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Measure 57 - Marijuana Possession (The Oregonian doesn't make it hard
to figure out how it wants you to vote as it describes the state ballot
measure that would recriminalize possession of less than one ounce
of marijuana.)

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 01:13:34 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OR: Measure 57 - Marijuana Possession
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Olafur Brentmar
Pubdate: Wed, 28 Oct 1998
Source: Oregonian, The
Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com
Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Copyright: Oregon Live

MEASURE 57 - MARIJUANA POSSESSION

What The Measure Would Do

Possessing small amounts of marijuana in Oregon would carry a possible jail
term for the first time in more than two decades under Ballot Measure 57.
The measure would make possessing less than an ounce of marijuana a
misdemeanor, punishable by a potential jail term of 30 days and a fine of
as much as $1,000. First-time offenders could agree to a diversion program;
the new law would allow a six-month suspension of driving privileges for
failure to complete the program.

Background

Currently, possession of less than an ounce is considered a noncriminal
violation, punishable by a fine ranging from $500 to $1,000. The Oregon
Legislature in 1997 passed a bill increasing the penalties for possession
of less than an ounce of marijuana, and the governor signed it. But
petitioners collected more than 90,000 signatures to block the bill from
becoming law, sending this tougher measure to voters this fall.

The Pros

I've seen a huge number of people whose lives have been devastated by drugs.

John Minnis, former state representative

Proponents of Measure 57 argue that marijuana use is rising among young
people, showing decriminalization is not working. They say the state needs
to get tougher on using marijuana, which advocates say is a gateway drug to
other illegal substances. Drug users will not seek treatment on their own,
proponents say; they need law-enforcement intervention. Advocates also say
that current law sends a message that smoking marijuana is no big deal and
that government needs to reinforce the message that drug use is wrong.

The Cons

People die from tobacco, and people die from sugar. People don't just die
from marijuana.

Michael E. Rose, Portland defense lawyer

Opponents of Measure 57 argue that the measure costs too much, and money
could be spent more wisely on drug-treatment programs. They also say the
measure would lead to the early release of more serious offenders and that
the measure wouldn't deter young people from using drugs.

A provision in the measure requiring those facing the misdemenaor charge to
admit they were in possession of marijuana before they could qualify for a
diversion program would discourage treatment, opponents say. The measure
also would broaden police search and seizure powers unnecessarily and lead
to selective enforcement, opponents say.

The Big Picture

In 1973, Oregon became the first state to remove criminal penalties for
possessing less than an ounce of marijuana. At the time, the maximum fine
was $100. In 1989, the Legislature revisited the issue, opting to keep the
violation status but increase the fine.

The state fiscal impact committee estimates that recriminalizing marijuana
would cost the state and county governments $1.42 million annually.

The figure includes:

* $586,000 annually for law enforcement, indigent defense, court operations
and jury payments.

* $229,000 annually in county costs for local jail beds.

* A one-time cost of $50,000 for Driver and Motor Vehicle Services computer
programming.

* An estimated loss of $638,000 in state revenues.

Contacts

For:
Rep. Ben Westlund, R-Bend
Phone: 541-383-4444

Against:
No on 57 Committee
Michael E. Rose, Chief petitioner
Phone: 503-371-6222

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Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group (A local correspondent
says the medical marijuana support group continues to serve patients, despite
the prosecutions of Marvin Chavez and Jack Shachter and the seizure
of the group's bank account. Please send donations to help with copying
costs, postage, phone bills, and so forth.)

From: FilmMakerZ@aol.com
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 20:32:17 EST
To: DRCNet Medical Marijuana Forum (medmj@drcnet.org)
Subject: Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group
Reply-To: medmj@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-medmj@drcnet.org

(PLEASE FORWARD TO ANYONE YOU KNOW WHO MAY BE INTERESTED IN HELPING)

The Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group has been hit hard by the
arrests of patients/volunteers Marvin Chavez and Jack Shachter and the
subsequent seizure of our bank account by police. Both are being charged by a
ruthless Orange County District Attorney with numerous felony counts for
giving away medicinal cannabis to patients under Proposition 215.

The OCPDNSG provides support to patients with medical cannabis
recommendations. Monthly meetings give patients a space to meet other
disabled people and educate patients on their rights under Proposition 215.
The OCPDNSG was founded to help provide safe and affordable cannabis to those
in need, giving away free cannabis to patients with confirmed doctor
recommendations. The support group operates off of donations from generous,
caring people.

Since the arrests earlier this year of Marvin Chavez and Jack Shachter, the
OCPDNSG has struggled to survive. In order to keep helping patients out in
Orange County, we need donations. Copying costs, postage, phone bills, etc.,
all add up.

