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

Anderson Faces Prison for Drugs (According to The Associated Press,
an interview with Greg Anderson of the Houston Hawks, in Sunday's
Houston Chronicle, says the professional basketball player blames himself
for being entrapped by the FBI into participating in a cocaine deal,
leading to his imminent prison sentence. Anderson, a 10-year veteran
of the NBA who was a first-round draft pick by the San Antonio Spurs
in 1987, faces up to 40 years.)

Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 20:46:33 -0800
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon Libertarian Patriots
To: "Cannabis Patriots" (cp@telelists.com)
Subject: [cp] Anderson Faces Prison for Drugs

DECEMBER 20, 16:16 EST

Anderson Faces Prison for Drugs

HOUSTON (AP) - Greg Anderson blames bad judgment and
a poor choice of friends for his fate: an imminent prison
sentence for participating in a cocaine deal to which he has
pleaded guilty.

Anderson, in an interview in Sunday's Houston Chronicle, said
that as a favor to friends, he allowed himself to be drawn into
a drug deal - one that turned out to be a setup in an FBI
drug sting.

Anderson and three others pleaded guilty Oct. 20 to
possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. He faces a
maximum of 40 years in prison, but federal sentencing
guidelines mean he'll probably serve three to four years in
prison with no chance for parole.

``The caught me red-handed,'' said Anderson, a former University of Houston star
who earned the nickname ``Cadillac'' because he rode his bicycle to school. ``I
could have said, `No.' I could have stopped this. But I didn't.

``I'm not in a state of thinking, `Why did this happen?' I should have been saying
that before it happened. I should have said a lot of things before it happened.''

Anderson has spent 10 years in the NBA. He was a first-round draft pick by the San
Antonio Spurs in 1987, spending two two-year stints with the team. He also played
for Milwaukee, Denver, Detroit. He played for Atlanta in 1994-95 and rejoined the
Hawks last year.

His almost certain road to prison began last season while with the Hawks. He says
he didn't know new friend Howard Hill, whom he met at an Atlanta nightclub earlier
this year, was a Biloxi, Miss., drug dealer.

He also wasn't aware the other man he met that night with Hill, Anthony Bates,
was a federal informant.

The pair began to hang out with Anderson last spring, going out to eat after
practices and attending games at Anderson's invitation.

Anderson became curious how the men could keep up with the NBA lifestyle
seemingly without a job. He said one of the men told him he was an offshore
worker on oil rigs.

``I know people who go offshore for two weeks and are home for two weeks,''
he said. ``So it didn't dawn on me they were doing anything illegal.''

After the season, Anderson said Hill and Bates finally told him what they did for a
living and wanted to know if the player had any drug connections in Houston. It
happened that around the same time, Anderson's estranged wife moved out of
their home with their four children and most of the family belongings.

Hill and Bates moved in to fill the void. Anderson soon introduced hometown friend
Kevin Blackmon to them, and he said Blackmon sold the pair 2.2 pounds of
cocaine.

Hill and an associate were arrested after taking the drugs back to Mississippi. The
bust was set up by Bates and the FBI.

Hill then worked with federal agents to snare Anderson, whom he recruited to pick
up Blackmon's money at a Biloxi casino hotel room. Anderson says he grudgingly
agreed to participate in one last drug deal, at which time the FBI rushed in.

Anderson quickly admitted his involvement and agreed to implicate Blackmon, just
as Hill had turned on him.

Hill, associate Kevin Porter, Blackmon and Anderson will be sentenced Feb. 9.

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

Drug Tests Proposed For Gaston Athletes (The Charlotte Observer,
in North Carolina, says the Gaston County School Board will consider
a countywide drug-testing program Monday night under which high school
athletes could lose their right to play if they test positive for the kind
of drugs that make them high - but they won't be tested for substances
that make muscles grow big and strong.)

Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 20:57:33 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US NC: Drug Tests Proposed For Gaston Athletes
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 20 Dec 1998
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Contact: opinion@charlotte.com
Website: http://www.charlotte.com/observer/
Copyright: 1998 The Charlotte Observer
Author: Chip Wilson and Joe Wojciechowski

DRUG TESTS PROPOSED FOR GASTON ATHLETES

GASTONIA -- Gaston County's high school athletes could lose their right to
play if they test positive for the kind of drugs that make them high or
make them hallucinate.

