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

Prison Mental Health Workers On Alert After Third Inmate Hanging In A Month
('The Associated Press' Says The Average Suicide Rate In Oregon State Prisons
Is Three Per Year - By Official Estimates, One Of Every 10 Prisoners
Is Afflicted With A Severe Mental Illness And One Of Every Four
Penitentiary Inmates Takes Psychiatric Medication)

Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org

Prison mental health workers on alert after third inmate hanging in a month

The Associated Press
9/29/98 4:45 PM

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Mental health workers are on alert after the body of an
inmate was found hanging from a bedsheet in a Pendleton prison cell in the
third apparent suicide the state prison system has seen in the past month.

Solomon Abernathy, 21, was found about 2:30 a.m. Monday in a disciplinary
cell at the Eastern Oregon Correctional Institution.

His death came one day after John Norris, 31, hanged himself with a bedsheet
in a disciplinary cell at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, officials
said.

The string of suicides started Aug. 30, when Stanley Reger, 50, hanged
himself with a bedsheet in his general population cell at the Salem
penitentiary.

Three suicides in a year is about average in the Oregon prison system, so
three in a month has prison officials concerned.

"We're aware that suicides tend to occur in groupings," said Gary Field, the
Corrections Department's administrator of mental health programs.

"We have our mental health case managers and staff on a particular alert
because once these start, they're sometimes hard to turn off," he said.

Oregon's juvenile corrections system was rocked late last year and early
this year when a series of hangings claimed the lives of four teen-age
inmates at the Hillcrest Youth Correctional Facility in Salem.

In response, the state's Legislative Emergency Board approved a $2 million
package of suicide-prevention measures, including expanded mental health
evaluations and counseling for juvenile offenders.

The rash of suicides in the adult corrections system comes about two years
after officials launched a new mental health treatment system, designed to
detect and help increasing numbers of mentally ill inmates.

By official estimates, one of every 10 prisoners is afflicted with a severe
mental illness-- including schizophrenia, manic-depressive illness and
psychosis resulting from drug abuse. One of every four penitentiary inmates
takes psychiatric medication.

Under the revamped treatment system, mental health case managers track
inmates by visiting them in cells, hallways and prison recreation yards. One
goal of the tracking system was to detect psychotic or suicidal inmates early.

Field, who investigates every prison suicide, said he had no reason to link
any of the three recent deaths.

Norris had served 11 years in prison for multiple Lane County robbery
convictions and for being a felon in possession of a weapon. His projected
release date was 2012. He reportedly left a suicide note.

Abernathy had been behind bars for less than a year. He was doing time for
Multnomah County convictions on robbery, assault and failure to perform the
duties of a driver. He also was not eligible for release until 2012.

(c)1998 Oregon Live LLC

Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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

Re - Deputy District Attorney Is 'Amazed' (Two Letters Sent To The Editor
Of 'The Orange County Register' Illuminate Orange County Prosecutor
Carl Armbrust's Errors In Reasoning About Medical Marijuana)

From: "ralph sherrow" (ralphkat@hotmail.com)
To: ralphkat@hotmail.com
Subject: Fwd: The Armbrust Propaganda Machine
Date: Fri, 02 Oct 1998 18:48:38 PDT
From: FilmMakerZ@aol.com
Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1998 17:41:07 EDT
Subject: The Armbrust Propaganda Machine

Here are a couple of letters that have gone out to the Orange County
Register (letters@link.freedom.com) regarding Carl Armbrust's letter,
with Armbrust's letter at the end. Feel free to use them as guidelines
if you haven't written one yet. Remember to include a name, city, and
phone number so they can confirm the letter if they decide to print it.

***

Dear Editor:

In his September 29 letter, Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust
presents inaccuracies and opinions as facts. Is this a thinly veiled
attempt to repair his public image in light of his prosecution of
medicinal marijuana patients Marvin Chavez and Dave Herrick? Patients
like Chavez and Herrick are disabled and terminally ill people whose
doctors have recommended marijuana as an effective medicine when nothing
else has worked, not "people who want to smoke pot."