If you are able to help out patients in Orange County, please do. Even the
smallest of donations would be appreciated, and would be helping out sick and
disabled people in Orange County.

Please send donations to:

Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse Support Group
P.O. Box 6826
Santa Ana, CA 92706

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An In Depth Look At Question No. 9 (An MSNBC story broadcast by KRNV
in Reno about the Nevada medical marijuana ballot measure quotes
District Attorney Dick Gammick saying that in California, Proposition 215
"has already broken down, and a movement is under way for repeal,"
a patently false statement.)

Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 09:42:03 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NV: MMJ: An In Depth Look At Question #9
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: Wed, 28 Oct 1998
Source: MSNBC/KRNV (Reno, NV)
Contact: krnv@brigadoon.com
Website: http://www.msnbc.com/local/KRNV/default.asp
Author: Bill Brown

AN IN DEPTH LOOK AT QUESTION #9

RENO, NV October 28 - One of the most talked about questions on
Tuesday's ballot is drawing the least controversy. Question 9 would
legalize the use of small amounts of marijuana, for medicinal use.

Question 9 only legalizes marijuana for medicinal use. Unlike Prop 215
in California, it does not set up the system by which users would get
the drug. Backers say that's up to the state legislature. Most people
News 4 talked to, while worried about control, told us if marijuana
would help the sick, the question should pass. However, not everyone
agrees with the basic medical premise.

District Attorney Dick Gammick says, "Show me the studies. Marijuana
is not new. Show me where the FDA says it'll help." A marijuana user
who wanted to remain anonymous says he's used the drug for 10-years,
ever since he found out he was HIV positive.

He feels the drug has helped him fight back.

He says, "It's a quality of life issue. I tried one other drug that
completely changed my personality."

Backers say the evidence is there.

They point to a collection of studies and a report of an ad hoc
committee of experts to the National Institute of Health. Those
studies do say marijuana reduces the side effects of chemotherapy and
helps HIV and glaucoma patients.

Medicinal supporter Dan Geary says, "The word that isn't used here
is compassion. This drug helps people through very tough times."

Still, Gammick says in California, the law has already broken down,
and a movement is under way for repeal.

This is a constitutional amendment.

That means it has to pass twice.

If the vote is for 9 on Tuesday, Gammick promises a stiff fight the
second time.

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The People Behind The Medical Marijuana Conspiracy (Richard Cowan,
writing in marijuananews.com, notes it is a staple of prohibitionist
opposition to medical marijuana that the movement is "exploiting" patients.
He then shares a poignant tale about a friend in the District of Columbia
who was about to go to bed rather late on a cold night last week. When he
looked out his window, he saw a man in a wheelchair dragging himself along
by his one leg. He was putting up posters that said, "Vote Yes on 59 -
Medical Marijuana.")

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 16:25:38 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: MMJ: The People Behind The Medical Marijuana Conspiracy
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: DrugSense
Source: marijuananews.com
Pubdate: 28 Oct 1998
Contact: cowan@marijuananews.com
Website: http://www.marijuananews.com/
Author: Richard Cowan, Editor and Publisher
Note: This is a rare exception to policy posting of an article published
only on the web. - Richard Lake, Sr. Editor

THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA CONSPIRACY

It is a staple of the prohibitionist opposition to medical marijuana that
the movement is "exploiting" the patients. Here is a somewhat different
perspective.

I was talking by phone to a friend in D.C. He told me that when he was
about to get in bed late on a rather cold night last week he looked out his
window and saw a man in a wheelchair dragging himself along by his one leg.
He was putting up medical marijuana posters on my friend's street. To do
this, the man had to push himself up on his one leg and hold on to the pole.

My friend got into bed, but was so moved by the image that he had just seen
that he had to get up. He bundled himself up against the chill of the fall
night and grabbed a staple gun that he happened to have and headed out.

People in wheelchairs putting up posters don't move very fast, so my friend
had no difficulty catching up. The man was a little startled, as D.C.
streets are none too safe at night, but he was pleased when my friend asked
if he could help.

Oh yes, I forgot to say that the wheelchair was towing a little wagon
filled with the posters.

My friend asked if the fellow was a medical marijuana user. Yes, he
explained; the accident that had cost him his leg also left him with a
spinal fusion and a lot of pain. He even has to wear a catheter. He found
that the pharmaceutical pain relievers were ineffective and too
debilitating, so he uses medical marijuana.

With my friend's help they plastered the neighborhood with "Vote Yes On 59
-- Medical Marijuana" posters.