But they won't be tested at all for substances that make muscles grow big
and strong.

The countywide drug-testing program the Gaston County School Board will
consider Monday night will focus only on illegal street drugs such as
marijuana, cocaine and LSD. The randomly administered urine tests won't
cover prescription steroids or "performance enhancers" such as creatine and
androstenedione.

"Cost is a real factor," said Reeves McGlohan, the deputy Gaston schools
superintendent who helped formulate the policy. He said a urine test for
steroids would cost $80, compared to the $20 per-student cost of the one
for drugs and marijuana.

McGlohan said the school board committee that formulated the policy kicked
around the idea of steroid testing but decided not to include it initially.
That could happen later, however.

"This is what we came up with, and we feel like it's adequate at this
time," said Don Saine, the schools' county athletic director. He said he
tells his coaches to discourage supplement use, but doesn't think it's a
big enough problem to include it in the new testing program.

Coaches agree.

"The ideal situation is that you would test for everything, but financially
it isn't possible" said Mickey Lineberger, athletic director at South Point
High School. "This is a step in the right direction."

If the policy survives a first vote Monday and final approval in January,
Gaston will become one of only five N.C. school systems with a districtwide
drug-testing program for high school athletes.

The proposal first emerged last summer when Gaston County commissioners
were considering the schools' local budget. That board voted unanimously to
encourage schools to test as many

Please see POLICY / page 6L

POLICY from 1L

School board will consider drug tests for school athletes

students as legally possible, and pledged to pay for the tests.

The idea is slowly gaining acceptance in school circles, especially as
federal courts have ruled drug testing legal for students involved in
extracurricular activities.

Lincoln County launched a more comprehensive pilot program earlier this
year at East Lincoln High School. Using donated money, about 10 percent of
the school's male and female athletes have been tested, and so far all have
turned up negative for drugs and steroids.

Though Lincoln's policy targets "performance enhancers," East Lincoln
athletic director Bruce Bolick said he's not sure it would apply to
supplements such as creatine or "andro" because both are legal.

Indeed, some Gaston student athletes are taking advantage of the
supplements' easy availability.

Ashbrook senior John Woody, a guard on his school's football team, said he
has friends and teammates who have taken creatine during school hours.

And andro and creatine have been big sellers at Gastonia's General
Nutrition Center and Gold's Gym, sales clerks said Friday. Both stores try
to sell only to adults, but the clerks concede some of the supplements end
up with teen-agers.

Andro, in particular, gained popularity as a supplement because baseball
player Mark McGwire used it during his 70-home run season this year.
Baseball doesn't ban andro, though the NFL, the NCAA and the International
Olympic Committee do.

Still, the Olympic Committee stopped short last week of applying a similar
ban to creatine because it's more of a protein supplement, according to
ESPN's Internet site.

The controversy over McGwire's use helped spur the N.C. High School
Athletic Association to strengthen its opposition to all supplements. It is
sending a resolution to all the state's coaches and athletic directors next
month.

Though Gaston's proposed policy doesn't address legal performance
enhancers, Saine said he expects all his coaches to abide by the NCHSAA
guidelines.

Even the association's leaders admit an outright ban would be hard to enforce.

"One of the things you have to be careful of with andro and creatine is
they are dietary supplements," said Que Tucker, the NCHSSA's deputy
director. "You can go into any GNC or gym to buy them. There's no minimum
age."

Woody said he'd like to see illegal steroids included in athletes' drug
tests, though he questions the fairness and legality of testing for legal
supplements. He said he doesn't take supplements because he questions their
safety and effectiveness.

Among students, Woody said, the only opposition to drug testing has come
from those worried their own recreational use might be found out.

"Most people -- once they sit back, think about and see that the intentions
are good -- agree with it," Woody said.

Saine stressed that the proposal the school board will consider Monday is
not intended to punish drug use as much as prevent it. A positive test
won't go on a student's academic record and students will be allowed three
failed tests before being totally banned from sports.

