical marijuana, was heartened by the prosecutors'
decision, hoping that it signals a new era of enforcing the state's
medical marijuana law.

"I think the important message here is that a patient's rights cannot
be violated and that [a violation] will not be tolerated," she said.

Copyright Los Angeles Times

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

Looters Hotfoot It With Thousands Of Shoes While Trucker Seeks Prostitute
('The Associated Press' Says The Truck Driver In West Palm Beach, Florida,
Also Intended To Buy Marijuana)

From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen - Olympia" 
To: "-Hemp Talk" 
Subject: HT: Reason 12 - Don't be getting sexed and stoned at work
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 12:05:19 -0700
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Looters hotfoot it with thousands of shoes while trucker seeks prostitute

The Associated Press
06/20/98 11:16 AM Eastern	

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- A trucker carrying a load of shoes got nearly
cleaned out by looters during an unscheduled stop to seek a prostitute and
drugs.

As many as 3,400 pairs of sneakers and shoes by Rockport, Nike, Tommy
Hilfiger and Timberland were stolen. Many looters left their old, worn-out
shoes littering the street where they sat down and tried on new ones.

The frenzy even resulted in a minor traffic collision as two drivers rushed
to take part.

"It was a free-for-all," resident Edward Fitzgerald said. "Everyone came
from everywhere."

Truck driver Herbert Gross, 37, told police he got off Interstate 95 on
Wednesday afternoon looking for sex and marijuana. He was in a nearby house
with a prostitute when local drug dealers broke the lock on the back of his
truck, triggering the mass theft, police said.

About 1,700 pairs of shoes remained when police arrived and broke up the
thievery.

No criminal charges were filed because the woman denied having sex and no
drugs were found, said Officer Chip Woods, adding that no effort was made
to get residents to return the shoes because that would be "stupid."

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

Fox Stirs Up The Pot With Sitcom ('The Los Angeles Times'
Says Two Prohibitionist Groups Have Criticized The Pilot
For 'Feelin' All Right,' A Fox Television Sitcom Scheduled To Debut
Next Fall, Because Of 'Implied Use' Of Alcohol And Marijuana By Teens)

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 02:39:24 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US CA: Fox Stirs Up The Pot With Sitcom
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Author: Greg Braxton, Times Staff Writer

FOX STIRS UP THE POT WITH SITCOM

Television: Implied use of alcohol and marijuana by teens on a fall pilot
brews controversy.

The fall TV season is still a few months away, but already concerns have
been raised over the pilot episode for a new comedy scheduled by Fox that
derives some of its humor from a group of teens obtaining beer and smoking
marijuana.

Although they have not yet seen "Feelin' All Right," two anti-drug groups
have criticized the pilot, saying that any comedic depiction of teenage
marijuana use is irresponsible. The series is scheduled to air Sundays at
8:30 p.m. after "The Simpsons," which last year averaged about 2.5 million
viewers a week between the ages of 2 and 11.

Executive producers Terry Turner and Mark Brazill and Fox Entertainment
President Peter Roth acknowledged that some scenes in the pilot may be
controversial, and that they are concerned about audience reaction. But they
defended the series on grounds that it is set in the 1970s, a period when
they said the use of alcohol and marijuana among young people was
commonplace, as chronicled in films such as "Dazed and Confused," "Boogie
Nights" and "The Last Days of Disco."

Said Fox programming chief Roth: " 'Feelin' All Right' explores the
experience of an eclectic group of teens growing up in the 1970s. While the
pilot touches on the subject, there are no plans at this time to include or
imply drug use in future story lines. We are confident that the show's
creators and producers will deliver a responsible, quality television series
suitable for our viewers."

Roth has had discussions with the producers about possibly "tweaking" some
of the scenes in the pilot to show consequences for the drug use, although
Turner insisted, "We're not going to turn this into an 'ABC After-School
Special.' "

The series, a Carsey-Werner Co. production that stars a group of young
unknowns, revolves around a group of high school students living in Point
Place, a suburb of Green Bay, Wis. In one of the first scenes, the teens,
including Eric Forman (Topher Grace), are gathered in the basement of the
Forman family house while Eric's parents hold a party upstairs. Eric is
recruited to get some beer and bring it downstairs. He is successful, but
the youths are not shown drinking the prized catch.

Later in the episode, several of the teens are gathered around a table in
the basement after smoking pot. No drugs or paraphernalia are shown, but the
friends are giggling and babbling nonsensically, and whiffs of smoke can be
seen. When Eric's parents call for him to come upstairs, the boys quickly
open the outside basement door and try to fan the smoke and odor into the yard.

As Eric talks with his parents in the next scene, they are shown addressing
him while he hallucinates that the wall behind them is moving. There is
uproarious laughter on the soundtrack.

Leigh Leventhal, spokeswoman for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a
private nonprofit coalition of communication professionals, said: "I haven't
seen the show, but it just sounds like they're treating pot and getting
drunk as if it's a light, funny thing to do. The issue is much more complex.
There are no consequences shown. I understand it may be funny, but that may
not be enough. Do we want kids to see drugs as being hilarious?"

Said Turner, one of the creators of the hit "3rd Rock From the Sun": "
'Feelin' All Right' is about a rite of passage. We are concerned about the
reaction to a couple of scenes, but one of the things we wanted to do was
portray the attitudes of the '70s. We are not endorsing drug use, but for us
to deny that any of this was happening would not be right.

"We hate doing stuff that would show contempt for the audience," he added.
"It's like talking down to them. We have to be more honest, to show the
stupidity of using drugs, like having the kids zone out and miss a concert
they really wanted to go to. That's more honest and real."

Anti-drug advocates have long criticized Hollywood for depicting the casual
use of alcohol and drugs for entertainment purposes. In a 1997 radio
address, President Clinton said he regretted that "movies, music videos and
magazines" often have promoted "warped images of a dream world where drugs
are cool" and have failed to highlight their potentially harmful effects.

Even though "Feelin' All Right" is taking place in a bygone era, said Alan
Leavitt, a spokesman for the White House Drug Control Office, the show's
nostalgia element may be lost on children for whom marijuana, alcohol and
other drugs remain a reality of life. "The impact is the same for the kids
watching it," he said.

A recent survey sponsored by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America found
that 28% of the 9- to 12-year-old respondents reported being offered drugs in
1997, compared to 24% the year before and 19% in 1993. Children's exposure
to marijuana, as measured by the statement that they had close friends who
used marijuana sometimes, doubled from 7% in 1993 to 14% in 1997. The survey
also found that 7% of sixth-graders had tried marijuana at least once, a
figure that grew to 23% among seventh-graders and 31% among eighth-graders.

As for the show's time slot, Turner argued that commercials for violent
movies and TV shows, as well as promos on late-breaking news stories, run
during the early evening hours. He also said that sexual activity between
unmarried couples is often depicted during what was once known as the family
hour.

"We don't think we need to say using drugs is a good or bad thing," Turner
said. "In this day and age, it is a bad thing. TV doesn't need to comment
about that. With all these sexual liaisons taking place with abandon, no one
ever says, 'Oh, of course I use protection.' "

Brazill added: "It would just be a disservice for this show to be buried
under this controversy. We don't want this to be the thing the show is known
for.

It's so much more than that."

Copyright Los Angeles Times

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

Largest HMO Stops Covering Impotence Drug (According To 'The Chicago
Tribune,' Kaiser Permanente, The United States' Largest Health Maintenance
Organization, Said Friday It Will No Longer Cover Patients' Use Of Viagra,
Claiming The Impotency Pill Costs Too Much Money)

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 20:44:16 -0400
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Largest HMO Stops Covering Impotence Drug
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young (theyoungfamily@worldnet.att.net)
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Author: Burce Japsen
Page: One, front page.
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Pubdate: 20 June 1998

LARGEST HMO STOPS COVERING IMPOTENCE DRUG

Kaiser Permanente, the nation's largest health maintenance organization,
said Friday it will no longer cover patients' use of Viagra, saying the
impotency pill is costing too much money.

Kaiser's move is considered significant because other HMOs and health plans
across the country are expected to either follow suit or at least crack
down on the pill's widespread use.