When they ran out of posters the guy in the wheelchair thanked my friend,
but he wasn't too bashful to ask for a contribution for the "Yes On 59"
campaign. (They get no money from the "Billionaire Backers" of most of the
other initiatives.)

My friend said yes, but they had to go back to my friend's home to get a
check. Since the entrance is up some stairs my friend ran in and grabbed
his checkbook and went back out and gave the man a check.

My friend then went back to bed as the wheelchair disappeared into the night.

The relevance of the check is that the guy in the wheelchair got my
friend's address from it, and so the next morning there were ten more "Yes
On 59" posters stuffed in my friend's door.

The guy in the wheelchair had crawled up the stairs to leave them for
someone who had helped him spread the word on a cold night.

These are the people behind the medical marijuana conspiracy. Truly, they
will stop at nothing!

PS -- My friend who got out of bed was Allen St. Pierre, the National
Director of the NORML Foundation. It is a very small conspiracy.

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

Medical Marijuana in the Federal Budget (A list subscriber notes Congress
recently confirmed Dr. Jane Henney, a cancer specialist, as director
of the Food and Drug Administration while inserting the language of Senate
Joint Resolution 56 into the federal budget law. This means that the FDA
must report back by Jan. 21, 1999 on its "new drug" evaluation process
and the "interstate commerce" aspects of medical marijuana.)

From: FilmMakerZ@aol.com
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 17:14:48 EST
Subject: Fwd: MATT: Medical Marijuana in the Federal Budget

Subject: MATT: Medical Marijuana in the Federal Budget
Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 13:20:19 PST
From: "Terry Kennedy" (terry_kennedy@hotmail.com)

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, October 28, 1998

Medical Marijuana in the Federal Budget

Senate appoints new FDA Chief, cancer specialist Dr. Jane Henney to
report on Medical Marijuana by Jan 21, 1999.

In their final week the 105th Congress confirmed cancer specialist Dr.
Jane Henney as Chief of the Food and Drug Administration and inserted
the language of SJR 56 (HJR 117) into the federal budget law. This
means that the FDA must report back by January 21st, 1999 on current
efforts to enforce the "new drug" evaluation process and "interstate
commerce" aspects of medical marijuana. This makes the new FDA
Chief the first to use a new drug evaluation process which congress
drastically overhauled last year in the FDA Modernization Act of 1997.

"No person shall introduce ... into interstate commerce any new drug,
unless an approval of an application filed ... is effective...."

"...''Substantial evidence'' means evidence consisting of adequate
and well-controlled investigations ... that the drug will have the effect
... under the conditions of use prescribed, recommended, or suggested in
the labeling.... If the Secretary determines, based on relevant science,
that data from one adequate and well-controlled
clinical investigation and confirmatory evidence (obtained prior to
or after such investigation) are sufficient to establish effectiveness,
the Secretary may consider such data and evidence to constitute
substantial evidence... "

-- Section 505 of the FEDERAL
FOOD, DRUG, AND COSMETIC ACT

(Click here for full text of
section 505 without tripithica's, it is very long though)

"By placing the rescheduling decision in the hands of the FDA Congress
is de-politicizing the process," explains Dennis Peron, author of
California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996. "Now America wants to
know, does Dr. Jane Henney hear our call for compassionate rescheduling?
She is going to either end the pot ban by January 21st or sanction
anarchy and Congress is going to back her to the hilt on
either call."

"Pursuant to section 505 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act,
before any drug can be approved as a medication in the United States, it
must meet extensive scientific and medical standards established by the
Food and Drug Administration to ensure it is safe and effective. ... Not
later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act the
Commissioner of Foods and Drugs shall...report on the specific efforts
underway to enforce sections 304 and 505 of the Federal Food, Drug
and Cosmetic Act with respect to marijuana and other Schedule I drugs."

- Public Law 105-277 "The Federal Budget Act of 1999"
(became law 10/21/98).

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

Ex-Presidents Rail Vs. Marijuana (The Associated Press says former US
presidents Bush, Carter and Ford have responded to a plea by the White House
Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey, and written an open letter to voters in
several states where initiatives have been placed on the ballot that would
legalize marijuana as medicine. The rationale offered by the three stooges
was that allowing sick people to be treated with cannabis would "undercut
public confidence in the safety of medicines.")

Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 23:22:14 EST
Errors-To: jnr@insightweb.com
Reply-To: friends@freecannabis.org
Originator: friends@freecannabis.org
Sender: friends@freecannabis.org
From: Fraglthndr@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list (friends@freecannabis.org)
Subject: Fwd: Ex-Presidents Rail Vs. Marijuana
From: AOLNews@aol.com
Subject: Ex-Presidents Rail Vs. Marijuana
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 1998 19:53:03 EST

Ex-Presidents Rail Vs. Marijuana

c The Associated Press

By ROBERT BURNS

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a letter solicited by President Clinton's drug control
chief, former presidents Bush, Carter and Ford said ballot measures in several
states to legalize marijuana for medical purposes would undercut public
confidence in the safety of medicines.

"These initiatives are not based on the best available science," the three
former presidents wrote Wednesday in a "Dear fellow citizens" letter that
closely paralleled the Clinton administration's position on the matter.

In remarks on Tuesday, Barry McCaffrey, the White House director of drug
control programs, asserted that marijuana initiatives on ballots in Alaska,
Nevada, Oregon, Washington and the District of Columbia would prejudge
clinical research to determine the safety of using marijuana by AIDS patients.

"Prejudging that research through a political process would be
irresponsible," McCaffrey said.

Proponents of the marijuana initiatives said citizens ultimately will place
more stock in findings of medical researchers than in McCaffrey's stance.

"The public supports compassionate use of medical marijuana. Voters will heed
the advice of doctors, not a general, in a political position advocating
failed national drug policies," said Bill Zimmerman, director of Americans
for Medical Rights, a private advocacy group for using marijuana to treat
illnesses from cancer to AIDS.

In their letter, requested by McCaffrey, the former presidents said the state
ballot measures "undercut our national commitment to ensuring that medicines
are proven to be safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration before
being approved for use by the public."

"Ignoring science does not promote good medicine and is not in our national
interest," they wrote.

Under the state measures, marijuana would be made legal only for persons
suffering from one of a short list of specific ailments. Measures in Alaska,
Oregon and Nevada would establish state registries of patients entitled to use
it. In Alaska and Oregon, patients could get identification cards to avoid
arrest.

The laws would require a patient to get a doctor's recommendation that
marijuana would help one or more of a list of illnesses that includes cancer,
AIDS, glaucoma, chronic pain, seizures and muscle spasms. Advocates hope the
initiatives' narrow focus on medical applications will appeal to voter
compassion and evoke images of solace, of pain eased, of appetite restored and
of nausea quieted.

Recent polls in Alaska, Oregon and Washington show most voters support the
measures. Nevada appears to be a close call.

A ballot measure in Arizona would require heroin, LSD, marijuana and certain
other drugs to be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration before they
could be prescribed as medicines. Polls indicate that measure is trailing.

AP-NY-10-28-98 1952EST

Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP
news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise
distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press.

***

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 18:03:17 EST
Reply-To: friends@freecannabis.org
Sender: friends@freecannabis.org
From: grassshack@webtv.net (Compassionate Care Alliance)
To: Multiple recipients of list (friends@freecannabis.org)
Subject: Re: Fwd: Ex-Presidents Rail Vs. Marijuana

With that mentality it is no surprise that all 3 are losers who could
not get re-elected.

ann

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

States Set to Confront Medical Marijuana (FoxNews says medical marijuana
initiatives facing voters in five states are increasing pressure
on federal drug policy.)

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 17:26:23 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: FOX News: MMJ: States Set to Confront Medical Marijuana
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Patrick Henry (resist_tyranny@mapinc.org)
Author: Patrick Riley
Pubdate: Wed, 28 Oct 1998
Source: FoxNews
Website: http://www.foxnews.com/
Contact: comments@foxnews.com

STATES SET TO CONFRONT MEDICAL MARIJUANA ISSUE

Pressure is mounting against federal drug policy as five states prepare to
take on the issue of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use.

When voters in Alaska, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Washington decide in
Election Day ballot measures whether to allow the drug to be smoked by the
sick, supporters say the government will have no choice but to notice.

"It sends an overwhelming message that the citizens of this country do not
support the illogical stance of the federal government in their denying of
medicine to patients who need it," said Tim Killian, campaign director for
Washington Citizens for Medical Rights.

The government considers marijuana a dangerous narcotic without proven
medicinal value, making it illegal for doctors to prescribe. But advocates
of the drug's use say that it can act as an appetite stimulant and
alleviate nausea for AIDS and cancer patients.

Each state's ballot proposals cover the same basic ground: The new laws
would allow doctors to "recommend" but not prescribe marijuana. And
patients who use it would be able to invoke a "medical necessity defense"
if arrested for possession of the drug. It gives the courts "a little more
latitude in letting people go," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director
of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"We don't want to persecute and imprison sick people," said Steve Hager,
editorial director of High Times magazine. "It's obvious that there's a
huge groundswell of public opinion to allow sick people medicine rather
than torturing them and putting them in jail."