The policy rewards nontested students who first tell coaches that they've
used drugs by giving them a shorter suspension than those who test
positive. It also encourages early involvement of parents and drug-abuse
experts.

The best thing the new policy does for coaches, they say, is give them a
uniform set of rules. Up to now, different coaches had different ideas
about drug enforcement.

"I've always had a policy that anybody caught with drugs or drinking is
automatically gone," Lineberger said. "It's lighter than the policy I've
used and the policy most coaches have used."

Another coach said the testing reduces the possibility that drug users will
evade detection by officials who don't know the signs.

"Coaches out there who turn the other cheek and say they didn't know
anything might not have that option any more," said Lloyd White, Ashbrook's
athletic director.

WANT TO GO?

The drug-testing policy will be considered at a 5:30 p.m. work session
Monday. The vote is scheduled for the board's regular 7 p.m. meeting. Both
will take place at the Gaston schools' office at 943 Osceola St., Gastonia.

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

Breaking Addiction's Hold (A Cox news service article
in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the answer to America's
drug problem may be ibogaine, which comes from an obscure plant
that grows wild in African rain forests. With a single capsule - or perhaps
several over a period of weeks - heroin addicts, alcoholics, cocaine users,
even smokers might erase or at least interrupt their cravings. Efforts
to understand the plant have foundered on a tangle of lawsuits
and conflicting scientific results.)

Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 20:57:23 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Breaking Addiction's Hold
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: 20 Dec 1998
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Contact: legis@ajc.com
Website: http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
Forum: http://www.accessatlanta.com/community/forums/
Copyright: 1998 Cox Interactive Media.
Section: ScienceWatch

BREAKING ADDICTION'S HOLD

Could an African plant help drug users overcome their cravings? Some say
yes, but research results are mixed and legal battles hinder the work.

The answer to America's drug problem may lie somewhere in the roots of an
obscure plant that grows wild in African rain forests. That is, if only
scientists could read and follow the directions the plant seems to be
giving them.

With a single capsule --- or perhaps several over a period of weeks ---
heroin addicts, alcoholics, cocaine users, even smokers, might erase or at
least interrupt their cravings. One researcher talks hopefully of a skin
patch from which addicts would slowly absorb a compound that blocks the
biochemical events that trigger the desire to smoke, shoot up or drink.

But after several million dollars' worth of federally funded research,
efforts to understand the plant and the properties of a compound squeezed
from its cells have foundered on a tangle of lawsuits and conflicting
scientific results.

That is unfortunate, said Dr. Stanley Glick, chairman of the department of
pharmacology and neuroscience at Albany Medical College in New York. "In my
view, it is something that certainly should be investigated," Glick said.
"When you hear the same stories from enough people enough times, you have
to believe that there's something at least worth investigating."

The stories Glick and others have been hearing for a decade involve the
results of "offshore" treatment of drug addicts at clinics in the Caribbean
and Panama with a substance called ibogaine. In dozens of cases, addicts
report that a day or two after taking ibogaine, a relatively mild
hallucinogen, they are strangely free of cravings.

The plant from which ibogaine is extracted is Tabernanthe iboga, and
hunters in the African nation of Gabon have known about it for centuries.
They say eating small quantities of iboga root enables them to remain
alert, yet motionless, for hours on end.

But until 1962, when Howard S. Lotsof, then a New York film student,
decided to try the drug, no one knew of its effect on addiction.

Lotsof explained that he and several friends were experimenting with a
variety of psychoactive drugs, including LSD and heroin. He had no
intention of ending any kind of drug use when he heard about ibogaine and
decided to give it a try at the age of 19, he said.

"Thirty hours later, my desire to use heroin had vanished," he recalled. He
suggested that several other friends give it a try, and they had the same
experience.

For years, Lotsof did nothing about ibogaine. But in 1980, he decided the
discovery was too important to be ignored. He filed patents on the use of
the drug to treat addiction and formed a New York corporation, NDA
International Inc. The purpose of the company is to market a preparation he
named Endabuse, composed of capsules that contain an ibogaine compound, and
to pursue research. He sought Food and Drug Administration approval for
clinical trials of the drug.