Though Armbrust claims the American Medical Association and the American
Cancer Society oppose smoking marijuana as an effective medicine, both
actually support unimpeded research into the medicinal qualities of
marijuana (Wright, K. E. & Lewin, P. M., Drug War Facts, 1998). The
American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Public Health
Association, the California Medical Association, the California Nurses
Association, the Lymphoma Foundation of America, the Multiple Sclerosis
California Action Network, the National Association of People with AIDS,
Kaiser Permanente, the New England Journal of Medicine, the National
Association of Attorneys General, etc, have
all endorsed medical access to marijuana (Wright, K. E. & Lewin, P. M.,
Drug War Facts, 1998).

Unlike the 100,000 people who die each year from prescription
medications, marijuana has never been known to cause a single fatality
(Shafer, Raymond P., et al, Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding,
National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse, 1972). In fact, there
are over 90 published reports and studies that have shown marijuana has
medical efficacy (Common Sense for Drug Policy, Compendium of Reports,
Research and Articles Demonstrating the
Effectiveness of Medical Marijuana, Vol. I & Vol. II, 1997).

Armbrust states as fact that "it is well known that marijuana is also
associated with gateway behavior leading to more extensive drug use."
But a National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse study showed that
there is no proof that a causal relationship exists between marijuana
and other drugs (Merrill, J.C. & Fox, K.S., Cigarettes, Alcohol,
Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, 1994). A World Health
Organization study showed that the theory that marijuana use by
adolescents leads to heroin use is the least likely of all hypotheses
(Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., WHO Project on Health Implications
of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the Health and Psychological
Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use, 1995).

Medical treatment belongs between doctors and patients, not politicians
or police and patients. In my words, "Your war against disabled people
must be based on science rather than your ideology."

***

Dear Editor:

Dept. DA Carl Armbrust cites (without references) that marijuana related
ER visits have tripled in the last eight years, but fails to mention the
100,000 people that die every year from so-called "safe" man-made
chemical prescriptions. But "patient overdoses on marijuana" has yet to
make the news. He states marijuana effects "memory, perception and
judgment," but so do alcohol, Prozac, and Vicodin.

Morphine, heroin, and cocaine are being prescribed by doctors, why not
marijuana? Aspirin is derived from trees, marijuana is a plant.
Perhaps the pharmaceutical companies that lobby congress have figured
out they would be cut out as the middle man if this homegrown medicine
were legal?

Perhaps Mr. Armbrust should visit a hospice and see first hand how AIDS
patients are vomiting every "safe" medicine given to them, then see how
smoking a joint can allow them to eat. I have. Or talk to the arthritis
patient, after Advil and Tylenol has given them ulcers, and witness how
marijuana allows them to walk. I have.

It is sad to see a doctor that is scared to discuss medical marijuana,
and would rather prescribe highly addictive drugs like Codeine, than a
natural herb that has been used for thousands of years.

Armbrust states, "Medicine must be based on science rather than
ideology," but there ARE medical reports stating the benefits of
cannabis. He just failed to mention them.

The California voters said, "Medicine must be based on a patient's
needs." Isn't the DA supposed to uphold the laws we vote for?

It is easy to point fingers, Mr. Armbrust, when you're not crippled by
arthritis.

As the old adage goes, "try walking a mile in MY shoes," or more
accurately... "try hobbling a few feet in MY orthopedic corrective
shoes."

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

Prison Budget Points To Need For Alternatives (A Staff Editorial
In 'The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel' Comments On The Fact
That The Number Of Wisconsin Prison Inmates Is Expected To Rise
By Half In Three Years, But The Corrections Agency Proposes To Boost
Its Next Two-Year Budget By Only A Fourth - With 3,000 Prisoners
Already Housed Out Of State, The Plan To Send As Many As
An Additional 4,500 Inmates Out Of State Is Alarming)

Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 17:50:16 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WI: OPED: Prison Budget Points
To Need For Alternatives
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Tue, 29 Sep 1998
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/

PRISON BUDGET POINTS TO NEED FOR ALTERNATIVES

The arithmetic makes some sense. The number of state prison inmates is
expected to rise by half in three years, so the corrections agency proposes
to boost its next two-year budget by a fourth.