Aetna U.S. Healthcare, which has 425,000 customers in the Chicago area,
said earlier this week it is continuing to review Viagra and has no plans
to cover it in the near future.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, the state's largest health insurer,
completed its own review Friday and plans to soon begin auditing the drug's
use by men under the age of 50.

"We are looking really hard for males under 50 to see what clinics they
come from," said Dr. Allan Korn, chief medical officer of Blue Cross and
Blue Shield of Illinois. "This (Viagra) has really created an
administrative heartache for us . . . (but) we have fiduciary
responsibilities to people who pay us premiums to monitor the situation."

Questions about the usage of Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra have raised a national
debate among insurers, physicians and medical ethicists about the medical
necessity of Viagra, which came on the market in April.

When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the drug, it was to
treat impotence and "erectile dysfunction." But health plans say some
physicians have made their own interpretations and prescribed it more
liberally.

Medical ethicists said it's up to physicians and insurers to decide what is
medically necessary before ending coverage for all customers. The drug
continues to be hailed as remarkable for men who have had prostate surgery
or spinal cord injuries or are impotent.

"It raises the question of what counts as a disease," said Philip Boyle, a
medical ethicist who is senior vice president of the Chicago-based Park
Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith and Ethics. "Are all of the
people seeking (Viagra) really suffering from some illness or disease? I
would say surely not."

Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser, which has more than 9 million people enrolled
in its not-for-profit plans, said it will exclude coverage of the pill and
other drugs for sexual dysfunction as it renews benefits contracts. It will
allow its largest customers to buy supplemental policies that would include
coverage of such drugs.

Kaiser said limiting patients' use to 10 pills a month would cost more than
$100 million a year, or more than 50 percent above what the HMO spent in
1997 for all of its anti-viral drugs.

In Illinois, most plans covering Viagra limit patients to eight pills a month.

United HealthCare Corp. said it has safeguards within its HMO to prevent
patients from abusing the drug, but the company will review Viagra in the
next 10 days.

"We regulate how many pills a member can get filled under a prescription to
eight a month to prevent stockpiling," said Dr. Kaveh Safavi, vice
president of medical affairs for United HealthCare in Illinois. "The
prescription has to be written by the physician treating the erectile
dysfunction. If we got information from that physician that there was abuse
we would reserve the right to (end coverage)."

United's proposed $5.5 billion acquisition of Humana Inc. soon will give
the Minneapolis-based HMO more than 760,000 customers in Illinois.

Wall Street will be carefully watching the second-quarter profits of HMOs
like United when their earnings are reported in the next few weeks, said
Peter Costa, an analyst with the investment banking firm ABN AMRO.

"Everybody's now reviewing Viagra, and they may pull the plug," Costa said.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, a not-for-profit insurer, said it
wanted to wait about three months before deciding whether to crack down on
Viagra's use by its customers. Thus far, use of the drug hasn't been a
problem.

Fewer than 600 prescriptions have been written for men under 40 in Illinois
Blues plans, costing about $960 per patient.

"Our statistics show a high degree of responsibility and we are proud of
the Illinois physician community for that," Korn said. "Clearly people
aren't going in and demanding 50 pills."

If there is abuse, the Illinois Blues are suspecting younger men.

"If they are paying a $1,500 annual health insurance premium to have good
sex, it just doesn't compute," Korn said.

As private insurers struggle with coverage issues, the Clinton
administration has said it may require state Medicaid programs to cover the
drug.

In Illinois, Viagra use by Medicaid recipients hasn't been a problem. Only
one person has requested Viagra under the state's health insurance program
for the poor, and that request is pending.

Physicians in Illinois must get prior authorization from the Illinois
Department of Public Aid before prescribing Viagra.

"We want to tightly gauge the use of Viagra," public aid spokesman Dean
Schott said.

Abuse of Viagra in Illinois isn't likely to be a problem, Schott said. Of
the state's 1.4 million Medicaid recipients, only about 150,000 are men
over the age of 18. Widespread use isn't anticipated.

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

Politicians' Delusions Of Morality (A Well-Written Piece
By Illinois 'Daily Herald' Columnist Joseph Sobran On The Death
Of John McCain's Tobacco Bill In The US Senate Says 'It Finally Sank In
With The Brighter Members Of His Party That This Bill Wasn't About
Our Children - It Was About Power, Money, Lawyers And A Level Of Greed
That Must Have Impressed Even The Tobacco Companies')

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 20:49:21 -0400
To: DrugSense News Service 
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Column: Politicians' Delusions Of Morality
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Contact: fencepost@dailyherald.com
Pubdate: 20 June 1998
Website: http://www.dailyherald.com/
Columnist: Joseph Sobran

POLITICIANS' DELUSIONS OF MORALITY

I quit smoking (for the third or fourth time) two months ago, and I still
miss my cigars. At some point, every day, I think how sweet a puff would be
right now.

I'm sorry I ever started. I wonder how the habit caught on in the first
place, since starting is so unpleasant. The taste is loathsome and the
smoke chokes you. Why did the first man who ever smoked persist long enough
to learn to enjoy it, especially with no advertising?

Three of my four kids smoke. I wish they didn't, I hope they'll quit, but
they could do much worse. Booze, drugs and other thrills haven't hooked
them. But these are things we negotiate among ourselves. All four of them
are adults now, and they know what I'd prefer, but I figure that if my
affection doesn't stop them, my nagging won't either.

Besides, we have more important things to talk about. And when we do talk
about smoking, we talk in gentle nudges. We don't talk in that booming Ted
Baxter style that politicians adopt when the subject of tobacco comes up.
It's wonderful the way guys who take bribes, cheat on their wives and
promote late-term abortion preach the urgent necessity of protecting "our
children" from tobacco leaves, especially if they can squeeze a few hundred
billion out of the deal.

So I'm delighted that the big tobacco bill has flopped in the Senate,
leaving Washington's latest hero, Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican,
with egg on his handsome face. It finally sank in with the brighter members
of his party that this bill wasn't about "our children"; it was about
power, money, lawyers and a level of greed that must have impressed even
the tobacco companies.

When men like Bill Clinton and Ted Kennedy express their concern for the
youth of America, it's always a good idea to take a close look.

Is it possible that the tobacco debacle will inspire a new birth of
humility among our politicians? For reasons that escape me, they always
fancy themselves our moral and spiritual leaders, as if they'd been plucked
out of monasteries to supervise the country.

The truth - which they ought to know better than anyone - is that they are
men with certain low skills, including the ability to raise money and speak
in bland cant. As Mae West once said, goodness has nothing to do with it.
They hope, after using all their wiles, to be chosen, by a majority of
those who bother voting in a two-party system, over a single alternative.

You might think that winning office on such terms would breed realism, the
cousin of humility. But it doesn't seem to. A man can cheat his way up,
betray his family and followers, misrepresent his opponent's views, arrange
discreetly illegal campaign donations, mouth platitudes he doesn't believe
in for a moment, and still, after winning by a whisker, feel that his
countrymen have selected him to represent them on Mount Sinai. (Never
doubting, of course, that his countrymen have chosen wisely.)

Those who repeat Churchill's dictum that democracy is the worst form of
government "except for all the others" seldom look at the others. The
confusion of power with moral elevation is worse under democracy than under
any other system.

The Soviet Politburo never seemed to have illusions about itself; dictators
like Saddam Hussein don't seem to think spiritual leadership is their
special province; the old kings of Europe enjoyed their mistresses and
hired their mercenaries and left the moral stuff to the bishops. Such men
understood that they owed their power to fortune, not virtue. Even the most
arrogant of them seldom dreamed of correcting the personal habits of their
subjects.

It would be a healthy exercise for every politician to look in the mirror
every morning and remind himself that he holds office only because, in a
two-man race against another mediocrity, a modest majority of those
half-informed people who imagined that their votes mattered reckoned that
he was the lesser evil. And they weren't too sure about that.