By then, ibogaine had been designated a controlled substance by the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, like cocaine and marijuana. With the
cooperation of physicians in the Netherlands, Lotsof opened a clinic to
treat heroin addicts there, where it was legal.

Several patients reported the treatments relieved their cravings. Others
were not helped. One young woman died.

Meanwhile, Lotsof met Dr. Deborah Mash, a brain researcher at the
University of Miami School of Medicine. In 1992, Lotsof's company and the
university signed a contract for Mash to conduct research on ibogaine and
seek FDA approval for human trials. Under the contract, Lotsof and NDA
retained the rights to ibogaine and any "discoveries, inventions or
improvements" growing out of Mash's research.

In 1993, FDA approved her proposal for a clinical trial in which a few
volunteers would take ibogaine to assess its side effects. About the same
time, animal studies into the drug's effect were beginning to show results.

In studies at Albany Medical College, funded by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, Glick found that drug-addicted laboratory rats injected with
ibogaine appeared to lose their craving for heroin, cocaine and nicotine.
Other researchers found that ibogaine interfered with addiction to alcohol,
Glick said.

Although no one knows why this happens, Glick and others theorize that
something in ibogaine hinders the molecular processes by which drugs
stimulate the feeling of pleasure and craving in the brain. "I think there
is enough information to warrant doing reputable clinical investigations,"
Glick said. "There is a wealth of animal data. I think there is very good
evidence, and some of it we provided, that the drug may interfere with
addiction to opiates, stimulants, (alcohol) and nicotine."

But other animal experiments were not so encouraging. Scientists at Johns
Hopkins University reported that ibogaine destroyed brain cells in rats.
Another study showed it caused heart problems.

Then the lawsuits began.

In 1997, Mash sued NDA and Lotsof, accusing him of failing to keep up his
end of the contract by not obtaining adequate patent protection for a new
ibogaine-related compound she and her associates had discovered. She sought
$50,000 in damages and asked a federal court in Miami to let her and the
university out of the contract. Lotsof countersued, accusing the university
and Mash of defrauding him and stealing his patented uses of ibogaine. He
also said that by operating an ibogaine clinic on the Caribbean island of
St. Kitts, the university and Mash were illegally competing with a similar
clinic he had opened in Panama to obtain clinical data.

Mash said she owned no interest in the St. Kitts clinic, where she
acknowledges ibogaine is used to treat addicts, but said her husband, a
Miami lawyer, is legal adviser to "investors" behind the St. Kitts clinic.
She also said patients pay up to $10,000 for her treatments.

The FDA-approved trials are on hold because of lack of funds to continue
and because of the lawsuits, she said. Meanwhile, after spending more than
$2 million on research grants, the National Institute on Drug Abuse is
losing interest in ibogaine. "The drug doesn't look terribly promising in
terms of the risks and benefits," said Frank Vocci, director of its
Medications Development Division.

Vocci said he believes Glick is the only researcher still receiving support
from the institute for ibogaine experiments. And Glick said he thinks it is
unlikely ibogaine will ever be approved as a drug to treat addiction, but
he still believes further research is worthwhile. "I also think there is a
good possibility that safer and more (effective) derivatives of ibogaine
could be successfully developed," he said. "Ibogaine is a benchmark against
which such derivatives will be compared and, for that reason alone, it is
important to know as much about ibogaine as possible."

Mash said she remains optimistic about ibogaine, despite the problems she
has had in obtaining funding for research. She said ibogaine and its
derivatives offer hope of "a very gentle way for an addict to detox,"
perhaps someday through a skin patch.

Lotsof said ibogaine allows addicts, especially heroin users, to put aside
their fears of withdrawal and begin the process of detoxification.

The legal fights and discouraging scientific findings have not kept an
ibogaine subculture from growing in several countries, and a variety of
Internet sites now offer information that is, for the most part, biased in
favor of the drug.

One of the sites recently posted a long account from a self-described
ibogaine patient who happily described the wonderful effects it had on her.
The essay is followed by a sad postscript, stating that a few months after
writing her account, the patient relapsed into drug addiction and committed
suicide.

***

From: "chuck beyer" (videomon@coolcom.com)
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: RE: ibogaine in the news
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 01:46:13 -0800
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

I imagine that alcohol wholesalers will not be thrilled with this substance
and will lobby heavily to keep it scheduled as a dangerous drug.