But even if the Department of Corrections gets all the money it is seeking,
don't expect to see the light at the end of the prison-crowding tunnel. The
$281 million increase won't suffice to solve the present crowding problem
plus head off future congestion, stemming from a continued acceleration in
the number of offenders sent to prison and in the length of their sentences.

What's more, the new law ending parole promises to step up that
acceleration. So at the present rate, expect huge jumps in the prison budget
for many bienniums to come.

But must things continue at the present rate? We think not. The heavy cost
of incarceration ought to lead the state to explore 1) protecting the public
and 2) punishing lawbreakers in more cost-effective ways.

Beyond a scintilla of a doubt, violent criminals must stew in prison. But
surely the state does not rely as much as it could on alternatives to prison
for non-violent offenders. Such options include restitution, community
service and house arrest.

What's more, the state makes too little effort inside and outside prison to
rehabilitate offenders. Even though they are serving more time now than
previously, most will return to the community whence they came -- often
still illiterate or drug-addicted or devoid of work skills. If for no other
reason than the community's safety, state policy ought to aim for returning
inmates to society better equipped to stay straight than when they were
imprisoned.

Also, the huge cost of incarceration ought to underscore the urgency of
investing in children to keep them off the criminal track in the first
place. Social misfits disproportionately come from the ranks of poor, abused
or neglected children.

As for the present budget proposal, the plan to send as many as an
additional 4,500 inmates to cells out of state is alarming. Out-of-state
cells are OK as a stopgap -- which has justified the state's current rental
of 3,000 such cells. But more than doubling that number is worrisome,
because rehabilitation, as inadequate as it is in Wisconsin, is even less
adequate for inmates housed out of state. The programs are skimpier and
inmates lack the ready support of their families -- which can help
rehabilitation.

All in all, the prison budget proposal should prompt state officials to
search for smarter ways to punish lawbreakers and protect society.

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

McCaffrey Wants Methadone Handed Out In Doctor's Offices
(A List Subscriber Relays A Radio Newscast From An Unspecified Station
Indicating The White House Drug Czar Is Embracing A Harm Reduction Proposal)

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 12:39:56 -0700
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
From: "D. Ludd" (amarugia@drizzle.com)
Subject: McCaffrey wants methadone handed out in doctor's offices
Cc: drctalk@drcnet.org
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

on the radio i just heard that skunk Gen. McCaffrey say that methadone
should be avb to addicts via their own personal physcians and not just
through clinics and the treatment industry. Boy, he is desperately trying
to keep the WoD afloat by beginning to adapt harm reduction. and wasn't he
the skunk that not long ago said harm reduction is merely a front for us
monstrous dp reformers?

perhaps this would be something to approach the Gov Council on Substance
Abuse? Get WA state in the vangaurd on this?

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

Federal Proposal Would Provide Methadone to More Drug Addicts
('The New York Times' Says General Barry R. McCaffrey Is Expected To Outline
A Major Overhaul Of The Federal Strategy For Treating Heroin Addiction
In A Speech Tuesday To A National Conference Of The American Methadone
Treatment Association In Manhattan - Methadone Would Be Made Available
To All Who Need It, And Private Physicians Would Be Allowed To Dispense It)

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 18:40:16 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: NYT: Federal Proposal Would
Provide Methadone to More Drug
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: kewright@erols.com and Ty Trippet
Pubdate: Tue, 29 Sep 1998
Source: New York Times ( NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Christopher S. Wren

FEDERAL PROPOSAL WOULD PROVIDE METHADONE TO MORE DRUG ADDICTS

The White House's top drug official will announce Tuesday a policy to
expand the availability of methadone to all those who need it, despite
Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's criticism of the drug as simply exchanging one
addiction for another.