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

Big Tobacco's Money Choked Life Out Of Bill (Syndicated Columnist Molly Ivins
In 'The Daily Herald' Of Illinois Uncharacteristically Falls For The Line
That The McCain Tobacco Bill Was About Public Health And Teen Smoking)

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 00:55:02 -0500
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Big Tobacco's Money Choked Life Out Of Bill
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young
Source: Daily Herald (IL)
Pubdate: 20 June 1998
Section: Sec. 1,
Contact: fencepost@dailyherald.com
Web: www.dailyherald.com
Author: MOLLY IVINS

BIG TOBACCO'S MONEY CHOKED LIFE OUT OF BILL

As we watched the tobacco bill die an unnatural death Wednesday, it
left only sour satisfaction to those of us who believe that money runs
American politics. We now have the clearest, most definitive proof any
long-suffering campaign-finance reformer could ever hope for that
money counts more than the public interest, more than children's
health and more than people's lives in a political system so corrupted
by money that it stinks to the highest heavens.

Our politicians can twist this truth, they can distort it, they can
spin it 'til they're blue in the face, but the truth still sits there
bigger than Godzilla. The tobacco industry has been spending $4
million to $5 million a week for eight weeks now on radio and
television advertising to defeat this bill - a total of at least $40
million just in the last two months, according to Ira Teinowitz of
Advertising Age magazine. And that's not counting the money that big
tobacco has sunk into the political system. From 1987 to 1997, Philip
Morris Co. contributed $8 million to politicians, RJR Nabisco
contributed $7 million, and so on down through the big tobacco
companies, all of them major, major political contributors.

Three out of four current members of Congress - 319 representatives
and 76 senators, according to Common Cause - have accepted
tobacco-industry PAC money during the past 11 years. A total of $30
million. The soft money given by tobacco directly to the political
parties has exploded: more than $3 million in 1997 alone. Philip
Morris has been the Republican Party's top soft-money donor for three
years running, giving more than $1 million to the party each year. And
you wonder why Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott doesn't like this
bill?

How long, O Lord, how long? There are studies going back to the 1940s
about the link between tobacco and cancer. The first surgeon general's
report warning that smoking causes cancer appeared in 1964. Every year
since then the evidence has mounted. Thirty-four years, 50,000 studies
and millions of smoking-related deaths later, we now know that the
tobacco industry fought to suppress the information and paid for phony
studies trying to prove it wasn't true. We know that tobacco
executives lied to Congress, they savagely went after whistle-blowers
from their ranks, and they deliberately made their product more
addictive, knowing that it kills. To be blunt about it, the tobacco
industry has murdered millions of people.

It was different when we thought they didn't really know or weren't
sure or were just ignoring the evidence. But now, we know they knew -
they have known for decades - they were killing people. And they kept
on doing it for profit.

Tobacco and its bought tools in Congress have twisted this bill in
every fashion imaginable, claiming it will result in an uncontrollable
black market for cigarettes, it will help wealthy trial lawyers, it's
a "big government" solution and - my favorite - it is a regressive tax
on the poor.

That last bit of blatant hypocrisy, coming from legislators who have
never cast a vote to help poor people in their lives, caused Ted
Kennedy to go into one of the finest rants heard in the Senate for
years:

"I listened to those crocodile tears of our colleagues on the other
side of the aisle about how distressed they are about what is
happening to working families. I give them reassurance; they will have
a nice chance to vote for an increase in the minimum wage later on,
and we will see how distressed they are about all those working
families that they are agonizing about and so distressed because this
is a regressive tax.

"The reason it is a regressive tax is because it is the tobacco
industry that has targeted the needy and the poor and the working

families of this country. It is the tobacco industry that is to blame.
It isn't these families. How elite and arrogant it is for those on the
other side of the aisle to cry these crocodile tears for working
families and their children who are going to get cancer. Those working
families care about their children. They care about them no less than
those who come from a different socioeconomic background. How arrogant
can you be? How insulting can you be to make that argument on the
floor of the U.S. Senate?"

Of course, the bill wasn't perfect. The money should have gone into
health care, especially children's health care, as Kennedy and Sen.
Orrin Hatch originally proposed, but even this imperfect bill died
because tobacco paid the political piper and called the tune.

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

Crime On Border Crunches Courts ('The Houston Chronicle'
Says The Federal Justice System Along The US-Mexico Border
Is Experiencing Record Criminal Caseloads, With Drug And Immigration
Offenders Clogging Courts And Crowding Prisons)

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 09:30:26 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US TX: Crime on Border Crunches Courts
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Art Smart 
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Contact: viewpoints@chron.com
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Author: Thaddeaus Herrick

CRIME ON BORDER CRUNCHES COURTS

Federal focus on immigration, drugs overloads justice system

EL PASO -- The federal justice system along the U.S.-Mexico border is
experiencing record criminal caseloads, with drug and immigration offenders
clogging courts and crowding prisons.

From San Diego, Calif., to Brownsville, the surging caseloads are the
result of tougher drug and immigration laws, more agents enforcing them and
perhaps more illegal activity. The government is also spending more money
than ever to prosecute offenders in federal court, a signal that drugs and
immigration are a nationwide priority.

The problem may best be illustrated in El Paso, where the more than 800
federal criminal indictments in the 12 months following Oct. 1, 1996,
comprised nearly half of those in the entire western district of Texas, an
area that includes both Austin and San Antonio.

The indictments here are expected to double in the current fiscal year,
delaying civil proceedings and forcing federal officials to rent county
jail space in faraway locales such as Groesbeck, some 650 miles to the
east.

"We're inundated," said Sam Ponder, an assistant U.S. attorney who heads
the El Paso office. "I've got five attorneys who handle the international
bridges, each with about 100 cases. They can't even remember who the
defendants are."

In tiny Pecos, whose jurisdiction is the Big Bend borderlands, the federal
criminal caseload jumped to 253 in the 12 months following Oct. 1, 1996,
from 47 the year before, an increase of more than 400 percent. The numbers
could go higher this year.

The western district of Texas, which includes the border from El Paso to
Del Rio, and the state's southern district, which includes the stretch of
international boundary from Del Rio to Brownsville, now rank second and
third respectively behind Southern California in criminal cases filed.

While the numbers of indictments along the border are unprecedented, they
have not yet reached the levels of Houston, where this year's caseload has
already topped 1,900. Still, considering that Houston dwarfs the border
cities in size, the increase in places like El Paso is astonishing.

"Border crime has always been there," said Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for
the western district. "The difference is that now our resources are having
an impact."

Cost of crackdown debated

While the mushrooming statistics are encouraging to some, signaling success
in the war on drugs and illegal immigration, they are alarming to others.

At issue is not only whether the federal system can handle the crush, but
also the cost. The crackdown along the nation's southern flank, which
requires everything from a bigger Border Patrol to more prosecutors to more
prison space, is draining hundreds of millions dollars from federal
coffers.

Then there is the question of equity. Border cities such as El Paso say
they have more than their share of the criminal burden but not of the
resources. El Paso has far fewer U.S. attorneys and federal judges than San
Antonio, for example, a city whose criminal caseload is much lighter. (San
Antonio's civil backlog exceeds that of El Paso, however.)

The biggest question may be whether the crackdown is indeed stemming the
flow of drugs and illegal immigrants. Despite the numbers, the flow of
drugs in particular remains a pressing problem, and some at the center of
the justice system are doubting the government's strategy.

"Are we making progress?" said Harry Lee Hudspeth, one of two federal
judges in El Paso, which lies across the border from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico,
a city of more than 1.5 million.

"I'm skeptical."

Measuring the success in the drug war is not easy. But increased
interdiction along the U.S.-Mexico border does not appear to have forced
the price of narcotics up, which would likely be the case if demand
surpassed supply. Nor does America's hunger for illegal drugs seem to have
subsided.

"It's depressing all the way around," Hudspeth said. The government, the
judge said, is mistaken in thinking that more seizures and stiffer drug
penalties in federal court can address what he believes is a more
complicated problem.

The same issue is being debated on an international stage. At a United
Nations special session earlier this month, drug-producing countries
demanded that the United States address its own appetite for narcotics
rather than wage a global war on drugs. Nationally, the war on drugs is
also catching flak.

"The problem is demand," said Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs
for the Lindemith [sic] Center, which advocates more liberal drug policies.
"This is a public health issue, not a criminal justice issue."