***

From: HSLotsof@aol.com
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 19:37:53 EST
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: RE: ibogaine in the news
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org

In a message dated, Tue, Dec 22, 1998 06:05 AM EDT,
videomon@coolcom.com (chuck beyer) writes:

>I imagine that alcohol wholesalers will not be thrilled with this substance
>and will lobby heavily to keep it scheduled as a dangerous drug.

Chuck,

Truth is sometimes strange than fiction. Ibogaine was scheduled as a
dangerous drug (Schedule 1) shortly after I informed Federal officials in
1966, that it was effective in treating heroin dependence. CIA researchers at
the Federal Narcotics Hospital in Lexington, KY may have actually discovered
its anti addictive effects in the mid to late 1950s. The Medical Director of
the Hospital's Addiction Reseach Center, Harris Isbell, was in charge of the
research. All records of the work, except for a brief letter, have vanished
from public access.

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

Gang leader gunned down in Vancouver (A Canadian Press article
in The Edmonton Journal says Bindy Johal, 27, was gunned down early Sunday
at a crowded night club by a gunman who blended into the crowd and escaped
undetected. Johal, a self-admitted drug dealer, was one of the men tried
for the 1994 murders of brothers Ron and Jimmy Dosanjh. He and five others
were acquitted.)

From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Date: Mon, 21 Dec 1998 08:24:26 -0800
Subject: Gang leader gunned down in Vancouver
Lines: 87

Source: Edmonton Journal Extra (Canada)
Contact: letters@thejournal.southam.ca
Pubdate: 20 Dec 1998

VANCOUVER (CP) - A notorious gang leader was gunned down early Sunday
as he danced in a crowded night club. Bindy Johal, 27, dropped to the
floor and the club erupted in chaos after an unknown assailant fired a
shot into the back of his head just before 2 a.m. closing time.

Police said the gunman blended into the crowd and escaped undetected.

There were about 300 people in the club, said police spokeswoman
Const. Anne Drennan.

"Its doubtful anything of value will come out of (witness interviews)
right away because of the kind of chaos," she said.

Johal was best known as one of the men on trial in the 1994 murders of
brothers Ron and Jimmy Dosanjh. He and five others were acquitted. One
of the acquitted men was Peter Gill, who had an affair with juror
Gillian Guess.

Guess was convicted of obstruction of justice last summer for her
affair with Gill while she served on the jury. She is appealing.

The Crown is appealing four of six acquittals in the 1995 trial.
Guesss conduct is one of several grounds for the action.

Johal, a self-admitted drug dealer, was well-known to police. He was
to have appeared in court Monday on weapons charges and he faced a
trial in January for the 1996 kidnapping of Randy Chan, the younger
brother of Lotus gang leader Raymond Chan.

Roman Mann and Davinder Singh Gadey were also charged in that case.

Mann was gunned down in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond last month.

Gadey was left in a wheelchair after someone tried to kill him a
couple of years ago. Gadey later pleaded guilty in the kidnapping and
is in prison.

Johal had served time in prison - most recently for assault - and "was
a suspect in numerous investigations in the past few years," Drennan
said.

Johal had said publicly that he was on a hit list.

"Mr. Johal, through his lifestyle and activities, put himself at
risk," Drennan said.

Within days of the death of Ron Dosanjh, Johals next-door neighbor
Glen Olson was shot to death while walking his dog. Police believe he
was mistaken for Johal.

Many of Johals known associates have been killed in recent years,
Drennan said.

Gill was the victim of a drive-by shooting at his home in October.

Police have few leads and no suspects in the Sunday morning shooting.
A semi-automatic gun was recovered and an autopsy was set for Monday.

Two other murders the city during the weekend are also believed to be
gang-related, said police.

Chieu Thanh Nguyen, 22, was found dead in his apartment Friday night.
Police believe he died from trauma to the head and may have been in
the apartment for several days.

Another male whose name was not released was found in the trunk of an
abandoned vehicle.

Both men were known to police to be gang associates.

Police said they have found no links among the three deaths, and said
theres no gang war going on in the city.