The official, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, is expected to outline a major
overhaul of Federal plans to treat heroin addiction in a speech Tuesday to
a national conference of the American Methadone Treatment Association in
Manhattan.

The plans to be presented by General McCaffrey, which incorporate ideas
from Government agencies and other specialists in substance abuse,
recommend that for the first time, doctors be allowed to administer
methadone to patients in the privacy of their offices. Methadone is now
dispensed at special clinics, at times that may make it difficult for some
recovering addicts to hold down jobs.

The new policy would make methadone treatment available to any addict who
requests and needs it. Methadone is used by 115,000 Americans addicted to
heroin and other opiates. They account for a fraction of the country's
estimated 810,000 opiate addicts, some of whom cannot find treatment giving
them access to methadone.

The policy is being announced at a time Mayor Giuliani has questioned the
need for methadone treatment. The Mayor has said he wants to end
government's role in providing the drug, a synthetic substance used to curb
the craving for heroin.

The Administration intends to redraft the Federal regulations governing
methadone in December or January. Officials said they doubted that
Congressional approval would be needed for the changes, and they foresaw no
barriers at the Federal level.

States have wide control over the availability of methadone, however. New
York State is the country's largest methadone provider, and Connecticut has
considered giving doctors a more central role in dispensing it. But eight
states -- New Hampshire, Vermont, West Virginia, Mississippi, North Dakota,
South Dakota, Montana and Idaho -- do not permit methadone clinics, forcing
residents who need it to travel to other states.

The hope is that a stronger endorsement of methadone's efficacy by the
Federal Government will encourage states to set up or expand methadone
programs.

Among other changes, the Food and Drug Administration would turn over the
regulation of methadone to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration. The plan also includes the creation of a comprehensive
evaluation and accreditation system to assess methadone treatment at
clinics, which vary widely in the quality and quantity of services.

Mayor Giuliani has sharply criticized methadone treatment, describing the
physical dependence it creates as tantamount to enslavement, and has
attacked General McCaffrey for endorsing it. Yesterday, the Mayor fired a
fresh broadside at the White House drug policy official.

"I guess General McCaffrey has surrendered," Giuliani told reporters, "and
essentially, what he'd like to do is deal with heroin addiction by making
people addicted to methadone, which maybe even is a worse addiction."

Medical experts have described methadone as the most effective treatment
available for heroin addiction, saying that it has been studied more
thoroughly than almost any other medication. A recent study by the National
Academy of Sciences called methadone "more likely to work than any other
therapy."

Mark A. R. Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of
California at Los Angeles, said in a telephone interview that the Federal
changes announced yesterday sound very much like the recommendations made
by the panel of specialists at the National Academy of Sciences.

"Everybody in the field agreed that the panel got it right," Professor
Kleiman said. "If what the panel said is going to be policy, I can only
say, 'Hurray.' "

Professor Kleiman added, "The devil's in the details, and I don't know the
details. But breaking methadone free of the shackles of the methadone
treatment system has to be the right thing to do."

During a visit to a methadone treatment center in lower Manhattan
yesterday, General McCaffrey once again declined to respond in like manner
to Mayor Giuliani, calling him "a great mayor" who had made New York City a
safer place to live.

But in an implicit reference to the Mayor's criticism, General McCaffrey
also cautioned against engaging in "shoot-from-the-lip policy analysis."

He added, "You've got to be cautious about the reality of 40,000 people" in
New York State who are enrolled in methadone maintenance programs.

General McCaffrey listened to addicts with first-hand experience with
methadone when he visited the Lower Eastside Service Center on East
Broadway yesterday. The center provides comprehensive methadone and other
drug treatment for 2,500 clients a year, said its president, Eileen Pencer.