Polls by newspapers and supporting groups indicate that the measures have
generally strong support, with as many as 60 percent of voters backing the
reform in some states. Popular backing for the issue is not a recent
occurrence. A Wired Magazine/Merrill Lynch nationwide poll of 1,400 adults
last year found that 62 percent supported "legalizing marijuana if it is
used strictly for medical reasons."

Activists hope the campaign will only spread from here. "Our eventual goal
is to force the federal government to reschedule marijuana as medicine that
can be prescribed by doctors," said Geoff Sugerman, campaign director of
Oregonians for Medical Rights.

But the White House shows no signs of budging. A statement from the
president's office of national drug control policy states that "smoked
marijuana has not been demonstrated by science to be a safe and effective
medicine." It does however note that the "existing scientific literature"
on the topic is being reviewed by the Institute of Medicine, which will
issue a report in early 1999.

"If the federal government wants to see this issue go away, then they have
the ability to immediately reschedule marijuana into schedule 2 and have it
be taken over by pharmaceutical companies" and pharmacies, said Killian.
Marijuana is currently classified as a "schedule 1" drug under the
Controlled Substances Act, along with drugs such as LSD and heroin.
Schedule 2 substances, which can be prescribed, include cocaine, methadone
and morphine.

Arizona's ballot measure differs from the others in that voters will decide
whether to accept changes made by the state legislature to the original
medicinal marijuana bill passed in 1996. The changes would effectively wipe
out the 1996 decision by making federal approval a condition for use of the
drug.

Movements in Colorado and the District of Columbia are currently embroiled
in court battles to have similar ballot questions count. In the District of
Columbia, the question will appear on the ballot and be counted, but
Congress passed an amendment to the District of Columbia's budget last week
which removes funding for the votes to be certified. A Colorado judge ruled
last week that not enough signatures were collected for votes on the
question to be tallied.

The epicenter of the current movement is in California, which, along with
Arizona, legalized medicinal pot in 1996.

The precedent set by California is one of continual clashes between the
state and federal officials. While the law allows for caregivers to provide
marijuana to their patients, problems arose when patients began designating
large-scale "buyers clubs" as their caregiver. Despite an organized system
where doctor's notes were kept on file for every patient, the clubs have
been systematically shut down by federal and state officials for violation
of federal law banning the distribution of narcotics.

The current movements vow not to fall into the same traps.

"We all learned from the California experience and we've tried to better
the process," Killian said.

All of the new proposals limit patients and caregivers to specified amounts
that they can grow. Alaska, Colorado, Nevada and Oregon would establish a
patient registry with ID cards for legal users and the District of Columbia
initiative would explicitly establish non-profit organizations that would
be allowed to distribute and grow medical marijuana.

Some groups are worried that increasing acceptance of marijuana, a drug
once labeled "the devil's weed" by anti-drug films in the '30s and '40s,
sends the wrong message to young people.

"When kids see more risk and less social acceptability in drugs, fewer
children will choose to use drugs," said a statement issued by the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America. "When the opposite occurs - when
children see less risk, and more social acceptability - more children are
willing to use drugs."

It has been suggested that such new laws would weaken law enforcement of
the recreational use of marijuana. Organizers such as Sugerman and Killian
say their strict regulations would prevent this from becoming a by-product
of their movement, but others clearly hope this will happen.

"I hope that we stop persecuting everybody for marijuana because it's a
complete waste of money," said Hager. "And it tramples on a lot of our
constitutional rights."

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

5 States Face Vote On Medical Pot (The San Francisco Examiner
notes the White House is lobbying against medical marijuana measures
that will be on the ballot next Tuesday in five states and the District
of Columbia. "The goal is to change national policy, but we know we will have
to win more battles in 1999 and 2000 before that happens," said Dave
Fratello, spokesman for Santa Monica-based Americans for Medical Rights,
which is coordinating the initiatives in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon
and Washington state.)

Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 15:34:26 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: MMJ: 5 States Face Vote On Medical Pot
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: Oct. 28, 1998
Source: San Francisco Examiner (CA)
Copyright: 1998 San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.examiner.com/
Author: Mark Helm, Examiner Washington Bureau

5 STATES FACE VOTE ON MEDICAL POT

Opponents Fume Passage Could Make Drug "Quasi-Legal'

WASHINGTON - Just as it opposed California's 1996 medical marijuana
initiative, the White House is lobbying against medical marijuana
measures that will be on the ballot next Tuesday in five states and
the District of Columbia.

"To be blunt, these initiatives would result in the quasi-legalization
of marijuana," Barry McCaffrey, White House drug policy director, said
Tuesday.