Still, they are worried about an escalation in gang tensions following
Johals death.

"Were always concerned when anybody in this group of individuals . . .
is struck down," Drennan said. "There is always the possibility of
retaliation."

There have been 18 murders in Vancouver this year.

(c) The Canadian Press, 1998

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

Caught In The Unforgiving Grip Of Thai Justice (A book review
in The Miami Herald about "4,000 Days: My Life and Survival in a Bangkok
Prison," by Warren Fellows, calls it an "unrelievedly horrible tale."
The author, a native of Australia, was sentenced in 1978 to life in prison
for smuggling heroin. After a dreadful interrogation, torture and preliminary
confinement in unspeakable conditions, he was shipped off to Bang Kwang,
the most feared prison in the world. Fellows writes, "While doing my business
in Bangkok, I had been aware of the possibility that, if caught, I might be
sent to Big Tiger. But somehow it had seemed a distant chance - I did not
belong in Bang Kwang. It was a place for the lowest, most hopeless forms
of humanity. Nobody thinks of themselves in that way. Not even criminals."
Without self-pity, he makes a compelling case that his punishment was wildly
out of proportion to his crime.)

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 17:40:48 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US FL: Caught In The Unforgiving Grip Of Thai Justice
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Sun, 20 Dec 1998
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Contact: heralded@herald.com
Website: http://www.herald.com/
Forum: http://krwebx.infi.net/webxmulti/cgi-bin/WebX?mherald
Copyright: 1998 The Miami Herald
Author: JONATHAN YARDLEY

Note: 4,000 Days: My Life and Survival in a Bangkok Prison. Warren Fellows.
St. Martin's. 206 pages. $22.95.

CAUGHT IN THE UNFORGIVING GRIP OF THAI JUSTICE

In the course of this almost entirely gruesome narrative, Warren
Fellows describes an incident in which it seemed certain that his best
friend would be shot to death by a malicious Thai police officer
nicknamed Mad Dog. The person to whom he told this, he writes, "seemed
to think that the story was too horrible for me to have made up."

Many readers are likely to have the same reaction to 4,000 Days,
Fellows' account of the 11 1/2 years he spent in various Bangkok
prisons on charges (which he scarcely denies) of heroin peddling.

It is an unrelievedly horrible tale, save for notes of release and
redemption that creep in toward the end, so horrible that the
temptation to disbelieve it is severe. But those who have read
Midnight Express, to which of course Fellows' publisher compares 4,000
Days, know all too well the extraordinarily brutal punishments that
have been inflicted on drug pushers in some of the world's more
merciless societies; thus there seems little reason to doubt that
Fellows is telling the truth.

Along with a friend, Fellows was arrested in Thailand in 1978 for
attempting to smuggle heroin to Australia, his home country. He was in
his mid-20s and, like many drug couriers of that day, had drifted into
criminal activity almost unaware of where he was headed.

He makes no effort to justify what he did, beyond saying: "I was a
courier. I never had to look at the damage I may have inflicted." He
knows that heroin is pure poison and blames no one who believes that
any punishment, however cruel, is appropriate for someone who helps
lead others -- many of them innocent -- to addiction and
self-destruction. Still, he writes: "My punishment seemed way out of
proportion and I couldn't see the lesson that was to be learned. How
much suffering was I to go through before the world agreed that I'd
paid my price?"

Assuming that Fellows' story is accurately told, it is hard not to
agree with him. Sentenced to life imprisonment after a dreadful
interrogation, torture and preliminary confinement in unspeakable
conditions, he was shipped off to serve his time in Bang Kwang, a k a
Big Tiger.

"I was well aware of Bang Kwang's reputation as quite simply the most
feared prison in the world. While doing my business in Bangkok, I had
been aware of the possibility that, if caught, I [might] be sent to
Big Tiger. But somehow it had seemed a distant chance -- I did not
belong in Bang Kwang. It was a place for the lowest, most hopeless
forms of humanity. Nobody thinks of themselves in that way. Not even
criminals."