Mark Adorno, who has taken methadone for six years, told General McCaffrey:
"It keeps me functional. I'm able to work and support my family. Without
it, I'd be sick."

Gina Neveloff, who takes methadone to stave off the heroin addiction she
acquired at 15, said, "For me, it puts some kind of sanity back in my life."

But Scott Riley, who said he became addicted as a soldier in Vietnam, said
methadone had not worked well for him and that he chose total abstinence, a
more difficult alternative that Mayor Giuliani favors and that General
McCaffrey also endorses.

General McCaffrey, who was badly wounded in Vietnam, appeared moved by the
stories he heard from the recovering addicts.

"In the Army, we give big medals to people who are heroes, and that's what
I think you are," he said.

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

US Expands Methadone Treatment ('The Associated Press' Version)

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 18:44:46 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Wire: U.S. Expands Methadone Treatment
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: The Media Awareness Project of DrugSense
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Tuesday, 29 Sep 1998

NEW YORK (AP) -- The White House's drug policy chief Tuesday proposed
making methadone more readily available to drug addicts by allowing doctors
for the first time to dispense the synthetic heroin substitute in their
offices.

Currently, methadone is available only at special clinics, making it
difficult for some addicts to hold down jobs and receive their daily dose
of the liquid narcotic. Some states bar methadone altogether.

Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the White House national drug policy director, said
study after study has shown that methadone not only eliminates the misery
of heroin addiction but also makes it possible for addicts to lead
productive lives and stay out of trouble.

``Methadone treatment is simply not available for Americans in all parts of
the country in a manner called for by rational drug policy. We've got to do
better,'' McCaffrey told the American Methadone Treatment Association in
New York.

At the same time, McCaffrey announced no additional money for the policy
and acknowledged that state and local governments must endorse the changes
to make methadone more readily available.

``This is a local decision for city councils, county government and state
legislatures,'' he said.

McCaffrey's office set a goal of ``adequate methadone treatment capacity
for all of America's opiate drug addicts.''

Eventually, McCaffrey said, individual doctors would be licensed to
dispense methadone outside of clinics. The policy for the first time would
also establish an accreditation process for methadone clinics and set
standards for effective dosages, counseling and care.

There are an estimated 810,000 chronic heroin users in the United States,
but only about 115,000 are receiving methadone. At least five states have
barred methadone altogether: Mississippi, Montana, South Dakota, Vermont
and West Virginia.

New York City has an estimated 32,000 addicts on methadone -- more than any
other U.S. city -- but Mayor Rudolph Giuliani opposes its use, saying it
simply swaps one addiction for another.

He recently announced a plan to get methadone patients at city-run
hospitals off methadone, despite warnings from some drug abuse experts that
the addicts will wind up back on heroin.

On Tuesday, Giuliani said: ``I think that morally, philosophically and
practically it's a bad question for America to say, `Let's double the
number of people on methadone.' Let's try to make America drug-free.''

McCaffrey refused to criticize Giuliani directly, saying only: ``We've got
a problem based on ignorance. Methadone is the only, cheap, effective tool.''

About 900 clinics in the country dispense methadone, which was popularized
some 30 years ago. It blunts the craving for heroin.

Sheryl Massaro, a spokeswoman for the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
said McCaffrey's policy was based on recommendations made by a panel of
specialists at the National Academy of Sciences who called methadone ``more
likely to work than any other therapy'' for heroin addiction.

Dr. David C. Lewis, project director of the new Physician Leadership on
National Drug Policy, composed of prominent doctors and public health
leaders, said: ``Yes, McCaffrey's totally right on this one. Yes, medicine
and science are behind McCaffrey on this one.''

Copyright 1998 Associated Press.

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

Government To Make Methadone More Available To Addicts
(A Different 'Associated Press' Version)

From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen" (when@olywa.net)
To: "-Hemp Talk" (hemp-talk@hemp.net)
Subject: HT: Govt to make methadone more available to addicts
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 18:35:21 -0700
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net

Government to make methadone more available to addicts

The Associated Press
09/29/98 8:16 AM Eastern

NEW YORK (AP) -- The White House plans to expand the availability of
methadone treatment for drug addicts, The New York Times reported today.