To the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, the issue is one
of public health and criminal justice, with the latter getting the bulk of
the resources. Some of that money is earmarked for drug enforcement in El
Paso, one of several federally designated priority areas in Texas.

Pen of mules, few kingpins

Likewise, Congress is opening up its pocketbook for border enforcement,
authorizing a 118 percent jump in the Border Patrol's $818 million
operating budget since 1994. In El Paso, that means nearly 1,000 agents
policing the international boundary, compared with some 600 four years ago.

Seizures are up, as are arrests along the border. The problem is that most
of these drug and immigration offenders are bit players. This is especially
true in narcotics trafficking, with so-called mules hired to carry drugs
clogging the courts and the kingpins carrying on.

Some prosecutors say they are so consumed with routine drug and immigration
cases that they lack the time to build more comprehensive cases that
presumably could strike closer to the heart of the problem.

A typical defendant, "plain vanilla," in the words of an El Paso federal
public defender, was Ricardo Ruvalcaba Vera, a college-bound 19-year-old
from Juarez who was offered $500 to drive a 1982 Chrysler Le Baron through
the Ysleta port of entry and leave it, keys and all, at a nearby
convenience store.

>From there, prosecutors presume, the car was to be driven to an El Paso
warehouse where the drugs would be stored.

But the car was searched at the bridge last January and, with the help of
drug-sniffing dogs, U.S. agents recovered 70 pounds of marijuana. As for
Ruvalcaba, he was sentenced last week in Hudspeth's courtroom to about a
year in prison.

"It was foolish," said Ruvalcaba, a polite, somewhat shy young man who
lately has been shuttling back and forth between El Paso and Kermit, some
250 miles away, where some of the 500 or so overflow El Paso federal
prisoners are held during their court proceedings. If convicted, they are
sent to a federal prison.

"I've never before had a problem with the police," he said. "It's been
quite an experience."

Ruvalcaba will probably be of little help to U.S. officials wanting to
break Mexican smuggling rings. He knows the man who made the $500 offer one
night at the ElectriQ nightclub only as "Lalo." U.S. officials say that's
the way the Mexican traffickers operate -- no questions asked.

Small steps lead to strides

While Judge Hudspeth sees little benefit in jamming the federal justice
system with prisoners like this, U.S. Attorney Blagg says they can lead to
good tips. Last month, he said, prosecutors used information gleaned from
drug haulers to return indictments on two sizable rings operating near
Pecos.

What's more, law enforcement agents say, every ounce of narcotics and every
laundered dollar seized is a skirmish won in the war on drugs. Last year,
U.S. Customs agents at El Paso's Bridge of the Americas confiscated $5.6
million in a tractor-trailer headed south, thought to be a drug payoff.

Law enforcement agents say such seizures can put drug traffickers on the
run. While the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency does not take credit for the
fall of Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the infamous Juarez kingpin who died last
year while apparently trying to disguise himself with plastic surgery,
agents say they played a role.

"Would Amado Carrillo have tried to change his looks if we weren't making a
difference?" said Thomas Kennedy, assistant special agent in charge for the
DEA office in El Paso. "Obviously we were having some impact if he was
trying to hide from us."

U.S. officials hope the same sort of incremental strategy will turn the
illegal immigration tide. Armed with technology that allows them to
identify deportees trying to return and call up their criminal history,
officials are prosecuting immigrants who before simply would have been
bused back to Mexico.

One is Javier de la Torre Reyes, who last week appeared before a federal
magistrate in El Paso. Having been previously deported after serving time
for shoplifting, he was nabbed at a port of entry when he tried to pass
himself off as a U.S. citizen. Now the 32-year-old Juarez man faces up to
eight months in prison.

Immigration law is especially harsh on felons, who can get up to 20 years
for trying to enter the United States illegally, even after they have
served their time in U.S. prisons. Federal public defenders say this is
excessive, particularly in a community like El Paso, where the
back-and-forth from Mexico is part of daily life.

But Blagg said the harsh immigration laws, and the federal drug statutes,
have prompted a decrease in theft and violent crime along the border -- at
least on the U.S. side.

"If we target the right people, if we prosecute them, if we put them in
jail for a significant time," he said, "we can have an impact."

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

AIDS Cases Down, But Concerns Remain (According To 'The London Free Press'
In Ontario, A Health Canada Epidemiologist Says That, Although The Number
Of AIDS Cases Being Reported In Canada Is Dropping, There's No Evidence HIV
Is Declining - In Some Cases, It's Actually Increasing, And The Latest Report
Also Found There Was An Increase In The Number Of AIDS Cases
Attributed To Women And To Intravenous Drug Users)

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: AIDS CASES DOWN, BUT CONCERNS REMAIN
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 09:17:13 -0700
Lines: 61
Source: London Free Press
Contact: letters@lfpress.com

June 20, 1998

AIDS CASES DOWN, BUT CONCERNS REMAIN

CREDIT: By SHARON LEM -- Sun Media Newspapers

TORONTO -- Although the number of AIDS cases being reported in
Canada is dropping, don't be deceived into thinking fewer people are
being infected with the deadly disease, a Health Canada epidemiologist
says.

The latest surveillance report on HIV and AIDS in Canada shows that
the number of AIDS cases being reported has been dropping since late
1995, as is the number of AIDS deaths.

"Although we see a decline in AIDS cases, there's no evidence HIV is
declining. In some cases, it's actually increasing, so AIDS alone
can't describe what's going on in the epidemic," said Dr. John Farley,
chief of the division of HIV/AIDS surveillance for Health Canada.

Farley attributes better treatment and drugs for the 54-per-cent
decrease in the number of AIDS cases from 1996 to 1997.

The number of AIDS deaths reported fell from 947 deaths in 1996 to
288 reported AIDS deaths in 1997.

MORE WOMEN

The report also found there was an increase in the number of AIDS
cases attributed to women and to IV drug users.

From the beginning of the epidemic to the end of the current
reporting period, 7.2 per cent of all reported AIDs cases were among
women. In 1997, the percentage of AIDS cases diagnosed in women was
14.1 per cent, the highest proportion observed since monitoring of the
epidemic began.

In 1997 there were 18.3 per cent female IV drug users with AIDS in
comparison to 3.7 per cent of male IV drug users with AIDS. IV drug
use AIDS cases between 1985 and 1994 numbered 8.4 per cent.

"The challenge is that although you're hearing (of) a decline in
AIDS, don't be deceived because we're still seeing evidence that the
infection caused by the virus is not letting up and now it's affecting
all populations, which were not previously infected,'' Farley said.

Meanwhile, the percentage of women testing positive for HIV in 1997
has increased to 22 per cent. From 1985 to 1994 it was 9.8 per cent.

From 1985 to 1993 the proportion of adult men who contracted HIV from
sex with men was 85 per cent. In 1994, that number dropped to 75 per
cent. In 1997, the number reported was 37.6 per cent.

The total annual number of reported AIDS cases is 15,528, but due to
underreporting, it's estimated to be more in the tune of 20,144.

Copyright (c) 1998 The London Free Press a division of Sun Media
Corporation.

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

Colombia To Test Coca Herbicide (A 'New York Times' Article
In 'The Orange County Register' Says The Colombian Government,
Bowing To Demands From The United States, Has Agreed To Test
A Granular Herbicide, Tebuthiuron, To Kill Coca Crops,
Despite Public Warnings From The Chemical's US Manufacturer
Against Its Use In Colombia)

Date: Sat, 20 Jun 1998 12:28:46 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: Colombia: Colombia To Test Coca Herbicide
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John W.Black
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Author:Diana Jean Schemo - The New York Times

COLOMBIA TO TEST COCA HERBICIDE

DRUGS: The U.S. made weed killer can be dropped from higher
altitudes, boosting pilot safety, but its maker opposes this use.

Bogota, Colombia - Bowing to demands from Washington, the Colombian
government has agreed to test a granular herbicide to kill coca
crops, despite public warnings from the chemical's U.S. manufacturer against
its use in Colombia.

In the United States, the herbicide, tebuthiuron, is used mostly to control
weeds on railroad beds and under high-voltage lines far from food crops and
people.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires a warning label on the
chemical that says it could contaminate ground water,a side effect
Colombian environmental officials fear could prevent peasants from growing
where coca once grew.