McCaffrey said decisions to use certain drugs for medical use should
be based on science rather than politics. "Medicine is not determined
by popular vote," he said.

Voters in Alaska, Arizona, the District of Columbia, Nevada, Oregon
and Washington will consider such initiatives. The measures would
allow physicians, under defined conditions, to obtain and dispense
marijuana as a palliative to their patients.

California and Arizona both passed similar measures in 1996, but
neither has gone into effect. In California, state and federal
authorities have made a persistent effort to prevent people from
selling marijuana to individuals who obtain a doctor's
prescription.

Arizona's referendum was blocked by the state legislature when it
discovered that the measure also allowed doctors to prescribe 116
other drugs, including LSD, heroin and PCP.

If some or all of the initiatives pass next week, political leaders
and police will have to deal with the fact that the new state laws
will be at odds with federal law. Attorney General Janet Reno has
strongly denounced the initiatives, insisting, "I don't think that the
determination as to whether there is a medical use for marijuana
should be made at the ballot box."

Political significance

"Legally, there is little significance if these things pass, but
politically there is a lot of significance," said Eric Sterling,
president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. "Members of
Congress might start to re-evaluate their position."

The proposals' supporters hope they are establishing a beachhead, and
that eventually marijuana will be legally available from doctors nationwide.

The initiatives' popularity suggests many people are rejecting the
message that marijuana is a dangerous "gateway" to stronger drugs, and
see marijuana instead as potentially therapeutic.

"This is a way to legally introduce people to possibly a lifetime of
drug abuse," said John Justice, a South Carolina prosecutor who heads
the National District Attorneys Association. "The drug problem from
stem to stern in this country is tremendous, and I knew a judge who
used to call marijuana "the kindergarten of the drug industry.' "

Proponents of the initiatives say there are many cancer and AIDS
patients for whom marijuana is the most effective drug in relieving
nausea and other debilitating side effects of treatments.

"The public has told us that they support the right of suffering
patients to use medical marijuana," said Wayne Turner, who helped
organize the ballot initiative in the District of Columbia.

While medical research on the effectiveness of marijuana is
continuing, proponents of the initiatives cite research that smoking
marijuana is more effective than pills and patches containing THC, the
chemical found in marijuana that some scientists and physicians
believe is beneficial to terminally ill patients.

More initiatives in 1999, 2000

Dave Fratello, spokesman for Santa Monica-based Americans for Medical
Rights - which is coordinating the ballot drives in Alaska, Nevada,
Oregon and Washington state - said in a statement that his group hoped
to put the medical marijuana initiatives on ballots in more states in
the future.

"The goal is to change national policy, but we know we will have to
win more battles in 1999 and 2000 before that happens," said Fratello,
whose group will spend $2 million on advertisements supporting the
state initiatives. AMR is bankrolled by three multimillionaires:
financier George Soros, insurance magnate Peter Lewis and John
Sperling, who owns a successful chain of adult education centers. The
three have spent a total of just over $2 million on the cause.

The campaign is airing commercials that stress the theme of
compassion. An Oregon TV spot, for example, shows an avuncular doctor
bemoaning his inability to help patients suffering with chemotherapy.
"Please, let us treat you with every medicine that can help," Dr. Rick
Bayer begs viewers.

Public officials and anti-drug activists are furious at this campaign,
but there is little organized opposition or advertising on the other
side - one reason supporters are confident of victory.

Opponents see a sinister agenda, the legalization of all drugs, hiding
behind the mask of compassion.

The Chicago Tribune contributed to this report.

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

Stirring the Pot (abcnews.com covers a press conference in Washington, DC,
Tuesday at which the White House drug czar, General Barry McCaffrey,
criticized the effrontery of voters who think they're more qualified
than the FDA to choose which medicines seriously ill patients and doctors
should be allowed to use.)

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 16:23:49 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: ABC News: MMJ: Stirring the Pot
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Chris Conrad
Source: ABCNEWS.com
Copyright: 1998 ABC News
Pubdate: 28 Oct 1998
Contact: http://www.abcnews.com/service/abc_contactus.html
Website: http://www.abcnews.com/
Note: Not really sure if/how ABC used this story in it's news broadcasts.
It is interesting that they use a quote from someone from the Partnership
for a Drug Free America to lead the item. An objective source? - Richard
Lake, Sr. Editor

STIRRING THE POT

5 States Consider Marijuana Initiatives

"It's better to make doctors and scientists decide what medicine to use
through the process of the FDA, than to have John Doe standing in a voting
booth decide." - Leigh Leventhal, PDFA

The debate about marijuana as a gateway drug has shifted from classrooms to
ballot booths.