The administration's top drug official, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, was to
announce an overhaul of policies geared toward combating heroin addiction
during a speech today to the American Methadone Treatment Association in
Manhattan.

New programs would for the first time allow doctors to give methadone to
addicts who visit their offices, the Times reported. Methadone, used by
115,000 Americans hooked on heroin and other opiates, currently is
administered at special clinics and only at certain times, making it
difficult for some addicts to receive treatment.

The expansion of methadone treatment comes at a time when New York Mayor
Rudolph Giuliani has questioned its effectiveness. He said the treatment
merely swaps one addiction for another, and has announced a controversial
plan aimed at getting methadone patients at city-run hospitals to wean
themselves from the drug.

The federal methadone regulations would be rewritten in December or January.
The cost of the new program was not available.

States have maintained wide control over the availability of methadone.
Eight states -- New Hampshire, Vermont, West Virginia, Mississippi, North
Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Idaho -- do not permit methadone clinics,
forcing addicts who need it to travel to other states.

A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences called methadone, a
synthetic substance used to curb the craving for heroine, "more likely to
work than any other therapy."

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

Seizing Money (A Press Release From The Libertarian Party Headquarters
In Washington, DC, Alerting You To A New Bill Before The Senate Judiciary
Committee That Would Allow Police To Assume Anyone Traveling With More
Than $10,000 In Cash In So-Called 'Drug Transit Areas' Is A Drug Dealer -
And Confiscate All Their Money)

Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 03:36:53 -0700
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon Libertarian Patriots
To: Cannabis Patriots (Cannabis-Patriots-L@teleport.com)
Subject: CanPat - [Fwd: Release: seizing money]
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@smtp.teleport.com

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Release: seizing money
Date: Tue, 29 Sep 98 15:07:19 PDT
From: announce@lp.org
Reply-To: libnw@circuit.com
To: libnw@circuit.com (Multiple recipients of Liberty_NW)

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

***

NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037

***

For release: September 29, 1998

***

For additional information:
George Getz, Press Secretary
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: 76214.3676@Compuserve.com

***

New bill will allow police to "steal cash"
from travelers, warns Libertarian Party

WASHINGTON, DC -- It may soon be a crime to get on a plane or
drive down the highway in America with too much money, the Libertarian
Party warned today.

That's because a bill before the Senate Judiciary Committee
would allow police to assume that anyone traveling with more than
$10,000 in cash in so-called "drug transit areas" is a drug dealer --
and confiscate all their money.

"Tourists and business travelers, take note: You may soon have
to fear being mugged by your own government," warned Steve Dasbach,
Libertarian Party national director.

"Your government wants the power to label you a criminal and
seize all your money with no proof that you've committed a crime. In
other words, your government is about to give police a license to
steal."

The bill in question -- the Drug Currency Forfeitures Act -- is
sponsored by Senators Max Cleland (D-GA) and Charles Grassley (R-IA).
The senators say their bill is designed to "hit drug dealers where it
hurts the most: In the wallet."

The bill allows police to seize cash from any American
traveling through a drug transit area -- defined as an airport,
highway, or port of entry -- and would force citizens to go to court to
try to get the money back.

"Accusations without proof? Punishments without trials? Welcome
to America in 1998," said Dasbach. "With this bill, two U.S. Senators
want to gut the Constitution -- and strip away fundamental rights like
the presumption of innocence and the right to carry money without
having to explain your actions to the government."

One of the most repugnant provisions of the bill, Dasbach said,
is that people who want their money back will face a "rebuttable
presumption" of guilt. In other words, they most prove they are
innocent.

"Senator Cleland complained that courts frequently throw out
money-laundering cases for lack of evidence, so his innovative solution
was to stop requiring evidence -- and simply allow police to steal your
money," Dasbach said. "Instead of the government proving that you are
guilty, you must prove that you are innocent."