U.S. officials have decided to concentrate more heavily on treating illegal
drug crops with chemicals, particularly in parts of southern Colombia under
the control of leftist guerrillas. Those guerrillas have fired on aircraft
attempting to spray herbicides on coca crops. But tebuthiuron can be
dropped instead of sprayed, making the task easier under such conditions.

The increase in fumigation comes at the expense of other measures to
control drug smuggling, a recent U.S. government investigation concluded.

U.S. and Colombian police officials say a granular herbicide will be more
effective in the battle to control drugs. For four years, they have used a
liquid toxin, glifosate, that has destroyed only 30 percent of the plants
sprayed.

Despite the effort, the amount of coca in Colombia has yet to decline,
because eradication has prompted farmers to move and plant coca elsewhere.
Last year, Colombia became the world's leading coca grower.

U.S. and Colombia authorities also contend that tebuthiuron offers greater
protection from gunfire for pilots, who must now fly low to fumigate in the
early morning hours, when winds are calm and temperatures are lower.
Tebuthiuron pellets can be dropped from higher altitudes in virtually any
weather, making pilots less vulnerable to gunfire, police officials here
said.

Washington has lobbied Andean governments to accept tebuthiuron for more
than a decade, even though the chemical's manufacturer, Dow AgroSciences, a
subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., strongly opposes its use in Colombia.

"Tebuthiuron is not labeled for use on any crops in Colombia, and it is our
desire that the product not be used for coca eradication as well," the
company said in a statement.

Tebuthiuron granules, sold commercially as Spike 20P, should be used
"carefully and in controlled situations," Dow cautioned, because "it can be
very risky in situations where terrain has slopes, rainfall is significant,
desirable plants are nearby and application is made under less than ideal
circumstances."

The warning is a rough description of conditions in Colombia's coca-growing
regions. Dow, which faced years of lawsuits and public protest over the use
of its Agent Orange defoliant during the Vietnam war, said that if
approached, it would refuse to sell tebuthiuron for use in Colombia.
However, U.S. officials note that Dow's patent on the chemical has expired,
allowing others to make it legally.

Critics in Colombia, including Eduardo Verano, the nation's environmental
minister, say the health effects of tebuthiuron on farming areas are
unknown, and its use will only increase deforestation by pushing coca
growers deeper into forest.

"We need to reconsider the benefits of the chemical war," said Verano. "The
more you fumigate, the more the farmers plant. If you fumigate one hectare,
they'll grow coca on two more. How else do you explain the figures?"

U.S. officials, backed by Colombian police, maintain that the benefits
outweigh the environmental risks. The liquid herbicide used now, at a cost
of millions of dollars to the United States, has mostly been washed away in
the heavy rainfall of the Amazon, said Luiz Eduardo Parra, environmental
auditor of Colombia's anti-narcotics squad.

The U.S. ambassador to Colombia, Curtis Kamman, said, "For a net
environmental positive effect, getting rid of coca is the best course for
Colombia." Research in Hawaii, Panama and Peru by the U.S. Agriculture
Department concluded that tebuthiuron would persist in Colombian soil for
less than a year.

Where once the United States concentrated on arresting drug barons,
smashing their organizations and seizing their wealth, the new strategy
involves greater fumigation and the interception of boats that may be
carrying drugs or chemicals needed to make cocaine from the coca.

In March, the State Department's acting assistant secretary of state for
international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Rand Beers, outlined a
plan to increase fumigation in the southern provinces of Caqueta and
Putumayo, and asked Congress to pump $21 million more into the $30 million
counter-narcotics budget for Colombia this year.

He said drug traffickers made a strategic decision to grow coca in southern
Colombia because of U.S. success in blocking Peruvian drug planes that fly
raw paste to Colombia, where it is made into cocaine. The United States
must seize the opportunity to prevent Colombian-grown coca from taking its
place, he told Congress.

But U.S. intelligence analysts say these statements exaggerate the victory
at intercepting drug planes, and that coca base is still reaching Colombia
from Bolivia and Peru. According to U.S. government figures, 78 percent of
the cocaine leaving Colomia is made from coca grown elsewhere.

The General Accounting Office, in a February report, concluded that a
dramatic increase in coca fumigation and drug interception in Colombia was
ill planned, and shortchanged other anti-naracotics programs.

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

Colombia To Test Herbicide Against Coca Crops (The Original, Lengthier,
'New York Times' Version)

Date: Sat, 27 Jun 1998 08:10:52 EDT
Errors-To: manager@drcnet.org
Reply-To: HSLotsof@aol.com
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: (HSLotsof@aol.com)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Colombia to Test Herbicide Against Coca Crops

NEW YORK TIMES

Saturday, 20 June 1998

Colombia to Test Herbicide Against Coca Crops

By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO

BOGOTA -- Bowing to demands from Washington, the Colombian government has
agreed to test a granular herbicide to kill coca crops, despite public
warnings from the chemical's American manufacturer against its use in
Colombia.

In the United States, the herbicide, tebuthiuron, is used mostly to
control weeds on railroad beds and under high-voltage lines far away from
food crops and people.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires a warning label on the
chemical that says it could contaminate ground water, a side effect
Colombian environmental officials fear could prevent peasants from growing
food where coca once grew.

U.S. officials have decided to concentrate more heavily on treating
illegal drug crops with chemicals, particularly in parts of southern
Colombia under the control of leftist guerrillas. Those guerrillas have
fired on aircraft attempting to spray herbicides on coca crops. But
tebuthiuron can be dropped instead of sprayed, making the task easier
under such conditions.

The increase in fumigation comes at the expense of other measures to
control drug smuggling, a recent U.S. government investigation concluded.

American and Colombian police officials say that a granular herbicide will
be more effective in the battle to control drugs. For four years, they
have used a liquid toxin, glifosate, that has destroyed only 30 percent of
the plants sprayed. Despite the effort, the amount of coca in Colombia has
yet to decline, because eradication has prompted farmers to move and plant
coca elsewhere. Last year, Colombia became the world's leading coca
grower.

American and Colombian authorities also contend that tebuthiuron offers
greater protection from gunfire for pilots, who must now fly low to
fumigate in the early morning hours, when winds are calm and temperatures
are lower. Tebuthiuron pellets can be dropped from higher altitudes in
virtually any weather, making pilots less vulnerable to gunfire, police
officials here said. Washington has lobbied Andean governments to accept
tebuthiuron for more than a decade, even though the chemical's
manufacturer, Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., strongly
opposes its use in Colombia. "Tebuthiuron is not labeled for use on any
crops in Colombia, and it is our desire that the product not be used for
coca eradication as well," the company said in a statement.

Tebuthiuron granules, sold commercially as Spike 20P, should be used
"carefully and in controlled situations," Dow cautioned, because "it can
be very risky in situations where terrain has slopes, rainfall is
significant, desirable plants are nearby and application is made under
less than ideal circumstances."

The warning is a rough description of conditions in Colombia's coca
growing regions. Dow, which faced years of lawsuits and public protest
over the use of its Agent Orange defoliant during the Vietnam war, said
that if approached, it would refuse to sell tebuthiuron for use in
Colombia. However, American officials note Dow's patent on the chemical
has expired, allowing others to make it legally.

Critics in Colombia, including Eduardo Verano, the nation's environmental
minister, say the health effects of tebuthiuron on farming areas are
unknown, and its use will only increase deforestation by pushing coca
growers deeper into forest.

"We need to reconsider the benefits of the chemical war," said Verano.
"The more you fumigate, the more the farmers plant. If you fumigate one
hectare, they'll grow coca on two more. How else do you explain the
figures?"

American officials, backed by Colombian police, maintain the benefits
outweigh the environmental risks. The liquid herbicide used now, at a cost
of millions of dollars to the United States, has mostly been washed away
in the heavy rainfall of the Amazon, said Luiz Eduardo Parra,
environmental auditor of Colombia's anti-narcotics squad.