That Bang Kwang did not destroy Fellows, as it has destroyed so many
others, is testimony to his strength of body and spirit. Through a
variety of tortures both physical and spiritual, it made him "a slave
and an animal for a period of time I could never regain," and it's
clear from his narrative that it took a great deal away from him that
he will never recover; but he survived, he was freed on a King's
Pardon on Christmas Day 1989, and he returned promptly to Australia,
where he lives now with his mother.

At a clinical level Fellows' story is interesting, but its details are
heartbreakingly brutal and obscene. Without self-pity, he makes a
compelling case that his punishment was wildly out of proportion to
his crime.

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

Shan Rebels Blame Myanmar Military For Opium Boom (According to Reuters,
Colonel Yod Suk of the Shan State Army says frequent attacks
by the Myanmar military against the SSA and its followers as they fought
for their own homeland and autonomy has caused local production of opium
and heroin to expand. Local residents need permanent plots of land to grow
rice and other crops, so they have turned to growing poppy because it takes
a short time to harvest and they can shift the location of plots easier.)

Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1998 05:59:43 -0800
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: Myanmar: Wire: Shan Rebels Blame Myanmar Military For Opium Boom
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Sun, 20 Dec 1998
Source: Reuters
Copyright: 1998 Reuters Limited.
Author: Vorasit

SHAN REBELS BLAME MYANMAR MILITARY FOR OPIUM BOOM

MONG PAN, Myanmar, Dec 20 (Reuters)

Rebel Shan State Army (SSA) guerrillas have said oppression by the Myanmar
military of the northeastern state's native population has caused the boom
in the local opium and heroin trade.

"Myanmar (government) troops unrelenting oppression of the Shan people and
other ethnic nationalities has forced them to continue growing opium," SSA
commander Colonel Yod Suk told Reuters at his jungle hideout in Shan state
on Saturday.

"This is because they need permanent plots of land to grow rice and other
crops and they don't have them," he said.

"People in the Shan state have turned to growing poppy because it takes a
short time or few months to harvest and they can shift the location of opium
fields in the jungles," Yod Suk, said.

Shan rebels had no permanent land because of frequent attacks by the Myanmar
military against the SSA and its followers as they fought for their own
homeland and autonomy, he added.

The SSA claims to control about 40 percent of Shan state and is one of a
handful of armed rebel groups that have not signed ceasefire pacts with the
Yangon government.

Shan state is on the fringes of the infamous Golden Triangle poppy growing
area which straddles the borders of Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. Drug
traffickers move large quantities of opium and heroin from the mountainous
zone.

The U.S Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) estimated that some 70 percent of
heroin in the street market in the United States originates from the Golden
Triangle.

The SSA's Yod Sok used to be a lieutenant of the former drug warlord Khun
Sa who controlled the state's opium trade before surrendering to the Yangon
government two years ago. Khun Sa now lives in Yangon.

SSA was formed by Yod Suk and the remnant guerrillas of Khun Sa's once
powerful Mong Tai Army (MTA) which claimed to be fighting for Shan state
autonomy but was deeply involved in the drug trade.

Yod Suk, 40, dressed in army fatigues and guarded by about 40 armed
guerrillas, estimated that in 1998, Shan state would produce more than 2,000
tonnes of opium. He gave no comparison figure for last year.

One tonne of opium can be refined in factories into 100 kg of pure heroin.

"There are 40 heroin factories in Shan state near the (eastern) border with
Thailand, opposite the Mae Hong Son and Chiangmai provinces," Yod Suk said.

He accused the Myanmar army of providing security for the heroin factories
and collaborating with ethnic Chinese and Thai businessmen to produce
heroin.

Yod Suk, said he had about 12,000 guerrillas under his command in the SSA
and was ready to help in drugs suppression in the Shan state.

In return, he demanded cooperation and support for his movement from the the
United States and the United Nations.

"The Americans have dumped millions of dollars on the Myanmar government in
their attempt to eradicate opium fields and heroin production in Myanmar but
it has not worked," Yod Suk said.

"So if the U.S. really wanted to eradicate opium and heroin in Myanmar they
should come to us, cooperate with the SSA and we will help eradicating opium
with them in 1999," he added.

He also urged U.N. assistance for Shan state to improve the living
conditions of the Shan people so they could be discouraged from cultivating
poppies.

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