But why would anyone carry around $10,000 in cash, if they're
not a drug dealer?

"It's none of the government's business -- period," Dasbach
said. "The idea that any American should have to explain to the police
where their money came from is offensive, and the idea that the police
can pocket your money if they don't like your answers is downright
criminal."

In previous well-documented cases, he noted, the government has
seized money from a business traveler who had planned major cash
purchases for his company, and from a foreign-born American who was
bringing cash to relatives in another country. In both cases, the
courts ruled that the seizure was improper, and the victims got most of
their money back from the government.

This bill would reverse those kinds of cases, Dasbach
predicted, by essentially creating a new type of crime: Driving While
Rich and Flying While Affluent -- all in the name of the War on Drugs.

"What the Drug Currency Forfeitures Act really shows is that
once again, the War on Drugs has become an all-purpose excuse for a War
on Your Rights, such as the right to a fair trial and the right to get
on an airplane or drive down the highway without having to explain
yourself to a policeman," Dasbach said. "If Americans don't put a stop
to this, the politicians will not only steal all our money -- they will
also steal all our Constitutional rights."


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The Libertarian Party
http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
voice: 202-333-0008
fax: 202-333-0072

For subscription changes, please mail to (announce-request@lp.org) with the
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High Court To Draw Line In Car Searches By Police (According To
'The Associated Press,' The US Supreme Court, Responding To A Case
From Wyoming Involving Illegal Drugs, Said Today It Would Decide How Far
Police Officers Can Go In Searching The Personal Belongings
Of Motor Vehicle Passengers)

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 17:38:02 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: WIRE: High Court To Draw Line
In Car Searches By Police
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: hadorn@dnai.com (David Hadorn)
Pubdate: Tue, 29 Sep 1998
Source: (AP)

HIGH COURT TO DRAW LINE IN CAR SEARCHES BY POLICE

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court said today it will decide how far
police officers can go in searching the personal belongings of motor
vehicle passengers.

The justices agreed to review a Wyoming Supreme Court car-search
decision the state's attorney general says is ``unworkable'' and
``illogical,'' and will confuse courts and law enforcement agencies.

The state Supreme Court overturned a woman's drug conviction, ruling
that police unlawfully searched her purse.

A car driven by David Young was stopped for speeding on Interstate 25
in Natrona County, Wyo., in the early morning hours of July 23, 1995.
After a Highway Patrol officer saw a hypodermic syringe in Young's
pocket, Young said he had used it to take drugs.

Two other officers asked the car's two female passengers to get out.
One of them, Sandra Houghton, left her cloth purse on the car's back
seat. Inside the bag, police found drug paraphernalia and liquid
methamphetamine.

Houghton was convicted on a felony drug charge, but challenged her
conviction.

The state Supreme Court threw out her conviction in April, ruling that
police should not have searched through her purse. Even though the
officers had ``probable cause'' to search the car for drugs Young may
have had with him, they could not justify searching a passenger's
personal belongings, the court said.

In the appeal acted on today, state Attorney General William Hill and
his staff argued that the state court's ruling repudiates a long line
of rulings in which the nation's highest court gave police far greater
leeway to search motor vehicles.

The case is Wyoming vs. Houghton, 98-184.

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Just Say No (A Brief Item In 'The Orange County Register' Says Mexico
Has Once Again Rejected A Proposal To Let US Prohibition Agents
Carry Firearms Within Its Borders)

Date: Tue, 29 Sep 1998 19:31:19 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Just Say No
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Black (jwblack@earthlink.net)
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 29 Sep 1998

JUST SAY NO

U.S. anti-drug agents won't be allowed to carry guns in Mexico, said Foreign
Secretary Rosario Green. Describing her talks with Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, Green said Sunday that Mexico won't yield to pressure
from the U.S. Congress to change the policy. "It's a closed case," she said.

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