In school, smoking pot was condemned as the first step toward serious drug
addiction. Now, critics say ballot initiatives that would legalize medical
marijuana are a gateway between alternative therapy and the corruption of
national drug policy.

"What I would like to do is make the argument ...," said drug czar Barry
McCaffrey at a Washington press conference Tuesday, "that these initiatives
are simply not in accordance with good science, ignore the safety of the
American people and send a bad message."

With allied law enforcers and health officials by his side, McCaffrey urged
voters to reject initiatives in Alaska, Nevada, Oregon, Washington state
and California that would make marijuana legal, to varying degrees, for
medicinal purposes.

Proponents say marijuana, specifically in smoked form, has a range of
valuable uses. Among the ailments pot is said to relieve are arthritis,
premenstrual syndrome, nausea from chemotherapy, and the extreme weight
loss associated with AIDS.

Are Voters Qualified?

But there's no science to back up those claims, say drug policy officials,
and further, there's no precedent for letting citizens decide for
themselves which drugs should be approved for public use.

"What we are saying is that we question whether this is the best way to
make a law," says Leigh Leventhal, a spokeswoman for the Partnership for a
Drug Free America. "Medical marijuana is a medical issue and we feel that
this is really best left to the medical community to decide.

"It's better to make doctors and scientists decide what medicine to use
through the process of the FDA [Federal Drug Administration], than to have
John Doe standing in a voting booth decide," she says. "The way we make
medicine in this country is tried and true, and they have to go through
those rigors."

But proponents of medical marijuana say they are resorting to ballot
initiatives only because the government, unwilling to conduct new studies
or honor old ones, has left them no other choice.

"There are two tracks going on this right now," says Allen St. Pierre, the
executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws [NORML]. "One is the NIH [National Institutes of Health] study, and
all it's doing is placating us by going back and reviewing all of the '60s
'70s and '80s studies."

"The other is the Donald Abrams study, a $1 million study to look at AIDS
patients that would have cost $50,000 in 1991."

The initial question in the Abrams study, St. Pierre says, was to see if
marijuana helped patients gain weight.

"But after six years as a bureaucratic study, now it asks 'Does marijuana
impact the immune systems of AIDS patients?' So one is a non-study, and one
is a study with big, fat asterisks," St. Pierre says.

To Inhale or Not to Inhale

McCaffrey and other critics denounce marijuana proponents' assertions that
it's relatively safe. They point to NIH research showing that side effects
of marijuana use include lung damage, rapid heart beat, loss of
coordination, and impaired short-term memory. And the verdict, the
researchers say, is still out on its damage to long-term memory.

Foes of marijuana smoking also say a variety of already approved drugs with
well-known side effects-including the orally administered form of
marijuana's active ingredient, THC-that can serve patients better.

Dr. Lester Grinspoon, associate professor of psychiatry at the Harvard
Medical School and author of several pro-marijuana books, counters that the
drug is safe. He says evidence, even if it is anecdotal, proves it.

"This drug is among the least toxic substances we know of," says Grinspoon.
"When I as a physician write a prescription, I do a risk-benefit analysis.
Is the disorder that you're suffering enough that I know I should give you
a medicine with side effects?

Nearly all medicines, even common ones like ibuprofen and aspirin, have
side effects that cause thousands of deaths annually, Grinspoon says.

"And yet these are considered over-the-counter drugs. Now you tell me about
[marijuana], which has never killed anybody, and yet you can go to jail if
you get caught with it."

Mixed Messages

But McCaffrey warns legalizing even controlled amounts of marijuana for
specific usage sends a bad message to the American public, especially to
children.

"People ask me what the most dangerous drug in America is, and I would
argue unequivocally, it's poly-drug abuse, alcohol and marijuana combined
by American adolescents," he says. "Because we know that young people
between the ages of 9 and 18 that are involved in a lot of pot smoking and
alcohol consumption have enormously increased statistical risks of ending
up as compulsive drug users as adults."

To combat this, the government has spent millions of dollars on campaigns
that tell kids to "Just Say No;" that a brain on drugs resembles a fried
egg, or a destroyed kitchen.

Now, in five states, the question is: If a pocket of states sanctions
marijuana's medicinal use, will it undermine the nation's efforts to combat
illicit drug use? Polls show voters in four of those states seem poised to
say yes. The final answer will come on Election Day.