The American ambassador to Colombia, Curtis Kamman, said, "For a net
environmental positive effect, getting rid of coca is the best course for
Colombia." Research in Hawaii, Panama and Peru by the U.S. Agriculture
Department concluded that tebuthiuron would persist in Colombian soil for
less than a year.

Where once the United States concentrated on arresting drug barons,
smashing their organizations and seizing their wealth, the new strategy
involves greater fumigation and the interception of boats that may be
carrying drugs or chemicals needed to make cocaine from the coca.

In March, the State Department's acting assistant secretary of state for
international narcotics and law enforcement affairs, Rand Beers, outlined
a plan to increase fumigation in the southern provinces of Caqueta and
Putumayo, and asked Congress to pump $21 million more into the $30 million
counter-narcotics budget for Colombia this year.

He said that drug traffickers made a strategic decision to grow coca in
Southern Colombia because of American success in blocking Peruvian drug
planes that fly raw paste to Colombia where it it is made into cocaine.
The United States must seize the opportunity to prevent Colombian-grown
coca from taking its place, he told Congress.

But U.S. intelligence analysts say these statements exaggerate the victory
at intercepting drug planes, and that coca base is still reaching Colombia
from Bolivia and Peru. According to U.S. government figures, 78 percent of
the cocaine leaving Colombia is made from coca grown elsewhere.

The General Accounting Office, in a February 1998 report, concluded that a
dramatic increase in coca fumigation and drug interception in Colombia was
ill-planned, and shortchanged other anti-narcotics programs.

While coca fumigation of rebel-held areas is a subject of heated debate
here, one point is not in dispute.

The new strategy draws the Colombian military into the war on drugs in an
unprecedented way, while sharpening American attention on the main concern
of the Colombian military: its longstanding war with leftist rebels,
particularly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Latin
America's oldest and strongest insurgency.

The growing strength of the FARC rebels, who advocate nationalization of
Colombia's oil and other natural resources, has become a serious concern
in Washington.

Colombian officials say a turning point in their estimation of the rebels'
strength occurred two years ago, when coca farmers in Southern Colombia
battled security forces over government efforts to ration cement and
gasoline which are used to make coca paste. The demonstrations were taken
as a barometer of the growers' potential support for the rebels.

"The FARC is their party, their benefactor," said one American
intelligence analyst. "The kind of thing you want to do is go after the
rebels' base of support."

But Col. Leonardo Gallego, counter-narcotics chief of the Colombian
National Police, denied that increased fumigation was part of any plan to
strike at the guerrillas. The "primary objective" was destroying coca and
recovering the environment destroyed through coca farming, he said.
"Whatever other goals are achieved through these operations is completely
secondary, and would be solely the result of any ties between guerrillas
and growers," said Gallego.

Leonardo Garcia, nom de guerre of a member of the FARC's international
commission, vowed that intensive eradication in the group's strongholds
would lead to open warfare. U.S. intelligence analysts estimate the FARC
collects upwards of $100 million a year in commissions from the drug
business, but Garcia contended that the rebels supported the growers out
of political necessity alone. He acknowledged that the guerrillas collect
commissions from the drug trade but said they also do so from other
sectors of the economy, including banana and coffee growers.

"The campesino has the right to defend himself and to defend the only
thing he has to survive on -- his plot of land," Garcia said. "People
themselves go in search of weapons. So what can we do? We're going to
fight."

Parra, of the Colombian police, argues that the damage that occurs when
peasants clear rain forest and mountain areas to grow coca and opium
poppies far outweigh whatever harm tebuthiuron may represent.

But Verano, the environmental minister, argues that the solution may be
worse than the problem, and suggests the U.S. government should control
the export of excessive amounts of chemicals like ether, acetone, cement
and gasoline. It takes some 155,000 tons of these materials to process
coca in Colombia, less than 6 percent of which were seized by Colombian
police last year, Verano said.

Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company

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

Colombia Agrees To Use Risky Herbicide On Coca ('Chicago Tribune' Version)

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 01:11:33 -0500
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: COLOMBIA: Colombia Agrees To Use Risky Herbicide On Coca
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young 
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Pubdate: 20 June 1998
Section: Sec. 1,
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Author: New York Times News Service

COLOMBIA AGREES TO USE RISKY HERBICIDE ON COCA

BOGOTA, Colombia -- Bowing to demands from Washington, the Colombian
government has agreed to test a granular herbicide to kill coca crops,
despite public warnings from the chemical's American manufacturer
against its use in Colombia.

In the U.S., tebuthiuron is used mostly to control weeds on railroad
beds and under high-voltage lines far away from food crops and people.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires a warning label on the
chemical that says it could contaminate ground water, a side effect
Colombian environmental officials fear could prevent peasants from
growing food where coca once grew.

U.S. officials have decided to concentrate more heavily on treating
illegal drug crops with chemicals, particularly in parts of southern
Colombia under the control of leftist guerrillas.

Those guerrillas have fired on aircraft attempting to spray herbicides
on coca crops, but tebuthiuron can be dropped instead of sprayed.

American and Colombian police officials say that a granular herbicide
will be more effective in the battle to control drugs.

For four years, they have used a liquid toxin, glifosate, that has
destroyed only 30 percent of the plants sprayed. Despite the effort,
the amount of coca in Colombia has yet to decline because eradication
has prompted farmers to move and plant coca elsewhere.

American and Colombian authorities also contend that tebuthiuron
offers greater protection from gunfire for pilots, who must now fly
low to fumigate in the early morning, when winds are calm and
temperatures are lower. Tebuthiuron pellets can be dropped from higher
altitudes in virtually any weather, making pilots less vulnerable to
gunfire, officials said.

Washington has lobbied Andean governments to accept tebuthiuron for

more than a decade, even though the manufacturer, Dow AgroSciences, a
subsidiary of Dow Chemical Co., strongly opposes its use in Colombia.

"Tebuthiuron is not labeled for use on any crops in Colombia, and it
is our desire that the product not be used for coca eradication as
well," the company said.

Tebuthiuron granules, sold commercially as Spike 20P, should be used
"carefully and in controlled situations," Dow cautioned, because "it
can be very risky in situations where terrain has slopes, rainfall is
significant, desirable plants are nearby and application is made under
less than ideal circumstances."

The warning is a rough description of conditions in Colombia's
coca-growing regions.

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

Brazil Gets Drug Czar (A Brief Item In 'The Orange County Register'
Notes President Fernando Henique Cardoso Signed A Decree Friday
Creating The New Post For General Alberto Cardosa, Who Now Represents
The Armed Forces In The Presidential Palace)

Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 01:09:36 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: Brazil: Brazil Gets Drug Czar
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project
http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk:John W.Black
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/

BRAZIL GETS DRUG CZAR

Brazil's president Fernando Henique Cardoso, signed a decree Friday creating
a post for the country's first central anti-drug chief. Cardosa named Gen.
Alberto Cardosa, who now represents the armed forces in the presidential
palace, to the post.

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

UN Adopts Plans To Combat Worldwide Illicit Drug Use (The British
Medical Journal, 'Lancet,' Summarizes The Recent United Nations
Special Session To Expand The Global War On Some Drug Users)

From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: "MN" (mapnews@mapinc.org)
Subject: MN: US: NY: UN Adopts Plans To Combat
Worldwide Illicit Drug Use By
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 23:30:28 -0500
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Source: Lancet, The (UK)
Contact: lancet.editorial@elsevier.co.uk
Website: http://www.thelancet.com/
Author: Michael McCarthy

UN ADOPTS PLANS TO COMBAT WORLDWIDE ILLICIT DRUG USE BY

The UN General Assembly has called for all its member states to join an
international campaign to combat illegal drug use. In a series of documents
adopted at the end of the "drug summit" held in New York (June 8-10), the
Assembly called for the states to attack not only the production and
trafficking of illicit drugs but also to work to reduce the demand for these
drugs.

By 2003, member states are to have established or enhanced drug-reduction
programmes; strengthened legislation to combat illicit manufacture,
trafficking, and abuse of synthetic drugs; taken steps to halt the
laundering of illegal drug profits; and improved cooperation between
judicial and law enforcement authorities so that they can effectively deal
with the international criminal organisations involved in the drug trade.

By 2008, member states are to have eliminated or significantly reduced the
manufacture and marketing of illicit drugs; achieved significant reduction
in demand; and eradicated or significantly reduced cultivation of coca
bushes, cannabis plants, and opium poppies. To help achieve this last goal,
the UN agencies and international financial institutions are to support
development in rural regions now economically dependent on the cultivation
of these crops.

Despite repeated calls for international cooperation during the summit,
there remains bad feeling between those nations in which drugs are produced
or through which drugs are trafficked and those where many users live.
President Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico noted that "an overwhelming proportion
of the world demand [for drugs] comes from countries with the highest
economic capacity. However, the highest human, social, and institutional
costs involved in meeting such demand are paid by the producing and transit
countries". Zedillo urged that antidrug efforts "address all phases of the
drug cycle".

In his address, President Clinton lamented that "the debate between
drug-supplying and drug-consuming nations, about whose responsibility the
drug problem is, has gone on too long". This debate was "distracting" and
"has not advanced the fight against drugs", he said. "Drugs are every
nation's problem, and every nation must act to fight them."

The USA has made great progress in reducing demand for illicit drugs, said
Clinton. "Today, Americans spend 37% less on drugs than a decade ago." The
USA aims to cut drug use and access by half over the next 10 years. To
further that effort, Clinton said he was proposing a US$2-billion, 5-year
media campaign to keep young Americans off drugs.

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

Drugs 'Got In The Way' Of Life In A Rural Irish Society ('The Irish Times'
Recounts A Heroin Addict's Troubled Life And Suicide)

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 00:37:33 -0500
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: IRELAND: Drugs 'Got In The Way' Of Life
In A Rural Irish Society
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Source: Irish Times (Ireland)
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Contact: lettersed@irish-times.ie
Author: ROISIN INGLE from Monaghan

DRUGS 'GOT IN THE WAY' OF LIFE IN A RURAL IRISH SOCIETY

When Cathal Birdy read his son's suicide note at his funeral, it
stunned everyone: it was poignant and brutally honest. 'Drugs got in
the way,' it said.

Even before he hanged himself in a Dundalk guest-house most people in
Carrickmacross had an opinion on the second son of local property
developer Cathal Birdy. They just had different things to say about
him.

In one of the pubs in the Co Monaghan town from which Gavin Birdy was
barred, a young man talks about the shift in local perception.

"You would hear people, especially older people, talking about Gavin
before. I know that when he came out of prison a couple of months ago
his youngest brother went everywhere with him and Gavin was snubbed
all over the town. It made me laugh to see them at the funeral, they
didn't want to know him when he was alive," he said.

Locals had good reason to be less than impressed with Gavin Birdy, but
when his Dad stood up in the local church last Sunday and read his
son's suicide note out loud, past events were rendered irrelevant.

"I don't want this life on me or you and I have no control over it,"
he wrote. "I really do love you family and I know this is best for
us." The final part was underlined. "The drugs got in the way," he
wrote.

Like the eight to ten thousand people identified in the Eastern Health
Board region this week, Gavin had a IEP200-a-day heroin addiction. It
made him notorious in a town like Carrick where he stole from his own
home and the homes of his closest neighbours.

It landed him in Mountjoy and then Wheatfield Prison where he
underwent drug treatment programmes and tried to get clean.

Gavin came from a small rural town where, even when going through the
worst kind of withdrawal symptoms, he could find his fix in the space
of half an hour.

He also came from a prosperous, middle class family. This drug addict
didn't fit neatly into perceived demographic or socio-economic divides.

When approached, Cathal Birdy was polite but firm. He didn't want to
talk to any more reporters. He had "had enough". The publicity wasn't
what he had been looking for when he read his son's final words in the
church.

He wanted the community to know that despite everything, Gavin was
loved by his family and that Gavin had loved them back. His son didn't
want the pain, didn't want the family to feel the pain. So Gavin ended
it. An act of love more than despair. As he said, the drugs got in the
way.

Earlier in the week, Mr Birdy told RTE radio's Liveline that he had
five sons but that Gavin had taken up more time than any of them. He
had always been adventurous, mischievous. "He was a wayward little
gasun. The devil was always in him," he told another reporter.

The first time Gavin was arrested and charged was after he and a group
of friends pulled up some trees that his father, a prominent member of
the tidy-towns committee, had planted.

Through adolescence and even before, he had been involved in incidents
far too serious to be described as mischievous or adventurous. But
Gavin looked like an angel with his pure blond hair. He would say he
was sorry, that he never meant any harm. And then he would smile.

It was the same at Inver College in Carrick. Gavin never settled at
the mixed secondary school he joined when he was 12. Pat Drury is
still headmaster and remembers suggesting to his parents that Gavin be
moved to a school outside the locality.

"I thought it might be good for him to be away from all the people he
knew and to make a fresh start. There was nothing bad about Gavin at
all, it is just that some people don't fit into the formal education
system. He was one of them. He was disruptive, but he was bright and
he had lots of friends. The girls especially," he said.

He continued writing to his female friends from a boarding school just
outside Portlaoise. He lasted a year there before being sent home. At
16 he began working in the town as a carpenter.

After a few years he left Carrick for England where he worked in the
building trade. It was there that Cathal Birdy believes his
adventure-seeking son first took ecstasy. When he came back he was
different. "There was a change on him," he said.

There is a strong Garda presence in Carrickmacross, a district
headquarters covering several local towns. Garda=ED say that there are
drugs in the area but that any seizures they have made have been small
hauls of ecstasy, acid, speed and other so-called designer drugs.
Heroin has never been seized. A serious drugs problem, they say, would
be reflected in the crime rate, which in Carrick is relatively low.

"If there was anyone going around strung out on heroin we would know
about it," said one source. They knew about Gavin Birdy. At first he
took ecstasy and went to raves in Armagh and Dundalk. Then, says his
father, someone told him about smoking heroin to come down off
ecstasy. When he started injecting and the habit became more expensive
he stole cheque-books from his parents. Worse than that, his father
has said, he stole from their neighbours. Gavin was out of control.

He was on his way home from a disco in Dundalk when he was in the car
accident from which he received a substantial compensation award. This
eventually was to be used to pay for his increasingly expensive addiction.

In one six-month period he spent between IEP50,000 and IEP60,000 on
heroin.

"I saw the car after the accident," said one local. "I remember
wondering how Gavin could have got out of it."

He spent time in Galway and Dundalk where he continued to steal or
deal drugs to feed his habit. His parents contacted almost every
treatment centre in the country to get help for their son. He would
stay at a centre for an hour, or a week. Two at the most.

At his worst, Gavin was six stone; and with hardly a vein left to
inject himself, he came home and his parents watched over him, helping
him through cold turkey. Gavin would somehow escape the house and
return within an hour, having found the heroin he now needed, not for
the buzz, but to get by.

When Gavin was arrested and sent to prison for drug-dealing in Dundalk
it was, in a way, a blessing for his parents. He taught himself to
play the guitar in Mountjoy and took the help offered there to quit
drugs. He is thought to have been off heroin when he was released from
prison three months ago. But within a month he had started again.

At Gavin's old school, Leaving Certificate students tell you that you
can get "whatever drugs you want" in Carrick. In both secondary
schools in the area students from first to sixth years are part of an
information course on drugs called SAP.

"We mirror our society in this school," says the headmaster, Pat
Drury. "If there are drugs out there we have to prepare our students
and educate them about the issues."

Local sources confirm that there are other heroin addicts in Carrick.
One man was able to list the names of three or four. There are those
who would like to see a treatment clinic set up in the area but
express fears that it would attract addicts from other towns and
increase crime in Carrick.

One source said that between Carrick and Kingscourt eight miles away
there are at least 12 heroin addicts. Like Gavin Birdy, who had
IEP30,000 of his compensation money left when he died, many of them
are from middle-class and reasonably well-off families. And there are
places nearby where the drug they crave is freely available for sale.