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

Some depressed people missing brain cells - study (According to Reuters,
neurobiologist Joseph Price and colleagues at the Washington University
School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, have reported in the Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences that people inflicted with depression who
also have a family history of depression have a relatively low number of glia
cells in the part of the brain known as the subgenual prefrontal cortex.
However, since the research as described was carried out on patients with
bipolar disorder, it's not clear how the scientists arrived at their conclusions.)

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 04:08:29 EST
Errors-To: jnr@insightweb.com
Reply-To: friends@freecannabis.org
Originator: friends@freecannabis.org
Sender: friends@freecannabis.org
From: Remembers@webtv.net (Genie Brittingham)
To: Multiple recipients of list (friends@freecannabis.org)
Subject: Missing Brain Cells?

From: annmaria@webtv.net (ann mccormick)
Date: Wed, Oct 28, 1998

Some depressed people missing brain cells - study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Some depressed people are missing brain cells,
researchers reported Tuesday in findings that could help explain cases of
inherited depression.

Neurobiologist Joseph Price of the Washington University School of Medicine
in St. Louis and colleagues say their finding could lead to new ways to treat
many cases of depression.

"One of the things we hope may result from our findings is the recognition
that there are important differences between patients with a familial history
of depression and those without,´´ Price said in a statement. "There might
also be differences in appropriate drug therapies." Price´s team was building
on earlier studies that show people with familial depression have less
activity in a part of the brain known as the subgenual prefrontal cortex.

In people with inherited depression this region, which is about the size of a
thumbnail and is right behind the middle of the forehead, is also smaller.

Price and his team looked closer. They compared the number of brain cells
from that region in people with bipolar disorder, also known as
manic-depression, and healthy people.

In many of the patients they found a huge difference in the numbers of cells
called glia, which help take care of other brain cells called neurons. Glia
are also known to respond to serotonin, the neurotransmitter or
message-carrying chemical involved in depression.

The differences were only found in people with a family history of
depression, Price reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences.

"That suggests that this deficit may relate to the genetic difference that
gives people a tendency to become depressed,´´ Price said.

REUTERS

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

Man Who Grew Dope For Son Sentenced (According to The Kitchener-Waterloo
Record, in Ontario, a Kitchener father with a colostomy who said he grew
marijuana at home so his son wouldn't have to buy it on the street, escaped a
jail sentence Tuesday. Lawyer Aaron Grupp said the man did it because his
15-year-old stepson was using marijuana and wouldn't stop. He didn't want the
son exposed to the "dangers of street drugs," which could be cut with unsafe
substances.)

Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1998 05:02:54 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Canada: Man Who Grew Dope For Son Sentenced
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Starr
Source: Kitchener-Waterloo Record (Canada)
Contact: recordletters@southam.ca
Website: http://www.southam.com/kitchenerwaterloorecord/
Copyright: Kitchener-Waterloo Record 1998
Pubdate: 28 Oct 1998
Section: Local
Author: Dianne Wood

MAN WHO GREW DOPE FOR SON SENTENCED

A Kitchener father who said he grew marijuana at home so his son wouldn't
have to buy it on the street probably escaped a jail sentence Tuesday
because he agreed to live with his mother for six months.

Judge Donald MacMillan said the fact that the man wouldn't be living with
his stepson made imposing the six-month conditional sentence much more
acceptable.

Otherwise, the judge said he would have hesitated to agree to a conditional
sentence, given the nature of the case. He called the father's motivation
for growing 20 marijuana plants at home "appalling."

Lawyer Aaron Grupp said the man did it because his 15-year-old stepson was
using marijuana and wouldn't stop.

He didn't want the son exposed to the "dangers of street drugs" which could
be cut with unsafe substances, Grupp said.

Grupp likened his actions to those of a father who introduces a child
beginning to experiment with liquor to drinking at home in a controlled
environment.

But drug prosecutor Pat Flynn said the father was supposed to be a role
model and "guiding hand" for the son, not someone who encouraged criminal
conduct.

The judge called the man's actions "terribly misguided," and not the
behaviour of a reponsible adult raising a child.

The procecutor and judge said they also had to consider a conditional
sentence because of the 41-year-old man's medical condition.

He had a colostomy, and the bag would have been hard to manage in jail,
Grupp said.

"This is a person who has very significant health problems," MacMillan said.

He also took into account the man's lack of criminal record and his guilty
plea to production of marijuana and trafficking. The judge said trafficking
in marijuana has to be treated more leniently than harder drugs such as
cocaine.

Along with the plants, police also found 96 grams of plant material and
marijuana joints. The plants could have yielded three pounds of marijuana
worth about $7,500 on the street.

The judge also ordered the man to perform 150 hours of community service
and placed him on probation for 18 months.

He can't be named because his son was also charged, and is a young person.

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

[End]