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

Re - Drugs 'Got In The Way' Of Life In A Rural Irish Society
(A Letter Sent To The Editor Of 'The Irish Times' Notes It Wasn't Heroin
That Drove Gavin Birdy To Suicide, It Was Prohibition)

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 09:10:06 -0700
To: maptalk@mapinc.org, mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Pat Dolan (pdolan@intergate.bc.ca)
Subject: Sent LTE Re: DRUGS 'GOT IN THE WAY' OF LIFE
IN A RURAL IRISH SOCIETY
Source: Irish Times (Ireland)
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Contact: lettersed@irish-times.ie
Author: ROISIN INGLE from Monaghan

DRUGS 'GOT IN THE WAY' OF LIFE IN A RURAL IRISH SOCIETY

Thank you for Roisin Ingle's article. Though, I believe, mis-titled, it had
a very chastening effect.

I didn't know Gavin Birdy personally but I have known others whose fate as
addicts was equally sad.

The report makes clear that had Gavin had access to a legal heroin supply,
he would still be with us. Lifetime use of heroin causes no observable
organic damage. It was not "drugs" which "got in the way" - but
Prohibition. Under Prohibition a totally unregulated black market supply of
street heroin is available 24 hours a day - no questions asked.

As the Swiss heroin maintenance experiment and others have proved, hard
core addicts can be successfully treated. Bringing addicts into contact
with health care professionals relieves them of the stress of the - usually
illegal - daily round to ensure their supply. It also enables those who
choose to do so to avail themselves of counselling WHEN they choose to do
so and eventually become drug free.

One must sadly conclude that as long as Prohibition remains in place, it
will continue to "get in the way," and tragedies such as Gavin Birdy's will
continue to reflect the lack of understanding and compassion shown by a
society that chooses to treat a health problem as a law enforcement problem.

(215 words)

Pat Dolan
Vancouver BC

Pat Dolan
503-Pendrell St.
Vancouver BC
V6E 3N4
604-689-4342

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

Fatima Mansions, 'The Heroin Supermarket' ('The Irish Times'
Gives An Update On The Huge Public Housing Project For Poor People
In South Dublin, Where The Sale And Use Of 'Drugs' Is Commonplace)

Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 10:10:33 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: Ireland: Fatima Mansions, 'The Heroin Supermarket'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke 
Source: Irish Times (Ireland)
Contact: lettersed@irish-times.ie
Pubdate: Sat, 20 Jun 1998
Author: Catherine Cleary

FATIMA MANSIONS, 'THE HEROIN SUPERMARKET'

While world leaders discussed the `war on drugs' at the United Nations in
New York last week Fatima Mansions was once again the front line in Dublin.

It was still bright on a cool summer evening and the herd was on the move.
Behind net curtains and china ornaments the residents of the Fatima
Mansions flats watched. They call them the herd because they move in packs,
waiting until the word goes around that someone is selling. There are
addicts, some pushers and those who do both. "They know he's due to go off
duty soon," said one resident, nodding in the direction of the lone
uniformed garda in the area between two blocks. Until his shift finished
the herd played Tom and Jerry, as the residents call it, a game of
avoid-the-cop until they had the place to themselves.

The presence of uniformed gardai in the south Dublin flats complex is a
direct result of two shootings. A week ago five men in balaclavas walked
into the area between the two blocks that have been virtually colonised by
dealers. One of them fired a handgun in the air.

It was the second time in 48 hours, after a similar attack two nights
before. There were stories that they made one man kneel and beg for his
life.

Locals speculated that the attack was organised by a family against a
dealer who had sold heroin to a family member. At least two of the men are
believed to live in the flats. Gardai, however, believe the attacks were
carried out by the INLA in a turf war over the heroin trade.

The Labour Party justice spokesman, Pat Upton, issued a statement
condemning the shootings and asking why most of the media had ignored it.
Had it happened in a middleclass housing estate there would have been
blanket coverage, he said.

The night after the second shooting there appeared to be an attitude of
business as usual. Teenagers stood on a stairwell in F block, with the
stench of urine mixing with aerosol fumes. "Coke?" they asked. Outside the
older group stood waiting and watching. Among them there was no laughter,
and not much conversation. "If Fatima had to deal with its own drug users
there would be no problem," according to John Whyte, a community worker who
arrived in 1994 to set up a drug treatment programme. "But they're coming
from all over the city." The programme treats 25 addicts, all of them
living in the flats.

Heroin has turned parts of Fatima Mansions into a junkie paradise and a
nightmare for its residents. There are benches where nobody sits, washing
lines they can't use because their clothes would be lifted and play areas
where children can find or fall on blood-filled syringes.

The situation has gone full circle a number of times. As one of the
birthplaces of the Concerned Parents movement in the 1980s, the community
responded in its own way to the growing problem.

Then the inner-city drugs marches in early 1996 pushed addicts and dealers
into the flats and housing estates hidden from public view. Once they
arrived in Fatima the drug dealing was contained behind the brown brick
walls of the 14-block complex. The planners could not have designed a
better layout for dealing, with at least eight exits from every open area
between blocks and hundreds of stairwells and balconies.

"By the end of 1996 things were on the brink of going completely out of
hand," Mr Whyte said. The Rialto Community Network responded by setting up
a policing forum to involve the community. Now most residents would be
happy to see a Garda station in the flats, and relations with gardai are
improving.

Their community garda is known by his first name and respected. He still
patrols the complex despite being beaten up. But the drug dealing
continues. "This is an easy place to buy heroin. There is law, but no order
here," is one observer's view.

Much of normal life goes on indoors. In the community centre there is
hollow laughter among the women when they talk about their neighbourhood as
Dublin's main heroin supermarket. "It's Crazy Prices out there."

People working in the complex admire the community. "They are resilient
like you can't imagine," Mr Whyte said.

One of the most grinding problems is sleep deprivation. Dealing can go on
until 4 a.m. and start again at 7 a.m. There are screaming matches on the
balconies, rows over deals and a stream of customers to certain flats to
buy drugs.

But there is another side to life. In the cheerful community centre the
only newspaper cutting on the wall is a report of the St Patrick's Day
parade, when they dressed up as fire devils, one of the few times Fatima
featured in a positive news report. The blocks where the dealers don't live
have clean stairwells and balconies, with the flats inside as spruce as any
suburban semi.

There is a pride and refusal to give up among the women who work in the
centre, with its creche for 16 two-year-olds and an active community
employment scheme.

The young mothers who grew up in the flats remember their own childhoods
when they played handball in the pram sheds, begging their mothers for
another five minutes. Those people who have jobs outside the flats dread
the days when Fatima is in the news, because the news is always bad.

They are angry about the crowds of addicts who descend on them; that their
friends and families are afraid to visit; that the dealers treat them with
contempt as obstacles; and that reporters only visit when there is bad
news, demonising their home and sensationalising their everyday lives.

Every screaming headline describing the flats as a hell-hole is a blow to
the people who run the football club, swimming classes, quilting groups and
after-school clubs that glue the community together.

At the same time they are not blind to realities. "You've seen that Real TV
programme. Well, this is Real Fatima," one woman said. At a meeting of the
women's education project they talked about the day a school group came
across three addicts injecting outside a window.

They asked about news of the woman who was taken off a balcony the night of
the first shooting "in a body bag." Someone had heard that they revived her
in St James's Hospital.

They talked about the guts it took for the quiet woman who walked into a
neighbouring flat after knocking and giving the junkie codeword in the
early hours of the morning and told the woman dealer living there to stop.

One woman who said three of her children had used and sold drugs said the
culture of drugs was everywhere. Her nine-year-old "could show you how to
roll a joint". Those who have used them can't stay off drugs "because they
just have to put their hands out the window here to buy drugs." Her view is
bleak. "All the old families, all the kids are on drugs and any family that
escapes drugs is blessed."

Last year a development worker was assigned to Fatima Mansions, and since
last November they have had a full-time community employment scheme
organiser. At the end of the month they are hoping to move the creche to
new premises, giving them more room for "tai chi and line dancing classes"
or whatever they decide to do with the centre.

"There is a substantial number of people who want to do something about the
flats and want to stay here," Mr Whyte said. A development plan is due for
completion in September, and is expected to involve the demolition of some
blocks.

A Government project has looked at Fatima as one of the places targeted for
spending on heroin-affected areas. The results of the pilot project are
expected soon. In the meantime the dealing continues and the community
copes.